[263] Seven miskals are more than an ounce and a quarter.

[264] The term Farang, vulgarly Frank, was formerly applied to Christian Europe in general, with the exclusion of Russia.

[265] Literally, “kissed the ground of obeisance,” a Persian phrase, expressive of profound respect.

[266] “The minister’s daughter,” afterwards called “the young merchant.”

[267] The phrase pachas ek means “about fifty.”  It is strange that a certain critic on this work, (who has a prodigiously high opinion of himself,) should have rendered the above passage, “whose age was about forty or fifty years!” Most assuredly, the merest tyro in Hindustani can tell him that it cannot have such a latitude as to mean “about forty or fifty.”  He might just as correctly have said “about fifty or sixty.”  The phrase pachas ek, as I have stated, means simply “about fifty,” i.e., it may be one year more or less.

[268] In the text, the wazir-zadi is henceforth called saudagar-bacha or the young merchant, being the character under which she, for some time, figures.

[269] morchhals, vulgarly called chowrees, are fly-flaps, to drive away those troublesome companions; the best kind is made of the fine white long tail of the mountain cow; the others of the long feathers from, the peacock’s tail, or the odoriferous roots of a species of grass called Khas.  They are likewise a part of the paraphernalia of state in India.

[270] The title khwaja means “chief,” or “master;” it is generally applied to rich merchants, &c., such as we would call “men of respectability.”  The idiomatic London English for it is “governor,” or (as it is pronounced) “guv’ner”.

[271] Literally, “What difficulty” (is there in so doing).

[272] The city of Naishapur being some 270 miles inland, it would not be easy for the young merchant to reach it by sea.  Asiatic story-tellers are not at all particular in regard to matters of geography.

[273] ’Ajam means, in general, Persia; the Arabs use it in the same sense as the Greeks did the word “barbarian;” and all who are not Arabs they call ’Ajami; more especially the Persians.

[274] Sara,e, sera,i or caravanserai, are buildings for the accommodation of travellers, merchants, &c., in cities, and on the great roads in Asia.  Those in Upper Hindustan, built by the emperors of Dilli, are grand and costly; they are either of stone or burnt bricks.  In Persia, they are mostly of bricks dried in the sun.  In Upper Hindustan they are commonly sixteen to twenty miles distant from each other, which is a manzil or stage.  They are generally built of a square or quadrangular form with a large open court in the centre, and contain numerous rooms for goods, men, and beasts.

[275] Literally, made excuses from the surface of his heart,” i.e., not serious excuses.