[FN#95] Afterwards called Wák Wák, and in the Bresl. Edit. Wák

al-Wák. See Lane's notes upon these Islands. Arab Geographers

evidently speak of two Wak Waks. Ibn al-Fakih and Al-Mas'údi

(Fr. Transl., vol. iii. 6-7) locate one of them in East Africa

beyond Zanzibar and Sofala. "Le territoire des Zendjes

(Zanzibar-Negroids) commence au canal (Al-Khalij) dérivé du haut

Nil (the Juln River?) et se prolonge jusqu'au pays de Sofalah et

des Wak-Wak." It is simply the peninsula of Guardafui (Jard

Hafun) occupied by the Gallas, pagans and Christians, before

these were ousted by the Moslem Somal; and the former perpetually

ejaculated "Wak" (God) as Moslems cry upon Allah. This

identification explains a host of other myths such as the

Amazons, who as Marco Polo tells us held the "Female Island"

Socotra (Yule ii. 396). The fruit which resembled a woman's head

(whence the puellæ Wakwakienses hanging by the hair from trees),

and which when ripe called out "Wak Wak" and "Allah al-Khallák"

(the Creator) refers to the Calabash-tree (Adausonia digitata),

that grotesque growth, a vegetable elephant, whose gourds,

something larger than a man's head, hang by a slender filament.

Similarly the "cocoa" got its name, in Port. = Goblin, from the

fancied face at one end. The other Wak Wak has been identified in

turns with the Seychelles, Madagascar, Malacca, Sunda or Java

(this by Langlès), China and Japan. The learned Prof. de Goeje

(Arabishe Berichten over Japan, Amsterdam, Muller, 1880) informs

us that in Canton the name of Japan is Wo-Kwok, possibly a

corruption of Koku-tan, the ebony-tree (Diospyros ebenum) which

Ibn Khor-dábah and others find together with gold in an island

4,500 parasangs from Suez and East of China. And we must

remember that Basrah was the chief starting-place for the

Celestial Empire during the rule of the Tang dynasty (seventh and

ninth centuries). Colonel J. W. Watson of Bombay suggests New

Guinea or the adjacent islands where the Bird of Paradise is said

to cry "Wak Wak!" Mr. W. F. Kirby in the Preface (p. ix.) to his

neat little book "The New Arabian Nights," says: "The Islands of

Wak-Wak, seven years' journey from Bagdad, in the story of Hasan,

have receded to a distance of a hundred and fifty years' journey

in that of Majin (of Khorasan). There is no doubt(?) that the

Cora Islands, near New Guinea, are intended; for the wonderful

fruits which grow there are Birds of Paradise, which settle in

flocks on the trees at sunset and sunrise, uttering this very

cry." Thus, like Ophir, Wak Wak has wandered all over the world

and has been found even in Peru by the Turkish work Tárikh

al-Hind al-Gharbi = History of the West Indies (Orient. Coll. iii

189).

[FN#96] I accept the emendation of Lane's Shaykh, "Nasím "

(Zephyr) for "Nadím " (cup-companion).

[FN#97] "Jannat al-Ná'im" = Garden of Delights is No. V Heaven,

made of white diamond.

[FN#98] This appears to her very prettily put.

[FN#99] This is the "House of Sadness" of our old chivalrous

Romances. See chapt. vi. of "Palmerin of England," by Francisco

de Moraes (ob. 1572), translated by old Anthony Munday (dateless,

1590?) and "corrected" (read spoiled) by Robert Southey, London,

Longmans, 1807.

[FN#100] The lines have occurred in Night clix. (vol. iii. 183),

I quote Mr. Payne who, like Lane, prefers "in my bosom" to

"beneath my ribs."

[FN#101] In this tale the Bresl. Edit. more than once adds "And

let us and you send a blessing to the Lord of Lords" (or to

"Mohammed," or to the "Prophet"); and in vol. v. p. 52 has a long

prayer. This is an act of contrition in the tale-teller for

romancing against the expressed warning of the Founder of

Al-Islam.

[FN#102] From Bresl. Edit. (vi. 29): the four in the Mac. Edit.

are too irrelevant.

[FN#103] Arab. "Ghayúr"--jealous, an admirable epithet which

Lane dilutes to "changeable"--making a truism of a metaphor.

[FN#104] These lines have occurred before. I quote Mr. Payne.

[FN#105] i.e. One fated to live ten years.

[FN#106] This poetical way of saying "fourteen" suggests Camoens

(The Lusiads) Canto v. 2.

[FN#107] Arab. "Surrah," lit. = a purse: a few lines lower down

it is called "'Ulbah" = a box which, of course, may have

contained the bag.

[FN#108] The month which begins the Moslem year.

[FN#109] As an Arab often does when deep in thought. Lane

appositely quotes John viii. 6. "Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground." Mr. Payne translates, "He fell a-drumming on the earth with his fingers," but this does not complete the sense.

[FN#110] i.e."And the peace of Allah be upon thee! that will end

thy story." The Arab formula, "Wa al-Salám" (pron. Wassalám) is

used in a variety of senses.

[FN#111] Like Camoens, one of the model lovers, he calls upon

Love to torment him still more--ad majorem Dei (amoris) gloriam.

[FN#112] Pron. Aboor-Ruwaysh. "The Father of the little

Feather": he is afterwards called "Son of the daughter of the

accursed Iblis"; yet, as Lane says, "he appears to be a virtuous

person."

[FN#113] Arab. "Kantara al-lijám fi Karbús (bow) sarjih."

[FN#114] I do not translate "beckoned" because the word would

give a wrong idea. Our beckoning with the finger moved towards

the beckoner makes the so-beckoned Eastern depart in all haste.

To call him you must wave the hand from you.

[FN#115] The Arabs knew what large libraries were; and a learned

man could not travel without camel-loads of dictionaries.

[FN#116] Arab. "Adim;" now called Bulghár, our Moroccan

leather.

[FN#117] Arab. "Zinád," which Lane renders by "instruments for

striking fire," and Mr. Payne, after the fashion of the

translators of Al-Hariri, "flint and steel."

[FN#118] A congener of Hasan and Husayn, little used except in

Syria where it is a favourite name for Christians. The Muhít of

Butrus Al-Bostáni (s.v.) tells us that it also means a bird

called Abú Hasan and supplies various Egyptian synonyms. In Mod.

Arab. Grammar the form Fa''úl is a diminutive as Hammúd for

Ahmad, 'Ammúr for 'Amrú. So the fem. form, Fa''úlah, e.g.

Khaddúgah = little Khadijah and Naffúsah=little Nafisah; Ar'úrah

= little clitoris - whereas in Heb. it is an incrementative e.g.

dabbúlah a large dablah (cake or lump of dried figs, etc.).

[FN#119] In the Mac. Edit. "Soldiers of Al-Daylam" i.e. warlike

as the Daylamites or Medes. See vol. ii. 94.

[FN#120] Bilkís, it will be remembered, is the Arab. name of the

Queen of Sheba who visited Solomon. In Abyssinia she is termed

Kebra zá negest or zá makadá, the latter (according to Ferdinand

Werne's "African Wanderings," Longmans, 1852) being synonymous

with Ityopia or Habash (Ethiopia or Abyssinia).

[FN#121] Arab. "Dakkah," which Lane translates by "settee."

[FN#122] Arab. "Ambar al-Khám" the latter word (raw) being pure

Persian.

[FN#123] The author neglects to mention the ugliest part of

old-womanhood in the East, long empty breasts like

tobacco-pouches. In youth the bosom is beautifully high, arched

and rounded, firm as stone to the touch, with the nipples erect

and pointing outwards. But after the girl-mother's first child

(in Europe le premier embellit) all changes. Nature and bodily

power have been overtasked; then comes the long suckling at the

mother's expense: the extension of the skin and the enlargement

of its vessels are too sudden and rapid for the diminished

ability of contraction and the bad food aids in the continual

consumption of vitality. Hence, among Eastern women age and

ugliness are synonymous. It is only in the highest civilisation

that we find the handsome old woman.

[FN#124] The name has occurred in the Knightly tale of King Omar

and his sons, Vol. ii. 269. She is here called Mother of

Calamities,but in p. 123, Vol. iv. of the Mac. Edit. she becomes

"Lady (Zát) al-Dawáhi." It will be remembered that the title

means calamitous to the foe.

[FN#125] By this address she assured him that she had no design

upon his chastity. In Moslem lands it is always advisable to

accost a strange woman, no matter how young, with, "Yá Ummí!" = O

my mother. This is pledging one's word, as it were, not to make

love to her.

[FN#126] Apparently the Wakites numbered their Islands as the

Anglo-Americans do their streets. For this they have been

charged with "want of imagination"; but the custom is strictly

classical. See at Pompeii "Reg (io) I; Ins (ula) I, Via Prima,

Secunda," etc.

[FN#127] These are the Puellæ Wakwakienses of whom Ibn Al-Wardi

relates after an ocular witness, "Here too is a tree which bears

fruits like women who have fair faces and are hung by their hair.

They come forth from integuments like large leathern bags

(calabash-gourds?) and when they sense air and sun they cry 'Wak!

Wak!' (God! God!) till their hair is cut, and when it is cut

they die; and the islanders understand this cry wherefrom they

augure ill." The Ajáib al-Hind (chapt. xv.) places in Wak-land

the Samandal, a bird which enters the fire without being burnt

evidently the Egyptian "Pi-Benni," which the Greeks metamorphised

to "Phœnix." It also mentions a hare-like animal, now male then

female, and the Somal behind Cape Guardafui tell the same tale of

their Cynhyænas.

[FN#128] i.e. I will keep thee as though thou wert the apple of

my eye.

[FN#129] A mere exaggeration of the "Gull-fairs" noted by

travellers in sundry islands as Ascension and the rock off

Brazilian Santos.

[FN#130] Arab. "Kámil wa Basít wa Wáfir" = the names of three

popular metres, for which see the Terminal Essay.

[FN#131] Arab. "Manáshif" = drying towels, Plur. of Minshafah,

and the popular term which Dr. Jonathan Swift corrupted to

"Munnassaf." Lane (Nights, Introduct. p. ix.).

[FN#132] Arab. "Shafaif" opposed to "Shafah" the mouth-lips.

[FN#133] Fountains of Paradise. This description is a fair

instance of how the Saj'a (prose-rhyme) dislocates the order; an

Arab begins with hair, forehead, eyebrows and lashes and when he

reaches the nose, he slips down to the toes for the sake of the

assonance. If the latter be neglected the whole list of charms

must be otherwise ordered; and the student will compare Mr.

Payne's version of this passage with mine.

[FN#134] A fair specimen of the Arab logogriph derived from the

Abjad Alphabet which contains only the Hebrew and Syriac letters

not the six Arabic. Thus 4 X 5=20 which represents the Kaf (K)

and 6 X 10=60, or Sin (S). The whole word is thus "Kus", the

Greek {kysòs} or {kyssòs}, and the lowest word, in Persian as in

Arabic, for the female pudenda, extensively used in vulgar abuse.

In my youth we had at the University something of the kind,

To five and five and fifty-five

The first of letters add

To make a thing to please a King

And drive a wise man mad.

Answer VVLVA. Very interesting to the anthropological student is

this excursus of Hasan, who after all manner of hardships and

horrors and risking his life to recover his wife and children,

breaks out into song on the subject of her privities. And it can

hardly be tale-teller's gag as both verse and prose show

considerable art in composition. (See p. 348.)

Supplementary Note To Hasan of Bassorah.

Note(p.93)--There is something wondrous naïve in a lover who,

when asked by his mistress to sing a song in her honour, breaks

out into versical praises of her parts. But even the classical

Arab authors did not disdain such themes. See in Al-Harírí (Ass.

of Mayyáfarikín) where Abú Zayd laments the impotency of old age

in form of a Rasy or funeral oration (Preston p. 484, and Chenery

p. 221). It completely deceived Sir William Jones, who inserted

it into the chapter "De Poesi Funebri," p. 527 (Poeseos Asiaticæ

Commentarii), gravely noting, "Hæc Elegia non admodum dissimilis

esse videtur pulcherrimi illius carminis de Sauli et Jonathani

obitu; at que adeò versus iste 'ubi provocant adversarios nunquam

rediit a pugnæ contentione sine spiculo sanguine imbuto,' ex

Hebræo reddi videtur,

A sanguine occisorum, a fortium virorum adipe,

Arcus Jonathani non rediit irritus."

I need hardly say with Captain Lockett (226) that this "Sabb

warrior," this Arabian Achilles, is the celebrated Bonus Deus or

Hellespontiacus of the Ancients. The oration runs thus:--

O folk I have a wondrous tale, so rare

Much shall it profit hearers wise and ware!

I saw in salad-years a potent Brave

And sharp of edge and point his warrior glaive;

Who entered joust and list with hardiment

Fearless of risk, of victory confident,

His vigorous onset straitest places oped

And easy passage through all narrows groped:

He ne'er encountered foe in single fight

But came from tilt with spear in blood stained bright;

Nor stormed a fortress howso strong and stark--

With fencèd gates defended deep and dark--

When shown his flag without th' auspicious cry

"Aidance from Allah and fair victory nigh!" ‡

Thus wise full many a night his part he played

In strength and youthtide's stately garb arrayed,

Dealing to fair young girl delicious joy

And no less welcome to the blooming boy.

But Time ne'er ceased to stint his wondrous strength

(Steadfast and upright as the gallow's length)

Until the Nights o'erthrew him by their might

And friends contemned him for a feckless wight;

Nor was a wizard but who wasted skill

Over his case, nor leach could heal his ill.

Then he abandoned arms abandoned him

Who gave and took salutes so fierce and grim;

And now lies prostrate drooping haughty crest;

For who lives longest him most ills molest.

Then see him, here he lies on bier for bet;--

Who will a shroud bestow on stranger dead?

A fair measure of the difference between Eastern and Western

manners is afforded by such a theme being treated by their

gravest writers and the verses being read and heard by the

gravest and most worshipful men, whilst amongst us Preston and

Chenery do not dare even to translate them. The latter, indeed,

had all that immodest modesty for which English professional

society is notable in this xixth century. He spoiled by

needlessly excluding from a scientific publication (Mem. R.A.S.)

all of my Proverbia Communia Syriaca (see Unexplored Sryia, i.

364) and every item which had a shade of double entendre. But

Nemesis frequently found him out: during his short and obscure

rule in Printing House Square, The Thunderer was distinguished by

two of the foulest indecencies that ever appeared in an English

paper.

‡ The well-known Koranic verse, whereby Allah is introduced into

an indecent tale and "Holy Writ" is punned upon. I have noticed

(iii. 206) that victory Fat'h lit.=opening everything (as e.g. a

maidenhead).

[FN#135] Egyptian and Syrian vulgar term for Mawálíyah or

Mawáliyah, a short poem on subjects either classical or vulgar.

It generally consists of five lines all rhyming except the

penultimate. The metre is a species of the Basít which, however,

admits of considerable poetical license; this being according to

Lane the usual "Weight,"

/ / / .

The scheme is distinctly anapæstic and Mr. Lyall (Translations of

Ancient Arabic Poetry) compares with a cognate metre, the Tawíl,

certain lines in Abt Vogler, e.g.

"Ye know why the forms are fair, ye hear how the tale is

told."

[FN#136] i.e. repeat the chapter of the Koran termed The

Opening, and beginning with these words, "Have we not opened thy

breast for thee and eased thee of thy burden which galled thy

back? *** Verily with the difficulty cometh ease!"--Koran xciv.

vol. 1, 5.

[FN#137] Lane renders Nur al-Hudà (Light of Salvation) by Light

of Day which would be Nur al-Hadà.

[FN#138] In the Bresl. Edit. "Yá Salám"=O safety!--a vulgar

ejaculation.

[FN#139] A favourite idiom meaning from the mischief which may

(or will) come from the Queen.

[FN#140] He is not strong-minded but his feminine persistency of

purpose, likest to that of a sitting hen, is confirmed by the

"Consolations of religion." The character is delicately drawn.

[FN#141] In token that she intended to act like a man.

[FN#142] This is not rare even in real life: Moslem women often

hide and change their names for superstitious reasons, from the

husband and his family.

[FN#143] Arab. "Sabab" which also means cause. Vol. ii. 14.

There is the same metaphorical use of "Habl"= cord and cause.

[FN#144] Arab. "Himà," a word often occurring in Arab poetry,

domain, a pasture or watered land forcibly kept as far as a dog's

bark would sound by some masterful chief like "King Kulayb." (See

vol. ii. 77.) This tenure was forbidden by Mohammed except for

Allah and the Apostle (i.e. himself). Lane translates it

"asylum."

[FN#145] She was a maid and had long been of marriageable age.

[FN#146] The young man had evidently "kissed the Blarney stone";

but the flattery is the more telling as he speaks from the heart.

[FN#147] "Inshallah " here being= D. V.

[FN#148] i.e. The "Place of Light" (Pharos), or of Splendour.

Here we find that Hasan's wife is the youngest sister, but with

an extraordinary resemblance to the eldest, a very masterful

young person. The anagnorisis is admirably well managed.

[FN#149] i.e. the sweetmeats of the feast provided for the

returning traveller. The old woman (like others) cannot resist

the temptation of a young man's lips. Happily for him she goes

so far and no farther.

[FN#150] The first, fourth, fifth and last names have already

occurred: the others are in order, Star o' Morn, Sun of Undurn

and Honour of Maidenhood. They are not merely fanciful, but are

still used in Egypt and Syria.

[FN#151] Arab. "Fájirah" and elsewhere "Áhirah," =whore and

strumpet used often in loose talk as mere abuse without special

meaning.

[FN#152] This to Westerns would seem a most improbable detail,

but Easterns have their own ideas concerning "Al-Muhabbat

al-ghariziyah" =natural affection, blood speaking to blood, etc.

[FN#153] One of the Hells (see vol. iv. 143). Here it may be

advisable to give the names of the Seven Heavens (which are

evidently based upon Ptolemaic astronomy) and which correspond

with the Seven Hells after the fashion of Arabian system-mania.

(1) Dar al-Jalál (House of Glory) made of pearls; (2) Dár

al-Salám (of Rest), rubies and jacinths; (3) Jannat al-Maawá

(Garden of Mansions, not "of mirrors," as Herklots has it, p.

98), made of yellow copper; (4) Jannat al-Khuld (of Eternity),

yellow coral; (5) Jannat al-Na'ím (of Delights), white diamond;

(6) Jannat al-Firdaus (of Paradise), red gold; and (7) Jannat

al-'Adn (of Eden, or Al-Karár= of everlasting abode, which some

make No. 8), of red pearls or pure musk. The seven Hells are

given in vol. v. 241; they are intended for Moslems (Jahannam);

Christians (Lazà); Jews (Hutamah); Sabians (Sa'ir); Guebres

(Sakar); Pagans or idolaters (Jahím); and Hypocrites (Háwiyah).

[FN#154] Arab. "'Atb," more literally= "blame," "reproach."

[FN#155] Bresl. Edit. In the Mac. "it returned to the place

whence I had brought it"--an inferior reading.

[FN#156] The dreams play an important part in the Romances of

Chivalry, e.g. the dream of King Perion in Amadis de Gaul, chapt.

ii. (London; Longmans, 1803).

[FN#157] Amongst Moslems bastardy is a sore offence and a

love-child is exceedingly rare. The girl is not only carefully

guarded but she also guards herself knowing that otherwise she

will not find a husband. Hence seduction is all but unknown. The

wife is equally well guarded and lacks opportunities hence

adultery is found difficult except in books. Of the Ibn (or

Walad) Harám (bastard as opposed to the Ibn Halál) the proverb

says, "This child is not thine, so the madder he be the more is

thy glee!" Yet strange to say public prostitution has never been

wholly abolished in Al-Islam. Al-Mas'údi tells us that in Arabia

were public prostitutes'(Bagháyá), even before the days of the

Apostle, who affected certain quarters as in our day the

Tartúshah of Alexandria and the Hosh Bardak of Cairo. Here says

Herr Carlo Landberg (p. 57, Syrian Proverbs) "Elles parlent une

langue toute à elle." So pretentious and dogmatic a writer as

the author of Proverbes et Dictons de la Province de Syrie, ought

surely to have known that the Hosh Bardak is the head-quarters of

the Cairene Gypsies. This author, who seems to write in order to

learn, reminds me of an acute Oxonian undergraduate of my day

who, when advised to take a "coach," became a "coach" himself.

[FN#158] These lines occur in vol. vii. p. 340. I quote Mr.

Payne.

[FN#159] She shows all the semi-maniacal rancour of a good

woman, or rather a woman who has not broken the eleventh

commandment, "Thou shalt not be found out," against an erring

sister who has been discovered. In the East also these unco'gúid

dames have had, and too often have, the power to carry into

effect the cruelty and diabolical malignity which in London and

Paris must vent itself in scan. mag. and anonymous letters.

[FN#160] These faintings and trances are as common in the

Romances of Chivalry e.g. Amadis of Gaul, where they unlace the

garments to give more liberty, pour cold water on the face and

bathe the temples and pulses with diluted vinegar (for rose

water) exactly as they do in The Nights.

[FN#161] So Hafiz, "Bád-i-Sabá chu bugzarí" etc.

[FN#162] Arab. "Takiyah." See vol. i. 224 and for the Tarn-Kappe

vol. iv. p. 176. In the Sinthásana Dwatrinsati (vulgo. Singhásan

Battísí), or Thirty-two Tales of a Throne, we find a bag always

full of gold, a bottomless purse; earth which rubbed on the

forehead overcomes all; a rod which during the first watch of the

night furnishes jewelled ornaments; in the second a beautiful

girl; in the third invisibility, and in the fourth a deadly foe

or death; a flower-garland which renders the possessor invisible

and an unfading lotus-flower which produces a diamond every day.

[FN#163] Arab. "Judad," plur. of Jadíd, lit.= new coin, ergo

applied to those old and obsolete; 10 Judad were= one nusf or

half dirham.

[FN#164] Arab. "Raff," a shelf proper, running round the room

about 7-7½ feet from the ground. During my day it was the

fashion in Damascus to range in line along the Raff splendid

porcelain bowls brought by the Caravans in olden days from China,

whilst on the table were placed French and English specimens of

white and gold "china" worth perhaps a franc each.

[FN#165] Lane supposes that the glass and china-ware had fallen

upon the divan running round the walls under the Raff and were

not broken.

[FN#166] These lines have occurred in Night dclxxxix. vol. vii.

p. 119. I quote Lane.

[FN#167] The lines have occurred before. I quote Mr. Payne.

[FN#168] This formula, I repeat, especially distinguishes the

Tale of Hasan of Bassorah.

[FN#169] These lines have occurred in vol. 1. 249. I quote Lane.

[FN#170] She speaks to the "Gallery," who would enjoy a loud

laugh against Mistress Gadabout. The end of the sentence must

speak to the heart of many a widow.

[FN#171] These lines occur in vol. i. 25: so I quote Mr. Payne.

[FN#172] Arab. "Musáhikah;" the more usual term for a Tribade

is "Sahíkah" from "Sahk" in the sense of rubbing: both also are

applied to onanists and masturbators of the gender feminine.

[FN#173] i.e. by way of halter. This jar is like the cask in

Auerbach's Keller; and has already been used by witches; Night

dlxxxvii. vol. vi. 158.

[FN#174] Here they are ten but afterwards they are reduced to

seven: I see no reason for changing the text with Lane and Payne.

[FN#175] Wazir of Solomon. See vol. i. 42; and vol. iii. 97.

[FN#176] Arab. "Ism al-A'azam," the Ineffable Name, a

superstition evidently derived from the Talmudic fancies of the

Jews concerning their tribal god, Yah or Yahvah.

[FN#177] The tradition is that Mohámmed asked Akáf al-Wadá'ah

"Hast a wife?"; and when answered in the negative, "Then thou

appertainest to the brotherhood of Satans! An thou wilt be one

of the Christian monks then company therewithal; but an thou be

of us, know that it is our custom to marry!"

[FN#178] The old woman, in the East as in the West, being the

most vindictive of her kind. I have noted (Pilgrimage iii. 70)

that a Badawi will sometimes though in shame take the blood-wit;

but that if it be offered to an old woman she will dash it to the

ground and clutch her knife and fiercely swear by Allah that she

will not eat her son's blood.

[FN#179] Neither dome nor fount etc. are mentioned before, the

normal inadvertency.

[FN#180] In Eastern travel the rest comes before the eating and

drinking.

[FN#181] Arab. "'Id" (pron.'Eed) which I have said (vol. i. 42,

317) is applied to the two great annual festivals, the "Fête of

Sacrifice," and the "Break-Fast." The word denotes restoration

to favour and Moslems explain as the day on which Adam (and Eve)

who had been expelled from Paradise for disobedience was

re-established (U'ída) by the relenting of Allah. But the name

doubtless dates amongst Arabs from days long before they had

heard of the "Lord Nomenclator."

[FN#182] Alluding to Hasan seizing her feather dress and so

taking her to wife.

[FN#183] Arab. "Kharajú"=they (masc.) went forth, a vulgarism

for "Kharajna" (fem.)

[FN#184] Note the notable housewife who, at a moment when youth

would forget everything, looks to the main chance.

[FN#185] Arab. "Al-Malakút" (not "Malkút" as in Freytag) a Sufi

term for the world of Spirits (De Lacy Christ, Ar. i. 451).

Amongst Eastern Christians it is vulgarly used in the fem. and

means the Kingdom of Heaven, also the preaching of the Gospel.

[FN#186] This is so rare, even amongst the poorest classes in

the East, that it is mentioned with some emphasis.

[FN#187] A beauty among the Egyptians, not the Arabs.

[FN#188] True Fellah--"chaff."

[FN#189] Alluding to the well-known superstition, which has

often appeared in The Nights, that the first object seen in the

morning, such as a crow, a cripple, or a cyclops determines the

fortunes of the day. Notices in Eastern literature are as old as

the days of the Hitopadesa; and there is a something instinctive

in the idea to a race of early risers. At an hour when the

senses are most impressionable the aspect of unpleasant

spectacles has double effect.

[FN#190] Arab. "Masúkah," the stick used for driving cattle,

bâton gourdin (Dozy). Lane applies the word to a wooden plank

used for levelling the ground.

[FN#191] i.e. the words I am about to speak to thee.

[FN#192] Arab. "Sahifah," which may mean "page" (Lane) or "book"

(Payne).

[FN#193] Pronounce, "Abussa'ádát" = Father of Prosperities:

Lane imagines that it came from the Jew's daughter being called

"Sa'adat." But the latter is the Jew's wife (Night dcccxxxiii)

and the word in the text is plural.

[FN#194] Arab. "Furkh samak" lit. a fish-chick, an Egyptian

vulgarism.

[FN#195] Arab. "Al-Rasif"; usually a river-quay, levée, an

embankment. Here it refers to the great dyke which distributed

the Tigris-water.

[FN#196] Arab. "Dajlah," see vol. i, p 180. It is evidently

the origin of the biblical "Hid-dekel" "Hid" = fierceness,

swiftness.

[FN#197] Arab. "Bayáz" a kind of Silurus (S. Bajad, Forsk.)

which Sonnini calls Bayatto, Saksatt and Hébedé; also Bogar

(Bakar, an ox). The skin is lubricous, the flesh is soft and

insipid and the fish often grows to the size of a man. Captain

Speke and I found huge specimens in the Tangany ika Lake.

[FN#198] Arab. "Mu'allim," vulg. "M'allim," prop.= teacher,

master esp. of a trade, a craft. In Egypt and Syria it is a

civil address to a Jew or a Christian, as Hájj is to a Moslem.

[FN#199] Arab. "Gharámah," an exaction, usually on the part of

government like a corvée etc. The Europeo-Egyptian term is

Avania (Ital.) or Avanie (French).

[FN#200] Arab. "Sayyib-hu" an Egyptian vulgarism found also in

Syria. Hence Sáibah, a woman who lets herself go (a-whoring)

etc. It is syn. with "Dashar," which Dozy believes to be a

softening of Jashar; and Jashsh became Dashsh.

[FN#201] The Silurus is generally so called in English on

account of its feeler-acting mustachios.

[FN#202] See Night dcccvii, vol. viii. p. 94.

[FN#203] This extraordinary confusion of two distinct religious

mythologies cannot be the result of ignorance. Educated Moslems

know at least as much as Christians do, on these subjects, but

the Rawi or story-teller speaks to the "Gallery." In fact it

becomes a mere 'chaff' and The Nights give some neat specimens of

our modern linguistic.

[FN#204] See vol. ii. 197. "Al-Siddíkah" (fem.) is a title of

Ayishah, who, however, does not appear to have deserved it.

[FN#205] The Jew's wife.

[FN#206] Here is a double entendre. The fisherman meant a word

or two. The Jew understood the Shibboleth of the Moslem Creed,

popularly known as the "Two Words,"--I testify that there is no

Ilah (god) but Allah (the God) and I testify that Mohammed is the

Messenger of Allah. Pronouncing this formula would make the Jew

a Moslem. Some writers are surprised to see a Jew ordering a

Moslem to be flogged; but the former was rich and the latter was

poor. Even during the worst days of Jewish persecutions their

money-bags were heavy enough to lighten the greater part, if not

the whole of their disabilities. And the Moslem saying is, "The

Jew is never your (Moslem or Christian) equal: he must be either

above you or below you." This is high, because unintentional

praise of the (self-) Chosen People.

[FN#207] He understands the "two words" (Kalmatáni) the Moslem's

double profession of belief; and Khalifah's reply embodies the

popular idea that the number of Moslems (who will be saved) is

preordained and that no art of man can add to it or take from it.

[FN#208] Arab. "Mamarr al-Tujjár" (passing-place of the

traders) which Lane renders "A chamber within the place through

which the traders passed." At the end of the tale (Night

dccxlv.) we find him living in a Khan and the Bresl. Edit. (see

my terminal note) makes him dwell in a magazine (i.e. ground-

floor store-room) of a ruined Khan.

[FN#209] The text is somewhat too concise and the meaning is

that the fumes of the Hashish he had eaten ("his mind under the

influence of hasheesh," says Lane) suggested to him, etc.

[FN#210] Arab. "Mamrak" either a simple aperture in ceiling or

roof for light and air or a more complicated affair of lattice-

work and plaster; it is often octagonal and crowned with a little

dome. Lane calls it "Memrak," after the debased Cairene

pronunciation, and shows its base in his sketch of a Ka'áh (M.E.,

Introduction).

[FN#211] Arab. "Kamar." This is a practice especially amongst

pilgrims. In Hindostan the girdle, usually a waist-shawl, is

called Kammar-band our old "Cummerbund." Easterns are too

sensible not to protect the pit of the stomach, that great

ganglionic centre, against sun, rain and wind, and now our

soldiers in India wear flannel-belts on the march.

[FN#212] Arab. "Fa-immá 'alayhá wa-immá bihá," i.e. whether

(luck go) against it or (luck go) with it.

[FN#213] "O vilest of sinners!" alludes to the thief. "A

general plunge into worldly pursuits and pleasures announced the

end of the pilgrimage-ceremonies. All the devotees were now

"whitewashed"--the book of their sins was a tabula rasa: too many

of them lost no time in making a new departure down South and in

opening a fresh account" (Pilgrimage iii. 365). I have noticed

that my servant at Jeddah would carry a bottle of Raki, uncovered

by a napkin, through the main streets.

[FN#214] The copper cucurbites in which Solomon imprisoned the

rebellious Jinns, often alluded to in The Nights.

[FN#215] i.e. Son of the Chase: it is prob. a corruption of the

Persian Kurnas, a pimp, a cuckold, and introduced by way of

chaff, intelligible only to a select few "fast" men.

[FN#216] For the name see vol. ii.61, in the Tale of Ghánim bin

'Ayyúb where the Caliph's concubine is also drugged by the Lady

Zubaydah.

[FN#217] We should say, "What is this?" etc. The lines have

occurred before so I quote Mr. Payne.

[FN#218] Zubaydah, I have said, was the daughter of Ja'afar, son

of the Caliph al-Mansur, second Abbaside. The story-teller

persistently calls her daughter of Al-Kásim for some reason of

his own; and this he will repeat in Night dcccxxxix.

[FN#219] Arab. "Shakhs," a word which has travelled as far as

Hindostan.

[FN#220] Arab. "Shamlah" described in dictionaries, as a cloak

covering the whole body. For Hizám (girdle) the Bresl. Edit.

reads "Hirám" vulg. "Ehrám," the waist-cloth, the Pilgrim's

attire.

[FN#221] He is described by Al-Siyúti (p. 309) as "very fair,

tall handsome and of captivating appearance."

[FN#222] Arab. "Uzn al-Kuffah" lit. "Ear of the basket," which

vulgar Egyptians pronounce "Wizn," so "Wajh" (face) becomes

"Wishsh" and so forth.

[FN#223] Arab. "Bi-fardayn" = with two baskets, lit. "two

singles," but the context shows what is meant. English Frail and

French Fraile are from Arab. "Farsalah" a parcel (now esp. of

coffee-beans) evidently derived from the low Lat. "Parcella" (Du

Cange, Paris, firmin Didot 1845). Compare "ream," vol. v. 109.

[FN#224] Arab. "Sátúr," a kind of chopper which here would be

used for the purpose of splitting and cleaning and scaling the

fish.

[FN#225] And, consequently, that the prayer he is about to make

will find ready acceptance.

[FN#226] Arab. "Ruh bilá Fuzúl" (lit. excess, exceeding) still a

popular phrase.

[FN#227] i.e. better give the fish than have my head broken.

[FN#228] Said ironicè, a favourite figure of speech with the

Fellah: the day began badly and threatened to end unluckily.

[FN#229] The penalty of Theft. See vol. i. 274.

[FN#230] This is the model of a courtly compliment; and it would

still be admired wherever Arabs are not "frankified."

[FN#231] Arab. "Shibábah;" Lane makes it a kind of reed-

flageolet.

[FN#232] These lines occur in vol. i. 76: I quote Mr. Payne.

[FN#233] The instinctive way of juggling with Heaven like our

sanding the sugar and going to church.

[FN#234] Arab. "Yá Shukayr," from Shakar, being red (clay,

etc.): Shukár is an anemone or a tulip and Shukayr is its dim.

Form. Lane's Shaykh made it a dim. of "Ashkar" = tawny, ruddy (of

complexion), so the former writes, "O Shukeyr." Mr. Payne

prefers "O Rosy cheeks."

[FN#235] For "Sandal," see vol. ii. {55}. Sandalí properly means

an Eunuch clean rasé, but here Sandal is a P.N. = Sandal-wood.

[FN#236] Arab. "Yá mumátil," one who retards payment.

[FN#237] Arab. "Kirsh al-Nukhál" = Guts of bran, a term

little fitted for the handsome and distinguished Persian. But

Khalifah is a Fellah-grazioso of normal assurance shrewd withal;

he blunders like an Irishman of the last generation and he uses

the first epithet that comes to his tongue. See Night dcccxliii.

for the sudden change in Khalifah.

[FN#238] So the Persian "May your shadow never be less" means, I

have said, the shadow which you throw over your servant. Shade,

cold water and fresh breezes are the joys of life in arid Arabia.

[FN#239] When a Fellah demanded money due to him by the

Government of Egypt, he was a once imprisoned for arrears of

taxes and thus prevented from being troublesome. I am told that

matters have improved under English rule, but I "doubt the fact."

[FN#240] This freak is of course not historical. The tale-

teller introduces it to enhance the grandeur and majesty of Harun

al-Rashid, and the vulgar would regard it as a right kingly

diversion. Westerns only wonder that such things could be.

[FN#241] Uncle of the Prophet: for his death see Pilgrimage ii.

248.

[FN#242] First cousin of the Prophet, son of Abú Tálib, a

brother of Al-Abbas from whom the Abbasides claimed descent.

[FN#243] i.e. I hope thou hast or Allah grant thou have good

tidings to tell me.

[FN#244] Arab. "Nákhúzah Zulayt." The former, from the Persian

Nákhodá or ship-captain which is also used in a playful sense "a

godless wight," one owning no (ná) God (Khudá). Zulayt = a low

fellow, blackguard.

[FN#245] Yásamín and Narjis, names of slave-girls or eunuchs.

[FN#246] Arab. Tamar-hanná, the cheapest of dyes used ever by

the poorest classes. Its smell, I have said, is that of newly

mown hay, and is prized like that of the tea-rose.

[FN#247] The formula (meaning, "What has he to do here?") is by

no means complimentary.

[FN#248] Arab. "Jarrah" (pron. "Garrah") a "jar." See Lane

(M.E. chapt. v.) who was deservedly reproached by Baron von

Hammer for his superficial notices. The "Jarrah" is of pottery,

whereas the "Dist" is a large copper chauldron and the Khalkinah

one of lesser size.

[FN#249] i.e. What a bother thou art, etc.

[FN#250] This sudden transformation, which to us seems

exaggerated and unnatural, appears in many Eastern stories and in

the biographies of their distinguished men, especially students.

A youth cannot master his lessons; he sees a spider climbing a

slippery wall and after repeated falls succeeding. Allah opens

the eyes of his mind, his studies become easy to him, and he ends

with being an Allámah (doctissimus).

[FN#251] Arab. "Bismillah, Námí!" here it is not a blessing,

but a simple invitation, "Now please go to sleep."

[FN#252] The modern inkcase of the Universal East is a lineal

descendant of the wooden palette with writing reeds. See an

illustration of that of "Amásis, the good god and lord of the two

lands" (circ. B.C. 1350) in British Museum (p. 41, "The Dwellers

on the Nile," by E. A. Wallis Bridge, London, 56, Paternoster

Row, 1885).

[FN#253] This is not ironical, as Lane and Payne suppose, but a

specimen of inverted speech--Thou art in luck this time!

[FN#254] Arab. "Marhúb" = terrible: Lane reads "Mar'úb" =

terrified. But the former may also mean, threatened with

something terrible.

[FN#255] i.e. in Kut al-Kulúb.

[FN#256] Lit. to the son of thy paternal uncle, i.e. Mohammed.

[FN#257] In the text he tells the whole story beginning with

the eunuch and the hundred dinars, the chest, etc.: but -- "of no

avail is a twice-told tale."

[FN#258] Koran xxxix. 54. I have quoted Mr. Rodwell who affects

the Arabic formula, omitting the normal copulatives.

[FN#259] Easterns find it far easier to "get the chill of

poverty out of their bones" than Westerns.

[FN#260] Arab. "Dar al-Na'ím." Name of one of the seven stages

of the Moslem heaven. This style of inscription dates from the

days of the hieroglyphs. A papyrus describing the happy town of

Raamses ends with these lines.--

Daily is there a supply of food:

Within it gladness doth ever brood

* * * *

Prolonged, increased; abides there Joy, etc., etc.

[FN#261] Arab. "Ansár" = auxiliaries, the men of Al-Medinah

(Pilgrimage ii. 130, etc.).

[FN#262] Arab. "Asháb" = the companions of the Prophet who may

number 500 (Pilgrimage ii. 81, etc.).

[FN#263] Arab. "Hásilah" prob. a corner of a "Godown" in some

Khan or Caravanserai.

[FN#264] Arab. "Funduk" from the Gr. {pandocheîon}, whence the

Italian Fondaco e.g. at Venice the Fondaco de' Turchi.

[FN#265] Arab. "Astár" plur. of Satr: in the Mac. Edit. Sátúr,

both (says Dozy) meaning "Couperet" (a hatchet). Habicht

translates it "a measure for small fish," which seems to be a

shot and a bad shot as the text talks only of means of carrying

fish. Nor can we accept Dozy's emendation Astál (plur. of Satl)

pails, situlæ. In Petermann's Reisen (i. 89) Satr=assiette.

[FN#266] Which made him expect a heavy haul.

[FN#267] Arab. "Urkúb" = tendon Achilles in man hough or pastern

in beast, etc. It is held to be an incrementative form of 'Akab

(heel); as Kur'úb of Ka'b (heel) and Khurtúm of Khatm (snout).

[FN#268] Arab. "Karmút" and "Zakzúk." The former (pronounced

Garmút) is one of the many Siluri (S. Carmoth Niloticus) very

common and resembling the Shál. It is smooth and scaleless with

fleshy lips and soft meat and as it haunts muddy bottoms it was

forbidden to the Ancient Egyptians. The Zakzúk is the young of

the Shál (Synodontis Schal: Seetzen); its plural form Zakázik

(pronounced Zigázig) gave a name to the flourishing town which

has succeeded to old Bubastis and of which I have treated in

"Midian" and "Midian Revisited."

[FN#269] "Yá A'awar"=O one-eye! i.e.. the virile member. So the

vulgar insult "Ya ibn al-aur" (as the vulgar pronounce it) "O son

of a yard!" When Al-Mas'údi writes (Fr. Trans. vii. 106), "Udkhul

usbu'ak fí aynih," it must not be rendered "Il faut lui faire

violence": thrust thy finger into his eye ('Ayn) means "put thy

penis up his fundament!" ('Ayn being=Dubur). The French remarks,

"On en trouverait l'équivalent dans les bas-fonds de notre

langue." So in English "pig's eye," "blind eye," etc.

[FN#270] Arab. "Nabbút"=a quarterstaff: see vol. i. 234.

[FN#271] Arab. "Banní," vulg. Benni and in Lane (Lex. Bunni) the

Cyprinus Bynni (Forsk.), a fish somewhat larger than a barbel

with lustrous silvery scales and delicate flesh, which Sonnini

believes may be the "Lepidotes" (smooth-scaled) mentioned by

Athenæus. I may note that the Bresl. Edit. (iv. 332) also affects

the Egyptian vulgarism "Farkh-Banni" of the Mac. Edit. (Night

dcccxxxii.).

[FN#272] The story-teller forgets that Khalif had neither basket

nor knife.

[FN#273] Arab. "Rayhán" which may here mean any scented herb.

[FN#274] In the text "Fard Kalmah," a vulgarism. The Mac. Edit.

(Night dcccxxxv.) more aptly says, "Two words" (Kalmatáni, vulg.

Kalmatayn) the Twofold Testimonies to the Unity of Allah and the

Mission of His Messenger.

[FN#275] The lowest Cairene chaff which has no respect for

itself or others.

[FN#276] Arab. "Karrat azlá hú": alluding to the cool skin of

healthy men when digesting a very hearty meal.

[FN#277] This is the true Fellah idea. A peasant will go up to

his proprietor with the "rint" in gold pieces behind his teeth

and undergo an immense amount of flogging before he spits them

out. Then he will return to his wife and boast of the number of

sticks he has eaten instead of paying at once and his spouse will

say, "Verily thou art a man." Europeans know nothing of the

Fellah. Napoleon Buonaparte, for political reasons, affected

great pity for him and horror of his oppressors, the Beys and

Pashas; and this affectation gradually became public opinion. The

Fellah must either tyrannise or be tyrannised over; he is never

happier than under a strong-handed despotism and he has never

been more miserable than under British rule or rather misrule.

Our attempts to constitutionalise him have made us the

laughing-stock of Europe.

[FN#278] The turban is a common substitute for a purse with the

lower classes of Egyptians; and an allusion to the still popular

practice of turban-snatching will be found in vol. i. p. 259.

[FN#279] Arab. "Sálih," a devotee; here, a naked Dervish.

[FN#280] Here Khalif is made a conspicuous figure in Baghdad

like Boccaccio's Calandrino and Co. He approaches in type the old

Irishman now extinct, destroyed by the reflux action of

Anglo-America (U.S.) upon the miscalled "Emerald Isle." He

blunders into doing and saying funny things whose models are the

Hibernian "bulls" and acts purely upon the impulse of the moment,

never reflecting till (possibly) after all is over.

[FN#281] Arab. "Kaylúlah," explained in vol. i. 51.

[FN#282] i.e. thy bread lawfully gained. The "Bawwák"

(trumpeter) like the "Zammár" (piper of the Mac. Edit.) are

discreditable craftsmen, associating with Almahs and loose women

and often serving as their panders.

[FN#283] i.e. he was indecently clad. Man's "shame" extends from

navel to knees. See vol vi. 118.

[FN#284] Rashád would be=garden-cresses or stones: Rashíd the

heaven-directed.

[FN#285] Arab. "Uff 'alayka"=fie upon thee! Uff=lit. Sordes

Aurium and Tuff (a similar term of disgust)=Sordes unguinum. To

the English reader the blows administered to Khalif appear rather

hard measure. But a Fellah's back is thoroughly broken to the

treatment and he would take ten times as much punishment for a

few piastres.

[FN#286] Arab. "Zurayk" dim. of Azrak=blue-eyed. See vol. iii.

104.

[FN#287] Of Baghdad.

[FN#288] Arab. "Hásil," i.e. cell in a Khan for storing goods:

elsewhere it is called a Makhzan (magazine) with the same sense.

[FN#289] The Bresl. text (iv. 347) abbreviates, or rather omits;

so that in translation details must be supplied to make sense.

[FN#290] Arab. "Kamán," vulgar Egyptian, a contraction from

Kamá (as) + anna (since, because). So " Kamán shuwayh"=wait a

bit; " Kamán marrah"=once more and "Wa Kamána-ka"=that is why.

[FN#291] i.e. Son of the Eagle: See vol. iv. 177. Here, however,

as the text shows it is hawk or falcon. The name is purely

fanciful and made mnemonically singular.

[FN#292] The Egyptian Fellah knows nothing of boxing like the

Hausá man; but he is fond of wrestling after a rude and

uncultivated fashion, which would cause shouts of laughter in

Cumberland and Cornwall. And there are champions in this line,

See vol. ii. 93.

[FN#293] The usual formula. See vol. ii. 5.

[FN#294] As the Fellah still does after drinking a cuplet

("fingán" he calls it) of sugared coffee.

[FN#295] He should have said "white," the mourning colour under

the Abbasides.

[FN#296] Anglicè, "Fine feathers make fine birds"; and in

Eastern parlance, "Clothe the reed and it will become a bride."

(Labbis al-Búsah tabkí 'Arúsah, Spitta Bey, No. 275.) I must

allow myself a few words of regret for the loss of this Savant,

one of the most singleminded men known to me. He was vilely

treated by the Egyptian Government, under the rule of the

Jew-Moslem Riyáz; and, his health not allowing him to live in

Austria, he died shortly after return home.

[FN#297] Arab. " Saub (Tobe) 'Atábi": see vol. iii. 149.

[FN#298] In text "Kimkhá," which Dozy also gives Kumkh=chenille,

tissu de soie veloutee: Damasquète de soie or et argent de

Venise, du Levant , à fleurs, etc. It comes from Kamkháb or

Kimkháb, a cloth of gold, the well-known Indian "Kimcob."

[FN#299] Here meaning=Enter in Allah's name!

[FN#300] The Arabs have a saying, "Wine breeds gladness, music

merriment and their offspring is joy."

[FN#301] Arab. "Jokh al-Saklát," rich kind of brocade on

broadcloth.

[FN#302] Arab. "Hanabát," which Dozy derives from O. German

Hnapf, Hnap now Napf: thence too the Lat. Hanapus and Hanaperium:

Ital. Anappo, Nappo; Provenc. Enap and French and English

"Hanap"= rich bowl, basket, bag. But this is known even to the

dictionaries.

[FN#303] Arab. " Kirám," nobles, and " Kurúm," vines, a word

which appears in Carmel=Karam-El (God's vineyard).

[FN#304] Arab. "Suláf al-Khandarísí," a contradiction. Suláf=the

ptisane of wine. Khandarísí, from Greek {chóndros}, lit. gruel,

applies to old wine.

[FN#305] i.e. in bridal procession.

[FN#306] Arab. "Al-'Arús, one of the innumerable tropical names

given to wine by the Arabs. Mr. Payne refers to Grangeret de la

Grange, Anthologie Arabe, p. 190.

[FN#307] Here the text of the Mac. Edition is resumed.

[FN#308] i.e. "Adornment of (good) Qualities." See the name

punned on in Night dcccli. Lane omits this tale because it

contains the illicit "Amours of a Christian and a Jewess who

dupes her husband in various abominable ways." The text has been

taken from the Mac. and the Bresl. Edits. x. 72 etc. In many

parts the former is a mere Epitome.

[FN#309] The face of her who owns the garden.

[FN#310] i.e. I am no public woman.

[FN#311] i.e. with the sight of the garden and its mistress--

purposely left vague.

[FN#312] Arab. "Dádat." Night dcclxxvi. vol. vii. p. 372.

[FN#313] Meaning respectively "Awaking" (or blowing hard),

"Affairs" (or Misfortunes) and "Flowing" (blood or water). They

are evidently intended for the names of Jewish slave-girls.

[FN#314] i.e. the brow-curls, or accroche-cÂœurs. See vol. i.

168.

[FN#315] Arab. "Wisháh" usually applied to woman's broad belt,

stomacher (Al-Hariri Ass. of Rayy).

[FN#317] The old Greek "Stephane."

[FN#317] Alluding to the popular fancy of the rain-drop which

becomes a pearl.

[FN#318] Arab. "Ghází"=one who fights for the faith.

[FN#319] i.e. people of different conditions.

[FN#320] The sudden change appears unnatural to Europeans; but

an Eastern girl talking to a strange man in a garden is already

half won. The beauty, however, intends to make trial of her

lover's generosity before yielding.

[FN#321] These lines have occurred in the earlier part of the

Night: I quote Mr. Payne for variety.

[FN#322] Arab. "Al-Sháh mát"=the King is dead, Pers. and Arab.

grotesquely mixed: Europeans explain "Checkmate" in sundry ways,

all more or less wrong.

[FN#323] Cheating (Ghadr) is so common that Easterns who have no

tincture of Western civilisation look upon it not only as venial

but laudable when one can take advantage of a simpleton. No idea

of "honour" enters into it. Even in England the old lady

whist-player of the last generation required to be looked after

pretty closely--if Mr. Charles Dickens is to be trusted.

[FN#324] Arab. "Al-Gháliyah," whence the older English Algallia.

See vol. i., 128. The Voyage of Linschoten, etc. Hakluyt Society

MDCCCLXXXV., with notes by my learned friend the late Arthur Coke

Burnell whose early death was so sore a loss to Oriental

students.

[FN#325] A favourite idiom, "What news bringest thou?" ("O

Asám!" Arab. Prov. ii. 589) used by Háris bin Amrú, King of

Kindah, to the old woman Asám whom he had sent to inspect a girl

he purposed marrying.

[FN#326] Amongst the Jews the Arab Salám becomes "Shalúm" and a

Jewess would certainly not address this ceremonial greeting to a

Christian. But Eastern storytellers care little for these

minutiæ; and the "Adornment of Qualities," was not by birth a

Jewess as the sequel will show.

[FN#327] Arab. "Sálifah," the silken plaits used as adjuncts.

See vol. iii, 313.

[FN#328] I have translated these lines in vol. i. 131, and

quoted Mr. Torrens in vol. iv. 235. Here I borrow from Mr. Payne.

[FN#329] Mr. Payne notes:--Apparently some place celebrated for

its fine bread, as Gonesse in seventeenth-century France. It

occurs also in Bresl. Edit. (iv. 203) and Dozy does not

understand it. But Arj the root=good odour.

[FN#330] Arab. "Tás," from Pers. Tásah. M. Charbonneau a

Professor of Arabic at Constantine and Member of the Asiatic Soc.

Paris, who published the Histoire de Chams-Eddine et Nour-Eddine

with Maghrabi punctuation (Paris, Hachette, 1852) remarks the

similarity of this word to Tazza and a number of other whimsical

coincidences as Zauj, {zygós} jugum; Inkár, negare; matrah,

matelas; Ishtirá, acheter, etc. To which I may add wasat, waist;

zabad, civet; Bás, buss (kiss); uzrub (pron. Zrub), drub; Kat',

cut; Tarík, track; etc., etc.

[FN#331] We should say "To her (I drink)" etc.

[FN#332] This is ad captandum. The lovers becoming Moslems would

secure the sympathy of the audience. In the sequel (Night

dccclviii) we learn that the wilful young woman was a born

Moslemah who had married a Jew but had never Judaized.

[FN#333] The doggerel of this Kasidah is not so phenomenal as

some we have seen.

[FN#334] Arab. "'Andam"=Brazil wood, vol. iii. 263.

[FN#335] Arab. " Himà." See supra, p. 102.

[FN#336] i.e. her favours were not lawful till the union was

sanctified by heartwhole (if not pure) love.

[FN#337] Arab. "Mansúr wa munazzam=oratio soluta et ligata.

[FN#338] i.e. the cupbearers.

[FN#339] Which is not worse than usual.

[FN#340] i.e. "Ornament of Qualities."

[FN#341] The 'Akík, a mean and common stone, ranks high in

Moslem poetry on account of the saying of Mohammed recorded by

Ali and Ayishah "Seal with seals of Carnelian." ('Akik.)

[FN#342] See note ii. at the end of this volume.

[FN#343] Arab. "Mahall" as opposed to the lady's "Manzil," which

would be better "Makám." The Arabs had many names for their old

habitations, e.g.; Kubbah, of brick; Sutrah, of sun-dried mud;

Hazírah, of wood; Tiráf, a tent of leather; Khabáa, of wool;

Kash'a, of skins; Nakhád, of camel's or goat's hair; Khaymah, of

cotton cloth; Wabar, of soft hair as the camel's undercoat and

Fustát (the well-known P.N.) a tent of horsehair or any hair

(Sha'ar) but Wabar.

[FN#344] This is the Maghribi form of the Arab. Súk=a

bazar-street, known from Tanjah (Tangiers) to Timbuctoo.

[FN#345] Arab. "Walímah" usually=a wedding-feast. According to

the learned Nasíf al-Yazají the names of entertainments are as

follows: Al-Jafalà=a general invitation, opp. to Al-Nakarà,

especial; Khurs, a childbirth feast; 'Akíkah, when the boy-babe

is first shaved; A'zár=circumcision-feast; Hizák, when the boy

has finished his perlection of the Koran; Milák, on occasion of

marriage-offer; Wazímah, a mourning entertainment; Wakírah=a

"house-warming"; Nakí'ah, on returning from wayfare; 'Akírah, at

beginning of the month Rajab; Kirà=a guest-feast and Maadubah, a

feast for other cause; any feast.

[FN#346] Arab. "Anistaná" the pop. phrase=thy company gladdens

us.

[FN#347] Here "Muákhát" or making mutual brotherhood would

be=entering into a formal agreement for partnership. For the

forms of "making brotherhood," see vol. iii. {151}.

[FN#348] Arab. "Ishárah" in classical Arab. signs with the

finger (beckoning); Aumá with the hand; Ramz, with the lips;

Khalaj, with the eyelids (wink); and Ghamz with the eye. Aumáz is

a furtive glance, especially of women, and Ilház, a side-glance

from lahaza, limis oculis intuitus est. See Preston's Al-Hariri,

p. 181.

[FN#349] Arab. "Haudaj" (Hind. Haudah, vulg.

Howda=elephant-saddle), the women's camel-litter, a cloth

stretched over a wooden frame. See the Prize-poem of Lebid, v.

12.

[FN#350] i.e. the twelve days' visit.

[FN#351] See note, vol. vii. {226}. So Dryden (Virgil):--

"And the hoarse raven on the blasted bough

By croaking to the left presaged the coming blow."

And Gay (Fable xxxvii.),

"That raven on the left-hand oak,

Curse on his ill-betiding croak!"

In some Persian tales two crows seen together are a good omen.

[FN#352] Vulgar Moslems hold that each man's fate is written in

the sutures of his skull but none can read the lines. See vol.

iii. 123.

[FN#353] i.e. cease not to bemoan her lot whose moon-faced

beloved ones are gone.

[FN#354] Arab. "Rukb" used of a return caravan; and also meaning

travellers on camels. The vulgar however apply "Rákib" (a

camel-rider) to a man on horseback who is properly Fáris plur.

"Khayyálah," while "Khayyál" is a good rider. Other names are

"Fayyál" (elephant-rider), Baghghál (mule-rider) and Hammár

(donkey-rider).

[FN#355] A popular exaggeration. See vol. i. 117

[FN#356] Lit. Empty of tent-ropes (Atnáb).

[FN#357] Arab. "'Abír," a fragrant powder sprinkled on face,

body and clothes. In India it is composed of rice flower or

powdered bark of the mango, Deodar (uvaria longifolia),

Sandalwood, lign-aloes or curcuma (zerumbat or zedoaria) with

rose-flowers, camphor, civet and anise-seed. There are many of

these powders: see in Herklots Chiksá, Phul, Ood, Sundul, Uggur,

and Urgujja.

[FN#358] i.e. fair faced boys and women. These lines are from

the Bresl. Edit. x. 160.

[FN#359] i.e. the Chief Kazi. For the origin of the Office and

title see vol. ii. 90, and for the Kazi al-Arab who administers

justice among the Badawin see Pilgrimage iii. 45.

[FN#360] Arab. "Raas al-Mál"=capital, as opposed to Ribá or

Ribh=interest. This legal expression has been adopted by all

Moslem races.

[FN#361] Our Aden which is thus noticed by Abulfeda (A.D. 1331):

"Aden in the lowlands of Tehámah * * * also called Abyana from a

man (who found it?), built upon the seashore, a station (for land

travellers) and a sailing-place for merchant ships India-bound,

is dry and sunparcht (Kashifah, squalid, scorbutic) and sweet

water must be imported. * * * It lies 86 parasangs from San'á but

Ibn Haukal following the travellers makes it three stages. The

city, built on the skirt of a wall-like mountain, has a watergate

and a landgate known as Bab al-Sákayn. But 'Adan Lá'ah (the

modest, the timid, the less known as opposed to Abyan, the better

known?) is a city in the mountains of Sabir, Al-Yaman, whence

issued the supporters of the Fatimite Caliphs of Egypt." 'Adan

etymologically means in Arab. and Heb. pleasure ({hédone}), Eden

(the garden), the Heaven in which spirits will see Allah and our

"Coal-hole of the East," which we can hardly believe ever to have

been an Eden. Mr. Badger who supplied me with this note described

the two Adens in a paper in Ocean Highways, which he cannot now

find. In the 'Ajáib al-Makhlúkát, Al-Kazwíni (ob. A.D. 1275)

derives the name from Ibn Sinán bin Ibrahím; and is inclined

there to place the Bír al-Mu'attal (abandoned well) and the Kasr

alMashíd (lofty palace) of Koran xxii. 44; and he adds "Kasr

al-Misyad" to those mentioned in the tale of Sayf al-Mulúk and

Badí'a al-Jamál.

[FN#362] Meaning that she had been carried to the Westward of

Meccah.

[FN#363] Arab. "Zahrawíyah" which contains a kind of double

entendre. Fátimah the Prophet's only daughter is entitled

Al-Zahrá the "bright-blooming"; and this is also an epithet of

Zohrah the planet Venus. For Fatimah see vol. vi. 145. Of her

Mohammed said, "Love your daughters, for I too am a father of

daughters" and, "Love them, they are the comforters, the

dearlings." The Lady appears in Moslem history a dreary young

woman (died æt. 28) who made this world, like Honorius, a hell in

order to win a next-world heaven. Her titles are Zahrá and Batúl

(Pilgrimage ii. 90) both signifying virgin. Burckhardt translates

Zahrá by "bright blooming" (the etymological sense): it denotes

literally a girl who has not menstruated, in which state of

purity the Prophet's daughter is said to have lived and died.

"Batúl" has the sense of a "clean maid" and is the title given by

Eastern Christians to the Virgin Mary. The perpetual virginity of

Fatimah even after motherhood (Hasan and Husayn) is a point of

orthodoxy in Al-Islam as Juno's with the Romans and Umá's with

the Hindú worshippers of Shiva. During her life Mohammed would

not allow Ali a second wife, and he held her one of the four

perfects, the other three being Asia wife of "Pharaoh," the

Virgin Mary and Khadijah his own wife. She caused much scandal

after his death by declaring that he had left her the Fadak

estate (Abulfeda I, 133, 273) a castle with a fine palm-orchard

near Khaybar. Abu Bakr dismissed the claim quoting the Apostle's

Hadis, "We prophets are folk who will away nothing: what we leave

is alms-gift to the poor," and Shí'ahs greatly resent his

decision. (See Dabistan iii. 51–52 for a different rendering of

the words.) I have given the popular version of the Lady

Fatimah's death and burial (Pilgrimage ii. 315) and have remarked

that Moslem historians delight in the obscurity which hangs over

her last resting-place, as if it were an honour even for the

receptacle of her ashes to be concealed from the eyes of men. Her

repute is a curious comment on Tom Hood's

"Where woman has never a soul to save."

[FN#364] For Sharif and Sayyid, descendants of Mohammed, see

vol. iv. 170.

[FN#365] These lines have occurred with variants in vol. iii.

257, and iv. 50.

[FN#366] Arab. "Hazrat," esp. used in India and corresponding

with our mediæval "præsentia vostra."

[FN#367] This wholesale slaughter by the tale-teller of

worshipful and reverend men would bring down the gallery like a

Spanish tragedy in which all the actors are killed.

[FN#368] They are called indifferently "Ruhbán"=monks or

"Batárikah"=patriarchs. See vol. ii. 89.

[FN#369] Arab. "Khilál." The toothpick, more esteemed by the

Arabs than by us, is, I have said, often used by the poets as an

emblem of attenuation without offending good taste. Nizami (Layla

u Majnún) describes a lover as "thin as a toothpick." The

"elegant" Hariri (Ass. of Barkaid) describes a toothpick with

feminine attributes, "shapely of shape, attractive, provocative

of appetite, delicate as the leanest of lovers, polished as a

poinard and bending as a green bough."

[FN#370] From Bresl. Edit. x. 194.

[FN#371] Trébutien (vol. ii. 344 et seq.) makes the seven monks

sing as many anthems, viz. (1) Congregamini; (2) Vias tuas

demonstra mihi; (3) Dominus illuminatis; (4) Custodi linguam; (5)

Unam petii a Domino; (6) Nec adspiciat me visus, and (7) Turbatus

est a furore oculus meus. Dánis the Abbot chaunts Anima mea

turbata est valdè.

[FN#372] A neat and characteristic touch: the wilful beauty eats

and drinks before she thinks of her lover. Alas for Masrur

married.

[FN#373] The unfortunate Jew, who seems to have been a model

husband (Orientally speaking), would find no pity with a

coffee-house audience because he had been guilty of marrying a

Moslemah. The union was null and void therefore the deliberate

murder was neither high nor petty treason. But, The Nights,

though their object is to adorn a tale, never deliberately

attempt to point a moral and this is one of their many charms.

[FN#374] These lines have repeatedly occurred. I quote Mr.

Payne.

[FN#375] i.e. by the usual expiation. See vol. {ii. 186}.

[FN#376] Arab. "Shammirí"=up and ready!

[FN#377] I borrow the title from the Bresl. Edit. x. 204. Mr.

Payne prefers "Ali Noureddin and the Frank King's Daughter." Lane

omits also this tale because it resembles Ali Shar and Zumurrud

(vol. iv. 187) and Alá al-Din Abu al-Shámát (vol. iv. 29),

"neither of which is among the text of the collection." But he

has unconsciously omitted one of the highest interest. Dr. Bacher

(Germ. Orient. Soc.) finds the original in Charlemagne's daughter

Emma and his secretary Eginhardt as given in Grimm's Deutsche

Sagen. I shall note the points of resemblance as the tale

proceeds. The correspondence with the King of France may be a

garbled account of the letters which passed between Harun

al-Rashid and Nicephorus, "the Roman dog."

[FN#378] Arab. "Allaho Akbar," the Moslem slogan or war-cry. See

vol. ii. 89.

[FN#379] The gate-keeper of Paradise. See vol. iii. 15, 20.

[FN#380] Negroes. Vol. iii. 75.

[FN#381] Arab. "Nakat," with the double meaning of to spot and

to handsel especially dancing and singing women; and, as Mr.

Payne notes in this acceptation it is practically equivalent to

the English phrase "to mark (or cross) the palm with silver." I

have translated "Anwá" by Pleiads; but it means the setting of

one star and simultaneous rising of another foreshowing rain.

There are seven Anwá (plur. of nawa) in the Solar year viz.

Al-Badri (Sept.-Oct.); Al-Wasmiyy (late autumn and December);

Al-Waliyy (to April); Al-Ghamír (June); Al-Busriyy (July); Bárih

al-Kayz (August) and Ahrák al-Hawá extending to September 8.

These are tokens of approaching rain, metaphorically used by the

poets to express "bounty". See Preston's Hariri (p. 43) and

Chenery upon the Ass. of the Banu Haram.

[FN#382] i.e. They trip and stumble in their hurry to get there.

[FN#383] Arab. "Kumm" = sleeve or petal. See vol. v. 32.

[FN#384] Arab. "Kiráb" = sword-case of wood, the sheath being of

leather.

[FN#385] Arab. "Akr kayrawán," both rare words.

[FN#386] A doubtful tradition in the Mishkát al-Masábih declares

that every pomegranate contains a grain from Paradise. See vol.

i. 134. The Koranic reference is to vi. 99.

[FN#387] Arab. "Aswad," lit. black but used for any dark colour,

here green as opposed to the lighter yellow.

[FN#388] The idea has occurred in vol. i. 158.

[FN#389] So called from the places where they grow.

[FN#390] See vol. vii. for the almond-apricot whose stone is

cracked to get at the kernel.

[FN#391] For Roum see vol. iv. 100: in Morocco "Roumi" means

simply a European. The tetrastich alludes to the beauty of the

Greek slaves.

[FN#392] Arab. "Ahlan" in adverb form lit. = "as one of the

household": so in the greeting "Ahlan wa Sahlan" (and at thine

ease), wa Marhabá (having a wide free place).

[FN#393] For the Sufrah table-cloth see vol. i. 178.

[FN#394] See vol. iii. 302, for the unclean allusion in fig and

sycamore.

[FN#395] In the text "of Tor": see vol. ii. 242. The pear is

mentioned by Homer and grows wild in South Europe. Dr. Victor

Hehn (The Wanderings of Plants, etc.) comparing the Gr.{ápios}

with the Lat. Pyrus, suggests that the latter passed over to the

Kelts and Germans amongst whom the fruit was not indigenous. Our

fine pears are mostly from the East. e.g. the "bergamot" is the

Beg Armud, Prince of Pears, from Angora.

[FN#396] i.e. "Royal," it may or may not come from Sultaníyah, a

town near Baghdad. See vol. i. 83; where it applies to oranges

and citrons.

[FN#397] 'Andam = Dragon's blood: see vol. iii. 263.

[FN#398] Arab. "Jamár," the palm-pith and cabbage, both eaten by

Arabs with sugar.

[FN#399] Arab. "Anwár" = lights, flowers (mostly yellow): hence

the Moroccan "N'wár," with its usual abuse of Wakf or quiescence.

[FN#400] Mr. Payne quotes Eugène Fromentin, "Un Eté dans le

Sahara," Paris, 1857, p. 194. Apricot drying can be seen upon all

the roofs at Damascus where, however, the season for each fruit

is unpleasantly short, ending almost as soon as it begins.

[FN#401] Arab. "Jalájal" = small bells for falcons: in Port.

cascaveis, whence our word.

[FN#402] Khulanján. Sic all editions; but Khalanj, or Khaulanj

adj. Khalanji, a tree with a strong-smelling wood which held in

hand as a chaplet acts as perfume, as is probably intended. In

Span. Arabic it is the Erica-wood. The "Muhit" tells us that is a

tree parcel yellow and red growing in parts of India and China,

its leaf is that of the Tamarisk (Tarfá); its flower is coloured

red, yellow and white; it bears a grain like mustard-seed

(Khardal) and of its wood they make porringers. Hence the poet

sings,

"Yut 'amu 'l-shahdu fí 'l-jifáni, wa yuska * Labanu 'l-Bukhti fi

Kusá'i 'l-Khalanji:

Honey's served to them in platters for food; * Camels' milk in

bowls of the Khalanj wood."

The pl. Khalánij is used by Himyán bin Kaháfah in this "bayt",

"Hattá izá má qazati 'l-Hawáijá * Wa malaat Halába-há

'l-Khalánijá:

Until she had done every work of hers * And with sweet milk had

filled the porringers."

[FN#403] In text Al-Shá'ir Al-Walahán, vol. iii. 226.

[FN#404] The orange I have said is the growth of India and the

golden apples of the Hesperides were not oranges but probably

golden nuggets. Captain Rolleston (Globe, Feb. 5, '84, on

"Morocco-Lixus") identifies the Garden with the mouth of the

Lixus River while M. Antichan would transfer it to the hideous

and unwholesome Bissagos Archipelago.

[FN#405] Arab. "Ikyán," the living gold which is supposed to

grow in the ground.

[FN#406] For the Kubbad or Captain Shaddock's fruit see vol. ii.

310, where it is misprinted Kubád.

[FN#407] Full or Fill in Bresl. Edit. = Arabian jessamine or

cork-tree ({phellón}. The Bul. and Mac. Edits. read "filfil" =

pepper or palm-fibre.

[FN#408] Arab. "Sumbul al-'Anbari"; the former word having been

introduced into England by patent medicines. "Sumbul" in Arab.

and Pers. means the hyacinth, the spikenard or the Sign Virgo.

[FN#409] Arab. "Lisán al-Hamal" lit. = Lamb's tongue.

[FN#410] See in Bresl. Edit. X, 221. Taif, a well-known town in

the mountain region East of Meccah, and not in the Holy Land, was

once famous for scented goat's leather. It is considered to be a

"fragment of Syria" (Pilgrimage ii. 207) and derives its name =

the circumambulator from its having circuited pilgrim-like round the

Ka'abah (Ibid.).

[FN#411] Arab. "Mikhaddah" = cheek-pillow: Ital. guanciale. In

Bresl. Edit. Mudawwarah (a round cushion) Sinjabiyah (of Ermine).

For "Mudawwarah" see vol. iv. 135.

[FN#412] "Coffee" is here evidently an anachronism and was

probably inserted by the copyist. See vol. v. 169, for its first

metnion. But "Kahwah" may have preserved its original meaning =

strong old wine (vol. ii. 261); and the amount of wine-drinking

and drunkenness proves that the coffee movement had not set in.

[FN#413] i.e. they are welcome. In Marocco "Lá baas" means, "I

am pretty well" (in health).

[FN#414] The Rose (Ward) in Arab. is masculine, sounding to us

most uncouth. But there is a fem. form Wardah = a single rose.

[FN#415] Arab. "Akmám," pl. of Kumm, a sleeve, a petal. See vol.

iv. 107 and supra p. 267. The Moslem woman will show any part of

her person rather than her face, instinctively knowing that the

latter may be recognised whereas the former cannot. The traveller

in the outer East will see ludicrous situations in which the

modest one runs away with hind parts bare and head and face

carefully covered.

[FN#416] Arab. "Ikyán" which Mr. Payne translates "vegetable

gold" very picturesquely but not quite preserving the idea. See

supra p. 272.

[FN#417] It is the custom for fast youths, in Egypt, Syria, and

elsewhere to stick small gold pieces, mere spangles of metal on

the brows, cheeks and lips of the singing and dancing girls and

the perspiration and mask of cosmetics make them adhere for a

time till fresh movement shakes them off.

[FN#418] See the same idea in vol. i. 132, and 349.

[FN#419] "They will ask thee concerning wine and casting of

lots; say: 'In both are great sin and great advantages to

mankind; but the sin of them both is greater than their

advantage.'" See Koran ii. 216. Mohammed seems to have made up

his mind about drinking by slow degrees; and the Koranic law is

by no means so strict as the Mullahs have made it. The

prohibitions, revealed at widely different periods and varying in

import and distinction, have been discussed by Al-Bayzáwi in his

commentary on the above chapter. He says that the first

revelation was in chapt. xvi. 69 but, as the passage was

disregarded, Omar and others consulted the Apostle who replied to

them in chapt. ii. 216. Then, as this also was unnoticed, came

the final decision in chapt. v. 92, making wine and lots the work

of Satan. Yet excuses are never wanting to the Moslem, he can

drink Champagne and Cognac, both unknown in Mohammed's day and he

can use wine and spirits medicinally, like sundry of ourselves,

who turn up the nose of contempt at the idea of drinking for

pleasure.

[FN#420] i.e. a fair-faced cup-bearer. The lines have occurred

before: so I quote Mr. Payne.

[FN#421] It is the custom of the Arabs to call their cattle to

water by whistling; not to whistle to them, as Europeans do,

whilst making water.

[FN#422] i.e. bewitching. See vol. i. 85. These incompatible

metaphors are brought together by the Saj'a (prose rhyme)

in--"iyah."

[FN#423] Mesopotamian Christians, who still turn towards

Jerusalem, face the West, instead of the East, as with Europeans:

here the monk is so dazed that he does not know what to do.

[FN#424] Arab. "Bayt Sha'ar" = a house of hair (tent) or a

couplet of verse. Watad (a tentpeg) also is prosodical, a foot

when the two first letters are "moved" (vowelled) and the last is

jazmated (quiescent), e.g. Lakad. It is termed Majmú'a (united),

as opposed to "Mafrúk" (separated), e.g. Kabla, when the "moved"

consonants are disjoined by a quiescent.

[FN#425] Lit. standing on their heads, which sounds ludicrous

enough in English, not in Arabic.

[FN#426] These lines are in vol. iii. 251. I quote Mr. Payne who

notes "The bodies of Eastern women of the higher classes by dint

of continual maceration, Esther-fashion, in aromatic oils and

essences, would naturally become impregnated with the sweet

scents of the cosmetics used."

[FN#427] These lines occur in vol. i. 218: I quote Torrens for

variety.

[FN#428] So we speak of a "female screw." The allusion is to the

dove-tailing of the pieces. This personification of the lute has

occurred before: but I solicit the reader's attention to it; it

has a fulness of Oriental flavour all its own.

[FN#429] I again solicit the reader's attention to the

simplicity, the pathos and the beauty of this personification of

the lute.

[FN#430] "They" for she.

[FN#431] The Arabs very justly make the "'Andalib" =

nightingale, masculine.

[FN#432] Anwár = lights or flowers: See Night dccclxv. supra p.

270.

[FN#433] These couplets have occurred in vol. i. 168; so I quote

Mr. Payne.

[FN#434] i.e. You may have his soul but leave me his body:

company with him in the next world and let me have him in this.

[FN#435] Alluding to the Koranic (cxiii. 1.), "I take refuge

with the Lord of the Daybreak from the mischief of that which He

hath created, etc." This is shown by the first line wherein

occurs the Koranic word "Ghásik" (cxiii. 3) which may mean the

first darkness when it overspreadeth or the moon when it is

eclipsed.

[FN#436] "Malak" = level ground; also tract on the Nile sea.

Lane M.E. ii. 417, and Bruckhardt Nubia 482.

[FN#437] This sentiment has often been repeated.

[FN#438] The owl comes in because "Búm" (pron. boom) rhymes with

Kayyúm = the Eternal.

[FN#439] For an incident like this see my Pilgrimmage (vol. i.

176). How true to nature the whole scene is; the fond mother

excusing her boy and the practical father putting the excuse

aside. European paternity, however, would probably exclaim, "The

beast's in liquor!"

[FN#440] In ancient times this seems to have been the universal

and perhaps instinctive treatment of the hand that struck a

father. By Nur al-Din's flight the divorce-oath became

technically null and void for Taj al-Din had sworn to mutilate

his son next morning.

[FN#441] So Roderic Random and his companions "sewed their money

between the lining and the waistband of their breeches, except

some loose silver for immediate expense on the road." For a

description of these purses see Pilgrimage i. 37.

[FN#442] Arab. Rashid (our Rosetta), a corruption of the Coptic

Trashit; ever famous for the Stone.

[FN#443] For a parallel passage in praise of Alexandria see vol.

i. 290, etc. The editor or scribe was evidently an Egyptian.

[FN#444] Arab. "Saghr" (Thagr), the opening of the lips showing

the teeth. See vol. i. p. 156.

[FN#445] Iskandariyah, the city of Iskandar or Alexander the

Great, whose "Soma" was attractive to the Greeks as the corpse of

the Prophet Daniel afterwards was to the Moslems. The choice of

site, then occupied only by the pauper village of Rhacotis, is

one proof of many that the Macedonian conqueror had the

inspiration of genius.

[FN#446] i.e. paid them down. See vol. i. 281; vol. ii. 145.

[FN#447] Arab. "Baltiyah," Sonnini's "Bolti" and Nébuleux

(because it is dozid-coloured when fried), the Labrus Niloticus

from its labra or large fleshy lips. It lives on the "leaves of

Paradise" hence the flesh is delicate and savoury and it is

caught with the épervier or sweep-net in the Nile, canals and

pools.

[FN#448] Arab. "Liyyah," not a delicate comparison, but

exceedingly apt besides rhyming to "Baltiyah." The cauda of the

"five-quarter sheep, whose tails are so broad and thick that

there is as much flesh upon them as upon a quarter of their

body," must not be confounded with the lank appendage of our

English muttons. See i. 25, Dr. Burnell's Linschoten (Hakluyt

Soc. 1885).

[FN#449] A variant occurs in vol. iv. 191.

[FN#450] Arab. "Tars Daylami," a small shield of bright metal.

[FN#451] Arab. "Kaukab al-durri," see Pilgrimage ii. 82.

[FN#452] Arab. "Kusúf" applied to the moon; Khusúf being the

solar eclipse.

[FN#453] May Abú Lahab's hands perish. . . and his wife be a

bearer of faggots!" Koran cxi. 1 & 4. The allusion is neat.

[FN#454] Alluding to the Angels who shoot down the Jinn. See

vol. i. 224. The index misprints "Shibáh."

[FN#455] For a similar scene see Ali Shar and Zumurrud, vol. iv.

187.

[FN#456] i.e. of the girl whom as the sequel shows, her owner

had promised not to sell without her consent. This was and is a

common practice. See vol. iv. 192.

[FN#457] These lines have occurred in vol. iii. p. 303. I quote

Mr. Payne.

[FN#458] Alluding to the erectio et distensio penis which comes

on before dawn in tropical lands and which does not denote any

desire for women. Some Anglo-Indians term the symptom signum

salutis, others a urine-proud pizzle.

[FN#459] Arab. "Mohtasib," in the Maghrib "Mohtab," the officer

charged with inspecting weights and measures and with punishing

fraud in various ways such as nailing the cheat's ears to his

shop's shutter, etc.

[FN#460] Every where in the Moslem East the slave holds himself

superior to the menial freeman, a fact which I would impress upon

the several Anti-slavery Societies, honest men whose zeal mostly

exceeds their knowledge, and whose energy their discretion.

[FN#461] These lines, extended to three couplets, occur in vol.

iv. 193. I quote Mr. Payne.

[FN#462] "At this examination (on Judgment Day) Mohammedans also

believe that each person will have the book, wherein all the

actions of his life are written, delivered to him; which books

the righteous will receive in their right hand, and read with

great pleasure and satisfaction; but the ungodly will be obliged

to take them, against their wills, in their left (Koran xvii.

xviii. lxix, and lxxxiv.), which will be bound behind their

backs, their right hand being tied to their necks." Sale,

Preliminary Discourse; Sect. iv.

[FN#463] "Whiteness" (bayáz) also meaning lustre, honour.

[FN#464] This again occurs in vol. iv. 194. So I quote Mr.

Payne.

[FN#465] Her impudence is intended to be that of a captive

Princess.

[FN#466] i.e. bent groundwards.

[FN#467] See vol. iv. 192. In Marocco Za'ar is applied to a man

with fair skin, red hair and blue eyes (Gothic blood?) and the

term is not complimentary as "Sultan Yazid Za'ar."

[FN#468] The lines have occurred before (vol. iv. 194). I quote

Mr. Lane ii. 440. Both he and Mr. Payne have missed the point in

"ba'zu layáli" a certain night when his mistress had left him so

lonely.

[FN#469] Arab. "Raat-hu." This apparently harmless word suggests

one similar in sound and meaning which gave some trouble in its

day. Says Mohammed in the Koran (ii. 98) "O ye who believe! say

not (to the Apostle) Rá'iná (look at us) but Unzurná (regard

us)." "Rá'iná" as pronounced in Hebrew means "our bad one."

[FN#470] By reason of its leanness.

[FN#471] In the Mac. Edit. "Fifty." For a scene which

illustrates this mercantile transaction see my Pilgrimage i. 88,

and its deduction. "How often is it our fate, in the West as in

the East, to see in bright eyes and to hear from rosy lips an

implied, if not an expressed 'Why don't you buy me?' or, worse

still, 'Why can't you buy me?'"

[FN#472] See vol. ii. 165 dragging or trailing the skirts =

walking without the usual strut or swagger: here it means

assuming the humble manners of a slave in presence of the master.

[FN#473] This is the Moslem form of "boycotting": so amongst

early Christians they refused to give one another God-speed.

Amongst Hindús it takes the form of refusing "Hukkah (pipe) and

water" which practically makes a man an outcast. In the text the

old man expresses the popular contempt for those who borrow and

who do not repay. He had evidently not read the essay of Elia on

the professional borrower.

[FN#474] See note p. 273.

[FN#475] i.e. the best kind of camels.

[FN#476] This first verse has occurred three times.

[FN#477] Arab. "Surayyá" in Dictionaries a dim. of Sarwá =

moderately rich. It may either denote abundance of rain or a

number of stars forming a constellation. Hence in Job (xxxviii.

31) it is called a heap (kímah).

[FN#478] Pleiads in Gr. the Stars whereby men sail.

[FN#479] This is the Eastern idea of the consequence of

satisfactory coition which is supposed to be the very seal of

love. Westerns have run to the other extreme.

[FN#480] "Al-Ríf" simply means lowland: hence there is a Ríf in

the Nile-delta. The word in Europe is applied chiefly to the

Maroccan coast opposite Gibraltar (not, as is usually supposed

the North-Western seaboard) where the Berber-Shilhá race, so

famous as the "Rif pirates" still closes the country to

travellers.

[FN#481] i.e. Upper Egypt.

[FN#482] These local excellencies of coition are described

jocosely rather than anthropologically.

[FN#483] See vol. i. 223: I take from Torrens, p. 223.

[FN#484] For the complete ablution obligatory after copulation

before prayers can be said. See vol. v. 199.

[FN#485] Arab. "Zunnár," the Greek {zoonárion}, for which, see vol.

ii. 215.

[FN#486] Miriam (Arabic Maryam), is a Christian name, in Moslem

lands. Abú Maryam "Mary's father" (says Motarrazi on Al-Hariri,

Ass. of Alexandria) is a term of contempt, for men are called

after sons (e.g. Abu Zayd), not after daughters. In more modern

authors Abu Maryam is the name of ushers and lesser officials in

the Kazi's court.

[FN#487] This formality, so contrary to our Western familiarity

after possession, is an especial sign of good breeding amongst

Arabs and indeed all Eastern nations. It reminds us of the "grand

manner" in Europe two hundred years ago, not a trace of which now

remains.

[FN#488] These lines are in Night i. ordered somewhat

differently: so I quote Torrens (p. 14).

[FN#489] i.e. to the return Salám--"And with thee be peace and

the mercy of Allah and His blessings!" See vol. ii. 146. The

enslaved Princess had recognised her father's Wazir and knew that

he could have but one object, which being a man of wit and her

lord a "raw laddie," he was sure to win.

[FN#490] It is quite in Moslem manners for the bystanders to

force the sale seeing a silly lad reject a most advantageous

offer for sentimental reasons. And the owner of the article would

be bound by their consent.

[FN#491] Arab. "Wa'llahi." "Bi" is the original particle of

swearing, a Harf al-jarr (governing the genitive as Bi'lláhi) and

suggesting the idea of adhesion: "Wa" (noting union) is its

substitute in oath-formulæ and "Ta" takes the place of Wa as

Ta'lláhi. The three-fold forms are combined in a great "swear."

[FN#492] i.e. of divorcing their own wives.

[FN#493] These lines have occurred before: I quote Mr. Payne.

[FN#494] These lines are in Night xxvi., vol. i. 275: I quote

Torrens (p. 277), with a correction for "when ere."

[FN#495] This should be "draws his senses from him as one pulls

hair out of pate."

[FN#496] Rághib and Záhid: see vol. v. 141.

[FN#497] Carolus Magnus then held court in Paris; but the text

evidently alludes to one of the port-cities of Provence as

Marseille which we English will miscall Marseilles.

[FN#498] Here the writer, not the young wife, speaks; but as a

tale-teller he says "hearer" not "reader."

[FN#499] Kayrawán, the Arab. form of the Greek Cyrene which has

lately been opened to travellers and has now lost the mystery

which enshrouded it. In Hafiz and the Persian poets it is the

embodiment of remoteness and secrecy; as we till the last quarter

century spoke of the "deserts of Central Africa."

[FN#500] Arab. "'Innín": alluding to all forms of impotence,

from dislike, natural deficiency or fascination, the favourite

excuse. Easterns seldom attribute it to the true cause, weak

action of the heart; but the Romans knew the truth when they

described one of its symptoms as cold feet. "Clino-pedalis, ad

venerem invalidus, ab ea antiqua opinione, frigiditatem pedum

concubituris admodum officere." Hence St. Francis and the

bare-footed Friars. See Glossarium Eroticum Linguae Latinæ,

Parisiis, Dondey-Dupré, MDCCCXXVI.

[FN#501] I have noted the use of "island" for "land" in general.

So in the European languages of the sixteenth century, insula was

used for peninsula, e.g. Insula de Cori = the Corean peninsula.

[FN#502] As has been noticed (vol. i. 333), the monocular is

famed for mischief and men expect the mischief to come from his

blinded eye.

[FN#503] Here again we have a specimen of "inverted speech"

(vol. ii. 265); abusive epithets intended for a high compliment,

signifying that the man was a tyrant over rebels and a froward

devil to the foe.

[FN#504] Arab. "Bab al-Bahr," see vol. iii. 281.

[FN#505] Arab. "Batárikah" see vol. ii. 89. The Templars,

Knights of Malta and other orders half ecclesiastic, half

military suggested the application of the term.

[FN#506] These lines have occurred in vol. i. 280--I quote

Torrens (p. 283).

[FN#507] Maryam al-Husn containing a double entendre, "O place

of the white doe (Rím) of beauty!" The girl's name was Maryam the

Arab. form of Mary, also applied to the B.V. by Eastern

Christians. Hence a common name of Syrian women is "Husn Maryam"

= (one endowed with the spiritual beauties of Mary: vol. iv. 87).

I do not think that the name was "manufactured by the Arab

story-tellers after the pattern of their own names (e.g. Nur

al-Din or Noureddin, light of the faith, Tajeddin, crown of

faith, etc.) for the use of their imaginary Christian female

characters."

[FN#508] I may here remind readers that the Bán, which some

Orientalists will write "Ben," is a straight and graceful species

of Moringa with plentiful and intensely green foliage.

[FN#509] Arab. "Amúd al-Sawári" = the Pillar of Masts, which is

still the local name of Diocletian's column absurdly named by

Europeans "Pompey's Pillar."

[FN#510] Arab. "Batiyah," also used as a wine-jar (amphora), a

flagon.

[FN#511] Arab. "Al-Kursán," evidently from the Ital. "Corsaro,"

a runner. So the Port. "Cabo Corso," which we have corrupted to

"Cape Coast Castle" (Gulf of Guinea), means the Cape of Tacking.

[FN#512] Arab. "Ghuráb," which Europeans turn to "Grab."

[FN#513] Arab. "Sayyib" (Thayyib) a rare word: it mostly applies

to a woman who leaves her husband after lying once with him.

[FN#514] Arab. "Batárikah:" here meaning knights, leaders of

armed men as in Night dccclxii., supra p. 256, it means "monks."

[FN#515] i.e. for the service of a temporal monarch.

[FN#516] Arab. "Sayr" = a broad strip of leather still used by

way of girdle amongst certain Christian religions in the East.

[FN#517] Arab. "Haláwat al-Salámah," the sweetmeats offered to

friends after returning from a journey or escaping sore peril.

See vol. iv. 60.

[FN#518] So Eginhardt was an Erzcapellan and belonged to the

ghostly profession.

[FN#519] These lines are in vols. iii. 258 and iv. 204. I quote

Mr. Payne.

[FN#520] Arab. "Firásah," lit. = skill in judging of horse flesh

(Faras) and thence applied, like "Kiyáfah," to physiognomy. One

Kári was the first to divine man's future by worldly signs

(Al-Maydáni, Arab. prov. ii. 132) and the knowledge was

hereditary in the tribe Mashíj.

[FN#521] Reported to be a "Hadis" or saying of Mohammed, to whom

are attributed many such shrewd aphorisms, e.g. "Allah defend us

from the ire of the mild (tempered)."

[FN#522] These lines are in vol. i. 126. I quote Torrens (p.

120).

[FN#523] These lines have occurred before. I quote Mr. Payne.

[FN#524] Arab. "Khák-bák," an onomatopÂœia like our flip-flap and

a host of similar words. This profaning a Christian Church which

contained the relics of the Virgin would hugely delight the

coffee-house habitués, and the Egyptians would be equally

flattered to hear that the son of a Cairene merchant had made the

conquest of a Frankish Princess Royal. That he was an arrant

poltroon mattered very little, as his cowardice only set of his

charms.

[FN#525] i.e. after the rising up of the dead.

[FN#526] Arab. "Nafísah," the precious one i.e. the Virgin.

[FN#527] Arab. "Nákús," a wooden gong used by Eastern Christians

which were wisely forbidden by the early Moslems.

[FN#528] i.e. a graceful, slender youth.

[FN#529] There is a complicatd pun in this line: made by

splitting the word after the fashion of punsters. "Zarbu

'l-Nawákísí" = the striking of the gongs, and "Zarbu 'l Nawá,

Kísí = striking the departure signal: decide thou (fem. addressed

to the Nafs, soul or self)" I have attempted a feeble imitation.

[FN#530] The modern Italian term of the venereal finish.

[FN#531] Arab. "Najm al-Munkazzi," making the envious spy one of

the prying Jinns at whom is launched the Shiháb or shooting-star

by the angels who prevent them listening at the gates of Heaven.

See vol. i. 224.

[FN#532] Arab. "Sandúk al-Nuzur," lit. "the box of vowed

oblations." This act of sacrilege would find high favour with the

auditory.

[FN#533] The night consisting like the day of three watches. See

vol. i.

[FN#534] Arab. "Al-Khaukhah," a word now little used.

[FN#535] Arab. "Námúsiyah," lit. mosquito curtains.

[FN#536] Arab. "Jáwashiyah," see vol. ii. 49.

[FN#537] Arab. "Kayyimah," the fem. of "Kayyim," misprinted

"Kayim" in vol. ii. 93.

[FN#538] i.e. hadst thou not disclosed thyself. He has one great

merit in a coward of not being ashamed for his cowardice; and

this is a characteristic of the modern Egyptian, whose proverb

is, "He ran away, Allah shame him! is better than, He was slain,

Allah bless him!"

[FN#539] Arab. "Ahjar al-Kassárín" nor forgotten. In those days

ships anchored in the Eastern port of Alexandria which is now

wholly abandoned on account of the rocky bottom and the dangerous

"Levanter," which as the Gibraltar proverb says

"Makes the stones canter."

[FN#540] Arab. "Hakk" = rights, a word much and variously used.

To express the possessive "mine" a Badawi says "Hakki" (pron.

Haggi) and "Lílí;" a Syrian "Shítí" for Shayyati, my little thing

or "taba 'i" my dependent; an Egyptian "Bitá' i" my portion and a

Maghribi "M'tá 'i" and "diyyáli" (di allazí lí = this that is to

me). Thus "mine" becomes a shibboleth.

[FN#541] i.e. The "Good for nothing," the "Bad'un;" not some

forgotten ruffian of the day, but the hero of a tale antedating

The Nights in their present form. See Terminal Essay, x. ii.

[FN#542] i.e. Hoping to catch Nur al-Din.

[FN#543] Arab. "Sawwáhún" = the Wanderers, Pilgrims, wandering

Arabs, whose religion, Al-Islam, so styled by its Christain

opponents. And yet the new creed was at once accepted by whole

regions of Christians, and Mauritania, which had rejected Roman

paganism and Gothic Christianity. This was e.g. Syria and the

so-called "Holy Land," not because, as is fondly asserted by

Christians, al-Islam was forced upon them by the sword, but on

account of its fulfilling a need, its supplying a higher belief,

unity as opposed to plurality, and its preaching a more manly

attitude of mind and a more sensible rule of conduct. Arabic

still preserves a host of words special to the Christian creed;

and many of them have been adopted by Moslems but with changes of

signification.

[FN#544] i.e. of things commanded and things prohibited. The

writer is thinking of the Koran in which there are not a few

abrogated injunctions.

[FN#545] See below for the allusion.

[FN#546] Arab. "Kafrá" = desert place. It occurs in this

couplet,

"Wa Kabrun Harbin fí-makánin Kafrin;

Wa laysa Kurba Kabri Harbin Kabrun."

"Harb's corse is quartered in coarse wold accurst;

Nor close to corse of Harb is other corse;--"

words made purposely harsh because uttered by a Jinni who killed

a traveller named "Harb."

So Homer:--

{pollà d' hánanta, kátanta, párantá te dachmía t' êlthon.}

and Pope:--

"O'er hills, o'er dales, o'er crags, o'er rocks they go, etc."

See Preface (p. v.) to Captain A. Lockett's learned and whimsical

volume, "The Muit Amil" etc. Calcutta, 1814.

[FN#547] These lines have occurred vol. iv. 267. I quote Mr.

Lane.

[FN#548] The topethesia is here designedly made absurd.

Alexandria was one of the first cities taken by the Moslems (A.H.

21 = 642) and the Christian pirates preferred attacking weaker

places, Rosetta and Damietta.

[FN#549] Arab. "Bilád al-Rúm," here and elsewhere applied to

France.

[FN#550] Here the last line of p. 324, vol. iv. in the Mac.

Edit. is misplaced and belongs to the next page.

[FN#551] Arab. "Akhawán shakíkán" = brothers german (of men and

beasts) born of one father and mother, sire and dam.

[FN#552] "The Forerunner" and "The Overtaker," terms borrowed

from the Arab Epsom.

[FN#553] Known to us as "the web and pin," it is a film which

affects Arab horses in the damp hot regions of Malabar and

Zanzibar and soon blinds them. This equine cataract combined with

loin-disease compels men to ride Pegu and other ponies.

[FN#554] Arab. "Zujáj bikr" whose apparent meaning would be

glass in the lump and unworked. Zaj áj bears, however, the

meaning of clove-nails (the ripe bud of the clove-shrub) and may

possibly apply to one of the manifold "Alfáz Adwiyah" (names of

drugs). Here, however, pounded glass would be all sufficient to

blind a horse: it is much used in the East especially for dogs

affected by intestinal vermicules.

[FN#555] Alluding to the Arab saying "The two rests"

(Al-ráhatáni) "certainty of success or failure," as opposed to

"Wiswás" when the mind fluctuates in doubt.

[FN#556] She falls in love with the groom, thus anticipating the

noble self-devotion of Miss Aurora Floyd.

[FN#557] Arab. "Túfán" see vol. {iv. 136}: here it means the

"Deluge of Noah."

[FN#558] Two of the Hells. See vol. v. 240.

[FN#559] Lit. "Out upon a prayer who imprecated our parting!"

[FN#560] The use of masculine for feminine has frequently been

noted. I have rarely changed the gender or the number the plural

being often employed for the singular (vol. i. 98). Such change

may avoid "mystification and confusion" but this is the very

purpose of the substitution which must be preserved if "local

colour" is to be respected.