that’s no blemish there.
When he could bear that haling of his hips ✿ And pearl-beads shaded by
mustachio-hair;[237]
And Rose swore solemn, holiest oath that is, ✿ From that fair cheek she
nevermore would fare,
I spoke with eyelids without need of speech, ✿ And they who answered me
his eyebrows were.
He’s even fairer than thou knewest him, ✿ And cheek-down guards from all
would overdare.
Brighter and sweeter now are grown his charms, ✿ Since down robes lip
and cheek before were bare.
And those who blame me for my love of him, ✿ When him they mention say
of him, ‘Thy Fair’!
And quoth Al-Hariri[238] and quoth excellently well:—
My censors say, What means this pine for him? ✿ Seest not the flowing
hair on cheeks a-flowing?
I say, By Allah, an ye deem I dote, ✿ Look at the truth in those fine
eyes a-showing!
But for the down that veils his cheek and chin, ✿ His brow had dazed all
eyes no sight allowing:
And whoso sojourns in a growthless land, ✿ How shall he move from land
fair growths a-growing?
And quoth another:—
My blamers say of me, ‘He is consoled,’ And lie! ✿ No consolation comes
to those who pine and sigh.
I had no solace when Rose bloomed alone on cheek, ✿ Now Basil blooms
thereon and now consoled am I.
And again:—
Slim-waisted one, whose looks with down of cheek ✿ In slaughtering
mankind each other hurtle:
With the Narcissus-blade he sheddeth blood, ✿ The baldrick of whose
sheath is freshest myrtle.[239]
And again:—
Not with his must I’m drunk, but verily ✿ Those curls turn manly heads
like newest wine[240]:
Each of his beauties envies each, and all ✿ Would be the silky down on
side-face li’en.
Such are the excellencies of the youth which women do not own, and they
more than suffice to give those the preference over these.” She replied,
“Allah give thee health! verily, thou hast imposed the debate upon
thyself; and thou hast spoken and hast not stinted and hast brought
proofs to support every assertion. But, ‘Now is the truth become
manifest;’[241] so swerve thou not from the path thereof; and, if thou
be not content with a summary of evidence, I will set it before thee in
fullest detail. Allah upon thee, where is the youth beside the girl and
who shall compare kid and wild cow? The girl is soft of speech, fair of
form, like a branchlet of basil, with teeth like chamomile-petals and
hair like halters wherefrom to hang hearts. Her cheeks are like
blood-red anemones and her face like a pippin: she hath lips like wine
and breasts like pomegranates twain and a shape supple as a rattan-cane.
Her body is well-formed and with sloping shoulders dight; she hath a
nose like the edge of a sword shining bright and a forehead brilliant
white and eyebrows which unite and eyes stained by Nature’s hand black
as night. If she speak, fresh young pearls are scattered from her mouth
forthright and all hearts are ravished by the daintiness of her sprite;
when she smileth thou wouldst ween the moon shone out her lips between
and when she eyes thee, sword-blades flash from the babes of her eyes.
In her all beauties to conclusion come, and she is the centre of
attraction to traveller and stay-at-home. She hath two lips of cramoisy,
than cream smoother and of taste than honey sweeter,”——And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Four Hundred and Twenty-second Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the preacher-woman
thus pursued her theme in the praise of fair maids, “She hath two lips
of cramoisy, than cream smoother and than honey sweeter;” adding, “And
she hath a bosom, as it were a way two hills between which are a pair of
breasts like globes of ivory sheen; likewise, a stomach right smooth,
flanks soft as the palm-spathe and creased with folds and dimples which
overlap one another, and liberal thighs, which like columns of pearl
arise, and back parts which billow and beat together like seas of glass
or mountains of glance, and two feet and hands of gracious mould like
unto ingots of virgin gold. So, O miserable! where are mortal men beside
the Jinn? Knowest thou not that puissant princes and potent Kings before
women ever humbly bend and on them for delight depend? Verily, they may
say;—We rule over necks and rob hearts. These women! how many a rich man
have they not paupered, how many a powerful man have they not prostrated
and how many a superior man have they not enslaved! Indeed, they seduce
the sage and send the saint to shame and bring the wealthy to want and
plunge the fortune-favoured into penury. Yet for all this, the wise but
redouble in affection of them and honour; nor do they count this
oppression or dishonour. How many a man for them hath offended his Maker
and called down on himself the wrath of his father and mother! And all
this because of the conquest of their love over hearts. Knowest thou
not, O wretched one, that for them are built pavilions, and slave-girls
are for sale;[242] that for them tear-floods rail and for them are
collected jewels of price and ambergris and musk odoriferous; and armies
are arrayed and pleasaunces made and wealth heaped up and smitten off is
many a head?” And indeed he spoke sooth in the words, ‘Whoso saith the
world meaneth woman.’ Now as for thy citation from the Holy Traditions,
it is an argument against thee and not for thee; in that the Prophet
(whom Allah bless and preserve!) compareth the beardless with the
black-eyed girls of Paradise. Now, doubtless, the subject of comparison
is worthier than the object therewith compared; so, unless women be the
worthier and the goodlier, wherefore should other than they be likened
to them? As for thy saying that girls are likened to boys, the case is
not so, but the contrary: boys are likened to girls; for folk say,
Yonder boy is like a girl. As for what proof thou quotest from the
poets, the verses were the product of a complexion unnatural in this
respect; and as for the habitual sodomites and catamites, offenders
against religion, Almighty Allah hath condemned them in His Holy
Book,[243] wherein He denounceth their filthy practices, saying, Do ye
approach unto the males among mankind[244] and leave your wives which
your Lord hath created for you? Surely ye are a people who transgress!
These it is that liken girls to boys, of their exceeding profligacy and
ungraciousness and inclination to follow the fiend and own lusts, so
that they say, She is apt for two tricks;[245] and these are all
wanderers from the way of right and the righteous. Quoth their chief Abu
Nowas:—
Slim-waist and boyish wits delight ✿ Wencher, as well as Sodomite,[246]
As for what thou sayest of a youth’s first hair on cheek and lips and
how they add to his beauty and loveliness, by Allah, thou strayest from
the straight path of sooth and sayest that which is other than the
truth; for whiskers change the charms of the comely into ugliness;
(quoting these couplets):—
That sprouting hair upon his face took wreak ✿ For lovers’ vengeance,
all did vainly seek.
I see not on his face a sign fuli- ✿ genous, except his curls are hue of
reek.
If so his paper[247] mostly be begrimed ✿ Where deemest thou the reed
shall draw a streak?
If any raise him other fairs above, ✿ This only proves the judge of wits
is weak.
And when she ended her verse she resumed, “Laud be to Allah
Almighty,”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying
her permitted say.
Now when it was the Four Hundred and Twenty-third Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the
preacher-woman ended her verse she resumed, addressing the man, “Laud to
Allah Almighty! how can it be hid from thee that the perfect pleasure is
in women and that abiding blessings are not to be found but with them,
seeing that Allah (extolled and exalted be He!) hath promised His
prophets and saints black-eyed damsels in Paradise and hath appointed
these for a recompense of their godly works. And had the Almighty known
that the joy supreme was in the possession of other than women, He had
rewarded them therewith and promised it to them. And quoth he (whom
Allah bless and preserve!), The things I hold dearest of the things of
your world are three: women and perfume and the solace of my eyes in
prayer. Verily Allah hath appointed boys to serve his prophets and
saints in Paradise, because Paradise is the abode of joy and delight,
which could not be complete without the service of youths; but, as to
the use of them for aught but service, it is Hell’s putridity[248] and
corruption and turpitude. How well saith the poet:”—
Men’s turning unto bums of boys is bumptious; ✿ Whoso love noble women
show their own noblesse.
How many goodly wights have slept the night, enjoying ✿ Buttocks of
boys, and woke at morn in foulest mess;
Their garments stained by safflower, which is yellow merde ✿ Their shame
proclaiming, showing colour of distress.
Who can deny the charge, when so bewrayed are they ✿ That e’en by
daylight shows the dung upon their dress?
What contrast wi’ the man, who slept a gladsome night ✿ By Houri-maid
for glance a mere enchantress,
He rises off her borrowing wholesome bonny scent; ✿ That fills the house
with whiffs of perfumed goodliness.
No boy deserved place by side of her to hold; ✿ Canst even aloes-wood
with what fills pool of cess![249]
Then said she, “O folk ye have made me to break the bounds of modesty
and the circle of free-born women and indulge in idle talk of chambering
and wantonness, which beseemeth not people of learning. But the breasts
of free-borns are the sepulchres of secrets, and such conversations are
in confidence. Moreover, actions are according to intentions,[250] and I
crave pardon of Allah for myself and you and all Moslems, seeing that He
is the Pardoner and the Compassionate.” Then she held her peace and
thereafter would answer us of naught; so we went our way, rejoicing in
that we had profited by her contention and yet sorrowing to part from
her. And among the tales they tell is one of
-----
Footnote 229:
Lady of Shaykhs, elders in the faith and men of learning.
Footnote 230:
= A.D. 1166.
Footnote 231:
Koran iv. 38. I have before noted what the advantages are.
Footnote 232:
Koran ii. 282, “of those whom ye shall choose for witnesses.”
Footnote 233:
Koran iv. 175, “Whereas if there be two sisters, they inherit only
two-thirds between them.”
Footnote 234:
The secondary meaning is “Fá’il” = the active sodomite and Mafa’úl =
the passive, a catamite: the former is not an insulting word, the
latter is a most injurious expression. “Novimus et qui _te_!”
Footnote 235:
It is an unpleasant fact that almost all the poetry of Háfiz is
addressed to youths, as we see by the occasional introduction of
Arabic (_e.g._, Afáka’lláh). Persian has no genders properly so
called, hence the effect is less striking. Sa’di, the “Persian
Moralist” begins one of the tales, “A certain learned man fell in love
with a beautiful _son_ of a blacksmith,” which Gladwin, translating
for the general, necessarily changed to “daughter.”
Footnote 236:
The famous author of the Anthology called Al-Hamásah.
Footnote 237:
_i.e._, teeth under the young mustachio.
Footnote 238:
The “Silk-man” and the celebrated author of the Makámát, assemblies or
seances, translated (or attempted) into all the languages of Europe.
We have two in English, the first by Theodore Preston, M.A. (London,
Madden, 1850); but it contains only twenty of the fifty pieces. The
second by the late Mr. Chenery (before alluded to) ends with the
twenty-sixth assembly: one volume in fact, the other never having been
finished. English readers, therefore, are driven to the grand edition
of the Makámát in folio by Baron Silvestre de Sacy.
Footnote 239:
The sword of the eye has a Hamáil (baldrick worn over right shoulder,
Pilgrimage i. 352) to support the “Ghimd” (vulg. Ghamad) or scabbard
(of wood or leather): and this baldrick is the young whisker.
Footnote 240:
The conceit of “Suláfat” (ptisane, grape juice allowed to drain on the
slabs) and “Sawálif” (tresses, locks) has been explained. The newest
wine is the most inebriating, a fact not much known in England, but
familiar to the drinker of “Vino novo.”
Footnote 241:
Koran xii. 51, this said by the nobleman’s (Potiphar’s) wife who adds,
“I selected him to lie with me; and he (Joseph) is one of those who
speak truth.”
Footnote 242:
Here we have a specimen of the strained Saj’a or balanced prose:
slave-girls (jawárí) are massed with flowing tears (dam’u jári) on
account of the Káfiyah or rhyme.
Footnote 243:
The detected sodomite is punished with death according to Moslem law,
but again comes the difficulty of proof. At Shiraz I have heard of a
pious Moslem publicly executing his son.
Footnote 244:
Koran xxvi. 165 _et seq._ The Lord speaks to the “people of Lot”
(Sodomites). Mr. Payne renders “Min al-álamína,” “from the four
corners of the world.”
Footnote 245:
Meaning before and behind, a Moslemah “Bet Balmanno.”
Footnote 246:
Arab. “Lúti,” (plur. Lawáti), much used in Persian as a buffoon, a
debauchee, a rascal. The orig. sig. is “One of (the people of) Lot.”
The old English was Ingle or Yngle (a bardachio, a catamite, a boy
kept for sodomy), which Minsheu says is, “Vox hispanica et significat
Latinè Inguen” (the groin). Our vulgar modern word like the Italian
bugiardo is pop. derived from Fr. Bougre, alias Bulgarus, a Bulgarian,
a heretic: hence Boulgrin (Rabelais i. chapt. ii.) is popularly
applied to the Albigeois (Albigenses, whose persecution began shortly
after A.D. 1200) and the Lutherans. I cannot but think that “bougre”
took its especial modern signification after the French became
acquainted with the Brazil, where the Huguenots (in A.D. 1555) were
founding a Nouvelle France, alias Equinoctiale, alias Antarctique, and
whence the savages were carried as curiosities to Paris. Their generic
name was “Bugre” (properly a tribe in Southern Brazil, but applied to
all the redskins) and they were all born Sodomites. More of this in
the terminal Essay.
Footnote 247:
His paper is the whiteness of his skin. I have quoted the Persian
saying of a young beard: “his cheeks don mourning for his beauty’s
death.”
Footnote 248:
Arab. “Khabál,” lit. the pus which flows from the bodies of the
damned.
Footnote 249:
Most characteristic of Egypt is all this scene. Her reverence, it is
true, sits behind a curtain; but her virtue uses language which would
shame the lowest European prostitute; and which is filthy almost as
Dean Swift’s.
Footnote 250:
Arab. “Niyat:” the Moslem’s idea of intentions quite runs with the
Christian’s. There must be a “Niyat” or purpose of prayer or the
devotion is valueless. Lane tells a pleasant tale of a thief in the
Mosque, saying “I purpose (before prayer) to carry off this nice pair
of new shoes!”
ABU SUWAYD AND THE PRETTY OLD WOMAN.
(Quoth Abu Suwayd) I and a company of my friends, entered a garden one
day to buy somewhat of fruit; and we saw in a corner an old woman, who
was bright of face, but her head-hair was white, and she was combing it
with an ivory comb. We stopped before her, yet she paid no heed to us
neither veiled her face: so I said, to her, “O old woman,[251] wert thou
to dye thy hair black, thou wouldst be handsomer than a girl: what
hindereth thee from this?” She raised her head towards me——And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Four Hundred and Twenty-fourth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Abu Suwayd
continued:—When I spake these words to the ancient dame she raised her
head towards me and, opening wide her eyes, recited these two couplets:—
I dyed what years have dyed, but this my staining ✿ Lasts not, while
that of days is aye remaining:
Days when beclad in gear of youth I fared, ✿ Raked fore and aft by men
with joy unfeigning.
I cried:—By Allah, favoured art thou for an old woman! How sincere art
thou in thine after-pine for forbidden pleasures and how false is thy
pretence of repentance from frowardness! And another tale is that of
-----
Footnote 251:
Arab. “Ya ‘l-Ajúz” (in Cairo “Agooz” pronounce “Ago-o-oz”): the
address is now insulting and would elicit “The old woman in thine eye”
(with fingers extended). In Egypt the polite address is “O lady
(Sitt), O pilgrimess, O bride, and O daughter” (although she be the
wrong side of fifty). In Arabia you may say “O woman (Imraah)” but in
Egypt the reply would be “The woman shall see Allah cut out thy
heart!” So in Southern Italy you address “bella fé” (fair one) and
cause a quarrel by “vecchiarella.”
THE EMIR ALI BIN TAHIR AND THE GIRL MUUNIS.
Once on a time was displayed for sale to Ali bin Mohammed bin Abdallah
bin Táhir[252] a slave-girl called Muunis who was superior to her
fellows in beauty and breeding, and to boot an accomplished poetess; and
he asked her of her name. Replied she, “Allah advance the Emir, my name
is Muunis.”[253] Now he knew this before; so he bowed his head awhile,
then raising his eyes to her, recited this verse:—
What sayest of one by a sickness caught ✿ For the love of thy love till
he waxed distraught?
Answered she, “Allah exalt the Emir!” and recited this verse in reply:—
If we saw a lover who pains as he ought, ✿ Wi’ love we would grant him
all favours he sought.
She pleased him: so he bought her for seventy thousand dirhams and begat
on her Obayd’ Allah bin Mohammed, afterwards minister of Police.[254]
And we are told by Abu al-Ayná[255] a tale of
-----
Footnote 252:
Governor of Egypt, Khorasan, etc. under Al-Maamun.
Footnote 253:
_i.e._ a companion, a solacer: it is also a man’s name (vol. i. xxiv.)
Footnote 254:
At Baghdad; evidently written by a Baghdad or Mosul man.
Footnote 255:
A blind traditionist of Bassorah (ninth century).
THE WOMAN WHO HAD A BOY AND THE OTHER WHO HAD A MAN TO LOVER.
(Quoth Abu al-Ayná.) There were in our street two women, one of whom had
for lover a man and the other a beardless youth, and they foregathered
one night on the terrace-roof of a house adjoining mine, knowing not
that I was near. Quoth the boy’s lover to the other, “O my sister, how
canst thou bear with patience the harshness of thy lover’s beard as it
falleth on thy breast, when he busseth thee and his mustachios rub thy
cheek and lips?” Replied the other, “Silly that thou art, what decketh
the tree save its leaves and the cucumber but its warts?[256] Didst ever
see in the world aught uglier than a scald-head bald of his beard?
Knowest thou not that the beard is to men as the sidelocks to women; and
what is the difference between chin and cheek?[257] Knowest thou not
that Allah (extolled and exalted be He!) hath created an angel in
Heaven, who saith:—Glory be to Him who ornamenteth men with beards and
women with long hair? So, were not the beard even as the tresses in
comeliness, it had not been coupled with them, O silly! How shall I
spread-eagle myself under a boy, who will emit long before I can go off
and forestall me in limpness of penis and clitoris; and leave a man who,
when he taketh breath clippeth close and when he entereth goeth
leisurely, and when he hath done, repeateth, and when he pusheth poketh
hard, and as often as he withdraweth, returneth?” The boy’s leman was
edified by her speech and said, “I forswear my lover by the lord of the
Ka’abah!” And amongst tales is one of
-----
Footnote 256:
Arab. “Zaghab” = the chick’s down; the warts on the cucumber which
sometimes develop into projections.
Footnote 257:
The Persian saying is, A kiss without moustachio is bread without
salt.
ALI THE CAIRENE AND THE HAUNTED HOUSE IN BAGHDAD.
There lived once, in the city of Cairo, a merchant who had great store
of monies and bullion, gems and jewels, and lands and houses beyond
count, and his name was Hasan the Jeweller, the Baghdad man. Furthermore
Allah had blessed him with a son of perfect beauty and brilliancy;
rosy-cheeked, fair of face and well-figured, whom he named Ali of Cairo
and had taught the Koran and science and elocution and the other
branches of polite education, till he became proficient in all manner of
knowledge. He was under his father’s hand in trade but, after a while,
Hasan fell sick and his sickness grew upon him, till he made sure of
death; so he called his son to him,——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of
day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Four Hundred and Twenty-fifth Night,
She said, it hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Jeweller,
the Baghdadi, fell sick and made sure of death, he called to him his
son, named Ali of Cairo, and said, “O my son, verily this world passeth
away; but the next world endureth for aye. Every soul shall taste of
death;[258] and now, O my son, my decease is at hand and I desire to
charge thee with a charge, which if thou observe, thou shalt abide in
safety and prosperity, till thou meet Almighty Allah; but if thou follow
it not, there shall befal thee much weariness and thou wilt repent of
having transgressed mine injunctions.” Replied Ali, “O my father, how
shall I do other than hearken to thy words and act according to thy
charge, seeing that I am bounden by the law of the Faith to obey thee
and give ear to thy command?” Rejoined his father, “O my son, I leave
thee lands and houses and goods and wealth past count; so that wert thou
each day to spend thereof five hundred dinars, thou wouldst miss naught
of it. But, O my son, look that thou live in the fear of Allah and
follow His Chosen One, Mustafa, (whom may He bless and preserve!) in
whatso he is reported to have bidden and forbidden in his traditional
law.[259] Be thou constant in alms-deeds and the practice of beneficence
and in consorting with men of worth and piety and learning; and look
that thou have a care for the poor and needy and shun avarice and
meanness and the conversation of the wicked or those of suspicious
character. Look thou kindly upon thy servants and family, and also upon
thy wife, for she is of the daughters of the great and is big with child
by thee; haply Allah will vouchsafe thee virtuous issue by her.” And he
ceased not to exhort him thus, weeping and saying, “O my son, I beseech
Allah the Bountiful, the Lord of the glorious Empyrean[260] to deliver
thee from all straits that may encompass thee and grant thee His ready
relief!” Thereupon his son wept with sore weeping and said, “O my
father, I am melted by thy words, for these are as the words of one that
saith farewell.” Replied the merchant, “Yes, O my son, I am aware of my
condition: forget thou not my charge.” Then he fell to repeating the two
professions of the Faith and to reciting verses of the Koran, until the
appointed hour arrived, when he said, “Draw near unto me, O my son.” So
Ali drew near and he kissed him; then he sighed and his soul departed
his body and he went to the mercy of Almighty Allah.[261] Therewith
great grief fell upon Ali; the clamour of keening arose in his house and
his father’s friends flocked to him. Then he betook himself to preparing
the body for burial and made him a splendid funeral. They bore his bier
to the place of prayer and prayed over him, then to the cemetery, where
they buried him and recited over him what suited of the sublime Koran;
after which they returned to the house and condoled with the dead man’s
son and wended each his own way. Moreover, Ali prayed the Friday prayer
for his father and had perlections of the Koran every day for the normal
forty, during which time he abode in the house and went not forth, save
to the place of prayer; and every Friday he visited his father’s tomb.
So he ceased not from his praying and reciting for some time, until his
fellows of the sons of the merchants came in to him one day and saluting
him, said, “How long this thy mourning and neglecting thy business and
the company of thy friends? Verily, this is a fashion which will bring
thee weariness, and thy body will suffer for it exceedingly.” Now when
they came in to him, Iblis the Accursed was with them, prompting them;
and they went on to recommend him to accompany them to the bazar, whilst
Iblis tempted him to consent to them, till he yielded,——And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Four Hundred and Twenty-sixth Night,