al-Zaman heard these words from the Badawi, the light was changed in her
eyes to night, and she rose and drawing the sword, smote Hammad the Arab
between the shoulder-blades so that the point issued from the apple of
his throat.[127] And when all present asked her, "Why hast thou made
haste to slay him;" she answered, "Praised be Allah who hath granted me
in my life-tide to avenge myself with mine own hand!" And she bade the
slaves drag the body out by the feet and cast it to the dogs. Thereupon
they turned to the two prisoners who remained of the three; and one of
them was a black slave, so they said to him, "What is thy name, fellow?
Tell us the truth of thy case." He replied, "As for me my name is
Al-Ghazbán," and acquainted them what had passed between himself and
Queen Abrizah, daughter of King Hardub, Lord of Greece, and how he had
slain her and fled. Hardly had the negro made an end of his story, when
King Rumzan struck off his head with his scymitar, saying, "Praise to
Allah who gave me life! I have avenged my mother with my own hand." Then
he repeated to them what his nurse Marjanah had told him of this same
slave whose name was Al-Ghazban; after which they turned to the third
prisoner. Now this was the very camel-driver[128] whom the people of the
Holy City, Jerusalem, hired to carry Zau al-Makan and lodge him in the
hospital at Damascus of Syria; but he threw him down on the ashes-midden
and went his way. And they said to him, "Acquaint us with thy case and
tell the truth." So he related to them all that had happened to him with
Sultan Zau al-Makan; how he had been carried from the Holy City, at the
time when he was sick, till they made Damascus and he had been thrown
into the hospital; how also the Jerusalem folk had paid the cameleer
money to transport the stranger to Damascus, and he had taken it and
fled after casting his charge upon the midden by the side of the
ash-heap of the Hammam. But when he ended his words, Sultan Kanmakan
took his sword forthright and cut off his head, saying, "Praised be
Allah who hath given me life, that I might requite this traitor what he
did with my father, for I have heard this very story from King Zau
al-Makan himself." Then the Kings said each to other, "It remaineth only
for us to wreak our revenge upon the old woman Shawahi, yclept Zat
al-Dawahi, because she is the prime cause of all these calamities and
cast us into adversity on this wise. Who will deliver her into our hands
that we may avenge ourselves upon her and wipe out our dishonour?" And
King Rumzan said, "Needs must we bring her hither." So without stay or
delay he wrote a letter to his grandmother, the aforesaid ancient woman,
giving her to know therein that he had subdued the kingdoms of Damascus
and Mosul and Irak, and had broken up the host of the Moslems and
captured their princes, adding, "I desire thee of all urgency to come to
me, bringing with thee Queen Sophia, daughter of King Afridun, and whom
thou wilt of the Nazarene chiefs, but no armies; for the country is
quiet and wholly under our hand." And when she read the letter and
recognised the writing of King Rumzan, she rejoiced with great joy and
forthright equipping herself and Queen Sophia, set out with their
attendants and journeyed, without stopping, till they drew near Baghdad.
Then she fore-sent a messenger to acquaint the King of her arrival,
whereupon quoth Rumzan, "We should do well to don the habit of the
Franks and fare forth to meet the old woman, to the intent that we may
be assured against her craft and perfidy." Whereto Kanmakan replied,
"Hearing is consenting." So they clad themselves in Frankish clothes
and, when Kuzia Fakan saw them, she exclaimed, "By the truth of the Lord
of Worship, did I not know you, I should take you to be indeed Franks!"
Then they sallied forth with a thousand horse, King Rumzan riding on
before them, to meet the old woman. As soon as his eyes fell on hers, he
dismounted and walked towards her and she, recognizing him, dismounted
also and embraced him; but he pressed her ribs with his hands, till he
well nigh broke them. Quoth she, "What is this, O my son?" But before
she had done speaking, up came Kanmakan and Dandan; and the horsemen
with them cried out at the women and slaves and took them all prisoners.
Then the two Kings returned to Baghdad, with their captives, and Rumzan
bade them decorate the city which they did for three days, at the end of
which they brought out the old woman Shawahi, hight Zat al-Dawahi, with
a peaked red turband of palm-leaves on her head, diademed with
asses'-dung and preceded by a herald proclaiming aloud, "This is the
reward of those who presume to lay hands on Kings and the sons of
Kings!" Then they crucified her on one of the gates of Baghdad; and,
when her companions saw what befel her, all embraced in a body the faith
of Al-Islam. As for Kanmakan and his uncle Rumzan and his aunt Nuzhat
al-Zaman and the Wazir Dandan, they marvelled at the wonderful events
that had betided them and bade the scribes chronicle them in books that
those who came after might read. Then they all abode for the remainder
of their days in the enjoyment of every solace and comfort of life, till
there overtook them the Destroyer of all delights and the Sunderer of
all societies. And this is the whole that hath come down to us of the
dealings of fortune with King Omar bin al-Nu'uman and his sons Sharrkan
and Zau al-Makan and his son's son Kanmakan and his daughter Nuzhat
al-Zaman and her daughter Kuzia Fakan. Thereupon quoth Shahryar to
Shahrazad, "I desire that thou tell me somewhat about birds;" and
hearing this Dunyazad said to her sister, "I have never seen the Sultan
light at heart all this while till the present night; and his pleasure
garreth me hope that the issue for thee with him may be a happy issue."
Then drowsiness overcame the Sultan, so he slept;[129]——And Shahrazad
perceived the approach of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
-----
Footnote 1:
This "horripilation," for which we have the poetical term
"gooseflesh," is often mentioned in Hindu as in Arab literature.
Footnote 2:
How often we have heard this in England!
Footnote 3:
As a styptic. The scene in the text has often been enacted in Egypt
when a favourite feminine mode of murdering men is by beating and
bruising the testicles. The Fellahs are exceedingly clever in
inventing methods of manslaughter. For some years bodies were found
that bore no outer mark of violence, and only Frankish inquisitiveness
discovered that the barrel of a pistol had been passed up the anus and
the weapon discharged internally. Murders of this description are
known in English history; but never became popular practice.
Footnote 4:
Arab. "Zakar," that which betokens masculinity. At the end of the tale
we learn that she also gelded him; thus he was a "Sandali," a _rasé_.
Footnote 5:
See vol. i. p. 104.
Footnote 6:
The purity and intensity of her love had attained to a something of
prophetic strain.
Footnote 7:
Lane corrupts this Persian name to Sháh Zemán (i. 568).
Footnote 8:
_i.e._, the world, which includes the ideas of Fate, Time, Chance.
Footnote 9:
Arab. "Bárid," silly, noyous, contemptible; as in the proverb
Two things than ice are colder cold:—
An old man young, a young man old.
A "cold-of-countenance" = a fool: "May Allah make cold thy face!" =
may it show want and misery. "By Allah, a cold speech!" = a silly or
abusive tirade (Pilgrimage, ii. 22).
Footnote 10:
The popular form is, "often the ear loveth before the eye."
Footnote 11:
Not the first time that royalty has played this prank, nor the last,
perhaps.
Footnote 12:
_i.e._ the Lady Dunya.
Footnote 13:
These magazines are small strongly-built rooms on the ground floor,
where robbery is almost impossible.
Footnote 14:
Lit. "approbation," "benediction"; also the Angel who keeps the Gates
of Paradise and who has allowed one of the Ghilmán (or Wuldán) the
boys of supernatural beauty that wait upon the Faithful, to wander
forth into this wicked world.
Footnote 15:
In Europe this would be a _plurale majestatis_, used only by Royalty.
In Arabic it has no such significance, and even the lower orders apply
it to themselves; although it often has a _soupçon_ of "I and thou."
Footnote 16:
Man being an "extract of despicable water" (Koran xxxii. 7) ex
spermate genitali, which Mr. Rodwell renders "from germs of life,"
"from sorry water."
Footnote 17:
_i.e._ begotten by man's seed in the light of salvation (Núr al-Hudà).
Footnote 18:
The rolls of white (camphor-like) scarf-skin and sordes which come off
under the bath-man's glove become by miracle of Beauty, as brown musk.
The Rubber or Shampooer is called in Egypt "Mukayyis" (vulgarly
"Mukayyisáti") or "bagman," from his "Kís," a bag-glove of coarse
woollen stuff. To "Johnny Raws" he never fails to show the little
rolls which come off the body and prove to them how unclean they are;
but the material is mostly dead scarf-skin.
Footnote 19:
The normal phrase on such occasions (there is always a "dovetail" _de
rigueur_) "Allah give thee profit!"
Footnote 20:
_i.e._ We are forced to love him only, and ignore giving him a rival
(referring to Koranic denunciations of "Shirk," or attributing a
partner to Allah, the religion of plurality, syntheism not
polytheism): see, he walks tottering under the weight of his back
parts wriggling them whilst they are rounded like the revolving
heavens.
Footnote 21:
Jannat al-Na'ím (Garden of Delight); the fifth of the seven Paradises,
made of white diamond; the gardens and the plurality being borrowed
from the Talmud. Mohammed's Paradise, by the by, is not a greater
failure than Dante's. Only ignorance or pious fraud asserts it to be
wholly sensual; and a single verse is sufficient refutation: "Their
prayer therein shall be 'Praise unto thee, O Allah!' and their
salutation therein shall be 'Peace!' and the end of their prayer shall
be, 'Praise unto God, the Lord of all creatures'" (Koran x. 10-11).
See also lvi. 24-26. It will also be an intellectual condition wherein
knowledge will greatly be increased (lxxxviii. 17-20). Moreover the
Moslems, far more logical than Christians, admit into Paradise the
so-called "lower animals."
Footnote 22:
Sed vitam faciunt balnea, vina, Venus! The Hammam to Easterns is a
luxury as well as a necessity; men sit there for hours talking chiefly
of money and their prowess with the fair; and women pass half the day
in it complaining of their husbands' over-amativeness and contrasting
their own chaste and modest aversion to carnal congress.
Footnote 23:
The frigidarium or cold room, coolness being delightful to the Arab.
Footnote 24:
The calidarium or hot room of the bath.
Footnote 25:
The Angel who acts door-keeper of Hell; others say he specially
presides over the torments of the damned (Koran xliii. 78).
Footnote 26:
The Door-keeper of Heaven before mentioned who, like the Guebre
Zamiyád has charge of the heavenly lads and lasses, and who is often
charged by poets with letting them slip.
Footnote 27:
Lane (i. 616), says "of wine, milk, sherbet, or any other beverage."
Here it is wine, a practice famed in Persian poetry, especially by
Hafiz, but most distasteful to a European stomach. We find the Mu
allakah of Imr al-Kays noticing "our morning draught." Nott (Hafiz)
says a "cheerful cup of wine in the morning was a favourite indulgence
with the more luxurious Persians. And it was not uncommon among the
Easterns, to salute a friend by saying:—May your morning potation be
agreeable to you!" In the present day this practice is confined to
regular debauchees.
Footnote 28:
Koran xii. 31. The words spoken by Zulaykhá's women friends and
detractors whom she invited to see Beauty Joseph.
Footnote 29:
A formula for averting fascination. Koran, chapt. cxiii. 1. "Falak"
means "cleaving"; hence the breaking forth of light from darkness, a
"wonderful instance of the Divine power."
Footnote 30:
The usual delicate chaff.
Footnote 31:
Such letters are generally written on a full-sized sheet of paper
("notes" are held slighting in the East) and folded till the breadth
is reduced to about one inch. The edges are gummed; the ink, much like
our Indian ink, is smeared with the finger upon the signet-ring; the
place where it is to be applied is slightly wetted with the tongue and
the seal is stamped across the line of junction to secure privacy. I
have given a specimen of an original love-letter of the kind in
"Scinde, or the Unhappy Valley," chapt. iv.
Footnote 32:
Arab. "Salb" which may also mean hanging, but the usual term for the
latter in The Nights is "shanak." Crucifixion, abolished by the
superstitious Constantine, was practised as a servile punishment as
late as the days of Mohammed Ali Pasha the Great. The malefactors were
nailed and tied to the patibulum or cross-piece, without any
suppedaneum or foot-rest and left to suffer tortures from flies and
sun, thirst and hunger. They often lived three days and died of the
wounds mortifying and the nervous exhaustion brought on by cramps and
convulsions. In many cases the corpses were left to feed the kites and
crows; and this added horror to the death. Moslems care little for
mere hanging. Whenever a fanatical atrocity is to be punished, the
malefactor should be hung in pig-skin, his body burnt and the ashes
publicly thrown into a common cesspool.
Footnote 33:
Arab. "Shaytán" the insolent or rebellious one is a common term of
abuse. The word is Koranic, and borrowed as usual from the Jews.
"Satan" occurs four times in the O. T. o£ which two are in Job, where,
however, he is a subordinate angel.
Footnote 34:
Arab. "Alak" from the Koran xxii. 5. "O men ... consider that we first
created you of dust (Adam); afterwards of seed (Rodwell's "moist germs
of life"); afterwards of a little coagulated (or clots of) blood." It
refers to all mankind except Adam, Eve and Isa. Also chapt. xcvi. 2,
which, as has been said was probably the first composed at Meccah. Mr.
Rodwell (v. 10) translates by "Servant of God" what should be "Slave
of Allah," alluding to Mohammed's original name Abdullah. See my
learned friend Aloys Sprenger, Leben, etc., i. 155.
Footnote 35:
The Hindus similarly exaggerate: "He was ready to leap out of his skin
in his delight" (Katha, etc., p. 443).
Footnote 36:
A star in the tail of the Great Bear, one of the "Banát al-Na'ash," or
a star close to the second. Its principal use is to act foil to bright
Sohayl (Canopus) as in the beginning of Jámi's Layla-Majnún:—
To whom Thou'rt hid, day is darksome night:
To whom shown, Sohá as Sohayl is bright.
See also al-Hariri (xxxii. and xxxvi.). The saying, "I show her Soha
and she shows me the moon" (A. P. i. 547) arose as follows. In the
Ignorance a beautiful Amazon defied any man to take her maidenhead;
and a certain Ibn al-Ghazz won the game by struggling with her till
she was nearly senseless. He then asked her, "How is thine eye-sight:
dost thou see Soha?" and she, in her confusion, pointed to the moon
and said, "That is it!"
Footnote 37:
The moon being masculine (lunus) and the sun feminine.
Footnote 38:
The "five Shaykhs" must allude to that number of Saints whose names
are doubtful; it would be vain to offer conjectures. Lane and his
"Sheykh" (i. 617) have tried and failed.
Footnote 39:
The beauties of nature seem always to provoke hunger in Orientals,
especially Turks, as good news in Englishmen.
Footnote 40:
Pers. "Lájuward": Arab. "Lázuward"; prob. the origin of our "azure,"
through the Romaic λαζούριον and the Ital. azzurro; and, more
evidently still, of lapis lazuli, for which do _not_ see the
Dictionaries.
Footnote 41:
Arab. "Maurid," the desert-wells where caravans drink; also the way to
water-wells.
Footnote 42:
The famous Avicenna, whom the Hebrews called Aben Sina. The early
European Arabists, who seem to have learned Arabic through Hebrew,
borrowed their corruption, and it long kept its place in Southern
Europe.
Footnote 43:
According to the Hindus there are ten stages of love-sickness: (1)
Love of the eyes; (2) Attraction of the Manas or mind; (3) Birth of
desire; (4) Loss of sleep; (5) Loss of flesh; (6) Indifference to
objects of sense; (7) Loss of shame; (8) Distraction of thought; (9)
Loss of consciousness; and (10) Death.
Footnote 44:
We should call this walk of "Arab ladies" a waddle: I have never seen
it in Europe except amongst the trading classes of Trieste, who have a
"wriggle" of their own.
Footnote 45:
In our idiom six doors.
Footnote 46:
They refrained from the highest enjoyment, intending to marry.
Footnote 47:
Arab. "Jihád," lit. fighting against something; Koranically, fighting
against infidels _i.e._ non-believers in Al-Islam (chapt. lx. 1). But
the "Mujáhidún" who wage such war are forbidden to act aggressively
(ii. 186). Here it is a war to save a son.
Footnote 48:
The lady proposing extreme measures is characteristic: Egyptians hold,
and justly enough, that their women are more amorous than men.
Footnote 49:
"O Camphor," an antiphrase before noticed. The vulgar also say "Yá
Taljí" = O snowy (our snowball), the polite "Ya Abú Sumrah!" = O
father of brownness.
Footnote 50:
_i.e._ which fit into sockets in the threshold and lintel and act as
hinges. These hinges have caused many disputes about how they were
fixed, for instance in caverns without moveable lintel or threshold.
But one may observe that the upper projections are longer than the
lower and that the door never fits close above; so by lifting it up
the inferior pins are taken out of the holes. It is the oldest form
and the only form known to the Ancients. In Egyptian the hinge is
called Akab = the heel, hence the proverb Wakaf' al-báb alá 'akabih;
the door standeth on its heel; _i.e._ every thing in proper place.
Footnote 51:
Hence the addresses to the Deity: Yá Sátir and Yá Sattár—O Thou who
veilest the sins of Thy Servants! said _e.g._, when a woman is falling
from her donkey, etc.
Footnote 52:
A necessary precaution, for the headsman who would certainly lose his
own head by overhaste.
Footnote 53:
The passage has also been rendered, "and rejoiced him by what he said"
(Lane i, 600).
Footnote 54:
Arab. "Hurr" = noble, independent (opp. to 'Abd = a servile) often
used to express animæ nobilitas as εἰγενὴς in Acts xvii. 11; where the
Berœans were "more noble" than the Thessalonians. The Princess means
that the Prince would not lie with her before marriage.
Footnote 55:
The Persian word is now naturalized as Anglo-Egyptian.
Footnote 56:
Arab. "khassat hu" = removed his testicles, gelded him.
Footnote 57:
Here ends the compound tale of Taj al-Muluk cum Aziz plus Azizah, and
we return to the history of King Omar's sons.
Footnote 58:
"Zibl" popularly pronounced Zabal, means "dung." Khan is "Chief," as
has been noticed; "Zabbál," which Torrens renders literally
"dung-drawer," is one who feeds the Hammam with _bois-de-vache_, etc.
Footnote 59:
_i.e._ one who fights the Jihád or "Holy War": it is equivalent to our
"good knight."
Footnote 60:
Arab. "Malik." Azud al-Daulah, a Sultan or regent under the Abbaside
Caliph Al-Tá'í li 'llah (regn. A.H. 363-381) was the first to take the
title of "Malik." The latter in poetry is still written Malík.
Footnote 61:
A townlet on the Euphrates, in the "awwal Shám," or frontier of Syria.
Footnote 62:
_i.e._, the son would look to that.
Footnote 63:
A characteristic touch of Arab pathos, tender and true.
Footnote 64:
Arab. "Mawarid" from "ward" = resorting to pool or water-pit (like
those of "Gakdúl") for drinking, as opposed to "Sadr" = returning
after having drunk at it. Hence the "Sádir" (part. act.) takes
precedence of the "Wárid" in Al-Hariri (Ass. of the Badawi).
Footnote 65:
One of the fountains of Paradise (Koran, chapt. lxxvi.): the word lit.
means "water flowing pleasantly down the throat." The same chapter
mentions "Zanjabíl," or the Ginger-fount, which to the Infidel mind
unpleasantly suggests "ginger pop."
Footnote 66:
Arab. "Takhíl" = adorning with Kohl.
Footnote 67:
The allusions are far-fetched and obscure as in Scandinavian poetry.
Mr. Payne (ii. 314) translates "Naml" by "net." I understand the ant
(swarm) creeping up the cheeks, a common simile for a young beard. The
lovers are in the Lazá (hell) of jealousy, etc., yet feel in the Na'ím
(heaven) of love and robe in green, the hue of hope, each expecting to
be the favoured one.
Footnote 68:
Arab. "Ukhuwán," the classical term. There are two chamomiles; the
white (Bábúnaj) and the yellow (Kaysún); these however are Syrian
names and plants are differently called in almost every Province of
Arabia.
Footnote 69:
In nomadic life the parting of lovers happens so frequently that it
becomes a stock topic in poetry and often, as here, the lover
complains of parting when he is not parted. But the gravamen lies in
the word "Wasl" which may mean union, meeting, reunion or coition. As
Ka'ab ibn Zuhayr began his famous poem with "Su'ád hath departed," 900
imitators (says Al-Siyuti) adopted the Násib or address to the beloved
and Su'ad came to signify a cruel, capricious mistress.
Footnote 70:
As might be expected from a nation of camel-breeders actual cautery
which can cause only counter-irritation, is a favourite nostrum; and
the Hadis or prophetic saying is "Akhir al-dawá (or al-tibb) al-Kayy"
= cautery is the end of medicine-cure; and "Fire and sickness cannot
cohabit." Most of the Badawi bear upon their bodies grisly marks of
this heroic treatment, whose abuse not unfrequently brings on
gangrene. The Hadis (Burckhardt, Proverbs, No. 30) also means "if
nothing else avail, take violent measures."
Footnote 71:
The Spaniards have the same expression: "Man is fire and woman is
tinder."
Footnote 72:
Arab. "Báshik" from Persian "Báshah" (_accipiter Nisus_) a fierce
little species of sparrow-hawk which I have described in "Falconry in
the Valley of the Indus" (p. 14, etc.)
Footnote 73:
Lit. "Coals (fit) for frying-pan."
Footnote 74:
Arab. "Libdah," the sign of a pauper or religious mendicant. He is
addressed "Yá Abu libdah!" (O father of a felt calotte!)
Footnote 75:
In times of mourning Moslem women do not use perfumes or dyes, like
the Henna here alluded to in the pink legs and feet of the dove.
Footnote 76:
Koran, chapt. ii. 23. The idea is repeated in some forty Koranic
passages.
Footnote 77:
A woman's name, often occurring. The "daughters of Sa'ada" are zebras,
so called because "they resemble women in beauty and graceful
agility."
Footnote 78:
Arab. "Tiryák" from Gr. Θηριακόν φάρμακον a drug against venomous
bites. It was compounded mainly of treacle, and that of Baghdad and
Irák was long held sovereign. The European equivalent, "Venice
treacle," (Theriaca Andromachi) is an electuary containing many
elements. Badawin eat for counter-poison three heads of garlic in
clarified butter for forty days. (Pilgrimage iii. 77.)
Footnote 79:
Could Cervantes have read this? In Algiers he might easily have heard
it recited by the tale-tellers. Kanmakan is the typical Arab Knight,
gentle and valiant as Don Quixote; Sabbáh is the _Grazioso_, a
"Beduin" Sancho Panza. In the "Romance of Antar" we have a similar
contrast with Ocab who says: "Indeed I am no fighter: the sword in my
hand-palm chases only pelicans;" and, "whenever you kill a satrap,
I'll plunder him."
Footnote 80:
_i.e._ The Comely, son of the Spearman, son of the Lion, or Hero.
Footnote 81: