Chapter iv

.

NOTE 91. This is said either to shew his vulgarity or that the weather was sultry.

NOTE 92. "El-Meleeḥah" signifies "the Beautiful:" it is derived from "milḥ" (salt, &c.).

NOTE 93. An occurrence of a similar nature, which happened a few years ago in Cairo, was related to me by one of my friends there.--An old woman frequented the tomb of a saint in that city, near the eastern gate called the Báb el-Maḥrooḳ, to which many women afflicted with disease or barrenness often resorted to offer up prayers, believing their petitions would be effectual through the saint's intercession; and she was in the habit of enticing ladies from this tomb to the house of her husband, which was near by, under pretence of his serving them with medicines or with charms. The unsuspecting victim, being desired to go thither alone, was conducted by the old woman to an upper room, at the end of which the man was seated; and in walking over the matted floor to approach him, suddenly fell through a trap-door into a place so deep that the fall rendered her senseless. In this state, she was put to death; and as ladies in Cairo always wear valuable ornaments and costly clothes, the murderers were sure of obtaining considerable spoil.

NOTE 94. This money, we are to understand, was prepared for the purpose of giving those presents which are customary from a guest at a marriage-festivity; but the mention of a smaller sum would have been more proper. It is given to the singing-women and tire-women who, in great houses, parade the bride through the different apartments, and display her in different rich suits of attire before the bridegroom.

NOTE 95.--_On the Handkerchief, and Signet, of Indemnity._ Sometimes, the handkerchief, and sometimes, the signet, or seal-ring, is given as a pledge of indemnity.--It was a frequent custom of many a chief of the Memlooks of Egypt (there commonly called "the Ghuzz"), to bastinade men in the court of his mansion (when he desired to make a show of strict justice), in order that one of the women of the family, hearing the cries, might drop a handkerchief from a window, and so the punishment might soon cease, in respect for the ḥareem, whose protection is often appealed to by offenders.

NOTE 96. The title of "Sulṭán" is here, and afterwards, given to the Khaleefeh; and it has been so employed by a celebrated historian, El-Maḳreezee.[344]

NOTE 97. So, apparently, in most copies; but in the Cairo edition, "of the sons of the Kings." It is said to have been a custom of some of the Barmekees (the family so renowned for their generosity) to keep open house during the hours of meals, and to allow no one who applied at such times for admission to be repulsed.

NOTE 98. "Sikbáj" is a dish composed of meat, wheat-flour, and vinegar.

NOTE 99. "Ḳaṭáïf" is a name applied to various kinds of sweet pastry:

## particularly to a kind of small pancakes, made of a thin paste of fine

flour and water, about three inches broad, and a sixth of an inch or less in thickness, baked upon a copper tray over a fire, like kunáfeh (the composition of which is the same), and eaten with honey or sugar: also to cakes composed of fine flour, treacle or honey, and sesame-oil. The sirup mentioned in the same sentence is (as my sheykh states in a marginal note) treacle thickened over the fire.--The proper singular of ḳaṭáïf, namely, "ḳaṭeefeh," is seldom used; one of these cakes being generally called "fard ḳaṭáïf." Sometimes, it appears, they were perfumed with musk.

NOTE 100. The "mithḳál" is the weight of a deenár, or a dirhem and a half,--in Cairo, about 71-1/2 or 72 English grains.

NOTE 101. See above, Note 96.

NOTE 102. By "Arabs," we are here to understand Bedawees, or Arabs of the Desert, who are termed, by the older writers, "Aạráb," or "Aạrábees;" but in my original, as in other late works, "'Arab," which was the _old_ appellation of the _townspeople_ and _villagers_.

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[323] Sale's Korán; note near the close of chap. ii.

[324] See De Sacy, Relation de l'Egypte par Abd-allatif, pp. 381 et seq.; and Quatremère, Histoire des Sultans Mamlouks, vol. i. pp. 109 et seq., a work of very great value, especially for the notes.

[325] In his "Khiṭaṭ;" description of the principal street of Cairo, and its branches (MS. in my possession).

[326] In his "Khiṭaṭ;" description of the principal street of Cairo, and its branches; and account of the Kháns.

[327] Idem; account of the Ḳeysáreeyehs; and description of the principal street of Cairo, and its branches.

[328] The orthography of this celebrated name is disputed; and I may therefore mention that I have found it written Khall'kán in an Arabic MS. of the year of the Flight 843; and in many MSS. in which the reduplication of the _l_ is not marked, the vowel _a_ is given to the first syllable. According to the general opinion of the learned in Cairo, it is Khillikán.

[329] In his "Khiṭaṭ;" description of the principal street of Cairo.

[330] In his "Khiṭaṭ;" description of the suburbs or environ (ḍawáḥee) of Cairo--[The latest date in that work, as far as I am aware, is found in the account of the mosques, in two separate places. It is that of the year of the Flight 843 (in the edition recently printed at Cairo); and, as El-Maḳreezee died in the year 845, its occurrence is curious as shewing the likelihood that he continued the composition of his most celebrated work until very near his death. Indeed, it is probable that he never finished it; the seventh and last section, which is mentioned in the Preface, being wanting in all the MSS. This date, in each instance, may be an insertion by a later hand; but the author's History of the Sulṭáns of Egypt was brought down, it is said by himself, to the year preceding his death.--ED.]

[331] Marginal note, in my copy of the original, by the sheykh Mohammad 'Eiyád.

[332] Marginal note, in my copy of the original, by the sheykh Moḥammad 'Eiyád.

[333] Idem.

[334] A specimen of this mode of chanting is given in my work on the Modern Egyptians, vol. ii. end of chap. v.

[335] El-Maḳreezee's "Khiṭaṭ;" account of the hospitals.

[336] Ḳur-án, ch. v. v. 49.

[337] "Modern Egyptians," vol. i. ch. xiii.

[338] It would not be necessary to remark on this explanation of a curious custom if it had not been lately contradicted. Mr. Lane derived his information from Arab authors, and from his friends in Cairo; but D'Ohsson, also, says, in his Tableau Général de l'Empire Othoman, Code Religieux, livre ii. ch. iv. (and the authority of the works from which he translated will hardly be questioned), that the Khaṭeeb "est même tenu de réciter tout le _Khouthbé_ sur la chaire, _Minnber_, en s'appuyant de la main sur la garde d'un sabre, dans tous les temples qui ont été pris avec la ville par la force des armes." The writer alluded to thinks that the use of the sword at Mekkeh proves Mr. Lane to be in error; whereas the custom is observed at Mekkeh because it was taken in war; but not at El-Medeeneh because this city was not so taken.--ED.

[339] The iḳámeh see Note 24 to Chapter iv .

[340] For a more full account of the Friday-prayers, see my work on the Modern Egyptians, vol. i. ch. iii.

[341] Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. xxii.

[342] See Note 6 to Chapter iv .

[343] D'Herbelot, Bibl. Or., article "Cadhi."

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