said to his Wazir, “Indeed, I have left my whilome inclination to women
and have altogether renounced my infatuation for them; but how shall I
do to punish them in retaliation of their misdeeds? For the slaying of
thy sire Shimas was of their malice and not of my own will, and I know
not what ailed my reason that I consented with their proposal to slay
him.” Then he cried, “Ah me!” and groaned and lamented, saying,
“Well-away and alas for the loss of my Wazir and his just judgment and
admirable administration and for the loss of his like of the Wazirs and
Heads of the State and of the goodliness of their apt counsels and
sagacious!” “O King,” quoth the boy-minister, “Know that the fault is
not with women alone, for that they are like unto a pleasing stock in
trade, whereto the lusts of the lookers-on incline. To whosoever lusteth
and buyeth, they sell it, but whoso buyeth not, none forceth him to buy;
so that the fault is of him who buyeth, especially if he know the
harmfulness of that merchandise. Now, I warn thee, as did my sire before
me, but thou acceptedest not to his counsel.” Answered the King, “O
Wazir, indeed I have fixed this fault upon myself, even as thou hast
said, and I have no excuse except divine foreordainment.” Rejoined the
Wazir, “O King, know that Almighty Allah hath created us and endowed us
with capability and appointed to us freewill and choice; so, if we will,
we do, and if we will, we do not. The Lord commanded us not to do harm,
lest sin attach to us; wherefore it befitteth us to take compt of whatso
is right to do, for that the Almighty biddeth us naught but good in all
cases and forbiddeth us only from evil; but what we do, we do of our own
design, be it fair or faulty.” Quoth the King, “Thou sayest sooth, and
indeed my fault arose from my surrendering myself to my lusts, albeit
often and often my better self warned me from this and thy sire Shimas
also warned me often and often; but my lusts overcame my wits. Hast thou
then with thee aught that may withhold me from again committing this
error and whereby my reason may be victorious over the desires of my
soul?” Quoth the Wazir, “Yes: I can tell thee what will restrain thee
from relapsing into this fault, and it is that thou doff the garment of
ignorance and don that of understanding, and disobey thy passions and
obey thy Lord and revert to the policy of the just King thy sire, and
fulfil thy duties to Allah the Most High and to thy people and apply
thyself to the defence of thy faith and the promotion of thy subjects’
welfare and rule thyself aright and forbear the slaughter of thy people;
and look to the end of things and sever thyself from tyranny and
oppression and arrogance and lewdness, and practise justice, equity and
humility and bow before the bidding of the Almighty and apply thyself to
gentle dealing with those of His creatures over whom He set thee and be
assiduous as it besitteth thee in fulfilling their prayers unto thee. An
thou be constant herein may thy days be serene and may Allah of His
mercy pardon thee and make thee loved and feared of all who look on
thee; so shall thy foes be brought to naught, for the Omnipotent shall
rout their hosts and thou shalt have acceptance with Him and of His
creatures be dreaded and to them endeared.” Quoth the King, “Indeed thou
hast quickened my vitals and illumined my heart with thy sweet speech
and hast opened the eyes of my clear-seeing after blindness; and I am
resolved to do whatso thou hast set forth to me, with the help of the
Almighty, leaving my former case of lust and sinfulness and bringing
forth my soul from durance vile to deliverance and from fear to safety.
So it behoveth thee to be joyful hereat and contented, for that I am
become to thee as a son, maugre my more of age, and thou to me as a dear
father, despite thy tenderness of years, and it hath become incumbent on
me to do mine utmost endeavour in all thou commandest me. Wherefore I
thank the bounty of Allah and thy bounty because He hath vouchsafed me,
by thee, fair fortune and goodly guidance and just judgment to ward off
my cark and care; and the security of my lieges hath been brought about
by thy hand, through the excellence of thy knowledge and the goodliness
of thy contrivance. And thou, from this hour, shalt be the counsellor of
my kingdom and equal to myself in all but sitting upon the throne; and
whatso thou dost shall be law to me and none shall disobey thy word,
young in years though thou be, for that thou art old in wit and
knowledge. So I thank Allah who deigned grant thee to me, that thou
mayst guide me into the way of salvation and out of the crooked paths of
perdition.” Quoth the Wazir, “O auspicious King, know that no merit is
due to me for giving thee loyal counsel; for that to succour thee by
deed and word is one of the things which is incumbent on me, seeing that
I am but a plant of thy bounty; and not I alone, but one before me was
overwhelmed with thy beneficence; so that we are both alike partakers in
thy honours and favours, and how shall we not acknowledge this? Moreover
thou, O King, art our shepherd and ruler and he who wardeth off from us
our foes, and to whom are committed our protection and our guardian,
constant in endeavour for our safety. Indeed, though we lavished our
lives in thy service, yet should we not fulfil that which is incumbent
on us of gratitude to thee; but we supplicate Allah Almighty, who hath
set thee over us and made thee our ruler, and beseech Him vouchsafe thee
long life and success in all thine enterprises and not to make trial of
thee with afflictions in thy time, but bring thee to thy desire and make
thee to be reverenced till the day of thy death and lengthen thine arms
in generosity, so thou mayst have command over every wise man and subdue
every wicked man and all the wise and brave be found with thee in thy
realm and all the ignorant and cowardly be plucked out from thy reign;
and we pray Him to withhold from thy people scarcity and calamity and
sow among them the seed of love and friendship and cause them to enjoy
of this world its prosperity and of the next felicity, of His grace and
bounty and hidden mercies. Amen![182] For He is over all things
Omnipotent and there is naught difficult unto Him, to Him all things
tend.” When the King heard the Wazir’s prayer, he was mightily rejoiced
and inclined to him with his whole heart, saying, “Know, O Wazir, thou
art to me in lieu of brother and son and father, and naught but death
shall divide me from thee. All that my hand possesseth thou shalt have
the disposal of and, if I have no child to succeed me, thou shalt sit on
my throne in my stead; for thou art the worthiest of all the folk of my
realm, and I will invest thee with my Kingship in the presence of the
Grandees of my state and appoint thee my heir apparent to inherit the
kingdom after me, Inshallah!”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day
and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Nine Hundred and Thirtieth Night,
She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that King Wird Khan
said to the son of Shimas the whilome Wazir, “Presently I will name thee
my successor and make thee my heir apparent: and I will call the
Grandees of mine Empire to witness thereto.” Then he summoned his
Secretary and bade him write to all the Lords of his land, convoking
them at his Court, and caused proclamation to be made in his city to all
the townsfolk great and small, bidding every one of the Emirs and
Governors and Chamberlains and other officers and dignitaries to his
presence as well as the Olema and Literati learned in the law. He held
to boot a grand Divan and made a banquet, never was its like seen
anywhere and thereto he bade all the folk, high and low. So they
assembled and abode in merry making, eating and drinking a month’s
space; after which the King clothed the whole of his household and the
poor of his Kingdom and bestowed on the men of knowledge abundant
largesse. Then he chose out a number of the Olema and wise men who were
known to the son of Shimas, and caused them go in to him, bidding him
choose out of them six that he might make them Wazirs under commandment
of the boy. Accordingly he selected six of the oldest of them in years
and the best in wits and fullest of lore and the quickest of memory and
judgment, and presented them to the King, who clad them in Wazirial
habit saying, “Ye are become my Ministers, under the commandment of this
my Grand Wazir, the son of Shimas. Whatsoever he saith to you or biddeth
you to do, ye shall never and in no wise depart from it, albeit he is
the youngest of you in years; for he is the eldest of you in intellect
and intelligence.” Then he seated them upon chairs, adorned with gold
after the usage of Wazirs, and appointed to them stipends and
allowances, bidding them choose out such of the notables of the kingdom
and officers of the troops present at the banquet as were aptest for the
service of the state, that he might make them Captains of tens and
Captains of hundreds and Captains of thousands and appoint to them
dignities and stipends and assign them provision, after the manner of
Grandees. This they did with entire diligence and he bade them also
handsel all who were present with large gifts and dismiss them each to
his country with honour and renown; he also charged his governors to
rule the people with justice and enjoined them to be tender to the poor
as well as to the rich and bade succour them from the treasury,
according to their several degrees. So the Wazirs wished him permanence
of glory and continuance of life, and he commanded to decorate the city
three days, in gratitude to Allah Almighty for mercies vouchsafed to
him. Such was the case with the King and his Wazir, Ibn Shimas, in the
ordinance of his kingdom through his Emirs and Governors; but as regards
the favourite women, wives, concubines and others who, by their malice
and perfidy, had brought about the slaughter of the Wazirs and had well
nigh ruined the realm, as soon as the Court was dissolved and all the
people had departed, each to his own place, after their affairs had been
set in order, the King summoned his boy-Minister, the son of Shimas, and
the other six Wazirs and taking them apart privily, said to them, “Know,
O Wazirs, that I have been a wanderer from the right way, drowned in
ignorance, opposed to admonition, a breaker of facts and promises and a
gainsayer of good counsellors; and the cause of all this was my being
fooled by these women and the wiles whereby they beset me and the
glozing lure of their speech, whereby they seduced me to sin and my
acceptance of this, for that I deemed the words of them true and loyal
counsel, by reason of their sweetness and softness; but lo, and behold!
they were deadly poison. And now I am certified that they sought but to
ruin and destroy me, wherefore they deserve punishment and retribution
from me, for justice sake, that I may make them a warning to whoso will
be warned. And what say your just judgments anent doing them to die?”
Answered the boy Wazir, “O mighty King, I have already told thee that
women are not alone to blame, but that the fault is shared between them
and the men who hearken to them. However, they deserve punishment and
requital for two reasons: firstly for the fulfilment of thy word,
because thou art the supreme King; and secondly, by reason of their
presumption against thee and their seducing thee and their meddling with
that which concerneth them not and whereof it befitteth them not even to
speak. Wherefore they have right well deserved death; yet let that which
hath befallen them suffice them, and do thou henceforth reduce them to
servants’ estate. But it is thine to command in this and in other than
this.” Then one of the Wazirs seconded the counsel of Ibn Shimas; but
another of them prostrated himself before the King and said to him,
“Allah prolong the King’s life! An thou be indeed resolved to do with
them that which shall cause their death, do with them as I shall say to
thee.” Asked Wird Khan, “And what is that?”; and the Wazir answered,
“’Twere best that thou bid some of thy female slaves carry the women who
played thee false to the apartment, wherein befel the slaughter of thy
Wazirs and wise men and imprison them there; and bid that they be
provided with a little meat and drink, enough to keep life in their
bodies. Let them never be suffered to go forth of that place, and
whenever one of them dies, let her abide among them, as she is, till
they die all, even to the last of them. This is the least of their
desert, because they were the cause of this great avail; ay, and the
origin of all the troubles and calamities that have befallen in our
time; so shall there be verified in them the saying of the Sayer:—Whoso
diggeth his brother a pit shall surely himself fall into it, albeit of
long safety he have benefit.” The King accepted the Wazir’s counsel and
sending for four stalwart female slaves, committed the offending women
to them, bidding them bear them into the place of slaughter and imprison
them there and allow them every day a little coarse food and a little
troubled water. They did with them as he bade; wherefore the women
mourned with sore mourning, repenting them of that which they had done
and lamenting with grievous lamentation. Thus Allah gave them their
reward of abjection in this world and prepared for them torment in the
world to come; nor did they cease to abide in that murky and noisome
place, whilst every day one or other of them died, till they all
perished, even to the last of them;[183] and the report of this event
was bruited abroad in all lands and countries. This is the end of the
story of the King and his Wazirs and subjects, and praise be to Allah
who causeth peoples to pass away, and quickeneth the bones that rot in
decay; Him who alone is worthy to be glorified and magnified alway and
hallowed for ever and aye! And amongst the tales they tell is one of
-----
Footnote 55:
Lane omits because it is “extremely puerile” this most characteristic
tale, one of the two oldest in The Nights which Al-Mas’udi mentions as
belonging to the Hazár Afsáneh (See Terminal Essay). Von Hammer
(Preface in Trébutien’s translation p. xxv.) refers the fables to an
Indian (Egyptian?) origin and remarks, “sous le rapport de leur
antiquité et de la morale qu’ils renferment, elles méritent la plus
grande attention, mais d’un autre côté elles ne sont rien moins qu’
amusantes.”
Footnote 56:
Lane (iii. 579) writes the word “Shemmas”: the Bresl. Edit. (viii. 4)
“Shímás.”
Footnote 57:
_i.e._ When the tale begins.
Footnote 58:
Arab. “Khafz al-jináh” drooping the wing as a brooding bird. In the
Koran (lvii. 88) “lowering the wing” = demeaning oneself gently.
Footnote 59:
The Bresl. Edit. (viii. 3) writes “Kil’ád”: Trébutien (iii. 1) “le roi
Djilia.”
Footnote 60:
As the sequel shows the better title would be, “The Cat and the Mouse”
as in the headings of the Mac. Edit. and “What befel the Cat with the
Mouse,” as a punishment for tyranny. But all three Edits. read as in
the text and I have not cared to change it. In our European
adaptations the mouse becomes a rat.
Footnote 61:
So that I may not come to grief by thus daring to foretell evil
things.
Footnote 62:
Arab. “Af’à,” pl. Afá’í = ὄφις, both being derived from O. Egypt. Hfi,
a worm, snake. Af’à is applied to many species of the larger ophidia,
all supposed to be venomous, and synonymous with “Sall” (a malignant
viper) in Al-Mutalammis. See Preston’s Al-Hariri, p. 101.
Footnote 63:
This apparently needless cruelty of all the feline race is a strong
weapon in the hand of the Eastern “Dahrí” who holds that the world is
God and is governed by its own laws, in opposition to the religionists
believing in a Personal Deity whom, moreover, they style the Merciful,
the Compassionate, etc. Some Christians have opined that cruelty came
into the world with “original Sin;” but how do they account for the
hideous waste of life and the fearful destructiveness of the fishes
which certainly never learned anything from man? The mystery of the
cruelty of things can be explained only by a Law without a Law-giver.
Footnote 64:
The three things not to be praised before death in Southern Europe are
a horse, a priest and a woman; and it has become a popular saying that
only fools prophesy before the event.
Footnote 65:
Arab. “Samn” = butter melted and skimmed. See vol. i. 144.
Footnote 66:
This is a mere rechauffé of the Barber’s tale of his Fifth Brother
(vol. i. 335). In addition to the authorities there cited I may
mention the school reading-lesson in Addison’s Spectator derived from
Galland’s version of “Alnaschar and his basket of Glass;” the Persian
version of the Hitopadesa or “Anwár-i-Suhayli” (Lights of Canopes) by
Husayn Vá’iz; the Foolish Sachali of “Indian Fairy Tales” (Miss
Stokes); the allusion in Rabelais to the fate of the “Shoemaker and
his pitcher of milk” and the “Dialogues of creatures moralised”
(1516), whence probably La Fontaine drew his fable, “La Laitière et le
Pot au lait.”
Footnote 67:
Arab. “Násik,” a religious, a man of Allah from Nask, devotion:
somewhat like Sálik (Dabistan iii. 251).
Footnote 68:
The well-known Egyptian term for a peasant, a husbandman, extending
from the Nile to beyond Mount Atlas.
Footnote 69:
This is again, I note, the slang sense of “’Azím,” which in classical
Arabic means simply great.
Footnote 70:
Arab. “Adab”; see vol. i. 132. It also implies mental discipline, the
culture which leads to excellence, good manners and good morals; and
it is sometimes synonymous with literary skill and scholarship. “Ilm
al-Adab,” says Haji Khalfah (Lane’s Lex.), “is the science whereby man
guards against error in the language of the Arabs spoken or written.”
Footnote 71:
_i.e._ I esteem thee as thou deservest.
Footnote 72:
The style is intended to be worthy of the statesman. In my “Mission to
Dahome” the reader will find many a similar scene.
Footnote 73:
The Bresl. Edit. (vol viii. 22) reads “Turks” or “The Turk” in lieu of
“many peoples.”
Footnote 74:
_i.e._ the parents.
Footnote 75:
The humour of this euphuistic Wazirial speech, purposely made somewhat
pompous, is the contrast between the unhappy Minister’s praises and
the result of his prognostication. I cannot refrain from complimenting
Mr. Payne upon the admirable way in which he has attacked and mastered
all the difficulties of its abstruser passages.
Footnote 76:
Arab. “Halummú” plur. of “Halumma” = draw near! The latter form is
used by some tribes for all three numbers; others affect a dual and a
plural (as in the text). Preston (Al-Hariri, p. 210) derives it from
Heb. הלום but the geographers of Kufah and Basrah (who were not
etymologists) are divided about its origin. He translates (p. 221)
“Halumma Jarran” = being the rest of the tale in continuation with
this, _i.e._ in accordance with it, like our “and so forth.” And in p.
271, he makes Halumma = Hayya _i.e._ hither! (to prayer, etc).
Footnote 77:
This is precisely the semi-fatalistic and wholly superstitious address
which would find favour with Moslems of the present day: they still
prefer “calling upon Hercules” to putting their shoulders to the
wheel. Mr. Redhouse had done good work in his day but of late he has
devoted himself, especially in the “Mesnevi,” to a rapprochement
between Al-Islam and Christianity which both would reject (see supra,
vol. vii. p. 135). The Calvinistic predestination as shown in the term
“vessel of wrath,” is but a feeble reflection of Moslem fatalism. On
this subject I shall have more to say in a future volume.
Footnote 78:
The inhabitants of temperate climates have no idea what ants can do in
the tropics. The Kafirs of South Africa used to stake down their
prisoners (among them a poor friend of mine) upon an ant-hill and they
were eaten atom after atom in a few hours. The death must be the
slowest form of torture; but probably the nervous system soon becomes
insensible. The same has happened to more than one hapless invalid,
helplessly bedridden, in Western Africa. I have described an invasion
of ants in my “Zanzibar,” vol. ii. 169; and have suffered from such
attacks in many places between that and Dahomey.
Footnote 79:
Arab. “Sa’lab.” See vol. iii. 132, where it is a fox. I render it
jackal because that cousin of the fox figures as a carrion-eater in
Hindu folk-lore, the Hitopadesa, Panchopakhyan, etc. This tale, I need
hardly say, is a mere translation; as is shown by the Kathá s.s. “Both
jackal and fox are nicknamed Joseph the Scribe (Tálib Yúsuf) in the
same principle that lawyers are called landsharks by sailors.” (P. 65,
Moorish Lotus Leaves, etc., by George D. Cowan and R. L. N. Johnston,
London, Tinsleys, 1883.)
Footnote 80:
Arab. “Sahm mush’ab” not “barbed” (at the wings) but with double
front, much used for birding and at one time familiar in the West as
in the East. And yet “barbed” would make the fable read much better.
Footnote 81:
Arab. “la’lla,” usually = haply, belike; but used here and elsewhere =
forsure, certainly.
Footnote 82:
Arab. “Maghrib” (or in full Maghrib al-Aksá) lit. = the Land of the
setting sun for whose relation to “Mauritania” see vol. vii. 220. It
is almost synonymous with “Al-Gharb” = the West whence Portugal
borrowed the two Algarves, one being in Southern Europe and the other
over the straits about Tangier-Ceuta; fronting Spanish Trafalgar,
_i.e._ Taraf al-Gharb, the edge of the West. I have noted (Pilgrimage
i. 9) the late Captain Peel’s mis-translation “Cape of Laurels”
(Al-Ghár).
Footnote 83:
Even the poorest of Moslem wanderers tries to bear with him a new suit
of clothes for keeping the two festivals and Friday service in the
Mosque. See Pilgrimage i. 235; iii. 257, etc.
Footnote 84:
Arab. “Sáyih” lit. a wanderer, subaudi for religious and ascetic
objects; and not to be confounded with the “pilgrim” proper.
Footnote 85:
_i.e._ a Religious, a wandering beggar.
Footnote 86:
This was the custom of the whole Moslem world and still is where
uncorrupted by Christian uncharity and contempt for all “men of God”
save its own. But the change in such places as Egypt is complete and
irrevocable. Even in 1852 my Dervish’s frock brought me nothing but
contempt in Alexandria and Cairo.
Footnote 87:
Arab “Ya jáhil,” lit. = O ignorant. The popular word is Ahmak which,
however, in the West means a maniac, a madman, a Santon; “Bohlí” being
= a fool.
Footnote 88:
The prison according to the practice of the East being in the palace:
so the Moorish “Kasbah,” which lodges the Governor and his guard,
always contains the jail.
Footnote 89:
Arab. “Tuwuffiya,” lit. = was received (into the grace of God), an
euphemistic and more polite term than “máta” = he died. The latter
term is avoided by the Founder of Christianity; and our Spiritualists
now say “passed away to a higher life,” a phrase embodying a theory
which, to say the least, is “not proven.”
Footnote 90:
Arab. “Yá Abá al-Khayr” = our my good lord, sir, fellow, etc.
Footnote 91:
Arab. “Háwi” from “Hayyah,” a serpent. See vol. iii. 145. Most of the
Egyptian snake-charmers are Gypsies, but they do not like to be told
of their origin. At Baroda in Guzerat I took lessons in
snake-catching, but found the sport too dangerous; when the animal
flies, the tail is caught by the left hand and the right is slipped up
to the neck, a delicate process, as a few inches too far or not far
enough would be followed by certain death in catching a Cobra. At last
certain of my messmates killed one of the captives and the
snake-charmer would have no more to do with me.
Footnote 92:
Arab. “Sallah,” also Pers., a basket of wickerwork. This article is
everywhere used for lodging snakes from Egypt to Morocco.
Footnote 93:
Arab. “Mubárak.” It is a favourite name for a slave in Morocco; the
slave-girl being called Mubárakah; and the proverb being, “Blessed is
the household which hath neither M’bárk nor M’bárkah” (as they
contract the words).
Footnote 94:
The Bresl. Edit. (viii. 48) instead of the Gate (Báb) gives a Bádhanj
= a Ventilator; for which latter rendering see vol. i. 257. The
spider’s web is Koranic (lxxxi. 40) “Verily frailest of all houses is
the house of the spider.”
Footnote 95:
Prob. from the Persian Wird = a pupil, a disciple.
Footnote 96:
And yet, as the next page shows the youth’s education was complete in
his twelfth year. But as all three texts agree, I do not venture upon
changing the number to six or seven, the age at which royal education
outside the Harem usually begins.
Footnote 97:
_i.e._ One for each day in the Moslem year. For these object-lessons,
somewhat in Kindergarten style, see the Book of Sindibad or The Malice
of Women (vol. vi. 126).
Footnote 98:
Arab. “Jahábizah” plur. of “Jahbiz” = acute, intelligent (from the
Pers. Kahbad or Kihbad?).
Footnote 99:
Arab. “Nimr” in the Bresl. Edit. viii. 58. The Mac. Edit. suggests
that the leopard is the lion’s Wazir.
Footnote 100:
Arab. “Kaun” lit. = Being, existence. Trébutien (iii. 20), has it,
“Qu’est-ce que l’être (God), l’existence (Creation), l’être dans
l’existence (the world), et la durée de l’être dans l’existence (the
other world).
Footnote 101:
_i.e._ for the purpose of requital. All the above is orthodox Moslem
doctrine, which utterly ignores the dictum “ex nihilo nihil fit;” and
which would look upon Creation by Law (Darwinism) as opposed to
Creation by miracle (_e.g._ the Mosaic cosmogony) as rank blasphemy.
On the other hand the Eternity of Matter and its transcendental
essence are tenets held by a host of Gnostics, philosophers and
Eastern Agnostics.
Footnote 102:
This is a Moslem _lieu commun_; usually man is likened to one
suspended in a bottomless well by a thin rope at which a rodent is
continually gnawing and who amuses himself in licking a few drops of
honey left by bees on the revetement.
Footnote 103:
A curious pendent to the Scriptural parable of the Unjust Steward.
Footnote 104:
Arab. “Rúh” Heb. Ruach: lit. breath (spiritus) which in the animal
kingdom is the surest sign of life. See vol. v. 29. Nothing can be
more rigidly materialistic than the so-called Mosaic law.
Footnote 105:
Arab. “Al-Amr” which may also mean the business, the matter, the
affair.
Footnote 106:
Arab. “Ukáb al-kásir,” lit. = the breaker eagle.
Footnote 107:
Arab. “Lijám shadíd:” the ring-bit of the Arabs is perhaps the
severest form known: it is required by the Eastern practice of pulling
up the horse when going at full speed and it is too well known to
require description. As a rule the Arab rides with a “lady’s hand” and
the barbarous habit of “hanging on by the curb” is unknown to him. I
never pass by Rotten Row or see a regiment of English Cavalry without
wishing to leave riders nothing but their snaffles.
Footnote 108:
We find this orderly distribution of time (which no one adopts) in
many tongues and many forms. In the Life of Sir W. Jones (vol. i. p.
193, Poetical Works etc.) the following occurs, “written in India on a
small piece of paper”:—
Sir Edward Coke
“Six hours to sleep, in law’s grave study six!
Four spend in prayer,—the rest on Heaven fix!”
Rather:
“Seven hours to law, to soothing slumber seven;
Ten to the world allot, and all to Heaven!”
But this is not practical. I must prefer the Chartist distribution:
Six hours sleep and six hours play:
Six hours work and six shillings a day.
Mr. Froude (Oceana) speaks of New Zealanders having attained that
ideal of operative felicity:—
Eight to work, eight to play;
Eight to sleep and eight shillings a day.
Footnote 109:
Arab. “Bahímah,” mostly = black cattle: see vol. iv. 54.
Footnote 110:
As a rule when the felidæ wag their tails, it is a sign of coming
anger, the reverse with the canidæ.
Footnote 111:
In India it is popularly said that the Rajah can do anything with the
Ryots provided he respects their women and their religion—not their
property.
Footnote 112:
Arab. “Sunan” for which see vol. v. 36, 167. Here it is = Rasm or
usage, equivalent to our precedents, and held valid, especially when
dating from olden time, in all matters which are not expressly
provided for by Koranic command. For instance a Hindí Moslem (who
doubtless borrowed the customs from Hindús) will refuse to eat with
the Kafir and when the latter objects that there is no such
prohibition in the Koran will reply, “No: but it is our Rasm.” As a
rule the Anglo-Indian is very ignorant on this essential point.
Footnote 113:
Lit. “lowering the wings,” see supra p. 33.
Footnote 114:
_i.e._ friends and acquaintances.
Footnote 115:
Arab. “Hamídah” = praiseworthy or satisfactory.
Footnote 116:
Not only alluding to the sperm of man and beast; but also to the
“Neptunist” doctrine held by the ancient Greeks and Hindus and
developed in Europe during the last century.
Footnote 117:
Arab. “Taksím” dividing into parts, analysis.
Footnote 118:
This is the usual illogical contention of all religions. It is not the
question whether an Almighty Being can do a given thing: the question
is whether He has or has not done it.
Footnote 119:
Upon the old simile of the potter I shall have something to say in a
coming volume.
Footnote 120: