[330] Wellknown tribes of protohistoric Arabs who flourished before the time of Abraham： see Koran （chaps. xxvi. et passim）.
They will be repeatedly mentioned in The Nights and notes.
[331] Arab. 'Amtar'；plur. of 'Matr，'a large vessel of leather or wood for water，etc.
[332] Arab. 'Asafiri，'so called because they attract sparrows （asafir） a bird very fond of the ripe oily fruit. In the Romance of 'Antar'Asafir camels are beasts that fly like birds in fleetness. The reader must not confound the olives of the text with the hard unripe berries （'little plums pickled in stale'）
which appear at English tables，nor wonder that bread and olives are the beefsteak and potatoes of many Mediterranean peoples It is an excellent diet，the highly oleaginous fruit supplying the necessary carbon，[333] Arab. 'Tamer alHindi'=the 'Indiandate，'whence our word 'Tamarind.'A sherbet of the pods，being slightly laxative，is much drunk during the great heats；and the dried fruit，made into small round cakes，is sold in the bazars. The traveller is advised not to sleep under the tamarind's shade，which is infamous for causing ague and fever. In Sind I derided the 'native nonsense，'passed the night under an 'Indian datetree'and awoke with a fine specimen of ague which lasted me a week.
[334] Moslems are not agreed upon the length of the Day of Doom when all created things，marshalled by the angels，await final judgment；the different periods named are 40 years，70，300and 50，000. Yet the trial itself will last no longer than while one may milk an ewe，or than 'the space between two milkings of a shecamel.'This is bringing down Heaven to Earth with a witness；but，after all，the Heaven of all faiths，including 'Spiritualism，'the latest development，is only an earth more or less glorified even as the Deity is humanity more or less perfected.
[335] Arab. 'AlKamarani，'lit. 'the two moons.'Arab rhetoric prefers it to 'Shamsani，'or {`two suns，'because lighter （akhaff），to pronounce. So，albeit Omar was less worthy than AbuBakr the two are called 'AlOmarani，'in vulgar parlance，Omarayn.
[336] Alluding to the angels who appeared to the Sodomites in the shape of beautiful youths （Koran xi.）.
[337] Koran xxxiii. 38.
[338] 'Niktuhu taklidan'i.e. not the real thing （with a woman）. It may also mean 'by his incitement of me.'All this scene is written in the worst form of PersianEgyptian blackguardism，and forms a curious anthropological study. The 'black joke'of the true and modest wife is inimitable.
[339] Arab. 'Jamiz'（in Egypt 'Jammayz'） = the fruit of the true sycomore （F.Sycomorus） a magnificent tree which produces a small tasteless fig，eaten by the poorer classes in Egypt and by monkeys. The 'Tin'or real fig here is the woman's parts；the 'mulberry fig，'the anus. Martial （i. 65） makes the following distinction：
Dicemus ficus，quas scimus in arbore nasci，Dicemus ficos，Caeciliane，tuos.
And Modern Italian preserves a difference between fico and fica.
[340] Arab. 'Ghaniyat Azara'（plur. of Azra = virgin）： the former is properly a woman who despises ornaments and relies on 'beauty unadorned'（i.e. in bed）.
[341] 'Nihil usitatius apud monachos，cardinales，sacrificulos，'says Johannes de la Casa Beneventius Episcopus，quoted by Burton Anat. of Mel. lib. iii. Sect. 2；and the famous epitaph on the Jesuit，Cigit un Jesuite：
Passant，serre les fesses et passe vite！
[342] Arab. 'Kiblah'=the frontingplace of prayer，Meccah for Moslems，Jerusalem for Jews and early Christians. See Pilgrimage （ii. 321） for the Moslem change from Jerusalem to Meccah and ibid. （ii. 213） for the way in which the direction was shown.
[343] The Koran says （chaps. ii.）： 'Your wives are your tillage： go in therefore unto your tillage in what manner so ever ye will.'Usually this is understood as meaning in any posture，standing or sitting，lying，backwards or forwards. Yet there is a popular saying about the man whom the woman rides （vulg. St.
George，in France，le Postillon）；'Cursed be who maketh woman Heaven and himself earth！'Some hold the Koranic passage to have been revealed in confutation of the Jews，who pretended that if a man lay with his wife backwards，he would beget a cleverer child.
Others again understand it of preposterous venery，which is absurd： every ancient lawgiver framed his code to increase the true wealth of the peoplepopulationand severely punished all processes，like onani**，which impeded it. The Persians utilise the hatred of women for such misuse when they would force a wive to demand a divorce and thus forfeit her claim to Mahr （dowry）；they convert them into catamites till，after a month or so，they lose all patience and leave the house.
[344] Koran lit 9： 'He will be turned aside from the Faith （or Truth） who shall be turned aside by the Divine decree；'alluding，in the text，to the preposterous venery her lover demands.
[345] Arab. 'Futuh'meaning openings，and also victories，benefits. The lover congratulates her on her mortifying self in order to please him.
[346] 'And the righteous work will be exalt'： （Koran xxxv. 11）applied ironically.
[347] A prolepsis of Tommy Moore：
Your mother says，my little Venus，There's something not quite right between us，And you're in fault as much as I，Now，on my soul，my little Venus，I swear 'twould not be right between us，To let your mother tell a lie.
But the Arab is more moral than Mr. Little. as he purposes to repent.