[FN#79] Striking the nape being the Moslem equivalent for “boxing ears.”

[FN#80] With this formula compare Chaucer, “The Manciple’s Tale.”

[FN#81] In the text “Znnakt-ha,” which is unintelligible, although the sense be clear.

[FN#82] A bird unknown to the dictionaries, apparently a species of hawk.

[FN#83] In the text “Jurah Syan” for “Jurah Sayyal.”

[FN#84] The tree having furnished the axe-helve.

[FN#85] M. Houdas translates Tu as medit de moi et tu m’as accable de tes mechancetes.

[FN#86] In text “Alif, ba, ta, sa,” the latter written with a Sin instead of a Tha, showing the vulgar use which extends from Alexandria to Meccah.

[FN#87] So in French, deriding the difference between written and spoken English, Ecrivez Salmonassar, prononcez crocodile.

[FN#88] Because he owes thee more than a debt of life.

[FN#89] i.e.  “Tammat"=She (the tale) is finished.

[FN#90] MSS. pp.217-265.  See the “Arabian Tales,” translated by Robert Heron (Edinburgh M.DCC.Xcii.), where it is “The Robber-Caliph; or Adventures of Haroun Alraschid, with the Princess of Persia, and the fair Zutulbe,” vol. i. pp. 2-69.  Gauttier, Histoire du Khalyfe de Baghdad, vol. vii. pp.117-150.

[FN#91] In text “Ahadis,” esp. referred to the sayings of Mohammed, and these are divided into two great sections, the “Ahadis al-Nabawi,” or the actual words pronounced by the Apostle; and the “Ahadis al-Kudus,” or the sentences attributed to the Archangel Gabriel.

[FN#92] Heron has “the Festival of Haraphat,” adding a power of nonsense.  This is the day of the sermon, when the pilgrims sleep at Muzdalifah (Pilgrimage iii. 265).  Kusayy, an ancestor of the Apostle, was the first to prepare a public supper at this oratory, and the custom was kept up by Harun al-Rashid, Zubaydah and Sha’ab, mother of the Caliph al-Muktadir (Tabari ii. 368).  Alms are obligatory on the two great ’I’ds or festivals, al-Fitr which ends the Ramazan fast and al-Kurban during the annual Pilgrimage.  The dole must consist of at least a “Sa’” = 7 lbs. in grain, dates, &c.

[FN#93] i.e. habited themselves in the garments of little people:  so to “enlarge the turband” is to assume the rank of an ’Alim or learned man.  “Jayb,” the breast of a coat is afterwards used in the sense of a pocket.

[FN#94] Either the Caliph was persuaded that the white wrist was a “promise of better things above and below,” or he proposed marriage as a mere freak, intelligible enough when divorce costs only two words.

[FN#95] In text “Nakdi” = the actual as opposed to the contingent dowry:  sec vols. vii. 126; ix. 32.

[FN#96] This is said in irony.

[FN#97] In text “Bashakhin” plur. of “Bashkhanah:”  see Suppl. vols. ii. 119; iii. 87.

[FN#98] In Heron he becomes “Kassera-Abocheroan.”  Anushirwan (in full Anushinrawan = sweet of soul) is popularly supposed to have begun his rule badly after the fashion of Eastern despots, and presently to have become the justest of monarchs.  Nothing of this, however, is found in Tabari (ii. 159).