“I purchase” (says Lebeid) “the old liquor, at a dear rate, in dark leathern bottles, long reposited; or in casks black with pitch, whose seals I break, and then fill the cheerful goblet.” Moallakat, p. 53.

102 excavated ovens in the rock. As substitutes for the portable ovens, which were lost.

103 the confines of some cemetery. Places of interment in the East were commonly situated in scenes of solitude. We read of one in the history of the first calender, abounding with so many monuments, that four days were successively spent in it without the inquirer being able to find the tomb he looked for: and, from the story of Ganem, it appears that the doors of these cemeteries were often left open. Arabian Nights, vol. II. p. 112.

104 a Myrabolan comfit. The invention of this confection is attributed by M. Cardonne to Avicenna, but there is abundant reason, exclusive of our author’s authority, to suppose it of a much earlier origin. Both the Latins and Greeks were acquainted with the balsam, and the tree that produced it was indigenous in various parts of Arabia.

105 blue fishes. Fishes of the same colour are mentioned in the Arabian Nights; and, like these, were endowed with the gift of speech.

106 astrolabes. The mention of the astrolabe may be deemed incompatible, at first view, with chronological exactness, as there is no instance of any being constructed by a Mussulman, till after the time of Vathek. It may, however, be remarked, to go no higher, that Sinesius, bishop of Ptolemais, invented one in the fifth century; and that Carathis was not only herself a Greek, but also cultivated those sciences which the good Mussulmans of her time all held in abhorrence. Bailly, Hist. de l’Astronom. Moderne, tom. I. p. 563. 573.

107 On the banks of the stream, hives and oratories. The bee is an insect held in high veneration amongst the Mahometans, it being pointed out in the Koran, “for a sign unto the people that understand.” It has been said, in the same sense: “Go to the ant, thou sluggard,” Prov. vi. 6. The santons, therefore, who inhabit the fertile banks of Rocnabad, are not less famous for their hives than their oratories. D’Herbelot, p. 717.

108 Shieks, cadis. Shieks are the chiefs of the societies of derviches: cadis are the magistrates of a town or city.

109 Asses in bridles of riband inscribed from the Koran. As the judges of Israel in ancient days rode on white asses, so amongst the Mahometans, those that affect an extraordinary sanctity, use the same animal in preference to the horse. Sir John Chardin observed in various parts of the East, that their reins, as here represented, were of silk, with the name of God, or other inscriptions upon them. Ludeke Expos. brevis, p. 49. Chardin’s MS. cited by Harmer.

110 Eblis. D’Herbelot supposes this title to have been a corruption of the Greek Διαβολος diabolos. It was the appellation conferred by the Arabians upon the prince of the apostate angels, and appears more likely to originate from the Hebrew הבר hebel, vanity, pride.—See endnote 114, “creatures of clay.”