[247] Shevrat is a Hindu festival, which corresponds nearly with the Mahometan shabi barat.

[248] Plato is supposed by the Muhammadans to have been not only a profound philosopher, but a wise physician.  In short, it is too general an idea with them, that a clever man must be a good doctor.

[249] The langot or langoti is a piece of cloth wrapped or fastened round the loins, and tucked in between the feet.  It barely conceals what civilization requires should be hid from the public view.

[250] Ma’jun is the extract from the intoxicating plant called charas or bhang, a species of hemp; it is mixed with sugar and spices to render it palatable.  The inebriation it produces fills the imagination with agreeable visions, and the effects are different from those of wine or spirits.

[251] Six mashas amount to nearly a quarter of an ounce; a sicca rupee weighs eleven mashas.

[252] Literally, “a volume of a book.”

[253] This exceedingly absurd story is of Rabbinical origin.  I have a strong impression on my mind of having read something very like it long ago in the works of Philo Judaeus, the contemporary of Josephus.

[254] The Ismi A’zam, or the “Most Mighty Name” [of God] is a magic spell or incantation which the acquirer can apply to wonderful purposes.  God hath, among the Muhammadans, ninety-nine names or epithets; the Ismi A’zam is one of the number, but it is only the initiated few who can say which of the ninety-nine it is.

[255] The word sawab strictly means, “the reward received in the next world for virtuous actions performed in the present state of existence.”

[256] The veiled horseman who rescued the first and second Darweshes from self-destruction.

[257] A Persian proverb.

[258] Badakhshan is a part of the grand province of Khurasan, and the city of Balkh is its metropolis, to the eastward of which is a chain of mountains celebrated for producing fine rubies.

[259] All Asiatic princes, like others nearer home, have spies, called “reporters of intelligence,” who inform themselves of what passes in public.  They are, as a matter of course, the pest of society, and generally corrupt.

[260] A miskal is four and a half mashas; our ounce contains twenty-four mashas.  So the ruby weighed more than half an ounce.

[261] The word raja is the Hindu term for a prince or sovereign.  In more recent times it has become a mere empty title, conferred upon rich Hindus by the Emperor of Delhi.

[262] Naishapur was once the richest and grandest city in the province of Khurasan.  It was utterly destroyed by Tuli, the son of Jenghis Khan (or more correctly, Changis Ka,an), in A.D. 1221.