The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume XVI Part 28

[FN#80] With this formula compare Chaucer, "The Manciple's Tale."

[FN#81] In the text "Znnakt-ha," which is unintelligible, although the sense be clear.

[FN#82] A bird unknown to the dictionaries, apparently a species of hawk.

[FN#83] In the text "Jurah Syan" for "Jurah Sayyal."

[FN#84] The tree having furnished the axe-helve.

[FN#85] M. Houdas translates Tu as medit de moi et tu m'as accable de tes mechancetes.

[FN#86] In text "Alif, ba, ta, sa," the latter written with a Sin instead of a Tha, showing the vulgar use which extends from Alexandria to Meccah.

[FN#87] So in French, deriding the difference between written and spoken English, Ecrivez Salmona.s.sar, p.r.o.noncez crocodile.

[FN#88] Because he owes thee more than a debt of life.

[FN#89] i.e. "Tammat"=She (the tale) is finished.

[FN#90] MSS. pp.217-265. See the "Arabian Tales," translated by Robert Heron (Edinburgh M.DCC.XCII.), where it is "The Robber- Caliph; or Adventures of Haroun Alraschid, with the Princess of Persia, and the fair Zutulbe," vol. i. pp. 2-69. Gauttier, Histoire du Khalyfe de Baghdad, vol. vii. pp.117-150.

[FN#91] In text "Ahadis," esp. referred to the sayings of Mohammed, and these are divided into two great sections, the "Ahadis al-Nabawi," or the actual words p.r.o.nounced by the Apostle; and the "Ahadis al-Kudus," or the sentences attributed to the Archangel Gabriel.

[FN#92] Heron has "the Festival of Haraphat," adding a power of nonsense. This is the day of the sermon, when the pilgrims sleep at Muzdalifah (Pilgrimage iii. 265). Kusayy, an ancestor of the Apostle, was the first to prepare a public supper at this oratory, and the custom was kept up by Harun al-Ras.h.i.+d, Zubaydah and Sha'ab, mother of the Caliph al-Muktadir (Tabari ii. 368).

Alms are obligatory on the two great 'I'ds or festivals, al-Fitr which ends the Ramazan fast and al-Kurban during the annual Pilgrimage. The dole must consist of at least a "Sa'" = 7 lbs. in grain, dates, &c.

[FN#93] i.e. habited themselves in the garments of little people: so to "enlarge the turband" is to a.s.sume the rank of an 'alim or learned man. "Jayb," the breast of a coat is afterwards used in the sense of a pocket.

[FN#94] Either the Caliph was persuaded that the white wrist was a "promise of better things above and below," or he proposed marriage as a mere freak, intelligible enough when divorce costs only two words.

[FN#95] In text "Nakdi" = the actual as opposed to the contingent dowry: sec vols. vii. 126; ix. 32.

[FN#96] This is said in irony.

[FN#97] In text "Bashakhin" plur. of "Bashkhanah:" see Suppl.

vols. ii. 119; iii. 87.

[FN#98] In Heron he becomes "Ka.s.sera-Abocheroan." a.n.u.s.h.i.+rwan (in full a.n.u.s.h.i.+nrawan = sweet of soul) is popularly supposed to have begun his rule badly after the fas.h.i.+on of Eastern despots, and presently to have become the justest of monarchs. Nothing of this, however, is found in Tabari (ii. 159).

[FN#99] He was indignant because twitted with having married a beggar-maid like good King Cophetua. In Heron he is "moved by so sensible a reply."

[FN#100] Plur. "Kataif," a kind of pancake made of flour and sugar (or honey) and oil or b.u.t.ter.

[FN#101] Arab. "Sakka" = a water-carrier, generally a bad lot. Of the "Sakka Sharbah," who supplies water to pa.s.sengers in the streets, there is an ill.u.s.tration in Lane; M. E. chapt. xiv.

[FN#102] In the text "Kahbah" an ugly word = our wh.o.r.e (i.e.

hired woman): it is frightfully common in every-day speech. See vol. ii. 70.

[FN#103] Arab. "Sibak" usually = a leash (for falconry, etc.).

[FN#104] I have emphasised this detail which subsequently becomes a leading incident.

[FN#105] Usual formulae when a respectable person is seen drinking: the same politeness was also in use throughout the civilised parts of mediaeval Europe. See the word "Hanian" (vol.

ii. 5), which at Meccah and elsewhere is p.r.o.nounced also "Haniyyan."

[FN#106] In text "Ya Ta'is," a favorite expression in this MS.

Page 612 (MS.) has "Ta'ish," a clerical error, and in page 97 we have "Ya Ta'asat-na" = O our misery!

[FN#107] As might a "picker-up of unconsidered trifles."

[FN#108] In text "Akba' wa Zarabil." I had supposed the first to be the Pers. Kaba = a short coat or tunic, with the Arab. 'Ayn (the second is the common corruption for "Zarabin" = slaves'

shoes, slippers: see vol. x. 1), but M. Hondas translates Ni calottes ni calecons, and for the former word here and in MS.

p.227 he reads "'Arakiyah" = skull-cap: see vol. i. 215. ["Akba'"

is the pi. of "Kub'," which latter occurs infra, p.227 of the Ar.

MS., and means, in popular language, any part of a garment covering the head, as the hood of a Burnus or the top-piece of a Kalansuwah; also a skull-cap, usually called "'Araqiyah." --ST.]

[FN#109] Heron dubs him "Hazeb (Hajib) Yamaleddin." In text "'Alai al-Din;" and in not a few places it is familiarly abbreviated to "'Ali" (p. 228, etc.). For the various forms of writing the name see Suppl. vol. iii. 30. The author might have told us the young Chamberlain's name Arabice earlier in the tale; but it is the Rawi's practice to begin with the vague and to end in specification. I have not, however, followed his example here or elsewhere.

[FN#110] i.e. Destiny so willed it. For the Pen and the Preserved Tablet see vol. v. 322.

[FN#111] This was the custom not only with Harun as Mr. Heron thinks, but at the Courts of the Caliphs generally.

[FN#112] In text "Ghiyar," Arab. = any piece of dress or uniform which distinguishes a cla.s.s, as the soldiery: in Pers. = a strip of yellow cloth worn by the Jews subject to the Shah.

[FN#113] Arab. "Zarbul taki," the latter meaning "high-heeled."

Perhaps it may signify also "fenestrated, or open-worked like a window." So "poules" or windows cut in the upper leathers of his shoes. Chaucer, The Miller's Tale.

[FN#114] "Mayzar," in Pers. = a turband: in Arab. "Miizar" = a girdle; a waistcloth.

[FN#115] Arab. "Kaus al-Bunduk" (or Banduk) a pellet-bow, the Italian arcobugio, the English arquebuse; for which see vol. i.

10. Usually the "Kis" is the Giberne or pellet-bag; but here it is the bow-cover. Gauttier notes (vii. 131):--Bondouk signifie en Arabe harquebuse, Albondoukani signifie l'arquebusier; c'etait comme on le voit, le mot d'ordre dit Khalyfe. He supposes, then, that firelocks were known in the days of Harun al-Ras.h.i.+d (A.D.

786-809). Al-Bundukani = the cross-bow man, or rather the man of the pellet-bow was, according to the Rawi, the name by which the Caliph was known in this disguise. Al-Zahir Baybars al- Bundukdari, the fourth Baharite Soldan (A.D. 1260-77), was so ent.i.tled because he had been a slave to a Bundukdar, an officer who may be called the Grand Master of Artillery. In Chavis and Cazotte the Caliph arms himself with a spear, takes a bow and arrow (instead of the pellet-bow that named him), disguises his complexion, dyes beard and eyebrows, dons a large coa.r.s.e turband, a buff waistcoat with a broad leathern belt, a short robe of common stuff and half-boots of strong coa.r.s.e leather, and thus "a.s.sumes the garb of an Arab from the desert." (!)

[FN#116] See vol. i. 266.

[FN#117] i.e. by the Archangel Gabriel.

[FN#118] Arab. "Habbah" = a grain (of barley, etc.), an obolus, a mite: it is also used for a gold bead in the shape of a cube forming part of the Egyptian woman's headdress (Lane M.E., Appendix A). As a weight it is the 48th of a dirham, the third of a kirat (carat) or 127/128 of an English grain, avoir.

[FN#119] In text "Mahma" = as often as = kullu-ma. This is the eleventh question of the twelve in Al-Hariri, a.s.s. xxiv., and the sixth of a.s.s. x.x.xvi. The former runs, "What is the noun (kullu- ma) which gives no sense except by the addition thereto of two words, or the shortening thereof to two letters (i.e. ma); and in the first case there is adhesion and in the second compulsion?"

(Chenery, pp. 246-253).

[FN#120] In Chavis and Cazotte he looks through the key-hole which an Eastern key does not permit, the holes being in the bolt. See Index, Suppl. vol. v.

[FN#121] In text "Kabal-ki," which I suspect to be a clerical error for "Katal-ki" = Allah strike thee dead. See vol. iv. 264, 265. [One of the meanings of "Mukabalah," the third form of "kabila," is "requital," "retaliation." The words in the text could therefore be translated: "may G.o.d requite thee."--ST.]

[FN#122] In Chavis and Cazotte she swears "by the name of G.o.d which is written on our Great Prophet's forehead."

[FN#123] Arab. "Ya Luss"; for this word = the Gr. {Greek}; see Suppl. vol. v. index.