[FN#20] In text “Ya Bunayya” =lit.  “O my little son,” a term of special fondness.

[FN#21] Arab.  “Jamrah,” a word of doubtful origin, but applied to a tribe strong enough to be self-dependent.  The “Jamarat of the Arabs” were three, Banu Numayr, Banu Haris (who afterwards confederated with Mashij) and Banu Dabbah (who joined the Rikab), and at last Nomayr remained alone.  Hence they said of it: 

“Nomayr the jamrah (also “a live coal”) of Arabs are; * And ne’er cease they to burn in fiery war.”

See Chenery’s Al-Hariri, pp. 343-428.

[FN#22] In the Arab.  “Ta’arkalak,” which M. Houdas renders “qu’elle ne te retienne dans ses filets.”

[FN#23] A lieu commun in the East.  It is the Heb.  “Shaked” and the fruit is the “Loz” (Arab.  Lauz)=Amygdalus communis, which the Jews looked upon as the harbinger of spring and which, at certain feasts, they still carry to the synagogue, as representing the palm branches of the Temple.

[FN#24] The mulberry-tree in Italy will bear leaves till the end of October and the foliage is bright as any spring verdure.

[FN#25] Gauttier omits this:  pas poli, I suppose.

[FN#26] The barbarous sentiment is Biblical-inspired, “He that spareth his rod hateth his son” (Prov. xiii. 24), and “Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying” (Prov. xix. 18).  Compare the Arab equivalent, “The green stick is of the trees of Paradise” (Pilgrimage i. 151).  But the neater form of the saw was left to uninspired writers; witness “Spare the rod and spoil the child,” which appears in Ray’s proverbs, and is immortalised by Hudibras:—­

          Love is a boy by poets styled,
          Then spare the rod and spoil the child. (ii. 1, 843.)

It is to the eternal credit of John Locke, the philosopher, that in an age of general brutality he had the moral courage to declare, “Beating is the worst and therefore the last means to be used in the correction of children.”

[FN#27] Arab.  “Dahn” (oil, ointment) which may also mean “soft sawder.”

[FN#28] Aucun roi ne peut gouverner sans armee et on ne peut avoir une armee sans argent.  For a treatise on this subject see the “Chronique de Tabari,” ii. 340.

[FN#29] M. Agoub, in Gauttier (vi. 321) remarks of these prosings, “Ces maximes qui ne seraient pas indignes, pour la plupart, des beaux temps de la philosophie grecque, appartiennent toutes au texte arabe; je n’ai fait que les disposer dans un ordre plus methodique.  J’ai du aussi supprimer quelques unes, soit parce qu’elles n’offraient que des preceptes d’une morale banale, soit que traduites en frangais, elles eussent pu paraitre bizarres a des lecteurs europeens.  Ce que je dis ici, s’applique egalement a celles qui terminent le conte et qui pourraient fournir le sujet de plusieurs fables.”  One would say that the translator is the author’s natural enemy.