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

would be easy to thrust a skewer between the joints. I may remind the reader that “Jan�zah” = a bier with a corpse thereon (vol.

ii. 46), whereas the “Sar�r” is the same when unburdened, and the “Na’ash” is a box like our coffin, but open at the tip.

 

[FN#339] [In the Arab. Text “They will recognise me,” which I would rather refer to the Vagabonds than to the crowd, as the latter merely cries wonder at the resuscitation, without apparently troubling much about the wonder-worker.—St.]

 

[FN#340] [Ar. “na’t�zu,” viii. form of ‘�za = it escaped, was missing, lacked, hence the meaning of this form, “we are in want of,” “we need.”—St.]

 

[FN#341] For the “Ardabb” (prop. “Irdabb”) = five bushels: see vol. i. 263.

 

[FN#342] [In the MS. “‘Ayyinah,” probably a mis-reading for “‘Ayniyyah” = a sample, pattern.—St.]

 

[FN#343] In text “Kubbah” = vault, cupola, the dome of unbaked brick upon peasants’ houses in parts of Egypt and Syria, where wood for the “Sat’h” or flat roof is scarce. The household granary is in the garret, from which the base of the dome springs, and the “expense-magazines” consist of huge standing coffers of wattle and dab propped against the outside walls of the house.

 

[FN#344] Gen. “Bays�r” or “Fays�r,” = beans cooked in honey and milk. See retro, Night ccclxxxviii., for its laxative properties.

 

[FN#345] [In the MS. “barbastu,” with the dental instead of the palatal sibilant (S�n instead of S�d). Spelled in the former way the verb “barbasa” means, he sought, looked for, and is therefore out of place here. Spelled in the second manner, it signifies literally, he watered the ground abundantly. Presently we shall find the passive participle “mubarbasah” in the feminine, because referring to the noun “T�z” = anus, which, like its synonym, “1st,” professes the female gender. —St.]

 

[FN#346] [In Ar. “Mubarbasah,” for which see the preceding note.—St.]

 

[FN#347] The Moslem’s tomb is an arched vault of plastered brick, large enough for a man to sit up at ease and answer the Questioning Angels; and the earth must not touch the corpse as it is supposed to cause torture. In the graves of the poorer classes a niche (lahad) offsets from the fosse and is rudely roofed with palm-fronds and thatch. The trick played in the text is therefore easy; see Lane’s illustration M.E. chapt. xviii. The reader will not forget that all Moslems make water squatting upon their hunkers ina position hardly possible to an untrained European: see vol. i. 259.

 

[FN#348] The bull being used in the East to turn the mill and the water-wheel; vol. i. 16.

 

[FN#349] In text “Ratl.” See vol. iv. 124.

 

[FN#350] About 1s. 2d.

 

[FN#351] The man was therefore in hiding for some crime. [The MS.

has “l� tafzah-n�” = Do not rend my reputation, etc. I would, therefore, translate “S�hib-h�” by “her lover,” and suggest that the crime in question is simply what the French call “conversation criminelle.”—St.]

 

[FN#352] The “‘Ish�”-prayer (called in Egypt “‘Esh�”) consists of ten “Ruka’�t” = bows or inclinations of the body (not “of the head” as Lane has it, M.E. chapt. iii.): of these four are “Sunnah” = traditional or customary (of the Prophet), four are Farz (divinely appointed i.e. by the Koran) and two again Sunnah.

The hour is nightfall when the evening has closed in with some minor distinctions, e.g. the Hanaf� waits till the whiteness and the red gleam in the west (“Al-Shafak al-ahmar”) have wholly disappeared, and the other three orthodox only till the ruddy light has waned. The object of avoiding sundowntide (and sunrise equally) was to distinguish these hours of orisons from those of the Guebres and other faiths which venerate, or are supposed to venerate, the sun.

 

[FN#353] Scott. “History of the Sultan of Hind,” vol. vi.

194-209.

 

[FN#354] Red robes being a sign of displeasure: see vol. iv. 72; Scott (p. 294) wrongly makes them “robes of mourning.”

 

[FN#355] A Moslem negroid from Central and Western North Africa.

See vol. ii. 15. They share in popular opinion the reputation of the Maghrabi or Maroccan for magical powers.

 

[FN#356] This is introduced by the translator; as usual with such unedited tales, the name does not occur till much after the proper place for specifying it.

 

[FN#357] In text “Iz lam naakhaz-h�, wa-ill�,” &c. A fair specimen of Arab. ellipsis.—If I catch her not (‘twill go hard with me), and unless (I catch her) I will, &c.

 

[FN#358] i.e. “How far is the fowl from thee!”

 

[FN#359] [In the MS. “turayyih,” a modern form for “turawwih.”—ST.]

 

[FN#360] [The above translation pre-supposes the reading “Farkhah l� atammat,” and would require, I believe, the conjunction “hatt�” or “il� an” to express “till.” I read with the MS. “l�

tammat,” and would translate: “a chick not yet full grown, when the crow seized it and flew away with it,” as a complaint of the father for the anticipated untimely end of his son.—ST.]

 

[FN#361] For “‘Aun,” a high degree amongst the “Genies,” see vol.

iv. p. 83. Readers will be pleased with this description of a Jinni; and not a few will regret that they have not one at command. Yet the history of man’s locomotion compels us to believe that we are progressing towards the time when humanity will become volatile. Pre-historic Adam was condemned to “Shanks his mare,” or to “go on footback,” as the Boers have it, and his earliest step was the chariot; for, curious to say, driving amongst most peoples preceded riding, as the row-boat forewent the sailer. But as men increased and the world became smaller and time shorter the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries, after many abortive attempts, converted the chariot into a railway-car and the sailer into a steamer. Aerostatics are still in their infancy and will grow but little until human society shall find some form of flying an absolute necessity when, as is the history of all inventions, the winged woman (and her man) of Peter Wilkins will pass from fiction into fact. But long generations must come and go before “homo sapiens” can expect to perfect a practice which in the present state of mundane society would be fatal to all welfare.

 

[FN#362] Scott (p. 200) “Welcome to the sovereign of the Aoon, friendly to his brethren,” (sidd�k al Akhw�n) etc. Elsewhere he speaks of “the Oone.”

 

[FN#363] So he carried a portable “toilette,” like a certain Crown Prince and Prince Bahman in Suppl. vol. iii. 329.

 

[FN#364] There is another form of the saw in verse:—

 

Good is good and he’s best whoso worketh it first; * And ill is for me of provisions the worst.

 

The provision is=viaticum, provaunt for the way.

 

[The MS. has “akram” and “azlam”=“the more generous,” “the more iniquitous,” meaning that while good should be requited by good, and evil provokes further evil in retaliation, the beginner in either case deserves the greater praise or blame.—ST.]

 

[FN#365] I have noted (vols. iii. 75, and viii. 266) that there are two “Soudans” as we write the word, one Eastern upon the Upper Nile Valley and the other Western and drained by the Niger water-shed. The former is here meant. It is or should be a word of shame to English ears after the ungodly murder and massacre of the gallant “Soudanese” negroids who had ever been most friendly to us and whom with scant reason to boast we attacked and destroyed because they aspired to become free from Turkish task-masters and Egyptian tax-gatherers. That such horrors were perpetrated by order of one of the most humane amongst our statesmen proves and decidedly proves one thing, an intense ignorance of geography and ethnology.

 

[FN#366] [In the MS. “law� ‘a-hu” for which Sir Richard conjectures the reading “lawwahahu” taking the pronoun to refer to the sword. I believe, however, the word to be a clerical error for our old acquaintance “l�wa’a-hu” (see supra p. 203) and, referring the pronoun in the three verbs to the Lion, would translate: “and he worried him,” etc.—ST.]

 

[FN#367] Arab. “Al-bash�rah,” see vol. i. 30: Scott has (vi. 204) “Good tidings to our sovereign.”

 

[FN#368] [The MS. is here rather indistinct; still, as far as I can make out, it runs: “wa Hakki man aul�n� h�z� ‘l-Mulk”=and by the right of (i.e. my duty towards) Him who made me ruler over this kingdom.—ST.]

 

[FN#369] [The word in the MS. is difficult to decipher. In a later passage we find corresponding with it the expression “yum�zasa-hu fi� ‘l-Kal�m,” which is evidently a clerical error for “yum�rasa-hu”=he tested or tried him in his speech.

Accordingly I would read here: “yakhburu ma’ahu f� ‘l-Kal�m,”

lit.=he experimented with him, i.e. put him to his test. The idea seems to be, that he first cross-examined him and then tried to intimidate him. With this explanation “yus�h�-hu” and later on “yulh�-hu” would tally, which both have about the same meaning: to divert the attention, to make forget one thing over another, hence to confuse and lead one to contradict himself.—ST.]

 

[FN#370] Here we find the old superstitious idea that no census or “numbering of the people” should take place save by direct command of the Creator. Compare the pestilence which arose in the latter days of David when Joab by command of the King undertook the work (2 Sam. xxiv. 1-9, etc.).

 

[FN#371] The text has “Sal�s�n”=thirty, evidently a clerical error.

 

[FN#372] [In Ar. “yanjaaru,” vii. form of “jaara” (med. Hamzah), in which the idea of “raising,” “lifting up,” seems to prevail, for it is used for raising the voice in prayer to God, and for the growing high of plants.—ST.]

 

[FN#373] The text, which is wholly unedited, reads, “He found the beasts and their loads (? the camels) and the learned men,” &c. A new form of “Bos atque sacerdos” and of place pour les �nes et les savants, as the French soldiers cried in Egypt when the scientists were admitted into the squares of infantry formed against the doughty Mameluke cavalry.

 

[FN#374] [In the MS. “w�raytan� il� l-tur�b”=thou hast given me over to the ground for concealment, iii. form of “wara,” which takes the meaning of “hiding,” “keeping secret.”—ST.]

 

[FN#375] [The MS. has “wa dazz-h�,” which is an evident corruption. The translator, placing the diacritical point over the first radical instead of the second, reads “wa zarr-h�,” and renders accordingly. But if in the MS. the dot is misplaced, the Tashdid over it would probably also belong to the D�l, resp. Zal, and as it is very feasible that a careless writer should have dropped one Waw before another, I am inclined to read “wa wazzar-ha” = “and he left her,” “let her go,” “set her free.” In classical Arabic only the imperative “Zar,” and the aorist “yazaru” of the verb “wazara” occur in this sense, while the preterite is replaced by “taraka,” or some other synonym. But the language of the common people would not hesitate to use a form scorned by the grammarians, and even to improve upon it by deriving from it one of their favourite intensives.—St.]

 

[FN#376] Both are civil forms of refusal: for the first see vols.

i. 32; vi. 216; and for the second ix. 309.

 

[FN#377] Everything being fair in love and war and dealing with a “K�fir,” i.e. a non-Moslem.

 

[FN#378] In text “Labbayka” = here am I: see vol. i. 226.

 

[FN#379] In text ”’�d Khayzar�n” - wood of the rattan, which is orig. “Rota,” from the Malay “Rotan.” Vol. ii. 66, &c.

 

[FN#380] [In the MS. “al-Zam�n.” The translation here adopted is plausible enough. Still I think it probable that the careless scribe has omitted the words “y� al-Malik” before