The Tale of Zayn Al-asnam,
The Dream of Riches. In Croker's Irish Fairy Legends there is a droll version,
of this story, entitled "Dreaming Tim Jarvis." Honest Tim, we are told, "took
to sleeping, and the sleep set him dreaming, and he dreamed all night, and
night after night, about crock full of gold. . . . At last he dreamt that he
found a mighty great crock of gold and silver, and where, do you think ? Every
step of the way upon London Bridge itself! Twice Tim dreamt it, and three
times Tim dreamt the same thing; and at last he made up his mind to transport
himself, and go over to London, in Pat Mahoney's coaster and so he did!" Tim
walks on London Bridge day after day until he sees a man with great black
whiskers and a black cloak that reached down to the ground, who accosts him,
and he tells the strange man about his dream. "Ho! Ho!" says the strange man,
"is that all, Tim? I had a dream myself and I dreamed that I found a crock of
gold in the Fort field, on Jerry Driscoll's ground at Balledehob, and, by the
same token, the pit where it lay was close to a large furze bush, all full of
yellow blossom." Tim hastens back to his old place, sells his cabin and
garden, and buys the piece of waste ground so minutely described by the man
with black whiskers, finds the pit, jumps into it, and is among the fairies,
who give him leave to stuff his pockets with gold; but when he returns to
upper earth he discovers that he has got only a handful of small stones mixed
with yellow furze blossoms.
In a note appended to this tale, Croker cites the following from Grimm's
"Deutsche Sagan," vol. i. p. 290: A man once dreamed that if he went to
Regensburg and walked on the bridge he should become rich. He went
accordingly; and when he had spent near a fortnight walking backwards and
forwards on the bridge, a rich merchant came up to him wondering what he was
doing here every day, and asked him what he was looking for. He answered that
he had dreamed if he would go to the bridge of Regensburg he should become
rich. "Ha!" said the merchant, "what do you say about dreams?--Dreams are but
froth (Träume sind Schaume). I too have dreamed that there is buried under
yonder large tree (pointing to it) a great kettle full of money; but I gave no
heed to this, for dreams are froth." The man went immediately and dug under
the tree, and there he got a treasure, which made a rich man of him, and so
his dream was accomplished.--The same story is told of a baker's boy at
Lubeck, who dreamed that he should find a treasure on the bridge; there he met
a beggar, who said he had dreamed there was one under a lime-tree in the
churchyard of Mollen, but he would not take the trouble of going there. The
baker's boy went, and got the treasure.--It is curious to observe that all the
European versions of the story have reference to a bridge, and it must have
been brought westward in this form.
The Quest of the Image.--It has only now occurred to my mind that there is a
very similar story in the romance of the Four Dervishes ("Kissa-i-Chehár-
Darwesh"), a Persian work written in the 13th century, and rendered into Urdú
about 80 years ago, under the title of "Bagh o Bahár" (Garden of Spring), of
which an English translation was made by L. F. Smith, which was afterwards
improved by Duncan Forbes. There the images are of monkeys--circumstance which
seems to point to an Indian origin of the story--but the hero falls in love
with the spotless girl, and the jinn-king takes possession of her, though he
is ultimately compelled to give her up.--The fact of this story of the quest
of the lacking image being found in the Persian language is another proof that
the tales in The Nights were largely derived from Persian story-books.
Aladdin; Or, the Wonderful Lamp.
There is a distorted reflection of the story in M. Rene Basset's recently
published "Contes Populaires Berbères," No. xxix., which is to this effect: A
taleb proclaims, "Who will sell himself for 100 mitqals?" One offers, the Kádí
ratifies the sale; the (now) slave gives the money to his mother, and follows
the taleb. Away they go. The taleb repeats certain words, upon which the earth
opens, and he sends down the slave for "the candlestick, the reed, and the
box." The slave hides the box in his pocket and says he did not find it. They
go off, and after a time the slave discovers that his master has disappeared.
He returns home, hires a house, opens the box, and finds a cloth of silk with
seven folds; he undoes one of them, whereupon genii swarm about the room, and
a girl appears who dances till break of day. This occurs every night. The king
happens to be out on a nocturnal adventure, and hearing a noise, enters the
house and is amused till morning. He sends for the box to be brought to the
palace, gives the owner his daughter in marriage, and continues to divert
himself with the box till his death, when his son-in-law succeeds him on the
throne.
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.
My obliging friend, Mr. W. F. Kirby, who contributed to the 10th volume of Sir
Richard's Nights proper the very able Bibliographical Essay, has drawn my
attention to an analogue of this tale in Geldart's Folk-Lore of Modern Greece:
There were two brothers, one of whom was wealthy and had four children, who
were in feeble health, the other was poor and had seven children, who were in
robust health. The poor brother's wife, begging relief was allowed to come
twice a week to the house of the rich brother to bake bread. Her children were
starving, but the rich people gave the mother nothing for several days, and
all she could do was to wash the dough off her hands for the children, who
thrived, and the rich man, discovering the cause, made his wife compel the
poor woman to wash her hands before she left the house. The father found his
children crying for food, and pretended to go to the wood for herbs, but
really purposing to kill himself by falling from a crag. But seeing a great
castle, he determined first to ascertain what it was, so he went near, and
having climbed a tree, saw forty-nine dragons come out. When they were gone he
entered, and found a treasure, filled his bag and hurried away. On his return
home he found his wife weeping bitterly, but when he showed her the treasure,
she said the first thing was to buy oil to light a lamp to our Lady. Next day
they bought a house, and moved into it, but agreed only to buy what they
needed for each day's use and nothing they could do without. For two months
they went often to church and helped the poor, till, one day, the wife of the
rich man, who had met with losses lately, called for them and was hospitably
received. She heard the story of the treasure, and the poor man offered to
show his brother the place. The rich brother miscounted the dragons as they
left the castle, and the one left to watch killed and quartered him. Two days
afterwards his brother went to look for him, brought home the severed body,
and got a tailor to sew the quarters together. Next day the dragons called on
the tailor to make them coats and shoes (sic), and heard of his sewing
together the body. He showed them the house, and forty-eight dragons got into
chests, which the forty-ninth deposited with the poor man. The children,
playing about he chests, heard the dragons say, "Would that it were night,
that we might eat them all!" So the father took forty-eight spits and made
them red hot, and thrust them into the chests, and then said that a trick had
been played upon him, and sent his servant to throw them one by one into the
sea. As often as the servant returned he pretended to him that he did not
throw the chest far enough and it had come back and thus he disposed of the
whole number. In the morning when the last dragon came, the poor man told him
one chest was found open: he was seized with fear, pushed in and spitted like
the others and the poor man became the possessor of the dragons' castle.
There can be no doubt, I think, that this story owes nothing to Galland, but
that it is a popular Greek version of the original Asiatic tale, of which
Galland's "Ali Baba" is probably a fair reflection. The device of pretending
to the servant that the dragon he had thrown into the sea was returned has its
exact analogue in the humorous fabliau of "Les Trois Bossus," where a rustic
is made to believe that each of the hunchbacks had come back again, with the
addition that, on returning from the river the third time, he seizes the
lady's hunchbacked husband and effectually disposes of him.
The Tale of Prince Ahmad.
Though my paper on this tale is of considerable length, it would perhaps have
been deemed intolerably long had I cited all the versions of the first part--
the quest of the most wonderful thing--which are current in Europe, for it is
found everywhere, though with few variations of importance. There are two,
however, of which I may furnish the outlines in this place.
In the "Pentamerone" of Basile,[FN#444], a man sends his five sons into the
world to learn something. The eldest becomes a master-thief; the second has
learned the trade of shipwright; the third has become a skilful archer; the
fourth has found an herb which brings the dead to life, and the youngest has
learned the speech of birds. Soon after they have returned home, they set out
with their father to liberate a princess who had been stolen by a wild man,
and by the exercise of their several arts succeed in their adventure. While
they quarrel as to which of them had by his efforts done most to deserve the
princess for wife, the king gives her to the father, as the stock of all those
branches.
In the 45th of Laura Gonzenbach's "Sicilianische Märchen," the king's daughter
is stolen by a giant and recovered by the seven sons of a poor woman. The
eldest can run like the wind, the second can hear, when he puts his ear to the
ground, all that goes on in the world; the third can with a blow of his fist
break through seven iron doors; the fourth is a thief; the fifth can build an
iron tower with a blow of his fist; the sixth is an unfailing shot, the
seventh has a guitar which can awaken the dead. Youths thus wonderfully
endowed figure in many tales, but generally as the servants of the hero.
By comparing the different European versions it will be found that some are
similar to the first part of the tale of Prince Ahmad, insomuch as the
brothers become possessed of certain wonderful things which are each
instrumental in saving the damsel's life; while others more closely approach
the oldest known form of the story, in representing the heroes as being
endowed with some extraordinary kind of power, by means of which they rescue
the damsel from a giant who had carried her off. It is curious to observe that
in the "Sindibád Náma" version the damsel is both carried off by a demon and
at death's door, which is not the case of any other Asiatic form of the story.
Arabian Nights, Volume 13
Footnotes
[FN#1] M. Zotenberg empowered me to offer his "Aladdin" to an
"Oriental" publishing-house well-known in London, and the result
was the "no-public" reply. The mortifying fact is that Oriental
studies are now at their nadir in Great Britain, which is
beginning to show so small in the Eastern World.
[FN#2] P.N. of a Jinni who rules the insect-kingdom and who is
invoked by scribes to protect their labours from the worm.
[FN#3] Both name and number suggest the "Calc. Edit." of 1814.
See "Translator's Foreword" vol. i., x)x.-xx. There is another
version of the first two hundred Nights, from the "Calc. Edit."
into Urdu by one Haydar Ali 1 vol. roy. 8vo lithog. Calc. 1263
(1846).-- R.F.B.
[FN#4] "Alf Leilah" in Hindostani 4 vols. in 2, royal 8vo,
lithographed, Lakhnau, 1263 (1846).--R. F. B.
[FN#5] This is the "Alif" (!) Leila, Tarjuma-i Alif (!) Laila
ba-Zuban-i-Urdu (Do Jild, baharfát-i-Yurop), an Urdu translation
of the Arabian Nights, printed entirely in the Roman character,
etc., etc.--R.F.B.
[FN#6] i.e., The Thousand Tales.
[FN#7] From the MS, in the Bibliochèque Nationale (Supplement
Arab. No. 2523) vol. ii., p. 82, verso to p. 94, verso. The
Sisters are called Dínárzád and Shahrázád, a style which I have
not adopted.
[FN#8] THe old versions read "Ornament (Adornment?) of the
Statues," Zierde der Pildsäulen (Weil). I hold the name to be
elliptical, Zayn (al-Din = Adornment of The Faith and owner of)
al-Asnám = the Images. The omission of Al-Din in proper names is
very common; e.g., Fakhr (Al-Din) Al-Iftakhári (Iftikhár-al-Din)
and many others given by De Sacy (Chrest.i. 30, and in the
Treatise on Coffee by Abdal-Kádir). So Al-Kamál, Al-Imád, Al-Baha
are = Kamal al-Dín, etc. in Jbn Khallikan, iii 493. Sanam
properly = an idol is popularly applied to all artificial figures
of man and beast. I may note that we must not call the hero,
after Galland's fashion, unhappily adopted by Weil, tout
bonnement "Zayn."
[FN#9] Galland persistently writes "Balsorah," a European
corruption common in his day, the childhood of Orientalism in
Europe. The Hindostani versions have "Bansrá," which is worse.
[FN#10] For notes on Geomancy (Zarb Raml) see vol. iii. 269.
[FN#11] THe Hindostani Version enlarges upon this:--"Besides
this, kings cannot escape perils and mishaps which serve as
warnings and examples to them when dealing their decrees."
[FN#12] In the XIXth century we should say "All the--ologies."
[FN#13] In the Hindostani Version he begins by "breaking the
seal which had been set upon the royal treasury."
[FN#14] "Three things" (says Sa'di in the Gulistan) "lack
permanency, Wealth without trading, Learning without disputation,
Government without justice." (chap. viii. max. 8). The
Bakhtiyár-námeh adds that "Government is a tree whose root is
legal punishment (Siyásat); its root-end is justice; its bough,
mercy; its flower, wisdom; its leaf, liberality; and its fruit,
kindness and benevolence. The foliage of every tree whose root
waxeth dry (lacketh sap) taketh a yellow tint and beareth no
fruit."
[FN#15] For this word, see vol. ix. 108. It is the origin of the
Fr. "Douane" and the Italian "Dogana" through the Spanish Aduana
(Ad-Díwán) and the Provencal "Doana." M⁄nage derives it from the
Gr. {Greek} =a place where goods are received, and others from
"Doge" (Dux) for whom a tax on merchandise was levied at Venice.
Littr⁄ (s.v.) will not decide, but rightly inclines to the
Oriental origin.
[FN#16] A Hadis says, "The dream is the inspiration of the True
Believer;" but also here, as the sequel shows, the Prince
believed the Shaykh to be the Prophet, concerning whom a second
Hadis declares, "Whoso seeth me in his sleep seeth me truly, for
Satan may not assume my semblance." See vol. iv. 287. The dream
as an inspiration shows early in literature, e.g.
--{Greek} (Il. i. 63).
and
--{Greek} (Il. ii 55).
in which the Dream is {Greek}.
[FN#17] In the Hindostani Version he becomes a Pír = saint,
spiritual guide.
[FN#18] A favourite sentiment. In Sir Charles Murray's excellent
novel, "Hassan: or, the Child of the Pyramid," it takes the form,
"what's past is past and what is written is written and shall
come to pass."
[FN#19] In the H. V. the Prince digs a vat or cistern-shaped
hole a yard deep. Under the ringed slab he also finds a door
whose lock he breaks with his pickaxe and seeing a staircase of
white marble lights a candle and reaches a room whose walls are
of porcelain and its floor and ceiling are of crystal.
[FN#20] Arab. Khawábi (plur. of Khábiyah) large jars usually of
pottery. In the H. V. four shelves of mother o' pearl support ten
jars of porphyry rangeed in rows and the Prince supposes (with
Galland) that the contents are good old wine.
[FN#21] Arab. "'Atík": the superficial similiarity of the words
have produced a new noun in Arabic, e.g. Abú Antíká = father of
antiquities, a vendor of such articles mostly modern, "brand-new
and intensely old."
[FN#22] In the text "Ashkhás" (plural of Shakhs) vulgarly used,
throughout India, Persia and other Moslem realms, in the sense of
persons or individuals. For its lit. sig. see vols. iii. 26; and
viii. 159. The H. V. follows Galland in changing to pedestals the
Arab thrones, and makes the silken hanging a "piece of white
satin" which covers the unoccupied base.
[FN#23] The blessed or well-omened: in these days it is mostly a
servile name, e.g. Sidi Mubárak Bombay. See vol. ix. 58,330.
[FN#24] In the test "Mín" for "Man," a Syro-Egyptian form common
throughout this MS.
[FN#25] "Ay Ni'am," an emphatic and now vulgar expression.
[FN#26] The MS. here has "'Imárah" = a building, probably a
clerical error for Maghárah," a cave, a souterrain.
[FN#27] Arab, "Zahab-ramlí," explained in "Alaeddin." So
Al-Mutanabbi sang:--
"I become not of them because homed in their ground: * Sandy
earth is the gangue wherein gold is found."
[FN#28] Walímah prop. = a marriage-feast. For the different
kinds of entertainments see vols. vi. 74; viii. 231.
[FN#29] Arab. Mukattaí al-Yadayn, a servile posture: see vols.
iii. 218; ix. 320.
[FN#30] Here the Arabic has the advantage of the English;
"Shakhs" meaning either a person or an image. See supra, p. 11.
[FN#31] Arab. "Kawárijí = one who uses the paddle, a paddler, a
rower.
[FN#32] In the Third Kalandar's Tale (vol. i. 143) Prince 'Ajíb
is forbidden to call upon the name of Allah, under pain of
upsetting the skiff paddled by the man of brass. Here the detail
is omitted.
[FN#33] Arab. "Wahsh," which Galland translates "Tiger," and is
followed by his Hind. translator.
[FN#34] Arab. "Laffa 'l-isnayn bi-zulúmati-h," the latter word =
Khurtúm, the trunk of an elephant, from Zalm = the dewlap of
sheep or goat.
[FN#35] In the text "Yámin," a copyist's error, which can mean
nothing else but "Yasimín."
[FN#36] The H. V. rejects this detail for "a single piece of
mother-o'-pearl twelve yards long," etc. Galland has une seule
ecaille de poisson. In my friend M. Zotenberg's admirable
translation of Tabara (i. 52) we read of a bridge at Baghdad made
of the ribs of Og bin 'Unk (= Og of the Neck), the fabled King of
Bashan.
[FN#37] I have noted that this is the primitive attire of
Eastern man in all hot climates, and that it still holds its
ground in that grand survival of heathenry, the Meccan
Pilgrimage. In Galland the four strips are of taffetas jaune, the
Hind. "Taftí."
[FN#38] The word is Hizám = girdle, sash, waist-belt, which
Galland turns into nappes. The object of the cloths edged with
gems and gums was to form a barrier excluding hostile Jinns: the
European magician usually drew a magic circle.
[FN#39] This is our corruption of the Malay Aigla = sandal wood.
See vol. ix. 150.
[FN#40] Lit. = the Day of Assembly, "Yaum al-Mahshar." These
lines were translated at Cannes on Feb. 22n, 1886, the day before
the earthquake which brought desolation upon the Riviera. It was
a second curious coincidence. On Thursday, July 10th, 1863--the
morning when the great earthquake at Accra laid in ruins the town
and the stout old fort built in the days of James II--I had been
reading the Koranic chapter entitled "Earthquakes" (No. XCIX.) to
some Moslem friends who had visited my quarters. Upwards of a
decade afterwards I described teh accident in "Ocean Highways"
(New Series, No. II., Vol. I, pp. 448-461), owned by Trubner &
Co., and edited by my friend Clements Markham, and I only regret
that this able Magazine has been extinguished by that dullest of
Journals, "Porceedings of the R. S. S. and monthly record of
Geography."
[FN#41] Galland has un tremblement pareil à celui qu'Israfyel
(Isráfíl) doit causer le jour du jugement.
[FN#42] The idea is Lady M. W. Montague's ("The Lady's
Resolve.")
In part she is to blame that has been tried:
He comes too near that comes to be denied.
As an unknown correspondent warns me the sentiment was probably
suggested by Sir Thomas Overbury ("A Wife." St. xxxvi):--
--In part to blame is she
Which hath without consent bin only tride:
He comes too near that comes to be denide.
[FN#43] These highly compromising magical articles are of many
kinds. The ballad of The Boy and the Mantle is familiar to all,
how in the case of Sir Kay's lady:--
When she had tane the mantle
With purpose for to wear;
It shrunk up to her shoulder
And left her backside bare.
Percy, Vol. I., i and Book III.
Percy derives the ballad from "Le COurt Mantel," an old French
piece and Mr. Evans (Specimens of Welsh Poetry) from an ancient
MS, of Tegan Earfron, one of Arthur's mistresses, who possessed a
mantle which would not fit immodest women. See also in Spenser,
Queen Florimel's Girdle (F.Q. iv. 5,3), and the detective is a
horn in the Morte d'Arthur, translated from the French, temp.
Edward IV., and first printed in A. D. 1484. The Spectator (No.
579) tells us "There was a Temple upon Mount Etna which was
guarded by dogs of so exquisite a smell, that they could discover
whether the Persons who came thither were chaste or not;" and
that they caused, as might be expected, immense trouble. The
test-article becomes in the Tuti-námeh the Tank of Trial at Agra;
also a nosegay which remains fresh or withers; in the Kathá Sarit
Ságara, the red lotus of Shiva; a shirt in Story lxix. Gesta
Romanorum; a cup in Ariosto; a rose-garland in "The Wright's
Chaste WIfe," edited by Mr. Furnival for the Early English Text
Society; a magic picture in Bandello, Part I., No. 21; a ring in
the Pentamerone, of Basile; and a distaff in "L'Adroite
Princesse," a French imitation of the latter.
[FN#44] Looking glasses in the East are mostly made, like our
travelling mirrors, to open and shut.
[FN#45] In Eastern countries the oarsman stands to his work and
lessens his labour by applying his weight which cannot be done so
forcibly when sitting even upon the sliding-seat. In rowing as in
swimming we have forsaken the old custom and have lost instead of
gaining.
[FN#46] I have explained this word in vol. iii. 100; viii. 51,
etc., and may add the interpretation of Mr. L. C. Casartelli (p.
17) "La Philosophie Religieuse du Mazd⁄isme, etc., Paris
Maisonneuve, 1884." "A divine name, which has succeeded little
(?) is the ancient title Bagh, the O. P. Baga of the Cuneiforms
(Baga vazraka Auramazda, etc.) and the Bagha of the Avesta, whose
memory is preserved in Baghdad--the city created by the Gods (?).
The Pahlevi books show the word in the compound Bagh∂bakht, lit.
= what is granted by the Gods, popularly, Providence."
[FN#47] The H. V. makes the old woman a "finished procuress
whose skill was unrivalled in that profession."
[FN#48] In the text "Al-Sádí w'al-Ghádí:" the latter may mean
those who came for the morning meal.
[FN#49] An antistes, a leader in prayer (vols. ii. 203, and iv.
227); a reverend, against whom the normal skit is directed. The
H. V. makes him a Muezzin, also a Mosque-man; and changes his
name to Murad. Imám is a word with a host of meanings, e.g.,
model (and master), a Sir-Oracle, the Caliph, etc., etc.
[FN#50] i.e. being neighbours they would become to a certain
extent answerable for the crimes committed within the quarter.
[FN#51] Arab. "Nakshat" and "Sifrat."
[FN#52] Arab. "Farajíyah," for which see vol. i. 210, 321.
[FN#53] For this aphrodisiac see vol. vi. 60.
[FN#54] In the text "Ay ni'am," still a popular expression.
[FN#55] Arab. "'Ilm al-Híah," gen. translated Astrology, but
here meaning scientific Physiognomy. All these branches of
science, including Palmistry, are nearly connected; the features
and the fingers, mounts, lines, etc. being referred to the sun,
moon and planets.
[FN#56] Arab. "Mihaffah bi-takhtrawán": see vols. ii. 180; v.
175.
[FN#57] The H. V. is more explicit: "do not so, or the King of
the Jann will slay thee even before thou canst enjoy her and will
carry her away."
[FN#58] Arab. "Shahwah" the rawest and most direct term. The
Moslem religious has no absurd shame of this natural passion. I
have heard of a Persian Imam, who, suddenly excited as he was
sleeping in a friend's house, awoke the master with, "Shahwah
dáram" = "I am lustful" and was at once gratified by a "Mut'ah,"
temporary and extempore marriage to one of the slave-girls. These
morganatic marriages are not, I may note, allowed to the Sunnis.
[FN#59] Arab. "Min ba'di an" for "Min ba'di má" = after that,
still popular in the latter broad form.
[FN#60] The word has been used in this tale with a threefold
sense Egypt, old Cairo (Fostat) and new Cairo, in fact to the
land and to its capital for the time being.
[FN#61] Arab. "Kabbaltu" = I have accepted, i.e., I accept
emphatically. Arabs use this form in sundry social transactions,
such as marriages, sales, contracts, bargains, and so forth, to
denote that the engagement is irrevocable and that no change can
be made. De Sacy neglected to note this in his Grammar, but
explains it in his Chrestomathy (i. 44, 53), and rightly adds
that the use of this energetic form peut-être serait susceptible
d'applications plus ⁄tendues.
[FN#62] La nuit de l'entr⁄e, say the French: see Lane "Leylet
ed-dukhlah" (M.E. chapt. vi.).
[FN#63] This MS. uses "Miláh" (pleasant) for "Mubáh"
(permitted). I must remark, before parting with Zayn al-Asnam,
that its object is to inculcate that the price of a good wife is
"far above rubies" (Prov. xxxi. 10: see the rest of this fine
chapter), a virtuous woman being "a crown to her husband" (ibid.
xxii. 4); and "a prudent wife is from the Lord" (Prov. xix. 4).
The whole tale is told with extreme delicacy and the want of
roughness and energy suggests a European origin.
[FN#64] i.e. the "Height or Glory ('Alá) of the Faith (al-Dín)"
pron. Aláaddeen; which is fairly represented by the old form
"Aladdin;" and better by De Sacy's "Ala-eddin." The name has
occurred in The Nights, vol. iv. 29-33; it is a household word in
England and who has not heard of THomas Hood's "A-lad-in?"
Easterns write it in five different ways and in the Paris MS. it
is invariably "'Alí al-dín," which is a palpable mistake. The
others are (1) 'Alá al-Dín, (2) 'Alá yadín, (3) 'Alah Dín in the
H. V. and (4) 'Aláa al-Dín (with the Hamzah), the last only being
grammatical. In Galland the Histoire de la Lampe merveilleuse is
preceded by the Histoire du Dormeur Eveill⁄ which, being "The
Story of Abú al-Hasan the Wag, or the Sleeper awakened," of the
Bresl. Edit. (Nights cclxxi.-ccxc.), is here omitted. The
Alaeddin Story exists in germ in Tale ii. of the "Dravidian
Nights Entertainments," (Madana Kamara-Sankádáj), by Pandit S. M.
Natisa Shastri (Madras, 1868, and London, Tr≥bner). We are told
by Mr. Coote that it is well represented in Italy. The Messina
version is by Pittè, "La Lanterna Magica," also the Palermitan
"Lanterne;" it is "Il Matrimonio di Cajussi" of Rome (R. H.
Busk's Folk-lore); "Il Gallo e il Mago," of Visentini's "Fiabe
Mantovane," and the "Pesciolino," and "Il Contadino che aveva tre
Fígli," of Imbriana. In "La Fanciulla c il Mago," of De
Gubernatis ("Novelline di Sante Stefano de Calcenaja," p. 47),
occurs the popular incident of the original. "The Magician was
not a magician for nothing. He feigned to be a hawker and fared
through the streets, crying out, 'Donne, donne, chi baratta
anelli di ferro contra anelli di argento?'"
Alaeddin has ever been a favourite with the stage. Early in the
present century it was introduced to the Parisian opera by M.
Etienne, to the Feydeau by Th⁄aulon's La Clochette: to the
Gymnase by La Petite-Lampe of M. Scribe and Melesville, and to
teh Panorama Dramatique by MM. Merle, Cartouche and Saintine
(Gauttier, vii. 380).
[FN#65] This MS. always uses Dínárzád like Galland.
[FN#66] Arab. "'Abadan," a term much used in this MS. and used
correctly. It refers always and only to future time, past being
denoted by "Kattu" from Katta = he cut (in breadth, as opposed to
Kadda=he cut lengthwise). See De Sacy, Chrestom. ii. 443.
[FN#67] In the text "Ibn mín," a vulgarism for "man." Galland
adds that the tailor's name was Mustapha--i y avait un tailleur
nomm⁄ Mustafa.
[FN#68] In classical Arabic the word is "Maghribi," the local
form of the root Gharaba= he went far away (the sun), set, etc.,
whence "Maghribi"=a dweller in the Sunset-land. The vulgar,
however, prefer "Maghrab" and "Maghrabi," of which foreigners
made "Mogrebin." For other information see vols. vi. 220; ix. 50.
The "Moormen" are famed as magicians; so we find a Maghrabi
Sahhár=wizard, who by the by takes part in a transformation scene
like that of the Second Kalandar (vol. i. p. 134, The Nights), in
p. 10 of Spitta Bey's "Contes Arabes Modernes," etc. I may note
that "Sihr," according to Jauhari and Firozábádi=anything one can
hold by a thin or subtle place, i.e., easy to handle. Hence it
was applied to all sciences, "Sahhár" being=to 'Alim (or sage) .
and the older Arabs called poetry "Sihar al-halál"--lawful magic.
[FN#69] i.e. blood is thicker than water, as the Highlanders
say.
[FN#70] A popular saying amongst Moslems which has repeatedly
occurred in The Nights. The son is the "lamp of a dark house."
Vol. ii 280.
[FN#71] Out of respect to his brother, who was probably the
senior: the H. V. expressly says so.
[FN#72] Al-Marhúm = my late brother. See vol. ii. 129, 196.
[FN#73] This must refer to Cairo not to Al-Medinah whose title
is "Al-Munawwarah" = the Illumined.
[FN#74] A picturesque term for birth-place.
[FN#75] In text "Yá Rájul" (for Rajul) = O man, an Egypto-Syrian
form, broad as any Doric.
[FN#76] Arab. Shúf-hu, the colloquial form of Shuf-hu
[FN#77] For the same sentiment see "Julnár" the "Sea born,"
Nights dccxliii.-xliv.
[FN#78] "I will hire thee a shop in the Chauk"--Carfax or
market-street says the H. V.
[FN#79] The MS. writes the word Khwájá (for Khwájah see vol. vi.
46). Here we are at once interested in the scapegrace who looked
Excelsior. In fact the tale begins with a strong inducement to
boyish vagabondage and scampish indolence; but the Moslem would
see in it the hand of Destiny bringing good out of evil. Amongst
other meanings of "Khwájah " it is a honorific title given by
Khorásánis to their notables. In Arab. the similarity of the word
to "Khuwáj"=hunger, has given rise to a host of conceits, more or
less frigid (Ibn Khallikán, iii. 45).
[FN#80] Arab. "Wáhid min al-Tujjár," the very vulgar style.
[FN#81] i.e., the Saturday (see vol. ii. 305) established as a
God's rest by the so-called "Mosaic" commandment No. iv. How it
gradually passed out of observance, after so many centuries of
most stringent application, I cannot discover: certainly the text
in Cor. ii. 16-17 is insufficient to abolish or supersede an
order given with such singular majesty and impressiveness by God
and so strictly obeyed by man. The popular idea is that the
Jewish Sabbath was done away with in Christ, and that sundry of
the 1604 councils, e.g., Laodicea, anathematized those who kept
it holy after such fashion. With the day the aim and object
changed; and the early Fathers made it the "Feast of the
Resurrection" which could not be kept too joyously. The
"Sabbatismus" of our Sabbatarians, who return to the Israelitic
practice and yet honour the wrong day, is heretical and vastly
illogical; and the Sunday is better kept in France, Italy and
other "Catholic" countries than in England and Scotland.
[FN#82] For "Mushayyadát" see vol. viii. 23.
[FN#83] All these words sárú, dakhalú, jalasú, &c. are in the
plur. for the dual--popular and vulgar speech. It is so
throughout the MS.
[FN#84] The Persians apply the Arab word "Sahrá"=desert, to the
waste grounds about a town.
[FN#85] Arab. Kashákísh from the quadril, kashkasha = he
gathered fuel.
[FN#86] In text "Shayy bi-lásh" which would mean lit. a thing
gratis or in vain.
[FN#87] In the text "Sabba raml" = cast in sand. It may be a
clerical error for "Zaraba Raml" = he struck sand, i.e., made
geomantic figures.
[FN#88] Arab. Mauza'= a place, an apartment, a saloon.
[FN#89] Galland makes each contain quatre vases de bronze,
grands comme des cuves.
[FN#90] The Arab. is "Líwán," for which see vols. iv. 71 and
vii. 347. Galland translates it by a "terrace" and "niche."
[FN#91] The idea is borrowed from the lume eterno of the
Rosicrucians. It is still prevalent throughout Syria where the
little sepulchral lamps buried by the Hebrews, Greeks and Romans
are so called. Many tales are told of their being found burning
after the lapse of centuries; but the traveller will never see
the marvel.
[FN#92] The first notice of the signet-ring and its adventures
is by Herodotus in the Legend of the Samian Polycrates; and here
it may be observed that the accident is probably founded on fact;
every fisherman knows that fish will seize and swallow spoon-bait
and other objects that glitter. The text is the Talmudic version
of Solomon's seal-ring. The king of the demons after becoming a
"Bottle-imp," prayed to be set free upon condition of teaching a
priceless secret, and after cajoling the Wise One flung his
signet into the sea and cast the owner into a land four hundred
miles distant. Here David's son begged his bread till he was made
head cook to the King of Ammon at Mash Kernín. After a while, he
eloped with Na'úzah, the daughter of his master, and presently
when broiling a fish found therein his missing property. In the
Moslem version, Solomon had taken prisoner Amínah, the daughter
of a pagan prince, and had homed her in his Harem, where she
taught him idolatry. One day before going to the Hammam he
entrusted to her his signet- ring presented to him by the four
angelic Guardians of sky, air, water and earth when the mighty
Jinni Al-Sakhr (see vol. i. 41; v. 36), who was hovering about
unseen, snatching away the ring, assumed the king's shape,
whereby Solomon's form became so changed that his courtiers drove
him from his own doors. Thereupon Al-Sakhr, taking seat upon the
throne, began to work all manner of iniquity, till one of the
Wazirs, suspecting the transformation, read aloud from a scroll
of the law: this caused the demon to fly shrieking and to drop
the signet into the sea. Presently Solomon, who had taken service
with a fisherman, and received for wages two fishes a day, found
his ring and made Al-Sakhr a "Bottle-imp." The legend of St.
Kentigern or Mungo of Glasgow, who recovered the Queen's ring
from the stomach of a salmon, is a palpable imitation of the
Biblical incident which paid tribute to C sar.
[FN#93] The Magician evidently had mistaken the powers of the
Ring. This is against all probability and possibility, but on
such abnormal traits are tales and novels founded.
[FN#94] These are the Gardens of the Hesperides and of King
Isope (Tale of Beryn, Supplem. Canterbury Tales, Chaucer Soc. p.
84):--
In mydward of this gardyn stant a feir⁄ tre
Of alle manner levis that under sky be
I-forgit and i- fourmyd, eche in his degre
Of sylver, and of golde fyne, that lusty been to see.
So in the Kathá (S. S.) there are trees with trunks of gold,
branches of pearls, and buds and flowers of clear white pearls.
[FN#95] The text causes some confusion by applying "Sullam" to
staircase and ladder, hence probably the latter is not mentioned
by Galland and Co., who speak only of an escalier de cinquante
marches. "Sullam" (plur. "Salálim") in modern Egyptian is
popularly used for a flight of steps: see Spitta-Bey's "Contes
Arabes Modernes," p. 70. The H. V. places under the slab a hollow
space measuring four paces (kadam = 2.5 feet), and at one corner
a wicket with a ladder. This leads to a vault of three rooms, one
with the jars of gold; the second not to be swept by the skirts,
and the third opening upon the garden of gems. "There thou shalt
see a path, whereby do thou fare straight forwards to a lofty
palace with a flight of fifty steps leading to a flat terrace:
and here shalt thou find a niche wherein a lamp burneth."
[FN#96] In the H.V. he had thrust the lamp into the bosom of his
dress, which, together with his sleeves, he had filled full of
fruit, and had wound his girdle tightly around him lest any fall
out.
[FN#97] Africa (Arab. Afrikíyah) here is used in its old and
classical sense for the limited tract about Carthage (Tunis) net,
Africa Propria. But the scribe imagines it to be the P. N. of a
city: so m Júdar (vol. vi. 222) we find Fás and Miknás (Fez and
Mequinez) converted into one settlement. The Maghribi,
Mauritanian or Maroccan is famed for sorcery throughout the
Moslem world: see vol. vi. 220. The Moslem "Kingdom of Afrikiyah"
was composed of four provinces, Tunis, Tripoli, Constantina, and
Bugia: and a considerable part of it was held by the Berber tribe
of Sanhája or Sinhága, also called the Zenag whence our modern
"Senegal." Another noted tribe which held Bajaiyah (Bugia) in
Afrikiyah proper was the "Zawáwah," the European "Zouaves," (Ibn
Khall. iv. 84).
[FN#98] Galland omits the name, which is outlandish enough.
[FN#99] Meaning that he had incurred no blood-guiltiness, as he
had not killed the lad and only left him to die.
[FN#100] The H. V. explains away the improbability of the
Magician forgetting his gift. "In this sore disquietude he
bethought him not of the ring which, by the decree of Allah, was
the means of Alaeddin's escape; and indeed not only he but oft
times those who practice the Black Art are baulked of their
designs by Divine Providence."
[FN#101] See vol. vii. 60. The word is mostly derived from "
'afar" = dust, and denotes, according to some, a man coloured
like the ground or one who "dusts" all his rivals. " 'Ifr" (fem.
'Ifrah) is a wicked and dangerous man. Al-Jannabi, I may here
notice, is the chief authority for Afrikus son of Abraha and
xviiith Tobba being the eponymus of "Africa."
[FN#102] Arab. "Ghayr an" = otherwise that, except that, a
favourite form in this MS. The first word is the Syriac "Gheir" =
for, a conjunction which is most unneccessarily derived by some
from the Gr. {Greek}.
[FN#103] Galland and the H.V. make the mother deliver a little
hygienic lecture about not feeding too fast after famine: exactly
what an Eastern parent would not dream of doing.
[FN#104] The lad now turns the tables upon his mother and
becomes her master, having "a crow to pick" with her.
[FN#105] Arab. "Munáfik" for whose true sense, "an infidel who
pretendeth to believe in Al-Islam," see vol. vi. p. 207. Here the
epithet comes last being the climax of abuse, because the lowest
of the seven hells (vol. viii. 111) was created for "hypocrites,"
i.e., those who feign to be Moslems when they are Miscreants.
[FN#106] Here a little abbreviation has been found necessary to
avoid the whole of a twice-told tale; but nothing material has
been omitted.
[FN#107] Arab. "Taffaytu-hu." This is the correct term = to
extinguish. They relate of the great scholar Firozábádí, author
of the "Kámús" (ob. A. H. 817 = A. D. 1414), that he married a
Badawi wife in order to study the purest Arabic and once when
going to bed said to her, "Uktuli's-siráj," the Persian "Chirágh-
rá bi-kush" = Kill the lamp. "What," she cried, "Thou an ' lim
and talk of killing the lamp instead of putting it out!"
[FN#108] In the H. V. the mother takes the "fruits" and places
them upon the ground, "but when darkness set in, a light shone
from them like the rays of a lamp or the sheen of the sun."
[FN#109] For these fabled Giant rulers of Syria, Og King of
Bashan, etc., see vols. vii. 84; ix. 109, 323. D'Herbelot (s. v.
Giabbar= Giant) connects "Jabábirah" with the Heb. Ghibbor
Ghibborim and the Pers. Dív, Diván: of these were ' d and
Shaddád, Kings of Syria: the Falast"in (Philistines) 'Auj, Amálik
and Banú Shayth or Seth's descendants, the sons of God (Benu-
Elohim) of the Book of Genesis (vi. 2) who inhabited Mount Hermon
and lived in purity and chastity.
[FN#110] The H. V. explains that the Jinni had appeared to the
mother in hideous aspect, with noise and clamour, because she had
scoured the Lamp roughly; but was more gentle with Alaeddin
because he had rubbed it lightly. This is from Galland.
[FN#111] Arab. Musawwadatayn = lit. two black things, rough
copies, etc.
[FN#112] Arab. Banú Adam, as opposed to Banú Elohim (Sons of the
Gods), B. al-Jánn etc The Banú al-Asfar = sons of the yellow, are
Esau's posterity in Edom, also a term applied by Arab historians
to the Greeks and Romans whom Jewish fable derived from Idum a:
in my vol. ii. 220, they are the people of the yellow or tawny
faces. For the legend see Ibn Khall. iii. 8, where the translator
suggests that the by-name may be = the "sees of the Emperor"
Flavius, confounded with "flavus," a title left by Vespasian to
his successors The Banú al Khashkhash = sons of the (black) poppy
are the Ethiopians.
[FN#113] Arab, Há! há! so Háka (fem. Haki) = Here for thee!
[FN#114] So in Medieval Europe Papal bulls and Kings' letters
were placed for respect on the head. See Duffield's "Don
Quixote," Part i. xxxi.
[FN#115] Galland makes the Juif only rus⁄ et adroit.
[FN#116] Arab. "Ghashím" = a "Johnny Raw" from the root "Ghashm"
= iniquity: Builders apply the word to an unhewn stone; addressed
to a person it is considered slighting, if not insulting. See
vol. ii. 330.
[FN#117] The carat (Kírát) being most often, but not always, one
twenty-fourth of the diner. See vols. iii. 239; vii. 289.
[FN#118] Kanání, plur. of Kinnínah.
[FN#119] Here and below silver is specified, whenas the platters
in Night dxxxv. were of gold This is one of the many changes'
contradictions and confusions which are inherent in Arab stones.
See Spitta-Bey's "Contes Arabes," Preface.
[FN#120] i.e., the Slave of the Lamp.
[FN#121] This may be true, but my experience has taught me to
prefer dealing with a Jew than with a Christian. The former will
"jew" me perhaps, but his commercial cleverness will induce him
to allow me some gain in order that I may not be quite
disheartened: the latter will strip me of my skin and will
grumble because he cannot gain more.
[FN#122] Arab. "Hálah mutawassitah," a phrase which has a
European Touch.
[FN#123] In the text "Jauharjíyyah," common enough in Egypt and
Syria, an Arab. plur. of an Arabised Turkish sing.--ji for--chí =
(crafts-) man.
[FN#124] We may suppose some years may have passed in this
process and that Alaeddin from a lad of fifteen had reached the
age of manhood. The H. V. declares that for many a twelve month
the mother and son lived by cotton spinning and the sale of the
plate
[FN#125] i.e. Full moon of full moons: See vol. iii. 228. It is
pronounced "Badroo'l- Budoor," hence Galland's " Badr-oul-
boudour. "
[FN#126] In the H. V. Alaeddin "bethought him of a room adjacent
to the Baths where he might sit and see the Princess through the
door-chinks, when she raised her veil before the handmaids and
eunuchs."
[FN#127] This is the common conceit of the brow being white as
day and the hair black as night.
[FN#128] Such a statement may read absurdly to the West but it
is true in the East. "Selim" had seen no woman's face unveiled,
save that of his sable mother Rosebud in Morier's Tale of Yeldoz,
the wicked woman ("The Mirza," vol. iii. 135). The H. V. adds
that Alaeddin's mother was old and verily had little beauty even
in her youth. So at the sight of the Princess he learnt that
Allah had created women exquisite in loveliness and heart-
ensnaring; and at first glance the shaft of love pierced his
heart and he fell to the ground afaint He loved her with a
thousand lives and, when his mother questioned him, "his lips
formed no friendship with his speech."
[FN#129] "There is not a present (Teshurah) to bring to the Man
of God" (1 Sam. ix. 7), and Menachem explains Teshurah as a gift
offered with the object of being admitted to the presence. See
also the offering of oil to the King in Isaiah lvii. 9. Even in
Maundriell's Day Travels (p. 26) it was counted uncivil to visit
a dignitary without an offering in hand.
[FN#130] As we shall see further on, the magical effect of the
Ring and the Lamp extend far and wide over the physique and
morale of the owner: they turn a "raw laddie" into a finished
courtier, warrior, statesman, etc.
[FN#131] In Eastern states the mere suspicion of having such an
article would expose the suspected at least to torture. Their
practical system of treating "treasure trove," as I saw when
serving with my regiment in Gujarát (Guzerat), is at once to
imprison and "molest" the finder, in order to make sure that he
has not hidden any part of his find.
[FN#132] Here the MS. text is defective, the allusion is, I
suppose, to the Slave of the Lamp.
[FN#133] In the H. V. the King retired into his private
apartment; and, dismissing all save the Grand Wazir, "took
cognisance of special matters" before withdrawing to the Harem.
[FN#134] The levée, Divan or Darbár being also a lit de justice
and a Court of Cassation: See vol. i. 29.
[FN#135] All this is expressed by the Arabic in one word
"Tamanná." Galland adds pour marquer qu'il etait prêt á perdre
s'il y manquait; and thus he conveys a wrong idea.
[FN#136] This would be still the popular address, nor is it
considered rude or slighting. In John (ii. 4) "Atto," the Heb.
Eshah, is similarly used, not complimentarily, but in popular
speech.
[FN#137] This sounds ridiculous enough in English, but not in
German, e.g. Deine K˜nigliche Hoheit is the formula de rigueur
when an Austrian officer, who always addresses brother-soldiers
in the familiar second person, is speaking to a camarade who is
also a royalty.
[FN#138] "Suráyyát (lit. = the Pleiades) and "Sham'ádín" a
would-be Arabic plur. of the Persian "Sham'adán"=candlestick,
chandelier, for which more correctly Sham'adánát is used.
[FN#139] i.e., betrothed to her--j'agr⁄e la proposition, says
Galland.
[FN#140] Here meaning Eunuch-officers and officials. In the
cdlxxvith Night of this volume the word is incorrectly written
ghát in the singular.
[FN#141] In the H. V. Alaeddin on hearing this became as if a
thunderbolt had stricken him, and losing consciousness, swooned
away.
[FN#142] These calls for food at critical times, and oft-
recurring allusions to eating are not yet wholly obsolete amongst
the civilised of the xixth century. The ingenious M. Jules Verne
often enlivens a tedious scene by Dejeunons! And French
travellers, like English, are not unready to talk of food and
drink, knowing that the subject is never displeasing to their
readers.
[FN#143] The H. V. gives a sketch of the wedding. "And when the
ceremonies ended at the palace with pomp and parade and pageant,
and the night was far spent, the eunuchs led the Wazir's son into
the bridal chamber. He was the first to seek his couch; then the
Queen his mother-in-law, came into him leading the bride, and
followed by her suite. She did with her virgin daughter as
parents are wont to do, removed her wedding-raiment, and donning
a night-dress, placed her in her bridegroom's arms. Then, wishing
her all joy, she with her ladies went away and shut the door. At
that instant came the Jinni," etc.
[FN#144] The happy idea of the wedding night in the water-closet
is repeated from the tale of Nur-al-Dín Ali Hasan (vol. i. 221),
and the mishap of the Hunchback bridegroom.
[FN#145] For the old knightly practice of sleeping with a drawn
sword separating man and maid see vol. vii. 353 and Mr.
Clouston's "Popular Tales and Fictions," vol. i. 316. In Poland
the intermediary who married by procuration slept alongside the
bride in all his armour. The H. V. explains, "He (Alaeddin) also
lay a naked sword between him and the Princess so she might
perceive that he was ready to die by that blade should he attempt
to do aught of villainy by the bride."
[FN#146] Galland says: Ils ne s'aperçurent que de l'⁄branlement
du lit et que de leur transport d'un lieu á l'autre: c'⁄tait bien
assez pour leur donner une frayeur qu'il est ais⁄ d'imaginer.
[FN#147] Galland very unnecessarily makes the Wazir's son pass
into the wardrobe (garderobe) to dress himself.
[FN#148] Professional singing and dancing girls: Properly the
word is the fem. Of ' lim = a learned man; but it has been
anglicised by Byron's
"The long chibouque's dissolving cloud supply
Where dance the Almahs to wild minstrelsy."
--(The Corsair, ii. 2.)
They go about the streets with unveiled faces and are seldom
admitted into respectable Harems, although on festal occasions
they perform in the court or in front of the house, but even this
is objected to by the Mrs. Grundy of Egypt. Lane (M.E. chap.
xviii.) derives with Saint Jerome the word from the Heb. or
Phoenician Almah = a virgin, a girl, a singing- girl; and thus
explains "Alámoth" in Psalms xlvi. and I Chron. xv. 20. Parkhurst
(s.v. 'Alamah = an undeflowered virgin) renders Job xxxix. 30,
"the way of a man with a maid" (bi-álmah). The way of a man in
his virgin state, shunning youthful lust and keeping himself
"pure and unspotted."
[FN#149] The text reads "Rafa' " (he raised) "al-Bashkhánah"
which in Suppl. Nights (ii. 119) is a hanging, a curtain.
Apparently it is a corruption of the Pers. "Paskhkhánah," a
mosquito-curtain.
[FN#150] The father suspected that she had not gone to bed a
clean maid.
[FN#151] Arab. Aysh = Ayyu Shayyin and Laysh = li ayyi Shayyin.
This vulgarism, or rather popular corruption, is of olden date
and was used by such a purist as Al-Mutanabbi in such a phrase as
"Aysh Khabara-k?" = how art thou? See Ibn Khallikan, iii. 79.
[FN#152] In the H. V. the Minister sends the Chob-dár= = rod-
bearer, mace-bearer, usher, etc.
[FN#153] In the text Sáhal for Sahal, again the broad "Doric" of
Syria.
[FN#154] Arab. Dahab ramli = gold dust washed out of the sand,
placer-gold. I must excuse myself for using this Americanism,
properly a diluvium or deposit of sand, and improperly (Bartlett)
a find of drift gold. The word, like many mining terms in the Far
West, is borrowed from the Spaniards; it is not therefore one of
the many American vulgarisms which threaten hopelessly to defile
the pure well of English speech.
[FN#155] Abra. "Ratl," by Europeans usually pronounced "Rotl"
(Rotolo).
[FN#156] In the H. V. she returns from the bazar; and, "seeing
the house filled with so many persons in goodliest attire,
marvelled greatly. Then setting down the meat lately bought she
would have taken off her veil, but Alaeddin prevented her and
said," etc.
[FN#157] The word is popularly derived from Serai in Persian = a
palace; but it comes from the Span. and Port. Cerrar = to shut
up, and should be written with the reduplicated liquid.
[FN#158] In the H. V. the dresses and ornaments of the slaves
were priced at ten millions (Karúr a crore) of gold coins. I have
noticed that Messer Marco "Milione" did not learn his high
numerals in Arabia, but that India might easily have taught them
to him.
[FN#159] Arab. "Ráih yasír," peasant's language.
[FN#160] Arab. Ká'ah, the apodyterium or undressing room upon
which the vestibule of the Hammam opens. See the plan in Lane's
M. E. chaps. xvi. The Kár'ah is now usually called "Maslakh" =
stripping-room.
[FN#161] Arab. "Hammam-hu" = went through all the operations of
the Hammam, scraping, kneading, soaping, wiping and so forth.
[FN#162] For this aphrodisiac see vol. vi. 60. The subject of
aphrodisiacs in the East would fill a small library: almost every
medical treatise ends in a long disquisition upon fortifiers,
provocatives' etc. We may briefly divide them into three great
classes. The first is the medicinal, which may be either external
or internal. The second is the mechanical, such as scarification'
flagellation, and the application of insects as practiced by
certain savage races. There is a venerable Joe Miller of an old
Brahmin whose young wife always insisted, each time before he
possessed her, upon his being stung by a bee in certain parts.
The third is magical superstitious and so forth
[FN#163] This may sound exaggerated to English ears, but a petty
Indian Prince, such as the Gáikwár, or Rajah of Baroda, would be
preceded in state processions by several led horses all whose
housings and saddles were gold studded with diamonds. The sight
made one's mouth water.
[FN#164] i.e. the 'Arab al-'Arbá; for which see vols. i. 112; v.
101.
[FN#165] Arab. "Al-Kandíl al-'ajíb:" here its magical virtues
are specified and remove many apparent improbabilities from the
tale.
[FN#166] This was the highest of honours. At Abyssinian Harar
even the Grandees were compelled to dismount at the door of the
royal "compound." See my "First Footsteps in East Africa," p.
296.
[FN#167] "The right hand" seems to me a European touch in
Galland's translation, leur chef mit Aladdin a sa droite. Amongst
Moslems the great man sits in the sinistral corner of the Divan
as seen from the door, so the place of honour is to his left.
[FN#168] Arab. "Músiká," classically "Musikí" ={Greek}: the
Pers. form is Músikár; and the Arab. equivalent is Al-Lahn. In
the H. V. the King made a signal and straightway drums (dhol) and
trumpets (trafír) and all manner wedding instruments struck up on
every side.
[FN#169] Arab. Marmar Sumáki=porphyry of which ancient Egypt
supplied the finest specimens. I found a vein of it in the Anti-
Libanus. Strange to say, the quarries which produced the far-
famed giallo antico, verd' antico (serpentine limestone) and
rosso antico (mostly a porphyry) worked by the old Nilotes, are
now unknown to us.
[FN#170] i.e. velvets with gold embroidery: see vol. viii. 201.
[FN#171] The Arabic says, "There was a kiosque with four-and-
twenty alcoves (Líwán, for which see vols. iv. 71, vi. 347) all
builded of emerald, etc., and one remained with the kiosque
(kushk) unfinished." I adopt Galland's reading salon á vingt-
quatre crois⁄es which are mentioned in the Arab. text towards the
end of the tale, and thus avoid the confusion between kiosque and
window. In the H. V. there is a domed belvedere (bárah-dari-i-
gumbaz-dár), four-sided, with six doors on each front (i. e.
twenty-four), and all studded with diamonds, etc.
[FN#172] In Persia this is called "Pá-andáz," and must be
prepared for the Shah when he deigns to visit a subject. It is
always of costly stuffs, and becomes the perquisite of the royal
attendants.
[FN#173] Here the European hand again appears to me: the Sultan
as a good Moslem should have made the Wuzú-ablution and prayed
the dawn-prayers before doing anything worldly.
[FN#174] Arab. Fí ghuzúni zálika," a peculiar phrase, Ghazn=a
crease, a wrinkle.
[FN#175] In the H. V. the King "marvelled to see Alaeddin's
mother without her veil and magnificently adorned with costly
jewels and said in his mind, 'Methought she was a grey-haired
crone, but I find her still in the prime of life and comely to
look upon, somewhat after the fashion of Badr al-Budúr.' " This
also was one of the miracles of the Lamp.
[FN#176] For this word see vols. i. 46, vii. 326. A Joe Miller
is told in Western India of an old General Officer boasting his
knowledge of Hindostani. "How do you say, Tell a plain story,
General?" asked one of the hearers, and the answer was, "Maydán
kí bát bolo!" = "speak a word about the plain" (or level space).
[FN#177] The prehistoric Arabs: see supra p. 98.
[FN#178] Popularly, Jeríd, the palm-frond used as javelin: see
vol. vi. 263.
[FN#179] In order to keep off the evil eye, one of the functions
of iron and steel: see vol. ii. 316.
[FN#180] The H. V. adds, "Little did the Princess know that the
singers were fairies whom the Slave of the Lamp had brought
together."
[FN#181] Alexander the Great: see v. 252, x. 57. The H. V. adds,
"Then only one man and one woman danced together, one with other,
till midnight, when Alaeddin and the Princess stood up, for it
was the wont of China in those days that bride and bridegroom
perform together in presence of the wedding company."
[FN#182] The exceptional reserve of this and other descriptions
makes M. H. Zotenberg suspect that the tale was written for one
of the Mameluke Princesses: I own to its modesty but I doubt that
such virtue would have recommended it to the dames in question.
The H. V. adds a few details:--"Then, when the bride and
bridegroom had glanced and gazed each at other's face, the
Princess rejoiced with excessive joy to behold his comeliness,
and he exclaimed, in the courtesy of his gladness, 'O happy me,
whom thou deignest, O Queen of the Fair, to honour despite mine
unworth, seeing that in thee all charms and graces are
perfected.' "
[FN#183] The term has not escaped ridicule amongst Moslems. A
common fellow having stood in his way the famous wit Abú al-'Ayná
asked "What is that?" "A man of the Sons of Adam" was the reply.
"Welcome, welcome," cried the other, "Allah grant thee length of
days. I deemed that all his sons were dead." See Ibn Khallikan
iii. 57.
[FN#184] This address to an inanimate object (here a window) is
highly idiomatic and must be cultivated by the practical Arabist.
In the H. V. the unfinished part is the four-and-twentieth door
of the fictitious (ja'alí) palace.
[FN#185] This is true Orientalism, a personification or
incarnation which Galland did not think proper to translate.
[FN#186] Arab. "La'ab al-Andáb;" the latter word is from "Nadb"
= brandishing or throwing the javelin.
[FN#187] The "mothers" are the prime figures, the daughters
being the secondary. For the " 'Ilm al-Ram!" = (Science of the
sand) our geomancy, see vol. iii. 269, and D'Herbelot's sub. v.
Raml or Reml.
[FN#188] This is from Galland, whose certaine boisson chaude
evidently means tea. It is preserved in the H.V.
[FN#189] i.e. his astrolabe, his "Zíj" or table of the stars,
his almanack, etc. For a highly fanciful derivation of the
"Arstable" see Ibn Khallikan (iii. 580). He makes it signify
"balance or lines (Pers. 'Astur') of the sun," which is called
"Láb" as in the case of wicked Queen Láb (The Nights, vol. vii.
296). According to him the Astrolabe was suggested to Ptolemy by
an armillary sphere which had accidentally been flattened by the
hoof of his beast: this is beginning late in the day, the
instrument was known to the ancient Assyrians. Chardin (Voyages
ii. 149) carefully describes the Persian variety of--
"The cunning man highs Sidrophil
(as Will. Lilly was called). Amongst other things he wore at his
girdle an astrolabe not bigger than the hollow of a man's hand,
often two to three inches in diameter and looking at a distance
like a medal." These men practiced both natural astrology =
astronomy, as well as judicial astrology which foretells events
and of which Kepler said that "she, albeit a fool, was the
daughter of a wise mother, to whose support and life the silly
maid was indispensable." Isidore of Seville (A. D. 600-636) was
the first to distinguish between the two branches, and they
flourished side by side till Newton's day. Hence the many
astrological terms in our tongue, e.g. consider, contemplate,
disaster, jovial, mercurial, saturnine, etc.
[FN#190] In the H. V. "New brass lamps for old ones! who will
exchange ?" So in the story of the Fisherman's son, a Jew who had
been tricked of a cock, offers to give new rings for old rings.
See Jonathan Scott's excerpts from the Wortley-Montague MSS. vol.
vi. pp. 210 12 This is one of the tales which I have translated
for vol. iv.
[FN#191] The H. V. adds that Alaeddin loved to ride out a-
hunting and had left the city for eight days whereof three had
passed by.
[FN#192] Galland makes her say, H⁄ bien folle, veux-tu me dire
pourqoui tu ris? The H. V. renders "Cease, giddy head, why
laughest thou?" and the vulgate "Well, giggler," said the
Princess, etc.
[FN#193] Nothing can be more improbable than this detail, but
upon such abnormal situations almost all stones, even in our most
modern "Society-novels," depend and the cause is clear--without
them there would be no story. And the modern will, perhaps,
suggest that "the truth was withheld for a higher purpose, for
the working out of certain ends." In the H. V Alaeddin, when
about to go a-hunting, always placed the Lamp high up on the
cornice with all care lest any touch it.
[FN#194] The H. V. adds, "The Magician, when he saw the Lamp, at
once knew that it must be the one he sought; for he knew that all
things, great and small, appertaining to the palace
[FN#195] In truly Oriental countries the Wazir is expected to
know everything, and if he fail in this easy duty he may find
himself in sore trouble.
[FN#196] i.e. must he obeyed.
[FN#197] We see that "China" was in those days the normal
Oriental "despotism tempered by assassination."
[FN#198] In the H. V. Alaeddin promises, "if I fail to find and
fetch the Princess, I will myself cut off my head and cast it
before the throne." Hindus are adepts in suicide and this self-
decapitation, which sounds absurd further West, is quite possible
to them.
[FN#199] In Galland Alaeddin unconsciously rubbed the ring
against un petit roc, to which he clung in order to prevent
falling into the stream. In the H. V. "The bank was high and
difficult of descent and the youth would have rolled down
headlong had he not struck upon a rock two paces from the bottom
and remained hanging over the water. This mishap was of the
happiest for during his fall he struck the stone and rubbed his
ring against it," etc.
[FN#200] In the H. V. he said, "First save me that I fall not
into the stream and then tell me where is the pavilion thou
builtest for her and who hath removed it."
[FN#201] Alluding to the preparatory washing, a mere matter of
cleanliness which precedes the formal Wuzú-ablution.
[FN#202] In the H. V. the Princess ends with, "I had made this
resolve that should he approach me with the design to win his
wish perforce, I would destroy my life. By day and by night I
abode in fear of him; but now at the sight of thee my heart is
heartened."
[FN#203] The Fellah had a natural fear of being seen in fine
gear, which all would have supposed to be stolen goods; and
Alaeddin was justified in taking it perforce, because necessitas
non habet legem. See a similar exchange of dress in Spitta-Bey's
"Contes Arabes Modernes," p. 91. In Galland the peasant when
pressed consents; and in the H. V. Alaeddin persuades him by a
gift of money.
[FN#204] i.e. which would take effect in the shortest time.
[FN#205] Her modesty was startled by the idea of sitting: at
meat with a strange man and allowing him to make love to her.
[FN#206] In the text Kidí, pop. for Ka-zálika. In the H. V. the
Magician replies to the honeyed speech of the Princess, "O my
lady, we in Africa have not so gracious customs as the men of
China. This day I have learned of thee a new courtesy which I
shall ever keep in mind."
[FN#207] Galland makes the Princess poison the Maghrabi, which
is not gallant. The H. V. follows suit and describes the powder
as a mortal poison.
[FN#208] Contrast this modesty with the usual scene of reunion
after severance, as in the case of Kamar al-Zamán and immodest
Queen Budúr, vol. iii. pp. 302-304.
[FN#209] His dignity forbade him to walk even the length of a
carpet: see vol. vii. for this habit of the Mameluke Beys. When
Harun al-Rashid made his famous pilgrimage afoot from Baghdad to
Meccah (and he was the last of the Caliphs who performed this
rite), the whole way was spread with a "Pá-andáz" of carpets and
costly cloths.
[FN#210] The proverb suggests our "par nobile fratrum," a pair
resembling each other as two halves of a split bean.
[FN#211] In the H. V. "If the elder Magician was in the East,
the other was in the West; but once a year, by their skill in
geomancy, they had tidings of each other."
[FN#212] The act was religiously laudable, but to the Eastern,
as to the South European mind, fair play is not a jewel; moreover
the story-teller may insinuate that vengeance would be taken only
by foul and unlawful means--the Black Art, perjury, murder and so
forth
[FN#213] For this game, a prime favourite in Egypt, see vol. vi.
145, De Sacy (Chrestomathie i. 477) and his authorities Hyde,
Syntagma Dissert. ii. 374, P. Labat, "Memoires du Chev
d'Arvieux," iii. 321; Thevenot, "Voyage du Levant," p. 107, and
Niebuhr, "Voyages," i. 139, Plate 25, fig. H.
[FN#214] Evidently="(jeu de) dames" (supposed to have been
invented in Paris during the days of the Regency: see Littr⁄);
and, although in certain Eastern places now popular, a term of
European origin. It is not in Galland. According to Ibn Khallikan
(iii. 69) "Nard" = tables, arose with King Ardashír son of Babuk,
and was therefore called Nardashír (Nard Ardashír? ). He designed
it as an image of the world and its people, so the board had
twelve squares to represent the months; the thirty pieces or men
represented the days, and the dice were the emblems of Fate and
Lot.
[FN#215] i.e. a weaner, a name of good omen for a girl-child:
see vol. vi. 145. The Hindi translator, Totárám Shayyán, calls
her Hamídah = the Praiseworthy.
[FN#216] Arab. Kirámát: see vols. ii. 237; iv. 45. The
Necromancer clearly smells a rat holding with Diderot:
De par le Roi! Defense á Dieu
De faire miracle en ce lieu;
and the stage properties afterwards found with the holy woman,
such as the gallipot of colouring ointment, justify his
suspicion.
[FN#217] " 'Ajáib" plur. of " 'Ajíb," a common exclamation
amongst the populace. It is used in Persian as well as in Arabic.
[FN#218] Evidently la force de l'imagination, of which a curious
illustration was given in Paris during the debauched days of the
Second Empire. Before a highly "fashionable" assembly of men
appeared a youth in fleshings who sat down upon a stool, bared
his pudenda and closed his eyes when, by "force of fancy,"
erection and emission took place. But presently it was suspected
and proved that the stool was hollow and admitted from below a
hand whose titillating fingers explained the phenomenon.
[FN#219] a Moslems are curious about sleeping postures and the
popular saying is:--Lying upon the right side is proper to Kings;
upon the left to Sages, to sleep supine is the position of
Allah's Saints and prone upon the belly is peculiar to the
Devils.
[FN#220] This " 'Asá," a staff five to six feet long, is one of
the properties of Moslem Saints and reverends who, imitating that
furious old Puritan, Caliph Omar, make and are allowed to make a
pretty liberal distribution of its caresses.
[FN#221] i.e. as she was in her own home.
[FN#222] Arab. "Sulúk" a Sufistical expression, the road to
salvation, &c.
[FN#223] In the H. V. her diet consisted of dry bread and
fruits.
[FN#224] This is the first mention of the windows in the Arabic
MS.
[FN#225] For this "Roc" of the older writers see vols. v. 122;
vi. 16-49. I may remind the reader that the O. Egyptian "Rokh,"
or "Rukh," by some written "Rekhit," whose ideograph is a
monstrous bird with one claw raised, also denotes pure wise
Spirits, the Magi, &c. I know a man who derives from it our
"rook" = beak and parson.
[FN#226] In the H. V he takes the Lamp from his bosom, where he
had ever kept it since his misadventure with the African Magician
[FN#227] Here the mythical Rukh is mixed up with the mysterious
bird Símurgh, for which see vol. x. 117.
[FN#228] The H. V. adds, "hoping thereby that thou and she and
all the household should fall into perdition."
[FN#229] Rank mesmerism, which has been practiced in the East
from ages immemorial. In Christendom Santa Guglielma worshipped
at Brunate, "works many miracles, chiefly healing aches of head."
In the H. V. Alaeddin feigns that he is ill and fares to the
Princess with his head tied up.
[FN#230] Mr. Morier in "The Mirza" (vol. i. 87) says, "Had the
Arabian Nights' Entertainments, with all their singular fertility
of invention and never-ending variety, appeared as a new book in
the present day, translated literally and not adapted to European
taste in the manner attempted in M. Galland's translation, I
doubt whether they would have been tolerated, certainly not read
with the avidity they are, even in the dress with which he has
clothed them, however imperfect that dress maybe." But in
Morier's day the literal translation was so despised that an
Eastern book was robbed of half its charms, both of style and
idea.
[FN#231] In the MS. Of the Bibliothèque National, Supplement
Arabe (No. 2523, vol. ii. fol. 147), the story which follows
"Aladdin" is that of the Ten Wazirs, for which see Supp. Nights
ii. In Galland the Histoire de Codadad et des ses Frères comes
next to the tale of Zayn al-Asnam: I have changed the sequence in
order that the two stories directly translated from the Arabic
may be together.
[FN#232] M. Hermann Zotenberg lately informed me that "Khudadad
and his Brothers" is to be found in a Turkish MS., "Al-Faraj ba'd
al-Shiddah"--Joy after Annoy--in the Bibliothèque Nationale of
Paris. But that work is a mere derivation from the Persian "Hazár
o yek Roz" for which see my vol. x. p.441. The name Khudadad is
common to most Eastern peoples, the Sansk. Devadatta, the Gr.
{Greek} and Dorotheus; the Lat. Deodatus, the Ital. Diodato, and
Span. Diosdado, the French Dieu-donn⁄, and the Arab.-Persic
Alladád, Dívdád and Khudábaksh. Khudá is the mod. Pers. form of
the old Khudáí=sovereign, king, as in Máh-i-Khudáí=the sovereign
moon, Kám-Khudáí=master of his passions, etc.
[FN#233] Lit. Homes (or habitations) of Bakr (see vol. v. 66), by
the Turks pronounced "Diyár-i-Bekír." It is the most famous of
the four provinces into which Mesopotamia (Heb. Naharaym, Arab.
Al-Jazírah) is divided by the Arabs; viz: Diyár Bakr (capital
Amídah); Diyár Modhar (cap. Rakkah or Aracta); Diyár Rabí'ah
(cap. Nisibis) and Diyár al-Jazírah or Al-Jazírah (cap. Mosul).
As regards the "King of Harrán," all these ancient cities were at
some time the capitals of independent chiefs who styled
themselves royalties.
[FN#234] The Heb. Charran, the Carrh of the classics where,
according to the Moslems, Abraham was born, while the Jews and
Christians make him emigrate thither from "Ur (hod. Mughayr) of
the Chaldees." Hence his Arab. title "Ibrahim al-Harráni." My
late friend Dr. Beke had a marvellous theory that this venerable
historic Harrán was identical with a miserable village to the
east of Damascus because the Fellahs call it Harrán
al-'Awámíd--of the Columns--from some Gr co-Roman remnants of a
paltry provincial temple. See "Jacob's Flight," etc., London,
Longmans, 1865.
[FN#235] Pírozah=turquoise, is the Persian, Firúzah and Firuzakh
(De Sacy, Chrest. ii. 84) the Arab. forms. The stone is a
favourite in the East where, as amongst the Russians (who affect
to despise the Eastern origin of their blood to which they owe so
much of its peculiar merit), it is supposed to act talisman
against wounds and death in battle; and the Persians, who hold it
to be a guard against the Evil Eye, are fond of inscribing
"turquoise of the old rock" with one or more of the "Holy Names."
Of these talismans a modern Spiritualist asks, "Are rings and
charms and amulets magnetic, to use an analogue for what we
cannot understand, and has the immemorial belief in the power of
relics a natural not to say a scientific basis?"
[FN#236] Samaria is a well-known name amongst Moslems, who call
the city Shamrín and Shamrún. It was built, according to Ibn
Batrik, upon Mount Samir by Amri who gave it the first name; and
the Taríkh Samírí, by Aba al-Fath Abú al-Hasan, is a detailed
account of its garbled annals. As Nablús (Neapolis of Herod.,
also called by him Sebaste) it is now familiar to the Cookite.
[FN#237] In the text Zangi-i-Adam-kh'wár afterwards called
Habashi=an Abyssinian. Galland simply says un negre. In India the
"Habshí" (chief) of Jinjirah (=Al-Jazirah, the Island) was
admiral of the Grand Moghul's fleets. These negroids are still
dreaded by Hindús and Hindís and, when we have another "Sepoy
Mutiny," a few thousands of them bought upon the Zanzibar coast,
dressed, drilled and officered by Englishmen, will do us yeomans'
service.
[FN#238] This seems to be a fancy name for a country: the term is
Persian=the Oceanland or a seaport town: from "Daryá" the sea and
bár=a region, tract, as in Zanzibár=Black-land. The learned Weil
explains it (in loco) by Gegend der Brunnen, brunnengleicher ort,
but I cannot accept Scott's note (iv. 400), "Signifying the
seacoast of every country; and hence the term is applied by
Oriental geographers to the coast of Malabar."