Book: Supplemental Nights, Volume 1

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




[FN#485] Most Arabs believe that the black cloud which sometimes
produces, besides famine, contagious fevers and pestilence, like
that which in 1799 depopulated the cities and country of Barbary,
is led by a king locust, the Sultan Jarad.

[FN#486] The text is hopelessly corrupt, and we have no other
with which to collate. Apparently a portion of the tale has
fallen out, making a non-sens of its ending, which suggests that
the kite gobbled up the two locusts at her ease, and left the
falcon to himself.

[FN#487] The lines have occurred in vol. i. 265. I quote Mr.
Payne.

[FN#488] The fabliau is a favourite in the East; this is the
third time it has occurred with minor modifications. Of course
the original was founded on fact, and the fact was and is by no
means uncommon.

[FN#489] This would hardly be our Western way of treating a
proposal of the kind; nor would the European novelist neglect so
grand an opportunity for tall-talk.

[FN#490] This is a rechauffe of "The House with the Belvedere;"
see vol. vi. 188.

[FN#491] Arab. "Masturah,"=veiled, well-guarded, confined in the
Harem.

[FN#492] Arab. "'Ajuz nahs"=an old woman so crafty that she was
a calamity to friends and foes.

[FN#493] Here, as in many places the text is painfully concise:
the crone says only, "The Wuzu for the prayer!"

[FN#494] I have followed Mr. Payne who supplies this sentence to
make the Tale run smoothly.

[FN#495] i.e. the half of the marriage-settlement due to the
wife on divorcement and whatever monies he may have borrowed of
her.

[FN#496] Here we find the vulgar idea of a rape, which is that a
man can, by mere force, possess a woman against her will. I
contend that this is impossible unless he use drugs like
chloroform or violence, so as to make the patient faint or she be
exceptionally weak. "Good Queen Bess" hit the heart of the
question when she bade Lord High Chancellor sheath his sword, she
holding the scabbard-mouth before him and keeping it in constant
motion. But it often happens that the woman, unless she have a
loathing for her violator, becomes infected with the amorous
storge, relaxes her defense, feels pleasure in the outer contact
of the parts and almost insensibly allows penetration and
emission. Even conception is possible in such cases as is proved
in that curious work, "The Curiosities of Medical Experience."

[FN#497] i.e. thou wilt have satisfied us all three.

[FN#498] Here I follow Mr. Payne who has skilfully fine-drawn
the holes in the original text.

[FN#499] See vol. vii. 363; ix. 238.

[FN#500] Arab. "Musalla," which may be either a praying carpet,
a pure place in a house, or a small chapel like that near Shiraz
which Hafiz immortalised,

"Bring, boy, the sup that's in the cup; in highest Heaven man
ne'er shall find
Such watery marge as Ruknabad, MusalIa's mazes rose entwined."

[FN#501] Arab. "Ihtida,"=divine direction to Huda or salvation.
The old bawd was still dressed as a devotee, and keeps up the
cant of her caste. No sensible man in the East ever allows a
religious old woman to pass his threshold.

[FN#502] In this tale "poetical justice" is neglected, but the
teller skilfully caused the wife to be ravished and not to be a
particeps criminis. The lover escapes scot-free because Moslems,
as well as Hindus, hold that the amourist under certain
conditions is justified in obtaining his object by fair means or
foul. See p. 147 of "Early Ideas, a Group of Hindoo Stories,"
collected and collated by Anaryan: London, Allens, 1881.

[FN#503] This is supplied from the "Tale of the King and his
Wazir's Wife," vol. vi. 129.

[FN#504] Arab. "Ibl," a specific name: it is presently opposed
to "Nakah," a she-dromedary, and "Rahilah," a riding-camel.

[FN#505] Here "Amsaytu" is used in its literal sense "I evened"
(came at evening), and this is the case with seven such verbs,
Asbaha, Amsa, Azha, Azhara, A'tama, Zalla, and Bata, which either
conjoin the sense of the sentence with their respective times,
morning, evening, forenoon, noon and the first sundown watch, all
day and all night or are used "elegantly," as grammarians say,
for the simple "becoming" or "being."

[FN#506] The Badawi dogs are as dangerous as those of Montenegro
but not so treacherous: the latter will sneak up to the stranger
and suddenly bite him most viciously. I once had a narrow escape
from an ignoble death near the slaughter-house of
Alexandria-Ramlah, where the beasts were unusually ferocious. A
pack assailed me at early dawn and but for an iron stick and a
convenient wall I should have been torn to pieces.

[FN#507] These elopements are of most frequent occurrence: see
Pilgrimage iii. 52.

[FN#508] The principal incidents, the loss and recovery of wife
and children, occur in the Story of the Knight Placidus (Gesta
Romanorum, cx.). But the ecclesiastical taleteller does not do
poetical justice upon any offenders, and he vilely slanders the
great Caesar, Trajan.

[FN#509] i.e. a long time: the idiom has already been noticed.
In the original we have "of days and years and twelvemonths" in
order that "A'wam" (years) may jingle with "Ayyam" (days).

[FN#510] Nothing can be more beautiful than the natural parks
which travellers describe on the coasts of tropical seas.

[FN#511] Arab. "Khayyal" not only a rider but a good and a hard
rider. Hence the proverb "Al-Khayyal" kabr maftuh=uomo a cavallo
sepoltura aperta.

[FN#512] i.e. the crew and the islanders.

[FN#513] Arab. "Hadas," a word not easy to render. In grammar
Lumsden renders it by "event" and the learned Captain Lockett
(Miut Amil) in an awful long note (pp. 195 to 224) by "mode,"
grammatical or logical. The value of his disquisition is its
proving that, as the Arabs borrowed their romance from the
Persians, so they took their physics and metaphysics of grammar
and syntax; logic and science in general, from the Greeks.

[FN#514] We should say the anchors were weighed and the canvas
spread.

[FN#515] The rhymes are disposed in the quaintest way, showing
extensive corruption. Mr. Payne has ordered them into couplets
with a "bob" or refrain. I have followed suit, preserving the
original vagaries of rhymes.

[FN#516] Arab. "Nuwab," broken plur. (that is, noun of
multitude) of Naubah, the Anglo-Indian Nowbut. This is applied to
the band playing at certain intervals before the gate of a Rajah
or high official.

[FN#517] Arab. "Hajib"; Captain Trotter ("Our Mission to the
Court of Morocco in 1880": Edinburgh, Douglas, 1881) speaks,
passim, of the "cheery little Hajeb or Eyebrow." Really this is
too bad: why cannot travellers consult an Orientalist when
treating of Oriental subjects?

[FN#518] Suicide is rare in Moslem lands, compared with India,
China, and similar "pagan" countries; for the Mussulman has the
same objection as the Christian "to rush into the presence of his
Creator," as if he could do so without the Creator's permission.
The Hindu also has some curious prejudices on the subject; he
will hang himself, but not by the neck, for fear lest his soul be
defiled by exiting through an impure channel. In England hanging
is the commonest form for men; then follow in due order drowning,
cutting or stabbing, poison, and gun-shot: women prefer drowning
(except in the cold months) and poison. India has not yet found a
Dr. Ogle to tabulate suicide; but the cases most familiar to old
Anglo-Indians are leaping down cliffs (as at Giruar), drowning,
and starving to death. And so little is life valued that a mother
will make a vow obliging her son to suicide himself at a certain
age.

[FN#519] Arab. "Zarad-Khanah," before noticed: vol. vii. 363.
Here it would mean a temporary prison for criminals of high
degree. De Sacy, Chrestom, ii. 179.

[FN#520] Arab. "'Adul," I have said, means in Marocco, that land
of lies and subterfuges, a public notary.

[FN#521] This sentence is inserted by Mr. Payne to complete the
sense.

[FN#522] i.e. he intended to marry her when time served.

[FN#523] Arab. from Pers. Khwajah and Khawajat: see vol. vi. 46.

[FN#524] Probably meaning by one mother whom he loved best of
all his wives: in the next page we read of their sister.

[FN#525] Come down, i.e. from heaven.

[FN#526] This is the Bresl. Edit.'s form of Shahryar=city-keeper
(like Marzban, guardian of the Marches), for city-friend. The
learned Weil has preferred it to Shahryar.

[FN#527] Sic: in the Mac. Edit. "Shahrazad" and here making
nonsense of the word. It is regretable that the king's
reflections do not run at times as in this text: his compunctions
lead well up to the denouement.

[FN#528] The careless text says "couplets." It has occurred in
vol. i. 149: so I quote Torrens (p. 149).

[FN#529] In the text Salma is made to speak, utterly confusing
the dialogue.

[FN#530] The well-known Baloch province beginning west of Sind:
the term is supposed to be a corruption of
Mahi-Khoran=Ichthyophagi. The reader who wishes to know more
about it will do well to consult "Unexplored Baluchistan," etc.
(Griffith and Farran, 1882), the excellent work of my friend Mr.
Ernest A. Floyer, long Chief of the Telegraphic Department,
Cairo.

[FN#531] Meaning the last city in Makran before entering Sind.
Al-Sharr would be a fancy name, "The Wickedness."

[FN#532] i.e. think of nothing but his present peril.

[FN#533] Arab. "Munkati'ah"=lit. "cut off" (from the weal of the
world). See Pilgrimage i. 22.

[FN#534] The lines are in vol. i. 207 and iv. 189. 1 here quote
Mr. Payne.

[FN#535] I have another proposal to make.

[FN#536] i.e. In my heart's core: the figure has often occurred.

[FN#537] These sudden elevations, so common in the East and not
unknown to the West in the Napoleonic days, explain how the
legend of "Joanna Papissa" (Pope John XIII), who succeeded Leo
IV. in A.D. 855 and was succeeded by Benedict III., found ready
belief amongst the enemies of papacy. She was an English woman
born in Germany who came to Rome and professed theology with
eclat, wherefore the people enthroned her. "Pope Joan" governed
with exemplary wisdom, but during a procession on Rogation Sunday
she was delivered of a fine boy in the street: some make her die
on the spot; others declare that she perished in prison.

[FN#538] That such things should happen in times of famine is
only natural; but not at other seasons. This abomination on the
part of the butcher is, however, more than once alluded toin The
Nights: see vol. i. 332.

[FN#539] Opinions differ as to the site of this city, so
celebrated in the mediaeval history of Al-Islam: most probably it
stood where Hyderabad of Sind now is. The question has been ably
treated by Sir Henry M. Elliot in his "History of India," edited
from his posthumous papers by Professor Dowson.

[FN#540] Which, by-the-by, the average Eastern does with even
more difficulty than the average European. For the most part the
charge to secrecy fixes the matter in his mind even when he has
forgotten that it is to be kept secret. Hence the most unpleasant
results.

[FN#541] Such an act appears impossible, and yet history tells
us of a celebrated Sufi, Khayr al-Nassaj (the Weaver), who being
of dark complexion was stopped on return from his pilgrimage at
Kufah by a stranger that said, "Thou art my negro slave and thy
name is Khayr." He was kept at the loom for years, till at last
the man set him free, and simply said, "Thou wast not my slave"
(Ibn Khall. i. 513).

[FN#542] These lines have occurred before. I quote Mr. Payne for
variety.

[FN#543] Arab. "Tasill saliata 'l-Munkat'in"=lit. "raining on
the drouth-hardened earth of the cut-off." The metaphor is
admissible in the eyes of an Arab who holds water to be the
chiefest of blessings, and makes it synonymous with bounty and
beneficence."

[FN#544] Possibly this is said in mere fun; but, as Easterns are
practical physiognomists, it may hint the fact that a large nose
in womankind is the sign of a masculine nature.

[FN#545] Arab. "Zakat wa Sadakat,"=lit. paying of poor rate and
purifying thy property by almsdeeds. See vol. i. 339.

[FN#546] I have noted (i. 293) that Kamis ( , Chemise,
Cameslia, Camisa) is used in the Hindostani and Bengali dialects.
Like its synonyms praetexta and shift, it has an equivocal meaning
and here probably signifies the dress peculiar to Arab devotees
and devout beggars.

[FN#547] I omit here and elsewhere the parenthetical formula
"Kala al-Rawi," etc.=The Story-teller sayeth, reminding the
reader of its significance in a work collected from the mouths of
professional Tale-tellers and intended mainly for their own use.

[FN#548] The usual sign of emotion, already often mentioned.

[FN#549] It being no shame to Moslems if a slave become King.

[FN#550] Arab. "Tarbiyati," i.e., he was brought up in my house.

[FN#551] There is no Salic law amongst Moslems; but the Rasm or
custom of AlIslam, established by the succession of the four
first Caliphs, to the prejudice of Ayishah and other masterful
women would be a strong precedent against queenly rule. It is the
reverse with the Hindus who accept a Rani as willingly as a Rajah
and who believe with Europeans that when kings reign women rule,
and vice versa. To the vulgar Moslem feminine government appears
impossible, and I was once asked by an Afghan, "What would happen
if the queen were in childbed?"

[FN#552] Arab. "Khutbah," the sermon preached from the pulpit
(Mimbar) after the congregational prayers on Friday noon. It is
of two kinds, for which see Lane, M.E., chap. iii. This public
mention of his name and inscribing it upon the newly-minted money
are the special prerogatives of the Moslem king: hence it often
happens that usurpers cause a confusion of Khutbah and coinage.

[FN#553] For a specimen of which, blowing a man up with bellows,
see Al-Mas'udi, chap. cxxiii.

[FN#554] i.e. a long time: the idiom has been noted before more
than once.

[FN#555] i.e. with what he had heard and what he was promised.

[FN#556] Arab. "Shakhs mafsud," i.e. an infidel.

[FN#557] Arab. "Bunud," plur. of Persian "band"=hypocrisy,
deceit.

[FN#558] Arab. "Buruj" pl. of Burj. lit.=towers, an astrological
term equivalent to our "houses" or constellations which form the
Zodiacal signs surrounding the heavens as towers gird a city; and
applied also to the 28 lunar Mansions. So in Al-Hariri (Ass. of
Damascus) "I swear by the sky with its towers," the incept of
Koran chapt. lxxxv.; see also chapts. xv. 26 and xxv. 62. "Burj"
is a word with a long history: {Greek} burg, burgh, etc.

[FN#559] Arab. "Bundukah"=a little bunduk, nut, filbert, pellet,
rule, musket bullet.

[FN#560] See John Raister's "Booke of the Seven Planets; or,
Seven Wandering Motives," London, 1598.

[FN#561] i.e. for the king whom I love as my own soul.

[FN#562] The Bresl. Edit. (xi. 318-21) seems to assume that the
tales were told in the early night before the royal pair slept.
This is no improvement; we prefer to think that the time was
before peep of day when Easterns usally awake and have nothing to
do till the dawn-prayer.

[FN#563] See vol. ii. 161.

[FN#564] Arab. Al-Fakhir. No wonder that the First Hand who
moulded the Man-mud is a lieu commun in Eastern thought. The Pot
and the Potter began with the old Egyptians. "Sitting as a
potter at the wheel, god Cneph (in Philae) moulds clay, and gives
the spirit of life (the Genesitic "breath") to the nostrils of
Osiris." Then we meet him in the Vedas, the Being, "by whom the
fictile vase is formed; the clay out of which it is fabricated."
We find him next in Jeremiah (xviii. 2) "Arise and go down unto
the Potter's house," etc., and in Romans (ix. 20), "Hath not the
Potter power over the clay?" He appears in full force in Omar-i-
Khayyam (No. xxxvii.):--

For I remember stopping by the way
To watch a Potter thumping his wet Clay:
An with its all obliterated Tongue
I murmur'd-"Gently, Brother, gently, pray!"

Lastly the Potter shows in the Kasidah of Haji Abdu al-Yezid
(p.4):--

"The first of pots the Potter made by Chrysorrhoas' blue-
green wave;
Methinks I see him smile to see what guerdon to the world he
gave.

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