[FN#447] In text “R kiba-h ,” the technical term for demoniac insiliation or possession:  the idea survives in our “succubi” and “incubi.”  I look upon these visions often as the effects of pollutio nocturne.  A modest woman for instance dreams of being possessed by some man other than her husband; she loves the latter and is faithful to him, and consequently she must explain the phenomena superstitiously and recur to diabolical agency.  Of course it is the same with men, only they are at less trouble to excuse themselves.

[FN#448] The construction here, Ms. p. 67, is very confused. [The speech of Muhsin seems to be elliptical.  In Ar. it runs:  “Li-ann¡ iz , lam nukhullis-ha (or nukhlis-h , 2nd or 4th form) taktuln¡, wa an  iz lam tattafik ma’¡ ann¡ iz  khallastu-h  tu’t¡-h  alayya” —­which I believe to mean:  “for if I do not deliver her, thou wilt kill me; so I (say) unless thou stipulate with me that when I have delivered her thou wilt give her to me in marriage—­” supply:  “well then I wash my hand of the whole business.”  The Shaykh acts on the tit for tat principle in a style worthy of the “honest broker” himself.—­St.]

[FN#449] In text “Yaum Sabt” again.

[FN#450] As has been said (vol. ii. 112) this is a sign of agitation.  The tale has extended to remote Guernsey.  A sorcier named Hilier Mouton discovers by his art that the King’s daughter who had long and beautiful tresses was dying because she had swallowed a hair which had twined round her praecordia.  The cure was to cut a small square of bacon from just over the heart, and tie it to a silken thread which the Princess must swallow, when the hair would stick to it and come away with a jerk.  See (p. 29) “Folk-lore of Guernsey and Sark,” by Louise Lane-Clarke, printed by E. Le Lievre, Guernsey, 1880; and I have to thank for it a kind correspondent, Mr. A. Buchanan Brown, of La Couture, p. 53, who informs us why the Guernsey lily is scentless, emblem of the maiden who sent it from fairy-land.

[FN#451] The text says only, “O my father, gift Shaykh Mohsin.”

[FN#452] Her especial “shame” would be her head and face:  vol. vi. 30, 118.

[FN#453] In northern Africa the “D r al-Ziy fah” was a kind of caravanserai in which travellers were lodged at government expense.  Ibn Khald£n (Fr. Transl. i. 407).

[FN#454 In most of these tales the well is filled in over the intruding “villain” of the piece.  Ibn Khaldun (ii. 575) relates a “veritable history” of angels choking up a well; and in Mr. Doughty (ii. 190) a Pasha-governor of Jiddah does the same to a Jinni-possessed pit.

[FN#455] This tale is of a kind not unfrequent amongst Moslems, exalting the character of the wife, whilst the mistress is a mere shadow.

[FN#456] Here written “Jalab¡” (whence Scott’s “Julbee,” p. 461) and afterwards (p. 77, etc.) “Shalab¡”:  it has already been noticed in vol. i. 22 and elsewhere.