The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, vol 9 by Sir Richard Francis Burton (ebook reader library .TXT) 📕

[FN#113] Lit. “lowering the wings,” see supra p. 33.

[FN#114] .i.e. friends and acquaintances.

[FN#115] Arab. “Ham�dah”=praiseworthy or satisfactory.

[FN#116] Not only alluding to the sperm of man and beast, but also to the “Neptunist” doctrine held by the ancient Greeks and Hindus and developed in Europe during the last century.

[FN#117] Arab. “Taks�m” dividing into parts, analysis.

[FN#118] this is the usual illogical contention of all religions.

It is not the question whether an Almighty Being can do a given thing: the question is whether He has or has not done it.

[FN#119] Upon the old simile of the potter I shall have something to say in a coming volume.

[FN#120] A fine specimen of a peculiarity in the undeveloped mind of man, the universal confusion between things objective as a dead body and states of things as death. We begin by giving a name, for facility of intercourse, to phases, phenomena and conditions of matter; and, having created the word we proceed to supply it with a fanciful entity, e.g. “The Mind (a useful term to express the aggregate action of the brain, nervous system etc.) of man is immortal.” The next step is personification as Time with his forelock, Death with his skull and Night (the absence of light) with her starry mantle. For poetry this abuse of language is a sine qua non, but it is deadly foe to all true philosophy.

[FN#121] Christians would naturally understand this “One Word” to be the {Greek} of the Platonists, adopted by St. John (comparatively a late writer) and by the Alexandrian school, Jewish (as Philo Judaeus) and Christian. But here the tale-teller alludes to the Divine Word “Kun” (be!) whereby the worlds came into existence.

[FN#122] Arab. “Ya bunayy�” a dim. form lit. “O my little son !”

an affectionate address frequent in Russian, whose “little father” (under “Bog”) is his Czar.

[FN#123] Thus in two texts. Mr. Payne has, “Verily God the Most High created man after His own image, and likened him to Himself, all of Him truth, without falsehood; then He gave him dominion over himself and ordered him and forbade him, and it was man who transgressed His commandment and erred in his obedience and brought falsehood upon himself of his own will.” Here he borrows from the Bresl. Edit. viii. 84 (five first lines). But the doctrine is rather Jewish and Christian than Moslem: Al-Mas’�di (ii. 389) introduces a Copt in the presence of Ibn Tut�n saying, “Prince, these people (designing a Jew) pretend that Allah Almighty created Adam (i.e. mankind) after His own image” (‘Al�

S�rati-h).

[FN#124] Arab. “Istit�‘ah”=ableness e.g. “Al hajj ‘inda ‘l-Istit�‘ah”=Pilgrimage when a man is able thereto (by easy circumstances).

[FN#125] Arab. “Al-Kasab,” which phrenologists would translate “acquisitiveness,” The author is here attempting to reconcile man’s moral responsibility, that is Freewill, with Fate by which all human actions are directed and controlled. I cannot see that he fails to “apprehend the knotty point of doctrine involved”; but I find his inability to make two contraries agree as pronounced as that of all others, Moslems and Christians, that preceded him in the same path.

[FN#126] The order should be, “men, angels and Jinn,” for which see vol. i. p. 10. But “angels” here takes precedence because Iblis was one of them.

[FN#127] Arab. “Wartah”=precipice, quagmire, quicksand and hence sundry secondary and metaphorical significations, under which, as in the “Semitic” (Arabic) tongues generally, the prosaical and material sense of the word is clearly evident. I noted this in Pilgrimage iii. 66 and was soundly abused for so saying by a host of Sciolists.

[FN#128] i.e. Allowing the Devil to go about the world and seduce mankind until Doomsday when “auld Sootie’s” occupation will be gone. Surely “Providence” might have managed better.

[FN#129] i.e. to those who deserve His love.

[FN#130] Here “Istit�‘ah” would mean capability of action, i.e.

freewill, which is a mere word like “free-trade.”

[FN#131] Arab. “Bi al-taubah” which may also mean “for (on account of his) penitence.” The reader will note how the learned Shimas “dodges” the real question. He is asked why the “Omnipotent, Omniscient did not prevent (i.e. why He created) sin?” He answers that He kindly permitted (i.e. created and sanctioned) it that man might repent. Proh pudor! If any one thus reasoned of mundane matters he would be looked upon as the merest fool.

[FN#132] Arab. “Mahall al-Zauk,” lit.=seat of taste.

[FN#133] Mr. Payne translates “it” i.e. the Truth; but the formula following the word shows that Allah is meant.

[FN#134] Moslems, who do their best to countermine the ascetic idea inherent in Christianity, are not ashamed of the sensual appetite; but rather the reverse. I have heard in Persia of a Religious, highly esteemed for learning and saintly life who, when lodged by a disciple at Shiraz, came out of his sleeping room and aroused his host with the words “Shahwat d�ram!”

equivalent to our “I want a woman.” He was at once married to one of the slavegirls and able to gratify the demands of the flesh.

[FN#135] Koran iv. 81, “Whatever good betideth thee is from God, and whatever betideth thee Of evil is from thyself”: rank Manich�ism, as pronounced as any in Christendom.

[FN#136] Arab. “Zukhruf” which Mr. Payne picturesquely renders “painted gawds.”

[FN#137] It is the innate craving in the “Aryan” (Iranian, not the Turanian) mind, this longing to know what follows Death, or if nothing follows it, which accounts for the marvellous diffusion of the so-called Spiritualism which is only Swedenborgianism systematised and earned out into action, amongst nervous and impressionable races like the Anglo-American. In England it is the reverse; the obtuse sensitiveness of a people bred on beef and beer has made the “Religion of the Nineteenth Century” a manner of harmless magic, whose miracles are table-turning and ghost seeing whilst the prodigious rascality of its prophets (the so-called Mediums) has brought it into universal disrepute. It has been said that Catholicism must be true to co-exist with the priest and it is the same with Spiritualism proper, by which I understand the belief in a life beyond the grave, a mere continuation of this life; it flourishes (despite the Medium) chiefly because it has laid before man the only possible and intelligible idea of a future state.

[FN#138] See vol. vi. p. 7. The only lie which degrades a man in his own estimation and in that of others, is that told for fear of telling the truth. Au reste, human society and civilised intercourse are built upon a system of conventional lying. and many droll stories illustrate the consequences of disregarding the dictum, la verit� n’est pas tonjours bonne � dire.

[FN#139] Arab. “Wal�‘ahd” which may mean heir-presumptive (whose heirship is contingent) or heir-apparent.

[FN#140] Arab. “Y� abati”= my papa (which here would sound absurd).

[FN#141] All the texts give a decalogue; but Mr. Payne has reduced it to a heptalogue.

[FN#142] The Arabs who had a variety of an�sthetics never seem to have studied the subject of “euthanasia.” They preferred seeing a man expire in horrible agonies to relieving him by means of soporifics and other drugs: so I have heard Christians exult in saying that the sufferer “kept his senses to the last.” Of course superstition is at the bottom of this barbarity; the same which a generation ago made the silly accoucheur refuse to give ether because of the divine (?) saying “In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children.” (Gen iii. 16.) In the Bosnia-Herzegovina campaign many of the Austrian officers carried with them doses of poison to be used in case of being taken prisoners by the ferocious savages against whom they were fighting. As many anecdotes about “Easing off the poor dear” testify, the Euthanasia-system is by no means unknown to the lower classes in England. I shall have more to say on this subject.

[FN#143] See vol. iii. p. 253 for the consequences of royal seclusion of which Europe in the present day can contribute examples. The lesson which it teaches simply is that the world can get on very well without royalties.

[FN#144] The grim Arab humour in the text is the sudden change for the worse of the good young man. Easterns do not believe in the Western saw, “Nemo repente fuit turpissimus.” The spirited conduct of the subjects finds many parallels in European history, especially in Portugal: see my Life of Camoens p. 234.

[FN#145] Arab. “Muh�rabah” lit.=doing battle; but is sometimes used in the sense of gainsaying or disobeying.

[FN#146] Arab. “Duw�mah” (from “duw�m”=vertigo, giddiness) also applied to a boy’s whip ton.

[FN#147] Arab. “Khayr o (we) �fiyah,” a popular phrase much used in salutations, &c.

[FN#148] Another instance, and true to life, of the democracy of despotism in which the express and combined will of the people is the only absolute law. Hence Russian autocracy is forced into repeated wars for the possession of Constantinople which, in the present condition of the Empire, would be an unmitigated evil to her and would be only too glad to see a Principality of Byzantium placed under the united protection of the European Powers. I have treated of this in my paper on the “Partition of Turkey,” which first appeared, headed the “Future of Turkey,” in the Daily Telegraph, of March 7, 1880, and subsequently by its own name in the Manchester Examiner, January 3, 1881. The main reason why the project is not carried out appears to be that the “politicals”

would thereby find their occupation gone and they naturally object to losing so fine a field of action. So Turkey still plays the r�le of the pretty young lady being courted by a rabble of valets.

[FN#149] Good Moslems are bound to abate such scandals; and in a case of the kind even neighbours are expected to complain before the Chief of Police. This practice forms “Viligance Committees”

all over the Mahommedan East: and we may take a leaf out of their books if dynamite-outrages continue.

[FN#150] But a Hadis, attributed to Mohammed, says, “The Prince of a people is their servant.” See Matth. xx. 26-27.

[FN#151] Easterns are well aware of the value of this drug which has become the base of so many of our modern medicines.

[FN#152] The strangest poison is mentioned by Sonnini who, as a rule, is a trustworthy writer. Noticing the malignity of Egyptian women he declares (p. 628, English trans.) that they prepare a draught containing a quant. suff. of menstruous discharge at certain phases of the moon, which produces symptoms of scurvy; the gums decay, the teeth, beard and hair fall off, the body dries, the limbs lose strength and death follows within a year.

He also asserts that no counterpoison is known and if this be true he confers a boon upon the Locust� and Brinvilliers of modern Europe. In Morocco “Ta’am” is the vulgar name for a mixture of dead men’s bones, eyes, hair and similar ingredients made by old wives and supposed to cause a wasting disease for which the pharmacopoeia has no cure. Dogs are killed by needles cunningly inserted into meat-balls; and this process is known through out the Moslem world.

[FN#153] Which contained the Palace.

[FN#154] Arab. “L� baas.” See Night vol. iv. 164.

[FN#155] For Ta’lab (Sa’lab) see supra, p. 48. In Morocco it is undoubtedly the red or common fox which, however, is not gregarious as in the text.

[FN#156] See vol. iii. 146.

[FN#157] Arab. “Muunah” which in Morocco applies to the provisions furnished gratis by the unfortunate village-people to travellers