Chapter XVIII: Part 18

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Serpent-queen charged Hasib not to drink of the first scum and carefully to keep the second, saying, "When the Wazir returneth from the King and asketh for the second phial, give him the first and note what shall befall him; then drink the contents of the second phial and thy heart will become the home of wisdom. After this take up the flesh and, laying it in a brazen platter, carry it to the King and give him to eat thereof. When he hath eaten it and it hath settled in his stomach, veil his face with a kerchief and wait by him till noontide, when he will have digested the meat. Then give him somewhat of wine to drink and, by the decree of Allah Almighty, he will be healed of his unhealth and be made whole as he was. And give thou ear to the charge wherewith I charge thee; and keep it in thy memory with carefullest keeping." They ceased not faring till they came to the Wazir's house, and he said to Hasib, "Come in with me!" So he went in and the troops dispersed and fared each his own way; whereupon Hasib set down the platter and the Wazir bade him slay the Queen of the Serpents; but he said, "I know not how to slaughter and never in my born days killed I aught. An thou wilt have her throat cut, do it with thine own hand." So the Minister Shamhur took the Queen from the platter and slew her, seeing which Hasib wept bitter tears and the Wazir laughed at him, saying, "O weak of wits, how canst thou weep for the killing of a worm?" Then he cut her in three and, laying the pieces in a brass cauldron, set it on the fire and sat down to await the cooking of the flesh. And whilst he was sitting, lo! there came a slave from the King, who said to him, "The King calls for thee without stay or delay," and he answered saying, "I hear and I obey." So he gave Hasib two phials and bade him drink the first scum and keep the second against his return,[FN#574] even as the Queen of the Serpents had foretold; after which he went away with repeated charges and injunctions; and Hasib tended the fire under the cauldron till the first scum rose, when he skimmed it off and, setting it in one of the phials, kept it by him. He then fed the fire till the second scum rose; then he skimmed it off and, putting it in the other phial kept it for himself. And when the meat was done, he took the cauldron off the fire and sat awaiting the Wazir who asked him on return, "What hast thou done?" and answered Hasib, "I did thy bidding to the last word." Quoth the Wazir, "What hast thou done with the first phial?" "I drank its contents but now," replied Hasib, and Shamhur asked, "Thy body feeleth it no change?"; whereto Hasib answered, "Verily, I feel as I were on fire from front to foot." The villain Wazir made no reply hiding the truth but said, "Hand me the second phial, that I may drink what is therein, so haply I may be made whole of this ailing in my loins." So Hasib brought him the first phial and he drank it off, thinking it contained the second scum; but hardly had he done drinking when the phial fell from his hand and he swelled up and dropped down dead; and thus was exemplified in him the saying; "Whoso for his brother diggeth a pit, he shall be the first to fall into it." Now when Hasib saw this, he wondered and feared to drink of the second phial; but he remembered the Serpent-queen's injunction and bethought him that the Wazir would not have reserved the second scum for himself, had there been aught of hurt therein. So he said, "I put my trust in Allah,'[FN#575] and drank off the contents of the phial. No sooner had he done so, than the Most Highest made the waters of wisdom to well up in his heart and opened to him the fountains of knowledge, and joy and gladness overcame him. Then he took the serpent's flesh from the cauldron and, laying it on a platter of brass, went forth from the Wazir's house. On his way to the palace he raised his eyes and saw the seven Heavens and all that therein is, even to the Lote-tree, beyond which there is no passing,[FN#576] and the manner of the revolution of the spheres. Moreover, Allah discovered to him the ordinance of the planets and the scheme of their movements and the fixed stars; and he saw the contour of the land and sea, whereby he became informed with geometry, astrology and astronomy and mathematics and all that hangeth thereby; and he understood the causes and consequences of eclipses of the sun and moon. Then he looked at the earth and saw all minerals and vegetables that are therein and thereon; and he learned their properties, and their virtues, so that he became in an instant versed in medicine and chemistry and natural magic and the art of making gold and silver. And he ceased not carrying the flesh till he came to the palace, when he went in to King Karazdan, and kissing the ground before him, said, "May thy head survive thy Wazir Shamhur!" The King was mightily angered at the news of the Grand Wazir's death and wept for him, whilst his Emirs and his Grandees and officers also wept. Then said Karazdan, "He was with me but now, in all health, and went away to fetch me the flesh of the Queen of the Serpents, if it should be cooked; what befell him that he is now dead, and what accident hath betided him?" So Hasib told him the whole truth how the Minister had drunk the contents of the phial and had forthwith swelled out and died. The King mourned for his loss with mourning sore and said to Hasib, "What shall I do without Shamhur?" and Hasib answered "Grieve not, O King of the age; for I will cure thee within three days and leave no whit of disease in thy body." At this the King's breast waxed broad and he said, "I wish to be made whole of this affliction, though after a long term of years." So Hasib set the platter before the King and made him eat a slice of the flesh of the Serpent-queen. Then he covered him up and, spreading a kerchief over his face, bade him sleep and sat down by his side. He slept from noonday till sundown, while his stomach digested the piece of flesh, and presently he awoke. Hasib gave him somewhat of wine to drink and bade him sleep again; so he slept till the morning and when dawn appeared, Hasib repeated the treatment making him eat another piece of the flesh; and thus he did with him three days following, till he had eaten the whole, when his skin began to shrink and scale off and he perspired, so that the sweat ran down from his head to his heels. Therewith he became whole and there abode in him no trace of the disease, which when Hasib saw, he said, "There is no help for it but thou go to the Hammam." So he carried him to the bath and washed his body; and when he came forth, it was like a wand of silver and he was restored to health, nay, sounder than he was before he fell ill. Thereupon he donned his richest robes and, seating himself on his throne, deigned make Hasib sit beside him. Then he bade the tables be spread and they ate and washed their hands; after which he called for the service of wine and both drank their fill. Upon this all his Wazirs and Emirs and Captains and the Grandees of his realm and the notables of the lieges came in to him and gave him joy of his recovery; and they beat the drums and adorned the city in token of rejoicing. Then said the King to the assembly, "O Wazirs and Emirs and Grandees, this is Hasim Karim al-Din, who hath healed me of my sickness, and know all here present that I make him my Chief Wazir in the stead of the Wazir Shamhur."—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

When it was the Five Hundred and Thirty-sixth Night,

She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that quoth King Karazdan to his Ministers and high lords, "He who healed me of my sickness is none other than Hasib Karim al-Din here present. Therefore I make him my Chief Wazir in the stead of the Wazir Shamhur; and whoso loveth him loveth me, and whoso honoureth him honoureth me, and he who obeyeth him obeyeth me." "Hearkening and obedience," answered they and all rising flocked to kiss Hasib's hand and salute him and give him joy of the Wazirate. Then the King bestowed on him a splendid dress of gold brocade, set with pearls and gems, the least of which was worth five thousand gold pieces. Moreover, he presented to him three hundred male white slaves and the like number of concubines, in loveliness like moons, and three hundred Abyssinian[FN#577] slave-girls, beside five hundred mules laden with treasure and sheep and oxen and buffaloes and bulls and other cattle beyond count; and he commanded all his Wazirs and Emirs and Grandees and Notables and Mamelukes and his subjects in general to bring him gifts. Presently Hasib took horse and rode, followed by the Wazirs and Emirs and lords and all the troops, to the house which the King had set apart for him, where he sat down on a chair; and the Wazirs and Emirs came up to him and kissed hands and gave him joy of his Ministership, vying with one another in suit and service. When his mother and his household knew what had happened, they rejoiced with exceeding joy and congratulated him on his good fortune; and his quondam comrades the woodcutters also came and gave him joy. Then he mounted again and, riding to the house of the late Wazir Shamhur, laid hands on all that was therein and transported it to his own abode. On this wise did Hasib, from a dunsical know-nothing, unskilled to read writing, become, by the decree of Allah Almighty, an adept in every science and versed in all manner of knowledge, so that the fame of his learning was blazed abroad over the land and he became renowned as an ocean of lore and skill in medicine and astronomy and geometry and astrology and alchemy and natural magic and the Cabbala and Spiritualism and all other arts and sciences. One day, he said to his mother, "My father Daniel was exceeding wise and learned; tell me what he left by way of books or what not!" So his mother brought him the chest and, taking out the five leaves which had been saved when the library was lost, gave them to him saying, "These five scrolls are all thy father left thee." So he read them and said to her, "O my mother, these leaves are part of a book: where is the rest?" Quoth she, "Thy father made a voyage taking with him all his library and, when he was shipwrecked, every book was lost save only these five leaves. And when he was returned to me by Almighty Allah he found me with child and said to me: 'Haply thou wilt bear a boy; so take these scrolls and keep them by thee and whenas thy son shall grow up and ask what his father left him, give these leaves to him and say, 'Thy father left these as thine only heritance. And lo! here they are.' " And Hasib, now the most learned of his age, abode in all pleasure and solace, and delight of life, till there came to him the Destroyer of delights and the Severer of societies.[FN#578] And yet, O King, is not this tale of Bulukiya and Janshah more wondrous than the adventures of

End of Volume V.

Arabian Nights, Volume 5

Footnotes

[FN#1] This tale (one of those translated by Galland) is best and fullest in the Bresl. Edit. iii. 329.

[FN#2] Europe has degraded this autumnal festival, the Sun-fκte Mihrgαn (which balanced the vernal Nau-roz) into Michaelmas and its goose-massacre. It was so called because it began on the 16th of Mihr, the seventh month; and lasted six days, with feasts, festivities and great rejoicings in honour of the Sun, who now begins his southing-course to gladden the other half of the world.

[FN#3] "Hindν" is an Indian Moslem as opposed to "Hindϊ," a pagan, or Gentoo.

[FN#4] The orig. Persian word is "Shαh-pϊr"=King's son: the Greeks (who had no sh) (preferred ); the Romans turned it into Sapor and the Arabs (who lack the p) into Sαbϊr. See p. x. Hamzζ ispahanensis Annalium Libri x.: Gottwaldt, Lipsiζ mdcccxlviii.

[FN#5] The magic horse may have originated with the Hindu tale of a wooden Garuda (the bird of Vishnu) built by a youth for the purpose of a vehicle. It came with the "Moors" to Spain and appears in "Le Cheval de Fust," a French poem of the thirteenth Century. Thence it passed over to England as shown by Chaucer's "Half-told tale of Cambuscan (Janghνz Khan?) bold," as

"The wondrous steed of brass

On which the Tartar King did ride;"

And Leland (Itinerary) derives "Rutlandshire" from "a man named Rutter who rode round it on a wooden horse constructed by art magic." Lane (ii. 548) quotes the parallel story of Cleomades and Claremond which Mr. Keightley (Tales and Popular Fictions, chapt. ii) dates from our thirteenth century. See Vol. i., p. 160.

[FN#6] All Moslems, except those of the Mαliki school, hold that the maker of an image representing anything of life will be commanded on the Judgment Day to animate it, and failing will be duly sent to the Fire. This severity arose apparently from the necessity of putting down idol-worship and, perhaps, for the same reason the Greek Church admits pictures but not statues. Of course the command has been honoured with extensive breaching: for instance all the Sultans of Stambul have had their portraits drawn and painted.

[FN#7] This description of ugly old age is written with true

Arab verve.

[FN#8] Arab. "Badinjαn": Hind. Bengan: Pers. Bαdingαn or Badiljαn; the Mala insana (Solanum pomiferum or S. Melongena) of the Romans, well known in Southern Europe. It is of two kinds, the red (Solanum lycopersicum) and the black (S. Melongena). The Spaniards know it as "berengeria" and when Sancho Panza (Part ii. chapt. 2) says, "The Moors are fond of egg-plants" he means more than appears. The vegetable is held to be exceedingly heating and thereby to breed melancholia and madness; hence one says to a man that has done something eccentric, "Thou hast been eating brinjalls."

[FN#9] Again to be understood Hibernice "kilt."

[FN#10] i.e. for fear of the evil eye injuring the palace and, haply, himself.

[FN#11] The "Sufrah" before explained acting provision-bag and table-cloth.

[FN#12] Eastern women in hot weather, lie mother-nude under a sheet here represented by the hair. The Greeks and Romans also slept stripped and in mediζval England the most modest women saw nothing indelicate in sleeping naked by their naked husbands. The "night-cap" and the "night-gown" are comparatively modern inventions.

[FN#13] Hindu fable turns this simile into better poetry, "She was like a second and a more wondrous moon made by the Creator."

[FN#14] "Sun of the Day."

[FN#15] Arab. "Shirk"=worshipping more than one God. A theological term here most appropriately used.

[FN#16] The Bul. Edit. as usual abridges (vol. i. 534). The Prince lands on the palace-roof where he leaves his horse, and finding no one in the building goes back to the terrace. Suddenly he sees a beautiful girl approaching him with a party of her women, suggesting to him these couplets,

"She came without tryst in the darkest hour, *

Like full moon lighting horizon's night:

Slim-formed, there is not in the world her like *

For grace of form or for gifts of sprite:

'Praise him who made her from semen-drop,' *

I cried, when her beauty first struck my sight:

I guard her from eyes, seeking refuge with *

The Lord of mankind and of morning-light."

The two then made acquaintance and "follows what follows."

[FN#17] Arab. "Akαsirah," explained (vol. i., 75) as the plur. of Kisrα.

[FN#18] The dearest ambition of a slave is not liberty but to have a slave of his own. This was systematised by the servile rulers known in history as the Mameluke Beys and to the Egyptians as the Ghuzz. Each had his household of servile pages and squires, who looked forward to filling the master's place as knight or baron.

[FN#19] The well-known capital of Al-Yaman, a true Arabia Felix, a Paradise inhabited by demons in the shape of Turkish soldiery and Arab caterans. According to Moslem writers Sana'a was founded by Shem son of Noah who, wandering southward with his posterity after his father's death, and finding the site delightful, dug a well and founded the citadel, Ghamdαn, which afterwards contained a Mason Carrιe rivalling (or attempting to rival) the Meccan Ka'abah. The builder was Surahbνl who, says M.C. de Perceval coloured its four faces red, white, golden and green; the central quadrangle had seven stories (the planets) each forty cubits high, and the lowest was a marble hall ceiling'd with a single slab. At the four corners stood hollow lions through whose mouths the winds roared. This palatial citadel-temple was destroyed by order of Caliph Omar. The city's ancient name was Azal or Uzal whom some identify with one of the thirteen sons of Joktan (Genesis xi. 27): it took its present name from the Ethiopian conquerors (they say) who, seeing it for the first time, cried "Hazα Sana'ah!" meaning in their tongue, this is commodious, etc. I may note that the word is Kisawahili (Zanzibarian) e.g. "Yαmbo sαnα—is the state good?" Sana'a was the capital of the Tabαbi'ah or Tobba Kings who judaized; and the Abyssinians with their Negush made it Christian while the Persians under Anushirwαn converted it to Guebrism. It is now easily visited but to little purpose; excursions in the neighborhood being deadly dangerous. Moreover the Turkish garrison would probably murder a stranger who sympathised with the Arabs, and the Arabs kill one who took part with their hated and hateful conquerors. The late Mr. Shapira of Jerusalem declared that he had visited it and Jews have great advantages in such travel. But his friends doubted him.

[FN#20] The Bresl. Edit. (iii. 347) prints three vile errors in four lines.

[FN#21] Alcove is a corruption of the Arab. Al-Kubbah (the dome) through Span. and Port.

[FN#22] Easterns as a rule sleep with head and body covered by a sheet or in cold weather a blanket. The practice is doubtless hygienic, defending the body from draughts when the pores are open; but Europeans find it hard to adopt; it seems to stop their breathing. Another excellent practice in the East, and indeed amongst barbarians and savages generally, is training children to sleep with mouths shut: in after life they never snore and in malarious lands they do not require Outram's "fever-guard," a swathe of muslin over the mouth. Mr. Catlin thought so highly of the "shut mouth" that he made it the subject of a book.

[FN#23] Arab. "Hanzal"=coloquintida, an article often mentioned by Arabs in verse and prose; the bright coloured little gourd attracts every eye by its golden glance when travelling through the brown-yellow waste of sand and clay. A favourite purgative (enough for a horse) is made by filling the inside with sour milk which is drunks after a night's soaking: it is as active as the croton-nut of the Gold Coast.

[FN#24] The Bresl. Edit. iii. 354 sends him to the "land of Sνn"

(China).

[FN#25] Arab. "Yα Kisrawi!"=O subject of the Kisrα or Chosroλ; the latter explained in vol.i.,75.[Volume 1, Footnote # 128] "Fars" is the origin of "Persia"; and there is a hit at the prodigious lying of the modern race, whose forefathers were so famous as truth-tellers. "I am a Persian, but I am not lying now," is a phrase familiar to every traveller.

[FN#26] There is no such name: perhaps it is a clerical error

for "Har jαh"=(a man of) any place. I know an Englishman who in

Persian called himself "Mirza Abdullah-i-Hνchmakαni"=Master

Abdullah of Nowhere.

[FN#27] The Bresl. Edit. (loc. cit.) gives a comical description of the Prince assuming the dress of an astrologer-doctor, clapping an old book under his arm, fumbling a rosary of beads, enlarging his turband, lengthening his sleeves and blackening his eyelids with antimony. Here, however, it would be out of place. Very comical also is the way in which he pretends to cure the maniac by "muttering unknown words, blowing in her face, biting her ear," etc.

[FN#28] Arab. "Sar'a"=falling sickness. Here again we have in all its simplicity the old nursery idea of "possession" by evil spirits.

[FN#29] Arab. "Nafahαt"=breathings, benefits, the Heb. Neshamah opp. to Nephesh (soul) and Ruach (spirit). Healing by the breath is a popular idea throughout the East and not unknown to Western Magnetists and Mesmerists. The miraculous cures of the Messiah were, according to Moslems, mostly performed by aspiration. They hold that in the days of Isa, physic had reached its highest development, and thus his miracles were mostly miracles of medicine; whereas, in Mohammed's time, eloquence had attained its climax and accordingly his miracles were those of eloquence, as shown in the Koran and Ahαdνs.

[FN#30] Lit. "The rose in the sleeves or calyces." I take my English equivalent from Jeremy Taylor, "So I have seen a rose newly springing from the clefts of its hood," etc.

[FN#31] These lines are from the Bresl. Edit. (v. 35). The four couplets in the Mac. Edit. are too irrelevant.

[FN#32] Polo, which Lane calls "Goff."

[FN#33] Arab. "Muffawak"=well-notched, as its value depends upon the notch. At the end of the third hemistitch Lane's Shaykh very properly reads "baghtatan" (suddenly) for "burhatan"=during a long time.

[FN#34] "Uns" (which the vulgar pronounce Anas) "al- Wujud"=Delight of existing things, of being, of the world. Uns wa jud is the normal pun=love-intimacy and liberality; and the caranomasia (which cannot well be rendered in English) re-appears again and again. The story is throughout one of love; hence the quantity of verse.

[FN#35] The allusion to a "written N" suggests the elongated not the rounded form of the letter as in Night cccxxiv.

[FN#36] The fourteenth Arabic letter in its medial form resembling an eye.

[FN#37] This is done by the man passing his fingers over the brow as if to wipe off perspiration; the woman acknowledges it by adjusting her head-veil with both hands. As a rule in the Moslem East women make the first advances; and it is truly absurd to see a great bearded fellow blushing at being ogled. During the Crimean war the fair sex of Constantinople began by these allurements but found them so readily accepted by the Giaours that they were obliged to desist.

[FN#38] The greatest of all explorers and discoverers of the world will be he who finds a woman confessing inability to keep a secret.

[FN#39] The original is intensely prosaicand so am I.

[FN#40] Arab. "Sunnat," the practice of the Prophet. For this prayer and other silly and superstitious means of discovering the "right direction" (which is often very wrongly directed) see Lane, M.E. chapt. xi.

[FN#41] Arab. "Bahr (sea or river) al-Kunuz": Lane (ii. 576) ingeniously identifies the site with the Upper Nile whose tribes, between Assouan (Syene) and Wady al-Subu'a are called the "Kunuz"lit. meaning "treasures" or "hoards." Philae is still known as the "Islet of Anas (for Uns) al-Wujud;" and the learned and accurate Burckhardt (Travels in Nubia p. 5) records the local legend that a mighty King called Al-Wujud built the Osirian temples. I can give no information concerning Jabal al-Sakla (Thakla), the Mount of the woman bereft of children, beyond the legend contained in Night ccclxxix.

[FN#42] A religious mendicant (lit. a pauper), of whom there are two great divisions. The Shara'i acts according to the faith: the others (La Shara'i, or irreligious) are bound by no such prejudices and are pretty specimens of scoundrels. (Pilgrimage i.22.)

[FN#43] Meaning his lips and palate were so swollen by drought.

[FN#44] It is a pious act in time of mortal danger to face the

Kiblah or Meccan temple, as if standing in prayer.

[FN#45] Still the belief of the Badawi who tries to work upon the beast's compassion: "O great King I am a poor man, with wife and family, so spare me that Allah spare thee!" and so forth. If not famished the lion will often stalk off looking behind him as he goes; but the man will never return by the same path; "for," says he, "haply the Father of Roaring may repent him of a wasted opportunity." These lion-tales are very common, witness that of Androcles at Rome and a host of others. Una and her lion is another phase. It remained for M. Jules Gerard, first the chasseur and then the tueur, du lion, to assail the reputation of the lion and the honour of the lioness.

[FN#46] Abu Haris=Father of spoils: one of the lion's hundred titles.

[FN#47] "They" again for "she."

[FN#48] Jaxartes and Oxus. The latter (Jayhun or Amu, Oxus or

Bactros) is famous for dividing Iran from Turan, Persia from

Tartaria. The lands to its north are known as Ma wara al-Nahr

(Mawerannahar) or "What is behind the stream,"=Transoxiana and

their capitals were successively Samarcand and Bokhara.

[FN#49] Arab. "Dani was gharib"=friend and foe. The lines are partly from the Mac. Edit. and partly from the Bresl. Edit., v. 55.

[FN#50] Arab. "Wa Rahmata-hu!" a form now used only in books.

[FN#51] Before noted. The relationship, like that of foster- brother, has its rights, duties and privileges.

[FN#52] Arab. "Istikharah," before explained as praying for direction by omens of the rosary, opening the Koran and reading the first verse sighted, etc., etc. At Al-Medinah it is called Khirah and I have suggested (Pilgrimage, ii. 287) that it is a relic of the Azlam or Kidah (divining arrows) of paganism. But the superstition is not local: we have the Sortes Virgilianae (Virgil being a magician) as well as Coranicae.

[FN#53] Arab. "Wujud al-Habib," a pun, also meaning, "Wujud my beloved."

[FN#54] Arab. "Khilal," as an emblem of attenuation occurring in Al-Hariri (Ass. of Alexandria, etc.); also thin as a spindle (Maghzal), as a reed, and dry as a pair of shears. In the Ass. of Barka'id the toothpick is described as a beautiful girl. The use of this cleanly article was enjoined by Mohammed:—"Cleanse your mouths with toothpicks; for your mouths are the abode of the guardian angels; whose pens are the tongues, and whose ink is the spittle of men; and to whom naught is more unbearable than remains of food in the mouth." A mighty apparatus for a small matter; but in very hot lands cleanliness must rank before godliness.

[FN#55] The sense is ambiguous. Lane renders the verse:—"Thou resemblest it (rose) not of my portion" and gives two explanations "because HE is of my portion," or, "because HIS cheek cannot be rosy if MINE is not." Mr. Payne boldly translates

"If the rose ape his cheek, 'Now God forfend,' I say, 'That of my portion aught to pilfer thou shouldst try'."

[FN#56] Arab. "lif" (not "fibres which grow at the top of the trunk," Lane ii. 577); but the fibre of the fronds worked like the cocoa-nut fibre which forms the now well-known Indian "coir." This "lif" is also called "filfil" or "fulfil" which Dr. Jonathan Scott renders "pepper" (Lane i. 8) and it forms a clean succedaneum for one of the uncleanest articles of civilisation, the sponge. It is used in every Hammam and is (or should be) thrown away after use.

[FN#57] Arab. "Shinf;" a course sack, a "gunny-bag;" a net compared with such article.

[FN#58] The eunuch tells him that he is not a "Sandali"=one whose penis and testes are removed; and consequently the highest valued. There are many ways of making the castrato; in some (as here) only the penis is removed, in other the testes are bruised or cut off; but in all cases the animal passion remains, for in man, unlike other animals, the fons veneris is the brain. The story of Abelard proves this. Juvenal derided the idea of married eunuchs and yet almost all of these neutrals have wives with whom they practise the manifold plaisirs de la petite oie (masturbation, tribadism, irrumation, tete-beche, feuille-de- rose, etc.), till they induce the venereal orgasm. Such was the account once given to me by a eunuch's wife; and I need hardly say that she, like her confrerie, was to be pitied. At the critical moment she held up a little pillow for her husband to bite who otherwise would have torn her cheeks or breasts.

[FN#59] In real life the eunuch, as a rule, avoids all allusion to his misfortune, although the slave will often describe his being sold merrily enough.

[FN#60] The visits are in dreamland. The ringdove thanks the

Lord for her (his?) suffering in the holy martyrdom of love.

[FN#61] Arab. "Hazar;" I have explained it as meaning "(the bird of) a thousand (songs)."

[FN#62] The "Bulbul" had his day with us but he departed with Tommy Moore. We usually English the word by "nightingale;" but it is a kind of shrike or butcher-bird (Lanius Boulboul. Lath.).

[FN#63] The "Hamam" is a lieu commun in Arabic poetry. I have noticed the world-wide reverence for the pigeon and the incarnation of the Third Person of the Hindu Triad (Shiva), as Kapoteshwara (Kapota-ishwara)"=pigeon or dove-god (Pilgrimage iii. 218).

[FN#64] Arab. "Hamam al-Ayk." Mr. Payne's rendering is so happy that we must either take it from him or do worse.

[FN#65] All primitive peoples translate the songs of birds with human language; but, as I have noticed, the versions differ widely. The pigeon cries, "Allah! Allah!" the dove "Karim, Tawwa" (Bountiful, Pardoner!) the Kata or sand-grouse "Man sakat salam" (who is silent is safe) yet always betrays itself by its lay of "Kat-ta" and lastly the cock "Uzkuru 'llah ya ghafilun" (Remember, or take the name of Allah, ye careless!).

[FN#66] "Nay," the Dervish's reed pipe, symbol of the sighing absent lover (i.e. the soul parted from the Creator) so famed by the Mullah-i-Rum and Sir William Jones.

[FN#67] Ba'albak=Ba'al (the God)-city (bek in Coptic and ancient Egyptian.) Such, at least, is the popular derivation which awaits a better. No cloth has been made there since the Kurd tribe of gallant robbers known as the "Harfush" (or blackguards) lorded it over old "Heliopolis."

[FN#68] Thinking her to be a Jinn or Ghul in the shape of a fair woman. This Arab is a strange contrast to the English fisherman, and yet he is drawn with truth.

[FN#69] Arab. "Habbaza!" (good this!) or "Habba" (how good!): so

"Habba bihi," how dear he is to me.

[FN#70] Arab. "Zind," and "Zindah" the names of the two sticks, upper and lower, hard and soft, by which fire was kindled before flint and steel were known. We find it in Al-Hariri (Ass. of Banu Haram) "no one sought ire from my fire-stick (i.e. from me as a fire-stick) and failed." See Night dccciii.

[FN#71] Arab. "Nazih" i.e. travelled far and wide.

[FN#72] "Rajab," lit.="worshipping:" it is the seventh lunar month and still called "Shahr-i-Khuda" (God's month) by the Persians because in pre-Islamitic times it formed with Muharram (or in its stead Safar), Zu 'l-ka'adah and Zu-'l-Hijjah (Nos. 1 or 2; 7,11 and 12) the yearly peace, during which a man might not kill his father's murderer. The idea must have taken deep root, as Arab history records only six "impious (or sacrilegious) wars," waged despite the law. Europeans compare it with the Treuga Dei (truce of God) a seven-years peace established about A.D. 1032, by a Bishop of Aquitaine; and followed in A.D. 1245 by the Pax Regis (Royal Peace) under Louis VIII. of France. This compelled the relations of a murdered man to keep the peace for forty days after the offence was committed.

[FN#73] His Majesty wrote sad doggrel. He is better at finessing, and his message was a trick because Rose-in-Hood had told him that at home there were special obstacles to the marriage.

[FN#74] Arab. "Majzub"=drawn, attracted (literally); the popular term for one absorbed in the contemplation of the Deity. During this process the soul is supposed to quit the body leaving the latter irresponsible for its actions. I remember a scandal being caused in a village near Tunis by one of these men who suddenly started up from his seat in a dusty corner and, in presence of a small crowd of people, had connection with a she-donkey. The supporters of the holy man declared that the deed was proof positive of his exceptional holiness; but there were lewd fellows, Moslems Voltaireans, who had their doubts and held that the reverend man had so acted "for the gallery." A similar story is told with due reserve by the late Abbe Hamilton in his book on the Cyrenaic. There are three grand divisions of the Sufis; (1) Mukiman, the stationaries; (2) Salikan, the travellers, or progressives, and (3) Wasilan, those who reach the desired end. And No. 2 has two classes: the Salik-i-majzub, one progressing in Divine Love; and the other, who has made greater progress, is the Majzub-i-Salik (Dabistan iii. 251).

[FN#75] Arab. "Sundus," a kind of brocade (low Lat. brocare to figure cloth), silk worked in high relief with gold and silver. The idea is figurative meaning it was hung outside and inside with fine stuff, like the Ka'abah, the "Bride of Meccah." The "lords" means simply the lost girl.

[FN#76] Arab. "Ayn" lit. eye, also a fount, "the eye of the landscape" (a noble simile); and here a helper, guard, assistant.

[FN#77] "Lord" for lady, i.e. she.

[FN#78] Arab. "Fi'l-khawafik"=in the four quarters or among the flappers (standards) or amid palpitations of heart. The bride alludes to a festal reception in a town, with burning incense, drums, flags, etc., etc.

[FN#79] In Egypt the shorter "honey-moon" lasts a week; and on the seventh day (pop. called Al-Subu'a) bride and bridegroom receive visits with all ceremony, of course in separate apartments. The seventh day (like the fortieth, the end of six months and the anniversary) is kept for births and deaths with Khatmahs (perlections) of the Koran "Saylah" family gatherings and so forth. The fortieth day ends the real honey-moon. See Night dccxcii.

[FN#80] I have noted the popular practice, amongst men as well as women, of hiring the Hammam for private parties and picnicking in it during the greater part of the day. In this tale the bath would belong to the public and it was a mere freak of the bride to bathe with her bridegroom. "Respectable" people do not.

[FN#81] She speaks in the last line as the barber or the bathman.

[FN#82] Here the "Ana" begin; and they mostly date themselves. Of the following forty-nine, Lane (vol. Ii. P. 578 et seq.) gives only twenty-two and transforms them to notes in chapt. xviii. He could hardly translate several of them in a work intended to be popular. Abu Nowαs is a person carefully to be avoided; and all but anthropological students are advised to "skip" over anecdotes in which his name and abominations occur.

[FN#83] Arab. "Ghilmαn," the counter part, I have said, of the so-called "Houris."

[FN#84] Mosul boasts of never having been polluted with idolatrous worship, an exemption which it owes to being a comparatively modern place.

[FN#85] The Aleppines were once noted for debauchery; and the saying is still "Halabi Shelebi" (for Chelebi)=the Aleppine is a fellow fine.

[FN#86] Mr. Payne omits the last line. It refers to what Persian boys call, in half-Turkish phrase, "Alish Takish," each acting woman after he has acted man. The best wine is still made in monasteries and the co-called Sinai convent is world-famous for its "Rαki" distilled from raisins.

[FN#87] i.e. what a difference there is between them!

[FN#88] Arab. "Salli ala 'l-Nabi," a common phrase; meaning not only praise hm to avert the evil eye; but also used when one would impose silence upon a babbler. The latter will shuffle off by ejaculating "Al" and continue his chatter. (Pilgrimage ii.279.)

[FN#89] Arab. "Sukαt" (plur. of Sαki, cupbearer, our old "skinker"): the pure gold (tibr) is the amber-coloured wine, like the Vino d'oro of the Libanus.

[FN#90] That is, fair, white and read: Turkish slaves then abounded at Baghdad.

[FN#91] A Wady near Meccah where one of Mohammed's battles was fought. The line means his waist is a thread connected broad breast and large hind quarters.

[FN#92] Arab. "Zaurα" which may mean crooked, alluding to the well-known rib.

[FN#93] A pun. Bakr was the name of the eponymus chief and it also means virgin, as in Abu Bakr.

[FN#94] Arab. "Jαmi'ayn"=two cathedrals, any large (and consequently vicious) city.

[FN#95] Arab. "Almα," before noticed: I cannot translate "damask-lipped" to suit European taste.

[FN#96] Sherbet flavoured with musk or apple to cool the mouth of "hot coppers."

[FN#97] Arab. "In'αsh" lit. raising from his bier. The whole tone is rollicking and slangy.

[FN#98] i.e. In spite of himself: the phrase often occurs.

[FN#99] Europeans usually write "Beni" for "Banu;" the oblique for the nominative. I prefer "Odhrah" or "Ozrah" to Udhrah; because the Ayn before the Zαl takes in pronunciation the more open sound.

[FN#100] Possibly meaning that they were shrouded together; this would be opposed to Moslem sense of decorum in modern days, but the ancient were not so squeamish. See Night cccxi.

[FN#101] This phase of passion in the "varium et mutabile" is often treated of by Oriental storytellers, and not unoften seen in real Eastern life.

[FN#102] As has been said, "Sαhib" (preceding the name not following it as in India) is a Wazirial title in mediζval Islam.

[FN#103] This parapet was rendered obligatory by Moses (Deut. xxii. 8) on account of the danger of leaving a flat roof without garde-fou. Eastern Christians neglect the precaution and often lose their children by the neglect.

[FN#104] Arab. "Lauh." A bit of thin board washed white used for lessons as slates are amongst us, and as easily cleaned because the inks contain no minerals. It is a long parallelogram with triangular ears at the short sides; and the shape must date from ages immemorial as it is found, throughout Syria and its adjoinings, in the oldest rock inscriptions to which the form serves as a frame. Hence the "abacus" or counting table derived from the Gr. , a slab (or in Phenician "sand"), dust or sand in old days having been strewed on a table or tablet for school- boys' writings and mathematical diagrams.

[FN#105] A pre-Islamic bard and friend to Tarafah the poet of the Suspended or "Prize Poem." The tale is familiar to all the Moslem East. Tarafah's Laura was one Khaulα.

[FN#106] King of Hirah in Chaldζa, a drunken and bloodthirsty tyrant. When offended by the lampoons of the two poets he sent them with litterζ Bellerophontiζ to the Governor of Al-Bahrayn. Al-Mutalammis "smelt a rat" and destroyed his charged, but Tarafah was mutilated and buried alive, the victim of a trick which is old as (and older than) good King David and Uriah. Of course neither poet could read.

[FN#107] On this occasion, and in presence of the women only, the groom first sees or is supposed to see the face of his wife. It is, I have said, the fashion for both to be greatly overcome and to appear as if about to faint: the groom looks especially ridiculous when so attitudinising.

[FN#108] This leisurely operation of the "deed of kind" was sure to be noticed; but we do not find in The Nights any allusion to that systematic prolongatio veneris which is so much cultivated by Moslems under the name Imsαk = retention, withholding i.e. the semen. Yet Eastern books on domestic medicine consist mostly of two parts; the first of general prescriptions and the second of aphrodisiacs especially those qui prolongent le plaisir as did the Gaul by thinking of sa pauvre mθre. The Ananga-Ranga, by the Reverend Koka Pandit before quoted, gives a host of recipes which are used, either externally or internally, to hasten the paroxysm of the woman and delay the orgasm of the man (p. 27). Some of these are curious in the extreme. I heard of a Hindi who made a candle of frogs' fat and fibre warranted to retain the seed till it burned out; it failed notably because, relying upon it, he worked too vigorously. The essence of the "retaining art" is to avoid over-tension of the muscles and to pre-occupy the brain: hence in coition Hindus will drink sherbet, chew betel-nut and even smoke. Europeans ignoring the science and practice, are contemptuously compared with village-cocks by Hindu women who cannot be satisfied, such is their natural coldness, increased doubtless by vegetable diet and unuse of stimulants, with less than twenty minutes. Hence too while thousands of Europeans have cohabited for years with and have had families by "native women," they are never loved by them:—at least I never heard of a case.

[FN#109] Abu 'l Abbas al-Rakαshi, a poet of the time. The saying became proverbial (Burckhardt's A. Proverbs No. 561) and there are variants, e.g. The night's promise is spread with butter that melteth when day ariseth.

[FN#110] Koran xxvi. 5,6 or "And those who err (Arab. Al- ghαwϊn) follow the footsteps of the poets," etc.

[FN#111] Half-brother of Abdullah bin al-Zubayr, the celebrated pretender.

[FN#112] Grand-daughter of the Caliph Abu Bakr and the most beautiful woman of her day.

[FN#113] The Calc. Edit. by mistake reads "Izzah." Torrens (notes i.-xi.) remarks "The word Ghoonj is applied to this sort of blandishment (i.e. an affected gait), and says Burckhardt (Prov. No. 685), "The women of Cairo flatter themselves that their Ghoonj is superior to that of all other females in the Levant." But Torrens did not understand and Burckhardt would not explain "Ghunj" except by "assumed airs" (see No. 714). It here means the art of moving in coition, which is especially affected, even by modest women, throughout the East and they have many books teaching the genial art. In China there are professors, mostly old women, who instruct young girls in this branch of the gymnastic.

[FN#114] When reciting the Fαtihah (opening Koranic chapter), the hands are held in this position as if to receive a blessing falling from Heaven; after which both palms are passed down the face to distribute it over the eyes and other organs of sense.

[FN#115] The word used is "bizα'at" = capital or a share in a mercantile business.

[FN#116] This and the following names are those of noted traditionists of the eighth century, who derive back to Abdallah bin Mas'ϊd, a "Companion of the Apostle." The text shows the recognised formula of ascription for quoting a "Hadνs" = saying of Mohammed; and sometimes it has to pass through half a dozen mouths.

[FN#117] Traditionists of the seventh and eighth centuries who refer back to the "Father of the Kitten" (Abu Horayrah), an uncle of the Apostle.

[FN#118] Eastern story-books abound in these instances. Pilpay says in "Kalilah was Dimnah," "I am the slave of what I have spoken and the lord of what I keep hidden." Sa'adi follows suit, "When thou speakest not a word, thou hast thy hand upon it; when it is once spoken it hath laid its hand on thee." Caxton, in the "Dyctes, or Sayings of Philosophers" (printed in 1477) uses almost the same words.

[FN#119] i.e. for her husband's and her sin in using a man like a beast.

[FN#120] See the Second Lady's story (tantτt Kadi, tantτt bandit), pp. 20-26 by my friend Yacoub Artin Pasha in the Bulletin before quoted, series ii. No. 4 of 1883. The sharpers' trick is common in Eastern folk-lore, and the idea that underlies is always metempsychosis or metamorphosis. So, in the Kalilah wa Dimnah (new Syriac), the three rogues persuade the ascetic that he is leading a dog not a sheep.

[FN#121] This is the popular prejudice and it has doubtless saved many a reputation. The bat is known to Moslems as the Bird of Jesus, a legend derived by the Koran from the Gospel of Infancy (1 chapt. xv. Hone's Apocryphal New Testament), in which the boy Jesus amuses herself with making birds of clay and commanding them to fly when (according to the Moslems) they became bats. These Apocryphal Gospels must be carefully read, if the student would understand a number of Moslem allusions to the Injνl which no Evangel contains.

[FN#122] Because it quibbled away out of every question, a truly diplomatic art.

[FN#123] This Caliph, the orthodox Abbaside of Egypt (A.D. 1261) must not be confounded with the Druze-god, the heretical Fatimite (A.D. 996-1021). D'Herbelot (Hakem") gives details. Mr. S.L. Poole (The Academy, April 26, '79) is very severe on the slip of Mr. Payne.

[FN#124] The beautiful name is Persian "Anϊshνn-rawαn" = Sweet of Soul; and the glorious title of this contemporary of Mohammed is "Al-Malik al-Adil" = the Just King. Kisra, the Chosroλ per excellentiam, is also applied to the godly Guebre of whom every Eastern dictionary gives details.

[FN#125] "Sultan" is here an anachronism: I have noted that the title was first assumed independently by Mohammed of Ghazni after it had been conferred by the Caliph upon his father the Amir Al- Umarα (Mayor of the Palace), Sabuktagin A.D. 974.

[FN#126] The "Sakkα" or water-carrier race is peculiar in Egypt and famed for trickery and intrigue. Opportunity here as elsewhere makes the thief.

[FN#127] A famous saying of Mohammed is recorded when an indiscretion of his young wife Ayishah was reported to him, "There be no adultress without an adulterer (of a husband)." Fatimah the Apostle's daughter is supposed to have remained a virgin after bearing many children: this coarse symbolism of purity was known to the classics (Pausanias), who made Juno recover her virginity by bathing in a certain river every year. In the last phrase, "Al-Salaf" (ancestry) refers to Mohammed and his family.

[FN#128] Khusrau Parwiz, grandson of Anushirwan, the Guebre King who tore his kingdom by tearing Mohammed's letter married the beautiful Maria or Irene (in Persian "Shνrνn = the sweet) daughter of the Greek Emperor Maurice: their loves were sung by a host of poets; and likewise the passion of the sculptor Farhαd for the same Shirin. Mr. Lyall writes "Parwκz" and holds "Parwνz" a modern form.

[FN#129] he could afford it according to historians. His throne was supported by 40,000 silver pillars; and 1,000 globes, hung in the dome, formed an orrery, showing the motion of the heavenly bodies; 30,000 pieces of embroidered tapestry overhung the walls below were vaults full of silver, gold and gems.

[FN#130] Arab. "Khunsα," meaning also a catamite as I have explained. Lane (ii. 586) has it; "This fish is of a mixed kind." (!).

[FN#131] So the model lovers became the ordinary married couple.

[FN#132] Arab. "Jamm." Heb. "Yamm." Al-Harνri (Ass. Of Sinjar and Sαwah) uses the rare form Yam for sea or ocean.

[FN#133] Al-Hadi, immediate predecessor of Harun al-Rashid, called "Al-Atbik": his upper lip was contracted and his father placed a slave over him when in childhood, with orders to say, "Musa! atbik!" (draw thy lips together) when he opened his mouth.

[FN#134] Immediate successor of Harun al-Rashid. Al-Amin is an imposing physical figure, fair, tall, handsome and of immense strength; according to Al-Mas'ϊdi, he killed a lion with his own hands; but his mind and judgement were weak. He was fond of fishing; and his reply to the courtier bringing important news, "Confound thee! leave me! for Kausar (an eunuch whom he loved) hath caught two fish and I none," reminds one of royal frivolity in France.

[FN#135] Afterwards governor in Khorasan under Al-Maamun.

[FN#136] Intendant of the palace under Harun al-Rashid.

[FN#137] Moslem women have this advantage over their Western sisterhood: they can always leave the house of father or husband and, without asking permission, pay a week or ten days' visit to their friends. But they are not expected to meet their lovers.

[FN#138] The tale of "Susannah and the Elders" in Moslem form.

Dαniyαl is the Arab Daniel, supposed to have been buried at

Alexandria. (Pilgrimage, i. 16.)

[FN#139] According to Moslem law, laid down by Mohammed on a delicate occasion and evidently for a purpose, four credible witnesses are required to prove fornication, adultery, sodomy and so forth; and they must swear that actually saw rem in re, the "Kohl-needle in the Kohl-ιtui," as the Arabs have it. This practically prevents conviction and the sabre cuts the Gordian knot.

[FN#140] Who, in such case, would represent our equerry.

[FN#141] The Badawi not only always tells the truth, a perfect contrast with the townsfolk; he is blunt in speech addressing his Sultan "O Sa'νd!" and he has a hard rough humour which we may fairly describe as "wut." When you chaff him look out for falls.

[FN#142] The answer is as old as the hills, teste the tale of what happened when Amasis (who on horseback) raised his leg, "broke wind and bad the messenger carry it back to Apries." Herod. Ii. 162. But for the full significance of the Badawi's most insulting reply see the Tale of Abu Hasan in Night ccccxi.

[FN#143] Arab. "Yα sαki" al-Dakan" meaning long bearded (foolish) as well as frosty bearded.

[FN#144] P. N. of the tribe, often mentioned in The Nights.

[FN#145] Adnan, which whom Arab genealogy begins, is generally supposed to be the eighth (Al-Tabari says the fortieth) descendant from Ishmael and nine generations are placed between him and Fahr (Fihr) Kuraysh. The Prophet cut all disputes short by saying, "Beyond Adnan none save Allah wotteth and the genealogists lie." (Pilgrimage ii. 344) M.C. de Perceval dates Adnan about B.C. 130.

[FN#146] Koran xxxiii., 38.

[FN#147] Arab. "Arab al-Arabα," as before noticed (vol. i. 12) the pure and genuine blood as opposed to the "Musta'aribah," the "Muta'arribah," the "Mosarabians" and other Araboids; the first springing from Khatan (Yaktan?) and the others from Adnan. And note that "Arabi" = a man of pure Arab race, either of the Desert or of the city, while A'arαbi applies only to the Desert man, the Badawi.

[FN#148] Koran xxxviii. 2, speaking of the Unbelievers (i.e. non-Moslems) who are full of pride and contention.

[FN#149] One of the Ashαb, or Companions of the Apostle, that is them who knew him personally. (Pilgrimage ii. 80, etc.) The Ashαb al-Suffah (Companions of the bench or sofa) were certain houseless Believers lodged by the Prophet. (Pilgrimage ii. 143).

[FN#150] Hence Omar is entitled "Al-Adil = the Just." Readers will remember that by Moslem law and usage murder and homicide are offences to be punished by the family, not by society or its delegates. This system reappears in civilisation under the denomination of "Lynch Law," a process infinitely distasteful to lawyers (whom it abolishes) and most valuable when administered with due discretion.

[FN#151] Lane translates (ii. 592) "from a desire of seeing the face of God;" but the general belief of Al-Islam is that the essence of Allah's corporeal form is different from man's. The orthodox expect to "see their Lord on Doom-day as they see the full moon" (a tradition). But the Mu'atazilites deny with the existence of matter the corporiety of Alah and hold that he will be seen only with the spiritual eyes, i.e. of reason.

[FN#152] See Gesta Romanorum, Tale cviii., "of Constancy in adhering to Promises," founded on Damon and Pythias or, perhaps, upon the Arabic.

[FN#153] Arab. "Al-Ahrαm," a word of unknown provenance. It has been suggested that the singular form (Haram), preceded by the Coptic article "pi" (= the) suggested to the Greeks "Pyramis." But this word is still sub judice and every Egyptologist seems to propose his own derivation. Brugsch (Egypt i. 72) makes it Greek, the Egyptian being "Abumir," while "pir- am-us" = the edge of the pyramid, the corners running from base to apex. The Egyptologist proves also what the Ancients either ignored or forgot to mention, that each pyramid had its own name.

[FN#154] Arab. "Ahkαm," in this matter supporting the

"Pyramidologists."

[FN#155] All imaginative.