[84] Literally, “is an immense mountain.”

[85] The phrase do zanu ho baithna denotes a mode of sitting peculiar, more especially, to the Persians.  It consists in kneeling down and sitting back on one’s heels, a posture the very reverse of easy, at least, so it appears to us good Christians, accustomed to the use of chairs &c.

[86] Arabia Felix, the south-west province of the peninsula.

[87] Maliku-t-Tujjar means the chief of merchants; it is a Persian or Arab title.  The first title the East India Company received from the court of Dilli was ’Umdatu-t-Tujjar, or the noble merchants. Haji Khalil, the ambassador from Persia to the Bengal government, who was killed at Bombay, was Maliku-t-Tujjar; and after him Muhammad Nabi Khan, who likewise was ambassador from the Persian court, and came to Bengal; he has since experienced the sad uncertainty of Asiatic despotism; being despoiled of his property, blinded, and turned into the streets of Shiraz to beg.

[88] The peculiar dress worn by fakirs.  V. “Qanooni Islam"

[89] The seli, or saili, is a necklace of thread worn as a badge of distinction by a certain class of fakirs.

[90] The fortieth day is an important period in Muhammadan rites; it is the great day of rejoicing after birth, and of mourning after death.  To dignify this number still more, sick and wounded persons are supposed, by oriental novelists, to recover and perform the ablution of cure on the fortieth day.  The number “forty” figures much in the Sacred Scriptures, for example, “The flood was forty days upon the earth.”  The Israelites forty years in the wilderness, &c., &c.

[91] The Fatiha is the opening chapter of the Kur,an, which, being much read and repeated, denotes a short prayer or benediction in general.

[92] This is the general mode of investiture in Hindustan to offices, places, &c.; to which a khil’at, or honorary dress, is added.

[93] That part of a dwelling where male company are received.

[94] Farrashes are servants whose duty it is to spread carpets, sweep them and the walls; place the masnads, and hang up the pardas and chicks, pitch tents, &c.

[95] Pardas are quilted curtains, which hang before doors, &c.

[96] Chicks are curtains, or hanging screens, made of fine slips of bamboos, and painted and hung up before doors and windows, to prevent the persons inside from being seen, and to keep out insects; but they do not exclude the air, or the light from without.  If there is no light in a room, a person may sit close to the chick, and not be seen by one who is without.—­However, no description can convey an adequate idea of pardas and chicks to the mere European.

[97] I hope the reader will pardon me for the use of this old-fashioned Scottish expression which conveys the exact meaning of the original, viz., “muft par khane-pine-wale", i.e, “gentlemen who eat and drink at another’s cost.”  The English terms, “parasites,” or “diners out,” do not fully express the meaning, though very near it.