_Page 83._ “Scrawled on ārNāit some unmeaning characters.”—The word in the text here rendered by “unmeaning” literally signifies “not known,” and should be translated “mysterious.”
_Page 84._ “Desired him to point out the spot where his body lay,” &c.—_ziyārat_, a visit, a pilgrimage. During the period of the great festivals, and also on other occasions, it is customary to visit the tomb of a relation, and place on it the leaves or broken branches of the palm-tree, also sweet-basil and other flowers. On arriving at the tomb the opening chapter of the Kur’ān, and sometimes a longer chapter, the xxxvi, is recited.—See Lane’s _Modern Egyptians_, ii, pp. 209, 241, 253.
_Page 86._ “Government resembles a tree, the root of which is legal punishment”—_siyāzat_, that is, discretional punishment, such as the law has not provided, but may be inflicted.—The lithographed text thus proceeds: “And its extremity [_i.e._ of the root] is justice, and its bough, mercy, and its flower, wisdom, and its leaf, liberality, and its fruit, a degree of kindness, and the leaf of every tree, of which the root becomes dry, assumes a yellow [tint], and does not produce fruit. And as the root of government is legal punishment, delay on this point is not permissible; and as in this legal punishment there is postponement, I am apprehensive lest the root of the tree has become dry; after which reparation is impossible.”
_Page 87._ “In case she should give birth to a boy, to call his name Bihrūz”—an appropriate name for a jeweller’s son, since it denotes “a species of blue crystal,” as well as “good day.” The lithographed text adds: “If it should be a daughter, give her a name suitable and proper;” alluding to the privilege accorded to a mother of naming her own daughter; the name of a son is given by the father.
_Page 88._ “The boys had learned to read the Kur’ān” (properly, as I have spelt it in the translation, Qur’ān).—Muslim children are not only taught to read the whole, but commit to memory portions, of the Kur’ān. After learning by heart the first chapter[78]—which is to the Muslim what the Lord’s Prayer is to the Christian—the remaining chapters are learnt in their inverse order, and those who have learnt to repeat the whole of the Kur’ān may then claim the title of _Hāfiz_, or _Hāfizu kalāmi ’llāh_, “rememberer of the Word of God,” or “one who knows God’s Word by heart.”—“Much merit,” says Torrens, “is attributed by the Muslims to recitations of the Kur’ān. On occasions of festivity persons are hired to repeat either the whole or the principal parts of it. These are _fickees_, a term usually applied to schoolmasters by modern Arabs, but signifying, ‘a person learned in the law.’ They know by heart the whole, or particular parts, of the Kur’ān, which each in turn recites. These recitations are introduced among the Egyptians as an entertainment at parties.”[79]