The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume I Part 22

[FN#151] I have not attempted to order this marvellous confusion of metaphors so characteristic of The Nights and the exigencies of Al- Saj'a = rhymed prose.

[FN#152] Here and elsewhere I omit the "kala (dice Turpino)" of the original: Torrens preserves "Thus goes the tale" (which it only interrupts). This is simply letter-wise and sense-foolish.

[FN#153] Of this worthy more at a future time.

[FN#154] i.e., sealed with the Kazi or legal authority's seal of office.

[FN#155] "Nothing for nothing" is a fixed idea with the Eastern woman: not so much for greed as for a s.e.xual point d' honneur when dealing with the adversary--man.

[FN#156] She drinks first, the custom of the universal East, to show that the wine she had bought was unpoisoned. Easterns, who utterly ignore the "social gla.s.s" of Western civilisation drink honestly to get drunk; and, when far gone are addicted to horse- play (in Pers. "Badmasti" = le vin mauvais) which leads to quarrels and bloodshed. Hence it is held highly irreverent to a.s.sert of patriarchs, prophets and saints that they "drank wine;" and Moslems agree with our "Teatotallers" in denying that, except in the case of Noah, inebriatives are anywhere mentioned in Holy Writ.

[FN#157] Arab. "Hur al-Ayn," lit. (maids) with eyes of lively white and black, applied to the virgins of Paradise who will wive with the happy Faithful. I retain our vulgar "Houri," warning the reader that it is a masc. for a fem. ("Huriyah") in Arab, although accepted in Persian, a genderless speach.

[FN#158] Arab. "Zambur," whose head is amputated in female circ.u.mcision. See Night cccclxxiv.

[FN#159] Ocymum basilic.u.m noticed in Introduction, the ba.s.silico of Boccaccio iv. 5. The Book of Kalilah and Dimnah represents it as "sprouting with something also whose smell is foul and disgusting and the sower at once sets to gather it and burn it with fire."

(The Fables of Bidpai translated from the later Syriac version by I. G. N. Keith-Falconer, etc., etc., etc., Cambridge University Press, 1885). Here, however, Habk is a pennyroyal (mentha puligium), and probably alludes to the pecten.

[FN#160] i. e. common property for all to beat.

[FN#161] "A digit of the moon" is the Hindu equivalent.

[FN#162] Better known to us as Caravanserai, the "Travellers'

Bungalow" of India: in the Khan, however, shelter is to be had, but neither bed nor board.

[FN#163] Arab. "Zubb." I would again note that this and its synonyms are the equivalents of the Arabic, which is of the lowest.

The tale-teller's evident object is to accentuate the contrast with the tragical stories to follow.

[FN#164] "ln the name of Allah," is here a civil form of dismissal.

[FN#165] Lane (i. 124) is scandalised and naturally enough by this scene, which is the only blot in an admirable tale admirably told.

Yet even here the grossness is but little more p.r.o.nounced than what we find in our old drama (e. g., Shakespeare's King Henry V.) written for the stage, whereas tales like The Nights are not read or recited before both s.e.xes. Lastly "nothing follows all this palming work:" in Europe the orgie would end very differently.

These "nuns of Theleme" are physically pure: their debauchery is of the mind, not the body. Galland makes them five, including the two doggesses.

[FN#166] So Sir Francis Walsingham's "They which do that they should not, should hear that they would not."

[FN#167] The old "Calendar," pleasantly a.s.sociated with that form of almanac. The Mac. Edit. has Karandaliyah," a vile corruption, like Ibn Batutah's "Karandar" and Torrens' "Kurundul:" so in English we have the accepted vulgarism of "Kernel" for Colonel. The Bull Edit. uses for synonym "Su'uluk"=an asker, a beggar. Of these mendicant monks, for such they are, much like the Sarabaites of mediaeval Europe, I have treated and of their inst.i.tutions and its founder, Shaykh Sharif Bu Ali Kalandar (ob. A. H. 724 =1323-24), at some length in my "History of Sindh," chaps. viii. See also the Dabistan (i. 136) where the good Kalandar exclaims:--

If the thorn break in my body, how trifling the pain!

But how sorely I feel for the poor broken thorn!

D'Herbelot is right when he says that the Kalandar is not generally approved by Moslems: he labours to win free from every form and observance and he approaches the Malamati who conceals all his good deeds and boasts of his evil doings--our "Devil's hypocrite."

[FN#168] The "Kalandar" disfigures himself in this manner to show "mortification."

[FN#169] Arab. "Gharib:" the porter is offended because the word implies "poor devil;" esp. one out of his own country.

[FN#170] A religious mendicant generally.

[FN#171] Very scandalous to Moslem "respectability" Mohammed said the house was accursed when the voices of women could be heard out of doors. Moreover the neighbours have a right to interfere and abate the scandal.

[FN#172] I need hardly say that these are both historical personages; they will often be mentioned, and Ja'afar will be noticed in the Terminal Essay.

[FN#173] Arab. "Same 'an wa ta'atan"; a popular phrase of a.s.sent generally translated "to hear is to obey;" but this formula may be and must be greatly varied. In places it means "Hearing (the word of Allah) and obeying" (His prophet, viceregent, etc.)

[FN#174] Arab. "Sawab"=reward in Heaven. This word for which we have no equivalent has been naturalized in all tongues (e. g.

Hindostani) spoken by Moslems.

[FN#175] Wine-drinking, at all times forbidden to Moslems, vitiates the Pilgrimage rite: the Pilgrim is vowed to a strict observance of the ceremonial law and many men date their "reformation" from the "Hajj." Pilgrimage, iii., 126.

[FN#176] Here some change has been necessary; as the original text confuses the three "ladies."

[FN#177] In Arab. the plural masc. is used by way of modesty when a girl addresses her lover and for the same reason she speaks of herself as a man.

[FN#178] Arab. "Al-Na'im", in ful "Jannat-al-Na'im" = the Garden of Delights, i.e. the fifth Heaven made of white silver. The generic name of Heaven (the place of reward) is "Jannat," lit. a garden; "Firdaus" being evidently derived from the Persian through the Greek {Greek Letters}, and meaning a chase, a hunting park. Writers on this subject should bear in mind Mandeville's modesty, "Of Paradise I cannot speak properly, for I was not there."

[FN#179] Arab. "Mikra'ah," the dried mid-rib of a date-frond used for many purposes, especially the bastinado.

[FN#180] According to Lane (i., 229) these and the immediately following verses are from an ode by Ibn Sahl al-Ishbili. They are in the Bull Edit. not the Mac. Edit.

[FN#181] The original is full of conceits and plays on words which are not easily rendered in English.

[FN#182] Arab. "Tarjuman," same root as Chald. Targum ( = a translation), the old "Truchman," and through the Ital. "tergomano"

our "Dragoman," here a messenger.

[FN#183] Lit. the "person of the eyes," our "babe of the eyes," a favourite poetical conceit in all tongues; much used by the Elizabethans, but now neglected as a silly kind of conceit. See Night ccix.

[FN#184] Arab. "Sar" (Thar) the revenge-right recognised by law and custom (Pilgrimage, iii., 69).

[FN#185] That is "We all swim in the same boat."

[FN#186] Ja'afar ever acts, on such occasions, the part of a wise and sensible man compelled to join in a foolish frolic. He contrasts strongly with the Caliph, a headstrong despot who will not be gainsaid, whatever be the whim of the moment. But Easterns would look upon this as a proof of his "kingliness."

[FN#187] Arab. "Wa'l- Salam" (p.r.o.nounced Was-Salam); meaning "and here ends the matter." In our slang we say "All right, and the child's name is Antony."

[FN#188] This is a favourite jingle, the play being upon "ibrat" (a needle-graver) and " 'ibrat" (an example, a warning).

[FN#189] That is "make his bow," as the English peasant pulls his forelock. Lane (i., 249) suggests, as an afterthought, that it means:--"Recover thy senses; in allusion to a person's drawing his hand over his head after sleep or a fit." But it occurs elsewhere in the sense of "cut thy stick."

[FN#190] This would be a separate building like our family tomb and probably domed, resembling that mentioned in "The King of the Black Islands." Europeans usually call it "a little Wali;" or, as they write it, "Wely," the contained for the container; the "Santon" for the "Santon's tomb." I have noticed this curious confusion (which begins with Robinson, i. 322) in "Unexplored Syria," i. 161.

[FN#191] Arab. "Wiswas," = diabolical temptation or suggestion. The "Wiswasi" is a man with scruples (scrupulus, a pebble in the shoe), e.g. one who fears that his ablutions were deficient, etc.

[FN#192] Arab. "Katf" = pinioning by tying the arms behind the back and shoulders (Kitf) a dire disgrace to free-born men.

[FN#193] Arab. "Nafs."=Hebr. Nephesh (Nafash) =soul, life as opposed to "Ruach"= spirit and breath. In these places it is equivalent to "I said to myself." Another form of the root is "Nafas," breath, with an idea of inspiration: so 'Sahib Nafas"

(=master of breath) is a minor saint who heals by expiration, a matter familiar to mesmerists (Pilgrimage, i., 86).

[FN#194] Arab. "Kaus al-Banduk;" the "pellet bow" of modern India; with two strings joined by a bit of cloth which supports a ball of dry clay or stone. It is chiefly used for birding.