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

Quantin, 1887), illustrates this ancient industry which endures with all its gear to the present day. The average measured 22 X 11 X 14 cm.; the larger was 38 X 18 X 14 cm., with intermediate sizes. These formed the cores of temple walls, and, being revetted with granite, syenite, alabaster and other stones, made a grand show; but when the outer coat was removed they were presently weathered to the external semblance of mud-piles. Such was mostly the condition of the ruins of grand Bubastis (“Pi-Pasht”) hod. Zag�zig, where excavations are still being pushed on.

 

[FN#62] The old version has “Masser, Grand Cairo (in the days of the Pharaohs!); so called from having been built by Misraim, the son of Cham.”

 

[FN#63] In Chav�s, “Abicam, a Chald�an astrologer;” in Gauttier “Abimacam.”

 

[FN#64] In Al-Har�r� (p. 409) we read, “Hospitality is three days;” and a Had�s of the Prophet confirms the liberal practice of The Ignorance:—“The entertainment of a guest is three days, and the viaticum (“J�izah”) is a day and a night, and whatso exceedeth is an almsgift.” On the first day is shown largesse and courtesy; on the second and third the stranger is treated after the usual custom of the household, and then he is provided with rations for a day and a night. See Lane: A. Nights, i. 486; also The Nights, vol. i. 3.

 

[FN#65] i.e. Not standing astraddle, or in other such indecorous attitude.

 

[FN#66] Chavis, “Bilelsanam, the oracle of Bel, the chief God of the Assyrian: “Gauttier, Une idole B�l. Bel (or Ba’al or Belus, the Phoenician and Canaanite head-god) may here represent Hobal the biggest idol in the Meccan Pantheon, which used to be borne on raids and expeditions to give plunder a religious significance. Tabari iii. 17. Evidently the author holds it to be an idol.

 

[FN#67] The Syro-solar month=April; much celebrated by poets and fictionists: rain falling at such time into shells becomes pearls and upon serpents poison.

 

[FN#68] The text has “Bayb�nah,” prop. B�b�naj in Arab., and in Pers. “B�b�k,” or “B�b�nak”=the white camomile-flower. See vol.

iii. 58.

 

[FN#69] “Khabata”=“He (the camel) pawed the ground.” The prim.

sig. is to beat, secondly, it is applied to a purblind camel which beats or strikes the ground and so stumbles, or to him who bashes a tree for its leaves; and lastly to him who gets alms by begging. See Chenery’s Al-Hariri, p. 447.

 

[FN#70] Arab. “Karz”=moneys lent in interest and without fixed term of payment, as opp. to “Dayn.”

 

[FN#71] In text “Kint�r”=a quintal, 98 to 99 lbs. avoir.: in round numbers a cwt. a hundred weight: see vol. ii. 233. The old version explains it by “A golden coin, equivalent to three hundred livres French (?).” About the value of the Kint�r of gold, doctors differ. Some value it at 40 ounces, others make it a leathern bag containing 1,080 to 1,100 dinars, and others 100

rotls (lbs.) of precious metal; while Al-Makrizi relates that Mohammed the Apostle declared, “The Kint�r of gold is twelve hundred ounces.” Baron de Slane (Ibn Khaldun i. 210) computes 100

Kint�rs=1 million of francs.

 

[FN#72] In the text “wa l� ahad tafawwaha fina.”

 

[FN#73] Arab. “Falsafah”=philosophy: see vols. v. 234 and vii.

145.

 

[FN#74] In the text “Fa-yatrah�na,” masc. for fem.

 

[FN#75] The writer probably remembered that the cat was a sacred animal amongst the Egyptians: see Herod., ii. 66, and Diod. Sic., who tells us (vol. i. p. 94) of a Roman put to death under Ptolemy Auletes for accidentally killing one of these holy beasts. The artists of Bubastis, whose ruins are now for the first time being scientifically explored, modelled the animal in bronze with an admirable art akin to nature.

 

[FN#76] M. Houdas explains this miswritten passage, Quand le soleil fut lev� et qu’il p�n�tra par ces ouvertures (lis.

abkh�sh, trou de fl�te), il r�pandit le sable dans ces cylindres form�s par la lumi�re du soleil. It is not very intelligible. I understand that the Sage went behind the Palace and drove through a mound or heap of earth a narrow hole bearing east�-west, which he partially filled up with sand; and so when the sun rose the beams fell upon it and made it resemble a newly made cord of white flax. M. Agoub (in Gauttier vol. vi. 344) shirks, as he is wont to do, the whole difficulty. [The idea seems to me to be, and I believe this is also the meaning of M. Houdas, that Haykar produced streaks of light in an otherwise dark room by boring holes in the back wall, and scattered the sand over them, so that, while passing through the rays of the sun, it assumed the appearance of ropes. Hence he says mockingly to Pharaoh, “Have these ropes taken up, and each time you please I will twist thee the like of them”—reading “Aftilu,” lst p. aor. instead of “Iftil”, 2nd imper.—ST.)

 

[FN#77] Gauttier (vi. 347), Ces pr�sens ne sont pas dignes de lui; mais peu de chose contents les rois.

 

[FN#78] Haykar is a Sage who follows the religion of nature, “Love thy friends and hate thy foes.” Gauttier (vii. 349) embroiders all this with Christian and French sentiment—

L’intention secr�te de Heycar �tait de sauver la vie � l’ingrat qui avait conspir� contre la sienne. Il voulait pour toute vengeance, le mettre d�sormais dans l’impossibilit� de nuire et l’abandonner ensuite � ses remords, persuad� que le remords n’est pas le moindre ch�timent du coupable. True nonsense this when talking of a character born bad: its only remorse is not to have done worse than bad.

 

[FN#79] Striking the nape being the Moslem equivalent for “boxing ears.”

 

[FN#80] With this formula compare Chaucer, “The Manciple’s Tale.”

 

[FN#81] In the text “Znn�kt-ha,” which is unintelligible, although the sense be clear.

 

[FN#82] A bird unknown to the dictionaries, apparently a species of hawk.

 

[FN#83] In the text “J�rah Sy�n” for “J�rah Sayy�l.”

 

[FN#84] The tree having furnished the axe-helve.

 

[FN#85] M. Houdas translates Tu as m�dit de moi et tu m’as accabl� de tes m�chancet�s.

 

[FN#86] In text “Alif, b�, t�, s�,” the latter written with a Sin instead of a Th�, showing the vulgar use which extends from Alexandria to Meccah.

 

[FN#87] So in French, deriding the difference between written and spoken English, Ecrivez Salmonassar, prononcez crocodile.

 

[FN#88] Because he owes thee more than a debt of life.

 

[FN#89] i.e. “Tammat”=She (the tale) is finished.

 

[FN#90] MSS. pp.217-265. See the “Arabian Tales,” translated by Robert Heron (Edinburgh M.DCC.XCII.), where it is “The Robber-Caliph; or Adventures of Haroun Alraschid, with the Princess of Persia, and the fair Zutulb�,” vol. i. pp. 2-69. Gauttier, Histoire du Khalyfe de Baghdad, vol. vii. pp.117-150.

 

[FN#91] In text “Ah�d�s,” esp. referred to the sayings of Mohammed, and these are divided into two great sections, the “Ah�d�s al-Nabaw�,” or the actual words pronounced by the Apostle; and the “Ah�d�s al-Kudus,” or the sentences attributed to the Archangel Gabriel.

 

[FN#92] Heron has “the Festival of Haraphat,” adding a power of nonsense. This is the day of the sermon, when the pilgrims sleep at Muzdalifah (Pilgrimage iii. 265). Kusayy, an ancestor of the Apostle, was the first to prepare a public supper at this oratory, and the custom was kept up by Harun al-Rashid, Zubaydah and Sha’ab, mother of the Caliph al-Muktadir (Tabari ii. 368).

Alms are obligatory on the two great ‘I’ds or festivals, al-Fitr which ends the Ramaz�n fast and al-Kurb�n during the annual Pilgrimage. The dole must consist of at least a “Sa’” = 7 lbs. in grain, dates, &c.

 

[FN#93] i.e. habited themselves in the garments of little people: so to “enlarge the turband” is to assume the rank of an ‘�lim or learned man. “Jayb,” the breast of a coat is afterwards used in the sense of a pocket.

 

[FN#94] Either the Caliph was persuaded that the white wrist was a “promise of better things above and below,” or he proposed marriage as a mere freak, intelligible enough when divorce costs only two words.

 

[FN#95] In text “Nakd�” = the actual as opposed to the contingent dowry: sec vols. vii. 126; ix. 32.

 

[FN#96] This is said in irony.

 

[FN#97] In text “Bash�kh�n” plur. of “Bashkh�nah:” see Suppl.

vols. ii. 119; iii. 87.

 

[FN#98] In Heron he becomes “Kassera-Abocheroan.” Anushirwan (in full An�sh�nraw�n = sweet of soul) is popularly supposed to have begun his rule badly after the fashion of Eastern despots, and presently to have become the justest of monarchs. Nothing of this, however, is found in Tabari (ii. 159).

 

[FN#99] He was indignant because twitted with having married a beggar-maid like good King Cophetua. In Heron he is “moved by so sensible a reply.”

 

[FN#100] Plur. “Kat�if,” a kind of pancake made of flour and sugar (or honey) and oil or butter.

 

[FN#101] Arab. “Sakk�” = a water-carrier, generally a bad lot. Of the “Sakk� Sharbah,” who supplies water to passengers in the streets, there is an illustration in Lane; M. E. chapt. xiv.

 

[FN#102] In the text “Kahbah” an ugly word = our whore (i.e.

hired woman): it is frightfully

common in everyday speech. See vol. ii. 70.

 

[FN#103] Arab. “Sib�k” usually = a leash (for falconry, etc.).

 

[FN#104] I have emphasised this detail which subsequently becomes a leading incident.

 

[FN#105] Usual formul� when a respectable person is seen drinking: the same politeness was also in use throughout the civilised parts of medi�val Europe. See the word “Hanian” (vol.

ii. 5), which at Meccah and elsewhere is pronounced also “Haniyyan.”

 

[FN#106] In text “Y� Ta’�s,” a favorite expression in this MS.

Page 612 (MS.) has “T�‘ish,” a clerical error, and in page 97 we have “Y� Ta’�sat-n�” = O our misery!

 

[FN#107] As might a “picker-up of unconsidered trifles.”

 

[FN#108] In text “Akb�’ wa Zar�b�l.” I had supposed the first to be the Pers. Kab� = a short coat or tunic, with the Arab. ‘Ayn (the second is the common corruption for “Zar�b�n” = slaves’

shoes, slippers: see vol. x. 1), but M. Hondas translates Ni calottes ni calecons, and for the former word here and in MS.

p.227 he reads “‘Arakiyah” = skull-cap: see vol. i. 215. [“Akb�’”

is the pi. of “Kub’,” which latter occurs infra, p.227 of the Ar.

MS., and means, in popular language, any part of a garment covering the head, as the hood of a Burnus or the top-piece of a Kalansuwah; also a skull-cap, usually called “‘Araq�yah.” —ST.]

 

[FN#109] Heron dubs him “Hazeb (H�jib) Yamaleddin.” In text “‘Al�i al-D�n;” and in not a few places it is familiarly abbreviated to “‘Ali” (p. 228, etc.). For the various forms of writing the name see Suppl. vol. iii. 30. The author might have told us the young Chamberlain’s name Arabic� earlier in the tale; but it is the R�wi’s practice to begin with the vague and to end in specification. I have not, however, followed his example here or elsewhere.

 

[FN#110] i.e. Destiny so willed it. For the Pen and the Preserved Tablet see vol. v. 322.

 

[FN#111] This was the custom not only with Harun as Mr. Heron thinks, but at the Courts of the Caliphs generally.

 

[FN#112] In text “Ghiy�r,” Arab. = any piece of dress or uniform which distinguishes a class, as the soldiery: in Pers. = a strip of yellow cloth worn by the Jews subject to the Shah.

 

[FN#113] Arab. “Zarb�l t�k�,” the latter meaning “high-heeled.”

Perhaps it may signify also “fenestrated, or open-worked like a window.” So “poules” or windows cut in the upper leathers of his shoes. Chaucer, The Miller’s Tale.

 

[FN#114] “Mayzar,” in Pers. = a turband: in Arab. “Miizar”