Part 48

This is still a popular form of the "Kinchin lay," and as the turbands are often of fine stuff, the _petite industrie_ pays well.

Footnote 507:

Arab. "Wali"=Governor; the term still in use for the Governor-General of a Province as opposed to the "Muháfiz," or district-governor. In Eastern Arabia the Wali is the Civil Governor opposed to the Amir or Military Commandant. Under the Caliphate the Wali acted also as Prefect of Police (the Indian Faujdár), who is now called "Zábit." The older name for the latter was "Sáhib al-Shartah" (=chief of the watch) or "Mutawalli"; and it was his duty to go the rounds in person. The old "Charley," with his lantern and cudgel, still guards the bazars in Damascus.

Footnote 508:

Arab. "Al-Mashá ilí"=the bearer of a cresset (Mash'al) who was also Jack Ketch. In Anglo-India the name is given to a lower body-servant. The "Mash'al" which Lane (M. E., chapt vi.) calls "Mesh'al" and illustrates, must not be confounded with its congener the "Sha'ílah" or link (also lamp, wick, etc.).

Footnote 509:

I need hardly say that the civilised "drop" is unknown to the East where men are strung up as to a yardarm. This greatly prolongs the suffering.

Footnote 510:

Arab. "Lukmah":=a mouthful. It is still the fashion amongst Easterns of primitive manners to take up a handful of rice, etc., ball it and put it into a friend's mouth _honoris causâ_. When the friend is a European the expression of his face is generally a study.

Footnote 511:

I need hardly note that this is an old Biblical practice. The ass is used for city-work as the horse for fighting and travelling, the mule for burdens and the dromedary for the desert. But the Badawi, like the Indian, despises the monture and sings:—

The back of the steed is a noble place; But the mule's dishonour, the ass disgrace!

The fine white asses, often thirteen hands high, sold by the Banu Salíb and other Badawi tribes, will fetch £100, and more. I rode a little brute from Meccah to Jedda (42 miles) in one night and it came in with me cantering.

Footnote 512:

A dry measure of about five bushels (Cairo). The classical pronunciation is Irdabb and it measured 24 sa'a (gallons) each filling four outstretched hands.

Footnote 513:

"Al-Jawáli" should be Al-Jáwali (Al-Makrizi) and the Bab al-Nasr (Gate of Victory) is that leading to Suez. I lived in that quarter as shown by my Pilgrimage (i. 62).

Footnote 514:

Arab. "Al-'ajalah," referring to a saying in every Moslem mouth, "Patience is from the Protector (Allah): Hurry is from Hell." That and "Inshallah bukra!" (Please God to-morrow!) are the traveller's _bêtes noires_.

Footnote 515:

Here it is a polite equivalent for "fall to!"

Footnote 516:

The left hand is used throughout the East for purposes of ablution and is considered unclean. To offer the left hand would be most insulting and no man ever strokes his beard with it or eats with it: hence, probably, one never sees a left-handed man throughout the Moslem east. In the Brazil for the same reason old-fashioned people will not take snuff with the right hand. And it is related of the Khataians that they prefer the left hand, "Because the heart, which is the Sultan of the city of the Body, hath his mansion on that side" (Rauzat al-Safá).

Footnote 517:

Two feminine names; as we might say Mary and Martha.

Footnote 518:

It was near the Caliph's two Palaces (Al-Kasrayn); and was famous in the 15th century A.D. The Kazi's Mahkamah (Court-house) now occupies the place of the Two Palaces.

Footnote 519:

A Kaysariah is a superior kind of bazar, a "bezestein." That in the text stood to the east of the principal street in Cairo and was built in A. H. 502 (=1108-9) by a Circassian Emir, known as Fakhr al-Din Jahárkas, a corruption of the Persian "Chehár-kas"=four persons (Lane, i. 422, from Al-Makrizi and Ibn Khallikan). For Jahárkas the Mac. Edit. has Jirjís (George) a common Christian name. I once lodged in a "Wakálah (the modern Khan) Jirjis." Pilgrimage, i. 255.

Footnote 520:

Arab. "Second Day," _i.e._ after Saturday, the true Sabbath, so marvellously ignored by Christendom.

Footnote 521:

Readers who wish to know how a traveller is lodged in a Wakálah, Khan, or Caravanserai, will consult my Pilgrimage, i. 60.

Footnote 522:

The original occupation of the family had given it a name, as amongst us.

Footnote 523:

The usual "chaff" or banter allowed even to modest women when shopping, and—many a true word is spoken in jest.

Footnote 524:

"La adamnák"=Heaven deprive us not of thee, _i.e._ grant I see thee often!

Footnote 525:

This is a somewhat cavalier style of advance; but Easterns under such circumstances go straight to the point, hating to filer the parfait amour.

Footnote 526:

The peremptory formula of a slave delivering such a message.

Footnote 527:

This would be our Thursday night, preceding the day of public prayers which can be performed only when in a state of ceremonial purity. Hence many Moslems go to the Hammam on Thursday and have no connection with their wives till Friday night.

Footnote 528:

Lane (i. 423) gives ample details concerning the Habbániyah, or grain-sellers' quarter in the southern part of Cairo; and shows that when this tale was written (or transcribed?) the city was almost as extensive as it is now.

Footnote 529:

Nakíb is a caravan-leader, a chief, a syndic; and "Abú Shámah"=Father of a cheek mole, while "Abú Shámmah"=Father of a smeller, a nose, a snout. The "Kuniyah," bye-name, patronymic or matronymic, is necessary amongst Moslems whose list of names, all connected more or less with religion, is so scanty. Hence Buckingham the traveller was known as Abu Kidr, the Father of a Cooking-pot and Hajj Abdullah as Abu Shawárib, Father of Mustachios (Pilgrimage, iii., 263).

Footnote 530:

More correctly Bab Zawilah from the name of a tribe in Northern Africa. This gate dates from the same age as the Eastern or Desert gate, Bab al-Nasr (A.D. 1087) and is still much admired. M. Jomard describes it (Description, etc., ii. 670) and lately my good friend Yacoub Artin Pasha has drawn attention to it in the Bulletin de l'Inst. Egypt., Deuxième Série, No. 4, 1883.

Footnote 531:

This ornament is still seen in the older saloons of Damascus: the inscriptions are usually religious sentences, extracts from the Koran, etc., in uncial characters. They take the place of our frescos; and, as a work of art, are generally far superior.

Footnote 532:

Arab. "Bayáz al-Sultání," the best kind of gypsum which shines like polished marble. The stucco on the walls of Alexandria, built by Alexander of the two Horns, was so exquisitely tempered and beautifully polished that men had to wear masks for fear of blindness.

Footnote 533:

This Iklíl, a complicated affair, is now obsolete, its place having been taken by the "Kurs," a gold plate, some five inches in diameter, set with jewels, etc. Lane (M. E. Appendix A) figures it.

Footnote 534:

The woman-artist who applies the dye is called "Munakkishah."

Footnote 535:

"Kissing with th' inner lip," as Shakespeare calls it; the French _langue fourrée_; and Sankrit "Samputa." The subject of kissing is extensive in the East. Ten different varieties are duly enumerated in the "Ananga-Ranga;" or, The Hindu Art of Love (Ars Amoris Indica) translated from the Sanscrit, and annotated by A. F. F. and B. F. R. It is also connected with unguiculation, or impressing the nails, of which there are seven kinds; morsication (seven kinds); handling the hair and tappings or pattings with the fingers and palm (eight kinds).

Footnote 536:

Arab. "asal-nahl," to distinguish it from "honey" _i.e._ syrup of sugar-cane and fruits.

Footnote 537:

The lines have occurred in Night xii. By way of variety I give Torrens' version p. 273.

Footnote 538:

The way of carrying money in the corner of a pocket-handkerchief is still common.

Footnote 539:

He sent the provisions not to be under an obligation to her in this matter. And she received them to judge thereby of his liberality.

Footnote 540:

Those who have seen the process of wine-making in the Libanus will readily understand why it is always strained.

Footnote 541:

Arab. "Kulkasá," a kind of arum or yam, eaten boiled like our potatoes.

Footnote 542:

At first he slipped the money into the bed-clothes: now he gives it openly and she accepts it for a reason.

Footnote 543:

Arab. Al-Zalamah: lit.=tyrants, oppressors, applied to the police and generally to the employés of Government. It is a word which tells a history.

Footnote 544:

Moslem law is never completely satisfied till the criminal confess. It also utterly ignores circumstantial evidence and for the best of reasons: amongst so sharp-witted a people the admission would lead to endless abuses. I greatly surprised a certain Governor-General of India by giving him this simple information.

Footnote 545:

Cutting off the right hand is the Koranic punishment (chapt. v.) for one who robs an article worth four dinars, about forty francs to shillings. The left foot is to be cut off at the ankle for a second offence and so on; but death is reserved for a hardened criminal. The practice is now obsolete and theft is punished by the bastinado, fine or imprisonment. The old Guebres were as severe. For stealing one dirham's worth they took a fine of two, cut off the ear-lobes, gave ten stick-blows and dismissed the criminal who had been subjected to an hour's imprisonment. A second theft caused the penalties to be doubled; and after that the right hand was cut off or death was inflicted according to the proportion stolen.

Footnote 546:

Koran viii. 17.

Footnote 547:

A universal custom in the East, the object being originally to show that the draught was not poisoned.

Footnote 548:

Out of paste or pudding.

Footnote 549:

Boils and pimples are supposed to be caused by broken hair-roots and in Hindostani are called Bál-tor.

Footnote 550:

He intended to bury it decently, a respect which Moslems always show even to the exuviæ of the body, as hair and nail parings. Amongst Guebres the latter were collected and carried to some mountain. The practice was intensified by fear of demons or wizards getting possession of the spoils.

Footnote 551:

Without which the marriage was not valid. The minimum is ten dirhams (drachmas) now valued at about five francs to shillings; and if a man marry without naming the sum, the woman, after consummation, can compel him to pay this minimum.

Footnote 552:

Arab. "Khatmah"=reading or reciting the whole Koran, by one or more persons, usually in the house, not over the tomb. Like the "Zikr," Litany or Rogation, it is a pious act confined to certain occasions.

Footnote 553:

Arab. "Zírbájah"=meat dressed with vinegar, cumin-seed (Pers. Zír) and hot spices. More of it in the sequel of the tale.

Footnote 554:

A saying not uncommon meaning, let each man do as he seems fit; also="age quod agis": and at times corresponding with our saw about the cap-fitting.

Footnote 555:

Arab. "Su'úd," an Alpinia with pungent rhizome like ginger; here used as a counter-odour.

Footnote 556:

Arab. "Tá'ih"=lost in the "Tíh," a desert wherein man _may_ lose himself, translated in our maps "The Desert of the Wanderings," scil. of the children of Israel. "Credat Judæus."

Footnote 557:

_i.e._, £125 and £500.

Footnote 558:

A large sum was weighed by a professional instead of being counted, the reason being that the coin is mostly old and worn: hence our words "pound" and "pension" (or what is weighed out).

Footnote 559:

The eunuch is the best possible go-between on account of his almost unlimited power over the Harem.

Footnote 560:

_i.e._ a slave-girl brought up in the house and never sold except for some especial reason, as habitual drunkenness, etc.

Footnote 561:

Smuggling men into the Harem is a stock "topic" of eastern tales. "By means of their female attendants, the ladies of the royal harem generally get men into their apartments in the disguise of women." Says Vatsyayana in The Kama Sutra, Part V., London: Printed for the Hindoo Kamashastra Society, 1883. For private circulation only.

Footnote 562:

These tears are shed over past separation. So the "Indians" of the New World never meet after long parting without beweeping mutual friends they have lost.

Footnote 563:

A most important Jack in office whom one can see with his smooth chin and blubber lips, starting up from his lazy snooze in the shade and delivering his orders more peremptorily than any Dogberry. These epicenes are as curious and exceptional in character as in external conformation. Disconnected, after a fashion, with humanity, they are brave, fierce and capable of any villany or barbarity (as Agha Mohammed Khan in Persia 1795-98). The frame is unnaturally long and lean, especially the arms and legs; with high, flat, thin shoulders; big protruding joints and a face by contrast extraordinarily large, a veritable mask; the Castrato is expert in the use of weapons and sits his horse admirably, riding well "home" in the saddle for the best of reasons; and his hoarse thick voice, which apparently does not break, as in the European "Cáppone," invests him with all the circumstance of command.

Footnote 564:

From the Meccan well used by Moslems much like Eau de Lourdes by Christians: the water is saltish, hence the touch of Arab humour (Pilgrimage III., 201-202.)

Footnote 565:

Such articles would be sacred from Moslem eyes.

Footnote 566:

Physiologically true, but not generally mentioned in describing the emotions.

Footnote 567:

Properly "Uta," the different rooms, each "Odalisque," or concubine, having her own.

Footnote 568:

Showing that her monthly ailment was over.

Footnote 569:

Arab. "Muhammarah"=either browned before the fire or artificially reddened.

Footnote 570:

The insolence and licence of these palace-girls was (and is) unlimited; especially when, as in the present case, they have to deal with a "softy." On this subject numberless stories are current throughout the East.

Footnote 571:

_i.e._ blackened by the fires of Jehannam.

Footnote 572:

Arab. "Bi'l-Salámah"=in safety (to avert the evil eye). When visiting the sick it is usual to say something civil; "The Lord heal thee! No evil befal thee!" etc.

Footnote 573:

Washing during sickness is held dangerous by Arabs; and "going to the Hammam" is, I have said, equivalent to convalescence.

Footnote 574:

Arab. "Máristán" (pronounced Múristan) a corruption of the Pers. "Bímáristán"=place of sickness, a hospital much affected by the old Guebres (Dabistan, i., 165, 166). That of Damascus was the first Moslem hospital, founded by Al-Walid Son of Abd al-Malik the Ommiade in A.H. 88=706-7. Benjamin of Tudela (A.D. 1164) calls it "Dar-al-Maraphtan" which his latest Editor explains by "Dar-al-Mora-bittan" (abode of those who require being chained). Al-Makrizi (Khitat) ascribes the invention of "Spitals" to Hippocrates; another historian to an early Pharaoh "Manákiyush;" thus ignoring the Persian Kings, Saint Ephrem (or Ephraim) Syru etc. In modern parlance "Maristan" is a madhouse where the maniacs are treated with all the horrors which were universal in Europe till within a few years and of which occasional traces occur to this day. In A.D. 1399 Katherine de la Court held a "hospital in the Court called Robert de Paris;" but the first madhouse in Christendom was built by the legate Ortiz in Toledo A.D. 1483, and was therefore called Casa del Nuncio. The Damascus "Maristan" was described by every traveller of the last century: and it showed a curious contrast between the treatment of the maniac and the idiot or omadhaun, who is humanely allowed to wander about unharmed, if not held a Saint. When I saw it last (1870) it was all but empty and mostly in ruins. As far as my experience goes, the United States is the only country where the insane are rationally treated by the sane.

Footnote 575:

Hence the trite saying "Whoso drinks the water of the Nile will ever long to drink it again." "Light" means easily digested water; and the great test is being able to drink it at night between the sleeps, without indigestion.

Footnote 576:

"Níl" in popular parlance is the Nile in flood, although also used for the River as a proper name. Egyptians (modern as well as ancient), have three seasons Al-Shitá (winter), Al-Sayf (summer) and Al-Níl (the Nile _i.e._ flood season, our mid-summer); corresponding with the Growth-months; Housing (or granary) months and Flood-months of the older race.

Footnote 577:

These lines are in the Mac. Edit.

Footnote 578:

Arab. "Birkat al-Habash," a tank formerly existing in Southern Cairo: Galland (Night 128) says "en remontant vers l'Éthiopie."

Footnote 579:

The Bres. Edit. (ii., 190) from which I borrow this description, here alludes to the well-known Island, Al-Rauzah (Rodah)=The Garden.

Footnote 580:

Arab. "Laylat al-Wafá," the night of the completion or abundance of the Nile (flood), usually between August 6th and 16th, when the government proclaims that the Nilometer shows a rise of 16 cubits. Of course it is a great festival and a high ceremony, for Egypt is still the gift of the Nile (Lane M. E. chapt. xxvi—a work which would be much improved by a better index).

Footnote 581:

_i.e._ admiration will be complete.

Footnote 582:

Arab. "Sáhil Masr" (Misr): hence I suppose Galland's _villes maritimes_.

Footnote 583:

A favourite simile, suggested by the broken glitter and shimmer of the stream under the level rays and the breeze of eventide.

Footnote 584:

Arab. "Halab," derived by Moslems from "He (Abraham) milked (_halaba_) the white and dun cow." But the name of the city occurs in the Cuneiforms as Halbun or Khalbun, and the classics knew it as Βέροια, Beroea, written with variants.

Footnote 585:

Arab. "Ká'ah," usually a saloon; but also applied to a fine house here and elsewhere in The Nights.

Footnote 586:

Arab. "Ghamz"=winking, signing with the eye which, amongst Moslems, is not held "vulgar."

Footnote 587:

Arab. "Kamís" from low Lat. "Camicia," first found in St. Jerome:—"Solent militantes habere lineas, quas Camicias vocant." Our shirt, chemise, chemisette, etc. was unknown to the Ancients of Europe.

Footnote 588:

Arab. "Narjís." The Arabs borrowed nothing, but the Persians much, from Greek Mythology. Hence the eye of Narcissus, an idea hardly suggested by the look of the daffodil (or asphodel) flower, is at times the glance of a spy and at times the die-away look of a mistress. Some scholars explain it by the form of the flower, the internal calyx resembling the iris, and the stalk being bent just below the petals suggesting drooping eyelids and languid eyes. Hence a poet addresses the Narcissus:—

O Narjis, look away! Before those eyes ✿ I may not kiss her as a-breast she lies. What! Shall the lover close his eyes in sleep ✿ While thine watch all things between earth and skies?

The fashionable lover in the East must affect a frantic jealousy if he does not feel it.

Footnote 589:

In Egypt there are neither bedsteads nor bed-rooms: the carpets and mattresses, pillows and cushions (sheets being unknown) are spread out when wanted, and during the day are put into chests or cupboards, or only rolled up in a corner of the room (Pilgrimage i., 53).

Footnote 590:

The women of Damascus have always been famed for the sanguinary jealousy with which European story-books and novels credit the "Spanish lady." The men were as celebrated for intolerance and fanaticism, which we first read of in the days of Bertrandon de la Brocquière and which culminated in the massacre of 1860. Yet they are a notoriously timid race and make, physically and morally, the worst of soldiers: we proved that under my late friend Fred. Walpole in the Bashi-Buzuks during the old Crimean war. The men looked very fine fellows and after a month in camp fell off to the condition of old women.

Footnote 591:

Arab. "Rukhám," properly=alabaster and "Marmar"=marble; but the two are often confounded.

Footnote 592:

He was ceremonially impure after touching a corpse.

Footnote 593:

The phrase is perfectly appropriate: Cairo without "her Nile" would be nothing.

Footnote 594:

"The market was hot" say the Hindustanis. This would begin between 7 and 8 a.m.

Footnote 595:

Arab. Al-Faranj, Europeans generally. It is derived from "Gens Francorum," and dates from Crusading days when the French played the leading part. Hence the Lingua Franca, the Levantine jargon, of which Molière has left such a witty specimen.

Footnote 596:

A process familiar to European surgery of the same date.

Footnote 597:

In sign of disappointment, regret, vexation; a gesture still common amongst Moslems and corresponding in significance to a certain extent with our stamping, wringing the hands and so forth. It is not mentioned in the Koran where, however, we find "biting fingers' ends out of wrath" against a man (chapt. iii).

Footnote 598:

This is no unmerited scandal. The Cairenes, especially the feminine half (for reasons elsewhere given), have always been held exceedingly debauched. Even the modest Lane gives a "shocking" story of a woman enjoying her lover under the nose of her husband and confining the latter in a madhouse (chapt. xiii.) With civilisation, which objects to the good old remedy, the sword, they become worse: and the Kazi's court is crowded with would-be divorcees. Under English rule the evil has reached its acme because it goes unpunished: in the avenues of the new Isma'iliyah Quarter, inhabited by Europeans, women, even young women, will threaten to expose their persons unless they receive "bakhshísh." It was the same in Sind when husbands were assured that they would be hanged for cutting down adulterous wives: at once after its conquest the women broke loose; and in 1843-50, if a young officer sent to the bazar for a girl, half-a-dozen would troop to his quarters. Indeed more than once the professional prostitutes threatened to memorialise Sir Charles Napier because the "modest women," the "ladies" were taking the bread out of their mouths. The same was the case at Kabul (Caboul) of Afghanistan in the old war of 1840; and here the women had more excuse, the husbands being notable sodomites as the song has it:—

The worth of slit the Afghan knows; The worth of hole the Kábul-man.

Footnote 599:

So that he might not have to do with three sisters german. Moreover amongst Moslems a girl's conduct is presaged by that of her mother; and if one sister go wrong, the other is expected to follow suit. Practically the rule applies everywhere: "like mother like daughter."

Footnote 600:

In sign of dissent; as opposed to nodding the head which signifies assent. These are two items, apparently instinctive and universal, of man's gesture-language which has been so highly cultivated by sundry North American tribes and by the surdo-mute establishments of Europe.

Footnote 601:

This "Futur" is the real "breakfast" of the East, the "Chhoti házri" (petit déjeûner) of India, a bit of bread, a cup of coffee or tea and a pipe on rising. In the text, however it is a ceremonious affair.

Footnote 602:

Arab. "Nahs," a word of many meanings; a sinister aspect of the stars (as in Heb. and Aram.) or, adjectively, sinister, of ill-omen. Vulgarly it is used as the reverse of nice and corresponds, after a fashion with our "nasty."

Footnote 603:

"Window-gardening," new in England, is an old practise in the East.

Footnote 604:

Her pimping instinct at once revealed the case to her.

Footnote 605:

The usual "pander-dodge" to get more money.

Footnote 606:

The writer means that the old woman's account was all false, to increase apparent difficulties and _pour se faire valoir_.

Footnote 607: