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

Gauttier vol. i. pp. 134-139. Another and similar incident occurs in the “Nineteenth Vezir’s Story” (pp. 213-18 of the History of the Forty Vezirs, before alluded to): here Hasan of Basrah, an ‘Alim who died in A.H. 110 (=A.D. 728) saw in vision (the “drivel of dreams?”) folk of all conditions, sages, warriors and moon-faced maids seeking, but in vain, to release the sweet soul of the Prince who had perished.

 

[FN#249] Here, after Moslem fashion, the mother ranks before the wife: “A man can have many wives but only one mother.” The idea is old amongst Easterns: see Herodotus and his Christian commentators on the history of Intaphernes’ wife (Thalia, cap.

cxix). “O King,” said that lady of mind logical, “I may get me another mate if God will and other children an I lose these; but as my father and my mother are no longer alive, I may not by any means have another brother,” etc., etc.

 

[FN#250] In Galland the Histoire de Ganem, fils d’Abu A�oub, surnomm� l’esclave d’Amour, precedes Zayn al-Asn�m. In the Arab texts Ghanim bin Ayy�b, the Thrall o’ Love, occurs much earlier: see The Nights vol. ii. 45.

 

It is curious to compare the conclusions of these tales with the formula of the latest specimens, the Contes Arabes Modernes of Spitta-Bey, e.g. “And the twain lived together (p. iii.) and had sons and daughters (p. ii.), cohabiting with perfect harmony (f�

al-Kam�l pp.42, 79); and at last they died and were buried and so endeth the story” (wa khal�s p.161).

 

[FN#251] In Galland and his translators the Adventures of Khudadad and his Brothers is followed by the Histoire du Dormeur Eveill� which, as “The Sleeper and the Waker,” is to be found in the first of my Supplemental Volumes, pp. 1-29. After this the learned Frenchman introduced, as has been said, the Histoire de la Lampe merveilleuse or “Alaeddin” to which I have assigned, for reasons given in loco, a place before Khudadad.

 

[FN#252] i.e. Daddy Abdullah, the former is used in Pers., Turk.

and Hindostani for dad! dear! child! and for the latter, see vol.

v. 141.

 

[FN#253] Here the Arab. syn. of the Pers. “Darwaysh,” which Egyptians pronounce “Darw�sh.” In the Nile-valley the once revered title has been debased to an insult = “poor devil” (see Pigrimage i., pp. 20-22); “Fak�r” also has come to signify a Koran-chaunter.

 

[FN#254] To “Nakh” is to make the camel kneel. See vo!. ii. 139, and its references.

 

[FN#255] As a sign that he parted willingly with all his possessions.

 

[FN#256] Arab. “‘Ubb” prop.=the bulge between the breast and the outer robe which is girdled round the waist to make a pouch. See vol. viii. 205.

 

[FN#257] Thirst very justly takes precedence of hunger: a man may fast for forty days, but with out water in a tropical country he would die within a week. For a description of the horrors of thirst see my “First Footsteps in East Africa,” pp. 387-8.

 

[FN#258] In Galland it is Sidi Nouman; in many English translations, as in the “Lucknow” (Newul Kishore Press, 1880), it has become “Sidi Nonman.” The word has occurred in King Omar bin al-Nu’uman, vol. ii. 77 and 325, and vol. v. 74. For S�d� = my lord, see vol. v. 283; Byron, in The Corsair, ii. 2, seems to mistake it for “Sayyid.”

 

High in his hall reclines the turban’d Seyd, Around—the bearded chiefs he came to lead.

 

[FN#259] The Turco-English form of the Persian “Pul�o.”

 

[FN#260] i.e. the secure (fem.). It was the name of the famous concubine of Solomon to whom he entrusted his ring (vol. vi. 84), also of the mother of Mohammed who having taken her son to Al-Medinah (Yathrib) died on the return journey. I cannot understand why the Apostle of Al-Islam, according to his biographers and commentators, refused to pray for his parent’s soul, she having been born in Al-Fitrah (the interval between the fall of Christianity and the birth of Al-Islam), when he had not begun to preach his “dispensation.”

 

[FN#261] The cane-play: see vol. vi. 263.

 

[FN#262] Galland has une Goule, i.e., a Gh�lah, a she-Gh�l, an ogress. But the lady was supping with a male of that species, for which see vols. i. 55; vi. 36.

 

[FN#263] In the text “Waz�fah” prop. = a task, a stipend, a salary, but here = the “Farz” devotions which he considered to be his duty. In Spitta-Bey (loc. cit. p. 218) it is = duty, [FN#264] For this scene which is one of every day in the East; see Pilgrimage ii. pp. 52-54.

 

[FN#265] This hate of the friend of man is inherited from Jewish ancestors; and, wherever the Hebrew element prevails, the muzzle, which has lately made its appearance in London, is strictly enforced, as at Trieste. Amongst the many boons which civilisation has conferred upon Cairo I may note hydrophobia; formerly unknown in Egypt the dreadful disease has lately caused more than one death. In India sporadic cases have at rare times occurred in my own knowledge since 1845.

 

[FN#266] In Galland “Rougeau” = (for Rougeaud?) a red-faced (man), etc., and in the English version “Chance”: “Bakht” = luck, good fortune.

 

[FN#267] In the text “Sarr�f” = a money-changer. See vols. i.

210; iv. 270.

 

[FN#268] Galland has forgotten this necessary detail: see vol. i.

30 and elsewhere. In Lane’s story of the man metamorphosed to an ass, the old woman, “quickly covering her face, declared the fact.”

 

[FN#269] In the normal forms of this story, which Galland has told very badly, the maiden would have married the man she saved.

 

[FN#270] In other similar tales the injured one inflicts such penalty by the express command of his preserver who takes strong measures to ensure obedience.

 

[FN#271] In the more finished tales of the true “Nights” the mare would have been restored to human shape after giving the best security for good conduct in time to come.

 

[FN#272] i.e. Master Hasan the Ropemaker. Galland writes, after European fashion, “Hassan,” for which see vol. i. 251; and for “Khw�jah” vol. vi. 146. “Al-Habb�l” was the cognomen of a learned “H�fiz” (= traditionist and Koran reader), Ab� Ish�k Ibrahim, in Ibn Khall. ii. 262; for another see iv. 410.

 

[FN#273] “Sa’d” = prosperity and “Sa’d�’ ‘= prosperous, the surname of the “Persian moralist,” for whom see my friend F. F.

Arbuthnot’s pleasant booklet, “Persian Portraits” (London Quaritch, 1887).

 

[FN#274] This is true to nature as may be seen any day at Bombay The crows are equally audacious, and are dangerous to men Iying wounded in solitary places.

 

[FN#275] The Pers. “Gil-i-sar-sh��” (=head-washing clay), the Sindi “Met,” and the Arab “Tafl,” a kind of clay much used in Persian, Afghanistan, Sind, etc. Galland turns it into terre �

decrasser and his English translators into “scouring sand which women use in baths.” This argillaceous earth mixed with mustard oil is locally used for clay and when rose-leaves and perfumes are used, it makes a tolerable wash-ball. See “Scinde or The Unhappy Valley,” i. 31.

 

[FN#276] For the “Cowrie” (Cypr�a moneta) see vol. iv. 77. The B�d�m or B�d�m (almond) used by way of small change in India, I have noted elsewhere.

 

[FN#277] Galland has “un morceau de plomb,” which in the Hind�

text becomes “Sh�shahk�pays�” = a (pice) small coin of glass: the translator also terms it a “Faddah,” for which see Nusf (alias “Nuss”), vols. ii. 37, vi. 214 and ix. 139, 167. Glass tokens, by way of coins, were until late years made at Hebron, in Southern Syria.

 

[FN#278] For the “T�k” or “T�kah” = the little wall-niche, see vol. vii. 361.

 

[FN#279] In the French and English versions the coin is a bit of lead for weighting the net. For the “Pays�” (pice) = two farthings, and in weight = half an ounce, see Herklot’s Glossary, p. xcviii.

 

[FN#280] In the text “bilisht” = the long span between thumb-tip and minimus-tip. Galland says long plus d’une coud�e et gros �

proportion.

 

[FN#281] For the diamond (Arab. “Alm�s” from {Greek}, and in Hind.

“H�ra” and “Pann�”) see vols. vi. 15, i. ix. 325, and in latter correct, “Euritic,” a misprint for “dioritic.” I still cannot believe diamond-cutting to be an Indian art, and I must hold that it was known to the ancients. It could not have been an unpolished stone, that “Adamas notissimus” which according to Juvenal (vi. 156) Agrippa gave to his sister. Maundeville (A.D.

1322) has a long account of the mineral, “so hard that no man can polish it,” and called Hamese (“Alm�s?”). For Mr. Petrie and his theory, see vol. ix. 325. In most places where the diamond has been discovered of late years it had been used as a magic stone, e.g., by the Pag�s or medicine-men of the Brazil, or for children’s playthings, which was the case with the South-African “Caffres.”

 

[FN#282] These stones, especially the carbuncle, which give out dight in darkness are a commonplace of Eastern folk-lore. For luminous jewels in folk-lore, see Mr. Clouston (i. 412): the belief is not wholly extinct in England, and I have often heard of it in the Brazil and upon the African Gaboon. It appears to me that there may be a basis of fact to tints fancy, the abnormal effect of precious stones upon mesmeric “sensitives.”

 

[FN#283] The chimney and chimney-piece of Galland are not Eastern: the H. V. uses “Bukh�r�” = a place for steaming.

 

[FN#284] i.e. “Rachel.”

 

[FN#285] In the text “lakh,” the Anglicised “lac” = 100,000.

 

[FN#286] This use of camphor is noted by Gibbon (D. and F. iii.

195).

 

[FN#287] ” b o haw�” = climate: see vol. ii. 4.

 

[FN#288] Galland makes this article a linen cloth wrapped about the skull-cap or core of the turban.

 

[FN#289] Mr. Coote ( loc. cit. p. 185) is unable to produce a puramythe containing all of “Ali B�ba;” but, for the two leading incidents he quotes from Prof. Sakellarios two tales collected in Cyprus One is Morgiana marking the village doors (p. 187), which has occurred doubtless a hundred times. The other, in the “Story of Drakos,” is an ogre, hight “Three Eyes,” who attempts the rescue of his wife with a party of blackamoors packed in bales and these are all discovered and slain.

 

[FN#290] Dans la for�t, says Galland.

 

[FN#291] Or “Samsam,” The grain = Sesamum Orientale: hence the French, Sesame, ouvre-toi! The term is cabalistical, like S�lem, S�lam or Sh�lam in the Directorium Vit Human of Johannes di Capu�: Inquit vir: Ibam in nocte plenilunii et ascendebam super domum ubi furari intendebam, et accedens ad fenestram ubi radii lune ingrediebantur, et dicebam hanc coniurationem, scilicet sulem sulem, septies, deinde amplectebar lumen lune et sine lesione descendebam ad domum, etc. (pp. 24-25) par Joseph Derenbourg, Membre de l’Institut 1re Fascicule, Paris, F. Vieweg, 67, Rue de Richelieu, 1887.

 

[FN#292] In the text “Jath�ni” = the wife of an elder brother.

Hindostani, like other Eastern languages, is rich in terms for kinship whereof English is so exceptionally poor. Mr. Francis Galtson, in his well-known work, “Hereditary Genius,” a misnomer by the by for “HeredTalent,” felt this want severely and was at pains to supply it.

 

[FN#293]In the text “Thag,” our English “Thug,” often pronounced moreover by the Briton with the sibilant “th.” It means simply a cheat: you say to your servant “T� bar� Thag hai” = thou art a precious rascal; but it has also the secondary meaning of robber, assassin, and the tertiary of Bhaw�ni-worshippers who offer indiscriminate human sacrifices to the De�ss of Destruction. The word and the thing have been made popular in England through the “Confessions of a