[164] Literally, “He who is the changer of hearts.”

[165] Here the first Darwesh addresses himself directly to the other three, who were his patient listeners.

[166] The jama is an Asiatic dress, something like a modern female gown, only much more full in the skirts.  It is made of white cloth or muslin.

[167] A superstitious custom in India; it implies that the person who goes round, sacrifices his life at the shrine of the love, prosperity and health of the beloved object.

[168] The kazi is the judge and magistrate in Asiatic cities; he performs the rites of marriage, settles disputes, and decides civil and criminal causes.  As the Muhammadan laws are derived from their religious code, the Kuran, the kazi possesses both secular and ecclesiastical powers.

[169] All good Musalmans bathe after performing the rites of Venus, hence the purport of the princess’s simple question is obvious enough.

[170] Called warku-l-khiyal; it is made from the leaves of the charas, a species of hemp; it is a common inebriating beverage in India; the different preparations of it is called ganja, bhang, &c.

[171] Literally a “weighty khil’at,” owing to the quantity of embroidery on it.  The perfection of these oriental dresses is, to be so stiff as to stand on the floor unsupported.

[172] The paisa is the current copper coin of India; it is the 64th part of a rupee, and is in value as nearly as possible 3/4 of our halfpenny, or a farthing and a-half.

[173] The word kafir denotes literally, “infidel,” or “heathen.”  It is here used as a term of endearment, just as we sometimes use the word “wicked rogue.”

[174] Literally, “lakhs of rupees.”  In India money accounts are reckoned by hundreds, thousands, lakhs and crores, instead of hundreds, thousands, and millions, as with us.  A hundred thousands make a lakh, and a hundred lakhs, a crore.  As the Indian mode of reckoning, though simple enough, is apt to perplex the beginner, let us take for example the number 123456789, which we thus point off,—­123,456,789; but in India it would be pointed as follows:—­12,34,56,789, and read 12 crores, 34 lakhs, fifty-six thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.

[175] The muwazzin is a public crier, who ascends the turret or minaret of a mosque and calls out to the inhabitants the five periods of prayers; more especially the morning, noon and evening prayers.

[176] This is a proverb, founded on a short story, viz.:  “A certain Arab lost his camel; he vowed, if he found it, to sell it for a dinar, merely as a charitable deed.  The camel was found, and the Arab sorely repented him of his vow.  He then tied a cat on the camel’s neck, and went through the city of Baghdad, exclaiming, ’O, true believers, here is a camel to be sold for a dinar, and a cat for a thousand dinars; but they cannot be sold the one without the other.’”