less claim to this title than Jerusalem; and, curious to say, the
"Holy Land" shows Jews, Christians and Moslems all in their worst
form. The only religion (if it can be called one) which produces men
in Syria is the Druse. "Heiligen-landes Jüden" are proverbial and
nothing can be meaner than the Christians while the Moslems are famed
for treachery.
Footnote 378:
Arab. "Shamm al-hawá." In vulgar parlance to "smell the air" is to
take a walk especially out of town. There is a peculiar Egyptian
festival called "Shamm al-Nasím" (smelling the Zephyr) which begins
on Easter-Monday (O.S.), thus corresponding with the Persian Nau-roz,
vernal equinox and introducing the fifty days of "Khammasín" or
"Mirisi" (hot desert winds). On awaking, the people smell and bathe
their temples with vinegar in which an onion has been soaked and
break their fast with a "fisikh" or dried "búri"=mullet from Lake
Menzalah: the late Hekekiyan Bey had the fish-heads counted in one
public garden and found 70,000. The rest of the day is spent out of
doors "Gypsying," and families greatly enjoy themselves on these
occasions. For a longer description see a paper by my excellent
friend Yacoub Artin Pasha, in the Bulletin de l'Institut Égyptien,
2nd series, No. 4, Cairo, 1884. I have noticed the Mirisi
(Southwester) and other winds in the Land of Midian, i., 23.
Footnote 379:
So in the days of the "Mameluke Beys" in Egypt a man of rank would
not cross the street on foot.
Footnote 380:
Arab. Basrah. The city now in decay and not to flourish again till
the advent of the Euphrates Valley R.R., is a modern place, founded
in A.H. 15, by the Caliph Omar upon the Aylah, a feeder of the
Tigris. Here, according to Al-Hariri, the "whales and the lizards
meet;" and, as the tide affects the river,
Its stream shows prodigy, ebbing and flowing.
In its far-famed market-place, Al-Marbad, poems used to be recited;
and the city was famous for its mosques and Saint-shrines, fair women
and school of Grammar which rivalled that of Kúfah. But already in
Al-Hariri's day (nat. A.H. 446=A.D. 1030) Baghdad had drawn off much
of its population.
Footnote 381:
This fumigation (Bukhúr) is still used. A little incense or perfumed
wood is burnt upon an open censer (Mibkharah) of earthenware or
metal, and passed round, each guest holding it for a few moments
under his beard. In the Somali Country, the very home of incense,
both sexes fumigate the whole person after carnal intercourse. Lane
(Mod. Egypt, chapt. viii.) gives an illustration of the Mibkharah.
Footnote 382:
The reader of The Nights will remark that the merchant is often a
merchant-prince, consorting and mating with the highest dignitaries.
Even amongst the Romans, a race of soldiers, statesmen and lawyers,
"mercatura" on a large scale was "not to be vituperated." In
Boccaccio (x. 19) they are netti e delicati uomini. England is
perhaps the only country which has made her fortune by trade, and
much of it illicit trade, like that in slaves which built Liverpool
and Bristol, and which yet disdains or affects to disdain the trader.
But the unworthy prejudice is disappearing with the last generation,
and men who formerly would have half starved as curates and ensigns,
barristers and _carabins_ are now only too glad to become merchants.
Footnote 383:
These lines in the Calc. and Bul. Edit. have already occurred (Night
vii.) but such carelessness is characteristic despite the proverb,
"In repetition is no fruition." I quote Torrens (p. 60) by way of
variety. As regards the anemone (here called a tulip) being named
"Shakík"=fissure, I would conjecture that it derives from the flower
often forming long lines of red like stripes of blood in the
landscape. Travellers in Syria always observe this.
Footnote 384:
Such an address to a royalty (Eastern) even in the present day, would
be a passport to future favours.
Footnote 385:
In England the man marries and the woman is married: there is no such
distinction in Arabia.
Footnote 386:
"Sultan" (and its corruption "Soldan") etymologically means lord,
victorious, ruler, ruling over. In Arabia it is a not uncommon proper
name; and as a title it is taken by a host of petty kinglets. The
Abbaside Caliphs (as Al-Wásik who has been noticed) formally created
these Sultans as their regents. Al-Tá'i bi'llah (regn. A.H. 363=974),
invested the famous Sabuktagin with the office; and, as
Alexander-Sikandar was wont to do, fastened for him two flags, one of
silver, after the fashion of nobles, and the other of gold, as
Viceroy-designate. Sabuktagin's son, the famous Mahmúd of the
Ghaznavite dynasty in A.H. 393=1002, was the first to adopt "Sultan"
as an independent title some two hundred years after the death of
Harun al-Rashid. In old writers we have the Soldan of Egypt, the
Soudan of Persia, and the Sowdan of Babylon; three modifications of
one word.
Footnote 387:
_i.e._ he was a "Háfiz," one who commits to memory the whole of the
Koran. It is a serious task and must be begun early. I learnt by rote
the last "Juzw" (or thirtieth part) and found that quite enough. This
is the vulgar use of "Hafiz": technically and theologically it means
the third order of Traditionists (the total being five) who know by
heart 300,000 traditions of the Prophet with their ascriptions. A
curious "spiritualist" book calls itself "Hafed, Prince of Persia,"
proving by the very title that the Spirits are equally ignorant of
Arabic and Persian.
Footnote 388:
Here again the Cairo Edit. repeats the six couplets already given in
Night xvii. I take them from Torrens (p. 163).
Footnote 389:
This naïve admiration of beauty in either sex characterised our
chivalrous times. Now it is mostly confined to "professional
beauties" of what is conventionally called the "fair sex"; as if
there could be any comparison between the beauty of man and the
beauty of woman, the Apollo Belvidere with the Venus de Medici.
Footnote 390:
Arab. "Shásh" (in Pers. urine), a light turband generally of muslin.
Footnote 391:
This is a _lieu commun_ of Eastern worldly wisdom. Quite true! Very
unadvisable to dive below the surface of one's acquaintances, but
such intimacy is like marriage of which Johnson said, "Without it
there is no pleasure in life."
Footnote 392:
The lines are attributed to the famous Al-Mutanabbi=the claimant to
"Prophecy," of whom I have given a few details in my Pilgrimage (iii.
60, 62). He led the life of a true poet, somewhat Chauvinistic
withal; and, rather than run away, was killed in A.H. 354=965.
Footnote 393:
Arab. "Nabíz"=wine of raisins or dates; any fermented liquor; from a
root to "press out" in Syriac, like the word "Talmiz" (or Tilmiz,
says the Kashf al-Ghurrah) a pupil, student. Date-wine (fermented
from the fruit, not the Tádi, or juice of the stem, our "toddy") is
called Fazikh. Hence the Masjid al-Fazikh at Al-Medinah where the
Ansar or Auxiliaries of that city were sitting cup in hand when they
heard of the revelation forbidding inebriants and poured the liquor
upon the ground (Pilgrimage ii. 322).
Footnote 394:
Arab. "Huda"=direction (to the right way), salvation, a word
occurring in the Opening Chapter of the Koran. Hence to a Kafir who
offers the Salam-salutation many Moslems reply "Allah yahdík"=Allah
direct thee! (_i.e._ make thee a Moslem), instead of Allah
yusallimak=Allah lead thee to salvation. It is the root word of the
Mahdi and Mohdi.
Footnote 395:
These lines have already occurred in The First Kalandar's Story
(Night xi). I quote by way of change and with permission Mr. Payne's
version (i. 93).
Footnote 396:
Arab. "Farajíyah," a long-sleeved robe worn by the learned (Lane, M.
E., chapt. i.)
Footnote 397:
Arab. "Sarráf" (vulg. Sayrafi), whence the Anglo-Indian "Shroff," a
familiar corruption.
Footnote 398:
Arab. "Yahúdí" which is less polite than "Banú Isráíl"=Children of
Israel. So in Christendom "Israelite" when in favour and "Jew" (with
an adjective or a participle) when nothing is wanted of him.
Footnote 399:
Also called "Ghilmán"=the beautiful youths appointed to serve the
True Believers in Paradise. The Koran says (chapt. lvi. 9 etc.)
"Youths, which shall continue in their bloom for ever, shall go round
about to attend them, with goblets, and beakers, and a cup of flowing
wine," etc. Mohammed was an Arab (not a Persian, a born pederast) and
he was too fond of women to be charged with love of boys: even
Tristram Shandy (vol. vii. chapt. 7; "No, quoth a third; the
gentleman has been committing——") knew that the two tastes are
incompatibles. But this and other passages in the Koran have given
the Chevaliers de la Paille a hint that the use of boys, like that of
wine, here forbidden, will be permitted in Paradise.
Footnote 400:
Which, by the by, is the age of an oldish old maid in Egypt. I much
doubt puberty being there earlier than in England where our
grandmothers married at fourteen. But Orientals are aware that the
period of especial feminine devilry is between the first menstruation
and twenty when, according to some, every girl is a "possible
murderess." So they wisely marry her and get rid of what is called
the "lump of grief," the "domestic calamity"—a daughter. Amongst them
we never hear of the abominable egotism and cruelty of the English
mother, who disappoints her daughter's womanly cravings in order to
keep her at home for her own comfort; and an "old maid" in the house,
especially a stout, plump old maid, is considered not "respectable."
The ancient virgin is known by being lean and scraggy; and perhaps
this diagnosis is correct.
Footnote 401:
This prognostication of destiny by the stars and a host of follies
that end in-mancy is. an intricate and extensive subject. Those who
would study it are referred to chapt. xiv. of the "Qanoon-e-Islam, or
the Customs of the Mussulmans of India; etc., etc., by Jaffur
Shurreeff and translated by G. A. Herklots, M.D. of Madras." This
excellent work first appeared in 1832 (Allen and Co., London) and
thus it showed the way to Lane's "Modern Egyptians" (1833-35). The
name was unfortunate as "Kuzzilbash" (which rhymed to guzzle and
hash), and kept the book back till a second edition appeared in 1863
(Madras: J. Higginbotham).
Footnote 402:
Arab. "Bárid," lit. cold: metaph. vain, foolish, insipid.
Footnote 403:
Not to "spite thee" but "in spite of thee." The phrase is still used
by high and low.
Footnote 404:
Arab. "Ahdab," the common hunchback: in classical language the Gobbo
in the text would be termed "Ak'as" from "Ka'as," one with protruding
back and breast; sometimes used for hollow back and protruding
breast.
Footnote 405:
This is the custom with such gentry, who, when they see a likely man
sitting, are allowed by custom to ride astraddle upon his knees with
most suggestive movements, till he buys them off. These Ghawází are
mostly Gypsies who pretend to be Moslems; and they have been confused
with the Almahs or Moslem dancing-girls proper (Awálim, plur. of
Alimah, a learned feminine) by a host of travellers. They call
themselves Barámikah or Barmecides only to affect Persian origin.
Under native rule they were perpetually being banished from and
returning to Cairo (Pilgrimage i., 202). Lane (M. E., chapts. xviii.
and xix.) discusses the subject, and would derive Al'mah, often so
pronounced, from Heb. Almah, girl, virgin, singing girl, hence he
would translate Al-Alamoth shir (Psalm xlvi.) and Nebalim al-alamoth
(1 Chron., xv. 20) by a "song for singing-girls" and "harps for
singing-girls." He quotes also St. Jerome as authority that Alma in
Punic (Phœnician) signified a virgin, not a common article, I may
observe, amongst singing-girls. I shall notice in a future page
Burckhardt's description of the Ghawazi, p. 173, "Arabic Proverbs;"
etc., etc. Second Edition. London: Quaritch, 1875.
Footnote 406:
I need hardly describe the Tarbúsh, a corruption of the Pers.
"Sar-púsh" (head-cover) also called "Fez," from its old home; and
"Tarbrush" by the travelling Briton. In old days it was a calotte
worn under the turban; and it was protected from scalp-perspiration
by an "Arakiyah" (Pers. Arak-chín), a white skull-cap. Now it is worn
without either and as a head-dress nothing can be worse (Pilgrimage
ii. 275.)
Footnote 407:
Arab. "Tár.": the custom still prevails. Lane (M. E., chapt. xviii.)
describes and figures this hoop-drum.
Footnote 408:
The couch on which she sits while being displayed. It is her throne,
for she is the Queen of the occasion, with all the Majesty of
Virginity.
Footnote 409:
This is a solemn "chaff;" such liberties being permitted at weddings
and festive occasions.
Footnote 410:
The pre-Islamític dynasty of Al-Yaman in Arabia Felix, a region
formerly famed for wealth and luxury. Hence the mention of Yamani
work. The caravans from Sana'á, the capital, used to carry patterns
of vases to be made in China and bring back the porcelains at the end
of the third year: these are the Arabic inscriptions which have
puzzled so many collectors. The Tobba, or Successors, were the old
Himyarite Kings, a dynastic name like Pharaoh, Kisra (Persia), Negush
(Abyssinia), Khakan or Khan (Tartary), etc., who claimed to have
extended their conquests to Samarcand and made war on China. Any
history of Arabia (as Crichton I., chapt iv.) may be consulted for
their names and annals. I have been told by Arabs that "Tobba" (or
Tubba) is still used in the old Himyar-land=the Great or the Chief.
Footnote 411:
Lane and Payne (as well as the Bres. Edit.) both render the word "to
kiss her," but this would be clean contrary to Moslem usage.
Footnote 412:
_i.e._ he was full of rage which he concealed.
Footnote 413:
The Hindus (as the Katha shows) compare this swimming gait with an
elephant's roll.
Footnote 414:
Arab. "Fitnah," a word almost as troublesome as "Adab." Primarily,
revolt seduction, mischief: then a beautiful girl (or boy), and
lastly a certain aphrodisiac perfume extracted from mimosa-flowers
(Pilgrimage i., 118).
Footnote 415:
Lit. burst the "gall-bladder:" In this and in the "liver" allusions I
dare not be baldly literal.
Footnote 416:
Arab. "Usfur" the seeds of Carthamus tinctorius=Safflower (Forskål,
Flora, etc. lv.). The seeds are crushed for oil and the flowers,
which must be gathered by virgins or the colour will fail, are
extensively used for dyeing in Southern Arabia and Eastern Africa.
Footnote 417:
On such occasions Miss Modesty shuts her eyes and looks as if about
to faint.
Footnote 418:
After either evacuation the Moslem is bound to wash or sand the part;
first however he should apply three pebbles, or potsherds or clods of
earth. Hence the allusion in the Koran (chapt. ix.), "men who love to
be purified." When the Prophet was questioning the men of Kuba, where
he founded a mosque (Pilgrimage ii., 215), he asked them about their
legal ablutions, especially after evacuation; and they told him that
they used three stones before washing. Moslems and Hindus (who prefer
water mixed with earth) abhor the unclean and unhealthy use of paper
without ablution; and the people of India call Europeans
draught-houses, by way of opprobrium, "Kághaz-khánah"=paper closets.
Most old Anglo-Indians, however, learn to use water.
Footnote 419:
"Miao" or "Mau" is the generic name of the cat in the Egyptian of the
hieroglyphs.
Footnote 420:
Arab. "Ya Mash'úm" addressed to an evil spirit.
Footnote 421:
"Heehaw!" as we should say. The Bresl. Edit. makes the cat cry "Nauh!
Nauh!" and the ass-colt "Manu! Manu!" I leave these onomatopoeics as
they are in Arabic; they are curious, showing the unity in variety of
hearing inarticulate sounds. The bird which is called "Whip poor
Will" in the U.S., is known to the Brazilians as "Joam corta páo"
(John cut wood); so differently do they hear the same notes.
Footnote 422:
It is usually a slab of marble with a long slit in front and a round
hole behind. The text speaks of a Kursi (=stool); but this is now
unknown to native houses which have not adopted European fashions.
Footnote 423:
This again is chaff as she addresses the Hunchback. The Bul. Edit.
has "O Abu Shiháb" (Father of the shooting-star=evil spirit); the
Bresl. Edit. "O son of a heap! O son of a Something!" (al-Aísh, a
vulgarism).
Footnote 424:
As the reader will see, Arab ideas of "fun" and practical jokes are
of the largest, putting the Hibernian to utter rout, and comparing
favourably with those recorded in Don Quixote.
Footnote 425:
Arab. "Saráwil" a corruption of the Pers. "Sharwál"; popularly called
"libás" which, however, may also mean clothing in general and
especially outer-clothing. I translate "bag-trousers" and
"petticoat-trousers," the latter being the divided skirt of our
future. In the East, where Common Sense, not Fashion, rules dress,
men, who have a protuberance to be concealed, wear petticoats and
women wear trousers. The feminine article is mostly baggy but
sometimes, as in India, _collant_-tight. A quasi-sacred part of it is
the inkle, tape or string, often a most magnificent affair, with
tassels of pearl and precious stones; and "laxity in the
trouser-string" is equivalent to the loosest conduct. Upon the
subject of "libás," "sarwál" and its variants the curious reader will
consult Dr. Dozy's "Dictionnaire Détaillé des Noms des Vêtements chez
les Arabes," a most valuable work.
Footnote 426:
The turban out of respect is not put upon the ground (Lane, M. E.,
chapt. i.).
Footnote 427:
Arab. "Madfa'" showing the modern date or the modernization of the
tale. In Lebid "Madáfi'" (plur. of Madfa') means water-courses or
leats.
Footnote 428:
In Arab, the "he" is a "she;" and Habíb ("friend") is the Attic
φίλος, a euphemism for lover. This will occur throughout The Nights.
So the Arabs use a phrase corresponding with the Stoic φιλε~ι _i.e._
is wont, is fain.
Footnote 429:
Part of the Azán, or call to prayer.
Footnote 430:
Arab. "Shiháb," these meteors being the flying shafts shot at evil
spirits who approach too near Heaven. The idea doubtless arose from
the showers of August and November meteors (The Perseides and
Taurides) which suggest a battle raging in upper air. Christendom
also has its superstition concerning them and called those of August
the "fiery tears of Saint Lawrence," whose festival was on August 10.
Footnote 431:
Arab. "Tákiyah"=Pers. Arak-chin; the calotte worn under the Fez. It
is, I have said, now obsolete and the red woollen cap (mostly made in
Europe) is worn over the hair; an unclean practice.
Footnote 432:
Often the effect of cold air after a heated room.
Footnote 433:
_i.e._ He was not a Eunuch, as the people guessed.
Footnote 434:
In Arab, "this night" for the reason before given.
Footnote 435:
Meaning especially the drink prepared of the young leaves and florets
of Cannabis Sativa. The word literally means "dry grass" or
"herbage." This intoxicant was much used by magicians to produce
ecstacy and thus to "deify themselves and receive the homage of the
genii and spirits of nature."
Footnote 436:
Torrens, being an Irishman, translates "and woke in the morning
sleeping at Damascus."
Footnote 437:
Arab. "Labbayka," the cry technically called "Talbiyah" and used by
those entering Meccah (Pilgrimage iii. 125-232). I shall also
translate it by "Adsum." The full cry is:—
Here am I, O Allah, here am I!
No partner hast Thou, here am I:
Verily the praise and the grace and the kingdom are thine:
No partner hast Thou: here am I!
A single Talbiyah is a "Shart" or positive condition: and its
repetition is a Sunnat or Custom of the Prophet. See Night xci.
Footnote 438:
The staple abuse of the vulgar is cursing parents and relatives,
especially feminine, with specific allusions to their "shame." And
when dames of high degree are angry, Nature, in the East as in the
West, sometimes speaks out clearly enough, despite Mistress Chapone
and all artificial restrictions.
Footnote 439:
A great beauty in Arabia and the reverse in Denmark, Germany and
Slav-land, where it is a sign of being a were-wolf or a vampire. In
Greece also it denotes a "Brukolak" or vampire.
Footnote 440:
This is not physiologically true: a bride rarely conceives the first
night, and certainly would not know that she had conceived. Moreover
the number of courses furnished by the bridegroom would be against
conception. It is popularly said that a young couple often undoes in
the morning what it has done during the night.
Footnote 441:
Torrens (Notes, xxiv.) quotes "Fleisher" upon the word "Ghamghama"
(Diss. Crit. de Glossis Habichtionis), which he compares with
"Dumduma" and "Humbuma" determining them to be onomatopoeics, "an
incomplete and an obscure murmur of a sentence as it were lingering
between the teeth and lips and therefore difficult to be understood."
Of this family is "Taghúm"; not used in modern days. In my Pilgrimage
(i. 313) I have noticed another, "Khyas, Khyas!" occurring in a Hizb
al-Bahr (Spell of the Sea). Herklots gives a host of them; and their
sole characteristics are harshness and strangeness of sound, uniting
consonants which are not joined in Arabic. The old Egyptians and
Chaldeans had many such words composed at will for theurgic
operations.
Footnote 442:
This may mean either "it is of Mosul fashion" or, it is of muslin.
Footnote 443:
To the English reader these lines would appear the reverse of
apposite; but Orientals have their own ways of application, and all
allusions to Badawi partings are effective and affecting. The
civilised poets of Arab cities throw the charm of the Desert over
their verse by images borrowed from its scenery, the dromedary, the
mirage and the well, as naturally as certain of our bards who hated
the country, babbled of purling rills, etc. Thoroughly to feel Arabic
poetry one must know the Desert (Pilgrimage iii., 63).
Footnote 444:
In those days the Arabs and the Portuguese recorded everything which
struck them, as the Chinese and Japanese do in our times. And yet we
complain of the amount of our modern writing!
Footnote 445:
This is mentioned because it is the act preliminary to naming the
babe.
Footnote 446:
Arab. "Kahramánát" from Kahramán, an old Persian hero who conversed
with the Simurgh-Griffon. Usually the word is applied to
women-at-arms who defend the Harem, like the Urdu-begani of India,
whose services were lately offered to England (1885), or the
"Amazons" of Dahome.
Footnote 447:
Meaning he grew as fast in one day as other children in a month.
Footnote 448:
Arab. Al-Aríf; the tutor, the assistant-master.
Footnote 449:
Arab. "Ibn harám," a common term of abuse; and not a factual
reflection on the parent. I have heard a mother apply the term to her
own son.
Footnote 450:
Arab. "Khanjar" from the Persian, a syn. with the Arab. "Jambiyah."
It is noticed in my Pilgrimage iii., pp. 72, 75. To "silver the
dagger," means to become a rich man. From "Khanjar," not from its
fringed loop or strap, I derive our silly word "hanger." Dr.
Steingass would connect it with Germ. Fänger, _e.g._, Hirschfänger.
Footnote 451:
Again we have "Dastur" for "Izn."
Footnote 452:
Arab. "Iklím"; the seven climates of Ptolemy.
Footnote 453:
Arab. "Al-Ghadir," lit. a place where water sinks, a lowland: here
the drainage-lakes east of Damascus into which the Baradah (Abana?)
discharges. The higher eastern plain is "Al-Ghutah" before noticed.
Footnote 454:
The "Plain of Pebbles" still so termed at Damascus; an open space
west of the city.
Footnote 455:
Every Guide-book, even the Reverend Porter's "Murray," gives a long
account of this Christian Church 'verted to a Mosque.
Footnote 456:
Arab. "Nabút"; Pilgrimage i. 336.
Footnote 457:
The Bres. Edit. says, "would have knocked him into Al-Yaman"
(Southern Arabia) something like our slang phrase "into the middle of
next week."
Footnote 458:
Arab. "Khádim": lit. a servant, politely applied (like Aghá=master)
to a castrato. These gentry wax furious if baldly called
"Tawáshi"=Eunuch. A mauvais plaisant in Egypt used to call me The
Agha because a friend had placed his wife under my charge.
Footnote 459:
This sounds absurd enough in English, but Easterns always put
themselves first for respect.
Footnote 460:
In Arabic the World is feminine.
Footnote 461: