The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, vol 14 - Sir Richard Francis Burton (recommended books to read .TXT) 📗

of “Muayyad�,” the Faddah, Nuss or half-dirham coined under Sultan al-Muayyad, A.H. ixth cent.=A.D.

xvth.

 

[FN#173] Arab. “Rub’” (plur. “Arb�’”)=the fourth of a “Waybah,”

the latter being the sixth of an Ardabb (Irdabb)=5 bushels. See vol. i. 263.

 

[FN#174] A royal pavilion; according to Shakespear (Hind. Dict.

sub voce) it is a corruption of the Pers. “Sayab�n.”=canopy.

 

[FN#175] Arab. “Musajja’”=rhymed prose: for the Saj’a, see vol.

i. 116, and Terminal Essay, vol. x. p. 220. So Chaucer:—

 

In rhyme or ell�s in cadence.

 

[FN#176] Arab. “Huwa inn� na’rifu-h” lit.=He, verily we wot him not: the juxtaposition of the two first pronouns is intended to suggest “I am he.”

 

[FN#177] In Moslem tales decency compels the maiden, however much she may be in love, to show extreme unwillingness in parting with her maidenhead especially by marriage; and this farce is enacted in real life (see vol. viii. 40). The French tell the indecent truth,

 

D�sir de fille est un feu qui d�vore: D�sir de femme est plus fort encore.

 

[FN#178] The Arab. form (our old “bashaw”) of the Turk. “Pasha,”

which the French and many English write Pacha, thus confusing the vulgar who called Ibrahim Pacha “Abraham Parker.” The origin of the word is much debated and the most fanciful derivations have been proposed. Some have taken it from the Sansk. “Paksha”=a wing: Fuerst from Pers. P�ig�h=rank, dignity; Von Hammer (History) from P�i-Sh�h=foot of the king; many from “P�dish�h”=the Sovran, and Mr. E. T. W. Gibb suspects a connection with the Turk. “B�sh”=a head. He writes to me that the oldest forms are “Bashah” and “B�shah”; and takes the following quotation from Colonel Jev�d Bey, author of an excellent work on the Janissaries published a few years ago. “As it was the custom of the (ancient) Turks to call the eldest son ‘P�sh�,’ the same style was given to his son Al� al-Din (Aladd�n) by Osm�n Gh�zi, the founder of the Empire; and he kept this heir at home and beside him, whilst he employed the cadet Orkhan Bey as his commander-in-chief. When Orkh�n Gh�zi ascended the throne he conferred the title of P�sh� upon his son Sulayman. Presently reigned Mur�d (Amurath), who spying signs of disaffection in his first-born S�w�j� Bey about the middle of his reign created K�r�

Khal�l (his K�z�-Askar or High Chancellor) Wazir with the title Kazyr al-D�n Pasha; thus making him, as it were, an adopted son.

After this the word passed into the category of official titles and came to be conferred upon those who received high office.”

Colonel Jev�d Bey then quotes in support of his opinion the “History of Munajjim Pasha” and the “Fat�yah al-Wak�‘at”=Victories of Events. I may note that the old title has been sadly prostituted in Egypt as well as in Turkey: in 1851

P�sh�s could be numbered on a man’s fingers; now they are innumerable and of no account.

 

[FN#179] Arab. “‘Al� b�bi ‘ll�h”=for the love of the Lord, gratis, etc., a most popular phrase.

 

[FN#180] Arab. “Bah�r,” often used for hot spices generally.

 

[FN#181] In the text Shajarat R�h.

 

[FN#182] Arab. “Ma’�din”=minerals, here mentioned for the first time.

 

[FN#183] For the ear conceiving love before the eye (the basis of half these love-stories), see vol. iii. 9.

 

[FN#184] According to Dr. Steingass “Mirwad”=the iron axle of a pulley or a wheel for drawing water or lifting loads, hence possibly a bar of metal, an ingot. But he is more inclined to take it in its usual sense of “Kohl-pencil.” Here “Mirw�d” is the broader form like “Mift�h” for “Miftah,” much used in Syria.

 

[FN#185] For the Ashrafi, a gold coin of variable value, see vol.

iii. 294. It is still coined; the Calcutta Ashrafi worth �1 11s.

8d. is 1/16th (about 5s. to the oz.) better than the English standard, and the Regulations of May, 1793, made it weigh 190.894

grs. Troy.

 

[FN#186] In text “Anjar”=a flat platter; Pers.

 

[FN#187] By what physical process the author modestly leaves to the reader’s imagination. Easterns do not often notice this feminine venereal paroxysm which takes the place of seminal emission in the male. I have seen it happen to a girl when hanging by the arms a trifle too long from a gymnastic cross-bar; and I need hardly say that at such moments (if men only knew them) every woman, even the most modest, is an easy conquest. She will repent it when too late, but the flesh has been too strong for her.

 

[FN#188] A neat and suggestive touch of Eastern manners and morals.

 

[FN#189] In text “Ghayr Wa’d,” or “Min ghayr Wa’d.” Lit. without previous agreement: much used in this text for suddenly, unexpectedly, without design.

 

[FN#190] The reader will have remarked the use of the Arabic “‘Alaka”=he hung, which with its branches greatly resembles the Lat. pendere.

 

[FN#191] Arab. “Min al-Mal�bis,” plur. of “Malbas”=anything pleasant or enjoyable; as the plural of “Milbas”=dress, garment, it cannot here apply.

 

[FN#192] i.e. “The Tigris” (Hid-dekel), with which the Egyptian writer seems to be imperfectly acquainted. See vols. i. 180; viii. 150.

 

[FN#193] The word, as usual misapplied in the West, is to be traced through the Turk. K�shk (pron. Ky�shk) to the Pers.

“Kushk”=an upper chamber.

 

[FN#194] Four including the doorkeeper. The Darwayshes were suspected of kidnapping, a practice common in the East, especially with holy men. I have noticed in my Pilgrimage (vols.

ii. 273; iii. 327), that both at Meccah and at Al-Medinah the cheeks of babes are decorated with the locally called “Mash�li”=three parallel gashes drawn by the barber with the razor down the fleshy portion of each cheek, from the exterior angles of the eyes almost to the corners of the mouth. According to the citizens this “Tashr�t” is a modern practice distinctly opposed to the doctrine of Al-Islam; but, like the tattooing of girls, it is intended to save the children from being carried off, for good luck, by kidnapping pilgrims, especially Persians.

 

[FN#195] The hair being shaven or plucked and showing the darker skin. In the case of the axilla-pile, vellication is the popular process: see vol. ix. 139. Europeans who do not adopt this essential part of cleanliness in hot countries are looked upon as impure by Moslems.

 

[FN#196] Here a little abbreviation has been found necessary: “of no avail is a twice-told tale.”

 

[FN#197] The nearest approach in Eastern tales to Western hysterics.

 

[FN#198] A tent-pitcher, body servant, etc. See vol. vii. 4. The word is still popular in Persia.

 

[FN#199] The amount of eating and drinking in this tale is phenomenal; but, I repeat, Arabs enjoy reading of “meat and drink” almost as much as Englishmen.

 

[FN#200] Arab writers always insist upon the symptom of rage which distinguishes the felines from the canines; but they do not believe that the end of the tail has a sting.

 

[FN#201] The circular leather which acts alternately provision bag and tablecloth. See vols. i. 178; v. 8; viii. 269, and ix.

141.

 

[FN#202] He refused because he suspected some trick and would not be on terms of bread and salt with the stranger.

 

[FN#203] The story contains excellent material, but the writer or the copier has “scamped” it in two crucial points, the meeting of the bereaved Sultan and his wife (Night ccclxxvii.) and the finale where we miss the pathetic conclusions of the Mac. and Bresl. Edits. Also a comparison of this hurried d�nouement with the artistic tableau of “King Omar bin al-Nu’uman,” where all the actors are mustered upon the stage before the curtain falls, measures the difference between this MS. and the printed texts, showing the superior polish and finish of the latter.

 

[FN#204] Vol. iii. pp. 386-97, where it follows immediately the last story. Scott (Story of the Avaricious Cauzee and his Wife, vi. 112) has translated it after his own fashion, excising half and supplying it out of his own invention; and Gauttier has followed suit in the Histoire du Cadi avare et de sa Femme, vi.

254.

 

[FN#205] Tar�bulus and Atr�bulus are Arabisations of Tripolis (hod. Tripoli) the well-known port-town north of Bayr�t; founded by the Phoenicians, rose to fame under the Seleucid�, and was made splendid by the Romans. See Socin’s “B�deker,” p. 509.

 

[FN#206] i.e. the Kazi’s court-house [FN#207] Arab. “Buksumah” = “hard bread” (Americanic�).

 

[FN#208] Arab. “Sufrah umm jal�jil.” Lit. an eating-cloth with little bells, like those hung to a camel, or metal plates as on the rim of a tambourine.

 

[FN#209] The Kursi here = the stool upon which the “S�n�yah” or tray of tinned copper is placed, the former serving as a table.

These stools, some 15 inches high and of wood inlaid with bone, tortoise-shell or mother-of-pearl, are now common in England, where one often sees children using them as seats. The two (Kursi and S�n�yah) compose the Sufrah, when the word is used in the sense of our “dinner-table.” Lane (M.E. chapt. v.) gives an illustration of both articles.

 

[FN#210] Arab. “Jar�dah,” a palm-frond stripped of its leaves (Supplemental vol. i. 203), hence the “Jar�d” used as a javelin; see vol. vi. 263.

 

[FN#211] An Egyptian or a Syrian housewife will make twenty dishes out of roast lamb, wholly unlike the “good plain cook” of Great or Greater Britain, who leaves the stomach to do all the work of digestion in which she ought to but does not assist.

 

[FN#212] A plate of “Bays�r” or “Fays�r,” a dish peculiar to Egypt; beans seasoned with milk and honey and generally eaten with meat. See Mr. Guy Lestrange’s “Al-Mukaddasi,” Description of Syria, p. 80; an author who wrote cir. A.H. 986. Scott (vi. 119) has “A savoury dish called byssarut, which is composed of parched beans and pounded salt meat, mixed up with various seeds, onions and garlic.” Gauttier (vi. 261) carefully avoids giving the Arabic name, which occurs in a subsequent tale (Nights cdxliv.) when a laxative is required.

 

[FN#213] Arab. “Mul�kh�yah n�shiyah,” lit. = flowing; i.e. soft like �pinards au jus. Mul�kh�ya that favourite vegetable, the malva esculenta is derived from the Gr. {Greek} (also written {Greek}) from {Greek} = to soften, because somewhat relaxing. In ancient Athens it was the food of the poorer classes and in Egypt it is eaten by all, taking the place of our spinach and sorrel.

 

[FN#214] Arab. “Kalak” = lit. “agitation,” “disquietude” and here used as syn. with “K�lanj,” a true colic.

 

[FN#215] Arab. “Mazar�t,” from “Mazr,” = being addled (an egg).

 

[FN#216] Here is an allusion to the “Massage,” which in these days has assumed throughout Europe all the pretensions of scientific medical treatment. The word has been needlessly derived from the Arab. “Mas’h” = rubbing, kneading; but we have the Gr. synonym and the Lat. Massare. The text describes child-bed customs amongst Moslem women, and the delivery of the Kazi has all the realism of M. Zola’s accouchement in La Joie de Vivre.

 

[FN#217] Arab. “Fa’�lah” = the building craft, builders’ trade.

 

[FN#218] In text “Kaww�rah,” which is not found in the dictionaries. “Kuw�ray”= that which is cut off from the side of a thing, etc. My translation is wholly tentative: perhaps Kaww�ra may be a copyist’s error for “Kaz�zah” = vulg. a (flask of) glass.

 

[FN#219] The “Khaznah,” = treasury, is a thousand “K�s” = 500

piastres, or �5 at par; and thus represents �5,000, a large sum for Tripoli in those days.

 

[FN#220] The same incident occurs in that pathetic tale with an ill name = “How Abu al-Hasan brake Wind.” vol. v. 135.

 

[FN#221] Arab. “Karkabah,” clerical error (?) for “Karkarah” =

driving (as wind the clouds); rumbling of wind in bowels. Dr.

Steingass holds that it is formed by addition of a second