[332] The chor-mahall is a private seraglio.

[333] The twelve Imams.—­Vide note 3, page 4.

[334] The threshold of a pagoda or mosque.  The oriental people uncover their feet, as we do our heads, on entering a place of worship.

[335] Asiatics do not sign their names, but put their seals to letters, bonds, paper, &c.; on the seal is engraven their names, titles, &c.; which absurd practice has frequently given rise to much roguery, and even bloodshed, as it is so easy, by bribes, to get a seal-cutter to forge almost any seal, a notorious instance of which appeared some twenty years ago in the case of the Raja of Sattara.  Though the Muhammadan laws punish with severe penalties such transgressions, yet seal-cutters are not more invulnerable to the powers of gold than other men.  Kings, princes, nawwabs &c., have a private mark, as well as a public seal, to official papers; and a private seal and mark for private or confidential papers.

[336] A khil’at or honorary dress is generally bestowed on a person when he is appointed to a new situation.

[337] Literally, “who could hit a kauri suspended by a hair.”  The kauri is a small round shell used to denote the minutest denomination of money.  In Bengal it is about the hundredth part of a paisa.

[338] The nazar or pesh-kash is a sum of money, &c., which, all oriental officials pay to the prince of the country, or to his favourites, &c., when appointed to their situations.  Some people say that such things are done nearer home, with this difference, that among us it is a private transaction; whereas, in the East, it is an open one.

[339] ja-girs are donations of lands, or, rather, of the revenues arising from a certain portion of land; strictly speaking, such a grant is a reward for military service, though it is sometimes bestowed without that condition.

[340] As the Musalmans reckon their day from sun-set, this is no bull.

[341] Literally, “the third fault is that of the mother.”

[342] The king here resumes his address to the four darweshes.

[343] A proverb synonymous to ours, of “What is bred in the bone, will never come out of the flesh.”

[344] The tawa is a circular plate of malleable or cast iron, used for baking cakes or bannocks.  It is slightly convex, like a watch-glass, on the upper side, where the bread is laid on; the under or concave side being, of course perfectly black.  In Scotland, and in the northern counties of England, this domestic implement is called “the girdle,” and is still in common use in places remote from towns.

[345] Till recently a province of Persia; the northern part of ancient Media.  It is now, alas! fallen into the deadly grasp of the unholy Muscovite.

[346] A kind of pea common in India; it is the ordinary food of horses, oxen, camels, &c., likewise of the native.  By Europeans it is generally called grum or “graum.”