NOTE 15. The meaning conveyed by this comparison is "tall and slender." NOTE 16. In the MS. from which the old translation was made, it appears that this lady is called Zubeydeh (which was the name of the daughter of Jaạfar the son of El-Manṣoor, and wife of Er-Rasheed); the portress, Ṣáfiyeh; and the cateress, Ámineh; but no names are given to them in any of the copies of the original to which I have access. NOTE 17. Literally, "two nuṣfs." "Nuṣf," vulgarly pronounced by the Egyptians "nuṣṣ," and signifying "half," is the name of a small Egyptian coin made of a mixture of silver and copper, and now equivalent to something less than a quarter of a farthing; but this name was originally given to the half-dirhems which were struck in the reign of the Sulṭán El-Mu-eiyad, in the early part of the ninth century of the Flight, or of the fifteenth of our era. In the Calcutta edition of the first two hundred nights, and in the edition of Breslau, we read here "two dirhems," instead of "two nuṣfs." [The coin here mentioned still bears the name "Mu-eiyadee," or, vulgarly, "Meiyadee." In the latest coinage, copper has been substituted for the mixed metal. ED.] NOTE 18. The "menáreh" is the tower of a mosque, commonly called by English writers "minaret," which generally rises from a square base. NOTE 19. It is a common custom in the East to seal the doors of store-houses with a lump of clay, lest the lock should be picked. NOTE 20. I here deviate a little from the Cairo edition, in which the cateress is described as having drunk three cups of wine successively before she handed any to her sisters. My reason for this will presently be seen. NOTE 21. Thus in two editions. In the Cairo edition, "tukellimuhu" is put for "telkumuhu." NOTE 22. _On Wine, Fruits, Flowers, and Music, in Illustration of Arab Carousals._ I here pass over an extremely objectionable scene, which, it is to be hoped, would convey a very erroneous idea of the manners of Arab _ladies_; though I have witnessed, at private festivities in Cairo, abominable scenes, of which ladies, screened behind lattices, were spectators. Can the same be said with respect to the previous carousal? This is a question which cannot be answered in a few words. The prohibition of wine, or, rather, of fermented and intoxicating liquors, being one of the most remarkable and important points of the Mohammadan religion, it might be imagined that the frequent stories in this work, describing parties of Muslims as habitually indulging in the use of forbidden beverages, are scandalous misrepresentations of Arab manners and customs. There are, however, many similar anecdotes interspersed in the works of Arab historians, which (though many of them are probably untrue in their application to particular individuals) could not have been offered to the public by such writers if they were not of a nature consistent with the customs of a considerable class of the Arab nation.