Book: Supplemental Nights, Volume 1

R >> Richard F. Burton >> Supplemental Nights, Volume 1




[FN#350] i.e. I would marry thy daughter, not only for her own
sake, but for alliance with thy family.

[FN#351] i.e. the bride's face.

[FN#352] The Ghusl or complete ablution after car. cop.

[FN#353] Thus the girl was made lawful to him as a concubine by
the "loathly ladye," whose good heart redeemed her ill-looks.

[FN#354] Meaning the poor man and his own daughter.

[FN#355] Mr. Payne changes the Arab title to the far more
appropriate heading, "Story of the Rich Man and his Wasteful
Son." The tale begins with AEsop's fable of the faggot; and
concludes with the "Heir of Linne," in the famous Scotch ballad.
Mr. Clouston refers also to the Persian Tale of Murchlis (The
Sorrowful Wazir); to the Forty Vezirs (23rd Story) to Cinthio and
to sundry old English chap-books.

[FN#356] Arab. "Tafrik wa'l-jam'a."

[FN#357] Arab. "Wafat" pop. used as death, decease, departure;
but containing the idea of departing to the mercy of Allah and
"paying the debt of nature." It is not so illomened a word as
Maut=death.

[FN#358] i.e. gifts and presents. See vol. iv. 185.

[FN#359] i.e. Turcomans; presently called Sistan, for which see
vol. ii. 218.

[FN#360] In my Pilgrimage (i. 38), 1 took from Mr. Galton's Art
of Travel, the idea of opening with a lancet the shoulder or
other fleshy part of the body and inserting into it a precious
stone. This was immensely derided by not a few including one who,
then a young man from the country, presently became a Cabinet
Minister. Despite their omniscience, however, the "dodge" is
frequently practised. See how this device was practised by Jeshua
Nazarenus, vol. v. 238.

[FN#361] Arab. "'Alam," a pile of stones, a flag or some such
landmark. The reader will find them described in "The Sword of
Midian," i. 98, and passim.

[FN#362] Mr. Clouston refers to the "Miles Gloriosus" (Plautus);
to "Orlando Innamorato" of Berni (the Daughter of the King of the
Distant Isles); to the "Seven Wise Masters" ("The Two Dreams," or
"The Crafty Knight of Hungary"); to his Book of Sindibad, p. 343
ff.; to Miss Busk's Folk-Lore of Rome, p. 399 ("The Grace of the
Hunchback"); to Prof. Crane's "Italian Popular Tales," p. 167,
and "The Elopement," from Pitre's Sicilian collection.

[FN#363] In sign of impatience; "Look sharp!"

[FN#364] i.e. the resemblance of the supposed sister to his
wife. This is a rechauffe of Kamar al-Zaman iid.

[FN#365] This leaving a long lock upon the shaven poll is a very
ancient practice: we find it amongst the old Egyptians. For the
Shushah or top-knot of hair, see vol. i. 308. It is differently
worn in the several regions of the Moslem world: the Maroccans of
the Rif country grow it not on the poll but on one side of the
head. As a rule, however, it is confined to boys, and is shaved
off at puberty.

[FN#366] Suspecting her to be a witch because she was old and
poor. The same was the case in Europe when these unfortunates
were burned during the early part of the last century and even
now the country-folk are often ready to beat or drown them. The
abominable witchcraft acts, which arose from bibliolatry and
belief in obsolete superstitions, can claim as many victims in
"Protestant" countries, England and the Anglo-American States as
the Jesuitical Inquisition.

[FN#367] It is not easy to make sense of this passage especially
when the Wazir is spoken of.

[FN#368] This is a rechauffe of the Sandal-Wood Merchant and the
Sharpers. Vol. vi. 202.

[FN#369] I have followed Mr. Payne's adaptation of the text as
he makes sense, whilst the Arabic does not. I suppose that the
holes are disposed crosswise.

[FN#370] i.e. Thy skill is so great that thou wilt undermine my
authority with the king.

[FN#371] This famous tale is first found in a small collection
of Latin fables (Adolphi Fabulae apud Leyser Hist. Poet. Medii
AEvi, p. 200-8), beginning

Caecus erat quidam, cui pulcra virago, etc.

The date is 1315, and Caxton printed it in English in 1483; hence
it was adopted by Boccaccio, Day vii., Novella 9; whence
Chaucer's "Marchaundes Tale": this, by-the-by, was translated by
Pope in his sixteenth or seventeenth year, and christened
"January and May." The same story is inserted in La Fontaine
(Contes, lib. ii., No. 8), "La Gageure des trois Commeres," with
the normal poirier; and lastly it appears in Wieland's "Oberon,"
canto vi.; where the Fairy King restores the old husband's sight,
and Titania makes the lover on the pear-tree invisible. Mr.
Clouston refers me also to the Bahar-i-Danish, or Prime of
Knowledge (Scott's translation, vol. ii., pp. 64-68); "How the
Brahman learned the Tirrea Bede"; to the Turkish "Kirk Wazir"
(Forty Wazirs) of the Shaykh-Zadeh (xxivth Wazir's story); to the
"Comoedia Lydiae," and to Barbazan's "Fabliaux et Contes" t. iii.
p. 451, "La Saineresse," the cupping-woman.

[FN#372] In the European versions it is always a pear-tree.

[FN#373] This supernatural agency, ever at hand and ever
credible to Easterns, makes this the most satisfactory version of
the world-wide tale.

[FN#374] i.e. till next harvest time.

[FN#375] The "'Ashshar," or Tither, is most unpopular in the
Nile-valley as in Wales; and he generally merits his ill-repute.
Tales concerning the villainy of these extortioners abound in
Egypt and Syria. The first step in improvement will be so to
regulate the tithes that the peasants may not be at the mercy of
these "publicans and sinners" who, however, can plead that they
have paid highly for appointment to office and must recoup
themselves.

[FN#376] Arab. "'Ammir"=cause to flourish.

[FN#377] Arab. "Afkah," a better Fakih or theologian; all Moslem
law being based upon the Koran, the Sayings (Hadis) and Doings
(Sunnat) of the Prophet; and, lastly, the Rasm or immemorial
custom of the country provided that it be not opposed to the
other three.

[FN#378] If the number represent the days in the Moslem year it
should be 354=6 months of 29 days and the rest of 30).

[FN#379] The affirmative particle "kad" preceding a verb in the
past gives it a present and at times a future signification.

[FN#380] A danik, the Persian "Dang," is one-sixth of a dirham,
i.e. about one penny. See vol. ii. 204.

[FN#381] It would mightily tickle an Eastern audience to hear of
a Tither being unable to do any possible amount of villainy.

[FN#382] i.e. The oath of triple divorce which is, I have said,
irrevocable, and the divorcee may not be taken again by her
husband till her marriage with another man (the Mustahill of The
Nights) has been consummated. See vol. iv., 48.

[FN#383] i.e. thousandfold cuckold.

[FN#384] Arab. "Wadi'ah"=the blows which the Robber had given
him.

[FN#385] Arab. "Sindiyan" (from the Persian) gen. used for the
holm-oak, the Quercus pseudococcifera, vulgarly termed ilex, or
native oak, and forming an extensive scrub in Syria, For this and
other varieties of Quercus, as the Mallul and the Ballut, see
Unexplored Syria, i. 68.

[FN#386] Hibernice

[FN#387] Lit. "In the way of moderation"=at least, at the most
moderate reckoning.

[FN#388] Arab. "Rasmal," the vulg. Syrian and Egyptian form of
Raas al-mal=stockin-trade.

[FN#389] Usually a ring or something from his person to show
that all was fair play; here however, it was a watchword.

[FN#390] Arab. "Ya Madyubah," prob. a clerical error for
"Madyunah," alluding to her many debts which he had paid. Here,
however, I suspect the truly Egyptian term "Ya Manyukah!"=O thou
berogered; a delicate term of depreciation which may be heard a
dozen times a day in the streets of Cairo. It has also a
masculine form, "Ya Manyuk!"

[FN#391] About=100 lb. Mr. Sayce (Comparative Philol. p. 210)
owns that Mn is old Egyptian but makes it a loan from the
"Semites," like Sus (horse), Sar (prince), Sepet (lip) and
Murcabutha (chariot), and goes to its origin in the Acratan
column, because "it is not found before the times when the
Egyptians borrowed freely from Palestine." But surely it is
premature to draw such conclusion when we have so much still to
learn concerning the dates of words in Egyptian.

[FN#392] Arab. Jami'. This anachronism, like many of the same
kind, is only apparent. The faith preached by Sayyidna Isa was
the Islam of his day and dispensation, and it abrogated all other
faiths till itself abrogated by the mission of Mahommed. It is
therefore logical to apply to it terms which we should hold to be
purely Moslem. On the other hand it is not logical to paint the
drop-curtain of the Ober-Ammergau "Miracle-play" with the Mosque
of Omar and the minarets of Al-Islam. I humbly represented this
fact to the mechanicals of the village whose performance brings
them in so large a sum every decade; but Snug, Snout and Bottom
turned up the nose of contempt and looked upon me as a mere
"shallow sceptic."

[FN#393] Arab. "Talamizah," plur. of Tilmiz, a disciple, a young
attendant. The word is Syriac and there is a
Heb. root but no Arabic. In the Durrat
al-Ghawwas, however, Tilmiz, Bilkis, and similar words are Arabic
in the form of Fa'lil and Fi'lil

[FN#394] Ruh Allah, lit.=breath of Allah, attending to the
miraculous conception according to the Moslems. See vol. v. 238.

[FN#395] Readers will kindly pronounce this word "Sahra" not
Sahara.

[FN#396] Mr. Clouston refers for analogies to this tale to his
"Oriental Sources of some of Chaucer's Tales" (Notes and Queries,
1885-86), and he finds the original of The Pardoner's Tale in one
of the Jatakas or Buddhist Birth-stories entitled Vedabbha
Jataka. The story is spread over all Europe; in the Cento Novelle
Antiche; Morlini; Hans Sachs, etc. And there are many Eastern
versions, e.g. a Persian by Farid al-Din "'Attar" who died at a
great age in A.D. 1278; an Arabic version in The Orientalist
(Kandy, 1884); a Tibetan in Rollston's Tibetan Tales; a
Cashmirian in Knowles' Dict. of Kashmiri Proverbs, etc., etc.,
etc.

[FN#397] Arab. "'Awan" lit.=aids, helpers; the "Aun of the Jinn"
has often occurred.

[FN#398] i.e. the peasant.

[FN#399] i.e. those serving on the usual feudal tenure; and
bound to suit and service for their fiefs.

[FN#400] i.e. the yearly value of his fief.

[FN#401] i.e. men who paid taxes.

[FN#402] Arab. "Rasatik" plur. of Rustak. See vol. vi. 289.

[FN#403] This adventure is a rechauffe of Amjad's adventure
(vol. iii. 333) without, however, its tragic catastrophe.

[FN#404] The text is so concise as to be enigmatical. The house
was finely furnished for a feast, as it belonged to the Man who
was lavish, etc.

[FN#405] Arab. "Khubz Samiz;" the latter is the Arabisation of
the Pers. Samid, fine white bread, simnel, Germ. semmel.

[FN#406] The text has "Bakulat"=pot-herbs; but it is probably a
clerical error for "Baklawat." See vol. ii. 311.

[FN#407] Egyptian-like he at once calls upon Allah to witness a
lie and his excuse would be that the lie was well-intentioned.

[FN#408] i.e. The private bagnio which in old days every grand
house possessed.

[FN#409] This is a fancy title, but it suits the tale better
than that in the text (xi. 183) "The Richard who lost his wealth
and his wits." Mr. Clouston refers to similar stories in
Sacchetti and other early Italian novelists.

[FN#410] Arab. "Al-Muwaswis": for "Wiswas" see vol. i. 106. This
class of men in stories takes the place of our "cunning idiot,"
and is often confounded with the Saudawi, the melancholist
proper.

[FN#411] Arab. "Hamhama," an onomapoeic, like our hum, hem, and
haw.

[FN#412] Arab. "Barniyah," a vessel either of glass or pottery
like that in which the manna was collected (Exod. xvi. 33).

[FN#413] A hasty man, as Ghazban=an angry man.

[FN#414] The Bresl. Edit. misprint. "Khablas" in more places
than one, now with a Sin, then with a Sad. Khalbas suggests
"Khalbus," a buffoon, for which see vol. ii. 143. In Egypt,
however, the latter generally ends in a Sad (see Lane's
"Khalboos," M. E. chap. xxvii).

[FN#415] This story is a rechauffe of the Jewish Kazi and his
pious wife; see vol. v. 256.

[FN#416] The Arab form of "Nayshapur"=reeds of (King) Shapur:
see vol. ix. 230.

[FN#417] Arab. "Ala Tarik al-Satr wa al-Salamah," meaning that
each other's wives did not veil before their brothers-in-law as
is usually done. It may also mean that they were under Allah's
protection and in best of condition.

[FN#418] i.e. he dared not rape her.

[FN#419] i.e. her "yes" meant "yes" and her "no" meant "no."

[FN#420] "Ignorance" (Jahl) may, here and elsewhere, mean
wickedness, forwardness, folly, vicious folly or uncalled-for
wrath. Here Arabic teaches a good lesson, for ignorance,
intemperance and egoism are, I repeat, the roots of all evil.

[FN#421] So Mohammed said of a child born in adultery "The babe
to the blanket (i.e. let it be nursed and reared) and the
adultress to the stone."

[FN#422] Arab. "Wa ha," etc., an interjection corresponding with
the Syriac "ho" lo! (i.e., look) behold! etc.

[FN#423] This paragraph is supplied by Mr. Payne: something of
the kind has evidently fallen out of the Arab text.

[FN#424] i.e. in the presence of witnesses, legally.

[FN#425] Lit. a myriad, ten thousand dirhams. See vol. iv. 281.

[FN#426] The fire was intended to defend the mother and babe
from Jinns, bad spirits, the evil eye, etc. Romans lit candles in
the room of the puerpara; hence the goddess Candelifera, and the
term Candelaria applied to the B.V. In Brand's Popular
Antiquities (ii. 144) we find, "Gregory mentions an ordinary
superstition of the old wives who dare not trust a child in a
cradle by itself alone without a candle;" this was for fear of
the "night-hag" (Milton, P. L., ii. 662). The same idea prevailed
in Scotland and in Germany: see the learned Liebrecht (who
translated the Pentamerone) "Zur Folkskunde," p. 31. In Sweden if
the candle go out, the child may be carried off by the Trolls
(Weckenstedt, Wendische Sagen, p. 446). The custom has been
traced to the Malay peninsula, whither it was probably imported
by the Hindus or the Moslems, and amongst the Tajiks in Bokhara.
For the Hindu practice, see Katha S. S. 305, and Prof. Tawney's
learned note analysed above.

[FN#427] Arab. "Kahinah," fem. of Kahin (Cohen): see Kahanah,
vol. i. 28.

[FN#428] i.e. for a long time, as has been before explained.

[FN#429] i.e. at his service. Arabia was well provided with
Hetairae and public women long before the days of Al-Islam.

[FN#430] Arab. "Athar"=sign, mark, trail.

[FN#431] i.e. Persia. See vol. v. 26.

[FN#432] Arab. "'Akakir" plur. of 'Akkar prop.=aromatic roots;
but applied to vulgar drugs or simples, as in the Tale of the
Sage Duban, i. 46.

[FN#433] Arab. "Si'at rizki-h" i.e., the ease with which he
earned his copious livelihood.

[FN#434] i.e. the ten thousand dirhams of the bond, beside the
unpaid and contingent portion of her "Mahr" or
marriage-settlement.

[FN#435] Arab. "Al-Hazur" from Hazr=loquacity, frivolous
garrulity. Every craft in the East has a jargon of its own and
the goldsmith (Zargar) is famed for speaking a language made
unintelligible by the constant insertion of a letter or letters
not belonging to the word. It is as if we rapidly pronounced How
d'ye do=Howth doth yeth doth?

[FN#436] Arab. "Asma al-Adwiyah," such as are contained in
volumes like the "Alfaz al-Adwi-yah" (Nomenclature of Drugs).

[FN#437] I am compelled to insert a line in order to make sense.

[FN#438] "Galen," who is considered by Moslems as a kind of
pre-Islamitic Saint; and whom Rabelais (iii. c. 7) calls Le
gentil Falot Galen, is explained by Eustathius as the Serene
{Greek} from {Greek}=rideo.

[FN#439] Arab. "Sahah" the clear space before the house as
opposed to the "Bathah" (Span. Patio) the inner court.

[FN#440] A naive description of the naive style of reclame
adopted by the Eastern Bob Sawyer.

[FN#441] Which they habitually do, by the by, with an immense
amount of unpleasant detail. See Pilgrimage i. 18.

[FN#442] The old French name for the phial or bottle in which
the patient's water is sent.

[FN#443] A descendant from Mohammed, strictly through his
grandson Husayn. See vol. iv. 170.

[FN#444] Arab. "Al-Futuh" lit. the victories; a euphemistic term
for what is submitted to the "musculus guineaorum."

[FN#445] Arab. "Firasah" lit. judging the points of a mare
(faras). Of physiognomy, or rather judging by externals, curious
tales are told by the Arabs. In Al-Mas'udi's (chapt. lvi.) is the
original of the camel blind of one eye, etc., which the genius of
Voltaire has made famous throughout Europe.

[FN#446] I here quote Mr. Payne's note. "Sic in the text; but
the passage is apparently corrupt. It is not plain why a rosy
complexion, blue eyes and tallness should be peculiar to women in
love. Arab women being commonly short, swarthy and blackeyed, the
attributes mentioned appear rather to denote the foreign origin
of the woman; and it is probable, therefore, that this passage
has by a copyist's error, been mixed up with that which relates
to the signs by which the mock physician recognised her
strangerhood, the clause specifying the symptoms of her love-lorn
condition having been crowded out in the process, an accident of
no infrequent occurrence in the transcription of Oriental works."

[FN#447] Most men would have suspected that it was her lover.

[FN#448] The sumptuary laws, compelling for instance the Jews to
wear yellow turbans, and the Christians to carry girdles date
from the Capture of Jerusalem in A.D. 636 by Caliph Omar. See
vol. i. 77; and Terminal Essay § 11.

[FN#449] i.e. Our Sunday: the Jewish week ending with the
Sabbath (Saturday). I have already noted this term for Saturn's
day, established as a God's rest by Commandment No. iv. How it
lost its honours amongst Christians none can say: the text in
Col. ii. 16, 17, is insufficient to abolish an order given with
such pomp and circumstance to, and obeyed, so strictly and
universally by, the Hebrews, including the Founder of
Christianity. The general idea is that the Jewish Sabbath was
done away with by the Christian dispensation (although Jesus kept
it with the usual scrupulous care), and that sundry of the
Councils at Colossae and Laodicea anathematised those who observed
the Saturday after Israelitish fashion. With the day its object
changed; instead of "keeping it holy," as all pious Jews still
do, the early Fathers converted it into the "Feast of the
Resurrection," which could not be kept too joyously. The
"Sabbatismus" of the Sabbatarian Protestant who keeps holy the
wrong day is a marvellous perversion and the Sunday feast of
France, Italy, and Catholic countries generally is far more
logical than the mortification day of England and the so-called
Reformed countries.

[FN#450] Harais, plur. of Harisah: see vol. i. 131.

[FN#451] It would have been cooked on our Thursday night, or the
Jewish Friday night and would be stale and indigestible on the
next day.

[FN#452] Marw (Margiana), which the Turkomans pronounce "Mawr,"
is derived by Bournouf from the Sansk. Maru or Marw; and by Sir
H. Rawlinson from Marz or Marj, the Lat. Margo; Germ. Mark;
English March; Old French Marche and Neo-Lat. Marca. So Marzban,
a Warden of the Marches: vol. iii. 256. The adj. is not Marazi,
as stated in vol. iii. 222; but Marwazi, for which see Ibn
Khallikan, vol. i. p. 7, etc.: yet there are good writers who use
"Marazi" as Razi for a native of Rayy.

[FN#453] i.e. native of Rayy city. See vol. iv. 104.

[FN#454] Normally used for fuel and at times by funny men to be
put into sweetmeats by way of practical joke: these are called
"Nukl-i-Pishkil"=goat-dung bonbons. The tale will remind old
Anglo-Indians of the two Bengal officers who were great at such
"sells" and who "swopped" a spavined horse for a broken-down
"buggy."

[FN#455] In the text "khanadik," ditches, trenches; probably (as
Mr. Payne suggests) a clerical or typographical error for
"Fanadik," inns or caravanserais; the plural of "Funduk" (Span.
Fonda), for which see vol. viii. 184.

[FN#456] This sentence is supplied by Mr. Payne to remedy the
incoherence of the text. Moslems are bound to see True Believers
decently buried and the poor often beg alms for the funeral. Here
the tale resembles the opening of Hajji Baba by Mr. Morier, that
admirable picture of Persian manners and morals.

[FN#457] Arab. "Al-ajr" which has often occurred.

[FN#458] Arab. "Hanut," i.e., leaves of the lotus-tree to be
infused as a wash for the corpse; camphor used with cotton to
close the mouth and other orifices; and, in the case of a wealthy
man, rose-water, musk, ambergris, sandal-wood, and lignaloes for
fumigation.

[FN#459] Which always begin with four "Takbirs" and differ in
many points from the usual orisons. See Lane (M. E. chapt.
xxviii.) who is, however, very superficial upon an intricate and
interesting subject. He even neglects to mention the number of
Ruk'at (bows) usual at Cairo and the absence of prostration
(sujud) for which see vol. ii. 10.

[FN#460] Thus requiring all the ablutional offices to be
repeated. The Shaykh, by handling the corpse, became ceremonially
impure and required "Wuzu" before he could pray either at home or
in the Mosque.

[FN#461] The Shaykh had left it when he went out to perform
Wuzu.

[FN#462] Arab. "Satl"=the Lat. and Etruscan "Situla" and
"Situlus," a water-pot.

[FN#463] Arab. "Lahd, Luhd," the niche or cell hollowed out in
the side of the oblong trench: here the corpse is deposited and
covered with palm-fronds etc. to prevent the earth touching it.
See my Pilgrimage ii. 304.

[FN#464] For the incredible amount of torture which Eastern
obstinacy will sometimes endure, see Al-Mas'udi's tale of the
miserable little old man who stole the ten purses, vol. viii. 153
et seq.

[FN#465] Arab. "Jaridah" (whence the Jarid-game) a palm-frond
stripped of its leaves and used for a host of purposes besides
flogging, chairs, sofas, bedsteads, cages, etc. etc. Tales of
heroism in "eating stick" are always highly relished by the lower
orders of Egyptians who pride themselves upon preferring the
severest bastinado to paying the smallest amount of "rint."

[FN#466] Arab. "Nawus," the hollow tower of masonry with a
grating over the central well upon which the Magian corpse is
placed to be torn by birds of prey: it is kept up by the Parsi
population of Bombay and is known to Europeans as the "Tower of
Silence." Nais and Nawus also mean a Pyrethrum, a fire-temple and
have a whimsical resemblance to the Greek .

[FN#467] For Munkar and Nakir, the Interrogating Angels, see
vol. v. iii. According to Al-Mas'udi (chapt. xxxi.) these names
were given by the Egyptians to the thirteenth and fourteenth
cubits marked on the Nilometer which, in his day, was expected to
show seventeen.

[FN#468] The text (xi. 227) has "Tannur"=an oven, evidently a
misprint for "Kubur"=tombs.

[FN#469] Arab. "'An Abi"=(a propitiatory offering) for my
father. So in Marocco the "Powder-players" dedicate a shot to a
special purpose or person, crying "To my sweetheart!" "To my
dead!" "To my horse!" etc.

[FN#470] For this formula see vol. i. 65. It is technically
called "Haukalah" and "Haulakah," words in the third conjugation
of increased triliterals, corresponding with the quadriliteral
radicals and possessing the peculiar power of Kasr=abbreviation.
Of this same class is Basmalah (vol. v. 206; ix. 1).

[FN#471] This scene with the watch would be relished in the
coffee-house, where the tricks of robbers, like a gird at the
police, are always acceptable.

[FN#472] Arab. "La af'al"; more commonly Ma af'al. Ma and La are
synonymous negative particles, differing, however, in
application. Ma (Gr. ) precedes definites, or indefinites: La
and Lam (Gr. ) only indefinites as "La ilaha" etc.

[FN#473] Alluding to the proverb, "What hast thou left behind
thee, O Asam?" i.e., what didst thou see?

[FN#474] Arab. "Sayrafi," s.s. as "Sarraf': see vol. i. 210.

[FN#475] Arab. "Al-Ma'rafah"=the place where the mane grows.

[FN#476] i.e. though the ass remain on thy hands.

[FN#477] "Halves," i.e. of dirhams: see vol. ii. 37.

[FN#478] Arab. "Taannafu,"=the Germ. lange Nase.

[FN#479] About forty shillings.

[FN#480] About L220.

[FN#481] Characteristically Eastern and Moslem is this action of
the neighbours and bystanders. A walk through any Oriental city
will show a crowd of people screaming and gesticulating, with
thundering yells and lightning glances, as if about to close in
mortal fight, concerning some matter which in no way concerns
them. Our European cockneys and badauds mostly content themselves
with staring and mobbing.

[FN#482] Arab. "Muruwwah," lit. manliness, especially in the
sense of generosity. So the saying touching the "Miyan," or
Moslem of India:--

Fi 'l-riuz Kuwwah:
Fi 'I Hindi muruwwah.

When rice have strength, you'll haply find,
In Hindi man, a manly mind.

[FN#483] i.e. His claim is just and reasonable.

[FN#484] I have noted (vol. i. 17) that good Moslems shun a
formal oath, although "by Allah!" is ever on their tongues. This
they seem to have borrowed from Christianity, which expressly
forbade it, whilst Christians cannot insist upon it too much. The
scandalous scenes lately enacted in a certain legislative
assembly because an M.P. did not believe in a practice denounced
by his creed, will be the wonder and ridicule of our descendants.

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