Chapter XV: Part 15

The happy idea of the wedding night in the water-closet is repeated
from the tale of Nur al-Dín Ali Hasan (vol. i. 221), and the mishap of
the Hunchback bridegroom.

Footnote 147:

For the old knightly practice of sleeping with a drawn sword
separating man and maid, see vol. vii. 353 and Mr. Clouston’s “Popular
Tales and Fictions,” vol. i. 316. In Poland the intermediary who
married by procuration slept alongside the bride in all his armour.
The H. V. explains, “He (Alaeddin) also lay a naked sword between him
and the Princess, so she might perceive that he was ready to die by
that blade should he attempt to do aught of villainy by the bride.”

Footnote 148:

Galland says: _Ils ne s’aperçurent que de l’ébranlement du lit et que
de leur transport d’un lieu à l’autre: c’était bien assez pour leur
donner une frayeur qu’il est aisé d’imaginer_.

Footnote 149:

Galland very unnecessarily makes the Wazir’s son pass into the
wardrobe (_garderobe_) to dress himself.

Footnote 150:

Professional singing and dancing girls: properly the word is the fem.
of ’Álim = a learned man; but it has been anglicised by Byron’s

“The long chibouque’s dissolving cloud supply,
Where dance the Almahs to wild minstrelsy.”—(The Corsair, ii. 2.)

They go about the streets with unveiled faces and are seldom admitted
into respectable Harems, although on festal occasions they perform in
the court or in front of the house; but even this is objected to by
the Mrs. Grundy of Egypt. Lane (M. E. chap. xviii) derives with Saint
Jerome the word from the Heb. or Phœnician Almah = a virgin, a girl, a
singing-girl; and thus explains “Alámoth” in Psalms xlvi, and I Chron.
xv. 20. Parkhurst (s.v. ’Alamah) = an undeflowered virgin, renders Job
xxxix. 30, “the way of a man with a maid” (bi-álmah). “The way of a
man in his virgin state, shunning youthful lust and keeping himself
pure and unspotted.”

Footnote 151:

The text reads “Rafa’” (he raised) “al-Bashkhánah” which in Suppl.
Nights (ii. 165) is a hanging, a curtain. Apparently it is a
corruption of the Pers. “Pashkhánah,” a mosquito-curtain.

Footnote 152:

The father suspected that she had not gone to bed a clean maid.

Footnote 153:

Arab. Aysh = Ayyu Shayyin and Lalysh = li ayyi Shayyin. This
vulgarism, or rather popular corruption, is of olden date and was used
by such a purist as Al-Mutanabbi in such a phrase as “Aysh Khabara-k?”
= how art thou? See Ibn Khallikan, iii. 79.

Footnote 154:

In the H. V. the Minister sends the Chob-dár = rod-bearer,
mace-bearer, usher, etc.

Footnote 155:

In the text Sáhal for Sahal, again the broad “Doric” of Syria.

Footnote 156:

Arab. Dahab ramli = gold dust washed out of the sand, _placer_-gold. I
must excuse myself for using this Americanism, properly a diluvium or
deposit of sand, and improperly (Bartlett) a find of drift gold. The
word, like many mining terms in the Far West, is borrowed from the
Spaniards; it is not therefore one of the many American vulgarisms
which threaten hopelessly to defile the pure well of English speech.

Footnote 157:

Arab. “Ratl,” by Europeans usually pronounced “Rotl” (Rotolo).

Footnote 158:

In the H. V. she returns from the bazar; and, “seeing the house filled
with so many persons in goodliest attire, marvelled greatly. Then
setting down the meat lately bought she would have taken off her veil,
but Alaeddin prevented her and said,” etc.

Footnote 159:

The word is popularly derived from Serai in Persian = a palace; but it
comes from the Span. and Port. _Cerrar_ = to shut up, and should be
written with the reduplicated liquid.

Footnote 160:

In the H. V. the dresses and ornaments of the slaves were priced at
ten millions (Karúr = a crore) of gold coins. I have noticed that
Messer Marco “Milione” did not learn his high numerals in Arabia, but
that India might easily have taught them to him.

Footnote 161:

Arab. “Ráih yasír,” peasant’s language.

Footnote 162:

Arab. Ká’ah, the apodyterium or undressing room upon which the
vestibule of the Hammam opens. See the plan in Lane’s M. E. chapt.
xvi. The Kár’ah is now usually called “Maslakh” = stripping-room.

Footnote 163:

Arab. “Hammam-hu” = went through all the operations of the Hammam,
scraping, kneading, soaping, wiping and so forth.

Footnote 164:

For this aphrodisiac see vol. vi. 60. The subject of aphrodisiacs in
the East would fill a small library: almost every medical treatise
ends in a long disquisition upon fortifiers, provocatives, etc. We may
briefly divide them into three great classes. The first is the
medicinal, which may be either external or internal. The second is the
mechanical, such as scarification, flagellation, and the application
of insects as practised by certain savage races. There is a venerable
Joe Miller of an old Brahmin whose young wife always insisted, each
time before he possessed her, upon his being stung by a bee in certain
parts. The third is magical, superstitious and so forth.

Footnote 165:

This may sound exaggerated to English ears, but a petty Indian Prince,
such as the Gáikwár, or Rajah of Baroda, would be preceded in state
processions by several led horses all whose housings and saddles were
gold studded with diamonds. The sight made one’s mouth water.

Footnote 166:

_i.e._ the ’Arab al-’Arbá; for which see vols. i. 112; v. 101.

Footnote 167:

Arab. “Al-Kandíl al-’ajíb:” here its magical virtues are specified and
remove many apparent improbabilities from the tale.

Footnote 168:

This was the highest of honours. At Abyssinian Harar even the Grandees
were compelled to dismount at the door of the royal “compound.” See my
“First Footsteps in East Africa,” p. 296.

Footnote 169:

“The right hand” seems to me a European touch in Galland’s
translation, _leur chef mit Aladdin à sa droite_. Amongst Moslems the
great man sits in the sinistral corner of the Divan as seen from the
door, so the place of honour is to his left.

Footnote 170:

Arab. “Músiká,” classically “Musikí” = Μουσικὴ: the Pers. form is
“Músikár”; and the Arab. equivalent is Al-Lahn. In the H. V. the King
“made a signal and straightway drums (_dhol_) and trumpets (_trafír_)
and all manner wedding instruments struck up on every side.”

Footnote 171:

Arab. “Marmar Sumáki” = porphyry of which ancient Egypt supplied the
finest specimens. I found a vein of it in the Anti-Libanus. Strange to
say, the quarries which produced the far-famed giallo antico, verd’
antico (serpentine limestone) and rosso antico (mostly a porphyry)
worked by the old Nilotes, are now unknown to us.

Footnote 172:

_i.e._ velvets with gold embroidery: see vol. viii. 201.

Footnote 173:

The Arabic says, “There was a kiosque with four-and-twenty alcoves
(Líwán, for which see vols. iv. 71; vi. 347) all builded of emerald,
etc., and one remained with the kiosque (kushk) unfinished.” I adopt
Galland’s reading _salon à vingt-quatre croisées_ which are mentioned
in the Arab. text towards the end of the tale, and thus avoid the
confusion between kiosque and window. In the H. V. there is a domed
belvedere (bárah-dari-i-gumbaz-dár), four-sided, with six doors on
each front (_i.e._ twenty-four), and all studded with diamonds, etc.

Footnote 174:

In Persia this is called “Pá-andáz,” and must be prepared for the Shah
when he deigns to visit a subject. It is always of costly stuffs, and
becomes the perquisite of the royal attendants.

Footnote 175:

Here the European hand again appears to me: the Sultan as a good
Moslem should have made the Wuzú-ablution and prayed the dawn-prayers
before doing anything worldly.

Footnote 176:

Arab. “Fí ghuzúni zálika,” a peculiar phrase; Ghazn = a crease, a
wrinkle.

Footnote 177:

In the H. V. the King “marvelled to see Alaeddin’s mother without her
veil and magnificently adorned with costly jewels and said in his
mind, ‘Methought she was a grey-haired crone, but I find her still in
the prime of life and comely to look upon, somewhat after the fashion
of Badr al-Budúr.’” This also was one of the miracles of the Lamp.

Footnote 178:

For this word see vols. i. 46, vii. 326. A Joe Miller is told in
Western India of an old General Officer boasting his knowledge of
Hindostani. “How do you say, Tell a plain story, General?” asked one
of the hearers, and the answer was, “Maydán-kí bát bolo!” = “speak a
word about the plain” (or level space).

Footnote 179:

The prehistoric Arabs: see supra p. 134.

Footnote 180:

Popularly, Jeríd, the palm-frond used as javelin: see vol. vi. 263.

Footnote 181:

In order to keep off the evil eye, one of the functions of iron and
steel: see vol. ii. 316.

Footnote 182:

The H. V. adds, “Little did the Princess know that the singers were
fairies whom the Slave of the Lamp had brought together.”

Footnote 183:

Alexander the Great: see vols. v. 252, x. 57. The H. V. adds, “Then
only one man and one woman danced together, one with other, till
midnight, when Alaeddin and the Princess stood up; for it was the wont
of China in those days that bride and bridegroom perform together in
presence of the wedding company.”

Footnote 184:

The exceptional reserve of this and other descriptions makes M. H.
Zotenberg suspect that the tale was written for one of the Mameluke
Princesses: I own to its modesty but I doubt that such virtue would
have recommended it to the dames in question. The H. V. adds a few
details:—“Then, when the bride and bridegroom had glanced and gazed
each at other’s face, the Princess rejoiced with excessive joy to
behold his comeliness, and he exclaimed, in the courtesy of his
gladness, ‘O happy me, whom thou deignest, O Queen of the Fair, to
honour despite mine unworth, seeing that in thee all charms and graces
are perfected.’”

Footnote 185:

The term has not escaped ridicule amongst Moslems. A common fellow
having stood in his way the famous wit Abú al-’Ayná asked “What is
that?” “A man of the Sons of Adam” was the reply. “Welcome, welcome,”
cried the other, “Allah grant thee length of days! I deemed that all
his sons were dead.” See Ibn Khallikan iii. 57.

Footnote 186:

This address to an inanimate object (here a window) is highly
idiomatic and must be cultivated by the practical Arabist. In the H.
V. the unfinished part is the four-and-twentieth door of the
fictitious (ja’alí) palace.

Footnote 187:

This is true Orientalism, a personification or incarnation which
Galland did not think proper to translate.

Footnote 188:

Arab. “La’ab al-Andáb;” the latter word is from the √ “Nadb” =
brandishing or throwing the javelin.

Footnote 189:

The “mothers” are the prime figures, the daughters being the
secondary. For the “’Ilm al-Raml” = (Science of the sand) our geomancy
see vol. iii. 269, and D’Herbelot’s sub. v. _Raml_ or _Reml_.

Footnote 190:

This is from Galland, whose _certaine boisson chaude_ evidently means
tea. It is preserved in the H. V.

Footnote 191:

_i.e._ his astrolabe, his “Zíj” or table of the stars, his almanack,
etc. For a highly fanciful derivation of the “Arstable” see Ibn
Khallikán (iii. 580). He makes it signify “balance or lines (Pers.
‘Astur’) of the sun,” which is called “Láb” as in the case of wicked
Queen Láb (The Nights, vol. vii. 296). According to him the Astrolabe
was suggested to Ptolemy by an armillary sphere which had accidentally
been flattened by the hoof of his beast: this is beginning late in the
day, the instrument was known to the ancient Assyrians. Chardin
(Voyages ii. 149) carefully describes the Persian variety of—

“The cunning man hight Sidrophil

(as Will. Lilly was called). Amongst other things he wore at his
girdle an astrolabe not bigger than the hollow of a man’s hand, often
two to three inches in diameter and looking at a distance like a
medal.” These men practised both natural astrology = astronomy, as
well as judicial astrology which foretells events and of which Kepler
said that “she, albeit a fool, was the daughter of a wise mother, to
whose support and life the silly maid was indispensable.” Isidore of
Seville (A.D. 600–636) was the first to distinguish between the two
branches, and they flourished side by side till Newton’s day. Hence
the many astrological terms in our tongue, _e.g._ consider,
contemplate, disaster, jovial, mercurial, saturnine, etc.

Footnote 192:

In the H. V. “New brass lamps for old ones! who will exchange?” So in
the story of the Fisherman’s son, a Jew who had been tricked of a
cock, offers to give new rings for old rings. See Jonathan’s Scott’s
excerpts from the Wortley-Montague MSS. vol. vi. pp. 210–12. This is
one of the tales which I have translated for vol. iv.

Footnote 193:

The H. V. adds that Alaeddin loved to ride out a-hunting and had left
the city for eight days whereof three had passed by.

Footnote 194:

Galland makes her say, _Hé bien, folle, veux-tu me dire pourquoi tu
ris?_ The H. V. renders “Cease, giddyhead, why laughest thou?” and the
vulgate “Well, giggler,” said the Princess, etc.

Footnote 195:

Nothing can be more improbable than this detail, but upon such
abnormal situations almost all stories, even in our most modern
“Society-novels,” depend and the cause is clear—without them there
would be no story. And the modern will, perhaps, suggest that “the
truth was withheld for a higher purpose, for the working out of
certain ends.” In the H. V. Alaeddin, when about to go a-hunting,
always placed the Lamp high up on the cornice with all care lest any
touch it.

Footnote 196:

The H. V. adds, “The Magician, when he saw the Lamp, at once knew that
it must be the one he sought; for he knew that all things, great and
small, appertaining to the palace would be golden or silvern.”

Footnote 197:

In truly Oriental countries the Wazir is expected to know everything,
and if he fail in this easy duty be may find himself in sore trouble.

Footnote 198:

_i.e._, must be obeyed.

Footnote 199:

We see that “China” was in those days the normal Oriental “despotism
tempered by assassination.”

Footnote 200:

In the H. V. Alaeddin promises, “if I fail to find and fetch the
Princess, I will myself cut off my head and cast it before the
throne.” Hindus are adepts in suicide and this self-decapitation,
which sounds absurd further West, is quite possible to them.

Footnote 201:

In Galland Alaeddin unconsciously rubbed the ring against _un petit
roc_, to which he clung in order to prevent falling into the stream.
In the H. V. “The bank was high and difficult of descent and the youth
would have rolled down headlong had he not struck upon a rock two
paces from the bottom and remained hanging over the water. This mishap
was of the happiest for during his fall he struck the stone and rubbed
his ring against it,” etc.

Footnote 202:

In the H. V. he said, “First save me that I fall not into the stream
and then tell me where is the pavilion thou builtest for her and who
hath removed it.”

Footnote 203:

Alluding to the preparatory washing, a mere matter of cleanliness
which precedes the formal Wuzú-ablution.

Footnote 204:

In the H. V. the Princess ends with, “I had made this resolve that
should he approach me with the design to win his wish perforce, I
would destroy my life. By day and by night I abode in fear of him; but
now at the sight of thee my heart is heartened.”

Footnote 205:

The Fellah had a natural fear of being seen in fine gear, which all
would have supposed to be stolen goods; and Alaeddin was justified in
taking it perforce, because _necessitas non habet legem_. See a
similar exchange of dress in Spitta-Bey’s “Contes Arabes Modernes,” p.
91. In Galland the peasant when pressed consents; and in the H. V.
Alaeddin persuades him by a gift of money.

Footnote 206:

_i.e._ which would take effect in the shortest time.

Footnote 207:

Her modesty was startled by the idea of sitting at meat with a strange
man and allowing him to make love to her.

Footnote 208:

In the text Kidí, pop. for Ka-zálika. In the H. V. the Magician
replies to the honeyed speech of the Princess, “O my lady, we in
Africa have not so gracious customs as the men of China. This day I
have learned of thee a new courtesy which I shall ever keep in mind.”

Footnote 209:

Galland makes the Princess poison the Maghrabi, which is not gallant.
The H. V. follows suit and describes the powder as a mortal poison.

Footnote 210:

Contrast this modesty with the usual scene of reunion after severance,
as in the case of Kamar al-Zamán and immodest Queen Budúr, vol. iii.
pp. 302–304.

Footnote 211:

His dignity forbade him to walk even the length of a carpet: see vol.
vii. for this habit of the Mameluke Beys. When Harun al-Rashid made
his famous pilgrimage afoot from Baghdad to Meccah (and he was the
last of the Caliphs who performed this rite), the whole way was spread
with a “Pá-andáz” of carpets and costly cloths.

Footnote 212:

The proverb suggests our “par nobile fratrum,” a pair resembling each
other as two halves of a split bean.

Footnote 213:

In the H. V. “If the elder Magician was in the East the other was in
the West; but once a year, by their skill in geomancy, they had
tidings of each other.”

Footnote 214:

The act was religiously laudable, but to the Eastern, as to the South
European mind, fair play is _not_ a jewel; moreover the story-teller
may insinuate that vengeance would be taken only by foul and unlawful
means—the Black Art, perjury, murder and so forth.

Footnote 215:

For this game, a prime favourite in Egypt, see vol. vi. 145. De Sacy
(Chrestomathie i. 477) and his authorities Hyde, Syntagma Dissert. ii.
374; P. Labat, “Mémoires du Chev. d’Arvieux,” iii. 321; Thevenot,
“Voyage du Levant,” p. 107; and Niebuhr, “Voyages,” I, 139, Plate 25,
fig. H.

Footnote 216:

In the text ضامه evidently = “(jeu de) dames” (supposed to have been
invented in Paris during the days of the Regency: see Littré); and,
although in certain Eastern places now popular, a term of European
origin. It is not in Galland. According to Ibn Khallikan (iii. 69)
“Nard” = tables, arose with King Ardashír son of Babuk, and was
therefore called Nardashír (Nard Ardashír?). He designed it as an
image of the world and its people, so the board had twelve squares to
represent the months; the thirty pieces or men represented the days
and the dice were the emblems of Fate and Lot.

Footnote 217:

_i.e._ a weaner, a name of good omen for a girl-child: see vol. vi.
145. The Hindi translator, Totárám Shayyán, calls her Hamídah = the
Praiseworthy.

Footnote 218:

Arab. Kirámát: see vols. ii. 237; iv. 45. The Necromancer clearly
smells a rat holding with Diderot:—

De par le Roi! Defense à Dieu
De faire miracle en ce lieu;

and the stage properties afterwards found with the holy woman, such as
the gallipot of colouring ointment, justify his suspicion.

Footnote 219:

“’Ajáib” plur. of “’Ajíb,” a common exclamation amongst the populace.
It is used in Persian as well as in Arabic.

Footnote 220:

Evidently _la force de l’imagination_, of which a curious illustration
was given in Paris during the debauched days of the Second Empire.
Before a highly “fashionable” assembly of men appeared a youth in
fleshings who sat down upon a stool, bared his pudenda and closed his
eyes when, by “force of fancy,” erection and emission took place. But
presently it was suspected and proved that the stool was hollow and
admitted from below a hand whose titillating fingers explained the
phenomenon.

Footnote 221:

Moslems are curious about sleeping postures and the popular saying
is:—Lying upon the right side is proper to Kings, upon the left to
Sages; to sleep supine is the position of Allah’s Saints and prone
upon the belly is peculiar to the Devils.

Footnote 222:

This “’Asá,” a staff five to six feet long, is one of the properties
of Moslem Saints and reverends who, imitating that furious old
Puritan, Caliph Omar, make and are allowed to make a pretty liberal
distribution of its caresses.

Footnote 223:

_i.e._ as she was in her own home.

Footnote 224:

Arab. “Sulúk” a Sufistical expression, the road to salvation, &c.

Footnote 225:

In the H. V. her diet consisted of dry bread and fruits.

Footnote 226:

This is the first mention of the windows in the Arabic MS.

Footnote 227:

For this “Roc” of the older writers see vols. v. 122; vi. 16–49. I may
remind the reader that the O. Egyptian “Rokh,” or “Rukh,” by some
written “Rekhit,” whose ideograph is a monstrous bird with one claw
raised, also denotes pure wise Spirits, the Magi, &c. I know a man who
derives from it our “rook” = beak and parson.

Footnote 228:

In the H. V. he takes the Lamp from his bosom, where he had ever kept
it since his misadventure with the African Magician.

Footnote 229:

Here the mythical Rukh is mixed up with the mysterious bird Símurgh,
for which see vol. x. 130.

Footnote 230:

The H. V. adds, “hoping thereby that thou and she and all the
household should fall into perdition.”

Footnote 231:

Rank mesmerism, which has been practised in the East from ages
immemorial. In Christendom Santa Guglielma worshipped at Brunate,
“works many miracles, chiefly healing aches of head.” In the H. V.
Alaeddin feigns that he is ill and fares to the Princess with his head
tied up.

Footnote 232:

Mr. Morier in “The Mirza” (vol. i. 87) says, “Had the Arabian Nights’
Entertainments, with all their singular fertility of invention and
never-ending variety, appeared as a new book in the present day,
translated literally and not adapted to European taste in the manner
attempted in M. Galland’s translation, I doubt whether they would have
been tolerated, certainly not read with the avidity they are, even in
the dress with which he has clothed them, however imperfect that dress
may be.” But in Morier’s day the literal translation was so despised
that an Eastern book was robbed of half its charms, both of style and
idea. My version is here followed by the popular English version from
Galland, so that my readers may compare the old with the new.

Footnote 233:

This “pointing the moral,” as the reader will observe, belongs to
Galland, who had no right to introduce the stale European practice
into an Eastern tale.—R. F. B.

Footnote 234:

In the MS. of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Supplement Arabe (No. 2523,
vol. ii. fol. 147), the story which follows “Aladdin” is that of the
Ten Wazirs, for which see Supp. Nights ii. In Galland the _Histoire de
Codadad et de ses Frères_ comes next to the tale of Zayn al-Asnam: I
have changed the sequence in order that the two stories directly
translated from the Arabic may be together.

Footnote 235:

M. Hermann Zotenberg lately informed me that “Khudadad and his
Brothers” is to be found in a Turkish MS., “Al-Faraj bȧ’d
al-Shiddah”—Joy after Annoy—in the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris.
But that work is a mere derivation from the Persian “Hazár o yek Roz,”
for which see my vol. x. p. 499. The name Khudadad is common to most
Eastern peoples, the Sansk. Devadatta, the Gr. Θεοδόσιος, Θεοδώρος,
Θεοδώρητος and Dorotheus; the Lat. Deodatus, the Ital. Diodato, and
Span. Diosdado, the French Dieu-donné, and the Arab.-Persic Alladád,
Dívdád and Khudábaksh. Khudá is the mod. Pers. form of the old Khudáí
= sovereign, king, as in Máh-i-Khudáí = the sovereign moon, Kám-Khudáí
= master of his passions, etc.

Footnote 236:

Lit. Homes (or habitations) of Bakr (see vol. v. 66), by the Turks
pronounced “Diyár-i-Bekír.” It is the most famous of the four
provinces into which Mesopotamia (Heb. Naharaym, Arab. Al-Jàzírah) is
divided by the Arabs; viz: Diyár Bakr (capital Amídah); Diyár Modhar
(cap. Rakkah or Aracta); Diyár Rabí’ah (cap. Nisibis) and Diyár
al-Jazírah or Al-Jazírah (cap. Mosul). As regards the “King of
Harrán,” all these ancient cities were at some time the capitals of
independent chiefs who styled themselves royalties.

Footnote 237:

The Heb. Charran, the Carrhæ of the classics where, according to the
Moslems, Abraham was born, while the Jews and Christians make him
emigrate thither from “Ur (hod. Mughayr) of the Chaldees.” Hence his
Arab. title “Ibrahim al-Harráni.” My late friend Dr. Beke had a
marvellous theory that this venerable historic Harrán was identical
with a miserable village to the east of Damascus _because_ the Fellahs
call it Harrán al-’Awámíd—of the Columns—from some Græco-Roman
remnants of a paltry provincial temple. See “Jacob’s Flight,” etc.,
London, Longmans, 1865.

Footnote 238:

Pírozah = turquoise, is the Persian, Firúzah and Firuzakh (De Sacy
Chrest. ii. 84) the Arab. forms. The stone is a favourite in the East
where, as amongst the Russians (who affect to despise the Eastern
origin of their blood to which they owe so much of its peculiar
merit,) it is supposed to act talisman against wounds and death in
battle; and the Persians, who hold it to be a guard against the Evil
Eye, are fond of inscribing “turquoise of the old rock” with one or
more of the “Holy Names.” Of these talismans a modern Spiritualist
asks, “Are rings and charms and amulets _magnetic_, to use an analogue
for what we cannot understand, and has the immemorial belief in the
power of relics a natural not to say a scientific basis?”

Footnote 239:

Samaria is a well-known name amongst Moslems, who call the city
Shamrín and Shamrún. It was built, according to Ibn Batrik, upon Mount
Samir by Amri who gave it the first name; and the Taríkh Samírí, by
Abu al-Fath Abú al-Hasan, is a detailed account of its garbled annals.
As Nablús (Neapolis of Herod., also called by him Sebaste) it is now
familiar to the Cookite.

Footnote 240:

In the text Zangi-i-Adam-kh’wár afterwards called Habashi = an
Abyssinian. Galland simply says _un nègre_. In India the “Habshí”
(chief) of Jinjírah (= Al-Jazirah, the Island) was admiral of the
Grand Moghul’s fleets. These negroids are still dreaded by Hindús and
Hindis and, when we have another “Sepoy Mutiny,” a few thousands of
them bought upon the Zanzibar coast, dressed, drilled and officered by
Englishmen, will do us yeoman’s service.

Footnote 241:

This seems to be a fancy name for a country: the term is Persian = the
Oceanland or a seaport town: from “Daryá” the sea and bár = a region,
tract, as in Zanzibár = Blackland. The learned Weil explains it (in
loco) by _Gegend der Brunnen, brunnengleicher ort_, but I cannot
accept Scott’s note (iv. 400), “Signifying the seacoast of every
country: and hence the term is applied by Oriental geographers to the
coast of Malabar.”

Footnote 242:

The onager, confounded by our older travellers with the zebra, is the
Gúr-i-khár of Persia, where it is the noblest game from which kings
did not disdain to take a cognomen, _e.g._ Bahrám-i-Gúr. It is the
“wild ass” of Jeremiah (ii. 24: xiv. 6). The meat is famous in poetry
for combining the flavours peculiar to all kinds of flesh (Ibn
Khallikan iii. 117; iii. 239, etc.) and is noticed by Herodotus (Clio.
cxxxiii.) and by Xenophon (Cyro. lib. 1) in sundry passages: the
latter describes the relays of horses and hounds which were used in
chasing it then as now. The traveller Olearius (A.D. 1637) found it
more common than in our present day: Shah Abbas turned thirty-two wild
asses into an enclosure where they were shot as an item of
entertainment to the ambassadors at his court. The skin of the wild
ass’s back produces the famous shagreen, a word seemingly derived from
the Pers. “Saghrí,” _e.g._ “Kyafsh-i-Saghri” = slippers of shagreen,
fine wear fit for a “young Duke.” See in Ibn Khallikan (iv. 245) an
account of a “Júr” (the Arabised “Gúr”) eight hundred years old.

Footnote 243:

“Dasht-i-lá-siwá-Hú” = a desert wherein is none save He (Allah), a
howling wilderness.

Footnote 244:

Per. “Náz o andáz” = coquetry, in a half-honest sense. The Persian
“Káká Siyáh,” _i.e._ “black brother” (a domestic negro) pronounces
Nází-núzí.

Footnote 245:

In the text Nimak-harám: on this subject see vol. viii. 12.

Footnote 246:

_i.e._ an Arab of noble strain: see vol. iii. 72.

Footnote 247:

In the text “Kazzák” = Cossacks, bandits, mounted highwaymen; the word
is well known in India, where it is written in two different ways, and
the late Mr. John Shakespear in his excellent Dictionary need hardly
have marked the origin “U” (unknown).

Footnote 248:

Here and below the Hindostani version mounts the lady upon a camel
(“Ushtur” or “Unth”) which is not customary in India except when
criminals are led about the bazar. An elephant would have been in
better form.

Footnote 249:

The Ashrafi (Port. Xerafim) is a gold coin whose value has greatly
varied with its date from four shillings upwards. In The (true) Nights
we find (passim) that, according to the minting of the VIth Ommiade,
‘Abd al-Malik bin Marwán (A.H. 65–86 = A.D. 685–703), the coinage of
Baghdad consisted of three metals. “Ita quoque peregrina suis nummis
nomina posuit, aureum Dinar denarium, argentem Dirhen (lege dirham),
Drachma, æreum fols (fuls), follem appellans. * * * Nam vera moneta
aurea nomine follis signabatur, ut æreorum sub Aarone Raschido
cussorum qui hoc nomen servavit.” (O. G. Tychsen, p. 8. Introduct. in
Rem numariam Muhammedanorum). For the dinar, daric or miskál see The
Nights, vol. i. 32; ix. 294; for the dirham, i. 33, ii. 316, etc.; and
for the Fals or Fils = a fish scale, a spangle of metal, vol. i. 321.
In the debased currency of the Maroccan Empire the Fals of copper or
iron, a substantial coin, is worth 2,160 to the French five-franc
piece.

Footnote 250:

In the Hindi, as in Galland’s version, the horse is naturally enough
of Turcoman blood. I cannot but think that in India we have unwisely
limited ourselves for cavalryremounts to the Western market that
exports chiefly the mongrel “Gulf Arab” and have neglected the far
hardier animal, especially the Gútdán blood of the Tartar plains,
which supply “excellent horses whose speed and bottom are” say
travellers in general, “so justly celebrated throughout Asia.” Our
predecessors were too wise to “put all the eggs in one basket.”

Footnote 251:

An act of worship, see my Pilgrimage in which “Tawáf” = circuiting, is
described in detail, ii. 38; iii. 201 et seqq. A counterpart of this
scene is found in the _Histoire du Sultan Aqchid_ (Ikhshid) who
determined to witness his own funeral. Gauttier vol. i. pp. 134–139.
Another and similar incident occurs in the “Nineteenth Vezir’s Story”
(pp. 213–18 of the History of the Forty Vezirs, before alluded to):
here Hasan of Basrah, an ’Alim who died in A.H. 110 (= A.D. 728) saw
in vision (the “drivel of dreams?”) folk of all conditions, sages,
warriors and moon-faced maids seeking, but in vain, to release the
sweet soul of the Prince who had perished.

Footnote 252:

Here after Moslem fashion, the mother ranks before the wife: “A man
can have many wives but only one mother.” The idea is old amongst
Easterns: see Herodotus and his Christian commentators on the history
of Intaphernes’ wife (Thalia, cap. cxix). “O King,” said that lady of
mind logical, “I may get me another mate if God will and other
children an I lose these; but as my father and my mother are no longer
alive, I may not by any means have another brother,” etc., etc.

Footnote 253:

In Galland the _Histoire de Ganem, fils d’ Abu Aïoub, surnommé
l’esclave d’Amour_, precedes Zayn al-Asnám. In the Arab texts Ghanim
bin Ayyúb, the Thrall o’ Love, occurs much earlier: see The Nights
vol. ii. 45.

It is curious to compare the conclusions of these tales with the
formula of the latest specimens, the _Contes Arabes Modernes_ of
Spitta-Bey, _e.g._ “And the twain lived together (p. iii.) and had
sons and daughters (p. ii.), cohabiting with perfect harmony (fí
al-Kamál pp. 42, 79); and at last they died and were buried and so
endeth the story” (wa khalás p. 161).

Footnote 254:

In Galland and his translators the Adventures of Khudadad and his
Brothers is followed by the _Histoire du Dormeur Eveillé_ which, as
“The Sleeper and the Waker,” is to be found in the first of my
Supplemental Volumes, pp. 1–39. After this the learned Frenchman
introduced, as has been said, the _Histoire de la Lampe merveilleuse_
or “Alaeddin” to which I have assigned, for reasons given _in loco_, a
place before Khudadad.

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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

1. P. xv, any references in the Contents of the Third Volume to pages 307 through 652 are to pages in the Fourth Volume of the Supplement. 2. P. 3, changed “Pildsäulen” to “Bildsäulen”. 3. P. 136, changed “leur chef mit Aladdin a sa droite” to “leur chef mit Aladdin à sa droite”. 4. P. 208, changed “called himself the lamp” to “called himself the slave of the lamp”. 5. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling. 6. Retained anachronistic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed. 7. Footnotes have been re-indexed using numbers and collected together at the end of the last chapter. 8. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.