The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume VII Part 22

[FN#217] The Mac. and Bul. Edits. give two silly couplets of moral advice:--

Strike with thy stubborn steel, and never fear *

Aught save the G.o.dhead of Allmighty Might; And shun ill practices and never show *

Through life but generous gifts to human sight.

The above is from the Bresl. Edit. ix. 247.

[FN#218] Arab. "Al-Khanakah" now more usually termed a Takiyah. (Pilgrim. i. 124.)

[FN#219] Arab. "Ka'b al-ba'id" (Bresl. Edit. ix. 255)=heel or ankle, metaph. for fortune, reputation: so the Arabs say the "Ka'b of the tribe is gone!" here "the far one"=the caravan-leader.

[FN#220] Arab. "Sharit," from Sharata=he Scarified; "Mishrat"=a lancet and "Sharitah"=a mason's rule. Mr. Payne renders "Sharit" by whinyard: it must be a chopper-like weapon, with a pin or screw (laulab) to keep the blade open like the snap of the Spaniard's cuchillo. Dozy explains it=epee, synonyme de Sayf.

[FN#221] Text "Dimagh," a Persianism when used for the head: the word properly means brain or meninx.

[FN#222] They were afraid even to stand and answer this remarkable ruffian.

[FN#223] Ahmad the Abortion, or the Foundling, nephew (sister's son) of Zaynab the Coneycatcher. See supra, p. 145.

[FN#224] Here the sharp lad discovers the direction without pointing it out. I need hardly enlarge upon the prehensile powers of the Eastern foot: the tailor will hold his cloth between his toes and pick up his needle with it, whilst the woman can knead every muscle and at times catch a mosquito between the toes. I knew an officer in India whose mistress hurt his feelings by so doing at a critical time when he attributed her movement to pleasure.

[FN#225] Arab. "Hullah"=dress. In old days it was composed of the Burd or Rida, the shoulder-cloth from 6 to 9 or 10 feet long, and the Izar or waistcloth which was either tied or tucked into a girdle of leather or metal. The woman's waistcloth was called Nitah and descended to the feet while the upper part was doubled and provided with a Tikkah or string over which it fell to the knees, overhanging the lower folds. This doubling of the "Hujrah," or part round the waist, was called the "Hubkah."

[FN#226] Arab. "Taghadda," the dinner being at eleven a.m. or noon.

[FN#227] Arab. Ghandur for which the Dictionaries give only "fat, thick." It applies in Arabia especially to a Harami, brigand or freebooter, most honourable of professions, slain in foray or fray, opposed to "Fatis" or carrion (the corps creve of the Klephts), the man who dies the straw-death.

Pilgrimage iii. 66.

[FN#228] My fair readers will note with surprise how such matters are hurried in the East. The picture is, however, true to life in lands where "flirtation" is utterly unknown and, indeed, impossible.

[FN#229] Arab. "Zabbah," the wooden bolt (before noticed) which forms the lock and is opened by a slider and pins. It is ill.u.s.trated by Lane (M. E. Introduction).

[FN#230] i.e. I am not a petty thief.

[FN#231] Arab. Satl=kettle, bucket. Lat. Situla (?).

[FN#232] i.e. "there is no chance of his escaping." It may also mean, "And far from him (Hayhat) is escape."

[FN#233] Arab. "Ihtilam" the sign of p.u.b.erty in boy or girl; this, like all emissions of s.e.m.e.n, voluntary or involuntary, requires the Ghuzl or total ablution before prayers can be said, etc. See vol. v. 199, in the Tale of Tawaddud.

[FN#234] This is the way to take an Eastern when he tells a deliberate lie; and it often surprises him into speaking the truth.

[FN#235] The conjunctiva in Africans is seldom white; often it is red and more frequently yellow.

[FN#236] So in the texts, possibly a clerical error for the wine which he had brought with the kabobs. But beer is the especial tipple of African slaves in Egypt.

[FN#237] Arab. "Laun", prop.=color, hue; but applied to species and genus, our "kind"; and especially to dishes which differ in appearance; whilst in Egypt it means any dish.

[FN#238] Arab. "Zardah"=rice dressed with honey and saffron.

Vol. ii. 313. The word is still common in Turkey.

[FN#239] Arab. "Laylat Arms," the night of yesterday (Al-barihah) not our "last night" which would be the night of the day spoken of.

[FN#240] Arab. "Yakhni," a word much used in Persia and India and properly applied to the complicated broth prepared for the rice and meat. For a good recipe see Herklots, Appendix xxix.

[FN#241] In token of defeat and in acknowledgment that she was no match for men.

[FN#242] This is a neat touch of nature. Many a woman, even of the world, has fallen in love with a man before indifferent to her because he did not take advantage of her when he had the opportunity.

[FN#243] The slightest movement causes a fight at a funeral or a wedding-procession in the East; even amongst the "mild Hindus."

[FN#244] Arab. "Al-Musran" (plur. of "Masir") properly the intestines which contain the chyle. The bag made by Ali was, in fact, a "Cundum" (so called from the inventor, Colonel Cundum of the Guards in the days of Charles Second) or "French letter"; une capote anglaise, a "check upon child." Captain Grose says (Cla.s.s. Dict. etc. s.v. Cundum) "The dried gut of a sheep worn by a man in the act of coition to prevent venereal infection. These machines were long prepared and sold by a matron of the name of Philips at the Green Canister in Half Moon Street in the Strand * * * Also a false scabbard over a sword and the oilskin case for the colours of a regiment."

Another account is given in the Guide Pratique des Maladies Secretes, Dr. G. Harris, Bruxelles. Librairie Populaire. He calls these pet.i.ts sachets de baudruche "Candoms, from the doctor who invented them" (Littre ignores the word) and declares that the famous Ricord compared them with a bad umbrella which a storm can break or burst, while others term them cuira.s.ses against pleasure and cobwebs against infection.

They were much used in the last century. "Those pretended stolen goods were Mr. Wilkes's Papers, many of which tended to prove his authorship of the North Briton, No. 45, April 23, 1763, and some Cundums enclosed in an envelope" (Records of C.

of King's Bench, London, 1763). "Pour finir l'inventaire de ces curiosites du cabinet de Madame Gourdan, il ne faut pas omettre une mult.i.tude de redingottes appelees d'Angleterre, je ne sais pourquois. Vous connoissez, an surplus, ces especes de boucliers qu'on oppose aux traits empoisonnes de l'amour; et qui n'emoussent que ceux du plaisir." (L'Observateur Anglois, Londres 1778, iii. 69.) Again we read:--

"Les capotes melancoliques Qui pendent chez les gros Millan (?) S'enflent d'elles-memes, lubriques, Et dechargent en se gonflant."

Pa.s.sage Satyrique.

Also in Louis Prolat:--

"Il fuyait, me laissant une capote au cul."

The articles are now of two kinds mostly of baudruche (sheep's gut) and a few of caout-chouc. They are made almost exclusively in the faubourgs of Paris, giving employment to many women and young girls; Grenelle turns out the baudruche and Grenelle and Lilas the India-rubber article; and of the three or four makers M. Deschamps is best known. The sheep's gut is not joined in any way but of single piece as it comes from the animal after, of course, much manipulation to make it thin and supple; the inferior qualities are stuck together at the sides. Prices vary from 4 1/2 to 36 francs per gross.

Those of India-rubber are always joined at the side with a solution especially prepared for the purpose. I have also heard of fish-bladders but can give no details on the subject.

The Cundum was unknown to the ancients of Europe although syphilis was not: even prehistoric skeletons show traces of its ravages.

[FN#245] Arab. "Ya Usta" (for "Ustaz.") The Pers. term is Ustad=a craft-master, an artisan and especially a barber. Here it is merely a polite address.

[FN#246] In common parlance Arabs answer a question (like the cla.s.sics of Europe who rarely used Yes and No, Yea and Nay), by repeating its last words. They have, however, many affirmative particles e.g. Ni'am which answers a negative "Dost thou not go?"--Ni'am (Yes!); and Ajal, a stronger form following a command, e.g. Sir (go)--Ajal, Yes verily. The popular form is Aywa ('llahi)=Yes, by Allah. The chief negatives are Ma and La, both often used in the sense of "There is not."

[FN#247] Arab. "Khalbus," prop. the servant of the Almah-girls who acts buffoon as well as pimp. The "Maskharah" (whence our "mask") corresponds with the fool or jester of mediaeval Europe: amongst the Arnauts he is called "Suttari" and is known by his fox's tails: he mounts a mare, tom-toms on the kettle-drum and is generally one of the bravest of the corps.

These buffoons are noted for extreme indecency: they generally appear in the ring provided with an enormous phallus of whip-cord and with this they charge man, woman and child, to the infinite delight of the public.

[FN#248] Arab. "Shubash" p.r.o.nounced in Egypt Shobash: it is the Persian Shah-bash lit.=be a King, equivalent to our bravo.

Here, however, the allusion is to the buffoon's cry at an Egyptian feast, "s...o...b..sh 'alayk, ya Sahib al-faraj,"=a present is due from thee, O giver of the fete " Sec Lane M. E.

xxvii.

[FN#249] Arab. "Ka'ak al-I'd:" the former is the Arab form of the Persian "Kahk" (still retained in Egypt) whence I would derive our word "cake." It alludes to the sweet cakes which are served up with dates, the quatre mendiants and sherbets during visits of the Lesser (not the greater) Festival, at the end of the Ramazan fast. (Lane M.E. xxv.)

[FN#250] Arab. "Tasamah," a rare word for a peculiar slipper.

Dozy (s. v.) says only, espece de chaussure, sandale, pantoufle, soulier.

[FN#251] Arab. "Ijtila"=the displaying of the bride on her wedding night so often alluded to in The Nights.

[FN#252] Arab. Khiskhanah; a mixed word from Klaysh=canva.s.s or stuffs generally and Pers. Khanah=house room. Dozy (s.v.) says armoire, buffet.

[FN#253] The Bresl. Edit. "Kamariyah"=Moon-like (fem.) for Moon.