The Nine Hundred and Seventeenth Night,

Dunyazad said to her, "Allah upon thee, O my sister, an thou be other than sleepy, finish for us thy tale that we may cut short the watching of this our latter night!" She replied, "With love and good will!" It hath reached me, O auspicious King, the director, the right-guiding, lord of the rede which is benefiting and of deeds fair-seeming and worthy celebrating, that the two sons foregathered in converse while the mother was listening and anon quoth the elder to the younger, "Allah upon thee, O Wazir of the Left, do thou relate to me whatso befel and betided thee in thy time and what was the true cause of thy coming to this city; nor conceal from me aught." "By Allah, O Wazir of the Right," quoth the other, "my tale is wondrous and mine adventure marvelous and were it paged upon paper the folk would talk thereanent race after race."[FN#626] "And what may that be?" asked he, and the other answered, "'Tis this. My sire was son to a mighty merchant who had of moneys and goods and estates and such like what pens may not compute and which intelligence may not comprehend. Now this my grandsire was a man whose word was law and every day he held a Divan wherein the traders craved his counsel about taking and giving and selling and buying; and this endured until what while a sickness attacked him and he sensed his end drawing near. So he summoned his son and charged him and insisted thereon as his last will and testament that he never and by no means make oath in the name of Allah or truly or falsely." Now the younger brother had not ended his adventure before the elder Wazir threw himself upon him and flinging his arms around his neck cried, "Wallahi, thou art my brother by father and mother!" and when the woman heard these words of the twain her wits wandered for joy, but she kept the matter hidden until morning. The two Wazirs rejoiced in having found each of them a long-lost brother and slumber fled their eyes until dawned the day when the woman sent for the Captain and as soon as he appeared said to him, "Thou broughtest two men to protect me but they caused me only trouble and travail." The man hearing these words repaired forthright and reported them to the Sovran who waxed madly wroth and bade summon his two Ministers and when they stood between his hands asked them, "What was't ye did in the ship?" They answered, "By Allah, O King, there befel us naught but every weal;" and each said, "I recognized this my brother for indeed hi is the son of the same parents," whereat the Sovran wondered and quoth he, "Laud to the Lord, indeed these two Wazirs must have a strange story." So he made them repeat whatso they had said in the ship and they related to him their adventure from the beginning to end. Hereupon the King cried, "By Allah, ye be certainly my sons," when lo and behold! the woman came forwards and repeated to him all that the Wazirs had related whereby it was certified that she was the King's lost wife and their lost mother.[FN#627] Hereupon they conducted her to the Harem and all sat down to banquet and they led ever after the most joyous of lives. All this the King related to the Judge and finally said, "O our lord the Kazi, such-and-such and so-and-so befel until Allah deigned re-unite me with my children and my wife.



End of Volume XV.



Appendix I.



CATALOGUE OF WORTLEY MONTAGUE MANUSCRIPT CONTENTS.



I here proceed to offer a list of the tales in the Wortley Montague MS. (Nos. 550-556), beginning with



VOL. I.,



which contains 472 pages=92 Nights. It is rudely written, with great carelessness and frequent corrections, and there is a noted improvement in the subsequent vols. which Scott would attribute to another transcriber. This, however, I doubt: in vol. i. the scribe does not seem to have settled down to his work. The MS. begins abruptly and without caligraphic decoration; nor is there any red ink in vol. i. except for the terminal three words. The topothesia is in the land of Sasan, in the Isles of Al-Hind and Al-Sind; the elder King being called "Baz" and "Shar-baz" and the younger "Kahraman" (p. l, 11. 5-6), and in the same page (1. 10) "Saharban, King of Samarkand"; while the Wazir's daughters are "Shahrzadah" and "Dunyazadah" (p. 8). The Introduction is like that of the Mac. Edit. (my text); but the dialogue between the Wazir and his Daughter is shortened, and the "Tale of the Merchant and his Wife," including "The Bull and the Ass," is omitted. Of novelties we find few. When speaking of the Queen and Mas'ud the Negro (called Sa'id in my text, p. 6) the author remarks:—

Take no black to lover; pure musk tho' he be * Carrion-taint shall pierce to the nose of thee.

And in the "Tale of the Trader and the Jinni " (MS. 1, 9: see my transl. 1, 25) the 'Ifrit complains that the Merchant had thrown the date-stones without exclaiming "Dastur!"—by thy leave.

The following is a list of the Tales in vol. i.:—

PAGE

Introductory Chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1-9 Tale of the Trader and the Jinni, Night i.-ii. . . . . . . . . .9 The First Shaykh's Story, Night ii. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 The Second Shaykh's Story, Night ii. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 The Third Shaykh's Story, Night iv.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Scott, following "Oriental Collections," ii. 34, supposes that the latter was omitted by M. Galland "on account of its indecency, it being a very free detail of the amours of an unfaithful wife." The true cause was that it did not exist in Galland's Copy of The Nights (Zotenberg, Histoire d' 'Ala al-Din, p. 37). Scott adds, "In this copy the Genie restores the Antelope, the Dogs and the Mule to their pristine forms, which is not mentioned by Galland, on their swearing to lead virtuous lives."

PAGE Conclusion of the Trader and the Jinni, Night v. . . . . . . . 43 The Fisherman and the Jinni, including the Tales of the Sage Duban and the ensorcelled Prince and omitting the Stories (1) of King Sindibad and his Falcon (2) the Husband and the Parrot and (3) the Prince and the Ogress.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad, Night v. . . . . .100 The First Kalandar's Tale, Night xxxix.. . . . . . . . . . . .144 The Second Kalandar's Tale, Night xlviii.. . . . . . . . . . .152

(The beginning of this Tale is wanting in the MS. which omits p. 151: also The Envier and the Envied, admitted into the list of Hikayat, is here absent.)

The Third Kalandar's Tale, Night lv. . . . . . . . . . . . . .173 The Eldest Lady's Tale. Night lxvi.. . . . . . . . . . . . . .231 Tale of the Portress. Conclusion of the Story of the Porter and Three Ladies of Baghdad, Night lxii. (a clerical mistake for lxx.?). . . . . . . .260

(In Galland follow the Voyages of Sindbad the Seaman which are not found in this copy.)

The Tailor and the Hunchback, Night lxviii. (for lxxiv.?). . .295 The Nazarene Broker's Story, Night lxviii. (for lxxiv.?) . . .308 The Youth whose hand was cut off, Night (?)[FN#628]. . . . . .312

(In p. 314 is a hiatus not accounting for the loss of hand.)

The Barber's Tale of his First Brother . . . . . . . . . . . .314 The Barber's Tale of his Second Brother. . . . . . . . . . . .317 The Barber's Tale of his Third Brother . . . . . . . . . . .323 The Barber's Tale of his Fourth Brother. . . . . . . . . . . .327 The Barber's Tale of his Fifth Brother . . . . . . . . . . . .331 The Barber's Tale of his Sixth Brother . . . . . . . . . . . .343 The end of the Tale of the Hunchback, the Barber and others, Night lxviii.(?) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .350

(Here Ends My Vol. I.)

Nur al-Din Ali and the Damsel Anis al-Jalis, Night lxviii. . .355 Sayf al-Muluk and Badi'a al-Jamal, Night xci.[FN#629]. . . . .401 Tale of the Youth of Mosul whose hand was cut off, Night xcii466-472

(The Tale of the Jewish Doctor in my vol. i. 288-300.)

Vol. i. ends with a page of scrawls, the work of some by-gone owner.



VOL. II.



Contains 316 pages, and includes end of Night xcii. to Night clxvi. The MS. is somewhat better written; the headings are in red ink and the verses are duly divided. The whole volume is taken up by the Tale of Kamar al-Zaman (1st), with the episodes of Al-Amjad and Al-As'ad, but lacking that of Ni'amah and Naomi. In Galland Kamar al-Zaman begins with Night ccxi.: in my translation with vol. iii. 212 and concludes in vol. iv. 29. This 2nd vol. (called in colophon the 4th Juz) ends with the date 20th Sha'aban, A.H. 1177.



VOL. III.



Contains 456 pages, extending from Night cccvi. (instead of Night clxvii.) to cdxxv. and thus leaving an initial hiatus of 140 Nights (cxvi.-cccvi. C. de Perceval, vol. viii. p. 14). Thus the third of the original eight volumes is lost. On this subject Dr. White wrote to Scott, "One or two bundles of Arabic manuscript, of the same size and handwriting as the second volume of the Arabian Tales, were purchased at the sale by an agent for Mr. Beckford of Fonthill, and I have no doubt whatever but that the part deficient in your copy is to be found in his possession." If such be the case, and everything seems to prove it, this volume was not No. iii. but No. iv. The MS. begins abruptly with the continuation of the tale. There is no list of contents, and at the end are two unimportant "copies of verses" addressed to the reader, five couplets rhyming in imu (e.g. ta'dimu) and two in—af (e.g. Salaf).

The following is a list of the contents:—

PAGE Part of the Tale of Hasan of Bassorah, Nights cccvi.-cccxxix 1-81 Story of the Sultan of Al-Yaman[FN#630] and his Sons, told to Al-Rashid by Hasan of Bassorah, Nights cccxxix.-cccxxxiv. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Story of the Three Sharpers,[FN#631] Nights cccxxxiv.-cccxlii. 96 The Sultan who fared forth in the habit of a Darwaysh, Night cccxlii. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121 History of Mohammed, Sultan of Cairo, Night cccxliii.-cccxlviii124 Story of the First Lunatic,[FN#632] Night cccxlviii.-ccclv . .141 Story of the Second Lunatic, Night ccclv.-ccclvii. . . . . . .168 Story of the Sage and his Scholar, Night ccclvii.-ccclxii. . .179 Night-Adventure of Sultan Mohammed of Cairo with three foolish Schoolmasters, Night ccclxii . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .204 Tale of the Mother and her Three Daughters, Night ccclxii. . .206 Story of the broke-back Schoolmaster, Night ccclxiii . . . . .211 Story of the Split-mouthed Schoolmaster, Night ccclxiii. . . .214 Story of the limping Schoolmaster, Night ccclxiv.-ccclxv . . 219 Story of the three Sisters and their Mother the Sultanah, Night ccclxvi.-ccclxxxvi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .231 History of the Kazi who bare a babe, Night ccclxxxvi.-cccxcii.322 Tale of the Kazi and the Bhang-eater, Night cccxciii.-cdiii. .344 History of the Bhang-eater and his wife, Night cccxciii.-cdiii348 How Drummer Abu Kasim became a Kazi, Night cdiii.-cdxii. . . .372 Story of the Kazi and his Slipper (including the Tale of the Bhang-eater who became the Just Wazir and who decided two difficult cases), Night cdxii.-cdxiii. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .424 Tale of Mahmud the Persian and the Kurd Sharper, Night cdiii.-cdxvi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .428 Tale of the Sultan and the poor man who brought to him fruit, including the Fruit-seller's[FN#633] Tale, Night cdxvi.-cdxxv. . . . .432 Story of the King of Al-Yaman and his Three Sons and the Enchanting Bird, which ends this volume, Night cdxvii-cdxxvi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .437



VOL. IV.



PAGE Contains 456 pages, and ranges between Nights cdxxvi. and dxcvi.

Continuation of the Story of the King of Al-Yaman[FN#634] and his Three Sons and the Enchanting Bird, Night cdxxvi.-cdxxxix . . . . . . . . 1-34

SCOTT prefers "The Sultan of the East," etc.

History of the First Larrikin, Night cdxxxix-cdxliv. . . . . . 34

SCOTT: "The first Sharper in the Cave," p. 185.

History of the Second Larrikin, Night cdxliii.-cdxlv . . . . . 46 History of the Third Larrikin, Night cdxlv.-cdxlvi . . . . . . 53 Story of a Sultan of Hind and his Son Mohammed, Night cdxlvi.-cdlviii. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

SCOTT: "The Sultan of Hind."

Tale of a Fisherman and his Son, Night cdlix.-cdlxix . . . . . 83 Tale of the Third Larrikin concerning himself, Night cdlxix.-cdlxxii. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .107

SCOTT: "The Unfortunate Lovers."

History of Abu Niyyah and Abu Niyyatayn, Night cdlxxii.-cdlxxxiii . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .113

SCOTT: "Abou Neeut, the well-intentioned Sultan of Moussul, and Ab ou Neeutteen, the double-minded."

The Courtier's Story, or Tale of the Nadim to the Emir of Cairo, Night cdlxxxiii.-cdxci . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .140

SCOTT: "Story related to an Ameer of Egypt by a Courtier," p. 229.

Another relation of the Courtier, Night cdcxi. . . . . . . . .157

(Here Iblis took the place of a musician.)

The Shaykh with Beard shorn by the Shaytan, Night cdxcii . . .162 History of the King's Son of Sind and the Lady Fatimah, Night cdxci.-di. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .165

SCOTT: "The Sultan of Sind and Fatimah, daughter of Ummir[FN#635] ('Amir) Ibn Naomann (Nu'uman)."

History of the Lovers of Syria, Night di.-dx . . . . . . . . .189

SCOTT: "The Lovers of Syria."

History of Al-Hajjaj bin Yusuf and the Young Sayyid, Night dx-dxx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .213

SCOTT: "The Young Sayd and Hijauje."

Uns al-Wujud and the Wazir's Daughter Rose-in-hood, Night dxxi.-dxli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .240

SCOTT: "Ins al-Wujood and Wird al-Ikmaum, daughter of Ibrahim, Vizier of Sultan Shamikh."

Story of the Sultan's Son and Daughter of the Wazir, Night dxli.-dxlv . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .293 Tale of Sultan Kayyish, Night dxlv.-dlvii. . . . . . . . . . .312

(A romance of chivalry and impossible contests of ten knights against 15,000 men.)

The Young Lady transformed into a Gazelle by her Step-mother, Night dlviii.-dlxiii . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .345 The History of Mazin, Night dlxviii-dxcv. (omitted, because it is the same as "Hasan of Bassorah and the King's Daughter of the Jinn," vol. viii. 7); to the end of vol. iv . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .456



VOL. V.



PAGE Contains 465 pages from the beginning of Night dxcvi. to dccxlvi.

Continuation and end of the History of Mazin, Night dxcvi-dcxxiv1-94 Night adventure of Harun al-Rashid, Night dcxxxxv.-dcl . . . . 95

SCOTT: "Adventure of Haroon al-Rusheed, vol. vi. 343 (including Story related to Haroon al-Rusheed) by Ibn Munsoor of Damascus, of his adventures at Bussorah; the Story related to Haroon al-Rusheed by Munjaub (Manjab) and Haroon's conduct on hearing the story of Munjaub."

Tale of the Barber and his Son (told by Manjab), Night dlxi.-dcli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .180

SCOTT: "Story of the Sultan, the Dervishe and the Barber's Son."

The Badawi Woman and her Lover, Night dclv.-dclvi. . . . . . .196 Story of the Wife and her two Gallants, Night dclvi.-dclx. . .199 Tale of Princess Al-Hayfa and Prince Yusuf, Night dclx.-dccx .210

SCOTT: "Story of Aleefah, daughter of Mherejaun, Sultan of Hind, and Eusuff, Prince of Sind, related to Haroun al-Rusheed by the celebrated reciter of Tales, Ibn Malook Aleed Iowaudee," p. 352.

Adventures of the Three Princes of China, Night dccx.-dccxvii.362

SCOTT: "Adventures of the Three Princes, sons of the Sultan of China."

History of the first Brave, Night dccxvii.-dccxxii . . . . . .385

SCOTT: "The Military Braggadocio;" OUSELEY, "Tier Gallant Officer" and the Lat. list "Miles Gloriosus."

History of another Brave, Night dccxxii.-dccxxiii. . . . . . .395 The Merry Adventures of a Simpleton,[FN#636] Night dccxxiii.-dccxxvi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .400

SCOTT: "The Idiot and his Asses."

The Goodwife of Cairo and the three Rakehells, Night dccxxvi.-dccxxviii . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .409 Story of the righteous Wazir wrongfully gaoled, Night dccxxviii.-dccxxxviii. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .416 Tale of the Barber, the Captain and the Cairene Youth, Night dccxxxiii.-dcxxxvii. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .430

(In the Lat. list we find "Tonsor et Juvenis Cahirensis.")

Story of the Goodwife of Cairo and her Gallants, Night dccxxxviii.-dccxliii . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .444

SCOTT: "The virtuous Woman of Cairo and her Suitors," p. 380.

The Kazi's Tale of the Tailor, the Lady and the Captain,[FN#637] Night dccxlii.-dccxlvi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .455

SCOTT: "The Cauzee's Story," p. 386. Story of the Syrian and the Three Women of Cairo, Night dccxlvi-and to end of vol. v . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .465



VOL. VI.



PAGE Contains 365 pages, from Night dccxlvi. to Night dccclxxiii.

The following is a list of the contents:—

Continuation of the Story of the Syrian, Night dccxlvi.-dccxlix1-9 Tale of the Kaim-makam's Lady and her two Coyntes, Night dccxlix.-dcclii. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 Tale of the whorish Wife who vaunted her virtues, Night dcclii.-dcclv. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Coelebs the Droll[FN#638] and his Wife and her four lovers, Night dcclv.-dcclx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

SCOTT: "The Deformed Jester."

The Gate-keeper of Cairo and the wily She-Thief, Night dcclix.-dcclxv . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

SCOTT: "The aged Watchman of Cairo and the artful female thief."

Tale of Mohsin and Musa, Night dcclxv.-dcclxxii. . . . . . . . 57

SCOTT: "Mhassun the liberal and Mousseh the treacherous Friend."

Mohammed Shalabi[FN#639] and his Wife and the Kazi's Daughter, Night dcclxxii.-dcclxxvii. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

SCOTT: "Mahummud Julbee," etc.

The Fellah and his wicked Wife, Night dcclxxvii.-dcclxxx . . . 92 The Woman who humoured her Lover at her Husband's expense, Night dcclxxx.-dcclxxxi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .102

SCOTT: "The Adulteress."

The Kazi Schooled by his Wife, Night dcclxxxi.-dcclxxxv. . . .106 The Merchant's Daughter and the Prince of Al-Irak, Night dccclxv.-dcccxxiv. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .118

SCOTT: "Story of the Merchant, his Daughter, and the Prince of Eerauk," p. 391. In the text we find 'Irak for Al-Irak.

The Story of Ahmad and Ali who cuckolded their Masters, Night dcccxxiv.-dcccxxix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .225

SCOTT: "The Two Orphans."

The Fellah and his fair Wife, Night dcccxxix.-dcccxxx. . . . .241 The Youth who would futter his Father's Wives, Night dcccxxx.-dcccxxxviii . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .247

SCOTT: "The Vicious Son, translating the Arab. Al-Ibn al-Fidawi."

The two Lack-tacts of Cairo and Damascus, including the short 'Tale of the Egyptian, the Syrian and the Ass," Night dcccxxxviii.-dcccxl. . . . . .261

SCOTT: "The two wits of Cairo and Sind."

The Tale of Musa and Ibrahim, including Anecdotes of the Berberines, Night dcccxl.-dcccxliii. . . . . . . . . . . . . .271 The Brother Wazirs, Ahmad and Mohammed, Night dcccxiv.-dccclxxiii . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .280 And to end of vol. vi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .365



VOL. VII.



Contains 447 pages, from Night dccclxxiii.-mi.

The following is a list of the contents:—

PAGE Conclusion of the Brother Wazirs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-69 Story of the thieving Youth and his Step-mother, Night dcccxcvii.-cm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 The Kazi of Baghdad and his virtuous Wife, Night cm.-cmxi. . . 77 History of the Sultan who protected the Kazi's Wife, Night cmxi.-cmxvii . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .109 The Sultan of Al-'Irak, Zunnar ibn Zunnar, Night cmxvii.-cmxxi126 Ardashir, Prince of Persia, and the Princess Hayat al-Nufus, daughter of Sultan Kadir, Night cmxxi.-cmlxviii . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .139 Story of Shaykh Nakkit the Fisherman, Night cmlxviii.-cmlxxviii297 The Sultan of Andalusia, and the Prince of Al-'Irak who deflowered the Wazir's daughter; a prose replica of Al-Hayfa and Yusuf. MS. vol. v. 210. Night cmlxxviii.-cmlxxxviii. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .329 Tale of Sultan Taylun and the generous Fellah, Night cmlxxxviii365 The retired Sage and his Servant-lad, Night cmxcviii . . . . .414 The Merchant's Daughter who married an Emperor of China, Night cmxcviii.-mi., ending the work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .430-447

This MS. terminates The Nights with the last tale and has no especial conclusion relating the marriage of the two brother Kings with the two sisters.



Appendix II.



I.—NOTES ON THE STORIES CONTAINED IN VOLUME XIV.[FN#640]

By W. F. Kirby.



Story of the Sultan of Al-yaman and His Three Sons.



P. 5.—The hippopotamus has also been observed, at the Zoological Gardens, to scatter his dung in the manner described.

P. 7.—It is evident from the importance which the author attaches to good birth and heredity, that he would hardly approve of the Socialistic custom, so prevalent in the East, of raising men of low birth to important offices of State.



The Story of the Three Sharpers (pp. 10-23).



P. 10.—In quoting the titles of this and other tales of the Wortley Montague MS., in which the word Ja'idi frequently occurs, Scott often wrote "labourer" or "artisan" instead of "sharper." The term "sharper" is hardly applicable here, for the fellows appear really to have possessed the knowledge to which they laid claim. The "sharpers" in this story differ much from such impostors as the Illiterate Schoolmaster (No. 93, vol. v. pp. 119-121), who escapes from his dilemma by his ready wit, or from European pretenders of the type of Grimm's Dr. Knowall, who escapes from his difficulties by mere accident; or again from our old friend Ma'aruf (No. 169), whose impudent pretensions and impostures are aided by astounding good luck.

P. 13.—This test was similar to that given to Ma'aruf (vol. x. pp. 16,17), but there is nothing in the latter passage to show whether Ma'aruf had any real knowledge of gems, or not. In the present story, the incident of the worm recalls the well-known incident of Solomon ordering worms to pierce gems for Bilkees, the Queen of Sheba.

P. 13.—English schoolboys sometimes play the "trussing game." Two boys have their wrists and ankles tied together, and their arms are passed over their knees, and a stick thrust over the arms and under the knees, and they are then placed opposite each other on the ground, and endeavour to turn each other over with their toes.

P. 15 note.—Can the word Kashmar be a corruption of Kashmiri?



History of Mohammed, Sultan of Cairo (pp. 25-35).



P. 25.—A few years ago, a travelling menagerie exhibited a pair of dog-faced baboons in Dublin as "two monstrous gorillas!"

P. 28.—Ma'aruf's jewel has been already referred to. The present incident more resembles the demand made by the king and the wazir from Aladdin and his mother, though that was far more extravagant.

P. 29.—A more terrible form of these wedding disillusions, is when the bridegroom is entrapped into marriage by an evil magician, and wakes in the morning to find the phantom of a murdered body in the place of his phantom bride, and to be immediately charged with the crime. Compare the story of Naerdan and Guzulbec (Caylus' Oriental Tales; Weber, ii. pp. 632-637) and that of Monia Emin (Gibb's Story of Jewad, pp. 36, 75). Compare my Appendix, Nights, x. pp. 443, 449, 450.

P. 31.—There is a Western story (one of the latest versions of which may be found in Moore's Juvenile Poems under the title of "The Ring") in which a bridegroom on his wedding-day places the ring by accident on the finger of a statue of Venus; the finger closes on it, and Venus afterwards interposes continually between him and his bride, claiming him as her husband on the strength of the ring. The unfortunate husband applies to a magician, who sends him by night to a meeting of cross-roads, where a procession similar to that described in the text passes by. He presents the magician's letters to the King (the devil in the mediaeval versions of the story) who requires Venus to surrender the ring, and with it her claim to the husband.

One of the most curious stories of these royal processions is perhaps the Lithuanian (or rather Samoghitian) story of

The King of the Rats.[FN#641]

Once upon a time a rich farmer lived in a village near Korzian, who was in the habit of going into the wood late in the evening. One evening he went back again into the wood very late, when he distinctly heard the name Zurkielis shouted. He followed the voice, but could not discover from whence the sound proceeded.

On the next evening the farmer went into the wood, and did not wait long before he heard the cry repeated, but this time much louder and more distinctly. On the third evening the farmer went again to the wood; but this time on Valpurgis-night—the Witch's Sabbath. Suddenly he saw a light appear in the distance; then more lights shone out, and the light grew stronger and stronger; and presently the farmer saw a strange procession advancing, and passing by him. In front of the procession ran a great number of mice of all sorts, each of whom carried a jewel in his mouth which shone brighter than the sun. After these came a golden chariot, drawn by a lion, a bear, and two wolves. The chariot shone like fire, and, instead of nails, it was studded with dazzling jewels. In the chariot sat the King of the Rats and his consort, both clad in golden raiment. The King of the Rats wore a golden crown on his head, and his consort marshalled the procession. After the chariot followed a vast procession of rats, each of whom carried a torch, and the sparks which flew from the torches fell to the earth as jewels. Some of the rats were shouting "Zurkielis" incessantly; and whenever a rat uttered this cry, a piece of gold fell from his mouth. The procession was followed by a great number of fantastic forms, which collected the gold from the ground, and put it into large sacks. When the farmer saw this he also gathered together as much of the gold and jewels as he could reach. Presently a cock crew, and everything vanished. The farmer returned to his house, but the gold and jewels gave him a very tangible proof that the adventure had not been a dream.

A year passed by, and on the next Valpurgis-night the farmer went back to the wood, and everything happened as on the year before. The farmer became immensely rich from the gold and jewels which he collected; and on the third anniversary of the Valpurgis-night he did not go to the wood, but remained quietly at home. He was quite rich enough, and he was afraid that some harm might happen to him in the wood. But on the following morning a rat appeared, and addressed him as follows: "You took the gold and jewels, but this year you did not think it needful to pay our king and his consort the honour due to them by appearing before them during the procession in the wood; and henceforward it will go ill with you."

Having thus spoken, the rat disappeared; but shortly afterwards such a host of rats took up their abode in the farmer's house that it was impossible for him to defend himself against them. The rats gnawed everything in the house, and whatever was brought into it. In time the farmer was reduced to beggary, and died in wretchedness.



Story of the Second Lunatic (pp. 49-55).



This is a variant of "Woman's Craft" (No. 184 of our Table), or "Woman's Wiles," (Supp. Nights, ii. pp. 99-107). Mr. L. C. Smithers tells me that an English version of this story, based upon Langles' translation (Cf. Nights, x. App., p. 440, sub "Sindbad the Sailor"), appeared in the Literary Souvenir for 1831, under the title of "Woman's Wit."

Pp. 51-56.—Concerning the Shikk and the Nesnas, Lane writes (1001 Nights, i., Introd. note 21): "The Shikk is another demoniacal creature, having the form of half a human being (like a man divided longitudinally); and it is believed that the Nesnas is the offspring of a Shikk and of a human being. The Shikk appears to travellers; and it was a demon of this kind who killed, and was killed by, 'Alkamah, the son of Safwan, the son of Umeiyeh, of whom it is well known that he was killed by a Jinnee. So says El-Kazweenee.

"The Nesnas (above-mentioned) is described as resembling half a human being, having half a head, half a body, one arm, and one leg, with which it hops with much agility; as being found in the woods of El-Yemen, and being endowed with speech; 'but God,' it is added, 'is all-knowing.' (El-Kazweenee in the khatimeh of his work.) It is said that it is found in Hadramot as well as El-Yemen; and that one was brought alive to El-Mutawekkil; it resembled a man in form, excepting that it had but half a face, which was in its breast, and a tail like that of a sheep. The people of Hadramot, it is added, eat it; and its flesh is sweet. It is only generated in their country. A man who went there asserted that he saw a captured Nesnas, which cried out for mercy, conjuring him by God and by himself. (Mi-rat ez-Zeman.) A race of people whose head is in the breast is described as inhabiting an island called Jabeh (supposed to be Java) in the Sea of El-Hind or India; and a kind of Nesnas is also described as inhabiting the Island of Raij, in the Sea of Es-Seen, or China, and having wings like those of the bat. (Ibn El-Wardee.)" Compare also an incident in the story of Janshah (Nights v. p. 333, and note) and the description of the giant Haluka in Forbes' translation of the Persian Romance of Hatim Tai (p. 47): "In the course of an hour the giant was so near as to be distinctly seen in shape like an immense dome. He had neither hands nor feet, but a tremendous mouth, situated in the midst of his body. He advanced with an evolving motion, and from his jaws issued volumes of flame and clouds of smoke." When his reflection was shown him in a mirror, he burst with rage.

I may add that a long-tailed species of African monkey (Cercopithecus Pyrrhonotus) is now known to naturalists as the Nisnas.



Story of the Broken-backed Schoolmaster (pp. 72-74).



I once heard a tale of two Irishmen, one of whom lowered the other over a cliff, probably in search of the nests of sea-fowl. Presently the man at the top called out, "Hold hard while I spit on my hands," so he loosed the rope for that purpose, and his companion incontinently disappeared with it.



Story of the Split-mouthed Schoolmaster (pp. 74-77).



In Scott's "Story of the Wry-mouthed Schoolmaster" (Arabian Nights vi. pp. 74 75) the schoolmaster crams a boiling egg into his mouth, which the boy smashes.



Night Adventure of Sultan Mohammed of Cairo (pp. 68-84).



P. 78.—Scott (vi. p. 403) makes the proclamation read, "Whoever presumes after the first watch of the night to have a lamp lighted in his house, shall have his head struck off, his goods confiscated, his house razed to the ground, and his women dishonoured." A proclamation in such terms under the circumstances (though not meant seriously) would be incredible, even in the East.



Story of the Kazi Who Bare a Babe (pp. 130-144).



In the Esthonian Kalevipoeg we read of two giants who lay down to sleep on opposite sides of the table after eating a big supper of thick peas-soup. An unfortunate man was hidden under the table, and the consequence was that he was blown backwards and forwards between them all night.



History of the Bhang-Eater and His Wife (pp. 155-161).



Selling a bull or a cow in the manner described is a familiar incident in folk-lore; and in Riviere's "Contes Populaires Kabyles" we find a variant of the present story under the title of "L'Idiot et le Coucou." In another form, the cow or other article is exchanged for some worthless, or apparently worthless, commodity, as in Jack and the Bean-stalk; Hans im Gluck; or as in the case of Moses in the Vicar of Wakefield. The incident of the fool finding a treasure occurs in Cazotte's story of Xailoun.[FN#642]



How Drummer Abu Kasim Became a Kazi (pp. 161-163).



I have heard an anecdote of a man who was sued for the value of a bond which he had given payable one day after the day of judgment. The judge ruled, "This is the day of judgment, and I order that the bill must be paid to-morrow!"



Story of the Kazi and His Slipper (pp. 163-165).



This story is well known in Europe, though not as forming part of The Nights. Mr. W. A. Clouston informs me that it first appeared in Cardonne's "Melanges de litterature orientale" (Paris, 1770). Cf. Nights x. App. pp. 450 and 452.



History of the Third Larrikin (pp. 231-233).



Such mistakes must be very frequent. I remember once seeing a maid stoop down with a jug in her hand, when she knocked her head against the table. Some one sitting by, thinking it was the jug, observed, "Never mind, there's nothing in it."

Another time I was driving out in the country with a large party, and our host got out to walk across to another point. Presently he was missed, and they inquired, "Where is he?" There was a dog lying in the carriage, and one of the party looked round, and not seeing the dog, responded, "Why, where is the dog?"



Tale of the Fisherman and His Son (pp. 247-260).



The present story, though not very important in itself, is interesting as combining some of the features of three distinct classes of folk-tales. One of these is the anti-Jewish series, of which Grimm's story of the Jew in the Bramble-Bush is one of the most typical examples. According to these tales, any villainy is justifiable, if perpetrated on a Jew. We find traces of this feeling even in Shakespeare, and to this day Shylock (notwithstanding the grievous wrongs which he had suffered at the hands of Christians) rarely gets much sympathy from modern readers, who quite overlook all the extenuating circumstances in his case.[FN#643] Nor do we always find the Jew famous for 'cuteness in folk-tales. This phase of his reputation is comparatively modern, and in the time of Horace, "Credat Judaeus" was a Roman proverb, which means, freely translated, "Nobody would be fool enough to believe it except a Jew."

The present story combines the features of the anti-Jewish tales, the Alaeddin series, and the Grateful Beasts series. (Compare Mr. W. A. Clouston's remarks on Aladdin, Supp. Nights, App. iii., pp. 371-389; and also his "Tales and Popular Fictions.")

In vol. 53 of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (1884, pp. 24-39) I find a Nicobar story which relates how Tiomberombi received a magic mirror from a snake whose enemy he had killed. Its slaves obeyed all his orders if he only put the key into the keyhole, but he was not allowed to open the mirror, as he was too weak to face the spirits openly. He dwelt on an island, but when a hostile fleet came against him, the gunners could not hit it, as the island became invisible. The hostile chief sent an old woman to worm the secret out of Tiomberombi's wife; the mirror was stolen, and Tiomberombi and his wife were carried off. On reaching land, Tiomberombi was thrown into prison, but he persuaded the rats to fetch him the mirror.[FN#644] He destroyed his enemies, went home, and re-established himself on his island, warning his wife and mother not to repeat what had happened, lest the island should sink. They told the story while he was eating; the island sank into the sea, and they were all drowned.



The History of Abu Niyyah and Abu Niyyatayn (pp. 264-279).



This story combines features which we find separately in Nos. 3b (ba); 162 and 198. The first story, the Envier and the Envied, is very common in folk-lore, and has been sometimes used in modern fairy-tales. The reader will remember the Tailor and the Shoemaker in Hans Christian Andersen's "Eventyr." Frequently, as in the latter story, the good man, instead of being thrown into a well, is blinded by the villain, and abandoned in a forest, where he afterwards recovers his sight. One of the most curious forms of this story is the Samoghitian



Truth and Injustice.[FN#645]



Truth and Injustice lived in the same country, and one day they happened to meet, and agreed to be friends. But as Injustice brought many people into trouble, Truth declared that she would have no more to do with her, upon which Injustice grew angry, and put out the eyes of Truth. Truth wandered about for a long time at random, and at last she came to a walnut-tree, and climbed up it to rest awhile in safety from wild beasts. During the night a wolf and a mouse came to the foot of the tree, and held the following conversation. The wolf began, "I am very comfortable in the land where I am now living, for there are so many blind people there that I can steal almost any animal I like without anybody seeing me. If the blind men knew that they had only to rub their eyes with the moss which grows on the stones here in order to recover their sight, I should soon get on badly with them."

The mouse responded, "I live in a district where the people have no water, and are obliged to fetch it from a great distance. When they are away from home I can enjoy as much of their provisions as I like; indeed, I can heap together as large a store as I please without being disturbed. If the people knew that they had only to cut down a great oak tree and a great lime tree which grow near their houses, in order to find water, I should soon be badly off."

As soon as the wolf and the mouse were gone, Truth came down from her tree, and groped about until she found a moss-covered stone, when she rubbed her eyes with the moss. She recovered her sight immediately, and then went her way till she came to the country where most of the people were blind. Truth demanded that the blind people should pay her a fixed sum of money, when she would tell them of a remedy by which they could recover their sight. The blind men gave her the money, and Truth supplied them with the remedy which had cured herself.

After this, Truth proceeded further till she came to the district where the people had no water. She told them that if they would give her a carriage and horses, she would tell them where to find water. The people were glad to agree to her proposal.

When Truth had received the carriage and horses, she showed the people the oak and the lime tree, which they felled by her directions, when water immediately flowed from under the roots in great abundance.

As Truth drove away she met Injustice, who had fallen into poverty, and was wandering from one country to another in rags. Truth knew her immediately, and asked her to take a seat in her carriage. Injustice then recognised her, and asked her how she had received the light of her eyes, and how she had come by such a fine carriage. Truth told her everything, including what she had heard from the wolf and the mouse. Injustice then persuaded her to put out her eyes, for she wanted to be rich, and to have a fine carriage too; and then Truth told her to descend. Truth herself drove away, and seldom shows herself to men.

Injustice wandered about the country till she found the walnut tree, up which she climbed. When evening came, the wolf and the fox met under the tree again to talk. Both were now in trouble, for the wolf could not steal an animal without being seen and pursued by the people, and the mouse could no longer eat meat or collect stores without being disturbed, for the people were no longer obliged to leave their home for a long time to fetch water. Both the wolf and the mouse suspected that some one had overheard their late conversation, so they looked up in search of the listener, and discovered Injustice in the tree. The animals supposed that it was she who had betrayed them, and said in anger, "May our curse be upon you that you may remain for ever blind, for you have deprived us of our means of living."

After thus speaking, the animals ran away, but Injustice has ever since remained blind, and does harm to everybody who chances to come in her way.



II.—NOTES ON THE STORIES CONTAINED IN VOLUME XV.

By W. F. KIRBY.



History of the King's Son of Sind and the Lady Fatimah (pp. 1-13).



P. 3.—This mixture of seeds, &c., is a very common incident in folk-tales.

P. 7.—Compare the well-known incident in John xviii. 1-11, which passage, by the way, is considered to be an interpolation taken from the lost Gospel of the Hebrews.



History of the Lovers of Syria (pp. 13-26).



P. 18.—Divination by the flight or song of birds is so universal that it is ridiculous of Kreutzwald (the compiler of the Kalevipoeg) to quote the fact of the son of Kalev applying to birds and beasts for advice as being intended by the composers as a hint that he was deficient in intelligence.

In Bulwer Lytton's story of the Fallen Star (Pilgrims of the Rhine, ch. xix.) he makes the imposter Morven determine the succession to the chieftainship by means of a trained hawk.

P. 26, note 2.—Scott may possibly refer to the tradition that the souls of the dead are stored up in the trumpet of Israfil, when he speaks of the "receiving angel."



History of Al-hajjaj Bin Yusuf and the Young Sayyid (pp. 26-44).



P. 30, note 2.—I doubt if the story-teller intended to represent Al-Hajjaj as ignorant. The story rather implies that he was merely catechising the youth, in order to entangle him in his talk.

P. 33.—Compare the story of the Sandal-wood Merchant and the Sharpers (Nights, vi. p. 206) in which the Merchant is required to drink up the sea [or rather, perhaps, river], and requires his adversary to hold the mouth of the sea for him with his hand.

P. 38, note 1.—It is well known that children should not be allowed to sleep with aged persons, as the latter absorb their vitality.



Night Adventure of Harun Al-rashid and the Youth Manjab (pp. 45-80).



P. 77.—In the Danish ballads we frequently find heroes appealing to their mothers or nurses in cases of difficulty. Compare "Habor and Signild," and "Knight Stig's Wedding," in Prior's Danish Ballads, i. p. 216 and ii. p. 339.



Story of the Darwaysh and the Barber's Boy and the Greedy Sultan (pp. 80-88).



This story belongs to the large category known to students of folk-lore as the Sage and his Pupil; and of this again there are three main groups:

1. Those in which (as in the present instance) the two remain on friendly terms.

2. Those in which the sage is outwitted and destroyed by his pupil (e.g., Cazotte's story of the Maugraby; or Spitta Bey's tales, No. 1).

3. Those in which the pupil attempts to outwit or to destroy the sage, and is himself outwitted or destroyed (e.g., The Lady's Fifth Story, in Gibb's Forty Vezirs, pp. 76-80; and his App. B. note v., p. 413).



The Loves of Al-hayfa and Yusuf (pp. 93-166).



P. 114, note 4.—I believe that a sudden attack of this kind is always speedily fatal.



The Goodwife of Cairo and Her Four Gallants (pp. 193-217).



P. 194, note 2.—It may be worth while to note that Swedenborg asserts that it is unlawful in Heaven for any person to look at the back of the head of another, as by so doing he interrupts the divine influx. The foundation of this idea is perhaps the desire to avoid mesmeric action upon the cerebellum.



Tale of Mohsin and Muss (pp. 232-241).



The notes on the story of Abu Niyyat and Abu Niyyateen (supra, pp. 356) will apply still better to the present story.



The Merchant's Daughter, and the Prince of Al-irak (pp. 264-317).



Pp. 305-312.—The case of Tobias and Sara (Tobit, chaps. iii.-viii.) was very similar: but in this instance the demon Asmodeus was driven away by fumigating with the liver and heart of a fish.



Arabian Nights, Volume 15 Footnotes



[FN#1] In the same volume (ii. 161) we also find an "Introductory Chapter of the Arabian Tales," translated from an original manuscript by Jonathan Scott, Esq. neither MS nor translation having any meet. In pp. 34, 35 (ibid.) are noticed the 'Contents of a Fragment of the Arabian Nights procured in India by James Anderson, Esq., a copy of which" (made by his friend Scott) "is now in the possession of Jonathan Scott, Esq." (See Scott, vol. vi. p. 451.) For a short but sufficient notice of this fragment cf. the Appendix (vol. x. p. 439) to my Thousand Nights and a Night, the able and conscientious work of Mr. W. F. Kirby. "The Labourer and the Flying Chain" (No. x.) and "The King's Son who escaped death by the ingenuity of his Father's seven Viziers" (No. xi.) have been translated or rather abridged by Scott in his "Tales, Anecdotes and Letters" before alluded to, a vol. of pp. 446 containing scraps from the Persian "Tohfat al-Majalis" and "Hazliyat' Abbid Zahkani" (Facetiae of 'Abbid the Jester), with letters from Aurangzeb and other such padding much affected by the home public in the Early XIXth Century.

[FN#2] So called from Herr Uri, a Hungarian scholar who first catalogued "The Contents."

[FN#3] W. M. MS. iv. 165 189: Scott (vi. 238 245), "Story of the Prince of Sind, and Fatima, daughter of Amir Bin Naomaun": Gauttier (vi. 342 348) Histoire du Prince de Sind et de Fatime. Sind is so called from Sindhu, the Indus (in Pers. Sindb), is the general name of the riverine valley: in early days it was a great station of the so-called Aryan race, as they were migrating eastwards into India Proper, and it contains many Holy Places dating from the era of the Purns. The Moslems soon made acquaintance with it, and the country was conquered and annexed by Mohammed bin Ksim, sent to attack it by the famous or infamous Hajjj bin Ysuf the Thakafite, lieutenant of Al-'Irk under the Ommiade Abd al-Malik bin Marwn. For details, see my "Sind Re-visited": vol. i. chapt. viii.

[FN#4] [In MS. "shakhat," a modern word which occurs in Spitta Bey's "Contes Arabes Modernes," spelt with the palatal instead of the dental, and is translated there by "injurier."—ST.]

[FN#5] In the text "Sahrj"; hence the "Chafariz" (fountain) of Portugal, which I derived (Highlands of the Brazil, i. 46) from "Sakrj." It is a "Moghrabin" word=fonte, a fountain, preserved in the Brazil and derided in the mother country, where a New World village is described as

—Chafariz, Joam Antam e a Matriz:

which may be roughly rendered

—Parish church, on the Green and Johnny Birch.

[FN#6] [Here I suppose the scribe dropped a word, as "yahtj," or the like, and the sentence should read: it requires, etc.—ST.]

[FN#7] In text "Srayah," for "Saryah," Serai, Government House: vol. ix. 52.

[FN#8] A manner of metonymy, meaning that he rested his cheek upon his right hand.

[FN#9] For the sig. of this phrase=words suggested by the circumstances, see vol. i. 121.

[FN#10] Mr. Charles M. Doughty ("Arabia Deserta," i. 223) speaks of the Badawin who sit beating the time away, and for pastime limning with their driving-sticks (the Bkr) in the idle land."

[FN#11] In text "Lam yanub al-Whidu min-hum nisf haffn." [I cannot explain this sentence satisfactory to myself, but by inserting "ill" after "min-hum." Further I would read "nassaf"=libavit, delibavit degustavit (Dozy, Suppl. s. v.) and "Hifn," pl. of "Hafna"=handful, mouthful, small quantity, translating accordingly: "and none took his turn without sipping a few laps."—ST.]

[FN#12] "Tarajjama": Suppl. vol. iv. 188. I shall always translate it by "he deprecated" scil. evil to the person addressed.

[FN#13] [The text, as I read it, has: "In wahadtu (read wajadtu) f hzih al-S'h shayyan naakul-hu wa namt bi-hi narth min hz al-Taab wa'l-mashakkah la-akultu-hu"=if I could find at this hour a something (i.e. in the way of poison) which I might eat and die thereby and rest from this toil and trouble, I would certainly eat it, etc.—ST.]

[FN#14] See vol. i. 311 for this "tom-tom" as Anglo-Indians call it.

[FN#15] i.e. Whereinto the happy man was able to go, which he could not whilst the spell was upon the hoard.

[FN#16] Here ends this tale, a most lame and impotent conclusion, in the W. M. MS. iv. 189. Scott (p. 244 5) copied by Gauttier (vi. 348) has, "His father received him with rapture, and the prince having made an apology to the sultana (!) for his former rude behaviour, she received his excuses, and having no child of her own readily adopted him as her son; so that the royal family lived henceforth in the utmost harmony, till the death of the sultan and sultana, when the prince succeeded to the empire."

[FN#17] W.M MS. iv. 189. Scott (vi. 246-258) "Story of the Lovers of Syria, or, the Heroine:" Gauttier (iv. 348-354) Histoire des Amans de Syrie.

[FN#18] Scott (vi. 246) comments upon the text:—"The master of the ship having weighed anchor, hoisted sail and departed: the lady in vain entreating him to wait the return of her beloved, or send her on shore, for he was captivated with her beauty. Finding herself thus ensnared, as she was a woman of strong mind . . . she assumed a satisfied air; and as the only way to preserve her honour, received the addresses of the treacherous master with pretended complacency, and consented to receive him as a husband at the first port at which the ship might touch."

[FN#19] The captain, the skipper, not the owner: see vols. i. 127; vi. 12; the fem. (which we shall presently find) is "Ra'isah."

[FN#20] Scott (p. 246) has:—"At length the vessel anchored near a city, to which the captain went to make preparations for his marriage; but the lady, while he was on shore, addressed the ship's crew, setting forth with such force his treacherous conduct to herself, and offering such rewards if they would convey her to her lover at the port they had left, that the honest sailors were moved in her favour, agreed to obey her as their mistress, and hoisting sail, left the master to shift for himself."

[FN#21] In text "Kamrah," = the chief cabin, from the Gr. {Greek}(?) = vault; Pers. Kamar; Lat. "Camara"; Germ. "Kammer." It is still the popular term in Egypt for the "cuddy," which is derived from Pers. "Kadah" = a room.

[FN#22] Scott makes the doughty damsel (p. 249), "relate to them her own adventures, and assure them that when she should have rejoined her lover, they should, if they choose it be honourably restored to their homes; but in the mean time she hoped they would contentedly share her fortunes."

[FN#23] In text "Fidawi," see "Fida'i" and "Fidawiyah," suppl. col. iv. 220.

[FN#24] [In the text "Al-Kazanat," pl. of "Kazan," which occurs in Spitta Bey's tales under the form "Kazan" on account of the accent. It is the Turkish "Kazghan," vulgarly pronounced "Kazan," and takes in Persian generally the form "Kazkan." In Night 652 it will be met again in the sense of crucibles.—ST.]

[FN#25] In text "Banj al-tayyar," i.e. volatile: as we should say, that which flies fastest to the brain.

[FN#26] This marvellous bird, the "Ter-il-bas" (Tayr Taus?), is a particular kind of peacock which is introduced with a monstrous amount of nonsense about "Dagon and his son Bil-il-Sanan" and made to determine elections by alighting upon the head of one of the candidates in Chavis and Cazotte, "History of Yamalladdin (Jamal al-Din), Prince of Great Katay" (Khata = Cathay = China). See Heron, iv. 159.

[FN#27] Lit. "hath given it to him."

[FN#28] Arab. "Jihaz," the Egypt. "Gahaz," which is the Scotch "tocher," and must not be confounded with the "Mahr" = dowry, settled by the husband upon the wife. Usually it consists of sundry articles of dress and ornament, furniture (matting and bedding carpets, divans, cushions and kitchen utensils), to which the Badawi add "Gribahs" (water-skins) querns, and pestles with mortars. These are usually carried by camels from the bride's house to the bridegroom's: they are the wife's property, and if divorced she takes them away with her and the husband has no control over the married woman's capital, interest or gains. For other details see Lane M.E. chapt. vi. and Herklots chapt. xiv. sec. 7.

[FN#29] [Arab. "Shuwar" = trousseau, whence the verb "shawwara binta-hu" = he gave a marriage outfit to his daughter. See Dozy Suppl. s. v. and Arnold Chrestom. 157, 1. —ST.]

[FN#30] Arab. "Ghashim," see vol. ii. 330. It is a favourite word in Egypt extending to Badawiland, and especially in Cairo, where it is looked upon as slighting if not insulting.

[FN#31] The whole of the scene is a replica of the marriage between Kamar al-Zaman and that notable blackguard the Lady Budur (vol. iii. 211), where also we find the pigeon slaughtered (p. 289). I have mentioned that the blood of this bird is supposed throughout the East, where the use of the microscope is unknown, and the corpuscles are never studied, most to resemble the results of a bursten hymen, and that it is the most used to deceive the expert eyes of midwives and old matrons. See note to vol. iii. p. 289.

[FN#32] Scott (p. 254) makes his heroine "erect a most magnificent caravanserai, furnished with baths hot and cold, and every convenience for the weary traveller." Compare this device with the public and royal banquet (p. 212) contrived by the slave-girl sultaness, the charming Zumurrud or Smaragdine in the tale of Ali Shar, vol. iv. 187.

[FN#33] In text "Shakhs," see vol. iii. 26; viii. 159.

[FN#34] This assemblage of the dramatis personae at the end of the scene, highly artistic and equally improbably, reminds us of the ending of King Omar bin al-Nu'uman (vol. iii. 112)

[FN#35] The King and the Minister could not have recognised the portrait as neither had seen the original.

[FN#36] In text "Ishtalaka" = he surmised, discovered (a secret).

[FN#37] In the Arab. "she knew them," but the careless storyteller forgets the first part of his own story.

[FN#38] Story-telling being servile work.

[FN#39] [In the MS. "istanatu la-ha." The translation in the text presupposes the reading "istanattu" as the 10th form of "matt) = he jumped, he leapt. I am inclined to take it for the 8th form of "sanat," which according to Dozy stands in its 2nd form "sannat" for "sannat," a transposition of the classical "nassat" = he listened to. The same word with the same meaning of "listening attentively," recurs in the next line in the singular, applying to the captain and the following pronoun "la-ha" refers in both passages to "Hikayah," tale, not to the lady-sultan who reveals herself only later, when she has concluded her narrative.—ST.]

[FN#40] Here the converse is probably meant, as we have before seen.

[FN#41] Scott ends (p. 258) "Years of unusual happiness passed over the heads of the fortunate adventurers of this history, until death, the destroyer of all things, conducted them to a grave which must one day be the resting-place for ages of us all, till the receiving (?) angel shall sound his trumpet."

[FN#42] Scott (vi. 259-267), "Story of Hyjuaje, the tyrannical Governor of Coufeh, and the Young Syed." For the difference between the "Sayyid" (descendant of Hasan) and the "Sharif," derived from Husayn, see vol. v. 259. Being of the Holy House the youth can truly deny tat he belongs to any place or race, as will be seen in the sequel.

[FN#43] This masterful administrator of the Caliphate under the early Ommiades is noticed in vols. iv. 3, vii. 97. The succession to the Prophet began—as mostly happens in the proceedings of elective governments, republics, and so forth—with the choice of a nobody, "Abubakr the Veridical," a Meccan merchant, whose chief claim was the glamour of the Apostolate. A more notable personage, and seen under the same artificial light, was "Omar the Justiciary," also a trader of Meccah, who was murdered for an act of injustice. In Osman nepotism and corruption so prevailed, while distance began to dim the Apostolic glories, that the blood-thirsty turbulence of the Arab was aroused and caused the death of the third Caliph by what we should call in modern phrase "lynching." Ali succeeded, if indeed we can say he succeeded at all, to an already divided empire. He was only one of the four who could be described as a man of genius, and therefore he had a host of enemies: he was a poet, a sage, a moralist and even a grammarian; brave as a lion, strong as a bull, a successful and experienced captain, yet a complete failure as a King. A mere child in mundane matters, he ever acted in a worldly sense as he should have avoided acting, and hence, after a short and disastrous reign, he also was killed. His two sons, Hasan and Husayn, inherited all the defects and few of the merits of their sire: Hasan was a pauvre diable, whose chief characteristic was addiction to marriage, and by poetical justice one of his wives murdered him. Husayn was of stronger mould, but he fought against the impossible; for his rival was Mu'awiyah, the Cavour of the Age, the longest-headed man in Arabia, and against Yazid, who, like Italy of the present day, flourished and prospered by the artificial game which the far-seeing politician, his father, had bequeathed to his house—the Ommiade. The fourth of this dynasty, 'Abd al-Malik bin Marwan, "the Father of Flies," and his successor, Al-Walid, were happy in being served thoroughly and unscrupulously by Al-Hajjaj, the ablest of Lieutenants. whose specialty it was to take in hand a revolted province, such as Al-Hijaz, Al-Irak, or Khorasan, and to slaughter it into submission; besides deaths in battle he is computed to have slain 120,000 men. He was an unflinching preacher of the Divine Right of Kings and would observe that the Lord says, "Obey Allah and ye can" (conditional), but as regards royal government "Hearing and obeying" (absolute); ergo, all opposition was to be cut down and uprooted. However, despite his most brilliant qualities, his learning, his high and knightly sense of honour, his insight and his foresight (e.g. in building Wasit), he won an immortality of infamy: he was hated by his contemporaries, he is the subject of silly tale and offensive legend (e.g., that he was born without anus, which required opening with instruments, and he was suckled by Satan's orders on blood), and he is still execrated as the tyrant, per excellentiam, and the oppressor of the Holy Family— the children and grand-children of the Apostle.

The traditional hatred of Al-Hajjaj was envenomed by the accession of the Abbasides and this dynasty, the better to distinguish itself from the Ommiades, affected love for the Holy Family, especially Ali and his descendants, and a fanatical hatred against their oppressors. The following table from Ibn Khaldun (Introduct. xxii.) shows that the Caliphs were cousins, which may account for their venomous family feud.

[First Version]

'Abd Manaf __ __ Hashim Abd Shams Abd al-Muttalib Umayyah ___ __ _ _ Al-Abbas Abdullah Abu Talib Harb Abu 'l-Aus Abdullah Mohammed Abu Sufyan Al-Hakim Ali Fatimah married Ali Mu'awiyah Marwan __ __ (1st Ommiade) Mohammed Al-Hasan Al-Husayn Al-Saffah (1st Abbaside)

[Second Version]

'Abd Manaf, father of Hashim and Abd Shams Hashim, father of Abd al-Muttalib Abd al-Muttalib, father of Al-Abbas, Abdullah, and Abu Talib Al-Abbas, father of Abdullah Abdullah, father of Ali Ali, father of Mohammed Mohammed, father of Al-Saffah (1st Abbaside) Abdullah, father of Mohammed Mohammed, father of Fatimah, who married Ali (son of Abu Talib) Fatimah, mother of Al-Hasan and Al-Husayn Abu Talib, father of Ali Abd Shams, father of Umayyah Umayyah, father of Harb and Abu 'l-Aus Harb, father of Abu Sufyan Abu Sufyan, father of Mu'awiyah (1st Ommaide) Abu 'l-Aus, father of Al-Hakim Al-Hakim, father of Marwan

[FN#44] [The word here translated "invited guest" reads in the MS. "Mad'ur." In this form it is no dictionary word, but under the root "D'r" I find in the Muhit: "wa 'l-'amatu takulu fulanun da'irun ya'ni ghalizun jafin" = the common people say such a one is "daiir," i.e., rude, churlish. "Mad'ur" may be a synonym and rendered accordingly: as though thou wert a boor or clown.—ST]

[FN#45] A neat specimen of the figure anachronism. Al-Hajjaj died in A.H. 95 (= AD 714), and Cairo was built in A.H. 358 (= AD 968).

[FN#46] Perfectly true in the present day. The city was famed for intelligence and sanguinary fanaticism; and no stranger in disguise could pass through it without detection. This ended with the massacre of 1840, which brought a new era into the Moslem East. The men are, as a rule, fine-looking, but they seem to be all show: we had a corps of them in the old Bash-Buzuks, who, after a month or two in camp, seemed to have passed suddenly from youth into old age.

[FN#47] In text, "Yasta'amiluna al-Mrd," which may have a number of meanings, e.g. "work frowardness" (Maradd), or "work the fruit of the tree Arak" (Maradd = wild capparis) and so forth. I have chosen the word mainly because "Murd" rhymes to "Burd." The people of Al-Yaman are still deep in the Sotadic Zone and practice; this they owe partly to a long colonization of the "'Ajam," or Persians. See my Terminal Essay, "Pederasty," p. 178.

[FN#48] "Burd," plur. of "Burdah" = mantle or woolen plaid of striped stuff: vol. vii. 95. They are still woven in Arabia, but they are mostly white.

[FN#49] So in Tabari (vol. III. 127) Al Hajjaj sees a man of haughty mien (Abd al-Rahman bin Abdullah), and exclaims, "Regarde comme il est orgueilleux: par Dieu, j'aurais envie de lui couper la tete!"

[FN#50] [The phrase is Koranic (viii. 24): "Wa 'lamu anna 'llaha yahulu bayna 'l-mari wa kalbi-hi," which Rodwell translates: Know that God cometh in between man and his own heart.—ST]

[FN#51] "Yathrib," the classical name '{Greek}, one of the multifarious titles of what is called in full "Madinat al-Nabi," City of the Prophet, and vulgarly, Al-Madinah, the City. "Tayyibah," the good, sweet, or lawful: "Al-Munawwarah" = the enlightened, i.e. by the light of The Faith and the column of (odylic) flame supposed to be based upon the Prophet's tomb. For more, see my Pilgrimage, ii. 162. I may note how ridiculously the story-teller displays ignorance in Al-Hajjaj, who knew the Moslem's Holy Land by heart.

[FN#52] In text "Taawil," = the commentary or explanation of Moslem Holy Writ: "Tanzil" = coming down, revelation of the Koran: "Tahrim" = rendering any action "haram" or unlawful, and "Tahil" = the converse, making word or deed canonically legal. Those are well known theological terms.

[FN#53] The Banu Ghalib, whose eponymous forefather was Ghalib, son of Fihr, the well known ancestor of Mohammed.

[FN#54] In text "Hasab wa Nasab." It is told of Al-Mu'izz bi Dini'llah, first Fatimate Caliph raised to the throne of Egypt, that he came forward to the elective assembly and drew his sword half way out of the scabbard and exclaimed "Haza Nasabi" (this is my genealogy); and then cast handfuls of gold amongst the crowd, crying, "Haza Hasabi" (such is my title to reign). This is as good as the traditional saying of Napoleon the Great at his first assuming the iron crown—"God gave her to me; woe for whoso toucheth her" (the crown).

[FN#55] [In MS. "takhs-u," a curious word of venerable yet green old age, used in the active form with both transitive and intransitive meaning: to drive away (a dog, etc.), and to be driven away. In the Koran (xxiii. 110) we find the imper. "ikhsau" = be ye driven away, an in two other places (ii. 61, vii. 166), the nomen agentis "khasi" = "scouted" occurs, as applied to the apes into which the Sabbath-breaking Jews were transformed. In the popular language of the present day it has become equivalent with "khaba," to be disappointed, and may here be translated: thou wilt fail ignominiously.—ST]

[FN#56] Scott introduces (p. 262), "the tyrant, struck with his magnanimity, became calm, and commanding the executioner to release the youth, said, For the present I forbear, and will not kill thee unless thy answers to my further questions shall deserve it. They then entered on the following dialogue: Hyjuawje hoping to entrap him in discourse."

[FN#57] See the dialogue on this subject between Al-Hajjaj and Yahya ibn Yamar in Ibn Khallikan, iv. 60.

[FN#58] Surah xxxiii. (The Confederates), v. 40, which ends, "And Allah knoweth all things."

[FN#59] Surah lix. (The Emigration), v. 40: the full quotation would be, "The spoil, taken from the townsfolk and assigned by Allah to His Apostle, belongeth to Allah and to the Apostle and to his kindred and to the orphan and to the poor and to the wayfarer, that naught thereof may circulate among such only of you as be rich. What the Apostle hath given you, take. What he hath refused you, refuse. And fear ye Allah, for Allah is sure in punishing."

[FN#60] The House of Hashim, great-grandfather to the Prophet.

[FN#61] Ibn Khallikan (vol. i. 354) warns us that "Al-Tai" means belonging to the Tai which is a famous tribe. This relative adjective is of irregular formation; analogy would require it to be Taii; but the formation of relative adjectives admits some variations; thus from dahr (time) is derived duhri (temporal) and from sahl (a plain), suhli (plain, level). The author might also have told us that there is always a reason for such irregularities; thus "Dahri" (from Dahr) would mean a Mundanist, one who believes in this world and not the next or another.

[FN#62] The "Banu Thakif" was a noble tribe sprung from Iyad (Ibn Khallikan i. 358-363); but the ignorant and fanatic scribe uses every means, fair and foul, to defame Al-Hajjaj. It was a great race and a well known, living about Taif in the Highlands East of Meccah, where they exist to the present day. Mr. Doughty (loc. cit. ii. 174) mentions a kindred of the Juhaynah Badawin called El-Thegif (Thakif) of whom the Medinites say, "Allah ya'alan Thegif Kuddam takuf" (God damn the Thegif ere thou stand still). They are called "Yahud" (Jews), probably meaning pre-Islamitic Arabs, and are despised accordingly.

[FN#63] In Arab. "Jady" = the Zodiacal sign Capricorn.

[FN#64] We find similar facetia in Mullah Jami (Garden viii.). When a sheep leapt out of the stream, her tail happened to be raised, and a woolcarder said laughing:—"I have seen thy parts genital." She turned her head and replied, "O miserable, for many a year I have seen thee mother-naked yet never laughed I." This alludes to the practice of such artisans who on account of the heat in their workshops and the fibre adhering to their clothes work in naturalibus. See p. 178, the Beharistan (Abode of Spring). Printed by the Kamashastra Society for Private Subscribers only. Benares, 1887.

[FN#65] This passage is not Koranic, and, according to Prof. Houdas, the word "Muhkaman" is never found in the Holy Volume. [The passage is not a literal quotation, but it evidently alludes to Koran iii. 5: "Huwa'llazi anzala 'alayka 'l-kitaba minhu ayatun muh-kamatun" = He it is who sent down to thee the book, some of whose signs (or versets) are confirmed. The singular "muhkamatun" is applied (xlvii.) to "Saratun," a chapter, and in both places the meaning of "confirmed" is "not abrogated by later revelations." Hence the sequel of my first quotation these portions are called "the mother (i.e. groundwork) of the book," and the learned Sayyid is not far from the mark after all.—ST]

[FN#66] Surah ii. (The Cow) v. 56, the verse beginning, "Allah! there be no God but He; ... His Throne overreacheth the Heavens and the Hearth," etc.

[FN#67] Surah lxxiii. (The Bee) v. 92, ending with, "And he forbiddeth frowardness and wrong-doing and oppression; and He warneth you that haply may ye be warned."

[FN#68] Surah (Meccah) xcix. vv. 7 and 8: in text "Mithkala Zarratin," which Mr. Rodwell (p. 28) englishes "an atom's weight of good," and adds in a foot-note, "Lit. a single ant." Prof. Houdas would render it, Quiconque aura fait la valeur d'un mitskal de millet en fait de bien; but I hardly think that "Zarrah" can mean "Durrah" = millet. ["Mithkal" in this context is explained by the commentators by "Wazn" = weight, this being the original meaning of the word which is a nomen instrumenti of the form "Mif'al," denoting "that by which the gravity of bodies is ascertained." Later on it became the well-known technical term for a particular weight. "Zarrah," according to some glossarists, is the noun of unity of "Zarr," the young ones of the any, an antlet, which is said to weigh the twelfth part of a "Kitmir" = pedicle of the date0fruit, or the hundredth part of a grain of barley, or to have no weight at all. Hence "Mukhkh al-Zarr," the brains of the antlet, means a thing that does not exist or is impossible to be found. According to others, "Zarrah" is a particle of al-Haba, i.e. of the motes that are seen dancing in the sunlight, called "Sonnenstaubchen" in German, and "atomo solare" in Italian. Koran xxi. 48 and xxxi. 15 we find the expression "Mithkala Habbatin min Khardalin" = of the weight of a mustard-seed, used in a similar sense with the present quotation.—ST]

[FN#69] Surah lxx. 38, Mr. Rodwell (p. 60) translates, "Is it that every man of them would fain enter the Garden of Delights?"

[FN#70] Surah xxxix. 54: they sinned by becoming apostates from Al-Islam. The verset ends, "Verily all sins doth Allah forgive: aye, Gracious, and Merciful is He."

[FN#71] Surah ii. 159; the quotation in the MS. is cut short.

[FN#72] Surah ii. 107; the end of the verse is, "Yet both are readers of the Book. So with like words say they (the pagan Arabs) who have no knowledge."

[FN#73] Surah li. (The Scattering), v. 56.

[FN#74] Surah ii. v. 30.

[FN#75] Surah xl. (The Believer), v. 78. In the text it is fragmentary. I do not see why Mr. Rodwell founds upon this verset a charge against the Prophet of ignorance concerning Jewish history: Mohammed seems to have followed the Talmud and tradition rather than the Holy Writ of the Hebrews.

[FN#76] Surah (The Believers) lxiv. 108.

[FN#77] Surah xxxv. (The Creator or the Angels), v. 31: The sentence concludes in v. 32, "Who of His bounty hath placed us in a Mansion that shall abide for ever, therein no evil shall reach us, and therein no weariness shall touch us."

[FN#78] Surah ("Sad") lix. 54; Iblis, like Satan in the Book of Job, is engaged in dialogue with the Almighty. I may here note that Scott (p. 265) has partially translated these Koranic quotations, but he has given only one reference.

[FN#79] In text "Ana min ahli zalika," of which the vulgar equivalent would be "Kizi" (for "Kazalika," "Kaza") = so (it is)!

[FN#80] i.e. On an empty stomach, to "open the spittle" is = to break the fast. Sir Wm. Gull in his evidence before a committee of the House of Commons deposed that after severe labor he found a bunch of dried raisins as efficacious a "pick-me up" as a glass of stimulants. The value of dried grapes to the Alpinist is well known.

[FN#81] Arab. "Al-Kadid" = jerked (charqui = chaire cuite) meat-flesh smoked, or (mostly) sun-dried.

[FN#82] I have noticed (i. 345) one of the blunders in our last unfortunate occupation of Egypt where our soldiers died uselessly of dysenteric disease because they were rationed with heating beef instead of digestible mutton.

[FN#83] Arab. "Al-Marham al-akbar."

[FN#84] [In the text: "Al-Kisrat al-yabisah 'ala 'l-Rik fa-innaha tukhlik jami'a ma 'ala fum al-madah min al-balgham," of which I cannot make anything but: a slice of dry bread (kisrah = piece of bread) on the spittle (i.e. to break the fast), for it absorbs (lit. uses up, fourth form of "khalik" = to be worn out) all that there may be of phlegm on the mouth of the stomach. Can it be that the dish "Khushk-nan" (Pers. = dry bread) is meant, of which the village clown in one of Spitta Bey's tales, when he was treated to it by Harun al-Rashid thought it must be the "Hammam," because he has heard his grandmother say, that the Hammam (bath) is the most delightful thing in the world? ST]

[FN#85] The stomach has two mouths, oesophagic above (which is here alluded to) and pyloric below.

[FN#86] Arab. "'Irk al-Unsa" = chordae testiculorum, in Engl. simply the cord.

[FN#87] The "'Ajuz" is a woman who ceases to have her monthly period: the idea is engrained in the Eastern mind and I cannot but believe in it seeing the old-young faces of men who have "married their grandmothers" for money or folly, and what not.

[FN#88] Arab. "Al-'Akik," vol. iii. 179: it is a tradition of the Prophet that the best of bezels for a signet-ring is the carnelian, and such are still the theory and practice of the Moslem East.

[FN#89] Arab. "Tuhal;" in text "Tayhal." Mr. Doughty (Arabia Deserta, i. 547) writes the word "Tahal" and translates it "ague-cake," i.e. the throbbing enlarged spleen, left after fevers, especially those of Al-Hijaz and Khaybar. [The form "Tayhal" with a plural "Tawahil" for the usual "Tihal" = spleen is quoted by Dozy from the valuable Vocabulary published by Schiaparelli, 1871, after an old MS. of the end of the xiii. century. It has the same relation to the verb "tayhal" = he suffered from the spleen, which "Tihal" bears the same verb "tuhil," used passively in the same sense. The name of the disease is "Tuhal."—ST]

[FN#90] In text "Kasalah" = a shock of corn, assemblage of sheaves. It may be a clerical error for "Kasabah" = stalk, haulm, straw.

[FN#91] Of course the conversation drifts into matters sexual and inter-sexual: in a similar story, "Tawad dud," the learned slave girl, "hangs her head down for shame and confusion" (vol. v. 225); but the young Sayyid speaks out bravely as becomes a male masculant.

[FN#92] [In the text: "Allati lau nazarat ila 'l-sama la-a'shab (fourth form of 'ashab with the affirmative 'la') al-Safa (pl. of Safat), wa lau nazarat ila 'l-arz la amtar taghru ha (read thaghru-ha) Luluan lam yuskab wa riku-ha min al-Zulal a'zab (for a'zab min al-Zulal)," which I would translate: Who if she look upon the heavens, the very rocks cover themselves with verdure, and an she look upon the earth, her lips rain unpierced pearls (words of virgin eloquence) and the dews of whose mouth are sweeter than the purest water. - ST.]

[FN#93] These lines have often occurred before: see index (vol. x. 395) "Wa lau anunaha li 'l-Mushrikin," etc. I have therefore borrowed from Mr. Payne, vol. viii. 78, whose version is admirable.

[FN#94] For the Jahin-hell, see vol. viii. 111.

[FN#95] For the Seven Ages of womankind (on the Irish model) see vol. ix. 175. Some form of these verses is known throughout the Moslem East to prince and peasant. They usually begin:—

From the tenth to the twentieth year * To the gaze a charm doth appear;

and end with:—

From sixty to three score ten * On all befal Allah's malison.

[FN#96] [Here I suppose the word "kal" has been dropped after "bi 'l-shi'r," and it should be: He (the youth) replied, that was our common sire, Adam, etc.—ST.]

[FN#97] "Habil" and "Kabil" are the Arab. equivalent of Abel and Cain. Neither are named in the Koran (Surah v. "The Table," vv. 30-35), which borrows dialogue between the brothers derived from the Targum (Jeirus. on Gen. iv. 8) and makes the raven show the mode of burial to Cain, not to Adam, as related by the Jews. Rodwell's Koran, p. 543.

[FN#98] Sit venia verbo: I have the less hesitation in making Adam anticipate the widow Malone from a profound conviction that some Hibernian antiquary, like Vallancey who found the Irish tongue in the Punic language of Plautus, shall distinctly prove that our first forefather spoke Keltic.

[FN#99] In text "Rih," wind, gust (of temper), pride, rage. Amongst the Badawin it is the name given to rheumatism (gout being unknown), and all obscure aching diseases by no means confined to flatulence or distension. [The MS. has: "ila an kata-ka 'l-'amal al-rabih," which gives no sense whatever. Sir Richard reads: "katala-ka 'l-'amal al-rih," and thus arrives at the above translation. I would simply drop a dot on the first letter of "kata-ka," reading "fata-ka," when the meaning of the line as it stands, would be: until the work that is profitable passed away from thee, i.e., until thou ceasedst to do good. The word "rabih" is not found in Dictionaries, but it is evidently an intensive of "rabih" (tijarah rabihah = a profitable traffic) and its root occurs in the Koran, ii. 15: "Fa-ma rabihat Tijaratuhum" = but their traffic has not been gainful.—ST.]

[FN#100] Arab. "Badrah": see vol. iv. 281. [According to Kamus, "Badrah is a purse of one thousand or ten thousand dirhams, or of seven thousand dinars. As lower down it is called "Badrat Zahab," a purse of gold, I would take it here in the third sense.—ST]

[FN#101] In text "Zardiya," for "Zardiyyah" = a small mail coat, a light helmet.

[FN#102] Arab. "'Ind 'uzzati 's-sinini" = lit. the thorny shrubs of ground bare of pasture.

[FN#103] This is another form of "inverted speech," meaning the clean contrary; see vols. ii. 265; vi. 262; and vii. 179.

[FN#104] In text "Lam yakthir Khayrak"; this phrase (pronounced "Kattir Khayrak") is the Egyptian (and Moslem) equivalent for our "thank you." Vols. iv. 6; v. 171. Scott (p. 267) make Al-Hajjaj end with, "Cursed is he who doth not requite a sincere adviser, declareth our sacred Koran."

[FN#105] In the W.M. MS. this tale is followed by the "History of Uns al-Wujud and the Wazir's daughter Rose-in-hood," for which see vol. v. 32 et seq. Then comes the long romance "Mazin of Khorasan," which is a replica of "Hasan of Bassorah and the King's daughter of the Jinn" (vol. vii. 7). I have noted (vol. x. 75) that this story shows us the process of transition from the Persian original to the Arabic copy. "Mazin" is also the P.N. of an Arab tribe: De Sacy, Chrest. i. 406.

[FN#106] MS. vol. v. pp. 92-94: Scott, vol. vi. 343: Gauttier, vi. 376. The story is a replica of the Mock Caliph (vol. iv. 130) and the Tale of the First Lunatic (Suppl. vol. iv.); but I have retained it on account of the peculiar freshness and naivete of treatment which distinguishes it, also as a specimen of how extensively editors and scriveners can vary the same subject.

[FN#107] In text "Natar" (watching) for "Nataf" (indigestion, disgust).

[FN#108] Here again we have the formula "Kala 'l-Rawi"=the reciter saith, showing the purpose of the MS. See Terminal Essay, p. 144.

[FN#109] It were well to remind the reader that "Khalifah" (never written "Khalif") is=a viceregent or vicar, i.e. of the Prophet of Allah, not of Allah himself, a sense which was especially deprecated by the Caliph Abubakr as "vicar" supposes l'absence du chef; or Dieu est present partout et a tout instant. Ibn Khal. ii. 496.

[FN#110] This tale, founded on popular belief in tribadism, has already been told in vol. vii. 130: in the W.M. MS. it occupies 23 pages (pp. 95- 118). Scott (vi. 343) has "Mesroor retired and brought in Ali Ibn Munsoor Damuskkee, who related to the Caliph a foolish narrative (!) of two lovers of Bussorah, each of whom was coy when the other wished to be kind." The respectable Britisher evidently cared not to "read between the lines."

[FN#111] In pop. parlance "Let us be off."

[FN#112] Arab. "Al-Afak" plur. of Ufk, "elegant" (as the grammarians say) for the world, the universe.

[FN#113] [In MS. "Rankah" or "Ranakah," probably for "Raunakah," which usually means "troubled,"; speaking of water, but which, according to Schiaparelli's Vocabulista, has also the meaning of "Raunak"=amenitas. As however "Ranakah" taken as fem. of "Ranak" shares with Raunakah the signification of "troubled," it may perhaps also be a parallel form to the latter in the second sense.—ST.]

[FN#114] The text has "Martabat Saltanah" (for Sultaniyah) which may mean a royal Divan. The "Martabah" is a mattress varying in size and thickness, stuffed with cotton and covered with cloths of various colours and the latter mostly original and admirable of figuration but now supplanted by the wretched printed calicoes of civilisation. It is placed upon the ground and garnished with cushions which are usually of length equally the width of the mattress and of a height measuring about half of that breadth. When the "Martabah" is placed upon its "Mastabah" (bench of masonry or timber) or upon its "Sarir" (a framework of "jarid" or midribs of the palm), it becomes the Diwan=divan.

[FN#115] In text "Bi-iza-huma;" lit. vis-a-vis to the twain.

[FN#116] These have occurred vol. i. 176: I quote Mr. Payne (i. 156).

[FN#117] In text "Hanna-kumu 'llah:" see "Hanian," vol. ii. 5.

[FN#118] This is usually a sign of grief, a symbolic act which dates from the days of the Heb. patriarchs (Gen. xxxvii. 29-34); but here it is the mark of strong excitement. The hand is placed within the collar and a strong pull tears the light stuff all down the breast. Economical men do this in a way which makes darning easy.

[FN#119] [The MS. is very indistinct in this place, but by supplying "'an" after "ghibta" and reading "'ayni" for "'anni," I have no doubt the words are: Wa in ghibta 'an 'ayni fa-ma ghibta 'an kalbi=and if thou art absent from my eyes, yet thou are not absent from my heart. The metre is Tawil and the line has occurred elsewhere in The Nights.—ST.]

[FN#120] I have already noted that "Hilal" is the crescent (waxing or waning) for the first and last two or three nights: during the rest of the lunar month the lesser light is called "Kamar."

[FN#121] The sense is that of Coleridge.—

To be beloved is all I need; And whom I love I love indeed.

[FN#122] There is something wrong in the text. I cannot help again drawing the reader's attention to the skilful portraiture of the model Moslem Minister, the unfortunate Ja'afar. He is never described in the third person; but the simple dialogue always sets him off as a wise, conciliatory, benevolent, loveable and man-loving character, whose constant object is to temper the harshness and headstrong errors of a despotic master as the Caliph is represented to be by way of showing his kingliness. See vol. i., 102. [The MS. is certainly wrong here, but perhaps it can be righted a little. It has: "Kad yakun Z R H ahad fi Mal jazil wa harab al-Maz'un," etc., where Sir Richard reads "zarra-hu"=he harmed, and Mazghun=the hated one, i.e. enemy. I have a strong suspicion that in the original from which our scribe copied, the two words were "zamin" and "al-Mazmun." Zamin in the Arabic character would be {Arabic characters} The loop for the "m," if made small, is easily overlooked; the curve of the "n," if badly traced, can as easily be mistaken for "r" and a big dot inside the "n" might appear like a blotted "h". Mazmun would become "Maz'un" by simply turning the "m" loop upwards instead of downwards, an error the converse of which is so frequently committed in printed texts. Curiously enough the same error occurs p. 192 of the MS., where we shall find "na' 'al" with two 'Ayns instead of "na'mal" with 'Ayn and Mim. If this conjecture is correct the sense would be: Haply he may have stood security for someone for much money, and the person for whom security was given, took to flight, etc. For "zamin" with the acc. see Ibn Jubair ed. by Wright, 77, 2. I may say on this occasion, that my impression of the Montague MS. is, that it is a blundering copy of a valuable though perhaps indistinctly written original.—ST.]

[FN#123] In text "'Aurat"=nakedness: see vol. vi. 30.

[FN#124] In Arab. "'Urrah": see Fatimah the Dung in vol. x. 1.

[FN#125] [In the MS. "bi-Wujuh al Fanijat al-Milah." The translator conjectures "al-fatihat," which he refers to "Wujuh." I read it "al-Ghanijat," in apposition with al-Milah, and render: the faces of the coquettish, the fair. See index under "Ghunj."—ST.]

[FN#126] In text "Ballat," the name still given to the limestone slabs cut in the Torah quarries South of Cairo. The word is classical, we find in Ibn Khaldun (vol. i. p. 21, Fr. Trans.) a chief surnomme el-Balt (le pave), a cause de sa fermete et de sa force de caractere.

[FN#127] In text "Usburu"=be ye patient, the cry addressed to passengers by the Grandee's body-guard.

[FN#128] The "young person" here begins a tissue of impertinences which are supposed to show her high degree and her condescension in mating with the jeweller. This is still "pretty Fanny's way" amongst Moslems.

[FN#129] A "swear" peculiarly feminine, and never to be used by men.

[FN#130] In text "'Ala-Akli:" the whole passage is doubtful. [I would read, and translate the passage as follows: "Ma tastahli 'ala haza illa shay la tazann-hu allazi (for "allati," see Suppl. iv. 197) kayyamtini (2nd fem. sing.) min 'ala akli wa ana zanantu innahu man yujab la-hu al-kiyam; thumma iltifatat illayya wa kalat hakaza sirtu ana la-ghazarat al-thiyab al-wasikhat min al-fakr fa-hal ma ghasalta wajhak?"=Thou deservest not for this but a thing thou doest not fancy, thou who madest me rise from before my food, while I thought he was one to whom rising up is due. Then she turned towards me, saying, "Am I then in this manner (i.e. like thyself) a bundle of clothes all dirty from poverty, and hast thou therefore ("fa" indicating the effect of a cause) not washed thy face?" Or to put it in more intelligible English: "Am I then like thyself a heap of rags that thou shouldst come to me with unwashed face?"—ST.]

[FN#131] Of the respect due to food Lane (M. E. chapt. xiii.) tells the following tale: "Two servants were sitting at the door of their master's house, eating their dinner, when they observed a Mameluke Bey with several of his officers, riding along the streets towards them. One of these servants rose, from respect to the Grandee, who regarding him with indignation, exclaimed, Which is the more worthy of respect, the bread which is before thee or myself? Without awaiting a reply, he made, it is said, a well-understood signal with his hand; and the unintending offender was beheaded on the spot." I may add that the hero of the story is said to have been the celebrated "Daftardar" whose facetious cruelties have still a wide fame in the Nile Valley.