The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume XIV Part 21

[FN#277] This again shows the "Nakkal" or coffee-house tale-teller. See vol. x. 144.

[FN#278] This is the Moslem version of "Solomon's Judgment" (1 Kings iii. 16-20). The Hebrew legend is more detailed but I prefer its rival for sundry reasons. Here the women are not "harlots" but the co-wives of one man and therefore hostile; moreover poetical justice is done to the constructive murderess.

[FN#279] I am not aware that the specific gravity of the milks has ever been determined by modern science; and perhaps the experiment is worthy a trial.

[FN#280] Arab. "Duna-k." See vol. iv. p. 20.

[FN#281] "Al-Waziru'l-Arif bi-llahi Ta'ala," a t.i.tle intended to mimic those of the Abbaside Caliphs; such as "Mu'tasim bi'llah"

(servant of Allah), the first of the long line whose names begin with an epithet (the Truster, the Implorer, etc.), and ed with "bi'llah."

[FN#282] [Tarajjama, which is too frequently used in this MS. to be merely considered as a clerical error, I suppose to mean: he p.r.o.nounced for him the formula: "A'uzzu bi llahi mina 'l-Shaytani 'l-Rajimi" = I take refuge with Allah against Satan the Stoned.

See Koran xvi. 100. It would be thus equivalent with the usual tawwaza.-St.]

[FN#283] The MS. here ends Night cdxii. and begins the next. Up to this point I have followed the numeration but from this forwards as the Nights become unconscionably short compared with the intervening dialogues, I have thrown two and sometimes three into one. The Arabic numbers are, however, preserved for easier reference.

[FN#284] This is a poor and scamped version of "Ali the Persian and the Kurd Sharper," in vol. v. 149. It is therefore omitted.

[FN#285] The dish-cover, usually made of neatly plaited straw variously coloured, is always used, not only for cleanliness but to prevent the Evil Eye falling upon and infecting the food.

[FN#286] The "Bamiyah," which = the Gumbo, Occra (Okra) or Bhendi of Brit. India which names the celebrated bazar of Bombay, is the esculent hibiscus, the polygonal pod (some three inches long and thick as a man's finger) full of seeds and mucilage making it an excellent material for soups and stews. It is a favourite dish in Egypt and usually eaten with a squeeze of lime-juice. See Lane, Mod. Egypt. chapt. v., and Herklots (App. p. xlii.) who notices the curry of "Bandaki" or Hibiscus esculentus.

[FN#287] Written "Bakshish," after Fellah-fashion.

[FN#288] [In the MS.: Wa'l-Sultanu karaa Wirduh (Wirda-hu) wa jalasa li Munadamah = And the Sovran recited his appointed portion of the Koran, and then sat down to convivial converse.

This reminds of the various pa.s.sages of the present Shah of Persia's Diary, in which he mentions the performance of his evening devotions, before setting out for some social gathering, say a supper in the Guildhall, which he neatly explains as a dinner after midnight (Sham ba'd az nisf-i-shab).--St.]

[FN#289] This is Scott's "Story of the Three Princes and Enchanting Bird," vol. vi. 160. On the margin of the W. M. MS. he has written, "Story of the King and his Three Sons and the Enchanting Bird" (vol. i. Night cdxvii.). Gauttier, vi. 292, names it Histoire des Trois Princes et de l'Oiseau Magicien.

Galland may have used parts of it in the "Two Sisters who envied their Cadette": see Supp. vol. iii. pp. 313-361.

[FN#290] In text "Al-Bulaybul" (the little Nightingale, Philomelet) "Al Sayyah" (the Shrieker). The latter epithet suggests to me the German novel which begins, "We are in Italy where roses bestink the day and Nightingales howl through the live-long night," &c.

[FN#291] "Sanjak," Turk. = flag, banner, and here used (as in vulg. Arab.) for Sanjak-dar, the banner-bearer, ensign. In mod.

parlance, Sanjak = minor province, of which sundry are included in an "Iyalah" = government-general, under the rule of a Wali (Wilayah).

[FN#292] In the MS. "Zifr" = nail, claw, talon.

[FN#293] "Al-Rizk maksum," an old and sage byword pregnant with significance: compare "Al-Khauf (fear) maksum" = cowardice is equally divided. Vol. iii. 173. [I read: "Yas'a 'l-Kadamu li-'Umrin dana au li-Rizkin qusima," taking "Rizk" as an equivalent for "al-Rizku 'l-hasanu" = any good thing which a man obtains without exerting himself in seeking for it, and the pa.s.sive "qusima" in the sense of Kismah, vulgo "Kismet." Hence I would translate: The foot speeds to a life that is mean, or to a boon that is pre-ordained.-St.]

[FN#294] In the text "Bat" (for Bit), in Fellah-speech "Pa.s.s the night here!" The Bird thus makes appeal to the honour and hospitality of his would-be captor, and punishes him if he consent. I have translated after Scott (v. 161). [I cannot persuade myself to take "bat" for an imperative, which would rather be "bit" for "bit," as we shall find "k.u.m" for "k.u.m,"

"ruh" for "ruh." It seems to me that the preterite "bat" means here "the night has pa.s.sed," and rendering "man" by the interrogative, I would translate: "O! who shall say to the sad, the separated, night is over?" Complaints of the length of night are frequent with the parted in Arab poetry. This accords also better with the following 'Atus al-Shams, the sneezing of the sun, which to my knowledge, applies only to daybreak, as in Hariri's 15th a.s.sembly (al-Farziyah), where "the nose of the morning" sneezes.--St.]

[FN#295] i.e., they bound kerchiefs stained blue or almost black round their brows. In modern days Fellah women stain their veils (face and head), kerchiefs and shirts with indigo; and some colour their forearms to the elbow.

[FN#296] Here again and in the following adventure we have "Khudadad and his Brothers." Suppl. vol. iii. 145-174.

[FN#297] In sign of despair. See vol. i. 298.

[FN#298] In text "Kalamatu 'llah" = the Koran: and the quotation is from chapt. cxiii. 5. For the "Two Refuge-takings"

(Al-Mu'awizzatani), see vol. iii. 222.

[FN#299] i.e., caused his brothers to recover life. [I read: Allazi 'amaltu fi-him natijah yujazuni bi-Ziddi-ha = Those to whom I did a good turn, requite me with the contrary thereof.

Allazi, originally the masc. Sing. is in this MS. vulgarly, like its still more vulgar later contraction, "illi," used for both genders and the three numbers.--St.]

[FN#300] Arab. "Hazir!" I have noted that this word, in Egypt and Syria, corresponds with the English waiter's "Yes sir!"

[FN#301] Koran, Chapter of Joseph, xii. 19.

[FN#302] Arab. "Hanut:" this custom has become almost obsolete: the corpse is now sprinkled with a mixture of water, camphor diluted and the dried and pounded leaves of various trees, especially the "Nabk" (lote-tree or Zizyphus lotus).--Lane M.E.

chapt. xxviii.

[FN#303] These comical measures were taken by "Miss Lucy" in order to charm away the Evil Eye which had fascinated the article in question. Such temporary impotence in a vigorous man, which results from an exceptional action of the brain and the nervous system, was called in old French Nouement des aiguilettes (i.e.

point-tying, the points which fastened the haut-de-chausses or hose to the jerkin, and its modern equivalent would be to "b.u.t.ton up the flap"). For its cure, the "Deliement des aiguilettes" see Davenport "Aphrodisiacs" p. 36, and the French translation of the Shaykh al-Nafzawi (Jardin Parfume, chapt. xvii. pp. 251-53). The Moslem heals such impotence by the usual simples, but the girl in the text adopts a moral course which buries the dead parts in order to resurrect them. A friend of mine, a young and vigorous officer, was healed by a similar process. He had carried off a sergeant's wife, and the husband lurked about the bungalow to shot him, a copper cap being found under the window hence a state of nervousness which induced perfect impotence. He applied to the regimental surgeon, happily a practised hand, and was gravely supplied with pills and a draught; his diet was carefully regulated and he was ordered to sleep by the woman but by no means to touch her for ten days. On the fifth he came to his adviser with a sheepish face and told him that he had not wholly followed the course prescribed, as last night he had suddenly--by the blessing of the draught and the pills--recovered and had given palpable evidence of his pristine vigour. The surgeon deprecated such proceeding until the patient should have full benefit of his drugs--bread pills and cinnamon-water.

[FN#304] Here ends vol. iii. of the W. M. MS. and begins Night cdxxvi.

[FN#305] In the next "Risah," copyist's error for "Rishah" = a thread, a line: it afterwards proves to be an ornament for a falcon's neck. [I cannot bring myself to adopt her the explanation of "Rishah" as a string instead of its usual meaning of "feather," "plume." My reasons are the following: 1. The youth sets it upon his head; that is, I suppose, his cap, or whatever his head-gear may be, which seems a more appropriate place for a feather than for a necklace. 2. Further on, Night cdx.x.x., it is said that the Prince left the residence of his second spouse in search (talib) of the city of the bird. If the word "Rishah,"

which, in the signification of thread, is Persian, had been sufficiently familiar to an Arab to suggest, as a matter of course, a bird's necklace, and hence the bird itself, we would probably find a trace of this particular meaning, if not in other Arabic books, at least in Persian writers or dictionaries; but here the word "Rishah," by some p.r.o.nounced "Reshah" with the Ya majhul, never occurs in connection with jewels; it means fringe, filament, fibre. On the other hand, the suggestion of the bird presents itself quite naturally at the sight of the feather. 3.

Ib. p. 210 the youth requests the old man to tell him concerning the "Tayrah allazi Rish-ha (not Rishat-ha) min Ma'adin," which, I believe, can only be rendered by: the bird whose plumage is of precious stones. The "Rishah" itself was said to be "min Zumurrud wa Lulu," of emeralds and pearls; and the cage will be "min Ma'adin wa Lulu," of precious stones and pearls, in all which cases the use of the preposition "min" points more particularly to the material of which the objects are wrought than the mere Izafah. The wonderfulness of the bird seems therefore rather to consist in his jewelled plumage than the gift of speech or other enchanting qualities, and I would take it for one of those costly toys, in imitation of trees and animals, in which Eastern princes rejoice, and of which we read so many descriptions, not only in books of fiction, but even in historical works. If it were a live-bird of the other kind, he would probably have put in his word to expose the false brothers of the Prince.--St.]

[FN#306] This is conjectural: the text has a correction which is hardly legible. [I read: "Wa lakin hu ajmalu min-hum bi-jamalin mufritin, lakinnahu matrudun hu wa ummu-hu" = "and yet he was more beautiful than they with surpa.s.sing beauty, but he was an outcast, he and his mother," as an explanation, by way of parenthesis, for their daring to treat him so shamefully.--St.]

[FN#307] The venerable myth of Andromeda and Perseus (who is Horus in disguise) brought down to Saint George (his latest descendant), the Dragon (Typhon) and the fair Saba in the "Seven Champions of Christendom." See my friend M. Clermont Ganneau's Horus et Saint-Georges; Mr. J. R. Anderson's "Saint Mark's Rest; the Place of Dragons;" and my "Book of the Sword," chapt. ix.

[FN#308] i.e. there was a great movement and confusion.

[FN#309] [In the text 'Afar, a word frequently joined with "Ghubar," dust, for the sake of emphasis; hence we will find in Night ccccxxix. the verb "yu'affiru," he was raising a dust-cloud.--St.]

[FN#310] Upon the subject of "throwing the kerchief" see vol. vi.

285. Here it is done simply as a previously concerted signal of recognition.

[FN#311] In text "'Ala Yadin;" for which vulgarism see vol. iii.

51.

[FN#312] Elephants are usually, as Cuvier said of the (Christian) "Devil" after a look at his horns and hoofs, vegetarians.

[FN#313] [The MS. has "yughaffiru wa yuzaghdimu." The former stands probably for "yu'-affiru," for which see supra p. 205, note 2. The writing is, however, so indistinct that possibly "yuf.a.ghghiru" is intended, which means he opened his mouth wide.

"Yuzaghdimu" is one of those quadriliterals which are formed by blending two triliterals in one verb, in order to intensify the idea. "Zaghada" and "Zaghama" mean both "he roared," more especially applied to a camel, and by joining the "d" of the one with the "m" of the other, we obtain "Zaghdama," he roared fiercely.--St.]

[FN#314] [Sara'a-hu wa lawa'a-hu = he rushed upon him and worried him. The root law' means to enfeeble, render sick, especially applied to love-sickness (Lau'ah). The present 3rd form is rarely used, but here and in a later pa.s.sage, Night cdxlv., the context bears out the sense of hara.s.sing.--St.]

[FN#315] In text "Zagharit" plur. of Zaghrutah: see vol. ii. p.

80.

[FN#316] [Ya walad al-Halal. I would translate: "O! son of a lawful wedlock," simply meaning that he takes him to be a decent fellow, not a scamp or Walad al-Haram.--St.]

[FN#317] The repet.i.tium is a sign of kindness and friendliness; see vol. vi. 370.

[FN#318] This Arabian "Sattar" corresponds pa.s.sing well with "Jupiter Servator."