The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 01...

632. i.e. "one seeking assistance in Allah." He was the son of Al-Záhir bi'lláh (one pre-eminent by the decree of Allah). Lane says (i. 430), "great-grandson of Harun al-Rashid," alluding to the first Mustansir son of Al-Mutawakkil (regn. A.H. 247-248=861-2). But this is the 56th Abbaside and regn. A.H. 623-640 (=1226-1242).

633. Arab. "Yaum al-Id," the Kurban Bairam of the Turks, the Pilgrimage festival. The story is historical. In the "Akd," a miscellany compiled by Ibn Abd Rabbuh (vulg. Rabbi-hi) of Cordova, who ob. A.H. 328=940 we read:—A spunger found ten criminals and followed them, imagining they were going to a feast; but lo, they were going to their deaths. And when they were slain and he remained, he was brought before the Khalifah (Al-Maamun) and Ibrahim son of Al-Mahdi related a tale to procure pardon for the man, whereupon the Khalifah pardoned him. Lane ii, 506.

634. Arab. "Nata' al-Dam"; the former word was noticed in the Tale of the Bull and the Ass. The leather of blood was not unlike the Sufrah and could be folded into a bag by a string running through rings round the edges. Moslem executioners were very expert and seldom failed to strike off the head with a single blow of the thin narrow blade with razor-edge, hard as diamond withal, which contrasted so strongly with the great coarse chopper of the European headsman.

635. The ground floor, which in all hot countries is held, and rightly so, unwholesome during sleep, is usually let for shops. This is also the case throughout Southern Europe, and extends to the Canary Islands and the Brazil.

636. This serious contemplation of street-scenery is one of the pleasures of the Harems.

637. We should say "smiled at him": the laugh was not intended as an affront.

638. Arab. "Fals ahmar." Fals is a fish-scale, also the smaller coin and the plural "Fulús" is the vulgar term for money (=Ital. quattrini) without specifying the coin. It must not be confounded with the "Fazzah," alias "Nuss," alias "Páráh" (Turk.); the latter being made, not of "red copper" but of a vile alloy containing like the Greek "Asper," some silver; and representing, when at par, the fortieth of a piastre, the latter being=2d. ⅖ths.

639. Arab. "Farajiyah," a long-sleeved robe; Lane's "Farageeyeh," M. E., chapt. i.

640. The tailor in the East, as in Southern Europe, is made to cut out the cloth in presence of its owner to prevent "cabbaging."

641. Expecting a present.

642. Alluding to the saying, "Kiss is the key to Kitty."

643. The "panel-dodge" is fatally common throughout the East, where a man found in the house of another is helpless.

644. This was the beginning of horseplay which often ends in a bastinado.

645. Hair-dyes, in the East, are all of vegetable matter, henna, indigo-leaves, galls, etc.: our mineral dyes are, happily for them, unknown. Herklots will supply a host of recipes. The Egyptian mixture which I quoted in Pilgrimage (ii., 274) is sulphate of iron and ammoniure of iron one part and gall nuts two parts, infused in eight parts of distilled water. It is innocuous but very poor as a dye.

646. Arab. Amrad, etymologically "beardless and handsome," but often used in a bad sense, to denote an effeminate, a catamite.

647. The Hindus prefer "having the cardinal points as her sole garment." Vêtu de climat, says Madame de Stael. In Paris nude statues are "draped in cerulean blue." Rabelais (iv., 29) robes King Shrovetide in grey and gold of a comical cut, nothing before, nothing behind with sleeves of the same.

648. This scene used to be enacted a few years ago in Paris for the benefit of concealed spectators, a young American being the victim. It was put down when one of the lookers-on lost his eye by a pen-knife thrust into the "crevice."

649. Meaning that the trick had been played by the Wazir's wife or daughter. I could mention sundry names at Cairo whose charming owners have done worse things than this unseemly frolic.

650. Arab. "Shayyun li'lláhi," a beggar's formula=per amor di Dio.

651. Noting how sharp-eared the blind become.

652. The blind in Egypt are notorious for insolence and violence, fanaticism and rapacity. Not a few foreigners have suffered from them (Pilgrimage i. 148). In former times many were blinded in infancy by their mothers, and others blinded themselves to escape conscription or honest hard work. They could always obtain food, especially as Mu'ezzins; and were preferred because they could not take advantage of the minaret by spying into their neighbours' households. The Egyptian race is chronically weak-eyed, the effect of the damp hot climate of the valley, where ophthalmia prevailed even during the pre-Pharaohnic days. The great Sesostris died stone-blind and his successor lost his sight for ten years (Pilgrimage ii., 176). That the Fellahs are now congenitally weak-eyed, may by seen by comparing them with negroes imported from Central Africa. Ophthalmia rages, especially during the damp season, in the lower Nile-valley; and the best cure for it is a fortnight's trip to the Desert where, despite glare, sand and wind, the eye readily recovers tone.

653. i.e. With kicks and cuffs, and blows, as is the custom. (Pilgrimage i., 174.)

654. Arab. Káid (whence "Alcayde") a word still much used in North Western Africa.

655. Arab. "Sullam"=lit. a ladder; a frame-work of sticks, used by way of our triangles or whipping-posts.

656. This is one of the feats of Al-Simiyá=white magic; fascinating the eyes. In Europe it has lately taken the name of "Electro-biology."

657. Again by means of the "Simiyá" or power of fascination possessed by the old scoundrel.

658. A formula for averting "Al-Ayn," the evil eye. It is always unlucky to meet a one-eyed man, especially the first thing in the morning and when setting out on any errand. The idea is that the fascinated one will suffer from some action of the physical eye. Monoculars also are held to be rogues: so the Sanskrit saying "Few one-eyed men be honest men."

659. Al-Nashshár from Nashr=sawing: so the fiddler in Italian is called the "village-saw" (Sega del villaggio). He is the Alnaschar of the Englished Galland and Richardson. The tale is very old. It appears as the Brahman and the Pot of Rice in the Panchatantra; and Professor Benfey believes (as usual with him) that this, with many others, derives from a Buddhist source. But I would distinctly derive it from Æsop's market-woman who kicked over her eggs; whence the Lat. prov. Ante victoriam canere triumphum=to sell the skin before you have caught the bear. In the "Kalilah and Dimnah" and its numerous offspring it is the "Ascetic with his Jar of oil and honey;" in Rabelais (i, 33) Echephron's shoemaker spills his milk, and so La Perette in La Fontaine. See M. Max Muller's "Chips," vol. iii., appendix. The curious reader will compare my version with that which appears at the end of Richardson's Arabic Grammar (Edit. of 1811): he had a better, or rather a fuller MS. (p. 199) than any yet printed.

660. Arab. "Atr"=any perfume especially oil of roses; whence our word "Ottar," through the Turkish corruption.

661. The texts give "dirhams" (100,000=5,000 dinars) for "dinars," a clerical error as the sequel shows.

662. "Young slaves," says Richardson, losing "colour."

663. Nothing more calculated to give affront than such a refusal. Richardson (p. 204) who, however, doubts his own version (p. 208) here translates, "and I will not give liberty to my soul (spouse) but in her apartments." The Arabic or rather Cairene, is, "wa lá akhalli rúhi"=I will not let myself go i.e. be my every-day self, etc.

664. "Whilst she is in astonishment and terror." (Richardson).

665. "Chamber of robes," Richardson whose text has "Nám" for "Manám."

666. "Till I compleat her distress," Richardson, whose text is corrupt.

667. "Sleep by her side," R. the word "Náma" bearing both senses.

668. "Will take my hand," R. "takabbal" being also ambiguous.

669. Arab. "Mu'arras" one who brings about "'Ars," marriages, etc. So the Germ. "Kupplerinn," a Coupleress. It is one of the many synonyms for a pimp, and a word in general use (Pilgrimage i., 276). The most insulting term, like Dayyús, insinuates that the man panders for his own wife.

670. Of hands and face, etc. See Night cccclxiv.

671. Arab. "Sadakah" (sincerity), voluntary or superogatory alms, opposed to "Zakát" (purification), legal alms which are indispensable. "Prayer carries us half way to Allah; fasting brings us to the door of His palace and alms-deeds (Sadakah) causes us to enter." For "Zakát" no especial rate is fixed; but it should not be less than one-fortieth of property or two and a half per cent. Thus Al-Islam is, as far as I know, the only faith which makes a poor-rate (Zakát) obligatory and which has invented a property-tax, as opposed to the unjust and unfair income-tax upon which England prides herself.