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

“Zakarayn Wizz (ganders) sim�n”; but afterwards “Wizzatayn”=geese.

 

[FN#483] These dried fruits to which pistachios are often added, form the favourite “filling” of lamb and other meats prepared in “pul�o” (pilaff).

 

[FN#484] “Anta j�ib(un) bas r�jul (an) w�hid (an)”—veritable and characteristic peasant’s jargon.

 

[FN#485] i.e., it is a time when men should cry for thy case. “L�

Haula”=there is no Majesty, etc. An ejaculation of displeasure, disappointments, despair.

 

[FN#486] In text “Mah�shima-k”=good works, merits; in a secondary sense beard and mustachios. The word yard (etymologically a rod) is medical English, and the young student is often surprised to see, when a patient is told to show his yard, a mere inchlet of shrunken skin. [“Mah�shim,” according to Bocthor, is a plural without singular, meaning: les parties de la g�n�ration. Pedro de Alcala gives “Hashsh�m,” pl. “Hash�shim,” for the female parts, and both words are derived from the verb “hasham, yahsh�m,” he put to shame.—ST.]

 

[FN#487] Characteristic words of abuse, “O thou whose fate is always to fail, O thou whose lot is ever subject to the accidents of Fortune!”

 

[FN#488] Arab. “Bayzah”=an egg, a testicle. See “Bayza’�ni,” vol.

ii. 55.

 

[FN#489] Here the text ends with the tag, “Concluded is the story of the Woman with her Husband and her Lover. It is related of a man which was a Kazi,” etc. I have supplied what the writer should have given.

 

[FN#490] The “Mahkamah” (Place of Judgment), or Kazi’s Court, at Cairo is mostly occupied with matrimonial disputes, and is fatally famous for extreme laxness in the matter of bribery and corruption. During these days it is even worse than when Lane described it. M.E. chapt. iv.

 

[FN#491] The first idea of an Eastern would be to appeal from the Kazi to the Kazi’s wife, bribing her if he failed to corrupt the husband; and he would be wise in his generation as the process is seldom known to fail.

 

[FN#492] In Arab. “Sitta-h�”: the Mauritanians prefer “S�dah,”

and the Arabian Arabs Kab�rah”=the first lady, Madame M�re.

 

[FN#493] In text “Ah� ‘inda-k,”—pure Fellah speech.

 

[FN#494] In text here and below “Maghb�n” usually=deceived, cajoled.

 

[FN#495] He began to fear sorcery, Satan, etc. “Muslim�na” is here the reg. Arab. plur. of “Muslim”=a True Believer. “Musulm�n”

(our “Mussalman” too often made plur. by “Mussalmen”) is corrupted Arab. used in Persia, Turkey and India by the best writers as Sa’adi; the plur. is “Musulm�n�n” and the Hind. fem.

is Musalm�n�. Francois Pyrard, before alluded to, writes (i. 261) “Mouselliman, that is, the faithful.”

 

[FN#496] In the text “help ye the Moslems.”

 

[FN#497] Again the old, old story of the “Acrisian maid,” and a prose variant of “Yusuf and Al-Hayfa” for which see supra p. 93.

I must note the difference of treatment and may observe that the style is rough and the incidents are unfinished, but it has the stuff of an excellent tale.

 

[FN#498] In text “Min ghayr Wa’ad” = without appointment, sans pr�m�ditation, a phrase before noticed.

 

[FN#499] In text, “Al-Mukawwam�na wa Arb�bu ‘l-Aklam,” the latter usually meaning “Scribes skilled in the arts of caligraphy.”

 

[FN#500] In text “Zarb al-F�l” = casting lots for presage, see v.

136.

 

[FN#501] “The Mount of Clouds.”

 

[FN#502] In the margin is written “Kbb,” possibly “Kubb” for “Kubbah” = a vault, a cupola. [I take “Kubba” for the passive of the verb “Kabba” = he cut, and read “Fajwatun” for “Fajwatan” =

“and in that cave there is a spot in whose innermost part from the inside a crevice is cut which,” etc.—ST.]

 

[FN#503] “Zarb al-Akl�m,” before explained: in a few pages we shall come upon “San’at al-Akl�m.

 

[FN#504] A pun upon the name of the Mountain.

 

[FN#505] In text “Wa kulli T�rik” = Night-traveller, magician, morning-star.

 

[FN#506] i.e. In Holy Writ—the Koran and the Ah�d�s.

 

[FN#507] “Walad al-Hay�h” for “Hay�t” i.e. let him be long-lived.

 

[FN#508] This and other incidents appear only at the latter end of the tale, MS. p. 221.

 

[FN#509] i.e. “Father of a Pigeon,” i.e. surpassing in swiftness the carrier-pigeon.

 

[FN#510] “Bi-sab’a Sikak” = lit. “with seven nails;” in the MS.

vol. vi. p. 133, 1. 2, and p. 160, 1. 4, we have “four Sikak,”

and the word seems to mean posts or uprights whereto the chains were attached. [“Sakk,” pl. “Sik�k” and “Suk�k,” is nail, and “Sikkah,” pl. “Sikak,” has amongst many other meanings that of “an iron post or stake” (Bocthor: piquet de fer).—ST.]

 

[FN#511] In text “Al-Lij�m w’ al-B�l�m” = the latter being a “T�bi’” or dependent word used only for jingle. [The Muh�t explains “Bil�m” by “Kim�m at-Thaur” = muzzle of a bull, and Bocthor gives as equivalent for it the French “cavecon” (English “cavesson” nose-band for breaking horses in). Here, I suppose, it means the headstall of the bridle.—ST.]

 

[FN#512] In Arab. “Al-Sayfu w’-al Kalani.”

 

[FN#513] In text “Itowwaha,” which is repeated in p. 146, 1. 2.

[“Ittawwah” seems to be the modern Egyptian 5th form of “Tauh.”

In classical Arabic it would be “tatawwah,” but in the dialect of to-day the prefix becomes “it,” whose final dental here assimilates with the initial palatal of the root; p. 146 the word is correctly spelt with two Tashdids. The meaning is: he threw himself (with his right foot foremost) upon the horse’s back.

Instances of this formation, which has now become all but general in Egyptian, are not infrequent in old Arabic, witness chapters lxxiii. and lxxiv. of the Koran, which begin with “ayyuh� ‘l Muddassiru” and “ayyuh� ‘l-Muzzammilu” respectively.—ST.]

 

[FN#514] In text “Ramaha bi-h.”

 

[FN#515] The vowel points in the MS. show this to be a quotation.

 

[FN#516] In text “Yarj�,” I presume an error for “yarja’u.” [I believe “yarju” is an error for yajr�,” and the various paces to which they put their horses are meant: sometimes they galloped (ramah�), sometimes they trotted (Pedro de Alcala gives “trotar”

for “jar� yajr�”), sometimes they ambled (yas�r�).—ST.]

 

[FN#517] In text “Saith the Sayer of this say so wondrous and this delectable matter seld-seen and marvellous,”—which I omit as usual.

 

[FN#518] In text “Sar’a ‘l-Lij�m.”

 

[FN#519] The invariable practice of an agent de police in England and France, according to the detective tales of MM. Gaboriau and Du Boisgobey. In Africa the guide often attempts to follow instead of leading the party, and this proceeding should always awake suspicion.

 

[FN#520] In text another prothesis without apodosis: see vol. vi.

203, etc.

 

[FN#521] In text “Fa gh�ba thal�that ayyamin” = and he (or it the mountain?) disappeared for three days. [“Gh�ba” = departed, may have here the meaning of “passed away” and three days had gone, and he ever travelling, before (il� an) he reached it.—ST.]

 

[FN#522] A feeling well-known to the traveller: I have often been laughed at for gazing fondly upon the scanty brown-green growth about Suez after a few months’ sojourn in the wolds of Western Arabia. It is admirably expressed in that book of books Eothen (chapt. xvii.): —“The next day I entered upon Egypt, and floated along (for the delight was as the delight of bathing) through green wavy fields of rice, and pastures fresh and plentiful, and dived into the cold verdure of grasses and gardens, and quenched my hot eyes in shade, as though in deep, rushing waters.”

 

[FN#523] The writer does not mean to charge the girl with immodesty (after the style “Come to my arms, my slight acquaintance!”) but to show how powerfully Fate and Fortune wrought upon her. Hence also she so readily allowed the King’s son to possess her person.

 

[FN#524] [I read “al-Muhibbattu,” fem. of “Muhibb,” lover (in Tasawwuf particularly = lover of God), and take the “lam taku taslah” in the second verse for the 3rd person fem., translating: The loving maiden has come in obedience to the lover’s call, proudly trailing her skirts (“tajarru min al-T�hi Azy�la-h�”), and she is meet, etc.—ST.]

 

[FN#525] Again the work of Fate which intended to make the lovers man and wife and probably remembered the homely old English proverb, “None misses a slice from a cut loaf.”

 

[FN#526] A little matter of about a ton at the smallest computation of 200 lbs. to each beast.

 

[FN#527] In text “Nataw�s� saw�yah” [Clerical error for “nataw�nas� (nata�nas�, the rarely used 6th form of anisa) shuwayyah” = let us divert ourselves a little.—ST.]

 

[FN#528] In text “salaku-hu wa nashal�-hu.” The “salk” = scoring the skin and the “nashl” = drawing meat from the cooking-pot with the fingers or a flesh-hook or anything but a ladle which would be “Gharf.”

 

[FN#529] This account has been slightly abridged seeing that it is a twice-told tale.

 

[FN#530] “Written” either on the Preserved Tablet (vol. ii. 68) or on the sutures of the skull (iii. 123).

 

[FN#531] In Arab. “Kh�lat-k� ins�nun,” meaning also to lie with.

Lat. misceo. [The same word occurs presently in another tropical sense: “Kh�lata-h� al-Khajal wa ‘l-Hay�” = shame and abashment mixed with her, i.e. suffused or overwhelmed her.—ST.]

 

[FN#532] In text “Istanade ‘al� Shakkati-h.” [“Istan�da ‘al�” is in the Vocabulista in Arabico rendered by “recumbere” and “Shikkah” is a rug, while I can find no authority for “Shakkah”

as “quarter.” The passage may therefore mean he lay down on his rug. If he had been leaning against the standing horse, it would on bolting have thrown him on the ground and awaked him rudely.—

ST.]

 

[FN#533] “Rajul ikhtiy�r,” a polite term for an old man: See i.

55. In the speech of the Badawin it means a man of substance and hospitality.

 

[FN#534] **In**? Arab. “Wa l�sh: Mur�d� bas Ism al-Madinah.” I seem to hear some Fellah speaking to me from the door of his clay hut.

 

[FN#535] “Mad�nat alAndal�s” = usually Seville.

 

[FN#536] In text “Kabd�n,” the usual form being “Kaptan,” from the Ital. Capitano (iv. 85): here, however, we have the Turk.

form as in “Kap�d�n-pash�” = Lord High Admiral of ancient Osmanli-land.

 

[FN#537] Arab. “Khaznat al-S�l�h.” When Easterns, especially Maroccan Moslems and Turkish Pilgrims, embark as passengers, their weapons are taken from them, ticketed and placed in a safe cabin.

 

[FN#538] Arab. “Waka’h” = an affair (of fight).

 

[FN#539] i.e. crying the war-cry, “All�ho Akbar” = God is most Great (vol. ii. 89, etc.) and “L� il�ha illa ‘llah,” the refrain of Unity: vol. ii. 236.

 

[FN#540] In text “A’at� Al-W�rah.” [“W�rah” is gerund of the Turkish “w�rmek” or “wermek,” to give, to give up, and the phrase in the text corresponds to the Turkish “w�rah w�rmek” = to capitulate.—ST.]

 

[FN#541] The “buccaneers,” quite as humane, made their useless prisoners “walk a plank.” The slave-ships, when chased and hard-driven, simply tossed the poor devil niggers overboard; and the latter must often have died, damning the tender mercies of the philanthrope which had doomed them to untimely deaths instead of a comfortable middle passage from Blackland to Whiteland.

 

[FN#542] [In the text “K�rish�n” = chasing, being in hot pursuit of; see Dozy, Suppl. s. v. “karash.”—ST.]

 

[FN#543] See in Mr. Doughty’s valuable “Arabia Deserta” (i. 309) how the Badawi’s mare puts down her soft nose to be kissed by the sitters about the coffee-hearth.

 

[FN#544] In text, “Hadda ‘ll�ho bayn� wa baynakum.”

 

[FN#545] The last clause is omitted in the text which is evidently defective: MS. vol. vi. p. 180, line 7.

 

[FN#546] In text “Tauh�n al-Hus�n.”

 

[FN#547] In Abyssinia the “Khil’at” = robe of honour (see vol. i.

195) is an extensive affair composed of a dress of lion’s pelt with silver-gilt buttons, a pair of silken breeches, a cap and waist-shawl of the same material, a sword, a shield and two spears;