therein; after which they returned to their palace and there abode in
the fulness of enjoyment, till there came to them the Destroyer of
delights and the Sunderer of societies; and glory be to Him who changeth
not neither ceaseth, and to whom everything returneth! And they also
tell a tale of
-----
Footnote 30:
Lit. “The rose in the sleeves or calyces.” I take my English
equivalent from Jeremy Taylor, “So I have seen a rose newly springing
from the clefts of its hood,” etc.
Footnote 31:
These lines are from the Bresl. Edit. (v. 35.) The four couplets in
the Mac. Edit. are too irrelevant.
Footnote 32:
Polo, which Lane calls “Goff.”
Footnote 33:
Arab. “Muffawak” = well-notched, as its value depends upon the notch.
At the end of the third hemistich Lane’s Shaykh very properly reads
“baghtatan” (suddenly) for “burhatan” = during a long time.
Footnote 34:
“Uns” (which the vulgar pronounce Anas) “al-Wujúd” = Delight of
existing things, of being, of the world. Uns wa júd is the normal pun
= love-intimacy and liberality; and the paronomasia (which cannot well
be rendered in English) reappears again and again. The story is
throughout one of love; hence the quantity of verse.
Footnote 35:
The allusion to a “written N” suggests the elongated not the rounded
form of the letter as in Night cccxxiv.
Footnote 36:
The fourteenth Arabic letter in its medial form resembling an eye.
Footnote 37:
This is done by the man passing his fingers over the brow as if to
wipe off perspiration; the woman acknowledges it by adjusting her
head-veil with both hands. As a rule in the Moslem East women make the
first advances; and it is truly absurd to see a great bearded fellow
blushing at being ogled. During the Crimean war the fair sex of
Constantinople began by these allurements but found them so readily
accepted by the Giaours that they were obliged to desist.
Footnote 38:
The greatest of all explorers and discoverers of the world will be he
who finds a woman confessing inability to keep a secret.
Footnote 39:
The original is intensely prosaic—and so am I.
Footnote 40:
Arab. “Sunnat,” the practice of the Prophet. For this prayer and other
silly and superstitious means of discovering the “right direction”
(which is often very wrongly directed) see Lane, M. E. chapt. xi.
Footnote 41:
Arab. “Bahr” (sea or river) al-Kunúz: Lane (ii. 576) ingeniously
identifies the site with the Upper Nile whose tribes, between Assouan
(Syene) and Wady al-Subú’a are called the “Kunúz”—lit. meaning
“treasures” or “hoards.” Philæ is still known as the “Islet of Anas
(for Uns) al-Wujud;” and the learned and accurate Burckhardt (Travels
in Nubia p. 5,) records the local legend that a mighty King called
Al-Wujúd built the Osirian temples. I can give no information
concerning Jabal al-Sakla, (Thaklá) the Mount of the woman bereft of
children, beyond the legend contained in Night ccclxxix.
Footnote 42:
A religious mendicant (lit. a pauper), of whom there are two great
divisions. The Shara’í acts according to the faith: the others (Lá
Shara’í, or irreligious) are bound by no such prejudices and are
pretty specimen of scoundrels (Pilgrimage i. 22).
Footnote 43:
Meaning his lips and palate were so swollen by drought.
Footnote 44:
It is a pious act in time of mortal danger to face the Kiblah or
Meccan temple, as if standing in prayer.
Footnote 45:
Still the belief of the Badawi who tries to work upon the beast’s
compassion: “O great King I am a poor man, with wife and family, so
spare me that Allah spare thee!” and so forth. If not famished the
lion will often stalk off looking behind him as he goes; but the man
will never return by the same path; “for,” says he, “haply the Father
of Roaring may repent him of a wasted opportunity.” These lion-tales
are very common, witness that of Androcles at Rome and a host of
others. Una and her lion is another phase. It remained for M. Jules
Gérard, first the _chasseur_ and then the _tueur_, _du lion_, to
assail the reputation of the lion and the honour of the lioness.
Footnote 46:
Abú Háris = Father of spoils: one of the lion’s hundred titles.
Footnote 47:
“They” again for “she.”
Footnote 48:
Jaxartes and Oxus. The latter (Jayhun or Amu, Oxus or Bactros) is
famous for dividing Iran from Turan, Persia from Tartaria. The lands
to its north are known as Má wará al-Nahr (Mawerannahar) or “What is
behind the stream,” = Transoxiana and their capitals were successively
Samarcand and Bokhara.
Footnote 49:
Arab. “Dání wa gharíb” = friend and foe. The lines are partly from the
Mac. Edit. and partly from the Bresl. Edit., v. 55.
Footnote 50:
Arab. “Wá Rahmatá-hu!” a form now used only in books
Footnote 51:
Before noted. The relationship, like that of foster-brother, has its
rights, duties and privileges.
Footnote 52:
Arab. “Istikhárah,” before explained as praying for direction by omens
of the rosary, opening the Koran and reading the first verse sighted,
etc., etc. At Al-Medinah it is called Khírah and I have suggested
(Pilgrimage, ii. 287) that it is a relic of the Azlam or Kidah
(divining arrows) of paganism. But the superstition is not local: we
have the Sortes Virgilianæ (Virgil being a magician) as well as
Coranicæ.
Footnote 53:
Arab. Wujúd al-Habíb, a pun, also meaning, “Wujúd my beloved.”
Footnote 54:
Arab. “Khilál,” as an emblem of attenuation occurring in Al-Hariri
(Ass. of Alexandria, etc.); also thin as a spindle (Maghzal), as a
reed, and dry as a pair of shears. In the Ass. of Barka’id the
toothpick is described as a beautiful girl. The use of this cleanly
article was enjoined by Mohammed:—“Cleanse your mouths with
toothpicks; for your mouths are the abode of the guardian angels;
whose pens are the tongues, and whose ink is the spittle of men; and
to whom naught is more unbearable than remains of food in the mouth.”
A mighty apparatus for a small matter; but in very hot lands
cleanliness must rank before godliness.
Footnote 55:
The sense is ambiguous. Lane renders the verse:—“Thou resemblest it
(rose) not of my portion” and gives two explanations “because _he_ is
of my portion,” or, “because _his_ cheek cannot be rosy if _mine_ is
not.” Mr. Payne boldly translates—
If the rose ape his cheek, “Now God forfend,” I say, “That of my
portion aught to pilfer thou shouldst try.”
Footnote 56:
Arab. “líf” (not “fibres which grow at the top of the trunk,” Lane ii.
577); but the fibre of the fronds worked like the cocoa-nut fibre
which forms the now well-known Indian “coir.” This “líf” is also
called “filfil” or “fulfil” which Dr. Jonathan Scott renders “pepper”
(Lane i. 8) and it forms a clean succedaneum for one of the uncleanest
articles of civilisation, the sponge. It is used in every Hammam and
is (or should be) thrown away after use.
Footnote 57:
Arab. “Shinf;” a coarse sack, a “gunny-bag;” a net compared with such
article.
Footnote 58:
The eunuch tells him that he is not a “Sandalí” = one whose penis and
testes are removed; and consequently the highest valued. There are
many ways of making the castrato; in some (as here) only the penis is
removed, in others the testes are bruised or cut off; but in all cases
the animal passion remains, for in man, unlike other animals, the
_fons veneris_ is the brain. The story of Abelard proves this. Juvenal
derided the idea of married eunuchs and yet almost all these neutrals
have wives with whom they practise the manifold _plaisirs de la petite
oie_ (masturbation, tribadism, irrumation, tête-bêche,
feuille-de-rose, etc.), till they induce the venereal orgasm. Such was
the account once given to me by a eunuch’s wife; and I need hardly say
that she, like her confrerie was to be pitied. At the critical moment
she held up a little pillow for her husband to bite who otherwise
would have torn her cheeks or breasts.
Footnote 59:
In real life the eunuch, as a rule, avoids all allusion to his
misfortune, although the slave will often describe his being sold
merrily enough.
Footnote 60:
The visits are in dreamland. The ringdove thanks the Lord for her
(his?) suffering in the holy martyrdom of love.
Footnote 61:
Arab. “Hazár;” I have explained it as meaning “(the bird of) a
thousand (songs).”
Footnote 62:
The “Bulbul” had his day with us but he departed with Tommy Moore. We
usually English the word by “nightingale;” but it is a kind of shrike
or butcher-bird (_Lanius Boulboul._ Lath.)
Footnote 63:
The “Hamám” is a _lieu commun_ in Arabic poetry. I have noticed the
world-wide reverence for the pigeon and the incarnation of the Third
Person of the Hindu Triad (Shiva), as “Kapoteshwara (Kapota-ishwara)”
= pigeon or dove-god (Pilgrimage iii. 218.)
Footnote 64:
Arab. “Hamám al-Ayk.” Mr. Payne’s rendering is so happy that we must
either take it from him or do worse.
Footnote 65:
All primitive peoples translate the songs of birds with human
language; but, as I have noticed, the versions differ widely. The
pigeon cries, “Allah! Allah!” The dove “Karim, Tawwá” (Bountiful,
Pardoner!) the Katá or sand-grouse “Man sakat salam” (who is silent is
safe) yet always betrays itself by its lay of “Kat-ta” and lastly the
cock “Uzkurú ‘llah ya gháfilún” (Remember, or take the name of Allah,
ye careless!)
Footnote 66:
“Nay,” the Dervish’s reed pipe, symbol of the sighing absent lover
(i.e. the soul parted from the Creator) so famed by the Mullah-i-Rúm
and Sir William Jones.
Footnote 67:
Ba’albak = Ba’al (the God)-city (bek in Coptic and ancient Egyptian).
Such, at least, is the popular derivation which awaits a better. No
cloth has been made there since the Kurd tribe of gallant robbers
known as the “Harfúsh” (or blackguards) lorded it over old
“Heliopolis.”
Footnote 68:
Thinking her to be a Jinn or Ghul in the shape of a fair woman. This
Arab is a strange contrast with the English fisherman, and yet he is
drawn with truth.
Footnote 69:
Arab. “Habbazá!” (good this!) or “Habba” (how good!): so “Habba bihi,”
how dear he is to me.
Footnote 70:
Arab. “Zind,” and Zindah the names of the two sticks, upper and lower,
hard and soft, by which fire was kindled before flint and steel were
known. We find it in Al-Hariri (Ass. of Banu Haram) “no one sought
fire from my fire-stick (_i.e._ from me as a fire-stick) and failed.”
See Night dccciii.
Footnote 71:
Arab. “Názih” _i.e._ travelled far and wide.
Footnote 72:
“Rajab,” lit. = “worshipping:” it is the seventh lunar month and still
called “Shahr-ĭ-Khudá” (God’s month) by the Persians because in
pre-Islamitic times it formed with Muharram (or in its stead Safar),
Zu ‘l-ka’adah and Zu ‘l-Hijjah (Nos. 1 or 2; 7, 11 and 12) the yearly
peace, during which a man might not kill his father’s murderer. The
idea must have taken deep root, as Arab history records only six
“impious (or sacrilegious) wars,” waged despite the law. Europeans
compare it with the Treuga Dei (truce of God) a seven-years peace
established about A.D. 1032, by a Bishop of Aquitaine; and followed in
A.D. 1245 by the Pax Regis (Royal Peace) under Louis VIII. of France.
This compelled the relations of a murdered man to keep the peace for
forty days after the offence was committed.
Footnote 73:
His Majesty wrote sad doggrel. He is better at finessing, and his
message was a trick because Rose-in-Hood had told him that at home
there were special obstacles to the marriage.
Footnote 74:
Arab. “Majzub” = drawn, attracted (literally); the popular term for
one absorbed in the contemplation of the Deity. During this process
the soul is supposed to quit the body leaving the latter irresponsible
for its actions. I remember a scandal being caused in a village near
Tunis by one of these men who suddenly started up from his seat in a
dusty corner and, in presence of a small crowd of people, had
connection with a she-donkey. The supporters of the holy man declared
that the deed was proof positive of his exceptional holiness; but
there were lewd fellows, Moslems Voltaireans, who had their doubts and
held that the reverend man had so acted “for the gallery.” A similar
story is told with due reserve by the late Abbe Hamilton in his book
on the Cyrenaic. There are three grand divisions of the Sufis; (1)
Mukímán, the stationaries; (2) Sálikán, the travellers, or
progressives, and (3) Wásilán, those who reach the desired end. And
No. 2 has two classes: the Sálik-i-majzúb, one progressing in Divine
Love; and the other, who has made greater progress, is the
Majzúb-i-Sálik (Dabistan iii. 251).
Footnote 75:
Arab. “Sundus,” a kind of brocade (low Lat. brocare, to figure cloth),
silk worked in high relief with gold and silver. The idea is
figurative meaning it was hung outside and inside with fine stuff,
like the Ka’abah, the “Bride of Meccah.” The “lords” means simply the
lost girl.
Footnote 76:
Arab. “Ayn” lit. eye, also a fount, “the eye of the landscape” (a
noble simile); and here a helper, guard, assistant.
Footnote 77:
“Lord” for lady, _i.e._ she.
Footnote 78:
Arab. “Fi’l-khawáfik” = in the four quarters or among the flappers
(standards) or amid palpitations of heart. The bride alludes to a
festal reception in a town, with burning incense, drums, flags, etc.,
etc.
Footnote 79:
In Egypt the shorter “honey-moon” lasts a week; and on the seventh day
(pop. called Al-Subú’a) bride and bridegroom receive visits with all
ceremony, of course in separate apartments. The seventh day (like the
fortieth, the end of six months and the anniversary) is kept for
births and deaths with Khatmahs (perlections) of the Koran, “Saylah”
family gatherings and so forth. The fortieth day ends the real
honey-moon. See Night dccxcii.
Footnote 80:
I have noted the popular practice, amongst men as well as women, of
hiring the Hammam for private parties and picnicking in it during the
greater part of the day. In this tale the bath would belong to the
public and it was a mere freak of the bride to bathe with her
bridegroom. “Respectable” people do not.
Footnote 81:
She speaks in the last line as the barber or the bathman.
ABU NOWAS WITH THE THREE BOYS AND THE CALIPH HARUN AL-RASHID.[82]
Abu Nowas one day shut himself up and, making ready a richly-furnished
feast, collected for it meats of all kinds and of every colour that lips
and tongue can desire. Then he went forth, to seek a minion worthy of
such entertainment, saying, “Allah, my Lord and my Master, I beseech
Thee to send me one who befitteth this banquet and who is fit to carouse
with me this day!” Hardly had he made an end of speaking when he espied
three youths handsome and beardless, as they were of the boys of
Paradise,[83] differing in complexion but fellows in incomparable
beauty; and all hearts yearned with desire to the swaying of their
bending shapes, even to what saith the poet:—
I passed a beardless pair without compare ✿ And cried, “I love you, both
you ferly fair!”
“Money’d?” quoth one: quoth I, “And lavish too;” ✿ Then said the fair
pair, _Père, c’est notre affaire_.
Now Abu Nowas was given to these joys and loved to sport and make merry
with fair boys and cull the rose from every brightly blooming cheek,
even as saith the bard:—
Full many a reverend Shaykh feels sting of flesh, ✿ Loves pretty faces,
shows at Pleasure’s depot:
Awakes in Mosul,[84] land of purity; ✿ And all the day dreams only of
Aleppo.[85]
So he accosted them with the salutation, and they returned his greeting
with civility and all honour and would have gone their several ways, but
he stayed them, repeating these couplets:—
Steer ye your steps to none but me ✿ Who hath a mine of luxury:—
Old wine that shines with brightest blee ✿ Made by the monk in
monastery;
And mutton-meat the toothsomest ✿ And birds of all variety.
Then eat of these and drink of those ✿ Old wines that bring you jollity:
And have each other, turn by turn, ✿ Shampooing this my tool you
see.[86]
Thereupon the youths were beguiled by his verses and consented to his
wishes——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Three Hundred and Eighty-second Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Abu Nowas
beguiled the youths with his verse, they consented to his wishes,
saying, “We hear and obey;” and accompanied him to his lodging, where
they found all ready that he had set forth in his couplets. They sat
down and ate and drank and made merry awhile, after which they appealed
to Abu Nowas to decide which of them was handsomest of face and
shapeliest of form. So he pointed to one of them and, having kissed him
twice over, recited the following verses:—
I’ll ransom that beauty-spot with my soul; ✿ Where’s it and where is a
money-dole?[87]
Praise Him who hairless hath made that cheek ✿ And bid Beauty bide in
that mole, that mole!
Then he pointed to another and, kissing his lips, repeated these
couplets:—
And loveling weareth on his cheek a mole ✿ Like musk, which virgin
camphor ne’er lets off it:
My peepers marvel such a contrast seeing; ✿ And cried the Mole to me,
“Now bless the Prophet.”[88]
Then he pointed to the third and, after kissing him half a score times
repeated these couplets:—
Melted pure gold in silvern bowl to drain ✿ The youth, whose fingers
wore a winey stain:
He with the drawers[89] served one cup of wine, ✿ And served his
wandering eyes the other twain.
A loveling, of the sons of Turks,[90] a fawn ✿ Whose waist conjoins the
double Mounts Honayn.[91]
Could Eve’s corrupting daughters[92] tempt my heart ✿ Content with
two-fold lure ‘twould bear the bane.
Unto Diyar-i-Bakr (“maid-land”[93]) this one lures; ✿ That lures to
two-mosqued cities of the plain.[94]
Now each of the youths had drunk two cups, and when it came to the turn
of Abu Nowas, he took the goblet and repeated these couplets:—
Drink not strong wine save at the slender dearling’s hand; ✿ Each like
to other in all gifts the spirit grace:
For wine can never gladden toper’s heart and soul, ✿ Unless the cup-boy
show a bright and sparkling face.
Then he drank off his cup and the bowl went round, and when it came to
Abu Nowas again, joyance got the mastery of him and he repeated these
couplets:—
For cup-friends cup succeeding cup assign, ✿ Brimming with grape-juice,
brought in endless line,
By hand of brown-lipped[95] Beauty who is sweet ✿ At wake as apple or
musk finest fine.[96]
Drink not the wine except from hand of fawn ✿ Whose cheek to kiss is
sweeter than the wine.
Presently the drink got into his noddle, drunkenness mastered him and he
knew not hand from head, so that he lolled from side to side in joy and
inclined to the youths one and all, anon kissing them and anon embracing
them leg overlying leg. And he showed no sense of sin or shame, but
recited these couplets:—
None wotteth best joyance but generous youth ✿ When the pretty ones
deign with him company keep:
This sings to him, sings to him that, when he wants ✿ A pick-me-up[97]
lying there all of a heap:
And when of a loveling he needeth a kiss, ✿ He takes from his lips or a
draught or a nip;
Heaven bless them! How sweetly my day with them sped; ✿ A wonderful
harvest of pleasure I reap:
Let us drink our good liquor both watered and pure, ✿ And agree to swive
all who dare slumber and sleep.
While they were in this deboshed state behold, there came a knocking at
the door; so they bade him who knocked enter, and behold, it was the
Commander of the Faithful, Harun al-Rashid. When they saw him, they all
rose and kissed ground before him; and Abu Nowas threw off the fumes of
the wine for awe of the Caliph, who said to him, “Holla, Abu Nowas!” He
replied, “Adsum, at thy service, O Commander of the Faithful, whom Allah
preserve!” The Caliph asked, “What state is this?” and the poet
answered, “O Prince of True Believers, my state indubitably dispenseth
with questions.” Quoth the Caliph, “O Abu Nowas, I have sought direction
of Allah Almighty and have appointed thee Kazi of pimps and panders.”
Asked he, “Dost thou indeed invest me with that high office, O Commander
of the Faithful?” and the Caliph answered “I do;” whereupon Abu Nowas
rejoined, “O Commander of the Faithful, hast thou any suit to prefer to
me?” Hereat the Caliph was wroth and presently turned away and left
them, full of rage, and passed the night sore an-angered against Abu
Nowas, who amid the party he had invited spent the merriest of nights
and the jolliest and joyousest. And when daybreak dawned and the star of
morn appeared in sheen and shone, he broke up the sitting and,
dismissing the youths, donned his court-dress and leaving his house set
out for the palace of the Caliph. Now it was the custom of the Commander
of the Faithful, when the Divan broke up, to withdraw to his
sitting-saloon and summon thither his poets and cup-companions and
musicians, each having his own place, which he might not overpass. So it
happened that day, he retired to his saloon, and the friends and
familiars came and seated themselves, each in his rank and degree.
Presently, in walked Abu Nowas and was about to take his usual seat,
when the Caliph cried to Masrur, the sworder, and bade him strip the
poet of his clothes and bind an ass’s packsaddle on his back and a
halter about his head and a crupper under his rump and lead him round to
all the lodgings of the slave-girls,——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn
of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Three Hundred and Eighty-third Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Caliph
commanded Masrur, the sworder, to strip Abu Nowas of his court-suit and
bind an ass’s packsaddle on his back and a halter about his head, and a
crupper under his rump and lead him round to all the lodgings of the
slave-girls, and the chambers of the Harim, that the women might make
mock of him; then cut off his head and bring it to him. “Hearkening and
obedience,” replied Masrur and, doing with Abu Nowas as the Caliph had
bidden him, led him round all the chambers whose number equalled the
days of the year; but Abu Nowas was a funny fellow, so he made all the
girls laugh with his buffooneries and each gave him something whereby he
returned not save with a pocketful of money. And while this was going on
behold, Ja’afar the Barmecide, who had been absent on an important
business for the Commander of the Faithful, entered and recognising the
poet, albeit in this plight, said to him, “Holla, Abu Nowas!” He said,
“Here at thy service, O our lord.” Ja’afar asked, “What offence hast
thou committed to bring this punishment on thee?” Thereupon he answered,
“None whatsoever, except that I made our lord the Caliph a present of
the best of my poetry and he presented me, in return, with the best of
his raiment.” When the Prince of True Believers heard this, he laughed,
from a heart full of wrath,[98] and pardoned Abu Nowas, and also gave
him a myriad of money. And they also recount the tale of
-----
Footnote 82:
Here the “Ana” begin; and they mostly date themselves. Of the
following forty-nine, Lane (vol. ii. p. 578 et seq.) gives only
twenty-two and transfers them to notes in chapt. xviii. He could
hardly translate several of them in a work intended to be popular. Abu
Nowás is a person carefully to be avoided; and all but anthropological
students are advised to “skip” over anecdotes in which his name and
abominations occur.
Footnote 83:
Arab. “Ghilmán,” the counterpart, I have said, of the so-called
“Houris.”
Footnote 84:
Mosul boasts of never having been polluted with idolatrous worship, an
exemption which it owes to being a comparatively modern place.
Footnote 85:
The Aleppines were once noted for debauchery; and the saying is still
“Halabi Shelebi” (for Chelebi) = the Aleppine is a fellow fine.
Footnote 86:
Mr. Payne omits the last line. It refers to what Persian boys call, in
half-Turkish phrase, “Alish Takish,” each acting woman after he has
acted man. The best wine is still made in monasteries and the
so-called Sinai convent is world-famous for its “Ráki” distilled from
raisins.
Footnote 87:
_i.e._ what a difference there is between them!
Footnote 88:
Arab. “Salli ala ‘l-Nabi,” a common phrase; meaning not only praise
him to avert the evil eye; but also used when one would impose silence
upon a babbler. The latter will shuffle off by ejaculating “Al” and
continue his chatter (Pilgrimage ii. 279).
Footnote 89: