The Thousand and One Nights Volume I Part 9

[112] "El-Insan el-Kamil," by 'Abd-El-Kereem El-Jeelee, quoted by El-Is-?a?ee, in his account of Ibraheem Basha el-Ma?tool.

[113] Mishkat el-Ma?abee?, vol. i. pp. 26-34.

[114] Ibid.

[115] Idem, vol. ii. p. 373.

[116] Nuzhet el-Mutaammil wa-Murshid el-Mutaahhil, section 7.

[117] Mishkat el-Ma?abee?, vol. ii. p. 381.

[118] For a translation of the whole of this prayer, see "Modern Egyptians," vol. ii. ch, xii.

[119] ?ur-an, ch. v. v. 35.

[120] See "Modern Egyptians," vol. ii. ch. xv.

[121] These degrees of relationship will be explained when I describe the customs relating to marriage.

[122] Nuzhet el-Mutaammil wa-Murshid el-Mutaahhil, section 9.

[123] Mishkat el-Ma?abee?, vol. ii. pp. 140 and 141.

[124] Nuzhet El-Mutaammil, &c., _loco laudato_.

[125] See "Modern Egyptians," vol. i. ch. vii.

[126] Events of the year 227.

[127] ?ur-an, ch. xxvii. v. 40; and Commentary of the Jelaleyn.

[128] See "Mish?at el-Ma?abee?," vol. ii. p. 374.

[129] Idem, vol ii. pp. 384, et seqq.

[130] Account of the early Arabs, in the "Mir-at ez-Zeman."

[131] During his last residence in Egypt, Mr. Lane thought he had discovered a clue to the means employed in these performances, but he afterwards found that there were cases which remained to him inexplicable.--ED.

[132] Mishkat el-Ma?abee?, _loco laudato_.

[133] Mir-at ez-Zeman, _loco laudato_.

[134] El-Is-?a?ee, in his account of the reign of El-Mo?ta?im, the son of Haroon.

[135] Mishkat el-Ma?abee?, vol. ii. p. 388.

[136] Vulgarly p.r.o.nounced Nemrood.

[137] El-Is-?a?ee, close of his account of the reign of El-Emeen.

[138] El-Jabartee's Modern Egyptian History (MS. in my possession); account of the death of Yoosuf Bey, in the year of the Flight 1191; and account of the death of the sheykh ?asan El-Kafrawee, in the year 1202.

[139] Hence it has been called by many travellers, and even by some learned Orientalists, the Great Feast; but it is never so called by the Arabs.

[140] Mishkat el-Ma?abee?, vol. ii. p. 424.

[141] Genesis ix. 5.

[142] Lettres sur l'Histoire des Arabes avant l'Islamisme, par Fulgence Fresnel. Paris, 1836, pp. 31, et seqq.

[143] El-Is-ha?ee.

[144] El-Is-?a?ee.

[145] Idem.

[146] Fakhr-ed-Deen, in De Sacy's Chrestomathie Arabe, vol. i.

p. 3 of the Arabic Text: 2nd edition.

[147] Ibn-Khaldoon, _ubi supra_, vol. i. p. 124 of the Arabic text.

[148] ?albet el-k.u.meyt (MS. in my possession), chap. vii.

[149] The ma??abah, with the picturesque Arab architecture of which it forms a part, is fast disappearing from Egypt. In Cairo and Alexandria, Mo?ammad 'Alee ordered that the ma??abahs in the thoroughfare-streets should be removed, or reduced to about a foot in width; and interdicted the erection of new meshrebeeyehs (projecting windows of lattice-work), although he allowed the old ones to remain.--ED.

CHAPTER II.

COMMENCING WITH PART OF THE THIRD NIGHT, AND ENDING WITH PART OF THE NINTH.

THE STORY OF THE FISHERMAN.

There was a certain fisherman, advanced in age, who had a wife and three children; and though he was in indigent circ.u.mstances, it was his custom to cast his net, every day, no more than four times. One day he went forth at the hour of noon to the sh.o.r.e of the sea, and put down his basket, and cast his net, and waited until it was motionless in the water, when he drew together its strings, and found it to be heavy: he pulled, but could not draw it up: so he took the end of the cord, and knocked a stake into the sh.o.r.e, and tied the cord to it. He then stripped himself, and dived round the net, and continued to pull until he drew it out: whereupon he rejoiced, and put on his clothes; but when he came to examine the net, he found in it the carca.s.s of an a.s.s. At the sight of this he mourned, and exclaimed, There is no strength nor power but in G.o.d, the High, the Great! This is a strange piece of fortune!--And he repeated the following verse:--

O thou who occupiest thyself in the darkness of night, and in peril!

Spare thy trouble; for the support of Providence is not obtained by toil![II_1]

He then disenc.u.mbered his net of the dead a.s.s, and wrung it out; after which he spread it, and descended into the sea, and--exclaiming, In the name of G.o.d!--cast it again, and waited till it had sunk and was still, when he pulled it, and found it more heavy and more difficult to raise than on the former occasion. He therefore concluded that it was full of fish: so he tied it, and stripped, and plunged and dived, and pulled until he raised it, and drew it upon the sh.o.r.e; when he found in it only a large jar, full of sand and mud; on seeing which, he was troubled in his heart, and repeated the following words of the poet:--

O angry fate, forbear! or, if thou wilt not forbear, relent!

Neither favour from fortune do I gain, nor profit from the work of my hands, I came forth to seek my sustenance, but have found it to be exhausted.

How many of the ignorant are in splendour! and how many of the wise, in obscurity!

So saying, he threw aside the jar, and wrung out and cleansed his net; and, begging the forgiveness of G.o.d for his impatience, returned to the sea the third time, and threw the net, and waited till it had sunk and was motionless: he then drew it out, and found in it a quant.i.ty of broken jars and pots.