Tales from the Arabic Part 62

[FN#67] The king's own tribe.

[FN#68] i.e. the Arab of the desert or Bedouin (el Aarabi), the nomad.

[FN#69] i.e. the martial instinct.

[FN#70] Lit. "And he who is oppressed shall become oppressor."

[FN#71] i.e. be not ashamed to flee rather than perish in thy youth, if his prowess (attributed to diabolical aid or possession) prove too much for thee.

[FN#72] A periphrastic way of saying, "I look to G.o.d for help."

[FN#73] i.e. from the world.

[FN#74] In laughter.

[FN#75] i.e. as he were a flying genie, swooping down upon a mortal from the air, hawk-fas.h.i.+on.

[FN#76] Syn. "Thou settest out to me a mighty matter."

[FN#77] i.e. the castle.

[FN#78] i.e. was eloquent and courtly to the utmost.

[FN#79] i.e. died.

[FN#80] The Arabs use the right hand only in eating.

[FN#81] Name of a quarter of Baghdad.

[FN#82] i.e. he summoneth thee to his presence by way of kindness and not because he is wroth with thee.

[FN#83] i.e. in allowing thee hitherto to remain at a distance from as and not inviting thee to attach thyself to our person.

[FN#84] An Arab idiom, meaning "he showed agitation."

[FN#85] Apparently two well-known lovers.

[FN#86] Apparently two well-known lovers.

[FN#87] i.e. the wandering Arabs.

[FN#88] i.e. slain.

[FN#89] "O ye who believe, seek aid of patience and prayer; verily, G.o.d is with the patient."--Koran ii. 148.

[FN#90] Lit. "ignorant one" (jahil).

[FN#91] i.e. Peninsula. Jezireh (sing, of jezair, islands) is constantly used by the Arabs in this sense; hence much apparent confusion in topographical pa.s.sages.

[FN#92] i.e. Mecca and Medina.

[FN#93] i.e. whether on a matter of sport, such as the chase, or a grave matter, such as war, etc.

[FN#94] i.e. the children of his fighting-men whom thou slewest.

[FN#95] Arab fas.h.i.+on of shaking hands. See my "Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night,"

Vol. IX p. 171, note.

[FN#96] Lit. a cleft meadow (merj selia). This is probably a mistranscription for merj sselia, a treeless champaign.

[FN#97] i.e. one of the small rooms opening upon the hall of audience at saloon of estate.

[FN#98] So she might hear and see what pa.s.sed, herself unseen.

[FN#99] Or knowledge of court etiquette.

[FN#100] i.e. richer.

[FN#101] Lit. seen.

[FN#102] Lit. what she did.

[FN#103] i.e. tabooed or unlawful in a religious sense (heram).

[FN#104] i.e. those of El Aziz, who had apparently entered the city or pa.s.sed through it on their way to the camp of El Abbas.

[FN#105] Lit. none of the sons of the road.

[FN#106] i.e. the stars.

[FN#107] i.e. in falsetto?

[FN#108] by thine absence.

[FN#109] Common abbreviation for "May I be thy ransom!"

[FN#110] i.e. for love of and longing for.

[FN#111] i.e. leather from Et Taif, a town of the Hejaz, renowned for the manufacture of scented goats' leather.

[FN#112] Or "suspended in."

[FN#113] i.e. violateth my privacy.

[FN#114] i.e. the plaintive song of a nightingale or turtle-dove.

[FN#115] This curious comparison appears to be founded upon the extreme tenuity of the particles of fine dust, so minutely divided as to seem almost fluid.

[FN#116] i.e. he carried it into the convent, hidden under his cloak.