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

from the root “Karb,” one of whose meanings is: “to inflate the stomach.”

[FN#222] For Ummu ‘Amrin = mother of ‘Amru, so written and pronounced ” ‘Amr,” a fancy name, see vol. v. 118, for the Tale of the Schoolmaster, a well-known “Joe Miller.” [Ummu ‘Amrin, like Ummu ‘�mirin, is a slang term for “hyena.” Hence, if Ass and Umm Amr went off together, it is more than likely that neither came back.—St.]

[FN#223] A slang name for Death. “Kash’am” has various sigs. esp.

the lion, hence Rab�‘at al-Faras (of the horses), one of the four sons of Niz�r was surnamed Al-Kash’am from his c�ur de lion (AlMas’udi iii. 238). Another pleasant term for departing life is Ab� Y�hy� = Father of John, which also means “The Living” from Hayy—Death being the lord of all: hence “Yam�t” lit.= he dies, is an ill-omened name amongst Arabs. Kash’am is also a hyena, and Umm Kash’am is syn. with Umm ‘�mir (vol. i. 43). It was considered a point of good breeding to use these “Kunyah” for the purpose of varying speech (see al-Hariri Ass. xix.). The phrase in the text = meaning went to hell, as a proverb was first used by Zuhayr, one of the “Suspended Poets.” Umm Kash’am was the P.N.

of a runaway camel which, passing by a large fire, shied and flung its riding saddle into the flames. So in Al-Siy�ti’s “History of the Caliphs” (p. 447), the text has “And Malak Shah went to where her saddle was thrown by Umm Kash’am,” which Major Jarrett renders “departed to hell-fire.”

[FN#224] Scott’s “Story of the Bhang-eater and Cauzee,” vi. 126: Gauttier, Histoire du Preneur d’Opium et du Cadi, vi. 268.

[FN#225] Arab. “Lawwaha” = lit. pointing out, making clear.

[FN#226] Text “in his belly,” but afterwards in his “Halkah” =

throat, throttle, which gives better sense.

[FN#227] In text “H�yishah” from “Haysh” = spoiling, etc.

[FN#228] Arab. “Yauh!” See vols. ii. 321; vi. 235.

[FN#229] Arab. “Y� Jad’�n” (pron. “G�d’�n”) more gen. “Y� Jad’a”

= mon brave!

[FN#230] In text “Y� ‘Arz�d”: prob. a clerical slip for “‘Urz�t,”

plur. of “‘Urzah” = a companion, a (low) fellow, a man evil spoken of.

[FN#231] Easterns love drinking in a bright light: see vol. ii.

59.

[FN#232] Arab. “‘Akl” (= comprehension, understanding) and “Nakl”

(= copying, describing, transcribing), a favourite phrase in this MS.

[FN#233] Arab. “Umm�li”; gen. Umm�l, an affirmation; Certes, I believe you!

[FN#234] For the many preparations of this drug, see Herklots, Appendix, pp. lxviii. ciii. It is impossible to say how “Indian hemp,” like opium, datura, ether and chloroform, will affect the nervous system of an untried man. I have read a dozen descriptions of the results, from the highly imaginative Monte Cristo to the prose of prosaic travellers; and do not recognise that they are speaking of the same thing.

[FN#235] This tranquil enjoyment is popularly called “Kayf.” See my Pilgraimage i. 13. In a coarser sense it is applied to all manners of intoxication; and the French traveller Sonnini says, “The Arabs (by which he means the Egyptians) give the name of Kayf to the voluptuous relaxation, the delicious stupor, produced by the smoking of hemp.” I have smoked it and eaten it for months without other effect than a greatly increased appetite and a little drowsiness.

[FN#236] These childish indecencies are often attributed to Bhang-eaters. See “B�k�n’s Tale of the Hash�sheater,” vol. ii.

91. Modest Scott (vi. 129) turns the joke into “tweaking the nose.” Respectable Moslems dislike the subject, but the vulgar relish it as much as the sober Italian enjoys the description of a drinking bout—in novels.

[FN#237] In the text “Finj�l,” a vulgarism for “Finj�n”: so the converse “Isma’�n” for “Ism’a�l” = Ishmael. Mr. J. W. Redhouse (The Academy No. 764) proposes a new date for coffee in AlYaman.

Colonel Playfair (History of Yemen, Bombay 1859) had carelessly noted that its “first use at Aden was by a judge of the place who had seen it drunk at Zayla’, on the African coast opposite Aden,”

and he made the judge die in A.H. 875 = A.D. 1470. This is about the date of the Shaykh al-Sh�zal�‘s tomb at Mocha, and he was the first who brought the plant form about African Harar to the Arabian seaboard. But Mr. Redhouse finds in a Turkish work written only two centuries ago, and printed at Constantinople, in A.D. 1732, that the “ripe fruit was discovered growing wild in the mountains of Yemen (?) by a company of dervishes banished thither.” Finding the berry relieve their hunger and support their vigils the prior, “Shaykh ‘Umar advised their stewing it (?) and the use became established. They dried a store of the fruit; and its use spread to other dervish communities, who perhaps (?) sowed the seed wherever it would thrive throughout Africa (N.B. where it is indigenous) and India (N.B. where both use and growth are quite modern). From Africa, two centuries later, its use was reimported to Arabia at Aden (?) by the judge above mentioned, who in a season of scarcity of the dried fruit (?) tried the seed” (N.B. which is the fruit). This is passing strange and utterly unknown to the learned De Sacy (Chrest. Arab.

i. 412-481).

[FN#238] Koran iii. 128. D’Herbelot and Sale (Koran, chap. iii.

note) relate on this text a noble story of Hasan Ali-son and his erring slave which The Forty Vezirs (Lady’s eighth story, p. 113) ignorantly attributes to Harun al-Rashid:—Forthwith the Caliph rose in wrath and was about to hew the girl to pieces, when she said, “O Caliph, Almighty Allah saith in His glorious Word (the Koran), ‘And the stiflers of Wrath’” (iii. 128). Straightway the Caliph’s wrath was calmed. Again said the girl, “‘And the pardoners of men.’” (ibid.) Quoth the Caliph, “I have forgiven the crimes of all the criminals who may be in prison.” Again said the slave-girl, “‘And Allah loveth the beneficent.’” (ibid.) Quoth the Caliph, “God be witness that I have with my own wealth freed thee and us many male and female slaves as I have, and that this day I have for the love of Allah given the half of all my good in alms to the poor.” This is no improvement upon the simple and unexaggerated story in Sale. “It is related of Hasan, the son of Ali, that a slave having once thrown a dish on him boiling hot, as he sat at table, and fearing his master’s resentment, fell on his knees and repeated these words, Paradise is for those who bridle their anger. Hasan answered, I am not angry. The slave proceeded, And for those who forgive men. I forgive you, said Hasan. The slave, however, finished the verse, For Allah loveth the beneficent. Since it is so, replied Hasan, I give you your liberty and four hundred pieces of silver.”

[FN#239] The old name of the parish bull in rural England.

[FN#240] Arab. “Kaw�k:” see The Nights, vol. vi. 182, where the bird is called “Ak’ak.” Our dicts. do not give the word, but there is a “Kauk” (K�ka, yak�ku) to cluck, and “Kauk” = an aquatic bird with a long neck. I assume “Kaw�k” to be an intensive form of the same root. The “Mother of Solomon” is a fanciful “Kunyah,” or bye name given to the bird by the Bhang-eater, suggesting his high opinion of her wisdom.

[FN#241] Arab. “N�t�r,” prop. a watchman: also a land-mark, a benchmark of tamped clay.

[FN#242] In text “Bartam�n” for “Martaban” = a pot, jar, or barrel-shaped vessel: others apply the term to fine porcelain which poison cannot affect. See Col. Yule’s Glossary, s. v.

Martab�n, where the quotation from Ibn Batutah shows that the term was current in the xivth century. Linschoten (i. 101) writes, “In this town (Martaban of Pegu) many of the great earthen pots are made, which in India are called Martananas, and many of them are carried throughout all India of all sorts both small and great: and some are so great that they will fill two pipes of water.” Pyrard (i. 259) applies the name to “certain handsome jars, of finer shape and larger than I have seen elsewhere” (Transl. by ALBERT Gray for the Hakluyt Soc. 1887).

Mr. Hill adds that at M�l� the larger barrel-shaped jars of earthenware are still called “M�tab�n,” and Mr. P. Brown (Zillah Dictionary, 1852) finds the word preserved upon the Madras coast = a black jar in which rice is imported from Pegu.

[FN#243] The Arabic here changes person, “he repeated” after Eastern Fashion, and confuses the tale to European readers.

[FN#244] Such treasure trove belonging to the State, i.e. the King.

[FN#245] Arab. “H�r�” for “H�r” = a pool, marsh, or quagmire, in fact corresponding with our vulgar “bogshop.” Dr. Steingass would read “Haur�,” a “mans�b” of “Haur” = pond, quagmire, which, in connection with a Hammam, may = sink, sewer, etc.

[FN#246] The Bedlam: see vol. i. 288.

[FN#247] Arab. “Tamtar aysh?” (i.e. Ayyu shayyin, see vol. i.

79). I may note that the vulgar abbreviation is of ancient date.

Also the Egyptian dialect has borrowed, from its ancestor the Coptic, the practice of putting the interrogatory pronoun or adverb after (not before the verb, e.g. “R�‘ih fayn?” = Wending (art thou) whither? It is regretable that Egyptian scholars do not see the absolute necessity of studying Coptic, and this default is the sole imperfection of the late Dr. Spitta Bey’s admirable Grammar of Egyptian.

[FN#248] Arab. “‘Arsah,” akin to “Mu’arris” (masc.) = a pimp, a pander. See vol. i. 338; and Supp. vol. i. 138; and for its use Pilgrimage i. 276.

[FN#249] i.e. Ab� K�sim the Drummer. The word “Tamb�r” is probably derived from “Tabl” = a drum, which became by the common change of liquids “Tabur” in O. French and “Tabour” in English.

Hence the mod. form “Tambour,” which has been adopted by Turkey, e.g. Tamb�rji = a drummer. In Egypt, however, “Tamb�r” is applied to a manner of mandoline or guitar, mostly used by Greeks and other foreigners. See Lane, M.E. chap. xviii.

[FN#250] Arab. “B�l” (sing. B�lah) = a bale, from the Span. Bala and Italian Balla, a small parcel made up in the shape of a bale, Lat. Palla.

[FN#251] Arab. “Wal�sh,” i.e. “Was l� shayya” = “And nihil” (nil, non ens, naught).

[FN#252] Arab. “Kurb�j” = cravache: vol. viii. 17. The best are made of hippopotamus-hide (imported from East Africa), boiled and hammered into a round form and tapering to the point. Plied by a strong arm they cut like a knout.

[FN#253] The text “Y� Sult�n-am,” a Persian or Turkish form for the Arab. “Y� Sult�n-i.”

[FN#254] In text “Kalb” for “Kulbat” = a cave, a cavern.

[FN#255] The houses were of unbaked brick or cob, which readily melts away in rain and requires annual repairing at the base of the walls where affected by rain and dew. In Sind the damp of the earth with its nitrous humour eats away the foundations and soon crumbles them to dust.

[FN#256] Here meaning the under-Governor or head Clerk.

[FN#257] “N�l” (= the Nile), in vulgar Egyptian parlance the word is = “high Nile,” or the Nile in flood.

[FN#258] Arab. “Darwayshsah” = a she-Fak�r, which in Europe would be represented by that prime pest a begging nun.

[FN#259] Arab. “Allah h�fiz-ik” = the popular Persian expression, “Khud� H�fiz!”

[FN#260] Arab. “S�lihin” = the Saints, the Holy Ones.

[FN#261] Arab. “Sharkh” = in dicts. the unpolished blade of a hiltless sword.

[FN#262] In the text “Mil�yah,” a cotton stuff some 6 feet long, woven in small chequers of white and indigo-blue