Footnote 438:
“Galen,” who is considered by Moslems as a kind of pre-Islamitic
Saint; and whom Rabelais (iii. c. 7) calls Le gentil Falot Galen, is
explained by Eustathius as the Serene Γαληνὸς from γελάω = rideo.
Footnote 439:
Arab. “Sáhah” the clear space before the house as opposed to the
“Bathah” (Span. _Patio_) the inner court.
Footnote 440:
A naïve description of the naïve style of _réclame_ adopted by the
Eastern Bob Sawyer.
Footnote 441:
Which they habitually do, by the by, with an immense amount of
unpleasant detail. See Pilgrimage i. 18.
Footnote 442:
The old French name for the phial or bottle in which the patient’s
water is sent.
Footnote 443:
A descendant from Mohammed, strictly through his grandson Husayn. See
vol. iv. 170.
Footnote 444:
Arab. “Al-Futúh” lit. the victories; a euphemistic term for what is
submitted to the “musculus guineaorum.”
Footnote 445:
Arab. “Firásah” lit. judging the points of a mare (_faras_). Of
physiognomy, or rather judging by externals, curious tales are told by
the Arabs. In Al-Mas’udi’s (chapt. lvi.) is the original of the camel
blind of one eye, etc., which the genius of Voltaire has made famous
throughout Europe.
Footnote 446:
I here quote Mr. Payne’s note. “Sic in the text; but the passage is
apparently corrupt. It is not plain why a rosy complexion, blue eyes
and tallness should be peculiar to women in love. Arab women being
commonly short, swarthy and black-eyed, the attributes mentioned
appear rather to denote the foreign origin of the woman; and it is
probable, therefore, that this passage has by a copyist’s error, been
mixed up with that which relates to the signs by which the mock
physician recognized her strangerhood, the clause specifying the
symptoms of her love-lorn condition having been crowded out in the
process, an accident of no infrequent occurrence in the transcription
of Oriental works.”
Footnote 447:
Most men would have suspected that it was her lover.
Footnote 448:
The sumptuary laws, compelling for instance the Jews to wear yellow
turbans, and the Christians to carry girdles date from the Capture of
Jerusalem in A.D. 636 by Caliph Omar. See vol. i. 77; and Terminal
Essay § 1.
Footnote 449:
_i.e._ Our Sunday: the Jewish week ending with the Sabbath (Saturday).
I have already noted this term for Saturn’s day, established as a
God’s rest by Commandment No. iv. How it lost its honours amongst
Christians none can say: the text in Col. ii. 16, 17, is insufficient
to abolish an order given with such pomp and circumstance to, and
obeyed, so strictly and universally by, the Hebrews, including the
Founder of Christianity. The general idea is that the Jewish Sabbath
was done away with by the Christian dispensation (although Jesus kept
it with the usual scrupulous care), and that sundry of the Councils at
Colossæ and Laodicea anathematised those who observed the Saturday
after Israelitish fashion. With the day its object changed; instead of
“keeping it holy,” as all pious Jews still do, the early Fathers
converted it into the “Feast of the Resurrection,” which could not be
kept too joyously. The “Sabbatismus” of the Sabbatarian Protestant who
keeps holy the wrong day is a marvellous perversion and the Sunday
feast of France, Italy, and Catholic countries generally is far more
logical than the mortification day of England and the so-called
Reformed countries.
Footnote 450:
Haráis plur. of Harísah: see vol. i. 131.
Footnote 451:
It would have been cooked on our Thursday night, or the Jewish Friday
night and would be stale and indigestible on the next day.
Footnote 452:
Marw (Margiana), which the Turkomans pronounce “Mawr,” is derived by
Bournouf from the Sansk. Maru or Marw; and by Sir H. Rawlinson from
Marz or Marj, the Lat. Margo; Germ. Mark; English March; Old French
Marche and Neo-Lat. Marca. So Marzbán, a Warden of the Marches; vol.
iii. 256. The adj. is not Marází, as stated in vol. iii. 222; but
Marwazi, for which see Ibn Khallikan, vol. i. p. 7, etc.: yet there
are good writers who use “Marází” as Rází for a native of Rayy.
Footnote 453:
_i.e._ native of Rayy city. See vol. iv. 104.
Footnote 454:
Normally used for fuel and at times by funny men to be put into
sweetmeats by way of practical joke: these are called “Nukl-i-Pishkil”
= goat-dung bonbons. The tale will remind old Anglo-Indians of the two
Bengal officers who were great at such “sells” and who “swopped” a
spavined horse for a broken-down “buggy.”
Footnote 455:
In the text “khanádik,” ditches, trenches; probably (as Mr. Payne
suggests) a clerical or typographical error for “Fanádik,” inns or
caravanserais; the plural of “Funduk” (Span. Fonda), for which see
vol. viii. 184.
Footnote 456:
This sentence is supplied by Mr. Payne to remedy the incoherence of
the text. Moslems are bound to see True Believers decently buried and
the poor often beg alms for the funeral. Here the tale resembles the
opening of Hajji Baba by Mr. Morier, that admirable picture of Persian
manners and morals.
Footnote 457:
Arab. “Al-ajr” which has often occurred.
Footnote 458:
Arab. “Hanút,” _i.e._ leaves of the lotus-tree to be infused as a wash
for the corpse; camphor used with cotton to close the mouth and other
orifices; and, in the case of a wealthy man, rose-water, musk,
ambergris, sandal-wood, and lign-aloes for fumigation.
Footnote 459:
Which always begin with four “Takbírs” and differ in many points from
the usual orisons. See Lane (M. E. chapt. xxviii.) who is, however,
very superficial upon an intricate and interesting subject. He even
neglects to mention the number of Ruk’át (bows) usual at Cairo and the
absence of prostration (sujúd) for which see vol. ii. 10.
Footnote 460:
Thus requiring all the ablutional offices to be repeated. The Shaykh,
by handling the corpse, became ceremonially impure and required “Wuzu”
before he could pray either at home or in the Mosque.
Footnote 461:
The Shaykh had left it when he went out to perform Wuzu.
Footnote 462:
Arab. “Satl” = the Lat. and Etruscan “Situla” and “Situlus,” a
water-pot.
Footnote 463:
Arab. “Lahd, Luhd,” the niche or cell hollowed out in the side of the
oblong trench: here the corpse is deposited and covered with
palm-fronds etc. to prevent the earth touching it. See my Pilgrimage
ii. 304.
Footnote 464:
For the incredible amount of torture which Eastern obstinacy will
sometimes endure, see Al-Mas’udi’s tale of the miserable little old
man who stole the ten purses, vol. viii. 153 _et seq._
Footnote 465:
Arab. “Jarídah” (whence the Jaríd-game) a palm-frond stripped of its
leaves and used for a host of purposes besides flogging, chairs,
sofas, bedsteads, cages etc. etc. Tales of heroism in “eating stick”
are always highly relished by the lower orders of Egyptians who pride
themselves upon preferring the severest bastinado to paying the
smallest amount of “rint.”
Footnote 466:
Arab. “Náwús,” the hollow tower of masonry with a grating over the
central well upon which the Magian corpse is placed to be torn by
birds of prey: it is kept up by the Parsi population of Bombay and is
known to Europeans as the “Tower of Silence.” Náís and Náwús also mean
a Pyrethrum, a fire-temple and have a whimsical resemblance to the
Greek Ναός.
Footnote 467:
For Munkar and Nakir, the Interrogating Angels, see vol. v. 111.
According to Al-Mas’udi (chapt. xxxi.) these names were given by the
Egyptians to the thirteenth and fourteenth cubits marked on the
Nilometer which, in his day, was expected to shew seventeen.
Footnote 468:
The text (xi. 227) has “Tannúr” = an oven, evidently a misprint for
“Kubúr” = tombs.
Footnote 469:
Arab. “’An Abí” = (a propitiatory offering) for my father. So in
Marocco the “Powder-players” dedicate a shot to a special purpose or
person, crying, “To my sweetheart!” “To my dead!” “To my horse!” etc.
Footnote 470:
For this formula see vol. i. 65. It is technically called “Haukalah”
and “Haulakah” words in the third conjugation of increased
triliterals, corresponding with the quadriliteral radicals and
possessing the peculiar power of Kasr = abbreviation. Of this same
class is Basmalah (vol. v. 206; ix. 1).
Footnote 471:
This scene with the watch would be relished in the coffee-house, where
the tricks of robbers, like a gird at the police, are always
acceptable.
Footnote 472:
Arab. “Lá af’al”; more commonly Má af’al. Má and Lá are synonymous
negative particles, differing, however, in application. Má (Gr. μὴ)
precedes definites, or indefinites: Lá and Lam (Gr. οὐ) only
indefinites as “Lá iláha” etc.
Footnote 473:
Alluding to the proverb, “What hast thou left behind thee, O Asám?”
_i.e._, what didst thou see?
Footnote 474:
Arab. “Sayrafi,” s.s. as “Sarráf”: see vol. i. 210.
Footnote 475:
Arab. “Al-Ma’rafah” = the place where the mane grows.
Footnote 476:
_i.e._ though the ass remain on thy hands.
Footnote 477:
“Halves,” _i.e._ of dirhams: see vol. ii. 37.
Footnote 478:
Arab. “Taannafú,” = the Germ. lange Nase.
Footnote 479:
About forty shillings.
Footnote 480:
About £220.
Footnote 481:
Characteristically Eastern and Moslem is this action of the neighbours
and bystanders. A walk through any Oriental city will show a crowd of
people screaming and gesticulating, with thundering yells and
lightning glances, as if about to close in mortal fight, concerning
some matter which in no way concerns them. Our European cockneys and
_badauds_ mostly content themselves with staring and mobbing.
Footnote 482:
Arab. “Muruwwah,” lit. manliness, especially in the sense of
generosity. So the saying touching the “Miyán,” or Moslem of India:—
Fí ’l-ruz kuwwah:
Fí ’l Hindí muruwwah.
When rice have strength, you’ll haply find,
In Hindi man, a manly mind.
Footnote 483:
_i.e._ His claim is just and reasonable.
Footnote 484:
I have noted (vol. i. 17) that good Moslems shun a formal oath,
although “by Allah!” is ever on their tongues. This they seem to have
borrowed from Christianity, which expressly forbade it, whilst
Christians cannot insist upon it too much. The scandalous scenes
lately enacted in a certain legislative assembly because an M.P. did
not believe in a practice denounced by his creed, will be the wonder
and ridicule of our descendants.
Footnote 485:
Most Arabs believe that the black cloud which sometimes produces,
besides famine, contagious fevers and pestilence, like that which in
1799 depopulated the cities and country of Barbary, is led by a king
locust, the Sultan Jarád.
Footnote 486:
The text is hopelessly corrupt, and we have no other with which to
collate. Apparently a portion of the tale has fallen out, making a
_non-sens_ of its ending, which suggests that the kite gobbled up the
two locusts at her ease, and left the falcon to himself.
Footnote 487:
The lines have occurred in vol. i. 265. I quote Mr. Payne.
Footnote 488:
The fabliau is a favourite in the East; this is the third time it has
occurred with minor modifications. Of course the original was founded
on fact, and the fact was and is by no means uncommon.
Footnote 489:
This would hardly be our Western way of treating a proposal of the
kind; nor would the European novelist neglect so grand an opportunity
for tall-talk.
Footnote 490:
This is a rechauffé of “The House with the Belvedere;” see vol. vi.
188.
Footnote 491:
Arab. “Mastúrah,” = veiled, well-guarded, confined in the Harem.
Footnote 492:
Arab. “’Ajúz nahs” = an old woman so crafty that she was a calamity to
friends and foes.
Footnote 493:
Here, as in many places the text is painfully concise: the crone says
only, “The Wuzu for the prayer!”
Footnote 494:
I have followed Mr. Payne who supplies this sentence to make the Tale
run smoothly.
Footnote 495:
_i.e._ the half of the marriage-settlement due to the wife on
divorcement and whatever monies he may have borrowed of her.
Footnote 496:
Here we find the vulgar idea of a rape, which is that a man can, by
mere force, possess a woman against her will. I contend that this is
impossible unless he use drugs like chloroform or violence, so as to
make the patient faint or she be exceptionally weak. “Good Queen Bess”
hit the heart of the question when she bade Lord High Chancellor
Burleigh sheath his sword, she holding the scabbard-mouth before him
and keeping it in constant motion. But it often happens that the
woman, unless she have a loathing for her violator, becomes infected
with the amorous storge, relaxes her defence, feels pleasure in the
outer contact of the parts and almost insensibly allows penetration
and emission. Even conception is possible in such cases as is proved
in that curious work, “The Curiosities of Medical Experience.”
Footnote 497:
_i.e._ thou wilt have satisfied us all three.
Footnote 498:
Here I follow Mr. Payne who has skilfully fine-drawn the holes in the
original text.
Footnote 499:
See vol. vii. 363; ix. 238.
Footnote 500:
Arab. “Musallà,” which may be either a praying carpet, a pure place in
a house, or a small chapel like that near Shiraz which Hafiz
immortalised,
“Bring, boy, the sup that’s in the cup; in highest Heaven man ne’er
shall find
Such watery marge as Ruknábád, Musallà’s mazes rose entwined.”
Footnote 501:
Arab. “Ihtidá,” = divine direction to Hudà or salvation. The old bawd
was still dressed as a devotee, and keeps up the cant of her caste. No
sensible man in the East ever allows a religious old woman to pass his
threshold.
Footnote 502:
In this tale “poetical justice” is neglected, but the teller skilfully
caused the wife to be ravished and not to be a particeps criminis. The
lover escapes scot-free because Moslems, as well as Hindus, hold that
the amourist under certain conditions is justified in obtaining his
object by fair means or foul. See p. 147 of “Early Ideas, a Group of
Hindoo Stories,” collected and collated by Anaryan; London, Allens,
1881.
Footnote 503:
This is supplied from the “Tale of the King and his Wazir’s Wife,”
vol. vi. 129.
Footnote 504:
Arab. “Ibl,” a specific name: it is presently opposed to “Nákah,” a
she-dromedary, and “Ráhilah,” a riding-camel.
Footnote 505:
Here “Amsaytu” is used in its literal sense “I evened” (came at
evening), and this is the case with seven such verbs, Asbaha, Amsá,
Azhá, Azhara, A’tama, Zalla, and Báta, which either conjoin the sense
of the sentence with their respective times, morning, evening,
forenoon, noon and the first sundown watch, all day and all night or
are used “elegantly,” as grammarians say, for the simple “becoming” or
“being.”
Footnote 506:
The Badawi dogs are as dangerous as those of Montenegro but not so
treacherous: the latter will sneak up to the stranger and suddenly
bite him most viciously. I once had a narrow escape from an ignoble
death near the slaughter-house of Alexandria-Ramlah, where the beasts
were unusually ferocious. A pack assailed me at early dawn and but for
an iron slick and a convenient wall I should have been torn to pieces.
Footnote 507:
These elopements are of most frequent occurrence: see Pilgrimage iii.
52.
Footnote 508:
The principal incidents, the loss and recovery of wife and children,
occur in the Story of the Knight Placidus (Gesta Romanorum, cx.). But
the ecclesiastical tale-teller does not do poetical justice upon any
offenders, and he vilely slanders the great Cæsar, Trajan.
Footnote 509:
_i.e._ a long time: the idiom has already been noticed. In the
original we have “of days and years and twelvemonths” in order that
“A’wám” (years) may jingle with “Ayyám” (days).
Footnote 510:
Nothing can be more beautiful than the natural parks which travellers
describe on the coasts of tropical seas.
Footnote 511:
Arab. “Khayyál,” not only a rider but a good and a hard rider. Hence
the proverb “Al-Khayyál kabr maftúh” = uomo a cavallo sepoltura
aperta.
Footnote 512:
_i.e._ the crew and the islanders.
Footnote 513:
Arab. “Hadas,” a word not easy to render. In grammar Lumsden renders
it by “event” and the learned Captain Lockett (Miut Amil) in an awful
long note (pp. 195 to 224) by “mode,” grammatical or logical. The
value of his disquisition is its proving that, as the Arabs borrowed
their romance from the Persians, so they took their physics and
metaphysics of grammar and syntax; logic and science in general, from
the Greeks.
Footnote 514:
We should say the anchors were weighed and the canvas spread.
Footnote 515:
The rhymes are disposed in the quaintest way, showing extensive
corruption. Mr. Payne has ordered them into couplets with a “bob” or
refrain: I have followed suit, preserving the original vagaries of
rhymes.
Footnote 516:
Arab. “Nuwab,” broken plur. (that is, noun of multitude) of Naubah,
the Anglo-Indian Nowbut. This is applied to the band playing at
certain intervals before the gate of a Rajah or high official.
Footnote 517:
Arab. “Hájib”: Captain Trotter (“Our Mission to the Court of Morocco
in 1880”: Edinburgh, Douglas, 1881) speaks, passim, of the “cheery
little Hájeb or ’Eyebrow.’” Really this is too bad: why cannot
travellers consult an Orientalist when treating of Oriental subjects?
Footnote 518:
Suicide is rare in Moslem lands, compared with India, China, and
similar “pagan” countries; for the Mussulman has the same objection as
the Christian “to rush into the presence of his Creator”, as if he
could so do without the Creator’s permission. The Hindu also has some
curious prejudices on the subject: he will hang himself, but not by
the neck, for fear lest his soul be defiled by exiting through an
impure channel. In England hanging is the commonest form for men; then
follow in due order drowning, cutting or stabbing, poison, and
gun-shot: women prefer drowning (except in the cold months) and
poison. India has not yet found a Dr. Ogle to tabulate suicide; but
the cases most familiar to old Anglo-Indians are leaping down cliffs
(as at Giruar), drowning, and starving to death. And so little is life
valued that a mother will make a vow obliging her son to suicide
himself at a certain age.
Footnote 519:
Arab. “Zarad-Khánah,” before noticed: vol. vii. 363. Here it would
mean a temporary prison for criminals of high degree. De Sacy,
Chrestom, ii. 179.
Footnote 520:
Arab. “’Adúl,” I have said, means in Marocco, that land of lies and
subterfuges, a public notary.
Footnote 521:
This sentence is inserted by Mr. Payne to complete the sense.
Footnote 522:
_i.e._ He intended to marry her when time served.
Footnote 523:
Arab. from Pers. Khwájah and Khawáját: see vol. vi. 46.
Footnote 524:
Probably meaning by one mother whom he loved best of all his wives: in
the next page we read of their sister.
Footnote 525:
Come down, _i.e._ from heaven.
Footnote 526:
This is the Bresl. Edit’s. form of Shahryár = city-keeper (like
Marzbán, guardian of the Marches), for city-friend. The learned Weil
has perferred it to Shahryár.
Footnote 527:
Sic: in the Mac. Edit. “Shahrázád” and here making nonsense of the
word. It is regretable that the king’s reflections do not run at times
as in this text: his compunctions lead well up to the dénoûement.
Footnote 528:
The careless text says “couplets.” It has occurred in vol. i. 149: so
I quote Torrens (p. 149.)
Footnote 529:
In the text Salma is made to speak, utterly confusing the dialogue.
Footnote 530:
The well-known Baloch province beginning west of Sind; the term is
supposed to be a corruption of Máhí-Khorán = Ichthyophagi. The reader
who wishes to know more about it will do well to consult “Unexplored
Baluchistan,” etc. (Griffith and Farran, 1882), the excellent work of
my friend Mr. Ernest A. Floyer, long Chief of the Telegraphic
Department, Cairo.
Footnote 531:
Meaning the last city in Makran before entering Sind. Al-Sharr would
be a fancy name, “The Wickedness.”
Footnote 532:
_i.e._ think of nothing but his present peril.
Footnote 533:
Arab. “Munkati’ah” = lit. “cut off” (from the weal of the world). See
Pilgrimage i. 22.
Footnote 534:
The lines are in vol. i. 207 and iv. 189. I here quote Mr. Payne.
Footnote 535:
_i.e._ I have another proposal to make.
Footnote 536:
_i.e._ In my heart’s core: the figure has often occurred.
Footnote 537:
These sudden elevations, so common in the East and not unknown to the
West in the Napoleonic days, explain how the legend of “Joanna
Papissa” (Pope John XIII.), who succeeded Leo IV. in A.D. 855 and was
succeeded by Benedict III., found ready belief amongst the enemies of
papacy. She was an English woman born in Germany who came to Rome and
professed theology with éclat, wherefore the people enthroned her.
“Pope Joan” governed with exemplary wisdom, but during a procession on
Rogation Sunday she was delivered of a fine boy in the street: some
make her die on the spot; others declare that she perished in prison.
Footnote 538:
That such things should happen in times of famine is only natural; but
not at other seasons. This abomination on the part of the butcher is,
however, more than once alluded to in The Nights: see vol. i. 332.
Footnote 539:
Opinions differ as to the site of this city, so celebrated in the
mediæval history of Al-Islam: most probably it stood where Hyderabad
of Sind now is. The question has been ably treated by Sir Henry M.
Elliot in his “History of India,” edited from his posthumous papers by
Professor Dowson.
Footnote 540:
Which, by-the-by, the average Eastern does with even more difficulty
than the average European. For the most part the charge to secrecy
fixes the matter in his mind even when he has forgotten that it is to
be kept secret. Hence the most unpleasant results.
Footnote 541:
Such an act appears impossible, and yet history tells us of a
celebrated Sufi, Khayr al-Nassáj (the Weaver), who being of dark
complexion was stopped on return from his pilgrimage at Kufah by a
stranger that said, “Thou art my negro slave and thy name is Khayr.”
He was kept at the loom for years, till at last the man set him free,
and simply said, “Thou wast not my slave” (Ibn Khall. i. 513).
Footnote 542:
These lines have occurred before. I quote Mr. Payne for variety.
Footnote 543:
Arab. “Tasill sallata’l-Munkati’ín” = lit. “raining on the
drouth-hardened earth of the cut-off.” The metaphor is admissible in
the eyes of an Arab who holds water to be the chiefest of blessings,
and makes it synonymous with bounty and beneficence.
Footnote 544:
Possibly this is said in mere fun; but, as Easterns are practical
physiognomists, it may hint the fact that a large nose in womankind is
the sign of a masculine nature.
Footnote 545:
Arab. “Zakát wa Sadakat,” = lit. paying of poor rate and purifying thy
property by almsdeeds. See vol. i. 339.
Footnote 546:
I have noted (i. 293) that Kamís (χιτών, Chemise, Cameslia, Camisa) is
used in the Hindostani and Bengali dialects. Lake its synonyms
prætexta and shift, it has an equivocal meaning and here probably
signifies the dress peculiar to Arab devotees and devout beggars.
Footnote 547:
I omit here and elsewhere the parenthetical formula “Kála al-Ráwi,”
etc. = The Story-teller sayeth, reminding the reader of its
significance in a work collected from the mouths of professional
Tale-tellers and intended mainly for their use.
Footnote 548:
The usual sign of emotion, already often mentioned.
Footnote 549:
It being no shame to Moslems if a slave become King.
Footnote 550:
Arab. “Tarbiyatí,” _i.e._ he was brought up in my house.
Footnote 551:
There is no Salic law amongst Moslems; but the Rasm or custom of
Al-Islam, established by the succession of the four first Caliphs, to
the prejudice of Ayishah and other masterful women would be a strong
precedent against queenly rule. It is the reverse with the Hindus who
accept a Rani as willingly as a Rajah and who believe with Europeans
that when kings reign women rule, and _vice versa_. To the vulgar
Moslem feminine government appears impossible, and I was once asked by
an Afghan, “What would happen if the queen were in childbed?”
Footnote 552:
Arab. “Khutbah,” the sermon preached from the pulpit (Mimbar) after
the congregational prayers on Friday noon. It is of two kinds, for
which see Lane, M.E., chap. iii. This public mention of his name and
inscribing it upon the newly-minted money are the special prerogatives
of the Moslem king: hence it often happens that usurpers cause a
confusion of Khutbah and coinage.
Footnote 553:
For a specimen of which, blowing a man up with bellows, see
Al-Mas’udi, chap. cxxiii.
Footnote 554:
_i.e._ A long time: the idiom has been noted before more than once.
Footnote 555:
_i.e._ With what he had heard and what he was promised.
Footnote 556:
Arab. “Shakhs mafsúd,” _i.e._ an infidel.
Footnote 557:
Arab. “Bunúd,” plur. of Persian “band” = hypocrisy, deceit.
Footnote 558:
Arab. “Burúj” pl. of Burj. lit. = towers, an astrological term
equivalent to our “houses” or constellations which form the Zodiacal
signs surrounding the heavens as towers gird a city; and applied also
to the 28 lunar Mansions. So in Al-Hariri (Ass. of Damascus) “I swear
by the sky with its towers,” the incept of Koran chapt. lxxxv.; see
also chapts. xv. 26 and xxv. 62. “Burj” is a word with a long history:
πύργος, burg, burgh, etc.
Footnote 559:
Arab. “Bundukah” = a little bunduk, nut, filbert, pellet, rule, musket
bullet.
Footnote 560:
See John Raister’s “Booke of the Seven Planets; or, Seven Wandering
Motives,” London, 1598.
Footnote 561:
_i.e._ for the king whom I love as my own soul.
Footnote 562:
The Bresl. Edit. (xi. 318-21) seems to assume that the tales were told
in the early night before the royal pair slept. This is no
improvement; we prefer to think that the time was before peep of day
when Easterns usually awake and have nothing to do till the
dawn-prayer.
Footnote 563:
See vol. ii. 161.
Footnote 564:
Arab. Al-Fákhir. No wonder that the First Hand who moulded the Man-mud
is a _lieu commun_ in Eastern thought. The Pot and the Potter began
with the old Egyptians. “Sitting as a potter at the wheel, god Cneph
(in Philæ) moulds clay, and gives the spirit of life (the Genesitic
‘breath’) to the nostrils of Osiris.” Then we meet him in the Vedas,
the Being “by whom the fictile vase is formed; the clay out of which
it is fabricated.” We find him next in Jeremiah (xviii. 2), “Arise and
go down unto the Potter’s house,” etc., and in Romans (ix. 20), “Hath
not the Potter power over the clay?” He appears in full force in
Omar-i-Khayyám (No. xxxvii.):—
For I remember stopping by the way
To watch a Potter thumping his wet Clay:
And with its all obliterated Tongue
It murmur’d—“Gently, Brother, gently, pray!”