Ibl, specific name for camels (_tr._ “certain camels”), 315.
Ibn al-Sammák = Son of the fisherman or fishmonger, 171.
Ihtidá = divine direction, 313.
Ihtirák = burning (used in the metaphorical sense of consuming,
torturing), 35.
Imám (the spiritual title of the Caliph), 43.
In a modest way (_lit._ In the way of moderation), 248.
’Irk al-Háshimí = the Háshimí vein, 29.
Jabr (Al-) = the tyranny (equiv. of “Civil law”), 212.
Jahl = ignorance (also wickedness), 271.
Jahrbaur (a fancy name intended to be Persian), 93.
Jálínús = “Galen” (considered by Moslems a pre-Islamitic saint), 284.
Jama’a atráfah, _lit._ = he drew in his extremities (_tr._ “covered his
hands and feet with his dress”), 114.
Jámi’ = cathedral mosque, 250.
Jamíl bin Ma’mar al-Uzri. (“Jamíl the Poet,” and lover of Buthaynah),
41.
Janzír (vulgarism for “Zanjír”) = a chain, 20.
Jarídah = Palm-frond stripped of its leaves, 264.
Jarír al-Khatafah, 39.
Járiyah = damsel, slave-girl, used instead of “Sabiyah” = young lady,
134.
Jauhar = the jewel, the essential nature of a substance (_tr._
“quintessence”), 212.
Jáwar = he became a mujáwir (one who lives near a collegiate mosque),
196.
Jewel inserted in the shoulder, 228.
Jiddan (Egypto-Syrian) = muchly, 115.
Joanna Papissa (Pope John VIII. called “Pope Joan”), 340.
Ka’b = heel, glory, prosperity, 21.
Kad = verily (affirmative particle preceding a verb gives it a present
and at times a future signification), 245.
Kádr = rank, 48.
Kahbah = whore, 12.
Káhinah = Divineress (fem. of Káhin), 279.
Kahramánah = housekeeper (also nurse, duenna, &c. &c.), 199.
Ka’id; _lit._ = one who sits with a colleague (_tr._ “Captain”), 59.
Kála al-Ráwí, etc., parenthetical formula = “The Story Teller sayeth,
etc.”, 347.
Kalb = stomach (sometimes “heart,”) 26.
Kalí = potash (our “alcali”), 8.
Kamís (χιτών, chemise, etc.) = shirt, 346.
Kanísah = a Pagan temple, a Jewish synagogue, a Christian church, 198.
Kariyah = a village (derivation), 83.
Kárdán (Persian) = Business-knower, 94.
Karmán = Karmania, vulg. and fancifully derived from Kirmán. Pers. =
worms, 59.
Kasf = houghed, 155.
Kásituna (Al-) = The Swervers, 52.
Kasr = abbreviation, 295.
Kayf, favourite word in Egypt and Syria, 58.
Khalbas (suggests Khalbús = a buffoon), 266.
Khalífah (Caliph) = a deputy, a successor (derivation), 4.
Khanádik = ditches or trenches (for Fanádik, “khans”), 288.
Khawátín (pl. of Khátún) = a matron, a lady, 122.
Khayr al-Nassáj (the Weaver), 344.
Khayyál = sturdy horseman, 320.
“Khayyál kabrhu maftúh” (proverb), 320.
Khubz Mutabbak = platter-bread, 3.
Khubz Samíz = firsts bread, 261.
Khulbah = sermon, 350.
Khwájah and Khawáját (Pers.) = merchants (Arab.), 332.
Kidr = a cooking pot, 48.
King’s Eye = Royal favour, 61.
Kisra = Kutrú (Bresl.) Kassera (Chavis and Cazotte), 60.
Kisrà = Chosroës, 97.
“Kissing him upon the mouth,” 153.
Knife and salt placed on the stomach (_Ar._ Kalb) to repel evil
spirits, 26.
Koran quoted—
(cxii.) 25.
vi. 44, 51.
iv. 134, 52.
lxxii. 15, _ib._
ii. 173, 100.
xxx. 1, 134.
xxvii., 148.
lxxxv.; xv. 26; xxv. 62, 353.
Kubbah = a dome-shaped tent (_tr._ “Pavilion”), 99.
Kubbah (square building with cupola), 119.
Kubúr = tombs, 295.
Kumájah = First-bread (_i.e._, Bread unleavened and baked in ashes), 8.
Kunaym Madúd = Kingdom of Dineroux, 55.
Kursi = Throne, 10.
Kuthayyir ’Azzah (contemporary of Jamil), 41.
Kuthayyir = “the dwarf,” 41.
Lá af’al (“I will do naught of the kind”) more commonly Má af’al, 296.
Lá baas = “No matter” or “All right,” (_tr._ “No harm be upon you”),
160.
Lahd, Luhd = tomb-niche, 292.
Lane, quoted, 3, 10, 11, 13, 16, 17, 21, 29, 31, 34, 146, 290.
Lex talionis (the essence of Moslem and all criminal jurisprudence),
100.
Liallá (_i.e._, li, an, lá) = lest, 140.
Libwah = lioness, 152.
Líyúth (pl. of Layth) = Lions (used for “warriors”), 14.
Long hand, or arm, means power (Arab. idiom), 114.
Long lock left on shaven poll, 233.
Maamún (Al-) Seventh Abbaside (A.H. 198–227), 175.
Mahdi (Al-) Third Abbaside (A.D. 775–785), 165.
Mahr = marriage settlement, 283.
Makán mahjúb = a retired room, 11.
Makhzúm = nose pierced, 47.
Makrán, the well-known Baloch province West of Sind, 335.
Mál = wealth, 47.
Malik Sháh = King (Arab.) King (Persian), 131.
Mansúrah (Al-) = opinions differ as to the site of, 341.
Ma’rafah (Al-) = the place where the mane grows (_tr._ “crest”), 298.
Máristán = Mad house, 18.
“Marrying below one,” 94.
Marwazi = Marw (derived from Sansk. Maru or Marw), 288.
Marzbán = guardian of the Marshes, 234.
Masalah = a question (_tr._ “catch-question”), 138.
Masarat fí-há = and she used hard words to her, 31.
Mastúrah = veiled (_tr._ “curtained”), 309.
Matmúrah = a silo, matamor, or “underground cell,” 84.
Maunds (fifty) = about 100 lbs., 250.
Miat wa arba’at ashar Súrat = the 114 chapters of the Alcoran, 147.
Mihrján (Al-) = the Autumnal Equinox, 129.
Milk and dates, a favourite food, 59.
Miskah = Bit o’ Musk, 16.
Moslems all know how to pray, 13.
Moslems bound to see True Believers buried, 289.
Moslems shun a formal oath, 304.
Mu’arris = pander, 206.
Munajjim = Astrologer (authority in Egyptian townlets), 66.
Munkati’ah = _lit._ “cut off” (from the weal of the world) _tr._
“defenceless,” 337.
Munkar and Nakír, the Interrogating Angels, 294.
Muruwwah _lit._ = manliness, 303.
Musallà = Prayer-place, 313.
Musician, also a pederast, 209.
Mutabattil (Al-) usually = one who forsakes the world (_tr._ “oyster”),
215.
Muwaswas (Al-) = Melancholist, 264.
Nabíz = date-wine (or grape-wine), 160.
Nafas _lit._ = breath (_tr._ “air”), 124.
Náim (Al-) wa al-Yakzán = The Sleeper and the Waker, 1.
Nákah = She-dromedary, 315.
Náwús = Tower of Silence, 264.
“Necks” per synecdochen for heads, 47.
Negative emphatic in Arabic, 206.
Never may neighbour defy thee, etc. (May thy dwelling-place never fall
into ruin), 15.
Ním = Persian Lilac (Melia Azadirachta) used as preventive to poison,
64.
Nímshah = half sword or dagger, 14.
Níshábúr (Arab. form of Nayshápúr = reeds of (King) Shápur), 270.
Nose (large in a woman indicating a masculine nature), 345.
Nukl-i-Pishkil = goat-dung bonbons, 288.
Nusfs = Halves (_i.e._, of dirhams), 300.
Nu’umán (Al-), King of the Arab kingdom of Hirah, 179.
Nuwab, (broken plur. of “Naubah,”) the Anglo-Indian Nowbut (_tr._
“Drums”), 324.
Nuzhat al-Fuád = “Delight of the Vitals” (or heart), 25.
O thousand-horned (thousandfold cuckold), 247.
O vile of birth (origin (Asl) of a man held to influence his conduct
throughout life), 62.
Oath of triple divorce irrevocable, 246.
Ober-Ammergau “Miracle play,” 250.
Omar ’Adi bin Artah, 39.
Omar bin Abd al-Aziz = the good Caliph, 39.
Omar ibn Abi Rabí’ah, the Korashí (_i.e._ of the Koraysh tribe), 41.
Parks on the Coasts of Tropical Seas, 320.
Payne quoted, 1, 8, 11, 34, 56, 134, 165, 209, 222, 238, 278, 286, 288,
289, 306, 311, 312, 322, 327, 338, 344.
Pilgrimage quoted—
i. 18, 285.
i. 22, 337.
i. 38, 228.
i. 99, 207.
i. 100, 205.
i. 110, 42.
ii. 219, 165.
iii. 12, 194.
Pit = grave, 88.
Prayers at burial, beginning with four “Takbírs,” 290.
Prayers, whilst at, the Moslem cannot be spoken to, 197.
Ráhilah = a riding camel, 315.
Rahwán (cor. of Rahbán) = one who keeps the (right) way, 191.
Rain and bounty are synonymous, 43.
Rape, 311.
Rasátík (pl. of Rusták) = villages, 256.
Rasmál (vulg. Syrian and Egyptian form of Raas al-mál = stock in trade)
= capital in hand, 248.
Ráwi = a professional tale-teller (_tr._ “Seer”), 56.
Rází (Al-) = a native of Rayy City, 288.
Ring given as token to show fair play, 248.
Rising up and sitting down, usual sign of emotion, 348.
Roum = Greeks, 134.
Ruh Allah _lit._ = breath of Allah (_tr._ “Spirit of Allah”), 251.
Rumh = lance, 90.
Rusáfiyah = a cap, 160.
Rutab wa manázil = degrees and dignities, 217.
Safíh = slab over the grave (_tr._ “pave”), 41.
Safúl (Al-) = ranks of fighting men, or rows of threads on a loom, 48.
Sáhah = Courtyard (as opposed to “Bathah” = Inner Court), 284.
Sahará _pron._ Sahrá, 251.
Sails hoisted and canvas loosed (anchors weighed and canvas spread),
321.
Sakhrah = labour, 84.
Salám pronounced after prayers, 14.
Satl = water-can (Lat. and Etruscan Situla and Situlus, a water-pot),
291.
Secret, difficult for an Eastern to keep, 342.
Seed pearls made into great pearls (also rubies and branch-coral), 197.
Service (yearly value of his fief), 256.
Shabakah = net (hung over shop during absence of shopkeeper), 205.
Shah Bakht = King Luck, 191.
Shahbán, Bresl. Edit. form of Shahryár = City Keeper, for City-friend,
334.
Sháhrazád (in Mac. Edit. Shahrázád), 334.
Shajarat al-Durr = Branch of Pearl, 12.
Shakhs mafsúd = man of perverted belief (_i.e._ an infidel), 352.
Shampooing (practice of), 116.
Shamúl (fem.) = liquor hung in the wind to cool, 42.
Sharif (a descendant from Mohammed), 285.
Sharr (Al-) (“the wickedness”) last city in Makran before entering
Sind, 336.
Shaykh becomes ceremonially impure by handling a corpse, 290.
Shroff (Arab Sayrafi), 298.
Shubbák = lattice (also “Mashrabiyah” = latticed balcony,) 29.
Si’at rizki-h = the ease with which he earned his livelihood (_tr._
“fortune”), 282.
Silk, Moslems may be shrouded in it, 26.
Sindiyan (from the Persian) = holm-oak, 247.
Sístán (Persian) Arab. Sijistán, 56.
Slave become a King (no shame to Moslems), 348.
Soldiers serving on feudal tenure, 256.
“Some one to back us,” 135.
Sons = Men, a characteristic Arab. idiom, 2.
Stranger invites a guest during pilgrimage-time, 195.
Subjects (men who pay taxes), 256.
Suicide rare in Moslem lands, 325.
Sultanate for Women. Custom of Al-Islam, a strong precedent against
queenly rule, 350.
Ta’ám = Millet seed (_tr._ “grain”), 5.
Taannafú = long noses, 300.
Tabaristan (adj. Tabari, whereas Tabaráni = native of Tiberias), 94.
Ta’dilú = Swerve (also “Ye do injustice”), 52.
Tafrík wa’l-jam’a = division and union, 222.
Táí = The man of the tribe of Tay, 180.
Tákiyah = litter, 99.
Talámizah = disciples (sing. Talmíz), 251.
Tale of the Simpleton Husband (History), 239.
Tales were told before the peep of day, 359.
Tamásil = (the Pavilion of) Pictures (generally carved images), 29.
Tannúr = large earthen jar (_tr._ “oven-jar”), 208.
Tannúr = oven (misprint for “Kubúr” = Tombs), 265.
Tarbíyatí = rearling, 348.
Tarkah = “A gin,” a snare, 16.
Tasill sallata’l-Munkatí’ín = _lit._ “raining on the drouth-hardened
earth of the cut-off” (_tr._ “Watering the dry ground”), 345.
“That a standard be borne over his head,” 161.
“The Astrologers lied,” 122.
The babe to the blanket, and the adultress to the stone, 271.
The sumptuary laws compelling Jews to wear yellow turbans, 286.
“Thou hast done justice” (’adalta), also means “Thou hast swerved from
right.” “Thou hast wrought equitably” also = “Thou hast
transgressed,” 51.
Tither, unable to do evil, 245.
Tobáni = unbaked brick, 34.
Tohfah = A gift, 16.
Torture endured through Eastern obstinacy, 293.
Twelvemonths, _i.e._ a long time, 319.
Under my ribs = In my heart’s core, 339.
Urinal (old French name for phial in which the patient’s water is
sent), 285.
Vocative particles (five in Arabic), 85.
“Wa Kuntu ráihah ursil warák” (the regular Fellah language), 29.
Waddí = Carry, 17.
Wadí’ah = deposit (here sig. blows), 247.
Wafát = death (decease, departure, as opposed to Maut = death), 223.
“Wa há,” etc. (Arab.) corresponding with Syriac “ho” = behold! 275.
Water-closet, Eastern goes to, first thing in the morning, 13.
“We are broken to bits (Kisf.) by our own sin,” 155.
“What hast thou left behind thee, O, Asám”? _i.e._ What didst thou see?
297.
What is behind thee? = What is thy news? 44.
What was his affair? = _lit._ “How was,” etc., 58.
When Fate descended (_i.e._ When the fated hour came down from Heaven),
62.
White hand, _i.e._ gifts and presents, 226.
“Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein,” 119.
Witch, 235.
Women (all of one and the same taste), 96.
“Women are of little wits and lack religion,” 31.
Yá omitted (in poetical fashion) to show speaker’s emotion, 149.
Yá Abá Sábir = O Abu Sabir, 85.
Yá Bilál = O generosity, 40.
Yá Hájjah (_pron._ Hággeh) = O Pilgrimess, 198.
Yá Kabírí = mon brave, my good man (_tr._ “my chief”), 12.
Yá Khálati = O my mother’s sister (_tr._ “O naunty mine”), 32.
Yá Madyúbah = O indebted one, 249.
Yá Nakbah = O calamity, 24.
Yá ’llah jári, yá walad = “Be off at once, boy,” 9.
Yá ’llah, yá ’lláh = Allah and again by Allah (vulg. used for “Look
sharp!”), 9.
Yáhyà, father of Ja’afar, made Wazir by Al-Rashid, 166.
Yamámah-land, 43.
Yar’ad = trembleth (also thundereth), 166.
“Yaskut min ’Aynayh” _lit._ = fall from his two eyes, lose favour
(_tr._ “lose regard with him”), 77.
Za’íf = impotent, 217.
Zakát wa Sadakát = _lit._ paying of poor rate and purifying thy
property by alms deeds (_tr._ “goodness and beneficence and charity
and almsdoing,”) 346.
Za’mú = they tell, 51.
Zalábiyah = a pancake, 33.
Zird-Khánah = armoury, 327.
Zor-Khán = Lord Violence, 94.
Zubaydah’s tomb, 15.
Zúshád (a fancy name) “Zawash” in Persian = Ζεὺς, 89.
-----
Footnote 1:
Arab. “Al-Náim wa al-Yakzán.” This excellent story is not in the Mac.
or Bresl. Edits.; but is given in the Breslau Text, iv. 134–189
(Nights cclxxii.-ccxci). It is familiar to readers of the old “Arabian
Nights Entertainments” as “Abou-Hassan or the Sleeper Awakened;” and
as yet it is the only one of the eleven added by Galland whose
original has been discovered in Arabic: the learned Frenchman,
however, supplied it with embellishments _more suo_, and seems to have
taken it from an original fuller than our text as is shown by sundry
poetical and other passages which he apparently did not invent. Lane
(vol. ii. chap. 12.), noting that its chief and best portion is an
historical anecdote related as a fact, is inclined to think that it is
not a genuine tale of The Nights. He finds it in Al-Ishákí who
finished his history about the close of Sultan Mustafá the Osmanli’s
reign, circa A.H. 1032 (= 1623) and he avails himself of this version
as it is “narrated in a simple and agreeable manner.” Mr. Payne
remarks, “The above title (Asleep and Awake) is of course intended to
mark the contrast between the everyday (or waking) hours of Aboulhusn
and his fantastic life in the Khalif’s palace, supposed by him to have
passed in a dream;” I may add that amongst frolicsome Eastern despots
the adventure might often have happened and that it might have given a
hint to Cervantes.
Footnote 2:
_i.e._ The Wag. See vol. i. 311: the old version calls him “the
Debauchee.”
Footnote 3:
Arab. “Al-Fárs”; a people famed for cleverness and debauchery. I
cannot see why Lane omitted the Persians, unless he had Persian
friends at Cairo.
Footnote 4:
_i.e._ the half he intended for spending-money.
Footnote 5:
_i.e._ “men,” a characteristic Arab idiom: here it applies to the sons
of all time.
Footnote 6:
_i.e._ make much of thee.
Footnote 7:
In Lane the Caliph is accompanied by “certain of his domestics.”
Footnote 8:
Arab. “Khubz Mutabbak,” = bread baked in a platter, instead of in an
oven, an earthen jar previously heated, to the sides of which the
scones or bannocks of dough are applied: “it is lighter than
oven-bread, especially if it be made thin and leavened.” See
Al-Shakúrí, a medical writer quoted by Dozy.
Footnote 9:
In other parts of The Nights Harun al-Rashid declines wine-drinking.
Footnote 10:
The ’Allámah (doctissimus) Sayce (p. 212, Comparative Philology,
London, Trübner, 1885) goes far back for Khalifah = a deputy, a
successor. He begins with the Semitic (Hebrew ?) root “Khaliph” = to
change, exchange: hence “Khaleph” = agio. From this the Greeks got
their κόλλυβος and Cicero his “Collybus,” a money-lender.
Footnote 11:
Arab. “Harfúsh,” (in Bresl. Edit. iv. 138, “Kharfúsh”), in popular
parlance a “blackguard.” I have to thank Mr. Alexander J. Cotheal, of
New York, for sending me a MS. copy of this tale.
Footnote 12:
Arab. “Ta’ám,” in Egypt and Somaliland = millet seed (_Holcus
Sorghum_) cooked in various ways. In Barbary it is applied to the
local staff of life, Kuskusú, wheaten or other flour damped and
granulated by hand to the size of peppercorns, and lastly steamed (as
we steam potatoes), the cullender-pot being placed over a long-necked
jar full of boiling water. It is served with clarified butter,
shredded onions and meat; and it represents the Risotto of Northern
Italy. Europeans generally find it too greasy for digestion. This
Barbary staff of life is of old date and is thus mentioned by Leo
Africanus in early sixth century. “It is made of a lump of Dow, first
set upon the fire, in a vessel full of holes and afterwards tempered
with Butter and Pottage.” So says good Master John Pory, “A
Geographical Historie of Africa, by John Leo, a Moor,” London, 1600,
impensis George Bishop.
Footnote 13:
Arab. “Bi al-Salám” (pron. “Bissalám”) = in the Peace (of Allah).
Footnote 14:
And would bring him bad luck if allowed to go without paying.
Footnote 15:
_i.e._ of the first half, as has been shown.
Footnote 16:
Arab. “Kumájah” from the Persian Kumásh = bread unleavened and baked
in ashes. Egyptians use the word for bannocks of fine flour.
Footnote 17:
Arab. “Kalí,” our “alcali”: for this and other abstergents see vol. i.
279.
Footnote 18:
These lines have occurred twice in vol. i. 117 (Night xii.); I quote
Mr. Payne.
Footnote 19:
Arab. “Yá ’llah, yá ’lláh;” vulg. used for “Look sharp!” _e.g._ “Yá
’llah járí, yá walad” = “Be off at once, boy.”
Footnote 20:
Arab. “Banj akrítashí,” a term which has occurred before.
Footnote 21:
A natural clock, called by West Africans Cokkerapeek = Cock-speak. All
the world over it is the subject of superstition: see Giles’s “Strange
Stories from a Chinese Studio” (i. 177), where Miss Li, who is a
devil, hears the cock crow and vanishes.
Footnote 22:
In Lane Al-Rashid “found at the door his young men waiting for him and
ordered them to convey Abu-l-Hasan upon a mule and returned to the
palace; Abu-l-Hasan being intoxicated and insensible. And when the
Khaleefeh had rested himself in the palace, he called for,” etc.
Footnote 23:
Arab. “Kursi,” Assyrian “Kussú” = throne; and “Korsáí” in Aramaic (or
Nabathean as Al-Mas’udi calls it), the second growth-period of the
“Semitic” family, which supplanted Assyrian and Babylonian, and
became, as Arabic now is, the common speech of the “Semitic” world.
Footnote 24:
Arab. “Makán mahjúb,” which Lane renders by “a private closet,” and
Payne by a “privy place,” suggesting that the Caliph slept in a numéro
cent. So, when starting for the “Trakki Campaign,” Sir Charles Napier
(of Sind), in his zeal for lightening officers’ baggage, inadvertently
chose a water-closet tent for his head-quarters—magno cum risu not of
the staff, who had a strange fear of him, but of the multitude who had
not.
Footnote 25:
Arab. “Dar al-Salam,” one of the seven “Gardens” into which the
Mohammedan Paradise is divided. Man’s fabled happiness began in a
Garden (Eden) and the suggestion came naturally that it would continue
there. For the seven Heavens, see vol. viii., 111.
Footnote 26:
Branch of Pearl, see vol. ii. 57.
Footnote 27:
Arab. “Kahbah,” the lowest word (vol. i. 70), effectively used in
contrast with the speaker’s surroundings.
Footnote 28:
Arab. “Yá kabírí,” = mon brave, my good man.
Footnote 29:
This exaggeration has now become familiar to English speech.
Footnote 30:
Like an Eastern he goes to the water-closet the first thing in the
morning, or rather dawn, and then washes ceremonially before saying
the first prayer. In Europe he would probably wait till after
breakfast. See vol. iii. 242.
Footnote 31:
I have explained why an Eastern does not wash in the basin as
Europeans do in vol. i. p. 241.
Footnote 32:
_i.e._ He was so confused that he forgot. All Moslems know how to
pray, whether they pray or not.
Footnote 33:
The dawn-prayer consists of only four inclinations (_raka’át_); two
“Farz” (divinely appointed), and two Sunnah (the custom of the
Apostle). For the Raka’áh see Lane, M.E. chapt. iii.; it cannot be
explained without illustrations.
Footnote 34:
After both sets of prayers, Farz and Sunnah, the Moslem looks over his
right shoulder and says “The Peace (of Allah) be upon you and the ruth
of Allah,” and repeats the words over the left shoulder. The
salutation is addressed to the Guardian Angels or to the bystanders
(Moslems) who, however, do not return it.
Footnote 35:
_i.e._ Ibrahim of Mosul the musician. See vol. iv. 108.
Footnote 36:
Arab. “Líyúth” plur. of “Layth,” a lion: here warriors are meant.
Footnote 37:
The Abbasides traced their descent from Al-Abbas, Mohammed’s uncle,
and justly held themselves as belonging to the family of the Prophet.
See vol. ii. 61.
Footnote 38:
Arab. “Nímshah” = “half-sword.” See vol. ii. p. 193.
Footnote 39:
_i.e._ May thy dwelling-place never fall into ruin. The prayer has,
strange to say, been granted. “The present city on the Eastern bank of
the Tigris was built by Haroun al-Rashid, and his house still stands
there and is an object of reverent curiosity.” So says my friend Mr.
Grattan Geary (vol. i. p. 212, “Through Asiatic Turkey”, London: Low,
1878). He also gives a sketch of Zubaydah’s tomb on the western bank
of the Tigris near the suburb which represents old Baghdad: it is a
pineapple dome springing from an octagon, both of brick once revetted
with white stucco.
Footnote 40:
In the Bresl. Edit. four hundred. I prefer the exaggerated total.
Footnote 41:
_i.e._ the raised recess at the upper end of an Oriental saloon, and
the place of honour, which Lane calls by its Egyptian name “Líwán.”
See his vol. i. 312 and his M.E. chapt. i: also my vol. iv. p. 71.
Footnote 42:
“Bit o’Musk.”
Footnote 43:
“A gin,” a snare.
Footnote 44:
“A gift,” a present. It is instructive to compare Abu al-Hasan with
Sancho Panza, sprightly Arab wit with grave Spanish humour.
Footnote 45:
_i.e._ he fell down senseless. The old version has “his head knocked
against his knees.”
Footnote 46:
Arab. “Waddí” vulg. Egyptian and Syrian for the classical “Addí” (ii.
of Adú = preparing to do). No wonder that Lane complains (iii. 376) of
the “vulgar style, abounding in errors.”
Footnote 47:
O Apple, O Repose o’ Hearts, O Musk, O Choice Gift.
Footnote 48:
Arab. “Doghrí,” a pure Turkish word, in Egypt meaning “truly, with
truth,” straightforwardly; in Syria = straight (going), directly.
Footnote 49:
Arab. “Máristán,” see vol. i. 288.
Footnote 50:
The scene is a rechauffé of Badr al-Din Hasan and his wife, i. 247.
Footnote 51:
Arab. “Janzír,” another atrocious vulgarism for “Zanjír,” which,
however, has occurred before.
Footnote 52:
Arab. “Arafshah.”
Footnote 53:
In the “Mishkát al-Masábih” (ii. 341), quoted by Lane, occurs the
Hadis, “Shut your doors anights and when so doing repeat the Basmalah;
for the Devil may not open a door shut in Allah’s name.” A pious
Moslem in Egypt always ejaculates, “In the name of Allah, the
Compassionating,” etc., when he locks a door, covers up bread, doffs
his clothes, etc., to keep off devils and dæmons.
Footnote 54:
An Arab idiom meaning, “I have not found thy good fortune (Ka’b =
heel, glory, prosperity) do me any good.”
Footnote 55:
Arab. “Yá Nakbah” = a calamity to those who have to do with thee!
Footnote 56:
Koran cxii., the “Chapter of Unity.” See vol. iii. 307.
Footnote 57:
See vol. iii. 222.
Footnote 58:
Here the author indubitably speaks for himself, forgetting that he
ended Night cclxxxi. (Bresl. iv. 168), and began that following with
Shahrazad’s usual formula.
Footnote 59:
_i.e._ “Delight of the vitals” (or heart).
Footnote 60:
The trick is a rechauffé of the trick played on Al-Rashid and
Zubaydah.
Footnote 61:
“Kalb” here is not heart, but stomach. The big toes of the Moslem
corpse are still tied in most countries, and in some a sword is placed
upon the body; but I am not aware that a knife and salt (both believed
to repel evil spirits) are so used in Cairo.
Footnote 62:
The Moslem, who may not wear unmixed silk during his lifetime, may be
shrouded in it. I have noted that the “Shukkah,” or piece, averages
six feet in length.
Footnote 63:
A vulgar ejaculation; the “hour” referring either to birth or to his
being made one of the Caliph’s equerries.
Footnote 64:
Here the story-teller omits to say that Masrúr bore witness to the
Caliph’s statement.
Footnote 65:
Arab. “Wa kuntu ráihah ursil warák,” the regular Fellah language.
Footnote 66:
Arab. “’Irk al-Háshimí.” See vol. ii. 19. Lane remarks, “Whether it
was so in Hashim himself (or only in his descendants), I do not find;
but it is mentioned amongst the characteristics of his great-grandson,
the Prophet.”
Footnote 67:
Arab. “Bostán al-Nuzhah,” whose name made the stake appropriate. See
vol. ii. 81.
Footnote 68:
Arab. “Tamásil” = generally carved images, which, amongst Moslems,
always suggest idols and idolatry.
Footnote 69:
The “Shubbák” here would be the “Mashrabiyah,” or latticed balcony,
projecting from the saloon-wall, and containing room for three or more
sitters. It is Lane’s “Meshrebeeyeh,” sketched in M.E. (Introduction)
and now has become familiar to Englishmen.
Footnote 70:
This is to show the cleverness of Abu al-Hasan, who had calculated
upon the difference between Al-Rashid and Zubaydah. Such marvels of
perspicacity are frequent enough in the folk-lore of the Arabs.
Footnote 71:
An artful touch, showing how a tale grows by repetition. In Abu
al-Hasan’s case (_infra_) the eyes are swollen by the swathes.
Footnote 72:
A Hadis attributed to the Prophet, and very useful to Moslem husbands
when wives differ overmuch with them in opinion.
Footnote 73:
Arab. “Masarat fí-há,” which Lane renders, “And she threw money to
her.”
Footnote 74:
A saying common throughout the world, especially when the afflicted
widow intends to marry again at the first opportunity.
Footnote 75:
Arab. “Yá Khálati” = O my mother’s sister; addressed by a woman to an
elderly dame.
Footnote 76:
_i.e._ That I may put her to shame.
Footnote 77:
Arab. “Zalábiyah.”
Footnote 78:
Arab. “’Alà al-Kaylah,” which Mr. Payne renders by “Siesta-carpet.”
Lane reads “Kiblah” (“in the direction of the Kiblah”) and notes that
some Moslems turn the corpse’s head towards Meccah and others the
right side, including the face. So the old version reads “feet towards
Mecca.” But the preposition “Alà” requires the former sig.
Footnote 79:
Many places in this text are so faulty that translation is mere
guess-work; _e.g._ “Bashárah” can hardly be applied to ill-news.
Footnote 80:
_i.e._ of grief for his loss.
Footnote 81:
Arab. “Tobáni” which Lane renders “two clods.” I have noted that the
Tob (Span. Adobe = At· Tob) is a sunbaked brick. Beating the bosom
with such material is still common amongst Moslem mourners of the
lower class and the hardness of the blow gives the measure of the
grief.
Footnote 82:
_i.e._ of grief for her loss.
Footnote 83:
Arab. “Ihtirák” often used in the metaphorical sense of consuming;
torturing.
Footnote 84:
Arab. “Haláwat,” lit. = a sweetmeat, a gratuity, a thank-offering.
Footnote 85:
Bresl. Edit., vol. vi. pp. 182–188, Nights ccccxxxii-ccccxxxiv.
Footnote 86:
“The good Caliph” and the fifth of the Orthodox, the other four being
Abu Bakr, Omar, Osman and Ali; and omitting the eight intervening,
Hasan the grandson of the Prophet included. He was the 13th Caliph and
8th Ommiade A.H. 99–101 (= 717–720) and after a reign of three years
he was poisoned by his kinsmen of the Banu Umayyah who hated him for
his piety, asceticism, and severity in making them disgorge their
ill-gotten gains. Moslem historians are unanimous in his praise.
Europeans find him an _anachorète couronné, à froide et respectable
figure_, who lacked the diplomacy of Mu’awiyah and the energy of
Al-Hajjáj. His principal imitator was Al-Muhtadi bi’lláh, who longed
for a return to the rare old days of Al-Islam.
Footnote 87:
Omar ’Adi bin Artah; governor of Kufah and Basrah under “the good
Caliph.”
Footnote 88:
Jarír al-Khatafah, one of the most famous of the “Islámí” poets,
_i.e._, those who wrote in the first century (A.H.) before the
corruption of language began. (See Terminal Essay, p. 267.) Ibn
Khallikan notices him at full length i. 294.
Footnote 89:
Arab. “Bákiyah,” which may also mean eternal as opposed to “Fániyah” =
temporal. Omar’s answer shows all the narrow-minded fanaticism which
distinguished the early Moslems: they were puritanical as any
Praise-God-Barebones, and they hated “boetry and bainting” as hotly as
any Hanoverian.
Footnote 90:
The Saturday Review (Jan. 2, ’86), which has honoured me by the normal
reviling in the shape of a critique upon my two first vols., complains
of the “Curious word Abhak” as “a perfectly arbitrary and unusual
group of Latin letters.” May I ask Aristarchus how he would render
“Sal’am,” (vol. ii. 24), which apparently he would confine to “Arabic
MSS.” (!). Or would he prefer to A(llah) b(less) h(im) a(nd) k(eep)
“W. G. B.” (whom God bless) as proposed by the editor of Ockley? But
where would be the poor old “Saturnine” if obliged to do better than
the authors it abuses?
Footnote 91:
He might have said “by more than one, including the great Labíd.”
Footnote 92:
Fí-hi either “in him” (Mohammed) or “in it” (his action).
Footnote 93:
Chief of the Banu Sulaym. According to Tabari, Abbas bin Mirdas (a
well-known poet), being dissatisfied with the booty allotted to him by
the Prophet, refused it and lampooned Mohammed, who said to Ali, “Cut
off this tongue which attacketh me,” _i.e._ “Silence him by giving
what will satisfy him.” Thereupon Ali doubled the Satirist’s share.
Footnote 94:
Arab. “Yá Bilál”: Bilal ibn Rabah was the Prophet’s freedman and
crier: see vol. iii. 106. But _bilal_ also signifies “moisture” or
“beneficence,” “benefits”: it may be intended for a double entendre
but I prefer the metonymy.
Footnote 95:
The verses of this Kasidah are too full of meaning to be easily
translated: it is fine old poetry.
Footnote 96:
_i.e._ of the Koraysh tribe. For his disorderly life see Ibn Khallikan
ii. 372: he died however, a holy death, battling against the Infidels
in A.H. 93 (= 711–12), some five years before Omar’s reign.
Footnote 97:
Arab. “Bayn farsi-k wa ’l-damí” = lit. between fæces and menses,
_i.e._ the foulest part of his mistress’s person. It is not often that
The Nights are “nasty”; but here is a case. See vol. v. 162.
Footnote 98:
“Jamíl the Poet,” and lover of Buthaynah: see vol. ii. 102, Ibn
Khallikan (i. 331), and Al-Mas’udi vi. 381, who quotes him copiously.
He died A.H. 82 (= 701), or sixteen years before Omar’s reign.
Footnote 99:
Arab. “Safíh” = the slab over the grave.
Footnote 100:
A contemporary and friend of Jamíl and the famous lover of Azzah: See
vol. ii. 102, and Al-Mas’udi, vi. 426. The word “Kuthayyir” means “the
dwarf.” Term. Essay, 268.
Footnote 101:
_i.e._ in the attitude of prayer.
Footnote 102:
In Bresl. Edit. “Al-Akhwass,” clerical error noticed in Ibn Khallikan
i. 526. His satires banished him to Dahlak Island in the Red Sea, and
he died A.H. 179 (= 795–6).
Footnote 103:
Another famous poet Abú Firás Hammám or Humaym (dimin. form), as
debauched as Jarir, who died forty days before him in A.H. 110 (=
728–29), at Basrah. Cf. Term. Essay, 269.
Footnote 104:
A famous Christian poet. See C. de Perceval, Journ. Asiat. April,
1834, Ibn Khallikan iii. 136, and Term. Essay, 269.
Footnote 105:
The poet means that unlike other fasters he eats meat openly. See
Pilgrimage (i. 110), for the popular hypocrisy.
Footnote 106:
Arab. “Bathá” the lowlands and plains outside the Meccan Valley: See
Al-Mas’udi, vi. 157. Mr. (now Sir) W. Muir in his Life of Mahomet,
vol. i., p. ccv., remarks upon my Pilgrimage (iii. 252) that in
placing Arafat 12 miles from Meccah, I had given 3 miles to Muna, + 3
to Muzdalifah + 3 to Arafat = 9. But the total does not include the
suburbs of Meccah and the breadth of the Arafat-Valley.
Footnote 107:
The words of the Azán, vol. i. 306.
Footnote 108:
Wine in Arabic is feminine, “Shamúl” = liquor hung in the wind to
cool, a favourite Arab practice often noticed by the poets.
Footnote 109:
_i.e._ I will fall down dead drunk.
Footnote 110:
Arab. “Árám,” plur. of Irm, a beautiful girl, a white deer. The word
is connected with the Heb. Reem (Deut. xxxiii. 17), which has been
explained unicorn, rhinoceros, and aurochs. It is the Ass. Rimu, the
wild bull of the mountains, provided with a human face, and placed at
the palace-entrance to frighten away foes, demon or human.
Footnote 111:
_i.e._ she who ensnares [all] eyes.
Footnote 112:
_Imam_, the spiritual title of the Caliph, as head of the Faith and
leader (lit. “foreman,” Antistes) of the people at prayer. See vol.
iv. 111.
Footnote 113:
For Yamámah see vol. ii. 104. Omar bin Abd al-Aziz was governor of the
province before he came to the Caliphate. To the note on Zarká, the
blue-eyed Yamamite, I may add that Marwan was called Ibn Zarká, son of
“la femme au drapeau bleu,” such being the sign of a public
prostitute. Al-Mas’udi, v. 509.
Footnote 114:
Rain and bounty, I have said, are synonymous.
Footnote 115:
About £2 10s.
Footnote 116:
_i.e._ what is thy news.
Footnote 117:
Bresl. Edit., vol. vi. pp. 188–9, Night ccccxxxiv.
Footnote 118:
Of this masterful personage and his _énergie indomptable_ I have
spoken in vol. iv. 3, and other places. I may add that he built Wásit
city A.H. 83 and rendered eminent services to literature and
civilization amongst the Arabs. When the Ommiade Caliph Abd al-Malik
was dying he said to his son Walid, “Look to Al-Hajjaj and honour him
for, verily, he it is who hath covered for you the pulpits; and he is
thy sword and thy right hand against all opponents; thou needest him
more than he needeth thee and when I die summon the folk to the
covenant of allegiance; and he who saith with his head—thus, say thou
with thy sword—thus” (Al-Siyuti, p. 225) yet the historian simply
observes, “the Lord curse him.”
Footnote 119:
_i.e._ given through his lieutenant.
Footnote 120:
“Necks” per synecdochen for heads. The passage is a description of a
barber-surgeon in a series of double-entendres; the “nose-pierced”
(Makhzúm) is the subject who is led by the nose like a camel with
halter and ring and the “breaker” (háshim) may be a breaker of bread
as the word originally meant, or breaker of bones. Lastly the “wealth”
(mál) is a recondite allusion to the hair.
Footnote 121:
Arab. “Kadr” which a change of vowel makes “Kidr” = a cooking-pot. The
description is that of an itinerant seller of boiled beans (Fúl
mudammas) still common in Cairo. The “light of his fire” suggests à
double-entendre some powerful Chief like masterful King Kulayb. See
vol. ii. 77.
Footnote 122:
Arab. “Al-Sufúf,” either ranks of fighting-men or the rows of threads
on a loom. Here the allusion is to a weaver who levels and corrects
his threads with the wooden spathe and shuttle governing warp and weft
and who makes them stand straight (behave aright). The “stirrup”
(rikáb) is the loop of cord in which the weaver’s foot rests.
Footnote 123:
“Adab.” See vols. i. 132, and ix. 41.
Footnote 124:
Bresl. Edit., vol. vi. pp. 189–191, Night ccccxxxiv.
Footnote 125:
Arab. “Za’mú,” a word little used in the Cal., Mac. or Bul. Edit.; or
in the Wortley Montague MS.; but very common in the Bresl. text.
Footnote 126:
More double-entendres. “Thou hast done justice” (’adalta) also means
“Thou hast swerved from right;” and “Thou hast wrought equitably”
(Akasta iv. of Kast) = “Thou hast transgressed.”
Footnote 127:
Koran vi. 44. Allah is threatening unbelievers, “And when they had
forgotten their warnings We set open to them the gates of all things,
until, when they were gladdened,” etc.
Footnote 128:
Arab. “Ta’dilú” also meaning, “Ye do injustice”: quoted from Koran iv.
134.
Footnote 129:
Arab. “Al-Kásitúna” before explained. Koran lxxii. 15.
Footnote 130:
Bresl. Edit. vol. vi. pp. 191–343, Nights ccccxxxv-cccclxxxvii. This
is the old Persian Bakhtyár Námeh, _i.e._ the Book of Bakhtyar, so
called from the prince and hero “Fortune’s Friend.” In the tale of
Jili’ad and Shimas the number of Wazirs is seven, as usual in the
Sindibad cycle. Here we have the full tale as advised by the Imám
al-Jara’í: “it is meet for a man before entering upon important
undertakings to consult ten intelligent friends; if he have only five
to apply twice to each; if only one, ten times at different visits,
and if none, let him repair to his wife and consult her; and whatever
she advises him to do let him do the clear contrary,” (quoting Omar)
or as says Tommy Moore,
Whene’er you’re in doubt, said a sage I once knew,
’Twixt two lines of conduct which course to pursue,
Ask a woman’s advice, and whate’er she advise
Do the very reverse, and you’re sure to be wise.
The Romance of the Ten Wazirs occurs in dislocated shape in the
“Nouveaux Contes Arabes, ou Supplément aux Mille et une Nuits, etc.,
par M. l’Abbé * * * Paris, 1788.” It is the “Story of Bohetzad
(Bakht-zád = Luck-born, v.p.), and his Ten Viziers,” in vol. iii., pp.
2–30 of the “Arabian Tales,” etc., published by Dom Chavis and M.
Cazotte, in 1785; a copy of the English translation by Robert Heron,
Edinburgh, 1792, I owe to the kindness of Mr. Leonard Smithers of
Sheffield. It appears also in vol. viii. of M. C. de Perceval’s
Edition of The Nights; in Gauttier’s Edition (vol. vi.), and as the
“Historia Decem Vizirorum et filii Regis Azad-bacht,” text and
translation by Gustav Knös, of Goettingen (1807). For the Turkish,
Malay and other versions see (p. xxxviii. etc.) “The Bakhtiyār Nāma,”
etc. Edited (from the Sir William Ouseley’s version of 1801) by Mr. W.
A. Clouston and privately printed, London, 1883. The notes are
valuable but their worth is sadly injured by the want of an index. I
am pleased to see that Mr. E. J. W. Gibb is publishing the “History of
the Forty Vezirs; or, the Story of the Forty Morns and Eves,” written
in Turkish by “Sheykh-Zadah,” evidently a nom de plume (for Ahmad
al-Misri?), and translated from an Arabic MS. which probably dated
about the xvth century.
Footnote 131:
In Chavis and Cazotte, the “kingdom of Dineroux (comprehending all
Syria and the isles of the Indian Ocean) whose capital was Issessara.”
An article in the Edinburgh Review (July, 1886), calls the
“Supplement” a “bare-faced forgery;” but evidently the writer should
have “read up” his subject before writing.
Footnote 132:
The Persian form; in Arab. Sijistán, the classical Drangiana or
province East of Fars = Persia proper. It is famed in legend as the
feof of hero Rustam.
Footnote 133:
Arab. _Ráwi_ = a professional tale-teller, which Mr. Payne justly
holds to be a clerical error for “_Ráí_, a beholder, one who seeth.”
Footnote 134:
In Persian the name would be Bahr-i-Jaur = “luck” (or fortune, “bahr”)
of Jaur-(or Júr-) city.
Footnote 135:
Supply “and cared naught for his kingdom.”
Footnote 136:
Arab. “Atráf,” plur. of “Tarf,” a great and liberal lord.
Footnote 137:
Lit. “How was,” etc. Kayf is a favourite word not only in the Bresl.
Edit., but throughout Egypt and Syria. Classically we should write
“Má;” vulgarly “Aysh.”
Footnote 138:
Karmania vulg. and fancifully derived from Kirmán Pers. = worms
because the silkworm is supposed to have been bred there; but the name
is of far older date as we find the Asiatic Æthiopians of Herodotus
(iii. 93) lying between the Germanii (Karman) and the Indus. Also
Karmanía appears in Strabo and Sinus Carmanicus in other classics.
Footnote 139:
Arab. “Ka’íd” lit. = one who sits with, a colleague, hence the Span.
Alcayde; in Marocco it is = colonel, and is prefixed _e.g._ Ka’íd
Maclean.
Footnote 140:
A favourite food; Al-Hariri calls the dates and cream, which were sold
together in bazars, the “Proud Rider on the desired Steed.”
Footnote 141:
In Bresl. Edit. vi. 198 by misprint “Kutrú:” Chavis and Cazotte have
“Kassera.” In the story of Bihkard we find a P.N. “Yatrú.”
Footnote 142:
_i.e._ waylaying travellers, a term which has often occurred.
Footnote 143:
_i.e._ the royal favour.
Footnote 144:
_i.e._ When the fated hour came down (from Heaven).
Footnote 145:
As the Nights have proved in many places, the Asl (origin) of a man is
popularly held to influence his conduct throughout life. So the
Jeweller’s wife (vol. ix.) was of servile birth, which accounted for
her vile conduct; and reference is hardly necessary to a host of other
instances. We can trace the same idea in the sayings and folk-lore of
the West, _e.g._ Bon sang ne peut mentir, etc., etc.
Footnote 146:
_i.e._ “What deemest thou he hath done?”
Footnote 147:
The apodosis wanting “to make thee trust in him?”
Footnote 148:
In the Braj Bákhá dialect of Hindi, we find quoted in the
Akhlák-i-Hindi, “Tale of the old Tiger and the Traveller”:—
Jo jáko paryo subháo jáe ná jío-sun;
Ním na mitho hoe sichh gur ghio sun.
Ne’er shall his nature fail a man whate’er that nature be,
The Ním-tree bitter shall remain though drenched with Gur and Ghí.
The Ním (Melia Azadirachta) is the “Persian lilac,” whose leaves,
intensely bitter, are used as a preventive to poison: Gur is the
Anglo-Indian Jaggeri = raw sugar and Ghi = clarified butter. Roebuck
gives the same proverb in Hindostani.
Footnote 149:
In Chavis and Cazotte “Story of Kaskas; or the Obstinate Man.” For
ill-luck, see Miss Frere’s “Old Deccan Days” (p. 171), and Giles’s
“Strange Stories,” &c. (p. 430), where the young lady says to Ma, “You
often asked me for money; but on account of your weak luck I hitherto
refrained from giving it.”
Footnote 150:
True to life in the present day, as many a standing hay-rick has
shown.
Footnote 151:
The “Munajjim” is a recognised authority in Egyptian townlets, and in
the village-republics of Southern India the “Jyoshi” is one of the
paid officials.
Footnote 152:
Arab. “Amín” sub. and adj. In India it means a Government employé who
collects revenue; in Marocco a commissioner sent by His Sharifian
Majesty.
Footnote 153:
Our older word for divers = Arab. “Ghawwásún”: a single pearl (in the
text Jauhar = the Port. Aljofar) is called “habbah” = grain or seed.
Footnote 154:
The kindly and generous deed of one Moslem to another, and by no means
rare in real life.
Footnote 155:
“Eunuch,” etymologically meaning chamberlain (εὐνὴ + ἔχειν), a
bed-chamberservant or slave, was presently confined to castrated men
found useful for special purposes, like gelded horses, hounds, and
cockerels turned to capons. Some writers hold that the creation of the
semivir or apocopus began as a punishment in Egypt and elsewhere; and
so under the Romans amputation of the “peccant part” was frequent:
others trace the Greek “invalid,” _i.e._, impotent man, to marital
jealousy, and not a few to the wife who wished to use the sexless for
hard work in the house without danger to the slave-girls. The origin
of the mutilation is referred by Ammianus Marcellinus (lib. iv., chap.
17), and the Classics generally, to Semiramis, an “ancient queen” of
decidedly doubtful epoch, who thus prevented the propagation of
weaklings. But in Genesis (xxxvii. 36; xxxix. 1, margin) we find
Potiphar termed a “Sarím” (castrato), an “attenuating circumstance”
for Mrs. P. Herodotus (iii. chap. 48) tells us that Periander, tyrant
of Corinth, sent three hundred Corcyrean boys to Alyattes for
castration ἐπὶ ῇτ ἐκτομῇ, and that Panionios of Chios sold caponised
lads for high prices, (viii. 105): he notices (viii. 104 and other
places) that eunuchs “of the Sun, of Heaven, of the hand of God,” were
looked upon as honourable men amongst the Persians whom Stephanus and
Brissonius charge with having invented the name (Dabistan i. 171).
Ctesias also declares that the Persian kings were under the influence
of eunuchs. In the debauched ages of Rome the women found a new use
for these effeminates, who had lost only the testes or testiculi = the
witnesses (of generative force): it is noticed by Juvenal (i. 22; ii.
365–379; vi. 366.)
—sunt quos imbelles et mollia semper
Oscula delectant.
So Martial,
—vult futui Gallia, non parere,
And Mirabeau knew (see Kadísah) “qu’ils mordent les femmes et les
liment avec une précieuse continuité.” (Compare my vol. ii. 90; v.
46). The men also used them as catamites (Horace i. Od. xxxvii.)
“Contaminato cum grege turpium
Morbo virorum.”
In religion the intestabilis or intestatus was held ill-omened, and
not permitted to become a priest (Seneca Controv. ii. 4), a practice
perpetuated in the various Christian churches. The manufacture was
forbidden, to the satisfaction of Martial, by Domitian, whose edict
Nero confirmed; and was restored by the Byzantine empire, which
advanced eunuchs, like Eutropius and Narses, to the highest dignities
of the realm. The cruel custom to the eternal disgrace of mediæval
Christianity was revived in Rome for providing the choirs in the
Sistine Chapel and elsewhere with boys’ voices. Isaiah mentions the
custom (lvi. 3–6,). Mohammed, who notices in the Koran (xxiv. 31),
“such men as attend women and have no need of women” _i.e._ “have no
natural force,” expressly forbade (iv. 118), “changing Allah’s
creatures,” referring, say the commentators, to superstitious
ear-cropping of cattle, tattooing, teeth-sharpening, sodomy,
tribadism, and slave-gelding. See also the “Hidáyah,” vol. iv. 121;
and the famous divine Al-Siyúti, the last of his school, wrote a
tractate Fi ’l-Tahrími Khidmati ’l-Khisyán = on the illegality of
using eunuchs. Yet the Harem perpetuated the practice throughout
Al-Islam and African jealousy made a gross abuse of it. To quote no
other instance, the Sultan of Dár-For had a thousand eunuchs under a
Malik or king, and all the chief offices of the empire, such as Ab
(father) and Báb (door), were monopolised by these neutrals. The
centre of supply was the Upper Nile, where the operation was found
dangerous after the age of fifteen, and when badly performed only one
in four survived. For this reason, during the last century the Coptic
monks of Girgah and Zawy al-Dayr, near Assiout, engaged in this
scandalous traffic, and declared that it was philanthropic to operate
scientifically (Prof. Panuri and many others). Eunuchs are now made in
the Sudán, Nubia, Abyssinia, Kordofán, and Dár-For, especially the
Messalmiyah district: one of those towns was called “Tawáshah”
(eunuchry) from the traffic there conducted by Fukahá or religious
teachers. Many are supplied by the district between Majarah
(Majarash?) and the port Masawwah; there are also depôts at Mbadr,
near Tajurrah-harbour, where Yusuf Bey, Governor in 1880, caponised
some forty boys, including the brother of a hostile African chief:
here also the well-known Abu Bakr was scandalously active. It is
calculated that not less than eight thousand of these unfortunates are
annually exported to Arabia, Egypt, and Turkey. Article IV. of the
Anglo-Egyptian Convention punishes the offence with death, and no one
would object to hanging the murderer under whose mutilating razor a
boy dies. Yet this, like most of our modern “improvements” in Egypt,
is a mere _brutum fulmen_. The crime is committed under our very eyes,
but we will not see it.
The Romans numbered three kinds of eunuchs:—1. Castrati, clean-shaved,
from Gr. κέστρος. 2. Spadones, from σπάω when the testicles are torn
out, not from “Spada,” a town of Persia; and, 3. Thlibii, from θλίβω,
to press, squeeze, when the testicles are bruised, &c. In the East
also, as I have stated (v. 46), eunuchs are of three kinds:—I.
Sandali, or the clean-shaved, the classical apocopus. The parts are
swept off by a single cut of a razor, a tube (tin or wooden) is set in
the urethra, the wound is cauterised with boiling oil, and the patient
is planted in a fresh dunghill. His diet is milk; and and if under
puberty, he often survives. This is the eunuque aqueduc, who must pass
his water through a tube. 2. The eunuch whose penis is removed: he
retains all the power of copulation and procreation without the
wherewithal; and this, since the discovery of caoutchouc, has often
been supplied. 3. The eunuch, or classical Thlibias and Semivir, who
has been rendered sexless by removing the testicles (as the priests of
Cybele were castrated with a stone knife), or by bruising (the Greek
Thlásias), twisting, searing, or bandaging them. A more humane process
has lately been introduced: a horsehair is tied round the neck of the
scrotum and tightened by slow degrees till the circulation of the part
stops and the bag drops off without pain. This has been adopted in
sundry Indian regiments of Irregular Cavalry, and it succeeded
admirably: the animals rarely required a day’s rest. The practice was
known to the ancients. See notes on Kadísah in Mirabeau. The
_Eunuchata virgo_ was invented by the Lydians, according to their
historian Xanthus. Zachias (Quæst. medico-legal.) declares that the
process was one of infibulation or simple sewing up the vulva; but
modern experience has suggested an operation like the “spaying” of
bitches, or mutilation of the womb, in modern euphuism “baby-house.”
Dr. Robert (“Journey from Delhi to Bombay, Müller’s Archiv. 1843”)
speaks of a eunuch’d woman who after ovariotomy had no breasts, no
pubes, no rotundities, and no desires. The Australians practise
exsection of the ovaries systematically to make women barren. Miklucho
Maclay learned from the traveller Retsch that about Lake Parapitshurie
men’s urethras were split, and the girls were spayed: the latter
showing two scars in the groin. They have flat bosoms, but feminine
forms, and are slightly bearded; they mix with the men, whom they
satisfy mechanically, but without enjoyment (?). MacGillivray, of the
“Rattlesnake,” saw near Cape York a woman with these scars: she was a
surdo-mute, and had probably been spayed to prevent increase. The old
Scandinavians, from Norway to Iceland, systematically gelded “sturdy
vagrants,” in order that they might not beget bastards. The Hottentots
before marriage used to cut off the left testicle, meaning by such
semi-castration to prevent the begetting of twins. This curious
custom, mentioned by the Jesuit Tochard, Boeving, and Kolbe, is now
apparently obsolete—at least, the traveller Fritsch did not find it.
Footnote 156:
Arab. “Harám” = “forbidden,” sinful.
Footnote 157:
In Chavis and Cazotte, who out-galland’d Galland in transmogrifying
the Arabic, this is the “Story of Illage (Al-Hájj) Mahomet and his
sons; or, the Imprudent Man.” The tale occurs in many forms and with
great modifications: See, for instance, the Gesta Romanorum “Of the
miraculous recall of sinners and of the consolation which piety offers
to the distressed,” the adventures of the knight Placidus, vol. ii.
99. Charles Swan, London. Rivington, 1824.
Footnote 158:
_i.e._ For fear of the “eye”: see vol. i. 123 and passim. In these
days the practice is rare; but, whenever you see at Cairo an Egyptian
dame daintily dressed and leading by the hand a grimy little boy whose
eyes are black with flies and whose dress is worn and unclean, you see
what has taken its place. And if you would praise the brat you must
not say “Oh, what a pretty boy!” but “Inshallah!”—the Lord doth as he
pleaseth.
Footnote 159:
The adoption of slave lads and lasses was and is still common among
Moslems.
Footnote 160:
I have elsewhere noted this “pathetic fallacy” which is a _lieu
commun_ of Eastern folk-lore and not less frequently used in the
mediæval literature of Europe before statistics were invented.
Footnote 161:
Arab. “Yaskut min ’Aynayh,” lit. = fall from his two eyes, lose
favour.
Footnote 162:
_i.e._ killing a man.
Footnote 163:
_i.e._ we can slay him whenever we will.
Footnote 164:
In Chavis and Cazotte “Story of Abosaber the Patient.” “Abú Sábir”
would mean “Father of the Patient (one).”
Footnote 165:
Arab. “Dihkán,” in Persian a villager; but here something more, a
village-elder or chief. Al-Mas’udi (chap. xxiv.), and other historians
apply the term to a class of noble Persians descended from the ten
sons of Wahkert, the first “Dihkán,” the fourth generation from King
Kayomars.
Footnote 166:
Reminding one not a little of certain anecdotes anent Quakers, current
in England and English-speaking lands.
Footnote 167:
Arab. “Karyah,” a word with a long history. The root seems to be
Karaha, he met; in Chald. Karih and Kária (emphatic Kárita) = a town
or city; and in Heb. Kirjath, Kiryáthayim, etc. We find it in Carthage
= Kartá hádisah, or New Town as opposed to Utica (Atíkah) = Old Town;
in Carchemish and in a host of similar compounds. In Syria and Egypt
Kariyah, like Kafr, now means a hamlet, a village.
Footnote 168:
_i.e._ wandering at a venture.
Footnote 169:
Arab. “Sakhrah,” the old French Corvée, and the “Begár” of India.
Footnote 170:
Arab. “Matmúrah:” see vol. ii. 39, where it is used as an “underground
cell.” The word is extensively used in the Maghrib or Western Africa.
Footnote 171:
Arab. “Yá Abá Sábir.” There are five vocative particles in Arabic;
“Yá,” common to the near and far; “Ayá” (ho!) and “Hayá” (holla!)
addressed to the far, and “Ay” and “A” (A-’Abda-lláhi, O Abdullah), to
those near. All govern the accusative of a noun in construction in the
literary language only; and the vulgar use none but the first named.
The English-speaking races neglect the vocative particle, and I never
heard it except in the Southern States of the Anglo-American Union =
Oh, Mr. Smith.
Footnote 172:
He was not honest enough to undeceive them; a neat Quaker-like touch.
Footnote 173:
Here the oath is justified; but the reader will have remarked that the
name of Allah is often taken in vain. Moslems, however, so far from
holding this a profanation deem it an acknowledgment of the
Omnipotence and Omnipresence. The Jews from whom the Christians have
borrowed had an interest in concealing the name of their tribal
divinity; and therefore made it ineffable.
Footnote 174:
_i.e._ the grave, the fosse commune of slain men.
Footnote 175:
A fancy name; “Zawash” in Pers. is = Ζεὺς, the planet Jupiter, either
borrowed from Greece, or both descended from some long forgotten
ancestor.
Footnote 176:
In Chavis and Cazotte “Story of Bhazad (!) the Impatient.” The name is
Persian, Bih (well, good) Zád (born). In the adj. bih we recognise a
positive lost in English and German which retain the comparative
(bih-tar = better) and superlative (bih-tarin = best).
Footnote 177:
_i.e._ the moiety kept by the bridegroom, a contingent settlement paid
at divorce or on the death of the husband.
Footnote 178:
Arab. “Rumh” = the horseman’s lance not the footman’s spear.
Footnote 179:
_i.e._ became a highwayman (a time-honoured and honourable career) in
order to collect money for completing the dowry.
Footnote 180:
_i.e._ to the bride, the wedding-day; not to be confounded with “going
in unto” etc.
Footnote 181:
Probably meaning that she saw the eyes espying through the crevice
without knowing whose they were.
Footnote 182:
A fancy name intended to be Persian.
Footnote 183:
_i.e._ thy Harem, thy women.
Footnote 184:
_i.e._ thy life hath been unduly prolonged.
Footnote 185:
See Chavis and Cazotte, “Story of Ravia (Arwà!) the Resigned.” Dád-bín
(Persian) = one who looks to justice, a name hardly deserved in this
case.
Footnote 186:
For this important province and city of Persia, see Al-Mas’údí, ii. 2;
iv. 86, etc. It gave one of many names to the Caspian Sea. The
adjective is Tabari, whereas Tabaráni = native of Tiberias
(Tabariyah).
Footnote 187:
Zor-khán = Lord Violence, and Kárdán = Business-knower; both Persian.
Footnote 188:
“Arwà” written with a terminal of yá is a woman’s P.N. in Arabic.
Footnote 189:
_i.e._ Not look down upon me with eyes of contempt. This “marrying
below one” is still an Eastern idea, very little known to women in the
West.
Footnote 190:
Chavis and Cazotte call the Dabbús a “dabour” and explain it as a
“sort of scepter used by Eastern Princes, which serves also as a
weapon.” For the Dabbús, or mace, see vol. vi. 249.
Footnote 191:
_i.e._ Let thy purposes be righteous as thine outward profession.
Footnote 192:
See vol. vi. 130. This is another _lieu commun_ amongst Moslems; and
its unfact requires only statement.
Footnote 193:
Afterwards called his “chamberlain,” _i.e._ guardian of the
Harem-door.
Footnote 194:
_i.e._ Chosroës, whom Chavis and Cazotte make “Cyrus.”
Footnote 195:
Arab. “Tákiyah,” used for the Persian Takhtrawán, common in The
Nights.
Footnote 196:
Arab. “Kubbah,” a dome-shaped tent, as elsewhere.
Footnote 197:
This can refer only to Abu al-Khayr’s having been put to death on
Kardan’s charge, although the tale-teller, with characteristic
inconsequence, neglected to mention the event.
Footnote 198:
Not referring to skull sutures, but to the forehead, which is
poetically compared with a page of paper upon which Destiny writes her
irrevocable decrees.
Footnote 199:
Said in the grimmest earnest, not jestingly, as in vol. iv. 264.
Footnote 200:
_i.e._ the _lex talionis_, which is the essence of Moslem, and indeed,
of all criminal jurisprudence. We cannot wonder at the judgment of
Queen Arwa: even Confucius, the mildest and most humane of lawgivers,
would not pardon the man who allowed his father’s murderer to live.
The Moslem lex talionis (Koran ii. 173) is identical with that of the
Jews (Exod. xxi. 24), and the latter probably derives from immemorial
usage. But many modern Rabbins explain away the Mosaical command as
rather a demand for a pecuniary mulct than literal retaliation. The
well-known Isaac Aburbanel cites many arguments in proof of this
position: he asks, for instance, supposing the accused have but one
eye, should he lose it for having struck out one of another man’s two?
Moreover, he dwells upon the impossibility of inflicting a punishment
the exact equivalent of the injury; like Shylock’s pound of flesh
without drawing blood. Moslems, however, know nothing of these
frivolities, and if retaliation be demanded the judge must grant it.
There is a legend in Marocco of an English merchant who was compelled
to forfeit tooth for tooth at the instance of an old woman, but a
profitable concession gilded the pill.
Footnote 201:
In Chavis and Cazotte “Story of Bhazmant (!); or the Confident Man.”
“Bakht (-i-) Zamán” in Pers. would = Luck of the Time.
Footnote 202:
Chavis and Cazotte change the name to “Abadid,” which, like
“Khadídán,” is non-significant.
Footnote 203:
Arab. “Fáris,” here a Reiter, or Dugald Dolgetti, as mostly were the
hordes led by the mediæval Italian Condottiéri.
Footnote 204:
So Napoleon the Great also believed that Providence is mostly
favourable to “gros bataillons.”
Footnote 205:
Pers. and Arab. = “Good perfection.”
Footnote 206:
In Chavis and Cazotte “Story of Baharkan.” Bihkard (in Shiraz
pronounced “Kyard”) = “Well he did.”
Footnote 207:
See “Katrú” in the Introduction to the Bakhtiyár-námah.
Footnote 208:
The text has “Jaukalán” for Saulaján, the Persian “Chaugán” = the
crooked bat used in Polo. Sec vol. 1. 46.
Footnote 209:
Amongst Moslems, I have noted, circumstantial evidence is not lawful:
the witness must swear to what he has seen. A curious consideration,
how many innocent men have been hanged by “circumstantial evidence.”
See vol. v. 97.
Footnote 210:
In Chavis and Cazotte “Story of Abattamant (!), or the Prudent Man;”
also Aylán Shah becomes Olensa after Italian fashion.
Footnote 211:
In Arab. idiom a long hand or arm means power, a phrase not wholly
unused in European languages. Chavis and Cazotte paraphrase “He who
keeps his hands crossed upon his breast, shall not see them cut off.”
Footnote 212:
Arab. “Jama’a atráfah,” lit. = he drew in his extremities, it being
contrary to “etiquette” in the presence of a superior not to cover
hands and feet. In the wild Argentine Republic the savage Gaucho
removes his gigantic spurs when coming into the presence of his
master.
Footnote 213:
About the equivalent to the Arab. or rather Egypto-Syrian form
“Jiddan,” used in the modern slang sense.
Footnote 214:
_i.e._ that he become my son-in-law.
Footnote 215:
For the practice of shampooing often alluded to in The Nights, see
vol. iii. 17. The king “sleeping on the boys’ knees” means that he
dropped off whilst his feet were on the laps of the lads.
Footnote 216:
Meaning the honour of his Harem.
Footnote 217:
Pardon, lit. = security: the cry for quarter already introduced into
English
“Or raise the craven cry Aman.”
It was Mohammed’s express command that this prayer for mercy should be
respected even in the fury of fight. See vol. i. 342.
Footnote 218:
A saying found in every Eastern language beginning with Hebrew;
Proverbs xxvi. 27, “Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein.”
Footnote 219:
_i.e._ a domed tomb where prayers and prelections of the Koran could
be made. “Kubbah” in Marocco is still the term for a small square
building with a low media-naranja cupola under which a Santon lies
interred. It is the “little Waly” of our “blind travellers” in the
unholy “Holy Land.”
Footnote 220:
_i.e._ to secure her assistance in arousing the king’s wrath.
Footnote 221:
_i.e._ so slow to avenge itself.
Footnote 222:
“Story of Sultan Hebriam (!), and his Son” (Chavis and Cazotte).
Unless they greatly enlarged upon the text, they had a much fuller
copy than that found in the Bresl. Edit.
Footnote 223:
A right kingly king, in the Eastern sense of the word, would strike
off their heads for daring to see omens threatening his son and heir:
this would be constructive treason of the highest because it might be
expected to cause its own fulfilment.
Footnote 224:
Mahommed’s Hadís “Kazzibú ’l-Munajjimúna bi Rabbi ’l-Ka’abah” = the
Astrologers lied, by the Ka’abah’s Lord!
Footnote 225:
Arab. “Khawátín,” plur. of Khátún, a matron, a lady, vol. iv. 66.
Footnote 226:
See Al-Mas’udi, chapt. xvii. (Fr. Transl. ii. 48–49) of the circular
cavity two miles deep and sixty in circuit inhabited by men and
animals on the Caucasus near Derbend.
Footnote 227:
Arab. “Nafas” lit. = breath. Arabs living in a land of caverns know by
experience the danger of asphyxiation in such places.
Footnote 228:
This simple tale is told with much pathos not of words but of sense.
Footnote 229:
Arab. “Ajal” = the appointed day of death; also used for sudden death.
See vol. i. 74.
Footnote 230:
_i.e._ the Autumnal Equinox, one of the two great festival days (the
other being the New Year) of the Persians, and surviving in our
Michaelmas. According to Al-Mas’udí (chap. xxi.), it was established
to commemorate the capture of Zahhák (Azhi-Daháka), the biting snake
(the Hindu Ahi) of night and darkness, the Greek Astyages, by Furaydun
or Feridun. Prof. Sayce (Principles of Comparative Philology, p. 11)
connects the latter with the Vedic deity Trita, who harnessed the
Sun-horse (Rig. v. i. 163, 2, 3), the τριτογένεια of Homer, a title of
Athene, the Dawn-goddess, and Burnouf proved the same Trita to be
Thraétaona, son of Athwya, of the Avesta, who finally became Furaydún,
the Greek Kyrus. See vol. v. 1.
Footnote 231:
In Chavis and Cazotte, “Story of Selimansha and his Family.”
Footnote 232:
Arab. for Pers. Pahluwán (from Pahlau) a brave, a warrior, an athlete,
applied in India to a champion in any gymnastic exercise, especially
in wrestling. The Frenchman calls him “Balavan”; and the Bresl. text
in more than one place (p. 312) calls him “Bahwán.”
Footnote 233:
_i.e._ King (Arab.) King (Persian): we find also Sultan Malik Shah =
King King King.
Footnote 234:
Arab. “Aulád-í,” a vulgarism, plural for dual.
Footnote 235:
Mr. Payne translates, “so he might take his father’s leavings” _i.e._
heritage, reading “Ásár” which I hold to be a clerical error for Sár =
Vendetta, blood revenge (Bresl. Edit. vi. 310).
Footnote 236:
Arab. “Al-’Ásí” the pop. term for one who refuses to obey a
constituted authority and syn. with Pers. “Yághí.” “Ant ’Ásí?” Wilt
thou not yield thyself? says a policeman to a refractory Fellah.
Footnote 237:
_i.e._ of the Greeks: so in Kor. xxx. 1. “Alif Lam Mim, the Greeks
(Al-Roum) have been defeated.” Mr. Rodwell curiously remarks that “the
vowel-points for ’defeated’ not being originally written, would make
the prophecy true in either event, according as the verb received an
active or passive sense in pronunciation.” But in discovering this
mare’s nest, a rank piece of humbug like Aio te Aeacida etc., he
forgets that all the Prophet’s “Companions,” numbering some 5,000,
would pronounce it only in one way and that no man could mistake
“ghalabat” (active) for “ghulibat” (passive).
Footnote 238:
The text persistently uses “Járiyah” = damsel, slave-girl, for the
politer “Sabiyah” = young lady, being written in a rude and uncourtly
style.
Footnote 239:
So our familiar phrase “Some one to back us.”
Footnote 240:
Arab. “’Akkada lahu ráy,” plur. of ráyat, a banner. See vol. iii. 307.
Footnote 241:
_i.e._ “What concern hast thou with the king’s health?” The question
is offensively put.
Footnote 242:
Arab. “Masalah,” a question; here an enigma.
Footnote 243:
Arab. “Liallá” (_i.e._ li, an, lá) lest; but printed here and
elsewhere with the yá as if it were “laylan,” = for a single night.
Footnote 244:
_i.e._ if my death be fated to befal to-day, none may postpone it to a
later date.
Footnote 245:
Arab. “Dustí”: so the ceremony vulgarly called “Doseh” and by the
Italo-Egyptians “Dosso,” the riding over disciples’ backs by the
Shaykh of the Sa’diyah Darwayshes (Lane M.E. chapt. xxv.) which took
place for the last time at Cairo in 1881.
Footnote 246:
In Chavis and Cazotte she conjures him “by the great Maichonarblatha
Sarsourat” (Miat wa arba’at ashar Súrat) = the 114 chapters of the
Alcoran.
Footnote 247:
I have noted that Moslem law is not fully satisfied without such
confession which, however, may be obtained by the bastinado. It is
curious to compare English procedure with what Moslem would be in such
a case as that of the famous Tichborne Claimant. What we did need
hardly be noticed. An Arab judge would in a case so suspicious at once
have applied the stick and in a quarter of an hour would have settled
the whole business; but then what about the “Devil’s own,” the lawyers
and lawyers’ fees? And he would have remarked that the truth is not
less true because obtained by such compulsory means.
Footnote 248:
The Hudhud, so called from its cry “Hood! Hood!” It is the Lat. upupa,
Gr. ἔποψ from its supposed note epip or upup; the old Egyptian Kukufa;
Heb. Dukiphath and Syriac Kikuphá (Bochart Hierozoicon, part ii. 347).
The Spaniards call it Gallo de Marzo (March-Cock) from its returning
in that month, and our old writers “lapwing” (Deut. xiv. 18). This
foul-feeding bird derives her honours from chapt. xxvii. of the Koran
(_q.v._), the Hudhud was sharp-sighted and sagacious enough to
discover water underground which the devils used to draw after she had
marked the place by her bill.
Footnote 249:
Here the vocative Yá is designedly omitted in poetical fashion
(_e.g._, Khaliliyya—my friend!) to show the speaker’s emotion. See p.
113 of Captain A. Lockett’s learned and curious work the “Miet Amil”
(= Hundred Regimens), Calcutta, 1814.
Footnote 250:
The story-teller introduces this last instance with considerable art
as a preface to the dénoûement.
Footnote 251:
See Chavis and Cazotte “Story of the King of Haram and the slave.”
Footnote 252:
_i.e._ men caught red-handed.
Footnote 253:
Arab. “Libwah,” one of the multitudinous names for the king of beasts,
still used in Syria where the animal has been killed out, soon to be
followed by the bear (_U. Syriacus_). The author knows that lions are
most often found in couples.
Footnote 254:
Arab. “Himyán or Hamyán,” = a girdle.
Footnote 255:
As he would kiss a son. I have never yet seen an Englishman endure
these masculine kisses, formerly so common in France and Italy,
without showing clearest signs of his disgust.
Footnote 256:
A cheap way of rewarding merit, not confined to Eastern monarchs, but
practised by all contemporary Europe.
Footnote 257:
Arab. “Kasf,” = houghing a camel so as to render it helpless. The
passage may read, “we are broken to bits (Kisí) by our own sin.”
Footnote 258:
Bresl. Edit., vol. vii. pp. 251–4, Night dlxv.
Footnote 259:
See vol. vi. 175. A Moslem should dress for public occasions, like the
mediæval student, _in vestibus_ (quasi) _nigris aut subfuscis_; though
not, except amongst the Abbasides, absolutely black, as sable would
denote Jewry.
Footnote 260:
A well-known soldier and statesman, noted for piety and austerity. A
somewhat fuller version of this story, from which I have borrowed
certain details, is given in the Biographical Dictionary of Ibn
Khallikán (i. 303–4). The latter, however, calls the first Abd
al-Malik “Ibn Bahrán” (in the index Ibn Bahrám), which somewhat spoils
the story. “Ibn Khallikan,” by-the-by, is derived popularly from
“Khalli” (let go), and “Kána” (it was, enough), a favourite expression
of the author, which at last superseded his real name, Abu al-Abbás
Ahmad. He is better off than the companion nicknamed by Mohammed Abú
Horayrah = Father of the She-kitten (not the cat), and who in
consequence has lost his true name and pedigree.
Footnote 261:
In Ibn Khallikán (i. 303) he is called the “Hashimite,” from his
ancestor, Hashim ibn Abd Manáf. The Hashimites and Abbasides were fine
specimens of the Moslem “Pharisee,” as he is known to Christians, not
the noble Purushi of authentic history.
Footnote 262:
Meaning a cap, but of what shape we ignore. Ibn Khallikan afterwards
calls it a “Kalansúa,” a word still applied to a mitre worn by
Christian priests.
Footnote 263:
Arab. “Lá baas,” equivalent in conversation to our “No matter,” and
“All right.”
Footnote 264:
As a member of the reigning family, he wore black clothes, that being
the especial colour of the Abbasides, adopted by them in opposition to
the rival dynasty of the Ommiades, whose family colour was white, that
of the Fatimites being green. The Moslems borrowed their sacred green,
“the hue of the Pure,” from the old Nabatheans and the other primitive
colours from the tents of the captains who were thus distinguished.
Hence also amongst the Turks and Tartars, the White Horde and the
Black Horde.
Footnote 265:
The word has often occurred, meaning date-wine or grape-wine. Ibn
Khaldún contends that in Ibn Khallikan it here means the former.
Footnote 266:
= £25,000. Ibn Khallikan (i. 304) makes the debt four millions of
dirhams or £90,000–£100,000.
Footnote 267:
In the Biographer occurs the equivalent phrase, “That a standard be
borne over his head.”
Footnote 268:
Here again we have a suggestion that Ja’afar presumed upon his favour
with the Caliph; such presumption would soon be reported (perhaps by
the _austère intrigant_ himself) to the royal ears, and lay the
foundation of ill-will likely to end in utter destruction.
Footnote 269:
Bresl. Edit., vol. vii. pp. 258–60, Night dlxvii.
Footnote 270:
Fourth Abbaside, A.D. 785–786, vol. v. 93. He was a fantastic tyrant
who was bent upon promoting to the Caliphate his own son, Ja’afar; he
cast Harun into prison and would probably have slain him but for the
intervention of the mother of the two brothers, Khayzarán widow of
Al-Mahdi, and Yahya the Barmecide.
Footnote 271:
Third Abbaside, A.D. 775–785, vol. vii. 136; ix. 334.
Footnote 272:
This reminds us of the Bir Al-Khátim (Well of the Signet) at
Al-Medinah; in which Caliph Osman during his sixth year dropped from
his finger the silver ring belonging to the founder of Al-Islam,
engraved in three lines with “Mohammed | Apostle (of) | Allah |.” It
had served to sign the letters sent to neighbouring kings and had
descended to the first three successors (Pilgrimage ii. 219). Mohammed
owned three seal-rings, the golden one he destroyed himself; and the
third, which was of carnelian, was buried with other objects by his
heirs. The late Subhi Pasha used to declare that the latter had been
brought to him with early Moslem coins by an Arab, and when he died he
left it to the Sultan.
Footnote 273:
Mr. Payne quotes Al-Tabari’s version of this anecdote. “El-Mehdi had
presented his son Haroun with a ruby ring, worth a hundred thousand
dinars, and the latter being one day with his brother [the then
reigning Khalif], El Hadi saw the ring on his finger and desired it.
So, when Haroun went out from him, he sent after him, to seek the ring
of him. The Khalif’s messenger overtook Er Reshid on the bridge over
the Tigris and acquainted him with his errand; whereupon the prince,
enraged at the demand, pulled off the ring and threw it into the
river. When El Hadi died and Er Reshid succeeded to the throne, he
went with his suite to the bridge in question and bade his Vizier
Yehya ben Khalid send for divers and cause them make search for the
ring. It had then been five months in the water and no one believed it
would be found. However, the divers plunged into the river and found
the ring in the very place where he had thrown it in, whereat Haroun
rejoiced with an exceeding joy, regarding it as a presage of fair
fortune.”
Footnote 274:
Not historically correct. Al-Rashid made Yáhyà, father of Ja’afar, his
Wazir; and the minister’s two sons, Fazl and Ja’afar, acted as his
lieutenants for seventeen years from A.D. 786 till the destruction of
the Barmecides in A.D. 803. The tale-teller quotes Ja’afar because he
was the most famous of the house.
Footnote 275:
Perhaps after marrying Ja’afar to his sister. But the endearing name
was usually addressed to Ja’afar’s elder brother Fazl, who was the
Caliph’s foster-brother.
Footnote 276:
Read seventeen: all these minor inaccuracies tend to invalidate the
main statement.
Footnote 277:
Arab. “Yar’ad” which may also mean “thundereth.” The dark saying
apparently means, Do good whilst thou art in power and thereby
strengthen thyself.
Footnote 278:
The lady seems to have made the first advances and Bin Abú Hájilah
quotes a sixaine in which she amorously addresses her spouse. See
D’Herbelot, _s.v._ Abbassa.
Footnote 279:
The tale-teller passes with a very light hand over the horrors of a
massacre which terrified and scandalised the then civilised world, and
which still haunt Moslem history. The Caliph, like the king, can do no
wrong; and, as Viceregent of Allah upon Earth, what would be deadly
crime and mortal sin in others becomes in his case an ordinance from
above. These actions are superhuman events and fatal which man must
not judge nor feel any sentiment concerning them save one of
mysterious respect. For the slaughter of the Barmecides, see my
Terminal Essay, vol. x.
Footnote 280:
Bresl. Edit., vol. vii. pp. 260–1, Night dlxviii.
Footnote 281:
Ibn al-Sammák (Son of the fisherman or fishmonger), whose name was Abú
al-Abbás Mohammed bin Sabíh, surnamed Al-Mazkúr (Ibn al-Athir says
Al-Muzakkar), was a native of Kufah (where he died in A.H. 183 =
799–80), a preacher and professional tale-teller famed as a stylist
and a man of piety. Al-Siyuti (p. 292) relates of him that when
honoured by the Caliph with courteous reception he said to him, “Thy
humility in thy greatness is nobler than thy greatness.” He is known
to have been the only theologician who, _ex cathedrâ_, promised
Al-Rashid a place in Paradise.
Footnote 282:
Bresl. Edit., vol. vii. pp. 261–2, Night dlxviii.
Footnote 283:
Seventh Abbaside, A.H. 198–227 = 813–842. See vol. iv. 109. He was a
favourite with his father, who personally taught him tradition; but he
offended the Faithful by asserting the creation of the Koran, by his
leaning to Shi’ah doctrine, and by changing the black garments of the
Banu Abbas into green. He died of a chill at Budandún, a day’s march
from Tarsus, where he was buried: for this Podendon = πόδα τείνειν =
stretch out thy feet, see Al-Siyuti, pp. 326–27.
Footnote 284:
Sixth Abbaside, A.D. 809–13. See vol. v. 93: 152. He was of pure
Abbaside blood on the father’s side and his mother Zubaydah’s. But he
was unhappy in his Wazir Al-Fazl bin Rabí’, the intriguer against the
Barmecides, who estranged him from his brothers Al-Kásim and
Al-Maamún. At last he was slain by a party of Persians, “who struck
him with their swords, and cut him through the nape of his neck and
went with his head to Tahir bin al-Husayn, general to Al-Maamún, who
set it upon a garden-wall and made proclamation, This is the head of
the deposed Mohammed (Al-Amín).” Al-Siyuti, pp. 306–311. It was
remarked by Moslem annalists that every sixth Abbaside met with a
violent death: the first was this Mohammed al-Amin surnamed Al-Makhlú’
= The Deposed; the second sixth was Al-Musta’ín; and the last was
Al-Muktadí bi ’lláh.
Footnote 285:
Lit. “Order and acceptance.” See the Tale of the Sandal-wood Merchant
and the Sharpers: vol. vi. 202.
Footnote 286:
This is not noticed by Al-Siyuti (p. 318) who says that his mother was
a slave-concubine named Marájil who died in giving him birth. The tale
in the text appears to be a bit of Court scandal, probably suggested
by the darkness of the Caliph’s complexion.
Footnote 287:
Bresl. Edit., vol. viii. pp. 226–9, Nights dclx-i.
Footnote 288:
King of the Arab kingdom of Hirah, for whom see vol. v. 74. This
ancient villain rarely appears in such favourable form when tales are
told of him.
Footnote 289:
The tribe of the chieftain and poet, Hátim Táí, for whom see vol. iv.
94.
Footnote 290:
_i.e._ I will make a covenant with him before the Lord. Here the word
“Allah” is introduced among the Arabs of The Ignorance.
Footnote 291:
_i.e._ The man of the tribe of Tay.
Footnote 292:
A similar story of generous dealing is told of the Caliph Omar in The
Nights. See vol. v. 99 _et sqq._
Footnote 293:
Bres. Edit., vol. viii. pp. 273–8, Nights dclxxv-vi. In Syria and
Egypt Fírúz (the Persian “Píroz”) = victorious, triumphant, is usually
pronounced Fayrúz. The tale is a rechauffé of the King and the Wazir’s
Wife in The Nights. See vol. vi. 129.
Footnote 294:
_i.e._ I seek refuge with Allah = God forfend.
Footnote 295:
Bresl. Edit., vol. xi. pp. 84–318, Nights dccclxxv-dccccxxx. Here
again the names are Persian, showing the provenance of the tale; Shah
Bakht is = King Luck and Rahwán is a corruption of Rahbán = one who
keeps the (right) way; or it may be Ruhbán = the Pious. Mr. W. A.
Clouston draws my attention to the fact that this tale is of the
Sindibad (Seven Wise Masters) cycle and that he finds remotely allied
to it a Siamese collection, entitled Nonthuk Pakaranam in which
Princess Kankras, to save the life of her father, relates eighty or
ninety tales to the king of Pataliput (Palibothra.) He purposes to
discuss this and similar subjects in extenso in his coming volumes,
“Popular Tales and Fictions: their Migrations and Transformations,” to
which I look forward with pleasant anticipations.
Footnote 296:
So far this work resembles the Bakhtiyár-námeh, in which the ten
Wazirs are eager for the death of the hero who relates tales and
instances to the king, warning him against the evils of precipitation.
Footnote 297:
One pilgrimage (Hajjat al-Islam) is commanded to all Moslems. For its
conditions see The Nights, vol. v. 202, _et sqq._
Footnote 298:
Arab. “Hajj al-Shárif.” For the expenses of the process see my
Pilgrimage iii. 12. As in all “Holy Places,” from Rome to Benares, the
sinner in search of Salvation is hopelessly taken in and fleeced by
the “sons of the sacred cities.”
Footnote 299:
Here a stranger invites a guest who at once accepts the invitation;
such is the freedom between Moslems at Meccah and Al-Medinah,
especially during pilgrimage-time.
Footnote 300:
_i.e._ the master could no longer use her carnally.
Footnote 301:
_i.e._ wantoned it away.
Footnote 302:
Here “Al-Hajj” = the company of pilgrims, a common use of the term.
Footnote 303:
The text says, “He went on with the caravan to the Pilgrimage,”
probably a clerical error. “Hajj” is never applied to the Visitation
(Ziyárah) at Al-Medinah.
Footnote 304:
Arab. “Jáwar,” that is, he became a mujáwir, one who lives in or near
a collegiate mosque. The Egyptian proverb says, “He pilgrimaged: quoth
one, Yes, and for his villainy lives (yujawir) at Meccah,” meaning
that he found no other place bad enough for him.
Footnote 305:
I have often heard of this mysterious art in the East, also of
similarly making rubies and branch-coral of the largest size; but,
despite all my endeavours, I never was allowed to witness the
operation. It was the same with alchemy, which, however, I found very
useful to the “smasher.” See my History of Sindh, chapt. vii.
Footnote 306:
Elsewhere in The Nights specified as white woollen robes.
Footnote 307:
Whilst she was praying the girl could not address her; but the use of
the rosary is a kind of “parergon.”
Footnote 308:
Arab. “Yá Hájjah” (in Egypt pronounced “Hággeh”), a polite address to
an elderly woman, who is thus supposed to have “finished her faith.”
Footnote 309:
Arab. “Kanísah” (from Kans = sweeping) a pagan temple, a Jewish
synagogue, and especially a Christian church.
Footnote 310:
_i.e._ standeth in prayer or supplication.
Footnote 311:
_i.e._ fell into hysterics, a very common complaint amongst the highly
nervous and excitable races of the East.
Footnote 312:
Arab. “Kahramánah,” a word which has often occurred in divers senses,
nurse, duenna, chamberwoman, stewardess, armed woman defending the
Harem, etc.
Footnote 313:
Which is supposed to contain the Harem.
Footnote 314:
Especially mentioned because the guide very often follows his charges,
especially when he intends to play them an ugly trick. I had an
unpleasant adventure of the kind in Somaliland; but having the fear of
the “Aborigines Protection Society” before my eyes, refrained from
doing more than hinting at it.
Footnote 315:
_i.e._ otherwise than according to ordinance of Allah.
Footnote 316:
A well-known city of Irák ’Ajamí (or Persian).
Footnote 317:
_i.e._ spare pegs and strings, plectra, thumb-guards, etc.
Footnote 318:
Arab. “Hasír,” the fine matting used for sleeping on during the hot
season in Egypt and Syria.
Footnote 319:
_i.e._ The bed where the “rough and tumble” had taken place.
Footnote 320:
This word, which undoubtedly derives from cuculus, cogul, cocu, a
cuckoo, has taken a queer twist, nor can I explain how its present
meaning arose from a she-bird which lays her egg in a strange nest.
Wittol, on the other hand, from Witan to know, is rightly applied to
one whom La Fontaine calls “cocu et content,” the Arab. Dayyús.
Footnote 321:
Arab. “Shabakah,” here a net like a fisherman’s, which is hung over
the hole in the wall called a shop, during the temporary absence of
the shopkeeper. See my Pilgrimage, i. 100.
Footnote 322:
_i.e._ of which the singer speaks.
Footnote 323:
_i.e._, she found him good at the to-and-fro movement; our
corresponding phrase is “basket-making.”
Footnote 324:
Arab. “Mu’arris”: in vol. i. 338, I derived the word from ’Ars
marriage, like the Germ. Kupplerin. This was a mere mistake; the root
is ’Ars (with a Sád not a Sín) and means a pimp who shows off or
displays his wares.
Footnote 325:
Arab. “Akhmitu Ghazla-há” lit. = thicken her yarn or thread.
Footnote 326:
I must again warn the reader that the negative, which to us appears
unnecessary, is emphatic in Arabic.
Footnote 327:
_i.e._ By removing the goods from the “but” to the “ben.” Pilgrimage
i. 99.
Footnote 328:
Arab. “Tannúr,” here the large earthern jar with a cover of the same
material, round which the fire is built.
Footnote 329:
Being a musician the hero of the tale was also a pederast.
Footnote 330:
Here Mr. Payne supplies “Then they returned and sat down (apparently
changing places).” He is quite correct in characterising the Bresl.
Edit. as corrupt and “fearfully incoherent.” All we can make certain
of in this passage is that the singer mistook the Persian for his
white slave (Mameluke).
Footnote 331:
Arab. “Bazaka,” normally used in the sense of spitting: here the
saliva might be applied for facilitating insertion.
Footnote 332:
In Persian “Áward o burd,” = brought and bore away, gen. applied to
the movement of the man as in the couplet,
Chenín burd o áward o áward o burd,
Kih dáyeh pas-i-pardeh zi ghussah murd.
He so came and went, went and came again,
That Nurse who lay curtained to faint was fain.
Footnote 333:
Alluding to the fighting rams which are described by every
Anglo-Indian traveller. They strike with great force, amply sufficient
to crush the clumsy hand which happens to be caught between the two
foreheads. The animals are sometimes used for Fál or consulting
futurity: the name of a friend is given to one and that of a foe to
the other; and the result of the fight suggests victory or defeat for
the men.
Footnote 334:
Arab. “Jauhar” = the jewel, the essential nature of a substance.
Compare M. Alcofribas’ “Abstraction of the Quintessence.”
Footnote 335:
In parts of the Moslem world Al-Jabr = the tyranny, is the equivalent
of what we call “civil law,” as opposed to Al-Sharí’ah, or Holy Law,
the religious code; Diwan Al-Jabr (Civil Court) being the contrary of
the Mahkamah or Kazi’s tribunal. See “First Footsteps in East Africa,”
p. 126.
Footnote 336:
_i.e._ in offering thee the kingship.
Footnote 337:
_i.e._ “a man of fourscore.”
Footnote 338:
_i.e._ outside the city.
Footnote 339:
See the conclusion of the story.
Footnote 340:
_i.e._ I have said my say.
Footnote 341:
Arab. “Al-Mutabattil,” usually = one who forsakes the world. The
Katarát al-Naysán or rain-drops in the month Naysán (April) produce
pearls when falling into the oyster-shells and poison in the serpent’s
mouth. The allusions to them are innumerable in Persian poetry, and
the idea gives rise to a host of moralities more or less insipid.
Footnote 342:
This is the general idea concerning the diamond in all countries where
the gem is dug, but I never heard it of the pearl.
Footnote 343:
Arab. “Faras,” properly a mare; but the writer begins by using the
feminine, and then employs the masculine. It is an abominable text.
Footnote 344:
Arab. “Rutab wa manázil,” may also mean “stations and mansions (of the
moon and planets).” The double entendre was probably intended.
Footnote 345:
Arab. “Za’íf,” still a popular word, meaning feeble, sick, ailing, but
especially, weak in venery.
Footnote 346:
See the original of this tale in King Al-Af’á: Al-Mas’udi, chap. xlvi.
Footnote 347:
He says this without any sense of shame, coolly as Horace or Catullus
wrote.
Footnote 348:
_i.e._ of the caravan with which he came.
Footnote 349:
Arab. “Al-’Adl.” In the form of Zú ’adl it = a legal witness, a man of
good repute; in Marocco and other parts of the Moslem world ’Adul
(plur. ’Udúl) signifies an assessor of the Kazi, a notary. Padre
Lerchundy (loc. cit. p. 345) renders it _notario_.
Footnote 350:
_i.e._ I would marry thy daughter, not only for her own sake, but for
alliance with thy family.
Footnote 351:
_i.e._ the bride’s face.
Footnote 352:
The Ghusl or complete ablution after car. cop.
Footnote 353:
Thus the girl was made lawful to him as a concubine by the “loathly
ladye,” whose good heart redeemed her ill-looks.
Footnote 354:
Meaning the poor man and his own daughter.
Footnote 355:
Mr. Payne changes the Arab title to the far more appropriate heading,
“Story of the Rich man and his Wasteful Son.” The tale begins with
Æsop’s fable of the faggot; and concludes with the “Heir of Linne,” in
the famous Scotch ballad. Mr. Clouston refers also to the Persian Tale
of Murchlis (The Sorrowful Wazir); to the Forty Vezirs (23rd Story) to
Cinthio and to sundry old English chap-books.
Footnote 356:
Arab. “Tafrík wa’l-jam’a.”
Footnote 357:
Arab. “Wafát” pop. used as death, decease, departure; but containing
the idea of departing to the mercy of Allah and “paying the debt of
nature.” It is not so ill-omened a word as Maut = death.
Footnote 358:
_i.e._ gifts and presents. See vol. iv. 185.
Footnote 359:
_i.e._ Turcomans; presently called Sístán, for which see vol. ii. 218.
Footnote 360:
In my Pilgrimage (i. 38), I took from Mr. Galton’s Art of Travel, the
idea of opening with a lancet the shoulder or other fleshy part of the
body and inserting into it a precious stone. This was immensely
derided by not a few including one who, then a young man from the
country, presently became a Cabinet Minister. Despite their
omniscience, however, the “dodge” is frequently practised. See how
this device was practised by Jeshua Nażarenus, vol. v. 238.
Footnote 361:
Arab. “’Alam,” a pile of stones, a flag or some such landmark. The
reader will find them described in “The Sword of Midian,” i. 98, and
passim.
Footnote 362:
Mr. Clouston refers to the “Miles Gloriosus” (Plautus); to “Orlando
Innamorato” of Berni (the Daughter of the King of the Distant Isles);
to the “Seven Wise Masters” (“The Two Dreams,” or “The Crafty Knight
of Hungary”); to his Book of Sindibad, p. 343 ff.; to Miss Busk’s
Folk-Lore of Rome, p. 399 (“The Grace of the Hunchback”); to Prof.
Crane’s “Italian Popular Tales,” p. 167, and “The Elopement,” from
Pitrè’s Sicilian collection.
Footnote 363:
In sign of impatience; “Look sharp!”
Footnote 364:
_i.e._ the resemblance of the supposed sister to his wife. This is a
rechauffé of Kamar al-Zamán iid.
Footnote 365:
This leaving a long lock upon the shaven poll is a very ancient
practice: we find it amongst the old Egyptians. For the Shúshah or
topknot of hair, see vol. i. 308. It is differently worn in the
several regions of the Moslem world: the Maroccans of the Ríf country
grow it not on the pole but on one side of the head. As a rule,
however, it is confined to boys, and is shaved off at puberty.
Footnote 366:
Suspecting her to be a witch because she was old and poor. The same
was the case in Europe when these unfortunates were burned during the
early part of the last century and even now the country-folk are often
ready to beat or drown them. The abominable witchcraft acts, which
arose from bibliolatry and belief in obsolete superstitions, can claim
as many victims in “Protestant” countries, England and the
Anglo-American States as the Jesuitical Inquisition.
Footnote 367:
It is not easy to make sense of this passage especially when the Wazir
is spoken of.
Footnote 368:
This is a rechauffé of the Sandal-Wood Merchant and the Sharpers. Vol.
vi. 202.
Footnote 369:
I have followed Mr. Payne’s adaptation of the text as he makes sense,
whilst the Arabic does not. I suppose that the holes are disposed
crosswise.
Footnote 370:
_i.e._ Thy skill is so great that thou wilt undermine my authority
with the king.
Footnote 371:
This famous tale is first found in a small collection of Latin fables
(Adolphi Fabulæ apud Leyser Hist. Poet. Medii Ævi, p. 200–8),
beginning
Cæcus erat quidam, cui pulcra virago, etc.
The date is 1315, and Caxton printed it in English in 1483; hence it
was adopted by Boccaccio, Day vii., Novella 9; whence Chaucer’s
“Marchaundes Tale”: this, by-the-by, was translated by Pope in his
sixteenth or seventeenth year, and christened “January and May.” The
same story is inserted in La Fontaine (Contes, lib. ii., No. 8), “_La
Gageure des trois Commères_,” with the normal poirier; and lastly it
appears in Wieland’s “Oberon,” canto vi.; where the Fairy King
restores the old husband’s sight, and Titania makes the lover on the
pear-tree invisible. Mr. Clouston refers me also to the
Bahár-i-Dánish, or Prime of Knowledge (Scott’s translation, vol. ii.,
pp. 64–68); “How the Brahman learned the Tirrea Bede”; to the Turkish
“Kirk Wazir” (Forty Wazirs) of Shaykh-Zadeh (xxivth Wazir’s story); to
the “Comœdia Lydiæ,” and to Barbazan’s “Fabliaux et Contes” t. iii.,
p. 451, “La Saineresse,” the cupping-woman.
Footnote 372:
In the European versions it is always a pear-tree.
Footnote 373:
This supernatural agency, ever at hand and ever credible to Easterns,
makes this the most satisfactory version of the world-wide tale.
Footnote 374:
_i.e._ till next harvest time.
Footnote 375:
The “’Ashshár,” or Tither, is most unpopular in the Nile-valley as in
Wales; and he generally merits his ill-repute. Tales concerning the
villainy of these extortioners abound in Egypt and Syria. The first
step in improvement will be so to regulate the tithes that the
peasants may not be at the mercy of these “publicans and sinners” who,
however, can plead that they have paid highly for appointment to
office and must recoup themselves.
Footnote 376:
Arab. “’Ammir” = cause to flourish.
Footnote 377:
Arab. “Afkah,” a better Fakíh or theologian; all Moslem law being
based upon the Koran, the Sayings (Hadís) and Doings (Sunnat) of the
Prophet; and, lastly, the Rasm or immemorial custom of the country
provided that it be not opposed to the other three.
Footnote 378:
If the number represent the days in the Moslem year it should be 354
(= 6 months of 29 days and the rest of 30).
Footnote 379:
The affirmative particle “kad” preceding a verb in the past gives it a
present and at times a future signification.
Footnote 380:
A danik, the Persian “Dáng,” is one-sixth of a dirham, _i.e._ about
one penny. See vol. ii. 204.
Footnote 381:
It would mightily tickle an Eastern audience to hear of a Tither being
unable to do any possible amount of villainy.
Footnote 382:
_i.e._ The oath of triple divorce which is, I have said irrevocable,
and the divorcée may not be taken again by her husband till her
marriage with another man (the Mustahill of The Nights) has been
consummated. See vol. iv., 48.
Footnote 383:
_i.e._ thousandfold cuckold.
Footnote 384:
Arab. “Wadí’ah” = the blows which the Robber had given him.
Footnote 385:
Arab. “Sindiyán” (from the Persian) gen. used for the holm-oak, the
_Quercus pseudo-coccifera_, vulgarly termed ilex, or native oak, and
forming an extensive scrub in Syria. For this and other varieties of
_Quercus_, as the Mallúl and the Ballút, see Unexplored Syria, i. 68.
Footnote 386:
Hibernicè.
Footnote 387:
Lit. “In the way of moderation” = at least, at the most moderate
reckoning.
Footnote 388:
Arab. “Rasmál,” the vulg. Syrian and Egyptian form of Raas al-mál =
stock-in-trade.
Footnote 389:
Usually a ring or something from his person to show that all was fair
play; here however, it was a watchword.
Footnote 390:
Arab. “Yá Madyúbah,” prob. a clerical error for “Madyúnah,” alluding
to her many debts which he had paid. Here, however, I suspect the
truly Egyptian term “Yá Manyúkah!” = O thou berogered; a delicate term
of depreciation which may be heard a dozen times a day in the streets
of Cairo. It has also a masculine form, “Yá Manyúk!”
Footnote 391:
About = 100 lb. Mr. Sayce (Comparative Philol. p. 210) owns that Mn is
old Egyptian but makes it a loan from the “Semites,” like Sús (horse),
Sar (prince), Sepet (lip) and Murcabutha (chariot), and goes to its
origin in the Acratan column, because “it is not found before the
times when the Egyptians borrowed freely from Palestine.” But surely
it is premature to draw such conclusion when we have so much still to
learn concerning the dates of words in Egyptian.
Footnote 392:
Arab. Jámi’. This anachronism, like many of the same kind, is only
apparent. The faith preached by Sayyidná Isà was the Islam of his day
and dispensation, and it abrogated all other faiths till itself
abrogated by the mission of Mahommed. It is therefore logical to apply
to it terms which we should hold to be purely Moslem. On the other
hand it is not logical to paint the drop-curtain of the Ober-Ammergau
“Miracle-play” with the Mosque of Omar and the minarets of Al-Islam. I
humbly represented this fact to the mechanicals of the village whose
performance brings them in so large a sum every decade; but Snug,
Snout and Bottom turned up the nose of contempt and looked upon me as
a mere “shallow sceptic.”
Footnote 393:
Arab. “Talámizah,” plur. of Tilmíz, a disciple, a young attendant. The
word is Syriac [Illustration] and there is a Heb. root למד but no
Arabic. In the Durrat al-Ghawwás, however, Tilmíz, Bilkís, and similar
words are Arabic in the form of Fa’líl and Fi’líl.
Footnote 394:
Rúh Allah, lit. = breath of Allah, attending to the miraculous
conception according to the Moslems. See vol. v. 238.
Footnote 395:
Readers will kindly pronounce this word “Sahrá,” not Sahárá.
Footnote 396:
Mr. Clouston refers for analogies to this tale to his “Oriental
Sources of some of Chaucer’s Tales” (Notes and Queries, 1885-86), and
he finds the original of The Pardoner’s Tale in one of the Játakas or
Bhuddist Birth-stories entitled Vedabbha Jataka. The story is spread
over all Europe; in the Cento Novelle Antiche; Morlini; Hans Sachs,
etc. And there are many Eastern versions, _e.g._ a Persian by Faríd
al-Dín “’Attar” who died at a great age in A.D. 1278; an Arabic
version in The Orientalist (Kandy, 1884); a Tibetan in Rollston’s
Tibetan Tales; a Cashmirian in Knowles’ Dict. of Kashmírí Proverbs,
etc., etc., etc.
Footnote 397:
Arab. “’Awán” lit. = aids, helpers; the “Aun of the Jinn” has often
occurred.
Footnote 398:
_i.e._ the peasant.
Footnote 399:
_i.e._ those serving on the usual feudal tenure; and bound to suit and
service for their fiefs.
Footnote 400:
_i.e._ the yearly value of his fief.
Footnote 401:
_i.e._ men who paid taxes.
Footnote 402:
Arab. “Rasátík” plur. of Rusták. See vol. vi. 289.
Footnote 403:
This adventure is a rechauffé of Amjad’s adventure (vol. iii. 333)
without, however, its tragic catastrophe.
Footnote 404:
The text is so concise as to be enigmatical. The house was finely
furnished for a feast, as it belonged to the Man who was lavish, etc.
Footnote 405:
Arab. “Khubz Samíz;” the latter is the Arabisation of the Pers. Samíd,
fine white bread, simnel, Germ. semmel.
Footnote 406:
The text has “Bakúlát” = pot-herbs; but it is probably a clerical
error for “Bakláwát.” See vol. ii. 311.
Footnote 407:
Egyptian-like he at once calls upon Allah to witness a lie and his
excuse would be that the lie was well-intentioned.
Footnote 408:
_i.e._ The private bagnio which in old days every grand house
possessed.
Footnote 409:
This is a fancy title, but it suits the tale better than that in the
text (xi. 183) “The Richard who lost his wealth and his wits.” Mr.
Clouston refers to similar stories in Sacchetti and other early
Italian novelists.
Footnote 410:
Arab. “Al-Muwaswis”: for “Wiswás” see vol. i. 106. This class of men
in stories takes the place of our “cunning idiot,” and is often
confounded with the Saudáwi, the melancholist proper.
Footnote 411:
Arab. “Hamhama,” an onomapœic, like our hum, hem, and haw.
Footnote 412:
Arab. “Barniyah,” a vessel either of glass or pottery like that in
which the manna was collected (Exod. xvi. 33).
Footnote 413:
= A hasty man, as Ghazbán = an angry man.
Footnote 414:
The Bresl. Edit, misprint. “Khablas” in more places than one, now with
a Sín, then with a Sád. Khalbas suggests “Khalbús,” a buffoon, for
which see vol. ii. 143. In Egypt, however, the latter generally ends
in a Sad (see Lane’s “Khalboos” M. E. chap. xxvii).
Footnote 415:
This story is a rechauffe of the Jewish Kazi and his pious wife; see
vol. v. 256.
Footnote 416:
The Arab. form of “Nayshápúr” = reeds of (King) Shapúr: see vol. ix.
230.
Footnote 417:
Arab. “Alà Tarík al-Satr wa al-Salámah,” meaning that each other’s
wives did not veil before their brothers-in-law as is usually done. It
may also mean that they were under Allah’s protection and in best of
condition.
Footnote 418:
_i.e._ he dared not rape her.
Footnote 419:
_i.e._ her “yes” meant “yes” and her “no” meant “no.”
Footnote 420:
“Ignorance” (Jahl) may, here and elsewhere mean wickedness,
frowardness, folly, vicious folly or uncalled-for wrath. Here Arabic
teaches a good lesson for ignorance, intemperance and egoism are, I
repeat, the roots of all evil.
Footnote 421:
So Mohammed said of a child born in adultery “The babe to the blanket
(_i.e._ let it be nursed and reared) and the adultress to the stone.”
Footnote 422:
Arab. “Wa há” etc., an interjection corresponding with the Syriac “ho”
lo! (_i.e._, look) behold! etc.
Footnote 423:
This paragraph is supplied by Mr. Payne: something of the kind has
evidently fallen out of the Arab. text.
Footnote 424:
_i.e._ in the presence of witnesses, legally.
Footnote 425:
Lit. a myriad, ten thousand dirhams. See vol. iv. 281.
Footnote 426:
The fire was intended to defend the mother and babe from Jinns, bad
spirits, the evil eye, etc. Romans lit candles in the room of the
puerpara; hence the goddess Candelifera, and the term Candelaria
applied to the B.V. In Brand’s Popular Antiquities (ii. 144) we find,
“Gregory mentions an ordinary superstition of the old wives who dare
not trust a child in a cradle by itself alone without a candle;” this
was for fear of the “night-hag” (Milton, P. L., ii. 662). The same
idea prevailed in Scotland and in Germany: see the learned Liebrecht
(who translated the Pentamerone) “Zur Folkskunde,” p. 31. In Sweden if
the candle go out, the child may be carried off by the Trolls
(Weckenstedt, Wendische Sagen, p. 446). The custom has been traced to
the Malay peninsula, whither it was probably imported by the Hindus or
the Moslems, and amongst the Tajiks in Bokhara. For the Hindu
practice, see Katha S. S. 305, and Prof. Tawney’s learned note
analysed above.
Footnote 427:
Arab. “Káhinah,” fem. of Káhin (Cohen): see Kahánah, vol. i. 28.
Footnote 428:
_i.e._ for a long time, as has been before explained.
Footnote 429:
_i.e._ at his service. Arabia was well provided with Hetairæ and
public women long before the days of Al-Islam.
Footnote 430:
Arab. “Athar” = sign, mark, trail.
Footnote 431:
_i.e._ Persia. See vol. v. 26.
Footnote 432:
Arab. “’Akákír” plur. of ’Akkár prop. = aromatic roots; but applied to
vulgar drugs or simples, as in the Tale of the Sage Duban, i. 46.
Footnote 433:
Arab. “Si’at rizki-h” _i.e._ the ease with which he earned his copious
livelihood.
Footnote 434:
_i.e._ the ten thousand dirhams of the bond, beside the unpaid and
contingent portion of her “Mahr” or marriage-settlement.
Footnote 435:
Arab. “Al-Házúr” from Hazr = loquacity, frivolous garrulity. Every
craft in the East has a jargon of its own and the goldsmith (Zargar)
is famed for speaking a language made unintelligible by the constant
insertion of a letter or letters not belonging to the word. It is as
if we rapidly pronounced How d’ye do = Howth doth yeth doth?
Footnote 436:
Arab. “Asmá al-Adwiyah,” such as are contained in volumes like the
“Alfáz al-Adwiyah” (Nomenclature of Drugs).
Footnote 437: