The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume XVI Part 32

[FN#239] In text, "Mutasa'lik" for "Moutasa'lik" = like a "sa'luk."

[FN#240] For this "high-spirited Prince and n.o.ble-minded lord"

see vol. ix. 229.

[FN#241] In text "Bisata-hum" = their carpets.

[FN#242] In text "Hawanit," plur. of "Hanut" = the shop or vault of a vintner, pop. derived from the Persian Khaneh. In Jer.

xxvii. 16, where the A. V. has "When Jeremiah was entered into the dungeon and into the cabins," read "underground vaults,"

cells or cellars where wine was sold. "Hanut" also means either the vintner or the vintner's shop. The derivation because it ruins man's property and wounds his honour is the jeu d'esprit of a moralising grammarian. Chenery's Al-Hariri, p. 377.

[FN#243] In the Arab. "Jawakin," plur. of Arab. Jaukan for Pers.

Chaugan, a crooked stick a club, a bat used for the Persian form of golf played on horseback--Polo.

[FN#244] [The text reads "Liyah," and lower down twice with the article "Al-Liyah" (double Lam). I therefore suspect that "Liyyah," equivalent with "Luwwah," is intended which both mean Aloes-wood as used for fumigation (yutabakhkharu bi-hi). For the next ingredient I would read "Kit'ah humrah," a small quant.i.ty of red brickdust, a commodity to which, I do not know with what foundation, wonderful medicinal powers are or were ascribed. This interpretation seems to me the more preferable, as it presently appears that the last-named articles had to go into the phial, the mention of which would otherwise be to no purpose and which I take to have been finally sealed up with the sealing clay. The whole description is exceedingly loose, and evidently sorely corrupted, so I think every attempt at elucidation may be acceptable.--ST.]

[FN#245] "Wa Kita'h hamrah," which M. Houdas renders un morceau de viande cuite.

[FN#246] This is a specimen of the Islamised Mantra called in Sanskrit Stambhana and intended to procure illicit intercourse.

Herklots has printed a variety of formulae which are popular throughout southern India: even in the Maldive Islands we find such "Fandita" (i.e. Panditya, the learned Science) and Mr. Bell (Journ., Ceylon Br. R. A. S. vii. 109) gives the following specimen, "Write the name of the beloved; pluck a bud of the screw-pine (here a palette de mouton), sharpen a new knife, on one side of the bud write the Surat al-Badr (chapter of Power, No. xxi., thus using the word of Allah for Satan's purpose); on the other side write Vajahata; make an image out of the bud; indite particulars of the horoscope copy from beginning to end the Surat al-Rahman (the Compa.s.sionating, No. xlviii.);, tie the image in five places with coir left-hand-twisted (i.e.

widders.h.i.+ns or 'against the sun'); cut the throat of a blood-sucker (lizard); smear its blood on the image; place it in a loft, dry it for three days, then take it and enter the sea. If you go in knee deep the woman will send you a message; if you go in to the waist she will visit you." (The Voyage of Francois Pyrard, etc., p. 179.) I hold all these charms to be mere instruments for concentrating and intensifying the brain action called Will, which is and which presently will be recognised as the chief motor-power. See Suppl. vol. iii.

[FN#247] Probably the name of some Prince of the Jinns.

[FN#248] In text "Kama zukira fi Dayli-h" = arrange-toi de facon a l'atteindre (Houdas).

[FN#249] Proverbial for its depth: Kashan is the name of sundry cities; here one in the Jibal or Irak 'Ajami--Persian Mesopotamia.

[FN#250] Doubtless meaning Christians.

[FN#251] The Sage had summoned her by the preceding spell which the Princess obeyed involuntarily.

[FN#252] i.e., last night, see vol. iii. 249.

[FN#253] In text "Wuldan" = "Ghilman": the boys of Paradise; for whom and their feminine counterparts the Hur (Al-Ayn) see vols.

i. 90, 211; iii. 233.

[FN#254] Arab. "Dukhn" = Holcus dochna, a well-known grain, a congener of the Zurrah or Durrah = Holcus Sativus, Forsk. cxxiii.

The incident is not new. In "Des blaue Licht," a Mecklenburg tale given by Grimm, the King's daughter who is borne through the air to the soldier's room is told by her father to fill her pocket with peas and make a hole therein; but the sole result was that the pigeons had a rare feast. See Suppl. vol. iii. 375.

[FN#255] i.e., a martyr of love. See vols. iii. 211; i-iv. 205.

[FN#256] In the text "Ka'ka'"; hence the higher parts of Meccah, inhabited by the Jurham tribe, was called "Jabal Ka'ka'an," from their clas.h.i.+ng arms (Pilgrimage iii. 191).

[FN#257] This was the work of the form of magic popularly known as Simiya = fascination, for which see vol. i. 305, 332. It is supposed to pa.s.s away after a period of three days, and mesmerists will find no difficulty in recognising a common effect upon "Odylic sensitives."

[FN#258] Here supply the MS. with "illa."

[FN#259] In text "tatadakhkhal'alay-h:" see "Dakhil-ak," vol. i.

61.

[FN#260] Or "he": the verb may also refer to the Sage.

[FN#261] Arab. "Kazafa" = threw up, etc.

[FN#262] This, in the case of the Wazir, was a transformation for the worse: see vol. vii. 294, for the different kinds of metamorphosis.

[FN#263] i.e. my high fortune ending in the lowest.

[FN#264] In text "Bakar" = black cattle, whether bull, ox or cow.

For ploughing with bulls.

[FN#265] In text "Mukrif" = lit. born of a slave father and free mother.

[FN#266] In text "Antum fi khas.h.i.+n wa bash," an error for "khash-mash" = a miserable condition.

[FN#267] In text "yatbashsh" for "yanbashsha." [Or it may stand for yabtashsh, with transpositions of the "t" of the eighth form, as usual in Egypt. See Spitta-Bey's Grammar, p. 198.-- ST.]

[FN#268] "Jananan," which, says M. Houdas, is the vulgar form of "Jannatan" = the garden (of Paradise). The Wazir thus played a trick upon his hearers. [The word in the text may read "Jinanan,"

accusative of "Jinan," which is the broken plural of "Jannah,"

along with the regular plural "Jannat," and, like the latter, used for the gardens of Paradise.--ST.]

[FN#269] For this name of the capital of Eastern Arabia see vols.

i. 33, vii. 24.

[FN#270] "To be" is the Anglo-Oriental form of "Thaub" = in Arabia a loose robe like a nightgown. See ii. 206.

[FN#271] The good old Mosaic theory of retribution confined to this life, and the belief that Fate is the fruit of man's action.

[FN#272] Arab. "Sandarusah" = red juniper gum (Thuja articulata of Barbary), red a.r.s.enic realgar, from the Pers. Sandar = amber.

[FN#273] MSS. pp. 718-724. This fable, whose moral is that the biter is often bit, seems unknown to aesop and the compilation which bore his name during the so-called Dark Ages. It first occurs in the old French metrical Roman de Renart ent.i.tled, Si comme Renart prist Chanticler le Coq (ea. Meon, tom. i. 49). It is then found in the collection of fables by Marie, a French poetess whose Lais are still extant; and she declares to have rendered it de l'Anglois en Roman; the original being an Anglo- Saxon version of aesop by a King whose name is variously written Li reis Alured (Alfred ?), or Aunert (Albert ?), or Henris, or Mires. Although Alfred left no version of aesop there is in MS. a Latin aesop containing the same story of an English version by Rex Angliae Affrus. Marie's fable is printed in extenso in the Chaucer of Dr. Morris (i. 247); London, Bell and Sons, 1880; and sundry lines remind us of the Arabic, e.g.:--

Li gupil volt parler en haut, Et li cocs de sa buche saut, Sur un haut fust s'est muntez.

And it ends with the excellent moral:--

Ceo funt li fol tut le plusur, Parolent quant deivent taiser, Teisent quant il deivent parler.

Lastly the Gentil c.o.k hight Chanticlere and the Fox, Dan Russel, a more accidented tale, appears in "The Nonne Preestes Tale," by the Grand Traducteur.

[FN#274] "Dura" in MS. (p. 718) for "Zura," the cla.s.sical term, or for "Zurrah," pop. p.r.o.nounced "Durrah"=the Holcus Sativus before noticed, an African as well as Asiatic growth, now being supplanted by maize and rice.

[FN#275] "Sa'alab" or "Tha'lab": vol. iii. 132.

[FN#276] In text "Kikan," plur. of "Kiik" =des corneilles (Houdas).

[FN#277] "Samman" or "Summan," cla.s.sically "Salwa."