Note 73
Arab. meaning "the Mother of Amir," a nickname for the hyena, which bites the hand that feeds it.
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Notes to The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 1 — Page 4
698 notes in Richard Francis Burton translation. Follow a thought back to its place in the book.
698 notes
Note 74
The intellect of man is stronger than that of the Jinni; the Ifrit, however, enters the jar because he has been adjured by the Most Great Name and not from mere stupidity. The seal…
Read the noteNote 75
The Mesmerist will notice this shudder which is familiar to him as preceding the "magnetic" trance.
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Arab. "Bahr" which means a sea, a large river, a sheet of water, etc., lit. water cut or trenched in the earth. Bahri in Egypt means Northern; so Yamm (Sea, Mediterranean) in Hebre…
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In the Bul. Edit. "Ruyán," evidently a clerical error. The name is fanciful not significant.
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The geography is ultra-Shakespearean. "Fárs" (whence "Persia") is the central Province of the grand old Empire now a mere wreck, "Rúm" (which I write Roum, in order to avoid Jamaic…
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The Sun greets Mohammed every morning even as it dances on Easter Day for Christendom. Risum teneatis?
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Arab. "Nadím," a term often occurring. It denotes one who was intimate enough to drink with the Caliph, a very high honour and a dangerous. The last who sat with "Nudamá" was Al-Ra…
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Arab. Maydán (from Persian); Lane generally translates it "horse course ' and Payne "tilting yard." It is both and something more; an open space, in or near the city, used for revi…
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For details concerning the "Ghusl" see Night xliv.
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A popular idiom and highly expressive, contrasting the upright bearing of the self-satisfied man with the slouch of the miserable and the skirt-trailing of the woman in grief. I do…
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All these highest signs of favour foreshow, in Eastern tales and in Eastern life, an approaching downfall of the heaviest; they are so great that they arouse general jealousy. Many…
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This phrase is contained in the word "ihdák" =encompassing, as the conjunctiva does the pupil.
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I have noted this formula, which is used even in conversation when about to relate some great unfact.
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We are obliged to English the word by "valley," which is about as correct as the "brook Kedron," applied to the grisliest of ravines. The Wady (in old Coptic wah, oah, whence "Oasi…
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I have described this scene which Mr. T. Wolf illustrated by an excellent lithograph in "Falconry, etc." (London, Van Voorst, MDCCCLII.)
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Arab. "Kaylúlah," mid-day sleep; called siesta from the sixth canonical hour.
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This parrot-story is world-wide in folk-lore and the belief in metempsychosis, which prevails more or less over all the East, there lends it probability. The "Book of Sindibad" (se…
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The young "Turk" is probably a late addition, as it does not appear in many of the MSS., e. g. the Bresl. Edit. The wife usually spreads a cloth over the cage; this in the Turkish …
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The Hebrew-Syrian month July used to express the height of summer. As Herodotus tells us (ii. 4) the Egyptians claimed to be the discoverers of the solar year and the portioners of…
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This proceeding is thoroughly characteristic of the servile class; they conscientiously conceal everything from the master till he finds a clew; after which they tell him everythin…
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Until late years, merchants and shopkeepers in the nearer East all carried swords, and held it a disgrace to leave the house unarmed.
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The Bresl. Edit. absurdly has Jazírah (an island).
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The Ghúlah (fem. of Ghúl) is the Heb. Lilith or Lilis; the classical Lamia; the Hindu Yogini and Dákini; the Chaldean Utug and Gigim (desert-demons) as opposed to the Mas (hill-dem…
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