[225] Khizr or Khwaja Khizr is the name of a saint or prophet, of great notoriety among the Muhammadans.  The legends respecting his origin and life are as numerous as they are absurd and contradictory.  Some say he was grand Vizir to Solomon, others to Alexander the Great.  They all agree, however, that he discovered the water of immortality, and that in consequence of having drunk thereof, he still lives and wanders about on the earth.

[226] Kasra is the title of the King of Persia, hence the Greek forms Cyrus and Chosroes, and most probably the more modern forms Caesar, Kaisar, and Czar.  The form Kisra used in the text is generally applied to Naushirwan.—­Vide note 3, page 13.

[227] Ni’man, also Nu’man, the name of an ancient king of Hirat, in Arabia.

[228] The first day of the new year, which is celebrated with great splendour and rejoicings.

[229] The Brahmans, erroneously called Bramins, do not eat meat.

[230] Literally, “she would have repeated the Kalima,” or “Confession of Faith” of the followers of Muhammad, which is as follows:—­“There is no God but God, and Muhammad is his prophet.”  Some profane wags have parodied this creed into a Jewish one, viz.—­“There ish no God but the monish, and shent per shent (cent. per cent.) ish hish prophet” (profit.)

[231] The common mode to present large sums in specie to princely visitors, is to form a platform with the money, spread the masnad on it, and place the visitor on the rich seat.  Mr. Smith states that he had himself seen Asafu-d-Daula, the then Nawwab of Lucknow, receive a lack of rupees in this way from Almas, one of his eunuchs.

[232] Chand-rat, is applied to the night on which the new moon is first visible, which night, together with the following day till sunset, constitutes the pahli tarikh, or ghurra, that is the first of the lunar month.

[233] Ramazan is the ninth Muhammadan month, during which they keep Lent.  Vide note, p. 59.

[234] The ’Id is the grand festival after the Lent of Ramazan is over.  There is another ’Id, called Al-Kurban, in commemoration of Abraham’s meditated sacrifice of his son Isaac, or as the Muhammadans believe of his son Ishmael.

[235] Literally, “having washed my hands of my life.”

[236] Rustam, a brave and famous hero of Persia, whose Herculean achievements are celebrated in the Shah-Nama.

[237] Literally, “a salam as low as the carpet;” or as we say, “a bow to the ground.”

[238] The various editions of the text read tunna, “a particular kind of tree.”  In one of my MSS., however, the reading is tane, the inflected form of tana, the “trunk of a tree,” which is better sense.