One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  384 The barber being a surgeon and ever ready to bleed a madman.

  385 i.e. Can play off equally well the soft-brained and the hard-headed.

  386 i.e. a deputy (governor, etc.); in old days the governor of Constantinople; in these times a lieutenant-colonel, etc.

  387 Which, as has been said, is the cab of Modern Egypt, like the gondola and the caďque. The heroine of the tale is a Nilotic version of “Aurora Floyd.”

  388 In text “Rafaka” and infrŕ () “Zafaka.”

  389 [In text “Misla ‘l-Kalám,” which I venture to suggest is another clerical blunder for: “misla ‘l-Kiláb” = as the dogs do. — ST.]

  390 i.e. My wife. In addition to notes in vols. i. 165, and iv. 9, 126, I would observe that “Harím” (women) is the broken plur. of “Hurmah;” from Haram, the honour of the house, forbidden to all save her spouse. But it is also an infinitive (whose plur. is Harîmát = the women of a family); and in places it is still used for the women’s apartment, the gynćceum. The latter by way of distinction I have mostly denoted by the good old English corruption “Harem.”

  391 In text “Misla ‘l-khárúf” (for Kharúf) a common phrase for an “innocent,” a half idiot; so our poets sing of “silly (harmless, Germ. Selig) sheep.”

  392 In text this ends the tale.

  393 In text “Wa lá huwa ‘ashamná min-ka talkash ‘alŕ Harimi-ná.” “‘Ashama,” lit. = he greeded for; and “Lakasha” = he conversed with. [There is no need to change the “talkas” of the text into “talkash.” “Lakasa” is one of the words called “Zidd,” i.e. with opposite meanings: it can signify “to incline passionately towards,” or “to loath with abhorrence.” As the noun “Laks” means “itch” the sentence might perhaps be translated: “that thou hadst an itching after our Harím.” What would lead me to prefer the reading of the MS. is that the verb is construed with the preposition “‘alŕ” = upon, towards, for, while “lakash,” to converse, is followed by “ma’” = with. — ST.]

  394 Such was the bounden duty of a good neighbour.

  395 He does not insist upon his dancing because he looks upon the offence as serious, but he makes him tell his tale — for the sake of the reader.

  396 “Sáhib al-Hayát:” this may also = a physiognomist, which, however, is probably not meant here.

  397 In text “Harárah” = heat, but here derived from

  “Hurr” = freeborn, noble.

  398 In text “Azay má tafút-ní?”

  399 In the Arab. “Rajul Khuzarí” = a green-meat man. [The reading “Khuzarí” belongs to Lane, M.E. ii. 16, and to Bocthor. In Schiaparelli’s Vocabulista and the Muhít the form “Khuzrí” is also given with the same meaning. — ST.]

  400 [In text “Farárijí,” as if the pl. of “Farrúj” = chicken were “Farárij” instead of “Faráríj.” In modern Egyptian these nouns of relation from irregular plurals to designate tradespeople not only drop the vowel of the penultimate but furthermore, shorten that of the preceding syllable, so that “Farárijí” becomes “Fararjí.” Thus “Sanádikí,” a maker of boxes, becomes “Sanadkí,” and “Dakhákhiní, a seller of tobacco brands,” “Dakhakhní.” See Spitta Bey’s Grammar, . — ST.]

  401 In the Arab. “Al-Májúr,” for “Maajúr” = a vessel, an utensil.

  402 In text “shaklaba” here = “shakala” = he weighed out (money, whence the Heb. Shekel), he had to do with a woman.

  403 [The trade of the man is not mentioned here, of the 5th vol. of the MS., probably through negligence of the copyist, but it only occurs as far lower down as . — ST.]

  404 A certain reviewer proposes “stained her eyes with

  Kohl,” showing that he had never seen the Kohl-powder used by

  Asiatics.

  405 [“Bi-Má al-fasíkh ‘alŕ Akrás al-Jullah.” “Má al-Fasíkh” = water of salt-fish, I would translate by “dirty brine” and “Akrás al-Jullah” by “dung-cakes,” meaning the tale should be written with a filthy fluid for ink upon a filthy solid for paper, more expressive than elegant. — ST.]

  406 “Al-Janínáti”; or, as the Egyptians would pronounce the word, “Al-Ganínátí”. [Other Egyptian names for gardener are “Janáiní,” pronounced “Ganáiní,” “Bustánjí” pronounced “Bustangi,” with a Turkish termination to a Persian noun, and “Bakhshawángí,” for Baghchawánjí,” where the same termination is pleonastically added to a Persian word, which in Persian and Turkish already means “gardener.” — ST.]

  407 A Koranic quotation from “Joseph,” chap. xii. 28: Sale has “for verily your cunning is great,” said by Potiphar to his wife.

  408 I have inserted this sentence, the tale being absolutely without termination. So in the Medićval Lat. translations the MSS. often omit “explicit capitulum (primum). Sequitur capitulum secundum,” this explicit being a sine qua non.

  409 In text “Fatáirí” = a maker of “Fatírah” = pancake, or rather a kind of pastry rolled very thin, folded over like a napkin, saturated with butter and eaten with sugar or honey poured over it.

  410 In Arab. “Nayízáti,” afterwards “Nuwayzátí,” and lastly “Rayhání” () = a man who vends sweet and savoury herbs. We have neither the craft nor the article, so I have rendered him by “Herbalist.”

  411 In text a “Mihtár” = a prince, a sweeper, a scavenger; the Pers. “Mihtar,” still used in Hindostani. [In Quatremčre’s Histoire des Sultans Mamlouks “Mihtar” occurs also in the sense of superintendent, of head-equerry, and of chief of a military band. See Dozy Supp. s. v. — ST.]

  412 “Ant’ aysh” for “man,” decidedly not complimentary,

  “What (thing) art thou?”

  413 Arab. “Kabsh.” Amongst the wilder tribes of the East ram’s mutton is preferred because it gives the teeth more to do: on the same principle an old cock is the choicest guest-gift in the way of poultry.

  414 “Naubah,” lit. = a period, keeping guard; and here a band of pipes and kettledrums playing before the doors of a great man at certain periods.

  415 In text “Al-Mubtali.”

  416 Arab. “Hawwálín”; the passage is apparently corrupt.

  [“Hawálín” is clerical error for either “hawálŕ” = all around, or “Hawálí” = surroundings, surrounding parts, and “Audán” is pl. of the popular “Widn” or “Wudn” for the literary “Uzn,” ear. — ST.]

  417 The exclamation would be uttered by the scribe or by

  Shahrazad. I need hardly remind the reader that “Khizr” is the

  Green Prophet and here the Prophet of greens.

  418 For “Isráfíl” = Raphael, the Archangel who will blow the last trump, see vol. ii. 287.

  419 Gen. meaning “Look sharp,” here syn. with “Allah!

  Allah!” = I conjure thee by God. Vol. i. 346.

  420 A Persian would say, “I am a Irání but Walláhi indeed I am not lying.”

  421 [This sentence of wholesale extermination passed upon womankind, reminds me of the Persian lines which I find quoted in ‘Abdu ‘l-Jalíl’s History of the Barmecides:

  Agar nek búdí Zan u Ráy-i-Zan

  Zan-rá Ma-zan Nám búdí, na Zan,

  and which I would render Anglicč:

  If good there were in Woman and her way

  Her name would signify “Slay not,” not “Slay.”

  “Zan” as noun = woman; as imp. of “zadan” = strike, kill, whose negative is “mazan.” — ST.]

  422 In the text the Shaykh, to whom “Amán” was promised, is also gelded, probably by the neglect of the scribe.

  423 This tale is a variant of “The First Constable’s

  History:” Suppl. Nights, vol. ii. 3-11.

  424 In text “Al-Bawwábah” = a place where door-keepers meet, a police-station; in modern tongue “Karakol,” for

  “Karaghol-khánah” = guard-house.

  425 In text “Kází al-’Askar” = the great legal authority of a country: vol. vi. 131.

  426 Anglo-Indice “Mucuddum” = ove
rseer, etc., vol. iv. 42.

  427 i.e. is not beyond our reach.

  428 In text “Yá Sultán-am” with the Persian or Turkish suffixed possessional pronoun.

  429 In text “mál,” for which see vol. vi. 267. Amongst the

  Badawin it is also applied to hidden treasure.

  430 I carefully avoid the obnoxious term “intoxication” which properly means “poisoning,” and should be left to those amiable enthusiasts the “Teetotallers.”

  431 A sign of foul play; the body not having been shrouded and formally buried.

  432 For the title, the office and the date see vol. ix. 289.

  433 The names are = Martha and Mary.

  434 MS. vi. 57-77, not translated by Scott, who entitles it (vi. 461) “Mhassun, the Liberal, and Mouseh, the treacherous Friend.” It is a variant of “The Envier and the Envied:” vol. i. 123.

  435 The Arab. “Jarrah”: vol. viii. 177.

  436 i.e. One who does good, a benefactor.

  437 In the text “Músŕ wa Múzi,” the latter word = vexatious, troublesome. [I notice that in the MS. the name is distinctly and I believe purposely spelt with Hamzah above the Wáw and Kasrah beneath the Sín, reading “Muusí.” It is, therefore, a travesty of the name Músŕ, and the exact counterpart of “Muhsin”, being the active participle of “asáa”, 4th form of “sáa,” = he did evil, he injured, and nearly equivalent with the following “Muuzí.” The two names may perhaps be rendered: Muhsin, the Beneficent, and Muusí, the Malignant, the Malefactor. — ST.]

  438 In text “Fatír” for “Fatírah” = a pancake, before described.

  439 In text “Bi-khátiri-k” = Thy will be done; the whole dialogue is in pure Fellah speech.

  440 Supposed to be American, but, despite Bartlett, really old English from Lancashire, the land which has supplied many of the so-called “American” neologisms. A gouge is a hollow chisel, a scoop; and to gouge is to poke out the eye: this is done by thrusting the fingers into the side-hair thus acting as a base and by prising out the ball with the thumbnail which is purposely grown long.

  441 [In the text: “Fa tarak-hu Muusí am’ŕ dáir yaltash fí ‘l-Tarík.” Latash has the meaning of beating, tapping; I therefore think the passage means: “hereupon Muusí left him, blind as he was, tramping and groping his way” (feeling it with his hands or stick). — ST.]

  442 In text “Biiru milyánah Moyah.” As a rule the Fellah of

  Egypt says “Mayyeh,” the Cairene “Mayya,” and the foreigner

  “Moyah”: the old Syrian is “Mayá,” the mod. “Moy,” and the

  classical dim. of “Má” is “Muwayh,” also written “Muwayy” and

  “Muwayhah.”

  443 “Sabt” = Sabbath, Saturday: vol. ii. 305, and passim.

  444 i.e. “By Allah,” meaning “Be quick!”

  445 For this well-nigh the sole equivalent amongst the

  Moslems of our “thank you,” see Vol. iv. 6. and v. 171.

  446 In Arab. “Ana ‘l-Tabíb, al-Mudáwi.” In pop. parlance, the former is the scientific practitioner and the latter represents the man of the people who deals in simples, etc.

  447 In text “Rákiba-há,” the technical term for demoniac insiliation or possession: the idea survives in our “succubi” and “incubi.” I look upon these visions often as the effects of pollutio nocturna. A modest woman for instance dreams of being possessed by some man other than her husband; she loves the latter and is faithful to him, and consequently she must explain the phenomena superstitiously and recur to diabolical agency. Of course it is the same with men, only they are at less trouble to excuse themselves.

  448 The construction here, MS. , is very confused. [The speech of Muhsin seems to be elliptical. In Ar. it runs: “Li-anní izá, lam nukhullis-ha (or nukhlis-há, 2nd or 4th form) taktulní, wa aná iz lam tattafik ma’í anní izá khallastu-há tu’tí-há alayya” — which I believe to mean: “for if I do not deliver her, thou wilt kill me; so I (say) unless thou stipulate with me that when I have delivered her thou wilt give her to me in marriage—” supply: “well then I wash my hand of the whole business.” The Shaykh acts on the tit for tat principle in a style worthy of the “honest broker” himself. — ST.]

  449 In text “Yaum Sabt” again.

  450 As has been said (vol. ii. 112) this is a sign of agitation. The tale has extended to remote Guernsey. A sorcier named Hilier Mouton discovers by his art that the King’s daughter who had long and beautiful tresses was dying because she had swallowed a hair which had twined round her praecordia. The cure was to cut a small square of bacon from just over the heart, and tie it to a silken thread which the Princess must swallow, when the hair would stick to it and come away with a jerk. See () “Folk-lore of Guernsey and Sark,” by Louise Lane-Clarke, printed by E. Le Lievre, Guernsey, 1880; and I have to thank for it a kind correspondent, Mr. A. Buchanan Brown, of La Coűture, , who informs us why the Guernsey lily is scentless, emblem of the maiden who sent it from fairy-land.

  451 The text says only, “O my father, gift Shaykh Mohsin.”

  452 Her especial “shame” would be her head and face: vol. vi. 30, 118.

  453 In northern Africa the “Dár al-Ziyáfah” was a kind of caravanserai in which travellers were lodged at government expense. Ibn Khaldún (Fr. Transl. i. 407).

  454 In most of these tales the well is filled in over the

  intruding “villain” of the piece. Ibn Khaldun (ii. 575) relates a “veritable history” of angels choking up a well; and in Mr.

  Doughty (ii. 190) a Pasha-governor of Jiddah does the same to a

  Jinni-possessed pit.

  455 This tale is of a kind not unfrequent amongst Moslems, exalting the character of the wife, whilst the mistress is a mere shadow.

  456 Here written “Jalabí” (whence Scott’s “Julbee,” ) and afterwards (, etc.) “Shalabí”: it has already been noticed in vol. i. 22 and elsewhere.

  457 In text “Baltah” for Turk. “Báltah” = an axe, a hatchet. Hence “Baltah-ji” a pioneer, one of the old divisions of the Osmanli troops which survives as a family name amongst the Levantines and semi-European Perotes of Constantinople.

  458 Here the public gaol is in the Head Policeman’s house. So in modern times it is part of the Wali or Governor’s palace and is included in the Maroccan “Kasbah” or fortalice.

  459 In text “Naakhaz bi-lissati-him;” “Luss” is after a fashion ??st??; but the Greek word included piracy which was honourable, whenas the Arab. term is mostly applied to larcenists and similar blackguards. [I would read the word in the text “Balsata-hum,” until I have received their “ransom.” — ST.]

  460 In the text “Tajrís” which I have rendered by a circumlocution. [For the exact meaning of “Tajrís,” see Dozy, Suppl. s.v. “jarras,” where an interesting passage from Mas’údí is quoted. — ST.]

  461 In Moslem lands prisoners are still expected to feed themselves, as was the case in England a century ago and is still to be seen not only in Al-Islam, Egypt and Syria, but even in Madeira and at Goa.

  462 In text “Hudá Sirru-hu,” i.e. his secret sin was guided (by Allah) to the safety of concealment. [A simpler explanation of this passage would perhaps be: “wa hadá Sirru-hu,” = and his mind was at rest. — ST.]

  463 Arab. “Audáj” (plur. of “Wadaj”) a word which applies indiscriminately to the carotid arteries and jugular veins. The latter, especially the external pair, carry blood from the face and are subject abnormally to the will: the late lamented Mr. Charley Peace, who murdered and “burgled” once too often, could darken his complexion and even change it by arresting jugular circulation. The much-read Mr. F. Marion Crawford (Saracinesca, chapt. xii.) makes his hero pass a foil through his adversary’s throat, “without touching the jugular artery (which does not exist) or the spine.” But what about larynx and pharynx? It is to be regretted that realistic writers do not cultivate a little more personal experience. No Englishman says “in guard” for “on guard.” “C
olpo del Tancredi” is not = “Tancred’s lunge” but “the thrust of the (master) Tancredi:” it is quite permissible and to say that it loses half its dangers against a left-handed man is to state what cannot be the fact as long as the heart is more easily reached from the left than from the right flank.

  464 Lit. “Then faring forth and sitting in his own place.” I have modified the too succinct text which simply means that he was anxious and agitated.

  465 After this in the text we have only, “End of the Adventure of the Kazi’s Daughter. It is related among the many wiles of women that there was a Fellah-man,” etc. I have supplied the missing link.

  466 On the margin of the W. M. MS. (vi. 92) J. Scott has written: “This story bears a faint resemblance to one in the Bahardanush.” He alludes to the tale I have already quoted. I would draw attention to “The Fellah and his Wicked Wife,” as it is a characteristic Fellah-story showing what takes place too often in the villages of Modern Egypt which the superficial traveller looks upon as the homes of peace and quiet. The text is somewhat difficult for technicalities and two of the pages are written with a badly nibbed reed-pen which draws the lines double.

  467 The “Faddán” (here miswritten “Faddád”) = a plough, a yoke of oxen, a “carucate,” which two oxen can work in a single season. It is also the common land-measure of Egypt and Syria reduced from acre 1.1 to less than one acre. It is divided into twenty-four Kiráts (carats) and consists or consisted of 333 Kasabah (rods), each of these being 22-24 Kabzahs (fists with the thumb erect about = 6˝ inches). In old Algiers the Faddán was called “Zuijah” (= a pair, i.e. of oxen) according to Ibn Khaldun i. 404.

  468 In text “Masbúbah.”

  469 Arab. “Dashísh,” which the Dicts. make = wheat-broth to be sipped. [“Dashísh” is a popular corruption of the classical

  “Jashísh” = coarsely ground wheat (sometimes beans), also called

  “Sawík,” and “Dashíshah” is the broth made of it. — ST.]

  470 In text “Ahmar” = red, ruddy-brown, dark brown.

  471 In text “Kas’at (= a wooden platter, bowl) afrúkah.” [The “Mafrúkah,” an improvement upon the Fatírah, is a favourite dish with the Badawí, of which Dozy quotes lengthy descriptions from Vansleb and Thévenot. The latter is particularly graphical, and after enumerating all the ingredients says finally: “ils en font une grosse pâte dont ils prennent de gros morceaux. — ST.]