Part 46
[FN#172] The Mac. and Bul. Edits. have by mistake “Son of Ishak.” Lane has “Is-hak the son of Ibrahim” following Trébutien (iii. 483) but suggests in a note the right reading as above.
[FN#173] Again masculine for feminine.
[FN#174] There are two of this name. The Upper al-Akik contains the whole site of Al-Medinah; the Lower is on the Meccan road about four miles S.W. of the city. The Prophet called it “blessed” because ordered by an angel to pray therein. The poets have said pretty things about it, _e.g._
O friend, this is the vale Akik; here stand and strive in thought: If not a very lover, strive to be by love-distraught!
for whose esoteric meaning see Pilgrimage ii. 24. I passed through Al-Akík in July when it was dry as summer dust and its “beautiful trees” were mere vegetable mummies.
[FN#175] Those who live in the wet climates of the Northern temperates can hardly understand the delight of a shower in rainless lands, like Arabia and Nubia. In Sind we used to strip and stand in the downfall and raise faces sky-wards to get the full benefit of the douche. In Southern Persia food is hastily cooked at such times, wine strained, Kaliuns made ready and horses saddled for a ride to the nearest gardens and a happy drinking-bout under the cypresses. If a man refused, his friends would say of him, “See how he turns his back upon the blessing of Allah!” (like an ass which presents its tail to the weather).
[FN#176] _i.e._ the destruction of the Barmecides.
[FN#177] He was Wazir to the Great “Saladin” (Saláh al-Din = one conforming with the Faith): see vol. iv. 271, where Saladin is also entitled Al-Malik al-Nasir = the Conquering King. He was a Kurd and therefore fond of boys (like Virgil, Horace, etc.), but that perversion did not prevent his being one of the noblest of men. He lies in the Great Amawi Mosque of Damascus and I never visited a tomb with more reverence.
[FN#178] Arab. “Ahassa bi’l-Shurbah;” in our idiom “he smelt a rat”.
[FN#179] This and the next tale are omitted by Lane (iii. 254) on “account of its vulgarity, rendered more objectionable by indecent incidents.” It has been honoured with a lithographed reprint at Cairo A.H. 1278 and the Bresl. Edit. ix. 193 calls it the “Tale of Ahmad al-Danaf with Dalílah.”
[FN#180] “Ahmad, the Distressing Sickness,” or “Calamity;” Hasan the Pestilent and Dalílah the bawd. See vol. ii. 329, and vol. iv. 75.
[FN#181] A fœtus, a foundling, a contemptible fellow.
[FN#182] In the Mac. Edit. “her husband”: the end of the tale shows the error, _infra_, p. 171. The Bresl. Edit., x. 195, informs us that Dalilah was a “Faylasúfiyah”=philosopheress.
[FN#183] Arab. “Ibrík” usually a ewer, a spout-pot, from the Pers. Ab-ríz=water-pourer: the old woman thus vaunted her ceremonial purity. The basin and ewer are called in poetry “the two rumourers,” because they rattle when borne about.
[FN#184] Khátún in Turk. is=a lady, a dame of high degree; at times as here and elsewhere, it becomes a P. N.
[FN#185] Arab. “Maut,” a word mostly avoided in the Koran and by the Founder of Christianity.
[FN#186] Arab. “Akákír,” drugs, spices, simples which cannot be distinguished without study and practice. Hence the proverb (Burckhardt, 703), Is this an art of drugs?—difficult as the druggist’s craft?
[FN#187] _i.e._ Beautiful as the fairy damsels who guard enchanted treasures, such as that of Al-Shamardal (vol. vi. 221).
[FN#188] _i.e._ by contact with a person in a state of ceremonial impurity; servants are not particular upon this point and “Salát mamlúkíyah” (Mameluke’s prayers) means praying without ablution.
[FN#189] _i.e._ Father of assaults, burdens or pregnancies; the last being here the meaning.
[FN#190] Ex votos and so forth.
[FN#191] Arab. “Iksah,” plaits, braids, also the little gold coins and other ornaments worn in the hair, now mostly by the middle and lower classes. Low Europeans sometimes take advantage of the native prostitutes by detaching these valuables, a form of “bilking” peculiar to the Nile-Valley.
[FN#192] In Bresl. Edit. Malíh Kawí (pron. ‘Awi), a Cairene vulgarism.
[FN#193] Meaning without veil or upper clothing.
[FN#194] Arab. “Kallakás” the edible African arum before explained. This Colocasia is supposed to bear, unlike the palm, male and female flowers in one spathe.
[FN#195] See vol. iii. 302. The figs refer to the anus and the pomegranates, like the sycomore, to the female parts. Me nec fæmina nec puer, &c., says Horace in pensive mood.
[FN#196] It is in accordance to custom that the Shaykh be attended by a half-witted fanatic who would be made furious by seeing gold and silks in the reverend presence so coyly curtained.
[FN#197] In English, “God damn everything an inch high!”
[FN#198] Burckhardt notes that the Wali, or chief police officer at Cairo, was exclusively termed Al-Aghá and quotes the proverb (No. 156) “One night the whore repented and cried:—What! no Wali (Al-Aghá) to lay whores by the heels?” Some of these Egyptian by-words are most amusing and characteristic; but they require literal translation, not the timid touch of the last generation. I am preparing, for the use of my friend, Bernard Quaritch, a bonâ fide version which awaits only the promised volume of Herr Landberg.
[FN#199] Lit. for “we leave them for the present”: the formula is much used in this tale, showing another hand, author or copyist.
[FN#200] Arab. “Uzrah.”
[FN#201] _i.e._ “Thou art unjust and violent enough to wrong even the Caliph!”
[FN#202] I may note that a “donkey-boy” like our “post-boy” can be of any age in Egypt.
[FN#203] They could legally demand to be recouped but the chief would have found some pretext to put off payment. Such at least is the legal process of these days.
[FN#204] _i.e._ drunk with the excess of his beauty.
[FN#205] A delicate way of offering a fee. When officers commanding regiments in India contracted for clothing the men, they found these douceurs under their dinner-napkins. All that is now changed; but I doubt the change being an improvement: the public is plundered by a “Board” instead of an individual.
[FN#206] This may mean, I should know her even were my eyes blue (or blind) with cataract and the Bresl. Edit. ix. 231, reads “Ayní”=my eye; or it may be, I should know her by her staring, glittering, hungry eyes, as opposed to the “Hawar” soft-black and languishing (Arab. Prov. i. 115, and ii. 848). The Prophet said “blue-eyed (women) are of good omen.” And when one man reproached another saying “Thou art Azrak” (blue-eyed!) he retorted, “So is the falcon!” “Zurk-an” in Kor. xx. 102, is translated by Mr. Rodwell “leaden eyes.” It ought to be blue-eyed, dim-sighted, purblind.
[FN#207] Arab, “Zalábiyah bi-‘Asal.”
[FN#208] Arab. “Ká’ah,” their mess-room, barracks.
[FN#209] _i.e._ Camel shoulder-blade.
[FN#210] So in the Brazil you are invited to drink a copa d’agua and find a splendid banquet. There is a smack of Chinese ceremony in this practice which lingers throughout southern Europe; but the less advanced society is, the more it is fettered by ceremony and “etiquette.”
[FN#211] The Bresl. edit. (ix. 239) prefers these lines:—
Some of us be hawks and some sparrow-hawks, * And vultures some which at carrion pike; And maidens deem all alike we be * But, save in our turbands, we’re not alike.
[FN#212] Arab. Shar’a=holy law; here it especially applies to Al-Kisás=_lex talionis_, which would order her eye-tooth to be torn out.
[FN#213] i.e., of the Afghans. Sulaymáni is the Egypt and Hijazi term for an Afghan and the proverb says “Sulaymáni harámi”—the Afghan is a villainous man. See Pilgrimage i. 59, which gives them a better character. The Bresl. Edit. simply says, “King Sulaymán.”
[FN#214] This is a sequel to the Story of Dalilah and both are highly relished by Arabs. The Bresl. Edit. ix. 245, runs both into one.
[FN#215] Arab. “Misr” (Masr), the Capital, says Savary, applied alternately to Memphis, Fostat and Grand Cairo each of which had a Jízah (pron. Gízah), skirt, angle, outlying suburb.
[FN#216] For the curious street-cries of old Cairo see Lane (M. E. chapt. xiv.) and my Pilgrimage (i. 120): here the rhymes are of Zabíb (raisins), habíb (lover) and labíb (man of sense).
[FN#217] The Mac. and Bul. Edits. give two silly couplets of moral advice:—
Strike with thy stubborn steel, and never fear * Aught save the Godhead of Almighty Might; And shun ill practices and never show * Through life but generous gifts to human sight.
The above is from the Bresl. Edit. ix. 247.
[FN#218] Arab. “Al-Khanakah” now more usually termed a Takíyah. (Pilgrim. i. 124.)
[FN#219] Arab. “Ka’b al-ba’íd” (Bresl. Edit. ix. 255)=heel or ankle, metaph. for fortune, reputation: so the Arabs say the “Ka’b of the tribe is gone!” here “the far one”=the caravan-leader.
[FN#220] Arab. “Sharít,” from Sharata=he Scarified; “Mishrat”=a lancet and “Sharítah”=a mason’s rule. Mr. Payne renders “Sharít” by whinyard: it must be a chopper-like weapon, with a pin or screw (laulab) to keep the blade open like the snap of the Spaniard’s cuchillo. Dozy explains it=epée, synonyme de Sayf.
[FN#221] Text “Dimágh,” a Persianism when used for the head: the word properly means brain or meninx.
[FN#222] They were afraid even to stand and answer this remarkable ruffian.
[FN#223] Ahmad the Abortion, or the Foundling, nephew (sister’s son) of Zaynab the Coney-catcher. See supra, p. 145.
[FN#224] Here the sharp lad discovers the direction without pointing it out. I need hardly enlarge upon the prehensile powers of the Eastern foot: the tailor will hold his cloth between his toes and pick up his needle with it, whilst the woman can knead every muscle and at times catch a mosquito between the toes. I knew an officer in India whose mistress hurt his feelings by so doing at a critical time when he attributed her movement to pleasure.
[FN#225] Arab. “Hullah”=dress. In old days it was composed of the Burd or Ridá, the shoulder-cloth from 6 to 9 or 10 feet long, and the Izár or waistcloth which was either tied or tucked into a girdle of leather or metal. The woman’s waistcloth was called Nitáh and descended to the feet while the upper part was doubled and provided with a Tikkah or string over which it fell to the knees, overhanging the lower folds. This doubling of the “Hujrah,” or part round the waist, was called the “Hubkah.”
[FN#226] Arab. “Taghaddá,” the dinner being at eleven a.m. or noon.
[FN#227] Arab. Ghandúr for which the Dictionaries give only “fat, thick.” It applies in Arabia especially to a Harámi, brigand or freebooter, most honourable of professions, slain in foray or fray, opposed to “Fatís” or carrion (the _corps crévé_ of the Klephts), the man who dies the straw-death. Pilgrimage iii. 66.
[FN#228] My fair readers will note with surprise how such matters are hurried in the East. The picture is, however, true to life in lands where “flirtation” is utterly unknown and, indeed, impossible.
[FN#229] Arab. “Zabbah,” the wooden bolt (before noticed) which forms the lock and is opened by a slider and pins. It is illustrated by Lane (M. E. Introduction).
[FN#230] _i.e._ I am not a petty thief.
[FN#231] Arab. Satl=kettle, bucket. Lat. Situla (?).
[FN#232] _i.e._ “there is no chance of his escaping.” It may also mean, “And far from him (Hayhát) is escape.”
[FN#233] Arab. “Ihtilám,” the sign of puberty in boy or girl; this, like all emissions of semen, voluntary or involuntary, requires the Ghuzl or total ablution before prayers can be said, etc. See vol. v. 199, in the Tale of Tawaddud.
[FN#234] This is the way to take an Eastern when he tells a deliberate lie; and it often surprises him into speaking the truth.
[FN#235] The conjunctiva in Africans is seldom white; often it is red and more frequently yellow.
[FN#236] So in the texts, possibly a clerical error for the wine which he had brought with the kabobs. But beer is the especial tipple of African slaves in Egypt.
[FN#237] Arab. “Laun”, prop.=color, hue; but applied to species and genus, our “kind”; and especially to dishes which differ in appearance; whilst in Egypt it means any dish.
[FN#238] Arab. “Zardah”=rice dressed with honey and saffron. Vol. ii. 313. The word is still common in Turkey.
[FN#239] Arab. “Laylat Ams,” the night of yesterday (Al-bárihah) not our “last night” which would be the night of the day spoken of.
[FN#240] Arab. “Yakhní,” a word much used in Persia and India and properly applied to the complicated broth prepared for the rice and meat. For a good recipe see Herklots, Appendix xxix.
[FN#241] In token of defeat and in acknowledgment that she was no match for men.
[FN#242] This is a neat touch of nature. Many a woman, even of the world, has fallen in love with a man before indifferent to her because he did not take advantage of her when he had the opportunity.
[FN#243] The slightest movement causes a fight at a funeral or a wedding-procession in the East; even amongst the “mild Hindus.”
[FN#244] Arab. “Al-Musrán” (plur. of “Masír”) properly the intestines which contain the chyle. The bag made by Ali was, in fact, a “Cundum” (so called from the inventor, Colonel Cundum of the Guards in the days of Charles Second) or “French letter”; une capote anglaise, a “check upon child.” Captain Grose says (Class. Dict. etc. s.v. Cundum) “The dried gut of a sheep worn by a man in the act of coition to prevent venereal infection. These machines were long prepared and sold by a matron of the name of Philips at the Green Canister in Half Moon Street in the Strand * * * Also a false scabbard over a sword and the oilskin case for the colours of a regiment.” Another account is given in the Guide Pratique des Maladies Secrètes, Dr. G. Harris, Bruxelles. Librairie Populaire. He calls these petits sachets de baudruche “Candoms, from the doctor who invented them” (Littré ignores the word) and declares that the famous Ricord compared them with a bad umbrella which a storm can break or burst, while others term them cuirasses against pleasure and cobwebs against infection. They were much used in the last century. “Those pretended stolen goods were Mr. Wilkes’s Papers, many of which tended to prove his authorship of the North Briton, No. 45, April 23, 1763, and some _Cundums_ enclosed in an envelope” (Records of C. of King’s Bench, London, 1763). “Pour finir l’inventaire de ces curiosités du cabinet de Madame Gourdan, il ne faut pas omettre une multitude de _redingottes_ appelées _d’Angleterre_, je ne sais pourquois. Vous connoissez, au surplus, ces espèces de boucliers qu’on oppose aux traits empoisonnés de l’amour; et qui n’emoussent que ceux du plaisir.” (L’Observateur Anglois, Londres 1778, iii. 69.) Again we read:—
“Les capotes mélancoliques Qui pendent chez les gros Millan (?) S’enflent d’elles-memes, lubriques, Et dechargent en se gonflant.” Passage Satyrique.
Also in Louis Prolat:—
“Il fuyait, me laissant une capote au cul.”
The articles are now of two kinds mostly of baudruche (sheep’s gut) and a few of caout-chouc. They are made almost exclusively in the faubourgs of Paris, giving employment to many women and young girls; Grenelle turns out the baudruche and Grenelle and Lilas the India-rubber article; and of the three or four makers M. Deschamps is best known. The sheep’s gut is not joined in any way but of single piece as it comes from the animal after, of course, much manipulation to make it thin and supple; the inferior qualities are stuck together at the sides. Prices vary from 4½ to 36 francs per gross. Those of India-rubber are always joined at the side with a solution especially prepared for the purpose. I have also heard of fish-bladders but can give no details on the subject. The Cundum was unknown to the ancients of Europe although syphilis was not: even prehistoric skeletons show traces of its ravages.
[FN#245] Arab. “Yá Ustá” (for “Ustáz.”) The Pers. term is Ustád=a craft-master, an artisan and especially a barber. Here it is merely a polite address.
[FN#246] In common parlance Arabs answer a question (like the classics of Europe who rarely used Yes and No, Yea and Nay), by repeating its last words. They have, however, many affirmative particles _e.g._ Ni’am which answers a negative “Dost thou not go?”—Ni’am (Yes!); and Ajal, a stronger form following a command, _e.g._ Sir (go)—Ajal, Yes verily. The popular form is Aywá (‘lláhi)=Yes, by Allah. The chief negatives are Má and Lá, both often used in the sense of “There is not.”
[FN#247] Arab. “Khalbús,” prop. the servant of the Almah-girls who acts buffoon as well as pimp. The “Maskharah” (whence our “mask”) corresponds with the fool or jester of mediæval Europe: amongst the Arnauts he is called “Suttari” and is known by his fox’s tails: he mounts a mare, tom-toms on the kettle-drum and is generally one of the bravest of the corps. These buffoons are noted for extreme indecency: they generally appear in the ring provided with an enormous phallus of whip-cord and with this they charge man, woman and child, to the infinite delight of the public.
[FN#248] Arab. “Shúbash” pronounced in Egypt Shobash: it is the Persian Sháh-básh lit.=be a King, equivalent to our bravo. Here, however, the allusion is to the buffoon’s cry at an Egyptian feast, “Shohbash ‘alayk, yá Sáhib al-faraj,”=a present is due from thee, O giver of the fête! See Lane M. E. xxvii.
[FN#249] Arab. “Ka’ak al-I’d:” the former is the Arab form of the Persian “Kahk” (still retained in Egypt) whence I would derive our word “cake.” It alludes to the sweet cakes which are served up with dates, the quatre mendiants and sherbets during visits of the Lesser (not the greater) Festival, at the end of the Ramazan fast. (Lane M.E. xxv.)
[FN#250] Arab. “Tásúmah,” a rare word for a peculiar slipper. Dozy (s. v.) says only, espece de chaussure, sandale, pantoufle, soulier.
[FN#251] Arab. “Ijtilá”=the displaying of the bride on her wedding night so often alluded to in The Nights.
[FN#252] Arab. Khiskhánah; a mixed word from Klaysh=canvass or stuffs generally and Pers. Khánah=house room. Dozy (s.v.) says armoire, buffet.
[FN#253] The Bresl. Edit. “Kamaríyah”=Moon-like (fem.) for Moon.
[FN#254] Every traveller describes the manners and customs of dogs in Eastern cities where they furiously attack all canine intruders. I have noticed the subject in writing of Al-Medinah where the beasts are confined to the suburbs. (Pilgrimage ii. 52–54.)
[FN#255] She could legally compel him to sell her; because, being an Infidel, he had attempted to debauch a Moslemah.
[FN#256] Arab. “Haláwat wa Mulabbas”; the latter etymologically means one dressed or clothed. Here it alludes to almonds, etc., clothed or coated with sugar. See Dozy (s.v.) “labas.”
[FN#257] Arab. “‘Ubb” from a root=being long: Dozy (s.v.), says poche au sein; Habb al-‘ubb is a woman’s ornament.
[FN#258] Who, it will be remembered, was Dalilah’s grandson.
[FN#259] Arab. “Tábút,” a term applied to the Ark of the Covenant (Koran ii. 249), which contained Moses’ rod and shoes, Aaron’s mitre, the manna-pot, the broken Tables of the Law, and the portraits of all the prophets which are to appear till the end of time—an extensive list for a box measuring 3 by 2 cubits. Europeans often translate it coffin, but it is properly the wooden case placed over an honoured grave. “Irán” is the Ark of Moses’ exposure, also the large hearse on which tribal chiefs were carried to earth.
[FN#260] _i.e._ What we have related is not “Gospel Truth.”
[FN#261] Omitted by Lane (iii. 252) “because little more than a repetition” of Taj al-Mulúk and the Lady Dunyá. This is true; but the nice progress of the nurse’s pimping is a well-finished picture and the old woman’s speech (_infra_ p. 243) is a gem.
[FN#262] Artaxerxes; in the Mac. Edit. Azdashir, a misprint.
[FN#263] I use “kiss ground” as we say “kiss hands.” But it must not be understood literally: the nearest approach would be to touch the earth with the finger-tips and apply them to the lips or brow. Amongst Hindus the Ashtánga-prostration included actually kissing the ground.
[FN#264] The “key” is mentioned because a fee so called (miftáh) is paid on its being handed to the new lodger. (Pilgrimage i. 62.)
[FN#265] The Koranic term for semen, often quoted.
[FN#266] Koran, xii. 31, in the story of Joseph, before noticed.
[FN#267] Probably the white woollens, so often mentioned, whose use is now returning to Europe, where men have a reasonable fear of dyed stuffs, especially since Aniline conquered Cochineal.
[FN#268] Arab. “samír,” one who enjoys the musámarah or night-talk outside the Arab tents. “Samar” is the shade of the moon, or half darkness when only stars shine without a moon, or the darkness of a moonless night. Hence the proverb (A. P. ii. 513) “Má af’al-hú al-samar wa’l kamar;” I will not do it by moondarkness or by moonshine, _i.e._ never. I have elsewhere remarked that “Early to bed and early to rise” is a civilised maxim; most barbarians sit deep into the night in the light of the moon or a camp-fire and will not rise till nearly noon. They agree in our modern version of the old saw:—
Early to bed and early to rise Makes a man surly and gives him red eyes.
The Shayks of Arab tribes especially transact most of their public business during the dark hours.
[FN#269] Suspecting that it had been sent by some Royal lover.
[FN#270] Arab. “Rubbamá” a particle more emphatic than rubba,=perhaps, sometimes, often.
[FN#271] “The broken (wall)” from Hatim=breaking. It fences the Hijr or space where Ishmael is buried (vol. vi. 205); and I have described it in Pilgrimage iii. 165.
[FN#272] Arab. “Faráis” (plur. of farísah): the phrase has often occurred and is=our “trembled in every nerve.” As often happens in Arabic, it is “horsey;” alluding to the shoulder-muscles (not shoulder-blades, Preston p. 89) between neck and flank which readily quiver in blood-horses when excited or frightened.
[FN#273] Arab. “Fazl”=exceeding goodness as in “Fazl wa ma’rifah”=virtue and learning.
[FN#274] Arab. “Al-Mafárik” (plur. of Mafrak),=the pole or crown of the head, where the hair parts naturally and where baldness mostly begins.
[FN#275] Arab. “Ná’i al-maut”, the person sent round to announce a death to the friends and relations of the deceased and invite them to the funeral.
[FN#276] Arab. “Táir al-bayn”, any bird, not only the Hátim or black crow, which announces separation. Crows and ravens flock for food to the camps broken up for the springtide and autumnal marches, and thus become emblems of desertion and desolation. The same birds are also connected with Abel’s burial in the Koran (v. 34), a Jewish tradition borrowed by Mohammed. Lastly, here is a paranomasia in the words “Ghuráb al-Bayn”=Raven of the Wold (the black bird with white breast and red beak and legs): “Ghuráb” (Heb. Oreb) connects with Ghurbah=strangerhood, exile, and “Bayn” with distance, interval, disunion, the desert (between the cultivated spots). There is another and a similar pun anent the Bán-tree; the first word meaning “he fared, he left.”
[FN#277] Arab. “Tayr,” any flying thing, a bird; with true Arab carelessness the writer waits till the tale is nearly ended before letting us know that the birds are pigeons (Hamám).
[FN#278] Arab. “Karr’aynan.” The Arabs say, “Allah cool thine eye,” because tears of grief are hot and those of joy cool (Al-Asma’i); others say the cool eye is opposed to that heated by watching; and Al-Hariri (Ass. xxvii.) makes a scorching afternoon “hotter than the tear of a childless mother.” In the burning climate of Arabia coolth and refrigeration are equivalent to refreshment and delight.