homeward-bound:
They fared, and fared fair Peace on farthest track ✿ Yet lingers in mine
ear that sweetest sound:
Fared far, and far their fane; would Heaven I saw ✿ Their shade in
vision float my couch around:
And when they went wi’ them they bore my heart ✿ And in my tear-floods
all of me left drowned.
A third monk followed with these extempore lines:—
Throne you on highmost stead, heart, ears and sight ✿ Your wone’s my
heart; mine all’s your dwelling-site:
Sweeter than honey is your name a-lip, ✿ Running, as ’neath my ribs runs
vital sprite:
For Love hath made me as a toothpick[368] lean ✿ And drowned in tears of
sorrow and despight:
Let me but see you in my sleep, belike ✿ Shall clear my cheeks of tears
that lovely sight.
Then a fourth recited the following couplets:—
Dumb is my tongue and scant my speech for thee ✿ And Love the direst
torture gars me dree:
O thou full Moon, whose place is highest Heaven, ✿ For thee but double
pine and pain in me.
And a fifth these[369]:—
I love a moon of comely shapely form ✿ Whose slender waist hath title to
complain:
Whose lip-dews rival must and long-kept wine; ✿ Whose heavy haunches
haunt the minds of men:
My heart each morning burns with pain and pine ✿ And the night-talkers
note I’m passion-slain;
While down my cheeks carnelian-like the tears ✿ Of rosy red shower down
like railing rain.
And a sixth the following:—
O thou who shunnest him thy love misled! ✿ O Branch of Bán, O star of
highmost stead!
To thee of pine and passion I complain, ✿ O thou who fired me with
cheeks rosy-red.
Did e’er such lover lose his soul for thee, ✿ Or from prostration and
from prayers fled?
And a seventh these:—
He seized my heart and freed my tears to flow ✿ Brought strength to Love
and bade my Patience go.
His charms are sweet as bitter his disdain; ✿ And shafts of love his
suitors overthrow.
Stint blame, O blamer, and for past repent ✿ None will believe thee who
dost Love unknow!
And on like wise all the rest of the monks shed tears and repeated
verses. As for Danis, the Prior, weeping and wailing redoubled on him,
for that he found no way to her enjoyment, and he chanted the following
couplets[370]:—
My patience failed me when my lover went ✿ And fled that day mine aim
and best intent.
O Guide o’ litters lead their camels fair, ✿ Haply some day they’ll
deign with me to tent!
On parting-day Sleep parted from my lids ✿ And grew my grieving and my
joy was shent.
I moan to Allah what for Love I dree’d ✿ My wasted body and my forces
spent.
Then, despairing of her, they took counsel together and with one mind
agreed to fashion her image and set it up with them, and applied
themselves to this till there came to them the Destroyer of delights and
Severer of societies. Meanwhile, Zayn al-Mawasif fared on, without
ceasing, to find her lover Masrur, till she reached her own house. She
opened the doors, and entered; then she sent to her sister Nasim, who
rejoiced with exceeding joy at the news of her return and brought her
the furniture and precious stuffs left in her charge. So she furnished
the house and dressed it, hanging the curtains over the doors and
burning aloes-wood and musk and ambergris and other essences till the
whole place reeked with the most delightful perfumes: after which the
Adornment of Qualities donned her finest dress and decorations and sat
talking with her maids, whom she had left behind when journeying, and
related to them all that had befallen her first and last. Then she
turned to Hubub and giving her dirhams, bade her fetch them something to
eat. So she brought meat and drink and when they had made an end of
eating and drinking,[371] Zayn al-Mawasif bade Hubub go and see where
Masrur was and how it fared with him. Now he knew not of her return; but
abode with concern overcast and sorrow might not be overpast;——And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Eight Hundred and Sixty-third Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Zayn
al-Mawasif entered her house she was met by her sister Nasim who brought
her the furniture and stuffs wherewith she furnished the place; and then
she donned her finest dress. But Masrur knew naught of her return and
abode with concern overcast and sorrow might not be overpast; no peace
prevailed with him nor was patience possible to him. Whenas pine and
passion, desire and distraction waxed on him, he would solace himself by
reciting verse and go to the house and set him its walls to buss. It
chanced that he went out that day to the place where he had parted from
his mistress and repeated this rare song:—
My wrongs hide I, withal they show to sight; ✿ And now mine eyes from
sleep to wake are dight.
I cry when melancholy tries my sprite ✿ Last not, O world nor work more
despight;
Lo hangs my soul ’twixt hardship and affright.
Were the Sultan hight Love but fair to me, ✿ Slumber mine eyes’
companion were to me,
My Lords, some little mercy spare to me, ✿ Chief of my tribe: be
debonnair to me,
Whom Love cast down, erst rich now pauper-wight!
Censors may blame thee but I look beyond ✿ Mine ears I stop and leave
their lies unconned
And keep my pact wi’ those I love so fond: ✿ They say, “Thou lov’st a
runaway!” I respond,
“Whist! whenas Fate descends she blinds the sight!”
Then he returned to his lodging and sat there weeping, till sleep
overcame him, when he saw in a dream as if Zayn al-Mawasif were come to
the house, and awoke in tears. So he set off to go thither, improvising
these couplets:—
Shall I be consoled when Love hath mastered the secret of me ✿ And my
heart is aglow with more than the charcoal’s ardency?
I love her whose absence I plain before Allah for parting-stower ✿ And
the shifts of the days and doom which allotted me Destiny:
When shall our meeting be, O wish o’ my heart and will? ✿ O favour of
fullest Moon, when shall we Re-union see?
As he made an end of his recitation, he found himself walking adown in
Zayn al-Mawasif’s street and smelt the sweet savour of the pastiles
wherewithal she had incensed the house; wherefore his vitals fluttered
and his heart was like to leave his breast and desire flamed up in him
and distraction redoubled upon him; when lo, and behold! Hubub, on her
way to do her lady’s errand suddenly appeared at the head of the street
and he rejoiced with joy exceeding. When she saw him, she went up to him
and saluting him, gave him the glad news of her mistress’s return,
saying, “She hath sent me to bid thee to her.” Whereat he was glad
indeed, with gladness naught could exceed; and she took him and returned
with him to the house. When Zayn al-Mawasif saw him, she came down to
him from the couch and kissed him and he kissed her and she embraced him
and he embraced her; nor did they leave kissing and embracing till both
swooned away for stress of affection and separation. They lay a long
while senseless, and when they revived, Zayn al-Mawasif bade Hubub fetch
her a gugglet of sherbet of sugar and another of sherbet of lemons. So
she brought what she desired and they sat eating and drinking nor ceased
before nightfall, when they fell to recalling all that had befallen them
from commencement to conclusion. Then she acquainted him with her return
to Al-Islam, whereat he rejoiced and he also became a Moslem. On like
wise did her women, and they all repented to Allah Almighty of their
infidelity. On the morrow she bade send for the Kazi and the witnesses
and told them that she was a widow and had completed the
purification-period and was minded to marry Masrur. So they drew up the
wedding-contract between them and they abode in all delight of life.
Meanwhile, the Jew, when the people of Adan released him from prison,
set out homewards and fared on nor ceased faring till he came within
three days’ journey of the city. Now as soon as Zayn al-Mawasif heard of
his coming she called for her handmaid Hubub and said to her, “Go to the
Jews’ burial-place and there dig a grave and plant on it sweet basil and
jessamine and sprinkle water thereabout. If the Jew come and ask thee of
me, answer:—My mistress died twenty days ago of chagrin on thine
account. If he say, show me her tomb, take him to the grave and after
weeping over it and making moan and lament before him, contrive to cast
him therein and bury him alive.”[372] And Hubub answered, “I hear and I
obey.” Then they laid up the furniture in the store closets, and Zayn
al-Mawasif removed to Masrur’s lodging, where he and she abode eating
and drinking, till the three days were past; at the end of which the Jew
arrived and knocked at the door of his house. Quoth Hubub, “Who’s at the
door?”; and quoth he, “Thy master.” So she opened to him and he saw the
tears railing down her cheeks and said, “What aileth thee to weep and
where is thy mistress?” She replied, “My mistress is dead of chagrin on
thine account.” When he heard this, he was perplexed and wept with sore
weeping and presently said, “O Hubub, where is her tomb?” So she carried
him to the Jews’ burial-ground and showed him the grave she had dug;
whereupon he shed bitter tears and recited this pair of couplets[373]:—
Two things there are, for which if eyes wept tear on tear ✿ Of blood,
till they were like indeed to disappear,
They never could fulfil the Tithe of all their due: ✿ And these are
prime of youth and loss of loveling dear.
Then he wept again with bitter tears and recited these also:—
Alack and Alas! Patience taketh flight; ✿ And from parting of friend to
sore death I’m dight:
O how woeful this farness from dear one, and oh ✿ How my heart is rent
by mine own unright!
Would Heaven my secret I erst had kept ✿ Nor had told the pangs and my
liver-blight:
I lived in all solace and joyance of life ✿ Till she left and left me in
piteous plight:
O Zayn al-Mawasif, I would there were ✿ No parting departing my frame
and sprite:
I repent me for troth-breach and blame my guilt ✿ Of unruth to her
whereon hopes I built.
When he had made an end of this verse, he wept and groaned and lamented
till he fell down a-swoon, whereupon Hubub made haste to drag him to the
grave and throw him in, whilst he was insensible yet quick withal. Then
she stopped up the grave on him and returning to her mistress acquainted
her with what had passed, whereat she rejoiced with exceeding joy and
recited these two couplets:—
The world sware that for ever ’twould gar me grieve: ✿ ’Tis false, O
world, so thine oath retrieve[374]!
The blamer is dead and my love’s in my arms: ✿ Rise to herald of joys
and tuck high thy sleeve[375]!
Then she and Masrur abode each with other in eating and drinking and
sport and pleasure and good cheer, till there came to them the Destroyer
of delights and Sunderer of societies and Slayer of sons and daughters.
And I have also heard tell the following tale of
-----
Footnote 307:
_i.e._ “Adornment of (good) Qualities.” See the name punned on in
Night dcccli. Lane omits this tale because it contains the illicit
“Amours of a Christian and a Jewess who dupes her husband in various
abominable ways.” The text has been taken from the Mac. and the Bresl.
Edits. x. 72 etc. In many parts the former is a mere Epitome.
Footnote 308:
The face of her who owns the garden.
Footnote 309:
_i.e._ I am no public woman.
Footnote 310:
_i.e._ with the sight of the garden and its mistress—purposely left
vague.
Footnote 311:
Arab. “Dádat.” Night dcclxxvi. vol. vii. p. 372.
Footnote 312:
Meaning respectively “Awaking” (or blowing hard), “Affairs” (or
Misfortunes) and “Flowing” (blood or water). They are evidently
intended for the names of Jewish slave-girls.
Footnote 313:
_i.e._ the brow-curls, or accroche-cœurs. See vol. i. 168.
Footnote 314:
Arab. “Wisháh” usually applied to woman’s broad belt, stomacher
(Al-Hariri Ass. of Rayy).
Footnote 315:
The old Greek, “Stephane.”
Footnote 316:
Alluding to the popular fancy of the rain-drop which becomes a pearl.
Footnote 317:
Arab. “Ghází” = one who fights for the faith.
Footnote 318:
_i.e._ people of different conditions.
Footnote 319:
The sudden change appears unnatural to Europeans; but an Eastern girl
talking to a strange man in a garden is already half won. The beauty,
however, intends to make trial of her lover’s generosity before
yielding.
Footnote 320:
These lines have occurred in the earlier part of the Night: I quote
Mr. Payne for variety.
Footnote 321:
Arab. “Al-Sháh mát” = the King is dead, Pers. and Arab. grotesquely
mixed: Europeans explain “Checkmate” in sundry ways, all more or less
wrong.
Footnote 322:
Cheating (Ghadr) is so common that Easterns who have no tincture of
Western civilisation look upon it not only as venial but laudable when
one can take advantage of a simpleton. No idea of “honour” enters into
it. Even in England the old lady whist-player of the last generation
required to be looked after pretty closely—if Mr. Charles Dickens is
to be trusted.
Footnote 323:
Arab. “Al-Gháliyah,” whence the older English Algallia. See vol. i.
128. The Voyage of Linschoten, etc. Hakluyt Society MDCCCLXXXV., with
notes by my learned friend the late Arthur Coke Burnell whose early
death was so sore a loss to Oriental students.
Footnote 324:
A favourite idiom, “What news bringest thou?” (“O Asám!” Arab. Prov.
ii. 589) used by Háris bin Amrú, King of Kindah, to the old woman Asám
whom he had sent to inspect a girl he purposed marrying.
Footnote 325:
Amongst the Jews the Arab Salám becomes “Shalúm” and a Jewess would
certainly not address this ceremonial greeting to a Christian. But
Eastern story-tellers care little for these minutiæ; and the
“Adornment of Qualities,” was not by birth a Jewess as the sequel will
show.
Footnote 326:
Arab. “Sálifah,” the silken plaits used as adjuncts. See vol. iii.
313.
Footnote 327:
I have translated these lines in vol. i. 131, and quoted Mr. Torrens
in vol. iv. 235. Here I borrow from Mr. Payne.
Footnote 328:
Mr. Payne notes:—Apparently some place celebrated for its fine bread,
as Gonesse in seventeenth-century France. It occurs also in Bresl.
Edit. (iv. 203) and Dozy does not understand it. But Arj the root =
good odour.
Footnote 329:
Arab. “Tás,” from Pers. Tásah. M. Charbonneau, a Professor of Arabic
at Constantine and Member of the Asiatic Soc. Paris, who published the
Histoire de Chams-Eddine et Nour-Eddine with Maghrabi punctuation
(Paris, Hachette, 1852) remarks the similarity of this word to Tazza
and a number of other whimsical coincidences as Zauj, ζυγός, jugum;
Inkár, negare; matrah, matelas; Ishtirá, acheter etc. To which I may
add wasat, waist; zabad, civet; Bás, buss (kiss); uzrub (pron. Zrub),
drub; Kat’, cut; Tarík, track; etc., etc.
Footnote 330:
We should say “To her (I drink)” etc.
Footnote 331:
This is _ad captandum_. The lovers becoming Moslems would secure the
sympathy of the audience. In the sequel (Night dccclviii) we learn
that the wilful young woman was a born Moslemah who had married a Jew
but had never Judaized.
Footnote 332:
The doggrel of this Kasidah is not so phenomenal as some we have seen.
Footnote 333:
Arab. ’Andam = Brazil wood, vol. iii. 263.
Footnote 334:
Arab. “Himà.” See supra, p. 102.
Footnote 335:
_i.e._ her favours were not lawful till the union was sanctified by
heart-whole (if not pure) love.
Footnote 336:
Arab. “Mansúr wa munazzam” = oratio soluta et ligata.
Footnote 337:
_i.e._ the cup-bearers.
Footnote 338:
Which is not worse than usual.
Footnote 339:
_i.e._ “Ornament of Qualities.”
Footnote 340:
The ’Akík, a mean and common stone, ranks high in Moslem poetry on
account of the saying of Mohammed recorded by Ali and Ayishah “Seal
with seals of Carnelian.” (’Akik).
Footnote 341:
See note ii. at the end of this volume.
Footnote 342:
Arab. “Mahall” as opposed to the lady’s “Manzil,” which would be
better “Makám.” The Arabs had many names for their old habitations,
_e.g._: Kubbah, of brick; Sutrah, of sun-dried mud; Hazírah, of wood;
Tiráf, a tent of leather; Khabáa, of wool; Kash’a, of skins; Nakhád,
of camel’s or goat’s hair; Khaymah, of cotton cloth; Wabar, of soft
hair as the camel’s undercoat and Fustát (the well-known P.N.), a tent
of horsehair or any hair (Sha’ar) but Wabar.
Footnote 343:
This is the Maghribi form of the Arab. Súk = a bazar-street, known
from Tanjah (Tangiers) to Timbuctoo.
Footnote 344:
Arab. “Walímah” usually = a wedding-feast. According to the learned
Nasíf al-Yazají the names of entertainments are as follows: Al-Jafalà
= a general invitation, opp. to Al-Nakarà, especial; Khurs, a
childbirth feast; ’Akíkah, when the boy-babe is first shaved; A’zár =
circumcision-feast; Hizák, when the boy has finished his perlection of
the Koran; Milák, on occasion of marriage-offer; Wazímah, a mourning
entertainment; Wakírah = a “house-warming”; Nakí’ah, on returning from
wayfare; ’Akírah, at beginning of the month Rajab; Kirà = a
guest-feast and Maadubah, a feast for other cause; any feast.
Footnote 345:
Arab. “Anistaná” the pop. phrase = thy company gladdens us.
Footnote 346:
Here “Muákhát” or making mutual brotherhood would be = entering into a
formal agreement for partnership. For the forms of “making
brotherhood,” see vol. iii. 15.
Footnote 347:
Arab. “Ishárah” in classical Arab. signs with the finger (beckoning);
Aumá, with the hand; Ramz, with the lips; Khalaj, with the eyelids
(wink); and Ghamz, with the eye. Aumáz is a furtive glance, especially
of women, and Ilház, a side-glance from lahaza, limis oculis intuitus
est. See Preston’s Al-Hariri, p. 181.
Footnote 348:
Arab. “Haudaj” (Hind. Haudah, vulg. Howda = elephant-saddle), the
women’s camel-litter, a cloth stretched over a wooden frame. See the
Prize-poem of Lebid, v. 12.
Footnote 349:
_i.e._ the twelve days’ visit.
Footnote 350:
See note, vol. vii. 267. So Dryden (Virgil):—
And the hoarse raven on the blasted bough
By croaking to the left presaged the coming blow.
And Gay (Fable xxxvii.):—
That raven on the left-hand oak,
Curse on his ill-betiding croak!
In some Persian tales two crows seen together are a good omen.
Footnote 351:
Vulgar Moslems hold that each man’s fate is written in the sutures of
his skull but none can read the lines. See vol. iii. 123.
Footnote 352:
_i.e._ cease not to bemoan her lot whose moon-faced beloved ones are
gone.
Footnote 353:
Arab. “Rukb” used of a return caravan; and also meaning travellers on
camels. The vulgar however apply “Rákib” (a camel-rider) to a man on
horseback who is properly Fáris plur. “Khayyálah,” while “Khayyál” is
a good rider. Other names are “Fayyál” (elephant-rider), Baghghál
(mule-rider) and Hammár (donkey-rider).
Footnote 354:
A popular exaggeration. See vol. i. 117.
Footnote 355:
Lit. Empty of tent-ropes (Atnáb).
Footnote 356:
Arab. “’Abír,” a fragrant powder sprinkled on face, body and clothes.
In India it is composed of rice flower or powdered bark of the mango,
Deodar (_uvaria longifolia_), Sandal-wood, lign-aloes or curcuma
(_zerumbat_ or _zedoaria_) with rose-flowers, camphor, civet and
anise-seed. There are many of these powders: see in Herklots Chiksá,
Phul, Ood, Sundul, Uggur, and Urgujja.
Footnote 357:
_i.e._ fair faced boys and women. These lines are from the Bresl.
Edit. x. 160.
Footnote 358:
_i.e._ the Chief Kazi. For the origin of the Office and title see vol.
ii. 90, and for the Kazi al-Arab who administers justice among the
Badawin see Pilgrimage iii. 45.
Footnote 359:
Arab. “Raas al-Mál” = capital, as opposed to Ribá or Ribh = interest.
This legal expression has been adopted by all Moslem races.
Footnote 360:
Our Aden which is thus noticed by Abulfeda (A.D. 1331): “Aden in the
lowlands of Tehámah * * * also called Abyana from a man (who found
it?), built upon the sea-shore, a station (for land travellers) and a
sailing-place for merchant ships India-bound, is dry and sunparcht
(Kashifah, squalid, scorbutic) and sweet water must be imported. * * *
It lies 86 parasangs from San’á but Ibn Haukal following the
travellers makes it three stages. The city, built on the skirt of a
wall-like mountain, has a water-gate and a land-gate known as Bab
al-Sákayn. But ’Adan Lá’ah (the modest, the timid, the less known as
opposed to Abyan, the better known?) is a city in the mountains of
Sabir, Al-Yaman, whence issued the supporters of the Fatimite Caliphs
of Egypt.” ’Adan etymologically means in Arab. and Heb. pleasure
(ἥδονη), Eden (the garden), the Heaven in which spirits will see Allah
and our “Coal-hole of the East,” which we can hardly believe ever to
have been an Eden. Mr. Badger who supplied me with this note described
the two Adens in a paper in Ocean Highways, which he cannot now find.
In the ’Ajáib al-Makhlúkát, Al-Kazwíni (ob. A.D. 1275) derives the
name from Ibn Sinán bin Ibrahím; and is inclined there to place the
Bír al-Mu’attal (abandoned well) and the Kasr al-Mashíd (lofty palace)
of Koran xxii. 44; and he adds “Kasr al-Misyad” to those mentioned in
the tale of Sayf al-Mulúk and Badí’a al-Jamál.
Footnote 361:
Meaning that she had been carried to the Westward of Meccah.
Footnote 362:
Arab. “Zahrawíyah” which contains a kind of double entendre. Fátimah
the Prophet’s only daughter is titled Al-Zahrá the “bright-blooming”;
and this is also an epithet of Zohrah the planet Venus. For Fatimah
see vol. vi. 145. Of her Mohammed said, “Love your daughters, for I
too am a father of daughters” and, “Love them, they are the
comforters, the dearlings.” The Lady appears in Moslem history a
dreary young woman (died æt. 28) who made this world, like Honorius, a
hell in order to win a next-world heaven. Her titles are Zahrá and
Batúl (Pilgrimage ii. 90) both signifying virgin. Burckhardt
translates Zahrá by “bright blooming” (the etymological sense); it
denotes literally a girl who has not menstruated, in which state of
purity the Prophet’s daughter is said to have lived and died. “Batúl”
has the sense of a “clean maid” and is the title given by Eastern
Christians to the Virgin Mary. The perpetual virginity of Fatimah even
after motherhood (Hasan and Husayn) is a point of orthodoxy in
Al-Islam as Juno’s with the Romans and Umá’s with the Hindu
worshippers of Shiva. During her life Mohammed would not allow Ali a
second wife, and he held her one of the four perfects, the other three
being Asia wife of “Pharaoh,” the Virgin Mary and Khadíjah his own
wife. She caused much scandal after his death by declaring that he had
left her the Fadak estate (Abulfeda I, 133, 273) a castle with a fine
palm-orchard near Khaybar. Abu Bakr dismissed the claim quoting the
Apostle’s Hadis. “We prophets are folk who will away nothing: what we
leave is alms gift to the poor,” and Shi’ahs greatly resent his
decision. (See Dabistan iii. 51–52 for a different rendering of the
words). I have given the popular version of the Lady Fatimah’s death
and burial (Pilgrimage ii. 315) and have remarked that Moslem
historians delight in the obscurity which hangs over her last
resting-place, as if it were an honour even for the receptacle of her
ashes to be concealed from the eyes of men. Her repute is a curious
comment on Tom Hood’s
“Where woman has never a soul to save.”
Footnote 363:
For Sharif and Sayyid, descendants of Mohammed, see vol. iv. 170.
Footnote 364:
These lines have occurred with variants in vol. iii. 257, and iv. 50.
Footnote 365:
Arab. “Hazrat,” esp. used in India and corresponding with our mediæval
“_præsentia vostra_.”
Footnote 366:
This wholesale slaughter by the tale-teller of worshipful and reverend
men would bring down the gallery like a Spanish tragedy in which all
the actors are killed.
Footnote 367:
They are called indifferently “Ruhbán” = monks or “Batárikah” =
patriarchs. See vol. ii. 89.
Footnote 368:
Arab. “Khilál.” The toothpick, more esteemed by the Arabs than by us,
is, I have said, often used by the poets as an emblem of attenuation
without offending good taste. Nizami (Layla u Majnún) describes a
lover as “thin as a toothpick.” The “elegant” Hariri (Ass. of Barkaid)
describes a toothpick with feminine attributes, “shapely of shape,
attractive, provocative of appetite, delicate as the leanest of
lovers, polished as a poniard and bending as a green bough.”
Footnote 369:
From Bresl. Edit. x. 194.
Footnote 370: