The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, vol 8 - Sir Richard Francis Burton (best e reader for epub .TXT) 📗

vol. ii. 5.

 

[FN#294] As the Fellah still does after drinking a cuplet (“fing�n” he calls it) of sugared coffee.

 

[FN#295] He should have said “white,” the mourning colour under the Abbasides.

 

[FN#296] Anglic�, “Fine feathers make fine birds”; and in Eastern parlance, “Clothe the reed and it will become a bride.”

(Labbis al-B�sah tabk� ‘Ar�sah, Spitta Bey, No. 275.) I must allow myself a few words of regret for the loss of this Savant, one of the most singleminded men known to me. He was vilely treated by the Egyptian Government, under the rule of the Jew-Moslem Riy�z; and, his health not allowing him to live in Austria, he died shortly after return home.

 

[FN#297] Arab. ” Saub (Tobe) ‘At�bi”: see vol. iii. 149.

 

[FN#298] In text “Kimkh�,” which Dozy also gives Kumkh=chenille, tissu de soie veloutee: Damasqu�te de soie or et argent de Venise, du Levant , � fleurs, etc. It comes from Kamkh�b or Kimkh�b, a cloth of gold, the well-known Indian “Kimcob.”

 

[FN#299] Here meaning=Enter in Allah’s name!

 

[FN#300] The Arabs have a saying, “Wine breeds gladness, music merriment and their offspring is joy.”

 

[FN#301] Arab. “Jokh al-Sakl�t,” rich kind of brocade on broadcloth.

 

[FN#302] Arab. “Hanab�t,” which Dozy derives from O. German Hnapf, Hnap now Napf: thence too the Lat. Hanapus and Hanaperium: Ital. Anappo, Nappo; Provenc. Enap and French and English “Hanap”= rich bowl, basket, bag. But this is known even to the dictionaries.

 

[FN#303] Arab. ” Kir�m,” nobles, and ” Kur�m,” vines, a word which appears in Carmel=Karam-El (God’s vineyard).

 

[FN#304] Arab. “Sul�f al-Khandar�s�,” a contradiction. Sul�f=the ptisane of wine. Khandar�s�, from Greek , lit. gruel, applies to old wine.

 

[FN#305] i.e. in bridal procession.

 

[FN#306] Arab. “Al-‘Ar�s, one of the innumerable tropical names given to wine by the Arabs. Mr. Payne refers to Grangeret de la Grange, Anthologie Arabe, p, 190.

 

[FN#307] Here the text of the Mac. Edition is resumed.

 

[FN#308] i.e. “Adornment of (good) Qualities.” See the name punned on in Night dcccli. Lane omits this tale because it contains the illicit “Amours of a Christian and a Jewess who dupes her husband in various abominable ways.” The text has been taken from the Mac. and the Bresl. Edits. x. 72 etc. In many parts the former is a mere Epitome.

 

[FN#309] The face of her who owns the garden.

 

[FN#310] i.e. I am no public woman.

 

[FN#311] i.e. with the sight of the garden and its mistress—

purposely left vague.

 

[FN#312] Arab. “D�dat.” Night dcclxxvi. vol. vii. p. 372.

 

[FN#313] Meaning respectively “Awaking” (or blowing hard), “Affairs” (or Misfortunes) and “Flowing” (blood or water). They are evidently intended for the names of Jewish slavegirls.

 

[FN#314] i.e. the brow-curls, or accroche-c�urs. See vol. i.

168.

 

[FN#315] Arab. “Wish�h” usually applied to woman’s broad belt, stomacher (Al-Hariri Ass. af Rayy).

 

[FN#317] The old Greek “Stephane.”

 

[FN#317] Alluding to the popular fancy of the rain-drop which becomes a pearl.

 

[FN#318] Arab. “Gh�z�”=one who fights for the faith.

 

[FN#319] i.e. people of different conditions.

 

[FN#320] The sudden change appears unnatural to Europeans; but an Eastern girl talking to a strange man in a garden is already half won. The beauty, however, intends to make trial of her lover’s generosity before yielding.

 

[FN#321] These lines have occurred in the earlier part of the Night: I quote Mr. Payne for variety.

 

[FN#322] Arab. “Al-Sh�h m�t”=the King is dead, Pers. and Arab.

grotesquely mixed: Europeans explain “Checkmate” in sundry ways, all more or less wrong.

 

[FN#323] Cheating (Ghadr) is so common that Easterns who have no tincture of Western civilisation look upon it not only as venial but laudable when one can take advantage of a simpleton. No idea of “honour” enters into it. Even in England the old lady whist-player of the last generation required to be looked after pretty closely—if Mr. Charles Dickens is to be trusted.

 

[FN#324] Arab. “Al-Gh�liyah,” whence the older English Algallia.

See vol. i., 128. The Voyage of Linschoten, etc. Hakluyt Society MDCCCLXXXV., with notes by my learned friend the late Arthur Coke Burnell whose early death was so sore a loss to Oriental students.

 

[FN#325] A favourite idiom, “What news bringest thou?” (“O

As�m!” Arab. Prov. ii. 589) used by H�ris bin Amr�, King of Kindah, to the old woman As�m whom he had sent to inspect a girl he purposed marrying.

 

[FN#326] Amongst the Jews the Arab Sal�m becomes “Shal�m” and a Jewess would certainly not address this ceremonial greeting to a Christian. But Eastern storytellers care little for these minuti�; and the “Adornment of Qualities,” was not by birth a Jewess as the sequel will show.

 

[FN#327] Arab. “S�lifah,” the silken plaits used as adjuncts.

See vol. iii, 313.

 

[FN#328] I have translated these lines in vol. i. 131, and quoted Mr. Torrens in vol. iv. 235. Here I borrow from Mr. Payne.

 

[FN#329] Mr. Payne notes:—Apparently some place celebrated for its fine bread, as Gonesse in seventeenth-century France. It occurs also in Bresl. Edit. (iv. 203) and Dozy does not understand it. But Arj the root=good odour.

 

[FN#330] Arab. “T�s,” from Pers. T�sah. M. Charbonneau a Professor of Arabic at Constantine and Member of the Asiatic Soc.

Paris, who published the Histoire de Chams-Eddine et Nour-Eddine with Maghrabi punctuation (Paris, Hachette, 1852) remarks the similarity of this word to Tazza and a number of other whimsical coincidences as Zauj, jugum; Ink�r, negare; matrah, matelas; Ishtir�, acheter, etc. To which I may add wasat, waist; zabad, civet; B�s, buss (kiss); uzrub (pron. Zrub), drub; Kat’, cut; Tar�k, track; etc., etc.

 

[FN#331] We should say “To her (I drink)” etc.

 

[FN#332] This is ad captandum. The lovers becoming Moslems would secure the sympathy of the audience. In the sequel (Night dccclviii) we learn that the wilful young woman was a born Moslemah who had married a Jew but had never Judaized.

 

[FN#333] The doggerel of this Kasidah is not so phenomenal as some we have seen.

 

[FN#334] Arab. “‘Andam”=Brazil wood, vol. iii. 263.

 

[FN#335] Arab. ” Him�.” See supra, p. 102.

 

[FN#336] i.e. her favours were not lawful till the union was sanctified by heartwhole (if not pure) love.

 

[FN#337] Arab. “Mans�r wa munazzam=oratio soluta et ligata.

 

[FN#338] i.e. the cupbearers.

 

[FN#339] Which is not worse than usual.

 

[FN#340] i.e. “Ornament of Qualities.”

 

[FN#341] The ‘Ak�k, a mean and common stone, ranks high in Moslem poetry on account of the saying of Mohammed recorded by Ali and Ayishah “Seal with seals of Carnelian.” (‘Akik.) [FN#342] See note ii. at the end of this volume.

 

[FN#343] Arab. “Mahall” as opposed to the lady’s “Manzil,” which would be better “Mak�m.” The Arabs had many names for their old habitations, e.g.; Kubbah, of brick; Sutrah, of sun-dried mud; Haz�rah, of wood; Tir�f, a tent of leather; Khab�a, of wool; Kash’a, of skins; Nakh�d, of camel’s or goat’s hair; Khaymah, of cotton cloth; Wabar, of soft hair as the camel’s undercoat and Fust�t (the well-known P.N.) a tent of horsehair or any hair (Sha’ar) but Wabar.

 

[FN#344] This is the Maghribi form of the Arab. S�k=a bazar-street, known from Tanjah (Tangiers) to Timbuctoo.

 

[FN#345] Arab. “Wal�mah” usually=a wedding-feast. According to the learned Nas�f alYazaj� the names of entertainments are as follows: Al-Jafal�=a general invitation, opp. to Al-Nakar�, especial; Khurs, a childbirth feast; ‘Ak�kah, when the boy-babe is first shaved; A’z�r=circumcision-feast; Hiz�k, when the boy has finished his perlection of the Koran; Mil�k, on occasion of marriage-offer; Waz�mah, a mourning entertainment; Wak�rah=a “house-warming”; Nak�‘ah, on returning from wayfare; ‘Ak�rah, at beginning of the month Rajab; Kir�=a guest-feast and Maadubah, a feast for other cause; any feast.

 

[FN#346] Arab. “Anistan�” the pop. phrase=thy company gladdens us.

 

[FN#347] Here “Mu�kh�t” or making mutual brotherhood would be=entering into a formal agreement for partnership. For the forms of “making brotherhood,” see vol. iii. 15.

 

[FN#348] Arab. “Ish�rah” in classical Arab. signs with the finger (beckoning); Aum� with the hand; Ramz, with the lips; Khalaj, with the eyelids (wink); and Ghamz with the eye. Aum�z is a furtive glance, especially of women, and Ilh�z, a side-glance from lahaza, limis oculis intuitus est. See Preston’s Al-Hariri, p. 181.

 

[FN#349] Arab. “Haudaj” (Hind. Haudah, vulg.

Howda=elephant-saddle), the women’s camel-litter, a cloth stretched over a wooden frame. See the Prize-poem of Lebid, v.

12.

 

[FN#350] i.e. the twelve days’ visit.

 

[FN#351] See note, vol. vii. 267. So Dryden (Virgil):—

 

“And the hoarse raven on the blasted bough By croaking to the left presaged the coming blow.”

 

And Gay (Fable xxxvii.),

 

“That raven on the left-hand oak, Curse on his ill-betiding croak!”

 

In some Persian tales two crows seen together are a good omen.

 

[FN#352] Vulgar Moslems hold that each man’s fate is written in the sutures of his skull but none can read the lines. See vol.

iii. 123.

 

[FN#353] i.e. cease not to bemoan her lot whose moon-faced beloved ones are gone.

 

[FN#354] Arab. “Rukb” used of a return caravan; and also meaning travellers on camels. The vulgar however apply “R�kib” (a camel-rider) to a man on horseback who is properly F�ris plur.

“Khayy�lah,” while “Khayy�l” is a good rider. Other names are “Fayy�l” (elephant-rider), Baghgh�l (mule-rider) and Hamm�r (donkeyrider).

 

[FN#355] A popular exaggeration. See vol. i. 117

 

[FN#356] Lit. Empty of tent-ropes (Atn�b).

 

[FN#357] Arab. “‘Ab�r,” a fragrant powder sprinkled on face, body and clothes. In India it is composed of rice flower or powdered bark of the mango, Deodar (uvaria longifolia), Sandalwood, lign-aloes or curcuma (zerumbat or zedoaria) with rose-flowers, camphor, civet and anise-seed. There are many of these powders: see in Herklots Chiks�, Phul, Ood, Sundul, Uggur, and Urgujja.

 

[FN#358] i.e. fair faced boys and women. These lines are from the Bresl. Edit. x. 160.

 

[FN#359] i.e. the Chief Kazi. For the origin of the Office and title see vol. ii. 90, and for the Kazi al-Arab who administers justice among the Badawin see Pilgrimage iii. 45.

 

[FN#360] Arab. “Raas al-M�l”=capital, as opposed to Rib� or Ribh=interest. This legal expression has been adopted by all Moslem races.

 

[FN#361] Our Aden which is thus noticed by Abulfeda (A.D. 1331): “Aden in the lowlands of Teh�mah * also called Abyana from a man (who found it?), built upon the seashore, a station (for land travellers) and a sailing-place for merchant ships India-bound, is dry and sunparcht (Kashifah, squalid, scorbutic) and sweet water must be imported. * It lies 86 parasangs from San’� but Ibn Haukal following the travellers makes it three stages. The city, built on the skirt of a wall-like mountain, has a watergate and a landgate known as Bab al-S�kayn. But ‘Adan L�‘ah (the modest, the timid, the less known as opposed to Abyan, the better known?) is a city in the mountains of Sabir, Al-Yaman, whence issued the supporters of the Fatimite Caliphs of Egypt.” ‘Adan etymologically means in Arab. and Heb. pleasure ( ), Eden (the garden), the Heaven in which spirits will see Allah and our “Coal-hole of the East,” which we can hardly believe ever to have been an Eden. Mr. Badger who supplied me with this note described the two Adens in a paper in Ocean Highways, which he cannot now find. In the ‘Aj�ib al-Makhl�k�t, Al-Kazw�ni (ob. A.D. 1275) derives the name from Ibn Sin�n bin Ibrah�m; and is inclined there to place the B�r al-Mu’attal (abandoned well) and the Kasr alMash�d (lofty palace) of Koran xxii. 44; and he adds “Kasr al-Misyad” to those mentioned in the tale of Sayf al-Mul�k and Bad�‘a al-Jam�l.