I came in a night of deepest darkness, in Arabic ‘ashautu fî lailatin dâjiyati ’z̤-z̤ulmati. The verb ‘ashautu means originally I came at nightfall, but subsequently it took the signification of “I came” in general, in which it governs the preposition ilá, to. Followed by the preposition ‘an, from, it occurs in the sense of departing in Koran, xliii. 35: “And whoso shall withdraw from (man ya‘shu ‘an) the Warning of God of Mercy, We will prepare a Satan for him, and he shall be his fast companion.”

Her bosom closely buttoned.—This simile is explained by the follow­ing qarînah, the purport of which is that the heaped-up clouds covered the sky so completely that no interstice was left for the stars to shine through.

I was colder therein than the eye of the chameleon and a mangy goat, two proverbs to the same effect, for which see Maydâni’s Collection, i. 743. The eye of the chameleon is said to be cold, because, according to the popular belief, it always seeks the sun and the warmth emanating from it, while the denudated state of the mangy goat sufficiently accounts for her suffering from the severity of the seasons. The word used for cold (ṣard, in the comparative aṣrad) is in this signification borrowed from the Persian sard, the Arabic root ṣard having different meanings, as being scanty, missing the aim, etc. In the short commentary, attached by Ḥarîri to this Assembly, he mentions that some lexicographers declare the second of the above proverbs to be a misreading of the first, caused by displacing the diacritical points of ‘aini ’l-ḥirbâ’i, which thereby becomes ‘anzi ’l-jarbâ’i. Prosaic matter-of-fact people deemed probably the former too fanciful, and thinking the shivering goat a more appropriate comparison, tried to improve on the eye of the chameleon, although they had to introduce a spurious al before the word ‘auz, which article has nothing whatever to do with the word ‘ain of the original proverb, as this noun governs another noun in construction.

Well is he wont to ward against the ills of time with gathered ashes, sharpened knives, literally: “he is against the evil of time, accus­tomed to evil, one gathered of ashes, sharpened of knives,” a thoroughly idiomatic expression for: his heaped - up ashes and sharpened knives proclaim that he is always ready to kindle his fires and slaughter his animals for the benefit of those who suffer from the hardships of time and take refuge with his hospitality.

Whose camels [‘ishâr] bellowed, whose cauldrons [a‘shâr] boiled.—The connecting link between the two words ‘ishâr and a‘shâr is the numeral ‘ashar, ten, the former being pl. or collective noun of ‘usharâ’, a she-camel who has been pregnant for ten months or thereabouts, when she drops her young, during the whole of which time she goes by the above name; the latter, originally the pl. of ‘ushr, a tenth part, is applied to a kettle so large that it equals ten of ordinary size in capacity.

Who were gathering the fruit of winter, i.e., enjoying the warmth of the fire. Ḥarîri, in the above-mentioned commentary, quotes the following lines of a later poet:

“Fire is the fruit of winter; who then desires in winter to taste fruit, let him warm himself,

Ay, fruit in winter is worth wishing for, but fire is for the frozen the best that he can taste.”

And when embarrassment had passed away, in Arabic wa lammâ an sará ’l-ḥaṣaru. The word ḥaṣar, which has occurred in Ḥarîri’s Preface, vol. i., p. 103, l. 12, and was translated there by “hesitation,” has here the meaning of embarrassed silence, which would be natural at the first meeting of many persons hitherto unacquainted with each other.

Proof (lit., protected) against the blamer and caviller, i.e., the most fastidious and dainty eater would not have been able to find fault with them.

Then we heeded not what is said about gluttony.—This alludes to the proverb: al-bit̤natu ta’fanu ’l-fit̤nata, gluttony does away with sense, with regard to which the meaning of the next clause is, “on the contrary, we found sense in indulging it.” It is reported of the Khalif ‘Omar that he used to say: “Be on your guard, O men, against gluttony, for it corrupts the body, and makes you neglectful of prayer, and heirs to sickness.” (Comp. Ar. Prov., i. 180.)

For he crouched apart.—This alludes to the proverb: “he grazes in company (wasat̤an, literally, in the middle, i.e., amongst the rest), and lies down by himself,” applied to one who is ready to par­take in another’s affluence, but turns aside from him at the approach of misfortune (Ar. Prov., ii. 910).

And were afraid of being worsted when we questioned him, in Arabic wa khashînâ fî ’l-mas’ilati ’l-‘aula, literally, “we feared in questioning the disproportionality,” an idiom taken from the Mohammedan law of inheritance, for which see Chenery’s note on the passage the day’s duties pressed upon us of Assembly XXI., vol. i., p. 462.

Verily this is naught but stories of those gone before (lit., of the first or former ones)—quotation from Koran, vi. 25: “and though they see all kinds of signs, they refuse faith in them until, when they come to thee to dispute with thee, the infidels say, ‘Verily, this is nothing but fables (asât̤îr) of the ancients.’” I translate the Arabic term asât̤îr with stories, because its singular ist̤ûr, or ust̤ur, has etymolo­gically been identified with the Greek <Greek>. Its derivation from sat̤r, writing, as that which has been written down, appears, how­ever, quite as legitimate, if not more so.

Then he begged a hearing from the night-talkers.—In the original the singular “night-talker” (sâmir) is used, to which Ḥarîri comments: sâmir is a collective noun, standing for the plural summâr, as ḥâẓir, lit., one present, is a name for a tribal division alighting at a watering-place, and as bâqir means a herd of cattle, or, according to others, cattle together with their herdsmen. The word sámir itself is derived from samar, the shade produced by the moon, in which the night-talkers mostly assemble, whence the proverb, “lâ ukallimu-hu ’l-qamara-wa-’s-samara”—“I shall not talk to him in the moon-light, or in the shade of the moon” (Ar. Prov., ii. 418; compare also vol. i., p. 303, the note on “His talk-fellow”).

The second signification of “nasl” is “running fast.”—In this sense the word occurs Koran, xxi. 96: “And they shall hasten (yansilûna) from every high land.”

In a camel-litter between cords (sabab).—For the meaning of cord, as applied to the word sabab, comp. Koran, xxii. 15: “Let him who thinketh that God will by no means aid his Apostle in this world, and in the next, stretch a cord to heaven,” etc.

It is what the world knows as wine.—This seems to be the meaning of khamru ’l-‘âlami, the wine of the world, to which De Sacy remarks, “i.e., the Ghubairâ’ is like wine, such as its qualities are known to mankind, in which regard there is no difference between them.”

In which latter sense some commentators explain the Koranic imshû.— This occurs Koran, lxvii. 15, where, however, Rodwell translates: “Traverse then its (the earth’s) broad sides” (fa’mshû fî manâ-kibi-hâ ). According to the interpretation mentioned here by Ḥarîri, the meaning is: “may ye have abundance of cattle,” by way of prayer for their prosperity, which is in keeping with the concluding part of the passage: “and eat of what He has provided—unto Him shall be the resurrection.”

Dumb withal.—Dumbness, says De Sacy’s commentary, is ascribed to him in order that the hearers should not think ḥâ’ikan to be a metathesis of ḥâkiyan, one who relates a story, as shâkî, one clad in full armour, is transposed into shâ’ik. Without having recourse to the supposition of such a metathesis, I may mention that ḥâ’ik denotes also one who composes poetry, which to the Arab mind appears as the spontaneous outpour of the emotions of the soul, and therefore naturally as improvisation. For this reason I translate somewhat freely “deaf and dumb,” since from a person afflicted with this infirmity, poetical effusions would scarcely be expected.