The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume V Part 34

[FN#56] Arab. "lif" (not "fibres which grow at the top of the trunk," Lane ii. 577); but the fibre of the fronds worked like the cocoa-nut fibre which forms the now well-known Indian "coir."

This "lif" is also called "filfil" or "fulfil" which Dr. Jonathan Scott renders "pepper" (Lane i. 8) and it forms a clean succedaneum for one of the uncleanest articles of civilisation, the sponge. It is used in every Hammam and is (or should be) thrown away after use.

[FN#57] Arab. "s.h.i.+nf;" a course sack, a "gunny-bag;" a net compared with such article.

[FN#58] The eunuch tells him that he is not a "Sandali"=one whose p.e.n.i.s and testes are removed; and consequently the highest valued. There are many ways of making the castrato; in some (as here) only the p.e.n.i.s is removed, in other the testes are bruised or cut off; but in all cases the animal pa.s.sion remains, for in man, unlike other animals, the fons veneris is the brain. The story of Abelard proves this. Juvenal derided the idea of married eunuchs and yet almost all of these neutrals have wives with whom they practise the manifold plaisirs de la pet.i.te oie (masturbation, tribadism, irrumation, tete-beche, feuille-de- rose, etc.), till they induce the venereal o.r.g.a.s.m. Such was the account once given to me by a eunuch's wife; and I need hardly say that she, like her confrerie, was to be pitied. At the critical moment she held up a little pillow for her husband to bite who otherwise would have torn her cheeks or b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

[FN#59] In real life the eunuch, as a rule, avoids all allusion to his misfortune, although the slave will often describe his being sold merrily enough.

[FN#60] The visits are in dreamland. The ringdove thanks the Lord for her (his?) suffering in the holy martyrdom of love.

[FN#61] Arab. "Hazar;" I have explained it as meaning "(the bird of) a thousand (songs)."

[FN#62] The "Bulbul" had his day with us but he departed with Tommy Moore. We usually English the word by "nightingale;" but it is a kind of shrike or butcher-bird (Lanius Boulboul. Lath.).

[FN#63] The "Hamam" is a lieu commun in Arabic poetry. I have noticed the world-wide reverence for the pigeon and the incarnation of the Third Person of the Hindu Triad (s.h.i.+va), as Kapoteshwara (Kapota-ishwara)"=pigeon or dove-G.o.d (Pilgrimage iii. 218).

[FN#64] Arab. "Hamam al-Ayk." Mr. Payne's rendering is so happy that we must either take it from him or do worse.

[FN#65] All primitive peoples translate the songs of birds with human language; but, as I have noticed, the versions differ widely. The pigeon cries, "Allah! Allah!" the dove "Karim, Tawwa"

(Bountiful, Pardoner!) the Kata or sand-grouse "Man sakat salam"

(who is silent is safe) yet always betrays itself by its lay of "Kat-ta" and lastly the c.o.c.k "Uzkuru 'llah ya ghafilun"

(Remember, or take the name of Allah, ye careless!).

[FN#66] "Nay," the Dervish's reed pipe, symbol of the sighing absent lover (i.e. the soul parted from the Creator) so famed by the Mullah-i-Rum and Sir William Jones.

[FN#67] Ba'albak=Ba'al (the G.o.d)-city (bek in Coptic and ancient Egyptian.) Such, at least, is the popular derivation which awaits a better. No cloth has been made there since the Kurd tribe of gallant robbers known as the "Harfush" (or blackguards) lorded it over old "Heliopolis."

[FN#68] Thinking her to be a Jinn or Ghul in the shape of a fair woman. This Arab is a strange contrast to the English fisherman, and yet he is drawn with truth.

[FN#69] Arab. "Habbaza!" (good this!) or "Habba" (how good!): so "Habba bihi," how dear he is to me.

[FN#70] Arab. "Zind," and "Zindah" the names of the two sticks, upper and lower, hard and soft, by which fire was kindled before flint and steel were known. We find it in Al-Hariri (a.s.s. of Banu Haram) "no one sought ire from my fire-stick (i.e. from me as a fire-stick) and failed." See Night dccciii.

[FN#71] Arab. "n.a.z.ih" i.e. travelled far and wide.

[FN#72] "Rajab," lit.="wors.h.i.+pping:" it is the seventh lunar month and still called "Shahr-i-Khuda" (G.o.d's month) by the Persians because in pre-Islamitic times it formed with Muharram (or in its stead Safar), Zu 'l-ka'adah and Zu-'l-Hijjah (Nos. 1 or 2; 7,11 and 12) the yearly peace, during which a man might not kill his father's murderer. The idea must have taken deep root, as Arab history records only six "impious (or sacrilegious) wars," waged despite the law. Europeans compare it with the Treuga Dei (truce of G.o.d) a seven-years peace established about A.D. 1032, by a Bishop of Aquitaine; and followed in A.D. 1245 by the Pax Regis (Royal Peace) under Louis VIII. of France. This compelled the relations of a murdered man to keep the peace for forty days after the offence was committed.

[FN#73] His Majesty wrote sad doggrel. He is better at finessing, and his message was a trick because Rose-in-Hood had told him that at home there were special obstacles to the marriage.

[FN#74] Arab. "Majzub"=drawn, attracted (literally); the popular term for one absorbed in the contemplation of the Deity. During this process the soul is supposed to quit the body leaving the latter irresponsible for its actions. I remember a scandal being caused in a village near Tunis by one of these men who suddenly started up from his seat in a dusty corner and, in presence of a small crowd of people, had connection with a she-donkey. The supporters of the holy man declared that the deed was proof positive of his exceptional holiness; but there were lewd fellows, Moslems Voltaireans, who had their doubts and held that the reverend man had so acted "for the gallery." A similar story is told with due reserve by the late Abbe Hamilton in his book on the Cyrenaic. There are three grand divisions of the Sufis; (1) Mukiman, the stationaries; (2) Salikan, the travellers, or progressives, and (3) Wasilan, those who reach the desired end.

And No. 2 has two cla.s.ses: the Salik-i-majzub, one progressing in Divine Love; and the other, who has made greater progress, is the Majzub-i-Salik (Dabistan iii. 251).

[FN#75] Arab. "Sundus," a kind of brocade (low Lat. brocare to figure cloth), silk worked in high relief with gold and silver.

The idea is figurative meaning it was hung outside and inside with fine stuff, like the Ka'abah, the "Bride of Meccah." The "lords" means simply the lost girl.

[FN#76] Arab. "Ayn" lit. eye, also a fount, "the eye of the landscape" (a n.o.ble simile); and here a helper, guard, a.s.sistant.

[FN#77] "Lord" for lady, i.e. she.

[FN#78] Arab. "Fi'l-khawafik"=in the four quarters or among the flappers (standards) or amid palpitations of heart. The bride alludes to a festal reception in a town, with burning incense, drums, flags, etc., etc.

[FN#79] In Egypt the shorter "honey-moon" lasts a week; and on the seventh day (pop. called Al-Subu'a) bride and bridegroom receive visits with all ceremony, of course in separate apartments. The seventh day (like the fortieth, the end of six months and the anniversary) is kept for births and deaths with Khatmahs (perlections) of the Koran "Saylah" family gatherings and so forth. The fortieth day ends the real honey-moon. See Night dccxcii.

[FN#80] I have noted the popular practice, amongst men as well as women, of hiring the Hammam for private parties and picnicking in it during the greater part of the day. In this tale the bath would belong to the public and it was a mere freak of the bride to bathe with her bridegroom. "Respectable" people do not.

[FN#81] She speaks in the last line as the barber or the bathman.

[FN#82] Here the "Ana" begin; and they mostly date themselves.

Of the following forty-nine, Lane (vol. Ii. P. 578 et seq.) gives only twenty-two and transforms them to notes in chapt. xviii. He could hardly translate several of them in a work intended to be popular. Abu Nowas is a person carefully to be avoided; and all but anthropological students are advised to "skip" over anecdotes in which his name and abominations occur.

[FN#83] Arab. "Ghilman," the counter part, I have said, of the so-called "Houris."

[FN#84] Mosul boasts of never having been polluted with idolatrous wors.h.i.+p, an exemption which it owes to being a comparatively modern place.

[FN#85] The Aleppines were once noted for debauchery; and the saying is still "Halabi Shelebi" (for Chelebi)=the Aleppine is a fellow fine.

[FN#86] Mr. Payne omits the last line. It refers to what Persian boys call, in half-Turkish phrase, "Alish Takish," each acting woman after he has acted man. The best wine is still made in monasteries and the co-called Sinai convent is world-famous for its "Raki" distilled from raisins.

[FN#87] i.e. what a difference there is between them!

[FN#88] Arab. "Salli ala 'l-Nabi," a common phrase; meaning not only praise hm to avert the evil eye; but also used when one would impose silence upon a babbler. The latter will shuffle off by e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.n.g. "Al" and continue his chatter. (Pilgrimage ii.279.)

[FN#89] Arab. "Sukat" (plur. of Saki, cupbearer, our old "skinker"): the pure gold (tibr) is the amber-coloured wine, like the Vino d'oro of the Liba.n.u.s.

[FN#90] That is, fair, white and read: Turkish slaves then abounded at Baghdad.

[FN#91] A Wady near Meccah where one of Mohammed's battles was fought. The line means his waist is a thread connected broad breast and large hind quarters.

[FN#92] Arab. "Zaura" which may mean crooked, alluding to the well-known rib.

[FN#93] A pun. Bakr was the name of the eponymus chief and it also means virgin, as in Abu Bakr.

[FN#94] Arab. "Jami'ayn"=two cathedrals, any large (and consequently vicious) city.

[FN#95] Arab. "Alma," before noticed: I cannot translate "damask-lipped" to suit European taste.

[FN#96] Sherbet flavoured with musk or apple to cool the mouth of "hot coppers."

[FN#97] Arab. "In'ash" lit. raising from his bier. The whole tone is rollicking and slangy.

[FN#98] i.e. In spite of himself: the phrase often occurs.

[FN#99] Europeans usually write "Beni" for "Banu;" the oblique for the nominative. I prefer "Odhrah" or "Ozrah" to Udhrah; because the Ayn before the Zal takes in p.r.o.nunciation the more open sound.

[FN#100] Possibly meaning that they were shrouded together; this would be opposed to Moslem sense of decorum in modern days, but the ancient were not so squeamish. See Night cccxi.

[FN#101] This phase of pa.s.sion in the "varium et mutabile" is often treated of by Oriental storytellers, and not unoften seen in real Eastern life.