The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume VII Part 23

[FN#254] Every traveller describes the manners and customs of dogs in Eastern cities where they furiously attack all canine intruders. I have noticed the subject in writing of Al-Medinah where the beasts are confined to the suburbs. (Pilgrimage ii.

52-54.)

[FN#255] She could legally compel him to sell her; because, being an Infidel, he had attempted to debauch a Moslemah.

[FN#256] Arab. "Halawat wa Mulabbas"; the latter etymologically means one dressed or clothed. Here it alludes to almonds, etc., clothed or coated with sugar. See Dozy (s.v.) "labas."

[FN#257] Arab. "'Ubb" from a root=being long: Dozy (s.v.), says poche au sein; Habb al-'ubb is a woman's ornament.

[FN#258] Who, it will be remembered, was Dalilah's grandson.

[FN#259] Arab. "Tabut," a term applied to the Ark of the Covenant (Koran ii. 349), which contained Moses' rod and shoes, Aaron's mitre, the manna-pot, the broken Tables of the Law, and the portraits of all the prophets which are to appear till the end of time--an extensive list for a box measuring 3 by 2 cubits. Europeans often translate it coffin, but it is properly the wooden case placed over an honoured grave. "Iran"

is the Ark of Moses' exposure, also the large hea.r.s.e on which tribal chiefs were carried to earth.

[FN#260] i.e. What we have related is not "Gospel Truth."

[FN#261] Omitted by Lane (iii. 252) "because little more than a repet.i.tion" of Taj al-Muluk and the Lady Dunya. This is true; but the nice progress of the nurse's pimping is a well-finished picture and the old woman's speech (infra p.

243) is a gem.

[FN#262] Artaxerxes; in the Mac. Edit. Azdashir, a misprint.

[FN#263] I use "kiss ground" as we say "kiss hands." But it must not be understood literally: the nearest approach would be to touch the earth with the finger-tips and apply them to the lips or brow. Amongst Hindus the Ashtanga-prostration included actually kissing the ground.

[FN#264] The "key" is mentioned because a fee so called (miftah) is paid on its being handed to the new lodger.

(Pilgrimage i. 62.)

[FN#265] The Koranic term for s.e.m.e.n, often quoted.

[FN#266] Koran, xii. 31, in the story of Joseph, before noticed.

[FN#267] Probably the white woollens, so often mentioned, whose use is now returning to Europe, where men have a reasonable fear of dyed stuffs, especially since Aniline conquered Cochineal.

[FN#268] Arab. "samir," one who enjoys the musamarah or night-talk outside the Arab tents. "Samar" is the shade of the moon, or half darkness when only stars shine without a moon, or the darkness of a moonless night. Hence the proverb (A. P.

ii. 513) "Ma af'al-hu al-samar wa'l kamar;" I will not do it by moondarkness or by moonshine, i.e. never. I have elsewhere remarked that "Early to bed and early to rise" is a civilised maxim; most barbarians sit deep into the night in the light of the moon or a camp-fire and will not rise till nearly noon.

They agree in our modern version of the old saw:--

Early to bed and early to rise Makes a man surly and gives him red eyes.

The Shayks of Arab tribes especially transact most of their public business during the dark hours.

[FN#269] Suspecting that it had been sent by some Royal lover.

[FN#270] Arab. "Rubbama" a particle more emphatic than rubba,=perhaps, sometimes, often.

[FN#271] "The broken (wall)" from Hatim=breaking. It fences the Hijr or s.p.a.ce where Ishmael is buried (vol. vi. 205); and I have described it in Pilgrimage iii. 165.

[FN#272] Arab. "Farais" (plur. of farisah): the phrase has often occurred and is=our "trembled in every nerve." As often happens in Arabic, it is "horsey;" alluding to the shoulder-muscles (not shoulder-blades, Preston p. 89) between neck and flank which readily quiver in blood-horses when excited or frightened.

[FN#273] Arab. "Fazl"=exceeding goodness as in "Fazl wa ma'rifah"=virtue and learning.

[FN#274] Arab. "Al-Mafarik" (plur. of Mafrak),=the pole or crown of the head, where the hair parts naturally and where baldness mostly begins.

[FN#275] Arab. "Na'i al-maut", the person sent round to announce a death to the friends and relations of the deceased and invite them to the funeral.

[FN#276] Arab. "Tair al-bayn", any bird, not only the Hatim or black crow, which announces separation. Crows and ravens flock for food to the camps broken up for the springtide and autumnal marches, and thus become emblems of desertion and desolation. The same birds are also connected with Abel's burial in the Koran (v. 34), a Jewish tradition borrowed by Mohammed. Lastly, here is a paranomasia in the words "Ghurab al-Bayn"=Raven of the Wold (the black bird with white breast and red beak and legs): "Ghurab" (Heb. Oreb) connects with Ghurbah=strangerhood, exile, and "Bayn" with distance, interval, disunion, the desert (between the cultivated spots).

There is another and a similar pun anent the Ban-tree; the first word meaning "he fared, he left."

[FN#277] Arab. "Tayr," any flying thing, a bird; with true Arab carelessness the writer waits till the tale is nearly ended before letting us know that the birds are pigeons (Hamam).

[FN#278] Arab. "Karr'aynan." The Arabs say, "Allah cool thine eye," because tears of grief are hot and those of joy cool (Al-Asma'i); others say the cool eye is opposed to that heated by watching; and Al-Hariri (a.s.s. xxvii.) makes a scorching afternoon "hotter than the tear of a childless mother." In the burning climate of Arabia coolth and refrigeration are equivalent to refreshment and delight.

[FN#279] Arab. "Muunah," the "Mona" of Maroccan travellers (English not Italian who are scandalised by "Mona") meaning the provisions supplied gratis by the unhappy villagers to all who visit them with pa.s.sport from the Sultan. Our cousins German have lately scored a great success by paying for all their rations which the Ministers of other nations, England included, were mean enough to accept.

[FN#280] Arab. "Kaannahu huwa"; lit.=as he (was) he. This reminds us of the great grammarian, Sibawayh, whose name the Persians derive from "Apple-flavour"(Sib + bu). He was disputing, in presence of Harun al-Rashid with a rival Al-Kisa'i, and advocated the Basrian form, "Fa-iza huwa hu"

(behold, it was he) against the Kufan, "Fa-iza huwa iyyahu"

(behold, it was him). The enemy overcame him by appealing to Badawin, who spoke impurely, whereupon Sibawayh left the court, retired to Khorasan and died, it is said of a broken heart.

[FN#281] This is a sign of the Saudawi or melancholic temperament in which black bile pre-dominates. It is supposed to cause a distaste for society and a longing for solitude, an unsettled habit of mind and neglect of worldly affairs. I remarked that in Arabia students are subject to it, and that amongst philosophers and literary men of Mecca and Al-Medinah there was hardly one who was not spoken of as a "Saudawi." See Pilgrimage ii. 49, 50.

[FN#282] i.e. I am a servant and bound to tell thee what my orders are.

[FN#283] A touching lesson on how bribes settle matters in the East.

[FN#284] i.e. fresh from water (Arab. "Rutub"), before the air can tarnish them. The pearl (margarita) in Arab. is Lu'lu'; the "unio" or large pearl Durr, plur. Durar. In modern parlance Durr is the second quality of the twelve into which pearls are divided.

[FN#285] i.e. the Wazir, but purposely left vague.

[FN#286] The whole of the nurse's speech is admirable: its nave and striking picture of conjugal affection goes far to redeem the grossness of The Nights.

[FN#287] The bitterness was the parting in the morning.

[FN#288] English "Prin'cess," too often p.r.o.nounced in French fashion Princess.

[FN#289] In dictionaries "Ban" (Anglice ben-tree) is the myrobalan which produces gum benzoin. It resembles the tamarisk. Mr. Lyall (p. 74 Translations of Ancient Arab Poetry, Williams and Norgate, 1885), calls it a species of Moringa, tall, with plentiful and intensely green foliage used for comparisons on account of its straightness and graceful shape of its branches. The nut supplies a medicinal oil.

[FN#290] A sign of extreme familiarity: the glooms are the hands and the full moons are the eyes.

[FN#291] Arab. "Khal'a al-'izar": lit.=stripping off jaws or side-beard.

[FN#292] Arab. "Shimal"=the north wind.

[FN#293] An operation well described by Juvenal--

Illa supercilium, modica fuligine tactum, Obliqua producit acu, pingitque, trementes Attolens oculos.

Sonnini (Travels in Egypt, chapt. xvi.) justly remarks that this pencilling the angles of the eyes with Kohl, which the old Levant trade called alquifoux or arquifoux, makes them appear large and more oblong; and I have noted that the modern Egyptian (especially Coptic) eye, like that of the Sphinx and the old figures looks in profile as if it were seen in full.

(Pilgrimage i. 214.)

[FN#294] The same traveller notes a singular property in the Henna-flower that when smelt closely it exhales a "very powerful spermatic odour," hence it became a favourite with women as the tea-rose with us. He finds it on the nails of mummies, and identifies it with the Kupros of the ancient Greeks (the moderns call it Kene or Kena) and the (Botrus cypri) of Solomon's Song (i. 14). The Hebr. is "Copher," a well-known word which the A. V. translates by "a cl.u.s.ter of camphire (?) in the vineyards of En-gedi"; and a note on iv. 13 ineptly adds, "or, cypress." The Revised Edit.