497 Arab. “Judri,” lit. “small stones” from the hard gravelly feeling of the pustules (Rodwell, ). The disease is generally supposed to be the growth of Central Africa where it is still a plague and passed over to Arabia about the birth-time of Mohammed. Thus is usually explained the “war of the elephant” (Koran, chaps. cv.) when the Abyssinian army of Abrahah, the Christian, was destroyed by swallows (Abábíl which Major Price makes the plural of Abilah = a vesicle) which dropped upon them “stones of baked clay,” like vetches (Pilgrimage ii. 175). See for details Sale (in loco) who seems to accept the miraculous defence of the Ka’abah. For the horrors of small-pox in Central Intertropical Africa the inoculation, known also to the Badawin of Al-Hijáz and other details, readers will consult “The Lake Regions of Central Africa” (ii. 318). The Hindus “take the bull by the horns” and boldly make “Sítlá” (small-pox) a goddess, an incarnation of Bhawáni, deëss of destruction-reproduction. In China small-pox is believed to date from B.C. 1200; but the chronology of the Middle Kingdom still awaits the sceptic.
498 In Europe we should add “and all fled, especially the women.” But the fatalism inherent in the Eastern mind makes the great difference.
499 Arab. “Uzayr.” Esdras was a manner of Ripp van Winkle. He was riding over the ruins of Jerusalem when it had been destroyed by the Chaldeans and he doubted by what means Allah would restore it; whereupon he died and at the end of a hundred years he revived. He found his basket of figs and cruse of wine as they were; but of his ass only the bones remained. These were raised to life as Ezra looked on and the ass began at once to bray. Which was a lesson to Esdras. (Koran, chaps. ii.) The oath by the ass’s hoofs is to ridicule the Jew. Mohammed seems to have had an idée fixe that “the Jews say, Ezra is the son of God” (Koran ix.); it may have arisen from the heterodox Jewish belief that Ezra, when the Law was utterly lost, dictated the whole anew to the scribes of his own memory. His tomb with the huge green dome is still visited by the Jews of Baghdad.
500 Arab. “Bádhanj,” the Pers. Bád. (wind) -gír (catcher): a wooden pent-house on the terrace-roof universal in the nearer East.
501 The hunchback, in Arabia as in Southern Europe, is looked upon by the vulgar with fear and aversion. The reason is that he is usually sharper-witted than his neighbours.
502Arab. “Yá Sattár” = Thou who veilest the discreditable secrets of Thy creatures.
503 Arab. “Nasráni,” a follower of Him of Nazareth and an older name than “Christian” which (Acts xi., 26) was first given at Antioch about A.D. 43. The cry in Alexandria used to be “Ya Nasráni, Kalb awáni!”=O Nazarene! O dog obscene! (Pilgrimage i., 160).). “Christian” in Arabic can be expressed only by “Masíhi” = follower of the Messiah.
504 Arab. “Tasbíh,” = Saluting in the Subh (morning).
505 In the East women stand on minor occasions while men squat on their hunkers in a way hardly possible to an untrained European. The custom is old. Herodotus (ii., 35) says, “The women stand up when they make water, but the men sit down.” Will it be believed that Canon Rawlinson was too modest to leave this passage in his translation? The custom was perpetuated by Al-Islam because the position prevents the ejection touching the clothes and making them ceremonially impure; possibly they borrowed it from the Guebres. Dabistan, Gate xvi. says, “It is improper, whilst in an erect posture, to make water, it is therefore necessary to sit at squat and force it to some distance, repeating the Avesta mentally.”
506 This is still a popular form of the “Kinchin lay,” and as the turbands are often of fine stuff, the petite industrie pays well.
507Arab. “Wali” =Governor; the term still in use for the Governor General of a Province as opposed to the “Muháfiz,” or district-governor. In Eastern Arabia the Wali is the Civil Governor opposed to the Amir or Military Commandant. Under the Caliphate the Wali acted also as Prefect of Police (the Indian Fanjdár), who is now called “Zábit.” The older name for the latter was “Sáhib al-Shartah” (=chief of the watch) or “Mutawalli”; and it was his duty to go the rounds in person. The old “Charley,” with his lantern and cudgel, still guards the bazaars in Damascus.
508 Arab. “Al-Mashá ilí” = the bearer of a cresses (Mash’al) who was also Jack Ketch. In Anglo-India the name is given to a lower body-servant. The “Mash’al” which Lane (M. E., chaps. vi.) calls “Mesh’al” and illustrates, must not be confounded with its congener the “Sha’ilah” or link (also lamp, wick, etc.).
509 I need hardly say that the civilised “drop” is unknown to the East where men are strung up as to a yardarm. This greatly prolongs the suffering.
510 Arab. “Lukmah”; = a mouthful. It is still the fashion amongst Easterns of primitive manners to take up a handful of rice, etc., ball it and put it into a friend’s mouth honoris causâ. When the friend is a European the expression of his face is generally a study.
511 I need hardly note that this is an old Biblical practice. The ass is used for city-work as the horse for fighting and travelling, the mule for burdens and the dromedary for the desert. But the Badawi, like the Indian, despises the monture and sings: —
The back of the steed is a noble place
But the mule’s dishonour, the ass disgrace!
The fine white asses, often thirteen hands high, sold by the Banu Salíb and other Badawi tribes, will fetch £100, and more. I rode a little brute from Meccah to Jedda (42 miles) in one night and it came in with me cantering.
512 A dry measure of about five bushels (Cairo). The classical pronunciation is Irdabb and it measured 24 sa’a (gallons) each filling four outstretched hands.
513 “Al-Jawáli” should be Al-Jáwali (Al-Makrizi) and the Bab al-Nasr (Gate of Victory) is that leading to Suez. I lived in that quarter as shown by my Pilgrimage (i. 62).
514 Arab. “Al-’ajalah,” referring to a saying in every Moslem mouth, “Patience is from the Protector (Allah): Hurry is from Hell.” That and “Inshallah bukra!” (Please God tomorrow.) are the traveller’s bêtes noires.
515 Here it is a polite equivalent for “fall to!”
516 The left hand is used throughout the East for purposes of ablution and is considered unclean. To offer the left hand would be most insulting and no man ever strokes his beard with it or eats with it: hence, probably, one never sees a left handed man throughout the Moslem east. In the Brazil for the same reason old-fashioned people will not take snuff with the right hand. And it is related of the Khataians that they prefer the left hand, “Because the heart, which is the Sultan of the city of the Body, hath his mansion on that side” (Rauzat al-Safá).
517 Two feminine names as we might say Mary and Martha.
518 It was near the Caliph’s two Palaces (Al Kasrayn); and was famous in the 15th century A. D. The Kazi’s Mahkamah (Court house) now occupies the place of the Two Palaces
519 A Kaysariah is a superior kind of bazaar, a “bezestein.”
That in the text stood to the east of the principal street in
Cairo and was built in A. H. 502 (=1108-9) by a Circassian Emir,
known as Fakhr al-Din Jahárkas, a corruption of the Persian
“Chehárkas” = four persons (Lane, i. 422, from Al-Makrizi and Ibn
Khallikan). For Jahárkas the Mac. Edit. has Jirjís (George) a
common Christian name. I once lodged in a ‘Wakálah (the modern
Khan) Jirjis.” Pilgrimage, i. 255.
520Arab. “Second Day,” i.e. after Saturday, the true
Sabbath, so marvellously ignored by Christendom.
521 Readers who wish to know how a traveller is lodged in a Wakálah, Khan, or Caravanserai, will consult my Pilgrimage, i. 60.
522 The original occupation of the family had given it a name, as amongst us.
523 The usual “chaff” or banter allowed even to modest women when shopping, and — many a true word is spoken in jest.
524 “La adamnák” = Heaven deprive us not of thee, i.e. grant
I see thee often!
; 525 This is a somewhat cavalier style of advance; but Easterns under such circumstances go straight to the point, hating to filer the parfait amour.
526 The peremptory formula of a slave delivering such a message.
527 This would be our Thursday night, preceding the day of public prayers which can be performed only when in a state of ceremonial purity. Hence many Moslems go to the Hammam on Thursday and have no connection with their wives.
528 Lane (i. 423) gives ample details concerning the
Habbániyah, or grain-sellers’ quarter in the southern part of
Cairo; and shows that when this tale was written (or
transcribed?) the city was almost as extensive as it is now.
529 Nakíb is a caravan-leader, a chief, a syndic; and “Abú Shámah”= Father of a cheek mole, while “Abú Shámmah” = Father of a smeller, a nose, a snout. The “Kuniyah,” bye-name, patronymic or matronymic, is necessary amongst Moslems whose list of names, all connected more or less with religion, is so scanty. Hence Buckingham the traveller was known as Abu Kidr, the Father of a Cooking-pot and Haj Abdullah as Abu Shawárib, Father of Mustachios (Pilgrimage, iii., 263).
530 More correctly Bab Zawilah from the name of a tribe in Northern Africa. This gate dates from the same age as the Eastern or Desert gate, Bab al-Nasr (A.D. 1087) and is still much admired. M. Jomard describes it (Description, etc., ii. 670) and lately my good friend Yacoub Artin Pasha has drawn attention to it in the Bulletin de l’Inst. Egypt., Deuxième Série, No. 4, 1883.
531 This ornament is still seen in the older saloons of Damascus: the inscriptions are usually religious sentences, extracts from the Koran, etc., in uncial characters. They take the place of our frescos; and, as a work of art, are generally far superior.
532 Arab. “Bayáz al-Sultání,” the best kind of gypsum which shines like polished marble. The stucco on the walls of Alexandria, built by Alexander of the two Horns, was so exquisitely tempered and beautifully polished that men had to wear masks for fear of blindness.
533 This Iklíl, a complicated affair, is now obsolete, its place having been taken by the “Kurs,” a gold plate, some five inches in diameter, set with jewels, etc. Lane (M. E. Appendix A) figures it.
534 The woman-artist who applies the dye is called
“Munakkishah.”
535 “Kissing with th’ inner lip,” as Shakespeare calls it; the French langue fourrée: and Sanskrit “Samputa.” The subject of kissing is extensive in the East. Ten different varieties are duly enumerated in the “Ananga-Ranga;” or, The Hindu Art of Love (Ars Amoris Indica) translated from the Sanskrit, and annotated by A. F. F. and B. F. R It is also connected with unguiculation, or impressing the nails, of which there are seven kinds; morsication (seven kinds); handling the hair and lappings or pattings with the fingers and palm (eight kinds).
536 Arab. “asal-nahl,” to distinguish it from “honey” i.e. syrup of sugar-cane and fruits
537 The lines have occurred in Night xii. By way of variety
I give Torrens’ version .
538 The way of carrying money in the corner of a pocket-handkerchief is still common.
539 He sent the provisions not to be under an obligation to her in this matter. And she received them to judge thereby of his liberality
540 Those who have seen the process of wine-making in the
Libanus will readily understand why it is always strained.
541 Arab. “Kulkasá,” a kind of arum or yam, eaten boiled like our potatoes.
542At first he slipped the money into the bed-clothes: now he gives it openly and she accepts it for a reason.
543 Arab. Al-Zalamah lit. = tyrants, oppressors, applied to the police and generally to employés of Government. It is a word which tells a history.
544 Moslem law is never completely satisfied till the criminal confess. It also utterly ignores circumstantial evidence and for the best of reasons: amongst so sharp-witted a people the admission would lead to endless abuses. I greatly surprised a certain Governor-General of India by giving him this simple information
545 Cutting off the right hand is the Koranic punishment (chaps. v.) for one who robs an article worth four dinars, about forty francs to shillings. The left foot is to be cut off at the ankle for a second offence and so on; but death is reserved for a hardened criminal. The practice is now obsolete and theft is punished by the bastinado, fine or imprisonment. The old Guebres were as severe. For stealing one dirham’s worth they took a fine of two, cut off the ear-lobes, gave ten stick-blows and dismissed the criminal who had been subjected to an hour’s imprisonment. A second theft caused the penalties to be doubled; and after that the right hand was cut off or death was inflicted according to the proportion stolen.
546 Koran viii. 17.
547 A universal custom in the East, the object being originally to show that the draught was not poisoned.
548 Out of paste or pudding.
549 Boils and pimples are supposed to be caused by broken hair-roots and in Hindostani are called Bál-tor.
550 He intended to bury it decently, a respect which Moslems always show even to the exuviæ of the body, as hair and nail parings. Amongst Guebres the latter were collected and carried to some mountain. The practice was intensified by fear of demons or wizards getting possession of the spoils.
551 Without which the marriage was not valid. The minimum is ten dirhams (drachmas) now valued at about five francs to shillings; and if a man marry without naming the sum, the woman, after consummation, can compel him to pay this minimum.
552 Arab. “Khatmah” = reading or reciting the whole Koran, by one or more persons, usually in the house, not over the tomb. Like the “Zikr,” Litany or Rogation, it is a pious act confined to certain occasions.
553 Arab. “Zirbájah” = meat dressed with vinegar, cumin-seed
(Pers. Zír) and hot spices. More of it in the sequel of the tale.
554 A saying not uncommon meaning, let each man do as he seems fit; also = “age quad agis”: and at times corresponding with our saw about the cap fitting.
555 Arab. “Su’úd,” an Alpinia with pungent rhizome like ginger; here used as a counter-odour.
556 Arab. “Tá’ih” = lost in the “Tíh,” a desert wherein man may lose himself, translated in our maps ‘The Desert of the Wanderings,” scil. of the children of Israel. “Credat Judæus.”
557 ie. £125 and £500.
558 A large sum was weighed by a professional instead of being counted, the reason being that the coin is mostly old and worn: hence our words “pound” and “pension” (or what is weighed out).
559 The eunuch is the best possible go-between on account of his almost unlimited power over the Harem.
560 i.e., a slave-girl brought up in the house and never sold except for some especial reason, as habitual drunkenness, etc.
561 Smuggling men into the Harem is a stock “topic” of eastern tales. “By means of their female attendants, the ladies of the royal harem generally get men into their apartments in the disguise of women,” says Vatsyayana in The Kama Sutra, Part V. London: Printed for the Hindoo Kamashastra Society. 1883. For private circulation.
562 These tears are shed over past separation. So the “Indians” of the New World never meet after long parting without beweeping mutual friends they have lost.
563 A most important Jack in office whom one can see with his smooth chin and blubber lips, starting up from his lazy snooze in the shade and delivering his orders more peremptorily than any Dogberry. These epicenes are as curious and exceptional in character as in external conformation. Disconnected, after a fashion, with humanity, they are brave, fierce and capable of any villainy or barbarity (as Agha Mohammed Khan in Persia 1795-98). The frame is unnaturally long and lean, especially the arms and legs; with high, flat, thin shoulders, big protruding joints and a face by contrast extraordinarily large, a veritable mask; the Castrato is expert in the use of weapons and sits his horse admirably, riding well “home” in the sad
dle for the best of reasons; and his hoarse, thick voice, which apparently does not break, as in the European “Cáppone,” invests him with all the circumstance of command.
564 From the Meccan well used by Moslems much like Eau de
Lourdes by Christians: the water is saltish, hence the touch of
Arab humour (Pilgrimage iii., 201-202).
565 Such articles would be sacred from Moslem eyes.
566 Physiologically true, but not generally mentioned in describing the emotions.
567 Properly “Uta,” the different rooms, each “Odalisque,” or concubine, having her own.
568 Showing that her monthly ailment was over.
569 Arab “Muhammarah” = either browned before the fire or artificially reddened.
570 The insolence and licence of these palace-girls was (and is) unlimited, especially when, as in the present case, they have to deal with a “lofty.” On this subject numberless stories are current throughout the East.
571 i.e., blackened by the fires of Jehannam.
572 Arab. “Bi’l-Salámah” = in safety (to avert the evil eye). When visiting the sick it is usual to say something civil; “The Lord heal thee! No evil befall thee!” etc.
573 Washing during sickness is held dangerous by Arabs; and “going to the Hammam” is, I have said, equivalent to convalescence.
574 Arab. “Máristán” (pronounced Múristan) a corruption of the Pers. “Bímáristán” = place of sickness, a hospital much affected by the old Guebres (Dabistan, i., 165, 166). That of Damascus was the first Moslem hospital, founded by Al-Walid Son of Abd al-Malik the Ommiade in A. H. 88 = 706-7. Benjamin of Tudela (A. D. 1164) calls it “Dar-al Maraphtan” which his latest Editor explains by “Dar-al-Morabittan” (abode of those who require being chained). Al-Makrizi (Khitat) ascribes the invention of “Spitals” to Hippocrates; another historian to an early Pharaoh “Manákiyush;” thus ignoring the Persian Kings, Saint Ephrem (or Ephraim), Syru, etc. In modern parlance “Maristan” is a madhouse where the maniacs are treated with all the horrors which were universal in Europe till within a few years and of which occasional traces occur to this day. In A.D. 1399 Katherine de la Court held a “hospital in the Court called Robert de Paris,” but the first madhouse in Christendom was built by the legate Ortiz in Toledo A. D. 1483, and was therefore called Casa del Nuncio. The Damascus “Maristan” was described by every traveller of the last century: and it showed a curious contrast between the treatment of the maniac and the idiot or omadhaun, who is humanely allowed to wander about unharmed, if not held a Saint. When I saw it last (1870) it was all but empty and mostly in ruins. As far as my experience goes, the United States is the only country where the insane are rationally treated by the sane.
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