by A. S. Byatt
125. The H. V. adds, “The Magician, when he saw the Lamp, at once knew that it must be the one he sought; for he knew that all things, great and small, appertaining to the palace would be golden or silvern.”
126. In truly Oriental countries the Wazir is expected to know everything, and if he fail in this easy duty he may find himself in sore trouble.
127. i.e., must be obeyed.
128. We see that “China” was in those days the normal Oriental “despotism tempered by assassination.”
129. In the H. V. Alaeddin promises, “if I fail to find and fetch the Princess, I will myself cut off my head and cast it before the throne.” Hindus are adepts in suicide and this self-decapitation, which sounds absurd further West, is quite possible to them.
130. In Galland Alaeddin unconsciously rubbed the ring against un petit roc, to which he clung in order to prevent falling into the stream. In the H. V. “The bank was high and difficult of descent and the youth would have rolled down headlong had he not struck upon a rock two paces from the bottom and remained hanging over the water. This mishap was of the happiest for during his fall he struck the stone and rubbed his ring against it,” etc.
131. In the H. V. he said, “First save me that I fall not into the stream and then tell me where is the pavilion thou builtest for her and who hath removed it.”
132. The Fellah had a natural fear of being seen in fine gear, which all would have supposed to be stolen goods; and Alaeddin was justified in taking it perforce, because necessitas non habet legem. See a similar exchange of dress in Spitta-Bey’s Contes Árabes Modernes, p. 91. In Galland the peasant when pressed consents; and in the H. V. Alaeddin persuades him by a gift of money.
133. i.e. which would take effect in the shortest time.
134. Her modesty was startled by the idea of sitting at meat with a strange man and allowing him to make love to her.
135. In the text Kidí, pop. for Ka-zálika. In the H. V. the Magician replies to the honeyed speech of the Princess, “O my lady, we in Africa have not so gracious customs as the men of China. This day I have learned of thee a new courtesy which I shall ever keep in mind.”
136. Galland makes the Princess poison the Maghrabi, which is not gallant. The H. V. follows suit and describes the powder as a mortal poison.
137. His dignity forbade him to walk even the length of a carpet. When Harun al-Rashid made his famous pilgrimage afoot from Baghdad to Meccah (and he was the last of the Caliphs who performed this rite), the whole way was spread with a “Pá-andáz” of carpets and costly cloths.
138. The proverb suggests our “par nobile fratrum,” a pair resembling each other as two halves of a split bean.
139. In the H. V. “If the elder Magician was in the East the other was in the West; but once a year, by their skill in geomancy they had tidings of each other.”
140. The act was religiously laudable, but to the Eastern, as to the South European mind, fair play is nota jewel; moreover the story-teller may insinuate that vengeance would be taken only by foul and unlawful means—the Black Art, perjury murder and so forth.
141. For this game, a prime favourite in Egypt, see De Sacy (Chrestomathie i. 477) and his authorities Hyde, Syntagma Dissert. ii. 374; P. Labat, Mémoires du Chev. d’Arvieux, iii. 321; Thevenot, Voyage du Levant, p. 107; and Niebuhr, Voyages, 1, 139, Plate 25, fig. H.
142. Evidently “(jeu de) dames” (supposed to have been invented in Paris during the days of the Regency: see Littré); and, although in certain Eastern places now popular, a term of European origin. It is not in Galland. According to Ibn Khallikan (iii. 69) “Nard” = tables, arose with King Ardashír son of Babuk, and was therefore called Nardashír (Nard Ardashir?).
143. Evidently la force de l’imagination, of which a curious illustration was given in Paris during the debauched days of the Second Empire. Before a highly “fashionable” assembly of men appeared a youth in fleshings who sat down upon a stool, bared his pudenda and closed his eyes when, by “force of fancy,” erection and emission took place. But presently it was suspected and proved that the stool was hollow and admitted from below a hand whose titillating fingers explained the phenomenon.
144. Moslems are curious about sleeping postures and the popular saying is:—Lying upon the right side is proper to Kings, upon the left to Sages; to sleep supine is the position of Allah’s Saints and prone upon the belly is peculiar to the Devils.
145. This “’Asá,” a staff five to six feet long, is one of the properties of Moslem Saints and reverends who, imitating that furious old Puritan, Caliph Omar, make and are allowed to make a pretty liberal distribution of its caresses.
146. i.e. as she was in her own home.
147. Arab. “Sulúk” a Sufistical expression, the road to salvation, &c.
148. In the H. V. her diet consisted of dry bread and fruits.
149. This is the first mention of the windows in the Arabic MS.
150. I may remind the reader that the O. Egyptian “Rokh,” or “Rukh,” by some written “Rekhit,” whose ideograph is a monstrous bird with one claw raised, also denotes pure wise Spirits, the Magi, &c. I know a man who derives from it our “rook” = beak and parson.
151. In the H. V. he takes the Lamp from his bosom, where he had ever kept it since his misadventure with the African Magician.
152. Here the mythical Rukh is mixed up with the mysterious bird Símurgh.
153. The H. V. adds, “hoping thereby that thou and she and all the household should fall into perdition.”
154. Rank mesmerism, which has been practised in the East from ages immemorial. In Christendom Santa Guglielma worshipped at Brunate, “works many miracles, chiefly healing aches of head.” In the H. V. Alaeddin feigns that he is ill and fares to the Princess with his head tied up.
155. Mr. Morier in The Mirza (vol. i. 87) says, “Had the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, with all their singular fertility of invention and never-ending variety, appeared as a new book in the present day, translated literally and not adapted to European taste in the manner attempted in M. Galland’s translation, I doubt whether they would have been tolerated, certainly not read with the avidity they are, even in the dress with which he has clothed them, however imperfect that dress may be.” But in Morier’s day the literal translation was so despised that an Eastern book was robbed of half its charms, both of style and idea. My version is here followed by the popular English version from Galland, so that my readers may compare the old with the new.
ALI BABA AND THE FORTY THIEVES
1. Mr. Coote is unable to produce a puramythe containing all of “Ali Bába;” but, for the two leading incidents he quotes from Prof. Sakellarios two tales collected in Cyprus. One is Morgiana marking the village doors (p. 187), which has occurred doubtless a hundred times. The other, in the “Story of Drakos,” is an ogre, hight “Three Eyes,” who attempts the rescue of his wife with a party of blackamoors () packed in bales and these are all discovered and slain.
2. Dans la font, says Galland.
3. Or “Samsam,” The grain = Sesamum Oriéntale: hence the French, Sesame, ouvre-toi! The term is cabalistical, like Súlem, Súlam or Shúlam in the Directorium Vita Humante of Johannes di Capuâ: Inquit vir: Ibam in nocte plenilunii et ascendebam super domum ubi furari intendebam, et accedens ad fenestram ubi radii lune ingrediebantur, et dicebam hanc coniurationem, scilicet sulem sulem, septies, deinde amplectebar lumen lune et sine lesione descendebam ad domum, etc. (pp. 24-25) par Joseph Derenbourg, Membre de l’Institut 1re Fascicule, Paris, F. Vieweg, 67, Rue de Richelieu, 1887.
4. In the text “Jatháni” = the wife of an elder brother. Hindostani, like other Eastern languages, is rich in terms for kinship whereof English is so exceptionally poor. Mr. Francis Galtson, in his well-known work Hereditary Genius, a misnomer by the by for “Hereditary Talent,” felt this want severely and was at pains to supply it.
5. In the text “Thag,” our English “Thug,” often pronounced moreover by the Briton with the sib
ilant “th.” It means simply a cheat: you say to your servant “Tú bará Thag hai” = thou art a precious rascal; but it has also the secondary meaning of robber, assassin, and the tertiary of Bhawáni-worshippers who offer indiscriminate human sacrifices to the Deëss of Destruction. The word and the thing have been made popular in England through the “Confessions of a Thug” by my late friend Meadows Taylor; and I may record my conviction that were the English driven out of India, “Thuggee,” like piracy in Cutch and in the Persian Gulf, would revive at the shortest possible time.
6. i.e. the Civil Governor, who would want nothing better.
7. This is in Galland and it is followed by the H. V.; but it would be more natural to suppose that of the quarters two were hung up outside the door and the others within.
8. I am unwilling to alter the time honoured corruption: properly it is written Marjánah = the “Coralline,” from Marján = red coral.
9. i.e. the “’Iddah,” during which she could not marry.
10. In Galland he is a savetier … naturellement gai, et qui avait toujours le mot pour rire: the H. V. naturally changed him to a tailor as the Chámár or leather-worker would be inadmissible to polite conversation.
11. i.e. a leader of prayer; the Pers. “Pish-namáz” = fore-prayer. Galland has “imán,” which can mean only faith, belief, and in this blunder he is conscientiously followed by his translators—servum pecus.
12. Galland nails down the corpse in the bier—a Christian practice—and he certainly knew better. Moreover, prayers for the dead are mostly recited over the bier when placed upon the brink of the grave; nor is it usual for a woman to play so prominent a part in the ceremony.
13. Galland is less merciful, Aussitôt le conducteur fut déclaré digne de mort tout d’une voix, et il s’y condamna lui-même,” etc. The criminal, indeed, condemns himself and firmly offers his neck to be stricken.
14. In the text “Lauh.”
15. In Arab. “Káma” = he rose, which, in vulgar speech especially in Egypt,=he began. So in Spitta-Bey’s Contes Árabes Modernes (p. 124) “Kámat al-Sibhah dhákat fí yad akhí-h” = the chaplet began (lit. arose) to wax tight in his brother’s hand. This sense is shadowed forth in classical Arabic.
16. So in old Arabian history “Kasír” (the Little One), the Arab Zopyrus, stows away in huge camel-bags the 2,000 warriors intended to surprise masterful Queen Zebba. Chronique de Tabari, vol. ii. 26. Also the armed men in boxes by which Shamar, King of Al-Yaman, took Shamar-kand = Shamar’s-town, now Samarkand. (Ibid. ii. 158.)
17. i.e. for a walk, a “constitutional”: the phrase is very common in Egypt, and has occurred before.
MA’ARUF COBBLER AND HIS WIFE FATIMAH
1. Arab. “Zarábín” (pl. of zarbún), lit. slaves’ shoes or sandals, the chaussure worn by Mamelukes. Here the word is used in its modern sense of stout shoes or walking boots.
2. The popular word means goodness, etc.
3. Dozy translates “’Urrah” = Une Mégère: Lane terms it a “vulgar word signifying a wicked, mischievous shrew.” But it is the fem. form of ’Urr = dung; not a bad name for a daughter of Billingsgate.
4. i.e., black like the book of her actions which would be shown to her on Doomsday.
5. The “Kunáfah” (vermicelli-cake) is a favourite dish of wheaten flour, worked somewhat finer than our vermicelli, fried with samn (butter melted and clarified) and sweetened with honey or sugar. Thus distinguishing it from “Asal-kasab,” cane honey or sugar.
6. i.e., will send us aid. The shrew’s rejoinder is highly impious in Moslem opinion.
7. Arab. Asal Katr; “a fine kind of black honey, treacle,” says Lane; but it is afterwards called cane-honey (’Asal Kasab). I have never heard it applied to “the syrup which exudes from ripe dates, when hung up.”
8. Arab. “’Aysh,” lit. = that on which man lives: “Khubz” being the more popular term. “Hubz and Joobn” is well known at Malta.
9. Insinuating that he had better make peace with his wife by knowing her carnally. It suggests the story of the Irishman who brought over to the holy Catholic Church three several Protestant wives, but failed with the fourth on account of the decline of his “Convarter.”
10. Arab. “Asal Kasab,” i.e., sugar, possibly made from sorgho-stalks, Holcus sorghum, of which I made syrup in Central Africa.
11. For this unpleasant euphemy see [here Burton cross-references to a note for a tale not included in this edition that reads:] The euphemism has before been noticed: the Moslem reader would not like to pronounce the words, “I am a Nazarene.” The same formula occurs a little lower down to save the reciter or reader from saying, “Be my wife divorced,” etc.
12. This is a true picture of the leniency with which women were treated in the Kazi’s court at Cairo; and the effect was simply deplorable. I have noted that matters have grown even worse since the English occupation, for history repeats herself; and the same was the case in Afghanistan and in Sind. We govern too much in these matters, which should be directed, not changed, and too little in other things, especially in exacting respect for the conquerors from the conquered.
13. Arab. “Báb al-’Áli” = the high gate or Sublime Porte; here used of the Chief Kazi’s court: the phrase is a descendant of the Coptic “Per-ao” whence “Pharaoh.”
14. “Abú Tabak,” in Cairene slang, is an officer who arrests by order of the Kazi and means “Father of whipping” (= tabaka, a low word for beating, thrashing, whopping) because he does his duty with all possible violence in terrorem.
15. Bab al-Nasr, the Eastern or Desert Gate: see note 26 to “Judar and His Brethren.”
16. This is a mosque outside the great gate built by Al-Malik al-’Ádil Túmán Bey in A.H.906 (=1501). The date is not worthy of much remark for these names are often inserted by the scribe.
17. Arab. “’Ámir,” lit. = one who inhabiteth, a peopler; here used in technical sense. As has been seen, ruins and impure places such as privies and Hammám-baths are the favourite homes of the Jinn. The fire-drake in the text was summoned by the cobbler’s exclamation and even Marids at times do a kindly action.
18. The style is modern Cairene jargon.
19. Purses or gold pieces; [here Burton cross-references a note to a tale not included in this edition that reads:] Arab. “Tájir Alfí” which may mean a thousand dinars (£500) or a thousand purses (= £5,000). “Alfí” is not an uncommon p.n., meaning that the bearer (Pasha or pauper) had been bought for a thousand left indefinite.
20. i.e., I am a Cairene.
21. Arab. “Darb al-Ahmar,” a street still existing near to and outside the noble Bab Zuwaylah, for which see [here Burton refers to a note to a tale not included in this edition that reads:] 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 Bulletin de l’Inst. Egypt., Deuxième Série, No. 4, 1883.
22. Arab. “’Attár,” perfume-seller and druggist; the word is connected with our “ottar” (’Atr).
23. Arab. “Mudarris,” lit. = one who gives lessons or lectures (dars) and pop. applied to a professor in a collegiate mosque like Al-Azhar of Cairo.
24. This thoroughly dramatic scene is told with a charming naïveté. No wonder that The Nights has been made the basis of a national theatre amongst the Turks.
25. Arab. “Taysh,” lit. = vertigo, swimming of head.
26. Here Trébutien (iii. 265) reads “la ville de Khaïtan (so the Mac. Edit. iv. 708) capital du royaume de Sohatan.” “Ikhtiyán” Lane suggests to be fictitious: Khatan is a district of Tartary east of Káshgar, so called by Sádik al-Isfaháni, p. 24.
27. This is a true picture of the tact and savoir faire of the Cairenes. It was a study to see how, under the late Khedive, they managed to take precedence of Europeans who found themselves
in the background before they knew it. For instance, every Bey, whose degree is that of a Colonel, was made an “Excellency” and ranked accordingly at Court, whilst his father, some poor Fellah, was ploughing the ground. Tanfík Pasha began his ill-omened rule by always placing natives close to him in the place of honour, addressing them first and otherwise snubbing Europeans who, when English, were often too obtuse to notice the petty insults lavished upon them.
28. Arab. “Kathír” (pron. Katir) = much: here used in its slang sense, “no end.”
29. i.e., “May the Lord soon make thee able to repay me; but meanwhile I give it to thee for thy own free use.”
30. Punning upon his name. Much might be written upon the significance of names as ominous of good and evil; but the subject is far too extensive for a footnote.