Part 25

Lane. (i. 211) pleasantly remarks, "A list of these sweets is given in my original, but I have thought it better to omit the names" (!) Dozy does not shirk his duty, but he is not much more satisfactory in explaining words interesting to students because they are unfound in dictionaries and forgotten by the people "Akrás" (cakes) Laymuníyah (of limes) wa "Maymuníyah" appears in the Bresl. Edit. as "Ma'amuniyah" which may mean "Ma'amun's cakes" or "delectable cakes." "Amshát"=(combs) perhaps refers to a fine kind of Kunáfah (vermicelli) known in Egypt and Syria as "Ghazl al-banát"=girl's spinning.

Footnote 144:

The new moon carefully looked for by all Moslems because it begins the Ramazán-fast.

Footnote 145:

Solomon's signet ring has before been noticed.

Footnote 146:

The "high-bosomed" damsel, with breasts firm as a cube, is a favourite with Arab tale-tellers. _Fanno baruffa_ is the Italian term for hard breasts pointing outwards.

Footnote 147:

A large hollow navel is looked upon not only as a beauty, but in children it is held a promise of good growth.

Footnote 148:

Arab. "Ka'ah," a high hall opening upon the central court: we shall find the word used for a mansion, barrack, men's quarters, etc.

Footnote 149:

Babel=Gate of God (El), or Gate of Ilu (P.N. of God), which the Jews ironically interpreted "Confusion." The tradition of Babylonia being the very centre of witchcraft and enchantment by means of its Seven Deadly Spirits, has survived in Al-Islam; the two fallen angels (whose names will occur) being confined in a well; Nimrod attempting to reach Heaven from the Tower in a magical car drawn by monstrous birds and so forth. See p. 114, Francois Lenormant's "Chaldean Magic," London, Bagsters.

Footnote 150:

Arab. "Kámat Alfiyyah"=like the letter Alif, a straight perpendicular stroke. In the Egyptian hieroglyphs, the origin of every alphabet (not syllabarium) known to man, one form was a flag or leaf of water-plant standing upright. Hence probably the Arabic Alif-shape; while other nations preferred other modifications of the letter (ox's head, etc.), which in Egyptian number some thirty-six varieties, simple and compound.

Footnote 151:

I have not attempted to order this marvellous confusion of metaphors so characteristic of The Nights and the exigencies of Al-Saj'a=rhymed prose.

Footnote 152:

Here and elsewhere I omit the "kála (_dice Turpino_)" of the original: Torrens preserves "Thus goes the tale" (which it only interrupts). This is simply letter-wise and sense-foolish.

Footnote 153:

Of this worthy more at a future time.

Footnote 154:

_i.e._, sealed with the Kazi or legal authority's seal of office.

Footnote 155:

"Nothing for nothing" is a fixed idea with the Eastern woman: not so much for greed as for a sexual _point d'honneur_ when dealing with the adversary—man.

Footnote 156:

She drinks first, the custom of the universal East, to show that the wine she had bought was unpoisoned. Easterns, who utterly ignore the "social glass" of Western civilisation, drink honestly to get drunk; and, when far gone are addicted to horseplay (in Pers. "Badmasti"=_le vin mauvais_) which leads to quarrels and bloodshed. Hence it is held highly irreverent to assert of patriarchs, prophets and saints that they "drank wine;" and Moslems agree with our "Teatotallers" in denying that, except in the case of Noah, inebriatives are anywhere mentioned in Holy Writ.

Footnote 157:

Arab. "Húr al-Ayn," lit. (maids) with eyes of lively white and black, applied to the virgins of Paradise who will wive with the happy Faithful. I retain our vulgar "Houri," warning the reader that it is a masc. for a fem. ("Huríyah") in Arab, although accepted in Persian, a genderless speech.

Footnote 158:

Arab. "Zambúr," whose head is amputated in female circumcision. See Night cccclxxiv.

Footnote 159:

Ocymum basilicum noticed in Introduction; the bassilico of Boccaccio iv. 5. The Book of Kalilah and Dimnah represents it as "sprouting with something also whose smell is foul and disgusting and the sower at once sets to gather it and burn it with fire." (The Fables of Bidpai translated from the later Syriac version by I. G. N. Keith-Falconer, etc., etc., etc., Cambridge University Press, 1885). Here, however, Habk is a pennyroyal (_mentha puligium_), and probably alludes to the pecten.

Footnote 160:

_i.e._ common property for all to beat.

Footnote 161:

"A digit of the moon" is the Hindú equivalent.

Footnote 162:

Better known to us as Caravanserai, the "Travellers' Bungalow" of India: in the Khan, however, shelter is to be had, but neither bed nor board.

Footnote 163:

Arab. "Zubb." I would again note that this and its synonyms are the equivalents of the Arabic, which is of the lowest. The tale-teller's evident object is to accentuate the contrast with the tragical stories to follow.

Footnote 164:

"In the name of Allah," is here a civil form of dismissal.

Footnote 165:

Lane (i. 124) is scandalized and naturally enough by this scene, which is the only blot in an admirable tale admirably told. Yet even here the grossness is but little more pronounced than what we find in our old drama (_e.g._, Shakspeare's King Henry V.) written for the stage, whereas tales like The Nights are not read or recited before both sexes. Lastly "nothing follows all this palming work:" in Europe the orgie would end very differently. These "nuns of Theleme" are physically pure: their debauchery is of the mind, not the body. Galland makes them five, including the two doggesses.

Footnote 166:

So Sir Francis Walsingham's "They which do that they should not, should hear that they would not."

Footnote 167:

The old "Calendar," pleasantly associated with that form of almanac. The Mac. Edit. has "Karandaliyah," a vile corruption, like Ibn Batutah's "Karandar" and Torrens' "Kurundul:" so in English we have the accepted vulgarism of "Kernel" for Colonel. The Bul. Edit. uses for synonym "Su'ulúk"=an asker, a beggar. Of these mendicant monks, for such they are, much like the Sarabaites of mediæval Europe, I have treated, and of their institutions and its founder, Shaykh Sharif Bu Ali Kalandar (ob. A.H. 724=1323-24), at some length in my "History of Sindh," chapt. viii. See also the Dabistan (i, 136) where the good Kalandar exclaims:—

If the thorn break in my body, how trifling the pain! But how sorely I feel for the poor broken thorn!

D'Herbelot is right when he says that the Kalandar is not generally approved by Moslems: he labours to win free from every form and observance and he approaches the Malámati who conceals all his good deeds and boasts of his evil doings—our "Devil's hypocrite."

Footnote 168:

The "Kalandar" disfigures himself in this manner to show "mortification."

Footnote 169:

Arab. "Gharíb:" the porter is offended because the word implies "poor devil;" esp. one out of his own country.

Footnote 170:

A religious mendicant generally.

Footnote 171:

Very scandalous to Moslem "respectability": Mohammed said the house was accursed when the voices of women could be heard out of doors. Moreover the neighbours have a right to interfere and abate the scandal.

Footnote 172:

I need hardly say that these are both historical personages; they will often be mentioned, and Ja'afar will be noticed in the terminal Essay.

Footnote 173:

Arab. "Sama'an wa tá'atan;" a popular phrase of assent generally translated "to hear is to obey;" but this formula may be and must be greatly varied. In places it means "Hearing (the word of Allah) and obeying" (His prophet, viceregent, etc.)

Footnote 174:

Arab. "Sawáb"=reward in Heaven. This word for which we have no equivalent has been naturalised in all tongues (_e.g._ Hindostani) spoken by Moslems.

Footnote 175:

Wine-drinking, at all times forbidden to Moslems, vitiates the Pilgrimage-rite: the Pilgrim is vowed to a strict observance of the ceremonial law and many men date their "reformation" from the "Hajj." Pilgrimage, iii., 126.

Footnote 176:

Here some change has been necessary; as the original text confuses the three "ladies."

Footnote 177:

In Arab-the plural masc. is used by way of modesty when a girl addresses her lover; and for the same reason she speaks of herself as a man.

Footnote 178:

Arab. "Al-Na'im;" in full "Jannat al-Na'im"=the Garden of Delights, _i.e._ the fifth Heaven made of white silver. The generic name of Heaven (the place of reward) is "Jannat," lit. a garden; "Firdaus" being evidently derived from the Persian through the Greek παράδεισος, and meaning a chase, a hunting-park. Writers on this subject should bear in mind Mandeville's modesty, "Of Paradise I cannot speak properly, for I was not there."

Footnote 179:

Arab. "Mikra'ah," the dried mid-rib of a date-frond used for many purposes, especially the bastinado.

Footnote 180:

According to Lane (i., 229) these and the immediately following verses are from an ode by Ibn Sahl al-Ishbili. They are in the Bul. Edit. not the Mac. Edit.

Footnote 181:

The original is full of conceits and plays on words which are not easily rendered in English.

Footnote 182:

Arab. "Tarjumán," same root as Chald. Targum (=a translation), the old "Truchman," and through the Ital. "tergomano" our "Dragoman;" here a messenger.

Footnote 183:

Lit. the "person of the eyes," our "babe of the eyes," a favourite poetical conceit in all tongues; much used by the Elizabethans, but now neglected as a silly kind of conceit. See Night ccix.

Footnote 184:

Arab. "Sár" (Thár) the revenge-right recognised by law and custom (Pilgrimage, iii., 69)

Footnote 185:

That is "We all swim in the same boat."

Footnote 186:

Ja'afar ever acts, on such occasions, the part of a wise and sensible man compelled to join in a foolish frolic. He contrasts strongly with the Caliph, a headstrong despot who will not be gainsaid, whatever be the whim of the moment. But Easterns would look upon this as a proof of his "kingliness."

Footnote 187:

Arab. "Wa'l-Salám" (pronounce Was-Salám); meaning "and here ends the matter." In our slang we say, "All right, and the child's name is Antony."

Footnote 188:

This is a favourite jingle; the play being upon "ibrat" (a needle-graver) and "'ibrat" (an example, a warning).

Footnote 189:

That is "make his bow;" as the English peasant pulls his forelock. Lane (i., 249) suggests, as an afterthought, that it means:—"Recover thy senses; in allusion to a person's drawing his hand over his head after sleep or a fit." But it occurs elsewhere in the sense of "cut thy stick."

Footnote 190:

This would be a separate building like our family tomb and probably domed, resembling that mentioned in "The King of the Black Islands." Europeans usually call it "a little Wali;" or, as they write it, "Wely;" the contained for the container; the "Santon" for the "Santon's tomb." I have noticed this curious confusion (which begins with Robinson, i. 322) in "Unexplored Syria," i. 161.

Footnote 191:

Arab. "Wiswás;"=diabolical temptation or suggestion. The "Wiswásí" is a man with scruples (scrupulus, a pebble in the shoe), _e.g._ one who fears that his ablutions were deficient, etc.

Footnote 192:

Arab. "Katf"=pinioning by tying the arms behind the back and shoulders (Kitf), a dire disgrace to freeborn men.

Footnote 193:

Arab. "Nafs."=Heb. Nephesh (Nafash)=soul, life; as opposed to "Ruach"=spirit and breath. In these places it is equivalent to "I said to myself." Another form of the root is "Nafas," breath, with an idea of inspiration: so "Sáhib Nafas" (=master of breath) is a minor saint who heals by expiration, a matter familiar to mesmerists (Pilgrimage, i. 86).

Footnote 194:

Arab. "Kaus al-Banduk;" the "pellet-bow" of modern India; with two strings joined by a bit of cloth which supports a ball of dry clay or stone. It is chiefly used for birding.

Footnote 195:

In the East blinding was a common practice, especially in the case of junior princes not required as heirs. A deep perpendicular incision was made down each corner of the eyes; the lids were lifted and the balls removed by cutting the optic nerve and the muscles. The later Caliphs blinded their victims by passing a red-hot sword blade close to the orbit or a needle over the eyeball. About the same time in Europe the operation was performed with a heated metal basin—the well-known _bacinare_ (used by Ariosto), as happened to Pier delle Vigne (Petrus de Vineâ), the "godfather of modern Italian."

Footnote 196:

Arab. "Khinzír" (by Europeans pronounced "Hanzír"), prop. a wild-boar; but popularly used like our "you pig!"

Footnote 197:

Striking with the shoe, the pipe-stick and similar articles is highly insulting, because they are not made, like whips and scourges, for such purpose. Here the East and the West differ diametrically. "Wounds which are given by instruments which are in one's hands by chance do not disgrace a man," says Cervantes (D. Q. i., chapt. 15), and goes on to prove that if a Zapatero (cobbler) cudgel another with his form or last, the latter must not consider himself cudgelled. The reverse in the East where a blow of a pipe-stick cost Mahommed Ali Pasna's son his life: Ishmail Pasha was burned to death by Malik Nimr, chief of Shendy (Pilgrimage, i., 203). Moreover, the actual wound is less considered in Moslem law than the instrument which caused it: so sticks and stones are venial weapons, whilst sword and dagger, gun and pistol are felonious. See _ibid._ (i., 336) for a note upon the weapons with which nations are policed.

Footnote 198:

Incest is now abominable everywhere except amongst the overcrowded poor of great and civilised cities. Yet such unions were common and lawful amongst ancient and highly cultivated peoples, as the Egyptians (Isis and Osiris), Assyrians and ancient Persians. Physiologically they are injurious only when the parents have constitutional defects: if both are sound, the issue, as amongst the so-called "lower animals," is viable and healthy.

Footnote 199:

Dwellers in the Northern Temperates can hardly imagine what a dust-storm is in sun-parched tropical lands. In Sind we were often obliged to use candles at midday, while above the dust was a sun that would roast an egg.

Footnote 200:

Arab. "'Urban," now always used of the wild people, whom the French have taught us to call _les Bedouins_; "Badw" being a waste or desert; and Badawi (fem. Badawíyah, plur. Badáwi and Bidwán), a man of the waste. Europeans have also learnt to miscall the Egyptians "Arabs": the difference is as great as between an Englishman and a Spaniard. Arabs proper divide their race into sundry successive families. "The Arab al-Arabá" (or al-Aribah, or al-Urubíyat) are the autochthones, prehistoric, proto-historic and extinct tribes; for instance, a few of the Adites who being at Meccah escaped the destruction of their wicked nation, but mingled with other classes. The "Arab al-Muta'arribah," (Arabised Arabs) are the first advenæ represented by such noble strains as the Koraysh (Koreish), some still surviving. The "Arab al-Musta'aribah," (insititious, naturalised or instituted Arabs, men who claim to be Arabs) are Arabs like the Sinaites, the Egyptians and the Maroccans descended by intermarriage with other races. Hence our "Mosarabians" and the "Marrabais" of Rabelais (not, "a word compounded of Maurus and Arabs"). Some genealogists, however, make the Muta'arribah descendants of Kahtan (possible the Joktan of Genesis x., a comparatively modern document, B.C. 700?); and the Musta'aribah those descended from Adnán the origin of Arab genealogy. And, lastly, are the "Arab al-Musta'ajimah," barbarised Arabs, like the present population of Meccah and Al-Medinah. Besides these there are other tribes whose origin is still unknown; such as the Mahrah tribes of Hazramaut, the "Akhdám" (=serviles) of Oman (Maskat); and the "Ebná" of Al-Yaman: Ibn Ishak supposes the latter to be descended from the Persian soldiers of Anushirwan who expelled the Abyssinian invader from Southern Arabia. (Pilgrimage, iii., 31, etc.).

Footnote 201:

Arab. "Amír al-Muuminín." The title was assumed by the Caliph Omar to obviate the inconvenience of calling himself "Khalífah" (successor) of the Khalífah of the Apostle of Allah (_i.e._ Abu Bakr); which after a few generations would become impossible. It means "Emir (chief or prince) of the Muumins;" men who hold to the (true Moslem) Faith, the "Imán" (theory, fundamental articles) as opposed to the "Dín," ordinance or practice of the religion. It once became a Wazirial title conferred by Sultan Malikshah (King King-king) on his Nizám al-Mulk. (Richardson's Dissert. lviii).

Footnote 202:

This may also mean "according to the seven editions of the Koran," the old revisions and so forth (Sale, Sect. iii. and D'Herbelot "Alcoran.") The schools of the "Mukri," who teach the right pronunciation wherein a mistake might be sinful, are seven, Hamzah, Ibn Katír, Ya'akúb, Ibn Amir, Kisái, Asim and Hafs, the latter being the favourite with the Hanafis and the only one now generally known in Al-Islam.

Footnote 203:

Arab. "Sadd"=wall, dyke, etc. the "bund" or "band" of Anglo-India. Hence the "Sadd" on the Nile, the banks of grass and floating islands which "wall" the stream. There are few sights more appalling than a sandstorm in the desert, the "Zauba'ah" as the Arabs call it. Devils, or pillars of sand, vertical and inclined, measuring a thousand feet high, rush over the plain lashing the sand at their base like a sea surging under a furious whirlwind; shearing the grass clean away from the roots, tearing up trees, which are whirled like leaves and sticks in air, and sweeping away tents and houses as if they were bits of paper. At last the columns join at the top and form, perhaps three thousand feet above the earth, a gigantic cloud of yellow sand which obliterates not only the horizon but even the midday sun. These sand-spouts are the terror of travellers. In Sind and the Punjab we have the dust-storm which for darkness, I have said, beats the blackest London fog.

Footnote 204:

Arab. Sár=the vendetta, before mentioned, as dreaded in Arabia as in Corsica.

Footnote 205:

Arab. "Ghútah," usually a place where irrigation is abundant. It especially applies (in books) to the Damascus-plain because "it abounds with water and fruit trees." Bochart (Geog. Sacra, p. 90) derives עוטה (utah) from עוץ Uz, son of Arab, who (he says) founded Damascus. The Ghutah is one of the four earthly paradises, the others being Basrah (Bassorah), Shiraz and Samarcand. Its peculiarity is the likeness to a seaport; the Desert which rolls up almost to its doors being the sea and its ships being the camels. The first Arab to whom we owe this admirable term for the "Companion of Job" is "Tarafah" one of the poets of the Suspended Poems: he likens (v.v. 3, 4) the camels which bore away his beloved to ships sailing from Aduli. But "ships of the desert" is doubtless a term of the highest antiquity.

Footnote 206:

The exigencies of the "Saj'a," or rhymed prose, disjoint this and many similar passages.

Footnote 207:

The "Ebony" Islands; Scott's "Isle of Ebene," i., 217.

Footnote 208:

"Jarjarís" in the Bul. Edit.

Footnote 209:

Arab. "Takbís." Many Easterns can hardly sleep without this kneading of the muscles, this "rubbing" whose hygienic properties England is now learning.

Footnote 210:

The converse of the breast being broadened, the drooping, "draggle-tail" gait compared with the head held high and the chest inflated.

Footnote 211:

This penalty is mentioned in the Koran (chapt. v.) as fit for those who fight against Allah and his Apostle; but commentators are not agreed if the sinners are first to be put to death or to hang on the cross till they die. Pharaoh (chapt xx.) threatens to crucify his magicians on palm-trees, and is held to be the first crucifier.

Footnote 212:

Arab. "'Ajami"=foreigner, esp. a Persian: the latter in The Nights is mostly a villain. I must here remark that the contemptible condition of Persians in Al-Hijáz (which I noted in 1852, Pilgrimage i. 327) has completely changed. They are no longer, "The slippers of Ali and hounds of Omar:" they have learned the force of union and now, instead of being bullied, they bully.

Footnote 213:

The Calc. Edit. turns them into Tailors (Khayyátín) and Torrens does not see the misprint.

Footnote 214:

_i.e._ Axe and sandals.

Footnote 215:

Lit. "Strike his neck."

Footnote 216:

A phrase which will frequently recur; meaning the situation suggested such words as these.

Footnote 217:

The smiter with the evil eye is called "A'in" and the person smitten "Ma'ín" or "Ma'ún."

Footnote 218:

Arab. "Sákiyah," the well-known Persian wheel with pots and buckets attached to the tire. It is of many kinds, the boxed, etc., etc.; and it is possibly alluded to in the "pitcher broken at the fountain" (Ecclesiastes xii. 6) an accident often occurring to the modern "Noria." Travellers mostly abuse its "dismal creaking" and "mournful monotony": I have defended the music of the water-wheel in Pilgrimage ii. 198.

Footnote 219:

Arab. "Zikr" lit. remembering, mentioning (_i.e._ the names of Allah), here refers to the meetings of religious for devotional exercises; the "Zikkírs," as they are called, mostly standing or sitting in a circle while they ejaculate the Holy Name. These "rogations" are much affected by Darwayshes, or begging friars, whom Europe politely divides into "dancing" and "howling"; and, on one occasion, greatly to the scandal of certain Engländerinns to whom I was showing the Ezbekiyah I joined the ring of "howlers." Lane (Mod. Egypt, see index) is profuse upon the subject of "Zikrs" and Zikkírs. It must not be supposed that they are uneducated men: the better class, however, prefers more privacy.

Footnote 220:

As they thought he had been there for prayer or penance.

Footnote 221:

Arab. "Ziyárat," a visit to a pious person or place.

Footnote 222:

This is a paternal salute in the East where they are particular about the part kissed. A witty and not unusually gross Persian book, called the "Al-Námah" because all questions begin with "Al" (the Arab article) contains one "Al-Wajib al-busídan?" (what best deserves bussing?) and the answer is "Kus-i-nau-pashm," (a bobadilla with a young bush).

Footnote 223:

A weight of 71-72 English grains in gold; here equivalent to the dinar.

Footnote 224:

Compare the tale of The Three Crows in Gammer Grethel, Evening ix.

Footnote 225:

The comparison is peculiarly apposite; the earth seen from above appears hollow with a raised rim.

Footnote 226:

A hundred years old.

Footnote 227:

"Bahr" in Arab. means sea, river, piece of water; hence the adjective is needed.

Footnote 228:

The Captain or Master of the ship (not the owner). In Al Yaman the word also means a "barber," in virtue of the root, Raas, a head.

Footnote 229:

The text has "in the character Ruká'í," or Riká'í, the correspondence-hand.

Footnote 230:

A curved character supposed to be like the basil-leaf (rayhán). Richardson calls it "Rohani."

Footnote 231:

I need hardly say that Easterns use a reed, a Calamus (Kalam applied only to the cut reed) for our quills and steel pens.

Footnote 232:

Famous for being inscribed on the Kiswah (cover) of Mohammed's tomb; a large and more formal hand still used for engrossing and for mural inscriptions. Only seventy-two varieties of it are known (Pilgrimage, ii., 82).

Footnote 233:

The copying and transcribing hand which is either Arabi or Ajami. A great discovery has lately been made which upsets all our old ideas of Cufic, etc. Mr. Löytved of Bayrut has found, amongst the Hauranic inscriptions, one in pure Naskhi, dating A.D. 568, or fifty years before the Hijrah; and it is accepted as authentic by my learned friend M. Ch. Clermont-Ganneau (p. 193, Pal. Explor. Fund; July 1884). In D'Herbelot and Sale's day the Koran was supposed to have been written in rude characters, like those subsequently called "Cufic," invented shortly before Mohammed's birth by Murámir ibn Murrah of Anbar in Irák, introduced into Meccah by Bashar the Kindian, and perfected by Ibn Muklah (Al-Wazir, ob. A.H. 328=940). We must now change all that. See Catalogue of Oriental Caligraphs, etc., by G. P. Badger, London, Whiteley, 1885.

Footnote 234:

Capital and uncial letters; the hand in which the Ka'abah veil is inscribed (Pilgrimage iii. 299, 300).

Footnote 235: