The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume XVI Part 31

[FN#200] It is nowhere said in Hebrew Holy Writ that "Pharaoh,"

whoever he may have been, was drowned in the "Red Sea."

[FN#201] Arab. "Kaml." The Koranic legend of the Ant has, I repeat, been charmingly commented upon by Edwin Arnold in "Solomon and the Ant" (p.i., Pearls of the Faith). It seems to be a Talmudic exaggeration of the implied praise in Prov. vi. 6 and x.x.x. 25, "The ants are a people nto strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer" which, by the by, proves that the Wise King could be caught tripping in his natural history, and that they did not know everything down in Judee.

[FN#202] Isa, according to the Moslems, was so far like Adam (Koran iii. 52) that he was not begotten in the normal way: in fact his was a miraculous conception. See vol. v. 238.

[FN#203] For Elias, Elijah, or Khizr, a marvellous legendary figure, see vols. iv. 175; v. 334. The wors.h.i.+p of Helios (Apollo) is not extinct in mod. Greece where it survives under the name of Elias. So Dionysus has become St. Dionysius; Bacchus the Drunken, St. George; and Artemis, St. Artemides the healer of childhood.

[FN#204] Gesenius interprets it "Soldier of G.o.d"; the bye-name given to Jacob presently became the national name of the Twelve Tribes collectively; then it narrowed to the tribe of Judah; afterwards it became = laymen as opposed to Levites, etc., and in these days it is a polite synonym for Jew. When you want anything from any of the (self-) Chosen People you speak of him as an Israelite; when he wants anything of you, you call him a Jew, or a d.a.m.ned Jew, as the case may be.

[FN#205] I am not aware that there is any general history of the bell, beginning with the rattle, the gong and other primitive forms of the article; but the subject seems worthy of a monograph. In Hebrew Writ the bell first appears in Exod.

xxviii. 33 as a fringe to the Ephod of the High Priest that its tinkling might save him from intruding unwarned into the bodily presence of the tribal G.o.d, Jehovah.

[FN#206] Gennesaret (Chinnereth, Cinneroth), where, according to some Moslems, the Solomon was buried.

[FN#207] I cannot explain this legend.

[FN#208] So the old English rhyme, produced for quite another purpose by Sir John Bull in "Wat Tyler's Rebellion" (Hume, Hist.

of Eng., vol. i. chapt. 17):--

"When Adam dolve and Eve span, Who was then the gentleman?"

A variant occurs in a MS. of the xvth century, Brit. Museum:--

"Now bethink the gentleman, How Adam dalf and Eve span."

And the German form is:--

"So Adam reutte (reute) and Eva span Wwer was da ein Eddelman (Edelman)?"

[FN#209] Plur. of "'Usfur" = a bird, a sparrow. The etymology is characteristically Oriental and Mediaeval, reminding us of Dan Chaucer's meaning of Cecilia "Heaven's lily" (Susan) or "Way for the blind" (Caecus) or "Thoughts of Holiness" and lia=lasting industry; or, "Heaven and Leos" (people), so that she might be named the people's heaven (The SEcond Nonne's Tale).

[FN#210] i.e. "Fir is rebellious."

[FN#211] Both of which, I may note, are not things but states, modes or conditions of things. See. vol. ix. 78.

[FN#212] "Salat" = the formal ceremonious prayer. I have noticed (vol. iv. 60) the sundry technical meanings of the term Salat, from Allah=Mercy; from Angel-kind=intercession and pardon, and from mankind=a blessing.

[FN#213] Possibly "A prayer of Moses, the man of G.o.d," the t.i.tle of the highly apocryphal Psalm xc.

[FN#214] Arab. "Libas" = clothes in general.

[FN#215] In text "Zafar" = victory. It may also be "Zifr"=alluding to the h.o.r.n.y matter which, according to Moslem tradition, covered the bodies of "our first parents" and of which after the "original sin" nothing remained but the nails of their fingers and toes. It was only when this disappeared that they became conscious of their nudity. So says M. Houdas; but I prefer to consider the word as Zafar=plaited hair.

[FN#216] According to Al-Mas'udi (i. 86, quoting Koran xxi. 52), Abraham had already received of Allah spiritual direction or divine grace ("Rushdu 'llah" or "Al-Huda") which made him sinless. In this opinoin of the Imams.h.i.+p, says my friend Prof.

A. Sprenger, the historian is more fatalistic than most Sunnis.

[FN#217] Modern Moslems are all agreed in making Ishmael and not Issac the hero of this history: see my Pilgrimage (vol. iii.

306). But it was not always so. Al-Mas'udi (vol. ii. 146) quotes the lines of a Persian poet in A.H. 290 (=A.D. 902) which expressly say "Is'haku kana'l-Zabih" = Isaac was the victim, and the historian refers to this in sundry places. Yet the general idea is that Ishmael succeeded his father (as eldest son) and was succeeded by Isaac; and hence the bitter family feud between the Eastern Jews and the ARab Gentiles.

[FN#218] In text "Tajui"=lit. thou pluckest (the fruit of good deeds). M. Houdas translates Tu recueilles, mot a mot tu citeilles.

[FN#219] See note at the end of this tale.

[FN#220] Amongst the Jews the Temple of Jerusalem was a facsimile of the original built by Jehovah in the lowest heaven or that of the Moon. For the same idea (doubtless a derivation from the Talmud) amongst the Moslems concerning the heavenly Ka'abah called Bayt al-Ma'mur (the Populated House) see my Pilgrimage iii. 186, et seq.

[FN#221] i.e. there is an end of the matter.

[FN#222] In text "Ma.s.sa-hu'l Fakr"=poverty touched him.

[FN#223] He had sold his father for a horse, etc., and his mother for a fine dress.

[FN#224] This enigma is in the style of Samson's (Judges xiv.

12) of which we complain that the unfortuante Philistines did not possess the sole clue which could lead to the solution; and here anyone with a modic.u.m of common sense would have answered, "Thou art the man!" The riddles with which the Queen of Sheba visited Solomon must have been simply hard questions somewhat like those in the text; and the relator wisely refuses to record them.

[FN#225] We should say "To eclipse the sun."

[FN#226] A very intelligible offer.

[FN#227] Arab. "Bi Asri-hi," lit. "rope and all;"

metaphorically used=altogether, entirely: the idea is borrowed from the giving or selling of a beast with its thong, halter, chain, etc.

[FN#228] In the text, "Kahin," a Cohen, a Jewish Priest, a soothsayer: see Al-Kahanah, vol. i. 28. In Heb. Kahana=he ministered (priests' offices or other business) and Cohen=a priest either of the true G.o.d or of false G.o.ds.

[FN#229] This ending with its resume of contents is somewhat hors ligne, yet despite its vain repet.i.tion I think it advisable to translate it.

[FN#230] "And she called his name Moses, and she said because from the water I drew him" (Exod. ii. 10).

[FN#231] The Pharoah of the Exodus is popularly supposed by Moslems to have treated his leprosy with baths of babes' blood, the babes being of the Banu Israil. The word "Pharoah" is not without its etymological difficulties.

[FN#232] Graetz (Geschichte i. note 7) proves that "Aram," in the Hebrew text (Judges iii. 8), should be "Edom."

[FN#233] I give a quadruple increase, at least 25 per centum more than the genealogies warrant.

[FN#234] MS. pp. 505-537. This story is found in the "Turkish Tales" by Petis de la Croix who translated one fourth of the "Forty Wazirs" by an author self-termed "Shaykh Zadeh." It is called the "History of Chec Chahabeddin" (Shaykh s.h.i.+hab al-Din), and it has a religious significance proving that the Apostle did really and personally make the "Mi'raj" (ascent to Heaven) and returned whilst his couch was still warm and his upset gugglet had not run dry. The tale is probably borrowed from Saint Paul, who (2 Cor. xii. 4) was "caught up into Paradise," which in those days was a kind of region that roofed the earth. The Shaykh in question began by showing the Voltairean Sultan of Egypt certain specious miracles, such as a phantom army (in our tale two lions), Cairo reduced to ashes, the Nile in flood and a Garden of Irem, where before lay a desert. He then called for a tub, stripped the King to a zone girding his loins and made him dip his head into the water. Then came the adventures as in the following tale. When after a moment's s.p.a.ce these ended, the infuriated Sultan gave orders to behead the Shaykh, who also plunged his head into the tub; but the Wizard divined the ill-intent by "Mukashafah" (thought-reading); and by "Al-Ghayb 'an al-Absar" (invisibility) levanted to Damascus. The reader will do well to compare the older account with the "First Vizir's Story" (p. 17) in Mr. Gibb's "History of the Forty Vizirs," etc.

As this scholar remarks, the Mi'raj, with all its wealth of wild fable, is simply alluded to in a detached verses of the Koran (xvii. 1) which runs: [I declare] "The glory of Him who transported His servant by night from the Sacred Temple (of Meccah) to the Remote Temple (of Jerusalem), whose precincts we have blessed, that we might show him of our signs." After this comes an allusion to Moses (v. 2); Mr. Gibb observes (p. 22) that this lengthening out of the seconds was a favourite with "Dervishes," as he has shown in "The Story of Jewad ," and suggests that the effect might have been produced by some drug like Has.h.i.+sh. I object to Mr. Gibb's use of the word "Hour)"

(ibid. p. 24) without warning the reader that it is an irregular formation, masculine withal for "Huriyah," and that the Pers.

"Huri," from which the Turks borrowed their blunder, properly means "One Hur."

[FN#235] For the Dajlah (Tigris) and Furat (Euphrates) see vols.

viii. 150- ix. 17. The topothesia is worse than Shakespearean. In Weber's Edit. of the "New Arabian Nights" (Adventures of Simoustapha, etc.), the rivers are called "Ilfara" and "Aggiala."

[FN#236] In text "Alwan," for which see vol. vii. 135.

[FN#237] [The word which is here translated with: "and one had said that he had laboured hard thereat (walawa'yh?) seems scarcely to bear out this meaning. I would read it "wa'l-Aw'iyah"

(plur. of wi'a), rendering accordingly: "and the vessels (in which the aforesaid meats were set out) s.h.i.+mmered like unto silver for their cleanliness."--ST.]

[FN#238] In text "Al-Wahwah."