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

[FN#451] Racing was and is a favourite pastime with those hippomanists, the Arabs; but it contrasts strongly with our civilised form being a trial of endurance rather than of speed. The Prophet is said to have limited betting in these words, "There shall be no wagering save on the Kuff (camel's foot), the Hafir (hoof of horse, a.s.s, etc.) or the Nasal (arrow-pile or lance head)."

[FN#452] In the Mac. Edit. "Arman"=Armenia, which has before occurred. The author or scribe here understands by "Caesarea" not the old Turris Stratonis, Herod's city called after Augustus, but Caesareia the capital of Cappadocia (Pliny, vi. 3), the royal residence before called Mazaca (Strabo).

[FN#453] An idiom meaning "a very fool."

[FN#454] i.e. Kana (was) ma (that which) was (kana).

[FN#455] A son being "the lamp of a dark house."

[FN#456] When the Israelites refused to receive the Law (the souls of all the Prophets even those unborn being present at the Covenant), Allah tore up the mountain (Sinai which is not mentioned) by the roots and shook it over their heads to terrify them, saying, "Receive the Law which we have given you with a resolution to keep it" (Koran chaps. xlx. 170). Much of this story is from the Talmud (Abodah Sar. 2, 2, Tract Sabbath, etc.) whence Al-Islam borrowed so much of its Judaism, as it took Christianity from the Apocryphal New Testament. This tradition is still held by the Israelites, says Mr. Rodwell (p. 333) who refers it to a misunderstanding of Exod. xix. 17, rightly rendered in the E.

version "at the nether part of the mountain."

[FN#457] Arab. "Azghan" = the camel-litters in which women travel.

[FN#458] i.e. to joy foes and dismay friends.

[FN#459] Whose eyes became white (i.e. went blind) with mourning for his son Joseph (Koran, chaps. xii. 84). He recovered his sight when his face was covered with the shirt which Gabriel had given to the youth after his brethren had thrown him into the well.

[FN#460] "Poison King" (Persian); or "Flower-King" (Arabic).

[FN#461] A delicate allusion to the size of her hips and back parts, in which volume is, I have said, greatly admired for the best of reasons.

[FN#462] All Prophets had some manual trade and that of David was making coats of mail, which he invented, for before his day men used plate-armour. So "Allah softened the iron for him" and in his hands it became like wax (Koran xxi. x.x.xiv., etc.). Hence a good coat of mail is called "Davidean." I have noticed (First Footsteps, p. 33 and elsewhere) the homage paid to the blacksmith on the principle which made Mulciber (Malik Kabir) a G.o.d. The myth of David inventing mail possibly arose from his peculiarly fighting career. Moslems venerate Daud on account of his extraordinary devotion, nor has this view of his character ceased : a modern divine preferred him to "all characters in history."

[FN#463] "Travel by night," said the Prophet, "when the plagues of earth (scorpions, serpents, etc.) afflict ye not." Yet the night- march in Arabia is detestable (Pilgrimage iii.).

[FN#464] This form of ceremony is called "Istikbal" (coming forth to greet) and is regulated by the severest laws of etiquette. As a rule the greater the distance (which may be a minimum of one step) the higher the honour. Easterns infinitely despise strangers who ignore these vitals of politeness.

[FN#465] i.e. he will be a desert Nimrod and the game will delight to be killed by him.

[FN#466] This serves to keep the babe's eyes free from inflammation.

[FN#467] i.e. Crown of the Kings of amorous Blandishment.

[FN#468] Lane (i. 531) translates "the grey down." The Arabs use "Akhzar" (prop. "green") in many senses, fresh, gray-hued, etc.

[FN#469] Allusion to the well-known black banners of the house of Abbas. The Persians describe the growth of hair on a fair young face by, "His cheeks went into mourning for the loss of their charms."

[FN#470] Arab. "Kafir" a Koranic word meaning Infidel, the active participle of Kufr= Infidelity i.e. rejecting the mission of Mohammed. It is insulting and in Turkish has been degraded to "Giaour." Here it means black, as Hafiz of Shiraz terms a cheek mole "Hindu" i.e. dark-skinned and idolatrous.

[FN#471] Alluding to the travel of Moses (Koran chaps. xviii.) with Al-Khizr (the "evergreen Prophet") who had drunk of the Fountain of Life and enjoyed flourishing and continual youth. Moses is represented as the external and superficial religionist; the man of outsight; Al-Khizr as the spiritual and illuminated man of insight.

[FM#472] The lynx was used like the lion in Ancient Egypt and the Chita-leopard in India: I have never seen or heard of it in these days.

[FN#473] Arab. "Sukur," whence our "Saker" the falcon, not to be confounded with the old Falco Sacer, the Gr. . Falconry which, like all arts, began in Egypt, is an extensive subject throughout Moslem lands. I must refer my readers to "Falconry in the Valley of the Indus" (Van Voorst, 1852) and a long note in Pilgrimage iii.

71.

[FN#474] It was not respectful to pitch their camp within dog-bark.

[FN#475] Easterns attach great importance to softness and smoothness of skin and they are right: a harsh rough epidermis spoils sport with the handsomest woman.

[FN#476] Canticles vii. 8: Hosea xiv. 6.

[FN#477] The mesmeric attraction of like to like.

[FN#478] Arab. "Taswif"=saying "Sauf," I will do it soon. It is a beautiful word?etymologically.

[FN#479] A very far fetched allusion. The face of the beloved springing from an unb.u.t.toned robe is the moon rising over the camp in the hollow (bat'ha).

[FN#480] Arab. "Kasabat" = "canes," long beads, bugles.

[FN#481] Koran, xcvi. 5.

[FN#482] Both words (masc. and fem.) mean "dear, excellent, highly- prized." The tale is the Arab form of the European "Patient Griselda" and shows a higher conception of womanly devotion, because Azizah, despite her wearisome weeping, is a girl of high intelligence and Aziz is a vicious zany, weak as water and wilful as wind. The phenomenon (not rare in life) is explained by the couplet:--

I love my love with an S?

Because he is stupid and not intellectual.

This fond affection of clever women for fools can be explained only by the law of unlikeness which mostly governs s.e.xual unions in physical matters; and its appearance in the story gives novelty and point. Aziz can plead only the violence of his pa.s.sion which distinguished him as a lover among the mob of men who cannot love anything beyond themselves. And none can pity him for losing a member which he so much abused.

[FN#483] Arab. "Shahid," the index, the pointer raised in testimony: the comparison of the Eastern and the Western names is curious.

[FN#484] Musk is one of the perfumes of the Moslem Heaven; and "musky" is much used in verse to signify scented and dark-brown.

[FN#485] Arab. "Mandil": these kerchiefs are mostly oblong, the sh.o.r.e sides being worked with gold and coloured silk, and often fringed, while the two others are plain.

[FN#486] Arab. "Rayhani," of the Ocymum Basilic.u.m or sweet basil: a delicate handwriting, so called from the pen resembling a leaf (?) See vol. i. p. 128. [Volume 1, note 229 & 230]

[FN#487] All idiom meaning "something unusual happened."

[FN#488] An action common in grief and regret: here the lady would show that she sighs for union with her beloved.

[FN#489] Lane (i. 608) has a valuable note on the language of signs, from M. du Vigneau's "Secretaire Turc," etc. (Paris, 1688), Baron von Hammer-Purgstall ("Mines de ['Orient," No. 1, Vienna, 1809) and Marcel's "Comes du Cheykh El-Mohdy" (Paris, 1833). It is practiced in Africa as well as in Asia. At Abeokuta in Yoruba a man will send a symbolical letter in the shape of cowries, palm-nuts and other kernels strung on rice- straw, and sharp wits readily interpret the meaning. A specimen is given in p. 262 of Miss Tucker's "Abbeokuta; or Sunrise within the Tropics."

[FN#490] Mr. Payne (ii. 227) translates "Hawa al-'Urzi" by "the love of the Beni Udhra, an Arabian tribe famous for the pa.s.sion and devotion with which love was practiced among them." See Night dclx.x.xiii. I understand it as "excusable love" which, for want of a better term, is here translated "platonic." It is, however, more like the old "bundling" of Wales and Northern England; and allows all the pleasures but one, the toyings which the French call les plaisirs de la pet.i.te ode; a term my dear old friend Fred. Hankey derived from la pet.i.te voie. The Afghans know it as "Namzad-bazi"

or betrothed play (Pilgrimage, ii. 56); the Abyssinians as eye- love; and the Kafirs as Slambuka a Shlabonka, for which see The traveller Delegorgue.

[FN#491] "Turk" in Arabic and Persian poetry means a plunderer, a robber. Thus Hafiz: "Agar an Turk-i-Shirazi ba-dast arad dil-i- mara," If that Shirazi (ah, the Turk!) would deign to take my heart in hand, etc.

[FN#492] Arab. "n.a.z.ir," a steward or an eye (a "looker"). The idea is borrowed from Al-Hariri (a.s.semblies, xiii.), and,--

[FN#493] Arab. "Hajib," a groom of the chambers, a chamberlain; also an eyebrow. See Al-Hariri, ibid. xiii. and xxii.

[FN#494] This gesture speaks for itself: it is that of a dyer staining a cloth. The "Sabbagh's" shop is the usual small recess, open to the street and showing pans of various dyes sunk like "dog- laps" in the floor.

[FN#495] The Arab. "Sabt" (from sabata, he kept Sabt) and the Heb.

"Sabbath" both mean Saturn's day, Sat.u.r.day, transferred by some unknown process throughout Christendom to Sunday. The change is one of the most curious in the history of religions. If there be a single command stronger than all others it is "Keep the Sat.u.r.day holy." It was so kept by the Founder of Christianity; the order was never abrogated and yet most Christians are not aware that Sabbath, or "Sawbath," means Saturn's day, the "Shiyar" of the older Arabs.

And to complete its degradation "Sabbat" in French and German means a criaillerie, a "row," a disorder, an abominable festival of Hexen (witches). This monstrous absurdity can be explained only by aberrations of sectarian zeal, of party spirit in religion.