[FN#132] I would read (for "Sirtu ansa"=I have become) "Sirt' anta"=thou hast become.

[FN#133] In text "Mukh;" lit.=brain, marrow.

[FN#134] [In Ar. "Wa zand mujauhar fi-hi Asawir min al-Zahab al-ahmar," which may mean: and a fore-arm (became manifest), ornamented with jewels, on which were bracelets of red gold.—ST.]

[FN#135] For this famous type of madman see Suppl. Vol. vi.

[FN#136] [Ar. "Ghurrat," which may be bright looks, charms, in general, or according to Bocthor, fore-locks. The more usual plural of "Ghurrah" is "Ghurar."—ST.]

[FN#137] In the text "Darajah"=an instant; also a degree (of the Zodiac). We still find this division of time in China and Japan, where they divide the twenty-four hours into twelve periods, each of which is marked by a quasi-Zodiacal sign: e.g.—

Midnight until 2 a.m. is represented by the Rat. 2 a.m. until 4 a.m. is represented by the Ox. 4 a.m. until 6 a.m. is represented by the Tiger. 6 a.m. until 8 a.m. is represented by the Hare. 8 a.m. until 10 a.m. is represented by the Dragon. 10 a.m. until noon is represented by the Serpent. Noon until 2 p.m. is represented by the Horse. 2 p.m. until 4 p.m. is represented by the Ram. 4 p.m. until 6 p.m. is represented by the Ape. 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. is represented by the Cock. 8 p.m. until 10 p.m. is represented by the Hog. 10 p.m. until midnight is represented by the Fox.

See p. 27 Edit. ii. of C. B. Mitford's Tales of Old Japan, a most important contribution to Eastern folklore.

["Darajah" is, however, also used for any short space of time; according to Lane It is=4 minutes (i.e. the 24 hours or 1,440 minutes of the astronomical day divided into 360 degrees of 4 minutes each), and Bocthor gives it as an equivalent for our instant or moment.—ST.]

[FN#138] The young fool vaunts his intersexual powers, apparently unknowing that nothing can be more fatal to love than fulfilling the desires of a woman who, once accustomed to this high diet, revolts against any reduction of it. He appears to have been a polisson by his own tale told to the Caliph and this alone would secure the contempt of a high-bred and high-spirited girl.

[FN#139] The "nosebag"; vol. ii. 52, etc. The Badawiyah (Badawi woman) generally prefers a red colour, in opposition to the white and black of civilisation; and she of the Arabian Desert generally disdains to use anything of the kind.

[FN#140] This ablution of the whole body he was bound to perform after having had carnal knowledge of a woman, and before washing he was in a state of ceremonial impurity. For "Ghusl," or complete ablution, see vol. v. 80.

[FN#141] "The Heart of the Koran," chap. xxxvi. see vol. iv. 50.

[FN#142] The Mandil apparently had been left in the shop by the black slave-girl. Women usually carry such articles with them when "on the loose," and in default of water and washing they are used to wipe away the results of car. cop.

[FN#143] In Arab. "Shakk." The criminal was hung up by the heels, and the executioner, armed with a huge chopper, began to hew him down from the fork till he reached the neck, when, by a dextrous turn of the blade, he left the head attached to one half of the body. This punishment was long used in Persia and abolished, they say, by Fath Ali Shah, on the occasion when an offender so treated abused the royal mother and women relatives until the knife had reached his vitals. "Kata' al-'Arba'," or cutting off the four members, equivalent to our "quartering," was also a popular penalty.

[FN#144] In text "Ghibtu 'an al-Dunya," a popular phrase, meaning simply I fainted.

[FN#145] This was done to staunch the blood: see the salt-wench in vol. i. 341.

[FN#146] This couplet has repeatedly occurred: in the preceding volume, Night cdv. (Suppl. iv. 172); and in The Nights (proper), vol. vi. 246. Here I have quoted Lane (A.N. iii. 220), who has not offered a word of comment or of explanation concerning a somewhat difficult couplet.

[FN#147] The plur. masc. for the sing. fem.: see vol. vii. 140.

[FN#148] He speaks after the recognised conventional fashion, as if reporting the camp-shift of a Badawi tribe.

[FN#149] See vol. i. 25 for the parallel of these lines.

[FN#150] The text inserts here, "Saith the Reciter of this adventure and right joyous history strange as rare," etc.

[FN#151] Scott, in the "Story of the Sultan, the Dirveshe, and the Barber's son" (vi. 348), calls the King "Rammaud." The tale is magical and Rosicrucian, laid somewhat upon the lines of "The Physician Duban"; i.45.

[FN#152] This is the custom among Eastern Moslems: the barber, after his operations are over, presents his hand-mirror for the patient to see whether all be satisfactory, saying at the same time "Na'iman"=may it be pleasurable to thee! The customer answers "Allah bring thee pleasure," places the fee upon the looking-glass and returns it to the shaver. For "Na'iman" see vol. ii. 5.

[FN#153] The least that honest Figaro expected to witness was an attempt upon the boy's chastity.

[FN#154] In text "Tazaghzagha," gen.=he spoke hesitatingly, he scoffed. [I read the words in the text: "Tazaghghara fihi." The Kamus gives "Zaghara-hu"=he seized it by force, he took hold of him with violence, and this present fifth form, although not given in the Dictionaries, has doubtlessly the same meaning. Popularly we may render it: he pitched into him.—ST]

[FN#155] In the text "Kazanat" (plur. of "Kazan"), afterwards written "Kazat" (a clerical error?). They are opposed to the "Kawalib"=moulds. [See note to p. 17.—ST.]

[FN#156] "Akhraja min Kulahi-hi (Kulah?) busah."

[FN#157] "Akhaza min-ha 'ala ma' lakati 'l-Hilal shay misl al-Jinnah." [I have no doubt that "Kulah" is meant for "Kulah," a Dervish's cap. "Busah" puzzles me. I am inclined to take it for a reed used as a case or sheath, as we shall see p. 263 of the MS. Prince Yusuf uses a "Kasabah" or reed to enclose a letter in it. "Mi'lakat (popular corruption for 'Mil'akat') al-Hilal" may be the spoon or hollow part of an ear-picker, Hilal being given by Bocthor as equivalent for "cure-oreille." Lastly for "al-Jinnah" I would read "al-Habbah"=grain. The article before the word may indicate that a particular grain is meant perhaps "al-Habbat al-halwah"=anise seed, or that it stands for "al-Hubbah," according to Lempriere (A Tour to Marocco, London 1791, p. 383) a powder employed by the ladies of Marocco to produce embonpoint.—ST.]

[FN#158] So even in our day Mustafa bin Ism'ail who succeeded "General Khayru 'l-Din" as Prime Minister to "His Highness Mohammed al-Sadik, Bey of Tunis," began life as apprentice to a barber, became the varlet of an officer, rose to high dignity and received decorations from most of the European powers.

[FN#159] In text "Wijak," a stove, a portable hearth.

[FN#160] In the text: ["Wa sara kulla-ma tastari nafsuhu yak'ad kuddama 'l-Darwish," which I would translate: and each time his heart chose (8th form of "Sarw") he used to sit before the Darwaysh, etc.—ST.]

[FN#161] In text "Darin" for "Zarin"=what is powdered, collyrium.

[FN#162] The King failed because his "Niyat" or intention was not pure; that is, he worked for wealth, and not, as the Darwaysh had done, for the good of his brother man.

[FN#163] For the importance attached to this sign of sovereignty see in my Pilgrimage (ii. 218-19) the trouble caused by the loss of the Prophet's seal-ring (Khatim) at Al-Madinah.

[FN#164] The text is somewhat doubtful—"Min kuddam-ak." [Perhaps it means only "from before thee," i.e. in thy presence, without letting him out of sight and thereby giving him a chance of escape.—ST.]

[FN#165] This especially is on the lines of "The Physician Duban"; vol. i. 45.

[FN#166] In text "Wa min-hum man faha," evidently an error of the scribe for "Man nafahu." Scott (vi. 351), after the fashion of the "Improver-school," ends the tale, which is somewhat tail-less, after this fashion, "At the same instant, the Sultan and his courtiers found themselves assaulted by invisible agents, who, tearing off their robes, whipped them with scourges till the blood flowed in streams from their lacerated backs. At length the punishment ceased, but the mortification of the Sultan did not end here, for all the gold which the Dirveshe had transmuted returned to its original metals. Thus, by his unjust credulity, was a weak Prince punished for his ungrateful folly. The barber and his son also were not to be found, so that the sultan could gain no intelligence of the Dirveshe, and he and his courtiers became the laughing-stock of the populace for years after their merited chastisement." Is nothing to be left for the reader's imagination?

[FN#167] See under the same name the story in my Suppl. vol. i. 162; where the genealogy and biography of the story is given. I have translated the W.M. version because it adds a few items of interest. A marginal note of Scott's (in the W.M. MS. v. 196) says that the "Tale is similar to Lesson iv. in the Tirrea Bede." See note at the end of this History.

[FN#168] For the Badawi tent, see vol. vii. 109.

[FN#169] In text "Birkah"=a fountain-basin, lake, pond, reservoir. The Bresl. Edit. has "Sardab"=a souterrain.

[FN#170] Arab. "Jummayz": see vol. iii. 302. In the Bresl. Edit. it is a "tall tree," and in the European versions always a "pear-tree," which is not found in Badawi-land.

[FN#171] "Adi" in Egyptian (not Arabic) is=that man, the (man) here; "Adini" (in the text) is=Here am I, me voici. Spitta Bey (loc. cit. iv. 20, etc.)

[FN#172] Arab. "Ma'murah." In the Bresl. Edit. "the place is full of Jinns and Marids." I have said that this supernatural agency, ever at hand and ever credible to Easterns, makes this the most satisfactory version of the world-wide tale.

[FN#173] The planet Mars.

[FN#174] The Asiatics have a very contemptible opinion of the Russians, especially of the females, whom they believe to be void of common modesty. Our early European voyagers have expressed the same idea.—Scott.

[FN#175] i.e. having enjoyed the woman.—R.F.B.

[FN#176] The reader will doubtless recollect the resemblance which the plot of this lesson bears to Pope's January and May, and to one of Fontaine's Tales. Eenaiut Olla acknowledges his having borrowed it from the Brahmins, from whom it may have travelled through some voyage to Europe many centuries past, or probably having been translated in Arabic or Persian, been brought by some crusader, as were many Asiatic romances, which have served as the groundwork of many of our old stories and poems.—Scott.

[FN#177] In Scott (vi. 352) "Adventures of Aleefa and Eusuff." This long and somewhat longsome history is by another pen, which is distinguished from the ordinary text by constant attempts at fine writing, patches of Saj'a or prose-rhyme and profuse poetry, mostly doggerel. I recommend it to the student as typically Arabian with its preponderance of verse over prose, its threadbare patches made to look meaner by the purpureus pannus; its immoderate repetition and its utter disregard of order and sequence. For the rest it is unedited and it strikes me as a sketch of adventure calculated to charm the Fellah-audience of a coffee-house, whose delight would be brightened by the normal accompaniment of a tambourine or a Rababah, the one-stringed viol.

[FN#178] This P. N. has occurred in vol. vi. 8, where I have warned readers that it must not be confounded with the title "Maharaj"Great Rajah. Scott (vi. 352) writes "Mherejaun," and Gauttier (vi. 380) "Myr-djyhan" (Mir JahanLord Life).

[FN#179] I need not inform the civilised reader that this "feeling conception" is unknown except in tales.

[FN#180] i.e. "The Slim-waisted." Scott (vi. 352) persistently corrupts the name to "Aleefa," and Gauttier (vi. 380) follows suit with "Alifa."

[FN#181] In text "Al-Istikhraj," i.e. making "elegant extracts."

[FN#182] These lines are the merest doggerel of a strolling Rawi, like all the pieces d'occasion in this MS.

[FN#183] Which are still worse: two couplets rhyme in ani, and one in ali, which is not lawful.

[FN#184] In text "Dayr Nashshabah," a fancy name.

[FN#185] So in text: the name is unknown to me; its lit. meaning would be, "of high-breasted Virgins."

[FN#186] In text "Al-Jay'a" which is a well-omened stone like the 'Akik=carnelian. The Arabs still retain our mediaeval superstitions concerning precious stones, and of these fancies I will quote a few. The ruby appeases thirst, strengthens cardiac action and averts plague and "thunderbolts." The diamond heals diseases, and is a specific against epilepsy or the "possession" by evil spirits: this is also the specialty of the emerald, which, moreover, cures ophthalmia and the stings of scorpions and bites of venomous reptiles, blinding them if placed before their eyes. The turquoise is peculiarly auspicious, abating fascination, strengthening the sight, and, if worn in a ring, increasing the milk of nursing mothers: hence the blue beads hung as necklaces to cattle. The topaz (being yellow) is a prophylactic against jaundice and bilious diseases. The bloodstone when shown to men in rage causes their wrath to depart: it arrests hemorrhage, heals toothache, preserves from bad luck, and is a pledge of long life and happiness. The "cat's-eye" nullifies Al-Ayn=malign influence by the look, and worn in battle makes the wearer invisible to his foe. This is but a "fist-full out of a donkey-load," as the Persians say: the subject is a favourite with Eastern writers.

[FN#187] Or white lead: in the text it is "Sapidaj," corresponding with the "Isfidaj" of vol. vi. 126.

[FN#188] In the text "Bashkhanah"; corr. of the Pers. "Peshkhanah"=state-tents sent forward on the march.

[FN#189] This phrase, twice repeated, is the regular formula of the Rawi or professional reciter; he most unjustifiably, however, neglects the "Inshallah."

[FN#190] The revetment of the old wells in Arabia is mostly of dry masonry.

[FN#191] [Ar. "Tawanis," with a long final to rhyme with "Kawadis," instead of the usual "Tawanis," pl. of "Taunas," which Dozy (Suppl. s.v.) identifies with the Greek in the sense of cable.—ST.]

[FN#192] In Arab. "Hajarata 'l-Bahraman."

[FN#193] In text "Zamaku-ha."

[FN#194] I can see little pertinence in this couplet: but that is not a sine qua non amongst Arabs. Perhaps, however, the Princess understands that she is in a gorgeous prison and relieves her heart by a cunning hint.

[FN#195] I again omit "Saith the Reciter of this marvellous relation," a formula which occurs with unpleasant reiteration.

[FN#196] i.e. she cried "Astaghfiru 'llah" (which strangers usually pronounce "Astaffira 'llah"); a pious exclamation, humbling oneself before the Creator, and used in a score of different senses, which are not to be found in the dictionaries.

[FN#197] In vol. viii. 183, there are two couplets of which the first is here repeated.

[FN#198] [Here the translator seems to read "Khams Ghaffar,"=five pardoners,where however, grammar requires a plural after "khams." I take "khams" to be a clerical error for "Khamr"=wine, and read the next word "'ukar," which is another name for wine, but is also used adjectively together with the former, as in the Breslau Edition iv. 6 "al-Khamr al-'ukar"=choice wine.—ST.]

[FN#199] I understand this as the cupbearer who delights the five senses.

[FN#200] In the original we have, "Saith the Sayer of this delectable narrative, the strange and seld-seen (and presently we will return to the relation full and complete with its sense suitable and its style admirable), anent what befel and betided of Destinies predestinate and the will of the Lord preordinate which He decreed and determined to His creatures." I have omitted it for uniformity's sake.

[FN#201] Meaning "The easy-tempered." Scott (vi. 354) writes "Sohul."

[FN#202] In text "Litam"=the mouth-band for man: ii. 31, etc. The "Mutalathsimin" in North Africa are the races, like the Tawarik, whose males wear this face-swathe of cloth.

[FN#203] "Drowned in her blood," says the text which to us appears hyperbole run mad. So when King Omar (vol. ii. 123) violently rapes the unfortunate Princess Abrizah "the blood runs down the calves of her legs." This is not ignorance, but that systematic exaggeration which is held necessary to impressionise an Oriental audience.

[FN#204] For this allusion see vol. v. 191.

[FN#205] This physical sign of delight in beauty is not recognised in the literature of Europe, and The Nights usually attributes it to old women.

[FN#206] In text "Hima"=the private and guarded lands of a Badawi tribe; viii. 102.

[FN#207] In text "Daylaki."

[FN#208] A small compact white turband and distinctive sign of the True Believers: see vol. viii. 8.

[FN#209] [The words in the text seem to be: "wa Talattuf Alfazak wa Ma'anik al-hisan"=and for the pleasingness of thy sayings and meanings so fine and fair.—ST.]

[FN#210] [The Arabic seems here to contain a pun, the consonantic outline of "Tasht"="basin" being the same as of "tashshat"=she was raining, sprinkling.—ST.]

[FN#211] In Arab. "Ya Warid": see vol. iii. 56.

[FN#212] The growing beard and whisker being compared with black letters on a white ground.

[FN#213] In the text these seven couplets form one quotation, although the first three rhyme in ——aru and the second four in- -iru.

[FN#214] This "diapedesis" of bloodstained tears is frequently mentioned in The Nights; and the "Bloody Sweat" is well-known by name. The disease is rare and few have seen it whilst it has a certain quasi-supernatural sound from the "Agony and bloody sweat" in the Garden of Gethsemane. But the exudation of blood from the skin was described by Theophrastus and Aristotle and lastly by Lucan in these lines:—

—Sic omnia membra Emisere simul rutilum pro sanguine virus. Sanguis erant lachrymae, etc.

Of Charles IX. of France Mezaray declares "Le sang lui rejaillait par las pores et tous les conduits de son corps," but the superstitious Protestant holds this to be a "judgment." The same historian also mentions the phenomenon in a governor condemned to die; and Lombard in the case of a general after losing a battle and a nun seized by banditti—blood oozed from every pore. See Dr. Millingen's "Curiosities of Medical Experience," p. 485, London, Bentley, 1839.

[FN#215] [I read this line: "Fi Hayyi-kum Taflatun hama 'l-Fawadu bi-ha (Basit)" and translate: In your clan there is a maiden of whom my heart is enamoured. In the beginning of the next line the metre requires "tazakkarat," which therefore refers to "Aghsun," not to the speaker: "the branches remember (and by imitating her movements show that they remember) the time when she bent aside, and her bending, graceful beyond compare, taught me that her eyes kept watch over the rose of her cheek and knew how to protect it from him who might wish to cull it." This little gem of a Mawwal makes me regret that so many of the snatches of poetry in this MS. are almost hopelessly corrupted.—ST.]

[FN#216] In the text "Sima'a," lit. hearing, applied idiomatically to the ecstasy of Darwayshes when listening to esoteric poetry.

[FN#217] The birds mentioned in the text are the "Kumri" (turtle-dove), the "Shabaytar" [also called "Samaytar" and "Abu al-'Ayzar"=the father of the brisk one, a long-necked water bird of the heron kind.—ST.], the Shuhrur (in MS. Suhrur)=a blackbird [the Christians in Syria call St. Paul "Shuhrur al-Kanisah," the blackbird of the Church, on account of his eloquence.—ST.], the "Karawan," crane or curlew (Charadrius aedicnemus) vol. vi. 1; the "Hazar;" nightingale or bird of a thousand songs, vol. v. 48; the "Hamam," ruffed pigeon, culver, vol. v. 49; the "Kata," or sandgrouse, vols. i. 131, iv. 111, etc.; and the "Samman" or quail, Suppl. vol. vi.

[FN#218] The "Sa'ah," I may here remark, is the German Stunde, our old "Stound," somewhat indefinite but meaning to the good Moslem the spaces between prayer times. The classical terms, Al-Zuha (undurn-hour, or before noon) and Maghrib=set of sun, become in Badawi speech Al-Ghaylah=siesta-time and Ghaybat al-Shams. (Doughty, index.)

[FN#219] For the beautiful song of the lute, referred to here, see vol. viii. 281.

[FN#220] Alluding to the "Takht Raml," table of sand, geomantic table?

[FN#221] As before noted, her love enables her to deal in a somewhat of prophetic strain.

[FN#222] This scene may sound absurd; but it is admirable for its materialism. How often do youthful lovers find an all-sufficient pastime in dressing themselves up and playing the game of mutual admiration. It is well nigh worthy of that "silliest and best of love-stories"—Henrietta Temple.

[FN#223] The text bluntly says "Wa Nikah," which can mean nothing else.

[FN#224] Scott calls him "Yiah": vi. 354.

[FN#225] Arab. "Akhbaru-hu," alluding to the lord Yahya.

[FN#226] Here I presume a "Kala" (quoth he) is omitted; for the next sentence seems appropriate to Yusuf.

[FN#227] In Arab. "Tastaghis"=lit. crying out "Wa Ghausah"—Ho, to my aid!

[FN#228] The "Zug" or draught which gave him rheumatism—not a romantic complaint for a young lover. See vol. ii. 9. But his power of sudden invention is somewhat enviable, and lying is to him, in Hindustani phrase, "easy as drinking water."

[FN#229] Who evidently ignored or had forgotten the little matter of the concubine, so that incident was introduced by the story-teller for mere wantonness.

[FN#230] In text "Mazbuh"=slaughtered for food.

[FN#231] i.e. "I suffer from an acute attack of rheumatism"—a complaint common in even the hottest climates.

[FN#232] Needless to say that amongst Moslems, as amongst Christians, the Israelite medicine-man has always been a favourite, despite an injunction in the "Dinim" (Religious Considerations) of the famous Andalusian Yusuf Caro. This most fanatical work, much studied at Tiberias and Safet (where a printing-press was established in the xvith century) decides that a Jewish doctor called to attend a Goi (Gentile) too poor to pay him is bound to poison his patient—if he safely can.

[FN#233] Lit. "The-Bull-(Taur for Thaur or Saur)numbered-and-for-battle-day-lengthened." In p.30 this charger is called, "The-bull-that-spurneth-danger-on-battle-day." See vol. vi. 270 for a similar compound name, The-Ghul-who-eateth-man-we-pray-Allah-for-safety.

[FN#234] In text "Al-Jariyah radih," the latter word being repeated in p.282, where it is Radih a P.N. [Here also I would take it for a P.N., for if it were adjective to "al-Jariyah" it should have the article.—ST.]

[FN#235] The "Radif," or back-rider, is common in Arabia, esp. on dromedaries when going to the Razzia: usually the crupper-man loads the matchlock and his comrade fires it.

[FN#236] The text has "thirty," evidently a clerical error.

[FN#237] Arab. "Sakhtur" for "Shakhtur," vol. vii. 362.

[FN#238] Doggerel fit only for the coffee-house.

[FN#239] In text "Ta'ayyun"=influence, especially by the "'Ayn," or (Evil) Eye.

[FN#240] I have somewhat abridged the confession of the Princess, who carefully repeats every word known to the reader. This iteration is no objection in the case of a coffee-house audience to whom the tale is told bit by bit, but it is evidently unsuited for reading.

[FN#241] In text "Irham turham:" this is one of the few passive verbs still used in popular parlance.

[FN#242] This formula will be in future suppressed.

[FN#243] I spare my readers the full formula:—"Yusuf took it and brake the seal (fazza-hu) and read it and comprehended its contents and purport and significance: and, after perusing it," etc. These forms, decies repetita, may go down with an Eastern audience, but would be intolerable in a Western volume. The absence of padding, however, reduces the story almost to a patchwork of doggerel rhymes, for neither I nor any man can "make a silk purse from a suille ear."

[FN#244] Here again in full we have:—"He mounted the she-camel and fared and ceased not faring until he drew near to the Palace of Al-Hayfa, where he dismounted and concealed his dromedary within the same cave. Then he swam the stream until he had reached the Castle and here he landed and appeared before Al-Hayfa," etc.

[FN#245] "'Tis dogged as does it" was the equivalent expression of our British Aristotle; the late Charles Darwin.

[FN#246] Arab. "Jannat al-Khuld"=the Eternal Garden: vol. ix. 214.

[FN#247] [I read: Wa inni la-ar'akum wa ar'a widada-kum, wa-hakki-kumu antum a'azzu 'l-Wara 'andi=And I make much of you and of your love; by your rights (upon me, formula of swearing), you are to me the dearest of mankind.—ST.]

[FN#248] In text: "He swam the stream and bestrode his she-camel."

[FN#249] In text "Then she folded the letter and after sealing it," etc.

[FN#250] Not "her hands" after Christian fashion.

[FN#251] In text, "Ahyaf," alluding to Al-Hayfa.

[FN#252] Arab. "Al-Kawa'ib," also P. N. of the river.

[FN#253] This is moralising with a witness, and all it means is "handsome is that handsome does."

[FN#254] In text "'Arsh" = the Ninth Heaven; vol. v.167.

[FN#255] The Shi'ah doctrine is here somewhat exaggerated.

[FN#256] "Them" for "her," as has often occurred.

[FN#257] In the original "entrusted to her the missive:" whereas the letter is delivered afterwards.

[FN#258] The cloud (which contains rain) is always typical of liberality and generous dealing.

[FN#259] The Koranic chapt. No. xx., revealed at Meccah and recounting the (apocryphal) history of Moses.

[FN#260] The "broken" (wall) to the North of the Ka'abah: Pilgrimage iii. 165.

[FN#261] i.e. "Delight of the Age:" see vol. ii. 81.

[FN#262] In the text written "Imriyyu 'l-Kays": for this pre-Islamitic poet see Term. Essay, p. 223. "The Man of Al-Kays" or worshipper of the Priapus-idol was a marking figure in Arabian History. The word occurs, with those of Aera, Dusares (Theos Ares), Martabu, Allat and Manat in the Nabathaean (Arabian) epigraphs brought by Mr. Doughty from Arabia Deserta (vol. i. pp. 180-184).

[FN#263] In text "Zakka," which means primarily a bird feeding her young.

[FN#264] In the text "months and years," the latter seeming de trop.

[FN#265] Or "Yathrib" = Al-Madinah; vol. iv. 114.

[FN#266] Scott (vi. 358 et seqq.) who makes Ali bin Ibrahim, "a faithful eunuch," renders the passage, "by some accident the eunuch's turban unfortunately falling off; the precious stones (N.B. the lovers' gift) which, with a summary of the adventures (!) of Eusuff and Aleefa, and his own embassy to Sind, were wrapped in the folds, tumbled upon the floor,"

[FN#267] i.e. "Drawer-out of Descriptions."

[FN#268] i.e. a Refuser, a Forbidder.

[FN#269] i.e. both could not be seen at the same time.

[FN#270] [The MS. has T Kh D H, which the translator reads "takhuz-hu." I suspect that either the second or eighth form of "ahad" is meant, in the sense that thou comest to an agreement (Ittihad) with him.—ST.]

[FN#271] In the MS. v. 327, we find four hemistichs which evidently belong to Al-Mihrjan; these are:—

Hadet come to court her in fairer guise * I had given Al-Hayfa in bestest style; But in mode like this hast thou wrought me wrong * And made Envy gibe me with jeering smile."

Also I have been compelled to change the next sentence, which in the original is, "And hardly had King Al-Mihrjan ended his words," etc.

[FN#272] In this doggerel, "Kurud" (apes) occurs as a rhyme twice in three couplets.

[FN#273] "Upon the poll of his head" ('ala hamati-hi) says the Arabian author, and instantly stultifies the words.

[FN#274] Arab. "Haudaj" = a camel-litter: the word, often corrupted to Hadaj, is now applied to a rude pack-saddle, a wooden frame of mimosa-timber set upon a "witr" or pad of old tent-cloth, stuffed with grass and girt with a single cord. Vol. viii. 235, Burckhardt gives "Maksar," and Doughty (i. 437) "Muksir" as the modern Badawi term for the crates or litters in which are carried the Shaykhly housewives.

[FN#275] In text "Sunnah" = the practice, etc., of the Prophet: vol. v. 36, 167.

[FN#276] This, as the sequel shows, is the far-famed Musician, Ibrahim of Mosul: vol. vii. 113.

[FN#277] In the text King of Al-Sin=China, and in p. 360 of MS. Yusuf is made "King of China and Sind," which would be much like "King of Germany and Brentford."

[FN#278] This is the full formula repeated in the case of all the ten blessed damsels. I have spared the patience of my readers.

[FN#279] This formula of the cup and lute is decies repetita, justifying abbreviation.

[FN#280] i.e. The Beginner, the Originator.

[FN#281] The Zephyr, or rather the cool north breeze of upper Arabia, vol. viii. 62.

[FN#282] The "Full Moon"; plur. Budur: vols. iii., 228, iv., 249.

[FN#283] "Dann" = amphora, Gr. {Greek} short for {Greek} = having two handles.

[FN#284] "The large-hipped," a form of Radih.

[FN#285] In text "Minba'ada-hu" making Jesus of later date than Imr al-Kays.

[FN#286] i.e. "The Delight": also a P.N. of one of the Heavens: vols. iii. 19; iv. 143.

[FN#287] i.e. Joy, Contentment.

[FN#288] In text "La khuzibat Ayday al-Firak," meaning, "may separation never ornament herself in sign of gladness at the prospect of our parting." For the Khazib-dye see vol. iii. 105.

[FN#289] i.e. "Bloom or the Tribe." "Zahrat"=a blossom especially yellow and commonly applied to orange-flower. In line 10 of the same page the careless scribe calls the girl "Jauharat (Gem) of the Tribe."

[FN#290] For this Hell, see vol. viii. 111.

[FN#291] "Core" or "Life-blood of Hearts."

[FN#292] Presently explained.

[FN#293] In text "Afrakh al-Jinn," lit.=Chicks of the Jinns, a mere vulgarism: see "Farkh 'Akrab," vol. iv. 46.

[FN#294] "Ibraa" = deliverance from captivity, etc. Ya = i, and Mim = m, composing the word "Ibrahim." The guttural is concealed in the Hamzah of Ibraa, a good illustration of Dr. Steingass's valuable remarks in Terminal Essay, pp. 235, 236.

[FN#295] "Kalim" = one who speaks with another, a familiar. Moses' title is Kalimu'llah on account of the Oral Law and certain conversations at Mount Sinai.

[FN#296] In text "Istifa" = choice, selection: hence Mustafa = the Chosen Prophet, Mohammcd; vols i. 7; ii. 40.

[FN#297] In text "Jazr" = cutting, strengthening, flow (of tide).

[FN#298] In the text "Nafishah" Pers. "Nafah," derived, I presume, from "Naf" = belly or testicle, the part which in the musk-deer was supposed to store up the perfume.

[FN#299] For 'Nahavand," the celebrated site in Al-Irak where the Persians sustained their final defeat at the hands of the Arabs A.H. 21. It is also one of the many musical measures, like the Ispahani, the Rasti, the Rayhani, the Busalik, the Nava, etc., borrowed from the conquered 'Ajami.

[FN#300] This second half of the story is laid upon the lines of "The Man of Al-Yaman and his six Slave-girls": vol. iv. 245.

[FN#301] This history again belongs to the class termed "Abtar = tailless. In the text we find for all termination, "After this he (Yusuf) invited Mohammed ibn Ibrahim to lie that night in the palace." Scott (vi. 364) ends after his own fashion:—"They (the ten girls) recited extempore verses before the caliph, but the subject of each was so expressive of their wish to return to their beloved sovereign, and delivered in so affecting a manner, that Mamoon, though delighted with their wit and beauty, sacrificed his own pleasure to their feelings, and sent them back to Eusuff by the officer who carried the edict, confirming him in his dominions, where the prince of Sind and the fair Aleefa continued long, amid a nnmerous progeny, to live the protectors of their happy subjects."

[FN#302] This tale is headless as the last is tailless. We must suppose that soon after Mohammed ibn Ibrahim had quitted the Caliph, taking away the ten charmers, Al-Maamun felt his "breast straitened" and called for a story upon one of his Rawis named Ibn Ahyam. This name is repeated in the text and cannot be a clerical error for Ibn Ibrahim.

[FN#303] Scott (vi. 366) "Adventures of the Three Princes, sons of the Sultan of China."

[FN#304] In the text "'Ajam," for which see vol. i. 2, 120. Al-Irak, I may observe, was the head-quarters of the extensive and dangerous Khrijite heresy; and like Syria has ever a bad name amongst orthodox Moslems.

[FN#305] In the Arab. "Salkh," meaning also a peculiar form of circumcision, for which see Pilgrimage iii. 80-81. The Jew's condition was of course a trick, presenting an impossibility and intended as a mere pretext for murdering an enemy to his faith. Throughout the Eastern world this idea prevails, and both Sir Moses Montefiore and M. Cremieux were utterly at fault and certainly knew it when they declared that Europe was teaching it to Asia. Every Israelite community is bound in self-defence, when the murder of a Christian child or adult is charged upon any of its members, to court the most searching enquiry and to abate the scandal with all its might.

[FN#306] The text has "F Kb," which Scott (vol. vi. 367) renders "a mat." [According to the Muht "Kb" is a small thick mat used to produce shade, pl. "Kiyb" and "Akyb." The same authority says the word is of Persian origin, but this seems an error, unless it be related to "Keb" with the Y majhl, which in the Appendix to the Burhni Kti' is given as synonymous with "Pech," twist, fold. Under "Bard"==papyrus the Muht mentions that this is the material from which the mats known by the name of "Akyb" are made.—ST.]

[FN#307] The text has here "Wasayah," probably a clerical error for "wa Miah" (spelt Myah"), and a hundred pair of pigeons.— ST.]

[FN#308] Showing utter ignorance of the Jewish rite which must always be performed by the Mohel, an official of the Synagogue duly appointed by the Sheliach==legatus; and within eight days after birth. The rite consists of three operations. Milah==the cut; Priah==tearing the foreskin and Messzah==applying styptics to the wound. The latter process has become a matter of controversy and the Israelite community of Paris, headed by the Chief Rabbi, M. Zadoc Kahin, has lately assembled to discuss the question. For the difference between Jewish and Moslem circumcision see vol. v. 209.

[FN#309] The Jewish quarter (Hrah), which the Israelites themselves call "Hazer,"==a court-yard, an enclosure. In Mayer's valuable "Conversations-lexicon" the Italian word is derived from the Talmudic "Ghet"==divorce, separation (as parting the Hebrews from the rest of the population) and the Rev. S. R. Melli, Chief Rabbi of Trieste, has kindly informed me that the word is Chaldaic.

[FN#310] [Ar. "Sarmjah," from Persian "Sar-mzah," a kind of hose or gaiter worn over a boot.—ST.]

[FN#311] [Arab. "Yastant," aor. to the preter. "istanat," which has been explained, supra, p. 24.—ST.]

[FN#312] The bed would be made of a carpet or thin mattress strewn upon the stucco flooring of the terrace-roof. But the ignorant scribe overlooks the fact that by Mosaic law every Jewish house must have a parapet for the "Sakf" (flat roof), a precaution neglected by Al-Islam.

[FN#313] Good old classical English. In the "Breeches Bible" (A.D. 1586) we read, "But a certaine woman cast a piece of millstone upon Abimelech's head and broke his brain-panne" Judges ix. 33).

[FN#314] [The words "'Irz," protection, in the preceding sentence, "Hurmah" and "Shatrh" explain each other mutually. The formula "f 'irzak" (vulg. "arzak"), I place myself under thy protection, implies an appeal to one's honour ("'Irz"). Therefore the youth says: "Inna hzih Hurmah lam 'alay-h Shatrah," i.e. "Truly this one is a woman" (in the emphatic sense of a sacred or forbidden object; "this woman" would be "hzih al-Hurmah"), "I must not act vilely or rashly towards her," both vileness and rashness belonging to the many significations of "Shatrah," which is most usually "cleverness." —ST.]

[FN#315] In the text "Sind," still confounding this tale with the preceding.

[FN#316] In text "Intihba 'l furas," lit.==the snatching of opportunities, a jingle with "Kanas."

[FN#317] [Compare with this episode the viith of Spitta Bey's Tales: Histoire du Prince qui apprit un mtier.—ST.]

[FN#318] i.e. enables a man to conceal the pressure of impecuniosity.

[FN#319] In text "Al-Sdah wa al-Khatyt."

[FN#320] Subaudi, "that hath not been pierced." "The first night," which is often so portentous a matter in England and upon the Continent (not of North America), is rarely treated as important by Orientals. A long theoretical familiarity with the worship of Venus

Leaves not much mystery for the nuptial night.

Such lore has been carefully cultivated by the "young person" with the able assistance of the ancient dames of the household, of her juvenile companions and co-evals and especially of the slave-girls. Moreover not a few Moslems, even Egyptians, the most lecherous and salacious of men, in all ranks of life from prince to peasant take a pride in respecting the maiden for a few nights after the wedding-feast extending, perhaps to a whole week and sometimes more. A brutal haste is looked upon as "low"; and, as sensible men, they provoke by fondling and toying Nature to speak ere proceeding to the final and critical act. In England it is very different. I have heard of brides over thirty years old who had not the slightest suspicion concerning what complaisance was expected of them: out of mauvaise honte, the besetting sin of the respectable classes, neither mother nor father would venture to enlighten the elderly innocents. For a delicate girl to find a man introducing himself into her bedroom and her bed, the shock must be severe and the contact of hirsute breast and hairy limbs with a satiny skin is a strangeness which must often breed loathing and disgust. Too frequently also, instead of showing the utmost regard for virginal modesty and innocence (alias ignorance), the bridegroom will not put a check upon his passions and precipitates matters with the rage of the bull, ruentis in venerem. Even after he hears "the cry" which, as the Arabs say, "must be cried," he has no mercy: the newly made woman lies quivering with mental agitation and physical pain, which not a few describe as resembling the tearing out of a back-tooth, and yet he insists upon repeating the operation, never supposing in his stupidity, that time must pass before the patient can have any sensation of pleasure and before the glories and delights of the sensual orgasm bathe her soul in bliss. Hence complaints, dissatisfaction, disgust, mainly caused by the man's fault, and hence not unfrequently a permanent distaste for the act of carnal congress. All women are by no means equally capable of such enjoyment, and not a few have become mothers of many children without ever being or becoming thoroughly reconciled to it. Especially in the case of highly nervous temperaments—and these seem to be increasing in the United States and notably in New England—the fear of nine months' pains and penalties makes the sex averse to the "deed of kind." The first child is perhaps welcomed, the second is an unpleasant prospect and there is a firm resolve not to conceive a third. But such conjugal chastity is incompatible, except in the case of "married saints," with a bon mnage. The husband, scandalised and offended by the rejection and refusal of the wife, will seek a substitute more complaisant; and the spouse also may "by the decree of Destiny" happen to meet the right man, the man for whom and for whom only every woman will sweep the floor. And then adieu to prudence and virtue, honour and fair fame. For, I repeat, it is the universal custom of civilised and Christian Europeans to plant their womankind upon a pedestal exposed as butts to every possible temptation: and, if they fall, as must often be expected, to assail them with obloquy and contempt for succumbing to trials imposed upon them by the stronger and less sensitive sex. Far more sensible and practical, by the side of these high idealists, shows the Moslem who guards his jewel with jealous care and who, if his "honour," despite every precaution, insist upon disgracing him, draws the sabre and cuts her down with the general approbation and applause of society.

[FN#321] [Arab. "'Al ghayri tark," which I would translate "out of the way," like the Persian "b-Rh."—ST.]

[FN#322] In text "Kababj" (for Kababji) seller of Kabbs, mutton or kid grilled in small squares and skewered: see vol. vi. 225.

[FN#323] In text "Sujjdah;" vol. vi. 193.

[FN#324] In text "Faddah" all through.

[FN#325] In text "Kirsh" (==piastre) a word before explained. See Lane (M.E.) Appendix B.

[FN#326] In Arab. "Samr;" from the Pers. "Sumar"==a reed, a rush.

[FN#327] In Arab. "Dwn:" vols. vii. 340; ix. 108.

[FN#328] Scott has (vol. vi. 373), "The desired articles were furnished, and the Sultan setting to work, in a few days finished a mat, in which he ingeniously contrived to plait in flowery characters, known only to himself and his vizier, the account of his situation."

[FN#329] In Arab. "Ghirrah" (plur. "Gharr")==a sack. In Ibn Khall. (iv. pp. 90, 104) it is a large sack for grain and the especial name of a tax on corn.

[FN#330] In the text "Mohammed ibn Ibrahim," another confusion with the last tale. This story is followed in the MS. by (1) "The History of the First Brave," (2) "The History of the Second Brave," and "The Tale of the Noodle and his Asses," which I have omitted because too feeble for insertion.

[FN#331] Scott (vi.375) "Story of the Good Vizier unjustly imprisoned." Gauttier (vi. 394) Histoire du bon Vizier injustement emprisonne.

[FN#332] This detail has no significance, though perhaps its object may be to affect the circumstantial, a favourite manoeuvre with the Rawi. [It may mean that the prisoner had to pass through seven gates before reaching it, to indicate its formidable strength and the hopelessness of all escape, except perhaps by a seven-warded, or as the Arabs would say, a seven-pinned key of gold. In the modern tale mentioned on p. 174 the kidnapped Prince and his Wazir are made to pass "through one door after the other until seven doors were passed," to emphasize the utter seclusion of their hiding place.—ST.]

[FN#333] i.e. the mats and mattresses, rugs and carpets, pillows and cushions which compose the chairs, tables and beds of a well-to-do Eastern lodging.

[FN#334] The pretext was natural. Pious Moslems often make such vows and sometimes oblige themselves to feed the street dogs with good bread.

[FN#335] In text "Min hakk haza 'l-Kalam sahih."

[FN#336] In text "Kaik" and "Kaik-ji," the well-known caique of the Bosphorus, a term which bears a curious family resemblance to the "Kayak" of the Eskimos.

[FN#337] Here coffee is mentioned without tobacco, whereas in more modern days the two are intimately connected. And the reason is purely hygienic. Smoking increases the pulsations without strengthening them, and depresses the heart-action with a calming and soothing effect. Coffee, like alcohol, affects the circulation in the reverse way by exciting it through the nervous system; and not a few authorities advise habitual smokers to end the day and prepare for rest with a glass of spirits and water. It is to be desired that the ignorants who write about "that filthy tobacco" would take the trouble to observe its effects on a large scale, and not base the strongest and extremest opinions, as is the wont of the Anglo-Saxon Halb-bildung, upon the narrowest and shakiest of bases. In Egypt, India and other parts of the Eastern world they will find nicotiana used by men, women and children, of all ranks and ages; and the study of these millions would greatly modify the results of observing a few hundreds at home. But, as in the case of opium-eating, populus vult decipi, the philanthrope does not want to know the truth, indeed he shrinks from it and loathes it. All he cares for is his own especial "fad."

[FN#338] Arab. "Finjal" systematically repeated for "Finjan" pronounced in Egypt "Fingan" see vol. viii. 200. [The plural "Fanajil," pronounced "Fanagil," occurs in Spitta Bey's Contes Arabes Modernes, p. 92, and in his Grammar, p. 26, the same author states that the forms "Fingan" and "Fingal" are used promiscuously.—ST.]

[FN#339] For the "Khaznah" (Khazinah) or 10,000 kis each = 5, see vols. ii. 84; iii. 278.

[FN#340] A euphuism meaning some disaster. The text contains a favourite incident in folklore; the first instance, I believe, being that of Polycrates of Samos according to Herodotus (lib. iii. 41-42). The theory is supported after a fashion by experience amongst all versed in that melancholy wisdom the "knowledge of the world." As Syr Cauline the knight philosophically says:—

Everye white will have its blacke, And everye sweete its sowre: etc.

[FN#341] Thus making the food impure and unfit for a religious Moslem to eat. Scott (vi. 378) has "when a huge rat running from his hole leaped into the dish which was placed upon the floor." He is probably thinking of the East Indian "bandycoot."

[FN#342] In text this tale concludes, "It is ended and this (next) is the History of the Barber."

[FN#343] A dandy, a macaroni, from the Turk. Chelebi, see vol i 22. Here the word is thoroughly Arabised. In old Turk. it means, a Prince of the blood; in mod. times a gentleman, Greek or European.

[FN#344] In the text "zbasha" or "Uzbasha," a vile Egyptianism for Yuzbashi-head of a hundred (men) centurion, captain.

[FN#345] Scil. the household, the Harem, etc. As usual, the masc. is used for the fem.

[FN#346] [Ar. "Al-Rashakah," a word is not found in the common lexicons. In Dozy and "Engelmann's Glossary of Spanish and Portuguese words derived from the Arabic," it is said to be a fork with three prongs, here probably a hat-stand in the shape of such a fork.—ST.]

[FN#347] In text "Sha'il" copyist's error for "Shaghil," act. part. of "Shughl" = business, affairs. [Here it stands probably for the fuller "Shughl shaghil," an urgent business.—ST.]

[FN#348] In text "Ya 'Ars, ya Mu'arras": vol. i. 338.

[FN#349] In Syria most houses have a rain cistern or tank into which the terrace-roof drains and which looks from above like a well with a cover. The water must have been low when the lover hid himself in the reservoir.

[FN#350] [In the MS. "Min Hakk la-hu Asl an 'and-na huna Rajil," a thoroughly popular phrase. "Min Hakk" and "min Hakkan," where in the adverbial meaning of Hakkan its grammatical form as an accusative is so far forgotten that it allows itself to be governed by the preposition "min," is rendered by Bocthor "tout de bon," "serieusement." "Asl" = root has here the meaning of foundation in fact. The literal translation of the passage would therefore be: "Forsooth, is there any truth in it that a man is here in our house?" "Min Hakk" has occurred page 183, where the text, quoted in the note, may perhaps be translated: "Of a truth, is this saying soothfast?"—ST.]

[FN#351] [The MS. has: "Ya Gharati a-Zay ma huna Rajil;" "Ya Gharati" will recur presently, p. 195, along with "ya Musibati" = Oh my calamity! I take it therefore to be an exclamation of distress from "Gharat" = invasion, with its incidents of devastation, rapine and ruin. It would be the natural outcry of the women left helpless in an unprotected camp when invaded by a hostile tribe. In "a-Zay ma" the latter particle is not the negative, but the pronoun, giving to "a-Zay" = "in what manner," "how ?" the more emphatical sense of "how ever?" In the same sense we find it again, infra, Night 754, "a-Zay ma tafutni" = how canst thou quit me? I would therefore render: "Woe me I am undone, how ever should there be a man here?" or something to that purpose.—ST.]

[FN#352] In Persian he would be called "Pari-stricken,"—smitten by the Fairies.

[FN#353] A quarter-staff (vols. i, 234; viii. 186) opp. to the "Dabbus," or club-stick of the Badawin, the Caffres' "Knob- kerry," which is also called by the Arabs "Kana," pron. "Gana."

[FN#354] Scott's "Story of the Lady of Cairo and her four Gallants" (vol. vi. 380): Gauttier, Histoire d' une Dame du Caire et de ses Galans (vi. 400). This tale has travelled over the Eastern world. See in my vol. vi. 172 "The Lady and her Five Suitors," and the "Story of the Merchant's Wife and her Suitors" in Scott's "Tales, Anecdotes, and Letters" (Cadell, London, 1800), which is in fact a garbled version of the former, introduced into the rpertoire of "The Seven Wazrs." I translate the W. M. version of the tale because it is the most primitive known to me; and I shall point out the portions where it lacks finish.

[FN#355] This title does not appear till p. 463 (vol. v.) of the MS., and it re-appears in vol. vi. 8.

[FN#356] i.e. in her haste: the text has "Kharrat." The Persians who rhetorically exaggerate everything say "rising and sinking like the dust of the road." [I doubt whether "Kharrat" could have the meaning given to it in the translation. The word in the MS. has no Tashdd and I think the careless scribe meant it for "Kharajat," she went out.—ST.]

[FN#357] I read "Ns malmumn=assembled men, a crowd of people."- -ST.]

[FN#358] "Rajul Khwj:" see vol. vi. 46, etc. For "Shhbandar"=king of the port, a harbourmaster, whose post I have compared with our "Consul," see vol. iv. 29. It is often, however, applied to Government officials who superintend trade and levy duties at inland marts.

[FN#359] Arab. "Khimr," a veil or rather a covering for the back of the head. This was the especial whorishness with which Shahrazad taxes the Goodwife: she had been too prodigal of her charms, for the occiput and the "back hair" should not be displayed even to the moon.

[FN#360] These four become five in the more finished tale—the King, the Wazir, the Kazi, the Wali or Chief of Police and the Carpenter. Moreover each one is dressed in different costume, gowns yellow, blue, red and patched with headgear equally absurd.

[FN#361] In text "Turtr"=the Badawi's bonnet: vol. ii. 143. Mr. Doughty (i. 160) found at Al-Khuraybah the figure of an ancient Arab wearing a close tunic to the knee and bearing on poll a coif. At Al-'Ula he was shown an ancient image of a man's head cut in sandstone: upon the crown was a low pointed bonnet. "Long caps" are also noticed in i. 562; and we are told that they were "worn in outlandish guise in Arabia."

[FN#362] In text "Embrah" (pron. 'Mrah); pop. for Al-brihah=the last part of the preceding day or night, yesterday. The vulgar Egyptian uses it as if it were a corruption of the Pers. "in br"=this time. The Arab Badawin pronounce it El-beyrih (with their exaggerated "Imlah") and use it not only for "yesterday," but also for the past afternoon.

[FN#363] This device is far inferior in comic effect to the carpenter's press or cabinet of five compartments, and it lacks the ludicrous catastrophe in which all the lovers make water upon one another's heads.

[FN#364] Scott (vi. 386) "The Cauzee's story:" Gauttier (vi. 406) does not translate it.

[FN#365] In the text the message is delivered verbatim: this iteration is well fitted for oral work, with its changes of tone and play of face, and varied "gag"; but it is most annoying for the more critical reader.

[FN#366] Arab. "Lukmah"=a balled mouthful: vols. i. 261, vii. 367.

[FN#367] The "Mifth" (prop. "Miftah") or key used throughout the Moslem East is a bit of wood, 7 14 inches long, and provided with 4 10 small iron pins which correspond with an equal number of holes in the "Dabbah" or wooden bolt. If one of these teeth be withdrawn the lock will not open. Lane (M.E. Introduction) has a sketch of the "Miftah" and "Dabbah."

[FN#368] In text "Ayoh" which is here, I hold, a corruption of "I (or Ayy) h"="yes indeed he." [I take "aywah" (as I would read the word) to be a different spelling for "aywa"=yes indeed, which according to Spitta Bey, Gr. p. 168 is a contraction of "Ay (I) wa'llhi," yes by Allah. "What? thy lover?" asks the husband, and she emphatically affirms the fact, to frighten the concealed tailor—ST.]

[FN#369] In the Arab. "Al-Ashkhakh," plur. of "Shakhkh" and literally "the stales" meaning either dejection. [I read: "bi 'l-Shakhkh," the usual modern word for urine. "'Alayya Shakhkh" is: I want to make water. See Dozy Suppl. s.v.-ST.]

[FN#370] In text "Ah ma'"—pure Fellah speech.

[FN#371] In the Arab. "laklaka-h"—an onomatopoeia.

[FN#372] In text "Il an yasr Karmu-hu." Karm originally means cutting a slip of skin from the camel's nose by way of mark, in lieu of the normal branding.

[FN#373] In text "Yazghaz-h f shikkati-ha," the verb being probably a clerical error for "Yazaghzagh," from "Zaghzagha,"=he opened a skin bag.

[FN#374] This is the far-famed balcony-scene in "Fanny" (of Ernest Feydeau translated into English and printed by Vizetelly and Co.) that phenomenal specimen of morbid and unmasculine French (or rather Parisian) sentiment, which contrasts so powerfully with the healthy and manly tone of The Nights. Here also the story conveys a moral lesson and, contrary to custom, the husband has the best of the affair. To prove that my judgment is not too severe, let me quote the following passages from a well-known and popular French novelist, translated by an English littrateur and published by a respectable London firm.

In "A Ladies' Man:" by Guy de Maupassant, we read:—

Page 62.—And the conversation, descending from elevated theories concerning love, strayed into the flowery garden of polished blackguardism. It was the moment of clever, double meanings; veils raised by words, as petticoats are lifted by the wind; tricks of language, cleverly disguised audacities; sentences which reveal nude images in covered phrases, which cause the vision of all that may not be said to flit rapidly before the eyes of the mind, and allow well-bred people the enjoyment of a kind of subtle and mysterious love, a species of impure mental contact, due to the simultaneous evocations of secret, shameful and longed-for pleasures.

Page 166.—George and Madeleine amused themselves with watching all these couples, the woman in summer toilette and the man darkly outlined beside her. It was a huge flood of lovers flowing towards the Bois, beneath the starry and heated sky. No sound was heard save the dull rumble of wheels. They kept passing by, two by two in each vehicle, leaning back on the seat, clasped one against the other, lost in dreams of desire, quivering with the anticipation of coming caresses. The warm shadow seemed full of kisses. A sense of spreading lust rendered the air heavier and more suffocating. All the couples, intoxicated with the same idea, the same ardour, shed a fever about them.

Page 187—As soon as she was alone with George, she clasped him in her arms, exclaiming: "Oh! my darling Pretty-boy, I love you more and more every day."

The cab conveying them rocked like a ship.

"It is not so nice as our own room," said she.

He answered; "Oh, no." But he was thinking of Madame Waller.

Page 198.—He kissed her neck, her eyes, her lips with eagerness, without her being able to avoid his furious caresses, and whilst repulsing him, whilst shrinking from his mouth, she, despite herself, returned his kisses. All at once she ceased to struggle, and, vanquished, resigned, allowed him to undress her. One by one he neatly and rapidly stripped off the different articles of clothing with the light fingers of a lady's maid. She had snatched her bodice from his hands to hide her face in it, and remained standing amidst the garments fallen at her feet. He seized her in his arms and bore her towards the couch. Then she murmured in his ear in a broken voice, "I swear to you, I swear to you, that I have never had a lover."

And he thought, "That is all the same to me."

[FN#375] In text "Ant' amilta maskhar (for maskharah) matah (for mat)," idiomatical Fellah-tongue.

[FN#376] Scott (Appendix vol. vi. 460) simply called this tale "The Syrian." In M. Clouston's "Book of Noodles" (pp. 193 194) we find a man who is searching for three greater simpletons than his wife, calling himself "Saw ye ever my like?" It is quoted from Campbell's "Popular Tales of the West Highlands" (ii. 385 387), but it lacks the canopic wit of the Arabo-Egyptian. I may note anent the anecdote of the Gabies (p. 201), who proposed, in order to make the tall bride on horseback enter the low village-gate, either to cut off her head or the legs of her steed, that precisely the same tale is told by the biting wits of Damascus concerning the boobies of Halbn. "Halbn," as these villagers call their ancient hamlet, is justly supposed to be the Helbon whose wine is mentioned by Ezekiel in the traffic of Damascus, although others less reasonably identify it with Halab=Aleppo.

[FN#377] In text "La'bat Shawribu-hu"=lit. his mustachios played.

[FN#378] For the "Waklah," or caravanserai, see vol. i. 266.

[FN#379] In text "Kabt," plur. Kabbt:

Oh! who is more brave than a dark Suliote, In his snowy camise and his shaggy capote? "Childe Harold," Canto II.

And here I cannot but notice the pitiful contrast (on the centenary of the poet's nativity, Jan. 22nd, '88) between the land of his birth and that of his death. The gallant Greeks honoured his memory with wreaths and panegyrics and laudatory articles, declaring that they will never forget the anniversaries of his nativity and his decease. The British Pharisee and Philistine, true to his miserable creed, ignored all the "real Lord Byron"—his generosity, his devotion to his friends, his boundless charity, and his enthusiasm for humanity. They exhaled their venom by carping at Byron's poetry (which was and is to Europe a greater boon than Shakespeare's), by condemning his morality (in its dirty sexual sense) and in prophesying for him speedy oblivion. Have these men no shame in presence of the noble panegyric dedicated by the Prince of German poets, Goethe, to his brother bard whom he welcomed as a prophet? Can they not blush before Heine (the great German of the future), before Flaubert, Alfred de Musset, Lamartine, Leopardi and a host of Italian, Spanish and Portuguese notables? Whilst England will not forgive Byron for having separated from his unsympathetic wife, the Literary society of Moscow celebrated his centenary with all honour; and Prof. Nicholas Storojenko delivered a speech which has found an echo

further west Than his sires' "Islands of the Blest."

He rightly remarked that Byron's deadly sin in the eyes of the Georgian-English people was his Cosmopolitanism. He was the poetical representative of the Sturm und Drang period of the xixth century. He reflected, in his life and works, the wrath of noble minds at the collapse of the cause of freedom and the reactionary tendency of the century. Even in the distant regions of Monte Video Byron's hundredth birthday was not forgotten, and Don Luis Desteffanio's lecture was welcomed by literary society.

[FN#380] He cried out thinking of the mystical meaning of such name. So {Greek}, would mean in Suf language—Learn from thyself what is thy Lord;—corresponding after a manner with the Christian "looking up through Nature to Nature's God."

[FN#381] The phrase prob. means so drunk that his circulation had apparently stopped.

[FN#382] This is the article usually worn by the professional buffoon. The cap of the "Sutar" or jester of the Arnaut (Albanian) regiments—who is one of their professional braves—is usually a felt cone garnished with foxes' brushes.

[FN#383] In Arab. "Sabbal alayhim (for Alayhinna, the usual masc. pro fem.) Al-Sattr"=lit. the Veiler let down a curtain upon them.

[FN#384] The barber being a surgeon and ever ready to bleed a madman.

[FN#385] i.e. Can play off equally well the soft-brained and the hard-headed.

[FN#386] i.e. a deputy (governor, etc.); in old days the governor of Constantinople; in these times a lieutenant-colonel, etc.

[FN#387] Which, as has been said, is the cab of Modern Egypt, like the gondola and the caique. The heroine of the tale is a Nilotic version of "Aurora Floyd."

[FN#388] In text "Rafaka" and infr (p. 11) "Zafaka."

[FN#389] [In text "Misla 'l-Kalm," which I venture to suggest is another clerical blunder for: "misla 'l-Kilb"=as the dogs do.— ST.]

[FN#390] i.e. My wife. In addition to notes in vols. i. 165, and iv. 9, 126, I would observe that "Harm" (women) is the broken plur. of "Hurmah;" from Haram, the honour of the house, forbidden to all save her spouse. But it is also an infinitive whose plur. is Harimt=the women of a family; and in places it is still used for the women's apartment, the gynaeceum. The latter by way of distinction I have mostly denoted by the good old English corruption "Harem."

[FN#391] In text "Misla 'l-khrf" (for Kharf) a common phrase for an "innocent," a half idiot, so our poets sing of "silly (harmless, Germ. Selig) sheep."

[FN#392] In text this ends the tale.

[FN#393] In text "Wa l huwa 'ashamn min-ka talkash 'al Harimi-n." "'Ashama," lit.=he greeded for; and "Lakasha"=he conversed with. [There is no need to change the "talkas" of the text into "talkash." "Lakasa" is one of the words called "Zidd," i.e. with opposite meanings: it can signify "to incline passionately towards," or "to loath with abhorrence." As the noun "Laks" means "itch" the sentence might perhaps be translated: "that thou hadst an itching after our Harm." What would lead me to prefer the reading of the MS. is that the verb is construed with the preposition "'al"=upon, towards, for, while "lakash," to converse, is followed by "ma'"=with.—ST.]

[FN#394] Such was the bounden duty of a good neighbour.

[FN#395] He does not insist upon his dancing because he looks upon the offence as serious, but he makes him tell his tale—for the sake of the reader.

[FN#396] "Shib al-Hayt:" this may also=a physiognomist, which, however, is probably not meant here.

[FN#397] In text "Harrah"=heat, but here derived from "Hurr"=freeborn, noble.

[FN#398] In text "Azay m taft-n?"

[FN#399] In the Arab. "Rajul Khuzar"=a green-meat man. [The reading "Khuzar" belongs to Lane, M.E. ii. 16, and to Bocthor. In Schiaparelli's Vocabulista and the Muht the form "Khuzr" is also given with the same meaning.—ST.]

[FN#400] [In text "Farrij," as if the pl. of "Farrj"=chicken were "Farrij" instead of "Farrj." In modern Egyptian these nouns of relation from irregular plurals to designate tradespeople not only drop the vowel of the penultimate but furthermore, shorten that of the preceding syllable, so that "Farrij" becomes "Fararj." Thus "Sandik," a maker of boxes, becomes "Sanadk," and "Dakhkhin, a seller of tobacco brands," "Dakhakhn." See Spitta Bey's Grammar, p. 118.—ST.]

[FN#401] In the Arab. "Al-Mjr," for "Maajr"=a vessel, an utensil.

[FN#402] In text "shaklaba" here="shakala"=he weighed out (money, whence the Heb. Shekel), he had to do with a woman.

[FN#403] [The trade of the man is not mentioned here, p. 22 of the 5th vol. of the MS., probably through negligence of the copyist, but it only occurs as far lower down as p. 25.—ST.]

[FN#404] A certain reviewer proposes "stained her eyes with Kohl," showing that he had never seen the Kohl-powder used by Asiatics.

[FN#405] ["Bi-M al-faskh 'al Akrs al-Jullah." "M al-Faskh"=water of salt-fish, I would translate by "dirty brine" and "Akrs al-Jullah" by "dung-cakes," meaning the tale should be written with a filthy fluid for ink upon a filthy solid for paper, more expressive than elegant.—ST.]

[FN#406] "Al-Jannti"; or, as the Egyptians would pronounce the word, "Al-Gannt". [Other Egyptian names for gardener are "Janin," pronounced "Ganin," "Bustnj" pronounced "Bustangi," with a Turkish termination to a Persian noun, and "Bakhshawng," for Baghchawnj," where the same termination is pleonastically added to a Persian word, which in Persian and Turkish already means "gardener."—ST.]

[FN#407] A Koranic quotation from "Joseph," chap. xii. 28: Sale has "for verily your cunning is great," said by Potiphar to his wife.

[FN#408] I have inserted this sentence, the tale being absolutely without termination. So in the Mediaeval Lat. translations the MSS. often omit "explicit capitulum (primum). Sequitur capitulum secundum," this explicit being a sine qua non.

[FN#409] In text "Fatairi" = a maker of "Fatirah" = pancake, or rather a kind of pastry rolled very thin, folded over like a napkin, saturated with butter and eaten with sugar or honey poured over it.

[FN#410] In Arab. "Nayizati," afterwards "Nuwayzati," and lastly "Rayhani" (p. 34)=a man who vends sweet and savoury herbs. We have neither the craft nor the article, so I have rendered him by "Herbalist."

[FN#411] In text a "Mihtar"=a prince, a sweeper, a scavenger, the Pers. "Mihtar," still used in Hindostani. [In Quatremere's Histoire des Sultans Mamlouks "Mihtar" occurs also in the sense of superintendent, of head-equerry, and of chief of a military band. See Dozy Supp. s. v.—ST.]

[FN#412] "Ant' aysh" for "man," decidedly not complimentary, "What (thing) art thou?"

[FN#413] Arab. "Kabsh." Amongst the wilder tubes of the East ram's mutton is preferred because it gives the teeth more to do: on the same principle an old cock is the choicest guest-gift in the way of poultry.

[FN#414] "Naubah," lit.=a period, keeping guard, and here a band of pipes and kettledrums playing before the doors of a great man at certain periods.

[FN#415] In text "Al-Mubtali."

[FN#416] Arab. "Hawwalin"; the passage is apparently corrupt. ["Hawalin" is clerical error for either "hawala"=all around, or "Hawali" = surroundings, surrounding parts, and "Audan" is pl. of the popular "Widn" or "Wudn" for the literary "Uzn," ear.—ST.]

[FN#417] The exclamation would be uttered by the scribe or by Shahrazad. I need hardly remind the reader that "Khizr" is the Green Prophet and here the Prophet of greens.

[FN#418] For "Israfil"=Raphael, the Archangel who will blow the last trump, see vol. ii. 287.

[FN#419] Gen. meaning "Look sharp," here syn. with "Allah! Allah!"=I conjure thee by God. Vol. i. 346.

[FN#420] A Persian would say, "I am a Irani but Wallahi indeed I am not lying."

[FN#421] [This sentence of wholesale extermination passed upon womankind, reminds me of the Persian lines which I find quoted in 'Abdu 'l-Jalil's History of the Barmecides:

Agar nek budi Zan u Ray-i-Zan Zan-ra Ma-zan Nam budi, na Zan,

and which I would render Anglice:

If good there were in Woman and her way Her name would signify "Slay not," not "Slay."

"Zan" as noun=woman; as imp. of "zadan"=strike, kill, whose negative is "mazan."—ST.]

[FN#422] In the text the Shaykh, to whom "Aman" was promised, is also gelded, probably by the neglect of the scribe.

[FN#423] This tale is a variant of "The First Constable's History:" Suppl. Nights, vol. ii. 3-11.

[FN#424] In text "Al-Bawwabah"=a place where door-keepers meet, a police-station; in modern tongue "Karakol," for "Karaghol-khanah"=guard-house.

[FN#425] In text 'Kazi al-'Askar"=the great legal authority of a country: vol. vi. 131.

[FN#426] Anglo-Indice "Mucuddum"=overseer, etc., vol. iv. 42.

[FN#427] i.e. is not beyond our reach.

[FN#428] In text "Ya Sultan-am" with the Persian or Turkish suffixed possessional pronoun.

[FN#429] In text "mal," for which see vol. vi. 267. Amongst the Badawin it is also applied to hidden treasure.

[FN#430] I carefully avoid the obnoxious term "intoxication" which properly means "poisoning," and should be left to those amiable enthusiasts the "Teetotallers."

[FN#431] A sign of foul play; the body not having been shrouded and formally buried.

[FN#432] For the title, the office and the date see vol. ix. 289.

[FN#433] The names are=Martha and Mary.

[FN#434] MS. vi. 57-77, not translated by Scott, who entitles it (vi. 461) "Mhassun, the Liberal, and Mouseh, the treacherous Friend." It is a variant of "The Envier and the Envied:" vol. i. 123.

[FN#435] The Arab. "Jarrah": vol. viii. 177.

[FN#436] i.e. One who does good, a benefactor.

[FN#437] In the text "Ms wa Mzi," the latter word==vexatious, troublesome. [I notice that in the MS. the name is distinctly and I believe purposely spelt with Hamzah above the Ww and Kasrah beneath the Sn, reading "Muus." It is, therefore, a travesty of the name Ms, and the exact counterpart of "Muhsin", being the active participle of "asa", 4th form of "sa,"==he did evil, he injured, and nearly equivalent with the following "Muuz." The two names may perhaps be rendered: Muhsin, the Beneficent, and Muus, the Malignant, the Malefactor.—ST.]

[FN#438] In text "Fatr" for "Fatrah"==a pancake, before described.

[FN#439] In text "Bi-khtiri-k"==Thy will be done; the whole dialogue is in pure Fellah speech.

[FN#440] Supposed to be American, but, despite Bartlett, really old English from Lancashire, the land which has supplied many of the so-called "American" neologisms. A gouge is a hollow chisel, a scoop; and to gouge is to poke out the eye: this is done by thrusting the fingers into the side-hair thus acting as a base and by prising out the ball with the thumbnail which is purposely grown long.

[FN#441] [In the text: "Fa tarak-hu Muus am' dir yaltash f 'l-Tark." Latash has the meaning of beating, tapping; I therefore think the passage means: "hereupon Muus left him, blind as he was, tramping and groping his way" (feeling it with his hands or stick). -ST.]

[FN#442] In text "Biiru milynah Moyah." As a rule the Fellah of Egypt says "Mayyeh," the Cairene "Mayya," and the foreigner "Moyah": the old Syrian is "May," the mod. "Moy," and the classical dim. of "M" is "Muwayy," also written"Muwayy" and "Muwayhah."

[FN#443] "Sabt"==Sabbath, Saturday: vol. ii. 305, and passim.

[FN#444] i.e. "By Allah," meaning "Be quick!"

[FN#445] For this well-nigh the sole equivalent amongst the Moslems of our "thank you," see Vol. iv. 6. and v. 171.

[FN#446] In Arab. "Ana 'l-Tabb, al-Mudwi." In pop. parlance, the former is the scientific practitioner and the latter represents the man of the people who deals in simples, etc.

[FN#447] In text "Rkiba-h," the technical term for demoniac insiliation or possession: the idea survives in our "succubi" and "incubi." I look upon these visions often as the effects of pollutio nocturne. A modest woman for instance dreams of being possessed by some man other than her husband; she loves the latter and is faithful to him, and consequently she must explain the phenomena superstitiously and recur to diabolical agency. Of course it is the same with men, only they are at less trouble to excuse themselves.

[FN#448] The construction here, MS. p. 67, is very confused. [The speech of Muhsin seems to be elliptical. In Ar. it runs: "Li-ann iz, lam nukhullis-ha (or nukhlis-h, 2nd or 4th form) taktuln, wa an iz lam tattafik ma' ann iz khallastu-h tu't-h alayya" —which I believe to mean: "for if I do not deliver her, thou wilt kill me; so I (say) unless thou stipulate with me that when I have delivered her thou wilt give her to me in marriage—" supply: "well then I wash my hand of the whole business." The Shaykh acts on the tit for tat principle in a style worthy of the "honest broker" himself.—ST.]

[FN#449] In text "Yaum Sabt" again.

[FN#450] As has been said (vol. ii. 112) this is a sign of agitation. The tale has extended to remote Guernsey. A sorcier named Hilier Mouton discovers by his art that the King's daughter who had long and beautiful tresses was dying because she had swallowed a hair which had twined round her praecordia. The cure was to cut a small square of bacon from just over the heart, and tie it to a silken thread which the Princess must swallow, when the hair would stick to it and come away with a jerk. See (p. 29) "Folk-lore of Guernsey and Sark," by Louise Lane-Clarke, printed by E. Le Lievre, Guernsey, 1880; and I have to thank for it a kind correspondent, Mr. A. Buchanan Brown, of La Couture, p. 53, who informs us why the Guernsey lily is scentless, emblem of the maiden who sent it from fairy-land.

[FN#451] The text says only, "O my father, gift Shaykh Mohsin."

[FN#452] Her especial "shame" would be her head and face: vol. vi. 30, 118.

[FN#453] In northern Africa the "Dr al-Ziyfah" was a kind of caravanserai in which travellers were lodged at government expense. Ibn Khaldn (Fr. Transl. i. 407).

[FN#454 In most of these tales the well is filled in over the intruding "villain" of the piece. Ibn Khaldun (ii. 575) relates a "veritable history" of angels choking up a well; and in Mr. Doughty (ii. 190) a Pasha-governor of Jiddah does the same to a Jinni-possessed pit.

[FN#455] This tale is of a kind not unfrequent amongst Moslems, exalting the character of the wife, whilst the mistress is a mere shadow.

[FN#456] Here written "Jalab" (whence Scott's "Julbee," p. 461) and afterwards (p. 77, etc.) "Shalab": it has already been noticed in vol. i. 22 and elsewhere.

[FN#457] In text "Baltah" for Turk. "Bltah"==an axe, a hatchet. Hence "Baltah-ji" a pioneer, one of the old divisions of the Osmanli troops which survives as a family name amongst the Levantines and semi-European Perotes of Constantinople.

[FN#458] Here the public gaol is in the Head Policeman's house. So in modern times it is part of the Wali or Governor's palace and is included in the Maroccan "Kasbah" or fortalice.

[FN#459] In text "Naakhaz bi-lissati-him;" "Luss" is after a fashion {Greek}; but the Greek word included piracy which was honourable, whenas the Arab. term is mostly applied to larcenists and similar blackguards. [I would read the word in the text "Balsata-hum," until I have received their "ransom."—ST.]

[FN#460] In the text "Tajrs" which I have rendered by a circumlocution. [For the exact meaning of "Tajrs," see Dozy, Suppl.s.v. "jarras," where an interesting passage from "Mas'd" is quoted.—ST.]

[FN#461] In Moslem lands prisoners are still expected to feed themselves, as was the case in England a century ago and is still to be seen not only in Al-Islam, Egypt and Syria, but even in Madeira and at Goa.

[FN#462] In text "Hud Sirru-hu," i.e. his secret sin was guided (by Allah) to the safety of concealment. [A simpler explanation of this passage would perhaps be: "wa had Sirru-hu,"== and his mind was at rest.—ST.]

[FN#463] Arab. "Audj" (plur. of "Wadaj") a word which applies indiscriminately to the carotid arteries and jugular veins. The latter, especially the external pair, carry blood from the face and are subject abnormally to the will: the late lamented Mr. Charley Peace, who murdered and "burgled" once too often, could darken his complexion and even change it by arresting jugular circulation. The much-read Mr. F. Marion Crawford (Saracinesca, chapt. xii.) makes his hero pass a foil through his adversary's throat, "without touching the jugular artery (which does not exist)or the spine." But what about larynx and pharynx? It is to be regretted that realistic writers do not cultivate a little more personal experience. No Englishman says "in guard" for "on guard." "Colpo del Tancredi" is not=="Tancred's lunge" but "the thrust of the (master) Tancredi:" it is quite permissible and to say that it loses half its dangers against a left-handed man is to state what cannot be the fact as long as the heart is more easily reached from the left than from the right flank.

[FN#464] Lit. "Then faring forth and sitting in his own place." I have modified the too succinct text which simply means that he was anxious and agitated.

[FN#465] After this in the text we have only, "End of the Adventure of the Kazi's Daughter. It is related among the many wiles of women that there was a Fellah-man, etc." I have supplied the missing link.

[FN#466] On the margin of the W. M. MS. (vi. 92) J. Scott has written: "This story bears a faint resemblance to one in the Bahardanush." He alludes to the tale I have already quoted. I would draw attention to "The Fellah and his Wicked Wife," as it is a characteristic Fellah-story showing what takes place too often in the villages of Modern Egypt which the superficial traveller looks upon as the homes of peace and quiet. The text is somewhat difficult for technicalities and two of the pages are written with a badly nibbed reed-pen which draws the lines double.

[FN#467] The "Faddan" (here miswritten "Faddad") = a plough, a yoke of oxen, a "carucate," which two oxen can work in a single season. It is also the common land-measure of Egypt and Syria reduced from acre 1.1 to less than one acre. It is divided into twenty-four Kirats (carats) and consists or consisted of 333 Kasabah (rods), each of these being 22-24 Kabzahs (fists with the thumb erect about = 6 1/2 inches). In old Algiers the Faddan was called "Zuijah" (= a pair, i.e. of oxen) according to Ibn Khaldun i. 404.

[FN#468] In text "Masbubah."

[FN#469] Arab. "Dashish," which the Dicts. make=wheat-broth to be sipped. ["Dashish" is a popular corruption of the classical "Jashish" = coarsely ground wheat (sometimes beans), also called "Sawik," and "Dashishah" is the broth made of it.-ST.]

[FN#470] In text "Ahmar" = red, ruddy-brown, dark brown.

[FN#471] In text "Kas'at (=a wooden platter, bowl) afrukah." [The "Mafrukah," an improvement upon the Fatirah, is a favourite dish with the Badawi, of which Dozy quotes lengthy descriptions from Vansleb and Thevenot. The latter is particularly graphical, and after enumerating all the ingredients says finally: "ils en font une grosse pate dont ils prennent de gros morceaux.—ST.]

[FN#472] The Fellah will use in fighting anything in preference to his fists and a stone tied up in a kerchief or a rag makes no mean weapon for head-breaking.

[FN#473] The cries of an itinerant pedlar hawking about woman's wares. See Lane (M. E.) chapt. xiv. "Flfl'a" (a scribal error?) may be "Filfil"=pepper or palm-fibre. "Tutty," in low- Lat. "Tutia," probably from the Pers. "Tutiyah," is protoxide of zinc, found native in Iranian lands, and much used as an eye-wash.

[FN#474] In text "Samm Sa'ah."

[FN#475] "Laban halib," a trivial form="sweet milk;" "Laban" being the popular word for milk artificially soured. See vols. vi. 201; vii. 360.

[FN#476] In text "Nisf ra'as Sukkar Misri." "Sukkar" (from Pers. "Shakkar," whence the Lat. Saccharum) is the generic term, and Egypt preserved the fashion of making loaf-sugar (Raas Sukkar) from ancient times. "Misri" here=local name, but in India it is applied exclusively to sugar-candy, which with Gur (Molasses) was the only form used throughout the country some 40 years ago. Strict Moslems avoid Europe-made white sugar because they are told that it is refined with bullock's blood, and is therefore unlawful to Jews and the True Believers.

[FN#477] Lit. "that the sugar was poison."

[FN#478] In text "Kata'a Judur-ha" (for "hu"). [I refer the pronoun in "Judur-ha" to "Rakabah," taking the "roots of the neck" to mean the spine.-ST.]

[FN#479] In text "Fahata" for "Fahasa" (?) or perhaps a clerical error for "Fataha"=he opened (the ground). ["Fahata," probably a vulgarisation of "fahatha" (fahasa)=to investigate, is given by Bocthor with the meaning of digging, excavating. Nevertheless I almost incline to the reading "fataha," which, however, I would pronounce with Tashdid over the second radical, and translate: "he recited a 'Fatihah' for them," the usual prayer over the dead before interment. The dative "la-hum," generally employed with verbs of prayer, seems to favour this interpretation. It is true I never met with the word in this meaning, but it would be quite in keeping with the spirit of the language, and in close analogy with such expressions as "kabbara," he said "Allabu akbar," "Hallala," he pronounced the formula of unity, and a host of others. Here it would, in my opinion, wind up the tale with a neat touch of peasant's single-mindedness and loyal adherence to the injunctions of religion even under provoking circumstances.- -ST.]

[FN#480] In the MS. we have only "Ending. And it is also told," etc. I again supply the connection.

[FN#481] Scott does not translate this tale, but he has written on the margin (MS. vi. 101), "A story which bears a strong resemblance to that I have read (when a boy) of the Parson's maid giving the roasted goose to her Lover and frightening away the guests, lest he should geld them."

[FN#482] In text "Zakarayn Wizz (ganders) siman"; but afterwards "Wizzatayn"=geese.

[FN#483] These dried fruits to which pistachios are often added, form the favourite "filling" of lamb and other meats prepared in "pulao" (pilaff).

[FN#484] "Anta jaib(un) bas rajul (an) wahid (an)"—veritable and characteristic peasant's jargon.

[FN#485] i.e., it is a time when men should cry for thy case. "La Haula"=there is no Majesty, etc. An ejaculation of displeasure, disappointments, despair.

[FN#486] In text "Mahashima-k"=good works, merits; in a secondary sense beard and mustachios. The word yard (etymologically a rod) is medical English, and the young student is often surprised to see, when a patient is told to show his yard, a mere inchlet of shrunken skin. ["Mahashim," according to Bocthor, is a plural without singular, meaning: les parties de la generation. Pedro de Alcala gives "Hashshum," pl. "Hashashim," for the female parts, and both words are derived from the verb "hasham, yahshim," he put to shame.—ST.]

[FN#487] Characteristic words of abuse, "O thou whose fate is always to fail, O thou whose lot is ever subject to the accidents of Fortune!"

[FN#488] Arab. "Bayzah"=an egg, a testicle. See "Bayza'ani," vol. ii. 55.

[FN#489] Here the text ends with the tag, "Concluded is the story of the Woman with her Husband and her Lover. It is related of a man which was a Kazi," etc. I have supplied what the writer should have given.

[FN#490] The "Mahkamah" (Place of Judgment), or Kazi's Court, at Cairo is mostly occupied with matrimonial disputes, and is fatally famous for extreme laxness in the matter of bribery and corruption. During these days it is even worse than when Lane described it. M.E. chapt. iv.

[FN#491] The first idea of an Eastern would be to appeal from the Kazi to the Kazi's wife, bribing her if he failed to corrupt the husband; and he would be wise in his generation as the process is seldom known to fail.

[FN#492] In Arab. "Sitta-ha": the Mauritanians prefer "Sidah," and the Arabian Arabs Kabirah"=the first lady, Madame Mere.

[FN#493] In text "Ahu 'inda-k,"—pure Fellah speech.

[FN#494] In text here and below "Maghbun" usually=deceived, cajoled.

[FN#495] He began to fear sorcery, Satan, etc. "Muslimina" is here the reg. Arab. plur. of "Muslim"=a True Believer. "Musulman" (our "Mussalman" too often made plur. by "Mussalmen") is corrupted Arab. used in Persia, Turkey and India by the best writers as Sa'adi; the plur. is "Musulmanan" and the Hind. fem. is Musalmani. Francois Pyrard, before alluded to, writes (i. 261) "Mouselliman, that is, the faithful."

[FN#496] In the text "help ye the Moslems."

[FN#497] Again the old, old story of the "Acrisian maid," and a prose variant of "Yusuf and Al-Hayfa" for which see supra p. 93. I must note the difference of treatment and may observe that the style is rough and the incidents are unfinished, but it has the stuff of an excellent tale.

[FN#498] In text "Min ghayr Wa'ad" = without appointment, sans prmditation, a phrase before noticed.

[FN#499] In text, "Al-Mukawwamna wa Arbbu 'l-Aklam," the latter usually meaning "Scribes skilled in the arts of caligraphy."

[FN#500] In text "Zarb al-Fl" = casting lots for presage, see v. 136.

[FN#501] "The Mount of Clouds."

[FN#502] In the margin is written "Kbb," possibly "Kubb" for "Kubbah" = a vault, a cupola. [I take "Kubba" for the passive of the verb "Kabba" = he cut, and read "Fajwatun" for "Fajwatan" = "and in that cave there is a spot in whose innermost part from the inside a crevice is cut which," etc.—ST.]

[FN#503] "Zarb al-Aklm," before explained: in a few pages we shall come upon "San'at al-Aklm.

[FN#504] A pun upon the name of the Mountain.

[FN#505] In text "Wa kulli Trik" = Night-traveller, magician, morning-star.

[FN#506] i.e. In Holy Writ—the Koran and the Ahds.

[FN#507] "Walad al-Hayh" for "Hayt" i.e. let him be long-lived.

[FN#508] This and other incidents appear only at the latter end of the tale, MS. p. 221.

[FN#509] i.e. "Father of a Pigeon," i.e. surpassing in swiftness the carrier-pigeon.

[FN#510] "Bi-sab'a Sikak" = lit. "with seven nails;" in the MS. vol. vi. p. 133, 1. 2, and p. 160, 1. 4, we have "four Sikak," and the word seems to mean posts or uprights whereto the chains were attached. ["Sakk," pl. "Sikk" and "Sukk," is nail, and "Sikkah," pl. "Sikak," has amongst many other meanings that of "an iron post or stake" (Bocthor: piquet de fer).—ST.]

[FN#511] In text "Al-Lijm w' al-Blm" = the latter being a "Tbi'" or dependent word used only for jingle. [The Muht explains "Bilm" by "Kimm at-Thaur" = muzzle of a bull, and Bocthor gives as equivalent for it the French "cavecon" (English "cavesson" nose-band for breaking horses in). Here, I suppose, it means the headstall of the bridle.—ST.]