The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, vol 15 - Sir Richard Francis Burton (world best books to read txt) 📗

name of the disease is “Tuh�l.”—ST]

 

[FN#90] In text “Kasalah” = a shock of corn, assemblage of sheaves. It may be a clerical error for “Kasabah” = stalk, haulm, straw.

 

[FN#91] Of course the conversation drifts into matters sexual and intersexual: in a similar story, “Tawad dud,” the learned slave girl, “hangs her head down for shame and confusion” (vol. v.

225); but the young Sayyid speaks out bravely as becomes a male masculant.

 

[FN#92] [In the text: “Allat� lau nazarat il� ‘l-sam� la-a’shab (fourth form of ‘ashab with the affirmative ‘la’) al-Saf� (pl. of Saf�t), wa lau nazarat il� ‘l-arz la amtar taghru h� (read thaghru-h�) L�luan lam yuskab wa r�ku-h� min al-Zul�l a’zab (for a’zab min al-Zul�l),” which I would translate: Who if she look upon the heavens, the very rocks cover themselves with verdure, and an she look upon the earth, her lips rain unpierced pearls (words of virgin eloquence) and the dews of whose mouth are sweeter than the purest water. - ST.]

 

[FN#93] These lines have often occurred before: see index (vol.

x. 395) “Wa lau anunah� li ‘l-Mushrikin,” etc. I have therefore borrowed from Mr. Payne, vol. viii. 78, whose version is admirable.

 

[FN#94] For the Jah�n-hell, see vol. viii. 111.

 

[FN#95] For the Seven Ages of womankind (on the Irish model) see vol. ix. 175. Some form of these verses is known throughout the Moslem East to prince and peasant. They usually begin:—

 

From the tenth to the twentieth year * To the gaze a charm doth appear;

 

and end with:—

 

From sixty to three score ten * On all befal Allah’s malison.

 

[FN#96] [Here I suppose the word “k�l” has been dropped after “bi ‘l-shi’r,” and it should be: He (the youth) replied, that was our common sire, Adam, etc.—ST.]

 

[FN#97] “Hab�l” and “K�b�l” are the Arab. equivalent of Abel and Cain. Neither are named in the Koran (Surah v. “The Table,” vv.

30-35), which borrows dialogue between the brothers derived from the Targum (Jeirus. on Gen. iv. 8) and makes the raven show the mode of burial to Cain, not to Adam, as related by the Jews.

Rodwell’s Koran, p. 543.

 

[FN#98] Sit venia verbo: I have the less hesitation in making Adam anticipate the widow Malone from a profound conviction that some Hibernian antiquary, like Vallancey who found the Irish tongue in the Punic language of Plautus, shall distinctly prove that our first forefather spoke Keltic.

 

[FN#99] In text “R�h,” wind, gust (of temper), pride, rage.

Amongst the Badaw�n it is the name given to rheumatism (gout being unknown), and all obscure aching diseases by no means confined to flatulence or distension. [The MS. has: “il� an k�ta-ka ‘l-‘amal al-rab�h,” which gives no sense whatever. Sir Richard reads: “k�tala-ka ‘l-‘amal al-r�h,” and thus arrives at the above translation. I would simply drop a dot on the first letter of “k�ta-ka,” reading “f�ta-ka,” when the meaning of the line as it stands, would be: until the work that is profitable passed away from thee, i.e., until thou ceasedst to do good. The word “rab�h” is not found in Dictionaries, but it is evidently an intensive of “r�bih” (tij�rah r�bihah = a profitable traffic) and its root occurs in the Koran, ii. 15: “Fa-m� rabihat Tij�ratuhum”

= but their traffic has not been gainful.—ST.]

 

[FN#100] Arab. “Badrah”: see vol. iv. 281. [According to K�m�s, “Badrah is a purse of one thousand or ten thousand dirhams, or of seven thousand d�n�rs. As lower down it is called “Badrat Zahab,”

a purse of gold, I would take it here in the third sense.—ST]

 

[FN#101] In text “Zardiy�,” for “Zardiyyah” = a small mail coat, a light helmet.

 

[FN#102] Arab. “‘Ind ‘uzz�ti ‘s-sin�ni” = lit. the thorny shrubs of ground bare of pasture.

 

[FN#103] This is another form of “inverted speech,” meaning the clean contrary; see vols. ii. 265; vi. 262; and vii. 179.

 

[FN#104] In text “Lam yakthir Khayrak”; this phrase (pronounced “Kattir Khayrak”) is the Egyptian (and Moslem) equivalent for our “thank you.” Vols. iv. 6; v. 171. Scott (p. 267) make Al-Hajjaj end with, “Cursed is he who doth not requite a sincere adviser, declareth our sacred Koran.”

 

[FN#105] In the W.M. MS. this tale is followed by the “History of Uns al-Wuj�d and the Wazir’s daughter Rose-in-hood,” for which see vol. v. 32 et seq. Then comes the long romance “M�zin of Khor�s�n,” which is a replica of “Hasan of Bassorah and the King’s daughter of the Jinn” (vol. vii. 7). I have noted (vol. x.

75) that this story shows us the process of transition from the Persian original to the Arabic copy. “M�zin” is also the P.N. of an Arab tribe: De Sacy, Chrest. i. 406.

 

[FN#106] MS. vol. v. pp. 92-94: Scott, vol. vi. 343: Gauttier, vi. 376. The story is a replica of the Mock Caliph (vol. iv. 130) and the Tale of the First Lunatic (Suppl. vol. iv.); but I have retained it on account of the peculiar freshness and na�vet� of treatment which distinguishes it, also as a specimen of how extensively editors and scriveners can vary the same subject.

 

[FN#107] In text “Natar” (watching) for “Nataf” (indigestion, disgust).

 

[FN#108] Here again we have the formula “K�la ‘l-R�w�”=the reciter saith, showing the purpose of the MS. See Terminal Essay, p. 144.

 

[FN#109] It were well to remind the reader that “Khal�fah” (never written “Khal�f”) is=a viceregent or vicar, i.e. of the Prophet of Allah, not of Allah himself, a sense which was especially deprecated by the Caliph Abubakr as “vicar” supposes l’absence du chef; or Dieu est pr�sent partout et � tout instant. Ibn Khal.

ii. 496.

 

[FN#110] This tale, founded on popular belief in tribadism, has already been told in vol. vii. 130: in the W.M. MS. it occupies 23 pages (pp. 95-118). Scott (vi. 343) has “Mesroor retired and brought in Ali Ibn Munsoor Damuskkee, who related to the Caliph a foolish narrative (!) of two lovers of Bussorah, each of whom was coy when the other wished to be kind.” The respectable Britisher evidently cared not to “read between the lines.”

 

[FN#111] In pop. parlance “Let us be off.”

 

[FN#112] Arab. “Al-�fak” plur. of Ufk, “elegant” (as the grammarians say) for the world, the universe.

 

[FN#113] [In MS. “Rankah” or “Ranakah,” probably for “Raunakah,”

which usually means “troubled,”; speaking of water, but which, according to Schiaparelli’s Vocabulista, has also the meaning of “Raunak”=amenitas. As however “Ranakah” taken as fem. of “Ranak”

shares with Raunakah the signification of “troubled,” it may perhaps also be a parallel form to the latter in the second sense.—ST.]

 

[FN#114] The text has “Martabat Saltanah” (for Sult�niyah) which may mean a royal Divan. The “Martabah” is a mattress varying in size and thickness, stuffed with cotton and covered with cloths of various colours and the latter mostly original and admirable of figuration but now supplanted by the wretched printed calicoes of civilisation. It is placed upon the ground and garnished with cushions which are usually of length equally the width of the mattress and of a height measuring about half of that breadth.

When the “Martabah” is placed upon its “Mastabah” (bench of masonry or timber) or upon its “Sar�r” (a framework of “jar�d” or midribs of the palm), it becomes the D�wan=divan.

 

[FN#115] In text “Bi-iz�-hum�;” lit. vis-�-vis to the twain.

 

[FN#116] These have occurred vol. i. 176: I quote Mr. Payne (i.

156).

 

[FN#117] In text “Hann�-kum� ‘llah:” see “Hanian,” vol. ii. 5.

 

[FN#118] This is usually a sign of grief, a symbolic act which dates from the days of the Heb. patriarchs (Gen. xxxvii. 29-34); but here it is the mark of strong excitement. The hand is placed within the collar and a strong pull tears the light stuff all down the breast. Economical men do this in a way which makes darning easy.

 

[FN#119] [The MS. is very indistinct in this place, but by supplying “‘an” after “ghibta” and reading “‘ayn�” for “‘ann�,” I have no doubt the words are: Wa in ghibta ‘an ‘ayni fa-m� ghibta ‘an kalbi=and if thou art absent from my eyes, yet thou are not absent from my heart. The metre is Taw�l and the line has occurred elsewhere in The Nights.—ST.]

 

[FN#120] I have already noted that “Hil�l” is the crescent (waxing or waning) for the first and last two or three nights: during the rest of the lunar month the lesser light is called “Kamar.”

 

[FN#121] The sense is that of Coleridge.—

 

To be beloved is all I need;

And whom I love I love indeed.

 

[FN#122] There is something wrong in the text. I cannot help again drawing the reader’s attention to the skilful portraiture of the model Moslem Minister, the unfortunate Ja’afar. He is never described in the third person; but the simple dialogue always sets him off as a wise, conciliatory, benevolent, loveable and man-loving character, whose constant object is to temper the harshness and headstrong errors of a despotic master as the Caliph is represented to be by way of showing his kingliness. See vol. i., 102. [The MS. is certainly wrong here, but perhaps it can be righted a little. It has: “Kad yak�n Z R H ahad f� M�l jaz�l wa harab al-Maz’�n,” etc., where Sir Richard reads “zarra-hu”=he harmed, and Mazgh�n=the hated one, i.e. enemy. I have a strong suspicion that in the original from which our scribe copied, the two words were “zamin” and “al-Mazm�n.” Zamin in the Arabic character would be {Arabic characters} The loop for the “m,” if made small, is easily overlooked; the curve of the “n,” if badly traced, can as easily be mistaken for “r” and a big dot inside the “n” might appear like a blotted “h”. Mazm�n would become “Maz’�n” by simply turning the “m” loop upwards instead of downwards, an error the converse of which is so frequently committed in printed texts. Curiously enough the same error occurs p. 192 of the MS., where we shall find “na’ ‘al” with two ‘Ayns instead of “na’mal” with ‘Ayn and Mim. If this conjecture is correct the sense would be: Haply he may have stood security for someone for much money, and the person for whom security was given, took to flight, etc. For “zamin” with the acc. see Ibn Jubair ed. by Wright, 77, 2. I may say on this occasion, that my impression of the Montague MS. is, that it is a blundering copy of a valuable though perhaps indistinctly written original.—ST.]

 

[FN#123] In text “‘Aurat”=nakedness: see vol. vi. 30.

 

[FN#124] In Arab. “‘Urrah”: see Fatimah the Dung in vol. x. 1.

 

[FN#125] [In the MS. “bi-Wuj�h al F�nij�t al-Mil�h.” The translator conjectures “al-f�tih�t,” which he refers to “Wuj�h.”

I read it “al-Gh�nij�t,” in apposition with al-Mil�h, and render: the faces of the coquettish, the fair. See index under “Ghunj.”—ST.]

 

[FN#126] In text “Ball�t,” the name still given to the limestone slabs cut in the Torah quarries South of Cairo. The word is classical, we find in Ibn Khald�n (vol. i. p. 21, Fr. Trans.) a chief surnomm� el-Balt (le pav�), � cause de sa fermet� et de sa force de caract�re.

 

[FN#127] In text “Usbur�”=be ye patient, the cry addressed to passengers by the Grandee’s body-guard.

 

[FN#128] The “young person” here begins a tissue of impertinences which are supposed to show her high degree and her condescension in mating with the jeweller. This is still “pretty Fanny’s way”

amongst Moslems.

 

[FN#129] A “swear” peculiarly feminine, and never to be used by men.

 

[FN#130] In text “‘Al�-Akl�:” the whole passage is doubtful.

[I would read, and translate the passage as follows: “M� tastahl�

‘al� haz� ill� shay l� tazann-hu allaz� (for “allat�,”