Chapter iii

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NOTE 5. Literally, "the sons of thine uncle;" but the meaning is, "thy kinsmen."

NOTE 6.--_On Bastinading._ In Arabian, and some other Eastern, countries, it is a common custom, when a person is accused of a crime before a magistrate, and denies his guilt, to bastinade him, in order to induce him to confess; and even witnesses, sometimes, are treated in the same manner. The beating is usually inflicted with a kurbáj (a thong or whip of hippopotamus' hide hammered into a round form) or with a stick, and generally on the soles of the feet. For this purpose the feet are confined by a chain or rope attached at each end to a staff, which is turned round to tighten it. This is called a "falaḳah." Two persons (one on each side) strike alternately; and the punishment is often continued until the sufferer becomes insensible, and even longer.

NOTE 7.--_Of Sales by Auction._ In many of the sooḳs (market-streets, or bázárs) in Arabian cities, auctions are held on stated days, once or more frequently in every week. They are conducted by brokers (delláls), hired either by private persons or by shopkeepers. These brokers carry the goods up and down the street, announcing the sums bidden, with cries of "ḥaráj," &c.; and the shopkeepers, as well as others, purchase of them.

NOTE 8. I have before mentioned, that this horrid mode of punishing a woman suspected of incontinence is not unfrequently practised among the Arabs. Many similar cases have been mentioned to me in Egypt as having occurred in that country in the present age; and often the murder is committed by the father or a brother of the woman, as her relations are considered as more disgraced than the husband by her crime. The present tale is probably founded on some particular occurrence of this kind. One is related as having happened in the reign of the Khaleefeh El-Moạtaḍid. In this case, some limbs of the murdered woman, in two leathern bags, were brought up from the bed of the Tigris in the net of a fisherman.[276] [Such barbarity, however, is contrary to law, as is stated in two former notes.--ED.]

NOTE 9.--_Of the Retaliation of Injuries on the Day of Resurrection._ The "examination being past, and every one's works weighed in a just balance, that mutual retaliation will follow according to which every creature will take vengeance one of another, or have satisfaction made to him for the injuries which he hath suffered. And since there will then be no other way of returning like for like, the manner of giving this satisfaction will be, by taking away a proportionable part of the good works of him who offered the injury, and adding it to those of him who suffered it. Which being done, if the angels (by whose ministry this is to be performed) say, 'Lord, we have given to every one his due, and there remaineth of this person's good works so much as equalleth the weight of an ant,' God will of his mercy cause it to be doubled unto him, that he may be admitted into Paradise; but if, on the contrary, his good works be exhausted, and there remain evil works only, and there be any who have not yet received satisfaction from him, God will order that an equal weight of their sins be added unto his, that he may be punished for them in their stead, and he will be sent to Hell laden with both."[277]

NOTE 10. "Reyḥán" is a common proper name of men, now commonly given to slaves; and the name of the sweet basil in particular (also called "reeḥán") and of sweet-smelling plants in general. It also signifies "any favour of God," "the supplies necessary for subsistence," "a son," &c.

NOTE 11. This ejaculation is addressed to God.

NOTE 12. In the original, "Miṣr," _vulg._, "Maṣr." This is the name which the Arabs give to Egypt, and which they have also given to its successive capitals, or seats of government, Memphis, Egyptian Babylon, El-Fusṭáṭ, and El-Ḳáhireh, or Cairo. It is here applied to Cairo, as will be shewn by the following note, and by the sequel of the tale, though this city was not founded until long after the reign of Hároon Er-Rasheed. I may here remark, that I have not found the name of "Miṣr" applied to Cairo in any Arabic work anterior to the conquest of Egypt by the 'Osmánlee Turks, which happened in the year of the Flight 923 (A.D. 1517). El-Fusṭáṭ retained this appellation in the time of Es-Suyooṭee, who died in the year of the Flight 911, but it ceased to do so before the time of El-Is-ḥáḳee, who brought down his history to the month of Ramaḍán, 1032 (A.D. 1623). It is probable, therefore, that the name of "Misr"[typo Miṣr] was transferred to Cairo on the occasion of the conquest by the Turks. I must not assert, that this observation alone enables us to form a decided judgment as to the period when this work was composed, as it may be objected that copyists have perhaps substituted "Miṣr" for "El-Ḳáhireh;" but I persue the inquiry in the next note.

NOTE 13.--_On several Evidences of the Period when this Work, in the states in which it is known to us, was composed or compiled or remodelled._ The tale here presents another anachronism. The title of "Sulṭán," as a prefix, was first borne by Maḥmood Ibn-Sabuktekeen, in the year of the Flight 393, just two hundred years after the death of Hároon Er-Rasheed; and there was no Sulṭán of Egypt until the year of the Flight 567 of a little later; the first being the famous Ṣaláḥ-ed-Deen, or Saladin.

I have now given several data upon which to found a reasonable opinion as to the age when these tales, in the states in which they are known to us, were composed or compiled or remodelled. First, in Note 55 to

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