Note 676 — THE HUNCHBACK'S TALE. (continued 3)
Richard Francis Burton translation · Edition 2
Arab. "Sardábeh" (Persian)=an underground room used for coolness in the hot season. It is unknown in Cairo but every house in Baghdad, in fact throughout the Mesopotamian cities, has one. It is on the principle of the underground cellar without which wine will not keep: Lane (i., 406) calls it a "vault."