HKB
NOTE 4. See the first note in this series.--"Zahr," in Arabic, signifies "a Flower."
NOTE 5.--On Coats of Mail, and other Armour worn by the Arabs. The Prophet David is said to have been the first person who manufactured coats of mail; and the cause of his applying himself to the art was this.--"He used to go forth in disguise; and when he found any people who knew him not, he approached them and asked them respecting the conduct of Dáood (or David), and they praised him and prayed for him; but one day as he was asking questions respecting himself as usual, God sent to him an angel in the form of a human being, who said, 'An excellent man were Dáood if he did not take from the public treasury:'--whereupon the heart of Dáood was contracted, and he begged of God to render him independent: so He made iron soft to him, and it became in his hands as thread; and he used to sell a coat of mail for four thousand [pieces of money--whether gold or silver is not said], and with part of this he obtained food for himself, and part he gave in alms, and with part he fed his family."[363]--Hence an excellent coat of mail is often called by the Arabs "Dáoodee," i. e. "Davidean." This kind of armour is worn by some Arabs of the Desert in the present day; but the best specimens, I believe, are mostly found in India. Burckhardt mentions one tribe of Arabs who have about twenty-five; another, two hundred; and two others, between thirty and forty. "The dora [properly dirạ] is," he remarks, "of two sorts, one covering the whole body like a long gown from the elbow, over the shoulders, down to the knees: this is the sirgh: the other, called kembáz, covers the body only to the waist; the arms from the elbows downwards being covered with two pieces of steel, fitting into each other, with iron fingers. Thus clad, the Arab completes his armour by putting on his head an iron cap (tás), which is but rarely adorned with feathers. The price of a coat of mail fluctuates from two hundred to fifteen hundred piastres.... Those of the best quality are capable of resisting a ball."[364] The coat of mail is sometimes worn within the ordinary outer tunic.
NOTE 6. This implies that his parents were dead.