The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 02...

122. The Pen (title of the Koranic chapt. lxviii.) and the Preserved Tablet (before explained).

123. These plunderings were sanctioned by custom. But a few years ago, when the Turkish soldiers mutinied about arrears of pay (often delayed for years) the governing Páshá would set fire to the town and allow the men to loot what they pleased during a stated time. Rochet (soi-disant D'Héricourt) amusingly describes this manœuvre of the Turkish Governor of Al-Hodaydah in the last generation (Pilgrimage iii. 381).

124. Another cenotaph whose use was to enable women to indulge in their pet pastime of weeping and wailing in company.

125. The lodging of pauper travellers, as the chapel in Iceland is of the wealthy. I have often taken benefit of the mosque, but as a rule it is unpleasant, the matting being not only torn but over-populous. Juvenal seems to allude to the Jewish Synagogue similarly used:—"in quâ te quæro proseuchâ"? (iii. 296) and in Acts iii. we find the lame, blind and impotent in the Temple-porch.

126. This foul sort of vermin is supposed to be bred by perspiration. It is an epoch in the civilised traveller's life when he catches his first louse.

127. The Moslem peasant is a kind-hearted man and will make many sacrifices for a sick stranger even of another creed. It is a manner of "pundonor" with the village.

128. Such treatment of innocent women was only too common under the Caliphate and in contemporary Europe.

129. This may also mean, "And Heaven will reward thee;" but camel-men do not usually accept any drafts upon futurity.

130. He felt that he was being treated like a corpse.

131. This hatred of the Hospital extends throughout Southern Europe, even in places where it is not justified.

132. The importance of the pillow (wisádah or makhaddah) to the sick man is often recognised in The Nights. "He took to his pillow" is=took to his bed.

133. i.e. in order that the reverend men, who do not render such suit and service gratis, might pray for him.

134. The reader will notice in The Nights the frequent mention of these physical prognostications, with which mesmerists are familiar.

135. The Pers. name of the planet Saturn in the Seventh Heaven. Arab. "Zuhal"; the Kiun or Chiun of Amos vi. 26.

136. i.e. "Pardon me if I injured thee"—a popular phrase.

137. A "seduction," a charmer. The double-entendre has before been noticed.