The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume VIII Part 30

[FN#175] Wazir of Solomon. See vol. i. 42; and vol. iii. 97.

[FN#176] Arab. "Ism al-A'azam," the Ineffable Name, a superst.i.tion evidently derived from the Talmudic fancies of the Jews concerning their tribal G.o.d, Yah or Yahvah.

[FN#177] The tradition is that Mohammed asked Akaf al-Wada'ah "Hast a wife?"; and when answered in the negative, "Then thou appertainest to the brotherhood of Satans! An thou wilt be one of the Christian monks then company therewithal; but an thou be of us, know that it is our custom to marry!"

[FN#178] The old woman, in the East as in the West, being the most vindictive of her kind. I have noted (Pilgrimage iii. 70) that a Badawi will sometimes though in shame take the blood-wit; but that if it be offered to an old woman she will dash it to the ground and clutch her knife and fiercely swear by Allah that she will not eat her son's blood.

[FN#179] Neither dome nor fount etc. are mentioned before, the normal inadvertency.

[FN#180] In Eastern travel the rest comes before the eating and drinking.

[FN#181] Arab. "'Id" (p.r.o.n.'Eed) which I have said (vol. i. 42, 317) is applied to the two great annual festivals, the "Fete of Sacrifice," and the "Break-Fast." The word denotes restoration to favour and Moslems explain as the day on which Adam (and Eve) who had been expelled from Paradise for disobedience was re-established (Uida) by the relenting of Allah. But the name doubtless dates amongst Arabs from days long before they had heard of the "Lord Nomenclator."

[FN#182] Alluding to Hasan seizing her feather dress and so taking her to wife.

[FN#183] Arab. "Kharaju"=they (masc.) went forth, a vulgarism for "Kharajna" (fem.)

[FN#184] Note the notable housewife who, at a moment when youth would forget everything, looks to the main chance.

[FN#185] Arab. "Al-Malakut" (not "Malkut" as in Freytag) a Sufi term for the world of Spirits (De Lacy Christ, Ar. i. 451).

Amongst Eastern Christians it is vulgarly used in the fem. and means the Kingdom of Heaven, also the preaching of the Gospel.

[FN#186] This is so rare, even amongst the poorest cla.s.ses in the East, that it is mentioned with some emphasis.

[FN#187] A beauty among the Egyptians, not the Arabs.

[FN#188] True Fellah--"chaff."

[FN#189] Alluding to the well-known superst.i.tion, which has often appeared in The Nights, that the first object seen in the morning, such as a crow, a cripple, or a cyclops determines the fortunes of the day. Notices in Eastern literature are as old as the days of the Hitopadesa; and there is a something instinctive in the idea to a race of early risers. At an hour when the senses are most impressionable the aspect of unpleasant spectacles ahs double effect.

[FN#190] Arab. "Masukah," the stick used for driving cattle, baton gourdin (Dozy). Lane applies the word to a wooden plank used for levelling the ground.

[FN#191] i.e. the words I am about to speak to thee.

[FN#192] Arab. "Sahifah," which may mean "page" (Lane) or "book"

(Payne).

[FN#193] p.r.o.nounce, "Abussa'adat" = Father of Prosperities: Lane imagines that it came from the Jew's daughter being called "Sa'adat." But the latter is the Jew's wife (Night dcccx.x.xiii) and the word in the text is plural.

[FN#194] Arab. "Furkh samak" lit. a fish-chick, an Egyptian vulgarism.

[FN#195] Arab. "Al-Rasif"; usually a river-quay, levee, an embankment. Here it refers to the great d.y.k.e which distributed the Tigris-water.

[FN#196] Arab. "Dajlah," see vol. i, p 180. It is evidently the origin of the biblical "Hiddekel" "Hid" = fierceness, swiftness.

[FN#197] Arab. "Bayaz" a kind of Silurus (S. Bajad, Forsk.) which Sonnini calls Bayatto, Saksatt and Hebede; also Bogar (Bakar, an ox). The skin is lubricous, the flesh is soft and insipid and the fish often grows to the size of a man. Captain Speke and I found huge specimens in the Tangany ika Lake.

[FN#198] Arab. "Mu'allim," vulg. "M'allim," prop.= teacher, master esp. of a trade, a craft. In Egypt and Syria it is a civil address to a Jew or a Christian, as Hajj is to a Moslem.

[FN#199] Arab. "Gharamah," an exaction, usually on the part of government like a corvee etc. The Europeo-Egyptian term is Avania (Ital.) or Avanie (French).

[FN#200] Arab. "Sayyib-hu" an Egyptian vulgarism found also in Syria. Hence Saibah, a woman who lets herself go (a-whoring) etc. It is syn. with "Dashar," which Dozy believes to be a softening of Jashar; and Jashsh became Dashsh.

[FN#201] The Silurus is generally so called in English on account of its feeler-acting mustachios.

[FN#202] See Night dcccvii, vol. viii. p. 94.

[FN#203] This extraordinary confusion of two distinct religious mythologies cannot be the result of ignorance. Educated Moslems know at least as much as Christians do, on these subjects, but the Rawi or story-teller speaks to the "Gallery." In fact it becomes a mere ?chaff' and The Nights give some neat specimens of our modern linguistic.

[FN#204] See vol. ii. 197. "Al-Siddikah" (fem.) is a t.i.tle of Ayishah, who, however, does not appear to have deserved it.

[FN#205] The Jew's wife.

[FN#206] Here is a double entendre. The fisherman meant a word or two. The Jew understood the s.h.i.+bboleth of the Moslem Creed, popularly known as the "Two Words,"--I testify that there is no Ilah (G.o.d) but Allah (the G.o.d) and I testify that Mohammed is the Messenger of Allah. p.r.o.nouncing this formula would make the Jew a Moslem. Some writers are surprised to see a Jew ordering a Moslem to be flogged; but the former was rich and the latter was poor. Even during the worst days of Jewish persecutions their money-bags were heavy enough to lighten the greater part, if not the whole of their disabilities. And the Moslem saying is, "The Jew is never your (Moslem or Christian) equal: he must be either above you or below you." This is high, because unintentional praise of the (self-) Chosen People.

[FN#207] He understands the "two words" (Kalmatani) the Moslem's double profession of belief; and Khalifah's reply embodies the popular idea that the number of Moslems (who will be saved) is preordained and that no art of man can add to it or take from it.

[FN#208] Arab. "Mamarr al-Tujjar" (pa.s.sing-place of the traders) which Lane renders "A chamber within the place through which the traders pa.s.sed." At the end of the tale (Night dccxlv.) we find him living in a Khan and the Bresl. Edit. (see my terminal note) makes him dwell in a magazine (i.e. ground- floor store-room) of a ruined Khan.

[FN#209] The text is somewhat too concise and the meaning is that the fumes of the Has.h.i.+sh he had eaten ("his mind under the influence of hasheesh," says Lane) suggested to him, etc.

[FN#210] Arab. "Mamrak" either a simple aperture in ceiling or roof for light and air or a more complicated affair of lattice- work and plaster; it is often octagonal and crowned with a little dome. Lane calls it "Memrak," after the debased Cairene p.r.o.nunciation, and shows its base in his sketch of a Ka'ah (M.E., Introduction).

[FN#211] Arab. "Kamar." This is a practice especially amongst pilgrims. In Hindostan the girdle, usually a waist-shawl, is called Kammar-band our old "c.u.mmerbund." Easterns are too sensible not to protect the pit of the stomach, that great ganglionic centre, against sun, rain and wind, and now our soldiers in India wear flannel-belts on the march.

[FN#212] Arab. "Fa-imma 'alayha wa-imma biha," i.e. whether (luck go) against it or (luck go) with it.

[FN#213] "O vilest of sinners!" alludes to the thief. "A general plunge into worldly pursuits and pleasures announced the end of the pilgrimage-ceremonies. All the devotees were now "whitewashed"--the book of their sins was a tabula rasa: too many of them lost no time in making a new departure down South and in opening a fresh account" (Pilgrimage iii. 365). I have noticed that my servant at Jeddah would carry a bottle of Raki, uncovered by a napkin, through the main streets.

[FN#214] The copper cucurbites in which Solomon imprisoned the rebellious Jinns, often alluded to in The Nights.

[FN#215] i.e. Son of the Chase: it is prob. a corruption of the Persian Kurnas, a pimp, a cuckold, and introduced by way of chaff, intelligible only to a select few "fast" men.

[FN#216] For the name see vol. ii.61, in the Tale of Ghanim bin 'Ayyub where the Caliph's concubine is also drugged by the Lady Aubaydah.

[FN#217] We should say, "What is this?" etc. The lines have occurred before so I quote Mr. Payne.

[FN#218] Zubaydah, I have said, was the daughter of Ja'afar, son of the Caliph al-Mansur, second Abbaside. The story-teller persistently calls her daughter of Al-Kasim for some reason of his own; and this he will repeat in Night dcccx.x.xix.

[FN#219] Arab. "Shakhs," a word which has travelled as far as Hindostan.

[FN#220] Arab. "Shamlah" described in dictionaries, as a cloak covering the whole body. For Hizam (girdle) the Bresl. Edit.

reads "Hiram" vulg. "Ehram," the waist-cloth, the Pilgrim's attire.

[FN#221] He is described by Al-Siyuti (p. 309) as "very fair, tall handsome and of captivating appearance."

[FN#222] Arab. "Uzn al-Kuffah" lit. "Ear of the basket," which vulgar Egyptians p.r.o.nounce "Wizn," so "Wajh" (face) becomes "Wishsh" and so forth.