Arab. “Shawáhid,” meaning that heart testifies to heart. Footnote 172: _i.e._ A live coal, afterwards called Zalzalah, an earthquake; see post p. 105. “Wakhímah” = an unhealthy land, and “Sharárah” = a spark. Footnote 173: I need hardly note the inscriptions upon the metal trays sold to Europeans. They are usually imitation words so that infidel eyes may not look upon the formulæ of prayer; and the same is the case with table-cloths, etc., showing a fancy Tohgra or Sultanic sign-manual. Footnote 174: _i.e._ I cannot look at them long. Footnote 175: Evidently a diabolical way of clapping his hands in applause. This description of the Foul Fiend has an element of grotesqueness which is rather Christian than Moslem. Footnote 176: Arab. “Rikkí al-Saut,” which may also mean either “lower thy voice,” or “change the air to one less touching.” Footnote 177: “Your” for “thy.” Footnote 178: _i.e._ written on the “Guarded Tablet” from all eternity. Footnote 179: Arab. “Al-’Urs w’al-Tuhúr” which can only mean, “the wedding (which does not drop out of the tale) and the circumcision.” Footnote 180: I here propose to consider at some length this curious custom which has prevailed amongst so many widely separated races. Its object has been noted (vol. v. 209), viz. to diminish the sensibility of the glans, no longer lubricated with prostatic lymph; thus the part is hardened against injury and disease and its work in coition is prolonged. On the other hand “præputium in coitu voluptatem (of the woman) auget, unde femina præputiatis concubitum malunt quam cum Turcis ac Judæis” says Dimerbroeck (Anatomie). I vehemently doubt the fact. Circumcision was doubtless practised from ages immemorial by the peoples of Central Africa, and Welcker found traces of it in a mummy of the xvith century B.C. The Jews borrowed it from the Egyptian priesthood and made it a manner of sacrament, “uncircumcised” being = “unbaptised,” that is, barbarian, heretic; it was a seal of reconciliation, a sign of alliance between the Creator and the Chosen People, a token of nationality imposed upon the body politic. Thus it became a cruel and odious protestation against the brotherhood of man, and the cosmopolitan Romans derided the verpæ ac verpi. The Jews also used the term figuratively as the “circumcision of fruits” (Lev. xix. 23), and of the heart (Deut. x. 16); and the old law gives copious historical details of its origin and continuance. Abraham first amputated his horny “calotte” at æt. 99, and did the same for his son and household (Gen. xvii. 24–27). The rite caused a separation between Moses and his wife (Exod. iv. 25). It was suspended during the Desert Wanderings and was resumed by Joshua (v. 3–7), who cut off two tons weight of prepuces. The latter became, like the scalps of the Scythians and North-American “Indians,” trophies of victory; Saul