Amongst the early Christians opinions concerning the rite differed. Although the Founder of Christianity was circumcised, St. Paul, who aimed at a cosmopolitan faith discouraged it in the physical phase. St. Augustine still sustained that the rite removed original sin despite the Fathers who preceded and followed him, Justus, Tertullian, Ambrose and others. But it gradually lapsed into desuetude and was preserved only in the outlying regions. Paulus Jovius and Munster found it practised in Abyssinia, but as a mark of nobility confined to the descendants of “Nicaules, queen of Sheba.” The Abyssinians still follow the Jews in performing the rite within eight days after the birth and baptise boys after forty and girls after eighty days. When a circumcised man became a Jew he was bled before three witnesses at the place where the prepuce had been cut off and this was called the “Blood of alliance.” Apostate Jews effaced the sign of circumcision: so in 1 Matt. i. 16, fecerunt sibi prćputia et recesserunt a Testamento Sancto. Thus making prepuces was called by the Hebrews Meshookim = recutiti{s}, and there is an allusion to it in 1 Cor. vii. 18, 19, {mč epispásthai} (Farrar, Paul ii. 70). St. Jerome and others deny the possibility; but Mirabeau (Akropodie) relates how Father Conning by liniments of oil, suspending weights, and wearing the virga in a box gained in 43 days 7ź lines. The process is still practiced by Armenians and other Christians who, compelled to Islamise, wish to return to Christianity. I cannot however find a similar artifice applied to a circumcised clitoris. The simplest form of circumcision is mere amputation of the prepuce and I have noted (vol. v. 209) the difference between the Moslem and the Jewish rite, the latter according to some being supposed to heal in kindlier way. But the varieties of circumcision are immense. Probably none is more terrible than that practiced in the Province Al-Asír, the old Ophir, lying south of Al-Hijáz, where it is called Salkh, lit. = scarification. The patient, usually from ten to twelve years old, is placed upon raised ground holding m right hand a spear, whose heel rests upon his foot and whose point shows every tremour of the nerves. The tribe stands about him to pass judgment on his fortitude, and the barber performs the operation with the Jumbiyah-dagger, sharp as a razor. First he makes a shallow cut, severing only the skin across the belly immediately below the navel, and similar incisions down each groin; then he tears off the epidermis from the cuts downwards and flays the testicles and the penis, ending with amputation of the foreskin. Meanwhile the spear must not tremble and in some clans the lad holds a dagger over the back of the stooping barber, crying, “Cut and fear not!” When the ordeal is over, he exclaims, “Allaho Akbar!” and attempts to walk towards the tents soon falling for pain and nervous exhaustion, but the more steps he takes the more applause he gains. He is dieted with camel’s milk, the wound is treated with salt and turmeric, and the chances in his favour are about ten to one. No body-pile or pecten ever grows upon the excoriated part which preserves through life a livid ashen hue. Whilst Mohammed Ali Pasha occupied the province he forbade “scarification” under pain of impalement, but it was resumed the moment he left Al-Asir. In Africa not only is circumcision indigenous, the operation varies more or less in the different tribes. In Dahome it is termed Addagwibi, and is performed between the twelfth and twentieth year. The rough operation is made peculiar by a double cut above and below; the prepuce being treated in the Moslem, not the Jewish fashion (loc. cit.). Heated sand is applied as a styptic and the patient is dieted with ginger-soup and warm drinks of ginger-water, pork being especially forbidden. The Fantis of the Gold Coast circumcise in sacred places, e.g., at Accra on a Fetish rock rising from the sea. The peoples of Sennaar, Taka, Masawwah and the adjacent regions follow the Abyssinian custom. The barbarous Bissagos and Fellups of North Western Guinea make cuts on the prepuce without amputating it; while the Baquens and Papels circumcise like Moslems. The blacks of Loango are all “verpć,” otherwise they would be rejected by the women. The Bantu or Caffre tribes are circumcised between the ages of fifteen and eighteen; the “Fetish boys,” as we call them, are chalked white and wear only grass belts; they live outside the villages in special houses under an old “medicine-man,” who teaches them not only virile arts but also to rob and fight. The “man-making” may last five months and ends in fętes and dances: the patients are washed in the river, they burn down their quarters, take new names, and become adults, donning a kind of straw thimble over the prepuce. In Madagascar three several cuts are made causing much suffering to the children; and the nearest male relative swallows the prepuce. The Polynesians circumcise when childhood ends and thus consecrate the fecundating organ to the Deity. In Tahiti the operation is performed by the priest, and in Tonga only the priest is exempt. The Maories on the other hand fasten the prepuce over the glans, and the women of the Marquesas Islands have shown great cruelty to shipwrecked sailors who expose the glans. Almost all the known Australian tribes circumcise after some fashion: Bennett supposes the rite to have been borrowed from the Malays, while Gason enumerates the “Kurrawellie wonkauna” among the five mutilations of puberty. Leichhardt found circumcision about the Gulf of Carpentaria and in the river-valleys of the Robinson and Macarthur: others observed it on the Southern Coast and among the savages of Perth, where it is noticed by Salvado. James Dawson tells us “Circumciduntur pueri,” etc., in Western Victoria. Brough Smyth, who supposes the object is to limit population (?), describes on the Western Coast and in Central Australia the “Corrobery”-dance and the operation performed with a quartz-flake. Teichelmann details the rite in Southern Australia where the assistants — all men, women, and children being driven away — form a “manner of human altar” upon which the youth is laid for circumcision. He then receives the normal two names, public and secret, and is initiated into the mysteries proper for men. The Australians also for Malthusian reasons produce an artificial hypospadias, while the Karens of New Guinea only split the prepuce longitudinally (Cosmos , Oct. 1876); the indigens of Port Lincoln on the West Coast split the virga: — Fenditur usque ad urethram a parte infera penis between the ages of twelve and fourteen, says E. J. Eyre in 1845. Missionary Schürmann declares that they open the urethra. Gason describes in the Dieyerie tribe the operation ‘Kulpi” which is performed when the beard is long enough for tying. The member is placed upon a slab of tree-bark, the urethra is incised with a quartz-flake mounted in a gum handle and a splinter of bark is inserted to keep the cut open. These men may appear naked before women who expect others to clothe themselves. Miklucho Maclay calls it “Mika” in Central Australia: he was told by a squatter that of three hundred men only three or four had the member intact in order to get children, and that in one tribe the female births greatly outnumbered the male. Those mutilated also marry: when making water they sit like women slightly raising the penis, this in coition becomes flat and broad and the semen does not enter the matrix. The explorer believes that the deed of kind is more quickly done (?). Circumcision was also known to the New World. Herrera relates that certain Mexicans cut off the ears and prepuce of the newly born child, causing many to die. The Jews did not adopt the female circumcision of Egypt described by Huet on Origen— “Circumcisio feminarum fit resectione {tęs nymphęs} (sive clitoridis) quć pars in Australium mulieribus ita crescit ut ferro est coërcenda.” Here we have the normal confusion between excision of the nymphć (usually for fibulation) and circumcision of the clitoris. Bruce notices this clitoridectomy among the Abyssinians. Werne describes the excision on the Upper White Nile and I have noted the complicated operation among the Somali tribes. Girls in Dahome are circumcised by ancient sages femmes, and a woman in the natural state would be derided by every one (See my Mission to Dahome, ii. 159) The Australians cut out the clitoris, and as I have noted elsewhere extirpate the ovary for Malthusian purposes (Journ Anthrop. Inst., vol. viii. of 1884).
181 Arab. “Kayrawán” which is still the common name for curlew; the peewit and plover being called (onomatopoetically) “Bíbat” and in Marocco Yahúdi, certain impious Jews having been turned into the Vanellus Cristatus which still wears
the black skullcap of the Hebrews.
182 Arab. “Sawáki,” the leats which irrigate the ground and are opened and closed with the foot.
183 The eighth (in altitude) of the many-storied Heavens.
184 Arab. “Ihramat li al-Salát,” i.e. she pronounced the formula of Intention (Niyat) without which prayer is not valid, ending with Allaho Akbar = Allah is All-great. Thus she had clothed herself, as it were, in prayer and had retired from the world pro temp.
185 i.e.. the prayers of the last day and night which she had neglected while in company with the Jinns. The Hammam is not a pure place to pray in; but the Farz or Koranic orisons should be recited there if the legal term be hard upon its end.
186 Slaves, male as well as female, are as fond of talking over their sale as European dames enjoy looking back upon the details of courtship and marriage.
187 Arab. “Du’á,” = supplication, prayer, as opposed to
“Salát” = divine worship, “prayers.” For the technical meaning of the latter see vol. iv. 65. I have objected to Mr. Redhouse’s distinction without a difference between Moslems’ worship and prayer: voluntary prayers are not prohibited to them and their praises of the Lord are mingled, as amongst all worshippers, with petitions.
188 Al-Muzfir = the Twister; Zafáir al-Jinn = Adiantum capillus veneris. Lúlúah = The Pearl, or Wild Heifer; see vol. ix. 218.
189 Arab. “Bi jildi ‘l-baker.” I hope that captious critics will not find fault with my rendering, as they did in the case of Fals ahmar = a red cent, vol. i. 321.
190 Arab. “Farásah” = lit. knowing a horse. Arabia abounds in tales illustrating abnormal powers of observation. I have noted this in vol. viii. 326.
191 i.e. the owner of this palace.
192 She made the Ghusl not because she had slept with a man, but because the impurity of Satan’s presence called for the major ablution before prayer.
193 i.e. she conjoined the prayers of nightfall with those of dawn.
194 i.e. those of midday, mid-afternoon and sunset.
195 Arab. “Sahbá” red wine preferred for the morning draught.
196 The Apostle who delighted in women and perfumes. Persian poetry often alludes to the rose which, before white, was dyed red by his sweat.
197 For the etymology of Julnár — Byron’s “Gulnare” — see vol. vii. 268. Here the rhymer seems to refer to its origin; Gul (Arab. Jul) in Persian a rose; and Anár, a pomegranate, which in Arabic becomes Nár = fire.
198 i.e. “The brilliant,” the enlightened.
199 i.e. the moral beauty.
200 A phenomenon well known to spiritualists and to “The
House and the Haunter.” An old Dutch factory near Hungarian Fiume is famed for this mode of “obsession”: the inmates hear the sound of footfalls, etc., behind them, especially upon the stairs; and see nothing.
201 The two short Koranic chapters, The Daybreak (cxiii.) and The Men (cxiv. and last) evidently so called from the words which occur in both (versets i., “I take refuge with”). These “Ma’úzatáni,” as they are called, are recited as talismans or preventives against evil, and are worn as amulets inscribed on parchment; they are also often used in the five canonical prayers. I have translated them in vol. iii. 222.
202 The antistes or fugleman at prayer who leads off the orisons of the congregation; and applied to the Caliph as the head of the faith. See vol. ii. 203 and iv. 111.
203 Arab. “ ‘Ummár” i.e. the Jinn, the “spiritual creatures” which walk this earth, and other non-humans who occupy it.
204 A parallel to this bodiless Head is the Giant Face, which appears to travellers (who expect it) in the Lower Valley of the Indus. See Sind Re-visited, ii. 155.
205 Arab. “Ghalílí” = my yearning.
206 Arab. “Ahbábu-ná” plur. for singular = my beloved.
207 i.e. her return.
208 Arab. “Arja’” lit. return! but here meaning to stop. It is much used by donkey-boys from Cairo to Fez in the sense of “Get out of the way.” Hence the Spanish arre! which gave rise to arriero = a carrier, a muleteer.
209 Arab. “Afras” lit.=a better horseman.
210 A somewhat crippled quotation from Koran lvi. 87-88, “As for him who is of those brought near unto Allah, there shall be for him easance and basil and a Garden of Delights (Na’ím).”
211 i.e. Queen Sunbeam.
212 See vol. i. 310 for this compound perfume which contains musk, ambergris and other essences.
213 I can hardly see the sequence of this or what the carpets have to do here.
214 Here, as before, some insertion has been found necessary.
215 Arab. “Dukhúlak” lit.=thy entering, entrance, becoming familiar.
216 Or “And in this there shall be to thee great honour over all the Jinn.”
217 Mr. Payne thus amends the text, “How loathly is yonder Genie Meimoun! There is no eating (in his presence);” referring back to .
218 i.e. “I cannot bear to see him!”
219 This assertion of dignity, which is permissible in royalty, has been absurdly affected by certain “dames” in Anglo-Egypt who are quite the reverse of queenly; and who degrade “dignity” to the vulgarest affectation.
220 i.e. “May thy visits never fail me!”
221 i.e. Ash-coloured, verging upon white.
222 i.e. “She will double thy store of presents.”
223 The Arab boy who, unlike the Jew, is circumcised long after infancy and often in his teens, thus making the ceremony conform after a fashion with our “Confirmation,” is displayed before being operated upon, to family and friends; and the seat is a couch covered with the richest tapestry. So far it resembles the bride-throne.
224 Tohfah.
225 i.e. Hindu, Indian.
226 Japhet, son of Noah.
227 Mr. Payne translates “Take this and glorify thyself withal over the people of the world.” His reading certainly makes better sense, but I do not see how the text can carry the meaning. He also omits the bussing of the bosom, probably for artistic reasons.
228 A skit at Ishák, making the Devil praise him. See vol. vii. 113.
229 Arab. “Mawázi” (plur. of Mauza’)=lit. places, shifts, passages.
230 The bed (farsh), is I presume, the straw-spread (?) store-room where the apples are preserved.
231 Arab. “Farkh warak”, which sounds like an atrocious vulgarism.
232 The Moss-rose; also the eglantine, or dog-rose, and the sweet-briar, whose leaf, unlike other roses, is so odorous.
233 The lily in Heb., derived by some from its six (shash) leaves, and by others from its vivid cheerful brightness. “His lips are lilies” (Cant. v. 13), not in colour, but in odoriferous sweetness.
234 The barber is now the usual operator; but all operations began in Europe with the “barber-surgeon.”
235 Sic in text xii. 20. It may be a misprint for Abú al-Tawaif, but it can also mean “O Shaykh of the Tribes (of Jinns)!”
236 The capital of King Al-Shisban.
237 Arab “Fajj”, the Spanish “Vega” which, however, means a mountain-plain, a plain.
238 i.e. I am quite sure: emphatically.
239 i.e. all the Jinn’s professions of affection and promises of protection were mere lies.
240 In the original this apodosis is wanting: see vol. vi. 203, 239.
241 Arab. “Dáhiyat al-Dawáhí;” see vol. ii. 87.
242 Arab. “Al-Jabal al-Mukawwar”= Chaîne de montagnes de forme demi circulaire, from Kaur, a park, an enceinte.
243 Arab. “Rúhí” lit. my breath, the outward sign of life.
244 i.e. Káf.
245 i.e. A bit of burning charcoal.
246 Arab. “Al-yad al-bayzá,”=lit. The white hand: see vol. iv. 185.
247 Showing the antiquity of “Aprčs moi le déluge,” the fame of all old politicians and aged statesmen who can expect but a few years of life. These “burning questions” (e.g. the Bulgarian) may be smothered f
or a time, but the result is that they blaze forth with increased violence. We have to thank Lord Palmerston (an Irish landlord) for ignoring the growth of Fenianism and another aged statesman for a sturdy attempt to disunite the United Kingdom. An old notion wants young blood at its head.
248 Suggesting the nursery rhyme:
Fee, fo, fum
I smell the blood of an Englishman.
249 i.e. why not at once make an end of her.
250 The well-known war-cry.
251 Lit. “Smoke” pop. applied, like our word, to tobacco.
The latter, however, is not here meant.
252 Arab. “Ghuráb al-bayn,” of the wold or of parting. See vol. vii. 226.
253 Arab. “Haláwah”; see vol. iv. 60.
254 Here the vocative particle “Yá” is omitted.
255 Lit. “The long-necked (bird)” before noticed with the
Rukh (Roc) in vol. v. 122. Here it becomes a Princess, daughter of Bahrám-i-Gúr (Bahram of the Onager, his favourite game), the famous Persian king in the fifth century, a contemporary of Theodosius the younger and Honorius. The “Anká” is evidently the Iranian Símurgh.
256 “Chamber” is becoming a dangerous word in English. Roars of laughter from the gods greeted the great actor’s declamation, “The bed has not been slept in! Her little chamber is empty!”
257 Choice Gift of the breast (or heart).
One Thousand and One Nights Page 1070
