The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume X Part 60

N.B.--In using this Table, some allowance must be made for differences in the t.i.tles of many of the tales in different editions.

For the contents of the printed text, I have followed the lists in Mr. Payne's "Tales from the Arabic," vol. iii.

And here I end this long volume with repeating in other words and other tongue what was said in "L'Envoi":--

Hide thou whatever here is found of fault; And laud The Faultless and His might exalt!

After which I have only to make my bow and to say

"Salam."

Arabian Nights, Volume 10 Footnotes

[FN#1] Arab. "Zarabin" (pl. of zarbun), lit. slaves' shoes or sandals (see vol. iii. p. 336) the chaussure worn by Mamelukes.

Here the word is used in its modern sense of stout shoes or walking boots.

[FN#2] The popular word means goodness, etc.

[FN#3] Dozy translates "'Urrah"=Une Megere: Lane terms it a "vulgar word signifying a wicked, mischievous shrew." But it is the fem. form of 'Urr=dung; not a bad name for a daughter of Billingsgate.

[FN#4] i.e. black like the book of her actions which would be shown to her on Doomsday.

[FN#5] The "Kunafah" (vermicelli-cake) is a favourite dish of wheaten flour, worked somewhat finer than our vermicelli, fried with samn (b.u.t.ter melted and clarified) and sweetened with honey or sugar. See vol. v. 300.

[FN#6] i.e. Will send us aid. The Shrew's rejoinder is highly impious in Moslem opinion.

[FN#7] Arab. Asal Katr; "a fine kind of black honey, treacle"

says Lane; but it is afterwards called cane-honey ('Asal Kasab).

I have never heard it applied to "the syrup which exudes from ripe dates, when hung up."

[FN#8] Arab. "'Aysh," lit.=that on which man lives: "Khubz" being the more popular term. "Hubz and Joobn" is well known at Malta.

[FN#9] Insinuating that he had better make peace with his wife by knowing her carnally. It suggests the story of the Irishman who brought over to the holy Catholic Church three several Protestant wives, but failed with the fourth on account of the decline of his "Convarter."

[FN#10] Arab. "Asal Kasab," i.e. Sugar, possibly made from sorgho-stalks Holcus sorghum of which I made syrup in Central Africa.

[FN#11] For this unpleasant euphemy see vol. iv. 215.

[FN#12] This is a true picture of the leniency with which women were treated in the Kazi's court at Cairo; and the effect was simply deplorable. I have noted that matters have grown even worse since the English occupation, for history repeats herself; and the same was the case in Afghanistan and in Sind. We govern too much in these matters, which should be directed not changed, and too little in other things, especially in exacting respect for the conquerors from the conquered.

[FN#13] Arab. "Bab al-'ali"=the high gate or Sublime Porte; here used of the Chief Kazi's court: the phrase is a descendant of the Coptic "Per-ao" whence "Pharaoh."

[FN#14] "Abu Tabak," in Cairene slang, is an officer who arrests by order of the Kazi and means "Father of whipping" (=tabaka, a low word for beating, thrashing, whopping) because he does his duty with all possible violence in terrorem.

[FN#15] Bab al-Nasr the Eastern or Desert Gate: see vol. vi. 234.

[FN#16] This is a mosque outside the great gate built by Al-Malik al-'adil Tuman Bey in A.H. 906 (=1501). The date is not worthy of much remark for these names are often inserted by the scribe--for which see Terminal Essay.

[FN#17] Arab. "'amir" lit.=one who inhabiteth, a peopler; here used in technical sense. As has been seen, ruins and impure places such as privies and Hammam-baths are the favourite homes of the Jinn. The fire-drake in the text was summoned by the Cobbler's exclamation and even Marids at times do a kindly action.

[FN#18] The style is modern Cairene jargon.

[FN#19] Purses or gold pieces see vol. ix. 313.

[FN#20] i.e. I am a Cairene.

[FN#21] Arab. "Darb al-Ahmar," a street still existing near to and outside the n.o.ble Bab Zuwaylah, for which see vol. i. 269.

[FN#22] Arab. "'Attar," perfume-seller and druggist; the word is connected with our "Ottar" ('Atr).

[FN#23] Arab. "Mudarris" lit.=one who gives lessons or lectures (dars) and pop. applied to a professor in a collegiate mosque like Al-Azhar of Cairo.

[FN#24] This thoroughly dramatic scene is told with a charming navete. No wonder that The Nights has been made the basis of a national theatre amongst the Turks.

[FN#25] Arab. "Taysh" lit.=vertigo, swimming of head.

[FN#26] Here Trebutien (iii. 265) reads "la ville de Khatan (so the Mac. Edit. iv. 708) capital du royaume de Sohatan." Ikhtiyan Lane suggests to be fict.i.tious: Khatan is a district of Tartary east of Kashgar, so called by Sadik al-Isfahani p. 24.

[FN#27] This is a true picture of the tact and savoir faire of the Cairenes. It was a study to see how, under the late Khedive they managed to take precedence of Europeans who found themselves in the background before they knew it. For instance, every Bey, whose degree is that of a Colonel was made an "Excellency" and ranked accordingly at Court whilst his father, some poor Fellah, was ploughing the ground. Tanfik Pasha began his ill-omened rule by always placing natives close to him in the place of honour, addressing them first and otherwise snubbing Europeans who, when English, were often too obtuse to notice the petty insults lavished upon them.

[FN#28] Arab. "Kathir" (p.r.o.n. Katir)=much: here used in its slang sense, "no end."

[FN#29] i.e. "May the Lord soon make thee able to repay me; but meanwhile I give it to thee for thy own free use."

[FN#30] Punning upon his name. Much might be written upon the significance of names as ominous of good and evil; but the subject is far too extensive for a footnote.

[FN#31] Lane translates "anisa-k.u.m" by "he hath delighted you by his arrival"; Mr. Payne "I commend him to you."

[FN#32] Arab. "Faturat,"=light food for the early breakfast of which the "Fatirah"-cake was a favourite item. See vol. i. 300.

[FN#33] A dark red dye (Lane).

[FN#34] Arab. "Jadid," see vol. viii. 121.

[FN#35] Both the texts read thus, but the reading has little sense. Ma'aruf probably would say, "I fear that my loads will be long coming."

[FN#36] One of the many formulas of polite refusal.

[FN#37] Each bazar, in a large city like Damascus, has its tall and heavy wooden doors which are locked every evening and opened in the morning by the Ghafir or guard. The "silver key," however, always lets one in.