[FN#31] This is apparently said in jest; but the Muslim Puritan (such as the strict Wehhabi) is often exceedingly punctilious in refusing to eat or use anything that is not sanctified by mention in the Koran or the Traditions of the Prophet, in the same spirit as the old Calvinist Scotchwoman of popular tradition, who refused to eat muffins, because they "warna mentioned in the Bible."
[FN#32] i.e. a leader (lit. foreman, antistes) of the people at prayer.
[FN#33] Koran ii. 168.
[FN#34] i.e. I have eaten largely and the food lies heavy on my stomach.
[FN#35] Wine is considered by the Arabs a sovereign digestive. See my "Book of the Thousand
Nights and One Night," Vol. IV. p. 357.
[FN#36] "The similitude of Paradise, the which is promised unto those who fear [God]. Therein are rivers of water incorruptible and rivers of milk, the taste whereof changeth not, and rivers of wine, a delight to the drinkers, and rivers of clarified honey."—Koran xlvii. 16, 17.
[FN#37] The ox is the Arab type of stupidity, as with us the ass.
[FN#38] Syn. wood (oud).
[FN#39] i.e. my pallor and emaciation testify to the affliction of my heart and the latter bears witness that the external symptoms correctly indicate the internal malady.
[FN#40] Lit. he is [first] the deposit of God, then thy deposit.