The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume XI Part 20

[FN#317] i.e. spare pegs and strings, plectra, thumb-guards, etc.

[FN#318] Arab. "Hasir," the fine matting used for sleeping on during the hot season in Egypt and Syria.

[FN#319] i.e. The bed where the "rough and tumble" had taken place.

[FN#320] This word, which undoubtedly derives from cuculus, cogul, cocu, a cuckoo, has taken a queer twist, nor can I explain how its present meaning arose from a shebird which lays her egg in a strange nest. Wittol, on the other hand, from Witan, to know, is rightly applied to one whom La Fontaine calls "cocu et content," the Arab Dayyus.

[FN#321] Arab. "Shabakah," here a net like a fisherman's, which is hung over the hole in the wall called a shop, during the temporary absence of the shopkeeper. See my Pilgrimage, i. 100.

[FN#322] i.e. of which the singer speaks.

[FN#323] i.e., she found him good at the to-and-fro movement; our corresponding phrase is "basket-making."

[FN#324] Arab. "Mu'arris": in vol. i. 338, 1 derived the word from 'Ars marriage, like the Germ. Kupplerin. This was a mere mistake; the root is 'Ars (with a Sad not a Sin) and means a pimp who shows off or displays his wares.

[FN#325] Arab. "Akhmitu Ghazla-ha" lit.=thicken her yarn or thread.

[FN#326] I must again warn the reader that the negative, which to us appears unnecessary, is emphatic in Arabic.

[FN#327] i.e. By removing the goods from the "but" to the "ben."

Pilgrimage i. 99.

[FN#328] Arab. "Tannur," here the large earthern jar with a cover of the same material, round which the fire is built.

[FN#329] Being a musician the hero of the tale was also a pederast.

[FN#330] Here Mr. Payne supplies "Then they returned and sat down" (apparently changing places). He is quite correct in characterising the Bresl. Edit. as corrupt and "fearfully incoherent." All we can make certain of in this pa.s.sage is that the singer mistook the Persian for his white slave (Mameluke).

[FN#331] Arab. "Bazaka," normally used in the sense of spitting; here the saliva might be applied for facilitating insertion.

[FN#332] In Persian "award o burd,"=brought and bore away, gen.

applied to the movement of the man as in the couplet,

Chenin burd o award o award o burd, Kih dayeh pas-i-pardeh zi ghussah murd.

He so came and went, went and came again, That Nurse who lay curtained to faint was fain.

[FN#333] Alluding to the fighting rams which are described by every Anglo-Indian traveller. They strike with great force, amply sufficient to crush the clumsy hand which happens to be caught between the two foreheads. The animals are sometimes used for Fal or consulting futurity: the name of a friend is given to one and that of a foe to the other; and the result of the fight suggests victory or defeat for the men.

[FN#334] Arab. "Jauhar"=the jewel, the essential nature of a substance. Compare M. Alcofribas' "Abstraction of the Quintessence."

[FN#335] In parts of the Moslem world Al-Jabr=the tyranny, is the equivalent of what we call "civil law," as opposed to Al-Shari'ah, or Holy Law, the religious code; Diwan al-Jabr (Civil Court) being the contrary of the Mahkamah or Kazi's tribunal. See "First Footsteps in East Africa," p. 126.

[FN#336] i.e. in offering thee the kingship.

[FN#337] i.e. "a man of fourscore."

[FN#338] i.e. outside the city.

[FN#339] See the conclusion of the story.

[FN#340] i.e. I have said my say.

[FN#341] Arab. "Al-Mutabattil," usually=one who forsakes the world. The Katarat alNaysan or rain-drops in the month Naysan (April) produce pearls when falling into the oyster-sh.e.l.ls and poison in the serpent's mouth. The allusions to them are innumerable in Persian poetry, and the idea gives rise to a host of moralities more or less insipid.

[FN#342] This is the general idea concerning the diamond in all countries where the gem is dug, but I never heard it of the pearl.

[FN#343] Arab. "Faras," properly a mare; but the writer begins by using the feminine, and then employs the masculine. It is an abominable text.

[FN#344] Arab. "Rutab wa man.a.z.il," may also mean "stations and mansions (of the moon and planets)." The double entendre was probably intended.

[FN#345] Arab. "Za-if," still a popular word, meaning feeble, sick, ailing, but especially, weak in venery.

[FN#346] See the original of this tale in King Al-Af'a: Al-Mas'udi, chap. xlvi.

[FN#347] He says this without any sense of shame, coolly as Horace or Catullus wrote.

[FN#348] i.e. of the caravan with which he came.

[FN#349] Arab. "Al-'Adl." In the form of Zu 'adl it = a legal witness, a man of good repute; in Marocco and other parts of the Moslem world 'Adul (plur. 'Udul) signifies an a.s.sessor of the Kazi, a notary. Padre Lerchundy (loc. cit. p. 345) renders it notario.

[FN#350] i.e. I would marry thy daughter, not only for her own sake, but for alliance with thy family.

[FN#351] i.e. the bride's face.

[FN#352] The Ghusl or complete ablution after car. cop.

[FN#353] Thus the girl was made lawful to him as a concubine by the "loathly ladye," whose good heart redeemed her ill-looks.

[FN#354] Meaning the poor man and his own daughter.

[FN#355] Mr. Payne changes the Arab t.i.tle to the far more appropriate heading, "Story of the Rich Man and his Wasteful Son." The tale begins with aesop's fable of the f.a.ggot; and concludes with the "Heir of Linne," in the famous Scotch ballad.

Mr. Clouston refers also to the Persian Tale of Murchlis (The Sorrowful Wazir); to the Forty Vezirs (23rd Story) to Cinthio and to sundry old English chap-books.

[FN#356] Arab. "Tafrik wa'l-jam'a."

[FN#357] Arab. "Wafat" pop. used as death, decease, departure; but containing the idea of departing to the mercy of Allah and "paying the debt of nature." It is not so illomened a word as Maut=death.

[FN#358] i.e. gifts and presents. See vol. iv. 185.

[FN#359] i.e. Turcomans; presently called Sistan, for which see vol. ii. 218.

[FN#360] In my Pilgrimage (i. 38), 1 took from Mr. Galton's Art of Travel, the idea of opening with a lancet the shoulder or other fleshy part of the body and inserting into it a precious stone. This was immensely derided by not a few including one who, then a young man from the country, presently became a Cabinet Minister. Despite their omniscience, however, the "dodge" is frequently practised. See how this device was practised by Jeshua Nazarenus, vol. v. 238.

[FN#361] Arab. "'Alam," a pile of stones, a flag or some such landmark. The reader will find them described in "The Sword of Midian," i. 98, and pa.s.sim.

[FN#362] Mr. Clouston refers to the "Miles Gloriosus" (Plautus); to "Orlando Innamorato" of Berni (the Daughter of the King of the Distant Isles); to the "Seven Wise Masters" ("The Two Dreams," or "The Crafty Knight of Hungary"); to his Book of Sindibad, p. 343 ff.; to Miss Busk's Folk-Lore of Rome, p. 399 ("The Grace of the Hunchback"); to Prof. Crane's "Italian Popular Tales," p. 167, and "The Elopement," from Pitre's Sicilian collection.

[FN#363] In sign of impatience; "Look sharp!"