This mountain is deemed by Mahometans the noblest of all others, and even regarded with the highest veneration, because the divine law was promulgated from it.--D’HERBELOT, p. 812. PAGE 238. _Peris_ The word _Peri_, in the Persian language, signifies that beautiful race of creatures which constitutes the link between angels and men. The Arabians call them _Ginn_, or genii, and we (from the Persian, perhaps) _Fairies_: at least, the peris of the Persian romance correspond to that imaginary class of beings in our poetical system. The Italians denominate them _Fata_, in allusion to their power of charming and enchanting; thus the _Manto fatidica_ of Virgil is rendered in _Orlando_, _La Fata Manto_. The term ginn being common to both peris and dives, some have erroneously fancied that the peris were female dives. This appellation, however, served only to discriminate their common nature from the angelic and human, without respect to their qualities, moral or personal. Thus, the dives are hideous and wicked, whilst the peris are beautiful and good. Amongst the Persian poets, the beauty of the peris is proverbial: insomuch that a woman superlatively handsome, is styled by them, _the offspring of a Peri_. PAGE 239. _... butterflies of Cashmere_ The same insects are celebrated in an unpublished poem of Mesihi. Sir Anthony Shirley relates, that it was customary in Persia, “to hawke after butterflies with sparrows, made to that use, and stares.” It is, perhaps, to this amusement that our author alludes in the context. PAGE 240. _Megnoun and Leilah_ These personages are esteemed amongst the Arabians as the most beautiful, chaste, and impassioned of lovers; and their amours have been celebrated with all the charms of verse, in every Oriental language. The Mahometans regard them, and the poetical records of their love, in the same light as the Bridegroom and Spouse, and the Song of Songs, are regarded by the Jews.--D’HERBELOT, p. 573. PAGE 240. _... they still detained him in the harem_ Noureddin, who was as old as Gulchenrouz, had a similar indulgence of resorting to the harem, and no less availed himself of it.--_Arabian Nights_, vol. iii, pp. 9, 10. PAGE 240. _... dart the lance in the chase_ Throwing the lance was a favourite pastime with the young Arabians; and so expert were they in this practice (which prepared them for the mightier conflicts, both of the chase and of war), that they could bear off a ring on the points of their javelins.--RICHARDSON’S _Dissertation on the Languages, etc., of Eastern Nations_, pp. 198, 281. PAGE 240. _Shaddukian and Ambreabad_ These were two cities of the peris, in the imaginary region of _Ginnistan_: the former signifies _pleasure_ and _desire_, the latter, _the city of Ambergris_.--See RICHARDSON’S _Dissertation on the Languages, etc., of Eastern Nations_, p. 169. PAGE 242. _... a spoon of cocknos_