[FN#306] Here I offer a few, but very few, instances from the Breslau text, which is the greatest sinner in this respect.  Mas. for fem., vol. i. p. 9, and three times in seven pages, Ahna and nahna for nahnu (iv. 370, 372); Ana ba-ashtari = I will buy (iii. 109):  and Ana ’Amil = I will do (v. 367).  Alayki for Alayki (i. 18), Anti for Anti (iii. 66) and generally long i for short .  ’Ammal (from ’amala = he did) tahlam = certainly thou dreamest, and ’Ammalin yaakulu = they were about to eat (ix. 315):  Aywa for Ay wa’llahi = yes, by Allah (passim).  Bita’ = belonging to, e.g.  Sara bita’k = it is become thine (ix. 352) and Mata’ with the same sense (iii. 80).  Da ’l-khurj = this saddle-bag (ix. 336) and Di (for hazah) = this woman (iii. 79) or this time (ii. 162).  Fayn as raha fayn = whither is he gone? (iv. 323).  Kama badri = he rose early (ix. 318):  Kaman = also, a word known to every European (ii. 43):  Katt = never (ii. 172):  Kawam (pronounced ’awam) = fast, at once (iv. 385) and Rih asif kawi (pron. ’awi) = a wind, strong very.  Laysh, e.g. bi tasalni laysh (ix. 324) = why do you ask me? a favourite form for li ayya shayyin:  so Mafish = ma fihi shayyun (there is no thing) in which Herr Landberg (p. 425) makes “Sha, le present de pouvoir.”  Min ajali = for my sake; and Li ajal al-taudi’a = for the sake of taking leave (Mac.  Edit. i. 384).  Rijal nautiyah = men sailors when the latter word would suffice:  Shuwayh (dim. of shayy) = a small thing, a little (iv. 309) like Moyyah (dim. of Ma) a little water:  Wadduni = they carried me (ii. 172) and lastly the abominable Wahid gharib = one (for a) stranger.  These few must suffice:  the tale of Judar and his brethren, which in style is mostly Egyptian, will supply a number of others.  It must not, however, be supposed, as many have done, that vulgar and colloquial Arabic is of modern date:  we find it in the first century of Al-Islam, as is proved by the tale of Al-Hajjaj and Al-Shabi (Ibn Khallikan, ii. 6).  The former asked “Kam ataa-k?’ (= how much is thy pay?) to which the latter answered, “Alfayn!” (= two thousand!).  “Tut,” cried the Governor, “Kam atau-ka?” to which the poet replied as correctly and classically, “Alfani.”

[FN#307] In Russian folk-songs a young girl is often compared with this tree e.g.—­

          Ivooshka, ivooshka zelonaia moia! 
          (O Willow, O green Willow mine!)

[FN#308] So in Hector France ("La vache enragee”) “Le sourcil en accent circonflexe et l’oeil en point d’interrogation.”

[FN#309] In Persian “Ab-i-ru” in India pronounced Abru.

FN#310] For further praises of his poetry and eloquence see the extracts from Fakhr al-Din of Rayy (an annalist of the xivth century A.D.) in De Sacy’s Chrestomathie Arabe, vol. i.

[FN#311] After this had been written I received “Babylonian, das reichste Land in der Vorzeit und das lohnendste Kolonisationsfeld fuer die Gegenwart,” by my learned friend Dr. Aloys Sprenger, Heidelberg, 1886.