[189] Literally, “at the seeing of which the liver would be turned into water.”

[190] The pipal or “ficus religiosa,” is a large tree venerated by the Hindus; it affords a most agreeable shade, as its leaves are large, in the shape of a heart.  Many writers confound it with the “ficus Indicus” or “baniyan tree,” or rather, they devise an imaginary tree compounded of the two species, investing it with the heart-shaped leaves of the former, and the dropping and multiplying stems of the latter.

[191] Respecting the ceremony called the tasadduk, vide note 3, p. 66.

[192] Literally, “much dust did I sift the dust.”

[193] Murtaza ’Ali, the son-in-law of the prophet; one of his surnames is Mushkil-kusha, or " the remover of difficulties.”  The Saiyids, who pretend to be descended from ’Ali, wear green dresses, which is a sacred colour among the Muhammadans.

[194] The phrase char-zanu ho-baithna, signifies “to sit down with the legs crossed in front as our tailors do when at work.”  It is the ordnary mode of sitting among the Turks.

[195] The dalk, or dilk, is a garment made of patches and shreds worn by darweshes; the epithet dolk-posh, “a dalk wearer,” denotes a “darwesh,” or “mendicant.”

[196] Ispahan was once a fine city.  In the time of the Chevalier Chardin, nearly two centuries ago, it was pronounced by that traveller to be the largest in the world.  It is now about the size of Brighton; yet a few weeks ago, we saw in the “Illustrated London News,” an account of it by a Frenchman (a fire-side traveller), who declares it to be, still, “the largest city in the world!”

[197] The Muhammadans divide the world into seven climes, and suppose that a constellation presides over the destiny of each clime.

[198] The Arabic phrase lantarani, a corruption of la-an-tarani, literally signifies “egad, if you saw me [do so and so];” hence lantarani-wala is equivalent to our terms, “an egregious egotist,” or “great boaster.”

[199] A novice in the language would say, “Here a distinction seems to be drawn between the words zaban and jibh.  Both signify ‘tongue,’ but the former applies to men and the latter to animals.”  To this profound bit of criticism I should reply—­Not so fast, Mr. Novice; a distinction there is, but that is not it.  The word zaban in Persian and Hindustani means both the fleshy member of the body, called the tongue, and also language or speech, just like our word “tongue,” which has both significations.  In the former sense it applies alike to man and beast; in the latter it is mere truism to say that it applies to man only. Jibh, in Hindi and Hindustani, means the tongue only in the sense of the member of the body, never in the sense of speech; hence it is equally applicable to man or brute.  Ask any physician who has practised in India the Hindustani for “show the tongue,” he will tell you jibh dikla,o, or zaban dikla,o; and if he was a man of discernment, he would use jibh with a Hindu, and zaban with a Musalman; but I believe he would be perfectly understood, whichever word he used to either party.