The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume XII Part 27

[FN#330] In Arab. "'Ud" means primarily wood; then a lute. See vol. ii. 100. The Muezzin, like the schoolmaster, is popularly supposed to be a fool.

[FN#331] I have noticed that among Arab lovers it was the fas.h.i.+on to be jealous of the mistress's nightly phantom which, as amongst mesmerists, is the lover's embodied will.

[FN#332] i.e. I will lay down my life to save thee from sorrow--a common-place hyperbole of love.

[FN#333] Arab. "Katl." I have noticed the Hibernian "kilt" which is not a bull but, like most provincialisms and Americanisms, a survival, an archaism. In the old Frisian dialect, which agrees with English in more words than "bread, b.u.t.ter and cheese," we find the primary meaning of terms which with us have survived only in their secondary senses, e.g. killen = to beat and slagen = to strike. Here is its great value to the English philologist.

When the Irishman complains that he is "kilt" we know through the Frisian what he really means.

[FN#334] The decency of this description is highly commendable and I may note that the Bresl. Edit. is comparatively free from erotic pictures.

[FN#335] i.e. "I commit him to thy charge under G.o.d."

[FN#336] This is an Americanism, but it translates pa.s.sing well "Al-ilaj" = insertion.

[FN#337] Arab. (and Heb.) "Tarjuman" = a dragoman, for which see vol. i. 100. In the next tale it will occur with the sense of polyglottic.

[FN#338] See vol. i. p. 35.

[FN#339] After putting to death the unjust Prefect.

[FN#340] Arab. "Lajlaj." See vol. ix. 322.

[FN#341] Arab. "Mawalid" lit. = nativity festivals (plur. of Maulid). See vol. ix. 289.

[FN#342] Bresl. Edit., vol. xii. pp. 116-237, Nights dcccclxvi-dcccclxxix. Mr. Payne ent.i.tles it "El Abbas and the King's Daughter of Baghdad."

[FN#343] "Of the Shayban tribe." I have noticed (vol. ii. 1) how loosely the t.i.tle Malik (King) is applied in Arabic and in mediaeval Europe. But it is ultra-Shakespearean to place a Badawi King in Baghdad, the capital founded by the Abbasides and ruled by those Caliphs till their downfall.

[FN#344] i.e. Irak Arabi (Chaldaea) and 'Ajami (Western Persia).

For the meaning of Al-Irak, which always, except in verse, takes the article, see vol. ii. 132.

[FN#345] See supra, p. 135. Mr. Payne suspects a clerical error for "Turk.u.maniyah" = Turcomanish; but this is hardly acceptable.

[FN#346] As fabulous a personage as "King Kays."

[FN#347] Possibly a clerical error for Zabid, the famous capital of the Tahamah or lowlands of Al-Yaman.

[FN#348] The Moslem's Holy Land whose capital is Meccah.

[FN#349] A hinted protest against making a picture or a statue which the artist cannot quicken; as this process will be demanded of him on Doomsday. Hence also the Princess is called Mariyah (Maria, Mary), a non-Moslem name.

[FN#350] i.e. day and night, for ever.

[FN#351] Koran x.x.xiii. 38; this concludes a "revelation"

concerning the divorce and marriage to Mohammed of the wife of his adopted son Zayd. Such union, superst.i.tiously held incestuous by all Arabs, was a terrible scandal to the rising Faith, and could be abated only by the "Commandment of Allah." It is hard to believe that a man could act honestly after such fas.h.i.+on; but we have seen in our day a statesman famed for sincerity and uprightness honestly doing things the most dishonest possible.

Zayd and Abu Lahab (chap. cxi. i.) are the only contemporaries of Mohammed named in the Koran.

[FN#352] i.e. darkened behind him.

[FN#353] Here we have again, as so common in Arab romances, the expedition of a modified Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.

[FN#354] Arab. "Arzi-ha" = in its earth, its outlying suburbs.

[FN#355] The king's own tribe.

[FN#356] i.e. he was always "spoiling for a fight."

[FN#357] In the text the two last sentences are spoken by Amir and the story-teller suddenly resumes the third person.

[FN#358] Mr. Payne translates this "And G.o.d defend the right" (of plunder according to the Arabs).

[FN#359] Arab. "Lillahi darruk"; see vol. iv. 20. Captain Lockett (p.28) justly remarks that "it is a sort of encomiastic exclamation of frequent occurrence in Arabic and much easier to comprehend than translate." Darra signifies flowing freely (as milk from the udder) and was metaphorically transferred to bounty and to indoles or natural capacity. Thus the phrase means "your flow of milk is by or through Allah." i.e., of unusual abundance.

[FN#360] The words are euphemistic: we should say "comest thou to our succour."

[FN#361] i.e. If his friend the Devil be overstrong for thee, flee him rather than be slain; as

He who fights and runs away Shall live to fight another day.

[FN#362] i.e. I look to Allah for said (and keep my powder dry).

[FN#363] i.e. to the next world.

[FN#364] This falling backwards in laughter commonly occurs during the earlier tales; it is, however, very rare amongst the Badawin.

[FN#365] i.e. as he were a flying Jinni, swooping down and pouncing falcon-like upon a mortal from the upper air.

[FN#366] This may be (reading Imraan = man, for Amran = matter) "a masterful man"; but I can hardly accept it.

[FN#367] Arab. "Bunduki," the adj. of Bunduk, which the Moslems evidently learned from Slav sources; Venedik being the Dalmatian corruption of Venezia. See Dubrovenedik in vol. ii. 219.

[FN#368] i.e. the castle's square.

[FN#369] In sign of quitting possession. Chess in Europe is rarely played for money, with the exception of public matches: this, however, is not the case amongst Easterns, who are also for the most part as tricky as an old lady at cribbage rightly named.

[FN#370] i.e, he was as eloquent and courtly as he could be.

[FN#371] Arab. "Ya Zinat al-Nisa," which may either be a P.N. or a polite address as Bella fe (Handsome woman) is to any feminine in Southern Italy.

[FN#372] Arab. "Raas Ghanam": this form of expressing singularity is common to Arabic and the Eastern languages, which it has influenced.

[FN#373] This most wearisome form of politeness is common in the Moslem world, where men fondly think that the more you see of them the more you like of them. Yet their Proverbial Philosophy ("the wisdom of many and the wit of one") strongly protests against the practice: I have already quoted Mohammed's saying, "Zur ghibban, tazid Hibban"--visits rare keep friends.h.i.+p fair.

[FN#374] This clause in the text is evidently misplaced (vol.

xii.144).

[FN#375] Arab. Dara' or Dira'=armour, whether of leather or metal; here the coat worn under the mail.