{ 203a} Anglicé for “je le sais.” These answers of mine, as given above, are not meant as specimens of mere French, but of that fine, terse, nervous, Continental English with which I and my compatriots make our way through Europe. This language, by the by, is one possessing great force and energy, and is not without its literature, a literature of the very highest order. Where will you find more sturdy specimens of downright, honest, and noble English than in the Duke of Wellington’s “French” despatches?
{ 203b} The import of the word “compromised,” when used in reference to contagion, is explained on page 18.
{ 204} It is said, that when a Mussulman finds himself attacked by the plague he goes and takes a bath. The couches on which the bathers recline would carry infection, according to the notions of the Europeans. Whenever, therefore, I took the bath at Cairo (except the first time of my doing so) I avoided that part of the luxury which consists in being “put up to dry” upon a kind of bed.
{ 205} [See footnote, Introduction, p. xxi.]
{ 207} [Mohammedans commonly believe that the souls of the dead do not rest in peace till their bodies are laid in the tomb. Hence they bury the corpse as quickly as possible, and run to the cemetery in order to shorten the interval during which the departed spirit is kept waiting. After a few brief prayers at the graveside, the mourners retire forty paces, halt, and pray again. It is believed that at this moment two angels visit the deceased, inquire of his religious belief, and, if he replies in the words of the formula, that there is “no God but God, and Mohammed is the Prophet of God,” admit him, not exactly to Paradise, but to a very tolerable section of Purgatory.]
{ 217} Mehemet Ali invited the Mamelukes to a feast, and murdered them whilst preparing to enter the banquet hall.
{ 218} It is not strictly lawful to sell white slaves to a Christian.
{ 230} The difficulty was occasioned by the immense exertions which the Pasha was making to collect camels for military purposes.
{ 233} Herodotus, in an after age, stood by with his notebook, and got, as he thought, the exact returns of all the rations served out.
{ 236} [The author of the _Crescent and the Cross_, which appeared the same year as _Eothen_.]