Chapter XXXI: Appendix: HATIM TAÏ AND THE BENEVOLENT LADY—p. 46 (6)

[49] In spite of the vigilance with which women in the East are guarded from communication with lovers, it is said that men frequently gain access to harams disguised in female apparel, with or without the connivance of the “neutral personages” who are appointed to keep watch and ward over the private apartments.

[50] This recalls an incident in the Muslim legend of King Solomon’s temporary degradation, in consequence of his having fallen into the heinous sin of idolatry—a legend adapted from the Jewish traditionists—when “the wisest man the world e’er saw” became an outcast and a vagrant, and took service with a fisherman; his wages being two fishes each day.

[51] The wise and witty author of _Hudibras_ partly expresses the same sentiment in these lines:

Man is supreme lord and master
Of his own ruin and disaster,
Controls his fate, but nothing less
In ordering his own happiness:
For all his care and providence
Is too feeble a defence
To render it secure and certain
Against the injuries of fortune;
And oft, in spite of all his wit,
Is lost with one unlucky hit,
And ruined with a circumstance
And mere punctilio of a chance.

Butler’s _Remains_.

But the Hindú sages give forth no uncertain sound on this subject, as may be seen from these verses, which are cited in the _Hitopadesa_, a Sanskrit version of the celebrated Fables of Bidpaï:

“As from a lump of clay a workman makes whatever he pleases, in like manner a man obtains the destiny prepared by himself.”

“Fortune waits upon that lion of a man who exerts himself. Abject fellows say: ‘It is to be given by destiny.’ Put forth manliness with all your strength. If when effort has been made it succeed not, what blame is there in such a case?”

[52] Muslims regard Lukman as the type of human wisdom. He is said to have been an Ethiopian slave and served in the army of the Hebrew king David. Many striking sayings and fables are ascribed to him, but it is more than doubtful whether he composed any apologues.

[53] The loves of Laylá and Majnún—the Romeo and Juliet of the East—have formed the theme of several very beautiful Persian and Turkish poems. Majnún (which means “mad from love:” his proper name was Kays) was the son of an Arab chief and deeply enamoured of a maiden of another tribe; and on her being married to a foreign and wealthy suitor he became distraught, and fled to the wilderness. When Laylá became a widow and met her lover once more she found him a raving maniac and died soon after. Majnún expired on her tomb.

[54] Muslim poets are never weary of harping on the fancied love of the nightingale (_bulbul_) for the rose, to which he is supposed to pour out his nightly plaint.

[55] “The philosopher,” says a Persian poet, “died of grief and distress, while the blockhead found a treasure in a ruin.”

[56] It is rare indeed to find in Eastern tales such sensible observations put in the mouths of sultans, who are for the most part mere lay figures or credulous fools. Mr. R. L. Stevenson has happily described the monarchs that figure in the _Arabian Nights_ as “wooden kings.” Here, however, we have in this sultan a really sagacious man.

[57] The renowned Harún er-Rashíd was not the only Oriental monarch fond of prowling through his capital after nightfall in disguise: Indian kings of the olden time, long before the Muhammedan invasion and subjugation, are said to have made it their regular practice. King James the Fifth of Scotland was wont to adopt all sorts of disguises and go about in quest of _amorous_ adventures.

[58] Blighted, as they firmly believed, by the mere sight of the _unlucky_ man.

[59] Copies of the Kurán are always very beautifully written and often illuminated with great taste and splendour, and are very costly. Poor Shoayb may, however, have been induced to select a Kurán out of the robbers’ booty rather from motives of _piety_ than from any desire of gain.—I may mention that, although the art of printing is now practised both in Persia and Turkey, copies of the Kurán are still multiplied (or were so till very lately) by handwriting, from a superstitious notion that the impure materials employed in printing would profane the sacred text.

[60] Friday is the Muslim Sunday—called _El-Jum’á_, or the Assembly; but it is not observed as a day exclusively devoted to religious exercises, like the “Lord’s Day” among our Protestant “evangelicals,” whose motto seems to be, “Let us all be unhappy together,” on that day which they ought rather to regard as a day of pious rejoicing, could they be consistent; nor are the superstitious notions associated with the Sabbath in Jewish minds entertained by Muslims regarding the day of _El-Jum’á_.

[61] The number _forty_ seems to have been always a favourite among Eastern peoples, and it occurs in the Bible many times in connection with important events. Thus the Flood continued _forty_ days (Gen. vii, 17); Joseph and his kinsmen mourned _forty_ days for their father Jacob (Gen. l, 3); thrice Moses fasted _forty_ days (Exod. xxiv, 18, xxxiv, 28, and Deut. ix, 9-25); during _forty_ days the Hebrew spies searched Canaan (Numb. xiii, 25); Goliath defied the Hebrew army for _forty_ days (1 Sam. xvii, 16); Elijah fasted _forty_ days (1 Kings xix, 8); Nineveh was to be destroyed after _forty_ days (Jonah iii, 4); _forty_ days Ezekiel bore the iniquities of the house of Judah, a day for a year (Ezek. iv, 6); Christ was tempted by Satan during _forty_ days (Matt. iv, 2, and Mark i, 13), and he continued _forty_ days on earth after his resurrection (Acts i, 3); the Israelites were condemned to wander in the wilderness _forty_ years (Numb. xiv, 33).—Muslims mourn _forty_ days for their dead; and they deem a woman ceremonially unclean during _forty_ days after childbirth: among the Israelites the period was forty days when she had given birth to a male child and eighty days in the case of a female child.—In the present romance, our unlucky hero, Nassar, is directed by the hermit’s “last will,” as above, to spend _forty_ days in prayer for the restoration of the fairies’ fountain; he shoots an arrow through a finger-ring _forty_ times (p. 100); but his too expert archery caused an accident to the king, from the effects of which his majesty did not recover until he had been “_forty_ days under medical treatment” (p. 102); poor Shah Manssur was in the power of the cruel sorceress for nearly _forty_ days (p. 26); and the son of the king of Tytmyran was tossed about on the sea in a boat for _forty_ days (p. 73). To conclude this long note: _forty_ is the usual number of a gang of robbers in Eastern tales—that of “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” will at once occur to the reader; and we have another example in the diverting story of “Ahmed the Cobbler” (Malcolm’s _Sketches of Persia_), where the king’s treasury is plundered by _forty_ robbers.

[62] Excepting, surely, “the shark and the sun-fish dark”!

[63] “Sometimes it happens,” says our author, “that a man is such a favourite of fortune that if another try to injure him even that will turn to his advantage. Good men refrain in thought and word and deed from injuring their fellow men; but evil-minded men resemble scorpions in their nature, stinging everybody without cause, and with no profit to themselves, while the objects of their hatred nevertheless prosper;—as will appear from the following story of the adventures of Farrukhrúz, whose success was promoted by the enmity which the vazírs of the king of Yaman entertained against him.”

[64] A sensible man! He was well aware that frequently “riches take unto themselves wings and flee away.” The sons of “self-made” men seldom turn out to be of much account—probably because fathers such as Khoja Marján are not often found among those whose sole aim in life has been to “mak’ siller”!

[65] Or Yemen: the ancient Arabia Felix.

[66] “Forty days” again!—see _ante_, note on pp. 140, 141.

[67] A kind of witch’s broomstick, apparently. It is to be regretted that our author (or the holy hermit) did not specify the other properties of this wonderful staff! Doubtless it also provided the possessor with “meat, drink, and clothing,” in common with similar magical articles which figure in the fairy tales of all peoples.

[68] Muslims have derived from the Jewish cabbalists the notion of the marvellous efficacy of the “unutterable Name” of God—called by the Arabs _El-Ism el-Aazam_, “the Most Great Name.” It was, they say, engraved on Solomon’s signet-ring, by means of which he subdued all the genii and demons, save one rebellious and powerful genie called Sakhr, who concealed himself in an island in mid-ocean. But the Wise King “took up” with strange women—with the daughters of idolatrous kings whom he had conquered in battle; and to one of those he gave his ring one unlucky day, to keep for him while he was at his bath. The demon Sakhr, who had been prowling invisibly about the palace, in hopes of catching his royal enemy at an unguarded moment, assumed Solomon’s form and readily obtained possession of the wonder-working ring, and sat on the throne of Israel, while Solomon—whose appearance was at once changed—was driven forth, to wander up and down the land as a beggar. To be brief, the ring was, after long years, found in the maw of a fish—Sakhr having thrown it away when he fled, on being detected as an imposter by the reading of the Law in his presence—and Solomon “came to his own again.” Solomon’s signet-ring figures frequently in Muslim romances and stories: it was with this magical ring that he sealed the copper vessels into which he conjured certain rebellious genii, and then caused them to be thrown into the sea; it also gave him power over all creatures on the earth and in the waters, and over the eight winds, which, at his command, wafted through the air, whithersoever he pleased, himself and his army on the marvellous carpet woven for him by genii—to which the poet Bahá-ed-Dín Zuhayr, of Egypt, thus alludes in an address to his lady-love:

“And now I bid the very wind
To speed my loving message on,
As though I might its fury bind,
Like Solomon.”

The wind is a common messenger of love in the amatory poetry of the East;—thus a pre-Islamite Arabian poet exclaims in apostrophising his beloved: “O may the western breeze tell thee of my ardent desire to return home!”

[69] I reproduce the following notes on treasure-trees from my paper on the Franklin’s Tale (entitled “The Damsel’s Rash Promise”) in _Originals and Analogues of some of Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales”_ printed for the Chaucer Society, p. 336:

In the _Kathá Sarit Ságara_—an ancient Sanskrit story-book—we read of trees with golden trunks, branches of jewels, the clear white flowers of which were clusters of pearls; golden lotuses, etc. Aladdin, it will be remembered, found in the cave, where was deposited the magic lamp, trees bearing “fruit” of emeralds and other gems of great price, with which he took care to stuff his pockets.

In the mediæval romance of Alexander we are told how the world-conqueror jousted with Porus for his kingdom, and having overthrown him, he found in the palace of the vanquished monarch innumerable treasures, and amongst others a vine of which the branches were gold, the leaves emerald, and the fruit of other precious stones—a fiction, says Dunlop, which seems to have been suggested by the golden vine which Pompey carried away from Jerusalem.

The garden of Duke Isope, as described in the _Tale of Beryn_ (Supp. Canterbury Tales: Ch. Soc., p. 84), had a similar tree:

“In mydward of this garden stant a feire tre,
Of alle maner levis that under sky [there] be,
I-forgit and i-fourmyd, eche in his degre,
Of sylvir, and of goldè fyne, that lusty ben to see.”

As the treasures coveted by the Arimaspians were guarded by griffins, and the golden apples of the Hesperides by a dragon, so this garden of Duke Isope was kept by eight “tregetours,” or magicians, who looked like “abominabill wormys,” enough to frighten the bravest man on earth.

The Italian poet Boiardo, in the 12th canto of his _Orlando Innamorato_, represents the virtuous Tisbina as promising her love to Iroldo, who is madly enamoured of her, on condition that he perform a certain task for her: “Beyond the forest of Barbary,” says she, “is a fair garden, which has an iron wall. Herein entrance can be obtained by four gates: one Life keeps, Death, another, Poverty, another, and Riches, another. Whoso goes therein must depart by the opposite gate. In the midst is a tree of vast height, far as an arrow may mount aloft; that tree is of marvellous price, for whenever it blossoms it puts forth pearls, and it is called the Treasure-Tree, for it has apples of emerald and boughs of gold. A branch of this tree,” adds the fair Tisbina, “I must have, otherwise I am in heavy case.”

[70] A species of inferior _jinni_, or genie.

[71] It is a general practice of Muslim men to shave their heads, leaving in front a _kakull_, or tuft of hair, in order, according to some writers, that an enemy, in the day of battle, after cutting off the head of any of the faithful whom he had slain, should have wherewithal to carry it, and not require to pollute it by thrusting his fingers into the mouth. This bears some resemblance to the tuft which North American Indians wear, as a defiance to their foes—to scalp them if they can! The tuft on the Muslim’s head, however, serves another purpose, in being allowed to grow for some time before he sets out on the pilgrimage to Makka, so that, arrived there, he can twist it round his head like a turban, as a guard against the fierce Arabian sun. The Bráhmans also shave their heads, leaving a similar tuft, which, like the “pig-tail” of a Chinaman, is a mark of respectability, and its removal is a very great disgrace.

[72] Iskandar, or Sikandar: Alexander the Great, of whom Muslim writers relate many wonderful stories—especially the Persian poet Nizamí, in his famous _Sikandar-Náma_, or Alexander-Book.—Jamshíd was the fourth of the first (or Píshdádí) dynasty of ancient Persian kings. He is said to have founded Persepolis, and introduced the solar year, and ordered the first day of it, when the sun entered Aries, to be celebrated by a magnificent festival, which is still observed in Persia, and is called the _Nú Rúz_, or the New Day. Of his goblet, above referred to, _Jam-i-Jamshíd_, or the Cup of Jamshíd, marvellous things are related: it mirrored the whole world, foreshadowed future events, and so forth. It is said that such was its lustre that it dazzled all beholders, and hence poets have found it a convenient simile for the brilliant eyes of a pretty girl.

[73] It does not appear that the astrologer’s prediction was fulfilled—though a blind man once shot a crow, but, like the astrologer, for one hit he missed a thousand times. A good story is told of an essay in the capacity of astrologer on the part of Anvarí, the celebrated Persian poet. It so happened that in 1186 A.D. (581 or 582 A.H.) there was a conjunction of all the planets in the sign of Libra. Anvarí predicted a storm which would eradicate trees and destroy all buildings. When the fatal day arrived, it was perfectly calm, and there was the whole year so little wind that the people were unable to winnow their corn. The unlucky poet-astrologer was obliged to fly to Balkh, where he died, in the reign of Sultan Alá-ed-Dín Takash, A.D. 1200 (A.H. 596).

Astrologers having predicted for the year 1523 incessant rains and disastrous floods, the good abbot of St. Bartholomew, in Smithfield, London, built a house at Harrow-on-the-Hill, and stored it with provisions. Many people followed his example and repaired to high places, in order to escape the expected deluge. But no extraordinary rains occurring, the disappointed soothsayers pacified the people by confessing themselves mistaken just one hundred years in their calculation!—Readers of Chaucer will remember how the arch-rogue Clerk Nicolas, for his own wicked ends, predicted, to his simple landlord, the carpenter, that a flood was presently to come upon the earth, greater than that which Noah and his family “rode-out” in the Ark.

Mrs. Meer Hasan Ali, in her interesting _Observations on the Mussulmans of India_, says: “It is wonderful the influence which a _najúm_ [_i.e._ astrologer] acquires in the houses of many great men in India. Wherever one of those idlers is entertained he is the oracle to be consulted on all occasions. I know those who submit with a childlike docility to the najúm’s opinion, when their better reason, if allowed sway, would decide against the astrologer’s prediction. If the najúm says it is not proper for Nawáb Sahib and his lady to eat, drink, or sleep, to take medicine, to give away or accept any gift, the najúm has said it, and the najúm must be right.” (Vol. i, pp. 69, 70.)

[74] Akhfash was a Muhammedan professor of grammar and literature who was so unlucky as not to be able to attract any disciples; he therefore trained a goat and lectured to it, the docile animal approving, doubting, or denying his propositions as occasion required, and in course of time, when it had attracted a very large number of scholars, its functions ceased.—_E. Rehatsek, the translator._

[75] We have in this scene, between the simple dweller in the desert, the infatuated Farrukhrúz, and the Amír, a capital example of Oriental humour.

[76] Thus the sultan received our hero on a footing of equality with himself, and the scene recalls the meeting of the two brothers, King Sháhriyár and Sháh Zamán in the opening of the _Arabian Nights_.

[77] Notwithstanding all that has been written by European orientalists during the last half-century regarding the Muhammedan religion, the notion is still widely prevalent that, according to the Kuránic teachings, women have not souls. The idea is quite preposterous, and must have been set afloat by bigoted Christian “champions” who wished to throw discredit on the doctrines of Islám. In the Kurán future rewards are promised and future punishments are threatened to men and women alike. And in Muslim stories, which may be considered as faithfully reflecting the general religious belief, women are often spoken of as having gone to Paradise at their death, while it is not unusual for the transcriber of a book to insert at the end a prayer for the souls of his father and mother. Moreover, among the traditions preserved of Muhammed is the following, which shows that the Founder of Islám could occasionally indulge in a little harmless pleasantry: An old woman came to him one day, and asked what should be the lot of such as she in Paradise. The Prophet replied, that no old women would be there, upon which the poor crone set up a loud wail, but Muhammed presently soothed her by smilingly explaining that all the old women would become young when they entered Paradise.

[78] Yet again “forty days”!

[79] The name of the king is derived from Alakápuri, the city of Kavéra, the god of riches, and Alakésa is therefore an appellation signifying a wealthy king.

[80] The Pandit remarks that this kind of statement often occurs in stories in proof of the just reign of a monarch. The Hindú idea is, that so long as justice and equity characterised a king’s rule, even beasts naturally inimical were disposed to live in friendship. When timely rain fails or famine stalks through the land, turning his eyes from the natural causes, the orthodox Hindú will say that such a king is now reigning over them unjustly, and hence the calamity.

[81] According to a Persian writer, “she is a perfect woman who considers her husband as the most accomplished of men, and thinks all the sons of Adam beside quite unworthy of a transient glance from the corner of her half-shut eyes.” And in the _Mahábhárata_ we are told that “she is a good wife whose husband is as her very life.”

[82] “Distinguishing the peculiarities of an animal by its footsteps, etc.,” says the Pandit, “is often met with in Indian stories. Precisely the reverse of this is the tale of the four blind men who disputed about the form of an elephant. One of them had felt only the elephant’s ear, and said it was like a winnow; another examined the breast and a foreleg, and said it was like a thick stump of wood; the third felt the trunk and said it was like a heavy crook; while the fourth, having touched only the tail, declared it was like a sweeping rake.”

[83] A pagoda is now of the value of about 7s. 6d.

[84] Sambhavi and Mahámayi are among the numerous names of Kálí, the goddess of destruction, called also Parvati and Durga: the daughter of Himálaya, sovereign of the snowy mountains. She is described as terrible in form and very irascible in temper. In her amiable form she is called Bhaváni. To address a deity by a number of appellations, as above, is considered as the readiest way to secure favour.—Mr. Natésa Sástrí, in a note in _Indian Notes and Queries_ for Sept. 1887, p. 215, states that “the goddess Kálí is much worshipped in the Madras Presidency, and especially so during an epidemic. During an outbreak of cholera in Madras in 1884, the Kálí image in the Minakshí temple, near the Dvaja Stambha, was daily propitiated by a thousand pots each of ghí (clarified butter) milk, oil, etc.”

[85] Vijanajara, now a village in Hospet _táluk_, Bellary district, Madras Presidency. The proper name of this village is Hampi, but Vijanajara was the name of the dynasty and the kingdom which had its capital there, and was the last great Hindú power in the South. Founded by two adventurers in the middle of the 14th century, it lasted for two centuries, till its sun went down at Tálikot in 1565 A.D. The ruins of Hampi cover nine square miles.—Sir W. W. Hunter’s _Imperial Gazetteer of India_.

[86] A _ghatika_ is twenty-four minutes.

[87] Apparently the arrows were attached to some kind of mechanism which should discharge them on the opening of the pot. “There is nothing new under the sun”! Dynamite is perhaps a discovery of our own times, but “infernal machines,” which served the purpose of king-killers, are of ancient date.

[88] Hindús, at their meals, squat on the ground, with leaves in place of earthenware dishes, on which their food is served. The leaves of the palm are very large, and each may be cut into a number of “plates.”

[89] A long cloth, which is often the only covering worn by Hindús.

[90] The women’s apartments; called by Muslims generally “the haram.”

[91] A sum of money varying, says the Pandit, in different localities in the south of India. In old Chola grants “two pons” occurs.

[92] _i.e._ “Lion among beasts.”

[93] Setti, or Sethi, is a term applied respectfully to many of the races engaged in trade or financial transactions; to the Zoroastrian Parsí, the Muhammedan Bora, and to Hindús in the north and south of the Madras Presidency, occupied as bankers, merchants and shopkeepers.

[94] A species of weasel, commonly, but incorrectly, written “mungoose,” as though the animal was of the _goose_ kind. The mungús is very expert in killing snakes.

[95] Visvesvara: “Lord of all,” a name of Siva, the third deity of the Hindú triad.

[96] The want of children is doubtless felt more or less keenly by all the races of mankind, but the Hindú is taught to believe that he cannot attain ultimate salvation without leaving a son behind him. The Chinese who hold to their old religion have also a great horror of dying and leaving no male offspring to sacrifice to their manes, and to avoid such a calamity they adopt children when they have none of their own. Among most Asiatic peoples, indeed, a childless wife is generally but most unjustly despised, hence the thousand and one nostrums in which Hindú women vainly put faith in expectation of having their sterility removed. We have four notable instances in the Bible of women bearing famous sons after having been long sterile: Sarah, mother of Isaac, the Hebrew patriarch; Rachel, mother of Joseph, viceroy of Egypt; the wife of Manoah, mother of Samson, the Hercules of the Hebrews; and Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist.—After all, sterile wives may console themselves with the reflection that children are not always an unalloyed blessing!

[97] “The most useful, plentiful, and best fruit,” says Forbes, in his _Oriental Memoirs_, vol. i, p. 30, “is the mango, which grows abundantly all over Hindústán, even in the forests and hedge-rows, on trees equal in size to a large English oak, but in appearance and foliage more resembling the Spanish chestnut. This valuable fruit varies in shape, colour, and flavour as much as apples do in Europe. The superior kinds are extremely delicious, and in the interior resemble the large yellow peach of Venice, heightened by the flavour of the orange and agana; and so plentiful are mangoes in the hot season throughout most parts of India that during my residence in Guzerat they were sold in the public markets for one rupee the cusly, or 600 lbs. in English weight for half-a-crown. They are a delicacy to the rich, a nutritious food for the poor, who in the mango season require but little other sustenance.”—The skin of the mango is described as being smooth and tough; its colour when ripe is grass green, or yellow in many shades, with occasional tinges and streaks of bright red; the pulp is as juicy as our wall-fruit. The kernel is of a hot and rather offensive flavour, but the poor people collect it, and when dried grind it into flour for bread, which is more wholesome than agreeable. An orchard of mango-trees is a small fortune to the possessor, and when they are in blossom it forms a luxurious resort to the lovers of Nature.—_Mrs. Meer Hasan Ali._

[98] “Alas!” says Somadeva, “fickle is the mind of woman!” Again: “A woman desires fresh men, as the humble bee wanders from flower to flower.” And again: “A fickle dame is like a sunset—momentarily aglow for everyone.”

[99] Compare with this the question asked of Jesus Christ by his disciples (John ix, 2): “Master, who did sin, _this man_ or his parents, that he was _born_ blind?” from which it would appear some of the Jews in those days entertained notions akin to the Hindú (and Pythagorean) doctrine of metempsychosis.

[100] The parrot, of course, was a human being re-born in that form, in accordance with the doctrine of metempsychosis, which is a fundamental article of the Hindú religion.

[101] It is curious to find goldsmiths and jewellers invariably represented in Hindú stories as arrant rogues. In the fine old Indian drama entitled _Mrichchakati_, or the Toy-Cart, it is said: “There is no lotus that has not a stalk, no trader that is not a cheat, no goldsmith that is not a thief.”

[102] Tope, or stupa, a sepulchral memorial monument; a mound-like building erected for the preservation of relics. They are found in Afghanistán, Tibet, Nepál, and Western Asia; also in various parts of Southern India. On the demise of Gautama [the founder of Buddhism], B.C. 543, his body was consumed, divided into eight portions, and distributed amongst applicants, who erected topes over them. The word _tope_ is the same as _st’hupo_ in Pali—a mound or tumulus; st’hupo, or tope, is therefore a name common to each kind of tumulus, whether it be the solid temple dedicated to the Supreme Being or the massive mound erected over the relics of Buddha, or those of one of his more eminent followers.—Balfour’s _Cyclopædia of India_.

[103] Vedas: “divine knowledge.” The Vedas are the holy books which are the foundations of the Hindú religion. They consist of hymns written in the old form of Sanskrit, and, according to the most generally received opinion, were composed between 1500 and 1000 B.C. Some scholars have thought the oldest of the hymns may be carried back a thousand years farther. The four Vedas are: the Rig-Veda, the Yajur-Veda, the Sama-Veda, and the Atharva-Veda, the last being of comparatively modern date.—See Dowson’s _Classical Dictionary of Hindú Mythology_.

[104] The six Sastras comprise philosophical systems of the Hindús: the term Sastra signifies a treatise or rule.

[105] “It is a very common practice,” remarks the Pandit, “to dupe ordinary people in this manner in Hindú temples. Some impostor will proclaim to the crowd that the god, or goddess, is then upon him, and utter whatever comes uppermost in his mind. He occasionally contrives to accomplish his private ends by such revelations. The ignorant are greatly misled by those impostors, and learned Hindús condemn the practice as gross superstition.”

[106] “Fiat experimentum in corpore vili.”

[107] Full grown and ripe bambú bears a kind of corn which when collected and husked resembles wheat. Hunters cook a most delicious food of bambú grain and honey.

[108] Not only are serpents popularly believed by Asiatics to be guardians of hidden treasures, but they are also said to have most valuable gems in their heads, which they sometimes present to persons who have rendered them good service. This notion was once prevalent in Europe regarding toads; and readers of Shakspeare will remember his comparison of the uses of adversity to the “toad, ugly and venomous, which yet wears a precious jewel in its head.” A curious serpent legend is current in Kandahár regarding ’Alí Mardán Khán, when governor of that city: A cowherd of Kandahár lost two or three of his cattle in a certain pasture and came to the governor to complain about it. ’Alí Mardán Khán ordered him to fill some cowhides with lime, leaving a hole in each, and to place them in the meadow. It appeared that a serpent came daily and carried off the cattle, and on this occasion took away one of the hides, but leaving a track of lime behind him was traced to his lair. The lime in the hide disagreed with him and so he died. Beside his carcase was found a great heap of treasures and the _philosopher’s stone_, which immensely enriched ’Alí Mardán Khán.

[109] See note 2, p. 122.

[110] Ahmed: “Praiseworthy”; one of the appellations of Muhammed.

[111] “Had it not been for thee, verily the heavens had not been created.”—_Kurán._

[112] Burák was the name of the animal that carried Muhammed on his famous (and fabulous) Night Journey through the Seven Heavens; for an account of which see Muir’s _Life of Mahomet_, ii, 219-222; Lane’s _Modern Egyptians_; and D’Herbelot’s _Bibliothèque Orientale_, art. _Borak_.—According to the _Sikandar Náma_ (Alexander-Book) of Nizamí, Burák was silken as to body, silvern as to hoof, and to such a degree swift moving that nothing could equal him.—Canto iv, 12, p. 32 of Clarke’s translation.

[113] Alí was the son-in-law of Muhammed, having married Fatima, the beloved daughter of the Prophet. Of the two great sects of Muslims the _shi’ahs_ consider Alí and his immediate descendants (eleven in number) as “the true and only imáms” in succession of Muhammed, while the _súnís_ regard the khalífs—’Umar, Abú Bakr, etc.—as the lawful representatives of the Prophet. The Persians and the Indian Muslims are (like our present author) _shi’ahs_; the Turks and Arabs are _súnís_.

[114] “Ornament of kings.”

[115] The Hercules of the Persians, and the principal hero of the _Sháh Náma_ (Book of Kings), Firdausí’s great epic.

[116] “Crown of kings.”

[117] It is still a common practice in Persia and India when a child is born—especially a son—for an astrologer to be employed to “cast his horoscope” and thereby foretell the child’s career in life. “In 1670 the passion for horoscopes and expounding the stars prevailed in France among persons of the first rank. The new-born child was usually presented naked to the astrologer, who read the first lineaments in its forehead and the transverse lines in its hands, and thence wrote down its future destiny. Catherine de Medicis brought Henry IV, then a child, to old Nostradamus, whom antiquaries esteem more for his Chronicle of Provence than for his vaticinating powers. The sight of the reverend seer, with a beard which ‘streamed like a meteor in the air,’ terrified the future hero, who dreaded a whipping from so grave a personage. Will it be credited that, one of these magicians having assured Charles IX that he should live as many days as he should turn about on his heel in an hour, standing on one leg, his majesty every morning performed that solemn exercise for an hour, the principal officers of the court, the judges, the chancellors, and the generals likewise, in compliment standing on one leg and turning round!”—_Demonologia_, by J. S. F.

[118] Abú-Síná, or Abú ’Alí Síná, or Ibn-Síná, called generally in Europe Avicenna, was a famous physician and philosopher at the court of Baghdád. Born, at Bukhárá, A.H. 373 (A.D. 983), died, at Hamadán, A.H. 427 (A.D. 1035). He wrote nearly one hundred books on medicine, most of which are now lost. He was also a poet, and some of his verses are still extant.

[119] The patriarch’s grief for the loss of his favourite son Joseph is proverbial among Muslims; but our author has done the “Man of Uz” a great injustice when he likens him to the blind king, as “waiting with impatient anxiety”!

[120] A comely youth is always said by Muslim writers to resemble Joseph, the son of Jacob the Hebrew patriarch, who is considered as the type of manly beauty.

[121] Firdaus: Paradise. Here it is probably used as the name of an imaginary city; at all events I cannot find that there is any town of the name in Persia or India.

[122] Dilbar: “heart-stealer”; and surnamed Lakhí (as will be seen presently) because she required to be paid a _lakh_ (100,000) of rupís by every man who sought her society. The rupí (rupee) is nominally valued at two shillings, but at present it is at considerable discount, being only worth from 1s. 6d. to 1s. 8d. of English currency.

[123] The fascination of the moth for the flame of the candle is a favourite simile with Asiatic writers for the love-struck youth and the beauty whose charms have ensnared him. Sa’dí, in his _Bustán_, has a fine mystical poem on this subject.

[124] See note on pp. 187-8.

[125] Persian writers are extremely fond of far-fetched conceits. In describing sunrise they almost invariably borrow metaphors from the incidents last related. We have had several examples of this peculiarity in the romance of Nassar, as (pp. 6, 7) in the case of the robbery of the royal treasury by one of the eunuchs of the haram, where the author begins his account of next day’s events thus: “When the _eunuch_ of _night_ had retired and the _prince_ of _morn_ established himself in the _palace_ of the horizon,” and so forth. And here we have the game of backgammon between the hero and Dilbar utilised for a description of the natural phenomenon of sunset.

[126] “Sháh-záda:” _lit._ “king-born,” or son of the king; the usual term applied to royal princes in Persia.

[127] A crore is 100 lakhs, or ten millions, according to the Hindú system of numeration; but in Persia it is only 5 lakhs, or 500,000. The artful Dilbar must have had an enormous amount of wealth, if she lost to our hero a hundred crores of rupís, which even according to the Persian computation would be equal to five millions of pounds, English money, estimating the rupí at two shillings. After this she’d be fully justified in describing herself, as honest Dogberry does with some pride, as “one who has had _losses_ too!”

[128] Dívs (or _deevs_) are similar to the Jinn (or Genii) of Arabian mythology. Some are good demons, being faithful Muslims, but those who are unbelievers are for the most part malignant and delight in working evil on mankind.

[129] A quotation from the _Gulistán_, or Rose Garden, of the celebrated Persian poet and philosopher Sa’dí, ch. iii.—Sa’dí was born, at Shíráz, towards the close of the 12th century, and died, in his native city, about 1291 A.D., having lived upwards of a hundred years.

[130] According to the Kurán, because Abraham would not worship idols, Nimrod cast him into a blazing furnace, which was turned into a rose-garden—evidently a distorted version of the story of Nebuchadnezzar and the three devout Hebrew youths, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego.

[131] Standing on one leg in presence of a superior is a mark of profound respect in India.

[132] This fable is omitted by Garcin de Tassy.

[133] It is the common belief in the East that pearls are formed in the oyster out of drops of rain falling into it when the shells are open. This notion is the subject of a mystical poem in Sa’dí’s _Bustán_, or Garden of Odours, Book iv, which has been thus translated:

“A drop of rain trickled from a cloud into the ocean; when it beheld the breadth of its waters it was utterly confounded.

‘What a place this sea is, and what am I? If it is existent, verily I am non-existent.’

Whilst it was thus regarding itself with the eye of contempt, an oyster received it into its bosom.

Fortune preferred it to a place of honour; for it became a renowned royal pearl.

Because it was humble, it found exaltation;—it knocked at the door of nonentity, that it might arise into being.”—Robinson’s _Persian Poetry for English Readers_, p. 328.

[134] Here our author makes the courtesan Dilbar discourse most eloquently and in a highly moral strain. It has always been much easier to preach than to practise, I ween!

[135] Good Muslims never commence any undertaking of importance or danger without first reciting the formula—which is also invariably placed at the beginning of all their writings—“In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate!” (_Bismillahi er-rahmani er-rahimi_).

[136] “That a salamander is able to live in flames,” says Sir Thomas Browne, “to endure and put out fire, is an assertion not only of great antiquity but confirmed by frequent and not contemptible authority.… All which notwithstanding, there is on the negative authority and experience.… The ground of this opinion might be some sensible resistance of fire observed in the salamander; which being, as Galen determineth, cold in the fourth and moist in the third degree, and having also a mucus humidity above and under the skin, by virtue thereof it may a while endure flame, which being consumed it can resist no more.”—_Enquiries into Vulgar and Common Errors_, ch. xiv.

[137] See the note on pp. 108-9.

[138] To swear by Solomon, especially by Solomon’s signet-ring, is the most binding oath which the jinn and the fairies can take, since its breach would entail a dreadful punishment.

[139] “Hammála” may mean a woman who carries: Garcin de Tassy calls her “porteuse.”

[140] “Praiseworthy”: “Belauded.”

[141] Badakshán is a mountainous tract of country in Afghán Túrkestán, famous for mines yielding the finest rubies, lapis-lazuli, etc.

[142] The romance writers of mediæval Europe, after the first Crusade, drew largely from Oriental fictions. Thus, for example, in _The Boke of Duke Huon of Burdeux_, among the many wonders which the hero sees in his journey to the court of the Soudan of Babylon is an underground river, the bed of which was composed of the most precious stones, which possessed a variety of curative properties.

[143] “The heavenly orbs, according to the principles of philosophy, possess a reasonable mind.”—_Akhlák-i Jalálí._ “This,” remarks W.F. Thomson, the translator, “is inferred from continuity of motion and influence without perceptible external cause, and it seems men’s earliest conclusion and the origin of star-worship. Admitting Plato’s notion that souls were introduced, or perhaps kindled, by the heavenly bodies, nothing could be more reasonable than to attempt, by observation and induction, to ascertain the influence contributed by each. The premises only are to be attacked; and for these the chiefs of classical as well as Oriental literature are responsible.”

[144] The cypress, which is in Europe associated with sombre ideas, is by Asiatics commonly employed as a comparison for the graceful stature of a pretty girl.

[145] Muslims are perfectly familiar with the principal narratives in the Bible, from which the Kurán is largely composed.

[146] Asiatic ladies tinge the inner edges of their eyelids with lamp-black in order to increase the lustre of the eyes; it is believed, moreover, to strengthen the sight.

[147] See note 1, p. 250.

[148] This incident is common to folk-tales almost everywhere: sometimes it is a bird who gives the hero one of his feathers, which serves the same purpose.

[149] This was a very unusual condescension on the part of the monarch, even though in honour of his own sons. The common practice (in Persia) is for the sháh to send a deputation the distance of two days’ journey to meet and welcome any distinguished visitors. The deputation is called _istikbál_, and those sent, _písh váz_, openers of the way. A day’s journey is twenty miles.

[150] Kettle-drum.

[151] “Happy.”

[152] Similar question and answer occur in the story of “The Sultan of Yaman and his Three Sons,” one of the tales translated by Jonathan Scott from the Wortley-Montague MS. text of the _Alf Layla wa Layla_, or Thousand and One Nights, which are comprised in the sixth vol. of his edition of the _Arabian Nights Entertainments_, p. 81.

[153] According to Muslim ideas, the shooting stars are stones flung at demons who approach the portals of heaven to listen to the divine communications; and Satan is “stoned” every year by the pilgrims at Makka—for which see Burton’s _Pilgrimage to Meccah and Medinah_.

[154] Chief of police.

[155] See note on p. 46.

[156] Núshírván, surnamed _’Adil_, or the Just (the Chosroes of the Greeks), was of the Sassanian dynasty of ancient Persian kings, and died, after a very prosperous reign of 48 years, A.D. 579. Muhammed was wont to boast of his good fortune in having been born during the reign of so wise and just a prince. His dying injunctions to his son and successor, Hormuz, are thus recorded by Sa’dí (_Bustán_, B. i): “Be thou in heart the guardian of the poor. Be not in bondage to thine own ease. No one will live in comfort in thy kingdom if thou desirest only thine own comfort and sayest, ‘It is enough.’ He will receive no praise from the wise who passeth his nights in sleep whilst the wolf is amidst his flock. Keep watch over the necessitous poor; for the peasant it is from which the king deriveth his throne. The king is the tree, the peasant the root: the tree, O my son, deriveth its strength from the root.”

[157] Garcin de Tassy omits this curious story, and another which immediately follows in the original text, related by the vazír, of the Darvesh and the Nightingale, which I also omit here, as a much better version will be found among the PERSIAN STORIES which follow the present romance.

[158] “Beautiful kingdom.”

[159] In other words: “Succeed in this affair without compromising my dignity; according to the proverb, ‘Take care while shunning one evil of falling into another.’”—See Roebuck’s _Persian and Hindústaní Proverbs_, part ii, p. 118.

[160] The canopy of a howdah, or chair for riding on an elephant, called _hauda-amári_—canopied howdah.

[161] See note on page 271.

[162] This recalls an incident in the Indian story of the virtuous Devasmitá, who entraps four suitors, during her husband’s absence on a trading journey, who visit her in succession, and, while they are insensible from the effects of a narcotic mixed with their wine, causes each to be branded on the forehead with a hot iron. The suitors return to their own country, where the lady’s husband is residing for a time, and Devasmitá soon after sets out thither, disguised as a man, where she claims all four as her slaves in presence of the king, causing them to remove their head-gear and expose the brands; and she “lets them off” on payment of a large sum of money.—(Tawney’s translation of the _Kathá Sarit Ságara_: Ocean of the Streams of Story, vol. i, pp. 85-92.)—Henceforward the four rascally brothers of Táj ul-Mulúk are, as the Icelandic story-tellers say, “out of this tale.”

[163] “Jasmine-face.”

[164] Shírín was the beautiful wife of Khusrau Parvíz, king of Persia, and Farhád, a famous sculptor, was madly enamoured of her. All the sculptures on the mountain of Bistán are ascribed to Farhád’s chisel. According to the popular tradition, King Parvíz promised that if he cut through the rock and brought a stream that flowed on the other side of the hill into the valley the lovely Shírín should be his reward. He was on the point of completing his Herculean labour when Khusrau Parvíz, fearing to lose Shírín, sent an old woman to inform him that she was dead. Farhád was then at the highest parts of the rocks, and on hearing this false report in despair threw himself down headlong, and was dashed to pieces.—The story of Farhád and Shírín is the subject of several beautiful (often, if not always, mystical) Persian and Turkish poems.

[165] G. de Tassy remarks that “a declaration of love on the part of a woman, and especially one so passionate, is not according to our manners, but it is so to those of the East; and the numerous Asiatic stories which have been translated into European languages have rendered it quite familiar to us.”—A very remarkable example is furnished in the immortal tale of Nala and Damayanti (_Mahábhárata_, section lvi of the “Vana Parva”), where the virtuous and beautiful daughter of Vidharba thus addresses Nala: “O King, love me with proper regard, and command me what I shall do for thee. Myself and what of wealth is mine are thine. Grant me, O exalted one, thy love in full trust. O giver of the proper honour, if thou forsake me who adore thee, for thy sake will I resort to poison, or fire, or water, or the rope!” Bakáwalí “spared her maiden blushes” (if she _could_ blush) by expressing her love for our hero in writing; but Damayanti—all truth and innocence—made her avowal to the god-like king of the Nishadhas in words from her own sweet mouth: and who would not be enraptured to hear such a soft confession made to him by such a peerless Queen of Beauty?

[166] Not the _images_ in Chinese temples, which are described by travellers as very hideous, but the beautiful women of China. Persian poets often term pretty girls _idols_, and themselves _idolators_, for worshipping them.

[167] _Surma_ is the black ore of antimony, or ter-sulphide. The Muslim men apply antimony to their eyelids, but their women use _kohl_, or lamp-black, for this purpose. It is a popular belief among Indian Muslims that the finest kind of _surma_ comes from Arabia—from the hills of Sinai or Tur, etc. They have a legend that when Moses was on Mount Sinai he asked that the glory of God should be shown to him. He was answered that his mortal sight could not bear the glory; but through a chink of the rock a ray of light was allowed to fall on him, and the rock on which the ray fell was melted into antimony. (Balfour’s _Cyclopædia of India_.)—There is a curious legend current in the Panjáb regarding the origin of the antimony which is found on the summit of Mount Karanglí, near Pind Dádan Khán, in the Jhelan district. A fakír (religious mendicant) once came from Kashmír and asked the name of the mountain, and was told that it was called Karanglí. He at once exclaimed: “_Karanglí sone ranglí!_” that is, Karanglí the gold-coloured; whereupon the mountain became all gold. This frightened the good people of the neighbourhood, who dreaded that the place should become a general battle-field for the sake of the gold. So the fakír said: “_Karanglí surme ranglí!_” that is, Karanglí the antimony-coloured, upon which the mountain became all antimony. This antimony is now to be found on the top of it, but as it is surrounded by precipices the antimony cannot be reached, and so the people have to wait until pieces of it are washed down by the rains. When procured it is most valuable, and will, if used for eight days, restore to sight all those who have become blind through sickness or accident. It cannot, however, cure those who are born blind.

[168] “Beautiful Lady”—“Lady Beautiful.”

[169] “Happy King”—“King Prosperous.”

[170] See note 1, page 259.

[171] In a Buddhist work entitled _Wæsakára-sataka_ (a hundred stanzas) is the following: “The evil man is to be avoided, though he be arrayed in the robe of all the sciences, as we flee from the serpent, though it be adorned with the _kantha_ jewel.” The natives of Ceylon, says Spence Hardy, believe that this gem is to be found in the throat of the _nayá_. “It emits a light more brilliant than the purest diamond; and when the serpent wishes to discover anything in the dark it disgorges the substance, swallowing it again when its work is done. It is thought possible to obtain the jewel by throwing dust upon it when out of the serpent’s mouth; but if the reptile should be killed to obtain it, misfortune would certainly follow.”—_Eastern Monachism_, p. 316. (See also note, _ante_, p. 232.)

[172] A kind of hill-starling.

[173] Our hero understood bird-language, and the author has probably omitted to mention that he acquired that knowledge by possessing the snake-stone. In the folk-tales of all countries we find that great benefits accrue to a forlorn hero by his overhearing the conversation of birds or beasts, and of demons in Indian stories. The reader will find much to interest him on this subject in an able paper on the Language of Animals by Mr. J. G. Frazer in the first vol. of the _Archæological Review_, 1888; and I may be permitted to refer him also to my Introduction to John Lane’s _Continuation of Chaucer’s Squire’s Tale_, published for the Chaucer Society.

[174] The transformed prince having given birth to a child was ceremonially unclean for the period of forty days.—See the note on pp. 140, 141.

[175] Here our author exhorts his readers.

[176] Káf is a range of mountains which, like a vast ring, enclose the Circumambient Ocean (_Bahru-’l-Muhít_) that surrounds the whole earth, which, according to the Muhammedan cosmography, is flat, not round. These mountains are composed of green chrysolite, the reflection of which causes the greenish (or blueish) tint of the sky. (See Mr. E. J. W. Gibb’s _Ottoman Poems_, note 6.)—“From Káf to Káf”: from end to end of the earth.—Bistán is the famous mountain on which Farhád chiselled figures.

[177] “Soul-expander”—“Vivifier.”

[178] “Victorious King.”

[179] Here we have a fairy island called “Paradise,” as we have before had a city of the same name, where the artful Dilbar resided—p. 244.

[180] A proud and wicked king of Yaman, called Shaddad, according to the Muhammedan legend, declared blasphemously: “There is no necessity for Paradise for me: I myself will make a Paradise of which no man can have beheld the like.” He sent his officers to find out a suitable spot for a garden, and they discovered such a place on the borders of Syria, where Shaddad, at an immense cost, caused a palace to be erected of gold and silver bricks in alternate courses, and adorned with the most precious stones. In the garden were placed trees of gold and silver, the fruit of which was amethysts, rubies, and other gems (see also _ante_, p. 166, note on Treasure-trees); and the ground was strewed with musk, ambergris, and saffron. They called this place the Rose Garden of Iram. When Shaddad was about to enter it, accompanied by a vast multitude of troops and attendants, he was met by the Angel of Death, who forthwith seized his impure soul, and then the lightnings of heaven destroyed all living creatures that were there, and the Rose Garden of Iram became hidden from the sight of men.—In the present romance the abode of the parents of Bakáwalí is called the Garden of Iram, to indicate its magnificence.

[181] One of the numerous legends told by Muslims regarding Solomon reappears in the Turkish story-book entitled _Qirq vezír taríkhí_, where we read that the sage Hebrew king despatched the símurgh—a fabulous bird, similar to the _rukh_ (or _roc_) of Arabian fictions—to bring the sparrow to his court. But the sparrow, being then with his mate, refused to obey the prophet, or his messenger, and vaunted his prowess and strength, declaring that he was able to pull down Solomon’s palace. When the símurgh reported this to Solomon he replied: “There is no harm in one thus bragging in his own house, and before his wife.”—See Gibb’s _Forty Vezírs_, p. 97 ff.