Shorter Novels, Eighteenth Century Part 42

PAGE 250. _... the sacred camel_

It was an article of the Mahometan creed, that all animals would be raised again, and some of them admitted into paradise. The animal here mentioned appears to have been one of those _white-winged_ CAMELS _caparisoned with gold_, which Ali affirmed had been provided to convey the faithful.--_Religious Ceremonies_, vol. vii, p. 70. SALE'S _Preliminary Discourse_, p. 112. AL JAUHERI. EBNO'L ATHIR, etc.

PAGE 251. _... basket-making_

This sort of basket work hath been long used in the East, and consists of the leaves of the date-bearing palm. Panniers of this texture are of great utility in conveying fruits, bread, etc., whilst heavier articles, or such as require a more compact covering, are carried in bags of leather, or skin.--Ha.s.sELQUIST'S _Voyage_, p. 26.

PAGE 251. _... the caliph presented himself to the emir in a new light_

The propensity of a vicious person, in affliction, to seek consolation from the ceremonies of religion, is an exquisite trait in the character of Vathek.

PAGE 255. _... the waving of fans_

These fans consisted of the trains of peac.o.c.ks or ostriches, whose quills were set in a long stem, so as to imbricate the plumes in the gradations of their natural growth. Fans of this fas.h.i.+on were formerly used in England.

PAGE 256. _... wine h.o.a.rded up in bottles, prior to the birth of Mahomet_

The prohibition of wine by the Prophet materially diminished its consumption within the limits of his own dominions. Hence a reserve of it might be expected of the age here specified. The custom of h.o.a.rding wine was not unknown to the Persians, though not so often practised by them as by the Greeks and the Romans.

"I purchase" (says Lebeid) "the old liquor, at a dear rate, in dark leathern bottles, long reposited; or in casks black with pitch, whose seals I break, and then fill the cheerful goblet."--_Moallakat_, p. 53.

PAGE 256. _... excavated ovens in the rock_

As subst.i.tutes for the portable ovens, which were lost.

PAGE 257. _... her great camel Alboufaki_

There is a singular and laboured description of a camel in the poem of _Tarafa_; but Alboufaki possessed qualities appropriate to himself, and which rendered him but little less conspicuous than the deformed dun camel of Aad.

PAGE 257. _... to set forward, notwithstanding it was noon_

The employment of woodfellers was accounted of all others the most toilsome, as those occupied in it were compelled to forgo that mid-day cessation with which other labourers were indulged. Inatulla speaks proverbially of "woodmen in the meridian hour, scarce able to raise the arms of languor." The guides of Carathis being of this occupation, she adroitly availed herself of it to urge them forward, without allowing them that repose during the mid-day fervour which travellers in these climates always enjoyed, and which was deemed so essential to the preservation of their health.

PAGE 258. _... the confines of some cemetery_

Places of interment in the East were commonly situated in scenes of solitude. We read of one in the History of the First Calender, abounding with so many monuments, that four days were successively spent in it without the inquirer being able to find the tomb he looked for; and, from the story of Ganem, it appears that the doors of these cemeteries were often left open.--_Arabian Nights_, vol. ii, p. 112; vol. iii, p.

135.

PAGE 260. _... a Myrabolan comfit_

The invention of this confection is attributed by M. Cardonne to Avicenna, but there is abundant reason, exclusive of our author's authority, to suppose it of a much earlier origin. Both the Latins and Greeks were acquainted with the balsam, and the tree that produced it was indigenous in various parts of Arabia.

PAGE 261. _... blue fishes_

Fishes of the same colour are mentioned in the _Arabian Nights_; and, like these, were endowed with the gift of speech.

PAGE 262. _... waving streamers on which were inscribed the names of Allah and the Prophet_

The position that "there is no G.o.d but G.o.d, and Mahomet is his Prophet,"

pervades every part of the Mahometan religion. Banners, like those here described, are preserved in the several mosques; and, on the death of extraordinary persons, are borne before the bier in solemn state.--_Religious Ceremonies_, vol. vii, pp. 119, 120.

PAGE 263. _... astrolabes_

The mention of the astrolabe may be deemed incompatible, at first view, with chronological exactness, as there is no instance of any being constructed by a Mussulman, till after the time of Vathek. It may, however, be remarked, to go no higher, that Sinesius, bishop of Ptolemais, invented one in the fifth century; and that Carathis was not only herself a Greek, but also cultivated those sciences which the good Mussulmans of her time all held in abhorrence.--BAILLY, _Hist. de l'Astronom. Moderne_, tom, i, pp. 563, 573.

PAGE 264. _On the banks of the stream, hives and oratories_

The bee is an insect held in high veneration amongst the Mahometans, it being pointed out in the Koran, "for a sign unto the people that understand." It has been said, in the same sense, "Go to the ant, thou sluggard."--Proverbs, vi, 6. The santons, therefore, who inhabit the fertile banks of Rocnabad, are not less famous for their hives than their oratories.--D'HERBELOT, p. 717.

PAGE 265. _... sheiks ... cadis_

Sheiks are the chiefs of the societies of dervishes; cadis are the magistrates of a town or city.

PAGE 265. _a.s.ses in bridles of riband inscribed from the Koran_

As the judges of Israel in ancient days rode on white a.s.ses, so, amongst the Mahometans, those that affect an extraordinary sanct.i.ty use the same animal in preference to the horse. Sir John Chardin observed, in various parts of the East, that their reins, as here represented, were of silk, with the name of G.o.d, or other inscriptions, upon them.--LUDEKE, _Expos.

brevis_, p. 49. CHARDIN'S MS. cited by Harmer.

PAGE 266. _One of these beneficent genii, a.s.suming the exterior of a shepherd, etc., began to pour from his flute, etc._

The flute was considered as a sacred instrument, which Jacob and other holy shepherds had sanctified by using.--_Religious Ceremonies_, vol.

vii, p. 110.

PAGE 266. _... involuntarily drawn towards the declivity of the hill_

A similar instance of attraction may be seen in the Story of Prince Ahmed and the Peri Parabanou.--_Arabian Nights_, vol. iv, p. 243.

PAGE 267. _Eblis_

D'Herbelot supposes this t.i.tle to have been a corruption of the Greek ??a????, _diabolos_. It was the appellation conferred by the Arabians upon the prince of the apostate angels, whom they represent as exiled to the infernal regions, for refusing to wors.h.i.+p Adam at the command of the Supreme, and appears more likely to originate from the Hebrew ???

_hebel_, vanity, pride.--See below, the note, p. 305, "_Creatures of clay._"