One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  The device of the third lady seems a reflection of the “Elopement,” but without the underground tunnel between the houses of the wife and the lover. The lady proposes to her lover to marry him, and he believes that she is only jesting, seeing that she is already married, but she assures him that she is quite in earnest, and even undertakes that her husband will consent. The lover is to come for her husband and take him to the house of Dan Eustace, where he has a fair niece, whom the lover is to pretend he wishes to espouse, if he will give her to him. The wife will go thither, and she will have done her business with Eustace before they arrive. Her husband cannot but believe that he has left her at home, and she will be so apparelled that he cannot recognise her. This plan is accordingly carried out. The lover asks the husband for the hand of his niece in marriage, to which he joyously consents, and without knowing it makes a present of his own wife. “All his life long the lover possessed her, because the husband gave and did not lend her; nor could he ever get her back.”

  Le Grand mentions that this fabliau is told at great length in the tales of the Sieur d’Ouville, tome iv. . In the “Facetić Bebelianć,” , three women wager which of them will play the best trick on her husband. One causes him to believe he is a monk, and he goes and sings mass, the second husband believed himself to be dead, and allows himself to be carried to that mass on a bier; and the third sings in it quite naked. (There is a very similar story in Campbell’s “Popular Tales of the West Highlands.”) It is also found, says Le Grand, in the “Convivales Sermones,” tome i. , in the “Delices de Verboquet,” ; and in the Facetić of Lod. Doménichi, . In the “Contes pour Rire,” , three women find a diamond, and the arbiter whom they select promises it, as in the fabliau, to her who concocts the best device for deceiving her husband, but their ruses are different.

  Richard Francis Burton’s translation: detailed table of contents

  FOOTNOTES SUPPLEMENTAL VOLUME II.

  1 Bresi. Edit., vol. xi. p-99, Nights dccccxxx-xl.

  2 Arab. “Iklím” from the Gr. {klíma}, often used as amongst us (e.g. “other climes”) for land.

  3 Bibars whose name is still famous and mostly pronounced “Baybars,” the fourth of the Baharite Mamelukes whom I would call the “Soldans.” Originally a slave of Al-Sálih, seventh of the Ayyubites, he rose to power by the normal process, murdering his predecessor, in A. D. 1260; and he pushed his conquests from Syria to Armenia. In his day “Saint” Louis died before Tunis (A. D. 1270).

  4 There are sundry Sáhils or shore-lands. “Sahil Misr” is the River-side of Cairo often extended to the whole of Lower Egypt (vol. i. 290): here it means the lowlands of Palestine once the abode of the noble Philistines; and lastly the term extends to the sea-board of Zanzibar, where, however, it is mostly used in the plur. “Sawáhil”=the Shores.

  5 Arab. “Sammár” (from Samar, = conversatio nocturna), = the story-teller who in camp or house whiles away the evening hours.

  6 “Flag of the Faith:” Sanjar in old Persian=a Prince, a

  King.

  7 “Aider of the Faith.”

  8 These policemen’s tales present a curious contrast with the detective stories of M. Gaboriau and his host of imitators. In the East the police, like the old Bow Street runners, were and are still recruited principally amongst the criminal classes on the principle of “Set a thief,” &c. We have seen that the Barmecide Wazirs of Baghdad “anticipated Fourier’s doctrine of the passionel treatment of lawless inclinations,” and employed as subordinate officers, under the Wali or Prefect of Police, accomplished villains like Ahmad al-Danaf (vol. iv. 75), Hasan Shuuman and Mercury Ali (ibid.) and even women (Dalilah the Crafty) to coerce and checkmate their former comrades. Moreover a gird at the police is always acceptable, not only to a coffee-house audience, but even to a more educated crowd; witness the treatment of the “Charley” and the “Bobby” in our truly English pantomimes.

  9 i.e. the Chief of Police, as the sequel shows.

  10 About Ł4.

  11 i.e. of the worlds visible and invisible.

  12 Arab. “Mukaddam:” see vol. iv, 42.

  13 “Faithful of Command;” it may be a title as well as a P.

  N. For “Al-Amín,” see vol. iv. 261.

  14 i. e. “What have I to do with, etc.?” or “How great is the difference between me and her.” The phrase is still popular in Egypt and Syria; and the interrogative form only intensifies it. The student of Egyptian should always try to answer a question by a question. His labours have been greatly facilitated by the conscientious work of my late friend Spitta Bey. I tried hard to persuade the late Rogers Bey, whose knowledge of Egyptian and Syrian (as opposed to Arabic) was considerable, that a simple grammar of Egyptian was much wanted; he promised to undertake it, but death cut short the design.

  15 Arab. “Nawwáb,” plur. of Náib (lit. deputies, lieutenants)=a Nabob. Till the unhappy English occupation of Egypt, the grand old Kil’ah (Citadel) contained the palace of the Pasha and the lodgings and offices of the various officials. Foreign rulers, if they are wise, should convert it into a fort with batteries commanding the town, like that of Hyderabad, in Sind.

  16 For this famous and time-honoured building, see vol. i. 269.

  17 Arab. “Tamkín,” gravity, assurance.

  18 Arab. “ Iyál-hu” lit. his family, a decorous circumlocution for his wives and concubines.

  19 Arab. “Darb,” lit. a road; here a large thoroughfare.

  20 When Mohammed Ali Pasha (the “Great”) began to rule, he found Cairo “stifled” with filth, and gave orders that each householder, under pain of confiscation, should keep the street before his house perfectly clean. This was done after some examples had been made and the result was that since that time Cairo never knew the plague. I am writing at Tangier where a Mohammed Ali is much wanted.

  21 i.e. Allah forfend!

  22 Arab. “Mustauda’” = a strong place where goods are deposited and left in charge.

  23 Because, if she came to grief, the people of the street, and especially those of the adjoining houses would get into trouble. Hence in Moslem cities, like Damascus and Fez, the Hárát or quarters are closed at night with strong wooden doors, and the guards will not open them except by means of a silver key. Mohammed Ali abolished this inconvenience, but fined and imprisoned all night-walkers who carried no lanterns. See Pilgrimage, vol. i. 173,

  24 As Kazi of the quarter he was ex-officio guardian of the orphans and their property, and liable to severe punishment (unless he could pay for the luxury) in case of fraud or neglect.

  25 Altogether six thousand dinars = Ł3000. This sentence is borrowed from the sequel and necessary to make the sense clear.

  26 i.e. “I am going at once to complain of thee before the king unless thou give me due satisfaction by restoring the money and finding the thief.”

  27 The Practice (of the Prophet) and the Holy Law (Koranic): see vols. v. 36, 167 and i. 169.

  28 In the corrupt text “Who knew me not;” thus spoiling the point.

  29 Arab. “Maut Ahmar” = violent or bloody death. For the various coloured deaths, see vol. vi. 250.

  30 i.e. for lack of sleep.

  31 i.e. of the Kazi.

  32 Arab. “Mubáh,” in the theologic sense, an action which is not sinful (harám) or quasi-sinful (makrúh); vulgarly “permitted, allowed”; so Shahrazad “ceased to say her say permitted” (by Shahryar).

  33 Arab. “Yá Khawand”; see vol. vii. 315.

  34 i.e. we both make different statements equally credible, but without proof, and the case will go against me, because thou art the greater man.

  35 Arab. “Irtiyád” = seeking a place where to stale, soft and sloping, so that the urine spray may not defile the dress. All this in one word!

  36 Arab. “Bahár,” the red buphthalmus sylvester often used for such comparisons. In Algeria it is called ‘Aráwah: see the Jardin Parfumé, , note 144.

  37 i.e. parties.

  38 i.e. amongst men.
<
br />   39 Almost as neat as “oů sont les neiges d’autan?”

  40 Arab. “ Ádí,” one transgressing, an enemy, a scoundrel.

  41 It was probably stuck in the ground like an amphora.

  42 i.e. hush up the matter.

  43 In Egypt; the former being the Eastern of the Seven

  Provinces extending to the Pelusium branch, and the latter to the

  Canobic. The “Barári” or deserts, i.e. grounds not watered by the

  Nile, lie scattered between the two and both are bounded South by

  the Kalúbíyah Province and Middle Egypt.

  44 i.e. a man ready of wit and immediate of action, as

  opposed to his name Al-Atwash = one notable for levity of mind.

  45 The negative is emphatic, “I certainly saw a Jew,” etc.

  46 The “Irish bull” is in the text; justified by —

  They hand-in-hand, with wand’ring steps and slow

  Through Eden took their solitary way,

  47 As we should say, “There are good pickings to be had out of this job.” Even in the last generation a Jew or a Christian intriguing with an Egyptian or Syrian Moslemah would be offered the choice of death or Al-Islam. The Wali dared not break open the door because he was not sure of his game.

  48 The Jew rose seemingly to fetch his valuables and ran away, thus leaving the Wali no proof that he had been there in Moslem law which demands ocular testimony, rejects circumstantial evidence and ignores such partial witnesses as the policeman who accompanied his Chief. This I have before explained.

  49 Arab. “Raba’,” lit. = spring-quarters. See Marba’, iii. 79.

  50 Arab. “Ni’am,” an exception to the Abbé Sicard’s rule. “La consonne N est l’expression naturelle du doute chez toutes les nations, par ce que le son que rend la touche nasale, quand l’homme incertain examine s’il fera ce qu’on lui demande; ainsi NE ON, NE OT, NE EC, NE IL, d’oů l’on a fait non, not, nec, nil.

  51 For this “Haláwat al-Miftáh,” or sweetmeat of the key-money, the French denier a Dieu, Old English “God’s penny,” see vol. vii. 212, and Pilgrimage i. 62.

  52 Showing that car. cop. had taken place. Here we find the irregular use of the inn, perpetuated in not a few of the monster hotels throughout Europe.

  53 For its rules and right performance see vol. vi. 199.

  54 i.e. the “Basil(issa),” mostly a servile name, see vol. i. 19.

  55 Arab. “La’alla,” used to express the hope or expectation of some event of possible occurrence; thus distinguished from “Layta” — Would heaven! utinam! O si! etc. — expressing desire or volition.

  56 Arab. “Balát,” in Cairo the flat slabs of limestone and sandstone brought from the Turah quarries, which supplied stone for the Jízah Pyramids.

  57 Arab. “Yá Mu’arras!” here = O fool and disreputable; see vol. i. 338.

  58 These unfortunates in hot climates enjoy nothing so much as throwing off the clothes which burn their feverish skins: see Pilgrimage iii. 385. Hence the boys of Eastern cities, who are perfect imps and flibbertigibbets, always raise the cry “Majnún” when they see a man naked whose sanctity does not account for his nudity.

  59 Arab. “Daur al-Ká’ah” = the round opening made in the ceiling for light and ventilation.

  60 Arab. “La-nakhsifanna” with the emphatic termination called by grammarians “Nún al-taakid” — the N of injunction. Here it is the reduplicated form, the Nun al-Sakílah or heavy N. The addition of Lá (not) e.g. “Lá yazrabanna” = let him certainly not strike answers to the intensive or corroborative negative of the Greek effected by two negations or even more. In Arabic as in Latin and English two negatives make an affirmative.

  61 Parturition and death in warm climates, especially the damp-hot like Egypt are easy compared with both processes in the temperates of Europe. This is noticed by every traveller. Hence probably Easterns have never studied the artificial Euthanasia which is now appearing in literature. See “My Path to Atheism,” by Annie Besant, London: Freethought Publishing Company, 28, Stonecutter Street, E. C., 1877, based upon the Utopia of the highly religious Thomas Moore. Also “Essay on Euthanasia,” by P. D. Williams, Jun., and Mr. Tollemache in the “Nineteenth Century.”

  62 i.e. he whose turn it is to sit on the bench outside the police-office in readiness for emergencies.

  63 Arab. “‘Udúl” (plur. of ‘Ádil), gen. men of good repute, qualified as witnesses in the law-court, see vol. iv. 271. It is also used (as below) for the Kazi’s Assessors.

  64 About Ł80.

  65 Arab. “Kitáb” = book, written bond. This officiousness of the neighbours is thoroughly justified by Moslem custom; and the same scene would take place in this our day. Like the Hindú’s, but in a minor degree, the Moslem’s neighbours form a volunteer police which oversees his every action. In the case of the Hindú this is required by the exigencies of caste, an admirable institution much bedevilled by ignorant Mlenchhas, and if “dynamiting” become the fashion in England, as it threatens to become, we shall be obliged to establish “Vigilance Committees” which will be as inquisitorial as caste

  66 e.g. writing The contract of A. with B., daughter of

  Such-an-one, etc.

  67 Arab. “Hujjat,” which may also mean an excuse.

  68 The last clause is supplied by Mr. Payne to stop a gap in the broken text.

  69 The text idiotically says “To the King.”

  70 In the text “Nahnu”=we, for I, a common vulgarism in

  Egypt and Syria.

  71 This clause has required extensive trimming; the text making the Notary write out the contract (which was already written) in the woman’s house.

  72 Arab. “Husn tadbír” = lit. “beauty of his contrivance.” Husn, like {kalňs}, pulcher, beau and bello, is applied to moral and intellectual qualities as well as to physical and material. Hence the {kalň géroon} or old gentleman which in Romaic becomes Calogero, a monk.

  73 i.e. that some one told me the following tale.

  74 Arab. “Mutawallí”: see vol. i. 259.

  75 i.e. his Moslem neighbours.

  76 In the text is a fearful confusion of genders.

  77 Her object was to sue him for the loss of the pledge and to demand fabulous damages.

  78 Arab. “Ya’tamidúna hudŕ-hum” = purpose the right direction, a skit at the devotees of her age and sex; and an impudent comment upon the Prefect’s address “O she-devil!”

  79 The trick has often been played in modern times at fairs, shows, etc. Witness the old Joe Miller of the “Moving Multitude.”

  80 Apparently meaning the forbidden pleasures of wine and wassail, loose talk and tales of women’s wiles, a favourite subject with the lewder sort of Moslem.

  81 i.e. women’s tricks.

  82 The “Turkoman” in the text first comes in afterwards.

  83 Arab. “Kásid,” the old Anglo-lndian “Cossid”; see vol. vii. 340.

  84 Being a merchant he wore dagger and sword, a safe practice as it deters attack and far better than carrying hidden weapons, derringers and revolvers which, originating in the United States, have now been adopted by the most civilised nations in Europe.

  85 I have noted (vol. ii. 186, iv. 175) the easy expiation of perjury amongst Moslems, an ugly blot in their moral code.

  86 i.e. Enter in the name of Allah.

  87 i.e. Damn your soul for leading me into this danger!

  88 Arab. “Saff Kamaríyát min al-Zujáj.” The Kamaríyah is derived by Lane (Introd. M.E.) from Kamar=moon; by Baron Von Hammer from Khumárawayh, second of the Banu-Tulún dynasty, at the end of the ixth century A.D., when stained glass was introduced into Egypt. N.B. — It must date from many centuries before. The Kamariyah are coloured glass windows about 2 feet high by 18 inches wide, placed in a row along the upper part of the Mashrabíyah or projecting lattice-window, and are formed of small panes of brightly-stained glass set in rims of gypsum-plaster, the whole framed in wood. Here the allusion is t
o the “Mamrak” or dome-shaped skylight crowning the room. See vol. viii. 156.

  89 i.e. easily arrested them.

  90 The reader will not forget the half-penitent Captain of

  Bandits in Gil Blas.

  91 Arab. “Abtál” = champions, athletes, etc., plur. of Batal, a brave: so Batalat = a virago. As the root Batala = it was vain, the form “Battál” may mean either a hero or a bad lot: see vol. viii. 335; x. 74,75.

  92 Arab. “Fityán;” plur. of Fatŕ; see vol. i, 67.

  93 This was in popular parlance “adding insult to injury:” the blackening their faces was a promise of Hell-fire.

  94 Arab. “Shayyan li ‘lláh!” lit.=(Give me some) Thing for (the love of) Allah. The answer in Egypt. is “Allah ya’tík:”=Allah will give it thee (not I), or, “Yaftah ‘Allah,”= Allah open (to thee the door of subsistence): in Marocco “Sir fí hálik” (pron. Sirf hák)= Go about thy business. In all cities there is a formula which suffices the asker; but the Ghashím (Johny Raw) who ignores it, is pestered only the more by his protestations that “he left his purse at home,” etc.

  95 i.e. engaged her for a revel and paid her in advance.

  96 Arab. “Rasílah”=a (she) partner, to accompany her on the lute.

  97 Suggesting that they are all thieves who had undergone legal mutilation.

  98 Arab. “Nuzhat-í:” see vol. ii. 81.

  99 Arab. “Muhattakát;” usually “with torn veils” (fem. plur.) here “without veils,” metaphor. meaning in disgrace, in dishonour.

  100 For this reedy Poa, see vol. ii. 18.

  101 I have repeatedly noticed that singing and all music are, in religious parlance, “Makrúh,” blameable though not actually damnable; and that the first step after “getting religion” is to forswear them.