The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume I Part 32

[FN#596] A process familiar to European surgery of the same date.

[FN#597] In sign of disappointment, regret, vexation; a gesture still common amongst Moslems and corresponding in significance to a certain extent with our stamping, wringing the hands and so forth. It is not mentioned in the Koran where, however, we find "biting fingers' ends out of wrath" against a man (chaps. iii.).

[FN#598] This is no unmerited scandal. The Cairenes, especially the feminine half (for reasons elsewhere given), have always been held exceedingly debauched. Even the modest Lane gives a "shocking" story of a woman enjoying her lover under the nose of her husband and confining the latter in a madhouse (chaps.

xiii.). With civilisation, which objects to the good old remedy, the sword, they become worse: and the Kazi's court is crowded with would-be divorcees. Under English rule the evil has reached its acme because it goes unpunished: in the avenues of the new Isma'iliyah Quarter, inhabited by Europeans, women, even young women, will threaten to expose their persons unless they receive "bakhs.h.i.+sh." It was the same in Sind when husbands were a.s.sured that they would be hanged for cutting down adulterous wives: at once after its conquest the women broke loose; and in 1843-50, if a young officer sent to the bazaar for a girl, half-a-dozen would troop to his quarters. Indeed more than once the professional prost.i.tutes threatened to memorialise Sir Charles Napier because the "modest women," the "ladies" were taking the bread out of their mouths. The same was the case at Kabul (Caboul) of Afghanistan in the old war of 1840; and here the women had more excuse, the husbands being notable sodomites as the song has it.

The worth of slit the Afghan knows; The worth of hole the Kabul-man.

[FN#599] So that he might not have to do with three sisters-german. Moreover amongst Moslems a girl's conduct is presaged by that of her mother; and if one sister go wrong, the other is expected to follow suit. Practically the rule applies everywhere, "like mother like daughter."

[FN#600] In sign of dissent; as opposed to nodding the head which signifies a.s.sent. These are two items, apparently instinctive and universal, of man's gesture-language which has been so highly cultivated by sundry North American tribes and by the surdo-mute establishments of Europe.

[FN#601] This "Futur" is the real "breakfast" of the East, the "Chhoti hazri" (pet.i.t dejeuner) of India, a bit of bread, a cup of coffee or tea and a pipe on rising. In the text, however, it is a ceremonious affair.

[FN#602] Arab. "Nahs," a word of many meanings; a sinister aspect of the stars (as in Hebr. end Aram.) or, adjectivally, sinister, of ill-omen. Vulgarly it is used as the reverse of nice and corresponds, after a fas.h.i.+on, with our "nasty."

[FN#603] "Window-gardening," new in England, is an old practice in the East.

[FN#604] Her pimping instinct at once revealed the case to her.

[FN#605] The usual "pander-dodge" to get more money.

[FN#606] The writer means that the old woman's account was all false, to increase apparent difficulties and pour se faire valoir.

[FN#607] Arab. "Ya Khalati" =mother's sister; a familiar address to the old, as uncle or nuncle (father's brother) to a man. The Arabs also hold that as a girl resembles her mother so a boy follows his uncle (mother's brother): hence the address "Ya tayyib al-Khal!" = 0 thou nephew of a good uncle. I have noted that physically this is often fact.

[FN#608] "Ay w' Allahi," contracted popularly to Aywa, a word in every Moslem mouth and shunned by Christians because against orders Hebrew and Christian. The better educated Turks now eschew that eternal reference to Allah which appears in The Nights and which is still the custom of the vulgar throughout the world of Al-Islam.

[FN#609] The "Muzayyin" or barber in the East brings his basin and budget under his arm: he is not content only to shave, he must sc.r.a.pe the forehead, trim the eyebrows, pa.s.s the blade lightly over the nose and correct the upper and lower lines of the mustachios, opening the central parting and so forth. He is not a whit less a tattler and a scandal monger than the old Roman tonsor or Figaro, his confrere in Southern Europe. The whole scene of the Barber is admirable, an excellent specimen of Arab humour and not over-caricatured. We all have met him.

[FN#610] Abdullah ibn Abbas was a cousin and a companion of the Apostle, also a well known Commentator on the Koran and conserver of the traditions of Mohammed.

[FN#611] I have noticed the antiquity of this father of our s.e.xtant, a fragment of which was found in the Palace of Sennacherib. More concerning the "Arstable" (as Chaucer calls it) is given in my "Camoens: his Life and his Lusiads," p. 381.

[FN#612] Arab. "Simiya" to rhyme with Kimiya (alchemy proper). It is a subordinate branch of the Ilm al-Ruhani which I would translate "Spiritualism," and which is divided into two great branches, "Ilwi or Rahmani" (the high or related to the Deity) and Sifli or Shaytani (low, Satanic). To the latter belongs Al-Sahr, magic or the black art proper, gramarye, egromancy, while Al- Simiya is white magic, electro-biology, a kind of natural and deceptive magic, in which drugs and perfumes exercise an important action. One of its princ.i.p.al branches is the Darb al-Mandal or magic mirror, of which more in a future page. See Boccaccio's Day x. Novel 5.

[FN#613] Chap. iii., 128. See Sale (in loco) for the n.o.ble application of this text by the Imam Hasan, son of the Caliph Ali.

[FN#614] These proverbs at once remind us of our old friend Sancho Panza and are equally true to nature in the mouth of the Arab and of the Spaniard.

[FN#615] Our nurses always carry in the arms: Arabs place the children astraddle upon the hip and when older on the shoulder.

[FN#616] Eastern clothes allow this biblical display of sorrow and vexation, which with our European garb would look absurd: we must satisfy ourselves with maltreating our hats

[FN#617] Koran xlviii., 8. It may be observed that according to the Ahadis (sayings of the Prophet) and the Sunnat (sayings and doings of Mahommed), all the hair should be allowed to grow or the whole head be clean shaven. Hence the "Shushah," or topknot, supposed to be left as a handle for drawing the wearer into Paradise, and the Zulf, or side-locks, somewhat like the ringlets of the Polish Jews, are both vain "Bida'at," or innovations, and therefore technically termed "Makruh," a practice not laudable, neither "Halal" (perfectly lawful) nor "Haram" (forbidden by the law). When boys are first shaved generally in the second or third year, a tuft is left on the crown and another over the forehead; but this is not the fas.h.i.+on amongst adults. Abu Hanifah, if I am rightly informed, wrote a treatise on the Shushah or long lock growing from the Nasiyah (head-poll) which is also a precaution lest the decapitated Moslem's mouth be defiled by an impure hand; and thus it would resemble the chivalry lock by which the Redskin brave (and even the "cowboy" of better times) facilitated the removal of his own scalp. Possibly the Turks had learned the practice from the Chinese and introduced it into Baghdad (Pilgrimage i., 240). The Badawi plait their locks in Kurun (horns) or Jadail (ringlets) which are undone only to be washed with the water of the she-camel. The wild Sherifs wear Haffah, long elf-locks hanging down both sides of the throat, and shaved away about a finger's breadth round the forehead and behind the neck (Pilgrimage iii., 35-36). I have elsewhere noted the accroche-coeurs, the "idiot fringe," etc.

[FN#618] Meats are rarely coloured in modern days; but Persian cooks are great adepts in staining rice for the "Pulao (which we call after its Turkish corruption "pilaff"): it sometimes appears in rainbow-colours, red, yellow and blue; and in India is covered with gold and silver leaf. Europe retains the practice in tinting Pasch (Easter) eggs, the survival of the mundane ovum which was hatched at Easter-tide; and they are dyed red in allusion to the Blood of Redemption.

[FN#619] As I have noticed, this is a mixture.

[FN#620] We say:--

Tis rare the father in the son we see: He sometimes rises in the third degree.

[FN#621] Arab. "Ballan" i.e. the body-servant: "Ballanah" is a tire-woman.

[FN#622] Arab. "Darabukkah" a drum made of wood or earthen-ware (Lane, M. E., xviii.), and used by all in Egypt.

[FN#623] Arab. "Naihah" more generally "Naddabah" Lat. praefica or carina, a hired mourner, the Irish "Keener" at the conclamatio or coronach, where the Hullabaloo, Hulululu or Ululoo showed the survivors' sorrow.

[FN#624] These doggerels, which are like our street melodies, are now forgotten and others have taken their place. A few years ago one often heard, "Dus ya lalli" (Tread, O my joy) and "n.a.z.il il'al-Ganinah" (Down into the garden) and these in due turn became obsolete. Lane (M. E. chaps. xviii.) gives the former e.g.

Tread, O my joy! Tread, O my joy!

Love of my love brings sore annoy,

A chorus to such stanzas as:--

Alexandrian damsels rare! * Daintily o'er the floor ye fare: Your lips are sweet, are sugar-sweet, * And purfled Cashmere shawls ye wear!

It may be noted that "humming" is not a favourite practice with Moslems; if one of the company begin, another will say, "Go to the Kahwah" (the coffee-house, the proper music-hall) "and sing there!" I have elsewhere observed their dislike to Al-sifr or whistling.

[FN#625] Arab. Khali'a = worn out, crafty, an outlaw; used like Span. "Perdido."

[FN#626] "Zabbal" is the scavenger, lit. a dung-drawer, especially for the use of the Hammam which is heated with the droppings of animals. "Wakkad" (stoker) is the servant who turns the fire. The verses are mere nonsense to suit the Barber's humour.

[FN#627] Arab. "Ya barid" = O fool.

[FN#628] This form of blessing is chanted from the Minaret about half-an-hour before midday, when the wors.h.i.+ppers take their places in the mosque. At noon there is the usual Azan or prayer-call, and each man performs a two-bow, in honour of the mosque and its gathering, as it were. The Prophet is then blessed and a second Salam is called from the raised ambo or platform (dikkah) by the divines who repeat the midday-call. Then an Imam recites the first Khutbah, or sermon "of praise"; and the congregation wors.h.i.+ps in silence. This is followed by the second exhortation "of Wa'az," dispensing the words of wisdom. The Imam now stands up before the Mihrab (prayer niche) and recites the Ikamah which is the common Azan with one only difference: after "Hie ye to salvation" it adds "Come is the time of supplication;"

whence the name, "causing" (prayer) "to stand" (i.e., to begin).

Hereupon the wors.h.i.+ppers recite the Farz or Koran commanded noon-prayer of Friday; and the unco' guid add a host of superogatories Those who would study the subject may consult Lane (M. E. chaps. iii. and its abstract in his "Arabian Nights," I, p. 430, or note 69 to chaps. v.).

[FN#629] i.e., the women loosed their hair; an immodesty sanctioned only by a great calamity.

[FN#630] These small shops are composed of a "but" and a "ben."

(Pilgrimage i., 99.)

[FN#631] Arab. "Kawwad," a popular term of abuse; hence the Span.

and Port. "Alco-viteiro." The Italian "Galeotto" is from Galahalt, not Galahad.

[FN#632] i.e., "one seeking a.s.sistance in Allah." He was the son of Al-Zahir bi'llah (one pre-eminent by the decree of Allah).

Lane says (i. 430), "great- grandson of Harun al-Ras.h.i.+d,"

alluding to the first Mustansir son of Al-Mutawakkil (regn. A.H.

247-248 =861-862). But this is the 56th Abbaside and regn. A. H.

623-640 (= 1226-1242).

[FN#633] Arab. "Yaum al-Id," the Kurban Bairam of the Turks, the Pilgrimage festival. The story is historical. In the "Akd," a miscellany compiled by Ibn Abd Rabbuh (vulg. Rabbi-hi) of Cordova, who ob. A. H. 328 = 940 we read:--A sponger found ten criminals and followed them, imagining they were going to a feast; but lo, they were going to their deaths! And when they were slain and he remained, he was brought before the Khalifah (Al Maamun) and Ibrahim son of Al- Mahdi related a tale to procure pardon for the man, whereupon the Khalifah pardoned him.

(Lane ii., 506.)