Many-clamours, the shorn of both lips, was once rich and became poor;
so one day he went out to beg somewhat to keep life in him. As he was
on the road he suddenly caught sight of a large and handsome mansion,
with a detached building wide and lofty at the entrance, where sat
sundry eunuchs bidding and forbidding.[684] My brother enquired of one
of those idling there and he replied. "The palace belongs to a scion of
the Barmaki house;" so he stepped up to the door-keepers and asked an
alms of them. "Enter," said they, "by the great gate and thou shalt get
what thou seekest from the Wazir our master." Accordingly he went in
and, passing through the outer entrance, walked on a while and
presently came to a mansion of the utmost beauty and elegance, paved
with marble, hung with curtains and having in the midst of it a flower
garden whose like he had never seen.[685] My brother stood awhile as
one bewildered not knowing whither to turn his steps; then, seeing the
farther end of the sitting-chamber tenanted, he walked up to it and
there found a man of handsome presence and comely beard. When this
personage saw my brother he stood up to him and welcomed him and asked
him of his case; whereto he replied that he was in want and needed
charity. Hearing these words the grandee showed great concern and,
putting his hand to his fine robe, rent it exclaiming, "What! am I in a
city, and thou here an-hungered? I have not patience to bear such
disgrace!" Then he promised him all manner of good cheer and said,
"There is no help but that thou stay with me and eat of my salt.[686]"
"O my lord," answered my brother, "I can wait no longer; for I am
indeed dying of hunger." So he cried, "Ho boy! bring basin and ewer;"
and, turning to my brother, said, "O my guest come forward and wash thy
hands." My brother rose to do so but he saw neither ewer nor basin; yet
his host kept washing his hands with invisible soap in imperceptible
water and cried, "Bring the table!" But my brother again saw nothing.
Then said the host, "Honour me by eating of this meat and be not
ashamed." And he kept moving his hand to and fro as if he ate and
saying to my brother, "I wonder to see thee eating thus sparely: do not
stint thyself for I am sure thou art famished." So my brother began to
make as though he were eating whilst his host kept saying to him, "Fall
to, and note especially the excellence of this bread and its
whiteness!" But still my brother saw nothing. Then said he to himself,
"This man is fond of poking fun at people;" and replied, "O my lord, in
all my days I never knew aught more winsome than its whiteness or
sweeter than its savour." The Barmecide said, "This bread was baked by
a handmaid of mine whom I bought for five hundred dinars." Then he
called out, "Ho boy, bring in the meat pudding[687] for our first dish,
and let there be plenty of fat in it;" and, turning to my brother said,
"O my guest, Allah upon thee, hast ever seen anything better than this
meat-pudding? Now by my life, eat and be not abashed." Presently he
cried out again, "Ho boy, serve up the marinated stew[688] with the
fatted sand-grouse in it;" and he said to my brother, "Up and eat, O my
guest, for truly thou art hungry and needest food." So my brother began
wagging his jaws and made as if champing and chewing,[689] whilst the
host continued calling for one dish after another and yet produced
nothing save orders to eat. Presently he cried out, "Ho boy, bring us
the chickens stuffed with pistachio nuts;" and said to my brother, "By
thy life, O my guest, I have fattened these chickens upon pistachios;
eat, for thou hast never eaten their like." "O my lord," replied my
brother, "they are indeed first-rate." Then the host began motioning
with his hand as though he were giving my brother a mouthful; and
ceased not to enumerate and expatiate upon the various dishes to the
hungry man whose hunger waxt still more violent, so that his soul
lusted after a bit of bread, even a barley-scone.[690] Quoth the
Barmecide, "Didst thou ever taste anything more delicious than the
seasoning of these dishes?"; and quoth my brother, "Never O my lord!"
"Eat heartily and be not ashamed," said the host, and the guest, "I
have eaten my fill of meat." So the entertainer cried, "Take away and
bring in the sweets;" and turning to my brother said, "Eat of this
almond conserve for it is prime and of these honey fritters; take this
one, by my life, the syrup runs out of it." "May I never be bereaved of
thee, O my lord," replied the hungry one and began to ask him about the
abundance of musk in the fritters. "Such is my custom," he answered:
"they put me a dinar-weight of musk in every honey-fritter and half
that quantity of ambergris." All this time my brother kept wagging head
and jaws till the master cried, "Enough of this. Bring us the dessert!"
Then said he to him, "Eat of these almonds and walnuts and raisins; and
of this and that (naming divers kinds of dried fruits), and be not
abashed." But my brother replied, "O my lord, indeed I am full: I can
eat no more." "O my guest," repeated the host, "if thou have a mind to
these good things eat: Allah! Allah![691] do not remain hungry;" but my
brother rejoined, "O my lord, he who hath eaten of all these dishes how
can he be hungry?" Then he considered and said to himself, "I will do
that shall make him repent of these pranks." Presently the entertainer
called out "Bring me the wine;" and, moving his hands in the air, as
though they had set it before them, he gave my brother a cup and said,
"Take this cup and, if it please thee, let me know." "O my lord," he
replied, "it is notable good as to nose but I am wont to drink wine
some twenty years old." "Knock then at this door,[692]" quoth the host,
"for thou canst not drink of aught better." "By thy kindness," said my
brother, motioning with his hand as though he were drinking. "Health
and joy to thee," exclaimed the house-master and feigned to fill a cup
and drink it off; then he handed another to my brother who quaffed it
and made as if he were drunken. Presently he took the host unawares;
and, raising his arm till the white of his armpit appeared, dealt him
such a cuff on the nape of his neck that the palace echoed to it. Then
he came down upon him with a second cuff and the entertainer cried
aloud, "What is this, O thou scum of the earth?" "O my lord," replied
my brother, "thou hast shown much kindness to thy slave, and admitted
him into thine abode and given him to eat of thy victual; then thou
madest him drink of thine old wine till he became drunken and
boisterous; but thou art too noble not to bear with his ignorance and
pardon his offence." When the Barmaki heard my brother's words he
laughed his loudest and said, "Long have I been wont to make mock of
men and play the madcap among my intimates, but never yet have I come
across a single one who had the patience and the wit to enter into all
my humours save thyself: so I forgive thee, and thou shalt be my
boon-companion in very sooth and never leave me." Then he ordered the
servants to lay the table in earnest and they set on all the dishes of
which he had spoken in sport; and he and my brother ate till they were
satisfied; after which they removed to the drinking-chamber, where they
found damsels like moons who sang all manner songs and played on all
manner instruments. There they remained drinking till their wine got
the better of them and the host treated my brother like a familiar
friend, so that he became as it were his brother, and bestowed on him a
robe of honour and loved him with exceeding love. Next morning the two
fell again to feasting and carousing, and ceased not to lead this life
for a term of twenty years; at the end of which the Barmecide died and
the Sultan took possession of all his wealth and squeezed my brother of
his savings, till he was left a pauper without a penny to handle. So he
quitted the city and fled forth following his face;[693] but, when he
was half way between two towns, the wild Arabs fell on him and bound
him and carried him to their camp, where his captor proceeded to
torture him, saying, "Buy thy life of me with thy money, else I will
slay thee!" My brother began to weep and replied, "By Allah, I have
nothing, neither gold nor silver; but I am thy prisoner; so do with me
what thou wilt." Then the Badawi drew a knife, broad-bladed and so
sharp-grinded that if plunged into a camel's throat[694] it would sever
it clean across from one jugular to the other, and cut off my brother's
lips and waxed more instant in requiring money. Now this Badawi had a
fair wife who in her husband's absence used to make advances to my
brother and offer him her favours, but he held off from her. One day
she began to tempt him as usual and he played with her and made her sit
on his lap, when behold, in came the Badawi who, seeing this, cried
out, "Woe to thee, O accursed villain, wouldest thou debauch my wife
for me?" Then he took out a knife and cut off my brother's yard, after
which he bound him on the back of a camel and, carrying him to a
mountain, left him there. He was at last found by some who recognised
him and gave him meat and drink and acquainted me with his condition;
whereupon I went forth to him and brought him back to Baghdad where I
made him an allowance sufficient to live on. This, then, O Commander of
the Faithful, is the history of my six brothers and I feared to go away
without relating it all to thee and leave thee in the error of judging
me to be like them. And now thou knowest that I have six brothers upon
my hands and, being more upright than they, I support the whole family.
When the Caliph heard my story and all I told him concerning my
brothers, he laughed and said, "Thou sayest sooth, O Silent Man! thou
art indeed spare of speech nor is there aught of forwardness in thee;
but now go forth out of this city and settle in some other." And he
banished me under edict. I left Baghdad and travelled in foreign parts
till I heard of his death and the accession of another to the
Caliphate. Then I returned to Baghdad where I found all my brothers
dead and chanced upon this young man, to whom I rendered the kindliest
service, for without me he had surely been killed. Indeed he slanders
me and accuses me of a fault which is not in my nature; and what he
reports concerning impudence and meddling and forwardness is idle and
false; for verily on his account I left Baghdad and travelled about
full many a country till I came to this city and met him here in your
company. And was not this, O worthy assemblage, of the generosity of my
nature?
_THE END OF THE TAILOR'S TALE._
Then quoth the Tailor to the King of China:—When we heard the Barber's
tale and saw the excess of his loquacity and the way in which he had
wronged this young man, we laid hands on him and shut him up, after
which we sat down in peace, and ate and drank and enjoyed the good
things of the marriage-feast till the time of the call to mid-afternoon
prayer, when I left the party and returned home. My wife received me
with sour looks and said, "Thou goest a-pleasuring among thy friends
and thou leavest me to sit sorrowing here alone. So now, unless thou
take me abroad and let me have some amusement for the rest of the day,
I will cut the rope[695] and it will be the cause of my separation from
thee." So I took her out and we amused ourselves till supper time, when
we returned home and fell in with this Hunchback who was brimful of
drink and trolling out these rhymes:—
Clear's the wine, the cup's fine; ✿ Like to like they combine:
It is wine and not cup! ✿ 'Tis a cup and not wine!
So I invited him to sup with us and went out to buy fried fish; after
which we sat down to eat; and presently my wife took a piece of bread
and a fid of fish and stuffed them into his mouth and he choked; and,
though I slapped him long and hard between the shoulders, he died. Then
I carried him off and contrived to throw him into the house of this
leach, the Jew; and the leach contrived to throw him into the house of
the Reeve; and the Reeve contrived to throw him on the way of the
Nazarene broker. This, then, is my adventure which befel me but
yesterday. Is not it more wondrous than the story of the Hunchback?
When the King of China heard the Tailor's tale he shook his head for
pleasure; and, showing great surprise, said, "This that passed between
the young man and the busy-body of a Barber is indeed more pleasant and
wonderful than the story of my lying knave of a Hunchback." Then he
bade one of his Chamberlains go with the Tailor and bring the Barber
out of jail, saying, "I wish to hear the talk of this Silent Man and it
shall be the cause of your deliverance one and all: then we will bury
the Hunchback, for that he is dead since yesterday, and set up a tomb
over him."——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say
her permitted say.
Now when it was the Thirty-fourth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the King of China
bade, "Bring me the Barber who shall be the cause of your deliverance;
then we will bury this Hunchback, for that he is dead since yesterday
and set up a tomb over him." So the Chamberlain and the Tailor went to
the jail and, releasing the Barber, presently returned with him to the
King. The Sultan of China looked at him and considered him carefully
and lo and behold! he was an ancient man, past his ninetieth year;
swart of face, white of beard, and hoar of eyebrows; lop-eared and
proboscis-nosed,[696] with a vacant, silly and conceited expression of
countenance. The King laughed at this figure o' fun and said to him, "O
Silent Man, I desire thee to tell me somewhat of thy history." Quoth
the Barber, "O King of the age, allow me first to ask thee what is the
tale of this Nazarene and this Jew and this Moslem and this Hunchback
(the corpse) I see among you? And prithee what may be the object of
this assemblage?" Quoth the King of China, "And why dost thou ask?" "I
ask," he replied, "in order that the King's majesty may know that I am
no forward fellow or busy-body or impertinent meddler; and that I am
innocent of their calumnious charges of overmuch talk; for I am he
whose name is the Silent Man, and indeed peculiarly happy is my
sobriquet, as saith the poet:—
When a nickname or little name men design, ✿ Know that nature with name
shall full oft combine."
Then said the King, "Explain to the Barber the case of this Hunchback
and what befel him at supper-time; also repeat to him the stories told
by the Nazarene, the Jew, the Reeve, and the Tailor; and of no avail to
me is a twice told tale." They did his bidding, and the Barber shook
his head and said, "By Allah, this is a marvel of marvels! Now uncover
me the corpse of yonder Hunchback." They undid the winding-sheet and he
sat down and, taking the Hunchback's head in his lap, looked at his
face, and laughed and guffaw'd[697] till he fell upon his back and
said, "There is wonder in every death,[698] but the death of this
Hunchback is worthy to be written and recorded in letters of liquid
gold!" The by-standers were astounded at his words and the King
marvelled and said to him, "What ails thee O Silent Man? Explain to us
thy words!" "O King of the age," said the Barber, "I swear by thy
beneficence that there is still life in this Gobbo Golightly!"
Thereupon he pulled out of his waist-belt a barber's budget, whence he
took a pot of ointment and anointed therewith the neck of the Hunchback
and its arteries. Then he took a pair of iron tweezers and, inserting
them into the Hunchback's throat, drew out the fid of fish with its
bone; and, when it came to sight, behold, it was soaked in blood.
Thereupon the Hunchback sneezed a hearty sneeze and jumped up as if
nothing had happened and passing his hand over his face said, "I
testify that there is no god, but _the_ God, and I testify that
Mohammed is the Apostle of God." At this sight all present wondered;
the King of China laughed till he fainted and in like manner did the
others. Then said the Sultan, "By Allah, of a truth this is the most
marvellous thing I ever saw! O Moslems, O soldiers all, did you ever in
the lives of you see a man die and be quickened again? Verily had not
Allah vouchsafed to him this Barber, he had been a dead man!" Quoth
they, "By Allah, 'tis a marvel of marvels." Then the King of China bade
record this tale, so they recorded it and placed it in the royal
muniment-rooms; after which he bestowed costly robes of honour upon the
Jew, the Nazarene and the Reeve, and bade them depart in all esteem.
Then he gave the Tailor a sumptuous dress and appointed him his own
tailor, with suitable pay and allowances; and made peace between him
and the Hunchback, to whom also he presented a splendid and expensive
suit with a suitable stipend. He did as generously with the Barber
giving him a gift and a dress of honour; moreover he settled on him a
handsome solde and created him Barber-surgeon[699] of state and made
him one of his cup-companions. So they ceased not to live the most
pleasurable life and the most delectable, till there came to them the
Destroyer of all delights and the Sunderer of all societies, the
Depopulator of palaces and the Garnerer for graves. Yet, O most
auspicious King! (continued Shahrazad) this tale is by no means more
wonderful than that of the two Wazirs and Anís al-Jalís. Quoth her
sister Dunyazad, "And what may that be?"; whereupon she began to relate
the following tale of
-----
Footnote 496:
Other editions read, "at Bassorah" and the Bresl. (ii. 123) "at
Bassorah and Kájkár" (Káshghár): somewhat like in Dover and
Sebastopol. I prefer China because further off and making the
improbabilities more notable.
Footnote 497:
Arab. "Judri," lit. "small stones" from the hard gravelly feeling of
the pustules (Rodwell, p. 20). The disease is generally supposed to
be the growth of Central Africa where it is still a plague and passed
over to Arabia about the birth-time of Mohammed. Thus is usually
explained the "war of the elephant" (Koran, chapt. cv.) when the
Abyssinian army of Abrahah, the Christian, was destroyed by swallows
(Abábíl which Major Price makes the plural of Abilah=a vesicle) which
dropped upon them "stones of baked clay," like vetches (Pilgrimage
ii. 175). See for details Sale (_in loco_) who seems to accept the
miraculous defence of the Ka'abah. For the horrors of small-pox in
Central Intertropical Africa the inoculation, known also to the
Badawin of Al-Hijáz and other details, readers will consult "The Lake
Regions of Central Africa" (ii. 318). The Hindus "take the bull by
the horns" and boldly make "Sítlá" (small-pox) a goddess, an
incarnation of Bhawáni, deëss of destruction-reproduction. In China
small pox is believed to date from B.C. 1200; but the chronology of
the Middle Kingdom still awaits the sceptic.
Footnote 498:
In Europe we should add "and all fled, especially the women." But the
fatalism inherent in the Eastern mind makes the great difference.
Footnote 499:
Arab. "Uzayr." Esdras was a manner of Ripp van Winkle. He was riding
over the ruins of Jerusalem when it had been destroyed by the
Chaldeans and he doubted by what means Allah would restore it;
whereupon he died and at the end of a hundred years he revived. He
found his basket of figs and cruse of wine as they were; but of his
ass only the bones remained. These were raised to life as Ezra looked
on and the ass began at once to bray. Which was a lesson to Esdras.
(Koran, chapt. ii). The oath by the ass's hoofs is to ridicule the
Jew. Mohammed seems to have had an _idée fixe_ that "the Jews say,
Ezra is the son of God" (Koran ix.); it may have arisen from the
heterodox Jewish belief that Ezra, when the Law was utterly lost,
dictated the whole anew to the scribes of his own memory. His tomb
with the huge green dome is still visited by the Jews of Baghdad.
Footnote 500:
Arab. "Bádhanj," the Pers. Bád (wind)-gír (catcher): a wooden
pent-house on the terrace-roof universal in the nearer East.
Footnote 501:
The hunchback, in Arabia as in Southern Europe, is looked upon by the
vulgar with fear and aversion: The reason is that he is usually
sharper-witted than his neighbours.
Footnote 502:
Arab. "Yá Sattár"=Thou who veilest the discreditable secrets of Thy
creatures.
Footnote 503:
Arab. "Nasráni," a follower of Him of Nazareth and an older name than
"Christian" which (Acts xi., 26) was first given at Antioch about
A.D. 43. The cry in Alexandria used to be "Ya Nasráni, Kalb awáni!"=O
Nazarene! O dog obscene! (Pilgrimage, 1., 160). "Christian" in Arabic
can be expressed only by "Masíhi"=follower of the Messiah.
Footnote 504:
Arab. "Tasbíh,"=Saluting in the Subh (morning).
Footnote 505:
In the East women stand on minor occasions while men squat on their
hunkers in a way hardly possible to an untrained European. The custom
is old. Herodotus (ii., 35) says, "The women stand up when they make
water, but the men sit down." Will it be believed that Canon
Rawlinson was too modest to leave this passage in his translation?
The custom was perpetuated by Al-Islam because the position prevents
the ejection touching the clothes and making them ceremonially
impure; possibly they borrowed it from the Guebres. Dabistan, Gate
xvi. says, "It is improper, whilst in an erect posture, to make
water; it is therefore necessary to sit at squat and force it to some
distance, repeating the Avesta mentally."
Footnote 506:
This is still a popular form of the "Kinchin lay," and as the
turbands are often of fine stuff, the _petite industrie_ pays well.
Footnote 507:
Arab. "Wali"=Governor; the term still in use for the Governor-General
of a Province as opposed to the "Muháfiz," or district-governor. In
Eastern Arabia the Wali is the Civil Governor opposed to the Amir or
Military Commandant. Under the Caliphate the Wali acted also as
Prefect of Police (the Indian Faujdár), who is now called "Zábit."
The older name for the latter was "Sáhib al-Shartah" (=chief of the
watch) or "Mutawalli"; and it was his duty to go the rounds in
person. The old "Charley," with his lantern and cudgel, still guards
the bazars in Damascus.
Footnote 508:
Arab. "Al-Mashá ilí"=the bearer of a cresset (Mash'al) who was also
Jack Ketch. In Anglo-India the name is given to a lower body-servant.
The "Mash'al" which Lane (M. E., chapt vi.) calls "Mesh'al" and
illustrates, must not be confounded with its congener the "Sha'ílah"
or link (also lamp, wick, etc.).
Footnote 509:
I need hardly say that the civilised "drop" is unknown to the East
where men are strung up as to a yardarm. This greatly prolongs the
suffering.
Footnote 510:
Arab. "Lukmah":=a mouthful. It is still the fashion amongst Easterns
of primitive manners to take up a handful of rice, etc., ball it and
put it into a friend's mouth _honoris causâ_. When the friend is a
European the expression of his face is generally a study.
Footnote 511:
I need hardly note that this is an old Biblical practice. The ass is
used for city-work as the horse for fighting and travelling, the mule
for burdens and the dromedary for the desert. But the Badawi, like
the Indian, despises the monture and sings:—
The back of the steed is a noble place;
But the mule's dishonour, the ass disgrace!
The fine white asses, often thirteen hands high, sold by the Banu
Salíb and other Badawi tribes, will fetch £100, and more. I rode a
little brute from Meccah to Jedda (42 miles) in one night and it came
in with me cantering.
Footnote 512:
A dry measure of about five bushels (Cairo). The classical
pronunciation is Irdabb and it measured 24 sa'a (gallons) each
filling four outstretched hands.
Footnote 513:
"Al-Jawáli" should be Al-Jáwali (Al-Makrizi) and the Bab al-Nasr
(Gate of Victory) is that leading to Suez. I lived in that quarter as
shown by my Pilgrimage (i. 62).
Footnote 514:
Arab. "Al-'ajalah," referring to a saying in every Moslem mouth,
"Patience is from the Protector (Allah): Hurry is from Hell." That
and "Inshallah bukra!" (Please God to-morrow!) are the traveller's
_bêtes noires_.
Footnote 515:
Here it is a polite equivalent for "fall to!"
Footnote 516:
The left hand is used throughout the East for purposes of ablution
and is considered unclean. To offer the left hand would be most
insulting and no man ever strokes his beard with it or eats with it:
hence, probably, one never sees a left-handed man throughout the
Moslem east. In the Brazil for the same reason old-fashioned people
will not take snuff with the right hand. And it is related of the
Khataians that they prefer the left hand, "Because the heart, which
is the Sultan of the city of the Body, hath his mansion on that side"
(Rauzat al-Safá).
Footnote 517:
Two feminine names; as we might say Mary and Martha.
Footnote 518:
It was near the Caliph's two Palaces (Al-Kasrayn); and was famous in
the 15th century A.D. The Kazi's Mahkamah (Court-house) now occupies
the place of the Two Palaces.
Footnote 519:
A Kaysariah is a superior kind of bazar, a "bezestein." That in the
text stood to the east of the principal street in Cairo and was built
in A. H. 502 (=1108-9) by a Circassian Emir, known as Fakhr al-Din
Jahárkas, a corruption of the Persian "Chehár-kas"=four persons
(Lane, i. 422, from Al-Makrizi and Ibn Khallikan). For Jahárkas the
Mac. Edit. has Jirjís (George) a common Christian name. I once lodged
in a "Wakálah (the modern Khan) Jirjis." Pilgrimage, i. 255.
Footnote 520:
Arab. "Second Day," _i.e._ after Saturday, the true Sabbath, so
marvellously ignored by Christendom.
Footnote 521:
Readers who wish to know how a traveller is lodged in a Wakálah,
Khan, or Caravanserai, will consult my Pilgrimage, i. 60.
Footnote 522:
The original occupation of the family had given it a name, as amongst
us.
Footnote 523:
The usual "chaff" or banter allowed even to modest women when
shopping, and—many a true word is spoken in jest.
Footnote 524:
"La adamnák"=Heaven deprive us not of thee, _i.e._ grant I see thee
often!
Footnote 525:
This is a somewhat cavalier style of advance; but Easterns under such
circumstances go straight to the point, hating to filer the parfait
amour.
Footnote 526:
The peremptory formula of a slave delivering such a message.
Footnote 527:
This would be our Thursday night, preceding the day of public prayers
which can be performed only when in a state of ceremonial purity.
Hence many Moslems go to the Hammam on Thursday and have no
connection with their wives till Friday night.
Footnote 528:
Lane (i. 423) gives ample details concerning the Habbániyah, or
grain-sellers' quarter in the southern part of Cairo; and shows that
when this tale was written (or transcribed?) the city was almost as
extensive as it is now.
Footnote 529:
Nakíb is a caravan-leader, a chief, a syndic; and "Abú Shámah"=Father
of a cheek mole, while "Abú Shámmah"=Father of a smeller, a nose, a
snout. The "Kuniyah," bye-name, patronymic or matronymic, is
necessary amongst Moslems whose list of names, all connected more or
less with religion, is so scanty. Hence Buckingham the traveller was
known as Abu Kidr, the Father of a Cooking-pot and Hajj Abdullah as
Abu Shawárib, Father of Mustachios (Pilgrimage, iii., 263).
Footnote 530:
More correctly Bab Zawilah from the name of a tribe in Northern
Africa. This gate dates from the same age as the Eastern or Desert
gate, Bab al-Nasr (A.D. 1087) and is still much admired. M. Jomard
describes it (Description, etc., ii. 670) and lately my good friend
Yacoub Artin Pasha has drawn attention to it in the Bulletin de
l'Inst. Egypt., Deuxième Série, No. 4, 1883.
Footnote 531:
This ornament is still seen in the older saloons of Damascus: the
inscriptions are usually religious sentences, extracts from the
Koran, etc., in uncial characters. They take the place of our
frescos; and, as a work of art, are generally far superior.
Footnote 532:
Arab. "Bayáz al-Sultání," the best kind of gypsum which shines like
polished marble. The stucco on the walls of Alexandria, built by
Alexander of the two Horns, was so exquisitely tempered and
beautifully polished that men had to wear masks for fear of
blindness.
Footnote 533:
This Iklíl, a complicated affair, is now obsolete, its place having
been taken by the "Kurs," a gold plate, some five inches in diameter,
set with jewels, etc. Lane (M. E. Appendix A) figures it.
Footnote 534:
The woman-artist who applies the dye is called "Munakkishah."
Footnote 535:
"Kissing with th' inner lip," as Shakespeare calls it; the French
_langue fourrée_; and Sankrit "Samputa." The subject of kissing is
extensive in the East. Ten different varieties are duly enumerated in
the "Ananga-Ranga;" or, The Hindu Art of Love (Ars Amoris Indica)
translated from the Sanscrit, and annotated by A. F. F. and B. F. R.
It is also connected with unguiculation, or impressing the nails, of
which there are seven kinds; morsication (seven kinds); handling the
hair and tappings or pattings with the fingers and palm (eight
kinds).
Footnote 536:
Arab. "asal-nahl," to distinguish it from "honey" _i.e._ syrup of
sugar-cane and fruits.
Footnote 537:
The lines have occurred in Night xii. By way of variety I give
Torrens' version p. 273.
Footnote 538:
The way of carrying money in the corner of a pocket-handkerchief is
still common.
Footnote 539:
He sent the provisions not to be under an obligation to her in this
matter. And she received them to judge thereby of his liberality.
Footnote 540:
Those who have seen the process of wine-making in the Libanus will
readily understand why it is always strained.
Footnote 541:
Arab. "Kulkasá," a kind of arum or yam, eaten boiled like our
potatoes.
Footnote 542:
At first he slipped the money into the bed-clothes: now he gives it
openly and she accepts it for a reason.
Footnote 543:
Arab. Al-Zalamah: lit.=tyrants, oppressors, applied to the police and
generally to the employés of Government. It is a word which tells a
history.
Footnote 544: