Part 14

Then the maiden set food before her brother and he bade me eat with him, whereat I rejoiced and felt assured that I should not be slain. And when he had ended eating, she brought him a flagon of pure wine and he applied him to it till the fumes of the drink mounted to his head and his face flushed red. Then he turned to me and said, "Woe to thee, O Hammad! dost thou know me or not?" Replied I, "By thy life, I am rich in naught save ignorance!" Quoth he "O Hammad, I am 'Abbád bin Tamím bin Sa'labah and indeed Allah giveth thee thy liberty and leadeth thee to a happy bride and spareth thee confusion." Then he drank to my long life and gave me a cup of wine and I drank it off; and presently he filled me a second and a third and a fourth, and I drained them all; while he made merry with me and swore me never to betray him. So I sware to him one thousand five hundred oaths that I would never deal perfidiously with him at any time, but that I would be a friend and a helper to him. Thereupon he bade his sister bring me ten suits of silk; so she brought them and laid them on my person, and this dress I have on my body is one of them. Moreover, he made bring one of the best of his she-dromedaries[126] carrying stuffs and provaunt, he bade her also bring a sorrel horse, and when they were brought he gave the whole of them to me. I abode with them three days, eating and drinking, and what he gave me of gifts is with me to this present. At the end of the three days he said to me, "O Hammad, O my brother, I would sleep awhile and take my rest and verily I trust my life to thee; but, if thou see horsemen making hither, fear not, for know that they are of the Banu Sa'labah, seeking to wage war on me." Then he laid his sword under his head-pillow and slept; and when he was drowned in slumber Iblis tempted me to slay him; so I arose in haste, and drawing the sword from under his head, dealt him a blow that made his head fall from his body. But his sister knew what I had done, and rushing out from within the tent, threw herself on his corpse, rending her raiment and repeating these couplets:—

To kith and kin bear thou sad tidings of our plight; ✿ From doom th' All-wise decreed shall none of men take flight: Low art thou laid, O brother! strewn upon the stones, ✿ With face that mirrors moon when shining brightest bright! Good sooth, it is a day accurst, thy slaughter-day ✿ Shivering thy spear that won the day in many a fight! Now thou be slain no rider shall delight in steed, ✿ Nor man-child shall the breeding woman bring to light. This morn Hammád uprose and foully murthered thee, ✿ Falsing his oath and troth with foulest perjury.

When she had ended her verse she said to me, "O thou of accursed forefathers, wherefore didst thou play my brother false and slay him when he purposed returning thee to thy native land with provisions; and it was his intent also to marry thee to me at the first of the month?" Then she drew a sword she had with her, and planting the hilt in the earth, with the point set to her breast, she bent over it and threw herself thereon till the blade issued from her back and she fell to the ground, dead. I mourned for her and wept and repented when repentance availed me naught. Then I arose in haste and went to the tent and, taking whatever was light of load and weighty of worth, went my way; but in my haste and horror I took no heed of my dead comrades, nor did I bury the maiden and the youth. And this my tale is still more wondrous than the story of the serving-girl I kidnapped from the Holy City, Jerusalem. But when Nuzhat al-Zaman heard these words from the Badawi, the light was changed in her eyes to night——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

Now when it was the Hundred and Forty-fifth Night,

[Illustration]

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Nuzhat al-Zaman heard these words from the Badawi, the light was changed in her eyes to night, and she rose and drawing the sword, smote Hammad the Arab between the shoulder-blades so that the point issued from the apple of his throat.[127] And when all present asked her, "Why hast thou made haste to slay him;" she answered, "Praised be Allah who hath granted me in my life-tide to avenge myself with mine own hand!" And she bade the slaves drag the body out by the feet and cast it to the dogs. Thereupon they turned to the two prisoners who remained of the three; and one of them was a black slave, so they said to him, "What is thy name, fellow? Tell us the truth of thy case." He replied, "As for me my name is Al-Ghazbán," and acquainted them what had passed between himself and Queen Abrizah, daughter of King Hardub, Lord of Greece, and how he had slain her and fled. Hardly had the negro made an end of his story, when King Rumzan struck off his head with his scymitar, saying, "Praise to Allah who gave me life! I have avenged my mother with my own hand." Then he repeated to them what his nurse Marjanah had told him of this same slave whose name was Al-Ghazban; after which they turned to the third prisoner. Now this was the very camel-driver[128] whom the people of the Holy City, Jerusalem, hired to carry Zau al-Makan and lodge him in the hospital at Damascus of Syria; but he threw him down on the ashes-midden and went his way. And they said to him, "Acquaint us with thy case and tell the truth." So he related to them all that had happened to him with Sultan Zau al-Makan; how he had been carried from the Holy City, at the time when he was sick, till they made Damascus and he had been thrown into the hospital; how also the Jerusalem folk had paid the cameleer money to transport the stranger to Damascus, and he had taken it and fled after casting his charge upon the midden by the side of the ash-heap of the Hammam. But when he ended his words, Sultan Kanmakan took his sword forthright and cut off his head, saying, "Praised be Allah who hath given me life, that I might requite this traitor what he did with my father, for I have heard this very story from King Zau al-Makan himself." Then the Kings said each to other, "It remaineth only for us to wreak our revenge upon the old woman Shawahi, yclept Zat al-Dawahi, because she is the prime cause of all these calamities and cast us into adversity on this wise. Who will deliver her into our hands that we may avenge ourselves upon her and wipe out our dishonour?" And King Rumzan said, "Needs must we bring her hither." So without stay or delay he wrote a letter to his grandmother, the aforesaid ancient woman, giving her to know therein that he had subdued the kingdoms of Damascus and Mosul and Irak, and had broken up the host of the Moslems and captured their princes, adding, "I desire thee of all urgency to come to me, bringing with thee Queen Sophia, daughter of King Afridun, and whom thou wilt of the Nazarene chiefs, but no armies; for the country is quiet and wholly under our hand." And when she read the letter and recognised the writing of King Rumzan, she rejoiced with great joy and forthright equipping herself and Queen Sophia, set out with their attendants and journeyed, without stopping, till they drew near Baghdad. Then she fore-sent a messenger to acquaint the King of her arrival, whereupon quoth Rumzan, "We should do well to don the habit of the Franks and fare forth to meet the old woman, to the intent that we may be assured against her craft and perfidy." Whereto Kanmakan replied, "Hearing is consenting." So they clad themselves in Frankish clothes and, when Kuzia Fakan saw them, she exclaimed, "By the truth of the Lord of Worship, did I not know you, I should take you to be indeed Franks!" Then they sallied forth with a thousand horse, King Rumzan riding on before them, to meet the old woman. As soon as his eyes fell on hers, he dismounted and walked towards her and she, recognizing him, dismounted also and embraced him; but he pressed her ribs with his hands, till he well nigh broke them. Quoth she, "What is this, O my son?" But before she had done speaking, up came Kanmakan and Dandan; and the horsemen with them cried out at the women and slaves and took them all prisoners. Then the two Kings returned to Baghdad, with their captives, and Rumzan bade them decorate the city which they did for three days, at the end of which they brought out the old woman Shawahi, hight Zat al-Dawahi, with a peaked red turband of palm-leaves on her head, diademed with asses'-dung and preceded by a herald proclaiming aloud, "This is the reward of those who presume to lay hands on Kings and the sons of Kings!" Then they crucified her on one of the gates of Baghdad; and, when her companions saw what befel her, all embraced in a body the faith of Al-Islam. As for Kanmakan and his uncle Rumzan and his aunt Nuzhat al-Zaman and the Wazir Dandan, they marvelled at the wonderful events that had betided them and bade the scribes chronicle them in books that those who came after might read. Then they all abode for the remainder of their days in the enjoyment of every solace and comfort of life, till there overtook them the Destroyer of all delights and the Sunderer of all societies. And this is the whole that hath come down to us of the dealings of fortune with King Omar bin al-Nu'uman and his sons Sharrkan and Zau al-Makan and his son's son Kanmakan and his daughter Nuzhat al-Zaman and her daughter Kuzia Fakan. Thereupon quoth Shahryar to Shahrazad, "I desire that thou tell me somewhat about birds;" and hearing this Dunyazad said to her sister, "I have never seen the Sultan light at heart all this while till the present night; and his pleasure garreth me hope that the issue for thee with him may be a happy issue." Then drowsiness overcame the Sultan, so he slept;[129]——And Shahrazad perceived the approach of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

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Footnote 1:

This "horripilation," for which we have the poetical term "gooseflesh," is often mentioned in Hindu as in Arab literature.

Footnote 2:

How often we have heard this in England!

Footnote 3:

As a styptic. The scene in the text has often been enacted in Egypt when a favourite feminine mode of murdering men is by beating and bruising the testicles. The Fellahs are exceedingly clever in inventing methods of manslaughter. For some years bodies were found that bore no outer mark of violence, and only Frankish inquisitiveness discovered that the barrel of a pistol had been passed up the anus and the weapon discharged internally. Murders of this description are known in English history; but never became popular practice.

Footnote 4:

Arab. "Zakar," that which betokens masculinity. At the end of the tale we learn that she also gelded him; thus he was a "Sandali," a _rasé_.

Footnote 5:

See vol. i. p. 104.

Footnote 6:

The purity and intensity of her love had attained to a something of prophetic strain.

Footnote 7:

Lane corrupts this Persian name to Sháh Zemán (i. 568).

Footnote 8:

_i.e._, the world, which includes the ideas of Fate, Time, Chance.

Footnote 9:

Arab. "Bárid," silly, noyous, contemptible; as in the proverb

Two things than ice are colder cold:— An old man young, a young man old.

A "cold-of-countenance" = a fool: "May Allah make cold thy face!" = may it show want and misery. "By Allah, a cold speech!" = a silly or abusive tirade (Pilgrimage, ii. 22).

Footnote 10:

The popular form is, "often the ear loveth before the eye."

Footnote 11:

Not the first time that royalty has played this prank, nor the last, perhaps.

Footnote 12:

_i.e._ the Lady Dunya.

Footnote 13:

These magazines are small strongly-built rooms on the ground floor, where robbery is almost impossible.

Footnote 14:

Lit. "approbation," "benediction"; also the Angel who keeps the Gates of Paradise and who has allowed one of the Ghilmán (or Wuldán) the boys of supernatural beauty that wait upon the Faithful, to wander forth into this wicked world.

Footnote 15:

In Europe this would be a _plurale majestatis_, used only by Royalty. In Arabic it has no such significance, and even the lower orders apply it to themselves; although it often has a _soupçon_ of "I and thou."

Footnote 16:

Man being an "extract of despicable water" (Koran xxxii. 7) ex spermate genitali, which Mr. Rodwell renders "from germs of life," "from sorry water."

Footnote 17:

_i.e._ begotten by man's seed in the light of salvation (Núr al-Hudà).

Footnote 18:

The rolls of white (camphor-like) scarf-skin and sordes which come off under the bath-man's glove become by miracle of Beauty, as brown musk. The Rubber or Shampooer is called in Egypt "Mukayyis" (vulgarly "Mukayyisáti") or "bagman," from his "Kís," a bag-glove of coarse woollen stuff. To "Johnny Raws" he never fails to show the little rolls which come off the body and prove to them how unclean they are; but the material is mostly dead scarf-skin.

Footnote 19:

The normal phrase on such occasions (there is always a "dovetail" _de rigueur_) "Allah give thee profit!"

Footnote 20:

_i.e._ We are forced to love him only, and ignore giving him a rival (referring to Koranic denunciations of "Shirk," or attributing a partner to Allah, the religion of plurality, syntheism not polytheism): see, he walks tottering under the weight of his back parts wriggling them whilst they are rounded like the revolving heavens.

Footnote 21:

Jannat al-Na'ím (Garden of Delight); the fifth of the seven Paradises, made of white diamond; the gardens and the plurality being borrowed from the Talmud. Mohammed's Paradise, by the by, is not a greater failure than Dante's. Only ignorance or pious fraud asserts it to be wholly sensual; and a single verse is sufficient refutation: "Their prayer therein shall be 'Praise unto thee, O Allah!' and their salutation therein shall be 'Peace!' and the end of their prayer shall be, 'Praise unto God, the Lord of all creatures'" (Koran x. 10-11). See also lvi. 24-26. It will also be an intellectual condition wherein knowledge will greatly be increased (lxxxviii. 17-20). Moreover the Moslems, far more logical than Christians, admit into Paradise the so-called "lower animals."

Footnote 22:

Sed vitam faciunt balnea, vina, Venus! The Hammam to Easterns is a luxury as well as a necessity; men sit there for hours talking chiefly of money and their prowess with the fair; and women pass half the day in it complaining of their husbands' over-amativeness and contrasting their own chaste and modest aversion to carnal congress.

Footnote 23:

The frigidarium or cold room, coolness being delightful to the Arab.

Footnote 24:

The calidarium or hot room of the bath.

Footnote 25:

The Angel who acts door-keeper of Hell; others say he specially presides over the torments of the damned (Koran xliii. 78).

Footnote 26:

The Door-keeper of Heaven before mentioned who, like the Guebre Zamiyád has charge of the heavenly lads and lasses, and who is often charged by poets with letting them slip.

Footnote 27:

Lane (i. 616), says "of wine, milk, sherbet, or any other beverage." Here it is wine, a practice famed in Persian poetry, especially by Hafiz, but most distasteful to a European stomach. We find the Mu allakah of Imr al-Kays noticing "our morning draught." Nott (Hafiz) says a "cheerful cup of wine in the morning was a favourite indulgence with the more luxurious Persians. And it was not uncommon among the Easterns, to salute a friend by saying:—May your morning potation be agreeable to you!" In the present day this practice is confined to regular debauchees.

Footnote 28:

Koran xii. 31. The words spoken by Zulaykhá's women friends and detractors whom she invited to see Beauty Joseph.

Footnote 29:

A formula for averting fascination. Koran, chapt. cxiii. 1. "Falak" means "cleaving"; hence the breaking forth of light from darkness, a "wonderful instance of the Divine power."

Footnote 30:

The usual delicate chaff.

Footnote 31:

Such letters are generally written on a full-sized sheet of paper ("notes" are held slighting in the East) and folded till the breadth is reduced to about one inch. The edges are gummed; the ink, much like our Indian ink, is smeared with the finger upon the signet-ring; the place where it is to be applied is slightly wetted with the tongue and the seal is stamped across the line of junction to secure privacy. I have given a specimen of an original love-letter of the kind in "Scinde, or the Unhappy Valley," chapt. iv.

Footnote 32:

Arab. "Salb" which may also mean hanging, but the usual term for the latter in The Nights is "shanak." Crucifixion, abolished by the superstitious Constantine, was practised as a servile punishment as late as the days of Mohammed Ali Pasha the Great. The malefactors were nailed and tied to the patibulum or cross-piece, without any suppedaneum or foot-rest and left to suffer tortures from flies and sun, thirst and hunger. They often lived three days and died of the wounds mortifying and the nervous exhaustion brought on by cramps and convulsions. In many cases the corpses were left to feed the kites and crows; and this added horror to the death. Moslems care little for mere hanging. Whenever a fanatical atrocity is to be punished, the malefactor should be hung in pig-skin, his body burnt and the ashes publicly thrown into a common cesspool.

Footnote 33:

Arab. "Shaytán" the insolent or rebellious one is a common term of abuse. The word is Koranic, and borrowed as usual from the Jews. "Satan" occurs four times in the O. T. o£ which two are in Job, where, however, he is a subordinate angel.

Footnote 34:

Arab. "Alak" from the Koran xxii. 5. "O men ... consider that we first created you of dust (Adam); afterwards of seed (Rodwell's "moist germs of life"); afterwards of a little coagulated (or clots of) blood." It refers to all mankind except Adam, Eve and Isa. Also chapt. xcvi. 2, which, as has been said was probably the first composed at Meccah. Mr. Rodwell (v. 10) translates by "Servant of God" what should be "Slave of Allah," alluding to Mohammed's original name Abdullah. See my learned friend Aloys Sprenger, Leben, etc., i. 155.

Footnote 35:

The Hindus similarly exaggerate: "He was ready to leap out of his skin in his delight" (Katha, etc., p. 443).

Footnote 36:

A star in the tail of the Great Bear, one of the "Banát al-Na'ash," or a star close to the second. Its principal use is to act foil to bright Sohayl (Canopus) as in the beginning of Jámi's Layla-Majnún:—

To whom Thou'rt hid, day is darksome night: To whom shown, Sohá as Sohayl is bright.

See also al-Hariri (xxxii. and xxxvi.). The saying, "I show her Soha and she shows me the moon" (A. P. i. 547) arose as follows. In the Ignorance a beautiful Amazon defied any man to take her maidenhead; and a certain Ibn al-Ghazz won the game by struggling with her till she was nearly senseless. He then asked her, "How is thine eye-sight: dost thou see Soha?" and she, in her confusion, pointed to the moon and said, "That is it!"

Footnote 37:

The moon being masculine (lunus) and the sun feminine.

Footnote 38:

The "five Shaykhs" must allude to that number of Saints whose names are doubtful; it would be vain to offer conjectures. Lane and his "Sheykh" (i. 617) have tried and failed.

Footnote 39:

The beauties of nature seem always to provoke hunger in Orientals, especially Turks, as good news in Englishmen.

Footnote 40:

Pers. "Lájuward": Arab. "Lázuward"; prob. the origin of our "azure," through the Romaic λαζούριον and the Ital. azzurro; and, more evidently still, of lapis lazuli, for which do _not_ see the Dictionaries.

Footnote 41:

Arab. "Maurid," the desert-wells where caravans drink; also the way to water-wells.

Footnote 42:

The famous Avicenna, whom the Hebrews called Aben Sina. The early European Arabists, who seem to have learned Arabic through Hebrew, borrowed their corruption, and it long kept its place in Southern Europe.

Footnote 43:

According to the Hindus there are ten stages of love-sickness: (1) Love of the eyes; (2) Attraction of the Manas or mind; (3) Birth of desire; (4) Loss of sleep; (5) Loss of flesh; (6) Indifference to objects of sense; (7) Loss of shame; (8) Distraction of thought; (9) Loss of consciousness; and (10) Death.

Footnote 44:

We should call this walk of "Arab ladies" a waddle: I have never seen it in Europe except amongst the trading classes of Trieste, who have a "wriggle" of their own.

Footnote 45:

In our idiom six doors.

Footnote 46:

They refrained from the highest enjoyment, intending to marry.

Footnote 47:

Arab. "Jihád," lit. fighting against something; Koranically, fighting against infidels _i.e._ non-believers in Al-Islam (chapt. lx. 1). But the "Mujáhidún" who wage such war are forbidden to act aggressively (ii. 186). Here it is a war to save a son.

Footnote 48:

The lady proposing extreme measures is characteristic: Egyptians hold, and justly enough, that their women are more amorous than men.

Footnote 49:

"O Camphor," an antiphrase before noticed. The vulgar also say "Yá Taljí" = O snowy (our snowball), the polite "Ya Abú Sumrah!" = O father of brownness.

Footnote 50:

_i.e._ which fit into sockets in the threshold and lintel and act as hinges. These hinges have caused many disputes about how they were fixed, for instance in caverns without moveable lintel or threshold. But one may observe that the upper projections are longer than the lower and that the door never fits close above; so by lifting it up the inferior pins are taken out of the holes. It is the oldest form and the only form known to the Ancients. In Egyptian the hinge is called Akab = the heel, hence the proverb Wakaf' al-báb alá 'akabih; the door standeth on its heel; _i.e._ every thing in proper place.

Footnote 51:

Hence the addresses to the Deity: Yá Sátir and Yá Sattár—O Thou who veilest the sins of Thy Servants! said _e.g._, when a woman is falling from her donkey, etc.

Footnote 52:

A necessary precaution, for the headsman who would certainly lose his own head by overhaste.

Footnote 53:

The passage has also been rendered, "and rejoiced him by what he said" (Lane i, 600).

Footnote 54:

Arab. "Hurr" = noble, independent (opp. to 'Abd = a servile) often used to express animæ nobilitas as εἰγενὴς in Acts xvii. 11; where the Berœans were "more noble" than the Thessalonians. The Princess means that the Prince would not lie with her before marriage.

Footnote 55:

The Persian word is now naturalized as Anglo-Egyptian.

Footnote 56:

Arab. "khassat hu" = removed his testicles, gelded him.

Footnote 57: