One Thousand and One Nights
Page 1029
362 Mr. Clouston refers to the “Miles Gloriosus” (Plautus); to “Orlando Innamorato” of Berni (the Daughter of the King of the Distant Isles); to the “Seven Wise Masters” (“The Two Dreams,” or “The Crafty Knight of Hungary”); to his Book of Sindibad, ff.; to Miss Busk’s Folk-Lore of Rome, (“The Grace of the Hunchback”); to Prof. Crane’s “Italian Popular Tales,” , and “The Elopement,” from Pitrи’s Sicilian collection.
363 In sign of impatience; “Look sharp!”
364 i.e. the resemblance of the supposed sister to his wife. This is a rechauffй of Kamar al-Zamбn iid.
365 This leaving a long lock upon the shaven poll is a very ancient practice: we find it amongst the old Egyptians. For the Shъshah or top-knot of hair, see vol. i. 308. It is differently worn in the several regions of the Moslem world: the Maroccans of the Rнf country grow it not on the poll but on one side of the head. As a rule, however, it is confined to boys, and is shaved off at puberty.
366 Suspecting her to be a witch because she was old and poor. The same was the case in Europe when these unfortunates were burned during the early part of the last century and even now the country-folk are often ready to beat or drown them. The abominable witchcraft acts, which arose from bibliolatry and belief in obsolete superstitions, can claim as many victims in “Protestant” countries, England and the Anglo-American States as the Jesuitical Inquisition.
367 It is not easy to make sense of this passage especially when the Wazir is spoken of.
368 This is a rechauffй of the Sandal-Wood Merchant and the
Sharpers. Vol. vi. 202.
369 I have followed Mr. Payne’s adaptation of the text as he makes sense, whilst the Arabic does not. I suppose that the holes are disposed crosswise.
370 i.e. Thy skill is so great that thou wilt undermine my authority with the king.
371 This famous tale is first found in a small collection of Latin fables (Adolphi Fabulж apud Leyser Hist. Poet. Medii ∆vi, Ч8), beginning
Cжcus erat quidam, cui pulcra virago, etc.
The date is 1315, and Caxton printed it in English in 1483; hence it was adopted by Boccaccio, Day vii., Novella 9; whence Chaucer’s “Marchaundes Tale”: this, by-the-by, was translated by Pope in his sixteenth or seventeenth year, and christened “January and May.” The same story is inserted in La Fontaine (Contes, lib. ii., No. 8), “La Gageure des trois Commиres,” with the normal poirier; and lastly it appears in Wieland’s “Oberon,” canto vi.; where the Fairy King restores the old husband’s sight, and Titania makes the lover on the pear-tree invisible. Mr. Clouston refers me also to the Bahбr-i-Dбnish, or Prime of Knowledge (Scott’s translation, vol. ii., pЧ68); “How the Brahman learned the Tirrea Bede”; to the Turkish “Kirk Wazir” (Forty Wazirs) of the Shaykh-Zadeh (xxivth Wazir’s story); to the “ComЬdia Lydiж,” and to Barbazan’s “Fabliaux et Contes” t. iii. , “La Saineresse,” the cupping-woman.
372 In the European versions it is always a pear-tree.
373 This supernatural agency, ever at hand and ever credible to Easterns, makes this the most satisfactory version of the world-wide tale.
374 i.e. till next harvest time.
375 The “‘Ashshбr,” or Tither, is most unpopular in the Nile-valley as in Wales; and he generally merits his ill-repute. Tales concerning the villainy of these extortioners abound in Egypt and Syria. The first step in improvement will be so to regulate the tithes that the peasants may not be at the mercy of these “publicans and sinners” who, however, can plead that they have paid highly for appointment to office and must recoup themselves.
376 Arab. “‘Ammir”=cause to flourish.
377 Arab. “Afkah,” a better Fakнh or theologian; all Moslem law being based upon the Koran, the Sayings (Hadis) and Doings (Sunnat) of the Prophet; and, lastly, the Rasm or immemorial custom of the country provided that it be not opposed to the other three.
378 If the number represent the days in the Moslem year it should be 354=6 months of 29 days and the rest of 30).
379 The affirmative particle “kad” preceding a verb in the past gives it a present and at times a future signification.
380 A danik, the Persian “Dбng,” is one-sixth of a dirham, i.e. about one penny. See vol. ii. 204.
381 It would mightily tickle an Eastern audience to hear of a Tither being unable to do any possible amount of villainy.
382 i.e. The oath of triple divorce which is, I have said, irrevocable, and the divorcйe may not be taken again by her husband till her marriage with another man (the Mustahill of The Nights) has been consummated. See vol. iv., 48.
383 i.e. thousandfold cuckold.
384 Arab. “Wadн’ah” = the blows which the Robber had given him.
385 Arab. “Sindiyбn” (from the Persian) gen. used for the holm-oak, the Quercus pseudococcifera, vulgarly termed ilex, or native oak, and forming an extensive scrub in Syria. For this and other varieties of Quercus, as the Mallъl and the Ballъt, see Unexplored Syria, i. 68.
386 Hibernicи.
387 Lit. “In the way of moderation” = at least, at the most moderate reckoning.
388 Arab. “Rasmбl,” the vulg. Syrian and Egyptian form of
Raas al-mбl = stock-in-trade.
389 Usually a ring or something from his person to show that all was fair play; here however, it was a watchword.
390 Arab. “Ya Madyъbah,” prob. a clerical error for “Madyъnah,” alluding to her many debts which he had paid. Here, however, I suspect the truly Egyptian term “Yб Manyъkah!”=O thou berogered; a delicate term of depreciation which may be heard a dozen times a day in the streets of Cairo. It has also a masculine form, “Yб Manyъk!”
391 About=100 lb. Mr. Sayce (Comparative Philol. ) owns that Mn is old Egyptian but makes it a loan from the “Semites,” like Sъs (horse), Sar (prince), Sepet (lip) and Murcabutha (chariot), and goes to its origin in the Acratan column, because “it is not found before the times when the Egyptians borrowed freely from Palestine.” But surely it is premature to draw such conclusion when we have so much still to learn concerning the dates of words in Egyptian.
392 Arab. Jбmi’. This anachronism, like many of the same kind, is only apparent. The faith preached by Sayyidnб Isа was the Islam of his day and dispensation, and it abrogated all other faiths till itself abrogated by the mission of Mahommed. It is therefore logical to apply to it terms which we should hold to be purely Moslem. On the other hand it is not logical to paint the drop-curtain of the Ober-Ammergau “Miracle-play” with the Mosque of Omar and the minarets of Al-Islam. I humbly represented this fact to the mechanicals of the village whose performance brings them in so large a sum every decade; but Snug, Snout and Bottom turned up the nose of contempt and looked upon me as a mere “shallow sceptic.”
393 Arab. “Talбmizah,” plur. of Tilmнz, a disciple, a young attendant. The word is Syriac
394 Rъh Allah, lit.=breath of Allah, attending to the miraculous conception according to the Moslems. See vol. v. 238.
395 Readers will kindly pronounce this word “Sahrб” not
Sahбrб.
396 Mr. Clouston refers for analogies to this tale to his “Oriental Sources of some of Chaucer’s Tales” (Notes and Queries, 1885Ч86), and he finds the original of The Pardoner’s Tale in one of the Jбtakas or Buddhist Birth-stories entitled Vedabbha Jataka. The story is spread over all Europe; in the Cento Novelle Antiche; Morlini; Hans Sachs, etc. And there are many Eastern versions, e.g. a Persian by Farнd al-Dнn “‘Attar” who died at a great age in A.D. 1278; an Arabic version in The Orientalist (Kandy, 1884); a Tibetan in Rollston’s Tibetan Tales; a Cashmirian in Knowles’ Dict. of Kashmнrн Proverbs, etc., etc., etc.
397 Arab. “‘Awбn” lit.=aids, helpers; the “Aun of the Jinn” has often occurred.
398 i.e. th
e peasant.
399 i.e. those serving on the usual feudal tenure; and bound to suit and service for their fiefs.
400 i.e. the yearly value of his fief.
401 i.e. men who paid taxes.
402 Arab. “Rasбtнk” plur. of Rustбk. See vol. vi. 289.
403 This adventure is a rechauffй of Amjad’s adventure (vol. iii. 333) without, however, its tragic catastrophe.
404 The text is so concise as to be enigmatical. The house was finely furnished for a feast, as it belonged to the Man who was lavish, etc.
405 Arab. “Khubz Samнz;” the latter is the Arabisation of the Pers. Samнd, fine white bread, simnel, Germ. semmel.
406 The text has “Bakъlбt”=pot-herbs; but it is probably a clerical error for “Baklбwбt.” See vol. ii. 311.
407 Egyptian-like he at once calls upon Allah to witness a lie and his excuse would be that the lie was well-intentioned.
408 i.e. The private bagnio which in old days every grand house possessed.
409 This is a fancy title, but it suits the tale better than that in the text (xi. 183) “The Richard who lost his wealth and his wits.” Mr. Clouston refers to similar stories in Sacchetti and other early Italian novelists.
410 Arab. “Al-Muwaswis”: for “Wiswбs” see vol. i. 106. This class of men in stories takes the place of our “cunning idiot,” and is often confounded with the Saudбwi, the melancholist proper.
411 Arab. “Hamhama,” an onomapЬic, like our hum, hem, and haw.
412 Arab. “Barniyah,” a vessel either of glass or pottery like that in which the manna was collected (Exod. xvi. 33).
413 A hasty man, as Ghazbбn=an angry man.
414 The Bresl. Edit. misprint. “Khablas” in more places than one, now with a Sнn, then with a Sбd. Khalbas suggests “Khalbъs,” a buffoon, for which see vol. ii. 143. In Egypt, however, the latter generally ends in a Sad (see Lane’s “Khalboos,” M. E. chap. xxvii).
415 This story is a rechauffй of the Jewish Kazi and his pious wife; see vol. v. 256.
416 The Arab form of “Nayshбpъr”=reeds of (King) Shapъr: see vol. ix. 230.
417 Arab. “Alа Tarнk al-Satr wa al-Salбmah,” meaning that each other’s wives did not veil before their brothers-in-law as is usually done. It may also mean that they were under Allah’s protection and in best of condition.
418 i.e. he dared not rape her.
419 i.e. her “yes” meant “yes” and her “no” meant “no.”
420 “Ignorance” (Jahl) may, here and elsewhere, mean wickedness, forwardness, folly, vicious folly or uncalled-for wrath. Here Arabic teaches a good lesson, for ignorance, intemperance and egoism are, I repeat, the roots of all evil.
421 So Mohammed said of a child born in adultery “The babe to the blanket (i.e. let it be nursed and reared) and the adultress to the stone.”
422 Arab. “Wa hб,” etc., an interjection corresponding with the Syriac “ho” lo! (i.e., look) behold! etc.
423 This paragraph is supplied by Mr. Payne: something of the kind has evidently fallen out of the Arab text.
424 i.e. in the presence of witnesses, legally.
425 Lit. a myriad, ten thousand dirhams. See vol. iv. 281.
426 The fire was intended to defend the mother and babe from Jinns, bad spirits, the evil eye, etc. Romans lit candles in the room of the puerpara; hence the goddess Candelifera, and the term Candelaria applied to the B.V. In Brand’s Popular Antiquities (ii. 144) we find, “Gregory mentions an ordinary superstition of the old wives who dare not trust a child in a cradle by itself alone without a candle;” this was for fear of the “night-hag” (Milton, P. L., ii. 662). The same idea prevailed in Scotland and in Germany: see the learned Liebrecht (who translated the Pentamerone) “Zur Volkskunde,” . In Sweden if the candle go out, the child may be carried off by the Trolls (Weckenstedt, Wendische Sagen, ). The custom has been traced to the Malay peninsula, whither it was probably imported by the Hindus or the Moslems, and amongst the Tajiks in Bokhara. For the Hindu practice, see Katha S. S. 305, and Prof. Tawney’s learned note analysed above.
427 Arab. “Kбhinah,” fem. of Kбhin (Cohen): see Kahбnah, vol. i. 28.
428 i.e. for a long time, as has been before explained.
429 i.e. at his service. Arabia was well provided with
Hetairж and public women long before the days of Al-Islam.
430 Arab. “Athar”=sign, mark, trail.
431 i.e. Persia. See vol. v. 26.
432 Arab. “‘Akбkнr” plur. of ‘Akkбr prop.=aromatic roots; but applied to vulgar drugs or simples, as in the Tale of the Sage Duban, i. 46.
433 Arab. “Si’at rizki-h” i.e., the ease with which he earned his copious livelihood.
434 i.e. the ten thousand dirhams of the bond, beside the unpaid and contingent portion of her “Mahr” or marriage-settlement.
435 Arab. “Al-Hбzъr” from Hazr=loquacity, frivolous garrulity. Every craft in the East has a jargon of its own and the goldsmith (Zargar) is famed for speaking a language made unintelligible by the constant insertion of a letter or letters not belonging to the word. It is as if we rapidly pronounced How d’ye do=Howth doth yeth doth?
436 Arab. “Asmб al-Adwiyah,” such as are contained in volumes like the “Alfбz al-Adwi-yah” (Nomenclature of Drugs).
437 I am compelled to insert a line in order to make sense.
438 “Galen,” who is considered by Moslems as a kind of pre-Islamitic Saint; and whom Rabelais (iii. c. 7) calls Le gentil Falot Galen, is explained by Eustathius as the Serene {Galenтs} from {gelбoo}=rideo.
439 Arab. “Sбhah” the clear space before the house as opposed to the “Bathah” (Span. Patio) the inner court.
440 A naпve description of the naпve style of rйclame adopted by the Eastern Bob Sawyer.
441 Which they habitually do, by the by, with an immense amount of unpleasant detail. See Pilgrimage i. 18.
442 The old French name for the phial or bottle in which the patient’s water is sent.
443 A descendant from Mohammed, strictly through his grandson Husayn. See vol. iv. 170.
444 Arab. “Al-Futъh” lit. the victories; a euphemistic term for what is submitted to the “musculus guineaorum.”
445 Arab. “Firбsah” lit. judging the points of a mare (faras). Of physiognomy, or rather judging by externals, curious tales are told by the Arabs. In Al-Mas’udi’s (chapt. lvi.) is the original of the camel blind of one eye, etc., which the genius of Voltaire has made famous throughout Europe.
446 I here quote Mr. Payne’s note. “Sic in the text; but the passage is apparently corrupt. It is not plain why a rosy complexion, blue eyes and tallness should be peculiar to women in love. Arab women being commonly short, swarthy and blackeyed, the attributes mentioned appear rather to denote the foreign origin of the woman; and it is probable, therefore, that this passage has by a copyist’s error, been mixed up with that which relates to the signs by which the mock physician recognised her strangerhood, the clause specifying the symptoms of her love-lorn condition having been crowded out in the process, an accident of no infrequent occurrence in the transcription of Oriental works.”
447 Most men would have suspected that it was her lover.
448 The sumptuary laws, compelling for instance the Jews to wear yellow turbans, and the Christians to carry girdles date from the Capture of Jerusalem in A.D. 636 by Caliph Omar. See vol. i. 77; and Terminal Essay ¬І 11.
449 i.e. Our Sunday: the Jewish week ending with the Sabbath (Saturday). I have already noted this term for Saturn’s day, established as a God’s rest by Commandment No. iv. How it lost its honours amongst Christians none can say: the text in Col. ii. 16, 17, is insufficient to abolish an order given with such pomp and circumstance to, and obeyed, so strictly and universally by, the Hebrews, including the Founder of Christianity. The general idea is that the Jewish Sabbath was done away with by the Christian dispensation (although Jesus kept it with the usual scrupulous care), and that sundry of
the Councils at Colossж and Laodicea anathematised those who observed the Saturday after Israelitish fashion. With the day its object changed; instead of “keeping it holy,” as all pious Jews still do, the early Fathers converted it into the “Feast of the Resurrection,” which could not be kept too joyously. The “Sabbatismus” of the Sabbatarian Protestant who keeps holy the wrong day is a marvellous perversion and the Sunday feast of France, Italy, and Catholic countries generally is far more logical than the mortification day of England and the so-called Reformed countries.
450 Harбis, plur. of Harнsah: see vol. i. 131.
451 It would have been cooked on our Thursday night, or the Jewish Friday night and would be stale and indigestible on the next day.
452 Marw (Margiana), which the Turkomans pronounce “Mawr,” is derived by Bournouf from the Sansk. Maru or Marw; and by Sir H. Rawlinson from Marz or Marj, the Lat. Margo; Germ. Mark; English March; Old French Marche and Neo-Lat. Marca. So Marzbбn, a Warden of the Marches: vol. iii. 256. The adj. is not Marбzн, as stated in vol. iii. 222; but Marwazi, for which see Ibn Khallikan, vol. i. , etc.: yet there are good writers who use “Marбzн” as Rбzн for a native of Rayy.
453 i.e. native of Rayy city. See vol. iv. 104.
454 Normally used for fuel and at times by funny men to be put into sweetmeats by way of practical joke: these are called “Nukl-i-Pishkil”=goat-dung bonbons. The tale will remind old Anglo-Indians of the two Bengal officers who were great at such “sells” and who “swopped” a spavined horse for a broken-down “buggy.”
455 In the text “khanбdik,” ditches, trenches; probably (as
Mr. Payne suggests) a clerical or typographical error for
“Fanбdik,” inns or caravanserais; the plural of “Funduk” (Span.
Fonda), for which see vol. viii. 184.
456 This sentence is supplied by Mr. Payne to remedy the incoherence of the text. Moslems are bound to see True Believers decently buried and the poor often beg alms for the funeral. Here the tale resembles the opening of Hajji Baba by Mr. Morier, that admirable picture of Persian manners and morals.