the mountains of Paradise, also called Irk al-Zabyat, or Thread of the Winding Torrent. The Prophet named it "Hamt," (sultriness), when he passed through it on his way to the Battle of Badr. He also called the valley "Sajasaj," (plural of Sajsaj, a temperate situation), declared it was a valley of heaven, that 70 prophets had prayed there before himself, that Moses with 70,000 Israelites had traversed it on his way to Meccah, and that, before the Resurrection day, Isa bin Maryam should pass through it with the intention of performing the Greater and the Lesser Pilgrimages. Such are the past and such the future honours of the place. [FN#11] The Indians sink wells in Arabia for the same reason which impels them to dig tanks at home,-"nam ke waste,"-"for the purpose of name"; thereby denoting, together with a laudable desire for posthumous fame, a notable lack of ingenuity in securing it. For it generally happens that before the third generation has fallen, the well and the tank have either lost their original names, or have exchanged them for others newer and better known. [FN#12] Suwaykah derives its name from the circumstance that in the second, or third, year of the Hijrah (Hegira), Mohammed here attacked Abu Sufiyan, who was out on a foray with 200 men. The Infidels, in their headlong fight, lightened their beasts by emptying their bags of "Sawik." This is the old and modern Arabic name for a dish of green grain, toasted, pounded, mixed with dates or sugar, and eaten on journeys when it is found difficult to cook. Such is the present signification of the word: M.C. de Perceval (vol. iii., p. 84) gives it a different and a now unknown meaning. And our popular authors erroneously call the affair the "War of the Meal-sacks." [FN#13] A popular but not a bad pun-"Harb" (Fight), becomes, by the alteration of the H, "Harb" (Flight). [FN#14] The old Arabic proverb is "A greater wiseacre than the goat of Akhfash"; it is seldom intelligible to the vulgar. [FN#15] That is to say, "I will burn them (metaphorically) as the fiery wick consumes the oil,"-a most idiomatic Hijazi threat. [FN#16] A "cold-of-countenance" is a fool. Arabs use the word "cold" in a peculiar way. "May Allah refrigerate thy countenance!" i.e. may it show misery and want. "By Allah, a cold speech!" that is to say, a silly or an abusive tirade. [FN#17] That is to say, they would use, if necessary, the dearest and noblest parts of their bodies (their eyes) to do the duty of the basest (i.e. their feet). [FN#18] Writers mention two Al-Akik. The superior comprises the whole site of Al-Madinah, extending from the Western Ridge, mentioned below, to the cemetery Al-Bakia. The inferior is the Fiumara here alluded to; it is on the Meccan road, about four miles S.W. of Al-Madinah, and its waters fall into the Al-Hamra torrent. It is called the "Blessed Valley" because the Prophet was ordered by an angel to pray in it. [FN#19] The esoteric meaning of this couplet is, "Man! this is a lovely