O take these purple robes away,
Give back my cloak of camel’s hair
And bear me from this towering pile
To where the black tents flap i’ the air, etc. etc.
[FN#96] AI-Hajjaj’s tribal name was Al-Thakifi or descendant of
Thakíf. According to Al-Mas’udi, he was son of Faríghah (the tall
Beauty) by Yúsuf bin Ukayl the Thakafite and vint au monde tout
difforme avec l’anus obstrué. As he refused the breast, Satan, in human
form, advised suckling him with the blood of two black kids, a black
buck-goat and a black snake; which had the desired effect.
[FN#97] Trebutien, iii., 465, translates these sayings into
Italian.
[FN#98] Making him a “Kawwád”=leader, _i.e._ pimp; a true piece of
feminine spite. But the Caliph prized Al-Hajjaj too highly to treat him
as in the text.
[FN#99] _i.e._ “The overflowing,” with benefits; on account of his
generosity.
[FN#100] The seventh Ommiade A. H. 96–99 (715–719). He died of his fine
appetite after eating at a sitting a lamb, six fowls, seventy
pomegranates, and 11¼ lbs. of currants. He was also proud of his
youth and beauty and was wont to say, “Mohammed was the Apostle and Abu
Bakr witness to the Truth; Omar the Discriminator and Othman the
Bashful, Mu’awiyah the Mild and Yazid the Patient; Abd al-Malik the
Administrator and Walid the Tyrant; but I am the Young King!”
[FN#101] Arab. Al-Jazírah, “the Island;” name of the region and the
capital.
[FN#102] _i.e._ “Repairer of the Slips of the Generous,” an evasive
reply, which of course did not deceive the questioner.
[FN#103] Arab. “Falastín,” now obsolete. The word has echoed far west
and the name of the noble race has been degraded to “Philister,” a
bourgeois, a greasy burgher.
[FN#104] Saying, “The Peace be with thee, O Prince of True
Believers!”
[FN#105] Arab. “Mutanakkir,” which may also mean proud or in disguise.
[FN#106] On appointment as viceroy. See vol. iii., 307.
[FN#107] The custom with outgoing Governors. It was adopted by the
Spaniards and Portuguese especially in America. The generosity of
Ikrimah without the slightest regard to justice or common honesty is
characteristic of the Arab in story-books.
[FN#108] The celebrated half-way house between Jaffa and
Jerusalem.
[FN#109] Alias the Kohistan or mountain region, Susiana (Khuzistan)
whose capital was Susa; and the head quarters of fire-worship. Azar
(fire) was the name of Abraham’s father whom Eusebius calls “Athar.”
(Pilgrimage iii. 336.)
[FN#110] Tenth Ommiade A.H. 105–125 (=724–743), a wise and discreet
ruler with an inclination to avarice and asceticism. According to some,
the Ommiades produced only three statesmen, Mu’awayah, Abd al-Malik and
Hisham; and the reign of the latter was the end of sage government and
wise administration.
[FN#111] About £1,250, which seems a long price; but in those days
Damascus had been enriched with the spoils of the world adjacent.
[FN#112] Eleventh Ommiade dynasty, A.H. 125–126 (=743–744). Ibn Sahl
(son of ease, _i.e._ free and easy) was a nickname; he was the son of
Yazíd II. and brother of Hishám. He scandalised the lieges by his
profligacy, wishing to make the pilgrimage in order to drink upon the
Ka’abah-roof; so they attacked the palace and lynched him. His death is
supposed to have been brought about (27th of Jamáda al-Akhirah = April
16, 744) by his cousin and successor Yazíd (No. iii.) surnamed the
Retrencher. The tale in the text speaks well for him; but generosity
amongst the Arabs covers a multitude of sins, and people say, “Better a
liberal sinner than a stingy saint.”
[FN#113] The tents of black wool woven by the Badawi women are
generally supported by three parallel rows of poles lengthways and
crossways (the highest line being the central) and the covering is
pegged down. Thus the outline of the roofs forms two or more hanging
curves, and these characterise the architecture of the Tartars and
Chinese; they are still preserved in the Turkish (and sometimes in the
European) “Kiosque,” and they have extended to the Brazil where the
upturned eaves, often painted vermilion below, at once attract the
traveller’s notice.
[FN#114] See vol. iv., 159. The author of “Antar,” known to Englishmen
by the old translation of Mr. Terrick Hamilton, secretary of Legation
at Constantinople. There is an abridgement of the forty-five volumes of
Al-Asma’i’s “Antar” which mostly supplies or rather supplied the
“Antariyyah” or professional tale-tellers; whose theme was the heroic
Mulatto lover.
[FN#115] The “Dakkah” or long wooden sofa, as opposed to the “mastabah”
or stone bench, is often a tall platform and in mosques is a kind of
ambo railed round and supported by columns. Here readers recite the
Koran: Lane (M.E. chapt. iii.) sketches it in the “Interior of a
Mosque.”
[FN#116] Alif (ا) Ha (ه) and Waw (و), the first, twenty-seventh and
twenty-sixth letters of the Arabic alphabet: No. 1 is the most simple
and difficult to write caligraphically.
[FN#117] Reeds washed with gold and used for love-letters, &c.
[FN#118] Lane introduced this tale into vol. i., p. 223, notes on
chapt. iii., apparently not knowing that it was in The Nights. He gives
a mere abstract, omitting all the verse, and he borrowed it either from
the Halbat al-Kumayt (chapt. xiv.) or from Al-Mas’údí (chapt. cxi.).
See the French translation, vol. vi. p. 340. I am at pains to
understand why M. C. Barbier de Maynard writes “Réchid” with an
accented vowel; although French delicacy made him render, by “fils de
courtisane,” the expression in the text, “O biter of thy mother’s
enlarged (or uncircumcised) clitoris” (Bazar).
[FN#119] In Al-Mas’údi the Devil is “a young man fair of favour and
formous of figure,” which is more appropriate to a “Tempter.” He also
wears light stuffs of dyed silks.
[FN#120] It would have been more courteous in an utter stranger to say,
O my lord.
[FN#121] The Arab Tempe (of fiction, not of grisly fact).
[FN#122] These four lines are in Al-Mas’údi, chapt, cxviii. Fr. Trans.
vii. 313, but that author does not tell us who wrote them.
[FN#123] _i.e._ Father of Bitterness=the Devil. This legend of the Foul
Fiend appearing to Ibrahim of Mosul (and also to Isam, N. dcxcv.) seems
to have been accepted by contemporaries and reminds us of similar
visitations in Europe—notably to Dr. Faust. One can only exclaim, “Lor,
papa, what nonsense you are talking!” the words of a small girl whose
father thought proper to indoctrinate her into certain Biblical
stories. I once began to write a biography of the Devil; but I found
that European folk-lore had made such an unmitigated fool of the grand
old Typhon-Ahriman as to take away from him all human interest.
[FN#124] In Al-Mas’udi the Caliph exclaims, “Verily thou hast received
a visit from Satan!”
[FN#125] Al-Mas’udi, chapt. cxix. (Fr. transl. vii., 351) mentions the
Banu Odhrah as famed for lovers and tells the pathetic tale of ‘Orwah
and ‘Afrá.
[FN#126] Jamil bin Ma’amar the poet has been noticed in Vol. ii. 102;
and he has no business here as he died years before Al-Rashid was born.
The tale begins like that of Ibn Mansúr and the Lady Budúr (Night
cccxxvii.), except that Mansur does not offer his advice.
[FN#127] Arab. “Halumma,” an interjection=bring! a congener of the Heb.
“Halúm”; the grammarians of Kufah and Bassorah are divided concerning
its origin.
[FN#128] Arab. “Nafs-í” which here corresponds with our canting “the
flesh” the “Old Adam,” &c.
[FN#129] Arab. “Atmárí” used for travel. The Anglo-Americans are the
only people who have the common sense to travel (where they are not
known) in their “store clothes” and reserve the worst for where they
are known.
[FN#130] _e.g._ a branch or bough.
[FN#131] Arab. “Ráyah káimah,” which Lane translates a “beast
standing”!
[FN#132] Tying up the near foreleg just above the knee; and even with
this a camel can hop over sundry miles of ground in the course of a
night. The hobbling is shown in Lane. (Nights vol. ii., p. 46.)
[FN#133] As opposed to “Severance” in the old knightly language of
love, which is now apparently lost to the world. I tried it in the
Lyrics of Camoens and found that I was speaking a forgotten tongue,
which mightily amused the common sort of critic and reviewer.
[FN#134] More exactly three days and eight hours, after which the guest
becomes a friend, and as in the Argentine prairies is expected to do
friend’s duty. The popular saying is, “The entertainment of a guest is
three days; the viaticum (jáizah) is a day and a night, and whatso
exceedeth this is alms.”
[FN#135] Arab. “‘Ashírah.” Books tell us there are seven degrees of
connection among the Badawin: Sha’ab, tribe or rather race; nation (as
the Anazah) descended from a common ancestor; Kabílah the tribe proper
(whence _les Kabyles_); Fasílah (sept), Imarah; Ashirah (all a man’s
connections); Fakhiz (lit. the thigh, i.e., his blood relations) and
Batn (belly) his kith and kin. Practically Kabílah is the tribe,
Ashírah the clan, and Bayt the household; while Hayy may be anything
between tribe and kith and kin.
[FN#136] This is the true platonic love of noble Arabs, the
Ishk ‘uzrí, noted in vol. ii., 104.
[FN#137] Arab. “‘Alá raghm,” a favourite term. It occurs in theology;
for instance, when the Shí’ahs are asked the cause of such and such a
ritual distinction they will reply, “Ala raghmi ‘l-Tasannun”: lit.=to
spite the Sunnis.
[FN#138] In the text “Al-Kaus” for which Lane and Payne substitute a
shield. The bow had not been mentioned but—_n’importe_, the Arab reader
would say. In the text it is left at home because it is a cowardly,
far-killing weapon compared with sword and lance. Hence the Spaniard
calls and justly calls the knife the “bravest of arms” as it wants a
man behind it.
[FN#139] Arab. “Rahim” or “Rihm”=womb, uterine relations, pity or
sympathy, which may here be meant.
[FN#140] Reciting Fátihahs and so forth, as I have described in the
Cemetery of Al-Medinah (ii. 300). Moslems do not pay for prayers to
benefit the dead like the majority of Christendom and, according to
Calvinistic Wahhábi-ism, their prayers and blessings are of no avail.
But the mourner’s heart loathes reason and he prays for his dead
instinctively like the so-termed “Protestant.” Amongst the latter, by
the bye, I find four great _Sommités_, (1) Paul of Tarsus who protested
against the Hebraism of Peter; (2) Mohammed who protested against the
perversions of Christianity; (3) Luther who protested against Italian
rule in Germany, and lastly (4) one (who shall be nameless) that
protests against the whole business.
[FN#141] Lane transfers this to vol. i. 520 (notes to chapt. vii); and
gives a mere abstract as of that preceding.
[FN#142] We learn from Ibn Batutah that it stood South of the Great
Mosque and afterwards became the Coppersmiths’ Bazar. The site was
known as Al-Khazrá (the Green) and the building was destroyed by the
Abbasides. See Defrémery and Sanguinetti, i. 206.
[FN#143] This great tribe or rather nation has been noticed before
(vol. ii. 170). The name means “Strong,” and derives from one Tamim bin
Murr of the race of Adnan, nat. circ. A.D. 121. They hold the
North-Eastern uplands of Najd, comprising the great desert Al-Dahná and
extend to Al-Bahrayn. They are split up into a multitude of clans and
septs; and they can boast of producing two famous sectarians. One was
Abdullah bin Suffár, head of the Suffriyah; and the other Abdullah bin
Ibáz (Ibadh) whence the Ibázíyah heretics of Oman who long included
her princes. Mr. Palgrave wrongly writes Abadeeyah and Biadeeyah and my
“Bayázi” was an Arab vulgarism used by the Zanzibarians. Dr. Badger
rightly prefers Ibáziyah which he writes Ibâdhiyah (Hist. of the Imams,
etc.).
[FN#144] Governor of Al-Medinah under Mu’awiyah and afterwards (A.H.
64–65=683–4) fourth Ommiade. Al-Siyúti (p. 216) will not account him
amongst the princes of the Faithful, holding him a rebel against
Al-Zubayr. Ockley makes Ibn al-Zubayr ninth and Marwán tenth Caliph.
[FN#145] The address, without the vocative particle, is more emphatic;
and the P.N. Mu’awiyah seems to court the omission.
[FN#146] This may also mean that the £500 were the woman’s “mahr” or
marriage dowry and the £250 a present to buy the father’s consent.
[FN#147] Quite true to nature. See an account of the quasi-epileptic
fits to which Syrians are subject and by them called Al-Wahtah in “The
Inner Life of Syria,” i. 233.
[FN#148] Arab. “Wayha-k” here equivalent to Wayla-k. M. C. Barbier de
Meynard renders the first “mon ami” and the second “misérable.”
[FN#149] This is an instance when the article (Al) is correctly used
with one proper name and not with another. Al-Kumayt (P. N. of poet)
lit. means a bay horse with black points: Nasr is victory.
[FN#150] This anecdote, which reads like truth, is ample set off for a
cart-load of abuse of women. But even the Hindus, determined
misogynists in books, sometimes relent. Says the Katha Sarit Sagara:
“So you see, King, honourable matrons are devoted to their husbands,
and it is not the case that all women are always bad” (ii. 624). Let me
hope that after all this Mistress Su’ad did not lead her husband a
hardish life.
[FN#151] Al-Khalí’a has been explained in vol. i. 311 {Vol 1, FN#633}:
the translation of Al-Mas’udi (vi. 10) renders it “scélérat.” Abú Alí
al-Husayn the Wag was a Bassorite and a worthy companion of Abu Nowas
the Debauchee; but he adorned the Court of Al-Amin the son, not of
Al-Rashid the father.
[FN#152] Governor of Bassorah, but not in Al-Husayn’s day.
[FN#153] The famous market-place where poems were recited, mentioned by
Al-Hariri.
[FN#154] A quarter of Bassorah.
[FN#155] Capital of Al-Yaman, and then famed for its leather and other
work (vol. v. 16).
[FN#156] The creases in the stomach like the large navel are always
insisted upon. Says the Kathá (ii. 525) “And he looked on that torrent
river of the elixir of beauty, adorned with a waist made charming by
those wave-like wrinkles,” etc.
[FN#157] Arab. Sabaj (not Sabah, as the Mac. Edit. misprints it): I am
not sure of its meaning.
[FN#158] A truly Arab conceit, suggesting—
The music breathing from her face;
her calves moved rhythmically, suggesting the movement and consequent
sound of a musical instrument.
[FN#159] The _morosa voluptas_ of the Catholic divines. The Sapphist
described in the text would procure an orgasm (_in gloria_, as the
Italians call it) by biting and rolling over the girl she loved; but by
loosening the trouser-string she evidently aims at a closer tribadism—the
Arab “Musáhikah.”
[FN#160] We drink (or drank) after dinner, Easterns before the meal and
half-Easterns (like the Russians) before and after. We talk of liquor
being unwholesome on an empty stomach; but the truth is that all is
purely habit. And as the Russian accompanies his Vodki with caviare,
etc., so the Oriental drinks his Raki or Mahayá (Ma al-hayát=aqua vitæ)
alternately with a Salátah, for whose composition see Pilgrimage i.
198. The Eastern practice has its advantages: it awakens the appetite,
stimulates digestion and, what Easterns greatly regard, it is
economical; half a bottle doing the work of a whole. Bhang and Kusumbá
(opium dissolved and strained through a pledget of cotton) are always
drunk before dinner and thus the “jolly” time is the preprandial, not
the postprandial.
[FN#161] “Abu al-Sakhá” (pronounced Abussakhá) = Father of munificence.
[FN#162] ‘Arab. “Shammara,” also used for gathering up the gown, so as
to run the faster.
[FN#163] i.e., blessing the Prophet and all True Believers (herself
included).
[FN#164] The style of this letter is that of a public scribe in a Cairo
market-place thirty years ago.
[FN#165] i.e., she could not help falling in love with this beauty man.
[FN#166] “Kudrat,” used somewhat in the sense of our vague
“Providence.” The sentence means, leave Omnipotence to manage him. Mr.
Redhouse, who forces a likeness between Moslem and Christian theology,
tells us that “Qader is unjustly translated by Fate and Destiny, an old
pagan idea abhorrent to Al-Islam which reposes on God’s providence.” He
makes Kazá and Kismet quasi-synonymes of “Qazá” and “Qader,” the former
signifying God’s decree, the latter our allotted portion, and he would
render both by dispensation. Of course it is convenient to forget the
Guarded Tablet of the learned and the Night of Power and skull-lectures
of the vulgar. The eminent Turkish scholar would also translate Salát
by worship (du’á being prayer) because it signifies a simple act of
adoration without entreaty. If he will read the Opener of the Koran,
recited in every set of prayers, he will find an especial request to be
“led to the path which is straight.” These vagaries are seriously
adopted by Mr. E. J. W. Gibb in his Ottoman Poems (p. 245, etc.)
London: Trübner and Co., 1882; and they deserve, I think, reprehension,
because they serve only to mislead; and the high authority of the
source whence they come necessarily recommends them to many.
[FN#167] The reader will have noticed the likeness of this tale to that
of Ibn Mansúr and the Lady Budúr (vol. iv., 228 et seq.){Vol 4, Tale
42} For this reason Lane leaves it untranslated (iii. 252).
[FN#168] Lane also omits this tale (iii. 252). See Night dclxxxviii.,
vol. vii. p. 113 et seq., for a variant of the story.
[FN#169] Third Abbaside, A.H. 158–169 (=775–785), and father of Harun
Al-Rashid. He is known chiefly for his eccentricities, such as cutting
the throats of all his carrier-pigeons, making a man dine off marrow
and sugar and having snow sent to him at Meccah, a distance of 700
miles.
[FN#170] Arab. “Mirt”; the dictionaries give a short shift, cloak or
breeches of wool or coarse silk.
[FN#171] Arab. “Mayázíb” plur. of the Pers. Mizáb (orig.
Míz-i-áb=channel of water) a spout for roof-rain. That which drains
the Ka’abah on the N.-W. side is called Mizáb al-Rahmah (Gargoyle of
Mercy) and pilgrims stand under it for a douche of holy water. It is
supposed to be of gold, but really of silver gold-plated and is
described of Burckhardt and myself. (Pilgrimage iii. 164.) The length
is 4 feet 10 in.; width 9 in.; height of sides 8 in.; and slope at
mouth 1 foot 6 in long.
[FN#172] The Mac. and Bul. Edits. have by mistake “Son of Ishak.” Lane
has “Is-hak the son of Ibrahim” following Trébutien (iii. 483) but
suggests in a note the right reading as above.
[FN#173] Again masculine for feminine.
[FN#174] There are two of this name. The Upper al-Akik contains the
whole site of Al-Medinah; the Lower is on the Meccan road about four
miles S.W. of the city. The Prophet called it “blessed” because ordered
by an angel to pray therein. The poets have said pretty things about
it, _e.g._
O friend, this is the vale Akik; here stand and strive in
thought:
If not a very lover, strive to be by love-distraught!
for whose esoteric meaning see Pilgrimage ii. 24. I passed through
Al-Akík in July when it was dry as summer dust and its “beautiful
trees” were mere vegetable mummies.
[FN#175] Those who live in the wet climates of the Northern temperates
can hardly understand the delight of a shower in rainless lands, like
Arabia and Nubia. In Sind we used to strip and stand in the downfall
and raise faces sky-wards to get the full benefit of the douche. In
Southern Persia food is hastily cooked at such times, wine strained,
Kaliuns made ready and horses saddled for a ride to the nearest gardens
and a happy drinking-bout under the cypresses. If a man refused, his
friends would say of him, “See how he turns his back upon the blessing
of Allah!” (like an ass which presents its tail to the weather).
[FN#176] _i.e._ the destruction of the Barmecides.
[FN#177] He was Wazir to the Great “Saladin” (Saláh al-Din = one
conforming with the Faith): see vol. iv. 271, where Saladin is also
entitled Al-Malik al-Nasir = the Conquering King. He was a Kurd and
therefore fond of boys (like Virgil, Horace, etc.), but that perversion
did not prevent his being one of the noblest of men. He lies in the
Great Amawi Mosque of Damascus and I never visited a tomb with more
reverence.
[FN#178] Arab. “Ahassa bi’l-Shurbah;” in our idiom “he smelt a rat”.
[FN#179] This and the next tale are omitted by Lane (iii. 254) on
“account of its vulgarity, rendered more objectionable by indecent
incidents.” It has been honoured with a lithographed reprint at Cairo
A.H. 1278 and the Bresl. Edit. ix. 193 calls it the “Tale of Ahmad
al-Danaf with Dalílah.”
[FN#180] “Ahmad, the Distressing Sickness,” or “Calamity;” Hasan the
Pestilent and Dalílah the bawd. See vol. ii. 329, and vol. iv. 75.
[FN#181] A fœtus, a foundling, a contemptible fellow.
[FN#182] In the Mac. Edit. “her husband”: the end of the tale shows the
error, _infra_, p. 171. The Bresl. Edit., x. 195, informs us that Dalilah
was a “Faylasúfiyah”=philosopheress.
[FN#183] Arab. “Ibrík” usually a ewer, a spout-pot, from the Pers.
Ab-ríz=water-pourer: the old woman thus vaunted her ceremonial purity.
The basin and ewer are called in poetry “the two rumourers,” because
they rattle when borne about.
[FN#184] Khátún in Turk. is=a lady, a dame of high degree; at times as
here and elsewhere, it becomes a P. N.
[FN#185] Arab. “Maut,” a word mostly avoided in the Koran and by the
Founder of Christianity.
[FN#186] Arab. “Akákír,” drugs, spices, simples which cannot be
distinguished without study and practice. Hence the proverb
(Burckhardt, 703), Is this an art of drugs?—difficult as the druggist’s
craft?
[FN#187] _i.e._ Beautiful as the fairy damsels who guard enchanted
treasures, such as that of Al-Shamardal (vol. vi. 221).
[FN#188] _i.e._ by contact with a person in a state of ceremonial
impurity; servants are not particular upon this point and “Salát
mamlúkíyah” (Mameluke’s prayers) means praying without ablution.
[FN#189] _i.e._ Father of assaults, burdens or pregnancies; the last
being here the meaning.
[FN#190] Ex votos and so forth.
[FN#191] Arab. “Iksah,” plaits, braids, also the little gold coins and
other ornaments worn in the hair, now mostly by the middle and lower
classes. Low Europeans sometimes take advantage of the native
prostitutes by detaching these valuables, a form of “bilking” peculiar
to the Nile-Valley.
[FN#192] In Bresl. Edit. Malíh Kawí (pron. ‘Awi), a Cairene
vulgarism.
[FN#193] Meaning without veil or upper clothing.
[FN#194] Arab. “Kallakás” the edible African arum before explained.
This Colocasia is supposed to bear, unlike the palm, male and female
flowers in one spathe.
[FN#195] See vol. iii. 302. The figs refer to the anus and the
pomegranates, like the sycomore, to the female parts. Me nec fæmina nec
puer, &c., says Horace in pensive mood.
[FN#196] It is in accordance to custom that the Shaykh be attended by a
half-witted fanatic who would be made furious by seeing gold and silks
in the reverend presence so coyly curtained.
[FN#197] In English, “God damn everything an inch high!”
[FN#198] Burckhardt notes that the Wali, or chief police officer at
Cairo, was exclusively termed Al-Aghá and quotes the proverb (No. 156)
“One night the whore repented and cried:—What! no Wali (Al-Aghá) to lay
whores by the heels?” Some of these Egyptian by-words are most amusing
and characteristic; but they require literal translation, not the timid
touch of the last generation. I am preparing, for the use of my friend,
Bernard Quaritch, a bonâ fide version which awaits only the promised
volume of Herr Landberg.
[FN#199] Lit. for “we leave them for the present”: the formula is much
used in this tale, showing another hand, author or copyist.
[FN#200] Arab. “Uzrah.”
[FN#201] _i.e._ “Thou art unjust and violent enough to wrong even the
Caliph!”
[FN#202] I may note that a “donkey-boy” like our “post-boy” can be of
any age in Egypt.
[FN#203] They could legally demand to be recouped but the chief would
have found some pretext to put off payment. Such at least is the legal
process of these days.
[FN#204] _i.e._ drunk with the excess of his beauty.
[FN#205] A delicate way of offering a fee. When officers commanding
regiments in India contracted for clothing the men, they found these
douceurs under their dinner-napkins. All that is now changed; but I
doubt the change being an improvement: the public is plundered by a
“Board” instead of an individual.
[FN#206] This may mean, I should know her even were my eyes blue (or
blind) with cataract and the Bresl. Edit. ix. 231, reads “Ayní”=my
eye; or it may be, I should know her by her staring, glittering, hungry
eyes, as opposed to the “Hawar” soft-black and languishing (Arab. Prov.
i. 115, and ii. 848). The Prophet said “blue-eyed (women) are of good
omen.” And when one man reproached another saying “Thou art Azrak”
(blue-eyed!) he retorted, “So is the falcon!” “Zurk-an” in Kor. xx.
102, is translated by Mr. Rodwell “leaden eyes.” It ought to be
blue-eyed, dim-sighted, purblind.
[FN#207] Arab, “Zalábiyah bi-‘Asal.”
[FN#208] Arab. “Ká’ah,” their mess-room, barracks.
[FN#209] _i.e._ Camel shoulder-blade.
[FN#210] So in the Brazil you are invited to drink a copa d’agua and
find a splendid banquet. There is a smack of Chinese ceremony in this
practice which lingers throughout southern Europe; but the less
advanced society is, the more it is fettered by ceremony and
“etiquette.”
[FN#211] The Bresl. edit. (ix. 239) prefers these lines:—
Some of us be hawks and some sparrow-hawks, *
And vultures some which at carrion pike;
And maidens deem all alike we be *
But, save in our turbands, we’re not alike.
[FN#212] Arab. Shar’a=holy law; here it especially applies to
Al-Kisás=_lex talionis_, which would order her eye-tooth to be torn out.
[FN#213] i.e., of the Afghans. Sulaymáni is the Egypt and Hijazi term
for an Afghan and the proverb says “Sulaymáni harámi”—the Afghan is a
villainous man. See Pilgrimage i. 59, which gives them a better
character. The Bresl. Edit. simply says, “King Sulaymán.”
[FN#214] This is a sequel to the Story of Dalilah and both are highly
relished by Arabs. The Bresl. Edit. ix. 245, runs both into one.
[FN#215] Arab. “Misr” (Masr), the Capital, says Savary, applied
alternately to Memphis, Fostat and Grand Cairo each of which had a
Jízah (pron. Gízah), skirt, angle, outlying suburb.
[FN#216] For the curious street-cries of old Cairo see Lane (M. E.
chapt. xiv.) and my Pilgrimage (i. 120): here the rhymes are of Zabíb
(raisins), habíb (lover) and labíb (man of sense).
[FN#217] The Mac. and Bul. Edits. give two silly couplets of moral
advice:—
Strike with thy stubborn steel, and never fear *
Aught save the Godhead of Almighty Might;
And shun ill practices and never show *
Through life but generous gifts to human sight.
The above is from the Bresl. Edit. ix. 247.
[FN#218] Arab. “Al-Khanakah” now more usually termed a
Takíyah. (Pilgrim. i. 124.)
[FN#219] Arab. “Ka’b al-ba’íd” (Bresl. Edit. ix. 255)=heel or ankle,
metaph. for fortune, reputation: so the Arabs say the “Ka’b of the
tribe is gone!” here “the far one”=the caravan-leader.
[FN#220] Arab. “Sharít,” from Sharata=he Scarified; “Mishrat”=a lancet
and “Sharítah”=a mason’s rule. Mr. Payne renders “Sharít” by
whinyard: it must be a chopper-like weapon, with a pin or screw
(laulab) to keep the blade open like the snap of the Spaniard’s
cuchillo. Dozy explains it=epée, synonyme de Sayf.
[FN#221] Text “Dimágh,” a Persianism when used for the head: the word
properly means brain or meninx.
[FN#222] They were afraid even to stand and answer this remarkable
ruffian.
[FN#223] Ahmad the Abortion, or the Foundling, nephew (sister’s son) of
Zaynab the Coney-catcher. See supra, p. 145.
[FN#224] Here the sharp lad discovers the direction without pointing it
out. I need hardly enlarge upon the prehensile powers of the Eastern
foot: the tailor will hold his cloth between his toes and pick up his
needle with it, whilst the woman can knead every muscle and at times
catch a mosquito between the toes. I knew an officer in India whose
mistress hurt his feelings by so doing at a critical time when he
attributed her movement to pleasure.
[FN#225] Arab. “Hullah”=dress. In old days it was composed of the Burd
or Ridá, the shoulder-cloth from 6 to 9 or 10 feet long, and the Izár
or waistcloth which was either tied or tucked into a girdle of leather
or metal. The woman’s waistcloth was called Nitáh and descended to the
feet while the upper part was doubled and provided with a Tikkah or
string over which it fell to the knees, overhanging the lower folds.
This doubling of the “Hujrah,” or part round the waist, was called the
“Hubkah.”
[FN#226] Arab. “Taghaddá,” the dinner being at eleven a.m. or noon.
[FN#227] Arab. Ghandúr for which the Dictionaries give only “fat,
thick.” It applies in Arabia especially to a Harámi, brigand or
freebooter, most honourable of professions, slain in foray or fray,
opposed to “Fatís” or carrion (the _corps crévé_ of the Klephts), the
man who dies the straw-death. Pilgrimage iii. 66.
[FN#228] My fair readers will note with surprise how such matters are
hurried in the East. The picture is, however, true to life in lands
where “flirtation” is utterly unknown and, indeed, impossible.
[FN#229] Arab. “Zabbah,” the wooden bolt (before noticed) which forms
the lock and is opened by a slider and pins. It is illustrated by Lane
(M. E. Introduction).
[FN#230] _i.e._ I am not a petty thief.
[FN#231] Arab. Satl=kettle, bucket. Lat. Situla (?).
[FN#232] _i.e._ “there is no chance of his escaping.” It may also mean,
“And far from him (Hayhát) is escape.”
[FN#233] Arab. “Ihtilám,” the sign of puberty in boy or girl; this,
like all emissions of semen, voluntary or involuntary, requires the
Ghuzl or total ablution before prayers can be said, etc. See vol. v.
199, in the Tale of Tawaddud.
[FN#234] This is the way to take an Eastern when he tells a deliberate
lie; and it often surprises him into speaking the truth.
[FN#235] The conjunctiva in Africans is seldom white; often it is red
and more frequently yellow.
[FN#236] So in the texts, possibly a clerical error for the wine which
he had brought with the kabobs. But beer is the especial tipple of
African slaves in Egypt.
[FN#237] Arab. “Laun”, prop.=color, hue; but applied to species and
genus, our “kind”; and especially to dishes which differ in appearance;
whilst in Egypt it means any dish.
[FN#238] Arab. “Zardah”=rice dressed with honey and saffron.
Vol. ii. 313. The word is still common in Turkey.
[FN#239] Arab. “Laylat Ams,” the night of yesterday (Al-bárihah) not
our “last night” which would be the night of the day spoken of.
[FN#240] Arab. “Yakhní,” a word much used in Persia and India and
properly applied to the complicated broth prepared for the rice and
meat. For a good recipe see Herklots, Appendix xxix.
[FN#241] In token of defeat and in acknowledgment that she was no match
for men.
[FN#242] This is a neat touch of nature. Many a woman, even of the
world, has fallen in love with a man before indifferent to her because
he did not take advantage of her when he had the opportunity.
[FN#243] The slightest movement causes a fight at a funeral or a
wedding-procession in the East; even amongst the “mild Hindus.”
[FN#244] Arab. “Al-Musrán” (plur. of “Masír”) properly the intestines
which contain the chyle. The bag made by Ali was, in fact, a “Cundum”
(so called from the inventor, Colonel Cundum of the Guards in the days
of Charles Second) or “French letter”; une capote anglaise, a “check
upon child.” Captain Grose says (Class. Dict. etc. s.v. Cundum) “The
dried gut of a sheep worn by a man in the act of coition to prevent
venereal infection. These machines were long prepared and sold by a
matron of the name of Philips at the Green Canister in Half Moon Street
in the Strand * * * Also a false scabbard over a sword and the oilskin
case for the colours of a regiment.” Another account is given in the
Guide Pratique des Maladies Secrètes, Dr. G. Harris, Bruxelles.
Librairie Populaire. He calls these petits sachets de baudruche
“Candoms, from the doctor who invented them” (Littré ignores the word)
and declares that the famous Ricord compared them with a bad umbrella
which a storm can break or burst, while others term them cuirasses
against pleasure and cobwebs against infection. They were much used in
the last century. “Those pretended stolen goods were Mr. Wilkes’s
Papers, many of which tended to prove his authorship of the North
Briton, No. 45, April 23, 1763, and some _Cundums_ enclosed in an
envelope” (Records of C. of King’s Bench, London, 1763). “Pour finir
l’inventaire de ces curiosités du cabinet de Madame Gourdan, il ne faut
pas omettre une multitude de _redingottes_ appelées _d’Angleterre_, je ne
sais pourquois. Vous connoissez, au surplus, ces espèces de boucliers
qu’on oppose aux traits empoisonnés de l’amour; et qui n’emoussent que
ceux du plaisir.” (L’Observateur Anglois, Londres 1778, iii. 69.) Again
we read:—
“Les capotes mélancoliques
Qui pendent chez les gros Millan (?)
S’enflent d’elles-memes, lubriques,
Et dechargent en se gonflant.”
Passage Satyrique.