The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume XV Part 34

[FN#471] In text "Kas'at (=a wooden platter, bowl) afrukah." [The "Mafrukah," an improvement upon the Fatirah, is a favourite dish with the Badawi, of which Dozy quotes lengthy descriptions from Vansleb and Thevenot. The latter is particularly graphical, and after enumerating all the ingredients says finally: "ils en font une grosse pate dont ils prennent de gros morceaux.--ST.]

[FN#472] The Fellah will use in fighting anything in preference to his fists and a stone tied up in a kerchief or a rag makes no mean weapon for head-breaking.

[FN#473] The cries of an itinerant pedlar hawking about woman's wares. See Lane (M. E.) chapt. xiv. "Flfl'a" (a scribal error?) may be "Filfil"=pepper or palm-fibre. "Tutty," in low- Lat.

"Tutia," probably from the Pers. "Tutiyah," is protoxide of zinc, found native in Iranian lands, and much used as an eye-wash.

[FN#474] In text "Samm Sa'ah."

[FN#475] "Laban halib," a trivial form="sweet milk;" "Laban"

being the popular word for milk artificially soured. See vols.

vi. 201; vii. 360.

[FN#476] In text "Nisf ra'as Sukkar Misri." "Sukkar" (from Pers.

"Shakkar," whence the Lat. Saccharum) is the generic term, and Egypt preserved the fashion of making loaf-sugar (Raas Sukkar) from ancient times. "Misri" here=local name, but in India it is applied exclusively to sugar-candy, which with Gur (Mola.s.ses) was the only form used throughout the country some 40 years ago.

Strict Moslems avoid Europe-made white sugar because they are told that it is refined with bullock's blood, and is therefore unlawful to Jews and the True Believers.

[FN#477] Lit. "that the sugar was poison."

[FN#478] In text "Kata'a Judur-ha" (for "hu"). [I refer the p.r.o.noun in "Judur-ha" to "Rakabah," taking the "roots of the neck" to mean the spine.-ST.]

[FN#479] In text "Fahata" for "Fahasa" (?) or perhaps a clerical error for "Fataha"=he opened (the ground). ["Fahata," probably a vulgarisation of "fahatha" (fahasa)=to investigate, is given by Bocthor with the meaning of digging, excavating. Nevertheless I almost incline to the reading "fataha," which, however, I would p.r.o.nounce with Tashdid over the second radical, and translate: "he recited a 'Fatihah' for them," the usual prayer over the dead before interment. The dative "la-hum," generally employed with verbs of prayer, seems to favour this interpretation. It is true I never met with the word in this meaning, but it would be quite in keeping with the spirit of the language, and in close a.n.a.logy with such expressions as "kabbara," he said "Allabu akbar,"

"Hallala," he p.r.o.nounced the formula of unity, and a host of others. Here it would, in my opinion, wind up the tale with a neat touch of peasant's single-mindedness and loyal adherence to the injunctions of religion even under provoking circ.u.mstances.- -ST.]

[FN#480] In the MS. we have only "Ending. And it is also told,"

etc. I again supply the connection.

[FN#481] Scott does not translate this tale, but he has written on the margin (MS. vi. 101), "A story which bears a strong resemblance to that I have read (when a boy) of the Parson's maid giving the roasted goose to her Lover and frightening away the guests, lest he should geld them."

[FN#482] In text "Zakarayn Wizz (ganders) siman"; but afterwards "Wizzatayn"=geese.

[FN#483] These dried fruits to which pistachios are often added, form the favourite "filling" of lamb and other meats prepared in "pulao" (pilaff).

[FN#484] "Anta jaib(un) bas rajul (an) wahid (an)"--veritable and characteristic peasant's jargon.

[FN#485] i.e., it is a time when men should cry for thy case. "La Haula"=there is no Majesty, etc. An e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n of displeasure, disappointments, despair.

[FN#486] In text "Mahashima-k"=good works, merits; in a secondary sense beard and mustachios. The word yard (etymologically a rod) is medical English, and the young student is often surprised to see, when a patient is told to show his yard, a mere inchlet of shrunken skin. ["Mahashim," according to Bocthor, is a plural without singular, meaning: les parties de la generation. Pedro de Alcala gives "Hashshum," pl. "Hashashim," for the female parts, and both words are derived from the verb "hasham, yahshim," he put to shame.--ST.]

[FN#487] Characteristic words of abuse, "O thou whose fate is always to fail, O thou whose lot is ever subject to the accidents of Fortune!"

[FN#488] Arab. "Bayzah"=an egg, a t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e. See "Bayza'ani," vol.

ii. 55.

[FN#489] Here the text ends with the tag, "Concluded is the story of the Woman with her Husband and her Lover. It is related of a man which was a Kazi," etc. I have supplied what the writer should have given.

[FN#490] The "Mahkamah" (Place of Judgment), or Kazi's Court, at Cairo is mostly occupied with matrimonial disputes, and is fatally famous for extreme laxness in the matter of bribery and corruption. During these days it is even worse than when Lane described it. M.E. chapt. iv.

[FN#491] The first idea of an Eastern would be to appeal from the Kazi to the Kazi's wife, bribing her if he failed to corrupt the husband; and he would be wise in his generation as the process is seldom known to fail.

[FN#492] In Arab. "Sitta-ha": the Mauritanians prefer "Sidah,"

and the Arabian Arabs Kabirah"=the first lady, Madame Mere.

[FN#493] In text "Ahu 'inda-k,"--pure Fellah speech.

[FN#494] In text here and below "Maghbun" usually=deceived, cajoled.

[FN#495] He began to fear sorcery, Satan, etc. "Muslimina" is here the reg. Arab. plur. of "Muslim"=a True Believer. "Musulman"

(our "Mussalman" too often made plur. by "Mussalmen") is corrupted Arab. used in Persia, Turkey and India by the best writers as Sa'adi; the plur. is "Musulmanan" and the Hind. fem.

is Musalmani. Francois Pyrard, before alluded to, writes (i. 261) "Mouselliman, that is, the faithful."

[FN#496] In the text "help ye the Moslems."

[FN#497] Again the old, old story of the "Acrisian maid," and a prose variant of "Yusuf and Al-Hayfa" for which see supra p. 93.

I must note the difference of treatment and may observe that the style is rough and the incidents are unfinished, but it has the stuff of an excellent tale.

[FN#498] In text "Min ghayr Wa'ad" = without appointment, sans premeditation, a phrase before noticed.

[FN#499] In text, "Al-Mukawwamina wa Arbabu 'l-Aklam," the latter usually meaning "Scribes skilled in the arts of caligraphy."

[FN#500] In text "Zarb al-Fal" = casting lots for presage, see v.

136.

[FN#501] "The Mount of Clouds."

[FN#502] In the margin is written "Kbb," possibly "Kubb" for "Kubbah" = a vault, a cupola. [I take "Kubba" for the pa.s.sive of the verb "Kabba" = he cut, and read "Fajwatun" for "Fajwatan" = "and in that cave there is a spot in whose innermost part from the inside a crevice is cut which," etc.--ST.]

[FN#503] "Zarb al-Aklam," before explained: in a few pages we shall come upon "San'at al-Aklam.

[FN#504] A pun upon the name of the Mountain.

[FN#505] In text "Wa kulli Tarik" = Night-traveller, magician, morning-star.

[FN#506] i.e. In Holy Writ--the Koran and the Ahadis.

[FN#507] "Walad al-Hayah" for "Hayat" i.e. let him be long-lived.

[FN#508] This and other incidents appear only at the latter end of the tale, MS. p. 221.

[FN#509] i.e. "Father of a Pigeon," i.e. surpa.s.sing in swiftness the carrier-pigeon.

[FN#510] "Bi-sab'a Sikak" = lit. "with seven nails;" in the MS.

vol. vi. p. 133, 1. 2, and p. 160, 1. 4, we have "four Sikak,"

and the word seems to mean posts or uprights whereto the chains were attached. ["Sakk," pl. "Sikak" and "Sukuk," is nail, and "Sikkah," pl. "Sikak," has amongst many other meanings that of "an iron post or stake" (Bocthor: piquet de fer).--ST.]

[FN#511] In text "Al-Lijam w' al-Bilam" = the latter being a "Tabi'" or dependent word used only for jingle. [The Muhit explains "Bilam" by "Kimam at-Thaur" = muzzle of a bull, and Bocthor gives as equivalent for it the French "cavecon" (English "cavesson" nose-band for breaking horses in). Here, I suppose, it means the headstall of the bridle.--ST.]

[FN#512] In Arab. "Al-Sayfu w'-al Kalani."

[FN#513] In text "Itowwaha," which is repeated in p. 146, 1. 2.