The Arabians compare the skin of a beautiful woman to the egg of the ostrich, when preserved unsullied. Thus Amriolkais: “Delicate was her shape; fair her skin; and her body well proportioned: her bosom was as smooth as a mirror,-- “Or like the pure egg of an ostrich, of a yellowish tint blended with white.” Also the Koran: “Near them shall lie the virgins of Paradise, refraining their looks from beholding any besides their spouses, having large black eyes, and resembling the eggs of an ostrich, covered with feathers from dust.”--_Moallakat_, p. 8. _Al Koran_, ch. 27. But though the Arabian epithet be taken from thence, yet the word ivory is substituted, as more analogous to European ideas, and not foreign from the Eastern. Thus Amru: “And two sweet breasts, smooth and white as vessels of ivory, modestly defended from the hand of those who presume to touch them.”--_Moallakat_, p. 77. PAGE 233. _... baths of rose-water_ The use of perfumed waters for the purpose of bathing is of an early origin in the East, where every odoriferous plant sheds a richer fragrance than is known to our more humid climates. The rose which yields this lotion is, according to Hasselquist, of a beautiful pale blush colour, double, large as a man’s fist, and more exquisite in scent than any other species. The quantities of this water distilled annually at Fajhum, and carried to distant countries, is immense. The mode of conveying it is in vessels of copper coated with wax.--_Voyag._, p. 248. Ben Jonson makes Volpone say to Celia: “Their bath shall be the juyce of gillyflowres, Spirit of roses, and of violets.” PAGE 233. _... lamb à la crême_ No dish among the Easterns was more generally admired. The caliph Abdolmelek, at a splendid entertainment, to which whoever came was welcome, asked Amrou, the son of Hareth, what kind of meat he preferred to all others. The old man answered, “An ass’s neck, well seasoned and roasted.”--“But what say you,” replied the caliph, “to the leg or shoulder of a LAMB _à la crême_?” and added: “How sweetly we live if a shadow would last!” --_MS. Laud._ No. 161. S. OCKLEY’S _History of the Saracens_, vol. ii, p. 277. PAGE 233. _... made the dwarfs dance against their will_ Ali Chelebi al Moufti, in a treatise on the subject, held that dancing after the example of the dervishes, who made it a part of their devotion, was allowable. But in this opinion he was deemed to be heterodox; for Mahometans, in general, place dancing amongst the things that are forbidden.--D’HERBELOT, p. 98. PAGE 233. _... durst not refuse the commander of the faithful_ The mandates of Oriental potentates have ever been accounted irresistible. Hence the submission of these devotees to the will of the caliph.--Esther, i, 19. Daniel, vi, 8. LUDEKE, _Expos. brevis_, p. 60. PAGE 233. _... the nine hundred and ninety-ninth time_