The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume XVI Part 36

[FN#407] The "Miskal" (for which see vols. i. 126; ix. 262) is the weight of a dinar = 1 dirham = 71-72 grains avoir. A dose of 142 grains would kill a camel. In 1848, when we were marching up the Indus Valley under Sir Charles Napier to attack Nao Mall of Multan, the Sind Camel Corps was expected to march at the rate of some 50 miles a day, and this was done by making the animals more than half drunk with Bhang or Indian hemp.

[FN#408] In text, "Yakhat," probably clerical error for "Yakhbut," lit. = he was panting in a state of unconsciousness: see Dozy, Suppl. s. v.

[FN#409] In text "Al-Dan, which is I presume a clerical error for "Al-Uzn" = ear. ["Dan," with the dual "Danayn," and "Wudn," with the plural "Audan," are popular forms for the literary "Uzn."- -ST.]

[FN#410] This name has occurred in MS. p. 655, but it is a mere nonent.i.ty until p. 657--the normal incuriousness. Heron dubs him "Rabir."

[FN#411] In the text "Zimmat" = obligation, protection, clientship.

[FN#412] "Sahha 'alakah" (=a something) "fi haza 'l-Amri." The first word appears de trop being enclosed in brackets in the MS.

[FN#413] "Wa yabki ?alayk.u.m Mabalu-h." [For "Mabal" I would read "Wabal," in the sense of crime or punishment, and translate: "lest the guilt of it rest upon you."--ST.)

[FN#414] In the text "Suwayda" literally "a small and blackish woman"; and "Suwayda al-Kalb" (the black one of the heart) = original sin, as we should say. [The diminutive of "Sayyid" would be "Suwayyid," as "Kuwayyis" from "Kayyis," and "Juwayyid" from "Jayyid" (comp. supra p. 3). "Suwayd" and "Suwayda" are diminutives of "Aswad," black, and its fem. "Sauda" respectively, meaning blackish. The former occurs in "Umm al-Suwayd" = a.n.u.s.

"Suwayda al-Kalb" = the blackish drop of clotted blood in the heart, is synonymous with "Habbat al-Kalb" = the grain in the heart, and corresponds to our core of the heart. Metaphorically both are used for "original sin."--ST.]

[FN#415] "Yakah Thiyabish;" the former word being Turkish (M.

Houdas).

[FN#416] Arab. "Kaunayn" = the two ent.i.ties, this world and the other world, the past and the future, etc. Here it is opposed to "'A'lamina," here ?Awalim = the (three) worlds, for which see vol. ii. 236.

[FN#417] In text "Changul," again written with a three-dotted Chim.

[FN#418] In text "Al-Mazrab" which M. Houdas translates cet endroit.

[FN#419] In text "Yabahh" = saying "Bah, Bah!"

[FN#420] In text "Bahr al-Azrak" = the Blue Sea, commonly applied to the Mediterranean: the origin of the epithet is readily understood by one who has seen the Atlantic or the Black Sea.

[FN#421] i.e. "The Stubborn," "The Obstinate."

[FN#422] In text "Al-Jawadit," where M. Houdas would read "Al-Hawadith" which he renders by animaux fraichement tues.

[FN#423] In the text "Kabad" = the liver, the sky-vault, the handle or grasp of a bow.

[FN#424] In the text "Mina" = a port both in old Egyptian and mod. Persian: see "Mitrahinna," vol. ii. 257.

[FN#425] "Al-Nakair," plur. of "Nakir" = a dinghy, a dug-out.

[FN#426] For this "Pa-andaz," as the Persians call it, see vol.

iii. 141.

[FN#427] In text "Kataba Zayjata-ha," the word has before been noticed.

[FN#428] Again "Hiza bi-Zayjati-ha" = le bonheur de ses aventures.

[FN#429] This impalement ("Salb," which elsewhere means crucifying, vol. iii. 25) may be a barbarous punishment but it is highly cffective, which after all is its princ.i.p.al object. Old Mohammed Ali of Egypt never could have subjugated and disciplined the ferocious Badawi of Al-Asir, the Ophir region South of Al-Hijaz, without the free use of the stake. The banditti dared to die but they could not endure the idea of their bodies being torn to pieces and devoured by birds and beasts. The stake commonly called "Khazuk", is a stout pole pointed at one end, and the criminal being thrown upon his belly is held firm whilst the end is pa.s.sed up his fundament. His legs and body are then lashed to it and it is raised by degrees and planted in a hole already dug, an agonising part of the process. If the operation be performed by an expert who avoids injuring any mortal part, the wretch may live for three days suffering the pangs of thirst; but a drink of water causes hemorrhage and instant death. This was the case with the young Moslem student who murdered the excellent Marshal Kleber in the garden attached to Shepherd's Hotel, Cairo, wherein, by the by, he suffered for his patriotic crime. Death as in crucifixion is brought on by cramps and nervous exhaustion, for which see Canon Farrar (Life of Christ, ii. 392 et seqq.).

[FN#430] Archaeological Review, July, 1888, pp. 331-342.

[FN#431] The proper names are overrun with accents and diaeretical points, of which I have here retained but few.

[FN#432] Particularly mentioning Syntipas, the Forty Vizirs, a Turkish romance relating to Alexander, in 120 volumes; and Mohammed al-'Aufi.

[FN#433] Probably similar to those described in the story of the Warlock and the Cook (antea, pp. 106-112)

[FN#434] The last clause is very short and obscure in the French "qu'il n'a pas son satire," but what follows shows the real meaning to be that given above. (W. F. K.)

[FN#435] This I take to be the meaning of the words, "une autre monde sous la terre par sept fois." (W.F.K.)

[FN#436] Galland writes "on fait un jeu de Giret (tournoi), etc."

(W. F. K.)

[FN#437] Perhaps an error of Galland's. (W. F. K.)

[FN#438] I do not know the German edition referred to.

[FN#439] This great cla.s.s of tales is quite as widely extended in the north of Europe and Asia, as in the south. We meet with them in Siberia, and they are particularly common in Lapland I believe, too, that the Indian story of the Red Swan (referred to by Longfellow, Hiawatha xii.) is only a Swan Maiden legend in a rather modified form. As usual, we find a bizarre form of the Swan Maiden story among the Samoghitians of Lithuania. The Zemyne is a one eyed venomous snake, with black blood which cures all diseases and neutralises all magic. It is an enchanted maiden; and sometimes the skin has been stolen, and she has reamed a man.

But if she recovers her skin, she resumes her snake-form, and bites and kills her husband and children. Many other strange things are related of the Zemyne (Veckenstedt, Mythen, Sagen, und Legenden der Zamaiten, ii., pp. 149-152).]

[FN#440] About twenty pounds.

[FN#441] Spitta Bey (p. 27 note) suggests that this is a reminiscence of the ancient Egyptian idea of the Scarabaeus which typifies life.

[FN#442] Southey, in his story of the Young Dragon, relates how Satan, disapproving of the rapid conversion of the inhabitants of Antioch to Christianity, laid an egg, and hatched out a dragon, which he sent to destroy the inhabitants. But a Pagan whose Christian daughter was devoted to the dragon by lot, stole the thumb from a relic (the hand of John the Baptist), as he pretended to kiss it, and cast it into the mouth of the dragon, and blew him up.

[FN#443] This is a variant of the Nose-Tree; I do not remember another in genuine Oriental literature (cf. Nights, x., app., p.

449).]

[FN#444] How small the world becomes in this story!

[FN#445] It is evident that a young she-bear is all that is meant.

[FN#446]These Vigilants and Purifiers, with that hypocritical severity which ever makes the worst sinner in private the most rigorous judge in public, lately had the imprudent impudence to summons a publisher who had reprinted the Decameron with the "objectionable pa.s.sages" in French. Mr. Alderman Faudell Phillips had the good sense contemptuously to dismiss the summons.

Englishmen are no longer what they were if they continue to tolerate this Ign.o.ble espionnage of Vicious and prurient virtuous "a.s.sociations." If they mean real work why do they commence by condemning scholar-like works, instead of cleansing the many foul cesspools of active vice which are a public disgrace to London.

[FN#447] It may serve the home-artist and the home-reader to point out a few of the most erroneous The harp (i. 143) is the Irish and not the Eastern, yet the latter has been shown In i.

228; and the "Kanun " (ii. 77) is a reproduction from Lane's Modern Egyptians. The various Jinnis are fanciful, not traditional, as they should be (see inter alia Doughty's Arabia Deserta, ii. 3, etc.). In i. 81 and ii. 622 appears a specimen bogie with shaven chin and "droopers" by way of beard and mustachios: mostly they have b.e.s.t.i.a.l or simiad countenances with rabbits' ears, goats' horns and so forth (i. 166, 169; ii. 97, 100), instead of faces more or less human and eyes disposed perpendicularly. The spreading yew-tree (i. 209) is utterly misplaced. In many the action is excessive, after the fashion of the Ill.u.s.trateds (i. 281, 356, 410 and 565; ii. 366, 374). The scymitar and the knife, held in the left hand or slung by the left flank, are wholly out of order (i. 407 ii.281,374; iii.460) and in iii. 355, the blade is wider than the wielder's waist. In i. 374 the astrolabe is also held in the left hand. The features are cla.s.sical as those of Arsinoe, certainly not Egyptian, in i.

15; i. 479 and pa.s.sim. The beggar-women must not wander with faces bare and lacking "nose-bags" as in i. 512. The Shah (i.

523) wears modern overalls strapped down over dress-bottines: Moreover he holds a straight-bladed European court-sword, which is correct in i. 527. The spears (i. 531) are European not Asiatic, much less Arabian, whose beams are often 12-15 feet long. Aziz (i. 537) has no right to tricot drawers and shoes tightened over the instep like the chaussure of European moutards: his foot (i. 540) is wholly out of drawing, like his hand, and the toes are European distortions. The lady writing (i.

581) lacks all local colour; she should sit at squat, support the paper in the hollow of her left instead of using a portfolio, and with her right ply the reed or "pen of bra.s.s." In vol. ii. 57 the lion is an absurdum, big as a cow or a camel, and the same caricature of the King of Beasts occurs elsewhere (i. 531; ii.

557 and iii. 250). The Wazir (ii. 105) wears the striped caftan of a Cairene scribe or shopkeeper. The two birds (ii. 140) which are intended for hawks (see ii. 130) have the compact tails and the rounded-off wings of pigeons. I should pity Amjad and As'ad if packed into a "bullock trunk" like that borne by the mule in ii. 156. The Jew's daughter (ii. 185) and the Wali of Bulak (ii.

504) carry European candlesticks much improved in ii. 624. The Persian leach (ii. 195) is habited most unlike an 'Ajami, while the costume is correct in ii. 275. The Badawi mounts (ii. 263) an impossible Arab with mane and tail like the barb's in pictures.

The street-dogs (ii. 265), a notable race, become European curs of low degree. The ma.s.sage of the galleys (ii. 305) would suit a modern racing-yacht. Utterly out of place are the women's costumes such as the Badawi maidens (ii. 335), Rose-in Hood (ii.

565), and the girl of the Banu Odhrah (iii.250), while the Lady Zubaydah (ii. 369) is coiffee with a European coronet. The sea-going ship (ii. 615) is a Dahabiyah fit only for the Nile.

The banana-trees (ii. 621) tower at least 80 feet tall and the palms and cocoa-nut trees (ii. 334; iii. 60) are indicated only by their foliage, not by their characteristic boles. The box (ii.

624) is European and modern: in the Eastern "Sakhkharah" the lid fits into the top, thus saving it from the "baggage-smasher." In iii. 76, the elephant, single-handed, uproots a tree rivalling a century-old English oak. The camel-saddle (iii. 247) is neither Eastern nor possible for the rider, but it presently improves (iii. 424 and elsewhere). The emerging of the Merfolk (iii. 262) is a "tableau," a transformation-scene of the transpontine pantomime, and equally theatrical is the att.i.tude of wicked Queen Lab (iii. 298), while the Jinni, s.n.a.t.c.hing away Daulat Khatun (iii.341), seems to be waltzing with her in horizontal position.

A sun-parasol, not a huge Oriental umbrella, is held over the King's head (iii. 377). The tail-piece, the characteristic Sphinx (iii. 383), is as badly drawn as it well can be, a vile caricature. Khalifah the Fisherman wears an English night-gown (iii. 558) with the side-locks of a Polish Jew (iii. 564). The dancing- girl (iii. 660) is equally reprehensible in form, costume and att.i.tude, and lastly, the Fellah ploughing (iii. 700) should wear a felt skull-cap instead of a turband, be stripped to the waist and retain nothing but a rag around the middle.