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

American, but, despite Bartlett, really old English from Lancashire, the land which has supplied many of the so-called “American” neologisms. A gouge is a hollow chisel, a scoop; and to gouge is to poke out the eye: this is done by thrusting the fingers into the side-hair thus acting as a base and by prising out the ball with the thumbnail which is purposely grown long.

 

[FN#441] [In the text: “Fa tarak-hu Muus� am’� d�ir yaltash f�

‘l-Tar�k.” Latash has the meaning of beating, tapping; I therefore think the passage means: “hereupon Muus� left him, blind as he was, tramping and groping his way” (feeling it with his hands or stick). -ST.]

 

[FN#442] In text “Biiru mily�nah Moyah.” As a rule the Fellah of Egypt says “Mayyeh,” the Cairene “Mayya,” and the foreigner “Moyah”: the old Syrian is “May�,” the mod. “Moy,” and the classical dim. of “M�” is “Muwayy,” also written”Muwayy” and “Muwayhah.”

 

[FN#443] “Sabt”==Sabbath, Saturday: vol. ii. 305, and passim.

 

[FN#444] i.e. “By Allah,” meaning “Be quick!”

 

[FN#445] For this well-nigh the sole equivalent amongst the Moslems of our “thank you,” see Vol. iv. 6. and v. 171.

 

[FN#446] In Arab. “Ana ‘l-Tab�b, al-Mud�wi.” In pop. parlance, the former is the scientific practitioner and the latter represents the man of the people who deals in simples, etc.

 

[FN#447] In text “R�kiba-h�,” the technical term for demoniac insiliation or possession: the idea survives in our “succubi” and “incubi.” I look upon these visions often as the effects of pollutio nocturne. A modest woman for instance dreams of being possessed by some man other than her husband; she loves the latter and is faithful to him, and consequently she must explain the phenomena superstitiously and recur to diabolical agency. Of course it is the same with men, only they are at less trouble to excuse themselves.

 

[FN#448] The construction here, MS. p. 67, is very confused. [The speech of Muhsin seems to be elliptical. In Ar. it runs: “Li-ann�

iz�, lam nukhullis-ha (or nukhlis-h�, 2nd or 4th form) taktuln�, wa an� iz lam tattafik ma’� ann� iz� khallastu-h� tu’t�-h�

alayya” —which I believe to mean: “for if I do not deliver her, thou wilt kill me; so I (say) unless thou stipulate with me that when I have delivered her thou wilt give her to me in marriage—”

supply: “well then I wash my hand of the whole business.” The Shaykh acts on the tit for tat principle in a style worthy of the “honest broker” himself.—ST.]

 

[FN#449] In text “Yaum Sabt” again.

 

[FN#450] As has been said (vol. ii. 112) this is a sign of agitation. The tale has extended to remote Guernsey. A sorcier named Hilier Mouton discovers by his art that the King’s daughter who had long and beautiful tresses was dying because she had swallowed a hair which had twined round her praecordia. The cure was to cut a small square of bacon from just over the heart, and tie it to a silken thread which the Princess must swallow, when the hair would stick to it and come away with a jerk. See (p. 29) “Folklore of Guernsey and Sark,” by Louise Lane-Clarke, printed by E. Le Lievre, Guernsey, 1880; and I have to thank for it a kind correspondent, Mr. A. Buchanan Brown, of La Co�ture, p. 53, who informs us why the Guernsey lily is scentless, emblem of the maiden who sent it from fairy-land.

 

[FN#451] The text says only, “O my father, gift Shaykh Mohsin.”

 

[FN#452] Her especial “shame” would be her head and face: vol.

vi. 30, 118.

 

[FN#453] In northern Africa the “D�r al-Ziy�fah” was a kind of caravanserai in which travellers were lodged at government expense. Ibn Khald�n (Fr. Transl. i. 407).

 

[FN#454 In most of these tales the well is filled in over the intruding “villain” of the piece. Ibn Khaldun (ii. 575) relates a “veritable history” of angels choking up a well; and in Mr.

Doughty (ii. 190) a Pasha-governor of Jiddah does the same to a Jinni-possessed pit.

 

[FN#455] This tale is of a kind not unfrequent amongst Moslems, exalting the character of the wife, whilst the mistress is a mere shadow.

 

[FN#456] Here written “Jalab�” (whence Scott’s “Julbee,” p. 461) and afterwards (p. 77, etc.) “Shalab�”: it has already been noticed in vol. i. 22 and elsewhere.

 

[FN#457] In text “Baltah” for Turk. “B�ltah”==an axe, a hatchet.

Hence “Baltah-ji” a pioneer, one of the old divisions of the Osmanli troops which survives as a family name amongst the Levantines and semi-European Perotes of Constantinople.

 

[FN#458] Here the public gaol is in the Head Policeman’s house.

So in modern times it is part of the Wali or Governor’s palace and is included in the Maroccan “Kasbah” or fortalice.

 

[FN#459] In text “Naakhaz bi-lissati-him;” “Luss” is after a fashion {Greek}; but the Greek word included piracy which was honourable, whenas the Arab. term is mostly applied to larcenists and similar blackguards. [I would read the word in the text “Balsata-hum,” until I have received their “ransom.”—ST.]

 

[FN#460] In the text “Tajr�s” which I have rendered by a circumlocution. [For the exact meaning of “Tajr�s,” see Dozy, Suppl.s.v. “jarras,” where an interesting passage from “Mas’�d�”

is quoted.—ST.]

 

[FN#461] In Moslem lands prisoners are still expected to feed themselves, as was the case in England a century ago and is still to be seen not only in Al-Islam, Egypt and Syria, but even in Madeira and at Goa.

 

[FN#462] In text “Hud� Sirru-hu,” i.e. his secret sin was guided (by Allah) to the safety of concealment. [A simpler explanation of this passage would perhaps be: “wa had� Sirru-hu,”== and his mind was at rest.—ST.]

 

[FN#463] Arab. “Aud�j” (plur. of “Wadaj”) a word which applies indiscriminately to the carotid arteries and jugular veins. The latter, especially the external pair, carry blood from the face and are subject abnormally to the will: the late lamented Mr.

Charley Peace, who murdered and “burgled” once too often, could darken his complexion and even change it by arresting jugular circulation. The much-read Mr. F. Marion Crawford (Saracinesca, chapt. xii.) makes his hero pass a foil through his adversary’s throat, “without touching the jugular artery (which does not exist)or the spine.” But what about larynx and pharynx? It is to be regretted that realistic writers do not cultivate a little more personal experience. No Englishman says “in guard” for “on guard.” “Colpo del Tancredi” is not==“Tancred’s lunge” but “the thrust of the (master) Tancredi:” it is quite permissible and to say that it loses half its dangers against a left-handed man is to state what cannot be the fact as long as the heart is more easily reached from the left than from the right flank.

 

[FN#464] Lit. “Then faring forth and sitting in his own place.” I have modified the too succinct text which simply means that he was anxious and agitated.

 

[FN#465] After this in the text we have only, “End of the Adventure of the Kazi’s Daughter. It is related among the many wiles of women that there was a Fellah-man, etc.” I have supplied the missing link.

 

[FN#466] On the margin of the W. M. MS. (vi. 92) J. Scott has written: “This story bears a faint resemblance to one in the Bahardanush.” He alludes to the tale I have already quoted. I would draw attention to “The Fellah and his Wicked Wife,” as it is a characteristic Fellah-story showing what takes place too often in the villages of Modern Egypt which the superficial traveller looks upon as the homes of peace and quiet. The text is somewhat difficult for technicalities and two of the pages are written with a badly nibbed reed-pen which draws the lines double.

 

[FN#467] The “Fadd�n” (here miswritten “Fadd�d”) = a plough, a yoke of oxen, a “carucate,” which two oxen can work in a single season. It is also the common land-measure of Egypt and Syria reduced from acre 1.1 to less than one acre. It is divided into twenty-four Kir�ts (carats) and consists or consisted of 333

Kasabah (rods), each of these being 22-24 Kabzahs (fists with the thumb erect about = 6 1/2 inches). In old Algiers the Fadd�n was called “Zuijah” (= a pair, i.e. of oxen) according to Ibn Khaldun i. 404.

 

[FN#468] In text “Masb�bah.”

 

[FN#469] Arab. “Dash�sh,” which the Dicts. make=wheat-broth to be sipped. [“Dash�sh” is a popular corruption of the classical “Jash�sh” = coarsely ground wheat (sometimes beans), also called “Saw�k,” and “Dash�shah” is the broth made of it.-ST.]

 

[FN#470] In text “Ahmar” = red, ruddy-brown, dark brown.

 

[FN#471] In text “Kas’at (=a wooden platter, bowl) afr�kah.” [The “Mafr�kah,” an improvement upon the Fat�rah, is a favourite dish with the Badaw�, of which Dozy quotes lengthy descriptions from Vansleb and Th�venot. The latter is particularly graphical, and after enumerating all the ingredients says finally: “ils en font une grosse p�te dont ils prennent de gros morceaux.—ST.]

 

[FN#472] The Fellah will use in fighting anything in preference to his fists and a stone tied up in a kerchief or a rag makes no mean weapon for head-breaking.

 

[FN#473] The cries of an itinerant pedlar hawking about woman’s wares. See Lane (M. E.) chapt. xiv. “Flfl’a” (a scribal error?) may be “Filfil”=pepper or palm-fibre. “Tutty,” in low-Lat.

“Tutia,” probably from the Pers. “Tutiyah,” is protoxide of zinc, found native in Iranian lands, and much used as an eye-wash.

 

[FN#474] In text “Samm S�‘ah.”

 

[FN#475] “Laban hal�b,” a trivial form=“sweet milk;” “Laban”

being the popular word for milk artificially soured. See vols.

vi. 201; vii. 360.

 

[FN#476] In text “Nisf ra’as Sukkar Misri.” “Sukkar” (from Pers.

“Shakkar,” whence the Lat. Saccharum) is the generic term, and Egypt preserved the fashion of making loaf-sugar (Raas Sukkar) from ancient times. “Misri” here=local name, but in India it is applied exclusively to sugar-candy, which with G�r (Molasses) was the only form used throughout the country some 40 years ago.

Strict Moslems avoid Europe-made white sugar because they are told that it is refined with bullock’s blood, and is therefore unlawful to Jews and the True Believers.

 

[FN#477] Lit. “that the sugar was poison.”

 

[FN#478] In text “Kata’a Jud�r-h�” (for “hu”). [I refer the pronoun in “Jud�r-h�” to “Rakabah,” taking the “roots of the neck” to mean the spine.-ST.]

 

[FN#479] In text “Fahata” for “Fahasa” (?) or perhaps a clerical error for “Fataha”=he opened (the ground). [“Fahata,” probably a vulgarisation of “fahatha” (fahasa)=to investigate, is given by Bocthor with the meaning of digging, excavating. Nevertheless I almost incline to the reading “fataha,” which, however, I would pronounce with Tashd�d over the second radical, and translate: “he recited a ‘F�tihah’ for them,” the usual prayer over the dead before interment. The dative “la-hum,” generally employed with verbs of prayer, seems to favour this interpretation. It is true I never met with the word in this meaning, but it would be quite in keeping with the spirit of the language, and in close analogy with such expressions as “kabbara,” he said “Allabu akbar,”

“Hallala,” he pronounced the formula of unity, and a host of others. Here it would, in my opinion, wind up the tale with a neat touch of peasant’s single-mindedness and loyal adherence to the injunctions of religion even under provoking circumstances.-

-ST.]

 

[FN#480] In the MS. we have only “Ending. And it is also told,”

etc. I again supply the connection.

 

[FN#481] Scott does not translate this tale, but he has written on the margin (MS. vi. 101), “A story which bears a strong resemblance to that I have read (when a boy) of the Parson’s maid giving the roasted goose to her Lover and frightening away the guests, lest he should geld them.”

 

[FN#482] In text