The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume IV Part 24

[FN#161] He sinned only for the pleasure of being pardoned, which is poetical-and hardly practical-or probable.

[FN#162] The Kata (sand-grouse) always enters into Arab poetry because it is essentially a desert bird, and here the comparison is good because it lays its eggs in the waste far from water which it must drink morning and evening. Its cry is interpreted "man sakat, salam" (silent and safe), but it does not practice that precept, for it is usually betrayed by its piping " Kata! Kata!" Hence the proverb, "More veracious than the sand-grouse," and "speak not falsely, for the Kata sayeth sooth," is Komayt's saying. It is an emblem of swiftness: when the brigand poet Shanfara boasts, "The ash-coloured Katas can drink only my leavings, after hastening all night to slake their thirst in the morning," it is a hyperbole boasting of his speed. In Sind it is called the "rock pigeon" and it is not unlike a grey partridge when on the wing.

[FN#163] Joseph to his brethren, Koran, xii. 92, when he gives them his "inner garment" to throw over his father's face.

[FN#164] Arab. "Hajjam"=a cupper who scarifies forehead and legs, a bleeder, a (blood-) sucker. The slang use of the term is to thrash, lick, wallop. (Burckhardt. Prov. 34.)

[FN#165] The Bresl. Edit. (vii. 171-174) ent.i.tles this tale, "Story of Shaddad bin Ad and the City of Iram the Columned ;" but it relates chiefly to the building by the King of the First Adites who, being promised a future Paradise by Prophet Hud, impiously said that he would lay out one in this world. It also quotes Ka'ab al-Ahbar as an authority for declaring that the tale is in the "Pentateuch of Moses." Iram was in al-Yaman near Adan (our Aden) a square of ten parasangs (or leagues each= 18,000 feet) every way, the walls were of red (baked) brick 500 cubits high and 20 broad, with four gates of corresponding grandeur. It contained 300,000 Kasr (palaces) each with a thousand pillars of gold-bound jasper, etc. (whence its t.i.tle). The whole was finished in five hundred years, and, when Shaddad prepared to enter it, the "Cry of Wrath"

from the Angel of Death slew him and all his many. It is mentioned in the Koran (chaps. Ix.x.xix. 6-7) as "Irem adorned with lofty buildings (or pillars)." But Ibn Khaldun declares that commentators have embroidered the pa.s.sage; Iram being the name of a powerful clan of the ancient Adites and "imad" being a tent-pole: hence "Iram with the numerous tents or tent-poles." Al-Bayzawi tells the story of Abdullah ibn Kilabah (D'Herbelot's Colabah). At Aden I met an Arab who had seen the mysterious city on the borders of Al-Ahkaf, the waste of deep sands, west of Hadramaut; and probably he had, the mirage or sun-reek taking its place. Compare with this tale "The City of Bra.s.s" (Night dlxv.).

[FN#166] The biblical-"Sheba," named from the great-grandson of Joctan, whence the Queen (Bilkis) visited Solomon It was destroyed by the Flood of Marib.

[FN#167] The full t.i.tle of the Holy City is "Madinat al-Nab)" = the City of the Prophet, of old Yasrib (Yathrib) the Iatrippa of the Greeks (Pilgrimage, ii. 119). The reader will remember that there are two "Yasribs:" that of lesser note being near Hujr in the Yamamah province.

[FN#168] "Ka'ab of the Scribes," a well-known traditionist and religious poet who died (A.H. 32) in the Caliphate of Osman. He was a Jew who islamised; hence his name (Ahbar, plur. of Hibr, a Jewish scribe, doctor of science, etc. Jarrett's El-Siyuti, p. 123). He must not be confounded with another Ka'ab al-Ahbar the Poet of the (first) Cloak-poem or "Burdah," a n.o.ble Arab who was a distant cousin of Mohammed, and whose tomb at Hums (Emesa) is a place of pious visitation. According to the best authorities (no Christian being allowed to see them) the cloak given to the bard by Mohammed is still preserved together with the Khirkah or Sanjak Sherif ("Holy Coat" or Banner, the national oriflamme) at Stambul in the Upper Seraglio. (Pilgrimage, i. 213.) Many authors repeat this story of Mu'awiyah, the Caliph, and Ka'ab of the Burdah, but it is an evident anachronism, the poet having been dead nine years before the ruler's accession (A.H. 41).

[FN#169] Koran, lx.x.xix. 6-7.

[FN#170] Arab. "Kahraman" from Pers., braves, heroes.

[FN#171] The Deity in the East is as whimsical-a despot as any of his "shadows" or "vice regents." In the text Shaddad is killed for mere jealousy a base pa.s.sion utterly unworthy of a G.o.dhead; but one to which Allah was greatly addicted.

[FN#172] Some traditionist, but whether Sha'abi, s.h.i.+'abi or Shu'abi we cannot decide.

[FN#173] The Hazarmaveth of Genesis (x. 26) in South Eastern Arabia. Its people are the Adramitae (mod. Hazrami) of Ptolemy who places in their land the Arabiae Emporium, as Pliny does his Ma.s.sola. They border upon the Homeritae or men of Himyar, often mentioned in The Nights. Hazramaut is still practically unknown to us, despite the excursions of many travellers; and the hard nature of the people, the Swiss of Arabia, offers peculiar obstacles to exploration.

[FN#174] i.e. the prophet Hud generally identified (?) with Heber.

He was commissioned (Koran, chaps. vii.) to preach Al-Islam to his tribe the Adites who wors.h.i.+pped four G.o.ddesses, Sakiyah (the rain-giver), Razikah (food-giver), Hafizah (the saviouress) and Salimah (who healed sickness). As has been seen he failed, so it was useless to send him.

[FN#175] Son of Ibraham al-Mosili, a musician poet and favourite with the Caliphs Harun al-Ras.h.i.+d and Al-Maamun. He made his name immortal-by being the first who reduced Arab harmony to systematic rules, and he wrote a biography of musicians referred to by Al-Hariri in the Seance of Singar.

[FN#176] This must not be confounded with the "p.i.s.sing against the wall" of I Kings, xiv. 10, where watering against a wall denotes a man as opposed to a woman.

[FN#177] Arab. "Zambil" or "Zimbil," a limp basket made of plaited palm-leaves and generally two handled. It is used for many purposes, from carrying poultry to carrying earth.

[FN#178] Here we have again the Syriac ''Bakhkh -un-Bakhkh-un-''=well done! It is the Pers aferin and means "all praise be to him."

[FN#179] Arab. "A Tufayli?" So the Arab. Prov. (ii. 838) "More intrusive than Tufayl" (prob. the P.N. of a notorious sponger). The Badawin call "Warish" a man who sits down to meat unbidden and to drink Waghil; but townsfolk apply the latter to the "Warish."

[FN#180] Arab. "Artal"=rotoli, pounds; and

"A pint is a pound All the world round;"

except in highly civilised lands where the pint has a curious power of shrinking.

[FN#181] One of Al-Maamun's Wazirs. The Caliph married his daughter whose true name was Buran; but this tale of girl's freak and courts.h.i.+p was invented (?) by Ishak. For the splendour of the wedding and the munificence of the Minister see Lane, ii. 350-352.

[FN#182] I have described this scene, the wretch clinging to the curtain and sighing and crying as if his heart would break (Pilgrimage iii. 216 and 220). The same is done at the place Al-Multazam'"the attached to;" (ibid. 156) and various spots called Al-Mustajab, "where prayer is granted" (ibid. 162). At Jerusalem the Wailing place of the Jews" shows queer scenes; the wors.h.i.+ppers embrace the wall with a peculiar wriggle crying out in Hebrew, "O build Thy House, soon, without delay," etc.

[FN#183] i.e. The wife. The scene in the text was common at Cairo twenty years ago; and no one complained of the stick. See Pilgrimage i., 120.

[FN#184] Arab. "Udm, Udum" (plur. of Idam) = "relish," olives, cheese, pickled cuc.u.mbers, etc.

[FN#185] I have noticed how the left hand is used in the East. In the second couplet we have "Istinja"=was.h.i.+ng the fundament after stool. The lines are highly appropriate for a nightman. Easterns have many foul but most emphatic expressions like those in the text I have heard a mother say to her brat, "I would eat thy merde!"

(i.e. how I love thee!).

[FN#186] Arab. "Harrak," whence probably our "Carack" and "Carrack" (large s.h.i.+p), in dictionaries derived from Carrus Marinus.

[FN#187] Arab. "Ghas.h.i.+yah"=lit. an etui, a cover; and often a saddle-cover carried by the groom.

[FN#188] Arab. "Sharab al-tuffah" = melapio or cider.

[FN#189] Arab. "Mudawwarah," which generally means a small round cus.h.i.+on, of the Marocco-work well known in England. But one does not strike a cus.h.i.+on for a signal, so we must revert to the original-sense of the word "something round," as a circular plate of wood or metal, a gong, a "bell" like that of the Eastern Christians.

[FN#190] Arab. "Tufan" (from the root tauf, going round) a storm, a circular gale, a cyclone the term universally applied in Al-lslam to the "Deluge," the "Flood" of Noah. The word is purely Arabic; with a quaint likeness to the Gr. {Greek letters}, in Pliny typhon, whirlwind, a giant (Typh?us) whence "Typhon" applied to the great Egyptian G.o.d "Set." The Arab word extended to China and was given to the hurricanes which the people call "Tee foong," great winds, a second whimsical-resemblance. But Sir John Davis (ii. 383) is hardly correct when he says, "the name typhoon, in itself a corruption of the Chinese term, bears a singular (though we must suppose an accidental) resemblance to the Greek {Greek letters}. "

[FN#191] Plurale majestatis acting superlative; not as Lane supposes (ii. 224) "a number of full moons, not only one." Eastern tongues abound in instances beginning with Genesis (i. 1), "G.o.ds (he) created the heaven," etc. It is still preserved in Badawi language and a wildling greatly to the astonishment of the citizens will address his friend "Ya Rijal"= O men!

[FN#192] Arab. "Hasid" = an envier: in the fourth couplet "Azul"

(Azzal, etc.) = a chider, blamer; elsewhere "Lawwam" = accuser, censor, slanderer; "Was.h.i.+,"=whisperer, informer; "Rakib"=spying, envious rival; "Ghabit"=one emulous without envy; and "Shamit"= a "blue" (fierce) enemy who rejoices over another's calamities.

Arabic literature abounds in allusions to this unpleasant category of "d.a.m.ned ill-natured friends;" and Spanish and Portuguese letters, including Brazilian, have thoroughly caught the trick. In the Eastern mind the "blamer" would be aided by the "evil eye."

[FN#193] Another plural for a singular, "O my beloved!"

[FN#194] Arab. "Khayr"=good news, a euphemistic reply even if the tidings be of the worst.

[FN#195] Abbas (from 'Abs, being austere; and meaning the "grim faced") son of Abd al-Muttalib; uncle to Mohammed and eponym of the Abbaside Khalifahs. A.D. 749=1258.

[FN#196] Katil = the Irish "kilt."

[FN#197] This hat been explained as a wazirial t.i.tle of the time.

[FN#198] The phrase is intelligible in all tongues: in Arabic it is opposed to "dark as night," "black as mud" and a host of unsavoury ant.i.theses.

[FN#199] Arab. "Awwadah," the popular word; not Udiyyah as in Night cclvi. "Ud" liter.= rood and "Al-Ud"=the wood is, I have noted, the origin of our 'lute." The Span. 'laud" is larger and deeper than the guitar, and its seven strings are played upon with a plectrum of buffalo-horn.

[FN#200] Arab. "Tabban lahu!"=loss (or ruin) to him. So "bu'dan lahu"=away with him, abeat in malam rem; and "Suhkan lahu"=Allah and mercy be far from him, no hope for him I

[FN#201] Arab. "ayah"=Koranic verses, sign, miracle.

[FN#202] The mole on cheek calls to prayers for his preservation; and it is black as Bilal the Abyssinian. Fajran may here mean either "A.-morning" or "departing from grace."

[FN#203] i.e. the young beard (myrtle) can never hope to excel tile beauties of his cheeks (roses).

[FN#204] i.e. h.e.l.l and Heaven.

[FN#205] The first couplet is not in the Mac. Edit. (ii. 171) which gives only a single couplet but it is found in the Bres.

Edit. which ent.i.tles this tale "Story of the lying (or false kazib) Khalifah." Lane (ii. 392) of course does not translate it.