[FN#348] Sale (sect. 1.) tells us all that was then known of these three which with Ya’uk and Nasr and the three “daughters of God,” Goddesses or Energies (the Hindu Saktis) Allat Al-Uzza and Manat mentioned in the Koran were the chiefs of the pre-lslamitic Pantheon.  I cannot but suspect that all will be connected with old Babylonian worship.  Al-Baydawi (in Kor.  Ixxi. 22) says of Wadd, Suwa’a, Yaghus, Ya’uk and Nasr that they were names of pious men between Adam and Noah, afterwards deified:  Yaghus was the giant idol of the Mazhaj tribe at Akamah of Al-Yaman and afterwards at Najran Al-Uzza was widely worshipped:  her idol (of the tree Semurat) belonging to Ghatafan was destroyed after the Prophet’s order by Khalid bin Walid.  Allat or Al-Lat is written by Pocock (spec. 110) “Ilahat” i.e. deities in general.  But Herodotus evidently refers to one god when he makes the Arabs worship Dionysus as {Greek letters} and Urania as {Greek letters} and the “tashdid” in Allat would, to a Greek ear, introduce another syllable (Alilat).  This was the goddess of the Kuraysh and Thakif whose temple at Taif was circuited like the Ka’abah before Mohammed destroyed it.

[FN#349] Shays (Shayth) is Ab Seth (Father Seth,) of the Hebrews, a name containing the initial and terminal letters of the Egypto-Phoenico-Hebrew Alphabet and the “Abjad” of the Arabs.  Those curious about its connection with the name of Allah (El), the Zodiacal signs and with the constellations, visions but not wholly uninteresting, will consult “Unexplored Syria” (vol. i. 33).

[FN#350] The exclamation of an honest Fellah.

[FN#351] This is Antar with the Chosroe who “kissed the Absian hero between the eyes and bade him adieu, giving him as a last token a rich robe.”  The coarser hand of the story-teller exaggerates everything till he makes it ridiculous.

[FN#352] The context suggests thee this is a royal form of “throwing the handkerchief;” but it does not occur elsewhere.  In face, the European idea seems to have arisen from the oriental practice of sending presents in napkins or kerchiefs.

[FN#353] i.e. if the disappointed suitor attack me.

[FN#354] i.e. if ever I he tempted to deny it.

[FN#355] Arab.  “Musafahah,ù’ the Arab fashion of shaking hands.  The right palms are applied flat to each other; then the fingers are squeezed and the hand is raised to the forehead (Pilgrimage ii. 332).

[FN#356] A city and province of Khuzistan the old Susiana.  Dasht may be either the town in Khorasan or the “forests” (dasht) belonging to Ahwaz (Ahuaz in D’Herbelot).

[FN#357] This is the contest between “Antar and the Satrap Khosrewan at the Court of Monzer.” but without its tragical finish.

[FN#358] Elliptical “he rode out in great state, that is to say if greatness can truly be attributed to man,” for, etc.