One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  169 The F. Sacer in India is called “Laghar” and tiercel “Jaghar.” Mr. T.E. Jordan (catalogue of Indian Birds, 1839) says it is rare; but I found it the contrary. According to Mr. R. Thompson it is flown at kites and antelope: in Sind it is used upon night-heron (nyctardea nycticorax), floriken or Hobara (Otis aurita), quail, partridge, curlew and sometimes hare: it gives excellent sport with crows but requires to be defended. Indian sportsmen, like ourselves, divide hawks into two orders: the “Siyáh-chasm,” or black-eyed birds, long-winged and noble; the “Gulábi-chasm” or yellow-eyed (like the goshawk) round-winged and ignoble.

  170 i.e. put themselves at thy mercy.

  171 I have remarked (Pilgrimage iii.307) that all the popular ape-names in Arabic and Persian, Sa’adán, Maymún, Shádi, etc., express propitiousness — probably euphemistically applied to our “poor relation.”

  172 The serpent does not “sting” nor does it “bite;” it strikes with the poison-teeth like a downward stab with a dagger. These fangs are always drawn by the jugglers but they grow again and thus many lives are lost. The popular way of extracting the crochets is to grasp the snake firmly behind the neck with one hand and with the other to tantalise it by offering and withdrawing a red rag. At last the animal is allowed to strike it and a sharp jerk tears out both eye-teeth as rustics used to do by slamming a door. The head is then held downwards and the venom drains from its bag in the shape of a few drops of slightly yellowish fluid which, as conjurers know, may be drunk without danger. The patient looks faint and dazed, but recovers after a few hours and feels as if nothing had happened. In India I took lessons from a snake-charmer but soon gave up the practice as too dangerous.

  173 Arab. “Akh al-Jahálah” = brother of ignorance, an Ignorantin; one “really and truly” ignorant; which is the value of “Ahk” in such phrases as a “brother of poverty,” or, “of purity.”

  174 Lane (ii. 1) writes “Abu-l-Hasan;” Payne (iii. 49) “Aboulhusn” which would mean “Father of Beauty (Husn)” and is not a Moslem name. Hasan (beautiful) and its dimin. Husayn, names now so common, were (it is said), unknown to the Arabs, although Hassán was that of a Tobba King, before the days of Mohammed who so called his two only grandsons. In Anglo-India they have become “Hobson and Jobson.” The Bresl. Edit. (ii. 305) entitles this story “Tale of Abu ‘l Hasan the Attár (druggist and perfumer) with Ali ibn Bakkár and what befel them with the handmaid (=járiyah) Shams al-Nahár.”

  175 i.e. a descendant, not a Prince.

  176 The Arab shop is a kind of hole in the wall and buyers sit upon its outer edge (Pilgrimage i. 99).

  177 By a similar image the chamćleon is called Abú Kurrat=Father of coolness; because it is said to have the “coldest” eye of all animals and insensible to heat and light, since it always looks at the sun.

  178 This dividing the hemistich words is characteristic of certain tales; so I have retained it although inevitably suggesting: —

  I left Matilda at the U- niversity of Gottingen.

  179 These naďve offers in Eastern tales mostly come from the true seducer — Eve. Europe and England especially, still talks endless absurdity upon the subject. A man of the world may “seduce” an utterly innocent (which means an ignorant) girl. But to “seduce” a married woman! What a farce!

  180 Masculine again for feminine: the lines are as full of word-plays, vulgarly called puns, as Sanskrit verses.

  181 The Eastern heroine always has a good appetite and eats well. The sensible Oriental would infinitely despise that maladive Parisienne in whom our neighbours delight, and whom I long to send to the Hospital.

  182 i.e. her rivals have discovered the secret of her heart.

  183 i.e. blood as red as wine.

  184 The wine-cup (sun-like) shines in thy hand; thy teeth are bright as the Pleiads and thy face rises like a moon from the darkness of thy dress-collar.

  185 The masculine of Marjánah (Morgiana) “the she coral-branch ;” and like this a name generally given to negroes. We have seen white applied to a blackamoor by way of metonomy and red is also connected with black skins by way of fun. A Persian verse says :

  “If a black wear red, e’en an ass would grin.”

  186 Suggesting that she had been sleeping.

  187 Arab. “Raushan,” a window projecting and latticed: the word is orig. Persian: so Raushaná (splendour)=Roxana. It appears to me that this beautiful name gains beauty by being understood.

  188 The word means any servant, but here becomes a proper name. “Wasífah” usually= a concubine.

  189 i.e. eagerness, desire, love-longing.

  190 Arab. “Rind,” which may mean willow (oriental), bay or aloes wood: Al-Asma’i denies that it ever signifies myrtle.

  191 These lines occur in Night cxiv.: by way of variety I give (with permission) Mr. Payne’s version (iii. 59).

  192 Referring to the proverb “Al-Khauf maksúm”=fear (cowardice) is equally apportioned: i.e. If I fear you, you fear me.

  193 The fingers of the right hand are struck upon the palm of the left.

  194 There are intricate rules for “joining” the prayers; but this is hardly the place for a subject discussed in all religious treatises. (Pilgrimage iii. 239.)

  195 The hands being stained with Henna and perhaps indigo in stripes are like the ring rows of chain armour. See Lane’s illustration (Mod. Egypt, chaps. i.).

  196 She made rose-water of her cheeks for my drink and she bit with teeth like grains of hail those lips like the lotus-fruit, or jujube: Arab. “Unnab” or “Nabk,” the plum of the Sidr or Zizyphus lotus.

  197 Meaning to let Patience run away like an untethered camel.

  198 i.e. her fair face shining through the black hair. “Camphor” is a favourite with Arab poets: the Persians hate it because connected in their minds with death; being used for purifying the corpse. We read in Burckhardt (Prov. 464) “Singing without siller is like a corpse without Hanút” — this being a mixture of camphor and rose-water sprinkled over the face of the dead before shrouded. Similarly Persians avoid speaking of coffee, because they drink it at funerals and use tea at other times.

  199 i.e. she is angry and bites her carnelion lips with pearly teeth.

  200 Arab. “Wa ba’ad;” the formula which follows “Bismillah” — In the name of Allah. The French translate it or sus, etc. I have noticed the legend about its having been first used by the eloquent Koss, Bishop of Najran.

  201 i.e. Her mind is so troubled she cannot answer for what she writes.

  202 The Bul. Edit. (i. 329) and the Mac. Edit. (i. 780) give to Shams al-Nahar the greater part of Ali’s answer, as is shown by the Calc. Edit. (230 et seq.) and the Bresl. Edit. (ii. 366 et seq.) Lane mentions this (ii. 74) but in his usual perfunctory way gives no paginal references to the Calc. or Bresl.; so that those who would verify the text may have the displeasure of hunting for it.

  203 Arab. “Bi’smi ‘lláhi’ r-Rahmáni’r-Rahím.” This auspicatory formula was borrowed by Al-Islam not from the Jews but from the Guebre “Ba nám-i-Yezdán bakhsháishgar-i-dádár!” (in the name of Yezdan-God — All-generous, All-just!). The Jews have, “In the name of the Great God;” and the Christians, “In the name of the Father, etc.” The so-called Sir John Mandeville begins his book, In the name of God, Glorious and Almighty. The sentence forms the first of the Koran and heads every chapter except only the ninth, an exception for which recondite reasons are adduced. Hence even in the present day it begins all books, letters and writings in general; and it would be a sign of Infidelity (i.e. non-Islamism) to omit it. The difference between “Rahmán” and “Rahím” is that the former represents an accidental (compassionating), the latter a constant quality (compassionate). Sale therefore renders it very imperfectly by “In the name of the most merciful God;” the Latinists better, “In nomine Dei misericordis, clementissimi” (Gottwaldt in Hamza Ispahanensis); Mr. Badger much better, “In the name of God, the Pitiful, the Compassionate” — whose only fault is not preserving the ass
onance: and Maracci best, “In nomine Dei miseratoris misericordis.”

  204 Arab. Majnún (i.e. one possessed by a Jinni) the well-known model lover of Layla, a fictitious personage for whom see D’Herbelot (s. v. Megnoun). She was celebrated by Abu Mohammed Nizam al-Din of Ganjah (ob. A.H. 597=1200) pop. known as Nizámi, the caustic and austere poet who wrote: —

  The weals of this world are the ass’s meed!

  Would Nizami were of the ass’s breed.

  The series in the East begins chronologically with Yúsuf and Zulaykhá (Potiphar’s wife) sung by Jámi (nat. A.H. 817=1414); the next in date is Khusraw and Shirin (also by Nizami); Farhad and Shirin; and Layla and Majnun (the Night-black maid and the Maniac-man) are the last. We are obliged to compare the lovers with “Romeo and Juliet,” having no corresponding instances in modern days: the classics of Europe supply a host as Hero and Leander, Theagenes and Charicleia, etc. etc.

  205 The jeweller of Eastern tales from Marocco to Calcutta, is almost invariably a rascal: here we have an exception.

  206 This must not be understood of sealing-wax, which, however, is of ancient date. The Egyptians (Herod. ii. 38) used “sealing earth” ( ) probably clay, impressed with a signet ( ); the Greeks mud-clay ( ); and the Romans first cretula and then wax (Beckmann). Medićval Europe had bees-wax tempered with Venice turpentine and coloured with cinnabar or similar material. The modern sealing-wax, whose distinctive is shell-lac, was brought by the Dutch from India to Europe; and the earliest seals date from about A.D. 1560. They called it Ziegel-lak, whence the German Siegel-lack, the French preferring cire-ŕ-cacheter, as distinguished from cire-ŕ-sceller, the softer material. The use of sealing-wax in India dates from old times and the material, though coarse and unsightly, is still preferred by Anglo-Indians because it resists heat whereas the best English softens like pitch.

  207 Evidently referring to the runaway Abu al-Hasan, not to the she-Mercury.

  208 An unmarried man is not allowed to live in a respectable quarter of a Moslem city unless he takes such precaution. Lane (Mod. Egypt. passim) has much to say on this point; and my excellent friend the late Professor Spitta at Cairo found the native prejudice very troublesome.

  209 Arab. “Yá fulán”=O certain person (fulano in Span. and

  Port.) a somewhat contemptuous address.

  210 Mr. Payne remarks, “These verses apparently relate to

  Aboulhusn, but it is possible that they may be meant to refer to

  Shemsennehar.” (iii. 80.)

  211 Arab. and Pers “Bulúr” (vulg. billaur) retaining the venerable tradition of the Belus- river. In Al-Hariri (Ass. of Halwán) it means crystal and there is no need of proposing to translate it by onyx or to identify it with the Greek , the beryl.

  212 The door is usually shut with a wooden bolt.

  213 Arab. “Ritánah,” from “Ratan,” speaking any tongue not

  Arabic, the allusion being to foreign mercenaries, probably

  Turks. In later days Turkish was called Muwalla’, a pied horse,

  from its mixture of languages.

  214 This is the rule; to guard against the guet-apens.

  215 Arab. “Wálidati,” used when speaking to one not of the family in lieu of the familiar “Ummi”=my mother. So the father is Wálid=the begetter.

  216 This is one of the many euphemistic formulć for such occasions: they usually begin “May thy head live.” etc.

  217 Arab. “Kánún,” an instrument not unlike the Austrian zither; it is illustrated in Lane (ii. 77).

  218 This is often done, the merit of the act being transferred to the soul of the deceased.

  219 The two amourists were martyrs; and their amours, which appear exaggerated to the Western mind, have many parallels in the East. The story is a hopeless affair of love; with only one moral (if any be wanted) viz., there may be too much of a good thing. It is given very concisely in the Bul. Edit. vol. i.; and more fully in the Mac. Edit. aided in places by the Bresl. (ii. 320) and the Calc. (ii. 230). ## 220 Lane is in error (vol. ii. 78) when he corrects this to “Sháh Zemán”; the name is fanciful and intended to be old Persian, on the “weight” of Kahramán. The Bul. Edit. has by misprint “Shahramán.”

  221 The “topothesia” is worthy of Shakespeare’s day. “Khálidán” is evidently a corruption of “Khálidatáni” (for Khálidát), the Eternal, as Ibn Wardi calls the Fortunate Islands, or Canaries, which owe both their modern names to the classics of Europe. Their present history dates from A.D. 1385, unless we accept the Dieppe-Rouen legend of Labat which would place the discovery in A.D. 1326. I for one thoroughly believe in the priority on the West African Coast, of the gallant descendants of the Northmen.

  222 Four wives are allowed by Moslem law and for this reason. If you marry one wife she holds herself your equal, answers you and “gives herself airs”; two are always quarrelling and making a hell of the house; three are “no company” and two of them always combine against the nicest to make her hours bitter. Four are company, they can quarrel and “make it up” amongst themselves, and the husband enjoys comparative peace. But the Moslem is bound by his law to deal equally with the four, each must have her dresses her establishment and her night, like her sister wives. The number is taken from the Jews (Arbah Turim Ev. Hazaer, i.) “the wise men have given good advice that a man should not marry more than four wives.” Europeans, knowing that Moslem women are cloistered and appear veiled in public, begin with believing them to be mere articles of luxury, and only after long residence they find out that nowhere has the sex so much real liberty and power as in the Moslem East. They can possess property and will it away without the husband’s leave: they can absent themselves from the house for a month without his having a right to complain; and they assist in all his counsels for the best of reasons: a man can rely only on his wives and children, being surrounded by rivals who hope to rise by his ruin. As regards political matters the Circassian women of Constantinople really rule the Sultanate and there soignez la femme! is the first lesson of getting on in the official world.

  223 This two-bow prayer is common on the bride-night; and at all times when issue is desired.

  224 The older Camaralzaman=“Moon of the age.” Kamar is the moon between her third and twenty-sixth day: Hilál during the rest of the month: Badr (plur. Budúr whence the name of the Princess) is the full moon.

  225 Arab “Ra’áyá” plur. of ‘Ra’íyat” our Anglo-Indian Ryot, lit. a liege, a subject; secondarily a peasant, a Fellah.

  226 Another audacious parody of the Moslem “testification” to the one God, and to Mohammed the Apostle.

  227 Showing how long ago forts were armed with metal plates which we have applied to war-ships only of late years.

  228 The comparison is abominably true — in the East.

  229 Two fallen angels who taught men the art of magic. They are mentioned in the Koran (chaps. ii.), and the commentators have extensively embroidered the simple text. Popularly they are supposed to be hanging by their feet in a well in the territory of Babel, hence the frequent allusions to “Babylonian sorcery” in Moslem writings; and those who would study the black art at head-quarters are supposed to go there. They are counterparts of the Egyptian Jamnes and Mambres, the Jannes and Jambres of St. Paul (2 Tim. iii. 8).

  230 An idol or idols of the Arabs (Allat and Ozza) before Mohammed (Koran chaps. ii. 256). Etymologically the word means “error” and the termination is rather Hebraic than Arabic.

  231 Arab. “Khayt hamayán” (wandering threads of vanity), or

  Mukhát al-Shaytan (Satan’s snivel),=our “gossamer”=God’s summer

  (Mutter Gottes Sommer) or God’s cymar (?).

  232 These lines occur in Night xvii.; so I borrow from

  Torrens () by way of variety.

  233 A posture of peculiar submission; contrasting strongly with the attitude afterwards assumed by Prince Charming.

  234 A mere term of vulgar abuse not reflecting on either parent: I have heard a mother
call her own son, “Child of adultery.”

  235 Arab. “Ghazá,” the Artemisia (Euphorbia ?) before noticed. If the word be a misprint for Ghadá it means a kind of Euphorbia which, with the Arák (wild caper-tree) and the Daum palm (Crucifera thebiaca), is one of the three normal growths of the Arabian desert (Pilgrimage iii. 22).

  236 Arab. “Banát al-Na’ash,” usually translated daughters of the bier, the three stars which represent the horses in either Bear, “Charles’ Wain,” or Ursa Minor, the waggon being supposed to be a bier. “Banát” may be also sons, plur. of Ibn, as the word points to irrational objects. So Job (ix. 9 and xxxviii. 32) refers to U. Major as “Ash” or “Aysh” in the words, “Canst thou guide the bier with its sons?” (erroneously rendered “Arcturus with his sons”) In the text the lines are enigmatical, but apparently refer to a death parting.

  237 The Chapters are: 2, 3, 36, 55, 67 and the two last (“Daybreak” cxiii. and “Men” cxiv.), which are called Al-Mu’izzatáni (vulgar Al-Mu’izzatayn), the “Two Refuge-takings or Preventives,” because they obviate enchantment. I have translated the two latter as follows: —

  “Say: — Refuge I take with the Lord of the Day-break *

  from mischief of what He did make *

  from mischief of moon eclipse-showing *

  and from mischief of witches on cord-knots blowing *

  and from mischief of envier when envying.”

  “Say: — Refuge I take with the Lord of men *

  the sovran of men *

  the God of men *

  from the Tempter, the Demon *

  who tempteth in whisper the breasts of men *

  and from Jinnis and (evil) men.”

  238 The recitations were Náfilah, or superogatory, two short chapters only being required and the taking refuge was because he slept in a ruin, a noted place in the East for Ghuls as in the West for ghosts.