[FN#205] The first couplet is not in the Mac. Edit. (ii. 171)
which gives only a single couplet but it is found in the Bres.
Edit. which entitles this tale "Story of the lying (or false kбzib)
Khalнfah." Lane (ii. 392) of course does not translate it.
[FN#206] In the East cloth of frieze that mates with cloth of gold must
expect this treatment. Fath Ali Shah's daughters always made their
husbands enter the nuptial-bed by the foot end.
[FN#207] This is always done and for two reasons; the first humanity,
that the blow may fall unawares; and, secondly, to prevent the sufferer
wincing, which would throw out the headsman.
[FN#208] Arab. "Ma'бni-hб," lit. her meanings, i.e. her inner woman
opposed to the formal-seen by every one.
[FN#209] Described in my Pilgrimage (iii. 168, 174 and 175): it is the
stone upon which the Patriarch stood when he built the Ka'abah and is
said to show the impress of the feet but unfortunately I could not
afford five dollars entrance-fee. Caliph Omar placed the station where
it now is; before his time it adjoined the Ka'abah. The meaning of the
text is, Be thy court a place of pious visitation, etc. At the "Station
of Abraham" prayer is especially blessed and expects to be granted.
"This is the place where Abraham stood; and whoever entereth therein
shall be safe" (Koran ii. 119). For the other fifteen places where
petitions are favourably heard by Heaven see ibid. iii. 211-12.
[FN#210] As in the West, so in the East, women answer an unpleasant
question by a counter question.
[FN#211] This "Cry of Haro" often occurs throughout The Nights. In
real-life it is sure to colece a crowd. especially if an Infidel (non
Moslem) be its cause.
[FN#212] In the East a cunning fellow always makes himself the claimant
or complainant.
[FN#213] On the Euphrates some 40 miles west of Baghdad The word is
written "Anbбr" and pronounced "Ambбr" as usual with the "n" before
"b"; the case of the Greek double Gamma.
[FN#214] Syene on the Nile.
[FN#215] The tale is in the richest Rabelaisian humour; and the
requisitions of the "Saj'a" (rhymed prose) in places explain the
grotesque combinations. It is difficult to divine why Lane omits it:
probably he held a hearty laugh not respectable.
[FN#216] A lawyer of the eighth century, one of the chief pupils of the
Imam Abu Hanifah, and Kazi of Baghdad under the third, fourth and fifth
Abbasides. The tale is told in the quasi- historical-Persian work
"Nigбristбn" (The Picture gallery), and is repeated by Richardson,
Diss. 7, xiii. None seem to have remarked that the distinguished
legist, Abu Yusuf, was on this occasion a law-breaker; the Kazi's duty
being to carry out the code not to break it by the tricks of a cunning
attorney. In Harun's day, however, some regard was paid to justice, not
under his successors, one of whom, Al-Muktadir bi 'llбh (A.H. 295=907),
made the damsel Yamika President of the Diwбn al-Mazбlim (Court of the
Wronged), a tribunal which took cognizance of tyranny and oppression in
high places.
[FN#217] Here the writer evidently forgets that Shahrazad is telling
the story to the king, as Boccaccio (ii. 7) forgets that Pamfilo is
speaking. Such inconsequences are common in Eastern story-books and a
goody-goody sentiment is always heartily received as in an English
theatre.
[FN#218] In the Mac. Edit. (ii. 182) "Al-Kushayri." Al-Kasri was
Governor of the two Iraks (I.e. Bassorah and Cufa) in the reign of
Al-Hisham, tenth Ommiade (A.D. 723-741)
[FN#219] Arab. "Thakalata k Ummak!" This is not so much a curse as a
playful phrase, like "Confound the fellow." So "Kбtala k Allah" (Allah
slay thee) and "Lб abб lak" (thou hast no father or mother). These
words are even complimentary on occasions, as a good shot or a fine
recitation, meaning that the praised far excels the rest of his tribe.
[FN#220] Koran, iii. 178.
[FN#221] Arab. "Al-Nisбb"=the minimum sum (about half-a crown) for
which mutilation of the hand is prescribed by religious law. The
punishment was truly barbarous, it chastised a rogue by means which
prevented hard honest labour for the rest of his life.
[FN#222] To show her grief.
[FN#223] Abъ Sa'нd Abd al-Malik bin Kurayb, surnamed Al-Asma'i from his
grandfather, flor. A.H. 122-306 (=739-830) and wrote amongst a host of
compositions the well-known Romance of Antar. See in D'Herbelot the
right royal-directions given to him by Harun al-Rashid.
[FN#224] There are many accounts of his death, but it is generally held
that he was first beheaded. The story in the text is also variously
told and the Persian "Nigбristбn" adds some unpleasant comments upon
the House of Abbas. The Persians, for reasons which will be explained
in the terminal-Essay, show the greatest sympathy with the Barmecides;
and abominate the Abbasides even more than the latter detested the
Ommiades.
[FN#225] Not written, as the European reader would suppose.
[FN#226] Arab. "Fъl al-hбrr" = beans like horsebeans soaked and boiled
as opposed to the "Fъl Mudammas" (esp. of Egypt)=unshelled beans
steamed and boiled all night and eaten with linseed oil as "kitchen" or
relish. Lane (M.E., chaps. v.) calls them after the debased Cairene
pronunciation, Mudemmes. A legend says that, before the days of Pharaoh
(always he of Moses), the Egyptians lived on pistachios which made them
a witty, lively race. But the tyrant remarking that the domestic ass,
which eats beans, is degenerate from the wild ass, uprooted the
pistachio-trees and compelled the lieges to feed on beans which made
them a heavy, gross, cowardly people fit only for burdens. Badawis
deride "beaneaters" although they do not loathe the pulse like onions.
The principal-result of a bean diet is an extraordinary development of
flatulence both in stomach and intestines: hence possibly, Pythagoras
who had studied ceremonial-purity in Egypt, forbade the use, unless he
referred to venery or political-business. I was once sitting in the
Greek quarter of Cairo dressed as a Moslem when arose a prodigious
hubbub of lads and boys, surrounding, a couple of Fellahs. These men
had been working in the fields about a mile east of Cairo and, when
returning home, one had said to the other, "If thou wilt carry the hoes
I will break wind once for every step we take." He was as good as his
word and when they were to part he cried, "And now for thy bakhshish!"
which consisted of a volley of fifty, greatly to the delight of the
boys.
[FN#227] No porcelain was ever, as far as we can discover, made in
Egypt or Syria of the olden day; but, as has been said, there was a
regular caravan-intercourse with China At Damascus I dug into the huge
rubbish-heaps and found quantities of pottery, but no China. The same
has lately been done at Clysma, the artificial-mound near Suez, and the
glass and pottery prove it to have been a Roman work which defended the
mouth of the old classical-sweet-water canal.
[FN#228] Arab. "Lб baas ba-zбlik," conversational-for "Lб jaram"= there
is no harm in it, no objection to it, and, sometimes, "it is a matter
of course."
[FN#229] A white emerald is yet unknown; but this adds only to the
Oriental-extravagance of the picture. I do not think with Lane (ii.
426) that "abyaz" here can mean "bright." Dr. Steingass suggests a
clerical-error for "khazar" (green).
[FN#230] Arab. "Sharбrif" plur. of Shurrбfah=crenelles or battlements;
mostly trefoil-shaped; remparts coquets which a six-pounder would
crumble.
[FN#231] Pronounce Abul-Muzaffar=Father of the Conqueror.
[FN#232] I have explained the word in my "Zanzibar, City, Island and
Coast," vol. i. chaps. v There is still a tribe, the Wadoe, reputed
cannibal-on the opposite low East African shore These blacks would
hardly be held " sons of Adam." "Zanj " corrupted to "Zinj " (plur
Zunъj) is the Persian "Zany" or "Zangi," a black, altered by the Arabs,
who ignore the hard g; and, with the suffixion of the Persian -bбr
(region, as in Malabar) we have Zang- bar which the Arabs have
converted to "Zanjibar," in poetry "Murk al-Zunъj"=Land of the Zang.
The term is old; it is the Zingis or Zingisa of Ptolemy and the Zingium
of Cosmas Indicopleustes; and it shows the influence of Persian
navigation in pre-Islamitic ages. For further details readers will
consult "The Lake Regions of Central-Africa" vol. i. chaps. ii
[FN#233] Arab. "Kawбrib" plur. of "Kбrib" prop. a dinghy, a small boat
belonging to a ship Here it refers to the canoe (a Carib word) pop.
"dug-out" and classically "monoxyle," a boat made of a single
tree-trunk hollowed by fire and trimmed with axe and adze. Some of
these rude craft which, when manned, remind one of saturnine Caliph
Omar's "worms floating on a log of wood," measure 60 feet long and
more.
[FN#234] i.e. A descendant of Mohammed in general-and especially
through Husayn Ali-son. Here the text notes that the chief of the bazar
was of this now innumerable stock, who inherit the title through the
mother as well as through the father.
[FN#235] Arab. "Hasab" (=quaneity), the honour a man acquires for
himself; opposed to "Nasab" (genealogy) honours inherited from
ancestry: the Arabic well expresses my old motto (adopted by Chinese
Gordon), "Honour, not Honours."
[FN#236] Note the difference between "Takaddum" ( = standing in
presence of, also superiority in excellence) and "Takбdum" (priority in
time).
[FN#237] Lane (ii. 427) gives a pleasant Eastern illustration of this
saying.
[FN#238] A Koranic fancy; the mountains being the pegs which keep the
earth in place. "And he hath thrown before the earth, mountains firmly
rooted, lest it should move with you." (Koran, chaps. xvi.) The earth
when first created was smooth and thereby liable to a circular motion,
like the celestial-orbs; and, when the Angels asked who could stand on
so tottering a frame, Allah fixed it the next morning by throwing the
mountains in it and pegging them down. A fair prolepsis of the
Neptunian theory.
[FN#239] Easy enough for an Englishman to avoid saying "by God," but
this common incident in Moslem folk-lore appeals to the peoples who are
constantly using the word Allah Wallah, Billah, etc. The Koran
expressly says, "Make not Allah the scope (object, lit. arrow-butt) of
your oaths" (chaps. ii. 224), yet the command is broken every minute.
[FN#240] This must be the ubiquitous Khizr, the Green Prophet; when Ali
appears, as a rule he is on horseback.
[FN#241] The name is apparently imaginary; and a little below we find
that it was close to Jinn land. China was very convenient for this
purpose: the medieval-Moslems, who settled in considerable numbers at
Canton and elsewhere, knew just enough of it to know their own
ignorance of the vast empire. Hence the Druzes of the Libanus still
hold that part of their nation is in the depths of the
Celestial-Empire.
[FN#242] I am unwilling to alter the old title to "City of Copper" as
it should be; the pure metal having been technologically used long
before the alloy of copper and zinc. But the Maroccan City (Night
dlxvi. et seq.) was of brass (not copper). The Hindus of Upper India
have an Iram which they call Hari Chand's city (Colonel Tod); and I
need hardly mention the Fata Morgana, Island of Saint Borondon; Cape
Fly-away; the Flying Dutchman, etc. etc., all the effect of "looming."
[FN#243] This sword which makes men invisible and which takes place of
Siegfried's Tarnkappe (invisible cloak) and of "Fortunatus' cap" is
common in Moslem folk-lore. The idea probably arose from the venerable
practice of inscribing the blades with sentences, verses and magic
figures.
[FN#244] Arab. "'Ukбb," in books an eagle (especially black) and P. N.
of constellation but in Pop. usage= a vulture. In Egypt it is the
Neophron Percnopterus (Jerdon) or N. Gingianus (Latham), the Dijбjat
Far'aun or Pharaoh's hen. This bird has been known to kill the Bбshah
sparrow-hawk (Jerdon i. 60); yet, curious to say, the reviewers of my
"Falconry in the Valley of the Indus" questioned the fact, known to so
many travellers, that the falcon is also killed by this "tiger of the
air," despite the latter's feeble bill (pp. 35-38). I was faring badly
at their hands when the late Mr. Burckhardt Barker came to the rescue.
Falconicide is popularly attributed, not only to the vulture, but also
to the crestless hawk-eagle (Nisжtus Bonelli) which the Hindus call
Morбngб=peacock slayer.
[FN#245] Here I translate "Nahбs"=brass, as the "kumkum" (cucurbite) is
made of mixed metal, not of copper.
[FN#246] Mansur al-Nimrн, a poet of the time and a protйgй of
Yahya's son, Al-Fazl.
[FN#247] This was at least four times Mansur's debt.
[FN#248] Intendant of the Palace to Harun al-Rashid. The Bres. Edit.
(vii. 254) begins They tell that there arose full enmity between
Ja'afar Barmecide and a Sahib of Misr" (Wazir or Governor of Egypt).
Lane (ii. 429) quotes to this purpose amongst Arab; historians Fakhr
al-Din. (De Sacy's Chrestomathie Arabe i., p. 26, edit. ii.)
[FN#249] Arab. "Armanнyah" which Egyptians call after their mincing
fashion "Irminiyeh" hence "Ermine" (Mus Ponticus). Armaniyah was much
more extensive than our Armenia, now degraded to a mere province of
Turkey, and the term is understood to include the whole of the old
Parthian Empire.
[FN#250] Even now each Pasha-governor must keep a "Wakнl" in
Constantinople to intrigue and bribe for him at head-quarters.
[FN#251] The symbol of generosity, of unasked liberality, the "black
hand" being that of niggardness.
[FN#252] Arab. Rбh =pure (and old) wine. Arabs, like our classics,
usually drank their wine tempered. So Imr al-Keys in his Mu'allakah
says, "Bring the well tempered wine that seems to be saffron-tinctured;
and, when water-mixed, o'erbrims the cup." (v. 2.)
[FN#253] There is nothing that Orientals relish more than these
"goody-goody" preachments; but they read and forget them as readily as
Westerns.
[FN#254] Lane (ii. 435) ill-advisedly writes "Sher," as "the word is
evidently Persian signifying a Lion." But this is only in the debased
Indian dialect, a Persian, especially a Shirazi, pronounces "Shнr." And
this is how it is written in the Bresl. Edit., vii. 262. "Shбr" is
evidently a fancy name, possibly suggested by the dynastic name of the
Ghurjistan or Georgian Princes.
[FN#255] Again old experience, which has learned at a heavy cost how
many a goodly apple is rotten at the core.
[FN#256] This couplet has occurred in Night xxi. I give Torrens (p.
206) by way of specimen.
[FN#257] Arab. "Zбka" = merely tasting a thing which may be sweet with
a bitter after-flavour
[FN#258] This tetraseich was in Night xxx. with a difference.
[FN#259] The lines have occurred in Night xxx. I quote Torrens, p. 311.
[FN#260] This tetrastich is in Night clxix. I borrow from Lane (ii.
62).
[FN#261] The rude but effective refrigerator of the desert Arab who
hangs his water-skin to the branch of a tree and allows it to swing in
the wind.
[FN#262] Arab "Khumбsiyah" which Lane (ii. 438) renders "of quinary
stature." Usually it means five spans, but here five feet, showing that
the girl was young and still growing. The invoice with a slave always
notes her height in spans measured from ankle-bone to ear and above
seven she loses value as being full grown. Hence Sudбsi (fem.
Sudбsiyah) is a slave six spans high, the Shibr or full span (9 inches)
not the Fitr or short span from thumb to index. Faut is the
interval-between every finger, Ratab between index and medius, and Atab
between medius and annularis.
[FN#263] "Moon faced" now sounds sufficiently absurd to us, but it was
not always so. Solomon (Cant. vi. 10) does not disdain the image "fair
as the moon, clear as the sun," and those who have seen a moon in the
sky of Arabia will thoroughly appreciate it. We find it amongst the
Hindus, the Persians, the Afghans, the Turks and all the nations of
Europe. We have, finally, the grand example of Spenser,
"Her spacious forehead, like the clearest moon, etc."
[FN#264] Blue eyes have a bad name in Arabia as in India: the witch
Zarkб of Al-Yamamah was noted for them; and "blue eyed" often means
"fierce-eyed," alluding to the Greeks and Daylamites, mortal-enemies to
Ishmael. The Arabs say "ruddy of mustachio, blue of eye and black of
heart."
[FN#265] Before explained as used with camphor to fill the dead man's
mouth.
[FN#266] As has been seen, slapping on the neck is equivalent to our
"boxing ears," but much less barbarous and likely to injure the child.
The most insulting blow is that with shoe sandal-or slipper because it
brings foot in contact with head. Of this I have spoken before.
[FN#267] Arab. "Hibбl" (= ropes) alluding to the A'akбl-fillet which
binds the Kъfiyah-kerchief on the Badawi's head. (Pilgrimage, i. 346.)
[FN#268] Arab. "Khiyбl"; afterwards called Kara Gyuz (= "black eyes,"
from the celebrated Turkish Wazir). The mise-en-scиne was like that of
Punch, but of transparent cloth, lamp lit inside and showing
silhouettes worked by hand. Nothing could be more Fescenntne than Kara
Gyuz, who appeared with a phallus longer than himself and made all the
Consuls-General-periodically complain of its abuse, while the dialogue,
mostly in Turkish, as even more obscene. Most ingenious were Kara
Gyuz's little ways of driving on an Obstinate donkey and of tackling a
huge Anatolian pilgrim. He mounted the Neddy's back face to tail, and
inserting his left thumb like a clyster, hammered it with his right
when the donkey started at speed. For the huge pilgrim he used a
ladder. These shows now obsolete, used to enliven the Ezbekiyah Gardens
every evening and explain Ovid's Words,
"Delicias videam, Nile jocose, tuas!"
[FN#269] Mohammed (Mishkбt al-Masбbih ii. 360-62) says, "Change the
whiteness of your hair but not with anything black." Abu Bakr, who was
two years and some months older than the Prophet, used tincture of
Henna and Katam. Old Turkish officers justify black dyes because these
make them look younger and fiercer. Henna stains white hair orange red;
and the Persians apply after it a paste of indigo leaves, the result is
successively leek-green, emerald-green, bottle-green and lastly
lamp-black. There is a stage in life (the youth of old age) when man
uses dyes: presently he finds that the whole face wants dye; that the
contrast between juvenile coloured hair and ancient skin is ridiculous
and that it is time to wear white.
[FN#270] This prejudice extends all over the East: the Sanskrit saying
is "Kvachit kбnб bhaveta sбdhus" now and then a monocular is honest.
The left eye is the worst and the popular idea is, I have said, that
the damage will come by the injured member
[FN#271] The Arabs say like us, "Short and thick is never quick" and
"Long and thin has little in."
[FN#272] Arab. "Ba'azu layбli," some night when his mistress failed
him.
[FN#273] The fountain in Paradise before noticed.
[FN#274] Before noticed as the Moslem St. Peter (as far as the keys
go).
[FN#275] Arab. "Munkasir" = broken, frail, languishing the only form of
the maladive allowed. Here again we have masculine for feminine: the
eyelids show love-desire, but, etc.
[FN#276] The river of Paradise.
[FN#277] See Night xii. "The Second Kalandar's Tale " vol. i. 113.
[FN#278] Lane (ii. 472) refers for specimens of calligraphy to Herbin's
"Dйveloppements, etc." There are many more than seven styles of writing
as I have shown in Night xiii.; vol. i. 129.
[FN#279] Amongst good Moslems this would be a claim upon a man.
[FN#280] These lines have occurred twice already: and first appear in
Night xxii. I have borrowed from Mr. Payne (iv. 46).
[FN#281] Arab. "Ya Nasrбni", the address is not intrinsically slighting
but it may easily be made so. I have elsewhere noted that when Julian
(is said to have) exclaimed "Vicisti Nazarene!" he was probably
thinking in Eastern phrase "Nasarta, yб Nasrбni!"
[FN#282] Thirst is the strongest of all pleas to an Eastern, especially
to a Persian who never forgets the sufferings of his Imam, Husayn, at
Kerbela: he would hardly withhold it from the murderer of his father.
There is also a Hadis, "Thou shalt not refuse water to him who
thirsteth in the desert."
[FN#283] Arab. "Zimmi" which Lane (ii. 474) aptly translates a
"tributary." The Koran (chaps. ix.) orders Unbelievers to Islamize or
to "pay tribute by right of subjection" (lit. an yadin=out of hand, an
expression much debated). The least tribute is one dinar per annum
which goes to the poor-rate. and for this the Kafir enjoys protection
and almost all the civil rights of Moslems. As it is a question of
"loaves and fishes" there is much to say on the subject; "loaves and
fishes" being the main base and foundation of all religious
establishments.
[FN#284] This tetrastich has before occurred, so I quote Lane (ii.
444).
[FN#285] In Night xxxv. the same occurs with a difference.
[FN#286] The old rite, I repeat, has lost amongst all but the noblest
of Arab tribes the whole of its significance; and the traveller must be
careful how he trusts to the phrase "Nahnu mбlihin" we are bound
together by the salt.
[FN#287] Arab. "Alбma" = Alб-mб = upon what ? wherefore ?
[FN#288] Arab. "Mauz"; hence the Linnean name Musa (paradisiaca, etc.).
The word is explained by Sale (Koran, chaps. xxxvii. 146) as "a small
tree or shrub;" and he would identify it with Jonah's gourd.
[FN#289] Lane (ii. 446) "bald wolf or empowered fate," reading (with
Mac.) Kazб for Kattan (cat).
[FN#290] i.e. "the Orthodox in the Faith." Rбshid is a proper name,
witness that scourge of Syria, Rбshid Pasha. Born in 1830, of the Haji
Nazir Agha family, Darrah-Beys of Macedonian Draina, he was educated in
Paris where he learned the usual-hatred of Europeans: he entered the
Egyptian service in 1851, and, presently exchanging it for the Turkish,
became in due time Wali (Governor-General) of Syria which he plundered
most shamelessly. Recalled in 1872, he eventually entered the Ministry
and on June 15 1876, he was shot down, with other villains like
himself, by gallant Captain Hasan, the Circassian (Yarham-hu 'llбh !).
[FN#291] Quoted from a piece of verse, of which more presently.
[FN#292] This tetrastich has occurred before (Night cxciii.). I quote
Lane (ii. 449), who quotes Dryden's Spanish Friar,
"There is a pleasure sure in being mad
Which none but madmen know."
[FN#293] Lane (ii. 449) gives a tradition of the Prophet, "Whoso is in
love, and acteth chastely, and concealeth (his passion) and dieth,
dieth a martyr." Sakar is No. 5 Hell for Magi Guebres, Parsis, etc., it
is used in the comic Persian curse, "Fi'n-nбri wa Sakar al-jadd
w'al-pidar"=ln Hell and Sakar his grandfather and his father.
[FN#294] Arab. "Sifr": I have warned readers that whistling is
considered a kind of devilish speech by the Arabs, especially the
Badawin, and that the traveller must avoid it. It savours of idolatry:
in the Koran we find (chaps. viii. 35), "Their prayer at the House of
God (Ka'abah) is none other than whistling and hand-clapping;" and
tradition says that they whistled through their fingers. Besides many
of the Jinn have only round holes by way of mouths and their speech is
whistling a kind of bird language like sibilant English.
[FN#295] Arab. 'Kнl wa kбl"=lit. "it was said and he said;" a popular
phrase for chit chat, tittle-tattle, prattle and prate, etc.
[FN#296] Arab. "Hadis." comparing it with a tradition of the
Prophet.
[FN#297] Arab. "Mikashshah," the thick part of a midrib of a palm-frond
soaked for some days in water and beaten out till the fibres separate.
It makes an exceedingly hard, although not a lasting broom.
[FN#298] Persian, "the youth, the brave;" Sansk. Yuvбn: and Lat.
Juvenis. The Kurd, in tales, is generally a sturdy thief; and in
real-life is little better.
[FN#299] Arab. "Yб Shatir ;" lit. O clever one (in a bad sense).
[FN#300] Lane (ii. 453) has it. "that I may dress thy hair'" etc.
This is Bowdlerising with a witness.
[FN#301] The sign of respect when a personage dismounts.
(Pilgrimage i. 77.)
[FN#302] So the Hindus speak of "the defilement of separation" as if it
were an impurity.