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

[FN#259] The Ka’abah of Meccah.

[FN#260] When Moslems apply “Nab�!” to Mohammed it is in the peculiar sense of “prophet” ({Greek})=one who speaks before the people, not one who predicts, as such foresight was adjured by the Apostle. Dr. A. Neubauer (The Athen�um No. 3031) finds the root of “Nab�!” in the Assyrian Nabu and Heb. Noob (occurring in Exod. vii. 1. “Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.” i.e.

orator, speaker before the people), and holds it to be a Canaanite term which supplanted “Roeh” (the Seer) e.g. 1 Samuel ix. 9. The learned Hebraist traces the cult of Nebo, a secondary deity in Assyria to Palestine and Ph�nicia, Palmyra, Edessa (in the Nebok of Abgar) and Hierapolis in Syria or Mabug (Nabog?).

[FN#261] I cannot find “Dand�n” even in Lib. Quintus de Aquaticis Animalibus of the learned Sam. Bochart’s “Hierozo�con”

(London, 1663) and must conjecture that as “Dand�n” in Persian means a tooth (vol. ii. 83) the writer applied it to a sun-fish or some such well-fanged monster of the deep.

[FN#262] A favourite proverb with the Fellah, when he alludes to the Pasha and to himself.

[FN#263] An euphemistic answer, unbernfen as the Germans say.

[FN#264] It is a temptation to derive this word from b�uf �

l’eau, but I fear that the theory will not hold water. The “buffaloes” of Alexandria laughted it to scorn.

[FN#265] Here the writer’s zoological knowledge is at fault.

Animals, which never or very rarely see man, have no fear of him whatever. This is well-known to those who visit the Gull-fairs at Ascension Island, Santos and many other isolated rocks; the hen birds will peck at the intruder’s ankles but they do not rise from off their eggs. For details concerning the “Gull-fair” of the Summer Islands consult p. 4 “The History of the Bermudas,”

edited by Sir J. H. Lefroy for the Hakluyt Society, 1882. I have seen birds on Fernando Po peak quietly await a second shot; and herds of antelopes, the most timed of animals, in the plains of Somali-land only stared but were not startled by the report of the gun. But Arabs are not the only moralists who write zoological nonsense: witness the notable verse, “Birds in their little nests agree,”

when the feathered tribes are the most pugnacious of breathing beings.

[FN#266] Lane finds these details “silly and tiresome or otherwise objectionable,” and omits them.

[FN#267] Meaning, “Thou hast as yet seen little or nothing.” In most Eastern tongues a question often expresses an emphatic assertion. See vol. i. 37.

[FN#268] Easterns wear as a rule little clothing but it suffices for the essential purposes of decency and travellers will live amongst them for years without once seeing an accidental “exposure of the person.” In some cases, as with the Nubian thong-apron, this demand of modesty requires not a little practice of the muscles; and we all know the difference in a Scotch kilt worn by a Highlander and a cockney sportsman.

[FN#269] Arab. “Sh�raj”=oil extracted from rape seed but especially from sesame. The Persians pronounce it “S�raj”

(apparently unaware that it is their own word “Sh�rah”=juice in Arabic garb) and have coined a participle “Musayrij” e.g., B�-i-musayrij, taint of sesame-oil applied especially to the Jews who very wisely prefer, in Persia and elsewhere, oil which is wholesome to butter which is not. The Moslems, however, declare that its immoderate use in cooking taints the exudations of the skin.

[FN#270] Arab. “Nakk�r�n” probably congeners of the redoubtable “Dand�n.”

[FN#271] Bresl. Edit. xi. 78. The Mac. says “They are all fish”

(Kullu-hum) and the Bul. “Their food (aklu-hum) is fish.”

[FN#272] Arab. “Az’ar,” usually=having thin hair. The general term for tailless is “abtar.” See Koran cviii. 3, when it means childless.

[FN#273] A common formula of politeness.

[FN#274] Bresl. Edit. xi. 82; meaning, “You will probably keep it for yourself.” Abdullah of the Sea is perfectly logical; but grief is not. We weep over the deaths of friends mostly for our own sake: theoretically we should rejoice that they are at rest; but practically we are afflicted by the thought that we shall never again see their pleasant faces.

[FN#275] i.e. about rejoicing over the newborns and mourning over the dead.

[FN#276] i.e. Ishak of Mosul, for whom see vol. iv. 119. The Bresl. Edit. has Faz�l for Fazl.

[FN#277] Abu Dalaf al-Ijili, a well-known soldier equally famed for liberality and culture.

[FN#278] Arab. “Takhm�sh,” alluding to the familiar practice of tearing face and hair in grief for a loss, a death, etc.

[FN#279] i.e. When he is in the very prime of life and able to administer fiers coups de canif.

“For ladies e’en of most uneasy virtue Prefer a spouse whose age is short of thirty.”

Don Juan 1. 62.

[FN#280] Arab. “L�zuward”: see vol. iii. 33.

[FN#281] Arab. “Sidillah.” The Bresl. Edit. (v. 99), has, “a couch of ivory and ebony, whereon was that which befitted it of mattresses and cushions and on it five damsels.”

[FN#282] i.e. As she untunes the lute by “pinching” the strings over-excitedly with her right, her other hand retunes it by turning the pegs.

[FN#283] i.e. The slim cupbearer (Zephyr) and fair-faced girl (Moon) handed round the bubbling bowl (star).

[FN#284] Arab. “Al-Sath” whence the Span. Azotea. The lines that follow are from the Bresl. Edit. v. 110.

[FN#285] This “‘Ar’ar” is probably the Callitris quadrivalvis whose resin (“Sandarac”) is imported as varnish from African Mogador to England. Also called the Thuja, it is of cypress shape, slow growing and finely veined in the lower part of the base. Most travellers are agreed that it is the Citrus-tree of Roman Mauritania, concerning which Pliny (xiii. 29) gives curious details, a single table costing from a million sesterces (�900) to 1,400,000. For other details see p. 95, “Morocco and the Moors,” by my late friend Dr. Leared (London: Sampson Low, 1876).

[FN#286] i.e. Kings might sigh for her in vain.

[FN#287] These lines are in vol. viii. 279. I quote Mr. Payne.

[FN#288] A most unsavoury comparison to a Persian who always connects camphor with the idea of a corpse.

[FN#289] Arab. “Il� m� sh�a’ ll�h” i.e. as long as you like.

[FN#290] i.e. of gramarye.

[FN#291] Arab. “Ta’w�z”=the Arab Tilasm, our Talisman, a charm, an amulet; and in India mostly a magic square. The subject is complicated and occupies in Herklots some sixty pages, 222-284.

[FN#292] The Bul. and Mac. Edits. give the Princess’s malady, in error, as D�a al-Sud�’ (megrims), instead of D�a al-Sar’

(epilepsy) as in the Bresl. Edit. The latter would mean that she is possessed by a demon, again the old Scriptural fancy (see vol.

v. 28). The subject is highly fitted for romance but not for a “serious” book which ought to know better.

[FN#293] Arab. “Al-‘�riz”=the demon who possessed her.

[FN#294] i.e. He hath renounced his infamous traffic.

[FN#295] Alluding to the favourite Eastern saying, “The poor man hath no life.”

[FN#296] In this and the following lines some change is necessary for the Bresl. and Mac. texts are very defective. The Arabic word here translated “recess” is “Ayw�n,” prop. a hall, an open saloon.

[FN#297] i.e. by selling it for thirty thousand gold pieces, when he might have got a million for it.

[FN#298] The tale is not in the Bresl. Edit.

[FN#299] Al-Khas�b (= the fruitful) was the son of ‘Abd al-Ham�d and intendant of the tribute of Egypt under Harun al-Rashid, but neither Lord nor Sultan. Lane (iii. 669) quotes three couplets in his honour by Abu Now�s from p. 119 of “Elmacini (Al-Mak�n) Historia Saracenica.”

If our camel visit not the land of Al-Khasib, what man after Al-Khasib shall they visit?

For generosity is not his neighbour; nor hath it sojourned near him; but generosity goeth wherever he goeth: He is a man who purchaseth praise with his wealth, and who knoweth that the periods of Fortune revolve.

[FN#300] The old story “Al� j�di-k”= upon thy generosity, which means at least ten times the price.

[FN#301]i.e. The distance is enormous.

[FN#302] A gazelle but here the slavegirl’s name.

[FN#303] See vol. ii. 104. Herklots (Pl. vii. fig. 2) illustrates the cloth used in playing the Indian game, Pach�s�. The “board”

is rather European than Oriental, but it has of late Years spread far and wide, especially the backgammon board.

[FN#304] i.e. “Father of the Lion.”

[FN#305] Or as we should say, “Thy blood will be on thine own head.”

[FN#306] Called after the famous town in Persian Mesopotamia which however is spelt with the lesser aspirate. See p. 144. The Geographical works of S�dik-i-Ispah�ni, London Oriental Transl.

Fund, 1882. Hamdan (with the greater aspirate) and Hamdun mean only the member masculine, which may be a delicate piece of chaff for the gallery

[FN#307] Arab. “Hulw�n al-mift�h,” for which see vol. vii. 212.

Mr. Payne compares it with the French denier � Dieu. given to the concierge on like occasions.

[FN#308] Arab. “‘Udm,” a relish, the Scotch “kitchen,” Lat.

Opsonium, Ital. Companatico and our “by-meat.” See vol. iv. 128.

[FN#309] Arab. “Kabasa” = he shampoo’d. See vol. ii. 17.

[FN#310] Arab. “Nukl.” See supra p. 177.

[FN#311] Arab. “Jannat al-Khuld” and “Firdaus,” two of the Heavens repeatedly noticed.

[FN#312] The naivet� is purely Horatian, that is South European versus North European.

[FN#313] i.e. “Have some regard for thy life.”

[FN#314] Arab. “Aw�k” plur. of �kiyyah a word known throughout the Moslem East. As an ounce it weighs differently in every country and in Barbary (Mauritania) which we call Morocco, it is a nominal coin containing twelve Fl�s (ful�s) now about = a penny. It is a direct descendant from the “Uk” or “Wuk” (ounce) of the hieroglyphs (See Sharpe’s Egypt or any other Manual) and first appeared in Europe as the Greek {Greek}.

[FN#315] Arab. “K�rah” usually a large bag.

[FN#316] Arab. “L�l�ah,” which may mean the Union-pearl; but here used in the sense of wild cow, the bubalus antelope, alluding to the farouche nature of Miss Jamilah. We are also told infr� that the park was full of “Wuh�sh” = wild cattle [FN#317] Arab. “S�kiyah,” the venerable old Persian wheel, for whos music see Pilgrimage ii. 198. But Sakiyah” is also applied, as here, to the water-channel which turns the wheel.

[FN#318] Arab. “Kaw�d�s,” plur. of “K�d�s,” the pots round the rim of the Persian wheel: usually they are of coarse pottery.

[FN#319] In the text “S�kiyah” a manifest error for “Kubbah.”

[FN#320] Easterns greatly respect a belle fourchette, especially when the eater is a lover.

[FN#321] Arab. “‘Ar�shah,” a word of many meanings, tent, nest, vine-trellis, etc.

[FN#322] To spit or blow the nose in good society is “vulgar.”

Sneezing (Al-‘Atsah) is a complicated affair. For Talmudic traditions of death by sneezing see Lane (M. E. chaps. viii).

Amongst Hindus sneezing and yawning are caused by evil spirits whom they drive away by snapping thumb and forefinger as loudly as possible. The pagan Arabs held sneezing a bad omen, which often stopped their journeys. Moslems believe that when Allah placed the Soul (life ?) in Adam, the dry clay became flesh and bone and the First Man, waking to life, sneezed and ejaculated “Alhamdolillah;” whereto Gabriel replied, “Allah have mercy upon