morals.
[FN#189] In text “Ghayr Wa’d,” or “Min ghayr Wa’d.” Lit. without previous agreement: much used in this text for suddenly, unexpectedly, without design.
[FN#190] The reader will have remarked the use of the Arabic “‘Alaka”=he hung, which with its branches greatly resembles the Lat. pendere.
[FN#191] Arab. “Min al-Malábis,” plur. of “Malbas”=anything pleasant or enjoyable; as the plural of “Milbas”=dress, garment, it cannot here apply.
[FN#192] i.e. “The Tigris” (Hid-dekel), with which the Egyptian writer seems to be imperfectly acquainted. See vols. i. 180; viii. 150.
[FN#193] The word, as usual misapplied in the West, is to be traced through the Turk. Kúshk (pron. Kyúshk) to the Pers. “Kushk”=an upper chamber.
[FN#194] Four including the doorkeeper. The Darwayshes were suspected of kidnapping, a practice common in the East, especially with holy men. I have noticed in my Pilgrimage (vols. ii. 273; iii. 327), that both at Meccah and at Al-Medinah the cheeks of babes are decorated with the locally called “Masháli”=three parallel gashes drawn by the barber with the razor down the fleshy portion of each cheek, from the exterior angles of the eyes almost to the corners of the mouth. According to the citizens this “Tashrít” is a modern practice distinctly opposed to the doctrine of Al-Islam; but, like the tattooing of girls, it is intended to save the children from being carried off, for good luck, by kidnapping pilgrims, especially Persians.
[FN#195] The hair being shaven or plucked and showing the darker skin. In the case of the axilla-pile, vellication is the popular process: see vol. ix. 139. Europeans who do not adopt this essential part of cleanliness in hot countries are looked upon as impure by Moslems.
[FN#196] Here a little abbreviation has been found necessary: “of no avail is a twice-told tale.”
[FN#197] The nearest approach in Eastern tales to Western hysterics.
[FN#198] A tent-pitcher, body servant, etc. See vol. vii. 4. The word is still popular in Persia.
[FN#199] The amount of eating and drinking in this tale is phenomenal; but, I repeat, Arabs enjoy reading of “meat and drink” almost as much as Englishmen.
[FN#200] Arab writers always insist upon the symptom of rage which distinguishes the felines from the canines; but they do not believe that the end of the tail has a sting.
[FN#201] The circular leather which acts alternately provision bag and table-cloth. See vols. i. 178; v. 8; viii. 269, and ix. 141.
[FN#202] He refused because he suspected some trick and would not be on terms of bread and salt with the stranger.
[FN#203] The story contains excellent material, but the writer or the copier has “scamped” it in two crucial points, the meeting of the bereaved Sultan and his wife (Night ccclxxvii.) and the finale where we miss the pathetic conclusions of the Mac. and Bresl. Edits. Also a comparison of this hurried dénouement with the artistic tableau of “King Omar bin al-Nu’uman,” where all the actors are mustered upon the stage before the curtain falls, measures the difference between this MS. and the printed texts, showing the superior polish and finish of the latter.
[FN#204] Vol. iii. pp. 386-97, where it follows immediately the last story. Scott (Story of the Avaricious Cauzee and his Wife, vi. 112) has translated it after his own fashion, excising half and supplying it out of his own invention; and Gauttier has followed suit in the Histoire du Cadi avare et de sa Femme, vi. 254.
[FN#205] Tarábulus and Atrábulus are Arabisations of Tripolis (hod. Tripoli) the well-known port-town north of Bayrút; founded by the Phoenicians, rose to fame under the Seleucidæ, and was made splendid by the Romans. See Socin’s “Bædeker,” p. 509.
[FN#206] i.e. the Kazi’s court-house
[FN#207] Arab. “Buksumah” = “hard bread” (Americanicè).
[FN#208] Arab. “Sufrah umm jalájil.” Lit. an eating-cloth with little bells, like those hung to a camel, or metal plates as on the rim of a tambourine.
[FN#209] The Kursi here = the stool upon which the “Síníyah” or tray of tinned copper is placed, the former serving as a table. These stools, some 15 inches high and of wood inlaid with bone, tortoise-shell or mother-of-pearl, are now common in England, where one often sees children using them as seats. The two (Kursi and Síníyah) compose the Sufrah, when the word is used in the sense of our “dinner-table.” Lane (M.E. chapt. v.) gives an illustration of both articles.
[FN#210] Arab. “Jarídah,” a palm-frond stripped of its leaves (Supplemental vol. i. 203), hence the “Jaríd” used as a javelin; see vol. vi. 263.
[FN#211] An Egyptian or a Syrian housewife will make twenty dishes out of roast lamb, wholly unlike the “good plain cook” of Great or Greater Britain, who leaves the stomach to do all the work of digestion in which she ought to but does not assist.
[FN#212] A plate of “Baysár” or “Faysár,” a dish peculiar to Egypt; beans seasoned with milk and honey and generally eaten with meat. See Mr. Guy Lestrange’s “Al-Mukaddasi,” Description of Syria, p. 80; an author who wrote cir. A.H. 986. Scott (vi. 119) has “A savoury dish called byssarut, which is composed of parched beans and pounded salt meat, mixed up with various seeds, onions and garlic.” Gauttier (vi. 261) carefully avoids giving the Arabic name, which occurs in a subsequent tale (Nights cdxliv.) when a laxative is required.
[FN#213] Arab. “Mulúkhíyah náshiyah,” lit. = flowing; i.e. soft like épinards au jus. Mulúkhíya that favourite vegetable, the malva esculenta is derived from the Gr. {Greek} (also written {Greek}) from {Greek} = to soften, because somewhat relaxing. In ancient Athens it was the food of the poorer classes and in Egypt it is eaten by all, taking the place of our spinach and sorrel.
[FN#214] Arab. “Kalak” = lit. “agitation,” “disquietude” and here used as syn. with “Kúlanj,” a true colic.
[FN#215] Arab. “Mazarát,” from “Mazr,” = being addled (an egg).
[FN#216] Here is an allusion to the “Massage,” which in these days has assumed throughout Europe all the pretensions of scientific medical treatment. The word has been needlessly derived from the Arab. “Mas’h” = rubbing, kneading; but we have the Gr. synonym and the Lat. Massare. The text describes child-bed customs amongst Moslem women, and the delivery of the Kazi has all the realism of M. Zola’s accouchement in La Joie de Vivre.
[FN#217] Arab. “Fa’álah” = the building craft, builders’ trade.
[FN#218] In text “Kawwárah,” which is not found in the dictionaries. “Kuwáray”= that which is cut off from the side of a thing, etc. My translation is wholly tentative: perhaps Kawwára may be a copyist’s error for “Kazázah” = vulg. a (flask of) glass.
[FN#219] The “Khaznah,” = treasury, is a thousand “Kís” = 500 piastres, or £5 at par; and thus represents £5,000, a large sum for Tripoli in those days.
[FN#220] The same incident occurs in that pathetic tale with an ill name = “How Abu al-Hasan brake Wind.” vol. v. 135.
[FN#221] Arab. “Karkabah,” clerical error (?) for “Karkarah” = driving (as wind the clouds); rumbling of wind in bowels. Dr. Steingass holds that it is formed by addition of a second “K,” from the root “Karb,” one of whose meanings is: “to inflate the stomach.”
[FN#222] For Ummu ‘Amrin = mother of ‘Amru, so written and pronounced ” ‘Amr,” a fancy name, see vol. v. 118, for the Tale of the Schoolmaster, a well-known “Joe Miller.” [Ummu ‘Amrin, like Ummu ‘Ámirin, is a slang term for “hyena.” Hence, if Ass and Umm Amr went off together, it is more than likely that neither came back.–St.]
[FN#223] A slang name for Death. “Kash’am” has various sigs. esp. the lion, hence Rabí’at al-Faras (of the horses), one of the four sons of Nizár was surnamed Al-Kash’am from his cur de lion (Al- Mas’udi iii. 238). Another pleasant term for departing life is Abú Yáhyá = Father of John, which also means “The Living” from Hayy–Death being the lord of all: hence “Yamút” lit.= he dies, is an ill-omened name amongst Arabs. Kash’am is also a hyena, and Umm Kash’am is syn. with Umm ‘Ámir (vol. i. 43). It was considered a point of good breeding to use these “Kunyah” for the purpose of varying speech (see al-Hariri Ass. xix.). The phrase in the text = meaning went to hell, as a proverb was first used by Zuhayr, one of the “Suspended Poets.” Umm Kash’am was the P.N. of a runaway camel which, passing by a large fire, shied and flung its riding saddle into the flames. So in Al-Siyúti’s “History of the Caliphs” (p. 447), the text has “And Malak Shah went to where her saddle was thrown by Umm Kash’am,” which Major Jarrett renders “departed to hell-fire.”
[FN#224] Scott’s “Story of the Bhang-eater and Cauzee,” vi. 126: Gauttier, Histoire du Preneur d’Opium et du Cadi, vi. 268.
[FN#225] Arab. “Lawwaha” = lit. pointing out, making clear.
[FN#226] Text “in his belly,” but afterwards in his “Halkah” = throat, throttle, which gives better sense.
[FN#227] In text “Háyishah” from “Haysh” = spoiling, etc.
[FN#228] Arab. “Yauh!” See vols. ii. 321; vi. 235.
[FN#229] Arab. “Yá Jad’án” (pron. “Gád’án”) more gen. “Yá Jad’a” = mon brave!
[FN#230] In text “Yá ‘Arzád”: prob. a clerical slip for “‘Urzát,” plur. of “‘Urzah” = a companion, a (low) fellow, a man evil spoken of.
[FN#231] Easterns love drinking in a bright light: see vol. ii. 59.
[FN#232] Arab. “‘Akl” (= comprehension, understanding) and “Nakl” (= copying, describing, transcribing), a favourite phrase in this MS.
[FN#233] Arab. “Ummáli”; gen. Ummál, an affirmation; Certes, I believe you!
[FN#234] For the many preparations of this drug, see Herklots, Appendix, pp. lxviii. ciii. It is impossible to say how “Indian hemp,” like opium, datura, ether and chloroform, will affect the nervous system of an untried man. I have read a dozen descriptions of the results, from the highly imaginative Monte Cristo to the prose of prosaic travellers; and do not recognise that they are speaking of the same thing.
[FN#235] This tranquil enjoyment is popularly called “Kayf.” See my Pilgraimage i. 13. In a coarser sense it is applied to all manners of intoxication; and the French traveller Sonnini says, “The Arabs (by which he means the Egyptians) give the name of Kayf to the voluptuous relaxation, the delicious stupor, produced by the smoking of hemp.” I have smoked it and eaten it for months without other effect than a greatly increased appetite and a little drowsiness.
[FN#236] These childish indecencies are often attributed to Bhang-eaters. See “Bákún’s Tale of the Hashísh-eater,” vol. ii. 91. Modest Scott (vi. 129) turns the joke into “tweaking the nose.” Respectable Moslems dislike the subject, but the vulgar relish it as much as the sober Italian enjoys the description of a drinking bout–in novels.
[FN#237] In the text “Finjál,” a vulgarism for “Finján”: so the converse “Isma’ín” for “Ism’aíl” = Ishmael. Mr. J. W. Redhouse (The Academy No. 764) proposes a new date for coffee in Al-Yaman. Colonel Playfair (History of Yemen, Bombay 1859) had carelessly noted that its “first use at Aden was by a judge of the place who had seen it drunk at Zayla’, on the African coast opposite Aden,” and he made the judge die in A.H. 875 = A.D. 1470. This is about the date of the Shaykh al-Sházalí’s tomb at Mocha, and he was the first who brought the plant form about African Harar to the Arabian seaboard. But Mr. Redhouse finds in a Turkish work written only two centuries ago, and printed at Constantinople, in A.D. 1732, that the “ripe fruit was discovered growing wild in the mountains of Yemen (?) by a company of dervishes banished thither.” Finding the berry relieve their hunger and support their vigils the prior, “Shaykh ‘Umar advised their stewing it (?) and the use became established. They dried a store of the fruit; and its use spread to other dervish communities, who perhaps (?) sowed the seed wherever it would thrive throughout Africa (N.B. where it is indigenous) and India (N.B. where both use and growth are quite modern). From Africa, two centuries later, its use was reimported to Arabia at Aden (?) by the judge above mentioned, who in a season of scarcity of the dried fruit (?) tried the seed” (N.B. which is the fruit). This is passing strange and utterly unknown to the learned De Sacy (Chrest. Arab. i. 412-481).
[FN#238] Koran iii. 128. D’Herbelot and Sale (Koran, chap. iii. note) relate on this text a noble story of Hasan Ali-son and his erring slave which The Forty Vezirs (Lady’s eighth story, p. 113) ignorantly attributes to Harun al-Rashid:–Forthwith the Caliph rose in wrath and was about to hew the girl to pieces, when she said, “O Caliph, Almighty Allah saith in His glorious Word (the Koran), ‘And the stiflers of Wrath'” (iii. 128). Straightway the Caliph’s wrath was calmed. Again said the girl, “‘And the pardoners of men.'” (ibid.) Quoth the Caliph, “I have forgiven the crimes of all the criminals who may be in prison.” Again said the slave-girl, “‘And Allah loveth the beneficent.'” (ibid.) Quoth the Caliph, “God be witness that I have with my own wealth freed thee and us many male and female slaves as I have, and that this day I have for the love of Allah given the half of all my good in alms to the poor.” This is no improvement upon the simple and unexaggerated story in Sale. “It is related of Hasan, the son of Ali, that a slave having once thrown a dish on him boiling hot, as he sat at table, and fearing his master’s resentment, fell on his knees and repeated these words, Paradise is for those who bridle their anger. Hasan answered, I am not angry. The slave proceeded, And for those who forgive men. I forgive you, said Hasan. The slave, however, finished the verse, For Allah loveth the beneficent. Since it is so, replied Hasan, I give you your liberty and four hundred pieces of silver.”
[FN#239] The old name of the parish bull in rural England.
[FN#240] Arab. “Kawík:” see The Nights, vol. vi. 182, where the bird is called “Ak’ak.” Our dicts. do not give the word, but there is a “Kauk” (Káka, yakúku) to cluck, and “Kauk” = an aquatic bird with a long neck. I assume “Kawík” to be an intensive form of the same root. The “Mother of Solomon” is a fanciful “Kunyah,” or bye name given to the bird by the Bhang-eater, suggesting his high opinion of her wisdom.
[FN#241] Arab. “Nátúr,” prop. a watchman: also a land-mark, a bench-mark of tamped clay.
[FN#242] In text “Bartamán” for “Martaban” = a pot, jar, or barrel-shaped vessel: others apply the term to fine porcelain which poison cannot affect. See Col. Yule’s Glossary, s. v. Martabán, where the quotation from Ibn Batutah shows that the term was current in the xivth century. Linschoten (i. 101) writes, “In this town (Martaban of Pegu) many of the great earthen pots are made, which in India are called Martananas, and many of them are carried throughout all India of all sorts both small and great: and some are so great that they will fill two pipes of water.” Pyrard (i. 259) applies the name to “certain handsome jars, of finer shape and larger than I have seen elsewhere” (Transl. by ALBERT Gray for the Hakluyt Soc. 1887). Mr. Hill adds that at Málé the larger barrel-shaped jars of earthenware are still called “Mátabán,” and Mr. P. Brown (Zillah Dictionary, 1852) finds the word preserved upon the Madras coast = a black jar in which rice is imported from Pegu.
[FN#243] The Arabic here changes person, “he repeated” after Eastern Fashion, and confuses the tale to European readers.
[FN#244] Such treasure trove belonging to the State, i.e. the King.
[FN#245] Arab. “Húrí” for “Hír” = a pool, marsh, or quagmire, in fact corresponding with our vulgar “bogshop.” Dr. Steingass would read “Haurí,” a “mansúb” of “Haur” = pond, quagmire, which, in connection with a Hammam, may = sink, sewer, etc.
[FN#246] The Bedlam: see vol. i. 288.
[FN#247] Arab. “Tamtar aysh?” (i.e. Ayyu shayyin, see vol. i. 79). I may note that the vulgar abbreviation is of ancient date. Also the Egyptian dialect has borrowed, from its ancestor the Coptic, the practice of putting the interrogatory pronoun or adverb after (not before the verb, e.g. “Rá’ih fayn?” = Wending (art thou) whither? It is regretable that Egyptian scholars do not see the absolute necessity of studying Coptic, and this default is the sole imperfection of the late Dr. Spitta Bey’s admirable Grammar of Egyptian.
[FN#248] Arab. “‘Arsah,” akin to “Mu’arris” (masc.) = a pimp, a pander. See vol. i. 338; and Supp. vol. i. 138; and for its use Pilgrimage i. 276.
[FN#249] i.e. Abú Kásim the Drummer. The word “Tambúr” is probably derived from “Tabl” = a drum, which became by the common change of liquids “Tabur” in O. French and “Tabour” in English. Hence the mod. form “Tambour,” which has been adopted by Turkey, e.g. Tambúrji = a drummer. In Egypt, however, “Tambúr” is applied to a manner of mandoline or guitar, mostly used by Greeks and other foreigners. See Lane, M.E. chap. xviii.
[FN#250] Arab. “Bál” (sing. Bálah) = a bale, from the Span. Bala and Italian Balla, a small parcel made up in the shape of a bale, Lat. Palla.
[FN#251] Arab. “Walásh,” i.e. “Was lá shayya” = “And nihil” (nil, non ens, naught).
[FN#252] Arab. “Kurbáj” = cravache: vol. viii. 17. The best are made of hippopotamus-hide (imported from East Africa), boiled and hammered into a round form and tapering to the point. Plied by a strong arm they cut like a knout.
[FN#253] The text “Yá Sultán-am,” a Persian or Turkish form for the Arab. “Yá Sultán-i.”
[FN#254] In text “Kalb” for “Kulbat” = a cave, a cavern.
[FN#255] The houses were of unbaked brick or cob, which readily melts away in rain and requires annual repairing at the base of the walls where affected by rain and dew. In Sind the damp of the earth with its nitrous humour eats away the foundations and soon crumbles them to dust.
[FN#256] Here meaning the under-Governor or head Clerk.
[FN#257] “Níl” (= the Nile), in vulgar Egyptian parlance the word is = “high Nile,” or the Nile in flood.
[FN#258] Arab. “Darwayshsah” = a she-Fakír, which in Europe would be represented by that prime pest a begging nun.
[FN#259] Arab. “Allah háfiz-ik” = the popular Persian expression, “Khudá Háfiz!”
[FN#260] Arab. “Sálihin” = the Saints, the Holy Ones.
[FN#261] Arab. “Sharkh” = in dicts. the unpolished blade of a hiltless sword.
[FN#262] In the text “Miláyah,” a cotton stuff some 6 feet long, woven in small chequers of white and indigo-blue with an ending of red at either extremity. Men wrap it round the body or throw it over the shoulder like our plaid, whose colours I believe are a survival of the old body-paintings, Pictish and others. The woman’s “Miláyah” worn only out of doors may be of silk or cotton: it is made of two pieces which are sewed together lengthwise and these cover head and body like a hooded cloak. Lane figures it in M.E. chapt. i. When a woman is too poor to own a “Miláyah” or a “Habarah” (a similar article) she will use a bed-sheet for out-of-doors work.
[FN#263] The pun here is “Khalíyát” = bee-hive and empty: See vols. vi. 246 ix. 291. It will occur again in Supplementary vol. v. Night DCXLVI.
[FN#264] i.e. Caravan, the common Eastern term. In India it was used for a fleet of merchantmen under convoy: see Col. Yule, Glossary, s. v.
[FN#265] Again “Bartamán” for “Martabán.”
[FN#266] The “Sáhib” = owner, and the “Dallál” = broker, are evidently the same person.
[FN#267] “Alà kám” for “kam” (how much?)–peasants’ speech.
[FN#268] She has appeared already twice in The Nights, esp. in The Tale of Ghánim bin ‘Ayyúb (vol. ii. 45) and in Khalifah the Fisherman of Baghdad (vol. viii. 145). I must again warn my readers nto to confound “Kút” = food with “Kuwwat” = force, as in Scott’s “Koout al Koolloob” (vi. 146). See Terminal Essay p. 101.
[FN#269] In text “Mu’ammarjiyah” (master-masons), a vulgar Egyptianism for “Mu’ammarin.” See “Jáwashiyah,” vols. ii. 49; viii. 330. In the third line below we find “Muhandizín” = gemoetricians, architects, for “Muhandísm.” [Perhaps a reminiscence of the Persian origin of the word “Handasah” = geometry, which is derived from “Andázah” = measurement, etc.-St.]
[FN#270] The text ends this line in Arabic.
[FN#271] Alluding to the curious phenomenon pithily expressed in the Latin proverb, “Suus cuique crepitus benè olet,” I know of no exception to the rule, except amongst travellers in Tibet, where the wild onion, the only procurable green-stuff, produces an odour so rank and fetid that men run away from their own crepitations. The subject is not savoury, yet it has been copiously illustrated: I once dined at a London house whose nameless owner, a noted bibliophile, especially of “facetiæ,” had placed upon the drawing-room table a dozen books treating of the “Crepitus ventris.” When the guests came up and drew near the table, and opened the volumes, their faces were a study. For the Arab. “Faswah” = a silent break wind, see vol. ix. 11 and 291. It is opposed to “Zirt” = a loud fart and the vulgar term, see vol. ii. 88.
[FN#272] Arab. “Yá Házá,” see vol. i. 290.
[FN#273] In text “Yumkinshayy,” written in a single word, a favourite expression, Fellah-like withal, throughout this MS.
[FN#274] In text “Tafazzalú;” see vol. ii. 103.
[FN#275] The word (Saráy) is Pers. But naturalised throughout Egypt and Syria; in places like Damascus where there is no king it is applied to the official head-quarters of the Walí (provincial governor), and contains the prison like the Maroccan “Kasbah.” It must not be confounded with “Serraglio” = the Harem, Gynecium or women’s rooms, which appears to be a bastard neo-Latin word “Serrare,” through the French Serrer. I therefore always write it with the double “canine letter.”
[FN#276] I have noted (vol. i. 95) that the “Khil’ah” = robe of honour, consists of many articles, such as a horse, a gold-hilted sword, a fine turban, etc., etc.
[FN#277] This again shows the “Nakkál” or coffee-house tale-teller. See vol. x. 144.
[FN#278] This is the Moslem version of “Solomon’s Judgment” (1 Kings iii. 16-20). The Hebrew legend is more detailed but I prefer its rival for sundry reasons. Here the women are not “harlots” but the co-wives of one man and therefore hostile; moreover poetical justice is done to the constructive murderess.
[FN#279] I am not aware that the specific gravity of the milks has ever been determined by modern science; and perhaps the experiment is worthy a trial.
[FN#280] Arab. “Dúna-k.” See vol. iv. p. 20.
[FN#281] “Al-Wazíru’l-Arif bi-lláhi Ta’álà,” a title intended to mimic those of the Abbaside Caliphs; such as “Mu’tasim bi’llah” (servant of Allah), the first of the long line whose names begin with an epithet (the Truster, the Implorer, etc.), and ed with “bi’llah.”
[FN#282] [Tarajjama, which is too frequently used in this MS. to be merely considered as a clerical error, I suppose to mean: he pronounced for him the formula: “A’uzzu bi lláhi mina ‘l-Shaytáni ‘l-Rajimi” = I take refuge with Allah against Satan the Stoned. See Koran xvi. 100. It would be thus equivalent with the usual taßwwaza.-St.]
[FN#283] The MS. here ends Night cdxii. and begins the next. Up to this point I have followed the numeration but from this forwards as the Nights become unconscionably short compared with the intervening dialogues, I have thrown two and sometimes three into one. The Arabic numbers are, however, preserved for easier reference.
[FN#284] This is a poor and scamped version of “Ali the Persian and the Kurd Sharper,” in vol. v. 149. It is therefore omitted.
[FN#285] The dish-cover, usually made of neatly plaited straw variously coloured, is always used, not only for cleanliness but to prevent the Evil Eye falling upon and infecting the food.
[FN#286] The “Bámiyah,” which = the Gumbo, Occra (Okrá) or Bhendi of Brit. India which names the celebrated bazar of Bombay, is the esculent hibiscus, the polygonal pod (some three inches long and thick as a man’s finger) full of seeds and mucilage making it an excellent material for soups and stews. It is a favourite dish in Egypt and usually eaten with a squeeze of lime-juice. See Lane, Mod. Egypt. chapt. v., and Herklots (App. p. xlii.) who notices the curry of “Bandakí” or Hibiscus esculentus.
[FN#287] Written “Bakshísh,” after Fellah-fashion.
[FN#288] [In the MS.: Wa’l-Sultánu karaa Wirduh (Wirda-hu) wa jalasa li Munádamah = And the Sovran recited his appointed portion of the Koran, and then sat down to convivial converse. This reminds of the various passages of the present Shah of Persia’s Diary, in which he mentions the performance of his evening devotions, before setting out for some social gathering, say a supper in the Guildhall, which he neatly explains as a dinner after midnight (Shám ba’d az nisf-i-shab).–St.]
[FN#289] This is Scott’s “Story of the Three Princes and Enchanting Bird,” vol. vi. 160. On the margin of the W. M. MS. he has written, “Story of the King and his Three Sons and the Enchanting Bird” (vol. i. Night cdxvii.). Gauttier, vi. 292, names it Histoire des Trois Princes et de l’Oiseau Magicien. Galland may have used parts of it in the “Two Sisters who envied their Cadette”: see Supp. vol. iii. pp. 313-361.
[FN#290] In text “Al-Bulaybul” (the little Nightingale, Philomelet) “Al Sayyáh” (the Shrieker). The latter epithet suggests to me the German novel which begins, “We are in Italy where roses bestink the day and Nightingales howl through the live-long night,” &c.
[FN#291] “Sanjak,” Turk. = flag, banner, and here used (as in vulg. Arab.) for Sanják-dár, the banner-bearer, ensign. In mod. parlance, Sanják = minor province, of which sundry are included in an “Iyálah” = government-general, under the rule of a Wáli (Wiláyah).
[FN#292] In the MS. “Zifr” = nail, claw, talon.
[FN#293] “Al-Rizk maksúm,” an old and sage byword pregnant with significance: compare “Al-Khauf (fear) maksúm” = cowardice is equally divided. Vol. iii. 173. [I read: “Yas’à ‘l-Kadamu li-‘Umrin dana au li-Rizkin qusima,” taking “Rizk” as an equivalent for “al-Rizku ‘l-hasanu” = any good thing which a man obtains without exerting himself in seeking for it, and the passive “qusima” in the sense of Kismah, vulgo “Kismet.” Hence I would translate: The foot speeds to a life that is mean, or to a boon that is pre-ordained.-St.]
[FN#294] In the text “Bát” (for Bit), in Fellah-speech “Pass the night here!” The Bird thus makes appeal to the honour and hospitality of his would-be captor, and punishes him if he consent. I have translated after Scott (v. 161). [I cannot persuade myself to take “bát” for an imperative, which would rather be “bít” for “bit,” as we shall find “kúm” for “kum,” “rúh” for “ruh.” It seems to me that the preterite “bát” means here “the night has passed,” and rendering “man” by the interrogative, I would translate: “O! who shall say to the sad, the separated, night is over?” Complaints of the length of night are frequent with the parted in Arab poetry. This accords also better with the following ‘Atús al-Shams, the sneezing of the sun, which to my knowledge, applies only to daybreak, as in Hariri’s 15th Assembly (al-Farziyah), where “the nose of the morning” sneezes.–St.]
[FN#295] i.e., they bound kerchiefs stained blue or almost black round their brows. In modern days Fellah women stain their veils (face and head), kerchiefs and shirts with indigo; and some colour their forearms to the elbow.
[FN#296] Here again and in the following adventure we have “Khudadad and his Brothers.” Suppl. vol. iii. 145-174.
[FN#297] In sign of despair. See vol. i. 298.
[FN#298] In text “Kalamátu ‘llah” = the Koran: and the quotation is from chapt. cxiii. 5. For the “Two Refuge-takings” (Al-Mu’awizzatáni), see vol. iii. 222.
[FN#299] i.e., caused his brothers to recover life. [I read: Allazí ‘amaltu fí-him natíjah yujázúní bi-Ziddi-há = Those to whom I did a good turn, requite me with the contrary thereof. Allazí, originally the masc. Sing. is in this MS. vulgarly, like its still more vulgar later contraction, “illí,” used for both genders and the three numbers.–St.]
[FN#300] Arab. “Házir!” I have noted that this word, in Egypt and Syria, corresponds with the English waiter’s “Yes sir!”
[FN#301] Koran, Chapter of Joseph, xii. 19.
[FN#302] Arab. “Hanút:” this custom has become almost obsolete: the corpse is now sprinkled with a mixture of water, camphor diluted and the dried and pounded leaves of various trees, especially the “Nabk” (lote-tree or Zizyphus lotus).–Lane M.E. chapt. xxviii.
[FN#303] These comical measures were taken by “Miss Lucy” in order to charm away the Evil Eye which had fascinated the article in question. Such temporary impotence in a vigorous man, which results from an exceptional action of the brain and the nervous system, was called in old French Nouement des aiguilettes (i.e. point-tying, the points which fastened the haut-de-chausses or hose to the jerkin, and its modern equivalent would be to “button up the flap”). For its cure, the “Deliement des aiguilettes” see Davenport “Aphrodisiacs” p. 36, and the French translation of the Shaykh al-Nafzáwi (Jardin Parfumé, chapt. xvii. pp. 251-53). The Moslem heals such impotence by the usual simples, but the girl in the text adopts a moral course which buries the dead parts in order to resurrect them. A friend of mine, a young and vigorous officer, was healed by a similar process. He had carried off a sergeant’s wife, and the husband lurked about the bungalow to shot him, a copper cap being found under the window hence a state of nervousness which induced perfect impotence. He applied to the regimental surgeon, happily a practised hand, and was gravely supplied with pills and a draught; his diet was carefully regulated and he was ordered to sleep by the woman but by no means to touch her for ten days. On the fifth he came to his adviser with a sheepish face and told him that he had not wholly followed the course prescribed, as last night he had suddenly–by the blessing of the draught and the pills–recovered and had given palpable evidence of his pristine vigour. The surgeon deprecated such proceeding until the patient should have full benefit of his drugs–bread pills and cinnamon-water.
[FN#304] Here ends vol. iii. of the W. M. MS. and begins Night cdxxvi.
[FN#305] In the next “Rísah,” copyist’s error for “Ríshah” = a thread, a line: it afterwards proves to be an ornament for a falcon’s neck. [I cannot bring myself to adopt her the explanation of “Ríshah” as a string instead of its usual meaning of “feather,” “plume.” My reasons are the following: 1. The youth sets it upon his head; that is, I suppose, his cap, or whatever his head-gear may be, which seems a more appropriate place for a feather than for a necklace. 2. Further on, Night cdxxx., it is said that the Prince left the residence of his second spouse in search (talíb) of the city of the bird. If the word “Ríshah,” which, in the signification of thread, is Persian, had been sufficiently familiar to an Arab to suggest, as a matter of course, a bird’s necklace, and hence the bird itself, we would probably find a trace of this particular meaning, if not in other Arabic books, at least in Persian writers or dictionaries; but here the word “Ríshah,” by some pronounced “Reshah” with the Yá majhúl, never occurs in connection with jewels; it means fringe, filament, fibre. On the other hand, the suggestion of the bird presents itself quite naturally at the sight of the feather. 3. Ib. p. 210 the youth requests the old man to tell him concerning the “Tayrah allazí Rísh-há (not Rishat-há) min Ma’ádin,” which, I believe, can only be rendered by: the bird whose plumage is of precious stones. The “Ríshah” itself was said to be “min Zumurrud wa Lúlú,” of emeralds and pearls; and the cage will be “min Ma’ádin wa Lúlú,” of precious stones and pearls, in all which cases the use of the preposition “min” points more particularly to the material of which the objects are wrought than the mere Izáfah. The wonderfulness of the bird seems therefore rather to consist in his jewelled plumage than the gift of speech or other enchanting qualities, and I would take it for one of those costly toys, in imitation of trees and animals, in which Eastern princes rejoice, and of which we read so many descriptions, not only in books of fiction, but even in historical works. If it were a live-bird of the other kind, he would probably have put in his word to expose the false brothers of the Prince.–St.]
[FN#306] This is conjectural: the text has a correction which is hardly legible. [I read: “Wa lákin hú ajmalu min-hum bi-jamálin mufritin, lakinnahu matrúdun hú wa ummu-hu” = “and yet he was more beautiful than they with surpassing beauty, but he was an outcast, he and his mother,” as an explanation, by way of parenthesis, for their daring to treat him so shamefully.–St.]
[FN#307] The venerable myth of Andromeda and Perseus (who is Horus in disguise) brought down to Saint George (his latest descendant), the Dragon (Typhon) and the fair Saba in the “Seven Champions of Christendom.” See my friend M. Clermont Ganneau’s Horus et Saint-Georges; Mr. J. R. Anderson’s “Saint Mark’s Rest; the Place of Dragons;” and my “Book of the Sword,” chapt. ix.
[FN#308] i.e. there was a great movement and confusion.
[FN#309] [In the text ‘Afár, a word frequently joined with “Ghubár,” dust, for the sake of emphasis; hence we will find in Night ccccxxix. the verb “yu’affiru,” he was raising a dust-cloud.–St.]
[FN#310] Upon the subject of “throwing the kerchief” see vol. vi. 285. Here it is done simply as a previously concerted signal of recognition.
[FN#311] In text “‘Alá Yadín;” for which vulgarism see vol. iii. 51.
[FN#312] Elephants are usually, as Cuvier said of the (Christian) “Devil” after a look at his horns and hoofs, vegetarians.
[FN#313] [The MS. has “yughaffiru wa yuzaghdimu.” The former stands probably for “yu’-affíru,” for which see supra p. 205, note 2. The writing is, however, so indistinct that possibly “yufaghghiru” is intended, which means he opened his mouth wide. “Yuzaghdimu” is one of those quadriliterals which are formed by blending two triliterals in one verb, in order to intensify the idea. “Zaghada” and “Zaghama” mean both “he roared,” more especially applied to a camel, and by joining the “d” of the one with the “m” of the other, we obtain “Zaghdama,” he roared fiercely.–St.]
[FN#314] [Sára’a-hu wa láwa’a-hu = he rushed upon him and worried him. The root law’ means to enfeeble, render sick, especially applied to love-sickness (Lau’ah). The present 3rd form is rarely used, but here and in a later passage, Night cdxlv., the context bears out the sense of harassing.–St.]
[FN#315] In text “Zaghárit” plur. of Zaghrútah: see vol. ii. p. 80.
[FN#316] [Yá walad al-Halál. I would translate: “O! son of a lawful wedlock,” simply meaning that he takes him to be a decent fellow, not a scamp or Walad al-Harám.–St.]
[FN#317] The repetitium is a sign of kindness and friendliness; see vol. vi. 370.
[FN#318] This Arabian “Sattár” corresponds passing well with “Jupiter Servator.”
[FN#319] “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise.” Matt. Xxi. 16. The idea is not less Moslem than Christian.
[FN#320] [I read “Sarkhah adwat la-há al-Saráyah” = a cry to which the palace-women raised an echo, a cry re-echoed by the palace-women. “Adwá” is the fourth form of “Dawiya,” to hum or buzz, to produce an indistinct noise, and it is vulgarly used in the above sense, like the substantive “Dawi,” an echo. Al-Saráyah is perhaps only an Arabised form of the Persian Saráy, and the sentence might be, to which the palace resounded.–St.]
[FN#321] The Princess is not logical: on the other hand she may plead that she is right.
[FN#322] Arab. “Ma’lúmah,” which may also mean the “made known,” or “aforemention.”
[FN#323] A sensible remark which shows that the King did not belong to the order called by Mr. Matthew Arnold “Barbarians.”
[FN#324] In text: “Rajul Ja’ídí,” for which see supra p. 9.
[FN#325] Arab. “Fidawiyah,” sing. “Fidáwi” = lit. one who gives his life to a noble cause, a forlorn hope, esp. applied to the Ismai’liyah race, disciples of the “Assassin” Hasan-i-Sabáh. See De Sacy, “Mémoire sur les Assassins Mém. de l’Institut,” etc. iv. 7 et seqq. Hence perhaps a castaway, a “perdido,” one careless of his life. I suspect, however, that is is an Egyptianised form of the Pers. “Fidá’i” = a robber, a murderer. The Lat. Catalogue prefers “Sicarius” which here cannot be the meaning.
[FN#326] Arab. “Kirsh,” pop. “Girsh.”
[FN#327] I have noticed that there is a Shaykh or head of the Guild, even for thieves, in most Moslem capitals. See vol. vi. 204.
[FN#328] Here is the normal enallage of persons, “luh” = to him for “lí” = to me.
[FN#329] In text “Na’mil ma’allazí, etc….makídah.” I have attempted to preserve the idiom.
[FN#330] [In the MS. “al-‘Ashrah Miah,” which, I think, can scarcely be translated by “ten times one hundred.” If Miah were dependent on al-‘Ashrah, the latter could not have the article. I propose therefore to render “one hundred for the (i.e. every) ten” = tenfold.–St.]
[FN#331] For this “nosebag,” see vols. Ii. 52, and vi. 151, 192.
[FN#332] [Until here the change fromt eh first person into the third, as pointed out in note 2, has been kept up in the MS.–“He reached the barracks,” “he found,” etc. Now suddenly the gender changes as well, and the tale continues: “And lo, the girl went to them and said,” etc. etc. This looseness of style may, in the mouth of an Eastern Ráwí, have an additional dramatic charm for his more eager than critical audience; but it would be intolerable to European readers. Sir Richard has, therefore, very properly substituted the first person all through.–St.]
[FN#333] “Riyál” is from the Span. “Real” = royal (coin): in Egypt it was so named by order of Ali Bey, the Mameluke, in A.H. 1183 (A.D. 1771-72) and it was worth ninety Faddahs = 5 2/5d. The word, however, is still applied to the dollar proper (Maria Theresa), to the Riyál Fransá or five-france piece and to the Span. pillar dollar: the latter is also nicknamed ‘Abu Madfa'” Father of a Cannon (the columns being mistaken for cannons); also the Abú Tákah (Father of a Window), whence we obtaint he Europeanised “Patacco” (see Lane, Appendix ii.) and “Pataca,” which Littré confounds with the “Patard” and of which he ignores the origin.
[FN#334] See The Nights, vol. x. 12.
[FN#335] i.e. “pleasant,” “enjoyable”; see “White as milk” opposed to “black as mud,” etc., vol. iv. 140. Here it is after a fashion synonymous with the French nuit blanche.
[FN#336] [The MS. seems here to read “wa jasad-hu yuhazdimu,” (thus at least the word, would have to be vocalised if it were a quadrilateral verbal form), and of this I cannot make out any sense. I suspect the final syllable is meant for “Dam,” blood, of which a few lines lower down the plural “Dimá” occurs. Reamins to account for the characters immediately preceding it. I think that either the upper dot of the Arabic belongs to the first radical instead of the second, reading “yukhirru,” as the fourth or causative form of “kharra yakhurru,” to flow, to ripple, to purl; or that the two dots beneath are to be divided between the first two characters, reading “bajaza.” The latter, it is true, is no dictionary word, but we have found supra p. 176, “muhandiz” for “muhandis,” so here “bajaza” may stand for “bajasa” = gushed forth, used intransitively and transitively. In either case the translation would be “his body was emitting blood freely.”-St.]
[FN#337] The MS. here is hardly intelligible but the sense shows the word to be “Misallah” (plur. “Misáll”) = a large needle for sewing canvas, &c. In Egypt the usual pronunciation is “Musallah,” hence the vulgar name of Cleopatra’s needle “Musallat Far’aun” (of Pharaoh) the two terms contending for which shall be the more absurd. I may note that Commander Gorridge, the distinguished officer of the U.S. Navy who safely and easily carried the “Needle” to New York after the English had made a prodigious mess with their obelisk, showed me upon the freshly uncovered base of the pillar the most distinct intaglio representations of masonic implements, the plumb-line, the square, the compass, and so forth. These, however, I attributed to masonry as the craft, to the guild; he to Freemasonry, which in my belief was unknown to the Greeks and Romans, and is never mentioned in history before the eight Crusades (A.D. 1096-1270). The practices and procedure were evidently borrowed from the various Vehms and secret societies which then influenced the Moslem world, and our modern lodges have strictly preserved in the “Architect of the Universe,” Arian and Moslem Unitarianism as opposed to Athanasian and Christian Tritheism; they admit the Jew and the Mussulman as apprentices, but they refuse the Hindu and the Pagan. It seems now the fashion to run down the mystic charities of the brethren are still active, and the society still takes an active part in politics throughout the East. As the late Pope Pius IX. (fitly nicknamed “Pio no-no”), a free mason himself, forbade Freemasonry to his church because a secret society is incompatible with oral confession (and priestcraft tolerates only its own mysteries), and made excommunication the penalty, the French lodges have dwindled away and the English have thriven upon their decay, thus enlisting a host of neophytes who, when the struggle shall come on, may lend excellent aid.
[FN#338] The “Janázah” or bier, is often made of planks loosely nailed or pegged together into a stretcher or platform, and it would be easy to thrust a skewer between the joints. I may remind the reader that “Janázah” = a bier with a corpse thereon (vol. ii. 46), whereas the “Sarír” is the same when unburdened, and the “Na’ash” is a box like our coffin, but open at the tip.
[FN#339] [In the Arab. Text “They will recognise me,” which I would rather refer to the Vagabonds than to the crowd, as the latter merely cries wonder at the resuscitation, without apparently troubling much about the wonder-worker.–St.]
[FN#340] [Ar. “na’tázu,” viii. form of ‘áza = it escaped, was missing, lacked, hence the meaning of this form, “we are in want of,” “we need.”–St.]
[FN#341] For the “Ardabb” (prop. “Irdabb”) = five bushels: see vol. i. 263.
[FN#342] [In the MS. “‘Ayyinah,” probably a mis-reading for “‘Ayniyyah” = a sample, pattern.–St.]
[FN#343] In text “Kubbah” = vault, cupola, the dome of unbaked brick upon peasants’ houses in parts of Egypt and Syria, where wood for the “Sat’h” or flat roof is scarce. The household granary is in the garret, from which the base of the dome springs, and the “expense-magazines” consist of huge standing coffers of wattle and dab propped against the outside walls of the house.
[FN#344] Gen. “Baysár” or “Faysár,” = beans cooked in honey and milk. See retro, Night ccclxxxviii., for its laxative properties.
[FN#345] [In the MS. “barbastu,” with the dental instead of the palatal sibilant (Sín instead of Sád). Spelled in the former way the verb “barbasa” means, he sought, looked for, and is therefore out of place here. Spelled in the second manner, it signifies literally, he watered the ground abundantly. Presently we shall find the passive participle “mubarbasah” in the feminine, because referring to the noun “Tíz” = anus, which, like its synonym, “1st,” professes the female gender. –St.]
[FN#346] [In Ar. “Mubarbasah,” for which see the preceding note.–St.]
[FN#347] The Moslem’s tomb is an arched vault of plastered brick, large enough for a man to sit up at ease and answer the Questioning Angels; and the earth must not touch the corpse as it is supposed to cause torture. In the graves of the poorer classes a niche (lahad) offsets from the fosse and is rudely roofed with palm-fronds and thatch. The trick played in the text is therefore easy; see Lane’s illustration M.E. chapt. xviii. The reader will not forget that all Moslems make water squatting upon their hunkers ina position hardly possible to an untrained European: see vol. i. 259.
[FN#348] The bull being used in the East to turn the mill and the water-wheel; vol. i. 16.
[FN#349] In text “Ratl.” See vol. iv. 124.
[FN#350] About 1s. 2d.
[FN#351] The man was therefore in hiding for some crime. [The MS. has “lá tafzah-ní” = Do not rend my reputation, etc. I would, therefore, translate “Sáhib-há” by “her lover,” and suggest that the crime in question is simply what the French call “conversation criminelle.”–St.]
[FN#352] The “‘Ishá”-prayer (called in Egypt “‘Eshè”) consists of ten “Ruka’át” = bows or inclinations of the body (not “of the head” as Lane has it, M.E. chapt. iii.): of these four are “Sunnah” = traditional or customary (of the Prophet), four are Farz (divinely appointed i.e. by the Koran) and two again Sunnah. The hour is nightfall when the evening has closed in with some minor distinctions, e.g. the Hanafí waits till the whiteness and the red gleam in the west (“Al-Shafak al-ahmar”) have wholly disappeared, and the other three orthodox only till the ruddy light has waned. The object of avoiding sundowntide (and sunrise equally) was to distinguish these hours of orisons from those of the Guebres and other faiths which venerate, or are supposed to venerate, the sun.
[FN#353] Scott. “History of the Sultan of Hind,” vol. vi. 194-209.
[FN#354] Red robes being a sign of displeasure: see vol. iv. 72; Scott (p. 294) wrongly makes them “robes of mourning.”
[FN#355] A Moslem negroid from Central and Western North Africa. See vol. ii. 15. They share in popular opinion the reputation of the Maghrabi or Maroccan for magical powers.
[FN#356] This is introduced by the translator; as usual with such unedited tales, the name does not occur till much after the proper place for specifying it.
[FN#357] In text “Iz lam naakhaz-há, wa-illá,” &c. A fair specimen of Arab. ellipsis.–If I catch her not (’twill go hard with me), and unless (I catch her) I will, &c.
[FN#358] i.e. “How far is the fowl from thee!”
[FN#359] [In the MS. “turayyih,” a modern form for “turawwih.”–ST.]
[FN#360] [The above translation pre-supposes the reading “Farkhah lá atammat,” and would require, I believe, the conjunction “hattà” or “ilà an” to express “till.” I read with the MS. “lá tammat,” and would translate: “a chick not yet full grown, when the crow seized it and flew away with it,” as a complaint of the father for the anticipated untimely end of his son.–ST.]
[FN#361] For “‘Aun,” a high degree amongst the “Genies,” see vol. iv. p. 83. Readers will be pleased with this description of a Jinni; and not a few will regret that they have not one at command. Yet the history of man’s locomotion compels us to believe that we are progressing towards the time when humanity will become volatile. Pre-historic Adam was condemned to “Shanks his mare,” or to “go on footback,” as the Boers have it, and his earliest step was the chariot; for, curious to say, driving amongst most peoples preceded riding, as the row-boat forewent the sailer. But as men increased and the world became smaller and time shorter the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries, after many abortive attempts, converted the chariot into a railway-car and the sailer into a steamer. Aerostatics are still in their infancy and will grow but little until human society shall find some form of flying an absolute necessity when, as is the history of all inventions, the winged woman (and her man) of Peter Wilkins will pass from fiction into fact. But long generations must come and go before “homo sapiens” can expect to perfect a practice which in the present state of mundane society would be fatal to all welfare.
[FN#362] Scott (p. 200) “Welcome to the sovereign of the Aoon, friendly to his brethren,” (siddík al Akhwán) etc. Elsewhere he speaks of “the Oone.”
[FN#363] So he carried a portable “toilette,” like a certain Crown Prince and Prince Bahman in Suppl. vol. iii. 329.
[FN#364] There is another form of the saw in verse:–
Good is good and he’s best whoso worketh it first; * And ill is for me of provisions the worst.
The provision is=viaticum, provaunt for the way.
[The MS. has “akram” and “azlam”=”the more generous,” “the more iniquitous,” meaning that while good should be requited by good, and evil provokes further evil in retaliation, the beginner in either case deserves the greater praise or blame.–ST.]
[FN#365] I have noted (vols. iii. 75, and viii. 266) that there are two “Soudans” as we write the word, one Eastern upon the Upper Nile Valley and the other Western and drained by the Niger water-shed. The former is here meant. It is or should be a word of shame to English ears after the ungodly murder and massacre of the gallant “Soudanese” negroids who had ever been most friendly to us and whom with scant reason to boast we attacked and destroyed because they aspired to become free from Turkish task-masters and Egyptian tax-gatherers. That such horrors were perpetrated by order of one of the most humane amongst our statesmen proves and decidedly proves one thing, an intense ignorance of geography and ethnology.
[FN#366] [In the MS. “lawá ‘a-hu” for which Sir Richard conjectures the reading “lawwahahu” taking the pronoun to refer to the sword. I believe, however, the word to be a clerical error for our old acquaintance “láwa’a-hu” (see supra p. 203) and, referring the pronoun in the three verbs to the Lion, would translate: “and he worried him,” etc.–ST.]
[FN#367] Arab. “Al-bashárah,” see vol. i. 30: Scott has (vi. 204) “Good tidings to our sovereign.”
[FN#368] [The MS. is here rather indistinct; still, as far as I can make out, it runs: “wa Hakki man aulàní házá ‘l-Mulk”=and by the right of (i.e. my duty towards) Him who made me ruler over this kingdom.–ST.]
[FN#369] [The word in the MS. is difficult to decipher. In a later passage we find corresponding with it the expression “yumázasa-hu fií ‘l-Kalám,” which is evidently a clerical error for “yumárasa-hu”=he tested or tried him in his speech. Accordingly I would read here: “yakhburu ma’ahu fí ‘l-Kalám,” lit.=he experimented with him, i.e. put him to his test. The idea seems to be, that he first cross-examined him and then tried to intimidate him. With this explanation “yusáhí-hu” and later on “yulhí-hu” would tally, which both have about the same meaning: to divert the attention, to make forget one thing over another, hence to confuse and lead one to contradict himself.–ST.]
[FN#370] Here we find the old superstitious idea that no census or “numbering of the people” should take place save by direct command of the Creator. Compare the pestilence which arose in the latter days of David when Joab by command of the King undertook the work (2 Sam. xxiv. 1-9, etc.).
[FN#371] The text has “Salásín”=thirty, evidently a clerical error.
[FN#372] [In Ar. “yanjaaru,” vii. form of “jaara” (med. Hamzah), in which the idea of “raising,” “lifting up,” seems to prevail, for it is used for raising the voice in prayer to God, and for the growing high of plants.–ST.]
[FN#373] The text, which is wholly unedited, reads, “He found the beasts and their loads (? the camels) and the learned men,” &c. A new form of “Bos atque sacerdos” and of place pour les ânes et les savants, as the French soldiers cried in Egypt when the scientists were admitted into the squares of infantry formed against the doughty Mameluke cavalry.
[FN#374] [In the MS. “wáraytaní ilà l-turáb”=thou hast given me over to the ground for concealment, iii. form of “wara,” which takes the meaning of “hiding,” “keeping secret.”–ST.]
[FN#375] [The MS. has “wa dazz-há,” which is an evident corruption. The translator, placing the diacritical point over the first radical instead of the second, reads “wa zarr-há,” and renders accordingly. But if in the MS. the dot is misplaced, the Tashdid over it would probably also belong to the Dál, resp. Zal, and as it is very feasible that a careless writer should have dropped one Waw before another, I am inclined to read “wa wazzar-ha” = “and he left her,” “let her go,” “set her free.” In classical Arabic only the imperative “Zar,” and the aorist “yazaru” of the verb “wazara” occur in this sense, while the preterite is replaced by “taraka,” or some other synonym. But the language of the common people would not hesitate to use a form scorned by the grammarians, and even to improve upon it by deriving from it one of their favourite intensives.–St.]
[FN#376] Both are civil forms of refusal: for the first see vols. i. 32; vi. 216; and for the second ix. 309.
[FN#377] Everything being fair in love and war and dealing with a “Káfir,” i.e. a non-Moslem.
[FN#378] In text “Labbayka” = here am I: see vol. i. 226.
[FN#379] In text “‘Úd Khayzarán” – wood of the rattan, which is orig. “Rota,” from the Malay “Rotan.” Vol. ii. 66, &c.
[FN#380] [In the MS. “al-Zamán.” The translation here adopted is plausible enough. Still I think it probable that the careless scribe has omitted the words “yá al-Malik” before it, and meant to write “O king of the age!” as in so many preceding places.- -St.]
[FN#381] Arab. “Al-Kuhná,” plur. Of “Káhin ‘t” = diviner, priest (non-Levitical): see “Cohen,” ii. 221. [The form is rather curious. The Dictionaries quote “Kuhná” as a Syriac singular, but here it seems to be taken as a plural of the measure “fu’alá” (Kuhaná), like Umará of Amír or Shu’ará of Shá’ir. The usual plurals of Káhin are Kahanah and Kuhhán.–St.]
[FN#382] This is a celebrated incident in “Alaeddin,” “New lamps for old:” See Suppl. vol. iii. 119.
[FN#383] In text “Jazdán” = a pencase (Pers.) more pop. called “Kalamdán” = reed-box, vol. iv. 167: Scott (p. 212) has a “writing-stand.” It appears a queer place wherein to keep a ring, but Easterns often store in these highly ornamented boxes signets and other small matters.
[FN#384] Arab. “Bahr al-Muhít” = Circumambient Ocean; see vol. i. 133.
[FN#385] Arab. “Fár” (plur. “Firán”) = mouse rather than rat.
[FN#386] Sleep at this time is considered very unwholesome by Easterns. See under “Kaylúlah” = siesta, vols. i. 51; ii. 178, and viii. 191.
[FN#387] Modern science which, out of the depths of its self-consciousness, has settled so many disputed questions, speaking by the organs of Messieurs Woodman and Tidy (“Medical Jurisprudence”) has decided that none of the lower animals can bear issue to man. But the voice of the world is against them and as Voltaire says one cannot be cleverer than everybody. To begin with there is the will: the she-quadruman shows a distinct lust for man by fondling him and displaying her parts as if to entice him. That carnal connection has actually taken place cannot be doubted: my late friend Mirza Ali Akbar, of Bombay, the famous Munshi to Sir Charles Napier during the conquest of Sind, a man perfectly veracious and trustworthy, assured me that in the Gujarát province he had witnessed a case with his own eyes. He had gone out “to the jungle,” as the phrase is, with another Moslem who, after keeping him waiting for an unconscionable time, was found carnally united to a she-monkey. My friend, indignant as a good Moslem should be, reproved him for his bestiality and then asked him how it had come to pass: the man answered that the she-monkey came regularly to look at him on certain occasions, that he was in the habit of throwing her something to eat and that her gratitude displayed such sexuality that he was tempted and “fell.” That the male monkey shows an equal desire for the woman is known to every frequenter of the “Zoo.” I once led a party of English girls to see a collection of mandrill and other anthropoid apes in the Ménagerie of a well-known Russian millionaire, near Florence, when the Priapism displayed was such that the girls turned back and fled in fright. In the mother-lands of these anthropoids (the Gaboon, Malacca etc.) the belief is universal and women have the liveliest fear of them. In 1853 when the Crimean war was brewing a dog-faced baboon in Cairo broke away from his “Kuraydati” (ape-leader), threw a girl in the street and was about to ravish her when a sentinel drew his bayonet and killer the beast. The event was looked upon as an evil omen by the older men, who shook their heads and declared that these were bad times when apes attempted to ravish the daughters of Moslems. But some will say that the grand test, the existence of the mule between man and monkey, though generally believed in, is characteristically absent, absent as the “missing link” which goes so far as to invalidate Darwinism in one and perhaps the most important part of its contention. Of course the offspring of such union would be destroyed, yet t he fact of our never having found a trace of it except in legend and idle story seems to militate against its existence. When, however, man shall become “Homo Sapiens” he will cast off the prejudices of the cradle and the nursery and will ascertain by actual experiment if human being and monkey can breed together. The lowest order of bimana, and the highest order of quadrumana may, under most favourable circumstances, bear issue and the “Mule,” who would own half a soul, might prove most serviceable as a hewer of wood and a drawer of water, in fact as an agricultural labourer. All we can say is that such “miscegenation” stands in the category of things not proven and we must object to science declaring them non-existing. A correspondent favours me with the following note upon the subject:–Castanheda (Annals of Portugal) relates that a woman was transporter to an island inhabited by monkeys and took up her abode in a cavern where she was visited by a huge baboon. He brought her apples and fruit and at last had connection with her, the result being two children in two to three years; but when she was being carrier off by a ship the parent monkey kissed his progeny. The woman was taken to Lisbon and imprisoned for life by the King. Langius, Virgilius Polydorus and others quote many instances of monstruous births in Rome resulting from the connection of women with dogs and bears, and cows with horses, &c. The following relative conditions are deduced on the authority of MM. Jean Polfya and Mauriceau:–1. If the sexual organism of man or woman be more powerful than that of the monkey, dog, etc. the result will be a monster in the semblance of man. 2. If vice-versa the appearance will be that of a beast. 3. If both are equal the result will be a distinct sub-species as of the horse with the ass.
[FN#388] Arab. “Taním” (plur. of Tamímit) = spells, charms, amulets, as those hung to a horse’s neck, the African Greegree and the Heb. Thummim. As was the case with most of these earliest superstitions, the Serpent, the Ark, the Cherubim, the Golden Calf (Apis) and the Levitical Institution, the Children of Israel derived the now mysterious term “Urím” (lights) and “Thummim” (amulets) from Egypt and the Semitic word (Tamímah) still remains to explain the Hebrew. “Thummim,” I may add, is by “general consensus” derived from “Tôm” = completeness and is englished “Perfection,” but we can find a better origin near at hand in spoken Arabic.
[FN#389] These verses have already occurred, see my vol. i. p. 275. I have therefore quoted Payne, i. p. 246.
[FN#390] Arab. “Wakíl” who, in the case of a grown-up girl, declares her consent to the marriage in the presence of two witnesses and after part payment of the dowry.
[FN#391] Such is the meaning of the Arab. “Thayyib.”
[FN#392] This appears to be the popular belief in Egypt. See vol. iv. 297, which assures us that “no thing poketh and stroketh more strenuously than the Gird” (or hideous Ahyssinian cynocephalus). But it must be based upon popular ignorance: the private parts of the monkey although they erect stiffly, like the priapus of Osiris when swearing upon his Phallus, are not of the girth sufficient to produce that friction which is essential to a woman’s pleasure. I may here allude to the general disappointment in England and America caused by the exhibition of my friend Paul de Chaillu’s Gorillas: he had modestly removed penis and testicles, the latter being somewhat like a bull’s, and his squeamishness caused not a little grumbling and sense of grievance–especially amongst the curious sex.
[FN#393] [In the MS. “fahakat,” lit. she flowed over like a brimful vessel.–ST.]
[FN#394] In 1821, Scott (p. 214) following Gilchrist’s method of transliterating eastern tongues wrote “Abou Neeut” and “Neeuteen” (the latter a bad blunder making a masc. plural of a fem. dual). In 1822 Edouard Gauttier (vi. 320) gallicised the names to “Abou- Nyout” and “Abou-Nyoutyn” with the same mistake and one superadded; there is no such Arabic word as “Niyút.” Mr. Kirby in 1822, “The New Arabian Nights” (p. 366) reduced the words to “Abu Neut” and “Abu Neuteen,” which is still less intelligible than Scott’s; and, lastly, the well-known Turkish scholar Dr. Redhouse converted the tortured names to “Abú Niyyet” and “Abú Niyyeteyn,” thus rightly giving a “tashdíd” (reduplication sign) to the Yá (see Appendix p. 430 to Suppl. Vol. No iii. and Turk. Dict. sub voce “Niyyat”). The Arab. is “Niyyah” = will, purpose, intent; “Abú Niyyah” (Grammat. “Abú Niyyatin”) Father of one Intent = single-minded and “Abú Niyyatayn” = Father of two Intents or double-minded; and Richardson is deficient when he writes only “Niyat” for “Niyyat.” I had some hesitation about translating this tale which begins with the “Envier and the Envied” (vol. i. 123) and ends with the “Sisters who envied their Cadette” (Supple. vol. iii. 313). But the extant versions of it are so imperfect in English and French that I made up my mind to include it in this collection.–[Richardson’s “Niyat” is rather another, although rarer form of the same word.–St.]
[FN#395] [I read: “wa tukarribu ‘I-‘abda ilayya,” referring the verb to “al-Sadakh” (the alms) and translating: “and it bringeth the servant near to me,” the speaker, in Coranic fashion supposed to be Allah.–St.]
[FN#396] The text prefers the Egyptian form “Sherífi” pl. “Sherífíyah,” which was adopted by the Portuguese.
[FN#397] The grace after meat, “Bismillah” being that which precedes it. Abu Niyyah was more grateful than a youth of my acquaintance who absolutely declined asking the Lord to “make him truly thankful” after a dinner of cold mutton.
[FN#398] [The root “Kart” is given in the dictionaries merely to introduce the word “karít” = complete, speaking of a year, &c., and “Takrít,” the name of a town in Mesopotamia, celebrated for its velvets and as the birth-place of Saladin. According to the first mentioned word I would take the signification of “Kart” to “complement” which here may fitly be rendered by “remainder,” for that which with regard to the full contents of the dinner tray is their complement would of course be their remainder with regard to the viands that have been eaten.–St.]
[FN#399] For the “Zakát” = legal alms, which must not be less than two-and-a-half per cent, see vol. i. 339.
[FN#400] In text “Kazdír,” for which see vols. iv. 274 and vi. 39. Here is may allude to the canisters which make great show in the general store of a petty shopkeeper.
[FN#401] [The MS. reads “murafraf” (passive) from, “Rafraf” = a shelf, arch, anything overhanging something else, there here applying either to the eyebrows as overhanging the eyes, or to the sockets, as forming a vault or cave for them. Perhaps it should be “murafrif” (active part), used of a bird, who spreads his wings and circles round his prey, ready to pounce upon it; hence with prying, hungry, greedy eyes.–St.]
[FN#402] Arab. “Niyyah” with the normal pun upon the name.
[FN#403] Arab. “‘Amil Rasad,” lit. acting as an observatory: but the style is broken as usual, and to judge from the third line below the sentence may signify “And I am acting as Talisman (to the Hoard)”.
[FN#404] In the text “Ishári,” which may have many meanings: I take a “shot” at the most likely. In “The Tale of the Envier and the Envied” the counter-spell in a fumigation by means of some white hair plucked from a white spot, the size of a dirham, at the tail-end of a black tom-cat (vol. i. 124). According to the Welsh legend, “the Devil hates cocks”–I suppose since that fowl warned Peter of his fall.
[FN#405] In text “Yaum al-Ahad,” which begins the Moslem week: see vols. iii. 249, and vi. 190.
[FN#406] [In Ar. “Harj wa Laght.” The former is generally joined with “Marj” (Harj wa Marj) to express utter confusion, chaos, anarchy. “Laght” (also pronounced Laghat and written with the palatal “t”) has been mentioned supra p. 11 as a synonym of “Jalabah” = clamour, tumult, etc.–St.]
[FN#407] [In Ar. “yahjubu,” aor. Of “hajaba” = he veiled, put out of sight, excluded, warded off. Amongst other significations the word is technically used of a nearer degree of relationship excluding entirely or partially a more distant one from inheritance.–St.]
[FN#408] Arab. “Yaum al-Jum’ah” = Assembly-day, Friday: see vol. vi. 120.
[FN#409] A regular Badawi remedy. This Artemisia (Arab. Shayh), which the Dicts. translate “wormwood of Pontus,” is the sweetest herb of the Desert, and much relished by the wild men: see my “Pilgrimage,” vol. i. 228. The Finnish Arabist Wallin, who died Professor of Arabic at Helsingfors, speaks of a “Faráshat al- Shayh” = a carpet of wormwood.
[FN#410] “Sáhibi-h,” the masculine; because, as the old grammar tells us, that gender is more worthy than the feminine.
[FN#411] i.e., his strength was in the old: see vol. i. 340.
[FN#412] Arab. “Haysumah” = smooth stones (water-rounded?).
[FN#413] For “his flesh was crushed upon his bones,” a fair specimen of Arab. “Metonomy-cum-hyperbole.” In the days when Mr. John Bull boasted of his realism versus Gallic idealism, he “got wet to the skin” when M. Jean Crapaud was mouillé jusqu’aux os.
For the Angels supposed to haunt a pure and holy well, and the trick played by Ibn Túmart, see Ibn Khaldun’s Hist. of the Berbers, vol. ii. 575.
[FN#414] Here begins the second tale which is a weak replica of Galland’s “Two Sisters,” &c.
[FN#415] This is the usual term amongst savages and barbarians, and during that period the father has no connection with the mother. Civilisation has abolished this natural practice which is observed by all the lower animals and has not improved human matters. For an excellent dissertation on the subject see the letter on Polygamy by Mrs. Belinda M. Pratt, in “The City of the Saints,” p. 525.
[FN#416] In text “Kuwayyis,” dim. of “Kayyis,” and much used in Egypt as an adj. = “pretty,” “nice,” and as an adv. “well,” “nicely.” See s.v. Spitta Bey’s Glossary to Contes Arabes Modernes. The word is familiar to the travellers in the Nile- valley.
[FN#417] In Arab. a “Kanát;” see vol. iii. 141. The first occupation came from nature; the second from seeing the work of the adopted father.
[FN#418] Abu Niyyah, like most house masters in the East, not to speak of Kings, was the last to be told a truth familiar to everyone but himself and his wife.
[FN#419] The MS. breaks off abruptly at this sentence and evidently lacks finish. Scott (vi., 228) adds, “The young princes were acknowledged and the good Abou Neeut had the satisfaction of seeing them grow up to follow his example.”
In the MS. this tale is followed by a “Story of his own Adventures related by a connection to an Emir of Egypt.” I have omitted it because it is a somewhat fade replica of “The Lovers of the Banú Ozrah” (Vol. vii. 177; Lane iii. 247).
[FN#420] Mr. Chandler remarks (p. 25, “On Lending Bodleian Books, &c.”):–“It is said that the Curators can refuse any application if they choose; of course they can, but as a matter of fact no application has ever been refused, and every name added will make it more and more difficult, more and more invidious to refuse anyone.” I have, therefore, the singular honour of being the first chosen for rejection.
[FN#421] Mr. Chandler’s motion (see p. 28, “Booklending, &c.”) was defeated by an amendment prepared by Professor Jowett and the former fought, with mixed success, the report of the Committee of Loans; the document being so hacked as to become useless, and, in this mangled condition, it was referred back to the Committee with a recommendation to consider the best way of carrying out the present statute. The manly and straightforward course of at once proposing a new statute was not adopted, nor was it even formally proposed. Lastly, the applications for loans, which numbered sixteen were submitted to the magnates and were all refused! whilst the application of an Indian subject that MSS. be sent to the India Office for his private use was at once granted. In my case Professors B. Price and Max Müller, who had often voted for loans, and were willing enough to lend anything to anybody, declined to vote.
[FN#422] According to the statutes, “The Chancellor must be acquainted with the Business (of altering laws concerning the Library), and he must approve, and refer it to the Head of Houses, else no dispensation can be proposed.”
[FN#423] The following telegram from the Vienna correspondent of “The Times” (November 16, 1886), is worth quotation:–
“The Committee of the Vienna Congress (of Orientalists) is now preparing a memorial, which will be signed by Archduke Renier, and will be forwarded in a few days to the trustees of the British Museum and to the Secretary of State, praying that a Bill may be introduced into Parliament empowering the British Museum to lend out its Oriental MSS. to foreign savants under proper guarantees. A resolution pledging the members of the Oriental Congress to this course was passed at the Congress of Leyden, in 1883, on the motion of Professor D. H. Müller, of Vienna; but it has not yet been acted upon so thoroughly as will be the case now.
“The British Museum is the only great library in Europe which does not lend out its MSS. to foreigners. The university and court libraries of Vienna, the royal and state libraries of Berlin and Munich, those of Copenhagen and Leyden, and Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris all are very liberal in their loans to well-recommended foreigners. In Paris a diplomatic introduction is required. In Munich the library does not lend directly to the foreign borrower; but sends to the library of the capital whence the borrower may have made his application, and leaves all responsibility to that library. In the other libraries, the discretion is left to the librarian, who generally lends without any formalities beyond ascertaining the bona fides and trustworthiness of the applicant. In Vienna, however, there has occasionally been some little excess of formality, so a petition is about to be presented to the Emperor by the University professors, begging that the privilege of borrowing may be considered as general, and not as depending on the favour of an official.
“As regards Oriental MSS., it is remarked that the guarantees need not be so minute as in the case of old European MSS., which are often unique copies. According to the learned Professor of Sanskrit in this city, Herr George Bühler, there are very few unique Oriental MSS. in existence of Sanskrit–perhaps not a dozen.”
[FN#424] (1.) “On Lending Bodleian Books and Manuscripts” (not published). June 10, 1866; (2) Appendix. Barlow’s Argument. June, 1866; (3) On Book-lending as practised at the Bodleian Library. July 27, 1886; Baxter, Printer, Oxford. The three papers abound in earnestness and energy; but they have the “defects of their qualities,” as the phrase is; and the subject often runs away with the writer. A single instance will suffice. No. i. p. 23 says, “In a library like the Bodleian, where the practice of lending prevails as it now does, a man may put himself to great inconvenience in order to visit it; he may even travel from Berlin, and when he arrives he may find that all his trouble has been in vain, the very book he wants is out.” This must have been written during the infancy of Sir Rowland Hill, and when telegrams were unknown to mankind; all that the Herr has to do in our times is to ask per wire if the volume be at home or not.
[FN#425] Chandler, “On Lending Bodleian Books,” etc., p. 18.
[FN#426] Koran, xxiii. 14.