One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  98 The usual hysterical laughter of this nervous race.

  99 Here the slave refuses to be set free and starve. For a master so to do without ample reasons is held disgraceful. I well remember the weeping and wailing throughout Sind when an order from Sir Charles Napier set free the negroes whom British philanthropy thus doomed to endure if not to die of hunger.

  100 Manumission, which is founded upon Roman law, is an extensive subject discussed in the Hidáyah and other canonical works. The slave here lays down the law incorrectly but his claim shows his truly “nigger” impudence.

  101 This is quite true to nature. The most remarkable thing in the wild central African is his enormous development of “destructiveness.” At Zanzibar I never saw a slave break a glass or plate without a grin or a chuckle of satisfaction.

  102 Arab. “Khassá-ni”; Khusyatáni (vulg.) being the testicles, also called “bayzatán” the two eggs) a double entendre which has given rise to many tales. For instance in the witty Persian book “Dozd o Kazi” (The Thief and the Judge) a footpad strips the man of learning and offers to return his clothes if he can ask him a puzzle in law or religion. The Kazi (in folk-lore mostly a fool) fails, and his wife bids him ask the man to supper for a trial of wits on the same condition. She begins with compliments and ends by producing five eggs which she would have him distribute equally amongst the three; and, when he is perplexed, she gives one to each of the men taking three for herself. Whereupon the “Dozd” wends his way, having lost his booty as his extreme stupidity deserved. In the text the eunuch, Kafur, is made a “Sandal” or smooth-shaven, so that he was of no use to women.

  103 Arab. “Khara,” the lowest possible word: Yá Khara! is the commonest of insults, used also by modest women. I have heard one say it to her son.

  104 Arab. “Kámah,” a measure of length, a fathom, also called “Bá’a.” Both are omitted in that sadly superficial book, Lane’s Modern Egyptians, App. B.

  105 Names of her slave-girls which mean (in order),

  Garden-bloom, Dawn (or Beautiful), Tree o’ Pearl (P. N. of

  Saladin’s wife), Light of (right) Direction, Star o’ the Morn

  Lewdness (= Shahwah, I suppose this is a chaff), Delight,

  Sweetmeat and Miss Pretty.

  106 This mode of disposing of a rival was very common in Harems. But it had its difficulties and on the whole the river was (and is) preferred.

  107 An Eastern dislikes nothing more than drinking in a dim dingy place: the brightest lights seem to add to his “drinkitite.”

  108 He did not sleep with her because he suspected some palace-mystery which suggested prudence, she also had her reasons.

  109 This as called in Egypt “Allah.” (Lane M. E. chaps. i.)

  110 It would be a broad ribbon-like band upon which the letters could be worked.

  111 In the Arab. “he cried.” These “Yes, Yes!” and “No! No!” trifles are very common amongst the Arabs.

  112 Arab. “Maragha” lit. rubbed his face on them like a fawning dog. Ghanim is another “softy” lover, a favourite character in Arab tales; and by way of contrast, the girl is masterful enough.

  113 Because the Abbaside Caliphs descend from Al-Abbas, paternal uncle of Mohammed, text means more explicitly, “O descendant of the Prophet’s uncle!”

  114 The most terrible part of a belle passion in the East is that the beloved will not allow her lover leave of absence for an hour.

  115 It is hard to preserve these wretched puns. In the original we have “O spray (or branch) of capparis-shrub (aráki) which has been thinned of leaf and fruit (tujna, i.e., whose fruit, the hymen, has been plucked before and not by me) I see thee (aráka) against me sinning (tajní).

  116 Apparently the writer forgets that the Abbaside banners and dress were black, originally a badge of mourning for the Imám Ibrahim bin Mohammed put to death by the Ommiade Caliph Al-Marwan. The modern Egyptian mourning, like the old Persian, is indigo-blue of the darkest; but, as before noted, the custom is by no means universal.

  117 Koran, chaps. iv. In the East as elsewhere the Devil quotes Scripture.

  118 A servant returning from a journey shows his master due honour by appearing before him in travelling suit and uncleaned.

  119 The first name means “Rattan”, the second “Willow wand,” from the “Bán” or “Khiláf” the Egyptian willow (Salix Ægyptiaca Linn.) vulgarly called “Safsáf.” Forskal holds the “Bán” to be a different variety.

  120 Arab. “Ta’ám,” which has many meanings: in mod. parlance it would signify millet holcus seed.

  121 i.e. “I well know how to deal with him.”

  122 The Pen (title of the Koranic chaps. Ixviii.) and the

  Preserved Tablet (before explained).

  123 These plunderings were sanctioned by custom. But a few years ago, when the Turkish soldiers mutinied about arrears of pay (often delayed for years) the governing Pasha would set fire to the town and allow the men to loot what they pleased during a stated time. Rochet (soi-disant D’Hericourt) amusingly describes this manoeuvre of the Turkish Governor of Al-Hodaydah in the last generation. (Pilgrimage iii. 381.)

  124 Another cenotaph whose use was to enable women to indulge in their pet pastime of weeping and wailing in company.

  125 The lodging of pauper travellers, as the chapel in Iceland is of the wealthy. I have often taken benefit of the mosque, but as a rule it is unpleasant, the matting being not only torn but over-populous. Juvenal seems to allude to the Jewish Synagogue similarly used: “in quâ te quæro proseuchâ”? (iii. 296) and in Acts iii. we find the lame, blind and impotent in the Temple-porch.

  126 This foul sort of vermin is supposed to be bred by perspiration. It is an epoch in the civilised traveller’s life when he catches his first louse.

  127 The Moslem peasant is a kind hearted man and will make many sacrifices for a sick stranger even of another creed. It is a manner of “pundonor” with the village.

  128 Such treatment of innocent women was only too common under the Caliphate and in contemporary Europe.

  129 This may also mean, “And Heaven will reward thee,” but camel-men do not usually accept any drafts upon futurity.

  130 He felt that he was being treated like a corpse.

  131 This hatred of the Hospital extends throughout Southern

  Europe, even in places where it is not justified.

  132 The importance of the pillow (wisádah or makhaddah) to the sick man is often recognised in The Nights. “He took to his pillow” is = took to his bed.

  133 i.e in order that the reverend men, who do not render such suit and service gratis, might pray for him.

  134 The reader will notice in The Nights the frequent mention of these physical prognostications, with which mesmerists are familiar.

  135 The Pers. name of the planet Saturn in the Seventh

  Heaven. Arab. “Zuhal”; the Kiun or Chiun of Amos vi. 26.

  136 i.e. “Pardon me if I injured thee” — a popular phrase.

  137 A “seduction,” a charmer. The double-entendre has before been noticed.

  138 This knightly tale, the longest in the Nights (xliv. — cxlv.), about one-eighth of the whole, does not appear in the Bres. Edit. Lane, who finds it “objectionable,” reduces it to two of its episodes, Azíz-cum-Azízah and Táj al-Mulúk. On the other hand it has been converted into a volume (8vo, p) “Scharkan, Conte Arabe,” etc. Traduit par M. Asselan Riche, etc. Paris: Dondey-Dupré. 1829. It has its longueurs and at times is longsome enough; but it is interesting as a comparison between the chivalry of Al-Islam and European knight-errantry. Although all the characters are fictitious the period is evidently in the early crusading days. Cæsarea, the second capital of Palestine, taken during the Caliphate of Omar (A.H. 19) and afterwards recovered, was fortified in A.H. 353 = 963 as a base against the Arabs by the Emperor Phocas, the Arab. “Nakfúr” i.e. Nicephorus. In A.H. 498=1104, crusading craft did much injury by plundering merchantmen between Egypt and Syria, to w
hich allusion is found in the romance. But the story teller has not quite made up his mind about which Cæsarea he is talking, and M. Riche tells us that Césarée is a “ville de la Mauritanie, en Afrique” ().

  139 The fifth Ommiade Caliph reign. A.H. 65-86 = 685-704.

  140 This does not merely mean that no one was safe from his wrath: or, could approach him in the heat of fight: it is a reminiscence of the masterful “King Kulayb,” who established game-laws in his dominions and would allow no man to approach his camp-fire. Moreover the Jinn lights a fire to decoy travellers, but if his victim be bold enough to brave him, he invites him to take advantage of the heat.

  141 China.

  142 The Jaxartes and the Bactrus (names very loosely applied).

  143 In full “Sharrun kána” i.e. an evil (Sharr) has come to being (kána) that is, “bane to the foe” a pagan and knightly name. The hero of the Romance “Al-Dalhamah” is described as a bitter gourd (colocynth), a viper, a calamity.

  144 This is a Moslem law (Koran chaps. iv. bodily borrowed from the Talmud) which does not allow a man to marry one wife unless he can carnally satisfy her. Moreover he must distribute his honours equally and each wife has a right to her night unless she herself give it up. This was the case even with the spouses of the Prophet; and his biography notices several occasions when his wives waived their rights in favour of one another M. Riche kindly provides the King with la piquante francaise ().

  145 So the celebrated mosque in Stambul, famed for being the largest church in the world is known to the Greeks as “Agia (pron. Aya) Sophia” and to Moslems as “Aye Sofíyeh” (Holy Wisdom) i.e. the Logos or Second Person of the Trinity (not a Saintess). The sending a Christian girl as a present to a Moslem would, in these days, be considered highly scandalous. But it was done by the Mukaukis or Coptic Governor of Egypt (under Heraclius) who of course hated the Greeks. This worthy gave two damsels to Mohammed; one called Sírín and the other Máriyah (Maria) whom the Prophet reserved for his especial use and whose abode is still shown at Al-Medinah. The Rev. Doctor Badger (loc. cit. ) gives the translation of an epistle by Mohammed to this Mukaukis, written in the Cufic character ( ? ?) and sealed “Mohammed, The Apostle of Allah.” My friend seems to believe that it is an original, but upon this subject opinions will differ. It is, however, exceedingly interesting, beginning with “Bismillah,” etc., and ending (before the signature) with a quotation from the Koran (iii. 57); and it may be assumed as a formula addressee to foreign potentates by a Prophet who had become virtually “King of Arabia.”

  146 This prayer before “doing the deed of kind” is, I have said, Moslem as well Christian.

  147 Exodus i. 16, quoted by Lane (M. E., chaps. xxvii.).

  Torrens in his Notes cites Drayton’s “Moon-calf’: —

  Bring forth the birth-stool — no, let it alone;

  She is so far beyond all compass grown,

  Some other new device us needs must stead,

  Or else she never can be brought to bed.

  It is the “groaning-chair” of Poor Robin’s Almanac (1676) and we find it alluded to in Boccaccio, the classical sedile which according to scoffers has formed the papal chair (a curule seat) ever since the days of Pope Joan, when it has been held advisable for one of the Cardinals to ascertain that His Holiness possesses all the instruments of virility. This “Kursí al-wiládah” is of peculiar form on which the patient is seated. A most interesting essay might be written upon the various positions preferred during delivery, e.g. the wild Irish still stand on all fours, like the so-called “lower animals.” Amongst the Moslems of Waday, etc., a cord is hung from the top of the hut, and the woman in labour holds on to it standing with her legs apart, till the midwife receives the child.

  148 Some Orientalists call “lullilooing” the trilling cry, which is made by raising the voice to its highest pitch and breaking it by a rapid succession of touches on the palate with the tongue-tip, others “Ziraleet” and Zagaleet, and one traveller tells us that it began at the marriage-festival of Isaac and Rebecca (!). Arabs term it classically “Tahlíl” and vulgarly “Zaghrutah” (Plur. Zaghárit) and Persians “Kil.” Finally in Don Quixote we have “Lelilies,” the battle-cry of the Moors (Duffield iii. 289). Dr. Buchanan likens it to a serpent uttering human sounds, but the good missionary heard it at the festival of Jagannath. (Pilgrimage iii. 197 )

  149 i.e. “Light of the Place” (or kingdom) and “Delight of the

  Age.”

  150 It is utterly absurd to give the old heroic Persian name Afridun or Furaydun, the destroyer of Zohák or Zahhák to a Greek, but such anachronisms are characteristic of The Nights and are evidently introduced on purpose. See Boccaccio, ix. 9.

  151 Arab. “Yunán” lit. Ionia, which applies to all Greece, insular and continental, especially to ancient Greece.

  152 In 1870 I saw at Sidon a find of some hundreds of gold

  “Philippi” and “Alexanders.”

  153 M. Riche has (), “Ces talismans travaillés par le ciseau du célèbre Califaziri,” adding in a note, “Je pense que c’est un sculpteur Arabe.”

  154 This periphrase, containing what seems to us a useless negative, adds emphasis in Arabic.

  155 This bit of geographical information is not in the Bull

  Edit.

  156 In Pers. = a tooth, the popular word.

  157 This preliminary move, called in Persian Nakl-i Safar, is generally mentioned. So the Franciscan monks in California, when setting out for a long journey through the desert, marched three times round the convent and pitched tents for the night under its walls.

  158 In Arab. “Khazinah” or “Khaznah” lit. a treasure, representing 1,000 “Kís” or purses (each=£5). The sum in the text is 7,000 purses X 5=£35,000.

  159 Travellers often prefer such sites because they are sheltered from the wind, and the ground is soft for pitching tents; but many have come to grief from sudden torrents following rain.

  160 Arab “Ghábah” not a forest in our sense of the word, but a place where water sinks and the trees (mostly Mimosas), which elsewhere are widely scattered, form a comparatively dense growth and collect in thickets. These are favourite places for wild beasts during noon-heats.

  161 At various times in the East Jews and Christians were ordered to wear characteristic garments, especially the Zunnár or girdle.

  162 The description is borrowed from the Coptic Convent, which invariably has an inner donjon or keep. The oldest monastery in the world is Mar Antonios (St. Anthony the Hermit) not far from Suez. (Gold Mines of Midian, .)

  163 “Dawáhí,” plur. of Dáhiyah = a mishap. The title means “Mistress of Misfortunes” or Queen of Calamities (to the enemy); and the venerable lady, as will be seen, amply deserved her name, which is pronounced Zát al-Dawáhí.

  164 Arab. “Kunfuz”=hedgehog or porcupine.

  165 These flowers of speech are mere familiarities, not insults. In societies where the sexes are separated speech becomes exceedingly free. “Étourdie que vous êtes,” says M. Riche, toning down the text.

  166 Arab. “Zirt,” a low word. The superlative “Zarrát” (fartermost) or, “Abu Zirt” (Father of farts) is a facetious term among the bean-eating Fellahs and a deadly insult amongst the Badawin (Night ccccx.). The latter prefer the word Taggáa (Pilgrimage iii. 84). We did not disdain the word in farthingale=pet en air.

  167 Arab. “kicked” him, i.e. with the sharp corner of the shovel-stirrup. I avoid such expressions as “spurring” and “pricking over the plain,” because apt to give a wrong idea.

  168 Arab. “Allaho Akbar!” the classical Moslem slogan.

  169 Arab horses are never taught to leap, so she was quite safe on the other side of a brook nine feet broad.

  170 “Batrík” (vulg. Bitrík)=patricius, a title given to

  Christian knights who commanded ten thousand men; the Tarkhan (or

  Nobb) heading four thousand, and the Kaumas (Arab. Káid) two

  hundred. It must not be con
founded with Batrak (or

  Batrik)=patriarcha. (Lane’s Lex.)

  171 Arab. “Kázi al-Kuzát,” a kind of Chief Justice or Chancellor. The office wag established under the rule of Harun al Rashid, who so entitled Abú Yúsuf Ya’akab al-Ansári: therefore the allusion is anachronistic. The same Caliph also caused the Olema to dress as they do still.

  172 The allusion is Koranic: “O men, if ye be in doubt concerning the resurrection, consider that He first created you of the dust of the ground (Adam), afterwards of seed” (chaps. xxii.). But the physiological ideas of the Koran are curious. It supposes that the Mani or male semen is in the loins and that of women in the breast bone (chaps Ixxxvi.); that the mingled seed of the two (chaps. Ixxvi.) fructifies the ovary and that the child is fed through the navel with menstruous blood, hence the cessation of the catamenia. Barzoi (Kalilah and Dímnah) says:— “Man’s seed, falling into the woman’s womb, is mixed with her seed and her blood: when it thickens and curdles the Spirit moves it and it turns about like liquid cheese; then it solidifies, its arteries are formed, its limbs constructed and its joints distinguished. If the babe is a male, his face is placed towards his mother’s back; if a female, towards her belly.” (P. 262, Mr. L G.N. Keith- Falconer’s translation.) But there is a curious prolepsis of the spermatozoa-theory. We read (Koran chaps. vii.), “Thy Lord drew forth their posterity from the loins of the sons of Adam;” and the commentators say that Allah stroked Adam’s back and extracted from his loins all his posterity, which shall ever be, in the shape of small ants; these confessed their dependence on God and were dismissed to return whence they came.” From this fiction it appears (says Sale) that the doctrine of pre-existence is not unknown to the Mohammedans, and there is some little conformity between it and the modern theory of generatio ex animalculis in semine marium. The poets call this Yaum-i-Alast = the Day of Am-I-not (-your Lord)? which Sir William Jones most unhappily translated “Art thou not with thy Lord ?” (Alasta bi Rabbi- kum); fand they produce a grand vision of unembodied spirits appearing in countless millions before their Creator.