The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume IX Part 25

[FN#491] A Moslem is bound, not only by honour but by religion, to discharge the debts of his dead father and mother and so save them from punishment on Judgment-day. Mohammed who enjoined mercy to debtors while in the flesh (chapt. ii. 280, etc.) said "Allah covereth all faults except debt; that is to say, there will be punishment therefor." Also "A martyr shall be pardoned every fault but debt." On one occasion he refused to pray for a Moslem who died insolvent. Such harshness is a curious contrast with the leniency which advised the creditor to remit debts by way of alms. And practically this mild view of indebtedness renders it highly unadvisable to oblige a Moslem friend with a loan.

[FN#492] i.e. he did not press them for payment; and, it must be remembered, he received no interest upon his monies, this being forbidden in the Koran.

[FN#493] Al-Mas'udi (chap. xvii.) alludes to furs of Sable (Samur), hermelline (Al-Farwah) and Bortas (Turkish) furs of black and red foxes. For Samur see vol. iv. 57. Sinjab is Persian for the skin of the grey squirrel (Mu. lemmus, the lemming), the meniver, erroneously miniver, (menu vair) as opposed to the ermine=(Mus Armenius, or mustela erminia.) I never visit England without being surprised at the vile furs worn by the rich, and the folly of the poor in not adopting the sheepskin with the wool inside and the leather well tanned which keeps the peasant warm and comfortable between Croatia and Afghanistan.

[FN#494] Arab. "Tajir Alfi" which may mean a thousand dinars (500) or a thousand purses (=5,000). "Alfi" is not an uncommon P.N., meaning that the bearer (Pasha or pauper) had been bought for a thousand left indefinite.

[FN#495] Tigris-Euphrates.

[FN#496] Possibly the quarter of Baghdad so called and mentioned in The Nights more than once.

[FN#497] For this fiery sea see Sind Revisited i. 19.

[FN#498] Arab. "Al-Ghayb" which may also mean "in the future"

(unknown to man).

[FN#499] Arab. "Jabal"; here a mountainous island: see vol. i.

140.

[FN#500] i.e. ye shall be spared this day's miseries. See my Pilgrimage vol. i. 314, and the delight with which we glided into Marsa Damghah.

[FN#501] Arab. "Suwan"="Syenite" (-granite) also used for flint and other hard stones. See vol. i. 238.

[FN#502] Koran xxiv. Male children are to the Arab as much prized an object of possession as riches, since without them wealth is of no value to him. Mohammed, therefore, couples wealth with children as the two things wherewith one wards off the ills of this world, though they are powerless against those of the world to come.

[FN#503] An exclamation derived from the Surat Nasr (cx. 1) one of the most affecting in the Koran. It gave Mohammed warning of his death and caused Al-Abbas to shed tears; the Prophet sings a song of victory in the ixth year of the Hijrah (he died on the xth) and implores the pardon of his Lord.

[FN#504] Arab. "Dairah," a basin surrounded by hills. The words which follow may mean, "An hour's journey or more in breadth.

[FN#505] These petrified folk have occurred in the "Eldest Lady's Tale" (vol. i. 165), where they are of "black stone."

[FN#506] Arab. "Taj Kisrawi," such as was worn by the Chosroes Kings. See vol. i. 75.

[FN#507] The familiar and far-famed Napoleonic pose, with the arms crossed over the breast, is throughout the East the att.i.tude a.s.sumed by slave and servant in presence of his master. Those who send statues to Anglo-India should remember this.

[FN#508] Arab. "Ta alik"=hanging lamps, often in lantern shape with coloured gla.s.s and profuse ornamentation; the Maroccan are now familiar to England.

[FN#509] Arab. "Kidrah," lit.=a pot, kettle; it can hardly mean "an interval."

[FN#510] The wicket or small doorway, especially by the side of a gate or portal, is called "the eye of the needle" and explains Matt. xix. 24, and Koran vii. 38. In the Rabbinic form of the proverb the camel becomes an elephant. Some have preferred to change the Koranic Jamal (camel) for Habl (cable) and much ingenuity has been wasted by Christian commentators on Mark x.

25, and Luke xviii. 25.

[FN#511] i.e. A "Kanz" (enchanted treasury) usually hidden underground but opened by a counter-spell and transferred to earth's face. The reader will note the gorgeousness of the picture.

[FN#512] Oriental writers, Indian and Persian, as well as Arab, lay great stress upon the extreme delicacy of the skin of the fair ones celebrated in their works, constantly attributing to their heroines bodies so sensitive as to brook with difficulty the contact of the finest s.h.i.+ft. Several instances of this will be found in the present collection and we may fairly a.s.sume that the skin of an Eastern beauty, under the influence of constant seclusion and the unremitting use of cosmetics and the bath, would in time attain a pitch of delicacy and sensitiveness such as would in some measure justify the seemingly extravagant statements of their poetical admirers, of which the following anecdote (quoted by Ibn Kh.e.l.likan from the historian Et Teberi) is a fair specimen. Ardes.h.i.+r ibn Babek (Artaxerxes I.), the first Sa.s.sanian King of Persia (A.D. 226-242), having long unsuccessfully besieged El Hedr, a strong city of Mesopotamia belonging to the petty King Es Satiroun, at last obtained possession of it by the treachery of the owner's daughter Nezireh and married the latter, this having been the price stipulated by her for the betrayal to him of the place. "It happened afterwards that, one night, as she was unable to sleep and turned from side to side in the bed, Ardes.h.i.+r asked her what prevented her from sleeping. She replied, 'I never yet slept on a rougher bed than this; I feel something irk me.' He ordered the bed to be changed, but she was still unable to sleep. Next morning, she complained of her side, and on examination, a myrtle-leaf was found adhering to a fold of the skin, from which it had drawn blood. Astonished at this circ.u.mstance, Ardes.h.i.+r asked her if it was this that had kept her awake and she replied in the affirmative. 'How then,'

asked he, 'did your father bring you up?' She answered, 'He spread me a bed of satin and clad me in silk and fed me with marrow and cream and the honey of virgin bees and gave me pure wine to drink.' Quoth Ardes.h.i.+r, 'The same return which you made your father for his kindness would be made much more readily to me'; and bade bind her by the hair to the tail of a horse, which galloped off with her and killed her." It will be remembered that the true princess, in the well-known German popular tale, is discovered by a similar incident to that of the myrtle-leaf. I quote this excellent note from Mr. Payne (ix. 148), only regretting that annotation did not enter into his plan of producing The Nights. Amongst Hindu story-tellers a phenomenal softness of the skin is a lieu commun: see Vikram and the Vampire (p.285, "Of the marvellous delicacy of their Queens"); and the Tale of the Sybarite might be referred to in the lines given above.

[FN#513]

"(55) Indeed joyous on that day are the people of Paradise in their employ; (56) In shades, on bridal couches reclining they and their wives: (57) Fruits have they therein and whatso they desire.

(58) 'Peace!' shall be a word from a compa.s.sionating Lord."

Koran x.x.xvi. 55-58, the famous Chapt. "Ya Sin;" which most educated Moslems learn by heart. See vol. iii. 19. In addition to the proofs there offered that the Moslem Paradise is not wholly sensual I may quote, "No soul wotteth what coolth of the eyes is reserved (for the good) in recompense of their works" (Koran lxx.

17). The Paradise of eating, drinking, and copulating which Mr.

Palgrave (Arabia, i. 368) calls "an everlasting brothel between forty celestial concubines" was preached solely to the baser sort of humanity which can understand and appreciate only the pleasures of the flesh. To talk of spiritual joys before the Badawin would have been a non-sens, even as it would be to the roughs of our great cities.

[FN#514] Arab. "Lajlaj" lit.=rolling anything round the mouth when eating; hence speaking inarticulately, being tongue-tied, stuttering, etc.

[FN#515] The cla.s.sical "Phylarchs," who had charge of the Badawin.

[FN#516] "The Jababirah" (giant-rulers of Syria) and the "Akasirah" (Chosroes-Kings of Persia).

[FN#517] This shows (and we are presently told) that the intruder was Al-Khizr, the "Green Prophet," for whom see vol. iv. 175.

[FN#518] i.e. of salvation supposed to radiate from all Prophets, esp. from Mohammed.

[FN#519] This formula which has occurred from the beginning (vol.i.1) is essentially Koranic: See Chapt. li. 18-19 and pa.s.sim.

[FN#520] This trick of the priest hidden within the image may date from the days of the vocal Memnon, and was a favourite in India, especially at the shrine of Somnauth (Soma-nath), the Moon-G.o.d, Atergatis Aphrodite, etc.

[FN#521] Arab. "Almas"=Gr. Adamas. In opposition to the learned ex-Professor Maskelyne I hold that the cutting of the diamond is of very ancient date. Mr. W. M. Flinders Patrie (The Pyramids and Temples of Gizah, London: Field and Tuer, 1884) whose studies have thoroughly demolished the freaks and unfacts, the fads and fancies of the "Pyramidists," and who may be said to have raised measurement to the rank of a fine art, believes that the Euritic statues of old Egypt such as that of Khufu (Cheops) in the Bulak Museum were drilled by means of diamonds. AthenFus tells us (lib.

v.) that the Indians brought pearls and diamonds to the procession of Ptolemy Philadelphus; and this suggests cutting, as nothing can be less ornamental than the uncut stone.

[FN#522] i.e. as if they were holding a "Durbar"; the King's idol in the Sadr or place of honour and the others ranged about it in their several ranks.

[FN#523] These words are probably borrowed from the taunts of Elijah to the priests of Baal (1 Kings xviii. 27). Both Jews and Moslems wilfully ignored the proper use of the image or idol which was to serve as a Keblah or direction of prayer and an object upon which to concentrate thought and looked only to the abuse of the ign.o.ble vulgus who believe in its intrinsic powers.

Christendom has perpetuated the dispute: Romanism affects statues and pictures: Greek orthodoxy pictures and not statues and the so-called Protestantism ousts both.

[FN#524] Arab. "Sa'adah"=worldly prosperity and future happiness.

[FN#525] Arab. "Al-Ahd wa al-Misak" the troth pledged between the Murid or apprentice-Darwaysh and the Shaykh or Master-Darwaysh binding the former to implicit obedience etc.

[FN#526] Arab. "Taakhir" lit. postponement and meaning acting with deliberation as opposed to "Ajal" (haste), precipitate action condemned in the Koran lxv. 38.

[FN#527] i.e. I have been lucky enough to get this and we will share it amongst us.

[FN#528] i.e. of saving me from being ravished.

[FN#529] Sa'idah=the auspicious (fem.): Mubarakah,=the blessed; both names showing that the bearers were Moslemahs.

[FN#530] i.e. the base-born from whom base deeds may be expected.

[FN#531] Arab. "Badlat Kunuziyah=such a dress as would be found in enchanted h.o.a.rds (Kunuz): .g. Prince Esterhazy's diamond jacket.

[FN#532] The lieu d'aisance in Eastern crafts is usually a wooden cage or framework fastened outside the gunwale very cleanly but in foul weather very uncomfortable and even dangerous.

[FN#533] Arab. "Ghull," a collar of iron or other metal, sometimes made to resemble the Chinese Kza or Cangue, a kind of ambulant pillory, serving like the old stocks which still show in England the veteris vestigia ruris. See Davis, "The Chinese," i.

241. According to Al-Siyuti (p. 362) the Caliph Al-Mutawakkil ordered the Christians to wear these Ghulls round the neck, yellow head-gear and girdles, to use wooden stirrups and to place figures of devils before their houses. The writer of The Nights presently changes Ghull to "chains" and "fetters of iron."

[FN#534] Arab. "Ya fulan," O certain person! See vol. iii. 191.