for our, "I know not;" when it would be rude to say bluntly "M'adri"=
"don't know."
[FN#413] There is a picturesque Moslem idea that good deeds become
incarnate and assume human shapes to cheer the doer in his grave, to
greet him when he enters Paradise and so forth. It was borrowed from
the highly imaginative faith of the Guebre, the Zoroastrian. On
Chinavad or Chanyud-pul (Sirбt), the Judgement bridge, 37 rods (rasan)
long, straight and 37 fathoms broad for the good, and crooked and
narrow as sword-edge for the bad, a nymph-like form will appear to the
virtuous and say, "I am the personification of thy good deeds!" In Hell
there will issue from a fetid gale a gloomy figure with head like a
minaret, red eyeballs, hooked nose, teeth like pillars, spear-like
fangs, snaky locks etc. and when asked who he is he will reply, "I am
the personification of thine evil acts!" (Dabistan i. 285.) The Hindus
also personify everything.
[FN#414] Arab. "Banъ Israнl;" applied to the Jews when theirs was the
True Faith i.e. before the coming of Jesus, the Messiah, whose mission
completed that of Moses and made it obsolete (Matrъk) even as the
mission of Jesus was completed and abrogated by that of Mohammed. The
term "Yahъd"=Jew is applied scornfully to the Chosen People after they
rejected the Messiah, but as I have said "Israelite" is used on certain
occasions, Jew on others.
[FN#415] Arab. "Kasa'ah," a wooden bowl, a porringer; also applied to a
saucer.
[FN#416] Arab. "Rasъl"=one sent, an angel, an "apostle;" not to be
translated, as by the vulgar, "prophet." Moreover Rasul is higher than
Nabн (prophet), such as Abraham, Isaac, etc., depositaries of Al-Islam,
but with a succession restricted to their own families. Nabi-mursil
(Prophet-apostle) is the highest of all, one sent with a book: of these
are now only four, Moses, David, Jesus and Mohammed, the writings of
the rest having perished. In Al-Islam also angels rank below men, being
only intermediaries (= , nuncii, messengers) between the Creator and
the Created. This knowledge once did me a good turn at Harar, not a
safe place in those days. (First Footsteps in East Africa, p. 349.)
[FN#417] A doctor of law in the reign of Al-Maamun.
[FN#418] Here the exclamation is= D.V.; and it may be assumed generally
to have that sense.
[FN#419] Arab. "Taylasбn," a turban worn hood-fashion by the "Khatнb"
or preacher. I have sketched it in my Pilgrimage and described it (iii.
315). Some Orientalists derive Taylasan from Atlas=satin, which is
peculiarly inappropriate. The word is apparently barbarous and possibly
Persian like Kalansuwah, the Dervish cap. "Thou son of a Taylasбn"=a
barbarian. (De Sacy, Chrest. Arab. ii. 269.)
[FN#420] Arab. " Kinyah" vulg. "Kunyat" = patronymic or matronymic; a
name beginning with "Abu" (father) or with "Umm" (mother). There are so
few proper names in Al-Islam that such surnames, which, as will be
seen, are of infinite variety, become necessary to distinguish
individuals. Of these sobriquets I shall give specimens further on.
[FN#421] "Whoso seeth me in his sleep, seeth me truly; for Satan cannot
assume my semblance," said (or is said to have said) Mohammed. Hence
the vision is true although it comes in early night and not before
dawn. See Lane M. E., chaps. ix.
[FN#422] Arab. "Al-Maukab ;" the day when the pilgrims march out of the
city; it is a holiday for all, high and low.
[FN#423] "The Gate of Salutation ;" at the South-Western corner of the
Mosque where Mohammed is buried. (Pilgrimage ii. 60 and plan.) Here
"Visitation" (Ziyбrah) begins.
[FN#424] The tale is told by Al-Ishбki in the reign of Al-Maamun.
[FN#425] The speaker in dreams is the Heb. "Waggid," which the learned
and angry Graetz (Geschichte, etc. vol. ix.) absurdly translates "Traum
souffleur."
[FN#426] Tenth Abbaside. A.D. 849-861
[FN#427] Arab. "Muwallad" (fem. "Muwalladah"); a rearling, a slave born
in a Moslem land. The numbers may appear exaggerated, but even the
petty King of Ashanti had, till the last war, 3333 "wives."
[FN#428] The Under-prefect of Baghdad.
[FN#429] "Ja'afar," our old Giaffar (which is painfully like "Gaffer,"
i.e. good father) means either a rushing river or a rivulet.
[FN#430] A regular Fellah's name also that of a village
(Pilgrimage i. 43) where a pleasant story is told about one Haykal.
[FN#431] The "Mountain" means the rocky and uncultivated ground South
of Cairo, such as Jabal-al-Ahmar and the geological-sea-coast flanked
by the old Cairo-Suez highway.
[FN#432] A popular phrase=our "sharp as a razor."
[FN#433] i.e. are men so few; a favourite Persian phrase.
[FN#434] She is a woman of rank who would cause him to be assassinated.
[FN#435] This is not Al-Hakimbi' Amri'llah the famous or infamous
founder of the Druze ((Durъz)) faith and held by them to be, not an
incarnation of the Godhead, but the Godhead itself in propriв personв,
who reigned A.D. 926-1021: our Hakim is the orthodox Abbaside Caliph of
Egypt who dated from two centuries after him (A.D. 1261). Had the
former been meant, it would have thrown back this part of The Nights to
an earlier date than is generally accepted. But in a place still to
come I shall again treat of the subject.
[FN#436] For an account of a similar kind which was told to me during
the last few years see "Midian Revisited," i. 15. These hiding-places
are innumerable in lands of venerable antiquity like Egypt; and, if
there were any contrivance for detecting hidden treasure, it would make
the discoverer many times a millionaire.
[FN#437] i.e. it had been given to him or his in writing, like the book
left to the old woman before quoted in "Midian," etc.
[FN#438] Arab. "Kird" (pron. in Egypt "Gird"). It is usually the
hideous Abyssinian cynocephalus which is tamed by the ape-leader
popularly called Kuraydati (Lane, M.E., chaps. xx.). The beast has a
natural-penchant for women ; I heard of one which attempted to rape a
girl in the public street and was prevented only by a sentinel's
bayonet. They are powerful animals and bite like greyhounds.
[FN#439] Easterns attribute many complaints (such as toothache) to
worms, visible as well as microscopic, which may be held a fair
prolepsis of the "germ-theory" the bacterium. the bacillus, the
microbe. Nymphomania, the disease alluded to in these two tales is
always attributed to worms in the vagina.
[FN#440] Bestiality, very rare in Arabia is fatally common amongst
those most debauched of debauched races, the Egyptian proper and the
Sindis. Hence the Pentateuch, whose object was to breed a larger
population of fighting men, made death the penalty for lying with a
beast (Deut. xxvii. 21). C. S. Sonnini (Travels, English translation,
p. 663) gives a curious account of Fellah lewdness. "The female
crocodile during congress is turned upon her back ( ?) and cannot rise
without difficulty. Will it be believed that there are men who take
advantage of the helpless situation of the female, drive off the male,
and supplant him in this frightful intercourse ? Horrible embraces, the
knowledge of which was wanting to complete the disgusting history of
human perversity!" The French traveller forgets to add the
superstitious explanation of this congress which is the sovereignest
charm for rising to rank and riches. The Ajбib al-Hind tells a tale
(chaps. xxxix.) of a certain Mohammed bin Bullishad who had issue by a
she-ape: the young ones were hairless of body and wore quasi-human
faces; and the father's sight had become dim by his bestial-practice.