The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume IX Part 17

[FN#152] The strangest poison is mentioned by Sonnini who, as a rule, is a trustworthy writer. Noticing the malignity of Egyptian women he declares (p. 628, English trans.) that they prepare a draught containing a quant. suff. of menstruous discharge at certain phases of the moon, which produces symptoms of scurvy; the gums decay, the teeth, beard and hair fall off, the body dries, the limbs lose strength and death follows within a year.

He also a.s.serts that no counterpoison is known and if this be true he confers a boon upon the Locustae and Brinvilliers of modern Europe. In Morocco "Ta'am" is the vulgar name for a mixture of dead men's bones, eyes, hair and similar ingredients made by old wives and supposed to cause a wasting disease for which the pharmacopoeia has no cure. Dogs are killed by needles cunningly inserted into meat-b.a.l.l.s; and this process is known through out the Moslem world.

[FN#153] Which contained the Palace.

[FN#154] Arab. "La baas." See Night vol. iv. 164.

[FN#155] For Ta'lab (Sa'lab) see supra, p. 48. In Morocco it is undoubtedly the red or common fox which, however, is not gregarious as in the text.

[FN#156] See vol. iii. 146.

[FN#157] Arab. "Muunah" which in Morocco applies to the provisions furnished gratis by the unfortunate village-people to travellers who have a pa.s.sport from the Sultan. its root is Maun =supplying necessaries. "The name is supposed to have its origin in that of Manna the miraculous provision bestowed by the bounty of Heaven on the Israelites while wandering in the deserts of Arabia." Such is the marvellous information we find in p. 40, "Morocco and the Moors" by John Drummond Hay (Murray, 1861)

[FN#158] i.e. He resolved to do them justice and win a reward from Heaven.

[FN#159] Arab. ''Luss" = thief, robber, rogue, rascal, the Persian "Luti" of popular usage. This is one of the many ''Simpleton stories" in which Eastern folk-lore abounds. I hear that Mr. Clouston is preparing a collection, and look forward to it with interest.

[FN#160] Arab. "Tibn" for which see vol. i 16.

[FN#161] A fanciful origin of "Divan" (here an audience-chamber) which may mean demons (plural of Div) is attributed to a King of Persia. He gave a series of difficult doc.u.ments and accounts to his scribes and surprised at the quickness and cleverness with which they were ordered exclaimed, "These men be Divs!" Hence a host of secondary meanings as a book of Odes with distichs rhymed in alphabetical order and so forth.

[FN#162] In both cases the word "Jababirah" is used, the plur. of Jabbar, the potent, especially applied to the Kings of the Canaanites and giants like the mythical Og of Bashan. So the Heb.

Jabburah is a t.i.tle of the Queens of Judah.

[FN#163] Arab. "Kitab al-Kaza"= the Book of Judgments, such as the Kazi would use when deciding cases in dispute, by legal precedents and the Rasm or custom of the country.

[FN#164] i.e. sit before the King as referee, etc.

[FN#165] This ma.s.sacre of refractory chiefs is one of the grand moyens of Eastern state-craft, and it is almost always successful because circ.u.mstances require it; popular opinion approves of it and it is planned and carried out with discretion and secrecy.

The two familiar instances in our century are the ma.s.sacre of the Mamelukes by Mohammed Ali Pasha the Great and of the turbulent chiefs of the Omani Arabs by our ancient ally Sayyid Sa'id, miscalled the "Imam of Maskat."

[FN#166] The metaphor (Sabaka) is from horse-racing, the Arabs being, I have said, a horsey people.

[FN#167] Arab. "Kurdus" = A body of horse.

[FN#168] Arab. "Ibn 'Irs." See vol. iii. 147.

[FN#169] Arab. "Al Hind-al-Aksa." The Sanskrit Sindhu (lands on the Indus River) became in Zend "Hendu" and hence in Arabic Sind and Hind, which latter I wish we had preserved instead of the cla.s.sical "India" or the poetical "Ind."

[FN#170] i.e. by geomancy: see vol. iii. 269 for a note on Al-Raml. The pa.s.sage is not in the Mac. Edit.

[FN#171] This address gave the boy Wazirial rank. In many parts of Europe, England included, if the Sovereign address a subject with a t.i.tle not belonging to him, it is a disputed point if the latter can or cannot claim it.

[FN#172] Koran, chapter of Joseph xii. 28, spoken by Potiphar after Joseph's innocence had been proved by a witness in Potiphar's house or according to the Talmud (Sepher Hadjascher) by an infant in the cradle. The texts should have printed this as a quotation (with vowel points).

[FN#173] Arab. "Al-'Aziz," alluding to Joseph the Patriarch ent.i.tled in Egypt "Aziz al-Misr"= Magnifico of Misraim (Koran xii. 54). It is generally believed that Ismail Pasha, whose unwise deposition has caused the English Government such a host of troubles and load of obloquy, aspired to be named "'Aziz" by the Porte; but was compelled to be satisfied with Khadiv (vulg.

written Khedive, and p.r.o.nounced even "Kedive"), a Persian t.i.tle, which simply means prince or Rajah, as Khadiv-i-Hind.

[FN#174] i.e. The Throne room.

[FN#175] For the "Dawat" or wooden inkcase containing reeds see vol. v. 239 and viii. 178. I may remark that its origin is the Egyptian "Pes," of which there is a specimen in the British Museum inscribed, "Amasis the good G.o.d and Lord of the two Lands."

[FN#176] i.e. I am governed by the fear of Allah in my dealings to thee and thy subjects.

[FN#177] Arabic has no single word for million although the Maroccans have adopted "Milyun" from the Spaniards (see p. 100 of the Rudimentos del arabe vulgar que se habla en el imperio de Marruccos por El P. Fr. Jose de Lerchundi, Madrid 1872): This lack of the higher numerals, the reverse of the Hindu languages, makes Arabic "arithmology" very primitive and almost as c.u.mbrous as the Chinese.

[FN#178] i.e. I am thy slave to slay or to pardon.

[FN#179] Arab. ''Matta'aka 'llah''=Allah permit thee to enjoy, from the root mate', whence cometh the Maroccan Mata'i=my, mine, which answers to Bita'i in Egypt.

[FN#180] Arab. "Khitab" = the exordium of a letter preceding its business-matter and in which the writer displays all his art. It ends with "Amma ba'd," lit.=but after, equivalent to our "To proceed." This "Khitab" is mostly skipped over by modern statesmen who will say, "Now after the nonsense let us come to the sense"; but their secretaries carefully weigh every word of it, and strongly resent all shortcomings.

[FN#181] Strongly suggesting that the King had forgotten how to read and write. So not a few of the Amirs of Sind were a.n.a.lphabetic and seemed rather proud of it: "a Baloch cannot write, but he always carries a signet-ring." I heard of an old English lady of the past generation in Northern Africa who openly declared "A Warrington shall never learn to read or write."

[FN#182] Arab. "amin," of which the Heb. form is Amen from the root Amn=stability, constancy. In both tongues it is a particle of affirmation or consent=it is true! So be it! The Hebrew has also "Amanah"=verily, truly.

[FN#183] To us this seems a case of "hard lines" for the unhappy women; but Easterns then believed and still believe in the divinity which cloth hedge in a King, in his reigning by the "grace of G.o.d," and in his being the Viceregent of Allah upon earth; briefly in the old faith of loyalty which great and successful republics are fast making obsolete in the West and nowhere faster than in England.

[FN#184] Abu Sir is a manifest corruption of the old Egyptian Pousiri, the Busiris of our cla.s.sics, and it gives a name to sundry villages in modern Egypt where it is usually p.r.o.nounced "Busir". Abu Kir lit. = the Father of Pitch, is also corrupted to Abou Kir (Bay); and the townlet now marks the site of jolly old Canopus, the Chosen Land of Egyptian debauchery.

[FN#185] It is interesting to note the superior gusto with which the Eastern, as well as the Western tale-teller describes his scoundrels and villains whilst his good men and women are mostly colourless and unpicturesque. So Satan is the true hero of Paradise-Lost and by his side G.o.d and man are very ordinary; and Mephistopheles is much better society than Faust and Margaret.

[FN#186] Arab. "Dukhan," lit. = smoke, here tobacco for the Chibouk, "Timbak" or "Tumbak" being the stronger (Persian and other) variety which must be washed before smoking in the s.h.i.+shah or water pipe. Tobacco is mentioned here only and is evidently inserted by some scribe: the "weed" was not introduced into the East before the end of the sixteenth century (about a hundred years after coffee), when it radically changed the manners of society.

[FN#187] Which meant that the serjeant, after the manner of such officials, would make him pay dearly before giving up the key.

Hence a very severe punishment in the East is to "call in a policeman" who carefully fleeces all those who do not bribe him to leave them in freedom.

[FN#188] Arab. "Ma Dahiyatak?" lit. "What is thy misfortune?"

The phrase is slighting if not insulting.

[FN#189] Amongst Moslems the plea of robbing to keep life and body together would be accepted by a good man like Abu Sir, who still consorted with a self-confessed thief.

[FN#190] To make their agreement religiously binding. See vol.

iv. 36.

[FN#191] Arab. "Ghaliyun"; many of our names for craft seem connected with Arabic: I have already noted "Carrack" = harrak: to which add Uskuf in Marocco p.r.o.nounced 'Skuff = skiff; Katirah = a cutter; Barijah = a barge; etc. etc.

[FN#192] The patient is usually lathered in a gib gasin of tinned bra.s.s, "Mambrino's helmet" with a break in the rim to fit the throat; but the poorer cla.s.ses carry only a small cup with water instead of soap and water ignoring the Italian proverb, "Barba ben saponata mezza fatta" = well lathered is half shaved. A napkin fringed at either end is usually thrown over the Figaro's shoulder and used to wipe the razor.

[FN#193] Arab. "Nusf." See vol. ii. 37.

[FN#194] Arab. "Batarikh" the roe (sperm or sp.a.w.n) of the salted Fasikh (fish) and the Buri (mugil cephalus) a salt-water fish caught in the Nile and considered fair eating. Some write Butargha from the old Egyptian town Burat, now a ruin between Tinnis and Damietta (Sonnini).

[FN#195] Arab. "Kaptan," see vol. iv. 85.

[FN#196] Arab. "Anyab," plur. of Nab applied to the grinder teeth but mostly to the canines or eye teeth, tusks of animals, etc. (See vol. vii. p. 339) opp. To Saniyah, one of the four central incisors, a camel in the sixth year and horse, cow, sheep and goat in fourth year.

[FN#197] The coffee (see also vol. viii. 274) like the tobacco is probably due to the scribe; but the tale appears to be comparatively modern. In The Nights men eat, drink and wash their hands but do not smoke and sip coffee like the moderns.

See my Terminal Essay --2.