One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  “Where woman has never a soul to save.”

  364 For Sharif and Sayyid, descendants of Mohammed, see vol. iv. 170.

  365 These lines have occurred with variants in vol. iii. 257, and iv. 50.

  366 Arab. “Hazrat,” esp. used in India and corresponding with our medićval “prćsentia vostra.”

  367 This wholesale slaughter by the tale-teller of worshipful and reverend men would bring down the gallery like a Spanish tragedy in which all the actors are killed.

  368 They are called indifferently “Ruhbán”=monks or

  “Batárikah”=patriarchs. See vol. ii. 89.

  369 Arab. “Khilál.” The toothpick, more esteemed by the Arabs than by us, is, I have said, often used by the poets as an emblem of attenuation without offending good taste. Nizami (Layla u Majnún) describes a lover as “thin as a toothpick.” The “elegant” Hariri (Ass. of Barkaid) describes a toothpick with feminine attributes, “shapely of shape, attractive, provocative of appetite, delicate as the leanest of lovers, polished as a poinard and bending as a green bough.”

  370 From Bresl. Edit. x. 194.

  371 Trébutien (vol. ii. 344 et seq.) makes the seven monks sing as many anthems, viz. (1) Congregamini; (2) Vias tuas demonstra mihi; (3) Dominus illuminatis; (4) Custodi linguam; (5) Unam petii a Domino; (6) Nec adspiciat me visus, and (7) Turbatus est a furore oculus meus. Dánis the Abbot chaunts Anima mea turbata est valdč.

  372 A neat and characteristic touch: the wilful beauty eats and drinks before she thinks of her lover. Alas for Masrur married.

  373 The unfortunate Jew, who seems to have been a model husband (Orientally speaking), would find no pity with a coffee-house audience because he had been guilty of marrying a Moslemah. The union was null and void therefore the deliberate murder was neither high nor petty treason. But, The Nights, though their object is to adorn a tale, never deliberately attempt to point a moral and this is one of their many charms.

  374 These lines have repeatedly occurred. I quote Mr.

  Payne.

  375 i.e. by the usual expiation. See vol. {ii. 186}.

  376 Arab. “Shammirí”=up and ready!

  377 I borrow the title from the Bresl. Edit. x. 204. Mr. Payne prefers “Ali Noureddin and the Frank King’s Daughter.” Lane omits also this tale because it resembles Ali Shar and Zumurrud (vol. iv. 187) and Alá al-Din Abu al-Shámát (vol. iv. 29), “neither of which is among the text of the collection.” But he has unconsciously omitted one of the highest interest. Dr. Bacher (Germ. Orient. Soc.) finds the original in Charlemagne’s daughter Emma and his secretary Eginhardt as given in Grimm’s Deutsche Sagen. I shall note the points of resemblance as the tale proceeds. The correspondence with the King of France may be a garbled account of the letters which passed between Harun al-Rashid and Nicephorus, “the Roman dog.”

  378 Arab. “Allaho Akbar,” the Moslem slogan or war-cry. See vol. ii. 89.

  379 The gate-keeper of Paradise. See vol. iii. 15, 20.

  380 Negroes. Vol. iii. 75.

  381 Arab. “Nakat,” with the double meaning of to spot and to handsel especially dancing and singing women; and, as Mr. Payne notes in this acceptation it is practically equivalent to the English phrase “to mark (or cross) the palm with silver.” I have translated “Anwá” by Pleiads; but it means the setting of one star and simultaneous rising of another foreshowing rain. There are seven Anwá (plur. of nawa) in the Solar year viz. Al-Badri (Sept.-Oct.); Al-Wasmiyy (late autumn and December); Al-Waliyy (to April); Al-Ghamír (June); Al-Busriyy (July); Bárih al-Kayz (August) and Ahrák al-Hawá extending to September 8. These are tokens of approaching rain, metaphorically used by the poets to express “bounty”. See Preston’s Hariri () and Chenery upon the Ass. of the Banu Haram.

  382 i.e. They trip and stumble in their hurry to get there.

  383 Arab. “Kumm” = sleeve or petal. See vol. v. 32.

  384 Arab. “Kiráb” = sword-case of wood, the sheath being of leather.

  385 Arab. “Akr kayrawán,” both rare words.

  386 A doubtful tradition in the Mishkát al-Masábih declares that every pomegranate contains a grain from Paradise. See vol. i. 134. The Koranic reference is to vi. 99.

  387 Arab. “Aswad,” lit. black but used for any dark colour, here green as opposed to the lighter yellow.

  388 The idea has occurred in vol. i. 158.

  389 So called from the places where they grow.

  390 See vol. vii. for the almond-apricot whose stone is cracked to get at the kernel.

  391 For Roum see vol. iv. 100: in Morocco “Roumi” means simply a European. The tetrastich alludes to the beauty of the Greek slaves.

  392 Arab. “Ahlan” in adverb form lit. = “as one of the household”: so in the greeting “Ahlan wa Sahlan” (and at thine ease), wa Marhabá (having a wide free place).

  393 For the Sufrah table-cloth see vol. i. 178.

  394 See vol. iii. 302, for the unclean allusion in fig and sycamore.

  395 In the text “of Tor”: see vol. ii. 242. The pear is mentioned by Homer and grows wild in South Europe. Dr. Victor Hehn (The Wanderings of Plants, etc.) comparing the Gr.{ápios} with the Lat. Pyrus, suggests that the latter passed over to the Kelts and Germans amongst whom the fruit was not indigenous. Our fine pears are mostly from the East. e.g. the “bergamot” is the Beg Armud, Prince of Pears, from Angora.

  396 i.e. “Royal,” it may or may not come from Sultaníyah, a town near Baghdad. See vol. i. 83; where it applies to oranges and citrons.

  397 ‘Andam = Dragon’s blood: see vol. iii. 263.

  398 Arab. “Jamár,” the palm-pith and cabbage, both eaten by

  Arabs with sugar.

  399 Arab. “Anwár” = lights, flowers (mostly yellow): hence the Moroccan “N’wár,” with its usual abuse of Wakf or quiescence.

  400 Mr. Payne quotes Eugčne Fromentin, “Un Eté dans le Sahara,” Paris, 1857, . Apricot drying can be seen upon all the roofs at Damascus where, however, the season for each fruit is unpleasantly short, ending almost as soon as it begins.

  401 Arab. “Jalájal” = small bells for falcons: in Port. cascaveis, whence our word.

  402 Khulanján. Sic all editions; but Khalanj, or Khaulanj adj. Khalanji, a tree with a strong-smelling wood which held in hand as a chaplet acts as perfume, as is probably intended. In Span. Arabic it is the Erica-wood. The “Muhit” tells us that is a tree parcel yellow and red growing in parts of India and China, its leaf is that of the Tamarisk (Tarfá); its flower is coloured red, yellow and white; it bears a grain like mustard-seed (Khardal) and of its wood they make porringers. Hence the poet sings,

  “Yut ‘amu ‘l-shahdu fí ‘l-jifáni, wa yuska * Labanu ‘l-Bukhti fi

  Kusá’i ‘l-Khalanji:

  Honey’s served to them in platters for food; * Camels’ milk in

  bowls of the Khalanj wood.”

  The pl. Khalánij is used by Himyán bin Kaháfah in this “bayt”,

  “Hattá izá má qazati ‘l-Hawáijá * Wa malaat Halába-há

  ‘l-Khalánijá:

  Until she had done every work of hers * And with sweet milk had

  filled the porringers.”

  403 In text Al-Shá’ir Al-Walahán, vol. iii. 226.

  404 The orange I have said is the growth of India and the golden apples of the Hesperides were not oranges but probably golden nuggets. Captain Rolleston (Globe, Feb. 5, ‘84, on “Morocco-Lixus”) identifies the Garden with the mouth of the Lixus River while M. Antichan would transfer it to the hideous and unwholesome Bissagos Archipelago.

  405 Arab. “Ikyán,” the living gold which is supposed to grow in the ground.

  406 For the Kubbad or Captain Shaddock’s fruit see vol. ii. 310, where it is misprinted Kubád.

  407 Full or Fill in Bresl. Edit. = Arabian jessamine or cork-tree ({phellón}. The Bul. and Mac. Edits. read “filfil” = pepper or palm-fibre.

  408 Arab. “Sumbul al-’Anbari”; the former word having been introduced into England by pate
nt medicines. “Sumbul” in Arab. and Pers. means the hyacinth, the spikenard or the Sign Virgo.

  409 Arab. “Lisán al-Hamal” lit. = Lamb’s tongue.

  410 See in Bresl. Edit. X, 221. Taif, a well-known town in the mountain region East of Meccah, and not in the Holy Land, was once famous for scented goat’s leather. It is considered to be a “fragment of Syria” (Pilgrimage ii. 207) and derives its name = the circumambulator from its having circuited pilgrim-like round the Ka’abah (Ibid.).

  411 Arab. “Mikhaddah” = cheek-pillow: Ital. guanciale. In

  Bresl. Edit. Mudawwarah (a round cushion) Sinjabiyah (of Ermine).

  For “Mudawwarah” see vol. iv. 135.

  412 “Coffee” is here evidently an anachronism and was probably inserted by the copyist. See vol. v. 169, for its first metnion. But “Kahwah” may have preserved its original meaning = strong old wine (vol. ii. 261); and the amount of wine-drinking and drunkenness proves that the coffee movement had not set in.

  413 i.e. they are welcome. In Marocco “Lá baas” means, “I am pretty well” (in health).

  414 The Rose (Ward) in Arab. is masculine, sounding to us most uncouth. But there is a fem. form Wardah = a single rose.

  415 Arab. “Akmám,” pl. of Kumm, a sleeve, a petal. See vol. iv. 107 and supra . The Moslem woman will show any part of her person rather than her face, instinctively knowing that the latter may be recognised whereas the former cannot. The traveller in the outer East will see ludicrous situations in which the modest one runs away with hind parts bare and head and face carefully covered.

  416 Arab. “Ikyán” which Mr. Payne translates “vegetable gold” very picturesquely but not quite preserving the idea. See supra .

  417 It is the custom for fast youths, in Egypt, Syria, and elsewhere to stick small gold pieces, mere spangles of metal on the brows, cheeks and lips of the singing and dancing girls and the perspiration and mask of cosmetics make them adhere for a time till fresh movement shakes them off.

  418 See the same idea in vol. i. 132, and 349.

  419 “They will ask thee concerning wine and casting of lots; say: ‘In both are great sin and great advantages to mankind; but the sin of them both is greater than their advantage.’” See Koran ii. 216. Mohammed seems to have made up his mind about drinking by slow degrees; and the Koranic law is by no means so strict as the Mullahs have made it. The prohibitions, revealed at widely different periods and varying in import and distinction, have been discussed by Al-Bayzáwi in his commentary on the above chapter. He says that the first revelation was in chapt. xvi. 69 but, as the passage was disregarded, Omar and others consulted the Apostle who replied to them in chapt. ii. 216. Then, as this also was unnoticed, came the final decision in chapt. v. 92, making wine and lots the work of Satan. Yet excuses are never wanting to the Moslem, he can drink Champagne and Cognac, both unknown in Mohammed’s day and he can use wine and spirits medicinally, like sundry of ourselves, who turn up the nose of contempt at the idea of drinking for pleasure.

  420 i.e. a fair-faced cup-bearer. The lines have occurred before: so I quote Mr. Payne.

  421 It is the custom of the Arabs to call their cattle to water by whistling; not to whistle to them, as Europeans do, whilst making water.

  422 i.e. bewitching. See vol. i. 85. These incompatible metaphors are brought together by the Saj’a (prose rhyme) in— “iyah.”

  423 Mesopotamian Christians, who still turn towards Jerusalem, face the West, instead of the East, as with Europeans: here the monk is so dazed that he does not know what to do.

  424 Arab. “Bayt Sha’ar” = a house of hair (tent) or a couplet of verse. Watad (a tentpeg) also is prosodical, a foot when the two first letters are “moved” (vowelled) and the last is jazmated (quiescent), e.g. Lakad. It is termed Majmú’a (united), as opposed to “Mafrúk” (separated), e.g. Kabla, when the “moved” consonants are disjoined by a quiescent.

  425 Lit. standing on their heads, which sounds ludicrous enough in English, not in Arabic.

  426 These lines are in vol. iii. 251. I quote Mr. Payne who notes “The bodies of Eastern women of the higher classes by dint of continual maceration, Esther-fashion, in aromatic oils and essences, would naturally become impregnated with the sweet scents of the cosmetics used.”

  427 These lines occur in vol. i. 218: I quote Torrens for variety.

  428 So we speak of a “female screw.” The allusion is to the dove-tailing of the pieces. This personification of the lute has occurred before: but I solicit the reader’s attention to it; it has a fulness of Oriental flavour all its own.

  429 I again solicit the reader’s attention to the simplicity, the pathos and the beauty of this personification of the lute.

  430 “They” for she.

  431 The Arabs very justly make the “‘Andalib” = nightingale, masculine.

  432 Anwár = lights or flowers: See Night dccclxv. supra .

  433 These couplets have occurred in vol. i. 168; so I quote

  Mr. Payne.

  434 i.e. You may have his soul but leave me his body: company with him in the next world and let me have him in this.

  435 Alluding to the Koranic (cxiii. 1.), “I take refuge with the Lord of the Daybreak from the mischief of that which He hath created, etc.” This is shown by the first line wherein occurs the Koranic word “Ghásik” (cxiii. 3) which may mean the first darkness when it overspreadeth or the moon when it is eclipsed.

  436 “Malak” = level ground; also tract on the Nile sea.

  Lane M.E. ii. 417, and Bruckhardt Nubia 482.

  437 This sentiment has often been repeated.

  438 The owl comes in because “Búm” (pron. boom) rhymes with

  Kayyúm = the Eternal.

  439 For an incident like this see my Pilgrimmage (vol. i. 176). How true to nature the whole scene is; the fond mother excusing her boy and the practical father putting the excuse aside. European paternity, however, would probably exclaim, “The beast’s in liquor!”

  440 In ancient times this seems to have been the universal and perhaps instinctive treatment of the hand that struck a father. By Nur al-Din’s flight the divorce-oath became technically null and void for Taj al-Din had sworn to mutilate his son next morning.

  441 So Roderic Random and his companions “sewed their money between the lining and the waistband of their breeches, except some loose silver for immediate expense on the road.” For a description of these purses see Pilgrimage i. 37.

  442 Arab. Rashid (our Rosetta), a corruption of the Coptic

  Trashit; ever famous for the Stone.

  443 For a parallel passage in praise of Alexandria see vol. i. 290, etc. The editor or scribe was evidently an Egyptian.

  444 Arab. “Saghr” (Thagr), the opening of the lips showing the teeth. See vol. i. .

  445 Iskandariyah, the city of Iskandar or Alexander the Great, whose “Soma” was attractive to the Greeks as the corpse of the Prophet Daniel afterwards was to the Moslems. The choice of site, then occupied only by the pauper village of Rhacotis, is one proof of many that the Macedonian conqueror had the inspiration of genius.

  446 i.e. paid them down. See vol. i. 281; vol. ii. 145.

  447 Arab. “Baltiyah,” Sonnini’s “Bolti” and Nébuleux (because it is dozid-coloured when fried), the Labrus Niloticus from its labra or large fleshy lips. It lives on the “leaves of Paradise” hence the flesh is delicate and savoury and it is caught with the épervier or sweep-net in the Nile, canals and pools.

  448 Arab. “Liyyah,” not a delicate comparison, but exceedingly apt besides rhyming to “Baltiyah.” The cauda of the “five-quarter sheep, whose tails are so broad and thick that there is as much flesh upon them as upon a quarter of their body,” must not be confounded with the lank appendage of our English muttons. See i. 25, Dr. Burnell’s Linschoten (Hakluyt Soc. 1885).

  449 A variant occurs in vol. iv. 191.

  450 Arab. “Tars Daylami,” a small shield of bright metal.

  451 Arab. “Kaukab al-
durri,” see Pilgrimage ii. 82.

  452 Arab. “Kusúf” applied to the moon; Khusúf being the solar eclipse.

  453 May Abú Lahab’s hands perish. . . and his wife be a bearer of faggots!” Koran cxi. 1 & 4. The allusion is neat.

  454 Alluding to the Angels who shoot down the Jinn. See vol. i. 224. The index misprints “Shibáh.”

  455 For a similar scene see Ali Shar and Zumurrud, vol. iv. 187.

  456 i.e. of the girl whom as the sequel shows, her owner had promised not to sell without her consent. This was and is a common practice. See vol. iv. 192.

  457 These lines have occurred in vol. iii. . I quote

  Mr. Payne.

  458 Alluding to the erectio et distensio penis which comes on before dawn in tropical lands and which does not denote any desire for women. Some Anglo-Indians term the symptom signum salutis, others a urine-proud pizzle.

  459 Arab. “Mohtasib,” in the Maghrib “Mohtab,” the officer charged with inspecting weights and measures and with punishing fraud in various ways such as nailing the cheat’s ears to his shop’s shutter, etc.