The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume VII Part 26

[FN#387] This line has occurred in Night dccxliv. supra p.

280.

[FN#388] Arab. "Mu'attik al-Rikab" i.e. who frees those in bondage from the yoke.

[FN#389] In the Mac. Edit. and in Trebutien (ii. 143) the King is here called Schimakh son of Scharoukh, but elsewhere, Schohiali = Shahyal, in the Bresl. Edit. Shahal. What the author means by "Son of 'Ad the Greater," I cannot divine.

[FN#390] Lit. "For he is the man who can avail thereto," with the meaning given in the text.

[FN#391] Arab. "Jazirat," insula or peninsula, vol. i. 2.

[FN#392] Probably Canton with which the Arabs were familiar.

[FN#393] i.e. "Who disappointeth not those who put their trust in Him."

[FN#394] Arab. "Al-Manjanikat" plur. of manjanik, from Gr.

, Lat. Manganum (Engl. Mangonel from the dim.

Mangonella). Ducange Glossarium, s.v. The Greek is applied originally to defensive weapons, then to the artillery of the day, Ballista, catapults, etc. The kindred Arab. form "Manjanin" is applied chiefly to the Noria or Persian waterwheel.

[FN#395] f.a.ghfur is the common Moslem t.i.tle for the Emperors of China; in the Kamus the first syllable is Zammated (Fugh); in Al-Mas'udi (chapt. xiv.) we find Baghfur and in Al-Idrisi Baghbugh, or Baghbun. In Al-Asma'i Bagh = G.o.d or idol (Pehlewi and Persian); hence according to some Baghdad (?) and Baghistan a paG.o.da (?). Sprenger (Al-Mas'udi, p. 327) remarks that Baghfur is a literal translation of Tien-tse and quotes Visdelou, "pour mieux faire comprendre de quel ciel ils veulent parler, ils poussent la genealogie (of the Emperor) plus loin. Ils lui donnent le ciel pour pere, la terre pour mere, le soleil pour frere aine et la lune pour s?ur ainee."

[FN#396] Arab. "Kayf halak" = how de doo? the salutation of a Fellah.

[FN#397] i.e. subject to the Maharajah of Hind.

[FN#398] This is not a mistake: I have seen heavy hail in Africa, N. Lat. 4 degrees; within sight of the Equator.

[FN#399] Arab. "Harrakta." here used in the sense of smaller craft, and presently for a c.o.c.k-boat.

[FN#400] See vol. i. 138: here by way of variety I quote Mr.

Payne.

[FN#401] This explains the Arab idea of the "Old Man of the Sea" in Sindbad the Seaman (vol. vi. 50). He was not a monkey nor an unknown monster; but an evil Jinni of the most powerful cla.s.s, yet subject to defeat and death.

[FN#402] These Plinian monsters abound in Persian literature.

For a specimen see Richardson Dissert. p. xlviii.

[FN#403] Arab. "Anyab," plur. of "Nab" = canine tooth (eye-tooth of man), tusks of horse and camel, etc.

[FN#404] Arab, "Kasid," the Anglo-Indian Cossid. The post is called Barid from the Persian "buridah" (cut) because the mules used for the purpose were dock-tailed. Barid applies equally to the post-mule, the rider and the distance from one station (Sikkah) to another which varied from two to six parasangs. The letter-carrier was termed Al-Faranik from the Pers. Parwanah, a servant. In the Diwan al-Barid (Post-office) every letter was entered in a Madraj or list called in Arabic Al-Askidar from the Persian "Az Kih dari" = from whom hast thou it?

[FN#405] "Ten years" in the Bresl. Edit. iv. 244.

[FN#406] In the Bresl. Edit. (iv. 245) we find "Kalak," a raft, like those used upon the Euphrates, and better than the "Fulk," or s.h.i.+p, of the Mac. Edit.

[FN#407] Arab. "Timsah" from Coptic (Old Egypt) Emsuh or Msuh.

The animal cannot live in salt-water, a fact which proves that the Crocodile Lakes on the Suez Ca.n.a.l were in old days fed by Nile-water; and this was necessarily a Ca.n.a.l.

[FN#408] So in the Bresl. Edit. (iv. 245). In the Mac. text "one man," which better suits the second crocodile, for the animal can hardly be expected to take two at a time.

[FN#409] He had ample reason to be frightened. The large Cynocephalus is exceedingly dangerous. When travelling on the Gold Coast with my late friend Colonel De Ruvignes, we suddenly came in the grey of the morning upon a herd of these beasts. We dismounted, hobbled our nags and sat down, sword and revolver in hand. Luckily it was feeding time for the vicious brutes, which scowled at us but did not attack us.

During my four years' service on the West African Coast I heard enough to satisfy me that these powerful beasts often kill me and rape women; but I could not convince myself that they ever kept the women as concubines.

[FN#410] As we should say in English "it is a far cry to Loch Awe": the Hindu by-word is, "Dihli (Delhi) is a long way off."

See vol. i. 37.

[FN#411] Arab. "Futah", a napkin, a waistcloth, the Indian Zones alluded to by the old Greek travellers.

[FN#412] Arab. "Yaji (it comes) miat khwanjah"--quite Fellah talk.

[FN#413] As Trebutien shows (ii. 155) these apes were a remnant of some ancient tribe possibly those of ad who had gone to Meccah to pray for rain and thus escaped the general destruction. See vol. i. 65. Perhaps they were the Jews of Aylah who in David's day were transformed into monkeys for fis.h.i.+ng on the Sabbath (Sat.u.r.day) Koran ii. 61.

[FN#414] I can see no reason why Lane purposely changes this to "the extremity of their country."

[FN#415] Koran xxii. 44, Mr. Payne remarks:--This absurd addition is probably due to some copyist, who thought to show his knowledge of the Koran, but did not understand the meaning of the verse from which the quotation is taken and which runs thus, "How many cities have We destroyed, whilst yet they transgressed, and they are laid low on their own foundations and wells abandoned and high-builded palaces!" Mr. Lane observes that the words are either misunderstood or purposely misapplied by the author of the tale. Purposeful perversions of Holy Writ are very popular amongst Moslems and form part of their rhetoric; but such is not the case here. According to Von Hammer (Trebutien ii. 154), "Eastern geographers place the Bir al-Mu'utallal (Ruined Well) and the Kasr al-Mas.h.i.+d (High-builded Castle) in the province of Hadramaut, and we wait for a new Niebuhr to inform us what are the monuments or the ruins so called." His text translates puits arides et palais de platre (not likely!). Lane remarks that Mas.h.i.+d mostly means "plastered," but here = Mushayyad, lofty, explained in the Jalalayn Commentary as = rafi'a, high-raised.

The two places are also mentioned by Al-Mas'udi; and they occur in Al-Kazwini (see Night dccclviii.): both of these authors making the Koran directly allude to them.

[FN#416] Arab. (from Pers.) "Aywan" which here corresponds with the Egyptian "liwan" a tall saloon with estrades.

[FN#417] This nave style of "renowning it" is customary in the East, contrasting with the servile address of the subject--"thy slave" etc.

[FN#418] Daulat (not Dawlah) the Anglo-Indian Dowlat; prop.

meaning the s.h.i.+fts of affairs, hence, fortune, empire, kingdom. Khatun = "lady," I have noted, follows the name after Turkish fas.h.i.+on.

[FN#419] The old name of Suez-town from the Greek Clysma (the shutting), which named the Gulf of Suez "Sea of Kulzum." The ruins in the shape of a huge mound, upon which Sa'id Pasha built a Kiosk-palace, lie to the north of the modern town and have been noticed by me. (Pilgrimage, Midian, etc.) The Rev.

Prof. Sayce examined the mound and from the Roman remains found in it determined it to be a fort guarding the old mouth of the Old Egyptian Sweet-water Ca.n.a.l which then debouched near the town.

[FN#420] i.e. Tuesday. See vol. iii. 249.

[FN#421] Because being a Jinniyah the foster-sister could have come to her and saved her from old maidenhood.

[FN#422] Arab. "Hajah" properly a needful thing. This consisted according to the Bresl. Edit. of certain perfumes, by burning which she could summon the Queen of the Jinn.

[FN#423] Probably used in its sense of a "black crow." The Bresl. Edit. (iv. 261) has "Khatim" (seal-ring) which is but one of its almost innumerable misprints.

[FN#424] Here it is called "Tabik" and afterwards "Tabut."

[FN#425] i.e. raising from the lower hinge-pins. See vol. ii.

214.

[FN#426] Arab. "Abrisam" or "Ibrisam" (from Persian Abrisham or Ibrisham) = raw silk or floss, i.e. untwisted silk.

[FN#427] This knightly practice, evidently borrowed from the East, appears in many romances of chivalry e.g. When Sir Tristram is found by King Mark asleep beside Ysonde (Isentt) with drawn sword between them, the former cried:--

Gif they weren in sinne Nought so they no lay.

And we are told:--

Sir Amys and the lady bright To bed gan they go; And when they weren in bed laid, Sir Amys his sword out-brayed And held it between them two.