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[FN#81]Arab. Maydan (from Persian); Lane generally translates it

"horse course ' and Payne "tilting yard." It is both and

something more; an open space, in or near the city, used for

reviewing troops, races, playing the Jerid (cane-spear) and other

sports and exercises: thus Al-Maydan=Gr. hippodrome. The game

here alluded to is our -'polo," or hockey on horseback, a

favourite with the Persian Kings, as all old illustrations of the

Shahnamah show. Maydan is also a natural plain for which copious

Arabic has many terms, Fayhah or Sath (a plain generally), Khabt

(a low-lying plain), Bat'ha (a low sandy flat), Mahattah (a plain

fit for halting) and so forth. (Pilgrimage iii., 11.)

[FN#82] For details concerning the "Ghusl" see Night xliv.

[FN#83] A popular idiom and highly expressive, contrasting the

upright bearing of the self-satisfied man with the slouch of the

miserable and the skirt-trailing of the woman in grief. I do not

see the necessity of such Latinisms as "dilated" or "expanded."