One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  575 Hence the trite saying “Whoso drinks the water of the Nile will ever long to drink it again.” “Light” means easily digested water; and the great test is being able to drink it at night between the sleeps, without indigestion

  576 “Níl” in popular parlance is the Nile in flood; although also used for the River as a proper name. Egyptians (modern as well as ancient) have three seasons, Al-Shitá (winter), Al-Sayf (summer) and Al-Níl (the Nile i.e. flood season’ our mid-summer); corresponding with the Growth months; Housing (or granary)-months and Flood-months of the older race.

  577 These lines are in the Mac. Edit.

  587 Arab. “Birkat al-Habash,” a tank formerly existing in Southern Cairo: Galland (Night 128) says “en remontant vers l’Ethiopie.”

  579 The Bres. Edit. (ii., 190), from which I borrow this description, here alludes to the well-known Island, Al-Rauzah (Rodah) = The Garden.

  580 Arab. “Laylat al-Wafá,” the night of the completion or abundance of the Nile (-flood), usually between August 6th and 16th, when the government proclaims that the Nilometer shows a rise of 16 cubits. Of course it is a great festival and a high ceremony, for Egypt is still the gift of the Nile (Lane M. E. chaps. xxvi — a work which would be much improved by a better index).

  581 i.e., admiration will be complete.

  582 Arab. “Sáhil Masr” (Misr): hence I suppose Galland’s villes maritimes.

  583 A favourite simile, suggested by the broken glitter and shimmer of the stream under the level rays and the breeze of eventide.

  584 Arab. “Halab,” derived by Moslems from “He (Abraham) milked (halaba) the white and dun cow.” But the name of the city occurs in the Cuneiforms as Halbun or Khalbun, and the classics knew it as {Greek Letters}, Beroca, written with variants.

  585 Arab. “Ká’ah,” usually a saloon; but also applied to a fine house here and elsewhere in The Nights.

  586 Arab. “Ghamz” = winking, signing with the eye which, amongst Moslems, is not held “vulgar.”

  587 Arab. “Kamís” from low Lat. “Camicia,” first found in

  St. Jerome:— “Solent militantes habere lineas, quas Camicias

  vocant.” Our shirt, chemise, chemisette, etc., was unknown to the

  Ancients of Europe.

  588 Arab. “Narjís.” The Arabs borrowed nothing, but the Persians much, from Greek Mythology. Hence the eye of Narcissus, an idea hardly suggested by the look of the daffodil (or asphodel)-flower, is at times the glance of a spy and at times the die-away look of a mistress. Some scholars explain it by the form of the flower, the internal calyx resembling the iris, and the stalk being bent just below the petals suggesting drooping eyelids and languid eyes. Hence a poet addresses the Narcissus: —

  O Narjis, look away! Before those eyes * I may not kiss her as a-breast she lies. What! Shall the lover close his eyes in sleep * While thine watch all things between earth and skies?

  The fashionable lover in the East must affect a frantic jealousy if he does not feel it.

  589 In Egypt there are neither bedsteads nor bedrooms: the carpets and mattresses, pillows and cushions (sheets being unknown), are spread out when wanted, and during the day are put into chests or cupboards, or only rolled up in a corner of the room (Pilgrimage i. 53).

  590 The women of Damascus have always been famed for the sanguinary jealousy with which European story-books and novels credit the “Spanish lady.” The men were as celebrated for intolerance and fanaticism, which we first read of in the days of Bertrandon de la Brocquière and which culminated in the massacre of 1860. Yet they are a notoriously timid race and make, physically and morally, the worst of soldiers: we proved that under my late friend Fred. Walpole in the Bashi-Buzuks during the old Crimean war. The men looked very fine fellows and after a month in camp fell off to the condition of old women.

  591 Arab. “Rukhám,” properly = alabaster and “Marmar” = marble; but the two are often confounded.

  592 He was ceremonially impure after touching a corpse.

  593 The phrase is perfectly appropriate: Cairo without “her

  Nile” would be nothing.

  594 “The market was hot” say the Hindustanis. This would begin between 7 and 8 a.m.

  595 Arab. Al-Faranj, Europeans generally. It is derived from “Gens Francorum,” and dates from Crusading days when the French played the leading part. Hence the Lingua Franca, the Levantine jargon, of which Molière has left such a witty specimen.

  596 A process familiar to European surgery of the same date.

  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.).

  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 “bakhshísh.” It was the same in Sind when husbands were assured 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 prostitutes 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 Kábul-man.

  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.”

  600 In sign of dissent; as opposed to nodding the head which signifies assent. 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.

  601 This “Futur” is the real “breakfast” of the East, the “Chhoti házri” (petit déjeûner) 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.

  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 fashion, with our “nasty.”

  603 “Window-gardening,” new in England, is an old practice in the East.

  604 Her pimping instinct at once revealed the case to her.

  605 The usual “pander-dodge” to get more money.

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

  607 Arab. “Yá Khálati” =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-Khál!” = 0 thou nephew of a good uncle. I have noted that physically this is often fact.

  608 “Ay w’ Alláhi,” 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 esche
w 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.

  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 scrape the forehead, trim the eyebrows, pass 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 confrère 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.

  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.

  611 I have noticed the antiquity of this father of our sextant, 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,” .

  612 Arab. “Simiyá” to rhyme with Kímiyá (alchemy proper). It is a subordinate branch of the Ilm al-Ruháni which I would translate “Spiritualism,” and which is divided into two great branches, “Ilwí or Rahmáni” (the high or related to the Deity) and Siflí or Shaytáni (low, Satanic). To the latter belongs Al-Sahr, magic or the black art proper, gramarye, egromancy, while Al- Simiyá is white magic, electro-biology, a kind of natural and deceptive magic, in which drugs and perfumes exercise an important action. One of its principal branches is the Darb al-Mandal or magic mirror, of which more in a future page. See Boccaccio’s Day x. Novel 5.

  613 Chap. iii., 128. See Sale (in loco) for the noble application of this text by the Imam Hasan, son of the Caliph Ali.

  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.

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

  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

  617 Koran xlviii., 8. It may be observed that according to the Ahádis (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 “Shúshah,” 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 “Makrúh,” a practice not laudable, neither “Halál” (perfectly lawful) nor “Harám” (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 fashion amongst adults. Abu Hanifah, if I am rightly informed, wrote a treatise on the Shushah or long lock growing from the Násiyah (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 Kurún (horns) or Jadáil (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.

  618 Meats are rarely coloured in modern days; but Persian cooks are great adepts in staining rice for the “Puláo (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.

  619 As I have noticed, this is a mixture.

  620 We say: —

  Tis rare the father in the son we see:

  He sometimes rises in the third degree.

  621 Arab. “Ballán” i.e. the body-servant: “Ballánah” is a tire-woman.

  622 Arab. “Darabukkah” a drum made of wood or earthen-ware

  (Lane, M. E., xviii.), and used by all in Egypt.

  623 Arab. “Naihah” more generally “Naddábah” Lat. præfica or carina, a hired mourner, the Irish “Keener” at the conclamatio or coronach, where the Hullabaloo, Hulululu or Ululoo showed the survivors’ sorrow.

  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 “Názil il’al-Ganínah” (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.

  625 Arab. Khalí’a = worn out, crafty, an outlaw; used like

  Span. “Perdido.”

  626 “Zabbál” is the scavenger, lit. a dung-drawer, especially for the use of the Hammam which is heated with the droppings of animals. “Wakkád” (stoker) is the servant who turns the fire. The verses are mere nonsense to suit the Barber’s humour.

  627 Arab. “Yá bárid” = O fool.

  628 This form of blessing is chanted from the Minaret about half-an-hour before midday, when the worshippers take their places in the mosque. At noon there is the usual Azán 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 Salám 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 worships in silence. This is followed by the second exhortation “of Wa’az,” dispensing the words of wisdom. The Imam now stands up before the Mihráb (prayer niche) and recites the Ikámah 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 worshippers 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, , or note 69 to chaps. v.).

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

  630 These small shops are composed of a “but” and a “ben.”

  (Pilgrimage i., 99.)

  631 Arab. “Kawwád,” a popular term of abuse; hence the Span. and Port. “Alco-viteiro.” The Italian “Galeotto” is from Galahalt, not Galahad.

  632 i.e., “one seeking assistance in Allah.” He was the son of Al-Záhir bi’lláh (one pre-eminent by the decree of Allah). Lane says (i. 430), “great- grandson of Harun al-Rashid,” 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).

  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.)

  634 Arab. “Nate’ al-Dam”; the former word was noticed in the Tale of the Bull and the Ass. The leather of blood was not unlike the Sufrah and could be folded into a bag by a string running through rings round the edges. Moslem executioners were very expert and seldom failed to strike off the head with a single blow of the thin narrow blade with razor-edge, hard as diamond withal, which contrasted so strongly with the great coarse chopper of the European headsman.

  635 The ground floor, which in all hot countries is held, and rightly so, unwholesome during sleep, is usually let for shops. This is also the case throughout Southern Europe, and extends to the Canary Islands and the Brazil.

  636 This serious contemplation of street-scenery is one of the pleasures of the Harems.

  637 We should say “smiled at him”: the laugh was not intended as an affront.

  638 Arab. “Fals ahmar.” Fals is a fish-scale, also the smaller coin and the plural “Fulús” is the vulgar term for money (= Ital. quattrini ) without specifying the coin. It must not be confounded with the “Fazzah,” alias “Nuss,” alias “Páráh” (Turk.); the latter being made, not of “red copper” but of a vile alloy containing, like the Greek “Asper,” some silver; and representing, when at par, the fortieth of a piastre, the latter=2d. 2/5ths.