The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume I Part 26

[FN#327] i e. the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean.

[FN#328] i.e. Settled by the Koran.

[FN#329] The uglier the old woman the better procuress she is supposed to make. See the Santa Verdiana in Boccaccio v., 10. In Arab. "Ajuz" (old woman) is highly insulting and if addressed to an Egyptian, whatever be her age she will turn fiercely and resent it.

The polite term is Shaybah (Pilgrimage hi., 200).

[FN#330] The four ages of woman, considered after Demosthenes in her three-fold character, prost.i.tute for pleasure, concubine for service and wife for breeding.

[FN#331] Arab. "Jila" (the Hindostani Julwa) = the displaying of the bride before the bridegroom for the first time, in different dresses, to the number of seven which are often borrowed for the occasion. The happy man must pay a fee called "the tax of face-unveiling" before he can see her features. Amongst Syrian Christians he sometimes tries to lift the veil by a sharp movement of the sword which is parried by the women present, and the blade remains entangled in the cloth. At last he succeeds, the bride sinks to the ground covering her face with her hands and the robes of her friends: presently she is raised up, her veil is readjusted and her face is left bare.

[FN#332] Arab. "Isha"= the first watch of the night, twilight, supper-time, supper. Moslems have borrowed the four watches of the Romans from 6 (a.m. or p.m.) to 6, and ignore the three original watches of the Jews, even, midnight and c.o.c.kcrow (Sam. ii. 19, Judges vii. 19, and Exodus xiv. 24).

[FN#333] A popular Arab hyperbole.

[FN#334] Arab. "Shakaik al-Nu'uman," lit. the fissures of Nu'uman, the beautiful anemone, which a tyrannical King of Hirah, Nu'uman Al-Munzir, a contemporary of Mohammed, attempted to monopolize.

[FN#335] Arab. "Andam"=here the gum called dragon's blood; in other places the dye-wood known as brazil.

[FN#336] I need hardly say that in the East, where bells are unused, clapping the hands summons the servants. In India men cry "Quy hye" (Koi hai?) and in Brazil whistle "Pst!" after the fas.h.i.+on of Spain and Portugal.

[FN#337] The moles are here compared with pearls; a simile by no means common or appropriate.

[FN#338] A parody on the testification of Allah's Unity.

[FN#339] Arab. "Simat" (prop. "Sumat"); the "dinner-table,"

composed of a round wooden stool supporting a large metal tray, the two being called "Sufrah" (or "Simat"): thus "Sufrah hazirah!"

means dinner is on the table. After the meal they are at once removed.

[FN#340] In the text "Dastur," the Persian word before noticed; "Izn" would be the proper Arabic equivalent.

[FN#341] In the Moslem East a young woman, single or married, is not allowed to appear alone in the streets; and the police have a right to arrest delinquents. As a preventive of intrigues the precaution is excellent. During the Crimean war hundreds of officers, English, French and Italian, became familiar with Constantinople; and not a few flattered themselves on their success with Turkish women. I do not believe that a single bona fide case occurred: the "conquests" were all Greeks, Wallachians, Armenians or Jewesses.

[FN#342] Arab. "Azim": translators do not seem to know that this word in The Nights often bears its Egyptian and slang sense, somewhat equivalent to our "deuced" or "mighty" or "awfully fine."

[FN#343] This is a very serious thing amongst Moslems and scrupulous men often make great sacrifices to avoid taking an oath.

[FN#344] We should say "into the noose."

[FN#345] The man had fallen in love with her and determined to mark her so that she might be his.

[FN#346] Arab. "Dajlah," in which we find the Heb. Hid-dekel.

[FN#347] Such an execution would be contrary to Moslem law: but people would look leniently upon the peccadillo of beheading or sacking a faithless wife. Moreover the youth was of the blood royal and A quoi bon etre prince? as was said by a boy of viceroyal family in Egypt to his tutor who reproached him for unnecessarily shooting down a poor old man.

[FN#348] Arab. "s.h.i.+rk," partners.h.i.+p, evening or a.s.sociating G.o.ds with G.o.d; polytheism: especially levelled at the Hindu triadism, Guebre dualism and Christian Trinitarianism.

[FN#349] Arab. "Shatm"--abuse, generally couched in foulest language with especial reference to the privy parts of female relatives.

[FN#350] When a woman is bastinadoed in the East they leave her some portion of dress and pour over her sundry buckets of water for a delicate consideration. When the hands are beaten they are pa.s.sed through holes in the curtain separating the sufferer from mankind, and made fast to a "falakah" or pole.

[FN#351] Arab. "Khalifah," Caliph. The word is also used for the successor of a Santon or holy man.

[FN#352] Arab. "Sar," here the Koranic word for carrying out the venerable and undying lex talionis the original basis of all criminal jurisprudence. Its main fault is that justice repeats the offence.

[FN#353] Both these sons of Harun became Caliphs, as we shall see in The Nights.

[FN#354] "Dog" and "hog" are still highly popular terms of abuse.

The Rabbis will not defile their lips with "pig;" but say "Dabhar akhir"="another thing."

[FN#355] The "hero eponymus" of the Abbaside dynasty, Abbas having been the brother of Abdullah the father of Mohammed. He is a famous personage in AI-Islam (D'Herbelot).

[FN#356] Europe translates the word "Barmecides. It is Persian from bar (up) and makidan (to suck). The vulgar legend is that Ja'afar, the first of the name, appeared before the Caliph Abd al-Malik with a ring poisoned for his own need; and that the Caliph, warned of it by the clapping of two stones which he wore ad hoc, charged the visitor with intention to murder him. He excused himself and in his speech occurred the Persian word "Barmakam," which may mean "I shall sup it up," or "I am a Barmak," that is, a high priest among the Guebres. See D'Herbelot s.v.

[FN#357] Arab."Zulm," the deadliest of monarch's sins. One of the sayings of Mohammed, popularly quoted, is, "Kingdom endureth with Kufr or infidelity (i. e. without accepting AI-Islam) but endureth not with Zulm or injustice." Hence the good Moslem will not complain of the rule of Kafirs or Unbelievers, like the English, so long as they rule him righteously and according to his own law.]

[FN#358] All this aggravates his crime: had she been a widow she would not have had upon him "the claims of maidenhead," the premio della verginita of Boccaccio, x. 10.

[FN#359] It is supposed that slaves cannot help telling these fatal lies. Arab story-books are full of ancient and modern instances and some have become "Joe Millers." Moreover it is held unworthy of a free-born man to take over-notice of these servile villanies; hence the scoundrel in the story escapes unpunished. I have already noticed the predilection of debauched women for these "skunks of the human race;" and the young man in the text evidently suspected that his wife had pa.s.sed herself this "little caprice." The excuse which the Caliph would find for him is the pundonor shown in killing one he loved so fondly.

[FN#360] The Arab equivalent of our pitcher and well.

[FN#361] i.e. Where the dress sits loosely about the bust.

[FN#362] He had trusted in Allah and his trust was justified.

[FN#363] Arab. "Khila'ah" prop. What a man strips from his person: gen. An honorary gift. It is something more than the "robe of honour" of our chivalrous romances, as it includes a horse, a sword (often gold-hilted), a black turban (amongst the Abbasides) embroidered with gold, a violet-mantle, a waist-shawl and a gold neck-chain and shoe-buckles.

[FN#364] Arab. "Iza," i.e. the visits of condolence and so forth which are long and terribly wearisome in the Moslem East.

[FN#365] Arab. "Mahr," the money settled by the man before marriage on the woman and without which the contract is not valid. Usually half of it is paid down on the marriage-day and the other half when the husband dies or divorces his wife. But if she take a divorce she forfeits her right to it, and obscene fellows, especially Persians, often compel her to demand divorce by unnatural and preposterous use of her person.

[FN#366] Bismillah here means "Thou art welcome to it."

[FN#367] Arab. "Ba.s.sak," half Pers. (bas = enough) and--ak = thou; for thee. "Bas" sounds like our "buss" (to kiss) and there are sundry good old Anglo-Indian jokes of feminine mistakes on the subject.

[FN#368] This saving clause makes the threat worse. The scene between the two brothers is written with characteristic Arab humour; and it is true to nature. In England we have heard of a man who separated from his wife because he wished to dine at six and she preferred half-past six.

[FN#369] Arab. "Misr." (vulg. Masr). The word, which comes of a very ancient house, was applied to the present capital about the time of its conquest by the Osmanli Turks A.H. 923 = 1517.

[FN#370] The Arab. "Jizah," = skirt, edge; the modern village is the site of an ancient Egyptian city, as the "Ghizah inscription"

proves (Brugsch, History of Egypt, ii. 415)

[FN#371] Arab. "Watan" literally meaning "birth-place" but also used for "patria, native country"; thus "Hubb al-Watan" = patriotism. The Turks p.r.o.nounce it "Vatan," which the French have turned it into Va-t'en!

[FN#372] Arab. "Zarzariyah" = the colour of a stare or starling (Zurzur).

[FN#373] Now a Railway Station on the Alexandria-Cairo line.

[FN#374] Even as late as 1852, when I first saw Cairo, the city was girt by waste lands and the climate was excellent. Now cultivation comes up to the house walls; while the Mahmudiyah Ca.n.a.l, the planting the streets with avenues and over-watering have seriously injured it; those who want the air of former Cairo must go to Thebes. Gout, rheumatism and hydrophobia (before unknown) have become common of late years.