One of the Khaleefehs having invited the poets of his day to his palace, a Bedawee, carrying a water-jar to fill at the river, followed them, and entered with them. The Khaleefeh, seeing this poor man with the jar on his shoulder, asked him what brought him thither. He returned for answer these words:-- "Seeing that this company had girded on the saddles To repair to thy overflowing river, I came with my jar." The Khaleefeh, delighted with his answer, gave orders to fill his jar with gold.[148] In the present declining age of Arabian learning (which may be said to have commenced about the period of the conquest of Egypt by the 'Osmánlees), literary recreations still exert a magic influence upon the Arabs. Compositions of a similar nature to the tales of a Thousand and One Nights (though regarded by the learned as idle stories unworthy of being classed with their literature) enable numbers of professional story-tellers to attract crowds of delighted listeners to the coffee-shops of the East; and now that the original of the present work is printed, and to be purchased at a moderate price, it will probably soon, in a great measure, supersede the romances of Aboo-Zeyd, Eẓ-Ẓáhir, and 'Antar. As a proof of the powerful fascinations with which the tales of a Thousand and One Nights affect the mind of a highly-enlightened Muslim, it may be mentioned that the latest native historian of Modern Egypt, the sheykh 'Abd-Er-Raḥmán El-Jabartee, so delighted in their perusal that he took the trouble of refining the language of a copy of them which he possessed, expunging or altering whatever was grossly offensive to morality without the somewhat redeeming quality of wit, and adding many facetiæ of his own, and of other literati. What has become of this copy, I have been unable, though acquainted with several of his friends, to discover. NOTE 19. It is a common custom among the Muslims to give a present to a person who brings good tidings. The word (bishárah) which I render "a reward for bringing good news," literally signifies merely "good news;" but it is often used, as in this case, in the former sense. NOTE 20. A Mohammadan woman is not allowed to show her face to any men excepting certain near relations and others whom the law prohibits her from marrying. Who these are will be mentioned in a future note, descriptive of the general laws and ceremonies of marriage. Respectable females consider it a great disgrace to be seen unveiled by any men but those above alluded to.