Chapter XIX: Part 19

[FN#91] Arab. Burdah and Habárah. The former often translated mantle is a thick woollen stuff, brown or gray, woven oblong and used like a plaid by day and by night. Mohammed’s Burdah woven in his Harem and given to the poet, Ka’ab, was 7½ ft. long by 4½: it is still in the upper Serraglio of Stambul. In early days the stuff was mostly striped; now it is either plain or with lines so narrow that it looks like one colour. The Habarah is a Burd made in Al-Yaman and not to be confounded with the Egyptian mantilla of like name (Lane, M. E. chapt. iii.).

[FN#92] Every Eastern city has its special title. Al-Medinah is entitled “Al-Munawwarah” (the Illumined) from the blinding light which surrounds the Prophet’s tomb and which does not show to eyes profane (Pilgrimage ii. 3). I presume that the idea arose from the huge lamps of “The Garden.” I have noted that Mohammed’s coffin suspended by magnets is an idea unknown to Moslems, but we find the fancy in Al-Harawi related of St. Peter, “Simon Cephas (the rock) is in the City of Great Rome, in its largest church within a silver ark hanging by chains from the ceiling.” (Lee, Ibn Batutah, p. 161).

[FN#93] Here the fillets are hung instead of the normal rag-strips to denote an honoured tomb. Lane (iii. 242) and many others are puzzled about the use of these articles. In many cases they are suspended to trees in order to transfer sickness from the body to the tree and whoever shall touch it. The Sawáhílí people term such articles a Keti (seat or vehicle) for the mysterious haunter of the tree who prefers occupying it to the patient’s person. Briefly the custom still popular throughout Arabia, is African and Fetish.

[FN#94] Al-Mas’údí (chap. xcv.), mentions a Hind bint Asmá and tells a facetious story of her and the “enemy of Allah,” the poet Jarir.

[FN#95] Here the old Shiah hatred of the energetic conqueror of Oman crops out again. Hind’s song is that of Maysum concerning her husband Mu’áwiyah which Mrs. Godfrey Clark (‘Ilâm-en-Nâs, p. 108) thus translates:—

A hut that the winds make tremble
Is dearer to me than a noble palace;
And a dish of crumbs on the floor of my home
Is dearer to me than a varied feast;
And the soughing of the breeze through every crevice
Is dearer to me than the beating of drums.

Compare with Dr. Carlyle’s No. X.:—

The russet suit of camel’s hair
With spirits light and eye serene
Is dearer to my bosom far
Than all the trappings of a queen, etc. etc.

And with mine (Pilgrimage iii. 262):—

O take these purple robes away,
Give back my cloak of camel’s hair
And bear me from this towering pile
To where the black tents flap i’ the air, etc. etc.

[FN#96] AI-Hajjaj’s tribal name was Al-Thakifi or descendant of Thakíf. According to Al-Mas’udi, he was son of Faríghah (the tall Beauty) by Yúsuf bin Ukayl the Thakafite and vint au monde tout difforme avec l’anus obstrué. As he refused the breast, Satan, in human form, advised suckling him with the blood of two black kids, a black buck-goat and a black snake; which had the desired effect.

[FN#97] Trebutien, iii., 465, translates these sayings into Italian.

[FN#98] Making him a “Kawwád”=leader, _i.e._ pimp; a true piece of feminine spite. But the Caliph prized Al-Hajjaj too highly to treat him as in the text.

[FN#99] _i.e._ “The overflowing,” with benefits; on account of his generosity.

[FN#100] The seventh Ommiade A. H. 96–99 (715–719). He died of his fine appetite after eating at a sitting a lamb, six fowls, seventy pomegranates, and 11¼ lbs. of currants. He was also proud of his youth and beauty and was wont to say, “Mohammed was the Apostle and Abu Bakr witness to the Truth; Omar the Discriminator and Othman the Bashful, Mu’awiyah the Mild and Yazid the Patient; Abd al-Malik the Administrator and Walid the Tyrant; but I am the Young King!”

[FN#101] Arab. Al-Jazírah, “the Island;” name of the region and the capital.

[FN#102] _i.e._ “Repairer of the Slips of the Generous,” an evasive reply, which of course did not deceive the questioner.

[FN#103] Arab. “Falastín,” now obsolete. The word has echoed far west and the name of the noble race has been degraded to “Philister,” a bourgeois, a greasy burgher.

[FN#104] Saying, “The Peace be with thee, O Prince of True Believers!”

[FN#105] Arab. “Mutanakkir,” which may also mean proud or in disguise.

[FN#106] On appointment as viceroy. See vol. iii., 307.

[FN#107] The custom with outgoing Governors. It was adopted by the Spaniards and Portuguese especially in America. The generosity of Ikrimah without the slightest regard to justice or common honesty is characteristic of the Arab in story-books.

[FN#108] The celebrated half-way house between Jaffa and Jerusalem.

[FN#109] Alias the Kohistan or mountain region, Susiana (Khuzistan) whose capital was Susa; and the head quarters of fire-worship. Azar (fire) was the name of Abraham’s father whom Eusebius calls “Athar.” (Pilgrimage iii. 336.)

[FN#110] Tenth Ommiade A.H. 105–125 (=724–743), a wise and discreet ruler with an inclination to avarice and asceticism. According to some, the Ommiades produced only three statesmen, Mu’awayah, Abd al-Malik and Hisham; and the reign of the latter was the end of sage government and wise administration.

[FN#111] About £1,250, which seems a long price; but in those days Damascus had been enriched with the spoils of the world adjacent.

[FN#112] Eleventh Ommiade dynasty, A.H. 125–126 (=743–744). Ibn Sahl (son of ease, _i.e._ free and easy) was a nickname; he was the son of Yazíd II. and brother of Hishám. He scandalised the lieges by his profligacy, wishing to make the pilgrimage in order to drink upon the Ka’abah-roof; so they attacked the palace and lynched him. His death is supposed to have been brought about (27th of Jamáda al-Akhirah = April 16, 744) by his cousin and successor Yazíd (No. iii.) surnamed the Retrencher. The tale in the text speaks well for him; but generosity amongst the Arabs covers a multitude of sins, and people say, “Better a liberal sinner than a stingy saint.”

[FN#113] The tents of black wool woven by the Badawi women are generally supported by three parallel rows of poles lengthways and crossways (the highest line being the central) and the covering is pegged down. Thus the outline of the roofs forms two or more hanging curves, and these characterise the architecture of the Tartars and Chinese; they are still preserved in the Turkish (and sometimes in the European) “Kiosque,” and they have extended to the Brazil where the upturned eaves, often painted vermilion below, at once attract the traveller’s notice.

[FN#114] See vol. iv., 159. The author of “Antar,” known to Englishmen by the old translation of Mr. Terrick Hamilton, secretary of Legation at Constantinople. There is an abridgement of the forty-five volumes of Al-Asma’i’s “Antar” which mostly supplies or rather supplied the “Antariyyah” or professional tale-tellers; whose theme was the heroic Mulatto lover.

[FN#115] The “Dakkah” or long wooden sofa, as opposed to the “mastabah” or stone bench, is often a tall platform and in mosques is a kind of ambo railed round and supported by columns. Here readers recite the Koran: Lane (M.E. chapt. iii.) sketches it in the “Interior of a Mosque.”

[FN#116] Alif (ا) Ha (ه) and Waw (و), the first, twenty-seventh and twenty-sixth letters of the Arabic alphabet: No. 1 is the most simple and difficult to write caligraphically.

[FN#117] Reeds washed with gold and used for love-letters, &c.

[FN#118] Lane introduced this tale into vol. i., p. 223, notes on chapt. iii., apparently not knowing that it was in The Nights. He gives a mere abstract, omitting all the verse, and he borrowed it either from the Halbat al-Kumayt (chapt. xiv.) or from Al-Mas’údí (chapt. cxi.). See the French translation, vol. vi. p. 340. I am at pains to understand why M. C. Barbier de Maynard writes “Réchid” with an accented vowel; although French delicacy made him render, by “fils de courtisane,” the expression in the text, “O biter of thy mother’s enlarged (or uncircumcised) clitoris” (Bazar).

[FN#119] In Al-Mas’údi the Devil is “a young man fair of favour and formous of figure,” which is more appropriate to a “Tempter.” He also wears light stuffs of dyed silks.

[FN#120] It would have been more courteous in an utter stranger to say, O my lord.

[FN#121] The Arab Tempe (of fiction, not of grisly fact).

[FN#122] These four lines are in Al-Mas’údi, chapt, cxviii. Fr. Trans. vii. 313, but that author does not tell us who wrote them.

[FN#123] _i.e._ Father of Bitterness=the Devil. This legend of the Foul Fiend appearing to Ibrahim of Mosul (and also to Isam, N. dcxcv.) seems to have been accepted by contemporaries and reminds us of similar visitations in Europe—notably to Dr. Faust. One can only exclaim, “Lor, papa, what nonsense you are talking!” the words of a small girl whose father thought proper to indoctrinate her into certain Biblical stories. I once began to write a biography of the Devil; but I found that European folk-lore had made such an unmitigated fool of the grand old Typhon-Ahriman as to take away from him all human interest.

[FN#124] In Al-Mas’udi the Caliph exclaims, “Verily thou hast received a visit from Satan!”

[FN#125] Al-Mas’udi, chapt. cxix. (Fr. transl. vii., 351) mentions the Banu Odhrah as famed for lovers and tells the pathetic tale of ‘Orwah and ‘Afrá.

[FN#126] Jamil bin Ma’amar the poet has been noticed in Vol. ii. 102; and he has no business here as he died years before Al-Rashid was born. The tale begins like that of Ibn Mansúr and the Lady Budúr (Night cccxxvii.), except that Mansur does not offer his advice.

[FN#127] Arab. “Halumma,” an interjection=bring! a congener of the Heb. “Halúm”; the grammarians of Kufah and Bassorah are divided concerning its origin.

[FN#128] Arab. “Nafs-í” which here corresponds with our canting “the flesh” the “Old Adam,” &c.

[FN#129] Arab. “Atmárí” used for travel. The Anglo-Americans are the only people who have the common sense to travel (where they are not known) in their “store clothes” and reserve the worst for where they are known.

[FN#130] _e.g._ a branch or bough.

[FN#131] Arab. “Ráyah káimah,” which Lane translates a “beast standing”!

[FN#132] Tying up the near foreleg just above the knee; and even with this a camel can hop over sundry miles of ground in the course of a night. The hobbling is shown in Lane. (Nights vol. ii., p. 46.)

[FN#133] As opposed to “Severance” in the old knightly language of love, which is now apparently lost to the world. I tried it in the Lyrics of Camoens and found that I was speaking a forgotten tongue, which mightily amused the common sort of critic and reviewer.

[FN#134] More exactly three days and eight hours, after which the guest becomes a friend, and as in the Argentine prairies is expected to do friend’s duty. The popular saying is, “The entertainment of a guest is three days; the viaticum (jáizah) is a day and a night, and whatso exceedeth this is alms.”

[FN#135] Arab. “‘Ashírah.” Books tell us there are seven degrees of connection among the Badawin: Sha’ab, tribe or rather race; nation (as the Anazah) descended from a common ancestor; Kabílah the tribe proper (whence _les Kabyles_); Fasílah (sept), Imarah; Ashirah (all a man’s connections); Fakhiz (lit. the thigh, i.e., his blood relations) and Batn (belly) his kith and kin. Practically Kabílah is the tribe, Ashírah the clan, and Bayt the household; while Hayy may be anything between tribe and kith and kin.

[FN#136] This is the true platonic love of noble Arabs, the Ishk ‘uzrí, noted in vol. ii., 104.

[FN#137] Arab. “‘Alá raghm,” a favourite term. It occurs in theology; for instance, when the Shí’ahs are asked the cause of such and such a ritual distinction they will reply, “Ala raghmi ‘l-Tasannun”: lit.=to spite the Sunnis.

[FN#138] In the text “Al-Kaus” for which Lane and Payne substitute a shield. The bow had not been mentioned but—_n’importe_, the Arab reader would say. In the text it is left at home because it is a cowardly, far-killing weapon compared with sword and lance. Hence the Spaniard calls and justly calls the knife the “bravest of arms” as it wants a man behind it.

[FN#139] Arab. “Rahim” or “Rihm”=womb, uterine relations, pity or sympathy, which may here be meant.

[FN#140] Reciting Fátihahs and so forth, as I have described in the Cemetery of Al-Medinah (ii. 300). Moslems do not pay for prayers to benefit the dead like the majority of Christendom and, according to Calvinistic Wahhábi-ism, their prayers and blessings are of no avail. But the mourner’s heart loathes reason and he prays for his dead instinctively like the so-termed “Protestant.” Amongst the latter, by the bye, I find four great _Sommités_, (1) Paul of Tarsus who protested against the Hebraism of Peter; (2) Mohammed who protested against the perversions of Christianity; (3) Luther who protested against Italian rule in Germany, and lastly (4) one (who shall be nameless) that protests against the whole business.

[FN#141] Lane transfers this to vol. i. 520 (notes to chapt. vii); and gives a mere abstract as of that preceding.

[FN#142] We learn from Ibn Batutah that it stood South of the Great Mosque and afterwards became the Coppersmiths’ Bazar. The site was known as Al-Khazrá (the Green) and the building was destroyed by the Abbasides. See Defrémery and Sanguinetti, i. 206.

[FN#143] This great tribe or rather nation has been noticed before (vol. ii. 170). The name means “Strong,” and derives from one Tamim bin Murr of the race of Adnan, nat. circ. A.D. 121. They hold the North-Eastern uplands of Najd, comprising the great desert Al-Dahná and extend to Al-Bahrayn. They are split up into a multitude of clans and septs; and they can boast of producing two famous sectarians. One was Abdullah bin Suffár, head of the Suffriyah; and the other Abdullah bin Ibáz (Ibadh) whence the Ibázíyah heretics of Oman who long included her princes. Mr. Palgrave wrongly writes Abadeeyah and Biadeeyah and my “Bayázi” was an Arab vulgarism used by the Zanzibarians. Dr. Badger rightly prefers Ibáziyah which he writes Ibâdhiyah (Hist. of the Imams, etc.).

[FN#144] Governor of Al-Medinah under Mu’awiyah and afterwards (A.H. 64–65=683–4) fourth Ommiade. Al-Siyúti (p. 216) will not account him amongst the princes of the Faithful, holding him a rebel against Al-Zubayr. Ockley makes Ibn al-Zubayr ninth and Marwán tenth Caliph.

[FN#145] The address, without the vocative particle, is more emphatic; and the P.N. Mu’awiyah seems to court the omission.

[FN#146] This may also mean that the £500 were the woman’s “mahr” or marriage dowry and the £250 a present to buy the father’s consent.

[FN#147] Quite true to nature. See an account of the quasi-epileptic fits to which Syrians are subject and by them called Al-Wahtah in “The Inner Life of Syria,” i. 233.

[FN#148] Arab. “Wayha-k” here equivalent to Wayla-k. M. C. Barbier de Meynard renders the first “mon ami” and the second “misérable.”

[FN#149] This is an instance when the article (Al) is correctly used with one proper name and not with another. Al-Kumayt (P. N. of poet) lit. means a bay horse with black points: Nasr is victory.

[FN#150] This anecdote, which reads like truth, is ample set off for a cart-load of abuse of women. But even the Hindus, determined misogynists in books, sometimes relent. Says the Katha Sarit Sagara: “So you see, King, honourable matrons are devoted to their husbands, and it is not the case that all women are always bad” (ii. 624). Let me hope that after all this Mistress Su’ad did not lead her husband a hardish life.

[FN#151] Al-Khalí’a has been explained in vol. i. 311 {Vol 1, FN#633}: the translation of Al-Mas’udi (vi. 10) renders it “scélérat.” Abú Alí al-Husayn the Wag was a Bassorite and a worthy companion of Abu Nowas the Debauchee; but he adorned the Court of Al-Amin the son, not of Al-Rashid the father.

[FN#152] Governor of Bassorah, but not in Al-Husayn’s day.

[FN#153] The famous market-place where poems were recited, mentioned by Al-Hariri.

[FN#154] A quarter of Bassorah.

[FN#155] Capital of Al-Yaman, and then famed for its leather and other work (vol. v. 16).

[FN#156] The creases in the stomach like the large navel are always insisted upon. Says the Kathá (ii. 525) “And he looked on that torrent river of the elixir of beauty, adorned with a waist made charming by those wave-like wrinkles,” etc.

[FN#157] Arab. Sabaj (not Sabah, as the Mac. Edit. misprints it): I am not sure of its meaning.

[FN#158] A truly Arab conceit, suggesting—

The music breathing from her face;

her calves moved rhythmically, suggesting the movement and consequent sound of a musical instrument.

[FN#159] The _morosa voluptas_ of the Catholic divines. The Sapphist described in the text would procure an orgasm (_in gloria_, as the Italians call it) by biting and rolling over the girl she loved; but by loosening the trouser-string she evidently aims at a closer tribadism—the Arab “Musáhikah.”

[FN#160] We drink (or drank) after dinner, Easterns before the meal and half-Easterns (like the Russians) before and after. We talk of liquor being unwholesome on an empty stomach; but the truth is that all is purely habit. And as the Russian accompanies his Vodki with caviare, etc., so the Oriental drinks his Raki or Mahayá (Ma al-hayát=aqua vitæ) alternately with a Salátah, for whose composition see Pilgrimage i. 198. The Eastern practice has its advantages: it awakens the appetite, stimulates digestion and, what Easterns greatly regard, it is economical; half a bottle doing the work of a whole. Bhang and Kusumbá (opium dissolved and strained through a pledget of cotton) are always drunk before dinner and thus the “jolly” time is the preprandial, not the postprandial.

[FN#161] “Abu al-Sakhá” (pronounced Abussakhá) = Father of munificence.

[FN#162] ‘Arab. “Shammara,” also used for gathering up the gown, so as to run the faster.

[FN#163] i.e., blessing the Prophet and all True Believers (herself included).

[FN#164] The style of this letter is that of a public scribe in a Cairo market-place thirty years ago.

[FN#165] i.e., she could not help falling in love with this beauty man.

[FN#166] “Kudrat,” used somewhat in the sense of our vague “Providence.” The sentence means, leave Omnipotence to manage him. Mr. Redhouse, who forces a likeness between Moslem and Christian theology, tells us that “Qader is unjustly translated by Fate and Destiny, an old pagan idea abhorrent to Al-Islam which reposes on God’s providence.” He makes Kazá and Kismet quasi-synonymes of “Qazá” and “Qader,” the former signifying God’s decree, the latter our allotted portion, and he would render both by dispensation. Of course it is convenient to forget the Guarded Tablet of the learned and the Night of Power and skull-lectures of the vulgar. The eminent Turkish scholar would also translate Salát by worship (du’á being prayer) because it signifies a simple act of adoration without entreaty. If he will read the Opener of the Koran, recited in every set of prayers, he will find an especial request to be “led to the path which is straight.” These vagaries are seriously adopted by Mr. E. J. W. Gibb in his Ottoman Poems (p. 245, etc.) London: Trübner and Co., 1882; and they deserve, I think, reprehension, because they serve only to mislead; and the high authority of the source whence they come necessarily recommends them to many.

[FN#167] The reader will have noticed the likeness of this tale to that of Ibn Mansúr and the Lady Budúr (vol. iv., 228 et seq.){Vol 4, Tale 42} For this reason Lane leaves it untranslated (iii. 252).

[FN#168] Lane also omits this tale (iii. 252). See Night dclxxxviii., vol. vii. p. 113 et seq., for a variant of the story.

[FN#169] Third Abbaside, A.H. 158–169 (=775–785), and father of Harun Al-Rashid. He is known chiefly for his eccentricities, such as cutting the throats of all his carrier-pigeons, making a man dine off marrow and sugar and having snow sent to him at Meccah, a distance of 700 miles.

[FN#170] Arab. “Mirt”; the dictionaries give a short shift, cloak or breeches of wool or coarse silk.

[FN#171] Arab. “Mayázíb” plur. of the Pers. Mizáb (orig. Míz-i-áb=channel of water) a spout for roof-rain. That which drains the Ka’abah on the N.-W. side is called Mizáb al-Rahmah (Gargoyle of Mercy) and pilgrims stand under it for a douche of holy water. It is supposed to be of gold, but really of silver gold-plated and is described of Burckhardt and myself. (Pilgrimage iii. 164.) The length is 4 feet 10 in.; width 9 in.; height of sides 8 in.; and slope at mouth 1 foot 6 in long.

[FN#172] The Mac. and Bul. Edits. have by mistake “Son of Ishak.” Lane has “Is-hak the son of Ibrahim” following Trébutien (iii. 483) but suggests in a note the right reading as above.

[FN#173] Again masculine for feminine.

[FN#174] There are two of this name. The Upper al-Akik contains the whole site of Al-Medinah; the Lower is on the Meccan road about four miles S.W. of the city. The Prophet called it “blessed” because ordered by an angel to pray therein. The poets have said pretty things about it, _e.g._

O friend, this is the vale Akik; here stand and strive in
thought:
If not a very lover, strive to be by love-distraught!

for whose esoteric meaning see Pilgrimage ii. 24. I passed through Al-Akík in July when it was dry as summer dust and its “beautiful trees” were mere vegetable mummies.

[FN#175] Those who live in the wet climates of the Northern temperates can hardly understand the delight of a shower in rainless lands, like Arabia and Nubia. In Sind we used to strip and stand in the downfall and raise faces sky-wards to get the full benefit of the douche. In Southern Persia food is hastily cooked at such times, wine strained, Kaliuns made ready and horses saddled for a ride to the nearest gardens and a happy drinking-bout under the cypresses. If a man refused, his friends would say of him, “See how he turns his back upon the blessing of Allah!” (like an ass which presents its tail to the weather).

[FN#176] _i.e._ the destruction of the Barmecides.

[FN#177] He was Wazir to the Great “Saladin” (Saláh al-Din = one conforming with the Faith): see vol. iv. 271, where Saladin is also entitled Al-Malik al-Nasir = the Conquering King. He was a Kurd and therefore fond of boys (like Virgil, Horace, etc.), but that perversion did not prevent his being one of the noblest of men. He lies in the Great Amawi Mosque of Damascus and I never visited a tomb with more reverence.

[FN#178] Arab. “Ahassa bi’l-Shurbah;” in our idiom “he smelt a rat”.

[FN#179] This and the next tale are omitted by Lane (iii. 254) on “account of its vulgarity, rendered more objectionable by indecent incidents.” It has been honoured with a lithographed reprint at Cairo A.H. 1278 and the Bresl. Edit. ix. 193 calls it the “Tale of Ahmad al-Danaf with Dalílah.”

[FN#180] “Ahmad, the Distressing Sickness,” or “Calamity;” Hasan the Pestilent and Dalílah the bawd. See vol. ii. 329, and vol. iv. 75.

[FN#181] A fœtus, a foundling, a contemptible fellow.

[FN#182] In the Mac. Edit. “her husband”: the end of the tale shows the error, _infra_, p. 171. The Bresl. Edit., x. 195, informs us that Dalilah was a “Faylasúfiyah”=philosopheress.

[FN#183] Arab. “Ibrík” usually a ewer, a spout-pot, from the Pers. Ab-ríz=water-pourer: the old woman thus vaunted her ceremonial purity. The basin and ewer are called in poetry “the two rumourers,” because they rattle when borne about.

[FN#184] Khátún in Turk. is=a lady, a dame of high degree; at times as here and elsewhere, it becomes a P. N.

[FN#185] Arab. “Maut,” a word mostly avoided in the Koran and by the Founder of Christianity.

[FN#186] Arab. “Akákír,” drugs, spices, simples which cannot be distinguished without study and practice. Hence the proverb (Burckhardt, 703), Is this an art of drugs?—difficult as the druggist’s craft?

[FN#187] _i.e._ Beautiful as the fairy damsels who guard enchanted treasures, such as that of Al-Shamardal (vol. vi. 221).

[FN#188] _i.e._ by contact with a person in a state of ceremonial impurity; servants are not particular upon this point and “Salát mamlúkíyah” (Mameluke’s prayers) means praying without ablution.

[FN#189] _i.e._ Father of assaults, burdens or pregnancies; the last being here the meaning.

[FN#190] Ex votos and so forth.

[FN#191] Arab. “Iksah,” plaits, braids, also the little gold coins and other ornaments worn in the hair, now mostly by the middle and lower classes. Low Europeans sometimes take advantage of the native prostitutes by detaching these valuables, a form of “bilking” peculiar to the Nile-Valley.

[FN#192] In Bresl. Edit. Malíh Kawí (pron. ‘Awi), a Cairene vulgarism.

[FN#193] Meaning without veil or upper clothing.

[FN#194] Arab. “Kallakás” the edible African arum before explained. This Colocasia is supposed to bear, unlike the palm, male and female flowers in one spathe.

[FN#195] See vol. iii. 302. The figs refer to the anus and the pomegranates, like the sycomore, to the female parts. Me nec fæmina nec puer, &c., says Horace in pensive mood.

[FN#196] It is in accordance to custom that the Shaykh be attended by a half-witted fanatic who would be made furious by seeing gold and silks in the reverend presence so coyly curtained.

[FN#197] In English, “God damn everything an inch high!”

[FN#198] Burckhardt notes that the Wali, or chief police officer at Cairo, was exclusively termed Al-Aghá and quotes the proverb (No. 156) “One night the whore repented and cried:—What! no Wali (Al-Aghá) to lay whores by the heels?” Some of these Egyptian by-words are most amusing and characteristic; but they require literal translation, not the timid touch of the last generation. I am preparing, for the use of my friend, Bernard Quaritch, a bonâ fide version which awaits only the promised volume of Herr Landberg.

[FN#199] Lit. for “we leave them for the present”: the formula is much used in this tale, showing another hand, author or copyist.

[FN#200] Arab. “Uzrah.”

[FN#201] _i.e._ “Thou art unjust and violent enough to wrong even the Caliph!”

[FN#202] I may note that a “donkey-boy” like our “post-boy” can be of any age in Egypt.

[FN#203] They could legally demand to be recouped but the chief would have found some pretext to put off payment. Such at least is the legal process of these days.

[FN#204] _i.e._ drunk with the excess of his beauty.

[FN#205] A delicate way of offering a fee. When officers commanding regiments in India contracted for clothing the men, they found these douceurs under their dinner-napkins. All that is now changed; but I doubt the change being an improvement: the public is plundered by a “Board” instead of an individual.

[FN#206] This may mean, I should know her even were my eyes blue (or blind) with cataract and the Bresl. Edit. ix. 231, reads “Ayní”=my eye; or it may be, I should know her by her staring, glittering, hungry eyes, as opposed to the “Hawar” soft-black and languishing (Arab. Prov. i. 115, and ii. 848). The Prophet said “blue-eyed (women) are of good omen.” And when one man reproached another saying “Thou art Azrak” (blue-eyed!) he retorted, “So is the falcon!” “Zurk-an” in Kor. xx. 102, is translated by Mr. Rodwell “leaden eyes.” It ought to be blue-eyed, dim-sighted, purblind.

[FN#207] Arab, “Zalábiyah bi-‘Asal.”

[FN#208] Arab. “Ká’ah,” their mess-room, barracks.

[FN#209] _i.e._ Camel shoulder-blade.

[FN#210] So in the Brazil you are invited to drink a copa d’agua and find a splendid banquet. There is a smack of Chinese ceremony in this practice which lingers throughout southern Europe; but the less advanced society is, the more it is fettered by ceremony and “etiquette.”

[FN#211] The Bresl. edit. (ix. 239) prefers these lines:—

Some of us be hawks and some sparrow-hawks, *
And vultures some which at carrion pike;
And maidens deem all alike we be *
But, save in our turbands, we’re not alike.

[FN#212] Arab. Shar’a=holy law; here it especially applies to Al-Kisás=_lex talionis_, which would order her eye-tooth to be torn out.

[FN#213] i.e., of the Afghans. Sulaymáni is the Egypt and Hijazi term for an Afghan and the proverb says “Sulaymáni harámi”—the Afghan is a villainous man. See Pilgrimage i. 59, which gives them a better character. The Bresl. Edit. simply says, “King Sulaymán.”

[FN#214] This is a sequel to the Story of Dalilah and both are highly relished by Arabs. The Bresl. Edit. ix. 245, runs both into one.

[FN#215] Arab. “Misr” (Masr), the Capital, says Savary, applied alternately to Memphis, Fostat and Grand Cairo each of which had a Jízah (pron. Gízah), skirt, angle, outlying suburb.

[FN#216] For the curious street-cries of old Cairo see Lane (M. E. chapt. xiv.) and my Pilgrimage (i. 120): here the rhymes are of Zabíb (raisins), habíb (lover) and labíb (man of sense).

[FN#217] The Mac. and Bul. Edits. give two silly couplets of moral advice:—

Strike with thy stubborn steel, and never fear *
Aught save the Godhead of Almighty Might;
And shun ill practices and never show *
Through life but generous gifts to human sight.

The above is from the Bresl. Edit. ix. 247.

[FN#218] Arab. “Al-Khanakah” now more usually termed a Takíyah. (Pilgrim. i. 124.)

[FN#219] Arab. “Ka’b al-ba’íd” (Bresl. Edit. ix. 255)=heel or ankle, metaph. for fortune, reputation: so the Arabs say the “Ka’b of the tribe is gone!” here “the far one”=the caravan-leader.

[FN#220] Arab. “Sharít,” from Sharata=he Scarified; “Mishrat”=a lancet and “Sharítah”=a mason’s rule. Mr. Payne renders “Sharít” by whinyard: it must be a chopper-like weapon, with a pin or screw (laulab) to keep the blade open like the snap of the Spaniard’s cuchillo. Dozy explains it=epée, synonyme de Sayf.

[FN#221] Text “Dimágh,” a Persianism when used for the head: the word properly means brain or meninx.

[FN#222] They were afraid even to stand and answer this remarkable ruffian.

[FN#223] Ahmad the Abortion, or the Foundling, nephew (sister’s son) of Zaynab the Coney-catcher. See supra, p. 145.

[FN#224] Here the sharp lad discovers the direction without pointing it out. I need hardly enlarge upon the prehensile powers of the Eastern foot: the tailor will hold his cloth between his toes and pick up his needle with it, whilst the woman can knead every muscle and at times catch a mosquito between the toes. I knew an officer in India whose mistress hurt his feelings by so doing at a critical time when he attributed her movement to pleasure.

[FN#225] Arab. “Hullah”=dress. In old days it was composed of the Burd or Ridá, the shoulder-cloth from 6 to 9 or 10 feet long, and the Izár or waistcloth which was either tied or tucked into a girdle of leather or metal. The woman’s waistcloth was called Nitáh and descended to the feet while the upper part was doubled and provided with a Tikkah or string over which it fell to the knees, overhanging the lower folds. This doubling of the “Hujrah,” or part round the waist, was called the “Hubkah.”

[FN#226] Arab. “Taghaddá,” the dinner being at eleven a.m. or noon.

[FN#227] Arab. Ghandúr for which the Dictionaries give only “fat, thick.” It applies in Arabia especially to a Harámi, brigand or freebooter, most honourable of professions, slain in foray or fray, opposed to “Fatís” or carrion (the _corps crévé_ of the Klephts), the man who dies the straw-death. Pilgrimage iii. 66.

[FN#228] My fair readers will note with surprise how such matters are hurried in the East. The picture is, however, true to life in lands where “flirtation” is utterly unknown and, indeed, impossible.

[FN#229] Arab. “Zabbah,” the wooden bolt (before noticed) which forms the lock and is opened by a slider and pins. It is illustrated by Lane (M. E. Introduction).

[FN#230] _i.e._ I am not a petty thief.

[FN#231] Arab. Satl=kettle, bucket. Lat. Situla (?).

[FN#232] _i.e._ “there is no chance of his escaping.” It may also mean, “And far from him (Hayhát) is escape.”

[FN#233] Arab. “Ihtilám,” the sign of puberty in boy or girl; this, like all emissions of semen, voluntary or involuntary, requires the Ghuzl or total ablution before prayers can be said, etc. See vol. v. 199, in the Tale of Tawaddud.

[FN#234] This is the way to take an Eastern when he tells a deliberate lie; and it often surprises him into speaking the truth.

[FN#235] The conjunctiva in Africans is seldom white; often it is red and more frequently yellow.

[FN#236] So in the texts, possibly a clerical error for the wine which he had brought with the kabobs. But beer is the especial tipple of African slaves in Egypt.

[FN#237] Arab. “Laun”, prop.=color, hue; but applied to species and genus, our “kind”; and especially to dishes which differ in appearance; whilst in Egypt it means any dish.

[FN#238] Arab. “Zardah”=rice dressed with honey and saffron. Vol. ii. 313. The word is still common in Turkey.

[FN#239] Arab. “Laylat Ams,” the night of yesterday (Al-bárihah) not our “last night” which would be the night of the day spoken of.

[FN#240] Arab. “Yakhní,” a word much used in Persia and India and properly applied to the complicated broth prepared for the rice and meat. For a good recipe see Herklots, Appendix xxix.

[FN#241] In token of defeat and in acknowledgment that she was no match for men.

[FN#242] This is a neat touch of nature. Many a woman, even of the world, has fallen in love with a man before indifferent to her because he did not take advantage of her when he had the opportunity.

[FN#243] The slightest movement causes a fight at a funeral or a wedding-procession in the East; even amongst the “mild Hindus.”

[FN#244] Arab. “Al-Musrán” (plur. of “Masír”) properly the intestines which contain the chyle. The bag made by Ali was, in fact, a “Cundum” (so called from the inventor, Colonel Cundum of the Guards in the days of Charles Second) or “French letter”; une capote anglaise, a “check upon child.” Captain Grose says (Class. Dict. etc. s.v. Cundum) “The dried gut of a sheep worn by a man in the act of coition to prevent venereal infection. These machines were long prepared and sold by a matron of the name of Philips at the Green Canister in Half Moon Street in the Strand * * * Also a false scabbard over a sword and the oilskin case for the colours of a regiment.” Another account is given in the Guide Pratique des Maladies Secrètes, Dr. G. Harris, Bruxelles. Librairie Populaire. He calls these petits sachets de baudruche “Candoms, from the doctor who invented them” (Littré ignores the word) and declares that the famous Ricord compared them with a bad umbrella which a storm can break or burst, while others term them cuirasses against pleasure and cobwebs against infection. They were much used in the last century. “Those pretended stolen goods were Mr. Wilkes’s Papers, many of which tended to prove his authorship of the North Briton, No. 45, April 23, 1763, and some _Cundums_ enclosed in an envelope” (Records of C. of King’s Bench, London, 1763). “Pour finir l’inventaire de ces curiosités du cabinet de Madame Gourdan, il ne faut pas omettre une multitude de _redingottes_ appelées _d’Angleterre_, je ne sais pourquois. Vous connoissez, au surplus, ces espèces de boucliers qu’on oppose aux traits empoisonnés de l’amour; et qui n’emoussent que ceux du plaisir.” (L’Observateur Anglois, Londres 1778, iii. 69.) Again we read:—

“Les capotes mélancoliques
Qui pendent chez les gros Millan (?)
S’enflent d’elles-memes, lubriques,
Et dechargent en se gonflant.”
Passage Satyrique.

Also in Louis Prolat:—

“Il fuyait, me laissant une capote au cul.”

The articles are now of two kinds mostly of baudruche (sheep’s gut) and a few of caout-chouc. They are made almost exclusively in the faubourgs of Paris, giving employment to many women and young girls; Grenelle turns out the baudruche and Grenelle and Lilas the India-rubber article; and of the three or four makers M. Deschamps is best known. The sheep’s gut is not joined in any way but of single piece as it comes from the animal after, of course, much manipulation to make it thin and supple; the inferior qualities are stuck together at the sides. Prices vary from 4½ to 36 francs per gross. Those of India-rubber are always joined at the side with a solution especially prepared for the purpose. I have also heard of fish-bladders but can give no details on the subject. The Cundum was unknown to the ancients of Europe although syphilis was not: even prehistoric skeletons show traces of its ravages.

[FN#245] Arab. “Yá Ustá” (for “Ustáz.”) The Pers. term is Ustád=a craft-master, an artisan and especially a barber. Here it is merely a polite address.

[FN#246] In common parlance Arabs answer a question (like the classics of Europe who rarely used Yes and No, Yea and Nay), by repeating its last words. They have, however, many affirmative particles _e.g._ Ni’am which answers a negative “Dost thou not go?”—Ni’am (Yes!); and Ajal, a stronger form following a command, _e.g._ Sir (go)—Ajal, Yes verily. The popular form is Aywá (‘lláhi)=Yes, by Allah. The chief negatives are Má and Lá, both often used in the sense of “There is not.”

[FN#247] Arab. “Khalbús,” prop. the servant of the Almah-girls who acts buffoon as well as pimp. The “Maskharah” (whence our “mask”) corresponds with the fool or jester of mediæval Europe: amongst the Arnauts he is called “Suttari” and is known by his fox’s tails: he mounts a mare, tom-toms on the kettle-drum and is generally one of the bravest of the corps. These buffoons are noted for extreme indecency: they generally appear in the ring provided with an enormous phallus of whip-cord and with this they charge man, woman and child, to the infinite delight of the public.

[FN#248] Arab. “Shúbash” pronounced in Egypt Shobash: it is the Persian Sháh-básh lit.=be a King, equivalent to our bravo. Here, however, the allusion is to the buffoon’s cry at an Egyptian feast, “Shohbash ‘alayk, yá Sáhib al-faraj,”=a present is due from thee, O giver of the fête! See Lane M. E. xxvii.

[FN#249] Arab. “Ka’ak al-I’d:” the former is the Arab form of the Persian “Kahk” (still retained in Egypt) whence I would derive our word “cake.” It alludes to the sweet cakes which are served up with dates, the quatre mendiants and sherbets during visits of the Lesser (not the greater) Festival, at the end of the Ramazan fast. (Lane M.E. xxv.)

[FN#250] Arab. “Tásúmah,” a rare word for a peculiar slipper. Dozy (s. v.) says only, espece de chaussure, sandale, pantoufle, soulier.

[FN#251] Arab. “Ijtilá”=the displaying of the bride on her wedding night so often alluded to in The Nights.

[FN#252] Arab. Khiskhánah; a mixed word from Klaysh=canvass or stuffs generally and Pers. Khánah=house room. Dozy (s.v.) says armoire, buffet.

[FN#253] The Bresl. Edit. “Kamaríyah”=Moon-like (fem.) for Moon.

[FN#254] Every traveller describes the manners and customs of dogs in Eastern cities where they furiously attack all canine intruders. I have noticed the subject in writing of Al-Medinah where the beasts are confined to the suburbs. (Pilgrimage ii. 52–54.)

[FN#255] She could legally compel him to sell her; because, being an Infidel, he had attempted to debauch a Moslemah.

[FN#256] Arab. “Haláwat wa Mulabbas”; the latter etymologically means one dressed or clothed. Here it alludes to almonds, etc., clothed or coated with sugar. See Dozy (s.v.) “labas.”

[FN#257] Arab. “‘Ubb” from a root=being long: Dozy (s.v.), says poche au sein; Habb al-‘ubb is a woman’s ornament.

[FN#258] Who, it will be remembered, was Dalilah’s grandson.

[FN#259] Arab. “Tábút,” a term applied to the Ark of the Covenant (Koran ii. 249), which contained Moses’ rod and shoes, Aaron’s mitre, the manna-pot, the broken Tables of the Law, and the portraits of all the prophets which are to appear till the end of time—an extensive list for a box measuring 3 by 2 cubits. Europeans often translate it coffin, but it is properly the wooden case placed over an honoured grave. “Irán” is the Ark of Moses’ exposure, also the large hearse on which tribal chiefs were carried to earth.

[FN#260] _i.e._ What we have related is not “Gospel Truth.”

[FN#261] Omitted by Lane (iii. 252) “because little more than a repetition” of Taj al-Mulúk and the Lady Dunyá. This is true; but the nice progress of the nurse’s pimping is a well-finished picture and the old woman’s speech (_infra_ p. 243) is a gem.

[FN#262] Artaxerxes; in the Mac. Edit. Azdashir, a misprint.

[FN#263] I use “kiss ground” as we say “kiss hands.” But it must not be understood literally: the nearest approach would be to touch the earth with the finger-tips and apply them to the lips or brow. Amongst Hindus the Ashtánga-prostration included actually kissing the ground.

[FN#264] The “key” is mentioned because a fee so called (miftáh) is paid on its being handed to the new lodger. (Pilgrimage i. 62.)

[FN#265] The Koranic term for semen, often quoted.

[FN#266] Koran, xii. 31, in the story of Joseph, before noticed.

[FN#267] Probably the white woollens, so often mentioned, whose use is now returning to Europe, where men have a reasonable fear of dyed stuffs, especially since Aniline conquered Cochineal.

[FN#268] Arab. “samír,” one who enjoys the musámarah or night-talk outside the Arab tents. “Samar” is the shade of the moon, or half darkness when only stars shine without a moon, or the darkness of a moonless night. Hence the proverb (A. P. ii. 513) “Má af’al-hú al-samar wa’l kamar;” I will not do it by moondarkness or by moonshine, _i.e._ never. I have elsewhere remarked that “Early to bed and early to rise” is a civilised maxim; most barbarians sit deep into the night in the light of the moon or a camp-fire and will not rise till nearly noon. They agree in our modern version of the old saw:—

Early to bed and early to rise
Makes a man surly and gives him red eyes.

The Shayks of Arab tribes especially transact most of their public business during the dark hours.

[FN#269] Suspecting that it had been sent by some Royal lover.

[FN#270] Arab. “Rubbamá” a particle more emphatic than rubba,=perhaps, sometimes, often.

[FN#271] “The broken (wall)” from Hatim=breaking. It fences the Hijr or space where Ishmael is buried (vol. vi. 205); and I have described it in Pilgrimage iii. 165.

[FN#272] Arab. “Faráis” (plur. of farísah): the phrase has often occurred and is=our “trembled in every nerve.” As often happens in Arabic, it is “horsey;” alluding to the shoulder-muscles (not shoulder-blades, Preston p. 89) between neck and flank which readily quiver in blood-horses when excited or frightened.

[FN#273] Arab. “Fazl”=exceeding goodness as in “Fazl wa ma’rifah”=virtue and learning.

[FN#274] Arab. “Al-Mafárik” (plur. of Mafrak),=the pole or crown of the head, where the hair parts naturally and where baldness mostly begins.

[FN#275] Arab. “Ná’i al-maut”, the person sent round to announce a death to the friends and relations of the deceased and invite them to the funeral.

[FN#276] Arab. “Táir al-bayn”, any bird, not only the Hátim or black crow, which announces separation. Crows and ravens flock for food to the camps broken up for the springtide and autumnal marches, and thus become emblems of desertion and desolation. The same birds are also connected with Abel’s burial in the Koran (v. 34), a Jewish tradition borrowed by Mohammed. Lastly, here is a paranomasia in the words “Ghuráb al-Bayn”=Raven of the Wold (the black bird with white breast and red beak and legs): “Ghuráb” (Heb. Oreb) connects with Ghurbah=strangerhood, exile, and “Bayn” with distance, interval, disunion, the desert (between the cultivated spots). There is another and a similar pun anent the Bán-tree; the first word meaning “he fared, he left.”

[FN#277] Arab. “Tayr,” any flying thing, a bird; with true Arab carelessness the writer waits till the tale is nearly ended before letting us know that the birds are pigeons (Hamám).

[FN#278] Arab. “Karr’aynan.” The Arabs say, “Allah cool thine eye,” because tears of grief are hot and those of joy cool (Al-Asma’i); others say the cool eye is opposed to that heated by watching; and Al-Hariri (Ass. xxvii.) makes a scorching afternoon “hotter than the tear of a childless mother.” In the burning climate of Arabia coolth and refrigeration are equivalent to refreshment and delight.

[FN#279] Arab. “Muunah,” the “Mona” of Maroccan travellers (English not Italian who are scandalised by “Mona”) meaning the provisions supplied gratis by the unhappy villagers to all who visit them with passport from the Sultan. Our cousins German have lately scored a great success by paying for all their rations which the Ministers of other nations, England included, were mean enough to accept.

[FN#280] Arab. “Kaannahu huwa”; lit.=as he (was) he. This reminds us of the great grammarian, Sibawayh, whose name the Persians derive from “Apple-flavour”(Sib + bú). He was disputing, in presence of Harun al-Rashid with a rival Al-Kisá’í, and advocated the Basrian form, “Fa-izá huwa hú” (behold, it was he) against the Kufan, “Fa-izá huwa iyyáhu” (behold, it was him). The enemy overcame him by appealing to Badawin, who spoke impurely, whereupon Sibawayh left the court, retired to Khorasan and died, it is said of a broken heart.

[FN#281] This is a sign of the Saudáwí or melancholic temperament in which black bile pre-dominates. It is supposed to cause a distaste for society and a longing for solitude, an unsettled habit of mind and neglect of worldly affairs. I remarked that in Arabia students are subject to it, and that amongst philosophers and literary men of Mecca and Al-Medinah there was hardly one who was not spoken of as a “Saudawi.” See Pilgrimage ii. 49, 50.

[FN#282] _i.e._ I am a servant and bound to tell thee what my orders are.

[FN#283] A touching lesson on how bribes settle matters in the East.

[FN#284] _i.e._ fresh from water (Arab. “Rutub”), before the air can tarnish them. The pearl (margarita) in Arab. is Lu’lu’; the “unio” or large pearl Durr, plur. Durar. In modern parlance Durr is the second quality of the twelve into which pearls are divided.

[FN#285] _i.e._ the Wazir, but purposely left vague.

[FN#286] The whole of the nurse’s speech is admirable: its naïve and striking picture of conjugal affection goes far to redeem the grossness of The Nights.

[FN#287] The bitterness was the parting in the morning.

[FN#288] English “Prin’cess,” too often pronounced in French fashion Princess.

[FN#289] In dictionaries “Bán” (Anglice ben-tree) is the myrobalan which produces gum benzoin. It resembles the tamarisk. Mr. Lyall (p. 74 Translations of Ancient Arab Poetry, Williams and Norgate, 1885), calls it a species of Moringa, tall, with plentiful and intensely green foliage used for comparisons on account of its straightness and graceful shape of its branches. The nut supplies a medicinal oil.

[FN#290] A sign of extreme familiarity: the glooms are the hands and the full moons are the eyes.

[FN#291] Arab. “Khal’a al-‘izár”: lit.=stripping off jaws or side-beard.

[FN#292] Arab. “Shimál”=the north wind.

[FN#293] An operation well described by Juvenal—

Illa supercilium, modicâ fuligine tactum,
Obliquâ producit acu, pingitque, trementes
Attolens oculos.

Sonnini (Travels in Egypt, chapt. xvi.) justly remarks that this pencilling the angles of the eyes with Kohl, which the old Levant trade called alquifoux or arquifoux, makes them appear large and more oblong; and I have noted that the modern Egyptian (especially Coptic) eye, like that of the Sphinx and the old figures looks in profile as if it were seen in full. (Pilgrimage i. 214.)

[FN#294] The same traveller notes a singular property in the Henna-flower that when smelt closely it exhales a “very powerful spermatic odour,” hence it became a favourite with women as the tea-rose with us. He finds it on the nails of mummies, and identifies it with the Kupros of the ancient Greeks (the moderns call it Kene or Kena) and the {Bótrys tês kýproy} (Botrus cypri) of Solomon’s Song (i. 14). The Hebr. is “Copher,” a well-known word which the A. V. translates by “a cluster of camphire (?) in the vineyards of En-gedi”; and a note on iv. 13 ineptly adds, “or, cypress.” The Revised Edit. amends it to “a cluster of henna-flowers.” The Solomonic (?) description is very correct; the shrub affects vineyards, and about Bombay forms fine hedges which can be smelt from a distance.

[FN#295] Hardly the equivalent of the Arab. “Kataba” (which includes true tattooing with needles) and is applied to painting “patches” of blue or green colour, with sprigs and arabesques upon the arms and especially the breasts of women. “Kataba” would also be applied to striping the fingers with Henna which becomes a shining black under a paste of honey, lime and sal-ammoniac. This “patching” is alluded to by Strabo and Galen (Lane M. E. chapt. ii.); and we may note that savages and barbarians can leave nothing of beauty unadorned; they seem to hate a plain surface like the Hindu silversmith, whose art is shown only in chasing.

[FN#296] A violent temper, accompanied with _voies de fait_ and personal violence, is by no means rare amongst Eastern princesses; and terrible tales are told in Persia concerning the daughters of Fath Ali Shah. Few men and no woman can resist the temptations of absolute command. The daughter of a certain Dictator all-powerful in the Argentine Republic was once seen on horseback with a white bridle of peculiar leather; it was made of the skin of a man who had boasted of her favours. The slave-girls suffer first from these masterful young persons and then it is the turn of the eunuchry.

[FN#297] A neat touch; she was too thorough-bred to care for herself first.

[FN#298] Here the ground or earth is really kissed.

[FN#299] Corresponding with our phrase, “His heart was in his mouth.”

[FN#300] Very artful is the contrast of the love-lorn Princess’s humility with her furious behaviour, in the pride of her purity, while she was yet a virginette and fancy free.

[FN#301] Arab. “Suhbat-hu” lit.=in company with him, a popular idiom in Egypt and Syria. It often occurs in the Bresl. Edit.

[FN#302] In the Mac. Edit. “Shahzamán,” a corruption of Sháh Zamán=King of the Age. (See vol. i. 2)

[FN#303] For a note on this subject see vol. ii. 2.

[FN#304] _i.e._ bathe her and apply cosmetics to remove all traces of travel.

[FN#305] These pretentious and curious displays of coquetry are not uncommon in handsome slave-girls when newly bought; and it is a kind of pundonor to humour them. They may also refuse their favours and a master who took possession of their persons by brute force would be blamed by his friends, men and women. Even the most despotic of despots, Fath Ali Shah of Persia, put up with refusals from his slave-girls and did not, as would the mean-minded, marry them to the grooms or cooks of the palace.

[FN#306] Such continence is rarely shown by the young Jallabs or slave-traders; when older they learn how much money is lost with the chattel’s virginity.

[FN#307] Midwives in the East, as in the less civilised parts of the West, have many nostrums for divining the sex of the unborn child.

[FN#308] Arabic (which has no written “g”) from Pers. Gulnár (Gul-i-anár) pomegranate-flower, the “Gulnare” of Byron who learnt his Orientalism at the Mekhitarist (Armenian) Convent, Venice. I regret to see the little honour now paid to the gallant poet in the land where he should be honoured the most. The systematic depreciation was begun by the late Mr. Thackeray, perhaps the last man to value the noble independence of Byron’s spirit; and it has been perpetuated, I regret to see, by better judges. These critics seem wholly to ignore the fact that Byron founded a school which covered Europe from Russia to Spain, from Norway to Sicily, and which from England passed over to the two Americas. This exceptional success, which has not yet fallen even to Shakespeare’s lot, was due to genius only, for the poet almost ignored study and poetic art. His great misfortune was being born in England under the Georgium Sidus. Any Continental people would have regarded him as one of the prime glories of his race.

[FN#309] Arab. “Fí al-Kamar,” which Lane renders “in the moonlight.” It seems to me that the allusion is to the Comorin Islands; but the sequel speaks simply of an island.

[FN#310] The Mac. Edit. misprints Julnár as Julnáz (so the Bul. Edit. ii. 233), and Lane’s Jullanár is an Egyptian vulgarism. He is right in suspecting the “White City” to be imaginary; but its sea has no apparent connection with the Caspian. The mermen and mermaids appear to him to be of an inferior order of the Jinn, termed Al-Ghawwásah, the Divers, who fly through air and are made of fire which at times issues from their mouths.

[FN#311] Arab. “Alá Kulli hál,” a popular phrase, like the Anglo-American “anyhow.”

[FN#312] In the text the name does not appear till near the end of the tale.

[FN#313] _i.e._ Full moon smiling.

[FN#314] These lines have occurred in vol. iii. 264. so I quote Lane ii. 499.

[FN#315] ‘These lines occurred in vol. ii. 301. I quote Mr. Payne.

[FN#316] Arab. “Khadd” = cheek from the eye-orbit to the place where the beard grows; also applied to the side of a rough highland, the side-planks of a litter, etc. etc.

[FN#317] The black hair of youth.

[FN#318] This manner of listening is not held dishonourable amongst Arabs or Easterns generally; who, however, hear as little good of themselves as Westerns declare in proverb.