The Thousand and One Nights Volume I Part 49

NOTE 47. The "ka?k," commonly called "ka?k," has been described in Note 16 to Chapter i. De Sacy has remarked that our English word "cake" seems to be from the same origin.

NOTE 48.--_On Oaths._ To explain this pa.s.sage, I must repeat, with a few slight additions, some remarks which I have made in a former publication.[380]--Among a people by whom falsehood, in certain cases, is not only allowed but commended,[381] oaths of different kinds are more or less binding. In considering this subject, we should also remember that oaths may sometimes be expiated.[382] There are some oaths which, I believe, few Muslims would falsely take; such as saying, three times, "By G.o.d the Great!" (Wa-llahi-l-A?eem), and the oath upon the mu?-?af (or copy of the ?ur-an), saying, "By what this contains of the word of G.o.d!" This latter is rendered more binding by placing a sword with the sacred volume; and still more so, by the addition of a cake, or piece, of bread, and a handful of salt. But a form of oath which is generally yet more to be depended upon is that of saying, "I impose upon myself divorcement!" (that is, "the divorce of my wife, if what I say be false"); or, "I impose upon myself interdiction!" which has a similar meaning ("My wife be unlawful to me!"); or, "I impose upon myself a triple divorcement!" which binds a man by the irrevocable divorce of his wife. If a man use any of these three forms of oath falsely, his wife, if he have but one, is divorced by the oath itself, if proved to be false, without the absolute necessity of any further ceremony; and if he have two or more wives, he must, under such circ.u.mstances, choose one of them to put away.

In the case which this note is princ.i.p.ally intended to ill.u.s.trate, the wife of 'Azeez makes him swear by the sword and the ?ur-an in the hope of inducing him to return to her; and by the oath of divorce, to make the inducement more strong, and that she might be enabled, in case he did not fulfil his vow, legally to contract another marriage as soon as she should have waited the period which the law requires.

NOTE 49. The verses I have omitted as they are the same (with the exception of some slight variations) as the first, second, third, and fifth, of those commencing at page 185 in this volume; and the contents of the accompanying paper as being tiresome and in some parts unmeaning.

NOTE 50. See the first note in the present series.

NOTE 51. I have subst.i.tuted "Shah-Zeman" (signifying "King of the Age") for Shahraman; the latter being evidently a mistake of a copyist.

NOTE 52. "Dunya" signifies the "world."

NOTE 53. "Ri?wan," which signifies "approbation," "complacency," &c., is the name of the Guardian of Paradise.--The meaning of this pa.s.sage is, "Surely this handsome young person is one of the Wildan, or Weleeds, those beautiful youths prepared to wait upon the faithful in Paradise; and he hath escaped thence through the inadvertence of Ri?wan." The very meanest in Paradise is promised eighty thousand of these servants, besides seventy-two ?ooreeyehs, &c.

NOTE 54. A compliment of this kind is generally uttered on letting a shop or house, and on selling an article of dress, &c.; and "G.o.d bless thee!" is usually said in reply. In like manner, a merchant selling goods to be re-sold says, "May G.o.d grant thee a profit upon them!"

NOTE 55. The word thus translated signifies taking a morning-draught of wine, milk, sherbet, or any other beverage.

NOTE 56. When Zeleekha invited her female friends that they might behold Yoosuf (or Joseph) and excuse her for inclining to him, at the sight of him they cut their own hands, and praised G.o.d, e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.n.g. these words, "This is not a mortal," &c. (?ur-an, ch. xii. v. 31).

NOTE 57. To persons more or less above him in rank, the shopkeeper rises and stands, or merely makes a slight motion as if he were about to rise.

NOTE 58. This is a common invocation, for the protection of a person from envy, or the evil eye, founded upon the last chapter but one of the ?ur-an, in which the believer is desired to "seek refuge with the Lord of the Daybreak" from various evils, and among these "from the mischief of the envious." It is very often said to imply admiration of a child, that the mother may not fear.

NOTE 59. This e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n is addressed to G.o.d.

NOTE 60. This alludes to one of the stages of the creation of man explained in the ?ur-an, ch. xxii. v. 5.

NOTE 61. The old woman is described as being "full of joy" because, having induced her mistress to answer the letter, she saw a prospect of continuing the correspondence, and so obtaining additional presents.

NOTE 62. "Es-Suha" is an obscure star in the Greater Bear, at which people look to try their powers of sight. It is the star 80, by [Greek: z].

NOTE 63. My sheykh has remarked in a marginal note on the "Five Elders"

or Sheykhs here mentioned, "the known number is the four; namely the [first four] Khaleefehs; or the Four Welees (eminent saints), the seyyid El-Bedawee and the seyyid Ed-Dasoo?ee and Er-Rifa'ee and El-Geelanee."

The latter four are often mentioned together as being the saints generally most esteemed in the present day and the founders of the four princ.i.p.al orders of Darweeshes.--Who, then, can be meant by "the Five Elders" I do not know; but I have retained this number as it occurs again in a variation of the same verses in a subsequent tale, which is almost exactly the same as that of Taj-el-Mulook.

NOTE 64. "Ibn-Seena" ("Son of Seena") is the true name of the great physician called by us "Avicenna."

NOTE 65. The gait of Arab ladies is very remarkable: they incline the lower part of the body from side to side as they step, and with the hands raised to the level of the bosom they hold the edges of their outer covering. Their pace is slow, and they look not about them, but keep their eyes towards the ground in the direction to which they are going.

NOTE 66. It should be remarked here, that the private room of an Eastern princess is not to be regarded as a Western bed-room. In the East, a guest may lay himself down upon a deewan in the presence of another, to pa.s.s the night, without any infringement of decorum.

NOTE 67. See the latter paragraph of the first note in the present series.

NOTE 68. See Note 9 to Chapter vii.

NOTE 69. The doors in Eastern houses generally turn on two wooden pins; one fitting into a hole in the lintel; the other, into a hole immediately behind the threshold; and the latter is very short. It is therefore often easy to displace a door by raising it a little, which may be done by means of a projecting wooden lock; and in many cases, when the door cannot be displaced from its sockets, it may be raised sufficiently to remove the inner latch from its catch. The doors of the ancient temples and tombs in Egypt were formed as above described, with pins, which were often made of bronze.

NOTE 70. I here read "nimsheh" (also written "nimjeh" and "nimjah"--from the Persian "neemjah") instead of "?amsheh." The latter is described by my sheykh, in a marginal note, as "a strip of leather divided into two, and tied together and nailed at the upper end to a piece of wood;" but the use of such an instrument in this case would be ridiculous. The name of "nimsheh" is often given to a royal dagger.

NOTE 71. As persons are often decapitated in an Eastern palace, a skin is made use of to receive the head and the blood. I believe it to be similar to the round skin used by travellers to eat upon; which is converted into a bag by means of a running string round the edge.

In concluding the present series of notes, I may state my opinion, that the two stories to which they relate are fully worthy of insertion in this collection, as extending the picture of _Arab_ life and manners, whatever may be thought of their _origin_.

[360] Thus commonly p.r.o.nounced for "Sharrun kan," signifying "an evil hath come into existence." Names of this kind are sometimes given by the Arabs not in dispraise, but as prophetic of great achievements.

[361] "Light of the Place."

[362] "Delight of the Age."

[363] Mir-at ez-Zeman.

[364] "Notes on the Bedouins and Wahabys," 8vo. vol. i. pp. 55 and 56.

[365] The Dynasty of the Fa?imee Khaleefehs was founded by El-Mahdee in Western Africa, in the year of the Flight 297. His third successor, El-Mo'ezz li-deeni-llah, conquered Egypt in the year 358, and the seat of his government was transferred to Cairo. As they claimed descent from Fa?imeh, and were of the s.h.i.+ya'ee sect, their possession of the fairest province of the orthodox (or 'Abbasee) Khaleefehs forms a strange episode in the history of El-Islam.--Their power was overthrown by ?ala?-ed-Deen, in the year 567.--ED.

[366] See Note 15 to Chapter ii.

[367] "El-Khi?a?:" Account of the Palaces of the Khaleefehs.

[368] Dr. Millengen's Curiosities of Medical Experience, quoted in the Literary Gazette, No. 1043.

[369] The art here mentioned was first made known to Europeans by a Frenchman, M. Du Vigneau, in a work ent.i.tled "Secretaire Turc, contenant l'Art d'exprimer ses pensees sans se voir, sans se parler, et sans s'ecrire:" Paris, 1688: in-12.--Von Hammer has also given an interesting paper on this subject in the "Mines de l'Orient," No. 1: Vienna, 1809. (Note to Marcel's "Contes du Cheykh El-Mohdy," vol. iii. pp. 327 and 328: Paris, 1833.)

[370] Called "ghasool el-azrar." In Delile's Flora aegyptiaca, the name of ghasool is given to the mesembryanthemum nodiflorum, cla.s.s icosandria, order pentagynia.

[371] This name is now given to sherbet.

[372] ?albet el-k.u.meyt, ch. x.--The aloe-plant is called "?abir," "?abr," "?ibr," and "?abbarah." The second of these words signifies "patience;" and so does the root of _all_ of them: and the last signifies "very patient." The _reason_ of its having these appellations cannot, of course, be _proved_.

[373] See Marcel, _ubi supra_. He states that Von Hammer's vocabulary of flowers and other hieroglyphic objects contains 120 articles; and that of Du Vigneau, 179; almost all of the former being the same as those of the latter.

[374] Ch. xxviii. v. 19.

37 5: Ch. v. v. 27.--This anecdote is from the ?albet el-k.u.meyt, ch. viii.--[Kafoor was a black eunuch purchased by El-Ikhsheed, the first of the virtually-independent dynasty of the Ikhsheedeeyeh, which fell before the Fa?imee Khaleefehs.

Kafoor was regent of Egypt for upwards of twenty years, during the reigns of his master's two sons; and was actual governor from the year of the Flight 355 to 357.--ED.]

[376] Sometimes, also, it means "May G.o.d cause thee to experience grief!" or "sorrow!" and, used in this sense, it is similar to the phrase, often occurring in this work, "the world became black before his face."

[377] The zikr here described was performed near the tomb of a saint, for whose sake it was celebrated. The ceremony is often performed in a sepulchral mosque, and often in the court, or in a chamber, of a private house.

[378] Marginal note by my sheykh.

[379] Idem.

[380] The "Modern Egyptians."