Vathek and Other Stories

by William Beckford

  Page 50. painting the eyes of the Circassian

  It was an ancient custom in the East, which still continues, to tinge the eyes of women, particularly those of a fair complexion, with an impalpable powder, prepared chiefly from crude antimony, and called surmeh. Ebni’l Motezz, in a passage translated by Sir W. Jones, hath not only ascertained its purple colour, but also likened the violet to it.

  Viola collegit folia sua, similia

  Collyric nigro, quod bibit lachyrmas die discessus,

  Velut si esset super vasa in uibus fulgent.

  Primae ignis flammulae in sulphuris extremis partibus.2

  This pigment, when applied to the inner surface of the lids, communicates to the eye (especially if seen by the light of lamps) so tender and fascinating a langour, as no language is competent to express. Hence the epithet Ioβλεφαρoς, violet-colour eye-lids, attributed by the Greeks to the goddess of beauty.

  Page 50. Rocnabad

  The stream thus denominated, flows near the city of Shiraz. Its waters are uncommonly pure and limpid, and its banks swarded with the finest verdure. Its praises are celebrated by Hafez, in an animated song, which Sir W. Jones has admirably translated: –

  Boy, let yon liquid ruby flow,

  And bid thy pensive heart be glad,

  Whate’er the frowning zealots say:

  Tell them, their Eden cannot shew

  A stream so clear as Rocnabad,

  A bower so sweet as Mosella3

  Mosella was an oratory on the banks of Rocnabad.

  Page 51. Moullahs

  Those amongst the Mahometans who were bred to the law, had this title; and the judges of cities and provinces were taken from their order.

  Pae 51. the sacred Cahaba

  That part of the temple at Mecca which is chiefly revered, and, indeed, gives a sanctity to the rest, is a square stone building, the length of which, from north to south, is twenty-four cubits; and its breadth, from east to west, twenty-three. The door is on the east side, and stands about four cubits from the ground, the floor being level with the threshold. The Cahaba has a double roof, supported internally by three octangular pillars of aloes-wood; between which, on a bar of iron, hangs a row of silver lamps. The outside is covered with rich black damask, adorned with an embroidered band of gold. This hanging, which is changed every year, was formerly sent by the caliphs. Sale’s Preliminary Discourse, p. 152.

  Page 52. regale these pious poor souls with my good wine from Shiraz1

  The prohibition of wine in the Koran is so rigidly observed by the conscientious, especially if they have performed the pilgrimage to Mecca, that they deem it sinful to press grapes for the purpose of making it, and even to use the money arising from its sale. Chardin, Voy. de Perse, tom. II. p. 212. – Shiraz was famous in the East, for its wines of different sorts, but particularly for its red, which was esteemed more highly than even the white wine of Kismische.

  Page 53. the most stately tulips of the East

  The tulip is a flower of eastern growth, and there held in great estimation. Thus, in an ode of Mesihi: – ‘The edge of the bower is filled with the light of Ahmed: among the plants, the fortunate tulips represent his companions.’

  Page 53. certain cages of ladies

  There are many passages of the Moallakat in which these cages are fully described. Thus, in the poem of Lebeid:

  ‘How were thy tender affections raised, when the damsels of the tribe departed; when they hid themselves in carriages of cotton, like antelopes in their lair, and the tents as they were struck gave a piercing sound!

  ‘They were concealed in vehicles, whose sides were well covered with awnings and carpets, with fine-spun curtains and pictured veils.’

  Again, Zohair:–

  ‘They are mounted in carriages covered with costly awnings, and with rose-coloured veils, the lining of which have the hue of crimson andemwood.’ Moallakat, by Sir W. Jones, p. 46.35.2 See also Lady M. W. Montague, Let. xxvi.3

  Page 54. the locusts were heard from the thickets, on the plain of Catoul

  These insects are of the same species with the τεττις of the Greeks, and the cicada of the Latins. The locusts are mentioned in Pliny, b. 11.29. They were so called from loco usto, because the havoc they made wherever they passed left behind the appearance of a place desolated by fire. How could then the commentators of Vathek say that they are called locusts, from their having been so denominated by the first English settlers in America?

  Page 55. Vathek–with two little pages

  ‘All the pages of the seraglio are sons of Christians made slaves in time of war, in their most tender age. The incursions of robbers in the confines of Circassia, afford the means of supplying the seraglio, even in times of peace.’ Habesci’s State of the Ottoman Empire, p. 157. That the pages here mentioned were Circassians, appears from the description of their complexion: more fair than the enamel of Franguistan.

  Page 55. Confectioners and cook

  What their precise number might have been in Vathek’s establishment, it is not now easy to determine; but, in the household of the present Grand Seignor, there are not fewer than a hundred and ninety. Habesci’s State, p.145.

  Page 55. torches were lighted,???

  Mr Marsden relates, in his History of Sumatra,1 that tigers prove most fatal and destructive enemies to the inhabitants, particularly in their journies; and adds, that the numbers annually slain by those rapacious tyrants of the woods, is almost incredible. As these tremendous enemies are alarmed at the appearance of fire, it is usual for the natives to carry a splendid kind of torch, chiefly to frighten them; and, also, to make a blaze with wood, in different parts, round their villages, p. 149.

  Page 56. One of the forests of cedar, that bordered their way, took fire

  Accidents of this kind, in Persia, are not unfrequent. ‘It was an ancient practice with the kings and great men to set fire to large bunches of dry combustibles, fastened round wild beasts and birds, which being then let loose, naturally fled to the woods for shelter, and caused destructive conflagrations.’ Richardson’s Dissertation, p. 185.

  Page 56. hath seen some part of our bodies; and, what is worse, our very faces

  ‘I was informed,’ writes Dr Cooke,2 ‘that the Persian women, in general, would sooner expose to public view any part of their bodies than their faces.’ Voyages and Travels, vol. II. p. 443.

  Page 57. cakes baked in silver ovens for his royal mouth

  Portable ovens were a part of the furniture of eastern travellers. St Jerom (on Lament. v. 10) hath particularly described them. The Caliph’s were of the same kind, only substituting silver for brass. Dr Pocock mentions his having been entertained in an Arabian camp with cakes baked for him. In what the peculiarity of the royal bread consisted, it is not easy to determine; but, in one of the Arabian Tales, a woman, to gratify her utmost desire, wishes to become the wife of the sultan’s baker; assigning for the reason, that she might have her fill of that bread, which is called the sultan’s. Vol. IV. p. 269.

  Page 57. vases of snow; and grapes from the banks of the Tigris

  It was customary in eastern climates, and especially in the sultry season, to carry, when journeying, supplies of snow. These aestivae nives (as Mamer-tinus styles them) being put into separate vases, were, by that means, better kept from the air, as no more was opened at once than might suffice for immediate use. To preserve the whole from solution, the vessels that contained it were secured in packages of straw. Gesta Dei, p. 1098. – Vathek’s ancestor, the CALIPH MAHADI, in the pilgrimage to Mecca, which he undertook from ostentation rather than devotion, loaded upon camels so prodigious a quantity as was not only sufficient for himself and his attendants, amidst the burning sands of Arabia; but, also, to preserve, in their natural freshness, the various fruits he took with him, and to ice all their drink whilst he staid at Mecca: the greater part of whose inhabitants had never seen snow till then. Anecdotes Arabes, p. 326.

  Page 57. horrible Kaf

>   This mountain, which, in reality, is no other than Caucasus, was supposed to surround the earth, like a ring encompassing a finger. The sun was believed to rise from one of its eminences, (as over Oeta, by the Latin poets) and to set on the opposite; whence, from Kaf to Kaf, signified from one extremity of the earth to the other. The fabulous historians of the East affirm, that this mountain was founded upon a stone, called sakhrat, one grain of which, according to Lokman, would enable the possessor to work wonders. This stone is further described as the pivot of the earth; and said to be one vast emerald, from the refraction of whose beams, the heavens derive their azure. It is added, that whenever God would excite an earthquake, he commands the stone to move one of its fibres, (which supply in it the office of nerves) and, that being moved, the part of the earth connected with it, quakes, is convulsed, and sometimes expands. Such is the philosophy of the Koran! –

  The Tarikh Tabari, written in Persian, analagous to the same tradition, relates, that, were it not for this emerald, the earth would be liable to perpetual commotions and unfit for the abode of mankind.

  To arrive at the Kaf, a vast region must be traversed. Over this dark and cheerless desart, the way is inextricable, without the direction of supernatural guidance. Here the dives or giants were confined after their defeat by the first heroes of the human race; and here, also, the peries, or faeries, are supposed in ordinary to reside. Sukrage, the giant, was King of Kaf, and had Rucail, one of the children of Adam, for his prime minister. The giant Argenk, likewise, from the time that Tahamurah made war upon him, reigned here, and reared a superb palace in the city of Aherman, with galleries, on whose walls were painted the creatures that inhabited the world prior to the formation of Adam. D’Herbelot, p. 230, &c. &c.

  Far from the sun and summer-gale,1

  Page 57. the simurgh

  That wonderful bird of the East, concerning which so many marvels are told, was not only endowed with reason, but possessed also the knowledge of every language. Hence it may be concluded to have been a dive in a borrowed form. This creature relates of itself that it had seen the great revolution of seven thousand years, twelve times commence and close; and that, in its duration, the world had been seven times void of inhabitants, and as often replenished. The simurgh is represented as a great friend to the race of Adam, and not less inimical to the dives. Tahamurath and Aherman were apprised by its predictions of all that was destined to befal them, and from it they obtained the promise of assistance in every undertaking. Armed with the buckler of Gian Ben Gian, Tahamurath was borne by it through the air, over the dark desart, to Kaf. From its bosom his helmet was crested with plumes, which the most renowned warriors have ever since worn. In every conflict the simurgh was invulnerable, and the heroes it favoured never failed of success. Though possessed of power sufficient to exterminate its foes, yet the exertion of that power was supposed to be forbidden. – Sadi, a serious author, gives it as an instance of the universality of Providence, that the simurgh, notwithstanding its immense bulk, is at no loss for sustenance on the mountain of Kaf.

  Page 58. afrits

  These were a kind of Medusae, or Lamiae, supposed to be the most terrible and cruel of all the orders of the dives. D’Herbelot, p. 66.

  Page 58. Tablets fraught with preternatural qualities

  Mr Richardson1 observes, ‘that in the East, men of rank in general carried with them pocket astronomical tables, which they consulted on every affair of moment.’ These tablets, however, were of the magical kind; and such as often occur in works of romance. Thus, in Boiardo,2 Orlando receives, from the father of the youth he had rescued, ‘a book that would solve all doubts:’ and, in Ariosto,3 Logistilla bestows upon Astolpho a similar directory.

  Page 58. dwarfs

  Such unfortunate beings, as are thus ‘curtailed of fair proportion,’ have been, for ages, an appendage of Eastern grandeur. One part of their office consists in the instruction of the pages, but their principal duty is the amusement of their master. If a dwarf happen to be a mute, he is much esteemed; but if he be also an eunuch, he is regarded as a prodigy; and no pains or expense are spared to obtain him. – Habesci’s State of the Ottoman Empire, page 164, &c.

  Page 58. A small spring supplies us with water for the abdest, and we daily repeat prayers, &c

  Amongst the indispensable rules of the Mahometan faith, ablution is one of the chief. This rite is divided into three kinds. The first, performed before prayers, is called abdest. It begins with washing both hands, and repeating these words: ‘Praised be Alla, who created clean water, and gave it the virtue to purify: he also hath rendered our faith conspicuous.’ This done, water is taken in the right hand thrice, and the mouth being washed, the worshipper subjoins: – ‘I pray thee, O Lord, to let me taste of that water, which thou hast given to thy Prophet Mahomet in paradise, more fragrant than musk, whiter than milk, sweeter than honey: and which has the power to quench for ever, the thirst of him that drinks it.’ This petition is accompanied with sniffing a little water into the nose; the face is then three times washed, and behind the ears; after which, water is taken with both hands, beginning with the right, and thrown to the elbow. The washing of the crown next follows, and the apertures of the ear with the thumbs: afterward the neck with all the fingers; and, finally, the feet. In this last operation, it is held sufficient to wet the sandal only. At each ceremonial a suitable petition is offered, and the whole concludes with this: ‘Hold me up firmly, O Lord! and suffer not my foot to slip, that I may not fall from the bridge into hell.’ Nothing can be more exemplary than the attention with which these rites are performed. If an involuntary cough or sneeze interrupt them, the whole service is begun anew, and that as often as it happens. Habesci, p. 91, &c.

  Page 58. the bells of a cafila

  A cafila, or caravan, according to Pitts,1 is divided into distinct companies, at the head of which an officer, or person of distinction, is carried in a kind of horse litter, and followed by a sumpter camel, loaded with his treasure. This camel hath a bell fastened to either side, the sound of which may be heard at a considerable distance. Others have bells on their necks and their legs, to solace them when drooping with heat and fatigue. – Inatulla2 also, in his tales, hath a similar reference: – ‘the bells of the cafila may be rung in the thirsty desart.’ vol. II. p. 15. These small bells were known at Rome from the earliest times, and called from their sounds tintinnabulum. Phaedrus gives us a lively description of the mule carrying the fiscal monies; clarumque collo jactans tintinnabulum. Book II. fabl. vii.1

  Page 58. Deggial

  This word signifies properly a liar and impostor, but is applied, by Mahometan writers, to their Antichrist. He is described as having but one eye and eyebrow, and on his forehead the radicals of cafer or infidel are said to be impressed. According to the traditions of the faithful, his first appearance will be between Irak and Syria, mounted on an ass. Seventy thousand Jews from Ispahan are expected to follow him. His continuance on earth is to be forty days. All places are to be destroyed by him and his emissaries, except Mecca or Medina; which will be protected by angels from the general overthrow. At last, however, he will be slain by Jesus, who is to encounter him at the gate of Lud. D’Herbelot, p. 282. Sale’s Prelim. Disc. p. 106.

  Page 59. sugar

  Dr Pocock mentions the sugar-cane as a great desert in Egypt; and adds, that, besides coarse loaf sugar and sugar candy, it yields a third sort, remarkably fine, which is sent to the Grand Seignor, and prepared only for himself. Travels, vol. I. p. 183. 204. The jeweller’s son, in the story of the third Calender, desires the prince to fetch some melon and sugar, that he might refresh himself with them. Arab. Nights, vol. I. p. 159.

  Page 59. red characters

  The laws of Draco are recorded by Plutarch,2 in his life of Solon, to have been written in blood. If more were meant by this expression, than that those laws were of a sanguinary nature, they will furnish the earliest instance of the use of red characters; which were afterwards considered
as appropriate to supreme authority; and employed to denounce some requisition or threatening designed to strike terror.

  Page 59. thy body shall be spit upon

  There was no mark of contempt amongst the Easterns so ignominious as this. Arab. Nights, vol. I. p. 115. Vol. IV. p. 275.

  Page 59. bats will nestle in thy belly

  Bats, in those countries, were very abundant; and, both from their numbers and size, held in abhorrence. See what is related of them by Thevenot, Part I. p. 132, 3. Egmont and Hayman, vol. II. p. 87. and other travellers in the East.

  Page 60. the Bismillah

  This word (which is prefixed to every chapter of the Koran, except the ninth) signifies, ‘in the name of the most merciful God.’ – It became not the initiatory formula of prayer, till the time of Moez the Fatimite. D’Herbelot, p. 326.

  Page 60. a magnificent teeth

  This kind of moving throne, though more common, at present, than in the days of Vathek, is still confined to persons of the highest rank.

  Page 60. baths of rose water

  The use of perfumed waters for the purpose of bathing is of an early origin in the East, where every odoriferous plant breathes a richer fragrance than is known to our more humid climates. The rose which yields this lotion is, according to Hasselquist, of a beautiful pale bluish colour, double, large as a man’s fist, and more exquisite in scent than any other species. The quantities of this water distilled annually at Fajhum, and carried to distant countries, is immense. The mode of conveying it is in vessels of copper, coated with wax. Voyag. p. 248.