[26]N r = fire，being feminine，like the names of the other'elements.'
[27]The Egyptian Kurb j of hippopotamus-hide （Burkh.Nubia；pp.62，282） or elephant-hide （Turner ii.365）.Hence the Fr.
Cravache （as Cravat is from Croat）.
[28]In Mac.Edit.'Bahriyah'： in Bresl.Edit.'Naw tiyah.'
See vol.vi.242，for ，navita，nauta.
[29]In Bresl.Edit.（iv.285）'Y Khw jah，'for which see vol.vi.46.
[30]Arab.'Tabl'（vulg.baz） = a kettle-drum about half a foot broad held in the left hand and beaten with a stick or leathern thong.Lane refers to his deion （M.E.ii.chapt.v.） of the Dervish's drum of tinned copper with parchment face；and renders Zakhmah or Zukhmah （strap，stirrup-leather） by'plectrum，'which gives a wrong idea.The Bresl.Edit.ignores the strap.
[31]The'Spartivento'of Italy，mostly a tall headland which divides the clouds.The most remarkable feature of the kind is the Dalmatian Island，Pelagosa.
[32]The'Rocs'（Al-Arkh kh） in the Bresl.Edit.（iv.290）.
The Rakham = aquiline vulture.
[33]Lane here quotes a similar incident in the romance'Sayf Zā al-Yazan，'so called from the hero，whose son，Misr，is sewn up in a camel's hide by Bahr m，a treacherous Magian，and is carried by the Rukhs to a mountain-top.
[34]These lines occurred in Night xxvi.vol.i.275： I quote Mr.Payne for variety.
[35]Thus a Moslem can not only circumcise and marry himself but can also bury canonically himself.The form of this prayer is given by Lane M.E.chapt.xv.
[36]i.e.If I fail in my self-imposed duty，thou shalt charge me therewith on the Judgment-day.
[37]Arab.'Al-Alw n，'plur.of laun （colour）.The latter in Egyptian Arabic means a'dish of meat.'See Burckhardt No.
279.I repeat that the great traveller's'Arabic Proverbs'wants republishing for two reasons.First he had not sufficient command of English to translate with the necessary laconism and assonance： secondly in his day British Philistinism was too rampant to permit a literal translation.Consequently the book falls short of what the Oriental student requires；and I have prepared it for my friend Mr.Quaritch.
[38]i.e.Lofty，high-builded.See Night dcclxviii.vol.vii.
p.347.In the Bresl.Edit.Al-Masid （as in Al-Kazwini）： in the Mac.Edit.Al-Mashid [39]Arab.'Munkati'here = cut off from the rest of the world.Applied to a man，and a popular term of abuse in Al-Hij z；it means one cut off from the blessings of Allah and the benefits of mankind；a pauvre sire.（Pilgrimage ii.22.）
[40]Arab.'Baras au Juz m，'the two common forms of leprosy.
See vol.iv.51.Popular superstition in Syria holds that coition during the menses breeds the Juz m，D a al-Kabir （Great Evil） or D a al-Fil （Elephantine Evil），i.e.Elephantiasis and that the days between the beginning of the flow （Sabil） to that of coition shows the age when the progeny will be attacked；for instance if it take place on the first day，the disease will appear in the tenth year，on the fourth the fortieth and so on.The only diseases really dreaded by the Badawin are leprosy and small-pox.
Coition during the menses is forbidden by all Eastern faiths under the severest penalties.Al-Mas'ādi relates how a man thus begotten became a determined enemy of Ali；and the ancient Jews attributed the magical powers of Joshua Nazarenus to this accident of his birth，the popular idea being that sorcerers are thus impurely engendered.
[41]By adoption - See vol.iii.151.This sudden affection （not love） suggests the'Come to my arms，my slight acquaintance！'of the Anti-Jacobin.But it is true to Eastern nature；and nothing can be more charming than this fast friendship between the Princess and Hasan.
[42]En tout bien et en tout honneur，be it understood.
[43]He had done nothing of the kind；but the feminine mind is prone to exaggeration.Also Hasan had told them a fib，to prejudice them against the Persian.
[44]These nervous movements have been reduced to a system in the Turk.'Ihtil jn meh'= Book of palpitations，prognosticating from the subsultus tendinum and other involuntary movements of the body from head to foot；according to Ja'afar the Just，Daniel the Prophet，Alexander the Great；the Sages of Persia and the Wise Men of Greece.In England we attend chiefly to the eye and ear.
[45]Revenge，amongst the Arabs，is a sacred duty；and，in their state of civilization，society could not be kept together without it.So the slaughter of a villain is held to be a sacrifice to Allah，who amongst Christians claims for Himself the monopoly of vengeance.
[46]Arab.'Zindik.'See vol.v.230.
[47]Lane translates this'put for him the remaining food and water；'but Ai-Akhar （Mac.Edit.） evidently refers to the Najib （dromedary）.
[48]We can hardly see the heroism of the deed，but it must be remembered that Bahram was a wicked sorcerer，whom it was every good Moslem's bounden duty to slay.Compare the treatment of witches in England two centuries ago.
[49]The mother in Arab tales is ma m？re，now becoming somewhat ridiculous in France on account of the over use of that venerable personage.
[50]The forbidden closet occurs also in Sayf Zā al-Yazan；who enters it and finds the bird-girls.Tr？butien ii，208 says；'Il est assez remarquable qu'il existe en Allemagne une tradition … peu pr？s semblable，et qui a fourni le sujet d'un des contes de Musaeus，entitul？，le voile enlev？.'Here Hasan is artfully left alone in a large palace without other companions but his thoughts and the reader is left to divine the train of ideas which drove him to open the door.
[51]Arab.'Buhayrah'（Bresl.Edit.'Bahrah'），the tank or cistern in the Hosh （court-yard） of an Eastern house.Here；however，it is a rain-cistern on the flat roof of the palace （See Night dcccviii）.
[52]This deion of the view is one of the most gorgeous in The Nights.