[FN#66] Chavis, "Bilelsanam, the oracle of Bel, the chief God of the Assyrian: "Gauttier, Une idole Bíl. Bel (or Ba'al or Belus, the Phoenician and Canaanite head-god) may here represent Hobal the biggest idol in the Meccan Pantheon, which used to be borne on raids and expeditions to give plunder a religious significance. Tabari iii. 17. Evidently the author holds it to be an idol. [FN#67] The Syro-solar month=April; much celebrated by poets and fictionists: rain falling at such time into shells becomes pearls and upon serpents poison. [FN#68] The text has "Baybúnah," prop. Bábúnaj in Arab., and in Pers. "Bábúk," or "Bábúnak"=the white camomile-flower. See vol. iii. 58. [FN#69] "Khabata"="He (the camel) pawed the ground." The prim. sig. is to beat, secondly, it is applied to a purblind camel which beats or strikes the ground and so stumbles, or to him who bashes a tree for its leaves; and lastly to him who gets alms by begging. See Chenery's Al-Hariri, p. 447. [FN#70] Arab. "Karz"=moneys lent in interest and without fixed term of payment, as opp. to "Dayn." [FN#71] In text "Kintár"=a quintal, 98 to 99 lbs. avoir.: in round numbers a cwt. a hundred weight: see vol. ii. 233. The old version explains it by "A golden coin, equivalent to three hundred livres French (?)." About the value of the Kintár of gold, doctors differ. Some value it at 40 ounces, others make it a leathern bag containing 1,080 to 1,100 dinars, and others 100 rotls (lbs.) of precious metal; while Al-Makrizi relates that Mohammed the Apostle declared, "The Kintár of gold is twelve hundred ounces." Baron de Slane (Ibn Khaldun i. 210) computes 100 Kintárs=1 million of francs. [FN#72] In the text "wa lá ahad tafawwaha fina." [FN#73] Arab. "Falsafah"=philosophy: see vols. v. 234 and vii. 145. [FN#74] In the text "Fa-yatrahúna," masc. for fem. [FN#75] The writer probably remembered that the cat was a sacred animal amongst the Egyptians: see Herod., ii. 66, and Diod. Sic., who tells us (vol. i. p. 94) of a Roman put to death under Ptolemy Auletes for accidentally killing one of these holy beasts. The artists of Bubastis, whose ruins are now for the first time being scientifically explored, modelled the animal in bronze with an admirable art akin to nature.