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Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 2

R >> Richard F. Burton >> The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 2

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[FN#215] Arab. "Ashhab." Names of colours are few amongst semi
civilised peoples, but in Arabia there is a distinct word for every
shade of horseflesh.

[FN#216] She had already said to him "Thou art beaten in
everything!"

[FN#217] Showing that she was still a Christian.

[FN#218] This is not Badawi sentiment: the honoratioren amongst
wild people would scorn such foul play; but amongst the settled
Arabs honour between men and women is unknown and such "hocussing"
would be held quite fair.

[FN#219] The table of wine, in our day, is mostly a japanned tray
with glasses and bottles, saucers of pickles and fruits and,
perhaps, a bunch of flowers and aromatic herbs. During the
Caliphate the "wine-service" was on a larger scale.

[FN#220] Here the "Bhang" (almost a generic term applied to
hellebore, etc.) may be hyoscyamus or henbane. Yet there are
varieties of Cannabis, such as the Dakha of South Africa capable of
most violent effect. I found the use of the drug well known to the
negroes of the Southern United States and of the Brazil, although
few of their owners had ever heard of it.

[FN#221] Amongst Moslems this is a reference to Adam who first
"sinned against himself,' and who therefore is called "
Safiyu'llah," the Pure of Allah. (Pilgrimage iii. 333.)

[FN#222] Meaning, an angry, violent man.

[FN#223] Arab. "Inshad," which may mean reciting the verse of
another or improvising one's own. In Modern Egypt "Munshid" is the
singer or reciter of poetry at Zikrs (Lane M. E. chaps. xxiv.).
Here the verses are quite bad enough to be improvised by the
hapless Princess.

[FN#224] The negro skin assumes this dust colour in cold, fear,
concupiscence and other mental emotions.

[FN#225] He compares her glance with the blade of a Yamani sword,
a lieu commun of Eastern poetry. The weapons are famous in The
Nights; but the best sword-cutlery came from Persia as the
porcelain from China to Sana'a. Here, however, is especial allusion
as to the sword "Samsam" or "Samsamah." It belonged to the
Himyarite Tobba, Amru bin Ma'ad Kurb, and came into the hands of
Harun al-Rashid. When the Emperor of the Greeks sent a present of
superior sword-blades to him by way of a brave, the Caliph, in the
presence of the Envoys, took "Samsam" in hand and cut the others in
twain as if they were cabbages without the least prejudice to the
edge of "Samsam."

[FN#226] This touch of pathos is truly Arab. So in the "Romance of
Dalhamah" (Lane, M. E. xxiii.) the infant Gundubah sucks the breast
of its dead mother and the King exclaims, "If she had committed
this crime she would not be affording the child her milk after she
was dead."

[FN#227] Arab. "Sadda'l-Aktar," a term picturesque enough to be
preserved in English. "Sadd," I have said, is a wall or dyke, the
term applied to the great dam of water- plants which obstructs the
navigation of the Upper Nile, the lilies and other growths floating
with the current from the (Victoria) Nyanza Lake. I may note that
we need no longer derive from India the lotus-llily so extensively
used by the Ancient Egyptians and so neglected by the moderns that
it has well nigh disappeared. All the Central African basins abound
in the Nymphaea and thence it found its way down the Nile Valley.

[FN#228] Arab. "Al Marhumah": equivalent to our "late lamented."

[FN#229] Vulgarly pronounced "Mahmal," and by Egyptians and Turks
"Mehmel." Lane (M. E. xxiv.) has figured this queenly litter and I
have sketched and described it in my Pilgrimage (iii. 12).

[FN#230] For such fits of religious enthusiasm see my Pilgrimage
(iii. 254).

[FN#231] "Irak" (Mesopotamia) means "a level country beside the
banks of a ever."

[FN#232] "Al Kuds," or "Bays al-Mukaddas," is still the popular
name of Jerusalem, from the Heb. Yerushalaim ha-Kadushah (legend on
shekel of Simon Maccabeus).

[FN#233] "Follow the religion of Abraham" says the Koran (chaps.
iii. 89). Abraham, titled "Khalilu'llah," ranks next in dignity to
Mohammed, preceding Isa, I need hardly say that his tomb is not in
Jerusalem nor is the tomb itself at Hebron ever visited. Here
Moslems (soi disant) are allowed by the jealousies of Europe to
close and conceal a place which belongs to the world, especially to
Jews and Christians. The tombs, if they exist, lie in a vault or
cave under the Mosque.

[FN#234] Aba, or Abayah, vulg. Abayah, is a cloak of hair, goat's
or camel's; too well known to require description.

[FN#235] Arab. "Al-Wakkad," the man who lights and keeps up the
bath-fires.

[FN#236] Arab. "Ma al-Khalaf" (or "Khilaf") a sickly perfume but
much prized, made from the flowers of the Salix Aegyptiaca.

[FN#237] Used by way of soap; like glasswort and other plants.

[FN#238] i.e., "Thou art only just recovered."

[FN#239] To "Nakh" is to gurgle "Ikh! Ikh!" till the camel kneels.
Hence the space called "Barr al-Manakhah" in Al-Medinah (Pilgrimage
i. 222, ii. 91). There is a regular camel vocabulary amongst the
Arabs, made up like our "Gee" (go ye!), etc. of significant words
worn down.

[FN#240] Arab. "Laza," the Second Hell provided for Jews.

[FN#241] The word has been explained (vol. i. 112).[see Volume 1,
note 199] It is trivial, not occurring in the Koran which uses
"Arabs of the Desert ;" "Arabs who dwell in tents," etc. (chaps.
ix. and xxxiii.). "A'arabi" is the classical word and the origin of
"Arab" is disputed. According to Pocock (Notae Spec. Hist. Arab.):
"Diverse are the opinions concerning the denomination of the Arabs;
but the most certain of all is that which draws it from Arabah,
which is part of the region of Tehama (belonging to Al-Medinah
Pilgrimage ii. 118), which their father Ismail afterwards
inhabited." Tehamah (sierra caliente) is the maritime region of Al
Hijaz, the Moslems Holy Land; and its "Arabah," a very small tract
which named a very large tract, must not be confounded, as some
have done, with the Wady Arabah, the ancient outlet of the Dead
Sea. The derivation of "Arab" from "Ya'arab" a fancied son of
Joktan is mythological. In Heb. Arabia may be called "Eretz Ereb"
(or "Arab")=land of the West; but in Arabic "Gharb" (not Ereb) is
the Occident and the Arab dates long before the Hebrew.

[FN#242] "When thine enemy extends his hand to thee, cut it off if
thou can, or kiss it," wisely said Caliph al-Mansur.

[FN#243] The Tartur was a peculiar turban worn by the Northern
Arabs and shown in old prints. In modern Egypt the term is applied
to the tall sugar-loaf caps of felt affected mostly by regular
Dervishes. Burckhardt (Proverbs 194 and 398) makes it the high cap
of felt or fur proper to the irregular cavalry called Dely or
Delaty. In Dar For (Darfour) "Tartur" is a conical cap adorned with
beads and cowries worn by the Manghwah or buffoon who corresponds
with the Egyptian "Khalbus" or "Maskharah" and the Turkish
"Sutari." For an illustration see Plate iv. fig. 10 of Voyage au
Darfour par Mohammed El Tounsy (The Tunisian), Paris, Duprat, 1845.

[FN#244] The term is picturesque and true; we say "gnaw," which is
not so good.

[FN#245] Here, meaning an Elder, a Chief, etc.; the word has been
almost naturalised in English. I have noted that Abraham was the
first "Shaykh."

[FN#246] This mention of weighing suggests the dust of Dean Swift
and the money of the Gold Coast It was done, I have said, because
the gold coin, besides being "sweated" was soft and was soon worn
down.

[FN#247] Fem. of Naji (a deliverer, a saviour)=Salvadora.

[FN#248] This, I have noted, is according to Koranic command
(chaps. iv. 88). "When you are saluted with a salutation, salute
the person with a better salutation." The longer answer to "Peace
be with (or upon) thee! " is still universally the custom. The
"Salem" is so differently pronounced by every Eastern nation that
the observant traveller will easily make of it a Shibboleth.

[FN#249] The Badawi, who was fool as well as rogue, begins to fear
that he has kidnapped a girl of family.

[FN#250] These examinations being very indecent are usually done in
strictest privacy. The great point is to make sure of virginity.

[FN#251] This is according to strict Moslem law: the purchaser may
not look at the girl's nakedness till she is his, and he ought to
manage matters through an old woman.

[FN#252] Lit. wrath; affliction which chokes; in Hindustani it
means simply anger.

[FN#253] i.e. Heaven forbid I be touched by a strange man.

[FN#254] Used for fuel and other purposes, such as making "doss
stick."

[FN#255] Arab "Yaftah'Allah" the offer being insufficient. The
rascal is greedy as a Badaw and moreover he is a liar, which the
Badawi is not.

[FN#256] The third of the four great Moslem schools of Theology,
taking its name from the Imam al-Shafi'i (Mohammed ibn Idris) who
died in Egypt A.H. 204, and lies buried near Cairo. (Sale's Prel.
Disc. sect. viii.)

[FN#257] The Moslem form of Cabbala, or transcendental philosophy
of the Hebrews.

[FN#258] Arab. "Bakh" the word used by the Apostle to Ali his
son-in-law. It is the Latin "Euge."

[FN#259] Readers, who read for amusement, will do well to "skip"
the fadaises of this highly educated young woman.

[FN#260] There are three Persian Kings of this name (Artaxerxes)
which means "Flour and milk," or "high lion." The text alludes to
Ardeshir Babegan, so called because he married the daughter of
Babak the shepherd, founder of the Sassanides in A.D. 202. See
D,Herberot, and the Dabistan.

[FN#261] Alluding to the proverb, "Folk follow their King's faith,"
"Cujus regio ejus religio" etc.

[FN#262] Second Abbaside, A.H. 136-158 (=754-775).

[FN#263] The celebrated companion of Mohammed who succeeded Abu
Bakr in the Caliphate (A.H. 13-23=634-644). The Sunnis know him as
Al-Adil the Just, and the Shiahs detest him for his usurpation, his
austerity and harshness. It is said that he laughed once and wept
once. The laugh was caused by recollecting how he ate his
dough-gods (the idols of the Hanifah tribe) in The Ignorance. The
tears were drawn by remembering how he buried alive his baby
daughter who, while the grave was being dug, patted away the dust
from his hair and beard. Omar was doubtless a great man, but he is
one of the most ungenial figures in Moslem history which does not
abound in genialities. To me he suggests a Puritan, a Covenanter of
the sourest and narrowest type; and I cannot wonder that the
Persians abhor him, and abuse him on all occasions.

[FN#264] The austere Caliph Omar whose scourge was more feared than
the sword was the - author of the celebrated saying "Consult them
(feminines) and do clear contrary-wise."

[FN#265] Our "honour amongst thieves."

[FN#266] The sixth successor of Mohammed and founder of the Banu
Umayyah or Ommiades, called the "sons of the little mother" from
their eponymus (A.H. 41-60=661-680). For his Badawi wife Maysun,
and her abuse of her husband, see Pilgrimage iii. 262.

[FN#267] Shaykh of the noble tribe, or rather nation, Banu Tamim
and a notable of the day, surnamed, no one knows why, "Sire of the
Sea."

[FN#268] This is essential for cleanliness in hot lands: however
much the bath may be used, the body-pile and lower hair, if
submitted to a microscope, will show more or less sordes adherent.
The axilla-hair is plucked because if shaved the growing pile
causes itching and the depilatories are held deleterious. At first
vellication is painful but the skin becomes used to it. The pecten
is shaved either without or after using depilatories, of which more
presently. The body-pile is removed by "Takhfif"; the Liban Shami
(Syrian incense), a fir- gum imported from Scio, is melted and
allowed to cool in the form of a pledget. This is passed over the
face and all the down adhering to it is pulled up by the roots
(Burckhardt No. 420). Not a few Anglo-Indians have adopted these
precautions

[FN#269] This Caliph was a tall, fair, handsome man of
awe-inspiring aspect. Omar used to look at him and say, "This is
the Caesar of the Arabs," while his wife called him a "fatted ass."

[FN#270] The saying is attributed to Abraham when "exercised" by
the unkindly temper of Sarah; "woman is made hard and crooked like
a rib;" and the modern addition is, "whoso would straighten her,
breaketh her."

[FN#271] i.e. "When ready and in erection."

[FN#272] "And do first (before going in to your wives) some act
which may be profitable unto your souls" or, for you: soul's good.
(Koran, chaps. ii. 223.) Hence Ahnaf makes this prayer.

[FN#273] It was popularly said that "Truth-speaking left Omar
without a friend." Entitled "The Just" he was murdered by Abu
Luluah, alias Firuz, a (Magian ?) slave of Al-Maghirah for denying
him justice.

[FN#274] Governor of Bassorah under the first four Caliphs. See
D'Herbelot s.v. "Aschari."

[FN#275] Ziyad bin Abi Sufyan, illegitimate brother of the Caliph
Mu'awiyah afterwards governor of Bassorah, Cufa and Al-Hijaz.

[FN#276] The seditions in Kufah were mainly caused by the wilful
nepotism of Caliph Othman bin Asakir which at last brought about
his death. His main quality seems to have been personal beauty:
"never was seen man or woman of fairer face than he and he was the
most comely of men:" he was especially famed for beautiful teeth
which in old age he bound about with gold wire. He is described as
of middling stature, large- limbed, broad shouldered, fleshy of
thigh and long in the fore-arm which was hairy. His face inclined
to yellow and was pock-marked; his beard was full and his curly
hair, which he dyed yellow, fell below his ears. He is called
"writer of the Koran" from his edition of the M.S., and "Lord of
the two Lights" because he married two of the Prophet's daughters,
Rukayyah and Umm Kulthum; and, according to the Shi'ahs who call
him Othman-i-Lang or" limping Othman," he vilely maltreated them.
They justify his death as the act of an Ijma' al-Muslimin, the
general consensus of Moslems which ratifies "Lynch law." Altogether
Othman is a mean figure in history.

[FN#277] "Nar" (fire) is a word to be used delicately from its
connection with Gehenna. You say, e.g. "bring me a light, a coal
(bassah)" etc.; but if you say "bring me fire! " the enemy will
probably remark "He wanteth fire even before his time!" The slang
expression would be "bring the sweet." (Pilgrimage i. 121.)

[FN#278] Omar is described as a man of fair complexion, and very
ruddy, but he waxed tawny with age, when he also became bald and
grey. He had little hair on the cheeks but a long mustachio with
reddish ends. In stature he overtopped the people and was stout as
he was tall. A popular saying of Mohammed's is, "All (very) long
men are fools save Omar, and all (very) short men are knaves save
Ali." The Persians, who abhor Omar, compare every lengthy,
ungainly, longsome thing with him; they will say, "This road never
ends, like the entrails of Omar." We know little about Ali's
appearance except that he was very short and stout, broad and
full-bellied with a tawny complexion and exceedingly hairy, his
long beard, white as cotton, filling all the space between his
shoulders. He was a "pocket. Hercules," and incredible tales, like
that about the gates of Khaybar, are told of his strength. Lastly,
he was the only Caliph who bequeathed anything to literature: his
"Cantiloquium" is famous and he has left more than one mystical and
prophetic work. See Ockley for his "Sentences" and D'Herbelot s. D.
"Ali" and "Gebr." Ali is a noble figure in Moslem history.

[FN#279] The emancipation from the consequences of his sins; or it
may mean a holy death.

[FN#280] Battle fought near Al-Medinah A.D. 625. The word is
derived from "shad" (one). I have described the site in my
Pilgrimage, (vol. ii. 227).

[FN#281] "Haphsa" in older writers; Omar's daughter and one of
Mohammed's wives, famous for her connection with the manuscripts of
the Koran. From her were (or claimed to be) descended the Hafsites
who reigned in Tunis and extended their power far and wide over the
Maghrib (Mauritania), till dispossessed by the Turks.

[FN#282] i.e. humbly without the usual strut or swim: it
corresponds with the biblical walking or going softly. (I Kings
xxi. 27; Isaiah xxxviii. 15, etc.)

[FN#283] A theologian of the seventh and eighth centuries.

[FN#284] i.e. to prepare himself by good works, especially
alms-giving, for the next world.

[FN#285] A theologian of the eighth century.

[FN#286] Abd al-Aziz was eighth Ommiade (regn. A.H. 99=717) and the
fifth of the orthodox, famed for a piety little known to his house.
His most celebrated saying was, " Be constant in meditation on
death: if thou bein straitened case 'twill enlarge it, and if in
affluence 'twill straiten it upon thee." He died. poisoned, it is
said, in A.H 101,

[FN#287] Abu Bakr originally called Abd al-Ka'abah (slave of the
Ka'abah) took the name of Abdullah and was surnamed Abu Bakr
(father of the virgin) when Mohammed, who before had married only
widows, took to wife his daughter, the famous or infamous Ayishah.
"Bikr" is the usual form, but "Bakr," primarily meaning a young
camel, is metaphorically applied to human youth (Lane's Lex. s.
c.). The first Caliph was a cloth-merchant, like many of the Meccan
chiefs. He is described as very fair with bulging brow, deep set
eyes and thin-checked, of slender build and lean loined, stooping
and with the backs of his hands fleshless. He used tinctures of
Henna and Katam for his beard. The Persians who hate him, call him
"Pir-i-Kaftar," the old she-hyaena, and believe that he wanders
about the deserts of Arabia in perpetual rut which the males must
satisfy.

[FN#288] The second, fifth, sixth and seventh Ommiades.

[FN#289] The mother of Omar bin Abd al-Aziz was a granddaughter of
Omar bin al-Khattab.

[FN#290] Brother of this Omar's successor, Yezid II.

[FN#291] So the Turkish proverb "The fish begins to stink at the
head."

[FN#292] Calling to the slaves.

[FN#293] When the "Day of Arafat" (9th of Zu'l-Hijjah) falls upon
a Friday. For this Hajj al- Akbar see my Pilgrimage iii. 226. It is
often confounded by writers (even by the learned M. Caussin de
Perceval) with the common Pilgrimage as opposed to the Umrah, or "
Lesser Pilgrimage" (ibid. iii. 342, etc.). The latter means
etymologically cohabiting with a woman in her father's house as
opposed to 'Ars or leading her to the husband's home: it is applied
to visiting Meccah and going through all the pilgrim-rites but not
at the Pilgrimage-season. Hence its title "Hajj al-Asghar" the
"Lesser Hajj." But "Umrah" is also applied to a certain ceremony
between the hills Safa (a large hard rock) and Marwah (stone full
of flints), which accompanies the Hajj and which I have described
(ibid. iii. 344). At Meccah I also heard of two places called
Al-Umrah, the Greater in the Wady Fatimah and the Lesser half way
nearer the city (ibid. iii. 344).

[FN#294] A fair specimen of the unworthy egoism which all religious
systems virtually inculcate Here a pious father leaves his children
miserable to save his own dirty soul.

[FN#295] Chief of the Banu Tamin, one of the noblest of tribes,
derived from Tamim, the uncle of Kuraysh (Koreish); hence the poets
sang:--

There cannot be a son nobler than Kuraysh,
Nor an uncle nobler than Tamim.

The high minded Tamin is contrasted with the mean-spirited Kays,
who also gave rise to a tribe; and hence the saying concerning one
absolutely inconsistent, "Art thou now Tamin and then Kays?"

[FN#296] Surnamed Al-Sakafi, Governor of Al-Yaman and Irak.

[FN#297] Tenth Ommiade (regn. A H. 105-125 = 724-743).

[FN#298] Or "clothe thee in worn-out clothes" i.e. "Become a Fakir"
or religious mendicant.

[FN#299] This gratuitous incest in ignorance injures the tale and
is as repugnant to Moslem as to Christian taste.

[FN#300] The child is named either on the day of its birth or on
that day week. The father whispers it in the right ear, often
adding the Azan or prayer-call, and repeating in the left ear the
"Ikamah" or Friday sentence. There are many rules for choosing
names according to the week-day, the ascendant planet, the "Sortes
Coranicae," etc.

[FN#301] Amongst Moslems as amongst Christians there are seven
deadly sins: idolatry, murder, falsely charging modest women with
unchastity, robbing orphans, usury, desertion in Holy War and
disobedience to parents. The difference between the two creeds is
noteworthy. And the sage knows only three, intemperance, ignorance
and egoism.

[FN#302] Meaning, "It was decreed by Destiny; so it came to pass,"
appropriate if not neat.

[FN#303] The short, stout, dark, long-haired and two-bunched camel
from "Bukhtar" (Bactria), the "Eastern" (Bakhtar) region on the Amu
or Jayhun (Oxus) River; afterwards called Khorasan. The two-humped
camel is never seen in Arabia except with northern caravans, and to
speak of it would be a sore test of Badawi credulity.

[FN#304] "Kaylulah" is the "forty-winks" about noon: it is a Sunnat
or Practice of the Prophet who said, "Make the mid-day siesta, for
verily at this hour the devils sleep not." "Aylulain" is slumbering
after morning prayers (our "beauty-sleep"), causing heaviness andid
leness: "Ghaylulah" is dozing about 9 a.m. engendering poverty and
wretchedness: "Kaylulah" (with the guttural Kaf) is sleeping before
evening prayers and "Faylulah" is slumbering after sunset--both
held to be highly detrimental. (Pilgrimage ii 49.)

[FN#305] The Biblical "Hamath" (Hightown) too well known to require
description. It is still famous for the water-wheels mentioned by
al-Hariri (assembly of the Banu Haram).

[FN#306] When they say, "The levee flashes bright on the hills of
Al-Yaman," the allusion is to the south quarter, where
summer-lightning is seen. Al-Yaman (always with the article) means,
I have said, the right-hand region to one facing the rising sun and
Al-Sham (Syria) the left-hand region.

[FN#307] Again "he" for "she," in delicacy and jealousy of making
public the beauty or conditions of the "veiled sex." Even public
singers would hesitate to use a feminine pronoun. As will be seen
however, the rule is not invariably kept and hardly ever in Badawi
poetry.

[FN#308] The normal pun on "Nuzhat al-Zaman" = Delight of the Age
or Time.

[FN#309] The reader will find in my Pilgrimage (i. 305) a sketch of
the Takht-rawan or travelling-litter, in which pilgrimesses are
wont to sleep.

[FN#310] In poetry it holds the place of our Zephyr; end the "Bad-
i-Saba"=Breeze o' the morn, Is much addressed by Persian poets.

[FN#311] Here appears the nervous, excitable, hysterical Arab
temperament which is almost phrensied by the neighbourhood of a
home from which he had run away.

[FN#312] Zau al-Makan and Nuzhat al-Zaman.

[FN#313] The idea is essentially Eastern, "A lion at home and a
lamb abroad" is the popular saying.

[FN#314] Arab. "Hubb al-Watan" (= love of birthplace, patriotism)
of which the Tradition says "Min al-Iman" (=is part of man's
religion).

[FN#315] He is supposed to speak en prince; and he yields to a
prayer when he spurns a command.

[FN#316] In such caravans each party must keep its own place under
pain of getting into trouble with the watchmen and guards.

[FN#317] Mr. Payne (ii. 109) borrows this and the next quotation
from the Bull Edit. i. 386.

[FN#318] For the expiation of inconsiderate oaths see Koran (chaps.
v.). I cannot but think that Al-Islam treats perjury too lightly:
all we can say is-that it improves upon Hinduism which practically
seems to leave the punishment to the gods.

[FN#319] "Kausar," as has been said, represents the classical
nectar, the Amrita of the Hindus.

[FN#320] From Bull Edit. i. 186. The couplet in the Mac. Edit. i.
457 is very wildly applied.

[FN#321] The "insula" of Sancho Panza.

[FN#322] This should have assured him that he stood in no danger.

[FN#323] Here ends the wearisome tale of the brother and sister,
and the romance of chivalry begins once more with the usual Arab
digressions.

[FN#324] I have derived this word from the Persian "rang"=colour,
hue, kind.

[FN#325] Otherwise all would be superseded, like U. S. officials
under a new President.

[FN#326] Arab. "Nimshah" from the Pers. Nimchah, a "half-sword," a
long dagger worn in the belt. Richardson derives it from Namsh,
being freckled (damasked).

[FN#327] The Indian term for a tent large enough to cover a troop
of cavalry.

[FN#328] Arab. "Marhum" a formula before noticed. It is borrowed
from the Jewish, "of blessed memory" (after the name of the
honoured dead, Prov. x. 17.); with the addition of "upon whom be
peace," as opposed to the imprecation, "May the name of the wicked
rot!"

[FN#329] The speeches of the five damsels should be read only by
students.

[FN#330] i.e. Those who look for "another and a better."

[FN#331] The title of Caliph Abu Bakr because he bore truthful
witness to the Apostle's mission or, others say, he confirmed the
"Mi'raj" or nocturnal journey to Heaven.

[FN#332] All this is Koranic (chaps. ii., etc.).

[FN#333] This may have applied more than once to "hanging judges"
in the Far West.

[FN#334] A traditionist and jurisconsult of Al-Medinah in the
seventh and eighth centuries.

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