[FN#278] Arab.  “Talakan bainan,” here meaning a triple divorce before witnesses, making it irrevocable.

[FN#279] i.e. who had played him that trick.

[FN#280] The Bresl.  Edit. (vol. xii. pp. 50-116, Nights dcccclviii- dcccclxv.) entitles it “Tale of Abu al-Hasan the Damascene and his son Sidi Nur al-Din ’ Ali.”  Sidi means simply, “my lord,” but here becomes part of the name, a practice perpetuated in Zanzibar.  See vol. v.283.

[FN#281] i.e. at the hours of canonical prayers and other suitable times he made an especial orison (du’a) for issue.

[FN#282] See vol. i.85, for the traditional witchcraft of Babylonia.

[FN#283] i.e.  More or less thoroughly.

[FN#284] i.e.  “He who quitteth not his native country diverteth not himself with a sight of the wonders of the world.”

[FN#285] For similar sayings, see vol. ix.257, and my Pilgrimage i.127.

[FN#286] i.e. relying upon, etc.

[FN#287] The Egyptian term for a khan, called in Persia caravanserai (karwan-serai); and in Marocco funduk, from the Greek; whence the Spanish “fonda.”  See vol. i. 92.

[FN#288] Arab.  “Baliyah,” to jingle with “Babiliyah.”

[FN#289] As a rule whenever this old villain appears in The Nights, it is a signal for an outburst of obscenity.  Here, however, we are quittes pour la peur.  See vol. v. 65 for some of his abominations.

[FN#290] The lines are in vols. viii.279 and ix.197.  I quote Mr. Payne.

[FN#291] Lady or princess of the Fair (ones).

[FN#292] i.e. of buying.

[FN#293] Arab.  “Azan-hu=lit. its ears.

[FN#294] Here again the policeman is made a villain of the deepest dye; bad enough to gratify the intelligence of his deadliest enemy, a lodging-keeper in London.

[FN#295] i.e.  You are welcome to it and so it becomes lawful (halal) to you.

[FN#296] Arab.  “Sijn al-Dam,” the Carcere duro inasprito (to speak Triestine), where men convicted or even accused of bloodshed were confined.

[FN#297] Arab.  “Mabasim”; plur. of Mabsim, a smiling mouth which shows the foreteeth.

[FN#298] The branchlet, as usual, is the youth’s slender form.

[FN#299] Subaudi, “An ye disdain my love.”

[FN#300] In the text “sleep.”

[FN#301] “Them” and “him” for “her.”

[FN#302] ’Urkub, a Jew of Yathrib or Khaybar, immortalised in the A.P. (i. 454) as “more promise-breaking than ’Urkub.”

[FN#303] Uncle of Mohammed.  See vol. viii. 172.

[FN#304] First cousin of Mohammed.  See ib.

[FN#305] This threat of “’Orf with her ’ead” shows the Caliph’s lordliness.

[FN#306] Arab.  “Al-Bashkhanah.”

[FN#307] i.e.  Amen.  See vol. ix. 131.

[FN#308] When asked, on Doomsday, his justification for having slain her.