The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, vol 6, Sir Richard Francis Burton [ebook and pdf reader TXT] 📗

mesquin, meschino, words evidently derived from the East.

 

[FN#267] Plur. of Maghrib� a Western man, a Moor. I have already derived the word through the Lat. “Maurus” from Maghribiy�n.

Europeans being unable to pronounce the Ghayn (or gh like the modern Cairenes) would turn it into “Ma’ariy�n.” They are mostly of the Maliki school (for which see Sale) and are famous as magicians and treasure-finders. Amongst the suite of the late Amir Abd al-Kadir, who lived many years and died in Damascus, I found several men profoundly versed in Eastern spiritualism and occultism.

 

[FN#268] The names are respectively, Slave of the Salvation, of the One (God), of the Eternal; of the Compassionate; and of the Loving.

 

[FN#269] i.e. “the most profound”; the root is that of “B�tin�,”

a gnostic, a reprobate.

 

[FN#270] i.e. the Tall One.

 

[FN#271] The loud pealing or (ear-) breaking Thunder.

 

[FN#272] Arab. “F�s and Mikn�s” which the writer evidently regards as one city. “F�s” means a hatchet, from the tradition of one having been found, says Ibn Sa’�d, when digging the base under the founder Idr�s bin Idr�s (A.D. 808). His sword was placed on the pinnacle of the minaret built by the Im�m Abu Ahmad bin Abi Bakr enclosed in a golden �tui studded with pearls and precious stones. From the local pronunciation “Fes” is derived the red cap of the nearer Moslem East (see Ibn Batutah p. 230).

 

[FN#273] Arab. “Al-Khurj,” whence the Span. Las Alforjas.

 

[FN#274] Arab. “Keb�b,” mutton or lamb cut into small squares and grilled upon skewers: it is the roast meat of the nearer East where, as in the West, men have not learned to cook meat so as to preserve all its flavour. This is found in the “Asa’o” of the Argentine Gaucho who broils the flesh while still quivering and before the fibre has time to set. Hence it is perfectly tender, if the animal be young, and has a “meaty” taste half lost by keeping

 

[FN#275] Equivalent to our puritanical “Mercy.”

 

[FN#276] Arab. “Bukjah,” from the Persian Bukcheh: a favourite way of keeping fine clothes in the East is to lay them folded in a piece of rough long-cloth with pepper and spices to drive away moths.

 

[FN#277] This is always specified, for respectable men go out of town on horse-back, never on “foot-back,” as our friends the Boers say. I have seen a Syrian put to sore shame when compelled by politeness to walk with me, and every acquaintance he met addressed him “Anta Zalamah!” What! afoot?

 

[FN#278] This tale, including the Enchanted Sword which slays whole armies, was adopted in Europe as we see in Straparola (iv.

3), and the “Water of Life” which the Grimms found in Hesse, etc., “Gammer Grethel’s German Popular Stories,” Edgar Taylor, Bells, 1878; and now published in fuller form as “Grimm’s Household Tales,” by Mrs. Hunt, with Introduction by A. Lang, 2

vols. 8vo, 1884. It is curious that so biting and carping a critic, who will condescend to notice a misprint in another’s book, should lay himself open to general animadversion by such a rambling farrago of half-digested knowledge as that which composes Mr. Andrew Lang’s Introduction.

 

[FN#279] These retorts of Judar are exactly what a sharp Egyptian Fellah would say on such occasions.

 

[FN#280] Arab. “Sal�m�t,” plur. of Salam, a favourite Egyptian welcome.

 

[FN#281] This sentence expresses a Moslem idea which greatly puzzles strangers. Arabic has no equivalent of our “Thank you”

(Kassara ‘llah Khayr-ak being a mere blessing Allah increase thy weal!), nor can Al-lslam express gratitude save by a periphrase.

The Moslem acknowledges a favour by blessing the donor and by wishing him increase of prosperity. “May thy shadow never be less! ” means, Mayest thou always extend to me thy shelter and protection. I have noticed this before but it merits repetition.

Strangers, and especially Englishmen, are very positive and very much mistaken upon a point, which all who have to do with Egyptians and Arabs ought thoroughly to understand. Old dwellers in the East know that the theory of ingratitude in no way interferes with the sense of gratitude innate in man (and beast) and that the “lively sense of favours to come,” is as quick in Orient land as in Europe.

 

[FN#282] Outside this noble gate, the Bab al-Nay, there is a great cemetery wherein, by the by, lies Burckhardt, my predecessor as a H�jj to Meccah and Al-Medinah. Hence many beggars are always found squatting in its neighbourhood.

 

[FN#283] Friends sometimes walk alongside the rider holding the stirrup in sign of affection and respect, especially to the returning pilgrim.

 

[FN#284] Equivalent to our Alas! It is woman’s word never used by men; and foreigners must be most careful of this distinction under pain of incurring something worse than ridicule. I remember an officer in the Bombay Army who, having learned Hindostani from women, always spoke of himself in the feminine and hugely scandalised the Sepoys.

 

[FN#285] i.e. a neighbour. The “quarters” of a town in the East are often on the worst of terms. See Pilgrimage.

 

[FN#286] In the patriarchal stage of society the mother waits upon her adult sons. Even in Dalmatia I found, in many old-fashioned houses, the ladies of the family waiting upon the guests. Very pleasant, but somewhat startling at first.

 

[FN#287] Here the apodosis would be “We can all sup together.”

 

[FN#288] Arab. “Z�wiyah” (=oratory), which is to a Masjid what a chapel is to a church.

 

[FN#289] Arab. “Kasr,” prop. a palace: so the Tuscan peasant speaks of his “palazzo.”

 

[FN#290] This sale of a free-born Moslem was mere felony. But many centuries later Englishmen used to be sold and sent to the plantations in America.

 

[FN#291] Arab. “Kaww�s,” lit. an archer, suggesting les archers de la Sainte Hermandade. In former days it denoted a sergeant, an apparitor, an officer who executed magisterial orders. In modern Egypt he became a policeman (Pilgrimage i. 29). As “Cavass” he appears in gorgeous uniform and sword, an orderly attached to public offices and Consulates.

 

[FN#292] A purely imaginary King.

 

[FN#293] The Bresl. Edit. (ix. 370) here and elsewhere uses the word “N�tiy�”=Nauta, for the common Bahr�yah or Mall�h.

 

[FN#294] Arab. “Tawaf,” the name given to the sets (Ashwat) of seven circuits with the left shoulder presented to the Holy House, that is walking “widdershins” or “against the sun” (“with the sun” being like the movement of a watch). For the requisites of this rite see Pilgrimage iii. 234.

 

[FN#295] Arab. “Akh”; brother has a wide signification amongst Moslems and may be used to and of any of the Saving Faith.

 

[FN#296] Said by the master when dismissing a servant and meaning, “I have not failed in my duty to thee!” The answer is, “Allah acquit thee thereof!’

 

[FN#297] A Moslem prison is like those of Europe a century ago; to think of it gives gooseflesh. Easterns laugh at our idea of penitentiary and the Arabs of Bombay call it “Al-Bist�n” (the Garden) because the court contains a few trees and shrubs. And with them a garden always suggests an idea of Paradise. There are indeed only two efficacious forms of punishment all the world over, corporal for the poor and fines for the rich, the latter being the severer form.

 

[FN#298] i.e. he shall answer for this.

 

[FN#299] A pun upon “Khal�yah” (bee hive) and “Khaliyah” (empty).

Khal�yah is properly a hive of bees with a honey-comb in the hollow of a tree-trunk, opposed to Kaww�rah, hive made of clay or earth (Al-Hariri; Ass. of Tiflis). There are many other terms, for Arabs are curious about honey. Pilgrimage iii. 110.

 

[FN#300] Lane (iii. 237) supposes by this title that the author referred his tale to the days of the Caliphate. “Commander of the Faithful” was, I have said, the style adopted by Omar in order to avoid the clumsiness of “Caliph” (successor) of the Caliph (Abu Bakr) of the Apostle of Allah.

 

[FN#301] eastern thieves count four modes of housebreaking, (1)picking out burnt bricks; (2) cutting through unbaked bricks; (3) wetting a mud wall and (4) boring through a wooden wall (Vikram and the Vampire p. 172).

 

[FN#302] Arab. “Zabbat,” lit. a lizard (fem.) also a wooden lock, the only one used throughout Egypt. An illustration of its curious mechanism is given in Lane (M. E. Introduction) [FN#303] Arab. “Dabb�s.” The Eastern mace is well known to English collectors, it is always of metal, and mostly of steel, with a short handle like our facetiously called “life-preterver “

The head is in various forms, the simplest a ball, smooth and round, or broken into sundry high and angular ridges like a melon, and in select weapons shaped like the head of some animal.

bull, etc. See Night dcxlvi.

 

[FN#304] The red habit is a sign of wrath and vengeance and the Persian Kings like Fath Al Shah, used to wear it when about to order some horrid punishment, such as the “Shakk”; in this a man was hung up by his heels and cut in two from the fork downwards to the neck, when a turn of the chopper left that untouched.

White robes denoted peace and mercy as well as joy. The “white”

hand and “black” hand have been explained. A “white death” is quiet and natural, with forgiveness of sins. A “black death” is violent and dreadful, as by strangulation; a “green death” is robing in rags and patches like a dervish, and a “red death” is by war or bloodshed (A. P. ii. 670). Among the mystics it is the resistance of man to his passions.

 

[FN#305] This in the East is the way “pour se faire valoir”; whilst Europeans would hold it a mere “bit of impudence.” aping dignity.

 

[FN#306] The Chief Mufti or Doctor of the Law, an appointment first made by the Osmanli Mohammed II., when he captured Constantinople in A.D. 1453. Before that time the functions were discharged by the K�zi al-Kuzat (Kazi-in-Chief), the Chancellor.

 

[FN#307] So called because here lived the makers of crossbows (Arab. Bunduk now meaning a fire piece, musket, etc.). It is the modern district about the well-known Khan al-Hamzawi.

 

[FN#308] Pronounced “Goodareeyyah,” and so called after one of the troops of the Fatimite Caliphs. The name “Yam�niyah” is probably due to the story-teller’s inventiveness.

 

[FN#309] I have noted that as a rule in The Nights poetical justice is administered with much rigour and exactitude. Here, however, the tale-teller allows the good brother to be slain by the two wicked brothers as he permitted the adulterous queens to escape the sword of Kamar al-Zaman. Dr. Steingass brings to my notice that I have failed to do justice to the story of Sharrk�n (vol. ii., p. 172), where I note that the interest is injured by the gratuitous incest But this has a deeper meaning and a grander artistic effect. Sharrk�n begins with most unbrotherly feelings towards his father’s children by a second wife. But Allah’s decree forces him to love his half-sister despite himself, and awe and repentance convert the savage, who joys at the news of his brother’s reported death, to a loyal and devoted subject of the same brother. But Judar with all his goodness proved himself an arrant softy and was no match for two atrocious villains. And there may be overmuch of forgiveness as of every other good thing.

 

[FN#310] In such case the “‘iddah” would be four months and ten days.

 

[FN#311] Not quite true. Weil’s German version, from a MS. in the Ducal Library of Gotha gives the “Story of Judar of Cairo and Mahmud of Tunis” in a very different form. It has been pleasantly “translated (from the German) and edited”