Part 8
Arab. “Kammir,” _i.e._ brown it before the fire, toast it.
Footnote 40:
It is insinuated that he had lied till he himself believed the lie to be truth—not an uncommon process, I may remark.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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).
Footnote 44:
_i.e._ “Show a miser money and hold him back, if you can.”
Footnote 45:
He wants £40,000 to begin with.
Footnote 46:
_i.e._ Arab. “Sabíhat al-’urs” the morning after the wedding. See vol. i. 269.
Footnote 47:
Another sign of modern composition as in Kamar al-Zaman II.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 49:
Lane translates this, “May Allah and the Rijal retaliate upon thy temple!”
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 52:
Several women have described the pain to me as much resembling the drawing of a tooth.
Footnote 53:
As we should say, “play fast and loose.”
Footnote 54:
Arab. “Náhí-ka” lit. = thy prohibition but idiomatically used = let it suffice thee!
Footnote 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.
Footnote 56:
This is indeed one of the touches of nature which makes all the world kin.
Footnote 57:
As we are in Tartary “Arabs” here means plundering nomades, like the Persian “Iliyát” and other shepherd races.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 59:
The name of the Princess meaning “The World,” not unusual amongst Moslem women.
Footnote 60:
Another pun upon his name “Ma’aruf.”
Footnote 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.
Footnote 62:
Euphemistic: “I will soon fetch thee food.” To say this bluntly might have brought misfortune.
Footnote 63:
Arab. “Kafr” = a village in Egypt and Syria _e.g._ Capernaum (Kafr Nahum).
Footnote 64:
He has all the bonhomie of the Cairene and will do a kindness whenever he can.
Footnote 65:
_i.e._ the Father of Prosperities: pron. Aboosa’ádát; as in the Tale of Hasan of Bassorah.
Footnote 66:
Koran lxxxix. “The Daybreak” which also mentions Thamud and Pharaoh.
Footnote 67:
In Egypt the cheapest and poorest of food, never seen at a hotel table d’hôte.
Footnote 68:
The beautiful girls who guard ensorcelled hoards: See vol. vi. 109.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 71:
_i.e._ a calamity to the enemy: see vol. ii. 87 and passim.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 73:
The Cairene knew his fellow Cairene and was not to be taken in by him.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 75:
Arab. “Shamtá,” one of the many names of wine, the “speckled” alluding to the bubbles which dance upon the freshly filled cup.
Footnote 76:
_i.e._ in the cask. These “merry quips” strongly suggest the dismal toasts of our not remote ancestors.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 78:
As if it were a bride. See vol. vii. 198. The stars of Jauzá (Gemini) are the cupbearer’s eyes.
Footnote 79:
_i.e._ light-coloured wine.
Footnote 80:
The usual homage to youth and beauty.
Footnote 81:
Alluding to the cup.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 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.)
Footnote 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.”
Footnote 86:
Arab. “Ghurrah” the white blaze on a horse’s brow. In Ibn Khallikan the bird is the lark.
Footnote 87:
Arab. “Táy’i” = thirsty used with Jáy’i = hungry.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 89:
_i.e._ gold-coloured wine, as the Vino d’Oro.
Footnote 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 An the scent of the vineyard my spirit cheer.
The glorious old drinker!
Footnote 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-Khálí 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.
Footnote 92:
This is the noble resignation of the Moslem. What a dialogue there would have been in a European book between man and devil!
Footnote 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.
Footnote 94:
Here the silence is of cowardice and the passage is a fling at the “time-serving” of the Olema, a favourite theme, like “banging the bishops” amongst certain Westerns.
Footnote 95:
Arab. “Umm al-raas,” the poll, crown of the head, here the place where a calamity coming down from heaven would first alight.
Footnote 96:
From Al-Hariri (Lane): the lines are excellent.
Footnote 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.
Footnote 98:
Arab. “Sijn al-Ghazab,” the dungeons appropriated to the worst of criminals where they suffer penalties far worse than hanging or guillotining.
Footnote 99:
According to some modern Moslems Munkar and Nakir visit the graves of Infidels (non-Moslems) and Bashshir and Mubashshir (“Givers of glad tidings”) those of Mohammedans. Petis de la Croix (Les Mille et un Jours vol. iii. 258) speaks of the “Zoubanya,” black angels who torture the damned under their chief Dabilah.
Footnote 100:
Very simple and pathetic is this short sketch of the noble-minded Princess’s death.
Footnote 101:
In sign of dismissal (vol. iv. 62) I have noted that “throwing the kerchief” is not an Eastern practice: the idea probably arose from the Oriental practice of sending presents in richly embroidered napkins and kerchiefs.
Footnote 102:
Curious to say both Lane and Payne omit this passage which appears in both texts (Mac. and Bul.). The object is evidently to prepare the reader for the ending by reverting to the beginning of the tale; and its prolixity has its effect as in the old Romances of Chivalry from Amadis of Ghaul to the Seven Champions of Christendom. If it provoke impatience, it also heightens expectation; “it is like the long elm-avenues of our forefathers; we wish ourselves at the end; but we know that at the end there is something great.”
Footnote 103:
Arab. “alà malákay bayti ’l-ráhah;” on the two slabs at whose union are the round hole and longitudinal slit. See vol. i. 221.
Footnote 104:
Here the exclamation wards off the Evil Eye from the Sword and the wearer: Mr. Payne notes, “The old English exclamation ‘Cock’s ’ill!’ (_i.e._ God’s will, thus corrupted for the purpose of evading the statute of 3 Jac. i. against profane swearing) exactly corresponds to the Arabic”—with a difference, I add.
Footnote 105:
Arab. “Mustahakk” = deserving (Lane) or worth (Payne) the cutting.
Footnote 106:
Arab. “Mashhad” the same as “Sháhid” = the upright stones at the head and foot of the grave. Lane mistranslates, “Made for her a funeral procession.”
Footnote 107:
These lines have occurred before. I quote Lane.
Footnote 108:
There is nothing strange in such sudden elevations amongst Moslems and even in Europe we still see them occasionally. The family in the East, however humble, is a model and miniature of the state, and learning is not always necessary to wisdom.
Conclusion.
Now, during this time, Shahrazad had borne the King three boy children: so, when she had made an end of the story of Ma’aruf, she rose to her feet and kissing ground before him, said, “O King of the time and unique one[109] of the age and the tide, I am thine handmaid and these thousand nights and a night have I entertained thee with stories of folk gone before and admonitory instances of the men of yore. May I then make bold to crave a boon of Thy Highness?” He replied, “Ask, O Shahrazad, and it shall be granted to thee.[110]” Whereupon she cried out to the nurses and the eunuchs, saying, “Bring me my children.” So they brought them to her in haste, and they were three boy children, one walking, one crawling and one sucking. She took them and setting them before the King, again kissed the ground and said, “O King of the age, these are thy children and I crave that thou release me from the doom of death, as a dole to these infants; for, an thou kill me, they will become motherless and will find none among women to rear them as they should be reared.” When the King heard this, he wept and straining the boys to his bosom, said, “By Allah, O Shahrazad, I pardoned thee before the coming of these children, for that I found thee chaste, pure, ingenuous and pious! Allah bless thee and thy father and thy mother and thy root and thy branch! I take the Almighty to witness against me that I exempt thee from aught that can harm thee.” So she kissed his hands and feet and rejoiced with exceeding joy, saying, “The Lord make thy life long and increase thee in dignity and majesty[111]!”; presently adding, “Thou marvelledst at that which befel thee on the part of women; yet there betided the Kings of the Chosroës before thee greater mishaps and more grievous than that which hath befallen thee, and indeed I have set forth unto thee that which happened to Caliphs and Kings and others with their women, but the relation is longsome and hearkening groweth tedious, and in this is all-sufficient warning for the man of wits and admonishment for the wise.” Then she ceased to speak, and when King Shahriyar heard her speech and profited by that which she said, he summoned up his reasoning powers and cleansed his heart and caused his understanding revert and turned to Allah Almighty and said to himself, “Since there befel the Kings of the Chosroës more than that which hath befallen me, never, whilst I live, shall I cease to blame myself for the past. As for this Shahrazad, her like is not found in the lands; so praise be to Him who appointed her a means for delivering His creatures from oppression and slaughter!” Then he arose from his séance and kissed her head, whereat she rejoiced, she and her sister Dunyazad, with exceeding joy. When the morning morrowed, the King went forth and sitting down on the throne of the Kingship, summoned the Lords of his land; whereupon the Chamberlains and Nabobs and Captains of the host went in to him and kissed ground before him. He distinguished the Wazir, Shahrazad’s sire, with special favour and bestowed on him a costly and splendid robe of honour and entreated him with the utmost kindness, and said to him, “Allah protect thee for that thou gavest me to wife thy noble daughter, who hath been the means of my repentance from slaying the daughters of folk. Indeed I have found her pure and pious, chaste and ingenuous, and Allah hath vouchsafed me by her three boy children; wherefore praised be He for his passing favour.” Then he bestowed robes of honour upon his Wazirs, and Emirs and Chief Officers and he set forth to them briefly that which had betided him with Shahrazad and how he had turned from his former ways and repented him of what he had done and purposed to take the Wazir’s daughter, Shahrazad, to wife and let draw up the marriage-contract with her. When those who were present heard this, they kissed the ground before him and blessed him and his betrothed[112] Shahrazad, and the Wazir thanked her. Then Shahriyar made an end of his sitting in all weal, whereupon the folk dispersed to their dwelling-places and the news was bruited abroad that the King purposed to marry the Wazir’s daughter, Shahrazad. Then he proceeded to make ready the wedding gear, and presently he sent after his brother, King Shah Zaman, who came, and King Shahriyar went forth to meet him with the troops. Furthermore, they decorated the city after the goodliest fashion and diffused scents from censers and burnt aloes-wood and other perfumes in all the markets and thoroughfares and rubbed themselves with saffron,[113] what while the drums beat and the flutes and pipes sounded and mimes and mountebanks played and plied their arts and the King lavished on them gifts and largesse; and in very deed it was a notable day. When they came to the palace, King Shahriyar commanded to spread the tables with beasts roasted whole and sweetmeats and all manner of viands and bade the crier cry to the folk that they should come up to the Divan and eat and drink and that this should be a means of reconciliation between him and them. So, high and low, great and small came up unto him and they abode on that wise, eating and drinking, seven days with their nights. Then the King shut himself up with his brother and related to him that which had betided him with the Wazir’s daughter, Shahrazad, during the past three years and told him what he had heard from her of proverbs and parables, chronicles and pleasantries, quips and jests, stories and anecdotes, dialogues and histories and elegies and other verses; whereat King Shah Zaman marvelled with the uttermost marvel and said, “Fain would I take her younger sister to wife, so we may be two brothers-german to two sisters-german, and they on like wise be sisters to us; for that the calamity which befel me was the cause of our discovering that which befel thee and all this time of three years past I have taken no delight in woman, save that I lie each night with a damsel of my kingdom, and every morning I do her to death; but now I desire to marry thy wife’s sister Dunyazad.” When King Shahriyar heard his brother’s words, he rejoiced with joy exceeding and arising forthright, went in to his wife Shahrazad and acquainted her with that which his brother purposed, namely that he sought her sister Dunyazad in wedlock; whereupon she answered, “O King of the age, we seek of him one condition, to wit, that he take up his abode with us, for that I cannot brook to be parted from my sister an hour, because we were brought up together and may not endure separation each from other.[114] If he accept this pact, she is his handmaid.” King Shahriyar returned to his brother and acquainted him with that which Shahrazad had said; and he replied, “Indeed, this is what was in my mind, for that I desire nevermore to be parted from thee one hour. As for the kingdom, Allah the Most High shall send to it whomso He chooseth, for that I have no longer a desire for the kingship.” When King Shahriyar heard his brother’s words, he rejoiced exceedingly and said, “Verily, this is what I wished, O my brother. So Alhamdolillah—Praised be Allah—who hath brought about union between us.” Then he sent after the Kazis and Olema, Captains and Notables, and they married the two brothers to the two sisters. The contracts were written out and the two Kings bestowed robes of honour of silk and satin on those who were present, whilst the city was decorated and the rejoicings were renewed. The King commanded each Emir and Wazir and Chamberlain and Nabob to decorate his palace and the folk of the city were gladdened by the presage of happiness and contentment. King Shahriyar also bade slaughter sheep and set up kitchens and made bride-feasts and fed all comers, high and low; and he gave alms to the poor and needy and extended his bounty to great and small. Then the eunuchs went forth, that they might perfume the Hammam for the brides; so they scented it with rose-water and willow-flower-water and pods of musk and fumigated it with Kákilí[115] eagle-wood and ambergris. Then Shahrazad entered, she and her sister Dunyazad, and they cleansed their heads and clipped their hair. When they came forth of the Hammam-bath, they donned raiment and ornaments; such as men were wont prepare for the Kings of the Chosroës; and among Shahrazad’s apparel was a dress purfled with red gold and wrought with counterfeit presentments of birds and beasts. And the two sisters encircled their necks with necklaces of jewels of price, in the like whereof Iskander[116] rejoiced not, for therein were great jewels such as amazed the wit and dazzled the eye; and the imagination was bewildered at their charms, for indeed each of them was brighter than the sun and the moon. Before them they lighted brilliant flambeaux of wax in candelabra of gold, but their faces outshone the flambeaux, for that they had eyes sharper than unsheathed swords and the lashes of their eyelids bewitched all hearts. Their cheeks were rosy red and their necks and shapes gracefully swayed and their eyes wantoned like the gazelle’s; and the slave-girls came to meet them with instruments of music. Then the two Kings entered the Hammam-bath, and when they came forth, they sat down on a couch set with pearls and gems, whereupon the two sisters came up to them and stood between their hands, as they were moons, bending and leaning from side to side in their beauty and loveliness. Presently they brought forward Shahrazad and displayed her, for the first dress, in a red suit; whereupon King Shahriyar rose to look upon her and the wits of all present, men and women, were bewitched for that she was even as saith of her one of her describers[117]:—
A sun on wand in knoll of sand she showed, ✿ Clad in her cramoisy-hued chemisette: Of her lips’ honey-dew she gave me drink ✿ And with her rosy cheeks quencht fire she set.