[FN#176] Arab. "Rikki al-Saut," which may also mean either "lower thy voice," or "change the air to one less touching."

[FN#177] "Your" for "thy."

[FN#178] i.e. written on the "Guarded Tablet" from all eternity.

[FN#179] Arab. "Al-'Urs wa'al Tubur" which can only mean, 'the wedding (which does not drop out of the tale) and the circumcision."

[FN#180] I here propose to consider at some length this curious custom which has prevailed amongst so many widely separated races. Its object has been noted (vol. v. 209), viz. to diminish the sensibility of the glans, no longer lubricated with prostatic lymph; thus the part is hardened against injury and disease and its work in coition is prolonged. On the other hand, "praeputium in coitu voluptatem (of the woman) auget, unde femina praeputiatis concubitum malunt quam cum Turcis ac Judaeis " says Dimerbroeck (Anatomic). I vehemently doubt the fact. Circumcision was doubtless practised from ages immemorial by the peoples of Central Africa, and Welcker found traces of it in a mummy of the xvith century B.C. The Jews borrowed it from the Egyptian priesthood and made it a manner of sacrament, "uncircumcised" being="unbaptised," that is, barbarian, heretic; it was a seal of reconciliation, a sign of alliance between the Creator and the Chosen People, a token of nationality imposed upon the body politic. Thus it became a cruel and odious protestation against the brotherhood of man, and the cosmopolitan Romans derided the verpae ac verpi. The Jews also used the term figuratively as the "circumcision of fruits" (Lev. xix. 23), and of the heart (Deut. x. 16), and the old law gives copious historical details of its origin and continuance. Abraham first amputated his horny "calotte" at aet. 99, and did the same for his son and household (Gen. xvii. 24-27). The rite caused a separation between Moses and his wife (Exod. iv. 25). It was suspended during the Desert Wanderings and was resumed by Joshua (v. 3-7), who cut off two tons' weight of prepuces. The latter became, like the scalps of the Scythians and the North-American "Indians" trophies of victory; Saul promised his daughter Michol to David for a dowry of one hundred, and the son-in-law brought double tale.

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 sing of circumcision: so in 1 Matt. i. 16, fecerunt sibi praeputia et recesserunt a Testamento Sancto. Thus making prepuces was called by the Hebrews Meshookim=recutitis, and there is an allusion to it in 1 Cor. vii. 18, 19, {Greek} (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 71/4 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-Asir, the old Ophir, Iying south of Al-Hijaz, 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 "verpae," 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 fetes 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 a nd 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 p. 369, Oct. 1876); the indigens of Port Lincoln on the West Coast split the virga:— Fenditur usque ad urethram a parse infera penis between the ages of twelve and fourteen, says E. J. Eyre in 1845. Missionary Schurmann 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 "Mike" 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 (sive clitoridis) quae pars in Australium mulieribus ita crescit ut ferro est coercenda." Here we have the normal confusion between excision of the nymphae (usually for fibulation) and circumcision of the clitoris. Bruce notices this clitoridectomy among the Aybssinians. 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).

[FN#181] Arab. "Kayrawan" which is still the common name for curlew, the peewit and plover being called (onomatopoetically) "Bibat" and in Marocco Yahudi, certain impious Jews having been turned into the Vanellus Cristatus which still wears the black skullcap of the

[FN#182] Arab. "Sawaki," the leats which irrigate the ground and are opened and closed with

[FN#183] The eighth (in altitude) of the many-storied Heavens.

[FN#184] Arab. "Ihramat li al-Salat,"i.e., she pronounced the formula of Intention (Niyat) with out 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.

[FN#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.

[FN#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.

[FN#187] Arab. "Du'a,"=supplication, prayer, as opposed to 'Salat"=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 Moslem's worship and prayer: voluntary prayers: are not prohibited to them and their praises of the Lord are mingled, as amongst all worshippers, with petitions.

[FN#188] Al-Muzfir=the Twister; Zafair al-Jinn=Adiantum capillus veneris Luluah=The Pearl, or Wild Heifer; see vol. ix. 218.

[FN#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.

[FN#190] Arab. "Farasah"=lit. knowing a horse. Arabia abounds in tales illustrating abnormal powers of observation. I have noted this in vol. viii. 326.

[FN#191] i.e. the owner of this palace.

[FN#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.

[FN#193] i.e. she conjoined the prayers of nightfall with those of dawn.

[FN#194] i.e.. Those of midday, mid-afternoon and sunset.

[FN#195] Arab. "Sahba" red wine preferred for the morning draught.

[FN#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.

[FN#197] For the etymology of Julnar—Byron's "Gulnare"—see vol. vii. 268. Here the rhymer seems to refer to its origin; Gul (Arab. Jul) in Persian a rose; and Anar, a pomegranate, which in Arabic becomes Nar=fire.

[FN#198] i.e. "The brilliant," the enlightened.

[FN#199] i.e.. the moral beauty.

[FN#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.

[FN#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'uzatani," 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.

[FN#202] The artistes 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.

[FN#203] Arab. " 'Ummar" i.e. the Jinn, the "spiritual creatures" which walk this earth, and other non-humans who occupy it.

[FN#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.

[FN#205] Arab. "Ghalili"=my yearning.

[FN#206] Arab. "Ahbabu-na" plur. for singular=my beloved.

[FN#207] i.e. her return.

[FN#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.

[FN#209] Arab. "Afras" lit.=a better horseman.

[FN#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'im)."

[FN#211] i.e. Queen Sunbeam.

[FN#212] See vol. i. 310 for this compound perfume which contains musk, ambergris and other essences.

[FN#213] I can hardly see the sequence of this or what the carpets have to do here.

[FN#214] Here, as before, some insertion has been found necessary.

[FN#215] Arab. "Dukhulak" lit.=thy entering, entrance, becoming familiar.

[FN#216] Or "And in this there shall be to thee great honour over all the Jinn."

[FN#217] Mr. Payne thus amends the text, "How loathly is yonder Genie Meimoun! There is no eating (in his presence);" referring back to p. 61.

[FN#218] i.e. "I cannot bear to see him!"

[FN#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.

[FN#220] i.e. "May thy visits never fail me!"

[FN#221] i.e. Ash-coloured, verging upon white.

[FN#222] i.e. "She will double thy store of presents."

[FN#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.

[FN#224] Tohfah.

[FN#225] i.e. Hindu, Indian.

[FN#226] Japhet, son of Noah.

[FN#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.

[FN#228] A skit at Ishak, making the Devil praise him. See vol. vii. 113.

[FN#229] Arab. "Mawazi" (plur. of Mauza')=lit. places, shifts, passages.

[FN#230] The bed (farsh), is I presume, the straw-spread (?) store-room where the apples are preserved.

[FN#231] Arab. "Farkh warak", which sounds like an atrocious vulgarism.

[FN#232] The Moss-rose; also the eglantine, or dog-rose, and the sweet-briar, whose leaf, unlike other roses, is so odorous.

[FN#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.

[FN#234] The barber is now the usual operator; but all operations began in Europe with the "barber-surgeon."

[FN#235] Sic in text xii. 20. It may be a misprint for Abu al-Tawaif, but it can also mean "O Shaykh of the Tribes (of Jinns)!"

[FN#236] The capital of King Al-Shisban.

[FN#237] Arab "Fajj", the Spanish "Vega" which, however, means a mountain-plain, a plain.

[FN#238] i.e. I am quite sure: emphatically.

[FN#239] i.e. all the Jinn's professions of affection and promises of protection were mere lies.

[FN#240] In the original this apodosis is wanting: see vol. vi. 203, 239.

[FN#241] Arab. "Dahiyat al-Dawahi;" see vol. ii. 87.

[FN#242] Arab. "Al-Jabal al-Mukawwar"= Chaine de montagnes de forme demi circulaire, from Kaur, a park, an enceinte.

[FN#243] Arab. "Ruhi" lit. my breath, the outward sign of life.

[FN#244] i.e. Kaf.

[FN#245] i.e. A bit of burning charcoal.

[FN#246] Arab. "Al-yad al-bayza,"=lit. The white hand: see vol. iv. 185.

[FN#247] Showing the antiquity of "Apres moi le deluge," 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 for 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 nation wants young blood at its head.

[FN#248] Suggesting the nursery rhyme:

Fee, fo, fum I smell the blood of an Englishman.

[FN#249] i.e. why not at once make an end of her.

[FN#250] The well-known war-cry.

[FN#251] Lit. "Smoke" pop. applied, like our word, to tobacco. The latter, however, is not here meant.

[FN#252] Arab. "Ghurab al-bayn," of the wold or of parting. See vol. vii. 226.

[FN#253] Arab. "Halawah"; see vol. iv. 60.

[FN#254] Here the vocative particle "Ya" is omitted.

[FN#255] Lit. "The long-necked (bird)" before noticed with the Rukh (Roc) in vol. v. 122. Here it becomes a Princess, daughter of Bahram-i-Gur (Bahram of the Onager, his favourite game), the famous Persian king in the fifth century, a contemporary of Theodosius the younger and Honorius. The "Anka" is evidently the Iranian Simurgh.

[FN#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!"

[FN#257] Choice Gift of the breast (or heart).

[FN#258] From the Calc. Edit. (1814-18), Nights cxcvi.-cc., vol. ii., pp. 367-378. The translation has been compared and collated with that of Langles (Paris, 1814), appended to his Edition of the Voyages of Sindbad. The story is exceedingly clever and well deserves translation.

[FN#259] It is regretable that this formula has not been preserved throughout The Nights: it affords, I have noticed, a pleasing break to the long course of narrative.

[FN#260] Arab. "Banat-al-hawa" lit. daughters of love, usually meaning an Anonyma, a fille de joie; but here the girl is of good repute, and the offensive term must be modified to a gay, frolicsome lass.

[FN#261] Arab. "Jabhat," the lintel opposed to the threshold.

[FN#262] Arab. "Ghatti," still the popular term said to a child showing its nakedness, or a lady of pleasure who insults a man by displaying any part of her person.

[FN#263] She is compared with a flashing blade (her face) now drawn from its sheath (her hair) then hidden by it.

[FN#264] The "Muajjalah" or money paid down before consummation was about L25; and the "Mu'ajjalah" or coin to be paid contingent on divorce was about L75. In the Calc. Edit ii. 371, both dowers are L35.

[FN#265] All the blemishes which justify returning a slave to the slave-dealer.

[FN#266] Media: see vol. ii. 94. The "Daylamite prison" was one of many in Baghdad.

[FN#267] See vol. v. 199. I may remark that the practice of bathing after copulation was kept up by both sexes in ancient Rome. The custom may have originated in days when human senses were more acute. I have seen an Arab horse object to be mounted by the master when the latter had not washed after sleeping with a woman.

[FN#268] On the morning after a happy night the bridegroom still offers coffee and Halwa to friends.

[FN#269] i.e. More bewitching.

[FN#270] Arab. "Sharifi" more usually Ashrafi, the Port. Xerafim, a gold coin = 6s.-7s.

[FN#271] The oft-repeated Koranic quotation.

[FN#272] Arab. "'Irk": our phrase is "the apple of the eye."

[FN#273] Meaning that he was a Sayyid or a Sharif.

[FN#274] i.e. than a Jew or a Christian. So the Sultan, when appealed to by these religionists, who were as usual squabbling and fighting, answered, "What matter if the dog tear the hog or the hog tear the dog"?

[FN#275] The "Shari'at" forbidding divorce by force.

[FN#276] i.e. protect my honour.

[FN#277] For this proverb see vol. v. 138. 1 have remarked that "Shame" is not a passion in Europe as in the East; the Western equivalent to the Arab. "Haya' 'would be the Latin "Pudor."

[FN#278] Arab. "Talakan bainan," here meaning a triple divorce before witnesses, making it irrevocable.

[FN#279] i.e. who had played him that trick.

[FN#280] The Bresl. Edit. (vol. xii. pp. 50-116, Nights dcccclviii- dcccclxv.) entitles it "Tale of Abu al-Hasan the Damascene and his son Sidi Nur al-Din ' Ali." Sidi means simply, "my lord," but here becomes part of the name, a practice perpetuated in Zanzibar. See vol. v.283.

[FN#281] i.e. at the hours of canonical prayers and other suitable times he made an especial orison (du'a) for issue.

[FN#282] See vol. i.85, for the traditional witchcraft of Babylonia.

[FN#283] i.e. More or less thoroughly.

[FN#284] i.e. "He who quitteth not his native country diverteth not himself with a sight of the wonders of the world."

[FN#285] For similar sayings, see vol. ix.257, and my Pilgrimage i.127.

[FN#286] i.e. relying upon, etc.

[FN#287] The Egyptian term for a khan, called in Persia caravanserai (karwan-serai); and in Marocco funduk, from the Greek; whence the Spanish "fonda." See vol. i. 92.

[FN#288] Arab. "Baliyah," to jingle with "Babiliyah."

[FN#289] As a rule whenever this old villain appears in The Nights, it is a signal for an outburst of obscenity. Here, however, we are quittes pour la peur. See vol. v. 65 for some of his abominations.

[FN#290] The lines are in vols. viii.279 and ix.197. I quote Mr. Payne.

[FN#291] Lady or princess of the Fair (ones).

[FN#292] i.e. of buying.

[FN#293] Arab. "Azan-hu=lit. its ears.

[FN#294] Here again the policeman is made a villain of the deepest dye; bad enough to gratify the intelligence of his deadliest enemy, a lodging-keeper in London.

[FN#295] i.e. You are welcome to it and so it becomes lawful (halal) to you.

[FN#296] Arab. "Sijn al-Dam," the Carcere duro inasprito (to speak Triestine), where men convicted or even accused of bloodshed were confined.

[FN#297] Arab. "Mabasim"; plur. of Mabsim, a smiling mouth which shows the foreteeth.

[FN#298] The branchlet, as usual, is the youth's slender form.

[FN#299] Subaudi, "An ye disdain my love."

[FN#300] In the text "sleep."

[FN#301] "Them" and "him" for "her."

[FN#302] 'Urkub, a Jew of Yathrib or Khaybar, immortalised in the A.P. (i. 454) as "more promise-breaking than 'Urkub."

[FN#303] Uncle of Mohammed. See vol. viii. 172.

[FN#304] First cousin of Mohammed. See ib.

[FN#305] This threat of "'Orf with her 'ead" shows the Caliph's lordliness.

[FN#306] Arab. "Al-Bashkhanah."

[FN#307] i.e. Amen. See vol. ix. 131.

[FN#308] When asked, on Doomsday, his justification for having slain her.

[FN#309] Khorasan which included our Afghanistan, turbulent then as now, was in a chronic state of rebellion during the latter part of Al-Rashid's reign.

[FN#310] The brutality of a Moslem mob on such occasions is phenomenal: no fellow-feeling makes them decently kind. And so at executions even women will take an active part in insulting and tormenting the criminal, tearing his hair, spitting in his face and so forth. It is the instinctive brutality with which wild beasts and birds tear to pieces a wounded companion.

[FN#311] The popular way of stopping hemorrhage by plunging the stump into burning oil which continued even in Europe till Ambrose Pare taught men to take up the arteries.

[FN#312] i.e. folk of good family.

[FN#313] i.e. the result of thy fervent prayers to Allah for me.

[FN#314] Arab. "Al-Abarik" plur. of lbrik, an ewer containing water for the Wuzu-ablution. I have already explained that a Moslem wishing to be ceremonially pure, cannot wash as Europeans do, in a basin whose contents are fouled by the first touch.

[FN#315] Arab. "Naihah ,the praefica or myriologist. See vol. i. 311. The proverb means, "If you want a thing done, do it yourself."

[FN#316] Arab. "Burka'," the face veil of Egypt, Syria, and Arabia with two holes for the eyes, and the end hanging to the waist, a great contrast with the "Litham or coquettish fold of transparent muslin affected by modest women in Stambul.

[FN#317] i.e. donned petticoat-trousers and walking boots other than those she was wont to wear.

[FN#318] "Surah" (Koranic chapter) may be a clerical error for "Surah" (with a Sad) = sort, fashion (of food).

[FN#319] This is solemn religious chaff; the Shaykh had doubtless often dipped his hand abroad in such dishes; but like a good Moslem, he contented himself at home with wheaten scones and olives, a kind of sacramental food like bread and wine in southern Europe. But his retort would be acceptable to the True Believer who, the strictest of conservatives, prides himself on imitating in all points, the sayings and doings of the Apostle.

[FN#320] i.e. animals that died without being ceremonially killed.

[FN#321] Koran ii. 168. This is from the Chapter of the Cow where "that which dieth of itself (carrion), blood, pork, and that over which other name but that of Allah (i.e. idols) hath been invoked" are forbidden. But the verset humanely concludes: "Whoso, however, shall eat them by constraint, without desire, or as a transgressor, then no sin shall be upon him."

[FN#322] i.e. son of Simeon=a Christian.

[FN#323] Arab. and Heb. "Haykal," suggesting the idea of large space, a temple, a sanctuary, a palace which bear a suspicious likeness to the Accadian E-kal or Great House = the old Egyptian Perao (Pharaoh?), and the Japanese "Mikado."

[FN#324] Wine, carrion and pork being lawful to the Moslem if used to save life. The former is also the sovereignest thing for inward troubles, flatulence, indigestion, etc. See vol. v. 2, 24.

[FN#325] Arab. "Nazilah," i.e., a curse coming down from Heaven.

[FN#326] Here and below, a translation of her name.

[FN#327] "A picture of Paradise which is promised to the God-fearing! Therein are rivers of water which taint not; and rivers of milk whose taste changeth not; and rivers of wine, etc."—Koran xlvii. 16.

[FN#328] Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter, Sermons and soda-water the day after. Don Juan ii. 178.

[FN#329] The ox (Bakar) and the bull (Taur, vol. i. 16) are the Moslem emblems of stupidity, as with us are the highly intelligent ass and the most sagacious goose.

[FN#330] In Arab. "'Ud" means primarily wood; then a lute. See vol. ii. 100. The Muezzin, like the schoolmaster, is popularly supposed to be a fool.

[FN#331] I have noticed that among Arab lovers it was the fashion to be jealous of the mistress's nightly phantom which, as amongst mesmerists, is the lover's embodied will.

[FN#332] i.e. I will lay down my life to save thee from sorrow—a common-place hyperbole of love.

[FN#333] Arab. "Katl." I have noticed the Hibernian "kilt" which is not a bull but, like most provincialisms and Americanisms, a survival, an archaism. In the old Frisian dialect, which agrees with English in more words than "bread, butter and cheese," we find the primary meaning of terms which with us have survived only in their secondary senses, e.g. killen = to beat and slagen = to strike. Here is its great value to the English philologist. When the Irishman complains that he is "kilt" we know through the Frisian what he really means.

[FN#334] The decency of this description is highly commendable and I may note that the Bresl. Edit. is comparatively free from erotic pictures.

[FN#335] i.e. "I commit him to thy charge under God."

[FN#336] This is an Americanism, but it translates passing well "Al-ilaj" = insertion.

[FN#337] Arab. (and Heb.) "Tarjuman" = a dragoman, for which see vol. i. 100. In the next tale it will occur with the sense of polyglottic.

[FN#338] See vol. i. p. 35.

[FN#339] After putting to death the unjust Prefect.

[FN#340] Arab. "Lajlaj." See vol. ix. 322.

[FN#341] Arab. "Mawalid" lit. = nativity festivals (plur. of Maulid). See vol. ix. 289.

[FN#342] Bresl. Edit., vol. xii. pp. 116-237, Nights dcccclxvi-dcccclxxix. Mr. Payne entitles it "El Abbas and the King's Daughter of Baghdad."

[FN#343] "Of the Shayban tribe." I have noticed (vol. ii. 1) how loosely the title Malik (King) is applied in Arabic and in mediaeval Europe. But it is ultra-Shakespearean to place a Badawi King in Baghdad, the capital founded by the Abbasides and ruled by those Caliphs till their downfall.

[FN#344] i.e. Irak Arabi (Chaldaea) and 'Ajami (Western Persia). For the meaning of Al-Irak, which always, except in verse, takes the article, see vol. ii. 132.

[FN#345] See supra, p. 135. Mr. Payne suspects a clerical error for "Turkumaniyah" = Turcomanish; but this is hardly acceptable.

[FN#346] As fabulous a personage as "King Kays."

[FN#347] Possibly a clerical error for Zabid, the famous capital of the Tahamah or lowlands of Al-Yaman.

[FN#348] The Moslem's Holy Land whose capital is Meccah.

[FN#349] A hinted protest against making a picture or a statue which the artist cannot quicken; as this process will be demanded of him on Doomsday. Hence also the Princess is called Mariyah (Maria, Mary), a non-Moslem name.

[FN#350] i.e. day and night, for ever.

[FN#351] Koran xxxiii. 38; this concludes a "revelation" concerning the divorce and marriage to Mohammed of the wife of his adopted son Zayd. Such union, superstitiously held incestuous by all Arabs, was a terrible scandal to the rising Faith, and could be abated only by the "Commandment of Allah." It is hard to believe that a man could act honestly after such fashion; but we have seen in our day a statesman famed for sincerity and uprightness honestly doing things the most dishonest possible. Zayd and Abu Lahab (chap. cxi. i.) are the only contemporaries of Mohammed named in the Koran.

[FN#352] i.e. darkened behind him.

[FN#353] Here we have again, as so common in Arab romances, the expedition of a modified Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.

[FN#354] Arab. "Arzi-ha" = in its earth, its outlying suburbs.

[FN#355] The king's own tribe.

[FN#356] i.e. he was always "spoiling for a fight."

[FN#357] In the text the two last sentences are spoken by Amir and the story-teller suddenly resumes the third person.

[FN#358] Mr. Payne translates this "And God defend the right" (of plunder according to the Arabs).

[FN#359] Arab. "Lillahi darruk"; see vol. iv. 20. Captain Lockett (p.28) justly remarks that "it is a sort of encomiastic exclamation of frequent occurrence in Arabic and much easier to comprehend than translate." Darra signifies flowing freely (as milk from the udder) and was metaphorically transferred to bounty and to indoles or natural capacity. Thus the phrase means "your flow of milk is by or through Allah." i.e., of unusual abundance.

[FN#360] The words are euphemistic: we should say "comest thou to our succour."

[FN#361] i.e. If his friend the Devil be overstrong for thee, flee him rather than be slain; as

He who fights and runs away Shall live to fight another day.

[FN#362] i.e. I look to Allah for said (and keep my powder dry).

[FN#363] i.e. to the next world.

[FN#364] This falling backwards in laughter commonly occurs during the earlier tales; it is, however, very rare amongst the Badawin.

[FN#365] i.e. as he were a flying Jinni, swooping down and pouncing falcon-like upon a mortal from the upper air.

[FN#366] This may be (reading Imraan = man, for Amran = matter) "a masterful man"; but I can hardly accept it.

[FN#367] Arab. "Bunduki," the adj. of Bunduk, which the Moslems evidently learned from Slav sources; Venedik being the Dalmatian corruption of Venezia. See Dubrovenedik in vol. ii. 219.

[FN#368] i.e. the castle's square.

[FN#369] In sign of quitting possession. Chess in Europe is rarely played for money, with the exception of public matches: this, however, is not the case amongst Easterns, who are also for the most part as tricky as an old lady at cribbage rightly named.

[FN#370] i.e, he was as eloquent and courtly as he could be.

[FN#371] Arab. "Ya Zinat al-Nisa," which may either be a P.N. or a polite address as Bella fe (Handsome woman) is to any feminine in Southern Italy.

[FN#372] Arab. "Raas Ghanam": this form of expressing singularity is common to Arabic and the Eastern languages, which it has influenced.

[FN#373] This most wearisome form of politeness is common in the Moslem world, where men fondly think that the more you see of them the more you like of them. Yet their Proverbial Philosophy ("the wisdom of many and the wit of one") strongly protests against the practice: I have already quoted Mohammed's saying, "Zur ghibban, tazid Hibban"—visits rare keep friendship fair.

[FN#374] This clause in the text is evidently misplaced (vol. xii.144).

[FN#375] Arab. Dara' or Dira'=armour, whether of leather or metal; here the coat worn under the mail.

[FN#376] Called from Rustak, a quarter of Baghdad. For Rustak town see vol. vi. 289.

[FN#377] From Damietta comes our "dimity." The classical name was Tamiathis apparently Coptic graecised: the old town on the shore famed in Crusading times was destroyed in A.H. 648 = 1251.

[FN#378] Easterns are always startled by sudden summons to the presence either of King or Kazi: here the messenger gives the youth to understand that it is in kindness, not in anger.

[FN#379] i.e. in not sending for thee to court instead of allowing thee to live in the city without guest-rite.

[FN#380] In sign of agitation: the phrase has often been used in this sense and we find it also in Al-Mas'udi.

[FN#381] I would remind the reader that the "Dawat" (ink-case) contains the reed-pens.

[FN#382] Two well-known lovers.

[FN#383] On such occasions the old woman (and Easterns are hard de dolo vetularum) always assents to the sayings of her prey, well knowing what the doings will inevitably be.

[FN#384] Travellers, Nomads, Wild Arabs.

[FN#385] Whither they bear thee back dead with the women crying and keening.

[FN#386] Arab. Aznani = emaciated me.

[FN#387] Either the Deity or the Love-god.

[FN#388] Arab. "Hima" = the tribal domain, a word which has often occurred.

[FN#389] "O ye who believe! seek help through patience and prayer: verily, Allah is with the patient." Koran ii. 148. The passage refers to one of the battles, Bedr or Ohod.

[FN#390] Arab. "Sirr" (a secret) and afterwards "Kitman" (concealment) i.e. Keeping a lover down-hearted.

[FN#391] Arab. "'Alkam" = the bitter gourd, colocynth; more usually "Hanzal."

[FN#392] "For Jazirah" = insula, island, used in the sense of "peninsula," see vol. i. 2.

[FN#393] Meccah and Al-Medinah. Pilgrimage i. 338 and ii. 57, used in the proverb "Sharr fi al-Haramayn" = wickedness in the two Holy Places.

[FN#394] Arab. Al-hamd (o li'llah).

[FN#395] i.e. play, such as the chase, or an earnest matter, such as war, etc.

[FN#396] Arab. "Mizwad," or Mizwad = lit. provision-bag, from Zad = viaticum; afterwards called Kirbah (pron. Girbah, the popular term), and Sakl. The latter is given in the Dictionaries as Askalah = scala, echelle, stage, plank.

[FN#397] Those blood-feuds are most troublesome to the traveller, who may be delayed by them for months: and, until a peace be patched up, he will never be allowed to pass from one tribe to their enemies. A quarrel of the kind prevented my crossing Arabia from Al-Medinah to Maskat (Pilgrimage, ii. 297), and another in Africa from visiting the head of the Tanganyika Lake. In all such journeys the traveller who has to fight against Time is almost sure to lose.

[FN#398] i.e. his fighting-men.

[FN#399] The popular treatment of a detected horse-thief, for which see Burckhardt, Travels in Arabia (1829), and Notes on the Bedouins and Wahabys (1830).

[FN#400] Arab "Ashirah": see vol. vii. 121.

[FN#401] Arab. "Musafahah" -. see vol. vi. 287.

[FN#402] In the text, "To the palace of the king's daughter."

[FN#403] Arab. "Marj Sali'" = cleft meadow (here and below). Mr. Payne suggests that this may be a mistranscription for Marj Sali' (with a Sad) = a treeless champaign. It appears to me a careless blunder for the Marj akhzar (green meadow) before mentioned.

[FN#404] The palace, even without especial and personal reasons, not being the place for a religious and scrupulous woman.

[FN#405] "i.e. those of El Aziz, who had apparently entered the city or passed through it on their way to the camp of El Abbas." This is Mr. Payne's suggestion.

[FN#406] Arab "Hatif"; gen. = an ally.

[FN#407] Not wishing to touch the hand of a strange woman.

[FN#408] i.e. a mere passer-by, a stranger; alluding to her taunt.

[FN#409] The Bactrian or double-humped dromedary. See vol. iii. 67. Al-Mas'udi (vii. 169) calls it "Jamal falij," lit. = the palsy-camel.

[FN#410] i.e. Stars and planets.

[FN#411] i.e. Sang in tenor tones which are always in falsetto.

[FN#412] Arab. Tahzib = reforming morals, amending conduct, chastening style.

[FN#413] i.e. so as to show only the whites, as happens to the "mesmerised."

[FN#414] i.e. for love of and longing for thy youth.

[FN#415] i.e. leather from Al-Taif: see vol. viii. 303. The text has by mistake Talifi.

[FN#416] i.e. she was at her last breath, when cured by the magic of love.

[FN#417] i.e. violateth my private apartment.

[FN#418] The voice (Shazz) is left doubtful: it may be girl's, nightingale's, or dove's.

[FN#419] Arab. "Hiba" partly induced by the rhyme. In desert countries the comparison will be appreciated: in Sind the fine dust penetrates into a closed book.

[FN#420] i.e. he smuggled it in under his 'Aba-cloak: perhaps it was a better brand than that made in the monastery.

[FN#421] i.e. the delights of Paradise promised by the Prophet.

[FN#422] Again, "he" for "she," making the lover's address more courtly and delicate.

[FN#423] i.e. take refuge with Allah from the evil eye of her charms.

[FN#424] i.e. an thou prank or adorn thyself: I have translated literally, but the couplet strongly suggests "nonsense verses."

[FN#425] Arab. "Santir:" Lane (M.E., chapt. xviii.) describes it as resembling the Kanun (dulcimer or zither) but with two oblique peg-pieces instead of one and double chords of wire (not treble strings of lamb's gut) and played upon with two sticks instead of the little plectra. Dozy also gives Santir from {Greek}, the Fsaltrun of Daniel.

[FN#426] i.e. That which is ours shall be thine, and that which is incumbent on thee shall be incumbent on us = we will assume thy debts and responsibilities.

[FN#427] This passage is sadly disjointed in the text: I have followed Mr. Payne's ordering.

[FN#428] The Arab of noble tribe is always the first to mount his own mare: he also greatly fears her being put out to full speed by a stranger, holding that this should be reserved for occasions of life and death; and that it can be done to perfection only once during the animal's life.

[FN#429] The red (Ahmar) dromedary like the white-red (Sabah) were most valued because they are supposed best to bear the heats of noon; and thus "red camels" is proverbially used for wealth. When the head of Abu Jahl was brought in after the Battle of Bedr, Mahommed exclaimed, "'Tis more acceptable to me than a red camel!"

[FN#430] i.e. Couriers on dromedaries, the only animals used for sending messages over long distances.

[FN#431] These guest-fires are famous in Arab poetry. So Al-Hariri (Ass. of Banu Haram) sings:—

A beacon fire I ever kindled high;

i.e. on the hill-tops near the camp, to guide benighted travellers. Also the Lamiyat al-Ajam says:—

The fire of hospitality is ever lit on the high stations.

This natural telegraph was used in a host of ways by the Arabs of The Ignorance; for instance, when a hated guest left the camp they lighted the "Fire of Rejection," and cried, "Allah, bear him far from us!" Nothing was more ignoble than to quench such fire: hence in obloquy of the Fazar tribe it was said:—

Ne'er trust Fazar with an ass, for they Once roasted ass-pizzle, the rabble rout: And, when sight they guest, to their dams they say, "Piss quick on the guest-fire and put it out!" (Al-Mas"udi vi. 140.)

[FN#432] i.e. of rare wood, set with rubies.

[FN#433] i.e. whose absence pained us.

[FN#434] Mr. Payne and I have long puzzled over these enigmatical and possibly corrupt lines: he wrote to me in 1884, "This is the first piece that has beaten me." In the couplet above (vol. xii. 230) "Rayhani" may mean "my basil-plant" or "my food" (the latter Koranic), "my compassion," etc.; and Susani is equally ancipitous "My lilies" or "my sleep": see Bard al-Susan = les douceurs du sommeil in Al-Mas'udi vii. 168.

[FN#435] The "Nika" or sand hill is the swell of the throat: the Ghaur or lowland is the fall of the waist: the flower is the breast anent which Mr. Payne appropriately quotes the well-known lines of Fletcher:

"Hide, O hide those hills of snow, That thy frozen bosom bears, On whose tops the pinks that grow Are of those that April wears."

[FN#436] Easterns are right in regarding a sleepy languorous look as one of the charms of women, and an incitement to love because suggestive only of bed. Some men also find the same pleasure in a lacrymose expression of countenance, seeming always to call for consolation: one of the most successful women I know owes her exceptional good fortune to this charm.

[FN#437] Arab. "Hajib,"eyebrow or chamberlain; see vol. iii. 233. The pun is classical used by a host of poets including Al-Hariri.

[FN#438] Arab. "Tarfah." There is a Tarfia Island in the Guadalquivir and in Gibraltar a "Tarfah Alto" opposed to "Tarfali bajo." But it must not be confounded with Tarf = a side, found in the Maroccan term for "The Rock" Jabal al-Tarf = Mountain of the Point (of Europe).

[FN#439] For Solomon and his flying carpet see vol. iii. 267.

[FN#440] Arab. "Bilad al-Maghrib (al-Aksa," in full) = the Farthest Land of the setting Sun, shortly called Al-Maghrib and the people "Maghribi." The earliest occurrence of our name Morocco or Marocco I find in the "Marakiyah" of Al-Mas'udi (iii. 241), who apparently applies it to a district whither the Berbers migrated.

[FN#441] The necklace-pearls are the cup-bearer's teeth.

[FN#442] In these unregenerate days they would often be summoned to the houses of the royal family; but now they had "got religion" and, becoming freed women, were resolved to be "respectable." In not a few Moslem countries men of wealth and rank marry professional singers who, however loose may have been their artistic lives, mostly distinguish themselves by decency of behaviour often pushed to the extreme of rigour. Also jeune coquette, vieille devote is a rule of the world, Eastern and Western.

[FN#443] Bresl. Edit., vol. xii p. 383 (Night mi). The king is called as usual "Shahrban," which is nearly synonymous with Shahryar.

[FN#444] i.e. the old Sindibae-Nameh (see vol. vi. 122), or "The Malice of Women" which the Bresl. Edit. entitles, "Tale of the King and his Son and his Wife and the Seven Wazirs." Here it immediately follows the Tale of Al-Abbas and Mariyah and occupies pp. 237-383 of vol. xii, (Nights dcccclxxix-m).

[FN#445] i.e. Those who commit it.

[FN#446] The connection between this pompous introduction and the story which follows is not apparent. The "Tale of the Two Kings and the Wazir's Daughters" is that of Shahrazad told in the third person, in fact a rechauffe of the Introduction. But as some three years have passed since the marriage, and the denouement of the plot is at hand, the Princess is made, with some art I think, to lay the whole affair before her husband in her own words, the better to bring him to a "sense of his duty."

[FN#447] Bresl. Edit., vol. xii. Pp. 384-412.

[FN#448] This clause is taken from the sequence, where the older brother's kingdom is placed in China.

[FN#449] For the Tobbas = "Successors" or the Himyaritic kings, see vol. i. 216.

[FN#450] Kayasirah, opp. to Akasirah, here and in many other places.

[FN#451] See vol. ii. 77. King Kulayb ("little dog") al-Wa'il, a powerful chief of the Banu Ma'ad in the Kasin district of Najd, who was connected with the war of Al-Basus. He is so called because he lamed a pup (kulayb) and tied it up in the midst of his Hima (domain, place of pasture and water), forbidding men to camp within sound of its bark or sight of his fire. Hence "more masterful than Kulayb," A.P. ii. 145, and Al-Hariri Ass. Xxvi. (Chenery, p. 448). This angry person came by his death for wounding in the udder a trespassing camel (Sorab) whose owner was a woman named Basus. Her friend (Jasus) slew him; and thus arose the famous long war between the tribes Wa'il Bakr and Taghlib. It gave origin to the saying, "Die thou and be an expiation for the shoe-latchet of Kulayb."

[FN#452] Arab. "Mukhaddarat," maidens concealed behind curtains and veiled in the Harem.

[FN#453] i.e. the professional Rawis or tale-reciters who learned stories by heart from books like "The Arabian Nights." See my Terminal Essay, vol. x. 144.

[FN#454] Arab. "Bid'ah," lit. = an innovation, a new thing, an invention, any change from the custom of the Prophet and the universal practice of the Faith, where it be in the cut of the beard or a question of state policy. Popularly the word = heterodoxy, heresy; but theologically it is not necessarily used in a bad sense. See vol. v. 167.

[FN#455] About three parts of this sentence have been supplied by Mr. Payne, the careless scribe having evidently omitted it.

[FN#456] Here, as in the Introduction (vol. i. 24), the king consummates his marriage in presence of his virgin sister-in-law, a process which decency forbids amongst Moslems.

[FN#457] Al-Mas'udi (vol. iv. 213) uses this term to signify viceroy in "Shahryar Sajastan."

[FN#458] i.e. his indifference to the principles of right and wrong, which is a manner of moral intoxication.

[FN#459] i.e. hath mentioned the office of Wazir (in Koran xx. 30).

[FN#460] i.e. Moslems, who practice the Religion of Resignation.

[FN#461] Koran xxxiii. 35. This is a proemium to the "revelation" concerning Zayd and Zaynab.

[FN#462] i.e. I have an embarras de richesse in my repertory.

[FN#463] The title is from the Bresl. Edit. (vol. xii. pp. 398- 402). Mr. Payne calls it "The Favourite and her Lover."

[FN#464] The practice of fumigating gugglets is universal in Egypt (Lane, M. E., chapt. v.); but I never heard of musk being so used.

[FN#465] Arab. "Laysa fi 'l-diyari dayyar"—a favourite jingle.

[FN#466] Arab. "Khayr Kathir" (pron. Katir) which also means "abundant kindness."

[FN#467] Dozy says of "Hunayni" (Haini), Il semble etre le nom d'un vetement. On which we may remark, Connu!

[FN#468] Arab. Harisah: see vol. i. 131. Westerns make a sad mess of this dish when they describe it as une sorte d'olla podrida (the hotch-pot), une patee de viandes, de froment et de legumes secs (Al-Mas'udi viii. 438). Whenever I have eaten it, it was always a meat-pudding, for which see vol. i. 131.

[FN#469] Evidently one escaped because she was sleeping with the Caliph, and a second because she had kept her assignation.

[FN#470] Mr. Payne entitles it, "The Merchant of Cairo and the Favourite of the Khalif el Mamoun el Hakim bi Amrillah."

[FN#471] See my Pilgrimage (i. 100): the seat would be on the same bit of boarding where the master sits or on a stool or bench in the street.

[FN#472] This is true Cairene chaff, give and take; and the stranger must accustom himself to it before he can be at home with the people.

[FN#473] i.e. In Rauzah-Island: see vol. v. 169.

[FN#474] There is no historical person who answers to these name, "The Secure, the Ruler by Commandment of Allah." The cognomen applies to two soldans of Egypt, of whom the later Abu al-Abbas Ahmad the Abbaside (A.D. 1261-1301) has already been mentioned in The Nights (vol. v. 86). The tale suggests the earlier Al-Hakim (Abu Ali al-Mansur, the Fatimite, A.D. 995-1021), the God of the Druze "persuasion;" and the tale-teller may have purposely blundered in changing Mansur to Maamun for fear of offending a sect which has been most dangerous in the matter of assassination and which is capable of becoming so again.

[FN#475] Arab. "'Ala kulli hal" = "whatever may betide," or "willy-nilly." The phrase is still popular.

[FN#476] The dulce desipere of young lovers, he making a buffoon of himself to amuse her.

[FN#477] "The convent of Clay," a Coptic monastery near Cairo.

[FN#478] i.e. this is the time to show thyself a man.

[FN#479] The Eastern succedaneum for swimming corks and other "life-preservers." The practice is very ancient; we find these guards upon the monuments of Egypt and Babylonia.

[FN#480] Arab. "Al-Khalij," the name, still popular, of the Grand Canal of Cairo, whose banks, by-the-by, are quaint and picturesque as anything of the kind in Holland.

[FN#481] We say more laconically "A friend in need."

[FN#482] Arab. "Nazir al-Mawaris," the employe charged with the disposal of legacies and seizing escheats to the Crown when Moslems die intestate. He is usually a prodigious rascal as in the text. The office was long kept up in Southern Europe, and Camoens was sent to Macao as "Provedor dos defuntos e ausentes."

[FN#483] Sir R. F. Burton has since found two more of "Galland's" tales in an Arabic text of The Nights, namely, Aladdin and Zeyn al-Asnam.

[FN#484] i.e. wondering; thus Lady Macbeth says:

"You have displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting, With most admired disorder."—-Macbeth, iii. 4

[FN#485] Ludovicus Vives, one of the most learned of Spanish authors, was born at Valentia in 1492 and died in 1540.

[FN#486] There was an older "Tuti Nama," which Nakhshabi modernised, made from a Sanskrit story-book, now lost, but its modern representative is the "Suka Saptati," or Seventy (Tales) of a Parrot in which most of Nakhshabi's tales are found.

[FN#487] According to Lescallier's French translation of the "Bakhtyar Nama," made from two MSS. = "She had previously had a lover, with whom, unknown to her father, she had intimate relations, and had given birth to a beautiful boy, whose education she secretly confided to some trusty servants."

[FN#488] There is a slight mistake in the passage in p. 313 supplied from the story in vol. vi. It is not King Shah Bakht, but the other king, who assures his chamberlain that "the lion" has done him no injury.

[FN#489] Such was formerly the barbarous manner of treating the insane.

[FN#490] From "Tarlton's Newes out of Purgatorie."

[FN#491] A basket

[FN#492] In the fabliau "De la Dame qui atrappa un Pretre, un Prevot, et un Forestier" (or Constant du Hamel), the lady, on the pretext that her husband is at the door, stuffs her lovers, as they arrive successively, unknown to each other, into a large tub full of feathers and afterwards exposes them to public ridicule.

[FN#493] Until

[FN#494] Requite

[FN#495] Accidents

[FN#496] A boarding

[FN#497] The letter I is very commonly substituted for "ay" in 16th century English books.

[FN#498] Oesterley mentions a Sanskrit redaction of the Vampyre Tales attributed to Sivadasa, and another comprised in the "Katharnava."

[FN#499] And well might his sapient majesty "wonder"! The humour of this passage is exquisite.

[FN#500] In the Tamil version (Babington's translation of the "Vedala Kadai") there are but two brothers, one of whom is fastidious in his food, the other in beds: the latter lies on a bed stuffed with flowers, deprived of their stalks. In the morning he complains of pains all over his body, and on examining the bed one hair is found amongst the flowers. In the Hindi version, the king asks him in the morning whether he had slept comfortably. "O great King," he replied; "I did not sleep all night." "How so?" quoth he. "O great King, in the seventh fold of the bedding there is a hair, which pricked me in the back, therefore I could not sleep." The youth who was fastidious about the fair sex had a lovely damsel laid beside him, and he was on the point of kissing her, but on smelling her breath he turned away his face, and went to sleep. Early in the morning the king (who had observed through a lattice what passed) asked him, "Did you pass the night pleasantly?" He replied that he did not, because the smell of a goat proceeded from the girl's mouth, which made him very uneasy. The king then sent for the procuress and ascertained that the girl had been brought up on goat's milk.

[FN#501] Melusine: Revue de Mythologie, Littarature Populaire, Traditions, et Usages. Dirigee par H. Gaidoz et E. Rolland.— Paris

[FN#502] The trick of the clever Magyar in marking all the other sleepers as the king's mother had marked herself occurs in the folk-tales of most countries, especially in the numerous versions of the Robbery of the King's Treasury, which are brought together in my work on the Migrations of Popular Tales and Fictions (Blackwood), vol. ii., pp. 113-165.

[FN#503] A mythical saint, or prophet, who, according to the Muslim legend, was despatched by one of the ancient kings of Persia to procure him some of the Water of Life. After a tedious journey, Khizr reached the Fountain of Immortality, but having drank of its waters, it suddenly vanished. Muslims believe that Khizr still lives, and sometimes appears to favoured individuals, always clothed in green, and acts as their guide in difficult enterprises.

[FN#504] "Spake these words to the king"—certainly not those immediately preceding! but that, if the king would provide for him during three years, at the end of that period he would show Khizr to the king.

[FN#505] Mr. Gibb compares with this the following passage from Boethius, "De Consolatione Philosophiae," as translated by Chaucer: "All thynges seken ayen to hir propre course, and all thynges rejoysen on hir retourninge agayne to hir nature."

[FN#506] In this tale, we see, Khizr appears to the distressed in white raiment.

[FN#507] In an old English metrical version of the "Seven Sages," the tutors of the prince, in order to test his progress in general science, secretly place an ivy leaf under each of the four posts of his bed, and when he awakes in the morning—

"Par fay!" he said, "a ferli cas! Other ich am of wine y-drunk, Other the firmament is sunk, Other wexen is the ground, The thickness of four leaves round! So much to-night higher I lay, Certes, than yesterday."

[FN#508] See also the same story in The Nights, vols. vii. and viii., which Mr. Kirby considers as probably a later version. (App. vol. x. of The Nights, p. 442).

[FN#509] So, too, in the "Bahar-i-Danish" a woman is described as being so able a professor in the school of deceit, that she could have instructed the devil in the science of stratagem: of another it is said that by her wiles she could have drawn the devil's claws; and of a third the author declares, that the devil himself would own there was no escaping from her cunning!

[FN#510] There is a similar tale by the Spanish novelist Isidro de Robles (circa 1660), in which three ladies find a diamond ring in a fountain; each claims it; at length they agree to refer the dispute to a count of their acquaintance who happened to be close by. He takes charge of the ring and says to the ladies, "Whoever in the space of six weeks shall succeed in playing off on her husband the most clever and ingenious trick (always having due regard to his honour) shall possess the ring; in the meantime it shall remain in my hands." This story was probably brought by the Moors to Spain, whence it may have passed into France, since it is the subject of a faliau, by Haisiau the trouvre, entitled "Des Trois Dames qui trouverent un Anel," which is found in Meon's edition of Barbazan, 1808, tome iii. pp. 220-229, and in Le Grand, ed. 1781, tome iv. pp. 163-165.

[FN#511] Idiots and little boys often figure thus in popular tales: readers of Rabelais will remember his story of the Fool and the Cook; and there is a familiar example of a boy's precocity in the story of the Stolen Purse—"Craft and Malice of Women," or the Seven Wazirs, vol. vi. of The Nights.

[FN#512] I have considerably abridged Mr. Knowles' story in several places.

[FN#513] A species of demon.

[FN#514] This is one of the innumerable parallels to the story of Jonah in the "whale's" belly which occur m Asiatic fictions. See, for some instances, Tawney's translation of the "Katha Sarit Sagara," ch. xxxv. and [xxiv.; "Indian Antiquary," Sept. 1885, Legend of Ahla; Miss Stokes' "Indian Fairy Tales," pp. 75, 76, and Steel and Temple's "Wide-Awake Stories from the Panjab and Kashmir," p. 411. In Lucian's "Vera Historia," a monster fish swallows a ship and her crew, who live a long time in the extensive regions comprised in its internal economy. See also Herrtage's "Gesta Romanorum" (Early English Text Society), p. 297.

[FN#515] In the Arabian version the people resolve to leave the choice of a new king to the royal elephant because they could not agree among themselves (vol. i., p. 224), but in Indian fictions such an incident frequently occurs as a regular custom. In the "Sivandhi Sthala Purana," a legendary account of the famous temple at Trichinopoli, as supposed to be told by Gautama to Matanga and other sages, it is related that a certain king having mortally offended a holy devotee, his capital and all its inhabitants were, in consequence of a curse pronounced by the enraged saint, buried beneath a shower of dust. ''Only the queen escaped, and in her flight she was delivered of a male-child. After some time. the chiefs of the Chola kingdom, proceeding to elect a king, determined, by the advice of the saint to crown whomsoever the late monarch's elephant should pitch upon. Being turned loose for this purpose, the elephant discovered and brought to Trisira-mali the child of his former master, who accordingly became the Chola king." (Wilson's Desc. Catal. of Mackenzie MSS., i. 17.) In a Manipuri story of two brothers, Turi and Basanta—"Indian Antiquary," vol. iii.—the elder is chosen king in like manner by an elephant who meets him in the forest, and takes him on his back to the palace, where he is immediately placed on the throne See also "Wide-Awake Stories Tom the Panjab and Kashmir," by Mrs. Steel and Captain Temple, p. 141; and Rev. Lal Behari Day's "Folk-Tales of Bengal," p. 100 for similar instances. The hawk taking part, in this story, with the elephant in the selection of a king does not occur m any other tale known to me.

[FN#516] So that their caste might not be injured. A dhobi, or washerman, is of much lower caste than a Brahman or a Khshatriya.

[FN#517] A responsible position in a raja's palace.

[FN#518] "And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights." Raja Amba must have been fully twelve years in the stomach of the alligator.

[FN#519] This device of the mother to obtain speech of the king is much more natural than that adopted in the Kashmiri version.

[FN#520] The story of Abu Sabir (see vol. i. p. 58 ff.) may also be regarded as an analogue. He is unjustly deprived of all his possessions, and, with his wife and two young boys, driven forth of his village. The children are borne off by thieves, and their mother forcibly carried away by a horseman. Abu Sabir, after many sufferings, is raised from a dungeon to a throne. He regains his two children and his wife, who had steadfastly refused to cohabit with her captor.

[FN#521] Introduction to the romance of "Torrent of Portingale," re-edited (for the Early English Text Society, 1886) by E. Adam, Ph.D., pp. xxi. xxii.

[FN#522] Morning.

[FN#523] Bird.

[FN#524] Mean; betoken.

[FN#525] Thee.

[FN#526] Tho: then.

[FN#527] Yede: went.

[FN#528] Case.

[FN#529] Avaunced: advanced; promoted.

[FN#530] Holpen: helped.

[FN#531] Brent: burnt.

[FN#532] But if: unless.

[FN#533] To wed: in pledge, in security.

[FN#534] Beth: are.

[FN#535] Or: either.

[FN#536] Lever dey: rather die.

[FN#537] Far, distant.

[FN#538] Unless.

[FN#539] Oo: one.

[FN#540] Ayen: again.

[FN#541] Or: ere, before.

[FN#542] Army; host.

[FN#543] Part.

[FN#544] That.

[FN#545] Grief, sorrow.

[FN#546] Poor.

[FN#547] Gathered, or collected, together.

[FN#548] Arms; accoutrements; dress.

[FN#549] Bravely.

[FN#550] Those.

[FN#551] Done, ended.

[FN#552] Their lodgings, inn.

[FN#553] Since.

[FN#554] Comrades.

[FN#555] Truly.

[FN#556] Lodged.

[FN#557] Inn.

[FN#558] Hem: them.

[FN#559] Chief of the army.

[FN#560] I note: I know not.

[FN#561] Nor.

[FN#562] Place.

[FN#563] That is by means of his hounds.

[FN#564] A wood.

[FN#565] Those.

[FN#566] Her: their.

[FN#567] Looks towards; attends to.

[FN#568] Give.

[FN#569] Excepting, unless.

[FN#570] Face, countenance.

[FN#571] Care, close examination.

[FN#572] Pallata, Lat. (Paletot, O. Fr. ), sometimes signifying a particular stuff, and sometimes a particular dress. See Du Cange.

[FN#573] Cut; divided

[FN#574] Wept.

[FN#575] Sailing.

[FN#576] More.

[FN#577] Much.

[FN#578] Sultan.

[FN#579] Name.

[FN#580] Voice, i.e., command.

[FN#581] Slew.

[FN#582] Labour.

[FN#583] Drew.

[FN#584] Went.

[FN#585] Burning coal.

[FN#586] Pray; beg.

[FN#587] Recovered.

[FN#588] Head.

[FN#589] Weeping.

[FN#590] Saw.

[FN#591] Waving.

[FN#592] Began to climb.

[FN#593] Against.

[FN#594] More.

[FN#595] From an early volume of the "Asiatic Journal," the number of which I did not "make a note of—thus, for once at least, disregarding the advice of the immortal Captain Cuttle.

[FN#596] "It was no wonder," says this writer, "that his (i.e. Galland's) version of the 'Arabian Nights' achieved a universal popularity, and was translated into many languages, and that it provoked a crowd of imitations, from 'Les Mille et Un Jours' to the 'Tales of the Genii.'"

[FN#597] This is a version of The Sleeper and the Waker—with a vengeance! Abu Hasan the Wag, the Tinker, and the Rustic, and others thus practiced upon by frolic-loving princes and dukes, had each, at least, a most delightful "dream." But when a man is similarly handled by the "wife of his bosom"—in stories, only, of course—the case is very different as the poor chief of police experienced. Such a "dream" as his wife induced upon him we may be sure he would remember "until that day that he did creep into his sepulchre!"

[FN#598] I call this "strikingly similar" to the preceding Persian story, although it has fewer incidents and the lady's husband remains a monk, she could not have got him back even had she wished; for, having taken the vows, he was debarred from returning to "the world " which a kalandar or dervish may do as often as he pleases.

[FN#599] "The Woman's trick against her Husband."

THE END