[FN#148] So in Chavis and Cazotte:  Gauttier and Heron prefer (vol. i. 38) “Chamama.”  They add, “That daemon incarnate gave out himself that Satan was his father and the devil Camos (?) his brother.”  The Arab word is connected with shamma = he smelt, and suggests the policeman smoking plots.

[FN#149] i.e. concealing the secret sins of the people.  This sketch of the cad policeman will find many an original in the London force, if the small householder speak the truth.

[FN#150] Qui n’ait un point de contact aver l’une de ces categories—­(Houdas).

[FN#151] In the old translations “The Hazen” (Khazin = treasurer?) which wholly abolishes the double entendre.

[FN#152] In text “Darbisi al-bab” from the Persian, “Dar bastan” = to tie up, to shut.

[FN#153] In text “Ghaush” for “Ghaushah” = noise, row.

[FN#154] “Akkal bula’hu” i.e. commit all manner of abominations.  “To eat skite” is to talk or act foolishly.

[FN#155] In the old translations “Ilamir Youmis.”

[FN#156] In text “Dabbus bazdaghani,” which I have translated as if from the Pers.  “Bazdagh” = a file.  But it may be a clerical error for “Bardawani,” the well-known city in Hindostan whose iron was famous.

[FN#157] “Nahs” means something more than ill-omened, something nasty, foul, uncanny:  see vol. i. 301.

[FN#158] In Chavis, Heron and Co. there are two ladders to scale the garden wall and descend upon the house-terrace which apparently they do not understand to be the roof.

[FN#159] Arab.  “Al-Kafi’ah” = garde-fou, rebord d’une terrasse—­ (Houdas).

[FN#160] Our vulgar “Houri”:  see vols. i. 90; iii. 233.  There are many meanings of Hawar; one defines it as intense darkness of the black of the eye and corresponding whiteness; another that it is all which appears of the eye (as in the gazelle) meaning that the blackness is so large as to exclude the whiteness; whilst a third defines “Haura” as a woman beautiful in the “Mahajir” (parts below and around the eyes which show when the face is veiled), and a fourth as one whose whiteness of eye appears in contrast with the black of the Kohl-Powder.  See Chenery’s Al-Hariri, pp. 354-55.

[FN#161] Arab.  “Zalamah” = tyrants, oppressors (police and employes):  see vols. i. 273, and vi. 214.

[FN#162] In text “Kunna nu’tihu li-ahad” = we should have given him to someone; which makes very poor sense. [The whole passage runs:  “Haza allazi kasam allah bi-hi fa-lau kana rajul jayyid ghayr luss kunna nu’ti-hu li-ahad,” which I would translate:  This is he concerning whom Allah decreed (that he should be my portion, swearing:) “and if he were a good man and no thief we would have bestowed him on someone.”  In “kasama” the three ideas of decreeing, giving as a share, and binding one’s self by oath are blended together.  If it should appear out of place to introduce Divinity itself as speaking in this context, we must not forget