The Thousand and One Nights, Vol. I — Part 178

NOTE 3. "El-Móṣil" is the name of the city which Europeans commonly call "Mosul," "Mosoul," &c.; a city long famous for its fine stuffs. Hence our word "muslin," often termed, in Arabic, "Móṣilee," signifying, "of the manufacture of El-Móṣil."

NOTE 4. The wine is mentioned in the Calcutta edition of the first two hundred nights, but not in the edition of Cairo. The lady went to a Christian to purchase her wine because Muslims are not allowed to sell it.

NOTE 5. The "'Othmánee quinces" I suppose to be a kind so called after some person named 'Othmán who introduced it, or was famous for its culture. The term "Sulṭánee," applied to the citrons afterwards mentioned, signifies "imperial."

NOTE 6. A list of these sweets is given in my original, but I have thought it better to omit the names.

NOTE 7. The "willow-flower-water" is prepared from the sweet-scented flowers of the Oriental willow, called "bán" and "khiláf" or "khaláf;" a twig of which is, among the Arabs, a favourite emblem of a graceful female.

NOTE 8.--_On the Vessels used for Sprinkling and Perfuming._ The sprinkling-bottle, here called "mirashsh," is more commonly called "ḳumḳum," and has been alluded to in a former note, as having a spherical or wide body, and a long and narrow neck. It is generally about eight inches high, and of plain or gilt silver, or of fine brass, or china, or glass; and has a cover pierced with a small hole. This vessel is used in the houses of the rich to sprinkle a guest or visiter, before he rises to take his leave, with rose-water; after which ceremony, a page or servant presents to him a kind of censer, called "mibkharah," which is generally of one or other of the metals above mentioned, and about the same height as the ḳumḳum; and he wafts the smoke which rises from it towards his face, beard, &c., with the right hand. The body of the mibkharah, the form of which is nearly globular, surmounts a stem rising from the centre of a small circular tray; the upper half is a cover pierced with apertures for the escape of the smoke; and the lower half, in which some burning charcoal is placed, is lined, or half filled, with gypsum-plaster. Aloes-wood, previously moistened, or some other odoriferous substance, is placed upon the burning coals; and sometimes, in the houses of very wealthy persons, ambergris is used.