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

= a girdle; a waistcloth.

 

[FN#115] Arab. “Kaus al-Bund�k” (or Banduk) a pellet-bow, the Italian arcobugio, the English arquebuse; for which see vol. i.

10. Usually the “K�s” is the Giberne or pellet-bag; but here it is the bow-cover. Gauttier notes (vii. 131):—Bondouk signifie en Arabe harquebuse, Albondoukani signifie l’arquebusier; c’�tait comme on le voit, le mot d’ordre dit Khalyfe. He supposes, then, that firelocks were known in the days of Harun al-Rashid (A.D.

786-809). Al-Bunduk�ni = the cross-bow man, or rather the man of the pellet-bow was, according to the R�w�, the name by which the Caliph was known in this disguise. Al-Zahir Baybars al-Bundukd�r�, the fourth Baharite Soldan (A.D. 1260-77), was so entitled because he had been a slave to a Bundukd�r, an officer who may be called the Grand Master of Artillery. In Chavis and Cazotte the Caliph arms himself with a spear, takes a bow and arrow (instead of the pellet-bow that named him), disguises his complexion, dyes beard and eyebrows, dons a large coarse turband, a buff waistcoat with a broad leathern belt, a short robe of common stuff and half-boots of strong coarse leather, and thus “assumes the garb of an Arab from the desert.” (!) [FN#116] See vol. i. 266.

 

[FN#117] i.e. by the Archangel Gabriel.

 

[FN#118] Arab. “Habbah” = a grain (of barley, etc.), an obolus, a mite: it is also used for a gold bead in the shape of a cube forming part of the Egyptian woman’s headdress (Lane M.E., Appendix A). As a weight it is the 48th of a dirham, the third of a k�r�t (carat) or 127/128 of an English grain, avoir.

 

[FN#119] In text “Mahm�” = as often as = kullu-m�. This is the eleventh question of the twelve in Al-Hariri, Ass. xxiv., and the sixth of Ass. xxxvi. The former runs, “What is the noun (kullu-m�) which gives no sense except by the addition thereto of two words, or the shortening thereof to two letters (i.e. m�); and in the first case there is adhesion and in the second compulsion?”

(Chenery, pp. 246-253).

 

[FN#120] In Chavis and Cazotte he looks through the key-hole which an Eastern key does not permit, the holes being in the bolt. See Index, Suppl. vol. v.

 

[FN#121] In text “K�bal-ki,” which I suspect to be a clerical error for “K�tal-ki” = Allah strike thee dead. See vol. iv. 264, 265. [One of the meanings of “Muk�balah,” the third form of “kabila,” is “requital,” “retaliation.” The words in the text could therefore be translated: “may God requite thee.”—ST.]

 

[FN#122] In Chavis and Cazotte she swears “by the name of God which is written on our Great

Prophet’s forehead.”

 

[FN#123] Arab. “Y� Luss”; for this word = the Gr. {Greek}; see Suppl. vol. v. index.

 

[FN#124] “Al-N�t�r,” the keeper, esp. of a vineyard, a word naturalized in Persian. The Caliph asks, Is this a bon> fide affair and hast thou the power to settle the matter definitely?

M. Houdas translates as Les raisins sont-ils � toi, ou bien es-tu seulement la gardienne de la vigne? [The verb z�raba, 3rd form, followed by the accusative, means “to join one in partnership.”

The sense of the passage seems therefore to be: Dost thou own grapes thyself, or art thou (“tuz�rib�,” 2 fem. sing.) in partnership with the vineyard-keeper. The word may be chosen because it admits of another interpretation, the double entendre of which might be kept up in English by using the expression “sleeping” partnership. Perhaps, however, “tuz�rib�” means here simply: “Dost thou play the part of.”—ST.]

 

[FN#125] The innuendo is intelligible and I may draw attention to the humorous skill with which the mother-in-law’s character is drawn.

 

[FN#126] In text “Ask�-hu ‘alakah” = gave him a good sound drubbing (‘alakah), as a robber would apply to a Judge had he the power.

 

[FN#127] Lest he happen to meet an unveiled woman on the stairs; the usual precaution is to cry “Dast�r!” by your leave (Persian).

 

[FN#128] Arab. “Khayr”—a word of good omen.

 

[FN#129] In Chavis and Cazotte the mother gives her daughter’s name as Zutulb� (?) and her own Lelamain (?).

 

[FN#130] In text “Waliyah” or “Waliy�h” = and why?

 

[FN#131] The “Wronged” (Al-Mazl�m) refers to the Caliph who was being abused and to his coming career as a son-in-law. Gauttier, who translates the tale very perfunctorily, has Dieu prot�ge les malheureux et les orphelins (vii. 133).

 

[FN#132] This again is intended to show the masterful nature of the Caliph, and would be as much admired by the average coffee-house audience as it would stir the bile of the free and independent Briton.

 

[FN#133] The “Street of the Copperas-maker”: the name, as usual, does not appear till further on in the tale.

 

[FN#134] In text “Rukh�m” = marble or alabaster, here used for building material: so “Murakhkhim” = a marble-cutter, means simply a stone-mason. I may here note the rediscovery of the porphyry quarries in Middle Egypt, and the gypsum a little inland of Ras Ghar�b to the West of the Suez Gulf. Both were much used by the old Egyptians, and we may now fairly expect to rediscover the lost sites, about Tunis and elsewhere in Northern Africa, whence Rosso antico and other fine stones were quarried.

 

[FN#135] Arab. “Al-H�sil” also meaning the taxes, the revenue.

 

[FN#136] In text “K�‘ah” = a saloon: see vols. i. 85; i. 292; and vii. 167.

 

[FN#137] In the sing. “Sik�lah.”

 

[FN#138] The Jinn here was Curiosity, said to be a familiar of the sex feminine, but certainly not less intimate with “the opposite.”

 

[FN#139] In text “Kinnab” which M. Houdas translates �toupe que l’on fixe an bout d’un roseau pour blanchir les murs.

 

[FN#140] Impossible here not to see a sly hit at the Caliph and the Caliphate.

 

[FN#141] The writer has omitted this incident which occurs in Chavis and Cazotte.

 

[FN#142] In the text, “Samd” = carpets and pots and pans.

 

[FN#143] The Kat� grouse (Tetrao alchata seu arenarius of Linn.) has often been noticed by me in Pilg. I. 226 (where my indexer called it “sand goose”) and in The Nights (vols. i. 131; iv.

111). De Sacy (Chrestom. Arab. iii pp. 416, 507-509) offers a good literary account of it: of course he cannot speak from personal experience. He begins with the Aj�ib al-Makhl�k�t by Al-Kazwini (ob. A.H. 674 = A.D. 1274) who tells us that the bird builds in the desert a very small nest (whence the Had�s, “Whoso shall build to Allah a mosque, be it only the bigness of a Kat�‘s nest, the Lord shall edify for him a palace in Paradise”); that it abandons its eggs which are sometimes buried in sand, and presently returns to them (hence the saying, “A better guide than the Kat�”); that it watches at night (?) and that it frequents highways to reconnoitre travellers (? ?), an interpretation confirmed by the Persian translator. Its short and graceful steps gave rise to the saying, “She hath the gait of a Kat�,” and makes De Sacy confound the bird with the Pers. K�h� or Kabk-i-dari (partridge of the valley), which is simply the francolin, the Ital. francolino, a perdrix. The latter in Arab. Is “Durr�j” (AlMas’udi, vii. 347): see an affecting story connected with it in the Suppl. Nights (ii. 4O-43). In the xxiiid Ass. of Al-Hariri the sagacity of the Kat� is alluded to, “I crossed rocky places, to which the Kat� would not find its way.” See also Ass. viii.

But Mr. Chenery repeats a mistake when he says (p. 339) that the bird is “never found save where there is good pasturage and water:” it haunts the wildest parts of Sind and Arabia, although it seldom strays further than 60 miles from water which it must drink every evening. I have never shot the Kat� since he saved my party from a death by thirst on a return-ride from Harar (First Footsteps in E. Africa, p. 388). The bird is very swift, with a skurrying flight like a frightened Pigeon; and it comes to water regularly about dusk when it is easily “potted.”

 

[FN#144] In text “Samman” for “Samm�n”: Dozy gives the form “Summun” (Hondas). The literary name is “Salw�.”

 

[FN#145] For Wali (at one time a Civil Governor and in other ages a Master of Police) see vol. i. 259.

 

[FN#146] Prob. a corruption of the Pers. “N�zuk,” adj. delicate, nice.

 

[FN#147] In text “Jaft�w�t,” which is, I presume, the Arab. plur.

of the Turk. “Chif�t” a Jew, a mean fellow. M. Hondas refers to Dozy s.v. “Jaft�h.” [The Turkish word referred to by Dozy is “Chifte” from the Persian “Juft” = a pair, any two things coupled together. “Mash�‘il�yah jaft�w�t wa f�n�s�n” in the text would therefore be “(cresset-) bearers of double torches and lanterns,”

where the plural f�n�s�n is remarkable as a vulgarism, instead of the Dictionary form “Faw�n�s.”—ST.]

 

[FN#148] So in Chavis and Cazotte: Gauttier and Heron prefer (vol. i. 38) “Chamama.” They add, “That d�mon incarnate gave out himself that Satan was his father and the devil Camos (?) his brother.” The Arab word is connected with shamma = he smelt, and suggests the policeman smoking plots.

 

[FN#149] i.e. concealing the secret sins of the people. This sketch of the cad policeman will find many an original in the London force, if the small householder speak the truth.

 

[FN#150] Qui n’ait un point de contact aver l’une de ces cat�gories—(Houdas).

 

[FN#151] In the old translations “The Hazen” (Kh�zin =

treasurer?) which wholly abolishes the double entendre.

 

[FN#152] In text “Darbis� al-b�b” from the Persian, “Dar bastan”

= to tie up, to shut.

 

[FN#153] In text “Ghaush” for “Ghaushah” = noise, row.

 

[FN#154] “Akk�l bula’hu” i.e. commit all manner of abominations.

“To eat skite” is to talk or act foolishly.

 

[FN#155] In the old translations “Ilamir Youmis.”

 

[FN#156] In text “Dabb�s bazdagh�n�,” which I have translated as if from the Pers. “Bazdagh”

= a file. But it may be a clerical error for “Bardaw�ni,” the well-known city in Hindostan whose iron was famous.

 

[FN#157] “Nahs” means something more than ill-omened, something nasty, foul, uncanny: see vol. i. 301.

 

[FN#158] In Chavis, Heron and Co. there are two ladders to scale the garden wall and descend upon the house-terrace which apparently they do not understand to be the roof.

 

[FN#159] Arab. “Al-K�fi’ah” = garde-fou, rebord d’une terrasse—

(Houdas).

 

[FN#160] Our vulgar “Houri”: see vols. i. 90; iii. 233. There are many meanings of Hawar; one defines it as intense darkness of the black of the eye and corresponding whiteness; another that it is all which appears of the eye (as in the gazelle) meaning that the blackness is so large as to exclude the whiteness; whilst a third defines “Haur�” as a woman beautiful in the “Mah�jir” (parts below and around the eyes which show when the face is veiled), and a fourth as one whose whiteness of eye appears in contrast with the black of the Kohl-Powder. See Chenery’s Al-Hariri, pp.

354-55.

 

[FN#161] Arab. “Zalamah” = tyrants, oppressors (police and employ�s): see vols. i. 273, and vi. 214.

 

[FN#162] In text “Kunn� nu’t�hu li-ahad” = we should have given him to someone; which makes very poor sense. [The whole passage runs: “H�z� allaz� kasam all�h bi-hi fa-lau k�na rajul jayyid ghayr luss kunn� nu’t�-hu li-ahad,” which I would translate: This is he concerning whom Allah decreed (that he should be my portion, swearing:) “and if he were a good man and no thief we would have bestowed him on someone.” In “kasama” the three ideas of decreeing, giving as a share, and binding one’s self by oath are blended together. If it should appear out of place