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

ST.]

[FN#308] Showing utter ignorance of the Jewish rite which must always be performed by the Mohel, an official of the Synagogue duly appointed by the Sheliach==legatus; and within eight days after birth. The rite consists of three operations. Milah==the cut; Priah==tearing the foreskin and Mess�zah==applying styptics to the wound. The latter process has become a matter of controversy and the Israelite community of Paris, headed by the Chief Rabbi, M. Zadoc Kahin, has lately assembled to discuss the question. For the difference between Jewish and Moslem circumcision see vol. v. 209.

[FN#309] The Jewish quarter (H�rah), which the Israelites themselves call “Hazer,”==a court-yard, an enclosure. In Mayer’s valuable “Conversations-lexicon” the Italian word is derived from the Talmudic “Ghet”==divorce, separation (as parting the Hebrews from the rest of the population) and the Rev. S. R. Melli, Chief Rabbi of Trieste, has kindly informed me that the word is Chaldaic.

[FN#310] [Ar. “Sarm�jah,” from Persian “Sar-m�zah,” a kind of hose or gaiter worn over a boot.—ST.]

[FN#311] [Arab. “Yastan�t,” aor. to the preter. “istanat,” which has been explained, supra, p. 24.—ST.]

[FN#312] The bed would be made of a carpet or thin mattress strewn upon the stucco flooring of the terrace-roof. But the ignorant scribe overlooks the fact that by Mosaic law every Jewish house must have a parapet for the “Sakf” (flat roof), a precaution neglected by Al-Islam.

[FN#313] Good old classical English. In the “Breeches Bible”

(A.D. 1586) we read, “But a certaine woman cast a piece of millstone upon Abimelech’s head and broke his brain-panne” Judges ix. 33).

[FN#314] [The words “‘Irz,” protection, in the preceding sentence, “Hurmah” and “Shat�r�h” explain each other mutually.

The formula “f� ‘irzak” (vulg. “arzak”), I place myself under thy protection, implies an appeal to one’s honour (“‘Irz”). Therefore the youth says: “Inna h�zih Hurmah lam ‘alay-h� Shat�rah,” i.e.

“Truly this one is a woman” (in the emphatic sense of a sacred or forbidden object; “this woman” would be “h�zih al-Hurmah”), “I must not act vilely or rashly towards her,” both vileness and rashness belonging to the many significations of “Shat�rah,”

which is most usually “cleverness.” —ST.]

[FN#315] In the text “Sind,” still confounding this tale with the preceding.

[FN#316] In text “Intih�ba ‘l furas,” lit.==the snatching of opportunities, a jingle with “Kanas.”

[FN#317] [Compare with this episode the viith of Spitta Bey’s Tales: Histoire du Prince qui apprit un m�tier.—ST.]

[FN#318] i.e. enables a man to conceal the pressure of impecuniosity.

[FN#319] In text “Al-S�dah wa al-Khat�y�t.”

[FN#320] Subaudi, “that hath not been pierced.” “The first night,” which is often so portentous a matter in England and upon the Continent (not of North America), is rarely treated as important by Orientals. A long theoretical familiarity with the worship of Venus

Leaves not much mystery for the nuptial night.

Such lore has been carefully cultivated by the “young person”

with the able assistance of the ancient dames of the household, of her juvenile companions and co-evals and especially of the slave-girls. Moreover not a few Moslems, even Egyptians, the most lecherous and salacious of men, in all ranks of life from prince to peasant take a pride in respecting the maiden for a few nights after the wedding-feast extending, perhaps to a whole week and sometimes more. A brutal haste is looked upon as “low”; and, as sensible men, they provoke by fondling and toying Nature to speak ere proceeding to the final and critical act. In England it is very different. I have heard of brides over thirty years old who had not the slightest suspicion concerning what complaisance was expected of them: out of mauvaise honte, the besetting sin of the respectable classes, neither mother nor father would venture to enlighten the elderly innocents. For a delicate girl to find a man introducing himself into her bedroom and her bed, the shock must be severe and the contact of hirsute breast and hairy limbs with a satiny skin is a strangeness which must often breed loathing and disgust. Too frequently also, instead of showing the utmost regard for virginal modesty and innocence (alias ignorance), the bridegroom will not put a check upon his passions and precipitates matters with the rage of the bull, ruentis in venerem. Even after he hears “the cry” which, as the Arabs say, “must be cried,” he has no mercy: the newly made woman lies quivering with mental agitation and physical pain, which not a few describe as resembling the tearing out of a back-tooth, and yet he insists upon repeating the operation, never supposing in his stupidity, that time must pass before the patient can have any sensation of pleasure and before the glories and delights of the sensual orgasm bathe her soul in bliss. Hence complaints, dissatisfaction, disgust, mainly caused by the man’s fault, and hence not unfrequently a permanent distaste for the act of carnal congress. All women are by no means equally capable of such enjoyment, and not a few have become mothers of many children without ever being or becoming thoroughly reconciled to it.

Especially in the case of highly nervous temperaments—and these seem to be increasing in the United States and notably in New England—the fear of nine months’ pains and penalties makes the sex averse to the “deed of kind.” The first child is perhaps welcomed, the second is an unpleasant prospect and there is a firm resolve not to conceive a third. But such conjugal chastity is incompatible, except in the case of “married saints,” with a bon m�nage. The husband, scandalised and offended by the rejection and refusal of the wife, will seek a substitute more complaisant; and the spouse also may “by the decree of Destiny”

happen to meet the right man, the man for whom and for whom only every woman will sweep the floor. And then adieu to prudence and virtue, honour and fair fame. For, I repeat, it is the universal custom of civilised and Christian Europeans to plant their womankind upon a pedestal exposed as butts to every possible temptation: and, if they fall, as must often be expected, to assail them with obloquy and contempt for succumbing to trials imposed upon them by the stronger and less sensitive sex. Far more sensible and practical, by the side of these high idealists, shows the Moslem who guards his jewel with jealous care and who, if his “honour,” despite every precaution, insist upon disgracing him, draws the sabre and cuts her down with the general approbation and applause of society.

[FN#321] [Arab. “‘Al� ghayri tar�k,” which I would translate “out of the way,” like the Persian “b�-R�h.”—ST.]

[FN#322] In text “Kababj�” (for Kababji) seller of Kab�bs, mutton or kid grilled in small squares and skewered: see vol. vi. 225.

[FN#323] In text “Sujj�dah;” vol. vi. 193.

[FN#324] In text “Faddah” all through.

[FN#325] In text “Kirsh” (==piastre) a word before explained. See Lane (M.E.) Appendix B.

[FN#326] In Arab. “Sam�r;” from the Pers. “Sumar”==a reed, a rush.

[FN#327] In Arab. “D�w�n:” vols. vii. 340; ix. 108.

[FN#328] Scott has (vol. vi. 373), “The desired articles were furnished, and the Sultan setting to work, in a few days finished a mat, in which he ingeniously contrived to plait in flowery characters, known only to himself and his vizier, the account of his situation.”

[FN#329] In Arab. “Ghir�rah” (plur. “Ghar��r”)==a sack. In Ibn Khall. (iv. pp. 90, 104) it is a large sack for grain and the especial name of a tax on corn.

[FN#330] In the text “Mohammed ibn Ibrahim,” another confusion with the last tale. This story is followed in the MS. by (1) “The History of the First Brave,” (2) “The History of the Second Brave,” and “The Tale of the Noodle and his Asses,” which I have omitted because too feeble for insertion.

[FN#331] Scott (vi.375) “Story of the Good Vizier unjustly imprisoned.” Gauttier (vi. 394) Histoire du bon Vizier injustement emprisonn�.

[FN#332] This detail has no significance, though perhaps its object may be to affect the circumstantial, a favourite manoeuvre with the R�w�. [It may mean that the prisoner had to pass through seven gates before reaching it, to indicate its formidable strength and the hopelessness of all escape, except perhaps by a seven-warded, or as the Arabs would say, a seven-pinned key of gold. In the modern tale mentioned on p. 174 the kidnapped Prince and his Wazir are made to pass “through one door after the other until seven doors were passed,” to emphasize the utter seclusion of their hiding place.—ST.]

[FN#333] i.e. the mats and mattresses, rugs and carpets, pillows and cushions which compose the chairs, tables and beds of a well-to-do Eastern lodging.

[FN#334] The pretext was natural. Pious Moslems often make such vows and sometimes oblige themselves to feed the street dogs with good bread.

[FN#335] In text “Min hakk h�z� ‘l-Kal�m sah�h.”

[FN#336] In text “K��k” and “K��k-j�,” the well-known ca�que of the Bosphorus, a term which bears a curious family resemblance to the “Kayak” of the Eskimos.

[FN#337] Here coffee is mentioned without tobacco, whereas in more modern days the two are intimately connected. And the reason is purely hygienic. Smoking increases the pulsations without strengthening them, and depresses the heart-action with a calming and soothing effect. Coffee, like alcohol, affects the circulation in the reverse way by exciting it through the nervous system; and not a few authorities advise habitual smokers to end the day and prepare for rest with a glass of spirits and water.

It is to be desired that the ignorants who write about “that filthy tobacco” would take the trouble to observe its effects on a large scale, and not base the strongest and extremest opinions, as is the wont of the Anglo-Saxon Halb-bildung, upon the narrowest and shakiest of bases. In Egypt, India and other parts of the Eastern world they will find nicotiana used by men, women and children, of all ranks and ages; and the study of these millions would greatly modify the results of observing a few hundreds at home. But, as in the case of opium-eating, populus vult decipi, the philanthrope does not want to know the truth, indeed he shrinks from it and loathes it. All he cares for is his own especial “fad.”

[FN#338] Arab. “F�nj�l” systematically repeated for “Finj�n”

pronounced in Egypt “Fing�n” see vol. viii. 200. [The plural “Fan�j�l,” pronounced “Fan�g�l,” occurs in Spitta Bey’s Contes Arabes Modernes, p. 92, and in his Grammar, p. 26, the same author states that the forms “Fing�n” and “Fing�l” are used promiscuously.—ST.]

[FN#339] For the “Khaznah” (Khaz�nah) or 10,000 k�s each = �5, see vols. ii. 84; iii. 278.

[FN#340] A euphuism meaning some disaster. The text contains a favourite incident in folklore; the first instance, I believe, being that of Polycrates of Samos according to Herodotus (lib.

iii. 41-42). The theory is supported after a fashion by experience amongst all versed in that melancholy wisdom the “knowledge of the world.” As Syr Cauline the knight philosophically says:—

Everye white will have its blacke, And everye sweete its sowre: etc.

[FN#341] Thus making the food impure and unfit for a religious Moslem to eat. Scott (vi. 378) has “when a huge rat running from his hole leaped into the dish which was placed upon the floor.”

He is probably thinking of the East Indian “bandycoot.”

[FN#342] In text this tale concludes, “It is ended and this (next) is the History of the Barber.”

[FN#343] A dandy, a macaroni, from the Turk. Chelebi, see vol i 22. Here the word is thoroughly Arabised. In old Turk. it means, a Prince of the blood; in mod. times a gentleman, Greek or European.

[FN#344] In the text “�zb�sh�” or “Uzb�sh�,”