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

[FN#233] Arab. "Ummali"; gen. Ummal, an affirmation; Certes, I believe you!

[FN#234] For the many preparations of this drug, see Herklots, Appendix, pp. lxviii. ciii. It is impossible to say how "Indian hemp," like opium, datura, ether and chloroform, will affect the nervous system of an untried man. I have read a dozen descriptions of the results, from the highly imaginative Monte Cristo to the prose of prosaic travellers; and do not recognise that they are speaking of the same thing.

[FN#235] This tranquil enjoyment is popularly called "Kayf." See my Pilgraimage i. 13. In a coa.r.s.er sense it is applied to all manners of intoxication; and the French traveller Sonnini says, "The Arabs (by which he means the Egyptians) give the name of Kayf to the voluptuous relaxation, the delicious stupor, produced by the smoking of hemp." I have smoked it and eaten it for months without other effect than a greatly increased appet.i.te and a little drowsiness.

[FN#236] These childish indecencies are often attributed to Bhang-eaters. See "Bakun's Tale of the Hashish-eater," vol. ii.

91. Modest Scott (vi. 129) turns the joke into "tweaking the nose." Respectable Moslems dislike the subject, but the vulgar relish it as much as the sober Italian enjoys the description of a drinking bout--in novels.

[FN#237] In the text "Finjal," a vulgarism for "Finjan": so the converse "Isma'in" for "Ism'ail" = Ishmael. Mr. J. W. Redhouse (The Academy No. 764) proposes a new date for coffee in Al-Yaman.

Colonel Playfair (History of Yemen, Bombay 1859) had carelessly noted that its "first use at Aden was by a judge of the place who had seen it drunk at Zayla', on the African coast opposite Aden,"

and he made the judge die in A.H. 875 = A.D. 1470. This is about the date of the Shaykh al-Shazali's tomb at Mocha, and he was the first who brought the plant form about African Harar to the Arabian seaboard. But Mr. Redhouse finds in a Turkish work written only two centuries ago, and printed at Constantinople, in A.D. 1732, that the "ripe fruit was discovered growing wild in the mountains of Yemen (?) by a company of dervishes banished thither." Finding the berry relieve their hunger and support their vigils the prior, "Shaykh 'Umar advised their stewing it (?) and the use became established. They dried a store of the fruit; and its use spread to other dervish communities, who perhaps (?) sowed the seed wherever it would thrive throughout Africa (N.B. where it is indigenous) and India (N.B. where both use and growth are quite modern). From Africa, two centuries later, its use was reimported to Arabia at Aden (?) by the judge above mentioned, who in a season of scarcity of the dried fruit (?) tried the seed" (N.B. which is the fruit). This is pa.s.sing strange and utterly unknown to the learned De Sacy (Chrest. Arab.

i. 412-481).

[FN#238] Koran iii. 128. D'Herbelot and Sale (Koran, chap. iii.

note) relate on this text a n.o.ble story of Hasan Ali-son and his erring slave which The Forty Vezirs (Lady's eighth story, p. 113) ignorantly attributes to Harun al-Rashid:--Forthwith the Caliph rose in wrath and was about to hew the girl to pieces, when she said, "O Caliph, Almighty Allah saith in His glorious Word (the Koran), 'And the stiflers of Wrath'" (iii. 128). Straightway the Caliph's wrath was calmed. Again said the girl, "'And the pardoners of men.'" (ibid.) Quoth the Caliph, "I have forgiven the crimes of all the criminals who may be in prison." Again said the slave-girl, "'And Allah loveth the beneficent.'" (ibid.) Quoth the Caliph, "G.o.d be witness that I have with my own wealth freed thee and us many male and female slaves as I have, and that this day I have for the love of Allah given the half of all my good in alms to the poor." This is no improvement upon the simple and unexaggerated story in Sale. "It is related of Hasan, the son of Ali, that a slave having once thrown a dish on him boiling hot, as he sat at table, and fearing his master's resentment, fell on his knees and repeated these words, Paradise is for those who bridle their anger. Hasan answered, I am not angry. The slave proceeded, And for those who forgive men. I forgive you, said Hasan. The slave, however, finished the verse, For Allah loveth the beneficent. Since it is so, replied Hasan, I give you your liberty and four hundred pieces of silver."

[FN#239] The old name of the parish bull in rural England.

[FN#240] Arab. "Kawik:" see The Nights, vol. vi. 182, where the bird is called "Ak'ak." Our dicts. do not give the word, but there is a "Kauk" (Kaka, yakuku) to cluck, and "Kauk" = an aquatic bird with a long neck. I a.s.sume "Kawik" to be an intensive form of the same root. The "Mother of Solomon" is a fanciful "Kunyah," or bye name given to the bird by the Bhang-eater, suggesting his high opinion of her wisdom.

[FN#241] Arab. "Natur," prop. a watchman: also a land-mark, a bench-mark of tamped clay.

[FN#242] In text "Bartaman" for "Martaban" = a pot, jar, or barrel-shaped vessel: others apply the term to fine porcelain which poison cannot affect. See Col. Yule's Glossary, s. v.

Martaban, where the quotation from Ibn Batutah shows that the term was current in the xivth century. Linschoten (i. 101) writes, "In this town (Martaban of Pegu) many of the great earthen pots are made, which in India are called Martananas, and many of them are carried throughout all India of all sorts both small and great: and some are so great that they will fill two pipes of water." Pyrard (i. 259) applies the name to "certain handsome jars, of finer shape and larger than I have seen elsewhere" (Transl. by ALBERT Gray for the Hakluyt Soc. 1887).

Mr. Hill adds that at Male the larger barrel-shaped jars of earthenware are still called "Mataban," and Mr. P. Brown (Zillah Dictionary, 1852) finds the word preserved upon the Madras coast = a black jar in which rice is imported from Pegu.

[FN#243] The Arabic here changes person, "he repeated" after Eastern Fashion, and confuses the tale to European readers.

[FN#244] Such treasure trove belonging to the State, i.e. the King.

[FN#245] Arab. "Huri" for "Hir" = a pool, marsh, or quagmire, in fact corresponding with our vulgar "bogshop." Dr. Steinga.s.s would read "Hauri," a "mansub" of "Haur" = pond, quagmire, which, in connection with a Hammam, may = sink, sewer, etc.

[FN#246] The Bedlam: see vol. i. 288.

[FN#247] Arab. "Tamtar aysh?" (i.e. Ayyu shayyin, see vol. i.

79). I may note that the vulgar abbreviation is of ancient date.

Also the Egyptian dialect has borrowed, from its ancestor the Coptic, the practice of putting the interrogatory p.r.o.noun or adverb after (not before the verb, e.g. "Ra'ih fayn?" = Wending (art thou) whither? It is regretable that Egyptian scholars do not see the absolute necessity of studying Coptic, and this default is the sole imperfection of the late Dr. Spitta Bey's admirable Grammar of Egyptian.

[FN#248] Arab. "'Arsah," akin to "Mu'arris" (masc.) = a pimp, a pander. See vol. i. 338; and Supp. vol. i. 138; and for its use Pilgrimage i. 276.

[FN#249] i.e. Abu Kasim the Drummer. The word "Tambur" is probably derived from "Tabl" = a drum, which became by the common change of liquids "Tabur" in O. French and "Tabour" in English.

Hence the mod. form "Tambour," which has been adopted by Turkey, e.g. Tamburji = a drummer. In Egypt, however, "Tambur" is applied to a manner of mandoline or guitar, mostly used by Greeks and other foreigners. See Lane, M.E. chap. xviii.

[FN#250] Arab. "Bal" (sing. Balah) = a bale, from the Span. Bala and Italian Balla, a small parcel made up in the shape of a bale, Lat. Palla.

[FN#251] Arab. "Walash," i.e. "Was la shayya" = "And nihil" (nil, non ens, naught).

[FN#252] Arab. "Kurbaj" = cravache: vol. viii. 17. The best are made of hippopotamus-hide (imported from East Africa), boiled and hammered into a round form and tapering to the point. Plied by a strong arm they cut like a knout.

[FN#253] The text "Ya Sultan-am," a Persian or Turkish form for the Arab. "Ya Sultan-i."

[FN#254] In text "Kalb" for "Kulbat" = a cave, a cavern.

[FN#255] The houses were of unbaked brick or cob, which readily melts away in rain and requires annual repairing at the base of the walls where affected by rain and dew. In Sind the damp of the earth with its nitrous humour eats away the foundations and soon crumbles them to dust.

[FN#256] Here meaning the under-Governor or head Clerk.

[FN#257] "Nil" (= the Nile), in vulgar Egyptian parlance the word is = "high Nile," or the Nile in flood.

[FN#258] Arab. "Darwayshsah" = a she-Fakir, which in Europe would be represented by that prime pest a begging nun.

[FN#259] Arab. "Allah hafiz-ik" = the popular Persian expression, "Khuda Hafiz!"

[FN#260] Arab. "Salihin" = the Saints, the Holy Ones.

[FN#261] Arab. "Sharkh" = in dicts. the unpolished blade of a hiltless sword.

[FN#262] In the text "Milayah," a cotton stuff some 6 feet long, woven in small chequers of white and indigo-blue with an ending of red at either extremity. Men wrap it round the body or throw it over the shoulder like our plaid, whose colours I believe are a survival of the old body-paintings, Pictish and others. The woman's "Milayah" worn only out of doors may be of silk or cotton: it is made of two pieces which are sewed together lengthwise and these cover head and body like a hooded cloak.

Lane figures it in M.E. chapt. i. When a woman is too poor to own a "Milayah" or a "Habarah" (a similar article) she will use a bed-sheet for out-of-doors work.

[FN#263] The pun here is "Khaliyat" = bee-hive and empty: See vols. vi. 246 ix. 291. It will occur again in Supplementary vol.

v. Night DCXLVI.

[FN#264] i.e. Caravan, the common Eastern term. In India it was used for a fleet of merchantmen under convoy: see Col. Yule, Glossary, s. v.

[FN#265] Again "Bartaman" for "Martaban."

[FN#266] The "Sahib" = owner, and the "Dallal" = broker, are evidently the same person.

[FN#267] "Ala kam" for "kam" (how much?)--peasants' speech.

[FN#268] She has appeared already twice in The Nights, esp. in The Tale of Ghanim bin 'Ayyub (vol. ii. 45) and in Khalifah the Fisherman of Baghdad (vol. viii. 145). I must again warn my readers nto to confound "Kut" = food with "Kuwwat" = force, as in Scott's "Koout al Koolloob" (vi. 146). See Terminal Essay p. 101.

[FN#269] In text "Mu'ammarjiyah" (master-masons), a vulgar Egyptianism for "Mu'ammarin." See "Jawashiyah," vols. ii. 49; viii. 330. In the third line below we find "Muhandizin" = gemoetricians, architects, for "Muhandism." [Perhaps a reminiscence of the Persian origin of the word "Handasah" = geometry, which is derived from "Andazah" = measurement, etc.-St.]

[FN#270] The text ends this line in Arabic.

[FN#271] Alluding to the curious phenomenon pithily expressed in the Latin proverb, "Suus cuique crepitus bene olet," I know of no exception to the rule, except amongst travellers in Tibet, where the wild onion, the only procurable green-stuff, produces an odour so rank and fetid that men run away from their own crepitations. The subject is not savoury, yet it has been copiously ill.u.s.trated: I once dined at a London house whose nameless owner, a noted bibliophile, especially of "facetiae," had placed upon the drawing-room table a dozen books treating of the "Crepitus ventris." When the guests came up and drew near the table, and opened the volumes, their faces were a study. For the Arab. "Faswah" = a silent break wind, see vol. ix. 11 and 291. It is opposed to "Zirt" = a loud fart and the vulgar term, see vol.

ii. 88.

[FN#272] Arab. "Ya Haza," see vol. i. 290.

[FN#273] In text "Yumkinshayy," written in a single word, a favourite expression, Fellah-like withal, throughout this MS.

[FN#274] In text "Tafazzalu;" see vol. ii. 103.

[FN#275] The word (Saray) is Pers. But naturalised throughout Egypt and Syria; in places like Damascus where there is no king it is applied to the official head-quarters of the Wali (provincial governor), and contains the prison like the Maroccan "Kasbah." It must not be confounded with "Serraglio" = the Harem, Gynecium or women's rooms, which appears to be a b.a.s.t.a.r.d neo-Latin word "Serrare," through the French Serrer. I therefore always write it with the double "canine letter."

[FN#276] I have noted (vol. i. 95) that the "Khil'ah" = robe of honour, consists of many articles, such as a horse, a gold-hilted sword, a fine turban, etc., etc.