One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  87 In Chavis her name is “Zaliza” and she had “conceived an unhappy passion” for her master, to whom she “declared her sentiments without reserve.”

  88 Arab. “Armaghánát,” the Arab. plur. of “Armaghán,”

  Pers.=a present.

  89 In the text, “jumlatun min al-mál,” which Scott apparently reads “Hamlat al-jamal” and translates () “a camel’s load of treasure.”

  90 The learned man was to exorcise some possible “evil spirit” or “the eye,” a superstition which seems to have begun, like all others, with the ancient Egyptians.

  91 The MS., I have said, always writes “Khwájá” instead of

  “Khwájah” (plur. “Khwájat”): for this word, the modern Egyptian

  “Howájah,” see vol. vi. 46. Here it corresponds with our

  “goodman.”

  92 Arab. “Yatazáwadú”=increasing.

  93 By which she accepted the offer.

  94 This incident has already occurred in the tale of the Portress (Second Lady of Baghdad, vol. i. 179), but here the consequences are not so tragical. In Chavis the vulgar cock becomes “a golden Censer ornamented with diamonds, to be sold for two thousand sequins” (each=9 shill.).

  95 A royal sign of wrath generally denoting torture and death. See vols. iv. 72; vi. 250.

  96 Arab. “Yá Sallám,” addressed to Allah.

  97 Here more is meant than meets the eye. When a Moslem’s head was struck off, in the days of the Caliphate, it was placed under his armpit, whereas that of a Jew or a Christian was set between his legs, close to the seat of dishonour.

  98 In Chavis and Cazotte the lady calls to “Morigen, her first eunuch, and says, Cut off his head!” Then she takes a theorbo and “composed the following couplets”?of which the first may suffice:

  Since my swain unfaithful proves,

  Let him go to her he loves, etc., etc.

  99 The device has already occurred in “Ali Baba.”

  100 Arab. “Al-ma’húd min ghayr wa’d.”

  101 In Chavis and Cazotte the king is Harun al-Rashid and the masterful young person proves to be Zeraida, the favourite daughter of Ja’afar Bermaki; whilst the go-between is not the young lady’s mother but Nemana, an old governess. The over- jealous husband in the Second Lady of Baghdad (vol. i. 179) is Al-Amín, son and heir of the Caliph Harun al-Rashid.

  102 Vol. iii. p-179: and Scott’s “Story of the Second Lunatic,” p-51. The name is absurdly given as the youth was anything but a lunatic; but this is Arab symmetromania. The tale is virtually the same as “Women’s Wiles,” in Supplemental Nights, vol. ii. 99-107.

  103 This forward movement on the part of the fair one is held to be very insulting by the modest Moslem. This incident is wanting in “Women’s Wiles.”

  104 Arab. “Labbah,” usually the part of the throat where ornaments are hung or camels are stabbed.

  105 The Chief of the Moslem Church. For the origin of the office and its date (A.D. 1453) see vols. ix. 289, and x. 85.

  106 Arab. “Satíhah” = a she-Satíh: this seer was a headless and neckless body, with face in breast, lacking members and lying prostrate on the ground. His fellow, “Shikk,” was a half-man, and both foretold the divine mission of Mohammed. (Ibn Khall. i. 487.)

  107 Arab. “Wakt al-Zuhŕ;” the division of time between sunrise and midday.

  108 In the text “Sufrah” = the cloth: see vol. i. 178, etc.

  109 Arab. “Ya Tinjír,” lit. = O Kettle.

  110 Arab. “Tari,” lit. = wet, with its concomitant suggestion, soft and pleasant like desert-rain.

  111 Here meaning “Haste, haste!” See vol. i. 46.

  112 The chief man (Aghá) of the Gypsies, the Jink of Egypt whom Turkish soldiers call Ghiovendé, a race of singers and dancers; in fact professional Nautch-girls. See , “Account of the Gypsies of India,” by David MacRitchie (London, K. Paul, 1886), a most useful manual.

  113 Arab. “Kurúsh,” plur of. “Kirsh” (pron. “Girsh”), the Egyptian piastre = one-fifth of a shilling. The word may derive from a {root} Karsh = collecting money; but it is more probably a corruption of Groschen, primarily a great or thick piece of money and secondarily a small silver coin = 3 kreuzers = 1 penny.

  114 The purse (“Kís”) is = 500 piastres (kurúsh) = Ł5; and a thousand purses compose the Treasury (“Khaznah”) = Ł5,000.

  115 MS. vol. iii. p-303. It is Scott’s “Story of the

  Retired Sage and his Pupil, related to the Sultan by the Second

  Lunatic,” vi. p-67; and Gauttier’s Histoire du Sage, vi.

  199-2l4. The scene is laid in Cairo.

  116 Meaning that he was an orphan and had, like the well-known widow, “seen better days.”

  117 The phrase, I have noted, is not merely pleonastic: it emphasises the assertion that it was a chance day.

  118 An old Plinian fable long current throughout the East.

  It is the Pers. Ním-chihreh, and the Arab Shikk and possibly

  Nasnás = nisf al-Nás (?) See vol. v. 333. Shikk had received from Allah only half the form of a man, and his rival diviner Satíh was a shapeless man of flesh without limbs. They lived in the days of a woman named Tarífah, daughter of Al-Khayr al-Himyarí and wife of Amrú bin ‘Ámir who was famous for having intercourse with the Jann. When about to die she sent for the two, on account of their deformity and the influence exercised upon them by the demons; and, having spat into their mouths, bequeathed to them her Jinni, after which she departed life and was buried at Al-Johfah. Presently they became noted soothsayers; Shikk had issue but Satih none; they lived 300 (some say 600) years, and both died shortly before the birth of the Prophet concerning whom they prophesied. When the Tobba of Al-Yaman dreamed that a dove flew from a holy place and settled in the Tihámah (lowland-seaboard) of Meccah, Satih interpreted it to signify that a Prophet would arise to destroy idols and to teach the best of faiths. The two also predicted (according to Tabari) to Al-Rabí’ah, son of Nasr, a Jewish king of Al-Yaman, that the Habash (Abyssinians) should conquer the country, govern it, and be expelled, and after this a Prophet should arise amongst the Arabs and bring a new religion which all should embrace and which should endure until Doomsday. Compare this with the divining damsel in Acts xvi. 16-18.

  119 Arab. “Kahramánah;” the word has before been explained

  as a nurse, a duenna, an Amazon guarding the Harem. According to

  C. de Perceval (pčre) it was also the title given by the

  Abbasides to the Governess of the Serraglio.

  120 So in the Apocrypha (“Tobias” vi. 8). Tobit is taught by the Archangel Raphael to drive away evil spirits (or devils) by the smoke of a bit of fish’s heart. The practice may date from the earliest days when “Evil Spirits” were created by man. In India, when Europeans deride the existence of Jinns and Rakshasas, and declare that they never saw one, the people receive this information with a smile which means only, “I should think not! you and yours are worse than any of our devils.”

  121 An Inquisitorial costume called in the text “Shámiyát bi al-Nár.”

  122 A tribe of the Jinn sometimes made synonymous with

  “Márid” and at other times contrasted with these rebels, as in

  the Story of Ma’aruf and J. Scott’s “History of the Sultan of

  Hind” (vol. vi. 195). For another note see The Nights, iv. 88.

  123 Arab. “‘Ilm al-Hurúf,” not to be confounded with the

  “‘Ilm al-Jumal,” or “Hisáb Al-Jumal,” a notation by numerical

  values of the alphabet. See Lumsden’s Grammar of the Persian

  Language, i. 37.

  124 Like our “Cut your mutton,” or manger la soupe or die Suppe einzunehmen. For this formula meaning like the Brazilian “cup of water,” a grand feast, see vol. vii. 168.

  125 Arab. “Tafazzal,” a most useful word employed upon almost all occasions of invitation and mostly equivalent to “Have the kindness,” etc. See vol. ii. 103.

  12
6 The Shaykh for humility sits at the side, not at the “Sadr,” or top of the room; but he does not rise before the temporal power. The Sultan is equally courteous and the Shaykh honours him by not keeping silence.

  127 Arab. “Miat Mamlúk kitábí,” the latter word meaning “one of the Book, a Jew” (especially), or a Christian.

  128 This MS. prefers the rare form “Al-Jánn” for the singular.

  129 These flags, I have noticed, are an unfailing accompaniment of a Jinn army.

  130 MS. vol. iii. p-210; Scott, “Night Adventure of the Sultan,” p-71. Gauttier, Aventure nocturne du Sulthan, vi. 214.

  131 Arab. “Mashrút shadak.” Ashdak is usually applied to a wide-chapped face, like that of Margaret Maultasch or Mickle-mouthed Meg. Here, however, it alludes to an accidental deformity which will presently be described.

  132 Arab. “Amsik lisána-k”: the former word is a standing “chaff” with the Turks, as in their tongue it means cunnus-penis and nothing else. I ever found it advisable when speaking Arabic before Osmanlis, to use some such equivalent as Khuz = take thou.

  133 This is the familiar incident in “Ali Baba”: Supplem. vol iii. 384, etc.

  134 MS. iii. 210-214. Scott’s “Story of the broken-backed Schoolmaster,” vi. p-75, and Gauttier’s “Histoire du Maître d’école éreinté,” vi. 217. The Arabic is “Muaddib al-Atfál” = one who teacheth children. I have before noted that amongst Moslems the Schoolmaster is always a fool. So in Europe of the 16th century probably no less than one-third of the current jests turned upon the Romish clergy and its phenomenal ignorance compared with that of the pagan augur. The Story of the First Schoolmaster is one of the most humorous in this MS.

  135 For the usual ceremony when a Moslem sneezes, see vol. ix. 220.

  136 The “day in the country,” lately become such a favourite with English schools, is an old Eastern custom.

  137 MS. iii. 214-219. Scott’s “Story of the wry-mouthed

  Schoolmaster,” vi. p-75: Gauttier’s Histoire du Second

  Estropié, vi. .

  138 In these days the whole would be about 10d.

  139 Pay-day for the boys in Egypt. The Moslem school has often been described but it always attracts the curiosity of strangers. The Moorish or Maroccan variety is a simple affair; “no forms, no desks, few books. A number of boards about the size of foolscap, whitewashed on either side, whereon the lessons?from the alphabet to sentences of the Koran?are plainly written in large black letters; a pen and ink, a book and a switch or two, complete the paraphernalia. The dominie, squatting on the ground, tailor-fashion, like his pupils, who may number from ten to thirty, repeats the lesson in a sonorous sing-song voice, and is imitated by the urchins, who accompany their voices by a rocking to and fro which sometimes enables them to keep time. A sharp application of the cane is wonderfully effectual in recalling wandering attention; and lazy boys are speedily expelled. On the admission of a pupil, the parents pay some small sum, varying according to their means, and every Wednesday, which is a half-holiday, a payment is made from źd. to 2d. New moons and feasts are made occasions for larger payments, and are also holidays, which last ten days during the two greater festivals. Thursdays are whole holidays, and no work is done on Friday mornings, that day being the Mohammedan ‘Sabbath,’ or at least ‘meeting day,’ as it is called. When the pupils have mastered the first short chapter of the Koran, it is customary for them to be paraded round the town on horseback, with ear-splitting music, and sometimes charitably disposed persons make small presents to the youngster by way of encouragement. After the first, the last is learned, then the last but one, and so on, backwards, as, with the exception of the first, the longest chapters are at the beginning. Though reading and a little writing are taught, at the same time, all the scholars do not arrive at the pitch of perfection necessary to indite a polite letter, so that consequently there is plenty of employment for the numerous scribes or Tálibs who make a profession of writing. These may frequently be seen in small rooms opening on to the street, usually very respectably dressed in a white flowing haik and large turban, and in most cases of venerable appearance, their noses being adorned with huge goggles. Before them are their appliances,?pens made of reeds, ink, paper, and sand in lieu of blotting paper. They usually possess also a knife and scissors, with a case to hold them all. In writing, they place the paper on the knee, or upon a pad of paper in the left hand.” The main merit of the village school in Eastern lands is its noises which teach the boy to concentrate his attention. As Dr. Wilson of Bombay said, the young idea is taught to shout as well as to shoot, and this vivâ voce process is a far better mnemonic than silent reading. Moreover it is fine practice in the art of concentrating attention.

  140 Arab. “Mikshat,” whose root would be “Kasht” = skinning (a camel).

  141 Evidently said ironicč as of innocents. In “The Forty

  Vezirs” we read, “At length they perceived that all this tumult

  arose from their trusting on this wise the words of children.”

  (Lady’s XXth Tale.)

  142 MS. iii. 219-220. For some unaccountable reason it is omitted by Scott (vi. 76), who has written English words in the margin of the W. M. Codex.

  143 In text “Kádúm,” for “Kudúm,” a Syrian form.

  144 Arab. “Hidyah,” which in Egypt means a falcon; see vol. iii. 138.

  145 Arab. “Sifah,” = lit. a quality.

  146 Arab. “Istiláh” = specific dialect, idiom. See De Sacy, Chrestomathie, i. 443, where the learned Frenchman shows abundant learning, but does very little for the learner.

  147 In the text “Kattán” = linen, flax.

  148 Arab. “Fí Jífán ka’l-Jawábí!” which, I suppose, means small things (or men) and great.

  149 This form of cleverness is a favourite topic in Arabian folk-lore. The model man was Iyás al-Muzani, al-Kazi (of Bassorah), in the 2nd century A.H., mentioned by Al-Harírí in his 7th Ass. and noted in Arab. Prov. (i. 593) as “more intelligent than Iyás.” Ibn Khallikan (i. 233) tells sundry curious tales of him. Hearing a Jew ridicule the Moslem Paradise where the blessed ate and drank ad libitum but passed nothing away, he asked if all his food were voided: the Jew replied that God converted a part of it into nourishment and he rejoined, “Then why not the whole?” Being once in a courtyard he said that there was an animal under the bricks and a serpent was found: he had noted that only two of the tiles showed signs of dampness and this proved that there was something underneath that breathed. Al-Maydáni relates of him that hearing a dog bark, he declared that the beast was tied to the brink of a well; and he judged so because the bark was followed by an echo. Two men came before him, the complainant claimed money received by the defendant who denied the debt. Iyás asked the plaintiff where he had given it, and was answered, “Under a certain tree.” The judge told him to go there by way of refreshing his memory and in his absence asked the defendant if his adversary could have reached it. “Not yet,” said the rogue, forgetting himself; “’tis a long way off”?which answer convicted him. Seeing three women act upon a sudden alarm, he said, “One of them is pregnant, another is nursing, and the third is a virgin.” He explained his diagnosis as follows: “In time of danger persons lay their hands on what they most prize. Now I saw the pregnant woman in her flight place her hand on her belly, which showed me she was with child; the nurse placed her hand on her bosom, whereby I knew that she was suckling, and the third covered her parts with her hand proving to me that she was a maid.” (Chenery’s Al Hariri, .)

  150 Such an address would be suited only to a King or a ruler.

  151 MS. iii. 231-240; Scott’s “Story of the Sisters and the Sultana their mother,” vi. 82; Gauttier’s Histoire de la Sulthane et de ses trois Filles, vi. 228.

  152 Arab, “Darajatáni”=lit. two astronomical degrees: the word is often used in this MS.

  153 Arab. “Síwan;” plur. “Síwáwín.”

  154 Arab. “‘Alŕ hudúd (or Alŕ hadd) al-Shauk,”
repeated in

  MS. iii. 239.

  155 Here the writer, forgetting that the youngest sister is speaking, breaks out into the third person?”their case”?”their mother,” etc.

  156 The idea is that of the French anonyma’s “Mais,

  Monsieur, vous me suivez comme un lavement.”

  157 The text () speaks of two eunuchs, but only one has been noticed.

  158 Arab. “Manjaník;” there are two forms of this word from the Gr. ????a???, or ???a??, and it survives in our mangonel, a battering engine. The idea in the text is borrowed from the life of Abraham whom Nimrod cast by means of a catapult (which is a bow worked by machinery) into a fire too hot for man to approach.

  159 Showing that he was older; otherwise she would have addressed him, “O my cousin.” A man is “young,” in Arab speech, till forty and some say fifty.

  160 The little precatory formula would keep off the Evil

  Eye.

  161 Supper comes first because the day begins at sundown.

  162 Calotte or skull-cap; vol. i. 224; viii. 120.

  163 This is a new “fact” in physics and certainly to be counted amongst “things not generally known.” But Easterns have a host of “dodges” to detect physiological differences such as between man and maid, virgin and matron, imperfect castratos and perfect eunuchs and so forth. Very Eastern, mutatis mutandis, is the tale of the thief-catcher, who discovered a fellow in feminine attire by throwing an object for him to catch in his lap and by his closing his legs instead of opening them wide as the petticoated ones would do.

  164 She did not wish to part with her maidenhead at so cheap a price.

  165 Arab. “Subú’” (for “Yaum al-Subú’”) a festival prepared on the seventh day after a birth or a marriage or return from pilgrimage. See Lane (M. E. passim) under “Subooa.”

  166 For this Anglo-Indian term, = a running courier, see vol. vii. 340. It is the gist of the venerable Joe Miller in which the father asks a friend to name his seven-months child. “Call him ‘Cossid’ for verily he hath accomplished a march of nine months in seven months.”