continued to Taj al-Muluk:—When they wrote out the marriage-contract,
she testified to having received the whole sum settled upon her, the
half in advance and the half in arrears and that she was indebted to me
in the sum of ten thousand dirhams. She paid the witnesses their wage
and they withdrew whence they came. Thereupon she arose and cast off her
clothes and stood in a chemise of fine silk edged with gold-lace, after
which she took off her trousers and seized my hand and led me up to the
couch, saying, "There is no sin in a lawful put-in." She lay down on the
couch outspread upon her back; and, drawing me on to her breast, heaved
a sigh and followed it up with a wriggle by way of being coy. Then she
pulled up the shift above her breasts, and when I saw her in this pose,
I could not withhold myself from thrusting it into her, after I had
sucked her lips, whilst she whimpered and shammed shame and wept when no
tears came, and then said she, "O my beloved, do it, and do thy best!"
Indeed the case reminded me of his saying, who said:—
When I drew up her shift from the roof of her coynte, ✿ I found it
as strait as my mind and my money:
So I drove it half-way, and she sighed a loud sigh: ✿ Quoth I,
"Why this sigh?": "For the rest of it, honey!"
And she repeated, "O my beloved, let the finish be made for I am thine
handmaid. My life on thee, up with it! give it me, all of it! that I may
take it in my hand and thrust it into my very vitals!" And she ceased
not to excite me with sobs and sighs and amorous cries in the intervals
of kissing and clasping until amid our murmurs of pleasure we attained
the supreme delight and the term we had in sight. We slept together till
the morning, when I would have gone out; but lo! she came up to me,
laughing, and said, "So! So! thinkest thou that going into the Hammam is
the same as going out?[534] Dost thou deem me to be the like of the
daughter of Dalilah the Wily One? Beware of such a thought, for thou art
my husband by contract and according to law. If thou be drunken return
to thy right mind, and know that the house wherein thou art openeth but
one day in every year. Go down and look at the great door." So I arose
and went down and found the door locked and nailed up and returned and
told her of the locking and nailing. "O Aziz," said she, "We have in
this house flour, grain, fruits and pomegranates; sugar, meat, sheep,
poultry and so forth enough for many years; and the door will not be
opened till after the lapse of a whole twelvemonth and well I weet thou
shalt not find thyself without this house till then." Quoth I, "There is
no Majesty, and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the
Great!" "And how can this harm thee," rejoined she; "seeing thou knowest
cock's duty, whereof I told thee?" Then she laughed and I laughed too,
and I conformed to what she said and abode with her, doing cock's duty
and eating and drinking and futtering for a year of full twelve months,
during which time she conceived by me, and I was blessed with a babe by
her. On the New Year's day I heard the door opened and behold, men came
in with cates and flour and sugar. Upon this, I would have gone out but
my wife said, "Wait till supper-tide and go out even as thou camest in."
So I waited till the hour of night-prayer and was about to go forth in
fear and trembling, when she stopped me, saying, "By Allah, I will not
let thee go until thou swear to come back this night before the closing
of the door." I agreed to this, and she swore me a solemn oath on Blade
and Book,[535] and the oath of divorce to boot, that I would return to
her. Then I left her and going straight to the garden, found the door
open as usual; whereat I was angry and said to myself, "I have been
absent this whole year and come here unawares and find the place open as
of wont! I wonder is the damsel still here as before? I needs must enter
and see before I go to my mother, more by reason that it is now
nightfall." So I entered the flower-garden——And Shahrazad perceived the
dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
-----
Footnote 138:
This knightly tale, the longest in the Nights (xliv-cxlv.), about
one-eighth of the whole, does not appear in the Bres. Edit. Lane, who
finds it "objectionable," reduces it to two of its episodes,
Aziz-cum-Azízah and Táj al-Mulúk. On the other hand it has been
converted into a volume (8vo, pp. 240) "Scharkan, Conte Arabe;" etc.
Traduit par M. Asselan Riche, etc. Paris: Dondey-Dupré. 1829. It has
its _longueurs_ and at times is longsome enough; but it is interesting
as a comparison between the chivalry of Al-Islam and European
knight-errantry. Although all the characters are fictitious the period
is evidently in the early crusading days. Cæsarea, the second capital
of Palestine, taken during the Caliphate of Omar (A.H. 19) and
afterwards recovered, was fortified in A.H. 353=963 as a base against
the Arabs by the Emperor Phocas, the Arab. "Nakfúr" _i.e._ Nicephorus.
In A.H. 498=1104, crusading craft did much injury by plundering
merchantmen between Egypt and Syria, to which allusion is found in the
romance. But the story-teller has not quite made up his mind about
which Cæsarea he is talking, and M. Riche tells us that Césarée is a
"ville de la Mauritanie, en Afrique" (p. 20).
Footnote 139:
The fifth Ommiade Caliph reign. A.H. 65-86=685-704.
Footnote 140:
This does not merely mean that no one was safe from his wrath: or,
could approach him in the heat of fight: it is a reminiscence of the
masterful "King Kulayb," who established game-laws in his dominions
and would allow no man to approach his camp-fire. Moreover the Jinn
lights a fire to decoy travellers; but if his victim be bold enough to
brave him, he invites him to take advantage of the heat.
Footnote 141:
China.
Footnote 142:
The Jaxartes and the Bactrus (names very loosely applied).
Footnote 143:
In full "Sharrun kána" _i.e._ an evil (Sharr) has come to being
(kána), that is, "bane to the foe"—a pagan and knightly name. The hero
of the Romance "Al-Dalhamah" is described as a bitter gourd
(colocynth), a viper, a calamity.
Footnote 144:
This is a Moslem law (Koran chapt. iv. bodily borrowed from the
Talmud) which does not allow a man to marry one wife unless he can
carnally satisfy her. Moreover he must distribute his honours equally
and each wife has a right to her night unless she herself give it up.
This was the case even with the spouses of the Prophet; and his
biography notices several occasions when his wives waived their rights
in favour of one another. M. Riche kindly provides the King with _la
piquante française_ (p. 15).
Footnote 145:
So the celebrated mosque in Stambul, famed for being the largest
church in the world, is known to the Greeks as "Agia (pron. Aya)
Sophia" and to Moslems as "Aya Sofíyeh" (Holy Wisdom) _i.e._ the Logos
or Second Person of the Trinity (not a Saintess). The sending a
Christian girl as a present to a Moslem would, in these days be
considered highly scandalous. But it was done by the Mukaukis or
Coptic Governor of Egypt (under Heraclius) who of course hated the
Greeks. This worthy gave two damsels to Mohammed, one called Sírín and
the other Máriyah (Maria) whom the Prophet reserved for his especial
use and whose abode is still shown at Al-Medinah. The Rev. Doctor
Badger (loc. cit. p. 972) gives the translation of an epistle by
Mohammed to this Mukaukis, written in the Cufic character (??) and
sealed "Mohammed, The Apostle of Allah." My friend seems to believe
that it is an original, but upon this subject opinions will differ. It
is, however, exceedingly interesting, beginning with "Bismillah,"
etc., and ending (before the signature) with a quotation from the
Koran (iii. 57); and may be assumed as a formula addressed to foreign
potentates by a Prophet who had become virtually "King of Arabia."
Footnote 146:
This prayer before "doing the deed of kind" is, I have said, Moslem as
well as Christian.
Footnote 147:
Exodus i. 16, quoted by Lane (M. E., chapt. xxvii.). Torrens in his
Notes cites Drayton's "Moon-calf":—
Bring forth the birth-stool—no, let it alone;
She is so far beyond all compass grown,
Some other new device us needs must stead,
Or else she never can be brought to bed.
It is the "groaning-chair" of Poor Robin's Almanac (1676) and we find
it alluded to in Boccaccio, the classical sedile which according to
scoffers has formed the papal chair (a curule seat) ever since the
days of Pope Joan, when it has been held advisable for one of the
Cardinals to ascertain that His Holiness possesses all the instruments
of virility. This "Kursí al-wiládah" is of peculiar form on which the
patient is seated. A most interesting essay might be written upon the
various positions preferred during delivery, _e.g._ the wild Irish
still stand on all fours, like the so-called "lower animals." Amongst
the Moslems of Waday, etc., a cord is hung from the top of the hut,
and the woman in labour holds on to it standing with her legs apart,
till the midwife receives the child.
Footnote 148:
Some Orientalists call "lullilooing" the trilling cry, which is made
by raising the voice to its highest pitch and breaking it by a rapid
succession of touches on the palate with the tongue-tip, others
"Ziraleet" and Zagaleet, and one traveller tells us that it began at
the marriage-festival of Isaac and Rebecca(!). Arabs term it
classically Tahlíl and vulgarly Zaghrutah (Plur. Zaghárit) and
Persians "Kil." Finally in Don Quixote we have "Lelilies," the
battle-cry of the Moors (Duffield iii. 289). Dr. Buchanan likens it to
a serpent uttering human sounds, but the good missionary heard it at
the festival of Jagannath (Pilgrimage iii. 197).
Footnote 149:
_i.e._ "Light of the Place" (or kingdom) and "Delight of the Age."
Footnote 150:
It is utterly absurd to give the old heroic Persian name Afridun or
Furaydun, the destroyer of Zohák or Zahhák, to a Greek, but such
anachronisms are characteristic of The Nights and are evidently
introduced on purpose. See Boccaccio, ix. 9.
Footnote 151:
Arab. "Yunán" lit. Ionia, which applies to all Greece, insular and
continental, especially to ancient Greece.
Footnote 152:
In 1870 I saw at Sidon a find of some hundreds of gold "Philippi" and
"Alexanders."
Footnote 153:
M. Riche has (p. 21):—Ces talismans travaillés par le ciseau du
célèbre _Calfaziri_, adding in a note:—Je pense que c'est un sculpteur
Arabe.
Footnote 154:
This periphrase, containing what seems to us a useless negative, adds
emphasis in Arabic.
Footnote 155:
This bit of geographical information is not in the Bul. Edit.
Footnote 156:
In Pers.=a tooth, the popular word.
Footnote 157:
This preliminary move, called in Persian Nakl-i-Safar, is generally
mentioned. So the Franciscan monks in California, when setting out for
a long journey through the desert, marched three times round the
convent and pitched tents for the night under its walls.
Footnote 158:
In Arab. "Khazinah" or "Khaznah" lit. a treasure, representing 1,000
"Kis" or purses (each=£5). The sum in the text is 7,000 purses ×
5=£35,000.
Footnote 159:
Travellers often prefer such sites because they are sheltered from the
wind, and the ground is soft for pitching tents; but many have come to
grief from sudden torrents following rain.
Footnote 160:
Arab. "Ghábah" not a forest in our sense of the word, but a place
where water sinks and the trees (mostly Mimosas), which elsewhere are
widely scattered, form a comparatively dense growth and collect in
thickets. These are favourite places for wild beasts during
noon-heats.
Footnote 161:
At various times in the East Jews and Christians were ordered to wear
characteristic garments, especially the Zunnár or girdle.
Footnote 162:
The description is borrowed from the Coptic Convent, which invariably
has an inner donjon or keep. The oldest monastery in the world is Mar
Antonios (St. Anthony the Hermit) not far from Suez (Gold Mines of
Midian, p. 85).
Footnote 163:
"Dawáhi," plur. of Dáhiyah=a mishap. The title means "Mistress of
Misfortunes" or Queen of Calamities (to the enemy); and the venerable
lady, as will be seen, amply deserved her name, which is pronounced
Zát ad-Dawáhí.
Footnote 164:
Arab. "Kunfuz"=hedgehog or porcupine.
Footnote 165:
These flowers of speech are mere familiarities, not insults. In
societies where the sexes are separated speech becomes exceedingly
free. Étourdie que vous êtes, says M. Riche, toning down the text.
Footnote 166:
Arab. "Zirt," a low word. The superlative "Zarrát" (fartermost) or,
"Abu Zirt" (Father of farts) is a facetious term among the bean-eating
Fellahs and a deadly insult amongst the Badawin (Night ccccx.). The
latter prefer the word Taggáa (Pilgrimage iii. 84). We did not disdain
the word in farthingale=pet en air.
Footnote 167:
Arab. "kicked" him, _i.e._ with the sharp corner of the
shovel-stirrup. I avoid such expressions as "spurring" and "pricking
over the plain," because apt to give a wrong idea.
Footnote 168:
Arab. "Allaho Akbar!" the classical Moslem slogan.
Footnote 169:
Arab horses are never taught to leap, so she was quite safe on the
other side of a brook nine feet broad.
Footnote 170:
"Batrík" (vulg. Bitrík)=patricius, a title given to Christian knights
who commanded ten thousand men; the Tarkhan (or Nobb) heading four
thousand, and the Kaumas (Arab. Káid) two hundred. It must not be
confounded with Batrak (or Batrik)=patriarcha (Lane's Lex.).
Footnote 171:
Arab. "Kázi al-Kuzát," a kind of Chief Justice or Chancellor. The
office was established under the rule of Harun al-Rashid, who so
entitled Abú Yúsuf Ya'akub al-Ansári: therefore the allusion is
anachronistic. The same Caliph also caused the Olema to dress as they
do still.
Footnote 172:
The allusion is Koranic: "O men, if ye be in doubt concerning the
resurrection, consider that he first created you of the dust of the
ground (Adam); afterwards of seed" (chapt. xxii.). But the
physiological ideas of the Koran are curious. It supposes that the
Mani or male semen is in the loins and that of women in the breast
bone (chapt. lxxxvi.); that the mingled seed of the two (chapt.
lxxvi.) fructifies the ovary and that the child is fed through the
navel with menstruous blood, hence the cessation of the catamenia.
Barzoi (Kalilah and Dímnah) says:—"Man's seed, falling into the
woman's womb, is mixed with her seed and her blood: when it thickens
and curdles the Spirit moves it and it turns about like liquid cheese;
then it solidifies, its arteries are formed, its limbs constructed and
its joints distinguished. If the babe is a male, his face is placed
towards his mother's back; if a female, towards her belly. (P. 262,
Mr. I. G. N. Keith-Falconer's translation.) But there is a curious
prolepsis of the spermatozoa-theory. We read (Koran chapt. vii.), "Thy
Lord drew forth their posterity from the loins of the sons of Adam;"
and the commentators say that Allah stroked Adam's back and extracted
from his loins all his posterity, which shall ever be, in the shape of
small ants; these confessed their dependence on God and were dismissed
to return whence they came." From this fiction it appears (says Sale)
that the doctrine of pre-existence is not unknown to the Mohammedans;
and there is some little conformity between it and the modern theory
of generatio ex animalculis in semine marium. The poets call this
Yaum-i-Alast=the Day of Am-I-not (-your Lord)? which Sir William Jones
most unhappily translated "Art thou not with thy Lord?" (Alasta bi
Rabbi-kum); and they produce a grand vision of unembodied spirits
appearing in countless millions before their Creator.
Footnote 173:
The usual preliminary of a wrestling bout.
Footnote 174:
In Eastern wrestling this counts as a fair fall. So Ajax fell on his
back with Ulysses on his breast (Iliad xxxii., 700, etc.).
Footnote 175:
So biting was allowed amongst the Greeks in the ἀνακλινοπάλη, the
final struggle on the ground.
Footnote 176:
Supposed to be names of noted wrestlers. "Kayim" (not El-Kim as
Torrens has it) is a term now applied to a juggler or "professor" of
legerdemain who amuses people in the streets with easy tricks (Lane,
M. E., chapt. xx.).
Footnote 177:
Lit. "laughed in his face" which has not the unpleasant meaning it
bears in English.
Footnote 178:
Arab. "Abu riyáh"=a kind of child's toy. It is the "Ρόμβος" of the
Greeks, our "bull-roarer" well known in Australia and parts of Africa.
Footnote 179:
The people of the region south of the Caspian which is called "Sea of
Daylam." It has a long history; for which see D'Herbelot, _s. v._
"Dilem."
Footnote 180:
Coptic convents in Egypt still affect these drawbridges over the
keep-moat.
Footnote 181:
Koran iv., xxii. etc., meaning it is lawful to marry women taken in
war after the necessary purification although their husbands be still
living. This is not permitted with a free woman who is a True
Believer. I have noted that the only concubine slave-girls mentioned
in the Koran are these "captives possessed by the right hand."
Footnote 182:
The Amazonian dame is a favourite in folk-lore and is an ornament to
poetry from the Iliad to our modern day. Such heroines, apparently
unknown to the Pagan Arabs, were common in the early ages of Al-Islam
as Ockley and Gibbon prove, and that the race is not extinct may be
seen in my Pilgrimage (iii. 55) where the sister of Ibn Rumi resolved
to take blood revenge for her brother.
Footnote 183:
And Solomon said, "O nobles, which of you will bring me her throne?" A
terrible genius (_i.e._ an Ifrit of the Jinn named Dhakwan or the
notorious Sakhr) said, "I will bring it unto thee before thou arise
from thy seat (of justice); for I am able to perform it, and may be
trusted" (Koran, xxvii. 38-39). Balkís or _Bilkís_ (says the Durrat
al-Ghawwás) daughter of Hozád bin Sharhabíl, twenty-second in the list
of the rulers of Al-Yaman, according to some murdered her husband, and
became, by Moslem ignorance, the Biblical "Queen of Sheba." The
Abyssinians transfer her from Arabian Saba to Ethiopia and make her
the mother by Solomon of Menelek, their proto-monarch; thus claiming
for their royalties an antiquity compared with which all reigning
houses in the world are of yesterday. The dates of the Tabábi'ah or
Tobbas prove that the Bilkís of history ruled Al-Yaman in the early
Christian era.
Footnote 184:
Arab. "Fass," fiss or fuss; the gem set in a ring; also applied to a
hillock rounded _en cabochon_. In The Nights it is used to signify "a
fine gem."
Footnote 185:
This prominence of the glutæi muscles is always insisted upon, because
it is supposed to promise well in a bedfellow. In Somali-land, where
the people are sub-steatopygous, a rich young man, who can afford such
luxury, will have the girls drawn up in line and choose her to wife
who projects furthest behind.
Footnote 186:
The "bull" is only half mine.
Footnote 187:
A favourite Arab phrase, the "hot eye" is one full of tears.
Footnote 188:
_i.e._ "Coral," coral branch; a favourite name for a slave-girl,
especially a negress. It is the older "Morgiana." I do not see why
Preston in Al-Hariri's "Makamah (Séance) of Singar" renders it pearls,
because Golius gives "small pearls," when it is evidently "coral."
Richardson (Dissert. xlviii.) seems to me justified in finding the
Pari (fairy) Marjan of heroic Persian history reflected in the Fairy
Morgain who carried off King Arthur after the battle of Camelon.
Footnote 189:
Arab. "'Ud Jalaki"=Jalak or Jalik being a poetical and almost obsolete
name of Damascus.
Footnote 190:
The fountain in Paradise whose water shall be drunk with "pure" wine
mixed and sealed with musk (for clay). It is so called because it
comes from the "Sanam" (Sanima, to be high) boss or highest ridge of
the Moslem Heaven (Koran lv. 78 and lxxxiii. 27). Mr. Rodwell says "it
is conveyed to the highest apartments in the Pavilions of Paradise."
(?)
Footnote 191:
This "hysterical" temperament is not rare even amongst the bravest
Arabs.
Footnote 192:
An idea evidently derived from the Æolipyla (olla animatoria) the
invention of Hero Alexandrinus, which showed that the ancient
Egyptians could apply the motive force of steam.
Footnote 193:
Kuthayyir ibn Abi Jumah, a poet and far-famed Ráwí or Tale-reciter,
mentioned by Ibn Kballikan: he lived at Al-Medinah and sang the
attractions of one Azzah, hence his soubriquet Sáhib (lover of) Azzah.
As he died in A.H. 105 (=726), his presence here is a gross
anachronism: the imaginary Sharrkan flourished before the Caliphate of
Abd al-Malik bin Marwán A.H. 65-86.
Footnote 194:
Jamíl bin Ma'amar, a poet and lover contemporary with Al-Kuthayyir.
Footnote 195:
Arab. "Tafazzal," a word of frequent use in conversations="favour me,"
etc.
Footnote 196:
The word has a long history. From the Gr. στίμμι or στίβι is the Lat.
stibium; while the Low-Latin "antimonium" and the Span. Althimod are
by metathesis for Al-Ithmid. The dictionaries define the substance as
a stone from which antimony is prepared; but the Arabs understand a
semi-mythical mineral of yellow colour which enters into the veins of
the eyes and gives them lynx-like vision. The famous Anz nicknamed
Zarká (the blue-eyed) of Yamámah (Province) used it; and, according to
some, invented Kohl. When her (protohistoric) tribe Jadis had
destroyed all the rival race of Tasm, except Ribáh ibn Murrah; the
sole survivor fled to the Tobba of Al-Yaman, who sent a host to avenge
him. The king commanded his Himyarites to cut tree-boughs and use them
as screens (again Birman wood). Zarká from her Utum, or peel-tower,
saw the army three marches off and cried, "O folk, either trees or
Himyar are coming upon you!" adding, in Rajaz verse:—
I swear by Allah that trees creep onward, or that Himyar beareth
somewhat which he draweth along!
She then saw a man mending his sandal. But Jadis disbelieved;
Cassandra was slain and, when her eyes were cut out, the vessels were
found full of Ithmid. Hence Al-Mutanabbi sang:
"Sharper-sighted than Zarká of Jau" (Yamámah).
See C. de Perceval i. 101; Arab. Prov. i. 192; and Chenery (p. 381.
The Assemblies of Al-Hariri; London, Williams and Norgate, 1867). I
have made many enquiries into the true nature of Ithmid and failed to
learn anything: on the Upper Nile the word is=Kohl.
Footnote 197:
The general colour of chessmen in the east, where the game is played
on a cloth more often than a board.
Footnote 198:
Arab. "Al-fil," the elephant=the French fol or fou and our bishop. I
have derived "elephant" from Píl (old Persian, Sansk. Pilu) and Arab.
Fil, with the article Al-Fil, whence the Greek ἐλέφας the suffix—as
being devoted to barbarous words as Obod-as (Al-Ubayd), Aretas
(Al-Háris), etc. Mr. Isaac Taylor (The Alphabet i. 169), preserves the
old absurdity of "eleph-ant or ox-like (!) beast of Africa." Prof.
Sayce finds the word al-ab (two distinct characters) in line 3, above
the figure of an (Indian) elephant, on the black obelisk of Nimrod
Mound, and suggests an Assyrian derivation.
Footnote 199:
Arab. "Shaukat" which may also mean the "pride" or "mainstay" (of the
army).
Footnote 200:
Lit. "smote him on the tendons of his neck." This is the famous
shoulder-cut (Tawashshuh) which, with the leg-cut (Kalam), formed, and
still forms, the staple of Eastern attack with the sword.
Footnote 201:
Arab. "Dirás." Easterns do not thresh with flails. The material is
strewed over a round and smoothed floor of dried mud in the open air
and threshed by different contrivances. In Egypt the favourite is a
chair-like machine called "Norag," running on iron plates and drawn by
bulls or cows over the corn. Generally, however, Moslems prefer the
old classical Τρίβολον, the Tribulum of Virgil and Varro, a
slipper-shaped sled of wood garnished on the sole with large-headed
iron nails, or sharp fragments of flint or basalt. Thus is made the
"Tibn" or straw, the universal hay of the East, which our machines
cannot imitate.
Footnote 202:
These numbers appear to be grossly exaggerated, but they were possible
in the days of sword and armour: at the battle of Saffayn the Caliph
Ali is said to have cut down five hundred and twenty-three men in a
single night.
Footnote 203:
Arab. "Biká'a": hence the "Buka'ah" or Cœlesyria.
Footnote 204: