[FN#339] Arab. "Jamiz" (in Egypt "Jammayz") = the fruit of the true sycomore (F. Sycomorus) a magnificent tree which produces a small tasteless fig, eaten by the poorer classes in Egypt and by monkeys. The "Tin" or real fig here is the woman's parts; the "mulberry- fig," the anus. Martial (i. 65) makes the following distinction:—

Dicemus ficus, quas scimus in arbore nasci, Dicemus ficos, Caeciliane, tuos.

And Modern Italian preserves a difference between fico and fica.

[FN#340] Arab. "Ghaniyat Azara" (plur. of Azra = virgin): the former is properly a woman who despises ornaments and relies on "beauty unadorned" (i.e. in bed).

[FN#341] "Nihil usitatius apud monachos, cardinales, sacrificulos," says Johannes de la Casa Beneventius Episcopus, quoted by Burton Anat. of Mel. lib. iii. Sect. 2; and the famous epitaph on the Jesuit,

Ci-git un Jesuite: Passant, serre les fesses et passe vite!

[FN#342] Arab. "Kiblah"=the fronting-place of prayer, Meccah for Moslems, Jerusalem for Jews and early Christians. See Pilgrimage (ii. 321) for the Moslem change from Jerusalem to Meccah and ibid. (ii. 213) for the way in which the direction was shown.

[FN#343] The Koran says (chaps. ii.): "Your wives are your tillage: go in therefore unto your tillage in what manner so ever ye will." Usually this is understood as meaning in any posture, standing or sitting, lying, backwards or forwards. Yet there is a popular saying about the man whom the woman rides (vulg. St. George, in France, le Postillon); "Cursed be who maketh woman Heaven and himself earth!" Some hold the Koranic passage to have been revealed in confutation of the Jews, who pretended that if a man lay with his wife backwards, he would beget a cleverer child. Others again understand it of preposterous venery, which is absurd: every ancient law-giver framed his code to increase the true wealth of the people—population—and severely punished all processes, like onanism, which impeded it. The Persians utilise the hatred of women for such misuse when they would force a wive to demand a divorce and thus forfeit her claim to Mahr (dowry); they convert them into catamites till, after a month or so, they lose all patience and leave the house.

[FN#344] Koran lit 9: "He will be turned aside from the Faith (or Truth) who shall be turned aside by the Divine decree;" alluding, in the text, to the preposterous venery her lover demands.

[FN#345] Arab. "Futuh" meaning openings, and also victories, benefits. The lover congratulates her on her mortifying self in order to please him.

[FN#346] "And the righteous work will be exalt": (Koran xxxv. 11) applied ironically.

[FN#347] A prolepsis of Tommy Moore:—

Your mother says, my little Venus, There's something not quite right between us, And you're in fault as much as I, Now, on my soul, my little Venus, I swear 'twould not be right between us, To let your mother tell a lie.

But the Arab is more moral than Mr. Little. as he purposes to repent.

[FN#348] Arab. "Khunsa" flexible or flaccid, from Khans=bending inwards, i.e. the mouth of a water-skin before drinking. Like Mukhannas, it is also used for an effeminate man, a passive sodomite and even for a eunuch. Easterns still believe in what Westerns know to be an impossibility, human beings with the parts and proportions of both sexes equally developed and capable of reproduction; and Al-Islam even provides special rules for them (Pilgrimage iii. 237). We hold them to be Buffon's fourth class of (duplicate) monsters belonging essentially to one or the other sex, and related to its opposite only by some few characteristics. The old Greeks dreamed, after their fashion, a beautiful poetic dream of a human animal uniting the contradictory beauties of man and woman. The duality of the generative organs seems an old Egyptian tradition, at least we find it in Genesis (i. 27) where the image of the Deity is created male and female, before man was formed out of the dust of the ground (ii. 7). The old tradition found its way to India (if the Hindus did not borrow the idea from the Greeks); and one of the forms of Mahadeva, the third person of their triad, is entitled "Ardhanari"=the Half-woman, which has suggested to them some charming pictures. Europeans, seeing the left breast conspicuously feminine, have indulged in silly surmises about the "Amazons."

[FN#349] This is a mere phrase for our "dying of laughter": the queen was on her back. And as Easterns sit on carpets, their falling back is very different from the same movement off a chair.

[FN#350] Arab. "Ismid," the eye-powder before noticed.

[FN#351] When the Caliph (e.g. Al-Ta'i li'llah) bound a banner to a spear and handed it to an officer, he thereby appointed him Sultan or Viceregent.

[FN#352] Arab. "Shaib al-inghaz"=lit. a gray beard who shakes head in disapproval.

[FN#353] Arab. "Ayat" = the Hebr. "Ototh," signs, wonders or Koranic verses.

[FN#354] The Chapter "Al-Ikhlas" i.e. clearing (oneself from any faith but that of Unity) is No. cxii. and runs thus:—

Say, He is the One God! The sempiternal God, He begetteth not, nor is He begot, And unto Him the like is not.

It is held to be equal in value to one-third of the Koran, and is daily used in prayer. Mr. Rodwell makes it the tenth.

[FN#355] The Lady Budur shows her noble blood by not objecting to her friend becoming her Zarrat (sister-wife). This word is popularly derived from "Zarar"=injury; and is vulgarly pronounced in Egypt "Durrah" sounding like Durrah = a parrot (see Burckhardt's mistake in Prov. 314). The native proverb says, "Ayshat al-durrah murrah," the sister-wife hath a bitter life. We have no English equivalent; so I translate indifferently co-wife, co-consort, sister-wife or sister in wedlock.

[FN#356] Lane preserves the article "El-Amjad" and "El-As'ad;" which is as necessary as to say "the John" or "the James," because neo-Latins have "il Giovanni" or "il Giacomo." In this matter of the article, however, it is impossible to lay down a universal rule: in some cases it must be preserved and only practice in the language can teach its use. For instance, it is always present in Al-Bahrayn and al-Yaman; but not necessarily so with Irak and Najd.

[FN#357] It is hard to say why this ugly episode was introduced. It is a mere false note in a tune pretty enough.

[FN#358] The significance of this action will presently appear.

[FN#359] An "Hadis."

[FN#360] Arab. "Sabb" = using the lowest language of abuse. chiefly concerning women-relatives and their reproductive parts.

[FN#361] The reader will note in the narration concerning the two Queens the parallelism of the Arab's style which recalls that of the Hebrew poets. Strings of black silk are plaited into the long locks (an "idiot-fringe" being worn over the brow) because a woman is cursed "who joineth her own hair to the hair of another" (especially human hair). Sending the bands is a sign of affectionate submission; and, in extremes" cases the hair itself is sent.

[FN#362] i.e., suffer similar pain at the spectacle, a phrase often occurring.

[FN#363] i.e., when the eye sees not, the heart grieves not.

[FN#364] i.e., unto Him we shall return, a sentence recurring in almost every longer chapter of the Koran.

[FN#365] Arab. "Kun," the creative Word (which, by the by, proves the Koran to be an uncreated Logos); the full sentence being "Kun fa kana" = Be! and it became. The origin is evidently, "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light" (Gen. i. 3); a line grand in its simplicity and evidently borrowed from the Egyptians, even as Yahveh (Jehovah) from "Ankh"=He who lives (Brugsch Hist. ii. 34).

[FN#366] i.e. but also for the life and the so-called "soul."

[FN#367] Arab. "Layali"=lit. nights which, I have said, is often applied to the whole twenty-four hours. Here it is used in the sense of "fortune" or "fate ;" like "days" and "days and nights."

[FN#368] Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr a nephew of Ayishah, who had rebuilt the Ka'abah in A.H. 64 (A.D. 683), revolted (A.D. 680) against Yezid and was proclaimed Caliph at Meccah. He was afterwards killed (A.D. 692) by the famous or infamous Hajjaj general of Abd al-Malik bin Marwan, the fifth Ommiade, surnamed "Sweat of a stone" (skin-flint) and "Father of Flies," from his foul breath. See my Pilgrimage, etc. (iii. 192-194), where are explained the allusions to the Ka'abah and the holy Black Stone.

[FN#369] These lines are part of an elegy on the downfall of one of the Moslem dynasties in Spain, composed in the twelfth century by Ibn Abdun al-Andalusi. The allusion is to the famous conspiracy of the Kharijites (the first sectarians in Mohammedanism) to kill Ah, Mu'awiyah and Amru (so written but pronounced "Amr") al-As, in order to abate intestine feuds m Al-Islam. Ali was slain with a sword-cut by Ibn Muljam a name ever damnable amongst the Persians; Mu'awiyah escaped with a wound and Kharijah, the Chief of Police at Fustat or old Cairo was murdered by mistake for Amru. After this the sectarian wars began.

[FN#370] Arab. "Sarab"= (Koran, chaps. xxiv.) the reek of the Desert, before explained. It is called "Lama," the shine, the loom, in Al-Hariri. The world is compared with the mirage, the painted eye and the sword that breaks in the sworder's hand.

[FN#371] Arab. "Dunya," with the common alliteration "daniyah" (=Pers. "dun"), in prose as well as poetry means the things or fortune of this life opp. to "Akhirah"=future life.

[FN#372] Arab. "Walgh," a strong expression primarily denoting the lapping of dogs; here and elsewhere "to swill, saufen."

[FN#373] The lines are repeated from Night ccxxi. I give Lane's version (ii. 162) by way of contrast and—warning. [FN#374] "Sahirah" is the place where human souls will be gathered on Doom-day: some understand by it the Hell Sa'ir (No. iv.) intended for the Sabians or the Devils generally.

[FN#375] His eyes are faded like Jacob's which, after weeping for Joseph, "became white with mourning" (Koran, chaps. xxi.). It is a stock comparison.

[FN#376] The grave.

[FN#377] Arab. "Sawwan" (popularly pronounced Suwan) ="Syenite" from Syrene; generally applied to silex, granite or any hard stone.

[FN#378] A proceeding fit only for thieves and paupers: "Alpinism" was then unknown. "You come from the mountain" (al-Jabal) means, "You are a clod-hopper"; and "I will sit upon the mountain"=turn anchorite or magician. (Pilgrimage i. 106.)

[FN#379] Corresponding with wayside chapels in Catholic countries. The Moslem form would be either a wall with a prayer niche (Mibrab) fronting Meccah-wards or a small domed room. These little oratories are often found near fountains, streams or tree-clumps where travellers would be likely to alight. I have described one in Sind ("Scinde or the Unhappy Valley" i. 79), and have noted that scrawling on the walls is even more common in the East than in the West; witness the monuments of old Egypt bescribbled by the Greeks and Romans. Even the paws of the Sphinx are covered with such graffiti; and those of Ipsambul or Abu Simbal have proved treasures to epigraphists.

[FN#380] In tales this characterises a Persian; and Hero Rustam is always so pictured.

[FN#381] The Parsis, who are the representatives of the old Guebres, turn towards the sun and the fire as their Kiblah or point of prayer; all deny that they worship it. But, as in the case of saints' images, while the educated would pray before them for edification (Labia) the ignorant would adore them (Dulia); and would make scanty difference between the "reverence of a servant" and the "reverence of a slave." The human sacrifice was quite contrary to Guebre, although not to Hindu, custom; although hate and vengeance might prompt an occasional murder.

[FN#382] These oubliettes are common in old eastern houses as in the medieval Castles of Europe, and many a stranger has met his death in them. They are often so well concealed that even the modern inmates are not aware of their existence.

[FN#383] Arab. "Bakk"; hence our "bug" whose derivation (like that of "cat" "dog" and "hog") is apparently unknown to the dictionaries, always excepting M. Littre's.

[FN#384] i.e. thy beauty is ever increasing.

[FN#385] Alluding, as usual, to the eye-lashes, e.g.

An eyelash arrow from an eyebrow bow.

[FN#386] Lane (ii. 168) reads:—"The niggardly female is protected by her niggardness;" a change of "Nahilah" (bee-hive) into "Bakhilah" (she skin flint).

[FN#387] Koran iv. 38. The advantages are bodily strength, understanding and the high privilege of Holy War. Thus far, and thus far only, woman amongst Moslems is "lesser

[FN#388] Arab. "Amir Yakhur," a corruption of "Akhor"=stable (Persian).

[FN#389] A servile name in Persian, meaning "the brave," and a title of honour at the Court of Delhi when following the name. Many English officers have made themselves ridiculous (myself amongst the number) by having it engraved on their seal-rings, e.g. Brown Sahib Bahadur. To write the word "Behadir" or "Bahadir" is to adopt the wretched Turkish corruption.

[FN#390] "Jerry Sneak" would be the English reader's comment; but in the East all charges are laid upon women.

[FN#391] Here the formula means "I am sorry for it, but I couldn't help it."

[FN#392] A noble name of the Persian Kings (meaning the planet Mars) corrupted in Europe to Varanes.

[FN#393] Arab. "Jallab," one of the three muharramat or forbiddens, the Harik al-hajar (burner of stone) the Kati' al-shajar (cutter of trees, without reference to Hawarden N. B.) and the Bayi' al-bashar (seller of men, vulg. Jallab). The two former worked, like the Italian Carbonari, in desert places where they had especial opportunities for crime. (Pilgrimage iii. 140.) None of these things must be practiced during Pilgrimage on the holy soil of Al-Hijaz—not including Jeddah.

[FN#394] The verses contain the tenets of the Murjiy sect which attaches infinite importance to faith and little or none to works. Sale (sect. viii.) derives his "Morgians" from the "Jabrians" (Jabari), who are the direct opponents of the "Kadarians" (Kadari), denying free will and free agency to man and ascribing his actions wholly to Allah. Lane (ii. 243) gives the orthodox answer to the heretical question:—

Water could wet him not if God please guard His own; * Nor need man care though bound of hands in sea he's thrown: But if His Lord decree that he in sea be drowned; * He'll drown albeit in the wild and wold he wone.

It is the old quarrel between Predestination and Freewill which cannot be solved except by assuming a Law without a Lawgiver.

[FN#395] Our proverb says: Give a man luck and throw him into the sea.

[FN#396] As a rule Easterns, I repeat, cover head and face when sleeping especially in the open air and moonlight. Europeans find the practice difficult, and can learn it only by long habit.

[FN#397] Pers. = a flower-garden. In Galland, Bahram has two daughters, Bostama and Cavam a. In the Bres. Edit. the daughter is "Bostan" and the slave-girl "Kawam."

[FN#398] Arab. "Kahil"=eyes which look as if darkened with antimony: hence the name of the noble Arab breed of horses "Kuhaylat" (Al-Ajuz, etc.).

[FN#399] "As'ad"=more (or most) fortunate.

[FN#400] This is the vulgar belief, although Mohammed expressly disclaimed the power in the Koran (chaps. xiii. 8), "Thou art commissioned to be a preacher only and not a worker of miracles." "Signs" (Arab. Ayat) may here also mean verses of the Koran, which the Apostle of Allah held to be his standing miracles. He despised the common miracula which in the East are of everyday occurrence and are held to be easy for any holy man. Hume does not believe in miracles because he never saw one. Had he travelled in the East he would have seen (and heard of) so many that his scepticism (more likely that testimony should be false than miracles be true) would have been based on a firmer foundation. It is one of the marvels of our age that whilst two-thirds of Christendom (the Catholics and the "Orthodox" Greeks) believe in "miracles" occurring not only in ancient but even in our present days, the influential and intelligent third (Protestant) absolutely "denies the fact."

[FN#401] Arab. "Al-Shahadatani"; testifying the Unity and the Apostleship.

THE END