[365] Chaupar is a very ancient Indian game of the nature of backgammon, played by four people, each having four men or pieces.  A full description of it is given in the Ayeeni Akbary, London, 1800, vol. 1st, page 253.

[366] Azur, the father of Abraham, was a famous statuary and idol-worshipper, according to the ideas of Muhammadans.

[367] Alluding to the Hindu custom of the wife’s burning herself with the corpse of her husband; in these cases, perhaps, fear of the priesthood, &c., is a stronger motive than love for the defunct.

[368] By the Island of the Franks, it is most probable that the author means Britain.  The description of the capital is more adapted to London sixty years ago than to any other European city.  This, Mir Amman might have learned from some of the resident Europeans, while he filled up the rest from his own luxuriant imagination.

[369] The “eunuch” is of course out of place in a Christian city; at least he does not hold the same rank as in the East.

[370] In the original it is water; the meaning is obvious enough.

[371] Most probably the name of some famous armourer.

[372] A Persian proverb.

[373] That is poison of the strongest kind.—­Vide note on this word in page 213.

[374] Meaning in this world and the next.

[375] Barbers in Asia not only shave but wash persons in the private and public baths.

[376] A prince of Khurasan, who quitted a throne in order to lead a life of piety.

[377] A celebrated city of Khurasan, famous in former times for its riches.

[378] The attitude of respect, common in the East, when a servant has a request to make of his master; or a very inferior person of one who is greatly his superior.

[379] Meaning, “of surpassing speed.”

[380] In the original, the word is kai, or the green scum that floats on stagnant water. “Bihzad Khan, dispersed the enemy as kai is dispersed when a stone is thrown into the water,” is nearly the original simile.

[381] Literally, “merely continued bringing up the soil from the bottom.”

[382] The first and second Darweshes.

[383] One of the many epithets applied to Darweshes in the East.

[384] A Persian proverb.

[385] The regent; the fourth Darwesh’s uncle.

[386] According to the fabulous system of jinns, divs, paris, &c., in Asia, it is supposed that the jinns and paris live on essences, &c.  The divs are malignant spirits or beings, and live on less delicate food.

[387] Divs or demons; the malignant race of jinns.

[388] Chin and Machin, is the general name of China among the Persians.

[389] Bukhur is a kind of frankincense.

[390] Abu-Jahal, or “the father of obstinacy,” or “of brutality,” was the name of an Arab.  He was uncle to the prophet Muhammad, and an inveterate opposer of the latter’s new religion.