The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume II Part 17

[FN#59] "Wa'llahi tayyib!" an exclamation characteristic of the Egyptian Moslem.

[FN#60] The pretended fisherman's name Karim=the Generous.

[FN#61] Such an act of generosity would appear to Europeans well- nigh insanity, but it is quite in Arab manners. Witness the oft- quoted tale of Hatim and his horse. As a rule the Arab is the reverse of generous, contrasting badly, in this point, with his cousin the Jew: hence his ideal of generosity is of the very highest. "The generous (i.e. liberal) is Allah's friend, aye, though he be a sinner; and the miser is Allah's foe, aye, though he be a saint!" Indian Moslems call a skin-flint Makhi-chus = fly-sucker. (Pilgrimage i. 242.)

[FN#62] Arab. "Amma ba'ad" or (Wa ba'ad), an initiatory formula attributed to Koss ibn Sa'idat al-Iyadi, bishop of Najran (the town in Al-Yaman which D'Herbelot calls Negiran) and a famous preacher in Mohammed's day, hence "more eloquent than Koss"

(Maydani, Arab. Prov., 189). He was the first who addressed letters with the incept, "from A. to B."; and the first who preached from a pulpit and who leant on a sword or a staff when discoursing. Many Moslems date Amma ba'ad from the Prophet David, relying upon a pa.s.sage of the Koran (x.x.xviii. 19).

[FN#63] Arab. "Nusf"=half (a dirham): vulgarly p.r.o.nounced "nuss,"

and synonymous with the Egypt. "Faddah" (=silver), the Greek "Asper," and the Turkish "parah." It is the smallest Egyptian coin, made of very base metal and, there being forty to the piastre, it is worth nearly a quarter of a farthing.

[FN#64] The too literal Torrens and Lane make the Caliph give the gardener-lad the clothes in which he was then clad, forgetting, like the author or copier, that he wore the fisherman's lousy suit.

[FN#65] In sign of confusion, disappointment and so forth: not "biting his nails," which is European and utterly un-Asiatic.

[FN#66] See lines like these in Night xiii. (i. 136); the sentiment is trite.

[FN#67] The Arab will still stand under his ruler's palace and shout aloud to attract his attention. Sayyid Sa'id known as the "Iman of Muskat" used to encourage the patriarchal practice.

Mohammed repeatedly protested against such unceremonious conduct (Koran xciv. 11, etc.). The "three times of privacy" (Koran cv.

57) are before the dawn prayer, during the Siesta (noon) and after the even-prayer.

[FN#68] The Judges of the four orthodox schools.

[FN#69] That none might see it or find it ever after.

[FN#70] Arab. "Khatt Sharif"=a royal autographical letter: the term is still preserved in Turkey, but Europeans will write "Hatt."

[FN#71] Meaning "Little tom-cat;" a dim. of "Kitt" vulg. Kutt or Gutt.

[FN#72] Arab. "Matmurah"?-the Algerine "Matamor"?-a "silo," made familiar to England by the invention of "Ensilage."

[FN#73] The older "Mustapha"=Mohammed. This Intercession-doctrine is fiercely disputed. (Pilgrimage ii. 77.) The Apostle of Al- Islam seems to have been unable to make up his mind upon the subject: and modern opinion amongst Moslems is apparently borrowed from the Christians.

[FN#74] Lane (i. 486) curiously says, "The place of the stagnation of blood:" yet he had translated the word aright in the Introduction (i. 41). I have noticed that the Nat'a is made like the "Sufrah," of well-tanned leather, with rings in the periphery, so that a thong pa.s.sed through turns it into a bag.

The Sufrah used for provisions is usually yellow, with a black border and small pouches for knives or spoons. (Pilgrimage i.

111.)

[FN#75] This improbable detail shows the Caliph's greatness.

[FN#76] "Cousin" is here a term of familiarity, our "coz."

[FN#77] i.e. without allowing them a moment's delay to change clothes.

[FN#78] i.e. according to my nature, birth, blood, de race.

[FN#79] Our "Job." The English translators of the Bible, who borrowed Luther's system of transliteration (of A.D. 1522), transferred into English the German "j" which has the sound of "i" or "y"; intending us to p.r.o.nounce Yacob (or Yakob), Yericho, Yimnites, Yob (or Hiob) and Yudah. Tyndall, who copied Luther (A.D. 1525-26), preserved the true sound by writing lacob, Ben Iamin and Iudas. But his successors unfortunately returned to the German; the initial I, having from the xiii century been ornamentally lengthened and bent leftwards, became a consonant.

The public adopted the vernacular sound of "j" (da) and hence our language and our literature are disgraced by such barbarisms as "Jehovah" and "Jesus"; Dgehovah and Dgeesus for Yehovah and Yesus. Future generations of school-teachers may remedy the evil; meanwhile we are doomed for the rest of our days to hear

Gee-rusalem! Gee-rusalem! etc.

Nor is there one word to be said in favour of the corruption except that, like the Protestant misp.r.o.nunciation of Latin and the Erasmian ill-articulation of Greek, it has become English, and has lent its little aid in dividing the Britons from the rest of the civilised world.

[FN#80] The moon, I repeat, is masculine in the so-called "Semitic" tongues.

[FN#81] i.e. camel loads, about lbs. 300; and for long journeys lbs. 250.

[FN#82] Arab. "Janazah," so called only when carrying a corpse; else Na'ash, Sarir or Tabut: Iran being the large hea.r.s.e on which chiefs are borne. It is made of plank or stick work; but there are several varieties. (Lane, M. E. chaps. xxviii.)

[FN#83] It is meritorious to accompany the funeral cortege of a Moslem even for a few paces.

[FN#84] Otherwise he could not have joined in the prayers.

[FN#85] Arab. "Halwa" made of sugar, cream, almonds, etc. That of Maskat is famous throughout the East.

[FN#86] i.e. "Camphor" to a negro, as we say "s...o...b..ll," by the figure antiphrase.

[FN#87] "Little Good Luck," a dim. form of "bakht"=luck, a Persian word naturalized in Egypt.

[FN#88] There are, as I have shown, not a few cannibal tribes in Central Africa and these at times find their way into the slave market.

[FN#89] i.e. After we bar the door.

[FN#90] Arab. "Jawish" from Turk. Chawush, Chiaoosh, a sergeant, poursuivant, royal messenger. I would suggest that this is the word "Shalish" or "Jalish" in Al-Siynti's History of the Caliphs (p. 501) translated by Carlyle "milites," by Schultens "Sagittarius" and by Jarett "picked troops."

[FN#91] This familiarity with blackamoor slave-boys is common in Egypt and often ends as in the story: Egyptian blood is sufficiently mixed with negro to breed inclination for miscegenation. But here the girl was wickedly neglected by her mother at such an age as ten.

[FN#92] Arab. "Farj"; hence a facetious designation of the other s.e.x is "Zawi'l-furuj" (grammatically Zawatu'l- furuj)=habentes rimam, slit ones.

[FN#93] This ancient and venerable practice of inspecting the marriage-sheet is still religiously preserved in most parts of the East, and in old-fas.h.i.+oned Moslem families. It is publicly exposed in the Harem to prove that the "domestic calamity" (the daughter) went to her husband a clean maid. Also the general idea is that no blood will impose upon the exerts, or jury of matrons, except that of a pigeon-poult which exactly resembles hymeneal blood-- when not subjected to the microscope. This belief is universal in Southern Europe and I have heard of it in England.

Further details will be given in Night ccxi.

[FN#94] "Agha" Turk.=sir, gentleman, is, I have said, politely addressed to a eunuch.

[FN#95] As Bukhayt tells us he lost only his testes, consequently his erectio et distensio p.e.n.i.s was as that of a boy before p.u.b.erty and it would last as long as his heart and circulation kept sound. Hence the eunuch who preserves his p.e.n.i.s is much prized in the Zenanah where some women prefer him to the entire man, on account of his long performance of the deed of kind. Of this more in a future page.

[FN#96] It is or rather was the custom in Egypt and Syria to range long rows of fine China bowls along the shelves running round the rooms at the height of six or seven feet, and they formed a magnificent cornice. I bought many of them at Damascus till the people, learning their value, asked prohibitive prices.

[FN#97] The tale is interesting as well as amusing, excellently describing the extravagance still practiced in middle-cla.s.s Moslem families on the death of the pater familias. I must again note that Arab women are much more unwilling to expose the back of the head covered by the "Tarhah" (head-veil) than the face, which is hidden by the "Burke" or nose bag.

[FN#98] The usual hysterical laughter of this nervous race.

[FN#99] Here the slave refuses to be set free and starve. For a master so to do without ample reasons is held disgraceful. I well remember the weeping and wailing throughout Sind when an order from Sir Charles Napier set free the negroes whom British philanthropy thus doomed to endure if not to die of hunger.

[FN#100] Manumission, which is founded upon Roman law, is an extensive subject discussed in the Hidayah and other canonical works. The slave here lays down the law incorrectly but his claim shows his truly "n.i.g.g.e.r" impudence.

[FN#101] This is quite true to nature. The most remarkable thing in the wild central African is his enormous development of "destructiveness." At Zanzibar I never saw a slave break a gla.s.s or plate without a grin or a chuckle of satisfaction.

[FN#102] Arab. "Kha.s.sa-ni"; Khusyatani (vulg.) being the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es, also called "bayzatan" the two eggs) a double entendre which has given rise to many tales. For instance in the witty Persian book "Dozd o Kazi" (The Thief and the Judge) a footpad strips the man of learning and offers to return his clothes if he can ask him a puzzle in law or religion. The Kazi (in folk-lore mostly a fool) fails, and his wife bids him ask the man to supper for a trial of wits on the same condition. She begins with compliments and ends by producing five eggs which she would have him distribute equally amongst the three; and, when he is perplexed, she gives one to each of the men taking three for herself. Whereupon the "Dozd" wends his way, having lost his booty as his extreme stupidity deserved. In the text the eunuch, Kafur, is made a "Sandal" or smooth-shaven, so that he was of no use to women.