[FN#1] Supplementarily to note 2, p. 2, [FN#2 Vol 1]and note 2, p. 14, [FN#21
Vol 1] vol. i., I may add that "Shahrázád," in the Shams al-Loghat, is the P.N.
of a King. L. Langlès (Les Voyages de Sindibâd Le Marin et La Ruse des Femmes,
first appended to Savary's Grammar and reprinted 12mo. pp. 161 + 113,
Imprimerie Royale, Paris, M.D.CCC.XIV) explains it by Le cyprès, la beauté de
la ville; and he is followed by (A. de Biberstein) Kazimirski (Enis el-Djelis
Paris, Barrois, 1847). Ouseley (Orient. Collect.) makes Shahrzád=town-born; and
others an Arabisation of Chehr-ázád (free of face, ingenuous of countenance)
the petit nom of Queen Humay, for whom see the Terminal Essay. The name of the
sister, whom the Fihrist converts into a Kahramánah, or nurse, vulgarly written
Dínár-zád, would= child of gold pieces, freed by gold pieces, or one who has no
need of gold pieces: Dínzád=child of faith and Daynázád, proposed by Langlès,
"free from debt (!)" I have adopted Macnaghten's Dunyazad. "Shahryar," which
Scott hideously writes "Shier-ear," is translated by the Shams, King of the
world, absolute monarch and the court of Anushirwan while the Burhán-i-Káti'a
renders it a King of Kings, and P.N. of a town. Shahr-báz is also the P.N. of a
town in Samarcand.
[FN#2] Arab. "Malik," here used as in our story-books: "Pompey was a wise and
powerful King" says the Gesta Romanorum. This King is, as will appear, a Regent
or Governor under Harun al-Rashid. In the next tale he is Viceroy of Damascus,
where he is also called "Sultan."
[FN#3] The Bull Edit. gives the lines as follows:—-
The lance was his pen, and the hearts of his foes *
His paper, and dipped he in blood for ink;
Hence our sires entitled the spear Khattíyah, *
Meaning that withal man shall write, I think.
The pun is in "Khattíyah" which may mean a writer (feminine) and also a spear,
from Khatt-Hajar, a tract in the province Al-Bahrayn (Persian Gulf), and Oman,
where the best Indian bamboos were landed and fashioned into lances. Imr
al-Kays (Mu'allakah v. 4.) sings of "our dark spears firmly wrought of
Khattiyan cane;" Al-Busírí of "the brown lances of Khatt;" also see Lebid v. 50
and Hamásah pp. 26, 231, Antar notes the "Spears of Khatt" and "Rudaynian
lances." Rudaynah is said to have been the wife of one Samhár, the Ferrara of
lances; others make her the wife of Al-Ka'azab and hold Samhár to be a town in
Abyssinia where the best weapons were manufactured The pen is the Calamus or
Kalam (reed cut for pen) of which the finest and hardest are brought from Java:
they require the least nibbing. The rhetorical figure in the text is called
Husn al-Ta'alíl, our aetiology; and is as admirable to the Arabs as it appears
silly to us.
[FN#4] "He loves folk" is high praise, meaning something more than benevolence
and beneficence.. Like charity it covers a host of sins.
[FN#5] The sentence is euphuistic.
[FN#6] Arab. "Rubb"=syrup a word Europeanised by the "Rob
Laffecteur."
[FN#7] The Septentriones or four oxen and their wain.
[FN#8] The list fatally reminds us of "astronomy and the use of the globes" . .
. "Shakespeare and the musical glasses."
[FN#9] The octave occurs in Night xv. I quote Torrens (p. 360) by way of
variety.
[FN#10] A courteous formula of closing with the offer.
[FN#11] To express our "change of climate" Easterns say, "change of water and
air," water coming first.
[FN#12] "The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night" (Psalm
cxxi. 6). Easterns still believe in the blighting effect of the moon's rays,
which the Northerners of Europe, who view it under different conditions, are
pleased to deny. I have seen a hale and hearty Arab, after sitting an hour in
the moonlight, look like a man fresh from a sick bed; and I knew an Englishman
in India whose face was temporarily paralysed by sleeping with it exposed to
the moon.
[FN#13] The negroids and negroes of Zanzibar.
[FN#14] i.e. Why not make thy heart as soft as thy sides! The converse of this
was reported at Paris during the Empire, when a man had by mistake pinched a
very high personage: "Ah, Madame! if your heart be as hard as (what he had
pinched) I am a lost man."
[FN#15] "Na'íman" is said to one after bathing or head-shaving: the proper
reply, for in the East every sign of ceremony has its countersign, is "Allah
benefit thee!" (Pilgrimage i. 11, iii. 285; Lane M. E. chaps. viii.; Caussin de
Perceval's Arabic Grammar, etc., etc.) I have given a specimen (Pilgrimage i.,
122) not only of sign and countersign, but also of the rhyming repartee which
rakes love. Hanien ! (pleasant to thee! said when a man drinks). Allah pleasure
thee (Allah yuhanník which Arnauts and other ruffians perverted to Allah yaník,
Allah copulate with thee); thou drinkest for ten! I am the cock and thou art
the hen! (i.e. a passive catamite) Nay, I am the thick one (the penis which
gives pleasure) and thou art the thin! And so forth with most unpleasant
pleasantries.
[FN#16] In the old version she is called "The Fair Persian," probably from the
owner: her name means "The Cheerer of the Companion."
[FN#17] Pronounce "Nooraddeen." I give the name as written in
Arabic.
[FN#18] Amongst Moslems, I have said, it is held highly disgraceful when the
sound of women's cries can be heard by outsiders.
[FN#19] In a case like this, the father would be justified by Rasm (or usage)
not by Koranic law, in playing Brutus with his son. The same would be the case
in a detected intrigue with a paternal concubine and, in very strict houses,
with a slave-girl.
[FN#20] Orientals fear the "Zug" or draught as much as Germans; and with even a
better reason. Draughts are most dangerous in hot climates.
[FN#21] The Unity of the Godhead and the Apostleship of Mohammed.
[FN#22] This would be done only in the case of the very poor.
[FN#23] Prayers over the dead are not universal in Al-Islam; but when they are
recited they lack the "sijdah" or prostration.
[FN#24] Or, "Of the first and the last," i.e. Mohammed, who claimed (and
claimed justly) to be the "Seal" or head and end of all Prophets and Prophecy.
For note that whether the Arab be held inspired or a mere impostor, no man
making the same pretension has moved the world since him. Mr. J. Smith the
Mormon (to mention one in a myriad) made a bold attempt and failed.
[FN#25] i.e. flatterers.
[FN#26] In one matter Moslems contrast strongly with Christians, by most
scrupulously following the example of their law-giver: hence they are the model
Conservatives. But (European) Christendom is here, as in other things,
curiously contradictory: for instance, it still keeps a "Feast of the
Circumcision," and practically holds circumcision in horror. Eastern
Christians, however, have not wholly abolished it, and the Abyssinians, who
find it a useful hygienic precaution, still practise it. For ulcers, syphilis
and other venereals which are readily cured in Egypt become dangerous in the
Highlands of Ethiopia.
[FN#27] Arab. "Sabab," the orig. and material sense of the word; hence "a
cause," etc.
[FN#28] Thus he broke his promise to his father, and it is insinuated that
retribution came upon him.
[FN#29] "O Pilgrim" (Ya Hájj) is a polite address even to those who have not
pilgrimaged. The feminine "Hájjah" (in Egypt pronounced "Hággeh") is similarly
used.
[FN#30] Arab. "usúl"=roots, i.e. I have not forgotten my business.
[FN#31] Moslems from Central and Western North Africa.
(Pilgrimage i. 261; iii. 7, etc); the "Jabarti" is the Moslem
Abyssinian.
[FN#32] This is a favourite bit of chaff and is to be lengthened out almost
indefinitely e.g. every brown thing is not civet nor every shining thing a
diamond; every black thing is not charcoal nor every white chalk; every red
thing is not a ruby nor every yellow a topaz; every long-necked thing is not a
camel, etc., etc., etc.
[FN#33] He gives him the name of his grandfather; a familiar usage.
[FN#34] Arab. "Ma'janah," a place for making unbaked bricks (Tob=Span. Adobe)
with chaff and bruised or charred straw. The use of this article in rainless
lands dates from ages immemorial, and formed the outer walls of the Egyptian
temple.
[FN#35] Arab. "Barsh," a bit of round matting used by the poor as a seat. The
Wazir thus showed that he had been degraded to the condition of a mat-maker.
[FN#36] The growth (a Poa of two species) which named Wady Halfá (vulg.
"Halfah"), of which the home public has of late heard perhaps a trifle too
much. Burckhardt (Prov. 226) renders it "dry reeds"—-incorrectly enough.
[FN#37] This "Háshimi" vein, as they call it, was an abnormal development
between the eyes of the house of Abbas, inherited from the great- grandfather
of the Prophet; and the latter had it remarkably large, swelling in answer and
battle-rage. The text, however, may read "The sweat of wrath," etc.
[FN#38] Torrens and Payne prefer "Ilm"=knowledge. Lane has more correctly
"Alam"=a sign, a flag.
[FN#39] The lines were in Night xi.: I have quoted Torrens (p. 379) for a
change.
[FN#40] Still customary in Tigris-Euphrates land, where sea-craft has not
changed since the days of Xisisthrus-Noah, and long before.
[FN#41] To cool the contents.
[FN#42] Hence the Khedivial Palace near Cairo "Kasr al-Nuzhah;" literally "of
Delights;" one of those flimsy new-Cairo buildings which contrast so
marvellously with the architecture of ancient and even of mediæval Egypt, and
which are covering the land with modern ruins. Compare Mohammed Ali's mosque in
the citadel with the older Sultan Hasan. A popular tale is told that, when the
conquering Turk, Yáwúz Sultan Selim, first visited Cairo, they led him to
Mosque Al-Ghúrí. "This is a splendid Ká'ah (saloon)!" quoth he. When he entered
Sultan Hasan, he exclaimed, "This is a citadel!"; but after inspecting the
Mosque Al-Mu'ayyad he cried, "'Tis a veritable place of prayer, a fit stead for
the Faithful to adore the Eternal!"
[FN#43] Arab. gardeners are very touchy on this point. A friend of mine was on
a similar occasion addressed, in true Egyptian lingo, by an old Adam-son, "Ya
ibn al-Kalb! beta'mil ay?" (O dog- son, what art thou up to?).
[FN#44] "The green palm-stick is of the trees of Paradise;" say the Arabs in
Solomonic style but not Solomonic words: so our "Spare the rod," etc.
[FN#45] Wayfarers, travellers who have a claim on the kindness of those at
home: hence Abd al-Rahman al-Burai sings in his famous Ode:—
He hath claim on the dwellers in the places of their birth, *
Whoso wandereth the world, for he lacketh him a home.
It is given in my "First Footsteps in East Africa" (pp. 53-55).
[FN#46] The good old man treated the youth like a tired child.
[FN#47] In Moslem writings the dove and turtle-dove are mostly feminine,
whereas the female bird is always mute and only the male sings to summon or to
amuse his mate.
[FN#48] An unsavoury comparison of the classical Narcissus with the yellow
white of a nigger's eyes.
[FN#49] A tree whose coals burn with fierce heat: Al-Hariri (Vth Séance). This
Artemisia is like the tamarisk but a smaller growth and is held to be a
characteristic of the Arabian Desert. A Badawi always hails with pleasure the
first sight of the Ghazá, after he has sojourned for time away from his
wilds. Mr. Palgrave (i. 38) describes the "Ghadá" as an Euphorbia with a woody
stem often 5-6 feet high and slender flexible green twigs (?), "forming a
feathery tuft, not ungraceful to the eye, while it affords some shelter to the
traveller, and food to his camels."
[FN#50] Arab. "Sal'am"=S(alla) A(llah) a(layhi) wa S(allam); A(llah) b(less)
h(im) a(nd) k(eep)=Allah keep him and assain!
[FN#51] The ass is held to be ill-omened. I have noticed the braying elsewhere.
According to Mandeville the Devil did not enter the Ark with the Ass, but he
left it when Noah said "Benedicite." In his day (A.D. 1322) and in that of
Benjamin of Tudela, people had seen and touched the ship on Ararat, the Judi
(Gordiæi) mountains; and this dates from Berosus (S.C. 250) who, of course,
refers to the Ark of Xisisthrus. See Josephus Ant. i. 3, 6; and Rodwell (Koran,
pp. 65, 530).
[FN#52] As would happen at a "Zikr," rogation or litany. Those who wish to see
how much can be made of the subject will read "Pearls of the Faith, or Islam's
Rosary, being the ninety-nine beautiful names of Allah" (Asmá-el-Husna) etc. by
Edwin Arnold: London, Trübner, 1883.
[FN#53] i.e. the Sáki, cup-boy or cup-bearer. "Moon-faced," as I have shown
elsewhere, is no compliment in English, but it is in Persian and Arabic.
[FN#54] He means we are "Záhirí," plain honest Moslems, not "Bátiní," gnostics
(ergo reprobates) and so forth, who disregard all appearances and external
ordinances. This suggests his opinion of Shaykh Ibrahim and possibly refers to
Ja'afar's suspected heresy.
[FN#55] This worthy will be noticed in a subsequent page.
[FN#56] Arab. "Lisám," the end of the "Kufiyah," or head-kerchief passed over
the face under the eyes and made fast on the other side. This mouth-veil serves
as a mask (eyes not being recognisable) and defends from heat, cold and thirst.
I also believe that hooding the eyes with this article, Badawi-fashion,
produces a sensation of coolness, at any rate a marked difference of apparent
temperature; somewhat like a pair of dark spectacles or looking at the sea from
a sandy shore. (Pilgrimage i., 210 and 346.) The woman's "Lisám" (chin-veil) or
Yashmak is noticed in i., 337.
[FN#57] Most characteristic is this familiarity between the greatest man then
in the world and his pauper subject. The fisherman alludes to a practise of
Al-Islam, instituted by Caliph Omar, that all rulers should work at some
handicraft in order to spare the public treasure. Hence Sultan Mu'ayyad of
Cairo was a calligrapher who sold his handwriting, and his example was followed
by the Turkish Sultans Mahmúd, Abd al-Majíd and Abd al-Azíz. German royalties
prefer carpentering and Louis XVI, watch-making.
[FN#58] There would be nothing singular in this request. The democracy of
despotism levels all men outside the pale of politics and religion.
[FN#59] "Wa'lláhi tayyib!" an exclamation characteristic of the
Egyptian Moslem.
[FN#60] The pretended fisherman's name Karím=the Generous.
[FN#61] Such an act of generosity would appear to Europeans well- nigh
insanity, but it is quite in Arab manners. Witness the oft- quoted tale of
Hatim and his horse. As a rule the Arab is the reverse of generous, contrasting
badly, in this point, with his cousin the Jew: hence his ideal of generosity is
of the very highest. "The generous (i.e. liberal) is Allah's friend, aye,
though he be a sinner; and the miser is Allah's foe, aye, though he be a
saint!" Indian Moslems call a skin-flint Makhi-chús = fly-sucker. (Pilgrimage
i. 242.)
[FN#62] Arab. "Ammá ba'ad" (or Wa ba'ad), an initiatory formula attributed to
Koss ibn Sa'idat al-Iyadi, bishop of Najrán (the town in Al-Yaman which
D'Herbelot calls Negiran) and a famous preacher in Mohammed's day, hence "more
eloquent than Koss" (Maydání, Arab. Prov., 189). He was the first who addressed
letters with the incept, "from A. to B."; and the first who preached from a
pulpit and who leant on a sword or a staff when discoursing. Many Moslems date
Ammá ba'ad from the Prophet David, relying upon a passage of the Koran
(xxxviii. 19).
[FN#63] Arab. "Nusf"=half (a dirham): vulgarly pronounced "nuss," and
synonymous with the Egypt. "Faddah" (=silver), the Greek "Asper," and the
Turkish "paráh." It is the smallest Egyptian coin, made of very base metal and,
there being forty to the piastre, it is worth nearly a quarter of a farthing.
[FN#64] The too literal Torrens and Lane make the Caliph give the gardener-lad
the clothes in which he was then clad, forgetting, like the author or copier,
that he wore the fisherman's lousy suit.
[FN#65] In sign of confusion, disappointment and so forth: not "biting his
nails," which is European and utterly un-Asiatic.
[FN#66] See lines like these in Night xiii. (i. 136); the sentiment is trite.
[FN#67] The Arab will still stand under his ruler's palace and shout aloud to
attract his attention. Sayyid Sa'íd known as the "Imán of Muskat" used to
encourage the patriarchal practice. Mohammed repeatedly protested against such
unceremonious conduct (Koran xciv. 11, etc.). The "three times of privacy"
(Koran cv. 57) are before the dawn-prayer, during the Siesta (noon) and after
the even-prayer.
[FN#68] The Judges of the four orthodox schools.
[FN#69] That none might see it or find it ever after.
[FN#70] Arab. "Khatt Sharíf"=a royal autographical letter: the term is still
preserved in Turkey, but Europeans will write "Hatt."
[FN#71] Meaning "Little tom-cat;" a dim. of "Kitt" vulg. Kutt or
Gutt.
[FN#72] Arab. "Matmúrah"—-the Algerine "Matamor"—-a "silo," made familiar to
England by the invention of "Ensilage."
[FN#73] The older "Mustapha"=Mohammed. This Intercession-doctrine is fiercely
disputed. (Pilgrimage ii. 77.) The Apostle of Al- Islam seems to have been
unable to make up his mind upon the subject: and modern opinion amongst Moslems
is apparently borrowed from the Christians.
[FN#74] Lane (i. 486) curiously says, "The place of the stagnation of blood:"
yet he had translated the word aright in the Introduction (i. 41). I have
noticed that the Nat'a is made like the "Sufrah," of well-tanned leather, with
rings in the periphery, so that a thong passed through turns it into a bag. The
Sufrah used for provisions is usually yellow, with a black border and small
pouches for knives or spoons. (Pilgrimage i. 111.)
[FN#75] This improbable detail shows the Caliph's greatness.
[FN#76] "Cousin" is here a term of familiarity, our "coz."
[FN#77] i.e. without allowing them a moment's delay to change clothes.
[FN#78] i.e. according to my nature, birth, blood, de race.
[FN#79] Our "Job." The English translators of the Bible, who borrowed Luther's
system of transliteration (of A.D. 1522), transferred into English the German
"j" which has the sound of "i" or "y"; intending us to pronounce Yacob (or
Yakob), Yericho, Yimnites, Yob (or Hiob) and Yudah. Tyndall, who copied Luther
(A.D. 1525-26), preserved the true sound by writing lacob, Ben Iamin and Iudas.
But his successors unfortunately returned to the German; the initial I, having
from the xiii century been ornamentally lengthened and bent leftwards, became a
consonant. The public adopted the vernacular sound of "j" (da) and hence our
language and our literature are disgraced by such barbarisms as "Jehovah" and
"Jesus"; Dgehovah and Dgeesus for Yehovah and Yesus. Future generations of
school-teachers may remedy the evil; meanwhile we are doomed for the rest of
our days to hear
Gee-rusalem! Gee-rusalem! etc.
Nor is there one word to be said in favour of the corruption except that, like
the Protestant mispronunciation of Latin and the Erasmian ill-articulation of
Greek, it has become English, and has lent its little aid in dividing the
Britons from the rest of the civilised world.
[FN#80] The moon, I repeat, is masculine in the so-called
"Semitic" tongues.
[FN#81] i.e. camel loads, about lbs. 300; and for long journeys lbs. 250.
[FN#82] Arab. "Janázah," so called only when carrying a corpse; else Na'ash,
Sarír or Tábút: Irán being the large hearse on which chiefs are borne. It is
made of plank or stick-work; but there are several varieties. (Lane, M. E.
chaps. xxviii.)
[FN#83] It is meritorious to accompany the funeral cortège of a
Moslem even for a few paces.
[FN#84] Otherwise he could not have joined in the prayers.
[FN#85] Arab. "Halwá" made of sugar, cream, almonds, etc. That of
Maskat is famous throughout the East.
[FN#86] i.e. "Camphor" to a negro, as we say "Snowball," by the figure
antiphrase.
[FN#87] "Little Good Luck," a dim. form of "bakht"=luck, a
Persian word naturalized in Egypt.
[FN#88] There are, as I have shown, not a few cannibal tribes in Central Africa
and these at times find their way into the slave-market.
[FN#89] i.e. After we bar the door.
[FN#90] Arab. "Jáwísh" from Turk. Cháwúsh, Chiaoosh, a sergeant, poursuivant,
royal messenger. I would suggest that this is the word "Shálish" or "Jálish" in
Al-Siyuti's History of the Caliphs (p. 501) translated by Carlyle "milites," by
Schultens "Sagittarius" and by Jarett "picked troops."
[FN#91] This familiarity with blackamoor slave-boys is common in Egypt and
often ends as in the story: Egyptian blood is sufficiently mixed with negro to
breed inclination for miscegenation. But here the girl was wickedly neglected
by her mother at such an age as ten.
[FN#92] Arab. "Farj"; hence a facetious designation of the other sex is
"Zawi'l-furuj" (grammatically Zawátu'l- furúj)=habentes rimam, slit ones.
[FN#93] This ancient and venerable practice of inspecting the marriage-sheet is
still religiously preserved in most parts of the East; and in old-fashioned
Moslem families it is publicly exposed in the Harem to prove that the
"domestic calamity" (the daughter) went to her husband a clean maid. Also the
general idea is that no blood will impose upon the exerts, or jury of matrons,
except that of a pigeon-poult which exactly resembles hymeneal blood— when not
subjected to the microscope. This belief is universal in Southern Europe and I
have heard of it in England. Further details will be given in Night ccxi.
[FN#94] "Agha" Turk.=sir, gentleman, is, I have said, politely addressed to a
eunuch.
[FN#95] As Bukhayt tells us he lost only his testes, consequently his erectio
et distensio penis was as that of a boy before puberty and it would last as
long as his heart and circulation kept sound. Hence the eunuch who preserves
his penis is much prized in the Zenanah where some women prefer him to the
entire man, on account of his long performance of the deed of kind. Of this
more in a future page.
[FN#96] It is or rather was the custom in Egypt and Syria to range long rows of
fine China bowls along the shelves running round the rooms at the height of six
or seven feet, and they formed a magnificent cornice. I bought many of them at
Damascus till the people, learning their value, asked prohibitive prices.
[FN#97] The tale is interesting as well as amusing, excellently describing the
extravagances still practised in middle-class Moslem families on the death of
the pater familias. I must again note that Arab women are much more unwilling
to expose the back of the head covered by the "Tarhah" (head-veil) than the
face, which is hidden by the "Burka" or nose bag.
[FN#98] The usual hysterical laughter of this nervous race.
[FN#99] Here the slave refuses to be set free and starve. For a master so to do
without ample reasons is held disgraceful. I well remember the weeping and
wailing throughout Sind when an order from Sir Charles Napier set free the
negroes whom British philanthropy thus doomed to endure if not to die of
hunger.
[FN#100] Manumission, which is founded upon Roman law, is an extensive subject
discussed in the Hidáyah and other canonical works. The slave here lays down
the law incorrectly but his claim shows his truly "nigger" impudence.
[FN#101] This is quite true to nature. The most remarkable thing in the wild
central African is his enormous development of "destructiveness." At Zanzibar I
never saw a slave break a glass or plate without a grin or a chuckle of
satisfaction.
[FN#102] Arab. "Khassá-ni"; Khusyatáni (vulg.) being the testicles, also called
"bayzatán" (the two eggs) a double entendre which has given rise to many tales.
For instance in the witty Persian book "Dozd o Kazi" (The Thief and the Judge)
a footpad strips the man of learning and offers to return his clothes if he can
ask him a puzzle in law or religion. The Kazi (in folk-lore mostly a fool)
fails, and his wife bids him ask the man to supper for a trial of wits on the
same condition. She begins with compliments and ends by producing five eggs
which she would have him distribute equally amongst the three; and, when he is
perplexed, she gives one to each of the men taking three for herself. Whereupon
the "Dozd" wends his way, having lost his booty as his extreme stupidity
deserved. In the text the eunuch, Kafur, is made a "Sandali" or smooth-shaven,
so that he was of no use to women.
[FN#103] Arab. "Khara," the lowest possible word: Yá Khara! is the commonest of
insults, used also by modest women. I have heard one say it to her son.
[FN#104] Arab. "Kámah," a measure of length, a fathom, also called "Bá'a." Both
are omitted in that sadly superficial book, Lane's Modern Egyptians, App. B.
[FN#105] Names of her slave-girls which mean (in order),
Garden-bloom, Dawn (or Beautiful), Tree o' Pearl (P. N. of
Saladin's wife), Light of (right) Direction, Star o' the Morn,
Lewdness (= Shahwah, I suppose this is a chaff), Delight,
Sweetmeat and Miss Pretty.
[FN#106] This mode of disposing of a rival was very common in Harems. But it
had its difficulties and on the whole the river was (and is) preferred.
[FN#107] An Eastern dislikes nothing more than drinking in a dim dingy place:
the brightest lights seem to add to his "drinkitite."
[FN#108] He did not sleep with her because he suspected some palace-mystery
which suggested prudence, she also had her reasons.
[FN#109] This as called in Egypt "Allah." (Lane M. E. chaps. i.)
[FN#110] It would be a broad ribbon-like band upon which the letters could be
worked.
[FN#111] In the Arab. "he cried." These "Yes, Yes! and No! No!" trifles are
very common amongst the Arabs.
[FN#112] Arab. "Maragha" lit. rubbed his face on them like a fawning dog.
Ghanim is another "softy" lover, a favourite character in Arab tales; and by
way of contrast, the girl is masterful enough.
[FN#113] Because the Abbaside Caliphs descend from Al-Abbas, paternal uncle of
Mohammed, text means more explicitly, "O descendant of the Prophet's uncle!"
[FN#114] The most terrible part of a belle passion in the East is that the
beloved will not allow her lover leave of absence for an hour.
[FN#115] It is hard to preserve these wretched puns. In the original we have "O
spray (or branch) of capparis-shrub (aráki) which has been thinned of leaf and
fruit (tujna, i.e., whose fruit, the hymen, has been plucked before and not by
me) I see thee (aráka) against me sinning (tajní).
[FN#116] Apparently the writer forgets that the Abbaside banners and dress were
black, originally a badge of mourning for the Imám Ibrahim bin Mohammed put to
death by the Ommiade Caliph Al-Marwan. The modern Egyptian mourning, like the
old Persian, is indigo-blue of the darkest; but, as before noted, the custom is
by no means universal.
[FN#117] Koran, chaps. iv. In the East as elsewhere the Devil quotes Scripture.
[FN#118] A servant returning from a journey shows his master due honour by
appearing before him in travelling suit and uncleaned.
[FN#119] The first name means "Rattan", the second "Willow-wand," from the
"Bán" or "Khiláf" the Egyptian willow (Salix Ægyptiaca Linn.) vulgarly called
"Safsáf." Forskal holds the "Bán" to be a different variety.
[FN#120] Arab. "Ta'ám," which has many meanings: in mod. parlance it would
signify millet, holcus-seed.
[FN#121] i.e. "I well know how to deal with him."
[FN#122] The Pen (title of the Koranic chaps. Ixviii.) and the
Preserved Tablet (before explained).
[FN#123] These plunderings were sanctioned by custom. But a few years ago, when
the Turkish soldiers mutinied about arrears of pay (often delayed for years)
the governing Pasha would set fire to the town and allow the men to loot what
they pleased during a stated time. Rochet (soi-disant D'Héricourt) amusingly
describes this manoeuvre of the Turkish Governor of Al-Hodaydah in the last
generation. (Pilgrimage iii. 381.)
[FN#124] Another cenotaph whose use was to enable women to indulge in their pet
pastime of weeping and wailing in company.
[FN#125] The lodging of pauper travellers, as the chapel in Iceland is of the
wealthy. I have often taken benefit of the mosque, but as a rule it is
unpleasant, the matting being not only torn but over-populous. Juvenal seems to
allude to the Jewish Synagogue similarly used: "in quâ te quæro proseuchâ"?
(iii. 296) and in Acts iii. we find the lame, blind and impotent in the
Temple-porch.
[FN#126] This foul sort of vermin is supposed to be bred by perspiration. It is
an epoch in the civilised traveller's life when he catches his first louse.
[FN#127] The Moslem peasant is a kind-hearted man and will make many sacrifices
for a sick stranger even of another creed. It is a manner of "pundonor" with
the village.
[FN#128] Such treatment of innocent women was only too common under the
Caliphate and in contemporary Europe.
[FN#129] This may also mean, "And Heaven will reward thee," but camel-men do
not usually accept any drafts upon futurity.
[FN#130] He felt that he was being treated like a corpse.
[FN#131] This hatred of the Hospital extends throughout Southern
Europe, even in places where it is not justified.
[FN#132] The importance of the pillow (wisádah or makhaddah) to the sick man is
often recognised in The Nights. "He took to his pillow" is = took to his bed.
[FN#133] i.e in order that the reverend men, who do not render such suit and
service gratis, might pray for him.
[FN#134] The reader will notice in The Nights the frequent mention of these
physical prognostications, with which mesmerists are familiar.
[FN#135] The Pers. name of the planet Saturn in the Seventh
Heaven. Arab. "Zuhal"; the Kiun or Chiun of Amos vi. 26.
[FN#136] i.e. "Pardon me if I injured thee"— a popular phrase.
[FN#137] A "seduction," a charmer. The double-entendre has before been noticed.
[FN#138] This knightly tale, the longest in the Nights (xliv.— cxlv.), about
one-eighth of the whole, does not appear in the Bres. Edit. Lane, who finds it
"objectionable," reduces it to two of its episodes, Azíz-cum-Azízah and Táj
al-Mulúk. On the other hand it has been converted into a volume (8vo, pp. 240)
"Scharkan, Conte Arabe," etc. Traduit par M. Asselan Riche, etc. Paris:
Dondey-Dupré. 1829. It has its longueurs and at times is longsome enough; but
it is interesting as a comparison between the chivalry of Al-Islam and European
knight-errantry. Although all the characters are fictitious the period is
evidently in the early crusading days. Cæsarea, the second capital of
Palestine, taken during the Caliphate of Omar (A.H. 19) and afterwards
recovered, was fortified in A.H. 353 = 963 as a base against the Arabs by the
Emperor Phocas, the Arab. "Nakfúr" i.e. Nicephorus. In A.H. 498=1104, crusading
craft did much injury by plundering merchantmen between Egypt and Syria, to
which allusion is found in the romance. But the story-teller has not quite made
up his mind about which Cæsarea he is talking, and M. Riche tells us that
Césarée is a "ville de la Mauritanie, en Afrique" (p. 20).
[FN#139] The fifth Ommiade Caliph reign. A.H. 65-86 = 685-704.
[FN#140] This does not merely mean that no one was safe from his wrath: or,
could approach him in the heat of fight: it is a reminiscence of the masterful
"King Kulayb," who established game-laws in his dominions and would allow no
man to approach his camp-fire. Moreover the Jinn lights a fire to decoy
travellers; but if his victim be bold enough to brave him, he invites him to
take advantage of the heat.
[FN#141] China.
[FN#142] The Jaxartes and the Bactrus (names very loosely applied).
[FN#143] In full "Sharrun kána" i.e. an evil (Sharr) has come to being (kána),
that is, "bane to the foe" a pagan and knightly name. The hero of the Romance
"Al-Dalhamah" is described as a bitter gourd (colocynth), a viper, a calamity.
[FN#144] This is a Moslem law (Koran chaps. iv. bodily borrowed from the
Talmud) which does not allow a man to marry one wife unless he can carnally
satisfy her. Moreover he must distribute his honours equally and each wife has
a right to her night unless she herself give it up. This was the case even with
the spouses of the Prophet; and his biography notices several occasions when
his wives waived their rights in favour of one another M. Riche kindly provides
the King with la piquante francaise (p. 15).
[FN#145] So the celebrated mosque in Stambul, famed for being the largest
church in the world is known to the Greeks as "Agia (pron. Aya) Sophia" and to
Moslems as "Aya Sofíyeh" (Holy Wisdom) i.e. the Logos or Second Person of the
Trinity (not a Saintess). The sending a Christian girl as a present to a Moslem
would, in these days, be considered highly scandalous. But it was done by the
Mukaukis or Coptic Governor of Egypt (under Heraclius) who of course hated the
Greeks. This worthy gave two damsels to Mohammed; one called Sírín and the
other Máriyah (Maria) whom the Prophet reserved for his especial use and whose
abode is still shown at Al-Medinah. The Rev. Doctor Badger (loc. cit. p. 972)
gives the translation of an epistle by Mohammed to this Mukaukis, written in
the Cufic character ( ? ?) and sealed "Mohammed, The Apostle of Allah." My
friend seems to believe that it is an original, but upon this subject opinions
will differ. It is, however, exceedingly interesting, beginning with
"Bismillah," etc., and ending (before the signature) with a quotation from the
Koran (iii. 57); and it may be assumed as a formula addressee to foreign
potentates by a Prophet who had become virtually "King of Arabia."
[FN#146] This prayer before "doing the deed of kind" is, I have said, Moslem as
well as Christian.
[FN#147] Exodus i. 16, quoted by Lane (M. E., chaps. xxvii.).
Torrens in his Notes cites Drayton's "Moon-calf':—
Bring forth the birth-stool—no, let it alone;
She is so far beyond all compass grown,
Some other new device us needs must stead,
Or else she never can be brought to bed.
It is the "groaning-chair" of Poor Robin's Almanac (1676) and we find it
alluded to in Boccaccio, the classical sedile which according to scoffers has
formed the papal chair (a curule seat) ever since the days of Pope Joan, when
it has been held advisable for one of the Cardinals to ascertain that His
Holiness possesses all the instruments of virility. This "Kursí al-wiládah" is
of peculiar form on which the patient is seated. A most interesting essay might
be written upon the various positions preferred during delivery, e.g. the wild
Irish still stand on all fours, like the so-called "lower animals." Amongst the
Moslems of Waday, etc., a cord is hung from the top of the hut, and the woman
in labour holds on to it standing with her legs apart, till the midwife
receives the child.
[FN#148] Some Orientalists call "lullilooing" the trilling cry, which is made
by raising the voice to its highest pitch and breaking it by a rapid succession
of touches on the palate with the tongue-tip, others "Ziraleet" and Zagaleet,
and one traveller tells us that it began at the marriage-festival of Isaac and
Rebecca (!). Arabs term it classically "Tahlíl" and vulgarly "Zaghrutah" (Plur.
Zaghárit) and Persians "Kil." Finally in Don Quixote we have "Lelilies," the
battle-cry of the Moors (Duffield iii. 289). Dr. Buchanan likens it to a
serpent uttering human sounds, but the good missionary heard it at the festival
of Jagannath. (Pilgrimage iii. 197 )
[FN#149] i.e. "Light of the Place" (or kingdom) and "Delight of the
Age."
[FN#150] It is utterly absurd to give the old heroic Persian name Afridun or
Furaydun, the destroyer of Zohák or Zahhák, to a Greek, but such anachronisms
are characteristic of The Nights and are evidently introduced on purpose. See
Boccaccio, ix. 9.
[FN#151] Arab. "Yunán" lit. Ionia, which applies to all Greece, insular and
continental, especially to ancient Greece.
[FN#152] In 1870 I saw at Sidon a find of some hundreds of gold
"Philippi" and "Alexanders."
[FN#153] M. Riche has (p. 21), "Ces talismans travaillés par le ciseau du
célèbre Califaziri," adding in a note, "Je pense que c'est un sculpteur Arabe."
[FN#154] This periphrase, containing what seems to us a useless negative, adds
emphasis in Arabic.
[FN#155] This bit of geographical information is not in the Bull
Edit.
[FN#156] In Pers. = a tooth, the popular word.
[FN#157] This preliminary move, called in Persian Nakl-iiSafar, is generally
mentioned. So the Franciscan monks in California, when setting out for a long
journey through the desert, marched three times round the convent and pitched
tents for the night under its walls.
[FN#158] In Arab. "Khazinah" or "Khaznah" lit. a treasure, representing 1,000
"Kís" or purses (each=£5). The sum in the text is 7,000 purses X 5=£35,000.
[FN#159] Travellers often prefer such sites because they are sheltered from the
wind, and the ground is soft for pitching tents; but many have come to grief
from sudden torrents following rain.
[FN#160] Arab "Ghábah" not a forest in our sense of the word, but a place where
water sinks and the trees (mostly Mimosas), which elsewhere are widely
scattered, form a comparatively dense growth and collect in thickets. These are
favourite places for wild beasts during noon-heats.
[FN#161] At various times in the East Jews and Christians were ordered to wear
characteristic garments, especially the Zunnár or girdle.
[FN#162] The description is borrowed from the Coptic Convent, which invariably
has an inner donjon or keep. The oldest monastery in the world is Mar Antonios
(St. Anthony the Hermit) not far from Suez. (Gold Mines of Midian, p. 85.)
[FN#163] "Dawáhí," plur. of Dáhiyah = a mishap. The title means "Mistress of
Misfortunes" or Queen of Calamities (to the enemy); and the venerable lady, as
will be seen, amply deserved her name, which is pronounced Zát al-Dawáhí.
[FN#164] Arab. "Kunfuz"=hedgehog or porcupine.
[FN#165] These flowers of speech are mere familiarities, not insults. In
societies where the sexes are separated speech becomes exceedingly free.
"Étourdie que vous êtes," says M. Riche, toning down the text.
[FN#166] Arab. "Zirt," a low word. The superlative "Zarrát" (fartermost) or,
"Abu Zirt" (Father of farts) is a facetious term among the bean-eating Fellahs
and a deadly insult amongst the Badawin (Night ccccx.). The latter prefer the
word Taggáa (Pilgrimage iii. 84). We did not disdain the word in
farthingale=pet en air.
[FN#167] Arab. "kicked" him, i.e. with the sharp corner of the shovel-stirrup.
I avoid such expressions as "spurring" and "pricking over the plain," because
apt to give a wrong idea.
[FN#168] Arab. "Allaho Akbar!" the classical Moslem slogan.
[FN#169] Arab horses are never taught to leap, so she was quite safe on the
other side of a brook nine feet broad.
[FN#170] "Batrík" (vulg. Bitrík)=patricius, a title given to
Christian knights who commanded ten thousand men; the Tarkhan (or
Nobb) heading four thousand, and the Kaumas (Arab. Káid) two
hundred. It must not be confounded with Batrak (or
Batrik)=patriarcha. (Lane's Lex.)
[FN#171] Arab. "Kázi al-Kuzát," a kind of Chief Justice or Chancellor. The
office wag established under the rule of Harun al-Rashid, who so entitled Abú
Yúsuf Ya'akub al-Ansári: therefore the allusion is anachronistic. The same
Caliph also caused the Olema to dress as they do still.
[FN#172] The allusion is Koranic: "O men, if ye be in doubt concerning the
resurrection, consider that He first created you of the dust of the ground
(Adam); afterwards of seed" (chaps. xxii.). But the physiological ideas of the
Koran are curious. It supposes that the Mani or male semen is in the loins and
that of women in the breast bone (chaps Ixxxvi.); that the mingled seed of the
two (chaps. Ixxvi.) fructifies the ovary and that the child is fed through the
navel with menstruous blood, hence the cessation of the catamenia. Barzoi
(Kalilah and Dímnah) says:— "Man's seed, falling into the woman's womb, is
mixed with her seed and her blood: when it thickens and curdles the Spirit
moves it and it turns about like liquid cheese; then it solidifies, its
arteries are formed, its limbs constructed and its joints distinguished. If the
babe is a male, his face is placed towards his mother's back; if a female,
towards her belly." (P. 262, Mr. L G.N. Keith- Falconer's translation.) But
there is a curious prolepsis of the spermatozoa-theory. We read (Koran chaps.
vii.), "Thy Lord drew forth their posterity from the loins of the sons of
Adam;" and the commentators say that Allah stroked Adam's back and extracted
from his loins all his posterity, which shall ever be, in the shape of small
ants; these confessed their dependence on God and were dismissed to return
whence they came." From this fiction it appears (says Sale) that the doctrine
of pre-existence is not unknown to the Mohammedans, and there is some little
conformity between it and the modern theory of generatio ex animalculis in
semine marium. The poets call this Yaum-i-Alast = the Day of Am-I-not (-your
Lord)? which Sir William Jones most unhappily translated "Art thou not with thy
Lord ?" (Alasta bi Rabbi- kum); fand they produce a grand vision of unembodied
spirits appearing in countless millions before their Creator.
[FN#173] The usual preliminary of a wrestling bout.
[FN#174] In Eastern wrestling this counts as a fair fail. So Ajax fell on his
back with Ulysses on his breast. (Iliad xxxii., 700, etc.)
[FN#175] So biting was allowed amongst the Greeks in the ἀνακλινοπάλη,
the final struggle on the ground.
[FN#176] Supposed to be names of noted wrestlers. "Kayim" (not El-Kim as
Torrens has it) is a term now applied to a juggler or "professor" of
legerdemain who amuses people in the streets with easy tricks. (Lane, M. E.,
chaps. xx.)
[FN#177] Lit. "laughed in his face" which has not the unpleasant meaning it
bears in English.
[FN#178] Arab. "Abu riyáh"=a kind of child's toy. It is the "Ρόμβος"
of the Greeks, our "bull-roarer" well known in Australia and parts of Africa.
[FN#179] The people of the region south of the Caspian which is called "Sea of
Daylam." It has a long history; for which see D'Herbelot, s.v. "Dilem."
[FN#180] Coptic convents in Egypt still affect these drawbridges over the
keep-moat.
[FN#181] Koran iv., xxii. etc., meaning it is lawful to marry women taken in
war after the necessary purification although their husbands be still living.
This is not permitted with a free woman who is a True Believer. I have noted
that the only concubine slave-girl mentioned in the Koran are these "captives
possessed by the right hand."
[FN#182] The Amazonian dame is a favourite in folk-lore and is an ornament to
poetry from the Iliad to our modern day. Such heroines, apparently unknown to
the Pagan Arabs, were common in the early ages of Al-Islam as Ockley and Gibbon
prove, and that the race is not extinct may be seen in my Pilgrimage (iii. 55)
where the sister of Ibn Rumi resolved to take blood-revenge for her brother.
[FN#183] And Solomon said, "O nobles, which of you will bring me her throne ?"
A terrible genius (i.e. an If rit of the Jinn named Dhakwan or the notorious
Sakhr) said, " I will bring it unto thee before thou arise from thy seat (of
justice); for I am able to perform it, and may be trusted" (Koran, xxvii.
38-39). Balkís or Bilkís (says the Durrat al-Ghawwás) daughter of Hozád bin
Sharhabíl, twenty-second in the list of the rulers of Al- Yaman, according to
some murdered her husband, and became, by Moslem ignorance, the Biblical "
Queen of Sheba." The Abyssinians transfer her from Arabian Saba to Ethiopia and
make her the mother by Solomon of Menelek, their proto-monarch; thus claiming
for their royalties an antiquity compared with which all reigning houses in the
world are of yesterday. The dates of the Tabábi'ah or Tobbas prove that the
Bilkis of history ruled Al-Yaman in the early Christian era.
[FN#184] Arab. "Fass," fiss or fuss; the gem set in a ring; also applied to a
hillock rounded en cabochon. In The Nights it is used to signify "a fine gem."
[FN#185] This prominence of the glutæi muscles is always insisted upon, because
it is supposed to promise well in a bed-fellow. In Somali-land, where the people
are sub- steatopygous, a rich young man, who can afford such luxury, will have
the girls drawn up in line and choose her to wife who projects furthest behind
[FN#186] The "bull" is only half mine.
[FN#187] A favourite Arab phrase, the "hot eye" is one full of tears.
[FN#188] i.e., "Coral," coral branch, a favourite name for a slave-girl,
especially a negress. It is the older "Morgiana." I do not see why Preston in
Al-Haríni's "Makamah (Séance) of Singar" renders it pearls, because Golius
gives "small pearls," when it is evidently "coral." Richardson (Dissert.
xlviii.) seems to me justified in finding the Pari (fairy) Marjan of heroic
Persian history reflected in the Fairy Morgain who earned off King Arthur after
the battle of Camelon.
[FN#189] Arab. "'Ud Jalaki"=Jalak or Jalik being a poetical and almost obsolete
name of Damascus.
[FN#190] The fountain in Paradise whose water shall be drunk with "pure" wine
mixed and sealed with musk (for clay). It is so called because it comes from
the "Sanam" (Sanima, to be high) boss or highest ridge of the Moslem Heaven
(Koran lv. 78 and lxxxiii. 27). Mr. Rodwell says "it is conveyed to the highest
apartments in the Pavilions of Paradise." (?)
[FN#191] This "hysterical" temperament is not rare even amongst the bravest
Arabs.
[FN#192] An idea evidently derived from the Æolipyla (olla animatoria) the
invention of Hero Alexandrinus, which showed that the ancient Egyptians could
apply the motive force of steam.
[FN#193] Kuthayyir ibn Abi Jumah, a poet and far-famed Ráwí or Tale-reciter,
mentioned by Ibn Khallikan he lived at Al-Medinah and sang the attractions of
one Azzah, hence his soubriquet Sáhib (lover of) Azzah. As he died in A. H. 105
(=726), his presence here is a gross anachronism the imaginary Sharrkan
flourished before the Caliphate of Abd al-Malik bin Marwán A. H. 65-86.
[FN#194] Jamíl bin Ma'amar, a poet and lover contemporary with
Al-Kuthayrir.
[FN#195] Arab. "Tafazzal," a word of frequent use in conversation="favour me,"
etc.
[FN#196] The word has a long history. From the Gr. στίμμι or στίβι is the Lat.
stibium; while the Low Latin "antimonium" and the Span. Althimod are by
metathesis for Al-Ithmid. The dictionaries define the substance as a stone from
which antimony is prepared, but the Arabs understand a semi-mythical mineral of
yellow colour which enters into the veins of the eyes and gives them Iynx-like
vision. The famous Anz nicknamed Zarká (the blue eyed) of Yamámah (Province)
used it; and, according to some, invented Kohl. When her (protohistoric) tribe
Jadis had destroyed all the rival race of Tasm, except Ribáh ibn Murrah; the
sole survivor fled to the Tobba of Al-Yaman, who sent a host to avenge him. The
king commanded his Himyarites to cut tree-boughs and use them as screens (again
Birnam wood). Zarká from her Utum, or peel-tower, saw the army three marches
off and cried, "O folk, either trees or Himyar are coming upon you!" adding, in
Rajaz verse:—
I swear by Allah that trees creep onward, or that Himyar beareth somewhat which
he draweth along!
She then saw a man mending his sandal. But Jadis disbelieved; Cassandra was
slain and, when her eyes were cut out the vessels were found full of Ithmid.
Hence Al-Mutanabbi sang:
"Sharper-sighted than Zarká of Jau" (Yamámah).
See C. de Perceval i. 101; Arab. Prov. i. 192; and Chenery p. 381.
(The Assemblies of Al-Hariri; London, Williams and Norgate, 1867).
I have made many enquiries into the true nature of Ithmid and
failed to learn anything: on the Upper Nile the word is=Kohl.
[FN#197] The general colour of chessmen in the East, where the game is played
on a cloth more often than a board.
[FN#198] Arab. "Al-fil," the elephant=the French fol or fou and our bishop. I
have derived "elephant" from Píl (old Persian, Sansk. Pilu) and Arab. Fil, with
the article Al-Fil, whence the Greek ἐλέφας the suffix—as being devoted to barbarous
words as Obod-as (Al Ubayd), Aretas (Al-Háris), etc. Mr. Isaac Taylor (The
Alphabet i. 169), preserves the old absurdity of "eleph-ant or ox-like (!)
beast of Africa." Prof. Sayce finds the word al-ab (two distinct characters) in
line 3, above the figure of an (Indian) elephant, on the black obelisk of
Nimrod Mound, and suggests an Assyrian derivation.
[FN#199] Arab. "Shaukat" which may also mean the "pride" or "mainstay" (of the
army).
[FN#200] Lit. "smote him on the tendons of his neck." This is the famous
shoulder-cut (Tawash shuh) which, with the leg-cut (Kalam), formed, and still
forms, the staple of Eastern attack with the sword.
[FN#201] Arab. "Dirás." Easterns do not thresh with flails. The material is
strewed over a round and smoothed floor of dried mud in the open air and
threshed by different connivances. In Egypt the favourite is a chair-like
machine called "Norag," running on iron plates and drawn by bulls or cows over
the corn. Generally, however, Moslems prefer the old classical Τρίβολον, the
Tribulum of Virgil and Varro, a slipper-shaped sled of wood garnished on the
sole with large-headed iron nails, or sharp fragments of flint or basalt. Thus
is made the "Tibn" or straw, the universal hay of the East, which our machines
cannot imitate.
[FN#202] These numbers appear to be grossly exaggerated, but they were possible
in the days of sword and armour: at the battle of Saffayn the Caliph Ali is
said to have cut down five hundred and twenty-three men in a single night.
[FN#203] Arab. "Bika'á": hence the "Buka'ah" or Cœlesyria.
[FN#204] Richardson in his excellent dictionary (note 103) which modern
priggism finds "unscientific " wonderfully derives this word from Arab.
"Khattáf," a snatcher (i.e. of women), a ravisher. It is an evident corruption
of "captivus" through Italian and French
[FN#205] These periodical and fair-like visitations to convents are still
customary; especially amongst the Christians of Damascus.
[FN#206] Camphor being then unknown.
[FN#207] The "wrecker" is known all over the world; and not only barbarians
hold that ships driven ashore become the property of the shore
[FN#208] Arab. "Jokh": it is not a dictionary word, but the only term in
popular use for European broadcloth.
[FN#209] The second person plural is used because the writer would involve the
subjects of his correspondent in the matter.
[FN#210] This part of the phrase, which may seem unnecessary to the European,
is perfectly intelligible to all Orientalists. You may read many an Eastern
letter and not understand it. Compare Boccacoo iv. 1.
[FN#211] i.e. he was greatly agitated
[FN#212] In text "Li-ajal a al-Taudi'a," for the purpose of farewelling, a low
Egyptianism; emphatically a "Kalám wáti." (Pilgrimage iii. 330.)
[FN#213] In the Mac. Edit. Sharrkan speaks, a clerical error.
[FN#214] The Farsakh (Germ. Stunde) a measure of time rather than distance, is
an hour's travel or its equivalent, a league, a meile=three English stat.
miles. The word is still used in Persia its true home, but not elsewhere. It is
very old, having been determined as a lineal measure of distance by Herodotus
(ii. 5 and 6 ; v. 53), who computes it at 30 furlongs (=furrow-lengths, 8 to
the stat. mile). Strabo (xi.) makes it range from 40 to 60 stades (each=606
feet 9 inches), and even now it varies between 1,500 to 6,000 yards. Captain
Francklin (Tour to Persia) estimates it = about four miles. (Pilgrimage ii.
113.)
[FN#215] Arab. "Ashhab." Names of colours are few amongst semi civilised
peoples, but in Arabia there is a distinct word for every shade of horseflesh.
[FN#216] She had already said to him "Thou art beaten in everything!"
[FN#217] Showing that she was still a Christian.
[FN#218] This is not Badawi sentiment: the honoratioren amongst wild people
would scorn such foul play; but amongst the settled Arabs honour between men
and women is unknown and such "hocussing" would be held quite fair.
[FN#219] The table of wine, in our day, is mostly a japanned tray with glasses
and bottles, saucers of pickles and fruits and, perhaps, a bunch of flowers and
aromatic herbs. During the Caliphate the "wine-service" was on a larger scale.
[FN#220] Here the "Bhang" (almost a generic term applied to hellebore, etc.)
may be hyoscyamus or henbane. Yet there are varieties of Cannabis, such as the
Dakha of South Africa capable of most violent effect. I found the use of the
drug well known to the negroes of the Southern United States and of the Brazil,
although few of their owners had ever heard of it.
[FN#221] Amongst Moslems this is a reference to Adam who first "sinned against
himself,' and who therefore is called " Safíyu'llah," the Pure of Allah.
(Pilgrimage iii. 333.)
[FN#222] Meaning, an angry, violent man.
[FN#223] Arab. "Inshád," which may mean reciting the verse of another or
improvising one's own. In Modern Egypt "Munshid" is the singer or reciter of
poetry at Zikrs (Lane M. E. chaps. xxiv.). Here the verses are quite bad enough
to be improvised by the hapless Princess.
[FN#224] The negro skin assumes this dust colour in cold, fear, concupiscence
and other mental emotions.
[FN#225] He compares her glance with the blade of a Yamani sword, a lieu commun
of Eastern poetry. The weapons are famous in The Nights; but the best
sword-cutlery came from Persia as the porcelain from China to Sana'á. Here,
however, is especial allusion as to the sword "Samsam" or "Samsamah." It
belonged to the Himyarite Tobba, Amru bin Ma'ad Kurb, and came into the hands
of Harun al-Rashid. When the Emperor of the Greeks sent a present of superior
sword-blades to him by way of a brave, the Caliph, in the presence of the
Envoys, took "Samsam" in hand and cut the others in twain as if they were
cabbages without the least prejudice to the edge of "Samsam."
[FN#226] This touch of pathos is truly Arab. So in the "Romance of Dalhamah"
(Lane, M. E. xxiii.) the infant Gundubah sucks the breast of its dead mother
and the King exclaims, "If she had committed this crime she would not be
affording the child her milk after she was dead."
[FN#227] Arab. "Sadda'l-Aktár," a term picturesque enough to be preserved in
English. "Sadd," I have said, is a wall or dyke, the term applied to the great
dam of water- plants which obstructs the navigation of the Upper Nile, the
lilies and other growths floating with the current from the (Victoria) Nyanza
Lake. I may note that we need no longer derive from India the lotus-llily so
extensively used by the Ancient Egyptians and so neglected by the moderns that
it has well-nigh disappeared. All the Central African basins abound in the
Nymphæa and thence it found its way down the Nile Valley.
[FN#228] Arab. "Al Marhúmah": equivalent to our "late lamented."
[FN#229] Vulgarly pronounced "Mahmal," and by Egyptians and Turks "Mehmel."
Lane (M. E. xxiv.) has figured this queenly litter and I have sketched and
described it in my Pilgrimage (iii. 12).
[FN#230] For such fits of religious enthusiasm see my Pilgrimage (iii. 254).
[FN#231] "Irák" (Mesopotamia) means "a level country beside the banks of a
ever."
[FN#232] "Al Kuds," or "Bays al-Mukaddas," is still the popular name of
Jerusalem, from the Heb. Yerushalaim ha-Kadushah (legend on shekel of Simon
Maccabeus).
[FN#233] "Follow the religion of Abraham" says the Koran (chaps. iii. 89).
Abraham, titled "Khalílu'llah," ranks next in dignity to Mohammed, preceding
Isa, I need hardly say that his tomb is not in Jerusalem nor is the tomb itself
at Hebron ever visited. Here Moslems (soi disant) are allowed by the jealousies
of Europe to close and conceal a place which belongs to the world, especially
to Jews and Christians. The tombs, if they exist, lie in a vault or cave under
the Mosque.
[FN#234] Abá, or Abáyah, vulg. Abayah, is a cloak of hair, goat's or camel's;
too well known to require description.
[FN#235] Arab. "Al-Wakkád," the man who lights and keeps up the bath-fires.
[FN#236] Arab. "Má al-Khaláf" (or "Khiláf") a sickly perfume but much prized,
made from the flowers of the Salix Ægyptiaca.
[FN#237] Used by way of soap; like glasswort and other plants.
[FN#238] i.e., "Thou art only just recovered."
[FN#239] To "Nakh" is to gurgle "Ikh! Ikh!" till the camel kneels. Hence the
space called "Barr al-Manákhah" in Al-Medinah (Pilgrimage i. 222, ii. 91).
There is a regular camel vocabulary amongst the Arabs, made up like our "Gee"
(go ye!), etc. of significant words worn down.
[FN#240] Arab. "Laza," the Second Hell provided for Jews.
[FN#241] The word has been explained (vol. i. 112).[see Volume 1, note 199] It
is trivial, not occurring in the Koran which uses "Arabs of the Desert ;"
"Arabs who dwell in tents," etc. (chaps. ix. and xxxiii.). "A'arábi" is the
classical word and the origin of "Arab" is disputed. According to Pocock (Notæ
Spec. Hist. Arab.): "Diverse are the opinions concerning the denomination of
the Arabs; but the most certain of all is that which draws it from Arabah,
which is part of the region of Tehama (belonging to Al-Medinah Pilgrimage ii.
118), which their father Ismail afterwards inhabited." Tehamah (sierra
caliente) is the maritime region of Al Hijaz, the Moslems Holy Land; and its
"Arabah," a very small tract which named a very large tract, must not be
confounded, as some have done, with the Wady Arabah, the ancient outlet of the
Dead Sea. The derivation of "Arab" from "Ya'arab" a fancied son of Joktan is
mythological. In Heb. Arabia may be called "Eretz Ereb" (or "Arab")=land of the
West; but in Arabic "Gharb" (not Ereb) is the Occident and the Arab dates long
before the Hebrew.
[FN#242] "When thine enemy extends his hand to thee, cut it off if thou can, or
kiss it," wisely said Caliph al-Mansur.
[FN#243] The Tartur was a peculiar turban worn by the Northern Arabs and shown
in old prints. In modern Egypt the term is applied to the tall sugar-loaf caps
of felt affected mostly by regular Dervishes. Burckhardt (Proverbs 194 and 398)
makes it the high cap of felt or fur proper to the irregular cavalry called
Dely or Delaty. In Dar For (Darfour) "Tartur" is a conical cap adorned with
beads and cowries worn by the Manghwah or buffoon who corresponds with the
Egyptian "Khalbús" or "Maskharah" and the Turkish "Sutari." For an illustration
see Plate iv. fig. 10 of Voyage au Darfour par Mohammed El Tounsy (The
Tunisian), Paris, Duprat, 1845.
[FN#244] The term is picturesque and true; we say "gnaw," which is not so good.
[FN#245] Here, meaning an Elder, a Chief, etc.; the word has been almost
naturalised in English. I have noted that Abraham was the first "Shaykh."
[FN#246] This mention of weighing suggests the dust of Dean Swift and the money
of the Gold Coast It was done, I have said, because the gold coin, besides
being "sweated" was soft and was soon worn down.
[FN#247] Fem. of Nájí (a deliverer, a saviour)=Salvadora.
[FN#248] This, I have noted, is according to Koranic command (chaps. iv. 88).
"When you are saluted with a salutation, salute the person with a better
salutation." The longer answer to "Peace be with (or upon) thee! " is still
universally the custom. The "Salem" is so differently pronounced by every
Eastern nation that the observant traveller will easily make of it a
Shibboleth.
[FN#249] The Badawi, who was fool as well as rogue, begins to fear that he has
kidnapped a girl of family.
[FN#250] These examinations being very indecent are usually done in strictest
privacy. The great point is to make sure of virginity.
[FN#251] This is according to strict Moslem law: the purchaser may not look at
the girl's nakedness till she is his, and he ought to manage matters through an
old woman.
[FN#252] Lit. wrath; affliction which chokes; in Hindustani it means simply
anger.
[FN#253] i.e. Heaven forbid I be touched by a strange man.
[FN#254] Used for fuel and other purposes, such as making "doss stick."
[FN#255] Arab "Yaftah'Allah" the offer being insufficient. The rascal is greedy
as a Badaw and moreover he is a liar, which the Badawi is not.
[FN#256] The third of the four great Moslem schools of Theology, taking its
name from the Imam al-Sháfi'í (Mohammed ibn Idrís) who died in Egypt A.H. 204,
and lies buried near Cairo. (Sale's Prel. Disc. sect. viii.)
[FN#257] The Moslem form of Cabbala, or transcendental philosophy of the
Hebrews.
[FN#258] Arab. "Bakh" the word used by the Apostle to Ali his son-in-law. It is
the Latin "Euge."
[FN#259] Readers, who read for amusement, will do well to "skip" the fadaïses
of this highly educated young woman.
[FN#260] There are three Persian Kings of this name (Artaxerxes)
which means "Flour and milk," or "high lion." The text alludes to
Ardeshir Babegan, so called because he married the daughter of
Babak the shepherd, founder of the Sassanides in A.D. 202. See
D,Herberot, and the Dabistan.
[FN#261] Alluding to the proverb, "Folk follow their King's faith,"
"Cujus regio ejus religio" etc.
[FN#262] Second Abbaside, A.H. 136-158 (=754-775).
[FN#263] The celebrated companion of Mohammed who succeeded Abu Bakr in the
Caliphate (A.H. 13-23=634-644). The Sunnis know him as Al-Adil the Just, and
the Shiahs detest him for his usurpation, his austerity and harshness. It is
said that he laughed once and wept once. The laugh was caused by recollecting
how he ate his dough-gods (the idols of the Hanifah tribe) in The Ignorance.
The tears were drawn by remembering how he buried alive his baby daughter who,
while the grave was being dug, patted away the dust from his hair and beard.
Omar was doubtless a great man, but he is one of the most ungenial figures in
Moslem history which does not abound in genialities. To me he suggests a
Puritan, a Covenanter of the sourest and narrowest type; and I cannot wonder
that the Persians abhor him, and abuse him on all occasions.
[FN#264] The austere Caliph Omar whose scourge was more feared than the sword
was the - author of the celebrated saying "Consult them (feminines) and do
clear contrary-wise."
[FN#265] Our "honour amongst thieves."
[FN#266] The sixth successor of Mohammed and founder of the Banu Umayyah or
Ommiades, called the "sons of the little mother" from their eponymus (A.H.
41-60=661-680). For his Badawi wife Maysun, and her abuse of her husband, see
Pilgrimage iii. 262.