[FN#284] Equivalent to our Alas! It is woman’s word never used by men; and foreigners must be most careful of this distinction under pain of incurring something worse than ridicule. I remember an officer in the Bombay Army who, having learned Hindostani from women, always spoke of himself in the feminine and hugely scandalised the Sepoys. [FN#285] i.e. a neighbour. The “quarters” of a town in the East are often on the worst of terms. See Pilgrimage. [FN#286] In the patriarchal stage of society the mother waits upon her adult sons. Even in Dalmatia I found, in many old-fashioned houses, the ladies of the family waiting upon the guests. Very pleasant, but somewhat startling at first. [FN#287] Here the apodosis would be “We can all sup together.” [FN#288] Arab. “Záwiyah” (=oratory), which is to a Masjid what a chapel is to a church. [FN#289] Arab. “Kasr,” prop. a palace: so the Tuscan peasant speaks of his “palazzo.” [FN#290] This sale of a free-born Moslem was mere felony. But many centuries later Englishmen used to be sold and sent to the plantations in America. [FN#291] Arab. “Kawwás,” lit. an archer, suggesting les archers de la Sainte Hermandade. In former days it denoted a sergeant, an apparitor, an officer who executed magisterial orders. In modern Egypt he became a policeman (Pilgrimage i. 29). As “Cavass” he appears in gorgeous uniform and sword, an orderly attached to public offices and Consulates. [FN#292] A purely imaginary King. [FN#293] The Bresl. Edit. (ix. 370) here and elsewhere uses the word “Nútiyá”=Nauta, for the common Bahríyah or Malláh. [FN#294] Arab. “Tawaf,” the name given to the sets (Ashwat) of seven circuits with the left shoulder presented to the Holy House, that is walking “widdershins” or “against the sun” (“with the sun” being like the movement of a watch). For the requisites of this rite see Pilgrimage iii. 234. [FN#295] Arab. “Akh”; brother has a wide signification amongst Moslems and may be used to and of any of the Saving Faith. [FN#296] Said by the master when dismissing a servant and meaning, “I have not failed in my duty to thee!” The answer is, “Allah acquit thee thereof!” [FN#297] A Moslem prison is like those of Europe a century ago; to think of it gives gooseflesh. Easterns laugh at our idea of penitentiary and the Arabs of Bombay call it “Al-Bistán” (the Garden) because the court contains a few trees and shrubs. And with them a garden always suggests an idea of Paradise. There are indeed only two efficacious forms of punishment all the world over, corporal for the poor and fines for the rich, the latter being the severer form. [FN#298] i.e. he shall answer for this. [FN#299] A pun upon “Khalíyah” (bee hive) and “Khaliyah” (empty). Khalíyah is properly a hive of bees with a honey-comb in the hollow of a tree-trunk, opposed to Kawwárah, hive made of clay or earth (Al-Hariri; Ass. of Tiflis). There are many other terms, for Arabs are curious about honey. Pilgrimage iii. 110.