Chapter XIV: Part 14

[FN#155] "Eunuch," etymologically meaning chamberlain ({eynè + échein}), a bed-chamber-servant or slave, was presently confined to castrated men found useful for special purposes, like gelded horses, hounds, and cockerels turned to capons. Some writers hold that the creation of the semivir or apocopus began as a punishment in Egypt and elsewhere; and so under the Romans amputation of the "peccant part" was frequent: others trace the Greek "invalid," i.e., impotent man, to marital jealousy, and not a few to the wife who wished to use the sexless for hard work in the house without danger to the slave-girls. The origin of the mutilation is referred by Ammianus Marcellinus (lib. iv. chap. 17), and the Classics generally, to Semiramis, an "ancient queen" of decidedly doubtful epoch, who thus prevented the propagation of weaklings. But in Genesis (xxxvii. 36; xxxix. 1, margin) we find Potiphar termed a "Sarím" (castrato), an "attenuating circumstance" for Mrs. P. Herodotus (iii. chap. 48) tells us that Periander, tyrant of Corinth, sent three hundred Corcyrean boys to Alyattes for castration {epì êt ektomê}, and that Panionios of Chios sold caponised lads for high prices (viii. 105): he notices (viii. 104 and other places) that eunuchs "of the Sun, of Heaven, of the hand of God," were looked upon as honourable men amongst the Persians whom Stephanus and Brissonius charge with having invented the name (Dabistan i. 171). Ctesias also declares that the Persian kings were under the influence of eunuchs. In the debauched ages of Rome the women found a new use for these effeminates, who had lost only the testes or testiculi=the witnesses (of generative force): it is noticed by Juvenal (i. 22; ii. 365-379; vi. 366)

—sunt quos imbelles et mollia semper
Oscula delectant.

So Martial,

—vult futui Gallia, non parere,

And Mirabeau knew (see Kadísah) "qu'ils mordent les femmes et les liment avec une précieuse continuité." (Compare my vol. ii. 90; v. 46.) The men also used them as catamites (Horace i. Od. xxxvii.).

"Contaminato cum grege turpium,
Morbo virorum."

In religion the intestabilis or intestatus was held ill-omened, and not permitted to become a priest (Seneca Controv. ii. 4), a practice perpetuated in the various Christian churches. The manufacture was forbidden, to the satisfaction of Martial, by Domitian, whose edict Nero confirmed; and was restored by the Byzantine empire, which advanced eunuchs, like Eutropius and Narses, to the highest dignities of the realm. The cruel custom to the eternal disgrace of mediæval Christianity was revived in Rome for providing the choirs in the Sistine Chapel and elsewhere with boys' voices. Isaiah mentions the custom (lvi. 3-6). Mohammed, who notices in the Koran (xxiv. 31), "such men as attend women and have no need of women," i.e. "have no natural force," expressly forbade (iv. 118), "changing Allah's creatures," referring, say the commentators, to superstitious ear-cropping of cattle, tattooing, teeth-sharpening, sodomy, tribadism, and slave-gelding. See also the "Hidáyah," vol. iv. 121; and the famous divine Al-Siyúti, the last of his school, wrote a tractate Fi 'l-Tahrími Khidmati 'l-Khisyán=on the illegality of using eunuchs. Yet the Harem perpetuated the practice throughout AI-Islam and African jealousy made a gross abuse of it. To quote no other instance, the Sultan of Dár-For had a thousand eunuchs under a Malik or king, and all the chief offices of the empire, such as Ab (father) and Báb (door), were monopolised by these neutrals. The centre of supply was the Upper Nile, where the operation was found dangerous after the age of fifteen, and when badly performed only one in four survived. For this reason, during the last century the Coptic monks of Girgah and Zawy al-Dayr, near Assiout, engaged in this scandalous traffic, and declared that it was philanthropic to operate scientifically (Prof. Panuri and many others). Eunuchs are now made in the Sudán, Nubia, Abyssinia, Kordofán, and Dár-For, especially the Messalmiyah district: one of those towns was called "Tawáshah" (eunuchry) from the traffic there conducted by Fukahá or religious teachers. Many are supplied by the district between Majarah (Majarash?) and the port Masawwah; there are also depôts at Mbadr, near Tajurrah-harbour, where Yusuf Bey, Governor in 1880, caponised some forty boys, including the brother of a hostile African chief: here also the well-known Abu Bakr was scandalously active. It is calculated that not less than eight thousand of these unfortunates are annually exported to Arabia, Egypt, and Turkey. Article IV. of the AngIo-Egyptian Convention punishes the offense with death, and no one would object to hanging the murderer under whose mutilating razor a boy dies. Yet this, like most of our modern "improvements" in Egypt, is a mere brutum fulmen. The crime is committed under our very eyes, but we will not see it.

The Romans numbered three kinds of eunuchs:—1. Castrati, clean-shaved, from Gr. {késtros}; 2. Spadones, from {spáoo}, when the testicles are torn out, not from "Spada," town of Persia; and, 3. Thlibii, from {thliboo}, to press, squeeze, when the testicles are bruised, &c. In the East also, as I have stated (v. 46), eunuchs are of three kinds:—1. Sandali, or the clean-shaved, the classical apocopus. The parts are swept off by a single cut of a razor, a tube (tin or wooden) is set in the urethra, the wound is cauterised with boiling oil, and the patient is planted in a fresh dunghill. His diet is milk; and if under puberty, he often survives. This is the eunuque aqueduc, who must pass his water through a tube. 2. The eunuch whose penis is removed: he retains all the power of copulation and procreation without the wherewithal; and this, since the discovery of caoutchouc, has often been supplied. 3. The eunuch, or classical Thlibias and Semivir, who has been rendered sexless by removing the testicles (as the priests of Cybele were castrated with a stone knife), or by bruising (the Greek Thlásias), twisting, searing, or bandaging them. A more humane process has lately been introduced: a horsehair is tied round the neck of the scrotum and tightened by slow degrees till the circulation of the part stops and the bag drops off without pain. This has been adopted in sundry Indian regiments of Irregular Cavalry, and it succeeded admirably: the animals rarely required a day's rest. The practice was known to the ancients. See notes on Kadísah in Mirabeau. The Eunuchata virgo was invented by the Lydians, according to their historian Xanthus. Zachias (Quaest. medico-legal.) declares that the process was one of infibulation or simple sewing up the vulva; but modern experience has suggested an operation like the "spaying" of bitches, or mutilation of the womb, in modern euphuism "baby-house." Dr. Robert ("Journey from Delhi to Bombay, Müller's Archiv. 1843") speaks of a eunuch'd woman who after ovariotomy had no breasts, no pubes, no rotundities, and no desires. The Australians practice exsection of the ovaries systematically to make women barren. Miklucho Maclay learned from the traveller Retsch that about Lake Parapitshurie men's urethras were split, and the girls were spayed: the latter showing two scars in the groin. They have flat bosoms, but feminine forms, and are slightly bearded; they mix with the men, whom they satisfy mechanically, but without enjoyment (?). MacGillivray, of the "Rattlesnake," saw near Cape York a woman with these scars: she was a surdo-mute, and had probably been spayed to prevent increase. The old Scandinavians, from Norway to Iceland, systematically gelded "sturdy vagrants" in order that they might not beget bastards. The Hottentots before marriage used to cut off the left testicle, meaning by such semi-castration to prevent the begetting of twins. This curious custom, mentioned by the Jesuit Tochard, Boeving, and Kolbe, is now apparently obsolete— at least, the traveller Fritsch did not find it.

[FN#156] Arab. "Harám"="forbidden," sinful.

[FN#157] In Chavis and Cazotte, who out-galland'd Galland in transmogrifying the Arabic, this is the "Story of Illage (AI-Hájj) Mahomet and his sons; or, the Imprudent Man." The tale occurs in many forms and with great modifications. See, for instance, the Gesta Romanorum "Of the miraculous recall of sinners and of the consolation which piety offers to the distressed," the adventures of the knight Placidus, vol. ii. 99. Charles Swan, London. Rivington, 1824.

[FN#158] i.e. For fear of the "eye"; see vol. i. 123 and passim. In these days the practice is rare; but, whenever you see at Cairo an Egyptian dame daintily dressed and leading by the hand a grimy little boy whose eyes are black with flies and whose dress is torn and unclean, you see what has taken its place. And if you would praise the brat you must not say "Oh, what a pretty boy!" but "Inshallah!"—the Lord doth as he pleaseth.

[FN#159] The adoption of slave lads and lasses was and is still common among Moslems.

[FN#160] I have elsewhere noted this "pathetic fallacy" which is a lieu commun of Eastern folk-lore and not less frequently used in the mediæval literature of Europe before statistics were invented.

[FN#161] Arab. "Yaskut min 'Aynayh," lit.=fall from his two eyes, lose favour.

[FN#162] i.e. killing a man.

[FN#163] i.e. we can slay him whenever we will.

[FN#164] In Chavis and Cazotte "Story of Abosaber the Patient." "Abú-Sábir" would mean "Father of the Patient (one)."

[FN#165] Arab. "Dihkán," in Persian a villager; but here something more, a village-elder or chief. Al-Mas'udi (chap. xxiv.), and other historians apply the term to a class of noble Persians descended from the ten sons of Wahkert, the first "Dihkán," the fourth generation from King Kayomars.

[FN#166] Reminding one not a little of certain anecdotes anent Quakers, current in England and English-speaking lands.

[FN#167] Arab. "Karyah," a word with a long history. The root seems to be Karaha, he met; in Chald. Karih and Kária (emphatic Kárita)=a town or city; and in Heb. Kirjath, Kiryáthayim, etc. We find it in Carthage= Kartá hádisah, or New Town as opposed to Utica (Atíkah)=Old Town; in Carchemish and in a host of similar compounds. In Syria and Egypt Kariyah, like Kafr, now means a hamlet, a village.

[FN#168] i.e. wandering at a venture.

[FN#169] Arab. "Sakhrah," the old French Corvée, and the "Begár" of India.

[FN#170] Arab. "Matmúrah:" see vol. ii. 39, where it was used as an "underground cell." The word is extensively used in the Maghrib or Western Africa.

[FN#171] Arab. "Yá Abá Sábir." There are five vocative particles in Arabic; "Yá," common to the near and far; "Ayá" (ho!) and "Hayá" (holla!) addressed to the far, and "Ay" and "A" (A-'Abda-lláhi, O Abdullah), to those near. All govern the accusative of a noun in construction in the literary language only; and the vulgar use none but the first named. The English-speaking races neglect the vocative particle, and I never heard it except in the Southern States of the AngloAmerican Union=Oh, Mr. Smith.

[FN#172] He was not honest enough to undeceive them; a neat Quaker-like touch.

[FN#173] Here the oath is justified; but the reader will have remarked that the name of Allah is often taken in vain. Moslems, however, so far from holding this a profanation deem it an acknowledgment of the Omnipotence and Omnipresence. The Jews from whom the Christians have borrowed had an interest in concealing the name of their tribal divinity; and therefore made it ineffable.

[FN#174] i.e. the grave, the fosse commune of slain men.

[FN#175] A fancy name; "Zawash" in Pers. is = the planet Jupiter, either borrowed from Greece, or both descended from some long forgotten ancestor.

[FN#176] In Chavis and Cazotte "Story of Bhazad (!) the Impatient." The name is Persian, Bih (well, good) Zád (born). In the adj. bih we recognize a positive lost in English and German which retain the comparative (bih-tar = better) and superlative (bih-tarin=best).

[FN#177] i.e. the moiety kept by the bridegroom, a contingent settlement paid at divorce or on the death of the husband.

[FN#178] Arab. "Rumh"=the horseman's lance not the footman's spear.

[FN#179] i.e. became a highwayman (a time-honoured and honourable career) in order to collect money for completing the dowry.

[FN#180] i.e. to the bride, the wedding-day; not to be confounded with "going in unto" etc.

[FN#181] Probably meaning that she saw the eyes espying through the crevice without knowing whose they were.

[FN#182] A fancy name intended to be Persian

[FN#183] i.e. thy Harem, thy women.

[FN#184] i.e. thy life hath been unduly prolonged.

[FN#185] See Chavis and Cazotte, "Story of Ravia (Arwà!) the Resigned." Dádbín (Persian) = one who looks to justice, a name hardly deserved in this case.

[FN#186] For this important province and city of Persia, see Al-Mas'údi, ii. 2; iv. 86, etc. It gave one of many names to the Caspian Sea. The adjective is Tabari, whereas Tabaráni = native of Tiberias (Tabariyah).

[FN#187] Zor-khán = Lord Violence, and Kár-dán = Business-knower; both Persian.

[FN#188] "Arwà" written with a terminal of yá is a woman's P.N. in Arabic.

[FN#189] i.e. Not look down upon me with eyes of contempt. This "marrying below one" is still an Eastern idea, very little known to women in the West.

[FN#190] Chavis and Cazotte call the Dabbús a "dabour" and explain it as a "sort of scepter used by Eastern Princes, which serves also as a weapon." For the Dabbús, or mace, see vol. vi. 249.

[FN#191] i.e. Let thy purposes be righteous as thine outward profession.

[FN#192] See vol. vi. 130. This is another lieu commun amongst Moslems; and its unfact requires only statement.

[FN#193] Afterwards called his "chamberlain," i.e. guardian of the Harem-door.

[FN#194] i.e. Chosroës, whom Chavis and Cazotte make "Cyrus."

[FN#195] Arab. "Tákiyah," used for the Persian Takhtrawán, common in The Nights.

[FN#196] Arab. "Kubbah," a dome-shaped tent, as elsewhere.

[FN#197] This can refer only to Abu al-Khayr's having been put to death on Kardan's charge, although the tale-teller, with characteristic inconsequence, neglected to mention the event.

[FN#198] Not referring to skull sutures, but to the forehead, which is poetically compared with a page of paper upon which Destiny writes her irrevocable decrees.

[FN#199] Said in the grimmest earnest, not jestingly, as in vol. iv. 264.

[FN#200] i.e. the lex talionis, which is the essence of Moslem, and indeed, of all criminal jurisprudence. We cannot wonder at the judgment of Queen Arwa: even Confucius, the mildest and most humane of lawgivers, would not pardon the man who allowed his father's murderer to live. The Moslem lex talionis (Koran ii. 173) is identical with that of the Jews (Exod. xxi. 24), and the latter probably derives from immemorial usage. But many modern Rabbins explain away the Mosaical command as rather a demand for a pecuniary mulct than literal retaliation. The well-known Isaac Aburbanel cites many arguments in proof of this position: he asks, for instance, supposing the accused have but one eye, should he lose it for having struck out one of another man's two? Moreover, he dwells upon the impossibility of inflicting a punishment the exact equivalent of the injury; like Shylock's pound of flesh without drawing blood. Moslems, however, know nothing of these frivolities, and if retaliation be demanded the judge must grant it. There is a legend in Marocco of an English merchant who was compelled to forfeit tooth for tooth at the instance of an old woman, but a profitable concession gilded the pill.

[FN#201] In Chavis and Cazotte "Story of Bhazmant (!); or the Confident Man." "Bakht (-i-) Zamán" in Pers. would=Luck of the Time.

[FN#202] Chavis and Cazotte change the name to "Abadid," which, like "Khadídán," is nonsignificant.

[FN#203] Arab. "Fáris," here a Reiter, or Dugald Dolgetti, as mostly were the hordes led by the mediæval Italian Condottieri.

[FN#204] So Napoleon the Great also believed that Providence is mostly favorable to "gros bataillons."

[FN#205] Pers. and Arab.="Good perfection."

[FN#206] In Chavis and Cazotte "Story of Baharkan." Bihkard (in Shiraz pronounced "Kyard")="Well he did."

[FN#207] See "Katrú" in the Introduction to the Bakhtiyár-námah.

[FN#208] The text has "Jaukalán" for Saulaján, the Persian "Chaugán"=the crooked bat used in Polo. See vol. 1. 46.

[FN#209] Amongst Moslems, I have noted, circumstantial evidence is not lawful: the witness must swear to what he has seen. A curious consideration, how many innocent men have been hanged by "circumstantial evidence." See vol. v. 97.

[FN#210] In Chavis and Cazotte "Story of Abattamant (!), or the Prudent Man;" also Aylán Shah becomes Olensa after Italian fashion.

[FN#211] In Arab. idiom a long hand or arm means power, a phrase not wholly unused in European languages. Chavis and Cazotte paraphrase "He who keeps his hands crossed upon his breast, shall not see them cut off."

[FN#212] Arab. "Jama'a atráfah," lit.=he drew in his extremities, it being contrary to "etiquette" in the presence of a superior not to cover hands and feet. In the wild Argentine Republic the savage Gaucho removes his gigantic spurs when coming into the presence of his master.

[FN#213] About the equivalent to the Arab. or rather Egypto- Syrian form "Jiddan," used in the modern slang sense.

[FN#214] i.e. that he become my son-in-law.

[FN#215] For the practice of shampooing often alluded to in The Nights, see vol. iii. 17. The king "sleeping on the boys' knees" means that he dropped off whilst his feet were on the laps of the lads.

[FN#216] Meaning the honour of his Harem.

[FN#217] Pardon, lit.=security; the cry for quarter already introduced into English

"Or raise the craven cry Aman."

It was Mohammed's express command that this prayer for mercy should be respected even in the fury of fight. See vol. i. 342.

[FN#218] A saying found in every Eastern language beginning with Hebrew; Proverbs xxvi. 27, "Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein."

[FN#219] i.e. a domed tomb where prayers and perlections of the Koran could be made. "Kubbah" in Marocco is still the term for a small square building with a low medianaranja cupola under which a Santon lies interred. It is the "little Waly" of our "blind travellers" in the unholy "Holy Land."

[FN#220] i.e. to secure her assistance in arousing the king's wrath.

[FN#221] i.e. so slow to avenge itself.

[FN#222] Story of Sultan Hebriam (!), and his Son" (Chavis and Cazotte). Unless they greatly enlarged upon the text, they had a much fuller copy than that found in the Bresl. Edit.

[FN#223] A right kingly king, in the Eastern sense of the word, would strike off their heads for daring to see omens threatening his son and heir: this would be constructive treason of the highest because it might be expected to cause its own fulfilment.

[FN#224] Mohammed's Hadís "Kazzibú 'l-Munajjimúna bi Rabbi 'I-Ka'abah"=the Astrologers lied, by the Ka'abah's Lord!

[FN#225] Arab. "Khawátín," plur. of Khátún, a matron, a lady, vol. iv. 66.

[FN#226] See Al-Mas'udi, chapt. xvii. (Fr. Transl. ii. 48-49) of the circular cavity two miles deep and sixty in circuit inhabited by men and animals on the Caucasus near Derbend.

[FN#227] Arab. "Nafas" lit.=breath. Arabs living in a land of caverns know by experience the danger of asphyxiation in such places.

[FN#228] This simple tale is told with much pathos not of words but of sense.

[FN#229] Arab. "Ajal" = the appointed day of death; also used for sudden death. See vol. i. 74.

[FN#230] i.e. the Autumnal Equinox, one of the two great festival days (the other being the New Year) of the Persians, and surviving in our Michaelmas. According to Al-Mas'udí (chap. xxi.), it was established to commemorate the capture of Zahhák (Azhi-Daháka), the biting snake (the Hindu Ahi) of night and darkness, the Greek Astyages, by Furaydun or Feridun. Prof. Sayce (Principles of Comparative Philology, p. 11) connects the latter with the Vedic deity Trita, who harnessed the Sun-horse (Rig. v. i. 163, 2, 3), the {tritogéneia} of Homer, a title of Athene, the Dawn-goddess, and Burnouf proved the same Trita to be Thraétaona, son of Athwya, of the Avesta, who finally became Furaydún, the Greek Kyrus. See vol. v. 1.

[FN#231] In Chavis and Cazotte, "Story of Selimansha and his Family."

[FN#232] Arab. for Pers. Pahluwán (from Pahlau) a brave, a warrior, an athlete, applied in India to a champion in any gymnastic exercise, especially in wrestling. The Frenchman calls him "Balavan"; and the Bresl. text in more than one place (p. 312) calls him "Bahwán."

[FN#233] i.e. King (Arab.) King (Persian): we find also Sultan Malik Shah=King King King.

[FN#234] Arab. "Aulád-í," a vulgarism, plural for dual.

[FN#235] Mr. Payne translates, "so he might take his father's leavings" i.e. heritage, reading "Ásár" which I hold to be a clerical error for Sár=Vendetta, blood revenge (Bresl. Edit. vi. 310).

[FN#236] Arab. "Al-'Ásí" the pop. term for one who refuses to obey a constituted authority and syn. with Pers. "Yághí." "Ant 'Ásí?" Wilt thou not yield thyself? says a policeman to a refractory Fellah.

[FN#237] i.e. of the Greeks: so in Kor. xxx. 1. "Alif Lam Mim, the Greeks (Al-Roum) have been defeated." Mr. Rodwell curiously remarks that "the vowel-points for 'defeated' not being originally written, would make the prophecy true in either event, according as the verb received an active or passive sense in pronunciation." But in discovering this mare's nest, a rank piece of humbug like Aio te Aeacida, etc., he forgets that all the Prophet's "Companions," numbering some 5000, would pronounce it only in one way and that no man could mistake "ghalabat" (active) for "ghulibat" (passive).

[FN#238] The text persistently uses "Járiyah"=damsel, slave-girl, for the politer "Sabiyah"=young lady, being written in a rude and uncourtly style.

[FN#239] So our familiar phrase "Some one to back us."

[FN#240] Arab. "'Akkada lahu ráy," plur. of ráyat, a banner. See vol. iii. 307.

[FN#241] i.e. "What concern hast thou with the king's health?" The question is offensively put.

[FN#242] Arab. "Masalah," a question; here an enigma.

[FN#243] Arab. "Liallá" (i.e. li, an, lá) lest; but printed here and elsewhere with the yá as if it were "laylan,"=for a single night.

[FN#244] i.e. if my death be fated to befal to-day, none may postpone it to a later date.

[FN#245] Arab. "Dustí": so the ceremony vulgarly called "Doseh" and by the ItaloEgyptians "Dosso," the riding over disciples' backs by the Shaykh of the Sa'diyah Darwayshes (Lane M.E. chapt. xxv.) which took place for the last time at Cairo in 1881.

[FN#246] In Chavis and Cazotte she conjures him "by the great Maichonarblatha Sarsourat" (Míat wa arba'at ashar Súrat)=the 114 chapters of the Alcoran.

[FN#247] I have noted that Moslem law is not fully satisfied without such confession which, however, may be obtained by the bastinado. It is curious to compare English procedure with what Moslem would be in such a case as that of the famous Tichborne Claimant. What we did need hardly be noticed. An Arab judge would in a case so suspicious at once have applied the stick and in a quarter of an hour would have settled the whole business; but then what about the "Devil's own," the lawyers and lawyers' fees? And he would have remarked that the truth is not less true because obtained by such compulsory means.

[FN#248] The Hudhud, so called from its cry "Hood! Hood!" It is the Lat. upupa, Gr. {épops} from its supposed note epip or upup; the old Egyptian Kukufa; Heb. Dukiphath and Syriac Kikuphá (Bochart Hierozoicon, part ii. 347). The Spaniards call it Gallo de Marzo (March-Cock) from its returning in that month, and our old writers "lapwing" (Deut. xiv. 18). This foul-feeding bird derives her honours from chapt. xxvii. of the Koran (q.v.), the Hudhud was sharp-sighted and sagacious enough to discover water underground which the devils used to draw after she had marked the place by her bill.

[FN#249] Here the vocative Yá is designedly omitted in poetical fashion (e.g., Khalíliyya—my friend!) to show the speaker's emotion. See p. 113 of Captain A. Lockett's learned and curious work the "Miet Amil" (=Hundred Regimens), Calcutta, 1814.

[FN#250] The story-teller introduces this last instance with considerable art as a preface to the dénouement.

[FN#251] See Chavis and Cazotte "Story of the King of Haram and the slave."

[FN#252] i.e. men caught red-handed.

[FN#253] Arab. "Libwah," one of the multitudinous names for the king of beasts, still used in Syria where the animal has been killed out, soon to be followed by the bear (U. Syriacus). The author knows that lions are most often found in couples.

[FN#254] Arab. "Himyán or Hamyán," = a girdle.

[FN#255] As he would kiss a son. I have never yet seen an Englishman endure these masculine kisses, formerly so common in France and Italy, without showing clearest signs of his disgust.

[FN#256] A cheap way of rewarding merit, not confined to Eastern monarchs, but practised by all contemporary Europe.

[FN#257] Arab. "Kasf," = houghing a camel so as to render it helpless. The passage may read, "we are broken to bits (Kisí) by our own sin."

[FN#258] Bresl. Edit., vol. vii. pp. 251-4, Night dlxv.

[FN#259] See vol. vi. 175. A Moslem should dress for public occasions, like the mediæval student, in vestibus (quasi) nigris aut subfuscis; though not, except amongst the Abbasides, absolutely black, as sable would denote Jewry.

[FN#260] A well-known soldier and statesman, noted for piety and austerity. A somewhat fuller version of this story, from which I have borrowed certain details, is given in the Biographical Dictionary of Ibn Khallikán (i. 303-4). The latter, however, calls the first Abd al-Malik "Ibn Bahrán" (in the index Ibn Bahrám), which somewhat spoils the story. "Ibn Khallikan," by-the-by, is derived popularly from "Khalli" (let go), and "Kána" (it was, enough), a favourite expression of the author, which at last superseded his real name, Abu al-Abbás Ahmad. He is better off than the companion nicknamed by Mohammed Abú Horayrah = Father of the She-kitten (not the cat), and who in consequence has lost his true name and pedigree.

[FN#261] In Ibn Khallikán (i. 303) he is called the "Hashimite," from his ancestor, Hashim ibn Abd Manáf. The Hashimites and Abbasides were fine specimens of the Moslem "Pharisee," as he is known to Christians, not the noble Purushi of authentic history.

[FN#262] Meaning a cap, but of what shape we ignore. Ibn Khallikan afterwards calls it a "Kalansúa," a word still applied to a mitre worn by Christian priests.

[FN#263] Arab. "Lá baas," equivalent in conversation to our "No matter," and "All right."

[FN#264] As a member of the reigning family, he wore black clothes, that being the especial colour of the Abbasides, adopted by them in opposition to the rival dynasty of the Ommiades, whose family colour was white, that of the Fatimites being green. The Moslems borrowed their sacred green, "the hue of the Pure," from the old Nabatheans and the other primitive colours from the tents of the captains who were thus distinguished. Hence also amongst the Turks and Tartars, the White Horde and the Black Horde.

[FN#265] The word has often occurred, meaning date-wine or grape-wine. Ibn Khaldún contends that in Ibn Khallikan it here means the former.

[FN#266] £25,000. Ibn Khallikan (i. 304) makes the debt four millions of dirhams or £90,000-£100,000.

[FN#267] In the Biographer occurs the equivalent phrase, "That a standard be borne over his head."

[FN#268] Here again we have a suggestion that Ja'afar presumed upon his favour with the Caliph; such presumption would soon be reported (perhaps by the austère intrigant himself) to the royal ears, and lay the foundation of ill-will likely to end in utter destruction.

[FN#269] Bresl. Edit., vol. vii. pp. 258-60, Night dlxvii.

[FN#270] Fourth Abbaside, A.D. 785-786, vol. v. 93. He was a fantastic tyrant who was bent upon promoting to the Caliphate his own son, Ja'afar; he cast Harun into prison and would probably have slain him but for the intervention of the mother of the two brothers, Khayzarán widow of Al-Mahdi, and Yahya the Barmecide.

[FN#271] Third Abbaside, A.D. 775-785, vol. vii. 136; ix. 334.

[FN#272] This reminds us of the Bir Al-Khátim (Well of the Signet) at Al-Medinah; in which Caliph Osman during his sixth year dropped from his finger the silver ring belonging to the founder of Al-Islam, engraved in three lines with "Mohammed / Apostle (of) / Allah /." It had served to sign the letters sent to neighboring kings and had descended to the first three successors (Pilgrimage ii. 219). Mohammed owned three seal- rings, the golden one he destroyed himself; and the third, which was of carnelian, was buried with other objects by his heirs. The late Subhi Pasha used to declare that the latter had been brought to him with early Moslem coins by an Arab, and when he died he left it to the Sultan.

[FN#273] Mr. Payne quotes Al-Tabari's version of this anecdote. "El-Mehdi had presented his son Haroun with a ruby ring, worth a hundred thousand dinars, and the latter being one day with his brother (the then reigning Khalif), El Hadi saw the ring on his finger and desired it. So, when Haroun went out from him, he sent after him, to seek the ring of him. The Khalif's messenger overtook Er Reshid on the bridge over the Tigris and acquainted him with his errand; whereupon the prince, enraged at the demand, pulled off the ring and threw it into the river. When El Hadi died and Er Rashid succeeded to the throne, he went with his suite to the bridge in question and bade his Vizier Yehya ben Khalid send for divers and cause them make search for the ring. It had then been five months in the water and no one believed it would be found. However, the divers plunged into the river and found the ring in the very place where he had thrown it in, whereat Haroun rejoiced with an exceeding joy, regarding it as a presage of fair fortune."

[FN#274] Not historically correct. Al-Rashid made Yáhyà, father of Ja'afar, his Wazir; and the minister's two sons, Fazl and Ja'afar, acted as his lieutenants for seventeen years from A.D. 786 till the destruction of the Barmecides in A.D. 803. The tale-teller quotes Ja'afar because he was the most famous of the house.

[FN#275] Perhaps after marrying Ja'afar to his sister. But the endearing name was usually addressed to Ja'afar's elder brother Fazl, who was the Caliph's foster-brother.

[FN#276] Read seventeen: all these minor inaccuracies tend to invalidate the main statement.

[FN#277] Arab. "Yar'ad" which may mean "thundereth." The dark saying apparently means, Do good whilst thou art in power and thereby strengthen thyself.

[FN#278] The lady seems to have made the first advances and Bin Abú Hájilah quotes a sixaine in which she amorously addresses her spouse. See D'Herbelot, s.v. Abbassa.

[FN#279] The tale-teller passes with a very light hand over the horrors of a massacre which terrified and scandalised the then civilised world, and which still haunt Moslem history. The Caliph, like the eking, can do no wrong; and, as Viceregent of Allah upon Earth, what would be deadly crime and mortal sin in others becomes in his case an ordinance from above. These actions are superhuman events and fatal which man must not judge nor feel any sentiment concerning them save one of mysterious respect. For the slaughter of the Barmecides, see my Terminal Essay, vol. x.

[FN#280] Bresl. Edit., vol. vii. pp. 260-1, Night dlxviii.

[FN#281] Ibn al-Sammák (Son of the fisherman or fishmonger), whose name was Abú al-Abbás Mohammed bin Sabíh, surnamed Al- Mazkúr (Ibn al-Athir says Al-Muzakkar), was a native of Kufah (where he died in A.H. 183 = 799-80), a preacher and professional tale-teller famed as a stylist and a man of piety. Al-Siyuti (p. 292) relates of him that when honoured by the Caliph with courteous reception he said to him, "Thy humility in thy greatness is nobler than thy greatness." He is known to have been the only theologician who, ex cathedrâ, promised Al-Rashid a place in Paradise.

[FN#282] Bresl. Edit., vol. vii. pp. 261-2, Night dlxviii.

[FN#283] Seventh Abbaside, A.H. 198-227 = 813-842. See vol. iv. 109. He was a favourite with his father, who personally taught him tradition; but he offended the Faithful by asserting the creation of the Koran, by his leaning to Shi'ah doctrine, and by changing the black garments of the Banu Abbas into green. He died of a chill at Budandun, a day's march from Tarsus, where he was buried: for this Podendon = = stretch out thy feet, see Al-Siyuti, pp. 326-27.

[FN#284] Sixth Abbaside, A.D. 809-13. See vol. v. 93: 152. He was of pure Abbaside blood on the father's side and his mother Zubaydah's. But he was unhappy in his Wazir Al-Fazl bin Rabí, the intriguer against the Barmecides, who estranged him from his brothers Al-Kásim and Al-Maamún. At last he was slain by a party of Persians, "who struck him with their swords and cut him through the nape of his neck and went with his head to Tahir bin al-Husayn, general to Al-Maamún, who set it upon a garden-wall and made proclamation, This is the head of the deposed Mohammed (Al-Amín)." Al-Siyuti, pp. 306-311. It was remarked by Moslem annalists that every sixth Abbaside met with a violent death: the first was this Mohammed al-Amin surnamed Al-Makhlú' = The Deposed; the second sixth was Al-Musta'ín; and the last was Al- Muktadí bi'lláh.

[FN#285] Lit. "Order and acceptance." See the Tale of the Sandal-wood Merchant and the Sharpers: vol. vi. 202.

[FN#286] This is not noticed by Al-Siyuti (p. 318) who says that his mother was a slave-concubine named Marájil who died in giving him birth. The tale in the text appears to be a bit of Court scandal, probably suggested by the darkness of the Caliph's complexion.

[FN#287] Bresl. Edit., vol. viii. pp. 226-9, Nights dclx-i.

[FN#288] King of the Arab kingdom of Hirah, for whom see vol. v. 74. This ancient villain rarely appears in such favourable form when tales are told of him.

[FN#289] The tribe of the chieftain and poet, Hátim Táí, for whom see vol. iv. 94.

[FN#290] i.e. I will make a covenant with him before the Lord. Here the word "Allah" is introduced among the Arabs of The Ignorance.

[FN#291] i.e. the man of the Tribe of Tay.

[FN#292] A similar story of generous dealing is told of the Caliph Omar in The Nights. See vol. v. 99 et seq.

[FN#293] Bresl. Edit., vol. viii. pp. 273-8, Nights dclxxv-vi. In Syria and Egypt Firúz (the Persian "Píroz") = victorious, triumphant, is usually pronounced Fayrúz. The tale is a rechauffé of the King and the Wazir's Wife in The Nights. See vol. vi. 129.

[FN#294] i.e. I seek refuge with Allah = God forfend.

[FN#295] Bresl. Edit., vol. xi. pp. 84—318, Nights dccclxxv—dccccxxx. Here again the names are Persian, showing the provenance of the tale; Shah Bakht is=King Luck and Rahwán is a corruption of Rahbán=one who keeps the (right) way; or it may be Ruhbán=the Pious. Mr. W. A. Clouston draws my attention to the fact that this tale is of the Sindibad (Seven Wise Masters) cycle and that he finds remotely allied to it a Siamese collection, entitled Nonthuk Pakaranam in which Princess Kankras, to save the life of her father, relates eighty or ninety tales to the king of Pataliput (Palibothra). He purposes to discuss this and similar subjects in extenso in his coming volumes, "Popular Tales and Fictions: their Migrations and Transformations," to which I look forward with pleasant anticipations.

[FN#296] So far this work resembles the Bakhtiyár-námeh, in which the ten Wazirs are eager for the death of the hero who relates tales and instances to the king, warning him against the evils of precipitation.

[FN#297] One pilgrimage (Hajjat al-Islam) is commanded to all Moslems. For its conditions see The Nights, vol. v. 202, et seq.

[FN#298] Arab. "Hajj al-Shárif." For the expenses of the process see my Pilgrimage iii. 12. As in all "Holy Places," from Rome to Benares, the sinner in search of salvation is hopelessly taken in and fleeced by the "sons of the sacred cities."

[FN#299] Here a stranger invites a guest who at once accepts the invitation; such is the freedom between Moslems at Meccah and Al-Medinah, especially during pilgrimagetime.

[FN#300] i.e. the master could no longer use her carnally.

[FN#301] i.e. wantoned it away.

[FN#302] Here "Al-Hajj"=the company of pilgrims, a common use of the term.

[FN#303] The text says, "He went on with the caravan to the Pilgrimage," probably a clerical error. "Hajj" is never applied to the Visitation (Ziyárah) at Al-Medinah.

[FN#304] Arab. "Jáwar," that is, he became a mujáwir, one who lives in or near a collegiate mosque. The Egyptian proverb says, "He pilgrimaged: quoth one, Yes, and for his villainy lives (yujawir) at Meccah," meaning that he found no other place bad enough for him.

[FN#305] I have often heard of this mysterious art in the East, also of similarly making rubies and branch-coral of the largest size; but, despite all my endeavours, I never was allowed to witness the operation. It was the same with alchemy, which, however, I found very useful to the "smasher." See my History of Sindh, chapt. vii.

[FN#306] Elsewhere in The Nights specified as white woollen robes.

[FN#307] Whilst she was praying the girl could not address her; but the use of the rosary is a kind of "parergon."

[FN#308] Arab. "Yá Hájjah" (in Egypt pronounced "Hággeh"), a polite address to an elderly woman, who is thus supposed to have "finished her faith."

[FN#309] Arab. "Kanísah" (from Kans=sweeping) a pagan temple, a Jewish synagogue, and especially a Christian church.

[FN#310] i.e. standeth in prayer or supplication.

[FN#311] i.e. fell into hysterics, a very common complaint amongst the highly nervous and excitable races of the East.

[FN#312] Arab. "Kahramánah," a word which has often occurred in divers senses, nurse, duenna, chamberwoman, stewardess, armed woman defending the Harem, etc.

[FN#313] Which is supposed to contain the Harem.

[FN#314] Especially mentioned because the guide very often follows his charges, especially when he intends to play them an ugly trick. I had an unpleasant adventure of the kind in Somaliland; but having the fear of the "Aborigines Protection Society" before my eyes, refrained from doing more than hinting at it.

[FN#315] i.e. otherwise than according to ordinance of Allah.

[FN#316] A well-known city of lrák 'Ajamí (or Persian).

[FN#317] i.e. spare pegs and strings, plectra, thumb-guards, etc.

[FN#318] Arab. "Hasír," the fine matting used for sleeping on during the hot season in Egypt and Syria.

[FN#319] i.e. The bed where the "rough and tumble" had taken place.

[FN#320] This word, which undoubtedly derives from cuculus, cogul, cocu, a cuckoo, has taken a queer twist, nor can I explain how its present meaning arose from a shebird which lays her egg in a strange nest. Wittol, on the other hand, from Witan, to know, is rightly applied to one whom La Fontaine calls "cocu et content," the Arab Dayyús.

[FN#321] Arab. "Shabakah," here a net like a fisherman's, which is hung over the hole in the wall called a shop, during the temporary absence of the shopkeeper. See my Pilgrimage, i. 100.

[FN#322] i.e. of which the singer speaks.

[FN#323] i.e., she found him good at the to-and-fro movement; our corresponding phrase is "basket-making."

[FN#324] Arab. "Mu'arris": in vol. i. 338, I derived the word from 'Ars marriage, like the Germ. Kupplerin. This was a mere mistake; the root is 'Ars (with a Sád not a Sín) and means a pimp who shows off or displays his wares.

[FN#325] Arab. "Akhmitu Ghazla-há" lit.=thicken her yarn or thread.

[FN#326] I must again warn the reader that the negative, which to us appears unnecessary, is emphatic in Arabic.

[FN#327] i.e. By removing the goods from the "but" to the "ben." Pilgrimage i. 99.

[FN#328] Arab. "Tannúr," here the large earthern jar with a cover of the same material, round which the fire is built.

[FN#329] Being a musician the hero of the tale was also a pederast.

[FN#330] Here Mr. Payne supplies "Then they returned and sat down" (apparently changing places). He is quite correct in characterising the Bresl. Edit. as corrupt and "fearfully incoherent." All we can make certain of in this passage is that the singer mistook the Persian for his white slave (Mameluke).

[FN#331] Arab. "Bazaka," normally used in the sense of spitting; here the saliva might be applied for facilitating insertion.

[FN#332] In Persian "Áward o burd,"=brought and bore away, gen. applied to the movement of the man as in the couplet,

Chenín burd o áward o áward o burd,
Kih dáyeh pas-i-pardeh zi ghussah murd.

He so came and went, went and came again,
That Nurse who lay curtained to faint was fain.

[FN#333] Alluding to the fighting rams which are described by every Anglo-Indian traveller. They strike with great force, amply sufficient to crush the clumsy hand which happens to be caught between the two foreheads. The animals are sometimes used for Fál or consulting futurity: the name of a friend is given to one and that of a foe to the other; and the result of the fight suggests victory or defeat for the men.

[FN#334] Arab. "Jauhar"=the jewel, the essential nature of a substance. Compare M. Alcofribas' "Abstraction of the Quintessence."

[FN#335] In parts of the Moslem world Al-Jabr=the tyranny, is the equivalent of what we call "civil law," as opposed to Al-Sharí'ah, or Holy Law, the religious code; Diwan al-Jabr (Civil Court) being the contrary of the Mahkamah or Kazi's tribunal. See "First Footsteps in East Africa," p. 126.

[FN#336] i.e. in offering thee the kingship.

[FN#337] i.e. "a man of fourscore."

[FN#338] i.e. outside the city.

[FN#339] See the conclusion of the story.

[FN#340] i.e. I have said my say.

[FN#341] Arab. "Al-Mutabattil," usually=one who forsakes the world. The Katarát alNaysán or rain-drops in the month Naysán (April) produce pearls when falling into the oyster-shells and poison in the serpent's mouth. The allusions to them are innumerable in Persian poetry, and the idea gives rise to a host of moralities more or less insipid.

[FN#342] This is the general idea concerning the diamond in all countries where the gem is dug, but I never heard it of the pearl.

[FN#343] Arab. "Faras," properly a mare; but the writer begins by using the feminine, and then employs the masculine. It is an abominable text.

[FN#344] Arab. "Rutab wa manázil," may also mean "stations and mansions (of the moon and planets)." The double entendre was probably intended.

[FN#345] Arab. "Za'íf," still a popular word, meaning feeble, sick, ailing, but especially, weak in venery.

[FN#346] See the original of this tale in King Al-Af'á: Al-Mas'udi, chap. xlvi.

[FN#347] He says this without any sense of shame, coolly as Horace or Catullus wrote.

[FN#348] i.e. of the caravan with which he came.

[FN#349] Arab. "Al-'Adl." In the form of Zú 'adl it = a legal witness, a man of good repute; in Marocco and other parts of the Moslem world 'Adul (plur. 'Udúl) signifies an assessor of the Kazi, a notary. Padre Lerchundy (loc. cit. p. 345) renders it notario.

[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 Æsop'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. "Tafrík wa'l-jam'a."

[FN#357] Arab. "Wafát" 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 ill-omened a word as Maut = death.

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

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

[FN#360] In my Pilgrimage (i. 38), I 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 Pitrè'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 rechauffé of Kamar al-Zamán 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 Shúshah 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 Ríf 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 rechauffé 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 Fabulæ apud Leyser Hist. Poet. Medii Ævi, p. 200—8), beginning

Cæcus 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 Commères," 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 Bahár-i-Dánish, 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 "Comœdia Lydiæ," 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 "'Ashshár," 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 Fakíh 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 "Dáng," 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 divorcée 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. "Wadí'ah" = the blows which the Robber had given him.

[FN#385] Arab. "Sindiyán" (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 Mallúl and the Ballút, see Unexplored Syria, i. 68.

[FN#386] Hibernicè.

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

[FN#388] Arab. "Rasmál," the vulg. Syrian and Egyptian form of Raas al-mál = stock-in-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 Madyúbah," prob. a clerical error for "Madyúnah," alluding to her many debts which he had paid. Here, however, I suspect the truly Egyptian term "Yá Manyúkah!"=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, "Yá Manyúk!"

[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 Sús (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. Jámi'. This anachronism, like many of the same kind, is only apparent. The faith preached by Sayyidná Isà 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. "Talámizah," plur. of Tilmíz, a disciple, a young attendant. The word is Syriac <Arabic letters> and there is a Heb. root <Hebrew letters> but no Arabic. In the Durrat al-Ghawwás, however, Tilmíz, Bilkís, and similar words are Arabic in the form of Fa'líl and Fi'líl

[FN#394] Rúh 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 "Sahrá" not Sahárá.

[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 Játakas 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 Faríd al-Dín "'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 Kashmírí Proverbs, etc., etc., etc.

[FN#397] Arab. "'Awán" 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. "Rasátík" plur. of Rusták. See vol. vi. 289.

[FN#403] This adventure is a rechauffé 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 Samíz;" the latter is the Arabisation of the Pers. Samíd, fine white bread, simnel, Germ. semmel.

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