In Harîrî (Paris edition, 2nd ed.), p. 644. 4, we read of the Dawn: ḥîna naṣal chiḍâb al-ẓalâm ‘when the dye of darkness was washed off.’ The Arabic word here used for ‘dye’ is generally employed of gay colours, e.g. al-ḥinnâ; but it is self-evident that here only al-kuḥl can be meant. Footnote 419: In Persian black hair is called mû i-Zengî ‘Gipsies’ hair,’ and zulf-i-Hindu, ‘Indian hair,’ i.e. black like an Indian’s (e.g. Rückert, _Grammatik, Poetik und Rhetorik der Perser_, p. 287). So in the well-known verse of Ḥafiẓ, in which the poet gives away all Bochara and Samarkand for the black mole (bechâl-i-Hinduwesh, ‘Indian mole’) of his Turkish boy (Dîwân Râ, no. 8. v. 1; ed. Rosenzweig, I. 24). Footnote 420: _Saḳt-al-zand_, I. 91. 7. Footnote 421: E.g. _Romance of ʿAntar_, VII. 115. line 4 from below: wa-kasa-l-leylu ḥullat al-sawâd. Footnote 422: Varro treats it as self-evident that ‘black’ is the most suitable epithet for Night, and is thereby tempted to a very curious etymology in his work _De ratione vocabulorum_. He explains the word _fur_ ‘thief’ by saying that in the old Latin _fur-vum_ was equivalent to ‘black,’ and thieves practise their dark deeds at night. ‘Sed in posteriore ejusdem libri parte docuit (scil. Varro) furem ex eo dictum quod veteres Romani furvum atrum appellaverint: at fures per noctem quae atra sit facilius furentur’ (Aulus Gellius, _Noctes Atticae_, I. 18. 3–6). Footnote 423: Opuscula arabica, ed. W. Wright, Leyden 1859, p. 30. 11; compare p. 31. 12. Footnote 424: _Aġânî_, XI. 44. Footnote 425: _Ibid._, XVIII. 139. Footnote 426: Ibn al-Sikkît, p. 344. Footnote 427: Ibn al-Sikkît, p. 345. Footnote 428: _Iḥyâ ʿulûm al-dîn_, II. 148. Footnote 429: Gesenius, _Thesaurus_, p. 1183. Footnote 430: Chabas, _Etudes sur l’antiquité historique d’après les sources égyptiennes_, etc. 2nd edition, Paris 1873, p. 34, where the article by Le Page Renouf is referred to. Footnote 431: Ibn al-Sikkît, p. 193, whom I follow as a reliable ancient authority; al-Jauharî and Freytag after him understand aṣbaḥ somewhat differently. Footnote 432: Abû-l-ʿAlâ, II. 107. 3–4. Footnote 433: _Saḳt al-zand_, I. 93. 1. These ideas of the relations of colours are found expressed with characteristic energy by the eccentric Persian poet Abû Isḥâḳ Ḥallâjî; he says, ‘When the Sun in the blue vault turns his cheek into yellow, it makes me think of saffron-coloured viands on an azure dish’ (Rückert, _Grammatik, Poetik und Rhetorik der Perser_, p. 126). The conception of turning grey combines that of both colours—the white appearing beside the black. According to _Aġânî_, II. 41. 7; those clouds which combine the two colours are called shîb ‘grey’ (al-saḥâʾib allatî fîhâ sawâd wa-bayâd). Footnote 434: