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The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 9

R >> Richard F. Burton >> The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 9




[FN#135] Koran iv. 81, "Whatever good betideth thee is from God,
and whatever betideth thee Of evil is from thyself": rank
Manichaeism, as pronounced as any in Christendom.

[FN#136] Arab. "Zukhruf" which Mr. Payne picturesquely renders
"painted gawds."

[FN#137] It is the innate craving in the "Aryan" (Iranian, not
the Turanian) mind, this longing to know what follows Death, or
if nothing follows it, which accounts for the marvellous
diffusion of the so-called Spiritualism which is only
Swedenborgianism systematised and earned out into action, amongst
nervous and impressionable races like the Anglo-American. In
England it is the reverse; the obtuse sensitiveness of a people
bred on beef and beer has made the "Religion of the Nineteenth
Century" a manner of harmless magic, whose miracles are
table-turning and ghost seeing whilst the prodigious rascality of
its prophets (the so-called Mediums) has brought it into
universal disrepute. It has been said that Catholicism must be
true to co-exist with the priest and it is the same with
Spiritualism proper, by which I understand the belief in a life
beyond the grave, a mere continuation of this life; it flourishes
(despite the Medium) chiefly because it has laid before man the
only possible and intelligible idea of a future state.

[FN#138] See vol. vi. p. 7. The only lie which degrades a man in
his own estimation and in that of others, is that told for fear
of telling the truth. Au reste, human society and civilised
intercourse are built upon a system of conventional lying. and
many droll stories illustrate the consequences of disregarding
the dictum, la verite n'est pas tonjours bonne a dire.

[FN#139] Arab. "Wali'ahd" which may mean heir-presumptive (whose
heirship is contingent) or heir-apparent.

[FN#140] Arab. "Ya abati"= my papa (which here would sound
absurd).

[FN#141] All the texts give a decalogue; but Mr. Payne has
reduced it to a heptalogue.

[FN#142] The Arabs who had a variety of anaesthetics never seem
to have studied the subject of "euthanasia." They preferred
seeing a man expire in horrible agonies to relieving him by means
of soporifics and other drugs: so I have heard Christians exult
in saying that the sufferer "kept his senses to the last." Of
course superstition is at the bottom of this barbarity; the same
which a generation ago made the silly accoucheur refuse to give
ether because of the divine (?) saying "In sorrow shalt thou
bring forth children." (Gen iii. 16.) In the Bosnia-Herzegovina
campaign many of the Austrian officers carried with them doses of
poison to be used in case of being taken prisoners by the
ferocious savages against whom they were fighting. As many
anecdotes about "Easing off the poor dear" testify, the
Euthanasia-system is by no means unknown to the lower classes in
England. I shall have more to say on this subject.

[FN#143] See vol. iii. p. 253 for the consequences of royal
seclusion of which Europe in the present day can contribute
examples. The lesson which it teaches simply is that the world
can get on very well without royalties.

[FN#144] The grim Arab humour in the text is the sudden change
for the worse of the good young man. Easterns do not believe in
the Western saw, "Nemo repente fuit turpissimus." The spirited
conduct of the subjects finds many parallels in European history,
especially in Portugal: see my Life of Camoens p. 234.

[FN#145] Arab. "Muharabah" lit.=doing battle; but is sometimes
used in the sense of gain-saying or disobeying.

[FN#146] Arab. "Duwamah" (from "duwam"=vertigo, giddiness) also
applied to a boy's whip ton.

[FN#147] Arab. "Khayr o (we) Afiyah," a popular phrase much used
in salutations, &c.

[FN#148] Another instance, and true to life, of the democracy of
despotism in which the express and combined will of the people is
the only absolute law. Hence Russian autocracy is forced into
repeated wars for the possession of Constantinople which, in the
present condition of the Empire, would be an unmitigated evil to
her and would be only too glad to see a Principality of Byzantium
placed under the united protection of the European Powers. I have
treated of this in my paper on the "Partition of Turkey," which
first appeared, headed the "Future of Turkey," in the Daily
Telegraph, of March 7, 1880, and subsequently by its own name in
the Manchester Examiner, January 3, 1881. The main reason why the
project is not carried out appears to be that the "politicals"
would thereby find their occupation gone and they naturally
object to losing so fine a field of action. So Turkey still plays
the role of the pretty young lady being courted by a rabble of
valets.

[FN#149] Good Moslems are bound to abate such scandals; and in a
case of the kind even neighbours are expected to complain before
the Chief of Police. This practice forms "Viligance Committees"
all over the Mahommedan East: and we may take a leaf out of their
books if dynamite-outrages continue.

[FN#150] But a Hadis, attributed to Mohammed, says, "The Prince
of a people is their servant." See Matth. xx. 26-27.

[FN#151] Easterns are well aware of the value of this drug which
has become the base of so many of our modern medicines.

[FN#152] The strangest poison is mentioned by Sonnini who, as a
rule, is a trustworthy writer. Noticing the malignity of Egyptian
women he declares (p. 628, English trans.) that they prepare a
draught containing a quant. suff. of menstruous discharge at
certain phases of the moon, which produces symptoms of scurvy;
the gums decay, the teeth, beard and hair fall off, the body
dries, the limbs lose strength and death follows within a year.
He also asserts that no counterpoison is known and if this be
true he confers a boon upon the Locustae and Brinvilliers of
modern Europe. In Morocco "Ta'am" is the vulgar name for a
mixture of dead men's bones, eyes, hair and similar ingredients
made by old wives and supposed to cause a wasting disease for
which the pharmacopoeia has no cure. Dogs are killed by needles
cunningly inserted into meat-balls; and this process is known
through out the Moslem world.

[FN#153] Which contained the Palace.

[FN#154] Arab. "La baas." See Night vol. iv. 164.

[FN#155] For Ta'lab (Sa'lab) see supra, p. 48. In Morocco it is
undoubtedly the red or common fox which, however, is not
gregarious as in the text.

[FN#156] See vol. iii. 146.

[FN#157] Arab. "Muunah" which in Morocco applies to the
provisions furnished gratis by the unfortunate village-people to
travellers who have a passport from the Sultan. its root is Maun
=supplying necessaries. "The name is supposed to have its origin
in that of Manna the miraculous provision bestowed by the bounty
of Heaven on the Israelites while wandering in the deserts of
Arabia." Such is the marvellous information we find in p. 40,
"Morocco and the Moors" by John Drummond Hay (Murray, 1861)

[FN#158] i.e. He resolved to do them justice and win a reward
from Heaven.

[FN#159] Arab. ''Luss" = thief, robber, rogue, rascal, the
Persian "Luti" of popular usage. This is one of the many
''Simpleton stories" in which Eastern folk-lore abounds. I hear
that Mr. Clouston is preparing a collection, and look forward to
it with interest.

[FN#160] Arab. "Tibn" for which see vol. i 16.

[FN#161] A fanciful origin of "Divan" (here an audience-chamber)
which may mean demons (plural of Div) is attributed to a King of
Persia. He gave a series of difficult documents and accounts to
his scribes and surprised at the quickness and cleverness with
which they were ordered exclaimed, "These men be Divs!" Hence a
host of secondary meanings as a book of Odes with distichs rhymed
in alphabetical order and so forth.

[FN#162] In both cases the word "Jababirah" is used, the plur. of
Jabbar, the potent, especially applied to the Kings of the
Canaanites and giants like the mythical Og of Bashan. So the Heb.
Jabburah is a title of the Queens of Judah.

[FN#163] Arab. "Kitab al-Kaza"= the Book of Judgments, such as
the Kazi would use when deciding cases in dispute, by legal
precedents and the Rasm or custom of the country.

[FN#164] i.e. sit before the King as referee, etc.

[FN#165] This massacre of refractory chiefs is one of the grand
moyens of Eastern state-craft, and it is almost always successful
because circumstances require it; popular opinion approves of it
and it is planned and carried out with discretion and secrecy.
The two familiar instances in our century are the massacre of the
Mamelukes by Mohammed Ali Pasha the Great and of the turbulent
chiefs of the Omani Arabs by our ancient ally Sayyid Sa'id,
miscalled the "Imam of Maskat."

[FN#166] The metaphor (Sabaka) is from horse-racing, the Arabs
being, I have said, a horsey people.

[FN#167] Arab. "Kurdus" = A body of horse.

[FN#168] Arab. "Ibn 'Irs." See vol. iii. 147.

[FN#169] Arab. "Al Hind-al-Aksa." The Sanskrit Sindhu (lands on
the Indus River) became in Zend "Hendu" and hence in Arabic Sind
and Hind, which latter I wish we had preserved instead of the
classical "India" or the poetical "Ind."

[FN#170] i.e. by geomancy: see vol. iii. 269 for a note on
Al-Raml. The passage is not in the Mac. Edit.

[FN#171] This address gave the boy Wazirial rank. In many parts
of Europe, England included, if the Sovereign address a subject
with a title not belonging to him, it is a disputed point if the
latter can or cannot claim it.

[FN#172] Koran, chapter of Joseph xii. 28, spoken by Potiphar
after Joseph's innocence had been proved by a witness in
Potiphar's house or according to the Talmud (Sepher Hadjascher)
by an infant in the cradle. The texts should have printed this as
a quotation (with vowel points).

[FN#173] Arab. "Al-'Aziz," alluding to Joseph the Patriarch
entitled in Egypt "Aziz al-Misr"= Magnifico of Misraim (Koran
xii. 54). It is generally believed that Ismail Pasha, whose
unwise deposition has caused the English Government such a host
of troubles and load of obloquy, aspired to be named "'Aziz" by
the Porte; but was compelled to be satisfied with Khadiv (vulg.
written Khedive, and pronounced even "Kedive"), a Persian title,
which simply means prince or Rajah, as Khadiv-i-Hind.

[FN#174] i.e. The Throne room.

[FN#175] For the "Dawat" or wooden inkcase containing reeds see
vol. v. 239 and viii. 178. I may remark that its origin is the
Egyptian "Pes," of which there is a specimen in the British
Museum inscribed, "Amasis the good god and Lord of the two
Lands."

[FN#176] i.e. I am governed by the fear of Allah in my dealings
to thee and thy subjects.

[FN#177] Arabic has no single word for million although the
Maroccans have adopted "Milyun" from the Spaniards (see p. 100 of
the Rudimentos del Arabe vulgar que se habla en el imperio de
Marruccos por El P. Fr. Jose de Lerchundi, Madrid 1872): This
lack of the higher numerals, the reverse of the Hindu languages,
makes Arabic "arithmology" very primitive and almost as cumbrous
as the Chinese.

[FN#178] i.e. I am thy slave to slay or to pardon.

[FN#179] Arab. ''Matta'aka 'llah''=Allah permit thee to enjoy,
from the root mate', whence cometh the Maroccan Mata'i=my, mine,
which answers to Bita'i in Egypt.

[FN#180] Arab. "Khitab" = the exordium of a letter preceding its
business-matter and in which the writer displays all his art. It
ends with "Amma ba'd," lit.=but after, equivalent to our "To
proceed." This "Khitab" is mostly skipped over by modern
statesmen who will say, "Now after the nonsense let us come to
the sense"; but their secretaries carefully weigh every word of
it, and strongly resent all shortcomings.

[FN#181] Strongly suggesting that the King had forgotten how to
read and write. So not a few of the Amirs of Sind were
analphabetic and seemed rather proud of it: "a Baloch cannot
write, but he always carries a signet-ring." I heard of an old
English lady of the past generation in Northern Africa who openly
declared "A Warrington shall never learn to read or write."

[FN#182] Arab. "Amin," of which the Heb. form is Amen from the
root Amn=stability, constancy. In both tongues it is a particle
of affirmation or consent=it is true! So be it! The Hebrew has
also "Amanah"=verily, truly.

[FN#183] To us this seems a case of "hard lines" for the unhappy
women; but Easterns then believed and still believe in the
divinity which cloth hedge in a King, in his reigning by the
"grace of God," and in his being the Viceregent of Allah upon
earth; briefly in the old faith of loyalty which great and
successful republics are fast making obsolete in the West and
nowhere faster than in England.

[FN#184] Abu Sir is a manifest corruption of the old Egyptian
Pousiri, the Busiris of our classics, and it gives a name to
sundry villages in modern Egypt where it is usually pronounced
"Busir". Abu Kir lit. = the Father of Pitch, is also corrupted
to Abou Kir (Bay); and the townlet now marks the site of jolly
old Canopus, the Chosen Land of Egyptian debauchery.

[FN#185] It is interesting to note the superior gusto with which
the Eastern, as well as the Western tale-teller describes his
scoundrels and villains whilst his good men and women are mostly
colourless and unpicturesque. So Satan is the true hero of
Paradise-Lost and by his side God and man are very ordinary; and
Mephistopheles is much better society than Faust and Margaret.

[FN#186] Arab. "Dukhan," lit. = smoke, here tobacco for the
Chibouk, "Timbak" or "Tumbak" being the stronger (Persian and
other) variety which must be washed before smoking in the Shishah
or water pipe. Tobacco is mentioned here only and is evidently
inserted by some scribe: the "weed" was not introduced into the
East before the end of the sixteenth century (about a hundred
years after coffee), when it radically changed the manners of
society.

[FN#187] Which meant that the serjeant, after the manner of such
officials, would make him pay dearly before giving up the key.
Hence a very severe punishment in the East is to "call in a
policeman" who carefully fleeces all those who do not bribe him
to leave them in freedom.

[FN#188] Arab. "Ma Dahiyatak?" lit. "What is thy misfortune?"
The phrase is slighting if not insulting.

[FN#189] Amongst Moslems the plea of robbing to keep life and
body together would be accepted by a good man like Abu Sir, who
still consorted with a self-confessed thief.

[FN#190] To make their agreement religiously binding. See vol.
iv. 36.

[FN#191] Arab. "Ghaliyun"; many of our names for craft seem
connected with Arabic: I have already noted "Carrack" = harrak:
to which add Uskuf in Marocco pronounced 'Skuff = skiff; Katirah
= a cutter; Barijah = a barge; etc. etc.

[FN#192] The patient is usually lathered in a gib gasin of tinned
brass, "Mambrino's helmet" with a break in the rim to fit the
throat; but the poorer classes carry only a small cup with water
instead of soap and water ignoring the Italian proverb, "Barba
ben saponata mezza fatta" = well lathered is half shaved. A
napkin fringed at either end is usually thrown over the Figaro's
shoulder and used to wipe the razor.

[FN#193] Arab. "Nusf." See vol. ii. 37.

[FN#194] Arab. "Batarikh" the roe (sperm or spawn) of the salted
Fasikh (fish) and the Buri (mugil cephalus) a salt-water fish
caught in the Nile and considered fair eating. Some write
Butargha from the old Egyptian town Burat, now a ruin between
Tinnis and Damietta (Sonnini).

[FN#195] Arab. "Kaptan," see vol. iv. 85.

[FN#196] Arab. "Anyab," plur. of Nab applied to the grinder
teeth but mostly to the canines or eye teeth, tusks of animals,
etc. (See vol. vii. p. 339) opp. To Saniyah, one of the four
central incisors, a camel in the sixth year and horse, cow, sheep
and goat in fourth year.

[FN#197] The coffee (see also vol. viii. 274) like the tobacco is
probably due to the scribe; but the tale appears to be
comparatively modern. In The Nights men eat, drink and wash
their hands but do not smoke and sip coffee like the moderns.
See my Terminal Essay 2.

[FN#198] Arab. "Mi'lakah" (Bresl. Edit. x, 456). The fork is
modern even in the East and the Moors borrow their term for it
from fourchette. But the spoon, which may have begun with a
cockle-shell, dates from the remotest antiquity.

[FN#199] Arab. "Sufrah" properly the cloth or leather upon which
food is placed. See vol. i. 178.

[FN#200] i.e. gaining much one day and little another.

[FN#201] Lit. "Rest thyself" i.e. by changing posture.

[FN#202] Arab. "Unnabi" = between dark yellow and red.

[FN#203] Arab. "Nilah" lit. = indigo, but here applied to all
the materials for dyeing. The word is Sanskrit, and the growth
probably came from India, although during the Crusaders'
occupation of Jerusalem it was cultivated in the valley of the
lower Jordan. I need hardly say that it has nothing to do with
the word "Nile" whose origin is still sub judice. And yet I
lately met a sciolist who pompously announced to me this
philological absurdity as a discovery of his own.

[FN#204] Still a popular form of "bilking" in the Wakalahs or
Caravanserais of Cairo: but as a rule the Bawwab (porter or
doorkeeper) keeps a sharp eye on those he suspects. The evil is
increased when women are admitted into these places; so
periodical orders for their exclusion are given to the police.

[FN#205] Natives of Egypt always hold this diaphoresis a sign
that the disease has abated and they regard it rightly in the
case of bilious remittents to which they are subject, especially
after the hardships and sufferings of a sea-voyage with its
alternations of fasting and over-eating.

[FN#206] Not simply, "such and such events happened to him"
(Lane); but, "a curious chance befel him."

[FN#207] Arab. "Harami," lit. = one who lives on unlawful gains;
popularly a thief.

[FN#208] i.e. he turned on the water, hot and cold.

[FN#209] Men are often seen doing this in the Hammam. The idea
is that the skin when free from sebaceous exudation sounds louder
under the clapping. Easterns judge much by the state of the
perspiration, especially in horse-training, which consists of
hand-gallops for many successive miles. The sweat must not taste
over salt and when held between thumb and forefinger and the two
are drawn apart must not adhere in filaments.

[FN#210] Lit. "Aloes for making Nadd;" see vol. i. 310.
"Eagle-wood" (the Malay Aigla and Agallochum the Sansk. Agura)
gave rise to many corruptions as lignum aloes, the Portuguese Pao
d' Aguila etc. "Calamba" or "Calambak" was the finest kind. See
Colonel Yule in the "Voyage of Linschoten" (vol. i. 120 and 150).
Edited for the Hakluyt Soc. (1885) by my learned and most amiable
friend, the late Arthur Cooke Burnell.

[FN#211] The Hammam is one of those unpleasant things which are
left "Ala judi-k" = to thy generosity; and the higher the
bather's rank the more he or she is expected to pay. See
Pilgrimage i. 103. In 1853 I paid at Cairo 3 piastres and twenty
paras, something more than sixpence, but now five shillings would
be asked.

[FN#212] This is something like the mythical duchess in England
who could not believe that the poor were starving when
sponge-cakes were so cheap.

[FN#213] This magnificent "Bakhshish" must bring water into the
mouths of all the bath-men in the coffee-house assembly.

[FN#214] i.e. the treasurer did not, as is the custom of such
gentry, demand and receive a large "Bakhshish" on the occasion.

[FN#215] A fair specimen of clever Fellah chaff.

[FN#216] In the first room of the Hammam, called the Maslakh or
stripping-place, the keeper sits by a large chest in which he
deposits the purses and valuables of his customers and also makes
it the caisse for the pay. Something of the kind is now done in
the absurdly called "Turkish Baths" of London.

[FN#217] This is the rule in Egypt and Syria and a clout hung
over the door shows that women are bathing. I have heard, but
only heard, that in times and places when eunuchs went in with
the women youths managed by long practice to retract the
testicles so as to pass for castratos. It is hard to say what
perseverance may not effect in this line; witness Orsini and his
abnormal development of hearing, by exercising muscles which are
usually left idle.

[FN#218] This reference to Allah shows that Abu Sir did not
believe his dyer-friend.

[FN#219] Arab. "Dawa" (lit. remedy, medicine) the vulgar term:
see vol. iv. 256: also called Rasmah, Nurah and many other names.

[FN#220] Arab. "Ma Kahara-ni" = or none hath overcome me.

[FN#221] Bresl. Edit. "The King of Isbaniya." For the "Ishban"
(Spaniards) an ancient people descended from Japhet son of Noah
and who now are no more, see Al-Mas'udi (Fr. Transl. I. 361). The
"Herodotus of the Arabs" recognises only the "Jalalikah" or
Gallicians, thus bearing witness to the antiquity and importance
of the Gallego race.

[FN#222] Arab. "Sha'r," properly, hair of body, pile, especially
the pecten. See Bruckhardt (Prov. No. 202), "grieving for lack of
a cow she made a whip of her bush," said of those who console
themselves by building Castles in Spain. The "parts below the
waist" is the decent Turkish term for the privities.

[FN#223] The drowning is a martyr's death, the burning is a
foretaste of Hell-fire.

[FN#224] Meaning that if the trick had been discovered the
Captain would have taken the barber's place. We have seen (vol.
i. 63) the Prime Minister superintending the royal kitchen and
here the Admiral fishes for the King's table. It is even more
naive than the Court of Alcinous.

[FN#225] Bresl. Edit. xi. 32: i.e. save me from disgrace.

[FN#226] Arab. "Khinsir" or "Khinsar," the little finger or the
middle finger. In Arabic each has its own name or names which is
also that of the corresponding toe, e.g. Ibham (thumb); Sabbabah,
Musabbah or Da'aah (fore-finger); Wasta (medius); Binsir
(annularis ring-finger) and Khinsar (minimus). There are also
names for the several spaces between the fingers. See the English
Arabic Dictionary (London, Kegan Paul an Co., 1881) by the Revd.
Dr. Badger, a work of immense labour and research but which I
fear has been so the learned author a labour of love not of
profit.

[FN#227] Meaning of course that the King signed towards the sack
in which he supposed the victim to be, but the ring fell off
before it could take effect. The Eastern story-teller often
balances his multiplicity of words and needless details by a
conciseness and an elliptical style which make his meaning a
matter of divination.

[FN#228] See vol. v. 111.

[FN#229] This couplet was quoted to me by my friend the Rev. Dr.
Badger when he heard that I was translating "The Nights":
needless to say that it is utterly inappropriate.

[FN#230] For a similar figure see vol i. 25.

[FN#231] Arab. "Hanzal": see vol. v. 19.

[FN#232] The tale begins upon the model of "Judar and his
Brethren," vi. 213. Its hero's full name is Abdu'llahi=Slave of
Allah, which vulgar Egyptians pronounce Abdallah and purer
speakers, Badawin and others, Abdullah: either form is therefore
admissible. It is more common among Moslems but not unknown to
Christians especially Syrians who borrow it from the Syriac
Alloh. Mohammed is said to have said, "The names most approved
by Allah are Abdu'llah, Abd al-Rahman (Slave of the
Compassionate) and such like" (Pilgrimage i. 20).

[FN#233] Arab. "Sirah" here probably used of the Nile-sprat
(Clupea Sprattus Linn.) or Sardine of which Forsk says, "Sardinn
in Al-Yaman is applied to a Red Sea fish of the same name."
Hasselquist the Swede notes that Egyptians stuff the Sardine with
marjoram and eat it fried even when half putrid.

[FN#234] i.e. by declaring in the Koran (lxvii. 14; lxxiv. 39;
lxxviii. 69; lxxxviii. 17), that each creature hath its appointed
term and lot; especially "Thinketh man that he shall be left
uncared for?" (xl. 36).

[FN#235] Arab. "Nusf," see vol. ii. 37.

[FN#236] Arab. "Allah Karim" (which Turks pronounce Kyerim) a
consecrated formula used especially when a man would show himself
resigned to "small mercies." The fisherman's wife was evidently
pious as she was poor; and the description of the pauper
household is simple and effective.

[FN#237] This is repeated in the Mac. Edit. pp. 496-97; an
instance amongst many of most careless editing.

[FN#238] Arab. "Ala mahlak" (vulg.), a popular phrase, often
corresponding with our "Take it coolly."

[FN#239] For "He did not keep him waiting, as he did the rest of
the folk." Lane prefers "nor neglected him as men generally
would have done." But we are told supra that the baker "paid no
heed to the folk by reason of the dense crowd."

[FN#240] Arab. "Ruh!" the most abrupt form, whose sound is
coarse and offensive as the Turkish yell, "Gyel!"=come here.

[FN#241] Bresl. Edit. xi. 50-51.

[FN#242] Arab. "Adami"=an Adamite, one descended from the
mythical and typical Adam for whom see Philo Judaeus. We are
told in one place a few lines further on that the merman is of
humankind; and in another that he is a kind of fish (Night
dccccxlv). This belief in mermen, possible originating with the
caricatures of the human face in the intelligent seal and stupid
manatee, is universal. Al-Kazwini declares that a waterman with
a tail was dried and exhibited, and that in Syria one of them was
married to a woman and had by her a son "who understood the
languages of both his parents." The fable was refined to perfect
beauty by the Greeks: the mer-folk of the Arabs, Hindus and
Northerners (Scandinavians, etc) are mere grotesques with green
hair, etc. Art in its highest expression never left the shores
of the Mediterranean, and there is no sign that it ever will.

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