st and grandest city in the
province of _Khurasan_. It was utterly destroyed by _Tuli_, the son
of _Jenghis Khan_ (or more correctly, _Changis Ka,an_), in A.D. 1221.

[263] Seven _miskals_ are more than an ounce and a quarter.

[264] The term Farang, vulgarly Frank, was formerly applied to
Christian Europe in general, with the exclusion of Russia.

[265] Literally, "kissed the ground of obeisance," a Persian phrase,
expressive of profound respect.

[266] "The minister's daughter," afterwards called "the young
merchant."

[267] The phrase _pachas ek_ means "about fifty." It is strange
that a certain critic on this work, (who has a prodigiously high
opinion of himself,) should have rendered the above passage, "whose
age was about forty or fifty years!" Most assuredly, the merest tyro
in _Hindustani_ can tell him that it cannot have such a latitude as
to mean "about forty or fifty." He might just as correctly have said
"about fifty or sixty." The phrase _pachas ek_, as I have stated,
means simply "about fifty," i.e., it may be _one_ year more or less.

[268] In the text, the _wazir-zadi_ is henceforth called
_saudagar-bacha_ or the young merchant, being the character under
which she, for some time, figures.

[269] _morchhals_, vulgarly called _chowrees_, are fly-flaps, to drive
away those troublesome companions; the best kind is made of the fine
white long tail of the mountain cow; the others of the long feathers
from, the peacock's tail, or the odoriferous roots of a species of
grass called _Khas_. They are likewise a part of the paraphernalia
of state in India.

[270] The title _khwaja _ means "chief," or "master;" it is generally
applied to rich merchants, &c., such as we would call "men of
respectability." The idiomatic London English for it is "governor,"
or (as it is pronounced) "guv'ner".

[271] Literally, "What difficulty" (is there in so doing).

[272] The city of _Naishapur_ being some 270 miles inland, it would
not be easy for the young merchant to reach it by sea. Asiatic
story-tellers are not at all particular in regard to matters of
geography.

[273] _'Ajam_ means, in general, Persia; the Arabs use it in the
same sense as the Greeks did the word "barbarian;" and all who are
not Arabs they call _'Ajami_; more especially the Persians.

[274] _Sara,e, sera,i_ or _caravanserai_, are buildings for the
accommodation of travellers, merchants, &c., in cities, and on the
great roads in Asia. Those in U