A plain and literal translation of the Arabian nights entertainments, now entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night. Volume 6 (of 17)

212

  When Easterns sit down to a drinking bout, which means to get drunk as speedily and pleasantly as possible, they put off dresses of dull colours and robe themselves in clothes supplied by the host, of the brightest he may have, especially yellow, green and red of different shades. So the lady’s proceeding was not likely to breed suspicion; although her tastes were somewhat fantastic and like Miss Julia’s—peculiar.

213

  Arab. “Najásah,” meaning anything unclean which requires ablution before prayer. Unfortunately mucus is not of the number, so the common Moslem is very offensive in the matter of nose.

214

  Here the word “la’an” is used which most Moslems express by some euphemism. The vulgar Egyptian says “Na’al” (Sapré and Sapristi for Sacre and Sacristie); the Hindostani express it “I send him the three letters”—lám, ayn and nún.

215

  The Mac. Edit. is here very concise; better the Bresl. Edit. (xii. 326). Here we have the Eastern form of the Three Wishes which dates from the earliest ages and which amongst us has been degraded to a matter of “black pudding.” It is the grossest and most brutal satire on the sex, suggesting that a woman would prefer an additional inch of penis to anything this world or the next can offer her. In the Book of Sindibad it is the story of the Peri and Religious Man; his learning the Great Name; and his consulting with his wife. See also La Fontaine’s “Trois Souhaits,” Prior’s “Ladle,” and “Les quatre Souhaits de Saint-Martin.”

216

  Arab. “Laylat al-Kadr” = Night of Power or of Divine Decrees. It is “better than a thousand months” (Koran xcvii. 3), but unhappily the exact time is not known although all agree that it is one of the last ten in Ramazan. The latter when named by Kiláb ibn Murrah, ancestor of Mohammed, about two centuries before Al-Islam, corresponded with July-August and took its name from “Ramzá” or intense heat. But the Prophet, in the tenth Hijrah year, most unwisely forbade “Nasy” = triennial intercalation (Koran ix. 36) and thus the lunar month went round all the seasons. On the Night of Power the Koran was sent down from the Preserved Tablet by Allah’s throne, to the first or lunar Heaven whence Gabriel brought it for opportunest revelation to the Apostle (Koran xcvii.). Also during this night all Divine Decrees for the ensuing year are taken from the Tablet and are given to the angels for execution whilst, the gates of Heaven being open, prayer (as in the text) is sure of success. This mass of absurdity has engendered a host of superstitions everywhere varying. Lane (Mod. Egypt, chapt. xxv.) describes how some of the Faithful keep tasting a cup of salt water which should become sweet in the Night of Nights. In (Moslem) India not only the sea becomes sweet, but all the vegetable creation bows down before Allah. The exact time is known only to Prophets; but the pious sit through the Night of Ramazan 27th (our 26th) praying and burning incense-pastilles. In Stambul this is officially held to be the Night of Power. So in mediæval Europe on Christmas Eve the cattle worshipped God in their stalls and I have met peasants in France and Italy who firmly believed that brute beasts on that night not only speak but predict the events of the coming year.

217

  Hence the misfortune befel her: the pious especially avoid temporal palaces.

218

  This is our tale of “The Maid and the Magpie;” the Mac. Edit. does not specify the “Tayr” (any bird) but the Bresl. Edit. has Ak’ak, a pie. The true Magpie (C. Pica) called Buzarái (?) and Zaghzaghán Abú Massáh (= the Sweeper, from its tail) is found on the Libanus and Anti-Libanus (Unexplored Syria ii. 77–143), but I never saw it in other parts of Syria or in Arabia. It is completely ignored by the Reverend Mr. Tristram in his painfully superficial book “The Natural History of the Bible,” published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (or rather Ignorance), London, 1873.

219

  This is “The Story of the Two Partridges,” told at great length in the Book of Sindibad. See De Sacy’s text in the Kalilah wa Damnah, quoted in the “Book of Kalilah and Damnah” (p. 306).

220

  This extremely wilful young person had rendered rape excusable. The same treatment is much called for by certain heroines of modern fiction—let me mention Princess Napraxine.

221

  The Story of the Hidden Robe, in the Book of Sindibad; where it is told with all manner of Persian embellishments.

222

  Now turned into Government offices for local administration; a “Tribunal of Commerce,” etc.

223

  Arab. “Bawwáb,” a personage as important as the old French concierge and a man of trust who has charge of the keys and with letting vacant rooms. In Egypt the Berber from the Upper Nile is the favourite suisse; being held more honest or rather less rascally than the usual Egyptian. These Berbers, however, are true barbarians, overfond of Búzah (the beer of Osiris) and not unfrequently dangerous. They are supposed by Moslems to descend from the old Syrians expelled by Joshua. For the favourite chaff against them, eating the dog (not the puppy-pie), see Pilgrimage i. 93. They are the “Paddies” of Egypt to whom all kinds of bulls and blunders are attributed.

224

  Arab. “Juma’ah,” which means either Friday or a week. In pre-Moslem times it was called Al-Arúbah (the other week-days being Shiyár or Saturday, Bawal, Bahan, Jabar, Dabar and Fámunís or Thursday). Juma’ah, literally = “Meeting” or Congregation (-day), was made to represent the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian Sunday because on that day Allah ended the work of creation; it was also the date of Mohammed’s entering Al-Medinah. According to Al-Bayzáwí, it was called Assembly-day because Ka’ab ibn Lowa, one of the Prophet’s ancestors, used to gather the people before him on Fridays. Moslems are not forbidden to do secular work after the congregational prayers at the hour when they must “hasten to the commemoration of Allah and leave merchandising” (Koran, chapt. lxii. 9).

225

  This is done only by the very pious: if they see a bit of bread they kiss it, place it upon their heads and deposit it upon a wall or some place where it will not be trodden on. She also removed the stones lest haply they prove stumbling-blocks to some Moslem foot.

226

  Arab. “Ashjár,” which may mean either the door-posts or the wooden bolts. Lane (iii. 174) translates it “among the trees”—in a room!

227

  Koran (ix. 51), when Mohammed reproaches the unbelievers for not accompanying him to victory or martyrdom.

228

  Arab. “Kiná’,” a true veil, not the “Burka’” or “nose-bag” with the peepholes. It is opposed to the “Tarkah” or “head-veil.” Europeans inveigh against the veil which represents the loup of Louis Quatorze’s day: it is on the contrary the most coquettish of contrivances, hiding coarse skins, fleshy noses, wide mouths and vanishing chins; and showing only lustrous and liquid black eyes. Moreover a pretty woman, when she wishes, will always let you see something under the veil. (Pilgrimage i. 337).

229

  A yellow-flowered artemisia or absinthe whose wood burns like holm-oak. (Unexplored Syria ii. 43). See vol. ii. 24 for further details.

230

  The Farz or obligatory prayers, I have noted, must be recited (if necessary) in the most impure place; not so the other orisons. Hence the use of the “Sajjádah” or prayer-rug, an article too well known to require description.

231

  Anglicè a stomach-ache, a colic.

232

  Arab. Al-Háfizah which has two meanings. Properly it signifies the third order of Traditionists out of a total of five, or those who know 300,000 traditions and their ascriptions. Popularly “one who can recite the Koran by rote.” There are six great Traditionists whose words are held to be prime authorities; (1) Al-Bokhári; (2) Muslim; and these are entitled Al-Sahíhayn, The (two true) authorities. After them (3) Al-Tirmidi; and (4) Abu Dáud: these four being the authors of the “Four Sunan;” the others are (5) Al-Nasái and (6) Ibn Májah (see Jarrett’s Al-Siyuti pp. 2, 6; and, for modern Arab studies. Pilgrimage i. 154 et seq.)

233

  Lane (iii. 176) marries the amorous couple, thus making the story highly proper and robbing it of all its point.

234

  Arab. “Sabbahat,” i.e. Sabbah-ak’ Allah bi’l khayr = Allah give thee good morning: still the popular phrase.

235

  Arab. “Ta’rísak,” with the implied hint of her being a “Mu’arrisah” or shepander. The Bresl. Edit. (xii. 356) bluntly says “Kiyádatak”—thy pimping.

236

  Arab. “Rafw”; the “Rafu-gar” or fine-drawer in India, who does this artistic style of darning, is famed for skill.

237

  The question sounds strange to Europeans, but in the Moslem East a man knows nothing, except by hearsay, of the women who visit his wife.

238

  Arab. “Ahl al-bayt,” so as not rudely to say “wife.”

239

  This is a mere abstract of the tale told in the Introduction (vol. i. 10–12). Here, however, the rings are about eighty; there the number varies from ninety to five hundred and seventy.

240

  The father suspected the son of intriguing with one of his own women.

241

  Arab, and Heb. “Laban” (opp. to “laban-halíb,” or simply “halíb” = fresh milk), milk artificially soured, the Dahin of India, the Kisainá of the Slavs and our Corstophine cream. But in The Nights, contrary to modern popular usage, “Laban” is also applied to fresh milk. The soured form is universally in the East eaten with rice and enters into the Salátah or cucumber-salad. I have noted elsewhere that all the Galactophagi, the nomades who live on milk, use it in the soured never in the fresh form. The Badawi have curious prejudices about it: it is a disgrace to sell it (though not to exchange it), and “Labbán,” or “milk-vendor,” is an insult. The Bráhni and Beloch nomades have the same pundonor possibly learnt from the Arabs (Pilgrimage i. 363). For ‘Igt (Akit), Mahir, Saribah, Jamídah and other lactal preparations, see ibid. i. 362.

242

  I need hardly say that the poison would have been utterly harmless, unless there had been an abrasion of the skin. The slave-girl is blamed for carrying the jar uncovered because thus it would attract the evil eye. In the Book of Sindibad the tale appears as the Story of the Poisoned Guests; and the bird is a stork.

243

  The Prince expresses the pure and still popular Moslem feeling; and yet the learned and experienced Mr. Redhouse would confuse this absolute Predestination with Providence. A friend tells me that the idea of absolute Fate in The Nights makes her feel as if the world were a jail.

244

  In the Book of Sindibad this is the Story of the Sandal-wood Merchant and the Advice of the Blind Old Man. Mr. Clouston (p. 163) quotes a Talmudic joke which is akin to the Shaykh’s advice and a reply of Tyl Eulenspiegel, the arch-rogue, which has also a family resemblance.

245

  Arab. “Sá’a,” a measure of corn, etc., to be given in alms. The Kamus makes it = four mudds (each being ⅓ lbs.); the people understand by it four times the measure of a man’s two open hands.

246

  i.e. till thou restore my eye to me. This style of prothesis without apodosis is very common in Arabic and should be preserved in translation, as it adds a naiveté to the style. We find it in Genesis iii. 2, “And now lest he put forth his hand,” etc.

247

  They were playing at Muráhanah, like children amongst us. It is also called “Hukm wa Rizá” = order and consent. The penalty is usually something ridiculous, but here it was villainous.

248

  Every Moslem capital has a “Shaykh of the thieves” who holds regular levées and who will return stolen articles for a consideration; and this has lasted since the days of Diodorus Siculus (Pilgrimage i. 91).

249

  This was not the condition; but I have left the text as it is characteristic of the writer’s inconsequence.

250

  The idea would readily occur in Egypt where the pulex is still a plague although the Sultan is said to hold his court at Tiberias. “Male and female” says the rogue, otherwise it would be easy to fill a bushel with fleas. The insect was unknown to older India according to some and was introduced by strangers. This immigration is quite possible. In 1863 the jigger (P. penetrans) was not found in Western Africa; when I returned there in 1882 it had passed over from the Brazil and had become naturalised on the equatorial African seaboard. The Arabs call shrimps and prawns “sea-fleas” (bargúth al-bahr) showing an inland race. (See Pilgrimage i. 322.)

251

  Submission to the Sultan and the tidings of his well-being should content every Eastern subject. But, as Oriental history shows, the form of government is a Despotism tempered by assassination. And under no rule is man socially freer and his condition contrasts strangely with the grinding social tyranny which characterises every mode of democracy or constitutionalism, i.e. political equality.

252

  Here the text has “Markúb” = a shoe; elsewhere “Na’al” = a sandal, especially with wooden sole. In classical Arabia, however, “Na’al” may be a shoe, a horse-shoe (iron-plate, not rim like ours). The Bresl. Edit. has “Watá,” any foot gear.

253

  Water-melons (batáyikh) says the Mac. Edit. a misprint for Aruz or rice. Water-melons are served up raw cut into square mouthfuls, to be eaten with rice and meat. They serve excellently well to keep the palate clean and cool.

254

  The text recounts the whole story over again—more than European patience can bear.

255

  The usual formula when telling an improbable tale. But here it is hardly called for: the same story is told (on weak authority) of the Alewife, the Three Graziers and Attorney-General Nay (temp. James II. 1577–1634) when five years old (Journ. Asiat. Soc. N.S. xxx. 280). The same feat had been credited to Thomas Egerton, Lord Chancellor in A.D. 1540–1617 (Chalmers, Biographical Dictionary xxiii. 267–68). But the story had already found its way into the popular jest-books such as “Tales and Quick Answers, very Mery and Pleasant to Rede” (1530); “Jacke of Dover’s Quest of Inquirie for the Foole of all Fooles” (1604) under the title “The Foole of Westchester”, and in “Witty and Entertaining Exploits of George Buchanan, commonly called the King’s Fool.” The banker-bard Rogers (in Italy) was told a similar story concerning a widow of the Lambertini house (xivth century). Thomas Wright (Introduction to the Seven Sages) says he had met the tale in Latin (xiiith-xivth centuries) and a variant in the “Nouveaux Contes à rire” (Amsterdam 1737), under the title “Jugement Subtil du Duc d’Ossone contre Deux Marchands.” Its origin is evidently the old Sindibád-namah translated from Syriac into Greek (“Syntipas,” xith century); into Hebrew (Mishlé Sandabar, xiith century), and from the Arabian version into old Castilian, “Libro de los Engannos et los Asayamientos de las Mugeres” (A.D. 1255), whereof a translation is appended to Professor Comparetti’s “Ricerche intorne al Libro di Sindibad,” translated by Mr. H. C. Coote for the Folk-Lore Society. The Persian metrical form (an elaboration of one much older) dates from 1375; and gave rise to a host of imitations such as the Turkish Tales of the Forty Wazirs and the Canarese “Kathá Manjari,” where four persons contend about a purse. See also Gladwin’s “Persian Moonshee,” No. vi. of “Pleasing Stories;” and Mr. Clouston’s paper, “The Lost Purse,” in the Glasgow Evening Times. All are the Eastern form of Gavarni’s “Enfants Terribles,” showing the portentous precocity for which some children (infant phenomena, calculating boys, etc. etc.) have been famous.

256

  From the Bresl. Edit. xii. 381. The Sa’lab or Abu Hosayn (Father of the Fortlet) is the fox, in Marocco Akkáb: Talib Yúsuf and Wa’wi are the jackal. Arabs have not preserved “Jakal” from the Heb. Shu’al and Persian Shaghál (not Shagul) as the Rev. Mr. Tristram misinforms his readers (Nat. Hist. p. 85).

257

  The name is old and classical Arabic: in Antar the young Amazon Jaydá was called Judar in public (Story of Jaydá and Khálid). It is also, as will be seen, the name of a quarter in Cairo, and men are often called after such places, e.g. Al-Jubní from the Súk al-Jubn in Damascus. The story is exceedingly Egyptian and the style abounds in Cairene vulgarisms; especially in the Bresl. Edit. ix. 311.

258

  Had the merchant left his property to be divided after his death and not made a will, the widow would have had only one-eighth instead of a fourth.

259

  Lit. “from tyrant to tyrant,” i.e. from official to official, Al-Zalamah, the “tyranny” of popular parlance.

260

  The coin is omitted in the text but it is evidently the “Nusf” or half-dirham. Lane (iii. 235), noting that the dinar is worth 170 “nusfs” in this tale, thinks that it was written (or copied?) after the Osmanh Conquest of Egypt. Unfortunately he cannot tell the precise period when the value of the small change fell so low.

261

  Arab. “Yaum mubárak!” still a popular exclamation.

262

  i.e. of the door of daily bread.

263

  Arab. “Sírah,” a small fish differently described (De Sacy, “Relation de l’Egypte par Abd-allatif,” pp. 278–288: Lane, Nights iii. 234). It is not found in Sonnini’s list.

264

  A tank or lakelet in the southern parts of Cairo, long ago filled up; Von Hammer believes it inherited the name of the old Charon’s Lake of Memphis, over which corpses were ferried.

265

  Thus making the agreement a kind of religious covenant; as Catholics would recite a Pater or an Ave Maria.

266

  Arab. “Yá miskín” = O poor devil; mesquin, meschino, words evidently derived from the East.

267

  Plur. of Maghribí, a Western man, a Moor. I have already derived the word through the Lat. “Maurus” from Maghribiyún. Europeans being unable to pronounce the Ghayn (or gh like the modern Cairenes) would turn it into “Ma’ariyún.” They are mostly of the Maliki school (for which see Sale) and are famous as magicians and treasure-finders. Amongst the suite of the late Amir Abd al-Kadir, who lived many years and died in Damascus, I found several men profoundly versed in Eastern spiritualism and occultism.

268

  The names are respectively, Slave of the Salvation; of the One (God); of the Eternal; of the Compassionate; and of the Loving.

269

  i.e. “the most profound”; the root is that of “Bátiní,” a gnostic, a reprobate.

270

  i.e. the Tall One.

271

  The loud-pealing or (ear-) breaking Thunder.

272

  Arab. “Fás and Miknás” which the writer evidently regards as one city. “Fás” means a hatchet, from the tradition of one having been found, says Ibn Sa’id, when digging the base under the founder Idrís bin Idrís (A.D. 808). His sword was placed on the pinnacle of the minaret built by the Imám Abu Ahmad bin Abi Bakr enclosed in a golden étui studded with pearls and precious stones. From the local pronunciation “Fes” is derived the red cap of the nearer Moslem East (see Ibn Batutah p. 230).

273

  Arab. “Al-Khurj,” whence the Span. Las Alforjas.

274

  Arab. “Kabáb,” mutton or lamb cut into small squares and grilled upon skewers: it is the roast meat of the nearer East where, as in the West, men have not learned to cook meat so as to preserve all its flavour. This is found in the “Asa’o” of the Argentine Gaucho who broils the flesh while still quivering and before the fibre has time to set. Hence it is perfectly tender, if the animal be young, and it has a “meaty” taste half lost by keeping.

275

  Equivalent to our puritanical “Mercy.”

276

  Arab. “Bukjah,” from the Persian Bukcheh: a favourite way of keeping fine clothes in the East is to lay them folded in a piece of rough long-cloth with pepper and spices to drive away moths.

277

  This is always specified, for respectable men go out of town on horse-back, never on “foot-back,” as our friends the Boers say. I have seen a Syrian put to sore shame when compelled by politeness to walk with me, and every acquaintance he met addressed him, “Anta Zalamah!”—What! afoot!

278

  This tale, including the Enchanted Sword which slays whole armies, was adopted in Europe as we see in Straparola (iv. 3), and the “Water of Life” which the Grimms found in Hesse, etc., “Gammer Grethel’s German Popular Stories,” Edgar Taylor, Bells, 1878; and now published in fuller form as “Grimm’s Household Tales,” by Mrs. Hunt, with Introduction by A. Lang, 2 vols. 8vo, 1884. It is curious that so biting and carping a critic, who will condescend to notice a misprint in another’s book, should lay himself open to general animadversion by such a rambling farrago of half-digested knowledge as that which composes Mr. Andrew Lang’s Introduction.

279

  These retorts of Judar are exactly what a sharp Egyptian Fellah would say on such occasions.

280

  Arab. “Salámát,” plur. of Salam, a favourite Egyptian welcome.

281

  This sentence expresses a Moslem idea which greatly puzzles strangers. Arabic has no equivalent of our “Thank you” (Kassara ‘llah Khayr-ak being a mere blessing—Allah increase thy weal!), nor can Al-Islam express gratitude save by a periphrase. The Moslem acknowledges a favour by blessing the donor and by wishing him increase of prosperity. “May thy shadow never be less!” means, Mayest thou always extend to me thy shelter and protection. I have noticed this before but it merits repetition. Strangers, and especially Englishmen, are very positive and very much mistaken upon a point, which all who have to do with Egyptians and Arabs ought thoroughly to understand. Old dwellers in the East know that the theory of ingratitude in no way interferes with the sense of gratitude innate in man (and beast) and that the “lively sense of favours to come,” is as quick in Orient-land as in Europe.

282

  Outside this noble gate, the Bab al-Nasr, there is a great cemetery wherein, by the by, lies Burckhardt, my predecessor as a Hájj to Meccah and Al-Medinah. Hence many beggars are always found squatting in its neighbourhood.

283

  Friends sometimes walk alongside the rider holding the stirrup in sign of affection and respect, especially to the returning pilgrim.

284

  Equivalent to our Alas! It is woman’s word never used by men; and foreigners must be most careful of this distinction under pain of incurring something worse than ridicule. I remember an officer in the Bombay Army who, having learned Hindostani from women, always spoke of himself in the feminine and hugely scandalised the Sepoys.

285

  i.e. a neighbour. The “quarters” of a town in the East are often on the worst of terms. See Pilgrimage.

286

  In the patriarchal stage of society the mother waits upon her adult sons. Even in Dalmatia I found, in many old-fashioned houses, the ladies of the family waiting upon the guests. Very pleasant, but somewhat startling at first.