The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume XVI Part 29

[FN#124] "Al-Natur," the keeper, esp. of a vineyard, a word naturalized in Persian. The Caliph asks, Is this a bon> fide affair and hast thou the power to settle the matter definitely?

M. Houdas translates as Les raisins sont-ils a toi, ou bien es-tu seulement la gardienne de la vigne? [The verb zaraba, 3rd form, followed by the accusative, means "to join one in partners.h.i.+p."

The sense of the pa.s.sage seems therefore to be: Dost thou own grapes thyself, or art thou ("tuzaribi," 2 fem. sing.) in partners.h.i.+p with the vineyard-keeper. The word may be chosen because it admits of another interpretation, the double entendre of which might be kept up in English by using the expression "sleeping" partners.h.i.+p. Perhaps, however, "tuzaribi" means here simply: "Dost thou play the part of."--ST.]

[FN#125] The innuendo is intelligible and I may draw attention to the humorous skill with which the mother-in-law's character is drawn.

[FN#126] In text "Aska-hu 'alakah" = gave him a good sound drubbing ('alakah), as a robber would apply to a Judge had he the power.

[FN#127] Lest he happen to meet an unveiled woman on the stairs; the usual precaution is to cry "Dastur!" by your leave (Persian).

[FN#128] Arab. "Khayr"--a word of good omen.

[FN#129] In Chavis and Cazotte the mother gives her daughter's name as Zutulbe (?) and her own Lelamain (?).

[FN#130] In text "Waliyah" or "Waliyah" = and why?

[FN#131] The "Wronged" (Al-Mazlum) refers to the Caliph who was being abused and to his coming career as a son-in-law. Gauttier, who translates the tale very perfunctorily, has Dieu protege les malheureux et les orphelins (vii. 133).

[FN#132] This again is intended to show the masterful nature of the Caliph, and would be as much admired by the average coffee- house audience as it would stir the bile of the free and independent Briton.

[FN#133] The "Street of the Copperas-maker": the name, as usual, does not appear till further on in the tale.

[FN#134] In text "Rukham" = marble or alabaster, here used for building material: so "Murakhkhim" = a marble-cutter, means simply a stone-mason. I may here note the rediscovery of the porphyry quarries in Middle Egypt, and the gypsum a little inland of Ras Gharib to the West of the Suez Gulf. Both were much used by the old Egyptians, and we may now fairly expect to rediscover the lost sites, about Tunis and elsewhere in Northern Africa, whence Rosso antico and other fine stones were quarried.

[FN#135] Arab. "Al-Hasil" also meaning the taxes, the revenue.

[FN#136] In text "Ka'ah" = a saloon: see vols. i. 85; i. 292; and vii. 167.

[FN#137] In the sing. "Sikalah."

[FN#138] The Jinn here was Curiosity, said to be a familiar of the s.e.x feminine, but certainly not less intimate with "the opposite."

[FN#139] In text "Kinnab" which M. Houdas translates etoupe que l'on fixe an bout d'un roseau pour blanchir les murs.

[FN#140] Impossible here not to see a sly hit at the Caliph and the Caliphate.

[FN#141] The writer has omitted this incident which occurs in Chavis and Cazotte.

[FN#142] In the text, "Samd" = carpets and pots and pans.

[FN#143] The Kata grouse (Tetrao alchata seu arenarius of Linn.) has often been noticed by me in Pilg. I. 226 (where my indexer called it "sand goose") and in The Nights (vols. i. 131; iv.

111). De Sacy (Chrestom. Arab. iii pp. 416, 507-509) offers a good literary account of it: of course he cannot speak from personal experience. He begins with the Ajaib al-Makhlukat by Al- Kazwini (ob. A.H. 674 = A.D. 1274) who tells us that the bird builds in the desert a very small nest (whence the Hadis, "Whoso shall build to Allah a mosque, be it only the bigness of a Kata's nest, the Lord shall edify for him a palace in Paradise"); that it abandons its eggs which are sometimes buried in sand, and presently returns to them (hence the saying, "A better guide than the Kata"); that it watches at night (?) and that it frequents highways to reconnoitre travellers (? ?), an interpretation confirmed by the Persian translator. Its short and graceful steps gave rise to the saying, "She hath the gait of a Kata," and makes De Sacy confound the bird with the Pers. Kahu or Kabk-i-dari (partridge of the valley), which is simply the francolin, the Ital. francolino, a perdrix. The latter in Arab. Is "Durraj" (Al- Mas'udi, vii. 347): see an affecting story connected with it in the Suppl. Nights (ii. 4O-43). In the xxiiid a.s.s. of Al-Hariri the sagacity of the Kata is alluded to, "I crossed rocky places, to which the Kata would not find its way." See also a.s.s. viii.

But Mr. Chenery repeats a mistake when he says (p. 339) that the bird is "never found save where there is good pasturage and water:" it haunts the wildest parts of Sind and Arabia, although it seldom strays further than 60 miles from water which it must drink every evening. I have never shot the Kata since he saved my party from a death by thirst on a return-ride from Harar (First Footsteps in E. Africa, p. 388). The bird is very swift, with a skurrying flight like a frightened Pigeon; and it comes to water regularly about dusk when it is easily "potted."

[FN#144] In text "Samman" for "Samman": Dozy gives the form "Summun" (Hondas). The literary name is "Salwa."

[FN#145] For Wali (at one time a Civil Governor and in other ages a Master of Police) see vol. i. 259.

[FN#146] Prob. a corruption of the Pers. "Nazuk," adj. delicate, nice.

[FN#147] In text "Jaftawat," which is, I presume, the Arab. plur.

of the Turk. "Chifut" a Jew, a mean fellow. M. Hondas refers to Dozy s.v. "Jaftah." [The Turkish word referred to by Dozy is "Chifte" from the Persian "Juft" = a pair, any two things coupled together. "Masha'iliyah jaftawat wa fa.n.u.sin" in the text would therefore be "(cresset-) bearers of double torches and lanterns,"

where the plural fa.n.u.sin is remarkable as a vulgarism, instead of the Dictionary form "Fawanis."--ST.]

[FN#148] So in Chavis and Cazotte: Gauttier and Heron prefer (vol. i. 38) "Chamama." They add, "That daemon incarnate gave out himself that Satan was his father and the devil Camos (?) his brother." The Arab word is connected with shamma = he smelt, and suggests the policeman smoking plots.

[FN#149] i.e. concealing the secret sins of the people. This sketch of the cad policeman will find many an original in the London force, if the small householder speak the truth.

[FN#150] Qui n'ait un point de contact aver l'une de ces categories--(Houdas).

[FN#151] In the old translations "The Hazen" (Khazin = treasurer?) which wholly abolishes the double entendre.

[FN#152] In text "Darbisi al-bab" from the Persian, "Dar bastan"

= to tie up, to shut.

[FN#153] In text "Ghaush" for "Ghaushah" = noise, row.

[FN#154] "Akkal bula'hu" i.e. commit all manner of abominations.

"To eat skite" is to talk or act foolishly.

[FN#155] In the old translations "Ilamir Youmis."

[FN#156] In text "Dabbus bazdaghani," which I have translated as if from the Pers. "Bazdagh"

= a file. But it may be a clerical error for "Bardawani," the well-known city in Hindostan whose iron was famous.

[FN#157] "Nahs" means something more than ill-omened, something nasty, foul, uncanny: see vol. i. 301.

[FN#158] In Chavis, Heron and Co. there are two ladders to scale the garden wall and descend upon the house-terrace which apparently they do not understand to be the roof.

[FN#159] Arab. "Al-Kafi'ah" = garde-fou, rebord d'une terra.s.se-- (Houdas).

[FN#160] Our vulgar "Houri": see vols. i. 90; iii. 233. There are many meanings of Hawar; one defines it as intense darkness of the black of the eye and corresponding whiteness; another that it is all which appears of the eye (as in the gazelle) meaning that the blackness is so large as to exclude the whiteness; whilst a third defines "Haura" as a woman beautiful in the "Mahajir" (parts below and around the eyes which show when the face is veiled), and a fourth as one whose whiteness of eye appears in contrast with the black of the Kohl-Powder. See Chenery's Al-Hariri, pp.

354-55.

[FN#161] Arab. "Zalamah" = tyrants, oppressors (police and employes): see vols. i. 273, and vi. 214.

[FN#162] In text "Kunna nu'tihu li-ahad" = we should have given him to someone; which makes very poor sense. [The whole pa.s.sage runs: "Haza allazi kasam allah bi-hi fa-lau kana rajul jayyid ghayr luss kunna nu'ti-hu li-ahad," which I would translate: This is he concerning whom Allah decreed (that he should be my portion, swearing:) "and if he were a good man and no thief we would have bestowed him on someone." In "kasama" the three ideas of decreeing, giving as a share, and binding one's self by oath are blended together. If it should appear out of place to introduce Divinity itself as speaking in this context, we must not forget that the person spoken of is no less ill.u.s.trious individual than Harun al-Ras.h.i.+d, and that a decidedly satirical and humorous vein runs through the whole tale. Moreover, I doubt that "li-ahad" could be used as equivalent for "li-ghayri," "to some other than myself," while it frequently occurs in the emphatic sense of "one who is somebody, a person of consequence."

The damsel and her mother, on the other hand, allude repeatedly to the state of utter helplessness in which they find themselves in default of their natural protector, and which has reduced them from an exalted station to the condition of n.o.bodies. I speak, of course, here as elsewhere, "under correction."--ST.]

[FN#163] In text "Hmsh." The Dicts. give Himmas and Himmis, forms never heard, and Forsk. (Flora aegypt.-Arab. p. lxxi.) "h.o.m.os,"

also unknown. The vulg. p.r.o.n. is, "Hummus" or as Lane (M.E.

chapt. v.) has it "Hommus" (chick-peas). The word applies to the pea, while "Malan" is the plant in pod. It is the cicer arietinum concerning which a cla.s.sical tale is told. "Cicero (p.r.o.n. Kikero) was a poor scholar in the University of Athens, wherewith his enemies in Rome used to reproach him, and as he pa.s.sed through the streets would call out 'O Cicer, Cicer, O,' a word still used in Cambridge, and answers to a Servitor in Oxford." Quaint this approximation between "Cicer" the vetch and "Sizar" which comes from "size" = rations, the Oxford "battel."

[FN#164] Arab. "Yulakkimu," from "Lukmah" = a mouthful: see vols.

i. 266; vii. 367.

[FN#165] Arab. "Jarazat Kuzban" (plur. or "Kazib," see vol. ii.

66) = long and slender sticks.