[FN#411] In text a “Mihtar"=a prince, a sweeper, a scavenger, the Pers.  “Mihtar,” still used in Hindostani. [In Quatremere’s Histoire des Sultans Mamlouks “Mihtar” occurs also in the sense of superintendent, of head-equerry, and of chief of a military band.  See Dozy Supp. s. v.—­St.]

[FN#412] “Ant’ aysh” for “man,” decidedly not complimentary, “What (thing) art thou?”

[FN#413] Arab.  “Kabsh.”  Amongst the wilder tubes of the East ram’s mutton is preferred because it gives the teeth more to do:  on the same principle an old cock is the choicest guest-gift in the way of poultry.

[FN#414] “Naubah,” lit.=a period, keeping guard, and here a band of pipes and kettledrums playing before the doors of a great man at certain periods.

[FN#415] In text “Al-Mubtali.”

[FN#416] Arab.  “Hawwalin”; the passage is apparently corrupt. ["Hawalin” is clerical error for either “hawala"=all around, or “Hawali” = surroundings, surrounding parts, and “Audan” is pl. of the popular “Widn” or “Wudn” for the literary “Uzn,” ear.—­St.]

[FN#417] The exclamation would be uttered by the scribe or by Shahrazad.  I need hardly remind the reader that “Khizr” is the Green Prophet and here the Prophet of greens.

[FN#418] For “Israfil"=Raphael, the Archangel who will blow the last trump, see vol. ii. 287.

[FN#419] Gen. meaning “Look sharp,” here syn. with “Allah!  Allah!"=I conjure thee by God.  Vol. i. 346.

[FN#420] A Persian would say, “I am a Irani but Wallahi indeed I am not lying.”

[FN#421] [This sentence of wholesale extermination passed upon womankind, reminds me of the Persian lines which I find quoted in ’Abdu ’l-Jalil’s History of the Barmecides: 

          Agar nek budi Zan u Ray-i-Zan
          Zan-ra Ma-zan Nam budi, na Zan,

and which I would render Anglice: 

          If good there were in Woman and her way
          Her name would signify “Slay not,” not “Slay.”

“Zan” as noun=woman; as imp. of “zadan"=strike, kill, whose negative is “mazan.”—­St.]

[FN#422] In the text the Shaykh, to whom “Aman” was promised, is also gelded, probably by the neglect of the scribe.

[FN#423] This tale is a variant of “The First Constable’s History:”  Suppl.  Nights, vol. ii. 3-11.

[FN#424] In text “Al-Bawwabah"=a place where door-keepers meet, a police-station; in modern tongue “Karakol,” for “Karaghol-khanah"=guard-house.

[FN#425] In text ’Kazi al-’Askar"=the great legal authority of a country:  vol. vi. 131.

[FN#426] Anglo-Indice “Mucuddum"=overseer, etc., vol. iv. 42.

[FN#427] i.e. is not beyond our reach.

[FN#428] In text “Ya Sultan-am” with the Persian or Turkish suffixed possessional pronoun.

[FN#429] In text “mal,” for which see vol. vi. 267.  Amongst the Badawin it is also applied to hidden treasure.