was given in Paris during the debauched days of the Second Empire.
Before a highly “fashionable” assembly of men appeared a youth in
fleshings who sat down upon a stool, bared his pudenda and closed his
eyes when, by “force of fancy,” erection and emission took place. But
presently it was suspected and proved that the stool was hollow and
admitted from below a hand whose titillating fingers explained the
phenomenon.
Footnote 221:
Moslems are curious about sleeping postures and the popular saying
is:—Lying upon the right side is proper to Kings, upon the left to
Sages; to sleep supine is the position of Allah’s Saints and prone
upon the belly is peculiar to the Devils.
Footnote 222:
This “’Asá,” a staff five to six feet long, is one of the properties
of Moslem Saints and reverends who, imitating that furious old
Puritan, Caliph Omar, make and are allowed to make a pretty liberal
distribution of its caresses.
Footnote 223:
_i.e._ as she was in her own home.
Footnote 224:
Arab. “Sulúk” a Sufistical expression, the road to salvation, &c.
Footnote 225:
In the H. V. her diet consisted of dry bread and fruits.
Footnote 226:
This is the first mention of the windows in the Arabic MS.
Footnote 227:
For this “Roc” of the older writers see vols. v. 122; vi. 16–49. I may
remind the reader that the O. Egyptian “Rokh,” or “Rukh,” by some
written “Rekhit,” whose ideograph is a monstrous bird with one claw
raised, also denotes pure wise Spirits, the Magi, &c. I know a man who
derives from it our “rook” = beak and parson.
Footnote 228:
In the H. V. he takes the Lamp from his bosom, where he had ever kept
it since his misadventure with the African Magician.
Footnote 229:
Here the mythical Rukh is mixed up with the mysterious bird Símurgh,
for which see vol. x. 130.
Footnote 230:
The H. V. adds, “hoping thereby that thou and she and all the
household should fall into perdition.”
Footnote 231:
Rank mesmerism, which has been practised in the East from ages
immemorial. In Christendom Santa Guglielma worshipped at Brunate,
“works many miracles, chiefly healing aches of head.” In the H. V.
Alaeddin feigns that he is ill and fares to the Princess with his head
tied up.
Footnote 232:
Mr. Morier in “The Mirza” (vol. i. 87) says, “Had the Arabian Nights’
Entertainments, with all their singular fertility of invention and
never-ending variety, appeared as a new book in the present day,
translated literally and not adapted to European taste in the manner
attempted in M. Galland’s translation, I doubt whether they would have
been tolerated, certainly not read with the avidity they are, even in
the dress with which he has clothed them, however imperfect that dress
may be.” But in Morier’s day the literal translation was so despised
that an Eastern book was robbed of half its charms, both of style and
idea. My version is here followed by the popular English version from
Galland, so that my readers may compare the old with the new.
Footnote 233:
This “pointing the moral,” as the reader will observe, belongs to
Galland, who had no right to introduce the stale European practice
into an Eastern tale.—R. F. B.
Footnote 234:
In the MS. of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Supplement Arabe (No. 2523,
vol. ii. fol. 147), the story which follows “Aladdin” is that of the
Ten Wazirs, for which see Supp. Nights ii. In Galland the _Histoire de
Codadad et de ses Frères_ comes next to the tale of Zayn al-Asnam: I
have changed the sequence in order that the two stories directly
translated from the Arabic may be together.
Footnote 235:
M. Hermann Zotenberg lately informed me that “Khudadad and his
Brothers” is to be found in a Turkish MS., “Al-Faraj bȧ’d
al-Shiddah”—Joy after Annoy—in the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris.
But that work is a mere derivation from the Persian “Hazár o yek Roz,”
for which see my vol. x. p. 499. The name Khudadad is common to most
Eastern peoples, the Sansk. Devadatta, the Gr. Θεοδόσιος, Θεοδώρος,
Θεοδώρητος and Dorotheus; the Lat. Deodatus, the Ital. Diodato, and
Span. Diosdado, the French Dieu-donné, and the Arab.-Persic Alladád,
Dívdád and Khudábaksh. Khudá is the mod. Pers. form of the old Khudáí
= sovereign, king, as in Máh-i-Khudáí = the sovereign moon, Kám-Khudáí
= master of his passions, etc.
Footnote 236:
Lit. Homes (or habitations) of Bakr (see vol. v. 66), by the Turks
pronounced “Diyár-i-Bekír.” It is the most famous of the four
provinces into which Mesopotamia (Heb. Naharaym, Arab. Al-Jàzírah) is
divided by the Arabs; viz: Diyár Bakr (capital Amídah); Diyár Modhar
(cap. Rakkah or Aracta); Diyár Rabí’ah (cap. Nisibis) and Diyár
al-Jazírah or Al-Jazírah (cap. Mosul). As regards the “King of
Harrán,” all these ancient cities were at some time the capitals of
independent chiefs who styled themselves royalties.
Footnote 237:
The Heb. Charran, the Carrhæ of the classics where, according to the
Moslems, Abraham was born, while the Jews and Christians make him
emigrate thither from “Ur (hod. Mughayr) of the Chaldees.” Hence his
Arab. title “Ibrahim al-Harráni.” My late friend Dr. Beke had a
marvellous theory that this venerable historic Harrán was identical
with a miserable village to the east of Damascus _because_ the Fellahs
call it Harrán al-’Awámíd—of the Columns—from some Græco-Roman
remnants of a paltry provincial temple. See “Jacob’s Flight,” etc.,
London, Longmans, 1865.
Footnote 238:
Pírozah = turquoise, is the Persian, Firúzah and Firuzakh (De Sacy
Chrest. ii. 84) the Arab. forms. The stone is a favourite in the East
where, as amongst the Russians (who affect to despise the Eastern
origin of their blood to which they owe so much of its peculiar
merit,) it is supposed to act talisman against wounds and death in
battle; and the Persians, who hold it to be a guard against the Evil
Eye, are fond of inscribing “turquoise of the old rock” with one or
more of the “Holy Names.” Of these talismans a modern Spiritualist
asks, “Are rings and charms and amulets _magnetic_, to use an analogue
for what we cannot understand, and has the immemorial belief in the
power of relics a natural not to say a scientific basis?”
Footnote 239:
Samaria is a well-known name amongst Moslems, who call the city
Shamrín and Shamrún. It was built, according to Ibn Batrik, upon Mount
Samir by Amri who gave it the first name; and the Taríkh Samírí, by
Abu al-Fath Abú al-Hasan, is a detailed account of its garbled annals.
As Nablús (Neapolis of Herod., also called by him Sebaste) it is now
familiar to the Cookite.
Footnote 240:
In the text Zangi-i-Adam-kh’wár afterwards called Habashi = an
Abyssinian. Galland simply says _un nègre_. In India the “Habshí”
(chief) of Jinjírah (= Al-Jazirah, the Island) was admiral of the
Grand Moghul’s fleets. These negroids are still dreaded by Hindús and
Hindis and, when we have another “Sepoy Mutiny,” a few thousands of
them bought upon the Zanzibar coast, dressed, drilled and officered by
Englishmen, will do us yeoman’s service.
Footnote 241:
This seems to be a fancy name for a country: the term is Persian = the
Oceanland or a seaport town: from “Daryá” the sea and bár = a region,
tract, as in Zanzibár = Blackland. The learned Weil explains it (in
loco) by _Gegend der Brunnen, brunnengleicher ort_, but I cannot
accept Scott’s note (iv. 400), “Signifying the seacoast of every
country: and hence the term is applied by Oriental geographers to the
coast of Malabar.”
Footnote 242:
The onager, confounded by our older travellers with the zebra, is the
Gúr-i-khár of Persia, where it is the noblest game from which kings
did not disdain to take a cognomen, _e.g._ Bahrám-i-Gúr. It is the
“wild ass” of Jeremiah (ii. 24: xiv. 6). The meat is famous in poetry
for combining the flavours peculiar to all kinds of flesh (Ibn
Khallikan iii. 117; iii. 239, etc.) and is noticed by Herodotus (Clio.
cxxxiii.) and by Xenophon (Cyro. lib. 1) in sundry passages: the
latter describes the relays of horses and hounds which were used in
chasing it then as now. The traveller Olearius (A.D. 1637) found it
more common than in our present day: Shah Abbas turned thirty-two wild
asses into an enclosure where they were shot as an item of
entertainment to the ambassadors at his court. The skin of the wild
ass’s back produces the famous shagreen, a word seemingly derived from
the Pers. “Saghrí,” _e.g._ “Kyafsh-i-Saghri” = slippers of shagreen,
fine wear fit for a “young Duke.” See in Ibn Khallikan (iv. 245) an
account of a “Júr” (the Arabised “Gúr”) eight hundred years old.
Footnote 243:
“Dasht-i-lá-siwá-Hú” = a desert wherein is none save He (Allah), a
howling wilderness.
Footnote 244:
Per. “Náz o andáz” = coquetry, in a half-honest sense. The Persian
“Káká Siyáh,” _i.e._ “black brother” (a domestic negro) pronounces
Nází-núzí.
Footnote 245:
In the text Nimak-harám: on this subject see vol. viii. 12.
Footnote 246:
_i.e._ an Arab of noble strain: see vol. iii. 72.
Footnote 247:
In the text “Kazzák” = Cossacks, bandits, mounted highwaymen; the word
is well known in India, where it is written in two different ways, and
the late Mr. John Shakespear in his excellent Dictionary need hardly
have marked the origin “U” (unknown).
Footnote 248:
Here and below the Hindostani version mounts the lady upon a camel
(“Ushtur” or “Unth”) which is not customary in India except when
criminals are led about the bazar. An elephant would have been in
better form.
Footnote 249:
The Ashrafi (Port. Xerafim) is a gold coin whose value has greatly
varied with its date from four shillings upwards. In The (true) Nights
we find (passim) that, according to the minting of the VIth Ommiade,
‘Abd al-Malik bin Marwán (A.H. 65–86 = A.D. 685–703), the coinage of
Baghdad consisted of three metals. “Ita quoque peregrina suis nummis
nomina posuit, aureum Dinar denarium, argentem Dirhen (lege dirham),
Drachma, æreum fols (fuls), follem appellans. * * * Nam vera moneta
aurea nomine follis signabatur, ut æreorum sub Aarone Raschido
cussorum qui hoc nomen servavit.” (O. G. Tychsen, p. 8. Introduct. in
Rem numariam Muhammedanorum). For the dinar, daric or miskál see The
Nights, vol. i. 32; ix. 294; for the dirham, i. 33, ii. 316, etc.; and
for the Fals or Fils = a fish scale, a spangle of metal, vol. i. 321.
In the debased currency of the Maroccan Empire the Fals of copper or
iron, a substantial coin, is worth 2,160 to the French five-franc
piece.
Footnote 250:
In the Hindi, as in Galland’s version, the horse is naturally enough
of Turcoman blood. I cannot but think that in India we have unwisely
limited ourselves for cavalryremounts to the Western market that
exports chiefly the mongrel “Gulf Arab” and have neglected the far
hardier animal, especially the Gútdán blood of the Tartar plains,
which supply “excellent horses whose speed and bottom are” say
travellers in general, “so justly celebrated throughout Asia.” Our
predecessors were too wise to “put all the eggs in one basket.”
Footnote 251:
An act of worship, see my Pilgrimage in which “Tawáf” = circuiting, is
described in detail, ii. 38; iii. 201 et seqq. A counterpart of this
scene is found in the _Histoire du Sultan Aqchid_ (Ikhshid) who
determined to witness his own funeral. Gauttier vol. i. pp. 134–139.
Another and similar incident occurs in the “Nineteenth Vezir’s Story”
(pp. 213–18 of the History of the Forty Vezirs, before alluded to):
here Hasan of Basrah, an ’Alim who died in A.H. 110 (= A.D. 728) saw
in vision (the “drivel of dreams?”) folk of all conditions, sages,
warriors and moon-faced maids seeking, but in vain, to release the
sweet soul of the Prince who had perished.
Footnote 252:
Here after Moslem fashion, the mother ranks before the wife: “A man
can have many wives but only one mother.” The idea is old amongst
Easterns: see Herodotus and his Christian commentators on the history
of Intaphernes’ wife (Thalia, cap. cxix). “O King,” said that lady of
mind logical, “I may get me another mate if God will and other
children an I lose these; but as my father and my mother are no longer
alive, I may not by any means have another brother,” etc., etc.
Footnote 253:
In Galland the _Histoire de Ganem, fils d’ Abu Aïoub, surnommé
l’esclave d’Amour_, precedes Zayn al-Asnám. In the Arab texts Ghanim
bin Ayyúb, the Thrall o’ Love, occurs much earlier: see The Nights
vol. ii. 45.
It is curious to compare the conclusions of these tales with the
formula of the latest specimens, the _Contes Arabes Modernes_ of
Spitta-Bey, _e.g._ “And the twain lived together (p. iii.) and had
sons and daughters (p. ii.), cohabiting with perfect harmony (fí
al-Kamál pp. 42, 79); and at last they died and were buried and so
endeth the story” (wa khalás p. 161).
Footnote 254:
In Galland and his translators the Adventures of Khudadad and his
Brothers is followed by the _Histoire du Dormeur Eveillé_ which, as
“The Sleeper and the Waker,” is to be found in the first of my
Supplemental Volumes, pp. 1–39. After this the learned Frenchman
introduced, as has been said, the _Histoire de la Lampe merveilleuse_
or “Alaeddin” to which I have assigned, for reasons given _in loco_, a
place before Khudadad.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
1. P. xv, any references in the Contents of the Third Volume to pages
307 through 652 are to pages in the Fourth Volume of the
Supplement.
2. P. 3, changed “Pildsäulen” to “Bildsäulen”.
3. P. 136, changed “leur chef mit Aladdin a sa droite” to “leur chef
mit Aladdin à sa droite”.
4. P. 208, changed “called himself the lamp” to “called himself the
slave of the lamp”.
5. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling.
6. Retained anachronistic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as
printed.
7. Footnotes have been re-indexed using numbers and collected together
at the end of the last chapter.
8. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.