Supplemental Nights, Volume 3
by
Richard F. Burton
Part 10 out of 11
579) tells us "There was a Temple upon Mount Etna which was
guarded by dogs of so exquisite a smell, that they could discover
whether the Persons who came thither were chaste or not;" and
that they caused, as might be expected, immense trouble. The
test-article becomes in the Tuti-nßmeh the Tank of Trial at Agra;
also a nosegay which remains fresh or withers; in the Kathß Sarit
Sßgara, the red lotus of Shiva; a shirt in Story lxix. Gesta
Romanorum; a cup in Ariosto; a rose-garland in "The Wright's
Chaste WIfe," edited by Mr. Furnival for the Early English Text
Society; a magic picture in Bandello, Part I., No. 21; a ring in
the Pentamerone, of Basile; and a distaff in "L'Adroite
Princesse," a French imitation of the latter.
[FN#44] Looking glasses in the East are mostly made, like our
travelling mirrors, to open and shut.
[FN#45] In Eastern countries the oarsman stands to his work and
lessens his labour by applying his weight which cannot be done so
forcibly when sitting even upon the sliding-seat. In rowing as in
swimming we have forsaken the old custom and have lost instead of
gaining.
[FN#46] I have explained this word in vol. iii. 100; viii. 51,
etc., and may add the interpretation of Mr. L. C. Casartelli (p.
17) "La Philosophie Religieuse du MazdÚisme, etc., Paris
Maisonneuve, 1884." "A divine name, which has succeeded little
(?) is the ancient title Bagh, the O. P. Baga of the Cuneiforms
(Baga vazraka Auramazda, etc.) and the Bagha of the Avesta, whose
memory is preserved in Baghdad--the city created by the Gods (?).
The Pahlevi books show the word in the compound Bagh¶bakht, lit.
= what is granted by the Gods, popularly, Providence."
[FN#47] The H. V. makes the old woman a "finished procuress
whose skill was unrivalled in that profession."
[FN#48] In the text "Al-SßdÝ w'al-GhßdÝ:" the latter may mean
those who came for the morning meal.
[FN#49] An antistes, a leader in prayer (vols. ii. 203, and iv.
227); a reverend, against whom the normal skit is directed. The
H. V. makes him a Muezzin, also a Mosque-man; and changes his
name to Murad. Imßm is a word with a host of meanings, e.g.,
model (and master), a Sir-Oracle, the Caliph, etc., etc.
[FN#50] i.e. being neighbours they would become to a certain
extent answerable for the crimes committed within the quarter.
[FN#51] Arab. "Nakshat" and "Sifrat."
[FN#52] Arab. "FarajÝyah," for which see vol. i. 210, 321.
[FN#53] For this aphrodisiac see vol. vi. 60.
[FN#54] In the text "Ay ni'am," still a popular expression.
[FN#55] Arab. "'Ilm al-HÝah," gen. translated Astrology, but
here meaning scientific Physiognomy. All these branches of
science, including Palmistry, are nearly connected; the features
and the fingers, mounts, lines, etc. being referred to the sun,
moon and planets.
[FN#56] Arab. "Mihaffah bi-takhtrawßn": see vols. ii. 180; v.
175.
[FN#57] The H. V. is more explicit: "do not so, or the King of
the Jann will slay thee even before thou canst enjoy her and will
carry her away."
[FN#58] Arab. "Shahwah" the rawest and most direct term. The
Moslem religious has no absurd shame of this natural passion. I
have heard of a Persian Imam, who, suddenly excited as he was
sleeping in a friend's house, awoke the master with, "Shahwah
dßram" = "I am lustful" and was at once gratified by a "Mut'ah,"
temporary and extempore marriage to one of the slave-girls. These
morganatic marriages are not, I may note, allowed to the Sunnis.
[FN#59] Arab. "Min ba'di an" for "Min ba'di mß" = after that,
still popular in the latter broad form.
[FN#60] The word has been used in this tale with a threefold
sense Egypt, old Cairo (Fostat) and new Cairo, in fact to the
land and to its capital for the time being.
[FN#61] Arab. "Kabbaltu" = I have accepted, i.e., I accept
emphatically. Arabs use this form in sundry social transactions,
such as marriages, sales, contracts, bargains, and so forth, to
denote that the engagement is irrevocable and that no change can
be made. De Sacy neglected to note this in his Grammar, but
explains it in his Chrestomathy (i. 44, 53), and rightly adds
that the use of this energetic form peut-Ûtre serait susceptible
d'applications plus Útendues.
[FN#62] La nuit de l'entrÚe, say the French: see Lane "Leylet
ed-dukhlah" (M.E. chapt. vi.).
[FN#63] This MS. uses "Milßh" (pleasant) for "Mubßh"
(permitted). I must remark, before parting with Zayn al-Asnam,
that its object is to inculcate that the price of a good wife is
"far above rubies" (Prov. xxxi. 10: see the rest of this fine
chapter), a virtuous woman being "a crown to her husband" (ibid.
xxii. 4); and "a prudent wife is from the Lord" (Prov. xix. 4).
The whole tale is told with extreme delicacy and the want of
roughness and energy suggests a European origin.
[FN#64] i.e. the "Height or Glory ('Alß) of the Faith (al-DÝn)"
pron. Alßaddeen; which is fairly represented by the old form
"Aladdin;" and better by De Sacy's "Ala-eddin." The name has
occurred in The Nights, vol. iv. 29-33; it is a household word in
England and who has not heard of THomas Hood's "A-lad-in?"
Easterns write it in five different ways and in the Paris MS. it
is invariably "æAlÝ al-dÝn," which is a palpable mistake. The
others are (1) 'Alß al-DÝn, (2) 'Alß yadÝn, (3) 'Alah DÝn in the
H. V. and (4) 'Alßa al-DÝn (with the Hamzah), the last only being
grammatical. In Galland the Histoire de la Lampe merveilleuse is
preceded by the Histoire du Dormeur EveillÚ which, being "The
Story of Ab· al-Hasan the Wag, or the Sleeper awakened," of the
Bresl. Edit. (Nights cclxxi.-ccxc.), is here omitted. The
Alaeddin Story exists in germ in Tale ii. of the "Dravidian
Nights Entertainments," (Madana Kamara-Sankßdßj), by Pandit S. M.
Natisa Shastri (Madras, 1868, and London, Tr³bner). We are told
by Mr. Coote that it is well represented in Italy. The Messina
version is by PittÞ, "La Lanterna Magica," also the Palermitan
"Lanterne;" it is "Il Matrimonio di Cajussi" of Rome (R. H.
Busk's Folk-lore); "Il Gallo e il Mago," of Visentini's "Fiabe
Mantovane," and the "Pesciolino," and "Il Contadino che aveva tre
FÝgli," of Imbriana. In "La Fanciulla c il Mago," of De
Gubernatis ("Novelline di Sante Stefano de Calcenaja," p. 47),
occurs the popular incident of the original. "The Magician was
not a magician for nothing. He feigned to be a hawker and fared
through the streets, crying out, 'Donne, donne, chi baratta
anelli di ferro contra anelli di argento?'"
Alaeddin has ever been a favourite with the stage. Early in the
present century it was introduced to the Parisian opera by M.
Etienne, to the Feydeau by ThÚaulon's La Clochette: to the
Gymnase by La Petite-Lampe of M. Scribe and Melesville, and to
teh Panorama Dramatique by MM. Merle, Cartouche and Saintine
(Gauttier, vii. 380).
[FN#65] This MS. always uses DÝnßrzßd like Galland.
[FN#66] Arab. "æAbadan," a term much used in this MS. and used
correctly. It refers always and only to future time, past being
denoted by "Kattu" from Katta = he cut (in breadth, as opposed to
Kadda=he cut lengthwise). See De Sacy, Chrestom. ii. 443.
[FN#67] In the text "Ibn mÝn," a vulgarism for "man." Galland
adds that the tailor's name was Mustapha--i y avait un tailleur
nommÚ Mustafa.
[FN#68] In classical Arabic the word is "Maghribi," the local
form of the root Gharaba= he went far away (the sun), set, etc.,
whence "Maghribi"=a dweller in the Sunset-land. The vulgar,
however, prefer "Maghrab" and "Maghrabi," of which foreigners
made "Mogrebin." For other information see vols. vi. 220; ix. 50.
The "Moormen" are famed as magicians; so we find a Maghrabi
Sahhßr=wizard, who by the by takes part in a transformation scene
like that of the Second Kalandar (vol. i. p. 134, The Nights), in
p. 10 of Spitta Bey's "Contes Arabes Modernes," etc. I may note
that "Sihr," according to Jauhari and Firozßbßdi=anything one can
hold by a thin or subtle place, i.e., easy to handle. Hence it
was applied to all sciences, "Sahhßr" being=to 'Alim (or sage) .
and the older Arabs called poetry "Sihar al-halßl"--lawful magic.
[FN#69] i.e. blood is thicker than water, as the Highlanders
say.
[FN#70] A popular saying amongst Moslems which has repeatedly
occurred in The Nights. The son is the "lamp of a dark house."
Vol. ii 280.
[FN#71] Out of respect to his brother, who was probably the
senior: the H. V. expressly says so.
[FN#72] Al-Marh·m = my late brother. See vol. ii. 129, 196.
[FN#73] This must refer to Cairo not to Al-Medinah whose title
is "Al-Munawwarah" = the Illumined.
[FN#74] A picturesque term for birth-place.
[FN#75] In text "Yß Rßjul" (for Rajul) = O man, an Egypto-Syrian
form, broad as any Doric.
[FN#76] Arab. Sh·f-hu, the colloquial form of Shuf-hu
[FN#77] For the same sentiment see "Julnßr" the "Sea born,"
Nights dccxliii.-xliv.
[FN#78] "I will hire thee a shop in the Chauk"--Carfax or
market-street says the H. V.
[FN#79] The MS. writes the word Khwßjß (for Khwßjah see vol. vi.
46). Here we are at once interested in the scapegrace who looked
Excelsior. In fact the tale begins with a strong inducement to
boyish vagabondage and scampish indolence; but the Moslem would
see in it the hand of Destiny bringing good out of evil. Amongst
other meanings of "Khwßjah " it is a honorific title given by
Khorßsßnis to their notables. In Arab. the similarity of the word
to "Khuwßj"=hunger, has given rise to a host of conceits, more or
less frigid (Ibn Khallikßn, iii. 45).
[FN#80] Arab. "Wßhid min al-Tujjßr," the very vulgar style.
[FN#81] i.e., the Saturday (see vol. ii. 305) established as a
God's rest by the so-called "Mosaic" commandment No. iv. How it
gradually passed out of observance, after so many centuries of
most stringent application, I cannot discover: certainly the text
in Cor. ii. 16-17 is insufficient to abolish or supersede an
order given with such singular majesty and impressiveness by God
and so strictly obeyed by man. The popular idea is that the
Jewish Sabbath was done away with in Christ, and that sundry of
the 1604 councils, e.g., Laodicea, anathematized those who kept
it holy after such fashion. With the day the aim and object
changed; and the early Fathers made it the "Feast of the
Resurrection" which could not be kept too joyously. The
"Sabbatismus" of our Sabbatarians, who return to the Israelitic
practice and yet honour the wrong day, is heretical and vastly
illogical; and the Sunday is better kept in France, Italy and
other "Catholic" countries than in England and Scotland.
[FN#82] For "Mushayyadßt" see vol. viii. 23.
[FN#83] All these words sßr·, dakhal·, jalas·, &c. are in the
plur. for the dual--popular and vulgar speech. It is so
throughout the MS.
[FN#84] The Persians apply the Arab word "Sahrß"=desert, to the
waste grounds about a town.
[FN#85] Arab. KashßkÝsh from the quadril, kashkasha = he
gathered fuel.
[FN#86] In text "Shayy bi-lßsh" which would mean lit. a thing
gratis or in vain.
[FN#87] In the text "Sabba raml" = cast in sand. It may be a
clerical error for "Zaraba Raml" = he struck sand, i.e., made
geomantic figures.
[FN#88] Arab. Mauza'= a place, an apartment, a saloon.
[FN#89] Galland makes each contain quatre vases de bronze,
grands comme des cuves.
[FN#90] The Arab. is "LÝwßn," for which see vols. iv. 71 and
vii. 347. Galland translates it by a "terrace" and "niche."
[FN#91] The idea is borrowed from the lume eterno of the
Rosicrucians. It is still prevalent throughout Syria where the
little sepulchral lamps buried by the Hebrews, Greeks and Romans
are so called. Many tales are told of their being found burning
after the lapse of centuries; but the traveller will never see
the marvel.
[FN#92] The first notice of the signet-ring and its adventures
is by Herodotus in the Legend of the Samian Polycrates; and here
it may be observed that the accident is probably founded on fact;
every fisherman knows that fish will seize and swallow spoon-bait
and other objects that glitter. The text is the Talmudic version
of Solomon's seal-ring. The king of the demons after becoming a
"Bottle-imp," prayed to be set free upon condition of teaching a
priceless secret, and after cajoling the Wise One flung his
signet into the sea and cast the owner into a land four hundred
miles distant. Here David's son begged his bread till he was made
head cook to the King of Ammon at Mash KernÝn. After a while, he
eloped with Na'·zah, the daughter of his master, and presently
when broiling a fish found therein his missing property. In the
Moslem version, Solomon had taken prisoner AmÝnah, the daughter
of a pagan prince, and had homed her in his Harem, where she
taught him idolatry. One day before going to the Hammam he
entrusted to her his signet- ring presented to him by the four
angelic Guardians of sky, air, water and earth when the mighty
Jinni Al-Sakhr (see vol. i. 41; v. 36), who was hovering about
unseen, snatching away the ring, assumed the king's shape,
whereby Solomon's form became so changed that his courtiers drove
him from his own doors. Thereupon Al-Sakhr, taking seat upon the
throne, began to work all manner of iniquity, till one of the
Wazirs, suspecting the transformation, read aloud from a scroll
of the law: this caused the demon to fly shrieking and to drop
the signet into the sea. Presently Solomon, who had taken service
with a fisherman, and received for wages two fishes a day, found
his ring and made Al-Sakhr a "Bottle-imp." The legend of St.
Kentigern or Mungo of Glasgow, who recovered the Queen's ring
from the stomach of a salmon, is a palpable imitation of the
Biblical incident which paid tribute to C sar.
[FN#93] The Magician evidently had mistaken the powers of the
Ring. This is against all probability and possibility, but on
such abnormal traits are tales and novels founded.
[FN#94] These are the Gardens of the Hesperides and of King
Isope (Tale of Beryn, Supplem. Canterbury Tales, Chaucer Soc. p.
84):--
In mydward of this gardyn stant a feirÚ tre
Of alle manner levis that under sky be
I-forgit and i- fourmyd, eche in his degre
Of sylver, and of golde fyne, that lusty been to see.
So in the Kathß (S. S.) there are trees with trunks of gold,
branches of pearls, and buds and flowers of clear white pearls.
[FN#95] The text causes some confusion by applying "Sullam" to
staircase and ladder, hence probably the latter is not mentioned
by Galland and Co., who speak only of an escalier de cinquante
marches. "Sullam" (plur. "Salßlim") in modern Egyptian is
popularly used for a flight of steps: see Spitta-Bey's "Contes
Arabes Modernes," p. 70. The H. V. places under the slab a hollow
space measuring four paces (kadam = 2.5 feet), and at one corner
a wicket with a ladder. This leads to a vault of three rooms, one
with the jars of gold; the second not to be swept by the skirts,
and the third opening upon the garden of gems. "There thou shalt
see a path, whereby do thou fare straight forwards to a lofty
palace with a flight of fifty steps leading to a flat terrace:
and here shalt thou find a niche wherein a lamp burneth."
[FN#96] In the H.V. he had thrust the lamp into the bosom of his
dress, which, together with his sleeves, he had filled full of
fruit, and had wound his girdle tightly around him lest any fall
out.
[FN#97] Africa (Arab. AfrikÝyah) here is used in its old and
classical sense for the limited tract about Carthage (Tunis) net,
Africa Propria. But the scribe imagines it to be the P. N. of a
city: so m J·dar (vol. vi. 222) we find Fßs and Miknßs (Fez and
Mequinez) converted into one settlement. The Maghribi,
Mauritanian or Maroccan is famed for sorcery throughout the
Moslem world: see vol. vi. 220. The Moslem "Kingdom of Afrikiyah"
was composed of four provinces, Tunis, Tripoli, Constantina, and
Bugia: and a considerable part of it was held by the Berber tribe
of Sanhßja or Sinhßga, also called the Zenag whence our modern
"Senegal." Another noted tribe which held Bajaiyah (Bugia) in
Afrikiyah proper was the "Zawßwah," the European "Zouaves," (Ibn
Khall. iv. 84).
[FN#98] Galland omits the name, which is outlandish enough.
[FN#99] Meaning that he had incurred no blood-guiltiness, as he
had not killed the lad and only left him to die.
[FN#100] The H. V. explains away the improbability of the
Magician forgetting his gift. "In this sore disquietude he
bethought him not of the ring which, by the decree of Allah, was
the means of Alaeddin's escape; and indeed not only he but oft
times those who practice the Black Art are baulked of their
designs by Divine Providence."
[FN#101] See vol. vii. 60. The word is mostly derived from "
'afar" = dust, and denotes, according to some, a man coloured
like the ground or one who "dusts" all his rivals. " 'Ifr" (fem.
'Ifrah) is a wicked and dangerous man. Al-Jannabi, I may here
notice, is the chief authority for Afrikus son of Abraha and
xviiith Tobba being the eponymus of "Africa."
[FN#102] Arab. "Ghayr an" = otherwise that, except that, a
favourite form in this MS. The first word is the Syriac "Gheir" =
for, a conjunction which is most unneccessarily derived by some
from the Gr. {Greek}.
[FN#103] Galland and the H.V. make the mother deliver a little
hygienic lecture about not feeding too fast after famine: exactly
what an Eastern parent would not dream of doing.
[FN#104] The lad now turns the tables upon his mother and
becomes her master, having "a crow to pick" with her.
[FN#105] Arab. "Munßfik" for whose true sense, "an infidel who
pretendeth to believe in Al-Islam," see vol. vi. p. 207. Here the
epithet comes last being the climax of abuse, because the lowest
of the seven hells (vol. viii. 111) was created for "hypocrites,"
i.e., those who feign to be Moslems when they are Miscreants.
[FN#106] Here a little abbreviation has been found necessary to
avoid the whole of a twice-told tale; but nothing material has
been omitted.
[FN#107] Arab. "Taffaytu-hu." This is the correct term = to
extinguish. They relate of the great scholar FirozßbßdÝ, author
of the "Kßm·s" (ob. A. H. 817 = A. D. 1414), that he married a
Badawi wife in order to study the purest Arabic and once when
going to bed said to her, "Uktuli's-sirßj," the Persian "Chirßgh-
rß bi-kush" = Kill the lamp. "What," she cried, "Thou an ' lim
and talk of killing the lamp instead of putting it out!"
[FN#108] In the H. V. the mother takes the "fruits" and places
them upon the ground, "but when darkness set in, a light shone
from them like the rays of a lamp or the sheen of the sun."
[FN#109] For these fabled Giant rulers of Syria, Og King of
Bashan, etc., see vols. vii. 84; ix. 109, 323. D'Herbelot (s. v.
Giabbar= Giant) connects "Jabßbirah" with the Heb. Ghibbor
Ghibborim and the Pers. DÝv, Divßn: of these were ' d and
Shaddßd, Kings of Syria: the Falast"in (Philistines) 'Auj, Amßlik
and Ban· Shayth or Seth's descendants, the sons of God (Benu-
Elohim) of the Book of Genesis (vi. 2) who inhabited Mount Hermon
and lived in purity and chastity.
[FN#110] The H. V. explains that the Jinni had appeared to the
mother in hideous aspect, with noise and clamour, because she had
scoured the Lamp roughly; but was more gentle with Alaeddin
because he had rubbed it lightly. This is from Galland.
[FN#111] Arab. Musawwadatayn = lit. two black things, rough
copies, etc.
[FN#112] Arab. Ban· Adam, as opposed to Ban· Elohim (Sons of the
Gods), B. al-Jßnn etc The Ban· al-Asfar = sons of the yellow, are
Esau's posterity in Edom, also a term applied by Arab historians
to the Greeks and Romans whom Jewish fable derived from Idum a:
in my vol. ii. 220, they are the people of the yellow or tawny
faces. For the legend see Ibn Khall. iii. 8, where the translator
suggests that the by-name may be = the "sees of the Emperor"
Flavius, confounded with "flavus," a title left by Vespasian to
his successors The Ban· al Khashkhash = sons of the (black) poppy
are the Ethiopians.
[FN#113] Arab, Hß! hß! so Hßka (fem. Haki) = Here for thee!
[FN#114] So in Medieval Europe Papal bulls and Kings' letters
were placed for respect on the head. See Duffield's "Don
Quixote," Part i. xxxi.
[FN#115] Galland makes the Juif only rusÚ et adroit.
[FN#116] Arab. "GhashÝm" = a "Johnny Raw" from the root "Ghashm"
= iniquity: Builders apply the word to an unhewn stone; addressed
to a person it is considered slighting, if not insulting. See
vol. ii. 330.
[FN#117] The carat (KÝrßt) being most often, but not always, one
twenty-fourth of the diner. See vols. iii. 239; vii. 289.
[FN#118] KanßnÝ, plur. of KinnÝnah.
[FN#119] Here and below silver is specified, whenas the platters
in Night dxxxv. were of gold This is one of the many changes'
contradictions and confusions which are inherent in Arab stones.
See Spitta-Bey's "Contes Arabes," Preface.
[FN#120] i.e., the Slave of the Lamp.
[FN#121] This may be true, but my experience has taught me to
prefer dealing with a Jew than with a Christian. The former will
"jew" me perhaps, but his commercial cleverness will induce him
to allow me some gain in order that I may not be quite
disheartened: the latter will strip me of my skin and will
grumble because he cannot gain more.
[FN#122] Arab. "Hßlah mutawassitah," a phrase which has a
European Touch.
[FN#123] In the text "JauharjÝyyah," common enough in Egypt and
Syria, an Arab. plur. of an Arabised Turkish sing.--ji for--chÝ =
(crafts-) man.
[FN#124] We may suppose some years may have passed in this
process and that Alaeddin from a lad of fifteen had reached the
age of manhood. The H. V. declares that for many a twelve month
the mother and son lived by cotton spinning and the sale of the
plate
[FN#125] i.e. Full moon of full moons: See vol. iii. 228. It is
pronounced "Badroo'l- Budoor," hence Galland's " Badr-oul-
boudour. "
[FN#126] In the H. V. Alaeddin "bethought him of a room adjacent
to the Baths where he might sit and see the Princess through the
door-chinks, when she raised her veil before the handmaids and
eunuchs."
[FN#127] This is the common conceit of the brow being white as
day and the hair black as night.
[FN#128] Such a statement may read absurdly to the West but it
is true in the East. "Selim" had seen no woman's face unveiled,
save that of his sable mother Rosebud in Morier's Tale of Yeldoz,
the wicked woman ("The Mirza," vol. iii. 135). The H. V. adds
that Alaeddin's mother was old and verily had little beauty even
in her youth. So at the sight of the Princess he learnt that
Allah had created women exquisite in loveliness and heart-
ensnaring; and at first glance the shaft of love pierced his
heart and he fell to the ground afaint He loved her with a
thousand lives and, when his mother questioned him, "his lips
formed no friendship with his speech."
[FN#129] "There is not a present (Teshurah) to bring to the Man
of God" (1 Sam. ix. 7), and Menachem explains Teshurah as a gift
offered with the object of being admitted to the presence. See
also the offering of oil to the King in Isaiah lvii. 9. Even in
Maundriell's Day Travels (p. 26) it was counted uncivil to visit
a dignitary without an offering in hand.
[FN#130] As we shall see further on, the magical effect of the
Ring and the Lamp extend far and wide over the physique and
morale of the owner: they turn a "raw laddie" into a finished
courtier, warrior, statesman, etc.
[FN#131] In Eastern states the mere suspicion of having such an
article would expose the suspected at least to torture. Their
practical system of treating "treasure trove," as I saw when
serving with my regiment in Gujarßt (Guzerat), is at once to
imprison and "molest" the finder, in order to make sure that he
has not hidden any part of his find.
[FN#132] Here the MS. text is defective, the allusion is, I
suppose, to the Slave of the Lamp.
[FN#133] In the H. V. the King retired into his private
apartment; and, dismissing all save the Grand Wazir, "took
cognisance of special matters" before withdrawing to the Harem.
[FN#134] The levÚe, Divan or Darbßr being also a lit de justice
and a Court of Cassation: See vol. i. 29.
[FN#135] All this is expressed by the Arabic in one word
"Tamannß." Galland adds pour marquer qu'il etait prÛt ß perdre
s'il y manquait; and thus he conveys a wrong idea.
[FN#136] This would be still the popular address, nor is it
considered rude or slighting. In John (ii. 4) "Atto," the Heb.
Eshah, is similarly used, not complimentarily, but in popular
speech.
[FN#137] This sounds ridiculous enough in English, but not in
German, e.g. Deine K÷nigliche Hoheit is the formula de rigueur
when an Austrian officer, who always addresses brother-soldiers
in the familiar second person, is speaking to a camarade who is
also a royalty.
[FN#138] "Surßyyßt (lit. = the Pleiades) and "Sham'ßdÝn" a
would-be Arabic plur. of the Persian "Sham'adßn"=candlestick,
chandelier, for which more correctly Sham'adßnßt is used.
[FN#139] i.e., betrothed to her--j'agrÚe la proposition, says
Galland.
[FN#140] Here meaning Eunuch-officers and officials. In the
cdlxxvith Night of this volume the word is incorrectly written
ghßt in the singular.
[FN#141] In the H. V. Alaeddin on hearing this became as if a
thunderbolt had stricken him, and losing consciousness, swooned
away.
[FN#142] These calls for food at critical times, and oft-
recurring allusions to eating are not yet wholly obsolete amongst
the civilised of the xixth century. The ingenious M. Jules Verne
often enlivens a tedious scene by Dejeunons! And French
travellers, like English, are not unready to talk of food and
drink, knowing that the subject is never displeasing to their
readers.
[FN#143] The H. V. gives a sketch of the wedding. "And when the
ceremonies ended at the palace with pomp and parade and pageant,
and the night was far spent, the eunuchs led the Wazir's son into
the bridal chamber. He was the first to seek his couch; then the
Queen his mother-in-law, came into him leading the bride, and
followed by her suite. She did with her virgin daughter as
parents are wont to do, removed her wedding-raiment, and donning
a night-dress, placed her in her bridegroom's arms. Then, wishing
her all joy, she with her ladies went away and shut the door. At
that instant came the Jinni," etc.
[FN#144] The happy idea of the wedding night in the water-closet
is repeated from the tale of Nur-al-DÝn Ali Hasan (vol. i. 221),
and the mishap of the Hunchback bridegroom.
[FN#145] For the old knightly practice of sleeping with a drawn
sword separating man and maid see vol. vii. 353 and Mr.
Clouston's "Popular Tales and Fictions," vol. i. 316. In Poland
the intermediary who married by procuration slept alongside the
bride in all his armour. The H. V. explains, "He (Alaeddin) also
lay a naked sword between him and the Princess so she might
perceive that he was ready to die by that blade should he attempt
to do aught of villainy by the bride."
[FN#146] Galland says: Ils ne s'aperþurent que de l'Úbranlement
du lit et que de leur transport d'un lieu ß l'autre: c'Útait bien
assez pour leur donner une frayeur qu'il est aisÚ d'imaginer.
[FN#147] Galland very unnecessarily makes the Wazir's son pass
into the wardrobe (garderobe) to dress himself.
[FN#148] Professional singing and dancing girls: Properly the
word is the fem. Of ' lim = a learned man; but it has been
anglicised by Byron's
"The long chibouque's dissolving cloud supply
Where dance the Almahs to wild minstrelsy."
--(The Corsair, ii. 2.)
They go about the streets with unveiled faces and are seldom
admitted into respectable Harems, although on festal occasions
they perform in the court or in front of the house, but even this
is objected to by the Mrs. Grundy of Egypt. Lane (M.E. chap.
xviii.) derives with Saint Jerome the word from the Heb. or
Phoenician Almah = a virgin, a girl, a singing- girl; and thus
explains "Alßmoth" in Psalms xlvi. and I Chron. xv. 20. Parkhurst
(s.v. 'Alamah = an undeflowered virgin) renders Job xxxix. 30,
"the way of a man with a maid" (bi-ßlmah). The way of a man in
his virgin state, shunning youthful lust and keeping himself
"pure and unspotted."
[FN#149] The text reads "Rafa' " (he raised) "al-Bashkhßnah"
which in Suppl. Nights (ii. 119) is a hanging, a curtain.
Apparently it is a corruption of the Pers. "Paskhkhßnah," a
mosquito-curtain.
[FN#150] The father suspected that she had not gone to bed a
clean maid.
[FN#151] Arab. Aysh = Ayyu Shayyin and Laysh = li ayyi Shayyin.
This vulgarism, or rather popular corruption, is of olden date
and was used by such a purist as Al-Mutanabbi in such a phrase as
"Aysh Khabara-k?" = how art thou? See Ibn Khallikan, iii. 79.
[FN#152] In the H. V. the Minister sends the Chob-dßr= = rod-
bearer, mace-bearer, usher, etc.
[FN#153] In the text Sßhal for Sahal, again the broad "Doric" of
Syria.
[FN#154] Arab. Dahab ramli = gold dust washed out of the sand,
placer-gold. I must excuse myself for using this Americanism,
properly a diluvium or deposit of sand, and improperly (Bartlett)
a find of drift gold. The word, like many mining terms in the Far
West, is borrowed from the Spaniards; it is not therefore one of
the many American vulgarisms which threaten hopelessly to defile
the pure well of English speech.
[FN#155] Abra. "Ratl," by Europeans usually pronounced "Rotl"
(Rotolo).
[FN#156] In the H. V. she returns from the bazar; and, "seeing
the house filled with so many persons in goodliest attire,
marvelled greatly. Then setting down the meat lately bought she
would have taken off her veil, but Alaeddin prevented her and
said," etc.
[FN#157] The word is popularly derived from Serai in Persian = a
palace; but it comes from the Span. and Port. Cerrar = to shut
up, and should be written with the reduplicated liquid.
[FN#158] In the H. V. the dresses and ornaments of the slaves
were priced at ten millions (Kar·r a crore) of gold coins. I have
noticed that Messer Marco "Milione" did not learn his high
numerals in Arabia, but that India might easily have taught them
to him.
[FN#159] Arab. "Rßih yasÝr," peasant's language.
[FN#160] Arab. Kß'ah, the apodyterium or undressing room upon
which the vestibule of the Hammam opens. See the plan in Lane's
M. E. chaps. xvi. The Kßr'ah is now usually called "Maslakh" =
stripping-room.
[FN#161] Arab. "Hammam-hu" = went through all the operations of
the Hammam, scraping, kneading, soaping, wiping and so forth.
[FN#162] For this aphrodisiac see vol. vi. 60. The subject of
aphrodisiacs in the East would fill a small library: almost every
medical treatise ends in a long disquisition upon fortifiers,
provocatives' etc. We may briefly divide them into three great
classes. The first is the medicinal, which may be either external
or internal. The second is the mechanical, such as scarification'
flagellation, and the application of insects as practiced by
certain savage races. There is a venerable Joe Miller of an old
Brahmin whose young wife always insisted, each time before he
possessed her, upon his being stung by a bee in certain parts.
The third is magical superstitious and so forth
[FN#163] This may sound exaggerated to English ears, but a petty
Indian Prince, such as the Gßikwßr, or Rajah of Baroda, would be
preceded in state processions by several led horses all whose
housings and saddles were gold studded with diamonds. The sight
made one's mouth water.
[FN#164] i.e. the æArab al-'Arbß; for which see vols. i. 112; v.
101.
[FN#165] Arab. "Al-KandÝl al-'ajÝb:" here its magical virtues
are specified and remove many apparent improbabilities from the
tale.
[FN#166] This was the highest of honours. At Abyssinian Harar
even the Grandees were compelled to dismount at the door of the
royal "compound." See my "First Footsteps in East Africa," p.
296.
[FN#167] "The right hand" seems to me a European touch in
Galland's translation, leur chef mit Aladdin a sa droite. Amongst
Moslems the great man sits in the sinistral corner of the Divan
as seen from the door, so the place of honour is to his left.
[FN#168] Arab. "M·sikß," classically "MusikÝ" ={Greek}: the
Pers. form is M·sikßr; and the Arab. equivalent is Al-Lahn. In
the H. V. the King made a signal and straightway drums (dhol) and
trumpets (trafÝr) and all manner wedding instruments struck up on
every side.
[FN#169] Arab. Marmar Sumßki=porphyry of which ancient Egypt
supplied the finest specimens. I found a vein of it in the Anti-
Libanus. Strange to say, the quarries which produced the far-
famed giallo antico, verd' antico (serpentine limestone) and
rosso antico (mostly a porphyry) worked by the old Nilotes, are
now unknown to us.
[FN#170] i.e. velvets with gold embroidery: see vol. viii. 201.
[FN#171] The Arabic says, "There was a kiosque with four-and-
twenty alcoves (LÝwßn, for which see vols. iv. 71, vi. 347) all
builded of emerald, etc., and one remained with the kiosque
(kushk) unfinished." I adopt Galland's reading salon ß vingt-
quatre croisÚes which are mentioned in the Arab. text towards the
end of the tale, and thus avoid the confusion between kiosque and
window. In the H. V. there is a domed belvedere (bßrah-dari-i-
gumbaz-dßr), four-sided, with six doors on each front (i. e.
twenty-four), and all studded with diamonds, etc.
[FN#172] In Persia this is called "Pß-andßz," and must be
prepared for the Shah when he deigns to visit a subject. It is
always of costly stuffs, and becomes the perquisite of the royal
attendants.
[FN#173] Here the European hand again appears to me: the Sultan
as a good Moslem should have made the Wuz·-ablution and prayed
the dawn-prayers before doing anything worldly.
[FN#174] Arab. FÝ ghuz·ni zßlika," a peculiar phrase, Ghazn=a
crease, a wrinkle.
[FN#175] In the H. V. the King "marvelled to see Alaeddin's
mother without her veil and magnificently adorned with costly
jewels and said in his mind, æMethought she was a grey-haired
crone, but I find her still in the prime of life and comely to
look upon, somewhat after the fashion of Badr al-Bud·r.' " This
also was one of the miracles of the Lamp.
[FN#176] For this word see vols. i. 46, vii. 326. A Joe Miller
is told in Western India of an old General Officer boasting his
knowledge of Hindostani. "How do you say, Tell a plain story,
General?" asked one of the hearers, and the answer was, "Maydßn
kÝ bßt bolo!" = "speak a word about the plain" (or level space).
[FN#177] The prehistoric Arabs: see supra p. 98.
[FN#178] Popularly, JerÝd, the palm-frond used as javelin: see
vol. vi. 263.
[FN#179] In order to keep off the evil eye, one of the functions
of iron and steel: see vol. ii. 316.
[FN#180] The H. V. adds, "Little did the Princess know that the
singers were fairies whom the Slave of the Lamp had brought
together."
[FN#181] Alexander the Great: see v. 252, x. 57. The H. V. adds,
"Then only one man and one woman danced together, one with other,
till midnight, when Alaeddin and the Princess stood up, for it
was the wont of China in those days that bride and bridegroom
perform together in presence of the wedding company."
[FN#182] The exceptional reserve of this and other descriptions
makes M. H. Zotenberg suspect that the tale was written for one
of the Mameluke Princesses: I own to its modesty but I doubt that
such virtue would have recommended it to the dames in question.
The H. V. adds a few details:--"Then, when the bride and
bridegroom had glanced and gazed each at other's face, the
Princess rejoiced with excessive joy to behold his comeliness,
and he exclaimed, in the courtesy of his gladness, æO happy me,
whom thou deignest, O Queen of the Fair, to honour despite mine
unworth, seeing that in thee all charms and graces are
perfected.' "
[FN#183] The term has not escaped ridicule amongst Moslems. A
common fellow having stood in his way the famous wit Ab· al-'Aynß
asked "What is that?" "A man of the Sons of Adam" was the reply.
"Welcome, welcome," cried the other, "Allah grant thee length of
days. I deemed that all his sons were dead." See Ibn Khallikan
iii. 57.
[FN#184] This address to an inanimate object (here a window) is
highly idiomatic and must be cultivated by the practical Arabist.
In the H. V. the unfinished part is the four-and-twentieth door
of the fictitious (ja'alÝ) palace.
[FN#185] This is true Orientalism, a personification or
incarnation which Galland did not think proper to translate.
[FN#186] Arab. "La'ab al-Andßb;" the latter word is from "Nadb"
= brandishing or throwing the javelin.
[FN#187] The "mothers" are the prime figures, the daughters
being the secondary. For the " 'Ilm al-Ram!" = (Science of the
sand) our geomancy, see vol. iii. 269, and D'Herbelot's sub. v.
Raml or Reml.
[FN#188] This is from Galland, whose certaine boisson chaude
evidently means tea. It is preserved in the H.V.
[FN#189] i.e. his astrolabe, his "ZÝj" or table of the stars,
his almanack, etc. For a highly fanciful derivation of the
"Arstable" see Ibn Khallikan (iii. 580). He makes it signify
"balance or lines (Pers. æAstur') of the sun," which is called
"Lßb" as in the case of wicked Queen Lßb (The Nights, vol. vii.
296). According to him the Astrolabe was suggested to Ptolemy by
an armillary sphere which had accidentally been flattened by the
hoof of his beast: this is beginning late in the day, the
instrument was known to the ancient Assyrians. Chardin (Voyages
ii. 149) carefully describes the Persian variety of--
"The cunning man highs Sidrophil
(as Will. Lilly was called). Amongst other things he wore at his
girdle an astrolabe not bigger than the hollow of a man's hand,
often two to three inches in diameter and looking at a distance
like a medal." These men practiced both natural astrology =
astronomy, as well as judicial astrology which foretells events
and of which Kepler said that "she, albeit a fool, was the
daughter of a wise mother, to whose support and life the silly
maid was indispensable." Isidore of Seville (A. D. 600-636) was
the first to distinguish between the two branches, and they
flourished side by side till Newton's day. Hence the many
astrological terms in our tongue, e.g. consider, contemplate,
disaster, jovial, mercurial, saturnine, etc.
[FN#190] In the H. V. "New brass lamps for old ones! who will
exchange ?" So in the story of the Fisherman's son, a Jew who had
been tricked of a cock, offers to give new rings for old rings.
See Jonathan Scott's excerpts from the Wortley-Montague MSS. vol.
vi. pp. 210 12 This is one of the tales which I have translated
for vol. iv.
[FN#191] The H. V. adds that Alaeddin loved to ride out a-
hunting and had left the city for eight days whereof three had
passed by.
[FN#192] Galland makes her say, HÚ bien folle, veux-tu me dire
pourqoui tu ris? The H. V. renders "Cease, giddy head, why
laughest thou?" and the vulgate "Well, giggler," said the
Princess, etc.
[FN#193] Nothing can be more improbable than this detail, but
upon such abnormal situations almost all stones, even in our most
modern "Society-novels," depend and the cause is clear--without
them there would be no story. And the modern will, perhaps,
suggest that "the truth was withheld for a higher purpose, for
the working out of certain ends." In the H. V Alaeddin, when
about to go a-hunting, always placed the Lamp high up on the
cornice with all care lest any touch it.
[FN#194] The H. V. adds, "The Magician, when he saw the Lamp, at
once knew that it must be the one he sought; for he knew that all
things, great and small, appertaining to the palace
[FN#195] In truly Oriental countries the Wazir is expected to
know everything, and if he fail in this easy duty he may find
himself in sore trouble.
[FN#196] i.e. must he obeyed.
[FN#197] We see that "China" was in those days the normal
Oriental "despotism tempered by assassination."
[FN#198] In the H. V. Alaeddin promises, "if I fail to find and
fetch the Princess, I will myself cut off my head and cast it
before the throne." Hindus are adepts in suicide and this self-
decapitation, which sounds absurd further West, is quite possible
to them.
[FN#199] In Galland Alaeddin unconsciously rubbed the ring
against un petit roc, to which he clung in order to prevent
falling into the stream. In the H. V. "The bank was high and
difficult of descent and the youth would have rolled down
headlong had he not struck upon a rock two paces from the bottom
and remained hanging over the water. This mishap was of the
happiest for during his fall he struck the stone and rubbed his
ring against it," etc.
[FN#200] In the H. V. he said, "First save me that I fall not
into the stream and then tell me where is the pavilion thou
builtest for her and who hath removed it."
[FN#201] Alluding to the preparatory washing, a mere matter of
cleanliness which precedes the formal Wuz·-ablution.
[FN#202] In the H. V. the Princess ends with, "I had made this
resolve that should he approach me with the design to win his
wish perforce, I would destroy my life. By day and by night I
abode in fear of him; but now at the sight of thee my heart is
heartened."
[FN#203] The Fellah had a natural fear of being seen in fine
gear, which all would have supposed to be stolen goods; and
Alaeddin was justified in taking it perforce, because necessitas
non habet legem. See a similar exchange of dress in Spitta-Bey's
"Contes Arabes Modernes," p. 91. In Galland the peasant when
pressed consents; and in the H. V. Alaeddin persuades him by a
gift of money.
[FN#204] i.e. which would take effect in the shortest time.
[FN#205] Her modesty was startled by the idea of sitting: at
meat with a strange man and allowing him to make love to her.
[FN#206] In the text KidÝ, pop. for Ka-zßlika. In the H. V. the
Magician replies to the honeyed speech of the Princess, "O my
lady, we in Africa have not so gracious customs as the men of
China. This day I have learned of thee a new courtesy which I
shall ever keep in mind."
[FN#207] Galland makes the Princess poison the Maghrabi, which
is not gallant. The H. V. follows suit and describes the powder
as a mortal poison.
[FN#208] Contrast this modesty with the usual scene of reunion
after severance, as in the case of Kamar al-Zamßn and immodest
Queen Bud·r, vol. iii. pp. 302-304.
[FN#209] His dignity forbade him to walk even the length of a
carpet: see vol. vii. for this habit of the Mameluke Beys. When
Harun al-Rashid made his famous pilgrimage afoot from Baghdad to
Meccah (and he was the last of the Caliphs who performed this
rite), the whole way was spread with a "Pß-andßz" of carpets and
costly cloths.
[FN#210] The proverb suggests our "par nobile fratrum," a pair
resembling each other as two halves of a split bean.
[FN#211] In the H. V. "If the elder Magician was in the East,
the other was in the West; but once a year, by their skill in
geomancy, they had tidings of each other."
[FN#212] The act was religiously laudable, but to the Eastern,
as to the South European mind, fair play is not a jewel; moreover
the story-teller may insinuate that vengeance would be taken only
by foul and unlawful means--the Black Art, perjury, murder and so
forth
[FN#213] For this game, a prime favourite in Egypt, see vol. vi.
145, De Sacy (Chrestomathie i. 477) and his authorities Hyde,
Syntagma Dissert. ii. 374, P. Labat, "Memoires du Chev
d'Arvieux," iii. 321; Thevenot, "Voyage du Levant," p. 107, and
Niebuhr, "Voyages," i. 139, Plate 25, fig. H.
[FN#214] Evidently="(jeu de) dames" (supposed to have been
invented in Paris during the days of the Regency: see LittrÚ);
and, although in certain Eastern places now popular, a term of
European origin. It is not in Galland. According to Ibn Khallikan
(iii. 69) "Nard" = tables, arose with King ArdashÝr son of Babuk,
and was therefore called NardashÝr (Nard ArdashÝr? ). He designed
it as an image of the world and its people, so the board had
twelve squares to represent the months; the thirty pieces or men
represented the days, and the dice were the emblems of Fate and
Lot.
[FN#215] i.e. a weaner, a name of good omen for a girl-child:
see vol. vi. 145. The Hindi translator, Totßrßm Shayyßn, calls
her HamÝdah = the Praiseworthy.
[FN#216] Arab. Kirßmßt: see vols. ii. 237; iv. 45. The
Necromancer clearly smells a rat holding with Diderot:
De par le Roi! Defense ß Dieu
De faire miracle en ce lieu;
and the stage properties afterwards found with the holy woman,
such as the gallipot of colouring ointment, justify his
suspicion.
[FN#217] " 'Ajßib" plur. of " 'AjÝb," a common exclamation
amongst the populace. It is used in Persian as well as in Arabic.
[FN#218] Evidently la force de l'imagination, of which a curious
illustration was given in Paris during the debauched days of the
Second Empire. Before a highly "fashionable" assembly of men
appeared a youth in fleshings who sat down upon a stool, bared
his pudenda and closed his eyes when, by "force of fancy,"
erection and emission took place. But presently it was suspected
and proved that the stool was hollow and admitted from below a
hand whose titillating fingers explained the phenomenon.
[FN#219] a Moslems are curious about sleeping postures and the
popular saying is:--Lying upon the right side is proper to Kings;
upon the left to Sages, to sleep supine is the position of
Allah's Saints and prone upon the belly is peculiar to the
Devils.
[FN#220] This " æAsß," a staff five to six feet long, is one of
the properties of Moslem Saints and reverends who, imitating that
furious old Puritan, Caliph Omar, make and are allowed to make a
pretty liberal distribution of its caresses.
[FN#221] i.e. as she was in her own home.
[FN#222] Arab. "Sul·k" a Sufistical expression, the road to
salvation, &c.
[FN#223] In the H. V. her diet consisted of dry bread and
fruits.
[FN#224] This is the first mention of the windows in the Arabic
MS.
[FN#225] For this "Roc" of the older writers see vols. v. 122;
vi. 16-49. I may remind the reader that the O. Egyptian "Rokh,"
or "Rukh," by some written "Rekhit," whose ideograph is a
monstrous bird with one claw raised, also denotes pure wise
Spirits, the Magi, &c. I know a man who derives from it our
"rook" = beak and parson.
[FN#226] In the H. V he takes the Lamp from his bosom, where he
had ever kept it since his misadventure with the African Magician
[FN#227] Here the mythical Rukh is mixed up with the mysterious
bird SÝmurgh, for which see vol. x. 117.
[FN#228] The H. V. adds, "hoping thereby that thou and she and
all the household should fall into perdition."
[FN#229] Rank mesmerism, which has been practiced in the East
from ages immemorial. In Christendom Santa Guglielma worshipped
at Brunate, "works many miracles, chiefly healing aches of head."
In the H. V. Alaeddin feigns that he is ill and fares to the
Princess with his head tied up.
[FN#230] Mr. Morier in "The Mirza" (vol. i. 87) says, "Had the
Arabian Nights' Entertainments, with all their singular fertility
of invention and never-ending variety, appeared as a new book in
the present day, translated literally and not adapted to European
taste in the manner attempted in M. Galland's translation, I
doubt whether they would have been tolerated, certainly not read
with the avidity they are, even in the dress with which he has
clothed them, however imperfect that dress maybe." But in
Morier's day the literal translation was so despised that an
Eastern book was robbed of half its charms, both of style and
idea.
[FN#231] In the MS. Of the BibliothÞque National, Supplement
Arabe (No. 2523, vol. ii. fol. 147), the story which follows
"Aladdin" is that of the Ten Wazirs, for which see Supp. Nights
ii. In Galland the Histoire de Codadad et des ses FrÞres comes
next to the tale of Zayn al-Asnam: I have changed the sequence in
order that the two stories directly translated from the Arabic
may be together.
[FN#232] M. Hermann Zotenberg lately informed me that "Khudadad
and his Brothers" is to be found in a Turkish MS., "Al-Faraj ba'd
al-Shiddah"--Joy after Annoy--in the BibliothÞque Nationale of
Paris. But that work is a mere derivation from the Persian "Hazßr
o yek Roz" for which see my vol. x. p.441. The name Khudadad is
common to most Eastern peoples, the Sansk. Devadatta, the Gr.
{Greek} and Dorotheus; the Lat. Deodatus, the Ital. Diodato, and
Span. Diosdado, the French Dieu-donnÚ, and the Arab.-Persic
Alladßd, DÝvdßd and Khudßbaksh. Khudß is the mod. Pers. form of
the old KhudßÝ=sovereign, king, as in Mßh-i-KhudßÝ=the sovereign
moon, Kßm-KhudßÝ=master of his passions, etc.
[FN#233] Lit. Homes (or habitations) of Bakr (see vol. v. 66), by
the Turks pronounced "Diyßr-i-BekÝr." It is the most famous of
the four provinces into which Mesopotamia (Heb. Naharaym, Arab.
Al-JazÝrah) is divided by the Arabs; viz: Diyßr Bakr (capital
AmÝdah); Diyßr Modhar (cap. Rakkah or Aracta); Diyßr RabÝ'ah
(cap. Nisibis) and Diyßr al-JazÝrah or Al-JazÝrah (cap. Mosul).
As regards the "King of Harrßn," all these ancient cities were at
some time the capitals of independent chiefs who styled
themselves royalties.
[FN#234] The Heb. Charran, the Carrh of the classics where,
according to the Moslems, Abraham was born, while the Jews and
Christians make him emigrate thither from "Ur (hod. Mughayr) of
the Chaldees." Hence his Arab. title "Ibrahim al-Harrßni." My
late friend Dr. Beke had a marvellous theory that this venerable
historic Harrßn was identical with a miserable village to the
east of Damascus because the Fellahs call it Harrßn
al-'AwßmÝd--of the Columns--from some Gr co-Roman remnants of a
paltry provincial temple. See "Jacob's Flight," etc., London,
Longmans, 1865.
[FN#235] PÝrozah=turquoise, is the Persian, Fir·zah and Firuzakh
(De Sacy, Chrest. ii. 84) the Arab. forms. The stone is a
favourite in the East where, as amongst the Russians (who affect
to despise the Eastern origin of their blood to which they owe so
much of its peculiar merit), it is supposed to act talisman
against wounds and death in battle; and the Persians, who hold it
to be a guard against the Evil Eye, are fond of inscribing
"turquoise of the old rock" with one or more of the "Holy Names."
Of these talismans a modern Spiritualist asks, "Are rings and
charms and amulets magnetic, to use an analogue for what we
cannot understand, and has the immemorial belief in the power of
relics a natural not to say a scientific basis?"
[FN#236] Samaria is a well-known name amongst Moslems, who call
the city ShamrÝn and Shamr·n. It was built, according to Ibn
Batrik, upon Mount Samir by Amri who gave it the first name; and
the TarÝkh SamÝrÝ, by Aba al-Fath Ab· al-Hasan, is a detailed
account of its garbled annals. As Nabl·s (Neapolis of Herod.,
also called by him Sebaste) it is now familiar to the Cookite.
[FN#237] In the text Zangi-i-Adam-kh'wßr afterwards called
Habashi=an Abyssinian. Galland simply says un negre. In India the
"HabshÝ" (chief) of Jinjirah (=Al-Jazirah, the Island) was
admiral of the Grand Moghul's fleets. These negroids are still
dreaded by Hind·s and HindÝs and, when we have another "Sepoy
Mutiny," a few thousands of them bought upon the Zanzibar coast,
dressed, drilled and officered by Englishmen, will do us yeomans'
service.
[FN#238] This seems to be a fancy name for a country: the term is
Persian=the Oceanland or a seaport town: from "Daryß" the sea and
bßr=a region, tract, as in Zanzibßr=Black-land. The learned Weil
explains it (in loco) by Gegend der Brunnen, brunnengleicher ort,
but I cannot accept Scott's note (iv. 400), "Signifying the
seacoast of every country; and hence the term is applied by
Oriental geographers to the coast of Malabar."
[FN#239] The onager, confounded by our older travellers with the
zebra, is the G·r-i-khßr of Persia, where it is the noblest game
from which kings did not disdain to take a cognomen, e.g.,
Bahrßm-i-G·r. It is the "wild ass" of Jeremiah (ii. 24: xiv. 6).
The meat is famous in poetry for combining the flavours peculiar
to all kinds of flesh (Ibn Khallikan iii. 117; iii. 239, etc.)
and is noticed by Herodotus (Clio. cxxxiii.) and by Xenophon
(Cyro. lib. 1) in sundry passages: the latter describes the
relays of horses and hounds which were used in chasing it then as
now. The traveller Olearius (A. D. 1637) found it more common
than in our present day: Shah Abbas turned thirty-two wild asses
into an enclosure where they were shot as an item of
entertainment to the ambassadors at his court. The skin of the
wild ass's back produces the famous shagreen, a word seemingly
derived from the Pers. "SaghrÝ," e.g. "Kyafash-i-Saghri"=slippers
of shagreen, fine wear fit for a "young Duke". See in Ibn
Khallikan (iv. 245) an account of a "J·r" (the Arabised "G·r")
eight hundred years old.
[FN#240] "Dasht-i-lß-siwß-H·"=a desert wherein is none save He
(Allah), a howling wilderness.
[FN#241] Per. "Nßz o andßz"=coquetry, in a half-honest sense. The
Persian "Kßkß Siyßh," i.e. "black brother" (a domestic negro)
pronounces NßzÝ-n·zÝ.
[FN#242] In the text Nimak-harßm: on this subject see vol. viii.
12.
[FN#243] i.e., an Arab of noble strain: see vol. iii. 72.
[FN#244] In the text "Kazzßk"=Cossacks, bandits, mounted
highwaymen; the word is well known in India, where it is written
in two different ways, and the late Mr. John Shakespear in his
excellent Dictionary need hardly have marked the origin "U"
(unknown).
[FN#245] Here and below the Hindostani version mounts the lady
upon a camel ("Ushtur" or "Unth") which is not customary in India
except when criminals are led about the bazar. An elephant would
have been in better form.
[FN#246] The AshrafÝ (Port. Xerafim) is a gold coin whose value
has greatly varied with its date from four shillings upwards. In
The (true) Nights we find (passim) that, according to the minting
of the VIth Ommiade, 'Abd al-Malik bin Marwßn (A.H. 65-86=A.D.
685-703), the coinage of Baghdad consisted of three metals. "Ita
quoque peregrina suis nummis nomina posuit, aureum Dinar
denarium, argentem Dirhen (lege dirham), Drachma, reum fols
(fuls), follem appellans. * * * Nam Vera moneta aurea nomine
follis lignabatur, ut reorum sub Aarone Raschido cussorum qui
hoc nomen servavit." (O. G. Tychsen p. 8. Introduct. in Rem
numariam Muhammedanorum.) For the dinar, daric or miskßl see The
Nights, vol i. 32; ix. 294; for the dirham, i. 33, ii. 316, etc.;
and for the Fals or Fils=a fish scale, a spangle of metal, vol.
i. 321. In the debased currency of the Maroccan Empire the Fals
of copper or iron, a substantial coin, is worth 2,160 to the
French five-franc piece.
[FN#247] In the Hindi, as in Galland's version, the horse is
naturally enough of Turcoman blood. I cannot but think that in
India we have unwisely limited ourselves for cavalry remounts to
the Western market that exports chiefly the mongrel "Gulf Arab"
and have neglected the far hardier animal, especially the G·tdßn
blood of the Tartar plains, which supply "excellent horses whose
speed and bottom are" say travellers in general, "so justly
celebrated throughout Asia." Our predecessors were too wise to
"put all the eggs in one basket."
[FN#248] An act of worship, see my Pilgrimage in which
"Tawßf"=circuiting, is described in detail, ii. 38; iii. 2O1 et
seqq. A counterpart of this scene is found in the Histoire du
Sultan Aqchid (Ikhshid) who determined to witness his own
funeral. Gauttier vol. i. pp. 134-139. Another and similar
incident occurs in the "Nineteenth Vezir's Story" (pp. 213-18 of
the History of the Forty Vezirs, before alluded to): here Hasan
of Basrah, an 'Alim who died in A.H. 110 (=A.D. 728) saw in
vision (the "drivel of dreams?") folk of all conditions, sages,
warriors and moon-faced maids seeking, but in vain, to release
the sweet soul of the Prince who had perished.
[FN#249] Here, after Moslem fashion, the mother ranks before the
wife: "A man can have many wives but only one mother." The idea
is old amongst Easterns: see Herodotus and his Christian
commentators on the history of Intaphernes' wife (Thalia, cap.
cxix). "O King," said that lady of mind logical, "I may get me
another mate if God will and other children an I lose these; but
as my father and my mother are no longer alive, I may not by any
means have another brother," etc., etc.
[FN#250] In Galland the Histoire de Ganem, fils d'Abu A´oub,
surnommÚ l'esclave d'Amour, precedes Zayn al-Asnßm. In the Arab
texts Ghanim bin Ayy·b, the Thrall o' Love, occurs much earlier:
see The Nights vol. ii. 45.
It is curious to compare the conclusions of these tales with the
formula of the latest specimens, the Contes Arabes Modernes of
Spitta-Bey, e.g. "And the twain lived together (p. iii.) and had
sons and daughters (p. ii.), cohabiting with perfect harmony (fÝ
al-Kamßl pp.42, 79); and at last they died and were buried and so
endeth the story" (wa khalßs p.161).
[FN#251] In Galland and his translators the Adventures of
Khudadad and his Brothers is followed by the Histoire du Dormeur
EveillÚ which, as "The Sleeper and the Waker," is to be found in
the first of my Supplemental Volumes, pp. 1-29. After this the
learned Frenchman introduced, as has been said, the Histoire de
la Lampe merveilleuse or "Alaeddin" to which I have assigned, for
reasons given in loco, a place before Khudadad.
[FN#252] i.e. Daddy Abdullah, the former is used in Pers., Turk.
and Hindostani for dad! dear! child! and for the latter, see vol.
v. 141.
[FN#253] Here the Arab. syn. of the Pers. "Darwaysh," which
Egyptians pronounce "DarwÝsh." In the Nile-valley the once
revered title has been debased to an insult = "poor devil" (see
Pigrimage i., pp. 20-22); "FakÝr" also has come to signify a
Koran-chaunter.
[FN#254] To "Nakh" is to make the camel kneel. See vo!. ii. 139,
and its references.
[FN#255] As a sign that he parted willingly with all his
possessions.
[FN#256] Arab. "'Ubb" prop.=the bulge between the breast and the
outer robe which is girdled round the waist to make a pouch. See
vol. viii. 205.
[FN#257] Thirst very justly takes precedence of hunger: a man may
fast for forty days, but with out water in a tropical country he
would die within a week. For a description of the horrors of
thirst see my "First Footsteps in East Africa," pp. 387-8.
[FN#258] In Galland it is Sidi Nouman; in many English
translations, as in the "Lucknow" (Newul Kishore Press, 1880), it
has become "Sidi Nonman." The word has occurred in King Omar bin
al-Nu'uman, vol. ii. 77 and 325, and vol. v. 74. For SÝdÝ = my
lord, see vol. v. 283; Byron, in The Corsair, ii. 2, seems to
mistake it for "Sayyid."
High in his hall reclines the turban'd Seyd,
Around--the bearded chiefs he came to lead.
[FN#259] The Turco-English form of the Persian "Pulßo."
[FN#260] i.e. the secure (fem.). It was the name of the famous
concubine of Solomon to whom he entrusted his ring (vol. vi. 84),
also of the mother of Mohammed who having taken her son to
Al-Medinah (Yathrib) died on the return journey. I cannot
understand why the Apostle of Al-Islam, according to his
biographers and commentators, refused to pray for his parent's
soul, she having been born in Al-Fitrah (the interval between the
fall of Christianity and the birth of Al-Islam), when he had not
begun to preach his "dispensation."
[FN#261] The cane-play: see vol. vi. 263.
[FN#262] Galland has une Goule, i.e., a Gh·lah, a she-Gh·l, an
ogress. But the lady was supping with a male of that species, for
which see vols. i. 55; vi. 36.
[FN#263] In the text "WazÝfah" prop. = a task, a stipend, a
salary, but here = the "Farz" devotions which he considered to be
his duty. In Spitta-Bey (loc. cit. p. 218) it is = duty,
[FN#264] For this scene which is one of every day in the East;
see Pilgrimage ii. pp. 52-54.
[FN#265] This hate of the friend of man is inherited from Jewish
ancestors; and, wherever the Hebrew element prevails, the muzzle,
which has lately made its appearance in London, is strictly
enforced, as at Trieste. Amongst the many boons which
civilisation has conferred upon Cairo I may note hydrophobia;
formerly unknown in Egypt the dreadful disease has lately caused
more than one death. In India sporadic cases have at rare times
occurred in my own knowledge since 1845.
[FN#266] In Galland "Rougeau" = (for Rougeaud?) a red-faced
(man), etc., and in the English version "Chance": "Bakht" = luck,
good fortune.
[FN#267] In the text "Sarrßf" = a money-changer. See vols. i.
210; iv. 270.
[FN#268] Galland has forgotten this necessary detail: see vol. i.
30 and elsewhere. In Lane's story of the man metamorphosed to an
ass, the old woman, "quickly covering her face, declared the
fact."
[FN#269] In the normal forms of this story, which Galland has
told very badly, the maiden would have married the man she saved.
[FN#270] In other similar tales the injured one inflicts such
penalty by the express command of his preserver who takes strong
measures to ensure obedience.
[FN#271] In the more finished tales of the true "Nights" the mare
would have been restored to human shape after giving the best
security for good conduct in time to come.
[FN#272] i.e. Master Hasan the Rope-maker. Galland writes, after
European fashion, "Hassan," for which see vol. i. 251; and for
"Khwßjah" vol. vi. 146. "Al-Habbßl" was the cognomen of a learned
"Hßfiz" (= traditionist and Koran reader), Ab· Ishßk Ibrahim, in
Ibn Khall. ii. 262; for another see iv. 410.
[FN#273] "Sa'd" = prosperity and "Sa'dÝ' '= prosperous, the
surname of the "Persian moralist," for whom see my friend F. F.
Arbuthnot's pleasant booklet, "Persian Portraits" (London
Quaritch, 1887).
[FN#274] This is true to nature as may be seen any day at Bombay
The crows are equally audacious, and are dangerous to men Iying
wounded in solitary places.
[FN#275] The Pers. "Gil-i-sar-sh·Ý" (=head-washing clay), the
Sindi "Met," and the Arab "Tafl," a kind of clay much used in
Persian, Afghanistan, Sind, etc. Galland turns it into terre Ó
decrasser and his English translators into "scouring sand which
women use in baths." This argillaceous earth mixed with mustard
oil is locally used for clay and when rose-leaves and perfumes
are used, it makes a tolerable wash-ball. See "Scinde or The
Unhappy Valley," i. 31.
[FN#276] For the "Cowrie" (Cypr£a moneta) see vol. iv. 77. The
Bßdßm or BÝdßm (almond) used by way of small change in India, I
have noted elsewhere.
[FN#277] Galland has "un morceau de plomb," which in the HindÝ
text becomes "ShÝshahkßpaysß" = a (pice) small coin of glass: the
translator also terms it a "Faddah," for which see Nusf (alias
"Nuss"), vols. ii. 37, vi. 214 and ix. 139, 167. Glass tokens, by
way of coins, were until late years made at Hebron, in Southern
Syria.
[FN#278] For the "Tßk" or "Tßkah" = the little wall-niche, see
vol. vii. 361.
[FN#279] In the French and English versions the coin is a bit of
lead for weighting the net. For the "Paysß" (pice) = two
farthings, and in weight = half an ounce, see Herklot's Glossary,
p. xcviii.
[FN#280] In the text "bilisht" = the long span between thumb-tip
and minimus-tip. Galland says long plus d'une coudÚe et gros Ó
proportion.
[FN#281] For the diamond (Arab. "Almßs" from {Greek}, and in Hind.
"HÝra" and "Pannß") see vols. vi. 15, i. ix. 325, and in latter
correct, "Euritic," a misprint for "dioritic." I still cannot
believe diamond-cutting to be an Indian art, and I must hold that
it was known to the ancients. It could not have been an
unpolished stone, that "Adamas notissimus" which according to
Juvenal (vi. 156) Agrippa gave to his sister. Maundeville (A.D.
1322) has a long account of the mineral, "so hard that no man can
polish it," and called Hamese ("Almßs?"). For Mr. Petrie and his
theory, see vol. ix. 325. In most places where the diamond has
been discovered of late years it had been used as a magic stone,
e.g., by the PagÚs or medicine-men of the Brazil, or for
children's playthings, which was the case with the South-African
"Caffres."
[FN#282] These stones, especially the carbuncle, which give out
dight in darkness are a commonplace of Eastern folk-lore. For
luminous jewels in folk-lore, see Mr. Clouston (i. 412): the
belief is not wholly extinct in England, and I have often heard
of it in the Brazil and upon the African Gaboon. It appears to me
that there may be a basis of fact to tints fancy, the abnormal
effect of precious stones upon mesmeric "sensitives."
[FN#283] The chimney and chimney-piece of Galland are not
Eastern: the H. V. uses "BukhßrÝ" = a place for steaming.
[FN#284] i.e. "Rachel."
[FN#285] In the text "lakh," the Anglicised "lac" = 100,000.
[FN#286] This use of camphor is noted by Gibbon (D. and F. iii.
195).
[FN#287] " b o hawß" = climate: see vol. ii. 4.
[FN#288] Galland makes this article a linen cloth wrapped about
the skull-cap or core of the turban.
[FN#289] Mr. Coote ( loc. cit. p. 185) is unable to produce a
puramythe containing all of "Ali Bßba;" but, for the two leading
incidents he quotes from Prof. Sakellarios two tales collected in
Cyprus One is Morgiana marking the village doors (p. 187), which
has occurred doubtless a hundred times. The other, in the "Story
of Drakos," is an ogre, hight "Three Eyes," who attempts the
rescue of his wife with a party of blackamoors packed in bales
and these are all discovered and slain.
[FN#290] Dans la forÛt, says Galland.
[FN#291] Or "Samsam," The grain = Sesamum Orientale: hence the
French, Sesame, ouvre-toi! The term is cabalistical, like S·lem,
S·lam or Sh·lam in the Directorium Vit Human of Johannes di
CapuÔ: Inquit vir: Ibam in nocte plenilunii et ascendebam super
domum ubi furari intendebam, et accedens ad fenestram ubi radii
lune ingrediebantur, et dicebam hanc coniurationem, scilicet
sulem sulem, septies, deinde amplectebar lumen lune et sine
lesione descendebam ad domum, etc. (pp. 24-25) par Joseph
Derenbourg, Membre de l'Institut 1re Fascicule, Paris, F. Vieweg,
67, Rue de Richelieu, 1887.
[FN#292] In the text "Jathßni" = the wife of an elder brother.
Hindostani, like other Eastern languages, is rich in terms for
kinship whereof English is so exceptionally poor. Mr. Francis
Galtson, in his well-known work, "Hereditary Genius," a misnomer
by the by for "HeredTalent," felt this want severely and was at
pains to supply it.
[FN#293]In the text "Thag," our English "Thug," often pronounced
moreover by the Briton with the sibilant "th." It means simply a
cheat: you say to your servant "T· barß Thag hai" = thou art a
precious rascal; but it has also the secondary meaning of robber,
assassin, and the tertiary of Bhawßni-worshippers who offer
indiscriminate human sacrifices to the DeÙss of Destruction. The
word and the thing have been made popular in England through the
"Confessions of a Thug" by my late friend Meadows Taylor; and I
may record my conviction that were the English driven out of
India, "Thuggee," like piracy in Cutch and in the Persian Gulf,
would revive at the shortest possible time.
[FN#294] i.e. the Civil Governor, who would want nothing better.
[FN#295]This is in Galland and it is followed by the H. V.; but
it would be more natural to suppose that of the quarters two were
hung up outside the door and the others within. VOL. XIII
[FN#296] I am unwilling to alter the time honoured corruption:
properly it is written Marjßnah = the "Coralline," from Marjßn =
red coral, for which see vols. ii. 100; vii. 373.
[FN#297] i.e. the " æIddah." during which she could not marry.
See vol. iii. 292.
[FN#298] In Galland he is a savetier * * * naturellement gai, et
qui avait toujours le mot pour rire: the H. V. naturally changed
him to a tailor as the Chßmßr or leather-worker would be
inadmissible to polite conversation.
[FN#299] i.e. a leader of prayer; the Pers. "PÝsh-namßz" =
fore-prayer, see vols. ii. 203; iv. 111 and 227. Galland has
"Ýmßn," which can mean only faith, belief, and in this blunder he
is conscientiously followed by his translators--servum pecus
[FN#300] Galland nails down the corpse in the bier--a Christian
practice--and he certainly knew better. Moreover, prayers for the
dead are mostly recited over the bier when placed upon the brink
of the grave; nor is it usual for a woman to play so prominent a
part in the ceremony.
[FN#301] See vols. v. 111; ix. 163 and x. 47.
[FN#302] Galland is less merciful, "Aussit¶t le conducteur fut
dÚclarÚ digne de mort tout d'une voix, et il s'y condamna
lui-mÛme," etc. The criminal, indeed, condemns himself and firmly
offers his neck to be stricken.
[FN#303] In the text "Lauh," for which see vol. v. 73.
[FN#304] In Arab. "Kama" = he rose, which, in vulgar speech
especially in Egypt, = he began. So in Spitta-Bey's "Contes
Arabes Modernes" (p. 124) "Kßmat al-Sibhah dhßkat fi yad akhÝ-h"
= the chaplet began (lit. arose) to wax tight in his brother's
hand. This sense is shadowed forth in classical Arabic.
[FN#305] So in old Arabian history "KasÝr" (the Little One), the
Arab Zopyrus, stows away in huge camel-bags the 2,000 warriors
intended to surprise masterful Queen Zebba. Chronique de TabarÝ,
vol. ii., 26. Also the armed men in boxes by which Shamar, King
of Al-Yaman, took Shamar-kand = Shamar's-town, now Samarkand.
(Ibid. ii. 158.)
[FN#306] i.e. for a walk, a "constitutional": the phrase is very
common in Egypt, and has occurred before.
[FN#307] These visions are frequent in Al-Islam; see Pilgrimage
iii. 254-55. Of course Christians are not subject to them, as
Moslems also are never favoured with glimpses of the Blessed
Virgin and the Saints; the best proof of their "Subjectivity."
[FN#308] For this word see De Sacy, Chrest. ii. 421. It has
already occurred in The Nights, vol. iii. 295.
[FN#309] Not a few pilgrims settle for a time or for life in the
two Holy Places, which are thus kept supplied with fresh blood.
See Pilgrimage ii. 260.
[FN#310] i.e. Bayt al-Mukaddas, for which see vol. ii. 132.
[FN#311] An affidavit amongst Moslems is "litis decisio," as in
the jurisprudence of medi val Europe.
[FN#312] In Arab folk-lore there are many instances of such
precocious boys--enfants terribles they must be in real life. In
Ibn Khall. (iii. 104) we find notices of a book "Kitßb Nujabß
al-Abnß" = Treatise on Distinguished Children, by Ibn Zakar al-
Sakalli (the Sicilian), ob. A. D. 1169-70. And the boy-Kazi is a
favourite role in the plays of peasant-lads who enjoy the
irreverent "chaff" almost as much as when "making a Pasha." This
reminds us of the boys electing Cyrus as their King in sport
(Herodotus, i. 114). For the cycle of "Precocious Children" and
their adventures, see Mr. Clouston (Popular Tales, etc., ii. 1-
14), who enters into the pedigree and affiliation. I must,
however, differ with that able writer when he remarks at the end,
"And now we may regard the story of Valerius Maximus with
suspicion, and that of Lloyd as absolutely untrue, so far as
William Noy's alleged share in the 'case.' " The jest or the
event happening again and again is no valid proof of its untruth;
and it is often harder to believe in derivation than in
spontaneous growth.
[FN#313] In Galland Ali Cogia, Marchand de Bagdad, is directly
followed by the Histoire du Cheval EnchantÚ. For this "Ebony
Horse," as I have called it, see vol. v. p. 32.
[FN#314] "Bßn·" = a lady, a dame of high degree generally, e.g.
the (Shah's) Banu-i-Harem in James Morier ("The Mirza," iii. 50),
who rightly renders Pari Banu = Pari of the first quality. "Peri"
(ParÝ) in its modern form has a superficial resemblance to
"Fairy;" but this disappears in the "Pairika" of the Avesta and
the "Pairik" of the modern Parsee. In one language only, the
MultßnÝ, there is a masculine form for the word "Parß" = a
he-fairy (Scinde, ii. 203). In Al-Islam these Peris are beautiful
feminine spirits who, created after the "DÝvs" (Tabari, i. 7),
mostly believe in Allah and the Koran and desire the good of
mankind: they are often attacked by the said DÝvs, giants or
demons, who imprison them in cages hung to the highest trees, and
here the captives are visited by their friends who feed them with
the sweetest of scents. I have already contrasted them with the
green-coated pygmies to which the grotesque fancy of Northern
Europe has reduced them. Bßn· in Pers. = a princess, a lady, and
is still much used, e.g. Bßn·-Ý-Harim, the Dame of the Serraglio,
whom foreigners call "Queen of Persia," and rßm-Banu="the calm
Princess," a nickname. A Greek story equivalent of Prince Ahmad
is told by Pio in Contes Populaires Grecs (No. ii. p. 98) and
called {Greek}, the Golden box. Three youths ({Greek}) love the
same girl and agree that whoever shall learn the best craft
({Greek}) shall marry her; one becomes an astrologer, the second
can raise the dead, and the third can run faster than air. They
find her at death's door, and her soul, which was at her teeth
ready to start, goes down ({Greek}).
[FN#315] Light of the Day.
[FN#316] Galland has "Bisnagar," which the H. V. corrupts to
Bishan-Garh = Vishnu's Fort, an utter misnomer. Bisnagar, like
Bijnagar, Beejanuggur, Vizianuggur, etc., is a Prakrit corruption
of the Sanskrit Vijßyanagara = City of Victory, the far-famed
Hindu city and capital of the Narasingha or Lord of Southern
India, mentioned in The Nights, vols. vi. 18; ix. 84. Nicolo de'
Conti in the xvth century found it a magnificent seat of Empire
some fifteen marches south of the pestilential mountains which
contained the diamond mines. Accounts of its renown and condition
in the last generation have been given by James Grant ("Remarks
on the Dekkan") and by Captain Moore ("Operations of Little's
Detachment against Tippoo Sultan"). The latest description of it
is in "The Indian Empire," by Sir William W. Hunter. Vijßyanagar,
village in Bellary district, Madras, lat. 15 degrees 18' N.,
long. 76 degrees 30' E., pop. (1871), 437, inhabiting 172 houses.
The proper name of this village is Hampi, but Vijßyanagar was the
name of the dynasty (?) and of the kingdom which had its capital
here and was the last great Hindu power of the South. Founded by
two adventurers in the middle of the xivth century, it lasted for
two centuries till its star went down at Tßlikot in A. D. 1565.
For a description of the ruins of the old city of Vijßyanagar,
which covers a total area of nine square miles, see "Murray's
Handbook for Madras," by E. B. Eastwick (1879), vol. ix. p. 235.
Authentic history in Southern India begins with the Hindu kingdom
of Vijßyanagar, or Narsinha, from A. D. 1118 to 1565. The capital
can still be traced within the Madras district of Bellary, on the
right bank of the Tungabhadra river--vast ruins of temples,
fortifications, tanks and bridges, haunted by hy nas and snakes.
For at least three centuries Vijßyanagar ruled over the southern
part of the Indian triangle. Its Rajas waged war and made peace
on equal terms with the Mohamadan sultans of the Deccan. See vol.
iv. p. 335, Sir W. W. Hunter's "Imperial Gazetteer of India,"
Edit. 1881.
[FN#317] The writer means the great Bazar, the Indian "Chauk,"
which = our English Carfax or Carfex (Carrefour) and forms the
core of ancient cities in the East. It is in some places, as
Damascus, large as one of the quarters, and the narrow streets or
lanes, vaulted over or thatched, are all closed at night by heavy
doors well guarded by men and dogs. Trades are still localised,
each owning its own street, after the fashion of older England,
where we read of Drapers' Lane and Butchers' Row; Lombard Street,
Cheapside and Old Jewry.
[FN#318] The local name of the Patna ganzes. The term was
originally applied to the produce of the Coan looms, which,
however, was anticipated in ancient Egypt. See p. 287 of
"L'ArchÚologie gyptienne" (Paris, A. Quantin) of the learned
Professor G. Maspero, a most able popular work by a savant who
has left many regrets on the banks of Nilus.
[FN#319] The great prototype of the Flying Carpet is that of
Sulayman bin Dß·d, a fable which the Koran (chap. xxi. 81)
borrowed from the Talmud, not from "Indian fictions." It was of
green sendal embroidered with gold and silver and studded with
precious stones, and its length and breadth were such that all
the Wise King's host could stand upon it, the men to the left and
the Jinns to the right of the throne; and when all were ordered,
the Wind, at royal command, raised it and wafted it whither the
Prophet would, while an army of birds flying overhead canopied
the host from the sun. In the Middle Ages the legend assumed
another form. "Duke Richard, surnamed 'Richard sans peur,'
walking with his courtiers one evening in the forest of
Moulineaux, near one of his castles on the banks of the Seine,
hearing a prodigious noise coming towards him, sent one of his
esquires to know what was the matter, who brought him word that
it was a company of people under a leader or King. Richard, with
five hundred of his bravest Normans, went out to see a sight
which the peasants were so accustomed to that they viewed it two
or three times a week without fear. The sight of the troop,
preceded by two men, who spread a cloth on the ground, made all
the Normans run away, and leave the Duke alone. He saw the
strangers form themselves into a circle on the cloth, and on
asking who they were, was told that they were the spirits of
Charles V., King of France, and his servants, condemned to
expiate their sins by fighting all night against the wicked and
the damned. Richard desired to be of their party, and receiving a
strict charge not to quit the cloth, was conveyed with them to
Mount Sinai, where, leaving them without quitting the cloth, he
said his prayers in the Church of St. Catherine's Abbey there,
while they were fighting, and returned with them. In proof of the
truth of this story, he brought back half the wedding-ring of a
knight in that convent, whose wife, after six years, concluded
him dead, and was going to take a second husband." (Note in the
Lucknow Edition of The Nights.)
[FN#320] Amongst Eastern peoples, and especially adepts, the will
of man is not a mere term for a mental or cerebral operation, it
takes the rank of a substance; it becomes a mighty motive power,
like table-turning and other such phenomena which, now looked
upon as child's play, will perform a prime part in the Kinetics
of the century to come. If a few pair of hands imposed upon a
heavy dinner-table can raise it in the air, as I have often seen,
what must we expect to result when the new motive force shall
find its Franklin and be shown to the world as real "Vril"? The
experiment of silently willing a subject to act in a manner not
suggested by speech or sign has been repeatedly tried and
succeeded in London drawing-rooms; and it has lately been
suggested that atrocious crimes have resulted from overpowering
volition. In cases of paralysis the Faculty is agreed upon the
fact that local symptoms disappear when the will-power returns to
the brain. And here I will boldly and baldly state my theory
that, in sundry cases, spectral appearances (ghosts) and abnormal
smells and sounds are simply the effect of a Will which has, so
to speak, created them.
[FN#321] The text has "But-Khanah" = idol-house (or room) syn.
with "But-Kadah" = image-cuddy, which has been proposed as the
derivation of the disputed "Pagoda." The word "Khßnah" also
appears in our balcony, origin. "balcony," through the
South-European tongues, the Persian being "Bßlß-khßnah" = high
room. From "Kadah" also we derive "cuddy," now confined to
nautical language.
[FN#322] Europe contains sundry pictures which have, or are
supposed to have, this property; witness the famous Sundarium
bearing the head of Jesus. The trick, for it is not Art, is
highly admired by the credulous.
[FN#323] i.e. the Hindu Scripture or Holy Writ, e.g.
"Kßma-Shastra" = the Cupid-gospel.
[FN#324] This shifting theatre is evidently borrowed by Galland
from Pliny (N. H. xxxvi., 24) who tells that in B. C. 50, C.
Curio built two large wooden theatres which could be wheeled
round and formed into an amphitheatre. The simple device seems to
stir the bile of the unmechanical old Roman, so unlike the Greek
in powers of invention.
[FN#325] This trick is now common in the circuses and hippodromes
of Europe, horses and bulls being easily taught to perform it:
but India has as yet not produced anything equal to the "Cyclist
elephant" of Paris.
[FN#326] This Arab.-Pers. compound, which we have corrupted to
"Bezestein" or "Bezettein" and "Bezesten," properly means a
market-place for Baz or Bazz = cloth, fine linen; but is used by
many writers as = Bazar, see "Kaysariah," vol. i. 266.
[FN#327] The origin of the lens and its applied use to the
telescope and the microscope are "lost" (as the Castle-guides of
Edinburgh say) "in the glooms of antiquity." Well ground glasses
have been discovered amongst the finds of Egypt and Assyria:
indeed much of the finer work of the primeval artists could not
have been done without such aid. In Europe the "spy-glass"
appears first in the Opus Majus of the learned Roger Bacon (circa
A. D. 1270); and his "optic tube" (whence his saying "all things
are known by perspective"), chiefly contributed to make his
wide-spread fame as a wizard. The telescope was popularised by
Galileo who (as mostly happens) carried off and still keeps,
amongst the vulgar, all the honours of invention. Some
"Illustrators" of The Nights confound this "Nazzßrah," the Pers.
"D·r-bÝn," or far-seer, with the "Magic Mirror," a speculum which
according to Gower was set up in Rome by Virgilius the Magician
hence the Mirror of Glass in the Squire's tale; Merlin's glassie
Mirror of Spenser (F. Q. ii. 24); the mirror in the head of the
monstrous fowl which forecast the Spanish invasion to the
Mexicans; the glass which in the hands of Cornelius Agrippa (A.
D. 1520) showed to the Earl of Surrey fair Geraldine "sick in her
bed;" to the globe of glass in The Lusiads; Dr. Dee's show-stone,
a bit of cannel-coal; and lastly the zinc and copper disk of the
absurdly called "electro-biologist." I have noticed this matter
at some length in various places.
[FN#328] D'Herbelot renders Soghd Samarkand = plain of Samarkand.
Hence the old "Sogdiana," the famed and classical capital of
Mßwarßnnahr, our modern Transoxiana, now known as Samarkand. The
Hindi translator has turned "Soghd" into "Sadß" and gravely notes
that "the village appertained to Arabia." He possibly had a dim
remembrance of the popular legend which derives "Samarkand" from
Shamir or Samar bin Afrik·s, the Tobba King of Al-Yaman, who lay
waste Soghd-city ("Shamir kand" = Shamir destroyed); and when
rebuilt the place was called by the Arab. corruption Samarkand.
See Ibn Khallikan ii. 480. Ibn Haukal (Kitßb al Mamßlik wa
al-Masßlik = Book of Realms and Routes), whose Oriental Geography
(xth century) was translated by Sir W. Ouseley (London, Oriental
Press, 1800), followed by Ab· 'l-Fidß, mentions the Himyaritic
inscription upon an iron plate over the Kash portal of Samarkand
(Appendix No. iii.).
[FN#329] The wish might have been highly indiscreet and have
exposed the wisher to the resentment of the two other brothers.
In parts of Europe it is still the belief of the vulgar that men
who use telescopes can see even with the naked eye objects which
are better kept hidden; and I have heard of troubles in the South
of France because the villagers would not suffer the secret
charms of their women to become as it were the public property of
the lighthouse employÚs.
[FN#330] "Jßm-i-JamshÝd" is a well worn commonplace in Moslem
folk-lore; but commentators cannnot agree whether "Jßm" be = a
mirror or a cup. In the latter sense it would represent the
Cyathomantic cup of the Patriarch Joseph and the symbolic bowl of
Nestor. JamshÝd may be translated either Jam the Bright or the
Cup of the Sun: this ancient King is Solomon of the grand old
Guebres.
[FN#331] This passage may have suggested to Walter Scott one of
his descriptions in "The Monastery."
[FN#332] In the text "LßjawardÝ," for which see vols. iii. 33,
and ix. 190.
[FN#333] In Galland and the H. V. "Prince Husayn's."
[FN#334] This is the "Gandharba-lagana" (fairy wedding) of the
Hindus; a marriage which lacked only the normal ceremonies. For
the Gandharbas = heavenly choristers see Moor's "Hind· Pantheon,"
p. 237, etc.
[FN#335] "Perfumed with amber" (-gris?) says Galland.
[FN#336] The Hind term for the royal levÚe, as "Selßm" is the
Persian.
[FN#337] Arab. "'Ilm al-Ghayb" = the Science of Hidden Things
which, says the Hadis, belongeth only to the Lord. Yet amongst
Moslems, as with other faiths, the instinctive longing to pry
into the Future has produced a host of pseudo-sciences, Geomancy,
Astrology, Prophecy and others which serve only to prove that
such knowledge, in the present condition of human nature, is
absolutely unattainable.
[FN#338] In folk-lore and fairy tales the youngest son of mostly
three brothers is generally Fortune's favourite: at times also he
is the fool or the unlucky one of the family, Cinderella being
his counterpart (Mr. Clouston, i. 321).
[FN#339] The parasang (Gr. {Greek}), which Ibn Khall. (iii. 315)
reduces to three miles, has been derived wildly enough from Fars
or Pars (Persia proper) sang = (mile) stone. Chardin supports the
etymology, "because leagues are marked out with great tall stones
in the East as well as the West, e.g., ad primam (vel secundam)
lapidem."
[FN#340] A huge marquee or pavilion-tent in India.
[FN#341] The Jinn feminine; see vol. i. 10. The word hardly
corresponds with the Pers. "Peri" and Engl. "Fairy," a creation,
like the "DÝv," of the so-called "Aryan," not "Semitic," race.
[FN#342] Galland makes the Fairy most unjustifiably fear that her
husband is meditating the murder of his father; and the HindÝ in
this point has much the advantage of the Frenchman.
[FN#343] Pers. = "Light of the World"; familiar to Europe as the
name of the Grand Moghul JehßngÝr's principal wife.
[FN#344] The Arab stirrup, like that of the Argentine Gaucho, was
originally made of wood, liable to break, and forming a frail
support for lancer and sworder. A famous chief and warrior, Ab·
Sa'Ýd al-Muhallab (ob. A. H. 83 = 702) first gave orders to forge
foot-rests of iron.
[FN#345] For this Egyptian and Syrian weapon see vol. i. 234.
[FN#346] See vol. vii. 93, where an error of punctuation
confounds it with Kerbela,--a desert with a place of pilgrimage.
"Samßwah" in Ibn Khall. (vol. i. 108) is also the name of a town
on the Euphrates.
[FN#347] Nazarßnah prop. = the gift (or gifts) offered at visits
by a Moslem noble or feoffee in India to his feudal superior; and
the Kalichah of Hind·, Malabar, Goa and the Blue Mountains (p.
197). Hence the periodical tributes and especially the presents
which represent our "legacy-duty" and the "succession-duty" for
Rajahs and Nabobs, the latter so highly lauded by "The Times," as
the logical converse of the Corn-laws which ruined our corn. The
Nazarßnah can always be made a permanent and a considerable
source of revenue, far more important than such unpopular and
un-Oriental device as an income-tax. But our financiers have yet
to learn the A. B. C. of political economy in matters of
assessment, which is to work upon familiar lines; and they
especially who, like Mr. Wilson "mad as a hatter," hold and hold
forth that "what is good for England is good for the world."
These myopics decide on theoretical and sentimental grounds that
a poll-tax is bad in principle, which it may be, still public
opinion sanctions it and it can be increased without exciting
discontent. The same with the "Nazarßnah;" it has been the custom
of ages immemorial, and a little more or a little less does not
affect its popularity.
[FN#348] Pers. = City-queen.
[FN#349] Compare with this tale its modern and popular version
Histoire du Rossignol Chanteur (Spitta-Bey, No. x, p. 123): it
contains the rosary (and the ring) that shrinks, the ball that
rolls and the water that heals; etc. etc. Mr. Clouston somewhere
asserts that the History of the Envious Sisters, like that of
Prince Ahmad and the PerÝ-Banu, are taken from a MS. still
preserved in the "King's Library," Paris; but he cannot quote his
authority, De Sacy or LanglÞs. Mr. H. C. Coote (loc. Cit. P. 189)
declares it to be, and to have been, "an enormous favourite in
Italy and Sicily: no folk-tale exists in those countries at all
comparable to it in the number of its versions and in the extent
of its distribution." He begins two centuries before Galland,
sith Straparola (Notti Piacevoli), proceeds to Imbriani
(Novajella Fiorentina), Nerucci (Novelle Montalesi), Comparetti
(Nivelline Italiane) and Pitre (Fiabe Novelle e Racconti popolari
Italiani, vol. I.); and informs us that "the adventures of the
young girl, independently of the joint history of herself and her
brother, are also told in a separate "Fiaba" in Italy. A tale
called La Favenilla Coraggiosa is given by Visentini in his Fiabe
Mantovane and it is as far as it is a counterpart of the second
portion of Galland's tale." Mr. Coote also finds this story in
Hahn's "Griechische Mõrchen" entitled "Sun, Moon and Morning
Star"--the names of the royal children. The King overhears the
talk of three girls and marries the youngest despite his
stepmother, who substitutes for her issue a puppy, a kitten and a
mouse. The castaways are adopted by a herdsman whilst the mother
is confined in a henhouse; and the King sees his offspring and
exclaims, "These children are like those my wife promised me."
His stepmother, hearing this, threatens the nurse, who goes next
morning disguised as a beggar-woman to the girl and induces her
to long for the Bough that makes music, the Magic Mirror, and the
bird Dickierette. The brothers set out to fetch them leaving
their shirts which become black when the mishap befalls them. The
sister, directed by a monk, catches the bird and revives the
stones by the River of Life and the denouement is brought about
by a sausage stuffed with diamonds. In Miss Stokes' Collection of
Hindu Stories (No. xx.) "The Boy who had a moon on his brow and a
star on his chin" also suggests the "Envious Sisters."
[FN#350] Pop. "Ghaut" = The steps (or path) which lead down to a
watering-place. Hence the HindÝ saying concerning the "rolling
stone"--Dhobi-ka kuttß; na Gharkß na Ghßt-kß, = a washerwoman's
tyke, nor of the house nor of the Ghßt-dyke.
[FN#351] Text "KhatÝbah" more usually "Khutbah" = the Friday
sermon preached by the KhatÝb: in this the reigning sovereign is
prayed for by name and his mention together with the change of
coinage is the proof of his lawful rule. See Lane, M. F., chap.
iii.
[FN#352] This form of eaves-dropping, in which also the listener
rarely hears any good of himself is, I need hardly now say, a
favourite incident of Eastern Storiology and even of history,
e.g. Three men met together; one of them expressed the wish to
obtain a thousand pieces of gold, so that he might trade with
them; the other wished for an appointment under the Emir of the
Moslems; the third wished to possess Yusuf's wife, who was the
handsomest of women and had reat political influence. Yusuf,
being informed of what they said, sent for the men, bestowed one
thousand dinars on him who wished for that sum, gave an
appointment to the other and said to him who wished to possess
the lady: "Foolish man! What induced you to wish for that which
you can never obtain?" He then sent him to her and she placed him
in a tent where he remained three days, receiving, each day, one
and the same kind of food. She had him brought to her and said,
"What did you eat these days past?" He replied: "Always the same
thing!"--"Well," said she, "all women are the same thing." She
then ordered some money and a dress to be given him, after which,
she dismissed him. (Ibn Khallikan iii. 463-64.)
[FN#353] This ruthless attempt at infanticide was in accordance
with the manners of the age nor has it yet disappeared from
Rajput-land, China and sundry over-populous countries. Indeed it
is a question if civilisation may not be compelled to revive the
law of Lycurgus which forbade a child, male or female, to be
brought up without the approbation of public officers appointed
ad hoc. One of the curses of the XIXth century is the increased
skill of the midwife and physician, who are now able to preserve
worthless lives and to bring up semi-abortions whose only effect
upon the breed is increased degeneracy. Amongst the Greeks and
ancient Arabs the Malthusian practice was carried to excess.
Poseidippus declares that in his day--
A man, although poor, will not expose his son;
But however rich, will not preserve his daughter.
See the commentators' descriptions of the Wa'd al-Banßt or burial
of Mau·dßt (living daughters), the barbarous custom of the pagan
Arabs (Koran, chaps. Xvi. And lxxxi.) one of the many
abominations, like the murderous vow of Jephtha, to which Al-
Islam put a summary stop. (Ibn Khallikan, iii. 609-606) For such
outcast children reported to be monsters, see pp. 402-412 of Mr.
Clouston's "Asiatic and European versions of four of Chaucer's
Canterbury Tales," printed by the Chaucer Society.
[FN#354] Hind. Chhuchhundar (Sorex c£rulescens) which occurs
repeatedly in verse; e.g., when speaking of low men advanced to
high degree, the people say:--
Chhuchh·ndar-ke sir-par ChambelÝ-ka tel.
The Jasmine-oil on the musk-rat's head.
In Galland the Sultßnah is brought to bed of un morceau de bois;
and his Indian translator is more consequent, Hahn, as has been
seen, also has the mouse but Hahn could hardly have reached
Hindostan.
[FN#355] This title of Shßhinshah was first assumed by ArdashÝr,
the great Persian conqueror, after slaying the King of Ispahßn,
Ardawßn. (Tabari ii. 73.)
[FN#356] This imprisonment of the good Queen reminds home readers
of the "Cage of Clapham" wherein a woman with child was
imprisoned in A.D. 1700, and which was noted by Sir George Grove
as still in existence about 1830.
[FN#357] Arab. Ayyßm al-Nifßs = the period of forty days after
labour during which, according to Moslem law, a woman may not
cohabit with her husband.
[FN#358] A clarum et venerabile nomen in Persia; meaning one of
the Spirits that preside over beasts of burden; also a king in
general, the P.N. of an ancient sovereign, etc.
[FN#359] This is the older pronunciation of the mod. (Khusrau)
"ParvÝz"; and I owe an apology to Mr. C.J. Lyall (Ancient Arabian
Poetry) for terming his "Khusrau ParvÛz" an "ugly Indianism" (The
Academy, No. 100). As he says (Ibid. vol. x. 85), "the Indians
did not invent for Persian words the sounds Û and ¶, called
majh·l (i.e. ænot known in Arabic') by the Arabs, but received
them at a time when these wounds were universally used in Persia.
The substitution by Persians of ¯ and ¹ for Û and ¶ is quite
modern."
[FN#360] i.e. Fairy-born, the {Greek} (Parysatis) of the Greeks
which some miswrite {Greek}.
[FN#361] In Arab. Usually shortened to "Hazßr" (bird of a
thousand tales = the Thousand), generally called "'AndalÝb:"
Galland has Bulbulhezer and some of his translators debase it to
Bulbulkezer. See vol. v. 148, and the Hazßr-dastßn of KazwÝnÝ (De
Sacy, Chrest. iii. 413). These rarities represent the Rukh's egg
in "Alaeddin."
[FN#362] These disembodied "voices" speaking either naturally or
through instruments are a recognized phenomenon of the so-called
"Spiritualism," See p. 115 of "Supra-mundane Facts," &c., edited
by T.J. Nichols, M.D., &c., London, Pitman, 1865. I venture to
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