[Footnote 378: Lit. an ill presence (mehhdser sau). This expression has occurred before in the Nights, where I have, in deference to the authority of the late M. Dozy (the greatest Arabic scholar since Silvestre de Sacy) translated it "a compend of ill," reading the second word as pointed with dsemmeh (i.e. sou, evil, sub.) instead of with fetheh (i.e. sau, evil, adj.), although in such a case the strict rules of Arabic grammar require sou to be preceded by the definite article (i.e. mehhdseru's sou). However, the context and the construction of the phrase, in which the present example of the expression occurs, seem to show that it is not here used in this sense.]