The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume VIII Part 36

[FN#444] Arab. "Saghr" (Thagr), the opening of the lips showing the teeth. See vol. i. p. 156.

[FN#445] Iskandariyah, the city of Iskandar or Alexander the Great, whose "Soma" was attractive to the Greeks as the corpse of the Prophet Daniel afterwards was to the Moslems. The choice of site, then occupied only by the pauper village of Rhacotis, is one proof of many that the Macedonian conqueror had the inspiration of genius.

[FN#446] i.e. paid them down. See vol. i. 281; vol. ii. 145.

[FN#447] Arab. "Baltiyah," Sonnini's "Bolti" and Nebuleux (because it is dozid-coloured when fried), the Labrus Niloticus from its labra or large fleshy lips. It lives on the "leaves of Paradise" hence the flesh is delicate and savoury and it is caught with the epervier or sweep-net in the Nile, ca.n.a.ls and pools.

[FN#448] Arab. "Liyyah," not a delicate comparison, but exceedingly apt besides rhyming to "Baltiyah." The cauda of the "five-quarter sheep, whose tails are so broad and thick that there is as much flesh upon them as upon a quarter of their body," must not be confounded with the lank appendage of our English muttons. See i. 25, Dr. Burnell's Linschoten (Hakluyt Soc. 1885).

[FN#449] A variant occurs in vol. ix. 191.

[FN#450] Arab. "Tars Daylami," a small shield of bright metal.

[FN#451] Arab. "Kaukab al-durri," see Pilgrimage ii. 82.

[FN#452] Arab. "Kusuf" applied to the moon; Khusuf being the solar eclipse.

[FN#453] May Abu Lahab's hands perish. . . and his wife be a bearer of f.a.ggots!" Korau cxi. 184. The allusion is neat.

[FN#454] Alluding to the Angels who shoot down the Jinn. See vol. i. 224. The index misprints "Shibah."

[FN#455] For a similar scene see Ali Shar and Zumurrud, vol. iv.

187.

[FN#456] i.e. of the girl whom as the sequel shows, her owner had promised not to sell without her consent. This was and is a common practice. See vol. iv. 192.

[FN#457] These lines have occurred in vol. iii. p. 303. I quote Mr. Payne.

[FN#458] Alluding to the erectio et distensio p.e.n.i.s which comes on before dawn in tropical lands and which does not denote any desire for women. Some Anglo-Indians term the symptom signum salutis, others a urine-proud pizzle.

[FN#459] Arab. "Mohtasib," in the Maghrib "Mohtab," the officer charged with inspecting weights and measures and with punishing fraud in various ways such as nailing the cheat's ears to his shop's shutter, etc.

[FN#460] Every where in the Moslem East the slave holds himself superior to the menial freeman, a fact which I would impress upon the several Anti-slavery Societies, honest men whose zeal mostly exceeds their knowledge, and whose energy their discretion.

[FN#461] These lines, extended to three couplets, occur in vol.

iv. 193. I quote Mr. Payne.

[FN#462] "At this examination (on Judgment Day) Mohammedans also believe that each person will have the book, wherein all the actions of his life are written, delivered to him; which books the righteous will receive in their right hand, and read with great pleasure and satisfaction; but the unG.o.dly will be obliged to take them, against their wills, in their left (Koran xvii.

xviii. lxix, and lx.x.xiv.), which will be bound behind their backs, their right hand being tied to their necks." Sale, Preliminary Discourse; Sect. iv.

[FN#463] "Whiteness" (bayaz) also meaning l.u.s.tre, honour.

[FN#464] This again occurs in vol. iv. 194. So I quote Mr.

Payne.

[FN#465] Her impudence is intended to be that of a captive Princess.

[FN#466] i.e. bent groundwards.

[FN#467] See vol. iv. 192. In Marocco Za'ar is applied to a man with fair skin, red hair and blue eyes (Gothic blood?) and the term is not complimentary as "Sultan Yazid Za'ar."

[FN#468] The lines have occurred before (vol. iv. 194). I quote Mr. Lane ii. 440. Both he and Mr. Payne have missed the point in "ba'zu layali" a certain night when his mistress had left him so lonely.

[FN#469] Arab. "Raat-hu." This apparently harmless word suggests one simlar in sound and meaning which gave some trouble in its day. Says Mohammed in the Koran (ii. 98) "O ye who believe! say not (to the Apostle) Ra'ina (look at us) but Unzurna (regard us)." "Ra'ina" as p.r.o.nounced in Hebrew means "our bad one."

[FN#470] By reason of its leanness.

[FN#471] In the Mac. Edit. "Fifty." For a scene which ill.u.s.trates this mercantile transaction see my Pilgrimage i. 88, and its deduction. "How often is it our fate, in the West as in the East, to see in bright eyes and to hear from rosy lips an implied, if not an expressed 'Why don't you buy me?' or, worse still, 'Why can't you buy me?'"

[FN#472] See vol. ii. 165 dragging or trailing the skirts = walking without the usual strut or swagger: here it means a.s.suming the humble manners of a slave in presence of the master.

[FN#473] This is the Moslem form of "boycotting": so amongst early Christians they refused to give one another G.o.d-speed.

Amongst Hindus it takes the form of refusing "Hukkah (pipe) and water" which practically makes a man an outcast. In the text the old man expresses the popular contempt for those who borrow and who do not repay. He had evidently not read the essay of Elia on the professional borrower.

[FN#474] See note p. 273.

[FN#475] i.e. the best kind of camels.

[FN#476] This first verse has occurred three times.

[FN#477] Arab. "Surayya" in Dictionaries a dim. of Sarwa = moderately rich. It may either denote abundance of rain or a number of stars forming a constellation. Hence in Job (x.x.xviii.

31) it is called a heap (kimah).

[FN#478] Pleiads in Gr. the Stars whereby men sail.

[FN#479] This is the Eastern idea of the consequence of satisfactory coition which is supposed to be the very seal of love. Westerns have run to the other extreme.

[FN#480] "Al-Rif" simply means lowland: hence there is a Rif in the Nile-delta. The word in Europe is applied chiefly to the Maroccan coast opposite Gibraltar (not, as is usually supposed the North-Western seaboard) where the Berber-Shilha race, so famous as the "Rif pirates" still closes the country to travellers.

[FN#481] i.e. Upper Egypt.

[FN#482] These local excellencies of coition are described jocosely rather than anthropologically.

[FN#483] See vol. i. 223: I take from Torrens, p. 223.

[FN#484] For the complete ablution obligatory after copulation before prayers can be said. See vol. vi. 199.

[FN#485] Arab. "Zunnar," the Greek , for which, see vol.

ii. 215.

[FN#486] Miriam (Arabic Maryam), is a Christian name, in Moslem lands. Abu Maryam "Mary's father" (says Motarrazi on Al-Hariri, a.s.s. of Alexandria) is a term of contempt, for men are called after sons (e.g. Abu Zayd), not after daughters. In more modern authors Abu Maryam is the name of ushers and lesser officials in the Kazi's court.

[FN#487] This formality, so contrary to our Western familiarity after possession, is an especial sign of good breeding amongst Arabs and indeed all Eastern nations. It reminds us of the "grand manner" in Europe two hundred years ago, not a trace of which now remains.

[FN#488] These lines are in Night i. ordered somewhat differently: so I quote Torrens (p. 14).

[FN#489] i.e. to the return Salam--"And with thee be peace and the mercy of Allah and His blessings!" See vol. ii. 146. The enslaved Princess had recognised her father's Wazir and knew that he could have but one object, which being a man of wit and her lord a "raw laddie," he was sure to win.

[FN#490] It is quite in Moslem manners for the bystanders to force the sale seeing a silly lad reject a most advantageous offer for sentimental reasons. And the owner of the article would be bound by their consent.