Pagina 926 van 1116

[FN#84] All these highest signs of favour foreshow, in Eastern

tales and in Eastern life, an approaching downfall of the

heaviest; they are so great that they arouse general jealousy.

Many of us have seen this at native courts.

[FN#85] This phrase is contained in the word "ihdak"

=encompassing, as the conjunctiva does the pupil.

[FN#86] I have noted this formula, which is used even in

conversation when about to relate some great unfact.

[FN#87] We are obliged to English the word by "valley," which is

about as correct as the "brook Kedron," applied to the grisliest

of ravines. The Wady (in old Coptic wah, oah, whence "Oasis") is

the bed of a watercourse which flows only after rains. I have

rendered it by "Fiumara" (Pilgrimage i., 5, and ii., 196, etc.),

an Italian or rather a Sicilian word which exactly describes the

"wady."

[FN#88] I have described this scene which Mr. T. Wolf illustrated

by an excellent lithograph in "Falconry, etc." (London, Van

Voorst, MDCCCLII.)