palefrenier laid, ord et infame of Queen Margaret of Navarre (Heptameron No. xx.). We have all known women who sacrificed everything despite themselves, as it were, for the most worthless of men. The world stares and scoffs and blames and understands nothing. There is for every woman one man and one only in whose slavery she is “ready to sweep the floor.” Fate is mostly opposed to her meeting him but, when she does, adieu husband and children, honour and religion, life and “soul.” Moreover Nature (human) commands the union of contrasts, such as fair and foul, dark and light, tall and short; otherwise mankind would be like the canines, a race of extremes, dwarf as toy-terriers, giants like mastiffs, bald as Chinese “remedy dogs,” or hairy as Newfoundlands. The famous Wilkes said only a half truth when he backed himself, with an hour s start, against the handsomest man in England; his uncommon and remarkable ugliness (he was, as the Italians say, un bel brutto) was the highest recommendation in the eyes of very beautiful women.
[FN#125] Every Moslem burial-ground has a place of the kind where honourable women may sit and weep unseen by the multitude. These visits are enjoined by the Apostle:–Frequent the cemetery, ’twill make you think of futurity! Also:–Whoever visiteth the graves of his parents (or one of them) every Friday, he shall be written a pious son, even though he might have been in the world, before that, a disobedient. (Pilgrimage, ii., 71.) The buildings resemble our European “mortuary chapels.” Said, Pasha of Egypt, was kind enough to erect one on the island off Suez, for the “use of English ladies who would like shelter whilst weeping and wailing for their dead.” But I never heard that any of the ladles went there.
[FN#126] Arab. “Ajal”=the period of life, the appointed time of death: the word is of constant recurrence and is also applied to sudden death. See Lane’s Dictionary, s.v.
[FN#127] “The dying Badawi to his tribe” (and lover) appears to me highly pathetic. The wild people love to be buried upon hill slopes whence they can look down upon the camp; and they still call out the names of kinsmen and friends as they pass by the grave-yards. A similar piece occurs in Wetzstein (p. 27, “Reisebericht ueber Hauran,” etc.):–
O bear with you my bones where the camel bears his load And bury me before you, if buried I must be; And let me not be burled ‘neath the burden of the vine But high upon the hill whence your sight I ever see! As you pass along my grave cry aloud and name your names The crying of your names shall revive the bones of me: I have fasted through my life with my friends, and in my death, I will feast when we meet, on that day of joy and glee.
[FN#128] The Akasirah (plur. of Kasra=Chosroes) is here a title of the four great dynasties of Persian Kings. 1. The Peshdadian or Assyrian race, proto-historics for whom dates fail, 2. The Kayanian (Medes and Persians) who ended with the Alexandrian invasion in B. C. 331. 3. The Ashkanian (Parthenians or Arsacides) who ruled till A. D. 202; and 4. The Sassanides which have already been mentioned. But strictly speaking “Kisri” and “Kasra” are titles applied only to the latter dynasty and especially to the great King Anushirwan. They must not be confounded with “Khusrau” (P. N. Cyrus, Ahasuerus? Chosroes?), and yet the three seem to have combined in “Caesar,” Kaysar and Czar. For details especially connected with Zoroaster see vol. I, p. 380 of the Dabistan or School of Manners, translated by David Shea and Anthony Troyer, Paris, 1843. The book is most valuable, but the proper names are so carelessly and incorrectly printed that the student is led into perpetual error.
[FN#129] The words are the very lowest and coarsest; but the scene is true to Arab life.
[FN#130] Arab.”Hayhat:” the word, written in a variety of ways is onomatopoetic, like our “heigh-ho!” it sometimes means “far from me (or you) be it!” but in popular usage it is simply “Alas.”
[FN#131] Lane (i., 134) finds a date for the book in this passage. The Soldan of Egypt, Mohammed ibn Kala’un, in the early eighth century (Hijrah = our fourteenth), issued a sumptuary law compelling Christians and Jews to wear indigo-blue and saffron-yellow turbans, the white being reserved for Moslems. But the custom was much older and Mandeville (chaps. ix.) describes it in A. D. 1322 when it had become the rule. And it still endures; although abolished in the cities it is the rule for Christians, at least in the country parts of Egypt and Syria. I may here remark that such detached passages as these are absolutely useless for chronology: they may be simply the additions of editors or mere copyists.
[FN#132] The ancient “Mustapha” = the Chosen (prophet, i. e. Mohammed), also titled Al-Mujtaba, the Accepted (Pilgrimage, ii., 309). “Murtaza”=the Elect, i.e. the Caliph Ali is the older “Mortada” or “Mortadi” of Ockley and his day, meaning “one pleasing to (or acceptable to) Allah.” Still older writers corrupted it to “Mortis Ali” and readers supposed this to be the Caliph’s name.
[FN#133] The gleam (zodiacal light) preceding the true dawn; the Persians call the former Subh-i-kazib (false or lying dawn) opposed to Subh-i-sadik (true dawn) and suppose that it is caused by the sun shining through a hole in the world- encircling Mount Kaf.
[FN#134] So the Heb. “Arun” = naked, means wearing the lower robe only; = our “in his shirt.”
[FN#135] Here we have the vulgar Egyptian colloquialism “Aysh” (–Ayyu shayyin) for the classical “Ma” = what.
[FN#136] “In the name of Allah!” here said before taking action.
[FN#137] Arab. “Mamluk” (plur. Mamalik) lit. a chattel; and in The Nights a white slave trained to arms. The “Mameluke Beys” of Egypt were locally called the “Ghuzz,” I use the convenient word in its old popular sense;
‘Tis sung, there’s a valiant Mameluke In foreign lands ycleped (Sir Luke)-
HUDIBRAS.
And hence, probably, Moliere’s “Mamamouchi”; and the modern French use “Mamalue.” See Savary’s Letters, No. xl.
[FN#138] The name of this celebrated succesor of Nineveh, where some suppose The Nights were written, is orig. (middle- gates) because it stood on the way where four great highways meet. The Arab. form “Mausil” (the vulgar “Mosul”) is also significant, alluding to the “junction” of Assyria and Babylonis. Hence our “muslin.”
[FN#139] This is Mr. Thackeray’s “nose-bag.” I translate by “walking-shoes” the Arab “Khuff” which are a manner of loose boot covering the ankle; they are not usually embroidered, the ornament being reserved for the inner shoe.
[FN#140] i.e. Syria (says Abulfeda) the “land on the left” (of one facing the east) as opposed to Al-Yaman the “land on the right.” Osmani would mean Turkish, Ottoman. When Bernard the Wise (Bohn, p.24) speaks of “Bagada and Axiam” (Mabillon’s text) or “Axinarri” (still worse), he means Baghdad and Ash-Sham (Syria, Damascus), the latter word puzzling his Editor. Richardson (Dissert, lxxii.) seems to support a hideous attempt to derive Sham from Shamat, a mole or wart, because the country is studded with hillocks! Al-Sham is often applied to Damascus-city whose proper name Dimishk belongs to books: this term is generally derived from Damashik b. Kali b. Malik b. Sham (Shem). Lee (Ibn Batutah, 29) denies that ha-Dimishki means “Eliezer of Damascus.”
[FN#141] From Oman = Eastern Arabia.
[FN#142] Arab. “Tamar Hanna” lit. date of Henna, but applied to the flower of the eastern privet (Lawsonia inermis) which has the sweet scent of freshly mown hay. The use of Henna as a dye is known even in Enland. The “myrtle” alluded to may either have been for a perfume (as it is held an anti-intoxicant) or for eating, the bitter aromatic berries of the “As” being supposed to flavour wine and especially Raki (raw brandy).
[FN#143] Lane. (i. 211) pleasantly remarks, “A list of these sweets is given in my original, but I have thought it better to omit the names” (!) Dozy does not shirk his duty, but he is not much more satisfactory in explaining words interesting to students because they are unfound in dictionaries and forgotten by the people. “Akras (cakes) Laymuniyah (of limes) wa Maymuniyah” appears in the Bresl. Edit. as “Ma’amuniyah” which may mean “Ma’amun’s cakes” or “delectable cakes.” “Amshat” = (combs) perhaps refers to a fine kind of Kunafah (vermicelli) known in Egypt and Syria as “Ghazl al-banat” = girl’s spinning.
[FN#144] The new moon carefully looked for by all Moslems because it begins the Ramazan-fast.
[FN#145] Solomon’s signet ring has before been noticed.
[FN#146] The “high-bosomed” damsel, with breasts firm as a cube, is a favourite with Arab tale tellers. Fanno baruffa is the Italian term for hard breasts pointing outwards.
[FN#147] A large hollow navel is looked upon not only as a beauty, but in children it is held a promise of good growth.
[FN#148] Arab. “Ka’ah,” a high hall opening upon the central court: we shall find the word used for a mansion, barrack, men’s quarters, etc.
[FN#149] Babel = Gate of God (El), or Gate of Ilu (P. N. of God), which the Jews ironically interpreted “Confusion.” The tradition of Babylonia being the very centre of witchcraft and enchantment by means of its Seven Deadly Spirits, has survived in Al-Islam; the two fallen angels (whose names will occur) being confined in a well; Nimrod attempting to reach Heaven from the Tower in a magical car drawn by monstrous birds and so forth. See p. 114, Francois Fenormant’s “Chaldean Magic,” London, Bagsters.
[FN#150] Arab. “Kamat Alfiyyah” = like the letter Alif, a straight perpendicular stroke. In the Egyptian hieroglyphs, the origin of every alphabet (not syllabarium) known to man, one form was a flag or leaf of water-plant standing upright. Hence probably the Arabic Alif-shape; while other nations preferred other modifications of the letter (ox’s head, etc), which in Egyptian number some thirty-six varieties, simple and compound.
[FN#151] I have not attempted to order this marvellous confusion of metaphors so characteristic of The Nights and the exigencies of Al- Saj’a = rhymed prose.
[FN#152] Here and elsewhere I omit the “kala (dice Turpino)” of the original: Torrens preserves “Thus goes the tale” (which it only interrupts). This is simply letter-wise and sense-foolish.
[FN#153] Of this worthy more at a future time.
[FN#154] i.e., sealed with the Kazi or legal authority’s seal of office.
[FN#155] “Nothing for nothing” is a fixed idea with the Eastern woman: not so much for greed as for a sexual point d’ honneur when dealing with the adversary–man.
[FN#156] She drinks first, the custom of the universal East, to show that the wine she had bought was unpoisoned. Easterns, who utterly ignore the “social glass” of Western civilisation drink honestly to get drunk; and, when far gone are addicted to horse- play (in Pers. “Badmasti” = le vin mauvais) which leads to quarrels and bloodshed. Hence it is held highly irreverent to assert of patriarchs, prophets and saints that they “drank wine;” and Moslems agree with our “Teatotallers” in denying that, except in the case of Noah, inebriatives are anywhere mentioned in Holy Writ.
[FN#157] Arab. “Hur al-Ayn,” lit. (maids) with eyes of lively white and black, applied to the virgins of Paradise who will wive with the happy Faithful. I retain our vulgar “Houri,” warning the reader that it is a masc. for a fem. (“Huriyah”) in Arab, although accepted in Persian, a genderless speach.
[FN#158] Arab. “Zambur,” whose head is amputated in female circumcision. See Night cccclxxiv.
[FN#159] Ocymum basilicum noticed in Introduction, the bassilico of Boccaccio iv. 5. The Book of Kalilah and Dimnah represents it as “sprouting with something also whose smell is foul and disgusting and the sower at once sets to gather it and burn it with fire.” (The Fables of Bidpai translated from the later Syriac version by I. G. N. Keith-Falconer, etc., etc., etc., Cambridge University Press, 1885). Here, however, Habk is a pennyroyal (mentha puligium), and probably alludes to the pecten.
[FN#160] i. e. common property for all to beat.
[FN#161] “A digit of the moon” is the Hindu equivalent.
[FN#162] Better known to us as Caravanserai, the “Travellers’ Bungalow” of India: in the Khan, however, shelter is to be had, but neither bed nor board.
[FN#163] Arab. “Zubb.” I would again note that this and its synonyms are the equivalents of the Arabic, which is of the lowest. The tale-teller’s evident object is to accentuate the contrast with the tragical stories to follow.
[FN#164] “ln the name of Allah,” is here a civil form of dismissal.
[FN#165] Lane (i. 124) is scandalised and naturally enough by this scene, which is the only blot in an admirable tale admirably told. Yet even here the grossness is but little more pronounced than what we find in our old drama (e. g., Shakespeare’s King Henry V.) written for the stage, whereas tales like The Nights are not read or recited before both sexes. Lastly “nothing follows all this palming work:” in Europe the orgie would end very differently. These “nuns of Theleme” are physically pure: their debauchery is of the mind, not the body. Galland makes them five, including the two doggesses.
[FN#166] So Sir Francis Walsingham’s “They which do that they should not, should hear that they would not.”
[FN#167] The old “Calendar,” pleasantly associated with that form of almanac. The Mac. Edit. has Karandaliyah,” a vile corruption, like Ibn Batutah’s “Karandar” and Torrens’ “Kurundul:” so in English we have the accepted vulgarism of “Kernel” for Colonel. The Bull Edit. uses for synonym “Su’uluk”=an asker, a beggar. Of these mendicant monks, for such they are, much like the Sarabaites of mediaeval Europe, I have treated and of their institutions and its founder, Shaykh Sharif Bu Ali Kalandar (ob. A. H. 724 =1323-24), at some length in my “History of Sindh,” chaps. viii. See also the Dabistan (i. 136) where the good Kalandar exclaims:–
If the thorn break in my body, how trifling the pain! But how sorely I feel for the poor broken thorn!
D’Herbelot is right when he says that the Kalandar is not generally approved by Moslems: he labours to win free from every form and observance and he approaches the Malamati who conceals all his good
deeds and boasts of his evil doings–our “Devil’s hypocrite.”
[FN#168] The “Kalandar” disfigures himself in this manner to show “mortification.”
[FN#169] Arab. “Gharib:” the porter is offended because the word implies “poor devil;” esp. one out of his own country.
[FN#170] A religious mendicant generally.
[FN#171] Very scandalous to Moslem “respectability” Mohammed said the house was accursed when the voices of women could be heard out of doors. Moreover the neighbours have a right to interfere and abate the scandal.
[FN#172] I need hardly say that these are both historical personages; they will often be mentioned, and Ja’afar will be noticed in the Terminal Essay.
[FN#173] Arab. “Same ‘an wa ta’atan”; a popular phrase of assent generally translated “to hear is to obey;” but this formula may be and must be greatly varied. In places it means “Hearing (the word of Allah) and obeying” (His prophet, viceregent, etc.)
[FN#174] Arab. “Sawab”=reward in Heaven. This word for which we have no equivalent has been naturalized in all tongues (e. g. Hindostani) spoken by Moslems.
[FN#175] Wine-drinking, at all times forbidden to Moslems, vitiates the Pilgrimage rite: the Pilgrim is vowed to a strict observance of the ceremonial law and many men date their “reformation” from the “Hajj.” Pilgrimage, iii., 126.
[FN#176] Here some change has been necessary; as the original text confuses the three “ladies.”
[FN#177] In Arab. the plural masc. is used by way of modesty when a girl addresses her lover and for the same reason she speaks of herself as a man.
[FN#178] Arab. “Al-Na’im”, in ful “Jannat-al-Na’im” = the Garden of Delights, i.e. the fifth Heaven made of white silver. The generic name of Heaven (the place of reward) is “Jannat,” lit. a garden; “Firdaus” being evidently derived from the Persian through the Greek {Greek Letters}, and meaning a chase, a hunting park. Writers on this subject should bear in mind Mandeville’s modesty, “Of Paradise I cannot speak properly, for I was not there.”
[FN#179] Arab. “Mikra’ah,” the dried mid-rib of a date-frond used for many purposes, especially the bastinado.
[FN#180] According to Lane (i., 229) these and the immediately following verses are from an ode by Ibn Sahl al-Ishbili. They are in the Bull Edit. not the Mac. Edit.
[FN#181] The original is full of conceits and plays on words which are not easily rendered in English.
[FN#182] Arab. “Tarjuman,” same root as Chald. Targum ( = a translation), the old “Truchman,” and through the Ital. “tergomano” our “Dragoman,” here a messenger.
[FN#183] Lit. the “person of the eyes,” our “babe of the eyes,” a favourite poetical conceit in all tongues; much used by the Elizabethans, but now neglected as a silly kind of conceit. See Night ccix.
[FN#184] Arab. “Sar” (Thar) the revenge-right recognised by law and custom (Pilgrimage, iii., 69).
[FN#185] That is “We all swim in the same boat.”
[FN#186] Ja’afar ever acts, on such occasions, the part of a wise and sensible man compelled to join in a foolish frolic. He contrasts strongly with the Caliph, a headstrong despot who will not be gainsaid, whatever be the whim of the moment. But Easterns would look upon this as a proof of his “kingliness.”
[FN#187] Arab. “Wa’l- Salam” (pronounced Was-Salam); meaning “and here ends the matter.” In our slang we say “All right, and the child’s name is Antony.”
[FN#188] This is a favourite jingle, the play being upon “ibrat” (a needle-graver) and ” ‘ibrat” (an example, a warning).
[FN#189] That is “make his bow,” as the English peasant pulls his forelock. Lane (i., 249) suggests, as an afterthought, that it means:–“Recover thy senses; in allusion to a person’s drawing his hand over his head after sleep or a fit.” But it occurs elsewhere in the sense of “cut thy stick.”
[FN#190] This would be a separate building like our family tomb and probably domed, resembling that mentioned in “The King of the Black Islands.” Europeans usually call it “a little Wali;” or, as they write it, “Wely,” the contained for the container; the “Santon” for the “Santon’s tomb.” I have noticed this curious confusion (which begins with Robinson, i. 322) in “Unexplored Syria,” i. 161.
[FN#191] Arab. “Wiswas,” = diabolical temptation or suggestion. The “Wiswasi” is a man with scruples (scrupulus, a pebble in the shoe), e.g. one who fears that his ablutions were deficient, etc.
[FN#192] Arab. “Katf” = pinioning by tying the arms behind the back and shoulders (Kitf) a dire disgrace to free-born men.
[FN#193] Arab. “Nafs.”=Hebr. Nephesh (Nafash) =soul, life as opposed to “Ruach”= spirit and breath. In these places it is equivalent to “I said to myself.” Another form of the root is “Nafas,” breath, with an idea of inspiration: so ‘Sahib Nafas” (=master of breath) is a minor saint who heals by expiration, a matter familiar to mesmerists (Pilgrimage, i., 86).
[FN#194] Arab. “Kaus al-Banduk;” the “pellet bow” of modern India; with two strings joined by a bit of cloth which supports a ball of dry clay or stone. It is chiefly used for birding.
[FN#195] In the East blinding was a common practice, especially in the case of junior princes not required as heirs. A deep perpendicular incision was made down each corner of the eyes; the lids were lifted and the balls removed by cutting the optic nerve and the muscles. The later Caliphs blinded their victims by passing a red-hot sword blade close to the orbit or a needle over the eye-ball. About the same time in Europe the operation was performed with a heated metal basin–the well known bacinare (used by Ariosto), as happened to Pier delle Vigne (Petrus de Vinea), the “godfather of modern Italian.”
[FN#196] Arab. “Khinzir” (by Europeans pronounced “Hanzir”), prop. a wild-boar, but popularly used like our “you pig!”
[FN#197] Striking with the shoe, the pipe-stick and similar articles is highly insulting, because they are not made, like whips and scourges, for such purpose. Here the East and the West differ diametrically. “Wounds which are given by instruments which are in one’s hands by chance do not disgrace a man,” says Cervantes (D. Q. i., chaps. 15), and goes on to prove that if a Zapatero (cobbler) cudgel another with his form or last, the latter must not consider himself cudgelled. The reverse in the East where a blow of a pipe stick cost Mahommed Ali Pasha’s son his life: Ishmail Pasha was burned to death by Malik Nimr, chief of Shendy (Pilgrimage, i., 203). Moreover, the actual wound is less considered in Moslem law than the instrument which caused it: so sticks and stones are venial weapons, whilst sword and dagger, gun and pistol are felonious. See ibid. (i., 336) for a note upon the weapons with which nations are policed.
[FN#198] Incest is now abominable everywhere except amongst the overcrowded poor of great and civilised cities. Yet such unions were common and lawful amongst ancient and highly cultivated peoples, as the Egyptians (Isis and Osiris), Assyrians and ancient Persians. Physiologically they are injurious only when the parents have constitutional defects: if both are sound, the issue, as amongst the so-called “lower animals ” is viable and healthy.
[FN#199] Dwellers in the Northern Temperates can hardly imagine what a dust-storm is in sun parched tropical lands. In Sind we were often obliged to use candles at mid-day, while above the dust was a sun that would roast an egg.
[FN#200] Arab. ” ‘Urban,” now always used of the wild people, whom the French have taught us to call les Bedouins; “Badw” being a waste or desert, and Badawi (fem. Badawiyah, plur. Badawi and Bidwan), a man of the waste. Europeans have also learnt to miscall the Egyptians “Arabs”: the difference is as great as between an Englishman and a Spaniard. Arabs proper divide their race into sundry successive families. “The Arab al-Araba” (or al- Aribah, or al-Urubiyat) are the autochthones, prehistoric, proto-historic and extinct tribes; for instance, a few of the Adites who being at Meccah escaped the destruction of their wicked nation, but mingled with other classes. The “Arab al-Muta’arribah,” (Arabised Arabs) are the first advenae represented by such noble strains as the Koraysh (Koreish), some still surviving. The “Arab al-Musta’aribah” (insititious, naturalized or instituted Arabs, men who claim to be Arabs) are Arabs like the Sinaites, the Egyptians and the Maroccans descended by intermarriage with other races. Hence our “Mosarabians” and the “Marrabais” of Rabelais (not, “a word compounded of Maurus and Arabs”). Some genealogists, however, make the Muta’arribah descendants of Kahtan (possibly the Joktan of Genesis x., a comparatively modern document, B.C. 700?); and the Musta’aribah those descended from Adnan the origin of Arab genealogy. And, lastly, are the “Arab al-Musta’ajimah,” barbarised Arabs, like the present population of Meccah and Al-Medinah. Besides these there are other tribes whose origin is still unknown, such as the Mahrah tribes of Hazramaut, the “Akhdam” (=serviles) of Oman (Maskat); and the “Ebna” of Al-Yaman: Ibn Ishak supposes the latter to be descended from the Persian soldiers of Anushirwan who expelled the Abyssinian invader from Southern Arabia. (Pilgrimage, m., 31, etc.)
[FN#201] Arab. “Amir al-Muuminin.” The title was assumed by the Caliph Omar to obviate the inconvenience of calling himself “Khalifah” (successor) of the Khalifah of the Apostle of Allah (i.e. Abu Bakr); which after a few generations would become impossible. It means “Emir (chief or prince) of the Muumins,” men who hold to the (true Moslem) Faith, the “Iman” (theory, fundamental articles) as opposed to the “Din,” ordinance or practice of the religion. It once became a Wazirial time conferred by Sultan Malikshah (King King- king) on his Nizam al-Murk. (Richardson’s Dissert. [viii.)
[FN#202] This may also mean “according to the seven editions of the Koran ” the old revisions and so forth (Sale, Sect. iii. and D’Herbelot “Alcoran.”) The schools of the “Mukri,” who teach the right pronunciation wherein a mistake might be sinful, are seven, Harnzah, Ibn Katir, Ya’akub, Ibn Amir, Kisai, Asim and Hafs, the latter being the favourite with the Hanafis and the only one now generally known in Al-Islam.
[FN#203] Arab. “Sadd”=wall, dyke, etc. the “bund” or “band” of Anglo-India. Hence the “Sadd” on the Nile, the banks of grass and floating islands which “wall” the stream. There are few sights more appalling than a sandstorm in the desert, the “Zauba’ah” as the Arabs call it. Devils, or pillars of sand, vertical and inclined, measuring a thousand feet high, rush over the plain lashing the sand at their base like a sea surging under a furious whirlwind; shearing the grass clean away from the roots, tearing up trees, which are whirled like leaves and sticks in air and sweeping away tents and houses as if they were bits of paper. At last the columns join at the top and form, perhaps three thousand feet above the earth, a gigantic cloud of yellow sand which obliterates not only the horizon but even the mid-day sun. These sand-spouts are the terror of travellers. In Sind and the Punjab we have the dust- storm which for darkness, I have said, beats the blackest London fog.
[FN#204] Arab. Sar = the vendetta, before mentioned, as dreaded in Arabia as in Corsica.
[FN#205] Arab. “Ghutah,” usually a place where irrigation is abundant. It especially applies (in books) to the Damascus-plain because “it abounds with water and fruit trees.” The Ghutah is one of the four earthly paradises, the others being Basrah (Bassorah), Shiraz and Samarcand. Its peculiarity is the likeness to a seaport the Desert which rolls up almost to its doors being the sea and its ships being the camels. The first Arab to whom we owe this admirable term for the “Companion of Job” is “Tarafah” one of the poets of the Suspended Poems: he likens (v. v. 3, 4) the camels which bore away his beloved to ships sailing from Aduli. But “ships of the desert” is doubtless a term of the highest antiquity.
[FN#206] The exigencies of the “Saj’a,” or rhymed prose, disjoint this and many similar pas. sages.
[FN#207] The “Ebony” Islands; Scott’s “Isle of Ebene,” i., 217.
[FN#208] “Jarjaris” in the Bul. Edit.
[FN#209] Arab. “Takbis.” Many Easterns can hardly sleep without this kneading of the muscles, this “rubbing” whose hygienic properties England is now learning.
[FN#210] The converse of the breast being broadened, the drooping, “draggle-tail” gait compared with the head held high and the chest inflated.
[FN#211] This penalty is mentioned in the Koran (chaps. v.) as fit for those who fight against Allah and his Apostle, but commentators are not agreed if the sinners are first to be put to death or to hang on the cross till they die. Pharaoh (chaps. xx.) threatens to crucify his magicians on palm-trees, and is held to be the first crucifier.
[FN#212] Arab. “‘Ajami”=foreigner, esp. a Persian: the latter in The Nights is mostly a villain. I must here remark that the contemptible condition of Persians in Al-Hijaz (which I noted in 1852, Pilgrimage, i., 327) has completely changed. They are no longer, “The slippers of All and hounds of Omar:” they have learned the force of union and now, instead of being bullied, they bully.
[FN#213] The Calc. Edit. turns into Tailors (Khayyatin) and Torrens
does not see the misprint.
[FN#214] i.e. Axe and sandals.
[FN#215] Lit. “Strike his neck.”
[FN#216] A phrase which will frequently recur; meaning the situation suggested such words a these.
[FN#217] The smiter with the evil eye is called “A’in” and the person smitten “Ma’im” or “Ma’un.”
[FN#218] Arab. “Sakiyah,” the well-known Persian wheel with pots and buckets attached to the tire. It is of many kinds, the boxed, etc., etc., and it is possibly alluded to in the “pitcher broken at the fountain” (Eccleslastes xii. 6) an accident often occurring to the modern “Noria.” Travellers mostly abuse its “dismal creaking” and “mournful monotony”: I have defended the music of the water-wheel in Pilgrimage ii. 198.
[FN#219] Arab. “Zikr” lit. remembering, mentioning (i. c. the names of Allah), here refers to the meetings of religious for devotional exercises; the “Zikkirs,” as they are called, mostly standing or sitting in a circle while they ejaculate the Holy Name. These “rogations” are much affected by Darwayshes, or begging friars, whom Europe politely divides Unto “dancing” and “howling”; and, on one occasion, greatly to the scandal of certain Englaenderinns to whom I was showing the Ezbekiyah I joined the ring of “howlers.” Lane (Mod. Egypt, see index) is profuse upon the subject of “Zikrs” and Zikkits. It must not be supposed that they are uneducated men: the better class, however, prefers more privacy.
[FN#220] As they thought he had been there for prayer or penance.
[FN#221] Arab. “Ziyarat,” a visit to a pious person or place.
[FN#222] This is a paternal salute in the East where they are particular about the part kissed. A witty and not unusually gross Persian book, called the “Al-Namah” because all questions begin with “Al” (the Arab article) contains one “Al-Wajib al-busidan?” (what best deserves bussing?) and the answer is “Kus-i-nau-pashm,” (a bobadilla with a young bush).
[FN#223] A weight of 71-72 English grains in gold; here equivalent to the diner.
[FN#224] Compare the tale of The Three Crows in Gammer Grethel, Evening ix.
[FN#225] The comparison is peculiarly apposite; the earth seen from above appears hollow with a raised rim.
[FN#226] A hundred years old.
[FN#227] “Bahr” in Arab. means sea, river, piece of water; hence the adjective is needed.
[FN#228] The Captain or Master of the ship (not the owner). In Al-Yaman the word also means a “barber,” in virtue of the root, Rass, a head.
[FN#229] The text has “in the character Ruka’i,”,” or Rika’i,, the correspondence-hand.
[FN#230] A curved character supposed to be like the basil-leaf (rayhan). Richardson calls it “Rohani.”
[FN#231] I need hardly say that Easterns use a reed, a Calamus (Kalam applied only to the cut reed) for our quills and steel pens.
[FN#232] Famous for being inscribed on the Kiswah (cover) of Mohammed’s tomb; a large and more formal hand still used for engrossing and for mural inscriptions. Only seventy two varieties of it are known (Pilgrimage, ii., 82).
[FN#233] The copying and transcribing hand which is either Arabi or Ajami. A great discovery has been lately made which upsets all our old ideas of Cufic, etc. Mr. Loeytved of Bayrut has found, amongst the Hauranic inscriptions, one in pure Naskhi, dating A. D. 568, or fifty years before the Hijrah; and it is accepted as authentic by my learned friend M. Ch. Clermont-Ganneau (p. 193, Pal. Explor. Fund. July 1884). In D’Herbelot and Sale’s day the Koran was supposed to have been written in rude characters, like those subsequently called “Cufic,” invented shortly before Mohammed’s birth by Muramir ibn Murrah of Anbar in Irak, introduced into Meccah by Bashar the Kindian, and perfected by Ibn Muklah (Al-Wazir, ob. A. H. 328=940). We must now change all that. See Catalogue of Oriental Caligraphs, etc., by G. P, Badger, London, Whiteley, 1885.
[FN#234] Capital and uncial letters; the hand in which the Ka’abah veil is inscribed (Pilgrimage iii. 299, 300).
[FN#235] A “Court hand” says Mr. Payne (i. 112): I know nothing of it. Other hands are: the Ta’alik; hanging or oblique, used for finer MSS. and having, according to Richardson, “the same analogy to the Naskhi as our Italic has to the Roman.” The Nasta’ lik (not Naskh-Ta’alik) much used in India, is, as the name suggests, a mixture of the Naskhi (writing of transactions) and the Ta’alik. The Shikastah (broken hand) everywhere represents our running hand and becomes a hard task to the reader. The Kirma is another cursive character, mostly confined to the receipts and disbursements of the Turkish treasury. The Divani, or Court (of Justice) is the official hand, bold and round. a business character, the lines often rising with a sweep or curve towards the (left) end. The Jali or polished has a variety, the Jali-Ta’alik: the Sulsi (known in many books) is adopted for titles of volumes, royal edicts, diplomas and so forth; “answering much the same purpose as capitals with us, or the flourished letters in illuminated manuscripts” (Richardson) The Tughrai is that of the Tughra, the Prince’s cypher or flourishing signature in ceremonial writings, and containing some such sentence as: Let this be executed. There are others e. g. Yakuti and Sirenkil known only by name. Finally the Maghribi (Moorish) hand differs in form and diacritical points from the characters used further east almost as much as German running hand does from English. It is curious that Richardson omits the Jali (intricate and convoluted) and the divisions of the Sulusi, Sulsi or Sulus (Thuluth) character, the Sulus al-Khafif, etc.
[FN#236] Arab. “Baghlah”; the male (Bagful) is used only for loads. This is everywhere the rule: nothing is more unmanageable than a restive “Macho”, and he knows that he can always get you off his back when so minded. From “Baghlah” is derived the name of the native craft Anglo-Indice a “Buggalow.”
[FN#237] In Heb. “”Ben-Adam” is any man opp. to “Beni ish” (Psalm iv. 3) =filii viri, not homines.
[FN#238] This posture is terribly trying to European legs; and few white men (unless brought up to it) can squat for any time on their heels. The “tailor-fashion,” with crossed legs, is held to be free and easy.
[FN#239] Arab. “Kata”=Pterocles Alchata, the well-known sand-grouse of the desert. It is very poor white flesh.
[FN#240] Arab. “Khubz” which I do not translate “cake” or “bread,” as thee would suggest the idea of our loaf. The staff of life in the East is a thin flat circle of dough baked in the oven or on the griddle, and corresponding with the Scotch “scone,” the Spanish tortilla and the Australian “flap-jack.”
[FN#241] Arab. “Harisah,” a favourite dish of wheat (or rice) boiled and reduced to a paste with shredded meat, spices and condiments. The “bangles” is a pretty girl eating with him.
[FN#242] These lines are repeated with a difference in Night cccxxx. They affect Rims cars, out of the way, heavy rhymes: e. g. here Sakarij (plur. of Sakruj, platters, porringers); Tayahij (plur. of Tayhuj, the smaller caccabis-partridge); Tabahij (Persian Tabahjah, an me et or a stew of meat, onions, eggs, etc.) Ma’arij (“in stepped piles” like the pyramids Lane ii 495, renders “on the stairs”); Makarij (plur. of Makraj, a small pot); Damalij (plur. of dumluj, a bracelet, a bangle); Dayabij (brocades) and Tafarij (openings, enjoyments). In Night cccxxx. we find also Sikabij (plur. of Sikbaj, marinated meat elsewhere explained); Fararij (plur. of farruj, a chicken, vulg. farkh) and Dakakij (plur. of Gr. dakujah,, a small Jar). In the first line we have also (though not a rhyme) Gharanik Gr. , a crane, preserved in Romaic. The weeping and wailing are caused by the remembrance that all these delicacies have been demolished like a Badawi camp.
[FN#243] This is the vinum coctum, the boiled wine, still a favourite in Southern Italy and Greece.
[FN#244] Eastern topers delight in drinking at dawn: upon this subject I shall have more to say in other Nights.
[FN#245] Arab. “Adab,” a crux to translators, meaning anything between good education and good manners. In mod. Turk. “Edibiyyet” (Adabiyat) = belles lettres and “Edebi’ or “Edib” = a litterateur.
[FN#246] The Caliph Al-Maamun, who was a bad player, used to say, “I have the administration of the world and am equal to it, whereas I am straitened in the ordering of a space of two spans by two spans.” The “board” was then “a square field of well-dressed leather.”
[FN#247] The Rabbis (after Matth. xix. 12) count three kinds of Eunuchs; (1) Seris chammah=of the sun, i.e. natural, (2) Seris Adam=manufactured per homines; and (3) Seris Chammayim–of God (i.e.. religious abstainer). Seris (castrated) or Abd (slave) is the general Hebrew name.
[FN#248] The “Lady of Beauty.”
[FN#249] “Kaf” has been noticed as the mountain which surrounds earth as a ring does the finger:: it is popularly used like our Alp and Alpine. The “circumambient Ocean” (Bahr al-muhit) is the Homeric Ocean-stream.
[FN#250] The pomegranate is probably chosen here because each fruit is supposed to contain one seed from Eden-garden. Hence a host of superstitions (Pilgrimage iii., 104) possibly connected with the Chaldaic-Babylonian god Rimmon or Ramanu. Hence Persephone or Ishtar tasted the “rich pomegranate’s seed.” Lenormant, loc. cit. pp. 166, 182.
[FN#251] i.e. for the love of God–a favourite Moslem phrase.
[FN#252] Arab. “Bab,” also meaning a chapter (of magic, of war, etc.), corresponding with the Persian “Dar” as in Sad-dar, the Hundred Doors. Here, however, it is figurative “I tried a new mode.” This scene is in the Mabinogion.
[FN#253] I use this Irish term = crying for the dead, as English wants the word for the praefica, or myrialogist. The practice is not encouraged in Al-Islam; and Caliph Abu Bakr said, ; “Verily a corpse is sprinkled with boiling water by reason of the lamentations of the living, i.e. punished for not having taken measures to prevent their profitless lamentations. But the practice is from Negroland whence it reached Egypt, and the people have there developed a curious system in the “weeping-song” I have noted this in “The Lake Regions of Central Africa.” In Zoroastrianism (Dabistan, chaps. xcvii.) tears shed for the dead form a river in hell, black and frigid.
[FN#254] These lines are hardly translatable. Arab. “Sabr” means “patience” as well as “aloes,” hereby lending itself to a host of puns and double entendres more or less vile. The aloe, according to Burckhardt, is planted in graveyards as a lesson of patience: it is also slung, like the dried crocodile, over house doors to prevent evil spirits entering: “thus hung without earth and water,” says Lane (M.E., chaps. xi.), “it will live for several years and even blossom. Hence (?) it is called Sabr, which signifies patience. But Sibr as well as Sabr (a root) means “long sufferance.” I hold the practice to be one of the many Inner African superstitions. The wild Gallas to the present day plant aloes on graves, and suppose that when the plant sprouts the deceased has been admitted to the gardens of Wak, the Creator. (Pilgrimage iii. 350.)
[FN#255] Every city in the East has its specific title: this was given to Baghdad either on account of its superior police or simply because it was the Capital of the Caliphate. The Tigris was also called the “River of Peace (or Security).”
[FN#256] This is very characteristic: the passengers finding themselves in difficulties at once take command. See in my Pilgrimage (I. chaps. xi.) how we beat and otherwise maltreated the Captain of the “Golden Wire.”
[FN#257] The fable is probably based on the currents which, as in Eastern Africa, will carry a ship fifty miles a day out of her course. We first find it in Ptolemy (vii. 2) whose Maniolai Islands, of India extra Gangem, cause iron nails to fly out of ships, the effect of the Lapis Herculeus (Loadstone). Rabelais (v. c. 37) alludes to it and to the vulgar idea of magnetism being counteracted by Skordon (Scordon or garlic). Hence too the Adamant (Loadstone) Mountains of Mandeville (chaps. xxvii.) and the “Magnetic Rock” in Mr Puttock’s clever “Peter Wilkins.” I presume that the myth also arose from seeing craft built, as on the East African Coast, without iron nails. We shall meet with the legend again. The word Jabal (“Jebel” in Egypt) often occurs in these pages. The Arabs apply it to any rising ground or heap of rocks; so it is not always = our mountain. It has found its way to Europe e. g. Gibraltar and Monte Gibello (or Mongibel in poetry) “Mt. Ethne that men clepen Mounte Gybelle.” Other special senses of Jabal will occur.
[FN#258] As we learn from the Nubian Geographer the Arabs in early ages explored the Fortunate Islands (Jazirat al-Khalidat=Eternal Isles), or Canaries, on one of which were reported a horse and horseman in bronze with his spear pointing west. Ibn al-Ward) notes two images of hard stone, each an hundred cubits high, and upon the top of each a figure of copper pointing with its hand backwards, as though it would say:–Return for there is nothing behind me!” But this legend attaches to older doings. The 23rd Tobba (who succeeded Bilkis), Malik bin Sharhabil, (or Sharabil or Sharahil) surnamed Nashir al-Ni’am=scatterer of blessings, lost an army in attempting the Western sands and set up a statue of copper upon whose breast was inscribed in antique characters:–
There is no access behind me,
Nothing beyond,
(Saith) The Son of Sharabil.
[FN#259] i.e. I exclaimed “Bismillah!”
[FN#260] The lesser ablution of hands, face and feet; a kind of “washing the points.” More in Night ccccxl.
[FN#261] Arab. “Ruka’tayn”; the number of these bows which are followed by the prostrations distinguishes the five daily prayers.
[FN#262] The “Beth Kol” of the Hebrews; also called by the Moslems “Hatif”; for which ask the Spiritualists. It is the Hindu “voice divine” or “voice from heaven.”
[FN#263] These formulae are technically called Tasmiyah, Tahlil (before noted) and Takbir: i.e. “testifying” is Tashhid.
[FN#264] Arab. “Samn,” (Pers. “Raughan” Hind. “Ghi”) the “single sauce” of the East; fresh butter set upon the fire, skimmed and kept (for a century if required) in leather bottles and demijohns. Then it becomes a hard black mass, considered a panacea for wounds and diseases. It is very “filling”: you say jocosely to an Eastern threatened with a sudden inroad of guests, “Go, swamp thy rice with Raughan.” I once tried training, like a Hindu Pahlawan or athlete, on Gur (raw sugar), milk and Ghi; and the result was being blinded by bile before the week ended.
[FN#265] These handsome youths are always described in the terms we should apply to women.
[FN#266] The Bull Edit. (i. 43) reads otherwise:–I found a garden and a second and a third and so on till they numbered thirty and nine; and, in each garden, I saw what praise will not express, of trees and rills and fruits and treasures. At the end of the last I sighted a door and said to myself, “What may be in this place?; needs must I open it and look in!” I did so accordingly and saw a courser ready saddled and bridled and picketed; so I loosed and mounted him, and he flew with me like a bird till he set me down on a terrace-roof; and, having landed me, he struck me a whisk with his tail and put out mine eye and fled from me. Thereupon I descended from the roof and found ten youths all blind of one eye who, when they saw me exclaimed, “No welcome to thee, and no good cheer!” I asked them, “Do ye admit me to your home and society?” and they answered, “No, by Allah’ thou shalt not live amongst us.” So I went forth with weeping eyes and grieving heart, but Allah had written my safety on the Guarded Tablet so I reached Baghdad in safety, etc. This is a fair specimen of how the work has been curtailed in that issue.
[FN#267] Arabs date pregnancy from the stopping of the menses, upon which the foetus is supposed to feed. Kalilah wa Dimnah says, “The child’s navel adheres to that of his mother and thereby he sucks” (i. 263).
[FN#268] This is contrary to the commands of Al-Islam, Mohammed expressly said “The Astrologers are liars, by the Lord of the Ka’abah!”; and his saying is known to almost all Moslems, lettered or unlettered. Yet, the further we go East (Indiawards) the more we find these practices held in honour. Turning westwards we have:
Iuridicis, Erebo, Fisco, fas vivere rapto: Militibus, Medicis, Tortori occidere ludo est; Mentiri Astronomis, Pictoribus atque Poetis.
[FN#269] He does not perform the Wuzu or lesser ablution because he neglects his dawn prayers.
[FN#270] For this game see Lane (M. E. Chapt. xvii.) It is usually played on a checked cloth not on a board like our draughts; and Easterns are fond of eating, drinking and smoking between and even during the games. Torrens (p. 142) translates “I made up some dessert,” confounding “Mankalah” with “Nukl” (dried fruit, quatre-mendiants).
[FN#271] Quoted from Mohammed whose saying has been given.
[FN#272] We should say “the night of the thirty-ninth.”
[FN#273] The bath first taken after sickness.
[FN#274] Arab. “Dikak” used by way of soap or rather to soften the skin: the meal is usually of lupins, “Adas”=”Revalenta Arabica,” which costs a penny in Egypt and half-a-crown in England.
[FN#275] Arab. “Sukkar-nabat.” During my day (1842-49) we had no other sugar in the Bombay Presidency.
[FN#276] This is one of the myriad Arab instances that the decrees of “Anagke,” Fate, Destiny, Weird, are inevitable. The situation is highly dramatic; and indeed The Nights, as will appear in the Terminal Essay, have already suggested a national drama.
[FN#277] Having lately been moved by Ajib.
[FN#278] Mr. Payne (i. 131) omits these lines which appear out of place; but this mode of inappropriate quotation is a characteristic of Eastern tales.
[FN#279] Anglice “him.”
[FN#280] This march of the tribe is a lieu commun of Arab verse e.g. the poet Labid’s noble elegy on the “Deserted Camp.” We shall find scores of instances in The Nights.
[FN#281] I have heard of such sands in the Desert east of Damascus which can be crossed only on boards or camel furniture; and the same is reported of the infamous Region “Al-Ahklaf” (“Unexplored Syria”).
[FN#282] Hence the Arab. saying “The bark of a dog and not the gleam of a fire;” the tired traveller knows from the former that the camp is near, whereas the latter shows from great distances.
[FN#283] Dark blue is the colour of mourning in Egypt as it was of the Roman Republic. The Persians hold that this tint was introduced by Kay Kawus (B. C. 600) when mourning for his son Siyawush. It was continued till the death of Husayn on the 10th of Muharram (the first month, then representing the vernal equinox) when it was changed for black. As a rule Moslems do not adopt this symbol of sorrow (called “Hidad”) looking upon the practice as somewhat idolatrous and foreign to Arab manners. In Egypt and especially on the Upper Nile women dye their hands with indigo and stair. their faces black or blacker.
[FN#284] The older Roc, of which more in the Tale of Sindbad. Meanwhile the reader curious about the Persian Simurgh (thirty bird) will consult the Dabistan, i., 55,191 and iii., 237, and Richardson’s Diss. p. xlviii. For the Anka (Enka or Unka–long necked bird) see Dab. iii., 249 and for the Huma (bird of Paradise) Richardson lxix. We still lack details concerning the Ben or Bennu (nycticorax) of Egypt which with the Article pi gave rise to the Greek “phoenix.”
[FN#285] Probably the Haledj of Forskal (p. xcvi. Flor. AEgypt. Arab.), “lignum tenax, durum, obscuri generic.” The Bres. Edit. has “akul”=teak wood, vulg. “Saj.”
[FN#286] The knocker ring is an invention well known to the Romans.
[FN#287] Arab. “Sadr”; the place of honour; hence the “Sudder Adawlut” (Supreme Court) in the Anglo-Indian jargon.
[FN#288] Arab. “Ahlan wa sahlan wa marhaba,” the words still popularly addressed to a guest.
[FN#289] This may mean “liquid black eyes”; but also, as I have noticed, that the lashes were long and thick enough to make the eyelids appear as if Kohl-powder had been applied to the inner rims.
[FN#290] A slight parting between the two front incisors, the upper only, is considered a beauty by Arabs; why it as hard to say except for the racial love of variety. “Sugar” (Thug) in the text means, primarily, the opening of the mouth, the gape: hence the front teeth.
[FN#291] i.e. makes me taste the bitterness of death, “bursting the gall-bladder” (Mararah) being our “breaking the heart.”
[FN#292] Almost needless to say that forbidden doors and rooms form a lieu-commun in Fairie: they are found in the Hindu Katha Sarit Sagara and became familiar to our childhood by “Bluebeard.”
[FN#293] Lit. “apply Kohl to my eyes,” even as Jezebel “painted her face,” in Heb. put her eyes in painting (2 Kings ix. 30).
[FN#294] Arab. “Al-Barkuk,” whence our older “Apricock.” Classically it is “Burkuk” and Pers. for Arab. “Mishrnish,” and it also denotes a small plum or damson. In Syria the side next the sun” shows a glowing red flush.
[FN#295] Arab. “Hazar” (in Persian, a thousand) = a kind of mocking bird.
[FN#296] Some Edits. make the doors number a hundred, but the Princesses were forty and these coincidences, which seem to have significance and have none save for Arab symmetromania, are common in Arab stories.
[FN#297] Arab. “Majur”: hence possibly our “mazer,” which is popularly derived from Masarn, a maple.
[FN#298] A compound scent of ambergris, musk and aloes.
[FN#299] The ends of the bridle-reins forming the whip.
[FN#300] The flying horse is Pegasus which is a Greek travesty of an Egyptian myth developed India.
[FN#301] The Bres. Edit. wrongly says “the seventh.”
[FN#302] Arab. “Sharmutah” (plur. Sharamit) from the root Sharmat, to shred, a favourite Egyptian word also applied in vulgar speech to a strumpet, a punk, a piece. It is also the popular term for strips of jerked or boucaned meat hung up m the sun to dry, and classically called “Kadid.”
[FN#303] Arab. “Izar,” the man’s waistcloth opposed to the Rida or shoulder-cloth, is also the sheet of white calico worn by the poorer Egyptian women out of doors and covering head and hands. See Lane (M. E., chaps. i.). The rich prefer a “Habarah” of black silk, and the poor, when they have nothing else, use a bed-sheet.
[FN#304] i.e. “My clears.”
[FN#305] Arab. “La tawakhizna:” lit. “do not chastise (or blame) us;” the pop. expression for, “excuse (or pardon) us.”
[FN#306] Arab. “Maskhut,” mostly applied to change of shape as man enchanted to monkey, and in vulgar parlance applied to a statue (of stone, etc.). The list of metamorphoses in Al-Islam is longer than that known to Ovid. Those who have seen Petra, the Greek town of the Hauran and the Roman ruins in Northern Africa will readily detect the bests upon which these stories are built. I shall return to this subject in The City of Iram (Night cclxxvi.) and The City of Brass (dlxvii.).
[FN#307] A picturesque phrase enough to express a deserted site, a spectacle familiar to the Nomades and always abounding in pathos to the citizens.
[FN#308] The olden “Harem” (or gynaeceum, Pers. Zenanah, Serraglio): Harim is also used by synecdoche for the inmates; especially the wife.
[FN#309] The pearl is supposed in the East to lose 1% per ann. of its splendour and value.
[FN#310] Arab. “Fass,” properly the bezel of a ring; also a gem cut en cabochon and generally the contenant for the contenu.
[FN#311] Arab. “Mihrab” = the arch-headed niche in the Mosque-wall facing Meccah-wards. Here, with his back to the people and fronting the Ka’abah or Square House of Meccah (hence called the “Kiblah” = direction of prayer), stations himself the Imam, artistes or fugleman, lit. “one who stands before others;” and his bows and prostrations give the time to the congregation. I have derived the Mihrab from the niche in which the Egyptian God was shrined: the Jews ignored it, but the Christians preserved it for their statues and altars. Maundrell suggests that the empty niche denotes an invisible God. As the niche (symbol of Venus) and the minaret (symbol of Priapus) date only from the days of the tenth Caliph, Al-Walid (A.H. 86-96=105-115), the Hindus charge the Moslems with having borrowed the two from their favourite idols–The Linga-Yoni or Cunnus phallus (Pilgrimage ii. 140), and plainly call the Mihrab a Bhaga= Cunnus (Dabistan ii. 152). The Guebres further term Meccah “Mah-gah,” locus Lunae, and Al-Medinah, “Mahdinah,” = Moon of religion. See Dabistan i., 49, etc.
[FN#312] Arab “Kursi,” a stool of palm-fronds, etc., X-shaped (see Lane’s illustration, Nights i., 197), before which the reader sits. Good Moslems will not hold the Holy Volume below the waist nor open it except when ceremonially pure. Englishmen in the East should remember this, for to neglect the “Adab al-Kuran” (respect due to Holy Writ) gives great scandal.
[FN#313] Mr. Payne (i. 148) quotes the German Zuckerpueppchen.
[FN#314] The Persian poets have a thousand conceits in praise of the “mole,” (Khal or Shamah) for which Hafiz offered “Samarkand and Bokhara” (they not being his, as his friends remarked). Another “topic” is the flight of arrows shot by eyelashes.
[FN#315] Arab. “Suha” a star in the Great Bear introduced only to balance “wushat” = spies, enviers, enemies, whose “evil eye” it will ward off.
[FN#316] In Arab tales beauty is always “soft-sided,” and a smooth skin is valued in proportion to its rarity.
[FN#317] The myrtle is the young hair upon the side face
[FN#318] In other copies of these verses the fourth couplet swears “by the scorpions of his brow” i.e. the accroche-caeurs, the beau-catchers, bell-ropes or aggravators,” as the B.P. calls them. In couplet eight the poet alludes to his love’s “Unsur,” or element his nature made up of the four classicals, and in the last couplet he makes the nail paring refer to the moon not the sun.
[FN#319] This is regular formula when speaking of Guebres.
[FN#320] Arab. “Faraiz”; the orders expressly given in the Koran which the reader will remember, is Uncreate and Eternal. In India “Farz” is applied to injunctions thrice repeated; and “Wajib” to those given twice over. Elsewhere scanty difference is made between them.
[FN#321] Arab. “Kufr” = rejecting the True Religion, i.e. Al-Islam, such rejection being “Tughyan” or rebellion against the Lord. The “terrible sound” is taken from the legend of the prophet Salih and the proto-historic tribe of Thamud which for its impiety was struck dead by an earthquake and a noise from heaven. The latter, according to some commentators, was the voice of the Archangel Gabriel crying “Die all of you” (Koran, chapts. vii., xviii., etc.). We shall hear more of it in the “City of many-columned Iram.” According to some, Salih, a mysterious Badawi prophet, is buried in the Wady al-Shaykh of the so-called Sinaitic Peninsula.
[FN#322] Yet they kept the semblance of man, showing that the idea arose from the basaltic statues found in Hauranic ruins. Mohammed in his various marches to Syria must have seen remnants of Greek and Roman settlements; and as has been noticed “Sesostris”
[FN#323] Arab. “Shuhada”; highly respected by Moslems as by other religionists; although their principal if not only merit seems as a rule to have been intense obstinacy and devotion to one idea for which they were ready to sacrifice even life. The Martyrs-category is extensive including those killed by falling walls; victims to the plague, pleurisy and pregnancy, travellers drowned or otherwise lost when journeying honestly, and chaste lovers who die of “broken hearts” i.e. impaired digestion. Their souls are at once stowed away in the crops of green birds where they remain till Resurrection Day, “eating of the fruits and drinking of the streams of Paradise,” a place however, whose topography is wholly uncertain. Thus the young Prince was rewarded with a manner of anti-Purgatory, a preparatory heaven.
[FN#324] Arab. “Su’uban:” the Badawin give the name to a variety of serpents all held to be venomous; but m tales the word, like “Tannin,” expresses our “dragon” or “cockatrice.”
[FN#325] She was ashamed to see the lady doing servile duty by rubbing her feet. This massage, which B. de la Brocquiere describes in 1452 as “kneading and pinching,” has already been noticed. The French term is apparently derived from the Arab. “Mas-h.”
[FN#326] Alluding to the Most High Name, the hundredth name of God, the Heb. Shem hamphorash, unknown save to a favoured few who by using it perform all manner of miracles.
[FN#327] i e. the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean.
[FN#328] i.e. Settled by the Koran.
[FN#329] The uglier the old woman the better procuress she is supposed to make. See the Santa Verdiana in Boccaccio v., 10. In Arab. “Ajuz” (old woman) is highly insulting and if addressed to an Egyptian, whatever be her age she will turn fiercely and resent it. The polite term is Shaybah (Pilgrimage hi., 200).
[FN#330] The four ages of woman, considered after Demosthenes in her three-fold character, prostitute for pleasure, concubine for service and wife for breeding.
[FN#331] Arab. “Jila” (the Hindostani Julwa) = the displaying of the bride before the bridegroom for the first time, in different dresses, to the number of seven which are often borrowed for the occasion. The happy man must pay a fee called “the tax of face-unveiling” before he can see her features. Amongst Syrian Christians he sometimes tries to lift the veil by a sharp movement of the sword which is parried by the women present, and the blade remains entangled in the cloth. At last he succeeds, the bride sinks to the ground covering her face with her hands and the robes of her friends: presently she is raised up, her veil is readjusted and her face is left bare.
[FN#332] Arab. “Isha”= the first watch of the night, twilight, supper-time, supper. Moslems have borrowed the four watches of the Romans from 6 (a.m. or p.m.) to 6, and ignore the three original watches of the Jews, even, midnight and cockcrow (Sam. ii. 19, Judges vii. 19, and Exodus xiv. 24).
[FN#333] A popular Arab hyperbole.
[FN#334] Arab. “Shakaik al-Nu’uman,” lit. the fissures of Nu’uman, the beautiful anemone, which a tyrannical King of Hirah, Nu’uman Al-Munzir, a contemporary of Mohammed, attempted to monopolize.
[FN#335] Arab. “Andam”=here the gum called dragon’s blood; in other places the dye-wood known as brazil.
[FN#336] I need hardly say that in the East, where bells are unused, clapping the hands summons the servants. In India men cry “Quy hye” (Koi hai?) and in Brazil whistle “Pst!” after the fashion of Spain and Portugal.
[FN#337] The moles are here compared with pearls; a simile by no means common or appropriate.
[FN#338] A parody on the testification of Allah’s Unity.
[FN#339] Arab. “Simat” (prop. “Sumat”); the “dinner-table,” composed of a round wooden stool supporting a large metal tray, the two being called “Sufrah” (or “Simat”): thus “Sufrah hazirah!” means dinner is on the table. After the meal they are at once removed.
[FN#340] In the text “Dastur,” the Persian word before noticed; “Izn” would be the proper Arabic equivalent.
[FN#341] In the Moslem East a young woman, single or married, is not allowed to appear alone in the streets; and the police have a right to arrest delinquents. As a preventive of intrigues the precaution is excellent. During the Crimean war hundreds of officers, English, French and Italian, became familiar with Constantinople; and not a few flattered themselves on their success with Turkish women. I do not believe that a single bona fide case occurred: the “conquests” were all Greeks, Wallachians, Armenians or Jewesses.
[FN#342] Arab. “Azim”: translators do not seem to know that this word in The Nights often bears its Egyptian and slang sense, somewhat equivalent to our “deuced” or “mighty” or “awfully fine.”
[FN#343] This is a very serious thing amongst Moslems and scrupulous men often make great sacrifices to avoid taking an oath.
[FN#344] We should say “into the noose.”
[FN#345] The man had fallen in love with her and determined to mark her so that she might be his.
[FN#346] Arab. “Dajlah,” in which we find the Heb. Hid-dekel.
[FN#347] Such an execution would be contrary to Moslem law: but people would look leniently upon the peccadillo of beheading or sacking a faithless wife. Moreover the youth was of the blood royal and A quoi bon etre prince? as was said by a boy of viceroyal family in Egypt to his tutor who reproached him for unnecessarily shooting down a poor old man.
[FN#348] Arab. “Shirk,” partnership, evening or associating gods with God; polytheism: especially levelled at the Hindu triadism, Guebre dualism and Christian Trinitarianism.
[FN#349] Arab. “Shatm”–abuse, generally couched in foulest language with especial reference to the privy parts of female relatives.
[FN#350] When a woman is bastinadoed in the East they leave her some portion of dress and pour over her sundry buckets of water for a delicate consideration. When the hands are beaten they are passed through holes in the curtain separating the sufferer from mankind, and made fast to a “falakah” or pole.
[FN#351] Arab. “Khalifah,” Caliph. The word is also used for the successor of a Santon or holy man.
[FN#352] Arab. “Sar,” here the Koranic word for carrying out the venerable and undying lex talionis the original basis of all criminal jurisprudence. Its main fault is that justice repeats the offence.
[FN#353] Both these sons of Harun became Caliphs, as we shall see in The Nights.
[FN#354] “Dog” and “hog” are still highly popular terms of abuse. The Rabbis will not defile their lips with “pig;” but say “Dabhar akhir”=”another thing.”
[FN#355] The “hero eponymus” of the Abbaside dynasty, Abbas having been the brother of Abdullah the father of Mohammed. He is a famous personage in AI-Islam (D’Herbelot).
[FN#356] Europe translates the word “Barmecides. It is Persian from bar (up) and makidan (to suck). The vulgar legend is that Ja’afar, the first of the name, appeared before the Caliph Abd al-Malik with a ring poisoned for his own need; and that the Caliph, warned of it by the clapping of two stones which he wore ad hoc, charged the visitor with intention to murder him. He excused himself and in his speech occurred the Persian word “Barmakam,” which may mean “I shall sup it up,” or “I am a Barmak,” that is, a high priest among the Guebres. See D’Herbelot s.v.
[FN#357] Arab.”Zulm,” the deadliest of monarch’s sins. One of the sayings of Mohammed, popularly quoted, is, “Kingdom endureth with Kufr or infidelity (i. e. without accepting AI-Islam) but endureth not with Zulm or injustice.” Hence the good Moslem will not complain of the rule of Kafirs or Unbelievers, like the English, so long as they rule him righteously and according to his own law.]
[FN#358] All this aggravates his crime: had she been a widow she would not have had upon him “the claims of maidenhead,” the premio della verginita of Boccaccio, x. 10.
[FN#359] It is supposed that slaves cannot help telling these fatal lies. Arab story-books are full of ancient and modern instances and some have become “Joe Millers.” Moreover it is held unworthy of a free-born man to take over-notice of these servile villanies; hence the scoundrel in the story escapes unpunished. I have already noticed the predilection of debauched women for these “skunks of the human race;” and the young man in the text evidently suspected that his wife had passed herself this “little caprice.” The excuse which the Caliph would find for him is the pundonor shown in killing one he loved so fondly.
[FN#360] The Arab equivalent of our pitcher and well.
[FN#361] i.e. Where the dress sits loosely about the bust.
[FN#362] He had trusted in Allah and his trust was justified.
[FN#363] Arab. “Khila’ah” prop. What a man strips from his person: gen. An honorary gift. It is something more than the “robe of honour” of our chivalrous romances, as it includes a horse, a sword (often gold-hilted), a black turban (amongst the Abbasides) embroidered with gold, a violet-mantle, a waist-shawl and a gold neck-chain and shoe-buckles.
[FN#364] Arab. “Iza,” i.e. the visits of condolence and so forth which are long and terribly wearisome in the Moslem East.
[FN#365] Arab. “Mahr,” the money settled by the man before marriage on the woman and without which the contract is not valid. Usually half of it is paid down on the marriage-day and the other half when the husband dies or divorces his wife. But if she take a divorce she forfeits her right to it, and obscene fellows, especially Persians, often compel her to demand divorce by unnatural and preposterous use of her person.
[FN#366] Bismillah here means “Thou art welcome to it.”
[FN#367] Arab. “Bassak,” half Pers. (bas = enough) and–ak = thou; for thee. “Bas” sounds like our “buss” (to kiss) and there are sundry good old Anglo-Indian jokes of feminine mistakes on the subject.
[FN#368] This saving clause makes the threat worse. The scene between the two brothers is written with characteristic Arab humour; and it is true to nature. In England we have heard of a man who separated from his wife because he wished to dine at six and she preferred half-past six.
[FN#369] Arab. “Misr.” (vulg. Masr). The word, which comes of a very ancient house, was applied to the present capital about the time of its conquest by the Osmanli Turks A.H. 923 = 1517.
[FN#370] The Arab. “Jizah,” = skirt, edge; the modern village is the site of an ancient Egyptian city, as the “Ghizah inscription” proves (Brugsch, History of Egypt, ii. 415)
[FN#371] Arab. “Watan” literally meaning “birth-place” but also used for “patria, native country”; thus “Hubb al-Watan” = patriotism. The Turks pronounce it “Vatan,” which the French have turned it into Va-t’en!
[FN#372] Arab. “Zarzariyah” = the colour of a stare or starling (Zurzur).
[FN#373] Now a Railway Station on the Alexandria-Cairo line.
[FN#374] Even as late as 1852, when I first saw Cairo, the city was girt by waste lands and the climate was excellent. Now cultivation comes up to the house walls; while the Mahmudiyah Canal, the planting the streets with avenues and over-watering have seriously injured it; those who want the air of former Cairo must go to Thebes. Gout, rheumatism and hydrophobia (before unknown) have become common of late years.
[FN#375] This is the popular pronunciation: Yakut calls it “Bilbis.”
[FN#376] An outlying village on the “Long Desert,” between Cairo and Palestine.
[FN#377] Arab. “Al-Kuds” = holiness. There are few cities which in our day have less claim to this title than Jerusalem; and, curious to say, the “Holy Land” shows Jews, Christians and Moslems all in their worst form. The only religion (if it can be called one) which produces men in Syria is the Druse. “Heiligen- landes Jueden” are proverbial and nothing can be meaner than the Christians while the Moslems are famed for treachery.
[FN#378] Arab. “Shamm al-hawa.” In vulgar parlance to “smell the air” is to take a walk, especially out of town. There is a peculiar Egyptian festival called “Shamm al-Nasim” (smelling the Zephyr) which begins on Easter-Monday (O.S.), thus corresponding with the Persian Nau-roz, vernal equinox and introducing the fifty days of “Khammasin” or “Mirisi” (hot desert winds). On awakening, the people smell and bathe their temples with vinegar in which an onion has been soaked and break their fast with a “fisikh” or dried “buri” = mullet from Lake Menzalah: the late Hekekiyan Bey had the fish-heads counted in one public garden and found 70,000. The rest of the day is spent out of doors “Gypsying,” and families greatly enjoy themselves on these occasions. For a longer description, see a paper by my excellent friend Yacoub Artin Pasha, in the Bulletin de l’Institut Egyptien, 2nd series, No. 4, Cairo, 1884. I have noticed the Mirisi (south-wester) and other winds in the Land of Midian, i., 23.
[FN#379] So in the days of the “Mameluke Beys” in Egypt a man of rank would not cross the street on foot.
[FN#380] Arab. Basrah. The city is now in decay and not to flourish again till the advent of the Euphrates Valley R.R., is a modern place, founded in A.H. 15, by the Caliph Omar upon the Aylah, a feeder of the Tigris. Here, according to Al-Hariri, the “whales and the lizards meet,” and, as the tide affects the river,
Its stream shows prodigy, ebbing and flowing.
In its far-famed market-place, Al-Marbad, poems used to be recited; and the city was famous for its mosques and Saint- shrines, fair women and school of Grammar which rivalled that of Kufah. But already in Al-Hariri’s day (nat. A.H. 446 = A.D. 1030) Baghdad had drawn off much of its population.
[FN#381] This fumigation (Bukhur) is still used. A little incense or perfumed wood is burnt upon an open censor (Mibkharah) of earthenware or metal, and passed round, each guest holding it for a few moments under his beard. In the Somali County, the very home of incense, both sexes fumigate the whole person after carnal intercourse. Lane (Mod. Egypt, chapt. viii) gives an illustration of the Mibkharah).
[FN#382] The reader of The Nights will remark that the merchant is often a merchant-prince, consorting and mating with the highest dignitaries. Even amongst the Romans, a race of soldiers, statesmen and lawyers, “mercatura” on a large scale was “not to be vituperated.” In Boccacio (x.19) they are netti e delicati uomini. England is perhaps the only country which has made her fortune by trade, and much of it illicit trade, like that in slaves which built Liverpool and Bristol, and which yet disdains or affects to disdain the trader. But the unworthy prejudice is disappearing with the last generation, and men who formerly would have half starved as curates and ensigns, barristers and carabins are now only too glad to become merchants.
[FN#383] These lines in the Calc. And Bul. Edits. Have already occurred (Night vii.) but such carelessness is characteristic despite the proverb, “In repetition is no fruition.” I quote Torrens (p. 60) by way of variety. As regards the anemone (here called a tulip) being named “Shakik” = fissure, I would conjecture that it derives from the flower often forming long lines of red like stripes of blood in the landscape. Travellers in Syria always observe this.
[FN#384] Such an address to a royalty (Eastern) even in the present day, would be a passport to future favours.
[FN#385] In England the man marries and the woman is married: there is no such distinction in Arabia.
[FN#386] “Sultan” (and its corruption “Soldan”) etymologically means lord, victorious, ruler, ruling over. In Arabia it is a not uncommon proper name; and as a title it is taken by a host of petty kinglets. The Abbaside Caliphs (as Al-Wasik who has been noticed) formally created these Sultans as their regents. Al-Ta’i bi’llah (regn. A.H. 363 = 974), invested the famous Sabuktagin with the office; and as Alexander-Sikander was wont to do, fashioned for him two flags, one of silver, after the fashion of nobles, and the other of gold, as Viceroy-designate. Sabuktagin’s son, the famous Mahmud of the Ghaznavite dynasty in A.H. 393 = 1002, was the first to adopt “Sultan” as an independent title some two hundred years after the death of Harun al-Rashid. In old writers we have the Soldan of Egypt, the Soudan of Persia, and the Sowdan of Babylon; three modifications of one word.
[FN#387] i.e. he was a “Hafiz,” one who commits to memory the whole of the Koran. It is a serious task and must be begun early. I learnt by rote the last “Juzw” (or thirtieth part) and found that quite enough. This is the vulgar use of “Hafiz”: technically and theologically it means the third order of Traditionists (the total being five) who know by heart 300,000 traditions of the Prophet with their ascriptions. A curious “spiritualist” book calls itself “Hafed, Prince of Persia,” proving by the very title that the Spirits are equally ignorant of Arabic and Persian.
[FN#388] Here again the Cairo Edit. repeats the six couplets already given in Night xvii. I take them from Torrens (p. 163).
[FN#389] This naive admiration of beauty in either sex characterised our chivalrous times. Now it is mostly confined to “professional beauties” or what is conventionally called the “fair sex”; as if there could be any comparison between the beauty of man and the beauty of woman, the Apollo Belvidere with the Venus de Medici.
[FN#390] Arab. “Shash” (in Pers. urine) a light turband generally of muslin.
[FN#391] This is a lieu commun of Eastern worldly wisdom. Quite true! Very unadvisable to dive below the surface of one’s acquaintances, but such intimacy is like marriage of which Johnson said, “Without it there is no pleasure in life.”
[FN#392] The lines are attributed to the famous Al-Mutanabbi = the claimant to “Prophecy,” of whom I have given a few details in my Pilgrimage iii. 60, 62. He led the life of a true poet, somewhat Chauvinistic withal; and, rather than run away, was killed in A.H. 354 = 965.
[FN#393] Arab. “Nabiz” = wine of raisins or dates; any fermented liquor; from a root to “press out” in Syriac, like the word “Talmiz” (or Tilmiz says the Kashf al-Ghurrah) a pupil, student. Date-wine (ferment from the fruit, not the Tadi, or juice of the stem, our “toddy”) is called Fazikh. Hence the Masjid al-Fazikh at Al-Medinah where the Ansar or Auxiliaries of that city were sitting cup in hand when they heard of the revelation forbidding inebriants and poured the liquor upon the ground (Pilgrimage ii. 322).
[FN#394] Arab. “Huda” = direction (to the right way), salvation, a word occurring in the Opening Chapter of the Koran. Hence to a Kafir who offers the Salam-salutation many Moslems reply “Allah- yahdik” = Allah direct thee! (i.e. make thee a Moslem), instead of Allah yusallimak = Allah lead thee to salvation. It is the root word of the Mahdi and Mohdi.
[FN#395] These lines have already occurred in The First Kalandar’s Story (Night xi.) I quote by way of change and with permission Mr. Payne’s version (i. 93).
[FN#396] Arab. “Farajiyah,” a long-sleeved robe worn by the learned (Lane, M.E., chapt. i.).
[FN#397] Arab. “Sarraf” (vulg. Sayrafi), whence the Anglo-Indian “Shroff,” a familiar corruption.
[FN#398] Arab. “Yahudi” which is less polite than “Banu Israil” = Children of Israel. So in Christendom “Israelite” when in favour and “Jew” (with an adjective or a participle) when nothing is wanted of him.
[FN#399] Also called “Ghilman” = the beautiful youths appointed to serve the True Believers in Paradise. The Koran says (chapt. lvi. 9 etc.) “Youths, which shall continue in their bloom for ever, shall go round about to attend them, with goblets, and beakers, and a cup of flowing wine,” etc. Mohammed was an Arab (not a Persian, a born pederast) and he was too fond of women to be charged with love of boys: even Tristam Shandy (vol. vii. chapt. 7; “No, quoth a third; the gentleman has been committing– –“) knew that the two tastes are incompatibles. But this and other passages in the Koran have given the Chevaliers de la Pallie a hint that the use of boys, like that of wine, here forbidden, will be permitted in Paradise.
[FN#400] Which, by the by, is the age of an oldish old maid in Egypt. I much doubt puberty being there earlier than in England where our grandmothers married at fourteen. But Orientals are aware that the period of especial feminine devilry is between the first menstruation and twenty when, according to some, every girl is a “possible murderess.” So they wisely marry her and get rid of what is called the “lump of grief,” the “domestic calamity”–a daughter. Amongst them we never hear of the abominable egotism and cruelty of the English mother, who disappoints her daughter’s womanly cravings in order to keep her at home for her own comfort; and an “old maid” in the house, especially a stout, plump old maid, is considered not “respectable.” The ancient virgin is known by being lean and scraggy; and perhaps this diagnosis is correct.
[FN#401] This prognostication of destiny by the stars and a host of follies that end in -mancy is an intricate and extensive subject. Those who would study it are referred to chapt. xiv. of the “Qanoon-e-Islam, or the Customs of the Mussulmans of India; etc., etc., by Jaffur Shurreeff and translated by G. A. Herklots, M. D. of Madras.” This excellent work first appeared in 1832 (Allen and Co., London) and thus it showed the way to Lane’s “Modern Egyptians” (1833-35). The name was unfortunate as “Kuzzilbash” (which rhymed to guzzle and hash), and kept the book back till a second edition appeared in 1863 (Madras: J. Higginbotham).
[FN#402] Arab. “Barid,” lit. cold: metaph. vain, foolish, insipid.
[FN#403] Not to “spite thee” but “in spite of thee.” The phrase is still used by high and low.
[FN#404] Arab. “Ahdab,” the common hunchback; in classical language the Gobbo in the text would be termed “Ak’as” from “Ka’as,” one with protruding back and breast; sometimes used for hollow back and protruding breast.
[FN#405] This is the custom with such gentry, who, when they see a likely man sitting, are allowed by custom to ride astraddle upon his knees with most suggestive movements, till he buys them off. These Ghawazi are mostly Gypsies who pretend to be Moslems; and they have been confused with the Almahs or Moslem dancing- girls proper (Awalim, plur. of Alimah, a learned feminine) by a host of travellers. They call themselves Baramikah or Barmecides only to affect Persian origin. Under native rule they were perpetually being banished from and returning to Cairo (Pilgrimage i., 202). Lane (M.E., chapts. xviii. and xix.) discusses the subject, and would derive Al’mah, often so pronounced, from Heb. Almah, girl, virgin, singing-girl, hence he would translate Al-Alamoth shir (Psalm xlvi.) and Nebalim al- alamoth (I. Chron., xv.20) by a “song for singing-girls” and “harps for singing-girls.” He quotes also St. Jerome as authority that Alma in Punic (Phoenician) signified a virgin, not a common article, I may observe, amongst singing-girls. I shall notice in a future page Burckhardt’s description of the Ghawazi, p.173, “Arabic Proverbs;” etc., etc. Second Edition. London: Quaritch, 1875.
[FN#406] I need hardly describe the tarbush, a corruption of the Per. “Sar-push” (headcover) also called “Fez” from its old home; and “tarbrush” by the travelling Briton. In old days it was a calotte worn under the turban; and it was protected by scalp- perspiration by an “Arakiyah” (Pers. Arak-chin) a white skull- cap. Now it is worn without either and as a head-dress nothing can be worse (Pilgrimage ii. 275).
[FN#407] Arab. “Tar.”: the custom still prevails. Lane (M.E., chapt. xviii.) describes and figures this hoop-drum.
[FN#408] The couch on which she sits while being displayed. It is her throne, for she is the Queen of the occasion, with all the Majesty of Virginity.
[FN#409] This is a solemn “chaff;” such liberties being permitted at weddings and festive occasions.
[FN#410] The pre-Islamitic dynasty of Al-Yaman in Arabia Felix, a region formerly famed for wealth and luxury. Hence the mention of Yamani work. The caravans from Sana’a, the capital, used to carry patterns of vases to be made in China and bring back the porcelains at the end of the third year: these are the Arabic inscriptions which have puzzled so many collectors. The Tobba, or Successors, were the old Himyarite Kings, a dynastic name like Pharaoh, Kisra (Persia), Negush (Abyssinia), Khakan or Khan (Tartary), etc., who claimed to have extended their conquests to Samarcand and made war on China. Any history of Arabia (as Crichton I., chapt. iv.) may be consulted for their names and annals. I have been told by Arabs that “Tobba” (or Tubba) is still used in the old Himvarland = the Great or the Chief.
[FN#411] Lane and Payne (as well as the Bres. Edit.) both render the word “to kiss her,” but this would be clean contrary to Moslem usage.
[FN#412] i.e. he was full of rage which he concealed.
[FN#413] The Hindus (as the Katha shows) compare this swimming gait with an elephant’s roll.
[FN#414] Arab. “Fitnah,” a word almost as troublesome as “Adab.” Primarily, revolt, seduction, mischief: then a beautiful girl (or boy), and lastly a certain aphrodisiac perfume extracted from mimosa-flowers (Pilgrimage i., 118).
[FN#415] Lit. burst the “gall-bladder:” In this and in the “liver” allusions I dare not be baldly literal.
[FN#416] Arab. “Usfur” the seeds of Carthamus tinctorius = Safflower (Forskal, Flora, etc. lv.). The seeds are crushed for oil and the flowers, which must be gathered by virgins or the colour will fail, are extensively used for dying in Southern Arabia and Eastern Africa.
[FN#417] On such occasions Miss Modesty shuts her eye and looks as if about to faint.
[FN#418] After either evacuation the Moslem is bound to wash or sand the part; first however he should apply three pebbles, or potsherds or clods of earth. Hence the allusion in the Koran (chapt. ix), “men who love to be purified.” When the Prophet was questioning the men of Kuba, where he founded a mosque (Pilgrimage ii., 215), he asked them about their legal ablutions, especially after evacuation; and they told him that they used three stones before washing. Moslems and Hindus (who prefer water mixed with earth) abhor the unclean and unhealthy use of paper without ablution; and the people of India call European draught- houses, by way of opprobrium, “Kaghaz-khanah” = paper closets. Most old Anglo-Indians, however, learn to use water.
[FN#419] “Miao” or “Mau” is the generic name of the cat in the Egyptian of the hieroglyphs.
[FN#420] Arab. “Ya Mah’um” addressed to an evil spirit.
[FN#421] “Heehaw!” as we should say. The Bresl. Edit. makes the cat cry “Nauh! Nauh!” and the ass-colt “Manu! Manu!” I leave these onomatopoeics as they are in Arabic; they are curious, showing the unity in variety of hearing inarticulate sounds. The bird which is called “Whip poor Will” in the U.S. is known to the Brazilians as “Joam corta pao” (John cut wood); so differently do they hear the same notes.
[FN#422] It is usually a slab of marble with a long slit in front and a round hole behind. The text speaks of a Kursi (= stool); but this is now unknown to native houses which have not adopted European fashions.
[FN#423] This again is chaff as she addresses the Hunchback. The Bul. Edit. has “O Abu Shihab” (Father of the shooting-star = evil spirit); the Bresl. Edit. “O son of a heap! O son of a Something!” (al-afsh, a vulgarism).
[FN#424] As the reader will see, Arab ideas of “fun” and practical jokes are of the largest, putting the Hibernian to utter rout, and comparing favourably with those recorded in Don Quixote.
[FN#425] Arab. “Sarawil” a corruption of the Pers. “Sharwal”; popularly called “libas” which, however, may also mean clothing in general and especially outer-clothing. I translate “bag- trousers” and “petticoat-trousers,” the latter being the divided skirt of our future. In the East, where Common Sense, not Fashion, rules dress, men, who have a protuberance to be concealed, wear petticoats and women wear trousers. The feminine article is mostly baggy but sometimes, as in India, collant- tight. A quasi-sacred part of it is the inkle, tape or string, often a most magnificent affair, with tassels of pearl and precious stones; and “laxity in the trouser-string” is equivalent to the loosest conduct. Upon the subject of “libas,” “sarwal” and its variants the curious reader will consult Dr. Dozy’s “Dictionnaire Detaille des Noms des Vetements chez les Arabes,” a most valuable work.
[FN#426] The turban out of respect is not put upon the ground (Lane, M. E., chapt. i.).
[FN#427] Arab. “Madfa” showing the modern date or the modernization of the tale. In Lebid “Madafi” (plur. of Madfa’) means water-courses or leats.
[FN#428] In Arab. the “he” is a “she;” and Habib (“friend”) is the Attic {Greek Letters}, a euphemism for lover. This will occur throughout The Nights. So the Arabs use a phrase corresponding with the Stoic {Greek Letters}, i.e. is wont, is fain.
[FN#429] Part of the Azan, or call to prayer.
[FN#430] Arab. “Shihab,” these mentors being the flying shafts shot at evil spirits who approach too near heaven. The idea doubtless arose from the showers of August and November meteors (The Perseides and Taurides) which suggest a battle raging in upper air. Christendom also has its superstition concerning these and called those of August the “fiery tears of Saint Lawrence,” whose festival was on August 10.
[FN#431] Arab. “Takiyah” = Pers. Arak-chin; the calotte worn under the Fez. It is, I have said, now obsolete and the red woollen cap (mostly made in Europe) is worn over the hair; an unclean practice.
[FN#432] Often the effect of cold air after a heated room.
[FN#433] i.e. He was not a Eunuch, as the people guessed.
[FN#434] In Arab. “this night” for the reason before given.
[FN#435] Meaning especially the drink prepared of the young leaves and florets of Cannabis Sativa. The word literally means “day grass” or “herbage.” This intoxicant was much used by magicians to produce ecstasy and thus to “deify themselves and receive the homage of the genii and spirits of nature.”
[FN#436] Torrens, being an Irishman, translates “and woke in the morning sleeping at Damascus.”
[FN#437] Arab. “Labbayka,” the cry technically called “Talbiyah” and used by those entering Meccah (Pilgrimage iii. 125-232). I shall also translate it by “Adsum.” The full cry is:–
Here am I, O Allah, here am I!
No partner hast Thou, here am I: Verily the praise and the grace and the kingdom are thine: No partner hast Thou: here am I!
A single Talbiyah is a “Shart” or positive condition: and its repetition is a Sunnat or Custom of the Prophet. See Night xci.
[FN#438] The staple abuse of the vulgar is curing parents and relatives, especially feminine, with specific allusions to their “shame.” And when dames of high degree are angry, Nature, in the East as in the West, sometimes speaks out clearly enough, despite Mistress Chapone and all artificial restrictions.
[FN#439] A great beauty in Arabia and the reverse in Denmark, Germany and Slav-land, where it is a sign of being a were-wolf or a vampire. In Greece also it denotes a “Brukolak” or vampire.
[FN#440] This is not physiologically true: a bride rarely conceives the first night, and certainly would not know that she had conceived. Moreover the number of courses furnished by the bridegroom would be against conception. It is popularly said that a young couple often undoes in the morning what it has done during the night.
[FN#441] Torrens (Notes, xxiv.) quotes “Fleisher” upon the word “Ghamghama” (Diss. Crit. De Glossis Habichtionis), which he compares with “Dumbuma” and Humbuma,” determining them to be onomatopoeics, “an incomplete and an obscure murmur of a sentence as it were lingering between the teeth and lips and therefore difficult to be understood.” Of this family is “Taghum”; not used in modern days. In my Pilgrimage (i.313) I have noticed another, “Khyas’, Khyas’!” occurring in a Hizb al-Bahr (Spell of the Sea). Herklots gives a host of them; and their sole characteristics are harshness and strangeness of sound, uniting consonants which are not joined in Arabic. The old Egyptians and Chaldeans had many such words composed at will for theurgic operations.
[FN#442] This may mean either “it is of Mosul fashion” or, it is of muslin.
[FN#443] To the English reader these lines would appear the reverse of apposite; but Orientals have their own ways of application, and all allusions to Badawi partings are effective and affecting. The civilised poets of Arab cities throw the charm of the Desert over their verse by images borrowed from its scenery, the dromedary, the mirage and the well as naturally as certain of our bards who hated the country, babbled of purling rills, etc. thoroughly to feel Arabic poetry one must know the Desert (Pilgrimage iii., 63).
[FN#444] In those days the Arabs and the Portuguese recorded everything which struck them, as the Chinese and Japanese in our times. And yet we complain of the amount of our modern writing!
[FN#445] This is mentioned because it is the act preliminary to naming the babe.
[FN#446] Arab. “Kahramanat” from Kahraman, an old Persian hero who conversed with the Simurgh-Griffon. Usually the word is applied to women-at-arms who defend the Harem, like the Urdu- begani of India, whose services were lately offered to England (1885), or the “Amazons” of Dahome.
[FN#447] Meaning he grew as fast in one day as other children in a month.
[FN#448] Arab. Al-Arif; the tutor, the assistant-master.
[FN#449] Arab. “Ibn haram,” a common term of abuse; and not a factual reflection on the parent. I have heard a mother apply the term to her own son.
[FN#450] Arab. “Khanjar” from the Persian, a syn. with the Arab. “Jambiyah.” It is noted in my Pilgrimage iii., pp. 72,75. To “silver the dagger” means to become a rich man. From “Khanjar,” not from its fringed loop or strap, I derive our silly word “hanger.” Dr. Steingass would connect it with Germ. Faenger, e.g. Hirschfaenger.
[FN#451] Again we have “Dastur” for Izn.”
[FN#452] Arab. “Iklim”; the seven climates of Ptolemy.
[FN#453] Arab. “Al-Ghadir,” lit. a place where water sinks, a lowland: here the drainage-lakes east of Damascus into which the Baradah (Abana?) discharges. The higher eastern plain is “Al- Ghutah” before noticed.
[FN#454] The “Plain of Pebbles” still so termed at Damascus; an open space west of the city.
[FN#455] Every Guide-book, even the Reverend Porter’s “Murray,” gives a long account of this Christian Church ‘verted to a Mosque.
[FN#456] Arab. “Nabut”; Pilgrimage i. 336.
[FN#457] The Bres. Edit. says, “would have knocked him into Al- Yaman,” (Southern Arabia), something like our slang phrase “into the middle of next week.”
[FN#458] Arab. “Khadim”: lit. a servant, politely applied (like Agha = master) to a castrato. These gentry wax furious if baldly called “Tawashi” = Eunuch. A mauvais plaisant in Egypt used to call me The Agha because a friend had placed his wife under my charge.
[FN#459] This sounds absurd enough in English, but Easterns always put themselves first for respect.
[FN#460] In Arabic the World is feminine.
[FN#461] Arab. “Sahib” = lit. a companion; also a friend and especially applied to the Companions of Mohammed. Hence the Sunnis claim for them the honour of “friendship” with the Apostle; but the Shia’hs reply that the Arab says “Sahaba-hu’l- himar” (the Ass was his Sahib or companion). In the text it is a Wazirial title, in modern India it is = gentleman, e.g. “Sahib log” (the Sahib people) means their white conquerors, who, by the by, mostly mispronounce the word “Sab.”
[FN#462] Arab. “Suwan,” prop. Syenite, from Syene (Al-Suwan) but applied to flint and any hard stone.
[FN#463] It was famous in the middle ages, and even now it is, perhaps, the most interesting to travellers after that “Sentina Gentium,” the “Bhendi Bazar” of unromantic Bombay.
[FN#464] “The Gate of the Gardens,” in the northern wall, a Roman archway of the usual solid construction shaming not only our modern shams, but our finest masonry.
[FN#465] Arab. “Al-Asr,” which may mean either the hour or the prayer. It is also the moment at which the Guardian Angels relieve each other (Sale’s Koran, chapt. v.).
[FN#466] Arab. “Ya haza” = O this (one)! a somewhat slighting address equivalent to “Heus tu! O thou, whoever thou art.” Another form is “Ya hu” = O he! Can this have originated Swift’s “Yahoo”?
[FN#467] Alluding to the {Greek Letters} (“minor miracles which cause surprise”) performed by Saints’ tombs, the mildest form of thaumaturgy. One of them gravely recorded in the Dabistan (ii. 226) is that of the holy Jamen, who opened the Samran or bead- bracelet from the arm of the beautiful Chistapa with member erect, “thus evincing his manly strength and his command over himself”(!)
[FN#468] The River of Paradise, a lieu commun of poets (Koran, chapt. cviii.): the water is whiter than milk or silver, sweeter than honey, smoother than cream, more odorous than musk; its banks are of chrysolite and it is drunk out of silver cups set around it thick as stars. Two pipes conduct it to the Prophet’s Pond which is an exact square, one month’s journey in compass. Kausar is spirituous like wine; Salsabil sweet like clarified honey; the Fount of Mildness is like milk and the Fount of Mercy like liquid crystal.
[FN#469] The Moslem does not use the European basin because water which has touched an impure skin becomes impure. Hence it is poured out from a ewer (“ibrik” Pers. Abriz) upon the hands and falls into a basin (“tisht”) with an open-worked cover.
[FN#470] Arab. “Wahsh,” a word of many meanings; nasty, insipid, savage, etc. The offside of a horse is called Wahshi opposed to Insi, the near side. The Amir Taymur (“Lord Iron”) whom Europeans unwittingly call after his Persian enemies’ nickname, “Tamerlane,” i.e. Taymur-I-lang, or limping Taymur, is still known as “Al-Wahsh” (the wild beast) at Damascus, where his Tartars used to bury men up to their necks and play at bowls with their heads for ninepins.
[FN#471] For “grandson” as being more affectionate. Easterns have not yet learned that clever Western saying:–The enemies of our enemies are our friends.
[FN#472] This was a simple bastinado on the back, not the more ceremonious affair of beating the feet-soles. But it is surprising what the Egyptians can bear; some of the rods used in the time of the Mameluke Beys are nearly as thick as a man’s wrist.
[FN#473] The woman-like spite of the eunuch intended to hurt the grandmother’s feelings.
[FN#474] The usual Cairene “chaff.”
[FN#475] A necessary precaution against poison (Pilgrimage i. 84, and iii. 43).
[FN#476] The Bresl. Edit. (ii. 108) describes the scene at greater length.
[FN#477] The Bul. Edit. gives by mistake of diacritical points, “Zabdaniyah:” Raydaniyah is or rather was a camping ground to the North of Cairo.
[FN#478] Arab. “La’abat” = a plaything, a puppet, a lay figure. Lane (i. 326) conjectures that the cross is so called because it resembles a man with arms extended. But Moslems never heard of the fanciful ideas of mediaeval Christian divines who saw the cross everywhere and in everything. The former hold that Pharaoh invented the painful and ignominious punishment. (Koran, chapt.