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

[FN#457] Arab. "Al-ajr" which has often occurred.

[FN#458] Arab. "Hanut," i.e., leaves of the lotus-tree to be infused as a wash for the corpse; camphor used with cotton to close the mouth and other orifices; and, in the case of a wealthy man, rose-water, musk, ambergris, sandal-wood, and lignaloes for fumigation.

[FN#459] Which always begin with four "Takbirs" and differ in many points from the usual orisons. See Lane (M. E. chapt.

xxviii.) who is, however, very superficial upon an intricate and interesting subject. He even neglects to mention the number of Ruk'at (bows) usual at Cairo and the absence of prostration (sujud) for which see vol. ii. 10.

[FN#460] Thus requiring all the ablutional offices to be repeated. The Shaykh, by handling the corpse, became ceremonially impure and required "Wuzu" before he could pray either at home or in the Mosque.

[FN#461] The Shaykh had left it when he went out to perform Wuzu.

[FN#462] Arab. "Satl"=the Lat. and Etruscan "Situla" and "Situlus," a water-pot.

[FN#463] Arab. "Lahd, Luhd," the niche or cell hollowed out in the side of the oblong trench: here the corpse is deposited and covered with palm-fronds etc. to prevent the earth touching it.

See my Pilgrimage ii. 304.

[FN#464] For the incredible amount of torture which Eastern obstinacy will sometimes endure, see Al-Mas'udi's tale of the miserable little old man who stole the ten purses, vol. viii. 153 et seq.

[FN#465] Arab. "Jaridah" (whence the Jarid-game) a palm-frond stripped of its leaves and used for a host of purposes besides flogging, chairs, sofas, bedsteads, cages, etc. etc. Tales of heroism in "eating stick" are always highly relished by the lower orders of Egyptians who pride themselves upon preferring the severest bastinado to paying the smallest amount of "rint."

[FN#466] Arab. "Nawus," the hollow tower of masonry with a grating over the central well upon which the Magian corpse is placed to be torn by birds of prey: it is kept up by the Parsi population of Bombay and is known to Europeans as the "Tower of Silence." Nais and Nawus also mean a Pyrethrum, a fire-temple and have a whimsical resemblance to the Greek .

[FN#467] For Munkar and Nakir, the Interrogating Angels, see vol. v. iii. According to Al-Mas'udi (chapt. x.x.xi.) these names were given by the Egyptians to the thirteenth and fourteenth cubits marked on the Nilometer which, in his day, was expected to show seventeen.

[FN#468] The text (xi. 227) has "Tannur"=an oven, evidently a misprint for "Kubur"=tombs.

[FN#469] Arab. "'An Abi"=(a propitiatory offering) for my father. So in Marocco the "Powder-players" dedicate a shot to a special purpose or person, crying "To my sweetheart!" "To my dead!" "To my horse!" etc.

[FN#470] For this formula see vol. i. 65. It is technically called "Haukalah" and "Haulakah," words in the third conjugation of increased triliterals, corresponding with the quadriliteral radicals and possessing the peculiar power of Kasr=abbreviation.

Of this same cla.s.s is Basmalah (vol. v. 206; ix. 1).

[FN#471] This scene with the watch would be relished in the coffee-house, where the tricks of robbers, like a gird at the police, are always acceptable.

[FN#472] Arab. "La af'al"; more commonly Ma af'al. Ma and La are synonymous negative particles, differing, however, in application. Ma (Gr. ) precedes definites, or indefinites: La and Lam (Gr. ) only indefinites as "La ilaha" etc.

[FN#473] Alluding to the proverb, "What hast thou left behind thee, O Asam?" i.e., what didst thou see?

[FN#474] Arab. "Sayrafi," s.s. as "Sarraf': see vol. i. 210.

[FN#475] Arab. "Al-Ma'rafah"=the place where the mane grows.

[FN#476] i.e. though the a.s.s remain on thy hands.

[FN#477] "Halves," i.e. of dirhams: see vol. ii. 37.

[FN#478] Arab. "Taannafu,"=the Germ. lange Nase.

[FN#479] About forty shillings.

[FN#480] About 220.

[FN#481] Characteristically Eastern and Moslem is this action of the neighbours and bystanders. A walk through any Oriental city will show a crowd of people screaming and gesticulating, with thundering yells and lightning glances, as if about to close in mortal fight, concerning some matter which in no way concerns them. Our European c.o.c.kneys and badauds mostly content themselves with staring and mobbing.

[FN#482] Arab. "Muruwwah," lit. manliness, especially in the sense of generosity. So the saying touching the "Miyan," or Moslem of India:--

Fi 'l-riuz Kuwwah: Fi 'I Hindi muruwwah.

When rice have strength, you'll haply find, In Hindi man, a manly mind.

[FN#483] i.e. His claim is just and reasonable.

[FN#484] I have noted (vol. i. 17) that good Moslems shun a formal oath, although "by Allah!" is ever on their tongues. This they seem to have borrowed from Christianity, which expressly forbade it, whilst Christians cannot insist upon it too much. The scandalous scenes lately enacted in a certain legislative a.s.sembly because an M.P. did not believe in a practice denounced by his creed, will be the wonder and ridicule of our descendants.

[FN#485] Most Arabs believe that the black cloud which sometimes produces, besides famine, contagious fevers and pestilence, like that which in 1799 depopulated the cities and country of Barbary, is led by a king locust, the Sultan Jarad.

[FN#486] The text is hopelessly corrupt, and we have no other with which to collate. Apparently a portion of the tale has fallen out, making a non-sens of its ending, which suggests that the kite gobbled up the two locusts at her ease, and left the falcon to himself.

[FN#487] The lines have occurred in vol. i. 265. I quote Mr.

Payne.

[FN#488] The fabliau is a favourite in the East; this is the third time it has occurred with minor modifications. Of course the original was founded on fact, and the fact was and is by no means uncommon.

[FN#489] This would hardly be our Western way of treating a proposal of the kind; nor would the European novelist neglect so grand an opportunity for tall-talk.

[FN#490] This is a rechauffe of "The House with the Belvedere;"

see vol. vi. 188.

[FN#491] Arab. "Masturah,"=veiled, well-guarded, confined in the Harem.

[FN#492] Arab. "'Ajuz nahs"=an old woman so crafty that she was a calamity to friends and foes.

[FN#493] Here, as in many places the text is painfully concise: the crone says only, "The Wuzu for the prayer!"

[FN#494] I have followed Mr. Payne who supplies this sentence to make the Tale run smoothly.

[FN#495] i.e. the half of the marriage-settlement due to the wife on divorcement and whatever monies he may have borrowed of her.

[FN#496] Here we find the vulgar idea of a rape, which is that a man can, by mere force, possess a woman against her will. I contend that this is impossible unless he use drugs like chloroform or violence, so as to make the patient faint or she be exceptionally weak. "Good Queen Bess" hit the heart of the question when she bade Lord High Chancellor sheath his sword, she holding the scabbard-mouth before him and keeping it in constant motion. But it often happens that the woman, unless she have a loathing for her violator, becomes infected with the amorous storge, relaxes her defense, feels pleasure in the outer contact of the parts and almost insensibly allows penetration and emission. Even conception is possible in such cases as is proved in that curious work, "The Curiosities of Medical Experience."

[FN#497] i.e. thou wilt have satisfied us all three.

[FN#498] Here I follow Mr. Payne who has skilfully fine-drawn the holes in the original text.

[FN#499] See vol. vii. 363; ix. 238.

[FN#500] Arab. "Musalla," which may be either a praying carpet, a pure place in a house, or a small chapel like that near Shiraz which Hafiz immortalised,

"Bring, boy, the sup that's in the cup; in highest Heaven man ne'er shall find Such watery marge as Ruknabad, MusalIa's mazes rose entwined."