Footnotes

[FN#1] Bresi. Edit., vol. xi. pp. 321-99, Nights dccccxxx-xl.

[FN#2] Arab. "Iklím" from the Gr. {Greek}, often used as amongst
us (e.g. "other climes") for land.

[FN#3] Bibars whose name is still famous and mostly pronounced
"Baybars," the fourth of the Baharite Mamelukes whom I would call
the "Soldans." Originally a slave of Al-Sálih, seventh of the
Ayyubites, he rose to power by the normal process, murdering his
predecessor, in A. D. 1260; and he pushed his conquests from
Syria to Armenia. In his day "Saint" Louis died before Tunis (A.
D. 1270).

[FN#4] There are sundry Sáhils or shore-lands. "Sahil Misr" is
the River-side of Cairo often extended to the whole of Lower
Egypt (vol. i. 290): here it means the lowlands of Palestine once
the abode of the noble Philistines; and lastly the term extends
to the sea-board of Zanzibar, where, however, it is mostly used
in the plur. "Sawáhil"=the Shores.

[FN#5] Arab. "Sammár" (from Samar,=conversatio nocturna),=the
story-teller who in camp or house whiles away the evening hours.

[FN#6] "Flag of the Faith:" Sanjar in old Persian=a Prince, a
King.

[FN#7] "Aider of the Faith."

[FN#8] These policemen's tales present a curious contrast with
the detective stories of M. Gaboriau and his host of imitators.
In the East the police, like the old Bow Street runners, were and
are still recruited principally amongst the criminal classes on
the principle of "Set a thief," &c. We have seen that the
Barmecide Wazirs of Baghdad "anticipated Fourier's doctrine of
the passionel treatment of lawless inclinations," and employed as
subordinate officers, under the Wali or Prefect of Police,
accomplished villains like Ahmad al-Danaf (vol. iv. 75), Hasan
Shuuman and Mercury Ali (ibid.) and even women (Dalilah the
Crafty) to coerce and checkmate their former comrades. Moreover a
gird at the police is always acceptable, not only to a
coffee-house audience, but even to a more educated crowd; witness
the treatment of the "Charley" and the "Bobby" in our truly
English pantomimes.

[FN#9] i.e. the Chief of Police, as the sequel shows.

[FN#10] About £4.

[FN#11] i.e. of the worlds visible and invisible.

[FN#12] Arab. "Mukaddam:" see vol. iv, 42.

[FN#13] "Faithful of Command;" it may be a title as well as a P.
N. For "Al-Amín," see vol. iv. 261.

[FN#14] i. e. "What have I to do with, etc.?" or "How great is
the difference between me and her." The phrase is still popular
in Egypt and Syria; and the interrogative form only intensifies
it. The student of Egyptian should always try to answer a
question by a question. His labours have been greatly facilitated
by the conscientious work of my late friend Spitta Bey. I tried
hard to persuade the late Rogers Bey, whose knowledge of Egyptian
and Syrian (as opposed to Arabic) was considerable, that a simple
grammar of Egyptian was much wanted; he promised to undertake it)
but death cut short the design.

[FN#15] Arab. "Nawwáb," plur. of Náib (lit. deputies,
lieutenants)=a Nabob. Till the unhappy English occupation of
Egypt, the grand old Kil'ah (Citadel) contained the palace of the
Pasha and the lodgings and offices of the various officials.
Foreign rulers, if they are wise, should convert it into a fort
with batteries commanding the town, like that of Hyderabad, in
Sind.

[FN#16] For this famous and time-honoured building, see vol. i.
269.

[FN#17] Arab. "Tamkín," gravity, assurance.

[FN#18] Arab. " Iyál-hu" lit. his family, a decorous
circumlocution for his wives and concubines.

[FN#19] Arab. "Darb," lit. a road; here a large thoroughfare.

[FN#20] When Mohammed Ali Pasha (the "Great") began to rule, he
found Cairo "stifled" with filth, and gave orders that each
householder, under pain of confiscation, should keep the street
before his house perfectly clean. This was done after some
examples had been made and the result was that since that time
Cairo never knew the plague. I am writing at Tangier where a
Mohammed Ali is much wanted.

[FN#21] i.e. Allah forfend!

[FN#22] Arab. "Mustauda'"=a strong place where goods are
deposited and left in charge.

[FN#23] Because, if she came to grief, the people of the street,
and especially those of the adjoining houses would get into
trouble. Hence in Moslem cities, like Damascus and Fez, the Hárát
or quarters are closed at night with strong wooden doors, and the
guards will not open them except by means of a silver key.
Mohammed Ali abolished this inconvenience, but fined and
imprisoned all night-walkers who carried no lanterns. See
Pilgrimage, vol. i. 173,

[FN#24] As Kazi of the quarter he was ex-officio guardian of the
orphans and their property, and liable to severe punishment
(unless he could pay for the luxury) in case of fraud or neglect.

[FN#25] Altogether six thousand dinars=£3000. This sentence is
borrowed from the sequel and necessary to make the sense clear.

[FN#26] i.e. "I am going at once to complain of thee before the
king unless thou give me due satisfaction by restoring the money
and finding the thief."

[FN#27] The Practice (of the Prophet) and the Holy Law (Koranic):
see vols. v. 36, 167 and i. 169.

[FN#28] In the corrupt text "Who knew me not;" thus spoiling the
point.

[FN#29] Arab. "Maut Ahmar"=violent or bloody death. For the
various coloured deaths, see vol. vi. 250.

[FN#30] i.e. for lack of sleep.

[FN#31] i.e. of the Kazi.

[FN#32] Arab. "Mubáh," in the theologic sense, an action which is
not sinful (harám) or quasisinful (makruh); vulgarly "permitted,
allowed"; so Shahrazad "ceased to say her say permitted" (by
Shahryar).

[FN#33] Arab. "Yá Khawand"; see vol. vii. 315.

[FN#34] i.e. we both make different statements equally credible,
but without proof, and the case will go against me, because thou
art the greater man.

[FN#35] Arab. "Irtiyád"=seeking a place where to stale, soft and
sloping, so that the urine spray may not defile the dress. All
this in one word!

[FN#36] Arab. "Bahár," the red buphthalmus sylvester often used
for such comparisons. In Algeria it is called 'Aráwah: see the
Jardin Parfumé, p. 245, note 144.

[FN#37] i.e. parties.

[FN#38] i.e. amongst men.

[FN#39] Almost as neat as "oú sont les neiges d'autan?"

[FN#40] Arab. "Ádí," one transgressing, an enemy, a scoundrel.

[FN#41] It was probably stuck in the ground like an amphora.

[FN#42] i.e. hush up the matter.

[FN#43] In Egypt; the former being the Eastern of the Seven
Provinces extending to the Pelusium branch, and the latter to the
Canobic. The "Barári" or deserts, i.e. grounds not watered by the
Nile, lie scattered between the two and both are bounded South by
the Kalúbíyah Province and Middle Egypt.

[FN#44] i.e. a man ready of wit and immediate of action, as
opposed to his name Al-Atwash -- one notable for levity of mind.

[FN#45] The negative is emphatic, "I certainly saw a Jew," etc.

[FN#46] The "Irish bull" is in the text; justified by--

They hand-in-hand, with wand'ring steps and slow
Through Eden took their solitary way,

[FN#47] As we should say, "There are good pickings to be had out
of this job." Even in the last generation a Jew or a Christian
intriguing with an Egyptian or Syrian Moslemah would be offered
the choice of death or Al-Islam. The Wali dared not break open
the door because he was not sure of his game.

[FN#48] The Jew rose seemingly to fetch his valuables and ran
away, thus leaving the Wali no proof that he had been there in
Moslem law which demands ocular testimony, rejects circumstantial
evidence and ignores such partial witnesses as the policeman who
accompanied his Chief. This I have before explained.

[FN#49] Arab. "Raba'," lit.=spring-quarters. See Marba', iii. 79.

[FN#50] Arab. "Ni'am," an exception to the Abbé Sicard's rule.
"La consonne N est l'expression naturelle du doute chez toutes
les nations, par ce que le son que rend la touche nasale, quand
l'homme incertain examine s'il fera ce qu'on lui demande; ainsi
NE ON, NE OT, NE EC, NE IL, d'où l'on a fait non, not, nec, nil.

[FN#51] For this "Haláwat al-Miftáh," or sweetmeat of the
key-money, the French denier a Dieu, Old English "God's penny,"
see vol. vii. 212, and Pilgrimage i. 62.

[FN#52] Showing that car. cop. had taken place. Here we find the
irregular use of the inn, perpetuated in not a few of the monster
hotels throughout Europe.

[FN#53] For its rules and right performance see vol. vi. 199.

[FN#54] i.e. the "Basil(issa)," mostly a servile name, see vol.
i. 19.

[FN#55] Arab. "La'alla," used to express the hope or expectation
of some event of possible occurrence; thus distinguished from
"Layta"--Would heaven! utinam! O si! etc.-- expressing desire or
volition.

[FN#56] Arab. "Balát," in Cairo the flat slabs of limestone and
sandstone brought from the Turah quarries, which supplied stone
for the Jízah Pyramids.

[FN#57] Arab. "Yá Mu'arras!" here=O fool and disreputable; see
vol. i. 338.

[FN#58] These unfortunates in hot climates enjoy nothing so much
as throwing off the clothes which burn their feverish skins: see
Pilgrimage iii. 385. Hence the boys of Eastern cities, who are
perfect imps and flibbertigibbets, always raise the cry "Majnún"
when they see a man naked whose sanctity does not account for his
nudity.

[FN#59] Arab. "Daur al-Ká'ah"=the round opening made in the
ceiling for light and ventilation.

[FN#60] Arab. "La-nakhsifanna" with the emphatic termination
called by grammarians "Nún al-taakid"--the N of injunction. Here
it is the reduplicated form, the Nun al-Sakílah or heavy N. The
addition of Lá (not) e.g. "Lá yazrabanna"=let him certainly not
strike answers to the intensive or corroborative negative of the
Greek effected by two negations or even more. In Arabic as in
Latin and English two negatives make an affirmative.

[FN#61] Parturition and death in warm climates, especially the
damp-hot like Egypt are easy compared with both processes in the
temperates of Europe. This is noticed by every traveller. Hence
probably Easterns have never studied the artificial Euthanasia
which is now appearing in literature. See p. 143 "My Path to
Atheism," by Annie Besant, London: Freethought Publishing
Company, 28, Stonecutter Street, E. C., 1877, based upon the
Utopia of the highly religious Thomas Moore. Also "Essay on
Euthanasia," by P. D. Williams, Jun., and Mr. Tollemache in the
"Nineteenth Century."

[FN#62] i.e. he whose turn it is to sit on the bench outside the
police office in readiness for emergencies.

[FN#63] Arab. "'Udúl" (plur. of 'Ádil), gen. men of good repute,
qualified as witnesses in the law court, see vol. iv. 271. It is
also used (as below) for the Kazi's Assessors.

[FN#64] About £80.

[FN#65] Arab. "Kitáb"=book, written bond. This officiousness of
the neighbours is thoroughly justified by Moslem custom; and the
same scene would take place in this our day. Like the Hindú's,
but in a minor degree, the Moslem's neighbours form a volunteer
police which oversees his every action. In the case of the Hindú
this is required by the exigencies of caste, an admirable
institution much bedevilled by ignorant Mlenchbas, and if
"dynamiting" become the fashion in England, as it threatens to
become, we shall be obliged to establish "Vigilance Committees"
which will be as inquisitorial as caste

[FN#66] e.g. writing The contract of A. with B., daughter of
Such-an-one, etc.

[FN#67] Arab. "Hujjat," which may also mean an excuse.

[FN#68] The last clause is supplied by Mr. Payne to stop a gap in
the broken text.

[FN#69] The text idiotically says "To the King."

[FN#70] In the text "Nahnu"=we, for I, a common vulgarism in
Egypt and Syria.

[FN#71] This clause has required extensive trimming; the text
making the Notary write out the contract (which was already
written) in the woman's house.

[FN#72] Arab. "Husn tadbír"=lit. "beauty of his contrivance."
Husn, like pulcher, beau and bello, is applied to moral
intellectual qualities as well as to physical and material. Hence
the {Greek} or old gentleman which in Romaic becomes Calogero, a
monk.

[FN#73] i.e. that some one told me the following tale.

[FN#74] Arab. "Mutawallí": see vol. i. 259.

[FN#75] i.e. his Moslem neighbours.

[FN#76] In the text is a fearful confusion of genders.

[FN#77] Her object was to sue him for the loss of the pledge and
to demand fabulous damages.

[FN#78] Arab. "Ya'tamidúna hudá-hum"=purpose the right direction,
a skit at the devotees of her age and sex; and an impudent
comment upon the Prefect's address "O she-devil!"

[FN#79] The trick has often been played in modern times at fairs,
shows, etc. Witness the old joe Miller of the "Moving Multitude."

[FN#80] Apparently meaning the forbidden pleasures of wine and
wassail, loose talk and tales of women's wiles, a favourite
subject with the lewder sort of Moslem.

[FN#81] i.e. women's tricks.

[FN#82] The "Turkoman" in the text first comes in afterwards.

[FN#83] Arab. "Kásid," the old Anglo-lndian "Cossid"; see vol.
vii. 340.

[FN#84] Being a merchant he wore dagger and sword, a safe
practice as it deters attack and far better than carrying hidden
weapons, derringers and revolvers which, originating in the
United States, have now been adopted by the most civilised
nations in Europe.

[FN#85] I have noted (vol. ii. 186, iv. 175) the easy expiation
of perjury amongst Moslems, an ugly blot in their moral code.

[FN#86] i.e. Enter in the name of Allah.

[FN#87] i.e. Damn your soul for leading me into this danger!

[FN#88] Arab. "Saff Kamaríyát min al-Zujáj." The Kamaríyah is
derived by Lane (Introd. M.E.) from Kamar=moon; by Baron Von
Hammer from Khumárawayh, second of the Banu-Tulún dynasty, at the
end of the ixth century A.D., when stained glass was introduced
into Egypt. N.B.--It must date from many centuries before. The
Kamariyah are coloured glass windows about 2 feet high by 18
inches wide, placed in a row along the upper part of the
Mashrabíyah or projecting lattice-window, and are formed of small
panes of brightly-stained glass set in rims of gypsum-plaster,
the whole framed in wood. Here the allusion is to the "Mamrak" or
dome-shaped skylight crowning the room. See vol. viii. 156.

[FN#89] i.e. easily arrested them.

[FN#90] The reader will not forget the half-penitent Captain of
Bandits in Gil Blas.

[FN#91] Arab. "Abtál"=champions, athletes, etc., plur. of Batal,
a brave: so Batalat=a virago. As the root Batala=it was vain, the
form "Battál" may mean either a hero or a bad lot: see vol. viii.
335; x. 72,73.

[FN#92] Arab. "Fityán;" plur. of Fatà; see vol. i, 67.

[FN#93] This was in popular parlance "adding insult to injury:"
the blackening their faces was a promise of Hell-fire.

[FN#94] Arab. "Shayyan li 'lláh!" lit.=(Give me some) Thing for
(the love of) Allah. The answer in Egypt. is "Allah
ya'tík:"=Allah will give it thee (not I), or, "Yaftah 'Allah,"=
Allah open (to thee the door of subsistence): in Marocco "Sir fí
hálik" (pron. Sirf hák)= Go about thy business. In all cities
there is a formula which suffices the asker; but the Ghashím
(Johny Raw) who ignores it, is pestered only the more by his
protestations that "he left his purse at home," etc.

[FN#95] i.e. engaged her for a revel and paid her in advance.

[FN#96] Arab. "Rasílah"=a (she) partner, to accompany her on the
lute.

[FN#97] Suggesting that they are all thieves who had undergone
legal mutilation.

[FN#98] Arab. "Nuzhat-í:" see vol. ii. 81.

[FN#99] Arab. "Muhattakát;" usually "with torn veils" (fem.
plur.) here "without veils," metaphor. meaning in disgrace, in
dishonour.

[FN#100] For this reedy Poa, see vol. ii. 18.

[FN#101] I have repeatedly noticed that singing and all music
are, in religious parlance, "Makruh," blameable though not
actually damnable; and that the first step after "getting
religion" is to forswear them.

[FN#102] i.e. to find the thief or make good the loss.

[FN#103] i.e. the claimants.

[FN#104] Arab. "Sakiyah:" see vol. i. 123.

[FN#105] The lower orders of Egypt and Syria are addicted to this
bear-like attack; so the negroes imitate fighting-rams by butting
with their stony heads. Let me remark that when Herodotus (iii.
12), after Psammenitus' battle of Pelusium in B.C. 524, made the
remark that the Egyptian crania were hardened by shaving and
insolation and the Persians were softened by wearing head-cloths,
he tripped in his anthropology. The Iranian skull is naturally
thin compared with that of the negroid Egyptian and the negro.

[FN#106] Arab. "Farkalah," {Greek} from flagellum; cattle-whip
with leathern thongs. Lane, M.E.; Fleischer Glos. 83-84; Dozy
s.v.

[FN#107] This clause is supplied to make sense.

[FN#108] i.e. to crucify him by nailing him to an upright board.

[FN#109] i.e. a native of the Hauran, Job's country east of
Damascus, now a luxuriant waste, haunted only by the plundering
Badawin and the Druzes of the hills, who are no better; but its
stretches of ruins and league-long swathes of stone over which
the vine was trained, show what it has been and what it will be
again when the incubus of Turkish mis-rule shall be removed from
it. Herr Schuhmacher has lately noted in the Hauran sundry Arab
traditions of Job; the village Nawá, where he lived; the Hammam
'Ayyub, where he washed his leprous skin; the Dayr Ayyub, a
monastery said to date from the third century; and the Makan
Ayyub at Al-Markáz, where the semi-mythical patriarch and his
wife are buried. The "Rock of Job", covered by a mosque, is a
basaltic monolith 7 feet high by 4, and is probably connected
with the solar worship of the old Phœnicians.

[FN#110] This habit "torquere mero," was a favourite with the
mediæval Arabs. Its effect varies greatly with men's characters,
making some open-hearted and communicative, and others more
cunning and secretive than in the normal state. So far it is an
excellent detection of disposition, and many a man passes off
well when sober who has shown himself in liquor a rank snob.
Among the lower orders it provokes what the Persians call
Bad-mastí (le vin méchant) see Pilgrimage iii. 385.

[FN#111] This mystery is not unfamiliar to the modern
"spiritualist;" and all Eastern tongues have a special term for
the mysterious Voice. See vol. i. 142.

[FN#112] Arab. "Alaykum:" addressed to a single person. This is
generally explained by the "Salam" reaching the ears of Invisible
Controls, and even the Apostle. We find the words cruelly
distorted in the Pentamerone of Giambattista Basile (partly
translated by John E. Taylor, London: Bogue, 1848), "The Prince,
coming up to the old woman heard an hundred Licasalemme," p. 383.

[FN#113] Arab. "Al-Zalamah"; the policeman; see vol. vi. 214.

[FN#114] i.e. in my punishment.

[FN#115] i.e. on Doomsday thou shalt get thy deserts.

[FN#116] i.e. what I could well afford.

[FN#117] Arab. Hirfah=a trade, a guild, a corporation: here the
officers of police.

[FN#118] Gen. "tip-cat" (vol. ii. 314.) Here it would mean a rude
form of tables or backgammon, in which the players who throw
certain numbers are dubbed Sultan and Wazir, and demean
themselves accordingly. A favourite bit of fun with Cairene boys
of a past generation was to "make a Pasha;" and for this
proceeding, see Pilgrimage, vol. i. 119.

[FN#119] In Marocco there is great difficulty about finding an
executioner who becomes obnoxious to the Thár, vendetta or
blood-revenge. For salting the criminal's head, however, the
soldiers seize upon the nearest Jew and compel him to clean out
the brain and to prepare it for what is often a long journey.
Hence, according to some, the local name of the Ghetto,
Al-Malláh,=the salting-ground.

[FN#120] Mr. Payne suspects that "laban," milk, esp. artificially
soured (see vol. vi, 201), is a clerical error for "jubn"=cheese.
This may be; but I follow the text as the exaggeration is greater

[FN#121] i.e. in relinquishing his blood-wite for his brother.

[FN#122] The Story-teller, probably to relieve the monotony of
the Constables' histories, here returns to the original cadre. We
must not forget that in the Bresl. Edit. the Nights are running
on, and that the charming queen is relating the adventure of
Al-Malik al-Zahir.

[FN#123] Arab. "Za'amu"=they opine, they declare, a favourite
term with the Bresl. Edit.

[FN#124] Arab. "Zirtah" the coarsest of terms for what the French
nuns prettily termed un sonnet; I find ung sonnet also in Nov.
ii. of the Cent nouvelles Nouvelles. Captain Lockett (p. 32)
quotes Strepsiades in The Clouds {Greek} "because he cannot
express the bathos of the original (in the Tale of Ja'afar and
the old Badawi) without descending to the oracular language of
Giacoma Rodogina, the engastrymythian prophetess." But Sterne was
by no means so squeamish. The literature of this subject is
extensive, beginning with "Peteriana, ou l'art de peter," which
distinguishes 62 different tones. After dining with a late friend
en garcon we went into his sitting-room and found on the table 13
books and booklets upon the Crepitus Ventris, and there was some
astonishment as not a few of the party had never seen one.

[FN#125] This tale is a replica of the Cranes of Ibycus. This was
a Rhegium man who when returning to Corinth, his home, was set
upon by robbers and slain. He cast his dying eyes heavenwards and
seeing a flight of cranes called upon them to avenge him and this
they did by flying over the theatre of Corinth on a day when the
murderers were present and one cried out, "Behold the avengers of
Ibycus!" Whereupon they were taken and put to death. So says
Paulus Hieronymus, and the affecting old tale has newly been sung
in charming verse by Mr. Justin H. McCarthy ("Serapion." London:
Chatto and Windus).

[FN#126] This scene is perfectly true to Badawi life; see my
Pilgrimage iii. 68.

[FN#127] Arab. "Durráj": so it is rendered in the French
translation of Al-Masudi, vii. 347.

[FN#128] A fair friend found the idea of Destiny in The Nights
become almost a night-mare. Yet here we suddenly alight upon the
true Johnsonian idea that conduct makes fate. Both extremes are
as usual false. When one man fights a dozen battles unwounded and
another falls at the first shot we cannot but acknowledge the
presence of that mysterious "luck" whose laws, now utterly
unknown to us, may become familiar with the ages. I may note that
the idea of an appointed hour beyond which life may not be
prolonged, is as old as Homer (Il. ??? 487).

The reader has been told (vol. vii. 135) that "Kazá" is Fate in a
general sense, the universal and eternal Decree of Allah, while
"Kadar" is its special and particular application to man's lot,
that is Allah's will in bringing forth events at a certain time
and place. But the former is popularly held to be of two
categories, one Kazá al-Muham which admits of modification and
Kazá al-Muhkam, absolute and unchangeable, the doctrine of
irresistible predestination preached with so much energy by St.
Paul (Romans ix. 15-24), and all the world over men act upon the
former while theoretically holding to the latter. Hence "Chinese
Gordon," whose loss to England is greater than even his friends
suppose, wrote "It is a delightful thing to be a fatalist,"
meaning that the Divine direction and pre-ordination of all
things saved him so much trouble of forethought and afterthought.
In this tenet he was not only a Calvinist but also a Moslem whose
contradictory ideas of Fate and Freewill (with responsibility)
are not only beyond Reason but are contrary to Reason; and
although we may admit the argumentum ad verecundiam, suggesting
that there are things above (or below) human intelligence, we are
not bound so to do in the case of things which are opposed to the
common sense of mankind. Practically, however, the Moslem
attitude is to be loud in confessing belief of "Fate and Fortune"
before an event happens and after it wisely to console himself
with the conviction that in no way could he have escaped the
occurrence. And the belief that this destiny was in the hands of
Allah gives him a certain dignity especially in the presence of
disease and death which is wanting in his rival religionist the
Christian. At the same time the fanciful picture of the Turk
sitting stolidly under a shower of bullets because Fate will not
find him out unless it be so written is a freak i.e. fancy rarely
found in real life.

There are four great points of dispute amongst the schoolmen in
Al-Islam; (1) the Unity and Attributes of Allah, (2) His promises
and threats, (3) historical as the office of Imám and (4)
Predestination and the justice thereof. On the latter subject
opinions range over the whole cycle of possibilities. For
instance, the Mu'tazilites, whom the learned Weil makes the
Protestants and Rationalists of Al-Islam, contend that the word
of Allah was created in subjecto, ergo, an accident and liable to
perish, and one of their school, the Kádiriyah (=having power)
denies the existence of Fate and contends that Allah did not
create evil but left man an absolutely free agent. On the other
hand, the Jabarlyah (or Mujabbar=the compelled) is an absolute
Fatalist who believes in the omnipotence of Destiny and deems
that all wisdom consists in conforming with its decrees.
Al-Mas'udi (chaps. cxxvii.) illustrates this by the saying of a
Moslem philosopher that chess was the invention of a Mu'tazil,
while Nard (backgammon with dice) was that of a Mujabbar proving
that play can do nothing against Destiny. Between the two are the
Ashariyah; trimmers whose standpoint is hard to define; they
would say, "Allah creates the power by which man acts, but man
wills the action," and care not to answer the query, "Who created
the will ?" (See Pocock, Sale and the Dabistan ii. 352.) Thus
Sa'adi says in the Gulistan (iii. 2), "The wise have pronounced
that though daily bread be allotted, yet it is so conditionally
upon using means to acquire it, and although calamity be
predestined, yet it is right to secure oneself against the
portals by which it may have access." Lastly, not a few doctors
of Law and Religion hold that Kaza al-Muhkam, however absolute,
regards only man's after or final state; and upon this subject
they are of course as wise as other people, and--no wiser. Lane
has treated the Moslem faith in Destiny very ably and fully
(Arabian Nights, vol. i. pp. 58-61), and he being a man of
moderate and orthodox views gives valuable testimony.

[FN#129] Arab. "Shaykh al-Hujjáj." Some Santon like Hasan al-
Marábit, then invoked by the Meccan pilgrims: see Pilgrimage, i.
321. It can hardly refer to the famous Hajjáj bin Yúsuf al-Sakafí
(vol. iv. 3).

[FN#130] Here the Stories of the Sixteen Constables abruptly end,
after the fashion of the Bresl. Edit. They are summarily
dismissed even without the normal "Bakhshísh."

[FN#131] Bresl. Edit. vol xi. pp. 400-473 and vol. xii. pp. 4-50,
Nights dccccxli.-dcccclvii. For Kashghar, see vol. i. 255.

[FN#132] Mr. Payne proposes to translate "'Anbar" by amber, the
semi-fossilised resin much used in modern days, especially in
Turkey and Somaliland, for bead necklaces. But, as he says, the
second line distinctly alludes to the perfume which is sewn in
leather and hung about the neck, after the fashion of our ancient
pomanders (pomme d' ambre).

[FN#133] i.e. The Caliph: see vol. i. p. 50.

[FN#134] Arab. "Adab :" see vol. i. 132, etc. In Moslem dialects
which borrow more or less from Arabic, "Bí-adabí"--without being
Adab, means rudeness, disrespect, "impertinence" (in its modern
sense).

[FN#135] i.e. Isaac of Mosul, the greatest of Arab musicians: see
vol. iv. 119.

[FN#136] The elder brother of Ja'afar, by no means so genial or
fitted for a royal frolic. See Terminal Essay.

[FN#137] Ibn Habíb, a friend of Isaac, and a learned grammarian
who lectured at Basrah.

[FN#138] A suburb of Baghdad, mentioned by Al Mas'údi.

[FN#139] Containing the rooms in which the girl or girls were
sold. See Pilgrimage i. 87.

[FN#140] Dozy quotes this passage but cannot explain the word
Fawwák.

[FN#141] "A passage has apparently dropped out here. The Khalif
seems to have gone away without buying, leaving Ishak behind,
whereupon the latter was accosted by another slave-girl, who came
out of a cell in the corridor." So says Mr. Payne. vol. ii. 207.
The "raiser of the veil" means a fitting purchaser.

[FN#142] i.e. "Choice gift of the Fools," a skit upon the girl's
name "Tohfat al-Kulúb"=Choice gift of the Hearts. Her folly
consisted in refusing to be sold at a high price, and this is
often seen in real life. It is a Pundonor amongst good Moslems
not to buy a girl and not to sleep with her, even when bought,
against her will.

[FN#143] "Every one cannot go to Corinth." The question makes the
assertion emphatic.

[FN#144] i.e. The Narrows of the (Dervishes') convent.

[FN#145] Arab. "Akwà min dahni 'l-lanz." These unguents have been
used in the East from time immemorial whilst the last generation
in England knew nothing of anointing with oil for incipient
consumption. A late friend of mine, Dr. Stocks of the Bombay
Establishment, and I proposed it as long back as 1845; but in
those days it was a far cry from Sind to London.

[FN#146] The sequel will explain why she acted in this way.

[FN#147] i.e. Thou hast made my gold piece (10 shill.) worth only
a doit by thy superiority in the art and mystery of music.

[FN#148] Arab. "Uaddíki," Taadiyah (iid. of Adá, he assisted)
means sending, forwarding. In Egypt and Syria we often find the
form "Waddi" for Addi, imperative.

[FN#149] Again "he" for "she".

[FN#150] i.e. Honey and wine.

[FN#151] i.e. he died.

[FN#152] i.e. if my hand had lost its cunning.

[FN#153] Arab. "Thiyáb 'Amúdiyah": 'Amud=tent prop or column, and
Khatt 'Amúd=a perpendicular line.

[FN#154] i.e. a choice gift. The Caliph speaks half ironically.
"Where's this wonderful present etc?" So further on when he
compares her with the morning.

[FN#155] Again the usual pun upon the name.

[FN#156] Throughout the East this is the action of a servant or a
slave, practised by freemen only when in danger of life or
extreme need an i therefore humiliating.

[FN#157] It had been thrown down from the Mamrak or small dome
built over such pavilions for the purpose of light by day and
ventilation by night. See vol. i. 257, where it is called by the
Persian term "Badhánj."

[FN#158] The Nights have more than once applied this patronymic
to Zubaydah. See vol. viii. 56, 158.

[FN#159] Arab. "Mutahaddisín"=novi homines, upstarts.

[FN#160] i.e.. thine auspicious visits.

[FN#161] He being seated on the carpet at the time.

[FN#162] A quotation from Al-Farazdat who had quarrelled with his
wife Al-Howár (see the tale in Ibn Khallikan, i. 521), hence "the
naked intercessor" became proverbial for one who cannot be
withstood.

[FN#163] i.e. Choice Gift of the Breasts, that is of hearts, the
continens for the contentum.

[FN#164] Pron. "Abuttawáif," the Father of the (Jinn-)tribes. It
is one of the Moslem Satan's manifold names, alluding to the
number of his servants and worshippers, so far agreeing with that
amiable Christian doctrine, "Few shall be saved."

[FN#165] Mr. Payne supplies this last clause from the sequence.

[FN#166] i.e. "Let us go," with a euphemistic formula to defend
her from evil influences. Iblis uses the same word to prevent her
being frightened.

[FN#167] Arab. "Al-Mustaráh," a favourite haunting place of the
Jinn, like the Hammám and other offices for human impurity. For
its six names Al-Khalá, Al-Hushsh, Al-Mutawazzá, Al-Kaníf,
Al-Mustaráh, and Mirház, see Al-Mas'udi, chap. cxxvii., and
Shiríshi's commentary to Hariri's 47, Assembly.

[FN#168] Which, in the East, is high and prominent whilst the
cantle forms a back to the seat and the rider sits as in a baby's
chair. The object is a firm seat when fighting: "across country"
it is exceedingly dangerous.

[FN#169] In Swedenborg's "Arcane Cœlestia" we read, "When man's
inner sight is opened which is that of kits spirit; then there
appear the things of another life which cannot be made visible to
the bodily sight." Also "Evil spirits, when seen by eyes other
than those of their infernal associates, present themselves by
correspondence in the beast (fera) which represents their
particular lust and life, in aspect direful and atrocious." These
are the Jinns of Northern Europe.

[FN#170] This exchange of salams was a sign of her being in
safety.

[FN#171] Arab. "Shawáhid," meaning that heart testifies to heart.

[FN#172] i.e. A live coal, afterwards called Zalzalah, an
earthquake; see post p. 76. "Wakhímah"=an unhealthy land, and
"Sharárah"=a spark.

[FN#173] I need hardly note the inscriptions upon the metal trays
sold to Europeans. They are usually imitation words so that
infidel eyes may not look upon the formulæ of prayer; and the
same is the case with table-cloths, etc., showing a fancy Tohgra
or Sultanic sign-manual.

[FN#174] i.e.. I cannot look at them long.

[FN#175] Evidently a diabolical way of clapping his hands in
applause. This description of the Foul Fiend has an element of
grotesqueness which is rather Christian than Moslem.

[FN#176] Arab. "Rikkí al-Saut," which may also mean either "lower
thy voice," or "change the air to one less touching."

[FN#177] "Your" for "thy."

[FN#178] i.e. written on the "Guarded Tablet" from all eternity.

[FN#179] Arab. "Al-'Urs wa'al Tubúr" which can only mean, 'the
wedding (which does not drop out of the tale) and the
circumcision."

[FN#180] I here propose to consider at some length this curious
custom which has prevailed amongst so many widely separated
races. Its object has been noted (vol. v. 209), viz. to diminish
the sensibility of the glans, no longer lubricated with prostatic
lymph; thus the part is hardened against injury and disease and
its work in coition is prolonged. On the other hand, "præputium
in coitu voluptatem (of the woman) auget, unde femina præputiatis
concubitum malunt quam cum Turcis ac Judæis " says Dimerbroeck
(Anatomic). I vehemently doubt the fact. Circumcision was
doubtless practised from ages immemorial by the peoples of
Central Africa, and Welcker found traces of it in a mummy of the
xvith century B.C. The Jews borrowed it from the Egyptian
priesthood and made it a manner of sacrament, "uncircumcised"
being="unbaptised," that is, barbarian, heretic; it was a seal of
reconciliation, a sign of alliance between the Creator and the
Chosen People, a token of nationality imposed upon the body
politic. Thus it became a cruel and odious protestation against
the brotherhood of man, and the cosmopolitan Romans derided the
verpæ ac verpi. The Jews also used the term figuratively as the
"circumcision of fruits" (Lev. xix. 23), and of the heart (Deut.
x. 16), and the old law gives copious historical details of its
origin and continuance. Abraham first amputated his horny
"calotte" at aet. 99, and did the same for his son and household
(Gen. xvii. 24-27). The rite caused a separation between Moses
and his wife (Exod. iv. 25). It was suspended during the Desert
Wanderings and was resumed by Joshua (v. 3-7), who cut off two
tons' weight of prepuces. The latter became, like the scalps of
the Scythians and the North-American "Indians" trophies of
victory; Saul promised his daughter Michol to David for a dowry
of one hundred, and the son-in-law brought double tale.

Amongst the early Christians opinions concerning the rite
differed. Although the Founder of Christianity was circumcised,
St. Paul, who aimed at a cosmopolitan faith discouraged it in the
physical phase. St. Augustine still sustained that the rite
removed original sin despite the Fathers who preceded and
followed him, Justus, Tertullian, Ambrose and others. But it
gradually lapsed into desuetude and was preserved only in the
outlying regions. Paulus Jovius and Munster found it practised in
Abyssinia, but as a mark of nobility confined to the descendants
of "Nicaules, queen of Sheba." The Abyssinians still follow the
Jews in performing the rite within eight days after the birth and
baptise boys after forty and girls after eighty days. When a
circumcised man became a Jew he was bled before three witnesses
at the place where the prepuce had been cut off and this was
called the "Blood of alliance." Apostate Jews effaced the sing of
circumcision: so in 1 Matt. i. 16, fecerunt sibi præputia et
recesserunt a Testamento Sancto. Thus making prepuces was called
by the Hebrews Meshookim=recutitis, and there is an allusion to
it in 1 Cor. vii. 18, 19, {Greek} (Farrar, Paul ii. 70). St.
Jerome and others deny the possibility; but Mirabeau (Akropodie)
relates how Father Conning by liniments of oil, suspending
weights, and wearing the virga in a box gained in 43 days 7¼
lines. The process is still practiced by Armenians and other
Christians who, compelled to Islamise, wish to return to
Christianity. I cannot however find a similar artifice applied to
a circumcised clitoris. The simplest form of circumcision is mere
amputation of the prepuce and I have noted (vol. v. 209) the
difference between the Moslem and the Jewish rite, the latter
according to some being supposed to heal in kindlier way. But the
varieties of circumcision are immense. Probably none is more
terrible than that practiced in the Province Al-Asír, the old
Ophir, Iying south of Al-Hijáz, where it is called Salkh,
lit.=scarification The patient, usually from ten to twelve years
old, is placed upon raised ground holding m right hand a spear,
whose heel rests upon his foot and whose point shows every
tremour of the nerves. The tribe stands about him to pass
judgment on his fortitude and the barber performs the operation
with the Jumbiyah-dagger, sharp as a razor. First he makes a
shallow cut, severing only the skin across the belly immediately
below the navel, and similar incisions down each groin; then he
tears off the epidermis from the cuts downwards and flays the
testicles and the penis, ending with amputation of the foreskin.
Meanwhile the spear must not tremble and in some clans the lad
holds a dagger over the back of the stooping barber, crying, "Cut
and fear not!" When the ordeal is over, he exclaims, "Allaho
Akbar!" and attempts to walk towards the tents soon falling for
pain and nervous exhaustion, but the more steps he takes the more
applause he gains. He is dieted with camel's milk, the wound is
treated with salt and turmeric, and the chances in his favour are
about ten to one. No body-pile or pecten ever grows upon the
excoriated part which preserves through life a livid ashen hue.
Whilst Mohammed Ali Pasha occupied the province he forbade
"scarification" under pain of impalement, but it was resumed the
moment he left Al-Asir. In Africa not only is circumcision
indigenous, the operation varies more or less in the different
tribes. In Dahome it is termed Addagwibi, and is performed
between the twelfth and twentieth year. The rough operation is
made peculiar by a double cut above and below; the prepuce being
treated in the Moslem, not the Jewish fashion (loc. cit.). Heated
sand is applied as a styptic and the patient is dieted with
ginger-soup and warm drinks of ginger-water, pork being
especially forbidden. The Fantis of the Gold Coast circumcise in
sacred places, e.g., at Accra on a Fetish rock rising from the
sea The peoples of Sennaar, Taka, Masawwah and the adjacent
regions follow the Abyssinian custom. The barbarous Bissagos and
Fellups of North Western Guinea make cuts on the prepuce without
amputating it; while the Baquens and Papels circumcise like
Moslems. The blacks of Loango are all "verpæ," otherwise they
would be rejected by the women. The Bantu or Caffre tribes are
circumcised between the ages of fifteen and eighteen, the "Fetish
boys," as we call them, are chalked white and wear only grass
belts; they live outside the villages in special houses under an
old "medicine-man," who teaches them not only virile arts but
also to rob and fight. The "man-making" may last five months and
ends in fêtes and dances: the patients are washed in the river,
they burn down their quarters, take new names, and become adults,
donning a kind of straw thimble over the prepuce. In Madagascar
three several cuts are made causing much suffering to the
children, and the nearest male relative swallows the prepuce. The
Polynesians circumcise when childhood ends and thus consecrate
the fecundating organ to the Deity. In Tahiti the operation is
performed by the priest, and in Tonga only the priest is exempt.
The Maories on the other hand, fasten the prepuce over the glans,
and the women of the Marquesas Islands have shown great cruelty
to shipwrecked sailors who expose the glans. Almost all the known
Australian tribes circumcise after some fashion: Bennett supposes
the rite to have been borrowed from the Malays, while Gason
enumerates the "Kurrawellie wonkauna among the five mutilations
of puberty. Leichhardt found circumcision about the Gulf of
Carpentaria and in the river-valleys of the Robinson and
Macarthur: others observed it on the Southern Coast a nd among
the savages of Perth, where it is noticed by Salvado. James
Dawson tells us "Circumciduntur pueri," etc., in Western
Victoria. Brough Smyth, who supposes the object is to limit
population (?), describes on the Western Coast and in Central
Australia the "Corrobery"-dance and the operation performed with
a quartz-flake. Teichelmann details the rite in Southern
Australia where the assistants--all men, women, and children
being driven away--form a "manner of human altar" upon which the
youth is laid for circumcision. He then receives the normal two
names, public and secret, and is initiated into the mysteries
proper for men. The Australians also for Malthusian reasons
produce an artificial hypospadias, while the Karens of New Guinea
only split the prepuce longitudinally (Cosmos p. 369, Oct. 1876);
the indigens of Port Lincoln on the West Coast split the virga:--
Fenditur usque ad urethram a parse infera penis between the ages
of twelve and fourteen, says E. J. Eyre in 1845. Missionary
Schurmann declares that they open the urethra. Gason describes in
the Dieyerie tribe the operation 'Kulpi" which is performed when
the beard is long enough for tying. The member is placed upon a
slab of tree-bark, the urethra is incised with a quartz-flake
mounted in a gum handle and a splinter of bark is inserted to
keep the cut open. These men may appear naked before women who
expect others to clothe themselves. Miklucho Maclay calls it
"Mike" in Central Australia: he was told by a squatter that of
three hundred men only three or four had the member intact in
order to get children, and that in one tribe the female births
greatly outnumbered the male. Those mutilated also marry: when
making water they sit like women slightly raising the penis, this
in coition becomes flat and broad and the semen does not enter
the matrix. The explorer believes that the deed of kind is more
quickly done (?). Circumcision was also known to the New World.
Herrera relates that certain Mexicans cut off the ears and
prepuce of the newly born child, causing many to die. The Jews
did not adopt the female circumcision of Egypt described by Huet
on Origen--"Circumcisio feminarum fit resectione (sive
clitoridis) quæ pars in Australium mulieribus ita crescit ut
ferro est coërcenda." Here we have the normal confusion between
excision of the nymphæ (usually for fibulation) and circumcision
of the clitoris. Bruce notices this clitoridectomy among the
Aybssinians. Werne describes the excision on the Upper White Nile
and I have noted the complicated operation among the Somali
tribes. Girls in Dahome are circumcised by ancient sages femmes,
and a woman in the natural state would be derided by every one
(See my Mission to Dahome, ii. 159) The Australians cut out the
clitoris, and as I have noted elsewhere extirpate the ovary for
Malthusian purposes (Journ Anthrop. Inst., vol. viii. of 1884).

[FN#181] Arab. "Kayrawán" which is still the common name for
curlew, the peewit and plover being called (onomatopoetically)
"Bibat" and in Marocco Yahúdi, certain impious Jews having been
turned into the Vanellus Cristatus which still wears the black
skullcap of the

[FN#182] Arab. "Sawáki," the leats which irrigate the ground and
are opened and closed with

[FN#183] The eighth (in altitude) of the many-storied Heavens.

[FN#184] Arab. "Ihramat li al-Salát,"i.e., she pronounced the
formula of Intention (Niyat) with out which prayer is not valid,
ending with Allaho Akbar--Allah is All-great. Thus she had
clothed herself, as it were, in prayer and had retired from the
world pro temp.

[FN#185] i.e.. the prayers of the last day and night which she
had neglected while in company with the Jinns. The Hammam is not
a pure place to pray in; but the Farz or Koranic orisons should
be recited there if the legal term be hard upon its end.

[FN#186] Slaves, male as well as female, are as fond of talking
over their sale as European dames enjoy looking back upon the
details of courtship and marriage.

[FN#187] Arab. "Du'á,"=supplication, prayer, as opposed to
'Salát"=divine worship, "prayers" For the technical meaning of
the latter see vol. iv. 65. I have objected to Mr. Redhouse's
distinction without a difference between Moslem's worship and
prayer: voluntary prayers: are not prohibited to them and their
praises of the Lord are mingled, as amongst all worshippers, with
petitions.

[FN#188] Al-Muzfir=the Twister; Zafáir al-Jinn=Adiantum capillus
veneris Lúlúah=The Pearl, or Wild Heifer; see vol. ix. 218.

[FN#189] Arab. "Bi jildi 'l-baker." I hope that captious critics
will not find fault with my rendering, as they did in the case of
Fals ahmar=a red cent, vol. i. 321.

[FN#190] Arab. "Farásah"=lit. knowing a horse. Arabia abounds in
tales illustrating abnormal powers of observation. I have noted
this in vol. viii. 326.

[FN#191] i.e. the owner of this palace.

[FN#192] She made the Ghusl not because she had slept with a man,
but because the impurity of Satan's presence called for the major
ablution before prayer.

[FN#193] i.e. she conjoined the prayers of nightfall with those
of dawn.

[FN#194] i.e.. Those of midday, mid-afternoon and sunset.

[FN#195] Arab. "Sahbá" red wine preferred for the morning
draught.

[FN#196] The Apostle who delighted in women and perfumes. Persian
poetry often alludes to the rose which, before white, was dyed
red by his sweat.

[FN#197] For the etymology of Julnár--Byron's "Gulnare"--see vol.
vii. 268. Here the rhymer seems to refer to its origin; Gul
(Arab. Jul) in Persian a rose; and Anár, a pomegranate, which in
Arabic becomes Nár=fire.

[FN#198] i.e. "The brilliant," the enlightened.

[FN#199] i.e.. the moral beauty.

[FN#200] A phenomenon well known to spiritualists and to "The
House and the Haunter." An old Dutch factory near Hungarian Fiume
is famed for this mode of "obsession" the inmates hear the sound
of footfalls, etc., behind them, especially upon the stairs; and
see nothing.

[FN#201] The two short Koranic chapters, The Daybreak (cxiii.)
and The Men (cxiv. and last) evidently so called from the words
which occur in both (versets i., "I take refuge with"). These
"Ma'úzatáni," as they are called, are recited as talismans or
preventives against evil, and are worn as amulets inscribed on
parchment; they are also often used in the five canonical
prayers. I have translated them in vol. iii. 222.

[FN#202] The artistes or fugleman at prayer who leads off the
orisons of the congregation; and applied to the Caliph as the
head of the faith. See vol. ii. 203 and iv. 111.

[FN#203] Arab. " 'Ummár" i.e. the Jinn, the "spiritual creatures"
which walk this earth, and other non-humans who occupy it.

[FN#204] A parallel to this bodiless Head is the Giant Face,
which appears to travellers (who expect it) in the Lower Valley
of the Indus. See Sind Re-visited, ii. 155.

[FN#205] Arab. "Ghalílí"=my yearning.

[FN#206] Arab. "Ahbábu-ná" plur. for singular=my beloved.

[FN#207] i.e. her return.

[FN#208] Arab. "Arja'" lit. return! but here meaning to stop. It
is much used by donkey-boys from Cairo to Fez in the sense of
"Get out of the way." Hence the Spanish arre! which gave rise to
arriero=a carrier, a muleteer.

[FN#209] Arab. "Afras" lit.=a better horseman.

[FN#210] A somewhat crippled quotation from Koran lvi. 87-88, "As
for him who is of those brought near unto Allah, there shall be
for him easance and basil and a Garden of Delights (Na'ím)."

[FN#211] i.e. Queen Sunbeam.

[FN#212] See vol. i. 310 for this compound perfume which contains
musk, ambergris and other essences.

[FN#213] I can hardly see the sequence of this or what the
carpets have to do here.

[FN#214] Here, as before, some insertion has been found
necessary.

[FN#215] Arab. "Dukhúlak" lit.=thy entering, entrance, becoming
familiar.

[FN#216] Or "And in this there shall be to thee great honour over
all the Jinn."

[FN#217] Mr. Payne thus amends the text, "How loathly is yonder
Genie Meimoun! There is no eating (in his presence);" referring
back to p. 61.

[FN#218] i.e. "I cannot bear to see him!"

[FN#219] This assertion of dignity, which is permissible in
royalty, has been absurdly affected by certain "dames" in
Anglo-Egypt who are quite the reverse of queenly; and who degrade
"dignity" to the vulgarest affectation.

[FN#220] i.e. "May thy visits never fail me!"

[FN#221] i.e. Ash-coloured, verging upon white.

[FN#222] i.e. "She will double thy store of presents."

[FN#223] The Arab boy who, unlike the Jew, is circumcised long
after infancy and often in his teens, thus making the ceremony
conform after a fashion with our "Confirmation," is displayed
before being operated upon, to family and friends; and the seat
is a couch covered with the richest tapestry. So far it resembles
the bride-throne.

[FN#224] Tohfah.

[FN#225] i.e. Hindu, Indian.

[FN#226] Japhet, son of Noah.

[FN#227] Mr. Payne translates "Take this and glorify thyself
withal over the people of the world." His reading certainly makes
better sense, but I do not see how the text can carry the
meaning. He also omits the bussing of the bosom, probably for
artistic reasons.

[FN#228] A skit at Ishák, making the Devil praise him. See vol.
vii. 113.

[FN#229] Arab. "Mawázi" (plur. of Mauza')=lit. places, shifts,
passages.

[FN#230] The bed (farsh), is I presume, the straw-spread (?)
store-room where the apples are preserved.

[FN#231] Arab. "Farkh warak", which sounds like an atrocious
vulgarism.

[FN#232] The Moss-rose; also the eglantine, or dog-rose, and the
sweet-briar, whose leaf, unlike other roses, is so odorous.

[FN#233] The lily in Heb., derived by some from its six (shash)
leaves, and by others from its vivid cheerful brightness. "His
lips are lilies" (Cant. v. 13), not in colour, but in odoriferous
sweetness.

[FN#234] The barber is now the usual operator; but all operations
began in Europe with the "barber-surgeon."

[FN#235] Sic in text xii. 20. It may be a misprint for Abú
al-Tawaif, but it can also mean "O Shaykh of the Tribes (of
Jinns)!"

[FN#236] The capital of King Al-Shisban.

[FN#237] Arab "Fajj", the Spanish "Vega" which, however, means a
mountain-plain, a plain.

[FN#238] i.e. I am quite sure: emphatically.

[FN#239] i.e. all the Jinn's professions of affection and
promises of protection were mere lies.

[FN#240] In the original this apodosis is wanting: see vol. vi.
203, 239.

[FN#241] Arab. "Dáhiyat al-Dawáhí;" see vol. ii. 87.

[FN#242] Arab. "Al-Jabal al-Mukawwar"= Chaîne de montagnes de
forme demi circulaire, from Kaur, a park, an enceinte.

[FN#243] Arab. "Rúhí" lit. my breath, the outward sign of life.

[FN#244] i.e. Káf.

[FN#245] i.e. A bit of burning charcoal.

[FN#246] Arab. "Al-yad al-bayzá,"=lit. The white hand: see vol.
iv. 185.

[FN#247] Showing the antiquity of "Après moi le déluge," the fame
of all old politicians and aged statesmen who can expect but a
few years of life. These "burning questions" (e.g. the Bulgarian)
may be smothered for a time, but the result is that they blaze
forth with increased violence. We have to thank Lord Palmerston
(an Irish landlord) for ignoring the growth of Fenianism and
another aged statesman for a sturdy attempt to disunite the
United Kingdom. An old nation wants young blood at its head.

[FN#248] Suggesting the nursery rhyme:

Fee, fo, fum
I smell the blood of an Englishman.

[FN#249] i.e. why not at once make an end of her.

[FN#250] The well-known war-cry.

[FN#251] Lit. "Smoke" pop. applied, like our word, to tobacco.
The latter, however, is not here meant.

[FN#252] Arab. "Ghuráb al-bayn," of the wold or of parting. See
vol. vii. 226.

[FN#253] Arab. "Haláwah"; see vol. iv. 60.

[FN#254] Here the vocative particle "Yá" is omitted.

[FN#255] Lit. "The long-necked (bird)" before noticed with the
Rukh (Roc) in vol. v. 122. Here it becomes a Princess, daughter
of Bahrám-i-Gúr (Bahram of the Onager, his favourite game), the
famous Persian king in the fifth century, a contemporary of
Theodosius the younger and Honorius. The "Anká" is evidently the
Iranian Símurgh.

[FN#256] "Chamber" is becoming a dangerous word in English. Roars
of laughter from the gods greeted the great actor's declamation,
"The bed has not been slept in! Her little chamber is empty!"

[FN#257] Choice Gift of the breast (or heart).

[FN#258] From the Calc. Edit. (1814–18), Nights cxcvi.–cc., vol.
ii., pp. 367–378. The translation has been compared and collated
with that of Langlès (Paris, 1814), appended to his Edition of
the Voyages of Sindbad. The story is exceedingly clever and well
deserves translation.

[FN#259] It is regretable that this formula has not been
preserved throughout The Nights: it affords, I have noticed, a
pleasing break to the long course of narrative.

[FN#260] Arab. "Banát-al-hawá" lit. daughters of love, usually
meaning an Anonyma, a fille de joie; but here the girl is of good
repute, and the offensive term must be modified to a gay,
frolicsome lass.

[FN#261] Arab. "Jabhat," the lintel opposed to the threshold.

[FN#262] Arab. "Ghattí," still the popular term said to a child
showing its nakedness, or a lady of pleasure who insults a man by
displaying any part of her person.

[FN#263] She is compared with a flashing blade (her face) now
drawn from its sheath (her hair) then hidden by it.

[FN#264] The "Muajjalah" or money paid down before consummation
was about £25; and the "Mu'ajjalah" or coin to be paid contingent
on divorce was about £75. In the Calc. Edit ii. 371, both dowers
are £35.

[FN#265] All the blemishes which justify returning a slave to the
slave-dealer.

[FN#266] Media: see vol. ii. 94. The "Daylamite prison" was one
of many in Baghdad.

[FN#267] See vol. v. 199. I may remark that the practice of
bathing after copulation was kept up by both sexes in ancient
Rome. The custom may have originated in days when human senses
were more acute. I have seen an Arab horse object to be mounted
by the master when the latter had not washed after sleeping with
a woman.

[FN#268] On the morning after a happy night the bridegroom still
offers coffee and Halwá to friends.

[FN#269] i.e. More bewitching.

[FN#270] Arab. "Sharífí" more usually Ashrafi, the Port. Xerafim,
a gold coin = 6s.–7s.

[FN#271] The oft-repeated Koranic quotation.

[FN#272] Arab. "'Irk": our phrase is "the apple of the eye."

[FN#273] Meaning that he was a Sayyid or a Sharíf.

[FN#274] i.e. than a Jew or a Christian. So the Sultan, when
appealed to by these religionists, who were as usual squabbling
and fighting, answered, "What matter if the dog tear the hog or
the hog tear the dog"?

[FN#275] The "Sharí'at" forbidding divorce by force.

[FN#276] i.e. protect my honour.

[FN#277] For this proverb see vol. v. 138. 1 have remarked that
"Shame" is not a passion in Europe as in the East; the Western
equivalent to the Arab. "Hayá' 'would be the Latin "Pudor."

[FN#278] Arab. "Talákan báinan," here meaning a triple divorce
before witnesses, making it irrevocable.

[FN#279] i.e. who had played him that trick.

[FN#280] The Bresl. Edit. (vol. xii. pp. 50-116, Nights
dcccclviii- dcccclxv.) entitles it "Tale of Abu al-Hasan the
Damascene and his son Sídí Nur al-Dín ' Alí." Sídí means simply,
"my lord," but here becomes part of the name, a practice
perpetuated in Zanzibar. See vol. v.283.

[FN#281] i.e. at the hours of canonical prayers and other
suitable times he made an especial orison (du'á) for issue.

[FN#282] See vol. i.85, for the traditional witchcraft of
Babylonia.

[FN#283] i.e. More or less thoroughly.

[FN#284] i.e. "He who quitteth not his native country diverteth
not himself with a sight of the wonders of the world."

[FN#285] For similar sayings, see vol. ix.257, and my Pilgrimage
i.127.

[FN#286] i.e. relying upon, etc.

[FN#287] The Egyptian term for a khan, called in Persia
caravanserai (karwán-serái); and in Marocco funduk, from the
Greek; whence the Spanish "fonda." See vol. i. 92.

[FN#288] Arab. "Baliyah," to jingle with "Bábiliyah."

[FN#289] As a rule whenever this old villain appears in The
Nights, it is a signal for an outburst of obscenity. Here,
however, we are quittes pour la peur. See vol. v. 65 for some of
his abominations.

[FN#290] The lines are in vols. viii.279 and ix.197. I quote Mr.
Payne.

[FN#291] Lady or princess of the Fair (ones).

[FN#292] i.e. of buying.

[FN#293] Arab. "Azán-hú=lit. its ears.

[FN#294] Here again the policeman is made a villain of the
deepest dye; bad enough to gratify the intelligence of his
deadliest enemy, a lodging-keeper in London.

[FN#295] i.e. You are welcome to it and so it becomes lawful
(halál) to you.

[FN#296] Arab. "Sijn al-Dam," the Carcere duro inasprito (to
speak Triestine), where men convicted or even accused of
bloodshed were confined.

[FN#297] Arab. "Mabásim"; plur. of Mabsim, a smiling mouth which
shows the foreteeth.

[FN#298] The branchlet, as usual, is the youth's slender form.

[FN#299] Subaudi, "An ye disdain my love."

[FN#300] In the text "sleep."

[FN#301] "Them" and "him" for "her."

[FN#302] 'Urkúb, a Jew of Yathrib or Khaybar, immortalised in the
A.P. (i. 454) as "more promise-breaking than 'Urkúb."

[FN#303] Uncle of Mohammed. See vol. viii. 172.

[FN#304] First cousin of Mohammed. See ib.

[FN#305] This threat of "'Orf with her 'ead" shows the Caliph's
lordliness.

[FN#306] Arab. "Al-Bashkhánah."

[FN#307] i.e. Amen. See vol. ix. 131.

[FN#308] When asked, on Doomsday, his justification for having
slain her.

[FN#309] Khorasan which included our Afghanistan, turbulent then
as now, was in a chronic state of rebellion during the latter
part of Al-Rashid's reign.

[FN#310] The brutality of a Moslem mob on such occasions is
phenomenal: no fellow-feeling makes them decently kind. And so at
executions even women will take an active part in insulting and
tormenting the criminal, tearing his hair, spitting in his face
and so forth. It is the instinctive brutality with which wild
beasts and birds tear to pieces a wounded companion.

[FN#311] The popular way of stopping hemorrhage by plunging the
stump into burning oil which continued even in Europe till
Ambrose Paré taught men to take up the arteries.

[FN#312] i.e. folk of good family.

[FN#313] i.e. the result of thy fervent prayers to Allah for me.

[FN#314] Arab. "Al-Abárík" plur. of lbrik, an ewer containing
water for the Wuzu-ablution. I have already explained that a
Moslem wishing to be ceremonially pure, cannot wash as Europeans
do, in a basin whose contents are fouled by the first touch.

[FN#315] Arab. "Náihah ,the præfica or myriologist. See vol. i.
311. The proverb means, "If you want a thing done, do it
yourself."

[FN#316] Arab. "Burka'," the face veil of Egypt, Syria, and
Arabia with two holes for the eyes, and the end hanging to the
waist, a great contrast with the "Lithám or coquettish fold of
transparent muslin affected by modest women in Stambul.

[FN#317] i.e. donned petticoat-trousers and walking boots other
than those she was wont to wear.

[FN#318] "Surah" (Koranic chapter) may be a clerical error for
"Súrah" (with a Sád) = sort, fashion (of food).

[FN#319] This is solemn religious chaff; the Shaykh had doubtless
often dipped his hand abroad in such dishes; but like a good
Moslem, he contented himself at home with wheaten scones and
olives, a kind of sacramental food like bread and wine in
southern Europe. But his retort would be acceptable to the True
Believer who, the strictest of conservatives, prides himself on
imitating in all points, the sayings and doings of the Apostle.

[FN#320] i.e. animals that died without being ceremonially
killed.

[FN#321] Koran ii. 168. This is from the Chapter of the Cow where
"that which dieth of itself (carrion), blood, pork, and that over
which other name but that of Allah (i.e. idols) hath been
invoked" are forbidden. But the verset humanely concludes:
"Whoso, however, shall eat them by constraint, without desire, or
as a transgressor, then no sin shall be upon him."

[FN#322] i.e. son of Simeon=a Christian.

[FN#323] Arab. and Heb. "Haykal," suggesting the idea of large
space, a temple, a sanctuary, a palace which bear a suspicious
likeness to the Accadian Ê-kal or Great House = the old Egyptian
Perao (Pharaoh?), and the Japanese "Mikado."

[FN#324] Wine, carrion and pork being lawful to the Moslem if
used to save life. The former is also the sovereignest thing for
inward troubles, flatulence, indigestion, etc. See vol. v. 2, 24.

[FN#325] Arab. "Názilah," i.e., a curse coming down from Heaven.

[FN#326] Here and below, a translation of her name.

[FN#327] "A picture of Paradise which is promised to the
God-fearing! Therein are rivers of water which taint not; and
rivers of milk whose taste changeth not; and rivers of wine,
etc."--Koran xlvii. 16.

[FN#328] Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter,
Sermons and soda-water the day after.
Don Juan ii. 178.

[FN#329] The ox (Bakar) and the bull (Taur, vol. i. 16) are the
Moslem emblems of stupidity, as with us are the highly
intelligent ass and the most sagacious goose.

[FN#330] In Arab. "'Ud" means primarily wood; then a lute. See
vol. ii. 100. The Muezzin, like the schoolmaster, is popularly
supposed to be a fool.

[FN#331] I have noticed that among Arab lovers it was the fashion
to be jealous of the mistress's nightly phantom which, as amongst
mesmerists, is the lover's embodied will.

[FN#332] i.e. I will lay down my life to save thee from sorrow--a
common-place hyperbole of love.

[FN#333] Arab. "Katl." I have noticed the Hibernian "kilt" which
is not a bull but, like most provincialisms and Americanisms, a
survival, an archaism. In the old Frisian dialect, which agrees
with English in more words than "bread, butter and cheese," we
find the primary meaning of terms which with us have survived
only in their secondary senses, e.g. killen = to beat and slagen
= to strike. Here is its great value to the English philologist.
When the Irishman complains that he is "kilt" we know through the
Frisian what he really means.

[FN#334] The decency of this description is highly commendable
and I may note that the Bresl. Edit. is comparatively free from
erotic pictures.

[FN#335] i.e. "I commit him to thy charge under God."

[FN#336] This is an Americanism, but it translates passing well
"Al-iláj" = insertion.

[FN#337] Arab. (and Heb.) "Tarjumán" = a dragoman, for which see
vol. i. 100. In the next tale it will occur with the sense of
polyglottic.

[FN#338] See vol. i. p. 35.

[FN#339] After putting to death the unjust Prefect.

[FN#340] Arab. "Lajlaj." See vol. ix. 322.

[FN#341] Arab. "Mawálid" lit. = nativity festivals (plur. of
Maulid). See vol. ix. 289.


[FN#342] Bresl. Edit., vol. xii. pp. 116-237, Nights
dcccclxvi-dcccclxxix. Mr. Payne entitles it "El Abbas and the
King's Daughter of Baghdad."

[FN#343] "Of the Shayban tribe." I have noticed (vol. ii. 1) how
loosely the title Malik (King) is applied in Arabic and in
mediæval Europe. But it is ultra-Shakespearean to place a Badawi
King in Baghdad, the capital founded by the Abbasides and ruled
by those Caliphs till their downfall.

[FN#344] i.e. Irák Arabí (Chaldæa) and 'Ajami (Western Persia).
For the meaning of Al-Irák, which always, except in verse, takes
the article, see vol. ii. 132.

[FN#345] See supra, p. 135. Mr. Payne suspects a clerical error
for "Turkumániyah" = Turcomanish; but this is hardly acceptable.

[FN#346] As fabulous a personage as "King Kays."

[FN#347] Possibly a clerical error for Zabíd, the famous capital
of the Tahámah or lowlands of Al-Yaman.

[FN#348] The Moslem's Holy Land whose capital is Meccah.

[FN#349] A hinted protest against making a picture or a statue
which the artist cannot quicken; as this process will be demanded
of him on Doomsday. Hence also the Princess is called Máriyah
(Maria, Mary), a non-Moslem name.

[FN#350] i.e. day and night, for ever.

[FN#351] Koran xxxiii. 38; this concludes a "revelation"
concerning the divorce and marriage to Mohammed of the wife of
his adopted son Zayd. Such union, superstitiously held incestuous
by all Arabs, was a terrible scandal to the rising Faith, and
could be abated only by the "Commandment of Allah." It is hard to
believe that a man could act honestly after such fashion; but we
have seen in our day a statesman famed for sincerity and
uprightness honestly doing things the most dishonest possible.
Zayd and Abu Lahab (chap. cxi. i.) are the only contemporaries of
Mohammed named in the Koran.

[FN#352] i.e. darkened behind him.

[FN#353] Here we have again, as so common in Arab romances, the
expedition of a modified Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.

[FN#354] Arab. "Arzi-há" = in its earth, its outlying suburbs.

[FN#355] The king's own tribe.

[FN#356] i.e. he was always "spoiling for a fight."

[FN#357] In the text the two last sentences are spoken by Amir
and the story-teller suddenly resumes the third person.

[FN#358] Mr. Payne translates this "And God defend the right" (of
plunder according to the Arabs).

[FN#359] Arab. "Lilláhi darruk"; see vol. iv. 20. Captain Lockett
(p.28) justly remarks that "it is a sort of encomiastic
exclamation of frequent occurrence in Arabic and much easier to
comprehend than translate." Darra signifies flowing freely (as
milk from the udder) and was metaphorically transferred to bounty
and to indoles or natural capacity. Thus the phrase means "your
flow of milk is by or through Allah." i.e., of unusual abundance.

[FN#360] The words are euphemistic: we should say "comest thou to
our succour."

[FN#361] i.e. If his friend the Devil be overstrong for thee,
flee him rather than be slain; as

He who fights and runs away
Shall live to fight another day.

[FN#362] i.e. I look to Allah for said (and keep my powder dry).

[FN#363] i.e. to the next world.

[FN#364] This falling backwards in laughter commonly occurs
during the earlier tales; it is, however, very rare amongst the
Badawin.

[FN#365] i.e. as he were a flying Jinni, swooping down and
pouncing falcon-like upon a mortal from the upper air.

[FN#366] This may be (reading Imraan = man, for Amran = matter)
"a masterful man"; but I can hardly accept it.

[FN#367] Arab. "Bundukí," the adj. of Bunduk, which the Moslems
evidently learned from Slav sources; Venedik being the Dalmatian
corruption of Venezia. See Dubrovenedik in vol. ii. 219.

[FN#368] i.e. the castle's square.

[FN#369] In sign of quitting possession. Chess in Europe is
rarely played for money, with the exception of public matches:
this, however, is not the case amongst Easterns, who are also for
the most part as tricky as an old lady at cribbage rightly named.

[FN#370] i.e, he was as eloquent and courtly as he could be.

[FN#371] Arab. "Ya Zínat al-Nisá," which may either be a P.N. or
a polite address as Bella fé (Handsome woman) is to any feminine
in Southern Italy.

[FN#372] Arab. "Raas Ghanam": this form of expressing singularity
is common to Arabic and the Eastern languages, which it has
influenced.

[FN#373] This most wearisome form of politeness is common in the
Moslem world, where men fondly think that the more you see of
them the more you like of them. Yet their Proverbial Philosophy
("the wisdom of many and the wit of one") strongly protests
against the practice: I have already quoted Mohammed's saying,
"Zur ghibban, tazid Hibban"--visits rare keep friendship fair.

[FN#374] This clause in the text is evidently misplaced (vol.
xii.144).

[FN#375] Arab. Dara' or Dira'=armour, whether of leather or
metal; here the coat worn under the mail.

[FN#376] Called from Rustak, a quarter of Baghdad. For Rustak
town see vol. vi. 289.

[FN#377] From Damietta comes our "dimity." The classical name was
Tamiáthis apparently Coptic græcised: the old town on the shore
famed in Crusading times was destroyed in A.H. 648 = 1251.

[FN#378] Easterns are always startled by sudden summons to the
presence either of King or Kazi: here the messenger gives the
youth to understand that it is in kindness, not in anger.

[FN#379] i.e. in not sending for thee to court instead of
allowing thee to live in the city without guest-rite.

[FN#380] In sign of agitation: the phrase has often been used in
this sense and we find it also in Al-Mas'udi.

[FN#381] I would remind the reader that the "Dawát" (ink-case)
contains the reed-pens.

[FN#382] Two well-known lovers.

[FN#383] On such occasions the old woman (and Easterns are hard
de dolo vetularum) always assents to the sayings of her prey,
well knowing what the doings will inevitably be.

[FN#384] Travellers, Nomads, Wild Arabs.

[FN#385] Whither they bear thee back dead with the women crying
and keening.

[FN#386] Arab. Aznání = emaciated me.

[FN#387] Either the Deity or the Love-god.

[FN#388] Arab. "Himà" = the tribal domain, a word which has often
occurred.

[FN#389] "O ye who believe! seek help through patience and
prayer: verily, Allah is with the patient." Koran ii. 148. The
passage refers to one of the battles, Bedr or Ohod.

[FN#390] Arab. "Sirr" (a secret) and afterwards "Kitmán"
(concealment) i.e. Keeping a lover down-hearted.

[FN#391] Arab. "'Alkam" = the bitter gourd, colocynth; more
usually "Hanzal."

[FN#392] "For Jazírah" = insula, island, used in the sense of
"peninsula," see vol. i. 2.

[FN#393] Meccah and Al-Medinah. Pilgrimage i. 338 and ii. 57,
used in the proverb "Sharr fi al-Haramayn" = wickedness in the
two Holy Places.

[FN#394] Arab. Al-hamd (o li'llah).

[FN#395] i.e. play, such as the chase, or an earnest matter, such
as war, etc.

[FN#396] Arab. "Mizwad," or Mizwad = lit. provision-bag, from Zád
= viaticum; afterwards called Kirbah (pron. Girbah, the popular
term), and Sakl. The latter is given in the Dictionaries as
Askálah = scala, échelle, stage, plank.

[FN#397] Those blood-feuds are most troublesome to the traveller,
who may be delayed by them for months: and, until a peace be
patched up, he will never be allowed to pass from one tribe to
their enemies. A quarrel of the kind prevented my crossing Arabia
from Al-Medinah to Maskat (Pilgrimage, ii. 297), and another in
Africa from visiting the head of the Tanganyika Lake. In all such
journeys the traveller who has to fight against Time is almost
sure to lose.

[FN#398] i.e. his fighting-men.

[FN#399] The popular treatment of a detected horse-thief, for
which see Burckhardt, Travels in Arabia (1829), and Notes on the
Bedouins and Wahabys (1830).

[FN#400] Arab "Ashírah": see vol. vii. 121.

[FN#401] Arab. "Musáfahah" -. see vol. vi. 287.

[FN#402] In the text, "To the palace of the king's daughter."

[FN#403] Arab. "Marj Salí'" = cleft meadow (here and below). Mr.
Payne suggests that this may be a mistranscription for Marj Salí'
(with a Sád) = a treeless champaign. It appears to me a careless
blunder for the Marj akhzar (green meadow) before mentioned.

[FN#404] The palace, even without especial and personal reasons,
not being the place for a religious and scrupulous woman.

[FN#405] "i.e. those of El Aziz, who had apparently entered the
city or passed through it on their way to the camp of El Abbas."
This is Mr. Payne's suggestion.

[FN#406] Arab "Hatif"; gen. = an ally.

[FN#407] Not wishing to touch the hand of a strange woman.

[FN#408] i.e. a mere passer-by, a stranger; alluding to her
taunt.

[FN#409] The Bactrian or double-humped dromedary. See vol. iii.
67. Al-Mas'udi (vii. 169) calls it "Jamal fálij," lit. = the
palsy-camel.

[FN#410] i.e. Stars and planets.

[FN#411] i.e. Sang in tenor tones which are always in falsetto.

[FN#412] Arab. Tahzíb = reforming morals, amending conduct,
chastening style.

[FN#413] i.e. so as to show only the whites, as happens to the
"mesmerised."

[FN#414] i.e. for love of and longing for thy youth.

[FN#415] i.e. leather from Al-Táif: see vol. viii. 303. The text
has by mistake Tálifí.

[FN#416] i.e. she was at her last breath, when cured by the magic
of love.

[FN#417] i.e. violateth my private apartment.

[FN#418] The voice (Sházz) is left doubtful: it may be girl's,
nightingale's, or dove's.

[FN#419] Arab. "Hibá" partly induced by the rhyme. In desert
countries the comparison will be appreciated: in Sind the fine
dust penetrates into a closed book.

[FN#420] i.e. he smuggled it in under his 'Abá-cloak: perhaps it
was a better brand than that made in the monastery.

[FN#421] i.e. the delights of Paradise promised by the Prophet.

[FN#422] Again, "he" for "she," making the lover's address more
courtly and delicate.

[FN#423] i.e. take refuge with Allah from the evil eye of her
charms.

[FN#424] i.e. an thou prank or adorn thyself: I have translated
literally, but the couplet strongly suggests "nonsense verses."

[FN#425] Arab. "Santír:" Lane (M.E., chapt. xviii.) describes it
as resembling the Kanún (dulcimer or zither) but with two oblique
peg-pieces instead of one and double chords of wire (not treble
strings of lamb's gut) and played upon with two sticks instead of
the little plectra. Dozy also gives Santir from {Greek}, the
Fsaltrún of Daniel.

[FN#426] i.e. That which is ours shall be thine, and that which
is incumbent on thee shall be incumbent on us = we will assume
thy debts and responsibilities.

[FN#427] This passage is sadly disjointed in the text: I have
followed Mr. Payne's ordering.

[FN#428] The Arab of noble tribe is always the first to mount his
own mare: he also greatly fears her being put out to full speed
by a stranger, holding that this should be reserved for occasions
of life and death; and that it can be done to perfection only
once during the animal's life.

[FN#429] The red (Ahmar) dromedary like the white-red (Sabah)
were most valued because they are supposed best to bear the heats
of noon; and thus "red camels" is proverbially used for wealth.
When the head of Abu Jahl was brought in after the Battle of
Bedr, Mahommed exclaimed, "'Tis more acceptable to me than a red
camel!"

[FN#430] i.e. Couriers on dromedaries, the only animals used for
sending messages over long distances.

[FN#431] These guest-fires are famous in Arab poetry. So
Al-Harírí (Ass. of Banu Haram) sings:--

A beacon fire I ever kindled high;

i.e. on the hill-tops near the camp, to guide benighted
travellers. Also the Lamíyat al-Ajam says:--

The fire of hospitality is ever lit on the high
stations.

This natural telegraph was used in a host of ways by the Arabs of
The Ignorance; for instance, when a hated guest left the camp
they lighted the "Fire of Rejection," and cried, "Allah, bear him
far from us!" Nothing was more ignoble than to quench such fire:
hence in obloquy of the Fazár tribe it was said:--

Ne'er trust Fazár with an ass, for they
Once roasted ass-pizzle, the rabble rout:
And, when sight they guest, to their dams they say,
"Piss quick on the guest-fire and put it out!"
(Al-Mas"udi vi. 140.)

[FN#432] i.e. of rare wood, set with rubies.

[FN#433] i.e. whose absence pained us.

[FN#434] Mr. Payne and I have long puzzled over these enigmatical
and possibly corrupt lines: he wrote to me in 1884, "This is the
first piece that has beaten me." In the couplet above (vol. xii.
230) "Rayhání" may mean "my basil-plant" or "my food" (the latter
Koranic), "my compassion," etc.; and Súsání is equally ancipitous
"My lilies" or "my sleep": see Bard al-Susan = les douceurs du
sommeil in Al-Mas'údi vii. 168.

[FN#435] The "Niká" or sand hill is the swell of the throat: the
Ghaur or lowland is the fall of the waist: the flower is the
breast anent which Mr. Payne appropriately quotes the well-known
lines of Fletcher:

"Hide, O hide those hills of snow,
That thy frozen bosom bears,
On whose tops the pinks that grow
Are of those that April wears."

[FN#436] Easterns are right in regarding a sleepy languorous look
as one of the charms of women, and an incitement to love because
suggestive only of bed. Some men also find the same pleasure in a
lacrymose expression of countenance, seeming always to call for
consolation: one of the most successful women I know owes her
exceptional good fortune to this charm.

[FN#437] Arab. "Hájib,"eyebrow or chamberlain; see vol. iii. 233.
The pun is classical used by a host of poets including Al-Harírí.

[FN#438] Arab. "Tarfah." There is a Tarfia Island in the
Guadalquivir and in Gibraltar a "Tarfah Alto" opposed to "Tarfali
bajo." But it must not be confounded with Tarf = a side, found in
the Maroccan term for "The Rock" Jabal al-Tarf = Mountain of the
Point (of Europe).

[FN#439] For Solomon and his flying carpet see vol. iii. 267.

[FN#440] Arab. "Bilád al-Maghrib (al-Aksa," in full) = the
Farthest Land of the setting Sun, shortly called Al-Maghrib and
the people "Maghribi." The earliest occurrence of our name
Morocco or Marocco I find in the "Marákiyah" of Al-Mas'udi (iii.
241), who apparently applies it to a district whither the Berbers
migrated.

[FN#441] The necklace-pearls are the cup-bearer's teeth.

[FN#442] In these unregenerate days they would often be summoned
to the houses of the royal family; but now they had "got
religion" and, becoming freed women, were resolved to be
"respectable." In not a few Moslem countries men of wealth and
rank marry professional singers who, however loose may have been
their artistic lives, mostly distinguish themselves by decency of
behaviour often pushed to the extreme of rigour. Also jeune
coquette, vieille dévote is a rule of the world, Eastern and
Western.

[FN#443] Bresl. Edit., vol. xii p. 383 (Night mi). The king is
called as usual "Shahrbán," which is nearly synonymous with
Shahryár.

[FN#444] i.e. the old Sindibae-Námeh (see vol. vi. 122), or "The
Malice of Women" which the Bresl. Edit. entitles, "Tale of the
King and his Son and his Wife and the Seven Wazirs." Here it
immediately follows the Tale of Al-Abbas and Mariyah and occupies
pp. 237-383 of vol. xii, (Nights dcccclxxix-m).

[FN#445] i.e. Those who commit it.

[FN#446] The connection between this pompous introduction and the
story which follows is not apparent. The "Tale of the Two Kings
and the Wazir's Daughters" is that of Shahrazad told in the third
person, in fact a rechauffé of the Introduction. But as some
three years have passed since the marriage, and the dénouement of
the plot is at hand, the Princess is made, with some art I think,
to lay the whole affair before her husband in her own words, the
better to bring him to a "sense of his duty."

[FN#447] Bresl. Edit., vol. xii. Pp. 384-412.

[FN#448] This clause is taken from the sequence, where the older
brother's kingdom is placed in China.

[FN#449] For the Tobbas = "Successors" or the Himyaritic kings,
see vol. i. 216.

[FN#450] Kayásirah, opp. to Akásirah, here and in many other
places.

[FN#451] See vol. ii. 77. King Kulayb ("little dog") al-Wá'il, a
powerful chief of the Banu Ma'ad in the Kasín district of Najd,
who was connected with the war of Al-Basús. He is so called
because he lamed a pup (kulayb) and tied it up in the midst of
his Himá (domain, place of pasture and water), forbidding men to
camp within sound of its bark or sight of his fire. Hence "more
masterful than Kulayb," A.P. ii. 145, and Al-Hariri Ass. Xxvi.
(Chenery, p. 448). This angry person came by his death for
wounding in the udder a trespassing camel (Sorab) whose owner was
a woman named Basús. Her friend (Jasús) slew him; and thus arose
the famous long war between the tribes Wá'il Bakr and Taghlib.
It gave origin to the saying, "Die thou and be an expiation for
the shoe-latchet of Kulayb."

[FN#452] Arab. "Mukhaddarát," maidens concealed behind curtains
and veiled in the Harem.

[FN#453] i.e. the professional Ráwis or tale-reciters who learned
stories by heart from books like "The Arabian Nights." See my
Terminal Essay, vol. x. 144.

[FN#454] Arab. "Bid'ah," lit. = an innovation, a new thing, an
invention, any change from the custom of the Prophet and the
universal practice of the Faith, where it be in the cut of the
beard or a question of state policy. Popularly the word =
heterodoxy, heresy; but theologically it is not necessarily used
in a bad sense. See vol. v. 167.

[FN#455] About three parts of this sentence have been supplied by
Mr. Payne, the careless scribe having evidently omitted it.

[FN#456] Here, as in the Introduction (vol. i. 24), the king
consummates his marriage in presence of his virgin sister-in-law,
a process which decency forbids amongst Moslems.

[FN#457] Al-Mas'udi (vol. iv. 213) uses this term to signify
viceroy in "Shahryár Sajastán."

[FN#458] i.e. his indifference to the principles of right and
wrong, which is a manner of moral intoxication.

[FN#459] i.e. hath mentioned the office of Wazir (in Koran xx.
30).

[FN#460] i.e. Moslems, who practice the Religion of Resignation.

[FN#461] Koran xxxiii. 35. This is a proemium to the
"revelation" concerning Zayd and Zaynab.

[FN#462] i.e. I have an embarras de richesse in my repertory.

[FN#463] The title is from the Bresl. Edit. (vol. xii. pp. 398-
402). Mr. Payne calls it "The Favourite and her Lover."

[FN#464] The practice of fumigating gugglets is universal in
Egypt (Lane, M. E., chapt. v.); but I never heard of musk being
so used.

[FN#465] Arab. "Laysa fi 'l-diyári dayyár"--a favourite jingle.

[FN#466] Arab. "Khayr Kathir" (pron. Katír) which also means
"abundant kindness."

[FN#467] Dozy says of "Hunayní" (Haíní), Il semble être le nom
d'un vêtement. On which we may remark, Connu!

[FN#468] Arab. Harísah: see vol. i. 131. Westerns make a sad
mess of this dish when they describe it as une sorte d'olla
podrida (the hotch-pot), une pâtée de viandes, de froment et de
légumes secs (Al-Mas'udi viii. 438). Whenever I have eaten it,
it was always a meat-pudding, for which see vol. i. 131.

[FN#469] Evidently one escaped because she was sleeping with the
Caliph, and a second because she had kept her assignation.

[FN#470] Mr. Payne entitles it, "The Merchant of Cairo and the
Favourite of the Khalif el Mamoun el Hakim bi Amrillah."

[FN#471] See my Pilgrimage (i. 100): the seat would be on the
same bit of boarding where the master sits or on a stool or bench
in the street.

[FN#472] This is true Cairene chaff, give and take; and the
stranger must accustom himself to it before he can be at home
with the people.

[FN#473] i.e. In Rauzah-Island: see vol. v. 169.

[FN#474] There is no historical person who answers to these name,
"The Secure, the Ruler by Commandment of Allah." The cognomen
applies to two soldans of Egypt, of whom the later Abu al-Abbas
Ahmad the Abbaside (A.D. 1261-1301) has already been mentioned in
The Nights (vol. v. 86). The tale suggests the earlier Al-Hakim
(Abu Ali al-Mansúr, the Fatimite, A.D. 995-1021), the God of the
Druze "persuasion;" and the tale-teller may have purposely
blundered in changing Mansúr to Maamún for fear of offending a
sect which has been most dangerous in the matter of assassination
and which is capable of becoming so again.

[FN#475] Arab. "'Alá kulli hál" = "whatever may betide," or
"willy-nilly." The phrase is still popular.

[FN#476] The dulce desipere of young lovers, he making a buffoon
of himself to amuse her.

[FN#477] "The convent of Clay," a Coptic monastery near Cairo.

[FN#478] i.e. this is the time to show thyself a man.

[FN#479] The Eastern succedaneum for swimming corks and other
"life-preservers." The practice is very ancient; we find these
guards upon the monuments of Egypt and Babylonia.

[FN#480] Arab. "Al-Khalíj," the name, still popular, of the
Grand Canal of Cairo, whose banks, by-the-by, are quaint and
picturesque as anything of the kind in Holland.

[FN#481] We say more laconically "A friend in need."

[FN#482] Arab. "Názir al-Mawárís," the employé charged with the
disposal of legacies and seizing escheats to the Crown when
Moslems die intestate. He is usually a prodigious rascal as in
the text. The office was long kept up in Southern Europe, and
Camoens was sent to Macao as "Provedor dos defuntos e ausentes."
Tales attributed to Sivadása, and another comprised in the
"Kathárnava."