The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume XIII Part 24

[FN#154] Arab. Dahab ramli = gold dust washed out of the sand, placer-gold. I must excuse myself for using this Americanism, properly a diluvium or deposit of sand, and improperly (Bartlett) a find of drift gold. The word, like many mining terms in the Far West, is borrowed from the Spaniards; it is not therefore one of the many American vulgarisms which threaten hopelessly to defile the pure well of English speech.

[FN#155] Abra. "Ratl," by Europeans usually p.r.o.nounced "Rotl"

(Rotolo).

[FN#156] In the H. V. she returns from the bazar; and, "seeing the house filled with so many persons in goodliest attire, marvelled greatly. Then setting down the meat lately bought she would have taken off her veil, but Alaeddin prevented her and said," etc.

[FN#157] The word is popularly derived from Serai in Persian = a palace; but it comes from the Span. and Port. Cerrar = to shut up, and should be written with the reduplicated liquid.

[FN#158] In the H. V. the dresses and ornaments of the slaves were priced at ten millions (Karr a crore) of gold coins. I have noticed that Messer Marco "Milione" did not learn his high numerals in Arabia, but that India might easily have taught them to him.

[FN#159] Arab. "Rih yasr," peasant's language.

[FN#160] Arab. K'ah, the apodyterium or undressing room upon which the vestibule of the Hammam opens. See the plan in Lane's M. E. chaps. xvi. The Kr'ah is now usually called "Maslakh" = stripping-room.

[FN#161] Arab. "Hammam-hu" = went through all the operations of the Hammam, sc.r.a.ping, kneading, soaping, wiping and so forth.

[FN#162] For this aphrodisiac see vol. vi. 60. The subject of aphrodisiacs in the East would fill a small library: almost every medical treatise ends in a long disquisition upon fortifiers, provocatives' etc. We may briefly divide them into three great cla.s.ses. The first is the medicinal, which may be either external or internal. The second is the mechanical, such as scarification'

flagellation, and the application of insects as practiced by certain savage races. There is a venerable Joe Miller of an old Brahmin whose young wife always insisted, each time before he possessed her, upon his being stung by a bee in certain parts.

The third is magical superst.i.tious and so forth

[FN#163] This may sound exaggerated to English ears, but a petty Indian Prince, such as the Gikwr, or Rajah of Baroda, would be preceded in state processions by several led horses all whose housings and saddles were gold studded with diamonds. The sight made one's mouth water.

[FN#164] i.e. the Arab al-'Arb; for which see vols. i. 112; v.

101.

[FN#165] Arab. "Al-Kandl al-'ajb:" here its magical virtues are specified and remove many apparent improbabilities from the tale.

[FN#166] This was the highest of honours. At Abyssinian Harar even the Grandees were compelled to dismount at the door of the royal "compound." See my "First Footsteps in East Africa," p.

296.

[FN#167] "The right hand" seems to me a European touch in Galland's translation, leur chef mit Aladdin a sa droite. Amongst Moslems the great man sits in the sinistral corner of the Divan as seen from the door, so the place of honour is to his left.

[FN#168] Arab. "Msik," cla.s.sically "Musik" ={Greek}: the Pers. form is Msikr; and the Arab. equivalent is Al-Lahn. In the H. V. the King made a signal and straightway drums (dhol) and trumpets (trafr) and all manner wedding instruments struck up on every side.

[FN#169] Arab. Marmar Sumki=porphyry of which ancient Egypt supplied the finest specimens. I found a vein of it in the Anti- Liba.n.u.s. Strange to say, the quarries which produced the far- famed giallo antico, verd' antico (serpentine limestone) and rosso antico (mostly a porphyry) worked by the old Nilotes, are now unknown to us.

[FN#170] i.e. velvets with gold embroidery: see vol. viii. 201.

[FN#171] The Arabic says, "There was a kiosque with four-and- twenty alcoves (Lwn, for which see vols. iv. 71, vi. 347) all builded of emerald, etc., and one remained with the kiosque (kushk) unfinished." I adopt Galland's reading salon vingt- quatre croises which are mentioned in the Arab. text towards the end of the tale, and thus avoid the confusion between kiosque and window. In the H. V. there is a domed belvedere (brah-dari-i- gumbaz-dr), four-sided, with six doors on each front (i. e.

twenty-four), and all studded with diamonds, etc.

[FN#172] In Persia this is called "P-andz," and must be prepared for the Shah when he deigns to visit a subject. It is always of costly stuffs, and becomes the perquisite of the royal attendants.

[FN#173] Here the European hand again appears to me: the Sultan as a good Moslem should have made the Wuz-ablution and prayed the dawn-prayers before doing anything worldly.

[FN#174] Arab. F ghuzni zlika," a peculiar phrase, Ghazn=a crease, a wrinkle.

[FN#175] In the H. V. the King "marvelled to see Alaeddin's mother without her veil and magnificently adorned with costly jewels and said in his mind, Methought she was a grey-haired crone, but I find her still in the prime of life and comely to look upon, somewhat after the fas.h.i.+on of Badr al-Budr.' " This also was one of the miracles of the Lamp.

[FN#176] For this word see vols. i. 46, vii. 326. A Joe Miller is told in Western India of an old General Officer boasting his knowledge of Hindostani. "How do you say, Tell a plain story, General?" asked one of the hearers, and the answer was, "Maydn k bt bolo!" = "speak a word about the plain" (or level s.p.a.ce).

[FN#177] The prehistoric Arabs: see supra p. 98.

[FN#178] Popularly, Jerd, the palm-frond used as javelin: see vol. vi. 263.

[FN#179] In order to keep off the evil eye, one of the functions of iron and steel: see vol. ii. 316.

[FN#180] The H. V. adds, "Little did the Princess know that the singers were fairies whom the Slave of the Lamp had brought together."

[FN#181] Alexander the Great: see v. 252, x. 57. The H. V. adds, "Then only one man and one woman danced together, one with other, till midnight, when Alaeddin and the Princess stood up, for it was the wont of China in those days that bride and bridegroom perform together in presence of the wedding company."

[FN#182] The exceptional reserve of this and other descriptions makes M. H. Zotenberg suspect that the tale was written for one of the Mameluke Princesses: I own to its modesty but I doubt that such virtue would have recommended it to the dames in question.

The H. V. adds a few details:--"Then, when the bride and bridegroom had glanced and gazed each at other's face, the Princess rejoiced with excessive joy to behold his comeliness, and he exclaimed, in the courtesy of his gladness, O happy me, whom thou deignest, O Queen of the Fair, to honour despite mine unworth, seeing that in thee all charms and graces are perfected.' "

[FN#183] The term has not escaped ridicule amongst Moslems. A common fellow having stood in his way the famous wit Ab al-'Ayn asked "What is that?" "A man of the Sons of Adam" was the reply.

"Welcome, welcome," cried the other, "Allah grant thee length of days. I deemed that all his sons were dead." See Ibn Khallikan iii. 57.

[FN#184] This address to an inanimate object (here a window) is highly idiomatic and must be cultivated by the practical Arabist.

In the H. V. the unfinished part is the four-and-twentieth door of the fict.i.tious (ja'al) palace.

[FN#185] This is true Orientalism, a personification or incarnation which Galland did not think proper to translate.

[FN#186] Arab. "La'ab al-Andb;" the latter word is from "Nadb"

= brandis.h.i.+ng or throwing the javelin.

[FN#187] The "mothers" are the prime figures, the daughters being the secondary. For the " 'Ilm al-Ram!" = (Science of the sand) our geomancy, see vol. iii. 269, and D'Herbelot's sub. v.

Raml or Reml.

[FN#188] This is from Galland, whose certaine boisson chaude evidently means tea. It is preserved in the H.V.

[FN#189] i.e. his astrolabe, his "Zj" or table of the stars, his almanack, etc. For a highly fanciful derivation of the "Arstable" see Ibn Khallikan (iii. 580). He makes it signify "balance or lines (Pers. Astur') of the sun," which is called "Lb" as in the case of wicked Queen Lb (The Nights, vol. vii.

296). According to him the Astrolabe was suggested to Ptolemy by an armillary sphere which had accidentally been flattened by the hoof of his beast: this is beginning late in the day, the instrument was known to the ancient a.s.syrians. Chardin (Voyages ii. 149) carefully describes the Persian variety of--

"The cunning man highs Sidrophil

(as Will. Lilly was called). Amongst other things he wore at his girdle an astrolabe not bigger than the hollow of a man's hand, often two to three inches in diameter and looking at a distance like a medal." These men practiced both natural astrology = astronomy, as well as judicial astrology which foretells events and of which Kepler said that "she, albeit a fool, was the daughter of a wise mother, to whose support and life the silly maid was indispensable." Isidore of Seville (A. D. 600-636) was the first to distinguish between the two branches, and they flourished side by side till Newton's day. Hence the many astrological terms in our tongue, e.g. consider, contemplate, disaster, jovial, mercurial, saturnine, etc.

[FN#190] In the H. V. "New bra.s.s lamps for old ones! who will exchange ?" So in the story of the Fisherman's son, a Jew who had been tricked of a c.o.c.k, offers to give new rings for old rings.

See Jonathan Scott's excerpts from the Wortley-Montague MSS. vol.

vi. pp. 210 12 This is one of the tales which I have translated for vol. iv.

[FN#191] The H. V. adds that Alaeddin loved to ride out a- hunting and had left the city for eight days whereof three had pa.s.sed by.

[FN#192] Galland makes her say, H bien folle, veux-tu me dire pourqoui tu ris? The H. V. renders "Cease, giddy head, why laughest thou?" and the vulgate "Well, giggler," said the Princess, etc.

[FN#193] Nothing can be more improbable than this detail, but upon such abnormal situations almost all stones, even in our most modern "Society-novels," depend and the cause is clear--without them there would be no story. And the modern will, perhaps, suggest that "the truth was withheld for a higher purpose, for the working out of certain ends." In the H. V Alaeddin, when about to go a-hunting, always placed the Lamp high up on the cornice with all care lest any touch it.

[FN#194] The H. V. adds, "The Magician, when he saw the Lamp, at once knew that it must be the one he sought; for he knew that all things, great and small, appertaining to the palace