[77]How strange this must sound to the Young Woman of London in the nineteenth century.
[78]'Forty days'is a quasi-religious period amongst Moslem for praying，fasting and religious exercises： here it represents our'honey-moon.'See vol.v.p.62.
[79]Y layta，still popular.Herr Carlo Landberg （Proverbes et Dictons du Peuple Arabe，vol.i.of Syria，Leyden，E.J.
Brill，1883） explains layta for rayta （=raayta） by permutation of liquids and argues that the contraction is ancient （p.42）.But the Herr is no Arabist：'Layta'means'would to Heaven，'or；simply'I wish，''I pray'（for something possible or impossible）；
whilst'La'alla'（perhaps，it may be） prays only for the possible： and both are simply particles governing the noun in the oblique or accusative case.
[80]'His'for'her，'i.e.herself，making somewhat of confusion between her state and that of her son.
[81]i.e.his mother；the words are not in the Mac.Edit.
[82]Baghdad is called House of Peace，amongst other reasons；from the Dijlah （Tigris） River and Valley'of Peace.'The word was variously written Baghd d，B ghd d，（our old Bughdaud and Bagdat），Baghz z，Baghz n，Baghd n，Baghz m and Maghd d as Makkah and Bakkah （Koran iii.90）.Religious Moslems held B gh （idol）
and D d （gift） an ill-omened conjunction，and the Greeks changed it to Eirenopolis.（See Ouseley's Oriental Collcctions，vol.i.pp.18-20.）
[83]This is a popular saying but hardly a'vulgar proverb.'（Lane iii.522.） It reminds rather of Shakespear's：
'So loving to my mother；That he might not beteem the winds of heaven Visit her face too roughly.'
[84]i.e.God forbid that I should oppose thee！
[85]Here the writer again forgets apparently，that Shahrazad is speaking： she may，however，use the plural for the singular when speaking of herself.
[86]i.e.She would have pleaded ill-treatment and lawfully demanded to be sold.
[87]The Hindus speak of'the only bond that woman knows--her heart.'
[88]i.e.a rarity，a present （especially in Persian）.
[89]Arab.'Al-bis t'wa'l-masnad lit.the carpet and the cushion.
[90]For'B b al-bahr'and'B b al-Barr'see vol.iii.281.
[91]She was the daughter of Ja'afar bin Mansār；but，as will be seen，The Nights again and again called her father Al-K sim.
[92]This is an error for the fifth which occurs in the popular saying，'Is he the fifth of the sons of Al-Abb s！'i.e.
Harun al-Rashid.Lane （note，in loco） thus accounts for the frequent mention of the Caliph，the greatest of the Abbasides in The Nights.But this is a causa non causa.
[93]i.e.I find thy beauty all-sufficient.So the proverb'The son of the quarter （young neighbour） filleth not the eye，'
which prefers a stranger.
[94]They are mere doggerel，like most of the pieces de circonstance.
[95]Afterwards called W k W k，and in the Bresl.Edit.W k al-W k.See Lane's notes upon these Islands.Arab Geographers evidently speak of two Wak Waks.Ibn al-Fakih and Al-Mas'ādi （Fr.Transl.，vol.iii.6-7） locate one of them in East Africa beyond Zanzibar and Sofala.'Le territoire des Zendjes （Zanzibar-Negroids） commence au canal （Al-Khalij） d？riv？ du haut Nil （the Juln River？） et se prolonge jusqu'au pays de Sofalah et des Wak-Wak.'It is simply the peninsula of Guardafui （Jard Hafun） occupied by the Gallas，pagans and Christians，before these were ousted by the Moslem Somal；and the former perpetually ejaculated'Wak'（God） as Moslems cry upon Allah.This identification explains a host of other myths such as the Amazons，who as Marco Polo tells us held the'Female Island'Socotra （Yule ii.396）.The fruit which resembled a woman's head （whence the puelloe Wakwakienses hanging by the hair from trees）；and which when ripe called out'Wak Wak'and'Allah al-Khall k'（the Creator） refers to the Calabash-tree （Adausonia digitata）；that grotesque growth，a vegetable elephant，whose gourds；something larger than a man's head，hang by a slender filament.
Similarly the'cocoa'got its name，in Port.= Goblin，from the fancied face at one end.The other Wak Wak has been identified in turns with the Seychelles，Madagascar，Malacca，Sunda or Java （this by Langl？s），China and Japan.The learned Prof.de Goeje （Arabishe Berichten over Japan，Amsterdam，Muller，1880） informs us that in Canton the name of Japan is Wo-Kwok，possibly a corruption of Koku-tan，the ebony-tree （Diospyros ebenum） which Ibn Khor-d bah and others find together with gold in an island 4，500 parasangs from Suez and East of China.And we must remember that Basrah was the chief starting-place for the Celestial Empire during the rule of the Tang dynasty （seventh and ninth centuries）.Colonel J.W.Watson of Bombay suggests New Guinea or the adjacent islands where the Bird of Paradise is said to cry'Wak Wak！'Mr.W.F.Kirby in the Preface （p.ix.） to his neat little book'The New Arabian Nights，'says：'The Islands of Wak-Wak，seven years' journey from Bagdad，in the story of Hasan；have receded to a distance of a hundred and fifty years' journey in that of Majin （of Khorasan）.There is no doubt（？） that the Cora Islands，near New Guinea，are intended；for the wonderful fruits which grow there are Birds of Paradise，which settle in flocks on the trees at sunset and sunrise，uttering this very cry.'Thus，like Ophir，Wak Wak has wandered all over the world and has been found even in Peru by the Turkish work T rikh al-Hind al-Gharbi = History of the West Indies （Orient.Coll.iii 189）.
[96]I accept the emendation of Lane's Shaykh，'Nasim'（Zephyr） for'Nadim'（cup-companion）.
[97]'Jannat al-N'im'= Garden of Delights is No.V Heaven；made of white diamond.
[98]This appears to her very prettily put.