One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  98 This appears to her very prettily put.

  99 This is the “House of Sadness” of our old chivalrous Romances. See chapt. vi. of “Palmerin of England,” by Francisco de Moraes (ob. 1572), translated by old Anthony Munday (dateless, 1590?) and “corrected” (read spoiled) by Robert Southey, London, Longmans, 1807.

  100 The lines have occurred in Night clix. (vol. iii. 183), I quote Mr. Payne who, like Lane, prefers “in my bosom” to “beneath my ribs.”

  101 In this tale the Bresl. Edit. more than once adds “And let us and you send a blessing to the Lord of Lords” (or to “Mohammed,” or to the “Prophet”); and in vol. v. has a long prayer. This is an act of contrition in the tale-teller for romancing against the expressed warning of the Founder of Al-Islam.

  102 From Bresl. Edit. (vi. 29): the four in the Mac. Edit. are too irrelevant.

  103 Arab. “Ghayúr” — jealous, an admirable epithet which

  Lane dilutes to “changeable” — making a truism of a metaphor.

  104 These lines have occurred before. I quote Mr. Payne.

  105 i.e. One fated to live ten years.

  106 This poetical way of saying “fourteen” suggests Camoens

  (The Lusiads) Canto v. 2.

  107 Arab. “Surrah,” lit. = a purse: a few lines lower down it is called “‘Ulbah” = a box which, of course, may have contained the bag.

  108 The month which begins the Moslem year.

  109 As an Arab often does when deep in thought. Lane appositely quotes John viii. 6. “Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground.” Mr. Payne translates, “He fell a-drumming on the earth with his fingers,” but this does not complete the sense.

  110 i.e.”And the peace of Allah be upon thee! that will end thy story.” The Arab formula, “Wa al-Salám” (pron. Wassalám) is used in a variety of senses.

  111 Like Camoens, one of the model lovers, he calls upon

  Love to torment him still more — ad majorem Dei (amoris) gloriam.

  112 Pron. Aboor-Ruwaysh. “The Father of the little Feather”: he is afterwards called “Son of the daughter of the accursed Iblis”; yet, as Lane says, “he appears to be a virtuous person.”

  113 Arab. “Kantara al-lijám fi Karbús (bow) sarjih.”

  114 I do not translate “beckoned” because the word would give a wrong idea. Our beckoning with the finger moved towards the beckoner makes the so-beckoned Eastern depart in all haste. To call him you must wave the hand from you.

  115 The Arabs knew what large libraries were; and a learned man could not travel without camel-loads of dictionaries.

  116 Arab. “Adim;” now called Bulghár, our Moroccan leather.

  117 Arab. “Zinád,” which Lane renders by “instruments for striking fire,” and Mr. Payne, after the fashion of the translators of Al-Hariri, “flint and steel.”

  118 A congener of Hasan and Husayn, little used except in Syria where it is a favourite name for Christians. The Muhít of Butrus Al-Bostáni (s.v.) tells us that it also means a bird called Abú Hasan and supplies various Egyptian synonyms. In Mod. Arab. Grammar the form Fa’’úl is a diminutive as Hammúd for Ahmad, ‘Ammúr for ‘Amrú. So the fem. form, Fa’’úlah, e.g. Khaddúgah = little Khadijah and Naffúsah=little Nafisah; Ar’úrah = little clitoris - whereas in Heb. it is an incrementative e.g. dabbúlah a large dablah (cake or lump of dried figs, etc.).

  119 In the Mac. Edit. “Soldiers of Al-Daylam” i.e. warlike as the Daylamites or Medes. See vol. ii. 94.

  120 Bilkís, it will be remembered, is the Arab. name of the

  Queen of Sheba who visited Solomon. In Abyssinia she is termed

  Kebra zá negest or zá makadá, the latter (according to Ferdinand

  Werne’s “African Wanderings,” Longmans, 1852) being synonymous

  with Ityopia or Habash (Ethiopia or Abyssinia).

  121 Arab. “Dakkah,” which Lane translates by “settee.”

  122 Arab. “Ambar al-Khám” the latter word (raw) being pure

  Persian.

  123 The author neglects to mention the ugliest part of old-womanhood in the East, long empty breasts like tobacco-pouches. In youth the bosom is beautifully high, arched and rounded, firm as stone to the touch, with the nipples erect and pointing outwards. But after the girl-mother’s first child (in Europe le premier embellit) all changes. Nature and bodily power have been overtasked; then comes the long suckling at the mother’s expense: the extension of the skin and the enlargement of its vessels are too sudden and rapid for the diminished ability of contraction and the bad food aids in the continual consumption of vitality. Hence, among Eastern women age and ugliness are synonymous. It is only in the highest civilisation that we find the handsome old woman.

  124 The name has occurred in the Knightly tale of King Omar and his sons, Vol. ii. 269. She is here called Mother of Calamities,but in , Vol. iv. of the Mac. Edit. she becomes “Lady (Zát) al-Dawáhi.” It will be remembered that the title means calamitous to the foe.

  125 By this address she assured him that she had no design upon his chastity. In Moslem lands it is always advisable to accost a strange woman, no matter how young, with, “Yá Ummí!” = O my mother. This is pledging one’s word, as it were, not to make love to her.

  126 Apparently the Wakites numbered their Islands as the Anglo-Americans do their streets. For this they have been charged with “want of imagination”; but the custom is strictly classical. See at Pompeii “Reg (io) I; Ins (ula) I, Via Prima, Secunda,” etc.

  127 These are the Puellć Wakwakienses of whom Ibn Al-Wardi relates after an ocular witness, “Here too is a tree which bears fruits like women who have fair faces and are hung by their hair. They come forth from integuments like large leathern bags (calabash-gourds?) and when they sense air and sun they cry ‘Wak! Wak!’ (God! God!) till their hair is cut, and when it is cut they die; and the islanders understand this cry wherefrom they augure ill.” The Ajáib al-Hind (chapt. xv.) places in Wak-land the Samandal, a bird which enters the fire without being burnt evidently the Egyptian “Pi-Benni,” which the Greeks metamorphised to “Phnix.” It also mentions a hare-like animal, now male then female, and the Somal behind Cape Guardafui tell the same tale of their Cynhyćnas.

  128 i.e. I will keep thee as though thou wert the apple of my eye.

  129 A mere exaggeration of the “Gull-fairs” noted by travellers in sundry islands as Ascension and the rock off Brazilian Santos.

  130 Arab. “Kámil wa Basít wa Wáfir” = the names of three popular metres, for which see the Terminal Essay.

  131 Arab. “Manáshif” = drying towels, Plur. of Minshafah, and the popular term which Dr. Jonathan Swift corrupted to “Munnassaf.” Lane (Nights, Introduct. p. ix.).

  132 Arab. “Shafaif” opposed to “Shafah” the mouth-lips.

  133 Fountains of Paradise. This description is a fair instance of how the Saj’a (prose-rhyme) dislocates the order; an Arab begins with hair, forehead, eyebrows and lashes and when he reaches the nose, he slips down to the toes for the sake of the assonance. If the latter be neglected the whole list of charms must be otherwise ordered; and the student will compare Mr. Payne’s version of this passage with mine.

  134 A fair specimen of the Arab logogriph derived from the Abjad Alphabet which contains only the Hebrew and Syriac letters not the six Arabic. Thus 4 X 5=20 which represents the Kaf (K) and 6 X 10=60, or Sin (S). The whole word is thus “Kus”, the Greek {kysňs} or {kyssňs}, and the lowest word, in Persian as in Arabic, for the female pudenda, extensively used in vulgar abuse. In my youth we had at the University something of the kind,

  To five and five and fifty-five

  The first of letters add

  To make a thing to please a King

  And drive a wise man mad.

  Answer VVLVA. Very interesting to the anthropological student is this excursus of Hasan, who after all manner of hardships and horrors and risking his life to recover his wife and children, breaks out into song on the subject of her pr
ivities. And it can hardly be tale-teller’s gag as both verse and prose show considerable art in composition. (See .)

  Supplementary Note To Hasan of Bassorah.

  Note(p.93) — There is something wondrous naďve in a lover who, when asked by his mistress to sing a song in her honour, breaks out into versical praises of her parts. But even the classical Arab authors did not disdain such themes. See in Al-Harírí (Ass. of Mayyáfarikín) where Abú Zayd laments the impotency of old age in form of a Rasy or funeral oration (Preston , and Chenery ). It completely deceived Sir William Jones, who inserted it into the chapter “De Poesi Funebri,” (Poeseos Asiaticć Commentarii), gravely noting, “Hćc Elegia non admodum dissimilis esse videtur pulcherrimi illius carminis de Sauli et Jonathani obitu; at que adeň versus iste ‘ubi provocant adversarios nunquam rediit a pugnć contentione sine spiculo sanguine imbuto,’ ex Hebrćo reddi videtur,

  A sanguine occisorum, a fortium virorum adipe,

  Arcus Jonathani non rediit irritus.”

  I need hardly say with Captain Lockett (226) that this “Sabb warrior,” this Arabian Achilles, is the celebrated Bonus Deus or Hellespontiacus of the Ancients. The oration runs thus: —

  O folk I have a wondrous tale, so rare

  Much shall it profit hearers wise and ware!

  I saw in salad-years a potent Brave

  And sharp of edge and point his warrior glaive;

  Who entered joust and list with hardiment

  Fearless of risk, of victory confident,

  His vigorous onset straitest places oped

  And easy passage through all narrows groped:

  He ne’er encountered foe in single fight

  But came from tilt with spear in blood stained bright;

  Nor stormed a fortress howso strong and stark —

  With fencčd gates defended deep and dark —

  When shown his flag without th’ auspicious cry

  “Aidance from Allah and fair victory nigh!”

  Thus wise full many a night his part he played

  In strength and youthtide’s stately garb arrayed,

  Dealing to fair young girl delicious joy

  And no less welcome to the blooming boy.

  But Time ne’er ceased to stint his wondrous strength

  (Steadfast and upright as the gallow’s length)

  Until the Nights o’erthrew him by their might

  And friends contemned him for a feckless wight;

  Nor was a wizard but who wasted skill

  Over his case, nor leach could heal his ill.

  Then he abandoned arms abandoned him

  Who gave and took salutes so fierce and grim;

  And now lies prostrate drooping haughty crest;

  For who lives longest him most ills molest.

  Then see him, here he lies on bier for bet; —

  Who will a shroud bestow on stranger dead?

  A fair measure of the difference between Eastern and Western manners is afforded by such a theme being treated by their gravest writers and the verses being read and heard by the gravest and most worshipful men, whilst amongst us Preston and Chenery do not dare even to translate them. The latter, indeed, had all that immodest modesty for which English professional society is notable in this xixth century. He spoiled by needlessly excluding from a scientific publication (Mem. R.A.S.) all of my Proverbia Communia Syriaca (see Unexplored Sryia, i. 364) and every item which had a shade of double entendre. But Nemesis frequently found him out: during his short and obscure rule in Printing House Square, The Thunderer was distinguished by two of the foulest indecencies that ever appeared in an English paper.

  The well-known Koranic verse, whereby Allah is introduced into an indecent tale and “Holy Writ” is punned upon. I have noticed (iii. 206) that victory Fat’h lit.=opening everything (as e.g. a maidenhead).

  135 Egyptian and Syrian vulgar term for Mawálíyah or Mawáliyah, a short poem on subjects either classical or vulgar. It generally consists of five lines all rhyming except the penultimate. The metre is a species of the Basít which, however, admits of considerable poetical license; this being according to Lane the usual “Weight,”

  / / / .

  The scheme is distinctly anapćstic and Mr. Lyall (Translations of Ancient Arabic Poetry) compares with a cognate metre, the Tawíl, certain lines in Abt Vogler, e.g.

  “Ye know why the forms are fair, ye hear how the tale is told.”

  136 i.e. repeat the chapter of the Koran termed The Opening, and beginning with these words, “Have we not opened thy breast for thee and eased thee of thy burden which galled thy back? * * * Verily with the difficulty cometh ease!” — Koran xciv. vol. 1, 5.

  137 Lane renders Nur al-Hudŕ (Light of Salvation) by Light of Day which would be Nur al-Hadŕ.

  138 In the Bresl. Edit. “Yá Salám”=O safety! — a vulgar ejaculation.

  139 A favourite idiom meaning from the mischief which may (or will) come from the Queen.

  140 He is not strong-minded but his feminine persistency of purpose, likest to that of a sitting hen, is confirmed by the “Consolations of religion.” The character is delicately drawn.

  141 In token that she intended to act like a man.

  142 This is not rare even in real life: Moslem women often hide and change their names for superstitious reasons, from the husband and his family.

  143 Arab. “Sabab” which also means cause. Vol. ii. 14.

  There is the same metaphorical use of “Habl”= cord and cause.

  144 Arab. “Himŕ,” a word often occurring in Arab poetry, domain, a pasture or watered land forcibly kept as far as a dog’s bark would sound by some masterful chief like “King Kulayb.” (See vol. ii. 77.) This tenure was forbidden by Mohammed except for Allah and the Apostle (i.e. himself). Lane translates it “asylum.”

  145 She was a maid and had long been of marriageable age.

  146 The young man had evidently “kissed the Blarney stone”; but the flattery is the more telling as he speaks from the heart.

  147 “Inshallah “ here being= D. V.

  148 i.e. The “Place of Light” (Pharos), or of Splendour. Here we find that Hasan’s wife is the youngest sister, but with an extraordinary resemblance to the eldest, a very masterful young person. The anagnorisis is admirably well managed.

  149 i.e. the sweetmeats of the feast provided for the returning traveller. The old woman (like others) cannot resist the temptation of a young man’s lips. Happily for him she goes so far and no farther.

  150 The first, fourth, fifth and last names have already occurred: the others are in order, Star o’ Morn, Sun of Undurn and Honour of Maidenhood. They are not merely fanciful, but are still used in Egypt and Syria.

  151 Arab. “Fájirah” and elsewhere “Áhirah,” =whore and strumpet used often in loose talk as mere abuse without special meaning.

  152 This to Westerns would seem a most improbable detail, but Easterns have their own ideas concerning “Al-Muhabbat al-ghariziyah” =natural affection, blood speaking to blood, etc.

  153 One of the Hells (see vol. iv. 143). Here it may be advisable to give the names of the Seven Heavens (which are evidently based upon Ptolemaic astronomy) and which correspond with the Seven Hells after the fashion of Arabian system-mania. (1) Dar al-Jalál (House of Glory) made of pearls; (2) Dár al-Salám (of Rest), rubies and jacinths; (3) Jannat al-Maawá (Garden of Mansions, not “of mirrors,” as Herklots has it, ), made of yellow copper; (4) Jannat al-Khuld (of Eternity), yellow coral; (5) Jannat al-Na’ím (of Delights), white diamond; (6) Jannat al-Firdaus (of Paradise), red gold; and (7) Jannat al-’Adn (of Eden, or Al-Karár= of everlasting abode, which some make No. 8), of red pearls or pure musk. The seven Hells are given in vol. v. 241; they are intended for Moslems (Jahannam); Christians (Lazŕ); Jews (Hutamah); Sabians (Sa’ir); Guebres (Sakar); Pagans or idolaters (Jahím); and Hypocrites (Háwiyah).

  154 Arab. “‘Atb,” more literally= “blame,” “reproach.”

  155 Bresl. Edit. In the Mac. “
it returned to the place whence I had brought it” — an inferior reading.

  156 The dreams play an important part in the Romances of Chivalry, e.g. the dream of King Perion in Amadis de Gaul, chapt. ii. (London; Longmans, 1803).

  157 Amongst Moslems bastardy is a sore offence and a love-child is exceedingly rare. The girl is not only carefully guarded but she also guards herself knowing that otherwise she will not find a husband. Hence seduction is all but unknown. The wife is equally well guarded and lacks opportunities hence adultery is found difficult except in books. Of the Ibn (or Walad) Harám (bastard as opposed to the Ibn Halál) the proverb says, “This child is not thine, so the madder he be the more is thy glee!” Yet strange to say public prostitution has never been wholly abolished in Al-Islam. Al-Mas’údi tells us that in Arabia were public prostitutes’(Bagháyá), even before the days of the Apostle, who affected certain quarters as in our day the Tartúshah of Alexandria and the Hosh Bardak of Cairo. Here says Herr Carlo Landberg (, Syrian Proverbs) “Elles parlent une langue toute ŕ elle.” So pretentious and dogmatic a writer as the author of Proverbes et Dictons de la Province de Syrie, ought surely to have known that the Hosh Bardak is the head-quarters of the Cairene Gypsies. This author, who seems to write in order to learn, reminds me of an acute Oxonian undergraduate of my day who, when advised to take a “coach,” became a “coach” himself.

  158 These lines occur in vol. vii. . I quote Mr.

  Payne.

  159 She shows all the semi-maniacal rancour of a good woman, or rather a woman who has not broken the eleventh commandment, “Thou shalt not be found out,” against an erring sister who has been discovered. In the East also these unco’gúid dames have had, and too often have, the power to carry into effect the cruelty and diabolical malignity which in London and Paris must vent itself in scan. mag. and anonymous letters.

  160 These faintings and trances are as common in the Romances of Chivalry e.g. Amadis of Gaul, where they unlace the garments to give more liberty, pour cold water on the face and bathe the temples and pulses with diluted vinegar (for rose water) exactly as they do in The Nights.

  161 So Hafiz, “Bád-i-Sabá chu bugzarí” etc.

  162 Arab. “Takiyah.” See vol. i. 224 and for the Tarn-Kappe vol. iv. . In the Sinthásana Dwatrinsati (vulgo. Singhásan Battísí), or Thirty-two Tales of a Throne, we find a bag always full of gold, a bottomless purse; earth which rubbed on the forehead overcomes all; a rod which during the first watch of the night furnishes jewelled ornaments; in the second a beautiful girl; in the third invisibility, and in the fourth a deadly foe or death; a flower-garland which renders the possessor invisible and an unfading lotus-flower which produces a diamond every day.