The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, vol 13 by Sir Richard Francis Burton (summer reading list txt) 📕

pp. 448-461), owned by Trubner &

Co., and edited by my friend Clements Markham, and I only regret that this able Magazine has been extinguished by that dullest of Journals, “Porceedings of the R. S. S. and monthly record of Geography.”

 

[FN#41] Galland has un tremblement pareil � celui qu’Israfyel (Isr�f�l) doit causer le jour du jugement.

 

[FN#42] The idea is Lady M. W. Montague’s (“The Lady’s Resolve.”)

 

In part she is to blame that has been tried: He comes too near that comes to be denied.

 

As an unknown correspondent warns me the sentiment was probably suggested by Sir Thomas Overbury (“A Wife.” St. xxxvi):—

 

—In part to blame is she Which hath without consent bin only tride: He comes too near that comes to be denide.

 

[FN#43] These highly compromising magical articles are of many kinds. The ballad of The Boy and the Mantle is familiar to all, how in the case of Sir Kay’s lady:—

 

When she had tane the mantle

With purpose for to wear; It shrunk up to her shoulder

And left her backside bare.

Percy, Vol. I., i and Book III.

 

Percy derives the ballad from “Le COurt Mantel,” an old French piece and Mr. Evans (Specimens of Welsh Poetry) from an ancient MS, of Tegan Earfron, one of Arthur’s mistresses, who possessed a mantle which would not fit immodest women. See also in Spenser, Queen Florimel’s Girdle (F.Q. iv. 5,3), and the detective is a horn in the Morte d’Arthur, translated from the French, temp.

Edward IV., and first printed in A. D. 1484. The Spectator (No.

579) tells us “There was a Temple upon Mount Etna which was guarded by dogs of so exquisite a smell, that they could discover whether the Persons who came thither were chaste or not;” and that they caused, as might be expected, immense trouble. The test-article becomes in the Tuti-n�meh the Tank of Trial at Agra; also a nosegay which remains fresh or withers; in the Kath� Sarit S�gara, the red lotus of Shiva; a shirt in Story lxix. Gesta Romanorum; a cup in Ariosto; a rose-garland in “The Wright’s Chaste WIfe,” edited by Mr. Furnival for the Early English Text Society; a magic picture in Bandello, Part I., No. 21; a ring in the Pentamerone, of Basile; and a distaff in “L’Adroite Princesse,” a French imitation of the latter.

 

[FN#44] Looking glasses in the East are mostly made, like our travelling mirrors, to open and shut.

 

[FN#45] In Eastern countries the oarsman stands to his work and lessens his labour by applying his weight which cannot be done so forcibly when sitting even upon the sliding-seat. In rowing as in swimming we have forsaken the old custom and have lost instead of gaining.

 

[FN#46] I have explained this word in vol. iii. 100; viii. 51, etc., and may add the interpretation of Mr. L. C. Casartelli (p.

17) “La Philosophie Religieuse du Mazd�isme, etc., Paris Maisonneuve, 1884.” “A divine name, which has succeeded little (?) is the ancient title Bagh, the O. P. Baga of the Cuneiforms (Baga vazraka Auramazda, etc.) and the Bagha of the Avesta, whose memory is preserved in Baghdad—the city created by the Gods (?).

The Pahlevi books show the word in the compound Bagh�bakht, lit.

= what is granted by the Gods, popularly, Providence.”

 

[FN#47] The H. V. makes the old woman a “finished procuress whose skill was unrivalled in that profession.”

 

[FN#48] In the text “Al-S�d� w’al-Gh�d�:” the latter may mean those who came for the morning meal.

 

[FN#49] An antistes, a leader in prayer (vols. ii. 203, and iv.

227); a reverend, against whom the normal skit is directed. The H. V. makes him a Muezzin, also a Mosque-man; and changes his name to Murad. Im�m is a word with a host of meanings, e.g., model (and master), a Sir-Oracle, the Caliph, etc., etc.

 

[FN#50] i.e. being neighbours they would become to a certain extent answerable for the crimes committed within the quarter.

 

[FN#51] Arab. “Nakshat” and “Sifrat.”

 

[FN#52] Arab. “Faraj�yah,” for which see vol. i. 210, 321.

 

[FN#53] For this aphrodisiac see vol. vi. 60.

 

[FN#54] In the text “Ay ni’am,” still a popular expression.

 

[FN#55] Arab. “‘Ilm al-H�ah,” gen. translated Astrology, but here meaning scientific Physiognomy. All these branches of science, including Palmistry, are nearly connected; the features and the fingers, mounts, lines, etc. being referred to the sun, moon and planets.

 

[FN#56] Arab. “Mihaffah bi-takhtraw�n”: see vols. ii. 180; v.

175.

 

[FN#57] The H. V. is more explicit: “do not so, or the King of the Jann will slay thee even before thou canst enjoy her and will carry her away.”

 

[FN#58] Arab. “Shahwah” the rawest and most direct term. The Moslem religious has no absurd shame of this natural passion. I have heard of a Persian Imam, who, suddenly excited as he was sleeping in a friend’s house, awoke the master with, “Shahwah d�ram” = “I am lustful” and was at once gratified by a “Mut’ah,”

temporary and extempore marriage to one of the slave-girls. These morganatic marriages are not, I may note, allowed to the Sunnis.

 

[FN#59] Arab. “Min ba’di an” for “Min ba’di m�” = after that, still popular in the latter broad form.

 

[FN#60] The word has been used in this tale with a threefold sense Egypt, old Cairo (Fostat) and new Cairo, in fact to the land and to its capital for the time being.

 

[FN#61] Arab. “Kabbaltu” = I have accepted, i.e., I accept emphatically. Arabs use this form in sundry social transactions, such as marriages, sales, contracts, bargains, and so forth, to denote that the engagement is irrevocable and that no change can be made. De Sacy neglected to note this in his Grammar, but explains it in his Chrestomathy (i. 44, 53), and rightly adds that the use of this energetic form peut-�tre serait susceptible d’applications plus �tendues.

 

[FN#62] La nuit de l’entr�e, say the French: see Lane “Leylet ed-dukhlah” (M.E. chapt. vi.).

 

[FN#63] This MS. uses “Mil�h” (pleasant) for “Mub�h”

(permitted). I must remark, before parting with Zayn al-Asnam, that its object is to inculcate that the price of a good wife is “far above rubies” (Prov. xxxi. 10: see the rest of this fine chapter), a virtuous woman being “a crown to her husband” (ibid.

xxii. 4); and “a prudent wife is from the Lord” (Prov. xix. 4).

The whole tale is told with extreme delicacy and the want of roughness and energy suggests a European origin.

 

[FN#64] i.e. the “Height or Glory (‘Al�) of the Faith (al-D�n)”

pron. Al�addeen; which is fairly represented by the old form “Aladdin;” and better by De Sacy’s “Alaeddin.” The name has occurred in The Nights, vol. iv. 29-33; it is a household word in England and who has not heard of THomas Hood’s “A-lad-in?”

Easterns write it in five different ways and in the Paris MS. it is invariably “�Al� al-d�n,” which is a palpable mistake. The others are (1) ‘Al� al-D�n, (2) ‘Al� yad�n, (3) ‘Alah D�n in the H. V. and (4) ‘Al�a al-D�n (with the Hamzah), the last only being grammatical. In Galland the Histoire de la Lampe merveilleuse is preceded by the Histoire du Dormeur Eveill� which, being “The Story of Ab� al-Hasan the Wag, or the Sleeper awakened,” of the Bresl. Edit. (Nights cclxxi.-ccxc.), is here omitted. The Alaeddin Story exists in germ in Tale ii. of the “Dravidian Nights Entertainments,” (Madana Kamara-Sank�d�j), by Pandit S. M.

Natisa Shastri (Madras, 1868, and London, Tr�bner). We are told by Mr. Coote that it is well represented in Italy. The Messina version is by Pitt�, “La Lanterna Magica,” also the Palermitan “Lanterne;” it is “Il Matrimonio di Cajussi” of Rome (R. H.

Busk’s Folklore); “Il Gallo e il Mago,” of Visentini’s “Fiabe Mantovane,” and the “Pesciolino,” and “Il Contadino che aveva tre F�gli,” of Imbriana. In “La Fanciulla c il Mago,” of De Gubernatis (“Novelline di Sante Stefano de Calcenaja,” p. 47), occurs the popular incident of the original. “The Magician was not a magician for nothing. He feigned to be a hawker and fared through the streets, crying out, ‘Donne, donne, chi baratta anelli di ferro contra anelli di argento?’”

 

Alaeddin has ever been a favourite with the stage. Early in the present century it was introduced to the Parisian opera by M.

Etienne, to the Feydeau by Th�aulon’s La Clochette: to the Gymnase by La Petite-Lampe of M. Scribe and Melesville, and to teh Panorama Dramatique by MM. Merle, Cartouche and Saintine (Gauttier, vii. 380).

 

[FN#65] This MS. always uses D�n�rz�d like Galland.

 

[FN#66] Arab. “�Abadan,” a term much used in this MS. and used correctly. It refers always and only to future time, past being denoted by “Kattu” from Katta = he cut (in breadth, as opposed to Kadda=he cut lengthwise). See De Sacy, Chrestom. ii. 443.

 

[FN#67] In the text “Ibn m�n,” a vulgarism for “man.” Galland adds that the tailor’s name was Mustapha—i y avait un tailleur nomm� Mustafa.

 

[FN#68] In classical Arabic the word is “Maghribi,” the local form of the root Gharaba= he went far away (the sun), set, etc., whence “Maghribi”=a dweller in the Sunset-land. The vulgar, however, prefer “Maghrab” and “Maghrabi,” of which foreigners made “Mogrebin.” For other information see vols. vi. 220; ix. 50.

The “Moormen” are famed as magicians; so we find a Maghrabi Sahh�r=wizard, who by the by takes part in a transformation scene like that of the Second Kalandar (vol. i. p. 134, The Nights), in p. 10 of Spitta Bey’s “Contes Arabes Modernes,” etc. I may note that “Sihr,” according to Jauhari and Firoz�b�di=anything one can hold by a thin or subtle place, i.e., easy to handle. Hence it was applied to all sciences, “Sahh�r” being=to ‘Alim (or sage) .

and the older Arabs called poetry “Sihar al-hal�l”—lawful magic.

 

[FN#69] i.e. blood is thicker than water, as the Highlanders say.

 

[FN#70] A popular saying amongst Moslems which has repeatedly occurred in The Nights. The son is the “lamp of a dark house.”

Vol. ii 280.

 

[FN#71] Out of respect to his brother, who was probably the senior: the H. V. expressly says so.

 

[FN#72] Al-Marh�m = my late brother. See vol. ii. 129, 196.

 

[FN#73] This must refer to Cairo not to Al-Medinah whose title is “Al-Munawwarah” = the Illumined.

 

[FN#74] A picturesque term for birth-place.

 

[FN#75] In text “Y� R�jul” (for Rajul) = O man, an Egypto-Syrian form, broad as any Doric.

 

[FN#76] Arab. Sh�f-hu, the colloquial form of Shuf-hu [FN#77] For the same sentiment see “Juln�r” the “Sea born,”

Nights dccxliii.-xliv.

 

[FN#78] “I will hire thee a shop in the Chauk”—Carfax or market-street says the H. V.

 

[FN#79] The MS. writes the word Khw�j� (for Khw�jah see vol. vi.

46). Here we are at once interested in the scapegrace who looked Excelsior. In fact the tale begins with a strong inducement to boyish vagabondage and scampish indolence; but the Moslem would see in it the hand of Destiny bringing good out of evil. Amongst other meanings of “Khw�jah ” it is a honorific title given by Khor�s�nis to their notables. In Arab. the similarity of the word to “Khuw�j”=hunger, has given rise to a host of conceits, more or less frigid (Ibn Khallik�n, iii. 45).

 

[FN#80] Arab. “W�hid min al-Tujj�r,” the very vulgar style.

 

[FN#81] i.e., the Saturday (see vol. ii. 305) established as a God’s rest by the so-called “Mosaic” commandment No. iv. How it gradually passed out of observance, after so many centuries of most stringent application, I cannot discover: certainly the text in Cor. ii. 16-17 is insufficient to abolish or supersede an order given with such singular majesty and impressiveness by God and