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

[FN#239] The onager, confounded by our older travellers with the zebra, is the Gr-i-khr of Persia, where it is the n.o.blest game from which kings did not disdain to take a cognomen, e.g., Bahrm-i-Gr. It is the "wild a.s.s" of Jeremiah (ii. 24: xiv. 6).

The meat is famous in poetry for combining the flavours peculiar to all kinds of flesh (Ibn Khallikan iii. 117; iii. 239, etc.) and is noticed by Herodotus (Clio. cx.x.xiii.) and by Xenophon (Cyro. lib. 1) in sundry pa.s.sages: the latter describes the relays of horses and hounds which were used in chasing it then as now. The traveller Olearius (A. D. 1637) found it more common than in our present day: Shah Abbas turned thirty-two wild a.s.ses into an enclosure where they were shot as an item of entertainment to the amba.s.sadors at his court. The skin of the wild a.s.s's back produces the famous s.h.a.green, a word seemingly derived from the Pers. "Saghr," e.g. "Kyafash-i-Saghri"=slippers of s.h.a.green, fine wear fit for a "young Duke". See in Ibn Khallikan (iv. 245) an account of a "Jr" (the Arabised "Gr") eight hundred years old.

[FN#240] "Dasht-i-l-siw-H"=a desert wherein is none save He (Allah), a howling wilderness.

[FN#241] Per. "Nz o andz"=coquetry, in a half-honest sense. The Persian "Kk Siyh," i.e. "black brother" (a domestic negro) p.r.o.nounces Nz-nz.

[FN#242] In the text Nimak-harm: on this subject see vol. viii.

12.

[FN#243] i.e., an Arab of n.o.ble strain: see vol. iii. 72.

[FN#244] In the text "Kazzk"=Cossacks, bandits, mounted highwaymen; the word is well known in India, where it is written in two different ways, and the late Mr. John Shakespear in his excellent Dictionary need hardly have marked the origin "U"

(unknown).

[FN#245] Here and below the Hindostani version mounts the lady upon a camel ("Ushtur" or "Unth") which is not customary in India except when criminals are led about the bazar. An elephant would have been in better form.

[FN#246] The Ashraf (Port. Xerafim) is a gold coin whose value has greatly varied with its date from four s.h.i.+llings upwards. In The (true) Nights we find (pa.s.sim) that, according to the minting of the VIth Ommiade, 'Abd al-Malik bin Marwn (A.H. 65-86=A.D.

685-703), the coinage of Baghdad consisted of three metals. "Ita quoque peregrina suis nummis nomina posuit, aureum Dinar denarium, argentem Dirhen (lege dirham), Drachma, reum fols (fuls), follem appellans. * * * Nam Vera moneta aurea nomine follis lignabatur, ut reorum sub Aarone Raschido cussorum qui hoc nomen servavit." (O. G. Tychsen p. 8. Introduct. in Rem numariam Muhammedanorum.) For the dinar, daric or miskl see The Nights, vol i. 32; ix. 294; for the dirham, i. 33, ii. 316, etc.; and for the Fals or Fils=a fish scale, a spangle of metal, vol.

i. 321. In the debased currency of the Maroccan Empire the Fals of copper or iron, a substantial coin, is worth 2,160 to the French five-franc piece.

[FN#247] In the Hindi, as in Galland's version, the horse is naturally enough of Turcoman blood. I cannot but think that in India we have unwisely limited ourselves for cavalry remounts to the Western market that exports chiefly the mongrel "Gulf Arab"

and have neglected the far hardier animal, especially the Gtdn blood of the Tartar plains, which supply "excellent horses whose speed and bottom are" say travellers in general, "so justly celebrated throughout Asia." Our predecessors were too wise to "put all the eggs in one basket."

[FN#248] An act of wors.h.i.+p, see my Pilgrimage in which "Tawf"=circuiting, is described in detail, ii. 38; iii. 2O1 et seqq. A counterpart of this scene is found in the Histoire du Sultan Aqchid (Ikhs.h.i.+d) who determined to witness his own funeral. Gauttier vol. i. pp. 134-139. Another and similar incident occurs in the "Nineteenth Vezir's Story" (pp. 213-18 of the History of the Forty Vezirs, before alluded to): here Hasan of Basrah, an 'Alim who died in A.H. 110 (=A.D. 728) saw in vision (the "drivel of dreams?") folk of all conditions, sages, warriors and moon-faced maids seeking, but in vain, to release the sweet soul of the Prince who had perished.

[FN#249] Here, after Moslem fas.h.i.+on, the mother ranks before the wife: "A man can have many wives but only one mother." The idea is old amongst Easterns: see Herodotus and his Christian commentators on the history of Intaphernes' wife (Thalia, cap.

cxix). "O King," said that lady of mind logical, "I may get me another mate if G.o.d will and other children an I lose these; but as my father and my mother are no longer alive, I may not by any means have another brother," etc., etc.

[FN#250] In Galland the Histoire de Ganem, fils d'Abu Aoub, surnomm l'esclave d'Amour, precedes Zayn al-Asnm. In the Arab texts Ghanim bin Ayyb, the Thrall o' Love, occurs much earlier: see The Nights vol. ii. 45.

It is curious to compare the conclusions of these tales with the formula of the latest specimens, the Contes Arabes Modernes of Spitta-Bey, e.g. "And the twain lived together (p. iii.) and had sons and daughters (p. ii.), cohabiting with perfect harmony (f al-Kaml pp.42, 79); and at last they died and were buried and so endeth the story" (wa khals p.161).

[FN#251] In Galland and his translators the Adventures of Khudadad and his Brothers is followed by the Histoire du Dormeur Eveill which, as "The Sleeper and the Waker," is to be found in the first of my Supplemental Volumes, pp. 1-29. After this the learned Frenchman introduced, as has been said, the Histoire de la Lampe merveilleuse or "Alaeddin" to which I have a.s.signed, for reasons given in loco, a place before Khudadad.

[FN#252] i.e. Daddy Abdullah, the former is used in Pers., Turk.

and Hindostani for dad! dear! child! and for the latter, see vol.

v. 141.

[FN#253] Here the Arab. syn. of the Pers. "Darwaysh," which Egyptians p.r.o.nounce "Darwsh." In the Nile-valley the once revered t.i.tle has been debased to an insult = "poor devil" (see Pigrimage i., pp. 20-22); "Fakr" also has come to signify a Koran-chaunter.

[FN#254] To "Nakh" is to make the camel kneel. See vo!. ii. 139, and its references.

[FN#255] As a sign that he parted willingly with all his possessions.

[FN#256] Arab. "'Ubb" prop.=the bulge between the breast and the outer robe which is girdled round the waist to make a pouch. See vol. viii. 205.

[FN#257] Thirst very justly takes precedence of hunger: a man may fast for forty days, but with out water in a tropical country he would die within a week. For a description of the horrors of thirst see my "First Footsteps in East Africa," pp. 387-8.

[FN#258] In Galland it is Sidi Nouman; in many English translations, as in the "Lucknow" (Newul Kish.o.r.e Press, 1880), it has become "Sidi Nonman." The word has occurred in King Omar bin al-Nu'uman, vol. ii. 77 and 325, and vol. v. 74. For Sd = my lord, see vol. v. 283; Byron, in The Corsair, ii. 2, seems to mistake it for "Sayyid."

High in his hall reclines the turban'd Seyd, Around--the bearded chiefs he came to lead.

[FN#259] The Turco-English form of the Persian "Pulo."

[FN#260] i.e. the secure (fem.). It was the name of the famous concubine of Solomon to whom he entrusted his ring (vol. vi. 84), also of the mother of Mohammed who having taken her son to Al-Medinah (Yathrib) died on the return journey. I cannot understand why the Apostle of Al-Islam, according to his biographers and commentators, refused to pray for his parent's soul, she having been born in Al-Fitrah (the interval between the fall of Christianity and the birth of Al-Islam), when he had not begun to preach his "dispensation."

[FN#261] The cane-play: see vol. vi. 263.

[FN#262] Galland has une Goule, i.e., a Ghlah, a she-Ghl, an ogress. But the lady was supping with a male of that species, for which see vols. i. 55; vi. 36.

[FN#263] In the text "Wazfah" prop. = a task, a stipend, a salary, but here = the "Farz" devotions which he considered to be his duty. In Spitta-Bey (loc. cit. p. 218) it is = duty,

[FN#264] For this scene which is one of every day in the East; see Pilgrimage ii. pp. 52-54.

[FN#265] This hate of the friend of man is inherited from Jewish ancestors; and, wherever the Hebrew element prevails, the muzzle, which has lately made its appearance in London, is strictly enforced, as at Trieste. Amongst the many boons which civilisation has conferred upon Cairo I may note hydrophobia; formerly unknown in Egypt the dreadful disease has lately caused more than one death. In India sporadic cases have at rare times occurred in my own knowledge since 1845.

[FN#266] In Galland "Rougeau" = (for Rougeaud?) a red-faced (man), etc., and in the English version "Chance": "Bakht" = luck, good fortune.

[FN#267] In the text "Sarrf" = a money-changer. See vols. i.

210; iv. 270.

[FN#268] Galland has forgotten this necessary detail: see vol. i.

30 and elsewhere. In Lane's story of the man metamorphosed to an a.s.s, the old woman, "quickly covering her face, declared the fact."

[FN#269] In the normal forms of this story, which Galland has told very badly, the maiden would have married the man she saved.

[FN#270] In other similar tales the injured one inflicts such penalty by the express command of his preserver who takes strong measures to ensure obedience.

[FN#271] In the more finished tales of the true "Nights" the mare would have been restored to human shape after giving the best security for good conduct in time to come.

[FN#272] i.e. Master Hasan the Rope-maker. Galland writes, after European fas.h.i.+on, "Ha.s.san," for which see vol. i. 251; and for "Khwjah" vol. vi. 146. "Al-Habbl" was the cognomen of a learned "Hfiz" (= traditionist and Koran reader), Ab Ishk Ibrahim, in Ibn Khall. ii. 262; for another see iv. 410.

[FN#273] "Sa'd" = prosperity and "Sa'd' '= prosperous, the surname of the "Persian moralist," for whom see my friend F. F.

Arbuthnot's pleasant booklet, "Persian Portraits" (London Quaritch, 1887).

[FN#274] This is true to nature as may be seen any day at Bombay The crows are equally audacious, and are dangerous to men Iying wounded in solitary places.

[FN#275] The Pers. "Gil-i-sar-sh" (=head-was.h.i.+ng clay), the Sindi "Met," and the Arab "Tafl," a kind of clay much used in Persian, Afghanistan, Sind, etc. Galland turns it into terre decra.s.ser and his English translators into "scouring sand which women use in baths." This argillaceous earth mixed with mustard oil is locally used for clay and when rose-leaves and perfumes are used, it makes a tolerable wash-ball. See "Scinde or The Unhappy Valley," i. 31.

[FN#276] For the "Cowrie" (Cypra moneta) see vol. iv. 77. The Bdm or Bdm (almond) used by way of small change in India, I have noted elsewhere.

[FN#277] Galland has "un morceau de plomb," which in the Hind text becomes "Shshahkpays" = a (pice) small coin of gla.s.s: the translator also terms it a "Faddah," for which see Nusf (alias "Nuss"), vols. ii. 37, vi. 214 and ix. 139, 167. Gla.s.s tokens, by way of coins, were until late years made at Hebron, in Southern Syria.

[FN#278] For the "Tk" or "Tkah" = the little wall-niche, see vol. vii. 361.

[FN#279] In the French and English versions the coin is a bit of lead for weighting the net. For the "Pays" (pice) = two farthings, and in weight = half an ounce, see Herklot's Glossary, p. xcviii.

[FN#280] In the text "bilisht" = the long span between thumb-tip and minimus-tip. Galland says long plus d'une coude et gros proportion.