The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, vol 1, Sir Richard Francis Burton [8 ebook reader TXT] 📗

and bade them depart in all esteem. Then he gave the Tailor a sumptuous dress and appointed him his own tailor, with suitable pay and allowances; and made peace between him and the Hunchback, to whom also he presented a splendid and expensive suit with a suitable stipend. He did as generously with the Barber, giving him a gift and a dress of honour; moreover he settled on him a handsome solde and created him Barber surgeon[FN#699] of state and made him one of his cup companions.

So they ceased not to live the most pleasurable life and the most delectable, till there came to them the Destroyer of all delights and the Sunderer of all societies, the Depopulator of palaces and the Garnerer for graves. Yet, O most auspicious King! (continued Shahrazad) this tale is by no means more wonderful than that of the two Wazirs and An�s al-Jal�s. Quoth her sister Dunyazad, “And what may that be?”, whereupon she began to relate the following tale of

 

End of Vol. 1.

 

Arabian Nights, Volume 1

Footnotes [FN#1] Allaho A’alam, a deprecatory formula, used because the writer is going to indulge in a series of what may possibly be untruths.

 

[FN#2] The “Sons of S�s�n” are the famous Sassanides whose dynasty ended with the Arabian Conquest (A.D.641). “Island”

Jaz�rah) in Arabic also means “Peninsula,” and causes much confusion in geographical matters.

 

[FN#3] Shahry�r not Shahriyar (Persian) = “City-friend.” The Bulak edition corrupts it to Shahrb�z (City-hawk), and the Breslau to Shahrb�n or “Defender of the City,” like Marz-ban=Warden of the Marshes. Shah Zam�n (Persian)=“King of the Age:” Galland prefers Shah Zenan, or “King of women,” and the Bull edit. changes it to Shah Rumm�n, “Pomegranate King.” Al-Ajam denotes all regions not Arab (Gentiles opposed to Jews, Mlechchhas to Hindus, Tajiks to Turks, etc., etc.), and especially Persia; Ajami (a man of Ajam) being an equivalent of the Gr. {Greek Letters}. See Vol.. ii., p. 1.

 

[FN#4] Galland writes “Vizier,” a wretched frenchification of a mincing Turkish mispronunciation; Torrens, “Wuzeer” (Anglo-Indian and Gilchristian); Lane, “Wezeer”; (Egyptian or rather Cairene); Payne, “Vizier,” according to his system; Burckhardt (Proverbs), “Viz�r;” and Mr. Keith-Falconer, “Vizir.” The root is popularly supposed to be “wizr” (burden) and the meaning “Minister;” Wazir al-Wuzar� being “Premier.” In the Koran (chaps.

xx., 30) Moses says, “Give me a Wazir of my family, Harun (Aaron) my brother.” Sale, followed by the excellent version of the Rev.

J. M. Rodwell, translates a “Counsellor,” and explains by “One who has the chief administration of affairs under a prince.” But both learned Koranists learnt their Orientalism in London, and, like such students generally, fail only upon the easiest points, familiar to all old dwellers in the East.

 

[FN#5] This three-days term (rest-day, drest-day and departure day) seems to be an instinct-made rule in hospitality. Among Moslems it is a Sunnat or practice of the Prophet.) [FN#6] i.e., I am sick at heart.

 

[FN#7] Debauched women prefer negroes on account of the size of their parts. I measured one man in Somali-land who, when quiescent, numbered nearly six inches. This is a characteristic of the negro race and of African animals; e.g. the horse; whereas the pure Arab, man and beast, is below the average of Europe; one of the best proofs by the by, that the Egyptian is not an Asiatic, but a negro partially white-washed. Moreover, these imposing parts do not increase proportionally during erection; consequently, the “deed of kind” takes a much longer time and adds greatly to the woman’s enjoyment. In my time no honest Hindi Moslem would take his women-folk to Zanzibar on account of the huge attractions and enormous temptations there and thereby offered to them. Upon the subject of Ims�k = retention of semen and “prolongation of pleasure,” I shall find it necessary to say more.

 

[FN#8] The very same words were lately spoken in England proving the eternal truth of The Nights which the ignorant call “downright lies.”

 

[FN#9] The Arab’s Tue la!

 

[FN#10] Arab. “Sayd wa kanas”: the former usually applied to fishing; hence Sayda (Sidon) = fish-town. But noble Arabs (except the Caliph Al-Amin) do not fish; so here it means simply “sport,”

chasing, coursing, birding (oiseler), and so forth.

 

[FN#11] In the Mac. Edit. the negro is called “Mas’�d”; here he utters a kind of war-cry and plays upon the name, “Sa’�d, Sa’�d, Sa’�d,” and “Mas’ud”, all being derived from one root, “Sa’ad” =

auspiciousness, prosperity.

 

[FN#12] The Arab. singular (whence the French “g�nie”), fem.

Jinniyah; the Div and Rakshah of old Guebre-land and the “Rakshasa,” or “Yaksha,” of Hinduism. It would be interesting to trace the evident connection, by no means “accidental,” of “Jinn”

with the “Genius” who came to the Romans through the Asiatic Etruscans, and whose name I cannot derive from “gignomai” or “genitus.” He was unknown to the Greeks, who had the Daimon {Greek Letters}, a family which separated, like the Jinn and the Genius, into two categories, the good (Agatho-d�mons) and the bad (Kako-d�mons). We know nothing concerning the status of the Jinn amongst the pre-Moslemitic or pagan Arabs: the Moslems made him a supernatural anthropoid being, created of subtile fire (Koran chapts. xv. 27; lv. 14), not of earth like man, propagating his kind, ruled by mighty kings, the last being J�n bin J�n, missionarised by Prophets and subject to death and Judgment. From the same root are “Jun�n” = madness (i.e., possession or obsession by the Jinn) and “Majn�n”=a madman. According to R.

Jeremiah bin Eliazar in Psalm xii. 5, Adam was excommunicated for one hundred and thirty years, during which he begat children in his own image (Gen. v. 3) and these were Mazikeen or Shedeem-Jinns. Further details anent the Jinn will presently occur.

 

[FN#13] Arab. “Ams�r” (cities): in Bull Edit. “Amt�r” (rains), as in Mac. Edit. So Mr. Payne (I., 5) translates: And when she flashes forth the lightning of her glance, She maketh eyes to rain, like showers, with many a tear. I would render it, “She makes whole cities shed tears,” and prefer it for a reason which will generally influence me its superior exaggeration and impossibility.

 

[FN#14] Not “A-frit,” pronounced Aye-frit, as our poets have it.

This variety of the Jinn, who, as will be shown, are divided into two races like mankind, is generally, but not always, a malignant being, hostile and injurious to mankind (Koran xxvii. 39).

 

[FN#15] i.e., “I conjure thee by Allah;” the formula is technically called “Insh�d.”

 

[FN#16] This introducing the name of Allah into an indecent tale is essentially Egyptian and Cairene. But see Boccaccio ii. 6, and vii. 9.

 

[FN#17] So in the Mac. Edit.; in others “ninety.” I prefer the greater number as exaggeration is a part of the humour. In the Hindu “Kath� S�rit S�gara” (Sea of the Streams of Story), the rings are one hundred and the catastrophe is more moral, the good youth Yashodhara rejects the wicked one’s advances; she awakes the water-sprite, who is about to slay him, but the rings are brought as testimony and the improper young person’s nose is duly cut off. (Chap. Ixiii.; p. 80, of the excellent translation by Prof. C. H. Tawney: for the Bibliotheca Indica: Calcutta, 1881.) The Kath�, etc., by Somadeva (century xi), is a poetical version of the prose compendium, the “Vrihat Kath�” (Great Story) by Gunadhya (cent. vi).

 

[FN#18] The Joseph of the Koran, very different from him of Genesis. We shall meet him often enough in The Nights.

 

[FN#19] “Iblis,” vulgarly written “Eblis,” from a root meaning The Despairer, with a suspicious likeness to Diabolos; possibly from “Bales,” a profligate. Some translate it The Calumniator, as Satan is the Hater. Iblis (who appears in the Arab. version of the N. Testament) succeeded another revolting angel Al-Haris; and his story of pride refusing to worship Adam, is told four times in the Koran from the Talmud (Sanhedrim 29). He caused Adam and Eve to lose Paradise (ii. 34); he still betrays mankind (xxv.

31), and at the end of time he, with the other devils, will be “gathered together on their knees round Hell” (xix. 69). He has evidently had the worst of the game, and we wonder, with Origen, Tillotson, Burns and many others, that he does not throw up the cards.

 

[FN#20] A similar tale is still told at Akk� (St. John d’Acre) concerning the terrible “butcher”—Jazz�r (Djezzar) Pasha. One can hardly pity women who are fools enough to run such risks.

According to Frizzi, Niccol�, Marquis of Este, after beheading Parisina, ordered all the faithless wives of Ferrara to be treated in like manner.

 

[FN#21] “Shahr�z�d” (Persian) = City-freer, in the older version Scheherazade (probably both from Shirz�d=lion-born).

“Duny�z�d”=World-freer. The Bres. Edit. corrupts former to Sh�hrz�d or Sh�hraz�d, and the Mac. and Calc. to Shahrz�d or Shehrz�d. I have ventured to restore the name as it should be.

Galland for the second prefers Dinarzade (?) and Richardson Dinazade (Din�z�d = Religion-freer): here I have followed Lane and Payne; though in “First Footsteps” I was misled by Galland.

See Vol. ii. p. 1.

 

[FN#22] Probably she proposed to “Judith” the King. These learned and clever young ladies are very dangerous in the East.

 

[FN#23] In Egypt, etc., the bull takes the place of the Western ox. The Arab. word is “Taur” (Thaur, Saur); in old Persian “Tore”

and Lat. “Taurus,” a venerable remnant of the days before the “Semitic” and “Aryan’> families of speech had split into two distinct growths. “Taur” ends in the Saxon “Steor” and the English “Steer “

 

[FN#24] Arab. “Ab� Yakz�n” = the Wakener, because the ass brays at dawn.

 

[FN#25] Arab. “Tibn”; straw crushed under the sledge: the hay of Egypt, Arabia, Syria, etc. The old country custom is to pull up the corn by handfuls from the roots, leaving the land perfectly bare: hence the “plucking up” of Hebrew Holy Writ. The object is to preserve every atom of “Tibn.”

 

[FN#26] Arab. “Y� Aftah”: Al-Aftah is an epithet of the bull, also of the chameleon.

 

[FN#27] Arab. “Bal�d,” a favourite Egyptianism often pleasantly confounded with “Wali” (a Santon), hence the latter comes to mean “an innocent,” a “ninny.”

 

[FN#28] From the Calc. Edit., Vol. 1., p. 29.

 

[FN#29] Arab. “Abu Yakz�n” is hardly equivalent with “P�re l’Eveill�.”

 

[FN#30] In Arab. the wa (x) is the sign of parenthesis.

 

[FN#31] In the nearer East the light little plough is carried afield by the bull or ass.

 

[FN#32] Ocymum basilicum, the “royal herb,” so much prized all over the East, especially in India, where, under the name of “Tulsi,” it is a shrub sacred to the merry god Krishna. I found the verses in a MS. copy of The Nights.

 

[FN#33] Arab. “Sadaf,” the Kauri, or cowrie, brought from the Maldive and Lakdive Archipelago. The K�m�s describes this “Wada’”

or Concha Veneris as “a white shell (whence to “shell out”) which is taken out of the sea, the fissure of which is white like that of the date-stone. It is hung about the neck to avert the evil eye.” The pearl in Arab. is “Murwarid,” hence evidently “Margarita” and Margaris (woman’s name).

 

[FN#34] Arab. “Kat’a” (bit of leather): some read “Nat’a;” a leather used by way of table-cloth, and forming a bag for victuals; but it is never made of bull’s hide.

 

[FN#35] The older “Cadi,” a judge in religious matters. The Shuh�d, or Assessors, are officers of the Mahkamah or Kazi’s Court.

 

[FN#36] Of which more in a future page. He thus purified himself ceremonially before death.

 

[FN#37] This is Christian rather than Moslem: a favourite Maltese curse is “Yahrak Kiddisak man rabba-k!” = burn the Saint who brought thee up!

 

[FN#38] A popular Egyptian phrase: the dog and the cock speak