52 sugar. Dr. Pocock mentions the sugar-cane as a great desert in Egypt; and adds, that, besides coarse loaf sugar and sugar candy, it yields a third sort, remarkably fine, which is sent to the Grand Seignor, and prepared only for himself. Travels, vol. I. p. 183. 204. The jeweller’s son, in the story of the third Calender, desires the prince to fetch some melon and sugar, that he might refresh himself with them. Arab. Nights, vol. I. p. 159.

53 red characters. The laws of Draco are recorded by Plutarch, in his life of Solon, to have been written in blood. If more were meant by this expression, than that those laws were of a sanguinary nature, they will furnish the earliest instance of the use of red characters; which were afterwards considered as appropriate to supreme authority, and employed to denounce some requisition or threatening designed to strike terror.

54 thy body shall be spit upon. There was no mark of contempt amongst the Easterns so ignominious as this. Arab. Nights vol. I. p. 115. Vol. IV. p. 275.

55 bats will nestle in thy belly. Bats, in those countries, were very abundant; and, both from their numbers and size, held in abhorrence. See what is related of them by Thevenot, Part I. p. 132, 3. Egmont and Hayman, vol. II. p. 87, and other travellers in the East.

56 the Bismillah. This word (which is prefixed to every chapter of the Koran, except the ninth) signifies, “in the name of the most merciful God.”—It became not the initiatory formula of prayer, till the time of Moez the Fatimitc. D’Herbelot, p. 326.

57 a magnificent tecthtrevan. This kind of moving throne, though more common, at present, than in the days of Vathek, is still confined to persons of the highest rank.

58 baths of rose water. The use of perfumed waters for the purpose of bathing is of an early origin in the East, where every odoriferous plant breathes a richer fragrance than is known to our more humid climates. The rose which yields this lotion is, according to Hasselquist, of a beautiful pale bluish colour, double, large as a man’s fist, and more exquisite in scent than any other species. The quantities of this water distilled annually at Fajhum, and carried to distant countries, is immense. The mode of conveying it is in vessels of copper, coated with wax. Voyag. p. 248.

59 lamb à la crême. No dish amongst the Easterns was more generally admired. The Caliph Abdolmelek, at a splendid entertainment, to which whoever came was welcome, asked Amrou, the son of Hareth, what kind of meat he preferred to all others. The old man answered: “An ass’s neck, well seasoned and roasted.”—“But what say you,” replied the Caliph, “to the leg or shoulder of a lamb à la crême?” and added, “How sweetly we live if a shadow would last!” M.S. Laud. Numb. 161. A. Ockley’s Hist. of the Saracens, vol. II. p. 277.