the feminine plurals of many adjectives, such as k£bra, s£ghra, h£sna, etc.  Dr. Redhouse says that ’many eminent Arabists avoid such errors’—­a remark which rather surprises me, since Pocock, Lane and Palmer, and Fresnel and Perron among French Orientalists, as also Burton, all retain the final aspirate h, the latter taking special care to distinguish, by some adequate, diacritical sign, those substantive and adjective forms with which words ending in the final aspirate h might otherwise be confounded.”

[FN#558] In the text, “Wa s ba’l-d r wa Zaujatu-hu mutawass¡y¡n bi-h .” [I cannot explain to myself the plural “Mutawass¡n” unless by supposing that the preceding “S b al-D r” is another blunder of the scribe for “S hibu ’l-D r” when the meaning would be:  “and the master of the house and his wife took charge of her (the nurse) during the days of suckling.” —­St.]

[FN#559] In text “S r£ yar sh£-hu wa yatawassu.”

[FN#560] [In the text “Fik¡” the popular form of the present day “Fik¡h,” properly “learned in the law” (LL.D. as we would say), but now the usual term for “school-master.”—­St.]

[FN#561] Both of which are practised by Easterns from horseback, the animal going at fullest speed.  With the English saddle and its narrow stirrup-irons we can hardly prove ourselves even moderately good shots after Parthian fashion.

[FN#562] In text “Ihtim m wa Ghullah”:  I suspect that the former should be written with the major h, meaning fever.

[FN#563] See Suppl. vol. iv. p. 191.

[FN#564] i.e. tempt not Providence unless compelled so to do by necessity.

[FN#565] The youth was taking a “F l” or omen:  see vol. v. 136.

[FN#566] In text “Hasal,” for which I would read “Khasal.”

[FN#567] A wiser Sprichwort than those of France and America.  It compares advantageously with the second par. of the Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776) by the Representatives of the U.S., which declares, “these truths to be self-evident:—­that all men are created equal,” etc.  It is regretable that so trenchant a state-paper should begin with so gross and palpable a fallacy.  Men are not born equal, nor do they become equal before their death-days even in condition, except by artificial levelling; and in republics and limited monarchies, where all are politically equal, the greatest social inequalities ever prevail.  Still falser is the shibboleth-crow of the French cock, “Libert‚, Egalit‚, Fraternit‚,” which has borrowed its plumage from the American Bird o’ Freedom.  And Douglas Jerrold neatly expressed the truth when he said,—­“We all row in the same boat but not with the same sculls.”

[FN#568] Sayf Kun£z¡ = a talismanic scymitar:  see “Kanz,” ix. 320.