ADDITIONAL NOTES.

FIRUZ AND HIS WIFE, p. 301.

I find yet another variant of this story in my small MS.

collection of Arabian and Persian anecdotes, translated from the

French (I have not ascertained its source):

They relate that a lord of Basra, while walking one day in his

garden, saw the wife of his gardener, who was very beautiful and

virtuous. He gave a commission to his gardener which required him

to leave his home. He then said to his wife, "Go and shut all the

doors." She went out and soon returned, saying, "I have shut all

the doors except one, which I am unable to shut." The lord asked,

"And where is that door?" She replied "That which is between you

and the respect due to your Maker: there is no way of closing

it." When the lord heard these words, he asked the woman's

pardon, and became a better and a wiser man.

We have here a unique form of the wide-spread tale of "The Lion's

Track," which, while it omits the husband's part, yet reflects

the virtuous wife's rebuke of the enamoured sultan.

THE SINGER AND THE DRUGGIST, p. 305.

If Straparola's version is to be considered as an adaptation of

Ser Giovanni's novella-- which I do not think very probable--it

must be allowed to be an improvement on his model. In the Arabian

story the singer is first concealed in a mat, next in the oven,

and again in the mat, after which he escapes by clambering over

the parapet of the druggist's roof to that of an adjoining house,

and his subsequent adventures seem to be added from a different

story. In Ser Giovanni's version the lover is first hid beneath a

heap of half-dried clothes, and next behind the street door, from

which he escapes the instant the husband enters, and the latter

is treated as a madman by the wife's relatives and the

neighbours--an incident which has parallels in other tales of

women's craft and its prototype, perhaps, in the story of the man

who compiled a book of the Wiles of Woman, as told in "Syntipas,"

the Greek version of the Book of Sindibad. In Straparola the

lover--as in the Arabian story--is concealed three times, first

in a basket, then between two boardings, and lastly in a chest

containing law papers; and the husband induces him to recount his

adventures in presence of the lady's friends, which having

concluded, the lover declares the story to be wholly fictitious:

this is a much more agreeable ending than that of Giovanni's

story, and, moreover, it bears a close analogy to the latter part

of the Persian tale, where the lover exclaims he is right glad to

find it all a dream. Straparola's version has another point of

resemblance in the Persian story--so far as can be judged from

Scott's abstract--and also in the Arabian story: the lover

discovers the lady by chance, and is not advised to seek out some

object of love, as in Giovanni; in the Arabian the singer is

counselled by the druggist to go about and entertain wine

parties. Story-comparers have too much cause to be dissatisfied

with Jonathan Scott's translation of the "Bah�r-i- D�nish"--a

work avowedly derived from Indian sources--although it is far

superior to Dow's garbled version. The abstracts of a number of

the tales which Scott gives in an appendix, while of some use,

are generally tantalising: some stories he has altogether omitted

"because they are similar to tales already well known"

(unfortunately the comparative study of popular fictions was

hardly begun in his time); while of others bare outlines are

furnished, because he considered them "unfit for general

perusal." But his work, even as it is, has probably never been

"generally" read, and he seems to have had somewhat vague notions

of "propriety," to judge by his translations from the Arabic and

Persian. A complete English rendering of the "Bah�r-i-D�nish"

would be welcomed by all interested in the history of fiction.

THE FULLER, HIS WIFE AND THE TROOPER, p. 329.

The trick played on the silly fuller of dressing him up as a

Turkish soldier resembles that of the Three Deceitful Women who

found a gold ring in the public bath, as related in the Persian

story-book, "Shamsa � Kuhkuha:"

When the wife of the superintendent of police was apprised that

her turn had come, she revolved and meditated for some time what

trick she was to play off on her lord, and after having come to a

conclusion she said one evening to him, "To-morrow I wish that we

should both enjoy ourselves at home without interruptions, and I

mean to prepare some cakes." He replied, "Very well, my dear; I

have also longed for such an occasion." The lady had a servant

who was very obedient and always covered with the mantle of

attachment to her. The next morning she called this youth and

said to him, "I have long contemplated the hyacinth grove of thy

symmetrical stature; and I know that thou travellest constancy

and faithfully on the road of compliance with all my wishes, and

that thou seekest to serve me. I have a little business which I

wish thee to do for me." The servant answered, "I shall be happy

to comply. Then the lady gave him a thousand dinars and said, "Go

to the convent which is in our vicinity; give this money to one

of the kalandars there and say to him, 'A prisoner whom the Am�r

had surrendered to the police has escaped last night. He closely

resembles thee, and as the superintendent of the police is unable

to account to the Am�r, he has sent a man to take thee instead of

the escaped criminal. I have compassion for thee and mean to

rescue thee. Take this sum of money; give me thy dress; and flee

from the town; for if thou remainest in it till the morning thou

wilt be subjected to torture and wilt lose thy life.'" The

servant acted as he was bid, and brought the garments to his

mistress. When it was morning she said to her husband, "I know

you have long wished to eat sweetmeats, and I shall make some

to-day." He answered, "Very well." His wife made all her

preparations and commenced to bake the sweetmeats. He said to

her, "Last night a theft was committed in a certain place, and I

sat up late to extort confessions; and as I have spent a

sleepless night, I feel tired and wish to repose a little." The

lady replied, "Very well."

Accordingly the superintendent of the police reclined on the

pillow of rest; and when the sweetmeat was ready his wife took a

little and putting an opiate into it she handed it to him,

saying, "How long will you sleep? To-day is a day of feasting and

pleasure, not of sleep and laziness. Lift up your head and see

whether I have made the sweets according to your taste." He

raised his head, swallowed a piece of the hot cake and lay down

again. The morsel was still in his throat when consciousness left

and a deep sleep overwhelmed him. His wife immediately undressed

him and put on him the garments of the kalandar. The servant

shaved his head and made some tattoo marks on his body. When the

night set in the lady called her servant and said, "Hyacinth, be

kind enough to take the superintendent on thy back, and carry him

to the convent instead of that kalandar, and if he wishes to

return to the house in the morning, do not let him." The servant

obeyed. Towards dawn the superintendent recovered his senses a

little; but as the opiate had made his palate very bitter, he

became extremely thirsty. He fancied that he was in his own

house, and so he exclaimed, "Narcissus, bring water." The

kalandars awoke from sleep, and after hearing several shouts of

this kind, they concluded that he was under the influence of

bang, and said, "Poor fellow! the narcissus is in the garden;

this is the convent of sufferers, and there are green garments

enough here. Arise and sober thyself, for the morning and

harbinger of benefits as well as of the acquisition of the

victuals for subsistence is approaching." When the superintendent

heard these words he thought they were a dream, for he had not

yet fully recovered his senses. He sat quietly, but was amazed on

beholding the walls and ceiling of the convent: he got up, looked

at the clothes in which he was dressed and at the marks tattooed

on his body, and began to doubt whether he was awake or asleep.

He washed his face, and perceived that the caravan of his

mustachios had likewise departed from the plain of his

countenance.

In this state of perplexity he went out of the convent and

proceeded to his house. There his wife, with her male and female

servants, was expecting his arrival. He approached the house and

placed his hand on the knocker of the door, but was received by

Hyacinth, who said, "Kalandar, whom seekest thou?" The

superintendent rejoined, "I want to enter the house." Hyacinth

continued, "Thou hast to-day evidently taken thy morning draught

of bang earlier and more copiously than usual, since thou hast

foolishly mistaken the road to thy convent. Depart! This is not a

place in which vagabond kalandars are harboured. This is the

palace of the superintendent of the police. and if the symurgh

looks with incivility from the fastness of the west of Mount K�f

at this place, the wings of its impertinence will at once become

singed." The superintendent said, "What nonsense art thou

speaking? Go out of my way, for I do not relish thy imbecile

prattle." But when he wanted to enter, Hyacinth struck him with a

bludgeon on the shoulder, which the superintendent returned with

a box on the ear, and both began to wrestle together. At that

moment the lady and her maid-servants rushed forth from the rear

and assailed him with sticks and stones, shouting, "This kalandar

wishes in plain daylight to force his way into the house of the

superintendent. What a pity that the superintendent is sick, or

else this crime would have to be expiated on the gallows!" In the

meantime all the neighbours assembled, and on seeing the

shameless kalandar's proceedings they cried, "Look at that

impudent kalandar who wants forcibly to enter the house of the

superintendent." Ultimately the crowd amounted to more than five

hundred persons, and the gentleman was put to flight and pursued

by all the little boys, who pelted him with stones till they

expelled him from the town.

At the distance of three farsangs from the town there was a

village where the superintendent concealed himself in the corner

of a mosque. During the evenings he went from house to house and

begged for food to sustain life, until his mustachios again grew

and the tattooed scars gradually began to disappear. Whenever

anyone inquired for the superintendent at his house, he was

informed by the servants that the gentleman was sick. After one

month had expired, the grief of separation and the misery of his

condition had again driven him back to the city. He went to the

convent because fear hindered him from going to the house. His

wife happened one day to catch a glimpse of him from her window,

and perceived him sitting in the same dress with a company of

kalandars. She felt compassion for him, called the servant and

said, "The superintendent has had enough of this!" She made a

loaf of bread and put some opiate into it, and said, "When the

kalandars are asleep, you must go and place this loaf under the

pillow of the superintendent." The servant obeyed, and when the

gentleman awoke in the middle of the night he was surprised to

find the loaf. He fancied that when his companions had during the

night returned from begging, they had placed it there, and so he

ate some of it. During the same night the servant went there by

the command of the lady, took his master on his back and carried

him home. When it was morning, the lady took off the kalandar's

clothes from her husband and dressed him in his own garments, and

began to make sweetmeats as on the former occasion. After some

time he began to move, and his wife exclaimed, "O superintendent,

do not sleep so much. I have told you that we shall spend this

day in joy and pleasure, and it was not fair of you to pass the

time in this lazy way. Lift up your head and see what beautiful

sweetmeats I have baked for you." When he opened his eyes, and

saw himself dressed in his own clothes and at home, the rosebush

of his amazement again brought forth the flowers of astonishment,

and he said, "God be praised! What has happened to me?" He sat

up, and exclaimed, "Wife, things have happened to me which I can

scarcely describe." She replied, "From the uneasy motions which

you have made in your sleep, it appears you must have had

extraordinary dreams." "Dreams, forsooth," said he, "since the

moment I lay down I have experienced the most strange

adventures." "Certainly," rejoined the lady, "last night you have

been eating food disagreeing with your constitution, and to-day

the vapours of it have ascended into your brains, and have caused

you all this distress." The superintendent said, "Yes last night

we went to a party in the house of Serjeant Bahman, and there was

roasted pillau, of which I ate somewhat more than usual, and the

vapour of it has occasioned me all this trouble."[FN#597]

Strikingly similar to this story is the trick of the first lady

on her husband in the "Fabliau des Trois Dames qui trouverent un

Anel." Having made him drunk, she causes his head to be shaved,

dresses him in the habit of a monk, and carries him, assisted by

her lover, to the entrance of a convent. When he awakes and sees

himself thus transformed he imagines that God by a miraculous

exercise of His grace had called him to the monastic life. He

presents himself before the abbot and requests to be received

among the brethren. The lady hastens to the convent in

well-feigned despair, and is exhorted to be resigned and to

congratulate her husband on the saintly vow he has taken. "Many a

good man, ' says the poet, "has been betrayed by woman and by her

harlotry. This one became a monk in the abbey, where he abode a

very long time. Wherefore, I counsel all people who hear this

story told, that they ought not to trust in their wives, nor in

their households, if they have not first proved that they are

full of virtues. Many a man has been deceived by women and by

their treachery. This one became monk against right, who would

never have been such in his life, if his wife had not deceived

him.''[FN#598]

The second lady's trick in the fabliau is a very close parallel

to the story in The Nights, vol. v. p. 96.[FN#599] She had for

dinner on a Friday some salted and smoked eels, which her husband

bade her cook, but there was no fire in the house. Under the

pretext of going to have them cooked at a neighbour's fire she

goes out and finds her lover, at whose house she remains a whole

week. On the following Friday, at the hour of dinner, she enters

a neighbour's house and asks leave to cook the eels, saying that

her husband is angry with her for having no fire, and that she

did not dare to go back, lest he should take off her head. As

soon as the eels are cooked she carries them piping hot to her

own house. The husband asks her where she has been for eight

days, and commences to beat her. She cries for help and the

neighbours come in, and amongst them the one at whose fire the

eels had been cooked, who swears that the wife had only just left

her house and ridicules the husband for his assertion that she

had been away a whole week. The husband gets into a great rage

and is locked up for a madman.

The device of the third lady seems a reflection of the

"Elopement," but without the underground tunnel between the

houses of the wife and the lover. The lady proposes to her lover

to marry him, and he believes that she is only jesting, seeing

that she is already married, but she assures him that she is

quite in earnest, and even undertakes that her husband will

consent. The lover is to come for her husband and take him to the

house of Dan Eustace, where he has a fair niece, whom the lover

is to pretend he wishes to espouse, if he will give her to him.

The wife will go thither, and she will have done her business

with Eustace before they arrive. Her husband cannot but believe

that he has left her at home, and she will be so apparelled that

he cannot recognise her. This plan is accordingly carried out.

The lover asks the husband for the hand of his niece in marriage,

to which he joyously consents, and without knowing it makes a

present of his own wife. "All his life long the lover possessed

her, because the husband gave and did not lend her; nor could he

ever get her back."

Le Grand mentions that this fabliau is told at great length in

the tales of the Sieur d'Ouville, tome iv. p. 255. In the

"Faceti� Bebelian�," p. 86, three women wager which of them will

play the best trick on her husband. One causes him to believe he

is a monk, and he goes and sings mass, the second husband

believed himself to be dead, and allows himself to be carried to

that mass on a bier; and the third sings in it quite naked.

(There is a very similar story in Campbell's "Popular Tales of

the West Highlands.") It is also found, says Le Grand, in the

"Convivales Sermones," tome i. p. 200, in the "Delices de

Verboquet," p. 166; and in the Faceti� of Lod. Dom�nichi, p. 172.

In the "Contes pour Rire," p. 197, three women find a diamond, and

the arbiter whom they select promises it, as in the fabliau, to

her who concocts the best device for deceiving her husband, but

their ruses are different.

End of Supplemental Nights Volume 2.

Arabian Nights, Volume 12

Footnotes

[FN#1] Bresi. Edit., vol. xi. pp. 321-99, Nights dccccxxx-xl.

[FN#2] Arab. "Ikl�m" from the Gr. {kl�ma}, often used as amongst

us (e.g. "other climes") for land.

[FN#3] Bibars whose name is still famous and mostly pronounced

"Baybars," the fourth of the Baharite Mamelukes whom I would call

the "Soldans." Originally a slave of Al-S�lih, seventh of the

Ayyubites, he rose to power by the normal process, murdering his

predecessor, in A. D. 1260; and he pushed his conquests from

Syria to Armenia. In his day "Saint" Louis died before Tunis (A.

D. 1270).

[FN#4] There are sundry S�hils or shore-lands. "Sahil Misr" is

the River-side of Cairo often extended to the whole of Lower

Egypt (vol. i. 290): here it means the lowlands of Palestine once

the abode of the noble Philistines; and lastly the term extends

to the sea-board of Zanzibar, where, however, it is mostly used

in the plur. "Saw�hil"=the Shores.

[FN#5] Arab. "Samm�r" (from Samar, = conversatio nocturna), = the

story-teller who in camp or house whiles away the evening hours.

[FN#6] "Flag of the Faith:" Sanjar in old Persian=a Prince, a

King.

[FN#7] "Aider of the Faith."

[FN#8] These policemen's tales present a curious contrast with

the detective stories of M. Gaboriau and his host of imitators.

In the East the police, like the old Bow Street runners, were and

are still recruited principally amongst the criminal classes on

the principle of "Set a thief," &c. We have seen that the

Barmecide Wazirs of Baghdad "anticipated Fourier's doctrine of

the passionel treatment of lawless inclinations," and employed as

subordinate officers, under the Wali or Prefect of Police,

accomplished villains like Ahmad al-Danaf (vol. iv. 75), Hasan

Shuuman and Mercury Ali (ibid.) and even women (Dalilah the

Crafty) to coerce and checkmate their former comrades. Moreover a

gird at the police is always acceptable, not only to a

coffee-house audience, but even to a more educated crowd; witness

the treatment of the "Charley" and the "Bobby" in our truly

English pantomimes.

[FN#9] i.e. the Chief of Police, as the sequel shows.

[FN#10] About £4.

[FN#11] i.e. of the worlds visible and invisible.

[FN#12] Arab. "Mukaddam:" see vol. iv, 42.

[FN#13] "Faithful of Command;" it may be a title as well as a P.

N. For "Al-Am�n," see vol. iv. 261.

[FN#14] i. e. "What have I to do with, etc.?" or "How great is

the difference between me and her." The phrase is still popular

in Egypt and Syria; and the interrogative form only intensifies

it. The student of Egyptian should always try to answer a

question by a question. His labours have been greatly facilitated

by the conscientious work of my late friend Spitta Bey. I tried

hard to persuade the late Rogers Bey, whose knowledge of Egyptian

and Syrian (as opposed to Arabic) was considerable, that a simple

grammar of Egyptian was much wanted; he promised to undertake it,

but death cut short the design.

[FN#15] Arab. "Naww�b," plur. of N�ib (lit. deputies,

lieutenants)=a Nabob. Till the unhappy English occupation of

Egypt, the grand old Kil'ah (Citadel) contained the palace of the

Pasha and the lodgings and offices of the various officials.

Foreign rulers, if they are wise, should convert it into a fort

with batteries commanding the town, like that of Hyderabad, in

Sind.

[FN#16] For this famous and time-honoured building, see vol. i.

269.

[FN#17] Arab. "Tamk�n," gravity, assurance.

[FN#18] Arab. " Iy�l-hu" lit. his family, a decorous

circumlocution for his wives and concubines.

[FN#19] Arab. "Darb," lit. a road; here a large thoroughfare.

[FN#20] When Mohammed Ali Pasha (the "Great") began to rule, he

found Cairo "stifled" with filth, and gave orders that each

householder, under pain of confiscation, should keep the street

before his house perfectly clean. This was done after some

examples had been made and the result was that since that time

Cairo never knew the plague. I am writing at Tangier where a

Mohammed Ali is much wanted.

[FN#21] i.e. Allah forfend!

[FN#22] Arab. "Mustauda'" = a strong place where goods are

deposited and left in charge.

[FN#23] Because, if she came to grief, the people of the street,

and especially those of the adjoining houses would get into

trouble. Hence in Moslem cities, like Damascus and Fez, the H�r�t

or quarters are closed at night with strong wooden doors, and the

guards will not open them except by means of a silver key.

Mohammed Ali abolished this inconvenience, but fined and

imprisoned all night-walkers who carried no lanterns. See

Pilgrimage, vol. i. 173,

[FN#24] As Kazi of the quarter he was ex-officio guardian of the

orphans and their property, and liable to severe punishment

(unless he could pay for the luxury) in case of fraud or neglect.

[FN#25] Altogether six thousand dinars = �3000. This sentence is

borrowed from the sequel and necessary to make the sense clear.

[FN#26] i.e. "I am going at once to complain of thee before the

king unless thou give me due satisfaction by restoring the money

and finding the thief."

[FN#27] The Practice (of the Prophet) and the Holy Law (Koranic):

see vols. v. 36, 167 and i. 169.

[FN#28] In the corrupt text "Who knew me not;" thus spoiling the

point.

[FN#29] Arab. "Maut Ahmar" = violent or bloody death. For the

various coloured deaths, see vol. vi. 250.

[FN#30] i.e. for lack of sleep.

[FN#31] i.e. of the Kazi.

[FN#32] Arab. "Mub�h," in the theologic sense, an action which is

not sinful (har�m) or quasi-sinful (makr�h); vulgarly "permitted,

allowed"; so Shahrazad "ceased to say her say permitted" (by

Shahryar).

[FN#33] Arab. "Y� Khawand"; see vol. vii. 315.

[FN#34] i.e. we both make different statements equally credible,

but without proof, and the case will go against me, because thou

art the greater man.

[FN#35] Arab. "Irtiy�d" = seeking a place where to stale, soft and

sloping, so that the urine spray may not defile the dress. All

this in one word!

[FN#36] Arab. "Bah�r," the red buphthalmus sylvester often used

for such comparisons. In Algeria it is called 'Ar�wah: see the

Jardin Parfum�, p. 245, note 144.

[FN#37] i.e. parties.

[FN#38] i.e. amongst men.

[FN#39] Almost as neat as "o� sont les neiges d'autan?"

[FN#40] Arab. " �d�," one transgressing, an enemy, a scoundrel.

[FN#41] It was probably stuck in the ground like an amphora.

[FN#42] i.e. hush up the matter.

[FN#43] In Egypt; the former being the Eastern of the Seven

Provinces extending to the Pelusium branch, and the latter to the

Canobic. The "Bar�ri" or deserts, i.e. grounds not watered by the

Nile, lie scattered between the two and both are bounded South by

the Kal�b�yah Province and Middle Egypt.

[FN#44] i.e. a man ready of wit and immediate of action, as

opposed to his name Al-Atwash = one notable for levity of mind.

[FN#45] The negative is emphatic, "I certainly saw a Jew," etc.

[FN#46] The "Irish bull" is in the text; justified by--

They hand-in-hand, with wand'ring steps and slow

Through Eden took their solitary way,

[FN#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.

[FN#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.

[FN#49] Arab. "Raba'," lit. = spring-quarters. See Marba', iii. 79.

[FN#50] Arab. "Ni'am," an exception to the Abb� 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'o� l'on a fait non, not, nec, nil.

[FN#51] For this "Hal�wat al-Mift�h," or sweetmeat of the

key-money, the French denier a Dieu, Old English "God's penny,"

see vol. vii. 212, and Pilgrimage i. 62.

[FN#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.

[FN#53] For its rules and right performance see vol. vi. 199.

[FN#54] i.e. the "Basil(issa)," mostly a servile name, see vol.

i. 19.

[FN#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.

[FN#56] Arab. "Bal�t," in Cairo the flat slabs of limestone and

sandstone brought from the Turah quarries, which supplied stone

for the J�zah Pyramids.

[FN#57] Arab. "Y� Mu'arras!" here = O fool and disreputable; see

vol. i. 338.

[FN#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 "Majn�n"

when they see a man naked whose sanctity does not account for his

nudity.

[FN#59] Arab. "Daur al-K�'ah" = the round opening made in the

ceiling for light and ventilation.

[FN#60] Arab. "La-nakhsifanna" with the emphatic termination

called by grammarians "N�n al-taakid"--the N of injunction. Here

it is the reduplicated form, the Nun al-Sak�lah or heavy N. The

addition of L� (not) e.g. "L� 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.

[FN#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 Moore. Also "Essay on

Euthanasia," by P. D. Williams, Jun., and Mr. Tollemache in the

"Nineteenth Century."

[FN#62] i.e. he whose turn it is to sit on the bench outside the

police-office in readiness for emergencies.

[FN#63] Arab. "'Ud�l" (plur. of '�dil), 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.

[FN#64] About �80.

[FN#65] Arab. "Kit�b" = 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 Hind�'s,

but in a minor degree, the Moslem's neighbours form a volunteer

police which oversees his every action. In the case of the Hind�

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

[FN#66] e.g. writing The contract of A. with B., daughter of

Such-an-one, etc.

[FN#67] Arab. "Hujjat," which may also mean an excuse.

[FN#68] The last clause is supplied by Mr. Payne to stop a gap in

the broken text.

[FN#69] The text idiotically says "To the King."

[FN#70] In the text "Nahnu"=we, for I, a common vulgarism in

Egypt and Syria.

[FN#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.

[FN#72] Arab. "Husn tadb�r" = lit. "beauty of his contrivance."

Husn, like {kal�s}, pulcher, beau and bello, is applied to moral and

intellectual qualities as well as to physical and material. Hence

the {kal� g�roon} or old gentleman which in Romaic becomes Calogero, a

monk.

[FN#73] i.e. that some one told me the following tale.

[FN#74] Arab. "Mutawall�": see vol. i. 259.

[FN#75] i.e. his Moslem neighbours.

[FN#76] In the text is a fearful confusion of genders.

[FN#77] Her object was to sue him for the loss of the pledge and

to demand fabulous damages.

[FN#78] Arab. "Ya'tamid�na hud�-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!"

[FN#79] The trick has often been played in modern times at fairs,

shows, etc. Witness the old Joe Miller of the "Moving Multitude."

[FN#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.

[FN#81] i.e. women's tricks.

[FN#82] The "Turkoman" in the text first comes in afterwards.

[FN#83] Arab. "K�sid," the old Anglo-lndian "Cossid"; see vol.

vii. 340.

[FN#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.

[FN#85] I have noted (vol. ii. 186, iv. 175) the easy expiation

of perjury amongst Moslems, an ugly blot in their moral code.

[FN#86] i.e. Enter in the name of Allah.

[FN#87] i.e. Damn your soul for leading me into this danger!

[FN#88] Arab. "Saff Kamar�y�t min al-Zuj�j." The Kamar�yah is

derived by Lane (Introd. M.E.) from Kamar=moon; by Baron Von

Hammer from Khum�rawayh, second of the Banu-Tul�n 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

Mashrab�yah 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.

[FN#89] i.e. easily arrested them.

[FN#90] The reader will not forget the half-penitent Captain of

Bandits in Gil Blas.

[FN#91] Arab. "Abt�l" = champions, athletes, etc., plur. of Batal,

a brave: so Batalat = a virago. As the root Batala = it was vain, the

form "Batt�l" may mean either a hero or a bad lot: see vol. viii.

335; x. 74,75.

[FN#92] Arab. "Fity�n;" plur. of Fat�; see vol. i, 67.

[FN#93] This was in popular parlance "adding insult to injury:"

the blackening their faces was a promise of Hell-fire.

[FN#94] Arab. "Shayyan li 'll�h!" lit.=(Give me some) Thing for

(the love of) Allah. The answer in Egypt. is "Allah

ya't�k:"=Allah will give it thee (not I), or, "Yaftah 'Allah,"=

Allah open (to thee the door of subsistence): in Marocco "Sir f�

h�lik" (pron. Sirf h�k)= Go about thy business. In all cities

there is a formula which suffices the asker; but the Ghash�m

(Johny Raw) who ignores it, is pestered only the more by his

protestations that "he left his purse at home," etc.

[FN#95] i.e. engaged her for a revel and paid her in advance.

[FN#96] Arab. "Ras�lah"=a (she) partner, to accompany her on the

lute.

[FN#97] Suggesting that they are all thieves who had undergone

legal mutilation.

[FN#98] Arab. "Nuzhat-�:" see vol. ii. 81.

[FN#99] Arab. "Muhattak�t;" usually "with torn veils" (fem.

plur.) here "without veils," metaphor. meaning in disgrace, in

dishonour.

[FN#100] For this reedy Poa, see vol. ii. 18.

[FN#101] I have repeatedly noticed that singing and all music

are, in religious parlance, "Makr�h," blameable though not

actually damnable; and that the first step after "getting

religion" is to forswear them.

[FN#102] i.e. to find the thief or make good the loss.

[FN#103] i.e. the claimants.

[FN#104] Arab. "Sakiyah:" see vol. i. 123.

[FN#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.

[FN#106] Arab. "Farkalah," {phrag�llion} from flagellum; cattle-whip

with leathern thongs. Lane, M.E.; Fleischer Glos. 83-84; Dozy

s.v.

[FN#107] This clause is supplied to make sense.

[FN#108] i.e. to crucify him by nailing him to an upright board.

[FN#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 Naw�, where he lived; the Hammam

'Ayy�b, where he washed his leprous skin; the Dayr Ayy�b, a

monastery said to date from the third century; and the Makan

Ayyub at Al-Mark�z, 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 Ph�nicians.

[FN#110] This habit "torquere mero," was a favourite with the

medi�val 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-mast� (le vin m�chant) see Pilgrimage iii. 385.

[FN#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.

[FN#112] Arab. "Alaykum:" addressed to a single person. This is

generally explained by the "Salam" reaching the ears of Invisible

Controls, 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.

[FN#113] Arab. "Al-Zalamah"; the policeman; see vol. vi. 214.

[FN#114] i.e. in my punishment.

[FN#115] i.e. on Doomsday thou shalt get thy deserts.

[FN#116] i.e. what I could well afford.

[FN#117] Arab. Hirfah=a trade, a guild, a corporation: here the

officers of police.

[FN#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.

[FN#119] In Marocco there is great difficulty about finding an

executioner who becomes obnoxious to the Th�r, 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-Mall�h,=the salting-ground.

[FN#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

[FN#121] i.e. in relinquishing his blood-wite for his brother.

[FN#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.

[FN#123] Arab. "Za'amu"=they opine, they declare, a favourite

term with the Bresl. Edit.

[FN#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 {bront� komid� papp�x} "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 gar�on 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.

[FN#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).

[FN#126] This scene is perfectly true to Badawi life; see my

Pilgrimage iii. 68.

[FN#127] Arab. "Durr�j": so it is rendered in the French

translation of Al-Masudi, vii. 347.

[FN#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 "Kaz�" 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 Kaz� al-Muham which admits of modification and

Kaz� 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 Im�m; 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, ergo, an accident and liable to

perish, and one of their school, the K�diriyah ( = 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.

[FN#129] Arab. "Shaykh al-Hujj�j." Some Santon like Hasan al-

Mar�bit, then invoked by the Meccan pilgrims: see Pilgrimage, i.

321. It can hardly refer to the famous Hajj�j bin Y�suf al-Sakaf�

(vol. iv. 3).

[FN#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 "Bakhsh�sh."

[FN#131] Bresl. Edit. vol xi. pp. 400-473 and vol. xii. pp. 4-50,

Nights dccccxli.-dcccclvii. For Kashghar, see vol. i. 255.

[FN#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).

[FN#133] i.e. The Caliph: see vol. i. p. 50.

[FN#134] Arab. "Adab :" see vol. i. 132, etc. In Moslem dialects

which borrow more or less from Arabic, "B�-adab�" = being without Adab, means rudeness, disrespect, "impertinence" (in its modern

sense).

[FN#135] i.e. Isaac of Mosul, the greatest of Arab musicians: see

vol. iv. 119.

[FN#136] The elder brother of Ja'afar, by no means so genial or

fitted for a royal frolic. See Terminal Essay.

[FN#137] Ibn Hab�b, a friend of Isaac, and a learned grammarian

who lectured at Basrah.

[FN#138] A suburb of Baghdad, mentioned by Al Mas'�di.

[FN#139] Containing the rooms in which the girl or girls were

sold. See Pilgrimage i. 87.

[FN#140] Dozy quotes this passage but cannot explain the word

Faww�k.

[FN#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.

[FN#142] i.e. "Choice gift of the Fools," a skit upon the girl's

name "Tohfat al-Kul�b" = 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.

[FN#143] "Every one cannot go to Corinth." The question makes the

assertion emphatic.

[FN#144] i.e. The Narrows of the (Dervishes') convent.

[FN#145] Arab. "Akw� 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.

[FN#146] The sequel will explain why she acted in this way.

[FN#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.

[FN#148] Arab. "Uadd�ki," Taadiyah (iid. of Ad�, he assisted)

means sending, forwarding. In Egypt and Syria we often find the

form "Waddi" for Addi, imperative.

[FN#149] Again "he" for "she".

[FN#150] i.e. Honey and wine.

[FN#151] i.e. he died.

[FN#152] i.e. if my hand had lost its cunning.

[FN#153] Arab. "Thiy�b 'Am�diyah": 'Amud = tent prop or column, and

Khatt 'Am�d = a perpendicular line.

[FN#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.

[FN#155] Again the usual pun upon the name.

[FN#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.

[FN#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 "B�dhanj."

[FN#158] The Nights have more than once applied this patronymic

to Zubaydah. See vol. viii. 56, 158.

[FN#159] Arab. "Mutahaddis�n" = novi homines, upstarts.

[FN#160] i.e. thine auspicious visits.

[FN#161] He being seated on the carpet at the time.

[FN#162] A quotation from Al-Farazdat who had quarrelled with his

wife Al-How�r (see the tale in Ibn Khallikan, i. 521), hence "the

naked intercessor" became proverbial for one who cannot be

withstood.

[FN#163] i.e. Choice Gift of the Breasts, that is of hearts, the

continens for the contentum.

[FN#164] Pron. "Abuttaw�if," 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."

[FN#165] Mr. Payne supplies this last clause from the sequence.

[FN#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.

[FN#167] Arab. "Al-Mustar�h," a favourite haunting place of the

Jinn, like the Hamm�m and other offices for human impurity. For

its six names Al-Khal�, Al-Hushsh, Al-Mutawazz�, Al-Kan�f,

Al-Mustar�h, and Mirh�z, see Al-Mas'udi, chap. cxxvii., and

Shir�shi's commentary to Hariri's 47, Assembly.

[FN#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.

[FN#169] In Swedenborg's "Arcana C�lestia" 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.

[FN#170] This exchange of salams was a sign of her being in

safety.

[FN#171] Arab. "Shaw�hid," meaning that heart testifies to heart.

[FN#172] i.e. A live coal, afterwards called Zalzalah, an

earthquake; see post p. 105. "Wakh�mah" = an unhealthy land, and

"Shar�rah" = a spark.

[FN#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 formul� of prayer; and the

same is the case with table-cloths, etc., showing a fancy Tohgra

or Sultanic sign-manual.

[FN#174] i.e. I cannot look at them long.

[FN#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.

[FN#176] Arab. "Rikk� al-Saut," which may also mean either "lower

thy voice," or "change the air to one less touching."

[FN#177] "Your" for "thy."

[FN#178] i.e. written on the "Guarded Tablet" from all eternity.

[FN#179] Arab. "Al-'Urs w'al-Tuh�r" which can only mean, "the

wedding (which does not drop out of the tale) and the

circumcision."

[FN#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, "pr�putium

in coitu voluptatem (of the woman) auget, unde femina pr�putiatis

concubitum malunt quam cum Turcis ac Jud�is " 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

verp� 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 �t. 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 the 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 pr�putia et

recesserunt a Testamento Sancto. Thus making prepuces was called

by the Hebrews Meshookim = recutiti{s}, and there is an allusion to

it in 1 Cor. vii. 18, 19, {m� episp�sthai} (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 7�

lines. The process is still practiced 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 practiced in the Province Al-As�r, the old

Ophir, lying south of Al-Hij�z, where it is called Salkh,

lit. = scarification. The patient, usually from ten to twelve years

old, is placed upon raised ground holding m 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 "verp�," 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 f�tes 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

Sch�rmann 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 {t�s nymph�s} (sive

clitoridis) qu� pars in Australium mulieribus ita crescit ut

ferro est co�rcenda." Here we have the normal confusion between

excision of the nymph� (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).

[FN#181] Arab. "Kayraw�n" which is still the common name for

curlew; the peewit and plover being called (onomatopoetically)

"B�bat" and in Marocco Yah�di, certain impious Jews having been turned into the Vanellus Cristatus which still wears the black skullcap of the Hebrews.

[FN#182] Arab. "Saw�ki," the leats which irrigate the ground and are opened and closed with the foot.

[FN#183] The eighth (in altitude) of the many-storied Heavens.

[FN#184] Arab. "Ihramat li al-Sal�t," 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.

[FN#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.

[FN#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.

[FN#187] Arab. "Du'�," = supplication, prayer, as opposed to

"Sal�t" = 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.

[FN#188] Al-Muzfir = the Twister; Zaf�ir al-Jinn = Adiantum capillus veneris. L�l�ah = The Pearl, or Wild Heifer; see vol. ix. 218.

[FN#189] Arab. "Bi jildi 'l-baker." 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.

[FN#190] Arab. "Far�sah" = lit. knowing a horse. Arabia abounds in tales illustrating abnormal powers of observation. I have noted this in vol. viii. 326.

[FN#191] i.e. the owner of this palace.

[FN#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.

[FN#193] i.e. she conjoined the prayers of nightfall with those of dawn.

[FN#194] i.e. those of midday, mid-afternoon and sunset.

[FN#195] Arab. "Sahb�" red wine preferred for the morning

draught.

[FN#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.

[FN#197] For the etymology of Juln�r--Byron's "Gulnare"--see vol. vii. 268. Here the rhymer seems to refer to its origin; Gul (Arab. Jul) in Persian a rose; and An�r, a pomegranate, which in Arabic becomes N�r = fire.

[FN#198] i.e. "The brilliant," the enlightened.

[FN#199] i.e. the moral beauty.

[FN#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.

[FN#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'�zat�ni," as they are 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.

[FN#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.

[FN#203] Arab. " 'Umm�r" i.e. the Jinn, the "spiritual creatures" which walk this earth, and other non-humans who occupy it.

[FN#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.

[FN#205] Arab. "Ghal�l�" = my yearning.

[FN#206] Arab. "Ahb�bu-n�" plur. for singular = my beloved.

[FN#207] i.e. her return.

[FN#208] Arab. "Arja'" lit. return! but here meaning to stop. It is much used by donkey-boys 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.

[FN#209] Arab. "Afras" lit.=a better horseman.

[FN#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'�m)."

[FN#211] i.e. Queen Sunbeam.

[FN#212] See vol. i. 310 for this compound perfume which contains musk, ambergris and other essences.

[FN#213] I can hardly see the sequence of this or what the

carpets have to do here.

[FN#214] Here, as before, some insertion has been found

necessary.

[FN#215] Arab. "Dukh�lak" lit.=thy entering, entrance, becoming familiar.

[FN#216] Or "And in this there shall be to thee great honour over all the Jinn."

[FN#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.

[FN#218] i.e. "I cannot bear to see him!"

[FN#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.

[FN#220] i.e. "May thy visits never fail me!"

[FN#221] i.e. Ash-coloured, verging upon white.

[FN#222] i.e. "She will double thy store of presents."

[FN#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.

[FN#224] Tohfah.

[FN#225] i.e. Hindu, Indian.

[FN#226] Japhet, son of Noah.

[FN#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 for

artistic reasons.

[FN#228] A skit at Ish�k, making the Devil praise him. See vol.

vii. 113.

[FN#229] Arab. "Maw�zi" (plur. of Mauza')=lit. places, shifts,

passages.

[FN#230] The bed (farsh), is I presume, the straw-spread (?)

store-room where the apples are preserved.

[FN#231] Arab. "Farkh warak", which sounds like an atrocious

vulgarism.

[FN#232] The Moss-rose; also the eglantine, or dog-rose, and the

sweet-briar, whose leaf, unlike other roses, is so odorous.

[FN#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.

[FN#234] The barber is now the usual operator; but all operations

began in Europe with the "barber-surgeon."

[FN#235] Sic in text xii. 20. It may be a misprint for Ab�

al-Tawaif, but it can also mean "O Shaykh of the Tribes (of

Jinns)!"

[FN#236] The capital of King Al-Shisban.

[FN#237] Arab "Fajj", the Spanish "Vega" which, however, means a mountain-plain, a plain.

[FN#238] i.e. I am quite sure: emphatically.

[FN#239] i.e. all the Jinn's professions of affection and

promises of protection were mere lies.

[FN#240] In the original this apodosis is wanting: see vol. vi. 203, 239.

[FN#241] Arab. "D�hiyat al-Daw�h�;" see vol. ii. 87.

[FN#242] Arab. "Al-Jabal al-Mukawwar"= Cha�ne de montagnes de

forme demi circulaire, from Kaur, a park, an enceinte.

[FN#243] Arab. "R�h�" lit. my breath, the outward sign of life.

[FN#244] i.e. K�f.

[FN#245] i.e. A bit of burning charcoal.

[FN#246] Arab. "Al-yad al-bayz�,"=lit. The white hand: see vol. iv. 185.

[FN#247] Showing the antiquity of "Apr�s moi le d�luge," 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.

[FN#248] Suggesting the nursery rhyme:

Fee, fo, fum

I smell the blood of an Englishman.

[FN#249] i.e. why not at once make an end of her.

[FN#250] The well-known war-cry.

[FN#251] Lit. "Smoke" pop. applied, like our word, to tobacco.

The latter, however, is not here meant.

[FN#252] Arab. "Ghur�b al-bayn," of the wold or of parting. See

vol. vii. 226.

[FN#253] Arab. "Hal�wah"; see vol. iv. 60.

[FN#254] Here the vocative particle "Y�" is omitted.

[FN#255] Lit. "The long-necked (bird)" before noticed with the

Rukh (Roc) in vol. v. 122. Here it becomes a Princess, daughter of Bahr�m-i-G�r (Bahram of the Onager, his favourite game), the famous Persian king in the fifth century, a contemporary of Theodosius the younger and Honorius. The "Ank�" is evidently the Iranian S�murgh.

[FN#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!"

[FN#257] Choice Gift of the breast (or heart).

[FN#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 Langl�s (Paris, 1814), appended to his Edition of the Voyages of Sindbad. The story is exceedingly clever and well deserves translation.

[FN#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.

[FN#260] Arab. "Ban�t-al-haw�" 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.

[FN#261] Arab. "Jabhat," the lintel opposed to the threshold.

[FN#262] Arab. "Ghatt�," 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.

[FN#263] She is compared with a flashing blade (her face) now

drawn from its sheath (her hair) then hidden by it.

[FN#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.

[FN#265] i.e. All the blemishes which justify returning a slave to the slave-dealer.

[FN#266] Media: see vol. ii. 94. The "Daylamite prison" was one of many in Baghdad.

[FN#267] See vol. v. 199. I may remark that the practice 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.

[FN#268] On the morning after a happy night the bridegroom still

offers coffee and Halw� to friends.

[FN#269] i.e. More bewitching.

[FN#270] Arab. "Shar�f�" more usually Ashrafi, the Port. Xerafim,

a gold coin = 6s.–7s.

[FN#271] The oft-repeated Koranic quotation.

[FN#272] Arab. "'Irk": our phrase is "the apple of the eye."

[FN#273] Meaning that he was a Sayyid or a Shar�f.

[FN#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"?

[FN#275] The "Shar�'at" forbidding divorce by force.

[FN#276] i.e. protect my honour.

[FN#277] For this proverb see vol. v. 138. 1 have remarked that

"Shame" is not a passion in Europe as in the East; the Western

equivalent to the Arab. "Hay�' 'would be the Latin "Pudor."

[FN#278] Arab. "Tal�kan b�inan," here meaning a triple divorce

before witnesses, making it irrevocable.

[FN#279] i.e. who had played him that trick.

[FN#280] The Bresl. Edit. (vol. xii. pp. 50-116, Nights

dcccclviii- dcccclxv.) entitles it "Tale of Abu al-Hasan the

Damascene and his son S�d� Nur al-D�n ' Al�." S�d� means simply,

"my lord," but here becomes part of the name, a practice

perpetuated in Zanzibar. See vol. v.283.

[FN#281] i.e. at the hours of canonical prayers and other

suitable times he made an especial orison (du'�) for issue.

[FN#282] See vol. i.85, for the traditional witchcraft of

Babylonia.

[FN#283] i.e. More or less thoroughly.

[FN#284] i.e. "He who quitteth not his native country diverteth not himself with a sight of the wonders of the world."

[FN#285] For similar sayings, see vol. ix. 257, and my Pilgrimage

i. 127.

[FN#286] i.e. relying upon, etc.

[FN#287] The Egyptian term for a khan, called in Persia

caravanserai (karw�n-ser�i); and in Marocco funduk, from the

Greek; whence the Spanish "fonda." See vol. i. 92.

[FN#288] Arab. "Baliyah," to jingle with "B�biliyah."

[FN#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.

[FN#290] The lines are in vols. viii. 279 and ix. 197. I quote Mr.

Payne.

[FN#291] Lady or princess of the Fair (ones).

[FN#292] i.e. of buying.

[FN#293] Arab. "�z�n-h�" = lit. its ears.

[FN#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.

[FN#295] i.e. You are welcome to it and so it becomes lawful

(hal�l) to you.

[FN#296] Arab. "Sijn al-Dam," the Carcere duro inasprito (to

speak Triestine), where men convicted or even accused of

bloodshed were confined.

[FN#297] Arab. "Mab�sim"; plur. of Mabsim, a smiling mouth which shows the foreteeth.

[FN#298] The branchlet, as usual, is the youth's slender form.

[FN#299] Subaudi, "An ye disdain my love."

[FN#300] In the text "sleep."

[FN#301] "Them" and "him" for "her."

[FN#302] 'Urk�b, a Jew of Yathrib or Khaybar, immortalised in the A.P. (i. 454) as "more promise-breaking than 'Urk�b."

[FN#303] Uncle of Mohammed. See vol. viii. 172.

[FN#304] First cousin of Mohammed. See ib.

[FN#305] This threat of "'Orf with her 'ead" shows the Caliph's lordliness.

[FN#306] Arab. "Al-Bashkh�nah."

[FN#307] i.e. Amen. See vol. ix. 131.

[FN#308] When asked, on Doomsday, his justification for having

slain her.

[FN#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.

[FN#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.

[FN#311] The popular way of stopping hemorrhage by plunging the stump into burning oil which continued even in Europe till

Ambrose Par� taught men to take up the arteries.

[FN#312] i.e. folk of good family.

[FN#313] i.e. the result of thy fervent prayers to Allah for me.

[FN#314] Arab. "Al-Ab�r�k" plur. of lbrik, 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.

[FN#315] Arab. "N�ihah", the pr�fica or myriologist. See vol. i. 311. The proverb means, "If you want a thing done, do it

yourself."

[FN#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 "Lith�m" or coquettish fold of transparent muslin affected by modest women in Stambul.

[FN#317] i.e. donned petticoat-trousers and walking boots other than those she was wont to wear.

[FN#318] "Surah" (Koranic chapter) may be a clerical error for

"S�rah" (with a S�d) = sort, fashion (of food).

[FN#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.

[FN#320] i.e. animals that died without being ceremonially

killed.

[FN#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."

[FN#322] i.e. son of Simeon = a Christian.

[FN#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 �-kal or Great House = the old Egyptian Perao (Pharaoh?), and the Japanese "Mikado."

[FN#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.

[FN#325] Arab. "N�zilah," i.e., a curse coming down from Heaven.

[FN#326] Here and below, a translation of her name.

[FN#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.

[FN#328] Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter,

Sermons and soda-water the day after.

Don Juan ii. 178.

[FN#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.

[FN#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.

[FN#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.

[FN#332] i.e. I will lay down my life to save thee from sorrow--a common-place hyperbole of love.

[FN#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.

[FN#334] The decency of this description is highly commendable

and I may note that the Bresl. Edit. is comparatively free from

erotic pictures.

[FN#335] i.e. "I commit him to thy charge under God."

[FN#336] This is an Americanism, but it translates passing well

"Al-il�j" = insertion.

[FN#337] Arab. (and Heb.) "Tarjum�n" = a dragoman, for which see

vol. i. 100. In the next tale it will occur with the sense of

polyglottic.

[FN#338] See vol. i. p. 35.

[FN#339] After putting to death the unjust Prefect.

[FN#340] Arab. "Lajlaj." See vol. ix. 322.

[FN#341] Arab. "Maw�lid" lit. = nativity festivals (plur. of

Maulid). See vol. ix. 289.

[FN#342] Bresl. Edit., vol. xii. pp. 116-237, Nights

dcccclxvi-dcccclxxix. Mr. Payne entitles it "El Abbas and the

King's Daughter of Baghdad."

[FN#343] "Of the Shayban tribe." I have noticed (vol. ii. 1) how

loosely the title Malik (King) is applied in Arabic and in

medi�val Europe. But it is ultra-Shakespearean to place a Badawi

King in Baghdad, the capital founded by the Abbasides and ruled

by those Caliphs till their downfall.

[FN#344] i.e. Ir�k Arab� (Chald�a) and 'Ajami (Western Persia).

For the meaning of Al-Ir�k, which always, except in verse, takes

the article, see vol. ii. 132.

[FN#345] See supra, p. 185. Mr. Payne suspects a clerical error

for "Turkum�niyah" = Turcomanish; but this is hardly acceptable.

[FN#346] As fabulous a personage as "King Kays."

[FN#347] Possibly a clerical error for Zab�d, the famous capital

of the Tah�mah or lowlands of Al-Yaman.

[FN#348] The Moslem's Holy Land whose capital is Meccah.

[FN#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 M�riyah (Maria, Mary), a non-Moslem name.

[FN#350] i.e. day and night, for ever.

[FN#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.

[FN#352] i.e. darkened behind him.

[FN#353] Here we have again, as so common in Arab romances, the

expedition of a modified Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.

[FN#354] Arab. "Arzi-h�" = in its earth, its outlying suburbs.

[FN#355] The king's own tribe.

[FN#356] i.e. he was always "spoiling for a fight."

[FN#357] In the text the two last sentences are spoken by Amir

and the story-teller suddenly resumes the third person.

[FN#358] Mr. Payne translates this "And God defend the right" (of

plunder according to the Arabs).

[FN#359] Arab. "Lill�hi 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.

[FN#360] The words are euphemistic: we should say "comest thou to our succour."

[FN#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.

[FN#362] i.e. I look to Allah for aid (and keep my powder dry).

[FN#363] i.e. to the next world.

[FN#364] This falling backwards in laughter commonly occurs

during the earlier tales; it is, however, very rare amongst the

Badawin.

[FN#365] i.e. as he were a flying Jinni, swooping down and

pouncing falcon-like upon a mortal from the upper air.

[FN#366] This may be (reading Imraan = man, for Amran = matter) "a masterful man"; but I can hardly accept it.

[FN#367] Arab. "Bunduk�," 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.

[FN#368] i.e. the castle's square.

[FN#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.

[FN#370] i.e. he was as eloquent and courtly as he could be.

[FN#371] Arab. "Ya Z�nat al-Nis�," which may either be a P.N. or

a polite address as Bella f� (Handsome woman) is to any feminine

in Southern Italy.

[FN#372] Arab. "Raas Ghanam": this form of expressing singularity

is common to Arabic and the Eastern languages, which it has

influenced.

[FN#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.

[FN#374] This clause in the text is evidently misplaced (vol.

xii.144).

[FN#375] Arab. Dara' or Dira'=armour, whether of leather or

metal; here the coat worn under the mail.

[FN#376] Called from Rustak, a quarter of Baghdad. For Rust�k

town see vol. vi. 289.

[FN#377] From Damietta comes our "dimity." The classical name was Tami�this apparently Coptic gr�cised: the old town on the shore famed in Crusading times was destroyed in A.H. 648 = 1251.

[FN#378] Easterns are always startled by a sudden summons to the presence either of King or Kazi: here the messenger gives the youth to understand that it is in kindness, not in anger.

[FN#379] i.e. in not sending for thee to court instead of

allowing thee to live in the city without guest-rite.

[FN#380] In sign of agitation: the phrase has often been used in

this sense and we find it also in Al-Mas'udi.

[FN#381] I would remind the reader that the "Daw�t" (ink-case)

contains the reed-pens.

[FN#382] Two well-known lovers.

[FN#383] On such occasions the old woman (and Easterns are hard

de dolo vetularum) always assents to the sayings of her prey,

well knowing what the doings will inevitably be.

[FN#384] Travellers, Nomads, Wild Arabs.

[FN#385] Whither they bear thee back dead with the women crying

and keening.

[FN#386] Arab. Azn�n� = emaciated me.

[FN#387] Either the Deity or the Love-god.

[FN#388] Arab. "Him�" = the tribal domain, a word which has often

occurred.

[FN#389] "O ye who believe! seek help through patience and

prayer: verily, Allah is with the patient." Koran ii. 148. The

passage refers to one of the battles, Bedr or Ohod.

[FN#390] Arab. "Sirr" (a secret) and afterwards "Kitm�n"

(concealment) i.e. Keeping a lover down-hearted.

[FN#391] Arab. "'Alkam" = the bitter gourd, colocynth; more

usually "Hanzal."

[FN#392] For "Jaz�rah" = insula, island, used in the sense of

"peninsula," see vol. i. 2.

[FN#393] Meccah and Al-Medinah. Pilgrimage i. 338 and ii. 57,

used in the proverb "Sharr fi al-Haramayn" = wickedness in the

two Holy Places.

[FN#394] Arab. Al-hamd (o li'llah).

[FN#395] i.e. play, such as the chase, or an earnest matter, such as war, etc.

[FN#396] Arab. "Mizwad," or Mizw�d = lit. provision-bag, from Z�d = viaticum; afterwards called Kirbah (pron. Girbah, the popular term), and Sakl. The latter is given in the Dictionaries as Ask�lah = scala, �chelle, stage, plank.

[FN#397] Those blood-feuds are most troublesome to the traveller, who may be delayed by them for months: and, until a peace be patched up, he will never be allowed to pass from one tribe to their enemies. A quarrel of the kind prevented my crossing Arabia from Al-Medinah to Maskat (Pilgrimage, ii. 297), and another in Africa from visiting the head of the Tanganyika Lake. In all such journeys the traveller who has to fight against Time is almost sure to lose.

[FN#398] i.e. his fighting-men.

[FN#399] The popular treatment of a detected horse-thief, for

which see Burckhardt, Travels in Arabia (1829), and Notes on the

Bedouins and Wahabys (1830).

[FN#400] Arab "Ash�rah": see vol. vii. 121.

[FN#401] Arab. "Mus�fahah" -. see vol. vi. 287.

[FN#402] In the text, "To the palace of the king's daughter."

[FN#403] Arab. "Marj Sal�'" = cleft meadow (here and below). Mr.

Payne suggests that this may be a mistranscription for Marj Sal�'

(with a S�d) = a treeless champaign. It appears to me a careless

blunder for the Marj akhzar (green meadow) before mentioned.

[FN#404] The palace, even without especial and personal reasons,

not being the place for a religious and scrupulous woman.

[FN#405] "i.e. those of El Aziz, who had apparently entered the

city or passed through it on their way to the camp of El Abbas."

This is Mr. Payne's suggestion.

[FN#406] Arab "Hatif"; gen. = an ally.

[FN#407] Not wishing to touch the hand of a strange woman.

[FN#408] i.e. a mere passer-by, a stranger; alluding to her

taunt.

[FN#409] The Bactrian or double-humped dromedary. See vol. iii.

67. Al-Mas'udi (vii. 169) calls it "Jamal f�lij," lit. = the

palsy-camel.

[FN#410] i.e. Stars and planets.

[FN#411] i.e. Sang in tenor tones which are always in falsetto.

[FN#412] Arab. Tahz�b = reforming morals, amending conduct,

chastening style.

[FN#413] i.e. so as to show only the whites, as happens to the

"mesmerised."

[FN#414] i.e. for love of and longing for thy youth.

[FN#415] i.e. leather from Al-T�if: see vol. viii. 303. The text

has by mistake T�lif�.

[FN#416] i.e. she was at her last breath, when cured by the magic

of love.

[FN#417] i.e. violateth my private apartment.

[FN#418] The voice (Sh�zz) is left doubtful: it may be girl's,

nightingale's, or dove's.

[FN#419] Arab. "Hib�" partly induced by the rhyme. In desert

countries the comparison will be appreciated: in Sind the fine

dust penetrates into a closed book.

[FN#420] i.e. he smuggled it in under his 'Ab�-cloak: perhaps it was a better brand than that made in the monastery.

[FN#421] i.e. the delights of Paradise promised by the Prophet.

[FN#422] Again, "he" for "she," making the lover's address more courtly and delicate.

[FN#423] i.e. take refuge with Allah from the evil eye of her

charms.

[FN#424] i.e. an thou prank or adorn thyself: I have translated literally, but the couplet strongly suggests "nonsense verses."

[FN#425] Arab. "Sant�r:" Lane (M.E., chapt. xviii.) describes it as resembling the Kan�n (dulcimer or zither) but with two oblique peg-pieces instead of one and double chords of wire (not treble strings of lamb's gut) and played upon with two sticks instead of the little plectra. Dozy also gives Santir from {psalt�rion}, the Fsaltr�n of Daniel.

[FN#426] i.e. That which is ours shall be thine, and that which

is incumbent on thee shall be incumbent on us = we will assume

thy debts and responsibilities.

[FN#427] This passage is sadly disjointed in the text: I have

followed Mr. Payne's ordering.

[FN#428] The Arab of noble tribe is always the first to mount his

own mare: he also greatly fears her being put out to full speed

by a stranger, holding that this should be reserved for occasions

of life and death; and that it can be done to perfection only

once during the animal's life.

[FN#429] The red (Ahmar) dromedary like the white-red (Sabah)

were most valued because they are supposed best to bear the heats

of noon; and thus "red camels" is proverbially used for wealth.

When the head of Abu Jahl was brought in after the Battle of

Bedr, Mahommed exclaimed, "'Tis more acceptable to me than a red

camel!"

[FN#430] i.e. Couriers on dromedaries, the only animals used for

sending messages over long distances.

[FN#431] These guest-fires are famous in Arab poetry. So

Al-Har�r� (Ass. of Banu Haram) sings:--

A beacon fire I ever kindled high;

i.e. on the hill-tops near the camp, to guide benighted

travellers. Also the Lam�yat al-Ajam says:--

The fire of hospitality is ever lit on the high

stations.

This natural telegraph was used in a host of ways by the Arabs of

The Ignorance; for instance, when a hated guest left the camp

they lighted the "Fire of Rejection," and cried, "Allah, bear him

far from us!" Nothing was more ignoble than to quench such fire:

hence in obloquy of the Faz�r tribe it was said:--

Ne'er trust Faz�r with an ass, for they

Once roasted ass-pizzle, the rabble rout:

And, when sight they guest, to their dams they say,

"Piss quick on the guest-fire and put it out!"

(Al-Mas"udi vi. 140.)

[FN#432] i.e. of rare wood, set with rubies.

[FN#433] i.e. whose absence pained us.

[FN#434] Mr. Payne and I have long puzzled over these enigmatical

and possibly corrupt lines: he wrote to me in 1884, "This is the

first piece that has beaten me." In the couplet above (vol. xii.

230) "Rayh�n�" may mean "my basil-plant" or "my food" (the latter

Koranic), "my compassion," etc.; and S�s�n� is equally ancipitous

"My lilies" or "my sleep": see Bard al-Susan = les douceurs du

sommeil in Al-Mas'�di vii. 168.

[FN#435] The "Nik�" or sand hill is the swell of the throat: the

Ghaur or lowland is the fall of the waist: the flower is the

breast anent which Mr. Payne appropriately quotes the well-known

lines of Fletcher:

"Hide, O hide those hills of snow,

That thy frozen bosom bears,

On whose tops the pinks that grow

Are of those that April wears."

[FN#436] Easterns are right in regarding a sleepy languorous look

as one of the charms of women, and an incitement to love because

suggestive only of bed. Some men also find the same pleasure in a

lacrymose expression of countenance, seeming always to call for

consolation: one of the most successful women I know owes her

exceptional good fortune to this charm.

[FN#437] Arab. "H�jib,"eyebrow or chamberlain; see vol. iii. 233.

The pun is classical used by a host of poets including Al-Har�r�.

[FN#438] Arab. "Tarfah." There is a Tarfia Island in the

Guadalquivir and in Gibraltar a "Tarfah Alto" opposed to "Tarfah

bajo." But it must not be confounded with Tarf = a side, found in

the Maroccan term for "The Rock" Jabal al-Tarf = Mountain of the

Point (of Europe).

[FN#439] For Solomon and his flying carpet see vol. iii. 267.

[FN#440] Arab. "Bil�d al-Maghrib (al-Aksa," in full) = the

Farthest Land of the setting Sun, shortly called Al-Maghrib and

the people "Maghribi." The earliest occurrence of our name

Morocco or Marocco I find in the "Mar�kiyah" of Al-Mas'udi (iii.

241), who apparently applies it to a district whither the Berbers

migrated.

[FN#441] The necklace-pearls are the cup-bearer's teeth.

[FN#442] In these unregenerate days they would often be summoned to the houses of the royal family; but now they had "got religion" and, becoming freed women, were resolved to be

"respectable." In not a few Moslem countries men of wealth and

rank marry professional singers who, however loose may have been their artistic lives, mostly distinguish themselves by decency of behaviour often pushed to the extreme of rigour. Also jeune coquette, vieille d�vote is a rule of the world, Eastern and Western.

[FN#443] Bresl. Edit., vol. xii p. 383 (Night mi). The king is called as usual "Shahrb�n," which is nearly synonymous with

Shahry�r.

[FN#444] i.e. the old Sindibad-N�meh (see vol. vi. 122), or "The Malice of Women" which the Bresl. Edit. entitles, "Tale of the King and his Son and his Wife and the Seven Wazirs." Here it immediately follows the Tale of Al-Abbas and Mariyah and occupies pp. 237-383 of vol. xii. (Nights dcccclxxix-m).

[FN#445] i.e. Those who commit it.

[FN#446] The connection between this pompous introduction and the story which follows is not apparent. The "Tale of the Two Kings and the Wazir's Daughters" is that of Shahrazad told in the third person, in fact a rechauff� of the Introduction. But as some three years have passed since the marriage, and the d�no�ement of the plot is at hand, the Princess is made, with some art I think, to lay the whole affair before her husband in her own words, the better to bring him to a "sense of his duty."

[FN#447] Bresl. Edit., vol. xii. pp. 384-412.

[FN#448] This clause is taken from the sequence, where the elder brother's kingdom is placed in China.

[FN#449] For the Tobbas = "Successors" or the Himyaritic kings, see vol. i. 216.

[FN#450] Kay�sirah, opp. to Ak�sirah, here and in many other

places.

[FN#451] See vol. ii. 77. King Kulayb ("little dog") al-W�'il, a powerful chief of the Banu Ma'ad in the Kas�n district of Najd, who was connected with the war of Al-Bas�s. He is so called because he lamed a pup (kulayb) and tied it up in the midst of his Him� (domain, place of pasture and water), forbidding men to camp within sound of its bark or sight of his fire. Hence "more masterful than Kulayb," A.P. ii. 145, and Al-Hariri Ass. xxvi. (Chenery, p. 448). This angry person came by his death for wounding in the udder a trespassing camel (Sorab) whose owner was a woman named Bas�s. Her friend (Jas�s) slew him; and thus arose the famous long war between the tribes W�'il Bakr and Taghlib. It gave origin to the saying, "Die thou and be an expiation for the shoe-latchet of Kulayb."

[FN#452] Arab. "Mukhaddar�t," maidens concealed behind curtains and veiled in the Harem.

[FN#453] i.e. the professional R�wis or tale-reciters who learned stories by heart from books like "The Arabian Nights." See my Terminal Essay, vol. x. 163.

[FN#454] Arab. "Bid'ah," lit. = an innovation, a new thing, an

invention, any change from the custom of the Prophet and the

universal practice of the Faith, whether it be in the cut of the beard or a question of state policy. Popularly the word =

heterodoxy, heresy; but theologically it is not necessarily used in a bad sense. See vol. v. 167.

[FN#455] About three parts of this sentence have been supplied by

Mr. Payne, the careless scribe having evidently omitted it.

[FN#456] Here, as in the Introduction (vol. i. 24), the king

consummates his marriage in presence of his virgin sister-in-law,

a process which decency forbids amongst Moslems.

[FN#457] Al-Mas'udi (vol. iv. 213) uses this term to signify

viceroy in "Shahry�r Sajast�n."

[FN#458] i.e. his indifference to the principles of right and

wrong, which is a manner of moral intoxication.

[FN#459] i.e. hath mentioned the office of Wazir (in Koran xx.

30).

[FN#460] i.e. Moslems, who practice the Religion of Resignation.

[FN#461] Koran xxxiii. 35. This is a proemium to the

"revelation" concerning Zayd and Zaynab.

[FN#462] i.e. I have an embarras de richesse in my repertory.

[FN#463] The title is from the Bresl. Edit. (vol. xii. pp. 398-402). Mr. Payne calls it "The Favourite and her Lover."

[FN#464] The practice of fumigating gugglets is universal in

Egypt (Lane, M. E., chapt. v.); but I never heard of musk being so used.

[FN#465] Arab. "Laysa fi 'l-diy�ri dayy�r"--a favourite jingle.

[FN#466] Arab. "Khayr Kathir" (pron. Kat�r) which also means

"abundant kindness."

[FN#467] Dozy says of "Hunayn�" (Ha�n�), Il semble �tre le nom

d'un v�tement. On which we may remark, Connu!

[FN#468] Arab. Har�sah: see vol. i. 131. Westerns make a sad mess of this dish when they describe it as une sorte d'olla podrida (the hotch-pot), une p�t�e de viandes, de froment et de l�gumes secs (Al-Mas'udi viii. 438). Whenever I have eaten it, it was always a meat-pudding, for which see vol. i. 131.

[FN#469] Evidently one escaped because she was sleeping with the Caliph, and a second because she had kept her assignation.

[FN#470] Mr. Payne entitles it, "The Merchant of Cairo and the

Favourite of the Khalif el Mamoun el Hakim bi Amrillah."

[FN#471] See my Pilgrimage (i. 100): the seat would be on the

same bit of boarding where the master sits or on a stool or bench in the street.

[FN#472] This is true Cairene chaff, give and take; and the

stranger must accustom himself to it before he can be at home

with the people.

[FN#473] i.e. In Rauzah-Island: see vol. v. 169.

[FN#474] There is no historical person who answers to these name, "The Secure, the Ruler by Commandment of Allah." The cognomen applies to two soldans of Egypt, of whom the later Abu al-Abbas Ahmad the Abbaside (A.D. 1261-1301) has already been mentioned in The Nights (vol. v. 86). The tale suggests the earlier Al-Hakim (Abu Ali al-Mans�r, the Fatimite, A.D. 995-1021), the God of the Druze "persuasion;" and the tale-teller may have purposely blundered in changing Mans�r to Maam�n for fear of offending a sect which has been most dangerous in the matter of assassination and which is capable of becoming so again.

[FN#475] Arab. "'Al� kulli h�l" = "whatever may betide," or

"willy-nilly." The phrase is still popular.

[FN#476] The dulce desipere of young lovers, he making a buffoon of himself to amuse her.

[FN#477] "The convent of Clay," a Coptic monastery near Cairo.

[FN#478] i.e. this is the time to show thyself a man.

[FN#479] The Eastern succedaneum for swimming corks and other

"life-preservers." The practice is very ancient; we find these gourds upon the monuments of Egypt and Babylonia.

[FN#480] Arab. "Al-Khal�j," the name, still popular, of the

Grand Canal of Cairo, whose banks, by-the-by, are quaint and

picturesque as anything of the kind in Holland.

[FN#480a] A few lines higher up it was "her neck"; but the jar may have slipped down.

[FN#481] We say more laconically "A friend in need."

[FN#482] Arab. "N�zir al-Maw�r�s," the employ� charged with the disposal of legacies and seizing escheats to the Crown when Moslems die intestate. He is usually a prodigious rascal as in the text. The office was long kept up in Southern Europe, and Camoens was sent to Macao as "Provedor dos defuntos e ausentes."

[FN#483] Sir R. F. Burton has since found two more of "Galland's" tales in an Arabic text of The Nights, namely, Aladdin and Zeyn al-Asnam.

[FN#484] i.e. wondering; thus Lady Macbeth says:

"You have displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting,

With most admired disorder."---Macbeth, iii. 4

[FN#485] Ludovicus Vives, one of the most learned of Spanish

authors, was born at Valentia in 1492 and died in 1540.

[FN#486] There was an older "T�t� N�ma," which Nakhshab�

modernised, made from a Sanskrit story-book, now lost, but its

modern representative is the "Suka Saptat�," or Seventy (Tales) of a Parrot in which most of Nakhshabi's tales are found.

[FN#487] According to Lescallier's French translation of the

"Bakhty�r N�ma," made from two MSS. = "She had previously had a lover, with whom, unknown to her father, she had intimate

relations, and had given birth to a beautiful boy, whose

education she secretly confided to some trusty servants."

[FN#488] There is a slight mistake in the passage in p. 313

supplied from the story in vol. vi. It is not King Shah Bakht, but the other king, who assures his chamberlain that "the lion" has done him no injury.

[FN#489] Such was formerly the barbarous manner of treating the insane.

[FN#490] From "Tarlton's Newes out of Purgatorie."

[FN#491] A basket

[FN#492] In the fabliau "De la Dame qui atrappa un Pr�tre, un

Pr�v�t, et un Forestier" (or Constant du Hamel), the lady, on the pretext that her husband is at the door, stuffs her lovers, as they arrive successively, unknown to each other, into a large tub full of feathers and afterwards exposes them to public ridicule.

[FN#493] Until.

[FN#494] Requite.

[FN#495] Accidents.

[FN#496] A boarding.

[FN#497] The letter I is very commonly substituted for "ay" in

16th century English books.

[FN#498] Oesterley mentions a Sanskrit redaction of the Vampyre Tales attributed to Sivad�sa, and another comprised in the "Kath�rnava."

[FN#499] And well might his sapient majesty "wonder"! The humour of this passage is exquisite.

[FN#500] In the Tamil version (Babington's translation of the

"Ved�la Kadai") there are but two brothers, one of whom is

fastidious in his food, the other in beds: the latter lies on a bed stuffed with flowers, deprived of their stalks. In the

morning he complains of pains all over his body, and on examining the bed one hair is found amongst the flowers. In the Hind� version, the king asks him in the morning whether he had slept comfortably. "O great King," he replied; "I did not sleep all night." "How so?" quoth he. "O great King, in the seventh fold of the bedding there is a hair, which pricked me in the back, therefore I could not sleep." The youth who was fastidious about the fair sex had a lovely damsel laid beside him, and he was on the point of kissing her, but on smelling her breath he turned away his face, and went to sleep. Early in the morning the king (who had observed through a lattice what passed) asked him, "Did you pass the night pleasantly?" He replied that he did not, because the smell of a goat proceeded from the girl's mouth, which made him very uneasy. The king then sent for the procuress and ascertained that the girl had been brought up on goat's milk.

[FN#501] M�lusine: Revue de Mythologie, Litt�rature Populaire,

Traditions, et Usages. Dirig�e par H. Gaidoz et E. Rolland.--

Paris.

[FN#502] The trick of the clever Magyar in marking all the other sleepers as the king's mother had marked himself occurs in the folk-tales of most countries, especially in the numerous versions of the Robbery of the King's Treasury, which are brought together in my work on the Migrations of Popular Tales and Fictions (Blackwood), vol. ii., pp. 113-165.

[FN#503] A mythical saint, or prophet, who, according to the

Muslim legend, was despatched by one of the ancient kings of

Persia to procure him some of the Water of Life. After a tedious journey, Khizr reached the Fountain of Immortality, but having drank of its waters, it suddenly vanished. Muslims believe that Khizr still lives, and sometimes appears to favoured individuals, always clothed in green, and acts as their guide in difficult enterprises.

[FN#504] "Spake these words to the king"--certainly not those

immediately preceding! but that, if the king would provide for

him during three years, at the end of that period he would show Khizr to the king.

[FN#505] Mr. Gibb compares with this the following passage from Boethius, "De Consolatione Philosophi�," as translated by

Chaucer: "All thynges seken ayen to hir propre course, and all thynges rejoysen on hir retourninge agayne to hir nature."

[FN#506] In this tale, we see, Khizr appears to the distressed in white raiment.

[FN#507] In an old English metrical version of the "Seven Sages," the tutors of the prince, in order to test his progress in general science, secretly place an ivy leaf under each of the four posts of his bed, and when he awakes in the morning--

"Par fay!" he said, "a ferli cas!

Other ich am of wine y-drunk,

Other the firmament is sunk,

Other wexen is the ground,

The thickness of four leav�s round!

So much to-night higher I lay,

Certes, than yesterday."

[FN#508] See also the same story in The Nights, vols. vii. and

viii., which Mr. Kirby considers as probably a later version.

(App. vol. x. of The Nights, p. 500).

[FN#509] So, too, in the "Bah�r-i-D�nish" a woman is described as being so able a professor in the school of deceit, that she could have instructed the devil in the science of stratagem: of another it is said that by her wiles she could have drawn the devil's claws; and of a third the author declares, that the devil himself would own there was no escaping from her cunning!

[FN#510] There is a similar tale by the Spanish novelist Isidro de Robles (circa 1660), in which three ladies find a diamond ring in a fountain; each claims it; at length they agree to refer the dispute to a count of their acquaintance who happened to be close by. He takes charge of the ring and says to the ladies, "Whoever in the space of six weeks shall succeed in playing off on her husband the most clever and ingenious trick (always having due regard to his honour) shall possess the ring; in the meantime it shall remain in my hands." (See Roscoe's "Specimens of the Spanish Novelists," Chandos edition, p. 438 ff.) This story was probably brought by the Moors to Spain, whence it may have passed into France, since it is the subject of a faliau, by Haisiau the trouv�re, entitled "Des Trois Dames qui trouverent un Anel," which is found in M�on's edition of Barbazan, 1808, tome iii. pp. 220-229, and in Le Grand, ed. 1781, tome iv. pp. 163-165.

[FN#511] Idiots and little boys often figure thus in popular

tales: readers of Rabelais will remember his story of the Fool and the Cook; and there is a familiar example of a boy's

precocity in the story of the Stolen Purse--"Craft and Malice ofWomen," or the Seven Wazirs, vol. vi. of The Nights.

[FN#512] I have considerably abridged Mr. Knowles' story in

several places.

[FN#513] A species of demon.

[FN#514] This is one of the innumerable parallels to the story of Jonah in the "whale's" belly which occur m Asiatic fictions. See, for some instances, Tawney's translation of the "Kath� Sarit S�gara," ch. xxxv. and lxxiv.; "Indian Antiquary," Sept. 1885, Legend of Ahl�; Miss Stokes' "Indian Fairy Tales," pp. 75, 76; and Steel and Temple's "Wide-Awake Stories from the Panj�b and Kashm�r," p. 411. In Lucian's "Vera Historia," a monster fish swallows a ship and her crew, who live a long time in the extensive regions comprised in its internal economy. See also Herrtage's "Gesta Romanorum" (Early English Text Society), p. 297.

[FN#515] In the Arabian version the people resolve to leave the choice of a new king to the royal elephant because they could not agree among themselves (vol. i., p. 323), but in Indian fictions such an incident frequently occurs as a regular custom. In the "Sivandhi Sthala Purana," a legendary account of the famous temple at Trichinopoli, as supposed to be told by Gautama to Matanga and other sages, it is related that a certain king having mortally offended a holy devotee, his capital and all its inhabitants were, in consequence of a curse pronounced by the enraged saint, buried beneath a shower of dust. "Only the queen escaped, and in her flight she was delivered of a male-child. After some time, the chiefs of the Chola kingdom, proceeding to elect a king, determined, by the advice of the saint, to crown whomsoever the late monarch's elephant should pitch upon. Being turned loose for this purpose, the elephant discovered and brought to Trisira-m�l� the child of his former master, who accordingly became the Chola king." (Wilson's Desc. Catal. of Mackenzie MSS., i. 17.) In a Manipur� story of two brothers, Turi and Basanta--"Indian Antiquary," vol. iii.--the elder is chosen king in like manner by an elephant who meets him in the forest, and takes him on his back to the palace, where he is immediately placed on the throne. See also "Wide-Awake Stories from the Panj�b and Kashm�r," by Mrs. Steel and Captain Temple, p. 141; and Rev.

Lal Behari Day's "Folk-Tales of Bengal," p. 100 for similar

instances. The hawk taking part, in this story, with the elephant in the selection of a king does not occur in any other tale known to me.

[FN#516] So that their caste might not be injured. A dhob�, or

washerman, is of much lower caste than a Br�hman or a Khshatriya.

[FN#517] A responsible position in a r�j�'s palace.

[FN#518] "And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights." R�j� Amb� must have been fully twelve years in the stomach of the alligator.

[FN#519] This device of the mother to obtain speech of the king is much more natural than that adopted in the Kashmiri version.

[FN#520] The story of Ab� S�bir (see vol. i. p. 81 ff.) may also be regarded as an analogue. He is unjustly deprived of all his possessions, and, with his wife and two young boys, driven forth of his village. The children are borne off by thieves, and their mother forcibly carried away by a horseman. Ab� S�bir, after many sufferings, is raised from a dungeon to a throne. He regains his two children and his wife, who had steadfastly refused to cohabit with her captor.

[FN#521] Introduction to the romance of "Torrent of Portingale," re-edited (for the Early English Text Society, 1886) by E. Adam, Ph.D., pp. xxi. xxii.

[FN#522] Morning.

[FN#523] Bird.

[FN#524] Mean; betoken.

[FN#525] Thee.

[FN#526] Tho: then.

[FN#527] Yede: went.

[FN#528] Case.

[FN#529] Avaunced: advanced; promoted.

[FN#530] Holpen: helped.

[FN#531] Brent: burnt.

[FN#532] But if: unless.

[FN#533] To wed: in pledge, in security.

[FN#534] Beth: are.

[FN#535] Or: either.

[FN#536] Lever dey: rather die.

[FN#537] Far, distant.

[FN#538] Unless.

[FN#539] Oo: one.

[FN#540] Ayen: again.

[FN#541] Or: ere, before.

[FN#542] Army; host.

[FN#543] Part.

[FN#544] That.

[FN#545] Grief, sorrow.

[FN#546] Poor.

[FN#547] Gathered, or collected, together.

[FN#548] Arms; accoutrements; dress.

[FN#549] Bravely.

[FN#550] Those.

[FN#551] Done, ended.

[FN#552] Their lodgings, inn.

[FN#553] Since.

[FN#554] Comrades.

[FN#555] Truly.

[FN#556] Lodged.

[FN#557] Inn.

[FN#558] Hem: them.

[FN#559] Chief of the army.

[FN#560] I note: I know not.

[FN#561] Nor.

[FN#562] Place.

[FN#563] That is by means of his hounds.

[FN#564] A wood.

[FN#565] Those.

[FN#566] Her: their.

[FN#567] Looks towards; attends to.

[FN#568] Give.

[FN#569] Excepting; unless.

[FN#570] Face; countenance.

[FN#571] Care; close examination.

[FN#572] Palata, Lat. (Paletot, O. Fr. ), sometimes signifying a particular stuff, and sometimes a particular dress. See Du

Cange.

[FN#573] Cut; divided

[FN#574] Wept.

[FN#575] Sailing.

[FN#576] More.

[FN#577] Much.

[FN#578] Sultan.

[FN#579] Name.

[FN#580] Voice, i.e., command.

[FN#581] Slew.

[FN#582] Labour.

[FN#583] Drew.

[FN#584] Went.

[FN#585] Burning coal.

[FN#586] Pray; beg.

[FN#587] Recovered.

[FN#588] Head.

[FN#589] Weeping.

[FN#590] Saw.

[FN#591] Waving.

[FN#592] Began to climb.

[FN#593] Against.

[FN#594] More.

[FN#595] From an early volume of the "Asiatic Journal," the

number of which I did not "make a note of--thus, for once at

least, disregarding the advice of the immortal Captain Cuttle.

[FN#596] "It was no wonder," says this writer, "that his (i.e.

Galland's) version of the 'Arabian Nights' achieved a universal popularity, and was translated into many languages, and that it provoked a crowd of imitations, from 'Les Mille et Un Jours' to the 'Tales of the Genii.'"

[FN#597] This is a version of The Sleeper and the Waker--with a vengeance! Ab� Hasan the Wag, the Tinker, and the Rustic, and others thus practiced upon by frolic-loving princes and dukes, had each, at least, a most delightful "dream." But when a man is similarly handled by the "wife of his bosom"--in stories, only, of course--the case is very different as the poor chief of police experienced. Such a "dream" as his wife induced upon him we may be sure he would remember "until that day that he did creep into his sepulchre!"

[FN#598] I call this "strikingly similar" to the preceding

Persian story, although it has fewer incidents and the lady's

husband remains a monk; she could not have got him back even had she wished; for, having taken the vows, he was debarred from returning to "the world " which a kalandar or dervish may do as often as he pleases.

[FN#599] "The Woman's trick against her Husband."