[FN#522] A feeling well-known to the traveller:  I have often been laughed at for gazing fondly upon the scanty brown-green growth about Suez after a few months’ sojourn in the wolds of Western Arabia.  It is admirably expressed in that book of books Eothen (chapt. xvii.):  —­“The next day I entered upon Egypt, and floated along (for the delight was as the delight of bathing) through green wavy fields of rice, and pastures fresh and plentiful, and dived into the cold verdure of grasses and gardens, and quenched my hot eyes in shade, as though in deep, rushing waters.”

[FN#523] The writer does not mean to charge the girl with immodesty (after the style “Come to my arms, my slight acquaintance!”) but to show how powerfully Fate and Fortune wrought upon her.  Hence also she so readily allowed the King’s son to possess her person.

[FN#524] [I read “al-Muhibbattu,” fem. of “Muhibb,” lover (in Tasawwuf particularly = lover of God), and take the “lam taku taslah” in the second verse for the 3rd person fem., translating:  The loving maiden has come in obedience to the lover’s call, proudly trailing her skirts ("tajarru min al-T¡hi Azy la-h "), and she is meet, etc.—­st.]

[FN#525] Again the work of Fate which intended to make the lovers man and wife and probably remembered the homely old English proverb, “None misses a slice from a cut loaf.”

[FN#526] A little matter of about a ton at the smallest computation of 200 lbs. to each beast.

[FN#527] In text “Nataw s£ saw¡yah” [Clerical error for “nataw nas£ (nata nas£, the rarely used 6th form of anisa) shuwayyah” = let us divert ourselves a little.—­St.]

[FN#528] In text “salaku-hu wa nashal£-hu.”  The “salk” = scoring the skin and the “nashl” = drawing meat from the cooking-pot with the fingers or a flesh-hook or anything but a ladle which would be “Gharf.”

[FN#529] This account has been slightly abridged seeing that it is a twice-told tale.

[FN#530] “Written” either on the Preserved Tablet (vol. ii. 68) or on the sutures of the skull (iii. 123).

[FN#531] In Arab.  “Kh lat-k¡ ins nun,” meaning also to lie with.  Lat. misceo. [The same word occurs presently in another tropical sense:  “Kh lata-h  al-Khajal wa ’l-Hay ” = shame and abashment mixed with her, i.e. suffused or overwhelmed her.—­St.]

[FN#532] In text “Istanade ’al… Shakkati-h.” ["Istan da ’al…” is in the Vocabulista in Arabico rendered by “recumbere” and “Shikkah” is a rug, while I can find no authority for “Shakkah” as “quarter.”  The passage may therefore mean he lay down on his rug.  If he had been leaning against the standing horse, it would on bolting have thrown him on the ground and awaked him rudely.—­ St.]

[FN#533] “Rajul ikhtiy r,” a polite term for an old man:  See i. 55.  In the speech of the Badawin it means a man of substance and hospitality.

[FN#534] **In**?  Arab.  “Wa l sh:  Mur d¡ bas Ism al-Madinah.”  I seem to hear some Fellah speaking to me from the door of his clay hut.