They hand-in-hand, with wand’ring steps and slow
Through Eden took their solitary way.
Footnote 47:
As we should say, “There are good pickings to be had out of this job.”
Even in the last generation a Jew or a Christian intriguing with an
Egyptian or Syrian Moslemah would be offered the choice of death or
Al-Islam. The Wali dared not break open the door because he was not
sure of his game.
Footnote 48:
The Jew rose seemingly to fetch his valuables and ran away, thus
leaving the Wali no proof that he had been there in Moslem law which
demands ocular testimony, rejects circumstantial evidence and ignores
such partial witnesses as the policeman who accompanied his Chief.
This I have before explained.
Footnote 49:
Arab. “Raba’,” lit. = spring-quarters. See Marba’, iii. 79.
Footnote 50:
Arab. “Ni’am,” an exception to the Abbé Sicard’s rule. “La consonne N
est l’expression naturelle du doute chez toutes les nations, par ce
que le son que rend la touche nasale, quand l’homme incertain examine
s’il fera ce qu’on lui demande; ainsi NE ON, NE OT, NE EC, NE IL, d’où
l’on a fait _non_, _not_, _nec_, _nil_.”
Footnote 51:
For this “Haláwat al-Miftáh,” or sweetmeat of the key-money, the
French _denier à Dieu_, Old English “God’s penny,” see vol. vii. 212,
and Pilgrimage i. 62.
Footnote 52:
Showing that car. cop. had taken place. Here we find the irregular use
of the inn, perpetuated in not a few of the monster hotels throughout
Europe.
Footnote 53:
For its rules and right performance see vol. vi. 199.
Footnote 54:
_i.e._ the “Basil (issa),” mostly a servile name, see vol. i. 19.
Footnote 55:
Arab. “La’alla,” used to express the hope or expectation of some event
of possible occurrence; thus distinguished from “Layta”—Would heaven!
utinam! O si! etc.—expressing desire or volition.
Footnote 56:
Arab. “Balát,” in Cairo the flat slabs of limestone and sandstone
brought from the Turah quarries, which supplied stone for the Jízah
Pyramids.
Footnote 57:
Arab. “Yá Mu’arras!” here = O fool and disreputable; see vol. i. 338.
Footnote 58:
These unfortunates in hot climates enjoy nothing so much as throwing
off the clothes which burn their feverish skins: see Pilgrimage iii.
385. Hence the boys of Eastern cities, who are perfect imps and
flibbertigibbets, always raise the cry “Majnún” when they see a man
naked whose sanctity does not account for his nudity.
Footnote 59:
Arab. “Daur al-Ká’ah” = the round opening made in the ceiling for
light and ventilation.
Footnote 60:
Arab. “La-nakhsifanna” with the emphatic termination called by
grammarians “Nún al-taakid”—the N of injunction. Here it is the
reduplicated form, the Nun al-Sakílah or heavy N. The addition of Lá
(not) _e.g._ “Lá yazrabanna” = let him certainly not strike, answers
to the intensive or corroborative negative of the Greek effected by
two negations or even more. In Arabic as in Latin and English two
negatives make an affirmative.
Footnote 61:
Parturition and death in warm climates, especially the damp-hot like
Egypt are easy compared with both processes in the temperates of
Europe. This is noticed by every traveller. Hence probably Easterns
have never studied the artificial Euthanasia which is now appearing in
literature. See p. 143 “My Path to Atheism,” by Annie Besant, London:
Freethought Publishing Company, 28, Stonecutter Street, E.C., 1877;
based upon the Utopia of the highly religious Thomas More. Also “Essay
on Euthanasia,” by P. D. Williams, Jun., and Mr. Tollemache in the
“Nineteenth Century.”
Footnote 62:
_i.e._ he whose turn it is to sit on the bench outside the
police-office in readiness for emergencies.
Footnote 63:
Arab. “’Udúl” (plur. of ’Ádil), gen. men of good repute, qualified as
witnesses in the law-court, see vol. iv. 271. It is also used (as
below) for the Kazi’s Assessors.
Footnote 64:
About £80.
Footnote 65:
Arab. “Kitáb” = book, written bond. This officiousness of the
neighbours is thoroughly justified by Moslem custom; and the same
scene would take place in this our day. Like the Hindú’s, but in a
minor degree, the Moslem’s neighbours form a volunteer police which
oversees his every action. In the case of the Hindú this is required
by the exigencies of caste, an admirable institution much bedevilled
by ignorant Mlenchhas, and if “dynamiting” become the fashion in
England, as it threatens to become, we shall be obliged to establish
“Vigilance Committees” which will be as inquisitorial as caste.
Footnote 66:
_e.g._ writing The contract of A. with B., daughter of Such-an-one,
etc.
Footnote 67:
Arab. “Hujjat,” which may also mean an excuse.
Footnote 68:
The last clause is supplied by Mr. Payne to stop a gap in the broken
text.
Footnote 69:
The text idiotically says “To the King.”
Footnote 70:
In the text “Nahnu” = we, for I; a common vulgarism in Egypt and
Syria.
Footnote 71:
This clause has required extensive trimming; the text making the
Notary write out the contract (which was already written) in the
woman’s house.
Footnote 72:
Arab. “Husn tadbír” = lit. “beauty of his contrivance.” Husn, like
καλὸς, pulcher, beau and bello, is applied to moral and intellectual
qualities as well as to physical and material. Hence the καλὸ γέρων,
or old gentleman which in Romaic becomes Calogero, a monk.
Footnote 73:
_i.e._ that some one told me the following tale.
Footnote 74:
Arab. “Mutawallí”: see vol. i. 259.
Footnote 75:
_i.e._ his Moslem neighbours.
Footnote 76:
In the text is a fearful confusion of genders.
Footnote 77:
Her object was to sue him for the loss of the pledge and to demand
fabulous damages.
Footnote 78:
Arab. “Ya’tamidúna hudà-hum” = purpose the right direction, a skit at
the devotees of her age and sex; and an impudent comment upon the
Prefect’s address “O she-devil!”
Footnote 79:
The trick has often been played in modern times at fairs, shows, etc.
Witness the old Joe Miller of the “Moving Multitude.”
Footnote 80:
Apparently meaning the forbidden pleasures of wine and wassail, loose
talk and tales of women’s wiles, a favourite subject with the lewder
sort of Moslem.
Footnote 81:
_i.e._ women’s tricks.
Footnote 82:
The “Turkoman” in the text first comes in afterwards.
Footnote 83:
Arab. “Kásid,” the old Anglo-Indian “Cossid”: see vol. vii. 340.
Footnote 84:
Being a merchant he wore dagger and sword, a safe practice as it
deters attack and far better than carrying hidden weapons, derringers
and revolvers which, originating in the United States, have now been
adopted by the most civilised nations in Europe.
Footnote 85:
I have noted (vol. ii. 186, iv. 175) the easy expiation of perjury
amongst Moslems, an ugly blot in their moral code.
Footnote 86:
_i.e._ Enter in the name of Allah.
Footnote 87:
_i.e._ Damn your soul for leading me into this danger!
Footnote 88:
Arab. “Saff Kamaríyát min al-Zujáj.” The Kamaríyah is derived by Lane
(Introd. M.E.) from Kamar = moon; by Baron Von Hammer from
Khumárawayh, second of the Banu-Tulún dynasty, at the end of the ixth
century A.D., when stained glass was introduced into Egypt. N.B.—It
must date from many centuries before. The Kamariyah are coloured glass
windows about 2 feet high by 18 inches wide, placed in a row along the
upper part of the Mashrabíyah or projecting lattice-window, and are
formed of small panes of brightly-stained glass set in rims of
gypsum-plaster, the whole framed in wood. Here the allusion is to the
“Mamrak” or dome-shaped skylight crowning the room. See vol. viii.
156.
Footnote 89:
_i.e._ easily arrested them.
Footnote 90:
The reader will not forget the half-penitent Captain of Bandits in Gil
Blas.
Footnote 91:
Arab. “Abtál” = champions, athletes, etc., plur. of Batal, a brave: so
Batalat = a virago. As the root Batala = it was vain, the form
“Battál” may mean either a hero or a bad lot: see vol. viii. 335; x.
74, 75.
Footnote 92:
Arab. “Fityán;” plur. of Fatà: see vol. i. 67.
Footnote 93:
This was in popular parlance “adding insult to injury:” the blackening
their faces was a promise of Hell-fire.
Footnote 94:
Arab. “Shayyan li ’lláh!” lit. = (Give me some) Thing for (the love
of) Allah. The answer in Egypt is “Allah ya’tík:” = Allah will give it
thee (not I), or, “Yaftah ’Allah,” = Allah open (to thee the door of
subsistence): in Marocco “Sir fí hálik” (pron. Sirfhák) = Go about thy
business. In all cities there is formula which suffices the asker; but
the Ghashím (Johnny Raw) who ignores it, is pestered only the more by
his protestations that “he left his purse at home,” etc.
Footnote 95:
_i.e._ engaged her for a revel and paid her in advance.
Footnote 96:
Arab. “Rasílah” = a (she) partner, to accompany her on the lute.
Footnote 97:
Suggesting that they are all thieves who had undergone legal
mutilation.
Footnote 98:
Arab. “Nuzhat-í:” see vol. ii. 81.
Footnote 99:
Arab. “Muhattakát;” usually “with torn veils” (fem. plur.) here
“without veils,” metaphor. meaning in disgrace, in dishonour.
Footnote 100:
For this reedy Poa, see vol. ii. 18.
Footnote 101:
I have repeatedly noticed that singing and all music are, in religious
parlance, “Makrúh,” blameable though not actually damnable; and that
the first step after “getting religion” is to forswear them.
Footnote 102:
_i.e._ to find the thief or make good the loss.
Footnote 103:
_i.e._ the claimants.
Footnote 104:
Arab. “Sákiyah:” see vol. i. 123.
Footnote 105:
The lower orders of Egypt and Syria are addicted to this bear-like
attack; so the negroes imitate fighting-rams by butting with their
stony heads. Let me remark that when Herodotus (iii. 12), after
Psammenitus’ battle of Pelusium in B.C. 524, made the remark that the
Egyptian crania were hardened by shaving and insolation and the
Persians were softened by wearing head-cloths, he tripped in his
anthropology. The Iranian skull is naturally thin compared with that
of the negroid Egyptian and the negro.
Footnote 106:
Arab. “Farkalah,” φραγέλλιον from flagellum; cattle-whip with leathern
thongs. Lane, M.E.; Fleischer Glos. 83–84; Dozy _s.v._
Footnote 107:
This clause is supplied to make sense.
Footnote 108:
_i.e._ to crucify him by nailing him to an upright board.
Footnote 109:
_i.e._ a native of the Hauran, Job’s country east of Damascus, now a
luxuriant waste, haunted only by the plundering Badawin and the Druzes
of the hills, who are no better; but its stretches of ruins and
league-long swathes of stone over which the vine was trained, show
what it has been and what it will be again when the incubus of Turkish
mis-rule shall be removed from it. Herr Schuhmacher has lately noted
in the Hauran sundry Arab traditions of Job; the village Nawá, where
he lived: the Hammam ’Ayyúb, where he washed his leprous skin; the
Dayr Ayyúb, a monastery said to date from the third century; and the
Makan Ayyub at Al-Markáz, where the semi-mythical patriarch and his
wife are buried. The “Rock of Job,” covered by a mosque, is a basaltic
monolith 7 feet high by 4, and is probably connected with the solar
worship of the old Phœnicians.
Footnote 110:
This habit “torquere mero,” was a favourite with the mediæval Arabs.
Its effect varies greatly with men’s characters, making some
open-hearted and communicative, and others more cunning and secretive
than in the normal state. So far it is an excellent detection of
disposition, and many a man who passes off well when sober has shown
himself in liquor a rank snob. Among the lower orders it provokes what
the Persians call Bad-mastí (le vin méchant): see Pilgrimage iii. 385.
Footnote 111:
This mystery is not unfamiliar to the modern “spiritualist;” and all
Eastern tongues have a special term for the mysterious Voice. See vol.
i. 142.
Footnote 112:
Arab. “Alaykum”: addressed to a single person. This is generally
explained by the “Salam” reaching the ears of Invisible Controuls, and
even the Apostle. We find the words cruelly distorted in the
Pentamerone of Giambattista Basile (partly translated by John E.
Taylor, London: Bogue, 1848), “The Prince, coming up to the old woman
heard an hundred Licasalemme,” p. 383.
Footnote 113:
Arab. “Al-Zalamah”; the policeman: see vol. vi. 214.
Footnote 114:
_i.e._ in my punishment.
Footnote 115:
_i.e._ on Doomsday thou shalt get thy deserts.
Footnote 116:
_i.e._ what I could well afford.
Footnote 117:
Arab. Hirfah = a trade, a guild, a corporation: here the officers of
police.
Footnote 118:
Gen. “tip-cat” (vol. ii. 314.) Here it would mean a rude form of
tables or backgammon, in which the players who throw certain numbers
are dubbed Sultan and Wazir, and demean themselves accordingly. A
favourite bit of fun with Cairene boys of a past generation was to
“make a Pasha;” and for this proceeding, see Pilgrimage, vol. i. 119.
Footnote 119:
In Marocco there is great difficulty about finding an executioner who
becomes obnoxious to the Thár, _vendetta_ or blood-revenge. For
salting the criminal’s head, however, the soldiers seize upon the
nearest Jew and compel him to clean out the brain and to prepare it
for what is often a long journey. Hence, according to some, the local
name of the Ghetto, Al-Malláh, = the salting-ground.
Footnote 120:
Mr. Payne suspects that “laban,” milk, esp. artificially soured, (see
vol. vi. 201) is a clerical error for “jubn” = cheese. This may be;
but I follow the text as the exaggeration is greater.
Footnote 121:
_i.e._ in relinquishing his blood-wite for his brother.
Footnote 122:
The Story-teller, probably to relieve the monotony of the Constables’
histories, here returns to the original cadre. We must not forget that
in the Bresl. Edit. the Nights are running on, and that the charming
queen is relating the adventure of Al-Malik al-Zahir.
Footnote 123:
Arab. “Za’amú” = they opine, they declare; a favourite term with the
Bresl. Edit.
Footnote 124:
Arab. “Zirtah” the coarsest of terms for what the French nuns prettily
termed _un sonnet_: I find _ung sonnet_ also in Nov. ii. of the Cent
nouvelles Nouvelles. Captain Lockett (p. 32) quotes Strepsiades in The
Clouds βροντᾷ κομιδῆ παππάξ “because he cannot express the bathos of
the original (in the Tale of Ja’afar and the old Badawi) without
descending to the oracular language of Giacoma Rodogina, the
engastrymythian prophetess.” But Sterne was by no means so squeamish.
The literature of this subject is extensive, beginning with
“Peteriana, ou l’art de peter,” which distinguishes 62 different
tones. After dining with a late friend en garçon we went into his
sitting-room and found on the table 13 books and booklets upon the
Crepitus Ventris, and there was some astonishment as not a few of the
party had never seen one.
Footnote 125:
This tale is a replica of the Cranes of Ibycus. This was a Rhegium man
who when returning to Corinth, his home, was set upon by robbers and
slain. He cast his dying eyes heavenwards and seeing a flight of
cranes called upon them to avenge him and this they did by flying over
the theatre of Corinth on a day when the murderers were present and
one cried out, “Behold the avengers of Ibycus!” Whereupon they were
taken and put to death. So says Paulus Hieronymus, and the affecting
old tale has newly been sung in charming verse by Mr. Justin H.
McCarthy (“Serapion.” London: Chatto and Windus.)
Footnote 126:
This scene is perfectly true to Badawi life; see my Pilgrimage iii.
68.
Footnote 127:
Arab. “Durráj”: so it is rendered in the French translation of
Al-Masúdi, vii. 347.
Footnote 128:
A fair friend found the idea of Destiny in The Nights become almost a
night-mare. Yet here we suddenly alight upon the true Johnsonian idea
that conduct makes fate. Both extremes are as usual false. When one
man fights a dozen battles unwounded and another falls at the first
shot we cannot but acknowledge the presence of that mysterious “luck”
whose laws, now utterly unknown to us, may become familiar with the
ages. I may note that the idea of an appointed hour beyond which life
may not be prolonged, is as old as Homer (Il. vi. 487).
The reader has been told (vol. vii. 135) that “Kazá” is Fate in a
general sense, the universal and eternal Decree of Allah, while
“Kadar” is its special and particular application to man’s lot, that
is Allah’s will in bringing forth events at a certain time and place.
But the former is popularly held to be of two categories, one Kazá
al-Muham which admits of modification and Kazá al-Muhkam, absolute and
unchangeable, the doctrine of irresistible predestination preached
with so much energy by St. Paul (Romans ix. 15–24); and all the world
over men act upon the former while theoretically holding to the
latter. Hence “Chinese Gordon” whose loss to England is greater than
even his friends suppose, wrote “It is a delightful thing to be a
fatalist,” meaning that the Divine direction and pre-ordination of all
things saved him so much trouble of forethought and afterthought. In
this tenet he was not only a Calvinist but also a Moslem whose
contradictory ideas of Fate and Freewill (with responsibility) are not
only beyond Reason but are contrary to Reason; and although we may
admit the _argumentum ad verecundiam_, suggesting that there are
things above (or below) human intelligence, we are not bound so to do
in the case of things which are opposed to the common sense of
mankind. Practically, however, the Moslem attitude is to be loud in
confessing belief of “Fate and Fortune” before an event happens and
after it wisely to console himself with the conviction that in no way
could he have escaped the occurrence. And the belief that this destiny
was in the hands of Allah gives him a certain dignity especially in
the presence of disease and death which is wanting in his rival
religionist the Christian. At the same time the fanciful picture of
the Turk sitting stolidly under a shower of bullets because Fate will
not find him out unless it be so written is a freak of fancy rarely
found in real life.
There are four great points of dispute amongst the schoolmen in
Al-Islam; (1) the Unity and Attributes of Allah; (2) His promises and
threats; (3) historical as the office of Imám; and (4) Predestination
and the justice thereof. On the latter subject opinions range over the
whole cycle of possibilities. For instance, the Mu’tazilites, whom the
learned Weil makes the Protestants and Rationalists of Al-Islam,
contend that the word of Allah was created _in subjecto, ergò_, an
accident and liable to perish, and one of their school, the Kádiriyah
(= having power) denies the existence of Fate and contends that Allah
did not create evil but left man an absolutely free agent. On the
other hand, the Jabariyah (or Mujabbar = the compelled) is an absolute
Fatalist who believes in the omnipotence of Destiny and deems that all
wisdom consists in conforming with its decrees. Al-Mas’udi (chapt.
cxxvii) illustrates this by the saying of a Moslem philosopher that
chess was the invention of a Mu’tazil, while Nard (backgammon with
dice) was that of a Mujabbar proving that play can do nothing against
destiny. Between the two are the Ashariyah; trimmers whose stand-point
is hard to define; they would say, “Allah creates the power by which
man acts, but man wills the action,” and care not to answer the query,
“Who created the will?” (See Pocock, Sale and the Dabistan ii. 352).
Thus Sa’adi says in the Gulistan (iii. 2), “The wise have pronounced
that though daily bread be allotted, yet it is so conditionally upon
using means to acquire it, and although calamity be predestined, yet
it is right to secure oneself against the portals by which it may have
access.” Lastly, not a few doctors of Law and Religion hold that Kaza
al-Muhkam, however absolute, regards only man’s after or final state;
and upon this subject they are of course as wise as other people,
and—no wiser. Lane has treated the Moslem faith in Destiny very ably
and fully (Arabian Nights, vol. i. pp. 58–61), and he being a man of
moderate and orthodox views gives valuable testimony.
Footnote 129:
Arab. “Shaykh al-Hujjáj.” Some Santon like Hasan al-Marábit, then
invoked by the Meccan pilgrims: see Pilgrimage, i. 321. It can hardly
refer to the famous Hajjáj bin Yúsuf al-Sakafí (vol. iv. 3).
Footnote 130:
Here the Stories of the Sixteen Constables abruptly end, after the
fashion of the Bresl. Edit. They are summarily dismissed even without
the normal “Bakhshísh.”
Footnote 131:
Bresl. Edit. vol. xi. pp. 400–473 and vol. xii. pp. 4–50, Nights
dccccxli-dcccclvii. For Kashghar, see vol. i. 255.
Footnote 132:
Mr. Payne proposes to translate “’Anbar” by amber, the semi-fossilised
resin much used in modern days, especially in Turkey and Somaliland,
for bead necklaces. But, as he says, the second line distinctly
alludes to the perfume which is sewn in leather and hung about the
neck, after the fashion of our ancient pomanders (_pomme d’ambre_).
Footnote 133:
_i.e._ The Caliph: see vol. i. p. 50.
Footnote 134:
Arab. “Adab:” see vol. i. 132, etc. In Moslem dialects which borrow
more or less from Arabic, “Bí-adabí” = being without Adab, means
rudeness, disrespect, “impertinence” (in its modern sense).
Footnote 135:
_i.e._ Isaac of Mosul, the greatest of Arab musicians: see vol. iv.
119.
Footnote 136:
The elder brother of Ja’afar, by no means so genial or fitted for a
royal frolic. See Terminal Essay.
Footnote 137:
Ibn Habíb, a friend of Isaac, and a learned grammarian who lectured at
Basrah.
Footnote 138:
A suburb of Baghdad, mentioned by Al-Mas’údi.
Footnote 139:
Containing the rooms in which the girl or girls were sold. See
Pilgrimage i. 87.
Footnote 140:
Dozy quotes this passage but cannot explain the word Fawwák.
Footnote 141:
“A passage has apparently dropped out here. The Khalif seems to have
gone away without buying, leaving Ishac behind, whereupon the latter
was accosted by another slave-girl, who came out of a cell in the
corridor.” So says Mr. Payne vol. ii. 207. The “raiser of the veil”
means a fitting purchaser.
Footnote 142:
_i.e._ “Choice gift of the Fools,” a skit upon the girl’s name “Tohfat
al-Kulúb” = Choice gift of the Hearts. Her folly consisted in refusing
to be sold at a high price, and this is often seen in real life. It is
a _Pundonor_ amongst good Moslems not to buy a girl and not to sleep
with her, even when bought, against her will.
Footnote 143:
“Every one cannot go to Corinth.” The question makes the assertion
emphatic.
Footnote 144:
_i.e._ The Narrows of the (Dervishes’) convent.
Footnote 145:
Arab. “Akwà min dahni ’l-lauz.” These unguents have been used in the
East from time immemorial whilst the last generation in England knew
nothing of anointing with oil for incipient consumption. A late friend
of mine, Dr. Stocks of the Bombay Establishment, and I proposed it as
long back as 1845; but in those days it was a far cry from Sind to
London.
Footnote 146:
The sequel will explain why she acted in this way.
Footnote 147:
_i.e._ Thou hast made my gold piece (10 shill.) worth only a doit by
thy superiority in the art and mystery of music.
Footnote 148:
Arab. “Uaddíki,” Taadiyah (iid. of Adá, he assisted) means sending,
forwarding. In Egypt and Syria we often find the form “Waddi” for
Addi, imperative.
Footnote 149:
Again “he” for “she.”
Footnote 150:
_i.e._ Honey and wine.
Footnote 151:
_i.e._ he died.
Footnote 152:
_i.e._ if my hand had lost its cunning.
Footnote 153:
Arab. “Thiyáb ’Amúdiyah”: ’Amúd = tent-prop or column, and Khatt ’Amúd
= a perpendicular line.
Footnote 154:
_i.e._ a choice gift. The Caliph speaks half ironically, “Where’s this
wonderful present, etc?” So further on when he compares her with the
morning.
Footnote 155:
Again the usual pun upon the name.
Footnote 156:
Throughout the East this is the action of a servant or a slave,
practised by freemen only when in danger of life or extreme need and
therefore humiliating.
Footnote 157:
It had been thrown down from the Mamrak or small dome built over such
pavilions for the purpose of light by day and ventilation by night.
See vol. i. 257, where it is called by the Persian term “Bádhanj.”
Footnote 158:
The Nights have more than once applied this patronymic to Zubaydah.
See vol. viii. 56, 158.
Footnote 159:
Arab. “Mutahaddisín” = novi homines, upstarts.
Footnote 160:
_i.e._ thine auspicious visits.
Footnote 161:
He being seated on the carpet at the time.
Footnote 162:
A quotation from Al-Farazdat who had quarrelled with his wife Al-Howár
(see the tale in Ibn Khallikan, i. 521), hence “the naked intercessor”
became proverbial for one who cannot be withstood.
Footnote 163:
_i.e._ Choice Gift of the Breasts, that is of hearts, the continens
for the contentum.
Footnote 164:
Pron. “Abuttawáif,” the Father of the (Jinn-) tribes. It is one of the
Moslem Satan’s manifold names, alluding to the number of his servants
and worshippers, so far agreeing with that amiable Christian doctrine,
“Few shall be saved.”
Footnote 165:
Mr. Payne supplies this last clause from the sequence.
Footnote 166:
_i.e._ “Let us go,” with a euphemistic formula to defend her from evil
influences. Iblis uses the same word to prevent her being frightened.
Footnote 167:
Arab. “Al-Mustaráh,” a favourite haunting-place of the Jinn, like the
Hammám and other offices for human impurity. For its six names
Al-Khalá, Al-Hushsh, Al-Mutawazzá, Al-Kaníf, Al-Mustaráh, and Mirház,
see Al-Mas’udi, chap. cxxvii., and Shiríshi’s commentary to Hariri’s
47, Assembly.
Footnote 168:
Which, in the East, is high and prominent whilst the cantle forms a
back to the seat and the rider sits as in a baby’s chair. The object
is a firm seat when fighting: “across country” it is exceedingly
dangerous.
Footnote 169:
In Swedenborg’s “Arcana Cœlestia” we read, “When man’s inner sight is
opened, which is that of his spirit; then there appear the things of
another life which cannot be made visible to the bodily sight.” Also
“Evil spirits, when seen by eyes other than those of their infernal
associates, present themselves by _correspondence_ in the beast
(_fera_) which represents their particular lust and life, in aspect
direful and atrocious.” These are the Jinns of Northern Europe.
Footnote 170:
This exchange of salams was a sign of her being in safety.
Footnote 171:
Arab. “Shawáhid,” meaning that heart testifies to heart.
Footnote 172:
_i.e._ A live coal, afterwards called Zalzalah, an earthquake; see
post p. 105. “Wakhímah” = an unhealthy land, and “Sharárah” = a spark.
Footnote 173:
I need hardly note the inscriptions upon the metal trays sold to
Europeans. They are usually imitation words so that infidel eyes may
not look upon the formulæ of prayer; and the same is the case with
table-cloths, etc., showing a fancy Tohgra or Sultanic sign-manual.
Footnote 174:
_i.e._ I cannot look at them long.
Footnote 175:
Evidently a diabolical way of clapping his hands in applause. This
description of the Foul Fiend has an element of grotesqueness which is
rather Christian than Moslem.
Footnote 176:
Arab. “Rikkí al-Saut,” which may also mean either “lower thy voice,”
or “change the air to one less touching.”
Footnote 177:
“Your” for “thy.”
Footnote 178:
_i.e._ written on the “Guarded Tablet” from all eternity.
Footnote 179:
Arab. “Al-’Urs w’al-Tuhúr” which can only mean, “the wedding (which
does not drop out of the tale) and the circumcision.”
Footnote 180:
I here propose to consider at some length this curious custom which
has prevailed amongst so many widely separated races. Its object has
been noted (vol. v. 209), viz. to diminish the sensibility of the
glans, no longer lubricated with prostatic lymph; thus the part is
hardened against injury and disease and its work in coition is
prolonged. On the other hand “præputium in coitu voluptatem (of the
woman) auget, unde femina præputiatis concubitum malunt quam cum
Turcis ac Judæis” says Dimerbroeck (Anatomie). I vehemently doubt the
fact. Circumcision was doubtless practised from ages immemorial by the
peoples of Central Africa, and Welcker found traces of it in a mummy
of the xvith century B.C. The Jews borrowed it from the Egyptian
priesthood and made it a manner of sacrament, “uncircumcised” being =
“unbaptised,” that is, barbarian, heretic; it was a seal of
reconciliation, a sign of alliance between the Creator and the Chosen
People, a token of nationality imposed upon the body politic. Thus it
became a cruel and odious protestation against the brotherhood of man,
and the cosmopolitan Romans derided the verpæ ac verpi. The Jews also
used the term figuratively as the “circumcision of fruits” (Lev. xix.
23), and of the heart (Deut. x. 16); and the old law gives copious
historical details of its origin and continuance. Abraham first
amputated his horny “calotte” at æt. 99, and did the same for his son
and household (Gen. xvii. 24–27). The rite caused a separation between
Moses and his wife (Exod. iv. 25). It was suspended during the Desert
Wanderings and was resumed by Joshua (v. 3–7), who cut off two tons
weight of prepuces. The latter became, like the scalps of the
Scythians and North-American “Indians,” trophies of victory; Saul
promised his daughter Michol to David for a dowry of one hundred, and
the son-in-law brought double tale.
Amongst the early Christians opinions concerning the rite differed.
Although the Founder of Christianity was circumcised, St. Paul, who
aimed at a cosmopolitan faith, discouraged it in the physical phase.
St. Augustine still sustained that the rite removed original sin
despite the Fathers who preceded and followed him, Justus, Tertullian,
Ambrose and others. But it gradually lapsed into desuetude and was
preserved only in the outlying regions. Paulus Jovius and Munster
found it practised in Abyssinia, but as a mark of nobility confined to
the descendants of “Nicaules, queen of Sheba.” The Abyssinians still
follow the Jews in performing the rite within eight days after the
birth and baptise boys after forty and girls after eighty days. When a
circumcised man became a Jew he was bled before three witnesses at the
place where the prepuce had been cut off, and this was called the
“Blood of alliance.” Apostate Jews effaced the sign of circumcision:
so in 1 Matt. i. 16, fecerunt sibi præputia et recesserunt a
Testamento Sancto. Thus making prepuces was called by the Hebrews
Meshookim = recutitis, and there is an allusion to it in 1 Cor. vii.
18, 19, μὴ ἐπισπάσθαι (Farrar, Paul ii. 70). St. Jerome and others
deny the possibility; but Mirabeau (Akropodie) relates how Father
Conning by liniments of oil, suspending weights, and wearing the virga
in a box gained in 43 days 7¼ lines. The process is still practised by
Armenians and other Christians who, compelled to Islamise, wish to
return to Christianity. I cannot however find a similar artifice
applied to a circumcised clitoris. The simplest form of circumcision
is mere amputation of the prepuce and I have noted (vol. v. 209) the
difference between the Moslem and the Jewish rite, the latter
according to some being supposed to heal in kindlier way. But the
varieties of circumcision are immense. Probably none is more terrible
than that practised in the Province Al-Asír, the old Ophir, lying
south of Al-Hijáz, where it is called Salkh, lit. = scarification. The
patient, usually from ten to twelve years old, is placed upon raised
ground holding in right hand a spear, whose heel rests upon his foot
and whose point shows every tremour of the nerves. The tribe stands
about him to pass judgment on his fortitude, and the barber performs
the operation with the Jumbiyah-dagger, sharp as a razor. First he
makes a shallow cut, severing only the skin across the belly
immediately below the navel, and similar incisions down each groin;
then he tears off the epidermis from the cuts downwards and flays the
testicles and the penis, ending with amputation of the foreskin.
Meanwhile the spear must not tremble and in some clans the lad holds a
dagger over the back of the stooping barber, crying, “Cut and fear
not!” When the ordeal is over, he exclaims “Allaho Akbar!” and
attempts to walk towards the tents soon falling for pain and nervous
exhaustion, but the more steps he takes the more applause he gains. He
is dieted with camel’s milk, the wound is treated with salt and
turmeric, and the chances in his favour are about ten to one. No
body-pile or pecten ever grows upon the excoriated part which
preserves through life a livid ashen hue. Whilst Mohammed Ali Pasha
occupied the province he forbade “scarification” under pain of
impalement, but it was resumed the moment he left Al-Asir. In Africa
not only is circumcision indigenous, the operation varies more or less
in the different tribes. In Dahome it is termed Addagwibi, and is
performed between the twelfth and twentieth year. The rough operation
is made peculiar by a double cut above and below; the prepuce being
treated in the Moslem, not the Jewish fashion (loc. cit.). Heated sand
is applied as a styptic and the patient is dieted with ginger-soup and
warm drinks of ginger-water, pork being especially forbidden. The
Fantis of the Gold Coast circumcise in sacred places, _e.g._, at Accra
on a Fetish rock rising from the sea. The peoples of Sennaar, Taka,
Masawwah and the adjacent regions follow the Abyssinian custom. The
barbarous Bissagos and Fellups of North Western Guinea make cuts on
the prepuce without amputating it; while the Baquens and Papels
circumcise like Moslems. The blacks of Loango are all “verpæ,”
otherwise they would be rejected by the women. The Bantu or Caffre
tribes are circumcised between the ages of fifteen and eighteen; the
“Fetish boys,” as we call them, are chalked white and wear only grass
belts; they live outside the villages in special houses under an old
“medicine-man,” who teaches them not only virile arts but also to rob
and fight. The “man-making” may last five months and ends in fêtes and
dances: the patients are washed in the river, they burn down their
quarters, take new names, and become adults, donning a kind of straw
thimble over the prepuce. In Madagascar three several cuts are made
causing much suffering to the children; and the nearest male relative
swallows the prepuce. The Polynesians circumcise when childhood ends
and thus consecrate the fecundating organ to the Deity. In Tahiti the
operation is performed by the priest, and in Tonga only the priest is
exempt. The Maories on the other hand fasten the prepuce over the
glans, and the women of the Marquesas Islands have shown great cruelty
to shipwrecked sailors who expose the glans. Almost all the known
Australian tribes circumcise after some fashion: Bennett supposes the
rite to have been borrowed from the Malays, while Gason enumerates the
“Kurrawellie wonkauna” among the five mutilations of puberty.
Leichhardt found circumcision about the Gulf of Carpentaria and in the
river-valleys of the Robinson and Macarthur: others observed it on the
Southern Coast and among the savages of Perth, where it is noticed by
Salvado. James Dawson tells us “Circumciduntur pueri,” etc., in
Western Victoria. Brough Smyth, who supposes the object is to limit
population (?), describes on the Western Coast and in Central
Australia the “Corrobery”-dance and the operation performed with a
quartz-flake. Teichelmann details the rite in Southern Australia where
the assistants—all men, women, and children being driven away—form a
“manner of human altar” upon which the youth is laid for circumcision.
He then receives the normal two names, public and secret, and is
initiated into the mysteries proper for men. The Australians also for
Malthusian reasons produce an artificial hypospadias, while the Karens
of New Guinea only split the prepuce longitudinally (Cosmos p. 369,
Oct. 1876); the indigens of Port Lincoln on the West Coast split the
virga:—Fenditur usque ad urethram a parte infera penis between the
ages of twelve and fourteen, says E. J. Eyre in 1845. Missionary
Schürmann declares that they open the urethra. Gason describes in the
Dieyerie tribe the operation “Kulpi” which is performed when the beard
is long enough for tying. The member is placed upon a slab of
tree-bark, the urethra is incised with a quartz-flake mounted in a gum
handle and a splinter of bark is inserted to keep the cut open. These
men may appear naked before women who expect others to clothe
themselves. Miklucho Maclay calls it “Mika” in Central Australia: he
was told by a squatter that of three hundred men only three or four
had the member intact in order to get children, and that in one tribe
the female births greatly outnumbered the male. Those mutilated also
marry: when making water they sit like women slightly raising the
penis, this in coition becomes flat and broad and the semen does not
enter the matrix. The explorer believes that the deed of kind is more
quickly done (?). Circumcision was also known to the New World.
Herrera relates that certain Mexicans cut off the ears and prepuce of
the newly-born child, causing many to die. The Jews did not adopt the
female circumcision of Egypt described by Huet on Origen:—“Circumcisio
feminarum fit resectione τῆς νυμφῆς (sive clitoridis) quæ pars in
Australium mulieribus ita crescit ut ferro est coërcenda.” Here we
have the normal confusion between excision of the nymphæ (usually for
fibulation) and circumcision of the clitoris. Bruce notices this
clitoridectomy among the Abyssinians. Werne describes the excision on
the Upper White Nile and I have noted the complicated operation among
the Somali tribes. Girls in Dahome are circumcised by ancient _sages
femmes_, and a woman in the natural state would be derided by every
one (See my Mission to Dahome, ii. 159). The Australians cut out the
clitoris, and as I have noted elsewhere extirpate the ovary for
Malthusian purposes (Journ. Anthrop. Inst., vol. viii. of 1884).
Footnote 181:
Arab. “Kayrawán” which is still the common name for curlew; the peewit
and plover being called (onomatopoetically) “Bíbat” and in Marocco
Yahúdi, certain impious Jews having been turned into the Vanellus
Cristatus which still wears the black skull-cap of the Hebrews.
Footnote 182:
Arab. “Sawákí,” the leats which irrigate the ground and are opened and
closed with the foot.
Footnote 183:
The eighth (in altitude) of the many-storied Heavens.
Footnote 184:
Arab. “Ihramat li al-Salát,” _i.e._ She pronounced the formula of
Intention (Niyat) without which prayer is not valid, ending with
Allaho Akbar = Allah is All-great. Thus she had clothed herself, as it
were, in prayer and had retired from the world pro temp.
Footnote 185:
_i.e._ the prayers of the last day and night which she had neglected
while in company with the Jinns. The Hammam is not a pure place to
pray in; but the Farz or Koranic orisons should be recited there if
the legal term be hard upon its end.
Footnote 186:
Slaves, male as well as female, are as fond of talking over their sale
as European dames enjoy looking back upon the details of courtship and
marriage.
Footnote 187:
Arab. “Du’á,” = supplication, prayer, as opposed to “Salát” = divine
worship, “prayers.” For the technical meaning of the latter see vol.
iv. 65. I have objected to Mr. Redhouse’s distinction without a
difference between Moslems’ worship and prayer: voluntary prayers are
not prohibited to them and their praises of the Lord are mingled, as
amongst all worshippers, with petitions.
Footnote 188:
Al-Muzfir = the Twister; Zafáir al-Jinn = Adiantum capillus veneris.
Lúlúah = The Pearl, or Wild Heifer: see vol. ix. 218.
Footnote 189:
Arab. “Bi jildi ’l-bakar.” I hope that captious critics will not find
fault with my rendering, as they did in the case of Fals ahmar = a red
cent, vol. i. 321.
Footnote 190:
Arab. “Farásah” = lit. knowing a horse. Arabia abounds in tales
illustrating abnormal powers of observation. I have noted this in vol.
viii. 326.
Footnote 191:
_i.e._ the owner of this palace.
Footnote 192:
She made the Ghusl not because she had slept with a man, but because
the impurity of Satan’s presence called for the major ablution before
prayer.
Footnote 193:
_i.e._ she conjoined the prayers of nightfall with those of dawn.
Footnote 194:
_i.e._ those of midday, mid-afternoon and sunset.
Footnote 195:
Arab. “Sahbá,” red wine preferred for the morning draught.
Footnote 196:
The Apostle who delighted in women and perfumes. Persian poetry often
alludes to the rose which, before white, was dyed red by his sweat.
Footnote 197:
For the etymology of Julnár—Byron’s “Gulnare”—see vol. vii. 268. Here
the rhymer seems to refer to its origin; Gul (Arab. Jul) in Persian a
rose; and Anár, a pomegranate, which in Arabic becomes Nár = fire.
Footnote 198:
_i.e._ “The brilliant”, the enlightened.
Footnote 199:
_i.e._ the moral beauty.
Footnote 200:
A phenomenon well known to spiritualists and to “The House and the
Haunter.” An old Dutch factory near Hungarian Fiume is famed for this
mode of “obsession”: the inmates hear the sound of footfalls, etc.,
behind them, especially upon the stairs, and see nothing.
Footnote 201:
The two short Koranic chapters, The Daybreak (cxiii.) and The Men
(cxiv. and last) evidently so called from the words which occur in
both (versets i., “I take refuge with”). These “Ma’úzatáni”, as they
called, are recited as talismans or preventives against evil, and are
worn as amulets inscribed on parchment; they are also often used in
the five canonical prayers. I have translated them in vol. iii. 222.
Footnote 202:
The antistes or fugleman at prayer who leads off the orisons of the
congregation; and applied to the Caliph as the head of the faith. See
vol. ii. 203 and iv. 111.
Footnote 203:
Arab. “’Ummár” _i.e._ the Jinn, the “spiritual creatures” which walk
this earth, and other non-humans who occupy it.
Footnote 204:
A parallel to this bodiless Head is the Giant Face, which appears to
travellers (who expect it) in the Lower Valley of the Indus. See Sind
Re-visited, ii. 155.
Footnote 205:
Arab. “Ghalílí” = my yearning.
Footnote 206:
Arab. “Ahbábu-ná” plur. for singular = my beloved.
Footnote 207:
_i.e._ her return.
Footnote 208:
Arab. “Arja’” lit. return! but here meaning to stop. It is much used
by donkeyboys from Cairo to Fez in the sense of “Get out of the way.”
Hence the Spanish arre! which gave rise to arriero = a carrier, a
muleteer.
Footnote 209:
Arab. “Afras” lit. = a better horseman.
Footnote 210:
A somewhat crippled quotation from Koran lvi. 87–88, “As for him who
is of those brought near unto Allah, there shall be for him easance
and basil and a Garden of Delights (Na’ím).”
Footnote 211:
_i.e._ Queen Sunbeam.
Footnote 212:
See vol. i. 310 for this compound perfume which contains musk,
ambergris and other essences.
Footnote 213:
I can hardly see the sequence of this or what the carpets have to do
here.
Footnote 214:
Here, as before, some insertion has been found necessary.
Footnote 215:
Arab. “Dukhúlak” lit. = thy entering, entrance, becoming familiar.
Footnote 216:
Or “And in this there shall be to thee great honour over all the
Jinn.”
Footnote 217:
Mr. Payne thus amends the text, “How loathly is yonder Genie Meimoun!
There is no eating (in his presence);” referring back to p. 88.
Footnote 218:
_i.e._ “I cannot bear to see him!”
Footnote 219:
This assertion of dignity, which is permissible in royalty, has been
absurdly affected by certain “dames” in Anglo-Egypt who are quite the
reverse of queenly; and who degrade “dignity” to the vulgarest
affectation.
Footnote 220:
_i.e._ “May thy visits never fail me!”
Footnote 221:
_i.e._ Ash-coloured, verging upon white.
Footnote 222:
_i.e._ “She will double thy store of presents.”
Footnote 223:
The Arab boy who, unlike the Jew, is circumcised long after infancy
and often in his teens, thus making the ceremony conform after a
fashion with our “Confirmation,” is displayed before being operated
upon, to family and friends; and the seat is a couch covered with the
richest tapestry. So far it resembles the bride-throne.
Footnote 224:
_Tohfah._
Footnote 225:
_i.e._ Hindu, Indian.
Footnote 226:
Japhet, son of Noah.
Footnote 227:
Mr. Payne translates “Take this and glorify thyself withal over the
people of the world.” His reading certainly makes better sense, but I
do not see how the text can carry the meaning. He also omits the
bussing of the bosom, probably from artistic reasons.
Footnote 228:
A skit at Ishák, making the Devil praise him. See vol. vii. 113.
Footnote 229:
Arab. “Mawázi’” (plur of Mauza’) = lit. places, shifts, passages.
Footnote 230:
The bed (farsh) is, I presume, the straw-spread (?) store-room where
the apples are preserved.
Footnote 231:
Arab. “Farkh warak,” which sounds like an atrocious vulgarism.
Footnote 232:
The Moss-rose; also the eglantine, or dog-rose, and the sweet-briar,
whose leaf, unlike other roses, is so odorous.
Footnote 233:
The lily in Heb., derived by some from its six (shash) leaves, and by
others from its vivid cheerful brightness. “His lips are lilies”
(Cant. v. 13), not in colour, but in odoriferous sweetness.
Footnote 234:
The barber is now the usual operator; but all operations began in
Europe with the “barber-surgeon.”
Footnote 235:
_Sic_ in text xii. 20. It may be a misprint for Abú al-Tawaif, but it
can also mean “O Shaykh of the Tribes (of Jinns)!”
Footnote 236:
The capital of King Al-Shisban.
Footnote 237:
Arab. “Fajj,” the Spanish “Vega” which, however, means a
mountain-plain, a plain.
Footnote 238:
_i.e._ I am quite sure: emphatically.
Footnote 239:
_i.e._ all the Jinn’s professions of affection and promises of
protection were mere lies.
Footnote 240:
In the original this apodosis is wanting: see vol. vi. 203, 239.
Footnote 241:
Arab. “Dáhiyat al-Dawáhí;” see vol. ii. 87.
Footnote 242:
Arab. “Al-jabal al-Mukawwar” = Chaîne de montagnes de forme demi
circulaire, from Kaur, a park, an enceinte.
Footnote 243:
Arab. “Rúhi” lit. my breath, the outward sign of life.
Footnote 244:
_i.e._ Káf.
Footnote 245:
_i.e._ A bit of burning charcoal.
Footnote 246:
Arab. “Al-yad al-bayzá,” = lit. The white hand: see vol. iv. 185.
Footnote 247:
Showing the antiquity of “Après moi le déluge,” the fame of all old
politicians and aged statesmen who can expect but a few years of life.
These “burning questions” (_e.g._ the Bulgarian) may be smothered for
a time, but the result is that they blaze forth with increased
violence. We have to thank Lord Palmerston (an Irish landlord) for
ignoring the growth of Fenianism and another aged statesman for a
sturdy attempt to disunite the United Kingdom. An old notion wants
young blood at its head.
Footnote 248:
Suggesting the nursery rhyme:
Fee, fo, fum,
I smell the blood of an Englishman.
Footnote 249:
_i.e._ why not at once make an end of her.
Footnote 250:
The well-known war-cry.
Footnote 251:
Lit. “Smoke” pop. applied, like our word, to tobacco. The latter,
however, is not here meant.
Footnote 252:
Arab. “Ghuráb al-bayn,” of the wold or of parting. See vol. vii. 226.
Footnote 253:
Arab. “Haláwah”: see vol. iv. 60.
Footnote 254:
Here the vocative particle “Yá” is omitted.
Footnote 255:
Lit. “The long-necked (bird)” before noticed with the Rukh (Roc) in
vol. v. 122. Here it becomes a Princess, daughter of Bahrám-i-Gúr
(Bahram of the Onager, his favourite game), the famous Persian king in
the fifth century, a contemporary of Theodosius the younger and
Honorius. The “Anká” is evidently the Iranian Símurgh.
Footnote 256:
“Chamber” is becoming a dangerous word in English. Roars of laughter
from the gods greeted the great actor’s declamation “The bed has not
been slept in! Her little chamber is empty!”
Footnote 257:
Choice Gift of the breast (or heart).
Footnote 258:
From the Calc. Edit. (1814–18), Nights cxcvi.-cc., vol. ii., pp.
367–378. The translation has been compared and collated with that of
Langlès (Paris, 1814), appended to his Edition of the Voyages of
Sindbad. The story is exceedingly clever and well deserves
translation.
Footnote 259:
It is regretable that this formula has not been preserved throughout
The Nights: it affords, I have noticed, a pleasing break to the long
course of narrative.
Footnote 260:
Arab. “Banát-al-hawá,” lit. daughters of love, usually meaning an
Anonyma, a fille de joie; but here the girl is of good repute, and the
offensive term must be modified to a gay, frolicsome lass.
Footnote 261:
Arab. “Jabhat,” the lintel opposed to the threshold.
Footnote 262:
Arab. “Ghattí,” still the popular term said to a child showing its
nakedness, or a lady of pleasure who insults a man by displaying any
part of her person.
Footnote 263:
She is compared with a flashing blade (her face) now drawn from its
sheath (her hair) then hidden by it.
Footnote 264:
The “Muajjalah” or money paid down before consummation was about £25;
and the “Mu’ajjalah” or coin to be paid contingent on divorce was
about £75. In the Calc. Edit. ii. 371, both dowers are £35.
Footnote 265:
_i.e._ All the blemishes which justify returning a slave to the
slave-dealer.
Footnote 266:
Media: see vol. ii. 94. The “Daylamite prison” was one of many in
Baghdad.
Footnote 267:
See vol. v. 199. I may remark that the practise of bathing after
copulation was kept up by both sexes in ancient Rome. The custom may
have originated in days when human senses were more acute. I have seen
an Arab horse object to be mounted by the master when the latter had
not washed after sleeping with a woman.
Footnote 268:
On the morning after a happy night the bridegroom still offers coffee
and Halwá to friends.
Footnote 269:
_i.e._ More bewitching.
Footnote 270:
Arab. “Sharífí” more usually Ashrafi, the Port. Xerafim, a gold coin =
6s.–7s.
Footnote 271:
The oft-repeated Koranic quotation.
Footnote 272:
Arab. “’Irk”: our phrase is “the apple of the eye.”
Footnote 273:
Meaning that he was a Sayyid or a Sharíf.
Footnote 274:
_i.e._ than a Jew or a Christian. So the Sultan, when appealed to by
these religionists, who were as usual squabbling and fighting,
answered, “What matter if the dog tear the hog or the hog tear the
dog”?
Footnote 275:
The “Sharí’at” forbidding divorce by force.
Footnote 276:
_i.e._ protect my honour.
Footnote 277:
For this proverb see vol. v. 138. I have remarked that “Shame” is not
a passion in Europe as in the East; the Western equivalent to the
Arab. “Hayá” would be the Latin “Pudor.”
Footnote 278:
Arab. “Talákan báinan,” here meaning a triple divorce before
witnesses, making it irrevocable.
Footnote 279:
_i.e._ who had played him that trick.
Footnote 280:
The Bresl. Edit. (vol. xii. pp. 50–116, Nights dcccclviii-dcccclxv.)
entitles it “Tale of Abu al-Hasan the Damascene and his son Sídí Nur
al-Dín ’Alí.” Sídí means simply “my lord”, but here becomes part of
the name, a practice perpetuated in Zanzibar. See vol. v. 283.
Footnote 281:
_i.e._ at the hours of canonical prayers and other suitable times he
made an especial orison (du’á) for issue.
Footnote 282:
See vol. i. 85, for the traditional witchcraft of Babylonia.
Footnote 283:
_i.e._ More or less thoroughly.
Footnote 284:
_i.e._ “He who quitteth not his native country diverteth not himself
with a sight of the wonders of the world.”
Footnote 285:
For similar sayings, see vol. ix. 257, and my Pilgrimage i. 127.
Footnote 286:
_i.e._ relying upon, etc.
Footnote 287:
The Egyptian term for a khan, called in Persia caravanserai
(karwán-seráí); and in Marocco funduk, from the Greek; whence the
Spanish “fonda.” See vol. i. 92.
Footnote 288:
Arab. “Baliyah,” to jingle with “Bábiliyah.”
Footnote 289:
As a rule whenever this old villain appears in The Nights, it is a
signal for an outburst of obscenity. Here, however, we are _quittes
pour la peur_. See vol. v. 65 for some of his abominations.
Footnote 290:
The lines are in vols. viii. 279 and ix. 197. I quote Mr. Payne.
Footnote 291:
Lady or princess of the Fair (ones).
Footnote 292:
_i.e._ of buying.
Footnote 293:
Arab. “Ázán-hú,” lit. = its ears.
Footnote 294:
Here again the policeman is made a villain of the deepest dye; bad
enough to gratify the intelligence of his deadliest enemy, a
lodging-keeper in London.
Footnote 295:
_i.e._ You are welcome to it and so it becomes lawful (_halál_) to
you.
Footnote 296:
Arab. “Sijn al-Dam,” the Carcere duro inasprito (to speak Triestine),
where men convicted or even accused of bloodshed were confined.
Footnote 297:
Arab. “Mabásim”; plur. of Mabsim, a smiling mouth which shows the
foreteeth.
Footnote 298:
The branchlet, as usual, is the youth’s slender form.
Footnote 299:
_Subaudi_, “An ye disdain my love.”
Footnote 300:
In the text “sleep.”
Footnote 301:
“Them” and “him” for “her.”
Footnote 302:
’Urkúb, a Jew of Yathrib or Khaybar, immortalised in the A.P. (i. 454)
as “more promise-breaking than ’Urkúb.”
Footnote 303:
Uncle of Mohammed. See vol. viii. 172.
Footnote 304:
First cousin of Mohammed. See ib.
Footnote 305:
This threat of “’Orf with her ’ead” shows the Caliph’s lordliness.
Footnote 306:
Arab. “Al-Bashkhánah.”
Footnote 307:
_i.e._ Amen. See vol. ix. 131.
Footnote 308:
When asked, on Doomsday, his justification for having slain her.
Footnote 309:
Khorasan which included our Afghanistan, turbulent then as now, was in
a chronic state of rebellion during the latter part of Al-Rashid’s
reign.
Footnote 310:
The brutality of a Moslem mob on such occasions is phenomenal: no
fellow-feeling makes them decently kind. And so at executions even
women will take an active part in insulting and tormenting the
criminal, tearing his hair, spitting in his face and so forth. It is
the instinctive brutality with which wild beasts and birds tear to
pieces a wounded companion.
Footnote 311:
The popular way of stopping hæmorrhage by plunging the stump into
burning oil which continued even in Europe till Ambrose Paré taught
men to take up the arteries.
Footnote 312:
_i.e._ folk of good family.
Footnote 313:
_i.e._ the result of thy fervent prayers to Allah for me.
Footnote 314:
Arab. “Al-Abárík” plur. of Ibrík, an ewer containing water for the
Wuzu-ablution. I have already explained that a Moslem wishing to be
ceremonially pure, cannot wash as Europeans do, in a basin whose
contents are fouled by the first touch.
Footnote 315:
Arab. “Náihah”, the præfica or myriologist. See vol. i. 311. The
proverb means, “If you want a thing done, do it yourself.”
Footnote 316:
Arab. “Burka’,” the face veil of Egypt, Syria, and Arabia with two
holes for the eyes, and the end hanging to the waist, a great contrast
with the “Lithám” or coquettish fold of transparent muslin affected by
modest women in Stambul.
Footnote 317:
_i.e._ donned petticoat-trousers and walking boots other than those
she was wont to wear.
Footnote 318:
“Surah” (Koranic chapter) maybe a clerical error for “Súrah” (with a
Sád) = sort, fashion (of food).
Footnote 319:
This is solemn religious chaff; the Shaykh had doubtless often dipped
his hand abroad in such dishes; but like a good Moslem, he contented
himself at home with wheaten scones and olives, a kind of sacramental
food like bread and wine in southern Europe. But his retort would be
acceptable to the True Believer who, the strictest of conservatives,
prides himself on imitating in all points, the sayings and doings of
the Apostle.
Footnote 320:
_i.e._ animals that died without being ceremonially killed.
Footnote 321:
Koran ii. 168. This is from the Chapter of the Cow where “that which
dieth of itself (carrion), blood, pork, and that over which other name
but that of Allah (_i.e._ idols) hath been invoked” are forbidden. But
the verset humanely concludes: “Whoso, however, shall eat them by
constraint, without desire, or as a transgressor, then no sin shall be
upon him.”
Footnote 322:
_i.e._, son of Simeon = a Christian.
Footnote 323:
Arab. and Heb. “Haykal,” suggesting the idea of large space, a temple,
a sanctuary, a palace which bear a suspicious likeness to the Accadian
Ê-kal or Great House = the old Egyptian Perao (Pharaoh?), and the
Japanese “Mikado.”
Footnote 324:
Wine, carrion and pork being lawful to the Moslem if used to save
life. The former is also the sovereignest thing for inward troubles,
flatulence, indigestion, etc. See vol. v. 2, 24.
Footnote 325:
Arab. “Názilah,” _i.e._ a curse coming down from Heaven.
Footnote 326:
Here and below, a translation of her name.
Footnote 327:
“A picture of Paradise which is promised to the God-fearing! Therein
are rivers of water which taint not; and rivers of milk whose taste
changeth not; and rivers of wine, etc.”—Koran xlvii. 16.
Footnote 328:
Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter,
Sermons and soda-water the day after.
_Don Juan_ ii. 178.
Footnote 329:
The ox (Bakar) and the bull (Taur, vol. i. 16) are the Moslem emblems
of stupidity, as with us are the highly intelligent ass and the most
sagacious goose.
Footnote 330:
In Arab. “’Ud” means primarily wood; then a lute. See vol. ii. 100.
The Muezzin, like the schoolmaster, is popularly supposed to be a
fool.
Footnote 331:
I have noticed that among Arab lovers it was the fashion to be jealous
of the mistress’s nightly phantom which, as amongst mesmerists, is the
lover’s embodied will.
Footnote 332:
_i.e._ I will lay down my life to save thee from sorrow—a common-place
hyperbole of love.
Footnote 333:
Arab. “Katl.” I have noticed the Hibernian “kilt” which is not a bull
but, like most provincialisms and Americanisms, a survival, an
archaism. In the old Frisian dialect, which agrees with English in
more words than “bread, butter and cheese,” we find the primary
meaning of terms which with us have survived only in their secondary
senses, _e.g._ killen = to beat and slagen = to strike. Here is its
great value to the English philologist. When the Irishman complains
that he is “kilt” we know through the Frisian what he really means.
Footnote 334:
The decency of this description is highly commendable and I may note
that the Bresl. Edit. is comparatively free from erotic pictures.
Footnote 335:
_i.e._ “I commit him to thy charge under God.”
Footnote 336:
This is an Americanism, but it translates passing well “Al-’iláj” =
insertion.
Footnote 337:
Arab. (and Heb.) “Tarjumán” = a dragoman, for which see vol. i. 100.
In the next tale it will occur with the sense of polyglottic.
Footnote 338:
See vol. 1 p. 35.
Footnote 339:
After putting to death the unjust Prefect.
Footnote 340:
Arab. “Lajlaj.” See vol. ix. 322.
Footnote 341:
Arab. “Mawálid” lit. = nativity festivals (plur. of Maulid). See vol.
ix. 289.
Footnote 342:
Bresl. Edit., vol. xii. pp. 116–237, Nights dcccclxvi-dcccclxxix. Mr.
Payne entitles it “El Abbas and the King’s Daughter of Baghdad.”
Footnote 343:
“Of the Shaybán tribe.” I have noticed (vol. ii. 1) how loosely the
title Malik (King) is applied in Arabic and in mediæval Europe. But it
is ultra-Shakespearian to place a Badawi King in Baghdad, the capital
founded by the Abbasides and ruled by those Caliphs till their
downfall.
Footnote 344:
_i.e._ Irák Arabí (Chaldæa) and ’Ajami (Western Persia.) For the
meaning of Al-Irak, which always, except in verse, takes the article,
see vol. ii. 132.
Footnote 345:
See supra, p. 185. Mr. Payne suspects a clerical error for
“Turkumániyah” = Turcomanish; but this is hardly acceptable.
Footnote 346:
As fabulous a personage as “King Kays.”
Footnote 347:
Possibly a clerical error for Zabíd, the famous capital of the Tahámah
or lowlands of Al-Yaman.
Footnote 348:
The Moslem’s Holy Land whose capital is Meccah.
Footnote 349:
A hinted protest against making a picture or a statue which the artist
cannot quicken; as this process will be demanded of him on Doomsday.
Hence also the Princess is called Máriyah (Maria, Mary) a non-Moslem
name.
Footnote 350:
_i.e._ day and night, for ever.
Footnote 351:
Koran xxxiii. 38; this concludes a “revelation” concerning the divorce
and marriage to Mohammed of the wife of his adopted son Zayd. Such
union, superstitiously held incestuous by all Arabs, was a terrible
scandal to the rising Faith, and could be abated only by the
“Commandment of Allah.” It is hard to believe that a man could act
honestly after such fashion; but we have seen in our day a statesman
famed for sincerity and uprightness honestly doing things the most
dishonest possible. Zayd and Abu Lahab (chap. cxi. i.) are the only
contemporaries of Mohammed named in the Koran.
Footnote 352:
_i.e._ darkened behind him.
Footnote 353:
Here we have again, as so common in Arab romances, the expedition of a
modified Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.
Footnote 354:
Arab. “Arzi-há” = in its earth, its outlying suburbs.
Footnote 355:
The king’s own tribe.
Footnote 356:
_i.e._ he was always “spoiling for a fight.”
Footnote 357:
In the text the two last sentences are spoken by Amir and the
story-teller suddenly resumes the third person.
Footnote 358:
Mr. Payne translates this “And God defend the right” (of plunder
according to the Arabs).
Footnote 359:
Arab. “Lilláhi darruk”; see vol. iv. 20. Captain Lockett (p. 28)
justly remarks that “it is a sort of encomiastic exclamation of
frequent occurrence in Arabic and much easier to comprehend than
translate.” Darra signifies flowing freely (as milk from the udder)
and was metaphorically transferred to bounty and to indoles or natural
capacity. Thus the phrase means “your flow of milk is by or through
Allah,” _i.e._, of unusual abundance.
Footnote 360:
The words are euphemistic: we should say “comest thou to our succour.”
Footnote 361:
_i.e._ If his friend the Devil be overstrong for thee, flee him rather
than be slain; as
He who fights and runs away
Shall live to fight another day.
Footnote 362:
_i.e._ I look to Allah for aid (and keep my powder dry).
Footnote 363:
_i.e._ to the next world.
Footnote 364:
This falling backwards in laughter commonly occurs during the earlier
tales; it is, however, very rare amongst the Badawin.
Footnote 365:
_i.e._ as he were a flying Jinni, swooping down and pouncing
falcon-like upon a mortal from the upper air.
Footnote 366:
This may be (reading Imraan = man, for Amran = matter) “a masterful
man”; but I can hardly accept it.
Footnote 367:
Arab. “Bundukí,” the adj. of Bunduk, which the Moslems evidently
learned from Slav sources; Venedik being the Dalmatian corruption of
Venezia. See Dubrovenedik in vol. ii. 219.
Footnote 368:
_i.e._ the castle’s square.
Footnote 369:
In sign of quitting possession. Chess in Europe is rarely played for
money, with the exception of public matches: this, however, is not the
case amongst Easterns, who are also for the most part as tricky as an
old lady at cribbage rightly named.
Footnote 370:
_i.e._ he was as eloquent and courtly as he could be.
Footnote 371:
Arab. “Yá Zínat al-Nisá,” which may either be a P.N. or a polite
address as _Bella fé_ (Handsome woman) is to any feminine in Southern
Italy.
Footnote 372:
Arab. “Raas Ghanam”: this form of expressing singularity is common to
Arabic and the Eastern languages, which it has influenced.
Footnote 373:
This most wearisome form of politeness is common in the Moslem world,
where men fondly think that the more you see of them the more you like
of them. Yet their Proverbial Philosophy (“the wisdom of many and the
wit of one”) strongly protests against the practice: I have already
quoted Mohammed’s saying, “Zur ghibban, tazid Hibban”—visits rare keep
friendship fair.
Footnote 374: