The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume IX Part 23

[FN#411] Arab. "Awas.h.i.+k" a rare word, which Dozy translates "osselet" (or osselle) and Mr. Payne, "hucklebones," concerning which he has obliged me with this note. Chambaud renders osselet by "pet.i.t os avec lequel les enfants jouent." Hucklebone is the hip-bone but in the plural it applies to our c.o.c.kals or c.o.c.kles: Latham gives "hucklebone," (or c.o.c.kal), one of the small vertebrae of the coccygis, and Littleton translates "Talus," a hucklebone, a bone to play with like a dye, a play called c.o.c.kal. (So also in Rider.) Hucklebones and knucklebones are syn.: but the latter is modern and liable to give a false idea, besides being tautological. It has nothing to do with the knuckles and derives from the German "Knochel" (dialectically Knochelein) a bonelet.

[FN#412] For ablution after sleep and before prayer. The address of the slave-girl is perfectly natural: in a Moslem house we should hear it this day, nor does it show the least sign of "frowardness. "

[FN#413] The perfect stupidity of the old wittol is told with the driest Arab humour.

[FN#414] This is a rechauffe of the Language of Signs in "Aziz and Azizah" vol. ii. 302.

[FN#415] In the Mac. Edit. "Ya Fulanah"=O certain person.

[FN#416] Arab. "Laylat al-Kabilah," lit.=the coming night, our to-night; for which see vol. iii. 349.

[FN#417] Arab. "Ya Ahmak!" which in Marocco means a madman, a maniac, a Santon.

[FN#418] The whole pa.s.sage has a grammatical double entendre whose application is palpable. Harf al-Jarr=a particle governing the noun in the genitive or a mode of thrusting and tumbling.

[FN#419] Arab. "Al-Silah" =conjunctive (sentence), also coition; Al-Mausul= the conjoined, a grammatical term for relative p.r.o.noun or particle.

[FN#420] Arab. "Tanwin al-Izafah ma'zul" = the nunnation in construction cast out. "Tanwin" (nunnation) is p.r.o.nouncing the vowels of the case-endings of a noun with n un for u (nominative) in for i (genitive) and an for a (accusative). This nunnation expresses indefiniteness, e.g. "Malikun"=a king, any king. When the noun is made definite by the Ma'rifah or article (al), the Tanwin must be dropped, e.g. Al-Maliku = the King; Al- Malikun being a grammatical absurdity. In construction or regimen (izafah) the nunnation must also disappear, as Maliku 'I-Hind) = the King of Hind (a King of Hind would be Malikun min Muluki 'I-Hind) = a King from amongst the Kings of Hind). Thus whilst the wife and the lover were conjoined as much as might be, the hocussed and sleeping husband was dismissed (ma'zul=degraded) like a nunnation dropped in construction. I may add that the terminal syllables are invariably dropped in popular parlance and none but Mr. G. Palgrave (who afterwards ignored his own a.s.sertion) ever found an Arab tribe actually using them in conversation although they are always p.r.o.nounced when reading the Koran and poetry.

[FN#421] This was a saying of Mohammed about overfrequency of visits, "Zur ghibban, tazid hubban"=call rarely that friends.h.i.+p last fairly. So the verse of Al-Mutanabbi,

"How oft familiarity breeds dislike."

Preston quotes Jesus ben Sirach, {Greek}. Also Al-Hariri (a.s.s.

xv. of "The Legal"; De Sacy p. 478 1. 2.) "Visit not your friend more than one day in a month, nor stop longer than that with him!" Also a.s.s. xvi. 487, 8. "Multiply not visits to thy friend."

"None so disliked as one visiting too often." (Preston p. 352).

In the Cent nouvelles (52) Nouvelles (No. lii.) the dying father says to his son:--"Jamais ne vous hantez tent en l'ostel de votre voisin que lion vous y serve de pain bis." In these matters Moslems follow the preaching and practice of the Apostle, who was about as hearty and genial as the "Great Was.h.i.+ngton." But the Arab had a fund of dry humour which the Anglo-American lacked altogether.

[FN#422] Arab. "'Amal"--action, operation. In Hindostani it is used (often with an Alif for an Ayn) as intoxication e.g. Amal pani strong waters and applied to Sharab (wine), Bozah (Beer), Tadi (toddy or the fermented juice of the Tad, Bora.s.sus flabelliformis), Naryali (juice of the cocoa-nut tree) Saynddi (of the wild date, Elate Sylvestris), Afyun (opium an its preparations as post=poppy seeds) and various forms of Cannabis Sativa, as Ganja, Charas, Madad, Sahzi etc. for which see Herklots' Glossary.

[FN#423] Arab "Sardab," mostly an underground room (vol. i. 340) but here a tunnel.

[FN#424] Arab. "Al-Lawandiyah": this and the frequent mention of coffee and presently of a watch (sa'ah) show that the tale in its present state, cannot be older than the end of the sixteenth century.

[FN#425] Arab. "Su'ban," vol. i. 172.

[FN#426] The lines have occurred in vol. i. 238, where I have noted the punning "Sabr"= patience or aloes. I quote Torrens: the Templar, however, utterly abolishes the pun in the last couplet:- -

"The case is not at my command, but in fair Patience hand I'm set by Him who order'th all and cloth such case command."

"Amr" here=case (circ.u.mstance) or command (order) with a suspicion of reference to Murr=myrrh, bitterness. The reader will note the resignation to Fate's decrees which here and in host of places elevates the tone of the book.

[FN#427] i.e. as one loathes that which is prohibited, and with a loathing which makes it unlawful for me to cohabit with thee.

[FN#428] This is quite natural to the sensitive Eastern.

[FN#429] Hence, according to Moslem and Eastern theory generally her lewd and treasonable conduct. But in Egypt not a few freeborn women and those too of the n.o.blest, would beat her hollow at her own little game. See for instance the booklet attributed to Jalal al-Siyuti and ent.i.tled Kitah al-izah (Book of Explanation) fi ?Ilm al-Nikah (in the Science of Carnal Copulation). There is a copy of it in the British Museum; and a friend kindly suppl~ed me with a lithograph from Cairo; warning me that there are doubts about the authors.h.i.+p.

[FN#430] These lines have occurred in vol. iii. 214: I quote Mr.

Payne.

[FN#431] This e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n, as the waw shows, is parenthetic; spoken either by Halimah, by Shahrazad or by the writer.

[FN#432] Arab. "Kasr" here meaning an upper room.

[FN#433] To avoid saying, I pardon thee.

[FN#434] A proverbial saying which here means I could only dream of such good luck.

[FN#435] A good old custom amongst Moslems who have had business transactions with each other: such acquittance of all possible claims will be quoted on "Judgment-Day," when debts will be severely enquired into.

[FN#436] Arab. "Kutr (tract or quarter) Misr," vulgarly p.r.o.nounced "Masr." I may remind the reader that the a.s.syrians called the Nile-valley "Musur" whence probably the Heb. Misraim a dual form denoting Upper and Lower Egypt which are still distinguished by the Arabs into Sa'id and Misr. The hieroglyphic term is Ta-mera=Land of the Flood; and the Greek Aigyptos is probably derived from Kahi-Ptah (region of the great G.o.d Ptah) or Ma Ka Ptah (House of the soul of Ptah). The word "Cops" or "Kopt," in Egyptian "Kubti" and p.r.o.nounced "Gubti," contains the same consonants

[FN#437] Now an unimportant frontier fort and village dividing Syria-Palestine from Egypt and famed for the French battle with the Mamelukes (Feb. 19, 1799) and the convention for evacuating Egypt. In the old times it was an important site built upon the "River of Egypt" now a dried up Wady; and it was the chief port of the then populous Najab or South Country. According to Abulfeda it derived its name (the "boothy," the nest) from a hut built there by the brothers of Joseph when stopped at the frontier by the guards of Pharaoh. But this is usual Jewish infection of history.

[FN#438] Arab. "Bab." which may also="Chapter" or category. See vol. i., 136 and elsewhere (index). In Egypt "Bab" sometimes means a sepulchral cave hewn in a rock (plur. Biban) from the Coptic "Bib."

[FN#439] i.e. "The Holy," a town some three marches (60 miles) N. East of Cairo; thus showing the honour done to our unheroic hero. There is also a Salihlyah quarter or suburb of Damascus famous for its cemetery of holy men, but the facetious Cits change the name to Zalliniyah=causing to stray; in allusion to its Kurdish population. Baron von Hammer reads "le faubourg Adelieh" built by Al-Malik Al-Adil and founded a chronological argument on a clerical error.

[FN#440] Kamar al-Zaman; the normal pun on the name; a practice as popular in the East as in the West, and worthy only of a pickpocket in either place.

[FN#441] Arab. "Azrar" plur. of "Zirr" and lit. = 'b.u.t.tons,"

i.e. of his robe collar from which his white neck and face appear s.h.i.+ning as the sun.

[FN#442] Arab. "Dairah" the usual inclosure of Kanats or tent-flaps pitched for privacy during the halt.

[FN#443] i.e. it was so richly ornamented that it resembled an enchanted h.o.a.rd whose spells, hiding it from sight, had been broken by some happy treasure seeker.

[FN#444] The merchant who is a "stern parent" and exceedingly ticklish on the Pundonor saw at first sight her servile origin which had escaped the mother. Usually it is the other way.

[FN#445] Not the head of the Church, or Chief Pontiff, but the Chief of the Olema and f.u.kaha (Fakihs or D.D.'s.) men learned in the Law (divinity). The order is peculiarly Moslem, in fact the succedaneum for the Christian "hierarchy " an inst.i.tution never contemplated by the Founder of Christianity. This t.i.tle shows the modern date of the tale.

[FN#446] Arab. "Maulid," prop. applied to the Birth-feast of Mohammed which begins on the 3rd day of Rabi al-Awwal (third Moslem month) and lasts a week or ten days (according to local custom), usually ending on the 12th and celebrated with salutes of cannon, circ.u.mcision feasts. marriage banquets. Zikr-litanies, perfections of the Koran and all manner of solemn festivities including the "powder-play" (Lab al-Barut) in the wilder corners of Al-Islam. It is also applied to the birth-festivals of great Santons (as Ahmad al- Badawi) for which see Lane M. E. chaps.

xxiv. In the text it is used like the Span. "Funcion" or the Hind "Tamasha," any great occasion of merry-making.

[FN#447] Arab. "Sanajik" Plur. of Sanjak (Turk.) = a banner, also applied to the bearer (ensign or cornet) and to a military rank mostly corresponding with Bey or Colonel.

[FN#448] I have followed Mr. Payne's ordering of the text which, both in the Mac. and Bull. Edits., is wholly inconsequent and has not the excuse of rhyme.

[FN#449] Arab. "Jilbab," a long coa.r.s.e veil or gown which in Barbary becomes a "Jallabiyah," in a striped and hooded cloak of woollen stuff.

[FN#450] i.e. a broken down pilgrim left to die on the road.

[FN#451] These lines have occurred in vol. i. 272. I quote Mr.

Payne.

[FN#452] Note the difference between "Zirt," the loud crepitus and "Faswah" the susurrus which Captain Grose in his quaint "Lexic.u.m Balatronic.u.m," calls a "fice" or a "foyse" (from the Arabic Fas, faswah ?).