A plain and literal translation of the Arabian nights entertainments, now entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night. Volume 7 (of 17)

301

Arab. “Suhbat-hu” lit. = in company with him, a popular idiom in Egypt and Syria. It often occurs in the Bresl. Edit.

302

In the Mac. Edit. “Shahzamán,” a corruption of Sháh Zamán = King of the Age. (See vol. i. 2.)

303

For a note on this subject see vol. ii. 1.

304

i.e. bathe her and apply cosmetics to remove all traces of travel.

305

These pretentious and curious displays of coquetry are not uncommon in handsome slave-girls when newly bought; and it is a kind of pundonor to humour them. They may also refuse their favours and a master who took possession of their persons by brute force would be blamed by his friends, men and women. Even the most despotic of despots, Fath Ali Shah of Persia, put up with refusals from his slave-girls and did not, as would the mean-minded, marry them to the grooms or cooks of the palace.

306

Such continence is rarely shown by the young Jallabs or slave-traders; when older they learn how much money is lost with the chattel’s virginity.

307

Midwives in the East, as in the less civilised parts of the West, have many nostrums for divining the sex of the unborn child.

308

Arabic (which has no written “g”) from Pers. Gulnár (Gul-i-anár) pomegranate-flower, the “Gulnare” of Byron who learnt his Orientalism at the Mekhitarist (Armenian) Convent, Venice. I regret to see the little honour now paid to the gallant poet in the land where he should be honoured the most. The systematic depreciation was begun by the late Mr. Thackeray, perhaps the last man to value the noble independence of Byron’s spirit; and it has been perpetuated, I regret to see, by better judges. These critics seem wholly to ignore the fact that Byron founded a school which covered Europe from Russia to Spain, from Norway to Sicily, and which from England passed over to the two Americas. This exceptional success, which has not yet fallen even to Shakespeare’s lot, was due to genius only, for the poet almost ignored study and poetic art. His great misfortune was being born in England under the Georgium Sidus. Any Continental people would have regarded him as one of the prime glories of his race.

309

Arab. “Fí al-Kamar,” which Lane renders “in the moonlight.” It seems to me that the allusion is to the Comorin Islands; but the sequel speaks simply of an island.

310

The Mac. Edit. misprints Julnár as Julnáz (so the Bul. Edit. ii. 233), and Lane’s Jullanár is an Egyptian vulgarism. He is right in suspecting the “White City” to be imaginary; but its sea has no apparent connection with the Caspian. The mermen and mermaids appear to him to be of an inferior order of the Jinn, termed Al-Ghawwásah, the Divers, who fly through air and are made of fire which at times issues from their mouths.

311

Arab. “’Alà Kulli hál,” a popular phrase, like the Anglo-American “anyhow.”

312

In the text the name does not appear till near the end of the tale.

313

i.e. Full moon smiling.

314

These lines have occurred in vol. iii. 264, so I quote Lane ii. 499.

315

These lines occurred in vol. ii. 301. I quote Mr. Payne.

316

Arab. “Khadd” = cheek from the eye-orbit to the place where the beard grows; also applied to the side of a rough highland, the side-planks of a litter, etc. etc.

317

The black hair of youth.

318

This manner of listening is not held dishonourable amongst Arabs or Easterns generally; who, however, hear as little good of themselves as westerns declare in proverb.

319

Arab. “Hasab wa nasab,” before explained as inherited degree and acquired dignity. See vol. iv. 171.

320

Arab. Mujájat = spittle running from the mouth: hence Lane, “is like running saliva,” which, in poetry is not pretty.

321

Arab. and Heb. Salmandra from Pers. Samandal (—dar—duk—dun, etc), a Salamander, a mouse which lives in fire, some say a bird in India and China and others confuse with the chameleon (Bochart Hiero. Part ii. chapt. vi).

322

Arab. “Mahá” one of the four kinds of wild cows or bovine antelopes, bubalus, Antelope defassa, A. leucoryx, etc.

323

These lines have occurred in vol. iii. 279; so I quote Lane (iii. 274) by way of variety; although I do not like his “bowels.”

324

The last verse (286) of chapt. ii. The Cow: “compelleth” in the sense of “burdeneth.”

325

Salih’s speeches are euphuistic.

326

From the Fátihah.

327

A truly Eastern saying, which ignores the “old maids” of the West.

328

i.e. naming her before the lieges as if the speaker were her and his superior. It would have been more polite not to have gone beyond “the unique pearl and the hoarded jewel”: the offensive part of the speech was using the girl’s name.

329

Meaning emphatically that one and all were nobodies.

330

Arab. Badr, the usual pun.

331

Arab. Kirát (κεράτιον) the bean of the Abrus precatorius, used as a weight in Arabia and India and as a bead for decoration in Africa. It is equal to four Kamhahs or wheat-grains and about 3 grs. avoir.; and being the twenty-fourth of a miskal, it is applied to that proportion of everything. Thus the Arabs say of a perfect man, “He is of four-and-twenty Kirát” i.e. pure gold. See vol. iii. 239.

332

The (she) myrtle: Kazimirski (A. de Biberstein) Dictionnaire Arabe-Francais (Paris Maisonneuve 1867) gives Marsín = Rose de Jericho: myrte.

333

Needless to note that the fowler had a right to expect a return present worth double or treble the price of his gift. Such is the universal practice of the East: in the West the extortioner says, “I leave it to you, sir!”

334

And she does tell him all that the reader well knows.

335

This was for sprinkling him, but the texts omit that operation. Arabic has distinct terms for various forms of metamorphosis. “Naskh” is change from a lower to a higher, as beast to man; “Maskh” (the common expression) is the reverse; “Raskh” is from animate to inanimate (man to stone) and “Faskh” is absolute wasting away to corruption.

336

I render this improbable detail literally: it can only mean that the ship was dashed against a rock.

337

Who was probably squatting on his shop-counter. The “Bakkál” (who must not be confounded with the épicier), lit. “vender of herbs” = greengrocer, and according to Richardson used incorrectly for Baddál (?) vendor of provisions. Popularly it is applied to a seller of oil, honey, butter and fruit, like the Ital. “Pizzicagnolo” = Salsamentarius, and in N. West Africa to an inn-keeper.

338

Here the Shaykh is mistaken: he should have said, “The Sun in old Persian.” “Almanac” simply makes nonsense of the Arabian Circe’s name. In Arab. it is “Takwím,” whence the Span. and Port. “Tacuino:” in Heb. Hakamathá-Takunah = sapientia dispositionis astrorum (Asiat. Research. iii. 120).

339

i.e. for thy daily expenses.

340

Un adolescent aime toutes les femmes. Man is by nature polygamic whereas woman as a rule is monogamic and polyandrous only when tired of her lover. For the man, as has been truly said, loves the woman, but the love of the woman is for the love of the man.

341

I have already noted that the heroes and heroines of Eastern love-tales are always bonnes fourchettes: they eat and drink hard enough to scandalise the sentimental amourist of the West; but it is understood that this abundant diet is necessary to qualify them for the Herculean labours of the love night.

342

Here again a little excision is necessary; the reader already knows all about it.

343

Arab. “Hiss,” prop. speaking a perception (as of sound or motion) as opposed to “Hadas,” a surmise or opinion without proof.

344

Arab. “Sawík,” the old and modern name for native frumenty, green grain (mostly barley) toasted, pounded, mixed with dates or sugar and eaten on journeys when cooking is impracticable. M. C. de Perceval (iii. 54), gives it a different and now unknown name; and Mr. Lane also applies it to “ptisane.” It named the “Day of Sawaykah” (for which see Pilgrimage ii. 19), called by our popular authors the “War of the Meal-sacks.”

345

Mr. Keightley (H. 122–24 Tales and Popular Fictions, a book now somewhat obselete) remarks, “There is nothing said about the bridle in the account of the sale (infra), but I am sure that in the original tale, Badr’s misfortunes must have been owing to his having parted with it. In Chaucer’s Squier’s Tale the bridle would also appear to have been of some importance.” He quotes a story from the Notti Piacevoli of Straparola, the Milanese, published at Venice in 1550. And there is a popular story of the kind in Germany.

346

Here, for the first time we find the name of the mother who has often been mentioned in the story. Faráshah is the fem. or singular form of “Farásh,” a butterfly, a moth. Lane notes that his Shaykh gives it the very unusual sense of “a locust.”

347

Punning upon Jauharah = “a jewel” a name which has an Hibernian smack.

348

In the old version “All the lovers of the Magic Queen resumed their pristine forms as soon as she ceased to live;” moreover, they were all sons of kings, princes, or persons of high degree.

349

Arab. “Munádamah,” = conversation over the cup (Lane), used somewhat in the sense of “Musámarah” = talks by moonlight.

350

Arab. “Kursi,” a word of many meanings; here it would allude to the square crate-like seat of palm-fronds used by the Ráwi or public reciter of tales when he is not pacing about the coffee-house.

351

Von Hammer remarks that this is precisely the sum paid in Egypt for a MS. copy of The Nights.

352

Arab. “Samar,” the origin of Musámarah, which see, vol. iv. 237.

353

The pomp and circumstance, with which the tale is introduced to the reader showing the importance attached to it. Lane, most injudiciously I think, transfers the Proemium to a note in chapt. xxiv., thus converting an Arabian Night into an Arabian Note.

354

’Asim = defending (honour) or defended, son of Safwán = clear, cold (dry). Trébutien ii. 126, has Safran.

355

Fáris = the rider, the Knight, son of Sálih = the righteous, the pious, the just.

356

In sign of the deepest dejection, when a man would signify that he can fall no lower.

357

Arab. Yá Khawand (in Bresl. Edit. vol. iv. 191) and fem. form Khawandah (p. 20) from Pers. Kháwand or Kháwandagár = superior, lord, master; Khudáwand is still used in popular as in classical Persian, and is universally understood in Hindostan.

358

The Biblical Sheba, whence came the Queen of many Hebrew fables.

359

These would be the interjections of the writer or story-teller. The Mac. Edit. is here a sketch which must be filled up by the Bresl. Edit. vol. iv. 189–318: “Tale of King Asim and his son Sayf al-Mulúk with Badí’a al-Jamál.”

360

The oath by the Seal-ring of Solomon was the Stygian “swear” in Fairy-land. The signet consisted of four jewels, presented by as many angels, representing the Winds, the Birds, Earth (including sea) and Spirits, and the gems were inscribed with as many sentences (1) To Allah belong Majesty and Might; (2) All created things praise the Lord; (3) Heaven and Earth are Allah’s slaves and (4) There is no god but the God and Mohammed is His messenger. For Sakhr and his theft of the signet see Dr. Weil’s, “The Bible, the Koran, and the Talmud.”

361

Trébutien (ii. 128) remarks, “Cet Assaf peut être celui auquel David adresse plusieurs de ses psaumes, et que nos interprètes disent avoir été son maître de chapelle” (from Biblioth. Orient).

362

Mermen, monsters, beasts, etc.

363

This is in accordance with Eastern etiquette; the guest must be fed before his errand is asked. The Porte, in the days of its pride, managed in this way sorely to insult the Ambassadors of the most powerful European kingdoms and the first French Republic had the honour of abating the barbarians’ nuisance. So the old Scottish Highlanders never asked the name or clan of a chance guest, lest he prove a foe before he had eaten their food.

364

In Bresl. Edit. (301) Kháfiyah: in Mac. Kháinah, the perfidy.

365

So in the Mac. Edit., in the Bresl. only one “Kabá” or Kaftan; but from the sequel it seems to be a clerical error.

366

Arab. “Su’ubán” (Thu’ubán) popularly translated “basilisk.” The Egyptians suppose that when this serpent forms ring round the Ibn ’Irs (weasel or ichneumon) the latter emits a peculiar air which causes the reptile to burst.

367

i.e. that prophesied by Solomon.

368

Arab. “Takliyah” from kaly, a fry: Lane’s Shaykh explained it as “onions cooked in clarified butter, after which they are put upon other cooked food.” The mention of onions points to Egypt as the origin of this tale and certainly not to Arabia, where the strong-smelling root is hated.

369

Von Hammer quotes the case of the Grand Vizier Yúsuf throwing his own pelisse over the shoulders of the Aleppine Merchant who brought him the news of the death of his enemy, Jazzár Pasha.

370

This peculiar style of generosity was also the custom in contemporary Europe.

371

Khátún, which follows the name (e.g. Hurmat Khatun), in India corresponds with the male title Khan, taken by the Pathán Moslems (e.g. Pír Khán). Khánum is the affix to the Moghul or Tartar nobility, the men assuming a double designation e.g. Mirza Abdallah Beg. See Oriental collections (Ouseley’s) vol. i. 97.

372

Lit. “Whatso thou wouldest do that do!” a contrast with our European laconism.

373

These are booths built against and outside the walls, made of palm-fronds and light materials.

374

Von Hammer in Trébutien (ii. 135) says, “Such rejoicings are still customary at Constantinople, under the name of Donánmá, not only when the Sultanas are enceintes, but also when they are brought to bed. In 1803 the rumour of the pregnancy of a Sultana, being falsely spread, involved all the Ministers in useless expenses to prepare for a Donánmá which never took place.” Lane justly remarks upon this passage that the title Sultán precedes while the feminine Sultánah follows the name.

375

These words (Bresl. Edit.) would be spoken in jest, a grim joke enough, but showing the elation of the King’s spirits.

376

A signal like a gong: the Mac. Edit. reads “Tákah,” = in at the window.

377

Sayf al-Mulúk = “Sword (Egyptian Sif, Arab. Sayf, Gr. ξίφος) of the Kings”; and he must not be called tout bonnement Sayf. Sái’d = the forearm.

378

Arab. Fakíh = a divine, from Fikh = theology, a man versed in law and divinity i.e. (1) the Koran and its interpretation comprehending the sacred ancient history of the creation and prophets (Chapters iii, iv, v and vi), (2) the traditions and legends connected with early Moslem History and (3) some auxiliary sciences as grammar, syntax and prosody; logic, rhetoric and philosophy. See p. 18 of “El-Mas’údí,’s Historical Encyclopædia etc.,” by my friend Prof. Aloys Springer, London 1841. This fine fragment printed by the Oriental Translation Fund has been left unfinished when the Asiatic Society of Paris has printed in Eight Vols. 8vo the text and translation of MM. Barbier de Meynard and Pavet de Courteille. What a national disgrace! And the same with the mere abridgment of Ibn Batutah by Prof. Lee (Orient. Tr. Fund 1820) when the French have the fine Edition and translation by Defrémery and Sanguinetti with index etc. in 4 vols. 8vo 1858–59. But England is now content to rank in such matters as encouragement of learning, endowment of research etc., into the basest of kingdoms, and the contrast of status between the learned Societies of London and of Paris, Berlin, Vienna or Rome is mortifying to an Englishman—a national opprobrium.

379

Arab. Maydán al-Fíl prob. for Birkat al-Fíl, the Tank of the Elephant before-mentioned. Lane quotes Al-Makrizi who in his Khitat informs us that the lakelet was made about the end of the seventh century (A. H.), and in the seventeenth year of the eighth century became the site of stables. The Bresl. Edit. (iv. 214) reads “Maydan al-’Adl,” prob. for Al-’Ádil the name of the King who laid out the Maydán.

380

Arab. Asháb al-Ziyá’, the latter word mostly signifies estates consisting, strictly speaking, of land under artificial irrigation.

381

The Bresl. Edit. iv. 215 has “Chawáshiyah” = ’Chiaush, the Turkish word, written with the Pers. “ch,” a letter which in Arabic is supplanted by “sh,” everywhere except in Morocco.

382

Arab. “Záwiyah” lit. a corner, a cell. Lane (M. E. chapt. xxiv.) renders it “a small kiosque,” and translates the famous Zawiyat al-Umyán (Blind Men’s Angle) near the south-eastern corner of the Azhar or great Collegiate Mosque of Cairo, “Chapel of the Blind” (chapt. ix.). In popular parlance it suggests a hermitage.

383

Arab. “Takht,” a Pers. word used as more emphatic than the Arab. Sarír.

384

This girding the sovereign is found in the hieroglyphs as a peculiarity of the ancient Kings of Egypt, says Von Hammer referring readers to Denon.

385

Arab. “Mohr,” which was not amongst the gifts of Solomon in Night dcclx. The Bresl. Edit. (p. 220) adds “and the bow,” which is also de trop.

386

Arab. “Batánah,” the ordinary lining opp. to Tazríb, or quilting with a layer of cotton between two folds of cloth. The idea in the text is that the unhappy wearer would have to carry his cross (the girl) on his back.

387

This line has occurred in Night dccxliv. supra p. 280.

388

Arab. “Mu’attik al-Rikáb” i.e. who frees those in bondage from the yoke.

389

In the Mac. Edit. and in Trébutien (ii. 143) the King is here called Schimakh son of Scharoukh, but elsewhere, Schohiali = Shahyál, in the Bresl. Edit. Shahál. What the author means by “Son of ’Ád the Greater,” I cannot divine.

390

Lit. “For he is the man who can avail thereto,” with the meaning given in the text.

391

Arab. Jazírat, insula or peninsula, vol. i. 2.

392

Probably Canton with which the Arabs were familiar.

393

i.e. “Who disappointeth not those who put their trust in Him.”

394

Arab. “Al-Manjaníkát” plur. of manjanik, from Gr. Μάγγανον, Lat. Manganum (Engl. Mangonel from the dim. Mangonella). Ducange Glossarium, s.v. The Greek is applied originally to defensive weapons, then to the artillery of the day, Ballista, catapults, etc. The kindred Arab. form “Manjanín” is applied chiefly to the Noria or Persian water-wheel.

395

Faghfúr is the common Moslem title for the Emperors of China; in the Kamus the first syllable is Zammated (Fugh); in Al-Mas’udi (chapt. xiv.) we find Baghfúr and in Al-Idrisi Baghbúgh, or Baghbún. In Al-Asma’i Bagh = god or idol (Pehlewi and Persian); hence according to some Baghdád (?) and Bághistán a pagoda (?). Sprenger (Al-Mas’údi, p. 327) remarks that Baghfúr is a literal translation of Tien-tse and quotes Visdelou, “pour mieux faire comprendre de quel ciel ils veulent parler, ils poussent la généalogie (of the Emperor) plus loin. Ils lui donnent le ciel pour père, la terre pour mère, le soleil pour frère aîné et la lune pour sœur aînée.”

396

Arab. “Kayf hálak” = how de doo? the salutation of a Fellah.

397

i.e. subject to the Maharajah of Hind.

398

This is not a mistake: I have seen heavy hail in Africa, N. Lat. 4°; within sight of the Equator.

399

Arab. “Harrákat,” here used in the sense of smaller craft, and presently for a cock-boat.

400

See vol. i. 138: here by way of variety I quote Mr. Payne.

401

This explains the Arab idea of the “Old Man of the Sea” in Sindbad the Seaman (vol. vi. 50). He was not a monkey nor an unknown monster; but an evil Jinni of the most powerful class, yet subject to defeat and death.

402

These Plinian monsters abound in Persian literature. For a specimen see Richardson Dissert. p. xlviii.

403

Arab. “Anyáb,” plur. of “Náb” = canine tooth (eye-tooth of man), tusks of horse and camel etc.

404

Arab. “Kásid,” the Anglo-Indian Cossid. The post is called Baríd from the Persian “burídah” (cut) because the mules used for the purpose were dock-tailed. Barid applies equally to the post-mule, the rider and the distance from one station (Sikkah) to another which varied from two to six parasangs. The letter-carrier was termed Al-Faránik from the Pers. Parwánah, a servant. In the Diwán al-Baríd (Post-office) every letter was entered in a Madraj or list called in Arabic Al-Askidár from the Persian “Az Kih dárí” = from whom hast thou it?

405

“Ten years” in the Bresl. Edit. iv. 244.

406

In the Bresl. Edit. (iv. 245) we find “Kalak,” a raft, like those used upon the Euphrates, and better than the “Fulk,” or ship, of the Mac. Edit.

407

Arab. Timsah from Coptic (Old Egypt) Emsuh or Msuh. The animal cannot live in salt-water, a fact which proves that the Crocodile Lakes on the Suez Canal were in old days fed by Nile-water; and this was necessarily a Canal.

408

So in the Bresl. Edit. (iv. 245). In the Mac. text “one man,” which better suits the second crocodile, for the animal can hardly be expected to take two at a time.

409

He had ample reason to be frightened. The large Cynocephalus is exceedingly dangerous. When travelling on the Gold Coast with my late friend Colonel De Ruvignes, we suddenly came in the grey of the morning upon a herd of these beasts. We dismounted, hobbled our nags and sat down, sword and revolver in hand. Luckily it was feeding time for the vicious brutes, which scowled at us but did not attack us. During my four years’ service on the West African Coast I heard enough to satisfy me that these powerful beasts often kill men and rape women; but I could not convince myself that they ever kept the women as concubines.

410

As we should say in English it is a far cry to Loch Awe: the Hindu byword is, “Dihlí (Delhi) is a long way off.” See vol. i. 37.

411

Arab. Fútah, a napkin, a waistcloth, the Indian Zones alluded to by the old Greek travellers.