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

[FN#505] In the East women stand on minor occasions while men squat on their hunkers in a way hardly possible to an untrained European. The custom is old. Herodotus (ii., 35) says, "The women stand up when they make water, but the men sit down." Will it be believed that Canon Rawlinson was too modest to leave this pa.s.sage in his translation? The custom was perpetuated by Al-Islam because the position prevents the ejection touching the clothes and making them ceremonially impure; possibly they borrowed it from the Guebres. Dabistan, Gate xvi. says, "It is improper, whilst in an erect posture, to make water, it is therefore necessary to sit at squat and force it to some distance, repeating the Avesta mentally."

[FN#506] This is still a popular form of the "Kinchin lay," and as the turbands are often of fine stuff, the pet.i.te industrie pays well.

[FN#507]Arab. "Wali" =Governor; the term still in use for the Governor General of a Province as opposed to the "Muhafiz," or district-governor. In Eastern Arabia the Wali is the Civil Governor opposed to the Amir or Military Commandant. Under the Caliphate the Wali acted also as Prefect of Police (the Indian Fanjdar), who is now called "Zabit." The older name for the latter was "Sahib al-Shartah" (=chief of the watch) or "Mutawalli"; and it was his duty to go the rounds in person. The old "Charley," with his lantern and cudgel, still guards the bazaars in Damascus.

[FN#508] Arab. "Al-Masha ili" = the bearer of a cresses (Mash'al) who was also Jack Ketch. In Anglo-India the name is given to a lower body-servant. The "Mash'al" which Lane (M. E., chaps. vi.) calls "Mesh'al" and ill.u.s.trates, must not be confounded with its congener the "Sha'ilah" or link (also lamp, wick, etc.).

[FN#509] I need hardly say that the civilised "drop" is unknown to the East where men are strung up as to a yardarm. This greatly prolongs the suffering.

[FN#510] Arab. "Lukmah"; = a mouthful. It is still the fas.h.i.+on amongst Easterns of primitive manners to take up a handful of rice, etc., ball it and put it into a friend's mouth honoris causa. When the friend is a European the expression of his face is generally a study.

[FN#511] I need hardly note that this is an old Biblical practice. The a.s.s is used for city-work as the horse for fighting and travelling, the mule for burdens and the dromedary for the desert. But the Badawi, like the Indian, despises the monture and sings:--

The back of the steed is a n.o.ble place But the mule's dishonour, the a.s.s disgrace!

The fine white a.s.ses, often thirteen hands high, sold by the Banu Salib and other Badawi tribes, will fetch 100, and more. I rode a little brute from Meccah to Jedda (42 miles) in one night and it came in with me cantering.

[FN#512] A dry measure of about five bushels (Cairo). The cla.s.sical p.r.o.nunciation is Irdabb and it measured 24 sa'a (gallons) each filling four outstretched hands.

[FN#513] "Al-Jawali" should be Al-Jawali (Al-Makrizi) and the Bab al-Nasr (Gate of Victory) is that leading to Suez. I lived in that quarter as shown by my Pilgrimage (i. 62).

[FN#514] Arab. "Al-'ajalah," referring to a saying in every Moslem mouth, "Patience is from the Protector (Allah): Hurry is from h.e.l.l." That and "Inshallah bukra!" (Please G.o.d tomorrow.) are the traveller's betes noires.

[FN#515] Here it is a polite equivalent for "fall to!"

[FN#516] The left hand is used throughout the East for purposes of ablution and is considered unclean. To offer the left hand would be most insulting and no man ever strokes his beard with it or eats with it: hence, probably, one never sees a left handed man throughout the Moslem east. In the Brazil for the same reason old-fas.h.i.+oned people will not take snuff with the right hand. And it is related of the Khataians that they prefer the left hand, "Because the heart, which is the Sultan of the city of the Body, hath his mansion on that side" (Rauzat al-Safa).

[FN#517] Two feminine names as we might say Mary and Martha.

[FN#518] It was near the Caliph's two Palaces (Al Kasrayn); and was famous in the 15th century A. D. The Kazi's Mahkamah (Court house) now occupies the place of the Two Palaces

[FN#519] A Kaysariah is a superior kind of bazaar, a "bezestein."

That in the text stood to the east of the princ.i.p.al street in Cairo and was built in A. H. 502 (=1108-9) by a Circa.s.sian Emir, known as Fakhr al-Din Jaharkas, a corruption of the Persian "Cheharkas" = four persons (Lane, i. 422, from Al-Makrizi and Ibn Khallikan). For Jaharkas the Mac. Edit. has Jirjis (George) a common Christian name. I once lodged in a 'Wakalah (the modern Khan) Jirjis." Pilgrimage, i. 255.

[FN#520]Arab. "Second Day," i.e. after Sat.u.r.day, the true Sabbath, so marvellously ignored by Christendom.

[FN#521] Readers who wish to know how a traveller is lodged in a Wakalah, Khan, or Caravanserai, will consult my Pilgrimage, i.

60.

[FN#522] The original occupation of the family had given it a name, as amongst us.

[FN#523] The usual "chaff" or banter allowed even to modest women when shopping, and--many a true word is spoken in jest.

[FN#524] "La ad.a.m.nak" = Heaven deprive us not of thee, i.e. grant I see thee often!

[FN#525] This is a somewhat cavalier style of advance; but Easterns under such circ.u.mstances go straight to the point, hating to filer the parfait amour.

[FN#526] The peremptory formula of a slave delivering such a message.

[FN#527] This would be our Thursday night, preceding the day of public prayers which can be performed only when in a state of ceremonial purity. Hence many Moslems go to the Hammam on Thursday and have no connection with their wives.

[FN#528] Lane (i. 423) gives ample details concerning the Habbaniyah, or grain-sellers' quarter in the southern part of Cairo; and shows that when this tale was written (or transcribed?) the city was almost as extensive as it is now.

[FN#529] Nakib is a caravan-leader, a chief, a syndic; and "Abu Shamah"= Father of a cheek mole, while "Abu Shammah" = Father of a smeller, a nose, a snout. The "Kuniyah," bye-name, patronymic or matronymic, is necessary amongst Moslems whose list of names, all connected more or less with religion, is so scanty. Hence Buckingham the traveller was known as Abu Kidr, the Father of a Cooking-pot and Haj Abdullah as Abu Shawarib, Father of Mustachios (Pilgrimage, iii., 263).

[FN#530] More correctly Bab Zawilah from the name of a tribe in Northern Africa. This gate dates from the same age as the Eastern or Desert gate, Bab al-Nasr (A.D. 1087) and is still much admired. M. Jomard describes it (Description, etc., ii. 670) and lately my good friend Yacoub Artin Pasha has drawn attention to it in the Bulletin de l'Inst. Egypt., Deuxieme Serie, No. 4, 1883.

[FN#531] This ornament is still seen in the older saloons of Damascus: the inscriptions are usually religious sentences, extracts from the Koran, etc., in uncial characters. They take the place of our frescos; and, as a work of art, are generally far superior.

[FN#532] Arab. "Bayaz al-Sultani," the best kind of gypsum which s.h.i.+nes like polished marble. The stucco on the walls of Alexandria, built by Alexander of the two Horns, was so exquisitely tempered and beautifully polished that men had to wear masks for fear of blindness.

[FN#533] This Iklil, a complicated affair, is now obsolete, its place having been taken by the "Kurs," a gold plate, some five inches in diameter, set with jewels, etc. Lane (M. E. Appendix A) figures it.

[FN#534] The woman-artist who applies the dye is called "Munakkishah."

[FN#535] "Kissing with th' inner lip," as Shakespeare calls it; the French langue fourree: and Sanskrit "Samputa." The subject of kissing is extensive in the East. Ten different varieties are duly enumerated in the "Ananga-Ranga;" or, The Hindu Art of Love (Ars Amoris Indica) translated from the Sanskrit, and annotated by A. F. F. and B. F. R It is also connected with unguiculation, or impressing the nails, of which there are seven kinds; morsication (seven kinds); handling the hair and lappings or pattings with the fingers and palm (eight kinds).

[FN#536] Arab. "asal-nahl," to distinguish it from "honey" i.e.

syrup of sugar-cane and fruits

[FN#537] The lines have occurred in Night xii. By way of variety I give Torrens' version p. 273.

[FN#538] The way of carrying money in the corner of a pocket-handkerchief is still common.

[FN#539] He sent the provisions not to be under an obligation to her in this matter. And she received them to judge thereby of his liberality

[FN#540] Those who have seen the process of wine-making in the Liba.n.u.s will readily understand why it is always strained.

[FN#541] Arab. "Kulkasa," a kind of arum or yam, eaten boiled like our potatoes.

[FN#542]At first he slipped the money into the bed-clothes: now he gives it openly and she accepts it for a reason.

[FN#543] Arab. Al-Zalamah lit. = tyrants, oppressors, applied to the police and generally to employes of Government. It is a word which tells a history.

[FN#544] Moslem law is never completely satisfied till the criminal confess. It also utterly ignores circ.u.mstantial evidence and for the best of reasons: amongst so sharp-witted a people the admission would lead to endless abuses. I greatly surprised a certain Governor-General of India by giving him this simple information

[FN#545] Cutting off the right hand is the Koranic punishment (chaps. v.) for one who robs an article worth four dinars, about forty francs to s.h.i.+llings. The left foot is to be cut off at the ankle for a second offence and so on; but death is reserved for a hardened criminal. The practice is now obsolete and theft is punished by the bastinado, fine or imprisonment. The old Guebres were as severe. For stealing one dirham's worth they took a fine of two, cut off the ear-lobes, gave ten stick-blows and dismissed the criminal who had been subjected to an hour's imprisonment. A second theft caused the penalties to be doubled; and after that the right hand was cut off or death was inflicted according to the proportion stolen.

[FN#546] Koran viii. 17.

[FN#547] A universal custom in the East, the object being originally to show that the draught was not poisoned.

[FN#548] Out of paste or pudding.

[FN#549] Boils and pimples are supposed to be caused by broken hair-roots and in Hindostani are called Bal-tor.

[FN#550] He intended to bury it decently, a respect which Moslems always show even to the exuviae of the body, as hair and nail parings. Amongst Guebres the latter were collected and carried to some mountain. The practice was intensified by fear of demons or wizards getting possession of the spoils.