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

[FN#103] This forward movement on the part of the fair one is held to be very insulting by the modest Moslem. This incident is wanting in "Women's Wiles."

[FN#104] Arab. "Labbah," usually the part of the throat where ornaments are hung or camels are stabbed.

[FN#105] The chief of the Moslem Church. For the origin of the office and its date (A.D. 1453) see vols. ix. 289, and x. 81.

[FN#106] Arab. "Satihah"=a she-Satih: this seer was a headless and neckless body, with face in breast, lacking members and lying prostrate on the ground. His fellow, "s.h.i.+kk," was a half-man, and both foretold the divine mission of Mohammed. (Ibn Khall. i.

487.)

[FN#107] Arab. "Wakt al-Zuha;" the division of time between sunrise and midday.

[FN#108] In the text "Sufrah"=the cloth: see vol. i. 178, etc.

[FN#109] Arab. "Ya Tinjir," lit.=O Kettle.

[FN#110] Arab. "Tari," lit.=wet, with its concomitant suggestion, soft and pleasant like desert-rain.

[FN#111] Here meaning "Haste, haste!" See vol. i. 46.

[FN#112] The chief man (Agha) of the Gypsies, the Jink of Egypt whom Turkish soldiers call Ghiovende, a race of singers and dancers; in fact professional Nautch-girls. See p. 222, "Account of the Gypsies of India," by David MacRitchie (London, K. Paul, 1886), a most useful manual.

[FN#113] Arab. "Kurush," plur of. "Kirsh" (p.r.o.n. "Girsh"), the Egyptian piastre=one-fifth of a s.h.i.+lling. The word may derive from Karsh=collecting money; but it is more probably a corruption of Groschen, primarily a great or thick piece of money and secondarily a small silver coin=3 kreuzers=1 penny.

[FN#114] The purse ("Kis") is=500 piastres (kurush)=5; and a thousand purses compose the Treasury ("Khaznah")=5,000.

[FN#115] MS. vol. iii. pp. 179-303. It is Scott's "Story of the Retired Sage and his Pupil, related to the Sultan by the Second Lunatic," vi. pp. 52-67; and Gauttier's Histoire du Sage, vi.

199-2l4. The scene is laid in Cairo.

[FN#116] Meaning that he was an orphan and had, like the well-known widow, "seen better days."

[FN#117] The phrase, I have noted, is not merely pleonastic: it emphasises the a.s.sertion that it was a chance day.

[FN#118] An old Plinian fable long current throughout the East.

It is the Pers. Nim-chihreh, and the Arab s.h.i.+kk and possibly Nasnas=nisf al-Nas (?) See vol. v. 333. s.h.i.+kk had received from Allah only half the form of a man, and his rival diviner Satih was a shapeless man of flesh without limbs. They lived in the days of a woman named Tarifah, daughter of Al-Khayr al-Himyari and wife of Amru bin 'Amir who was famous for having intercourse with the Jann. When about to die she sent for the two, on account of their deformity and the influence exercised upon them by the demons; and, having spat into their mouths, bequeathed to them her Jinni, after which she departed life and was buried at Al-Johfah. Presently they became noted soothsayers; s.h.i.+kk had issue but Satih none; they lived 300 (some say 600) years, and both died shortly before the birth of the Prophet concerning whom they prophesied. When the Tobba of Al-Yaman dreamed that a dove flew from a holy place and settled in the Tihamah (lowland-seaboard) of Meccah, Satih interpreted it to signify that a Prophet would arise to destroy idols and to teach the best of faiths. The two also predicted (according to Tabari) to Al-Rabi'ah, son of Nasr, a Jewish king of Al-yaman, that the Habash (Abyssinians) should conquer the country, govern it, and be expelled, and after this a Prophet should arise amongst the Arabs and bring a new religion which all should embrace and which should endure until Doomsday. Compare this with the divining damsel in Acts xvi. 16-18.

[FN#119] Arab. "Kahramanah;" the word has before been explained as a nurse, a duenna, an Amazon guarding the Harem. According to C. de Perceval (pere) it was also the t.i.tle given by the Abbasides to the Governess of the Serraglio.

[FN#120] So in the Apocrypha ("Tobias" vi. 8). Tobit is taught by the Archangel Raphael to drive away evil spirits (or devils) by the smoke of a bit of fish's heart. The practice may date from the earliest days when "Evil Spirits" were created by man. In India, when Europeans deride the existence of Jinns and Rakshasas, and declare that they never saw one, the people receive this information with a smile which means only, "I should think not! you and yours are worse than any of our devils."

[FN#121] An Inquisitorial costume called in the text "Shamiyat bi al-Nar."

[FN#122] A tribe of the Jinn sometimes made synonymous with "Marid" and at other times contrasted with these rebels, as in the Story of Ma'aruf and J. Scott's "History of the Sultan of Hind" (vol. vi. 195). For another note see The Nights, iv. 88.

[FN#123] Arab. "'Ilm al-Huruf," not to be confounded with the "'Ilm al-Jumal," or "Hisab Al-Jumal," a notation by numerical values of the alphabet. See Lumsden's Grammar of the Persian Language, i. 37.

[FN#124] Like our "Cut your mutton," or manger la soupe or die suppe einzunehmen. For this formula meaning like the Brazilian "cup of water," a grand feast, see vol. vii. 168.

[FN#125] Arab. "Tafazzal," a most useful word employed upon almost all occasions of invitation and mostly equivalent to "Have the kindness," etc. See vol. ii. 103.

[FN#126] The Shaykh for humility sits at the side, not at the "Sadr," or top of the room; but he does not rise before the temporal power. The Sultan is equally courteous and the Shaykh honours him by not keeping silence.

[FN#127] Arab. "Miat Mamluk kitabi," the latter word meaning "one of the Book, a Jew" (especially), or a Christian.

[FN#128] This MS. prefers the rare form "Al-Jann" for the singular.

[FN#129] These flags, I have noticed, are an unfailing accompaniment of a Jinn army.

[FN#130] MS. vol. iii. pp. 203-210; Scott, "Night Adventure of the Sultan," pp. 68-71. Gauttier, Aventure nocturne du Sulthan, vi. 214.

[FN#131] Arab. "Mashrut shadak." Ashdak is usually applied to a wide-chapped face, like that of Margaret Maultasch or Mickle-mouthed Meg. Here, however, it alludes to an accidental deformity which will presently be described.

[FN#132] Arab. "Amsik lisana-k": the former word is a standing "chaff" with the Turks, as in their tongue it means cunnus-p.e.n.i.s and nothing else. I ever found it advisable when speaking Arabic before Osmanlis, to use some such equivalent as Khuz=take thou.

[FN#133] This is the familiar incident in "Ali Baba": Supplem.

vol iii. 231, etc.

[FN#134] MS. iii. 210-214. Scott's "Story of the broken-backed Schoolmaster," vi. pp. 72-75, and Gauttier's "Histoire du Maitre d'ecole ereinte," vi. 217. The Arabic is "Muaddib al-Atfal"=one who teacheth children. I have before noted that amongst Moslems the Schoolmaster is always a fool. So in Europe of the 16th century probably no less than one-third of the current jests turned upon the Romish clergy and its phenomenal ignorance compared with that of the pagan augur. The Story of the First Schoolmaster is one of the most humorous in this MS.

[FN#135] For the usual ceremony when a Moslem sneezes, see vol.

ix. 220.

[FN#136] The "day in the country," lately become such a favourite with English schools, is an old Eastern custom.

[FN#137] MS. iii. 214-219. Scott's "Story of the wry-mouthed Schoolmaster," vi. pp. 74-75: Gauttier's Histoire du Second Estropie, vi. p. 220.

[FN#138] In these days the whole would be about 10d.

[FN#139] Pay-day for the boys in Egypt. The Moslem school has often been described but it always attracts the curiosity of strangers. The Moorish or Maroccan variety is a simple affair; "no forms, no desks, few books. A number of boards about the size of foolscap, whitewashed on either side, whereon the lessons--from the alphabet to sentences of the Koran--are plainly written in large black letters; a pen and ink, a book and a switch or two, complete the paraphernalia. The dominie, squatting on the ground, tailor-fas.h.i.+on, like his pupils, who may number from ten to thirty, repeats the lesson in a sonorous singsong voice, and is imitated by the urchins, who accompany their voices by a rocking to and fro which sometimes enables them to keep time. A sharp application of the cane is wonderfully effectual in recalling wandering attention; and lazy boys are speedily expelled. On the admission of a pupil, the parents pay some small sum, varying according to their means, and every Wednesday, which is a half-holiday, a payment is made from 1/4d. to 2d. New moons and feasts are made occasions for larger payments, and are also holidays, which last ten days during the two greater festivals.

Thursdays are whole holidays, and no work is done on Friday mornings, that day being the Mohammedan 'Sabbath,' or at least 'meeting day,' as it is called. When the pupils have mastered the first short chapter of the Koran, it is customary for them to be paraded round the town on horseback, with ear-splitting music, and sometimes charitably disposed persons make small presents to the youngster by way of encouragement. After the first, the last is learned, then the last but one, and so on, backwards, as, with the exception of the first, the longest chapters are at the beginning. Though reading and a little writing are taught, at the same time, all the scholars do not arrive at the pitch of perfection necessary to indite a polite letter, so that consequently there is plenty of employment for the numerous scribes or Talibs who make a profession of writing. These may frequently be seen in small rooms opening on to the street, usually very respectably dressed in a white flowing haik and large turban, and in most cases of venerable appearance, their noses being adorned with huge goggles. Before them are their appliances,--pens made of reeds, ink, paper, and sand in lieu of blotting paper. They usually possess also a knife and scissors, with a case to hold them all. In writing, they place the paper on the knee, or upon a pad of paper in the left hand." The main merit of the village school in Eastern lands is its noises which teach the boy to concentrate his attention. As Dr. Wilson of Bombay said, the young idea is taught to shout as well as to shoot, and this viva voce process is a far better mnemonic than silent reading. Moreover it is fine practice in the art of concentrating attention.

[FN#140] Arab. "Mikshat," whose root would be "Kasht"=skinning (a camel).

[FN#141] Evidently said ironice as of innocents. In "The Forty Vezirs" we read, "At length they perceived that all this tumult arose from their trusting on this wise the words of children."

(Lady's XXth Tale.)

[FN#142] MS. iii. 219-220. For some unaccountable reason it is omitted by Scott (vi. 76), who has written English words in the margin of the W. M. Codex.

[FN#143] In text "Kadum," for "Kudum," a Syrian form.

[FN#144] Arab. "Hidyah," which in Egypt means a falcon; see vol.

iii. 138.

[FN#145] Arab. "Sifah,"=lit. a quality.

[FN#146] Arab. "Istilah"=specific dialect, idiom. See De Sacy, Chrestomathie, i. 443, where the learned Frenchman shows abundant learning, but does very little for the learner.

[FN#147] In the text "Kattan"=linen, flax.

[FN#148] Arab. "Fi Jifan ka'l-Jawabi!" which, I suppose, means small things (or men) and great.