_Page 27._ “Bit the finger of amazement.”—Biting the hand or ārNāfinger is a common mode in the East of manifesting surprise, grief, or anger. Thus in the Kur’ān, xxv, 29: “On that day the unjust person shall bite his hands for anguish;” and iii, 119: “When they assemble together privately they bite their fingers’-ends out of wrath against you.” In the _Gulistān_ of Sa`dī, i, 4: “The King seized the hand of amazement with his teeth;” again, v, 19: “Thine enemy bites the back of his hand through vexation;” and again, vii, 19: “The fingers of astonishment were between their teeth.” In one of the beautiful poems of Bahāu-’d-Dīn Zuhayr, of Egypt (A.D. 1186–1258), elegantly translated by Professor E. H. Palmer:
When she passed me without speaking, I declare, I could almost bite my hand off with despair.
And in the Turkish poem of _Khusrev and Shīrīn_, by Shayki, _ob._ A.D. 1426 (Mr Gibb’s _Ottoman Poems_, p. 6):
No power was left him, neither sport nor pleasure, He bit his finger, wildered beyond measure.
_Page 27._ “Driven forth from the village”; the text adds; “and they deprived him of whatever they had given.”
_Page 27._ “For the sake of God:” a common phrase among Muslims. A rather humorous example of its use occurs in the _Gulistān_ (chap, iv, tale 14): A harsh-voiced man was reading the Kur’ān in a loud tone. A pious man passed by him, and said: “What is thy monthly stipend?”—“Nothing,” he replied.—“Why then,” he inquired, “dost thou give thyself all this trouble?”—“I read _for the sake of God_,” he replied.—“For God sake, then, _don’t read_,” said he.
_Page 27._ “A pearl of such exquisite beauty,” &c.—In the East it is popularly believed that the pearl is formed in the oyster from a rain-drop: Sa’dī, in the fourth book of his _Bustān_, has some beautiful verses on this notion, in which he inculcates the practice of humility. Pearls are called _marvārīd_, “production of light,” and, usually when they are unpierced, _lū’lū’_, “luminous,” “brilliant.” They are divided into twelve classes, each having a distinctive name, according to their “water” or lustre; the first class being called _shahvār_, “the regal,” the clearest, purest, and most lustrous. Pearls are also divided into twelve classes, according to shape. They are further divided, in respect of size, into fifteen classes, according to the number of holes in the different sieves through which they are passed, from the smallest, of which twelve hundred weigh a _miskal_, up to the largest, of which forty weigh a _miskal_. The best pearl-fisheries are at Ceylon, and in the Persian Gulf, at Bahrayn, Kīsh, and Sharak; but the Arabian pearls are less prized than the Indian. Their colour and quality are said to depend on the bottom of the sea where they are produced: in black slime they are dark; in shallow waters, yellowish.—Tavernier mentions a remarkable pearl found at Katifa, in Arabia, the fishery probably alluded to by Pliny (_Nat. Hist._ b. ix, c. 54), which he purchased for £10,000 of our money! It is said to be now in the possession of the Shah of Persia.