[FN#330] In the text “Mohammed ibn Ibrahim,” another confusion with the last tale.  This story is followed in the Ms. by (1) “The History of the First Brave,” (2) “The History of the Second Brave,” and “The Tale of the Noodle and his Asses,” which I have omitted because too feeble for insertion.

[FN#331] Scott (vi.375) “Story of the Good Vizier unjustly imprisoned.”  Gauttier (vi. 394) Histoire du bon Vizier injustement emprisonne.

[FN#332] This detail has no significance, though perhaps its object may be to affect the circumstantial, a favourite manoeuvre with the Rawi. [It may mean that the prisoner had to pass through seven gates before reaching it, to indicate its formidable strength and the hopelessness of all escape, except perhaps by a seven-warded, or as the Arabs would say, a seven-pinned key of gold.  In the modern tale mentioned on p. 174 the kidnapped Prince and his Wazir are made to pass “through one door after the other until seven doors were passed,” to emphasize the utter seclusion of their hiding place.—­St.]

[FN#333] i.e. the mats and mattresses, rugs and carpets, pillows and cushions which compose the chairs, tables and beds of a well-to-do Eastern lodging.

[FN#334] The pretext was natural.  Pious Moslems often make such vows and sometimes oblige themselves to feed the street dogs with good bread.

[FN#335] In text “Min hakk haza ’l-Kalam sahih.”

[FN#336] In text “Kaik” and “Kaik-ji,” the well-known caique of the Bosphorus, a term which bears a curious family resemblance to the “Kayak” of the Eskimos.

[FN#337] Here coffee is mentioned without tobacco, whereas in more modern days the two are intimately connected.  And the reason is purely hygienic.  Smoking increases the pulsations without strengthening them, and depresses the heart-action with a calming and soothing effect.  Coffee, like alcohol, affects the circulation in the reverse way by exciting it through the nervous system; and not a few authorities advise habitual smokers to end the day and prepare for rest with a glass of spirits and water.  It is to be desired that the ignorants who write about “that filthy tobacco” would take the trouble to observe its effects on a large scale, and not base the strongest and extremest opinions, as is the wont of the Anglo-Saxon Halb-bildung, upon the narrowest and shakiest of bases.  In Egypt, India and other parts of the Eastern world they will find nicotiana used by men, women and children, of all ranks and ages; and the study of these millions would greatly modify the results of observing a few hundreds at home.  But, as in the case of opium-eating, populus vult decipi, the philanthrope does not want to know the truth, indeed he shrinks from it and loathes it.  All he cares for is his own especial “fad.”

[FN#338] Arab.  “Finjal” systematically repeated for “Finjan” pronounced in Egypt “Fingan” see vol. viii. 200. [The plural “Fanajil,” pronounced “Fanagil,” occurs in Spitta Bey’s Contes Arabes Modernes, p. 92, and in his Grammar, p. 26, the same author states that the forms “Fingan” and “Fingal” are used promiscuously.—­St.]