366. The “Unguinum fulgor” of the Latins who did not forget to celebrate the shining of the nails although they did not Henna them like Easterns. Some, however, have suggested that Ῥοδοδάκτυλος alludes to colouring matter.
367. Women with white skins are supposed to be heating and unwholesome: hence the Hindu Rajahs slept with dark girls in the hot season.
368. Moslems sensibly have a cold as well as a hot Hell, the former called Zamharir (lit. “intense cold”) or Al-Barahút, after a well in Hazramaut; as Gehenna (Arab. Jahannam) from the furnace-like ravine East of Jerusalem (Night cccxxv). The icy Hell is necessary in terrorem for peoples who inhabit cold regions and who in a hot Hell only look forward to an eternity of “coals and candles” gratis. The sensible missionaries preached it in Iceland till foolishly forbidden by Papal Bull.
369. Koran ii. 26; speaking of Abraham when he entertained the angels unawares.
370. Arab “Rakb,” usually applied to a fast-going caravan of dromedary riders (Pilgrimage ii. 329). The “Cafilah” is Arab.: “Caravan” is a corruption of the Pers. Karwán.
371. A popular saying. It is interesting to contrast this dispute between fat and thin with the Shakespearean humour of Falstaff and Prince Henry.
372. Arab. “Dalak” vulg Hajar al-Hammam (Hammam-stone). The comparison is very apt: the rasps are of baked clay artificially roughened (see illustrations in Lane M. E. chapt. xvi.) The rope is called “Masad,” a bristling line of palm-fibre like the coir now familiarly known in England.
373. Although the Arab’s ideal of beauty, as has been seen and said, corresponds with ours, the Egyptians (Modern) the Maroccans and other negrofied races like “walking tun-butts” as Clapperton called his amorous widow.
374. Arab. “Khayzar” or “Khayzarán” the rattan-palm. Those who have seen this most graceful “palmijuncus” in its native forest will recognise the neatness of the simile.
375. This is the popular idea of a bushy “veil of nature” in women: it is always removed by depilatories and vellication. When Bilkis Queen of Sheba discovered her legs by lifting her robe (Koran xxvii.), Solomon was minded to marry her, but would not do so till the devils had by a depilatory removed the hair. The popular preparation (called Núrah) consists of quicklime 7 parts, and Zirník or orpiment, 3 parts: it is applied in the Hammam to a perspiring skin, and it must be washed off immediately the hair is loosened or it burns and discolours. The rest of the body-pile (Sha’arat opp. to Sha’ar = hair) is eradicated by applying a mixture of boiled honey with turpentine or other gum, and rolling it with the hand till the hair comes off. Men I have said remove the pubes by shaving, and pluck the hair of the armpits, one of the vestages of pre-Adamite man. A good depilatory is still a desideratum, the best perfumers of London and Paris have none which they can recommend. The reason is plain: the hair-bulb can be eradicated only by destroying the skin.
376. Koran, ii. 64: referring to the heifer which the Jews were ordered to sacrifice.
377. Arab. “kallá,” a Koranic term possibly from Kull (all) and lá (not) = prorsus non—altogether not!
378. “Habáb” or “Habá,” the fine particles of dust, which we call motes. The Cossid (Arab. Kásid) is the Anglo-Indian term for a running courier (mostly under Government), the Persian “Shátir” and the Guebre Rávand.
379. Arab. “Samhari” a very long thin lance so called after Samhar, the maker, or the place of making. See vol. ii. p. 1. It is supposed to cast, when planted in the ground, a longer shadow in proportion to its height, than any other thing of the kind.
380. Arab. “Suláfah;” properly ptisane which flows from the grapes before pressure. The plur. “Sawálif” also means tresses of hair and past events: thus there is a “triple entendre.” And again “he” is used for “she.”
381. There is a pun in the last line, “Khálun (a mole) khallauni” (rid me), etc.
382. Of old Fustát, afterwards part of Southern Cairo, a proverbially miserable quarter, hence the saying, “They quoted Misr to Káhirah (Cairo), whereon Bab al-Luk rose with its grass,” in derision of nobodies who push themselves forward. Burckhardt, Prov. 276.
383. Its fruits are the heads of devils; a true Dantesque fancy. Koran, chapt. xvii. 62, “the tree cursed in the Koran” and in chapt. xxxvii, 60, “is this better entertainment, or the tree of Al-Zakkúm?” Commentators say that it is a thorn bearing a bitter almond which grows in the Tehamah and was therefore promoted to Hell.
384. Arab. “Lasm” (lathm) as opposed to Bausah or boseh (a buss) and Kublah (a kiss, generic).
385. Arab. “Jufún” (plur. of Jafn) which may mean eyebrows or eyelashes and only the context can determine which.
386. Very characteristic of Egyptian manners is the man who loves six girls equally well, who lends them, as it were, to the Caliph; and who takes back the goods as if in no wise damaged by the loan.