The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume V Part 37

[FN#191] These easy deaths for love are a lieu common: See sundry of them in the Decameron (iv. 7, etc.); and, in the Heptameron (Nouv. Ixx.), the widow who lay down and died of love and sorrow that her pa.s.sion had become known. For the fainting of lovers see Nouvelle xix.

[FN#192] This is a favourite Badawi dish, but too expensive unless some accident happen to the animal. Old camel is much like bull-beef, but the young meat is excellent, although not relished by Europeans because, like strange fish, it has no recognised flavour. I have noticed it in my "First Footsteps" (p. 68, etc.).

There is an old idea in Europe that the maniacal vengeance of the Arab is increased by eating this flesh, the beast is certainly vindictive enough; but a furious and frantic vengefulness characterises the North American Indian who never saw a camel.

Mercy and pardon belong to the elect, not to the miserables who make up " humanity."

[FN#193] i.e. of the Province Hazramaut, the Biblical Hazarmaveth (Gen. x. 26). The people are the Swill of Arabia and noted for thrift and hard bargains; hence the saying, If you meet a serpent and a Hazrami, slay the Hazrami. To prove how ubiquitous they are it is related that a man, flying from their society, reached the uttermost parts of China where he thought himself safe. But, as he was about to pa.s.s the night in some ruin, he heard a voice bard by him exclaim, "O Imad al-Din!"

(the name of the patron-saint of Hazramaut). Thereupon he arose and fled and he is, they say, flying still.

[FN#194] Arab. "Fal" alluding to the Sortes Coranicae and other silly practices known to the English servant-girs when curious about her future and her futur.

[FN#195] i.e., in Arab-land (where they eat dates) and Ajam, or lands non-Arab (where bread is the staff of life); that is, all the world over.

[FN#196] This story is curious and ethnologically valuable. The Badawi who eructates as a civility, has a mortal hatred to a crepitus ventris; and were a by-stander to laugh at its accidental occurrence, he would at once be cut down as a "pundonor." The same is the custom amongst the Highlanders of Afghanistan, and its artificial nature suggests direct derivation, for the two regions are separated by a host of tribes, Persians and Baloch, Sindis and Panjabis who utterly ignore the point of honour and behave like Europeans. The raids of the pre-Islamitic Arabs over the lands lying to the north-east of them are almost forgotten; still there are traces, and this may be one of them.

[FN#197] Arab. "Al-?ar." The Badawi saying is "Al-nar wa la l- ?ar" (h.e.l.l-)fire, but not shame. The sentiment is n.o.ble. Hasan the Prophet's grandson, a poor creature demoralised by over- marrying, chose the converse, "Shame is better than h.e.l.l-fire."

An old Arabic poem has,

"The Fire and not shame be the Lord of thee And e'en to The Fire from shame go flee."

Al-Hariri (a.s.s. of the Badawin) also has,

"For rather would I die my death than shame,-- On bier be borne than bear a caitiff's name."

[FN#198] A grammarian and rhetorician of ninth century.

[FN#199] Once existing in Syrian Hamah (the Biblical Hamath); and so called because here died the Emperor Heraclius called by the Arabs "Hirakl."

[FN#200] Till lately it was the custom to confine madmen in Syrian monasteries, hoping a cure from the patron Saint, and a terrible time they had of it. Every guide book relates the healing process as formerly pursued at the Maronite Convent Koshaya not far from Bayrut. The idiot or maniac was thrust headlong by the monks into a dismal cavern with a heavy chain round his neck, and was tied up within a span of the wall to await the arrival of Saint Anthony who especially affects this holy place. In very few weeks the patient was effectually cured or killed by cold, solitude and starvation.

[FN#201] The Moslem Eve, much nearer the Hebrew "Hawah" = the "manifester," because (Gen. iii. 20) she was (to be) the mother of all that live ("Kull hayy").

[FN#202] The mad lover says "they" for "she," which would be too familiar in speaking to strangers.

[FN#203] i.e. falsely to report the death.

[FN#204] A famous grammarian, etc., of the tenth century.

[FN#205] The cla.s.sical Amorium in Phrygia now Anatolia: Anbar is a town (before mentioned) on the Euphrates; by the rules of Arabic grammar the word is p.r.o.nounced (though never written) Ambar.

[FN#206] "Art thou not the slave of the Messiah, the Rahib (monk)?" "No! I am the slave of Allah, the Raghib (desirous of mercy from the Almighty). " A fair specimen of the Saj'a or rhymed prose. Abdallah (properly "Abdu'llah:") is a kind of neutral name, neither Jewish, Moslem nor Christian; hence I adopted it, (Pilgrimage i. 20.)

[FN#207] Arab. "Hanut," prop. a tavern where liquors are sold, a term applied contemptuously to shops, inns, etc., kept by Christians.

[FN#208] Arab. "Shirk" = syntheism of the "Mushrik" (one who makes other G.o.ds partners with G.o.d), a word p.r.o.nounced "Mushrit"

by the Wahhabis and the Badawin.

[FN#209] Koran vii. 195. The pa.s.sage declaims against the idols of the Arabs, sun, moon. stars, etc.

[FN#210] This minor miracle is commonly reported, and is not, I believe, unknown to modern "Spiritualism." The dead Wali or Waliyah (Saintess) often impels the bier-bearers to the spot where he would be buried: hence in Cairo the tombs scattered about the city. Lane notices it, Mod. E. chaps. xxviii.

[FN#211] Koran x. 36, speaking of being turned aside from the true worship.

[FN#212] One of the Wazirs of al-Maamun, Kurrat al-Ayn = "coolness (i.e. delight) of the eyes" Ali bin Hisham surnamed Abu'l-Hasan, was prefect of Baghdad under the same reign.

[FN#213] The Mac. Edit. (ii. 448) reads for Kawaid (plur. of Kaid = Governors, Span. Alcayde) "Fawaid": hence Lane (ii. 606) translates " try thy heart."

[FN#214] The mats of Sind were famous even in my day, but under English rule native industries are killed out by Manchester and Birmingham.

[FN#215] Sajah was the name of a famous female impostor, a contemporary of "Musaylimah the Liar."

[FN#216] A poet of Mohammed's day.

[FN#217] A singer and composer of the first century (A. H.).

[FN#218] Arab = a roe, a doe; also the Yoni (of women, mares and b.i.t.c.hes). It is the Heb. Tabitha and the Greek Dorcas.

[FN#219] Within the Hudud al-Harem (bounds of the Holy Places), at Al-Medinah as well as Meccah, all "Muharramat" (forbidden sins) are doubly unlawful, such as drinking spirits, immoral life, etc. The Imam Malik forbids slaying animals without, however, specifying any penalty. The felling of trees is a disputed point; and no man can be put to death except invaders, infidels and desecraters. (Pilgrimage ii. 167.)

[FN#220] A poet of the first century (A.H.).

[FN#221] In Arab. =a fawn beginning to walk, also the 28th lunar mansion or station, usually known as Batn al-Hut or Whale's belly. These mansions or houses, the constellations through which the moon pa.s.ses in her course along her orbit, are much used in Moslem astrology and meteorology.

[FN#222] Arab. Kalla-ma = it is seldom (rare) that etc. used in books.

[FN#223] Dishonoured by his love being made public. So Hafiz, Petrarch and Camoens.

[FN#224] Sixth Abbaside, A.D. 809-813.

[FN#225] Ala'llah, tenth Abbaside, A. H. 232-47 (847-61), grandson of Al-Rashid who succeeded Al-Wasik. He was a fanatic Sunni, much opposed to the Shi'ahs and he ordered the Christians to wear round their necks the Ghull (collar of wood, iron, or leather), to dress in yellow head-gear and girdles, use wooden stirrups and place figures of devils in front of their dwelling-houses. He also gave distinct dresses to their women and slaves. The Ghull, or collar, was also used for a punishment and vermin gathered under it when riveted round the neck: hence Golius calls it "pediculosum columbar."

[FN#226] Wazir of the above. killed by al-Muntasir Billah A. H.

247 (= 861).

[FN#227] Easterns during purgation are most careful and deride the want of precaution in Europeans. They do not leave the house till all is pa.s.sed off, and avoid baths, wine and women which they afterwards resume with double zest. Here "breaking the seal"

is taking the girl's maidenhead.

[FN#228] Johannes, a Greek favoured by Al-Mutawakkil and other Abbaside Caliphs.

[FN#229] Lady of Shaykhs, elders in the faith and men of learning

[FN#230] = A.D. 1166.

[FN#231] Koran iv. 38. I have before noted what the advantages are.

[FN#232] Koran ii. 282, "of those whom ye shall choose for witnesses."

[FN#233] Koran iv. 175, "Whereas if there be two sisters, they inherit only two-thirds between them."