The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume XI Part 21

[FN#364] i.e. the resemblance of the supposed sister to his wife. This is a rechauffe of Kamar al-Zaman iid.

[FN#365] This leaving a long lock upon the shaven poll is a very ancient practice: we find it amongst the old Egyptians. For the Shushah or top-knot of hair, see vol. i. 308. It is differently worn in the several regions of the Moslem world: the Maroccans of the Rif country grow it not on the poll but on one side of the head. As a rule, however, it is confined to boys, and is shaved off at p.u.b.erty.

[FN#366] Suspecting her to be a witch because she was old and poor. The same was the case in Europe when these unfortunates were burned during the early part of the last century and even now the country-folk are often ready to beat or drown them. The abominable witchcraft acts, which arose from bibliolatry and belief in obsolete superst.i.tions, can claim as many victims in "Protestant" countries, England and the Anglo-American States as the Jesuitical Inquisition.

[FN#367] It is not easy to make sense of this pa.s.sage especially when the Wazir is spoken of.

[FN#368] This is a rechauffe of the Sandal-Wood Merchant and the Sharpers. Vol. vi. 202.

[FN#369] I have followed Mr. Payne's adaptation of the text as he makes sense, whilst the Arabic does not. I suppose that the holes are disposed crosswise.

[FN#370] i.e. Thy skill is so great that thou wilt undermine my authority with the king.

[FN#371] This famous tale is first found in a small collection of Latin fables (Adolphi Fabulae apud Leyser Hist. Poet. Medii aevi, p. 200?8), beginning

Caecus erat quidam, cui pulcra virago, etc.

The date is 1315, and Caxton printed it in English in 1483; hence it was adopted by Boccaccio, Day vii., Novella 9; whence Chaucer's "Marchaundes Tale": this, by-the-by, was translated by Pope in his sixteenth or seventeenth year, and christened "January and May." The same story is inserted in La Fontaine (Contes, lib. ii., No. 8), "La Gageure des trois Commeres," with the normal poirier; and lastly it appears in Wieland's "Oberon,"

canto vi.; where the Fairy King restores the old husband's sight, and t.i.tania makes the lover on the pear-tree invisible. Mr.

Clouston refers me also to the Bahar-i-Danish, or Prime of Knowledge (Scott's translation, vol. ii., pp. 64?68); "How the Brahman learned the Tirrea Bede"; to the Turkish "Kirk Wazir"

(Forty Wazirs) of the Shaykh-Zadeh (xxivth Wazir's story); to the "Com?dia Lydiae," and to Barbazan's "Fabliaux et Contes" t. iii.

p. 451, "La Saineresse," the cupping-woman.

[FN#372] In the European versions it is always a pear-tree.

[FN#373] This supernatural agency, ever at hand and ever credible to Easterns, makes this the most satisfactory version of the world-wide tale.

[FN#374] i.e. till next harvest time.

[FN#375] The "'Ashshar," or t.i.ther, is most unpopular in the Nile-valley as in Wales; and he generally merits his ill-repute.

Tales concerning the villainy of these extortioners abound in Egypt and Syria. The first step in improvement will be so to regulate the t.i.thes that the peasants may not be at the mercy of these "publicans and sinners" who, however, can plead that they have paid highly for appointment to office and must recoup themselves.

[FN#376] Arab. "'Ammir"=cause to flourish.

[FN#377] Arab. "Afkah," a better Fakih or theologian; all Moslem law being based upon the Koran, the Sayings (Hadis) and Doings (Sunnat) of the Prophet; and, lastly, the Rasm or immemorial custom of the country provided that it be not opposed to the other three.

[FN#378] If the number represent the days in the Moslem year it should be 354=6 months of 29 days and the rest of 30).

[FN#379] The affirmative particle "kad" preceding a verb in the past gives it a present and at times a future signification.

[FN#380] A danik, the Persian "Dang," is one-sixth of a dirham, i.e. about one penny. See vol. ii. 204.

[FN#381] It would mightily tickle an Eastern audience to hear of a t.i.ther being unable to do any possible amount of villainy.

[FN#382] i.e. The oath of triple divorce which is, I have said, irrevocable, and the divorcee may not be taken again by her husband till her marriage with another man (the Mustahill of The Nights) has been consummated. See vol. iv., 48.

[FN#383] i.e. thousandfold cuckold.

[FN#384] Arab. "Wadi'ah"=the blows which the Robber had given him.

[FN#385] Arab. "Sindiyan" (from the Persian) gen. used for the holm-oak, the Quercus pseudococcifera, vulgarly termed ilex, or native oak, and forming an extensive scrub in Syria, For this and other varieties of Quercus, as the Mallul and the Ballut, see Unexplored Syria, i. 68.

[FN#386] Hibernice

[FN#387] Lit. "In the way of moderation"=at least, at the most moderate reckoning.

[FN#388] Arab. "Rasmal," the vulg. Syrian and Egyptian form of Raas al-mal=stockin-trade.

[FN#389] Usually a ring or something from his person to show that all was fair play; here however, it was a watchword.

[FN#390] Arab. "Ya Madyubah," prob. a clerical error for "Madyunah," alluding to her many debts which he had paid. Here, however, I suspect the truly Egyptian term "Ya Manyukah!"=O thou berogered; a delicate term of depreciation which may be heard a dozen times a day in the streets of Cairo. It has also a masculine form, "Ya Manyuk!"

[FN#391] About=100 lb. Mr. Sayce (Comparative Philol. p. 210) owns that Mn is old Egyptian but makes it a loan from the "Semites," like Sus (horse), Sar (prince), Sepet (lip) and Murcabutha (chariot), and goes to its origin in the Acratan column, because "it is not found before the times when the Egyptians borrowed freely from Palestine." But surely it is premature to draw such conclusion when we have so much still to learn concerning the dates of words in Egyptian.

[FN#392] Arab. Jami'. This anachronism, like many of the same kind, is only apparent. The faith preached by Sayyidna Isa was the Islam of his day and dispensation, and it abrogated all other faiths till itself abrogated by the mission of Mahommed. It is therefore logical to apply to it terms which we should hold to be purely Moslem. On the other hand it is not logical to paint the drop-curtain of the Ober-Ammergau "Miracle-play" with the Mosque of Omar and the minarets of Al-Islam. I humbly represented this fact to the mechanicals of the village whose performance brings them in so large a sum every decade; but Snug, Snout and Bottom turned up the nose of contempt and looked upon me as a mere "shallow sceptic."

[FN#393] Arab. "Talamizah," plur. of Tilmiz, a disciple, a young attendant. The word is Syriac but no Arabic. In the Durrat al-Ghawwas, however, Tilmiz, Bilkis, and similar words are Arabic in the form of Fa'lil and Fi'lil

[FN#394] Ruh Allah, lit.=breath of Allah, attending to the miraculous conception according to the Moslems. See vol. v. 238.

[FN#395] Readers will kindly p.r.o.nounce this word "Sahra" not Sahara.

[FN#396] Mr. Clouston refers for a.n.a.logies to this tale to his "Oriental Sources of some of Chaucer's Tales" (Notes and Queries, 1885?86), and he finds the original of The Pardoner's Tale in one of the Jatakas or Buddhist Birth-stories ent.i.tled Vedabbha Jataka. The story is spread over all Europe; in the Cento Novelle Antiche; Morlini; Hans Sachs, etc. And there are many Eastern versions, e.g. a Persian by Farid al-Din "'Attar" who died at a great age in A.D. 1278; an Arabic version in The Orientalist (Kandy, 1884); a Tibetan in Rollston's Tibetan Tales; a Cashmirian in Knowles' Dict. of Kashmiri Proverbs, etc., etc., etc.

[FN#397] Arab. "'Awan" lit.=aids, helpers; the "Aun of the Jinn"

has often occurred.

[FN#398] i.e. the peasant.

[FN#399] i.e. those serving on the usual feudal tenure; and bound to suit and service for their fiefs.

[FN#400] i.e. the yearly value of his fief.

[FN#401] i.e. men who paid taxes.

[FN#402] Arab. "Rasatik" plur. of Rustak. See vol. vi. 289.

[FN#403] This adventure is a rechauffe of Amjad's adventure (vol. iii. 333) without, however, its tragic catastrophe.

[FN#404] The text is so concise as to be enigmatical. The house was finely furnished for a feast, as it belonged to the Man who was lavish, etc.

[FN#405] Arab. "Khubz Samiz;" the latter is the Arabisation of the Pers. Samid, fine white bread, simnel, Germ. semmel.

[FN#406] The text has "Bakulat"=pot-herbs; but it is probably a clerical error for "Baklawat." See vol. ii. 311.

[FN#407] Egyptian-like he at once calls upon Allah to witness a lie and his excuse would be that the lie was well-intentioned.

[FN#408] i.e. The private bagnio which in old days every grand house possessed.