Part 42

Like Dahnash this is a fanciful P. N., fit only for a Jinni. As a rule the appellatives of Moslem "genii" end in—ús (oos), as Tarnús, Húliyánus; the Jewish in—nas, as Jattunas; those of the Tarsá (the "funkers" _i.e._ Christians) in—dús, as Sidús; and the Hindus in—tús, as Naktús (who entered the service of the Prophet Shays, or Seth, and was converted to the Faith). The King of the Genii is Malik Katshán who inhabits Mount Kaf; and to the west of him lives his son-in-law, Abd al-Rahman with 33,000 domestics: these names were given by the Apostle Mohammed. "Baktanús" is lord of three Moslem troops of the wandering Jinns, which number a total of twelve bands and extend from Sind to Europe. The Jinns, Divs, Peris ("fairies") and other pre-Adamitic creatures were governed by seventy-two Sultans all known as Sulayman and the last I have said was Ján bin Ján. The angel Háris was sent from Heaven to chastise him, but in the pride of victory he also revolted with his followers the Jinns whilst the Peris held aloof. When he refused to bow down before Adam he and his chiefs were eternally imprisoned but the other Jinns are allowed to range over earth as a security for man's obedience. The text gives the three orders, flyers, walkers and divers.

Footnote 245:

_i.e._ distracted (with love); the Lakab, or poetical name, of apparently a Spanish poet.

Footnote 246:

Nothing is more "anti-pathetic" to Easterns than lean hips and flat hinder-cheeks in women and they are right in insisting upon the characteristic difference of the male and female figure. Our modern sculptors and painters, whose study of the nude is usually most perfunctory, have often scandalised me by the lank and greyhound-like fining off of the frame, which thus becomes rather simian than human.

Footnote 247:

The small fine foot is a favourite with Easterns as well as Westerns. Ovid (A. A.) is not ashamed "ad teneros Oscula (not basia or suavia) ferre pedes." Ariosto ends the august person in

Il breve, asciutto, e ritondetto piede, (The short-sized, clean-cut, roundly-moulded foot).

And all the world over it is a sign of "blood," _i.e._ the fine nervous temperament.

Footnote 248:

_i.e._ "full moons"; the French have corrupted it to "Badoure"; we to "Badoura," which is worse.

Footnote 249:

As has been said a single drop of urine renders the clothes ceremoniously impure, hence a stone or a handful of earth must be used after the manner of the torche-cul. Scrupulous Moslems, when squatting to make water, will prod the ground before them with the point of stick or umbrella, so as to loosen it and prevent the spraying of the urine.

Footnote 250:

It is not generally known to Christians that Satan has a wife called Awwá ("Hawwá" being the Moslem Eve) and, as Adam had three sons, the Tempter has nine, viz., Zu 'lbaysun who rules in bazars; Wassin who prevails in times of trouble; Awan who counsels kings; Haffan patron of wine-bibbers; Marrah of musicians and dancers; Masbut of newspreaders (and newspapers?); Dulhán who frequents places of worship and interferes with devotion; Dasim, lord of mansions and dinner tables, who prevents the Faithful saying "Bismillah" and "Inshallah," as commanded in the Koran (xviii. 23), and Lakís, lord of Fire-worshippers (Herklots, chap. xxix. sect. 4).

Footnote 251:

Strong perfumes, such as musk (which we Europeans dislike and suspect), are always insisted upon in Eastern poetry; and Mohammed's predilection for them is well known. Moreover the young and the beautiful are held (justly enough) to exhale a natural fragrance which is compared with that of the blessed in Paradise. Hence in the Mu'allakah of Imr al-Kays:—

Breathes the scent of musk when they rise to rove, ✿ As the Zephyr's breath with the flavour o' clove.

It is made evident by dogs and other fine-nosed animals that every human being has his, or her, peculiar scent which varies according to age and health. Hence animals often detect the approach of death.

Footnote 252:

Arab. "Kahlá." This has been explained. Mohammed is said to have been born with "Kohl'd eyes."

Footnote 253:

Hawá al-'uzrí, before noticed (Night cxiv.)

Footnote 254:

These lines, with the Názir (eye or steward), the Hájib (Groom of the Chambers or Chamberlain) and Joseph, are also repeated from Night cxiv. For the Nazir see Al-Hatiri (Nos. xiii. and xxii.)

Footnote 255:

The usual allusion to the Húr (Houris) from "Hawar," the white and black of the eye shining in contrast. The Persian Magi also placed in their Heaven (Bihisht or Minu) "Huran," or black-eyed nymphs, under the charge of the angel Zamiyád.

Footnote 256:

In the first hemistich, "bi-shitt 'il wády" (by the wady-bank): in the second, "wa shatta 'l wády" ("and my slayer"—_i.e._ wády act. part. of wady, killing—"hath paced away").

Footnote 257:

The _double entendre_ is from the proper names Budúr and Su'ád (Beatrice) also meaning "auspicious (or blessed) full moons."

Footnote 258:

Arab. "Házir" (also Ahl al-hazar, townsmen) and Bádi, a Badawi, also called "Ahl al-Wabar," people of the camel's hair (tent) and A'aráb (Nomadic) as opposed to Arab (Arab settled or not). They still boast with Ibn Abbas, cousin of Mohammed, that they have kerchiefs (not turbands) for crowns, tents for houses, loops for walls, swords for scarves and poems for registers or written laws.

Footnote 259:

This is a peculiarity of the Jinn tribe when wearing hideous forms. It is also found in the Hindu Rakshasa.

Footnote 260:

Which, by the by, are small and beautifully shaped. The animal is very handy with them, as I learnt by experience when trying to "Rareyfy" one at Bayrut.

Footnote 261:

She being daughter of Al-Dimiryát, King of the Jinns. Mr. W. F. Kirby has made him the subject of a pretty poem.

Footnote 262:

These lines have occurred in Night xxii. I give Torrens's version (p. 223) by way of variety.

Footnote 263:

Arab. "Kámat Alfiyyah," like an Alif, the first of the Arabic alphabet, the Heb. Aleph. The Arabs, I have said, took the flag or water-leaf form and departed very far from the Egyptian original (we know from Plutarch that the hieroglyphic abecedarium began with "a"), which was chosen by other imitators, namely the bull's head; and which in the cursive form, especially the Phœnician, became a yoke. In numerals "Alif" denotes one or one thousand. It inherits the traditional honours of Alpha (as opposed to Omega), and in books, letters and writings generally it is placed as a monogram over the "Bismillah," an additional testimony to the Unity. (See vol. i. p. 1). In mediæval Christianity this place of honour was occupied by the cross: none save the wildest countries have preserved it, but our vocabulary still retains Criss' (Christ-)cross Row, for horn-book, on account of the old alphabet and nine digits disposed in the form of a Latin cross. Hence Tickell ("The Horn-book"):

——Mortals ne'er shall know More than contained of old the Chris'-cross Row.

Footnote 264:

The young man must have been a demon of chastity.

Footnote 265:

Arab. "Kirát" from κεράτιον, _i.e._ bean, the seed of the Abrus precatorius, in weight = two to three (English) grains; and in length = one finger-breadth here; 24 being the total. The Moslem system is evidently borrowed from the Roman "as" and "uncia."

Footnote 266:

Names of women.

Footnote 267:

Arab. "Amsa" (lit. he passed the evening) like "asbaha" (he rose in the morning) "Azhá" (he spent the forenoon) and "báta" (he spent the night), are idiomatically used for "to be in any state, to continue" without specification of time or season.

Footnote 268:

Lit. "my liver;" which viscus, and not the heart, is held the seat of passion; a fancy dating from the oldest days. Theocritus says of Hercules, "In his liver Love had fixed a wound" (Idyl. xiii). In the Anthologia "Cease, Love, to wound my liver and my heart" (lib. vii.) So Horace (Odes, i. 2); his Latin Jecur and the Persian "Jigar" being evident congeners. The idea was long prevalent and we find in Shakespeare:—

Alas, then Love may be called appetite, No motion of the liver but the palate.

Footnote 269:

A marvellous touch of nature, love ousting affection; the same trait will appear in the lover and both illustrate the deep Italian saying, "Amor discende, non ascende." "The further it goes down the stronger it becomes as of grand-parent for grand-child and _vice versâ_."

Footnote 270:

This tenet of the universal East is at once fact and unfact. As a generalism asserting that women's passion is ten times greater than man's (Pilgrimage, ii. 282), it is unfact. The world shows that while women have more philoprogenitiveness, men have more amativeness; otherwise the latter would not propose and would nurse the doll and baby. Fact, however, in low-lying lands, like Persian Mazanderan versus the Plateau; Indian Malabar compared with Marátha-land; California as opposed to Utah and especially Egypt contrasted with Arabia. In these hot-damp climates the venereal requirements and reproductive powers of the female greatly exceed those of the male; and hence the dissoluteness of morals would be phenomenal, were it not obviated by seclusion, the sabre and the revolver. In cold-dry or hot-dry mountainous lands the reverse is the case; hence polygamy there prevails whilst the low countries require polyandry in either form, legal or illegal (_i.e._ prostitution). I have discussed this curious point of "geographical morality" (for all morality is, like conscience, both geographical and chronological), a subject so interesting to the lawgiver, the student of ethics and the anthropologist, in "The City of the Saints." But strange and unpleasant truths progress slowly, especially in England.

Footnote 271:

This morning evacuation is considered, in the East, a _sine quâ non_ of health; and old Anglo-Indians are unanimous in their opinion of the "bari fajar" (as they mispronounce the dawn-clearance). The natives of India, Hindús (pagans) and Hindís (Moslems), unlike Europeans, accustom themselves to evacuate twice a day, evening as well as morning. This may, perhaps, partly account for their mildness and effeminacy; for:—

C'est la constipation qui rend l'homme rigoureux.

The English, since the first invasion of cholera, in October, 1831, are a different race from their costive grandparents who could not dine without a "dinner-pill." Curious to say the clyster is almost unknown to the people of Hindostan although the barbarous West Africans use it daily to "wash 'um belly," as the Bonney-men say. And, as Sonnini notes, to propose the process in Egypt under the Beys might have cost a Frankish medico his life.

Footnote 272:

The Egyptian author cannot refrain from this characteristic _polissonnerie_; and reading it out is always followed by a roar of laughter. Even serious writers like Al-Hariri do not, as I have noted, despise the indecency.

Footnote 273:

"Long beard and little wits," is a saying throughout the East where the Kausaj (= man with thin, short beard) is looked upon as cunning and tricksy. There is a venerable Joe Miller about a schoolmaster who, wishing to singe his long beard short, burnt it off and his face to boot:—which reminded him of the saying. A thick beard is defined as one which wholly conceals the skin; and in ceremonial ablution it must be combed out with the fingers till the water reach the roots. The Sunnat, or practice of the Prophet, was to wear the beard not longer than one hand and two fingers' breadth. In Persian "Kúseh" (thin-beard) is an insulting term opposed to "Khush-rísh," a well-bearded man. The Iranian growth is perhaps the finest in the world, often extending to the waist; but it gives infinite trouble, requiring, for instance, a bag when travelling. The Arab beard is often composed of two tufts on the chin-sides and straggling hairs upon the cheeks; and this is a severe mortification, especially to Shaykhs and elders, who not only look upon the beard as one of man's characteristics, but attach a religious importance to the appendage. Hence the enormity of Kamar al-Zaman's behaviour. The Persian festival of the vernal equinox was called Kuseh-nishín (Thin-beard sitting). An old man with one eye paraded the streets on an ass with a crow in one hand and a scourge and fan in the other, cooling himself, flogging the bystanders and crying heat! heat! (garmá! garmá!). For other particulars see Richardson (Dissertation, p. lii.). This is the Italian Giorno delle Vecchie, Thursday in Mid-Lent, March 12 (1885), celebrating the death of Winter and the birth of Spring.

Footnote 274:

I quote Torrens (p. 400) as these lines have occurred in Night xxxviii.

Footnote 275:

Moslems have only two names for week days, Friday, Al-Jum'ah or meeting-day, and Al-Sabt, Sabbath-day, that is Saturday. The others are known by numbers after Quaker fashion with us, the usage of Portugal and Scandinavia.

Footnote 276:

Our last night.

Footnote 277:

Arab. "Tayf" = phantom, the nearest approach to our "ghost," that queer remnant of Fetishism imbedded in Christianity; the phantasma, the shade (not the soul) of the dead. Hence the accurate Niebuhr declares, "apparitions (_i.e._, of the departed) are unknown in Arabia." Haunted houses are there tenanted by Ghuls, Jinns and a host of supernatural creatures; but not by ghosts proper; and a man may live years in Arabia before he ever hears of the "Tayf." With the Hindus it is otherwise (Pilgrimage iii. 144.) Yet the ghost, the embodied fear of the dead and of death is common, in a greater or less degree, to all peoples; and, as modern Spiritualism proves, that ghost is not yet laid.

Footnote 278:

Mr. Payne (iii. 133,) omits the lines which are _à propos de rien_ and read much like "nonsense verses." I retain them simply because they are in the text.

Footnote 279:

The first two couplets are the quatrain (or octave) in Night xxxv.

Footnote 280:

Arab. "Ar'ar," the Heb. "Aroer," which Luther and the A. V. translate "heath." The modern Aramaic name is "Lizzáb" (Unexplored Syria, i. 68).

Footnote 281:

In the old version and the Bresl. Edit. (iii. 220) the Princess beats the "Kahramánah," but does not kill her.

Footnote 282:

This is still the popular Eastern treatment of the insane.

Footnote 283:

Pers. Marz-bán = Warden of the Marches, Margrave. The foster-brother in the East is held dear as, and often dearer than, kith and kin.

Footnote 284:

—Quirinus Post mediam noctem visus, quum somnia vera. (Horace Sat. i. 10, 33.)

The moderns believe most in the dawn-dream.

Footnote 285:

The Bresl. Edit. (iii. 223) and Galland have "Torf:" Lane (ii. 115) "El-Tarf."

Footnote 286:

Arab. "Maghzal;" a more favourite comparison is with a tooth-pick. Both are used by Nizami and Al-Hariri, the most "elegant" of Arab writers.

Footnote 287:

These form a Kasídah, Ode or Elegy = rhymed couplets numbering more than thirteen: if shorter it is called a "Ghazal." I have not thought it necessary to preserve the monorhyme.

Footnote 288:

Sulaymá dim. of Salmá = any beautiful woman: Rabáb = the viol mostly single-stringed: Tan'oum = she who is soft and gentle. These fictitious names are for his old flames.

Footnote 289:

_i.e._ wine. The distich is highly fanciful and the conceits would hardly occur to a Western.

Footnote 290:

Arab. "Andam," a term applied to Brazil-wood (also called "Bakkam") and to "dragon's blood," but not, I think, to tragacanth, the "goat's thorn," which does not dye. Andam is often mentioned in The Nights.

Footnote 291:

The superior merit of the first (explorer, etc.) is a _lieu commun_ with Arabs. So Al-Hariri in Preface quotes his predecessor:—

Justly of praise the price I pay; The praise is his who leads the way.

Footnote 292:

There were two Lukmans, of whom more in a future page.

Footnote 293:

This symbolic action is repeatedly mentioned in The Nights.

Footnote 294:

Arab. "Shakhs" = a person, primarily a dark spot. So "Sawád" = blackness, in Al-Hariri means a group of people who darken the ground by their shade.

Footnote 295:

The first bath after sickness, I have said, is called "Ghusl al-Sihhah,"—the Washing of Health.

Footnote 296:

The words "malady" and "disease" are mostly avoided during these dialogues as ill-omened words which may bring on a relapse.

Footnote 297:

Solomon's carpet of green silk which carried him and all his host through the air is a Talmudic legend generally accepted in Al-Islam though not countenanced by the Koran, chapt. xxvii. When the "gnat's wing" is mentioned, the reference is to Nimrod who, for boasting that he was lord of all, was tortured during four hundred years by a gnat sent by Allah up his ear or nostril.

Footnote 298:

The absolute want of morality and filial affection in the chaste young man are supposed to be caused by the violence of his passion, and he would be pardoned because he "loved much."

Footnote 299:

I have noticed the geomantic process in my "History of Sindh" (chapt. vii.). It is called "Zarb al-Raml" (strike of sand, the French say "frapper le sable") because the rudest form is to make on the ground dots at haphazard, usually in four lines one above the other: these are counted and, if even-numbered, two are taken (* *); if odd one (*); and thus the four lines will form a scheme say

* * * * * *

This is repeated three times, producing the same number of figures; and then the combination is sought in an explanatory table or, if the practitioner be expert, he pronounces off-hand. The Nights speak of a "Takht Raml" or a board, like a schoolboy's slate, upon which the dots are inked instead of points in sand. The moderns use a "Kura'h," or oblong die, upon whose sides the dots, odd and even, are marked; and these dice are hand-thrown to form the figure. By way of complication Geomancy is mixed up with astrology and then it becomes a most complicated kind of ariolation and an endless study. "Napoleon's Book of Fate," a chap-book which appeared some years ago, was Geomancy in its simplest and most ignorant shape. For the rude African form see my Mission to Dahome, i. 332; and for that of Darfour, pp. 360-69 of Shaykh Mohammed's Voyage before quoted.

Footnote 300:

Translators understand this of writing marriage contracts; I take it in a more general sense.

Footnote 301:

These lines are repeated from Night lxxv.: with Mr. Payne's permission I give his rendering (iii. 153) by way of variety.

Footnote 302:

The comparison is characteristically Arab.

Footnote 303:

Not her "face": the head, and especially the back of the head, must always be kept covered, even before the father.

Footnote 304:

Arab. "Siwák" = a tooth-stick; "Siwá-ka" = lit. other than thou.

Footnote 305:

Arab. "Arák" = tooth-stick of the wild caper-tree; "Ará-ka" lit. = I see thee. The _capparis spinosa_ is a common desert-growth and the sticks about a span long (usually called Miswák), are sold in quantities at Meccah after being dipped in Zemzem water. In India many other woods are used, date-tree, Salvadora, Achyrantes, phyllanthus, etc. Amongst Arabs peculiar efficacy accompanies the tooth-stick of olive, "the tree springing from Mount Sinai" (Koran xxiii. 20); and Mohammed would use no other, because it prevents decay and scents the mouth. Hence Koran, chapt. xcv. 1. The "Miswák" is held with the unused end between the ring-finger and minimus, the two others grasp the middle and the thumb is pressed against the back close to the lips. These articles have long been sold at the Medical Hall near the "Egyptian Hall," Piccadilly. They are better than our unclean tooth-brushes because each tooth gets its own especial rubbing, not a general sweep; at the same time the operation is longer and more troublesome. In parts of Africa as well as Asia many men walk about with the tooth-stick hanging by a string from the neck.

Footnote 306:

The "Mehari," of which the Algerine-French speak, are the dromedaries bred by the Mahrah tribe of Al-Yaman, the descendants of Mahrat ibn Haydán. They are covered by small wild camels (?) called Al-Húsh, found between Oman and Al-Shihr: others explain the word to mean "stallions of the Jinns," and term those savage and supernatural animals, "Najáib al-Mahriyah"—nobles of the Mahrah.

Footnote 307:

Arab. "Khaznah" = a thousand purses; now about £5000. It denotes a large sum of money, like the "Badrah," a purse containing 10,000 dirhams of silver (Al-Hariri), or 80,000 (Burckhardt Prov. 380); whereas the "Nisáb" is a moderate sum of money, gen. 20 gold dinars = 200 silver dirhams.

Footnote 308:

As The Nights show, Arabs admire slender forms; but the hips and hinder cheeks must be highly developed and the stomach fleshy rather than lean. The reasons are obvious. The Persians who exaggerate everything say _e.g._ (Husayn Váiz in the Anvár-i-Suhayli):—

How paint her hips and waist? Who saw A mountain (Koh) dangling to a straw (káh)?

In Antar his beloved Abla is a tamarisk (_T. Orientalis_). Others compare with the palm-tree (Solomon), the Cypress (Persian, esp. Hafiz and Firdausi) and the Arák or wild Capparis (Arab.).

Footnote 309:

Ubi aves ibi angeli. All African travellers know that a few birds flying about the bush, and a few palm-trees waving in the wind, denote the neighbourhood of a village or a camp (where angels are scarce). The reason is not any friendship for man but because food, animal and vegetable, is more plentiful. Hence Albatrosses, Mother Carey's (Mater Cara, the Virgin) chickens, and Cape pigeons follow ships.

Footnote 310:

The stanza is called Al-Mukhammas = cinquains; the quatrains and the "bob," or "burden," always preserve the same consonance. It ends with a Koranic _lieu commun_ of Moslem morality.

Footnote 311:

Moslem port towns usually have (or had) only two gates. Such was the case with Bayrut, Tyre, Sidon and a host of others; the faubourg-growth of modern days has made these obselete. The portals much resemble the entrances of old Norman castles—Arques for instance. Pilgrimage, i. 185.

Footnote 312:

Arab. "Lisám"; before explained.

Footnote 313:

_i.e._ Life of Souls (persons, etc.).

Footnote 314:

Arab. "Insánu-há" = her (_i.e._ their) man: _i.e._ the babes of the eyes: the Assyrian Ishon, dim. of Ish = Man; which the Hebrews call "Bábat" or "Bit" (the daughter); the Arabs "Bubu (or Hadakat) al-Ayn"; the Persians "Mardumak-i-chashm" (mannikin of the eye); the Greeks κόρη and the Latins pupa, pupula, pupilla. I have noted this in the Lyricks of Camoens (p. 449).

Footnote 315:

Ma'an bin Zá'idah, a soldier and statesman of the eighth century.

Footnote 316:

The mildness of the Caliph Mu'áwiyah, the founder of the Ommiades, proverbial among the Arabs, much resembles the "meekness" of Moses the Lawgiver, which commentators seem to think has been foisted into Numbers xii. 3.

Footnote 317:

Showing that there had been no consummation of the marriage which would have demanded "Ghusl", or total ablution, at home or in the Hammam.

Footnote 318:

have noticed this notable desert-growth.

Footnote 319:

The "situation" is admirable, solution appearing so difficult and catastrophe imminent.

Footnote 320:

This quatrain occurs in Night ix.: I have borrowed from Torrens (p. 79) by way of variety.

Footnote 321:

The belief that young pigeon's blood resembles the virginal discharge is universal; but the blood most resembling man's is that of the pig which in other points is so very human. In our day Arabs and Hindus rarely submit to inspection the nuptial sheet as practised by the Israelites and Persians. The bride takes to bed a white kerchief with which she staunches the blood and next morning the stains are displayed in the Harem. In Darfour this is done by the bridegroom. "Prima Venus debet esse cruenta," say the Easterns with much truth, and they have no faith in our complaisant creed which allows the hymen-membrane to disappear by any but one accident.

Footnote 322:

Not meaning the two central divisions commanded by the King and his Wazir.

Footnote 323:

_Ironicè._

Footnote 324: