Supplemental Nights, Volume 1
by
Richard F. Burton
Part 6 out of 6
townlets, and in the village republics of Southern India the
"Jyoshi" is one of the paid officials.
[FN#152] Arab. "Amin" sub. and adj. In India it means a
Government employe who collects revenue; in Marocco a
commissioner sent by His Sharifian Majesty.
[FN#153] Our older word for divers=Arab "Ghawwasun": a single
pearl (in the text Jauhar=the Port. AIjofar) is called
"habbah"=grain or seed.
[FN#154] The kindly and generous deed of one Moslem to another,
and by no means rare in real life.
[FN#155] "Eunuch," etymologically meaning chamberlain ( +
), a bed-chamber-servant or slave, was presently confined to
castrated men found useful for special purposes, like gelded
horses, hounds, and cockerels turned to capons. Some writers hold
that the creation of the semivir or apocopus began as a
punishment in Egypt and elsewhere; and so under the Romans
amputation of the "peccant part" was frequent: others trace the
Greek "invalid," i.e., impotent man, to marital jealousy, and not
a few to the wife who wished to use the sexless for hard work in
the house without danger to the slave-girls. The origin of the
mutilation is referred by Ammianus Marcellinus (lib. iv. chap.
17), and the Classics generally, to Semiramis, an "ancient queen"
of decidedly doubtful epoch, who thus prevented the propagation
of weaklings. But in Genesis (xxxvii. 36; xxxix. 1, margin) we
find Potiphar termed a "Sarim" (castrato), an "extenuating
circumstance" for Mrs. P. Herodotus (iii. chap. 48) tells us that
Periander, tyrant of Corinth, sent three hundred Corcyrean boys
to Alyattes for castration , and that Panionios of
Chios sold caponised lads for high prices (viii. 105): he notices
(viii. 104 and other places) that eunuchs "of the Sun, of Heaven,
of the hand of God," were looked upon as honourable men amongst
the Persians whom Stephanus and Brissonius charge with having
invented the name (Dabistan i. 171). Ctesias also declares that
the Persian kings were under the influence of eunuchs. In the
debauched ages of Rome the women found a new use for these
effeminates, who had lost only the testes or testiculi=the
witnesses (of generative force): it is noticed by Juvenal (i. 22;
ii. 365-379; vi. 366)
--sunt quos imbelles et mollia semper
Oscula delectant.
So Martial,
--vult futui Gallia, non parere,
And Mirabeau knew (see Kadisah) "qu'ils mordent les femmes et les
liment avec une precieuse continuite." (Compare my vol. ii. 90;
v. 46.) The men also used them as catamites (Horace i. Od.
xxxvii.).
"Contaminato cum grege turpium,
Morbo virorum."
In religion the intestabilis or intestatus was held ill-omened,
and not permitted to become a priest (Seneca Controv. ii. 4), a
practice perpetuated in the various Christian churches. The
manufacture was forbidden, to the satisfaction of Martial, by
Domitian, whose edict Nero confirmed; and was restored by the
Byzantine empire, which advanced eunuchs, like Eutropius and
Narses, to the highest dignities of the realm. The cruel custom
to the eternal disgrace of mediaeval Christianity was revived in
Rome for providing the choirs in the Sistine Chapel and elsewhere
with boys' voices. Isaiah mentions the custom (Ivi. 3-6).
Mohammed, who notices in the Koran (xxiv. 31), "such men as
attend women and have no need of women," i.e., "have no natural
force," expressly forbade (iv. 118), "changing Allah's
creatures," referring, say the commentators, to superstitious
earcropping of cattle, tattooing, teeth-sharpening, sodomy,
tribadism, and slave-gelding. See also the "Hidayah," vol. iv.
121; and the famous divine AI-Siyuti, the last of his school,
wrote a tractate Fi 'I-Tahrimi Khidmati 'I-Khisyan=on the
illegality of using eunuchs. Yet the Harem perpetuated the
practice throughout AI-Islam and African jealousy made a gross
abuse of it. To quote no other instance, the Sultan of Dar-For
had a thousand eunuchs under a Malik or king, and all the chief
offices of the empire, such as Ab (father) and Bab (door), were
monopolised by these neutrals. The centre of supply was the Upper
Nile, where the operation was found dangerous after the age of
fifteen, and when badly performed only one in four survived. For
this reason, during the last century the Coptic monks of Girgah
and Zawy al-Dayr, near Assiout, engaged in this scandalous
traffic, and declared that it was philanthropic to operate
scientifically (Prof. Panuri and many others). Eunuchs are now
made in the Sudan, Nubia, Abyssinia, Kordofan, and Dar-For,
especially the Messalmiyah district: one of those towns was
called "Tawashah" (eunuchry) from the traffic there conducted by
Fukaha or religious teachers. Many are supplied by the district
between Majarah (Majarash?) and the port Masawwah; there are also
depots at Mbadr, near Tajurrah-harbour, where Yusuf Bey, Governor
in 1880, caponised some forty boys, including the brother of a
hostile African chief: here also the well-known Abu Bakr was
scandalously active. It is calculated that not less than eight
thousand of these unfortunates are annually exported to Arabia,
Egypt, and Turkey. Article IV. of the AngIo-Egyptian Convention
punishes the offense with death, and no one would object to
hanging the murderer under whose mutilating razor a boy dies. Yet
this, like most of our modern "improvements" in Egypt, is a mere
brutum fulmen. The crime is committed under our very eyes, but we
will not see it.
The Romans numbered three kinds of eunuchs:--1. Castrati,
clean-shaved, from Gr. ; 2. Spadones, from , when the
testicles are torn out, not from "Spada," town of Persia; and, 3.
Thlibii, from , to press, squeeze, when the testicles are
bruised, &c. In the East also, as I have stated (v. 46), eunuchs
are of three kinds:--1. Sandali, or the clean-shaved, the
classical apocopus. The parts are swept off by a single cut of a
razor, a tube (tin or wooden) is set in the urethra, the wound is
cauterised with boiling oil, and the patient is planted in a
fresh dunghill. His diet is milk; and if under puberty, he often
survives. This is the eunuque aqueduc, who must pass his water
through a tube. 2. The eunuch whose penis is removed: he retains
all the power of copulation and procreation without the
wherewithal; and this, since the discovery of caoutchouc, has
often been supplied. 3. The eunuch, or classical Thlibias and
Semivir, who has been rendered sexless by removing the testicles
(as the priests of Cybele were castrated with a stone knife), or
by bruising (the Greek Thlasias), twisting, searing, or bandaging
them. A more humane process has lately been introduced: a
horsehair is tied round the neck of the scrotum and tightened by
slow degrees till the circulation of the part stops and the bag
drops off without pain. This has been adopted in sundry Indian
regiments of Irregular Cavalry, and it succeeded admirably: the
animals rarely required a day's rest. The practice was known to
the ancients. See notes on Kadisah in Mirabeau. The Eunuchata
virgo was invented by the Lydians, according to their historian
Xanthus. Zachias (Quaest. medico-legal.) declares that the
process was one of infibulation or simple sewing up the vulva;
but modern experience has suggested an operation like the
"spaying" of bitches, or mutilation of the womb, in modern
euphuism "baby-house." Dr. Robert ("Journey from Delhi to Bombay,
Muller's Archiv. 1843") speaks of a eunuch'd woman who after
ovariotomy had no breasts, no pubes, no rotundities, and no
desires. The Australians practice exsection of the ovaries
systematically to make women barren. Miklucho Maclay learned from
the traveller Retsch that about Lake Parapitshurie men's urethras
were split, and the girls were spayed: the latter showing two
scars in the groin. They have flat bosoms, but feminine forms,
and are slightly bearded; they mix with the men, whom they
satisfy mechanically, but without enjoyment (?). MacGillivray, of
the "Rattlesnake," saw near Cape York a woman with these scars:
she was a surdo-mute, and had probably been spayed to prevent
increase. The old Scandinavians, from Norway to Iceland,
systematically gelded "sturdy vagrants" in order that they might
not beget bastards. The Hottentots before marriage used to cut
off the left testicle, meaning by such semi-castration to prevent
the begetting of twins. This curious custom, mentioned by the
Jesuit Tochard, Boeving, and Kolbe, is now apparently obsolete--
at least, the traveller Fritsch did not find it.
[FN#156] Arab. "Haram"="forbidden," sinful.
[FN#157] In Chavis and Cazotte, who out-galland'd Galland in
transmogrifying the Arabic, this is the "Story of Illage
(AI-Hajj) Mahomet and his sons; or, the Imprudent Man." The tale
occurs in many forms and with great modifications. See, for
instance, the Gesta Romanorum "Of the miraculous recall of
sinners and of the consolation which piety offers to the
distressed," the adventures of the knight Placidus, vol. ii. 99.
Charles Swan, London. Rivington, 1824.
[FN#158] i.e. For fear of the "eye"; see vol. i. 123 and passim.
In these days the practice is rare; but, whenever you see at
Cairo an Egyptian dame daintily dressed and leading by the hand a
grimy little boy whose eyes are black with flies and whose dress
is torn and unclean, you see what has taken its place. And if you
would praise the brat you must not say "Oh, what a pretty boy!"
but "Inshallah!"--the Lord doth as he pleaseth.
[FN#159] The adoption of slave lads and lasses was and is still
common among Moslems.
[FN#160] I have elsewhere noted this "pathetic fallacy" which is
a lieu commun of Eastern folk-lore and not less frequently used
in the mediaeval literature of Europe before statistics were
invented.
[FN#161] Arab. "Yaskut min 'Aynayh," lit.=fall from his two
eyes, lose favour.
[FN#162] i.e. killing a man.
[FN#163] i.e. we can slay him whenever we will.
[FN#164] In Chavis and Cazotte "Story of Abosaber the Patient."
"Abu-Sabir" would mean "Father of the Patient (one)."
[FN#165] Arab. "Dihkan," in Persian a villager; but here
something more, a villageelder or chief. AI-Mas'udi (chap.
xxiv.), and other historians apply the term to a class of noble
Persians descended from the ten sons of Wahkert, the
first,"Dihkan," the fourth generation from King Kayomars.
[FN#166] Reminding one not a little of certain anecdotes anent
Quakers, current in England and English-speaking lands.
[FN#167] Arab. "Karyah," a word with a long history. The root
seems to be Karaha, he met; in Chald. Karih and Karia (emphatic
Karita)=a town or city; and in Heb. Kirjath, Kiryathayim, etc. We
find it in Carthage= Karta hadisah, or New Town as opposed to
Utica (Atikah)=Old Town; in Carchemish and in a host of similar
compounds. In Syria and Egypt Kariyah, like Kafr, now means a
hamlet, a village.
[FN#168] i.e. wandering at a venture.
[FN#169] Arab. "Sakhrah," the old French Corvee, and the "Begar"
of India.
[FN#170] Arab. "Matmurah:" see vol. ii. 39, where it was used as
an "underground cell." The word is extensively used in the
Maghrib or Western Africa.
[FN#171] Arab. "Ya Aba Sabir." There are five vocative particles
in Arabic; "Ya," common to the near and far; "Aya" (ho!) and
"Haya" (holla!) addressed to the far, and "Ay" and "A"
(A-'Abda-llahi, O Abdullah), to those near. All govern the
accusative of a noun in construction in the literary language
only; and the vulgar use none but the first named. The
English-speaking races neglect the vocative particle, and I never
heard it except in the Southern States of the AngloAmerican
Union=Oh, Mr. Smith.
[FN#172] He was not honest enough to undeceive them; a neat
Quaker-like touch.
[FN#173] Here the oath is justified; but the reader will have
remarked that the name of Allah is often taken in vain. Moslems,
however, so far from holding this a profanation deem it an
acknowledgment of the Omnipotence and Omnipresence. The Jews from
whom the Christians have borrowed had an interest in concealing
the name of their tribal divinity; and therefore made it
ineffable.
[FN#174] i.e. the grave, the fosse commune of slain men.
[FN#175] A fancy name; "Zawash" in Pers. is = the planet
Jupiter, either borrowed from Greece, or both descended from some
long forgotten ancestor.
[FN#176] In Chavis and Cazotte "Story of Bhazad (!) the
Impatient." The name is Persian, Bih (well, good) Zad (born). In
the adj. bih we recognize a positive lost in English and German
which retain the comparative (bih-tar = better) and superlative
(bih-tarin=best).
[FN#177] i.e. the moiety kept by the bridegroom, a contingent
settlement paid at divorce or on the death of the husband.
[FN#178] Arab. "Rumh"=the horseman's lance not the footman's
spear.
[FN#179] i.e. became a highwayman (a time-honoured and
honourable career) in order to collect money for completing the
dowry.
[FN#180] i.e. to the bride, the wedding-day; not to be
confounded with "going in unto" etc.
[FN#181] Probably meaning that she saw the eyes espying through
the crevice without knowing whose they were.
[FN#182] A fancy name intended to be Persian
[FN#183] i.e. thy Harem, thy women.
[FN#184] i.e. thy life hath been unduly prolonged.
[FN#185] See Chavis and Cazotte, "Story of Ravia (Arwa!) the
Resigned." Dadbin (Persian)=one who looks to justice, a name
hardly deserved in this case.
[FN#186] For this important province and city of Persia, see
Al-Mas'udi, ii. 2; iv. 86, etc. It gave one of the many names to
the Caspian Sea. The adjective is Tabari, whereas Tabarani=native
of Tiberias (Tabariyah).
[FN#187] Zor-khan=Lord Violence, and Kar-dan=Business-knower;
both Persian.
[FN#188] "Arwa" written with a terminal of ya is a woman's P.N.
in Arabic.
[FN#189] i.e. Not look down upon me with eyes of contempt. This
"marrying below one" is still an Eastern idea, very little known
to women in the West.
[FN#190] Chavis and Cazotte call the Dabbus a "dabour" and
explain it as a "sort of scepter used by Eastern Princes, which
serves also as a weapon." For the Dabbus, or mace, see vol. vi.
249.
[FN#191] i.e. Let thy purposes be righteous as thine outward
profession.
[FN#192] See vol. vi. 130. This is another lieu commun amongst
Moslems; and its unfact requires only statement.
[FN#193] Afterwards called his "chamberlain," i.e. guardian of
the Harem-door.
[FN#194] i.e. Chosroes, whom Chavis and Cazotte make "Cyrus."
[FN#195] Arab. "Takiyah," used for the Persian Takhtrawan,
common in The Nights.
[FN#196] Arab. "Kubbah," a dome-shaped tent, as elsewhere.
[FN#197] This can refer only to Abu al-Khayr's having been put
to death on Kardan's charge, although the tale-teller, with
characteristic inconsequence, neglected to mention the event.
[FN#198] Not referring to skull sutures, but to the forehead,
which is poetically compared with a page of paper upon which
Destiny writes her irrevocable decrees.
[FN#199] Said in the grimmest earnest, not jestingly, as in vol.
iv. 264.
[FN#200] i.e. the lex talionis, which is the essence of Moslem,
and indeed, of all criminal jurisprudence. We cannot wonder at
the judgment of Queen Arwa: even Confucius, the mildest and most
humane of lawgivers, would not pardon the man who allowed his
father's murderer to live. The Moslem lex talionis (Koran ii.
173) is identical with that of the Jews (Exod. xxi. 24), and the
latter probably derives from immemorial usage. But many modern
Rabbins explain away the Mosaical command as rather a demand for
a pecuniary mulct than literal retaliation. The well-known Isaac
Aburbanel cites many arguments in proof of this position: he
asks, for instance, supposing the accused have but one eye,
should he lose it for having struck out one of another man's two?
Moreover, he dwells upon the impossibility of inflicting a
punishment the exact equivalent of the injury; like Shylock's
pound of flesh without drawing blood. Moslems, however, know
nothing of these frivolities, and if retaliation be demanded the
judge must grant it. There is a legend in Marocco of an English
merchant who was compelled to forfeit tooth for tooth at the
instance of an old woman, but a profitable concession gilded the
pill.
[FN#201] In Chavis and Cazotte "Story of Bhazmant (!); or the
Confident Man." "Bakht (-i-) Zaman" in Pers. would=Luck of the
Time.
[FN#202] Chavis and Cazotte change the name to "Abadid," which,
like "Khadidan," is nonsignificant.
[FN#203] Arab. "Faris," here a Reiter, or Dugald Dolgetti, as
mostly were the hordes led by the mediaeval Italian Condottieri.
[FN#204] So Napoleon the Great also believed that Providence is
mostly favorable to "gros bataillons."
[FN#205] Pers. and Arab.="Good perfection."
[FN#206] In Chavis and Cazotte "Story of Baharkan." Bihkard (in
Shiraz pronounced "Kyard")="Well he did."
[FN#207] See "Katru" in the Introduction to the Bakhtiyar-namah.
[FN#208] The text has "Jaukalan" for Saulajan, the Persian
"Chaugan"=the crooked bat used in Polo. See vol. 1. 46.
[FN#209] Amongst Moslems, I have noted, circumstantial evidence
is not lawful: the witness must swear to what he has seen. A
curious consideration, how many innocent men have been hanged by
"circumstantial evidence." See vol. v. 97.
[FN#210] In Chavis and Cazotte "Story of Abattamant (!), or the
Prudent Man;" also Aylan Shah becomes Olensa after Italian
fashion.
[FN#211] In Arab. idiom a long hand or arm means power, a phrase
not wholly unused in European languages. Chavis and Cazotte
paraphrase "He who keeps his hands crossed upon his breast, shall
not see them cut off."
[FN#212] Arab. "Jama'a atrafah," lit.=he drew in his
extremities, it being contrary to "etiquette" in the presence of
a superior not to cover hands and feet. In the wild Argentine
Republic the savage Gaucho removes his gigantic spurs when coming
into the presence of his master.
[FN#213] About the equivalent to the Arab. or rather Egypto-
Syrian form "Jiddan," used in the modern slang sense.
[FN#214] i.e. that he become my son-in-law.
[FN#215] For the practice of shampooing often alluded to in The
Nights, see vol. iii. 17. The king "sleeping on the boys' knees"
means that he dropped off whilst his feet were on the laps of the
lads.
[FN#216] Meaning the honour of his Harem.
[FN#217] Pardon, lit.=security; the cry for quarter already
introduced into English
"Or raise the craven cry Aman."
It was Mohammed's express command that this prayer for mercy
should be respected even in the fury of fight. See vol. i. 342.
[FN#218] A saying found in every Eastern language beginning with
Hebrew; Proverbs xxvi. 27, "Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall
therein."
[FN#219] i.e. a domed tomb where prayers and perlections of the
Koran could be made. "Kubbah" in Marocco is still the term for a
small square building with a low medianaranja cupola under which
a Santon lies interred. It is the "little Waly" of our "blind
travellers" in the unholy "Holy Land."
[FN#220] i.e. to secure her assistance in arousing the king's
wrath.
[FN#221] i.e. so slow to avenge itself.
[FN#222] Story of Sultan Hebriam (!), and his Son" (Chavis and
Cazotte). Unless they greatly enlarged upon the text, they had a
much fuller copy than that found in the Bresl. Edit.
[FN#223] A right kingly king, in the Eastern sense of the word,
would strike off their heads for daring to see omens threatening
his son and heir: this would be constructive treason of the
highest because it might be expected to cause its own fulfilment.
[FN#224] Mohammed's Hadis "Kazzibu 'l-Munajjimuna bi Rabbi
'I-Ka'abah"=the Astrologers lied, by the Ka'abah's Lord!
[FN#225] Arab. "Khawatin," plur. of Khatun, a matron, a lady,
vol. iv. 66.
[FN#226] See Al-Mas'udi, chapt. xvii. (Fr. Transl. ii. 48-49) of
the circular cavity two miles deep and sixty in circuit inhabited
by men and animals on the Caucasus near Derbend.
[FN#227] Arab. "Nafas" lit.=breath. Arabs living in a land of
caverns know by experience the danger of asphyxiation in such
places.
[FN#228] This simple tale is told with much pathos not of words
but of sense.
[FN#229] Arab. "Ajal"=the appointed day of death, also used for
sudden death. See vol. i. 74.
[FN#230] i.e. the Autumnal Equinox, one of the two great
festival days (the other being the New Year) of the Persians, and
surviving in our Michaelmas. According to Al-Mas'udi (chap.
xxi.), it was established to commemorate the capture of Zahhak
(Azhi-Dahaka), the biting snake (the Hindu Ahi) of night and
darkness, the Greek Astyages, by Furaydun or Feridun. Prof. Sayce
(Principles of Comparative Philology, p. 11) connects the latter
with the Vedic deity Trita, who harnessed the Sun-horse (Rig. v.
i. 163, 2, 3), the of Homer, a title of Athene, the
Dawn-goddess, and Burnouf proved the same Trita to be Thraetaona,
son of Athwya, of the Avesta, who finally became Furaydun, the
Greek Kyrus. See vol. v. 1.
[FN#231] In Chavis and Cazotte, "Story of Selimansha and his
Family."
[FN#232] Arab. for Pers. Pahluwan (from Pahlau) a brave, a
warrior, an athlete, applied in India to a champion in any
gymnastic exercise, especially in wrestling. The Frenchman calls
him "Balavan"; and the Bresl. text in more than one place (p.
312) calls him "Bahwan."
[FN#233] i.e. King (Arab.) King (Persian): we find also Sultan
Malik Shah=King King King.
[FN#234] Arab. "Aulad-i," a vulgarism, plural for dual.
[FN#235] Mr. Payne translates, "so he might take his father's
leavings" i.e. heritage, reading "Asar" which I hold to be a
clerical error for Sar=Vendetta, blood revenge (Bresl. Edit. vi.
310).
[FN#236] Arab. "Al-'Asi" the pop. term for one who refuses to
obey a constituted authority and syn. with Pers. "Yaghi." "Ant
'Asi?" Wilt thou not yield thyself? says a policeman to a
refractory Fellah.
[FN#237] i.e. of the Greeks: so in Kor. xxx. 1. "Alif Lam Mim,
the Greeks (Al-Roum) have been defeated." Mr. Rodwell curiously
remarks that "the vowel-points for 'defeated' not being
originally written, would make the prophecy true in either event,
according as the verb received an active or passive sense in
pronunciation." But in discovering this mare's nest, a rank piece
of humbug like Aio te Aeacida, etc., he forgets that all the
Prophet's "Companions," numbering some 5000, would pronounce it
only in one way and that no man could mistake "ghalabat" (active)
for "ghulibat" (passive).
[FN#238] The text persistently uses "Jariyah"=damsel,
slave-girl, for the politer "Sabiyah"=young lady, being written
in a rude and uncourtly style.
[FN#239] So our familiar phrase "Some one to back us."
[FN#240] Arab. "'Akkada lahu ray," plur. of rayat, a banner. See
vol. iii. 307.
[FN#241] i.e. "What concern hast thou with the king's health?"
The question is offensively put.
[FN#242] Arab. "Masalah," a question; here an enigma.
[FN#243] Arab. "Lialla" (i.e. li, an, la) lest; but printed here
and elsewhere with the ya as if it were "laylan,"=for a single
night.
[FN#244] i.e. if my death be fated to befal to-day, none may
postpone it to a later date.
[FN#245] Arab. "Dusti": so the ceremony vulgarly called "Doseh"
and by the ItaloEgyptians "Dosso," the riding over disciples'
backs by the Shaykh of the Sa'diyah Darwayshes (Lane M.E. chapt.
xxv.) which took place for the last time at Cairo in 1881.
[FN#246] In Chavis and Cazotte she conjures him "by the great
Maichonarblatha Sarsourat" (Miat wa arba'at ashar Surat)=the 114
chapters of the Alcoran.
[FN#247] I have noted that Moslem law is not fully satisfied
without such confession which, however, may be obtained by the
bastinado. It is curious to compare English procedure with what
Moslem would be in such a case as that of the famous Tichborne
Claimant. What we did need hardly be noticed. An Arab judge would
in a case so suspicious at once have applied the stick and in a
quarter of an hour would have settled the whole business; but
then what about the "Devil's own," the lawyers and lawyers' fees?
And he would have remarked that the truth is not less true
because obtained by such compulsory means.
[FN#248] The Hudhud, so called from its cry "Hood! Hood!" It is
the Lat. upupa, Gr. from its supposed note epip or upup; the
old Egyptian Kukufa; Heb. Dukiphath and Syriac Kikupha (Bochart
Hierozoicon, part ii. 347). The Spaniards call it Gallo de Marzo
(March-Cock) from its returning in that month, and our old
writers "lapwing" (Deut. xiv. 18). This foul-feeding bird derives
her honours from chapt. xxvii. of the Koran (q.v.), the Hudhud
was sharp-sighted and sagacious enough to discover water
underground which the devils used to draw after she had marked
the place by her bill.
[FN#249] Here the vocative Ya is designedly omitted in poetical
fashion (e.g., Khaliliyya--my friend!) to show the speaker's
emotion. See p. 113 of Captain A. Lockett's learned and curious
work the "Miet Amil" (=Hundred Regimens), Calcutta, 1814.
[FN#250] The story-teller introduces this last instance with
considerable art as a preface to the denouement.
[FN#251] See Chavis and Cazotte "Story of the King of Haram and
the slave."
[FN#252] i.e. men caught red-handed.
[FN#253] Arab. "Libwah," one of the multitudinous names for the
king of beasts, still used in Syria where the animal has been
killed out, soon to be followed by the bear (U. Syriacus). The
author knows that lions are most often found in couples.
[FN#254] Arab. "Himyan or Hamyan,"=a girdle.
[FN#255] As he would kiss a son. I have never yet seen an
Englishman endure these masculine kisses, formerly so common in
France and Italy, without showing clearest signs of his disgust.
[FN#256] A cheap way of rewarding merit, not confined to Eastern
monarchs, but practised by all contemporary Europe.
[FN#257] Arab. "Kasf,"=houghing a camel so as to render it
helpless. The passage may read. "we are broken to bits (Kisi) by
our own sin."
[FN#258] Bresl. Edit., vol. vii. pp. 251-4, Night dlxv.
[FN#259] See vol. vi. 175. A Moslem should dress for public
occasions, like the mediaeval student, in vestibus (quasi) nigris
aut subfuscis; though not, except amongst the Abbasides,
absolutely black, as sable would denote Jewry.
[FN#260] A well-known soldier and statesman, noted for piety and
austerity. A somewhat fuller version of this story, from which I
have borrowed certain details, is given in the Biographical
Dictionary of Ibn Khallikan (i. 303-4). The latter, however,
calls the first Abd al-Malik "Ibn Bahran" (in the index Ibn
Bahram), which somewhat spoils the story. "Ibn Khallikan,"
by-the-by, is derived popularly from "Khalli" (let go), and
"Kana" (it was, enough), a favourite expression of the author,
which at last superseded his real name, Abu al-Abbas Ahmad. He is
better off than the companion nicknamed by Mohammed Abu
Horayrah=Father of the She-kitten (not the cat), and who in
consequence has lost his true name and pedigree.
[FN#261] In Ibn Khallikan (i. 303) he is called the "Hashimite,"
from his ancestor, Hashim ibn Abd Manaf. The Hashimites and
Abbasides were fine specimens of the Moslem "Pharisee," as he is
known to Christians, not the noble Purushi of authentic history.
[FN#262] Meaning a cap, but of what shape we ignore. Ibn
Khallikan afterwards calls it a "Kalansua," a word still applied
to a mitre worn by Christian priests.
[FN#263] Arab. "La baas," equivalent in conversation to our "No
matter," and "All right."
[FN#264] As a member of the reigning family, he wore black
clothes, that being the especial colour of the Abbasides, adopted
by them in opposition to the rival dynasty of the Ommiades, whose
family colour was white, that of the Fatimites being green. The
Moslems borrowed their sacred green, "the hue of the Pure," from
the old Nabatheans and the other primitive colours from the tents
of the captains who were thus distinguished. Hence also amongst
the Turks and Tartars, the White Horde and the Black Horde.
[FN#265] The word has often occurred, meaning date-wine or
grape-wine. Ibn Khaldun contends that in Ibn Khallikan it here
means the former.
[FN#266] L25,000. Ibn Khallikan (i. 304) makes the debt four
millions of dirhams or L90,000-L100,000.
[FN#267] In the Biographer occurs the equivalent phrase, "That a
standard be borne over his head."
[FN#268] Here again we have a suggestion that Ja'afar presumed
upon his favour with the Caliph; such presumption would soon be
reported (perhaps by the austere intrigant himself) to the royal
ears, and lay the foundation of ill-will likely to end in utter
destruction.
[FN#269] Bresl. Edit., vol. vii. pp. 258-60, Night dlxvii.
[FN#270] Fourth Abbaside, A.D. 785-786, vol. v. 93. He was a
fantastic tyrant who was bent upon promoting to the Caliphate his
own son, Ja'afar; he cast Harun into prison and would probably
have slain him but for the intervention of the mother of one of
the two brothers, Khayzaran widow of Al-Mahdi, and Yahya the
Barmecide.
[FN#271] Third Abbaside, A.D. 775-785, vol. vii. 136; ix. 334.
[FN#272] This reminds us of the Bir Al-Khatim (Well of the
Signet) at Al-Medinah; in which Caliph Osman during his sixth
year dropped from his finger the silver ring belonging to the
founder of Al-Islam, engraved in three lines with "Mohammed /
Apostle (of) / Allah /." It had served to sign the letters sent
to neighboring kings and had descended to the first three
successors (Pilgrimage ii. 219). Mohammed owned three seal-
rings, the golden one he destroyed himself; and the third, which
was of carnelian, was buried with other objects by his heirs.
The late Subhi Pasha used to declare that the latter had been
brought to him with early Moslem coins by an Arab, and when he
died he left it to the Sultan.
[FN#273] Mr. Payne quotes Al-Tabari's version of this anecdote.
"El-Mehdi had presented his son Haroun with a ruby ring, worth a
hundred thousand dinars, and the latter being one day with his
brother (the then reigning Khalif), El Hadi saw the ring on his
finger and desired it. So, when Haroun went out from him, he
sent after him, to seek the ring of him. The Khalif's messenger
overtook Er Reshid on the bridge over the Tigris and acquainted
him with his errand; whereupon the prince, enraged at the demand,
pulled off the ring and threw it into the river. When El Hadi
died and Er Rashid succeeded to the throne, he went with his
suite to the bridge in question and bade his Vizier Yehya ben
Khalid send for divers and cause them to make search for the
ring. It had then been five months in the water and no one
believed it would be found. However, the divers plunged into the
river and found the ring in the very place where he had thrown it
in, whereat Haroun rejoiced with an exceeding joy, regarding it
as a presage of fair fortune."
[FN#274] Not historically correct. Al-Rashid made Yahya, father
of Ja'afar, his Wazir; and the minister's two sons, Fazl and
Ja'afar, acted as his lieutenants for seventeen years from A.D.
786 till the destruction of the Barmecides in A.D. 803. The
tale-teller quotes Ja'afar because he was the most famous of the
house.
[FN#275] Perhaps after marrying Ja'afar to his sister. But the
endearing name was usually addressed to Ja'afar's elder brother
Fazl, who was the Caliph's foster-brother.
[FN#276] Read seventeen: all these minor inaccuracies tend to
invalidate the main statement.
[FN#277] Arab. "Yar'ad" which may mean "thundereth." The dark
saying apparently means, Do good whilst thou art in power and
thereby strengthen thyself.
[FN#278] The lady seems to have made the first advances and Bin
Abu Hajilah quotes a sixaine in which she amorously addresses her
spouse. See D'Herbelot, s.v. Abbassa.
[FN#279] The tale-teller passes with a very light hand over the
horrors of a massacre which terrified and scandalised the then
civilised world, and which still haunt Moslem history. The
Caliph, like the eking, can do no wrong; and, as Viceregent of
Allah upon Earth, what would be deadly crime and mortal sin in
others becomes in his case an ordinance from above. These
actions are superhuman events and fatal which man must not judge
nor feel any sentiment concerning them save one of mysterious
respect. For the slaughter of the Barmecides, see my Terminal
Essay, vol. x.
[FN#280] Bresl. Edit., vol. vii. pp. 260-1, Night dlxviii.
[FN#281] Ibn al-Sammak (Son of the fisherman or fishmonger),
whose name was Abu al-Abbas Mohammed bin Sabih, surnamed Al-
Mazkur (Ibn al-Athir says Al-Muzakkar), was a native of Kufah
(where he died in A.H. 183 = 799-80), a preacher and professional
tale-teller famed as a stylist and a man of piety. Al-Siyuti (p.
292) relates of him that when honoured by the Caliph with
courteous reception he said to him, "Thy humility in thy
greatness is nobler than thy greatness." He is known to have
been the only theologician who, ex cathedra, promised Al-Rashid a
place in Paradise.
[FN#282] Bresl. Edit., vol. vii. pp. 261-2, Night dlxviii.
[FN#283] Seventh Abbaside, A.H. 198-227 = 813-842. See vol. iv.
109. He was a favourite with his father, who personally taught
him tradition; but he offended the Faithful by asserting the
creation of the Koran, by his leaning to Shi'ah doctrine, and by
changing the black garments of the Banu Abbas into green. He
died of a chill at Budandun, a day's march from Tarsus, where he
was buried: for this Podendon = = stretch out thy
feet, see Al-Siyuti, pp. 326-27.
[FN#284] Sixth Abbaside, A.D. 809-13. See vol. v. 93: 152. He
was of pure Abbaside blood on the father's side and his mother
Zubaydah's. But he was unhappy in his Wazir Al-Fazl bin Rabi,
the intriguer against the Barmecides, who estranged him from his
brothers Al-Kasim and Al-Maamun. At last he was slain by a party
of Persians, "who struck him with their swords and cut him
through the nape of his neck and went with his head to Tahir bin
al-Husayn, general to Al-Maamun, who set it upon a garden-wall
and made proclamation, This is the head of the deposed Mohammed
(Al-Amin)." Al-Siyuti, pp. 306-311. It was remarked by Moslem
annalists that every sixth Abbaside met with a violent death: the
first was this Mohammed al-Amin surnamed Al-Makhlu' = The
Deposed; the second sixth was Al-Musta'in; and the last was Al-
Muktadi bi'llah.
[FN#285] Lit. "Order and acceptance." See the Tale of the
Sandal-wood Merchant and the Sharpers: vol. vi. 202.
[FN#286] This is not noticed by Al-Siyuta (p. 318) who says that
his mother was a slave-concubine named Marajil who died in giving
him birth. The tale in the text appears to be a bit of Court
scandal, probably suggested by the darkness of the Caliph's
complexion.
[FN#287] Bresl. Edit., vol. viii. pp. 226-9, Nights dclx-i.
[FN#288] King of the Arab kingdom of Hirah, for whom see vol. v.
74. This ancient villain rarely appears in such favourable form
when tales are told of him.
[FN#289] The tribe of the chieftain and poet, Hatim Tai, for
whom see vol. iv. 94.
[FN#290] i.e. I will make a covenant with him before the Lord.
Here the word "Allah" is introduced among the Arabs of The
Ignorance.
[FN#291] i.e. the man of the Tribe of Tay.
[FN#292] A similar story of generous dealing is told of the
Caliph Omar in The Nights. See vol. v. 99 et seq.
[FN#293] Bresl. Edit., vol. viii. pp. 273-8, Nights dclxxv-vi.
In Syria and Egypt Firuz (the Persian "Piroz") = victorious,
triumphant, is usually pronounced Fayrus. The tale is a rechauffe
of the King and the Wazir's Wife in The Nights. See vol. vi. 129.
[FN#294] i.e. I seek refuge with Allah = God forfend.
[FN#295] Bresl. Edit., vol. xi. pp. 84-318, Nights
dccclxxv-dccccxxx. Here again the names are Persian, showing the
provenance of the tale; Shah Bakht is=King Luck and Rahwan is a
corruption of Rahban=one who keeps the (right) way; or it may be
Ruhban=the Pious. Mr. W. A. Clouston draws my attention to the
fact that this tale is of the Sindibad (Seven Wise Masters) cycle
and that he finds remotely allied to it a Siamese collection,
entitled Nonthuk Pakaranam in which Princess Kankras, to save the
life of her father, relates eighty or ninety tales to the king of
Pataliput (Palibothra). He purposes to discuss this and similar
subjects in extenso in his coming volumes, "Popular Tales and
Fictions: their Migrations and Transformations," to which I look
forward with pleasant anticipations.
[FN#296] So far this work resembles the Bakhtiyar-nameh, in
which the ten Wazirs are eager for the death of the hero who
relates tales and instances to the king, warning him against the
evils of precipitation.
[FN#297] One pilgrimage (Hajjat al-Islam) is commanded to all
Moslems. For its conditions see The Nights, vol. v. 202, et seq.
[FN#298] Arab. "Hajj al-Sharif." For the expenses of the process
see my Pilgrimage iii. 12. As in all "Holy Places," from Rome to
Benares, the sinner in search of salvation is hopelessly taken in
and fleeced by the "sons of the sacred cities."
[FN#299] Here a stranger invites a guest who at once accepts the
invitation; such is the freedom between Moslems at Meccah and
Al-Medinah, especially during pilgrimagetime.
[FN#300] i.e. the master could no longer use her carnally.
[FN#301] i.e. wantoned it away.
[FN#302] Here "Al-Hajj"=the company of pilgrims, a common use of
the term.
[FN#303] The text says, "He went on with the caravan to the
Pilgrimage," probably a clerical error. "Hajj" is never applied
to the Visitation (Ziyarah) at Al-Medinah.
[FN#304] Arab. "Jawar," that is, he became a mujawir, one who
lives in or near a collegiate mosque. The Egyptian proverb says,
"He pilgrimaged: quoth one, Yes, and for his villainy lives
(yujawir) at Meccah," meaning that he found no other place bad
enough for him.
[FN#305] I have often heard of this mysterious art in the East,
also of similarly making rubies and branch-coral of the largest
size, but, despite all my endeavours, I never was allowed to
witness the operation. It was the same with alchemy, which,
however, I found very useful to the "smasher." See my History of
Sindh, chapt. vii.
[FN#306] Elsewhere in The Nights specified as white woolen
robes.
[FN#307] Whilst she was praying the girl could not address her;
but the use of the rosary is a kind of "parergon."
[FN#308] Arab. "Ya Hajjah" (in Egypt pronounced "Haggeh"), a
polite address to an elderly woman, who is thus supposed to have
"finished her faith."
[FN#309] Arab. "Kanisah" (from Kans=sweeping) a pagan temple, a
Jewish synagogue, and especially a Christian church.
[FN#310] i.e. standeth in prayer or supplication.
[FN#311] i.e. fell into hysterics, a very common complaint
amongst the highly nervous and excitable races of the East.
[FN#312] Arab. "Kahramanah," a word which has often occurred in
divers senses, nurse, duenna, chamberwoman, stewardess, armed
woman defending the Harem, etc.
[FN#313] Which is supposed to contain the Harem.
[FN#314] Especially mentioned because the guide very often
follows his charges, especially when he intends to play them an
ugly trick. I had an unpleasant adventure of the kind in
Somaliland; but having the fear of the "Aborigines Protection
Society" before my eyes, refrained from doing more than hinting
at it.
[FN#315] i.e. otherwise than according to ordinance of Allah.
[FN#316] A well-known city of lrak 'Ajami (or Persian).
[FN#317] i.e. spare pegs and strings, plectra, thumb-guards,
etc.
[FN#318] Arab. "Hasir," the fine matting used for sleeping on
during the hot season in Egypt and Syria.
[FN#319] i.e. The bed where the "rough and tumble" had taken
place.
[FN#320] This word, which undoubtedly derives from cuculus,
cogul, cocu, a cuckoo, has taken a queer twist, nor can I explain
how its present meaning arose from a shebird which lays her egg
in a strange nest. Wittol, on the other hand, from Witan, to
know, is rightly applied to one whom La Fontaine calls "cocu et
content," the Arab Dayyus.
[FN#321] Arab. "Shabakah," here a net like a fisherman's, which
is hung over the hole in the wall called a shop, during the
temporary absence of the shopkeeper. See my Pilgrimage, i. 100.
[FN#322] i.e. of which the singer speaks.
[FN#323] i.e., she found him good at the to-and-fro movement;
our corresponding phrase is "basket-making."
[FN#324] Arab. "Mu'arris": in vol. i. 338, 1 derived the word
from 'Ars marriage, like the Germ. Kupplerin. This was a mere
mistake; the root is 'Ars (with a Sad not a Sin) and means a pimp
who shows off or displays his wares.
[FN#325] Arab. "Akhmitu Ghazla-ha" lit.=thicken her yarn or
thread.
[FN#326] I must again warn the reader that the negative, which
to us appears unnecessary, is emphatic in Arabic.
[FN#327] i.e. By removing the goods from the "but" to the "ben."
Pilgrimage i. 99.
[FN#328] Arab. "Tannur," here the large earthern jar with a
cover of the same material, round which the fire is built.
[FN#329] Being a musician the hero of the tale was also a
pederast.
[FN#330] Here Mr. Payne supplies "Then they returned and sat
down" (apparently changing places). He is quite correct in
characterising the Bresl. Edit. as corrupt and "fearfully
incoherent." All we can make certain of in this passage is that
the singer mistook the Persian for his white slave (Mameluke).
[FN#331] Arab. "Bazaka," normally used in the sense of spitting;
here the saliva might be applied for facilitating insertion.
[FN#332] In Persian "Award o burd,"=brought and bore away, gen.
applied to the movement of the man as in the couplet,
Chenin burd o award o award o burd,
Kih dayeh pas-i-pardeh zi ghussah murd.
He so came and went, went and came again,
That Nurse who lay curtained to faint was fain.
[FN#333] Alluding to the fighting rams which are described by
every Anglo-Indian traveller. They strike with great force, amply
sufficient to crush the clumsy hand which happens to be caught
between the two foreheads. The animals are sometimes used for Fal
or consulting futurity: the name of a friend is given to one and
that of a foe to the other; and the result of the fight suggests
victory or defeat for the men.
[FN#334] Arab. "Jauhar"=the jewel, the essential nature of a
substance. Compare M. Alcofribas' "Abstraction of the
Quintessence."
[FN#335] In parts of the Moslem world Al-Jabr=the tyranny, is
the equivalent of what we call "civil law," as opposed to
Al-Shari'ah, or Holy Law, the religious code; Diwan al-Jabr
(Civil Court) being the contrary of the Mahkamah or Kazi's
tribunal. See "First Footsteps in East Africa," p. 126.
[FN#336] i.e. in offering thee the kingship.
[FN#337] i.e. "a man of fourscore."
[FN#338] i.e. outside the city.
[FN#339] See the conclusion of the story.
[FN#340] i.e. I have said my say.
[FN#341] Arab. "Al-Mutabattil," usually=one who forsakes the
world. The Katarat alNaysan or rain-drops in the month Naysan
(April) produce pearls when falling into the oyster-shells and
poison in the serpent's mouth. The allusions to them are
innumerable in Persian poetry, and the idea gives rise to a host
of moralities more or less insipid.
[FN#342] This is the general idea concerning the diamond in all
countries where the gem is dug, but I never heard it of the
pearl.
[FN#343] Arab. "Faras," properly a mare; but the writer begins
by using the feminine, and then employs the masculine. It is an
abominable text.
[FN#344] Arab. "Rutab wa manazil," may also mean "stations and
mansions (of the moon and planets)." The double entendre was
probably intended.
[FN#345] Arab. "Za-if," still a popular word, meaning feeble,
sick, ailing, but especially, weak in venery.
[FN#346] See the original of this tale in King Al-Af'a:
Al-Mas'udi, chap. xlvi.
[FN#347] He says this without any sense of shame, coolly as
Horace or Catullus wrote.
[FN#348] i.e. of the caravan with which he came.
[FN#349] Arab. "Al-'Adl." In the form of Zu 'adl it = a legal
witness, a man of good repute; in Marocco and other parts of the
Moslem world 'Adul (plur. 'Udul) signifies an assessor of the
Kazi, a notary. Padre Lerchundy (loc. cit. p. 345) renders it
notario.
[FN#350] i.e. I would marry thy daughter, not only for her own
sake, but for alliance with thy family.
[FN#351] i.e. the bride's face.
[FN#352] The Ghusl or complete ablution after car. cop.
[FN#353] Thus the girl was made lawful to him as a concubine by
the "loathly ladye," whose good heart redeemed her ill-looks.
[FN#354] Meaning the poor man and his own daughter.
[FN#355] Mr. Payne changes the Arab title to the far more
appropriate heading, "Story of the Rich Man and his Wasteful
Son." The tale begins with AEsop's fable of the faggot; and
concludes with the "Heir of Linne," in the famous Scotch ballad.
Mr. Clouston refers also to the Persian Tale of Murchlis (The
Sorrowful Wazir); to the Forty Vezirs (23rd Story) to Cinthio and
to sundry old English chap-books.
[FN#356] Arab. "Tafrik wa'l-jam'a."
[FN#357] Arab. "Wafat" pop. used as death, decease, departure;
but containing the idea of departing to the mercy of Allah and
"paying the debt of nature." It is not so illomened a word as
Maut=death.
[FN#358] i.e. gifts and presents. See vol. iv. 185.
[FN#359] i.e. Turcomans; presently called Sistan, for which see
vol. ii. 218.
[FN#360] In my Pilgrimage (i. 38), 1 took from Mr. Galton's Art
of Travel, the idea of opening with a lancet the shoulder or
other fleshy part of the body and inserting into it a precious
stone. This was immensely derided by not a few including one who,
then a young man from the country, presently became a Cabinet
Minister. Despite their omniscience, however, the "dodge" is
frequently practised. See how this device was practised by Jeshua
Nazarenus, vol. v. 238.
[FN#361] Arab. "'Alam," a pile of stones, a flag or some such
landmark. The reader will find them described in "The Sword of
Midian," i. 98, and passim.
[FN#362] Mr. Clouston refers to the "Miles Gloriosus" (Plautus);
to "Orlando Innamorato" of Berni (the Daughter of the King of the
Distant Isles); to the "Seven Wise Masters" ("The Two Dreams," or
"The Crafty Knight of Hungary"); to his Book of Sindibad, p. 343
ff.; to Miss Busk's Folk-Lore of Rome, p. 399 ("The Grace of the
Hunchback"); to Prof. Crane's "Italian Popular Tales," p. 167,
and "The Elopement," from Pitre's Sicilian collection.
[FN#363] In sign of impatience; "Look sharp!"
[FN#364] i.e. the resemblance of the supposed sister to his
wife. This is a rechauffe of Kamar al-Zaman iid.
[FN#365] This leaving a long lock upon the shaven poll is a very
ancient practice: we find it amongst the old Egyptians. For the
Shushah or top-knot of hair, see vol. i. 308. It is differently
worn in the several regions of the Moslem world: the Maroccans of
the Rif country grow it not on the poll but on one side of the
head. As a rule, however, it is confined to boys, and is shaved
off at puberty.
[FN#366] Suspecting her to be a witch because she was old and
poor. The same was the case in Europe when these unfortunates
were burned during the early part of the last century and even
now the country-folk are often ready to beat or drown them. The
abominable witchcraft acts, which arose from bibliolatry and
belief in obsolete superstitions, can claim as many victims in
"Protestant" countries, England and the Anglo-American States as
the Jesuitical Inquisition.
[FN#367] It is not easy to make sense of this passage especially
when the Wazir is spoken of.
[FN#368] This is a rechauffe of the Sandal-Wood Merchant and the
Sharpers. Vol. vi. 202.
[FN#369] I have followed Mr. Payne's adaptation of the text as
he makes sense, whilst the Arabic does not. I suppose that the
holes are disposed crosswise.
[FN#370] i.e. Thy skill is so great that thou wilt undermine my
authority with the king.
[FN#371] This famous tale is first found in a small collection
of Latin fables (Adolphi Fabulae apud Leyser Hist. Poet. Medii
AEvi, p. 200-8), beginning
Caecus erat quidam, cui pulcra virago, etc.
The date is 1315, and Caxton printed it in English in 1483; hence
it was adopted by Boccaccio, Day vii., Novella 9; whence
Chaucer's "Marchaundes Tale": this, by-the-by, was translated by
Pope in his sixteenth or seventeenth year, and christened
"January and May." The same story is inserted in La Fontaine
(Contes, lib. ii., No. 8), "La Gageure des trois Commeres," with
the normal poirier; and lastly it appears in Wieland's "Oberon,"
canto vi.; where the Fairy King restores the old husband's sight,
and Titania makes the lover on the pear-tree invisible. Mr.
Clouston refers me also to the Bahar-i-Danish, or Prime of
Knowledge (Scott's translation, vol. ii., pp. 64-68); "How the
Brahman learned the Tirrea Bede"; to the Turkish "Kirk Wazir"
(Forty Wazirs) of the Shaykh-Zadeh (xxivth Wazir's story); to the
"Comoedia Lydiae," and to Barbazan's "Fabliaux et Contes" t. iii.
p. 451, "La Saineresse," the cupping-woman.
[FN#372] In the European versions it is always a pear-tree.
[FN#373] This supernatural agency, ever at hand and ever
credible to Easterns, makes this the most satisfactory version of
the world-wide tale.
[FN#374] i.e. till next harvest time.
[FN#375] The "'Ashshar," or Tither, is most unpopular in the
Nile-valley as in Wales; and he generally merits his ill-repute.
Tales concerning the villainy of these extortioners abound in
Egypt and Syria. The first step in improvement will be so to
regulate the tithes that the peasants may not be at the mercy of
these "publicans and sinners" who, however, can plead that they
have paid highly for appointment to office and must recoup
themselves.
[FN#376] Arab. "'Ammir"=cause to flourish.
[FN#377] Arab. "Afkah," a better Fakih or theologian; all Moslem
law being based upon the Koran, the Sayings (Hadis) and Doings
(Sunnat) of the Prophet; and, lastly, the Rasm or immemorial
custom of the country provided that it be not opposed to the
other three.
[FN#378] If the number represent the days in the Moslem year it
should be 354=6 months of 29 days and the rest of 30).
[FN#379] The affirmative particle "kad" preceding a verb in the
past gives it a present and at times a future signification.
[FN#380] A danik, the Persian "Dang," is one-sixth of a dirham,
i.e. about one penny. See vol. ii. 204.
[FN#381] It would mightily tickle an Eastern audience to hear of
a Tither being unable to do any possible amount of villainy.
[FN#382] i.e. The oath of triple divorce which is, I have said,
irrevocable, and the divorcee may not be taken again by her
husband till her marriage with another man (the Mustahill of The
Nights) has been consummated. See vol. iv., 48.
[FN#383] i.e. thousandfold cuckold.
[FN#384] Arab. "Wadi'ah"=the blows which the Robber had given
him.
[FN#385] Arab. "Sindiyan" (from the Persian) gen. used for the
holm-oak, the Quercus pseudococcifera, vulgarly termed ilex, or
native oak, and forming an extensive scrub in Syria, For this and
other varieties of Quercus, as the Mallul and the Ballut, see
Unexplored Syria, i. 68.
[FN#386] Hibernice
[FN#387] Lit. "In the way of moderation"=at least, at the most
moderate reckoning.
[FN#388] Arab. "Rasmal," the vulg. Syrian and Egyptian form of
Raas al-mal=stockin-trade.
[FN#389] Usually a ring or something from his person to show
that all was fair play; here however, it was a watchword.
[FN#390] Arab. "Ya Madyubah," prob. a clerical error for
"Madyunah," alluding to her many debts which he had paid. Here,
however, I suspect the truly Egyptian term "Ya Manyukah!"=O thou
berogered; a delicate term of depreciation which may be heard a
dozen times a day in the streets of Cairo. It has also a
masculine form, "Ya Manyuk!"
[FN#391] About=100 lb. Mr. Sayce (Comparative Philol. p. 210)
owns that Mn is old Egyptian but makes it a loan from the
"Semites," like Sus (horse), Sar (prince), Sepet (lip) and
Murcabutha (chariot), and goes to its origin in the Acratan
column, because "it is not found before the times when the
Egyptians borrowed freely from Palestine." But surely it is
premature to draw such conclusion when we have so much still to
learn concerning the dates of words in Egyptian.
[FN#392] Arab. Jami'. This anachronism, like many of the same
kind, is only apparent. The faith preached by Sayyidna Isa was
the Islam of his day and dispensation, and it abrogated all other
faiths till itself abrogated by the mission of Mahommed. It is
therefore logical to apply to it terms which we should hold to be
purely Moslem. On the other hand it is not logical to paint the
drop-curtain of the Ober-Ammergau "Miracle-play" with the Mosque
of Omar and the minarets of Al-Islam. I humbly represented this
fact to the mechanicals of the village whose performance brings
them in so large a sum every decade; but Snug, Snout and Bottom
turned up the nose of contempt and looked upon me as a mere
"shallow sceptic."
[FN#393] Arab. "Talamizah," plur. of Tilmiz, a disciple, a young
attendant. The word is Syriac and there is a
Heb. root but no Arabic. In the Durrat
al-Ghawwas, however, Tilmiz, Bilkis, and similar words are Arabic
in the form of Fa'lil and Fi'lil
[FN#394] Ruh Allah, lit.=breath of Allah, attending to the
miraculous conception according to the Moslems. See vol. v. 238.
[FN#395] Readers will kindly pronounce this word "Sahra" not
Sahara.
[FN#396] Mr. Clouston refers for analogies to this tale to his
"Oriental Sources of some of Chaucer's Tales" (Notes and Queries,
1885-86), and he finds the original of The Pardoner's Tale in one
of the Jatakas or Buddhist Birth-stories entitled Vedabbha
Jataka. The story is spread over all Europe; in the Cento Novelle
Antiche; Morlini; Hans Sachs, etc. And there are many Eastern
versions, e.g. a Persian by Farid al-Din "'Attar" who died at a
great age in A.D. 1278; an Arabic version in The Orientalist
(Kandy, 1884); a Tibetan in Rollston's Tibetan Tales; a
Cashmirian in Knowles' Dict. of Kashmiri Proverbs, etc., etc.,
etc.
[FN#397] Arab. "'Awan" lit.=aids, helpers; the "Aun of the Jinn"
has often occurred.
[FN#398] i.e. the peasant.
[FN#399] i.e. those serving on the usual feudal tenure; and
bound to suit and service for their fiefs.
[FN#400] i.e. the yearly value of his fief.
[FN#401] i.e. men who paid taxes.
[FN#402] Arab. "Rasatik" plur. of Rustak. See vol. vi. 289.
[FN#403] This adventure is a rechauffe of Amjad's adventure
(vol. iii. 333) without, however, its tragic catastrophe.
[FN#404] The text is so concise as to be enigmatical. The house
was finely furnished for a feast, as it belonged to the Man who
was lavish, etc.
[FN#405] Arab. "Khubz Samiz;" the latter is the Arabisation of
the Pers. Samid, fine white bread, simnel, Germ. semmel.
[FN#406] The text has "Bakulat"=pot-herbs; but it is probably a
clerical error for "Baklawat." See vol. ii. 311.
[FN#407] Egyptian-like he at once calls upon Allah to witness a
lie and his excuse would be that the lie was well-intentioned.
[FN#408] i.e. The private bagnio which in old days every grand
house possessed.
[FN#409] This is a fancy title, but it suits the tale better
than that in the text (xi. 183) "The Richard who lost his wealth
and his wits." Mr. Clouston refers to similar stories in
Sacchetti and other early Italian novelists.
[FN#410] Arab. "Al-Muwaswis": for "Wiswas" see vol. i. 106. This
class of men in stories takes the place of our "cunning idiot,"
and is often confounded with the Saudawi, the melancholist
proper.
[FN#411] Arab. "Hamhama," an onomapoeic, like our hum, hem, and
haw.
[FN#412] Arab. "Barniyah," a vessel either of glass or pottery
like that in which the manna was collected (Exod. xvi. 33).
[FN#413] A hasty man, as Ghazban=an angry man.
[FN#414] The Bresl. Edit. misprint. "Khablas" in more places
than one, now with a Sin, then with a Sad. Khalbas suggests
"Khalbus," a buffoon, for which see vol. ii. 143. In Egypt,
however, the latter generally ends in a Sad (see Lane's
"Khalboos," M. E. chap. xxvii).
[FN#415] This story is a rechauffe of the Jewish Kazi and his
pious wife; see vol. v. 256.
[FN#416] The Arab form of "Nayshapur"=reeds of (King) Shapur:
see vol. ix. 230.
[FN#417] Arab. "Ala Tarik al-Satr wa al-Salamah," meaning that
each other's wives did not veil before their brothers-in-law as
is usually done. It may also mean that they were under Allah's
protection and in best of condition.
[FN#418] i.e. he dared not rape her.
[FN#419] i.e. her "yes" meant "yes" and her "no" meant "no."
[FN#420] "Ignorance" (Jahl) may, here and elsewhere, mean
wickedness, forwardness, folly, vicious folly or uncalled-for
wrath. Here Arabic teaches a good lesson, for ignorance,
intemperance and egoism are, I repeat, the roots of all evil.
[FN#421] So Mohammed said of a child born in adultery "The babe
to the blanket (i.e. let it be nursed and reared) and the
adultress to the stone."
[FN#422] Arab. "Wa ha," etc., an interjection corresponding with
the Syriac "ho" lo! (i.e., look) behold! etc.
[FN#423] This paragraph is supplied by Mr. Payne: something of
the kind has evidently fallen out of the Arab text.
[FN#424] i.e. in the presence of witnesses, legally.
[FN#425] Lit. a myriad, ten thousand dirhams. See vol. iv. 281.
[FN#426] The fire was intended to defend the mother and babe
from Jinns, bad spirits, the evil eye, etc. Romans lit candles in
the room of the puerpara; hence the goddess Candelifera, and the
term Candelaria applied to the B.V. In Brand's Popular
Antiquities (ii. 144) we find, "Gregory mentions an ordinary
superstition of the old wives who dare not trust a child in a
cradle by itself alone without a candle;" this was for fear of
the "night-hag" (Milton, P. L., ii. 662). The same idea prevailed
in Scotland and in Germany: see the learned Liebrecht (who
translated the Pentamerone) "Zur Folkskunde," p. 31. In Sweden if
the candle go out, the child may be carried off by the Trolls
(Weckenstedt, Wendische Sagen, p. 446). The custom has been
traced to the Malay peninsula, whither it was probably imported
by the Hindus or the Moslems, and amongst the Tajiks in Bokhara.
For the Hindu practice, see Katha S. S. 305, and Prof. Tawney's
learned note analysed above.
[FN#427] Arab. "Kahinah," fem. of Kahin (Cohen): see Kahanah,
vol. i. 28.
[FN#428] i.e. for a long time, as has been before explained.
[FN#429] i.e. at his service. Arabia was well provided with
Hetairae and public women long before the days of Al-Islam.
[FN#430] Arab. "Athar"=sign, mark, trail.
[FN#431] i.e. Persia. See vol. v. 26.
[FN#432] Arab. "'Akakir" plur. of 'Akkar prop.=aromatic roots;
but applied to vulgar drugs or simples, as in the Tale of the
Sage Duban, i. 46.
[FN#433] Arab. "Si'at rizki-h" i.e., the ease with which he
earned his copious livelihood.
[FN#434] i.e. the ten thousand dirhams of the bond, beside the
unpaid and contingent portion of her "Mahr" or
marriage-settlement.
[FN#435] Arab. "Al-Hazur" from Hazr=loquacity, frivolous
garrulity. Every craft in the East has a jargon of its own and
the goldsmith (Zargar) is famed for speaking a language made
unintelligible by the constant insertion of a letter or letters
not belonging to the word. It is as if we rapidly pronounced How
d'ye do=Howth doth yeth doth?
[FN#436] Arab. "Asma al-Adwiyah," such as are contained in
volumes like the "Alfaz al-Adwi-yah" (Nomenclature of Drugs).
[FN#437] I am compelled to insert a line in order to make sense.
[FN#438] "Galen," who is considered by Moslems as a kind of
pre-Islamitic Saint; and whom Rabelais (iii. c. 7) calls Le
gentil Falot Galen, is explained by Eustathius as the Serene
{Greek} from {Greek}=rideo.
[FN#439] Arab. "Sahah" the clear space before the house as
opposed to the "Bathah" (Span. Patio) the inner court.
[FN#440] A naive description of the naive style of reclame
adopted by the Eastern Bob Sawyer.
[FN#441] Which they habitually do, by the by, with an immense
amount of unpleasant detail. See Pilgrimage i. 18.
[FN#442] The old French name for the phial or bottle in which
the patient's water is sent.
[FN#443] A descendant from Mohammed, strictly through his
grandson Husayn. See vol. iv. 170.
[FN#444] Arab. "Al-Futuh" lit. the victories; a euphemistic term
for what is submitted to the "musculus guineaorum."
[FN#445] Arab. "Firasah" lit. judging the points of a mare
(faras). Of physiognomy, or rather judging by externals, curious
tales are told by the Arabs. In Al-Mas'udi's (chapt. lvi.) is the
original of the camel blind of one eye, etc., which the genius of
Voltaire has made famous throughout Europe.
[FN#446] I here quote Mr. Payne's note. "Sic in the text; but
the passage is apparently corrupt. It is not plain why a rosy
complexion, blue eyes and tallness should be peculiar to women in
love. Arab women being commonly short, swarthy and blackeyed, the
attributes mentioned appear rather to denote the foreign origin
of the woman; and it is probable, therefore, that this passage
has by a copyist's error, been mixed up with that which relates
to the signs by which the mock physician recognised her
strangerhood, the clause specifying the symptoms of her love-lorn
condition having been crowded out in the process, an accident of
no infrequent occurrence in the transcription of Oriental works."
[FN#447] Most men would have suspected that it was her lover.
[FN#448] The sumptuary laws, compelling for instance the Jews to
wear yellow turbans, and the Christians to carry girdles date
from the Capture of Jerusalem in A.D. 636 by Caliph Omar. See
vol. i. 77; and Terminal Essay § 11.
[FN#449] i.e. Our Sunday: the Jewish week ending with the
Sabbath (Saturday). I have already noted this term for Saturn's
day, established as a God's rest by Commandment No. iv. How it
lost its honours amongst Christians none can say: the text in
Col. ii. 16, 17, is insufficient to abolish an order given with
such pomp and circumstance to, and obeyed, so strictly and
universally by, the Hebrews, including the Founder of
Christianity. The general idea is that the Jewish Sabbath was
done away with by the Christian dispensation (although Jesus kept
it with the usual scrupulous care), and that sundry of the
Councils at Colossae and Laodicea anathematised those who observed
the Saturday after Israelitish fashion. With the day its object
changed; instead of "keeping it holy," as all pious Jews still
do, the early Fathers converted it into the "Feast of the
Resurrection," which could not be kept too joyously. The
"Sabbatismus" of the Sabbatarian Protestant who keeps holy the
wrong day is a marvellous perversion and the Sunday feast of
France, Italy, and Catholic countries generally is far more
logical than the mortification day of England and the so-called
Reformed countries.
[FN#450] Harais, plur. of Harisah: see vol. i. 131.
[FN#451] It would have been cooked on our Thursday night, or the
Jewish Friday night and would be stale and indigestible on the
next day.
[FN#452] Marw (Margiana), which the Turkomans pronounce "Mawr,"
is derived by Bournouf from the Sansk. Maru or Marw; and by Sir
H. Rawlinson from Marz or Marj, the Lat. Margo; Germ. Mark;
English March; Old French Marche and Neo-Lat. Marca. So Marzban,
a Warden of the Marches: vol. iii. 256. The adj. is not Marazi,
as stated in vol. iii. 222; but Marwazi, for which see Ibn
Khallikan, vol. i. p. 7, etc.: yet there are good writers who use
"Marazi" as Razi for a native of Rayy.
[FN#453] i.e. native of Rayy city. See vol. iv. 104.
[FN#454] Normally used for fuel and at times by funny men to be
put into sweetmeats by way of practical joke: these are called
"Nukl-i-Pishkil"=goat-dung bonbons. The tale will remind old
Anglo-Indians of the two Bengal officers who were great at such
"sells" and who "swopped" a spavined horse for a broken-down
"buggy."
[FN#455] In the text "khanadik," ditches, trenches; probably (as
Mr. Payne suggests) a clerical or typographical error for
"Fanadik," inns or caravanserais; the plural of "Funduk" (Span.
Fonda), for which see vol. viii. 184.
[FN#456] This sentence is supplied by Mr. Payne to remedy the
incoherence of the text. Moslems are bound to see True Believers
decently buried and the poor often beg alms for the funeral. Here
the tale resembles the opening of Hajji Baba by Mr. Morier, that
admirable picture of Persian manners and morals.
[FN#457] Arab. "Al-ajr" which has often occurred.
[FN#458] Arab. "Hanut," i.e., leaves of the lotus-tree to be
infused as a wash for the corpse; camphor used with cotton to
close the mouth and other orifices; and, in the case of a wealthy
man, rose-water, musk, ambergris, sandal-wood, and lignaloes for
fumigation.
[FN#459] Which always begin with four "Takbirs" and differ in
many points from the usual orisons. See Lane (M. E. chapt.
xxviii.) who is, however, very superficial upon an intricate and
interesting subject. He even neglects to mention the number of
Ruk'at (bows) usual at Cairo and the absence of prostration
(sujud) for which see vol. ii. 10.
[FN#460] Thus requiring all the ablutional offices to be
repeated. The Shaykh, by handling the corpse, became ceremonially
impure and required "Wuzu" before he could pray either at home or
in the Mosque.
[FN#461] The Shaykh had left it when he went out to perform
Wuzu.
[FN#462] Arab. "Satl"=the Lat. and Etruscan "Situla" and
"Situlus," a water-pot.
[FN#463] Arab. "Lahd, Luhd," the niche or cell hollowed out in
the side of the oblong trench: here the corpse is deposited and
covered with palm-fronds etc. to prevent the earth touching it.
See my Pilgrimage ii. 304.
[FN#464] For the incredible amount of torture which Eastern
obstinacy will sometimes endure, see Al-Mas'udi's tale of the
miserable little old man who stole the ten purses, vol. viii. 153
et seq.
[FN#465] Arab. "Jaridah" (whence the Jarid-game) a palm-frond
stripped of its leaves and used for a host of purposes besides
flogging, chairs, sofas, bedsteads, cages, etc. etc. Tales of
heroism in "eating stick" are always highly relished by the lower
orders of Egyptians who pride themselves upon preferring the
severest bastinado to paying the smallest amount of "rint."
[FN#466] Arab. "Nawus," the hollow tower of masonry with a
grating over the central well upon which the Magian corpse is
placed to be torn by birds of prey: it is kept up by the Parsi
population of Bombay and is known to Europeans as the "Tower of
Silence." Nais and Nawus also mean a Pyrethrum, a fire-temple and
have a whimsical resemblance to the Greek .
[FN#467] For Munkar and Nakir, the Interrogating Angels, see
vol. v. iii. According to Al-Mas'udi (chapt. xxxi.) these names
were given by the Egyptians to the thirteenth and fourteenth
cubits marked on the Nilometer which, in his day, was expected to
show seventeen.
[FN#468] The text (xi. 227) has "Tannur"=an oven, evidently a
misprint for "Kubur"=tombs.
[FN#469] Arab. "'An Abi"=(a propitiatory offering) for my
father. So in Marocco the "Powder-players" dedicate a shot to a
special purpose or person, crying "To my sweetheart!" "To my
dead!" "To my horse!" etc.
[FN#470] For this formula see vol. i. 65. It is technically
called "Haukalah" and "Haulakah," words in the third conjugation
of increased triliterals, corresponding with the quadriliteral
radicals and possessing the peculiar power of Kasr=abbreviation.
Of this same class is Basmalah (vol. v. 206; ix. 1).
[FN#471] This scene with the watch would be relished in the
coffee-house, where the tricks of robbers, like a gird at the
police, are always acceptable.
[FN#472] Arab. "La af'al"; more commonly Ma af'al. Ma and La are
synonymous negative particles, differing, however, in
application. Ma (Gr. ) precedes definites, or indefinites: La
and Lam (Gr. ) only indefinites as "La ilaha" etc.
[FN#473] Alluding to the proverb, "What hast thou left behind
thee, O Asam?" i.e., what didst thou see?
[FN#474] Arab. "Sayrafi," s.s. as "Sarraf': see vol. i. 210.
[FN#475] Arab. "Al-Ma'rafah"=the place where the mane grows.
[FN#476] i.e. though the ass remain on thy hands.
[FN#477] "Halves," i.e. of dirhams: see vol. ii. 37.
[FN#478] Arab. "Taannafu,"=the Germ. lange Nase.
[FN#479] About forty shillings.
[FN#480] About L220.
[FN#481] Characteristically Eastern and Moslem is this action of
the neighbours and bystanders. A walk through any Oriental city
will show a crowd of people screaming and gesticulating, with
thundering yells and lightning glances, as if about to close in
mortal fight, concerning some matter which in no way concerns
them. Our European cockneys and badauds mostly content themselves
with staring and mobbing.
[FN#482] Arab. "Muruwwah," lit. manliness, especially in the
sense of generosity. So the saying touching the "Miyan," or
Moslem of India:--
Fi 'l-riuz Kuwwah:
Fi 'I Hindi muruwwah.
When rice have strength, you'll haply find,
In Hindi man, a manly mind.
[FN#483] i.e. His claim is just and reasonable.
[FN#484] I have noted (vol. i. 17) that good Moslems shun a
formal oath, although "by Allah!" is ever on their tongues. This
they seem to have borrowed from Christianity, which expressly
forbade it, whilst Christians cannot insist upon it too much. The
scandalous scenes lately enacted in a certain legislative
assembly because an M.P. did not believe in a practice denounced
by his creed, will be the wonder and ridicule of our descendants.
[FN#485] Most Arabs believe that the black cloud which sometimes
produces, besides famine, contagious fevers and pestilence, like
that which in 1799 depopulated the cities and country of Barbary,
is led by a king locust, the Sultan Jarad.
[FN#486] The text is hopelessly corrupt, and we have no other
with which to collate. Apparently a portion of the tale has
fallen out, making a non-sens of its ending, which suggests that
the kite gobbled up the two locusts at her ease, and left the
falcon to himself.
[FN#487] The lines have occurred in vol. i. 265. I quote Mr.
Payne.
[FN#488] The fabliau is a favourite in the East; this is the
third time it has occurred with minor modifications. Of course
the original was founded on fact, and the fact was and is by no
means uncommon.
[FN#489] This would hardly be our Western way of treating a
proposal of the kind; nor would the European novelist neglect so
grand an opportunity for tall-talk.
[FN#490] This is a rechauffe of "The House with the Belvedere;"
see vol. vi. 188.
[FN#491] Arab. "Masturah,"=veiled, well-guarded, confined in the
Harem.
[FN#492] Arab. "'Ajuz nahs"=an old woman so crafty that she was
a calamity to friends and foes.
[FN#493] Here, as in many places the text is painfully concise:
the crone says only, "The Wuzu for the prayer!"
[FN#494] I have followed Mr. Payne who supplies this sentence to
make the Tale run smoothly.
[FN#495] i.e. the half of the marriage-settlement due to the
wife on divorcement and whatever monies he may have borrowed of
her.
[FN#496] Here we find the vulgar idea of a rape, which is that a
man can, by mere force, possess a woman against her will. I
contend that this is impossible unless he use drugs like
chloroform or violence, so as to make the patient faint or she be
exceptionally weak. "Good Queen Bess" hit the heart of the
question when she bade Lord High Chancellor sheath his sword, she
holding the scabbard-mouth before him and keeping it in constant
motion. But it often happens that the woman, unless she have a
loathing for her violator, becomes infected with the amorous
storge, relaxes her defense, feels pleasure in the outer contact
of the parts and almost insensibly allows penetration and
emission. Even conception is possible in such cases as is proved
in that curious work, "The Curiosities of Medical Experience."
[FN#497] i.e. thou wilt have satisfied us all three.
[FN#498] Here I follow Mr. Payne who has skilfully fine-drawn
the holes in the original text.
[FN#499] See vol. vii. 363; ix. 238.
[FN#500] Arab. "Musalla," which may be either a praying carpet,
a pure place in a house, or a small chapel like that near Shiraz
which Hafiz immortalised,
"Bring, boy, the sup that's in the cup; in highest Heaven man
ne'er shall find
Such watery marge as Ruknabad, MusalIa's mazes rose entwined."
[FN#501] Arab. "Ihtida,"=divine direction to Huda or salvation.
The old bawd was still dressed as a devotee, and keeps up the
cant of her caste. No sensible man in the East ever allows a
religious old woman to pass his threshold.
[FN#502] In this tale "poetical justice" is neglected, but the
teller skilfully caused the wife to be ravished and not to be a
particeps criminis. The lover escapes scot-free because Moslems,
as well as Hindus, hold that the amourist under certain
conditions is justified in obtaining his object by fair means or
foul. See p. 147 of "Early Ideas, a Group of Hindoo Stories,"
collected and collated by Anaryan: London, Allens, 1881.
[FN#503] This is supplied from the "Tale of the King and his
Wazir's Wife," vol. vi. 129.
[FN#504] Arab. "Ibl," a specific name: it is presently opposed
to "Nakah," a she-dromedary, and "Rahilah," a riding-camel.
[FN#505] Here "Amsaytu" is used in its literal sense "I evened"
(came at evening), and this is the case with seven such verbs,
Asbaha, Amsa, Azha, Azhara, A'tama, Zalla, and Bata, which either
conjoin the sense of the sentence with their respective times,
morning, evening, forenoon, noon and the first sundown watch, all
day and all night or are used "elegantly," as grammarians say,
for the simple "becoming" or "being."
[FN#506] The Badawi dogs are as dangerous as those of Montenegro
but not so treacherous: the latter will sneak up to the stranger
and suddenly bite him most viciously. I once had a narrow escape
from an ignoble death near the slaughter-house of
Alexandria-Ramlah, where the beasts were unusually ferocious. A
pack assailed me at early dawn and but for an iron stick and a
convenient wall I should have been torn to pieces.
[FN#507] These elopements are of most frequent occurrence: see
Pilgrimage iii. 52.
[FN#508] The principal incidents, the loss and recovery of wife
and children, occur in the Story of the Knight Placidus (Gesta
Romanorum, cx.). But the ecclesiastical taleteller does not do
poetical justice upon any offenders, and he vilely slanders the
great Caesar, Trajan.
[FN#509] i.e. a long time: the idiom has already been noticed.
In the original we have "of days and years and twelvemonths" in
order that "A'wam" (years) may jingle with "Ayyam" (days).
[FN#510] Nothing can be more beautiful than the natural parks
which travellers describe on the coasts of tropical seas.
[FN#511] Arab. "Khayyal" not only a rider but a good and a hard
rider. Hence the proverb "Al-Khayyal" kabr maftuh=uomo a cavallo
sepoltura aperta.
[FN#512] i.e. the crew and the islanders.
[FN#513] Arab. "Hadas," a word not easy to render. In grammar
Lumsden renders it by "event" and the learned Captain Lockett
(Miut Amil) in an awful long note (pp. 195 to 224) by "mode,"
grammatical or logical. The value of his disquisition is its
proving that, as the Arabs borrowed their romance from the
Persians, so they took their physics and metaphysics of grammar
and syntax; logic and science in general, from the Greeks.
[FN#514] We should say the anchors were weighed and the canvas
spread.
[FN#515] The rhymes are disposed in the quaintest way, showing
extensive corruption. Mr. Payne has ordered them into couplets
with a "bob" or refrain. I have followed suit, preserving the
original vagaries of rhymes.
[FN#516] Arab. "Nuwab," broken plur. (that is, noun of
multitude) of Naubah, the Anglo-Indian Nowbut. This is applied to
the band playing at certain intervals before the gate of a Rajah
or high official.
[FN#517] Arab. "Hajib"; Captain Trotter ("Our Mission to the
Court of Morocco in 1880": Edinburgh, Douglas, 1881) speaks,
passim, of the "cheery little Hajeb or Eyebrow." Really this is
too bad: why cannot travellers consult an Orientalist when
treating of Oriental subjects?
[FN#518] Suicide is rare in Moslem lands, compared with India,
China, and similar "pagan" countries; for the Mussulman has the
same objection as the Christian "to rush into the presence of his
Creator," as if he could do so without the Creator's permission.
The Hindu also has some curious prejudices on the subject; he
will hang himself, but not by the neck, for fear lest his soul be
defiled by exiting through an impure channel. In England hanging
is the commonest form for men; then follow in due order drowning,
cutting or stabbing, poison, and gun-shot: women prefer drowning
(except in the cold months) and poison. India has not yet found a
Dr. Ogle to tabulate suicide; but the cases most familiar to old
Anglo-Indians are leaping down cliffs (as at Giruar), drowning,
and starving to death. And so little is life valued that a mother
will make a vow obliging her son to suicide himself at a certain
age.
[FN#519] Arab. "Zarad-Khanah," before noticed: vol. vii. 363.
Here it would mean a temporary prison for criminals of high
degree. De Sacy, Chrestom, ii. 179.
[FN#520] Arab. "'Adul," I have said, means in Marocco, that land
of lies and subterfuges, a public notary.
[FN#521] This sentence is inserted by Mr. Payne to complete the
sense.
[FN#522] i.e. he intended to marry her when time served.
[FN#523] Arab. from Pers. Khwajah and Khawajat: see vol. vi. 46.
[FN#524] Probably meaning by one mother whom he loved best of
all his wives: in the next page we read of their sister.
[FN#525] Come down, i.e. from heaven.
[FN#526] This is the Bresl. Edit.'s form of Shahryar=city-keeper
(like Marzban, guardian of the Marches), for city-friend. The
learned Weil has preferred it to Shahryar.
[FN#527] Sic: in the Mac. Edit. "Shahrazad" and here making
nonsense of the word. It is regretable that the king's
reflections do not run at times as in this text: his compunctions
lead well up to the denouement.
[FN#528] The careless text says "couplets." It has occurred in
vol. i. 149: so I quote Torrens (p. 149).
[FN#529] In the text Salma is made to speak, utterly confusing
the dialogue.
[FN#530] The well-known Baloch province beginning west of Sind:
the term is supposed to be a corruption of
Mahi-Khoran=Ichthyophagi. The reader who wishes to know more
about it will do well to consult "Unexplored Baluchistan," etc.
(Griffith and Farran, 1882), the excellent work of my friend Mr.
Ernest A. Floyer, long Chief of the Telegraphic Department,
Cairo.
[FN#531] Meaning the last city in Makran before entering Sind.
Al-Sharr would be a fancy name, "The Wickedness."
[FN#532] i.e. think of nothing but his present peril.
[FN#533] Arab. "Munkati'ah"=lit. "cut off" (from the weal of the
world). See Pilgrimage i. 22.
[FN#534] The lines are in vol. i. 207 and iv. 189. 1 here quote
Mr. Payne.
[FN#535] I have another proposal to make.
[FN#536] i.e. In my heart's core: the figure has often occurred.
[FN#537] These sudden elevations, so common in the East and not
unknown to the West in the Napoleonic days, explain how the
legend of "Joanna Papissa" (Pope John XIII), who succeeded Leo
IV. in A.D. 855 and was succeeded by Benedict III., found ready
belief amongst the enemies of papacy. She was an English woman
born in Germany who came to Rome and professed theology with
eclat, wherefore the people enthroned her. "Pope Joan" governed
with exemplary wisdom, but during a procession on Rogation Sunday
she was delivered of a fine boy in the street: some make her die
on the spot; others declare that she perished in prison.
[FN#538] That such things should happen in times of famine is
only natural; but not at other seasons. This abomination on the
part of the butcher is, however, more than once alluded toin The
Nights: see vol. i. 332.
[FN#539] Opinions differ as to the site of this city, so
celebrated in the mediaeval history of Al-Islam: most probably it
stood where Hyderabad of Sind now is. The question has been ably
treated by Sir Henry M. Elliot in his "History of India," edited
from his posthumous papers by Professor Dowson.
[FN#540] Which, by-the-by, the average Eastern does with even
more difficulty than the average European. For the most part the
charge to secrecy fixes the matter in his mind even when he has
forgotten that it is to be kept secret. Hence the most unpleasant
results.
[FN#541] Such an act appears impossible, and yet history tells
us of a celebrated Sufi, Khayr al-Nassaj (the Weaver), who being
of dark complexion was stopped on return from his pilgrimage at
Kufah by a stranger that said, "Thou art my negro slave and thy
name is Khayr." He was kept at the loom for years, till at last
the man set him free, and simply said, "Thou wast not my slave"
(Ibn Khall. i. 513).
[FN#542] These lines have occurred before. I quote Mr. Payne for
variety.
[FN#543] Arab. "Tasill saliata 'l-Munkat'in"=lit. "raining on
the drouth-hardened earth of the cut-off." The metaphor is
admissible in the eyes of an Arab who holds water to be the
chiefest of blessings, and makes it synonymous with bounty and
beneficence."
[FN#544] Possibly this is said in mere fun; but, as Easterns are
practical physiognomists, it may hint the fact that a large nose
in womankind is the sign of a masculine nature.
[FN#545] Arab. "Zakat wa Sadakat,"=lit. paying of poor rate and
purifying thy property by almsdeeds. See vol. i. 339.
[FN#546] I have noted (i. 293) that Kamis ( , Chemise,
Cameslia, Camisa) is used in the Hindostani and Bengali dialects.
Like its synonyms praetexta and shift, it has an equivocal meaning
and here probably signifies the dress peculiar to Arab devotees
and devout beggars.
[FN#547] I omit here and elsewhere the parenthetical formula
"Kala al-Rawi," etc.=The Story-teller sayeth, reminding the
reader of its significance in a work collected from the mouths of
professional Tale-tellers and intended mainly for their own use.
[FN#548] The usual sign of emotion, already often mentioned.
[FN#549] It being no shame to Moslems if a slave become King.
[FN#550] Arab. "Tarbiyati," i.e., he was brought up in my house.
[FN#551] There is no Salic law amongst Moslems; but the Rasm or
custom of AlIslam, established by the succession of the four
first Caliphs, to the prejudice of Ayishah and other masterful
women would be a strong precedent against queenly rule. It is the
reverse with the Hindus who accept a Rani as willingly as a Rajah
and who believe with Europeans that when kings reign women rule,
and vice versa. To the vulgar Moslem feminine government appears
impossible, and I was once asked by an Afghan, "What would happen
if the queen were in childbed?"
[FN#552] Arab. "Khutbah," the sermon preached from the pulpit
(Mimbar) after the congregational prayers on Friday noon. It is
of two kinds, for which see Lane, M.E., chap. iii. This public
mention of his name and inscribing it upon the newly-minted money
are the special prerogatives of the Moslem king: hence it often
happens that usurpers cause a confusion of Khutbah and coinage.
[FN#553] For a specimen of which, blowing a man up with bellows,
see Al-Mas'udi, chap. cxxiii.
[FN#554] i.e. a long time: the idiom has been noted before more
than once.
[FN#555] i.e. with what he had heard and what he was promised.
[FN#556] Arab. "Shakhs mafsud," i.e. an infidel.
[FN#557] Arab. "Bunud," plur. of Persian "band"=hypocrisy,
deceit.
[FN#558] Arab. "Buruj" pl. of Burj. lit.=towers, an astrological
term equivalent to our "houses" or constellations which form the
Zodiacal signs surrounding the heavens as towers gird a city; and
applied also to the 28 lunar Mansions. So in Al-Hariri (Ass. of
Damascus) "I swear by the sky with its towers," the incept of
Koran chapt. lxxxv.; see also chapts. xv. 26 and xxv. 62. "Burj"
is a word with a long history: {Greek} burg, burgh, etc.
[FN#559] Arab. "Bundukah"=a little bunduk, nut, filbert, pellet,
rule, musket bullet.
[FN#560] See John Raister's "Booke of the Seven Planets; or,
Seven Wandering Motives," London, 1598.
[FN#561] i.e. for the king whom I love as my own soul.
[FN#562] The Bresl. Edit. (xi. 318-21) seems to assume that the
tales were told in the early night before the royal pair slept.
This is no improvement; we prefer to think that the time was
before peep of day when Easterns usally awake and have nothing to
do till the dawn-prayer.
[FN#563] See vol. ii. 161.
[FN#564] Arab. Al-Fakhir. No wonder that the First Hand who
moulded the Man-mud is a lieu commun in Eastern thought. The Pot
and the Potter began with the old Egyptians. "Sitting as a
potter at the wheel, god Cneph (in Philae) moulds clay, and gives
the spirit of life (the Genesitic "breath") to the nostrils of
Osiris." Then we meet him in the Vedas, the Being, "by whom the
fictile vase is formed; the clay out of which it is fabricated."
We find him next in Jeremiah (xviii. 2) "Arise and go down unto
the Potter's house," etc., and in Romans (ix. 20), "Hath not the
Potter power over the clay?" He appears in full force in Omar-i-
Khayyam (No. xxxvii.):--
For I remember stopping by the way
To watch a Potter thumping his wet Clay:
An with its all obliterated Tongue
I murmur'd-"Gently, Brother, gently, pray!"
Lastly the Potter shows in the Kasidah of Haji Abdu al-Yezid
(p.4):--
"The first of pots the Potter made by Chrysorrhoas' blue-
green wave;
Methinks I see him smile to see what guerdon to the world he
gave.
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