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

[FN#158] i.e. when she encamps with a favourite for the night.

[FN#159] The Persian proverb is "Marg-i-amboh jashni dared"--death in a crowd is as good as a feast.

[FN#160] Arab. "Kanat", the subterranean water-course called in Persia "Kyariz." Lane (ii. 66) translates it "brandish around the spear (Kanat is also a cane-lance) of artifice," thus making rank nonsense of the line. Al-Hariri uses the term in the a.s.s. of the Banu Haram where "Kanat" may be a pipe or bamboo laid underground.

[FN#161] From Al-Tughrai, the author of the Lamiyat al-Ajam, the "Lay of the Outlander;" a Kasidah (Ode) rhyming in Lam (the letter "l" being the rawi or binder). The student will find a new translation of it by Mr. J. W. Redhouse and Dr. Carlyle's old version (No. liii.) in Mr. Clouston's "Arabian Poetry." Muyid al-Din al-Hasan Abu Ismail nat. Ispahan ob. Baghdad A.H. 182) derived his surname from the Tughra, cypher or flourish (over the "Bismillah" in royal and official papers) containing the name of the prince. There is an older "Lamiyat al-Arab" a pre-Islamitic L-poem by the "brigand-poet" Shanfara, of whom Mr. W. G. Palgrave has given a most appreciative account in his "Essays on Eastern Questions," noting the indomitable self-reliance and the absolute individualism of a mind defying its age and all around it.

Al-Hariri quotes from both.

[FN#162] The words of the unfortunate Azizah, vol. ii., p. 323.

[FN#163] Arab. "Hawi"=a juggler who plays tricks with snakes: he is mostly a Gypsy. The "recompense" the man expects is the golden treasure which the ensorcelled snake is supposed to guard. This idea is as old as the Dragon in the Garden of the Hesperides--and older.

[FN#164] The "Father of going out (to prey) by morning"; for dawn is called Zanab Sirhan the Persian Dum-i-gurg=wolf's tail, i.e.

the first brush of light; the Zodiacal Light shown in morning.

Sirhan is a nickname of the wolf--Gaunt Grim or Gaffer Grim, the German Isengrin or Eisengrinus (icy grim or iron grim) whose wife is Hersent, as Richent or Hermeline is Mrs. Fox. In French we have lopez, luppe, leu, e.g.

Venant a la queue, leu, leu,

i.e. going in Indian file. Hence the names D'Urfe and Saint-Loup.

In Scandinavian, the elder sister of German, Ulf and in German (where the Jews were forced to adopt the name) Wolff whence "Guelph." He is also known to the Arabs as the "sire of a she-lamb," the figure metonymy called "Kunyat bi 'l-Zidd" (lucus a non lucendo), a patronymic or by-name given for opposition and another specimen of "inverted speech."

[FN#165] Arab. "Bint' Arus" = daughter of the bridegroom, the Hindustani Mungus (vulg. Mongoose); a well-known weasel-like rodent often kept tame in the house to clear it of vermin. It is supposed to know an antidote against snake-poison, as the weasel eats rue before battle (Pliny x. 84; xx. 13). In Modern Egypt this viverra is called "Kitt (or Katt) Far'aun" = Pharaoh's cat: so the Percnopter becomes Pharaoh's hen and the unfortunate (?) King has named a host of things, alive and dead. It was wors.h.i.+pped and mummified in parts of Ancient Egypt e.g.

Heracleopolis, on account of its antipathy to serpents and because it was supposed to destroy the crocodile, a feat with aelian and others have overloaded with fable. It has also a distinct antipathy to cats. The ichneumon as a pet becomes too tame and will not leave its master: when enraged it emits an offensive stench. I brought home for the Zoological Gardens a Central African specimen prettily barred. Burckhardt (Prov. 455) quotes a line:--

Rakas' Ibn Irsin wa zamzama ?l-Nimsu, (Danceth Ibn Irs whileas Nims doth sing)

and explains Nims by ichneumon and Ibn Irs as a "species of small weasel or ferret, very common in Egypt: it comes into the house, feeds upon meat, is of gentle disposition although not domesticated and full of gambols and frolic."

[FN#166] Arab. "Sinnaur" (also meaning a prince). The common name is Kitt which is p.r.o.nounced Katt or Gatt; and which Ibn Dorayd p.r.o.nounces a foreign word (Syriac?). Hence, despite Freitag, Catus (which Isidore derives from catare, to look for) = gatto, chat, cat, an animal unknown to the Cla.s.sics of Europe who used the mustela or putorius vulgaris and different species of viverrae. The Egyptians, who kept the cat to destroy vermin, especially snakes, called it Mau, Mai, Miao (onomatopoetic): this descendent of the Felis maniculata originated in Nubia; and we know from the mummy pits and Herodotus that it was the same species as ours. The first portraits of the cat are on the monuments of "Beni Hasan," B.C. 2500. I have ventured to derive the familiar "Puss" from the Arab. "Biss (fem. :Bissah"), which is a congener of Pasht (Diana), the cat-faced G.o.ddess of Bubastis (Pi-Pasht), now Zagazig. Lastly, "tabby (brindled)-cat" is derived from the Attabi (Prince Attab's) quarter at Baghdad where watered silks were made. It is usually attributed to the Tibbie, Tibalt, Tybalt, Thibert or Tybert (who is also executioner), various forms of Theobald in the old Beast Epic; as opposed to Gilbert the gib-cat, either a tom-cat or a gibbed (castrated) cat.

[FN#167] Arab. "Ikhwan al-Safa," a popular term for virtuous friends who perfectly love each other in all purity: it has also a mystic meaning. Some translate it "Brethren of Sincerity," and hold this brotherhood to be Moslem Freemasons, a mere fancy (see the Mesnevi of Mr. Redhouse, Trubner 1881). There is a well-known Hindustani book of this name printed by Prof. Forbes in Persian character and translated by Platts and Eastwick.

[FN#168] Among Eastern men there are especial forms for "making brotherhood." The "Munhbola-bhai" (mouth-named brother) of India is well-known. The intense "a.s.sociativeness" of these races renders isolation terrible to them, and being defenceless in a wild state of society has special horrors. Hence the origin of Caste for which see Pilgrimage (i. 52). Moslems, however, cannot practise the African rite of drinking a few drops of each other's blood. This, by the by, was also affected in Europe, as we see in the Gesta Romanoru, Tale lxvii., of the wise and foolish knights who "drew blood (to drink) from the right arm."

[FN#169] The F. Sacer in India is called "Laghar" and tiercel "Jaghar." Mr. T.E. Jordan (catalogue of Indian Birds, 1839) says it is rare; but I found it the contrary. According to Mr. R.

Thompson it is flown at kites and antelope: in Sind it is used upon night-heron (nyctardea nycticorax), floriken or Hobara (Otis aurita), quail, partridge, curlew and sometimes hare: it gives excellent sport with crows but requires to be defended. Indian sportsmen, like ourselves, divide hawks into two orders: the "Siyah-chasm," or black-eyed birds, long-winged and n.o.ble; the "Gulabi-chasm" or yellow-eyed (like the goshawk) round-winged and ign.o.ble.

[FN#170] i.e. put themselves at thy mercy.

[FN#171] I have remarked (Pilgrimage iii.307) that all the popular ape-names in Arabic and Persian, Sa'adan, Maymun, Shadi, etc., express propitiousness--probably euphemistically applied to our "poor relation."

[FN#172] The serpent does not "sting" nor does it "bite;" it strikes with the poison-teeth like a downward stab with a dagger.

These fangs are always drawn by the jugglers but they grow again and thus many lives are lost. The popular way of extracting the crochets is to grasp the snake firmly behind the neck with one hand and with the other to tantalise it by offering and withdrawing a red rag. At last the animal is allowed to strike it and a sharp jerk tears out both eye-teeth as rustics used to do by slamming a door. The head is then held downwards and the venom drains from its bag in the shape of a few drops of slightly yellowish fluid which, as conjurers know, may be drunk without danger. The patient looks faint and dazed, but recovers after a few hours and feels as if nothing had happened. In India I took lessons from a snake-charmer but soon gave up the practice as too dangerous.

[FN#173] Arab. "Akh al-Jahalah" = brother of ignorance, an Ignorantin; one "really and truly" ignorant; which is the value of "Ahk" in such phrases as a "brother of poverty," or, "of purity."

[FN#174] Lane (ii. 1) writes "Abu-l-Hasan;" Payne (iii. 49) "Aboulhusn" which would mean "Father of Beauty (Husn)" and is not a Moslem name. Hasan (beautiful) and its dimin. Husayn, names now so common, were (it is said), unknown to the Arabs, although Ha.s.san was that of a Tobba King, before the days of Mohammed who so called his two only grandsons. In Anglo-India they have become "Hobson and Jobson." The Bresl. Edit. (ii. 305) ent.i.tles this story "Tale of Abu 'l Hasan the Attar (druggist and perfumer) with Ali ibn Bakkar and what befel them with the handmaid (=jariyah) Shams al-Nahar."

[FN#175] i.e. a descendant, not a Prince.

[FN#176] The Arab shop is a kind of hole in the wall and buyers sit upon its outer edge (Pilgrimage i. 99).

[FN#177] By a similar image the chamaeleon is called Abu Kurrat=Father of coolness; because it is said to have the "coldest" eye of all animals and insensible to heat and light, since it always looks at the sun.

[FN#178] This dividing the hemistich words is characteristic of certain tales; so I have retained it although inevitably suggesting:--

I left Matilda at the U- niversity of Gottingen.

[FN#179] These nave offers in Eastern tales mostly come from the true seducer--Eve. Europe and England especially, still talks endless absurdity upon the subject. A man of the world may "seduce" an utterly innocent (which means an ignorant) girl. But to "seduce" a married woman! What a farce!

[FN#180] Masculine again for feminine: the lines are as full of word-plays, vulgarly called puns, as Sanskrit verses.

[FN#181] The Eastern heroine always has a good appet.i.te and eats well. The sensible Oriental would infinitely despise that maladive Parisienne in whom our neighbours delight, and whom I long to send to the Hospital.

[FN#182] i.e. her rivals have discovered the secret of her heart.

[FN#183] i.e. blood as red as wine.

[FN#184] The wine-cup (sun-like) s.h.i.+nes in thy hand; thy teeth are bright as the Pleiads and thy face rises like a moon from the darkness of thy dress-collar.

[FN#185] The masculine of Marjanah (Morgiana) "the she coral-branch ;" and like this a name generally given to negroes.

We have seen white applied to a blackamoor by way of metonomy and red is also connected with black skins by way of fun. A Persian verse says :

"If a black wear red, e'en an a.s.s would grin."

[FN#186] Suggesting that she had been sleeping.

[FN#187] Arab. "Raushan," a window projecting and latticed: the word is orig. Persian: so Raushana (splendour)=Roxana. It appears to me that this beautiful name gains beauty by being understood.

[FN#188] The word means any servant, but here becomes a proper name. "Wasifah" usually= a concubine.

[FN#189] i.e. eagerness, desire, love-longing.

[FN#190] Arab. "Rind," which may mean willow (oriental), bay or aloes wood: Al-Asma'i denies that it ever signifies myrtle.

[FN#191] These lines occur in Night cxiv.: by way of variety I give (with permission) Mr. Payne's version (iii. 59).

[FN#192] Referring to the proverb "Al-Khauf maksum"=fear (cowardice) is equally apportioned: i.e. If I fear you, you fear me.

[FN#193] The fingers of the right hand are struck upon the palm of the left.

[FN#194] There are intricate rules for "joining" the prayers; but this is hardly the place for a subject discussed in all religious treatises. (Pilgrimage iii. 239.)

[FN#195] The hands being stained with Henna and perhaps indigo in stripes are like the ring rows of chain armour. See Lane's ill.u.s.tration (Mod. Egypt, chaps. i.).

[FN#196] She made rose-water of her cheeks for my drink and she bit with teeth like grains of hail those lips like the lotus-fruit, or jujube: Arab. "Unnab" or "Nabk," the plum of the Sidr or Zizyphus lotus.

[FN#197] Meaning to let Patience run away like an untethered camel.