The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night Volume I Part 22

[FN#53] i.e., moles, which are considered a great beauty in the East.

[FN#54] A female genie.

[FN#55] The unveiling or displaying of the bride before her husband is the culminating ceremony of a Muslim wedding of the better cla.s.s. The bride is always displayed in the richest clothes and ornament that can be mustered or borrowed for the occasion.

[FN#56] Moles?

[FN#57] There is a play upon words in this line, founded upon the double meaning of the word shirk, sharing (or partnership) and polytheism or the attributing partners or equals to G.o.d (as in the Trinity), the one unpardonable sin of the Muslim religious code.

[FN#58] Both afterwards Khalifs.

[FN#59] i.e. G.o.d.

[FN#60] lit "though lying save, yet truth saves and saves."

[FN#61] On which she sits to be displayed.

[FN#62] Placed there for the purpose of the ablution prescribed by the ceremonial law.

[FN#63] Speaking, of course, ironically and supposing Bedreddin to be the hunchback.

[FN#64] Bedreddin.

[FN#65] Mosul is a town of Mesopotamia, some two hundred miles N.E. of Baghdad. It is celebrated for its silk and muslin manufactories. The Mosulis doubtless set the fashion in turbans to the inhabitants of Baghdad and Ba.s.sora, and it would appear from the Vizier's remark that this fashion was notably different from that followed at Cairo.

[FN#66] Eye-powder. The application of kohl to an infant's eyes is supposed to be beneficial.

[FN#67] The North wind holds the same place in Oriental metaphor and poetry as does the West wind in those of Europe.

[FN#68] Or kernel.

[FN#69] lit. puppet or lay figure.

[FN#70] Mole.

[FN#71] A well-known legist and Cadi of Cufa in the seventh century.

[FN#72] The Sun.

[FN#73] The word melik 'king,' by changing the second (unwritten) vowel to e becomes melek 'angel'.

[FN#74] A measure of about five bushels.

[FN#75] The left hand is considered unclean, being used for certain ablutions, and it is therefore a breach of good manners to use it in eating.

[FN#76] Between the two palaces.

[FN#77] Apparently said in jest.

[FN#78] i.e. do not forget me.

[FN#79] A kind of edible arum.

[FN#80] This is apparently some proverbial saying. The meaning appears to be, "Let every man be judge of his own case."

[FN#81] That none might stare at or jostle her.

[FN#82] About a hundred and twenty-five pounds.

[FN#83] About five hundred pounds.

[FN#84] i.e. of prime cost.

[FN#85] The face of a mistress.

[FN#86] It is a common Oriental figure to liken a languishing eye to a dying narcissus.

[FN#87] One of the companions of Mohammed.

[FN#88] Prater.

[FN#89] Babbler.

[FN#90] Gabbler.

[FN#91] The Stone Mug.

[FN#92] The Braggart.

[FN#93] Noisy.

[FN#94] Silent.

[FN#95] Mohammed.

[FN#96] Or attendant on the people in the bath.

[FN#97] i.e. a stoker or man who keeps up the fire in the baths.

[FN#98] A sort of sermon, which immediately follows, the noontide call to prayer on Fridays.

[FN#99] Preliminary to the call to prayer.

[FN#100] A.H. 623-640.

[FN#101] A leather rug on which they make criminals kneel to be beheaded.

[FN#102] It will be seen that the stories told by the barber do not account for the infirmities of all his brothers, as this would imply.