The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, vol 16, Sir Richard Francis Burton [novels to read for beginners TXT] 📗

(Harr�n), and had brought from thence the knowledge of the true God; impelled, however, by an irresistible decree,” etc.

 

[FN#12] i.e. a woollen cloth dyed red. Hence Pyrard (i. 244) has “red scarlet,” and (vol. ii.) “violet scarlet”; Froissart (xvth centy.) has “white scarlet,” and Marot (xvith) has “green scarlet.” The word seems to be French of xiith century, but is uncertain: Littr� proposes Galaticus, but admits the want of an intermediate form. Piers Plowman and Chaucer use “cillat�n, which suggests Pers. “Sakalat, or “Saklat�n”, whence Mr. Skeat would derive “scarlet.” This note is from the voyage of F. Pyrard, etc.

London. Hakluyts, M.dccc.lxxxvii.; and the editor quotes Colonel Yule’s M. Polo (ii. chapt. 58) and his “Discursive Glossary s. v.

Sucl�t.”

 

[FN#13] i.e.“Al-Kirm,” Arab. and Pers. =a worm, as in Kirm�n (see Supplem. vol. i. 40); the coccus ilicis, vulg. called cochineal.

 

[FN#14] Arab. “Arz”, from the Heb. Arz or Razah (raz=to vibrate), the root {Greek} (cedrus conifera), the Assyrian “Erimu of Lebanon,” of which mention is so often made. The old controversy as to whether “Razah”=cedar or fir, might easily have been settled if the disputants had known that the modern Syrians still preserve the word for the clump called “The Cedars” on the seaward slope of the Libanus.

 

[FN#15] We should say “reading and writing,” but the greater difficulty of deciphering the skeleton eastern characters places reading in the more honourable place. They say of a very learned man, “He readeth it off (readily) as one drinketh water.”

 

[FN#16] Arab. “Al-S�hib al-jayyid.” [“Jayyid” is, by the measure “Fay’il,” derived from the root, “Jaud,” to excel, like “Kayyis,”

from “Kaus” (see Suppl. vol. iv., p.277), “Mayyit” from “Maut,”

“Sayyid” from “Saud.” The form was originally “Jaywid;” then the W�w became assimilated to the preceding J�, on account of the following Kasrah, and this assimilation or “Idgh�m” is indicated by Tashd�d. As from “Kayyis” the diminutive “Kuwayyis” is formed, so “Jayyid” forms the Tasgh�r, “Juwayyid,” which, amongst the Druzes, has the specific meaning of “deeply versed in religious matters.”—ST.]

 

[FN#17] “K�l,” vulg. for “Kul”; a form constant in this MS.

 

[FN#18] Gauttier “Sarkhadom,” the great usurper Sargon, a contemporary of Merodach Baladan of Babylon and of Sabaco 1st of Ethiopia, B.C. 721-702: one of the greatest Assyrian Kings, whose place has been determined to be between Shalmaneser and his son, the celebrated Sennacherib, who succeeded him. The name also resembles the biblical Ezarhaddon (Asaridanus), who, however, was the son of Sennacherib, and occupied the throne of Babylon in B.C. 680.

 

[FN#19] Gauttier, pp. 317-319, has greatly amplified and modified these words of wisdom.

 

[FN#20] In text “Y� Bunayya” =lit. “O my little son,” a term of special fondness.

 

[FN#21] Arab. “Jamrah,” a word of doubtful origin, but applied to a tribe strong enough to be self-dependent. The “Jamar�t of the Arabs” were three, Ban� Numayr, Ban� H�ris (who afterwards confederated with Mash�j) and Ban� Dabbah (who joined the Rik�b), and at last Nomayr remained alone. Hence they said of it: “Nomayr the jamrah (also “a live coal”) of Arabs are; * And ne’er cease they to burn in fiery war.”

 

See Chenery’s Al-Hariri, pp. 343-428.

 

[FN#22] In the Arab. “Ta’arkalak,” which M. Houdas renders “qu’elle ne te retienne dans ses filets.”

 

[FN#23] A lieu commun in the East. It is the Heb. “Sh�ked” and the fruit is the “Loz” (Arab. Lauz)=Amygdalus communis, which the Jews looked upon as the harbinger of spring and which, at certain feasts, they still carry to the synagogue, as representing the palm branches of the Temple.

 

[FN#24] The mulberry-tree in Italy will bear leaves till the end of October and the foliage is bright as any spring verdure.

 

[FN#25] Gauttier omits this: pas poli, I suppose.

 

[FN#26] The barbarous sentiment is Biblical-inspired, “He that spareth his rod hateth his son” (Prov. xiii. 24), and “Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying” (Prov. xix. 18). Compare the Arab equivalent, “The green stick is of the trees of Paradise” (Pilgrimage i. 151). But the neater form of the saw was left to uninspired writers; witness “Spare the rod and spoil the child,” which appears in Ray’s proverbs, and is immortalised by Hudibras:—

 

Love is a boy by poets styled,

Then spare the rod and spoil the child. (ii. 1, 843.) It is to the eternal credit of John Locke, the philosopher, that in an age of general brutality he had the moral courage to declare, “Beating is the worst and therefore the last means to be used in the correction of children.”

 

[FN#27] Arab. “Dahn” (oil, ointment) which may also mean “soft sawder.”

 

[FN#28] Aucun roi ne peut gouverner sans arm�e et on ne peut avoir une arm�e sans argent. For a treatise on this subject see the “Chronique de Tabari,” ii. 340.

 

[FN#29] M. Agoub, in Gauttier (vi. 321) remarks of these prosings, “Ces maximes qui ne seraient pas indignes, pour la plupart, des beaux temps de la philosophie grecque, appartiennent toutes au texte arabe; je n’ai fait que les disposer dans un ordre plus m�thodique. J’ai d� aussi supprimer quelques unes, soit parce qu’elles n’offraient que des pr�ceptes d’une morale banale, soit que traduites en frangais, elles eussent p� para�tre bizarres � des lecteurs europ�ens. Ce que je dis ici, s’applique �galement � celles qui terminent le conte et qui pourraient fournir le sujet de plusieurs fables.” One would say that the translator is the author’s natural enemy.

 

[FN#30] Arab. “Amm�l,” now vulgarly written with initial Hamzah, a favourite expression in Egypt and meaning “Verily,” “I believe you, my boy,” and so forth. But “‘Amm�l” with the Ayn may also mean “he intended,” or “he was about to.”

 

[FN#31] In Gauttier the name is Ebnazadan, but the Arab. text has “Naud�n,” which I take to be the Persian “New of knowledge” as opp. to N�d�n, the “unknowing.”

 

[FN#32] In Chavis (Weber ii. 58) and Gauttier (p. 323) Akis, roi de Perse. The second name may be “Shah of the Ebna” or Persian incol� of Al-Yaman; aristocratie Persane naturalis�e Arabe (Al-Mas’udi, iv. 188, etc.).

 

[FN#33] i.e. the Lowland of the Eglantine or Narcissus; Nisr�n is also in dictionaries an island where amber abounds. There is a shade of difference between Buk’ah and Bak’ah. The former which is the corrector form=a patch of ground, a plain (hence the Buk�‘a= Coelesyria), while Bak’ah=a hollow where water collects.

In Chavis we find “the plain of Harrim” and in Gauttier la plaine de Baschrin; and the appointment was “for the first of the month Niram” (Nays�n).

 

[FN#34] “Pharaoh,” which Hebrew Holy Writ left so vague and unsatisfactory, has become with the Arabs “Fir’aun”, the dynastic name of Egyptian kings, as Kisr� (Chosro�s) of the Persians, Tobba of the Himyarites, Kaysar (C�sar) of the Romans, Jalut (Goliath) of the Phoenicians, Faghfur of the Chinese, Kh�k�n of the Tartars, Adfonsh (Alfonso) of the Spanish, and Aguet�d of the Berbers. Ibn Khald�n iv. 572.

 

[FN#35] “Mizr” in Assyrian=“Musur,” in Heb. “Misraim” (the dual Misrs, whose duality permeated all their polity), and in Arab.

“Misr,” the O. Egypt. “H� k�hi Pt�h” (the Land of the great God, Ptah), and the Coptic “T�-mera”=the Land of the Nile flood, ignoring, I may add, all tradition of a Noachian or general deluge.

 

[FN#36] The simplicity of old Assyrian correspondence is here well preserved, as we may see by comparing those letters with the cuneiform inscriptions, etc., by S. Abden Smith (Pfeiffer, Leipsic, 1887). One of them begins thus, “The will of the King to Sintabni-Uzur. Salutation from me to thee. May it be well with thee. Regarding Sinsarra-utzur whom thou hast sent to me, how is thy report?” etc. We find such expressions as “May the great Gods, lovers of thy reign, preserve thee an hundred years;” also “Peace to the King, my lord,” etc.

 

[FN#37] Arab. “Yaum al-Kham�s.” For the week-days see vol. vi.

190, and for a longer notice, Al-Mas’udi, iii. 422-23.

 

[FN#38] In the text “K�l” (al-R�w�), “the Reciter saith”—which formula I omit here and elsewhere.

 

[FN#39] i.e. “The Father of the little Fish,” in Gauttier (vii.

329) “Abou Som�ika.”

 

[FN#40] By way of insult; as I have before noticed.

 

[FN#41] He had now learned that Nadan had ruined him.

 

[FN#42] The wife (in p. 155; “Ashghaft�n�”) is called “Thou hast enamoured me” from the root “Shaghaf”=violent love, joy, grief.

Chavis has Zefagnie: Gauttier suppresses the name, which is not pretty. In the old version she is made aunt (father’s sister) to Sankharib.

 

[FN#43] The old version attributes all this device to “Zefagnie;”

thus injuring the unity and the interest of the tale.

 

[FN#44] Arab. “Jund” plur. “Jun�d,” a term mostly applied to regular troops under the Government, as opposed to soldiers who took service with the Amirs or great barons—a state of things still enduring in non-British India.

 

[FN#45] Who thus makes a “Ma’adabah”=wake or funeral feast before his death. See vol. viii. 231.

 

[FN#46] i.e. “Father of the Fishlet”, in the old version “Yapousmek” (Y� Ab� Sumayk).

 

[FN#47] In Chavis he becomes “an old slave, a magician, stained with the greatest crimes, who has the air and figure of Hicar.”

 

[FN#48] A formula which announces the death of his supposed enemy.

 

[FN#49] Arab. ” Matm�rah”=Sard�bah (i. 340), a silo for storing grain, an underground cell (ii. 39).

 

[FN#50] See text “N�h�” from “Nauh”=ceremonious keening for the dead. The general term for the wail is “Walwalah” or “Wilw�l” (an onomatopoy) and for the public wailing-woman “Nadd�bah.”

 

[FN#51] Here we find the Doric form “Rah�m” for “Rah�m,” or it may simply be the intensive and emphatic form, as “Naz�r”=one who looks intently for “N�zir,” a looker.

 

[FN#52] In the old version “a tenth part of the revenues.” The “Kas�m” of the text is an unusual word which M. Houdas would render revenues en nature, as opposed to Khir�j, revenues en argent. I translate it by “tax tribute.”

 

[FN#53] In text “‘Azz�m�n, “i.e. men who recite “‘Azm,” mostly Koranic versets which avert evil.

 

[FN#54] This may either be figurative or literal—upon the ashes where the fire had been; even as the father of Sayf al-Mul�k sat upon the floor of his audience-hall (vol. vii. 314).

 

[FN#55] In text “Ya’tadir”—from ‘Adr=heavy rain, boldness. But in this MS. the dots are often omitted and the word may be Ya’tazir=find excuse.

 

[FN#56] In the old version the wife is made to disclose the secret of her husband being alive—again a change for the worse.

 

[FN#57] Here “Wayha-v.” and before “Wayla-k”: see vols. v. 258; vii. 127 and iii. 82.

 

[FN#58] The King, after the fashion of Eastern despots, never blames his own culpable folly and hastiness: this was decreed to him and to his victim by Destiny.

 

[FN#59] The older version reads “Roc” and informs us that “it is a prodigious bird, found in the deserts of Africa: it will bear two hundred pounds weight; and many are of opinion that the idea of this bird is visionary.” In Weber ii. 63, this is the device of “Zafagnie,” who accompanies her husband to Egypt.

 

[FN#60] This name appears to be a corruption. The sound, however, bears a suspicious resemblance to “Dabshalim” (a name most proper for such a Prince, to wit, meaning in their tongue a mighty King), who appears in chapt. i. of the “Fables of Pilpay”

(Bidpai=Bidyapati=Lord of Lore?). “Dabshal�mat”=the Dabshal�ms, was the dynastic title of the Kings of Soman�th (Somnauth) in Western India.

 

[FN#61] Arab. “T�n”=clay, mud, which would be used with the Tob (adobe, sun-dried brick) forming the walls of Egypt and Assyria.

M.G. Maspero, in his excellent booklet “L’Arch�ologie Egyptienne”

(p. 7. Paris,