(rich) milk copiously; and the phrase expresses admiration, “To Allah
be ascribed (or Allah be praised for) his rich eloquence who said,”
etc. Some Hebraists would render it, “Divinely (well) did he speak who
said,” etc., holding “Allah” to express a superlative like “Yah” (Jah)
in Gen. iv. 1; x. 9. Nimrod was a hunter to the person (or presence)
of Yah, _i.e._ mighty hunter.
Footnote 20:
Hamzah and Abbás were the famous uncles of Mohammed often noticed;
Ukayl is not known; possibly it may be Akíl, a son of the fourth
Caliph, Ali.
Footnote 21:
The Eastern ring is rarely plain; and, its use being that of a signet,
it is always in intaglio: the Egyptians invented engraving
hieroglyphics on wooden stamps for marking bricks and applied the
process to the ring. Moses B.C. 1491 (Exod. xxviii. 9) took two
onyx-stones, and graved on them the names of the children of Israel.
From this the signet ring was but a step. Herodotus mentions an
emerald seal set in gold, that of Polycrates, the work of Theodorus
son of Telecles the Samian (iii. 141). The Egyptians also were
perfectly acquainted with working in cameo (anaglyph) and rilievo, as
may be seen in the cavo rilievo of the finest of their hieroglyphs.
The Greeks borrowed from them the cameo and applied it to gems (_e.g._
Tryphon’s in the Marlborough collection), and they bequeathed the art
to the Romans. We read in a modern book “Cameo means an onyx, and the
most famous cameo in the world is the onyx containing the Apotheosis
of Augustus.” The ring is given in marriage because it was a seal by
which orders were signed (Gen. xxxviii. 18 and Esther iii. 10-12). I
may note that the seal-ring of Cheops (Khufu), found in the Greatest
Pyramid, was in the possession of my old friend, Doctor Abbott, of
Auburn (U.S.), and was sold with his collection. It is the oldest ring
in the world, and settles the Cheops-question.
Footnote 22:
This habit of weeping when friends meet after long parting is
customary, I have noted, amongst the American “Indians,” the Badawin
of the New World; they shed tears thinking of the friends they have
lost. Like most primitive people they are ever ready to weep as was
Æneas or Shakespeare’s saline personage:—
This would make a man, a man of salt
To use his eyes for garden waterpots.
(King Lear, iv. 6.)
Footnote 23:
Here poetical justice is not done; in most Arab tales the two
adulterous Queens would have been put to death.
ALA AL-DIN ABU AL-SHAMAT.”[24]
“What is that?” asked he, and she said, It hath reached me that there
lived, in times of yore and years and ages long gone before, a merchant
of Cairo[25] named Shams al-Din, who was of the best and truest-spoken
of the traders of the city; and he had eunuchs and servants and
negro-slaves and handmaids and Mamelukes and great store of money.
Moreover, he was Consul[26] of the Merchants of Cairo and owned a wife,
whom he loved and who loved him; except that he had lived with her forty
years, yet had not been blessed with a son or even a daughter. One day,
as he sat in his shop, he noted that the merchants, each and every, had
a son or two sons or more sitting in their shops like their sires. Now
the day being Friday; he entered the Hammam-bath and made the total
ablution: after which he came out and took the barber’s glass and looked
in it, saying, “I testify that there is no god but _the_ God and I
testify that Mohammed is the Messenger of God!” Then he considered his
beard and, seeing that the white hairs in it covered the black,
bethought himself that hoariness is the harbinger of death. Now his wife
knew the time of his coming home and had washed and made herself ready
for him, so when he came in to her, she said, “Good evening,” but he
replied “I see no good.” Then she called to the handmaid, “Spread the
supper-tray;” and when this was done quoth she to her husband, “Sup, O
my lord.” Quoth he, “I will eat nothing,” and pushing the tray away with
his foot, turned his back upon her. She asked, “Why dost thou thus? and
what hath vexed thee?”; and he answered, “Thou art the cause of my
vexation.”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying
her permitted say.
Now when it was the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Shams al-Din said
to his wife, “Thou art the cause of my vexation.” She asked,
“Wherefore?” and he answered, “When I opened my shop this morning, I saw
that each and every of the merchants had with him a son or two sons or
more, sitting in their shops like their fathers; and I said to
myself:—He who took thy sire will not spare thee. Now the night I first
visited thee,[27] thou madest me swear that I would never take a second
wife over thee nor a concubine, Abyssinian or Greek or handmaid of other
race; nor would lie a single night away from thee: and behold, thou art
barren, and having thee is like boring into the rock.” Rejoined she,
“Allah is my witness that the fault lies with thee, for that thy seed is
thin.” He asked, “And what showeth the man whose semen is thin?” And she
answered, “He cannot get women with child, nor beget children.” Quoth
he, “What thickeneth the seed? tell me and I will buy it: haply, it will
thicken mine.” Quoth she, “Enquire for it of the druggists.” So he slept
with her that night and arose on the morrow, repenting of having spoken
angrily to her; and she also regretted her cross words. Then he went to
the market and, finding a druggist, saluted him; and when his salutation
was returned said to him, “Say, hast thou with thee a seed-thickener?”
He replied, “I had it, but am out of it: enquire thou of my neighbour.”
Then Shams al-Din made the round till he had asked every one, but they
all laughed at him, and presently he returned to his shop and sat down,
sore troubled. Now there was in the bazar a man who was Deputy Syndic of
the brokers and was given to the use of opium and electuary and green
hashísh.[28] He was called Shaykh Mohammed Samsam and being poor he used
to wish Shams al-Din good morrow every day. So he came to him according
to his custom and saluted him. The merchant returned his salute, but in
ill-temper, and the other, seeing him vexed, said, “O my lord, what hath
crossed thee?” Thereupon Shams al-Din told him all that occurred between
himself and his wife, adding, “These forty years have I been married to
her yet hath she borne me neither son nor daughter; and they say:—The
cause of thy failure to get her with child is the thinness of thy seed;
so I have been seeking a something wherewith to thicken my semen but
found it not.” Quoth Shaykh Mohammed, “O my lord, I have a
seed-thickener, but what wilt thou say to him who causeth thy wife to
conceive by thee after these forty years have passed?” Answered the
merchant, “If thou do this, I will work thy weal and reward thee.” “Then
give me a dinar,” rejoined the broker, and Shams al-Din said, “Take
these two dinars.” He took them and said, “Give me also yonder big bowl
of porcelain.” So he gave it to him and the broker betook himself to a
hashish-seller, of whom he bought two ounces of concentrated Roumi opium
and equal parts of Chinese cubebs, cinnamon, cloves, cardamoms, ginger,
white pepper and mountain skink[29]; and, pounding them all together,
boiled them in sweet olive-oil; after which he added three ounces of
male frankincense in fragments and a cupful of coriander-seed; and,
macerating the whole, made it into an electuary with Roumi bee-honey.
Then he put the confection in the bowl and carried it to the merchant,
to whom he delivered it, saying, “Here is the seed-thickener, and the
manner of using it is this. Take of my electuary with a spoon after
supping, and wash it down with a sherbet made of rose conserve; but
first sup off mutton and house-pigeon plentifully seasoned and hotly
spiced.” So the merchant bought all this and sent the meat and pigeons
to his wife, saying; “Dress them deftly and lay up the seed-thickener
until I want it and call for it.” She did his bidding and, when she
served up the meats, he ate the evening meal, after which he called for
the bowl and ate of the electuary. It pleased him well, so he ate the
rest and knew his wife. That very night she conceived by him and, after
three months, her courses ceased, no blood came from her and she knew
that she was with child. When the days of her pregnancy were
accomplished, the pangs of labour took her and they raised loud
lullilooings and cries of joy. The midwife delivered her with
difficulty, by pronouncing over the boy at his birth the names of
Mohammed and Ali, and said, “Allah is Most Great!”; and she called in
his ear the call to prayer. Then she wrapped him up and passed him to
his mother, who took him and gave him the breast; and he sucked and was
full and slept. The midwife abode with them three days, till they had
made the mothering-cakes of sugared bread and sweetmeats; and they
distributed them on the seventh day. Then they sprinkled salt against
the evil eye and the merchant, going in to his wife, gave her joy of her
safe delivery, and said, “Where is Allah’s deposit?” So they brought him
a babe of surpassing beauty, the handiwork of the Orderer who is ever
present and, though he was but seven days old, those who saw him would
have deemed him a yearling child. So the merchant looked on his face
and, seeing it like a shining full moon, with moles on either cheek,
said he to his wife, “What hast thou named him?” Answered she, “If it
were a girl I had named her; but this is a boy, so none shall name him
but thou.” Now the people of that time used to name their children by
omens; and, whilst the merchant and his wife were taking counsel of the
name, behold, one said to his friend, “Ho my lord, Ala al-Din!” So the
merchant said, “We will call him Ala al-Din Abú al-Shámát.”[30] Then he
committed the child to the nurse, and he drank milk two years, after
which they weaned him and he grew up and throve and walked upon the
floor. When he came to seven years old, they put him in a chamber under
a trap-door, for fear of the evil eye, and his father said, “He shall
not come out, till his beard grow.” So he gave him in charge to a
handmaid and a blackamoor; the girl dressed him his meals and the slave
carried them to him. Then his father circumcised him and made him a
great feast; after which he brought him a doctor of the law, who taught
him to write and read and repeat the Koran, and other arts and sciences,
till he became a good scholar and an accomplished. One day it so came to
pass that the slave, after bringing him the tray of food went away and
left the trap-door open: so Ala al-Din came forth from the vault and
went in to his mother, with whom was a company of women of rank. As they
sat talking, behold, in came upon them the youth as he were a white
slave drunken[31] for the excess of his beauty; and when they saw him,
they veiled their faces and said to his mother, “Allah requite thee, O
such an one! How canst thou let this strange Mameluke in upon us?
Knowest thou not that modesty is a point of the Faith?” She replied,
“Pronounce Allah’s name[32] and cry Bismillah! this is my son, the fruit
of my vitals and the heir of Consul Shams al-Din, the child of the nurse
and the collar and the crust and the crumb.”[33] Quoth they, “Never in
our days knew we that thou hadst a son”; and quoth she, “Verily his
father feared for him the evil eye and reared him in an under-ground
chamber;”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her
permitted say.
Now when it was the Two Hundred and Fifty-first Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Ala-al-Din’s
mother said to her lady-friends, “Verily his father feared for him the
evil eye and reared him in an under-ground chamber; and haply the slave
forgot to shut the door and he fared forth; but we did not mean that he
should come out, before his beard was grown.” The women gave her joy of
him, and the youth went out from them into the court yard where he
seated himself in the open sitting-room; and behold, in came the slaves
with his father’s she-mule, and he said to them, “Whence cometh this
mule?” Quoth they, “We escorted thy father when riding her to the shop,
and we have brought her back.” He asked, “What may be my father’s
trade?”; and they answered, “Thy father is Consul of the merchants in
the land of Egypt and Sultan of the Sons of the Arabs.” Then he went in
to his mother and said to her, “O my mother, what is my father’s trade?”
Said she, “O my son, thy sire is a merchant and Consul of the merchants
in the land of Egypt and Sultan of the Sons of the Arabs. His slaves
consult him not in selling aught whose price is less than one thousand
gold pieces, but merchandise worth him an hundred and less they sell at
their own discretion; nor doth any merchandise whatever, little or
muchel, leave the country without passing through his hands and he
disposeth of it as he pleaseth; nor is a bale packed and sent abroad
amongst folk but what is under his disposal. And Almighty Allah, O my
son, hath given thy father monies past compt.” He rejoined, “O my
mother, praised be Allah, that I am son of the Sultan of the Sons of the
Arabs and that my father is Consul of the merchants! But why, O my
mother, do ye put me in the under-ground chamber and leave me prisoner
there?” Quoth she, “O my son, we imprisoned thee not save for fear of
folks’ eyes: ‘the evil eye is a truth,’[34] and most of those in their
long homes are its victims.” Quoth he, “O my mother, and where is a
refuge-place against Fate? Verily care never made Destiny forbear, nor
is there flight from what is written for every wight. He who took my
grandfather will not spare myself nor my father; for, though he live
to-day he shall not live to-morrow. And when my father dieth and I come
forth and say:—I am Ala al-Din, son of Shams al-Din the merchant, none
of the people will believe me, but men of years and standing will
say:—In our lives never saw we a son or a daughter of Shams al-Din. Then
the public Treasury will come down and take my father’s estate, and
Allah have mercy on him who said:—The noble dieth and his wealth passeth
away, and the meanest of men take his women. Therefore, O my mother,
speak thou to my father, that he carry me with him to the bazar and open
for me a shop; so may I sit there with my merchandise and teach me to
buy and sell and take and give.” Answered his mother, “O my son, as soon
as thy sire returneth I will tell him this.” So when the merchant came
home, he found his son Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat sitting with his mother
and said to her, “Why hast thou brought him forth of the under-ground
chamber?” She replied, “O son of my uncle, it was not I that brought him
out; but the servants forgot to shut the door and left it open; so, as I
sat with a company of women of rank, behold, he came forth and walked in
to me.” Then she went on to repeat to him his son’s words; so he said,
“O my son, to-morrow, Inshallah! I will take thee with me to the bazar;
but, my boy, sitting in markets and shops demandeth good manners and
courteous carriage in all conditions.” Ala al-Din passed the night
rejoicing in his father’s promise and, when the morrow came, the
merchant carried him to the Hammam and clad him in a suit worth a mint
of money. As soon as they had broken their fast and drunk their
sherbets, Shams al-Din mounted his she-mule and putting his son upon
another, rode to the market, followed by his boy. But when the
market-folk saw their Consul making towards them, foregoing a youth as
he were a slice of the full moon on the fourteenth night, they said, one
to other, “See thou yonder boy behind the Consul of the merchants;
verily, we thought well of him, but he is, like the leek, gray of head
and green at heart.”[35] And Shaykh Mohammed Samsam, Deputy Syndic of
the market, the man before mentioned, said to the dealers, “O merchants,
we will not keep the like of him for our Shaykh; no, never!” Now it was
the custom anent the Consul when he came from his house of a morning and
sat down in his shop, for the Deputy Syndic of the market to go and
recite to him and to all the merchants assembled around him the Fátihah
or opening chapter of the Koran,[36] after which they accosted him one
by one and wished him good morrow and went away, each to his
business-place. But when Shams al-Din seated himself in his shop that
day as usual, the traders came not to him as accustomed; so he called
the Deputy and said to him, “Why come not the merchants together as
usual?” Answered Mohammed Samsam, “I know not how to tell thee these
troubles, for they have agreed to depose thee from the Shaykh-ship of
the market and to recite the Fatihah to thee no more.” Asked Shams
al-Din, “What may be their reason?”; and asked the Deputy, “What boy is
this that sitteth by thy side and thou a man of years and chief of the
merchants? Is this lad a Mameluke or akin to thy wife? Verily, I think
thou lovest him and inclinest lewdly to the boy.” Thereupon the Consul
cried out at him, saying, “Silence, Allah curse thee, genus and species!
This is my son.” Rejoined the Deputy, “Never in our born days have we
seen thee with a son,” and Shams al-Din answered, “When thou gavest me
the seed-thickener, my wife conceived and bare this youth; but I reared
him in a souterrain for fear of the evil eye, nor was it my purpose that
he should come forth, till he could take his beard in his hand.[37]
However, his mother would not agree to this, and he on his part begged I
would stock him a shop and teach him to sell and buy.” So the Deputy
Syndic returned to the other traders and acquainted them with the truth
of the case, whereupon they all arose to accompany him; and, going in a
body to Shams al-Din’s shop, stood before him and recited the “Opener”
of the Koran; after which they gave him joy of his son and said to him,
“The Lord prosper root and branch! But even the poorest of us, when son
or daughter is born to him, needs must cook a pan-full of custard[38]
and bid his friends and kith and kin; yet hast thou not done this.”
Quoth he, “This I owe you; be our meeting in the garden.”——And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Two Hundred and Fifty-second Night,
Her sister Dunyazad said to her, “Pray continue thy story for us, an
thou be awake and not inclined to sleep.” Quoth she:—With pleasure and
goodwill: it hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Consul of the
merchants promised them a banquet and said “Be our meeting in the
garden.” So when morning dawned he despatched the carpet-layer to the
saloon of the garden-pavilion and bade him furnish the two. Moreover, he
sent thither all that was needful for cooking, such as sheep and
clarified butter and so forth, according to the requirements of the
case; and spread two tables, one in the pavilion and another in the
saloon. Then Shams al-Din and his boy girded themselves, and he said to
Ala al-Din “O my son, whenas a greybeard entereth, I will meet him and
seat him at the table in the pavilion; and do thou, in like manner,
receive the beardless youths and seat them at the table in the saloon.”
He asked, “O my father, why dost thou spread two tables, one for men and
another for youths?”; and he answered, “O my son, the beardless is
ashamed to eat with the bearded.” And his son thought this his answer
full and sufficient. So when the merchants arrived, Shams al-Din
received the men and seated them in the pavilion, whilst Ala al-Din
received the youths and seated them in the saloon. Then the food was set
on and the guests ate and drank and made merry and sat over their wine,
whilst the attendants perfumed them with the smoke of scented woods, and
the elders fell to conversing of matters of science and traditions of
the Prophet. Now there was amongst them a merchant called Mahmúd of
Balkh, a professing Moslem but at heart a Magian, a man of lewd and
mischievous life who loved boys. And when he saw Ala al-Din from whose
father he used to buy stuffs and merchandise, one sight of his face sent
him a thousand sighs and Satan dangled the jewel before his eyes, so
that he was taken with love-longing and desire and affection and his
heart was filled with mad passion for him. Presently he arose and made
for the youths, who stood up to receive him; and at this moment Ala
al-Din being taken with an urgent call of Nature, withdrew to make
water; whereupon Mahmud turned to the other youths and said to them, “If
ye will incline Ala al-Din’s mind to journeying with me, I will give
each of you a dress worth a power of money.” Then he returned from them
to the men’s party; and, as the youths were sitting, Ala al-Din suddenly
came back, when all rose to receive him and seated him in the place of
highest honour. Presently, one of them said to his neighbour, “O my lord
Hasan, tell me whence came to thee the capital whereon thou tradest.” He
replied, “When I grew up and came to man’s estate, I said to my sire:—O
my father, give me merchandise. Quoth he:—O my son, I have none by me;
but go thou to some merchant and take of him money and traffic with it;
and so learn to buy and sell, give and take. So I went to one of the
traders and borrowed of him a thousand dinars, wherewith I bought stuffs
and carrying them to Damascus, sold them there at a profit of two for
one. Then I bought Syrian stuffs and carrying them to Aleppo, made a
similar gain of them; after which I bought stuffs of Aleppo and repaired
with them to Baghdad, where I sold them with like result, two for one;
nor did I cease trading upon my capital till I was worth nigh ten
thousand ducats.” Then each of the others told his friend some such
tale, till it came to Ala al-Din’s turn to speak, when they said to him,
“And thou, O my lord Ala al-Din?” Quoth he, “I was brought up in a
chamber under-ground and came forth from it only this week; and I do but
go to the shop and return home from the shop.” They remarked, “Thou art
used to wone at home and wottest not the joys of travel, for travel is
for men only.” He replied, “I reck not of voyaging and wayfaring doth
not tempt me.” Whereupon quoth one to the other, “This one is like the
fish: when he leaveth the water he dieth.” Then they said to him, “O Ala
al-Din, the glory of the sons of the merchants is not but in travel for
the sake of gain.” Their talk angered him; so he left them weeping-eyed
and heavy-hearted and mounting his mule returned home. Now his mother
saw him in tears and in bad temper and asked him, “What hath made thee
weep, O my son?”; and he answered, “Of a truth, all the sons of the
merchants put me to shame and said:—Naught is more glorious for a
merchant’s son than travel for gain and to get him gold.”——And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Two Hundred and Fifty-third Night,