The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume XII Part 28

[FN#376] Called from Rustak, a quarter of Baghdad. For Rustak town see vol. vi. 289.

[FN#377] From Damietta comes our "dimity." The cla.s.sical name was Tamiathis apparently Coptic graecised: the old town on the sh.o.r.e famed in Crusading times was destroyed in A.H. 648 = 1251.

[FN#378] Easterns are always startled by sudden summons to the presence either of King or Kazi: here the messenger gives the youth to understand that it is in kindness, not in anger.

[FN#379] i.e. in not sending for thee to court instead of allowing thee to live in the city without guest-rite.

[FN#380] In sign of agitation: the phrase has often been used in this sense and we find it also in Al-Mas'udi.

[FN#381] I would remind the reader that the "Dawat" (ink-case) contains the reed-pens.

[FN#382] Two well-known lovers.

[FN#383] On such occasions the old woman (and Easterns are hard de dolo vetularum) always a.s.sents to the sayings of her prey, well knowing what the doings will inevitably be.

[FN#384] Travellers, Nomads, Wild Arabs.

[FN#385] Whither they bear thee back dead with the women crying and keening.

[FN#386] Arab. Aznani = emaciated me.

[FN#387] Either the Deity or the Love-G.o.d.

[FN#388] Arab. "Hima" = the tribal domain, a word which has often occurred.

[FN#389] "O ye who believe! seek help through patience and prayer: verily, Allah is with the patient." Koran ii. 148. The pa.s.sage refers to one of the battles, Bedr or Ohod.

[FN#390] Arab. "Sirr" (a secret) and afterwards "Kitman"

(concealment) i.e. Keeping a lover down-hearted.

[FN#391] Arab. "'Alkam" = the bitter gourd, colocynth; more usually "Hanzal."

[FN#392] "For Jazirah" = insula, island, used in the sense of "peninsula," see vol. i. 2.

[FN#393] Meccah and Al-Medinah. Pilgrimage i. 338 and ii. 57, used in the proverb "Sharr fi al-Haramayn" = wickedness in the two Holy Places.

[FN#394] Arab. Al-hamd (o li'llah).

[FN#395] i.e. play, such as the chase, or an earnest matter, such as war, etc.

[FN#396] Arab. "Mizwad," or Mizwad = lit. provision-bag, from Zad = viatic.u.m; afterwards called Kirbah (p.r.o.n. Girbah, the popular term), and Sakl. The latter is given in the Dictionaries as Askalah = scala, ech.e.l.le, stage, plank.

[FN#397] Those blood-feuds are most troublesome to the traveller, who may be delayed by them for months: and, until a peace be patched up, he will never be allowed to pa.s.s from one tribe to their enemies. A quarrel of the kind prevented my crossing Arabia from Al-Medinah to Maskat (Pilgrimage, ii. 297), and another in Africa from visiting the head of the Tanganyika Lake. In all such journeys the traveller who has to fight against Time is almost sure to lose.

[FN#398] i.e. his fighting-men.

[FN#399] The popular treatment of a detected horse-thief, for which see Burckhardt, Travels in Arabia (1829), and Notes on the Bedouins and Wahabys (1830).

[FN#400] Arab "Ashirah": see vol. vii. 121.

[FN#401] Arab. "Musafahah" -. see vol. vi. 287.

[FN#402] In the text, "To the palace of the king's daughter."

[FN#403] Arab. "Marj Sali'" = cleft meadow (here and below). Mr.

Payne suggests that this may be a mistranscription for Marj Sali'

(with a Sad) = a treeless champaign. It appears to me a careless blunder for the Marj akhzar (green meadow) before mentioned.

[FN#404] The palace, even without especial and personal reasons, not being the place for a religious and scrupulous woman.

[FN#405] "i.e. those of El Aziz, who had apparently entered the city or pa.s.sed through it on their way to the camp of El Abbas."

This is Mr. Payne's suggestion.

[FN#406] Arab "Hatif"; gen. = an ally.

[FN#407] Not wishing to touch the hand of a strange woman.

[FN#408] i.e. a mere pa.s.ser-by, a stranger; alluding to her taunt.

[FN#409] The Bactrian or double-humped dromedary. See vol. iii.

67. Al-Mas'udi (vii. 169) calls it "Jamal falij," lit. = the palsy-camel.

[FN#410] i.e. Stars and planets.

[FN#411] i.e. Sang in tenor tones which are always in falsetto.

[FN#412] Arab. Tahzib = reforming morals, amending conduct, chastening style.

[FN#413] i.e. so as to show only the whites, as happens to the "mesmerised."

[FN#414] i.e. for love of and longing for thy youth.

[FN#415] i.e. leather from Al-Taif: see vol. viii. 303. The text has by mistake Talifi.

[FN#416] i.e. she was at her last breath, when cured by the magic of love.

[FN#417] i.e. violateth my private apartment.

[FN#418] The voice (Shazz) is left doubtful: it may be girl's, nightingale's, or dove's.

[FN#419] Arab. "Hiba" partly induced by the rhyme. In desert countries the comparison will be appreciated: in Sind the fine dust penetrates into a closed book.

[FN#420] i.e. he smuggled it in under his 'Aba-cloak: perhaps it was a better brand than that made in the monastery.

[FN#421] i.e. the delights of Paradise promised by the Prophet.

[FN#422] Again, "he" for "she," making the lover's address more courtly and delicate.

[FN#423] i.e. take refuge with Allah from the evil eye of her charms.