The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night
Chapter 92 : [FN#118] These are the signs of a Shaykh's tent.[FN#119] These questions, indiscre

[FN#118] These are the signs of a Shaykh's tent.

[FN#119] These questions, indiscreet in Europe, are the rule throughout Arabia, as they were in the United States of the last generation.

[FN#120] Arab. "Khizab" a paste of quicklime and lamp-black kneaded with linseed oil which turns the Henna to a dark olive.

It is hideously ugly to unaccustomed eyes and held to be remarkably beautiful in Egypt.

[FN#121] i.e. the G.o.d of the Empyrean.

[FN#122] A blow worthy of the Sa'alabah tribe to which he belonged.

[FN#123] i.e. "benefits"; also the name of Mohammed's Mu'ezzin, or crier to prayer, who is buried outside the Jabiah gate of Damascus. Hence amongst Moslems, Abyssinians were preferred as mosque-criers in the early ages of Al-Islam. Egypt chose blind men because they were abundant and cheap; moreover they cannot take note of what is doing on the adjoining roof terraces where women and children love to pa.s.s the cool hours that begin and end the day. Stories are told of men who counterfeited blindness for years in order to keep the employment. In Moslem cities the stranger required to be careful how he appeared at a window or on the gallery of a minaret: the people hate to be overlooked and the whizzing of a bullet was the warning to be off. (Pilgrimage iii. 185.)

[FN#124] His instinct probably told him that this opponent was a low fellow but such insults are common when "renowning it."

[FN#125] Arab. "Dare' " or "Dira'," a habergeon, a coat of ring- mail, sometimes worn in pairs. During the wretched "Sudan"

campaigns much nave astonishment was expressed by the English Press to hear of warriors armed cap-a-pie in this armour like medieval knights. They did not know that every great tribe has preserved, possibly from Crusading times, a number of hauberks, even to hundreds. I have heard of only one English traveller who had a mail jacket made by Wilkinson of Pall Mall, imitating in this point Napoleon III. And (according to the Banker-poet, Rogers) the Duke of Wellington. That of Napoleon is said to have been made of platinum-wire, the work of a Pole who received his money and an order to quit Paris. The late Sir Robert Clifton (they say) tried its value with a Colt after placing it upon one of his coat-models or mannequins. It is easy to make these hauberks arrow-proof or sword-proof, even bullet-proof if Arab gunpowder be used: but against a modern rifle-cone they are worse than worthless as the fragments would be carried into the wound.

The British serjeant was right in saying that he would prefer to enter battle in his s.h.i.+rt: and he might even doff that to advantage and return to the primitive custom of man--gymnomachy.

[FN#126] Arab. "Jamal" (by Badawin p.r.o.nounced "Gamal" like the Hebrew) is the generic term for "Camel" through the Gr. : "Ibl" is also the camel-species but not so commonly used. "Hajin"

is the dromedary (in Egypt, "Dalul" in Arabia), not the one- humped camel of the zoologist (C. dromedarius) as opposed to the two-humped (C. Bactria.n.u.s), but a running i.e. a riding camel.

The feminine is Nakah for like mules females are preferred.

"Bakr" (masc.) and "Bakrah" (fem.) are camel-colts. There are hosts of special names besides those which are general. Mr.

Censor is singular when he states (p.40) "the male (of the camel) is much the safer animal to choose ;" and the custom of t e universal Ease disproves his a.s.sertion. Mr. McCoan ("Egypt as it is") tells his readers that the Egyptian camel has two humps, in fact, he describes the camel as it is not.

[FN#127] So, in the Romance of Dalhamah (Zat al-Himmah, the heroine the hero Al-Gundubah ("one locust-man") smites off the head of his mother's servile murderer and cries, I have taken my blood-revenge upon this traitor slave'" (Lane, M. E. chaps. xx iii.)

[FN#128] This gathering all the persons upon the stage before the curtain drops is highly artistic and improbable.

[FN#129] He ought to have said his dawn prayers.

[FN#130] Here begins what I hold to be the oldest subject matter in The Nights, the apologues or fables proper; but I reserve further remarks for the Terminal Essay. Lane has most objectionably thrown this and sundry of the following stories into a note (vol. ii., pp. 53-69).

[FN#131] In beast stories generally when man appears he shows to disadvantage.

[FN#132] Shakespeare's "stone bow" not Lane's "cross-bow" (ii.

53).

[FN#133] The goad still used by the rascally Egyptian donkey-boy is a sharp nail at the end of a stick; and claims the special attention of societies for the protection of animals.

[FN#134] "The most ungrateful of all voices surely is the voice of a.s.ses" (Koran x.x.xi. 18); and hence the "braying of h.e.l.l"

(Koran Ixvii.7). The vulgar still believe that the donkey brays when seeing the Devil. "The last animal which entered the Ark with Noah was the a.s.s to whose tail Iblis was clinging. At the threshold the a.s.s seemed troubled and could enter no further when Noah said to him:--"Fie upon thee! come in." But as the a.s.s was still troubled and did not advance Noah cried:--"Come in, though the Devil be with thee!", so the a.s.s entered and with him Iblis.

Thereupon Noah asked:--"O enemy of Allah who brought thee into the Ark ?", and Iblis answered:--"Thou art the man, for thou saidest to the a.s.s, ?come in though the Devil be with thee!"

(Kitab al-Unwan fi Makaid al-Niswan quoted by Lane ii. 54).

[FN#135] Arab. "Rihl," a wooden saddle stuffed with straw and matting. In Europe the a.s.s might complain that his latter end is the sausage. In England they say no man sees a dead donkey: I have seen dozens and, unfortunately, my own.

[FN#136] The English reader will not forget Sterne's old mare.

Even Al-Hariri, the prince of Arab rhetoricians, does not distain to use "pepedit," the effect being put for the cause--terror. But Mr. Preston (p. 285) and polite men translate by "fled in haste"

the Arabic farted for fear."

[FN#137] This is one of the lucky signs and adds to the value of the beast. There are some fifty of these marks, some of them (like a spiral of hair in the breast which denotes that the rider is a cuckold) so ill-omened that the animal can be bought for almost nothing. Of course great attention is paid to colours, the best being the dark rich bay ("red" of Arabs) with black points, or the flea-bitten grey (termed Azrak=blue or Akhzar=green) which whitens with age. The worst are dun, cream coloured, piebald and black, which last are very rare. Yet according to the Mishkat al- Masabih (Lane 2, 54) Mohammed said, ?The best horses are black (dark brown?) with white blazes (Arab. "Ghurrah") and upper lips; next, black with blaze and three white legs (bad, because white- hoofs are brittle):next, bay with white blaze and white fore and hind legs." He also said, "Prosperity is with sorrel horses;" and praised a sorrel with white forehead and legs; but he dispraised the "s.h.i.+kal," which has white stockings (Arab. "Muhajjil") on alternate hoofs (e.g. right hind and left fore). The curious reader will consult Lady Anne Blunt's "Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates, with some Account of the Arabs and their Horses"

(1879); but he must remember that it treats of the frontier tribes. The late Major Upton also left a book "Gleanings from the Desert of Arabia" (1881); but it is a marvellous production deriving e.g. Khayl (a horse generically) from Kohl or antimony (p. 275). What the Editor was dreaming of I cannot imagine. I have given some details concerning the Arab horse especially in Al-Yaman, among the Zu Mohammed, the Zu Husayn and the Banu Yam in Pilgrimage iii. 270. As late as Marco Polo's day they supplied the Indian market via Aden; but the "Eye o Al-Yaman" has totally lost the habit of exporting horses.

[FN#138] The shovel-iron which is the only form of spur.

[FN#139] Used for the dromedary: the baggage-camel is haltered.

[FN#140] Arab. "Harwalah," the pas gymnastique affected when circ.u.mambulating the Ka'abah (Pilgrimage iii. 208).

[FN#141] "This night" would be our "last night": the Arabs, I repeat, say "night and day," not "day and night."

[FN#142] The vulgar belief is that man's fate is written upon his skull, the sutures being the writing.

[FN#143] Koran ii. 191.

[FN#144] Arab. "Tasbih"=saying, "Subhan' Allah." It also means a rosary (Egypt. Sebhah for Subhah) a string of 99 beads divided by a longer item into sets of three and much fingered by the would- appear pious. The professional devotee carries a string of wooden b.a.l.l.s the size of pigeons' eggs.

[FN#145] The pigeon is usually made to say, ' "Wahhidu Rabba-k.u.mu ''llazi khalaka-k.u.m, yaghfiru lak.u.m zamba-k.u.m" = "Unify (a.s.sert the Unity of) your Lord who created you; so shall He forgive your sin!" As might be expected this "language" is differently interpreted. Pigeon-superst.i.tions are found in all religions and I have noted (Pilgrimage iii, 218) how the Hindu deity of Destruction- reproduction, the third Person of their Triad, s.h.i.+va and his Spouse (or active Energy), are supposed to have dwelt at Meccah under the t.i.tles of Kapoteshwara (Pigeon-G.o.d) and Kapotes.h.i.+ (Pigeon-G.o.ddess).

[FN#146] I have seen this absolute horror of women amongst the Monks of the Coptic Convents.

[FN#147] After the Day of Doom, when men's actions are registered, that of mutual retaliation will follow and all creatures (brutes included) will take vengeance on one another.

[FN#148] The Comrades of the Cave, famous in the Middle Ages of Christianity (Gibbon chaps. x.x.xiii.), is an article of faith with Moslems, being part subject of chapter xviii., the Koranic Surah termed the Cave. These Rip Van Winkle-tales begin with Endymion so famous amongst the Cla.s.sics and Epimenides of Crete who slept fifty-seven years; and they extend to modern days as La Belle au Bois dormant. The Seven Sleepers are as many youths of Ephesus (six royal councillors and a shepherd, whose names are given on the authority of Ali); and, accompanied by their dog, they fled the persecutions of Dakia.n.u.s (the Emperor Decius) to a cave near Tarsus in Natolia where they slept for centuries. The Caliph Mu'awiyah when pa.s.sing the cave sent into it some explorers who were all killed by a burning wind. The number of the sleepers remains uncertain, according to the Koran (ibid. v. 21) three, five or seven and their sleep lasted either three hundred or three hundred and nine years. The dog (ibid. v. 17) slept at the cave-entrance with paws outstretched and, according to the general, was called "Katmir" or "Kitmir;" but Al-Rakim (v. 8) is also applied to it by some. Others hold this to be the name of the valley or mountain and others of a stone or leaden tablet on which their names were engraved by their countrymen who built a chapel on the spot (v. 20). Others again make the Men of Al-Rakim distinct from the Cave-men, and believe (with Bayzawi) that they were three youths who were shut up in a grotto by a rock-slip.

Each prayed for help through the merits of some good deed: when the first had adjured Allah the mountain cracked till light appeared; at the second pet.i.tion it split so that they saw one another and after the third it opened. However that may be, Kitmir is one of the seven favoured animals: the others being the Hudhud (hoopoe) of Solomon (Koran xxii. 20); the she-camel of Salih (chaps. Ix.x.xvii.); the cow of Moses which named the Second Surah; the fish of Jonah; the serpent of Eve, and the peac.o.c.k of Paradise. For Koranic revelations of the Cave see the late Thomas Chenery (p. 414 The a.s.semblies of Al-Hariri: Williams and Norgate, 1870) who borrows from the historian Tabari.

[FN#149] These lines have occurred in Night cxlvi.: I quote Mr.

Payne by way of variety.

[FN#150] The wolf (truly enough to nature) is the wicked man without redeeming traits; the fox of Arab folk-lore is the cunning man who can do good on occasion. Here the latter is called "Sa'alab" which may, I have noted, mean the jackal; but further on "Father of a Fortlet" refers especially to the fox.

Herodotus refers to the gregarious Canis Aureus when he describes Egyptian wolves as being "not much bigger than foxes" (ii. 67).

Canon Rawlinson, in his unhappy version, does not perceive that the Halicarna.s.sian means the jackal and blunders about the hyena.

[FN#151] The older "Leila" or "Leyla": it is a common name and is here applied to woman in general. The root is evidently "layl"=nox, with, probably, the idea, "She walks in beauty like the night."

[FN#152] Arab. Abu 'l-Hosayn; his hole being his fort (Unexplored Syria, ii. 18).

[FN#153] A Koranic phrase often occurring.

[FN#154] Koran v. 35.

[FN#155] Arab. "Bazi," Pers. "Baz" (here Richardson is wrong s.v.); a term to a certain extent generic, but specially used for the n.o.ble Peregrine (F. Peregrinator) whose tiercel is the Shahin (or "Royal Bird"). It is sometimes applied to the goshawk (Astur palumbarius) whose proper t.i.tle, however, is Shah-baz (King-hawk). The Peregrine extends from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin and the best come from the colder parts: in Iceland I found that the splendid white bird was sometimes trapped for sending to India. In Egypt "Bazi" is applied to the kite or buzzard and "Hidyah" (a kite) to the falcon (Burckhardt's Prov.

159, 581 and 602). Burckhardt translates "Hidayah," the Egyptian corruption, by "an ash-grey falcon of the smaller species common throughout Egypt and Syria."

[FN#156] Arab. "Hijl," the bird is not much prized in India because it feeds on the roads. For the s.h.i.+nnar (caccabis) or magnificent partridge of Midian as large as a pheasant, see "Midian Revisted" ii. 18.

[FN#157] Arab. "Suf;" hence "Sufi,"=(etymologically) one who wears woollen garments, a devotee, a Santon; from =wise; from =pure, or from Safa=he was pure. This is not the place to enter upon such a subject as "Tasawwuf," or Sufyism; that singular reaction from arid Moslem realism and materialism, that immense development of gnostic and Neo-platonic transcendentalism which is found only germinating in the Jewish and Christian creeds. The poetry of Omar-i-Khayyam, now familiar to English readers, is a fair specimen; and the student will consult the last chapter of the Dabistan "On the religion of the Sufiahs."

The first Moslem Sufi was Abu Has.h.i.+m of Kufah, ob. A. H. 150=767, and the first Convent of Sufis called "Takiyah" (Pilgrimage i.

124) was founded in Egypt by Saladin the Great.