Supplemental Nights, Volume 5
by
Richard F. Burton

Part 8 out of 9



Husayn, inherited all the defects and few of the merits of their
sire: Hasan was a pauvre diable, whose chief characteristic was
addiction to marriage, and by poetical justice one of his wives
murdered him. Husayn was of stronger mould, but he fought against
the impossible; for his rival was Mu'awiyah, the Cavour of the
Age, the longest-headed man in Arabia, and against Yazid, who,
like Italy of the present day, flourished and prospered by the
artificial game which the far-seeing politician, his father, had
bequeathed to his house--the Ommiade. The fourth of this dynasty,
'Abd al-Malik bin Marwan, "the Father of Flies," and his
successor, Al-Walid, were happy in being served thoroughly and
unscrupulously by Al-Hajjaj, the ablest of Lieutenants. whose
specialty it was to take in hand a revolted province, such as
Al-Hijaz, Al-Irak, or Khorasan, and to slaughter it into
submission; besides deaths in battle he is computed to have slain
120,000 men. He was an unflinching preacher of the Divine Right
of Kings and would observe that the Lord says, "Obey Allah and ye
can" (conditional), but as regards royal government "Hearing and
obeying" (absolute); ergo, all opposition was to be cut down and
uprooted. However, despite his most brilliant qualities, his
learning, his high and knightly sense of honour, his insight and
his foresight (e.g. in building Wasit), he won an immortality of
infamy: he was hated by his contemporaries, he is the subject of
silly tale and offensive legend (e.g., that he was born without
anus, which required opening with instruments, and he was suckled
by Satan's orders on blood), and he is still execrated as the
tyrant, per excellentiam, and the oppressor of the Holy Family--
the children and grand-children of the Apostle.

The traditional hatred of Al-Hajjaj was envenomed by the
accession of the Abbasides and this dynasty, the better to
distinguish itself from the Ommiades, affected love for the Holy
Family, especially Ali and his descendants, and a fanatical
hatred against their oppressors. The following table from Ibn
Khaldun (Introduct. xxii.) shows that the Caliphs were cousins,
which may account for their venomous family feud.

[First Version]

'Abd Manaf
|
____________|____________
| |
Hashim Abd Shams
| |
Abd al-Muttalib Umayyah
| |
___________|__________ ____|______
| | | | |
Al-Abbas Abdullah Abu Talib Harb Abu 'l-Aus
| | | | |
Abdullah Mohammed | Abu Sufyan Al-Hakim
| | | | |
Ali Fatimah married Ali Mu'awiyah Marwan
| _____|_____ (1st Ommiade)
| | |
Mohammed Al-Hasan Al-Husayn
|
Al-Saffah
(1st Abbaside)


[Second Version]

'Abd Manaf, father of Hashim and Abd Shams
Hashim, father of Abd al-Muttalib
Abd al-Muttalib, father of Al-Abbas, Abdullah, and Abu Talib
Al-Abbas, father of Abdullah
Abdullah, father of Ali
Ali, father of Mohammed
Mohammed, father of Al-Saffah (1st Abbaside)
Abdullah, father of Mohammed
Mohammed, father of Fatimah, who married Ali
(son of Abu Talib)
Fatimah, mother of Al-Hasan and Al-Husayn
Abu Talib, father of Ali
Abd Shams, father of Umayyah
Umayyah, father of Harb and Abu 'l-Aus
Harb, father of Abu Sufyan
Abu Sufyan, father of Mu'awiyah (1st Ommaide)
Abu 'l-Aus, father of Al-Hakim
Al-Hakim, father of Marwan

[FN#44] [The word here translated "invited guest" reads in the
MS. "Mad'ur." In this form it is no dictionary word, but under
the root "D'r" I find in the Muhit: "wa 'l-'amatu takulu fulanun
da'irun ya'ni ghalizun jafin" = the common people say such a one
is "daiir," i.e., rude, churlish. "Mad'ur" may be a synonym and
rendered accordingly: as though thou wert a boor or clown.--ST]

[FN#45] A neat specimen of the figure anachronism. Al-Hajjaj died
in A.H. 95 (= AD 714), and Cairo was built in A.H. 358 (= AD
968).

[FN#46] Perfectly true in the present day. The city was famed for
intelligence and sanguinary fanaticism; and no stranger in
disguise could pass through it without detection. This ended with
the massacre of 1840, which brought a new era into the Moslem
East. The men are, as a rule, fine-looking, but they seem to be
all show: we had a corps of them in the old Bash-Buzuks, who,
after a month or two in camp, seemed to have passed suddenly from
youth into old age.

[FN#47] In text, "Yasta'amiluna al-Mrd," which may have a number
of meanings, e.g. "work frowardness" (Maradd), or "work the fruit
of the tree Arak" (Maradd = wild capparis) and so forth. I have
chosen the word mainly because "Murd" rhymes to "Burd." The
people of Al-Yaman are still deep in the Sotadic Zone and
practice; this they owe partly to a long colonization of the
"'Ajam," or Persians. See my Terminal Essay, "Pederasty," p.
178.

[FN#48] "Burd," plur. of "Burdah" = mantle or woolen plaid of
striped stuff: vol. vii. 95. They are still woven in Arabia, but
they are mostly white.

[FN#49] So in Tabari (vol. III. 127) Al Hajjaj sees a man of
haughty mien (Abd al-Rahman bin Abdullah), and exclaims, "Regarde
comme il est orgueilleux: par Dieu, j'aurais envie de lui couper
la tete!"

[FN#50] [The phrase is Koranic (viii. 24): "Wa 'lamu anna 'llaha
yahulu bayna 'l-mari wa kalbi-hi," which Rodwell translates: Know
that God cometh in between man and his own heart.--ST]

[FN#51] "Yathrib," the classical name '{Greek}, one of the
multifarious titles of what is called in full "Madinat al-Nabi,"
City of the Prophet, and vulgarly, Al-Madinah, the City.
"Tayyibah," the good, sweet, or lawful: "Al-Munawwarah" = the
enlightened, i.e. by the light of The Faith and the column of
(odylic) flame supposed to be based upon the Prophet's tomb. For
more, see my Pilgrimage, ii. 162. I may note how ridiculously the
story-teller displays ignorance in Al-Hajjaj, who knew the
Moslem's Holy Land by heart.

[FN#52] In text "Taawil," = the commentary or explanation of
Moslem Holy Writ: "Tanzil" = coming down, revelation of the
Koran: "Tahrim" = rendering any action "haram" or unlawful, and
"Tahil" = the converse, making word or deed canonically legal.
Those are well known theological terms.

[FN#53] The Banu Ghalib, whose eponymous forefather was Ghalib,
son of Fihr, the well known ancestor of Mohammed.

[FN#54] In text "Hasab wa Nasab." It is told of Al-Mu'izz bi
Dini'llah, first Fatimate Caliph raised to the throne of Egypt,
that he came forward to the elective assembly and drew his sword
half way out of the scabbard and exclaimed "Haza Nasabi" (this is
my genealogy); and then cast handfuls of gold amongst the crowd,
crying, "Haza Hasabi" (such is my title to reign). This is as
good as the traditional saying of Napoleon the Great at his first
assuming the iron crown--"God gave her to me; woe for whoso
toucheth her" (the crown).

[FN#55] [In MS. "takhs-u," a curious word of venerable yet green
old age, used in the active form with both transitive and
intransitive meaning: to drive away (a dog, etc.), and to be
driven away. In the Koran (xxiii. 110) we find the imper.
"ikhsau" = be ye driven away, an in two other places (ii. 61,
vii. 166), the nomen agentis "khasi" = "scouted" occurs, as
applied to the apes into which the Sabbath-breaking Jews were
transformed. In the popular language of the present day it has
become equivalent with "khaba," to be disappointed, and may here
be translated: thou wilt fail ignominiously.--ST]

[FN#56] Scott introduces (p. 262), "the tyrant, struck with his
magnanimity, became calm, and commanding the executioner to
release the youth, said, For the present I forbear, and will not
kill thee unless thy answers to my further questions shall
deserve it. They then entered on the following dialogue: Hyjuawje
hoping to entrap him in discourse."

[FN#57] See the dialogue on this subject between Al-Hajjaj and
Yahya ibn Yamar in Ibn Khallikan, iv. 60.

[FN#58] Surah xxxiii. (The Confederates), v. 40, which ends, "And
Allah knoweth all things."

[FN#59] Surah lix. (The Emigration), v. 40: the full quotation
would be, "The spoil, taken from the townsfolk and assigned by
Allah to His Apostle, belongeth to Allah and to the Apostle and
to his kindred and to the orphan and to the poor and to the
wayfarer, that naught thereof may circulate among such only of
you as be rich. What the Apostle hath given you, take. What he
hath refused you, refuse. And fear ye Allah, for Allah is sure in
punishing."

[FN#60] The House of Hashim, great-grandfather to the Prophet.

[FN#61] Ibn Khallikan (vol. i. 354) warns us that "Al-Tai" means
belonging to the Tai which is a famous tribe. This relative
adjective is of irregular formation; analogy would require it to
be Taii; but the formation of relative adjectives admits some
variations; thus from dahr (time) is derived duhri (temporal) and
from sahl (a plain), suhli (plain, level). The author might also
have told us that there is always a reason for such
irregularities; thus "Dahri" (from Dahr) would mean a Mundanist,
one who believes in this world and not the next or another.

[FN#62] The "Banu Thakif" was a noble tribe sprung from Iyad (Ibn
Khallikan i. 358-363); but the ignorant and fanatic scribe uses
every means, fair and foul, to defame Al-Hajjaj. It was a great
race and a well known, living about Taif in the Highlands East of
Meccah, where they exist to the present day. Mr. Doughty (loc.
cit. ii. 174) mentions a kindred of the Juhaynah Badawin called
El-Thegif (Thakif) of whom the Medinites say, "Allah ya'alan
Thegif Kuddam takuf" (God damn the Thegif ere thou stand still).
They are called "Yahud" (Jews), probably meaning pre-Islamitic
Arabs, and are despised accordingly.

[FN#63] In Arab. "Jady" = the Zodiacal sign Capricorn.

[FN#64] We find similar facetia in Mullah Jami (Garden viii.).
When a sheep leapt out of the stream, her tail happened to be
raised, and a woolcarder said laughing:--"I have seen thy parts
genital." She turned her head and replied, "O miserable, for many
a year I have seen thee mother-naked yet never laughed I." This
alludes to the practice of such artisans who on account of the
heat in their workshops and the fibre adhering to their clothes
work in naturalibus. See p. 178, the Beharistan (Abode of
Spring). Printed by the Kamashastra Society for Private
Subscribers only. Benares, 1887.

[FN#65] This passage is not Koranic, and, according to Prof.
Houdas, the word "Muhkaman" is never found in the Holy Volume.
[The passage is not a literal quotation, but it evidently alludes
to Koran iii. 5: "Huwa'llazi anzala 'alayka 'l-kitaba minhu
ayatun muh-kamatun" = He it is who sent down to thee the book,
some of whose signs (or versets) are confirmed. The singular
"muhkamatun" is applied (xlvii.) to "Saratun," a chapter, and in
both places the meaning of "confirmed" is "not abrogated by later
revelations." Hence the sequel of my first quotation these
portions are called "the mother (i.e. groundwork) of the book,"
and the learned Sayyid is not far from the mark after all.--ST]

[FN#66] Surah ii. (The Cow) v. 56, the verse beginning, "Allah!
there be no God but He; ... His Throne overreacheth the Heavens
and the Hearth," etc.

[FN#67] Surah lxxiii. (The Bee) v. 92, ending with, "And he
forbiddeth frowardness and wrong-doing and oppression; and He
warneth you that haply may ye be warned."

[FN#68] Surah (Meccah) xcix. vv. 7 and 8: in text "Mithkala
Zarratin," which Mr. Rodwell (p. 28) englishes "an atom's weight
of good," and adds in a foot-note, "Lit. a single ant." Prof.
Houdas would render it, Quiconque aura fait la valeur d'un
mitskal de millet en fait de bien; but I hardly think that
"Zarrah" can mean "Durrah" = millet. ["Mithkal" in this context
is explained by the commentators by "Wazn" = weight, this being
the original meaning of the word which is a nomen instrumenti of
the form "Mif'al," denoting "that by which the gravity of bodies
is ascertained." Later on it became the well-known technical term
for a particular weight. "Zarrah," according to some glossarists,
is the noun of unity of "Zarr," the young ones of the any, an
antlet, which is said to weigh the twelfth part of a "Kitmir" =
pedicle of the date0fruit, or the hundredth part of a grain of
barley, or to have no weight at all. Hence "Mukhkh al-Zarr," the
brains of the antlet, means a thing that does not exist or is
impossible to be found. According to others, "Zarrah" is a
particle of al-Haba, i.e. of the motes that are seen dancing in
the sunlight, called "Sonnenstaubchen" in German, and "atomo
solare" in Italian. Koran xxi. 48 and xxxi. 15 we find the
expression "Mithkala Habbatin min Khardalin" = of the weight of a
mustard-seed, used in a similar sense with the present
quotation.--ST]

[FN#69] Surah lxx. 38, Mr. Rodwell (p. 60) translates, "Is it
that every man of them would fain enter the Garden of Delights?"

[FN#70] Surah xxxix. 54: they sinned by becoming apostates from
Al-Islam. The verset ends, "Verily all sins doth Allah forgive:
aye, Gracious, and Merciful is He."

[FN#71] Surah ii. 159; the quotation in the MS. is cut short.

[FN#72] Surah ii. 107; the end of the verse is, "Yet both are
readers of the Book. So with like words say they (the pagan
Arabs) who have no knowledge."

[FN#73] Surah li. (The Scattering), v. 56.

[FN#74] Surah ii. v. 30.

[FN#75] Surah xl. (The Believer), v. 78. In the text it is
fragmentary. I do not see why Mr. Rodwell founds upon this verset
a charge against the Prophet of ignorance concerning Jewish
history: Mohammed seems to have followed the Talmud and tradition
rather than the Holy Writ of the Hebrews.

[FN#76] Surah (The Believers) lxiv. 108.

[FN#77] Surah xxxv. (The Creator or the Angels), v. 31: The
sentence concludes in v. 32, "Who of His bounty hath placed us in
a Mansion that shall abide for ever, therein no evil shall reach
us, and therein no weariness shall touch us."

[FN#78] Surah ("Sad") lix. 54; Iblis, like Satan in the Book of
Job, is engaged in dialogue with the Almighty. I may here note
that Scott (p. 265) has partially translated these Koranic
quotations, but he has given only one reference.

[FN#79] In text "Ana min ahli zalika," of which the vulgar
equivalent would be "Kizi" (for "Kazalika," "Kaza") = so (it is)!

[FN#80] i.e. On an empty stomach, to "open the spittle" is = to
break the fast. Sir Wm. Gull in his evidence before a committee
of the House of Commons deposed that after severe labor he found
a bunch of dried raisins as efficacious a "pick-me up" as a glass
of stimulants. The value of dried grapes to the Alpinist is well
known.

[FN#81] Arab. "Al-Kadid" = jerked (charqui = chaire cuite)
meat-flesh smoked, or (mostly) sun-dried.

[FN#82] I have noticed (i. 345) one of the blunders in our last
unfortunate occupation of Egypt where our soldiers died uselessly
of dysenteric disease because they were rationed with heating
beef instead of digestible mutton.

[FN#83] Arab. "Al-Marham al-akbar."

[FN#84] [In the text: "Al-Kisrat al-yabisah 'ala 'l-Rik fa-innaha
tukhlik jami'a ma 'ala fum al-madah min al-balgham," of which I
cannot make anything but: a slice of dry bread (kisrah = piece of
bread) on the spittle (i.e. to break the fast), for it absorbs
(lit. uses up, fourth form of "khalik" = to be worn out) all that
there may be of phlegm on the mouth of the stomach. Can it be
that the dish "Khushk-nan" (Pers. = dry bread) is meant, of which
the village clown in one of Spitta Bey's tales, when he was
treated to it by Harun al-Rashid thought it must be the "Hammam,"
because he has heard his grandmother say, that the Hammam (bath)
is the most delightful thing in the world? ST]

[FN#85] The stomach has two mouths, oesophagic above (which is
here alluded to) and pyloric below.

[FN#86] Arab. "'Irk al-Unsa" = chordae testiculorum, in Engl.
simply the cord.

[FN#87] The "'Ajuz" is a woman who ceases to have her monthly
period: the idea is engrained in the Eastern mind and I cannot
but believe in it seeing the old-young faces of men who have
"married their grandmothers" for money or folly, and what not.

[FN#88] Arab. "Al-'Akik," vol. iii. 179: it is a tradition of the
Prophet that the best of bezels for a signet-ring is the
carnelian, and such are still the theory and practice of the
Moslem East.

[FN#89] Arab. "Tuhal;" in text "Tayhal." Mr. Doughty (Arabia
Deserta, i. 547) writes the word "Tahal" and translates it
"ague-cake," i.e. the throbbing enlarged spleen, left after
fevers, especially those of Al-Hijaz and Khaybar. [The form
"Tayhal" with a plural "Tawahil" for the usual "Tihal" = spleen
is quoted by Dozy from the valuable Vocabulary published by
Schiaparelli, 1871, after an old MS. of the end of the xiii.
century. It has the same relation to the verb "tayhal" = he
suffered from the spleen, which "Tihal" bears the same verb
"tuhil," used passively in the same sense. The name of the
disease is "Tuhal."--ST]

[FN#90] In text "Kasalah" = a shock of corn, assemblage of
sheaves. It may be a clerical error for "Kasabah" = stalk, haulm,
straw.

[FN#91] Of course the conversation drifts into matters sexual and
inter-sexual: in a similar story, "Tawad dud," the learned slave
girl, "hangs her head down for shame and confusion" (vol. v.
225); but the young Sayyid speaks out bravely as becomes a male
masculant.

[FN#92] [In the text: "Allati lau nazarat ila 'l-sama la-a'shab
(fourth form of 'ashab with the affirmative 'la') al-Safa (pl. of
Safat), wa lau nazarat ila 'l-arz la amtar taghru ha (read
thaghru-ha) Luluan lam yuskab wa riku-ha min al-Zulal a'zab (for
a'zab min al-Zulal)," which I would translate: Who if she look
upon the heavens, the very rocks cover themselves with verdure,
and an she look upon the earth, her lips rain unpierced pearls
(words of virgin eloquence) and the dews of whose mouth are
sweeter than the purest water. - ST.]

[FN#93] These lines have often occurred before: see index (vol.
x. 395) "Wa lau anunaha li 'l-Mushrikin," etc. I have therefore
borrowed from Mr. Payne, vol. viii. 78, whose version is
admirable.

[FN#94] For the Jahin-hell, see vol. viii. 111.

[FN#95] For the Seven Ages of womankind (on the Irish model) see
vol. ix. 175. Some form of these verses is known throughout the
Moslem East to prince and peasant. They usually begin:--

From the tenth to the twentieth year * To the gaze a charm doth
appear;

and end with:--

From sixty to three score ten * On all befal Allah's malison.

[FN#96] [Here I suppose the word "kal" has been dropped after "bi
'l-shi'r," and it should be: He (the youth) replied, that was our
common sire, Adam, etc.--ST.]

[FN#97] "Habil" and "Kabil" are the Arab. equivalent of Abel and
Cain. Neither are named in the Koran (Surah v. "The Table," vv.
30-35), which borrows dialogue between the brothers derived from
the Targum (Jeirus. on Gen. iv. 8) and makes the raven show the
mode of burial to Cain, not to Adam, as related by the Jews.
Rodwell's Koran, p. 543.

[FN#98] Sit venia verbo: I have the less hesitation in making
Adam anticipate the widow Malone from a profound conviction that
some Hibernian antiquary, like Vallancey who found the Irish
tongue in the Punic language of Plautus, shall distinctly prove
that our first forefather spoke Keltic.

[FN#99] In text "Rih," wind, gust (of temper), pride, rage.
Amongst the Badawin it is the name given to rheumatism (gout
being unknown), and all obscure aching diseases by no means
confined to flatulence or distension. [The MS. has: "ila an
kata-ka 'l-'amal al-rabih," which gives no sense whatever. Sir
Richard reads: "katala-ka 'l-'amal al-rih," and thus arrives at
the above translation. I would simply drop a dot on the first
letter of "kata-ka," reading "fata-ka," when the meaning of the
line as it stands, would be: until the work that is profitable
passed away from thee, i.e., until thou ceasedst to do good. The
word "rabih" is not found in Dictionaries, but it is evidently an
intensive of "rabih" (tijarah rabihah = a profitable traffic) and
its root occurs in the Koran, ii. 15: "Fa-ma rabihat Tijaratuhum"
= but their traffic has not been gainful.--ST.]

[FN#100] Arab. "Badrah": see vol. iv. 281. [According to Kamus,
"Badrah is a purse of one thousand or ten thousand dirhams, or of
seven thousand dinars. As lower down it is called "Badrat Zahab,"
a purse of gold, I would take it here in the third sense.--ST]

[FN#101] In text "Zardiya," for "Zardiyyah" = a small mail coat,
a light helmet.

[FN#102] Arab. "'Ind 'uzzati 's-sinini" = lit. the thorny shrubs
of ground bare of pasture.

[FN#103] This is another form of "inverted speech," meaning the
clean contrary; see vols. ii. 265; vi. 262; and vii. 179.

[FN#104] In text "Lam yakthir Khayrak"; this phrase (pronounced
"Kattir Khayrak") is the Egyptian (and Moslem) equivalent for our
"thank you." Vols. iv. 6; v. 171. Scott (p. 267) make Al-Hajjaj
end with, "Cursed is he who doth not requite a sincere adviser,
declareth our sacred Koran."

[FN#105] In the W.M. MS. this tale is followed by the "History of
Uns al-Wujud and the Wazir's daughter Rose-in-hood," for which
see vol. v. 32 et seq. Then comes the long romance "Mazin of
Khorasan," which is a replica of "Hasan of Bassorah and the
King's daughter of the Jinn" (vol. vii. 7). I have noted (vol. x.
75) that this story shows us the process of transition from the
Persian original to the Arabic copy. "Mazin" is also the P.N. of
an Arab tribe: De Sacy, Chrest. i. 406.

[FN#106] MS. vol. v. pp. 92-94: Scott, vol. vi. 343: Gauttier,
vi. 376. The story is a replica of the Mock Caliph (vol. iv. 130)
and the Tale of the First Lunatic (Suppl. vol. iv.); but I have
retained it on account of the peculiar freshness and naivete of
treatment which distinguishes it, also as a specimen of how
extensively editors and scriveners can vary the same subject.

[FN#107] In text "Natar" (watching) for "Nataf" (indigestion,
disgust).

[FN#108] Here again we have the formula "Kala 'l-Rawi"=the
reciter saith, showing the purpose of the MS. See Terminal Essay,
p. 144.

[FN#109] It were well to remind the reader that "Khalifah" (never
written "Khalif") is=a viceregent or vicar, i.e. of the Prophet
of Allah, not of Allah himself, a sense which was especially
deprecated by the Caliph Abubakr as "vicar" supposes l'absence du
chef; or Dieu est present partout et a tout instant. Ibn Khal.
ii. 496.

[FN#110] This tale, founded on popular belief in tribadism, has
already been told in vol. vii. 130: in the W.M. MS. it occupies
23 pages (pp. 95- 118). Scott (vi. 343) has "Mesroor retired and
brought in Ali Ibn Munsoor Damuskkee, who related to the Caliph a
foolish narrative (!) of two lovers of Bussorah, each of whom was
coy when the other wished to be kind." The respectable Britisher
evidently cared not to "read between the lines."

[FN#111] In pop. parlance "Let us be off."

[FN#112] Arab. "Al-Afak" plur. of Ufk, "elegant" (as the
grammarians say) for the world, the universe.

[FN#113] [In MS. "Rankah" or "Ranakah," probably for "Raunakah,"
which usually means "troubled,"; speaking of water, but which,
according to Schiaparelli's Vocabulista, has also the meaning of
"Raunak"=amenitas. As however "Ranakah" taken as fem. of "Ranak"
shares with Raunakah the signification of "troubled," it may
perhaps also be a parallel form to the latter in the second
sense.--ST.]

[FN#114] The text has "Martabat Saltanah" (for Sultaniyah) which
may mean a royal Divan. The "Martabah" is a mattress varying in
size and thickness, stuffed with cotton and covered with cloths
of various colours and the latter mostly original and admirable
of figuration but now supplanted by the wretched printed calicoes
of civilisation. It is placed upon the ground and garnished with
cushions which are usually of length equally the width of the
mattress and of a height measuring about half of that breadth.
When the "Martabah" is placed upon its "Mastabah" (bench of
masonry or timber) or upon its "Sarir" (a framework of "jarid" or
midribs of the palm), it becomes the Diwan=divan.

[FN#115] In text "Bi-iza-huma;" lit. vis-a-vis to the twain.

[FN#116] These have occurred vol. i. 176: I quote Mr. Payne (i.
156).

[FN#117] In text "Hanna-kumu 'llah:" see "Hanian," vol. ii. 5.

[FN#118] This is usually a sign of grief, a symbolic act which
dates from the days of the Heb. patriarchs (Gen. xxxvii. 29-34);
but here it is the mark of strong excitement. The hand is placed
within the collar and a strong pull tears the light stuff all
down the breast. Economical men do this in a way which makes
darning easy.

[FN#119] [The MS. is very indistinct in this place, but by
supplying "'an" after "ghibta" and reading "'ayni" for "'anni," I
have no doubt the words are: Wa in ghibta 'an 'ayni fa-ma ghibta
'an kalbi=and if thou art absent from my eyes, yet thou are not
absent from my heart. The metre is Tawil and the line has
occurred elsewhere in The Nights.--ST.]

[FN#120] I have already noted that "Hilal" is the crescent
(waxing or waning) for the first and last two or three nights:
during the rest of the lunar month the lesser light is called
"Kamar."

[FN#121] The sense is that of Coleridge.--

To be beloved is all I need;
And whom I love I love indeed.

[FN#122] There is something wrong in the text. I cannot help
again drawing the reader's attention to the skilful portraiture
of the model Moslem Minister, the unfortunate Ja'afar. He is
never described in the third person; but the simple dialogue
always sets him off as a wise, conciliatory, benevolent, loveable
and man-loving character, whose constant object is to temper the
harshness and headstrong errors of a despotic master as the
Caliph is represented to be by way of showing his kingliness. See
vol. i., 102. [The MS. is certainly wrong here, but perhaps it
can be righted a little. It has: "Kad yakun Z R H ahad fi Mal
jazil wa harab al-Maz'un," etc., where Sir Richard reads
"zarra-hu"=he harmed, and Mazghun=the hated one, i.e. enemy. I
have a strong suspicion that in the original from which our
scribe copied, the two words were "zamin" and "al-Mazmun." Zamin
in the Arabic character would be {Arabic characters} The loop for
the "m," if made small, is easily overlooked; the curve of the
"n," if badly traced, can as easily be mistaken for "r" and a big
dot inside the "n" might appear like a blotted "h". Mazmun would
become "Maz'un" by simply turning the "m" loop upwards instead of
downwards, an error the converse of which is so frequently
committed in printed texts. Curiously enough the same error
occurs p. 192 of the MS., where we shall find "na' 'al" with two
'Ayns instead of "na'mal" with 'Ayn and Mim. If this conjecture
is correct the sense would be: Haply he may have stood security
for someone for much money, and the person for whom security was
given, took to flight, etc. For "zamin" with the acc. see Ibn
Jubair ed. by Wright, 77, 2. I may say on this occasion, that my
impression of the Montague MS. is, that it is a blundering copy
of a valuable though perhaps indistinctly written original.--ST.]

[FN#123] In text "'Aurat"=nakedness: see vol. vi. 30.

[FN#124] In Arab. "'Urrah": see Fatimah the Dung in vol. x. 1.

[FN#125] [In the MS. "bi-Wujuh al Fanijat al-Milah." The
translator conjectures "al-fatihat," which he refers to "Wujuh."
I read it "al-Ghanijat," in apposition with al-Milah, and render:
the faces of the coquettish, the fair. See index under
"Ghunj."--ST.]

[FN#126] In text "Ballat," the name still given to the limestone
slabs cut in the Torah quarries South of Cairo. The word is
classical, we find in Ibn Khaldun (vol. i. p. 21, Fr. Trans.) a
chief surnomme el-Balt (le pave), a cause de sa fermete et de sa
force de caractere.

[FN#127] In text "Usburu"=be ye patient, the cry addressed to
passengers by the Grandee's body-guard.

[FN#128] The "young person" here begins a tissue of impertinences
which are supposed to show her high degree and her condescension
in mating with the jeweller. This is still "pretty Fanny's way"
amongst Moslems.

[FN#129] A "swear" peculiarly feminine, and never to be used by
men.

[FN#130] In text "'Ala-Akli:" the whole passage is doubtful.
[I would read, and translate the passage as follows: "Ma tastahli
'ala haza illa shay la tazann-hu allazi (for "allati," see Suppl.
iv. 197) kayyamtini (2nd fem. sing.) min 'ala akli wa ana zanantu
innahu man yujab la-hu al-kiyam; thumma iltifatat illayya wa
kalat hakaza sirtu ana la-ghazarat al-thiyab al-wasikhat min
al-fakr fa-hal ma ghasalta wajhak?"=Thou deservest not for this
but a thing thou doest not fancy, thou who madest me rise from
before my food, while I thought he was one to whom rising up is
due. Then she turned towards me, saying, "Am I then in this
manner (i.e. like thyself) a bundle of clothes all dirty from
poverty, and hast thou therefore ("fa" indicating the effect of a
cause) not washed thy face?" Or to put it in more intelligible
English: "Am I then like thyself a heap of rags that thou
shouldst come to me with unwashed face?"--ST.]

[FN#131] Of the respect due to food Lane (M. E. chapt. xiii.)
tells the following tale: "Two servants were sitting at the door
of their master's house, eating their dinner, when they observed
a Mameluke Bey with several of his officers, riding along the
streets towards them. One of these servants rose, from respect to
the Grandee, who regarding him with indignation, exclaimed, Which
is the more worthy of respect, the bread which is before thee or
myself? Without awaiting a reply, he made, it is said, a
well-understood signal with his hand; and the unintending
offender was beheaded on the spot." I may add that the hero of
the story is said to have been the celebrated "Daftardar" whose
facetious cruelties have still a wide fame in the Nile Valley.

[FN#132] I would read (for "Sirtu ansa"=I have become) "Sirt'
anta"=thou hast become.

[FN#133] In text "Mukh;" lit.=brain, marrow.

[FN#134] [In Ar. "Wa zand mujauhar fi-hi Asawir min al-Zahab
al-ahmar," which may mean: and a fore-arm (became manifest),
ornamented with jewels, on which were bracelets of red
gold.--ST.]

[FN#135] For this famous type of madman see Suppl. Vol. vi.

[FN#136] [Ar. "Ghurrat," which may be bright looks, charms, in
general, or according to
Bocthor, fore-locks. The more usual plural of "Ghurrah" is
"Ghurar."--ST.]

[FN#137] In the text "Darajah"=an instant; also a degree (of the
Zodiac). We still find this division of time in China and Japan,
where they divide the twenty-four hours into twelve periods, each
of which is marked by a quasi-Zodiacal sign: e.g.--

Midnight until 2 a.m. is represented by the Rat.
2 a.m. until 4 a.m. is represented by the Ox.
4 a.m. until 6 a.m. is represented by the Tiger.
6 a.m. until 8 a.m. is represented by the Hare.
8 a.m. until 10 a.m. is represented by the Dragon.
10 a.m. until noon is represented by the Serpent.
Noon until 2 p.m. is represented by the Horse.
2 p.m. until 4 p.m. is represented by the Ram.
4 p.m. until 6 p.m. is represented by the Ape.
6 p.m. until 8 p.m. is represented by the Cock.
8 p.m. until 10 p.m. is represented by the Hog.
10 p.m. until midnight is represented by the Fox.

See p. 27 Edit. ii. of C. B. Mitford's Tales of Old Japan, a most
important contribution to Eastern folklore.

["Darajah" is, however, also used for any short space of time;
according to Lane It is=4 minutes (i.e. the 24 hours or 1,440
minutes of the astronomical day divided into 360 degrees of 4
minutes each), and Bocthor gives it as an equivalent for our
instant or moment.--ST.]

[FN#138] The young fool vaunts his intersexual powers, apparently
unknowing that nothing can be more fatal to love than fulfilling
the desires of a woman who, once accustomed to this high diet,
revolts against any reduction of it. He appears to have been a
polisson by his own tale told to the Caliph and this alone would
secure the contempt of a high-bred and high-spirited girl.

[FN#139] The "nosebag"; vol. ii. 52, etc. The Badawiyah (Badawi
woman) generally prefers a red colour, in opposition to the white
and black of civilisation; and she of the Arabian Desert
generally disdains to use anything of the kind.

[FN#140] This ablution of the whole body he was bound to perform
after having had carnal knowledge of a woman, and before washing
he was in a state of ceremonial impurity. For "Ghusl," or
complete ablution, see vol. v. 80.

[FN#141] "The Heart of the Koran," chap. xxxvi. see vol. iv. 50.

[FN#142] The Mandil apparently had been left in the shop by the
black slave-girl. Women usually carry such articles with them
when "on the loose," and in default of water and washing they are
used to wipe away the results of car. cop.

[FN#143] In Arab. "Shakk." The criminal was hung up by the heels,
and the executioner, armed with a huge chopper, began to hew him
down from the fork till he reached the neck, when, by a dextrous
turn of the blade, he left the head attached to one half of the
body. This punishment was long used in Persia and abolished, they
say, by Fath Ali Shah, on the occasion when an offender so
treated abused the royal mother and women relatives until the
knife had reached his vitals. "Kata' al-'Arba'," or cutting off
the four members, equivalent to our "quartering," was also a
popular penalty.

[FN#144] In text "Ghibtu 'an al-Dunya," a popular phrase, meaning
simply I fainted.

[FN#145] This was done to staunch the blood: see the salt-wench
in vol. i. 341.

[FN#146] This couplet has repeatedly occurred: in the preceding
volume, Night cdv. (Suppl. iv. 172); and in The Nights (proper),
vol. vi. 246. Here I have quoted Lane (A.N. iii. 220), who has
not offered a word of comment or of explanation concerning a
somewhat difficult couplet.

[FN#147] The plur. masc. for the sing. fem.: see vol. vii. 140.

[FN#148] He speaks after the recognised conventional fashion, as
if reporting the camp-shift of a Badawi tribe.

[FN#149] See vol. i. 25 for the parallel of these lines.

[FN#150] The text inserts here, "Saith the Reciter of this
adventure and right joyous history strange as rare," etc.

[FN#151] Scott, in the "Story of the Sultan, the Dirveshe, and
the Barber's son" (vi. 348), calls the King "Rammaud." The tale
is magical and Rosicrucian, laid somewhat upon the lines of "The
Physician Duban"; i.45.

[FN#152] This is the custom among Eastern Moslems: the barber,
after his operations are over, presents his hand-mirror for the
patient to see whether all be satisfactory, saying at the same
time "Na'iman"=may it be pleasurable to thee! The customer
answers "Allah bring thee pleasure," places the fee upon the
looking-glass and returns it to the shaver. For "Na'iman" see
vol. ii. 5.

[FN#153] The least that honest Figaro expected to witness was an
attempt upon the boy's chastity.

[FN#154] In text "Tazaghzagha," gen.=he spoke hesitatingly, he
scoffed. [I read the words in the text: "Tazaghghara fihi." The
Kamus gives "Zaghara-hu"=he seized it by force, he took hold of
him with violence, and this present fifth form, although not
given in the Dictionaries, has doubtlessly the same meaning.
Popularly we may render it: he pitched into him.--ST]

[FN#155] In the text "Kazanat" (plur. of "Kazan"), afterwards
written "Kazat" (a clerical error?). They are opposed to the
"Kawalib"=moulds. [See note to p. 17.--ST.]

[FN#156] "Akhraja min Kulahi-hi (Kulah?) busah."

[FN#157] "Akhaza min-ha 'ala ma' lakati 'l-Hilal shay misl
al-Jinnah." [I have no doubt that "Kulah" is meant for "Kulah," a
Dervish's cap. "Busah" puzzles me. I am inclined to take it for a
reed used as a case or sheath, as we shall see p. 263 of the MS.
Prince Yusuf uses a "Kasabah" or reed to enclose a letter in it.
"Mi'lakat (popular corruption for 'Mil'akat') al-Hilal" may be
the spoon or hollow part of an ear-picker, Hilal being given by
Bocthor as equivalent for "cure-oreille." Lastly for "al-Jinnah"
I would read "al-Habbah"=grain. The article before the word may
indicate that a particular grain is meant perhaps "al-Habbat
al-halwah"=anise seed, or that it stands for "al-Hubbah,"
according to Lempriere (A Tour to Marocco, London 1791, p. 383) a
powder employed by the ladies of Marocco to produce
embonpoint.--ST.]

[FN#158] So even in our day Mustafa bin Ism'ail who succeeded
"General Khayru 'l-Din" as Prime Minister to "His Highness
Mohammed al-Sadik, Bey of Tunis," began life as apprentice to a
barber, became the varlet of an officer, rose to high dignity and
received decorations from most of the European powers.

[FN#159] In text "Wijak," a stove, a portable hearth.

[FN#160] In the text: ["Wa sara kulla-ma tastari nafsuhu yak'ad
kuddama 'l-Darwish," which I would translate: and each time his
heart chose (8th form of "Sarw") he used to sit before the
Darwaysh, etc.--ST.]

[FN#161] In text "Darin" for "Zarin"=what is powdered, collyrium.

[FN#162] The King failed because his "Niyat" or intention was not
pure; that is, he worked for wealth, and not, as the Darwaysh had
done, for the good of his brother man.

[FN#163] For the importance attached to this sign of sovereignty
see in my Pilgrimage (ii. 218-19) the trouble caused by the loss
of the Prophet's seal-ring (Khatim) at Al-Madinah.

[FN#164] The text is somewhat doubtful--"Min kuddam-ak." [Perhaps
it means only "from before thee," i.e. in thy presence, without
letting him out of sight and thereby giving him a chance of
escape.--ST.]

[FN#165] This especially is on the lines of "The Physician
Duban"; vol. i. 45.

[FN#166] In text "Wa min-hum man faha," evidently an error of the
scribe for "Man nafahu." Scott (vi. 351), after the fashion of
the "Improver-school," ends the tale, which is somewhat
tail-less, after this fashion, "At the same instant, the Sultan
and his courtiers found themselves assaulted by invisible agents,
who, tearing off their robes, whipped them with scourges till the
blood flowed in streams from their lacerated backs. At length the
punishment ceased, but the mortification of the Sultan did not
end here, for all the gold which the Dirveshe had transmuted
returned to its original metals. Thus, by his unjust credulity,
was a weak Prince punished for his ungrateful folly. The barber
and his son also were not to be found, so that the sultan could
gain no intelligence of the Dirveshe, and he and his courtiers
became the laughing-stock of the populace for years after their
merited chastisement." Is nothing to be left for the reader's
imagination?

[FN#167] See under the same name the story in my Suppl. vol. i.
162; where the genealogy and biography of the story is given. I
have translated the W.M. version because it adds a few items of
interest. A marginal note of Scott's (in the W.M. MS. v. 196)
says that the "Tale is similar to Lesson iv. in the Tirrea Bede."
See note at the end of this History.

[FN#168] For the Badawi tent, see vol. vii. 109.

[FN#169] In text "Birkah"=a fountain-basin, lake, pond,
reservoir. The Bresl. Edit. has "Sardab"=a souterrain.

[FN#170] Arab. "Jummayz": see vol. iii. 302. In the Bresl. Edit.
it is a "tall tree," and in the European versions always a
"pear-tree," which is not found in Badawi-land.

[FN#171] "Adi" in Egyptian (not Arabic) is=that man, the (man)
here; "Adini" (in the text) is=Here am I, me voici. Spitta Bey
(loc. cit. iv. 20, etc.)

[FN#172] Arab. "Ma'murah." In the Bresl. Edit. "the place is full
of Jinns and Marids." I have said that this supernatural agency,
ever at hand and ever credible to Easterns, makes this the most
satisfactory version of the world-wide tale.

[FN#173] The planet Mars.

[FN#174] The Asiatics have a very contemptible opinion of the
Russians, especially of the females, whom they believe to be void
of common modesty. Our early European voyagers have expressed the
same idea.--Scott.

[FN#175] i.e. having enjoyed the woman.--R.F.B.

[FN#176] The reader will doubtless recollect the resemblance
which the plot of this lesson bears to Pope's January and May,
and to one of Fontaine's Tales. Eenaiut Olla acknowledges his
having borrowed it from the Brahmins, from whom it may have
travelled through some voyage to Europe many centuries past, or
probably having been translated in Arabic or Persian, been
brought by some crusader, as were many Asiatic romances, which
have served as the groundwork of many of our old stories and
poems.--Scott.

[FN#177] In Scott (vi. 352) "Adventures of Aleefa and Eusuff."
This long and somewhat longsome history is by another pen, which
is distinguished from the ordinary text by constant attempts at
fine writing, patches of Saj'a or prose-rhyme and profuse poetry,
mostly doggerel. I recommend it to the student as typically
Arabian with its preponderance of verse over prose, its
threadbare patches made to look meaner by the purpureus pannus;
its immoderate repetition and its utter disregard of order and
sequence. For the rest it is unedited and it strikes me as a
sketch of adventure calculated to charm the Fellah-audience of a
coffee-house, whose delight would be brightened by the normal
accompaniment of a tambourine or a Rababah, the one-stringed
viol.

[FN#178] This P. N. has occurred in vol. vi. 8, where I have
warned readers that it must not be confounded with the title
"Maharaj"=Great Rajah. Scott (vi. 352) writes "Mherejaun," and
Gauttier (vi. 380) "Myr-djyhan" (Mir Jahan=Lord Life).

[FN#179] I need not inform the civilised reader that this
"feeling conception" is unknown except in tales.

[FN#180] i.e. "The Slim-waisted." Scott (vi. 352) persistently
corrupts the name to "Aleefa," and Gauttier (vi. 380) follows
suit with "Alifa."

[FN#181] In text "Al-Istikhraj," i.e. making "elegant extracts."

[FN#182] These lines are the merest doggerel of a strolling Rawi,
like all the pieces d'occasion in this MS.

[FN#183] Which are still worse: two couplets rhyme in ani, and
one in ali, which is not lawful.

[FN#184] In text "Dayr Nashshabah," a fancy name.

[FN#185] So in text: the name is unknown to me; its lit. meaning
would be, "of high-breasted Virgins."

[FN#186] In text "Al-Jay'a" which is a well-omened stone like the
'Akik=carnelian. The Arabs still retain our mediaeval
superstitions concerning precious stones, and of these fancies I
will quote a few. The ruby appeases thirst, strengthens cardiac
action and averts plague and "thunderbolts." The diamond heals
diseases, and is a specific against epilepsy or the "possession"
by evil spirits: this is also the specialty of the emerald,
which, moreover, cures ophthalmia and the stings of scorpions and
bites of venomous reptiles, blinding them if placed before their
eyes. The turquoise is peculiarly auspicious, abating
fascination, strengthening the sight, and, if worn in a ring,
increasing the milk of nursing mothers: hence the blue beads hung
as necklaces to cattle. The topaz (being yellow) is a
prophylactic against jaundice and bilious diseases. The
bloodstone when shown to men in rage causes their wrath to
depart: it arrests hemorrhage, heals toothache, preserves from
bad luck, and is a pledge of long life and happiness. The
"cat's-eye" nullifies Al-Ayn=malign influence by the look, and
worn in battle makes the wearer invisible to his foe. This is but
a "fist-full out of a donkey-load," as the Persians say: the
subject is a favourite with Eastern writers.

[FN#187] Or white lead: in the text it is "Sapidaj,"
corresponding with the "Isfidaj" of vol. vi. 126.

[FN#188] In the text "Bashkhanah"; corr. of the Pers.
"Peshkhanah"=state-tents sent forward on the march.

[FN#189] This phrase, twice repeated, is the regular formula of
the Rawi or professional reciter; he most unjustifiably, however,
neglects the "Inshallah."

[FN#190] The revetment of the old wells in Arabia is mostly of
dry masonry.

[FN#191] [Ar. "Tawanis," with a long final to rhyme with
"Kawadis," instead of the usual "Tawanis," pl. of "Taunas," which
Dozy (Suppl. s.v.) identifies with the Greek in the sense of
cable.--ST.]

[FN#192] In Arab. "Hajarata 'l-Bahraman."

[FN#193] In text "Zamaku-ha."

[FN#194] I can see little pertinence in this couplet: but that is
not a sine qua non amongst Arabs. Perhaps, however, the Princess
understands that she is in a gorgeous prison and relieves her
heart by a cunning hint.

[FN#195] I again omit "Saith the Reciter of this marvellous
relation," a formula which occurs with unpleasant reiteration.

[FN#196] i.e. she cried "Astaghfiru 'llah" (which strangers
usually pronounce "Astaffira 'llah"); a pious exclamation,
humbling oneself before the Creator, and used in a score of
different senses, which are not to be found in the dictionaries.

[FN#197] In vol. viii. 183, there are two couplets of which the
first is here repeated.

[FN#198] [Here the translator seems to read "Khams Ghaffar,"=five
pardoners,where however, grammar requires a plural after "khams."
I take "khams" to be a clerical error for "Khamr"=wine, and read
the next word "'ukar," which is another name for wine, but is
also used adjectively together with the former, as in the Breslau
Edition iv. 6 "al-Khamr al-'ukar"=choice wine.--ST.]

[FN#199] I understand this as the cupbearer who delights the five
senses.

[FN#200] In the original we have, "Saith the Sayer of this
delectable narrative, the strange and seld-seen (and presently we
will return to the relation full and complete with its sense
suitable and its style admirable), anent what befel and betided
of Destinies predestinate and the will of the Lord preordinate
which He decreed and determined to His creatures." I have omitted
it for uniformity's sake.

[FN#201] Meaning "The easy-tempered." Scott (vi. 354) writes
"Sohul."

[FN#202] In text "Litam"=the mouth-band for man: ii. 31, etc. The
"Mutalathsimin" in North Africa are the races, like the Tawarik,
whose males wear this face-swathe of cloth.

[FN#203] "Drowned in her blood," says the text which to us
appears hyperbole run mad. So when King Omar (vol. ii. 123)
violently rapes the unfortunate Princess Abrizah "the blood runs
down the calves of her legs." This is not ignorance, but that
systematic exaggeration which is held necessary to impressionise
an Oriental audience.

[FN#204] For this allusion see vol. v. 191.

[FN#205] This physical sign of delight in beauty is not
recognised in the literature of Europe, and The Nights usually
attributes it to old women.

[FN#206] In text "Hima"=the private and guarded lands of a Badawi
tribe; viii. 102.

[FN#207] In text "Daylaki."

[FN#208] A small compact white turband and distinctive sign of
the True Believers: see vol. viii. 8.

[FN#209] [The words in the text seem to be: "wa Talattuf Alfazak
wa Ma'anik al-hisan"=and for the pleasingness of thy sayings and
meanings so fine and fair.--ST.]

[FN#210] [The Arabic seems here to contain a pun, the consonantic
outline of "Tasht"="basin" being the same as of "tashshat"=she
was raining, sprinkling.--ST.]

[FN#211] In Arab. "Ya Warid": see vol. iii. 56.

[FN#212] The growing beard and whisker being compared with black
letters on a white ground.

[FN#213] In the text these seven couplets form one quotation,
although the first three rhyme in ----aru and the second four in-
-iru.

[FN#214] This "diapedesis" of bloodstained tears is frequently
mentioned in The Nights; and the "Bloody Sweat" is well-known by
name. The disease is rare and few have seen it whilst it has a
certain quasi-supernatural sound from the "Agony and bloody
sweat" in the Garden of Gethsemane. But the exudation of blood
from the skin was described by Theophrastus and Aristotle and
lastly by Lucan in these lines:--

--Sic omnia membra
Emisere simul rutilum pro sanguine virus.
Sanguis erant lachrymae, etc.

Of Charles IX. of France Mezaray declares "Le sang lui rejaillait
par las pores et tous les conduits de son corps," but the
superstitious Protestant holds this to be a "judgment." The same
historian also mentions the phenomenon in a governor condemned to
die; and Lombard in the case of a general after losing a battle
and a nun seized by banditti--blood oozed from every pore. See
Dr. Millingen's "Curiosities of Medical Experience," p. 485,
London, Bentley, 1839.

[FN#215] [I read this line: "Fi Hayyi-kum Taflatun hama 'l-Fawadu
bi-ha (Basit)" and translate: In your clan there is a maiden of
whom my heart is enamoured. In the beginning of the next line the
metre requires "tazakkarat," which therefore refers to "Aghsun,"
not to the speaker: "the branches remember (and by imitating her
movements show that they remember) the time when she bent aside,
and her bending, graceful beyond compare, taught me that her eyes
kept watch over the rose of her cheek and knew how to protect it
from him who might wish to cull it." This little gem of a Mawwal
makes me regret that so many of the snatches of poetry in this
MS. are almost hopelessly corrupted.--ST.]

[FN#216] In the text "Sima'a," lit. hearing, applied
idiomatically to the ecstasy of Darwayshes when listening to
esoteric poetry.

[FN#217] The birds mentioned in the text are the "Kumri"
(turtle-dove), the "Shabaytar" [also called "Samaytar" and "Abu
al-'Ayzar"=the father of the brisk one, a long-necked water bird
of the heron kind.--ST.], the Shuhrur (in MS. Suhrur)=a blackbird
[the Christians in Syria call St. Paul "Shuhrur al-Kanisah," the
blackbird of the Church, on account of his eloquence.--ST.], the
"Karawan," crane or curlew (Charadrius aedicnemus) vol. vi. 1;
the "Hazar;" nightingale or bird of a thousand songs, vol. v. 48;
the "Hamam," ruffed pigeon, culver, vol. v. 49; the "Kata," or
sandgrouse, vols. i. 131, iv. 111, etc.; and the "Samman" or
quail, Suppl. vol. vi.

[FN#218] The "Sa'ah," I may here remark, is the German Stunde,
our old "Stound," somewhat indefinite but meaning to the good
Moslem the spaces between prayer times. The classical terms,
Al-Zuha (undurn-hour, or before noon) and Maghrib=set of sun,
become in Badawi speech Al-Ghaylah=siesta-time and Ghaybat
al-Shams. (Doughty, index.)

[FN#219] For the beautiful song of the lute, referred to here,
see vol. viii. 281.

[FN#220] Alluding to the "Takht Raml," table of sand, geomantic
table?

[FN#221] As before noted, her love enables her to deal in a
somewhat of prophetic strain.

[FN#222] This scene may sound absurd; but it is admirable for its
materialism. How often do youthful lovers find an all-sufficient
pastime in dressing themselves up and playing the game of mutual
admiration. It is well nigh worthy of that "silliest and best of
love-stories"--Henrietta Temple.

[FN#223] The text bluntly says "Wa Nikah," which can mean nothing
else.

[FN#224] Scott calls him "Yiah": vi. 354.

[FN#225] Arab. "Akhbaru-hu," alluding to the lord Yahya.

[FN#226] Here I presume a "Kala" (quoth he) is omitted; for the
next sentence seems appropriate to Yusuf.

[FN#227] In Arab. "Tastaghis"=lit. crying out "Wa Ghausah"--Ho,
to my aid!

[FN#228] The "Zug" or draught which gave him rheumatism--not a
romantic complaint for a young lover. See vol. ii. 9. But his
power of sudden invention is somewhat enviable, and lying is to
him, in Hindustani phrase, "easy as drinking water."

[FN#229] Who evidently ignored or had forgotten the little matter
of the concubine, so that incident was introduced by the
story-teller for mere wantonness.

[FN#230] In text "Mazbuh"=slaughtered for food.

[FN#231] i.e. "I suffer from an acute attack of rheumatism"--a
complaint common in even the hottest climates.

[FN#232] Needless to say that amongst Moslems, as amongst
Christians, the Israelite medicine-man has always been a
favourite, despite an injunction in the "Dinim" (Religious
Considerations) of the famous Andalusian Yusuf Caro. This most
fanatical work, much studied at Tiberias and Safet (where a
printing-press was established in the xvith century) decides that
a Jewish doctor called to attend a Goi (Gentile) too poor to pay
him is bound to poison his patient--if he safely can.

[FN#233] Lit. "The-Bull-(Taur for Thaur or
Saur)numbered-and-for-battle-day-lengthened." In p.30 this
charger is called, "The-bull-that-spurneth-danger-on-battle-day."
See vol. vi. 270 for a similar compound name,
The-Ghul-who-eateth-man-we-pray-Allah-for-safety.

[FN#234] In text "Al-Jariyah radih," the latter word being
repeated in p.282, where it is Radih a P.N. [Here also I would
take it for a P.N., for if it were adjective to "al-Jariyah" it
should have the article.--ST.]

[FN#235] The "Radif," or back-rider, is common in Arabia, esp. on
dromedaries when going to the Razzia: usually the crupper-man
loads the matchlock and his comrade fires it.

[FN#236] The text has "thirty," evidently a clerical error.

[FN#237] Arab. "Sakhtur" for "Shakhtur," vol. vii. 362.

[FN#238] Doggerel fit only for the coffee-house.

[FN#239] In text "Ta'ayyun"=influence, especially by the "'Ayn,"
or (Evil) Eye.

[FN#240] I have somewhat abridged the confession of the Princess,
who carefully repeats every word known to the reader. This
iteration is no objection in the case of a coffee-house audience
to whom the tale is told bit by bit, but it is evidently unsuited
for reading.

[FN#241] In text "Irham turham:" this is one of the few passive
verbs still used in popular parlance.

[FN#242] This formula will be in future suppressed.

[FN#243] I spare my readers the full formula:--"Yusuf took it and
brake the seal (fazza-hu) and read it and comprehended its
contents and purport and significance: and, after perusing it,"
etc. These forms, decies repetita, may go down with an Eastern
audience, but would be intolerable in a Western volume. The
absence of padding, however, reduces the story almost to a
patchwork of doggerel rhymes, for neither I nor any man can "make
a silk purse from a suille ear."

[FN#244] Here again in full we have:--"He mounted the she-camel
and fared and ceased not faring until he drew near to the Palace
of Al-Hayfa, where he dismounted and concealed his dromedary
within the same cave. Then he swam the stream until he had
reached the Castle and here he landed and appeared before
Al-Hayfa," etc.

[FN#245] "'Tis dogged as does it" was the equivalent expression
of our British Aristotle; the late Charles Darwin.

[FN#246] Arab. "Jannat al-Khuld"=the Eternal Garden: vol. ix.
214.

[FN#247] [I read: Wa inni la-ar'akum wa ar'a widada-kum,
wa-hakki-kumu antum a'azzu 'l-Wara 'andi=And I make much of you
and of your love; by your rights (upon me, formula of swearing),
you are to me the dearest of mankind.--ST.]

[FN#248] In text: "He swam the stream and bestrode his
she-camel."

[FN#249] In text "Then she folded the letter and after sealing
it," etc.

[FN#250] Not "her hands" after Christian fashion.

[FN#251] In text, "Ahyaf," alluding to Al-Hayfa.

[FN#252] Arab. "Al-Kawa'ib," also P. N. of the river.

[FN#253] This is moralising with a witness, and all it means is
"handsome is that handsome does."

[FN#254] In text "'Arsh" = the Ninth Heaven; vol. v.167.

[FN#255] The Shi'ah doctrine is here somewhat exaggerated.

[FN#256] "Them" for "her," as has often occurred.

[FN#257] In the original "entrusted to her the missive:" whereas
the letter is delivered afterwards.

[FN#258] The cloud (which contains rain) is always typical of
liberality and generous dealing.

[FN#259] The Koranic chapt. No. xx., revealed at Meccah and
recounting the (apocryphal) history of Moses.

[FN#260] The "broken" (wall) to the North of the Ka'abah:
Pilgrimage iii. 165.

[FN#261] i.e. "Delight of the Age:" see vol. ii. 81.

[FN#262] In the text written "Imriyyu 'l-Kays": for this
pre-Islamitic poet see Term. Essay, p. 223. "The Man of Al-Kays"
or worshipper of the Priapus-idol was a marking figure in Arabian
History. The word occurs, with those of Aera, Dusares (Theos
Ares), Martabu, Allat and Manat in the Nabathaean (Arabian)
epigraphs brought by Mr. Doughty from Arabia Deserta (vol. i. pp.
180-184).

[FN#263] In text "Zakka," which means primarily a bird feeding
her young.

[FN#264] In the text "months and years," the latter seeming de
trop.

[FN#265] Or "Yathrib" = Al-Madinah; vol. iv. 114.

[FN#266] Scott (vi. 358 et seqq.) who makes Ali bin Ibrahim, "a
faithful eunuch," renders the passage, "by some accident the
eunuch's turban unfortunately falling off; the precious stones
(N.B. the lovers' gift) which, with a summary of the adventures
(!) of Eusuff and Aleefa, and his own embassy to Sind, were
wrapped in the folds, tumbled upon the floor,"

[FN#267] i.e. "Drawer-out of Descriptions."

[FN#268] i.e. a Refuser, a Forbidder.

[FN#269] i.e. both could not be seen at the same time.

[FN#270] [The MS. has T Kh D H, which the translator reads
"takhuz-hu." I suspect that either the second or eighth form of
"ahad" is meant, in the sense that thou comest to an agreement
(Ittihad) with him.--ST.]

[FN#271] In the MS. v. 327, we find four hemistichs which
evidently belong to Al-Mihrjan; these are:--

Hadet come to court her in fairer guise * I had given Al-Hayfa in
bestest style;
But in mode like this hast thou wrought me wrong * And made Envy
gibe me with jeering smile."

Also I have been compelled to change the next sentence, which in
the original is, "And hardly had King Al-Mihrjan ended his
words," etc.

[FN#272] In this doggerel, "Kurud" (apes) occurs as a rhyme twice
in three couplets.

[FN#273] "Upon the poll of his head" ('ala hamati-hi) says the
Arabian author, and instantly stultifies the words.

[FN#274] Arab. "Haudaj" = a camel-litter: the word, often
corrupted to Hadaj, is now applied to a rude pack-saddle, a
wooden frame of mimosa-timber set upon a "witr" or pad of old
tent-cloth, stuffed with grass and girt with a single cord. Vol.
viii. 235, Burckhardt gives "Maksar," and Doughty (i. 437)
"Muksir" as the modern Badawi term for the crates or litters in
which are carried the Shaykhly housewives.

[FN#275] In text "Sunnah" = the practice, etc., of the Prophet:
vol. v. 36, 167.

[FN#276] This, as the sequel shows, is the far-famed Musician,
Ibrahim of Mosul: vol. vii. 113.

[FN#277] In the text King of Al-Sin=China, and in p. 360 of MS.
Yusuf is made "King of China and Sind," which would be much like
"King of Germany and Brentford."

[FN#278] This is the full formula repeated in the case of all the
ten blessed damsels. I have spared the patience of my readers.

[FN#279] This formula of the cup and lute is decies repetita,
justifying abbreviation.

[FN#280] i.e. The Beginner, the Originator.

[FN#281] The Zephyr, or rather the cool north breeze of upper
Arabia, vol. viii. 62.

[FN#282] The "Full Moon"; plur. Budur: vols. iii., 228, iv., 249.

[FN#283] "Dann" = amphora, Gr. {Greek} short for {Greek} = having
two handles.

[FN#284] "The large-hipped," a form of Radih.

[FN#285] In text "Minba'ada-hu" making Jesus of later date than
Imr al-Kays.

[FN#286] i.e. "The Delight": also a P.N. of one of the Heavens:
vols. iii. 19; iv. 143.

[FN#287] i.e. Joy, Contentment.

[FN#288] In text "La khuzibat Ayday al-Firak," meaning, "may
separation never ornament herself in sign of gladness at the
prospect of our parting." For the Khazib-dye see vol. iii. 105.

[FN#289] i.e. "Bloom or the Tribe." "Zahrat"=a blossom especially
yellow and commonly applied to orange-flower. In line 10 of the
same page the careless scribe calls the girl "Jauharat (Gem) of
the Tribe."

[FN#290] For this Hell, see vol. viii. 111.

[FN#291] "Core" or "Life-blood of Hearts."

[FN#292] Presently explained.

[FN#293] In text "Afrakh al-Jinn," lit.=Chicks of the Jinns, a
mere vulgarism: see "Farkh 'Akrab," vol. iv. 46.

[FN#294] "Ibraa" = deliverance from captivity, etc. Ya = i, and
Mim = m, composing the word "Ibrahim." The guttural is concealed
in the Hamzah of Ibraa, a good illustration of Dr. Steingass's
valuable remarks in Terminal Essay, pp. 235, 236.

[FN#295] "Kalim" = one who speaks with another, a familiar.
Moses' title is Kalimu'llah on account of the Oral Law and
certain conversations at Mount Sinai.

[FN#296] In text "Istifa" = choice, selection: hence Mustafa =
the Chosen Prophet, Mohammcd; vols i. 7; ii. 40.

[FN#297] In text "Jazr" = cutting, strengthening, flow (of tide).

[FN#298] In the text "Nafishah" Pers. "Nafah," derived, I
presume, from "Naf" = belly or testicle, the part which in the
musk-deer was supposed to store up the perfume.

[FN#299] For 'Nahavand," the celebrated site in Al-Irak where the
Persians sustained their final defeat at the hands of the Arabs
A.H. 21. It is also one of the many musical measures, like the
Ispahani, the Rasti, the Rayhani, the Busalik, the Nava, etc.,
borrowed from the conquered 'Ajami.

[FN#300] This second half of the story is laid upon the lines of
"The Man of Al-Yaman and his six Slave-girls": vol. iv. 245.

[FN#301] This history again belongs to the class termed "Abtar =
tailless. In the text we find for all termination, "After this he
(Yusuf) invited Mohammed ibn Ibrahim to lie that night in the
palace." Scott (vi. 364) ends after his own fashion:--"They (the
ten girls) recited extempore verses before the caliph, but the
subject of each was so expressive of their wish to return to
their beloved sovereign, and delivered in so affecting a manner,
that Mamoon, though delighted with their wit and beauty,
sacrificed his own pleasure to their feelings, and sent them back
to Eusuff by the officer who carried the edict, confirming him in
his dominions, where the prince of Sind and the fair Aleefa
continued long, amid a nnmerous progeny, to live the protectors
of their happy subjects."

[FN#302] This tale is headless as the last is tailless. We must
suppose that soon after Mohammed ibn Ibrahim had quitted the
Caliph, taking away the ten charmers, Al-Maamun felt his "breast
straitened" and called for a story upon one of his Rawis named
Ibn Ahyam. This name is repeated in the text and cannot be a
clerical error for Ibn Ibrahim.

[FN#303] Scott (vi. 366) "Adventures of the Three Princes, sons
of the Sultan of China."

[FN#304] In the text "'Ajam," for which see vol. i. 2, 120.
Al-Irak, I may observe, was the head-quarters of the extensive
and dangerous Kh rijite heresy; and like Syria has ever a bad
name amongst orthodox Moslems.

[FN#305] In the Arab. "Salkh," meaning also a peculiar form of
circumcision, for which see Pilgrimage iii. 80-81. The Jew's
condition was of course a trick, presenting an impossibility and
intended as a mere pretext for murdering an enemy to his faith.
Throughout the Eastern world this idea prevails, and both Sir
Moses Montefiore and M. Cremieux were utterly at fault and
certainly knew it when they declared that Europe was teaching it
to Asia. Every Israelite community is bound in self-defence, when
the murder of a Christian child or adult is charged upon any of
its members, to court the most searching enquiry and to abate the
scandal with all its might.

[FN#306] The text has "F¡ K¡b," which Scott (vol. vi. 367)
renders "a mat." [According to the Muh¡t "K¡b" is a small thick
mat used to produce shade, pl. "Kiy b" and "Aky b." The same
authority says the word is of Persian origin, but this seems an
error, unless it be related to "Keb" with the Y  majh£l, which in
the Appendix to the Burh ni K ti' is given as synonymous with
"Pech," twist, fold. Under "Bard¡"==papyrus the Muh¡t mentions
that this is the material from which the mats known by the name
of "Aky b" are made.--ST.]

[FN#307] The text has here "Wasayah," probably a clerical error
for "wa Miah" (spelt M yah"), and a hundred pair of pigeons.--
ST.]

[FN#308] Showing utter ignorance of the Jewish rite which must
always be performed by the Mohel, an official of the Synagogue
duly appointed by the Sheliach==legatus; and within eight days
after birth. The rite consists of three operations. Milah==the
cut; Priah==tearing the foreskin and Mess¡zah==applying styptics
to the wound. The latter process has become a matter of
controversy and the Israelite community of Paris, headed by the
Chief Rabbi, M. Zadoc Kahin, has lately assembled to discuss the
question. For the difference between Jewish and Moslem
circumcision see vol. v. 209.

[FN#309] The Jewish quarter (H rah), which the Israelites
themselves call "Hazer,"==a court-yard, an enclosure. In Mayer's
valuable "Conversations-lexicon" the Italian word is derived from
the Talmudic "Ghet"==divorce, separation (as parting the Hebrews
from the rest of the population) and the Rev. S. R. Melli, Chief
Rabbi of Trieste, has kindly informed me that the word is
Chaldaic.

[FN#310] [Ar. "Sarm£jah," from Persian "Sar-m£zah," a kind of
hose or gaiter worn over a boot.--ST.]

[FN#311] [Arab. "Yastan¡t," aor. to the preter. "istanat," which
has been explained, supra, p. 24.--ST.]

[FN#312] The bed would be made of a carpet or thin mattress
strewn upon the stucco flooring of the terrace-roof. But the
ignorant scribe overlooks the fact that by Mosaic law every
Jewish house must have a parapet for the "Sakf" (flat roof), a
precaution neglected by Al-Islam.

[FN#313] Good old classical English. In the "Breeches Bible"
(A.D. 1586) we read, "But a certaine woman cast a piece of
millstone upon Abimelech's head and broke his brain-panne" Judges
ix. 33).

[FN#314] [The words "'Irz," protection, in the preceding
sentence, "Hurmah" and "Shat r h" explain each other mutually.
The formula "f¡ 'irzak" (vulg. "arzak"), I place myself under thy
protection, implies an appeal to one's honour ("'Irz"). Therefore
the youth says: "Inna h zih Hurmah lam 'alay-h  Shat rah," i.e.
"Truly this one is a woman" (in the emphatic sense of a sacred or
forbidden object; "this woman" would be "h zih al-Hurmah"), "I
must not act vilely or rashly towards her," both vileness and
rashness belonging to the many significations of "Shat rah,"
which is most usually "cleverness." --ST.]

[FN#315] In the text "Sind," still confounding this tale with the
preceding.

[FN#316] In text "Intih ba 'l furas," lit.==the snatching of
opportunities, a jingle with "Kanas."

[FN#317] [Compare with this episode the viith of Spitta Bey's
Tales: Histoire du Prince qui apprit un m‚tier.--ST.]

[FN#318] i.e. enables a man to conceal the pressure of
impecuniosity.

[FN#319] In text "Al-S dah wa al-Khat y t."

[FN#320] Subaudi, "that hath not been pierced." "The first
night," which is often so portentous a matter in England and upon
the Continent (not of North America), is rarely treated as
important by Orientals. A long theoretical familiarity with the
worship of Venus

Leaves not much mystery for the nuptial night.

Such lore has been carefully cultivated by the "young person"
with the able assistance of the ancient dames of the household,
of her juvenile companions and co-evals and especially of the
slave-girls. Moreover not a few Moslems, even Egyptians, the most
lecherous and salacious of men, in all ranks of life from prince
to peasant take a pride in respecting the maiden for a few nights
after the wedding-feast extending, perhaps to a whole week and
sometimes more. A brutal haste is looked upon as "low"; and, as
sensible men, they provoke by fondling and toying Nature to speak
ere proceeding to the final and critical act. In England it is
very different. I have heard of brides over thirty years old who
had not the slightest suspicion concerning what complaisance was
expected of them: out of mauvaise honte, the besetting sin of the
respectable classes, neither mother nor father would venture to
enlighten the elderly innocents. For a delicate girl to find a
man introducing himself into her bedroom and her bed, the shock
must be severe and the contact of hirsute breast and hairy limbs
with a satiny skin is a strangeness which must often breed
loathing and disgust. Too frequently also, instead of showing the
utmost regard for virginal modesty and innocence (alias
ignorance), the bridegroom will not put a check upon his passions
and precipitates matters with the rage of the bull, ruentis in
venerem. Even after he hears "the cry" which, as the Arabs say,
"must be cried," he has no mercy: the newly made woman lies
quivering with mental agitation and physical pain, which not a
few describe as resembling the tearing out of a back-tooth, and
yet he insists upon repeating the operation, never supposing in
his stupidity, that time must pass before the patient can have
any sensation of pleasure and before the glories and delights of
the sensual orgasm bathe her soul in bliss. Hence complaints,
dissatisfaction, disgust, mainly caused by the man's fault, and
hence not unfrequently a permanent distaste for the act of carnal
congress. All women are by no means equally capable of such
enjoyment, and not a few have become mothers of many children
without ever being or becoming thoroughly reconciled to it.
Especially in the case of highly nervous temperaments--and these
seem to be increasing in the United States and notably in New
England--the fear of nine months' pains and penalties makes the
sex averse to the "deed of kind." The first child is perhaps
welcomed, the second is an unpleasant prospect and there is a
firm resolve not to conceive a third. But such conjugal chastity
is incompatible, except in the case of "married saints," with a
bon m‚nage. The husband, scandalised and offended by the
rejection and refusal of the wife, will seek a substitute more
complaisant; and the spouse also may "by the decree of Destiny"
happen to meet the right man, the man for whom and for whom only
every woman will sweep the floor. And then adieu to prudence and
virtue, honour and fair fame. For, I repeat, it is the universal
custom of civilised and Christian Europeans to plant their
womankind upon a pedestal exposed as butts to every possible
temptation: and, if they fall, as must often be expected, to
assail them with obloquy and contempt for succumbing to trials
imposed upon them by the stronger and less sensitive sex. Far
more sensible and practical, by the side of these high idealists,
shows the Moslem who guards his jewel with jealous care and who,
if his "honour," despite every precaution, insist upon disgracing
him, draws the sabre and cuts her down with the general
approbation and applause of society.

[FN#321] [Arab. "'Al… ghayri tar¡k," which I would translate "out
of the way," like the Persian "b¡-R h."--ST.]

[FN#322] In text "Kababj¡" (for Kababji) seller of Kab bs, mutton
or kid grilled in small squares and skewered: see vol. vi. 225.

[FN#323] In text "Sujj dah;" vol. vi. 193.

[FN#324] In text "Faddah" all through.

[FN#325] In text "Kirsh" (==piastre) a word before explained. See
Lane (M.E.) Appendix B.

[FN#326] In Arab. "Sam r;" from the Pers. "Sumar"==a reed, a
rush.

[FN#327] In Arab. "D¡w n:" vols. vii. 340; ix. 108.

[FN#328] Scott has (vol. vi. 373), "The desired articles were
furnished, and the Sultan setting to work, in a few days finished
a mat, in which he ingeniously contrived to plait in flowery
characters, known only to himself and his vizier, the account of
his situation."

[FN#329] In Arab. "Ghir rah" (plur. "Ghar ¡r")==a sack. In Ibn
Khall. (iv. pp. 90, 104) it is a large sack for grain and the
especial name of a tax on corn.

[FN#330] In the text "Mohammed ibn Ibrahim," another confusion
with the last tale. This story is followed in the MS. by (1) "The
History of the First Brave," (2) "The History of the Second
Brave," and "The Tale of the Noodle and his Asses," which I have
omitted because too feeble for insertion.

[FN#331] Scott (vi.375) "Story of the Good Vizier unjustly
imprisoned." Gauttier (vi. 394) Histoire du bon Vizier
injustement emprisonne.

[FN#332] This detail has no significance, though perhaps its
object may be to affect the circumstantial, a favourite manoeuvre
with the Rawi. [It may mean that the prisoner had to pass through
seven gates before reaching it, to indicate its formidable
strength and the hopelessness of all escape, except perhaps by a
seven-warded, or as the Arabs would say, a seven-pinned key of
gold. In the modern tale mentioned on p. 174 the kidnapped Prince
and his Wazir are made to pass "through one door after the other
until seven doors were passed," to emphasize the utter seclusion
of their hiding place.--ST.]

[FN#333] i.e. the mats and mattresses, rugs and carpets, pillows
and cushions which compose the chairs, tables and beds of a
well-to-do Eastern lodging.

[FN#334] The pretext was natural. Pious Moslems often make such
vows and sometimes oblige themselves to feed the street dogs with
good bread.

[FN#335] In text "Min hakk haza 'l-Kalam sahih."

[FN#336] In text "Kaik" and "Kaik-ji," the well-known caique of
the Bosphorus, a term which bears a curious family resemblance to
the "Kayak" of the Eskimos.

[FN#337] Here coffee is mentioned without tobacco, whereas in
more modern days the two are intimately connected. And the reason
is purely hygienic. Smoking increases the pulsations without
strengthening them, and depresses the heart-action with a calming
and soothing effect. Coffee, like alcohol, affects the
circulation in the reverse way by exciting it through the nervous
system; and not a few authorities advise habitual smokers to end
the day and prepare for rest with a glass of spirits and water.
It is to be desired that the ignorants who write about "that
filthy tobacco" would take the trouble to observe its effects on
a large scale, and not base the strongest and extremest opinions,
as is the wont of the Anglo-Saxon Halb-bildung, upon the
narrowest and shakiest of bases. In Egypt, India and other parts
of the Eastern world they will find nicotiana used by men, women
and children, of all ranks and ages; and the study of these
millions would greatly modify the results of observing a few
hundreds at home. But, as in the case of opium-eating, populus
vult decipi, the philanthrope does not want to know the truth,
indeed he shrinks from it and loathes it. All he cares for is his
own especial "fad."

[FN#338] Arab. "Finjal" systematically repeated for "Finjan"
pronounced in Egypt "Fingan" see vol. viii. 200. [The plural
"Fanajil," pronounced "Fanagil," occurs in Spitta Bey's Contes
Arabes Modernes, p. 92, and in his Grammar, p. 26, the same
author states that the forms "Fingan" and "Fingal" are used
promiscuously.--ST.]

[FN#339] For the "Khaznah" (Khazinah) or 10,000 kis each = œ5,
see vols. ii. 84; iii. 278.

[FN#340] A euphuism meaning some disaster. The text contains a
favourite incident in folklore; the first instance, I believe,
being that of Polycrates of Samos according to Herodotus (lib.
iii. 41-42). The theory is supported after a fashion by
experience amongst all versed in that melancholy wisdom the
"knowledge of the world." As Syr Cauline the knight
philosophically says:--

Everye white will have its blacke,
And everye sweete its sowre: etc.

[FN#341] Thus making the food impure and unfit for a religious
Moslem to eat. Scott (vi. 378) has "when a huge rat running from
his hole leaped into the dish which was placed upon the floor."
He is probably thinking of the East Indian "bandycoot."

[FN#342] In text this tale concludes, "It is ended and this
(next) is the History of the Barber."

[FN#343] A dandy, a macaroni, from the Turk. Chelebi, see vol i
22. Here the word is thoroughly Arabised. In old Turk. it means,
a Prince of the blood; in mod. times a gentleman, Greek or
European.

[FN#344] In the text "ézbasha" or "Uzbasha," a vile Egyptianism
for Yuzbashi-head of a hundred (men) centurion, captain.

[FN#345] Scil. the household, the Harem, etc. As usual, the masc.
is used for the fem.

[FN#346] [Ar. "Al-Rashakah," a word is not found in the common
lexicons. In Dozy and "Engelmann's Glossary of Spanish and
Portuguese words derived from the Arabic," it is said to be a
fork with three prongs, here probably a hat-stand in the shape of
such a fork.--ST.]

[FN#347] In text "Sha'il" copyist's error for "Shaghil," act.
part. of "Shughl" = business, affairs. [Here it stands probably
for the fuller "Shughl shaghil," an urgent business.--ST.]

[FN#348] In text "Ya 'Ars, ya Mu'arras": vol. i. 338.

[FN#349] In Syria most houses have a rain cistern or tank into
which the terrace-roof drains and which looks from above like a
well with a cover. The water must have been low when the lover
hid himself in the reservoir.

[FN#350] [In the MS. "Min Hakk la-hu Asl an 'and-na huna Rajil,"
a thoroughly popular phrase. "Min Hakk" and "min Hakkan," where
in the adverbial meaning of Hakkan its grammatical form as an
accusative is so far forgotten that it allows itself to be
governed by the preposition "min," is rendered by Bocthor "tout
de bon," "serieusement." "Asl" = root has here the meaning of
foundation in fact. The literal translation of the passage would
therefore be: "Forsooth, is there any truth in it that a man is
here in our house?" "Min Hakk" has occurred page 183, where the
text, quoted in the note, may perhaps be translated: "Of a truth,
is this saying soothfast?"--ST.]

[FN#351] [The MS. has: "Ya Gharati a-Zay ma huna Rajil;" "Ya
Gharati" will recur presently, p. 195, along with "ya Musibati" =
Oh my calamity! I take it therefore to be an exclamation of
distress from "Gharat" = invasion, with its incidents of
devastation, rapine and ruin. It would be the natural outcry of
the women left helpless in an unprotected camp when invaded by a
hostile tribe. In "a-Zay ma" the latter particle is not the
negative, but the pronoun, giving to "a-Zay" = "in what manner,"
"how ?" the more emphatical sense of "how ever?" In the same
sense we find it again, infra, Night 754, "a-Zay ma tafutni" =
how canst thou quit me? I would therefore render: "Woe me I am
undone, how ever should there be a man here?" or something to
that purpose.--ST.]

[FN#352] In Persian he would be called "Pari-stricken,"--smitten
by the Fairies.

[FN#353] A quarter-staff (vols. i, 234; viii. 186) opp. to the
"Dabbus," or club-stick of the Badawin, the Caffres' "Knob-
kerry," which is also called by the Arabs "Kana," pron. "Gana."

[FN#354] Scott's "Story of the Lady of Cairo and her four
Gallants" (vol. vi. 380): Gauttier, Histoire d' une Dame du Caire
et de ses Galans (vi. 400). This tale has travelled over the
Eastern world. See in my vol. vi. 172 "The Lady and her Five
Suitors," and the "Story of the Merchant's Wife and her Suitors"
in Scott's "Tales, Anecdotes, and Letters" (Cadell, London,
1800), which is in fact a garbled version of the former,
introduced into the r‚pertoire of "The Seven Waz¡rs." I translate
the W. M. version of the tale because it is the most primitive
known to me; and I shall point out the portions where it lacks
finish.

[FN#355] This title does not appear till p. 463 (vol. v.) of the
MS., and it re-appears in vol. vi. 8.

[FN#356] i.e. in her haste: the text has "Kharrat." The Persians
who rhetorically exaggerate everything say "rising and sinking
like the dust of the road." [I doubt whether "Kharrat" could have
the meaning given to it in the translation. The word in the MS.
has no Tashd¡d and I think the careless scribe meant it for
"Kharajat," she went out.--ST.]

[FN#357] I read "N s malmum¡n=assembled men, a crowd of people."-
-ST.]

[FN#358] "Rajul Khw j :" see vol. vi. 46, etc. For
"Sh hbandar"=king of the port, a harbourmaster, whose post I have
compared with our "Consul," see vol. iv. 29. It is often,
however, applied to Government officials who superintend trade
and levy duties at inland marts.

[FN#359] Arab. "Khim r," a veil or rather a covering for the back
of the head. This was the especial whorishness with which
Shahrazad taxes the Goodwife: she had been too prodigal of her
charms, for the occiput and the "back hair" should not be
displayed even to the moon.

[FN#360] These four become five in the more finished tale--the
King, the Wazir, the Kazi, the Wali or Chief of Police and the
Carpenter. Moreover each one is dressed in different costume,
gowns yellow, blue, red and patched with headgear equally absurd.

[FN#361] In text "Turt£r"=the Badawi's bonnet: vol. ii. 143. Mr.
Doughty (i. 160) found at Al-Khuraybah the figure of an ancient
Arab wearing a close tunic to the knee and bearing on poll a
coif. At Al-'Ula he was shown an ancient image of a man's head
cut in sandstone: upon the crown was a low pointed bonnet. "Long
caps" are also noticed in i. 562; and we are told that they were
"worn in outlandish guise in Arabia."

[FN#362] In text "Emb rah" (pron. 'M rah); pop. for
Al-b rihah=the last part of the preceding day or night,
yesterday. The vulgar Egyptian uses it as if it were a corruption
of the Pers. "in b r"=this time. The Arab Badawin pronounce it
El-beyrih (with their exaggerated "Im lah") and use it not only
for "yesterday," but also for the past afternoon.

[FN#363] This device is far inferior in comic effect to the
carpenter's press or cabinet of five compartments, and it lacks
the ludicrous catastrophe in which all the lovers make water upon
one another's heads.

[FN#364] Scott (vi. 386) "The Cauzee's story:" Gauttier (vi. 406)
does not translate it.

[FN#365] In the text the message is delivered verbatim: this
iteration is well fitted for oral work, with its changes of tone
and play of face, and varied "gag"; but it is most annoying for
the more critical reader.

[FN#366] Arab. "Lukmah"=a balled mouthful: vols. i. 261, vii.
367.

[FN#367] The "Mift h" (prop. "Miftah") or key used throughout the
Moslem East is a bit of wood, 7 14 inches long, and provided with
4 10 small iron pins which correspond with an equal number of
holes in the "Dabbah" or wooden bolt. If one of these teeth be
withdrawn the lock will not open. Lane (M.E. Introduction) has a
sketch of the "Miftah" and "Dabbah."

[FN#368] In text "Ayoh" which is here, I hold, a corruption of "I
(or Ayy) h£"="yes indeed he." [I take "aywah" (as I would read
the word) to be a different spelling for "aywa"=yes indeed, which
according to Spitta Bey, Gr. p. 168 is a contraction of "Ay (I)
wa'll hi," yes by Allah. "What? thy lover?" asks the husband, and
she emphatically affirms the fact, to frighten the concealed
tailor--ST.]

[FN#369] In the Arab. "Al-Ashkhakh," plur. of "Shakhkh" and
literally "the stales" meaning either dejection. [I read: "bi
'l-Shakh kh," the usual modern word for urine. "'Alayya Shakh kh"
is: I want to make water. See Dozy Suppl. s.v.-ST.]

[FN#370] In text "Ah£ ma'¡"--pure Fellah speech.

[FN#371] In the Arab. "laklaka-h "--an onomatopoeia.

[FN#372] In text "Il… an yas¡r Karmu-hu." Karm originally means
cutting a slip of skin from the camel's nose by way of mark, in
lieu of the normal branding.

[FN#373] In text "Yazghaz-h  f¡ shikkati-ha," the verb being
probably a clerical error for "Yazaghzagh," from "Zaghzagha,"=he
opened a skin bag.

[FN#374] This is the far-famed balcony-scene in "Fanny" (of
Ernest Feydeau translated into English and printed by Vizetelly
and Co.) that phenomenal specimen of morbid and unmasculine
French (or rather Parisian) sentiment, which contrasts so
powerfully with the healthy and manly tone of The Nights. Here
also the story conveys a moral lesson and, contrary to custom,
the husband has the best of the affair. To prove that my judgment
is not too severe, let me quote the following passages from a
well-known and popular French novelist, translated by an English
litt‚rateur and published by a respectable London firm.

In "A Ladies' Man:" by Guy de Maupassant, we read:--

Page 62.--And the conversation, descending from elevated theories
concerning love, strayed into the flowery garden of polished
blackguardism. It was the moment of clever, double meanings;
veils raised by words, as petticoats are lifted by the wind;
tricks of language, cleverly disguised audacities; sentences
which reveal nude images in covered phrases, which cause the
vision of all that may not be said to flit rapidly before the
eyes of the mind, and allow well-bred people the enjoyment of a
kind of subtle and mysterious love, a species of impure mental
contact, due to the simultaneous evocations of secret, shameful
and longed-for pleasures.

Page 166.--George and Madeleine amused themselves with watching
all these couples, the woman in summer toilette and the man
darkly outlined beside her. It was a huge flood of lovers flowing
towards the Bois, beneath the starry and heated sky. No sound was
heard save the dull rumble of wheels. They kept passing by, two
by two in each vehicle, leaning back on the seat, clasped one
against the other, lost in dreams of desire, quivering with the
anticipation of coming caresses. The warm shadow seemed full of
kisses. A sense of spreading lust rendered the air heavier and
more suffocating. All the couples, intoxicated with the same
idea, the same ardour, shed a fever about them.

Page 187--As soon as she was alone with George, she clasped him
in her arms, exclaiming: "Oh! my darling Pretty-boy, I love you
more and more every day."

The cab conveying them rocked like a ship.

"It is not so nice as our own room," said she.

He answered; "Oh, no." But he was thinking of Madame Waller.

Page 198.--He kissed her neck, her eyes, her lips with eagerness,
without her being able to avoid his furious caresses, and whilst
repulsing him, whilst shrinking from his mouth, she, despite
herself, returned his kisses. All at once she ceased to struggle,
and, vanquished, resigned, allowed him to undress her. One by one
he neatly and rapidly stripped off the different articles of
clothing with the light fingers of a lady's maid. She had
snatched her bodice from his hands to hide her face in it, and
remained standing amidst the garments fallen at her feet. He
seized her in his arms and bore her towards the couch. Then she
murmured in his ear in a broken voice, "I swear to you, I swear
to you, that I have never had a lover."

And he thought, "That is all the same to me."

[FN#375] In text "Ant' amilta maskhar  (for maskharah) matah (for
mat…)," idiomatical Fellah-tongue.

[FN#376] Scott (Appendix vol. vi. 460) simply called this tale
"The Syrian." In M. Clouston's "Book of Noodles" (pp. 193 194) we
find a man who is searching for three greater simpletons than his
wife, calling himself "Saw ye ever my like?" It is quoted from
Campbell's "Popular Tales of the West Highlands" (ii. 385 387),
but it lacks the canopic wit of the Arabo-Egyptian. I may note
anent the anecdote of the Gabies (p. 201), who proposed, in order
to make the tall bride on horseback enter the low village-gate,
either to cut off her head or the legs of her steed, that
precisely the same tale is told by the biting wits of Damascus
concerning the boobies of Halb£n. "Halb £n," as these villagers
call their ancient hamlet, is justly supposed to be the Helbon
whose wine is mentioned by Ezekiel in the traffic of Damascus,
although others less reasonably identify it with Halab=Aleppo.

[FN#377] In text "La'bat Shaw ribu-hu"=lit. his mustachios
played.

[FN#378] For the "Wak lah," or caravanserai, see vol. i. 266.

[FN#379] In text "Kab£t," plur. Kab b¡t:

Oh! who is more brave than a dark Suliote,
In his snowy camise and his shaggy capote?
"Childe Harold," Canto II.

And here I cannot but notice the pitiful contrast (on the
centenary of the poet's nativity, Jan. 22nd, '88) between the
land of his birth and that of his death. The gallant Greeks
honoured his memory with wreaths and panegyrics and laudatory
articles, declaring that they will never forget the anniversaries
of his nativity and his decease. The British Pharisee and
Philistine, true to his miserable creed, ignored all the "real
Lord Byron"--his generosity, his devotion to his friends, his
boundless charity, and his enthusiasm for humanity. They exhaled
their venom by carping at Byron's poetry (which was and is to
Europe a greater boon than Shakespeare's), by condemning his
morality (in its dirty sexual sense) and in prophesying for him
speedy oblivion. Have these men no shame in presence of the noble
panegyric dedicated by the Prince of German poets, Goethe, to his
brother bard whom he welcomed as a prophet? Can they not blush
before Heine (the great German of the future), before Flaubert,
Alfred de Musset, Lamartine, Leopardi and a host of Italian,
Spanish and Portuguese notables? Whilst England will not forgive
Byron for having separated from his unsympathetic wife, the
Literary society of Moscow celebrated his centenary with all
honour; and Prof. Nicholas Storojenko delivered a speech which
has found an echo

further west
Than his sires' "Islands of the Blest."

He rightly remarked that Byron's deadly sin in the eyes of the
Georgian-English people was his Cosmopolitanism. He was the
poetical representative of the Sturm und Drang period of
the xixth century. He reflected, in his life and works, the wrath
of noble minds at the collapse of the cause of freedom and the
reactionary tendency of the century. Even in the distant regions
of Monte Video Byron's hundredth birthday was not forgotten, and
Don Luis Desteffanio's lecture was welcomed by literary society.

[FN#380] He cried out thinking of the mystical meaning of such
name. So {Greek}, would mean in Suf¡ language--Learn from thyself
what is thy Lord;--corresponding after a manner with the
Christian "looking up through Nature to Nature's God."

[FN#381] The phrase prob. means so drunk that his circulation had
apparently stopped.

[FN#382] This is the article usually worn by the professional
buffoon. The cap of the "Sutar¡" or jester of the Arnaut
(Albanian) regiments--who is one of their professional braves--is
usually a felt cone garnished with foxes' brushes.

[FN#383] In Arab. "Sabbal alayhim (for Alayhinna, the usual masc.
pro fem.) Al-Satt r"=lit. the Veiler let down a curtain upon
them.

[FN#384] The barber being a surgeon and ever ready to bleed a
madman.

[FN#385] i.e. Can play off equally well the soft-brained and the
hard-headed.

[FN#386] i.e. a deputy (governor, etc.); in old days the governor
of Constantinople; in these times a lieutenant-colonel, etc.

[FN#387] Which, as has been said, is the cab of Modern Egypt,
like the gondola and the caique. The heroine of the tale is a
Nilotic version of "Aurora Floyd."

[FN#388] In text "Rafaka" and infr… (p. 11) "Zafaka."

[FN#389] [In text "Misla 'l-Kal m," which I venture to suggest is
another clerical blunder for: "misla 'l-Kil b"=as the dogs do.--
ST.]



 


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