only a practice of the Prophet, the rite is not indispensable for
converts, especially the aged and the sick. Our ideas upon the subject
are very hazy, for modern "niceness" allows a "Feast of the
Circumcision," but no discussion thereon. Moses (alias Osarsiph)
borrowed the rite from the Egyptian hierophants who were all thus
"purified"; the object being to counteract the over-sensibility of the
"sixth sense" and to harden the glans against abrasions and infection
by exposure to air and friction against the dress. Almost all African
tribes practise it but the modes vary and some are exceedingly curious:
I shall notice a peculiarly barbarous fashion called Al-Salkh (the
flaying) still practised in the Arabian province Al-Asνr. (Pilgrimage
iii. 80.) There is a difference too between the Hebrew and the Moslem
rite. The Jewish operator, after snipping off the foreskin, rips up the
prepuce with his sharp thumb-nails so that the external cutis does not
retract far from the internal; and the wound, when healed, shows a
narrow ring of cicatrice. This ripping is not done by Moslems. They use
a stick as a probe passed round between glans and prepuce to ascertain
the extent of the frenum and that there is no abnormal adhesion. The
foreskin is then drawn forward and fixed by the forceps, a fork of two
bamboo splints, five or six inches long by a quarter thick, or in some
cases an iron like our compasses. This is tied tightly over the
foreskin so as to exclude about an inch and a half of the prepuce above
and three quarters below. A single stroke of the razor drawn directly
downwards removes the skin. The slight bleeding is stopped by burnt
rags or ashes and healed with cerates, pledgets and fumigations. Thus
Moslem circumcision does not prevent the skin retracting.
[FN#345] Of these 6336 versets only some 200 treat on law, civil and
ceremonial, fiscal and political, devotional and ceremonial, canonical
and ecclesiastical.
[FN#346] The learned young woman omitted Ukhnϊkh=Enoch, because not in
Koran; and if she denoted him by "Idrνs," the latter is much out of
place.
[FN#347] Some say grandson of Shem. (Koran vii. 71.)
[FN#348] Koran vii. 63, etc.
[FN#349] Father-in-law of Moses. (Koran vii. 83.)
[FN#350] Who is the last and greatest of the twenty-five.
[FN#351] See Night ccccxxxviii.
[FN#352] Koran ii., whose 256th Ayah is the far-famed and sublime
Throne-verse which begins "Allah! there is no god but He, the Living,
the Eternal One, whom nor slumber nor sleep seizeth on!" The trivial
name is taken from the last line, "His throne overstretcheth Heaven and
Earth and to Him their preservation is no burden for He is the most
Highest, the Supreme." The lines are often repeated in prayers and
engraved on agates, etc., as portable talismans.
[FN#353] Koran ii. 159.
[FN#354] Koran xvi. 92. The verset ends with, "He warneth you, so haply
ye may be mindful."
[FN#355] Koran lxx. 38.
[FN#356] Koran xxxix. 54.
[FN#357] The Sunnis hold that the "Anbiyα" (=prophets, or rather
announcers of Allah's judgments) were not sinless. But this dogma is
branded as most irreverent and sinful by the Shi'ahs or Persian
"followers of Ali," who make capital out of this blasphemy and declare
that if any prophet sinned he sinned only against himself.
[FN#358] Koran xii. 18.
[FN#359] Koran ii. 107.
[FN#360] Koran ii. 57. He (Allah) does not use the plurale majestatis.
[FN#361] Koran ii. 28.
[FN#362] Koran xvi. 100. Satan is stoned in the Minα or Munα basin
(Night ccccxlii.) because he tempted Abraham to disobey the command of
Allah by refusing to sacrifice Ishmael. (Pilgrimage iii. 248.)
[FN#363] It may also mean "have recourse to God."
[FN#364] Abdallah ibn Abbas, before noticed, first cousin of
Mohammed and the most learned of the Companions. See D'Herbelot.
[FN#365] Koran xcvi., "Blood-clots," 1 and 2. "Read" may mean "peruse
the revelation" (it was the first Koranic chapter communicated to
Mohammed), or "recite, preach."
[FN#366] Koran xxvii. 30. Mr. Rodwell (p.1) holds to the old idea that
the "Basmalah" is of Jewish origin, taught to the Kuraysh by Omayyah,
of Taif, the poet and Hanνf (convert).
[FN#367] Koran ix.: this was the last chapter revealed and the only one
revealed entire except verse 110.
[FN#368] Ali was despatched from Al-Medinah to Meccah by the Prophet on
his own slit-eared camel to promulgate this chapter; and meeting the
assembly at Al-'Akabah he also acquainted them with four things; (1) No
Infidel may approach the Meccah temple; (2) naked men must no longer
circut the Ka'abah; (3) only Moslems enter Paradise, and (4) public
faith must be kept.
[FN#369] Dictionaries give the word "Basmalah" (=saying
Bismillah); but the common pronunciation is "Bismalah."
[FN#370] Koran xvii. 110, a passage revealed because the Infidels,
hearing Mohammed calling upon The Compassionate, imagined that
Al-Rahmαn was other deity but Allah. The "names" have two grand
divisions, Asmα Jalαlν, the fiery or terrible attributes, and the Asmα
Jamαlν (airy, watery, earthy or) amiable. Together they form the Asmα
al-Husna or glorious attributes, and do not include the Ism al-A'azam,
the ineffable name which is known only to a few.
[FN#371] Koran ii. 158.
[FN#372] Koran xcvi. before noticed.
[FN#373] A man of Al-Medinah, one of the first of Mohammed's disciples.
[FN#374] Koran lxxiv. 1, etc., supposed to have been addressed by
Gabriel to Mohammed when in the cave of Hira or Jabal Nϊr. He returned
to his wife Khadijah in sore terror at the vision of one sitting on a
throne between heaven and earth, and bade her cover him up. Whereupon
the Archangel descended with this text, supposed to be the first
revealed. Mr. Rodwell (p. 3) renders it, "O thou enwrapped in thy
mantle!" and makes it No. ii. after a Fatrah or silent interval of six
months to three years.
[FN#375] There are several versets on this subject (chapts. ii. and
xxx.)
[FN#376] Koran cx. 1.
[FN#377] The third Caliph; the "Writer of the Koran."
[FN#378] Koran, v. 4. Sale translates "idols." Mr. Rodwell, "On the
blocks (or shafts) of Stone," rude altars set by the pagan Arabs before
their dwellings.
[FN#379] Koran, v. 116. The words are put into the mouth of
Jesus.
[FN#380] The end of the same verse.
[FN#381] Koran, v. 89. Supposed to have been revealed when certain
Moslems purposed to practise Christian asceticism, fasting, watching,
abstaining from women and sleeping on hard beds. I have said Mohammed
would have "no monkery in Al-Islam," but human nature willed otherwise.
Mr. Rodwell prefers "Interdict the healthful viands."
[FN#382] Koran, iv. 124.
[FN#383] Arab. "Mukri." "Kαri" is one who reads the Koran to pupils;
the Mukri corrects them. "With the passage of the clouds" = without a
moment's hesitation.
[FN#384] The twenty-first, twenty-fourth and eighteenth Arabic letters.
[FN#385] Arab. "Hizb." The Koran is divided into sixty portions,
answering to "Lessons" for convenience of public worship.
[FN#386] Arab. "Jalαlah,"=saying Jalla Jalαlu-hu=magnified be His
Majesty!, or glorified be His Glory.
[FN#387] Koran, xi. 50.
[FN#388] The partition-wall between Heaven and Hell which others call
Al-'Urf (in the sing. from the verb meaning he separated or parted).
The Jews borrowed from the Guebres the idea of a partition between
Heaven and Hell and made it so thin that the blessed and damned can
speak together. There is much dispute about the population of
Al-A'arαf, the general idea being that they are men who do not deserve
reward in Heaven or punishment in Hell. But it is not a "Purgatory" or
place of expiating sins.
[FN#389] Koran, vii. 154.
[FN#390] A play on the word ayn, which means "eye" or the eighteenth
letter which in olden times had the form of a circle.
[FN#391] From misreading these words comes the absurd popular belief of
the moon passing up and down Mohammed's sleeves. George B. Airy (The
Athenζum, Nov.29, 1884) justly objects to Sale's translation "The hour
of judgment approacheth" and translates "The moon hath been
dichotomised" a well-known astronomical term when the light portion of
the moon is defined in a strait line: in other words when it is really
a half-moon at the first and third quarters of each lunation. Others
understand, The moon shall be split on the Last Day, the preterite for
the future in prophetic style. "Koran Moslems" of course understand it
literally.
[FN#392] Chapters liv., lv. and lvi.
[FN#393] We should say, not to utter, etc.
[FN#394] These well-known "humours of Hippocrates," which reappear in
the form of temperaments of European phrenology, are still the base of
Eastern therapeutics.
[FN#395] The doctrine of the three souls will be intelligible to
Spiritualists.
[FN#396] Arab. "Al-lαmi"=the l-shaped, curved, forked.
[FN#397] Arab. "Usus," our os sacrum because, being incorruptible, the
body will be built up thereon for Resurrection-time. Hence Hudibras
sings (iii. 2),
"The learned Rabbis of the Jews
Write there's a bone which they call leuz,
I' the rump of man, etc."
It is the Heb. "Uz," whence older scholars derived os. Sale (sect. iv.)
called it "El Ajb, os coccygis or rump-bone."
[FN#398] Arab physiologists had difficulties in procuring "subjects";
and usually practised dissection on the simiads. Their illustrated
books are droll; the figures have been copied and recopied till they
have lost all resemblance to the originals.
[FN#399] The liver and spleen are held to be congealed blood.
Hence the couplet,
"We are allowed two carrions (i.e. with throats uncut) and
two bloods,
The fish and the locust, the liver and the spleen."
(Pilgrimage iii. 92.)
[FN#400] This is perfectly true and yet little known to the general.
[FN#401] Koran xvii. 39.
[FN#402] Arab. "Al-malikhulνya," proving that the Greeks then
pronounced the penultimate vowel according to the acute accentνa; not
as we slur it over. In old Hebrew we have the transliteration of four
Greek words; in the languages of Hindostan many scores including names
of places; and in Latin and Arabic as many hundreds. By a scholar-like
comparison of these remains we should find little difficulty in
establishing the true Greek pronunciation since the days of Alexander
the Great; and we shall prove that it was pronounced according to
accent and emphatically not quantity. In the next century I presume
English boys will be taught to pronounce Greek as the Greeks do.
[FN#403] Educated Arabs can quote many a verse bearing upon domestic
medicine and reminding us of the lines bequeathed to Europe by the
School of Salerno. Such e.g. are;
"After the noon-meal, sleep, although for moments twain;
After the night-meal, walk, though but two steps be ta'en;
And after swiving stale, though but two drops thou drain."
[FN#404] Arab. "Sarνdah" (Tharνdah), also called "ghaut"=crumbled bread
and hashed meat in broth; or bread, milk and meat. The Sarνdah of
Ghassαn, cooked with eggs and marrow, was held a dainty dish: hence the
Prophet's dictum.
[FN#405] Koran v. 92. "Lots"=games of chance and "images"=statues.
[FN#406] Koran ii. 216. The word "Maysar" which I have rendered
"gambling" or gaming (for such is the modern application of the word),
originally meant what St. Jerome calls and explains thereby the verse
(Ezek. xxi. 22), "The King held in his hand the lot of Jerusalem" i.e.
the arrow whereon the city-name was written. The Arabs use it for
casting lots with ten azlam or headless arrows (for dice) three being
blanks and the rest notched from one to seven. They were thrown by a
"Zαrib" or punter and the stake was generally a camel. Amongst so
excitable a people as the Arabs, this game caused quarrels and
bloodshed, hence its prohibition: and the theologians, who everywhere
and at all times delight in burdening human nature, have extended the
command, which is rather admonitory than prohibitive, to all games of
chance. Tarafah is supposed to allude to this practice in his
Mu'allakah.
[FN#407] Liberal Moslems observe that the Koranic prohibition is not
absolute, with threat of Hell for infraction. Yet Mohammed doubtless
forbade all inebriatives and the occasion of his so doing is well
known. (Pilgrimage ii. 322.)
[FN#408] I have noticed this soured milk in Pilgrimage i. 362.
[FN#409] He does not say the "Caliph" or successor of his uncle
Mohammed.
[FN#410] The Jewish Korah (Numbers xvi.) fabled by the Koran (xxviii.
76), following a Talmudic tradition, to have been a man of immense
wealth. The notion that lying with an old woman, after the menses have
ceased, is unwholesome, dates from great antiquity; and the benefits of
the reverse process were well known to good King David. The faces of
children who sleep with their grandparents (a bad practice now waxing
obsolete in England), of a young wife married to an old man and of a
young man married to an old woman, show a peculiar wizened appearance,
a look of age overlaying youth which cannot be mistaken.
[FN#411] Arab. "Hindibα"(=endubium): the modern term is
Shakurνyah=chicorιe. I believe it to be very hurtful to the eyes.
[FN#412] Arab. "Khuffαsh" and "Watwαt": in Egypt a woman is called
"Watwαtνyah" when the hair of her privities has been removed by
applying bats' blood. I have often heard of this; but cannot understand
how such an application can act depilatory.
[FN#413] Dictionaries render the word by "dragon, cockatrice." The
Badawin apply it to a variety of serpents mostly large and all
considered venomous.
[FN#414] Arab. "Zarr wa 'urwah," 1it.=handle. The button-hole, I have
said, is a modern invention; Urwah is also applied to the loopshaped
handle of the water-skin, for attachment of the Allαkah or suspensory
thong.
[FN#415] Koran lxx. 40; see also the chapter following, v. 16.
[FN#416] Koran x. 5; the "her" refers to the sun.
[FN#417] Koran xxxvi. 40.
[FN#418] Koran xxii. 60.
[FN#419] Arab. "Manαzil:" these are the Hindu "Nakshatra"; extensively
used in meteorology even by Europeans unconsciously: thus they will
speak of the Elephantina-storm without knowing anything of the lunar
mansion so called. The names in the text are successively Sharatαn=two
horns of the Ram; (2) the Ram's belly; (3) the Pleiades; (4) Aldebaran;
(5) three stars in Orion's head; (6) ditto in Orion's shoulder; (7) two
stars above the Twins; (8) Lion's nose and first summer station; (9)
Lion's eye; (1O) Lion's forehead; (11) Lion's mane; (12) Lion's heart;
(13) the Dog, two stars in Virgo; (14) Spica Virginis; (15) foot of
Virgo; (16) horns of Scorpio; (17) the Crown; (18) heart of Scorpio;
(19) tail of Scorpio; (2O) stars in Pegasus; (21) where no
constellation appears; (22) the Slaughterer's luck; (23) Glutton's
luck; (24) Luck of Lucks, stars in Aquarius; (25) Luck of Tents, stars
in Aquarius; (26) the fore-lip or spout of Urn; (27) hind lip of Urn;
and (28) in navel of Fish's belly (Batn al-Hϊt); of these 28, to each
of the four seasons 7 are allotted.
[FN#420] The Hebrew absey, still used by Moslems in chronograms. For
mnemonic purposes the 28 letters are distributed into eight words of
which the first and second are Abjad and Hawwaz. The last six letters
in two words (Thakhiz and Zuzigh) are Arabian, unknown to the Jews and
not found in Syriac.
[FN#421] Arab. "Zindνk;" properly, one who believes in two gods (the
old Persian dualism); in books an atheist, i.e. one who does not
believe in a god or gods; and, popularly, a free-thinker who denies the
existence of a Supreme Being, rejects revelation for the laws of Nature
imprinted on the heart of man and for humanity in its widest sense.
Hence he is accused of permitting incestuous marriages and other
abominations. We should now call him (for want of something better) an
Agnostic.
[FN#422] Koran xxxi. 34. The words may still be applied to
meteorologists especially of the scientific school. Even the
experienced (as the followers of the late Mathieu de la Drτme) reckon
far more failures than successes. The Koranic passage enumerates five
things known only to Allah; Judgment-day; rain; sex of child in womb;
what shall happen to-morrow and where a man shall die.
[FN#423] The fifth and seventh months (January and March) of the Coptic
year which, being solar, is still used by Arab and Egyptian
meteorologists. Much information thereon will be found in the "Egyptian
Calendar" by Mr. Mitchell, Alexandria, 1876. It bears the appropriate
motto "Anni certus modus apud solos semper Egyptios fuit." (Macrobius.)
See also Lane M.E., chapt. ix.
[FN#424] Vulg. Kiyαk; the fourth month, beginning 9th—1Oth
December. The first month is Tϊt, commencing 1Oth—11th
September.
[FN#425] The 8th and 12th months partly corresponding with April and
August: Hαtϊr is the 3rd (November) and AmshRr the 6th (February).
[FN#426] Moslems have been compelled to adopt infidel names for the
months because Mohammed's Koranic rejection of Nasy or intercalation
makes their lunar months describe the whole circle of the seasons in a
cycle of about thirty-three and a half years. Yet they have retained
the terms which contain the original motive of the denomination. The
first month is Muharram, the "Holy," because war was forbidden; it was
also known as Safar No. 1. The second Safar="Emptiness," because during
the heats citizens left the towns and retired to Tαif and other cool
sites. Rabν'a (first and second) alluded to the spring-pasturages;
Jumαdα (first and second) to the "hardening" of the dry ground and,
according to some, to the solidification, freezing, of the water in the
highlands. Rajab (No.7)="worshipping," especially by sacrifice, is also
known as Al-Asamm the deaf; because being sacred, the rattle of arms
was unheard. Sha'abαn="collecting," dispersing, ruining, because the
tribal wars recommenced: Ramazan (intensely hot) has been explained and
Shawwαl (No. 10) derives from Shaul (elevating) when the he-camels
raise their tails in rut. Zϊ'l-Ka'adah, the sedentary, is the rest time
of the year, when fighting is forbidden and Zu'l-Hijjah explains itself
as the pilgrimage-month.
[FN#427] The lowest of the seven.
[FN#428] Koran xxxvii. 5.
[FN#429] Arab. "Faylasϊf," an evident corruption from the Greek.
Amongst the vulgar it denotes a sceptic, an atheist; much the same a
"Frammαsϊn" or Freemason. The curious reader will consult the Dabistan,
vol. iii. chapt. xi. p. 138 et seq. "On the Religion of the Wise"
(philosophi), and, Beaconsfield's theft from Shaftesbury.
[FN#430] Koran xxxvi. 37-38.
[FN#431] Koran xxii. 7. The Hour i.e. of Judgment.
[FN#432] Koran xx. 58. The Midrasch Tanchumah on Exod. vii. gives a
similar dialogue between Pharaoh and Moses. (Rodwell, in loco.)
[FN#433] Arab. "Sham'ϊn" or "Shim'ϊn," usually applied to Simon
Peter (as in Acts xv. 14). But the text alludes to Saint Simeon
(Luke ii. 25-35). See Gospel of Infancy (ii. 8) and especially
the Gospel of Nicodemus (xii. 3) which makes him a High-Priest.
[FN#434] Sαlih the Patriarch's she-camel, miraculously produced from
the rock in order to convert the Thamϊd-tribe. (Koran vii.)
[FN#435] When Abu Bakr was hiding with Mohammed in a cave on the Hill
Al-Saur (Thaur or Thϊr, Pilgrimage ii. 131) South of Meccah, which must
not be confounded with the cave on Jabal Hirα now called Jabal Nϊr on
the way to Arafat (Pilgrimage iii. 246), the fugitives were protected
by a bird which built her nest at the entrance (according to another
legend it was curtained by a spider's web), whilst another bird (the
crow of whom I shall presently speak) tried to betray them. The first
bird is popularly supposed to have been a pigeon, and is referred to by
Hudibras,
"Th' apostles of this fierce religion
Like Mahomet, were ass and widgeon."
The ass I presume alludes to the marvellous beast Al-Burαk which the
Greeks called from (Euthymius in Pocock, Spec. A.H. p.144) and which
Indian Moslems picture with human face, ass's ears, equine body and
peacock's wings and tail. The "widgeon" I presume to be a mistake or a
misprint for pigeon.
[FN#436] The Arabs are not satisfied with the comparative moderation of
the Hebrew miracle, and have added all manner of absurdities.
(Pilgrimage ii. 288.)
[FN#437] Koran lxxxi. 18. Sale translates "by the morning when it
appeareth;" and the word (tanaffus) will bear this meaning. Mr. Rodwell
prefers, "By the dawn when it clears away the darkness by its breath."
[FN#438] As a rule Moslems are absurdly ignorant of arithmetic and
apparently cannot master it. Hence in Egypt they used Copts for
calculating-machines and further East Hindds. The mildest numerical
puzzle, like the above, is sure of success.
[FN#439] The paradiseal tree which supplied every want. Mohammed
borrowed it from the Christians (Rev. xxi. 10-21 and xxii. 1-2) who
placed in their paradise the Tree of Life which bears twelve sorts of
fruits and leaves of healing virtue. (See also the 3rd book of Hermas,
his Similitudes.) The Hebrews borrowed it from the Persians. Amongst
the Hindus it appears as "Kalpavriksha;" amongst the Scandinavians as
Yggdrasil. The curious reader will consult Mr. James Fergusson's
learned work, "Tree and Serpent Worship," etc. London, 1873.
[FN#440] Aaron's Rod becomes amongst Moslems (Koran vii. 110) Moses'
Staff; the size being that of a top-mast. (Pilgrimage i. 300, 301.) In
Koran xx. 18, 19, we find a notice of its uses; and during the Middle
Ages it reappeared in the Staff of Wamba the Goth (A.D.672-680) the
witch's broomstick was its latest development.
[FN#441] Christ, say the Eutychians, had only one nature, the divine;
so he was crucified in effigy.
[FN#442] Jesus is compared with Adam in the Koran (chapt. iii.): his
titles are Kalαmu 'llah (word of God) because engendered without a
father, and Rϊhu 'llah (breath of God) because conceived by Gabriel in
the shape of a beautifui youth breathing into the Virgin's vulva. Hence
Moslems believe in a "miraculous conception" and consequently determine
that one so conceived was, like Elias and Khizr, not subject to death;
they also hold him born free from "original sin" (a most sinful
superstition), a veil being placed before the Virgin and Child against
the Evil One who could not touch them. He spoke when a babe in cradle;
he performed miracles of physic; he was taken up to Heaven; he will
appear as the forerunner of Mohammed on the White Tower of Damascus,
and finally he will be buried at Al-Medinah. The Jews on the other hand
speak of him as "that man:" they hold that he was begotten by Joseph
during the menstrual period and therefore a born magician. Moreover he
learned the Sham ha-maphrash or Nomen tetragrammaton, wrote it on
parchment and placed it in an incision in his thigh, which closed up on
the Name being mentioned (Buxtorf, Lex Talmud, 25-41). Other details
are given in the Toldoth Jesu (Historia Joshuζ Nazareni). This note
should be read by the eminent English littιrateur who discovered a
fact, well known to Locke and Carlyle, that "Mohammedans are
Christians." So they are and something more.
[FN#443] In the Kalamdαn, or pen-case, is a little inkstand of metal
occupying the top of the long, narrow box.
[FN#444] A fair specimen of the riddle known as the "surprise."
[FN#445] Koran xli. 10.
[FN#446] Koran xxxvi. 82.
[FN#447] Here we enter upon a series of disputed points. The Wahhαbis
deny the intercession of the Apostle (Pilgrimage ii. 76-77). The
Shi'ahs place Ali next in dignity to Mohammed and there is a sect
(Ali-Ilαhi) which believes him to be an Avatar or incarnation of the
Deity. For the latter the curious reader will consult the "Dabistan,"
ii. 451. The Koran by its many contradictions seems to show that
Mohammed never could make up his own mind on the subject, thinking
himself at times an intercessor and then sharply denying all
intercession.
[FN#448] Arab. "Kanjifah"=a pack of cards; corrupted from the Persian
"Ganjνfah." We know little concerning the date or origin of this game
in the East, where the packs are quite unlike ours.
[FN#449] It is interesting to compare this account with the pseudo Ovid
and with Tale clxvi. in Gesta "Of the game of Schaci." Its Schacarium
is the chess-board. Rochus (roccus, etc.) is not from the Germ. Rock (a
coat) but from Rukh (Pers. a hero, a knight-errant) Alphinus (Ital.
Alfino) is Al-Firzαn (Pers. science, wise).
[FN#450] Arab, "Baydak" or "Bayzak"; a corruption of the Persian
"Piyαdah"=a footman, peon, pawn; and proving whence the Arabs derived
the game. The Persians are the readiest backgammon-players known to me,
better even than the Greeks; they throw the dice from the hand and
continue foully abusing the fathers and mothers of the "bones" whilst
the game lasts. It is often played in the intervals of dinner by the
higher classes in Persia.
[FN#451] Metaphor from loading camels and mules. To "eat" a piece is to
take it.
[FN#452] Arab. "Bilαbil"; a plural of "Bulbul" with a double entendre
balαbil (plur. of ballalah)=heart's troubles, and "balα, bul"=a
calamity, nay, etc.