woman, the sorceress, took in hand some of the tarn-water and spake
over it words not to be understood, the fishes lifted their heads and
stood up on the instant like men, the spell on the people of the city
having been removed. What was the lake again became a crowded capital;
the bazars were thronged with folk who bought and sold; each citizen
was occupied with his own calling and the four hills became islands as
they were whilome. Then the young woman, that wicked sorceress,
returned to the King and (still thinking he was the negro) said to him,
"O my love! stretch forth thy honoured hand that I may assist thee to
rise." "Nearer to me," quoth the King in a faint and feigned tone. She
came close as to embrace him when he took up the sword lying hid by his
side and smote her across the breast, so that the point showed gleaming
behind her back. Then he smote her a second time and cut her in twain
and cast her to the ground in two halves. After which he fared forth
and found the young man, now freed from the spell, awaiting him and
gave him joy of his happy release while the Prince kissed his hand with
abundant thanks. Quoth the King, "Wilt thou abide in this city or go
with me to my capital?" Quoth the youth, "O King of the age, wottest
thou not what journey is between thee and thy city?" "Two days and a
half," answered he; whereupon said the other, "An thou be sleeping, O
King, awake! Between thee and thy city is a year's march for a
well-girt walker, and thou haddest not come hither in two days and a
half save that the city was under enchantment. And I, O King, will
never part from thee; no, not even for the twinkling of an eye." The
King rejoiced at his words and said, "Thanks be to Allah who hath
bestowed thee upon me! From this hour thou art my son and my only son,
for that in all my life I have never been blessed with issue."
Thereupon they embraced and joyed with exceeding great joy; and,
reaching the palace, the Prince who had been spell-bound informed his
lords and his grandees that he was about to visit the Holy Places as a
pilgrim, and bade them get ready all things necessary for the occasion.
The preparations lasted ten days, after which he set out with the
Sultan, whose heart burned in yearning for his city whence he had been
absent a whole twelvemonth. They journeyed with an escort of
Mamelukes[137] carrying all manners of precious gifts and rarities, nor
stinted they wayfaring day and night for a full year until they
approached the Sultan's capital, and sent on messengers to announce
their coming. Then the Wazir and the whole army came out to meet him in
joy and gladness, for they had given up all hope of ever seeing their
King; and the troops kissed the ground before him and wished him joy of
his safety. He entered and took seat upon his throne and the Minister
came before him and, when acquainted with all that had befallen the
young Prince, he congratulated him on his narrow escape. When order was
restored throughout the land the King gave largesse to many of his
people, and said to the Wazir, "Hither the Fisherman who brought us the
fishes!" So he sent for the man who had been the first cause of the
city and the citizens being delivered from enchantment and, when he
came into the presence, the Sultan bestowed upon him a dress of honour,
and questioned him of his condition and whether he had children. The
Fisherman gave him to know that he had two daughters and a son, so the
King sent for them and, taking one daughter to wife, gave the other to
the young Prince and made the son his head-treasurer. Furthermore he
invested his Wazir with the Sultanate of the City in the Black Islands
whilome belonging to the young Prince, and dispatched with him the
escort of fifty armed slaves together with dresses of honour for all
the Emirs and Grandees. The Wazir kissed hands and fared forth on his
way; while the Sultan and the Prince abode at home in all the solace
and the delight of life; and the Fisherman became the richest man of
his age, and his daughters wived with the Kings, until death came to
them. And yet, O King! this is not more wondrous than the story of
-----
Footnote 60:
Here, as in other places, I have not preserved the monorhyme, but
have ended like the English sonnet with a couplet; as a rule the last
two lines contain a "Husn makta'" or climax.
Footnote 61:
Lit. "he began to say (or speak) poetry," such improvising being
still common amongst the Badawin as I shall afterwards note. And
although Mohammed severely censured profane poets, who "rove as
bereft of their senses through every valley" and were directly
inspired by devils (Koran xxvi.), it is not a little curious to note
that he himself spoke in "Rajaz" (which see) and that the four first
Caliphs all "spoke poetry." In early ages the verse would not be
written, if written at all, till after the maker's death. I translate
"inshád" by "versifying" or "repeating" or "reciting," leaving it
doubtful if the composition be or be not original. In places,
however, it is clearly improvised and then as a rule it is model
doggrel.
Footnote 62:
Arab. "Allahumma"=Yá Allah (O Allah) but with emphasis; the Fath
being a substitute for the voc. part. Some connect it with the Heb.
"Alihím," but that fancy is not Arab. In Al-Hariri and the
rhetoricians it sometimes means to be sure; of course; unless indeed;
unless possibly=Greek νὴ δἰα.
Footnote 63:
Probably in consequence of a vow. These superstitious practices,
which have many a parallel amongst ourselves, are not confined to the
lower orders in the East.
Footnote 64:
_i.e._, saying "Bismillah!" the pious ejaculation which should
precede every act. In Boccaccio (viii., 9) it is "remembering Iddio
e' Santí."
Footnote 65:
Arab. Nahás asfar=brass, opposed to "Nahás" and "Nahás
ahmar,"=copper.
Footnote 66:
This alludes to the legend of Sakhr al-Jinni, a famous fiend cast by
Solomon David-son into Lake Tiberias whose storms make it a suitable
place. Hence the "Bottle imp," a world-wide fiction of folk-lore: we
shall find it in the "Book of Sindibad," and I need hardly remind the
reader of Le Sage's "Diable Boiteux," borrowed from "El Diablo
Cojuelo," the Spanish novel by Luiz Velez de Guevara.
Footnote 67:
Márid (lit. "contumacious" from the Heb. root Marad to rebel, whence
"Nimrod" in late Semitic) is one of the tribes of the Jinn, generally
but not always hostile to man. His female is "Máridah."
Footnote 68:
As Solomon began to reign (according to vulgar chronometry) in B.C.
1015, the text would place the tale circ. A.D. 785,=A.H. 169. But we
can lay no stress on this date which may be merely fanciful.
Professor Tawney very justly compares this Moslem Solomon with the
Hindu King, Vikramáditya, who ruled over the seven divisions of the
world and who had as many devils to serve him as he wanted.
Footnote 69:
Arab. "Yá Ba'íd" a euphemism here adopted to prevent using grossly
abusive language. Others will occur in the course of these pages.
Footnote 70:
_i.e._ about to fly out; "My heart is in my mouth." The Fisherman
speaks with the dry humour of a Fellah.
Footnote 71:
"Sulayman," when going out to ease himself, entrusted his seal-ring
upon which his kingdom depended to a concubine "Amínah" (the
"Faithful"), when Sakhr, transformed to the King's likeness, came in
and took it. The prophet was reduced to beggary, but after forty days
the demon fled throwing into the sea the ring which was swallowed by
a fish and eventually returned to Sulayman. This Talmudic fable is
hinted at in the Koran (chapt. xxxviii.), and commentators have
extensively embroidered it. Asaf, son of Barkhiya, was Wazir to
Sulayman and is supposed to be the "one with whom was the knowledge
of the Scriptures" (Koran, chapt. xxxvii.), _i.e._ who knew the
Ineffable Name of Allah. See the manifest descendant of the
Talmudic-Koranic fiction in the "Tale of the Emperor Jovinian" (No.
lix.) of the Gesta Romanorum, the most popular book of mediæval
Europe composed in England (or Germany) about the end of the
thirteenth century.
Footnote 72:
Arab. "Kumkum," a gourd-shaped bottle, of metal, china or glass,
still used for sprinkling scents. Lane gives an illustration (chapt.
viii., Mod. Egypt.).
Footnote 73:
Arab. meaning "the Mother of Amir," a nickname for the hyena, which
bites the hand that feeds it.
Footnote 74:
The intellect of man is stronger than that of the Jinni; the Ifrit,
however, enters the jar because he has been adjured by the Most Great
Name and not from mere stupidity. The seal-ring of Solomon according
to the Rabbis contained a chased stone which told him everything he
wanted to know.
Footnote 75:
The Mesmerist will notice this shudder which is familiar to him as
preceding the "magnetic" trance.
Footnote 76:
Arab. "Bahr" which means a sea, a large river, a sheet of water,
etc., lit. water cut or trenched in the earth. Bahri in Egypt means
Northern; so Yamm (Sea, Mediterranean) in Hebrew is West.
Footnote 77:
In the Bul. Edit. "Ruyán," evidently a clerical error. The name is
fanciful not significant.
Footnote 78:
The geography is ultra-Shakspearean. "Fars" (whence "Persia") is the
central Province of the grand old Empire now a mere wreck; "Rúm"
(which I write Roum, in order to avoid Jamaica) is the neo-Roman or
Byzantine Empire; while "Yunan" is the classical Arab term for Greece
(Ionia) which unlearned Moslems believe to be now under water.
Footnote 79:
The Sun greets Mohammed every morning even as it dances on Easter-Day
for Christendom. Risum teneatis?
Footnote 80:
Arab. "Nadím," a term often occurring. It denotes one who was
intimate enough to drink with the Caliph, a very high honour and a
dangerous. The last who sat with "Nudamá" was Al-Razi bi'llah A.H.
329=940. See Al-Siyuti's famous "History of the Caliphs" translated
and admirably annotated by Major H. S. Jarrett, for the Bibliotheca
Indica, Calcutta, 1880.
Footnote 81:
Arab. Maydán (from Persian); Lane generally translates it
"horse-course," and Payne "tilting-yard." It is both and something
more; an open space, in or near the city, used for reviewing troops,
races, playing the Jeríd (cane-spear) and other sports and exercises:
thus Al-Maydan=Gr. hippodrome. The game here alluded to is our
"polo," or hockey on horseback, a favourite with the Persian Kings,
as all old illustrations of the Shahnamah show. Maydan is also a
natural plain for which copious Arabic has many terms; Fayhah or Sath
(a plain generally), Khabt (a low lying plain), Bat'há (a low sandy
flat), Mahattah (a plain fit for halting) and so forth. (Pilgrimage
iii., 11.)
Footnote 82:
For details concerning the "Ghusl" see Night xliv.
Footnote 83:
A popular idiom and highly expressive, contrasting the upright
bearing of the self-satisfied man with the slouch of the miserable
and the skirt-trailing of the woman in grief. I do not see the
necessity of such Latinisms as "dilated" or "expanded."
Footnote 84:
All these highest signs of favour foreshow, in Eastern tales and in
Eastern life, an approaching downfall of the heaviest; they are so
great that they arouse general jealousy. Many of us have seen this at
native courts.
Footnote 85:
This phrase is contained in the word "ihdák"=encompassing, as the
conjunctiva does the pupil.
Footnote 86:
I have noted this formula, which is used even in conversation when
about to relate some great unfact.
Footnote 87:
We are obliged to English the word by "valley," which is about as
correct as the "brook Kedron," applied to the grisliest of ravines.
The Wady (in old Coptic wah, oah, whence "Oasis") is the bed of a
watercourse which flows only after rains. I have rendered it by
"Fiumara" (Pilgrimage i., 5, and ii., 196, etc.), an Italian or
rather a Sicilian word which exactly describes the "wady."
Footnote 88:
I have described this scene which Mr. T. Wolf illustrated by an
excellent lithograph in "Falconry, etc." (London, Van Voorst,
MDCCCLII.).
Footnote 89:
Arab. "Kaylúlah," midday sleep; called siesta from the sixth
canonical hour.
Footnote 90:
This parrot-story is world-wide in folk-lore and the belief in
metempsychosis, which prevails more or less over all the East, there
lends it probability. The "Book of Sindibad" (see Night dlxxix. and
"The Academy," Sept. 20, 1884, No. 646) converts it into the "Story
of the Confectioner, his Wife and the Parrot;" and it is the base of
the Hindostani text-book, "Tota-Kaháni" (Parrot-chat), an abridgement
of the Tutinámah (Parrot-book) of Nakhshabi (circ. A.D. 1300), a
congener of the Sanskrit "Suka Saptati," or Seventy Parrot-stories.
The tale is not in the Bul. or Mac. Edit. but occurs in the Bresl.
(i., pp. 90, 91) much mutilated; and better in the Calc. Edit. I
cannot here refrain from noticing how vilely the twelve vols. of the
Breslau Edit. have been edited; even a table of contents being absent
from the first four volumes.
Footnote 91:
The young "Turk" is probably a late addition, as it does not appear
in many of the MSS., _e.g._ the Bresl. Edit. The wife usually spreads
a cloth over the cage; this in the Turkish translation becomes a
piece of leather.
Footnote 92:
The Hebrew-Syrian month July used to express the height of summer. As
Herodotus tells us (ii. 4) the Egyptians claimed to be the
discoverers of the solar year and the portioners of its course into
twelve parts.
Footnote 93:
This proceeding is thoroughly characteristic of the servile class;
they conscientiously conceal everything from the master till he finds
a clew; after which they tell him everything and something more.
Footnote 94:
Until late years, merchants and shopkeepers in the nearer East all
carried swords, and held it a disgrace to leave the house unarmed.
Footnote 95:
The Bresl. Edit. absurdly has Jazírah (an island).
Footnote 96:
The Ghúlah (fem. of Ghúl) is the Heb. Lilith or Lilis; the classical
Lamia; the Hindu Yogini and Dakini; the Chaldean Utug and Gigim
(desert-demons) as opposed to the Mas (hill-demon) and Telal (who
steal into towns); the Ogress of our tales and the Bala yaga
(Granny-witch) of Russian folk-lore. Etymologically "Ghul" is a
calamity, a panic fear; and the monster is evidently the embodied
horror of the grave and the grave-yard.
Footnote 97:
Arab. "Shább" (Lat. juvenis) between puberty and forty or according
to some fifty; when the patient becomes a "Rajul ikhtiyár" (man of
free will) politely termed, and then a Shaykh or Shaybah (grey-beard,
oldster).
Footnote 98:
Some proverbial name now forgotten. Torrens (p. 48) translates it
"the giglot" (Fortune?) but "cannot discover the drift."
Footnote 99:
Arab. "Ihtizáz," that natural and instinctive movement caused by good
news suddenly given, etc.
Footnote 100:
Arab "Kohl," in India, Surmah, not a "collyrium," but powdered
antimony for the eyelids. That sold in the bazars is not the real
grey ore of antimony but a galena or sulphuret of lead. Its use arose
as follows. When Allah showed Himself to Moses on Sinai through an
opening the size of a needle, the Prophet fainted and the Mount took
fire: thereupon Allah said, "Henceforth shalt thou and thy seed grind
the earth of this mountain and apply it to your eyes!" The powder is
kept in an étui called Makhalah and applied with a thick blunt needle
to the inside of the eyelid, drawing it along the rim; hence etui and
probe denote the sexual _rem in re_ and in cases of adultery the
question will be asked, "Didst thou see the needle in the Kohl-pot?"
Women mostly use a preparation of soot or lamp-black (Hind. Kajala,
Kajjal) whose colour is easily distinguished from that of Kohl. The
latter word, with the article (Al-Kohl) is the origin of our
"alcohol;" though even M. Littré fails to show how "fine powder"
became "spirits of wine." I found this powder (wherewith Jezebel
"painted" her eyes) a great preservative from ophthalmia in
desert-travelling: the use in India was universal, but now European
example is gradually abolishing it.
Footnote 101:
The tale of these two women is now forgotten.
Footnote 102:
Arab. "Atadakhkhal". When danger threatens it is customary to seize a
man's skirt and cry "Dakhíl-ak!" (=under thy protection). Among noble
tribes the Badawi thus invoked will defend the stranger with his
life. Foreigners have brought themselves into contempt by thus
applying to women or to mere youths.
Footnote 103:
The formula of quoting from the Koran.
Footnote 104:
Lit. "Allah not desolate me" (by thine absence). This is still a
popular phrase—Lá tawáhishná=Do not make me desolate, _i.e._ by
staying away too long; and friends meeting after a term of days
exclaim "Auhashtani!"=thou hast made me desolate, _Je suis désolé_.
Footnote 105:
Charming simplicity of manners when the Prime Minister carries the
fish (shade of Vattel!) to the cookmaid. The "Gesta Romanorum" is
nowhere more naive.
Footnote 106:
Arab. "Kahílat al-taraf"=lit. eyelids lined with Kohl; and
figuratively "with black lashes and languorous look." This is a
phrase which frequently occurs in The Nights and which, as will
appear, applies to the "lower animals" as well as to men. Moslems In
Central Africa apply Kohl not to the thickness of the eyelid but upon
both outer lids, fixing it with some greasy substance. The peculiar
Egyptian (and Syrian) eye with its thick fringes of jet-black lashes,
looking like lines of black drawn with soot, easily suggests the
simile. In England I have seen the same appearance amongst miners
fresh from the colliery.
Footnote 107:
Of course applying to her own case.
Footnote 108:
Prehistoric Arabs who measured from 60 to 100 cubits high: Koran,
chapt. xxvi., etc. They will often be mentioned in The Nights.
Footnote 109:
Arab. "Dastúr" (from Persian)=leave, permission. The word has two
meanings (see Burckhardt, Arab. Prov. No. 609) and is much used,
_e.g._ before walking up stairs or entering a room where strange
women might be met. So "Tarík"=Clear the way (Pilgrimage, iii., 319).
The old Persian occupation of Egypt, not to speak of the
Persian-speaking Circassians and other rulers has left many such
traces in popular language. One of them is that horror of
travellers—"Bakhshísh" pron. bakh-sheesh and shortened to shísh from
the Pers. "baksheesh." Our "Christmas _box_" has been most
unnecessarily derived from the same, despite our reading:—
Gladly the boy, with Christmas box in hand.
And, as will be seen, Persians have bequeathed to the outer world
worse things than bad language, _e.g._ heresy and sodomy.
Footnote 110:
He speaks of his wife, but euphemistically in the masculine.
Footnote 111:
A popular saying throughout Al-Islam.
Footnote 112:
Arab. "Fata": lit=a youth; a generous man, one of noble mind (as
youth-tide should be). It corresponds with the Lat. "vir," and has
much the meaning of the Ital. "Giovane," the Germ. "Junker" and our
"gentleman."
Footnote 113:
From the Bul. Edit.
Footnote 114:
The vagueness of his statement is euphemistic.
Footnote 115:
This readiness of shedding tears contrasts strongly with the external
stoicism of modern civilization; but it is true to Arab character;
and Easterns, like the heroes of Homer and Italians of Boccaccio, are
not ashamed of what we look upon as the result of feminine
hysteria—"a good cry."
Footnote 116:
The formula (constantly used by Moslems) here denotes displeasure,
doubt how to act and so forth. Pronounce, "Lá haula wa lá kuwwata
illá bi 'lláhi 'l-Aliyyi 'l-Azim." As a rule mistakes are marvellous:
Mandeville (chapt. xii.) for "Lá iláha illa 'lláhu wa Muhammadun
Rasúlu 'llah" writes "La ellec sila, Machomete rores alla." The
former (lá haula, etc.), on account of the four peculiar Arabic
letters, is everywhere pronounced differently; and the exclamation is
called "Haulak" or "Haukal."
Footnote 117:
An Arab holds that he has a right to marry his first cousin, the
daughter of his father's brother, and if any win her from him a death
and a blood-feud may result. It was the same in a modified form
amongst the Jews and in both races the consanguineous marriage was
not attended by the evil results (idiotcy, congenital deafness, etc.)
observed in mixed races like the English and the Anglo-American. When
a Badawi speaks of "the daughter of my uncle" he means wife; and the
former is the dearer title, as a wife can be divorced, but blood is
thicker than water.
Footnote 118:
Arab. "Kahbah;" the coarsest possible term. Hence the unhappy "Cava"
of Don Roderick the Goth, which simply means The Whore.
Footnote 119:
The Arab "Banj" and Hindú "Bhang" (which I use as most familiar) both
derive from the old Coptic "Nibanj" meaning a preparation of hemp
(_Cannabis sativa_ seu _Indica_); and here it is easy to recognise
the Homeric "Nepenthe." Al-Kazwini explains the term by "garden hemp"
(Kinnab bostáni or Sháhdánaj). On the other hand not a few apply the
word to the henbane (_hyoscyamus niger_) so much used in mediæval
Europe. The Kámús evidently means henbane distinguishing it from
"Hashish al haráfísh"=rascals' grass, _i.e._ the herb Pantagruelion.
The "Alfáz Adwiya" (French translation) explains "Tabannuj" by
"Endormir quelqu'un en lui faisant avaler de la jusquiame." In modern
parlance Tabannuj is=our anæsthetic administered before an operation,
a deadener of pain like myrrh and a number of other drugs. For this
purpose hemp is always used (at least I never heard of henbane); and
various preparations of the drug are sold at an especial bazar in
Cairo. See the "powder of marvellous virtue" in Boccaccio, iii., 8;
and iv., 10. Of these intoxicants, properly so termed, I shall have
something to say in a future page.
The use of Bhang doubtless dates from the dawn of civilisation, whose
earliest social pleasures would be inebriants. Herodotus (iv. c. 75)
shows the Scythians burning the seeds (leaves and capsules) in
worship and becoming drunken with the fumes, as do the S. African
Bushmen of the present day. This would be the earliest form of
smoking: it is still doubtful whether the pipe was used or not. Galen
also mentions intoxication by hemp. Amongst Moslems, the Persians
adopted the drink as an ecstatic, and about our thirteenth century
Egypt, which began the practice, introduced a number of preparations
to be noticed in the course of The Nights.
Footnote 120:
The rubbish heaps which outlie Eastern cities, some (near Cairo) are
over a hundred feet high.
Footnote 121:
Arab. "Kurrat al-ayn;" coolness of eyes as opposed to a hot eye
("sakhin") _i.e._ one red with tears. The term is true and
picturesque so I translate it literally. All coolness is pleasant to
dwellers in burning lands: thus in Al-Hariri Abu Zayd says of
Bassorah, "I found there whatever could fill the eye with coolness."
And a "cool booty" (or prize) is one which has been secured without
plunging into the flames of war, or simply a pleasant prize.
Footnote 122:
Popularly rendered Caucasus (see Night cdxcvi): it corresponds so far
with the Hindu "Udaya" that the sun rises behind it; and the "false
dawn" is caused by a hole or gap. It is also the Persian Alborz, the
Indian Meru (Sumeru), the Greek Olympus, and the Rhiphæan Range
(Veliki Camenypoys) or great starry girdle of the world, etc.
Footnote 123:
Arab. "Mizr" or "Mizar;" vulg. Búzah; hence the medical Lat. Buza,
the Russian Buza (millet beer), our "booze," the O. Dutch "buyzen"
and the German "busen." This is the old ποθὸς θεῖος of negro and
negroid Africa; the beer of Osiris, of which dried remains have been
found in jars amongst Egyptian tombs. In Equatorial Africa it is
known as "Pombe;" on the Upper Nile "Merissa" or "Mirisi" and amongst
the Kafirs (Caffers) "Tshuala," "Oala" or "Boyala:" I have also heard
of "Buswa" in Central Africa which may be the origin of "Buzah." In
the West it became ζῦθος, (Romaic πίῤῥα), Xythum and cerevisia or
cervisia, the humor ex hordeo, long before the days of King
Gambrinus. Central Africans drink it in immense quantities: in
Unyamwezi the standing bedsteads, covered with bark-slabs, are all
made sloping so as to drain off the liquor. A chief lives wholly on
beef and Pombe which is thick as gruel below. Hops are unknown: the
grain, mostly Holcus, is made to germinate, then pounded, boiled and
left to ferment. In Egypt the drink is affected chiefly by Berbers,
Nubians and slaves from the Upper Nile; but it is a superior article
and more like that of Europe than the "Pombe." I have given an
account of the manufacture in The Lake Regions of Central Africa,
vol. ii., p. 286. There are other preparations, Umm-bulbul (mother
nightingale), Dinzáyah and Súbiyah, for which I must refer to the
Shaykh El-Tounsy.
Footnote 124: