TALE OF TAJ AL-MULUK AND THE PRINCESS DUNYA: THE LOVER AND THE LOVED. (continued 2)
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
Source notes
526. The cup is that between the lady's legs.
527. A play upon "Sák"=calf, or leg, and "Sákí," a cup-bearer. The going round (Tawáf) and the running (Sa'í) allude to the circumambulation of the Ka'abah, and the running between Mount Safá and Marwah (Pilgrimage ii. 58, and iii. 343). A religious Moslem would hold the allusion highly irreverent.
528. Lane (i. 614) never saw a woman wearing such kerchief which is deshabille. It is either spread over the head or twisted turband-wise.
529. The "Kasabah" was about two fathoms of long measure, and sometimes 12½ feet; but the length has been reduced.
530. "Bat and ball," or hockey on horseback (Polo) is one of the earliest Persian games as shown by every illustrated copy of Firdausi's "Shahnámeh." This game was played with a Kurrah or small hand-ball and a long thin bat crooked at the end called in Persian Chaugán and in Arabic Saulaján. Another sense of the word is given in the Burhán-i-Káti, translated by Vullers (Lex. Persico-Latinum), a large bandy with bent head to which is hung an iron ball, also called Kaukabah (our "morning-star") and like the umbrella it denotes the grandees of the court. The same Kaukabah particularly distinguished one of the Marquesses of Waterford. This Polo corresponds with the folliculus, the pallone, the baloun-game (moyen âge) of Europe, where the horse is not such a companion of man; and whereof the classics sang:—
Folle decet pueros ludere, folle senes.
In these days we should spell otherwise the "folle" of seniors playing at the ball or lawn-tennis.
531. "Dalíl" means a guide; "Dalílah," a woman who misguides, a bawd. See the Tale of Dalílah the Crafty, Night dcxcviii.
532. i.e. she was a martyr.
533. Arab. "Ghashím" a popular and insulting term, our "Johnny Raw." Its use is shown in Pilgrimage i. 110.
534. Bathers pay on leaving the Hammam; all enter without paying.
535. i.e. she swore him upon his sword and upon the Koran: a loaf of bread is sometimes added. See Lane (i. 615).