The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night
Chapter 90 : [FN#30] The usual delicate chaff.[FN#31] Such letters are generally written on a full-s

[FN#30] The usual delicate chaff.

[FN#31] Such letters are generally written on a full-sized sheet of paper ("notes" are held slighting in the East) and folded till the breadth is reduced to about one inch. The edges are gummed, the ink, much like our Indian ink, is smeared with the finger upon the signet ring; the place where it is to be applied is slightly wetted with the tongue and the seal is stamped across the line of junction to secure privacy. I have given a specimen of an original love-letter of the kind in "Scinde, or the Unhappy Valley," chaps. iv.

[FN#32] Arab. "Salb" which may also mean hanging, but the usual term for the latter in The Nights is "shanak." Crucifixion, abolished by the superst.i.tious Constantine, was practised as a servile punishment as late as the days of Mohammed Ali Pasha the Great e malefactors were nailed and tied to the patibulum or cross-piece without any sup pedaneum or foot-rest and left to suffer tortures from flies and sun, thirst and hunger. They often lived three days and died of the wounds mortifying and the nervous exhaustion brought on by cramps and convulsions. In many cases the corpses were left to feed the kites and crows; and this added horror to the death. Moslems care little for mere hanging.

Whenever a fanatical atrocity is to be punished, the malefactor should be hung in pig-skin, his body burnt and the ashes publicly thrown into a common cesspool.

[FN#33] Arab "Shaytan" the insolent or rebellious one is a common term of abuse. The word I. Koramc, and borrowed as usual from the Jews. "Satan" occurs four times in the O.T. of which two are in Job where, however, he is a subordinate angel.

[FN#34] Arab. "Alak" from the Koran xxii. 5. " O men...consider that we first created you of dust (Adam); afterwards of seed (Rodwell's "moist germs of life"); afterwards of a little coagulated (or clots of) blood." It refers to all mankind except Adam, Eve and Isa. Also chaps. xcvi. 2, which, as has been said was probably the first composed at Meccah. Mr. Rodwell (v. 10) translates by 'Servant of G.o.d" what should be "Slave of Allah,"

alluding to Mohammed's original name Abdullah. See my learned friend Aloys Sprenger, Leben, etc., i.155.

[FN#35] The Hindus similarly exaggerate: "He was ready to leap out of his skin in his delight" (Katha, etc., p. 443).

[FN#36] A star in the tail of the Great Bear, one of the "Banat al-Na'ash," or a star close to the second. Its princ.i.p.al use is to act foil to bright Sohayl (Canopus) as in the beginning of Jami's Layla-Majnun:--

To whom Thou'rt hid, day is darksome night: To whom shown, Soha as Sohayl is bright.

See also al-Hariri (x.x.xii. and x.x.xvi.). The saying, "I show her Soha and she shows me the moon" (A. P. i. 547) arose as follows.

In the Ignorance a beautiful Amazon defied any man to take her maidenhead; and a certain Ibn al-Ghazz won the game by struggling with her till she was nearly senseless. He then asked her, "How is thine eye-sight: dost thou see Soha?" and she, in her confusion, pointed to the moon and said, "That is it!"

[FN#37] The moon being masculine (lupus) and the sun feminine.

[FN#38] The "five Shaykhs" must allude to that number of Saints whose names are doubtful; it would be vain to offer conjectures.

Lane and his "Sheykh" (i. 617) have tried and failed.

[FN#39] The beauties of nature seem always to provoke hunger in Orientals, especially Turks, as good news in Englishmen.

[FN#40] Pers. "Lajuward": Arab. "Lazuward"; prob. the origin of our "azure," through the Romaic and the Ital. azzurro; and, more evidently still, of lapis lazuli, for which do not see the Dictionaries.

[FN#41] Arab. "Maurid." the desert-wells where caravans drink: also the way to water wells.

[FN#42] The famous Avicenna, whom the Hebrews called Aben Sina.

The early European Arabists, who seem to have learned Arabic through Hebrew, borrowed their corruption, and it long kept its place in Southern Europe.

[FN#43] According to the Hindus there are ten stages of love- sickness: (1) Love of the eyes (2) Attraction of the Manas or mind; (3) Birth of desire; (4) Loss of sleep; (5) Loss of flesh; (6) Indifference to objects of sense; (7) Loss of shame, (8) Distraction of thought (9) Loss of consciousness; and (10) Death.

[FN#44] We should call this walk of "Arab ladies" a waddle: I have never seen it in Europe except amongst the trading cla.s.ses of Trieste, who have a "wriggle" of their own.

[FN#45] In our idiom six doors.

[FN#46] They refrained from the highest enjoyment, intending to marry.

[FN#47] Arab. "Jihad," lit. fighting against something; Koranically, fighting against infidels non- believers in Al-lslam (chaps. Ix. 1). But the "Mujahidun" who wage such war are forbidden to act aggressively (ii. 186). Here it is a war to save a son.

[FN#48] The lady proposing extreme measures is characteristic: Egyptians hold, and justly enough, that their women are more amorous than men.

[FN#49] "O Camphor," an antiphrase before noticed. The vulgar also say "Ya Talji"=O snowy (our s...o...b..ll), the polite "Ya Abu Sumrah !" =O father of brownness.

[FN#50] i.e. which fit into sockets in the threshold and lintel and act as hinges. These hinges have caused many disputes about how they were fixed, for instance in caverns without moveable lintel or threshold. But one may observe that the upper projections are longer than the lower and that the door never fits close above, so by lifting it up the inferior pins are taken out of the holes. It is the oldest form and the only form known to the Ancients. In Egyptian the hinge is called Akab=the heel, hence the proverb Wakaf' al-bab ala 'akabin; the door standeth on its heel; i.e. every thing in proper place.

[FN#51] Hence the addresses to the Deity: Ya Satir and Ya Sattar- -Thou who veilest the sins of Thy Servants! said e.g., when a woman is falling from her donkey, etc.

[FN#52] A necessary precaution, for the headsman who would certainly lose his own head by overhaste.

[FN#53] The pa.s.sage has also been rendered, "and rejoiced him by what he said" (Lane i, 600).

[FN#54] Arab. "Hurr"=n.o.ble, independent (opp. to 'Abd=a servile) often used to express animae n.o.bilitas as in Acts xvii.

11; where the Ber?ans were "more n.o.ble" than the Thessalonians.

The Princess means that the Prince would not lie with her before marriage.

[FN#55] The Persian word is now naturalized as Anglo-Egypeian.

[FN#56] Arab. "kha.s.sat hu" = removed his t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es, gelded him.

[FN#57] Here ends the compound tale of Taj al-Muluk c.u.m Aziz plus Azizah, and we return to the history of King Omar's sons.

[FN#58] "Zibl" popularly p.r.o.nounced Zabal, means "dung." Khan is "Chief," as has been noticed; "Zabbal," which Torrens renders literally "dung-drawer," is one who feeds the Hammam with bois- de-vache, etc.

[FN#59] i.e one who fights the Jihad or "Holy War": it is equivalent to our "good knight."

[FN#60] Arab. "Malik." Azud al Daulah, a Sultan or regent under the Abbaside Caliph Al-Ta'i li 'llah (regn. A.H. 363-381) was the first to take the t.i.tle of "Malik." The latter in poetry is still written Malik.

[FN#61] A townlet on the Euphrates, in the "awwal Sham," or frontier of Syria.

[FN#62] i.e., the son would look to that.

[FN#63] A characteristic touch of Arab pathos, tender and true.

[FN#64] Arab. "Mawarid" from "ward" = resorting to pool or water- pit (like those of "Gakdul") for drinking, as opposed to "Sadr"=returning after having drunk at it. Hence the "Sadir"

(part. act.) takes precedence of the "Warid" in Al-Hariri (a.s.s.

of the Badawi).

[FN#65] One of the fountains of Paradise (Koran, chaps. Ixxvi.): the word lit. means "water flowing pleasantly down the throat."

The same chapter mentions "Zanjabil," or the Ginger-fount, which to the Infidel mind unpleasantly suggests "ginger pop."

[FN#66] Arab. "Takhil" = adorning with Kohl.

[FN#67] The allusions are far-fetched and obscure as in Scandinavian poetry. Mr. Payne (ii. 314) translates "Naml" by "net." I understand the ant (swarm) creeping up the cheeks, a common simile for a young beard. The lovers are in the Laza (h.e.l.l) of jealousy etc., yet feel in the Na'im (heaven) of love and robe in green, the hue of hope, each expecting to be the favoured one.

[FN#68] Arab. "Ukhuwan," the cla.s.sical term. There are two chamomiles, the white (Babunaj) and the yellow (Kaysun), these however are Syrian names and plants are differently called in almost every Province of Arabia

[FN#69] In nomadic life the parting of lovers happens so frequently that it become. a stock topic in poetry and often, as here, the lover complains of parting when he is not parted. But the gravamen lies in the word "Wasl" which may mean union, meeting, reunion Or coition. As Ka'ab ibn Zuhayr began his famous poem with "Su'ad hath departed," 900 imitators (says Al-Siyuti) adopted the Nasib or address to the beloved and Su'ad came to signify a cruel, capricious mistress.

[FN#70] As might be expected from a nation of camel-breeders actual cautery which can cause only counter-irritation, is a favourite nostrum; and the Hadis or prophetic saying is "Akhir al-dawa (or al-tibb) al-Kayy" = cautery is the end of medicine- cure; and "Fire and sickness cannot cohabit." Most of the Badawi bear upon their bodies grisly marks Of this heroic treatment, whose abuse not unfrequently brings on gangrene. The Hadis (Burckhardt, Proverbs, No. 30) also means "if nothing else avail, take violent measures.

[FN#71] The Spaniards have the same expression: "Man is fire and woman is tinder."

[FN#72] Arab. "Bas.h.i.+k" from Persian "Bashah" (accipiter Nisus) a fierce little species of sparrow-hawk which I have described in "Falconry in the Valley of the Indus" (p. 14, etc.).