One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  132 Arab. “Mahall al-Zauk,” lit.=seat of taste.

  133 Mr. Payne translates “it” i.e. the Truth; but the formula following the word shows that Allah is meant.

  134 Moslems, who do their best to countermine the ascetic idea inherent in Christianity, are not ashamed of the sensual appetite; but rather the reverse. I have heard in Persia of a Religious, highly esteemed for learning and saintly life who, when lodged by a disciple at Shiraz, came out of his sleeping room and aroused his host with the words “Shahwat dбram!” equivalent to our “I want a woman.” He was at once married to one of the slave-girls and able to gratify the demands of the flesh.

  135 Koran iv. 81, “Whatever good betideth thee is from God, and whatever betideth thee of evil is from thyself”: rank Manichжism is pronounced as any in Christendom.

  136 Arab. “Zukhruf” which Mr. Payne picturesquely renders “painted gawds.”

  137 It is the innate craving in the “Aryan” (Iranian, not the Turanian) mind, this longing to know what follows Death, or if nothing follow it, which accounts for the marvellous diffusion of the so-called Spiritualism which is only Swedenborgianism systematised and carried out into action, amongst nervous and impressionable races like the Anglo-American. In England it is the reverse; the obtuse sensitiveness of a people bred on beef and beer has made the “Religion of the Nineteenth Century” a manner of harmless magic, whose miracles are table-turning and ghost seeing whilst the prodigious rascality of its prophets (the so-called Mediums) has brought it into universal disrepute. It has been said that Catholicism must be true to co-exist with the priest and it is the same with Spiritualism proper, by which I understand the belief in a life beyond the grave, a mere continuation of this life; it flourishes (despite the Medium) chiefly because it has laid before man the only possible and intelligible idea of a future state.

  138 See vol. vi. . The only lie which degrades a man in his own estimation and in that of others, is that told for fear of telling the truth. Au reste, human society and civilised intercourse are built upon a system of conventional lying, and many droll stories illustrate the consequences of disregarding the dictum, la veritй n’est pas toujours bonne а dire.

  139 Arab. “Walн’ahd” which may mean heir-presumptive (whose heirship is contingent) or heir-apparent.

  140 Arab. “Yб abati”= O my papa (which here would sound absurd).

  141 All the texts give a decalogue; but Mr. Payne has reduced it to a heptalogue.

  142 The Arabs who had a variety of anжsthetics never seem to have studied the subject of “euthanasia.” They preferred seeing a man expire in horrible agonies to relieving him by means of soporifics and other drugs: so I have heard Christians exult in saying that the sufferer “kept his senses to the last.” Of course superstition is at the bottom of this barbarity; the same which a generation ago made the silly accoucheur refuse to give ether because of the divine (?) saying “In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children.” (Gen iii. 16.) In the Bosnia-Herzegovina campaign many of the Austrian officers carried with them doses of poison to be used in case of being taken prisoners by the ferocious savages against whom they were fighting. As many anecdotes about “Easing off the poor dear” testify, the Euthanasia-system is by no means unknown to the lower classes in England. I shall have more to say on this subject.

  143 See vol. iii. for the consequences of royal seclusion of which Europe in the present day can contribute examples. The lesson which it teaches simply is that the world can get on very well without royalties.

  144 The grim Arab humour in the text is the sudden change for the worse of the good young man. Easterns do not believe in the Western saw, “Nemo repente fuit turpissimus.” The spirited conduct of the subjects finds many parallels in European history, especially in Portugal: see my Life of Camoens .

  145 Arab. “Muhбrabah” lit.=doing battle; but is sometimes used in the sense of gain-saying or disobeying.

  146 Arab. “Duwбmah” (from “duwбm”=vertigo, giddiness) also applied to a boy’s whip-top.

  147 Arab. “Khayr o (wa) Бfiyah,” a popular phrase much used in salutations, &c.

  148 Another instance, and true to life, of the democracy of despotism in which the express and combined will of the people is the only absolute law. Hence Russian autocracy is forced into repeated wars for the possession of Constantinople which, in the present condition of the Empire, would be an unmitigated evil to her and would be only too glad to see a Principality of Byzantium placed under the united protection of the European Powers. I have treated of this in my paper on the “Partition of Turkey,” which first appeared, headed the “Future of Turkey,” in the Daily Telegraph, of March 7, 1880, and subsequently by its own name in the Manchester Examiner, January 3, 1881. The main reason why the project is not carried out appears to be that the “politicals” would thereby find their occupation gone and they naturally object to losing so fine a field of action. So Turkey still plays the rфle of the pretty young lady being courted by a rabble of valets.

  149 Good Moslems are bound to abate such scandals; and in a case of the kind even neighbours are expected to complain before the Chief of Police. This practice forms “Vigilance Committees” all over the Mahommedan East: and we may take a leaf out of their books if dynamite-outrages continue.

  150 But a Hadis, attributed to Mohammed, says, “The Prince of a people is their servant.” See Matth. xx. 26-27.

  151 Easterns are well aware of the value of this drug which has become the base of so many of our modern medicines.

  152 The strangest poison is mentioned by Sonnini who, as a rule, is a trustworthy writer. Noticing the malignity of Egyptian women he declares (, English trans.) that they prepare a draught containing a quant. suff. of menstruous discharge at certain phases of the moon, which produces symptoms of scurvy; the gums decay, the teeth, beard and hair fall off, the body dries, the limbs lose strength and death follows within a year. He also asserts that no counterpoison is known and if this be true he confers a boon upon the Locustж and Brinvilliers of modern Europe. In Morocco “Ta’am” is the vulgar name for a mixture of dead men’s bones, eyes, hair and similar ingredients made by old wives and supposed to cause a wasting disease for which the pharmacopњia has no cure. Dogs are killed by needles cunningly inserted into meat-balls; and this process is known throughout the Moslem world.

  153 Which contained the Palace.

  154 Arab. “Lб baas.” See Night vol. iv. 164.

  155 For Ta’lab (Sa’lab) see supra, . In Morocco it is undoubtedly the red or common fox which, however, is not gregarious as in the text.

  156 See vol. iii. 146.

  157 Arab. “Muunah” which in Morocco applies to the provisions furnished gratis by the unfortunate village-people to travellers who have a passport from the Sultan: its root is Maun =supplying necessaries. “The name is supposed to have its origin in that of Manna, the miraculous provision bestowed by the bounty of Heaven on the Israelites while wandering in the deserts of Arabia.” Such is the marvellous information we find in , “Morocco and the Moors” by John Drummond Hay (Murray, 1861).

  158 i.e. He resolved to do them justice and win a reward from Heaven.

  159 Arab. ‘‘Luss” = thief, robber, rogue, rascal, the Persian “Luti” of popular usage. This is one of the many ‘‘Simpleton stories” in which Eastern folk-lore abounds. I hear that Mr. Clouston is preparing a collection, and look forward to it with interest.

  160 Arab. “Tibn” for which see vol. i 16.

  161 A fanciful origin of “Dнvбn” (here an audience-chamber) which may mean demons (plural of Dнv) is attributed to a King of Persia. He gave a series of difficult documents and accounts to his scribes and surprised at the quickness and cleverness with which they were ordered exclaimed, “These men be Divs!” Hence a host of secondary meanings as a book of Odes with distichs rhymed in alphabetical order and so forth.

  162 In both cases the word “Jabбbirah” is used, the plur. of

  Jabbбr,
the potent, especially applied to the Kings of the

  Canaanites and giants like the mythical Og of Bashan. So the Heb.

  Jabbъrah is a title of the Queens of Judah.

  163 Arab. “Kitбb al-Kazб”= the Book of Judgments, such as the Kazi would use when deciding cases in dispute, by legal precedents and the Rasm or custom of the country.

  164 i.e. sit before the King as referee, etc.

  165 This massacre of refractory chiefs is one of the grand moyens of Eastern state-craft, and it is almost always successful because circumstances require it; popular opinion approves of it and it is planned and carried out with discretion and secrecy. The two familiar instances in our century are the massacre of the Mamelukes by Mohammed Ali Pasha the Great and of the turbulent chiefs of the Omani Arabs by our ancient ally Sayyid Sa’нd, miscalled the “Imбm of Maskat.”

  166 The metaphor (Sabaka) is from horse-racing, the Arabs being, I have said, a horsey people.

  167 Arab. “Kurdъs” = A body of horse.

  168 Arab. “Ibn ‘Irs.” See vol. iii. 147.

  169 Arab. “Al Hind-al-Aksб.” The Sanskrit Sindhu (lands on the Indus River) became in Zend “Hendu” and hence in Arabic Sind and Hind, which latter I wish we had preserved instead of the classical “India” or the poetical “Ind.”

  170 i.e. by geomancy: see vol. iii. 269 for a note on

  Al-Raml. The passage is not in the Mac. Edit.

  171 This address gave the boy Wazirial rank. In many parts of Europe, England included, if the Sovereign address a subject with a title not belonging to him, it is a disputed point if the latter can or cannot claim it.

  172 Koran, chapter of Joseph xii. 28, spoken by Potiphar after Joseph’s innocence had been proved by a witness in Potiphar’s house or according to the Talmud (Sepher Hбdjascher) by an infant in the cradle. The texts should have printed this as a quotation (with vowel points).

  173 Arab. “Al-’Azнz,” alluding to Joseph the Patriarch entitled in Egypt “Azнz al-Misr”= Magnifico of Misraim (Koran xii. 54). It is generally believed that Ismail Pasha, whose unwise deposition has caused the English Government such a host of troubles and load of obloquy, aspired to be named “‘Azнz” by the Porte; but was compelled to be satisfied with Khadнv (vulg. written Khedive, and pronounced even “Kйdivй”), a Persian title, which simply means prince or Rajah, as Khadнv-i-Hind.

  174 i.e. The Throne room.

  175 For the “Dawбt” or wooden inkcase containing reeds see

  vol. v. 239 and viii. 178. I may remark that its origin is the

  Egyptian “Pes,” of which there is a specimen in the British

  Museum inscribed, “Amбsis the good god and Lord of the two

  Lands.”

  176 i.e. I am governed by the fear of Allah in my dealings to thee and thy subjects.

  177 Arabic has no single word for million although the Maroccans have adopted “Milyъn” from the Spaniards (see of the Rudimentos del Бrabe vulgar que se habla en el imperio de Marruccos por El P. Fr. Josи de Lerchundi, Madrid 1872): This lack of the higher numerals, the reverse of the Hindu languages, makes Arabic “arithmology” very primitive and almost as cumbrous as the Chinese.

  178 i.e. I am thy slave to slay or to pardon.

  179 Arab. “Matta’aka ‘llah”=Allah permit thee to enjoy, from the root mata’, whence cometh the Maroccan Matб’i=my, mine, which answers to Bitб’i in Egypt.

  180 Arab. “Khitбb” = the exordium of a letter preceding its business-matter and in which the writer displays all his art. It ends with “Ammб ba’d,” lit.=but after, equivalent to our “To proceed.” This “Khitбb” is mostly skipped over by modern statesmen who will say, “Now after the nonsense let us come to the sense”; but their secretaries carefully weigh every word of it, and strongly resent all shortcomings.

  181 Strongly suggesting that the King had forgotten how to read and write. So not a few of the Amirs of Sind were analphabetic and seemed rather proud of it: “a Baloch cannot write, but he always carries a signet-ring.” I heard of an old English lady of the past generation in Northern Africa who openly declared “A Warrington shall never learn to read or write.”

  182 Arab. “Бmin,” of which the Heb. form is Amen from the root Amn=stability, constancy. In both tongues it is a particle of affirmation or consent=it is true! So be it! The Hebrew has also “Amanah”=verily, truly.

  183 To us this seems a case of “hard lines” for the unhappy women; but Easterns then believed and still believe in the divinity which doth hedge in a King, in his reigning by the “grace of God,” and in his being the Viceregent of Allah upon earth; briefly in the old faith of loyalty which great and successful republics are fast making obsolete in the West and nowhere faster than in England.

  184 Abъ Sнr is a manifest corruption of the old Egyptian Pousiri, the Busiris of our classics, and it gives a name to sundry villages in modern Egypt where it is usually pronounced “Bъsнr”. Abъ Kнr lit. = the Father of Pitch, is also corrupted to Abou Kir (Bay); and the townlet now marks the site of jolly old Canopus, the Chosen Land of Egyptian debauchery.

  185 It is interesting to note the superior gusto with which the Eastern, as well as the Western tale-teller describes his scoundrels and villains whilst his good men and women are mostly colourless and unpicturesque. So Satan is the true hero of Paradise-Lost and by his side God and man are very ordinary; and Mephistopheles is much better society than Faust and Margaret.

  186 Arab. “Dukhбn,” lit. = smoke, here tobacco for the Chibouk, “Timbбk” or “Tumbбk” being the stronger (Persian and other) variety which must be washed before smoking in the Shнshah or water-pipe. Tobacco is mentioned here only and is evidently inserted by some scribe: the “weed” was not introduced into the East before the end of the sixteenth century (about a hundred years after coffee), when it radically changed the manners of society.

  187 Which meant that the serjeant, after the manner of such officials, would make him pay dearly before giving up the key. Hence a very severe punishment in the East is to “call in a policeman” who carefully fleeces all those who do not bribe him to leave them in freedom.

  188 Arab. “Mб Dбhiyatak?” lit. “What is thy misfortune?”

  The phrase is slighting if not insulting.

  189 Amongst Moslems the plea of robbing to keep life and body together would be accepted by a good man like Abu Sir, who still consorted with a self-confessed thief.

  190 To make their agreement religiously binding. See vol. iv. 36.

  191 Arab. “Ghaliyъn”; many of our names for craft seem connected with Arabic: I have already noted “Carrack” = harrбk: to which add Uskuf in Marocco pronounced ‘Skuff = skiff; Katнrah = a cutter; Bбrijah = a barge; etc. etc.

  192 The patient is usually lathered in a big basin of tinned brass, “Mambrino’s helmet” with a break in the rim to fit the throat; but the poorer classes carry only a small cup with water instead of soap and water ignoring the Italian proverb, “Barba ben saponata mezza fatta” = well lathered is half shaved. A napkin fringed at either end is usually thrown over the Figaro’s shoulder and used to wipe the razor.

  193 Arab. “Nusf.” See vol. ii. 37.

  194 Arab. “Batбrikh” the roe (sperm or spawn) of the salted

  Fasнkh (fish) and the Bъrн (mugil cephalus) a salt-water fish

  caught in the Nile and considered fair eating. Some write

  Butбrghб from the old Egyptian town Burбt, now a ruin between

  Tinnis and Damietta (Sonnini).

  195 Arab. “Kaptбn,” see vol. iv. 85.

  196 Arab. “Anyбb,” plur. of Nбb applied to the grinder teeth but mostly to the canines or eye teeth, tusks of animals, etc. (See vol. vii. ) opp. to Saniyah, one of the four central incisors, a camel in the sixth year and horse, cow, sheep and goat in fourth year.

  197 The coffee (see also vol. viii. 274) like the tobacco is probably due to the scribe; but the tale appears to be comparatively modern. In The Nights m
en eat, drink and wash their hands but do not smoke and sip coffee like the moderns. See my Terminal Essay В§2.

  198 Arab. “Mi’lakah” (Bresl. Edit. x, 456). The fork is modern even in the East and the Moors borrow their term for it from fourchette. But the spoon, which may have begun with a cockle-shell, dates from the remotest antiquity.

  199 Arab. “Sufrah” properly the cloth or leather upon which food is placed. See vol. i. 178.

  200 i.e. gaining much one day and little another.

  201 Lit. “Rest thyself” i.e. by changing posture.

  202 Arab. “Unnбbi” = between dark yellow and red.

  203 Arab. “Nнlah” lit. = indigo, but here applied to all the materials for dyeing. The word is Sanskrit, and the growth probably came from India, although during the Crusaders’ occupation of Jerusalem it was cultivated in the valley of the lower Jordan. I need hardly say that it has nothing to do with the word “Nile” whose origin is still sub judice. And yet I lately met a sciolist who pompously announced to me this philological absurdity as a discovery of his own.

  204 Still a popular form of “bilking” in the Wakбlahs or Caravanserais of Cairo: but as a rule the Bawwбb (porter or doorkeeper) keeps a sharp eye on those he suspects. The evil is increased when women are admitted into these places; so periodical orders for their exclusion are given to the police.

  205 Natives of Egypt always hold this diaphoresis a sign that the disease has abated and they regard it rightly in the case of bilious remittents to which they are subject, especially after the hardships and sufferings of a sea-voyage with its alternations of fasting and over-eating.

  206 Not simply, “such and such events happened to him”