The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, vol 14 by Sir Richard Francis Burton (best book clubs .TXT) 📖

Egypt. “F�n�s.”

 

[FN#68] This Sultan of the Jann preceded by sweepers, flag-bearers and tent-pitchers always appears in the form of second-sight called by Egyptians “Darb al Mandal”=striking the magic circle in which the enchanter sits when he conjures up spirits. Lane (M. E. chapt. xii.) first made the “Cairo Magician”

famous in Europe, but Herklots and others had described a cognate practice in India many years before him.

 

[FN#69] Arab, “J�w�sh” for Ch�wush (vulg. Chiaush) Turk.=an army serjeant, a herald or serjeant at arms; an apparitor or officer of the Court of Chancery (not a “Mace-bearer or Messenger,”

Scott). See vol. vii. 327.

 

[FN#70] Arab. from Persian “B�m�rist�n,” a “sick-house,”

hospital, a madhouse: see vol. i. 288.

 

[FN#71] The text says only that “he was reading:” sub. the Holy Volume.

 

[FN#72] MS. vol. iii., pp. 142-168. Scott, “Story of the First Lunatic,” pp. 31 44. Gauttier, Histoire du Premier Fou, vol. vi.

187. It is identical with No. ii. of Chavis and Cazotte, translated by C. de Perceval, Le Bimaristan (i.e. the Hospital), ou Histoire du jeune Marchand de Bagdad et de la Dame inconnue (vol. viii. pp. 179-180). Heron terms it the “Story of Halechalbe (Ali Chelebi?) and the Unknown Lady,” and the narrative is provided with a host of insipid and incorrect details, such as “A gentleman enjoying his pipe.” The motif of this tale is common in Arab. folk lore, and it first appears in the “Tale of Az�z and Az�zah,” ii. 328. A third variant will occur further on.

 

[FN#73] Spelt in vol. iii. 143 and elsewhere, “Khw�j�” for “Khw�jah.”

 

[FN#74] Arab. “Hubban li-raasik,”=out of love for thy head, i.e.

from affection for thee. Dr. Steingass finds it analogous with the Koranic “Hubban li ‘llahi” (ii. 160), where it is joined with “Ashaddu”=stronger, as regards love to or for Allah, more Allah loving. But it can stand adverbially by itself=out of love for Allah, for Allah’s sake.

 

[FN#75] Arab. “Zahr,” lit. and generically a blossom; but often used in a specific sense throughout The Nights.

 

[FN#76] Arab. “Kursi” here=a square wooden seat without back and used for sitting cross-legged. See Suppl. vol. i. 9.

 

[FN#77] Arab. “Sujj�dah”=lit. a praying carpet, which Lane calls “Segg�deh.”

 

[FN#78] Arab. “Wak�l,” lit.=agent: here the woman’s representative, corresponding roughly with the man who gives away the bride amongst ourselves.

 

[FN#79] The mention of coffee and sherbet, here and in the next page, makes the tale synchronous with that of Ma’ar�f or the xviith. century.

 

[FN#80] The MS. writes “Zardak�t” for “Zardakh�n”: see below.

 

[FN#81] Scott (p. 36) has “mahazzim (for mah�zim), al Zerdukkaut (for al-Zardakh�n)” and “munnaskif (for man�shif) al fillfillee.”

Of the former he notes (p. 414) “What this composition is I cannot define: it may be translated compound of saffron, yoke of egg or of yellowish drugs.” He evidently confounds it with the Pers. Zard-i-Kh�yah=yoke of egg. Of the second he says “compound of peppers, red, white and black.” Lane (The Nights, vol. i. p.

8) is somewhat scandalised at such misrepresentation, translating the first “apron-napkins of thick silk,” and the second “drying towels of L�f or palm-fibre,” further suggesting that the text may have dropped a conjunction=drying towels and fibre.

 

[FN#82] Arab. “L�w�n al-barr�n�,” lit.=the outer bench in the “Maslahk” or apodyterium.

 

[FN#83] Arab. “Ma’j�n,” pop. applied to an electuary of Bhang (Cannabis sativa): it is the “Maagoon” sold by the “Maagungee” of Lane (M.E. chapt. xv.). Here, however, the term may be used in the sense of “confections” generally, the sweetmeats eaten by way of restoratives in the Bath.

 

[FN#84] He speaks of taking her maidenhead as if it were porter’s work and so defloration was regarded by many ancient peoples. The old Nilotes incised the hymen before congress; the Ph�nicians, according to Saint Athanasius, made a slave of the husband’s abate it. The American Chibchas and Caribs looked upon virginity as a reproach, proving that the maiden had never inspired love.

For these and other examples see p. 72, chap. iii. “L’Amour dans l’Humanit�,” by P. Mantegazza, a civilised and unprejudiced traveller.

 

[FN#85] Arab. “Zill,” lit. “shadow me.”

 

[FN#86] Arab. “Istinsh�k,” one of the items of the “Wuz�” or lesser ablution: see vol. v. 198.

 

[FN#87] In Chavis her name is “Zaliza” and she had “conceived an unhappy passion” for her master, to whom she “declared her sentiments without reserve.”

 

[FN#88] Arab. “Armagh�n�t,” the Arab. plur. of “Armagh�n,”

Pers.=a present.

 

[FN#89] In the text, “jumlatun min al-m�l,” which Scott apparently reads “Hamlat al-jamal” and translates (p. 38) “a camel’s load of treasure.”

 

[FN#90] The learned man was to exorcise some possible “evil spirit” or “the eye,” a superstition which seems to have begun, like all others, with the ancient Egyptians.

 

[FN#91] The MS., I have said, always writes “Khw�j�” instead of “Khw�jah” (plur. “Khw�jat”): for this word, the modern Egyptian “How�jah,” see vol. vi. 46. Here it corresponds with our “goodman.”

 

[FN#92] Arab. “Yataz�wad�”=increasing.

 

[FN#93] By which she accepted the offer.

 

[FN#94] This incident has already occurred in the tale of the Portress (Second Lady of Baghdad, vol. i. 179), but here the consequences are not so tragical. In Chavis the vulgar cock becomes “a golden Censer ornamented with diamonds, to be sold for two thousand sequins” (each=9 shill.).

 

[FN#95] A royal sign of wrath generally denoting torture and death. See vols. iv. 72; vi. 250.

 

[FN#96] Arab. “Y� Sall�m,” addressed to Allah.

 

[FN#97] Here more is meant than meets the eye. When a Moslem’s head was struck off, in the days of the Caliphate, it was placed under his armpit, whereas that of a Jew or a Christian was set between his legs, close to the seat of dishonour.

 

[FN#98] In Chavis and Cazotte the lady calls to “Morigen, her first eunuch, and says, Cut off his head!” Then she takes a theorbo and “composed the following couplets”—of which the first may suffice:

 

Since my swain unfaithful proves, Let him go to her he loves, etc., etc.

 

[FN#99] The device has already occurred in “Ali Baba.”

 

[FN#100] Arab. “Al-ma’h�d min ghayr wa’d.”

 

[FN#101] In Chavis and Cazotte the king is Harun al-Rashid and the masterfl young person proves to be Zeraida, the favourite daughter of Ja’afar Bermaki; whilst the go-between is not the young lady’s mother but Nemana, an old governess. The over-jealous husband in the Second Lady of Baghdad (vol. i. 179) is Al-Am�n, son and heir of the Caliph Marun al-Rashid.

 

[FN#102] Vol. iii. pp. 168-179: and Scott’s “Story of the Second Lunatic,” pp. 45-51. The name is absurdly given as the youth was anything but a lunatic; but this is Arab symmetromania. The tale is virtually the same as “Women’s Wiles,” in Supplemental Nights, vol. ii. 99-107.

 

[FN#103] This forward movement on the part of the fair one is held to be very insulting by the modest Moslem. This incident is wanting in “Women’s Wiles.”

 

[FN#104] Arab. “Labbah,” usually the part of the throat where ornaments are hung or camels are stabbed.

 

[FN#105] The chief of the Moslem Church. For the origin of the office and its date (A.D. 1453) see vols. ix. 289, and x. 81.

 

[FN#106] Arab. “Sat�hah”=a she-Satih: this seer was a headless and neckless body, with face in breast, lacking members and lying prostrate on the ground. His fellow, “Shikk,” was a half-man, and both foretold the divine mission of Mohammed. (Ibn Khall. i.

487.)

 

[FN#107] Arab. “Wakt al-Zuh�;” the division of time between sunrise and midday.

 

[FN#108] In the text “Sufrah”=the cloth: see vol. i. 178, etc.

 

[FN#109] Arab. “Ya Tinj�r,” lit.=O Kettle.

 

[FN#110] Arab. “Tari,” lit.=wet, with its concomitant suggestion, soft and pleasant like desert-rain.

 

[FN#111] Here meaning “Haste, haste!” See vol. i. 46.

 

[FN#112] The chief man (Agh�) of the Gypsies, the Jink of Egypt whom Turkish soldiers call Ghiovend�, a race of singers and dancers; in fact professional Nautch-girls. See p. 222, “Account of the Gypsies of India,” by David MacRitchie (London, K. Paul, 1886), a most useful manual.

 

[FN#113] Arab. “Kur�sh,” plur of. “Kirsh” (pron. “Girsh”), the Egyptian piastre=one-fifth of a shilling. The word may derive from Karsh=collecting money; but it is more probably a corruption of Groschen, primarily a great or thick piece of money and secondarily a small silver coin=3 kreuzers=1 penny.

 

[FN#114] The purse (“K�s”) is=500 piastres (kur�sh)=�5; and a thousand purses compose the Treasury (“Khaznah”)=�5,000.

 

[FN#115] MS. vol. iii. pp. 179-303. It is Scott’s “Story of the Retired Sage and his Pupil, related to the Sultan by the Second Lunatic,” vi. pp. 52-67; and Gauttier’s Histoire du Sage, vi.

199-2l4. The scene is laid in Cairo.

 

[FN#116] Meaning that he was an orphan and had, like the well-known widow, “seen better days.”

 

[FN#117] The phrase, I have noted, is not merely pleonastic: it emphasises the assertion that it was a chance day.

 

[FN#118] An old Plinian fable long current throughout the East.

It is the Pers. N�m-chihreh, and the Arab Shikk and possibly Nasn�s=nisf al-N�s (?) See vol. v. 333. Shikk had received from Allah only half the form of a man, and his rival diviner Sat�h was a shapeless man of flesh without limbs. They lived in the days of a woman named Tar�fah, daughter of Al-Khayr al-Himyar�

and wife of Amr� bin ‘Amir who was famous for having intercourse with the Jann. When about to die she sent for the two, on account of their deformity and the influence exercised upon them by the demons; and, having spat into their mouths, bequeathed to them her Jinni, after which she departed life and was buried at Al-Johfah. Presently they became noted soothsayers; Shikk had issue but Satih none; they lived 300 (some say 600) years, and both died shortly before the birth of the Prophet concerning whom they prophesied. When the Tobba of AlYaman dreamed that a dove flew from a holy place and settled in the Tih�mah (lowland-seaboard) of Meccah, Satih interpreted it to signify that a Prophet would arise to destroy idols and to teach the best of faiths. The two also predicted (according to Tabari) to Al-Rab�‘ah, son of Nasr, a Jewish king of Al-yaman, that the Habash (Abyssinians) should conquer the country, govern it, and be expelled, and after this a Prophet should arise amongst the Arabs and bring a new religion which all should embrace and which should endure until Doomsday. Compare this with the divining damsel in Acts xvi. 16-18.

 

[FN#119] Arab. “Kahram�nah;” the word has before been explained as a nurse, a duenna, an Amazon guarding the Harem. According to C. de Perceval (p�re) it was also the title given by the Abbasides to the Governess of the Serraglio.

 

[FN#120] So in the Apocrypha (“Tobias” vi. 8). Tobit is taught by the Archangel Raphael to drive away evil spirits (or devils) by the smoke of a bit of fish’s heart. The practice may date from the earliest days when “Evil Spirits” were created by man. In India, when Europeans deride the existence of Jinns and Rakshasas, and declare that they never saw one, the people receive this information with a smile which means only, “I should think not! you and yours are worse than any of our devils.”

 

[FN#121] An Inquisitorial costume called in the text “Sh�miy�t bi al-N�r.”

 

[FN#122] A tribe of the Jinn sometimes made synonymous with “M�rid” and at other times contrasted with these rebels, as in the Story of Ma’aruf and J. Scott’s “History of the Sultan of Hind” (vol. vi. 195). For another note see The Nights, iv. 88.

 

[FN#123] Arab. “‘Ilm al-Hur�f,” not to be confounded with the “‘Ilm al-Jumal,” or “His�b Al-Jumal,” a notation by numerical values of the alphabet. See Lumsden’s Grammar of