Supplemental Nights to The Book of the Thousand and One Nights, Sir Richard Francis Burton [best short books to read .TXT] 📗

is=King Luck and Rahw�n is a corruption of Rahb�n=one who keeps the (right) way; or it may be Ruhb�n=the Pious. Mr. W. A. Clouston draws my attention to the fact that this tale is of the Sindibad (Seven Wise Masters) cycle and that he finds remotely allied to it a Siamese collection, entitled Nonthuk Pakaranam in which Princess Kankras, to save the life of her father, relates eighty or ninety tales to the king of Pataliput (Palibothra). He purposes to discuss this and similar subjects in extenso in his coming volumes, “Popular Tales and Fictions: their Migrations and Transformations,” to which I look forward with pleasant anticipations.

 

[FN#296] So far this work resembles the Bakhtiy�r-n�meh, in which the ten Wazirs are eager for the death of the hero who relates tales and instances to the king, warning him against the evils of precipitation.

 

[FN#297] One pilgrimage (Hajjat al-Islam) is commanded to all Moslems. For its conditions see The Nights, vol. v. 202, et seq.

 

[FN#298] Arab. “Hajj al-Sh�rif.” For the expenses of the process see my Pilgrimage iii. 12. As in all “Holy Places,” from Rome to Benares, the sinner in search of salvation is hopelessly taken in and fleeced by the “sons of the sacred cities.”

 

[FN#299] Here a stranger invites a guest who at once accepts the invitation; such is the freedom between Moslems at Meccah and Al-Medinah, especially during pilgrimagetime.

 

[FN#300] i.e. the master could no longer use her carnally.

 

[FN#301] i.e. wantoned it away.

 

[FN#302] Here “Al-Hajj”=the company of pilgrims, a common use of the term.

 

[FN#303] The text says, “He went on with the caravan to the Pilgrimage,” probably a clerical error. “Hajj” is never applied to the Visitation (Ziy�rah) at Al-Medinah.

 

[FN#304] Arab. “J�war,” that is, he became a muj�wir, one who lives in or near a collegiate mosque. The Egyptian proverb says, “He pilgrimaged: quoth one, Yes, and for his villainy lives (yujawir) at Meccah,” meaning that he found no other place bad enough for him.

 

[FN#305] I have often heard of this mysterious art in the East, also of similarly making rubies and branch-coral of the largest size, but, despite all my endeavours, I never was allowed to witness the operation. It was the same with alchemy, which, however, I found very useful to the “smasher.” See my History of Sindh, chapt. vii.

 

[FN#306] Elsewhere in The Nights specified as white woolen robes.

 

[FN#307] Whilst she was praying the girl could not address her; but the use of the rosary is a kind of “parergon.”

 

[FN#308] Arab. “Y� H�jjah” (in Egypt pronounced “H�ggeh”), a polite address to an elderly woman, who is thus supposed to have “finished her faith.”

 

[FN#309] Arab. “Kan�sah” (from Kans=sweeping) a pagan temple, a Jewish synagogue, and especially a Christian church.

 

[FN#310] i.e. standeth in prayer or supplication.

 

[FN#311] i.e. fell into hysterics, a very common complaint amongst the highly nervous and excitable races of the East.

 

[FN#312] Arab. “Kahram�nah,” a word which has often occurred in divers senses, nurse, duenna, chamberwoman, stewardess, armed woman defending the Harem, etc.

 

[FN#313] Which is supposed to contain the Harem.

 

[FN#314] Especially mentioned because the guide very often follows his charges, especially when he intends to play them an ugly trick. I had an unpleasant adventure of the kind in Somaliland; but having the fear of the “Aborigines Protection Society” before my eyes, refrained from doing more than hinting at it.

 

[FN#315] i.e. otherwise than according to ordinance of Allah.

 

[FN#316] A well-known city of lr�k ‘Ajam� (or Persian).

 

[FN#317] i.e. spare pegs and strings, plectra, thumb-guards, etc.

 

[FN#318] Arab. “Has�r,” the fine matting used for sleeping on during the hot season in Egypt and Syria.

 

[FN#319] i.e. The bed where the “rough and tumble” had taken place.

 

[FN#320] This word, which undoubtedly derives from cuculus, cogul, cocu, a cuckoo, has taken a queer twist, nor can I explain how its present meaning arose from a shebird which lays her egg in a strange nest. Wittol, on the other hand, from Witan, to know, is rightly applied to one whom La Fontaine calls “cocu et content,” the Arab Dayy�s.

 

[FN#321] Arab. “Shabakah,” here a net like a fisherman’s, which is hung over the hole in the wall called a shop, during the temporary absence of the shopkeeper. See my Pilgrimage, i. 100.

 

[FN#322] i.e. of which the singer speaks.

 

[FN#323] i.e., she found him good at the to-and-fro movement; our corresponding phrase is “basket-making.”

 

[FN#324] Arab. “Mu’arris”: in vol. i. 338, 1 derived the word from ‘Ars marriage, like the Germ. Kupplerin. This was a mere mistake; the root is ‘Ars (with a S�d not a S�n) and means a pimp who shows off or displays his wares.

 

[FN#325] Arab. “Akhmitu Ghazla-h�” lit.=thicken her yarn or thread.

 

[FN#326] I must again warn the reader that the negative, which to us appears unnecessary, is emphatic in Arabic.

 

[FN#327] i.e. By removing the goods from the “but” to the “ben.”

Pilgrimage i. 99.

 

[FN#328] Arab. “Tann�r,” here the large earthern jar with a cover of the same material, round which the fire is built.

 

[FN#329] Being a musician the hero of the tale was also a pederast.

 

[FN#330] Here Mr. Payne supplies “Then they returned and sat down” (apparently changing places). He is quite correct in characterising the Bresl. Edit. as corrupt and “fearfully incoherent.” All we can make certain of in this passage is that the singer mistook the Persian for his white slave (Mameluke).

 

[FN#331] Arab. “Bazaka,” normally used in the sense of spitting; here the saliva might be applied for facilitating insertion.

 

[FN#332] In Persian “�ward o burd,”=brought and bore away, gen.

applied to the movement of the man as in the couplet, Chen�n burd o �ward o �ward o burd, Kih d�yeh pas-i-pardeh zi ghussah murd.

 

He so came and went, went and came again, That Nurse who lay curtained to faint was fain.

 

[FN#333] Alluding to the fighting rams which are described by every Anglo-Indian traveller. They strike with great force, amply sufficient to crush the clumsy hand which happens to be caught between the two foreheads. The animals are sometimes used for F�l or consulting futurity: the name of a friend is given to one and that of a foe to the other; and the result of the fight suggests victory or defeat for the men.

 

[FN#334] Arab. “Jauhar”=the jewel, the essential nature of a substance. Compare M. Alcofribas’ “Abstraction of the Quintessence.”

 

[FN#335] In parts of the Moslem world Al-Jabr=the tyranny, is the equivalent of what we call “civil law,” as opposed to Al-Shar�‘ah, or Holy Law, the religious code; Diwan al-Jabr (Civil Court) being the contrary of the Mahkamah or Kazi’s tribunal. See “First Footsteps in East Africa,” p. 126.

 

[FN#336] i.e. in offering thee the kingship.

 

[FN#337] i.e. “a man of fourscore.”

 

[FN#338] i.e. outside the city.

 

[FN#339] See the conclusion of the story.

 

[FN#340] i.e. I have said my say.

 

[FN#341] Arab. “Al-Mutabattil,” usually=one who forsakes the world. The Katar�t alNays�n or rain-drops in the month Nays�n (April) produce pearls when falling into the oyster-shells and poison in the serpent’s mouth. The allusions to them are innumerable in Persian poetry, and the idea gives rise to a host of moralities more or less insipid.

 

[FN#342] This is the general idea concerning the diamond in all countries where the gem is dug, but I never heard it of the pearl.

 

[FN#343] Arab. “Faras,” properly a mare; but the writer begins by using the feminine, and then employs the masculine. It is an abominable text.

 

[FN#344] Arab. “Rutab wa man�zil,” may also mean “stations and mansions (of the moon and planets).” The double entendre was probably intended.

 

[FN#345] Arab. “Za-�f,” still a popular word, meaning feeble, sick, ailing, but especially, weak in venery.

 

[FN#346] See the original of this tale in King Al-Af’�: Al-Mas’ud�, chap. xlvi.

 

[FN#347] He says this without any sense of shame, coolly as Horace or Catullus wrote.

 

[FN#348] i.e. of the caravan with which he came.

 

[FN#349] Arab. “Al-‘Adl.” In the form of Z� ‘adl it = a legal witness, a man of good repute; in Marocco and other parts of the Moslem world ‘Adul (plur. ‘Ud�l) signifies an assessor of the Kazi, a notary. Padre Lerchundy (loc. cit. p. 345) renders it notario.

 

[FN#350] i.e. I would marry thy daughter, not only for her own sake, but for alliance with thy family.

 

[FN#351] i.e. the bride’s face.

 

[FN#352] The Ghusl or complete ablution after car. cop.

 

[FN#353] Thus the girl was made lawful to him as a concubine by the “loathly ladye,” whose good heart redeemed her ill-looks.

 

[FN#354] Meaning the poor man and his own daughter.

 

[FN#355] Mr. Payne changes the Arab title to the far more appropriate heading, “Story of the Rich Man and his Wasteful Son.” The tale begins with �sop’s fable of the faggot; and concludes with the “Heir of Linne,” in the famous Scotch ballad.

Mr. Clouston refers also to the Persian Tale of Murchlis (The Sorrowful Wazir); to the Forty Vezirs (23rd Story) to Cinthio and to sundry old English chap-books.

 

[FN#356] Arab. “Tafr�k wa’l-jam’a.”

 

[FN#357] Arab. “Waf�t” pop. used as death, decease, departure; but containing the idea of departing to the mercy of Allah and “paying the debt of nature.” It is not so illomened a word as Maut=death.

 

[FN#358] i.e. gifts and presents. See vol. iv. 185.

 

[FN#359] i.e. Turcomans; presently called S�st�n, for which see vol. ii. 218.

 

[FN#360] In my Pilgrimage (i. 38), 1 took from Mr. Galton’s Art of Travel, the idea of opening with a lancet the shoulder or other fleshy part of the body and inserting into it a precious stone. This was immensely derided by not a few including one who, then a young man from the country, presently became a Cabinet Minister. Despite their omniscience, however, the “dodge” is frequently practised. See how this device was practised by Jeshua Nazarenus, vol. v. 238.

 

[FN#361] Arab. “‘Alam,” a pile of stones, a flag or some such landmark. The reader will find them described in “The Sword of Midian,” i. 98, and passim.

 

[FN#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, p. 343

ff.; to Miss Busk’s Folk-Lore of Rome, p. 399 (“The Grace of the Hunchback”); to Prof. Crane’s “Italian Popular Tales,” p. 167, and “The Elopement,” from Pitr�‘s Sicilian collection.

 

[FN#363] In sign of impatience; “Look sharp!”

 

[FN#364] i.e. the resemblance of the supposed sister to his wife. This is a rechauff� of Kamar al-Zam�n iid.

 

[FN#365] This leaving a long lock upon the shaven poll is a very ancient practice: we find it amongst the old Egyptians. For the Sh�shah 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 R�f 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.

 

[FN#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