Nor the quiet of despair, meaning, nor could I persuade myself to give over further search as hopeless, which would, in a certain measure, have set my mind at rest, in the sense of the proverb: “Despair is one of the two kinds of rest.”

Her blemish has been cut short, in Arabic ‘arru-hâ qad ḥusima, which to him, who understands the mount of Ḥaḍramowt to be a camel, would mean that she had been cured of the scab, but applied to the shoe, that the scars of scab in the hide, from which it was made, had been removed by the knife of the shoemaker. In like manner, other similarities between the two are more or less forcibly ex­plained, as, for instance, “her back is as though it had been broken and re-set,” refers to the elevated part on the upper side of the shoe-sole, which resembles the swelling that remains in a broken limb after its re-setting. This part of the shoe is called sanâm, the usual term for the hump of a camel. To trace the comparisons further would only weary the English reader, but for the Arabs it was a favourite theme, even with poets such as Mutenebbi, who in his poems frequently plays on these double-meanings.

She adorns her who travels thereon, and furthers the journey at the oncoming of night, a somewhat lengthy rendering of the Arabic tazînu ’l-mâshiyata wa tu‘înu ’l-nâshiyata, in which I follow Sherîshi’s explanation as the simplest and most plausible. As referring to the shoe, he takes mâshiyah, fem. of mâshî, walker, to mean the walker’s foot, rijl, which, like other double members of the human body, is in Arabic feminine, while with regard to the camel, mâshiyah would be any female walking along with it. Nâshiyah stands, according to him, for nâshi’ah, with change of the Hamzeh into y, to make it conform with the preceding mâshiyah, and its literal sense is the growing one, figuratively applied to the early part of night, when, after the heat of day, travelling on foot or beast is helped on, i.e., becomes less toilsome in the hot climate. For this meaning of the word nâshi’ah comp. Koran, lxxiii. 6: “Verily the oncoming of night is most fitted for earnest devotion, and speech is more collected.” The substance of this passage is disputed amongst the commentators, but about the word in question most of them agree.

When I alighted at Yabrîn, a town three days’ journey distant from Yemâmeh on one side, and from Ḥasâ on the other, and forming with them a triangle, Yemâmeh lying to the west, Ḥasâ to the east, and Yabrîn to the south.

On whom one could perceive that the birds might perch quietly, i.e.; the gravity of his demeanour and his dignified restfulness were such that they might have emboldened the birds to alight on him. Similarly a poet of the Ḥamâseh says:

“As though the birds had settled on their heads, no fear of violence, but the awe inspired by majesty;”

and tradition relates that it was said of Mohammed’s companions “as though the birds rested upon their heads.” To a grave and placid person, the proverb is applied: inna-hu la-wâqi‘u ’t̤-t̤airi, “he is one on whom the birds alight.”

If it is she by whom he expected twenty.—The Arabic û‘t̤iya bi-hâ ‘ishrîna may mean: he was given for her twenty, viz., denars, or given with her twenty, viz., blows, an ambiguity turning on the force of the preposition bi, and which I have tried to preserve in the above translation, which may signify either he hoped to realize by her the price mentioned, or he was afraid to receive the same amount of slaps by means of her. It is quite in the character of a popular jester, like the one introduced here, to speak the next moment of a thing expected as if it had really taken place, when it serves his purpose to have the laughter of the audience on his side. So he presently says the evidence of his own eyes must show him that nobody would offer twenty for this shoe, or if he wants to prove that he has got his twenty with it, let him bare the back of his neck, and everybody would see the traces of the blows.

And do good according to thy power.—De Sacy reads here, wa-’j ali ’l-khaira bi-ḥasabi t̤âqati-ka, which he explains in his commentary: “Give me for her keep as much as thou canst afford.” The redactors of the second edition of his text remark to this: “On the margin of a MS. the words wa-’jali l-khaira are said to mean wa-’shkuru ’llâha, render thanks to Allah, which seems to us preferable to the interpre­tation given in the note. The Kadi is far too generous to demand payment for the care bestowed by him on the camel which he had found.” De Sacy himself, however, mentions that some MSS. have fa-’f‘ali ’l-khaira, and do good, and this, with the substitution of wa for the initial fa, is indeed the reading of my own MS. and of the native editions. While, therefore, concurring in the opinion that the Kadi enjoins gratitude towards Allah to Abû Zayd, I think that by doing so in the words of the last quoted versions he alluded to Koran xxii. 76: “Believers! bow down and prostrate yourself, and worship your Lord, and work righteousness (wa’f‘alû ’l-khaira),” im­plying that the most meritorious way of paying thanks to God is by demonstrations of piety and the performance of good actions.

So live as long as camels speed the pilgrims on.—The original says: “Mayst thou last as long as the ostrich and the camels last” (dum dauma ’n-na‘âmi wa-’n-na ami), to which the commentators remark, that the ostrich is said to live a thousand years, and the race of camels dies never out, so that the phrase means, live for ever. The word na‘am is, of course, used for the rhyme’s sake, and na‘âm for that of allitera­tion, but although the mention of camels may be justified by the subject-matter of the Assembly, the ostrich may be easily dispensed with, and I hope I shall not be blamed for my attempt to bring the last line into closer connection with the first one and its allusions to the Ka‘beh and the sanctuary of Mecca. For na‘am some MSS. read ni‘am, kind deeds, pl. of ni‘mah, which in itself would be appropriate enough, but make the ostrich appear still more out of place.

Without dinning his benefit into my ears.—The Arabic imtinân is mentioning to another boastfully the benefits conferred on him, and making him feel painfully the obligation he has incurred. Hence the name mannânah, given to a rich woman who has married a poor man, and keeps harping on the advantages she has bestowed on him (comp. the note on ḥannânah, p. 270, below).

By Allah, yea, in Arabic allahumma na‘am, lit., “O Allah! yes,” an idiomatical use of the vocative, which in De Sacy’s commentary is explained in a lengthy note, translated in full by the redactors of the second edition, vol. ii., p. 80. It emphasises the negative or affirmative answer to a question, by apostrophising the Divine Power, to call it as it were to witness of the truth of the reply, and will be easily understood by the English reader, if he remembers such familiar expressions as “Good gracious! no.” “Good heavens! yes.”

Whose face pleaded in his favour, lit., in whose face there was an intercessor, taken from a poem of Ibn Ḳanbar, in which he says: “How ever great an offence he may have committed, he is excused for what he has done, for in his face there is an intercessor, that effaces the offence from the hearts of men.” A tradition attributes to Mohammed the saying: “Three things gladden the eye: to look at the verdure of the fields, at running water, and at a beautiful face.”

And a hidden egg, viz., of the ostrich, which hides its eggs in the grass, to protect them from dust or injury (comp. Ass. XLVI., below), an allusion to Koran, xxxvii. 47: “And with them (the inhabitants of Paradise) the large-eyed ones with modest refraining glances, fair like the sheltered egg.” Beautiful women are compared to the egg of the ostrich on account of the whiteness of their complexion, and the yellowish tint which mingles with it. Thus Imr al-Kays, in the 32nd verse of his “Mo‘allaḳah” (Arnold’s edition, p. 14), likens his mistress to the egg of the ostrich, or, according to others, to a virgin pearl, whose whiteness is suffused with a shade of yellowness.

No intimate has known her, in Arabic lâ ’staghshâ-kâ lâbis-un, lit., a coverer has not enveloped her. This alludes to Koran, ii. 183: “You are allowed on the night of the fast to approach your wives: they are your garment and ye are their garment,” a simile for the intimacy and close connection between husband and wife, the former of whom is accordingly called lâbis, as though he covered the latter with a garment. Compare the English term to cover, for to embrace or know carnally.