One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  54 Arab. “Khilal,” as an emblem of attenuation occurring in Al-Hariri (Ass. of Alexandria, etc.); also thin as a spindle (Maghzal), as a reed, and dry as a pair of shears. In the Ass. of Barka’id the toothpick is described as a beautiful girl. The use of this cleanly article was enjoined by Mohammed:— “Cleanse your mouths with toothpicks; for your mouths are the abode of the guardian angels; whose pens are the tongues, and whose ink is the spittle of men; and to whom naught is more unbearable than remains of food in the mouth.” A mighty apparatus for a small matter; but in very hot lands cleanliness must rank before godliness.

  55 The sense is ambiguous. Lane renders the verse:— “Thou resemblest it (rose) not of my portion” and gives two explanations “because HE is of my portion,” or, “because HIS cheek cannot be rosy if MINE is not.” Mr. Payne boldly translates

  “If the rose ape his cheek, ‘Now God forfend,’ I say, ‘That of my portion aught to pilfer thou shouldst try’.”

  56 Arab. “lif” (not “fibres which grow at the top of the trunk,” Lane ii. 577); but the fibre of the fronds worked like the cocoa-nut fibre which forms the now well-known Indian “coir.” This “lif” is also called “filfil” or “fulfil” which Dr. Jonathan Scott renders “pepper” (Lane i. 8) and it forms a clean succedaneum for one of the uncleanest articles of civilisation, the sponge. It is used in every Hammam and is (or should be) thrown away after use.

  57 Arab. “Shinf;” a course sack, a “gunny-bag;” a net compared with such article.

  58 The eunuch tells him that he is not a “Sandali”=one whose penis and testes are removed; and consequently the highest valued. There are many ways of making the castrato; in some (as here) only the penis is removed, in other the testes are bruised or cut off; but in all cases the animal passion remains, for in man, unlike other animals, the fons veneris is the brain. The story of Abelard proves this. Juvenal derided the idea of married eunuchs and yet almost all of these neutrals have wives with whom they practise the manifold plaisirs de la petite oie (masturbation, tribadism, irrumation, tete-beche, feuille-de- rose, etc.), till they induce the venereal orgasm. Such was the account once given to me by a eunuch’s wife; and I need hardly say that she, like her confrerie, was to be pitied. At the critical moment she held up a little pillow for her husband to bite who otherwise would have torn her cheeks or breasts.

  59 In real life the eunuch, as a rule, avoids all allusion to his misfortune, although the slave will often describe his being sold merrily enough.

  60 The visits are in dreamland. The ringdove thanks the

  Lord for her (his?) suffering in the holy martyrdom of love.

  61 Arab. “Hazar;” I have explained it as meaning “(the bird of) a thousand (songs).”

  62 The “Bulbul” had his day with us but he departed with Tommy Moore. We usually English the word by “nightingale;” but it is a kind of shrike or butcher-bird (Lanius Boulboul. Lath.).

  63 The “Hamam” is a lieu commun in Arabic poetry. I have noticed the world-wide reverence for the pigeon and the incarnation of the Third Person of the Hindu Triad (Shiva), as Kapoteshwara (Kapota-ishwara)”=pigeon or dove-god (Pilgrimage iii. 218).

  64 Arab. “Hamam al-Ayk.” Mr. Payne’s rendering is so happy that we must either take it from him or do worse.

  65 All primitive peoples translate the songs of birds with human language; but, as I have noticed, the versions differ widely. The pigeon cries, “Allah! Allah!” the dove “Karim, Tawwa” (Bountiful, Pardoner!) the Kata or sand-grouse “Man sakat salam” (who is silent is safe) yet always betrays itself by its lay of “Kat-ta” and lastly the cock “Uzkuru ‘llah ya ghafilun” (Remember, or take the name of Allah, ye careless!).

  66 “Nay,” the Dervish’s reed pipe, symbol of the sighing absent lover (i.e. the soul parted from the Creator) so famed by the Mullah-i-Rum and Sir William Jones.

  67 Ba’albak=Ba’al (the God)-city (bek in Coptic and ancient Egyptian.) Such, at least, is the popular derivation which awaits a better. No cloth has been made there since the Kurd tribe of gallant robbers known as the “Harfush” (or blackguards) lorded it over old “Heliopolis.”

  68 Thinking her to be a Jinn or Ghul in the shape of a fair woman. This Arab is a strange contrast to the English fisherman, and yet he is drawn with truth.

  69 Arab. “Habbaza!” (good this!) or “Habba” (how good!): so

  “Habba bihi,” how dear he is to me.

  70 Arab. “Zind,” and “Zindah” the names of the two sticks, upper and lower, hard and soft, by which fire was kindled before flint and steel were known. We find it in Al-Hariri (Ass. of Banu Haram) “no one sought ire from my fire-stick (i.e. from me as a fire-stick) and failed.” See Night dccciii.

  71 Arab. “Nazih” i.e. travelled far and wide.

  72 “Rajab,” lit.=“worshipping:” it is the seventh lunar month and still called “Shahr-i-Khuda” (God’s month) by the Persians because in pre-Islamitic times it formed with Muharram (or in its stead Safar), Zu ‘l-ka’adah and Zu-’l-Hijjah (Nos. 1 or 2; 7,11 and 12) the yearly peace, during which a man might not kill his father’s murderer. The idea must have taken deep root, as Arab history records only six “impious (or sacrilegious) wars,” waged despite the law. Europeans compare it with the Treuga Dei (truce of God) a seven-years peace established about A.D. 1032, by a Bishop of Aquitaine; and followed in A.D. 1245 by the Pax Regis (Royal Peace) under Louis VIII. of France. This compelled the relations of a murdered man to keep the peace for forty days after the offence was committed.

  73 His Majesty wrote sad doggrel. He is better at finessing, and his message was a trick because Rose-in-Hood had told him that at home there were special obstacles to the marriage.

  74 Arab. “Majzub”=drawn, attracted (literally); the popular term for one absorbed in the contemplation of the Deity. During this process the soul is supposed to quit the body leaving the latter irresponsible for its actions. I remember a scandal being caused in a village near Tunis by one of these men who suddenly started up from his seat in a dusty corner and, in presence of a small crowd of people, had connection with a she-donkey. The supporters of the holy man declared that the deed was proof positive of his exceptional holiness; but there were lewd fellows, Moslems Voltaireans, who had their doubts and held that the reverend man had so acted “for the gallery.” A similar story is told with due reserve by the late Abbe Hamilton in his book on the Cyrenaic. There are three grand divisions of the Sufis; (1) Mukiman, the stationaries; (2) Salikan, the travellers, or progressives, and (3) Wasilan, those who reach the desired end. And No. 2 has two classes: the Salik-i-majzub, one progressing in Divine Love; and the other, who has made greater progress, is the Majzub-i-Salik (Dabistan iii. 251).

  75 Arab. “Sundus,” a kind of brocade (low Lat. brocare to figure cloth), silk worked in high relief with gold and silver. The idea is figurative meaning it was hung outside and inside with fine stuff, like the Ka’abah, the “Bride of Meccah.” The “lords” means simply the lost girl.

  76 Arab. “Ayn” lit. eye, also a fount, “the eye of the landscape” (a noble simile); and here a helper, guard, assistant.

  77 “Lord” for lady, i.e. she.

  78 Arab. “Fi’l-khawafik”=in the four quarters or among the flappers (standards) or amid palpitations of heart. The bride alludes to a festal reception in a town, with burning incense, drums, flags, etc., etc.

  79 In Egypt the shorter “honey-moon” lasts a week; and on the seventh day (pop. called Al-Subu’a) bride and bridegroom receive visits with all ceremony, of course in separate apartments. The seventh day (like the fortieth, the end of six months and the anniversary) is kept for births and deaths with Khatmahs (perlections) of the Koran “Saylah” family gatherings and so forth. The fortieth day ends the real honey-moon. See Night dccxcii.

  80 I have noted the popular practice, amongst men as well as women, of hiring the Hammam for private parties and picnicking in it during the greater part of the day. In this tale the bath would belong to
the public and it was a mere freak of the bride to bathe with her bridegroom. “Respectable” people do not.

  81 She speaks in the last line as the barber or the bathman.

  82 Here the “Ana” begin; and they mostly date themselves. Of the following forty-nine, Lane (vol. Ii. P. 578 et seq.) gives only twenty-two and transforms them to notes in chapt. xviii. He could hardly translate several of them in a work intended to be popular. Abu Nowαs is a person carefully to be avoided; and all but anthropological students are advised to “skip” over anecdotes in which his name and abominations occur.

  83 Arab. “Ghilmαn,” the counter part, I have said, of the so-called “Houris.”

  84 Mosul boasts of never having been polluted with idolatrous worship, an exemption which it owes to being a comparatively modern place.

  85 The Aleppines were once noted for debauchery; and the saying is still “Halabi Shelebi” (for Chelebi)=the Aleppine is a fellow fine.

  86 Mr. Payne omits the last line. It refers to what Persian boys call, in half-Turkish phrase, “Alish Takish,” each acting woman after he has acted man. The best wine is still made in monasteries and the co-called Sinai convent is world-famous for its “Rαki” distilled from raisins.

  87 i.e. what a difference there is between them!

  88 Arab. “Salli ala ‘l-Nabi,” a common phrase; meaning not only praise hm to avert the evil eye; but also used when one would impose silence upon a babbler. The latter will shuffle off by ejaculating “Al” and continue his chatter. (Pilgrimage ii.279.)

  89 Arab. “Sukαt” (plur. of Sαki, cupbearer, our old “skinker”): the pure gold (tibr) is the amber-coloured wine, like the Vino d’oro of the Libanus.

  90 That is, fair, white and read: Turkish slaves then abounded at Baghdad.

  91 A Wady near Meccah where one of Mohammed’s battles was fought. The line means his waist is a thread connected broad breast and large hind quarters.

  92 Arab. “Zaurα” which may mean crooked, alluding to the well-known rib.

  93 A pun. Bakr was the name of the eponymus chief and it also means virgin, as in Abu Bakr.

  94 Arab. “Jαmi’ayn”=two cathedrals, any large (and consequently vicious) city.

  95 Arab. “Almα,” before noticed: I cannot translate “damask-lipped” to suit European taste.

  96 Sherbet flavoured with musk or apple to cool the mouth of “hot coppers.”

  97 Arab. “In’αsh” lit. raising from his bier. The whole tone is rollicking and slangy.

  98 i.e. In spite of himself: the phrase often occurs.

  99 Europeans usually write “Beni” for “Banu;” the oblique for the nominative. I prefer “Odhrah” or “Ozrah” to Udhrah; because the Ayn before the Zαl takes in pronunciation the more open sound.

  100 Possibly meaning that they were shrouded together; this would be opposed to Moslem sense of decorum in modern days, but the ancient were not so squeamish. See Night cccxi.

  101 This phase of passion in the “varium et mutabile” is often treated of by Oriental storytellers, and not unoften seen in real Eastern life.

  102 As has been said, “Sαhib” (preceding the name not following it as in India) is a Wazirial title in mediζval Islam.

  103 This parapet was rendered obligatory by Moses (Deut. xxii. 8) on account of the danger of leaving a flat roof without garde-fou. Eastern Christians neglect the precaution and often lose their children by the neglect.

  104 Arab. “Lauh.” A bit of thin board washed white used for lessons as slates are amongst us, and as easily cleaned because the inks contain no minerals. It is a long parallelogram with triangular ears at the short sides; and the shape must date from ages immemorial as it is found, throughout Syria and its adjoinings, in the oldest rock inscriptions to which the form serves as a frame. Hence the “abacus” or counting table derived from the Gr. , a slab (or in Phenician “sand”), dust or sand in old days having been strewed on a table or tablet for school- boys’ writings and mathematical diagrams.

  105 A pre-Islamic bard and friend to Tarafah the poet of the Suspended or “Prize Poem.” The tale is familiar to all the Moslem East. Tarafah’s Laura was one Khaulα.

  106 King of Hirah in Chaldζa, a drunken and bloodthirsty tyrant. When offended by the lampoons of the two poets he sent them with litterζ Bellerophontiζ to the Governor of Al-Bahrayn. Al-Mutalammis “smelt a rat” and destroyed his charged, but Tarafah was mutilated and buried alive, the victim of a trick which is old as (and older than) good King David and Uriah. Of course neither poet could read.

  107 On this occasion, and in presence of the women only, the groom first sees or is supposed to see the face of his wife. It is, I have said, the fashion for both to be greatly overcome and to appear as if about to faint: the groom looks especially ridiculous when so attitudinising.

  108 This leisurely operation of the “deed of kind” was sure to be noticed; but we do not find in The Nights any allusion to that systematic prolongatio veneris which is so much cultivated by Moslems under the name Imsαk = retention, withholding i.e. the semen. Yet Eastern books on domestic medicine consist mostly of two parts; the first of general prescriptions and the second of aphrodisiacs especially those qui prolongent le plaisir as did the Gaul by thinking of sa pauvre mθre. The Ananga-Ranga, by the Reverend Koka Pandit before quoted, gives a host of recipes which are used, either externally or internally, to hasten the paroxysm of the woman and delay the orgasm of the man (). Some of these are curious in the extreme. I heard of a Hindi who made a candle of frogs’ fat and fibre warranted to retain the seed till it burned out; it failed notably because, relying upon it, he worked too vigorously. The essence of the “retaining art” is to avoid over-tension of the muscles and to pre-occupy the brain: hence in coition Hindus will drink sherbet, chew betel-nut and even smoke. Europeans ignoring the science and practice, are contemptuously compared with village-cocks by Hindu women who cannot be satisfied, such is their natural coldness, increased doubtless by vegetable diet and unuse of stimulants, with less than twenty minutes. Hence too while thousands of Europeans have cohabited for years with and have had families by “native women,” they are never loved by them: — at least I never heard of a case.

  109 Abu ‘l Abbas al-Rakαshi, a poet of the time. The saying became proverbial (Burckhardt’s A. Proverbs No. 561) and there are variants, e.g. The night’s promise is spread with butter that melteth when day ariseth.

  110 Koran xxvi. 5,6 or “And those who err (Arab. Al- ghαwϊn) follow the footsteps of the poets,” etc.

  111 Half-brother of Abdullah bin al-Zubayr, the celebrated pretender.

  112 Grand-daughter of the Caliph Abu Bakr and the most beautiful woman of her day.

  113 The Calc. Edit. by mistake reads “Izzah.” Torrens (notes i.-xi.) remarks “The word Ghoonj is applied to this sort of blandishment (i.e. an affected gait), and says Burckhardt (Prov. No. 685), “The women of Cairo flatter themselves that their Ghoonj is superior to that of all other females in the Levant.” But Torrens did not understand and Burckhardt would not explain “Ghunj” except by “assumed airs” (see No. 714). It here means the art of moving in coition, which is especially affected, even by modest women, throughout the East and they have many books teaching the genial art. In China there are professors, mostly old women, who instruct young girls in this branch of the gymnastic.

  114 When reciting the Fαtihah (opening Koranic chapter), the hands are held in this position as if to receive a blessing falling from Heaven; after which both palms are passed down the face to distribute it over the eyes and other organs of sense.

  115 The word used is “bizα’at” = capital or a share in a mercantile business.

  116 This and the following names are those of noted traditionists of the eighth century, who derive back to Abdallah bin Mas’ϊd, a “Companion of the Apostle.” The text shows the recognised formula of ascription for quoting a “Hadνs” = saying of Mohammed; and sometimes it has to pass through half a dozen mouths.


  117 Traditionists of the seventh and eighth centuries who refer back to the “Father of the Kitten” (Abu Horayrah), an uncle of the Apostle.

  118 Eastern story-books abound in these instances. Pilpay says in “Kalilah was Dimnah,” “I am the slave of what I have spoken and the lord of what I keep hidden.” Sa’adi follows suit, “When thou speakest not a word, thou hast thy hand upon it; when it is once spoken it hath laid its hand on thee.” Caxton, in the “Dyctes, or Sayings of Philosophers” (printed in 1477) uses almost the same words.

  119 i.e. for her husband’s and her sin in using a man like a beast.

  120 See the Second Lady’s story (tantτt Kadi, tantτt bandit), p-26 by my friend Yacoub Artin Pasha in the Bulletin before quoted, series ii. No. 4 of 1883. The sharpers’ trick is common in Eastern folk-lore, and the idea that underlies is always metempsychosis or metamorphosis. So, in the Kalilah wa Dimnah (new Syriac), the three rogues persuade the ascetic that he is leading a dog not a sheep.

  121 This is the popular prejudice and it has doubtless saved many a reputation. The bat is known to Moslems as the Bird of Jesus, a legend derived by the Koran from the Gospel of Infancy (1 chapt. xv. Hone’s Apocryphal New Testament), in which the boy Jesus amuses herself with making birds of clay and commanding them to fly when (according to the Moslems) they became bats. These Apocryphal Gospels must be carefully read, if the student would understand a number of Moslem allusions to the Injνl which no Evangel contains.

  122 Because it quibbled away out of every question, a truly diplomatic art.

  123 This Caliph, the orthodox Abbaside of Egypt (A.D. 1261) must not be confounded with the Druze-god, the heretical Fatimite (A.D. 996-1021). D’Herbelot (Hakem”) gives details. Mr. S.L. Poole (The Academy, April 26, ‘79) is very severe on the slip of Mr. Payne.

  124 The beautiful name is Persian “Anϊshνn-rawαn” = Sweet of Soul; and the glorious title of this contemporary of Mohammed is “Al-Malik al-Adil” = the Just King. Kisra, the Chosroλ per excellentiam, is also applied to the godly Guebre of whom every Eastern dictionary gives details.