54), a Medinite servant of Caliph Osman, was proverbial for greed and
sanguine, Micawber-like expectation of “windfalls.” The Scholiast
Al-Sharíshi (of Xeres) describes him in Theophrastic style. He never
saw a man put hand to pocket without expecting a present, or a funeral
go by without hoping for a legacy, or a bridal procession without
preparing his own house, hoping they might bring the bride to him by
mistake. * * * When asked if he knew aught greedier than himself he
said “Yes; a sheep I once kept upon my terrace-roof seeing a rainbow
mistook it for a rope of hay and jumping to seize it broke its neck!”
Hence “Ash’ab’s sheep” became a by-word (Preston tells the tale in
full, p. 288).
Footnote 44:
_i.e._ “Show a miser money and hold him back, if you can.”
Footnote 45:
He wants £40,000 to begin with.
Footnote 46:
_i.e._ Arab. “Sabíhat al-’urs” the morning after the wedding. See vol.
i. 269.
Footnote 47:
Another sign of modern composition as in Kamar al-Zaman II.
Footnote 48:
Arab. “Al-Jink” (from Turk.) are boys and youths mostly Jews,
Armenians, Greeks and Turks, who dress in woman’s dress with long hair
braided. Lane (M. E. chapts. xix. and xxv.) gives same account of the
customs of the “Gink” (as the Egyptians call them) but cannot enter
into details concerning these catamites. Respectable Moslems often
employ them to dance at festivals in preference to the Ghawázi-women,
a freak of Mohammedan decorum. When they grow old they often preserve
their costume, and a glance at them makes a European’s blood run cold.
Footnote 49:
Lane translates this, “May Allah and the Rijal retaliate upon thy
temple!”
Footnote 50:
Arab. “Yá aba ’l-lithámayn,” addressed to his member. Lathm the root
means kissing or breaking; so he would say, “O thou who canst take her
maidenhead whilst my tongue does away with the virginity of her
mouth.” “He breached the citadel” (which is usually square) “in its
four corners” signifying that he utterly broke it down.
Footnote 51:
A mystery to the Author of Proverbs (xxx. 18–19),
There be three things which are too wondrous for me,
The way of an eagle in the air;
The way of a snake upon a rock;
And the way of a man with a maid.
Footnote 52:
Several women have described the pain to me as much resembling the
drawing of a tooth.
Footnote 53:
As we should say, “play fast and loose.”
Footnote 54:
Arab. “Náhí-ka” lit. = thy prohibition but idiomatically used = let it
suffice thee!
Footnote 55:
A character-sketch like that of Princess Dunya makes ample amends for
a book full of abuse of women. And yet the superficial say that none
of the characters have much personal individuality.
Footnote 56:
This is indeed one of the touches of nature which makes all the world
kin.
Footnote 57:
As we are in Tartary “Arabs” here means plundering nomades, like the
Persian “Iliyát” and other shepherd races.
Footnote 58:
The very cruelty of love which hates nothing so much as a rejected
lover. The Princess, be it noted, is not supposed to be merely
romancing, but speaking with the second sight, the clairvoyance, of
perfect affection. Men seem to know very little upon this subject,
though every one has at times been more or less startled by the
abnormal introvision and divination of things hidden which are the
property and prerogative of perfect love.
Footnote 59:
The name of the Princess meaning “The World,” not unusual amongst
Moslem women.
Footnote 60:
Another pun upon his name “Ma’aruf.”
Footnote 61:
Arab. “Naká,” the mound of pure sand which delights the eye of the
Badawi leaving a town. See vol. i. 217, for the lines and explanation
in Night cmlxiv. vol. ix. p. 250.
Footnote 62:
Euphemistic: “I will soon fetch thee food.” To say this bluntly might
have brought misfortune.
Footnote 63:
Arab. “Kafr” = a village in Egypt and Syria _e.g._ Capernaum (Kafr
Nahum).
Footnote 64:
He has all the bonhomie of the Cairene and will do a kindness whenever
he can.
Footnote 65:
_i.e._ the Father of Prosperities: pron. Aboosa’ádát; as in the Tale
of Hasan of Bassorah.
Footnote 66:
Koran lxxxix. “The Daybreak” which also mentions Thamud and Pharaoh.
Footnote 67:
In Egypt the cheapest and poorest of food, never seen at a hotel table
d’hôte.
Footnote 68:
The beautiful girls who guard ensorcelled hoards: See vol. vi. 109.
Footnote 69:
Arab. “Asákir,” the ornaments of litters, which are either plain balls
of metal or tapering cones based on crescents or on balls and
crescents. See in Lane (M. E. chapt. xxiv.) the sketch of the Mahmal.
Footnote 70:
Arab. “Amm” = father’s brother, courteously used for “father-in-law,”
which suggests having slept with his daughter, and which is indecent
in writing. Thus by a pleasant fiction the husband represents himself
as having married his first cousin.
Footnote 71:
_i.e._ a calamity to the enemy: see vol. ii. 87 and passim.
Footnote 72:
Both texts read “Asad” (lion) and Lane accepts it: there is no reason
to change it for “Hásid” (Envier), the Lion being the Sultan of the
Beasts and the most majestic.
Footnote 73:
The Cairene knew his fellow Cairene and was not to be taken in by him.
Footnote 74:
Arab “Hizám”: Lane reads “Khizám” = a nose-ring for which see appendix
to Lane’s M. E. The untrained European eye dislikes these decorations
and there is certainly no beauty in the hoops which Hindu women insert
through the nostrils, camel-fashion, as if to receive the cord-acting
bridle; But a drop-pearl hanging to the septum is at least as pretty
as the heavy pendants by which some European women lengthen their
ears.
Footnote 75:
Arab. “Shamtá,” one of the many names of wine, the “speckled” alluding
to the bubbles which dance upon the freshly filled cup.
Footnote 76:
_i.e._ in the cask. These “merry quips” strongly suggest the dismal
toasts of our not remote ancestors.
Footnote 77:
Arab. “A’láj” plur. of “’Ilj” and rendered by Lane “the stout foreign
infidels.” The next line alludes to the cupbearer who was generally a
slave and a non-Moslem.
Footnote 78:
As if it were a bride. See vol. vii. 198. The stars of Jauzá (Gemini)
are the cupbearer’s eyes.
Footnote 79:
_i.e._ light-coloured wine.
Footnote 80:
The usual homage to youth and beauty.
Footnote 81:
Alluding to the cup.
Footnote 82:
Here Abu Nowas whose name always ushers in some abomination alluded to
the “Ghulámiyah” or girl dressed like boy to act cupbearer.
Civilisation has everywhere the same devices and the Bordels of London
and Paris do not ignore the “she-boy,” who often opens the door.
Footnote 83:
Abdallah ibn al-Mu’tazz, son of Al-Mu’tazz bi ’llah, the 13th
Abbaside, and great-great-grandson of Harun al-Rashid. He was one of
the most renowned poets of the third century (A.H.) and died A.D. 908,
strangled by the partisans of his nephew Al-Muktadir bi ’llah, 18th
Abbaside.
Footnote 84:
Jazírat ibn Omar, an island and town on the Tigris north of Mosul.
“Some versions of the poem, from which these verses are quoted,
substitute El-Mutireh, a village near Samara (a town on the Tigris, 60
miles north of Baghdad), for El-Jezireh, _i.e._ Jeziret ibn Omar.”
(Payne.)
Footnote 85:
The Convent of Abdun on the east bank of the Tigris opposite the
Jezirah was so called from a statesman who caused it to be built. For
a variant of these lines see Ibn Khallikan, vol. ii. 42; here we miss
“the shady groves of Al-Matírah.”
Footnote 86:
Arab. “Ghurrah” the white blaze on a horse’s brow. In Ibn Khallikan
the bird is the lark.
Footnote 87:
Arab. “Táy’i” = thirsty used with Jáy’i = hungry.
Footnote 88:
Lit. “Kohl’d with Ghunj” for which we have no better word than
“coquetry.” But see vol. v. 80. It corresponds with the Latin crissare
for women and cevere for men.
Footnote 89:
_i.e._ gold-coloured wine, as the Vino d’Oro.
Footnote 90:
Compare the charming song of Abu Miján translated from the German of
Dr. Weil in Bohn’s Edit. of Ockley (p. 149),
When the Death-angel cometh mine eyes to close,
Dig my grave ’mid the vines on the hill’s fair side;
For though deep in earth may my bones repose,
The juice of the grape shall their food provide.
Ah, bury me not in a barren land,
Or Death will appear to me dread and drear!
While fearless I’ll wait what he hath in hand
An the scent of the vineyard my spirit cheer.
The glorious old drinker!
Footnote 91:
Arab. “Rub’a al-Kharáb” in Ibn al-Wardi Central Africa south of the
Nile-sources, one of the richest regions in the world. Here it prob.
alludes to the Rub’a al-Khálí or Great Arabian Desert: for which see
Night dclxxvi. In rhetoric it is opposed to the “Rub’a Maskún,” or
populated fourth of the world, the rest being held to be ocean.
Footnote 92:
This is the noble resignation of the Moslem. What a dialogue there
would have been in a European book between man and devil!
Footnote 93:
Arab. “Al-’iddah,” the period of four months and ten days which must
elapse before she could legally marry again. But this was a palpable
wile: she was not sure of her husband’s death and he had not divorced
her; so that although a “grass widow,” a “Strohwitwe” as the Germans
say, she could not wed again either with or without interval.
Footnote 94:
Here the silence is of cowardice and the passage is a fling at the
“time-serving” of the Olema, a favourite theme, like “banging the
bishops” amongst certain Westerns.
Footnote 95:
Arab. “Umm al-raas,” the poll, crown of the head, here the place where
a calamity coming down from heaven would first alight.
Footnote 96:
From Al-Hariri (Lane): the lines are excellent.
Footnote 97:
When the charming Princess is so ready at the _voie de faits_, the
reader will understand how common is such energetic action among women
of lower degree. The “fair sex” in Egypt has a horrible way of
murdering men, especially husbands, by tying them down and tearing out
the testicles. See Lane M. E. chapt. xiii.
Footnote 98:
Arab. “Sijn al-Ghazab,” the dungeons appropriated to the worst of
criminals where they suffer penalties far worse than hanging or
guillotining.
Footnote 99:
According to some modern Moslems Munkar and Nakir visit the graves of
Infidels (non-Moslems) and Bashshir and Mubashshir (“Givers of glad
tidings”) those of Mohammedans. Petis de la Croix (Les Mille et un
Jours vol. iii. 258) speaks of the “Zoubanya,” black angels who
torture the damned under their chief Dabilah.
Footnote 100:
Very simple and pathetic is this short sketch of the noble-minded
Princess’s death.
Footnote 101:
In sign of dismissal (vol. iv. 62) I have noted that “throwing the
kerchief” is not an Eastern practice: the idea probably arose from the
Oriental practice of sending presents in richly embroidered napkins
and kerchiefs.
Footnote 102:
Curious to say both Lane and Payne omit this passage which appears in
both texts (Mac. and Bul.). The object is evidently to prepare the
reader for the ending by reverting to the beginning of the tale; and
its prolixity has its effect as in the old Romances of Chivalry from
Amadis of Ghaul to the Seven Champions of Christendom. If it provoke
impatience, it also heightens expectation; “it is like the long
elm-avenues of our forefathers; we wish ourselves at the end; but we
know that at the end there is something great.”
Footnote 103:
Arab. “alà malákay bayti ’l-ráhah;” on the two slabs at whose union
are the round hole and longitudinal slit. See vol. i. 221.
Footnote 104:
Here the exclamation wards off the Evil Eye from the Sword and the
wearer: Mr. Payne notes, “The old English exclamation ‘Cock’s ’ill!’
(_i.e._ God’s will, thus corrupted for the purpose of evading the
statute of 3 Jac. i. against profane swearing) exactly corresponds to
the Arabic”—with a difference, I add.
Footnote 105:
Arab. “Mustahakk” = deserving (Lane) or worth (Payne) the cutting.
Footnote 106:
Arab. “Mashhad” the same as “Sháhid” = the upright stones at the head
and foot of the grave. Lane mistranslates, “Made for her a funeral
procession.”
Footnote 107:
These lines have occurred before. I quote Lane.
Footnote 108:
There is nothing strange in such sudden elevations amongst Moslems and
even in Europe we still see them occasionally. The family in the East,
however humble, is a model and miniature of the state, and learning is
not always necessary to wisdom.
Conclusion.
Now, during this time, Shahrazad had borne the King three boy children:
so, when she had made an end of the story of Ma’aruf, she rose to her
feet and kissing ground before him, said, “O King of the time and unique
one[109] of the age and the tide, I am thine handmaid and these thousand
nights and a night have I entertained thee with stories of folk gone
before and admonitory instances of the men of yore. May I then make bold
to crave a boon of Thy Highness?” He replied, “Ask, O Shahrazad, and it
shall be granted to thee.[110]” Whereupon she cried out to the nurses
and the eunuchs, saying, “Bring me my children.” So they brought them to
her in haste, and they were three boy children, one walking, one
crawling and one sucking. She took them and setting them before the
King, again kissed the ground and said, “O King of the age, these are
thy children and I crave that thou release me from the doom of death, as
a dole to these infants; for, an thou kill me, they will become
motherless and will find none among women to rear them as they should be
reared.” When the King heard this, he wept and straining the boys to his
bosom, said, “By Allah, O Shahrazad, I pardoned thee before the coming
of these children, for that I found thee chaste, pure, ingenuous and
pious! Allah bless thee and thy father and thy mother and thy root and
thy branch! I take the Almighty to witness against me that I exempt thee
from aught that can harm thee.” So she kissed his hands and feet and
rejoiced with exceeding joy, saying, “The Lord make thy life long and
increase thee in dignity and majesty[111]!”; presently adding, “Thou
marvelledst at that which befel thee on the part of women; yet there
betided the Kings of the Chosroës before thee greater mishaps and more
grievous than that which hath befallen thee, and indeed I have set forth
unto thee that which happened to Caliphs and Kings and others with their
women, but the relation is longsome and hearkening groweth tedious, and
in this is all-sufficient warning for the man of wits and admonishment
for the wise.” Then she ceased to speak, and when King Shahriyar heard
her speech and profited by that which she said, he summoned up his
reasoning powers and cleansed his heart and caused his understanding
revert and turned to Allah Almighty and said to himself, “Since there
befel the Kings of the Chosroës more than that which hath befallen me,
never, whilst I live, shall I cease to blame myself for the past. As for
this Shahrazad, her like is not found in the lands; so praise be to Him
who appointed her a means for delivering His creatures from oppression
and slaughter!” Then he arose from his séance and kissed her head,
whereat she rejoiced, she and her sister Dunyazad, with exceeding joy.
When the morning morrowed, the King went forth and sitting down on the
throne of the Kingship, summoned the Lords of his land; whereupon the
Chamberlains and Nabobs and Captains of the host went in to him and
kissed ground before him. He distinguished the Wazir, Shahrazad’s sire,
with special favour and bestowed on him a costly and splendid robe of
honour and entreated him with the utmost kindness, and said to him,
“Allah protect thee for that thou gavest me to wife thy noble daughter,
who hath been the means of my repentance from slaying the daughters of
folk. Indeed I have found her pure and pious, chaste and ingenuous, and
Allah hath vouchsafed me by her three boy children; wherefore praised be
He for his passing favour.” Then he bestowed robes of honour upon his
Wazirs, and Emirs and Chief Officers and he set forth to them briefly
that which had betided him with Shahrazad and how he had turned from his
former ways and repented him of what he had done and purposed to take
the Wazir’s daughter, Shahrazad, to wife and let draw up the
marriage-contract with her. When those who were present heard this, they
kissed the ground before him and blessed him and his betrothed[112]
Shahrazad, and the Wazir thanked her. Then Shahriyar made an end of his
sitting in all weal, whereupon the folk dispersed to their
dwelling-places and the news was bruited abroad that the King purposed
to marry the Wazir’s daughter, Shahrazad. Then he proceeded to make
ready the wedding gear, and presently he sent after his brother, King
Shah Zaman, who came, and King Shahriyar went forth to meet him with the
troops. Furthermore, they decorated the city after the goodliest fashion
and diffused scents from censers and burnt aloes-wood and other perfumes
in all the markets and thoroughfares and rubbed themselves with
saffron,[113] what while the drums beat and the flutes and pipes sounded
and mimes and mountebanks played and plied their arts and the King
lavished on them gifts and largesse; and in very deed it was a notable
day. When they came to the palace, King Shahriyar commanded to spread
the tables with beasts roasted whole and sweetmeats and all manner of
viands and bade the crier cry to the folk that they should come up to
the Divan and eat and drink and that this should be a means of
reconciliation between him and them. So, high and low, great and small
came up unto him and they abode on that wise, eating and drinking, seven
days with their nights. Then the King shut himself up with his brother
and related to him that which had betided him with the Wazir’s daughter,
Shahrazad, during the past three years and told him what he had heard
from her of proverbs and parables, chronicles and pleasantries, quips
and jests, stories and anecdotes, dialogues and histories and elegies
and other verses; whereat King Shah Zaman marvelled with the uttermost
marvel and said, “Fain would I take her younger sister to wife, so we
may be two brothers-german to two sisters-german, and they on like wise
be sisters to us; for that the calamity which befel me was the cause of
our discovering that which befel thee and all this time of three years
past I have taken no delight in woman, save that I lie each night with a
damsel of my kingdom, and every morning I do her to death; but now I
desire to marry thy wife’s sister Dunyazad.” When King Shahriyar heard
his brother’s words, he rejoiced with joy exceeding and arising
forthright, went in to his wife Shahrazad and acquainted her with that
which his brother purposed, namely that he sought her sister Dunyazad in
wedlock; whereupon she answered, “O King of the age, we seek of him one
condition, to wit, that he take up his abode with us, for that I cannot
brook to be parted from my sister an hour, because we were brought up
together and may not endure separation each from other.[114] If he
accept this pact, she is his handmaid.” King Shahriyar returned to his
brother and acquainted him with that which Shahrazad had said; and he
replied, “Indeed, this is what was in my mind, for that I desire
nevermore to be parted from thee one hour. As for the kingdom, Allah the
Most High shall send to it whomso He chooseth, for that I have no longer
a desire for the kingship.” When King Shahriyar heard his brother’s
words, he rejoiced exceedingly and said, “Verily, this is what I wished,
O my brother. So Alhamdolillah—Praised be Allah—who hath brought about
union between us.” Then he sent after the Kazis and Olema, Captains and
Notables, and they married the two brothers to the two sisters. The
contracts were written out and the two Kings bestowed robes of honour of
silk and satin on those who were present, whilst the city was decorated
and the rejoicings were renewed. The King commanded each Emir and Wazir
and Chamberlain and Nabob to decorate his palace and the folk of the
city were gladdened by the presage of happiness and contentment. King
Shahriyar also bade slaughter sheep and set up kitchens and made
bride-feasts and fed all comers, high and low; and he gave alms to the
poor and needy and extended his bounty to great and small. Then the
eunuchs went forth, that they might perfume the Hammam for the brides;
so they scented it with rose-water and willow-flower-water and pods of
musk and fumigated it with Kákilí[115] eagle-wood and ambergris. Then
Shahrazad entered, she and her sister Dunyazad, and they cleansed their
heads and clipped their hair. When they came forth of the Hammam-bath,
they donned raiment and ornaments; such as men were wont prepare for the
Kings of the Chosroës; and among Shahrazad’s apparel was a dress purfled
with red gold and wrought with counterfeit presentments of birds and
beasts. And the two sisters encircled their necks with necklaces of
jewels of price, in the like whereof Iskander[116] rejoiced not, for
therein were great jewels such as amazed the wit and dazzled the eye;
and the imagination was bewildered at their charms, for indeed each of
them was brighter than the sun and the moon. Before them they lighted
brilliant flambeaux of wax in candelabra of gold, but their faces
outshone the flambeaux, for that they had eyes sharper than unsheathed
swords and the lashes of their eyelids bewitched all hearts. Their
cheeks were rosy red and their necks and shapes gracefully swayed and
their eyes wantoned like the gazelle’s; and the slave-girls came to meet
them with instruments of music. Then the two Kings entered the
Hammam-bath, and when they came forth, they sat down on a couch set with
pearls and gems, whereupon the two sisters came up to them and stood
between their hands, as they were moons, bending and leaning from side
to side in their beauty and loveliness. Presently they brought forward
Shahrazad and displayed her, for the first dress, in a red suit;
whereupon King Shahriyar rose to look upon her and the wits of all
present, men and women, were bewitched for that she was even as saith of
her one of her describers[117]:—
A sun on wand in knoll of sand she showed, ✿ Clad in her cramoisy-hued
chemisette:
Of her lips’ honey-dew she gave me drink ✿ And with her rosy cheeks
quencht fire she set.
Then they attired Dunyazad in a dress of blue brocade and she became as
she were the full moon when it shineth forth. So they displayed her in
this, for the first dress, before King Shah Zaman, who rejoiced in her
and well-nigh swooned away for love-longing and amorous desire; yea, he
was distraught with passion for her, whenas he saw her, because she was
as saith of her one of her describers in these couplets[118]:-
She comes apparelled in an azure vest ✿ Ultramarine as skies are deckt
and dight:
I view’d th’ unparallel’d sight, which showed my eyes ✿ A Summer-moon
upon a Winter-night.
Then they returned to Shahrazad and displayed her in the second dress, a
suit of surpassing goodliness, and veiled her face with her hair like a
chin-veil.[119] Moreover, they let down her side-locks and she was even
as saith of her one of her describers in these couplets:—
O hail to him whose locks his cheeks o’ershade, ✿ Who slew my life by
cruel hard despight:
Said I, “Hast veiled the Morn in Night?” He said, ✿ “Nay I but veil Moon
in hue of Night.”
Then they displayed Dunyazad in a second and a third and a fourth dress
and she paced forward like the rising sun, and swayed to and fro in the
insolence of beauty; and she was even as saith the poet of her in these
couplets[120]:—
The sun of beauty she to all appears ✿ And, lovely coy she mocks all
loveliness:
And when he fronts her favour and her smile ✿ A-morn, the sun of day in
clouds must dress.
Then they displayed Shahrazad in the third dress and the fourth and the
fifth and she became as she were a Bán-branch snell or a thirsting
gazelle, lovely of face and perfect in attributes of grace, even as
saith of her one in these couplets[121]:—
She comes like fullest moon on happy night, ✿ Taper of waist with shape
of magic might:
She hath an eye whose glances quell mankind, ✿ And ruby on her cheeks
reflects his light:
Enveils her hips the blackness of her hair; ✿ Beware of curls that bite
with viper-bite!
Her sides are silken-soft, that while the heart ✿ Mere rock behind that
surface ’scapes our sight:
From the fringed curtains of her eyne she shoots ✿ Shafts that at
furthest range on mark alight.
Then they returned to Dunyazad and displayed her in the fifth dress and
in the sixth, which was green, when she surpassed with her loveliness
the fair of the four quarters of the world and outvied, with the
brightness of her countenance, the full moon at rising tide; for she was
even as saith of her the poet in these couplets[122]:—