216. Adventure of Haroon Al Rusheed . . . . . |…|…| 6 | 5 | 6 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|11 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
a. Story of the Sultan of Bussorah . . . . |…|…|…| 5 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
b. Nocturnal adventures of Haroon Al Rusheed . |…|…|…| 5 | 6 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
e. Story related by Munjaub . . . . . |…|…|…| 5 | 6 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
d. Story of the Sultan, the Dirveshe and the
Barber’s Son . . . . . . . . |…|…|…| 5 | 6 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
e. Story of the Bedouin’s Wife . . . . . |…|…|…| 5 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
f. Story of the Wife and her two Gallants . . |…|…|…| 5 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
217. Adventures of Aleefa, daughter of Mherejaun,
Sultan of Hind, and Eusuff, son of Sohul,
Sultan of Sind . . . . . . . . |…|…| 6 | 5 | 6 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|11 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
218. Adventures of the three Princes, sons of the
Sultan of China . . . . . . . . |…|…| 5 | 5 | 6 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|10 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
219. Story of the Gallant Officer . . . . . |…|…|…| 5 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
220. Story of another officer . . . . . . |…|…|…| 5 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
221. Story of the Idiot and his Asses . . . . |…|…|…| 5 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
222. Story of the Lady of Cairo and the Three
Debauchees . . . . . . . . . |…|…|…| 5 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
223. Story of the Good Vizier unjustly imprisoned . |…|…| 6 | 5 | 6 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|11 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
224. Story of the Prying Barber and the young man of
Cairo . . . . . . . . . . |…|…|…| 5 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
225. Story of the Lady of Cairo and her four Gallants |…|…| 6 | 5 | 6 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|11 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
a. The Cauzee’s Story . . . . . . . |…|…|…| 5 | 6 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
b. The Syrian . . . . . . . . . |…|…|…|5,6| - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
c. The Caim-makaum’s Wife . . . . . . |…|…|…| 6 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
d. Story told by the Fourth Gallant . . . |…|…|…| 6 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
226. Story of a Hump-backed Porter . . . . . |…|…|…| 6 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
227. The Aged Porter of Cairo and the Artful Female
Thief . . . . . . . . . . |…|…|…| 6 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
228. Mhassun and his tried friend Mouseh . . . |…|…|…| 6 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
229. Mahummud Julbee, son to an Ameer of Cairo . . |…|…|…| 6 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
230. The Farmer’s Wife . . . . . . . . |…|…|…| 6 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
231. The Artful Wife . . . . . . . . |…|…|…| 6 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
232. The Cauzee’s Wife . . . . . . . . |…|…|…| 6 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
233. Story of the Merchant, his Daughter, and the
Prince of Eerauk . . . . . . . |…|…|…| 6 | 6 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
234. The Two Orphans . . . . . . . . |…|…|…| 6 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
235. Story of another Farmer’s Wife . . . . . |…|…|…| 6 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
236. Story of the Son who attempted his Father’s
Wives . . . . . . . . . . |…|…|…| 6 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
237. The Two Wits of Cairo and Syria . . . . |…|…|…| 6 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
238. Ibrahim and Mouseh . . . . . . . . |…|…|…| 6 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
239. The Viziers Ahmed and Mahummud . . . . . |…|…|…|6,7| - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
240. The Son addicted to Theft . . . . . . |…|…|…| 7 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
241. Adventures of the Cauzee, his Wife, &c. . . |…|…| 6 | 7 | 6 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|11 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
a. The Sultan’s Story of Himself . . . . |…|…| 6 | 7 | 6 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|11 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
242. Story of Shaykh Nukheet the Fisherman, who
became favourite to a Sultan . . . . |…|…|…| 7 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
a. Story of the King of Andalusia . . . . |…|…|…| 7 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
243. Story of Teilone, Sultan of Egypt . . . . |…|…|…| 7 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
244. Story of the Retired Man and his Servant . . |…|…|…| 7 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
245. The Merchant’s Daughter who married the Emperor
of China . . . . . . . . . |…|…|…| 7 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
*246. New Adventures of the Caliph Harun Al-Rashid . |…| 8 | 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|12 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
*247. The Physician and the young Purveyor of Bagdad . |…| 8 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|13 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
*248. The Wise Heycar . . . . . . . . |…| 8 | 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|13 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
*249. Attaf the Generous . . . . . . . . |…| 9 | 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|13 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
*250. Prince Habib and Dorrat-al-Gawas . . . . |…| 9 | 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|12 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
*251. The Forty Wazirs . . . . . . . . |…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
*a. Story of Shaykh Shahabeddin . . . . |…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
*b. Story of the Gardener, his Son, and the Ass |…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
*c. The Sultan Mahmoud and his Wazir . . . |…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
*d. Story of the Brahman Padmanaba and the young
Fyquai . . . . . . . . . |…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
*e. Story of Sultan Akshid . . . . . . |…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
*f. Story of the Husband, the Lover and the
Thief . . . . . . . . . |…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
*g. Story of the Prince of Carisme and the
Princess of Georgia . . . . . . |…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
*h. The Cobbler and the King’s Daughter . . |…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
*i. The Woodcutter and the Genius . . . . |…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
*j. The Royal Parrot . . . . . . . |…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
*252. Story of the King and Queen of Abyssinia . . |…|…| 6 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|10 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
*253. Story of Princes Amina . . . . . . . |…|…| 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|12 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
*a. Story of the Princess of Tartary . . . |…|…| 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|12 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
*b. Story told by the Old Man’s Wife . . . |…|…| 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|12 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
*254. Story of Ali Johari . . . . . . . |…|…| 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|12 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
*255. Story of the two Princes of Cochin China . . |…|…| 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|12 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
*256. Story of the two Husbands . . . . . . |…|…| 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|12 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
*a. Story of Abdallah . . . . . . . |…|…| 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|12 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
*b. Story of the Favourite . . . . . . |…|…| 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|12 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
*257. Story of Yusuf and the Indian Merchant . . . |…|…| 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|12 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
*258. Story of Prince Benazir . . . . . . |…|…| 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|12 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
*259. Story of Selim, Sultan of Egypt . . . . |…|…| 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|13 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
*a. Story of the Cobbler’s Wife . . . . |…|…| 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|13 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
*b. Story of Adileh . . . . . . . |…|…| 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|13 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
*c. Story of the scarred Kalender . . . . |…|…| 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|13 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
*d. Continuation of the story of Selim . . . |…|…| 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|13 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
*260. Story of Seif Sul Yesn . . . . . . . |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|14 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…
261. Story of the Labourer and the Chair . . . |…|…|…| A | A |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
262. Story of Ahmed the Orphan . . . . . . |…|…|…| A | A |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…
VHa (Full contents from Introd. to No. 4 not given: 3e and 4 are apparently wanting.)
VHb (Nos. 10–19 represented by 7 Fables.)
VHc (Would include subordinate tales.)
N.B.—In using this Table, some allowance must be made for differences
in the titles of many of the tales in different editions.
For the contents of the printed text, I have followed the lists in Mr.
Payne’s “Tales from the Arabic,” vol. iii.
And here I end this long volume with repeating in other words and
other tongue what was said in “L’Envoi”:—
Hide thou whatever here is found of fault;
And laud The Faultless and His might exalt!
After which I have only to make my bow and to say
“Salam.”
Arabian Nights, Volume 10
Footnotes
[FN#1] Arab. “Zarábín” (pl. of zarbún), lit. slaves’ shoes or
sandals (see vol. iii. p. 336) the chaussure worn by Mamelukes.
Here the word is used in its modern sense of stout shoes or
walking boots.
[FN#2] The popular word means goodness, etc.
[FN#3] Dozy translates “’Urrah”=Une Mégère: Lane terms it a
“vulgar word signifying a wicked, mischievous shrew.” But it is
the fem. form of ’Urr=dung; not a bad name for a daughter of
Billingsgate.
[FN#4] i.e. black like the book of her actions which would be
shown to her on Doomsday.
[FN#5] The “Kunáfah” (vermicelli-cake) is a favourite dish of
wheaten flour, worked somewhat finer than our vermicelli, fried
with samn (butter melted and clarified) and sweetened with honey
or sugar. See vol. v. 300.
[FN#6] i.e. Will send us aid. The Shrew’s rejoinder is highly
impious in Moslem opinion.
[FN#7] Arab. Asal Katr; “a fine kind of black honey, treacle”
says Lane; but it is afterwards called cane-honey (’Asal Kasab).
I have never heard it applied to “the syrup which exudes from
ripe dates, when hung up.”
[FN#8] Arab. “’Aysh,” lit.=that on which man lives: “Khubz” being
the more popular term. “Hubz and Joobn” is well known at Malta.
[FN#9] Insinuating that he had better make peace with his wife by
knowing her carnally. It suggests the story of the Irishman who
brought over to the holy Catholic Church three several Protestant
wives, but failed with the fourth on account of the decline of
his “Convarter.”
[FN#10] Arab. “Asal Kasab,” i.e. Sugar, possibly made from
sorgho-stalks Holcus sorghum of which I made syrup in Central
Africa.
[FN#11] For this unpleasant euphemy see vol. iv. 215.
[FN#12] This is a true picture of the leniency with which women
were treated in the Kazi’s court at Cairo; and the effect was
simply deplorable. I have noted that matters have grown even
worse since the English occupation, for history repeats herself;
and the same was the case in Afghanistan and in Sind. We govern
too much in these matters, which should be directed not changed,
and too little in other things, especially in exacting respect
for the conquerors from the conquered.
[FN#13] Arab. “Báb al-’Áli”=the high gate or Sublime Porte; here
used of the Chief Kazi’s court: the phrase is a descendant of the
Coptic “Per-ao” whence “Pharaoh.”
[FN#14] “Abú Tabak,” in Cairene slang, is an officer who arrests
by order of the Kazi and means “Father of whipping” (=tabaka, a
low word for beating, thrashing, whopping) because he does his
duty with all possible violence in terrorem.
[FN#15] Bab al-Nasr the Eastern or Desert Gate: see vol. vi. 234.
[FN#16] This is a mosque outside the great gate built by Al-Malik
al-’Ádil Tuman Bey in A.H. 906 (=1501). The date is not worthy of
much remark for these names are often inserted by the scribe—for
which see Terminal Essay.
[FN#17] Arab. “’Ámir” lit.=one who inhabiteth, a peopler; here
used in technical sense. As has been seen, ruins and impure
places such as privies and Hammám-baths are the favourite homes
of the Jinn. The fire-drake in the text was summoned by the
Cobbler’s exclamation and even Marids at times do a kindly
action.
[FN#18] The style is modern Cairene jargon.
[FN#19] Purses or gold pieces see vol. ix. 313.
[FN#20] i.e. I am a Cairene.
[FN#21] Arab. “Darb al-Ahmar,” a street still existing near to
and outside the noble Bab Zuwaylah, for which see vol. i. 269.
[FN#22] Arab. “’Attár,” perfume-seller and druggist; the word is
connected with our “Ottar” (’Atr).
[FN#23] Arab. “Mudarris” lit.=one who gives lessons or lectures
(dars) and pop. applied to a professor in a collegiate mosque
like Al-Azhar of Cairo.
[FN#24] This thoroughly dramatic scene is told with a charming
naïveté. No wonder that The Nights has been made the basis of a
national theatre amongst the Turks.
[FN#25] Arab. “Taysh” lit.=vertigo, swimming of head.
[FN#26] Here Trébutien (iii. 265) reads “la ville de Khaïtan (so
the Mac. Edit. iv. 708) capital du royaume de Sohatan.” Ikhtiyán
Lane suggests to be fictitious: Khatan is a district of Tartary
east of Káshgar, so called by Sádik al-Isfaháni p. 24.
[FN#27] This is a true picture of the tact and savoir faire of
the Cairenes. It was a study to see how, under the late Khedive
they managed to take precedence of Europeans who found themselves
in the background before they knew it. For instance, every Bey,
whose degree is that of a Colonel was made an “Excellency” and
ranked accordingly at Court whilst his father, some poor Fellah,
was ploughing the ground. Tanfík Pasha began his ill-omened rule
by always placing natives close to him in the place of honour,
addressing them first and otherwise snubbing Europeans who, when
English, were often too obtuse to notice the petty insults
lavished upon them.
[FN#28] Arab. “Kathír” (pron. Katir)=much: here used in its slang
sense, “no end.”
[FN#29] i.e. “May the Lord soon make thee able to repay me; but
meanwhile I give it to thee for thy own free use.”
[FN#30] Punning upon his name. Much might be written upon the
significance of names as ominous of good and evil; but the
subject is far too extensive for a footnote.
[FN#31] Lane translates “Ánisa-kum” by “he hath delighted you by
his arrival”; Mr. Payne “I commend him to you.”
[FN#32] Arab. “Fatúrát,”=light food for the early breakfast of
which the “Fatírah”-cake was a favourite item. See vol. i. 300.
[FN#33] A dark red dye (Lane).
[FN#34] Arab. “Jadíd,” see vol. viii. 121.
[FN#35] Both the texts read thus, but the reading has little
sense. Ma’aruf probably would say, “I fear that my loads will be
long coming.”
[FN#36] One of the many formulas of polite refusal.
[FN#37] Each bazar, in a large city like Damascus, has its tall
and heavy wooden doors which are locked every evening and opened
in the morning by the Ghafir or guard. The “silver key,” however,
always lets one in.
[FN#38] Arab. “Wa lá Kabbata hámiyah,” a Cairene vulgarism
meaning, “There came nothing to profit him nor to rid the people
of him.”
[FN#39] Arab. “Kammir,” i.e. brown it before the fire, toast it.
[FN#40] It is insinuated that he had lied till he himself
believed the lie to be truth—not an uncommon process, I may
remark.
[FN#41] Arab. “Rijál”=the Men, equivalent to the Walis, Saints or
Santons; with perhaps an allusion to the Rijál al-Ghayb, the
Invisible Controls concerning whom I have quoted Herklots in vol.
ii. 211.
[FN#42] A saying attributed to Al-Hariri (Lane). It is good
enough to be his: the Persians say, “Cut not down the tree thou
plantedst,” and the idea is universal throughout the East.
[FN#43] A quotation from Al-Hariri (Ass. of the Badawin). Ash’ab
(ob. A.H. 54), a Medinite servant of Caliph Osman, was proverbial
for greed and sanguine, Micawber-like expectation of “windfalls.”
The Scholiast Al-Sharíshi (of Xeres) describes him in
Theophrastic style. He never saw a man put hand to pocket without
expecting a present, or a funeral go by without hoping for a
legacy, or a bridal procession without preparing his own house,
hoping they might bring the bride to him by mistake. * * * When
asked if he knew aught greedier than himself he said “Yes; a
sheep I once kept upon my terrace-roof seeing a rainbow mistook
it for a rope of hay and jumping to seize it broke its neck!”
Hence “Ash’ab’s sheep” became a by-word (Preston tells the tale
in full, p. 288).
[FN#44] i.e. “Show a miser money and hold him back, if you can.”
[FN#45] He wants £40,000 to begin with.
[FN#46] i.e. Arab. “Sabíhat al-’urs” the morning after the
wedding. See vol. i. 269.
[FN#47] Another sign of modern composition as in Kamar al-Zaman
II.
[FN#48] Arab. “Al-Jink” (from Turk.) are boys and youths mostly
Jews, Armenians, Greeks and Turks, who dress in woman’s dress
with long hair braided. Lane (M. E. chapts. xix. and xxv.) gives
same account of the customs of the “Gink” (as the Egyptians call
them) but cannot enter into details concerning these catamites.
Respectable Moslems often employ them to dance at festivals in
preference to the Ghawázi-women, a freak of Mohammedan decorum.
When they grow old they often preserve their costume, and a
glance at them makes a European’s blood run cold.
[FN#49] Lane translates this, “May Allah and the Rijal retaliate
upon thy temple!”
[FN#50] Arab. “Yá aba ’l-lithámayn,” addressed to his member.
Lathm the root means kissing or breaking; so he would say, “O
thou who canst take her maidenhead whilst my tongue does away
with the virginity of her mouth.” “He breached the citadel”
(which is usually square) “in its four corners” signifying that
he utterly broke it down.
[FN#51] A mystery to the Author of Proverbs (xxx. 18–19),
There be three things which are too wondrous for me,
The way of an eagle in the air;
The way of a snake upon a rock;
And the way of a man with a maid.
[FN#52] Several women have described the pain to me as much
resembling the drawing of a tooth.
[FN#53] As we should say, “play fast and loose.”
[FN#54] Arab. “Náhí-ka” lit.=thy prohibition but idiomatically
used=let it suffice thee!
[FN#55] A character-sketch like that of Princess Dunya makes
ample amends for a book full of abuse of women. And yet the
superficial say that none of the characters have much personal
individuality.
[FN#56] This is indeed one of the touches of nature which makes
all the world kin.
[FN#57] As we are in Tartary “Arabs” here means plundering
nomades, like the Persian “Iliyát” and other shepherd races.
[FN#58] The very cruelty of love which hates nothing so much as a
rejected lover. The Princess, be it noted, is not supposed to be
merely romancing, but speaking with the second sight, the
clairvoyance, of perfect affection. Men seem to know very little
upon this subject, though every one has at times been more or
less startled by the abnormal introvision and divination of
things hidden which are the property and prerogative of perfect
love.
[FN#59] The name of the Princess meaning “The World,” not unusual
amongst Moslem women.
[FN#60] Another pun upon his name, “Ma’aruf.”
[FN#61] Arab. “Naká,” the mound of pure sand which delights the
eye of the Badawi leaving a town. See vol. i. 217, for the lines
and explanation in Night cmlxiv. vol. ix. p. 250.
[FN#62] Euphemistic: “I will soon fetch thee food.” To say this
bluntly might have brought misfortune.
[FN#63] Arab. “Kafr”=a village in Egypt and Syria e.g. Capernaum
(Kafr Nahum).
[FN#64] He has all the bonhomie of the Cairene and will do a
kindness whenever he can.
[FN#65] i.e. the Father of Prosperities: pron. Aboosa’ádát; as in
the Tale of Hasan of Bassorah.
[FN#66] Koran lxxxix. “The Daybreak” which also mentions Thamud
and Pharaoh.
[FN#67] In Egypt the cheapest and poorest of food, never seen at
a hotel table d’hôte.
[FN#68] The beautiful girls who guard ensorcelled hoards: See
vol. vi. 109.
[FN#69] Arab. “Asákir,” the ornaments of litters, which are
either plain balls of metal or tapering cones based on crescents
or on balls and crescents. See in Lane (M. E. chapt. xxiv.) the
sketch of the Mahmal.
[FN#70] Arab. “Amm”=father’s brother, courteously used for
“father-in-law,” which suggests having slept with his daughter,
and which is indecent in writing. Thus by a pleasant fiction the
husband represents himself as having married his first cousin.
[FN#71] i.e. a calamity to the enemy: see vol. ii. 87 and passim.
[FN#72] Both texts read “Asad” (lion) and Lane accepts it: there
is no reason to change it for “Hásid” (Envier), the Lion being
the Sultan of the Beasts and the most majestic.
[FN#73] The Cairene knew his fellow Cairene and was not to be
taken in by him.
[FN#74] Arab. “Hizám”: Lane reads “Khizám”=a nose-ring for which
see appendix to Lane’s M. E. The untrained European eye dislikes
these decorations and there is certainly no beauty in the hoops
which Hindu women insert through the nostrils, camel-fashion, as
if to receive the cord-acting bridle. But a drop-pearl hanging to
the septum is at least as pretty as the heavy pendants by which
some European women lengthen their ears.
[FN#75] Arab. “Shamtá,” one of the many names of wine, the
“speckled” alluding to the bubbles which dance upon the freshly
filled cup.
[FN#76] i.e. in the cask. These “merry quips” strongly suggest
the dismal toasts of our not remote ancestors.
[FN#77] Arab. “A’láj” plur. of “’Ilj” and rendered by Lane “the
stout foreign infidels.” The next line alludes to the cupbearer
who was generally a slave and a non-Moslem.
[FN#78] As if it were a bride. See vol. vii. 198. The stars of
Jauzá (Gemini) are the cupbearer’s eyes.
[FN#79] i.e. light-coloured wine.
[FN#80] The usual homage to youth and beauty.
[FN#81] Alluding to the cup.
[FN#82] Here Abu Nowas whose name always ushers in some
abomination alluded to the “Ghulámiyah” or girl dressed like boy
to act cupbearer. Civilisation has everywhere the same devices
and the Bordels of London and Paris do not ignore the “she-boy,”
who often opens the door.
[FN#83] Abdallah ibn al-Mu’tazz, son of Al-Mu’tazz bi ’llah, the
13th Abbaside, and great-great-grandson of Harun al-Rashid. He
was one of the most renowned poets of the third century (A.H.)
and died A.D. 908, strangled by the partisans of his nephew
Al-Muktadir bi ’llah, 18th Abbaside.
[FN#84] Jazírat ibn Omar, an island and town on the Tigris north
of Mosul. “Some versions of the poem, from which these verses are
quoted, substitute El-Mutireh, a village near Samara (a town on
the Tigris, 60 miles north of Baghdad), for El-Jezireh, i.e.
Jeziret ibn Omar.” (Payne.)
[FN#85] The Convent of Abdun on the east bank of the Tigris
opposite the Jezirah was so called from a statesman who caused it
to be built. For a variant of these lines see Ibn Khallikan, vol.
ii. 42; here we miss “the shady groves of Al-Matírah.”
[FN#86] Arab. “Ghurrah” the white blaze on a horse’s brow. In Ibn
Khallikan the bird is the lark.
[FN#87] Arab. “Táy’i”=thirsty used with Jáy’i=hungry.
[FN#88] Lit. “Kohl’d with Ghunj” for which we have no better word
than “coquetry.” But see vol. v. 80. It corresponds with the
Latin crissare for women and cevere for men.
[FN#89] i.e. gold-coloured wine, as the Vino d’Oro.
[FN#90] Compare the charming song of Abu Miján translated from
the German of Dr. Weil in Bohn’s Edit. of Ockley (p. 149),
When the Death-angel cometh mine eyes to close,
Dig my grave ’mid the vines on the hill’s fair side;
For though deep in earth may my bones repose,
The juice of the grape shall their food provide.
Ah, bury me not in a barren land,
Or Death will appear to me dread and drear!
While fearless I’ll wait what he hath in hand I
An the scent of the vineyard my spirit cheer.
The glorious old drinker!
[FN#91] Arab. “Rub’a al-Kharáb” in Ibn al-Wardi Central Africa
south of the Nile-sources, one of the richest regions in the
world. Here it prob. alludes to the Rub’a al-Kháli or Great
Arabian Desert: for which see Night dclxxvi. In rhetoric it is
opposed to the “Rub’a Maskún,” or populated fourth of the world,
the rest being held to be ocean.
[FN#92] This is the noble resignation of the Moslem. What a
dialogue there would have been in a European book between man and
devil!
[FN#93] Arab. “Al-’iddah” the period of four months and ten days
which must elapse before she could legally marry again. But this
was a palpable wile: she was not sure of her husband’s death and
he had not divorced her; so that although a “grass widow,” a
“Strohwitwe” as the Germans say, she could not wed again either
with or without interval.
[FN#94] Here the silence is of cowardice and the passage is a
fling at the “timeserving” of the Olema, a favourite theme, like
“banging the bishops” amongst certain Westerns.
[FN#95] Arab. “Umm al-raas,” the poll, crown of the head, here
the place where a calamity coming down from heaven would first
alight.
[FN#96] From Al-Hariri (Lane): the lines are excellent.
[FN#97] When the charming Princess is so ready at the voie de
faits, the reader will understand how common is such energetic
action among women of lower degree. The “fair sex” in Egypt has a
horrible way of murdering men, especially husbands, by tying them
down and tearing out the testicles. See Lane M. E. chapt. xiii.