Note 265
These handsome youths are always described in the terms we should apply to women.
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Notes to The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 1 — Page 12
698 notes in Richard Francis Burton translation. Follow a thought back to its place in the book.
698 notes
Note 266
The Bul. Edit. (i. 43) reads otherwise:—I found a garden and a second and a third and so on till they numbered thirty and nine; and, in each garden, I saw what praise will not expr…
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Arabs date pregnancy from the stopping of the menses, upon which the foetus is supposed to feed. Kalilah wa Dimnah says, "The child's navel adheres to that of his mother and thereb…
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This is contrary to the commands of Al-Islam, Mohammed expressly said "The Astrologers are liars, by the Lord of the Ka'abah!"; and his saying is known to almost all Moslems, lette…
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He does not perform the Wuzu or lesser ablution because he neglects his dawn prayers.
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For this game see Lane (M. E. Chapt. xvii.) It is usually played on a checked cloth not on a board like our draughts; and Easterns are fond of eating, drinking and smoking between …
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Quoted from Mohammed whose saying has been given.
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We should say "the night of the thirty-ninth."
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The bath first taken after sickness.
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Arab. "Dikák" used by way of soap or rather to soften the skin: the meal is usually of lupins, "Adas"="Revalenta Arabica," which costs a penny in Egypt and half-a-crown in England.…
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Arab. "Sukkar-nabát." During my day (1842-49) we had no other sugar in the Bombay Presidency.
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This is one of the myriad Arab instances that the decrees of "Anagké," Fate, Destiny, Weird, are inevitable. The situation is highly dramatic; and indeed The Nights, as will appear…
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Having lately been moved by Ajib.
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Mr. Payne (i. 131) omits these lines which appear out of place; but this mode of inappropriate quotation is a characteristic of Eastern tales.
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Anglicè "him."
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This march of the tribe is a lieu commun of Arab verse e.g. the poet Labid's noble elegy on the "Deserted Camp." We shall find scores of instances in The Nights.
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I have heard of such sands in the Desert east of Damascus which can be crossed only on boards or camel furniture; and the same is reported of the infamous Region "Al-Ahkáf" ("Unexp…
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Hence the Arab. saying "The bark of a dog and not the gleam of a fire;" the tired traveller knows from the former that the camp is near, whereas the latter shows from great distanc…
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Dark blue is the colour of mourning in Egypt as it was of the Roman Republic. The Persians hold that this tint was introduced by Kay Kawús (B. C. 600) when mourning for his son Siy…
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The older Roc, of which more in the Tale of Sindbad. Meanwhile the reader curious about the Persian Símurgh (thirty bird) will consult the Dabistan, i., 55,191 and iii., 237, and R…
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Probably the Haledj of Forskal (p. xcvi. Flor. Ægypt. Arab.), "lignum tenax, durum, obscuri generis." The Bres. Edit. has "ákúl"=teak wood, vulg. "Sáj."
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The knocker ring is an invention well known to the Romans.
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Arab. "Sadr"; the place of honour; hence the "Sudder Adawlut" (Supreme Court) in the Anglo-Indian jargon.
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Arab. "Ahlan wa sahlan wa marhabá," the words still popularly addressed to a guest.
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