It also utterly ignores circumstantial evidence and for the best of
reasons: amongst so sharp-witted a people the admission would lead to
endless abuses. I greatly surprised a certain Governor-General of
India by giving him this simple information.
Footnote 545:
Cutting off the right hand is the Koranic punishment (chapt. v.) for
one who robs an article worth four dinars, about forty francs to
shillings. The left foot is to be cut off at the ankle for a second
offence and so on; but death is reserved for a hardened criminal. The
practice is now obsolete and theft is punished by the bastinado, fine
or imprisonment. The old Guebres were as severe. For stealing one
dirham's worth they took a fine of two, cut off the ear-lobes, gave
ten stick-blows and dismissed the criminal who had been subjected to
an hour's imprisonment. A second theft caused the penalties to be
doubled; and after that the right hand was cut off or death was
inflicted according to the proportion stolen.
Footnote 546:
Koran viii. 17.
Footnote 547:
A universal custom in the East, the object being originally to show
that the draught was not poisoned.
Footnote 548:
Out of paste or pudding.
Footnote 549:
Boils and pimples are supposed to be caused by broken hair-roots and
in Hindostani are called Bál-tor.
Footnote 550:
He intended to bury it decently, a respect which Moslems always show
even to the exuviæ of the body, as hair and nail parings. Amongst
Guebres the latter were collected and carried to some mountain. The
practice was intensified by fear of demons or wizards getting
possession of the spoils.
Footnote 551:
Without which the marriage was not valid. The minimum is ten dirhams
(drachmas) now valued at about five francs to shillings; and if a man
marry without naming the sum, the woman, after consummation, can
compel him to pay this minimum.
Footnote 552:
Arab. "Khatmah"=reading or reciting the whole Koran, by one or more
persons, usually in the house, not over the tomb. Like the "Zikr,"
Litany or Rogation, it is a pious act confined to certain occasions.
Footnote 553:
Arab. "Zírbájah"=meat dressed with vinegar, cumin-seed (Pers. Zír)
and hot spices. More of it in the sequel of the tale.
Footnote 554:
A saying not uncommon meaning, let each man do as he seems fit;
also="age quod agis": and at times corresponding with our saw about
the cap-fitting.
Footnote 555:
Arab. "Su'úd," an Alpinia with pungent rhizome like ginger; here used
as a counter-odour.
Footnote 556:
Arab. "Tá'ih"=lost in the "Tíh," a desert wherein man _may_ lose
himself, translated in our maps "The Desert of the Wanderings," scil.
of the children of Israel. "Credat Judæus."
Footnote 557:
_i.e._, £125 and £500.
Footnote 558:
A large sum was weighed by a professional instead of being counted,
the reason being that the coin is mostly old and worn: hence our
words "pound" and "pension" (or what is weighed out).
Footnote 559:
The eunuch is the best possible go-between on account of his almost
unlimited power over the Harem.
Footnote 560:
_i.e._ a slave-girl brought up in the house and never sold except for
some especial reason, as habitual drunkenness, etc.
Footnote 561:
Smuggling men into the Harem is a stock "topic" of eastern tales. "By
means of their female attendants, the ladies of the royal harem
generally get men into their apartments in the disguise of women."
Says Vatsyayana in The Kama Sutra, Part V., London: Printed for the
Hindoo Kamashastra Society, 1883. For private circulation only.
Footnote 562:
These tears are shed over past separation. So the "Indians" of the
New World never meet after long parting without beweeping mutual
friends they have lost.
Footnote 563:
A most important Jack in office whom one can see with his smooth chin
and blubber lips, starting up from his lazy snooze in the shade and
delivering his orders more peremptorily than any Dogberry. These
epicenes are as curious and exceptional in character as in external
conformation. Disconnected, after a fashion, with humanity, they are
brave, fierce and capable of any villany or barbarity (as Agha
Mohammed Khan in Persia 1795-98). The frame is unnaturally long and
lean, especially the arms and legs; with high, flat, thin shoulders;
big protruding joints and a face by contrast extraordinarily large, a
veritable mask; the Castrato is expert in the use of weapons and sits
his horse admirably, riding well "home" in the saddle for the best of
reasons; and his hoarse thick voice, which apparently does not break,
as in the European "Cáppone," invests him with all the circumstance
of command.
Footnote 564:
From the Meccan well used by Moslems much like Eau de Lourdes by
Christians: the water is saltish, hence the touch of Arab humour
(Pilgrimage III., 201-202.)
Footnote 565:
Such articles would be sacred from Moslem eyes.
Footnote 566:
Physiologically true, but not generally mentioned in describing the
emotions.
Footnote 567:
Properly "Uta," the different rooms, each "Odalisque," or concubine,
having her own.
Footnote 568:
Showing that her monthly ailment was over.
Footnote 569:
Arab. "Muhammarah"=either browned before the fire or artificially
reddened.
Footnote 570:
The insolence and licence of these palace-girls was (and is)
unlimited; especially when, as in the present case, they have to deal
with a "softy." On this subject numberless stories are current
throughout the East.
Footnote 571:
_i.e._ blackened by the fires of Jehannam.
Footnote 572:
Arab. "Bi'l-Salámah"=in safety (to avert the evil eye). When visiting
the sick it is usual to say something civil; "The Lord heal thee! No
evil befal thee!" etc.
Footnote 573:
Washing during sickness is held dangerous by Arabs; and "going to the
Hammam" is, I have said, equivalent to convalescence.
Footnote 574:
Arab. "Máristán" (pronounced Múristan) a corruption of the Pers.
"Bímáristán"=place of sickness, a hospital much affected by the old
Guebres (Dabistan, i., 165, 166). That of Damascus was the first
Moslem hospital, founded by Al-Walid Son of Abd al-Malik the Ommiade
in A.H. 88=706-7. Benjamin of Tudela (A.D. 1164) calls it
"Dar-al-Maraphtan" which his latest Editor explains by
"Dar-al-Mora-bittan" (abode of those who require being chained).
Al-Makrizi (Khitat) ascribes the invention of "Spitals" to
Hippocrates; another historian to an early Pharaoh "Manákiyush;" thus
ignoring the Persian Kings, Saint Ephrem (or Ephraim) Syru etc. In
modern parlance "Maristan" is a madhouse where the maniacs are
treated with all the horrors which were universal in Europe till
within a few years and of which occasional traces occur to this day.
In A.D. 1399 Katherine de la Court held a "hospital in the Court
called Robert de Paris;" but the first madhouse in Christendom was
built by the legate Ortiz in Toledo A.D. 1483, and was therefore
called Casa del Nuncio. The Damascus "Maristan" was described by
every traveller of the last century: and it showed a curious contrast
between the treatment of the maniac and the idiot or omadhaun, who is
humanely allowed to wander about unharmed, if not held a Saint. When
I saw it last (1870) it was all but empty and mostly in ruins. As far
as my experience goes, the United States is the only country where
the insane are rationally treated by the sane.
Footnote 575:
Hence the trite saying "Whoso drinks the water of the Nile will ever
long to drink it again." "Light" means easily digested water; and the
great test is being able to drink it at night between the sleeps,
without indigestion.
Footnote 576:
"Níl" in popular parlance is the Nile in flood, although also used
for the River as a proper name. Egyptians (modern as well as
ancient), have three seasons Al-Shitá (winter), Al-Sayf (summer) and
Al-Níl (the Nile _i.e._ flood season, our mid-summer); corresponding
with the Growth-months; Housing (or granary) months and Flood-months
of the older race.
Footnote 577:
These lines are in the Mac. Edit.
Footnote 578:
Arab. "Birkat al-Habash," a tank formerly existing in Southern Cairo:
Galland (Night 128) says "en remontant vers l'Éthiopie."
Footnote 579:
The Bres. Edit. (ii., 190) from which I borrow this description, here
alludes to the well-known Island, Al-Rauzah (Rodah)=The Garden.
Footnote 580:
Arab. "Laylat al-Wafá," the night of the completion or abundance of
the Nile (flood), usually between August 6th and 16th, when the
government proclaims that the Nilometer shows a rise of 16 cubits. Of
course it is a great festival and a high ceremony, for Egypt is still
the gift of the Nile (Lane M. E. chapt. xxvi—a work which would be
much improved by a better index).
Footnote 581:
_i.e._ admiration will be complete.
Footnote 582:
Arab. "Sáhil Masr" (Misr): hence I suppose Galland's _villes
maritimes_.
Footnote 583:
A favourite simile, suggested by the broken glitter and shimmer of
the stream under the level rays and the breeze of eventide.
Footnote 584:
Arab. "Halab," derived by Moslems from "He (Abraham) milked
(_halaba_) the white and dun cow." But the name of the city occurs in
the Cuneiforms as Halbun or Khalbun, and the classics knew it as
Βέροια, Beroea, written with variants.
Footnote 585:
Arab. "Ká'ah," usually a saloon; but also applied to a fine house
here and elsewhere in The Nights.
Footnote 586:
Arab. "Ghamz"=winking, signing with the eye which, amongst Moslems,
is not held "vulgar."
Footnote 587:
Arab. "Kamís" from low Lat. "Camicia," first found in St.
Jerome:—"Solent militantes habere lineas, quas Camicias vocant." Our
shirt, chemise, chemisette, etc. was unknown to the Ancients of
Europe.
Footnote 588:
Arab. "Narjís." The Arabs borrowed nothing, but the Persians much,
from Greek Mythology. Hence the eye of Narcissus, an idea hardly
suggested by the look of the daffodil (or asphodel) flower, is at
times the glance of a spy and at times the die-away look of a
mistress. Some scholars explain it by the form of the flower, the
internal calyx resembling the iris, and the stalk being bent just
below the petals suggesting drooping eyelids and languid eyes. Hence
a poet addresses the Narcissus:—
O Narjis, look away! Before those eyes ✿ I may not kiss her as
a-breast she lies.
What! Shall the lover close his eyes in sleep ✿ While thine watch all
things between earth and skies?
The fashionable lover in the East must affect a frantic jealousy if
he does not feel it.
Footnote 589:
In Egypt there are neither bedsteads nor bed-rooms: the carpets and
mattresses, pillows and cushions (sheets being unknown) are spread
out when wanted, and during the day are put into chests or cupboards,
or only rolled up in a corner of the room (Pilgrimage i., 53).
Footnote 590:
The women of Damascus have always been famed for the sanguinary
jealousy with which European story-books and novels credit the
"Spanish lady." The men were as celebrated for intolerance and
fanaticism, which we first read of in the days of Bertrandon de la
Brocquière and which culminated in the massacre of 1860. Yet they are
a notoriously timid race and make, physically and morally, the worst
of soldiers: we proved that under my late friend Fred. Walpole in the
Bashi-Buzuks during the old Crimean war. The men looked very fine
fellows and after a month in camp fell off to the condition of old
women.
Footnote 591:
Arab. "Rukhám," properly=alabaster and "Marmar"=marble; but the two
are often confounded.
Footnote 592:
He was ceremonially impure after touching a corpse.
Footnote 593:
The phrase is perfectly appropriate: Cairo without "her Nile" would
be nothing.
Footnote 594:
"The market was hot" say the Hindustanis. This would begin between 7
and 8 a.m.
Footnote 595:
Arab. Al-Faranj, Europeans generally. It is derived from "Gens
Francorum," and dates from Crusading days when the French played the
leading part. Hence the Lingua Franca, the Levantine jargon, of which
Molière has left such a witty specimen.
Footnote 596:
A process familiar to European surgery of the same date.
Footnote 597:
In sign of disappointment, regret, vexation; a gesture still common
amongst Moslems and corresponding in significance to a certain extent
with our stamping, wringing the hands and so forth. It is not
mentioned in the Koran where, however, we find "biting fingers' ends
out of wrath" against a man (chapt. iii).
Footnote 598:
This is no unmerited scandal. The Cairenes, especially the feminine
half (for reasons elsewhere given), have always been held exceedingly
debauched. Even the modest Lane gives a "shocking" story of a woman
enjoying her lover under the nose of her husband and confining the
latter in a madhouse (chapt. xiii.) With civilisation, which objects
to the good old remedy, the sword, they become worse: and the Kazi's
court is crowded with would-be divorcees. Under English rule the evil
has reached its acme because it goes unpunished: in the avenues of
the new Isma'iliyah Quarter, inhabited by Europeans, women, even
young women, will threaten to expose their persons unless they
receive "bakhshísh." It was the same in Sind when husbands were
assured that they would be hanged for cutting down adulterous wives:
at once after its conquest the women broke loose; and in 1843-50, if
a young officer sent to the bazar for a girl, half-a-dozen would
troop to his quarters. Indeed more than once the professional
prostitutes threatened to memorialise Sir Charles Napier because the
"modest women," the "ladies" were taking the bread out of their
mouths. The same was the case at Kabul (Caboul) of Afghanistan in the
old war of 1840; and here the women had more excuse, the husbands
being notable sodomites as the song has it:—
The worth of slit the Afghan knows;
The worth of hole the Kábul-man.
Footnote 599:
So that he might not have to do with three sisters german. Moreover
amongst Moslems a girl's conduct is presaged by that of her mother;
and if one sister go wrong, the other is expected to follow suit.
Practically the rule applies everywhere: "like mother like daughter."
Footnote 600:
In sign of dissent; as opposed to nodding the head which signifies
assent. These are two items, apparently instinctive and universal, of
man's gesture-language which has been so highly cultivated by sundry
North American tribes and by the surdo-mute establishments of Europe.
Footnote 601:
This "Futur" is the real "breakfast" of the East, the "Chhoti házri"
(petit déjeûner) of India, a bit of bread, a cup of coffee or tea and
a pipe on rising. In the text, however it is a ceremonious affair.
Footnote 602:
Arab. "Nahs," a word of many meanings; a sinister aspect of the stars
(as in Heb. and Aram.) or, adjectively, sinister, of ill-omen.
Vulgarly it is used as the reverse of nice and corresponds, after a
fashion with our "nasty."
Footnote 603:
"Window-gardening," new in England, is an old practise in the East.
Footnote 604:
Her pimping instinct at once revealed the case to her.
Footnote 605:
The usual "pander-dodge" to get more money.
Footnote 606:
The writer means that the old woman's account was all false, to
increase apparent difficulties and _pour se faire valoir_.
Footnote 607:
Arab. "Yá Khálati"=mother's sister; a familiar address to the old, as
uncle or nuncle (father's brother) to a man. The Arabs also hold that
as a girl resembles her mother so a boy follows his uncle (mother's
brother): hence the address "Ya tayyib al-Khál!"=O thou nephew of a
good uncle. I have noted that physically this is often fact.
Footnote 608:
"Ay w' Alláhi," contracted popularly to Aywa, a word in every Moslem
mouth and shunned by Christians because against orders Hebrew and
Christian. The better educated Turks now eschew that eternal
reference to Allah which appears in The Nights and which is still the
custom of the vulgar throughout the world of Al-Islam.
Footnote 609:
The "Muzayyin" or barber in the East brings his basin and budget
under his arm: he is not content only to shave, he must scrape the
forehead, trim the eyebrows, pass the blade lightly over the nose and
correct the upper and lower lines of the mustachios, opening the
central parting and so forth. He is not a whit less a tattler and a
scandalmonger than the old Roman tonsor or Figaro his _confrère_ in
Southern Europe. The whole scene of the Barber is admirable, an
excellent specimen of Arab humour and not over-caricatured. We all
have met him.
Footnote 610:
Abdullah ibn Abbas was a cousin and a companion of the Apostle; also
a well-known Commentator on the Koran and conserver of the traditions
of Mohammed.
Footnote 611:
I have noticed the antiquity of this father of our sextant, a
fragment of which was found in the Palace of Sennacherib. More
concerning the "Arstable" (as Chaucer calls it) is given in my
"Camoens: his Life and his Lusiads" p. 381.
Footnote 612:
Arab. "Simiyá" to rhyme with Kímiyá (alchemy proper). It is a
subordinate branch of the Ilm al-Ruháni which I would translate
"Spiritualism," and which is divided into two great branches, "Ilwí
or Rahmáni" (the high or related to the Deity) and Siflí or Shaytáni
(low, Satanic). To the latter belongs Al-Sahr, magic or the black art
proper, gramarye, egromancy, while Al-Simiyá is white magic,
electro-biology, a kind of natural and deceptive magic, in which
drugs and perfumes exercise an important action. One of its principal
branches is the Darb al-Mandal or magic mirror, of which more in a
future page. See Boccaccio's Day x. Novel 5.
Footnote 613:
Chapt. iii. 128. See Sale (in loco) for the noble application of this
text by the Imam Hasan, son of the Caliph Ali.
Footnote 614:
These proverbs at once remind us of our old friend Sancho Panza and
are equally true to nature in the mouth of the Arab and of the
Spaniard.
Footnote 615:
Our nurses always carry in the arms: Arabs place the children
astraddle upon the hip and when older on the shoulder.
Footnote 616:
Eastern clothes allow this biblical display of sorrow and vexation,
which with our European garb would look absurd: we must satisfy
ourselves with maltreating our hats.
Footnote 617:
Koran xlviii., 8. It may be observed that according to the Ahádis
(sayings of the Prophet) and the Sunnat (sayings and doings of
Mahommed), all the hair should be allowed to grow or the whole head
be clean shaven. Hence the "Shúshah," or topknot supposed to be left
as a handle for drawing the wearer into Paradise; and the Zulf, or
side-locks, somewhat like the ringlets of the Polish Jews, are both
vain "Bida'at," or innovations, and therefore technically termed
"Makrúh," a practice not laudable, neither "Halál" (perfectly lawful)
nor "Harám" (forbidden by the law). When boys are first shaved,
generally in the second or third year, a tuft is left on the crown
and another over the forehead: but this is not the fashion amongst
adults. Abu Hanifah, if I am rightly informed, wrote a treatise on
the Shushah or long lock growing from the Násiyah (head-poll) which
is also a precaution lest the decapitated Moslem's mouth be defiled
by an impure hand; and thus it would resemble the chivalry-lock by
which the Redskin brave (and even the "cowboy" of better times)
facilitated the removal of his own scalp. Possibly the Turks had
learned the practice from the Chinese and introduced it into Baghdad
(Pilgrimage i., 240). The Badawi plait their locks in Kurún (horns)
or Jadáil (ringlets) which are undone only to be washed with the
water of the she-camel. The wild Sherifs wear Haffah, long elf-locks
hanging down both sides of the throat, and shaved away about a
finger's breadth round the forehead and behind the neck (Pilgrimage
iii., 35-36). I have elsewhere noted the _accroche-cœurs_, the
"idiot-fringe," etc.
Footnote 618:
Meats are rarely coloured in modern days; but Persian cooks are great
adepts in staining rice for the "Puláo" (which we call after its
Turkish corruption "pilaff"): it sometimes appears in
rainbow-colours, red, yellow and blue; and in India is covered with
gold and silver leaf. Europe retains the practice in tinting Pasch
(Easter) eggs, the survival of the mundane ovum which was hatched at
Easter-tide; and they are dyed red in allusion to the Blood of
Redemption.
Footnote 619:
As I have noticed this is a mixture.
Footnote 620:
We say:—
'Tis rare the father in the son we see:
He sometimes rises in the third degree.
Footnote 621:
Arab. "Ballán" _i.e._ the body-servant: "Ballánah" is a tire-woman.
Footnote 622:
Arab. "Darabukkah" a drum made of wood or earthenware (Lane, M. E.,
xviii.), and used by all in Egypt.
Footnote 623:
Arab. "Naihah" more generally "Naddábah" Lat. præfica or carina, a
hired mourner, the Irish "Keener" at the conclamatio or coronach,
where the Hullabaloo, Hulululu or Ululoo showed the survivors'
sorrow.
Footnote 624:
These doggrels, which are like our street melodies, are now forgotten
and others have taken their place. A few years ago one often heard,
"Dus ya lallí" (tread, O my joy) and "Názil il'al-Ganínah" (Down into
the garden) and these in due turn become obsolete. Lane (M. E. chapt.
xviii.) gives the former _e.g._
Tread, O my joy! Tread, O my joy!
Love of my love brings sore annoy,
A chorus to such stanzas as:—
Alexandrian damsels rare! ✿ Daintily o'er the floor ye fare:
Your lips are sweet, are sugar-sweet, ✿ And purfled Cashmere shawls
ye wear!
It maybe noted that "humming" is not a favourite practice with
Moslems; if one of the company begin, another will say, "Go to the
Kahwah" (the coffee-house, the proper music-hall) "and sing there!" I
have elsewhere observed their dislike to Al-sifr or whistling.
Footnote 625:
Arab. Khalí'a=worn out, crafty, an outlaw; used like Span. "Perdido."
Footnote 626:
"Zabbál" is the scavenger, lit. a dung-drawer, especially for the use
of the Hammam which is heated with the droppings of animals. "Wakkád"
(stoker) is the servant who turns the fire. The verses are mere
nonsense to suit the Barber's humour.
Footnote 627:
Arab. "Yá bárid"=O fool.
Footnote 628:
This form of blessing is chaunted from the Minaret about half-an-hour
before midday, when the worshippers take their places in the mosque.
At noon there is the usual Azán or prayer-call, and each man performs
a two-bow, in honour of the mosque and its gathering, as it were. The
Prophet is then blessed and a second Salám is called from the raised
ambo or platform ("dikkah") by the divines who repeat the
midday-call. Then an Imam recites the first Khutbah, or sermon "of
praise"; and the congregation worships in silence. This is followed
by the second exhortation "of Wa'az," dispensing the words of wisdom.
The Imam now stands up before the Mihráb (prayer niche) and recites
the Ikámah which is the common Azan with one only difference: after
"Hie ye to salvation" it adds "Come is the time of supplication";
whence the name, "causing" (prayer) to stand (_i.e._ to begin).
Hereupon the worshippers recite the Farz or Koran-commanded
noon-prayer of Friday; and the unco'guid add a host of
supererogatories. Those who would study the subject may consult Lane
(M. E. chapt. iii. and its abstract in his "Arabian Nights," I, p.
430, or note 69 to Chapt. v.)
Footnote 629:
_i.e._, The women loosed their hair; an immodesty sanctioned only by
a great calamity.
Footnote 630:
These small shops are composed of a "but" and a "ben" (Pilgrimage i.
99.)
Footnote 631:
Arab. "Kawwád," a popular term of abuse; hence the Span. and Port.
"Alcoviteiro." The Italian "Galeotto" is from Galahalt, not Galahad.
Footnote 632:
_i.e._ "one seeking assistance in Allah." He was the son of Al-Záhir
bi'lláh (one pre-eminent by the decree of Allah). Lane says (i. 430),
"great-grandson of Harun al-Rashid," alluding to the first Mustansir
son of Al-Mutawakkil (regn. A.H. 247-248=861-2). But this is the 56th
Abbaside and regn. A.H. 623-640 (=1226-1242).
Footnote 633: