and he signed to the fat girl, who rose——And Shahrazad perceived the
dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Three Hundred and Thirty-sixth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the man of
Al-Yaman, the master of the handmaids, signed to the fat girl who rose
and, pointing her finger at the slim girl, bared her calves and wrists
and uncovered her stomach, showing its dimples and the plump rondure of
her navel. Then she donned a shift of fine stuff, that exposed her whole
body, and said:—Praised be Allah who created me, for that He beautified
my face and made me fat and fair of the fattest and fairest; and likened
me to branches laden with fruit, and bestowed upon me abounding beauty
and brightness: and praised be He no less, for that He hath given me the
precedence and honoured me, when He mentioneth me in His holy Book!
Quoth the Most High, “And he brought a fatted calf.”[369] And He hath
made me like unto a vergier full of peaches and pomegranates. In very
sooth even as the townsfolk long for fat birds and eat of them and love
not lean birds, so do the sons of Adam desire fat meat and eat of it.
How many vauntful attributes are there not in fatness, and how well
saith the poet:—
Farewell thy love, for see, the Cafilah’s[370] on the move: ✿ O man,
canst bear to say adieu and leave thy love?
‘Tis as her going were to seek her neighbour’s tent, ✿ The gait of fat
fair maid, whom hearts shall all approve.
Sawest thou ever one stand before a flesher’s stall but sought of him
fat flesh? The wise say, “Joyance is in three things, eating meat and
riding meat and putting meat into meat.”[371] As for thee, O thin one,
thy calves are like the shanks of sparrows or the pokers of furnaces;
and thou art a cruciform plank or a piece of flesh poor and rank; there
is naught in thee to gladden the heart; even as saith the poet:—
With Allah take I refuge from whatever driveth me ✿ To bed with one like
footrasp[372] or the roughest ropery:
In every limb she hath a horn that butteth me whene’er ✿ I fain would
rest, so morn and eve I wend me wearily.
Quoth her master, “Sit thee down: this much sufficeth.” So she sat down
and he signed to the slender girl, who rose, as she were a willow-wand,
or a rattan-frond or a stalk of sweet basil, and said:—Praised be Allah
who created me and beautified me and made my embraces the end of all
desire and likened me to the branch, whereto all hearts incline. If I
rise, I rise lightly; if I sit, I sit prettily; I am nimble-witted at a
jest and merrier-souled than mirth itself. Never heard I one describe
his mistress, saying, “My beloved is the bigness of an elephant or like
a mountain long and broad;” but rather, “My lady hath a slender waist
and a slim shape.”[373] Furthermore a little food filleth me and a
little water quencheth my thirst; my sport is agile and my habit active;
for I am sprightlier than the sparrow and lighter-skipping than the
starling. My favours are the longing of the lover and the delight of the
desirer; for I am goodly of shape, sweet of smile and graceful as the
bending willow-wand or the rattan-cane[374] or the stalk of the
basil-plant; nor is there any can compare with me in loveliness, even as
saith one of me:—
Thy shape with willow branch I dare compare, ✿ And hold thy figure as my
fortunes fair:
I wake each morn distraught, and follow thee, ✿ And from the rival’s eye
in fear I fare.
It is for the like of me that amourists run mad and that those who
desire me wax distracted. If my lover would draw me to him, I am drawn
to him; and if he would have me incline to him, I incline to him and not
against him. But now, as for thee, O fat of body, thine eating is the
feeding of an elephant, and neither much nor little filleth thee. When
thou liest with a man who is lean, he hath no ease of thee; nor can he
anyways take his pleasure of thee; for the bigness of thy belly holdeth
him off from going in unto thee and the fatness of thy thighs hindereth
him from coming at thy slit. What goodness is there in thy grossness,
and what courtesy or pleasantness in thy coarseness? Fat flesh is fit
for naught but the flesher, nor is there one point therein that pleadeth
for praise. If one joke with thee, thou art angry; if one sport with
thee, thou art sulky; if thou sleep, thou snorest; if thou walk, thou
lollest out thy tongue! if thou eat, thou art never filled. Thou art
heavier than mountains and fouler than corruption and crime. Thou hast
in thee nor agility nor benedicite nor thinkest thou of aught save meat
and sleep. When thou pissest thou swishest; if thou turd thou gruntest
like a bursten wine-skin or an elephant transmogrified. If thou go to
the water-closet, thou needest one to wash thy gap and pluck out the
hairs which overgrow it; and this is the extreme of sluggishness and the
sign, outward and visible, of stupidity.[375] In short, there is no good
thing about thee, and indeed the poet saith of thee:—
Heavy and swollen like an urine-bladder blown, ✿ With hips and thighs
like mountain propping piles of stone;
Whene’er she walks in Western hemisphere, her tread ✿ Makes the far
Eastern world with weight to moan and groan.
Quoth her master, “Sit thee down, this sufficeth;” so she sat down and
he signed to the yellow girl, who rose to her feet and praised Allah
Almighty and magnified His name, calling down peace and blessing on
Mohammed the best of His creatures; after which she pointed her finger
at the brunette and said to her,——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of
day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Three Hundred and Thirty-seventh Night,
She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the yellow
girl stood up and praised Almighty Allah and magnified His name; after
which she pointed her finger at the brown girl and said to her:—I am the
one praised in the Koran, and the Compassionate hath described my
complexion and its excellence over all other hues in His manifest Book,
where Allah saith, “A yellow, pure yellow, whose colour gladdeneth the
beholders.”[376] Wherefore my colour is a sign and portent and my grace
is supreme and my beauty a term extreme; for that my tint is the tint of
a ducat and the colour of the planets and moons and the hue of ripe
apples. My fashion is the fashion of the fair, and the dye of saffron
outvieth all other dyes; so my semblance is wondrous and my colour
marvellous. I am soft of body and of high price, comprising all
qualities of beauty. My colour is essentially precious as virgin gold,
and how many boasts and glories doth it not unfold! Of the like of me
quoth the poet:—
Her golden yellow is the sheeny sun’s; ✿ And like gold sequins she
delights the sight:
Saffron small portion of her glance can show; ✿ Nay,[377] she outvies
the moon when brightest bright.
And I shall at once begin in thy dispraise, O berry-brown girl! Thy
tincture is that of the buffalo, and all souls shudder at thy sight. If
thy colour be in any created thing, it is blamed; if it be in food, it
is poisoned; for thy hue is the hue of the dung-fly; it is a mark of
ugliness even in dogs; and among the colours it is one which strikes
with amazement and is of the signs of mourning. Never heard I of brown
gold or brown pearls or brown gems. If thou enter the privy, thy colour
changeth, and when thou comest out, thou addest ugliness to ugliness.
Thou art a non-descript; neither black, that thou mayst be recognised,
nor white, that thou mayst be described; and in thee there is no good
quality, even as saith the poet:—
The hue of dusty motes is hers; that dull brown hue of hers ✿ Is mouldy,
like the dust and mud by Cossid’s foot upthrown:[378]
I never look upon her brow, e’en for eye-twinkling’s space, ✿ But in
brown study fall I and my thoughts take browner tone.
Quoth her master, “Sit thee down; this much sufficeth;” so she sat down
and he signed to the brunette. Now she was a model of beauty and
loveliness and symmetry and perfect grace; soft of skin, slim of shape,
of stature rare, and coal-black hair; with cheeks rosy-pink, eyes
black-rimmed by nature’s hand, face fair, and eloquent tongue; moreover
slender-waisted and heavy-hipped. So she rose and said:—Praise be to
Allah who hath created me neither leper-white nor bile-yellow nor
charcoal-black, but hath made my colour to be beloved of men of wit and
wisdom; for all the poets extol berry-brown maids in every tongue and
exalt their colour over all other colours. To “brown of hue (they say)
praise is due;” and Allah bless him who singeth:—
And in brunettes is mystery, could’st thou but read it right, ✿ Thy
sight would never dwell on others, be they red or white:
Free-flowing conversation, amorous coquettishness ✿ Would teach Hárut
himself a mightier spell of magic might.
And saith another:—
Give me brunettes, so limber, lissom, lithe of sway, ✿ Brunettes tall,
slender, straight like Samhar’s nut-brown lance;[379]
Languid of eyelids and with silky down on either cheek, ✿ Who fixed in
lover’s heart work to his life mischance.
And yet another:—
Now, by my life, brown hue hath point of comeliness ✿ Leaves whiteness
nowhere and high o’er the Moon takes place;
But an of whiteness aught it borrowed self to deck, ✿ ‘Twould change its
graces and would pale for its disgrace:
Not with his must[380] I’m drunken, but his locks of musk ✿ Are wine
inebriating all of human race.
His charms are jealous each of each, and all desire ✿ To be the down
that creepeth up his lovely face.
And again another:—
Why not incline me to that show of silky down, ✿ On cheeks of dark
brunette, like bamboo spiring brown?
Whenas high rank in beauty poets sing, they say ✿ Brown ant-like
specklet worn by nenuphar in crown.
And see I sundry lovers tear out others’ eyne ✿ For the brown mole
beneath that jetty pupil shown,
Then why do censors blame me for one all a mole? ✿ Allah I pray demolish
each molesting clown![381]
My form is all grace and my shape is built on heavy base; Kings desire
my colour which all adore, rich and poor. I am pleasant, active,
handsome, elegant, soft of skin and prized for price: eke I am perfect
in seemlihead and breeding and eloquence; my aspect is comely and my
tongue witty; my temper is bright and my play a pretty sight. As for
thee, thou art like unto a mallow growing about the Lúk Gate;[382] in
hue sallow and streaked-yellow and made all of sulphur. Aroynt thee, O
copper-worth of jaundiced sorrel, O rust of brass-pot, O face of owl in
gloom, and fruit of the Hell-tree Zakkúm;[383] whose bedfellow, for
heart-break, is buried in the tomb. And there is no good thing in thee,
even as saith the poet of the like of thee:—
Yellowness, tincturing her tho’ nowise sick or sorry, ✿ Straitens my
hapless heart and makes my head sore ache;
An thou repent not, Soul! I’ll punish thee with kissing[384] ✿ Her lower
face that shall mine every grinder break!
And when she ended her lines, quoth her master, “Sit thee down, this
much sufficeth!”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased
saying her permitted say.
Now when it was the Three Hundred and Thirty-eighth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the yellow
girl ended her recitation, quoth her master, “Sit thee down; this much
sufficeth!” Then he made peace between them and clad them all in
sumptuous robes of honour and hanselled them with precious jewels of
land and sea. And never have I seen, O Commander of the Faithful, any
when or any where, aught fairer than these six damsels fair. Now when
Al-Maamun heard this story from Mohammed of Bassorah, he turned to him
and said, “O Mohammed, knowest thou the abiding-place of these damsels
and their master, and canst thou contrive to buy them of him for us?” He
answered, “O Commander of the Faithful, indeed I have heard that their
lord is wrapped up in them and cannot bear to be parted from them.”
Rejoined the Caliph, “Take thee ten thousand gold pieces for each girl,
that is sixty thousand for the whole purchase; and carry the coin to his
house and buy them of him.” So Mohammed of Bassorah took the money and,
betaking himself to the Man of Al-Yaman, acquainted him with the wish of
the Prince of True Believers. He consented to part with them at that
price to pleasure the Caliph; and despatched them to Al-Maamun, who
assigned them an elegant abode and therein used to sit with them as
cup-companions; marvelling at their beauty and loveliness, at their
varied colours and at the excellence of their conversation. Thus matters
stood for many a day; but, after awhile, when their former owner could
no longer bear to be parted from them, he sent a letter to the Commander
of the Faithful complaining to him of his own ardent love-longing for
them and containing, amongst other contents, these couplets:—
Captured me six, all bright with youthful blee; ✿ Then on all six be
best salams from me!
They are my hearing, seeing, very life; ✿ My meat, my drink, my joy, my
jollity:
I’ll ne’er forget the favours erst so charmed ✿ Whose loss hath turned
my sleep to insomny:
Alack, O longsome pining and O tears! ✿ Would I had farewelled all
humanity:
Those eyes, with bowed and well arched eyebrows[385] dight, ✿ Like bows
have struck me with their archery.
Now when the letter came to the hands of Al-Maamun, he robed the six
damsels in rich raiment; and, giving them threescore thousand dinars,
sent them back to their lord who joyed in them with exceeding joy,[386]
(more especially for the monies they brought him) and abode with them in
all the comfort and pleasance of life, till there came to them the
Destroyer of delights and the Severer of societies. And men also recount
the tale of
-----
Footnote 348:
Again the “babes” of the eyes.
Footnote 349:
_i.e._ whose glance is as the light of the glowing braise or (embers).
The Arab. “Mikbás” = pan or pot full of small charcoal, is an article
well known in Italy and Southern Europe. The word is apparently used
here because it rhymes with “Anfás” (souls, spirits).
Footnote 350:
_i.e._ martyrdom; a Koranic term “fi sabíli ‘llahi” = on the way of
Allah.
Footnote 351:
These rhymes in -y, -ee and -ie are purposely affected, to imitate the
cadence of the Arabic.
Footnote 352:
Arab. Sujúd, the ceremonial prostration, touching the ground with the
forehead. So in the Old Testament “he bowed (or fell down) and
worshipped” (Gen. xxiv., 26: Mat. ii., 11), of which our translation
gives a wrong idea.
Footnote 353:
Thus written ا hence as has been seen, a girl is called Alfiyyah =
A-shaped.
Footnote 354:
_i.e._ the medial form of m =
Footnote 355:
_i.e._ the inverted n.
Footnote 356:
It may also mean a “Sevigné of pearls.”
Footnote 357:
Koran xxvii. 12. This was one of the nine “signs” to wicked “Pharaoh.”
The “hand of Moses” is a symbol of power and ability (Koran vii. 105).
The whiteness was supernatural beauty, not leprosy of the Jews (Exod.
iv. 6); but brilliancy, after being born red or black: according to
some commentators, Moses was a negro.
Footnote 358:
Koran iii. 103; the other faces become black. This explains, I have
noticed, the use of the phrases in blessing and cursing.
Footnote 359:
Here we have the naked legend of the negro’s origin; one of those
nursery tales in which the ignorant of Christendom still believe. But
the deduction from the fable and the testimony to the negro’s lack of
intelligence, though unpleasant to our ignorant negrophils, are
factual and satisfactory.
Footnote 360:
Koran, xcii. 1, 2: an oath of Allah to reward and punish with Heaven
and Hell.
Footnote 361:
Alluding to the “black drop” in the heart: it was taken from
Mohammed’s by the Archangel Gabriel. The fable seems to have arisen
from the verse “Have we not opened thy breast?” (Koran, chapt. xciv.
1). The popular tale is that Halímah, the Badawi nurse of Mohammed, of
the Banu Sa’ad tribe, once saw her son, also a child, running towards
her and asked him what was the matter. He answered, “My little brother
was seized by two men in white who stretched him on the ground and
opened his belly!” For a full account and deductions see the Rev. Mr.
Badger’s article, “Muhammed” (p. 959) in vol. iii. “Dictionary of
Christian Biography.”
Footnote 362:
Arab, “Sumr,” lit. brown (as it is afterwards used), but politely
applied to a negro: “Yá Abu Sumrah!” O father of brownness.
Footnote 363:
Arab. “Lumá” = dark hue of the inner lips admired by the Arabs and to
us suggesting most unpleasant ideas. Mr. Chenery renders it “dark red”
and “ruddy,” altogether missing the idea.
Footnote 364:
Arab. “Saudá,” feminine of aswad (black), and meaning black bile
(melancholia) as opposed to leucocholia.
Footnote 365:
_i.e._ the Magians, Sabians, Zoroastrians.
Footnote 366:
The “Unguinum fulgor” of the Latins who did not forget to celebrate
the shining of the nails although they did not Henna them like
Easterns. Some, however, have suggested that Ῥοδοδάκτυλος alludes to
colouring matter.
Footnote 367:
Women with white skins are supposed to be heating and unwholesome:
hence the Hindu Rajahs slept with dark girls in the hot season.
Footnote 368:
Moslems sensibly have a cold as well as a hot Hell, the former called
Zamharir (lit. “intense cold”) or Al-Barahút, after a well in
Hazramaut; as Gehenna (Arab. Jahannam) from the furnace-like ravine
East of Jerusalem (Night cccxxv). The icy Hell is necessary _in
terrorem_ for peoples who inhabit cold regions and who in a hot Hell
only look forward to an eternity of “coals and candles” gratis. The
sensible missionaries preached it in Iceland till foolishly forbidden
by Papal Bull.
Footnote 369:
Koran ii. 26; speaking of Abraham when he entertained the angels
unawares.
Footnote 370:
Arab “Rakb,” usually applied to a fast-going caravan of dromedary
riders (Pilgrimage ii. 329). The “Cafilah” is Arab.: “Caravan” is a
corruption of the Pers. Karwán.
Footnote 371:
A popular saying. It is interesting to contrast this dispute between
fat and thin with the Shakespearean humour of Falstaff and Prince
Henry.
Footnote 372:
Arab. “Dalak” vulg Hajar al-Hammam (Hammam-stone). The comparison is
very apt: the rasps are of baked clay artificially roughened (see
illustrations in Lane M. E. chapt. xvi.) The rope is called “Masad,” a
bristling line of palm-fibre like the coir now familiarly known in
England.
Footnote 373:
Although the Arab’s ideal of beauty, as has been seen and said,
corresponds with ours, the Egyptians (Modern) the Maroccans and other
negrofied races like “walking tun-butts” as Clapperton called his
amorous widow.
Footnote 374:
Arab. “Khayzar” or “Khayzarán” the rattan-palm. Those who have seen
this most graceful “palmijuncus” in its native forest will recognise
the neatness of the simile.
Footnote 375:
This is the popular idea of a bushy “veil of nature” in women: it is
always removed by depilatories and vellication. When Bilkis Queen of
Sheba discovered her legs by lifting her robe (Koran xxvii.), Solomon
was minded to marry her, but would not do so till the devils had by a
depilatory removed the hair. The popular preparation (called Núrah)
consists of quicklime 7 parts, and Zirník or orpiment, 3 parts: it is
applied in the Hammam to a perspiring skin, and it must be washed off
immediately the hair is loosened or it burns and discolours. The rest
of the body-pile (Sha’arat opp. to Sha’ar = hair) is eradicated by
applying a mixture of boiled honey with turpentine or other gum, and
rolling it with the hand till the hair comes off. Men I have said
remove the pubes by shaving, and pluck the hair of the armpits, one of
the vestages of pre-Adamite man. A good depilatory is still a
desideratum, the best perfumers of London and Paris have none which
they can recommend. The reason is plain: the hair-bulb can be
eradicated only by destroying the skin.
Footnote 376:
Koran, ii. 64: referring to the heifer which the Jews were ordered to
sacrifice.
Footnote 377:
Arab. “kallá,” a Koranic term possibly from Kull (all) and lá (not) =
prorsus non—altogether not!
Footnote 378:
“Habáb” or “Habá,” the fine particles of dust, which we call motes.
The Cossid (Arab. Kásid) is the Anglo-Indian term for a running
courier (mostly under Government), the Persian “Shátir” and the Guebre
Rávand.
Footnote 379:
Arab. “Samhari” a very long thin lance so called after Samhar, the
maker, or the place of making. See vol. ii. p. 1. It is supposed to
cast, when planted in the ground, a longer shadow in proportion to its
height, than any other thing of the kind.
Footnote 380:
Arab. “Suláfah;” properly _ptisane_ which flows from the grapes before
pressure. The plur. “Sawálif” also means tresses of hair and past
events: thus there is a “triple entendre.” And again “he” is used for
“she.”
Footnote 381:
There is a pun in the last line, “Khálun (a mole) khallauni” (rid me),
etc.
Footnote 382:
Of old Fustát, afterwards part of Southern Cairo, a proverbially
miserable quarter, hence the saying, “They quoted Misr to Káhirah
(Cairo), whereon Bab al-Luk rose with its grass,” in derision of
nobodies who push themselves forward. Burckhardt, Prov. 276.
Footnote 383:
Its fruits are the heads of devils; a true Dantesque fancy. Koran,
chapt. xvii. 62, “the tree cursed in the Koran” and in chapt. xxxvii,
60, “is this better entertainment, or the tree of Al-Zakkúm?”
Commentators say that it is a thorn bearing a bitter almond which
grows in the Tehamah and was therefore promoted to Hell.
Footnote 384:
Arab. “Lasm” (lathm) as opposed to Bausah or boseh (a buss) and Kublah
(a kiss, generic).
Footnote 385:
Arab. “Jufún” (plur. of Jafn) which may mean eyebrows or eyelashes and
only the context can determine which.
Footnote 386:
Very characteristic of Egyptian manners is the man who loves six girls
equally well, who lends them, as it were, to the Caliph; and who takes
back the goods as if in no wise damaged by the loan.
HARUN AL-RASHID AND THE DAMSEL AND ABU NOWAS.
The Caliph, Commander of the Faithful, Harun al-Rashid, being one night
exceedingly restless and thoughtful with sad thought, rose from his
couch and walked about the by-ways of his palace, till he came to a
chamber, over whose doorway hung a curtain. He raised that curtain and
saw, at the upper end of the room, a bedstead whereon lay something
black, as it were a man asleep, with a wax taper on his right hand and
another on his left; and as the Caliph stood wondering at the sight,
behold, he remarked a flagon full of old wine whose mouth was covered by
the cup. The Caliph wondered even more at this, saying, “How came this
black by such wine-service?” Then, drawing near the bedstead, he found
that it was a girl lying asleep there, curtained by her hair; so he
uncovered her face and saw that it was like the moon, on the night of
his fulness.[387] So the Caliph filled himself a cup of wine and drank
it to the roses of her cheeks; and, feeling inclined to enjoy her,
kissed a mole on her face, whereupon she started up from sleep, and
cried out, “O Trusted of Allah,[388] what may this be?” Replied he, “A
guest who knocketh at thy door, hoping that thou wilt give him
hospitality till the dawn;” and she answered; “Even so! I will serve him
with my hearing and my sight.” So she brought forward the wine and they
drank together, after which she took the lute and tuning the strings,
preluded in one-and-twenty modes, then returning to the first, played a
lively measure and sang these couplets:—
The tongue of love from heart bespeaks my sprite, ✿ Telling I love thee
with love infinite:
I have an eye bears witness to my pain, ✿ And fluttering heart sore hurt
by parting-plight.
I cannot hide the love that harms my life; ✿ Tears ever roll and growth
of pine I sight:
I knew not what love was ere loving thee; ✿ But Allah’s destiny to all
is dight.
And when her verses were ended she said, “O Commander of the Faithful, I
have been wronged!”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased
to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Three Hundred and Thirty-ninth Night,