Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights Volume 6 by Richard F. BurtonWith Notes Anthropological And Explanatory (page 8)

[FN#99] He was indignant because twitted with having married a beggar-maid like good King Cophetua. In Heron he is “moved by so sensible a reply.”

[FN#100] Plur. “Kataif,” a kind of pancake made of flour and sugar (or honey) and oil or butter.

[FN#101] Arab. “Sakka” = a water-carrier, generally a bad lot. Of the “Sakka Sharbah,” who supplies water to passengers in the streets, there is an illustration in Lane; M. E. chapt. xiv.

[FN#102] In the text “Kahbah” an ugly word = our whore (i.e. hired woman): it is frightfully
common in every-day speech. See vol. ii. 70.

[FN#103] Arab. “Sibak” usually = a leash (for falconry, etc.).

[FN#104] I have emphasised this detail which subsequently becomes a leading incident.

[FN#105] Usual formulae when a respectable person is seen drinking: the same politeness was also in use throughout the civilised parts of mediaeval Europe. See the word “Hanian” (vol. ii. 5), which at Meccah and elsewhere is pronounced also “Haniyyan.”

[FN#106] In text “Ya Ta’is,” a favorite expression in this MS. Page 612 (MS.) has “Ta’ish,” a clerical error, and in page 97 we have “Ya Ta’asat-na” = O our misery!

[FN#107] As might a “picker-up of unconsidered trifles.”

[FN#108] In text “Akba’ wa Zarabil.” I had supposed the first to be the Pers. Kaba = a short coat or tunic, with the Arab. ‘Ayn (the second is the common corruption for “Zarabin” = slaves’ shoes, slippers: see vol. x. 1), but M. Hondas translates Ni calottes ni calecons, and for the former word here and in MS. p.227 he reads “‘Arakiyah” = skull-cap: see vol. i. 215. [“Akba'” is the pi. of “Kub’,” which latter occurs infra, p.227 of the Ar. MS., and means, in popular language, any part of a garment covering the head, as the hood of a Burnus or the top-piece of a Kalansuwah; also a skull-cap, usually called “‘Araqiyah.” –ST.]

[FN#109] Heron dubs him “Hazeb (Hajib) Yamaleddin.” In text “‘Alai al-Din;” and in not a few places it is familiarly abbreviated to “‘Ali” (p. 228, etc.). For the various forms of writing the name see Suppl. vol. iii. 30. The author might have told us the young Chamberlain’s name Arabice earlier in the tale; but it is the Rawi’s practice to begin with the vague and to end in specification. I have not, however, followed his example here or elsewhere.

[FN#110] i.e. Destiny so willed it. For the Pen and the Preserved Tablet see vol. v. 322.

[FN#111] This was the custom not only with Harun as Mr. Heron thinks, but at the Courts of the Caliphs generally.

[FN#112] In text “Ghiyar,” Arab. = any piece of dress or uniform which distinguishes a class, as the soldiery: in Pers. = a strip of yellow cloth worn by the Jews subject to the Shah.

[FN#113] Arab. “Zarbul taki,” the latter meaning “high-heeled.” Perhaps it may signify also “fenestrated, or open-worked like a window.” So “poules” or windows cut in the upper leathers of his shoes. Chaucer, The Miller’s Tale.

[FN#114] “Mayzar,” in Pers. = a turband: in Arab. “Miizar” = a girdle; a waistcloth.

[FN#115] Arab. “Kaus al-Bunduk” (or Banduk) a pellet-bow, the Italian arcobugio, the English arquebuse; for which see vol. i. 10. Usually the “Kis” is the Giberne or pellet-bag; but here it is the bow-cover. Gauttier notes (vii. 131):–Bondouk signifie en Arabe harquebuse, Albondoukani signifie l’arquebusier; c’etait comme on le voit, le mot d’ordre dit Khalyfe. He supposes, then, that firelocks were known in the days of Harun al-Rashid (A.D. 786-809). Al-Bundukani = the cross-bow man, or rather the man of the pellet-bow was, according to the Rawi, the name by which the Caliph was known in this disguise. Al-Zahir Baybars al- Bundukdari, the fourth Baharite Soldan (A.D. 1260-77), was so entitled because he had been a slave to a Bundukdar, an officer who may be called the Grand Master of Artillery. In Chavis and Cazotte the Caliph arms himself with a spear, takes a bow and arrow (instead of the pellet-bow that named him), disguises his complexion, dyes beard and eyebrows, dons a large coarse turband, a buff waistcoat with a broad leathern belt, a short robe of common stuff and half-boots of strong coarse leather, and thus “assumes the garb of an Arab from the desert.” (!)

[FN#116] See vol. i. 266.

[FN#117] i.e. by the Archangel Gabriel.

[FN#118] Arab. “Habbah” = a grain (of barley, etc.), an obolus, a mite: it is also used for a gold bead in the shape of a cube forming part of the Egyptian woman’s headdress (Lane M.E., Appendix A). As a weight it is the 48th of a dirham, the third of a kirat (carat) or 127/128 of an English grain, avoir.

[FN#119] In text “Mahma” = as often as = kullu-ma. This is the eleventh question of the twelve in Al-Hariri, Ass. xxiv., and the sixth of Ass. xxxvi. The former runs, “What is the noun (kullu- ma) which gives no sense except by the addition thereto of two words, or the shortening thereof to two letters (i.e. ma); and in the first case there is adhesion and in the second compulsion?” (Chenery, pp. 246-253).

[FN#120] In Chavis and Cazotte he looks through the key-hole which an Eastern key does not permit, the holes being in the bolt. See Index, Suppl. vol. v.

[FN#121] In text “Kabal-ki,” which I suspect to be a clerical error for “Katal-ki” = Allah strike thee dead. See vol. iv. 264, 265. [One of the meanings of “Mukabalah,” the third form of “kabila,” is “requital,” “retaliation.” The words in the text could therefore be translated: “may God requite thee.”–ST.]

[FN#122] In Chavis and Cazotte she swears “by the name of God which is written on our Great
Prophet’s forehead.”

[FN#123] Arab. “Ya Luss”; for this word = the Gr. {Greek}; see Suppl. vol. v. index.

[FN#124] “Al-Natur,” the keeper, esp. of a vineyard, a word naturalized in Persian. The Caliph asks, Is this a bon> fide affair and hast thou the power to settle the matter definitely? M. Houdas translates as Les raisins sont-ils a toi, ou bien es-tu seulement la gardienne de la vigne? [The verb zaraba, 3rd form, followed by the accusative, means “to join one in partnership.” The sense of the passage seems therefore to be: Dost thou own grapes thyself, or art thou (“tuzaribi,” 2 fem. sing.) in partnership with the vineyard-keeper. The word may be chosen because it admits of another interpretation, the double entendre of which might be kept up in English by using the expression “sleeping” partnership. Perhaps, however, “tuzaribi” means here simply: “Dost thou play the part of.”–ST.]

[FN#125] The innuendo is intelligible and I may draw attention to the humorous skill with which the mother-in-law’s character is drawn.

[FN#126] In text “Aska-hu ‘alakah” = gave him a good sound drubbing (‘alakah), as a robber would apply to a Judge had he the power.

[FN#127] Lest he happen to meet an unveiled woman on the stairs; the usual precaution is to cry “Dastur!” by your leave (Persian).

[FN#128] Arab. “Khayr”–a word of good omen.

[FN#129] In Chavis and Cazotte the mother gives her daughter’s name as Zutulbe (?) and her own Lelamain (?).

[FN#130] In text “Waliyah” or “Waliyah” = and why?

[FN#131] The “Wronged” (Al-Mazlum) refers to the Caliph who was being abused and to his coming career as a son-in-law. Gauttier, who translates the tale very perfunctorily, has Dieu protege les malheureux et les orphelins (vii. 133).

[FN#132] This again is intended to show the masterful nature of the Caliph, and would be as much admired by the average coffee- house audience as it would stir the bile of the free and independent Briton.

[FN#133] The “Street of the Copperas-maker”: the name, as usual, does not appear till further on in the tale.

[FN#134] In text “Rukham” = marble or alabaster, here used for building material: so “Murakhkhim” = a marble-cutter, means simply a stone-mason. I may here note the rediscovery of the porphyry quarries in Middle Egypt, and the gypsum a little inland of Ras Gharib to the West of the Suez Gulf. Both were much used by the old Egyptians, and we may now fairly expect to rediscover the lost sites, about Tunis and elsewhere in Northern Africa, whence Rosso antico and other fine stones were quarried.

[FN#135] Arab. “Al-Hasil” also meaning the taxes, the revenue.

[FN#136] In text “Ka’ah” = a saloon: see vols. i. 85; i. 292; and vii. 167.

[FN#137] In the sing. “Sikalah.”

[FN#138] The Jinn here was Curiosity, said to be a familiar of the sex feminine, but certainly not less intimate with “the opposite.”

[FN#139] In text “Kinnab” which M. Houdas translates etoupe que l’on fixe an bout d’un roseau pour blanchir les murs.

[FN#140] Impossible here not to see a sly hit at the Caliph and the Caliphate.

[FN#141] The writer has omitted this incident which occurs in Chavis and Cazotte.

[FN#142] In the text, “Samd” = carpets and pots and pans.

[FN#143] The Kata grouse (Tetrao alchata seu arenarius of Linn.) has often been noticed by me in Pilg. I. 226 (where my indexer called it “sand goose”) and in The Nights (vols. i. 131; iv. 111). De Sacy (Chrestom. Arab. iii pp. 416, 507-509) offers a good literary account of it: of course he cannot speak from personal experience. He begins with the Ajaib al-Makhlukat by Al- Kazwini (ob. A.H. 674 = A.D. 1274) who tells us that the bird builds in the desert a very small nest (whence the Hadis, “Whoso shall build to Allah a mosque, be it only the bigness of a Kata’s nest, the Lord shall edify for him a palace in Paradise”); that it abandons its eggs which are sometimes buried in sand, and presently returns to them (hence the saying, “A better guide than the Kata”); that it watches at night (?) and that it frequents highways to reconnoitre travellers (? ?), an interpretation confirmed by the Persian translator. Its short and graceful steps gave rise to the saying, “She hath the gait of a Kata,” and makes De Sacy confound the bird with the Pers. Kahu or Kabk-i-dari (partridge of the valley), which is simply the francolin, the Ital. francolino, a perdrix. The latter in Arab. Is “Durraj” (Al- Mas’udi, vii. 347): see an affecting story connected with it in the Suppl. Nights (ii. 4O-43). In the xxiiid Ass. of Al-Hariri the sagacity of the Kata is alluded to, “I crossed rocky places, to which the Kata would not find its way.” See also Ass. viii. But Mr. Chenery repeats a mistake when he says (p. 339) that the bird is “never found save where there is good pasturage and water:” it haunts the wildest parts of Sind and Arabia, although it seldom strays further than 60 miles from water which it must drink every evening. I have never shot the Kata since he saved my party from a death by thirst on a return-ride from Harar (First Footsteps in E. Africa, p. 388). The bird is very swift, with a skurrying flight like a frightened Pigeon; and it comes to water regularly about dusk when it is easily “potted.”

[FN#144] In text “Samman” for “Samman”: Dozy gives the form “Summun” (Hondas). The literary name is “Salwa.”

[FN#145] For Wali (at one time a Civil Governor and in other ages a Master of Police) see vol. i. 259.

[FN#146] Prob. a corruption of the Pers. “Nazuk,” adj. delicate, nice.

[FN#147] In text “Jaftawat,” which is, I presume, the Arab. plur. of the Turk. “Chifut” a Jew, a mean fellow. M. Hondas refers to Dozy s.v. “Jaftah.” [The Turkish word referred to by Dozy is “Chifte” from the Persian “Juft” = a pair, any two things coupled together. “Masha’iliyah jaftawat wa fanusin” in the text would therefore be “(cresset-) bearers of double torches and lanterns,” where the plural fanusin is remarkable as a vulgarism, instead of the Dictionary form “Fawanis.”–ST.]

[FN#148] So in Chavis and Cazotte: Gauttier and Heron prefer (vol. i. 38) “Chamama.” They add, “That daemon incarnate gave out himself that Satan was his father and the devil Camos (?) his brother.” The Arab word is connected with shamma = he smelt, and suggests the policeman smoking plots.

[FN#149] i.e. concealing the secret sins of the people. This sketch of the cad policeman will find many an original in the London force, if the small householder speak the truth.

[FN#150] Qui n’ait un point de contact aver l’une de ces categories–(Houdas).

[FN#151] In the old translations “The Hazen” (Khazin = treasurer?) which wholly abolishes the double entendre.

[FN#152] In text “Darbisi al-bab” from the Persian, “Dar bastan” = to tie up, to shut.

[FN#153] In text “Ghaush” for “Ghaushah” = noise, row.

[FN#154] “Akkal bula’hu” i.e. commit all manner of abominations. “To eat skite” is to talk or act foolishly.

[FN#155] In the old translations “Ilamir Youmis.”

[FN#156] In text “Dabbus bazdaghani,” which I have translated as if from the Pers. “Bazdagh”
= a file. But it may be a clerical error for “Bardawani,” the well-known city in Hindostan whose iron was famous.

[FN#157] “Nahs” means something more than ill-omened, something nasty, foul, uncanny: see vol. i. 301.

[FN#158] In Chavis, Heron and Co. there are two ladders to scale the garden wall and descend upon the house-terrace which apparently they do not understand to be the roof.

[FN#159] Arab. “Al-Kafi’ah” = garde-fou, rebord d’une terrasse– (Houdas).

[FN#160] Our vulgar “Houri”: see vols. i. 90; iii. 233. There are many meanings of Hawar; one defines it as intense darkness of the black of the eye and corresponding whiteness; another that it is all which appears of the eye (as in the gazelle) meaning that the blackness is so large as to exclude the whiteness; whilst a third defines “Haura” as a woman beautiful in the “Mahajir” (parts below and around the eyes which show when the face is veiled), and a fourth as one whose whiteness of eye appears in contrast with the black of the Kohl-Powder. See Chenery’s Al-Hariri, pp. 354-55.

[FN#161] Arab. “Zalamah” = tyrants, oppressors (police and employes): see vols. i. 273, and vi. 214.

[FN#162] In text “Kunna nu’tihu li-ahad” = we should have given him to someone; which makes very poor sense. [The whole passage runs: “Haza allazi kasam allah bi-hi fa-lau kana rajul jayyid ghayr luss kunna nu’ti-hu li-ahad,” which I would translate: This is he concerning whom Allah decreed (that he should be my portion, swearing:) “and if he were a good man and no thief we would have bestowed him on someone.” In “kasama” the three ideas of decreeing, giving as a share, and binding one’s self by oath are blended together. If it should appear out of place to introduce Divinity itself as speaking in this context, we must not forget that the person spoken of is no less illustrious individual than Harun al-Rashid, and that a decidedly satirical and humorous vein runs through the whole tale. Moreover, I doubt that “li-ahad” could be used as equivalent for “li-ghayri,” “to some other than myself,” while it frequently occurs in the emphatic sense of “one who is somebody, a person of consequence.” The damsel and her mother, on the other hand, allude repeatedly to the state of utter helplessness in which they find themselves in default of their natural protector, and which has reduced them from an exalted station to the condition of nobodies. I speak, of course, here as elsewhere, “under correction.”–ST.]

[FN#163] In text “Hmsh.” The Dicts. give Himmas and Himmis, forms never heard, and Forsk. (Flora AEgypt.-Arab. p. lxxi.) “Homos,” also unknown. The vulg. pron. is, “Hummus” or as Lane (M.E. chapt. v.) has it “Hommus” (chick-peas). The word applies to the pea, while “Malan” is the plant in pod. It is the cicer arietinum concerning which a classical tale is told. “Cicero (pron. Kikero) was a poor scholar in the University of Athens, wherewith his enemies in Rome used to reproach him, and as he passed through the streets would call out ‘O Cicer, Cicer, O,’ a word still used in Cambridge, and answers to a Servitor in Oxford.” Quaint this approximation between “Cicer” the vetch and “Sizar” which comes from “size” = rations, the Oxford “battel.”

[FN#164] Arab. “Yulakkimu,” from “Lukmah” = a mouthful: see vols. i. 266; vii. 367.

[FN#165] Arab. “Jarazat Kuzban” (plur. or “Kazib,” see vol. ii. 66) = long and slender sticks.

[FN#166] i.e. a witch; see vol. viii. 131.

[FN#167] So in the phrase “Otbah hath the colic,” first said concerning Otbah b. Rabi’a by Abu Jahl when the former advised not marching upon Badr to attack Mohammed. Tabari, vol. ii. 491.

[FN#168] Compare the French “Brr!”

[FN#169] i.e. to whom thou owest a debt of apology or excuse, “Gharim” = debtor or creditor.

[FN#170] Arab. “Jurab al-‘uddah,” i.e. the manacles, fetters, etc.

[FN#171] The following three sentences are taken from the margin of (MS.) p. 257, and evidently belong to this place.

[FN#172] In text “Bghb” evidently for “Baght” or preferably “Baghtatan.”

[FN#173] This is a twice-told tale whose telling I have lightened a little without omitting any important detail. Gauttier reduces the ending of the history to less than five pages.

[FN#174] The normal idiom for “I accept.”

[FN#175] In text Khila’t dakk al-Matrakah,” which I have rendered literally: it seems to signify an especial kind of brocade.

[FN#176] The Court of Baghdad was, like the Urdu (Horde or Court) of the “Grand Mogul,” organised after the ordinance of an army in the field, with its centre, the Sovran, and two wings right and left, each with its own Wazir for Commander, and its vanguard and rearguard.

[FN#177] Being the only son he had a voice in the disposal of his sister. The mother was the Kabirah = head of the household, in Marocco Al-Sidah = Madame mere; but she could not interfere single-handed in affairs concerning the family. See Pilgrimage, vol. iii. 198. Throughout Al-Islam in default of a father the eldest brother gives away the sisters, and if there be no brother this is done by the nearest male relation on the “sword” side. The mother has no authority in such matters nor indeed has anyone on the “spindle” side.

[FN#178] Alluding to the Wali and his men.

[FN#179] Arab. “Kunyah” (the pop. mispronunciation of “Kinyah”) is not used here with strict correctness. It is a fore-name or bye-name generally taken from the favourite son, Abu (father of) being prefixed. When names are written in full it begins the string, e.g., Abu Mohammed (fore-name), Kasim (true name), ibn Ali (father’s name), ibn Mohammed (grandfather’s), ibn Osman (great-grandfather), Al-Hariri (= the Silkman from the craft of the family), Al-Basri (of Bassorah). There is also the “Lakab” (sobriquet), e.g. Al-Bundukani or Badi’u’l-Zaman (Rarity of the Age), which may be placed either before or after the “Kunyah” when the latter is used alone. Chenery (Al-Hariri, p.315) confines the “Kunyah” to fore-names beginning with Abu; but it also applies to those formed with Umm (mother), Ibn (son), Bint (daughter), Akh (brother) and Ukht (sister). See vol. iv. 287. It is considered friendly and graceful to address a Moslem by this bye-name.
-Gaudent praenomine molles Auriculae.

[FN#180] In text “Ya Kawaki,” which M. Houdas translates “O piailleur,” remarking that here it would be = poule mouillee.

[FN#181] “‘Alakah kharijah” = an extraordinary drubbing.

[FN#182] In text “Ij’alni fi kll,” the latter word being probably, as M. Houdas suggests, a clerical error for “Kal-a” or “Kilaa” = safety, protection.

[FN#183] I am surprised that so learned and practical an Arabist as the Baron de Slane in his Fr. translation of Ibn Khaldun should render le surnom d’Er-Rechid (le prudent), for “The Rightly Directed,” the Orthodox (vol. ii. 237), when (ibid. p. 259) he properly translates “Al-Khulafa al-rashidin” by Les Califes qui marchent dans la voie droite.

[FN#184] MSS. pp. 476-504. This tale is laid down on the same lines as “Abu al-Husn and his Slave-girl Tawaddud,” vol. vi. 189. It is carefully avoided by Scott, C. de Perceval, Gauttier, etc.

[FN#185] Lit. an interpreter woman; the word is the fem. of Tarjuman, a dragoman whom Mr. Curtis calls a Drag o’ men; see vol. i. 100. It has changed wonderfully on its way from its “Semitic” home to Europe which has naturalised it as Drogman, Truchman and Dolmetsch.

[FN#186] For this word of many senses, see vols. i. 231; ix. 221. M. Caussin de Perceval (viii. 16), quoting d’Herbelot (s.v.), notes that the Abbasides thus entitled the chief guardian of the Harem.

[FN#187] See vols. iv. 100; viii. 268. In his Introduction (p. 22) to the Assemblies of Al-Hariri Chenery says, “This prosperity had now passed away, for God had brought the people of Rum (so the Arabs call the Byzantines, whom Abu Zayd here confounds with the Franks) on the land,” etc. The confusion is not Abu Zayd’s: “Rumi” in Marocco and other archaic parts of the Moslem world is still synonymous with our “European.”

[FN#188] This obedience to children is common in Eastern folk-lore: see Suppl. vol. i. 143, in which the royal father orders his son to sell him. The underlying idea is that the parents find their offspring too clever for them; not, as in the “New World,” that Youth is entitled to take precedence and command of Age.

[FN#189] In text “Fa min tumma” for “thumma”–then, alors.

[FN#190] Such as the headstall and hobbles the cords and chains for binding captives, and the mace and sword hanging to the saddle-bow.

[FN#191] i.e. not a well-known or distinguished horseman, but a chance rider.

[FN#192] These “letters of Mutalammis,” as Arabs term our Litterae Bellerophonteae, or “Uriah’s letters,” are a lieu commun in the East and the Prince was in luck when he opened and read the epistle here given by mistake to the wrong man. Mutalammis, a poet of The Ignorance, had this sobriquet (the “frequent asker,” or, as we should say, the Solicitor-General), his name being Jarir bin ‘Abd al-Masih. He was uncle to Tarafah of the Mu’-allakah or prize poem, a type of the witty dissolute bard of the jovial period before Al-Islam arose to cloud and dull man’s life. One day as he was playing with other children Mutalammis was reciting a panegyric upon his favourite camel, which ran:–

I mount a he-camel, dark-red and firm-fleshed; or a she-camel of Himyar, fleet of foot and driving the pebbles with her crushing hooves.

“See the he-camel turned to a she,” cried the boy, and the phrase became proverbial to express inelegant transition (Arab. Prov. ii. 246). The uncle bade his nephew put out his tongue and seeing it dark-coloured said, “That black tongue will be thy ruin!” Tarafah, who was presently entitled Ibn al-‘Ishrin (the son of twenty years), grew up a model reprobate who cared nothing save for three things, “to drink the dark-red wine foaming as the water mixeth with it, to urge into the fight a broad-backed steed, and to while away the dull day with a young beauty.” His apology for wilful waste is highly poetic:–

I see that the grave of the careful, the hoarder, differeth not from the grave of the debauched, the spendthrift: A hillock of earth covers this and that, with a few flat stones laid together thereon.

See the whole piece in Chenery’s Al-Hariri (p. 360), from which this note is borrowed. At last uncle and nephew fled from ruin to the Court of ‘Amru bin Munzir III., King of Hira, who in the tale of Al-Mutalammis and his wife Umaymah (The Nights, vol. v. 74) is called Al-Nu’uman bin Munzir but is better known as ‘Amru bin Hind (his mother). The King, who was a derocious personage nicknamed Al-Muharrik or the Burner, because he had thrown into the fire ninety-nine men and one woman of the Tamim tribe in accordance with a vow of vengeance he had taken to slaughter a full century, made the two strangers boon-companions to his boorish brother Kabus. Tarafah, offended because kept at the tent-door whilst the master drank wine within, bitterly lampooned him together with ‘Abd Amru a friend of the King; and when this was reported his death was determined upon. Amru, the King, seeing the anxiety of the two poets to quit his Court, offered them letters of introduction to Abu Karib, Governor of Al-Hajar (Bahrayn) under the Persian King and they were accepted. The uncle caused his letter to be read by a youth, and finding that it was an order for his execution destroyed it and fled to Syria; but the nephew was buried alive. Amru, the King, was afterwards slain by the poet-warrior, Amru bin Kulthum, also of the “Mu’allakat,” for an insult offered to his mother by Hind: hence the proverb, “Quicker to slay than ‘Amru bin Kulsum” (A.P. ii. 233).

[FN#193] See vols. i. 192; iii. 14; these correspond with the “Stathmoi,” Stationes, Mansiones or Castra of Herodotus, Terps. cap. 53, and Xenophon. An. i. 2, 10.

[FN#194] In text “Ittika” viiith of waka: the form “Takwa” is generally used = fearing God, whereby one guards oneself from sin in this life and from retribution in the world to come.

[FN#195] This series of puzzling questions and clever replies is still as favourite a mental exercise in the East as it was in middle-aged Europe. The riddle or conundrum began, as far as we know, with the Sphinx, through whose mouth the Greeks spoke: nothing less likely than that the grave and mysterious Scribes of Egypt should ascribe aught so puerile to the awful emblem of royal majesty–Abu Haul, the Father of Affright. Josephus relates how Solomon propounded enigmas to Hiram of Tyre which none but Abdimus, son of the captive Abdaemon, could answer. The Tale of Tawaddud offers fair specimens of such exercises, which were not disdained by the most learned of Arabian writers. See Al-Hariri’s Ass. xxiv, which proposes twelve enigmas involving abstruse and technical points of Arabic, such as: “What be the word, which as ye will is a particle beloved, or the name of that which compriseth the slender-waisted milch camel!” Na’am = “Yes” or “cattle,” the latter word containing the Harf, or slender camel. Chenery, p. 246.

[FN#196] For the sundry meanings and significance of “Salam,” here=Heaven’s blessing, see vols. ii. 24, vi. 232.

[FN#197] This is the nursery version of the Exodus, old as Josephus and St. Jerome, and completely changed by the light of modern learning. The Children of Israel quitted their homes about Memphis (as if a large horde of half-nomadic shepherds would be suffered in the richest and most crowded home of Egypt). They marched by the Wady Musa that debouches upon the Gulf of Suez a short way below the port now temporarily ruined by its own folly and the ill-will of M. de Lesseps; and they made the “Sea of Sedge” (Suez Gulf) through the valley bounded by what is still called Jabal ‘Atakah, the Mountain of Deliverance, and its parallel range, Abu Durayj (of small steps). Here the waters were opened and the host passed over to the “Wells of Moses,” erstwhile a popular picnic place on the Arabian side; but according to one local legend (for which see my Pilgrimage, i. 294-97) they crossed the sea north of Tur, the spot being still called “Birkat Far’aun”=Pharoah’s Pool. Such also is the modern legend amongst the Arabs, who learned their lesson from the Christians (not the Jews) in the days when the Copts and the Greeks (ivth century) invented “Mount Sinai.” And the reader will do well to remember that the native annalists of Ancient Egypt, which conscientiously relate all her defeats and subjugations by the Ethiopians, Persians, etc., utterly ignore the very name of Hebrew, Sons of Israel, etc.

I cannot conceal my astonishment at finding a specialist journal like the “Quarterly Statement of the Palestine Exploration Fund” (Oct., 1887) admitting such a paper as that entitled “The Exode,” by R. F. Hutchinson, M.D. For this writer the labours of the last half-century are non-existing. Job is still the “oldest book” in the world. The Rev. Charles Forster’s absurdity, “Israel in the wilderness,” gives valuable assistance. Goshen is Mr. Chester’s Tell Fakus (not, however, far wrong in this) instead of the long depression by the Copts still called “Gesem” or “Gesemeh,” the frontier-land through which the middle course of the Suez Canal runs. “Succoth,” tabernacles, is confounded with the Arab. “Sakf” = a roof. Letopolis, the “key of the Exode,” and identified with the site where Babylon (Old Cairo) was afterwards built, is placed on the right instead of the left bank of the Nile. “Bahr Kulzum” is the “Sea of the Swallowing-up,” in lieu of The Closing. El-Tih, “the wandering,” is identified with Wady Musa to the west of the Suez Gulf. And so forth. What could the able Editor have been doing?

Students of this still disputed question will consult “The Shrine of Saft el-Henneh and the Land of Goschen,” by Edouard Naville, fifth Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund. Published by order of the Committee. London, Trubner, 1837.

[FN#198] Eastern fable runs wild upon this subject, and indeed a larger volume could be written upon the birth, life and death of Moses’ and Aaron’s rods. There is a host of legends concerning the place where the former was cut and whence it descended to the Prophet whose shepherd’s staff was the glorification of his pastoral life (the rod being its symbol) and of his future career as a ruler (and flogger) of men. In Exodus (viii. 3-10), when a miracle was required of the brothers, Aaron’s rod became a “serpent” (A.V.) or, as some prefer, a “crocodile,” an animal worshipped by certain of the Egyptians; and when the King’s magicians followed suit it swallowed up all others. Its next exploit was to turn the Nile and other waters of Egypt into blood (Exod. vii. 17). The third wonder was worked by Moses’ staff, the dividing of the Red Sea (read the Sea of Sedge or papyrus, which could never have grown in the brine of the Suez Gulf) according to the command, “Lift thou up thy rod and stretch out thine hand over the sea,” etc. (Exod. xiv. 15). The fourth adventure was when the rod, wherewith Moses smote the river, struck two blows on the rock in Horeb and caused water to come out of it (Numb. xxi. 8). Lastly the rod (this time again Aaron’s) “budded and brought forth buds and bloomed blossoms and yielded almonds” (Numb. xvii. 7); thus becoming a testimony against the rebels: hence it was set in the Holiest of the Tabernacles (Heb. ix. 14) as a lasting memorial. I have described (Pilgrim. i. 301) the mark of Moses’ rod at the little Hammam behind the old Phoenician colony of Tur, in the miscalled “Sinaitic” Peninsula: it is large enough to act mainmast for a ship. The end of the rod or rods is unknown: it died when its work was done, and like many other things, holy and unholy, which would be priceless, e.g., the true Cross or Pilate’s sword, it remains only as a memory around which a host of grotesque superstitions have grouped themselves.

[FN#199] In this word “Hayy” the Arab. and Heb. have the advantage of our English: it means either serpent or living, alive.

[FN#200] It is nowhere said in Hebrew Holy Writ that “Pharaoh,” whoever he may have been, was drowned in the “Red Sea.”

[FN#201] Arab. “Kaml.” The Koranic legend of the Ant has, I repeat, been charmingly commented upon by Edwin Arnold in “Solomon and the Ant” (p.i., Pearls of the Faith). It seems to be a Talmudic exaggeration of the implied praise in Prov. vi. 6 and xxx. 25, “The ants are a people nto strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer” which, by the by, proves that the Wise King could be caught tripping in his natural history, and that they did not know everything down in Judee.

[FN#202] Isa, according to the Moslems, was so far like Adam (Koran iii. 52) that he was not begotten in the normal way: in fact his was a miraculous conception. See vol. v. 238.

[FN#203] For Elias, Elijah, or Khizr, a marvellous legendary figure, see vols. iv. 175; v. 334. The worship of Helios (Apollo) is not extinct in mod. Greece where it survives under the name of Elias. So Dionysus has become St. Dionysius; Bacchus the Drunken, St. George; and Artemis, St. Artemides the healer of childhood.

[FN#204] Gesenius interprets it “Soldier of God”; the bye-name given to Jacob presently became the national name of the Twelve Tribes collectively; then it narrowed to the tribe of Judah; afterwards it became = laymen as opposed to Levites, etc., and in these days it is a polite synonym for Jew. When you want anything from any of the (self-) Chosen People you speak of him as an Israelite; when he wants anything of you, you call him a Jew, or a damned Jew, as the case may be.

[FN#205] I am not aware that there is any general history of the bell, beginning with the rattle, the gong and other primitive forms of the article; but the subject seems worthy of a monograph. In Hebrew Writ the bell first appears in Exod. xxviii. 33 as a fringe to the Ephod of the High Priest that its tinkling might save him from intruding unwarned into the bodily presence of the tribal God, Jehovah.

[FN#206] Gennesaret (Chinnereth, Cinneroth), where, according to some Moslems, the Solomon was buried.

[FN#207] I cannot explain this legend.

[FN#208] So the old English rhyme, produced for quite another purpose by Sir John Bull in “Wat Tyler’s Rebellion” (Hume, Hist. of Eng., vol. i. chapt. 17):–

“When Adam dolve and Eve span,
Who was then the gentleman?”

A variant occurs in a MS. of the xvth century, Brit. Museum:–

“Now bethink the gentleman,
How Adam dalf and Eve span.”

And the German form is:–

“So Adam reutte (reute) and Eva span Wwer was da ein Eddelman (Edelman)?”

[FN#209] Plur. of “‘Usfur” = a bird, a sparrow. The etymology is characteristically Oriental and Mediaeval, reminding us of Dan Chaucer’s meaning of Cecilia “Heaven’s lily” (Susan) or “Way for the blind” (Caecus) or “Thoughts of Holiness” and lia=lasting industry; or, “Heaven and Leos” (people), so that she might be named the people’s heaven (The SEcond Nonne’s Tale).

[FN#210] i.e. “Fir is rebellious.”

[FN#211] Both of which, I may note, are not things but states, modes or conditions of things. See. vol. ix. 78.

[FN#212] “Salat” = the formal ceremonious prayer. I have noticed (vol. iv. 60) the sundry technical meanings of the term Salat, from Allah=Mercy; from Angel-kind=intercession and pardon, and from mankind=a blessing.

[FN#213] Possibly “A prayer of Moses, the man of God,” the title of the highly apocryphal Psalm xc.

[FN#214] Arab. “Libas” = clothes in general.

[FN#215] In text “Zafar” = victory. It may also be “Zifr”=alluding to the horny matter which, according to Moslem tradition, covered the bodies of “our first parents” and of which after the “original sin” nothing remained but the nails of their fingers and toes. It was only when this disappeared that they became conscious of their nudity. So says M. Houdas; but I prefer to consider the word as Zafar=plaited hair.

[FN#216] According to Al-Mas’udi (i. 86, quoting Koran xxi. 52), Abraham had already received of Allah spiritual direction or divine grace (“Rushdu ‘llah” or “Al-Huda”) which made him sinless. In this opinoin of the Imamship, says my friend Prof. A. Sprenger, the historian is more fatalistic than most Sunnis.

[FN#217] Modern Moslems are all agreed in making Ishmael and not Issac the hero of this history: see my Pilgrimage (vol. iii. 306). But it was not always so. Al-Mas’udi (vol. ii. 146) quotes the lines of a Persian poet in A.H. 290 (=A.D. 902) which expressly say “Is’haku kana’l-Zabih” = Isaac was the victim, and the historian refers to this in sundry places. Yet the general idea is that Ishmael succeeded his father (as eldest son) and was succeeded by Isaac; and hence the bitter family feud between the Eastern Jews and the ARab Gentiles.

[FN#218] In text “Tajui”=lit. thou pluckest (the fruit of good deeds). M. Houdas translates Tu recueilles, mot a mot tu citeilles.

[FN#219] See note at the end of this tale.

[FN#220] Amongst the Jews the Temple of Jerusalem was a facsimile of the original built by Jehovah in the lowest heaven or that of the Moon. For the same idea (doubtless a derivation from the Talmud) amongst the Moslems concerning the heavenly Ka’abah called Bayt al-Ma’mur (the Populated House) see my Pilgrimage iii. 186, et seq.

[FN#221] i.e. there is an end of the matter.

[FN#222] In text “Massa-hu’l Fakr”=poverty touched him.

[FN#223] He had sold his father for a horse, etc., and his mother for a fine dress.

[FN#224] This enigma is in the style of Samson’s (Judges xiv. 12) of which we complain that the unfortuante Philistines did not possess the sole clue which could lead to the solution; and here anyone with a modicum of common sense would have answered, “Thou art the man!” The riddles with which the Queen of Sheba visited Solomon must have been simply hard questions somewhat like those in the text; and the relator wisely refuses to record them.

[FN#225] We should say “To eclipse the sun.”

[FN#226] A very intelligible offer.

[FN#227] Arab. “Bi Asri-hi,” lit. “rope and all;” metaphorically used=altogether, entirely: the idea is borrowed from the giving or selling of a beast with its thong, halter, chain, etc.

[FN#228] In the text, “Kahin,” a Cohen, a Jewish Priest, a soothsayer: see Al-Kahanah, vol. i. 28. In Heb. Kahana=he ministered (priests’ offices or other business) and Cohen=a priest either of the true God or of false gods.

[FN#229] This ending with its resume of contents is somewhat hors ligne, yet despite its vain repetition I think it advisable to translate it.

[FN#230] “And she called his name Moses, and she said because from the water I drew him” (Exod. ii. 10).

[FN#231] The Pharoah of the Exodus is popularly supposed by Moslems to have treated his leprosy with baths of babes’ blood, the babes being of the Banu Israil. The word “Pharoah” is not without its etymological difficulties.

[FN#232] Graetz (Geschichte i. note 7) proves that “Aram,” in the Hebrew text (Judges iii. 8), should be “Edom.”

[FN#233] I give a quadruple increase, at least 25 per centum more than the genealogies warrant.

[FN#234] MS. pp. 505-537. This story is found in the “Turkish Tales” by Petis de la Croix who translated one fourth of the “Forty Wazirs” by an author self-termed “Shaykh Zadeh.” It is called the “History of Chec Chahabeddin” (Shaykh Shihab al-Din), and it has a religious significance proving that the Apostle did really and personally make the “Mi’raj” (ascent to Heaven) and returned whilst his couch was still warm and his upset gugglet had not run dry. The tale is probably borrowed from Saint Paul, who (2 Cor. xii. 4) was “caught up into Paradise,” which in those days was a kind of region that roofed the earth. The Shaykh in question began by showing the Voltairean Sultan of Egypt certain specious miracles, such as a phantom army (in our tale two lions), Cairo reduced to ashes, the Nile in flood and a Garden of Irem, where before lay a desert. He then called for a tub, stripped the King to a zone girding his loins and made him dip his head into the water. Then came the adventures as in the following tale. When after a moment’s space these ended, the infuriated Sultan gave orders to behead the Shaykh, who also plunged his head into the tub; but the Wizard divined the ill-intent by “Mukashafah” (thought-reading); and by “Al-Ghayb ‘an al-Absar” (invisibility) levanted to Damascus. The reader will do well to compare the older account with the “First Vizir’s Story” (p. 17) in Mr. Gibb’s “History of the Forty Vizirs,” etc. As this scholar remarks, the Mi’raj, with all its wealth of wild fable, is simply alluded to in a detached verses of the Koran (xvii. 1) which runs: [I declare] “The glory of Him who transported His servant by night from the Sacred Temple (of Meccah) to the Remote Temple (of Jerusalem), whose precincts we have blessed, that we might show him of our signs.” After this comes an allusion to Moses (v. 2); Mr. Gibb observes (p. 22) that this lengthening out of the seconds was a favourite with “Dervishes,” as he has shown in “The Story of Jewad ,” and suggests that the effect might have been produced by some drug like Hashish. I object to Mr. Gibb’s use of the word “Hour)” (ibid. p. 24) without warning the reader that it is an irregular formation, masculine withal for “Huriyah,” and that the Pers. “Huri,” from which the Turks borrowed their blunder, properly means “One Hur.”

[FN#235] For the Dajlah (Tigris) and Furat (Euphrates) see vols. viii. 150- ix. 17. The topothesia is worse than Shakespearean. In Weber’s Edit. of the “New Arabian Nights” (Adventures of Simoustapha, etc.), the rivers are called “Ilfara” and “Aggiala.”

[FN#236] In text “Alwan,” for which see vol. vii. 135.

[FN#237] [The word which is here translated with: “and one had said that he had laboured hard thereat (walawa’yh?) seems scarcely to bear out this meaning. I would read it “wa’l-Aw’iyah” (plur. of wi’a), rendering accordingly: “and the vessels (in which the aforesaid meats were set out) shimmered like unto silver for their cleanliness.”–ST.]

[FN#238] In text “Al-Wahwah.”

[FN#239] In text, “Mutasa’lik” for “Moutasa’lik” = like a “sa’luk.”

[FN#240] For this “high-spirited Prince and noble-minded lord” see vol. ix. 229.

[FN#241] In text “Bisata-hum” = their carpets.

[FN#242] In text “Hawanit,” plur. of “Hanut” = the shop or vault of a vintner, pop. derived from the Persian Khaneh. In Jer. xxvii. 16, where the A. V. has “When Jeremiah was entered into the dungeon and into the cabins,” read “underground vaults,” cells or cellars where wine was sold. “Hanut” also means either the vintner or the vintner’s shop. The derivation because it ruins man’s property and wounds his honour is the jeu d’esprit of a moralising grammarian. Chenery’s Al-Hariri, p. 377.

[FN#243] In the Arab. “Jawakin,” plur. of Arab. Jaukan for Pers. Chaugan, a crooked stick a club, a bat used for the Persian form of golf played on horseback–Polo.

[FN#244] [The text reads “Liyah,” and lower down twice with the article “Al-Liyah” (double Lam). I therefore suspect that “Liyyah,” equivalent with “Luwwah,” is intended which both mean Aloes-wood as used for fumigation (yutabakhkharu bi-hi). For the next ingredient I would read “Kit’ah humrah,” a small quantity of red brickdust, a commodity to which, I do not know with what foundation, wonderful medicinal powers are or were ascribed. This interpretation seems to me the more preferable, as it presently appears that the last-named articles had to go into the phial, the mention of which would otherwise be to no purpose and which I take to have been finally sealed up with the sealing clay. The whole description is exceedingly loose, and evidently sorely corrupted, so I think every attempt at elucidation may be acceptable.–ST.]

[FN#245] “Wa Kita’h hamrah,” which M. Houdas renders un morceau de viande cuite.

[FN#246] This is a specimen of the Islamised Mantra called in Sanskrit Stambhana and intended to procure illicit intercourse. Herklots has printed a variety of formulae which are popular throughout southern India: even in the Maldive Islands we find such “Fandita” (i.e. Panditya, the learned Science) and Mr. Bell (Journ., Ceylon Br. R. A. S. vii. 109) gives the following specimen, “Write the name of the beloved; pluck a bud of the screw-pine (here a palette de mouton), sharpen a new knife, on one side of the bud write the Surat al-Badr (chapter of Power, No. xxi., thus using the word of Allah for Satan’s purpose); on the other side write Vajahata; make an image out of the bud; indite particulars of the horoscope copy from beginning to end the Surat al-Rahman (the Compassionating, No. xlviii.);, tie the image in five places with coir left-hand-twisted (i.e. widdershins or ‘against the sun’); cut the throat of a blood-sucker (lizard); smear its blood on the image; place it in a loft, dry it for three days, then take it and enter the sea. If you go in knee deep the woman will send you a message; if you go in to the waist she will visit you.” (The Voyage of Francois Pyrard, etc., p. 179.) I hold all these charms to be mere instruments for concentrating and intensifying the brain action called Will, which is and which presently will be recognised as the chief motor-power. See Suppl. vol. iii.

[FN#247] Probably the name of some Prince of the Jinns.

[FN#248] In text “Kama zukira fi Dayli-h” = arrange-toi de facon a l’atteindre (Houdas).

[FN#249] Proverbial for its depth: Kashan is the name of sundry cities; here one in the Jibal or Irak ‘Ajami–Persian Mesopotamia.

[FN#250] Doubtless meaning Christians.

[FN#251] The Sage had summoned her by the preceding spell which the Princess obeyed involuntarily.

[FN#252] i.e., last night, see vol. iii. 249.

[FN#253] In text “Wuldan” = “Ghilman”: the boys of Paradise; for whom and their feminine counterparts the Hur (Al-Ayn) see vols. i. 90, 211; iii. 233.

[FN#254] Arab. “Dukhn” = Holcus dochna, a well-known grain, a congener of the Zurrah or Durrah = Holcus Sativus, Forsk. cxxiii. The incident is not new. In “Des blaue Licht,” a Mecklenburg tale given by Grimm, the King’s daughter who is borne through the air to the soldier’s room is told by her father to fill her pocket with peas and make a hole therein; but the sole result was that the pigeons had a rare feast. See Suppl. vol. iii. 375.

[FN#255] i.e., a martyr of love. See vols. iii. 211; i-iv. 205.

[FN#256] In the text “Ka’ka'”; hence the higher parts of Meccah, inhabited by the Jurham tribe, was called “Jabal Ka’ka’an,” from their clashing arms (Pilgrimage iii. 191).

[FN#257] This was the work of the form of magic popularly known as Simiya = fascination, for which see vol. i. 305, 332. It is supposed to pass away after a period of three days, and mesmerists will find no difficulty in recognising a common effect upon “Odylic sensitives.”

[FN#258] Here supply the MS. with “illa.”

[FN#259] In text “tatadakhkhal’alay-h:” see “Dakhil-ak,” vol. i. 61.

[FN#260] Or “he”: the verb may also refer to the Sage.

[FN#261] Arab. “Kazafa” = threw up, etc.

[FN#262] This, in the case of the Wazir, was a transformation for the worse: see vol. vii. 294, for the different kinds of metamorphosis.

[FN#263] i.e. my high fortune ending in the lowest.

[FN#264] In text “Bakar” = black cattle, whether bull, ox or cow. For ploughing with bulls.

[FN#265] In text “Mukrif” = lit. born of a slave father and free mother.

[FN#266] In text “Antum fi khashin wa bash,” an error for “khash-mash” = a miserable condition.

[FN#267] In text “yatbashsh” for “yanbashsha.” [Or it may stand for yabtashsh, with transpositions of the “t” of the eighth form, as usual in Egypt. See Spitta-Bey’s Grammar, p. 198.– ST.]

[FN#268] “Jananan,” which, says M. Houdas, is the vulgar form of “Jannatan” = the garden (of Paradise). The Wazir thus played a trick upon his hearers. [The word in the text may read “Jinanan,” accusative of “Jinan,” which is the broken plural of “Jannah,” along with the regular plural “Jannat,” and, like the latter, used for the gardens of Paradise.–ST.]

[FN#269] For this name of the capital of Eastern Arabia see vols. i. 33, vii. 24.

[FN#270] “To be” is the Anglo-Oriental form of “Thaub” = in Arabia a loose robe like a nightgown. See ii. 206.

[FN#271] The good old Mosaic theory of retribution confined to this life, and the belief that Fate is the fruit of man’s action.

[FN#272] Arab. “Sandarusah” = red juniper gum (Thuja articulata of Barbary), red arsenic realgar, from the Pers. Sandar = amber.

[FN#273] MSS. pp. 718-724. This fable, whose moral is that the biter is often bit, seems unknown to AEsop and the compilation which bore his name during the so-called Dark Ages. It first occurs in the old French metrical Roman de Renart entitled, Si comme Renart prist Chanticler le Coq (ea. Meon, tom. i. 49). It is then found in the collection of fables by Marie, a French poetess whose Lais are still extant; and she declares to have rendered it de l’Anglois en Roman; the original being an Anglo- Saxon version of AEsop by a King whose name is variously written Li reis Alured (Alfred ?), or Aunert (Albert ?), or Henris, or Mires. Although Alfred left no version of AEsop there is in MS. a Latin AEsop containing the same story of an English version by Rex Angliae Affrus. Marie’s fable is printed in extenso in the Chaucer of Dr. Morris (i. 247); London, Bell and Sons, 1880; and sundry lines remind us of the Arabic, e.g.:–

Li gupil volt parler en haut,
Et li cocs de sa buche saut,
Sur un haut fust s’est muntez.

And it ends with the excellent moral:–

Ceo funt li fol tut le plusur,
Parolent quant deivent taiser, Teisent quant il deivent parler.

Lastly the Gentil Cok hight Chanticlere and the Fox, Dan Russel, a more accidented tale, appears in “The Nonne Preestes Tale,” by the Grand Traducteur.

[FN#274] “Dura” in MS. (p. 718) for “Zura,” the classical term, or for “Zurrah,” pop. pronounced “Durrah”=the Holcus Sativus before noticed, an African as well as Asiatic growth, now being supplanted by maize and rice.

[FN#275] “Sa’alab” or “Tha’lab”: vol. iii. 132.

[FN#276] In text “Kikan,” plur. of “Kiik” =des corneilles (Houdas).

[FN#277] “Samman” or “Summan,” classically “Salwa.”

[FN#278] In text “Al-Kawani”=the spears, plur. of “Kanat.” [“Al- Kawani” as plural of a singular “Kanat”=spear would be, I think, without analogy amongst the plural formations, and its translation by “punishment” appears somewhat strained. I propose to read “al-Ghawani” and to translate “and whoever lags behind of the singing birds will not be safe” (“la yaslimu,” it will not go well with him). In the mouth of the fox this implies a delicate compliment for the cock, who might feel flattered to be numbered amongst the same tribe with the nightingale and the thrush.–ST.]

[FN#279] In text “ya zayn” =Oh, the beautiful beast!

[FN#280] In text “Abu Sahih”=(flight to) a sure and safe place.

[FN#281] MS. pp. 725-739.

[FN#282] Arab. “Zabit,” from “Zabt”=keeping in subjection, holding tight, tying. Hence “Zabtiyah” = a constable and “Zabit” = a Prefect of Police. See vol. i. 259. The rhyming words are “Rabit” and “Habit.”

[FN#283] In text “Rahib” = monk or lion.

[FN#284] The lines are wholly corrupt.

[FN#285] The “Bahalul” of D’Herbelot. This worthy was a half-witted Sage (like the Iourodivi of Russia and the Irish Omadhaun), who occupies his own place in contemporary histories flourished under Harun al-Rashid and still is famous in Persian Story. When the Caliph married him perforce and all the ceremonies were duly performed and he was bedded with the bride, he applied his ear to her privities and forthwith ran away with the utmost speed and alarm. They brought him back and questioned him concerning his conduct when he made answer, ” If you had only heard what it said to me you would have done likewise.” In the text his conduct is selfish and ignoble as that of Honorius

“Who strove to merit heaven by making earth a hell.”

And he shows himself heartless and unhuman as the wretched St. Alexius of the Gesta Romanorum (Tale xv.), a warning of the intense selfishness solemnly and logically inculcated by Christianity. See vol. v. 150.

[FN#286] Koran, ch. li. v. 17.

[FN#287] Koran xx. 57: it is the famous “Ta-Ha” whose first 14-16 verses are said to have converted the hard-headed Omar. In the text the citation is garbled and imperfect.

[FN#288] In text “Mas’h.”

[FN#289] “Hisaban tawil” = a long punishment.

[FN#290] The rod of Moses (see pp. 76-77) is the great prototype in Al-Islam of the staff or walking stick, hence it became a common symbol of dignity and it also served to administer ready chastisement, e.g. in the hands of austere Caliph Omar.

[FN#291] An onomatopy like “Couic, Couic.” For “Maksah,” read “Fa-saha” = and cried out.

[FN#292] “Zindik” = Atheist, Agnostic: see vols. v. 230; viii. 27.

[FN#293] “Harisah” = meat-pudding. In Al-Hariri (Ass. xix.) where he enumerates the several kinds of dishes with their metonomies it is called the “Mother of Strengthening” (or Restoration) because it contains wheat–“the Strengthener” (as opposed to barley and holcus). So the “Mother of Hospitality” is the Sikbaj, the Persian Sikba, so entitled because it is the principal dish set before guests and was held to be royal food. (Chenery pp. 218, 457.) For the latter see infra.

[FN#294] This passage in the MS. (p. 733) is apparently corrupt. I have done my best to make sense of it.

[FN#295] In text ” Kamburisiyah.”

[FN#296] In the Dicts. a plant with acid flavour, dried, pounded and peppered over meat.

[FN#297] In text “Najas” = a pear.

[FN#298] “Tutmajiyah” for “Tutmaj.”

[FN#299] “Sikbaj,” a marinated stew like “Zirbajah” (vol. iii. 278): Khusrau Parwez, according to the historians, was the first for whom it was cooked and none ate of it without his permission. See retro.

[FN#300] Kishk=ground wheat, oatmeal or barley-flour eaten with soured sheep’s milk and often with meat.

[FN#301] So in text: I suspect for “‘Ajinniyah” = a dish of dough.

[FN#302] The Golden Calf is alluded to in many Koranic passages, e.g. Surah ii. (the Cow) 48; vii. (Al-Aaraf) 146; S. Iiv. (Woman) 152; but especially in S. xx. (Ta Ha) 90, where Samiri is expressly mentioned. Most Christian commentators translate this by “Samaritan” and unjustly note it as ” a grievous ignorance of history on the part of Mohammed.” But the word is mysterious and not explained. R. Jehuda (followed by Geiger) says upon the text (Exod. xxxii. 24), “The calf came forth lowing and the Israelites beheld it”; also that “Samael entered into it and lowed in order to mislead Israel” (Pirke R. Eliezer, 45). Many Moslems identify Samiri with Micha (Judges xvii.), who is said to have assisted in making the calf (Raschi, Sanhedr. cii. 2; Hottinger, Hist. Orient. p. 84). Selden (de Diis Syr. Syn. 1. cap.4) supposes that Samiri is Aaron himself, the Shomeer or keeper of Israel during the absence of Moses. Mr. Rodwell (Koran, 2nd Edit. p. 90) who cleaves to the ” Samaritan” theory, writes, ” It is probable (?) that the name and its application, in the present instance, is to be traced to the old national feud between the Jews and the Samaritans”–of which Mohammed, living amongst the Jews, would be at least as well informed as any modern European. He quotes De Sacy (Chrest. i. 189) who states that Abu Rayhan Mohammed Biruni represents the Samaritans as being nicknamed (not Al-limsahsit as Mr. Rodwell has it, but) “La Mesas” or “La Mesasiyah” = the people who say “no touch” (i.e. touch me not, from Surah xx. 97), and Juynboll, Chron. Sam. p. 113 (Leid. 1848). Josephus (Ant. xii. cap. 1) also mentions a colony of Samaritans settled in Egypt by Ptolemy Lagus, some of whose descendants inhabited Cairo as late as temp. Scaliger (De Emend. Temp. vii. 622). Sale notices a similar survival on one of the islands of the Red Sea. In these days the Samaritans or, as their enemies call them the Cuthim (“men from Cutha,” Cushites), in physical semblance typical Jews, are found only at Nablus where the colony has been reduced by intermarriage of cousins and the consequent greater number of male births to about 120 souls. They are, like the Shi’ah Moslems, careful to guard against ceremonial pollution: hence the epithet “Noli me tangere.”

[FN#303] Alluding to the “Sayyad,” lit. = a fisherman.

[FN#304] In text “Al-Zahr.”

[FN#305] “Ajdar.”

[FN#306] In text “Al-Malaya.”

[FN#307] In text “Sinaubar,” which may also mean pistachio-tree.

[FN#308] i.e. 475 to 478 Eng. grains avoir., less than the Ukiyyah or Wukiyyah=ounce = 571.5 to 576 grains. Vol. ix. 216.

[FN#309] Not more absurd than an operatic hero singing while he dies.

[FN#310] MS. pp. 588-627. In Gauttier’s edit. vii. (234-256), it appears as Histoire de l’Habitant de Damas. His advertisement in the beginning of vol. vii. tells us that it has been printed in previous edits., but greatly improved in his; however that may be, the performance is below contempt. In Heron it becomes The POWER OF DESTINY, or Story of the Journey of Giafar to Damascus, comprehending the adventures of Chebib and his Family (Vol. i. Pp. 69-175).

[FN#311] Damascus-city (for which see the tale of Nur al-Din Ali and his Son, The Nights, vol. i. 239-240) derives its name from Dimishk who was son of Batir, i. Malik, i. Arphaxed, i. Sham, i. Nuh (Noah); or son of Nimrod, son of Canaan. Sham = Syria (and its capital) the land on the left, as opposed to Al-Yaman the land on the right of one looking East, is noticed in vol. i. 55. In Mr. Cotheal’s MS. Damascus is entitled “Sham” because it is the “Shamat” cheek-mole (beauty-spot) of Allah upon earth. “Jalak” the older name of the “Smile of the Prophet,” is also noted: see vol. ii. 109.

[FN#312] Hatim of the Tayy-tribe, proverbial for liberality. See vols. iv. 95, and vii. 350.

[FN#313] In Mr. Cotheal’s MS. the Caliph first laughs until he falls backwards, and then after reading further, weeps until his beard in bathed.

[FN#314] Heron inserts into his text, “It proved to be a Giaffer, famous throughout all Arabia,” and informs us (?) in a foot-note that it is “Ascribed to a prince of the Barmecide race, an ancestor of the Gran Vizier Giafar.” The word “Jafr” is supposed to mean a skin (camel’s or dog’s), prepared as parchment for writing; and Al-Jafr, the book here in question, is described as a cabalistic prognostication of all that will ever happen to the Moslems. The authorship is attributed to Ali, son-in-law of the Prophet. There are many legendary tales concerning its contents; however, all are mere inventions as the book is supposed to be kept in the Prophet’s family, nor will it be fully explained until the Mahdi or Forerunner of Doomsday shall interpret its difficulties. The vulgar Moslems of India are apt to confuse Al-Jafr with Ja’afar bin Tayyar, the Jinni who is often quoted in talismans (see Herklots, pp. 109-257). D’Herbelot gives the sum of what is generally known about the “Jafr” (wa Jami’a) under the articles “Ali” and “Gefru Giame.”

[FN#315] The father (whom Heron calls “Hichia Barmaki”) spoke not at random, but guessed that the Caliph had been reading the book Al-Jafr.

[FN#316] Heron calls Ja’afar’s wife “Fatme” from the French.

[FN#317] This is the open grassy space on the left bank of the Baradah River, first sighted by travellers coming from Bayrut. See vol. i. 234, where it is called Al-Hasa = the Plain of Pebbles.

[FN#318] Heron names him Chebib (Habib) also “Xakem Tai-Chebib” = Hatim Tayy Habib.

[FN#319] The scene is described at full length in the Cotheal MS. with much poetry sung by a fair slave-girl and others.

[FN#320] Again showing the date of the tale to be modern. See my Terminal Essay, p. 85.

[FN#321] This might serve even in these days to ask a worshipful guest why he came, and what was his business–it is the address of a well-bred man to a stranger of whose rank and station he is ignorant. The vulgar would simply say, “Who art thou, and what is thy native country?”

[FN#322] In Heron the host learns everything by the book Al-Jafr.

[FN#323] In text “Muzawwa” which the Egyptian pronounces “Mugawwaz.”

[FN#324] Which would be necessary after car. cop. with his women.

[FN#325] In text “Kabr al-Sitt,” wherein the Sitt Zaynab, aunt to Mohammed, is supposed to lie buried. Here the cultivation begins about half a mile’s ride from the Bab-al-Shaghur or S. Western gate of the city. It is mentioned by Baedeker (p. 439), and ignored by Murray, whose editor, Mr. Missionary Porter, prefers to administer the usual dainty dish of “hashed Bible.”

[FN#326] Arab. “Jami’ al-Amawi”: for this Mosque, one of the Wonders of the Moslem World, consult any Guide Book to Damascus. See Suppl. vol. iv. Night cccxlii. In Heron it becomes the “Giamah Illamoue,” one of the three most famous mosques in the world.

[FN#327] M. houdas trasnlates “Tarz,” “Markaz” or “Mirkaz” by Un pierrre en forme de dame, instrument qui sert a enfoncer les paves (= our “beetle”); c’est-a-dire en form de borne.

[FN#328] For this “window-gardening,” an ancient practice in the East, see vol. i. 301.

[FN#329] Heron calls her “Negemet-il-Souper” = Najmat al-Sabah = Constellation of Morn. In the Cotheal MS. she uses very harsh language to the stranger, “O Bull (i.e. O stupid), this be not thy house nor yet the house of thy sire,” etc.; “go forth to the curse of God and get thee to Hell,” etc.

[FN#330] For “Kayf” = joy, the pleasure of living, see my Pligrimage i. 12-13.

[FN#331] In text, “‘Ayyik,” or “‘Ayyuk” = a hinderer (of disease) from ‘Ayk or ‘Auk, whence also ‘Ayyuk = Capella, a bright star proverbial for its altitude, as in the Turk, saw “to give praise to the ‘Ayyuk” = skies.

[FN#332] Auspicious formulae. The Cotheal MS. calls the physician “Dubdihkan.”

[FN#333] In text “Kullu Shayyin li mu’as’as”; the latter from “‘As’as” = to complicate a matter.

[FN#334] A sign that he diagnosed a moral not a bodily disorder. We often find in The Nights, the doctor or the old woman distinguishing a love-fit by the pulse or similar obscure symptoms, as in the case of Seleucus, Stratonice and her step-son Antiochus–which seems to be the arch-type of these anecdotes.

[FN#335] Arab. “Kirsh,” before explained; in Harun’s day = 3 francs.

[FN#336] In the Cotheal MS. the recipe occupies a whole page of ludicrous items, e.g. Let him take three Miskals of pure “Union-with-the-lover,” etc.

[FN#337] In the Cotheal MS. Attaf seeks his paternal uncle and father-in-law with the information that he is going to the Pilgrimage and Visitation.

[FN#338] Called in the old translation or rather adaptation “Scheffander-Hassan” or simply “Scheffander” = Shahbandar Hasan, for which see vol. iv. 29. In the Cotheal MS. (p. 33) he becomes the “Emir Omar, and the Basha of Damascus” (p. 39).

[FN#339] The passage is exceedingly misspelt. “Amma min Mayli Binti-ka shashi Ana Aswadu (for Shashi M. Houdas reads “Jashi” = my heart) Wa Tana (read “Thana,” reputation) Binti-ka abyazu min Shashi.”

[FN#340] One of the formulae of divorce.

[FN#341] In text “Muabalar min Shaani-ka.” M. Houdas reads the first word “Muzabal” = zublan, wearied, flaccid, weak.

[FN#342] For “Al-‘iddah,” in the case of a divorcee three lunar months, for a widow four months and ten days and for a pregnant woman, the interval until her delivery, see vols. iii. 292; vi. 256; and x. 43: also Lane (M.E.) chap. iii.

[FN#343] In text “Alfi (4th form of ‘Lafw’) Hajatan,” the reading is that of M. Houdas; and the meaning would be “what dost thou want (in the way of amusement)? I am at thy disposal.”

[FN#344] Heron has here interpolated an adventure with a Bazar-cook and another with a Confectioner: both discover Ja’afar also by a copy of the “Giaffer” (Al-Jafr). These again are followed by an episode with a fisherman who draws in a miraculous draught by pronouncing the letters “Gim. Bi. Ouaow” (waw = J. B. W.), i.e. Ja’afar, Barmecide, Wazir; and discovers the Minister by a geomantic table. Then three Darvishes meet and discourse anent the virtues of “Chebib” (i.e. Attaf); and lastly come two blind men, the elder named Benphises, whose wife having studied occultism and the Dom-Daniel of Tunis, discovers Ja’afar. All this is to marshal the series of marvels and wonders upon wonders predicted to Ja’afar by his father when commanding him to visit Damascus; and I have neither space nor inclination to notice their enormous absurdities.

[FN#345] This Governor must not be confounded with the virtuous and parsimonious Caliph of the same name the tenth of the series (reign A.D. 692-705) who before ruling studied theology at Al-Medinah and won the sobriquet of “Mosque-pigeon.” After his accession he closed the Koran saying, “Here you and I part,” and busied himself wholly with mundane matters. The Cotheal MS. mentions only the “Nabob” (Naib = lieutenant) of Syria.

[FN#346] “Kapu” (written and pronounced Kapi in Turk.) is a door, a house or a government office and Kapuji = a porter; Kapuji-bashi = head porter; also a chamberlain in Arab. “Hajib”; and Kapu Katkhudasi (pron. Kapi-Kyayasi) = the agent which every Governor is obliged to keep at Constantinople.

[FN#347] In text “Al-buyurdi,” clerical error for “Buyuruldi” (pron. Buyuruldu) = the written order of a Governor.

[FN#348] “Al-Yamaklak” = vivers, provaunt; from the T. “Yamak” = food, a meal.

[FN#349] Meaning that he waived his right to it.

[FN#350] In text “Zawadah” (gen. “Azwad” or “Azwi’dah”) = provisions, viaticum.

[FN#351] In text “Takhtrawun”; see vols. ii. 180; v. 175. In the Cotheal MS. it is a “Haudaj” = camel-litter (vol. viii. 235).

[FN#352] “Kubbat al-‘Asafir,” now represented by the “Khan al-Asafir,” on the road from Damascus to Palmyra, about four hours’ ride from and to the N. East of the Bab Tuma or N. Eastern gate. The name is found in Baedeker (p. 541). IN the C. MS. it becomes the “Thaniyyat al-‘Ukab” = the Vulture’s Pass.

[FN#353] Meaning that Attaf had not the heart to see his cousin-wife leave her home.

[FN#354] Written in Turkish fashion with the Jim (j) and three dots instead of one. This Persian letter is still preserved in the Arabic alphabets of Marocco, Algiers, etc.

[FN#355] In Arab. “Jinn” = spirit or energy of a man, which here corresponds with the Heb. “Aub”; so in the Hamasah the poet says, “My Jinn have not fled; my life is not blunted; my birds never drooped for fear,” where, say commentators, the Arabs compare an energetic man with a Jinni or Shaytan. So the Prophet declared of Omar, “I never saw such an ‘Abkari amongst men,” ‘Abkar, in Yamamah, like Yabrin and Wabar near Al-Yaman, being a desolate region, the home of wicked races destroyed by Allah and now haunted by gruesome hosts of non-human nature. Chenery, pp. 478-9.

[FN#356] In the C. MS. it is an Emir of the Emirs.

[FN#357] Arab. “Tabah.”

[FN#358] This excellent episode is omitted in the C. MS. where Attaf simply breaks gaol and reaching Aleppo joins a caravan to Baghdad.

[FN#359] In text “Katalu-ni”: see vols. v. 5; vi. 171.

[FN#360] In the C. MS. he enters a mosque and finds a Ja’idi (vagabond) who opens his bag and draws out a loaf, a roast food, lemons, olives, cucumbers and date-cake, which suggest to Attaf, who had not eaten such things for a month, “the table of Isa bin Maryam.” For the rest see Mr. Cotheal’s version.

[FN#361] The C. MS. gives the short note in full.

[FN#362] In text “al-Towab,” Arab. plur. of the Persian and Turk. “Top.” We hardly expected to find ordinance in the age of Harun al-Rashid, although according to Milton they date before the days of Adam.

[FN#363] M. Houdas would read for “Alhy Tys” in the text “Tuha Tays” a general feast; “Tuha” = cooked meat and “Tays” = myriads of.

[FN#364] M. Houdas translates les injures devancerent les compliments, an idiom = he did not succeed in his design.

[FN#365] “Cousin” being more polite than “wife”: see vols. vi. 145; ix. 225.

[FN#366] Les vertebres ont fait bourrelet, says M. Houdas who adds that “Shakban” is the end of a cloth, gown, or cloak, which is thrown over the shoulders and serves, like the “Jayb” in front, to carry small parcels, herbs, etc.

[FN#367] In the local Min jargon, the language of Fellahs, “Addiki” = I will give thee.

[FN#368] In text “Min al-‘An wa sa’idan;” lit. = from this moment upwards.

[FN#369] “Tarajjum” taking refuge from Satan the Stone (Rajim). See vol. iv. 242.

[FN#370] i.e. a descenant of Al-Hashim, great-grandfather of the Prophet. See ix. 24.

[FN#371] In text “Shobasi,” for “Sobashi” which M. Houdas translates prevot du Palais.

[FN#372] In the C. MS. Attaf’s head was to be cut off.

[FN#373] In the C. MS. the anagnorisis is much more detailed. Ja’afar asks Attaf if he knew a Damascus-man Attaf hight and so forth; and lastly an old man comes forward and confesses to have slain the Sharif or Hashimi.

[FN#374] The drink before the meal, as is still the custom in Syria and Egypt. See vol. vii. 132.

[FN#375] Gauttier (vii. 256), illustrating the sudden rise of low-caste and uneducated men to high degree, quotes a contemporary celebrity, the famous Mirza Mohammed Husayn Khan who, originally a Bakkal or greengrocer, was made premier of Fath Ali Shah’s brilliant court, the last bright flash of Iranian splendour and autocracy. But Iran is a land upon which Nature has inscribed “Resurgam”; and despite her present abnormal position between two vast overshadowing empires–British India and Russia in Asia–she has still a part to play in history. And I may again note that Al-Islam is based upon the fundamental idea of a Republic which is, all (free) men are equal, and the lowest may aspire to the highest dignity.

[FN#376] In text “‘Aramrami.”

[FN#377] “Wa’llaha ‘l-Muwaffiku ‘l-Mu’in” = God prospereth and directeth, a formula often prefixed or suffixed to a book.

[FN#378] MS. pp. 628-685. Gauttier, vii. 64-90; Histoire du Prince Habib et de la Princesse Dorrat-el-Gawas. The English translation dubs it “Story of Habib and Dorathil-goase, or the Arabian Knight” (vol. iii. 219-89); and thus degrades the high sounding name to a fair echo of Dorothy Goose. The name = Pearl of the Diver: it is also the P.N. of a treatise on desinental syntax by the grammarian-poet Al-Hariri (Chenery, p. 539).

[FN#379] The “Banu Hilal,” a famous tribe which formed part of a confederation against the Prophet on his expedition to Honayn. See Tabari, vol. iii. chapt. 32, and Doughty, Arabia Deserta (Index, B. Helal). In the text we have the vulgarism “Bani” for “Banu”.

[FN#380] Gauttier (vii. 64) clean omits the former Emir because he has nothing to do with the tale. In Heron it is the same, and the second chief is named “Emir-Ben-Hilac-Salamis”; or for shortness tout bonnement “Salamis”; and his wife becoming Amirala which, if it mean anything, is = Colonel, or Captain R. N.

[FN#381] ie. Moon of the Nobles.

[FN#382] = the Beloved, le bien-aime.

[FN#383] As has been seen Gauttier reduces the title to “Prince.” Amongst Arabs, however, it is not only a name proper but may denote any dignity from a Shaykh to a Sultan rightly so termed.

[FN#384] For the seven handwritings see vol. iv. 196. The old English version says, “He learned the art of writing with pens cut in seven different ways.” To give an idea of the style it renders the quatrain:–“Father,” said the youth, “you must apply to my master, to give you the information you desire. As for me, I must long be all eye and all ear. I must learn to use my hand, before I begin to exercise my tongue, and to write my letters as pure as pearls from the water.” And this is translation!

[FN#385] I need hardly note that “Voices from the other world” are a lieu commun of so-called Spiritualism. See also vol. i. 142 and Suppl. Vol. iii.

[FN#386] This tale and most of those in the MS. affect the Ka1a ‘l-Rawi (= quoth the reciter) showing the true use of them. See Terminal Essay, vol. x. 144.

[FN#387] The missing apodosis would be, “You would understand the cause of my weeping.”

[FN#388] In the text there are only five lines. I have borrowed the sixth from the prose.

[FN#389] “Daud” = David: see vols. ii. 286; vi. 113.

[FN#390] For “Samhari” see vol. iv. 258.

[FN#391] From “Rudaynah,” either a woman or a place: see vols. ii. 1; vii. 265; and for “Khatt Hajar” vol. ii. 1.

[FN#392] This is the idiomatic meaning of the Arab word “Nizal” = dismounting to fight on foot.

[FN#393] In the text “Akyal,” plur. of “Kayl” = Kings of the Himyarite peoples. See vol. vii. 60; here it is = the hero, the heroes.

[FN#394] An intensive word, “on the weight,” as the Arabs say of ‘Abbas (stern-faced) and meaning “Very stern-faced, austere, grim.” In the older translations it becomes “Il Haboul”–utterly meaningless.

[FN#395] The Arab. “Moon of the Time” becomes in the olden versions “Camaulzaman,” which means, if anything, “Complete Time,” and she is the daughter of a Jinn-King “Illabousatrous (Al-‘Atrus?).” He married her to a potent monarch named “Shah-Goase” (Shah Ghawwas=King Diver), in this version “Sabur” (Shahpur), and by him Kamar Al-Zaman became the mother of Durrat al-Ghawwas.

[FN#396] In text “Sadat wa Ashraf:” for the technical meaning of “Sayyid” and “Sharif” see vols. iv. 170; v. 259.

[FN#397] Gauttier, vii. 71. Les Isles Bellour. see vol. iii. 194.

[FN#398] Heron’s “Illabousatrous”(?).

[FN#399] In text “Zayjah,” from Pers. “Zaycheh” = lit. a horoscope, a table for calculating nativities and so forth. In page 682 of the MS. the word is used = marriage-lines.

[FN#400] In text “Snsal,” for “Salsal ” = lit. chain.

[FN#401] In Sindbad the Seaman I have shown that riding men as asses is a facetious exaggeration of an African practice, the Minister being generally the beast of burden for the King. It was the same in the Maldive Islands. “As soon as the lord desires to land, one of the rhief Catibes (Arab. Khatib = a preacher, not Katib = a writer) comes forward to offer his shoulder (a function much esteemed) and the other gets upon his shoulders; and so, with a leg on each side, he rides him horse fashion to land, and is there set down.” See p. 71, “The Voyage of Francois Pyrard,” etc. The volume is unusually well edited by Mr. Albert Gray, formerly of the Ceylon Civil Service, for the Hakluyt Society, MDCCCLXXXVII: it is, however, regretable that he and Mr. Bell, his collaborateur, did not trace out the Maldive words to their “Aryan” origin showing their relationship to vulgar Hindostani as Mas to Machhi (fish) from the Sanskrit Matsya.

[FN#402] In text “Ghayth al-Hatil = incessant rain of small drops and widely dispread. In Arab. the names for clouds, rain and all such matters important to a pastoral race are well nigh innumerable. Poetry has seized upon the material terms and has converted them into a host of metaphors; for “the genius of the Arabic language, like that of the Hebrew, is to form new ideas by giving a metaphorical signification to material objects (e.g. ‘Azud, lit. the upper arm; met. a helper).” Chenery, p. 380.

[FN#403] In the text “To the palace:” the scribe, apparently forgetting that he is describing Badawi life, lapses at times into “decorating the capital” and “adorning the mansion,” as if treating of the normal city-life. I have not followed his example.

[FN#404] Heron translates “A massy cuirass of Haoudi.”

[FN#405] In text, “Inbasata ‘l-Layl al-Asa,” which M. Houdas renders et s’etendit la nuit (mere) de la tristesse.

[FN#406] “Rauzah” in Algiers is a royal park; also a prairie, as “Rauz al-Sanajirah,” plain of the Sinjars: Ibn Khaldun, ii. 448.

[FN#407] The “Miskal” (for which see vols. i. 126; ix. 262) is the weight of a dinar = 1« dirham = 71-72 grains avoir. A dose of 142 grains would kill a camel. In 1848, when we were marching up the Indus Valley under Sir Charles Napier to attack Nao Mall of Multan, the Sind Camel Corps was expected to march at the rate of some 50 miles a day, and this was done by making the animals more than half drunk with Bhang or Indian hemp.

[FN#408] In text, “Yakhat,” probably clerical error for “Yakhbut,” lit. = he was panting in a state of unconsciousness: see Dozy, Suppl. s. v.

[FN#409] In text “Al-Dan, which is I presume a clerical error for “Al-Uzn” = ear. [“Dan,” with the dual “Danayn,” and “Wudn,” with the plural “Audan,” are popular forms for the literary “Uzn.”- -ST.]

[FN#410] This name has occurred in MS. p. 655, but it is a mere nonentity until p. 657–the normal incuriousness. Heron dubs him “Rabir.”

[FN#411] In the text “Zimmat” = obligation, protection, clientship.

[FN#412] “Sahha ‘alakah” (=a something) “fi haza ‘l-Amri.” The first word appears de trop being enclosed in brackets in the MS.

[FN#413] “Wa yabki ‘alaykum Mabalu-h.” [For “Mabal” I would read “Wabal,” in the sense of crime or punishment, and translate: “lest the guilt of it rest upon you.”–ST.)

[FN#414] In the text “Suwayda” literally “a small and blackish woman”; and “Suwayda al-Kalb” (the black one of the heart) = original sin, as we should say. [The diminutive of “Sayyid” would be “Suwayyid,” as “Kuwayyis” from “Kayyis,” and “Juwayyid” from “Jayyid” (comp. supra p. 3). “Suwayd” and “Suwayda” are diminutives of “Aswad,” black, and its fem. “Sauda” respectively, meaning blackish. The former occurs in “Umm al-Suwayd” = anus. “Suwayda al-Kalb” = the blackish drop of clotted blood in the heart, is synonymous with “Habbat al-Kalb” = the grain in the heart, and corresponds to our core of the heart. Metaphorically both are used for “original sin.”–ST.]

[FN#415] “Yakah Thiyabish;” the former word being Turkish (M. Houdas).

[FN#416] Arab. “Kaunayn” = the two entities, this world and the other world, the past and the future, etc. Here it is opposed to “‘A’lamina,” here ‘Awalim = the (three) worlds, for which see vol. ii. 236.

[FN#417] In text “Changul,” again written with a three-dotted Chim.

[FN#418] In text “Al-Mazrab” which M. Houdas translates cet endroit.

[FN#419] In text “Yabahh” = saying “Bah, Bah!”

[FN#420] In text “Bahr al-Azrak” = the Blue Sea, commonly applied to the Mediterranean: the origin of the epithet is readily understood by one who has seen the Atlantic or the Black Sea.

[FN#421] i.e. “The Stubborn,” “The Obstinate.”

[FN#422] In text “Al-Jawadit,” where M. Houdas would read “Al-Hawadith” which he renders by animaux fraichement tues.

[FN#423] In the text “Kabad” = the liver, the sky-vault, the handle or grasp of a bow.

[FN#424] In the text “Mina” = a port both in old Egyptian and mod. Persian: see “Mitrahinna,” vol. ii. 257.

[FN#425] “Al-Nakair,” plur. of “Nakir” = a dinghy, a dug-out.

[FN#426] For this “Pa-andaz,” as the Persians call it, see vol. iii. 141.

[FN#427] In text “Kataba Zayjata-ha,” the word has before been noticed.

[FN#428] Again “Hiza bi-Zayjati-ha” = le bonheur de ses aventures.

[FN#429] This impalement (“Salb,” which elsewhere means crucifying, vol. iii. 25) may be a barbarous punishment but it is highly cffective, which after all is its principal object. Old Mohammed Ali of Egypt never could have subjugated and disciplined the ferocious Badawi of Al-Asir, the Ophir region South of Al-Hijaz, without the free use of the stake. The banditti dared to die but they could not endure the idea of their bodies being torn to pieces and devoured by birds and beasts. The stake commonly called “Khazuk”, is a stout pole pointed at one end, and the criminal being thrown upon his belly is held firm whilst the end is passed up his fundament. His legs and body are then lashed to it and it is raised by degrees and planted in a hole already dug, an agonising part of the process. If the operation be performed by an expert who avoids injuring any mortal part, the wretch may live for three days suffering the pangs of thirst; but a drink of water causes hemorrhage and instant death. This was the case with the young Moslem student who murdered the excellent Marshal Kleber in the garden attached to Shepherd’s Hotel, Cairo, wherein, by the by, he suffered for his patriotic crime. Death as in crucifixion is brought on by cramps and nervous exhaustion, for which see Canon Farrar (Life of Christ, ii. 392 et seqq.).

[FN#430] Archaeological Review, July, 1888, pp. 331-342.

[FN#431] The proper names are overrun with accents and diaeretical points, of which I have here retained but few.

[FN#432] Particularly mentioning Syntipas, the Forty Vizirs, a Turkish romance relating to Alexander, in 120 volumes; and Mohammed al-‘Aufi.

[FN#433] Probably similar to those described in the story of the Warlock and the Cook (antea, pp. 106-112)

[FN#434] The last clause is very short and obscure in the French “qu’il n’a pas son satire,” but what follows shows the real meaning to be that given above. (W. F. K.)

[FN#435] This I take to be the meaning of the words, “une autre monde sous la terre par sept fois.” (W.F.K.)

[FN#436] Galland writes “on fait un jeu de Giret (tournoi), etc.” (W. F. K.)

[FN#437] Perhaps an error of Galland’s. (W. F. K.)

[FN#438] I do not know the German edition referred to.

[FN#439] This great class of tales is quite as widely extended in the north of Europe and Asia, as in the south. We meet with them in Siberia, and they are particularly common in Lapland I believe, too, that the Indian story of the Red Swan (referred to by Longfellow, Hiawatha xii.) is only a Swan Maiden legend in a rather modified form. As usual, we find a bizarre form of the Swan Maiden story among the Samoghitians of Lithuania. The Zemyne is a one eyed venomous snake, with black blood which cures all diseases and neutralises all magic. It is an enchanted maiden; and sometimes the skin has been stolen, and she has reamed a man. But if she recovers her skin, she resumes her snake-form, and bites and kills her husband and children. Many other strange things are related of the Zemyne (Veckenstedt, Mythen, Sagen, und Legenden der Zamaiten, ii., pp. 149-152).]

[FN#440] About twenty pounds.

[FN#441] Spitta Bey (p. 27 note) suggests that this is a reminiscence of the ancient Egyptian idea of the Scarabaeus which typifies life.

[FN#442] Southey, in his story of the Young Dragon, relates how Satan, disapproving of the rapid conversion of the inhabitants of Antioch to Christianity, laid an egg, and hatched out a dragon, which he sent to destroy the inhabitants. But a Pagan whose Christian daughter was devoted to the dragon by lot, stole the thumb from a relic (the hand of John the Baptist), as he pretended to kiss it, and cast it into the mouth of the dragon, and blew him up.

[FN#443] This is a variant of the Nose-Tree; I do not remember another in genuine Oriental literature (cf. Nights, x., app., p. 449).]

[FN#444] How small the world becomes in this story!

[FN#445] It is evident that a young she-bear is all that is meant.

[FN#446]These Vigilants and Purifiers, with that hypocritical severity which ever makes the worst sinner in private the most rigorous judge in public, lately had the imprudent impudence to summons a publisher who had reprinted the Decameron with the “objectionable passages” in French. Mr. Alderman Faudell Phillips had the good sense contemptuously to dismiss the summons. Englishmen are no longer what they were if they continue to tolerate this Ignoble espionnage of Vicious and prurient virtuous “Associations.” If they mean real work why do they commence by condemning scholar-like works, instead of cleansing the many foul cesspools of active vice which are a public disgrace to London.
[FN#447] It may serve the home-artist and the home-reader to point out a few of the most erroneous The harp (i. 143) is the Irish and not the Eastern, yet the latter has been shown In i. 228; and the “Kanun ” (ii. 77) is a reproduction from Lane’s Modern Egyptians. The various Jinnis are fanciful, not traditional, as they should be (see inter alia Doughty’s Arabia Deserta, ii. 3, etc.). In i. 81 and ii. 622 appears a specimen bogie with shaven chin and “droopers” by way of beard and mustachios: mostly they have bestial or simiad countenances with rabbits’ ears, goats’ horns and so forth (i. 166, 169; ii. 97, 100), instead of faces more or less human and eyes disposed perpendicularly. The spreading yew-tree (i. 209) is utterly misplaced. In many the action is excessive, after the fashion of the Illustrateds (i. 281, 356, 410 and 565; ii. 366, 374). The scymitar and the knife, held in the left hand or slung by the left flank, are wholly out of order (i. 407 ii.281,374; iii.460) and in iii. 355, the blade is wider than the wielder’s waist. In i. 374 the astrolabe is also held in the left hand. The features are classical as those of Arsinoe, certainly not Egyptian, in i. 15; i. 479 and passim. The beggar-women must not wander with faces bare and lacking “nose-bags” as in i. 512. The Shah (i. 523) wears modern overalls strapped down over dress-bottines: Moreover he holds a straight-bladed European court-sword, which is correct in i. 527. The spears (i. 531) are European not Asiatic, much less Arabian, whose beams are often 12-15 feet long. Aziz (i. 537) has no right to tricot drawers and shoes tightened over the instep like the chaussure of European moutards: his foot (i. 540) is wholly out of drawing, like his hand, and the toes are European distortions. The lady writing (i. 581) lacks all local colour; she should sit at squat, support the paper in the hollow of her left instead of using a portfolio, and with her right ply the reed or “pen of brass.” In vol. ii. 57 the lion is an absurdum, big as a cow or a camel, and the same caricature of the King of Beasts occurs elsewhere (i. 531; ii. 557 and iii. 250). The Wazir (ii. 105) wears the striped caftan of a Cairene scribe or shopkeeper. The two birds (ii. 140) which are intended for hawks (see ii. 130) have the compact tails and the rounded-off wings of pigeons. I should pity Amjad and As’ad if packed into a “bullock trunk” like that borne by the mule in ii. 156. The Jew’s daughter (ii. 185) and the Wali of Bulak (ii. 504) carry European candlesticks much improved in ii. 624. The Persian leach (ii. 195) is habited most unlike an ‘Ajami, while the costume is correct in ii. 275. The Badawi mounts (ii. 263) an impossible Arab with mane and tail like the barb’s in pictures. The street-dogs (ii. 265), a notable race, become European curs of low degree. The massage of the galleys (ii. 305) would suit a modern racing-yacht. Utterly out of place are the women’s costumes such as the Badawi maidens (ii. 335), Rose-in Hood (ii. 565), and the girl of the Banu Odhrah (iii.250), while the Lady Zubaydah (ii. 369) is coiffee with a European coronet. The sea-going ship (ii. 615) is a Dahabiyah fit only for the Nile. The banana-trees (ii. 621) tower at least 80 feet tall and the palms and cocoa-nut trees (ii. 334; iii. 60) are indicated only by their foliage, not by their characteristic boles. The box (ii. 624) is European and modern: in the Eastern “Sakhkharah” the lid fits into the top, thus saving it from the “baggage-smasher.” In iii. 76, the elephant, single-handed, uproots a tree rivalling a century-old English oak. The camel-saddle (iii. 247) is neither Eastern nor possible for the rider, but it presently improves (iii. 424 and elsewhere). The emerging of the Merfolk (iii. 262) is a “tableau,” a transformation-scene of the transpontine pantomime, and equally theatrical is the attitude of wicked Queen Lab (iii. 298), while the Jinni, snatching away Daulat Khatun (iii.341), seems to be waltzing with her in horizontal position. A sun-parasol, not a huge Oriental umbrella, is held over the King’s head (iii. 377). The tail-piece, the characteristic Sphinx (iii. 383), is as badly drawn as it well can be, a vile caricature. Khalifah the Fisherman wears an English night-gown (iii. 558) with the side-locks of a Polish Jew (iii. 564). The dancing- girl (iii. 660) is equally reprehensible in form, costume and attitude, and lastly, the Fellah ploughing (iii. 700) should wear a felt skull-cap instead of a turband, be stripped to the waist and retain nothing but a rag around the middle.

I have carefully noted these lapses and incongruities: not the less, however, I thoroughly appreciate the general excellence of the workmanship, and especially the imaginative scenery and the architectural designs of Mr. W. Harvey. He has shown the world how a work of the kind should be illustrated, and those who would surpass him have only to avoid the minor details here noticed.

[FN#448] See in M. Zotenberg’s “Ala al-Din” the text generally; also p. 14.

[FN#449] Mr. Payne, in his Essay, vol. ix., 281, computes less than two hundred tales in all omitting the numerous incidentals; and he notices that the number corresponds with the sum of the “Night-stories” attributed to the Hazar Afsan by the learned author of the “Fihrist” (see Terminal Essay, vol. x. pp. 70). In p. 367 (ibid.) he assumes the total at 264.

[FN#450] This parlous personage thought proper to fall foul of me (wholly unprovoked) in the Athenaeum of August 25, ’88. I give his production in full:–

Lord Stratford De Redcliffe.

August 18, 1888.

In the notice of Sir R. Burton’s “Life” in to-day’s Athenaeum it is mentioned that his biographer says that Capt. Burton proposed to march with his Bashi-bazuks to the relief of Kars, but was frustrated by Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, who, according to Sir Richard, “gained a prodigious reputation in Europe, chiefly by living out of it.”

This is a strange inversion of facts. The proposal to relieve Kars by way of Redoutkale and Kutais originated, not with Capt. Burton, but with the Turkish Seraskier, who recommended for this purpose the employment of Vivian’s Turkish Contingent and part of Beatson’s Horse (“his Bashi-bazuks”), in which Capt. Burton held a staff appointment. In the last days of June, 1855, General Mansfield, Lord Stratford’s military adviser, was in constant communication on this subject with the Turkish Ministers, and the details of the expedition were completely arranged to the satisfaction of military opinion, both British and Turkish, at Constantinople. Lord Stratford officially recommended the plan to his Government, and in his private letters to the Foreign Secretary strongly urged it upon him and expressed a sanguine hope of its success. But on July 14th, Lord Clarendon telegraphed: “The plan for reinforcing the army at Kars contained in your despatches of 30th June and 1st inst. is disapproved.” Lord Panmure really “frustrated” the Turkish plan; Lord Stratford never “frustrated” any attempt to succour the Army of Asia, but, contrariwise, did all in his power to forward the object.

As to the amiable reference to the Great Elchi’s reputation, no one knows better than Sir R. Burton by what queer methods reputations may be annexed, but it is strange that anyone with the reputation of a traveller should consider Constantinople to be “out of Europe.”

S. Lane-Poole.

The following was my reply:–

Lord Stratford De Redcliffe and Mr. S. Lane-Poole.

London, Aug. 26, 1888.

Will you kindly spare me space for a few lines touching matters personal?

I am again the victim (Athenaeum, August 25) of that everlasting reclame. Mr. S. Lane-Poole has contracted to “do” a life of Lord Stratford, and, ergo, he condemns me in magistral tone and a style of uncalled-for impertinence, to act as his “advt.” In relating how, by order of the late General Beatson, then commanding Bash-buzuk (Bashi-bazuk is the advertiser’s own property), I volunteered to relieve Cars, how I laid the project before the “Great Eltchee,” how it was received with the roughest language and how my first plan was thoroughly “frustrated.” I have told a true tale, and no more. “A strange perversion of facts,” cries the sapient criticaster, with that normal amenity which has won for him such honour and troops of unfriends: when his name was proposed as secretary to the R. A. S., all prophesied the speediest dissolution of that infirm body.

I am aware that Constantinople is not geographically “out of Europe.” But when Mr. S. Lane-Poole shall have travelled a trifle more he may learn that ethnologically it is. In fact, most of South-Eastern Europe holds itself more or less non-European, and when a Montenegrin marries a Frenchwoman or a German, his family will tell you that he has wedded a “European.”

“No one knows better than Sir R. Burton by what queer methods reputation may be annexed.” Heavens, what English! And what may the man mean? But perhaps he alludes in his own silly, saltless, sneering way to my Thousand Nights and a Night, which has shown