[98] Literally, “quaff the wine of the Ketaki, and pluck the flower of the rose.”  The Ketaki, a highly odoriferous flower, was used in giving fragrance to the wine.

[99] A Persian proverb, like our own “Lightly come, lightly go.”

[100] A personage famed for his wealth, like the Croesus of the Greeks.

[101] The reader will observe, in the original, that the terms rah-bat, a “highway,” and bhent-mulakat, “a meeting,” consist each of two nouns denoting precisely the same thing, only one of them is of Musalman usage, and the other Hindu.  Such expressions are very common in the language.

[102] Literally, “black takas,” or copper coins, in opposition to “white” or silver; an expression similar to what we, in the vernacular call “browns.”

[103] Sharbat is a well-known oriental beverage, made in general with vegetable acids, sugar and water; sometimes of sugar and rose water only; to which ingredients some good Musalmans, on the sly, add a leettle rum or brandy.

[104] Pulao, (properly “pilav,” as pronounced by the Persians and Turks,) is a common dish in the East.  It consists of boiled rice well dried and mixed with eggs, cloves and other spices, heaped up on a plate, and inside of this savoury heap is buried a well-roasted fowl, or pieces of tender meat, such as mutton, &c.; in short, any good meat that may be procurable.

[105] Kabab is meat roasted or fried with spices; sometimes in small pieces, sometimes minced, sometimes on skewers, but never in joints as with us, though they make kababs of a whole lamb or kid.

[106] The tora is a bag containing a thousand pieces (gold or silver).  It is used in a collective sense, like the term kisa, or “purse,” among the Persians and Turks; only the kisa consists of five hundred dollars, a sum very nearly equal to 1000 rupis.

[107] The word in the original is Damishk, an Indian corruption of the Arabic Dimashk, which latter mode of pronunciation I have followed in my printed edition.

[108] The grand street where all the large shops are.  In oriental towns of considerable size, there is generally a distinct bazar for each species of goods, such as “the cloth bazar,” “the jewellery bazar,” &c.

[109] The merchant would have rather a puzzling voyage of it, if he went by sea from Yaman to Damascus.

[110] The sacred rupee, or piece of silver, is a coin which is dedicated to the Imam Zamin, or “the guardian Imam, (a personage nearly allied to the guardian saint of a good Catholic), to avert evils from those who wear them tied on the arm, or suspended from the neck.

[111] To mark the forehead with tika, or curdled milk, is a superstitious ceremony in Hindustan, as a propitious omen, on beginning a voyage or journey.  It is probable that the Musulmans of India borrowed this ceremony, among several others, from the Hindus.