One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  146 This may also mean that the £500 were the woman’s “mahr” or marriage dowry and the £250 a present to buy the father’s consent.

  147 Quite true to nature. See an account of the quasi- epileptic fits to which Syrians are subject and by them called Al-Wahtah in “The Inner Life of Syria,” i. 233.

  148 Arab. “Wayha-k” here equivalent to Wayla-k. M. C. Barbier de Meynard renders the first “mon ami” and the second “misérable.”

  149 This is an instance when the article (Al) is correctly used with one proper name and not with another. Al- Kumayt (P. N. of poet) lit. means a bay horse with black points: Nasr is victory.

  150 This anecdote, which reads like truth, is ample set off for a cart-load of abuse of women. But even the Hindus, determined misogynists in books, sometimes relent. Says the Katha Sarit Sagara: “So you see, King, honourable matrons are devoted to their husbands, and it is not the case that all women are always bad” (ii. 624). Let me hope that after all this Mistress Su’ad did not lead her husband a hardish life.

  151 Al-Khalí‘a has been explained in vol. i. 311 {Vol 1, FN#633}: the translation of Al-Mas’udi (vi. 10) renders it “scélérat.” Abú Alí al-Husayn the Wag was a Bassorite and a worthy companion of Abu Nowas the Debauchee; but he adorned the Court of Al-Amin the son, not of Al-Rashid the father.

  152 Governor of Bassorah, but not in Al-Husayn’s day.

  153 The famous market-place where poems were recited, mentioned by Al-Hariri.

  154 A quarter of Bassorah.

  155 Capital of Al-Yaman, and then famed for its leather and other work (vol. v. 16).

  156 The creases in the stomach like the large navel are always insisted upon. Says the Kathá (ii. 525) “And he looked on that torrent river of the elixir of beauty, adorned with a waist made charming by those wave-like wrinkles,” etc.

  157 Arab. Sabaj (not Sabah, as the Mac. Edit. misprints it): I am not sure of its meaning.

  158 A truly Arab conceit, suggesting

  The music breathing from her face;

  her calves moved rhythmically, suggesting the movement and consequent sound of a musical instrument.

  159 The morosa voluptas of the Catholic divines. The Sapphist described in the text would procure an orgasm (in gloria, as the Italians call it) by biting and rolling over the girl she loved; but by loosening the trouser-string she evidently aims at a closer tribadism the Arab “ Musáhikah.”

  160 We drink (or drank) after dinner, Easterns before the meal and half-Easterns (like the Russians) before and after. We talk of liquor being unwholesome on an empty stomach; but the truth is that all is purely habit. And as the Russian accompanies his Vodki with caviare, etc., so the Oriental drinks his Raki or Mahayá (Ma al-hayát=aqua vitæ) alternately with a Salátah, for whose composition see Pilgrimage i. 198. The Eastern practice has its advantages: it awakens the appetite, stimulates digestion and, what Easterns greatly regard, it is economical; half a bottle doing the work of a whole. Bhang and Kusumbá (opium dissolved and strained through a pledget of cotton) are always drunk before dinner and thus the “jolly” time is the preprandial, not the postprandial.

  161 “Abu al-Sakhá” (pronounced Abussakhá) = Father of munificence.

  162 ‘Arab. “Shammara,” also used for gathering up the gown, so as to run the faster.

  163 i.e., blessing the Prophet and all True Believers (herself included).

  164 The style of this letter is that of a public scribe in a Cairo market-place thirty years ago.

  165 i.e.. she could not help falling in love with this beauty man.

  166 “Kudrat,” used somewhat in the sense of our vague “Providence.” The sentence means, leave Omnipotence to manage him. Mr. Redhouse, who forces a likeness between Moslem and Christian theology, tells us that “Qader is unjustly translated by Fate and Destiny, an old pagan idea abhorrent to Al-Islam which reposes on God’s providence.” He makes Kazá and Kismet quasi-synonymes of “Qazá” and “Qader,” the former signifying God’s decree, the latter our allotted portion, and he would render both by dispensation. Of course it is convenient to forget the Guarded Tablet of the learned and the Night of Power and skull-lectures of the vulgar. The eminent Turkish scholar would also translate Salát by worship (du’á being prayer) because it signifies a simple act of adoration without entreaty. If he will read the Opener of the Koran, recited in every set of prayers, he will find an especial request to be “led to the path which is straight.” These vagaries are seriously adopted by Mr. E. J. W. Gibb in his Ottoman Poems (, etc.) London: Trübner and Co., 1882; and they deserve, I think, reprehension, because they serve only to mislead; and the high authority of the source whence they come necessarily recommends them to many.

  167 The reader will have noticed the likeness of this tale to that of Ibn Mansúr and the Lady Budúr (vol. iv., 228 et seq.){Vol 4, Tale 42} For this reason Lane leaves it untranslated (iii. 252).

  168 Lane also omits this tale (iii. 252). See Night dclxxxviii., vol. vii. et seq., for a variant of the story.

  169 Third Abbaside, A.H. 158-169 (=775-785), and father of Harun Al-Rashid. He is known chiefly for his eccentricities, such as cutting the throats of all his carrier-pigeons, making a man dine off marrow and sugar and having snow sent to him at Meccah, a distance of 700 miles.

  170 Arab. “Mirt”; the dictionaries give a short shift, cloak or breeches of wool or coarse silk.

  171 Arab. “Mayázíb” plur. of the Pers. Mizáb (orig. Míz-i-áb=channel of water) a spout for roof-rain. That which drains the Ka’abah on the N.-W. side is called Mizáb al-Rahmah (Gargoyle of Mercy) and pilgrims stand under it for a douche of holy water. It is supposed to be of gold, but really of silver gold-plated and is described of Burckhardt and myself. (Pilgrimage iii. 164.) The length is 4 feet 10 in.; width 9 in.; height of sides 8 in.; and slope at mouth 1 foot 6 in long.

  172 The Mac. and Bul. Edits. have by mistake “Son of

  Ishak.” Lane has “Is-hak the son of Ibrahim” following

  Trébutien (iii. 483) but suggests in a note the right reading

  as above.

  173 Again masculine for feminine.

  174 There are two of this name. The Upper al-Akik contains the whole site of Al-Medinah; the Lower is on the Meccan road about four miles S.W. of the city. The Prophet called it “blessed” because ordered by an angel to pray therein. The poets have said pretty things about it, e.g.

  O friend, this is the vale Akik; here stand and strive in

  thought:

  If not a very lover, strive to be by love distraught!

  for whose esoteric meaning see Pilgrimage ii. 24. I passed through Al-Akík in July when it was dry as summer dust and its “beautiful trees” were mere vegetable mummies.

  175 Those who live in the wet climates of the Northern temperates can hardly understand the delight of a shower in rainless lands, like Arabia and Nubia. In Sind we used to strip and stand in the downfall and raise faces sky-wards to get the full benefit of the douche. In Southern Persia food is hastily cooked at such times, wine strained, Kaliuns made ready and horses saddled for a ride to the nearest gardens and a happy drinking-bout under the cypresses. If a man refused, his friends would say of him, “ See how he turns his back upon the blessing of Allah!” (like an ass which presents its tail to the weather).

  176 i.e. the destruction of the Barmecides.

  177 He was Wazir to the Great “Saladin” (Saláh al-Din = one conforming with the Faith): see vol. iv. 271, where Saladin is also entitled Al-Malik al-Nasir = the Conquering King. He was a Kurd and therefore fond of boys (like Virgil, Horace, etc.), but that perversion did not prevent his being one of the noblest of men. He lies in the Great Amawi Mosque of Damascus and I never visited a tomb with more reverence.

  178 Arab. “Ahassa bi’l-Shurbah :” in our idiom “he smelt a rat”.

  179 This and the next tale are omitted by Lane (iii. 254) on “account of its vulgarity, rendered more objectionable by indecent incidents.” It has bee
n honoured with a lithographed reprint at Cairo A.H. 1278 and the Bresl. Edit. ix. 193 calls it the “Tale of Ahmad al-Danaf with Dalílah.”

  180 “Ahmad, the Distressing Sickness,” or “Calamity;” Hasan the Pestilent and Dalílah the bawd. See vol. ii. 329, and vol. iv. 75.

  181 A ftus, a foundling, a contemptible fellow.

  182 In the Mac. Edit. “her husband”: the end of the tale shows the error, infra, . The Bresl. Edit., x. 195, informs us that Dalilah was a “Faylasúfiyah”=philosopheress.

  183 Arab. “Ibrík” usually a ewer, a spout-pot, from the Pers. Ab-ríz=water-pourer: the old woman thus vaunted her ceremonial purity. The basin and ewer are called in poetry “the two rumourers,” because they rattle when borne about.

  184 Khátún in Turk. is=a lady, a dame of high degree; at times as here and elsewhere, it becomes a P. N.

  185 Arab. “Maut,” a word mostly avoided in the Koran and by the Founder of Christianity.

  186 Arab. “Akákír,” drugs, spices, simples which cannot be distinguished without study and practice. Hence the proverb (Burckhardt, 703), Is this an art of drugs? — difficult as the druggist’s craft?

  187 i.e. Beautiful as the fairy damsels who guard enchanted treasures, such as that of Al-Shamardal (vol. vi. 221).

  188 i.e. by contact with a person in a state of ceremonial impurity; servants are not particular upon this point and “Salát mamlúkíyah” (Mameluke’s prayers) means praying without ablution.

  189 i.e. Father of assaults, burdens or pregnancies; the last being here the meaning.

  190 Ex votos and so forth.

  191 Arab. “Iksah,” plaits, braids, also the little gold coins and other ornaments worn in the hair, now mostly by the middle and lower classes. Low Europeans sometimes take advantage of the native prostitutes by detaching these valuables, a form of “bilking” peculiar to the Nile-Valley.

  192 In Bresl. Edit. Malíh Kawí (pron. ‘Awi), a Cairene vulgarism.

  193 Meaning without veil or upper clothing.

  194 Arab. “Kallakás” the edible African arum before explained. This Colocasia is supposed to bear, unlike the palm, male and female flowers in one spathe.

  195 See vol. iii. 302. The figs refer to the anus and the pomegranates, like the sycomore, to the female parts. Me nec fæmina nec puer, &c., says Horace in pensive mood.

  196 It is in accordance to custom that the Shaykh be attended by a half-witted fanatic who would be made furious by seeing gold and silks in the reverend presence so coyly curtained.

  197 In English, “God damn everything an inch high!”

  198 Burckhardt notes that the Wali, or chief police officer at Cairo, was exclusively termed Al-Aghá and quotes the proverb (No. 156) “One night the whore repented and cried: — What! no Wali (Al-Aghá) to lay whores by the heels?” Some of these Egyptian by-words are most amusing and characteristic; but they require literal translation, not the timid touch of the last generation. I am preparing, for the use of my friend, Bernard Quaritch, a bonâ fide version which awaits only the promised volume of Herr Landberg.

  199 Lit. for “we leave them for the present”: the formula is much used in this tale, showing another hand, author or copyist.

  200 Arab. “Uzrah.”

  201 i.e. “Thou art unjust and violent enough to wrong even the Caliph!”

  202 I may note that a “donkey-boy” like our “post-boy” can be of any age in Egypt.

  203 They could legally demand to be recouped but the chief would have found some pretext to put off payment. Such at least is the legal process of these days.

  204 i.e. drunk with the excess of his beauty.

  205 A delicate way of offering a fee. When officers commanding regiments in India contracted for clothing the men, they found these douceurs under their dinner-napkins. All that is now changed; but I doubt the change being an improvement: the public is plundered by a “Board” instead of an individual.

  206 This may mean, I should know her even were my eyes blue (or blind) with cataract and the Bresl. Edit. ix. 231, reads “Ayní“=my eye; or it may be, I should know her by her staring, glittering, hungry eyes, as opposed to the “Hawar” soft-black and languishing (Arab. Prov. i. 115, and ii. 848). The Prophet said “blue-eyed (women) are of good omen.” And when one man reproached another saying “Thou art Azrak” (blue-eyed!) he retorted, “So is the falcon!” “Zurk-an” in Kor. xx. 102, is translated by Mr. Rodwell “leaden eyes.” It ought to be blue-eyed, dim-sighted, purblind.

  207 Arab, “Zalábiyah bi-’Asal.”

  208 Arab. “Ká’ah,” their mess-room, barracks.

  209 i.e. Camel shoulder-blade.

  210 So in the Brazil you are invited to drink a copa d’agua and find a splendid banquet. There is a smack of Chinese ceremony in this practice which lingers throughout southern Europe; but the less advanced society is, the more it is fettered by ceremony and “etiquette.”

  211 The Bresl. edit. (ix. 239) prefers these lines: —

  Some of us be hawks and some sparrow-hawks, *

  And vultures some which at carrion pike;

  And maidens deem all alike we be *

  But, save in our turbands, we’re not alike.

  212 Arab. Shar’a=holy law; here it especially applies to Al-Kisás=lex talionis, which would order her eye-tooth to be torn out.

  213 i.e., of the Afghans. Sulaymáni is the Egypt and Hijazi term for an Afghan and the proverb says “Sulaymáni harámi” — the Afghan is a villainous man. See Pilgrimage i. 59, which gives them a better character. The Bresl. Edit. simply says, “King Sulaymán.”

  214 This is a sequel to the Story of Dalilah and both are highly relished by Arabs. The Bresl. Edit. ix. 245, runs both into one.

  215 Arab. “Misr” (Masr), the Capital, says Savary, applied alternately to Memphis, Fostat and Grand Cairo each of which had a Jízah (pron. Gízah), skirt, angle, outlying suburb.

  216 For the curious street-cries of old Cairo see Lane (M. E. chapt. xiv.) and my Pilgrimage (i. 120): here the rhymes are of Zabíb (raisins), habíb (lover) and labíb (man of sense).

  217 The Mac. and Bul. Edits. give two silly couplets of moral advice: —

  Strike with thy stubborn steel, and never fear *

  Aught save the Godhead of Allmighty Might;

  And shun ill practices and never show *

  Through life but generous gifts to human sight.

  The above is from the Bresl. Edit. ix. 247.

  218 Arab. “Al-Khanakah” now more usually termed a

  Takíyah. (Pilgrim. i. 124.)

  219 Arab. “Ka’b al-ba’íd” (Bresl. Edit. ix. 255)=heel or ankle, metaph. for fortune, reputation: so the Arabs say the “Ka’b of the tribe is gone!” here “the far one”=the caravan-leader.

  220 Arab. “Sharít,” from Sharata=he Scarified; “Mishrat”=a lancet and “Sharítah”=a mason’s rule. Mr. Payne renders “Sharít” by whinyard: it must be a chopper-like weapon, with a pin or screw (laulab) to keep the blade open like the snap of the Spaniard’s cuchillo. Dozy explains it=epée, synonyme de Sayf.

  221 Text “Dimágh,” a Persianism when used for the head: the word properly means brain or meninx.

  222 They were afraid even to stand and answer this remarkable ruffian.

  223 Ahmad the Abortion, or the Foundling, nephew (sister’s son) of Zaynab the Coneycatcher. See supra, .

  224 Here the sharp lad discovers the direction without pointing it out. I need hardly enlarge upon the prehensile powers of the Eastern foot: the tailor will hold his cloth between his toes and pick up his needle with it, whilst the woman can knead every muscle and at times catch a mosquito between the toes. I knew an officer in India whose mistress hurt his feelings by so doing at a critical time when he attributed her movement to pleasure.

  225 Arab. “Hullah”=dress. In old days it was composed of the Burd or Ridá, the shoulder-cloth from 6 to 9 or 10 feet long, and the Izár or waistcloth which was either tied or tucked into a girdle of leather or metal. The woma
n’s waistcloth was called Nitáh and descended to the feet while the upper part was doubled and provided with a Tikkah or string over which it fell to the knees, overhanging the lower folds. This doubling of the “Hujrah,” or part round the waist, was called the “Hubkah.”

  226 Arab. “Taghaddá,” the dinner being at eleven a.m. or noon.

  227 Arab. Ghandúr for which the Dictionaries give only “fat, thick.” It applies in Arabia especially to a Harámi, brigand or freebooter, most honourable of professions, slain in foray or fray, opposed to “Fatís” or carrion (the corps crévé of the Klephts), the man who dies the straw-death. Pilgrimage iii. 66.

  228 My fair readers will note with surprise how such matters are hurried in the East. The picture is, however, true to life in lands where “flirtation” is utterly unknown and, indeed, impossible.

  229 Arab. “Zabbah,” the wooden bolt (before noticed) which forms the lock and is opened by a slider and pins. It is illustrated by Lane (M. E. Introduction).

  230 i.e. I am not a petty thief.

  231 Arab. Satl=kettle, bucket. Lat. Situla (?).

  232 i.e. “there is no chance of his escaping.” It may also mean, “And far from him (Hayhát) is escape.”

  233 Arab. “Ihtilám,” the sign of puberty in boy or girl; this, like all emissions of semen, voluntary or involuntary, requires the Ghuzl or total ablution before prayers can be said, etc. See vol. v. 199, in the Tale of Tawaddud.

  234 This is the way to take an Eastern when he tells a deliberate lie; and it often surprises him into speaking the truth.

  235 The conjunctiva in Africans is seldom white; often it is red and more frequently yellow.

  236 So in the texts, possibly a clerical error for the wine which he had brought with the kabobs. But beer is the especial tipple of African slaves in Egypt.

  237 Arab. “Laun”, prop.=color, hue; but applied to species and genus, our “kind”; and especially to dishes which differ in appearance; whilst in Egypt it means any dish.

  238 Arab. “Zardah”=rice dressed with honey and saffron.

  Vol. ii. 313. The word is still common in Turkey.

  239 Arab. “Laylat Ams,” the night of yesterday (Al-bárihah) not our “last night” which would be the night of the day spoken of.