Arabian Nights, Volume 3
Footnotes
[FN#1] This "horripilation," for which we have the poetical term
"goose-flesh," is often mentioned in Hindu as in Arab literature.
[FN#2] How often we have heard this in England!
[FN#3] As a styptic. The scene in the text has often been enacted in
Egypt where 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.
[FN#4] Arab. "Zakar," that which betokens masculinity. At the end of
the tale we learn that she also gelded him; thus he was a "Sandal)," a
rasé.
[FN#5] See vol. i. p. 104. {see Volume 1, Note 188}
[FN#6] The purity and intensity of her love had attained to a something
of prophetic strain.
[FN#7] Lane corrupts this Persian name to Sháh Zemán (i. 568).
[FN#8] i.e. the world, which includes the ideas of Fate, Time,
Chance.
[FN#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).
[FN#10] The popular form is, "often the ear loveth before the eye."
[FN#11] Not the first time that royalty has played this prank, nor the
last, perhaps.
[FN#12] i.e. the Lady Dunya.
[FN#13] These magazines are small strongly-built rooms on the ground
floor, where robbery is almost impossible.
[FN#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.
[FN#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."
[FN#16] Man being an "extract of despicable water" (Koran xxxii. 7) ex
spermate genital), which Mr. Rodwell renders "from germs of life,"
"from sorry water."
[FN#17] i.e. begotten by man's seed in the light of salvation
(Núr al-hudá).
[FN#18] The rolls of white (camphor-like) scarf-skin and sordes which
come off under the bathman'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
[FN#19] The normal phrase on such occasions (there is always a
"dovetail" de rigueur) "Allah give thee profit!"
[FN#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.
[FN#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 viii. 17-20). Moreover
the Moslems, far more logical than Christians, admit into Paradise the
so-called "lower animals."
[FN#22] Sed vitam faciunt balnea, vine, 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 camel congress.
[FN#23] The frigidarium or cold room, coolness being delightful to the
Arab.
[FN#24] The calidarium or hot room of the bath.
[FN#25] The Angel who acts door-keeper of Hell; others say he specially
presides over the torments of the damned (Koran xliii. 78).
[FN#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.
[FN#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-Keys 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 friend by saying."May your morning
potation be agreeable to you!" In the present day this practice is
confined to regular debauchees.
[FN#28] Koran xii. 31. The words spoken by Zulaykhá's women friends and
detractors whom she invited to see Beauty Joseph.
[FN#29] A formula for averting fascination. Koran, chaps. cxiii. 1.
"Falak" means "cleaving" hence the breaking forth of light from
darkness, a "wonderful instance of the Divine power."
[FN#30] The usual delicate chaff.
[FN#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," chaps. iv.
[FN#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 e malefactors were
nailed and tied to the patibulum or cross-piece without any sup
pedaneum 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.
[FN#33] Arab "Shaytán" the insolent or rebellious one is a common
term of abuse. The word I. Koramc, and borrowed as usual from the
Jews. "Satan" occurs four times in the O.T. of which two are in
Job where, however, he is a subordinate angel.
[FN#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 chaps.
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.
[FN#35] The Hindus similarly exaggerate: "He was ready to leap out of
his skin in his delight" (Katha, etc., p. 443).
[FN#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 Jámí'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!"
[FN#37] The moon being masculine (lupus) and the sun feminine.
[FN#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.
[FN#39] The beauties of nature seem always to provoke hunger in
Orientals, especially Turks, as good news in Englishmen.
[FN#40] Pers. "Lájuward": Arab. "Lázuward"; prob. the origin of our
"azure," through the Romaic and the Ital. azzurro; and, more
evidently still, of lapis lazuli, for which do not see the
Dictionaries.
[FN#41] Arab. "Maurid." the desert-wells where caravans drink: also the
way to water wells.
[FN#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.
[FN#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.
[FN#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.
[FN#45] In our idiom six doors.
[FN#46] They refrained from the highest enjoyment, intending to marry.
[FN#47] Arab. "Jihád," lit. fighting against something; Koranically,
fighting against infidels non- believers in Al-lslam (chaps. Ix. 1).
But the "Mujáhidún" who wage such war are forbidden to act aggressively
(ii. 186). Here it is a war to save a son.
[FN#48] The lady proposing extreme measures is characteristic:
Egyptians hold, and justly enough, that their women are more amorous
than men.
[FN#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.
[FN#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 'akabin; the door
standeth on its heel; i.e. every thing in proper place.
[FN#51] Hence the addresses to the Deity: Yá Sátir and Yá Sattár- -Thou
who veilest the sins of Thy Servants! said e.g., when a woman is
falling from her donkey, etc.
[FN#52] A necessary precaution, for the headsman who would certainly
lose his own head by overhaste.
[FN#53] The passage has also been rendered, "and rejoiced him by what
he said" (Lane i, 600).
[FN#54] Arab. "Hurr"=noble, independent (opp. to 'Abd=a servile) often
used to express animć nobilitas as in Acts xvii. 11; where the
Berans were "more noble" than the Thessalonians. The Princess means
that the Prince would not lie with her before marriage.
[FN#55] The Persian word is now naturalized as Anglo-Egypeian.
[FN#56] Arab. "khassat hu" = removed his testicles, gelded him.
[FN#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.
[FN#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.
[FN#59] i.e one who fights the Jihád or "Holy War": it is equivalent to
our "good knight."
[FN#60] Arab. "Malik." Azud al Daulah, a Sultan or regent under the
Abbaside Caliph Al-Tá'i li 'llah (regn. A.H. 363-381) was the first to
take the title of "Malik." The latter in poetry is still written Malík.
[FN#61] A townlet on the Euphrates, in the "awwal Shám," or frontier of
Syria.
[FN#62] i.e., the son would look to that.
[FN#63] A characteristic touch of Arab pathos, tender and true.
[FN#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).
[FN#65] One of the fountains of Paradise (Koran, chaps. Ixxvi.): 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."
[FN#66] Arab. "Takhíl" = adorning with Kohl.
[FN#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.
[FN#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
[FN#69] In nomadic life the parting of lovers happens so frequently
that it become. 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.
[FN#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.
[FN#71] The Spaniards have the same expression: "Man is fire and woman
is tinder."
[FN#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.).
[FN#73] Lit. "Coals (fit) for frying pan."
[FN#74] Arab. "Libdah," the sign of a pauper or religious mendicant. He
is addressed "Yá Abu libdah!" (O father of a felt calotte!)
[FN#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.
[FN#76] Koran, chaps. ii. 23. The idea is repeated in some forty
Koranic passages.
[FN#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."
[FN#78] Arab. "Tiryák" from Gr. 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 )
[FN#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."
[FN#80] i.e. The Comely, son of the Spearman, son of the Lion, or
Hero.
[FN#81] Arab. "Ushári." Old Purchas (vi., i. 9) says there are three
kinds of camels (1 ) Huguin (=Hejin) of tall stature and able to carry
1,000 lbs. (2) Bechete (=Bukhti) the two-humped Bactrian before
mentioned and, (3) the Raguahill (Rahíl) small dromedaries unfit for
burden but able to cover a hundred miles in a day. The "King of
Timbukhtu" (not "Bukhtu's well" pop. Timbuctoo) had camels which reach
Segelmesse (Sijalmas) or Darha, nine hundred miles in eight days at
most. Lyon makes the Maherry (also called El-Heirie=Mahri) trot nine
miles an hour for a long time. Other travellers in North Africa report
the Sabayee (Saba'i=seven days weeder) as able to get over six hundred
and thirty miles (or thirty-five caravan stages=each eighteen miles) in
five to seven days. One of the dromedaries in the "hamlah" or caravan
of Mr. Ensor (Journey through Nubia and Darfoor—a charming book)
travelled one thousand one hundred and ten miles in twenty- seven days.
He notes that his beasts were better with water every five to seven
days, but in the cold season could do without drink for sixteen. I
found in Al-Hijaz at the end of August that the camels suffered much
after ninety hours without drink (Pilgrimage iii. 14). But these were
"Júdi" fine-haired animals as opposed to "Khawár" (the Khowás of
Chesney, p. 333), coarse-haired, heavy, slow brutes which will not
stand great heat.
[FN#82] i.e. Fortune so willed it (euphemistically).
[FN#83] The "minaret" being feminine is usually compared with a fair
young girl. The oldest minaret proper is supposed to have been built in
Damascus by the Ommiade Caliph (No. X.) Al-Walid A.H. 86-96 (=705-715).
According to Ainsworth (ii. 113) the second was at Kuch Hisar in
Chaldea.
[FN#84] None of the pure Badawi can swim for the best of reasons, want
of waters.
[FN#85] The baser sort of Badawi is never to be trusted: he is a
traitor born, and looks upon fair play as folly or cowardice. Neither
oath nor kindness can bind him: he unites the cruelty of the cat with
the wildness of the wolf. How many Englishmen have lost their lives by
not knowing these elementary truths! The race has not changed from the
days of Mandeville (A.D. 1322) whose "Arabians, who are called Bedouins
and Ascopards (?), are right felonious and foul, and of a cursed
nature." In his day they "carried but one shield and one spear, without
other arm :" now, unhappily for travellers, they have matchlocks and
most tribes can manufacture a something called by courtesy gunpowder.
[FN#86] Thus by Arab custom they become friends.
[FN#87] Our classical term for a noble Arab horse.
[FN#88] In Arab. "Khayl" is=horse; Husan, a stallion; Hudúd, a brood
stallion; Faras, a mare (but sometimes used as a horse and meaning
"that tears over the ground"), Jiyád a steed (noble); Kadísh, a nag
(ignoble); Mohr a colt and Mohrah, a filly. There are dozens of other
names but these suffice for conversation
[FN#89] Al-Katúl, the slayer; Al-Majnún, the mad; both high compliments
in the style inverted.
[FN#90] This was a highly honourable exploit, which would bring the
doer fame as well as gain.
[FN#91] This is a true and life-like description of horse- stealing in
the Desert: Antar and Burckhardt will confirm every word. A noble Arab
stallion is supposed to fight for his rider and to wake him at night if
he see any sign of danger. The owner generally sleeps under the belly
of the beast which keeps eyes and ears alert till dawn.
[FN#92] Arab. "Yaum al tanádi," i.e. Resurrection-day.
[FN#93] Arab. "Bilád al-Súdan"=the Land of the Blacks, negro- land,
whence the slaves came, a word now fatally familiar to English ears.
There are, however, two regions of the same name, the Eastern upon the
Upper Nile and the Western which contains the Niger Valley, and each
considers itself the Sudan. And the reader must not confound the Berber
of the Upper Nile, the Berderino who acts servant in Lower Egypt, with
the Berber of Barbary: the former speaks an African language; the
latter a "Semitic" (Arabic) tongue.
[FN#94] "Him" for "her."
[FN#95] Arab. "Sáibah," a she-camel freed from labour under certain
conditions amongst the pagan Arabs; for which see Sale (Prel. Disc.
sect. v.).
[FN#96] Arab. "Marba'." In early spring the Badawi tribes leave the
Rasm or wintering-place (the Turco-Persian "Kishlák") in the desert,
where winter-rains supply them, and make for the Yaylák, or
summer-quarters, where they find grass and water. Thus the great Ruwala
tribe appears regularly every year on the eastern slopes of the
Anti-Libanus (Unexplored Syria, i. 117), and hence the frequent
"partings."
[FN#97] This "renowning it" and boasting of one's tribe (and oneself)
before battle is as natural as the war-cry: both are intended to
frighten the foe and have often succeeded. Every classical reader knows
that the former practice dates from the earliest ages. It is still
customary in Arabia during the furious tribal fights, the duello on a
magnificent scale which often ends in half the combatants on either
side being placed hors-de- combat. A fair specimen of "renowning it" is
Amrú's Suspended Poem with its extravagant panegyric of the Taghlab
tribe (p. 64, "Arabian Poetry for English Readers," etc., by W. A.
Clouston, Glasgow: privately printed MDCCCLXXXI.; and transcribed from
Sir William Jones's translation).
[FN#98] The "Turk" appeared soon amongst the Abbaside Caliphs. Mohammed
was made to prophecy of them under the title Banú Kantúrah, the latter
being a slave-girl of Abraham. The Imam Al- Shafi'i (A.H. 195=A.D. 810)
is said to have foretold their rule in Egypt where an Ottoman defended
him against a donkey-boy. (For details see Pilgrimage i. 216 ) The
Caliph Al-Mu'atasim bi'llah (A.D. 833-842) had more than 10,000 Turkish
slaves and was the first to entrust them with high office; so his Arab
subjects wrote of him:—
A wretched Turk is thy heart's desire;
And to them thou showest thee dam and sire.
His successor Al-Wásik (Vathek, of the terrible eyes) was the first to
appoint a Turk his Sultan or regent. After his reign they became
praetorians and led to the downfall of the Abbasides.
[FN#99] The Persian saying is "First at the feast and last at the
fray."
[FN#100] i.e. a tempter, a seducer.
[FN#101] Arab. "Wayl-ak" here probably used in the sense of
"Wayh-ak" an expression of affectionate concern.
[FN#102] Firdausi, the Homer of Persia, affects the same magnificent
exaggeration. The trampling of men and horses raises such a dust that
it takes one layer (of the seven) from earth and adds it to the (seven
of the) Heavens. The "blaze" on the stallion's forehead (Arab.
"Ghurrah") is the white gleam of the morning.
[FN#103] A noted sign of excitement in the Arab blood horse, when the
tail looks like a panache covering the hind-quarter.
[FN#104] i.e. Prince Kanmakan.
[FN#105] The "quality of mercy" belongs to the noble Arab, whereas the
ignoble and the Bada win are rancorous and revengeful as camels.
[FN#106] Arab. "Khanjar," the poison was let into the grooves and
hollows of the poniard.
[FN#107] The Pers. "Bang", Indian "Bhang", Maroccan "Fasúkh" and S.
African "Dakhá." (Pilgrimage i. 64.) I heard of a "Hashish- orgie" in
London which ended in half the experimentalists being on their sofas
for a week. The drug is useful for stokers, having the curious property
of making men insensible to heat. Easterns also use it for "Imsák"
prolonging coition of which I speak presently.
[FN#108] Arab. "Hashsháshín;" whence De Sacy derived "Assassin." A
notable effect of the Hashish preparation is wildly to excite the
imagination, a kind of delirium imaginans sive phantasticum .
[FN#109] Meaning "Well done!" Mashallah (Má sháa 'llah) is an
exclamation of many uses, especially affected when praising man or
beast for fear lest flattering words induce the evil eye.
[FN#110] Arab. "Kabkáb" vulg. "Kubkáb." They are between three and ten
inches high, and those using them for the first time in the slippery
Hammam must be careful.
[FN#111] Arab. "Majlis"=sitting. The postures of coition,
ethnologically curious and interesting, are subjects so extensive that
they require a volume rather than a note. Full information can be found
in the Ananga-ranga, or Stage of the Bodiless One, a treatise in
Sanskrit verse vulgarly known as Koka Pandit from the supposed author,
a Wazir of the great Rajah Bhoj, or according to others, of the
Maharajah of Kanoj. Under the title Lizzat al-Nisá (The Pleasures—or
enjoying—of Women) it has been translated into all the languages of the
Moslem East, from Hindustani to Arabic. It divides postures into five
great divisions: (1) the woman lying supine, of which there are eleven
subdivisions; (2) lying on her side, right or left, with three
varieties; (3) sitting, which has ten, (4) standing, with three
subdivisions, and (5) lying prone, with two. This total of twenty-
nine, with three forms of "Purusháyit," when the man lies supine (see
the Abbot in Boccaccio i. 4), becomes thirty-two, approaching the
French quarante façons. The Upavishta, majlis, or sitting postures,
when one or both "sit at squat" somewhat like birds, appear utterly
impossible to Europeans who lack the pliability of the Eastern's limbs.
Their object in congress is to avoid tension of the muscles which would
shorten the period of enjoyment. In the text the woman lies supine and
the man sits at squat between her legs: it is a favourite from Marocco
to China. A literal translation of the Ananga range appeared in 1873
under the name of Káma-Shástra; or the Hindoo Art of Love (Ars Amoris
Indica); but of this only six copies were printed. It was re-issued
(printed but not published) in 1885. The curious in such matters will
consult the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (London, privately printed,
1879) by Pisanus Fraxi (H. S. Ashbee).
[FN#112] i.e. Le Roi Crotte.
[FN#113] This seems to be a punning allusion to Baghdad, which in
Persian would mean the Garden (bágh) of Justice (dád). See
"Biographical Notices of Persian Poets" by Sir Gore Ouseley,
London, Oriental Translation Fund, 1846
[FN#114] The Kardoukhoi (Carduchi) of Xenophon; also called (Strabo
xv.) "Kárdakís, from a Persian word signifying manliness," which would
be "Kardak"=a doer (of derring do). They also named the Montes Gordći
the original Ararat of Xisisthrus- Noah's Ark. The Kurds are of Persian
race, speaking an old and barbarous Iranian tongue and often of the
Shi'ah sect. They are born bandits, highwaymen, cattle-lifters; yet
they have spread extensively over Syria and Egypt and have produced
some glorious men, witness Sultan Saláh al-Din (Saladin) the Great.
They claim affinity with the English in the East, because both races
always inhabit the highest grounds they can find.
[FN#115] These irregular bands who belong to no tribe are the most
dangerous bandits in Arabia, especially upon the northern frontier.
Burckhardt, who suffered from them, gives a long account of their
treachery and utter absence of that Arab "pundonor" which is supposed
to characterise Arab thieves.
[FN#116] An euphemistic form to avoid mentioning the incestuous
marriage.
[FN#117] The Arab form of our "Kinchin lay."
[FN#118] These are the signs of a Shaykh's tent.
[FN#119] These questions, indiscreet in Europe, are the rule throughout
Arabia, as they were in the United States of the last generation.
[FN#120] Arab. "Khizáb" a paste of quicklime and lamp-black kneaded
with linseed oil which turns the Henna to a dark olive. It is hideously
ugly to unaccustomed eyes and held to be remarkably beautiful in Egypt.
[FN#121] i.e. the God of the Empyrean.
[FN#122] A blow worthy of the Sa'alabah tribe to which he belonged.
[FN#123] i.e. "benefits"; also the name of Mohammed's Mu'ezzin, or
crier to prayer, who is buried outside the Jábiah gate of Damascus.
Hence amongst Moslems, Abyssinians were preferred as mosque-criers in
the early ages of Al-Islam. Egypt chose blind men because they were
abundant and cheap; moreover they cannot take note of what is doing on
the adjoining roof terraces where women and children love to pass the
cool hours that begin and end the day. Stories are told of men who
counterfeited blindness for years in order to keep the employment. In
Moslem cities the stranger required to be careful how he appeared at a
window or on the gallery of a minaret: the people hate to be overlooked
and the whizzing of a bullet was the warning to be off. (Pilgrimage
iii. 185.)
[FN#124] His instinct probably told him that this opponent was a low
fellow but such insults are common when "renowning it."
[FN#125] Arab. "Dare' " or "Dira'," a habergeon, a coat of ring- mail,
sometimes worn in pairs. During the wretched "Sudan" campaigns much
naďve astonishment was expressed by the English Press to hear of
warriors armed cap-ŕ-pie in this armour like medieval knights. They did
not know that every great tribe has preserved, possibly from Crusading
times, a number of hauberks, even to hundreds. I have heard of only one
English traveller who had a mail jacket made by Wilkinson of Pall Mall,
imitating in this point Napoleon III. And (according to the
Banker-poet, Rogers) the Duke of Wellington. That of Napoleon is said
to have been made of platinum-wire, the work of a Pole who received his
money and an order to quit Paris. The late Sir Robert Clifton (they
say) tried its value with a Colt after placing it upon one of his
coat-models or mannequins. It is easy to make these hauberks
arrow-proof or sword-proof, even bullet-proof if Arab gunpowder be
used: but against a modern rifle-cone they are worse than worthless as
the fragments would be carried into the wound. The British serjeant was
right in saying that he would prefer to enter battle in his shirt: and
he might even doff that to advantage and return to the primitive custom
of man—gymnomachy.
[FN#126] Arab. "Jamal" (by Badawin pronounced "Gamal" like the Hebrew)
is the generic term for "Camel" through the Gr. : "Ibl" is also
the camel-species but not so commonly used. "Hajín" is the dromedary
(in Egypt, "Dalúl" in Arabia), not the one- humped camel of the
zoologist (C. dromedarius) as opposed to the two-humped (C.
Bactrianus), but a running i.e. a riding camel. The feminine is Nákah
for like mules females are preferred. "Bakr" (masc.) and "Bakrah"
(fem.) are camel-colts. There are hosts of special names besides those
which are general. Mr. Censor is singular when he states (p.40) "the
male (of the camel) is much the safer animal to choose ;" and the
custom of t e universal Ease disproves his assertion. Mr. McCoan
("Egypt as it is") tells his readers that the Egyptian camel has two
humps, in fact, he describes the camel as it is not.
[FN#127] So, in the Romance of Dalhamah (Zát al-Himmah, the heroine the
hero Al-Gundubah ("one locust-man") smites off the head of his mother's
servile murderer and cries, I have taken my blood-revenge upon this
traitor slave'" (Lane, M. E. chaps. xx iii.)
[FN#128] This gathering all the persons upon the stage before the
curtain drops is highly artistic and improbable.
[FN#129] He ought to have said his dawn prayers.
[FN#130] Here begins what I hold to be the oldest subject matter in The
Nights, the apologues or fables proper; but I reserve further remarks
for the Terminal Essay. Lane has most objectionably thrown this and
sundry of the following stories into a note (vol. ii., pp. 53-69).
[FN#131] In beast stories generally when man appears he shows to
disadvantage.
[FN#132] Shakespeare's "stone bow" not Lane's "cross-bow" (ii. 53).
[FN#133] The goad still used by the rascally Egyptian donkey-boy is a
sharp nail at the end of a stick; and claims the special attention of
societies for the protection of animals.
[FN#134] "The most ungrateful of all voices surely is the voice of
asses" (Koran xxxi. 18); and hence the "braying of hell" (Koran
Ixvii.7). The vulgar still believe that the donkey brays when seeing
the Devil. "The last animal which entered the Ark with Noah was the Ass
to whose tail Iblis was clinging. At the threshold the ass seemed
troubled and could enter no further when Noah said to him:—"Fie upon
thee! come in." But as the ass was still troubled and did not advance
Noah cried:—"Come in, though the Devil be with thee!", so the ass
entered and with him Iblis. Thereupon Noah asked:—"O enemy of Allah who
brought thee into the Ark ?", and Iblis answered:—"Thou art the man,
for thou saidest to the ass, come in though the Devil be with thee!"
(Kitáb al-Unwán fi Makáid al-Niswán quoted by Lane ii. 54).
[FN#135] Arab. "Rihl," a wooden saddle stuffed with straw and matting.
In Europe the ass might complain that his latter end is the sausage. In
England they say no man sees a dead donkey: I have seen dozens and,
unfortunately, my own.
[FN#136] The English reader will not forget Sterne's old mare. Even
Al-Hariri, the prince of Arab rhetoricians, does not distain to use
"pepedit," the effect being put for the cause—terror. But Mr. Preston
(p. 285) and polite men translate by "fled in haste" the Arabic farted
for fear."
[FN#137] This is one of the lucky signs and adds to the value of the
beast. There are some fifty of these marks, some of them (like a spiral
of hair in the breast which denotes that the rider is a cuckold) so
ill-omened that the animal can be bought for almost nothing. Of course
great attention is paid to colours, the best being the dark rich bay
("red" of Arabs) with black points, or the flea-bitten grey (termed
Azrak=blue or Akhzar=green) which whitens with age. The worst are dun,
cream coloured, piebald and black, which last are very rare. Yet
according to the Mishkát al- Masábih (Lane 2, 54) Mohammed said, The
best horses are black (dark brown?) with white blazes (Arab. "Ghurrah")
and upper lips; next, black with blaze and three white legs (bad,
because white- hoofs are brittle):next, bay with white blaze and white
fore and hind legs." He also said, "Prosperity is with sorrel horses;"
and praised a sorrel with white forehead and legs; but he dispraised
the "Shikál," which has white stockings (Arab. "Muhajjil") on alternate
hoofs (e.g. right hind and left fore). The curious reader will consult
Lady Anne Blunt's "Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates, with some Account
of the Arabs and their Horses" (1879); but he must remember that it
treats of the frontier tribes. The late Major Upton also left a book
"Gleanings from the Desert of Arabia" (1881); but it is a marvellous
production deriving e.g. Khayl (a horse generically) from Kohl or
antimony (p. 275). What the Editor was dreaming of I cannot imagine. I
have given some details concerning the Arab horse especially in
Al-Yaman, among the Zú Mohammed, the Zú Husayn and the Banu Yam in
Pilgrimage iii. 270. As late as Marco Polo's day they supplied the
Indian market via Aden; but the "Eye o Al-Yaman" has totally lost the
habit of exporting horses.
[FN#138] The shovel-iron which is the only form of spur.
[FN#139] Used for the dromedary: the baggage-camel is haltered.
[FN#140] Arab. "Harwalah," the pas gymnastique affected when
circumambulating the Ka'abah (Pilgrimage iii. 208).
[FN#141] "This night" would be our "last night": the Arabs, I repeat,
say "night and day," not "day and night."
[FN#142] The vulgar belief is that man's fate is written upon his
skull, the sutures being the writing.
[FN#143] Koran ii. 191.
[FN#144] Arab. "Tasbíh"=saying, "Subhán' Allah." It also means a rosary
(Egypt. Sebhah for Subhah) a string of 99 beads divided by a longer
item into sets of three and much fingered by the would- appear pious.
The professional devotee carries a string of wooden balls the size of
pigeons' eggs.
[FN#145] The pigeon is usually made to say, ' "Wahhidú Rabba-kumu
''llazi khalaka-kum, yaghfiru lakum zamba-kum" = "Unify (Assert the
Unity of) your Lord who created you; so shall He forgive your sin!" As
might be expected this "language" is differently interpreted.
Pigeon-superstitions are found in all religions and I have noted
(Pilgrimage iii, 218) how the Hindu deity of Destruction- reproduction,
the third Person of their Triad, Shiva and his Spouse (or active
Energy), are supposed to have dwelt at Meccah under the titles of
Kapoteshwara (Pigeon-god) and Kapoteshí (Pigeon-goddess).
[FN#146] I have seen this absolute horror of women amongst the
Monks of the Coptic Convents.
[FN#147] After the Day of Doom, when men's actions are registered, that
of mutual retaliation will follow and all creatures (brutes included)
will take vengeance on one another.
[FN#148] The Comrades of the Cave, famous in the Middle Ages of
Christianity (Gibbon chaps. xxxiii.), is an article of faith with
Moslems, being part subject of chapter xviii., the Koranic Surah termed
the Cave. These Rip Van Winkle-tales begin with Endymion so famous
amongst the Classics and Epimenides of Crete who slept fifty-seven
years; and they extend to modern days as La Belle au Bois dormant. The
Seven Sleepers are as many youths of Ephesus (six royal councillors and
a shepherd, whose names are given on the authority of Ali); and,
accompanied by their dog, they fled the persecutions of Dakianús (the
Emperor Decius) to a cave near Tarsús in Natolia where they slept for
centuries. The Caliph Mu'awiyah when passing the cave sent into it some
explorers who were all killed by a burning wind. The number of the
sleepers remains uncertain, according to the Koran (ibid. v. 21) three,
five or seven and their sleep lasted either three hundred or three
hundred and nine years. The dog (ibid. v. 17) slept at the
cave-entrance with paws outstretched and, according to the general, was
called "Katmir" or "Kitmir;" but Al-Rakím (v. 8) is also applied to it
by some. Others hold this to be the name of the valley or mountain and
others of a stone or leaden tablet on which their names were engraved
by their countrymen who built a chapel on the spot (v. 20). Others
again make the Men of Al-Rakím distinct from the Cave-men, and believe
(with Bayzáwi) that they were three youths who were shut up in a grotto
by a rock-slip. Each prayed for help through the merits of some good
deed: when the first had adjured Allah the mountain cracked till light
appeared; at the second petition it split so that they saw one another
and after the third it opened. However that may be, Kitmir is one of
the seven favoured animals: the others being the Hudhud (hoopoe) of
Solomon (Koran xxii. 20); the she-camel of Sálih (chaps. Ixxxvii.); the
cow of Moses which named the Second Surah; the fish of Jonah; the
serpent of Eve, and the peacock of Paradise. For Koranic revelations of
the Cave see the late Thomas Chenery (p. 414 The Assemblies of
Al-Hariri: Williams and Norgate, 1870) who borrows from the historian
Tabari.
[FN#149] These lines have occurred in Night cxlvi.: I quote Mr.
Payne by way of variety.
[FN#150] The wolf (truly enough to nature) is the wicked man without
redeeming traits; the fox of Arab folk-lore is the cunning man who can
do good on occasion. Here the latter is called "Sa'alab" which may, I
have noted, mean the jackal; but further on "Father of a Fortlet"
refers especially to the fox. Herodotus refers to the gregarious Canis
Aureus when he describes Egyptian wolves as being "not much bigger than
foxes" (ii. 67). Canon Rawlinson, in his unhappy version, does not
perceive that the Halicarnassian means the jackal and blunders about
the hyena.
[FN#151] The older "Leila" or "Leyla": it is a common name and is here
applied to woman in general. The root is evidently "layl"=nox, with,
probably, the idea, "She walks in beauty like the night."
[FN#152] Arab. Abu 'l-Hosayn; his hole being his fort (Unexplored
Syria, ii. 18).
[FN#153] A Koranic phrase often occurring.
[FN#154] Koran v. 35.
[FN#155] Arab. "Bází," Pers. "Báz" (here Richardson is wrong s.v.); a
term to a certain extent generic, but specially used for the noble
Peregrine (F. Peregrinator) whose tiercel is the Sháhín (or "Royal
Bird"). It is sometimes applied to the goshawk (Astur palumbarius)
whose proper title, however, is Shah-báz (King-hawk). The Peregrine
extends from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin and the best come from the
colder parts: in Iceland I found that the splendid white bird was
sometimes trapped for sending to India. In Egypt "Bazi" is applied to
the kite or buzzard and "Hidyah" (a kite) to the falcon (Burckhardt's
Prov. 159, 581 and 602). Burckhardt translates "Hidáyah," the Egyptian
corruption, by "an ash-grey falcon of the smaller species common
throughout Egypt and Syria."
[FN#156] Arab. "Hijl," the bird is not much prized in India because it
feeds on the roads. For the Shinnár (caccabis) or magnificent partridge
of Midian as large as a pheasant, see "Midian Revisted" ii. 18.
[FN#157] Arab. "Súf;" hence "Súfi,"=(etymologically) one who wears
woollen garments, a devotee, a Santon; from =wise; from
=pure, or from Safá=he was pure. This is not the place to enter upon
such a subject as "Tasawwuf," or Sufyism; that singular reaction from
arid Moslem realism and materialism, that immense development of
gnostic and Neo-platonic transcendentalism which is found only
germinating in the Jewish and Christian creeds. The poetry of
Omar-i-Khayyám, now familiar to English readers, is a fair specimen;
and the student will consult the last chapter of the Dabistan "On the
religion of the Sufiahs." The first Moslem Sufi was Abu Háshim of
Kufah, ob. A. H. 150=767, and the first Convent of Sufis called
"Takiyah" (Pilgrimage i. 124) was founded in Egypt by Saladin the
Great.
[FN#158] i.e. when she encamps with a favourite for the night.
[FN#159] The Persian proverb is "Marg-i-amboh jashni dáred"—death in a
crowd is as good as a feast.
[FN#160] Arab. "Kanát", the subterranean water-course called in Persia
"Kyáriz." Lane (ii. 66) translates it "brandish around the spear (Kanát
is also a cane-lance) of artifice," thus making rank nonsense of the
line. Al-Hariri uses the term in the Ass. of the Banu Haram where
"Kanát" may be a pipe or bamboo laid underground.
[FN#161] From Al-Tughrái, the author of the Lámiyat al-Ajam, the "Lay
of the Outlander;" a Kasidah (Ode) rhyming in Lám (the letter "l" being
the ráwi or binder). The student will find a new translation of it by
Mr. J. W. Redhouse and Dr. Carlyle's old version (No. liii.) in Mr.
Clouston's "Arabian Poetry." Muyid al-Din al-Hasan Abu Ismail nat.
Ispahan ob. Baghdad A.H. 182) derived his surname from the Tughrá,
cypher or flourish (over the "Bismillah" in royal and official papers)
containing the name of the prince. There is an older "Lamiyat al-Arab"
a pre-Islamitic L-poem by the "brigand-poet" Shanfara, of whom Mr. W.
G. Palgrave has given a most appreciative account in his "Essays on
Eastern Questions," noting the indomitable self-reliance and the
absolute individualism of a mind defying its age and all around it.
Al-Hariri quotes from both.
[FN#162] The words of the unfortunate Azízah, vol. ii., p. 323.
[FN#163] Arab. "Háwí"=a juggler who plays tricks with snakes: he is
mostly a Gypsy. The "recompense" the man expects is the golden treasure
which the ensorcelled snake is supposed to guard. This idea is as old
as the Dragon in the Garden of the Hesperides—and older.
[FN#164] The "Father of going out (to prey) by morning"; for dawn is
called Zanab Sirhán the Persian Dum-i-gurg=wolf's tail, i.e. the first
brush of light; the Zodiacal Light shown in morning. Sirhán is a
nickname of the wolf—Gaunt Grim or Gaffer Grim, the German Isengrin or
Eisengrinus (icy grim or iron grim) whose wife is Hersent, as Richent
or Hermeline is Mrs. Fox. In French we have lopez, luppe, leu, e.g.
Venant ŕ la queue, leu, leu,
i.e. going in Indian file. Hence the names D'Urfé and Saint-Loup. In
Scandinavian, the elder sister of German, Ulf and in German (where the
Jews were forced to adopt the name) Wolff whence "Guelph." He is also
known to the Arabs as the "sire of a she-lamb," the figure metonymy
called "Kunyat bi 'l-Zidd" (lucus a non lucendo), a patronymic or
by-name given for opposition and another specimen of "inverted speech."
[FN#165] Arab. "Bint' Arús" = daughter of the bridegroom, the
Hindustani Mungus (vulg. Mongoose); a well-known weasel-like rodent
often kept tame in the house to clear it of vermin. It is supposed to
know an antidote against snake-poison, as the weasel eats rue before
battle (Pliny x. 84; xx. 13). In Modern Egypt this viverra is called
"Kitt (or Katt) Far'aun" = Pharaoh's cat: so the Percnopter becomes
Pharaoh's hen and the unfortunate (?) King has named a host of things,
alive and dead. It was worshipped and mummified in parts of Ancient
Egypt e.g. Heracleopolis, on account of its antipathy to serpents and
because it was supposed to destroy the crocodile, a feat with Ćlian and
others have overloaded with fable. It has also a distinct antipathy to
cats. The ichneumon as a pet becomes too tame and will not leave its
master: when enraged it emits an offensive stench. I brought home for
the Zoological Gardens a Central African specimen prettily barred.
Burckhardt (Prov. 455) quotes a line:—
Rakas' Ibn Irsin wa zamzama l-Nimsu,
(Danceth Ibn Irs whileas Nims doth sing)
and explains Nims by ichneumon and Ibn Irs as a "species of small
weasel or ferret, very common in Egypt: it comes into the house, feeds
upon meat, is of gentle disposition although not domesticated and full
of gambols and frolic."
[FN#166] Arab. "Sinnaur" (also meaning a prince). The common name is
Kitt which is pronounced Katt or Gatt; and which Ibn Dorayd pronounces
a foreign word (Syriac?). Hence, despite Freitag, Catus (which Isidore
derives from catare, to look for) = gatto, chat, cat, an animal unknown
to the Classics of Europe who used the mustela or putorius vulgaris and
different species of viverrć. The Egyptians, who kept the cat to
destroy vermin, especially snakes, called it Mau, Mai, Miao
(onomatopoetic): this descendent of the Felis maniculata originated in
Nubia; and we know from the mummy pits and Herodotus that it was the
same species as ours. The first portraits of the cat are on the
monuments of "Beni Hasan," B.C. 2500. I have ventured to derive the
familiar "Puss" from the Arab. "Biss (fem. :Bissah"), which is a
congener of Pasht (Diana), the cat-faced goddess of Bubastis
(Pi-Pasht), now Zagázig. Lastly, "tabby (brindled)-cat" is derived from
the Attábi (Prince Attab's) quarter at Baghdad where watered silks were
made. It is usually attributed to the Tibbie, Tibalt, Tybalt, Thibert
or Tybert (who is also executioner), various forms of Theobald in the
old Beast Epic; as opposed to Gilbert the gib-cat, either a tom-cat or
a gibbed (castrated) cat.
[FN#167] Arab. "Ikhwán al-Safá," a popular term for virtuous friends
who perfectly love each other in all purity: it has also a mystic
meaning. Some translate it "Brethren of Sincerity," and hold this
brotherhood to be Moslem Freemasons, a mere fancy (see the Mesnevi of
Mr. Redhouse, Trubner 1881). There is a well-known Hindustani book of
this name printed by Prof. Forbes in Persian character and translated
by Platts and Eastwick.
[FN#168] Among Eastern men there are especial forms for "making
brotherhood." The "Munhbolá-bhái" (mouth-named brother) of India is
well-known. The intense "associativeness" of these races renders
isolation terrible to them, and being defenceless in a wild state of
society has special horrors. Hence the origin of Caste for which see
Pilgrimage (i. 52). Moslems, however, cannot practise the African rite
of drinking a few drops of each other's blood. This, by the by, was
also affected in Europe, as we see in the Gesta Romanoru, Tale lxvii.,
of the wise and foolish knights who "drew blood (to drink) from the
right arm."
[FN#169] The F. Sacer in India is called "Laghar" and tiercel "Jaghar."
Mr. T.E. Jordan (catalogue of Indian Birds, 1839) says it is rare; but
I found it the contrary. According to Mr. R. Thompson it is flown at
kites and antelope: in Sind it is used upon night-heron (nyctardea
nycticorax), floriken or Hobara (Otis aurita), quail, partridge, curlew
and sometimes hare: it gives excellent sport with crows but requires to
be defended. Indian sportsmen, like ourselves, divide hawks into two
orders: the "Siyáh-chasm," or black-eyed birds, long-winged and noble;
the "Gulábi-chasm" or yellow-eyed (like the goshawk) round-winged and
ignoble.
[FN#170] i.e. put themselves at thy mercy.
[FN#171] I have remarked (Pilgrimage iii.307) that all the popular
ape-names in Arabic and Persian, Sa'adán, Maymún, Shádi, etc., express
propitiousness—probably euphemistically applied to our "poor relation."
[FN#172] The serpent does not "sting" nor does it "bite;" it strikes
with the poison-teeth like a downward stab with a dagger. These fangs
are always drawn by the jugglers but they grow again and thus many
lives are lost. The popular way of extracting the crochets is to grasp
the snake firmly behind the neck with one hand and with the other to
tantalise it by offering and withdrawing a red rag. At last the animal
is allowed to strike it and a sharp jerk tears out both eye-teeth as
rustics used to do by slamming a door. The head is then held downwards
and the venom drains from its bag in the shape of a few drops of
slightly yellowish fluid which, as conjurers know, may be drunk without
danger. The patient looks faint and dazed, but recovers after a few
hours and feels as if nothing had happened. In India I took lessons
from a snake-charmer but soon gave up the practice as too dangerous.
[FN#173] Arab. "Akh al-Jahálah" = brother of ignorance, an Ignorantin;
one "really and truly" ignorant; which is the value of "Ahk" in such
phrases as a "brother of poverty," or, "of purity."
[FN#174] Lane (ii. 1) writes "Abu-l-Hasan;" Payne (iii. 49) "Aboulhusn"
which would mean "Father of Beauty (Husn)" and is not a Moslem name.
Hasan (beautiful) and its dimin. Husayn, names now so common, were (it
is said), unknown to the Arabs, although Hassán was that of a Tobba
King, before the days of Mohammed who so called his two only grandsons.
In Anglo-India they have become "Hobson and Jobson." The Bresl. Edit.
(ii. 305) entitles this story "Tale of Abu 'l Hasan the Attár (druggist
and perfumer) with Ali ibn Bakkár and what befel them with the handmaid
(=járiyah) Shams al-Nahár."
[FN#175] i.e. a descendant, not a Prince.
[FN#176] The Arab shop is a kind of hole in the wall and buyers sit
upon its outer edge (Pilgrimage i. 99).
[FN#177] By a similar image the chamćleon is called Abú Kurrat=Father
of coolness; because it is said to have the "coldest" eye of all
animals and insensible to heat and light, since it always looks at the
sun.
[FN#178] This dividing the hemistich words is characteristic of certain
tales; so I have retained it although inevitably suggesting:—