Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights Volume 4 by Richard F. Burton

scymitar brandished over the head of the young student and expecting only the royal order to strike his neck. So Abu Niyyah salam’d to him and said, “O King of the Age, release yonder youth from under the sword and send him to thy prison, for if I avail to laying the Spirit and driving him from thy daughter thou shalt have mercy upon yonder wight, and if I fail thou wilt shorten by the head me as well as him.” Hereupon the King let unbind the youth and sent him to jail; then he said to Abu Niyyah, “Wouldst thou go at once to my daughter and unspell her from the Jinni?” But the other replied, “No, O King, not until Meeting-day[FN#408] at what time the folk are engaged in congregational prayers.” Now when Abu Niyyah had appointed the Friday, the King set apart for his guest an apartment and rationed him with liberal rations.–And Shahrazad was surprised by the dawn of day and fell silent and ceased to say her permitted say. Then quoth her sister Dunyazad, “How sweet is thy story, O sister mine, and how enjoyable and delectable!” Quoth she, “And where is this compared with that I should relate to you on the coming night an the King suffer me to survive?” Now when it was the next night and that was

The Four Hundredth and Seventy-seventh Night

The Four Hundred and Seventy-ninth Night

The Four Hundred and Eightieth Night

Dunyazad said to her, “Allah upon thee, O my sister, an thou be other than sleepy, finish for us thy tale that we may cut short the watching of this our latter night!” She replied, “With love and good will!” It hath reached me, O auspicious King, the director, the right-guiding, lord of the rede which is benefiting and of deeds fair-seeming and worthy celebrating, that Abu Niyyah knew and was certified of his comrade Abu Niyyatayn being dead, so he cried aloud, “There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah the Glorious, the Great. O Allah mine, do thou deliver me from envy, for that it destroyeth the envier and haply jealousy may lead to frowardness against the Lord (glorified be His Glory!);” and so saying he returned to the seat of his kingdom. Now the Sultan’s daughter his spouse had two sisters, both married,[FN#414] and she after the delay of a year or so proved with child, but when her tale of days was told and her delivery was nearhand her father fell sick and his malady grew upon him. So he summoned the Lords of his court and his kingdom one and all, and he said, “In very deed this my son-in-law shall after my decease become my successor;” and he wrote a writ to that purport and devised to him the realm and the reign before his demise; nor was there long delay ere the old King departed to the ruth of Allah and they buried him. Hereupon trouble arose between his two other sons-in-law who had married the Princesses and said they, “We were connected with him ere this man was and we are before him in our claim to the kingdom.” Thereupon said the Wazir, “This rede is other than right, for that the old King before his decease devised his country to this one and also write it in his will and testament: here therefor ye are opposing him, and the result will be trouble and repentance.” And when the Minister spoke on such wise they kept to their houses. Presently the wife of Abu Niyyah bare him a babe, her two sisters being present at her accouchement; and they gave to the midwife an hundred gold pieces and agreed upon what was to be done. So when the babe was born they put in his place a pup and taking the infant away sent it by a slave-girl who exposed it at the gate of the royal garden. Then they said and spread abroad, “Verily, the Sultan’s wife hath been delivered of a doglet,” and when the tidings came to Abu Niyyah’s ears he exclaimed, “Verily this also is a creation of Allah Almighty’s:” so they clothed the pup and tended it with all care. Anon the wife became pregnant a second time and when her days were fulfilled she bare a second babe which was the fairest of its time and the sisters did with it as they had done with the first and taking the infant they exposed him at the door of the garden. Then they brought to the mother another dog-pup in lieu of her babe, saying, “Verily the Queen hath been delivered a second time of a doglet.” Now in this wise it fared with them: but as regards the two infants which were cast away at the garden gate the first was taken up by the Gardener whose wife, by decree of the Decreer, had become a mother on that very same night; so the man carried away the infant he found exposed and brought the foundling home and the woman fell to suckling it. After the third year the Gardener went forth one day of the days and happening upon the second infant in similar case he bore it also back to his wife who began to suckle it and wash it and tend it and nurse it, till the twain grew up and entered into their third and fourth years. The Sultan had in the meantime been keeping the two pups which he deemed to have been brought forth by his wife until the Queen became in the family-way for the third time. Hereupon the Sultan said, “By Allah, ’tis not possible but that I be present at and witness her accouchement;” and the while she was bringing forth he sat beside her. So she was delivered of a girl-child, in whom the father rejoiced with great joy and bade bring for her wet- nurses who suckled her for two years until the milk time was past.[FN#415] This girl grew up till she reached the age of four years and she could distinguish between her mother and her father who, whenever he went to the royal garden would take her with him. But when she beheld the Gardener’s two boys she became familiar with them and would play with them; and, as each day ended, her father would carry her away from the children and lead her home, and this parting was grievous to her and she wept right sore. Hereat the Sultan would take also the boys with her until sleep prevailed over her, after which he would send the twain back to their sire the Gardener. But Abu Niyyah the Sultan would ever wonder at the boys and would exclaim, “Praise be to Allah, how beautiful are these dark-skinned children!” This endured until one day of the days when the King entered into the garden and there found that the two beautiful boys[FN#416] had taken some clay and were working it into the figures of horses and saddles and weapons of war and were opening the ground and making a water-leat;[FN#417] so the Sultan wondered thereat time after time for that he ever found them in similar case. And he marvelled the more because whenever he looked upon them his heart was opened to both and he yearned to the twain and he would give them some gold pieces although he knew not the cause of his affection. Now one day he entered the garden, and he came upon the two boys of whom one was saying, “I am the Sultan!” and the other declaring, “I am the Wazir!” He wondered at their words and forthwith summoned the Gardener and asked him concerning the lads, and lastly quoth he to him, “Say me sooth and fear naught from me.” Quoth the other, “By Allah, O King of the Age, albe falsehood be saving, yet is soothfastness more saving and most saving; and indeed as regards these children the elder was found by me exposed at the gateway of the royal garden on such a night of such a year, and I came upon the second in the very same place; so I carried them to my wife who suckled them and tended them and they say to her, O mother,’ and they say to me, O father.'” Hereupon Abu Niyyah the King returned home and summoning the midwife asked her, saying, “By the virtue of my predecessors in this kingdom, do thou tell me the truth concerning my spouse, whether or no she was delivered of two dog- pups,” and she answered, “No, by Allah, O King of the Age, verily the Queen bare thee two babes like full moons and the cause of their exposure before the garden gate was thy wife’s two sisters who envied her and did with her these deeds whereof she was not aware.”[FN#418] hereupon cried Abu Niyyah, “Alhamdolillah–Glory be to God who hat brought about this good to me and hath united me with my children, and soothfast is the say, Whoso doeth an action shall be requited of his Lord and the envious wight hath no delight and of his envy he shall win naught save despight.'”[FN#419] Then the King of Mosul, being a man of good intent, did not put to death his wife’s sisters and their husbands, but banished them his realm, and he lived happily with his Queen and children until such time as the Destroyer of delights and the Severer of societies came to him and he deceased to the mercy of Almighty Allah.

END OF VOLUME XIV.

Appendix A.

INEPTIÆ BODLEIANÆ.

The reader will not understand this allusion (Foreword, p. ix.) without some connaissance de cause. I would apologise for deforming the beautiful serenity and restfulness of The Nights by personal matter of a tone so jarring and so discordant a sound, the chatter and squabble of European correspondence and contention; but the only course assigned to me perforce is that of perfect publicity. The first part of the following papers appeared by the editor’s kindness in “The Academy” of November 13, 1886. How strange the contrast of “doings” with “sayings,” if we compare the speech reported to have been delivered by Mr. Librarian Nicholson at the opening of the Birmingham Free Public Central Lending and Reference Libraries, on June 1, 1882:–

“As for the Bodleian, I claim your sympathies, not merely because we are trying to do as much for our readers as you are for yours, but because, if the building which you have opened to-day is the newest free public library in the world, the building which I left earlier in the morning is the oldest free public library in the world. (No!) I call it a free public library because any Birmingham artizan who came to us with a trustworthy recommendation might ask to have the rarest gem in our collection placed before him, and need have no fear of asking in vain; and because, if a trusty Birmingham worker wanted the loan of a MS. for three months, it would be lent to the Central Free Library for his use.” See Twentieth and Twenty-first Annual Reports of the Free Libraries Committee (Borough of Birmingham), 1883.

And now to my story. The play opens with the following letter:–

No. I.

23, DORSET STREET, PORTMAN SQUARE,
Sept. 13, 1886.

“Sir,

“I have the honour to solicit your assistance in the following matter:–

“Our friend Dr. Steingass has kindly consented to collaborate with me in re-translating from the Wortley Montague MS. of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, the tales originally translated in vol. vi. of Dr. Jonathan Scott’s ‘Arabian Nights.’ Dr. Steingass cannot leave town, and I should find it very inconvenient to live at Oxford during the work, both of us having engagements in London. It would be a boon to us if the Curators of the Bodleian would allow the MS. to be transferred, volume by volume, to the India Office, and remain under the custody of the Chief Librarian–yourself. The whole consists of seven volumes, as we would begin with vols. iii. and iv. I may note that the translated tales (as may be seen by Scott’s version) contain nothing indelicate or immoral; in fact the whole MS. is exceptionally pure. Moreover, the MS., as far as I can learn, is never used at Oxford. I am the more anxious about this matter as the November fogs will presently drive me from England, and I want to end the extracts ere winter sets in, which can be done only by the co-operation of Dr. Steingass.

I have the honour to be, sir,

Yours obediently,
(Signed) RICHARD F. BURTON.”

“DR. R. ROST,
Chief Librarian, India Office.”

As nearly a month had elapsed without my receiving any reply, I directed the following to the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Rev. Dr. Bellamy:–

No. II.

ATHENAEUM CLUB, PALL MALL,
Oct. 13, 1886.

“Sir,

“I have the honour to submit to you the following details:–

“On September 13, 1886, I wrote to Dr. Rost, Chief Librarian, India Office, an official letter requesting him to apply to the Curators of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, for the temporary transfer of an Arabic Manuscript, No. 522 (the Wortley Montague text of the Arabian Nights) to the library of the India Office, there to be kept under special charge of the Chief Librarian. There being seven volumes, I wanted only one or two at a time. I undertook not to keep them long, and, further, I pledged myself not to translate tales that might be deemed offensive to propriety.

“Thus, I did not apply for a personal loan of the MS. which, indeed, I should refuse on account of the responsibility which it would involve. I applied for the safe and temporary transfer of a work, volume by volume, from one public library to another.

“My official letter was forwarded at once by Dr. Rost, but this was the only expeditious step. On Saturday, September 25, the Curators could form no quorum; the same thing took place on Saturday, October 9; and there is a prospect that the same will take place on Saturday, October 23.

“I am acquainted with many of the public libraries of Europe, but I know of none that would throw such obstacles in the way of students.

“The best authorities inform me that until June, 1886, the signatures of two Curators enabled a student to borrow a book or a manuscript; but that since June a meeting of three Curators has been required; and that a lesser number does not form a quorum.

“May I be permitted to suggest that the statute upon the subject of borrowing books and manuscripts urgently calls for revision?

I have the honour to be, sir,

Yours obediently,
(Signed) RICHARD F. BURTON.

“THE VICE-CHANCELLOR, OXFORD.”

The Curators presently met and the following was the highly unsatisfactory result which speaks little for “Bodleian” kindness or courtesy:–

No. III.

Monday, Nov. 1, 1886.

“DEAR SIR RICHARD BURTON,

“The Curators considered your application on Saturday, Oct. 30, afternoon, and the majority of them were unwilling to lend the MS[FN#420]

Yours very truly,
(Signed) EDWARD B. NICHOLSON.”

Learning through a private source that my case had been made an unpleasant exception to a long-standing rule of precedent, and furthermore that it had been rendered peculiarly invidious by an act of special favour,[FN#421] I again addressed the Vice-Chancellor, as follows:–

No. IV.

23, DORSET STREET, PORTMAN SQUARE,
November 3rd, 1886.

“Sir,

“I have the honour to remind you that, on October 13, I communicated with you officially requesting a temporary transfer of the Wortley Montague manuscript (Arabian Nights) from the Bodleian Library to the personal care of the Librarian, India Office.

“To this letter I received no reply. But on November 1, I was informed by Mr. Librarian Nicholson that the Curators had considered my application on Saturday, October 30, and that the majority of them were unwilling to lend the manuscript.

“The same Curators at the same meeting allowed sundry manuscripts for the use of an Indian subject to be sent to the India Office.

“I cannot but protest against this invidious proceeding, and I would willingly learn what cause underlies it.

“1. It cannot be the importance of the manuscript, which is one of the meanest known to me–written in a schoolmaster character, a most erroneous, uncorrected text, and valuable only for a few new tales.

“2. It cannot be any consideration of public morals, for I undertook (if the loan were granted) not to translate tales which might be considered offensive to strict propriety.

“3. It cannot be its requirement for local use. The manuscript stands on an upper shelf in the manuscript room, and not one man in the whole so-called ‘University’ can read it.

I have the honour to be, sir,

Yours obediently,
RICHARD F. BURTON.”

“THE VlCE-CHANCELLOR, OXFORD.”

In due time came the reply:–

No. V.

ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE, OXFORD,
November 6th, 1886.

“Dear Sir,

“I will remove from your mind the belief that I treated your former letter with discourtesy.

“I may say, that it did not appear to me to contain any question or request which I could answer. You informed me that you had made formal application in September for a loan of MSS., and your letter was to complain of the delay in considering this request. You told me that you had learned from the Librarian the cause of the delay (the want of a quorum), and that he had intimated that there would probably be no meeting formed before October 30th.

“You complained of this, and suggested that the statute regulating the lending of the Bodleian books should be speedily revised.

“As I had no power to make a quorum, nor to engage that your suggestion should be adopted; and as your letter made no demand for any further information, I thought it best to reserve it for the meeting of the 30th, when I communicated it to the Curators.

“I will lay the letter (dated November 3rd), with which you have favoured me, before the next meeting of the Curators.

I beg to remain,

Yours faithfully,
(Signed) J. BELLAMY.”

“SIR R. F. BURTON.”

To resume this part of the subject.

The following dates show that I was kept waiting six weeks before being finally favoured with the curtest of refusals:

Application made on September 13th, and sent on.

On Saturday, September 25th, Curators could not form quorum, and deferred next meeting till Saturday, October 9th.

Saturday, October 9th. Again no quorum; and yet it might easily have been formed, as three Curators were on or close to the spot.

Saturday, October 23rd. Six Curators met and did nothing.

Saturday, October 30th. Curators met and refused me the loan of MS.

My letter addressed to the Vice-Chancellor was read, and notice was given for Saturday (December 3rd, 1886) of a motion, “That the MS. required by Sir R. F. Burton be lent to him”–and I was not to be informed of the matter unless the move were successful. Of course it failed. One of the Curators (who are the delegates and servants of Convocation) was mortally offended by my letter to “The Academy,” and showed the normal smallness of the official mind by opposing me simply because I told the truth concerning the laches of his “learned body.”

Meanwhile I had addressed the following note to the Most Honourable the Chancellor of the University.[FN#422]

23, DORSET STREET, PORTMAN SQUARE,
November 30th, 1886.

“MY LORD,

“I deeply regret that the peculiar proceedings of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, necessitate a reference to a higher authority with the view of eliciting some explanation.

“The correspondence which has passed between the Curators of the Bodleian Library and myself will be found in the accompanying printed paper.

“Here it may be noticed that the Committee of the Orientalist Congress, Vienna, is preparing to memorialise H.M.’s Secretary of State, praying that Parliament will empower the British Museum to lend out Oriental MSS. under proper guarantees. The same measure had been proposed at the Leyden Congress of 1883; and thus an extension, rather than a contraction of the loan-system has found favour with European savants.[FN#423]

“I believe, my Lord, that a new statute upon the subject of the Bodleian loans of books and MSS. is confessedly required, and that it awaits only the initiative of the Chancellor of the University, without whose approval it cannot be passed.

I have, &c.,
(Signed) RICHARD F. BURTON.”

“THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE CHANCELLOR.”

My object being only publicity I was not disappointed by the following reply:–

HATFIELD HOUSE, HATFIELD, HERTS,
December 1st, 1886.

“DEAR SIR RICHARD,

“I beg to acknowledge your letter of the 30th of November with enclosure.

“I have, however, no power over the Bodleian Library, and, therefore, I am unable to assist you.

Yours, very truly,
(Signed) SALISBURY.”

“SIR RICHARD F. BURTON, K.C.M.G.”

On January 29, 1887, there was another “Bodleian Meeting,” all the Curators save one being present and showing evident symptoms of business. The last application on the list of loans entered on the Agenda paper ran thus:–

V MS. Bodl. Vols. 550-556 to the British Museum (the 7 vols. successively) for the use of Mr. F. F. Arbuthnot’s Agent.

[The MS. lately refused to Sir R. Burton. Mr. Arbuthnot wishes to have it copied.]

It was at once removed by the Regius Professor of Divinity (Dr. Ince) and carried nem. con. that, until the whole question of lending Bodleian books and MSS. then before Council, be definitely settled, no applications be entertained; and thus Professor Van Helton, Bernard Kolbach and Mr. Arbuthnot were doomed, like myself, to be disappointed.

On January 31, 1887, a hebdomadal Council was called to deliberate about a new lending statute for submission to Convocation; and an amendment was printed in the “Oxford University Gazette.” It proposed that the Curators by a vote of two-thirds of their body, and at least six forming a quorum, might lend books or MSS. to students, whether graduates or not; subject, when the loans were of special value, to the consent of Convocation. Presently the matter was discussed in “The Times” (January 25th; April 28th; and May 31st), which simply re-echoed the contention of Mr. Chandler’s vigorous pamphlets.[FN#424] Despite the letters of its correspondent “F. M. M.” (May 6th, 1887), a “host in himself,” who ought to have added the authority of his name to the sensible measures which he propounded, the leading journal took a sentimental view of “Bodley’s incomparable library” and strongly advocated its being relegated to comparative inutility.

On May 31, 1887, an amendment practically forbidding all loans came before the House. In vain Professor Freeman declared that a book is not an idol but a tool which must wear out sooner or later. To no purpose Bodley’s Librarian proved that of 460,000 printed volumes in the collection only 460 had been lent out, and of these only one had been lost. THE AMENDMENT FORBIDDING THE PRACTICE OF LENDING WAS CARRIED BY 106 VOTES TO 60.

Personally I am not dissatisfied with this proceeding. It is retrograde legislation befitting the days when books were chained to the desks. It suffers from a fatal symptom–the weakness of extreme measures. And the inevitable result in the near future will be a strong reaction: Convocation will presently be compelled to adopt some palliation for the evil created by its own folly.

The next move added meanness to inertness. I do not blame Mr. E. B. Nicholson, Bodley’s Librarian, because he probably had orders to write the following choice specimen:

30/3/1887.

“DEAR SIR RICHARD BURTON,

“I have received two vols. of four (read six) ‘Supplemental Nights’ with a subscription form. If a Bodleian MS. is to be copied for any volume, I must stipulate that that volume be supplied to us gratis. Either my leave or that of the Curators is required for the purpose of copying for publication, and I have no doubt that they would make the same stipulation. I feel sure you would in any case not propose to charge us for such a volume, but until I hear from you I am in a difficulty as to how to reply to the subscription form I have received.

Yours faithfully,
(Signed) E. B. NICHOLSON,
Librarian.”

The able and energetic papers, two printed and one published by Mr. H. W. Chandler, of Pembroke College, Oxford, clearly prove the following facts:–

1. That on June 20, 1610, a Bodleian Statute peremptorily forbade any books or manuscripts being taken out of the Library.

2. That, despite the peremptory and categorical forbiddance by Bodley, Selden, and others, of lending Bodleian books and MSS., loans of both have for upwards of two centuries formed a precedent.

3. That Bodley’s Statute (June 20th, An. 1610) was formally and officially abrogated by Convocation on May 22nd, 1856; Convocation retaining the right to lend.

4. That a “privileged list” of (113) borrowers presently arose and is spoken of as a normal practice:–sicut mos fuit, says the Statute (Tit. xx. iii. § 11) of 1873; and, lastly,

5. That loans of MSS. and printed books have for years been authorised to approved public libraries.

After these premises I proceed to notice other points bearing upon the subject which, curious to say, are utterly neglected or rather ignored by Mr. Chandler and “The Times.” Sir Thomas Bodley never would have condemned students to study in the Bodleian had he known the peines fortes et dures to which in these days they are thereby doomed. “So picturesque and so peculiar is its construction,” says a writer, “that it ensures the maximum of inefficiency and discomfort.” The whole building is a model of what a library ought not to be. It is at once over solid and ricketty: room for the storage of books is wanted, and its wooden staircases, like touchwood or tinder, give one the shudders to think of fire. True, matches and naked lights are forbidden in the building; but all know how these prohibitions are regarded by the public, and it is dreadful to think of what might result from a lucifer dropped at dark upon the time-rotten planks. The reading public in the XIXth century must content itself with boxes or stalls, like those of an old-fashioned tavern or coffee-house of the humbler sort wherein two readers can hardly find room for sitting back to back. The atmosphere is unpleasant and these mean little cribs, often unduly crowded, are so dark that after the 1st October the reading-room must be closed at 3 p.m. What a contrast are the treasures in the Bodleian with their mean and miserable surroundings and the way in which the public is allowed to enjoy them. The whole establishment calls urgently for reform. Accommodation for the books is wanted; floor and walls will hardly bear the weight which grows every year at an alarming ratio–witness the Novel-room. The model Bodleian would be a building detached and isolated, the better to guard its priceless contents, and containing at least double the area of the present old and obsolete Bibliotheca. An establishment of the kind was proposed in 1857; but unfortunately, the united wisdom of the University preferred new “Examination Schools” for which the old half-ruinous pile would have been sufficiently well fitted. The “Schools,” however, were for the benefit of the examiners; ergo the scandalous sum of £100,000 (some double the amount) was wasted upon the well-nigh useless Gothic humbug in High Street, and thus no money was left for the prime want of the city. After some experience of public libraries and reading-rooms on the Continent of Europe I feel justified in asserting that the Bodleian in its present condition is a disgrace to Oxford; indeed a dishonour to letters in England.

The Bodleian has a succursale, the Radcliffe, which represents simply a step from bad to worse. The building was intended for an especial purpose, the storage of books, not for a salle de lecture. Hence the so-called “Camera” is a most odious institution, a Purgatory to readers. It is damp in the wet season from October to May; stuffy during the summer heats and a cave of Eolus in windy weather: few students except the youngest and strongest, can support its changeable and nerve-depressing atmosphere. Consequently the Camera is frequented mainly by the townsfolk, a motley crew who there study their novels and almanacs and shamefully misuse the books.[FN#425] In this building lights, forbidden by the Bodleian, are allowed; it opens at 10 a.m. and closes at 10 p.m.. and the sooner it reverts to its original office of a book-depôt the better.

But the Bodleian-Radcliffe concern is typical of the town and, if that call for reform, so emphatically does

“Oxford, that scarce deserves the name of land.”

From my childhood I had heard endless tirades and much of what is now called “blowing” about this ancient city, and my youth (1840-42) suffered not a little disappointment. The old place, still mostly resembling an overgrown monastery-village, lies in the valley of the Upper Thames, a meadowland drained by two ditches; the bigger or Ise, classically called the Isis, and the lesser the Charwell. This bottom is surrounded by high and healthy uplands, not as the guide-books say “low scarce-swelling hills that softly gird the old town;” and these keep off the winds and make the riverine valley, with its swamped meads and water-meadows, more fenny and feverish even than Cambridge. The heights and woods bring on a mild deluge between October 1st and May 1st; the climate is rainy as that of Shap in Westmoreland (our old home) and, as at Fernando Po and Singapore, the rain it raineth more or less every day during one half of the year. The place was chosen by the ancient Britons for facility of water transport, but men no longer travel by the Thames and they have naturally neglected the older road. Throughout England, indeed a great national work remains to be done. Not a river, not a rivulet, but what requires cleaning out and systematic excavation by élevateurs and other appliances of the Suez Canal. The channels filled up by alluvium and choked by the American weed, are now raised so high that the beds can no longer act as drains: at Oxford for instance the beautiful meadows of Christ Church are little better than swamps and marshes, the fittest homes for Tergiana, Ouartana and all the fell sisterhood: a blue fog broods over the pleasant site almost every evening, and a thrust with the umbrella opens up water. This is the more inexcusable as the remedy would be easy and by no means costly: the river-mud, if the ignorant peasants only knew the fact, forms the best of manures; and this, instead of being deposited in spoil-heaps on the banks for the rain to wash back at the first opportunity, should be carried by tram-rails temporarily laid down and be spread over the distant fields, thus almost paying for the dredge works. Of course difficulties will arise: the management of the Thames is under various local “Boards,” and each wooden head is able and aye ready to show its independence and ill temper at the sacrifice of public interests to private fads.

Hence the climate of Oxford is detestable. Strong undergraduates cannot withstand its nervous depression and the sleeplessness arising from damp air charged with marsh gases and bacteria. All students take time to become acclimatized here, and some are never acclimatized at all. And no wonder, when the place is drained by a fetid sewer of greenish yellow hue containing per 10,000, 245 parts of sewage. The only tolerable portion of the year is the Long Vacation, when the youths in mortar-boards all vanish from the view, while many of the oldsters congregate in the reformed convents called Colleges.

Climate and the resolute neglect of sanitation are probably the chief causes why Oxford never yet produced a world-famous and epoch-making man, while Cambridge can boast of Newton and Darwin. The harlequin city of domes and spires, cribs and slums shows that curious concurrence of opposites so common in England. The boasted High Street is emblematical of the place, where moral as well as material extremes meet and are fain to dwell side by side. It is a fine thoroughfare branching off into mere lanes, neither these nor that apparently ever cleaned. The huge buildings of scaling, mouldering stone are venerable-looking piles which contrast sadly with the gabled cottages of crepi, hurlin, or wattle and dab; and the brand-new store with its plate-glass windows hustles the old-fashioned lollipop-shop. As regards minor matters there are new market passages but no Public Baths; and on Sundays, the stands are destitute of cabs, although with that queer concession to democracy which essentially belongs to the meaner spirited sort of Conservatism, “‘busses” are allowed to ply after 2 p.m., when the thunder of bells somewhat abates.

Old “Alma Mater,” who to me has ever been a “durissima noverca,” dubs herself “University;” and not a few of her hopefuls entre faiblesse et folie, still entitle themselves “University men.” The title once belonged to Oxford but now appertains to it no more. Compare with it the model universities of Berlin, Paris and Vienna, where the lists of lecturers bear the weightiest names in the land. Oxford is but a congeries of twenty-one colleges and five halls or hostels, each educating its pupils (more or less) with an especial eye to tutors’ fees and other benefices, the vested rights of the “Dons.” Thus all do their best to prevent the scholars availing themselves of University, as opposed to Collegiate, lectures; and thus they can stultify a list of some sixty-six professors. This boarding-school system is simply a dishonest obstacle to students learning anything which may be of use to them in after-life, such as modern and Oriental languages, chemistry, anthropology and the other -ologies. Here in fact men rarely progress beyond the Trivium and the Quadrivium of the Dark Ages, and tuition is a fine study of the Res scibilis as understood by the Admirable Crichton and other worthies, circa A.D. 1500. The students of Queen Elizabeth’s day would here–and here only–find themselves in congenial company. Worse still, Oxford is no longer a “Seat of learning” or a “House of the Muses,” nor can learned men be produced under the present system. The place has become a collection of finishing schools, in fact little better than a huge board for the examination of big boys and girls.

Oxford and her education are thoroughly disappointing; but the sorest point therein is that this sham University satisfies the hapless Public, which knows nothing about its fainéance. It is a mere stumbling-block in the way of Progress especially barring the road to one of the main wants of English Education, a great London University which should not be ashamed to stand by Berlin, Paris and Vienna.

Had the good knight and “Pious Founder,” Sir Thomas Bodley, who established his library upon the ruins of the University Bibliotheca wrecked by the “Reformation,” been able to foresee the condition of Oxford and her libraries–Bodleian and Radcliffean–in this latter section of the XIXth century, he would hardly, I should hope, have condemned English students and Continental scholars to compulsory residence and labour in places so akin to the purgatorial.

Appendix B.

THE THREE UNTRANSLATED TALES IN MR. E. J. W. GIBB’S “FORTY VEZIRS.”

THE THIRTY-EIGHTH VEZIR’S STORY. (Page 353 of Mr. Gibb’s translation.)

There was in the city of Cairo a merchant, and one day he bought a slave-girl, and took her to his house. There was in his house an ape; this the merchant fetched and dragged up to the slave-girl. He said, “Yield thyself over to this, and I will set thee free.” The slave-girl did so of necessity, and she conceived by him. When her time was come she bare a son all of whose members were shaped like those of a man, save that he had a tail like an ape. The merchant and the slave-girl occupied themselves bringing up this son. One day, when the son was five or six months old, the merchant filled a large cauldron with milk, and lighted a great fire under it. When it was boiling, he seized the son and cast him into the cauldron; and the girl began to lament. The merchant said, “Be silent, make no lamentation; go and be free;” and he gave her some sequins. Then he turned, and the cauldron had boiled so that not even any bones were left. The merchant took down the cauldron, and placed seven strainers, one above the other; and he took the scum that had gathered on the liquid in the cauldron and filtered it through the seven strainers, and he took that which was in the last and put it into a bottle. And the slave-girl bare in her heart bitter hatred against the merchant, and she said in herself, “Even as thou hast burned my liver will I burn thee;” and she began to watch her opportunity. (One day) the merchant said to her, “Make ready some food,” and went out. So the girl cooked the food, and she mixed some of that poison in the dish. When the merchant returned she brought the tray and laid it down, and then withdrew into a corner. The merchant took a spoonful of that food, and as soon as he put it into his mouth, he knew it to be the poison, and he cast the spoon that was in his hand at the girl. A piece, of the bigness of a pea, of that poisoned food fell from the spoon on the girl’s hand, and it made the place where it fell black. As for the merchant, he turned all black, and swelled till he became like a blown-out skin, and he died. But the slave-girl medicined herself and became well; and she kept what remained of the poison and sold it to those who asked for it.

THE FORTIETH VEZIR’S STORY.
(Page 366 in Mr. Gibb’s translation.)

There was of old time a tailor, and he had a fair wife. One day this woman sent her slave-girl to the carder’s to get some cotton teased. The slave-girl went to the carder’s shop and gave him cotton for a gown to get teased. The carder while teasing the cotton displayed his yard to the slave-girl. She blushed and passed to his other side. As she thus turned round the carder displayed his yard on that side also. Thus the slave-girl saw it on that side too. And she went and said to her mistress, “Yon carder, to whom I went, has two yards.” The lady said to her, “Go and say to yon carder, ‘My mistress wishes thee; come at night.'” So the slave-girl went and said this to the carder. As soon as it was night the carder went to that place and waited. The woman went out and met the carder and said, “Come and have to do with me while I am lying by my husband.” When it was midnight the carder came and waked the woman. The woman lay conveniently and the carder fell to work. She felt that the yard which entered her was but one, and said, “Ah my soul, carder, at it with both of them.” While she was softly speaking her husband awaked and asked, “What means thy saying, ‘At it with both of them?'” He stretched out his hand to his wife’s kaze and the carder’s yard came into it. The carder drew himself back and his yard slipped out of the fellow’s hand, and he made shift to get away. The fellow said, “Out on thee, wife, what meant that saying of thine, ‘At it with both of them?'” The woman said, “O husband, I saw in my dream that thou wast fallen into the sea and wast swimming with one hand and crying out, ‘Help! I am drowning!’ I shouted to thee from the shore, ‘At it with both of them,’ and thou begannest to swim with both thy hands.” Then the husband said, “Wife, I too know that I was in the sea, from this that a wet fish came into my hand and then slipped out and escaped; thou speakest truly.” And he loved his wife more than before.

THE LADY’S THIRTY-FOURTH STORY. (From the India Office MS.)
(Page 399 in Mr. Gibb’s translation.)

They tell that there was a Khoja and he had an exceeding fair son, who was so beautiful that he who looked upon him was confounded. This Khoja watched over his son right carefully; he let him not come forth from a certain private chamber, and he left not the ribbon of his trousers unsealed. When the call to prayer was chanted from the minaret, the boy would ask his father saying, “Why do they cry out thus?” and the Khoja would answer, “Someone has been undone and has died, and they are calling out to bury him.” And the boy believed these words. The beauty of this boy was spoken of in Persia; and a Khoja came from Persia to Baghdad with his goods and chattels for the love of this boy. And he struck up a friendship with the boy’s father, and ever gave to him his merchandise at an easy price, and he sought to find out where his son abode. When the Khoja had discovered that the boy was kept safe in that private chamber, he one day said to his father, “I am about to go to a certain place; and I have a chest whereinto I have put whatsoever I possess of valuables; this I shall send to thee, and do thou take it and shut it up in that chamber where thy son is.” And the father answered, “Right gladly.” So the Khoja let build a chest so large that he himself might lie in it, and he put therein wine and all things needful for a carouse. Then he said to his servant, “Go, fetch a porter and take this chest to the house of Khoja Such-an-one, and say, ‘My master has sent this to remain in your charge,’ and leave it and come away. And again on the morrow go and fetch it, saying, ‘My master wishes the chest.'” So the servant went for a porter, and the Khoja hid himself in the chest. Then the boy laded the porter with the chest and took it to the other Khoja’s house, where he left it and went away. When it was night the Khoja came forth from the chest, and he saw a moon-face sleeping in the bed-clothes, and a candle was burning in a candlestick at his head; and when the Khoja beheld this he was confounded and exclaimed, “And blessed be God, the fairest of Creators!”[FN#426] Then the Khoja laid out the wine and so forth; and he went up softly and waked the boy. And the boy arose from his place and addressed himself to speak, saying, “Wherefore hast thou come here?” Straight-way the Khoja filled a cup and gave it to him, saying, “Drink this, and then I shall tell thee what manner of man I am.” And he besought the boy and spread out sequins before him. So the boy took the cup and drank what was in it. When the Khoja had given him to drink three or four cups the face of the boy grew tulip-hued, and he became heated with the wine and began to sport with the Khoja. So all that night till morning did the Khoja make merry with the boy; and whatsoever his desire was, he attained thereto. When it was morning, the Khoja again went into the chest; and the servant came and laded the porter with the same and took it back to his house. And on the morrow, when the boy and his father were sitting together, the mu’ezzin chanted the call to prayer, whereupon the boy exclaimed, “Out on thee, father; and the boy who is undone dies, and so this fellow goes up there and bawls out; last night they undid me; how is it that I am not dead?” Then the father smote the boy on the mouth and said, “Speak not such words; they are a shame.” And then he knew why the chest had come.

Arabian Nights, Volume 14
Footnotes

[FN#1] From the Wortley Montague MS. vol. iii. pp. 80-96. J. Scott: vol. vi. pp. 1-7. Histoire du Sulthan d’Yemen et de ses trots fils; Gauttier vol. vi. pp. 158-165.

[FN#2] The worst disease in human life, now recognised as “Annus Domini.”

[FN#3] Arab. “Mál wa Ghawál”: in Badawi parlance “Mál” would=flocks and herds (pecunia, pecus); and amongst the burghers=ready money, coin. Another favourite jingle of similar import is “Mál wa Nawál.”

There is an older form of the Sultan of Al Yaman and his three sons, to be found in M. Zotenberg’s “Chronique de Tabari,” vol. ii. pp. 357-61.

[FN#4] In the W. M. MS. the sisters are called “Shahrzádeh” (=City born) and “Dinárzádeh” (=ducat born) and the royal brothers Shahrbáz (=City player or City falcon) and Kahramán (vol. i. p. 1) alias Samarbán (ibid.). I shall retain the old spelling.

[FN#5] I have hitherto translated “wa adraka (masc.) Shahrázáda al-Sabáh,” as=And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day; but it is more correct as well as more picturesque to render the phrase “was surprised (or overtaken) by the dawn.”

[FN#6] Arab. “‘Adrán,”=much and heavy rain.

[FN#7] For “Halwá” see vol. ii. pp. 47-212. Scott (vol. vi. 413) explains “Hámiz” as “a species of small grain,” probably confounding it with Hummus (or Himmis)=vetches. It is the pop. term for pickles, “sour meat” as opposed to “sweetmeats.” The Arabs divide the camel’s pasture into “Khullah” which means sweet food called bread and into “Hámiz” termed fruit: the latter is composed mainly of salsolaceae, and as camels feed upon it during the hot season it makes them drink. Hence in Al Hariri (Preface) “I change the pasture,” i.e., I pass from grave to gay, from light to dignified style. (Chenery, p. 274).

[FN#8] This is the modern version of the tale which the author of “Zadig” has made familiar to Europe. The hero is brought before the King and Queen of Babylon for stealing a horse and a dog; and, when held by the chief “Destour” (priest) to be a thief, justifies himself. I have given in full the older history from Tabari, the historian (vixit A.D. 839-923). For the tracker (“Paggí”) and the art of tracking see Sind Revisited, i. 180-183. I must again express my wonder that the rural police of Europe still disdain the services of trained dogs when these are about to be introduced into the army.

[FN#9] Arab. “Bitá’i”=my own. I have already noticed that this is the Egypt. form and the Nilotes often turn the ‘Ayn into an H, e.g. Bitáht for Bitá’at, e.g. Ash Shabakah bitáht as-Sayd, thy net for fishing. (Spitta Bey, Contes Arabes Modernes, p. 43.)

[FN#10] Arab. “Mukabbab;” prop. vaulted, arched, domed in Kubbah (or cupola)-shape.

[FN#11] Arab. “Firásah.” “Sciences are of three kinds: one the science of Faith, another the science of Physiognomy (Firásah), and another the science of the Body; but unless there be the science of Physiognomy, other science availeth not.” So says “The Forty Vizirs:” Lady’s vith story and Vizir’s xxxist story. For a note on “Firásah” see vol. viii. 326.

[FN#12] Arab. “In lam tazidd Kayni”=lit. unless thou oppose my forming or composition.

[FN#13] Arab. “Faráfish,” a word which I cannot find in the dictionary, and so translate according to the context. Dr. Steingass remarks that the nearest approach to it would be “Faráfík” (plur. of Furfák)=fine, thin or soft bread.

[FN#14] See, in the “Turkish Tales” by Petis de la Croix (Weber, Tales of the East, vol. iii. 196), the History of the Sophi of Baghdad, where everything returns to (or resembles) its origin. Thus the Wazir who proposed to cut up a criminal and hang him in the shambles was the self-convicted son of a butcher; he who advised boiling him down and giving his flesh to the dogs was the issue of a cook, and the third who proposed to pardon him was nobly born. See Night cccxli.

[FN#15] Arab. “Al-Mafyaat,” lit.=a shady place; a locality whereupon the sun does not rise.

[FN#16] Arab. “Ja’idiyah,” a favourite word in this MS. “Ja’ad”=a curl, a liberal man: Ja’ad al-yad=miserly, and Abú ja’dah=father of curls,=a wolf. Scott (passim) translates the word “Sharper;” Gore Ouseley “Labourer;” and De Sacy (Chrestomathie ii. 369, who derives it from Ju’d=avoir les cheveux crépus): in Egypt, homme de la populace, canaille. He finds it in the Fabrica Linguæ Arab. of Germanus of Silesia (p. 786)=ignavis, hebes, stupidus, esp. a coward. Ibrahim Salamah of Alexandria makes the term signify in Syria, impudent, thieving, wicked. Spitta Bey translates this word musicien ambulant in his Gloss. to Contes Arabes, p. 171. According to Dr. Steingass, who, with the Muhít al-Muhít, reads “Ju’aydíyah,” Ju’ayd is said to be the P. N. of an Egyptian clown, who, with bell-hung cap and tambourine in hand, wandered about the streets singing laudatory doggrel and pestering the folk for money. Many vagabonds who adopted this calling were named after him and the word was generalised in that sense.

[FN#17] MS. vol. iii. pp. 96-121. Scott, “Story of the Three Sharpers and the Sultan,” pp. 7-17; Gauttier, Histoire des trois filous et d’un Sulthan, vi. 165-176.

[FN#18] Arab. Yasrahú=roaming, especially at early dawn; hence the wolf is called “Sirhán,” and Yaklishu (if I read it aright) is from Kulsh, and equivalent to “kicking” (their heels).

[FN#19] Nusf=half a dirham, drachma or franc, see ii. 37; vi. 214, etc.

[FN#20] Bast, a preparation of Bhang (Cannabis Sativa), known in Egypt but not elsewhere: see Lane, M. E., chapt. xv. Here it is made synonymous with “Hashísh”=Bhang in general.

[FN#21] Ghaushah, a Persianism for which “Ghaughá” is a more common form. “Ghaush” is a tree of hard wood whereof musical instruments were made; hence the mod. words “Ghásha” and “Ghawwasha”=he produced a sound, and “Ghaushah”=tumult, quarrel. According to Dr. Steingass, the synon. in the native dicts. are “Khisám,” “Lag-hat,” “Jalabah,” etc.

[FN#22] Said ironicè, the jeweller being held to be one of the dishonest classes, like the washerman, the water-carrier, the gardener, etc. In England we may find his representative in the “silversmith,” who will ask a pound sterling for a bit of metal which cost him perhaps five shillings or even less, and who hates to be bought by weight. The Arab. has “Jauhar-ji,” a Turkish form for Jauhari; and here “jauhar” apparently means a pearl, the stone once peculiar to royalty in Persia, but the kind of gem is left undetermined.

[FN#23] Arab. “Sáza, yasízu,” not a dictionary word. Perhaps it is a clerical error for “S sa,” he groomed or broke in a horse, hence understood all about horses.

[FN#24] In the orig. “Shorbah,” Pers.=a mess of pottage: I have altered it for reasons which will presently appear.

[FN#25] Arab. “Ghabasah,” from Ghabas=obscure, dust-coloured.

[FN#26] Arab. “Súsah”=a weevil, a moth, a worm. It does not mean simply a flaw, but a live animal (like our toads in the rock); and in the popular version of the tale the lapidary discovers its presence by the stone warming in his hand.

[FN#27] Arab. “Mashá’íli” the cresset-bearer who acted hangman: see vol. i. 259, etc.

[FN#28] Arab. “Ta’kíl,” tying up a camel’s foreleg above the knee; the primary meaning of Akl, which has so many secondary significations.

[FN#29] Arab. “Suwán,” lit.=rock, syenite, hard stone, flint; here a marteau de guerre.

[FN#30] Arab. “Hálik”=intensely black, so as to look blue under a certain angle of light.

[FN#31] Arab. “Rikáb” (=stirrup) + “dár” Pers. (=holder).

[FN#32] I have ransacked dictionaries and vocabularies but the word is a mere blank.

[FN#33] Arab. “Jámúsah.” These mules are believed in by the Arabs. Shaw and other travellers mention the Mauritanian “Jumart,” the breed between a bull and a mare (or jennyass) or an ass and a cow. Buffon disbelieved in the mongrel, holding it to be a mere bardeau, got by a stallion horse out of an ass. Voltaire writes “Jumarre” after German fashion and Littré derives it from jument + art (finale péjorative), or the Languedoc “Gimere” which according to Diez suggests “Chimæra.” Even in London not many years ago a mule was exhibited as the issue of a horse and a stag. No Indian ever allows his colt to drink buffalo’s milk, the idea being that a horse so fed will lie down in instead of fording or swimming a stream.

[FN#34] See Sindbad the Seaman, vol. vi. 9.

[FN#35] Arab. “Mubattat” from batt=a duck: in Persia the Batt-i-May is a wine-glass shaped like the duck. Scott (vi. 12) translates “thick and longish.”

[FN#36] Arab. “his Harím”; see vol. i. 165; iv. 126. VOL. XIV.

[FN#37] Again “he” for she. See vol. ii. 179.

[FN#38] Arab. “Gháziyah”: for the plur. “Ghawázi” see vol. i. 214; also Lane (M.E.) index under “Ghazeeyehs.”

[FN#39] The figure prothesis without apodosis. Understand “will slay thee”: see vol. vi. 203.

[FN#40] Because the girl had not been a professional dancer, i.e a public prostitute.

[FN#41] Arab. “Amán”=quarter, mercy: see vol. i. 342.

[FN#42] For the “Mandíl” of mercy see vol. i. 343; for that of dismissal x. 47 and Ibn Khall. iv. 211. In Spitta Bey’s “Contes Arabes” (p. 223), I find throwing the kerchief (tarammá al mahramah) used in the old form of choosing a mate. In the Tale of the Sultan of AlYaman and his three Sons (Supplem. Nights, vol. iv.) the Princesses drop their kerchiefs upon the head of the Prince who had saved them, by way of pointing him out.

[FN#43] Arab. “Sattár:” see vols. i. 258 and iii. 41.

[FN#44] In the text “Arghá” for “Arkhá”=he “brayed” (like an ostrich, etc.) for “his limbs relaxed.” It reminds one of the German missionary’s fond address to his flock, “My prethren, let us bray!”

[FN#45] Arab. “Azbad,” from Zbd (Zabd)=foaming, frothing, etc., whence “Zubaydah,” etc.

[FN#46] Arab. “Zabh” (Zbh)=the ceremonial killing of animals for food: see vols. v. 391; viii. 44. I may note, as a proof of how modern is the civilisation of Europe that the domestic fowl was unknown to Europe till about the time of Pericles (ob. B.C. 429).

[FN#47] See in “The Forty Vizirs” (Lady’s ivth Tale) how Khizr tells the King the origin of his Ministers from the several punishments which they propose for the poor man. I have noticed this before in Night cccxxxiii. Boethius, translated by Chaucer, explains the underlying idea, “All thynges seken ayen to hir propre course and all thynges rejoysen in hir returninge agayne to hir nature.”

[FN#48] For the Taylasán hood see vol. iv. 286.

[FN#49] The “Kalansuwah”-cap is noted by Lane (A. N. chapt. iii. 22) as “Kalensuweh.” In M. E. (Supplement i. “The Copts”) he alters the word to Kalás’weh and describes it as a strip of woollen stuff, of a deep blue or black colour, about four inches wide, attached beneath the turban and hanging down the back to the length of about a foot. It is the distinguishing mark of the Coptic regular clergy.

[FN#50] W. M. MS. vol. iii. pp. 121-141. Scott, “The Adventures of the abdicated Sultan,” pp. 18-19; including the “History of Mahummud, Sultan of Cairo,” pp. 20-30.

[FN#51] “Káhirah.” I repeat my belief (Pilgrimage i. 171) that “Káhirah,” whence our “Cairo” through the Italian corruption, means not la victorieuse (Mediant al-Káhirah) as D’Herbelot has it; but City of Kahir or Mars the planet. It was so called because as Richardson informed the world (sub voce) it was founded in A.H. 358 (=A.D. 968) when the warlike planet was in the ascendant by the famous General Jauhar a Dalmatian renegade (not a “Greek slave”) for the first of the Fatimite dynasty Al-Mu’izz li ‘l-dini ‘lláh.

[FN#52] According to Caussin de Perceval (père) in his translation of the “Contes Arabes,” there are four wonders in the Moslem world: (1) the Pharos of Alexandria; (2) the Bridge of Sanjia in Northern Syria; (3) The Church of Rohab (Edessa); and (4) the Amawi Mosque of Damascus.

[FN#53] Arab. “Faddah,” lit.=silver, because made of copper alloyed with nobler metal; the smallest Egyptian coin=Nuss (i.e. Nusf, or half a dirham) and the Turk. paráh. It is the fortieth of the piastre and may be assumed at the value of a quarter-farthing.

[FN#54] This word, in Egypt. “Harág,” is the cry with which the Dallál (broker) announces each sum bidden at an auction.

[FN#55] The Portuguese Xerafim: Supplemental Nights, vol. iii. 166.

[FN#56] A Khan or caravanserai: see vol. i. 266 and Pilgrimage i. 60.

[FN#57] Arab. “Hilm” (vision) “au ‘Ilm” (knowledge) a phrase peculiar to this MS.

[FN#58] The careless scribe forgets that the Sultan is speaking and here drops into the third person. This “Enallage of persons” is, however, Koranic and therefore classical: Arab critics aver that in such cases the “Hikáyah” (=literal reproduction of a discourse, etc.) passes into an “Ikhbár”=mere account of the same discourse). See Al Mas’údi iii. 216. I dare not reproduce this figure in English.

[FN#50] Arab. “Auzah,” the Pers. Oták and the Turk. Otah (vulg. “Oda” whence “Odalisque”), a popular word in Egypt and Syria.

[FN#60] Arab. “Al Afandiyah” showing the late date or reduction of the tale. The Turkish word derives from the Romaic Afentis ({Greek}) the corrupted O.G.{Greek}=an absolute commander, and “authentie.” The word should not be written as usual “Effendi,” but “Efendi,” as Prof. Galland has been careful to do.

[FN#61] Arab. “Al-dakhlah”; repeatedly referred to in The Nights. The adventure is a replica of that in “Abu Mohammed highs Lazybones,” vol. iv., pp. 171-174.

[FN#62] Usual in the East, not in England, where some mothers are idiots enough not to tell their daughters what to expect on the wedding night. Hence too often unpleasant surprises, disgust and dislike. The most modern form is that of the chloroform’d bride upon whose pillow the bridegroom found a paper pinned and containing the words, “Mamma says you’re to do what you like.”

[FN#63] Arab. “Akhaztu dam wajhhi há.”

[FN#64] Arab. “Dilk” more commonly “Khirkah,” the tattered and pieced robe of a religious mendicant.

[FN#65] Arab. “Darbálah.” Scott (p. 24) must have read “Gharbálah” when he translated “A turban full of holes as a sieve.” In classical Arabic the word is written “Darbalah,” and seems to correspond with the Egyptian “Darábukkah,” a tabor of wood or earthenware figured by Lane (M.E. chapt. xviii.). It is, like the bowl, part of the regular Darwaysh’s begging gear.

[FN#66] Vulg. Maghribi. For this word see the story of Alaeddin, Supplem., vol. iii. 31. According to Heron, “History of Maugraby,” the people of Provence, Languedoc and Gascony use Maugraby as a term of cursing: Maugrebleu being used in other parts of France.

[FN#67] In text “Fanárát”; the Arab. plur. of the Pers. “Fanár”=a light-house, and here equiv. to the Mod. Gr. {Greek}, a lantern, the Egypt. “Fánús.”

[FN#68] This Sultan of the Jann preceded by sweepers, flag-bearers and tent-pitchers always appears in the form of second-sight called by Egyptians “Darb al Mandal”=striking the magic circle in which the enchanter sits when he conjures up spirits. Lane (M. E. chapt. xii.) first made the “Cairo Magician” famous in Europe, but Herklots and others had described a cognate practice in India many years before him.

[FN#69] Arab, “Jáwúsh” for Cháwush (vulg. Chiaush) Turk.=an army serjeant, a herald or serjeant at arms; an apparitor or officer of the Court of Chancery (not a “Mace-bearer or Messenger,” Scott). See vol. vii. 327.

[FN#70] Arab. from Persian “Bímáristán,” a “sick-house,” hospital, a mad-house: see vol. i. 288.

[FN#71] The text says only that “he was reading:” sub. the Holy Volume.

[FN#72] MS. vol. iii., pp. 142-168. Scott, “Story of the First Lunatic,” pp. 31 44. Gauttier, Histoire du Premier Fou, vol. vi. 187. It is identical with No. ii. of Chavis and Cazotte, translated by C. de Perceval, Le Bimaristan (i.e. the Hospital), ou Histoire du jeune Marchand de Bagdad et de la Dame inconnue (vol. viii. pp. 179-180). Heron terms it the “Story of Halechalbe (Ali Chelebi?) and the Unknown Lady,” and the narrative is provided with a host of insipid and incorrect details, such as “A gentleman enjoying his pipe.” The motif of this tale is common in Arab. folk lore, and it first appears in the “Tale of Azíz and Azízah,” ii. 328. A third variant will occur further on.

[FN#73] Spelt in vol. iii. 143 and elsewhere, “Khwájá” for “Khwájah.”

[FN#74] Arab. “Hubban li-raasik,”=out of love for thy head, i.e. from affection for thee. Dr. Steingass finds it analogous with the Koranic “Hubban li ‘llahi” (ii. 160), where it is joined with “Ashaddu”=stronger, as regards love to or for Allah, more Allah loving. But it can stand adverbially by itself=out of love for Allah, for Allah’s sake.

[FN#75] Arab. “Zahr,” lit. and generically a blossom; but often used in a specific sense throughout The Nights.

[FN#76] Arab. “Kursi” here=a square wooden seat without back and used for sitting cross-legged. See Suppl. vol. i. 9.

[FN#77] Arab. “Sujjádah”=lit. a praying carpet, which Lane calls “Seggádeh.”

[FN#78] Arab. “Wakíl,” lit.=agent: here the woman’s representative, corresponding roughly with the man who gives away the bride amongst ourselves.

[FN#79] The mention of coffee and sherbet, here and in the next page, makes the tale synchronous with that of Ma’arúf or the xviith. century.

[FN#80] The MS. writes “Zardakát” for “Zardakhán”: see below.

[FN#81] Scott (p. 36) has “mahazzim (for maházim), al Zerdukkaut (for al-Zardakhán)” and “munnaskif (for manáshif) al fillfillee.” Of the former he notes (p. 414) “What this composition is I cannot define: it may be translated compound of saffron, yoke of egg or of yellowish drugs.” He evidently confounds it with the Pers. Zard-i-Kháyah=yoke of egg. Of the second he says “compound of peppers, red, white and black.” Lane (The Nights, vol. i. p. 8) is somewhat scandalised at such misrepresentation, translating the first “apron-napkins of thick silk,” and the second “drying towels of Líf or palm-fibre,” further suggesting that the text may have dropped a conjunction=drying towels and fibre.

[FN#82] Arab. “Líwàn al-barrání,” lit.=the outer bench in the “Maslahk” or apodyterium.

[FN#83] Arab. “Ma’jún,” pop. applied to an electuary of Bhang (Cannabis sativa): it is the “Maagoon” sold by the “Maagungee” of Lane (M.E. chapt. xv.). Here, however, the term may be used in the sense of “confections” generally, the sweetmeats eaten by way of restoratives in the Bath.

[FN#84] He speaks of taking her maidenhead as if it were porter’s work and so defloration was regarded by many ancient peoples. The old Nilotes incised the hymen before congress; the Phnicians, according to Saint Athanasius, made a slave of the husband’s abate it. The American Chibchas and Caribs looked upon virginity as a reproach, proving that the maiden had never inspired love. For these and other examples see p. 72, chap. iii. “L’Amour dans l’Humanité,” by P. Mantegazza, a civilised and unprejudiced traveller.

[FN#85] Arab. “Zill,” lit. “shadow me.”

[FN#86] Arab. “Istinshák,” one of the items of the “Wuzú” or lesser ablution: see vol. v. 198.

[FN#87] In Chavis her name is “Zaliza” and she had “conceived an unhappy passion” for her master, to whom she “declared her sentiments without reserve.”

[FN#88] Arab. “Armaghánát,” the Arab. plur. of “Armaghán,” Pers.=a present.

[FN#89] In the text, “jumlatun min al-mál,” which Scott apparently reads “Hamlat al-jamal” and translates (p. 38) “a camel’s load of treasure.”

[FN#90] The learned man was to exorcise some possible “evil spirit” or “the eye,” a superstition which seems to have begun, like all others, with the ancient Egyptians.

[FN#91] The MS., I have said, always writes “Khwájá” instead of “Khwájah” (plur. “Khwájat”): for this word, the modern Egyptian “Howájah,” see vol. vi. 46. Here it corresponds with our “goodman.”

[FN#92] Arab. “Yatazáwadú”=increasing.

[FN#93] By which she accepted the offer.

[FN#94] This incident has already occurred in the tale of the Portress (Second Lady of Baghdad, vol. i. 179), but here the consequences are not so tragical. In Chavis the vulgar cock becomes “a golden Censer ornamented with diamonds, to be sold for two thousand sequins” (each=9 shill.).

[FN#95] A royal sign of wrath generally denoting torture and death. See vols. iv. 72; vi. 250.

[FN#96] Arab. “Yá Sallám,” addressed to Allah.

[FN#97] Here more is meant than meets the eye. When a Moslem’s head was struck off, in the days of the Caliphate, it was placed under his armpit, whereas that of a Jew or a Christian was set between his legs, close to the seat of dishonour.

[FN#98] In Chavis and Cazotte the lady calls to “Morigen, her first eunuch, and says, Cut off his head!” Then she takes a theorbo and “composed the following couplets”–of which the first may suffice:

Since my swain unfaithful proves, Let him go to her he loves, etc., etc.

[FN#99] The device has already occurred in “Ali Baba.”

[FN#100] Arab. “Al-ma’húd min ghayr wa’d.”

[FN#101] In Chavis and Cazotte the king is Harun al-Rashid and the masterfl young person proves to be Zeraida, the favourite daughter of Ja’afar Bermaki; whilst the go-between is not the young lady’s mother but Nemana, an old governess. The over- jealous husband in the Second Lady of Baghdad (vol. i. 179) is Al-Amín, son and heir of the Caliph Marun al-Rashid.

[FN#102] Vol. iii. pp. 168-179: and Scott’s “Story of the Second Lunatic,” pp. 45-51. The name is absurdly given as the youth was anything but a lunatic; but this is Arab symmetromania. The tale is virtually the same as “Women’s Wiles,” in Supplemental Nights, vol. ii. 99-107.

[FN#103] This forward movement on the part of the fair one is held to be very insulting by the modest Moslem. This incident is wanting in “Women’s Wiles.”

[FN#104] Arab. “Labbah,” usually the part of the throat where ornaments are hung or camels are stabbed.

[FN#105] The chief of the Moslem Church. For the origin of the office and its date (A.D. 1453) see vols. ix. 289, and x. 81.

[FN#106] Arab. “Satíhah”=a she-Satih: this seer was a headless and neckless body, with face in breast, lacking members and lying prostrate on the ground. His fellow, “Shikk,” was a half-man, and both foretold the divine mission of Mohammed. (Ibn Khall. i. 487.)

[FN#107] Arab. “Wakt al-Zuhà;” the division of time between sunrise and midday.

[FN#108] In the text “Sufrah”=the cloth: see vol. i. 178, etc.

[FN#109] Arab. “Ya Tinjír,” lit.=O Kettle.

[FN#110] Arab. “Tari,” lit.=wet, with its concomitant suggestion, soft and pleasant like desert-rain.

[FN#111] Here meaning “Haste, haste!” See vol. i. 46.

[FN#112] The chief man (Aghá) of the Gypsies, the Jink of Egypt whom Turkish soldiers call Ghiovendé, a race of singers and dancers; in fact professional Nautch-girls. See p. 222, “Account of the Gypsies of India,” by David MacRitchie (London, K. Paul, 1886), a most useful manual.

[FN#113] Arab. “Kurúsh,” plur of. “Kirsh” (pron. “Girsh”), the Egyptian piastre=one-fifth of a shilling. The word may derive from Karsh=collecting money; but it is more probably a corruption of Groschen, primarily a great or thick piece of money and secondarily a small silver coin=3 kreuzers=1 penny.

[FN#114] The purse (“Kís”) is=500 piastres (kurúsh)=£5; and a thousand purses compose the Treasury (“Khaznah”)=£5,000.

[FN#115] MS. vol. iii. pp. 179-303. It is Scott’s “Story of the Retired Sage and his Pupil, related to the Sultan by the Second Lunatic,” vi. pp. 52-67; and Gauttier’s Histoire du Sage, vi. 199-2l4. The scene is laid in Cairo.

[FN#116] Meaning that he was an orphan and had, like the well-known widow, “seen better days.”

[FN#117] The phrase, I have noted, is not merely pleonastic: it emphasises the assertion that it was a chance day.

[FN#118] An old Plinian fable long current throughout the East. It is the Pers. Ním-chihreh, and the Arab Shikk and possibly Nasnás=nisf al-Nás (?) See vol. v. 333. Shikk had received from Allah only half the form of a man, and his rival diviner Satíh was a shapeless man of flesh without limbs. They lived in the days of a woman named Tarífah, daughter of Al-Khayr al-Himyarí and wife of Amrú bin ‘Amir who was famous for having intercourse with the Jann. When about to die she sent for the two, on account of their deformity and the influence exercised upon them by the demons; and, having spat into their mouths, bequeathed to them her Jinni, after which she departed life and was buried at Al-Johfah. Presently they became noted soothsayers; Shikk had issue but Satih none; they lived 300 (some say 600) years, and both died shortly before the birth of the Prophet concerning whom they prophesied. When the Tobba of Al-Yaman dreamed that a dove flew from a holy place and settled in the Tihámah (lowland-seaboard) of Meccah, Satih interpreted it to signify that a Prophet would arise to destroy idols and to teach the best of faiths. The two also predicted (according to Tabari) to Al-Rabí’ah, son of Nasr, a Jewish king of Al-yaman, that the Habash (Abyssinians) should conquer the country, govern it, and be expelled, and after this a Prophet should arise amongst the Arabs and bring a new religion which all should embrace and which should endure until Doomsday. Compare this with the divining damsel in Acts xvi. 16-18.

[FN#119] Arab. “Kahramánah;” the word has before been explained as a nurse, a duenna, an Amazon guarding the Harem. According to C. de Perceval (père) it was also the title given by the Abbasides to the Governess of the Serraglio.

[FN#120] So in the Apocrypha (“Tobias” vi. 8). Tobit is taught by the Archangel Raphael to drive away evil spirits (or devils) by the smoke of a bit of fish’s heart. The practice may date from the earliest days when “Evil Spirits” were created by man. In India, when Europeans deride the existence of Jinns and Rakshasas, and declare that they never saw one, the people receive this information with a smile which means only, “I should think not! you and yours are worse than any of our devils.”

[FN#121] An Inquisitorial costume called in the text “Shámiyát bi al-Nár.”

[FN#122] A tribe of the Jinn sometimes made synonymous with “Márid” and at other times contrasted with these rebels, as in the Story of Ma’aruf and J. Scott’s “History of the Sultan of Hind” (vol. vi. 195). For another note see The Nights, iv. 88.

[FN#123] Arab. “‘Ilm al-Hurúf,” not to be confounded with the “‘Ilm al-Jumal,” or “Hisáb Al-Jumal,” a notation by numerical values of the alphabet. See Lumsden’s Grammar of the Persian Language, i. 37.

[FN#124] Like our “Cut your mutton,” or manger la soupe or die suppe einzunehmen. For this formula meaning like the Brazilian “cup of water,” a grand feast, see vol. vii. 168.

[FN#125] Arab. “Tafazzal,” a most useful word employed upon almost all occasions of invitation and mostly equivalent to “Have the kindness,” etc. See vol. ii. 103.

[FN#126] The Shaykh for humility sits at the side, not at the “Sadr,” or top of the room; but he does not rise before the temporal power. The Sultan is equally courteous and the Shaykh honours him by not keeping silence.

[FN#127] Arab. “Miat Mamlúk kitábí,” the latter word meaning “one of the Book, a Jew” (especially), or a Christian.

[FN#128] This MS. prefers the rare form “Al-Jánn” for the singular.

[FN#129] These flags, I have noticed, are an unfailing accompaniment of a Jinn army.

[FN#130] MS. vol. iii. pp. 203-210; Scott, “Night Adventure of the Sultan,” pp. 68-71. Gauttier, Aventure nocturne du Sulthan, vi. 214.

[FN#131] Arab. “Mashrút shadak.” Ashdak is usually applied to a wide-chapped face, like that of Margaret Maultasch or Mickle-mouthed Meg. Here, however, it alludes to an accidental deformity which will presently be described.

[FN#132] Arab. “Amsik lisána-k”: the former word is a standing “chaff” with the Turks, as in their tongue it means cunnus-penis and nothing else. I ever found it advisable when speaking Arabic before Osmanlis, to use some such equivalent as Khuz=take thou.

[FN#133] This is the familiar incident in “Ali Baba”: Supplem. vol iii. 231, etc.

[FN#134] MS. iii. 210-214. Scott’s “Story of the broken-backed Schoolmaster,” vi. pp. 72-75, and Gauttier’s “Histoire du Maitre d’école éreinté,” vi. 217. The Arabic is “Muaddib al-Atfál”=one who teacheth children. I have before noted that amongst Moslems the Schoolmaster is always a fool. So in Europe of the 16th century probably no less than one-third of the current jests turned upon the Romish clergy and its phenomenal ignorance compared with that of the pagan augur. The Story of the First Schoolmaster is one of the most humorous in this MS.

[FN#135] For the usual ceremony when a Moslem sneezes, see vol. ix. 220.

[FN#136] The “day in the country,” lately become such a favourite with English schools, is an old Eastern custom.

[FN#137] MS. iii. 214-219. Scott’s “Story of the wry-mouthed Schoolmaster,” vi. pp. 74-75: Gauttier’s Histoire du Second Estropié, vi. p. 220.

[FN#138] In these days the whole would be about 10d.

[FN#139] Pay-day for the boys in Egypt. The Moslem school has often been described but it always attracts the curiosity of strangers. The Moorish or Maroccan variety is a simple affair; “no forms, no desks, few books. A number of boards about the size of foolscap, whitewashed on either side, whereon the lessons–from the alphabet to sentences of the Koran–are plainly written in large black letters; a pen and ink, a book and a switch or two, complete the paraphernalia. The dominie, squatting on the ground, tailor-fashion, like his pupils, who may number from ten to thirty, repeats the lesson in a sonorous singsong voice, and is imitated by the urchins, who accompany their voices by a rocking to and fro which sometimes enables them to keep time. A sharp application of the cane is wonderfully effectual in recalling wandering attention; and lazy boys are speedily expelled. On the admission of a pupil, the parents pay some small sum, varying according to their means, and every Wednesday, which is a half-holiday, a payment is made from 1/4d. to 2d. New moons and feasts are made occasions for larger payments, and are also holidays, which last ten days during the two greater festivals. Thursdays are whole holidays, and no work is done on Friday mornings, that day being the Mohammedan ‘Sabbath,’ or at least ‘meeting day,’ as it is called. When the pupils have mastered the first short chapter of the Koran, it is customary for them to be paraded round the town on horseback, with ear-splitting music, and sometimes charitably disposed persons make small presents to the youngster by way of encouragement. After the first, the last is learned, then the last but one, and so on, backwards, as, with the exception of the first, the longest chapters are at the beginning. Though reading and a little writing are taught, at the same time, all the scholars do not arrive at the pitch of perfection necessary to indite a polite letter, so that consequently there is plenty of employment for the numerous scribes or Tálibs who make a profession of writing. These may frequently be seen in small rooms opening on to the street, usually very respectably dressed in a white flowing haik and large turban, and in most cases of venerable appearance, their noses being adorned with huge goggles. Before them are their appliances,–pens made of reeds, ink, paper, and sand in lieu of blotting paper. They usually possess also a knife and scissors, with a case to hold them all. In writing, they place the paper on the knee, or upon a pad of paper in the left hand.” The main merit of the village school in Eastern lands is its noises which teach the boy to concentrate his attention. As Dr. Wilson of Bombay said, the young idea is taught to shout as well as to shoot, and this vivâ voce process is a far better mnemonic than silent reading. Moreover it is fine practice in the art of concentrating attention.

[FN#140] Arab. “Mikshat,” whose root would be “Kasht”=skinning (a camel).

[FN#141] Evidently said ironicè as of innocents. In “The Forty Vezirs” we read, “At length they perceived that all this tumult arose from their trusting on this wise the words of children.” (Lady’s XXth Tale.)

[FN#142] MS. iii. 219-220. For some unaccountable reason it is omitted by Scott (vi. 76), who
has written English words in the margin of the W. M. Codex.

[FN#143] In text “Kádúm,” for “Kudúm,” a Syrian form.

[FN#144] Arab. “Hidyah,” which in Egypt means a falcon; see vol. iii. 138.

[FN#145] Arab. “Sifah,”=lit. a quality.

[FN#146] Arab. “Istiláh”=specific dialect, idiom. See De Sacy, Chrestomathie, i. 443, where the learned Frenchman shows abundant learning, but does very little for the learner.

[FN#147] In the text “Kattán”=linen, flax.

[FN#148] Arab. “Fí Jífán ka’l-Jawábí!” which, I suppose, means small things (or men) and great.

[FN#149] This form of cleverness is a favourite topic in Arabian folk-lore. The model man was Iyás al-Muzani, al-Kazi (of Bassorah), in the 2nd century A.H., mentioned by Al-Harírí in his 7th Ass. and noted in Arab. Prov. (i. 593) as “more intelligent than Iyás.” Ibn Khallikan (i. 233) tells sundry curious tales of him. Hearing a Jew ridicule the Moslem Paradise where the blessed ate and drank ad libitum but passed nothing away, he asked if all his food were voided: the Jew replied that God converted a part of it into nourishment and he rejoined, “Then why not the whole?” Being once in a courtyard he said that there was an animal under the bricks and a serpent was found: he had noted that only two of the tiles showed signs of dampness and this proved that there was something underneath that breathed. Al-Maydáni relates of him that hearing a dog bark, he declared that the beast was tied to the brink of a well; and he judged so because the bark was followed by an echo. Two men came before him, the complainant claimed money received by the defendant who denied the debt. Iyás asked the plaintiff where he had given it, and was answered, “Under a certain tree.” The judge told him to go there by way of refreshing his memory and in his absence asked the defendant if his adversary could have reached it. “Not yet,” said the rogue, forgetting himself; “’tis a long way off”–which answer convicted him. Seeing three women act upon a sudden alarm, he said, “One of them is pregnant, another is nursing, and the third is a virgin.” He explained his diagnosis as follows: “In time of danger persons lay their hands on what they most prize. Now I saw the pregnant woman in her flight place her hand on her belly, which showed me she was with child; the nurse placed her hand on her bosom, whereby I knew that she was suckling, and the third covered her parts with her hand proving to me that she was a maid.” (Chenery’s Al Hariri, p. 334.)

[FN#150] Such an address would be suited only to a King or a ruler.

[FN#151] MS. iii. 231-240; Scott’s “Story of the Sisters and the Sultana their mother,” vi. 82; Gauttier’s Histoire de la Sulthane et de ses trois Filles, vi. 228.

[FN#152] Arab, “Darajatáni”=lit. two astronomical degrees: the word is often used in this MS.

[FN#153] Arab. “Síwan;” plur. “Síwáwín.”

[FN#154] Arab. “‘Alá hudúd (or Alá hadd) al-Shauk,” repeated in MS. iii. 239.

[FN#155] Here the writer, forgetting that the youngest sister is speaking, breaks out into the third person–“their case”–“their mother,” etc.

[FN#156] The idea is that of the French anonyma’s “Mais, Monsieur, vous me suivez comme un lavement.”

[FN#157] The text (p. 243) speaks of two eunuchs, but only one has been noticed.

[FN#158] Arab. “Manjaník;” there are two forms of this word from the Gr. {Greek}, or {Greek}, and it survives in our mangonel, a battering engine. The idea in the text is borrowed from the life of Abraham whom Nimrod cast by means of a catapult (which is a bow worked by machinery) into a fire too hot for man to approach.

[FN#159] Showing that he was older; otherwise she would have addressed him, “O my cousin.” A man is “young,” in Arab speech, till forty and some say fifty.

[FN#160] The little precatory formula would keep off the Evil Eye.

[FN#161] Supper comes first because the day begins at sundown.

[FN#162] Calotte or skull-cap; vol. i. 224; viii. 120.

[FN#163] This is a new “fact” in physics and certainly to be counted amongst “things not generally known.” But Easterns have a host of “dodges” to detect physiological differences such as between man and maid, virgin and matron, imperfect castratos and perfect eunuchs and so forth. Very Eastern, mutatis mutandis, is the tale of the thief-catcher, who discovered a fellow in feminine attire by throwing an object for him to catch in his lap and by his closing his legs instead of opening them wide as the petticoated ones would do.

[FN#164] She did not wish to part with her maidenhead at so cheap a price.

[FN#165] Arab. “Subú'” (for “Yaum al-Subú'”) a festival prepared on the seventh day after a birth or a marriage or return from pilgrimage. See Lane (M. E. passim) under “Subooa.”

[FN#166] For this Anglo-Indian term,=a running courier, see vol. vii. 340. It is the gist of the venerable Joe Miller in which the father asks a friend to name his seven-months child. “Call him ‘Cossid’ for verily he hath accomplished a march of nine months in seven months.”

[FN#167] Arab. “Madáfi al-Salámah,” a custom showing the date of the tale to be more modern than any in the ten vols. of The Nights proper.

[FN#168] Master, captain, skipper (not owner): see vols. i. 127; vi. 112.

[FN#169] Zahr al-Bahr=the surface which affords a passage to man.

[FN#170] Arab. “Batiyah,” gen.=a black jack, a leathern flagon.

[FN#171] “Kunafáh”=a vermicelli cake often eaten at breakfast: see vol. x. 1: “Kunafáni” is the baker or confectioner. Scott (p. 101) converts the latter into a “maker of cotton wallets for travelling.”

[FN#172] In the text (iii. 260) “Mídi,” a clerical error for “Mayyidí,” an abbreviation of “Muayyadí,” the Faddah, Nuss or half-dirham coined under Sultan al-Muayyad, A.H. ixth cent.=A.D. xvth.

[FN#173] Arab. “Rub'” (plur. “Arbá'”)=the fourth of a “Waybah,” the latter being the sixth of an Ardabb (Irdabb)=5 bushels. See vol. i. 263.

[FN#174] A royal pavilion; according to Shakespear (Hind. Dict. sub voce) it is a corruption of the Pers. “Sayabán.”=canopy.

[FN#175] Arab. “Musajja'”=rhymed prose: for the Saj’a, see vol. i. 116, and Terminal Essay, vol. x. p. 220. So Chaucer:–

In rhyme or ellès in cadence.

[FN#176] Arab. “Huwa inná na’rifu-h” lit.=He, verily we wot him not: the juxtaposition of the two first pronouns is intended to suggest “I am he.”

[FN#177] In Moslem tales decency compels the maiden, however much she may be in love, to show extreme unwillingness in parting with her maidenhead especially by marriage; and this farce is enacted in real life (see vol. viii. 40). The French tell the indecent truth,

Désir de fille est un feu qui dévore: Désir de femme est plus fort encore.

[FN#178] The Arab. form (our old “bashaw”) of the Turk. “Pasha,” which the French and many English write Pacha, thus confusing the vulgar who called Ibrahim Pacha “Abraham Parker.” The origin of the word is much debated and the most fanciful derivations have been proposed. Some have taken it from the Sansk. “Paksha”=a wing: Fuerst from Pers. Páigáh=rank, dignity; Von Hammer (History) from Pái-Sháh=foot of the king; many from “Pádisháh”=the Sovran, and Mr. E. T. W. Gibb suspects a connection with the Turk. “Básh”=a head. He writes to me that the oldest forms are “Bashah” and “Báshah”; and takes the following quotation from Colonel Jevád Bey, author of an excellent work on the Janissaries published a few years ago. “As it was the custom of the (ancient) Turks to call the eldest son ‘Páshá,’ the same style was given to his son Alá al-Din (Aladdín) by Osmán Gházi, the founder of the Empire; and he kept this heir at home and beside him, whilst he employed the cadet Orkhan Bey as his commander-in-chief. When Orkhán Gházi ascended the throne he conferred the title of Páshá upon his son Sulayman. Presently reigned Murád (Amurath), who spying signs of disaffection in his first-born Sáwújí Bey about the middle of his reign created Kárá Khalíl (his Kází-Askar or High Chancellor) Wazir with the title Kazyr al-Dín Pasha; thus making him, as it were, an adopted son. After this the word passed into the category of official titles and came to be conferred upon those who received high office.” Colonel Jevád Bey then quotes in support of his opinion the “History of Munajjim Pasha” and the “Fatáyah al-Wakú’at”=Victories of Events. I may note that the old title has been sadly prostituted in Egypt as well as in Turkey: in 1851 Páshás could be numbered on a man’s fingers; now they are innumerable and of no account.

[FN#179] Arab. “‘Alà bábi ‘lláh”=for the love of the Lord, gratis, etc., a most popular phrase.

[FN#180] Arab. “Bahár,” often used for hot spices generally.

[FN#181] In the text Shajarat Ríh.

[FN#182] Arab. “Ma’ádin”=minerals, here mentioned for the first time.

[FN#183] For the ear conceiving love before the eye (the basis of half these love-stories), see vol. iii. 9.

[FN#184] According to Dr. Steingass “Mirwad”=the iron axle of a pulley or a wheel for drawing water or lifting loads, hence possibly a bar of metal, an ingot. But he is more inclined to take it in its usual sense of “Kohl-pencil.” Here “Mirwád” is the broader form like “Miftáh” for “Miftah,” much used in Syria.

[FN#185] For the Ashrafi, a gold coin of variable value, see vol. iii. 294. It is still coined; the Calcutta Ashrafi worth £1 11s. 8d. is 1/16th (about 5s. to the oz.) better than the English standard, and the Regulations of May, 1793, made it weigh 190.894 grs. Troy.

[FN#186] In text “Anjar”=a flat platter; Pers.

[FN#187] By what physical process the author modestly leaves to the reader’s imagination. Easterns do not often notice this feminine venereal paroxysm which takes the place of seminal emission in the male. I have seen it happen to a girl when hanging by the arms a trifle too long from a gymnastic cross-bar; and I need hardly say that at such moments (if men only knew them) every woman, even the most modest, is an easy conquest. She will repent it when too late, but the flesh has been too strong for her.

[FN#188] A neat and suggestive touch of Eastern manners and

Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights Volume 4 by Richard F. BurtonWith Notes Anthropological And Explanatory (page 6)