One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  132 Here the MS. text is defective, the allusion is, I suppose, to the Slave of the Lamp.

  133 In the H. V. the King retired into his private apartment; and, dismissing all save the Grand Wazir, “took cognisance of special matters” before withdrawing to the Harem.

  134 The levÚe, Divan or Darbßr being also a lit de justice and a Court of Cassation: See vol. i. 29.

  135 All this is expressed by the Arabic in one word “Tamannß.” Galland adds pour marquer qu’il etait prÛt ß perdre s’il y manquait; and thus he conveys a wrong idea.

  136 This would be still the popular address, nor is it considered rude or slighting. In John (ii. 4) “Atto,” the Heb. Eshah, is similarly used, not complimentarily, but in popular speech.

  137 This sounds ridiculous enough in English, but not in German, e.g. Deine K÷nigliche Hoheit is the formula de rigueur when an Austrian officer, who always addresses brother-soldiers in the familiar second person, is speaking to a camarade who is also a royalty.

  138 “Surßyyßt (lit. = the Pleiades) and “Sham’ßdÝn” a would-be Arabic plur. of the Persian “Sham’adßn”=candlestick, chandelier, for which more correctly Sham’adßnßt is used.

  139 i.e., betrothed to her — j’agrÚe la proposition, says

  Galland.

  140 Here meaning Eunuch-officers and officials. In the cdlxxvith Night of this volume the word is incorrectly written ghßt in the singular.

  141 In the H. V. Alaeddin on hearing this became as if a thunderbolt had stricken him, and losing consciousness, swooned away.

  142 These calls for food at critical times, and oft- recurring allusions to eating are not yet wholly obsolete amongst the civilised of the xixth century. The ingenious M. Jules Verne often enlivens a tedious scene by Dejeunons! And French travellers, like English, are not unready to talk of food and drink, knowing that the subject is never displeasing to their readers.

  143 The H. V. gives a sketch of the wedding. “And when the ceremonies ended at the palace with pomp and parade and pageant, and the night was far spent, the eunuchs led the Wazir’s son into the bridal chamber. He was the first to seek his couch; then the Queen his mother-in-law, came into him leading the bride, and followed by her suite. She did with her virgin daughter as parents are wont to do, removed her wedding-raiment, and donning a night-dress, placed her in her bridegroom’s arms. Then, wishing her all joy, she with her ladies went away and shut the door. At that instant came the Jinni,” etc.

  144 The happy idea of the wedding night in the water-closet is repeated from the tale of Nur-al-DÝn Ali Hasan (vol. i. 221), and the mishap of the Hunchback bridegroom.

  145 For the old knightly practice of sleeping with a drawn sword separating man and maid see vol. vii. 353 and Mr. Clouston’s “Popular Tales and Fictions,” vol. i. 316. In Poland the intermediary who married by procuration slept alongside the bride in all his armour. The H. V. explains, “He (Alaeddin) also lay a naked sword between him and the Princess so she might perceive that he was ready to die by that blade should he attempt to do aught of villainy by the bride.”

  146 Galland says: Ils ne s’aperþurent que de l’Úbranlement du lit et que de leur transport d’un lieu ß l’autre: c’Útait bien assez pour leur donner une frayeur qu’il est aisÚ d’imaginer.

  147 Galland very unnecessarily makes the Wazir’s son pass into the wardrobe (garderobe) to dress himself.

  148 Professional singing and dancing girls: Properly the word is the fem. Of ‘ lim = a learned man; but it has been anglicised by Byron’s

  “The long chibouque’s dissolving cloud supply

  Where dance the Almahs to wild minstrelsy.”

  — (The Corsair, ii. 2.)

  They go about the streets with unveiled faces and are seldom admitted into respectable Harems, although on festal occasions they perform in the court or in front of the house, but even this is objected to by the Mrs. Grundy of Egypt. Lane (M.E. chap. xviii.) derives with Saint Jerome the word from the Heb. or Phoenician Almah = a virgin, a girl, a singing- girl; and thus explains “Alßmoth” in Psalms xlvi. and I Chron. xv. 20. Parkhurst (s.v. ‘Alamah = an undeflowered virgin) renders Job xxxix. 30, “the way of a man with a maid” (bi-ßlmah). The way of a man in his virgin state, shunning youthful lust and keeping himself “pure and unspotted.”

  149 The text reads “Rafa’ “ (he raised) “al-Bashkhßnah” which in Suppl. Nights (ii. 119) is a hanging, a curtain. Apparently it is a corruption of the Pers. “Paskhkhßnah,” a mosquito-curtain.

  150 The father suspected that she had not gone to bed a clean maid.

  151 Arab. Aysh = Ayyu Shayyin and Laysh = li ayyi Shayyin.

  This vulgarism, or rather popular corruption, is of olden date

  and was used by such a purist as Al-Mutanabbi in such a phrase as

  “Aysh Khabara-k?” = how art thou? See Ibn Khallikan, iii. 79.

  152 In the H. V. the Minister sends the Chob-dßr= = rod- bearer, mace-bearer, usher, etc.

  153 In the text Sßhal for Sahal, again the broad “Doric” of

  Syria.

  154 Arab. Dahab ramli = gold dust washed out of the sand, placer-gold. I must excuse myself for using this Americanism, properly a diluvium or deposit of sand, and improperly (Bartlett) a find of drift gold. The word, like many mining terms in the Far West, is borrowed from the Spaniards; it is not therefore one of the many American vulgarisms which threaten hopelessly to defile the pure well of English speech.

  155 Abra. “Ratl,” by Europeans usually pronounced “Rotl”

  (Rotolo).

  156 In the H. V. she returns from the bazar; and, “seeing the house filled with so many persons in goodliest attire, marvelled greatly. Then setting down the meat lately bought she would have taken off her veil, but Alaeddin prevented her and said,” etc.

  157 The word is popularly derived from Serai in Persian = a palace; but it comes from the Span. and Port. Cerrar = to shut up, and should be written with the reduplicated liquid.

  158 In the H. V. the dresses and ornaments of the slaves were priced at ten millions (Kar·r a crore) of gold coins. I have noticed that Messer Marco “Milione” did not learn his high numerals in Arabia, but that India might easily have taught them to him.

  159 Arab. “Rßih yasÝr,” peasant’s language.

  160 Arab. Kß’ah, the apodyterium or undressing room upon which the vestibule of the Hammam opens. See the plan in Lane’s M. E. chaps. xvi. The Kßr’ah is now usually called “Maslakh” = stripping-room.

  161 Arab. “Hammam-hu” = went through all the operations of the Hammam, scraping, kneading, soaping, wiping and so forth.

  162 For this aphrodisiac see vol. vi. 60. The subject of aphrodisiacs in the East would fill a small library: almost every medical treatise ends in a long disquisition upon fortifiers, provocatives’ etc. We may briefly divide them into three great classes. The first is the medicinal, which may be either external or internal. The second is the mechanical, such as scarification’ flagellation, and the application of insects as practiced by certain savage races. There is a venerable Joe Miller of an old Brahmin whose young wife always insisted, each time before he possessed her, upon his being stung by a bee in certain parts. The third is magical superstitious and so forth

  163 This may sound exaggerated to English ears, but a petty Indian Prince, such as the Gßikwßr, or Rajah of Baroda, would be preceded in state processions by several led horses all whose housings and saddles were gold studded with diamonds. The sight made one’s mouth water.

  164 i.e. the æArab al-’Arbß; for which see vols. i. 112; v. 101.

  165 Arab. “Al-KandÝl al-’ajÝb:” here its magical virtues are specified and remove many apparent improbabilities from the tale.

  166 This was the highest of honours. At Abyssinian Harar even the Grandees were compelled to dismount at the door of the royal “compound.” See my “First Footsteps in East Africa,” .

  167 “The right hand” seems to me a European touch in

 
; Galland’s translation, leur chef mit Aladdin a sa droite. Amongst

  Moslems the great man sits in the sinistral corner of the Divan

  as seen from the door, so the place of honour is to his left.

  168 Arab. “M·sikß,” classically “MusikÝ” ={Greek}: the Pers. form is M·sikßr; and the Arab. equivalent is Al-Lahn. In the H. V. the King made a signal and straightway drums (dhol) and trumpets (trafÝr) and all manner wedding instruments struck up on every side.

  169 Arab. Marmar Sumßki=porphyry of which ancient Egypt supplied the finest specimens. I found a vein of it in the Anti- Libanus. Strange to say, the quarries which produced the far- famed giallo antico, verd’ antico (serpentine limestone) and rosso antico (mostly a porphyry) worked by the old Nilotes, are now unknown to us.

  170 i.e. velvets with gold embroidery: see vol. viii. 201.

  171 The Arabic says, “There was a kiosque with four-and- twenty alcoves (LÝwßn, for which see vols. iv. 71, vi. 347) all builded of emerald, etc., and one remained with the kiosque (kushk) unfinished.” I adopt Galland’s reading salon ß vingt- quatre croisÚes which are mentioned in the Arab. text towards the end of the tale, and thus avoid the confusion between kiosque and window. In the H. V. there is a domed belvedere (bßrah-dari-i- gumbaz-dßr), four-sided, with six doors on each front (i. e. twenty-four), and all studded with diamonds, etc.

  172 In Persia this is called “Pß-andßz,” and must be prepared for the Shah when he deigns to visit a subject. It is always of costly stuffs, and becomes the perquisite of the royal attendants.

  173 Here the European hand again appears to me: the Sultan as a good Moslem should have made the Wuz·-ablution and prayed the dawn-prayers before doing anything worldly.

  174 Arab. FÝ ghuz·ni zßlika,” a peculiar phrase, Ghazn=a crease, a wrinkle.

  175 In the H. V. the King “marvelled to see Alaeddin’s mother without her veil and magnificently adorned with costly jewels and said in his mind, æMethought she was a grey-haired crone, but I find her still in the prime of life and comely to look upon, somewhat after the fashion of Badr al-Bud·r.’ “ This also was one of the miracles of the Lamp.

  176 For this word see vols. i. 46, vii. 326. A Joe Miller is told in Western India of an old General Officer boasting his knowledge of Hindostani. “How do you say, Tell a plain story, General?” asked one of the hearers, and the answer was, “Maydßn kÝ bßt bolo!” = “speak a word about the plain” (or level space).

  177 The prehistoric Arabs: see supra .

  178 Popularly, JerÝd, the palm-frond used as javelin: see vol. vi. 263.

  179 In order to keep off the evil eye, one of the functions of iron and steel: see vol. ii. 316.

  180 The H. V. adds, “Little did the Princess know that the singers were fairies whom the Slave of the Lamp had brought together.”

  181 Alexander the Great: see v. 252, x. 57. The H. V. adds, “Then only one man and one woman danced together, one with other, till midnight, when Alaeddin and the Princess stood up, for it was the wont of China in those days that bride and bridegroom perform together in presence of the wedding company.”

  182 The exceptional reserve of this and other descriptions makes M. H. Zotenberg suspect that the tale was written for one of the Mameluke Princesses: I own to its modesty but I doubt that such virtue would have recommended it to the dames in question. The H. V. adds a few details:— “Then, when the bride and bridegroom had glanced and gazed each at other’s face, the Princess rejoiced with excessive joy to behold his comeliness, and he exclaimed, in the courtesy of his gladness, æO happy me, whom thou deignest, O Queen of the Fair, to honour despite mine unworth, seeing that in thee all charms and graces are perfected.’”

  183 The term has not escaped ridicule amongst Moslems. A common fellow having stood in his way the famous wit Ab· al-’Aynß asked “What is that?” “A man of the Sons of Adam” was the reply. “Welcome, welcome,” cried the other, “Allah grant thee length of days. I deemed that all his sons were dead.” See Ibn Khallikan iii. 57.

  184 This address to an inanimate object (here a window) is highly idiomatic and must be cultivated by the practical Arabist. In the H. V. the unfinished part is the four-and-twentieth door of the fictitious (ja’alÝ) palace.

  185 This is true Orientalism, a personification or incarnation which Galland did not think proper to translate.

  186 Arab. “La’ab al-Andßb;” the latter word is from “Nadb” = brandishing or throwing the javelin.

  187 The “mothers” are the prime figures, the daughters being the secondary. For the “ ‘Ilm al-Ram!” = (Science of the sand) our geomancy, see vol. iii. 269, and D’Herbelot’s sub. v. Raml or Reml.

  188 This is from Galland, whose certaine boisson chaude evidently means tea. It is preserved in the H.V.

  189 i.e. his astrolabe, his “ZÝj” or table of the stars, his almanack, etc. For a highly fanciful derivation of the “Arstable” see Ibn Khallikan (iii. 580). He makes it signify “balance or lines (Pers. æAstur’) of the sun,” which is called “Lßb” as in the case of wicked Queen Lßb (The Nights, vol. vii. 296). According to him the Astrolabe was suggested to Ptolemy by an armillary sphere which had accidentally been flattened by the hoof of his beast: this is beginning late in the day, the instrument was known to the ancient Assyrians. Chardin (Voyages ii. 149) carefully describes the Persian variety of —

  “The cunning man highs Sidrophil

  (as Will. Lilly was called). Amongst other things he wore at his girdle an astrolabe not bigger than the hollow of a man’s hand, often two to three inches in diameter and looking at a distance like a medal.” These men practiced both natural astrology = astronomy, as well as judicial astrology which foretells events and of which Kepler said that “she, albeit a fool, was the daughter of a wise mother, to whose support and life the silly maid was indispensable.” Isidore of Seville (A. D. 600-636) was the first to distinguish between the two branches, and they flourished side by side till Newton’s day. Hence the many astrological terms in our tongue, e.g. consider, contemplate, disaster, jovial, mercurial, saturnine, etc.

  190 In the H. V. “New brass lamps for old ones! who will exchange ?” So in the story of the Fisherman’s son, a Jew who had been tricked of a cock, offers to give new rings for old rings. See Jonathan Scott’s excerpts from the Wortley-Montague MSS. vol. vi. p 12 This is one of the tales which I have translated for vol. iv.

  191 The H. V. adds that Alaeddin loved to ride out a- hunting and had left the city for eight days whereof three had passed by.

  192 Galland makes her say, HÚ bien folle, veux-tu me dire pourqoui tu ris? The H. V. renders “Cease, giddy head, why laughest thou?” and the vulgate “Well, giggler,” said the Princess, etc.

  193 Nothing can be more improbable than this detail, but upon such abnormal situations almost all stones, even in our most modern “Society-novels,” depend and the cause is clear — without them there would be no story. And the modern will, perhaps, suggest that “the truth was withheld for a higher purpose, for the working out of certain ends.” In the H. V Alaeddin, when about to go a-hunting, always placed the Lamp high up on the cornice with all care lest any touch it.

  194 The H. V. adds, “The Magician, when he saw the Lamp, at once knew that it must be the one he sought; for he knew that all things, great and small, appertaining to the palace

  195 In truly Oriental countries the Wazir is expected to know everything, and if he fail in this easy duty he may find himself in sore trouble.

  196 i.e. must he obeyed.

  197 We see that “China” was in those days the normal

  Oriental “despotism tempered by assassination.”

  198 In the H. V. Alaeddin promises, “if I fail to find and fetch the Princess, I will myself cut off my head and cast it before the throne.” Hindus are adepts in suicide and this self- decapitation, which sounds absurd further West, is quite possible to them.

  199 In Galland Alaeddin unconsciously rubbed the ring against un pe
tit roc, to which he clung in order to prevent falling into the stream. In the H. V. “The bank was high and difficult of descent and the youth would have rolled down headlong had he not struck upon a rock two paces from the bottom and remained hanging over the water. This mishap was of the happiest for during his fall he struck the stone and rubbed his ring against it,” etc.

  200 In the H. V. he said, “First save me that I fall not into the stream and then tell me where is the pavilion thou builtest for her and who hath removed it.”

  201 Alluding to the preparatory washing, a mere matter of cleanliness which precedes the formal Wuz·-ablution.

  202 In the H. V. the Princess ends with, “I had made this resolve that should he approach me with the design to win his wish perforce, I would destroy my life. By day and by night I abode in fear of him; but now at the sight of thee my heart is heartened.”

  203 The Fellah had a natural fear of being seen in fine gear, which all would have supposed to be stolen goods; and Alaeddin was justified in taking it perforce, because necessitas non habet legem. See a similar exchange of dress in Spitta-Bey’s “Contes Arabes Modernes,” . In Galland the peasant when pressed consents; and in the H. V. Alaeddin persuades him by a gift of money.

  204 i.e. which would take effect in the shortest time.

  205 Her modesty was startled by the idea of sitting: at meat with a strange man and allowing him to make love to her.

  206 In the text KidÝ, pop. for Ka-zßlika. In the H. V. the Magician replies to the honeyed speech of the Princess, “O my lady, we in Africa have not so gracious customs as the men of China. This day I have learned of thee a new courtesy which I shall ever keep in mind.”

  207 Galland makes the Princess poison the Maghrabi, which is not gallant. The H. V. follows suit and describes the powder as a mortal poison.

  208 Contrast this modesty with the usual scene of reunion after severance, as in the case of Kamar al-Zamßn and immodest Queen Bud·r, vol. iii. p-304.