Page:Beckford - Vathek (1816).djvu/276

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tation of the Jewish prescriptions; and many Mahometans are so scrupulous as not to touch the flesh of any animal over which, in articulo mortis, the butcher had omitted to pronounce the Bismillah. Relig. Cerem. vol. VII. p. 110.


Page 118.Sinai.

This mountain is deemed by Mahometans the noblest of all others, and even regarded with the highest veneration, because the divine law was promulgated from it. D'Herbelot, p. 812.


Page 119.Peries.

The word Peri, in the Persian language, signifies that beautiful race of creatures which constitutes the link between angels and men.—See note to page 6.


Page 120.butterflies of Cachemire.

The same insects are celebrated in an unpublished poem of Mesihi. Sir Anthony Shirley relates, that it was customary in Persia "to hawke after butterflies with sparrows, made to that use, and stares."—It is, perhaps, to this amusement that our Author alludes in the context.