When it was the Nine Hundred and Eighty-sixth Night, She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Abdullah bin Fazil said to his brothers, "Rejoice ye in the prospect of comfort and gladness." And when they heard his words they fell to whining with the whining of dogs, and rubbed their jowls against his feet, as if blessing him and humbling themselves before him. He mourned over them and took to stroking their backs till supper time; and when they set on the trays he bade the dogs sit. So they sat down and ate with him from the tray, whilst his officers stood gaping and marvelling at his eating with dogs and all said, "Is he mad or are his wits gone wrong? How can the Viceroy of Bassorah city, he who is greater than a Wazir, eat with dogs? Knoweth he not that the dog is unclean?[FN#538]" And they stared at the dogs, as they ate with him as servants eat with their lords,[FN#539] knowing not that they were his brothers; nor did they cease staring at them, till they had made an end of eating, when Abdullah washed his hands and the dogs also put out their paws and washed; whereupon all who were present began to laugh at them and to marvel, saying, one to other, "Never in our lives saw we dogs eat and wash their paws after eating!" Then the dogs sat down on the divans beside Abdullah, nor dared any ask him of this; and thus the case lasted till midnight, when he dismissed the attendants and lay down to sleep and the dogs with him, each on a couch; whereupon the servants said one to other, "Verily, he hath lain down to sleep and the two dogs are lying with him." Quoth another, "Since he hath eaten with the dogs from the same tray, there is no harm in their sleeping with him; and this is naught save the fashion of madmen." Moreover, they ate not anything of the food which remained in the tray, saying, "'Tis unclean." Such was their case; but as for Abdullah, ere he could think, the earth clave asunder and out rose Sa'idah, who said to him, "O Abdullah, why hast thou not beaten them this night and why hast thou undone the collars from their necks? Hast thou acted on this wise perversely and in mockery of my commandment? But I will at once beat thee and spell thee into a dog like them." He replied, "O my lady, I conjure thee by the graving upon the seal-ring of Solomon David-son (on the twain be peace!) have patience with me till I tell thee my cause and after do with me what thou wilt." Quoth she, "Say on," and quoth he, "The reason of my not punishing them is only this. The King of mankind, the Commander of the Faithful, the Caliph Harun al-Rashid, ordered me not to beat them this night and took of me oaths and covenants to that effect; and he saluteth thee with the salam and hath committed to me a mandate under his own hand, which he bade me give thee. So I obeyed his order for to obey the Commander of the Faithful is obligatory; and here is the mandate. Take it and read it and after work thy will." She replied "Hither with it!" So he gave her the letter and she opened it and read as follows, "In the name of Allah, the Compassionating, the Compassionate! From the King of mankind, Harun al-Rashid, to the daughter of the Red King, Sa'idah! But, after. Verily, this man hath forgiven his brothers and hath waived his claim against them, and we have enjoined them to reconciliation. Now, when reconciliation ruleth, retribution is remitted, and if you of the Jinn contradict us in our commandments, we will contrary you in yours and traverse your ordinances; but, an ye obey our bidding and further our orders, we will indeed do the like with yours. Wherefore I bid thee hurt them no hurt, and if thou believe in Allah and in His Apostle, it behoveth thee to obey and us to command.[FN#540] So an thou spare them, I will requite thee with that whereto my Lord shall enable me; and the token of obedience is that thou remove thine enchantment from these two men, so they may come before me to- morrow, free. But an thou release them not, I will release them in thy despite, by the aid of Almighty Allah." When she had read the letter, she said, "O Abdullah, I will do nought till I go to my sire and show him the mandate of the monarch of mankind and return to thee with the answer in haste." So saying, she signed with her hand to the earth, which clave open and she disappeared therein, whilst Abdullah's heart was like to fly for joy and he said, "Allah advance the Commander of the Faithful!" As for Sa'idah, she went in to her father; and, acquainting him with that which had passed, gave him the Caliph's letter, which he kissed and laid on his head. Then he read it and understanding its contents said, "O my daughter, verily, the ordinance of the monarch of mankind obligeth us and his commandments are effectual over us, nor can we disobey him: so go thou and release the two men forth-with and say to them, 'Ye are freed by the intercession of the monarch of mankind.' For, should he be wroth with us, he would destroy us to the last of us; so do not thou impose on us that which we are unable." Quoth she "O my father, if the monarch of mankind were wroth with us, what could he do with us?"; and quoth her sire, "He hath power over us for several reasons. In the first place, he is a man and hath thus pre-eminence over us[FN#541]; secondly he is the Vicar of Allah; and thirdly, he is constant in praying the dawn-prayer of two bows[FN#542]; therefore were all the tribes of the Jinn assembled together against him from the Seven Worlds they could do him no hurt. But he, should he be wroth with us would pray the dawn-prayer of two bows and cry out upon us one cry, when we should all present ourselves before him obediently and be before him as sheep before the butcher. If he would, he could command us to quit our abiding-places for a desert country wherein we might not endure to sojourn; and if he desired to destroy us, he would bid us destroy ourselves, whereupon we should destroy one another. wherefore we may not disobey his bidding for, if we did this, he would consume us with fire nor could we flee from before him to any asylum. Thus is it with every True Believer who is persistent in praying the dawn-prayer of two bows; his commandment is effectual over us: so be not thou the means of our destruction, because of two mortals, but go forthright and release them, ere the anger of the Commander of the Faithful fall upon us." So she returned to Abdullah and acquainted him with her father's words, saying, "Kiss for us the hands of the Prince of True Believers and seek his approval for us." Then she brought out the tasse and filling it with water, conjured over it and uttered words which might not be understood; after which she sprinkled the dogs with the water saying, "Quit the form of dogs and return to the shape of men!" Whereupon they became men as before and the spell of the enchantment was loosed from them. Quoth they, "I testify that there is no god but the God and I testify that Mohammed is the Apostle of God!" Then they fell on their brother's feet and hands, kissing them and beseeching his forgiveness: but he said, "Do ye forgive me;" and they both repented with sincere repentance, saying, "Verily, the damned Devil lured us and covetise deluded us: but our Lord hath requited us after our deserts, and forgiveness is of the signs of the noble." And they went on to supplicate their brother and weep and profess repentance for that which had befallen him from them[FN#543]. Then quoth he to them, "What did ye with my wife whom I brought from the City of Stone?" Quoth they, "When Satan tempted us and we cast thee into the sea, there arose strife between us, each saying, I will have her to wife. Now when she heard these words and beheld our contention, she knew that we had thrown thee into the sea; so she came up from the cabin and said to us, 'Contend not because of me, for I will not belong to either of you. My husband is gone into the sea and I will follow him.' So saying, she cast herself overboard and died." Exclaimed Abdullah, "In very sooth she died a martyr[FN#544]! But there is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great!" Then he wept for her with sore weeping and said to his brothers, "It was not well of you to do this deed and bereave me of my wife." They answered, "Indeed, we have sinned, but our Lord hath requited us our misdeed and this was a thing which Allah decreed unto us, ere He created us." And he accepted their excuse; but Sa'idah said to him, "Have they done all these things to thee and wilt thou forgive them?" He replied, "O my sister, whoso hath power[FN#545] and spareth, for Allah's reward he prepareth." Then said she, "Be on thy guard against them, for they are traitors;" and fare-welled him and fared forth.—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

When it was the Nine Hundred and Eighty-seventh Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Abdullah, when Sa'idah warned him and blessed him and went her ways, passed the rest of the night with his brothers and on the morrow, he sent them to the Hammam and clad each of them, on his coming forth, in a suit worth a hoard of money. Then he called for the tray of food and they set it before him and he ate, he and his brothers. When his attendants saw the twain and knew them for his brothers they saluted them and said to him, "O our lord, Allah give thee joy of thy reunion with thy dear brothers! Where have they been this while?" He replied, "It was they whom ye saw in the guise of dogs; praise be to Allah who hath delivered them from prison and grievous torment!" Then he carried them to the Divan of the Caliph and kissing ground before Al-Rashid wished him continuance of honour and fortune and surcease of evil and enmity. Quoth the Caliph, "Welcome, O Emir Abdullah! Tell me what hath befallen thee." And quoth he, "O Commander of the Faithful (whose power Allah increase!) when I carried my brothers home to my lodging, my heart was at rest concerning them, because thou hadst pledged thyself to their release and I said in myself, 'Kings fail not to attain aught for which they strain, inasmuch as the divine favour aideth them.' So I took off the collars from their necks, putting my trust in Allah, and ate with them from the same tray, which when my suite saw, they made light of my wit and said each to other, 'He is surely mad! How can the governor of Bassorah who is greater than the Wazir, eat with dogs?' Then they threw away what was in the tray, saying, 'We will not eat the dogs' orts.' And they went on to befool my reason, whilst I heard their words, but returned them no reply because of their unknowing that the dogs were my brothers. When the hour of sleep came, I sent them away and addressed myself to sleep; but, ere I was ware, the earth clave in sunder and out came Sa'idah, the Red King's daughter, enraged against me, with eyes like fire." And he went on to relate to the Caliph all what had passed between him and her and her father and how she had transmewed his brothers from canine to human form, adding, "And here they are before thee, O Commander of the Faithful!" The Caliph looked at them and seeing two young men like moons, said, "Allah requite thee for me with good, O Abdullah, for that thou hast acquainted me with an advantage[FN#546] I knew not! Henceforth, Inshallah, I will never leave to pray these two-bow orisons before the breaking of the dawn, what while I live." Then he reproved Abdullah's brothers for their past transgressions against him and they excused themselves before the Caliph, who said, "Join hands[FN#547] and forgive one another and Allah pardon what is past!" Upon which he turned to Abdullah and said to him, "O Abdullah, make thy brothers thine assistants and be careful of them." Then he charged them to be obedient to their brother and bade them return to Bassorah after he had bestowed on them abundant largesse. So they went down from the Caliph's Divan whilst he rejoiced in this advantage he had obtained by the action aforesaid, to wit, persistence in praying two inclinations before dawn, and exclaimed, "He spake truth who said, 'The misfortune of one tribe fortuneth another tribe.'"[FN#548] On this wise befel it to them from the Caliph; but as regards Abdullah, he left Baghdad carrying with him his brothers in all honour and dignity and increase of quality, and fared on till they drew near Bassorah, when the notables and chief men of the place came out to meet them and after decorating the city brought them thereinto with a procession which had not its match and all the folk shouted out blessings on Abdullah as he scattered amongst them silver and gold. None, however, took heed to his brothers; wherefore jealousy and envy entered their hearts, for all he entreated them tenderly as one tenders an ophthalmic eye; but the more he cherished them, the more they redoubled in hatred and envy of him: and indeed it is said on the subject,

"I'd win good will of every one, but whoso envies me * Will not be won on any wise and makes mine office hard: How gain the gree of envious wight who coveteth my good, * When naught will satisfy him save to see my good go marr'd?"

Then he gave each a concubine that had not her like, and eunuchs and servants and slaves white and black, of each kind forty. He also gave each of them fifty steeds all thoroughbreds and they got them guards and followers; and he assigned to them revenues and appointed them solde and stipends and made them his assistants, saying to them, "O my brothers, I and you are equal and there is no distinction between me and you twain,"—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

When it was the Nine Hundred and Eighty-eighth Night,

She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Abdullah assigned stipends to his brothers and made them his assistants, saying, "O my brothers, I and you are equal and there is no distinction between me and you twain, and after Allah and the Caliph, the commandment is mine and yours. So rule you at Bassorah in my absence and in my presence, and your commandments shall be effectual; but look that ye fear Allah in your ordinances and beware of oppression, which if it endure depopulateth; and apply yourselves to justice, for justice, if it be prolonged, peopleth a land. Oppress not the True Believers, or they will curse you and ill report of you will reach the Caliph, wherefore dishonour will betide both me and you. Go not therefore about to violence any, but whatso ye greed for of the goods of the folk, take it from my goods, over and above that whereof ye have need; for 'tis not unknown to you what is handed down in the Koran of prohibition versets on the subject of oppression and Allah-gifted is he who said these couplets,

'Oppression ambusheth in sprite of man * Whom naught withholdeth save the lack of might: The sage shall ne'er apply his wits to aught * Until befitting time direct his sight: The tongue of wisdom woneth in the heart; * And in his mouth the tongue of foolish wight. Who at occasion's call lacks power to rise * Is slain by feeblest who would glut his spite. A man may hide his blood and breed, but aye * His deeds on darkest hiddens cast a light. Wights of ill strain with ancestry as vile * Have lips which never spake one word aright: And who committeth case to hands of fool * In folly proveth self as fond and light; And who his secret tells to folk at large * Shall rouse his foes to work him worst despight. Suffice the generous what regards his lot * Nor meddles he with aught regards him not'"

And he went on to admonish his brothers and bid them to equity and forbid them from tyranny, doubting not but they would love him the better for his boon of good counsel[FN#549] and he relied upon them and honoured them with the utmost honour; but notwithstanding all his generosity to them, they only waxed in envy and hatred of him, till, one day, the two being together alone, quoth Nasir to Mansur, "O my brother, how long shall we be mere subjects of our brother Abdullah, and he in this estate of lordship and worship? After being a merchant, he is become an Emir, and from being little, he is grown great: but we, we grow not great nor is there aught of respect or degree left us; for, behold, he laugheth at us and maketh us his assistants! What is the meaning of this? Is it not that we are his servants and under his subjection? But, long as he abideth in good case, our rank will never be raised nor shall we be aught of repute; wherefore we shall not fulfil our wish, except we slay him and win to his wealth, nor will it be possible to get his gear save after his death. So, when we have slain him, we shall become lords and will take all that is in his treasuries of gems and things of price and divide them between us. Then will we send the Caliph a present and demand of him the government of Cufah, and thou shalt be governor of Cufah and I of Bassorah. Thus each of us shall have formal estate and condition, but we shall never effect this, except we put him out of the world!" Answered Mansur, "Thou sayest sooth, but how shall we do to kill him?" Quoth Nasir, "We will make an entertainment in the house of one of us and invite him thereto and serve him with the uttermost service. Then will we sit through the night with him in talk and tell him tales and jests and rare stories till his heart melteth with sitting up when we will spread him a bed, that he may lie down to sleep. When he is asleep, we will kneel upon him and throttle him and throw him into the river; and on the morrow, we will say, 'His sister the Jinniyah came to him, as he sat chatting with us, and said to him, 'O thou scum of mankind, who art thou that thou shouldst complain of me to the Commander of the Faithful? Deemest thou that we dread him? As he is a King, so we too are Kings, and if he mend not his manners in our regard we will do him die by the foulest of deaths. But meantime I will slay thee, that we may see what the hand of the Prince of True Believers availeth to do.' So saying, she caught him up and clave the earth and disappeared with him which when we saw, we swooned away. Then we revived and we reck not what is become of him.' And saying this we will send to the Caliph and tell him the case and he will invest us with the government in his room. After awhile, we will send him a sumptuous present and seek of him the government of Cufah, and one of us shall abide in Bassorah and the other in Cufah. So shall the land be pleasant to us and we will be down upon the True Believers and win our wishes." And quoth Mansur, "Thou counsellest well, O my brother," and they agreed upon the murther. So Nasir made an entertainment and said to Abdullah, "O my brother, verily I am thy brother, and I would have thee hearten my heart thou and my brother Mansur and eat of my banquet in my house, so I may boast of thee and that it may be said, The Emir Abdullah hath eaten of his brother Nasir's guest meal; when my heart will be solaced by this best of boons." Abdullah replied, "So be it, O my brother; there is no distinction between me and thee and thy house is my house; but since thou invitest me, none refuseth hospitality save the churl." Then he turned to Mansur and said to him, "Wilt thou go with me to thy brother Nasir's house and we will eat of his feast and heal his heart?" Replied Mansur, "As thy head liveth, O my brother, I will not go with thee, unless thou swear to me that, after thou comest forth of brother Nasir's house, thou wilt enter my house and eat of my banquet! Is Nasir thy brother and am not I thy brother? So, even as thou heartenest his heart, do thou hearten mine." Answered Abdullah, "There is no harm in that: with love and gladly gree! When I come out from Nasir's house, I will enter thine, for thou art my brother even as he." So he kissed his hand and going forth of the Divan, made ready his feast. On the morrow, Abdullah took horse and repaired, with his brother Mansur and a company of his officers, to Nasir's house, where they sat down, he and Mansur and his many. Then Nasir set the trays before them and welcomed them; so they ate and drank and sat in mirth and merriment; after which the trays and the platters were removed and they washed their hands. They passed the day in feasting and wine-drinking and diversion and delight till night-fall, when they supped and prayed the sundown prayers, and the night orisons; after which they sat conversing and carousing, and Nasir and Mansur fell to telling stories whilst Abdullah hearkened. Now they three were alone in the pavilion, the rest of the company being in another place, and they ceased not to tell quips and tales and rare adventures and anecdotes, till Abdullah's heart was dissolved within him for watching and sleep overcame him.—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

When it was the Nine Hundred and Eighty-ninth Night,

She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Abdullah was a-wearied with watching and wanted to sleep, they also lay beside him on another couch and waited till he wasdrowned in slumber and when they were certified thereof they arose and knelt upon him: whereupon he awoke and seeing them kneeling on his breast, said to them, "What is this, O my brothers?" Cried they, "We are no brothers of thine, nor do we know thee unmannerly that thou art! Thy death is become better than thy life." Then they gripped him by the throat and throttled him, till he lost his senses and abode without motion; so that they deemed him dead. Now the pavilion wherein they were overlooked the river; so they cast him into the water; but, when he fell, Allah sent to his aid a dolphin[FN#550] who was accustomed to come under that pavilion because the kitchen had a window that gave upon the stream; and, as often as they slaughtered any beast there, it was their wont to throw the refuse into the river and the dolphin came and picked it up from the surface of the water; wherefore he ever resorted to the place. That day they had cast out much offal by reason of the banquet; so the dolphin ate more than of wont and gained strength. Hearing the splash of Abdullah's fall, he hastened to the spot, where he saw a son of Adam and Allah guided him so that he took the man on his back and crossing the current made with him for the other bank, where he cast his burthen ashore. Now the place where the dolphin cast up Abdullah was a well-beaten highway, and presently up came a caravan and finding him lying on the river bank, said, "Here is a drowned man, whom the river hath cast up;" and the travellers gathered around to gaze at the corpse. The Shaykh of the caravan was a man of worth, skilled in all sciences and versed in the mystery of medicine and, withal, sound of judgment: so he said to them, "O folk, what is the news?" They answered, "Here is a drowned man;" whereupon he went up to Abdullah and examining him, said to them, "O folk, there is life yet in this young man, who is a person of condition and of the sons of the great, bred in honour and fortune, and Inshallah there is still hope of him." Then he took him and clothing him in dry clothes warmed him before the fire; after which he nursed him and tended him three days' march till he revived; but he was passing feeble by reason of the shock, and the chief of the caravan proceeded to medicine him with such simples as he knew, what while they ceased not faring on till they had travelled thirty days' journey from Bassorah and came to a city in the land of the Persians, by name 'Aj.[FN#551] Here they alighted at a Khan and spread Abdullah a bed, where he lay groaning all night and troubling the folk with his groans. And when morning morrowed the concierge of the Khan came to the chief of the caravan and said to him, "What is this sick man thou hast with thee? Verily, he disturbeth us." Quoth the chief, "I found him by the way, on the river-bank and well nigh drowned; and I have tended him, but to no effect, for he recovereth not." Said the porter, "Show him to the Shaykhah[FN#552] Rjihah." "Who is this Religious?" asked the chief of the caravan, and the door-keeper answered, "There is with us a holy woman, a clean maid and a comely, called Rajihah, to whom they present whoso hath any ailment; and he passeth a single night in her house and awaketh on the morrow, whole and ailing nothing." Quoth the chief, "Direct me to her;" quoth the porter, "Take up thy sick man." So he and took up Abdullah and the doorkeeper forewent him, till he came to a hermitage, where he saw folk entering with many an ex voto offering and other folk coming forth, rejoicing. The porter went in, till he came to the curtain,[FN#553] and said, "Permission, O Shaykhah Rajihah! Take this sick man." Said she, "Bring him within the curtain;" and the porter said to Abdullah, "Enter." So he entered and looking upon the holy woman, saw her to be his wife whom he had brought from the City of Stone. And when he knew her she also knew him and saluted him and he returned her salam. Then said he, "Who brought thee hither?"; and she answered, "When I saw that thy brothers had cast thee away and were contending concerning me, I threw myself into the sea; but my Shaykh Al-Khizr Abu al-'Abbs took me up and brought me to this hermitage, where he gave me leave to heal the sick and bade cry in the city, 'Whoso hath any ailment, let him repair to the Shaykhah Rajihah;' and he also said to me, 'Tarry in this hermitage till the time betide, and thy husband shall come to thee here.' So all the sick used to flock to me and I rubbed them and shampoo'd them and they awoke on the morrow whole and sound; whereby the report of me became noised abroad among the folk, and they brought me votive gifts, so that I have with me abundant wealth. And now I live here in high honour and worship, and all the people of these parts seek my prayers." Then she rubbed him and by the ordinance of Allah the Most High, he became whole. Now Al-Khizr used to come to her every Friday night, and it chanced that the day of Abdullah's coming was a Thursday.[FN#554] Accordingly, when the night darkened he and she sat, after a supper of the richest meats, awaiting the coming of Al-Khizr, who made his appearance anon and carrying them forth of the hermitage, set them down in Abdullah's palace at Bassorah, where he left them and went his way. As soon as it was day, Abdullah examined the palace and knew it for his own; then, hearing the folk clamouring without, he looked forth of the lattice and saw his brothers crucified, each on his own cross. Now the reason of this was as ensueth. When they had thrown him into the Tigris, the twain arose on the morrow, weeping and saying, "Our brother! the Jinniyah hath carried off our brother!" Then they made ready a present and sent it to the Caliph, acquainting him with these tidings and suing from him the government of Bassorah. He sent for them and questioned them and they told him the false tale we have recounted, whereupon he was exceeding wroth.[FN#555] So that night he prayed a two-bow prayer before daybreak, as of his wont, and called upon the tribes of the Jinn, who came before him subject-wise, and he questioned them of Abdullah: when they sware to him that none of them had done him aught of hurt and said, "We know not what is become of him." Then came Sa'idah, daughter of the Red King, and acquainted the Caliph with the truth of Abdullah's case, and he dismissed the Jinn. On the morrow, he subjected Nasir and Mansur to the bastinado till they confessed, one against other: whereupon the Caliph was enraged with them and cried, "Carry them to Bassorah and crucify them there before Abdullah's palace." Such was their case; but as regards Abdullah, when he saw his brothers crucified, he commanded to bury them, then took horse and repairing to Baghdad, acquainted the Caliph with that which his brothers had done with him, from first to last and told him how he had recovered his wife; whereat Al-Rashid marvelled and summoning the Kazi and the witnesses, bade draw up the marriage- contract between Abdullah and the damsel whom he had brought from the City of Stone. So he went in to her and woned with her at Bassorah till there came to them the Destroyer of delights and the Severer of societies; and extolled be the perfection of the Living, who dieth not! Moreover, O auspicious King, I have heard a tale anent



End of Volume 9.



Arabian Nights, Volume 9 Footnotes



[FN#1] Arab. "Wa l rajma ghaybin:" lit. = without stone-throwing (conjecture) of one latent.

[FN#2] i.e. saying Bismillah, etc. See vol. v. 206.

[FN#3] Where he was to await her.

[FN#4] As a rule, amongst Moslems the rider salutes the man on foot and the latter those who sit. The saying in the text suggests the Christian byword anent Mohammed and the Mountain, which is, I need hardly say, utterly unknown to Mahommedans.

[FN#5] The story-teller does not remember that "the city-folk trust to the locking of the gates" (dccclxxxix.); and forgets to tell us that the Princess took the keys from the Wazir whom she had hocussed. In a carefully corrected Arabic Edition of The Nights, a book much wanted, the texts which are now in a mutilated state would be supplied with these details.

[FN#6] Which probably would not be the last administered to him by the Amazonian young person, who after her mate feared to approach the dead blackamoor must have known him to be cowardly as Cairenes generally are. Moreover, he had no shame in his poltroonery like the recreant Fellah-soldiers, in the wretched Sawkin campaign against the noble Sdni negroids, who excused their running away by saying, "We are Egyptians" i.e. too good men and Moslems to lose our lives as becomes you Franks and dog-Christians. Yet under Mohammed Ali the Great, Fellah-soldiers conquered the "colligated" Arabs (Pilgrimage iii. 48) of Al-Asir (Ophir) at Bissel and in Wahhabi-land and put the Turks to flight at the battle of Nazib, and the late General Johnmus assured me that he saved his command, the Ottoman cavalry in Syria, by always manoeuvring to refuse a pitched battle. But Mohammed Ali knew his men. He never failed to shoot a runaway, and all his officers, even the lieutenants, were Turks or Albanians. Sa'id Pasha was the first to appoint Fellah-officers and under their command the Egyptian soldier, one of the best in the East, at once became the worst. We have at last found the right way to make them fight, by officering them with Englishmen, but we must not neglect the shooting process whenever they dare to turn tail.

[FN#7] "Al-walhn" (as it should be printed in previous places, instead of Al-walahn) is certainly not a P.N. in this place.

[FN#8] Arab. "Kundur," Pers. and Arab. manna, mastich, frankincense, the latter being here meant.

[FN#9] So Emma takes the lead and hides her lover under her cloak during their flight to the place where they intended to lie concealed. In both cases the women are the men.

[FN#10] Or "Bartt," in which we recognise the German Berthold.

[FN#11] i.e. Head of Killaut which makes, from the Muht, "the name of a son of the sons of the Jinn and the Satans."

[FN#12] i.e. attacked her after a new fashion: see vol. i. 136.

[FN#13] i.e. Weevil's dung; hence Suez = Suways the little weevil, or "little Sus" from the Maroccan town: see The Mines of Midian p. 74 for a note on the name. Near Gibraltar is a fuimara called Guadalajara i.e. Wady al-Khara, of dung. "Barts" is evidently formed "on the weight" of "Bartt;" and his metonym is a caricature, a chaff fit for Fellahe.

[FN#14] Arab. "Al-Din al-a'raj," the perverted or falsified Faith, Christianity having been made obsolete and abolished by the Mission of Mohammed, even as Christianity claims to have superseded the Mosaic and Noachian dispensations. Moslems are perfectly logical in their deductions, but logic and truth do not always go together.

[FN#15] The "Breaker of Wind" (faswah - a fizzle, a silent crepitus) "son of Children's dung."

[FN#16] Arab. "Amm laka an 'alayk" lit. = either to thee (be the gain) or upon thee (be the loss). This truly Arabic idiom is varied in many ways.

[FN#17] In addition to what was noted in vol. iii. 100 and viii. 51, I may observe that in the "Masnavi" the "Baghdad of Nulliquity" is opposed to the Ubiquity of the World. The popular derivation is Bagh (the idol-god, the slav "Bog") and dd a gift, he gave (Persian). It is also called Al-Zaur = a bow, from the bend of the Tigris where it was built.

[FN#18] Arab. "Jawss" plur. of Jss lit. the spies.

[FN#19] The Caliph could not "see" her "sweetness of speech"; so we must understand that he addressed her and found out that she was fluent of tongue. But this idiomatic use of the word "see" is also found in the languages of Southern Europe: so Camoens (Lus. 1. ii.), "Ouvi * * * vereis" lit. = "hark, you shall see" which sounds Hibernian.

[FN#20] Here "Farz" (Koranic obligation which it is mortal sin to gainsay) follows whereas it should precede "Sunnat" (sayings and doings of the Apostle) simply because "Farz" jingles with "Arz" (earth).

[FN#21] Moslems, like modern Agnostics, hold that Jesus of Nazareth would be greatly scandalized by the claims to Godship advanced for him by his followers.

[FN#22] Koran ix. 33: See also v. 85. In the passage above quoted Mr. Rodwell makes the second "He" refer to the deity.

[FN#23] Koran xxvi. 88, 89. For a very indifferent version (and abridgment) of this speech, see Saturday Review, July 9, 1881.

[FN#24] Koran iv. 140.

[FN#25] Arab. "Furt" from the Arab. "Faruta" = being sweet, as applied to water. Al-Furtni = the two sweet (rivers), are the Tigris and Euphrates. The Greeks, who in etymology were satisfied with Greek, derived the latter from {Greek} (to gladden, laetificare, for which see Pliny and Strabo, although both are correct in explaining "Tigris") and Selden remarks hereon, "Talibus nugis nugantur Graeculi." But not only the "Graeculi"; e.g. Parkhurst's good old derivations from the Heb. "Farah" of fero, fructus, Freya (the Goddess), frayer (to spawn), friand, fry (of fish), etc., etc.

[FN#26] The great Caliph was a poet; and he spoke verses as did all his contemporaries: his lament over his slave-girl Haylanah (Helen) is quoted by Al-Suyuti, p. 305.

[FN#27] "The Brave of the Faith."

[FN#28] i.e., Saladin. See vol. iv. p. 116.

[FN#29] usually called the Horns of Hattin (classically Hittin) North of Tiberias where Saladin by good strategy and the folly of the Franks annihilated the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem. For details see the guide-books. In this action (June 23, 1187), after three bishops were slain in its defence, the last fragment of the True Cross (or rather the cross verified by Helena) fell into Moslem hands. The Christians begged hard for it, but Saladin, a conscientious believer, refused to return to them even for ransom "the object of their iniquitous superstition." His son, however, being of another turn, would have sold it to the Franks who then lacked money to purchase. It presently disappeared and I should not be surprised if it were still lying, an unknown and inutile lignum in some Cairene mosque.

[FN#30] Akk (Acre) was taken by Saladin on July 29, 1187. The Egyptian states that he was at Acre in 1184 or three years before the affair of Hattin (Night dcccxcv.).

[FN#31] Famous Sufis and ascetics of the second and third centuries A.H. For Bishr Barefoot, see vol. ii. p. 127. Al-Sakati means "the old-clothes man;" and the names of the others are all recorded in D'Herbelot.

[FN#32] i.e., captured, forced open their gates.

[FN#33] Arab. "Al-Shil" i.e. the seaboard of Syria; properly Phoenicia or the coast-lands of Southern Palestine. So the maritime lowlands of continental Zanzibar are called in the plur. Sawhil = "the shores" and the people Sawhl = Shore-men.

[FN#34] Arab. "Al-Khiznah" both in Mac. Edit. and Breslau x. 426. Mr. Payne has translated "tents" and says, "Saladin seems to have been encamped without Damascus and the slave-merchant had apparently come out and pitched his tent near the camp for the purposes of his trade." But I can find no notice of tents till a few lines below.

[FN#35] Bah al-Dn ibn Shaddd, then Kzi al-Askar (of the Army) or Judge-Advocate-General under Saladin.

[FN#36] i.e. "abide with" thy second husband, the Egyptian.

[FN#37] A descendant of Hshim, the Apostle's great-grandfather from whom the Abbasides were directly descended. The Ommiades were less directly akin to Mohammed, being the descendants of Hashim's brother, Abd al-Shams. The Hashimis were famed for liberality; and the quality seems to have been inherited. The first Hshim got his name from crumbling bread into the Sard or brewis of the Meccan pilgrims during "The Ignorance." He was buried at Ghazzah (Gaza) but his tomb was soon forgotten.

[FN#38] i.e. thy lover.

[FN#39] i.e. of those destined to hell; the especial home of Moslem suicides.

[FN#40] Arab. "Umml" (plur. of mil) viceroys or governors of provinces.

[FN#41] A town of Irk Arabi (Mesopotamia) between Baghdad and Bassorah built upon the Tigris and founded by Al-Hajjaj: it is so called because the "Middle" or half-way town between Basrah and Kufah. To this place were applied the famous lines:—

In good sooth a right noble race are they; Whose men "yea" can't say nor their women "nay."

[FN#42] i.e. robed as thou art.

[FN#43] i.e. his kinsfolk of the Hashimis.

[FN#44] See vol. ii. 24. {Vol2, FN#49}

[FN#45] Arab. "Sur'itu" = I was possessed of a Jinn, the common Eastern explanation of an epileptic fit long before the days of the Evangel. See vol. iv. 89.

[FN#46] Arab. "Z'ah," village, feof or farm.

[FN#47] Arab. "Tarkah."

[FN#48] "Most of the great Arab musicians had their own peculiar fashion of tuning the lute, for the purpose of extending its register or facilitating the accompaniment of songs composed in uncommon keys and rhythms or possibly of increasing its sonority, and it appears to have been a common test of the skill of a great musician, such as Ishac el-Mausili or his father Ibrahim, to require him to accompany a difficult song on a lute purposely untuned. As a (partial) modern instance of the practice referred to in the text, may be cited Paganini's custom of lowering or raising the G string of the violin in playing certain of his own compositions. According to the Kitab el-Aghani, Ishac el-Mausili is said to have familiarized himself, by incessant practice, with the exact sounds produced by each division of the strings of the four course lute of his day, under every imaginable circumstance of tuning." It is regrettable that Mr. Payne does not give us more of such notes.

[FN#49] See vol. vii. 363 for the use of these fumigations.

[FN#50] In the Mac. Edit. "Aylah" for Ubullah: the latter is one of the innumerable canals, leading from Bassorah to Ubullah-town a distance of twelve miles. Its banks are the favourite pleasure- resort of the townsfolk, being built over with villas and pavilions (now no more) and the orchards seem to form one great garden, all confined by one wall. See Jaubert's translation of Al-Idrisi, vol. i. pp. 368-69. The Aylah, a tributary of the Tigris, waters (I have noted) the Gardens of Bassorah.

[FN#51] Music having been forbidden by Mohammed who believed with the vulgar that the Devil has something to do with it. Even Paganini could not escape suspicion in the nineteenth century.

[FN#52] The "Mahr," or Arab dowry consists of two parts, one paid down on consummation and the other agreed to be paid to the wife, contingently upon her being divorced by her husband. If she divorce him this portion, which is generally less than the half, cannot be claimed by her; and I have related the Persian abomination which compels the woman to sacrifice her rights. See vol. iii. p. 304.

[FN#53] i.e. the cost of her maintenance during the four months of single blessedness which must or ought to elapse before she can legally marry again.

[FN#54] Lane translates most incompletely, "To Him, then, be praise, first and last!"

[FN#55] Lane omits because it is "extremely puerile" this most characteristic tale, one of the two oldest in The Nights which Al Mas'udi mentions as belonging to the Hazr Afsneh (See Terminal Essay). Von Hammer (Preface in Trbutien's translation p. xxv ) refers the fables to an Indian (Egyptian ?) origin and remarks, "sous le rapport de leur antiquit et de la morale qu'ils renferment, elles mritent la plus grande attention, mais d'un autre ct elles ne vent rien moins qu'amusantes."

[FN#56] Lane (iii. 579) writes the word "Shemmas": the Bresl. Edit. (viii. 4) "Shms."

[FN#57] i.e. When the tale begins.

[FN#58] Arab. "Khafz al-jinh" drooping the wing as a brooding bird. In the Koran ([vii. 88) lowering the wing" = demeaning oneself gently.

[FN#59] The Bresl. Edit. (viii. 3) writes "Kil'd": Trbutien (iii. 1) "le roi Djilia."

[FN#60] As the sequel shows the better title would be, ''The Cat and the Mouse" as in the headings of the Mac. Edit. and "What befel the Cat with the Mouse," as a punishment for tyranny. But all three Edits. read as in the text and I have not cared to change it. In our European adaptations the mouse becomes a rat.

[FN#61] So that I may not come to grief by thus daring to foretell evil things.

[FN#62] Arab. "Af''" pl. Af' = {Greek}, both being derived from 0. Egypt. Hfi, a worm, snake. Af' is applied to many species of the larger ophidia, all supposed to be venomous, and synonymous with "Sall" (a malignant viper) in Al Mutalammis. See Preston's Al Hariri, p. 101.

[FN#63] This apparently needless cruelty of all the feline race is a strong weapon in the hand of the Eastern "Dahr" who holds that the world is God and is governed by its own laws, in opposition to the religionists believing in a Personal Deity whom, moreover, they style the Merciful, the Compassionate, etc. Some Christians have opined that cruelty came into the world with "original Sin," but how do they account for the hideous waste of life and the fearful destructiveness of the fishes which certainly never learned anything from man? The mystery of the cruelty of things can be explained only by a Law without a Law-giver.

[FN#64] The three things not to be praised before death in Southern Europe are a horse, a priest and a woman; and it has become a popular saying that only fools prophesy before the event.

[FN#65] 'Arab. "Sawn" =butter melted and skimmed. See vol. i. 144.

[FN#66] This is a mere rechauff of the Barber's tale of his Fifth Brother (vol. i. 335). In addition to the authorities there cited I may mention the school reading-lesson in Addison's Spectator derived from Galland's version of "Alnaschar and his basket of Glass," the Persian version of the Hitopadesa or "Anwr-i-Suhayli (Lights of Canopes) by Husayn V'iz; the Foolish Sachali of "Indian Fairy Tales" (Miss Stokes); the allusion in Rabelais to the fate of the "Shoemaker and his pitcher of milk" and the "Dialogues of creatures moralised" (1516), whence probably La Fontaine drew his fable, "La Laitire et le Pot au lait."

[FN#67] Arab. ' 'Nsik," a religious, a man of Allah from Nask, devotion: somewhat like Slik (Dabistan iii. 251)

[FN#68] The well-known Egyptian term for a peasant, a husbandman, extending from the Nile to beyond Mount Atlas

[FN#69] This is again, I note, the slang sense of "'Azm," which in classical Arabic means

[FN#70] Arab "Adab" ; see vol. i. 132. It also implies mental discipline, the culture which leads to excellence, good manners and good morals; and it is sometimes synonymous with literary skill and scholarship. "Ilm al-Adab," says Haji Khalfah (Lane's Lex.), " is the science whereby man guards against error in the language of the Arabs spoken or written."

[FN#71] i.e. I esteem thee as thou deserves".

[FN#72] The style is intended to be worthy of the statesman. In my "Mission to Dahome" the reader will find many a similar scene.

[FN#73] The Bresl. Edit. (vol. viii. 22) reads "Turks" or "The Turk" in lieu of "many peoples."

[FN#74] i.e. the parents.

[FN#75] The humour of this euphuistic Wazirial speech, purposely made somewhat pompous, is the contrast between the unhappy Minister's praises and the result of his prognostication. I cannot refrain from complimenting Mr. Payne upon the admirable way in which he has attacked and mastered all the difficulties of its abstruser passages.

[FN#76] 'Arab. "Halumm" plur. of "Halumma"draw near! The latter form is used by some tribes for all three numbers; others affect a dual and a plural (as in the text). Preston ( Al Hariri, p. 210) derives it from Heb., but the geographers of Kufah and Basrah (who were not etymologists) are divided about its origin. He translates (p. 221) "Halumma Jarran = being the rest of the tale in continuation with this, i.e. in accordance with it like our "and so forth." And in p. 271, he makes HalummaHayya i.e. hither' (to prayer, etc.).

[FN#77] This is precisely the semi-fatalistic and wholly superstitious address which would find favour with Moslems of the present day they still prefer "calling upon Hercules" to putting their shoulders to the wheel. Mr. Redhouse had done good work in his day but of late he has devoted himself, especially in the "Mesnevi," to a rapprochement between Al-Islam and Christianity which both would reject (see supra, vol. vii. p. 135). The Calvinistic predestination as shown in the term "vessel of wrath," is but a feeble reflection of Moslem fatalism. On this subject I shall have more to say in a future volume.

[FN#78] The inhabitants of temperate climates have no idea what ants can do in the tropics. The Kafirs of South Africa used to stake down their prisoners (among them a poor friend of mine) upon an ant-hill and they were eaten atom after atom in a few hours. The death must be the slowest form of torture; but probably the nervous system soon becomes insensible. The same has happened to more than one hapless invalid, helplessly bedridden, in Western Africa. I have described an invasion of ants in my "Zanzibar," vol. ii. 169; and have suffered from such attacks in many places between that and Dahomey.

[FN#79] Arab. "Sa'lab." See vol. iii 132, where it is a fox. I render it jackal because that cousin of the fox figures as a carnon-eater in Hindu folk-lore, the Hitopadesa, Panchopakhyan, etc. This tale, I need hardly say, is a mere translation; as is shown by the Kath s.s. "Both jackal and fox are nicknamed Joseph the Scribe (Tlib Ysuf) in the same principle that lawyers are called landsharks by sailors." (P. 65, Moorish Lotus Leaves, etc., by George D. Cowan and R. L. N. Johnston, London, Tinsleys, 1883.)

[FN#80] Arab. "Sahm mush'ab" not "barbed" (at the wings) but with double front, much used for birding and at one time familiar in the West as in the East. And yet "barbed" would make the fable read much better.

[FN#81] Arab. "la'lla," usually = haply, belike; but used here and elsewhere = forsure, certainly.

[FN#82] Arab. "Maghrib" (or in full Maghrib al Aks) lit. =the Land of the setting sun for whose relation to "Mauritania" see vol. vii. 220. It is almost synonymous with "Al-Gharb"=the West whence Portugal borrowed the two Algarves, one being in Southern Europe and the other over the straits about Tangier Ceuta; fronting Spanish Trafalgar, i.e. Taraf al Gharb, the edge of the West. I have noted (Pilgrimage i. 9) the late Captain Peel's mis-translation "Cape of Laurels" (Al-Ghr).

[FN#83] Even the poorest of Moslem wanderers tries to bear with him a new suit of clothes for keeping the two festivals and Friday service in the Mosque. See Pilgrimage i. 235; iii. 257, etc.

[FN#84] Arab. "Syih" lit. a wanderer, subaudi for religious and ascetic objects; and not to be confounded with the "pilgrim" proper.

[FN#85] i.e. a Religious, a wandering beggar.

[FN#86] This was the custom of the whole Moslem world and still is where uncorrupted by Christian uncharity and contempt for all "men of God" save its own. But the change in such places as Egypt is complete and irrevocable. Even in 1852 my Dervish's frock brought me nothing but contempt in Alexandria and Cairo.

[FN#87] Arab. "Ya jhil," lit. O ignorant. The popular word is Ahmak which, however, in the West means a maniac, a madman, a Santon; "Bohl" being a fool.

[FN#88] The prison according to the practice of the East being in the palace: so the Moorish 'Kasbah," which lodges the Governor and his guard, always contains the jail.

[FN#89] Arab. "Tuwuffiya," lit.=was received (into the grace of God), an euphemistic and more polite term than "mta"=he died. The latter term is avoided by the Founder of Chnstianity; and our Spiritualists now say "passed away to a higher life," a phrase embodying a theory which, to say the least, is "not proven "

[FN#90] Arab. "Y Ab al-Khayr"= our my good lord, sir, fellow, etc.

[FN#91] Arab. "Hwi" from "Hayyah," a serpent. See vol. iii. 145. Most of the Egyptian snake charmers are Gypsies, but they do not like to be told of their origin. At Baroda in Guzerat I took lessons in snake-catching, but found the sport too dangerous; when the animal flees, the tail is caught by the left hand and the right is slipped up to the neck, a delicate process, as a few inches too far or not far enough would be followed by certain death in catching a Cobra. At last certain of my messmates killed one of the captives and the snake-charmer would have no more to do with me.

[FN#92] Arab. "Sallah," also Pers., a basket of wickerwork. This article is everywhere used for lodging snakes from Egypt to Morocco.

[FN#93] Arab. "Mubarak." It is a favourite name for a slave in Morocco, the slave-girl being called Mubrakah; and the proverb being, "Blessed is the household which hath neither M'brk nor M'brkah" (as they contract the words).

[FN#94] The Bresl. Edit. (viii. 48) instead of the Gate (Bb) gives a Bdhanj=a Ventilator; for which latter rendering see vol. i. 257. The spider's web is Koranic (lxxxi. 40) "Verily frailest of all houses is the house of the spider."

[FN#95] Prob. from the Persian Wird=a pupil, a disciple.

[FN#96] And yet, as the next page shows the youth's education was complete in his twelfth year. But as all three texts agree, I do not venture upon changing the number to six or seven, the age at which royal education outside the Harem usually begins.

[FN#97] i.e. One for each day in the Moslem year. For these object-lessons, somewhat in Kinder-garten style, see the Book of Sindibad or The Malice of Women (vol. vi. 126).

[FN#98] Arab. "Jahbizah" plur. of "Jahbiz"=acute, intelligent (from the Pers. Kahbad?)

[FN#99] Arab. "Nimr" in the Bresl. Edit. viii. 58. The Mac. Edit. suggests that the leopard is the lion's Wazir.

[FN#100] Arab "Kaun" lit. =Being, existence. Trbutien (iii. 20) has it "Qu'est-ce que l'tre (God), I'existence (Creation), l'tre dans['existence (the world), et la duree de l'tre dans l'existence (the other world).

[FN#101] i.e for the purpose of requital. All the above is orthodox Moslem doctrine, which utterly ignores the dictum "ex nihilo nihil fit;" and which would look upon Creation by Law (Darwinism) as opposed to Creation by miracle (e.g. the Mosaic cosmogony) as rank blasphemy. On the other hand the Eternity of Matter and its transcendental essence are tenets held by a host of Gnostics, philosophers and Eastern Agnostics.

[FN#102] This is a Moslem lieu commun; usually man is likened to one suspended in a bottomless well by a thin rope at which a rodent is continually gnawing and who amuses himself in licking a few drops of honey left by bees on the revetement.

[FN#103] A curious pendent to the Scriptural parable of the Uniust Steward.

[FN#104] Arab. "Rh" Heb. Ruach: lit. breath (spiritus) which in the animal kingdom is the surest sign of life. See vol. v. 29. Nothing can be more rigidly materialistic than the called Mosaic law.

[FN#105] Arab. "Al-Amr" which may also mean the business, the matter, the affair.

[FN#106] Arab. "Ukb al-ksir." lit. =the breaker eagle.

[FN#107] Arab "Lijm shadd:" the ring-bit of the Arabs is perhaps the severest form known: it is required by the Eastern practice of pulling up the horse when going at full speed and it is too well known to require description. As a rule the Arab rides with a "lady's hand" and the barbarous habit of "hanging on by the curb" is unknown to him. I never pass by Rotten Row or see a regiment of English Cavalry without wishing to leave riders nothing but their snaffles.

[FN#108] We find this orderly distribution of time (which no one adopts) in many tongues and many forms. In the Life of Sir W. Jones (vol. i. p. 193, Poetical Works etc.) the following occurs, "written in India on a small piece of paper";—

Sir Edward Coke "Six hours to sleep, in law's grave study six! Four spend in prayer,—the rest on Heaven fix!" Rather: "Seven hours to law, to soothing slumber seven; Ten to the world allot, and all to Heaven!"

But this is not practical. I must prefer the Chartist distribution:

Six hours sleep and six hours play: Six hours work and six shillings a day.

Mr Froude (Oceana) speaks of New Zealanders having attained that ideal of operative felicity:—

Eight to work, eight to play; Eight to sleep and eight shillings a day.

[FN#109] Arab. "Bahmah," mostly=black cattle: see vol. iv. 54.

[FN#110] As a rule when the felid wag their tails, it is a sign of coming anger, the reverse with the canid.

[FN#111] In India it is popularly said that the Rajah can do anything with the Ryots provided he respects their women and their religion—not their property.

[FN#112] Arab. "Sunan" for which see vol. v. 36, 167. Here it is=Rasm or usage, equivalent to our precedents, and held valid, especially when dating from olden time, in all matters which are not expressly provided for by Koranic command. For instance a Hind Moslem (who doubtless borrowed the customs from Hinds) will refuse to eat with the Kafir, and when the latter objects that there is no such prohibition in the Koran will reply, "No but it is our Rasm." As a rule the Anglo-Indian is very ignorant on this essential point.

[FN#113] Lit. "lowering the wings," see supra p. 33.

[FN#114] .i.e. friends and acquaintances.

[FN#115] Arab. "Hamdah"=praiseworthy or satisfactory.

[FN#116] Not only alluding to the sperm of man and beast, but also to the "Neptunist" doctrine held by the ancient Greeks and Hindus and developed in Europe during the last century.

[FN#117] Arab. "Taksm" dividing into parts, analysis.

[FN#118] this is the usual illogical contention of all religions. It is not the question whether an Almighty Being can do a given thing: the question is whether He has or has not done it.

[FN#119] Upon the old simile of the potter I shall have something to say in a coming volume.

[FN#120] A fine specimen of a peculiarity in the undeveloped mind of man, the universal confusion between things objective as a dead body and states of things as death. We begin by giving a name, for facility of intercourse, to phases, phenomena and conditions of matter; and, having created the word we proceed to supply it with a fanciful entity, e.g. "The Mind (a useful term to express the aggregate action of the brain, nervous system etc.) of man is immortal." The next step is personification as Time with his forelock, Death with his skull and Night (the absence of light) with her starry mantle. For poetry this abuse of language is a sine qua non, but it is deadly foe to all true philosophy.

[FN#121] Christians would naturally understand this "One Word" to be the {Greek} of the Platonists, adopted by St. John (comparatively a late writer) and by the Alexandrian school, Jewish (as Philo Judaeus) and Christian. But here the tale-teller alludes to the Divine Word "Kun" (be!) whereby the worlds came into existence.

[FN#122] Arab. "Ya bunayy" a dim. form lit. "O my little son !" an affectionate address frequent in Russian, whose "little father" (under "Bog") is his Czar.

[FN#123] Thus in two texts. Mr. Payne has, "Verily God the Most High created man after His own image, and likened him to Himself, all of Him truth, without falsehood; then He gave him dominion over himself and ordered him and forbade him, and it was man who transgressed His commandment and erred in his obedience and brought falsehood upon himself of his own will." Here he borrows from the Bresl. Edit. viii. 84 (five first lines). But the doctrine is rather Jewish and Christian than Moslem: Al-Mas'di (ii. 389) introduces a Copt in the presence of Ibn Tutn saying, "Prince, these people (designing a Jew) pretend that Allah Almighty created Adam (i.e. mankind) after His own image" ('Al Srati-h).

[FN#124] Arab. "Istit'ah"ableness e.g. "Al hajj 'inda 'l-Istit'ah"Pilgrimage when a man is able thereto (by easy circumstances).

[FN#125] Arab. "Al-Kasab," which phrenologists would translate "acquisitiveness," The author is here attempting to reconcile man's moral responsibility, that is Freewill, with Fate by which all human actions are directed and controlled. I cannot see that he fails to "apprehend the knotty point of doctrine involved"; but I find his inability to make two contraries agree as pronounced as that of all others, Moslems and Christians, that preceded him in the same path.

[FN#126] The order should be, "men, angels and Jinn," for which see vol. i. p. 10. But "angels" here takes precedence because Iblis was one of them.

[FN#127] Arab. "Wartah"=precipice, quagmire, quicksand and hence sundry secondary and metaphorical significations, under which, as in the "Semitic" (Arabic) tongues generally, the prosaical and material sense of the word is clearly evident. I noted this in Pilgrimage iii. 66 and was soundly abused for so saying by a host of Sciolists.

[FN#128] i.e. Allowing the Devil to go about the world and seduce mankind until Doomsday when "auld Sootie's" occupation will be gone. Surely "Providence" might have managed better.

[FN#129] i.e. to those who deserve His love.

[FN#130] Here "Istit'ah" would mean capability of action, i.e. freewill, which is a mere word like "free-trade."

[FN#131] Arab. "Bi al-taubah" which may also mean "for (on account of his) penitence." The reader will note how the learned Shimas "dodges" the real question. He is asked why the "Omnipotent, Omniscient did not prevent (i.e. why He created) sin?" He answers that He kindly permitted (i.e. created and sanctioned) it that man might repent. Proh pudor! If any one thus reasoned of mundane matters he would be looked upon as the merest fool.

[FN#132] Arab. "Mahall al-Zauk," lit.=seat of taste.

[FN#133] Mr. Payne translates "it" i.e. the Truth; but the formula following the word shows that Allah is meant.

[FN#134] Moslems, who do their best to countermine the ascetic idea inherent in Christianity, are not ashamed of the sensual appetite; but rather the reverse. I have heard in Persia of a Religious, highly esteemed for learning and saintly life who, when lodged by a disciple at Shiraz, came out of his sleeping room and aroused his host with the words "Shahwat dram!" equivalent to our "I want a woman." He was at once married to one of the slave-girls and able to gratify the demands of the flesh.

[FN#135] Koran iv. 81, "Whatever good betideth thee is from God, and whatever betideth thee Of evil is from thyself": rank Manichism, as pronounced as any in Christendom.

[FN#136] Arab. "Zukhruf" which Mr. Payne picturesquely renders "painted gawds."

[FN#137] It is the innate craving in the "Aryan" (Iranian, not the Turanian) mind, this longing to know what follows Death, or if nothing follows it, which accounts for the marvellous diffusion of the so-called Spiritualism which is only Swedenborgianism systematised and earned out into action, amongst nervous and impressionable races like the Anglo-American. In England it is the reverse; the obtuse sensitiveness of a people bred on beef and beer has made the "Religion of the Nineteenth Century" a manner of harmless magic, whose miracles are table-turning and ghost seeing whilst the prodigious rascality of its prophets (the so-called Mediums) has brought it into universal disrepute. It has been said that Catholicism must be true to co-exist with the priest and it is the same with Spiritualism proper, by which I understand the belief in a life beyond the grave, a mere continuation of this life; it flourishes (despite the Medium) chiefly because it has laid before man the only possible and intelligible idea of a future state.

[FN#138] See vol. vi. p. 7. The only lie which degrades a man in his own estimation and in that of others, is that told for fear of telling the truth. Au reste, human society and civilised intercourse are built upon a system of conventional lying. and many droll stories illustrate the consequences of disregarding the dictum, la verit n'est pas tonjours bonne dire.

[FN#139] Arab. "Wal'ahd" which may mean heir-presumptive (whose heirship is contingent) or heir-apparent.

[FN#140] Arab. "Y abati"= my papa (which here would sound absurd).

[FN#141] All the texts give a decalogue; but Mr. Payne has reduced it to a heptalogue.

[FN#142] The Arabs who had a variety of ansthetics never seem to have studied the subject of "euthanasia." They preferred seeing a man expire in horrible agonies to relieving him by means of soporifics and other drugs: so I have heard Christians exult in saying that the sufferer "kept his senses to the last." Of course superstition is at the bottom of this barbarity; the same which a generation ago made the silly accoucheur refuse to give ether because of the divine (?) saying "In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children." (Gen iii. 16.) In the Bosnia-Herzegovina campaign many of the Austrian officers carried with them doses of poison to be used in case of being taken prisoners by the ferocious savages against whom they were fighting. As many anecdotes about "Easing off the poor dear" testify, the Euthanasia-system is by no means unknown to the lower classes in England. I shall have more to say on this subject.

[FN#143] See vol. iii. p. 253 for the consequences of royal seclusion of which Europe in the present day can contribute examples. The lesson which it teaches simply is that the world can get on very well without royalties.

[FN#144] The grim Arab humour in the text is the sudden change for the worse of the good young man. Easterns do not believe in the Western saw, "Nemo repente fuit turpissimus." The spirited conduct of the subjects finds many parallels in European history, especially in Portugal: see my Life of Camoens p. 234.

[FN#145] Arab. "Muhrabah" lit.=doing battle; but is sometimes used in the sense of gain-saying or disobeying.

[FN#146] Arab. "Duwmah" (from "duwm"=vertigo, giddiness) also applied to a boy's whip ton.

[FN#147] Arab. "Khayr o (we) fiyah," a popular phrase much used in salutations, &c.

[FN#148] Another instance, and true to life, of the democracy of despotism in which the express and combined will of the people is the only absolute law. Hence Russian autocracy is forced into repeated wars for the possession of Constantinople which, in the present condition of the Empire, would be an unmitigated evil to her and would be only too glad to see a Principality of Byzantium placed under the united protection of the European Powers. I have treated of this in my paper on the "Partition of Turkey," which first appeared, headed the "Future of Turkey," in the Daily Telegraph, of March 7, 1880, and subsequently by its own name in the Manchester Examiner, January 3, 1881. The main reason why the project is not carried out appears to be that the "politicals" would thereby find their occupation gone and they naturally object to losing so fine a field of action. So Turkey still plays the rle of the pretty young lady being courted by a rabble of valets.

[FN#149] Good Moslems are bound to abate such scandals; and in a case of the kind even neighbours are expected to complain before the Chief of Police. This practice forms "Viligance Committees" all over the Mahommedan East: and we may take a leaf out of their books if dynamite-outrages continue.

[FN#150] But a Hadis, attributed to Mohammed, says, "The Prince of a people is their servant." See Matth. xx. 26-27.

[FN#151] Easterns are well aware of the value of this drug which has become the base of so many of our modern medicines.

[FN#152] The strangest poison is mentioned by Sonnini who, as a rule, is a trustworthy writer. Noticing the malignity of Egyptian women he declares (p. 628, English trans.) that they prepare a draught containing a quant. suff. of menstruous discharge at certain phases of the moon, which produces symptoms of scurvy; the gums decay, the teeth, beard and hair fall off, the body dries, the limbs lose strength and death follows within a year. He also asserts that no counterpoison is known and if this be true he confers a boon upon the Locust and Brinvilliers of modern Europe. In Morocco "Ta'am" is the vulgar name for a mixture of dead men's bones, eyes, hair and similar ingredients made by old wives and supposed to cause a wasting disease for which the pharmacopoeia has no cure. Dogs are killed by needles cunningly inserted into meat-balls; and this process is known through out the Moslem world.

[FN#153] Which contained the Palace.

[FN#154] Arab. "L baas." See Night vol. iv. 164.

[FN#155] For Ta'lab (Sa'lab) see supra, p. 48. In Morocco it is undoubtedly the red or common fox which, however, is not gregarious as in the text.

[FN#156] See vol. iii. 146.

[FN#157] Arab. "Muunah" which in Morocco applies to the provisions furnished gratis by the unfortunate village-people to travellers who have a passport from the Sultan. its root is Maun =supplying necessaries. "The name is supposed to have its origin in that of Manna the miraculous provision bestowed by the bounty of Heaven on the Israelites while wandering in the deserts of Arabia." Such is the marvellous information we find in p. 40, "Morocco and the Moors" by John Drummond Hay (Murray, 1861)

[FN#158] i.e. He resolved to do them justice and win a reward from Heaven.

[FN#159] Arab. ''Luss" = thief, robber, rogue, rascal, the Persian "Luti" of popular usage. This is one of the many ''Simpleton stories" in which Eastern folk-lore abounds. I hear that Mr. Clouston is preparing a collection, and look forward to it with interest.

[FN#160] Arab. "Tibn" for which see vol. i 16.

[FN#161] A fanciful origin of "Dvn" (here an audience-chamber) which may mean demons (plural of Dv) is attributed to a King of Persia. He gave a series of difficult documents and accounts to his scribes and surprised at the quickness and cleverness with which they were ordered exclaimed, "These men be Divs!" Hence a host of secondary meanings as a book of Odes with distichs rhymed in alphabetical order and so forth.

[FN#162] In both cases the word "Jabbirah" is used, the plur. of Jabbr, the potent, especially applied to the Kings of the Canaanites and giants like the mythical Og of Bashan. So the Heb. Jabbrah is a title of the Queens of Judah.

[FN#163] Arab. "Kitb al-Kaz"= the Book of Judgments, such as the Kazi would use when deciding cases in dispute, by legal precedents and the Rasm or custom of the country.

[FN#164] i.e. sit before the King as referee, etc.

[FN#165] This massacre of refractory chiefs is one of the grand moyens of Eastern state-craft, and it is almost always successful because circumstances require it; popular opinion approves of it and it is planned and carried out with discretion and secrecy. The two familiar instances in our century are the massacre of the Mamelukes by Mohammed Ali Pasha the Great and of the turbulent chiefs of the Omani Arabs by our ancient ally Sayyid Sa'd, miscalled the "Imm of Maskat."

[FN#166] The metaphor (Sabaka) is from horse-racing, the Arabs being, I have said, a horsey people.

[FN#167] Arab. "Kurds" = A body of horse.

[FN#168] Arab. "Ibn 'Irs." See vol. iii. 147.

[FN#169] Arab. "Al Hind-al-Aks." The Sanskrit Sindhu (lands on the Indus River) became in Zend "Hendu" and hence in Arabic Sind and Hind, which latter I wish we had preserved instead of the classical "India" or the poetical "Ind."

[FN#170] i.e. by geomancy: see vol. iii. 269 for a note on Al-Raml. The passage is not in the Mac. Edit.

[FN#171] This address gave the boy Wazirial rank. In many parts of Europe, England included, if the Sovereign address a subject with a title not belonging to him, it is a disputed point if the latter can or cannot claim it.

[FN#172] Koran, chapter of Joseph xii. 28, spoken by Potiphar after Joseph's innocence had been proved by a witness in Potiphar's house or according to the Talmud (Sepher Hdjascher) by an infant in the cradle. The texts should have printed this as a quotation (with vowel points).

[FN#173] Arab. "Al-'Azz," alluding to Joseph the Patriarch entitled in Egypt "Azz al-Misr"= Magnifico of Misraim (Koran xii. 54). It is generally believed that Ismail Pasha, whose unwise deposition has caused the English Government such a host of troubles and load of obloquy, aspired to be named "'Azz" by the Porte; but was compelled to be satisfied with Khadv (vulg. written Khedive, and pronounced even "Kdiv"), a Persian title, which simply means prince or Rajah, as Khadv-i-Hind.

[FN#174] i.e. The Throne room.

[FN#175] For the "Dawt" or wooden inkcase containing reeds see vol. v. 239 and viii. 178. I may remark that its origin is the Egyptian "Pes," of which there is a specimen in the British Museum inscribed, "Amsis the good god and Lord of the two Lands."

[FN#176] i.e. I am governed by the fear of Allah in my dealings to thee and thy subjects.

[FN#177] Arabic has no single word for million although the Maroccans have adopted "Milyn" from the Spaniards (see p. 100 of the Rudimentos del rabe vulgar que se habla en el imperio de Marruccos por El P. Fr. Jos de Lerchundi, Madrid 1872): This lack of the higher numerals, the reverse of the Hindu languages, makes Arabic "arithmology" very primitive and almost as cumbrous as the Chinese.

[FN#178] i.e. I am thy slave to slay or to pardon.

[FN#179] Arab. ''Matta'aka 'llah''=Allah permit thee to enjoy, from the root mate', whence cometh the Maroccan Mat'i=my, mine, which answers to Bit'i in Egypt.

[FN#180] Arab. "Khitb" = the exordium of a letter preceding its business-matter and in which the writer displays all his art. It ends with "Amm ba'd," lit.=but after, equivalent to our "To proceed." This "Khitb" is mostly skipped over by modern statesmen who will say, "Now after the nonsense let us come to the sense"; but their secretaries carefully weigh every word of it, and strongly resent all shortcomings.

[FN#181] Strongly suggesting that the King had forgotten how to read and write. So not a few of the Amirs of Sind were analphabetic and seemed rather proud of it: "a Baloch cannot write, but he always carries a signet-ring." I heard of an old English lady of the past generation in Northern Africa who openly declared "A Warrington shall never learn to read or write."

[FN#182] Arab. "min," of which the Heb. form is Amen from the root Amn=stability, constancy. In both tongues it is a particle of affirmation or consent=it is true! So be it! The Hebrew has also "Amanah"=verily, truly.

[FN#183] To us this seems a case of "hard lines" for the unhappy women; but Easterns then believed and still believe in the divinity which cloth hedge in a King, in his reigning by the "grace of God," and in his being the Viceregent of Allah upon earth; briefly in the old faith of loyalty which great and successful republics are fast making obsolete in the West and nowhere faster than in England.

[FN#184] Ab Sr is a manifest corruption of the old Egyptian Pousiri, the Busiris of our classics, and it gives a name to sundry villages in modern Egypt where it is usually pronounced "Bsr". Ab Kr lit. = the Father of Pitch, is also corrupted to Abou Kir (Bay); and the townlet now marks the site of jolly old Canopus, the Chosen Land of Egyptian debauchery.

[FN#185] It is interesting to note the superior gusto with which the Eastern, as well as the Western tale-teller describes his scoundrels and villains whilst his good men and women are mostly colourless and unpicturesque. So Satan is the true hero of Paradise-Lost and by his side God and man are very ordinary; and Mephistopheles is much better society than Faust and Margaret.

[FN#186] Arab. "Dukhn," lit. = smoke, here tobacco for the Chibouk, "Timbk" or "Tumbk" being the stronger (Persian and other) variety which must be washed before smoking in the Shshah or water pipe. Tobacco is mentioned here only and is evidently inserted by some scribe: the "weed" was not introduced into the East before the end of the sixteenth century (about a hundred years after coffee), when it radically changed the manners of society.

[FN#187] Which meant that the serjeant, after the manner of such officials, would make him pay dearly before giving up the key. Hence a very severe punishment in the East is to "call in a policeman" who carefully fleeces all those who do not bribe him to leave them in freedom.

[FN#188] Arab. "M Dhiyatak?" lit. "What is thy misfortune?" The phrase is slighting if not insulting.

[FN#189] Amongst Moslems the plea of robbing to keep life and body together would be accepted by a good man like Abu Sir, who still consorted with a self-confessed thief.

[FN#190] To make their agreement religiously binding. See vol. iv. 36.

[FN#191] Arab. "Ghaliyn"; many of our names for craft seem connected with Arabic: I have already noted "Carrack" = harrk: to which add Uskuf in Marocco pronounced 'Skuff = skiff; Katrah = a cutter; Brijah = a barge; etc. etc.

[FN#192] The patient is usually lathered in a gib gasin of tinned brass, "Mambrino's helmet" with a break in the rim to fit the throat; but the poorer classes carry only a small cup with water instead of soap and water ignoring the Italian proverb, "Barba ben saponata mezza fatta" = well lathered is half shaved. A napkin fringed at either end is usually thrown over the Figaro's shoulder and used to wipe the razor.

[FN#193] Arab. "Nusf." See vol. ii. 37.

[FN#194] Arab. "Batrikh" the roe (sperm or spawn) of the salted Faskh (fish) and the Br (mugil cephalus) a salt-water fish caught in the Nile and considered fair eating. Some write Butrgh from the old Egyptian town Burt, now a ruin between Tinnis and Damietta (Sonnini).

[FN#195] Arab. "Kaptn," see vol. iv. 85.

[FN#196] Arab. "Anyb," plur. of Nb applied to the grinder teeth but mostly to the canines or eye teeth, tusks of animals, etc. (See vol. vii. p. 339) opp. To Saniyah, one of the four central incisors, a camel in the sixth year and horse, cow, sheep and goat in fourth year.

[FN#197] The coffee (see also vol. viii. 274) like the tobacco is probably due to the scribe; but the tale appears to be comparatively modern. In The Nights men eat, drink and wash their hands but do not smoke and sip coffee like the moderns. See my Terminal Essay 2.

[FN#198] Arab. "Mi'lakah" (Bresl. Edit. x, 456). The fork is modern even in the East and the Moors borrow their term for it from fourchette. But the spoon, which may have begun with a cockle-shell, dates from the remotest antiquity.

[FN#199] Arab. "Sufrah" properly the cloth or leather upon which food is placed. See vol. i. 178.

[FN#200] i.e. gaining much one day and little another.

[FN#201] Lit. "Rest thyself" i.e. by changing posture.

[FN#202] Arab. "Unnbi" = between dark yellow and red.

[FN#203] Arab. "Nlah" lit. = indigo, but here applied to all the materials for dyeing. The word is Sanskrit, and the growth probably came from India, although during the Crusaders' occupation of Jerusalem it was cultivated in the valley of the lower Jordan. I need hardly say that it has nothing to do with the word "Nile" whose origin is still sub judice. And yet I lately met a sciolist who pompously announced to me this philological absurdity as a discovery of his own.

[FN#204] Still a popular form of "bilking" in the Waklahs or Caravanserais of Cairo: but as a rule the Bawwb (porter or doorkeeper) keeps a sharp eye on those he suspects. The evil is increased when women are admitted into these places; so periodical orders for their exclusion are given to the police.

[FN#205] Natives of Egypt always hold this diaphoresis a sign that the disease has abated and they regard it rightly in the case of bilious remittents to which they are subject, especially after the hardships and sufferings of a sea-voyage with its alternations of fasting and over-eating.

[FN#206] Not simply, "such and such events happened to him" (Lane); but, "a curious chance befel him."

[FN#207] Arab. "Harmi," lit. = one who lives on unlawful gains; popularly a thief.

[FN#208] i.e. he turned on the water, hot and cold.

[FN#209] Men are often seen doing this in the Hammam. The idea is that the skin when free from sebaceous exudation sounds louder under the clapping. Easterns judge much by the state of the perspiration, especially in horse-training, which consists of hand-gallops for many successive miles. The sweat must not taste over salt and when held between thumb and forefinger and the two are drawn apart must not adhere in filaments.

[FN#210] Lit. "Aloes for making Nadd;" see vol. i. 310. "Eagle-wood" (the Malay Aigla and Agallochum the Sansk. Agura) gave rise to many corruptions as lignum aloes, the Portuguese Po d' Aguila etc. "Calamba" or "Calambak" was the finest kind. See Colonel Yule in the "Voyage of Linschoten" (vol. i. 120 and 150). Edited for the Hakluyt Soc. (1885) by my learned and most amiable friend, the late Arthur Cooke Burnell.

[FN#211] The Hammam is one of those unpleasant things which are left "Al jdi-k" = to thy generosity; and the higher the bather's rank the more he or she is expected to pay. See Pilgrimage i. 103. In 1853 I paid at Cairo 3 piastres and twenty paras, something more than sixpence, but now five shillings would be asked.

[FN#212] This is something like the mythical duchess in England who could not believe that the poor were starving when sponge-cakes were so cheap.

[FN#213] This magnificent "Bakhshish" must bring water into the mouths of all the bath-men in the coffee-house assembly.

[FN#214] i.e. the treasurer did not, as is the custom of such gentry, demand and receive a large "Bakhshish" on the occasion.

[FN#215] A fair specimen of clever Fellah chaff.

[FN#216] In the first room of the Hammam, called the Maslakh or stripping-place, the keeper sits by a large chest in which he deposits the purses and valuables of his customers and also makes it the caisse for the pay. Something of the kind is now done in the absurdly called "Turkish Baths" of London.

[FN#217] This is the rule in Egypt and Syria and a clout hung over the door shows that women are bathing. I have heard, but only heard, that in times and places when eunuchs went in with the women youths managed by long practice to retract the testicles so as to pass for castratos. It is hard to say what perseverance may not effect in this line; witness Orsini and his abnormal development of hearing, by exercising muscles which are usually left idle.

[FN#218] This reference to Allah shows that Abu Sir did not believe his dyer-friend.

[FN#219] Arab. "Daw" (lit. remedy, medicine) the vulgar term: see vol. iv. 256: also called Rasmah, Nrah and many other names.

[FN#220] Arab. "M Kahara-n" = or none hath overcome me.

[FN#221] Bresl. Edit. "The King of Isbniya." For the "Ishbn" (Spaniards) an ancient people descended from Japhet son of Noah and who now are no more, see Al-Mas'udi (Fr. Transl. I. 361). The "Herodotus of the Arabs" recognises only the "Jallikah" or Gallicians, thus bearing witness to the antiquity and importance of the Gallego race.

[FN#222] Arab. "Sha'r," properly, hair of body, pile, especially the pecten. See Bruckhardt (Prov. No. 202), "grieving for lack of a cow she made a whip of her bush," said of those who console themselves by building Castles in Spain. The "parts below the waist" is the decent Turkish term for the privities.

[FN#223] The drowning is a martyr's death, the burning is a foretaste of Hell-fire.

[FN#224] Meaning that if the trick had been discovered the Captain would have taken the barber's place. We have seen (vol. i. 63) the Prime Minister superintending the royal kitchen and here the Admiral fishes for the King's table. It is even more nave than the Court of Alcinous.

[FN#225] Bresl. Edit. xi. 32: i.e. save me from disgrace.

[FN#226] Arab. "Khinsir" or "Khinsar," the little finger or the middle finger. In Arabic each has its own name or names which is also that of the corresponding toe, e.g. Ibhm (thumb); Sabbbah, Musabbah or Da'ah (fore-finger); Wast (medius); Binsir (annularis ring-finger) and Khinsar (minimus). There are also names for the several spaces between the fingers. See the English Arabic Dictionary (London, Kegan Paul an Co., 1881) by the Revd. Dr. Badger, a work of immense labour and research but which I fear has been so the learned author a labour of love not of profit.

[FN#227] Meaning of course that the King signed towards the sack in which he supposed the victim to be, but the ring fell off before it could take effect. The Eastern story-teller often balances his multiplicity of words and needless details by a conciseness and an elliptical style which make his meaning a matter of divination.

[FN#228] See vol. v. 111.

[FN#229] This couplet was quoted to me by my friend the Rev. Dr. Badger when he heard that I was translating "The Nights": needless to say that it is utterly inappropriate.

[FN#230] For a similar figure see vol i. 25.

[FN#231] Arab. "Hanzal": see vol. v. 19.

[FN#232] The tale begins upon the model of "Jdar and his Brethren," vi. 213. Its hero's full name is Abdu'llhi=Slave of Allah, which vulgar Egyptians pronounce Abdallah and purer speakers, Badawin and others, Abdullah: either form is therefore admissible. It is more common among Moslems but not unknown to Christians especially Syrians who borrow it from the Syriac Alloh. Mohammed is said to have said, "The names most approved by Allah are Abdu'llah, Abd al-Rahmn (Slave of the Compassionate) and such like" (Pilgrimage i. 20).

[FN#233] Arab. "Srah" here probably used of the Nile-sprat (Clupea Sprattus Linn.) or Sardine of which Forsk says, "Sardinn in Al-Yaman is applied to a Red Sea fish of the same name." Hasselquist the Swede notes that Egyptians stuff the Sardine with marjoram and eat it fried even when half putrid.

[FN#234] i.e. by declaring in the Koran (lxvii. 14; lxxiv. 39; lxxviii. 69; lxxxviii. 17), that each creature hath its appointed term and lot; especially "Thinketh man that he shall be left uncared for?" (xl. 36).

[FN#235] Arab. "Nusf," see vol. ii. 37.

[FN#236] Arab. "Allah Karim" (which Turks pronounce Kyerm) a consecrated formula used especially when a man would show himself resigned to "small mercies." The fisherman's wife was evidently pious as she was poor; and the description of the pauper household is simple and effective.

[FN#237] This is repeated in the Mac. Edit. pp. 496-97; an instance amongst many of most careless editing.

[FN#238] Arab. "Al mahlak" (vulg.), a popular phrase, often corresponding with our "Take it coolly."

[FN#239] For "He did not keep him waiting, as he did the rest of the folk." Lane prefers "nor neglected him as men generally would have done." But we are told supra that the baker "paid no heed to the folk by reason of the dense crowd."

[FN#240] Arab. "Ruh!" the most abrupt form, whose sound is coarse and offensive as the Turkish yell, "Gyel!"=come here.

[FN#241] Bresl. Edit. xi. 50-51.

[FN#242] Arab. "dami"=an Adamite, one descended from the mythical and typical Adam for whom see Philo Judus. We are told in one place a few lines further on that the merman is of humankind; and in another that he is a kind of fish (Night dccccxlv). This belief in mermen, possible originating with the caricatures of the human face in the intelligent seal and stupid manatee, is universal. Al-Kazwini declares that a waterman with a tail was dried and exhibited, and that in Syria one of them was married to a woman and had by her a son "who understood the languages of both his parents." The fable was refined to perfect beauty by the Greeks: the mer-folk of the Arabs, Hindus and Northerners (Scandinavians, etc) are mere grotesques with green hair, etc. Art in its highest expression never left the shores of the Mediterranean, and there is no sign that it ever will.

[FN#243] Here Lane translates "Wajh" lit. "the desire of seeing the face of God," and explains in a note that a "Muslim holds this to be the greatest happiness that can be enjoyed in Paradise." But I have noted that the tenet of seeing the countenance of the Creator, except by the eyes of spirit, is a much disputed point amongst Moslems.

[FN#244] Artful enough is this contrast between the squalid condition of the starving fisherman and the gorgeous belongings of the Merman.

[FN#245] Lit. "Verily he laughed at me so that I set him free." This is a fair specimen of obscure conciseness.

[FN#246] Arab. "Mishannah," which Lane and Payne translate basket: I have always heard it used of an old gunny-bag or bag of plaited palm-leaves.

[FN#247] Arab. "Kaff Shurayk" applied to a single bun. The Shurayk is a bun, an oblong cake about the size of a man's hand (hence the term "Kaff"=palm) with two long cuts and sundry oblique crosscuts, made of leavened dough, glazed with egg and Samn (clarified butter) and flavoured with spices (cinnamon, curcuma, artemisia and prunes mahalab) and with aromatic seeds, (Rihat al-'ajin) of which Lane (iii. 641) specifies aniseed, nigella, absinthium, (Artemisia arborescens) and Kfrah (A. camphorata Monspeliensis) etc. The Shurayk is given to the poor when visiting the tombs and on certain ftes.

[FN#248] "Mother of Prosperities."

[FN#249] Tribes of pre-historic Arabs who were sent to Hell for bad behaviour to Prophets Slih and Hd. See vol. iii. 294.

[FN#250] "Too much for him to come by lawfully."

[FN#251] To protect it. The Arab. is "Jh"=high station, dignity.

[FN#252] The European reader, especially feminine, will think this a hard fate for the pious first wife but the idea would not occur to the Moslem mind. After bearing ten children a woman becomes "Umm al-banti w'al-bann"=a mother of daughters and sons, and should hold herself unfit for love-disport. The seven ages of womankind are thus described by the Arabs and I translate the lines after a well-known (Irish) model:—

From ten years to twenty— Of beauty there's plenty. From twenty to thirty— Fat, fair and alert t'ye. From thirty to forty— Lads and lasses she bore t'ye. From forty to fifty— An old'un and shifty. From fifty to sixty— A sorrow that sticks t'ye. From sixty to seventy— A curse of God sent t'ye.

For these and other sentiments upon the subject of women and marriage see Pilgrimage ii. 285-87.

[FN#253] Abdullah, as has been said, means "servant or rather slave of Allah."

[FN#254] Again the "Come to my arms, my slight acquaintance," of the Anti-Jacobin.

[FN#255] Arab. "Nukl," e.g. the quatre mendicants as opposed to "Fkihah"=fresh fruit. The Persians, a people who delight in gross practical jokes, get the confectioner to coat with sugar the droppings of sheep and goats and hand them to the bulk of the party. This pleasant confection is called "Nukl-i-peshkil"— dung-drages.

[FN#256] The older name of Madnat al-Nabi, the city of the Prophet; vulg. called Al-Medinah per excellentiam. See vol. iv. 114. In the Mac. and Bul. texts we have "Tayyibah"=the goodly, one of the many titles of that Holy City: see Pilgrimage ii. 119.

[FN#257] Not "visiting the tomb of," etc. but visiting the Prophet himself, who is said to have declared that "Ziyrah" (visitation) of his tomb was in religion the equivalent of a personal call upon himself.

[FN#258] Arab. "Nafakah"; for its conditions see Pigrimage iii. 224. I have again and again insisted upon the Anglo-Indian Government enforcing the regulations of the Faith upon pauper Hindi pilgrims who go to the Moslem Holy Land as beggars and die of hunger in the streets. To an "Empire of Opinion" this is an unmitigated evil (Pilgrimage iii. 256); and now, after some thirty-four years, there are signs that the suggestions of common sense are to be adopted. England has heard of the extraordinary recklessness and inconsequence of the British-Indian "fellow- subject."

[FN#259] The Ka'abah of Meccah.

[FN#260] When Moslems apply "Nab!" to Mohammed it is in the peculiar sense of "prophet" ({Greek})=one who speaks before the people, not one who predicts, as such foresight was adjured by the Apostle. Dr. A. Neubauer (The Athenum No. 3031) finds the root of "Nab!" in the Assyrian Nabu and Heb. Noob (occurring in Exod. vii. 1. "Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet." i.e. orator, speaker before the people), and holds it to be a Canaanite term which supplanted "Roeh" (the Seer) e.g. 1 Samuel ix. 9. The learned Hebraist traces the cult of Nebo, a secondary deity in Assyria to Palestine and Phnicia, Palmyra, Edessa (in the Nebok of Abgar) and Hierapolis in Syria or Mabug (Nabog?).

[FN#261] I cannot find "Dandn" even in Lib. Quintus de Aquaticis Animalibus of the learned Sam. Bochart's "Hierozocon" (London, 1663) and must conjecture that as "Dandn" in Persian means a tooth (vol. ii. 83) the writer applied it to a sun-fish or some such well-fanged monster of the deep.

[FN#262] A favourite proverb with the Fellah, when he alludes to the Pasha and to himself.

[FN#263] An euphemistic answer, unbernfen as the Germans say.

[FN#264] It is a temptation to derive this word from buf l'eau, but I fear that the theory will not hold water. The "buffaloes" of Alexandria laughted it to scorn.

[FN#265] Here the writer's zoological knowledge is at fault. Animals, which never or very rarely see man, have no fear of him whatever. This is well-known to those who visit the Gull-fairs at Ascension Island, Santos and many other isolated rocks; the hen birds will peck at the intruder's ankles but they do not rise from off their eggs. For details concerning the "Gull-fair" of the Summer Islands consult p. 4 "The History of the Bermudas," edited by Sir J. H. Lefroy for the Hakluyt Society, 1882. I have seen birds on Fernando Po peak quietly await a second shot; and herds of antelopes, the most timed of animals, in the plains of Somali-land only stared but were not startled by the report of the gun. But Arabs are not the only moralists who write zoological nonsense: witness the notable verse,

"Birds in their little nests agree,"

when the feathered tribes are the most pugnacious of breathing beings.

[FN#266] Lane finds these details "silly and tiresome or otherwise objectionable," and omits them.

[FN#267] Meaning, "Thou hast as yet seen little or nothing." In most Eastern tongues a question often expresses an emphatic assertion. See vol. i. 37.

[FN#268] Easterns wear as a rule little clothing but it suffices for the essential purposes of decency and travellers will live amongst them for years without once seeing an accidental "exposure of the person." In some cases, as with the Nubian thong-apron, this demand of modesty requires not a little practice of the muscles; and we all know the difference in a Scotch kilt worn by a Highlander and a cockney sportsman.

[FN#269] Arab. "Shraj"=oil extracted from rape seed but especially from sesame. The Persians pronounce it "Sraj" (apparently unaware that it is their own word "Shrah"=juice in Arabic garb) and have coined a participle "Musayrij" e.g., B-i- musayrij, taint of sesame-oil applied especially to the Jews who very wisely prefer, in Persia and elsewhere, oil which is wholesome to butter which is not. The Moslems, however, declare that its immoderate use in cooking taints the exudations of the skin.

[FN#270] Arab. "Nakkrn" probably congeners of the redoubtable "Dandn."

[FN#271] Bresl. Edit. xi. 78. The Mac. says "They are all fish" (Kullu-hum) and the Bul. "Their food (aklu-hum) is fish."

[FN#272] Arab. "Az'ar," usually=having thin hair. The general term for tailless is "abtar." See Koran cviii. 3, when it means childless.

[FN#273] A common formula of politeness.

[FN#274] Bresl. Edit. xi. 82; meaning, "You will probably keep it for yourself." Abdullah of the Sea is perfectly logical; but grief is not. We weep over the deaths of friends mostly for our own sake: theoretically we should rejoice that they are at rest; but practically we are afflicted by the thought that we shall never again see their pleasant faces.

[FN#275] i.e. about rejoicing over the newborns and mourning over the dead.

[FN#276] i.e. Ishak of Mosul, for whom see vol. iv. 119. The Bresl. Edit. has Fazl for Fazl.

[FN#277] Abu Dalaf al-Ijili, a well-known soldier equally famed for liberality and culture.

[FN#278] Arab. "Takhmsh," alluding to the familiar practice of tearing face and hair in grief for a loss, a death, etc.

[FN#279] i.e. When he is in the very prime of life and able to administer fiers coups de canif.

"For ladies e'en of most uneasy virtue Prefer a spouse whose age is short of thirty." Don Juan 1. 62.

[FN#280] Arab. "Lzuward": see vol. iii. 33.

[FN#281] Arab. "Sidillah." The Bresl. Edit. (v. 99), has, "a couch of ivory and ebony, whereon was that which befitted it of mattresses and cushions * * * * and on it five damsels."

[FN#282] i.e. As she untunes the lute by "pinching" the strings over-excitedly with her right, her other hand retunes it by turning the pegs.

[FN#283] i.e. The slim cupbearer (Zephyr) and fair-faced girl (Moon) handed round the bubbling bowl (star).

[FN#284] Arab. "Al-Sath" whence the Span. Azotea. The lines that follow are from the Bresl. Edit. v. 110.

[FN#285] This "'Ar'ar" is probably the Callitris quadrivalvis whose resin ("Sandarac") is imported as varnish from African Mogador to England. Also called the Thuja, it is of cypress shape, slow growing and finely veined in the lower part of the base. Most travellers are agreed that it is the Citrus-tree of Roman Mauritania, concerning which Pliny (xiii. 29) gives curious details, a single table costing from a million sesterces (900) to 1,400,000. For other details see p. 95, "Morocco and the Moors," by my late friend Dr. Leared (London: Sampson Low, 1876).