Pagina 932 de 1116

[FN#105] Charming simplicity of manners when the Prime Minister

carries the fish (shade of Vattel!)!) to the cookmaid. The "Gesta

Romanorum" is nowhere more naive.

[FN#106] Arab. "Kahilat al-taraf" = lit. eyelids lined with Kohl;

and figuratively "with black lashes and languorous look." This is

a phrase which frequently occurs in The Nights and which, as will

appear, applies to the "lower animals" as well as to men. Moslems

in Central Africa apply Kohl not to the thickness of the eyelid

but upon both outer lids, fixing it with some greasy substance.

The peculiar Egyptian (and Syrian) eye with its thick fringes of

jet-black lashes, looking like lines of black drawn with soot,

easily suggests the simile. In England I have seen the same

appearance amongst miners fresh from the colliery.

[FN#107] Of course applying to her own case.

[FN#108] Prehistoric Arabs who measured from 60 to 100 cubits

high: Koran, chapt. xxvi., etc. They will often be mentioned in

The Nights.