The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume XIV Part 15

[FN#16] Arab. "Ja'idiyah," a favourite word in this MS.

"Ja'ad"=a curl, a liberal man: Ja'ad al-yad=miserly, and Abu ja'dah=father of curls,=a wolf. Scott (pa.s.sim) translates the word "Sharper;" Gore Ouseley "Labourer;" and De Sacy (Chrestomathie ii. 369, who derives it from Ju'd=avoir les cheveux crepus): in Egypt, homme de la populace, canaille. He finds it in the Fabrica Linguae Arab. of Germa.n.u.s of Silesia (p.

786)=ignavis, hebes, stupidus, esp. a coward. Ibrahim Salamah of Alexandria makes the term signify in Syria, impudent, thieving, wicked. Spitta Bey translates this word musicien ambulant in his Gloss. to Contes Arabes, p. 171. According to Dr. Steinga.s.s, who, with the Muhit al-Muhit, reads "Ju'aydiyah," Ju'ayd is said to be the P. N. of an Egyptian clown, who, with bell-hung cap and tambourine in hand, wandered about the streets singing laudatory doggrel and pestering the folk for money. Many vagabonds who adopted this calling were named after him and the word was generalised in that sense.

[FN#17] MS. vol. iii. pp. 96-121. Scott, "Story of the Three Sharpers and the Sultan," pp. 7-17; Gauttier, Histoire des trois filous et d'un Sulthan, vi. 165-176.

[FN#18] Arab. Yasrahu=roaming, especially at early dawn; hence the wolf is called "Sirhan," and Yaklishu (if I read it aright) is from Kulsh, and equivalent to "kicking" (their heels).

[FN#19] Nusf=half a dirham, drachma or franc, see ii. 37; vi.

214, etc.

[FN#20] Bast, a preparation of Bhang (Cannabis Sativa), known in Egypt but not elsewhere: see Lane, M. E., chapt. xv. Here it is made synonymous with "Has.h.i.+sh"=Bhang in general.

[FN#21] Ghaushah, a Persianism for which "Ghaugha" is a more common form. "Ghaush" is a tree of hard wood whereof musical instruments were made; hence the mod. words "Ghasha" and "Ghawwasha"=he produced a sound, and "Ghaushah"=tumult, quarrel.

According to Dr. Steinga.s.s, the synon. in the native dicts. are "Khisam," "Lag-hat," "Jalabah," etc.

[FN#22] Said ironice, the jeweller being held to be one of the dishonest cla.s.ses, like the washerman, the water-carrier, the gardener, etc. In England we may find his representative in the "silversmith," who will ask a pound sterling for a bit of metal which cost him perhaps five s.h.i.+llings or even less, and who hates to be bought by weight. The Arab. has "Jauhar-ji," a Turkish form for Jauhari; and here "jauhar" apparently means a pearl, the stone once peculiar to royalty in Persia, but the kind of gem is left undetermined.

[FN#23] Arab. "Saza, yasizu," not a dictionary word. Perhaps it is a clerical error for "S sa," he groomed or broke in a horse, hence understood all about horses.

[FN#24] In the orig. "s...o...b..h," Pers.=a mess of pottage: I have altered it for reasons which will presently appear.

[FN#25] Arab. "Ghabasah," from Ghabas=obscure, dust-coloured.

[FN#26] Arab. "Susah"=a weevil, a moth, a worm. It does not mean simply a flaw, but a live animal (like our toads in the rock); and in the popular version of the tale the lapidary discovers its presence by the stone warming in his hand.

[FN#27] Arab. "Masha'ili" the cresset-bearer who acted hangman: see vol. i. 259, etc.

[FN#28] Arab. "Ta'kil," tying up a camel's foreleg above the knee; the primary meaning of Akl, which has so many secondary significations.

[FN#29] Arab. "Suwan," lit.=rock, syenite, hard stone, flint; here a marteau de guerre.

[FN#30] Arab. "Halik"=intensely black, so as to look blue under a certain angle of light.

[FN#31] Arab. "Rikab" (=stirrup) + "dar" Pers. (=holder).

[FN#32] I have ransacked dictionaries and vocabularies but the word is a mere blank.

[FN#33] Arab. "Jamusah." These mules are believed in by the Arabs. Shaw and other travellers mention the Mauritanian "Jumart," the breed between a bull and a mare (or jennya.s.s) or an a.s.s and a cow. Buffon disbelieved in the mongrel, holding it to be a mere bardeau, got by a stallion horse out of an a.s.s.

Voltaire writes "Jumarre" after German fas.h.i.+on and Littre derives it from jument + art (finale pejorative), or the Languedoc "Gimere" which according to Diez suggests "Chimaera." Even in London not many years ago a mule was exhibited as the issue of a horse and a stag. No Indian ever allows his colt to drink buffalo's milk, the idea being that a horse so fed will lie down in instead of fording or swimming a stream.

[FN#34] See Sindbad the Seaman, vol. vi. 9.

[FN#35] Arab. "Mubattat" from batt=a duck: in Persia the Batt-i-May is a wine-gla.s.s shaped like the duck. Scott (vi. 12) translates "thick and longish."

[FN#36] Arab. "his Harim"; see vol. i. 165; iv. 126. VOL. XIV.

[FN#37] Again "he" for she. See vol. ii. 179.

[FN#38] Arab. "Ghaziyah": for the plur. "Ghawazi" see vol. i.

214; also Lane (M.E.) index under "Ghazeeyehs."

[FN#39] The figure prothesis without apodosis. Understand "will slay thee": see vol. vi. 203.

[FN#40] Because the girl had not been a professional dancer, i.e a public prost.i.tute.

[FN#41] Arab. "Aman"=quarter, mercy: see vol. i. 342.

[FN#42] For the "Mandil" of mercy see vol. i. 343; for that of dismissal x. 47 and Ibn Khall. iv. 211. In Spitta Bey's "Contes Arabes" (p. 223), I find throwing the kerchief (taramma al mahramah) used in the old form of choosing a mate. In the Tale of the Sultan of AlYaman and his three Sons (Supplem. Nights, vol.

iv.) the Princesses drop their kerchiefs upon the head of the Prince who had saved them, by way of pointing him out.

[FN#43] Arab. "Sattar:" see vols. i. 258 and iii. 41.

[FN#44] In the text "Argha" for "Arkha"=he "brayed" (like an ostrich, etc.) for "his limbs relaxed." It reminds one of the German missionary's fond address to his flock, "My prethren, let us bray!"

[FN#45] Arab. "Azbad," from Zbd (Zabd)=foaming, frothing, etc., whence "Zubaydah," etc.

[FN#46] Arab. "Zabh" (Zbh)=the ceremonial killing of animals for food: see vols. v. 391; viii. 44. I may note, as a proof of how modern is the civilisation of Europe that the domestic fowl was unknown to Europe till about the time of Pericles (ob. B.C. 429).

[FN#47] See in "The Forty Vizirs" (Lady's ivth Tale) how Khizr tells the King the origin of his Ministers from the several punishments which they propose for the poor man. I have noticed this before in Night cccx.x.xiii. Boethius, translated by Chaucer, explains the underlying idea, "All thynges seken ayen to hir propre course and all thynges rejoysen in hir returninge agayne to hir nature."

[FN#48] For the Taylasan hood see vol. iv. 286.

[FN#49] The "Kalansuwah"-cap is noted by Lane (A. N. chapt. iii.

22) as "Kalensuweh." In M. E. (Supplement i. "The Copts") he alters the word to Kalas'weh and describes it as a strip of woollen stuff, of a deep blue or black colour, about four inches wide, attached beneath the turban and hanging down the back to the length of about a foot. It is the distinguis.h.i.+ng mark of the Coptic regular clergy.

[FN#50] W. M. MS. vol. iii. pp. 121-141. Scott, "The Adventures of the abdicated Sultan," pp. 18-19; including the "History of Mahummud, Sultan of Cairo," pp. 20-30.

[FN#51] "Kahirah." I repeat my belief (Pilgrimage i. 171) that "Kahirah," whence our "Cairo" through the Italian corruption, means not la victorieuse (Mediant al-Kahirah) as D'Herbelot has it; but City of Kahir or Mars the planet. It was so called because as Richardson informed the world (sub voce) it was founded in A.H. 358 (=A.D. 968) when the warlike planet was in the ascendant by the famous General Jauhar a Dalmatian renegade (not a "Greek slave") for the first of the Fatimite dynasty Al-Mu'izz li 'l-dini 'llah.

[FN#52] According to Caussin de Perceval (pere) in his translation of the "Contes Arabes," there are four wonders in the Moslem world: (1) the Pharos of Alexandria; (2) the Bridge of Sanjia in Northern Syria; (3) The Church of Rohab (Edessa); and (4) the Amawi Mosque of Damascus.

[FN#53] Arab. "Faddah," lit.=silver, because made of copper alloyed with n.o.bler metal; the smallest Egyptian coin=Nuss (i.e.

Nusf, or half a dirham) and the Turk. parah. It is the fortieth of the piastre and may be a.s.sumed at the value of a quarter-farthing.

[FN#54] This word, in Egypt. "Harag," is the cry with which the Dallal (broker) announces each sum bidden at an auction.

[FN#55] The Portuguese Xerafim: Supplemental Nights, vol. iii.

166.

[FN#56] A Khan or caravanserai: see vol. i. 266 and Pilgrimage i.

60.

[FN#57] Arab. "Hilm" (vision) "au 'Ilm" (knowledge) a phrase peculiar to this MS.

[FN#58] The careless scribe forgets that the Sultan is speaking and here drops into the third person. This "Enallage of persons"

is, however, Koranic and therefore cla.s.sical: Arab critics aver that in such cases the "Hikayah" (=literal reproduction of a discourse, etc.) pa.s.ses into an "Ikhbar"=mere account of the same discourse). See Al Mas'udi iii. 216. I dare not reproduce this figure in English.

[FN#50] Arab. "Auzah," the Pers. Otak and the Turk. Otah (vulg.