The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume XV Part 26

[FN#137] In the text "Darajah"=an instant; also a degree (of the Zodiac). We still find this division of time in China and j.a.pan, where they divide the twenty-four hours into twelve periods, each of which is marked by a quasi-Zodiacal sign: e.g.--

Midnight until 2 a.m. is represented by the Rat.

2 a.m. until 4 a.m. is represented by the Ox.

4 a.m. until 6 a.m. is represented by the Tiger.

6 a.m. until 8 a.m. is represented by the Hare.

8 a.m. until 10 a.m. is represented by the Dragon.

10 a.m. until noon is represented by the Serpent.

Noon until 2 p.m. is represented by the Horse.

2 p.m. until 4 p.m. is represented by the Ram.

4 p.m. until 6 p.m. is represented by the Ape.

6 p.m. until 8 p.m. is represented by the c.o.c.k.

8 p.m. until 10 p.m. is represented by the Hog.

10 p.m. until midnight is represented by the Fox.

See p. 27 Edit. ii. of C. B. Mitford's Tales of Old j.a.pan, a most important contribution to Eastern folklore.

["Darajah" is, however, also used for any short s.p.a.ce of time; according to Lane It is=4 minutes (i.e. the 24 hours or 1,440 minutes of the astronomical day divided into 360 degrees of 4 minutes each), and Bocthor gives it as an equivalent for our instant or moment.--ST.]

[FN#138] The young fool vaunts his inters.e.xual powers, apparently unknowing that nothing can be more fatal to love than fulfilling the desires of a woman who, once accustomed to this high diet, revolts against any reduction of it. He appears to have been a polisson by his own tale told to the Caliph and this alone would secure the contempt of a high-bred and high-spirited girl.

[FN#139] The "nosebag"; vol. ii. 52, etc. The Badawiyah (Badawi woman) generally prefers a red colour, in opposition to the white and black of civilisation; and she of the Arabian Desert generally disdains to use anything of the kind.

[FN#140] This ablution of the whole body he was bound to perform after having had carnal knowledge of a woman, and before washing he was in a state of ceremonial impurity. For "Ghusl," or complete ablution, see vol. v. 80.

[FN#141] "The Heart of the Koran," chap. x.x.xvi. see vol. iv. 50.

[FN#142] The Mandil apparently had been left in the shop by the black slave-girl. Women usually carry such articles with them when "on the loose," and in default of water and washing they are used to wipe away the results of car. cop.

[FN#143] In Arab. "Shakk." The criminal was hung up by the heels, and the executioner, armed with a huge chopper, began to hew him down from the fork till he reached the neck, when, by a dextrous turn of the blade, he left the head attached to one half of the body. This punishment was long used in Persia and abolished, they say, by Fath Ali Shah, on the occasion when an offender so treated abused the royal mother and women relatives until the knife had reached his vitals. "Kata' al-'Arba'," or cutting off the four members, equivalent to our "quartering," was also a popular penalty.

[FN#144] In text "Ghibtu 'an al-Dunya," a popular phrase, meaning simply I fainted.

[FN#145] This was done to staunch the blood: see the salt-wench in vol. i. 341.

[FN#146] This couplet has repeatedly occurred: in the preceding volume, Night cdv. (Suppl. iv. 172); and in The Nights (proper), vol. vi. 246. Here I have quoted Lane (A.N. iii. 220), who has not offered a word of comment or of explanation concerning a somewhat difficult couplet.

[FN#147] The plur. masc. for the sing. fem.: see vol. vii. 140.

[FN#148] He speaks after the recognised conventional fashion, as if reporting the camp-shift of a Badawi tribe.

[FN#149] See vol. i. 25 for the parallel of these lines.

[FN#150] The text inserts here, "Saith the Reciter of this adventure and right joyous history strange as rare," etc.

[FN#151] Scott, in the "Story of the Sultan, the Dirveshe, and the Barber's son" (vi. 348), calls the King "Rammaud." The tale is magical and Rosicrucian, laid somewhat upon the lines of "The Physician Duban"; i.45.

[FN#152] This is the custom among Eastern Moslems: the barber, after his operations are over, presents his hand-mirror for the patient to see whether all be satisfactory, saying at the same time "Na'iman"=may it be pleasurable to thee! The customer answers "Allah bring thee pleasure," places the fee upon the looking-gla.s.s and returns it to the shaver. For "Na'iman" see vol. ii. 5.

[FN#153] The least that honest Figaro expected to witness was an attempt upon the boy's chast.i.ty.

[FN#154] In text "Tazaghzagha," gen.=he spoke hesitatingly, he scoffed. [I read the words in the text: "Tazaghghara fihi." The Kamus gives "Zaghara-hu"=he seized it by force, he took hold of him with violence, and this present fifth form, although not given in the Dictionaries, has doubtlessly the same meaning.

Popularly we may render it: he pitched into him.--ST]

[FN#155] In the text "Kazanat" (plur. of "Kazan"), afterwards written "Kazat" (a clerical error?). They are opposed to the "Kawalib"=moulds. [See note to p. 17.--ST.]

[FN#156] "Akhraja min Kulahi-hi (Kulah?) busah."

[FN#157] "Akhaza min-ha 'ala ma' lakati 'l-Hilal shay misl al-Jinnah." [I have no doubt that "Kulah" is meant for "Kulah," a Dervish's cap. "Busah" puzzles me. I am inclined to take it for a reed used as a case or sheath, as we shall see p. 263 of the MS.

Prince Yusuf uses a "Kasabah" or reed to enclose a letter in it.

"Mi'lakat (popular corruption for 'Mil'akat') al-Hilal" may be the spoon or hollow part of an ear-picker, Hilal being given by Bocthor as equivalent for "cure-oreille." Lastly for "al-Jinnah"

I would read "al-Habbah"=grain. The article before the word may indicate that a particular grain is meant perhaps "al-Habbat al-halwah"=anise seed, or that it stands for "al-Hubbah,"

according to Lempriere (A Tour to Marocco, London 1791, p. 383) a powder employed by the ladies of Marocco to produce embonpoint.--ST.]

[FN#158] So even in our day Mustafa bin Ism'ail who succeeded "General Khayru 'l-Din" as Prime Minister to "His Highness Mohammed al-Sadik, Bey of Tunis," began life as apprentice to a barber, became the varlet of an officer, rose to high dignity and received decorations from most of the European powers.

[FN#159] In text "Wijak," a stove, a portable hearth.

[FN#160] In the text: ["Wa sara kulla-ma tastari nafsuhu yak'ad kuddama 'l-Darwish," which I would translate: and each time his heart chose (8th form of "Sarw") he used to sit before the Darwaysh, etc.--ST.]

[FN#161] In text "Darin" for "Zarin"=what is powdered, collyrium.

[FN#162] The King failed because his "Niyat" or intention was not pure; that is, he worked for wealth, and not, as the Darwaysh had done, for the good of his brother man.

[FN#163] For the importance attached to this sign of sovereignty see in my Pilgrimage (ii. 218-19) the trouble caused by the loss of the Prophet's seal-ring (Khatim) at Al-Madinah.

[FN#164] The text is somewhat doubtful--"Min kuddam-ak." [Perhaps it means only "from before thee," i.e. in thy presence, without letting him out of sight and thereby giving him a chance of escape.--ST.]

[FN#165] This especially is on the lines of "The Physician Duban"; vol. i. 45.

[FN#166] In text "Wa min-hum man faha," evidently an error of the scribe for "Man nafahu." Scott (vi. 351), after the fashion of the "Improver-school," ends the tale, which is somewhat tail-less, after this fashion, "At the same instant, the Sultan and his courtiers found themselves a.s.saulted by invisible agents, who, tearing off their robes, whipped them with scourges till the blood flowed in streams from their lacerated backs. At length the punishment ceased, but the mortification of the Sultan did not end here, for all the gold which the Dirveshe had trans.m.u.ted returned to its original metals. Thus, by his unjust credulity, was a weak Prince punished for his ungrateful folly. The barber and his son also were not to be found, so that the sultan could gain no intelligence of the Dirveshe, and he and his courtiers became the laughing-stock of the populace for years after their merited chastis.e.m.e.nt." Is nothing to be left for the reader's imagination?

[FN#167] See under the same name the story in my Suppl. vol. i.

162; where the genealogy and biography of the story is given. I have translated the W.M. version because it adds a few items of interest. A marginal note of Scott's (in the W.M. MS. v. 196) says that the "Tale is similar to Lesson iv. in the Tirrea Bede."

See note at the end of this History.

[FN#168] For the Badawi tent, see vol. vii. 109.

[FN#169] In text "Birkah"=a fountain-basin, lake, pond, reservoir. The Bresl. Edit. has "Sardab"=a souterrain.

[FN#170] Arab. "Jummayz": see vol. iii. 302. In the Bresl. Edit.

it is a "tall tree," and in the European versions always a "pear-tree," which is not found in Badawi-land.

[FN#171] "Adi" in Egyptian (not Arabic) is=that man, the (man) here; "Adini" (in the text) is=Here am I, me voici. Spitta Bey (loc. cit. iv. 20, etc.)

[FN#172] Arab. "Ma'murah." In the Bresl. Edit. "the place is full of Jinns and Marids." I have said that this supernatural agency, ever at hand and ever credible to Easterns, makes this the most satisfactory version of the world-wide tale.

[FN#173] The planet Mars.