KING MOHAMMED BIN SABAIK AND THE MERCHANT HASAN. (continued 3)

[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.

[FN#279] Arab. “Muunah,” the “Mona” of Maroccan travellers (English not Italian who are scandalised by “Mona”) meaning the provisions supplied gratis by the unhappy villagers to all who visit them with passport from the Sultan. Our cousins German have lately scored a great success by paying for all their rations which the Ministers of other nations, England included, were mean enough to accept.

[FN#280] Arab. “Kaannahu huwa”; lit.=as he (was) he. This reminds us of the great grammarian, Sibawayh, whose name the Persians derive from “Apple-flavour”(Sib + bú). He was disputing, in presence of Harun al-Rashid with a rival Al-Kisá’í, and advocated the Basrian form, “Fa-izá huwa hú” (behold, it was he) against the Kufan, “Fa-izá huwa iyyáhu” (behold, it was him). The enemy overcame him by appealing to Badawin, who spoke impurely, whereupon Sibawayh left the court, retired to Khorasan and died, it is said of a broken heart.

[FN#281] This is a sign of the Saudáwí or melancholic temperament in which black bile pre-dominates. It is supposed to cause a distaste for society and a longing for solitude, an unsettled habit of mind and neglect of worldly affairs. I remarked that in Arabia students are subject to it, and that amongst philosophers and literary men of Mecca and Al-Medinah there was hardly one who was not spoken of as a “Saudawi.” See Pilgrimage ii. 49, 50.

[FN#282] i.e. I am a servant and bound to tell thee what my orders are.

[FN#283] A touching lesson on how bribes settle matters in the East.

[FN#284] i.e. fresh from water (Arab. “Rutub”), before the air can tarnish them. The pearl (margarita) in Arab. is Lu’lu’; the “unio” or large pearl Durr, plur. Durar. In modern parlance Durr is the second quality of the twelve into which pearls are divided.

[FN#285] i.e. the Wazir, but purposely left vague.

[FN#286] The whole of the nurse’s speech is admirable: its naïve and striking picture of conjugal affection goes far to redeem the grossness of The Nights.

[FN#287] The bitterness was the parting in the morning.

[FN#288] English “Prin’cess,” too often pronounced in French fashion Princess.

[FN#289] In dictionaries “Bán” (Anglice ben-tree) is the myrobalan which produces gum benzoin. It resembles the tamarisk. Mr. Lyall (p. 74 Translations of Ancient Arab Poetry, Williams and Norgate, 1885), calls it a species of Moringa, tall, with plentiful and intensely green foliage used for comparisons on account of its straightness and graceful shape of its branches. The nut supplies a medicinal oil.

[FN#290] A sign of extreme familiarity: the glooms are the hands and the full moons are the eyes.

[FN#291] Arab. “Khal’a al-‘izár”: lit.=stripping off jaws or side-beard.

[FN#292] Arab. “Shimál”=the north wind.

[FN#293] An operation well described by Juvenal—

Illa supercilium, modicâ fuligine tactum, Obliquâ producit acu, pingitque, trementes Attolens oculos.

Sonnini (Travels in Egypt, chapt. xvi.) justly remarks that this pencilling the angles of the eyes with Kohl, which the old Levant trade called alquifoux or arquifoux, makes them appear large and more oblong; and I have noted that the modern Egyptian (especially Coptic) eye, like that of the Sphinx and the old figures looks in profile as if it were seen in full. (Pilgrimage i. 214.)

[FN#294] The same traveller notes a singular property in the Henna-flower that when smelt closely it exhales a “very powerful spermatic odour,” hence it became a favourite with women as the tea-rose with us. He finds it on the nails of mummies, and identifies it with the Kupros of the ancient Greeks (the moderns call it Kene or Kena) and the {Bótrys tês kýproy} (Botrus cypri) of Solomon’s Song (i. 14). The Hebr. is “Copher,” a well-known word which the A. V. translates by “a cluster of camphire (?) in the vineyards of En-gedi”; and a note on iv. 13 ineptly adds, “or, cypress.” The Revised Edit. amends it to “a cluster of henna-flowers.” The Solomonic (?) description is very correct; the shrub affects vineyards, and about Bombay forms fine hedges which can be smelt from a distance.

[FN#295] Hardly the equivalent of the Arab. “Kataba” (which includes true tattooing with needles) and is applied to painting “patches” of blue or green colour, with sprigs and arabesques upon the arms and especially the breasts of women. “Kataba” would also be applied to striping the fingers with Henna which becomes a shining black under a paste of honey, lime and sal-ammoniac. This “patching” is alluded to by Strabo and Galen (Lane M. E. chapt. ii.); and we may note that savages and barbarians can leave nothing of beauty unadorned; they seem to hate a plain surface like the Hindu silversmith, whose art is shown only in chasing.

[FN#296] A violent temper, accompanied with voies de fait and personal violence, is by no means rare amongst Eastern princesses; and terrible tales are told in Persia concerning the daughters of Fath Ali Shah. Few men and no woman can resist the temptations of absolute command. The daughter of a certain Dictator all-powerful in the Argentine Republic was once seen on horseback with a white bridle of peculiar leather; it was made of the skin of a man who had boasted of her favours. The slave-girls suffer first from these masterful young persons and then it is the turn of the eunuchry.

[FN#297] A neat touch; she was too thorough-bred to care for herself first.

[FN#298] Here the ground or earth is really kissed.

[FN#299] Corresponding with our phrase, “His heart was in his mouth.”

[FN#300] Very artful is the contrast of the love-lorn Princess’s humility with her furious behaviour, in the pride of her purity, while she was yet a virginette and fancy free.

[FN#301] Arab. “Suhbat-hu” lit.=in company with him, a popular idiom in Egypt and Syria. It often occurs in the Bresl. Edit.

[FN#302] In the Mac. Edit. “Shahzamán,” a corruption of Sháh Zamán=King of the Age. (See vol. i. 2)

[FN#303] For a note on this subject see vol. ii. 2.

[FN#304] i.e. bathe her and apply cosmetics to remove all traces of travel.

[FN#305] These pretentious and curious displays of coquetry are not uncommon in handsome slave-girls when newly bought; and it is a kind of pundonor to humour them. They may also refuse their favours and a master who took possession of their persons by brute force would be blamed by his friends, men and women. Even the most despotic of despots, Fath Ali Shah of Persia, put up with refusals from his slave-girls and did not, as would the mean-minded, marry them to the grooms or cooks of the palace.

[FN#306] Such continence is rarely shown by the young Jallabs or slave-traders; when older they learn how much money is lost with the chattel’s virginity.

[FN#307] Midwives in the East, as in the less civilised parts of the West, have many nostrums for divining the sex of the unborn child.

[FN#308] Arabic (which has no written “g”) from Pers. Gulnár (Gul-i-anár) pomegranate-flower, the “Gulnare” of Byron who learnt his Orientalism at the Mekhitarist (Armenian) Convent, Venice. I regret to see the little honour now paid to the gallant poet in the land where he should be honoured the most. The systematic depreciation was begun by the late Mr. Thackeray, perhaps the last man to value the noble independence of Byron’s spirit; and it has been perpetuated, I regret to see, by better judges. These critics seem wholly to ignore the fact that Byron founded a school which covered Europe from Russia to Spain, from Norway to Sicily, and which from England passed over to the two Americas. This exceptional success, which has not yet fallen even to Shakespeare’s lot, was due to genius only, for the poet almost ignored study and poetic art. His great misfortune was being born in England under the Georgium Sidus. Any Continental people would have regarded him as one of the prime glories of his race.

[FN#309] Arab. “Fí al-Kamar,” which Lane renders “in the moonlight.” It seems to me that the allusion is to the Comorin Islands; but the sequel speaks simply of an island.

[FN#310] The Mac. Edit. misprints Julnár as Julnáz (so the Bul. Edit. ii. 233), and Lane’s Jullanár is an Egyptian vulgarism. He is right in suspecting the “White City” to be imaginary; but its sea has no apparent connection with the Caspian. The mermen and mermaids appear to him to be of an inferior order of the Jinn, termed Al-Ghawwásah, the Divers, who fly through air and are made of fire which at times issues from their mouths.

[FN#311] Arab. “Alá Kulli hál,” a popular phrase, like the Anglo-American “anyhow.”

[FN#312] In the text the name does not appear till near the end of the tale.

[FN#313] i.e. Full moon smiling.

[FN#314] These lines have occurred in vol. iii. 264. so I quote Lane ii. 499.

[FN#315] ‘These lines occurred in vol. ii. 301. I quote Mr. Payne.

[FN#316] Arab. “Khadd” = cheek from the eye-orbit to the place where the beard grows; also applied to the side of a rough highland, the side-planks of a litter, etc. etc.

[FN#317] The black hair of youth.

[FN#318] This manner of listening is not held dishonourable amongst Arabs or Easterns generally; who, however, hear as little good of themselves as Westerns declare in proverb.

[FN#319] Arab. “Hasab wa nasab,” before explained as inherited degree and acquired dignity. See vol. iv. 171.

[FN#320] Arab. “Mujájat”=spittle running from the mouth: hence Lane, “is like running saliva,” which, in poetry is not pretty.

[FN#321] Arab. and Heb. “Salmandra” from Pers. Samandal (— dar—duk—dun, etc.), a Salamander, a mouse which lives in fire, some say a bird in India and China and others confuse with the chameleon (Bochart Hiero. Part ii. chapt. vi).

[FN#322] Arab. “Mahá” one of the four kinds of wild cows or bovine antelopes, bubalus, Antelope defassa, A. Ieucoryx, etc.

[FN#323] These lines have occurred in vol. iii. 279; so I quote Lane (iii. 274) by way of variety; although I do not like his “bowels.”

[FN#324] The last verse (286) of chapt. ii. The Cow: “compelleth” in the sense of “burdeneth.”

[FN#325] Salih’s speeches are euphuistic.

[FN#326] From the Fátihah.

[FN#327] A truly Eastern saying, which ignores the “old maids” of the West.

[FN#328] i.e. naming her before the lieges as if the speaker were her and his superior. It would have been more polite not to have gone beyond “the unique pearl and the hoarded jewel:” the offensive part of the speech was using the girl’s name.

[FN#329] Meaning emphatically that one and all were nobodies.

[FN#330] Arab Badr, the usual pun.

[FN#331] Arab. “Kirát” (κεράτιον) the bean of the Abrus precatorius, used as a weight in Arabia and India and as a bead for decoration in Africa. It is equal to four Kamhahs or wheat grains and about 3 grs. avoir.; and being the twenty fourth of a miskal, it is applied to that proportion of everything. Thus the Arabs say of a perfect man, “He is of four- and-twenty Kirát” i.e. pure gold. See vol. iii. 239.

[FN#332] The (she) myrtle: Kazimirski (A. de Biberstein) Dictionnaire Arabe-Francais (Pairs Maisonneuve 1867) gives Marsín=Rose de Jericho: myrte.

[FN#333] Needless to note that the fowler had a right to expect a return present worth double or treble the price of his gift. Such is the universal practice of the East: in the West the extortioner says, “I leave it to you, sir!”

[FN#334] And she does tell him all that the reader well knows.

[FN#335] This was for sprinkling him, but the texts omit that operation. Arabic has distinct terms for various forms of metamorphosis. “Naskh” is change from a lower to a higher, as beast to man; “Maskh” (the common expression) is the reverse; “Raskh” is from animate to inanimate (man to stone) and “Faskh” is absolute wasting away to corruption.

[FN#336] I render this improbable detail literally: it can only mean that the ship was dashed against a rock.

[FN#337] Who was probably squatting on his shop counter. The “Bakkál” (who must not be confounded with the épicier), lit. “vender of herbs” = greengrocer, and according to Richardson used incorrectly for Baddál ( ?) vendor of provisions. Popularly it is applied to a seller of oil, honey, butter and fruit, like the Ital. “Pizzicagnolo” = Salsamentarius, and in North-West Africa to an inn-keeper.

[FN#338] Here the Shaykh is mistaken: he should have said, “The Sun in old Persian.” “Almanac” simply makes nonsense of the Arabian Circe’s name. In Arab. it is “Takwím,” whence the Span. and Port. “Tacuino:” in Heb. Hakamathá-Takunah=sapientia dispositionis astrorum (Asiat. Research. iii. 120).

[FN#339] i.e. for thy daily expenses.

[FN#340] Un adolescent aime toutes les femmes. Man is by nature polygamic whereas woman as a rule is monogamic and polyandrous only when tired of her lover. For the man, as has been truly said, loves the woman, but the love of the woman is for the love of the man.

[FN#341] I have already noted that the heroes and heroines of Eastern love-tales are always bonnes fourchettes: they eat and drink hard enough to scandalise the sentimental amourist of the West; but it is understood that this abundant diet is necessary to qualify them for the Herculean labours of the love night.

[FN#342] Here again a little excision is necessary; the reader already knows all about it.

[FN#343] Arab. “Hiss,” prop. speaking a perception (as of sound or motion) as opposed to “Hadas,” a surmise or opinion without proof.

[FN#344] Arab. “Sawík,” the old and modern name for native frumenty, green grain (mostly barley) toasted, pounded, mixed with dates or sugar and eaten on journeys when cooking is impracticable. M. C. de Perceval (iii. 54), gives it a different and now unknown name; and Mr. Lane also applies it to “ptisane.” It named the “Day of Sawaykah” (for which see Pilgrimage ii. 19), called by our popular authors the “War of the Meal-sacks.”

[FN#345] Mr. Keightley (H. 122-24 Tales and Popular Fictions, a book now somewhat obsolete) remarks, “There is nothing said about the bridle in the account of the sale (infra), but I am sure that in the original tale, Badr’s misfortunes must have been owing to his having parted with it. In Chaucer’s Squier’s Tale the bridle would also appear to have been of some importance.” He quotes a story from the Notti Piacevoli of Straparola, the Milanese, published at Venice in 1550. And there is a popular story of the kind in Germany.

[FN#346] Here, for the first time we find the name of the mother who has often been mentioned in the story. Faráshah is the fem. or singular form of “Farásh,” a butterfly, a moth. Lane notes that his Shaykh gives it the very unusual sense of “a locust.”

[FN#347] Punning upon Jauharah = “a jewel” a name which has an Hibernian smack.

[FN#348] In the old version “All the lovers of the Magic Queen resumed their pristine forms as soon as she ceased to live;” moreover, they were all sons of kings, princes, or persons of high degree.

[FN#349] Arab. “Munádamah,” = conversation over the cup (Lane), used somewhat in the sense of “Musámarah” = talks by moonlight.

[FN#350] Arab. “Kursi,” a word of many meanings; here it would allure to the square crate-like seat of palm-fronds used by the Ráwi or public reciter of tales when he is not pacing about the coffee-house.

[FN#351] Von Hammer remarks that this is precisely the sum paid in Egypt for a MS. copy of The Nights.

[FN#352] Arab. “Samar,” the origin of Musámarah, which see, vol. iv. 237.

[FN#353] The pomp and circumstance, with which the tale is introduced to the reader showing the importance attached to it. Lane, most injudiciously I think, transfers the Proemium to a note in chapt. xxiv., thus converting an Arabian Night into an Arabian Note.

[FN#354] ‘Asim = defending (honour) or defended, son of Safwán = clear, cold (dry). Trébutien ii. 126, has Safran.

[FN#355] Fáris = the rider, the Knight, son of Sálih = the righteous, the pious, the just.

[FN#356] In sign of the deepest dejection, when a man would signify that he can fall no lower.

[FN#357] Arab. Yá Khawand (in Bresl. Edit. vol. iv. 191) and fem. form Khawandah (p. 20) from Pers. Kháwand or Kháwandagár = superior, lord, master; Khudáwand is still used in popular as in classical Persian, and is universally understood in Hindostan.

[FN#358] The Biblical Sheba, whence came the Queen of many Hebrew fables.

[FN#359] These would be the interjections of the writer or story-teller. The Mac. Edit. is here a sketch which must be filled up by the Bresl. Edit. vol. iv. 189-318: “Tale of King Asim and his son Sayf al-Mulúk with Badí’a al-Jamál.”

[FN#360] The oath by the Seal-ring of Solomon was the Stygian “swear” in Fairy-land. The signet consisted of four jewels, presented by as many angels, representing the Winds, the Birds, Earth (including sea) and Spirits, and the gems were inscribed with as many sentences: (1) To Allah belong Majesty and Might; (2) All created things praise the Lord; (3) Heaven and Earth are Allah’s slaves and (4) There is no god but the God and Mohammed is His messenger. For Sakhr and his theft of the signet see Dr. Weil’s, “The Bible, the Koran, and the Talmud.”

[FN#361] Trébutien (ii. 128) remarks, “Cet Assaf peut être celui auquel David adresse plusieurs de ses psaumes, et que nos interprètes disent avoir été son maître de chapelle (from Biblioth. Orient).”

[FN#362] Mermen, monsters, beasts, etc.

[FN#363] This is in accordance with Eastern etiquette; the guest must be fed before his errand is asked. The Porte, in the days of its pride, managed in this way sorely to insult the Ambassadors of the most powerful European kingdoms and the first French Republic had the honour of abating the barbarians’ nuisance. So the old Scottish Highlanders never asked the name or clan of a chance guest, lest he prove a foe before he had eaten their food.

[FN#364] In Bresl. Edit. (301) Kháfiyah: in Mac. Kháinah, the perfidy.

[FN#365] So in the Mac. Edit., in the Bresl. only one “Kabá” or Kaftan; but from the sequel it seems to be a clerical error.

[FN#366] Arab. “Su’ubán” (Thu’ubán) popularly translated “basilisk.” The Egyptians suppose that when this serpent forms ring round the Ibn ‘Irs (weasel or ichneumon) the latter emits a peculiar air which causes the reptile to burst.

[FN#367] i.e. that prophesied by Solomon.

[FN#368] Arab. “Takliyah” from kaly, a fry: Lane’s Shaykh explained it as “onions cooked in clarified butter, after which they are put upon other cooked food.” The mention of onions points to Egypt as the origin of this tale and certainly not to Arabia, where the strong-smelling root is hated.

[FN#369] Von Hammer quotes the case of the Grand Vizier Yúsuf throwing his own pelisse over the shoulders of the Aleppine Merchant who brought him the news of the death of his enemy, Jazzár Pasha.

[FN#370] This peculiar style of generosity was also the custom in contemporary Europe.

[FN#371] Khátún, which follows the name (e.g. Hurmat Khatun), in India corresponds with the male title Khan, taken by the Pathan Moslems (e.g. Pír Khán). Khánum is the affix to the Moghul or Tartar nobility, the men assuming a double designation e.g. Mirza Abdallah Beg. See Oriental collections (Ouseley’s) vol. i. 97.

[FN#372] Lit. “Whatso thou wouldest do that do!” a contrast with our European laconism.

[FN#373] These are booths built against and outside the walls, made of palm-fronds and light materials.

[FN#374] Von Hammer in Trébutien (ii. 135) says, “Such rejoicings are still customary at Constantinople, under the name of Donánmá, not only when the Sultanas are enceintes, but also when they are brought to bed. In 1803 the rumour of the pregnancy of a Sultana, being falsely spread, involved all the Ministers in useless expenses to prepare for a Donánmá which never took place.” Lane justly remarks upon this passage that the title Sultán precedes while the feminine Sultánah follows the name.

[FN#375] These words (Bresl. Edit.) would be spoken in jest, a grim joke enough, but showing the elation of the King’s spirits.

[FN#376] A signal like a gong: the Mac. Edit. reads “Tákah,” = in at the window.

[FN#377] Sayf al-Mulúk = “Sword (Egyptian Sif, Arab. Sayf, Gr. {xíphos}) of the Kings”; and he must not be called tout bonnement Sayf. Sái’d = the forearm.

[FN#378] Arab. “Fakíh” = a divine, from Fikh = theology, a man versed in law and divinity i.e. (1) the Koran and its interpretation comprehending the sacred ancient history of the creation and prophets (Chapters iii., iv., v. and vi.), (2) the traditions and legends connected with early Moslem History and (3) some auxiliary sciences as grammar, syntax and prosody; logic, rhetoric and philosophy. See p. 18 of “El-Mas’údí’s Historical Encyclopædia etc.,” by my friend Prof. Aloys Springer, London 1841. This fine fragment printed by the Oriental Translation Fund has been left unfinished when the Asiatic Society of Paris has printed in Eight Vols. 8vo the text and translation of MM. Barbier de Meynard and Pavet de Courteille. What a national disgrace! And the same with the mere abridgment of Ibn Batutah by Prof. Lee (Orient. Tr. Fund 1820) when the French have the fine Edition and translation by Defrémery and Sanguinetti with index etc. in 4 vols. 8vo 1858-59. But England is now content to rank in such matters as encouragement of learning, endowment of research etc., into the basest of kingdoms, and the contrast of status between the learned Societies of London and of Paris, Berlin, Vienna or Rome is mortifying to an Englishman—a national opprobrium.

[FN#379] Arab. “Maydán al-Fíl,” prob. for Birkat al-Fíl, the Tank of the Elephant before-mentioned. Lane quotes Al-Makrizi who in his Khitat informs us that the lakelet was made about the end of the seventh century (A.H.), and in the seventeenth year of the eighth century became the site of the stables. The Bresl. Edit. (iv. 214) reads “Maydan al-‘Adl,” prob. for Al-‘Ádil the name of the King who laid out the Maydán.

[FN#380] Arab. “Asháb al-Ziyá’,” the latter word mostly signifies estates consisting, strictly speaking, of land under artificial irrigation.

[FN#381] The Bresl. Edit. (iv. 215) has “Chawáshiyah” = ‘Chiaush, the Turkish word, written with the Pers. “ch,” a letter which in Arabic is supplanted by “sh,” everywhere except in Morocco.

[FN#382] Arab. “Záwiyah” lit. a corner, a cell. Lane (M. E., chapt. xxiv.) renders it “a small kiosque,” and translates the famous Zawiyat al-Umyán (Blind Men’s Angle) near the south-eastern corner of the Azhar or great Collegiate Mosque of Cairo, “Chapel of the Blind” (chapt. ix.). In popular parlance it suggests a hermitage.

[FN#383] Arab. “Takht,” a Pers. word used as more emphatic than the Arab. Sarír.

[FN#384] This girding the sovereign is found in the hieroglyphs as a peculiarity of the ancient Kings of Egypt, says Von Hammer referring readers to Denon.

[FN#385] Arab. “Mohr,” which was not amongst the gifts of Solomon in Night dcclx. The Bresl. Edit. (p. 220) adds “and the bow,” which is also de trop.

[FN#386] Arab. “Batánah,” the ordinary lining opp. to Tazríb, or quilting with a layer of cotton between two folds of cloth. The idea in the text is that the unhappy wearer would have to carry his cross (the girl) on his back.

[FN#387] This line has occurred in Night dccxliv. supra p. 280.

[FN#388] Arab. “Mu’attik al-Rikáb” i.e. who frees those in bondage from the yoke.

[FN#389] In the Mac. Edit. and in Trébutien (ii. 143) the King is here called Schimakh son of Scharoukh, but elsewhere, Schohiali = Shahyál, in the Bresl. Edit. Shahál. What the author means by “Son of ‘Ád the Greater,” I cannot divine.

[FN#390] Lit. “For he is the man who can avail thereto,” with the meaning given in the text.

[FN#391] Arab. “Jazírat,” insula or peninsula, vol. i. 2.

[FN#392] Probably Canton with which the Arabs were familiar.

[FN#393] i.e. “Who disappointeth not those who put their trust in Him.”

[FN#394] Arab. “Al-Manjaníkát” plur. of manjanik, from Gr. Μάγγανον, Lat. Manganum (Engl. Mangonel from the dim. Mangonella). Ducange Glossarium, s.v. The Greek is applied originally to defensive weapons, then to the artillery of the day, Ballista, catapults, etc. The kindred Arab. form “Manjanín” is applied chiefly to the Noria or Persian waterwheel.

[FN#395] Faghfúr is the common Moslem title for the Emperors of China; in the Kamus the first syllable is Zammated (Fugh); in Al-Mas’udi (chapt. xiv.) we find Baghfúr and in Al-Idrisi Baghbúgh, or Baghbún. In Al-Asma’i Bagh = god or idol (Pehlewi and Persian); hence according to some Baghdád (?) and Bághistán a pagoda (?). Sprenger (Al-Mas’údi, p. 327) remarks that Baghfúr is a literal translation of Tien-tse and quotes Visdelou, “pour mieux faire comprendre de quel ciel ils veulent parler, ils poussent la généalogie (of the Emperor) plus loin. Ils lui donnent le ciel pour père, la terre pour mère, le soleil pour frère aîné et la lune pour sœur aînée.”

[FN#396] Arab. “Kayf hálak” = how de doo? the salutation of a Fellah.

[FN#397] i.e. subject to the Maharajah of Hind.

[FN#398] This is not a mistake: I have seen heavy hail in Africa, N. Lat. 4 degrees; within sight of the Equator.

[FN#399] Arab. “Harrákat,” here used in the sense of smaller craft, and presently for a cock-boat.

[FN#400] See vol. i. 138: here by way of variety I quote Mr. Payne.

[FN#401] This explains the Arab idea of the “Old Man of the Sea” in Sindbad the Seaman (vol. vi. 50). He was not a monkey nor an unknown monster; but an evil Jinni of the most powerful class, yet subject to defeat and death.

[FN#402] These Plinian monsters abound in Persian literature. For a specimen see Richardson Dissert. p. xlviii.

[FN#403] Arab. “Anyáb,” plur. of “Náb” = canine tooth (eye-tooth of man), tusks of horse and camel, etc.

[FN#404] Arab, “Kásid,” the Anglo-Indian Cossid. The post is called Baríd from the Persian “burídah” (cut) because the mules used for the purpose were dock-tailed. Barid applies equally to the post-mule, the rider and the distance from one station (Sikkah) to another which varied from two to six parasangs. The letter-carrier was termed Al-Faránik from the Pers. Parwánah, a servant. In the Diwán al-Baríd (Post-office) every letter was entered in a Madraj or list called in Arabic Al-Askidár from the Persian “Az Kih dárí” = from whom hast thou it?

[FN#405] “Ten years” in the Bresl. Edit. iv. 244.

[FN#406] In the Bresl. Edit. (iv. 245) we find “Kalak,” a raft, like those used upon the Euphrates, and better than the “Fulk,” or ship, of the Mac. Edit.

[FN#407] Arab. “Timsah” from Coptic (Old Egypt) Emsuh or Msuh. The animal cannot live in salt-water, a fact which proves that the Crocodile Lakes on the Suez Canal were in old days fed by Nile-water; and this was necessarily a Canal.

[FN#408] So in the Bresl. Edit. (iv. 245). In the Mac. text “one man,” which better suits the second crocodile, for the animal can hardly be expected to take two at a time.

[FN#409] He had ample reason to be frightened. The large Cynocephalus is exceedingly dangerous. When travelling on the Gold Coast with my late friend Colonel De Ruvignes, we suddenly came in the grey of the morning upon a herd of these beasts. We dismounted, hobbled our nags and sat down, sword and revolver in hand. Luckily it was feeding time for the vicious brutes, which scowled at us but did not attack us. During my four years’ service on the West African Coast I heard enough to satisfy me that these powerful beasts often kill men and rape women; but I could not convince myself that they ever kept the women as concubines.

[FN#410] As we should say in English “it is a far cry to Loch Awe”: the Hindu by-word is, “Dihlí (Delhi) is a long way off.” See vol. i. 37.

[FN#411] Arab. “Fútah”, a napkin, a waistcloth, the Indian Zones alluded to by the old Greek travellers.

[FN#412] Arab. “Yají (it comes) miat khwánjah”—quite Fellah talk.

[FN#413] As Trébutien shows (ii. 155) these apes were a remnant of some ancient tribe possibly those of Ád who had gone to Meccah to pray for rain and thus escaped the general destruction. See vol. i. 65. Perhaps they were the Jews of Aylah who in David’s day were transformed into monkeys for fishing on the Sabbath (Saturday) Koran ii. 61.

[FN#414] I can see no reason why Lane purposely changes this to “the extremity of their country.”

[FN#415] Koran xxii. 44, Mr. Payne remarks:—This absurd addition is probably due to some copyist, who thought to show his knowledge of the Koran, but did not understand the meaning of the verse from which the quotation is taken and which runs thus, “How many cities have We destroyed, whilst yet they transgressed, and they are laid low on their own foundations and wells abandoned and high-builded palaces!” Mr. Lane observes that the words are either misunderstood or purposely misapplied by the author of the tale. Purposeful perversions of Holy Writ are very popular amongst Moslems and form part of their rhetoric; but such is not the case here. According to Von Hammer (Trébutien ii. 154), “Eastern geographers place the Bir al-Mu’utallal (Ruined Well) and the Kasr al-Mashíd (High-builded Castle) in the province of Hadramaut, and we wait for a new Niebuhr to inform us what are the monuments or the ruins so called.” His text translates puits arides et palais de plâtre (not likely!). Lane remarks that Mashíd mostly means “plastered,” but here = Mushayyad, lofty, explained in the Jalálayn Commentary as = rafí’a, high-raised. The two places are also mentioned by Al-Mas’údi; and they occur in Al-Kazwíni (see Night dccclviii.): both of these authors making the Koran directly allude to them.

[FN#416] Arab. (from Pers.) “Aywán” which here corresponds with the Egyptian “líwán” a tall saloon with estrades.

[FN#417] This naïve style of “renowning it” is customary in the East, contrasting with the servile address of the subject—“thy slave” etc.

[FN#418] Daulat (not Dawlah) the Anglo-Indian Dowlat; prop. meaning the shifts of affairs, hence, fortune, empire, kingdom. Khátún = “lady,” I have noted, follows the name after Turkish fashion.

[FN#419] The old name of Suez-town from the Greek Clysma (the shutting), which named the Gulf of Suez “Sea of Kulzum.” The ruins in the shape of a huge mound, upon which Sá’id Pasha built a Kiosk-palace, lie to the north of the modern town and have been noticed by me. (Pilgrimage, Midian, etc.) The Rev. Prof. Sayce examined the mound and from the Roman remains found in it determined it to be a fort guarding the old mouth of the Old Egyptian Sweet-water Canal which then debouched near the town.

[FN#420] i.e. Tuesday. See vol. iii. 249.

[FN#421] Because being a Jinniyah the foster-sister could have come to her and saved her from old maidenhood.

[FN#422] Arab. “Hájah” properly a needful thing. This consisted according to the Bresl. Edit. of certain perfumes, by burning which she could summon the Queen of the Jinn.

[FN#423] Probably used in its sense of a “black crow.” The Bresl. Edit. (iv. 261) has “Khátim” (seal-ring) which is but one of its almost innumerable misprints.

[FN#424] Here it is called “Tábik” and afterwards “Tábút.”

[FN#425] i.e. raising from the lower hinge-pins. See vol. ii. 214.

[FN#426] Arab. “Abrísam” or “Ibrísam” (from Persian Abrísham or Ibrísham) = raw silk or floss, i.e. untwisted silk.

[FN#427] This knightly practice, evidently borrowed from the East, appears in many romances of chivalry e.g. When Sir Tristram is found by King Mark asleep beside Ysonde (Isentt) with drawn sword between them, the former cried:—

Gif they weren in sinne Nought so they no lay.

And we are told:—

Sir Amys and the lady bright To bed gan they go; And when they weren in bed laid, Sir Amys his sword out-brayed And held it between them two.

This occurs in the old French romance of Amys and Amyloun which is taken into the tale of the Ravens in the Seven Wise Masters where Ludovic personates his friend Alexander in marrying the King of Egypt’s daughter and sleeps every night with a bare blade between him and the bride. See also Aladdin and his lamp. An Englishman remarked, “The drawn sword would be little hindrance to a man and maid coming together.” The drawn sword represented only the Prince’s honour.

[FN#428] Arab. “Ya Sáki’ al-Wajh,” which Lane translates by “lying” or “liar.”

[FN#429] Kamín (in Bresl. Edit. “bayn” = between) Al-Bahrayn = Ambuscade or lurking-place of the two seas. The name of the city in Lane is “‘Emareeych” imaginary but derived from Emarch (‘imárah) = being populous. Trébutien (ii. 161) takes from Bresl. Edit. “Amar” and translates the port-name, “le lieu de refuge des deux mers.”

[FN#430] i.e. “High of (among) the Kings.” Lane proposes to read ‘Ali al-Mulk = high in dominion.

[FN#431] Pronounce Mu’inuddeen = Aider of the Faith. The Bresl. Edit. (iv. 266) also read “Mu’in al-Riyásah” = Mu’in of the Captaincies.

[FN#432] Arab. “Shúm” = a tough wood used for the staves with which donkeys are driven. Sir Gardner Wilkinson informed Lane that it is the ash.

[FN#433] In Persian we find the fuller metaphorical form, “kissing the ground of obedience.”

[FN#434] For the Shaykh of the Sea(-board) in Sindbad the Seaman see vol. vi. 50.

[FN#435] That this riding is a facetious exaggeration of the African practice I find was guessed by Mr. Keightley.

[FN#436] Arab. “Kummasra”: the root seems to be “Kamsara” = being slender or compact.

[FN#437] Lane translates, “by reason of the exhilaration produced by intoxication.” But the Arabic here has no assonance. The passage also alludes to the drunken habits of those blameless Ethiopians, the races of Central Africa where, after midday a chief is rarely if ever found sober. We hear much about drink in England but Englishmen are mere babes compared with these stalwart Negroes. In Unyamwezi I found all the standing bedsteads of pole-sleepers and bark-slabs disposed at an angle of about 20 degrees for the purpose of draining off the huge pottle-fulls of Pombe (Osirian beer) drained by the occupants; and, comminxit lectum potus might be said of the whole male population.

[FN#438] This is not exaggerated. When at Hebron I saw the biblical spectacle of two men carrying a huge bunch slung to a pole, not so much for the weight as to keep the grapes from injury.

[FN#439] The Mac. and Bul. Edits. add, “and with him a host of others after his kind”; but these words are omitted by the Bresl. Edit. and apparently from the sequel there was only one Ghul-giant.

[FN#440] Probably alluding to the most barbarous Persian practice of plucking or tearing out the eyes from their sockets. See Sir John Malcolm’s description of the capture of Kirmán and Morier (in Zohrab, the hostage) for the wholesale blinding of the Asterabadian by the Eunuch-King Agha Mohammed Shah. I may note that the mediæval Italian practice called bacinare, or scorching with red-hot basins, came from Persia.

[FN#441] Arab. “Laban” as opposed to “Halíb”: in Night dcclxxiv. (infra p. 365) the former is used for sweet milk, and other passages could be cited. I have noted that all galaktophagi, or milk-drinking races, prefer the artificially soured to the sweet, choosing the fermentation to take place outside rather than inside their stomachs. Amongst the Somal I never saw man, woman or child drink a drop of fresh milk; and they offered considerable opposition to our heating it for coffee.

[FN#442] Arab. “Tákah” not “an aperture” as Lane has it, but an arched hollow in the wall.

[FN#443] In Trébutien (ii. 168) the cannibal is called “Goul Eli-Fenioun” and Von Hammer remarks, “There is no need of such likeness of name to prove that al this episode is a manifest imitation of the adventures of Ulysses in Polyphemus’s cave; * * * and this induces the belief that the Arabs have been acquainted with the poems of Homer.” Living intimately with the Greeks they could not have ignored the Iliad and the Odyssey: indeed we know by tradition that they had translations, now apparently lost. I cannot however, accept Lane’s conjecture that “the story of Ulysses and Polyphemus may have been of Eastern origin.” Possibly the myth came from Egypt, for I have shown that the opening of the Iliad bears a suspicious likeness to the proem of Pentaur’s Epic.

[FN#444] Arab. “Shakhtúr”.

[FN#445] In the Bresl. Edit. the ship is not wrecked but lands Sa’id in safety.

[FN#446] So in the Shah-nameh the Símurgh-bird gives one of her feathers to her protégé Zál which he will throw into the fire when she is wanted.

[FN#447] Bresl. Edit. “Al-Zardakhánát” Arab. plur. of Zarad-Khánah, a bastard word = armoury, from Arab. Zarad (hauberk) and Pers. Khánah = house etc.

[FN#448] Some retrenchment was here found necessary to avoid “damnable iteration.”

[FN#449] i.e. Badi’a al-Jamal.

[FN#450] Mohammed.

[FN#451] Koran xxxv. “The Creator” (Fátir) or the Angels, so called from the first verse.

[FN#452] In the Bresl. Edit. (p. 263) Sayf al-Muluk drops asleep under a tree to the lulling sound of a Sákiyah or water-wheel, and is seen by Badi’a al-Jamal, who falls in love with him and drops tears upon his cheeks, etc. The scene, containing much recitation, is long and well told.

[FN#453] Arab. “Lukmah” = a bouchée of bread, meat, fruit or pastry, and especially applied to the rice balled with the hand and delicately inserted into a friend’s mouth.

[FN#454] Arab. “Saláhiyah,” also written Saráhiyah: it means an ewer-shaped glass-bottle.

[FN#455] Arab. “Sarmújah,” of which Von Hammer remarks that the dictionaries ignore it; Dozy gives the forms Sarmúj, Sarmúz, and Sarmúzah and explains them by “espèce de guêtre, de sandale ou de mule, qu’on chausse par-dessus la botte.”

[FN#456] In token of profound submission.

[FN#457] Arab. “Misr” in Ibn Khaldún is a land whose people are settled and civilised hence “Namsur” = we settle; and “Amsár” = settled provinces. Al-Misrayn was the title of Basrah and Kufah the two military cantonments founded by Caliph Omar on the frontier of conquering Arabia and conquered Persia. Hence “Tamsír” = founding such posts, which were planted in Mesopotamia, Syria and Egypt. In these camps were stationed the veterans who had fought under Mohammed; but the spoils of the East soon changed them to splendid cities where luxury and learning flourished side by side. Sprenger (Al-Mas’údi pp. 19, 177) compares them ecclesiastically with the primitive Christian Churches such as Jerusalem, Alexandria and Antioch. But the Moslems were animated with an ardent love of liberty and Kufah under Al-Hajjaj the masterful, lost 100,000 of her turbulent sons without the thirst for independence being quenched. This can hardly be said of the Early Christians who, with the exception of a few staunch-hearted martyrs, appear in history as pauvres diables and poules mouillées, ever oppressed by their own most ignorant and harmful fancy that the world was about to end.

[FN#458] i.e. Waiting to be sold and wasting away in single cursedness.

[FN#459] Arab. “Yá dádati”: dádat is an old servant-woman or slave, often applied to a nurse, like its congener the Pers. Dádá, the latter often pronounced Daddeh, as Daddeh Bazm-árá in the Kuisum-nameh (Atkinson’s “Customs of the Women of Persia,” London, 8vo, 1832).

[FN#460] Marjánah has been already explained. D’Herbelot derives from it the Romance name Morgante la Déconvenue, here confounding Morgana with Urganda; and Keltic scholars make Morgain = Mor Gwynn—the white maid (p. 10, Keightley’s Fairy Mythology, London, Whittaker, 1833).