There was once in days of yore and in ages and times long gone before in the
parts of Cairo, a merchant named Táj al-Dín who was of the most considerable of
the merchants and of the chiefs of the freeborn. But he was given to travelling
everywhere and loved to fare over wild and wold, waterless lowland and stony
waste, and to journey to the isles of the seas, in quest of dirhams and dinars:
wherefore he had in his time encountered dangers and suffered duresse of the
way such as would grizzle little children and turn their black hair grey. He
was possessed of black slaves and Mamelukes, Eunuchs and concubines, and was
the wealthiest of the merchants of his time and the goodliest of them in
speech, owning horses and mules and Bactrian camels and dromedaries; sacks
great and small of size; goods and merchandise and stuffs such as muslins of
Hums, silks and brocades of Ba'allak, cotton of Mery, stuffs of India, gauzes
of Baghdad, burnouses of Moorland and Turkish white slaves and Abyssinian
castratos and Grecian girls and Egyptian boys; and the coverings of his bales
were silk with gold purfled fair, for he was wealthy beyond compare.
Furthermore he was rare of comeliness, accomplished in goodliness, and gracious
in his kindliness, even as one of his describers doth thus express,
"A merchant I spied whose lovers * Were fighting in furious
guise:
Quoth he, 'Why this turmoil of people?' * Quoth I, 'Trader, for
those fine eyes!'"
And saith another in his praise and saith well enough to accomplish the wish of
him,
"Came a merchant to pay us a visit * Whose glance did my heart
surprise:
Quoth he, 'What surprised thee so?' * Quoth I, 'Trader, 'twas
those fine eyes.'"
Now that merchant had a son called Ali Nur al-Din, as he were the full moon
whenas it meeteth the sight on its fourteenth night, a marvel of beauty and
loveliness, a model of form and symmetrical grace, who was sitting one day as
was his wont, in his father's shop, selling and buying, giving and taking when
the sons of the merchants girt him around and he was amongst them as moon among
stars, with brow flower-white and cheeks of rosy light in down the tenderest
dight, and body like alabaster-bright even as saith of him the poet,
"'Describe me!' a fair one said. * Said I, 'Thou art Beauty's
queen.'
And, speaking briefest speech, * 'All charms in thee are seen.'"
And as saith of him one of his describers,
"His mole upon plain of cheek is like * Ambergrís-crumb on marble
plate,
And his glances likest the sword proclaim * To all Love's rebels
'The Lord is Great!'"[FN#378]
The young merchants invited him saying, "O my lord Nur al-Din, we wish thee to
go this day a-pleasuring with us in such a garden." And he answered, "Wait till
I consult my parent, for I cannot go without his consent." As they were
talking, behold, up came Taj al-Din, and his son looked at him and said, "O
father mine, the sons of the merchants have invited me to wend a-pleasuring
with them in such a garden. Dost thou grant me leave to go?" His father
replied, "Yes, O my son, fare with them;" and gave him somewhat of money. So
the young men mounted their mules and asses and Nur al-Din mounted a she-mule
and rode with them to a garden, wherein was all that soul desireth and that eye
charmeth. It was high of walls which from broad base were seen to rise; and it
had a gateway vault-wise with a portico like a saloon and a door azure as the
skies, as it were one of the gates of Paradise: the name of the door-keeper was
Rizwán,[FN#379] and over the gate were trained an hundred trellises which
grapes overran; and these were of various dyes, the red like coralline, the
black like the snouts of Súdán[FN#380]-men and the white like egg of the
pigeon-hen. And in it peach and pomegranate were shown and pear, apricot and
pomegranate were grown and fruits with and without stone hanging in clusters or
alone,—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted
say.
When it was the Eight Hundred and Sixty-fourth Night,
She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the sons of the
merchants entered the vergier, they found therein all that soul desireth or eye
charmeth, grapes of many hues grown, hanging in bunches or alone, even as saith
of them the poet,
"Grapes tasting with the taste of wine * Whose coats like
blackest Raven's shine:
Their sheen, amid the leafage shows, * Like women's fingers
henna'd fine."
And as saith another on the same theme,
"Grape-bunches likest as they sway * A-stalk, my body frail and
snell:
Honey and water thus in jar, * When sourness past, make
Hydromel."
Then they entered the arbour of the garden and saw there Rizwan the gate-keeper
sitting, as he were Rizwan the Paradise-guardian, and on the door were written
these lines,
"Garth Heaven-watered wherein clusters waved * On boughs which
full of sap to bend were fain:
And, when the branches danced on Zephyr's palm, * The Pleiads
shower'd as gifts[FN#381] fresh pearls for rain."
And within the arbour were written these two couplets,
"Come with us, friend, and enter thou * This garth that cleanses
rust of grief:
Over their skirts the Zephyrs trip[FN#382] * And flowers in sleeve
to laugh are lief."[FN#383]
So they entered and found all manner fruits in view and birds of every kind and
hue, such as ringdove, nightingale and curlew; and the turtle and the cushat
sang their love lays on the sprays. Therein were rills that ran with limpid
wave and flowers suave; and bloom for whose perfume we crave and it was even as
saith of it the poet in these two couplets,
"The Zephyr breatheth o'er its branches, like * Fair girls that
trip as in fair skirts they pace:
Its rills resemble swords in hands of knights * Drawn from the
scabbard and containing-case."[FN#384]
And again as singeth the songster,
"The streamlet swings by branchy wood and aye * Joys in its
breast those beauties to display;
And Zephyr noting this, for jealousy * Hastens and bends the
branches other way."
On the trees of the garden were all manner fruits, each in two sorts, and
amongst them the pomegranate, as it were a ball of silver-dross,[FN#385]
whereof saith the poet and saith right well,
"Granados of finest skin, like the breasts * Of maid
firm-standing in sight of male;
When I strip the skin, they at once display * The rubies
compelling all sense to quail."
And even as quoth another bard,
"Close prest appear to him who views th' inside * Red rubies in
brocaded skirts bedight:
Granado I compare with marble dome * Or virgin's breasts
delighting every sight:
Therein is cure for every ill as e'en * Left an Hadís the Prophet
pure of sprite;
And Allah (glorify His name) eke deigned * A noble say in Holy
Book indite.[FN#386]
The apples were the sugared and the musky and the Dámáni, amazing the beholder,
whereof saith Hassan the poet,
"Apple which joins hues twain, and brings to mind * The cheek of
lover and beloved combined:
Two wondrous opposites on branch they show * This dark[FN#387]
and that with hue incarnadined
The twain embraced when spied the spy and turned * This red, that
yellow for the shame designed."[FN#388]
There also were apricots of various kinds, almond and camphor and
Jíláni and 'Antábi,[FN#389] wereof saith the poet,
"And Almond-apricot suggesting swain * Whose lover's visit all
his wits hath ta'en.
Enough of love-sick lovers' plight it shows * Of face deep yellow
and heart torn in twain."[FN#390]
And saith another and saith well,
"Look at that Apricot whose bloom contains * Gardens with
brightness gladding all men's eyne:
Like stars the blossoms sparkle when the boughs * Are clad in
foliage dight with sheen and shine."
There likewise were plums and cherries and grapes, that the sick of all
diseases assain and do away giddiness and yellow choler from the brain; and
figs the branches between, varicoloured red and green, amazing sight and sense,
even as saith the poet,
"'Tis as the Figs with clear white skins outthrown * By foliaged
trees, athwart whose green they peep,
Were sons of Roum that guard the palace-roof * When shades close
in and night-long ward they keep."[FN#391]
And saith another and saith well,
"Welcome[FN#392] the Fig! To us it comes * Ordered in handsome
plates they bring:
Likest a Sufrah[FN#393]-cloth we draw * To shape of bag without a
ring."
And how well saith a third,
"Give me the Fig sweet-flavoured, beauty-clad, * Whose inner
beauties rival outer sheen:
And when it fruits thou tastest it to find * Chamomile's scent
and Sugar's saccharine:
And eke it favoureth on platters poured * Puff-balls of silken
thread and sendal green."
And how excellent is the saying of one of them,
"Quoth they (and I had trained my taste thereto * Nor cared for
other fruits whereby they swore),
'Why lovest so the Fig?' whereto quoth I * 'Some men love Fig and
others Sycamore.[FN#394]'"
And are yet goodlier those of another,
"Pleaseth me more the fig than every fruit * When ripe and
hanging from the sheeny bough;
Like Devotee who, when the clouds pour rain, * Sheds tears and
Allah's power doth avow."
And in that garth were also pears of various kinds Sinaďtic,[FN#395] Aleppine
and Grecian growing in clusters and alone, parcel green and parcel golden.—And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
When it was the Eight Hundred and Sixty-fifth Night,
She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the merchants'
sons went down into the garth they saw therein all the fruits we mentioned and
found pears Sinaďtic, Aleppine and Grecian of every hue, which here clustering
there single grew, parcel green and parcel yellow to the gazer a marvel-view,
as saith of them the poet,
"With thee that Pear agree, whose hue a-morn * Is hue of hapless
lover yellow pale;
Like virgin cloistered strait in strong Harím * Whose face like
racing steed outstrips the veil."
And Sultani[FN#396] peaches of shades varied, yellow and red, whereof saith the
poet,
"Like Peach in vergier growing * And sheen of Andam[FN#397]
showing:
Whose balls of yellow gold * Are dyed with blood-gouts flowing."
There were also green almonds of passing sweetness, resembling the
cabbage[FN#398] of the palm-tree, with their kernels within three tunics
lurking of the Munificent King's handiworking, even as is said of them,
"Three coats yon freshest form endue * God's work of varied shape
and hue:
Hardness surrounds it night and day; * Prisoning without a sin to
rue."
And as well saith another,
"Seest not that Almond plucked by hand * Of man from bough where
wont to dwell:
Peeling it shows the heart within * As union-pearl in oyster-
shell."
And as saith a third better than he,
"How good is Almond green I view! * The smallest fills the hand
of you:
Its nap is as the down upon * The cheeks where yet no beardlet
grew:
Its kernels in the shell are seen, * Or bachelors or married two,
As pearls they were of lucent white * Casčd and lapped in
Jasper's hue."
And as saith yet another and saith well,
"Mine eyes ne'er looked on aught the Almond like * For charms,
when blossoms[FN#399] in the Prime show bright:
Its head to hoariness of age inclines * The while its cheek by
youth's fresh down is dight."
And jujube-plums of various colours, grown in clusters and alone whereof saith
one, describing them,
"Look at the Lote-tree, note on boughs arrayed * Like goodly
apricots on reed-strown floor,[FN#400]
Their morning-hue to viewer's eye is like * Cascavels[FN#401]
cast of purest golden ore."
And as saith another and saith right well,
"The Jujube-tree each Day * Robeth in bright array.
As though each pome thereon * Would self to sight display.
Like falcon-bell of gold * Swinging from every spray."
And in that garth grew blood oranges, as they were the
Khaulanján,[FN#402] whereof quoth the enamoured poet,[FN#403]
"Red fruits that fill the hand, and shine with sheen * Of fire,
albe the scarf-skin's white as snow.
'Tis marvel snow on fire doth never melt * And, stranger still,
ne'er burns this living lowe!"
And quoth another and quoth well,
"And trees of Orange fruiting ferly fair * To those who straitest
have their charms surveyed;
Like cheeks of women who their forms have decked * For holiday in
robes of gold brocade."
And yet another as well,
"Like are the Orange-hills[FN#404] when Zephyr breathes * Swaying
the boughs and spray with airy grace,
Her cheeks that glow with lovely light when met * At greeting-
tide by cheeks of other face."
And a fourth as fairly,
"And fairest Fawn, we said to him 'Portray * This garth and
oranges thine eyes survey:'
And he, 'Your garden favoureth my face * Who gathereth orange
gathereth fire alway.'"
In that garden too grew citrons, in colour as virgin gold, hanging down from on
high and dangling among the branches, as they were ingots of growing
gold;[FN#405] and saith thereof the 'namoured poet,
"Hast seen a Citron-copse so weighed adown * Thou fearest bending
roll their fruit on mould;
And seemed, when Zephyr passed athwart the tree * Its branches
hung with bells of purest gold?"
And shaddocks,[FN#406] that among their boughs hung laden as though each were
the breast of a gazelle-like maiden, contenting the most longing wight, as
saith of them the poet and saith aright,
"And Shaddock mid the garden-paths, on bough * Freshest like
fairest damsel met my sight;
And to the blowing of the breeze it bent * Like golden ball to
bat of chrysolite."
And the lime sweet of scent, which resembleth a hen's egg, but its yellowness
ornamenteth its ripe fruit, and its fragrance hearteneth him who plucketh it,
as saith the poet who singeth it,
"Seest not the Lemon, when it taketh form, * Catch rays of light
and all to gaze constrain;
Like egg of pullet which the huckster's hand * Adorneth dyeing
with the saffron-stain?"
Moreover in this garden were all manner of other fruits and sweet-scented herbs
and plants and fragrant flowers, such as jessamine and henna and
water-lilies[FN#407] and spikenard[FN#408] and roses of every kind and
plantain[FN#409] and myrtle and so forth; and indeed it was without compare,
seeming as it were a piece of Paradise to whoso beheld it. If a sick man
entered it, he came forth from it like a raging lion, and tongue availeth not
to its description, by reason of that which was therein of wonders and rarities
which are not found but in Heaven: and how should it be otherwise when its
doorkeeper's name was Rizwan? Though widely different were the stations of
those twain! Now when the sons of the merchants had walked about gazing at the
garden after taking their pleasure therein, they say down in one of its
pavilions and seated Nur al-Din in their midst.—And Shahrazad perceived the
dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
When it was the Eight Hundred and Sixty-sixth Night,
She resume, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the sons of the
merchants sat down in the pavilion they seated Nur al-Din in their midst on a
rug of gold-purfled leather of Al-Táif,[FN#410] leaning on a pillow[FN#411] of
minever, stuffed with ostrich down. And they gave him a fan of ostrich
feathers, whereon were written these two couplets,
"A fan whose breath is fraught with fragrant scent; * Minding of
happy days and times forspent,
Wafting at every time its perfumed air * O'er face of noble youth
on honour bent."
Then they laid by their turbands and outer clothes and sat talking and chatting
and inducing one another to discourse, while they all kept their eyes fixed on
Nur al-Din and gazed on his beauteous form. After the sitting had lasted an
hour or so, up came a slave with a tray on his head, wherein were platters of
china and crystal containing viands of all sorts (for one of the youths had so
charged his people before coming to the garden); and the meats were of whatever
walketh earth or wingeth air or swimmeth waters, such as Katá-grouse and fat
quails and pigeon-poults and mutton and chickens and the delicatest fish. So,
the tray being sat before them, they fell to and ate their fill; and when they
had made an end of eating, they rose from meat and washed their hands with pure
water and musk-scented soap, and dried them with napery embroidered in silk and
bugles; but to Nur al-Din they brought a napkin laced with red gold whereon he
wiped his hands. Then coffee[FN#412] was served up and each drank what he
would, after which they sat talking, till presently the garden-keeper who was
young went away and returning with a basket full of roses, said to them, "What
say ye, O my masters, to flowers?" Quoth one of them, "There is no harm in
them,[FN#413] especially roses, which are not to be resisted." Answered the
gardener, "'Tis well, but it is of our wont not to give roses but in exchange
for pleasant converse; so whoever would take aught thereof, let him recite some
verses suitable to the situation." Now they were ten sons of merchants of whom
one said, "Agreed: give me thereof and I will recite thee somewhat of verse apt
to the case." Accordingly the gardener gave him a bunch of roses[FN#414] which
he took and at once improvised these three couplets,
"The Rose in highest stead I rate * For that her charms ne'er
satiate;
All fragrant flow'rs be troops to her * Their general of high
estate:
Where she is not they boast and vaunt; * But, when she comes,
they stint their prate."
Then the gardener gave a bunch to another and he recited these two couplets,
"Take, O my lord, to thee the Rose * Recalling scent by mush be
shed.
Like virginette by lover eyed * Who with her sleeves[FN#415]
enveileth head."
Then he gave a bunch to a third who recited these two couplets,
"Choice Rose that gladdens heart to see her sight; * Of Nadd
recalling fragrance exquisite.
The branchlets clip her in her leaves for joy, * Like kiss of
lips that never spake in spite."
Then he gave a bunch to a fourth and he recited these two couplets,
"Seest not that rosery where Rose a-flowering displays * Mounted
upon her steed of stalk those marvels manifold?
As though the bud were ruby-stone and girded all around * With
chrysolite and held within a little hoard of gold."
Then he gave a posy to a fifth and he recited these two couplets,
"Wands of green chrysolite bare issue, which * Were fruits like
ingots of the growing gold.[FN#416]
And drops, a dropping from its leaves, were like * The tears my
languorous eyelids railed and rolled."
Then he gave a sixth a bunch and he recited these two couplets,
"O Rose, thou rare of charms that dost contain * All gifts and
Allah's secrets singular,
Thou'rt like the loved one's cheek where lover fond * And fain of
Union sticks the gold dinar."[FN#417]
Then he gave a bunch to a seventh and he recited these two couplets,
"To Rose quoth I, 'What gars thy thorns to be put forth * For all
who touch thee cruellest injury?'
Quoth she, 'These flowery troops are troops of me * Who be their
lord with spines for armoury.'"
And he gave an eighth a bunch and he recited these two couplets,
"Allah save the Rose which yellows a-morn * Florid, vivid and
likest the nugget-ore;
And bless the fair sprays that displayed such flowers * And mimic
suns gold-begilded bore."
Then he gave a bunch to a ninth and he recited these two couplets,
"The bushes of golden-hued Rose excite * In the love-sick lover
joys manifold:
'Tis a marvel shrub watered every day * With silvern lymph and it
fruiteth gold."
Then he gave a bunch of roses to the tenth and last and he recited these two
couplets,
"Seest not how the hosts of the Rose display * Red hues and
yellow in rosy field?
I compare the Rose and her arming thorn * To emerald lance
piercing golden shield."
And whilst each one hent bunch in hand, the gardener brought the wine-service
and setting it before them, on a tray of porcelain arabesqued with red gold,
recited these two couplets,
"Dawn heralds day-light: so wine pass round, * Old wine, fooling
sage till his wits he tyne:
Wot I not for its purest clarity * An 'tis wine in cup or 'tis
cup in wine."[FN#418]
Then the gardener filled and drank and the cup went round, till it came to Nur
al-Din's turn, whereupon the man filled and handed it to him; but he said,
"This thing I wot it not nor have I ever drunken thereof, for therein is great
offence and the Lord of All-might hath forbidden it in His Book." Answered the
gardener, "O my Lord Nur al-Din, an thou forbear to drink only by reason of the
sin, verily Allah (extolled and exalted be He!) is bountiful, of sufferance
great, forgiving and compassionate and pardoneth the mortalest sins: His mercy
embraceth all things, Allah's ruth be upon the poet who saith,
'Be as thou wilt, for Allah is bountiful * And when thou sinnest
feel thou naught alarm:
But 'ware of twofold sins nor ever dare * To give God partner or
mankind to harm.'"
Then quoth one of the sons of the merchants, "My life on thee, O my lord Nur
al-Din, drink of this cup!" And another conjured him by the oath of divorce and
yet another stood up persistently before him, till he was ashamed and taking
the cup from the gardener, drank a draught, but spat it out again, crying,
"'Tis bitter." Said the young gardener, "O my lord Nur al-Din, knowest thou not
that sweets taken by way of medicine are bitter? Were this not bitter, 'twould
lack of the manifold virtues it possesseth; amongst which are that it digesteth
food and disperseth cark and care and dispelleth flatulence and clarifieth the
blood and cleareth the complexion and quickeneth the body and hearteneth the
hen-hearted and fortifieth the sexual power in man; but to name all its virtues
would be tedious. Quoth one of the poets,
'We'll drink and Allah pardon sinners all * And cure of ills by
sucking cups I'll find:
Nor aught the sin deceives me; yet said He * 'In it there be
advantage[FN#419] to mankind.'"
Then he sprang up without stay or delay and opened one of the cupboards in the
pavilion and taking out a loaf of refined sugar, broke off a great slice which
he put into Nur al-Din's cup, saying, "O my lord, an thou fear to drink wine,
because of its bitterness, drink now, for 'tis sweet." So he took the cup and
emptied it: whereupon one of his comrades filled him another, saying, "O my
lord Nur al-Din, I am thy slave," and another did the like, saying, "I am one
of thy servants," and a third said, "For my sake!" and a fourth, "Allah upon
thee, O my lord Nur al-Din, heal my heart!" And so they ceased not plying him
with wine, each and every of the ten sons of merchants till they had made him
drink a total of ten cups. Now Nur al-Din's body was virgin of wine-bibbing, or
never in all his life had he drunken vine-juice till that hour, wherefore its
fumes wrought in his brain and drunkenness was stark upon him and he stood up
(and indeed his tongue was thick and his speech stammering) and said, "O
company, by Allah, ye are fair and your speech is goodly and your place
pleasant; but there needeth hearing of sweet music; for drink without melody
lacks the chief of its essentiality, even as saith the poet,
'Pass round the cup to the old and the young man, too, And take
the bowl from the hand of the shining moon,[FN#420]
But without music, I charge you, forbear to drink; I see even
horses drink to a whistled tune.'"[FN#421]
Therewith up sprang the gardener lad and mounting one of the young men's mules,
was absent awhile, after which he returned with a Cairene girl, as she were a
sheep's tail, fat and delicate, or an ingot of pure silvern ore or a dinar on a
porcelain plate or a gazelle in the wold forlore. She had a face that put to
shame the shining sun and eyes Babylonian[FN#422] and brows like bows bended
and cheeks rose-painted and teeth pearly-hued and lips sugared and glances
languishing and breast ivory white and body slender and slight, full of folds
and with dimples dight and hips like pillows stuffed and thighs like columns of
Syrian stone, and between them what was something like a sachet of spices in
wrapper swathed. Quoth the poet of her in these couplets,
"Had she shown her shape to idolaters' sight, * They would gaze
on her face and their gods detest:
And if in the East to a monk she'd show'd, * He'd quit Eastern
posture and bow to West.[FN#423]
An she crached in the sea and the briniest sea * Her lips would
give it the sweetest zest."
And quoth another in these couplets,
"Brighter than Moon at full with kohl'd eyes she came * Like Doe,
on chasing whelps of Lioness intent:
Her night of murky locks lets fall a tent on her * A tent of
hair[FN#424] that lacks no pegs to hold the tent;
And roses lighting up her roseate cheeks are fed * By hearts and
livers flowing fire for languishment:
An 'spied her all the Age's Fair to her they'd rise *
Humbly,[FN#425] and cry 'The meed belongs to precedent!'"
And how well saith a third bard,[FN#426]
"Three things for ever hinder her to visit us, for fear Of the
intriguing spy and eke the rancorous envier;
Her forehead's lustre and the sound of all her ornaments And the
sweet scent her creases hold of ambergris and myrrh.
Grant with the border of her sleeve she hide her brow and doff
Her ornaments, how shall she do her scent away from her?"
She was like the moon when at fullest on its fourteenth night, and was clad in
a garment of blue, with a veil of green, over brow flower-white that all wits
amazed and those of understanding amated.—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of
day and ceased saying her permitted say.
When it was the Eight Hundred and Sixty-seventh Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the gardener brought a
girl whom we have described possessed of the utmost beauty and loveliness and
fine stature and symmetrical grace as it were she the poet signified when he
said,[FN#427]
"She came apparelled in a vest of blue,
That mocked the skies and shamed their azure hue;
I thought thus clad she burst upon my sight,
Like summer moonshine on a wintry night."
And how goodly is the saying of another and how excellent,
"She came thick veiled, and cried I, 'O display * That face like
full moon bright with pure-white ray.'
Quoth she, 'I fear disgrace,' quoth I, 'Cut short * This talk, no
shift of days thy thoughts affray.'
Whereat she raised her veil from fairest face * And crystal spray
on gems began to stray:
And I forsooth was fain to kiss her cheek, * Lest she complain of
me on Judgment-Day.
And at such tide before the Lord on High * We first of lovers
were redress to pray:
So 'Lord, prolong this reckoning and review' * (Prayed I) 'that
longer I may sight my may.'"
Then said the young gardener to her, "Know thou, O lady of the fair, brighter
than any constellation which illumineth air we sought, in bringing thee hither
naught but that thou shouldst entertain with converse this comely youth, my
lord Nur al-Din, for he hath come to this place only this day." And the girl
replied, "Would thou hadst told me, that I might have brought what I have with
me!" Rejoined the gardener, "O my lady, I will go and fetch it to thee." "As
thou wilt," said she: and he, "Give me a token." So she gave him a kerchief and
he fared forth in haste and returned after awhile, bearing a green satin bag
with slings of gold. The girl took the bag from him and opening it shook it,
whereupon there fell thereout two-and-thirty pieces of wood, which she fitted
one into other, male into female and female into male[FN#428] till they became
a polished lute of Indian workmanship. Then she uncovered her wrists and laying
the lute in her lap, bent over it with the bending of mother over babe, and
swept the strings with her finger-tips; whereupon it moaned and resounded and
after its olden home yearned; and it remembered the waters that gave it drink
and the earth whence it sprang and wherein it grew and it minded the carpenters
who cut it and the polishers who polished it and the merchants who made it
their merchandise and the ships that shipped it; and it cried and called aloud
and moaned and groaned; and it was as if she asked it of all these things and
it answered her with the tongue of the case, reciting these couplets,[FN#429]
"A tree whilere was I the Bulbul's home * To whom for love I
bowed my grass-green head:
They moaned on me, and I their moaning learnt * And in that moan
my secret all men read:
The woodman felled me falling sans offence, * And slender lute of
me (as view ye) made:
But, when the fingers smite my strings, they tell * How man
despite my patience did me dead;
Hence boon-companions when they hear my moan * Distracted wax as
though by wine misled:
And the Lord softens every heart to me, * And I am hurried to the
highmost stead:
All who in charms excel fain clasp my waist; * Gazelles of
languid eyne and Houri maid:
Allah ne'er part fond lover from his joy * Nor live the loved one
who unkindly fled."
Then the girl was silent awhile, but presently taking the lute in lap, again
bent over it, as mother bendeth over child, and preluded in many different
modes; then, returning to the first, she sang these couplets,
"Would they [FN#430] the lover seek without ado, * He to his
heavy grief had bid adieu:
With him had vied the Nightingale[FN#431] on bough * As one far
parted from his lover's view:
Rouse thee! awake! The Moon lights Union-night * As tho' such
Union woke the Morn anew.
This day the blamers take of us no heed * And lute-strings bid us
all our joys ensue.
Seest not how four-fold things conjoin in one * Rose, myrtle,
scents and blooms of golden hue.[FN#432]
Yea, here this day the four chief joys unite * Drink and dinars,
beloved and lover true:
So win thy worldly joy, for joys go past * And naught but storied
tales and legends last."
When Nur al-Din heard the girl sing these lines he looked on her with eyes of
love and could scarce contain himself for the violence of his inclination to
her; and on like wise was it with her, because she glanced at the company who
were present of the sons of the merchants and she saw that Nur al-Din was
amongst the rest as moon among stars; for that he was sweet of speech and
replete with amorous grace, perfect in stature and symmetry, brightness and
loveliness, pure of all defect, than the breeze of morn softer, than Tasnim
blander, as saith of him the poet,[FN#433]
"By his cheeks' unfading damask and his smiling teeth I swear, By
the arrows that he feathers with the witchery of his air,
By his sides so soft and tender and his glances bright and keen,
By the whiteness of his forehead and the blackness of his
hair,
By his arched imperious eyebrows, chasing slumber from my lids
With their yeas and noes that hold me 'twixt rejoicing and
despair,
By the Scorpions that he launches from his ringlet-clustered
brows, Seeking still to slay his lovers with his rigours
unaware,
By the myrtle of his whiskers and the roses of his cheek, By his
lips' incarnate rubies and his teeth's fine pearls and rare,
By the straight and tender sapling of his shape, which for its
fruit Doth the twin pomegranates, shining in his snowy
bosom, wear,
By his heavy hips that tremble, both in motion and repose, And
the slender waist above them, all too slight their weight to
bear,
By the silk of his apparel and his quick and sprightly wit, By
all attributes of beauty that are fallen to his share;
Lo, the musk exhales its fragrance from his breath, and eke the
breeze From his scent the perfume borrows, that it scatters
everywhere.
Yea, the sun in all his splendour cannot with his brightness vie
And the crescent moon's a fragment that he from his nails
doth pare."
—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
When it was the Eight Hundred and Sixty-eighth Night,
She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Nur al-Din was
delighted with the girl's verses and he swayed from side to side for
drunkenness and fell a-praising her and saying,
"A lutanist to us inclined * And stole our wits bemused with
wine:
And said to us her lute, 'The Lord * Bade us discourse by voice
divine.'"
When she heard him thus improvise the girl gazed at him with loving eyes and
redoubled in passion and desire for him increased upon her, and indeed she
marvelled at his beauty and loveliness, symmetry and grace, so that she could
not contain herself, but took the lute in lap again and sang these couplets,
"He blames me for casting on him my sight * And parts fro' me
bearing my life and sprite:
He repels me but kens what my heart endures * As though Allah
himself had inspired the wight:
I portrayed his portrait in palm of hand * And cried to mine
eyes, 'Weep your doleful plight.'
For neither shall eyes of me spy his like * Nor my heart have
patience to bear its blight:
Wherefore, will I tear thee from breast, O Heart * As one who
regards him with jealous spite.
And when say I, 'O heart be consoled for pine,' * 'Tis that heart
to none other shall e'er incline:"
Nur al-Din wondered at the charms of her verse and the elegance of her
expression and the sweetness of her voice and the eloquence of her speech and
his wit fled for stress of love and longing, and ecstasy and distraction, so
that he could not refrain from her a single moment, but bent to her and
strained her to his bosom: and she in like manner bowed her form over his and
abandoned herself to his embrace and bussed him between the eyes. Then he
kissed her on the mouth and played with her at kisses, after the manner of the
billing of doves; and she met him with like warmth and did with him as she was
done by till the others were distracted and rose to their feet; whereupon Nur
al-Din was ashamed and held his hand from her. Then she took her lute and,
preluding thereon in manifold modes, lastly returned to the first and sang
these couplets,
"A Moon, when he bends him those eyes lay bare * A brand that
gars gazing gazelle despair:
A King, rarest charms are the host of him * And his lance-like
shape men with cane compare:
Were his softness of sides to his heart transferred * His friend
had not suffered such cark and care:
Ah for hardest heart and for softest sides! * Why not that to
these alter, make here go there?
O thou who accusest my love excuse: * Take eternal and leave me
the transient share."[FN#434]
When Nur al-Din heard the sweetness of her voice and the rareness of her verse,
he inclined to her for delight and could not contain himself for excess of
wonderment; so he recited these couplets,
"Methought she was the forenoon sun until she donned the veil *
But lit she fire in vitals mine still flaring fierce and
high,
How had it hurt her an she deigned return my poor salám * With
fingertips or e'en vouchsafed one little wink of eye?
The cavalier who spied her face was wholly stupefied * By charms
that glorify the place and every charm outvie.
'Be this the Fair who makes thee pine and long for love liesse? *
Indeed thou art excused!' 'This is my fairest she;'(quoth I)
Who shot me with the shaft of looks nor deigns to rue my woes *
Of strangerhood and broken heart and love I must aby:
I rose a-morn with vanquished heart, to longing love a prey * And
weep I through the live long day and all the night I cry."
The girl marvelled at his eloquence and elegance and taking her lute, smote
thereon with the goodliest of performance, repeating all the melodies, and sang
these couplets,
"By the life o' thy face, O thou life o' my sprite! * I'll ne'er
leave thy love for despair or delight:
When art cruel thy vision stands hard by my side * And the
thought of thee haunts me when far from sight:
O who saddenest my glance albe weeting that I * No love but thy
love will for ever requite?
Thy cheeks are of Rose and thy lips-dews are wine; * Say, wilt
grudge them to us in this charming site?"
Hereat Nur al-Din was gladdened with extreme gladness and wondered with the
utmost wonder, so he answered her verse with these couplets,
"The sun yellowed not in the murk gloom li'en * But lay pearl
enveiled 'neath horizon-chine;
Nor showed its crest to the eyes of Morn * But took refuge from
parting with Morning-shine.[FN#435]
Take my tear-drops that trickle as chain on chain * And they'll
tell my case with the clearest sign.
An my tears be likened to Nile-flood, like * Malak's[FN#436]
flooded flat be this love o'mine.
Quoth she, 'Bring thy riches!' Quoth I, 'Come, take!' * 'And thy
sleep?' 'Yes, take it from lids of eyne!'"
When the girl heard Nur al-Din's words and noted the beauty of his eloquence
her senses fled and her wit was dazed and love of him gat hold upon her whole
heart. So she pressed him to her bosom and fell to kissing him like the billing
of doves, whilst he returned her caresses with successive kisses; but
preeminence appertaineth to precedence.[FN#437] When she had made an end of
kissing, she took the lute and recited these couplets,
"Alas, alack and well-away for blamer's calumny! * Whether or not
I make my moan or plead or show no plea:
O spurner of my love I ne'er of thee so hard would deem * That I
of thee should be despised, of thee my property.
I wont at lovers' love to rail and for their passion chide, * But
now I fain debase myself to all who rail at thee:
Yea, only yesterday I wont all amourists to blame * But now I
pardon hearts that pine for passion's ecstasy;
And of my stress of parting-stowre on me so heavy weighs * At
morning prayer to Him I'll cry, 'In thy name, O Ali!'"
And also these two couplets,
"His lovers said, 'Unless he deign to give us all a drink * Of
wine, of fine old wine his lips deal in their purity;
We to the Lord of Threefold Worlds will pray to grant our prayer'
* And all exclaim with single cry 'In thy name, O Ali!'"
Nur al-Din, hearing these lines and their rhyme, marvelled at the fluency of
her tongue and thanked her, praising her grace and passing seductiveness; and
the damsel, delighted at his praise, arose without stay or delay and doffing
that was upon her of outer dress and trinkets till she was free of all
encumbrance sat down on his knees and kissed him between the eyes and on his
cheek-mole. Then she gave him all she had put off.—And Shahrazad perceived the
dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
When it was the Eight Hundred and Sixty-ninth Night,
She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the girl gave to Nur
al-Din all she had doffed, saying, "O beloved of my heart, in very sooth the
gift is after the measure of the giver." So he accepted this from her and gave
it back to her and kissed her on the mouth and cheeks and eyes. When this was
ended and done, for naught is durable save the Living, the Eternal, Provider of
the peacock and the owl,[FN#438] Nur al-Din rose from the séance and stood upon
his feet, because the darkness was now fallen and the stars shone out;
whereupon quoth the damsel to him, "Whither away, O my lord?"; and quoth he,
"To my father's home." Then the sons of the merchants conjured him to night
with them, but he refused and mounting his shemule, rode, without stopping,
till he reached his parent's house, where his mother met him and said to him,
"O my son, what hath kept thee away till this hour? By Allah, thou hast
troubled myself and thy sire by thine absence from us, and our hearts have been
occupied with thee." Then she came up to him, to kiss him on his mouth, and
smelling the fumes of the wine, said, "O my son, how is it that, after prayer
and worship thou hast become a wine-bibber and a rebel against Him to whom
belong creation and commandment?" But Nur al-Din threw himself down on the bed
and lay there. Presently in came his sire and said, "What aileth Nur al-Din to
lie thus?"; and his mother answered, "'Twould seem his head acheth for the air
of the garden." So Taj al-Din went up to his son, to ask him of his ailment,
and salute him, and smelt the reek of wine.[FN#439] Now the merchant loved not
wine-drinkers; so he said to Nur al-Din, "Woe to thee, O my son! Is folly come
to such a pass with thee, that thou drinkest wine?" When Nur al-Din heard his
sire say this, he raised his hand, being yet in his drunkenness, and dealt him
a buffet, when by decree of the Decreer the blow lit on his father's right eye
which rolled down on his cheek; whereupon he fell a-swoon and lay therein
awhile. They sprinkled rose-water on him till he recovered, when he would have
beaten his son; but the mother withheld him, and he swore, by the oath of
divorce from his wife that, as soon as morning morrowed, he would assuredly cut
off his son's right hand.[FN#440] When she heard her husband's words, her
breast was straitened and she feared for her son and ceased not to soothe and
appease his sire, till sleep overcame him. Then she waited till moon-rise, when
she went in to her son, whose drunkenness had now departed from him, and said
to him, "O Nur al-Din, what is this foul deed thou diddest with thy sire?" He
asked, "And what did I with him?"; and answered she, "Thou dealtest him a
buffet on the right eye and struckest it out so that it rolled down his cheek;
and he hath sworn by the divorce-oath that, as soon as morning shall morrow he
will without fail cut off thy right hand." Nur al-Din repented him of that he
had done, whenas repentance profited him naught, and his mother said to him, "O
my son, this penitence will not profit thee; nor will aught avail thee but that
thou arise forthwith and seek safety in flight: go forth the house privily and
take refuge with one of thy friends and there what Allah shall do await, for he
changeth case after case and state upon state." Then she opened a chest and
taking out a purse of an hundred dinars said, "O my son, take these dinars and
provide thy wants therewith, and when they are at an end, O my son, send and
let me know thereof, that I may send thee other than these, and at the same
time covey to me news of thyself privily: haply Allah will decree thee relief
and thou shalt return to thy home." And she farewelled him and wept passing
sore, nought could be more. Thereupon Nur al-Din took the purse of gold and was
about to go forth, when he espied a great purse containing a thousand dinars,
which his mother had forgotten by the side of the chest. So he took this also
and binding the two purses about his middle,[FN#441] set out before dawn
threading the streets in the direction of Búlák, where he arrived when day
broke and all creatures arose, attesting the unity of Allah the Opener and went
forth each of them upon his several business, to win that which Allah had unto
him allotted. Reaching Bulak he walked on along the riverbank till he sighted a
ship with her gangway out and her four anchors made fast to the land. The folk
were going up into her and coming down from her, and Nur al-Din, seeing some
sailors there standing, asked them whither they were bound, and they answered,
"To Rosetta-city." Quoth he, "Take me with you;" and quoth they, "Well come,
and welcome to thee, to thee, O goodly one!" So he betook himself forthright to
the market and buying what he needed of vivers and bedding and covering,
returned to the port and went on board the ship, which was ready to sail and
tarried with him but a little while before she weighed anchor and fared on,
without stopping, till she reached Rosetta,[FN#442] where Nur al-Din saw a
small boat going to Alexandria. So he embarked in it and traversing the sea-arm
of Rosetta fared on till he came to a bridge called Al-Jámí, where he landed
and entered Alexandria by the gate called the Gate of the Lote-tree. Allah
protected him, so that none of those who stood on guard at the gate saw him,
and he walked on till he entered the city.—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of
day and ceased to say her permitted say.
When it was the Eight Hundred and Seventieth Night,
She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Nur al-Din
entered Alexandria he found it a city goodly of pleasaunces, delightful to its
inhabitants and inviting to inhabit therein. Winter had fared from it with his
cold and Prime was come to it with his roses: its flowers were kindly ripe and
welled forth its rills. Indeed, it was a city goodly of ordinance and
disposition; its folk were of the best of men, and when the gates thereof were
shut, its folk were safe.[FN#443] And it was even as is said of it in these
couplets,
"Quoth I to a comrade one day, * A man of good speech and rare,
'Describe Alexandria.' * Quoth he, 'Tis a march-town fair.'
Quoth I, 'Is there living therein?' * And he, 'An the wind blow
there.'"
Or as saith one of the poets,
"Alexandria's a frontier;[FN#444] Whose dews of lips are sweet
and clear;
How fair the coming to it is, * So one therein no raven speer!"
Nur al-Din walked about the city and ceased not walking till he came to the
merchants' bazar, whence he passed on to the mart of the money-changers and so
on in turn to the markets of the confectioners and fruiterers and druggists,
marvelling, as he went, at the city, for that the nature of its qualities
accorded with its name.[FN#445] As he walked in the druggists' bazar, behold,
an old man came down from his shop and saluting him, took him by the hand and
carried him to his home. And Nur al-Din saw a fair bystreet, swept and
sprinkled, whereon the zephyr blew and made pleasantness pervade it and the
leaves of the trees overshaded it. Therein stood three houses and at the upper
end a mansion, whose foundations were firm sunk in the water and its walls
towered to the confines of the sky. They had swept the space before it and they
had sprinkled it freshly; so it exhaled the fragrance of flowers, borne on the
zephyr which breathed upon the place; and the scent met there who approached it
on such wise as it were one of the gardens of Paradise. And, as they had
cleaned and cooled the by-street's head, so was the end of it with marble
spread. The Shaykh carried Nur al-Din into the house and setting somewhat of
food before him ate with his guest. When they had made an end of eating, the
druggist said to him, "When camest thou hither from Cairo?"; and Nur al-Din
replied, "This very night, O my father." Quoth the old man, "What is thy
name?"; and quoth he, "Ali Nur al-Din." Said the druggist, "O my son, O Nur
al-Din, be the triple divorce incumbent on me, an thou leave me so long as thou
abidest in this city; and I will set thee apart a place wherein thou mayst
dwell." Nur al-Din asked, "O my lord the Shaykh, let me know more of thee"; and
the other answered, "Know, O my son, that some years ago I went to Cairo with
merchandise, which I sold there and bought other, and I had occasion for a
thousand dinars. So thy sire Taj al-Din weighed them out[FN#446] for me, all
unknowing me, and would take no written word of me, but had patience with me
till I returned hither and sent him the amount by one of my servants, together
with a gift. I saw thee, whilst thou wast little; and, if it please Allah the
Most High, I will repay thee somewhat of the kindness thy father did me." When
Nur al-Din heard the old man's story, he showed joy and pulling out with a
smile the purse of a thousand dinars, gave it to his host the Shaykh and said
to him, "Take charge of this deposit for me, against I buy me somewhat of
merchandise whereon to trade." Then he abode some time in Alexandria city
taking his pleasure every day in its thoroughfares, eating and drinking ad
indulging himself with mirth and merriment till he had made an end of the
hundred dinars he had kept by way of spending-money; whereupon he repaired to
the old druggist, to take of him somewhat of the thousand dinars to spend, but
found him not in his shop and took a seat therein to await his return. He sat
there gazing right and left and amusing himself with watching the merchants and
passers-by, and as he was thus engaged behold, there came into the bazar a
Persian riding on a she-mule and carrying behind him a damsel; as she were
argent of alloy free or a fish Balti[FN#447] in mimic sea or a doe-gazelle on
desert lea. Her face outshone the sun in shine and she had witching eyne and
breasts of ivory white, teeth of marguerite, slender waist and sides dimpled
deep and calves like tails of fat sheep;[FN#448] and indeed she was perfect in
beauty and loveliness, elegant stature and symmetrical grace, even as saith
one, describing her,[FN#449]
"'Twas as by will of her she was create * Nor short nor long, but
Beauty's mould and mate:
Rose blushes reddest when she sees those cheeks * And fruits the
bough those marvel charms amate:
Moon is her favour, Musk the scent of her * Branch is her shape:Â
she passeth man's estate:
'Tis e'en as were she cast in freshest pearl * And every limblet
shows a moon innate."
Presently the Persian lighted down from his she-mule and making the damsel also
dismount loudly summoned the broker and said to him as soon as he came, "Take
this damsel and cry her for sale in the market." So he took her and leading her
to the middlemost of the bazar disappeared for a while and presently he
returned with a stool of ebony, inlaid with ivory, and setting it upon the
ground, seated her thereon. Then he raised her veil and discovered a face as it
were a Median targe[FN#450] or a cluster of pearls:[FN#451] and indeed she was
like the full moon, when it filleth on its fourteenth night, accomplished in
brilliant beauty. As saith the poet,
"Vied the full moon for folly with her face, * But was
eclipsed[FN#452] and split for rage full sore;
And if the spiring Bán with her contend * Perish her hands who
load of fuel bore!"[FN#453]
And how well saith another,
"Say to the fair in the wroughten veil * How hast made that
monk-like worshipper ail?
Light of veil and light of face under it * Made the hosts of
darkness to fly from bale;
And, when came my glance to steal look at cheek. * With a
meteor-shaft the Guard made me quail."[FN#454]
Then said the broker to the merchants,[FN#455] "How much do ye bid for the
union-pearl of the diver and prize-quarry of the fowler?" Quoth one, "She is
mine for an hundred dinars." And another said, "Two hundred," and a third,
"Three hundred"; and they ceased not to bid, one against other, till they made
her price nine hundred and fifty dinars, and there the biddings stopped
awaiting acceptance and consent.[FN#456]—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of
day and ceased saying her permitted say.
When it was the Eight Hundred and Seventy-first Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the merchants bid one
against other till they made the price of the girl nine hundred and fifty
dinars. Then the broker went up to her Persian master and said to him, "The
biddings for this thy slave-girl have reached nine hundred and fifty dinars: so
say me, wilt thou sell her at that price and take the money?" Asked the
Persian, "Doth she consent to this? I desire to fall in with her wishes, for I
sickened on my journey hither and this handmaid tended me with all possible
tenderness, wherefore I sware not to sell her but to him whom she should like
and approve, and I have put her sale in her own hand. So do thou consult her
and if she say, 'I consent,' sell her to whom thou wilt: but an she say, 'No,'
sell her not." So the broker went up to her and asked her, "O Princess of fair
ones, know that thy master putteth thy sale in thine own hands, and thy price
hath reached nine hundred and fifty dinars; dost thou give me leave to sell
thee?" She answered, "Show me him who is minded to buy me before clinching the
bargain." So he brought her up to one of the merchants a man stricken with
years and decrepit; and she looked at him a long while, then turned to the
broker and said to him, "O broker, art thou Jinn-mad or afflicted in thy wit?"
Replied he, "Why dost thou ask me this, O Princess of fair ones?"; and said
she, "Is it permitted thee of Allah to sell the like of me to yonder decrepit
old man, who saith of his wife's case these couplets,
'Quoth she to me,—and sore enraged for wounded pride was she, *
For she in sooth had bidden me to that which might not be,—
'An if thou swive me not forthright, as one should swive his
wife, * Thou be made a cuckold straight, reproach it not to
me.
Meseems thy yard is made of wax, for very flaccidness; * For when
I rub it with my hand, it softens instantly.'[FN#457]
And said he likewise of his yard,
'I have a yard that sleeps in base and shameful way * When grants
my lover boon for which I sue and pray:
But when I wake o' mornings[FN#458] all alone in bed, * 'Tis fain
o' foin and fence and fierce for futter-play.'
And again quoth he thereof of his yard,
'I have a froward yard of temper ill * Dishonoring him who shows
it most regard:
It stands when sleep I, when I stand it sleeps * Heaven pity not
who pitieth that yard!'"
When the old merchant heard this ill flouting from the damsel, he was wroth
with wrath exceeding beyond which was no proceeding and said to the broker, "O
most ill-omened of brokers, thou hast not brought into the market this
ill-conditioned wench but to gibe me and make mock of me before the merchants."
Then the broker took her aside and said to her, "O my lady, be not wanting in
self-respect. The Shaykh at whom thou didst mock is the Syndic of the bazar and
Inspector[FN#459] thereof and a committee-man of the council of the merchants."
But she laughed and improvised these two couplets,
"It behoveth folk who rule in our time, * And 'tis one of the
duties of magistrateship,
To hand up the Wali above his door * And beat with a whip the
Mohtasib!"
Adding, "By Allah, O my lord, I will not be sold to yonder old man; so sell me
to other than him, for haply he will be abashed at me and vend me again and I
shall become a mere servant[FN#460] and it beseemeth not that I sully myself
with menial service; and indeed thou knowest that the matter of my sale is
committed to myself." He replied, "I hear and I obey," and carried her to a man
which was one of the chief merchants. And when standing hard by him the broker
asked, "How sayst thou, O my lady? Shall I sell thee to my lord Sharíf al-Dín
here for nine hundred and fifty gold pieces?" She looked at him and, seeing him
to be an old man with a dyed beard, said to the broker, "Art thou silly, that
thou wouldst sell me to this worn out Father Antic? Am I cotton refuse or
threadbare rags that thou marchest me about from greybeard to greybeard, each
like a wall ready to fall or an Ifrit smitten down of a fire-ball? As for the
first, the poet had him in mind when he said,[FN#461]
'I sought of a fair maid to kiss her lips of coral red, But, 'No,
by Him who fashioned things from nothingness!' she said.
Unto the white of hoary hairs I never had a mind, And shall my
mouth be stuffed, forsooth, with cotton, ere I'm dead?'
And how goodly is the saying of the poet,
'The wise have said that white of hair is light that shines and
robes * The face of man with majesty and light that awes the
sight;
Yet until hoary seal shall stamp my parting-place of hair * I
hope and pray that same may be black as the blackest night.
Albe Time-whitened beard of man be like the book he bears[FN#462]
* When to his Lord he must return, I'd rather 'twere not
white,'
And yet goodlier is the saying of another,
'A guest hath stolen on my head and honour may he lack! * The
sword a milder deed hath done that dared these locks to
hack.
Avaunt, O Whiteness,[FN#463] wherein naught of brightness
gladdens sight * Thou 'rt blacker in the eyes of me than
very blackest black!'
As for the other, he is a model of wantonness and scurrilousness and a
blackener of the face of hoariness; his dye acteth the foulest of lies: and the
tongue of his case reciteth these lines,[FN#464]
'Quoth she to me, 'I see thou dy'st thy hoariness;' and I, 'I do
but hide it from thy sight, O thou mine ear and eye!'
She laughed out mockingly and said, 'A wonder 'tis indeed! Thou
so aboundest in deceit that even thy hair's a lie.'
And how excellent is the saying of the poet,
'O thou who dyest hoariness with black, * That youth wi' thee
abide, at least in show;
Look ye, my lot was dyčd black whilome * And (take my word!) none
other hue 'twill grow.'"
When the old man with dyed beard heard such words from the slave-girl, he raged
with exceeding rage in fury's last stage and said to the broker, "O most
ill-omened of brokers, this day thou hast brought to our market naught save
this gibing baggage to flout at all who are therein, one after other, and fleer
at them with flyting verse and idle jest?" And he came down from his shop and
smote on the face the broker who took her an angered and carried her away
saying to her, "By Allah, never in my life saw I a more shameless wench than
thyself![FN#465] Thou hast cut off my daily bread and thine own this day and
all the merchants will bear me a grudge on thine account." Then they saw on the
way a merchant called Shihab al-Dín who bid ten dinars more for her, and the
broker asked her leave to sell her to him. Quoth she, "Trot him out that I may
see him and question him of a certain thing, which if he have in his house, I
will be sold to him; and if not, then not." So the broker left her standing
there and going up to Shihab al-Din, said to him, "O my lord, know that yonder
damsel tells me she hath a mind to ask thee somewhat, which an thou have, she
will be sold to thee. Now thou hast heard what she said to thy fellows, the
merchants,"—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
permitted say.
When it was the Eight Hundred and Seventy-second Night,
She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the broker said to
the merchant, "Thou hast heard what this handmaid said to thy fellows, the
traders, and by Allah, I fear to bring her to thee, lest she do with thee like
as she did with thy neighbours and so I fall into disgrace with thee: but, an
thou bid me bring her to thee, I will bring her." Quoth the merchant, "Hither
with her to me." "Hearing and obeying," answered the broker and fetched for the
purchaser the damsel, who looked at him and said, "O my lord, Shihab al-Din,
hast thou in thy house round cushions stuffed with ermine strips?" Replied
Shihab al-Din, "Yes, O Princess of fair ones, I have at home half a score such
cushions; but I conjure thee by Allah, tell me, what will thou do with them?"
Quoth she, "I will bear with thee till thou be asleep, when I will lay them on
thy mouth and nose and press them down till thou die." Then she turned to the
broker and said to him, "O thou refuse of brokers, meseemeth thou art mad, in
that thou showest me this hour past, first to a pair of greybeards, in each of
whom are two faults, and then thou proferrest me to my lord Shihab al-Din
wherein be three defects; firstly, he is dwarfish, secondly, he hath a nose
which is big, and thirdly, he hath a beard which is long. Of him quoth one of
the poets,
'We never heard of wight nor yet espied * Who amid men three
gifts hath unified:
To wit, a beard one cubit long, a snout * Span-long and figure
tall a finger wide:'
And quoth another poet,
'From the plain of his face springs a minaret * Like a bezel of
ring on his finger set:
Did creation enter that vasty nose * No created thing would
elsewhere be met.'"
When Shihab al-Din heard this, he came down from his shop and seized the broker
by the collar, saying, "O scurviest of brokers, what aileth thee to bring us a
damsel to flout and make mock of us, one after other, with her verses and talk
that a curse is?" So the broker took her and carried her away from before him
and fared, saying, "By Allah, all my life long, since I have plied this
profession never set I eyes on the like of thee for unmannerliness nor aught
more curst to me than thy star, for thou hast cut off my livelihood this day
and I have gained no profit by thee save cuffs on the neck-nape and catching by
the collar!" Then he brought her to the shop of another merchant, owner of
negro slaves and white servants, and stationing her before him, said to her,
"Wilt thou be sold to this my lord 'Alá al-Dín?" She looked at him and seeing
him hump-backed, said, "This is a Gobbo," and quoth the poet of him,
'Drawn in thy shoulders are and spine thrust out, * As seeking
star which Satan gave the lout;[FN#466]
Or as he tasted had first smack of scourge * And looked in marvel
for a second bout.'
And saith another on the same theme,
'As one of you who mounted mule, * A sight for me to ridicule: Is 't not a
farce? Who feels surprise * An start and bolt with him the mule?'
And another on a similar subject,
'Oft hunchback addeth to his bunchy back * Faults which gar folk
upon his front look black:
Like branch distort and dried by length of days * With citrons
hanging from it loose and slack.'"
With this the broker hurried up to her and, carrying her to another merchant,
said to her, "Wilt thou be sold to this one?" She looked at him and said, "In
very sooth this man is blue-eyed;[FN#467] how wilt thou sell me to him?" Quoth
one of the poets,
'His eyelids sore and bleared * Weakness of frame denote:
Arise, ye folk and see * Within his eyes the mote!'"
Then the broker carried her to another and she looked at him and seeing that he
had a long beard, said to the broker, "Fie upon thee! This is a ram, whose tail
hath sprouted from his gullet. Wilt thou sell me to him, O unluckiest of
brokers? Hast thou not heard say: 'All long of beard are little of wits?
Indeed, after the measure of the length of the beard is the lack of sense; and
this is a well-known thing among men of understanding.' As saith one of the
poets,
'Ne'er was a man with beard grown overlong, * Tho' be he therefor
reverenced and fear'd,
But who the shortness noted in his wits * Added to longness noted
in his beard.'
And quoth another,[FN#468]
'I have a friend with a beard which God hath made to grow to a
useless length,
It is like unto one of the nights of winter long and dark and
cold.'"
With this the broker took her and turned away with her, and she asked, "Whither
goest thou with me?" He answered, "Back to thy master the Persian; it sufficeth
me what hath befallen me because of thee this day; for thou hast been the means
of spoiling both my trade and his by thine ill manners." Then she looked about
the market right and left, front and rear till, by the decree of the Decreer
her eyes fell on Ali Nur al-Din the Cairene. So she gazed at him and saw
him[FN#469] to be a comely youth of straight slim form and smooth of face,
fourteen years old, rare in beauty and loveliness and elegance and amorous
grace like the full moon on the fourteenth night with forehead flower-white,
and cheeks rosy red, neck like alabaster and teeth than jewels finer and dews
of lips sweeter than sugar, even as saith of him one of his describers,
"Came to match him in beauty and loveliness rare * Full moons and
gazelles but quoth I, 'Soft fare!
Fare softly, gazelles, nor yourselves compare * With him and, O
Moons, all your pains forbear!'"
And how well saith another bard,
"Slim-waisted loveling, from his hair and brow * Men wake a-morn
in night and light renewed.
Blame not the mole that dwelleth on his cheek * For Nu'uman's
bloom aye shows spot negro-hued."
When the slave-girl beheld Nur al-Din he interposed between her and her wits;
she fell in love to him with a great and sudden fall and her heart was taken
with affection for him;—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased
saying her permitted say.
When it was the Eight Hundred and Seventy-third Night,
She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the slave-girl
beheld Nur al-Din, her heart was taken with affection for him; so she turned to
the broker and said to him, "Will not yonder young merchant who is sitting
among the traders in the gown of striped broadcloth bid somewhat more for me?"
The broker replied, "O lady of fair ones, yonder young man is a stranger from
Cairo, where his father is chief of the trader-guild and surpasseth all the
merchants and notables of the place. He is but lately come to this our city and
lodgeth with one of his father's friends; but he hath made no bid for thee nor
more nor less." When the girl heard the broker's words, she drew from her
finger a costly signet-ring of ruby and said to the man, "Carry me to yonder
youth, and if he buy me, this ring shall be thine, in requital of thy travail
with me this day." The broker rejoiced at this and brought her up to Nur
al-Din, and she considered him straitly and found him like the full moon,
perfect in loveliness and a model of fine stature and symmetric grace, even as
saith of him one of his describers.
"Waters of beauty o'er his cheeks flow bright, * And rain his
glances shafts that sorely smite:
Choked are his lovers an he deal disdain's * Bitterest draught
denaying love-delight.
His forehead and his stature and my love * Are perfect perfected
perfection-dight;
His raiment folds enfold a lovely neck * As crescent moon in
collar buttoned tight:
His eyne and twinnčd moles and tears of me * Are night that
nighteth to the nightliest night.
His eyebrows and his features and my frame[FN#470] * Crescents on
crescents are as crescents slight:
His pupils pass the wine-cup to his friends * Which, albe sweet,
tastes bitter to my sprite;
And to my thirsty throat pure drink he dealt * From smiling lips
what day we were unite:
Then is my blood to him, my death to him * His right and rightful
and most righteous right."
The girl gazed at Nur al-Din and said, "O my lord, Allah upon thee, am I not
beautiful?"; and he replied, "O Princess of fair ones, is there in the world a
comelier than thou?" She rejoined, "Then why seest thou all the other merchants
bid high for me and art silent nor sayest a word neither addest one dinar to my
price? 'Twould seem I please thee not, O my lord!" Quoth he, "O my lady, were I
in my own land, I had bought thee with all that my hand possesseth of monies;"
and quoth she, "O my lord, I said not, 'Buy me against thy will,' yet, didst
thou but add somewhat to my price, it would hearten my heart, though thou buy
me not, so the merchants may say, 'Were not this girl handsome, yonder merchant
of Cairo had not bidden for her, for the Cairenes are connoisseurs in
slave-girls.'" These words abashed Nur al-Din and he blushed and said to the
broker, "How high are the biddings for her?" He replied, "Her price hath
reached nine hundred and sixty dinars,[FN#471] besides brokerage, as for the
Sultan's dues, they fall on the seller." Quoth Nur al-Din, "Let me have her for
a thousand dinars, brokerage and price." And the damsel hastening to the fore
and leaving the broker, said, "I sell myself to this handsome young man for a
thousand dinars." But Nur al-Din held his peace. Quoth one, "We sell to him;"
and another, "He deserveth her;" and a third, "Accursed, son of accursed, is he
who biddeth and doth not buy!"; and a fourth, "By Allah, they befit each
other!" Then, before Nur al-Din could think, the broker fetched Kazis and
witnesses, who wrote out a contract of sale and purchase; and the broker handed
the paper to Nur al-Din, saying, "Take thy slave-girl and Allah bless thee in
her for she beseemeth none but thee and none but thou beseemeth her." And he
recited these two couplets,
"Boon Fortune sought him in humblest way[FN#472] * And came to
him draggle-tailed, all a-stir:
And none is fittest for him but she * And none is fittest but he
for her."
Hereat Nur al-Din was abashed before the merchants; so he arose without stay or
delay and weighed out the thousand dinars which he had left as a deposit with
his father's friend the druggist, and taking the girl, carried her to the house
wherein the Shaykh had lodged him. When she entered and saw nothing but ragged
patched carpets and worn out rugs, she said to him, "O my lord, have I no value
to thee and am I not worthy that thou shouldst bear me to thine own house and
home wherein are thy goods, that thou bringest me into thy servant's lodging?
Why dost thou not carry me to thy father's dwelling?" He replied, "By Allah, O
Princess of fair ones, this is my house wherein I dwell; but it belongeth to an
old man, a druggist of this city, who hath set it apart for me and lodged me
therein. I told thee that I was a stranger and that I am of the sons of Cairo
city." She rejoined, "O my lord, the least of houses sufficeth till thy return
to thy native place; but, Allah upon thee, O my lord, go now and fetch us
somewhat of roast meat and wine and dried fruit and dessert." Quoth Nur al-Din,
"By Allah, O Princess of fair ones, I had no money with me but the thousand
dinars I paid down to thy price nor possess I any other good. The few dirhams I
owned were spent by me yesterday." Quoth she, "Hast thou no friend in the town,
of whom thou mayst borrow fifty dirhams and bring them to me, that I may tell
thee what thou shalt do therewith?" And he said, "I have no intimate but the
druggist." Then he betook himself forthright to the druggist and said to him,
"Peace be with thee, O uncle!" He returned his salam and said to him, "O my
son, what hast thou bought for a thousand dinars this day?" Nur al-Din replied,
"I have bought a slave-girl;" and the oldster rejoined, "O my son, art thou mad
that thou givest a thousand dinars for one slave-girl? Would I knew what kind
of slave-girl she is?" Said Nur al-Din, "She is a damsel of the children of the
Franks;"—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
permitted say.
When it was the Eight Hundred and Seventy-fourth Night,
She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Nur al-Din said to the
ancient druggist, "The damsel is of the children of the Franks;" and the Shaykh
said, "O my son, the best of the girls of the Franks are to be had in this our
town for an hundred dinars, and by Allah, O my son, they have cheated thee in
the matter of this damsel! However, an thou have taken a fancy to her, lie with
her this night and do thy will of her and to-morrow morning go down with her to
the market and sell her, though thou lose by her two hundred dinars, and reckon
that thou hast lost them by shipwreck or hast been robbed of them on the road."
Nur al-Din replied, "Right is thy rede, O uncle, but thou knowest that I had
but the thousand dinars wherewith I purchased the damsel, and now I have not a
single dirham left to spend; so I desire of thy favour and bounty that thou
lend me fifty dirhams, to provide me withal, till to-morrow, when I will sell
her and repay thee out of her price." Said the old man, "Willingly, O my son,"
and counted out to him the fifty dirhams. Then he said to him, "O my son, thou
art but young in years and the damsel is fair, so belike thy heart will be
taken with her and it will be grievous to thee to vend her. Now thou hast
nothing to live on and these fifty dirhams will readily be spent and thou wilt
come to me and I shall lend thee once and twice and thrice, and so on up to ten
times; but, an thou come to me after this, I will not return thy salam[FN#473]
and our friendship with thy father will end ill." Nur al-Din took the fifty
dirhams and returned with them to the damsel, who said to him, "O my lord, wend
thee at once to the market and fetch me twenty dirhams' worth of stained silk
of five colours and with the other thirty buy meat and bread and fruit and wine
and flowers." So he went to the market and purchasing for her all she sought,
brought it to her, whereupon she rose and tucking up her sleeves, cooked food
after the most skilful fashion, and set it before him. He ate and she ate with
him, till they had enough, after which she set on the wine, and she drank and
he drank, and she ceased not to ply him with drink and entertain him with
discourse, till he became drunken and fell asleep. Thereupon she arose without
stay or delay and taking out of her bundle a budget of Táifí leather,[FN#474]
opened it and drew forth a pair of knitting needles, wherewith she fell to work
and stinted not till she had made a beautiful zone, which she folded up in a
wrapper after cleaning it and ironing it, and laid it under her pillow. Then
she doffed her dress till she was mother-naked and lying down beside Nur al-Din
shampoo'd him till he awoke from his heavy sleep. He found by his side a maiden
like virgin silver, softer than silk and delicater than a tail of fatted sheep,
than standard more conspicuous and goodlier than the red camel,[FN#475] in
height five feet tall with breasts firm and full, brows like bended bows, eyes
like gazelles' eyes and cheeks like blood-red anemones, a slender waist with
dimples laced and a navel holding an ounce of the unguent benzoin, thighs like
bolsters stuffed with ostrich-down, and between them what the tongue fails to
set forth and at mention whereof the tears jet forth. Brief it was as it were
she to whom the poet alluded in these two couplets,
"From her hair is Night, from her forehead Noon * From her
side-face Rose; from her lip wine boon:
From her Union Heaven, her Severance Hell: * Pearls from her
teeth; from her front full Moon."
And how excellent is the saying of another bard,[FN#476]
"A Moon she rises, Willow-wand she waves * Breathes ambergris and
gazeth a gazelle.
Meseems that sorrow wooes my heart and wins * And when she wends
makes haste therein to dwell.
Her face is fairer than the Stars of Wealth[FN#477] * And sheeny
brows the crescent Moon excel."
And quoth a third also,
"They shine fullest Moons, unveil Crescent-bright; *
Sway tenderest Branches and turn wild kine;
'Mid which is a Dark-eyed for love of whose charms *
The Sailors[FN#478] would joy to be ground low-li'en."
So Nur al-Din turned to her at once and clasping her to his bosom, sucked first
her upper lip and then her under lip and slid his tongue between the twain into
her mouth. Then he rose to her and found her a pearl unthridden and a filly
none but he had ridden. So he abated her maidenhead and had of her amorous
delight and there was knitted between them a love-bond which might never know
breach nor severance.[FN#479] He rained upon her cheeks kisses like the falling
of pebbles into water, and struck with stroke upon stroke, like the thrusting
of spears in battle brunt; for that Nur al-Din still yearned after clipping of
necks and sucking of lips and letting down of tress and pressing of waist and
biting of cheek and cavalcading on breast with Cairene buckings and Yamani
wrigglings and Abyssinian sobbings and Hindí pamoisons and Nubian
lasciviousness and Rífí leg-liftings[FN#480] and Damiettan moanings and
Sa'ídí[FN#481] hotness and Alexandrian languishment[FN#482] and this damsel
united in herself all these virtues, together with excess of beauty and
loveliness, and indeed she was even as saith of her the poet,
"This is she I will never forget till I die * Nor draw near but
to those who to her draw nigh.
A being for semblance like Moon at full * Praise her Maker, her
Modeller glorify!
Tho' be sore my sin seeking love-liesse * On esperance-day ne'er
repent can I;
A couplet reciting which none can know * Save the youth who in
couplets and rhymes shall cry,
'None weeteth love but who bears its load * Nor passion, save
pleasures and pains he aby.'"
So Nur al-Din lay with the damsel through the night in solace and delight,—And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
When it was the Eight Hundred and Seventy-fifth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Nur al-Din lay with that
damsel through the night in solace and delight, the twain garbed in the closely
buttoned garments of embrace, safe and secure against the misways of nights and
days, and they passed the dark hours after the goodliest fashion, fearing
naught, in their joys love-fraught, from excess of talk and prate. As saith of
them the right excellent poet,[FN#483]
"Go, visit her thou lovest, and regard not
The words detractors utter; envious churls
Can never favour love. Oh! sure the merciful
Ne'er make a thing more fair to look upon,
Than two fond lovers in each other's arms,
Speaking their passion in a mute embrace.
When heart has turned to heart, the fools would part them
Strike idly on cold steel. So when thou'st found
One purely, wholly thine, accept her true heart,
And live for her alone. Oh! thou that blamest
The love-struck for their love, give o'er thy talk
How canst thou minister to a mind diseased?"
When the morning morrowed in sheen and shone, Nur al-Din awoke from deep sleep
and found that she had brought water:[FN#484] so they made the Ghusl-ablution,
he and she, and he performed that which behoved him of prayer to his Lord,
after which she set before him meat and drink, and he ate and drank. Then the
damsel put her hand under her pillow and pulling out the girdle which she had
knitted during the night, gave it to Nur al-Din, who asked, "Whence cometh this
girdle?"[FN#485] Answered she, "O my lord, 'tis the silk thou boughtest
yesterday for twenty dirhams. Rise now and go to the Persian bazar and give it
to the broker, to cry for sale, and sell it not for less than twenty gold
pieces in ready money." Quoth Nur al-Din, "O Princess of fair ones how can a
thing, that cost twenty dirhams and will sell for as many dinars, be made in a
single night?"; and quoth she, "O my lord, thou knowest not the value of this
thing; but go to the market therewith and give it to the broker, and when he
shall cry it, its worth will be made manifest to thee." Herewith he carried the
zone to the market and gave it to the broker, bidding him cry it, whilst he
himself sat down on a masonry bench before a shop. The broker fared forth and
returning after a while said to him, "O my lord, rise take the price of thy
zone, for it hath fetched twenty dinars money down." When Nur al-Din heard
this, he marvelled with exceeding marvel and shook with delight. Then he rose,
between belief and misbelief, to take the money and when he had received it, he
went forthright and spent it all on silk of various colours and returning home,
gave his purchase to the damsel, saying, "Make this all into girdles and teach
me likewise how to make them, that I may work with thee; for never in the
length of my life saw I a fairer craft than this craft nor a more abounding in
gain and profit. By Allah, 'tis better than the trade of a merchant a thousand
times!" She laughed at his language and said, "O my lord, go to thy friend the
druggist and borrow other thirty dirhams of him, and to-morrow repay him from
the price of the girdle the thirty together with the fifty already loaned to
thee." So he rose and repaired to the druggist and said to him, "O Uncle, lend
me other thirty dirhams, and to-morrow, Almighty Allah willing, I will repay
thee the whole fourscore." The old man weighed him out thirty dirhams,
wherewith he went to the market and buying meat and bread, dried fruits, and
flowers as before, carried them home to the damsel whose name was
Miriam,[FN#486] the Girdle-girl. She rose forthright and making ready rich
meats, set them before her lord Nur al-Din; after which she brought the
wine-service and they drank and plied each other with drink. When the wine
began to play with their wits, his pleasant address and inner grace pleased
her, and she recited these two couplets,
"Said I to Slim-waist who the wine engraced * Brought in
musk-scented bowl and a superfine,
'Was it prest from thy cheek?' He replied 'Nay, nay! * When did
man from Roses e'er press the Wine?'"
And the damsel ceased not to carouse with her lord and ply him with cup and
bowl and require him to fill for her and give her to drink of that which
sweeteneth the spirits, and whenever he put forth hand to her, she drew back
from him, out of coquetry. The wine added to her beauty and loveliness, and Nur
al-Din recited these two couplets,
"Slim-waist craved wine from her companeer; * Cried (in meeting
of friends when he feared for his fere,)
'An thou pass not the wine thou shalt pass the night, * A-banisht
my bed!' And he felt sore fear."
They ceased not drinking till drunkenness overpowered Nur al-Din and he slept;
whereupon she rose forthright and fell to work upon a zone, as was her wont.
When she had wrought it to end, she wrapped it in paper and doffing her
clothes, lay down by his side and enjoyed dalliance and delight till morn
appeared.—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
permitted say.
When it was the Eight Hundred and Seventy-sixth Night,
She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Miriam the
Girdle-girl, having finished her zone and wrapped it in paper doffed her dress
and lay down by the side of her lord; and then happened to them what happened
of dalliance and delight; and he did his devoir like a man. On the morrow, she
gave him the girdle and said to him, "Carry this to the market and sell it for
twenty dinars, even as thou soldest its fellow yesterday." So he went to the
bazar and sold the girdle for twenty dinars, after which he repaired to the
druggist and paid him back the eighty dirhams, thanking him for the bounties
and calling down blessings upon him. He asked, "O my son, hast thou sold the
damsel?"; and Nur al-Din answered, "Wouldst thou have me sell the soul out of
my body?" and he told him all that had passed, from commencement to conclusion,
whereat the druggist joyed with joy galore, than which could be no more and
said to him, "By Allah, O my son, thou gladdenest me! Inshallah, mayst thou
ever be in prosperity! Indeed I wish thee well by reason of my affection for
thy father and the continuance of my friendship with him." Then Nur al-Din left
the Shaykh and straightway going to the market, bought meat and fruit and wine
and all that he needed according to his custom and returned therewith to
Miriam. They abode thus a whole year in eating and drinking and mirth and
merriment and love and good comradeship, and every night she made a zone and he
sold it on the morrow for twenty dinars, wherewith he bought their needs and
gave the rest to her, to keep against a time of necessity. After the
twelvemonth she said to him one day, "O my lord, whenas thou sellest the girdle
to-morrow, buy for me with its price silk of six colours, because I am minded
to make thee a kerchief to wear on thy shoulders, such as never son of
merchant, no, nor King's son, ever rejoiced in its like." So next day he fared
forth to the bazar and after selling the zone brought her the dyed silks she
sought and Miriam the Girdle-girl wrought at the kerchief a whole week, for,
every night, when she had made an end of the zone, she would work awhile at the
kerchief till it was finished. Then she gave it to Nur al-Din, who put it on
his shoulders and went out to walk in the market-place, whilst all the
merchants and folk and notables of the town crowded about him, to gaze on his
beauty and that of the kerchief which was of the most beautiful. Now it chanced
that one night, after this, he awoke from sleep and found Miriam weeping
passing sore and reciting these couplets,
"Nears my parting fro' my love, nigher draws the Severance-day *
Ah well-away for parting! and again ah well-away!
And in tway is torn my heart and O pine I'm doomed to bear * For
the nights that erst witnessed our pleasurable play!
No help for it but Envier the twain of us espy * With evil eye
and win to us his lamentable way.
For naught to us is sorer than the jealousy of men * And the
backbiter's eyne that with calumny affray."
He said, "O my lady Miriam,[FN#487] what aileth thee to weep?"; and she
replied, "I weep for the anguish of parting for my heart presageth me thereof."
Quoth he, "O lady of fair ones, and who shall interpose between us, seeing that
I love thee above all creatures and tender thee the most?"; and quoth she, "And
I love thee twice as well as thou me; but fair opinion of fortune still garreth
folk fall into affliction, and right well saith the poet,[FN#488]
'Think'st thou thyself all prosperous, in days which prosp'rous
be,
Nor fearest thou impending ill, which comes by Heaven's decree?
We see the orbs of heav'n above, how numberless they are,
But sun and moon alone eclips'd, and ne'er a lesser star!
And many a tree on earth we see, some bare, some leafy green,
Of them, not one is hurt with stone save that has fruitful been!
See'st not th' refluent ocean, bear carrion on its tide,
While pearls beneath its wavy flow, fixed in the deep, abide?'"
Presently she added, "O my lord Nur al-Din, an thou desire to nonsuit
separation, be on thy guard against a swart-visaged oldster, blind of the right
eye and lame of the left leg; for he it is who will be the cause of our
severance. I saw him enter the city and I opine that he is come hither in quest
of me." Replied Nur al-Din, "O lady of fair ones, if my eyes light on him, I
will slay him and make an example of him." Rejoined she, "O my lord, slay him
not; but talk not nor trade with him, neither buy nor sell with him nor sit nor
walk with him nor speak one word to him, no, not even the answer prescribed by
law,[FN#489] and I pray Allah to preserve us from his craft and his mischief."
Next morning, Nur al-Din took the zone and carried it to the market, where he
sat down on a shop-bench and talked with the sons of the merchants, till the
drowsiness preceding slumber overcame him and he lay down on the bench and fell
asleep. Presently, behold, up came the Frank whom the damsel had described to
him, in company with seven others, and seeing Nur al-Din lying asleep on the
bench, with his head wrapped in the kerchief which Miriam had made for him and
the edge thereof in his grasp, sat down by him and hent the end of the kerchief
in hand and examined it, turning it over for some time. Nur al-Din sensed that
there was something and awoke; then, seeing the very man of whom Miriam had
warned him sitting by his side, cried out at him with a great cry which
startled him. Quoth the Frank, "What aileth thee to cry out thus at us? Have we
taken from thee aught?"; and quoth Nur al-Din, "By Allah, O accursed, haddest
thou taken aught from me, I would carry thee before the Chief of Police!" Then
said the Frank, "O Moslem, I conjure thee by thy faith and by that wherein thou
believest, inform me whence thou haddest this kerchief;" and Nur al-Din
replied, "Tis the handiwork of my lady mother,"—And Shahrazad perceived the
dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
When it was the Eight Hundred and Seventy-seventh Night,
She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Frank asked
Nur al-Din anent the maker of the kerchief, he answered, saying, "In very sooth
this kerchief is the handiwork of my mother, who made it for me with her own
hand." Quoth the Frank "Wilt thou sell it to me and take ready money for it?,"
and quoth Nur al-Din, "By Allah, I will not sell it to thee or to any else, for
she made none other than it." "Sell it to me and I will give thee to its price
this very moment five hundred dinars, money down; and let her who made it make
thee another and a finer." "I will not sell it at all, for there is not the
like of it in this city." "O my lord, wilt thou sell it for six hundred ducats
of fine gold?" And the Frank went on to add to his offer hundred by hundred,
till he bid nine hundred dinars; but Nur al-Din said, "Allah will open to me
otherwise than by my vending it. I will never sell it, not for two thousand
dinars nor more than that; no, never." The Frank ceased not to tempt him with
money, till he bid him a thousand dinars, and the merchants present said, "We
sell thee the kerchief at that price:[FN#490] pay down the money." Quoth Nur
al-Din, "I will not sell it, I swear by Allah!"[FN#491] But one of the
merchants said to him, "Know thou, O my son, that the value of this kerchief is
an hundred dinars at most and that to an eager purchaser, and if this Frank pay
thee down a thousand for it, thy profit will be nine hundred dinars, and what
gain canst thou desire greater than this gain? Wherefore 'tis my rede that thou
sell him this kerchief at that price and bid her who wrought it make thee other
finer than it: so shalt thou profit nine hundred dinars by this accursed Frank,
the enemy of Allah and of The Faith." Nur al-Din was abashed at the merchants
and sold the kerchief to the Frank, who, in their presence, paid him down the
thousand dinars, with which he would have returned to his handmaid to
congratulate her on what had passed; but the stranger said, "Harkye, O company
of merchants, stop my lord Nur al-Din, for you and he are my guests this night.
I have a jar of old Greek wine and a fat lamb, fresh fruit, flowers and
confections; wherefore do ye all cheer me with your company to-night and not
one of you tarry behind." So the merchants said, "O my lord Nur al-Din, we
desire that thou be with us on the like of this night, so we may talk together,
we and thou, and we pray thee, of thy favour and bounty, to bear us company, so
we and thou, may be the guests of this Frank, for he is a liberal man." And
they conjured him by the oath of divorce[FN#492] and hindered him by main force
from going home. Then they rose forthright and shutting up their shops, took
Nur al-Din and fared with the Frank, who brought them to a goodly and spacious
saloon, wherein were two daďses. Here he made them sit and set before them a
scarlet tray-cloth of goodly workmanship and unique handiwork, wroughten in
gold with figures of breaker and broken, lover and beloved, asker and asked,
whereon he ranged precious vessels of porcelain and crystal, full of the
costliest confections, fruits and flowers, and brought them a flagon of old
Greek wine. Then he bade slaughter a fat lamb and kindling fire, proceeded to
roast of its flesh and feed the merchants therewith and give them draughts of
that wine, winking at them the while to ply Nur al-Din with drink. Accordingly
they ceased not plying him with wine till he became drunken and took leave of
his wits; so when the Frank saw that he was drowned in liquor, he said to him,
"O my lord Nur al-Din, thou gladdenest us with thy company to-night: welcome,
and again welcome to thee." Then he engaged him awhile in talk, till he could
draw near to him, when he said, with dissembling speech, "O my lord, Nur
al-Din, wilt thou sell me thy slave-girl, whom thou boughtest in presence of
these merchants a year ago for a thousand dinars? I will give thee at this
moment five thousand gold pieces for her and thou wilt thus make four thousand
ducats profit." Nur al-Din refused, but the Frank ceased not to ply him with
meat and drink and lure him with lucre, still adding to his offers, till he bid
him ten thousand dinars for her; whereupon Nur al-Din, in his drunkenness, said
before the merchants, "I sell her to thee for ten thousand dinars: hand over
the money." At this the Frank rejoiced with joy exceeding and took the
merchants to witness the sale. They passed the night in eating and drinking,
mirth and merriment, till the morning, when the Frank cried out to his pages,
saying, "Bring me the money." So they brought it to him and he counted out ten
thousand dinars to Nur al-Din, saying, "O my lord, take the price of thy
slave-girl, whom thou soldest to me last night, in the presence of these Moslem
merchants." Replied Nur al-Din, "O accursed, I sold thee nothing and thou liest
anent me, for I have no slave-girls." Quoth the Frank, "In very sooth thou
didst sell her to me and these merchants were witnesses to the bargain."
Thereupon all said, "Yes, indeed! thou soldest him thy slave-girl before us for
ten thousand dinars, O Nur al-Din and we will all bear witness against thee of
the sale. Come, take the money and deliver him the girl, and Allah will give
thee a better than she in her stead. Doth it irk thee, O Nur al-Din, that thou
boughtest the girl for a thousand dinars and hast enjoyed for a year and a half
her beauty and loveliness and taken thy fill of her converse and her favours?
Furthermore thou hast gained some ten thousand golden dinars by the sale of the
zones which she made thee every day and thou soldest for twenty sequins, and
after all this thou hast sold her again at a profit of nine thousand dinars
over and above her original price. And withal thou deniest the sale and
belittlest and makest difficulties about the profit! What gain is greater than
this gain and what profit wouldst thou have profitabler than this profit? An
thou love her thou hast had thy fill of her all this time: so take the money
and buy thee another handsomer than she; or we will marry thee to one of our
daughters, lovelier than she, at a dowry of less than half this price, and the
rest of the money will remain in thy hand as capital." And the merchants ceased
not to ply him with persuasion and special arguments till he took the ten
thousand dinars, the price of the damsel, and the Frank straightway fetched
Kazis and witnesses, who drew up the contract of sale by Nur al-Din of the
handmaid hight Miriam the Girdle-girl. Such was his case; but as regards the
damsel's, she sat awaiting her lord from morning till sundown and from sundown
till the noon of night; and when he returned not, she was troubled and wept
with sore weeping. The old druggist heard her sobbing and sent his wife, who
went in to her and finding her in tears, said to her, "O my lady, what aileth
thee to weep?" Said she, "O my mother, I have sat waiting the return of my
lord, Nur al-Din all day; but he cometh not, and I fear lest some one have
played a trick on him, to make him sell me, and he have fallen into the snare
and sold me."—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her
permitted say.
When it was the Eight Hundred and Seventy-eighth Night,
She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Miriam the Girdle-girl
said to the druggist's wife, "I am fearful lest some one have been playing a
trick on my lord to make him sell me, and he have fallen into the snare and
sold me." Said the other, "O my lady Miriam, were they to give thy lord this
hall full of gold as thy price, yet would he not sell thee, for what I know of
his love to thee. But, O my lady, belike there be a company come from his
parents at Cairo and he hath made them an entertainment in the lodging where
they alighted, being ashamed to bring them hither, for that the place is not
spacious enough for them or because their condition is less than that he should
bring them to his own house; or belike he preferred to conceal thine affair
from them, so passed the night with them; and Inshallah! to-morrow he will come
to thee safe and sound. So burden not thy soul with cark and care, O my lady,
for of a certainty this is the cause of his absence from thee last night and I
will abide with thee this coming night and comfort thee, until thy lord return
to thee." So the druggist's wife abode with her and cheered her with talk
throughout the dark hours and, when it was morning, Miriam saw her lord enter
the street followed by the Frank and amiddlemost a company of merchants, at
which sight her side-muscles quivered and her colour changed and she fell
a-shaking, as ship shaketh in mid-ocean for the violence of the gale. When the
druggist's wife saw this, she said to her, "O my lady Miriam what aileth thee
that I see thy case changed and thy face grown pale and show disfeatured?"
Replied she, "By Allah, O my lady, my heart forebodeth me of parting and
severance of union!" And she bemoaned herself with the saddest sighs, reciting
these couplets,[FN#493]
"Incline not to parting, I pray; * For bitter its savour is aye.
E'en the sun at his setting turns pale * To think he must part
from the day;
And so, at his rising, for joy * Of reunion, he's radient and
gay."
Then Miriam wept passing sore wherethan naught could be more, making sure of
separation, and cried to the druggist's wife, "O my mother, said I not to thee
that my lord Nur al-Din had been tricked into selling me? I doubt not but he
hath sold me this night to yonder Frank, albeit I bade him beware of him; but
deliberation availeth not against destiny. So the truth of my words is made
manifest to thee." Whilst they were talking, behold, in came Nur al-Din, and
the damsel looked at him and saw that his colour was changed and that he
trembled and there appeared on his face signs of grief and repentance: so she
said to him, "O my lord Nur al-Din, meseemeth thou hast sold me." Whereupon he
wept with sore weeping and groaned and lamented and recited these
couplets,[FN#494]
"When e'er the Lord 'gainst any man,
Would fulminate some harsh decree,
And he be wise, and skilled to hear,
And used to see;
He stops his ears, and blinds his heart,
And from his brain ill judgment tears,
And makes it bald as 'twere a scalp,
Reft of its hairs;[FN#495]
Until the time when the whole man
Be pierced by this divine command;
Then He restores him intellect
To understand."
Then Nur al-Din began to excuse himself to his handmaid, saying, "By Allah, O
my lady Miriam, verily runneth the Reed with whatso Allah hath decreed. The
folk put a cheat on me to make me sell thee, and I fell into the snare and sold
thee. Indeed, I have sorely failed of my duty to thee; but haply He who decreed
our disunion will vouchsafe us reunion." Quoth she, "I warned thee against
this, for this it was I dreaded." Then she strained him to her bosom and kissed
him between the eyes, reciting these couplets,
"Now, by your love! your love I'll ne'er forget, * Though lost my
life for stress of pine and fret:
I weep and wail through livelong day and night * As moans the
dove on sandhill-tree beset.
O fairest friends, your absence spoils my life; * Nor find I
meeting-place as erst we met."
At this juncture, behold, the Frank came in to them and went up to Miriam, to
kiss her hands; but she dealt him a buffet with her palm on the cheek, saying,
"Avaunt, O accursed! Thou hast followed after me without surcease, till thou
hast cozened my lord into selling me! But O accursed, all shall yet be well,
Inshallah!" The Frank laughed at her speech and wondered at her deed and
excused himself to her, saying, "O my lady Mirian, what is my offence? Thy lord
Nur al-Din here sold thee of his full consent and of his own free will. Had he
loved thee, by the right of the Messiah, he had not transgressed against thee!
And had he not fulfilled his desire of thee, he had not sold thee." Quoth one
of the poets,
'Whom I irk let him fly fro' me fast and faster * If I name his
name I am no directer.
Nor the wide wide world is to me so narrow * That I act expecter
to this rejecter.'"[FN#496]
Now this handmaid was the daughter of the King of France, the which is a wide
and spacious city,[FN#497] abounding in manufactures and rarities and trees and
flowers and other growths, and resembleth the city of Constantinople; and for
her going forth of her father's city there was a wondrous cause and thereby
hangeth a marvellous tale which we will set out in due order, to divert and
delight the hearer.[FN#498]—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased
saying her permitted say.
When it was the Eight Hundred and Seventy-ninth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the cause of Miriam the
Girdle-girl leaving her father and mother was a wondrous and thereby hangeth a
marvellous tale. She was reared with her father and mother in honour and
indulgence and learnt rhetoric and penmanship and arithmetic and cavalarice and
all manner crafts, such as broidery and sewing and weaving and girdle-making
and silk-cord making and damascening gold on silver and silver on gold, brief
all the arts both of men and women, till she became the union-pearl of her time
and the unique gem of her age and day. Moreover, Allah (to whom belong Might
and Majesty!) had endowed her with such beauty and loveliness and elegance and
perfection of grace that she excelled therein all the folk of her time, and the
Kings of the isles sought her in marriage of her sire, but he refused to give
her to wife to any of her suitors, for that he loved her with passing love and
could not bear to be parted from her a single hour. Moreover, he had no other
daughter than herself, albeit he had many sons, but she was dearer to him than
all of them. It fortuned one year that she fell sick of an exceeding sickness
and came nigh upon death, werefore she made a vow that, if she recovered from
her malady, she would make the pilgrimage to a certain monastery, situate in
such an island, which was high in repute among the Franks, who used to make
vows to it and look for a blessing therefrom. When Miriam recovered from her
sickness, she wished to accomplish her vow anent the monastery and her sire
despatched her to the convent in a little ship, with sundry daughters of the
city-notables to wait upon her and patrician Knights to protect them all. As
they drew near the island, there came out upon them a ship of the ships of the
Moslems, champions of The Faith, warring in Allah's way, who boarded the vessel
and making prize of all therein, knights and maidens, gifts and monies, sold
their booty in the city of Kayrawán.[FN#499] Miriam herself fell into the hands
of a Persian merchant, who was born impotent[FN#500] and for whom no woman had
ever discovered her nakedness; so he set her to serve him. Presently, he fell
ill and sickened well nigh unto death, and the sickness abode with him two
months, during which she tended him after the goodliest fashion, till Allah
made him whole of his malady, when he recalled her tenderness and
loving-kindness to him and the persistent zeal with which she had nurst him and
being minded to requite her the good offices she had done him, said to her,
"Ask a boon of me?" She said, "O my lord, I ask of thee that thou sell me not
but to the man of my choice." He answered, "So be it. I guarantee thee. By
Allah, O Miriam, I will not sell thee but to him of whom thou shalt approve,
and I put thy sale in thine own hand." And she rejoiced herein with joy
exceeding. Now the Persian had expounded to her Al-Islam and she became a
Moslemah and learnt of him the rules of worship. Furthermore during that period
the Perisan had taught her the tenets of The Faith and the observances
incumbent upon her: he had made her learn the Koran by heart and master
somewhat of the theological sciences and the traditions of the Prophet; after
which, he brought her to Alexandria-city and sold her to Nur al-Din, as we have
before set out. Meanwhile, when her father, the King of France, heard what had
befallen his daughter and her company, he saw Doomsday break and sent after her
ships full of knights and champions, horsemen and footmen; but they fell not in
any trace of her whom they sought in the Islands[FN#501] of the Moslems; so all
returned to him, crying out and saying, "Well-away!" and "Ruin!" and "Well
worth the day!" The King grieved for her with exceeding grief and sent after
her that one-eyed lameter, blind of the left,[FN#502] for that he was his chief
Wazir, a stubborn tyrant and a froward devil,[FN#503] full of craft and guile,
bidding him make search for her in all the lands of the Moslems and buy her,
though with a ship-load of gold. So the accursed sought her, in all the islands
of the Arabs and all the cities of the Moslems, but found no sign of her till
he came to Alexandria-city where he made quest for her and presently discovered
that she was with Nur al-Din Ali the Cairene, being directed to the trace of
her by the kerchief aforesaid, for that none could have wrought it in such
goodly guise but she. Then he bribed the merchants to help him in getting her
from Nur al-Din and beguiled her lord into selling her, as hath been already
related. When he had her in his possession, she ceased not to weep and wail: so
he said to her, "O my lady Miriam, put away from thee this mourning and
grieving and return with me to the city of thy sire, the seat of thy kingship
and the place of thy power and thy home, so thou mayst be among thy servants
and attendants and be quit of this abasement and this strangerhood. Enough hath
betided me of travail, of travel and of disbursing monies on thine account, for
thy father bade me buy thee back, though with a shipload of gold; and now I
have spent nigh a year and a half in seeking thee." And he fell to kissing her
hands and feet and humbling himself to her; but the more he kissed and
grovelled she only redoubled in wrath against him, and said to him, "O
accursed, may Almighty Allah not vouchsafe thee to win thy wish!" Presently his
pages brought her a she-mule with gold-embroidered housings and mounting her
thereon, raised over her head a silken canopy, with staves of gold and silver,
and the Franks walked round about her, till they brought her forth the city by
the sea-gate,[FN#504] where they took boat with her and rowing out to a great
ship in harbor embarked therein. Then the monocular Wazir cried out to the
sailors, saying, "Up with the mast!" So they set it up forthright and spreading
the newly bent sails and the colours manned the sweeps and put out to sea.
Meanwhile Miriam continued to gaze upon Alexandria, till it disappeared from
her eyes, when she fell a-weeping in her privacy with sore weeping.—And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
When it was the Eight Hundred and Eightieth Night,
She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Wazir of
the Frankish King put out to sea in the ship bearing Miriam the Girdle-girl,
she gazed Alexandria-wards till the city was hidden from her sight when she
wailed and wept copious tears and recited these couplets,
"O dwelling of my friends say is there no return * Uswards? But
what ken I of matters Allah made?
Still fare the ships of Severance, sailing hastily * And in my
wounded eyelids tear have ta'en their stead,
For parting from a friend who was my wish and will * Healed every
ill and every pain and pang allay'd.
Be thou, O Allah, substitute of me for him * Such charge some day
the care of Thee shall not evade."
Then she could not refrain from weeping and wailing. So the patrician[FN#505]
knights came up to her and would have comforted her, but she heeded not their
consoling words, being distracted by the claims of passion and love-longing.
And she shed tears and moaned and complained and recited these couplets,
"The tongue of Love within my vitals speaketh * Saying, 'This
lover boon of Love aye seeketh!'
And burn my liver hottest coals of passion * And parting on my
heart sore suffering wreaketh.
How shall I face this fiery love concealing * When fro' my
wounded lids the tear aye leaketh?
In this plight Miriam abode during all the voyage; no peace was left her at all
nor would patience come at her call. Such was her case in company with the
Wazir, the monocular, the lameter; but as regards Nur al-Din the Cairene, when
the ship had sailed with Miriam, the world was straitened upon him and he had
neither peace nor patience. He returned to the lodging where they twain had
dwelt, and its aspect was black and gloomy in his sight. Then he saw the métier
wherewith she had been wont to make the zones and her dress that had been upon
her beauteous body: so he pressed them to his breast, whilst the tears gushed
from his eyes and he recited these couplets,
"Say me, will Union after parting e'er return to be * After
long-lasting torments, after hopeless misery?
Alas! Alas! what wont to be shall never more return * But grant
me still return of dearest her these eyne may see.
I wonder me will Allah deign our parted lives unite * And will my
dear one's plighted troth preserve with constancy!
Naught am I save the prey of death since parting parted us; * And
will my friends consent that I a weird so deadly dree?
Alas my sorrow! Sorrowing the lover scant avails; * Indeed I melt
away in grief and passion's ecstasy:
Past is the time of my delight when were we two conjoined: *
Would Heaven I wot if Destiny mine esperance will degree!
Redouble then, O Heart, thy pains and, O mine eyes, o'erflow *
With tears till not a tear remain within these eyne of me?
Again alas for loved ones lost and loss of patience eke! * For
helpers fail me and my griefs are grown beyond decree.
The Lord of Threefold Worlds I pray He deign to me return * My
lover and we meet as wont in joy and jubilee."
Then Nur al-Din wept with weeping galore than which naught could be more; and
peering into ever corner of the room, recited these two couplets,
"I view their traces and with pain I pine * And by their sometime
home I weep and yearn;
And Him I pray who parting deigned decree * Some day He deign
vouchsafe me their return!"
Then Nur al-Din sprang to his feet and locking the door of the house, fared
forth running at speed, to the sea shore whence he fixed his eyes on the place
of the ship which had carried off his Miriam whilst sighs burst from his breast
and tears from his lids as he recited these couplets,
"Peace be with you, sans you naught compensateth me * The near,
the far, two cases only here I see:
I yearn for you at every hour and tide as yearns * For
water-place wayfarer plodding wearily.
With you abide my hearing, heart and eyen-sight * And (sweeter
than the honeycomb) your memory.
Then, O my Grief when fared afar your retinue * And bore that
ship away my sole expectancy."
And Nur al-Din wept and wailed, bemoaned himself and complained, crying out and
saying, "O Miriam! O Miriam! Was it but a vision of thee I saw in sleep or in
the allusions of dreams?" And by reason of that which grew on him of regrets,
he recited these couplets,[FN#506]
"Mazed with thy love no more I can feign patience,
This heart of mine has held none dear but thee!
And if mine eye hath gazed on other's beauty,
Ne'er be it joyed again with sight of thee!
I've sworn an oath I'll ne'er forget to love thee,
And sad's this breast that pines to meet with thee!
Thou'st made me drink a love-cup full of passion,
Blest time! When I may give the draught to thee!
Take with thee this my form where'er thou goest,
And when thou 'rt dead let me be laid near thee!
Call on me in my tomb, my bones shall answer
And sigh responses to a call from thee!
If it were asked, 'What wouldst thou Heaven should order?'
'His will,' I answer, 'First, and then what pleases thee.'"
As Nur al-Din was in this case, weeping and crying out, "O Miriam! O Miriam!"
behold, an old man landed from a vessel and coming up to him, saw him shedding
tears and heard him reciting these verses,
"O Maryam of beauty[FN#507] return, for these eyne * Are as
densest clouds railing drops in line:
Ask amid mankind and my railers shall say * That mine eyelids are
drowning these eyeballs of mine."
Said the old man, "O my son, meseems thou weepest for the damsel who sailed
yesterday with the Frank?" When Nur al-Din heard these words of the Shaykh he
fell down in a swoon and lay for a long while without life; then, coming to
himself, he wept with sore weeping and improvised these couplets,
"Shall we e'er be unite after severance-tide * And return in the
perfectest cheer to bide?
In my heart indeed is a lowe of love * And I'm pained by the
spies who my pain deride:
My days I pass in amaze distraught, * And her image a-nights I
would see by side:
By Allah, no hour brings me solace of love * And how can it when
makebates vex me and chide?
A soft-sided damsel of slenderest waist * Her arrows of eyne on
my heart hath plied?
Her form is like Bán[FN#508]-tree branch in garth * Shame her
charms the sun who his face most hide:
Did I not fear God (be He glorified!) * 'My Fair be glorified!'
Had I cried."
The old man looked at him and noting his beauty and grace and symmetry and the
fluency of his tongue and the seductiveness of his charms, had ruth on him and
his heart mourned for his case. Now that Shaykh was the captain of a ship,
bound to the damsel's city, and in this ship were a hundred Moslem merchants,
men of the Saving Faith; so he said to Nur al-Din, "Have patience and all will
yet be well; I will bring thee to her an it be the will of Allah, extolled and
exalted be He!"—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her
permitted say.
When it was the Eight Hundred and Eighty-first Night,
She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the old skipper
said to Nur al-Din, "I will bring thee to her, Inshallah!" the youth asked,
"When shall we set out?" and the other said, "Come but three days more and we
will depart in peace and prosperity." Nur al-Din rejoiced at the captain's
words with joy exceeding and thanked him for his bounty and benevolence. Then
he recalled the days of love-liesse dear and union with his slave-girl without
peer, and he shed bitter tears and recited these couplets,
"Say, will to me and you the Ruthful union show * My lords! Shall
e'er I win the wish of me or no?
A visit-boon by you will shifty Time vouchsafe? * And seize your
image eye-lids which so hungry grow?
With you were Union to be sold, I fain would buy; * But ah, I see
such grace doth all my means outgo!"
Then Nur al-Din went forthright to the market and bought what he needed of
viaticum and other necessaries for the voyage and returned to the Rais, who
said to him, "O my son, what is that thou hast with thee?" said he, "My
provisions and all whereof I have need for the voyage." Thereupon quoth the old
man, laughing, "O my son, art thou going a-pleasuring to Pompey's
Pillar?[FN#509] Verily, between thee and that thou seekest is two months'
journey and the wind be fair and the weather favourable." Then he took of him
somewhat of money and going to the bazar, bought him a sufficiency of all that
he needed for the voyage and filled him a large earthen jar[FN#510] with fresh
water. Nur al-Din abode in the ship three days until the merchants had made an
end of their precautions and preparations and embarked, when they set sail and
putting out to sea, fared on one-and-fifty days. After this, there came out
upon them corsairs,[FN#511] pirates who sacked the ship and taking Nur al-Din
and all therein prisoners, carried them to the city of France and paraded them
before the King, who bade cast them into jail, Nur al-Din amongst the number.
As they were being led to prison the galleon[FN#512] arrived with the Princess
Miriam and the one-eyed Wazir, and when it made the harbour, the lameter landed
and going up to the King gave him the glad news of his daughter's safe return:
whereupon they beat the kettledrums for good tidings and decorated the city
after the goodliest fashion. Then the King took horse, with all his guards and
lords and notables and rode down to the sea to meet her. The moment the ship
cast anchor she came ashore, and the King saluted her and embraced her and
mounting her on a bloodsteed, bore her to the palace, where her mother received
her with open arms, and asked her of her case and whether she was a maid as
before or whether she had become a woman carnally known by man.[FN#513] She
replied, "O my mother, how should a girl, who hath been sold from merchant to
merchant in the land of Moslems, a slave commanded, abide a virgin? The
merchant who bought me threatened me with the bastinado and violenced me and
took my maidenhead, after which he sold me to another and he again to a third."
When the Queen heard these her words, the light in her eyes became night and
she repeated her confession to the King who was chagrined thereat and his
affair was grievous to him. So he expounded her case to his Grandees and
Patricians[FN#514] who said to him, "O King, she hath been defiled by the
Moslems and naught will purify her save the striking off of an hundred
Mohammedan heads." Whereupon the King sent for the True Believers he had
imprisoned; and they decapitated them, one after another, beginning with the
captain, till none was left save Nur al-Din. They tare off a strip of his skirt
and binding his eyes therewith, led him to the rug of blood and were about to
smite his neck, when behold, an ancient dame came up to the King at that very
moment and said, "O my lord, thou didst vow to bestow upon each and every
church five Moslem captives, to help us in the service thereof, so Allah would
restore thee thy daughter the Princess Miriam; and now she is restored to thee,
so do thou fulfil thy vow." The King replied, "O my mother, by the virtue of
the Messiah and the Veritable Faith, there remaineth to me of the prisoners but
this one captive, whom they are about to put to death: so take him with thee to
help in the service of the church, till there come to me more prisoners of the
Moslems, when I will send thee other four. Hadst thou come earlier, before they
hewed off the heads of these, I had given thee as many as thou wouldest have."
The old woman thanked the King for his boon and wished him continuance of life,
glory and prosperity. Then without loss of time she went up to Nur al-Din, whom
she raised from the rug of blood; and, looking narrowly at him saw a comely
youth and a dainty, with a delicate skin and a face like the moon at her full;
whereupon she carried him to the church and said to him, "O my son, doff these
clothes which are upon thee, for they are fit only for the service of the
Sultan."[FN#515] So saying the ancient dame brought him a gown and hood of
black wool and a broad girdle,[FN#516] in which she clad and cowled him; and,
after binding on his belt, bade him do the service of the church. Accordingly,
he served the church seven days, at the end of which time behold, the old woman
came up to him and said, "O Moslem, don thy silken dress and take these ten
dirhams and go out forthright and divert thyself abroad this day, and tarry not
here a single moment, lest thou lose thy life." Quoth he, "What is to do, O my
mother?"; and quoth she, "Know, O my son, that the King's daughter, the
Princess Miriam the Girdle-girl, hath a mind to visit the church this day, to
seek a blessing by pilgrimage and to make oblation thereto, a douceur[FN#517]
of thank-offering for her deliverance from the land of the Moslems and in
fulfilment of the vows she vowed to the Messiah, so he would save her. With her
are four hundred damsels, not one of whom but is perfect in beauty and
loveliness and all of them are daughters of Wazirs and Emirs and Grandees: they
will be here during this very hour and if their eyes fall on thee in this
church, they will hew thee in pieces with swords." Thereupon Nur al-Din took
the ten dirhams from the ancient dame, and donning his own dress, went out to
the bazar and walked about the city and took his pleasure therein, till he knew
its highways and gates,—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to
say her permitted say.
When it was the Eight Hundred and Eighty-second Night,
She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Nur al-Din, after
donning his own dress and taking the ten dirhams from the ancient dame, fared
forth to the market streets and wandered about a while till he knew every
quarter of the city, after which he returned to the church[FN#518] and saw the
Princess Miriam the Girdle-girl, daughter of the King of France come up to the
fane, attended by four hundred damsels, high-bosomed maids like moons, amongst
whom was the daughter of the one-eyed Wazir and those of the Emirs and Lords of
the realm; and she walked in their midst as she were moon among stars. When his
eyes fell upon her Nur al-Din could not contain himself, but cried out from the
core of his heart, "O Miriam! O Miriam!" When the damsels heard his outcry they
ran at him with swords shining bright like flashes of leven-light and would
have slain him forthright. But the Princess turned and looking on him, knew him
with fullest knowledge, and said to her maidens, "Leave this youth; doubtless
he is mad, for the signs of madness be manifest on his face." When Nur al-Din
heard this, he uncovered his head and rolled his eyes and made signs with his
hands and twisted his legs, foaming the while at the mouth. Quoth the Princess,
"Said I not that the poor youth was mad? Bring him to me and stand off from
him, that I may hear what he saith; for I know the speech of the Arabs and will
look into his case and see if his madness admit of cure or not." So they laid
hold of him and brought him to her; after which they withdrew to a distance and
she said to him, "Hast thou come hither on my account and ventured thy life for
my sake and feignest thyself mad?" He replied, "O my lady, hast thou not heard
the saying of the poet?,[FN#519]
'Quoth they, 'Thou'rt surely raving mad for her thou lov'st;' and
I, 'There is no pleasantness in life but for the mad,'
reply.
Compare my madness with herself for whom I rave; if she Accord
therewith, then blame me not for that which I aby.'"
Miriam replied, "By Allah, O Nur al-Din, indeed thou hast sinned against
thyself, for I warned thee of this before it befell thee: yet wouldst thou not
hearken to me, but followedst thine own lust: albeit that whereof I gave thee
to know I learnt not by means of inspiration nor physiognomy[FN#520] nor
dreams, but by eye-witness and very sight; for I saw the one-eyed Wazir and
knew that he was not come to Alexandria but in quest of me." Said he, "O my
lady Miriam, we seek refuge with Allah from the error of the
intelligent!"[FN#521] Then his affliction redoubled on him and he recited this
saying,[FN#522]
"Pass o'er my fault, for 'tis the wise man's wont
Of other's sins to take no harsh account;
And as all crimes have made my breast their site,
So thine all shapes of mercy should unite.
Who from above would mercy seek to know,
Should first be merciful to those below."
Then Nur al-Din and Princess Miriam ceased not from lovers' chiding which to
trace would be tedious, relating each to other that which had befallen them and
reciting verses and making moan, one to other, of the violence of passion and
the pangs of pine and desire, whilst the tears ran down their cheeks like
rivers, till there was left them no strength to say a word and so they
continued till day deprated and night darkened. Now the Princess was clad in a
green dress, purfled with red gold and broidered with pearls and gems which
enhanced her beauty and loveliness and inner grace; and right well quoth the
poet of her,[FN#523]
"Like the full moon she shineth in garments all of green, With
loosened vest and collars and flowing hair beseen.
'What is thy name?' I asked her, and she replied, 'I'm she Who
roasts the hearts of lovers on coals of love and teen.
I am the pure white silver, ay, and the gold wherewith The
bondsmen from strait prison and dour releasčd been.'
Quoth I, 'I'm all with rigours consumed;' but 'On a rock,' Said
she, 'such as my heart is, thy plaints are wasted clean.'
'Even if thy heart,' I answered, 'be rock in very deed, Yet hath
God caused fair water well from the rock, I ween.'"
And when night darkened on them the Lady Miriam went up to her women and asked
them, "Have ye locked the door?"; and they answered, "Indeed we have locked
it." So she took them and went with them to a place called the Chapel of the
Lady Mary the Virgin, Mother of Light, because the Nazarenes hold that there
are her heart and soul. The girls betook themselves to prayer for blessings
from above and circuited all the church; and when they had made an end of their
visitation, the Princess turned to them and said, "I desire to pass the night
alone in the Virgin's chapel and seek a blessing thereof, for that yearning
after it hath betided me, by reason of my long absence in the land of the
Moslems; and as for you, when ye have made an end of your visitation, do ye
sleep whereso ye will." Replied they, "With love and goodly gree: be it as thou
wilt!"; and leaving her alone in the chapel, dispersed about the church and
slept. The Lady Miriam waited till they were out of sight and hearing, then
went in search of Nur al-Din, whom she found sitting in a corner on live coals,
awaiting her. He rose and kissed her hands and feet and she sat down and seated
him by her side. Then she pulled off all that was upon her of raiment and
ornaments and fine linen and taking Nur al-Din in her arms strained him to her
bosom. And they ceased not, she and he, from kissing and clipping and strumming
to the tune of "hocus-pocus,"[FN#524] saying the while, "How short are the
nights of Union and the nights of Disunion how long are they!" and reciting
these verses,
"O Night of Union, Time's virginal prized, * White star of the
Nights with auroral dyes,
Thou garrest Dawn after Noon to rise * Say art thou Kohl in
Morning's Eyes,
Or wast thou Slumber to bleared eye lief?
O Night of Parting, how long thy stay * Whose latest hours aye
the first portray,
This endless circle that noways may * Show breach till the coming
of Judgment-day,
Day when dies the lover of parting-grief."[FN#525]
As they were in this mighty delight and joy engrossing they heard one of the
servants of the Saint[FN#526] smite the gong[FN#527] upon the roof, to call the
folk to the rites of their worship, and he was even as saith the poet,
"I saw him strike the gong and asked of him straightway, * Who
made the Fawn[FN#528] at striking going so knowing, eh?'
And to my soul, 'What smiting irketh thee the more— * Striking
the gong or striking note of going,[FN#529] say?'"
—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
When it was the Eight Hundred and Eighty-third Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Nur al-Din and Miriam the
Girdle-girl rose forthwith and donned her clothes and ornaments; but this was
grievous to Nur al-Din, and his gladness was troubled; the tears streamed from
his eyes and he recited these couplets,
"I ceasčd not to kiss that cheek with budding roses dight * And
eyes down cast and bit the same with most emphatic bite;
Until we were in gloria[FN#530] and lay him down the spy * And
sank his eyes within his brain declining further sight:
And struck the gongs as they that had the charge of them were
like * Muezzin crying duty-prayers in Allah's book indite.
Then rose she up right hastily and donned the dress she'd doffed
* Sore fearing lest a shooting-star[FN#531] upon our heads
alight.
And cried, 'O wish and will of me, O end of all my hopes! *
Behold the morning comes to us in brightest whitest light.'
I swear if but one day of rule were given to my life * And I were
made an Emperor of majesty and might,
Adown I'd break the buttresses of churches one and all * And by
their slaughter rid the earth of every shaveling wight."
Then the Lady Miriam pressed him to her bosom and kissed his cheek and asked
him, "O Nur al-Din, how long hast thou been in this town?" "Seven days." "Hast
thou walked about in it, and dost thou know its ways and issues and its
sea-gates and land gates?" "Yes!" "Knowest thou the way to the
offertory-chest[FN#532] of the church?" "Yes!" "Since thou knowest all this, as
soon as the first third[FN#533] of the coming night is over, go to the
offertory-chest and take thence what thou wishest and willest. Then open the
door that giveth upon the tunnel[FN#534] leading to the sea, and go down to the
harbour, where thou wilt find a little ship and ten men therein, and when the
Rais shall see thee, he will put out his hand to thee. Give him thy hand and he
will take thee up into the ship, and do thou wait there till I come to thee.
But 'ware and have a care lest sleep overtake thee this night, or thou wilt
repent whenas repentance shall avail thee naught." Then the Princess farewelled
him and going forth from Nur al-Din, aroused from sleep her women and the rest
of the damsels, with whom she betook herself to the church door and knocked;
whereupon the ancient dame opened to her and she went forth and found the
knights and varlets standing without. They brought her a dapple she-mule and
she mounted: whereupon they raised over her head a canopy[FN#535] with curtains
of silk, and the knights took hold of the mule's halter. Then the
guards[FN#536] encompassed her about, drawn brand in hand, and fared on with
her, followed by her, till they brought her to the palace of the King her
father. Meanwhile, Nur al-Din abode concealed behind the curtain, under cover
of which Miriam and he had passed the night, till it was broad day, when the
main door was opened and the church became full of people. Then he mingled with
the folk and accosted the old Prioress, the guardian[FN#537] of the shrine, who
said to him, "Where didst thou lie last night?" Said he, "In the town as thou
badest me." Quoth she, "O my son, thou hast done the right thing; for, hadst
thou nighted in the Church, she had slain thee on the foulest wise." And quoth
he, "Praised be Allah who hath delivered me from the evil of this night!" Then
he busied himself with the service of the church and ceased not busying till
day departed and night with darkness starkened when he arose and opened the
offertory-chest and took thence of jewels whatso was light of weight and
weighty of worth. Then he tarried till the first watch of the night was past,
when he made his way to the postern of the tunnel and opening it, went forth,
calling on Allah for protection, and ceased not faring on until, after finding
and opening the door, he came to the sea. Here he discovered the vessel moored
to the shore near the gate; and her skipper, a tall old man of comely aspect
with a long beard, standing in the waist, his ten men being ranged before him.
Nur al-Din gave him his hand, as Miriam had bidden him, and the captain took it
and pulling him on board of the ship cried out to his crew, saying, "Cast off
the moorings and put out to sea with us, ere day break." Said one of the ten,
"O my lord the Captain, how shall we put out now, when the King hath notified
us that to-morrow he will embark in this ship and go round about the sea, being
fearful for his daughter Miriam from the Moslem thieves?" But the Rais cried
out at them saying, "Woe to you, O accursed; Dare ye gainsay me and bandy words
with me?" So saying the old captain bared his blade and with it dealt the
sailor who had spoken a thrust in the throat, that the steel came out gleaming
from his nape; and quoth another of the sailors, "What hath our comrade done of
crime, that thou shouldst cut his throat?" Thereupon the captain clapped hand
to sword and smote off the speaker's head, nor did he leave smiting the rest of
the sailors till he had slain them all, one after other, and cast the ten
bodies ashore. Then he turned to Nur al-Din and cried out at him with a
terrible great cry, that made him tremble, saying, "Go down and pull up the
mooring-stake." Nur al-Din feared lest he should strike him also with the
sword; so he sprang up and leapt ashore and pulling up the stake jumped aboard
again, swiftlier than the dazzling leven. The captain ceased not to bid him do
this and do that and tack and wear hither and thither and look at the stars,
and Nur al-Din did all that he bade him, with heart a-quaking for affright;
whilst he himself spread the sails, and the ship fared with the twain into the
dashing sea, swollen with clashing billows.—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of
day and ceased to say her permitted say.
When it was the Eight Hundred and Eighty-fourth Night,
She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the old skipper
had made sail he drave the ship, aided by Nur al-Din, into the dashing sea
before a favouring gale. Meanwhile, Nur al-Din held on to the tackle immersed
in deep thought, and drowned in the sea of solicitude, knowing not what was
hidden for him in the future; and whenever he looked at the captain, his heart
quaked and he knew not whither the Rais went with him. He abode thus,
preoccupied with care and doubt, till it was high day, when he looked at the
skipper and saw him take hold of his long beard and pull at it, whereupon it
came off in his hand and Nur al-Din, examining it, saw that it was but a false
beard glued on. So he straitly considered that same Rais, and behold, it was
the Princess Miriam, his mistress and the dearling of his heart, who had
contrived to waylay the captain and slay him and skinned off his beard, which
she had stuck on to her own face. At this Nur al-Din was transported for joy,
and his breast broadened and he marvelled at her prowess and the stoutness of
her heart and said to her, "Welcome, O my hope and my desire and the end of
mine every wish!" Then love and gladness agitated him and he made sure of
winning to his hopes and his expectancy; wherefore he broke out into song and
chanted these couplets,
"To all who unknown my love for the May * From whom Fate disjoins
me O say, I pray,
'Ask my kith and kin of my love that aye * Ensweetens my verses
to lovely lay:
For the loss of the tribesmen my life o'er sway!'
Their names when named heal all malady; * Cure and chase from
heart every pain I dree:
And my longings for love reach so high degree * That my Sprite is
maddened each morn I see,
And am grown of the crowd to be saw and say.
No blame in them will I e'er espy: * No! nor aught of solace sans
them descry:
Your love hath shot me with pine, and I * Bear in heart a flame
that shall never die,
But fire my liver with fiery ray.
All folk my sickness for marvel score * That in darkest night I
wake evermore
What ails them to torture this heart forlore * And deem right for
loving my blood t' outpour:
And yet—how justly unjust are they!
Would I wot who 'twas could obtain of you * To wrong a youth
who's so fain of you:
By my life and by Him who made men of you * And the spy tell
aught I complain of you
He lies, by Allah, in foulest way!
May the Lord my sickness never dispel, * Nor ever my heart of its
pains be well,
What day I regret that in love I fell * Or laud any land but
wherein ye dwell:
Wring my heart and ye will or make glad and gay!
I have vitals shall ever be true to you * Though racked by the
rigours not new to you
Ere this wrong and this right I but sue to you: * Do what you
will to thrall who to you
Shall ne'er grudge his life at your feet to lay."
When Nur al-Din ceased to sing, the Princess Miriam marvelled at his song and
thanked him therefor, saying, "Whoso's case is thus it behoveth him to walk the
ways of men and never do the deed of curs and cowards." Now she was stout of
heart and cunning in the sailing of ships over the salt sea, and she knew all
the winds and their shiftings and every course of the main. So Nur al-Din said,
"O my lady, hadst thou prolonged this case on me,[FN#538] I had surely died for
stress of affright and chagrin, more by token of the fire of passion and
love-longing and the cruel pangs of separation." She laughed at his speech and
rising without stay or delay brought out somewhat of food and liquor; and they
ate and drank and enjoyed themselves and made merry. Then she drew forth rubies
and other gems and precious stones and costly trinkets of gold and silver and
all manner things of price, light of weight and weighty of worth, which she had
taken from the palace of her sire and his treasuries, and displayed them to Nur
al-Din, who rejoiced therein with joy exceeding. All this while the wind blew
fair for them and merrily sailed the ship nor ceased sailing till they drew
near the city of Alexandria and sighted its landmarks, old and new, and
Pompey's Pillar. When they made the port, Nur al-Din landed forthright and
securing the ship to one of the Fulling-Stones,[FN#539] took somewhat of the
treasures that Miriam had brought with her, and said to her, "O my lady, tarry
in the ship, against I return and carry thee up into the city in such way as I
should wish and will." Quoth she, "It behoveth that this be done quickly, for
tardiness in affairs engendereth repentance." Quoth he, "There is no tardiness
in me;" and, leaving her in the ship, went up into the city to the house of the
druggist his father's old fried, to borrow of his wife for Miriam veil and
mantilla, and walking boots and petticoat-trousers after the usage of the women
of Alexandria, unknowing that there was appointed to betide him of the shifts
of Time, the Father of Wonders, that which was far beyond his reckoning. Thus
it befel Nur al-Din and Miriam the Girdle-girl; but as regards her sire the
King of France, when he arose in the morning, he missed his daughter and
questioned her women and her eunuchs of her. Answered they, "O our lord, she
went out last night, to go to Church and after that we have no tidings of her."
But, as the King talked with them, behold, there arose so great a clamour of
cries below the palace, that the place rang thereto, and he said, "What may be
the news?" The folk replied, "O King, we have found ten men slain on the
sea-shore, and the royal yacht is missing. Moreover we saw the postern of the
Church, which giveth upon the tunnel leading to the sea, wide open; and the
Moslem prisoner, who served in the Church, is missing." Quoth the King, "An my
ship be lost, without doubt or dispute."—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of
day and ceased saying her permitted say.
When it was the Eight Hundred and Eighty-fifth Night,
She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the King of
France missed his daughter they brought him tidings of her, saying, "Thy yacht
is lost"; and he replied, "An the craft be lost, without dispute or doubt my
daughter is in it." So he summoned without stay or delay the Captain of the
Port and cried out at him, saying, "By the virtue[FN#540] of the Messiah and
the Faith which is no liar, except thou and thy fighting men overtake my ship
forthright and bring it back to me, with those who are therein, I will do thee
die the foulest of deaths and make a terrible example of thee!" Thereupon the
captain went out from before him, trembling, and betook himself to the ancient
dame of the Church, to whom said he, 'Heardest thou aught from the captive,
that was with thee, anent his native land and what countryman he was?" And she
answered, "He used to say, I come from the town of Alexandria." When the
captain heard the old woman's words he returned forthright to the port and
cried out to the sailors, "Make ready and set sail." So they did his bidding
and straightway putting out to sea, fared night and day till they sighted the
city of Alexandria at the very time when Nur al-Din landed, leaving the
Princess in the ship. They soon espied the royal yacht and knew her; so they
moored their own vessel at a distance therefrom and putting off in a little
frigate they had with them, which drew but two cubits of water and in which
were an hundred fighting-men, amongst them the one-eyed Wazir (for that he was
a stubborn tyrant and a froward devil and a wily thief, none could avail
against his craft, as he were Abu Mohammed al-Battál[FN#541]), they ceased not
rowing till they reached the bark and boarding her, all at once, found none
therein save the Princess Miriam. So they took her and the ship, and returning
to their own vessel, after they had landed and waited a long while,[FN#542] set
sail forthright for the land of the Franks, having accomplished their errand,
without a fight or even drawing sword. The wind blew fair for them and they
sailed on, without ceasing and with all diligence, till they reached the city
of France and landing with the Princess Miriam carried her to her father, who
received her, seated on the throne of his Kingship. As soon as he saw her, he
said to her, "Woe to thee, O traitress! What ailed thee to leave the faith of
thy fathers and forefathers and the safeguard of the Messiah, on whom is our
reliance, and follow after the faith of the Vagrants,[FN#543] to wit, the faith
of Al-Islam, the which arose with the sword against the Cross and the Images?"
Replied Miriam, "I am not at fault, I went out by night to the church, to visit
the Lady Mary and seek a blessing of her, when there fell upon me unawares a
band of Moslem robbers, who gagged me and bound me fast and carrying me on
board the barque, set sail with me for their own country. However, I beguiled
them and talked with them of their religion, till they loosed my bonds; and ere
I knew it thy men overtook me and delivered me. And by the virtue of the
Messiah and the Faith which is no liar and the Cross and the Crucified thereon,
I rejoiced with joy exceeding in my release from them and my bosom broadened
and I was glad for my deliverance from the bondage of the Moslems!" Rejoined
the King, "Thou liest, O whore! O adultress! By the virtue of that which is
revealed of prohibition and permission in the manifest Evangel,[FN#544] I will
assuredly do thee die by the foulest of deaths and make thee the vilest of
examples! Did it not suffice thee to do as thou didst the first time and put
off thy lies upon us, but thou must return upon us with thy deceitful
inventions?" Thereupon the King bade kill her and crucify her over the palace
gate; but, at that moment the one-eyed Wazir, who had long been enamoured of
the Princess, came in to him and said, "Ho King! slay her not, but give her to
me to wife, and I will watch over her with the utmost warding, nor will I go in
unto her, till I have built her a palace of solid stone, exceeding high of
foundation, so no thieves may avail to climb up to its terrace-roof; and when I
have made an end of building it, I will sacrifice thirty Moslems before the
gate thereof, as an expiatory offering to the Messiah for myself and for her."
The King granted his request and bade the priests and monks and patriarchs
marry the Princess to him; so they did his bidding, whereupon he bade set about
building a strong and lofty palace, befitting her rank and the workmen fell to
work upon it. On this wise it betided the Princess Miriam and her sire and the
one-eyed Wazir; but as regards Nur al-Din, when he came back with the
petticoat-trousers and mantilla and walking boots and all the attire of
Alexandrian women which he had borrowed of the druggist's wife, he "found the
air void and the fane afar[FN#545]";—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day
and ceased to say her permitted say.
When it was the Eight Hundred and Eighty-sixth Night,
She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Nur al-Din,
"found the air void[FN#546] and the fane afar," his heart sank within him and
he wept floods of tears and recited these verses,[FN#547]
"The phantom of Soada came by night to wake me towards morning
while my companions were sleeping in the desert:
But when we awoke to behold the nightly phantom, I saw the air
vacant, and the place of visitation distant."
Then Nur al-Din walked on along the sea-shore and turned right and left, till
he saw folk gathered together on the beach and heard them say, "O Moslems,
there remaineth no honour to Alexandria-city, since the Franks enter it and
snatch away those who are therein and return to their own land, at their
leisure[FN#548] nor pursued of any of the Moslems or fighters for the Faith!"
Quoth Nur al-Din to them, "What is to do?"; and quoth they, "O my son, one of
the ships of the Franks, full of armed men, came down but now upon the port and
carried off a ship which was moored here, with her that was therein, and made
unmolested for their own land." Nur al-Din fell down a-swoon, on hearing these
words; and when he recovered they questioned him of his case and he told them
all that had befallen him first and last; whereupon they all took to reviling
him and railing at him, saying, "Why couldst thou not bring her up into the
town without mantilla and muffler?" And all and each of the folk gave him some
grievous word, berating him with sharp speech, and shooting at him some shaft
of reproach, albeit one said, "Let him be; that which hath befallen him
sufficeth him," till he again fell down in a fainting-fit. And behold, at this
moment, up came the old druggist, who, seeing the folk gathered together, drew
near to learn what was the matter and found Nur al-Din lying a-swoon in their
midst. So he sat down at his head and arousing him, said to him as soon as he
recovered, "O my son, what is this case in which I see thee?" Nur al-Din said,
"O uncle, I had brought back in a barque my lost slave-girl from her father's
city, suffering patiently all I suffered of perils and hardships; and when I
came with her to this port, I made the vessel fast to the shore and leaving her
therein, repaired to thy dwelling and took of thy consort what was needful for
her, that I might bring her up into the town; but the Franks came and capturing
barque and damsel made off unhindered, and returned to their own land." Now
when the Shaykh, the druggist, heard this, the light in his eyes became night
and he grieved with sore grieving for Nur al-Din and said to him, "O my son,
why didst thou not bring her out of the ship into the city without mantilla?
But speech availeth not at this season; so rise, O my son, and come up with me
to the city; haply Allah will vouchsafe thee a girl fairer than she, who shall
console thee for her. Alhamdolillah-praised be Allah-who hath not made thee
lose aught by her! Nay, thou hast gained by her. And bethink thee, O my son,
that Union and Disunion are in the hands of the Most High King." Replied Nur
al-Din, "By Allah, O uncle, I can never be consoled for her loss nor will I
ever leave seeking her, though on her account I drink the cup of death!"
Rejoined the druggist, "O my son, and what art thou minded to do?" Quoth Nur
al-Din, "I am minded to return to the land of the Franks[FN#549] and enter the
city of France and emperil myself there; come what may, loss of life or gain of
life." Quoth the druggist, "O my son, there is an old saw, 'Not always doth the
crock escape the shock'; and if they did thee no hurt the first time, belike
they will slay thee this time, more by token that they know thee now with full
knowledge." Quoth Nur al-Din, "O my uncle, let me set out and be slain for the
love of her straightway and not die of despair for her loss by slow torments."
Now as Fate determined there was then a ship in port ready to sail, for its
passengers had made an end of their affairs[FN#550] and the sailors had pulled
up the mooring-stakes, when Nur al-Din embarked in her. So they shook out their
canvas and relying on the Compassionate, put out to sea and sailed many days,
with fair wind and weather, till behold, they fell in with certain of the Frank
cruisers, which were scouring those waters and seizing upon all ships they saw,
in their fear for the King's daughter from the Moslem corsairs: and as often as
they made prize of a Moslem ship, they carried all her people to the King of
France, who put them to death in fulfilment of the vow he had vowed on account
of his daughter Miriam. So, seeing the ship wherein was Nur al-Din they boarded
her and taking him and the rest of the company prisoners, to the number of an
hundred Moslems, carried them to the King and set them between his hands. He
bade cut their throats. Accordingly they slaughtered them all forthwith, one
after another, till there was none left but Nur al-Din, whom the headsman had
left to the last, in pity of his tender age and slender shape. When the King
saw him, he knew him right well and said to him, "Art thou not Nur al-Din, who
was with us before?" Said he, "I was never with thee: and my name is not Nur
al-Din, but Ibrahim." Rejoined the King; "Thou liest, thou art Nur al-Din, he
whom I gave to the ancient dame the Prioress, to help her in the service of the
church." But Nur al-Din replied, "O my lord, my name is Ibrahim." Quoth the
King, "Wait a while," and bade his knights fetch the old woman forthright,
saying, "When she cometh and seeth thee, she will know an thou be Nur al-Din or
not." At this juncture, behold, in came the one-eyed Wazir who had married the
Princess and kissing the earth before the King said to him, "Know, O King, that
the palace is finished; and thou knowest how I vowed to the Messiah that, when
I had made an end of building it, I would cut thirty Moslems' throats before
its doors; wherefore I am come to take them of thee, that I may sacrifice them
and so fulfil my vow to the Messiah. They shall be at my charge, by way of
loan, and whenas there come prisoners to my hands, I will give thee other
thirty in lieu of them." Replied the King, 'By the virtue of the Messiah and
the Faith which is no liar, I have but this one captive left!" And he pointed
to Nur al-Din, saying, "Take him and slaughter him at this very moment and the
rest I will send thee when there come to my hands other prisoners of the
Moslems." Thereupon the one-eyed Wazir arose and took Nur al-Din and carried
him to his palace, thinking to slaughter him on the threshold of the gate; but
the painters said to him, "O my lord, we have two days' painting yet to do: so
bear with us and delay to cut the throat of this captive, till we have made an
end of our work; haply by that time the rest of the thirty will come, so thou
mayst despatch them all at one bout and accomplish thy vow in a single day."
Thereupon the Wazir bade imprison Nur al-Din.—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn
of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
When it was the Eight Hundred and Eighty-seventh Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the Wazir bade
imprison Nur al-Din, they carried him to the stables and left him there in
chains, hungering and thirsting and making moan for himself; for indeed he saw
death face to face. Now it fortuned, by the ordinance of Destiny and
fore-ordained Fate, that the King had two stallions, own brothers,[FN#551] such
as the Chosroe Kings might sigh in vain to possess themselves of one of them;
they were called Sábik and Láhik[FN#552] and one of them was pure silvern white
while the other was black as the darksome night. And all the Kings of the isles
had said, "Whoso stealeth us one of these stallions, we will give him all he
seeketh of red gold and pearls and gems;" but none could avail to steal them.
Now one of them fell sick of a jaundice and there came a whiteness over his
eyes;[FN#553] whereupon the King gathered together all the farriers in the city
to treat him; but they all failed of his cure. Presently the Wazir came into
the King; and finding him troubled because of the horse, thought to do away his
concern and said to him, "O King, give me the stallion and I will cure him,"
The King consented and caused carry the horse to the stable wherein Nur al-Din
lay chained; but, when he missed his brother, he cried out with an exceeding
great cry and neighed, so that he affrighted all the folk. The Wazir, seeing
that he did thus but because he was parted from his brother, went to tell the
King, who said, "If this, which is but a beast, cannot brook to be parted from
his brother, how should it be with those that have reason?" And he bade his
grooms take the other horse and put him with his brother in the Wazir's
stables, saying, "Tell the Minister that the two stallions be a gift from me to
him, for the sake of my daughter Miriam." Nur al-Din was lying in the stable,
chained and shackled, when they brought in the two stallions and he saw that
one of them had a film over his eyes. Now he had some knowledge of horses and
of the doctoring of their diseases; so he said to himself, "This by Allah is my
opportunity! I will go to the Wazir and lie to him, saying, 'I will heal thee
this horse': then will I do with him somewhat that shall destroy his eyes, and
he will slay me and I shall be at rest from this woe-full life." So he waited
till the Wazir entered the stable, to look upon the steed, and said to him, "O
my lord, what will be my due, an I heal this horse, and make his eyes whole
again?" Replied the Wazir, "As my head liveth, an thou cure him, I will spare
thy life and give thee leave to crave a boon of me!" And Nur al-Din said, "O my
lord, bid my hands be unbound!" So the Wazir bade unbind him and he rose and
taking virgin glass,[FN#554] brayed it and mixed it with unslaked lime and a
menstruum of onion-juice. Then he applied the whole to the horse's eyes and
bound them up, saying in himself, "Now will his eyes be put out and they will
slay me and I shall be at rest from this woe-full life." Then he passed the
night with a heart free from the uncertainty[FN#555] of cark and care, humbling
himself to Allah the Most High and saying, "O Lord, in Thy knowledge is that
which dispenseth with asking and craving!" Now when the morning morrowed and
the sun shone, the Wazir came to the stable and, loosing the bandage from the
horse's eyes considered them and found them finer than before, by the ordinance
of the King who openeth evermore. So he said to Nur al-Din, "O Moslem, never in
the world saw I the like of thee for the excellence of thy knowledge. By the
virtue of the Messiah and the Faith which is no liar, thou makest me with
wonder to admire, for all the farriers of our land have failed to heal this
horse!" Then he went up to Nur al-Din and, doing off his shackles with his own
hand, clad him in a costly dress and made him his master of the Horse; and he
appointed him stipends and allowances and lodged him in a story over the
stables. So Nur al-Din abode awhile, eating and drinking and making merry and
bidding and forbidding those who tended the horses; and whoso neglected or
failed to fodder those tied up in the stable wherein was his service, he would
throw down and beat with grievous beating and lay him by the legs in bilboes of
iron. Furthermore, he used every day to descend and visit the stallions and rub
them down with his own hand, by reason of that which he knew of their value in
the Wazir's eyes and his love for them; wherefore the Minister rejoiced in him
with joy exceeding and his breast broadened and he was right glad, unknowing
what was to be the issue of his case. Now in the new palace, which the one-eyed
Wazir had bought for Princess Miriam, was a lattice-window overlooking his old
house and the flat wherein Nur al-Din lodged. The Wazir had a daughter, a
virgin of extreme loveliness, as she were a fleeing gazelle or a bending
branchlet, and it chanced that she sat one day at the lattice aforesaid and
behold, she heard Nur al-Din, singing and solacing himself under his sorrows by
improvising these verses,
"O my Censor who wakest a-morn to see * The joys of life and its
jubilee!
Had the fangs of Destiny bitten thee * In such bitter case thou
hadst pled this plea,
'Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me:
My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!'
But from Fate's despight thou art safe this day;- * From her
falsest fay and her crying 'Nay!'
Yet blame him not whom his woes waylay * Who distraught shall say
in his agony,
'Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me:
My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!'
Excuse such lovers in flight abhorr'd * Nor to Love's distreses
thine aid afford:
Lest thy self be bound by same binding cord * And drink of Love's
bitterest injury.
'Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me:
My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!'
In His service I wont as the days went by * With freest heart
through the nights to lie;
Nor tasted wake, nor of Love aught reckt * Ere my heart to
subjection summoned he:
'Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me:
My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!'
None weet of Love and his humbling wrong * Save those he sickened
so sore, so long,
Who have lost their wits 'mid the lover-throng * Draining
bitterest cup by his hard decree:
'Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me:
My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!'
How oft in Night's gloom he cause wake to rue * Lovers' eyne, and
from eyelids their sleep withdrew;
Till tears to the railing of torrents grew, * Overflowing cheeks
, unconfined and free:
'Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me:
My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!'
How many a man he has joyed to steep * In pain, and for pine hath
he plundered sleep,—
Made don garb of mourning the deepest deep * And even his
dreaming forced to flee:
'Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me:
My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!'
How oft sufferance fails me! How bones are wasted * And down my
cheeks torrent tear-drops hasted:
And embittered She all the food I tasted * However sweet it was
wont to be:
'Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me:
My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!'
Most hapless of men who like me must love, * And must watch when
Night droops her wing from above,
Who, swimming the main where affection drove * Must sign and sink
in that gloomy sea:
'Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me:
My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!'
Who is he to whom Love e'er stinted spite * And who scaped his
springes and easy sleight;
Who free from Love lived in life's delight? * Where is he can
boast of such liberty?
'Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me:
My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!'
Deign Lord such suffering wight maintain * Then best Protector,
protect him deign!
Establish him and his life assain * And defend him from all
calamity:
'Ah me, for Love and his case, ah me:
My heart is burnt by the fires I dree!'"
And when Nur al-Din ended his say and ceased to sing his rhyming lay, the
Wazir's daughter said to herself, "By the virtue of the Messiah and the Faith
which is no liar, verily this Moslem is a handsome youth! But doubtless he is a
lover separated from his mistress. Would Heaven I wot an the beloved of this
fair one is fair like unto him and if she pine for him as he for her! An she be
seemly as he is, it behoveth him to pour forth tears and make moan of passion;
but, an she be other than fair, his days are wasted in vain regrets and he is
denied the taste of delights."—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and
ceased to say her permitted say.
When it was the Eight Hundred and Eighty-eighth Night,
She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Wazir's daughter
said to herself, "An his beloved be fair as he, it behoveth him to pour forth
tears; and, if other than fair, his heart is wasted in vain regrets!" Now
Miriam the Girdle-girl, the Minister's consort, had removed to the new palace
the day before and the Wazir's daughter knew that she was straitened of breast;
so she was minded to seek her and talk with her and tell her the tidings of the
young man and the rhymes and verses she had heard him recite; but, before she
could carry out her design the Princess sent for her to cheer her with her
converse. So she went to her and found her heavy at heart and her tears
hurrying down her cheeks; and whilst she was weeping with sore weeping she
recited these couplets,
"My life is gone but love-longings remain * And my breast is
straitened with pine and pain:
And my heart for parting to melt is fain * Yet hoping that union
will come again,
And join us in one who now are twain.
Stint your blame to him who in heart's your thrall * With the
wasted frame which his sorrows gall,
Nor with aim of arrow his heart appal * For parted lover is
saddest of all,
And Love's cup of bitters is sweet to drain!"
Quoth the Wazir's daughter to her, "What aileth thee, O Princess, to be thus
straitened in breast and sorrowful of thought?" Whereupon Miriam recalled the
greatness of the delights that were past and recited these two couplets,
"I will bear in patience estrangement of friend * And on cheeks
rail tears that like torrents wend:
Haply Allah will solace my sorrow, for He * Neath the ribs of
unease maketh ease at end."
Said the Wazir's daughter, "O Princess, let not thy breast be straitened, but
come with me straightway to the lattice; for there is with us in the
stable[FN#556] a comely young man, slender of shape and sweet of speech, and
meseemeth he is a parted lover." Miriam asked, "And by what sign knowest thou
that he is a parted lover?"; and she answered, "O Queen, I know it by his
improvising odes and verses all watches of the night and tides of the day."
Quoth the Princess in herself, "If what the Wazir's daughter says be true,
these are assuredly the traits of the baffled, the wretched Ali Nur al-Din.
Would I knew if indeed he be the youth of whom she speaketh?" At this thought,
love-longing and distraction of passion redoubled on her and she rose at once
and walking with the maiden to the lattice, looked down upon the stables, where
she saw her love and lord Nur al-Din and fixing her eyes steadfastly upon him,
knew him with the bestest knowledge of love, albeit he was sick, of the
greatness of his affection for her and of the fire of passion, and the anguish
of separation and yearning and distraction. Sore upon him was emaciation and he
was improvising and saying,
"My heart is a thrall; my tears ne'er abate * And their rains the
railing of clouds amate;
'Twixt my weeping and watching and wanting love; * And whining
and pining for dearest mate.
Ah my burning heat, my desire, my lowe! * For the plagues that
torture my heart are eight;
And five upon five are in suite of them; * So stand and listen to
all I state:
Mem'ry, madding thoughts, moaning languishment, * Stress of
longing love, plight disconsolate;
In travail, affliction and strangerhood, * And annoy and joy when
on her I wait.
Fail me patience and stay for engrossing care * And sorrows my
suffering soul regrate.
On my heart the possession of passion grows * O who ask of what
fire in my heart's create,
Why my tears in vitals should kindle flame, * Burning heart with
ardours insatiate,
Know, I'm drowned in Deluge[FN#557] of tears and my soul * From
Lazá-lowe fares to Háwiyah-goal."[FN#558]
When the Princess Miriam beheld Nur al-Din and heard his loquence and verse and
speech, she made certain that it was indeed her lord Nur al-Din; but she
concealed her case from the Wazir's daughter and said to her, "By the virtue of
the Messiah and the Faith which is no liar, I thought not thou knewest of my
sadness!" Then she arose forthright and withdrawing from the window, returned
to her own place, whilst the Wazir's daughter went to her own occupations. The
Princess awaited patiently awhile, then returned to the window and sat there,
gazing upon her beloved Nur al-Din and delighting her eyes with his beauty and
inner and outer grace. And indeed, she saw that he was like unto moon at full
on fourteenth night; but he was ever sighing with tears never drying, for that
he recalled whatso he had been abying. So he recited these couplets,
"I hope for Union with my love which I may ne'er obtain * At all,
but bitterness of life is all the gain I gain:
My tears are likest to the main for ebb and flow of tide; * But
when I meet the blamer-wight to staunch my tears I'm fain.
Woe to the wretch who garred us part by spelling of his
spells;[FN#559] * Could I but hend his tongue in hand I'd
cut his tongue in twain:
Yet will I never blame the days for whatso deed they did *
Mingling with merest, purest gall the cup they made me
drain!
To whom shall I address myself; and whom but you shall seek * A
heart left hostage in your Court, by you a captive ta'en?
Who shall avenge my wrongs on you,[FN#560] tyrant despotical *
Whose tyranny but grows the more, the more I dare complain?
I made him regnant of my soul that he the reign assain * But me
he wasted wasting too the soul I gave to reign.
Ho thou, the Fawn, whom I so lief erst gathered to my breast *
Enow of severance tasted I to own its might and main,
Thou'rt he whose favours joined in one all beauties known to man,
* Yet I thereon have wasted all my Patience' fair domain.
I entertained him in my heart whereto he brought unrest * But I
am satisfied that I such guest could entertain.
My tears for ever flow and flood, likest the surging sea * And
would I wot the track to take that I thereto attain.
Yet sore I fear that I shall die in depths of my chagrin * And
must despair for evermore to win the wish I'd win."
When Miriam heard the verses of Nur al-Din the loving-hearted, the parted; they
kindled in her vitals a fire of desire, and while her eyes ran over with tears,
she recited these two couplets,
"I longed for him I love; but, when we met, * I was amazed nor
tongue nor eyes I found.
I had got ready volumes of reproach; * But when we met, could
syllable no sound."
When Nur al-Din heard the voice of Princess Miriam, he knew it and wept bitter
tears, saying, "By Allah, this is the chanting of the Lady Miriam."—And
Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
End of Volume 8.
Arabian Nights, Volume 8
Footnotes
[FN#1] Ironicč; we are safe as long as we are defended by such a brave.
[FN#2] Blue, azure. This is hardly the place for a protest, but I must not
neglect the opportunity of cautioning my readers against rendering Bahr
al-Azrak ("Blue River") by "Blue Nile." No Arab ever knew it by that name or
thereby equalled it with the White Nile. The term was a pure invention of
Abyssinian Bruce who was well aware of the unfact he was propagating, but his
inordinate vanity and self-esteem, contrasting so curiously with many noble
qualities, especially courage and self-reliance, tempted him to this and many
other a traveller's tale.
[FN#3] This is orthodox Moslem doctrine and it does something for the dignity
of human nature which has been so unwisely depreciated and degraded by
Christianity. The contrast of Moslem dignity and Christian abasement in the
East is patent to every unblind traveller.
[FN#4] Here ends vol. iii. of the Mac. Edit.
[FN#5] This famous tale is a sister prose-poem to the "Arabian
Odyssey" Sindbad the Seaman; only the Bassorite's travels are in
Jinn-land and Japan. It has points of resemblance in
"fundamental outline" with the Persian Romance of the Fairy Hasan
Bánú and King Bahrám-i-Gúr. See also the Kathá (s.s.) and the two
sons of the Asúra Máyá; the Tartar "Sidhi Kúr" (Tales of a
Vampire or Enchanted Corpse) translated by Mr. W. J. Thoms (the
Father of "Folk-lore" in 1846,) in "Lays and Legends of various
Nations"; the Persian Bahár-i-Dánish (Prime of Lore). Miss
Stokes' "Indian Fairy Tales"; Miss Frere's "Old Deccan Days" and
Mrs. F. A. Steel's "Tale of the King and his Seven Sons," with
notes by Lieutenant (now Captain) R. C. Temple (Folk-lore of the
Panjab, Indian Antiquary of March, 1882).
[FN#6] In the Mac. Edit. (vol. iv. i.) the merchant has two sons who became
one a brazier ("dealer in copper-wares" says Lane iii. 385) and the other a
goldsmith. The Bresl. Edit. (v. 264) mentions only one son, Hasan, the hero
of the story which is entitled, "Tale of Hasan al-Basrí and the Isles of Wák
Wák."
[FN#7] Arab. "Shásh Abyaz:" this distinctive sign of the True Believer was
adopted by the Persian to conceal his being a fire-worshipper, Magian or
"Guebre." The latter word was introduced from the French by Lord Byron and it
is certainly far superior to Moore's "Gheber."
[FN#8] Persians being always a suspected folk.
[FN#9] Arab. "Al-Búdikah" afterwards used (Night dcclxxix) in the sense of
crucible or melting-pot, in modern parlance a pipe-bowl; and also written
"Bútakah," an Arab distortion of the Persian "Bútah."
[FN#10] Arab. "Sindán" or "Sindiyán" (Dozy). "Sandán," anvil;
"Sindán," big, strong (Steingass).
[FN#11] Arab. "Kímiya," (see vol. i. 305) properly the substance which
transmutes metals, the "philosopher's stone" which, by the by, is not a stone;
and comes from {chymeía,chymós} = a fluid, a wet drug, as opposed to Iksír
(Al-) {Xerón, Xérion}, a dry drug. Those who care to see how it is still
studied will consult my History of Sindh (chapt. vii) and my experience which
pointed only to the use made of it in base coinage. Hence in mod. tongue
Kímiyáwi, an alchemist, means a coiner, a smasher. The reader must not suppose
that the transmutation of metals is a dead study: I calculate that there are
about one hundred workers in London alone.
[FN#12] Arab. "Al-Kír," a bellows also = Kúr, a furnace. For the full
meaning of this sentence, see my "Book of the Sword," p. 119.
[FN#13] Lit. "bade him lean upon it with the shears" (Al-Káz).
[FN#14] There are many kinds of Kohls (Hindos. Surmá and
Kajjal) used in medicine and magic. See Herklots, p. 227.
[FN#15] Arab. "Sabíkah" = bar, lamina, from "Sabk" = melting, smelting: the
lump in the crucible would be hammered out into an ingot in order to conceal
the operation
[FN#16] i.e. Ł375.
[FN#17] Such report has cost many a life: the suspicion was and is still
deadly as heresy in a "new Christian" under the Inquisition.
[FN#18] Here there is a double entendre: openly it means, "Few men recognise
as they should the bond of bread and salt:" the other sense would be (and that
accounts for the smile), "What the deuce do I care for the bond?"
[FN#19] Arab. "Kabbát" in the Bresl. Edit. "Ka'abán ": Lane (iii. 519) reads
"Ka'áb plur. of Ka'ab a cup."
[FN#20] A most palpable sneer. But Hasan is purposely represented as a
"softy" till aroused and energized by the magic of Love.
[FN#21] Arab. "Al-iksír" (see Night dcclxxix, supra p. 9): the Greek word
which has returned from a trip to Arabia and reappeared in Europe as
"Elixir."
[FN#22] "Awák" plur. of "Ukíyah," the well-known "oke," or "ocque," a weight
varying from 1 to 2 lbs. In Morocco it is pronounced "Wukíyah," and = the
Spanish ounce (p. 279 Rudimentos del Arabe Vulgar, etc., by Fr. José de
Lorchundi, Madrid, Rivadeneyra, 1872).
[FN#23] These lines have occurred in vol. iv. 267, where references to other
places are given. I quote Lane by way of variety. In the text they are
supposed to have been written by the Persian, a hint that Hasan would never be
seen again.
[FN#24] i.e. a superfetation of iniquity.
[FN#25] Arab. "Kurbán," Heb. { }Corban = offering, oblation to be brought to
the priest's house or to the altar of the tribal God Yahveh, Jehovah (Levit.
ii, 2-3 etc.). Amongst the Maronites Kurban is the host (-wafer) and amongst
the Turks 'Id al-Kurban (sacrifice-feast) is the Greater Bayram, the time of
Pilgrimage.
[FN#26] Nár = fire, being feminine, like the names of the other "elements."
[FN#27] The Egyptian Kurbáj of hippopotamus-hide (Burkh. Nubia, pp. 62,282) or
elephant-hide (Turner ii. 365). Hence the Fr. Cravache (as Cravat is from
Croat).
[FN#28] In Mac. Edit. "Bahriyah": in Bresl. Edit. "Nawátíyah."
See vol. vi. 242, for {Naýtes}, navita, nauta.
[FN#29] In Bresl. Edit. (iv. 285) "Yá Khwájah," for which see vol. vi. 46.
[FN#30] Arab. "Tabl" (vulg. baz) = a kettle-drum about half a foot broad held
in the left hand and beaten with a stick or leathern thong. Lane refers to his
description (M.E. ii. chapt. v.) of the Dervish's drum of tinned copper with
parchment face, and renders Zakhmah or Zukhmah (strap, stirrup-leather) by
"plectrum," which gives a wrong idea. The Bresl. Edit. ignores the strap.
[FN#31] The "Spartivento" of Italy, mostly a tall headland which divides the
clouds. The most remarkable feature of the kind is the Dalmatian Island,
Pelagosa.
[FN#32] The "Rocs" (Al-Arkhákh) in the Bresl. Edit. (iv. 290).
The Rakham = aquiline vulture.
[FN#33] Lane here quotes a similar incident in the romance "Sayf Zú al-Yazan,"
so called from the hero, whose son, Misr, is sewn up in a camel's hide by
Bahrám, a treacherous Magian, and is carried by the Rukhs to a mountain-top.
[FN#34] These lines occurred in Night xxvi. vol. i. 275: I quote
Mr. Payne for variety.
[FN#35] Thus a Moslem can not only circumcise and marry himself but can also
bury canonically himself. The form of this prayer is given by Lane M. E.
chapt. xv.
[FN#36] i.e. If I fail in my self-imposed duty, thou shalt charge me therewith
on the Judgment-day.
[FN#37] Arab. "Al-Alwán," plur. of laun (colour). The latter in Egyptian
Arabic means a "dish of meat." See Burckhardt No. 279. I repeat that the great
traveller's "Arabic Proverbs" wants republishing for two reasons. First he had
not sufficient command of English to translate with the necessary laconism and
assonance: secondly in his day British Philistinism was too rampant to permit a
literal translation. Consequently the book falls short of what the Oriental
student requires; and I have prepared it for my friend Mr. Quaritch.
[FN#38] i.e. Lofty, high-builded. See Night dcclxviii. vol. vii. p. 347. In
the Bresl. Edit. Al-Masíd (as in Al-Kazwíni): in the Mac. Edit. Al-Mashid
[FN#39] Arab. "Munkati" here = cut off from the rest of the world. Applied to
a man, and a popular term of abuse in Al-Hijáz, it means one cut off from the
blessings of Allah and the benefits of mankind; a pauvre sire. (Pilgrimage ii.
22.)
[FN#40] Arab. "Baras au Juzám," the two common forms of leprosy. See vol. iv.
51. Popular superstition in Syria holds that coition during the menses breeds
the Juzám, Dáa al-Kabír (Great Evil) or Dáa al-Fíl (Elephantine Evil), i.e.
Elephantiasis and that the days between the beginning of the flow (Sabíl) to
that of coition shows the age when the progeny will be attacked; for instance
if it take place on the first day, the disease will appear in the tenth year,
on the fourth the fortieth and so on. The only diseases really dreaded by the
Badawin are leprosy and small-pox. Coition during the menses is forbidden by
all Eastern faiths under the severest penalties. Al-Mas'údi relates how a man
thus begotten became a determined enemy of Ali; and the ancient Jews attributed
the magical powers of Joshua Nazarenus to this accident of his birth, the
popular idea being that sorcerers are thus impurely engendered.
[FN#41] By adoption - See vol. iii. 151. This sudden affection (not love)
suggests the "Come to my arms, my slight acquaintance!" of the Anti-Jacobin.
But it is true to Eastern nature; and nothing can be more charming than this
fast friendship between the Princess and Hasan.
[FN#42] En tout bien et en tout honneur, be it understood.
[FN#43] He had done nothing of the kind; but the feminine mind is prone to
exaggeration. Also Hasan had told them a fib, to prejudice them against the
Persian.
[FN#44] These nervous movements have been reduced to a system in the Turk.
"Ihtilájnámeh" = Book of palpitations, prognosticating from the subsultus
tendinum and other involuntary movements of the body from head to foot;
according to Ja'afar the Just, Daniel the Prophet, Alexander the Great; the
Sages of Persia and the Wise Men of Greece. In England we attend chiefly to the
eye and ear.
[FN#45] Revenge, amongst the Arabs, is a sacred duty; and, in their state of
civilization, society could not be kept together without it. So the slaughter
of a villain is held to be a sacrifice to Allah, who amongst Christians claims
for Himself the monopoly of vengeance.
[FN#46] Arab. "Zindík." See vol. v. 230.
[FN#47] Lane translates this "put for him the remaining food and water;" but
Al-Ákhar (Mac. Edit.) evidently refers to the Najíb (dromedary).
[FN#48] We can hardly see the heroism of the deed, but it must be remembered
that Bahram was a wicked sorcerer, whom it was every good Moslem's bounden
duty to slay. Compare the treatment of witches in England two centuries ago.
[FN#49] The mother in Arab tales is ma mčre, now becoming somewhat ridiculous
in France on account of the over use of that venerable personage.
[FN#50] The forbidden closet occurs also in Sayf Zú al-Yazan, who enters it
and finds the bird-girls. Trébutien ii, 208 says, "Il est assez remarquable
qu'il existe en Allemagne une tradition ŕ peu prčs semblable, et qui a fourni
le sujet d'un des contes de Musaeus, entitulé, le voile enlevé." Here Hasan is
artfully left alone in a large palace without other companions but his thoughts
and the reader is left to divine the train of ideas which drove him to open the
door.
[FN#51] Arab. "Buhayrah" (Bresl. Edit. "Bahrah"), the tank or cistern in the
Hosh (court-yard) of an Eastern house. Here, however, it is a rain-cistern on
the flat roof of the palace (See Night dcccviii).
[FN#52] This description of the view is one of the most gorgeous in The
Nights.
[FN#53] Here again are the "Swan-maidens" (See vol. v. 346) "one of the
primitive myths, the common heritage of the whole Aryan (Iranian) race." In
Persia Bahram-i-Gúr when carried off by the Dív Sapíd seizes the Peri's
dove-coat: in Santháli folk-lore Torica, the Goatherd, steals the garment
doffed by one of the daughters of the sun; and hence the twelve birds of
Russian Story. To the same cycle belong the Seal-tales of the Faroe Islands
(Thorpe's Northern Mythology) and the wise women or mermaids of Shetland
(Hibbert). Wayland the smith captures a wife by seizing a mermaid's raiment
and so did Sir Hagán by annexing the wardrobe of a Danubian water-nymph.
Lettsom, the translator, mixes up this swan-raiment with that of the Valkyries
or Choosers of the Slain. In real life stealing women's clothes is an old trick
and has often induced them, after having been seen naked, to offer their
persons spontaneously. Of this I knew two cases in India, where the theft is
justified by divine example. The blue god Krishna, a barbarous and grotesque
Hindu Apollo, robbed the raiment of the pretty Gopálís (cowherdesses) who were
bathing in the Arjun River and carried them to the top of a Kunduna tree; nor
would he restore them till he had reviewed the naked girls and taken one of
them to wife. See also Imr al-Kays (of the Mu'allakah) with "Onaiza" at the
port of Daratjuljul (Clouston's Arabian Poetry, p.4). A critic has complained
of my tracing the origin of the Swan-maiden legend to the physical resemblance
between the bird and a high-bred girl (vol. v. 346). I should have explained my
theory which is shortly, that we must seek a material basis for all so-called
supernaturalisms, and that anthropomorphism satisfactorily explains the
Swan-maiden, as it does the angel and the devil. There is much to say on the
subject; but this is not the place for long discussion.
[FN#54] Arab. "Nafs Ammárah," corresponding with our canting term "The
Flesh." Nafs al-Nátíkah is the intellectual soul or function; Nafs
al-Ghazabíyah = the animal function and Nafs al Shahwáníyah = the vegetative
property.
[FN#55] The lines occur in vol. ii. 331: I have quoted Mr.
Payne. Here they are singularly out of place.
[FN#56] Not the "green gown" of Anglo-India i.e. a white ball-dress with
blades of grass sticking to it in consequence of a "fall backwards."
[FN#57] These lines occur in vol. i. 219: I have borrowed from
Torrens (p. 219).
[FN#58] The appearance of which ends the fast and begins the
Lesser Festival. See vol. i. 84.
[FN#59] See note, vol. i. 84, for notices of the large navel; much appreciated
by Easterns.
[FN#60] Arab. "Shá'ir Al-Walahán" = the love-distraught poet; Lane has "a
distracted poet." My learned friend Professor Aloys Sprenger has consulted,
upon the subject of Al-Walahán the well-known Professor of Arabic at Halle, Dr.
Thorbeck, who remarks that the word (here as further on) must be an adjective,
mad, love-distraught, not a "lakab" or poetical cognomen. He generally finds
it written Al-Shá'ir al-Walahán (the love-demented poet) not Al-Walahán
al-Shá'ir = Walahán the Poet. Note this burst of song after the sweet youth
falls in love: it explains the cause of verse-quotation in The Nights, poetry
being the natural language of love and battle.
[FN#61] "Them" as usual for "her."
[FN#62] Here Lane proposes a transposition, for "Wa-huwá (and he) fi'l-hubbi,"
to read "Fi 'l-hubbi wa huwa (wa-hwa);" but the latter is given in the Mac.
Edit.
[FN#63] For the pun in "Sabr"=aloe or patience. See vol. i. 138. In Herr
Landberg (i. 93) we find a misunderstanding of the couplet—
"Aw'ákibu s-sabri (Kála ba'azuhum)
Mahmúdah: Kultu, 'khshi an takhirriní.'"
"The effects of patience" (or aloes) quoth one "are praiseworthy!" Quoth I,
"Much I fear lest it make me stool." Mahmúdah is not only un laxatif, but a
slang name for a confection of aloes.
[FN#64] Arab. "Akúna fidá-ka." Fidá = ransom, self-sacrifice and
Fidá'an = instead of. The phrase, which everywhere occurs in The
Nights, means, "I would give my life to save thine "
[FN#65] Thus accounting for his sickness, improbably enough but in flattering
way. Like a good friend (feminine) she does not hesitate a moment in
prescribing a fib.
[FN#66] i.e. the 25,000 Amazons who in the Bresl. Edit. (ii. 308) are all made
to be the King's Banát" = daughters or protégées. The Amazons of Dahome (see my
"Mission") who may now number 5,000 are all officially wives of the King and
are called by the lieges "our mothers."
[FN#67] The tale-teller has made up his mind about the damsel; although in
this part of the story she is the chief and eldest sister and subsequently she
appears as the youngest daughter of the supreme Jinn King. The mystification
is artfully explained by the extraordinary likeness of the two sisters. (See
Night dcccxi.)
[FN#68] This is a reminiscence of the old-fashioned "marriage by capture," of
which many traces survive, even among the civilised who wholly ignore their
origin.
[FN#69] Meaning her companions and suite.
[FN#70] Arab. "'Abáah" vulg. "'Abáyah." See vol. ii. 133.
[FN#71] Feet in the East lack that development of sebaceous glands which
afflicts Europeans.
[FN#72] i.e. cutting the animals' throats after Moslem law.
[FN#73] In Night dcclxxviii. supra p.5, we find the orthodox Moslem doctrine
that "a single mortal is better in Allah's sight than a thousand Jinns." For,
I repeat, Al-Islam systematically exalts human nature which Christianity takes
infinite trouble to degrade and debase. The results of its ignoble teaching
are only too evident in the East: the Christians of the so-called (and
miscalled) "Holy Land" are a disgrace to the faith and the idiomatic Persian
term for a Nazarene is "Tarsá" = funker, coward.
[FN#74] Arab. "Sakaba Kúrahá;" the forge in which children are hammered out?
[FN#75] Arab. "Má al-Maláhat" = water (brilliancy) of beauty.
[FN#76] The fourth of the Seven Heavens, the "Garden of
Eternity," made of yellow coral.
[FN#77] How strange this must sound to the Young Woman of London in the
nineteenth century.
[FN#78] "Forty days" is a quasi-religious period amongst Moslem for praying,
fasting and religious exercises: here it represents our "honey-moon." See vol.
v. p. 62.
[FN#79] Yá layta, still popular. Herr Carlo Landberg (Proverbes et Dictons du
Peuple Arabe, vol. i. of Syria, Leyden, E. J. Brill, 1883) explains layta for
rayta (=raayta) by permutation of liquids and argues that the contraction is
ancient (p. 42). But the Herr is no Arabist: "Layta" means "would to Heaven,"
or, simply "I wish," "I pray" (for something possible or impossible); whilst
"La'alla" (perhaps, it may be) prays only for the possible: and both are
simply particles governing the noun in the oblique or accusative case.
[FN#80] "His" for "her," i.e. herself, making somewhat of confusion between
her state and that of her son.
[FN#81] i.e. his mother; the words are not in the Mac. Edit.
[FN#82] Baghdad is called House of Peace, amongst other reasons, from the
Dijlah (Tigris) River and Valley "of Peace." The word was variously written
Baghdád, Bághdád, (our old Bughdaud and Bagdat), Baghzáz, Baghzán, Baghdán,
Baghzám and Maghdád as Makkah and Bakkah (Koran iii. 90). Religious Moslems
held Bágh (idol) and Dád (gift) an ill-omened conjunction, and the Greeks
changed it to Eirenopolis. (See Ouseley's Oriental Collcctions, vol. i. pp.
18-20.)
[FN#83] This is a popular saying but hardly a "vulgar proverb."
(Lane iii. 522.) It reminds rather of Shakespear's:
"So loving to my mother,
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly."
[FN#84] i.e. God forbid that I should oppose thee!
[FN#85] Here the writer again forgets apparently, that Shahrazad is speaking:
she may, however, use the plural for the singular when speaking of herself.
[FN#86] i.e. She would have pleaded ill-treatment and lawfully demanded to be
sold.
[FN#87] The Hindus speak of "the only bond that woman knows—her heart."
[FN#88] i.e. a rarity, a present (especially in Persian).
[FN#89] Arab. "Al-bisát" wa'l-masnad lit. the carpet and the cushion.
[FN#90] For "Báb al-bahr" and "Báb al-Barr" see vol. iii. 281.
[FN#91] She was the daughter of Ja'afar bin Mansúr; but, as will be seen, The
Nights again and again called her father Al-Kásim.
[FN#92] This is an error for the fifth which occurs in the popular saying, "Is
he the fifth of the sons of Al-Abbás!" i.e. Harun al-Rashid. Lane (note, in
loco) thus accounts for the frequent mention of the Caliph, the greatest of the
Abbasides in The Nights. But this is a causa non causa.
[FN#93] i.e. I find thy beauty all-sufficient. So the proverb "The son of the
quarter (young neighbour) filleth not the eye," which prefers a stranger.
[FN#94] They are mere doggerel, like most of the pičces de circonstance.
[FN#95] Afterwards called Wák Wák, and in the Bresl. Edit. Wák al-Wák. See
Lane's notes upon these Islands. Arab Geographers evidently speak of two Wak
Waks. Ibn al-Fakih and Al-Mas'údi (Fr. Transl., vol. iii. 6-7) locate one of
them in East Africa beyond Zanzibar and Sofala. "Le territoire des Zendjes
(Zanzibar-Negroids) commence au canal (Al-Khalij) dérivé du haut Nil (the Juln
River?) et se prolonge jusqu'au pays de Sofalah et des Wak-Wak." It is simply
the peninsula of Guardafui (Jard Hafun) occupied by the Gallas, pagans and
Christians, before these were ousted by the Moslem Somal; and the former
perpetually ejaculated "Wak" (God) as Moslems cry upon Allah. This
identification explains a host of other myths such as the Amazons, who as Marco
Polo tells us held the "Female Island" Socotra (Yule ii. 396). The fruit which
resembled a woman's head (whence the puellć Wakwakienses hanging by the hair
from trees), and which when ripe called out "Wak Wak" and "Allah al-Khallák"
(the Creator) refers to the Calabash-tree (Adausonia digitata), that grotesque
growth, a vegetable elephant, whose gourds, something larger than a man's head,
hang by a slender filament. Similarly the "cocoa" got its name, in Port. =
Goblin, from the fancied face at one end. The other Wak Wak has been identified
in turns with the Seychelles, Madagascar, Malacca, Sunda or Java (this by
Langlčs), China and Japan. The learned Prof. de Goeje (Arabishe Berichten over
Japan, Amsterdam, Muller, 1880) informs us that in Canton the name of Japan is
Wo-Kwok, possibly a corruption of Koku-tan, the ebony-tree (Diospyros ebenum)
which Ibn Khor-dábah and others find together with gold in an island 4,500
parasangs from Suez and East of China. And we must remember that Basrah was
the chief starting-place for the Celestial Empire during the rule of the Tang
dynasty (seventh and ninth centuries). Colonel J. W. Watson of Bombay suggests
New Guinea or the adjacent islands where the Bird of Paradise is said to cry
"Wak Wak!" Mr. W. F. Kirby in the Preface (p. ix.) to his neat little book "The
New Arabian Nights," says: "The Islands of Wak-Wak, seven years' journey from
Bagdad, in the story of Hasan, have receded to a distance of a hundred and
fifty years' journey in that of Majin (of Khorasan). There is no doubt(?) that
the Cora Islands, near New Guinea, are intended; for the wonderful fruits which
grow there are Birds of Paradise, which settle in flocks on the trees at sunset
and sunrise, uttering this very cry." Thus, like Ophir, Wak Wak has wandered
all over the world and has been found even in Peru by the Turkish work Tárikh
al-Hind al-Gharbi = History of the West Indies (Orient. Coll. iii 189).
[FN#96] I accept the emendation of Lane's Shaykh, "Nasím "
(Zephyr) for "Nadím " (cup-companion).
[FN#97] "Jannat al-Ná'im" = Garden of Delights is No. V Heaven, made of white
diamond.
[FN#98] This appears to her very prettily put.
[FN#99] This is the "House of Sadness" of our old chivalrous Romances. See
chapt. vi. of "Palmerin of England," by Francisco de Moraes (ob. 1572),
translated by old Anthony Munday (dateless, 1590?) and "corrected" (read
spoiled) by Robert Southey, London, Longmans, 1807.
[FN#100] The lines have occurred in Night clix. (vol. iii. 183), I quote Mr.
Payne who, like Lane, prefers "in my bosom" to "beneath my ribs."
[FN#101] In this tale the Bresl. Edit. more than once adds "And let us and you
send a blessing to the Lord of Lords" (or to "Mohammed," or to the "Prophet");
and in vol. v. p. 52 has a long prayer. This is an act of contrition in the
tale-teller for romancing against the expressed warning of the Founder of
Al-Islam.
[FN#102] From Bresl. Edit. (vi. 29): the four in the Mac. Edit. are too
irrelevant.
[FN#103] Arab. "Ghayúr"—jealous, an admirable epithet which
Lane dilutes to "changeable"—making a truism of a metaphor.
[FN#104] These lines have occurred before. I quote Mr. Payne.
[FN#105] i.e. One fated to live ten years.
[FN#106] This poetical way of saying "fourteen" suggests Camoens
(The Lusiads) Canto v. 2.
[FN#107] Arab. "Surrah," lit. = a purse: a few lines lower down it is called
"'Ulbah" = a box which, of course, may have contained the bag.
[FN#108] The month which begins the Moslem year.
[FN#109] As an Arab often does when deep in thought. Lane appositely quotes
John viii. 6. "Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground."
Mr. Payne translates, "He fell a-drumming on the earth with his fingers," but
this does not complete the sense.
[FN#110] i.e."And the peace of Allah be upon thee! that will end thy story."
The Arab formula, "Wa al-Salám" (pron. Wassalám) is used in a variety of
senses.
[FN#111] Like Camoens, one of the model lovers, he calls upon
Love to torment him still more—ad majorem Dei (amoris) gloriam.
[FN#112] Pron. Aboor-Ruwaysh. "The Father of the little Feather": he is
afterwards called "Son of the daughter of the accursed Iblis"; yet, as Lane
says, "he appears to be a virtuous person."
[FN#113] Arab. "Kantara al-lijám fi Karbús (bow) sarjih."
[FN#114] I do not translate "beckoned" because the word would give a wrong
idea. Our beckoning with the finger moved towards the beckoner makes the
so-beckoned Eastern depart in all haste. To call him you must wave the hand
from you.
[FN#115] The Arabs knew what large libraries were; and a learned man could not
travel without camel-loads of dictionaries.
[FN#116] Arab. "Adim;" now called Bulghár, our Moroccan leather.
[FN#117] Arab. "Zinád," which Lane renders by "instruments for striking
fire," and Mr. Payne, after the fashion of the translators of Al-Hariri, "flint
and steel."
[FN#118] A congener of Hasan and Husayn, little used except in Syria where it
is a favourite name for Christians. The Muhít of Butrus Al-Bostáni (s.v.)
tells us that it also means a bird called Abú Hasan and supplies various
Egyptian synonyms. In Mod. Arab. Grammar the form Fa''úl is a diminutive as
Hammúd for Ahmad, 'Ammúr for 'Amrú. So the fem. form, Fa''úlah, e.g. Khaddúgah
= little Khadijah and Naffúsah=little Nafisah; Ar'úrah = little clitoris -
whereas in Heb. it is an incrementative e.g. dabbúlah a large dablah (cake or
lump of dried figs, etc.).
[FN#119] In the Mac. Edit. "Soldiers of Al-Daylam" i.e. warlike as the
Daylamites or Medes. See vol. ii. 94.
[FN#120] Bilkís, it will be remembered, is the Arab. name of the
Queen of Sheba who visited Solomon. In Abyssinia she is termed
Kebra zá negest or zá makadá, the latter (according to Ferdinand
Werne's "African Wanderings," Longmans, 1852) being synonymous
with Ityopia or Habash (Ethiopia or Abyssinia).
[FN#121] Arab. "Dakkah," which Lane translates by "settee."
[FN#122] Arab. "Ambar al-Khám" the latter word (raw) being pure
Persian.
[FN#123] The author neglects to mention the ugliest part of old-womanhood in
the East, long empty breasts like tobacco-pouches. In youth the bosom is
beautifully high, arched and rounded, firm as stone to the touch, with the
nipples erect and pointing outwards. But after the girl-mother's first child
(in Europe le premier embellit) all changes. Nature and bodily power have been
overtasked; then comes the long suckling at the mother's expense: the extension
of the skin and the enlargement of its vessels are too sudden and rapid for the
diminished ability of contraction and the bad food aids in the continual
consumption of vitality. Hence, among Eastern women age and ugliness are
synonymous. It is only in the highest civilisation that we find the handsome
old woman.
[FN#124] The name has occurred in the Knightly tale of King Omar and his sons,
Vol. ii. 269. She is here called Mother of Calamities,but in p. 123, Vol. iv.
of the Mac. Edit. she becomes "Lady (Zát) al-Dawáhi." It will be remembered
that the title means calamitous to the foe.
[FN#125] By this address she assured him that she had no design upon his
chastity. In Moslem lands it is always advisable to accost a strange woman, no
matter how young, with, "Yá Ummí!" = O my mother. This is pledging one's word,
as it were, not to make love to her.
[FN#126] Apparently the Wakites numbered their Islands as the Anglo-Americans
do their streets. For this they have been charged with "want of imagination";
but the custom is strictly classical. See at Pompeii "Reg (io) I; Ins (ula) I,
Via Prima, Secunda," etc.
[FN#127] These are the Puellć Wakwakienses of whom Ibn Al-Wardi relates after
an ocular witness, "Here too is a tree which bears fruits like women who have
fair faces and are hung by their hair. They come forth from integuments like
large leathern bags (calabash-gourds?) and when they sense air and sun they cry
'Wak! Wak!' (God! God!) till their hair is cut, and when it is cut they die;
and the islanders understand this cry wherefrom they augure ill." The Ajáib
al-Hind (chapt. xv.) places in Wak-land the Samandal, a bird which enters the
fire without being burnt evidently the Egyptian "Pi-Benni," which the Greeks
metamorphised to "Phnix." It also mentions a hare-like animal, now male then
female, and the Somal behind Cape Guardafui tell the same tale of their
Cynhyćnas.
[FN#128] i.e. I will keep thee as though thou wert the apple of my eye.
[FN#129] A mere exaggeration of the "Gull-fairs" noted by travellers in sundry
islands as Ascension and the rock off Brazilian Santos.
[FN#130] Arab. "Kámil wa Basít wa Wáfir" = the names of three popular metres,
for which see the Terminal Essay.
[FN#131] Arab. "Manáshif" = drying towels, Plur. of Minshafah, and the
popular term which Dr. Jonathan Swift corrupted to "Munnassaf." Lane (Nights,
Introduct. p. ix.).
[FN#132] Arab. "Shafaif" opposed to "Shafah" the mouth-lips.
[FN#133] Fountains of Paradise. This description is a fair instance of how the
Saj'a (prose-rhyme) dislocates the order; an Arab begins with hair, forehead,
eyebrows and lashes and when he reaches the nose, he slips down to the toes for
the sake of the assonance. If the latter be neglected the whole list of charms
must be otherwise ordered; and the student will compare Mr. Payne's version of
this passage with mine.
[FN#134] A fair specimen of the Arab logogriph derived from the Abjad Alphabet
which contains only the Hebrew and Syriac letters not the six Arabic. Thus 4 X
5=20 which represents the Kaf (K) and 6 X 10=60, or Sin (S). The whole word is
thus "Kus", the Greek {kysňs} or {kyssňs}, and the lowest word, in Persian as
in Arabic, for the female pudenda, extensively used in vulgar abuse. In my
youth we had at the University something of the kind,
To five and five and fifty-five
The first of letters add
To make a thing to please a King
And drive a wise man mad.
Answer VVLVA. Very interesting to the anthropological student is this excursus
of Hasan, who after all manner of hardships and horrors and risking his life to
recover his wife and children, breaks out into song on the subject of her
privities. And it can hardly be tale-teller's gag as both verse and prose show
considerable art in composition. (See p. 348.)
Supplementary Note To Hasan of Bassorah.
Note(p.93)—There is something wondrous naďve in a lover who, when asked by his
mistress to sing a song in her honour, breaks out into versical praises of her
parts. But even the classical Arab authors did not disdain such themes. See
in Al-Harírí (Ass. of Mayyáfarikín) where Abú Zayd laments the impotency of old
age in form of a Rasy or funeral oration (Preston p. 484, and Chenery p. 221).
It completely deceived Sir William Jones, who inserted it into the chapter "De
Poesi Funebri," p. 527 (Poeseos Asiaticć Commentarii), gravely noting, "Hćc
Elegia non admodum dissimilis esse videtur pulcherrimi illius carminis de Sauli
et Jonathani obitu; at que adeň versus iste 'ubi provocant adversarios nunquam
rediit a pugnć contentione sine spiculo sanguine imbuto,' ex Hebrćo reddi
videtur,
A sanguine occisorum, a fortium virorum adipe,
Arcus Jonathani non rediit irritus."
I need hardly say with Captain Lockett (226) that this "Sabb warrior," this
Arabian Achilles, is the celebrated Bonus Deus or Hellespontiacus of the
Ancients. The oration runs thus:—
O folk I have a wondrous tale, so rare
Much shall it profit hearers wise and ware!
I saw in salad-years a potent Brave
And sharp of edge and point his warrior glaive;
Who entered joust and list with hardiment
Fearless of risk, of victory confident,
His vigorous onset straitest places oped
And easy passage through all narrows groped:
He ne'er encountered foe in single fight
But came from tilt with spear in blood stained bright;
Nor stormed a fortress howso strong and stark—
With fencčd gates defended deep and dark—
When shown his flag without th' auspicious cry
"Aidance from Allah and fair victory nigh!"
Thus wise full many a night his part he played
In strength and youthtide's stately garb arrayed,
Dealing to fair young girl delicious joy
And no less welcome to the blooming boy.
But Time ne'er ceased to stint his wondrous strength
(Steadfast and upright as the gallow's length)
Until the Nights o'erthrew him by their might
And friends contemned him for a feckless wight;
Nor was a wizard but who wasted skill
Over his case, nor leach could heal his ill.
Then he abandoned arms abandoned him
Who gave and took salutes so fierce and grim;
And now lies prostrate drooping haughty crest;
For who lives longest him most ills molest.
Then see him, here he lies on bier for bet;—
Who will a shroud bestow on stranger dead?
A fair measure of the difference between Eastern and Western manners is
afforded by such a theme being treated by their gravest writers and the verses
being read and heard by the gravest and most worshipful men, whilst amongst us
Preston and Chenery do not dare even to translate them. The latter, indeed,
had all that immodest modesty for which English professional society is notable
in this xixth century. He spoiled by needlessly excluding from a scientific
publication (Mem. R.A.S.) all of my Proverbia Communia Syriaca (see Unexplored
Sryia, i. 364) and every item which had a shade of double entendre. But
Nemesis frequently found him out: during his short and obscure rule in Printing
House Square, The Thunderer was distinguished by two of the foulest indecencies
that ever appeared in an English paper.
The well-known Koranic verse, whereby Allah is introduced into an indecent tale
and "Holy Writ" is punned upon. I have noticed (iii. 206) that victory Fat'h
lit.=opening everything (as e.g. a maidenhead).
[FN#135] Egyptian and Syrian vulgar term for Mawálíyah or Mawáliyah, a short
poem on subjects either classical or vulgar. It generally consists of five
lines all rhyming except the penultimate. The metre is a species of the Basít
which, however, admits of considerable poetical license; this being according
to Lane the usual "Weight,"
/ / / .
/ / /
The scheme is distinctly anapćstic and Mr. Lyall (Translations of Ancient
Arabic Poetry) compares with a cognate metre, the Tawíl, certain lines in Abt
Vogler, e.g.
"Ye know why the forms are fair, ye hear how the tale is told."
[FN#136] i.e. repeat the chapter of the Koran termed The Opening, and
beginning with these words, "Have we not opened thy breast for thee and eased
thee of thy burden which galled thy back? *** Verily with the difficulty cometh
ease!"—Koran xciv. vol. 1, 5.
[FN#137] Lane renders Nur al-Hudŕ (Light of Salvation) by Light of Day which
would be Nur al-Hadŕ.
[FN#138] In the Bresl. Edit. "Yá Salám"=O safety!—a vulgar ejaculation.
[FN#139] A favourite idiom meaning from the mischief which may (or will) come
from the Queen.
[FN#140] He is not strong-minded but his feminine persistency of purpose,
likest to that of a sitting hen, is confirmed by the "Consolations of
religion." The character is delicately drawn.
[FN#141] In token that she intended to act like a man.
[FN#142] This is not rare even in real life: Moslem women often hide and
change their names for superstitious reasons, from the husband and his family.
[FN#143] Arab. "Sabab" which also means cause. Vol. ii. 14.
There is the same metaphorical use of "Habl"= cord and cause.
[FN#144] Arab. "Himŕ," a word often occurring in Arab poetry, domain, a
pasture or watered land forcibly kept as far as a dog's bark would sound by
some masterful chief like "King Kulayb." (See vol. ii. 77.) This tenure was
forbidden by Mohammed except for Allah and the Apostle (i.e. himself). Lane
translates it "asylum."
[FN#145] She was a maid and had long been of marriageable age.
[FN#146] The young man had evidently "kissed the Blarney stone"; but the
flattery is the more telling as he speaks from the heart.
[FN#147] "Inshallah " here being= D. V.
[FN#148] i.e. The "Place of Light" (Pharos), or of Splendour. Here we find
that Hasan's wife is the youngest sister, but with an extraordinary resemblance
to the eldest, a very masterful young person. The anagnorisis is admirably
well managed.
[FN#149] i.e. the sweetmeats of the feast provided for the returning
traveller. The old woman (like others) cannot resist the temptation of a young
man's lips. Happily for him she goes so far and no farther.
[FN#150] The first, fourth, fifth and last names have already occurred: the
others are in order, Star o' Morn, Sun of Undurn and Honour of Maidenhood.
They are not merely fanciful, but are still used in Egypt and Syria.
[FN#151] Arab. "Fájirah" and elsewhere "Áhirah," =whore and strumpet used
often in loose talk as mere abuse without special meaning.
[FN#152] This to Westerns would seem a most improbable detail, but Easterns
have their own ideas concerning "Al-Muhabbat al-ghariziyah" =natural affection,
blood speaking to blood, etc.
[FN#153] One of the Hells (see vol. iv. 143). Here it may be advisable to
give the names of the Seven Heavens (which are evidently based upon Ptolemaic
astronomy) and which correspond with the Seven Hells after the fashion of
Arabian system-mania. (1) Dar al-Jalál (House of Glory) made of pearls; (2) Dár
al-Salám (of Rest), rubies and jacinths; (3) Jannat al-Maawá (Garden of
Mansions, not "of mirrors," as Herklots has it, p. 98), made of yellow copper;
(4) Jannat al-Khuld (of Eternity), yellow coral; (5) Jannat al-Na'ím (of
Delights), white diamond; (6) Jannat al-Firdaus (of Paradise), red gold; and
(7) Jannat al-'Adn (of Eden, or Al-Karár= of everlasting abode, which some make
No. 8), of red pearls or pure musk. The seven Hells are given in vol. v. 241;
they are intended for Moslems (Jahannam); Christians (Lazŕ); Jews (Hutamah);
Sabians (Sa'ir); Guebres (Sakar); Pagans or idolaters (Jahím); and Hypocrites
(Háwiyah).
[FN#154] Arab. "'Atb," more literally= "blame," "reproach."
[FN#155] Bresl. Edit. In the Mac. "it returned to the place whence I had
brought it"—an inferior reading.
[FN#156] The dreams play an important part in the Romances of Chivalry, e.g.
the dream of King Perion in Amadis de Gaul, chapt. ii. (London; Longmans,
1803).
[FN#157] Amongst Moslems bastardy is a sore offence and a love-child is
exceedingly rare. The girl is not only carefully guarded but she also guards
herself knowing that otherwise she will not find a husband. Hence seduction is
all but unknown. The wife is equally well guarded and lacks opportunities hence
adultery is found difficult except in books. Of the Ibn (or Walad) Harám
(bastard as opposed to the Ibn Halál) the proverb says, "This child is not
thine, so the madder he be the more is thy glee!" Yet strange to say public
prostitution has never been wholly abolished in Al-Islam. Al-Mas'údi tells us
that in Arabia were public prostitutes'(Bagháyá), even before the days of the
Apostle, who affected certain quarters as in our day the Tartúshah of
Alexandria and the Hosh Bardak of Cairo. Here says Herr Carlo Landberg (p. 57,
Syrian Proverbs) "Elles parlent une langue toute ŕ elle." So pretentious and
dogmatic a writer as the author of Proverbes et Dictons de la Province de
Syrie, ought surely to have known that the Hosh Bardak is the head-quarters of
the Cairene Gypsies. This author, who seems to write in order to learn, reminds
me of an acute Oxonian undergraduate of my day who, when advised to take a
"coach," became a "coach" himself.
[FN#158] These lines occur in vol. vii. p. 340. I quote Mr.
Payne.
[FN#159] She shows all the semi-maniacal rancour of a good woman, or rather a
woman who has not broken the eleventh commandment, "Thou shalt not be found
out," against an erring sister who has been discovered. In the East also these
unco'gúid dames have had, and too often have, the power to carry into effect
the cruelty and diabolical malignity which in London and Paris must vent itself
in scan. mag. and anonymous letters.
[FN#160] These faintings and trances are as common in the Romances of Chivalry
e.g. Amadis of Gaul, where they unlace the garments to give more liberty, pour
cold water on the face and bathe the temples and pulses with diluted vinegar
(for rose water) exactly as they do in The Nights.
[FN#161] So Hafiz, "Bád-i-Sabá chu bugzarí" etc.
[FN#162] Arab. "Takiyah." See vol. i. 224 and for the Tarn-Kappe vol. iv. p.
176. In the Sinthásana Dwatrinsati (vulgo. Singhásan Battísí), or Thirty-two
Tales of a Throne, we find a bag always full of gold, a bottomless purse; earth
which rubbed on the forehead overcomes all; a rod which during the first watch
of the night furnishes jewelled ornaments; in the second a beautiful girl; in
the third invisibility, and in the fourth a deadly foe or death; a
flower-garland which renders the possessor invisible and an unfading
lotus-flower which produces a diamond every day.
[FN#163] Arab. "Judad," plur. of Jadíd, lit.= new coin, ergo applied to those
old and obsolete; 10 Judad were= one nusf or half dirham.
[FN#164] Arab. "Raff," a shelf proper, running round the room about 7-7˝ feet
from the ground. During my day it was the fashion in Damascus to range in line
along the Raff splendid porcelain bowls brought by the Caravans in olden days
from China, whilst on the table were placed French and English specimens of
white and gold "china" worth perhaps a franc each.
[FN#165] Lane supposes that the glass and china-ware had fallen upon the divan
running round the walls under the Raff and were not broken.
[FN#166] These lines have occurred in Night dclxxxix. vol. vii. p. 119. I
quote Lane.
[FN#167] The lines have occurred before. I quote Mr. Payne.
[FN#168] This formula, I repeat, especially distinguishes the
Tale of Hasan of Bassorah.
[FN#169] These lines have occurred in vol. 1. 249. I quote Lane.
[FN#170] She speaks to the "Gallery," who would enjoy a loud laugh against
Mistress Gadabout. The end of the sentence must speak to the heart of many a
widow.
[FN#171] These lines occur in vol. i. 25: so I quote Mr. Payne.
[FN#172] Arab. "Musáhikah;" the more usual term for a Tribade is "Sahíkah"
from "Sahk" in the sense of rubbing: both also are applied to onanists and
masturbators of the gender feminine.
[FN#173] i.e. by way of halter. This jar is like the cask in Auerbach's
Keller; and has already been used by witches; Night dlxxxvii. vol. vi. 158.
[FN#174] Here they are ten but afterwards they are reduced to seven: I see no
reason for changing the text with Lane and Payne.
[FN#175] Wazir of Solomon. See vol. i. 42; and vol. iii. 97.
[FN#176] Arab. "Ism al-A'azam," the Ineffable Name, a superstition evidently
derived from the Talmudic fancies of the Jews concerning their tribal god, Yah
or Yahvah.
[FN#177] The tradition is that Mohámmed asked Akáf al-Wadá'ah "Hast a wife?";
and when answered in the negative, "Then thou appertainest to the brotherhood
of Satans! An thou wilt be one of the Christian monks then company
therewithal; but an thou be of us, know that it is our custom to marry!"
[FN#178] The old woman, in the East as in the West, being the most vindictive
of her kind. I have noted (Pilgrimage iii. 70) that a Badawi will sometimes
though in shame take the blood-wit; but that if it be offered to an old woman
she will dash it to the ground and clutch her knife and fiercely swear by Allah
that she will not eat her son's blood.
[FN#179] Neither dome nor fount etc. are mentioned before, the normal
inadvertency.
[FN#180] In Eastern travel the rest comes before the eating and drinking.
[FN#181] Arab. "'Id" (pron.'Eed) which I have said (vol. i. 42, 317) is
applied to the two great annual festivals, the "Fęte of Sacrifice," and the
"Break-Fast." The word denotes restoration to favour and Moslems explain as
the day on which Adam (and Eve) who had been expelled from Paradise for
disobedience was re-established (U'ída) by the relenting of Allah. But the
name doubtless dates amongst Arabs from days long before they had heard of the
"Lord Nomenclator."
[FN#182] Alluding to Hasan seizing her feather dress and so taking her to
wife.
[FN#183] Arab. "Kharajú"=they (masc.) went forth, a vulgarism for "Kharajna"
(fem.)
[FN#184] Note the notable housewife who, at a moment when youth would forget
everything, looks to the main chance.
[FN#185] Arab. "Al-Malakút" (not "Malkút" as in Freytag) a Sufi term for the
world of Spirits (De Lacy Christ, Ar. i. 451). Amongst Eastern Christians it is
vulgarly used in the fem. and means the Kingdom of Heaven, also the preaching
of the Gospel.
[FN#186] This is so rare, even amongst the poorest classes in the East, that
it is mentioned with some emphasis.
[FN#187] A beauty among the Egyptians, not the Arabs.
[FN#188] True Fellah—"chaff."
[FN#189] Alluding to the well-known superstition, which has often appeared in
The Nights, that the first object seen in the morning, such as a crow, a
cripple, or a cyclops determines the fortunes of the day. Notices in Eastern
literature are as old as the days of the Hitopadesa; and there is a something
instinctive in the idea to a race of early risers. At an hour when the senses
are most impressionable the aspect of unpleasant spectacles has double effect.
[FN#190] Arab. "Masúkah," the stick used for driving cattle, bâton gourdin
(Dozy). Lane applies the word to a wooden plank used for levelling the ground.
[FN#191] i.e. the words I am about to speak to thee.
[FN#192] Arab. "Sahifah," which may mean "page" (Lane) or "book"
(Payne).
[FN#193] Pronounce, "Abussa'ádát" = Father of Prosperities:
Lane imagines that it came from the Jew's daughter being called
"Sa'adat." But the latter is the Jew's wife (Night dcccxxxiii)
and the word in the text is plural.
[FN#194] Arab. "Furkh samak" lit. a fish-chick, an Egyptian vulgarism.
[FN#195] Arab. "Al-Rasif"; usually a river-quay, levée, an embankment. Here
it refers to the great dyke which distributed the Tigris-water.
[FN#196] Arab. "Dajlah," see vol. i, p 180. It is evidently the origin of
the biblical "Hid-dekel" "Hid" = fierceness, swiftness.
[FN#197] Arab. "Bayáz" a kind of Silurus (S. Bajad, Forsk.) which Sonnini
calls Bayatto, Saksatt and Hébedé; also Bogar (Bakar, an ox). The skin is
lubricous, the flesh is soft and insipid and the fish often grows to the size
of a man. Captain Speke and I found huge specimens in the Tangany ika Lake.
[FN#198] Arab. "Mu'allim," vulg. "M'allim," prop.= teacher, master esp. of a
trade, a craft. In Egypt and Syria it is a civil address to a Jew or a
Christian, as Hájj is to a Moslem.
[FN#199] Arab. "Gharámah," an exaction, usually on the part of government
like a corvée etc. The Europeo-Egyptian term is Avania (Ital.) or Avanie
(French).
[FN#200] Arab. "Sayyib-hu" an Egyptian vulgarism found also in Syria. Hence
Sáibah, a woman who lets herself go (a-whoring) etc. It is syn. with "Dashar,"
which Dozy believes to be a softening of Jashar; and Jashsh became Dashsh.
[FN#201] The Silurus is generally so called in English on account of its
feeler-acting mustachios.
[FN#202] See Night dcccvii, vol. viii. p. 94.
[FN#203] This extraordinary confusion of two distinct religious mythologies
cannot be the result of ignorance. Educated Moslems know at least as much as
Christians do, on these subjects, but the Rawi or story-teller speaks to the
"Gallery." In fact it becomes a mere 'chaff' and The Nights give some neat
specimens of our modern linguistic.
[FN#204] See vol. ii. 197. "Al-Siddíkah" (fem.) is a title of
Ayishah, who, however, does not appear to have deserved it.
[FN#205] The Jew's wife.
[FN#206] Here is a double entendre. The fisherman meant a word or two. The
Jew understood the Shibboleth of the Moslem Creed, popularly known as the "Two
Words,"—I testify that there is no Ilah (god) but Allah (the God) and I testify
that Mohammed is the Messenger of Allah. Pronouncing this formula would make
the Jew a Moslem. Some writers are surprised to see a Jew ordering a Moslem to
be flogged; but the former was rich and the latter was poor. Even during the
worst days of Jewish persecutions their money-bags were heavy enough to lighten
the greater part, if not the whole of their disabilities. And the Moslem
saying is, "The Jew is never your (Moslem or Christian) equal: he must be
either above you or below you." This is high, because unintentional praise of
the (self-) Chosen People.
[FN#207] He understands the "two words" (Kalmatáni) the Moslem's double
profession of belief; and Khalifah's reply embodies the popular idea that the
number of Moslems (who will be saved) is preordained and that no art of man can
add to it or take from it.
[FN#208] Arab. "Mamarr al-Tujjár" (passing-place of the traders) which Lane
renders "A chamber within the place through which the traders passed." At the
end of the tale (Night dccxlv.) we find him living in a Khan and the Bresl.
Edit. (see my terminal note) makes him dwell in a magazine (i.e. ground- floor
store-room) of a ruined Khan.
[FN#209] The text is somewhat too concise and the meaning is that the fumes of
the Hashish he had eaten ("his mind under the influence of hasheesh," says
Lane) suggested to him, etc.
[FN#210] Arab. "Mamrak" either a simple aperture in ceiling or roof for light
and air or a more complicated affair of lattice- work and plaster; it is often
octagonal and crowned with a little dome. Lane calls it "Memrak," after the
debased Cairene pronunciation, and shows its base in his sketch of a Ka'áh
(M.E., Introduction).
[FN#211] Arab. "Kamar." This is a practice especially amongst pilgrims. In
Hindostan the girdle, usually a waist-shawl, is called Kammar-band our old
"Cummerbund." Easterns are too sensible not to protect the pit of the stomach,
that great ganglionic centre, against sun, rain and wind, and now our soldiers
in India wear flannel-belts on the march.
[FN#212] Arab. "Fa-immá 'alayhá wa-immá bihá," i.e. whether (luck go) against
it or (luck go) with it.
[FN#213] "O vilest of sinners!" alludes to the thief. "A general plunge into
worldly pursuits and pleasures announced the end of the pilgrimage-ceremonies.
All the devotees were now "whitewashed"—the book of their sins was a tabula
rasa: too many of them lost no time in making a new departure down South and in
opening a fresh account" (Pilgrimage iii. 365). I have noticed that my servant
at Jeddah would carry a bottle of Raki, uncovered by a napkin, through the main
streets.
[FN#214] The copper cucurbites in which Solomon imprisoned the rebellious
Jinns, often alluded to in The Nights.
[FN#215] i.e. Son of the Chase: it is prob. a corruption of the Persian
Kurnas, a pimp, a cuckold, and introduced by way of chaff, intelligible only to
a select few "fast" men.
[FN#216] For the name see vol. ii.61, in the Tale of Ghánim bin
'Ayyúb where the Caliph's concubine is also drugged by the Lady
Zubaydah.
[FN#217] We should say, "What is this?" etc. The lines have occurred before
so I quote Mr. Payne.
[FN#218] Zubaydah, I have said, was the daughter of Ja'afar, son of the Caliph
al-Mansur, second Abbaside. The story-teller persistently calls her daughter
of Al-Kásim for some reason of his own; and this he will repeat in Night
dcccxxxix.
[FN#219] Arab. "Shakhs," a word which has travelled as far as
Hindostan.
[FN#220] Arab. "Shamlah" described in dictionaries, as a cloak covering the
whole body. For Hizám (girdle) the Bresl. Edit. reads "Hirám" vulg. "Ehrám,"
the waist-cloth, the Pilgrim's attire.
[FN#221] He is described by Al-Siyúti (p. 309) as "very fair, tall handsome
and of captivating appearance."
[FN#222] Arab. "Uzn al-Kuffah" lit. "Ear of the basket," which vulgar
Egyptians pronounce "Wizn," so "Wajh" (face) becomes "Wishsh" and so forth.
[FN#223] Arab. "Bi-fardayn" = with two baskets, lit. "two singles," but the
context shows what is meant. English Frail and French Fraile are from Arab.
"Farsalah" a parcel (now esp. of coffee-beans) evidently derived from the low
Lat. "Parcella" (Du Cange, Paris, firmin Didot 1845). Compare "ream," vol. v.
109.
[FN#224] Arab. "Sátúr," a kind of chopper which here would be used for the
purpose of splitting and cleaning and scaling the fish.
[FN#225] And, consequently, that the prayer he is about to make will find
ready acceptance.
[FN#226] Arab. "Ruh bilá Fuzúl" (lit. excess, exceeding) still a popular
phrase.
[FN#227] i.e. better give the fish than have my head broken.
[FN#228] Said ironicč, a favourite figure of speech with the
Fellah: the day began badly and threatened to end unluckily.
[FN#229] The penalty of Theft. See vol. i. 274.
[FN#230] This is the model of a courtly compliment; and it would still be
admired wherever Arabs are not "frankified."
[FN#231] Arab. "Shibábah;" Lane makes it a kind of reed- flageolet.
[FN#232] These lines occur in vol. i. 76: I quote Mr. Payne.
[FN#233] The instinctive way of juggling with Heaven like our sanding the
sugar and going to church.
[FN#234] Arab. "Yá Shukayr," from Shakar, being red (clay, etc.): Shukár is
an anemone or a tulip and Shukayr is its dim. Form. Lane's Shaykh made it a
dim. of "Ashkar" = tawny, ruddy (of complexion), so the former writes, "O
Shukeyr." Mr. Payne prefers "O Rosy cheeks."
[FN#235] For "Sandal," see vol. ii. {55}. Sandalí properly means an Eunuch
clean rasé, but here Sandal is a P.N. = Sandal-wood.
[FN#236] Arab. "Yá mumátil," one who retards payment.
[FN#237] Arab. "Kirsh al-Nukhál" = Guts of bran, a term little fitted for the
handsome and distinguished Persian. But Khalifah is a Fellah-grazioso of
normal assurance shrewd withal; he blunders like an Irishman of the last
generation and he uses the first epithet that comes to his tongue. See Night
dcccxliii. for the sudden change in Khalifah.
[FN#238] So the Persian "May your shadow never be less" means, I have said,
the shadow which you throw over your servant. Shade, cold water and fresh
breezes are the joys of life in arid Arabia.
[FN#239] When a Fellah demanded money due to him by the Government of Egypt,
he was a once imprisoned for arrears of taxes and thus prevented from being
troublesome. I am told that matters have improved under English rule, but I
"doubt the fact."
[FN#240] This freak is of course not historical. The tale- teller introduces
it to enhance the grandeur and majesty of Harun al-Rashid, and the vulgar would
regard it as a right kingly diversion. Westerns only wonder that such things
could be.
[FN#241] Uncle of the Prophet: for his death see Pilgrimage ii. 248.
[FN#242] First cousin of the Prophet, son of Abú Tálib, a brother of Al-Abbas
from whom the Abbasides claimed descent.
[FN#243] i.e. I hope thou hast or Allah grant thou have good tidings to tell
me.
[FN#244] Arab. "Nákhúzah Zulayt." The former, from the Persian Nákhodá or
ship-captain which is also used in a playful sense "a godless wight," one
owning no (ná) God (Khudá). Zulayt = a low fellow, blackguard.
[FN#245] Yásamín and Narjis, names of slave-girls or eunuchs.
[FN#246] Arab. Tamar-hanná, the cheapest of dyes used ever by the poorest
classes. Its smell, I have said, is that of newly mown hay, and is prized like
that of the tea-rose.
[FN#247] The formula (meaning, "What has he to do here?") is by no means
complimentary.
[FN#248] Arab. "Jarrah" (pron. "Garrah") a "jar." See Lane (M.E. chapt. v.)
who was deservedly reproached by Baron von Hammer for his superficial notices.
The "Jarrah" is of pottery, whereas the "Dist" is a large copper chauldron and
the Khalkinah one of lesser size.
[FN#249] i.e. What a bother thou art, etc.
[FN#250] This sudden transformation, which to us seems exaggerated and
unnatural, appears in many Eastern stories and in the biographies of their
distinguished men, especially students. A youth cannot master his lessons; he
sees a spider climbing a slippery wall and after repeated falls succeeding.
Allah opens the eyes of his mind, his studies become easy to him, and he ends
with being an Allámah (doctissimus).
[FN#251] Arab. "Bismillah, Námí!" here it is not a blessing, but a simple
invitation, "Now please go to sleep."
[FN#252] The modern inkcase of the Universal East is a lineal descendant of
the wooden palette with writing reeds. See an illustration of that of "Amásis,
the good god and lord of the two lands" (circ. B.C. 1350) in British Museum (p.
41, "The Dwellers on the Nile," by E. A. Wallis Bridge, London, 56, Paternoster
Row, 1885).
[FN#253] This is not ironical, as Lane and Payne suppose, but a specimen of
inverted speech—Thou art in luck this time!
[FN#254] Arab. "Marhúb" = terrible: Lane reads "Mar'úb" = terrified. But
the former may also mean, threatened with something terrible.
[FN#255] i.e. in Kut al-Kulúb.
[FN#256] Lit. to the son of thy paternal uncle, i.e. Mohammed.
[FN#257] In the text he tells the whole story beginning with the eunuch and
the hundred dinars, the chest, etc.: but — "of no avail is a twice-told tale."
[FN#258] Koran xxxix. 54. I have quoted Mr. Rodwell who affects the Arabic
formula, omitting the normal copulatives.
[FN#259] Easterns find it far easier to "get the chill of poverty out of their
bones" than Westerns.
[FN#260] Arab. "Dar al-Na'ím." Name of one of the seven stages of the Moslem
heaven. This style of inscription dates from the days of the hieroglyphs. A
papyrus describing the happy town of Raamses ends with these lines.—
Daily is there a supply of food:
Within it gladness doth ever brood
* * * *
Prolonged, increased; abides there Joy, etc., etc.
[FN#261] Arab. "Ansár" = auxiliaries, the men of Al-Medinah
(Pilgrimage ii. 130, etc.).
[FN#262] Arab. "Asháb" = the companions of the Prophet who may number 500
(Pilgrimage ii. 81, etc.).
[FN#263] Arab. "Hásilah" prob. a corner of a "Godown" in some
Khan or Caravanserai.
[FN#264] Arab. "Funduk" from the Gr. {pandocheîon}, whence the
Italian Fondaco e.g. at Venice the Fondaco de' Turchi.
[FN#265] Arab. "Astár" plur. of Satr: in the Mac. Edit. Sátúr, both (says
Dozy) meaning "Couperet" (a hatchet). Habicht translates it "a measure for
small fish," which seems to be a shot and a bad shot as the text talks only of
means of carrying fish. Nor can we accept Dozy's emendation Astál (plur. of
Satl) pails, situlć. In Petermann's Reisen (i. 89) Satr=assiette.
[FN#266] Which made him expect a heavy haul.
[FN#267] Arab. "Urkúb" = tendon Achilles in man hough or pastern in beast,
etc. It is held to be an incrementative form of 'Akab (heel); as Kur'úb of Ka'b
(heel) and Khurtúm of Khatm (snout).
[FN#268] Arab. "Karmút" and "Zakzúk." The former (pronounced Garmút) is one of
the many Siluri (S. Carmoth Niloticus) very common and resembling the Shál. It
is smooth and scaleless with fleshy lips and soft meat and as it haunts muddy
bottoms it was forbidden to the Ancient Egyptians. The Zakzúk is the young of
the Shál (Synodontis Schal: Seetzen); its plural form Zakázik (pronounced
Zigázig) gave a name to the flourishing town which has succeeded to old
Bubastis and of which I have treated in "Midian" and "Midian Revisited."
[FN#269] "Yá A'awar"=O one-eye! i.e.. the virile member. So the vulgar insult
"Ya ibn al-aur" (as the vulgar pronounce it) "O son of a yard!" When Al-Mas'údi
writes (Fr. Trans. vii. 106), "Udkhul usbu'ak fí aynih," it must not be
rendered "Il faut lui faire violence": thrust thy finger into his eye ('Ayn)
means "put thy penis up his fundament!" ('Ayn being=Dubur). The French remarks,
"On en trouverait l'équivalent dans les bas-fonds de notre langue." So in
English "pig's eye," "blind eye," etc.
[FN#270] Arab. "Nabbút"=a quarterstaff: see vol. i. 234.
[FN#271] Arab. "Banní," vulg. Benni and in Lane (Lex. Bunni) the Cyprinus
Bynni (Forsk.), a fish somewhat larger than a barbel with lustrous silvery
scales and delicate flesh, which Sonnini believes may be the "Lepidotes"
(smooth-scaled) mentioned by Athenćus. I may note that the Bresl. Edit. (iv.
332) also affects the Egyptian vulgarism "Farkh-Banni" of the Mac. Edit. (Night
dcccxxxii.).
[FN#272] The story-teller forgets that Khalif had neither basket nor knife.
[FN#273] Arab. "Rayhán" which may here mean any scented herb.
[FN#274] In the text "Fard Kalmah," a vulgarism. The Mac. Edit.
(Night dcccxxxv.) more aptly says, "Two words" (Kalmatáni, vulg.
Kalmatayn) the Twofold Testimonies to the Unity of Allah and the
Mission of His Messenger.
[FN#275] The lowest Cairene chaff which has no respect for itself or others.
[FN#276] Arab. "Karrat azlá hú": alluding to the cool skin of healthy men when
digesting a very hearty meal.
[FN#277] This is the true Fellah idea. A peasant will go up to his proprietor
with the "rint" in gold pieces behind his teeth and undergo an immense amount
of flogging before he spits them out. Then he will return to his wife and boast
of the number of sticks he has eaten instead of paying at once and his spouse
will say, "Verily thou art a man." Europeans know nothing of the Fellah.
Napoleon Buonaparte, for political reasons, affected great pity for him and
horror of his oppressors, the Beys and Pashas; and this affectation gradually
became public opinion. The Fellah must either tyrannise or be tyrannised over;
he is never happier than under a strong-handed despotism and he has never been
more miserable than under British rule or rather misrule. Our attempts to
constitutionalise him have made us the laughing-stock of Europe.
[FN#278] The turban is a common substitute for a purse with the lower classes
of Egyptians; and an allusion to the still popular practice of turban-snatching
will be found in vol. i. p. 259.
[FN#279] Arab. "Sálih," a devotee; here, a naked Dervish.
[FN#280] Here Khalif is made a conspicuous figure in Baghdad like Boccaccio's
Calandrino and Co. He approaches in type the old Irishman now extinct,
destroyed by the reflux action of Anglo-America (U.S.) upon the miscalled
"Emerald Isle." He blunders into doing and saying funny things whose models are
the Hibernian "bulls" and acts purely upon the impulse of the moment, never
reflecting till (possibly) after all is over.
[FN#281] Arab. "Kaylúlah," explained in vol. i. 51.
[FN#282] i.e. thy bread lawfully gained. The "Bawwák" (trumpeter) like the
"Zammár" (piper of the Mac. Edit.) are discreditable craftsmen, associating
with Almahs and loose women and often serving as their panders.
[FN#283] i.e. he was indecently clad. Man's "shame" extends from navel to
knees. See vol vi. 118.
[FN#284] Rashád would be=garden-cresses or stones: Rashíd the heaven-directed.
[FN#285] Arab. "Uff 'alayka"=fie upon thee! Uff=lit. Sordes Aurium and Tuff (a
similar term of disgust)=Sordes unguinum. To the English reader the blows
administered to Khalif appear rather hard measure. But a Fellah's back is
thoroughly broken to the treatment and he would take ten times as much
punishment for a few piastres.
[FN#286] Arab. "Zurayk" dim. of Azrak=blue-eyed. See vol. iii. 104.
[FN#287] Of Baghdad.
[FN#288] Arab. "Hásil," i.e. cell in a Khan for storing goods: elsewhere it is
called a Makhzan (magazine) with the same sense.
[FN#289] The Bresl. text (iv. 347) abbreviates, or rather omits; so that in
translation details must be supplied to make sense.
[FN#290] Arab. "Kamán," vulgar Egyptian, a contraction from Kamá (as) + anna
(since, because). So " Kamán shuwayh"=wait a bit; " Kamán marrah"=once more and
"Wa Kamána-ka"=that is why.
[FN#291] i.e. Son of the Eagle: See vol. iv. 177. Here, however, as the text
shows it is hawk or falcon. The name is purely fanciful and made mnemonically
singular.
[FN#292] The Egyptian Fellah knows nothing of boxing like the
Hausá man; but he is fond of wrestling after a rude and
uncultivated fashion, which would cause shouts of laughter in
Cumberland and Cornwall. And there are champions in this line,
See vol. ii. 93.
[FN#293] The usual formula. See vol. ii. 5.
[FN#294] As the Fellah still does after drinking a cuplet ("fingán" he calls
it) of sugared coffee.
[FN#295] He should have said "white," the mourning colour under the Abbasides.
[FN#296] Anglicč, "Fine feathers make fine birds"; and in Eastern parlance,
"Clothe the reed and it will become a bride." (Labbis al-Búsah tabkí 'Arúsah,
Spitta Bey, No. 275.) I must allow myself a few words of regret for the loss of
this Savant, one of the most singleminded men known to me. He was vilely
treated by the Egyptian Government, under the rule of the Jew-Moslem Riyáz;
and, his health not allowing him to live in Austria, he died shortly after
return home.
[FN#297] Arab. " Saub (Tobe) 'Atábi": see vol. iii. 149.
[FN#298] In text "Kimkhá," which Dozy also gives Kumkh=chenille,
tissu de soie veloutee: Damasqučte de soie or et argent de
Venise, du Levant , ŕ fleurs, etc. It comes from Kamkháb or
Kimkháb, a cloth of gold, the well-known Indian "Kimcob."
[FN#299] Here meaning=Enter in Allah's name!
[FN#300] The Arabs have a saying, "Wine breeds gladness, music merriment and
their offspring is joy."
[FN#301] Arab. "Jokh al-Saklát," rich kind of brocade on broadcloth.
[FN#302] Arab. "Hanabát," which Dozy derives from O. German
Hnapf, Hnap now Napf: thence too the Lat. Hanapus and Hanaperium:
Ital. Anappo, Nappo; Provenc. Enap and French and English
"Hanap"= rich bowl, basket, bag. But this is known even to the
dictionaries.
[FN#303] Arab. " Kirám," nobles, and " Kurúm," vines, a word which appears in
Carmel=Karam-El (God's vineyard).
[FN#304] Arab. "Suláf al-Khandarísí," a contradiction. Suláf=the ptisane of
wine. Khandarísí, from Greek {chóndros}, lit. gruel, applies to old wine.
[FN#305] i.e. in bridal procession.
[FN#306] Arab. "Al-'Arús, one of the innumerable tropical names given to wine
by the Arabs. Mr. Payne refers to Grangeret de la Grange, Anthologie Arabe, p.
190.
[FN#307] Here the text of the Mac. Edition is resumed.
[FN#308] i.e. "Adornment of (good) Qualities." See the name punned on in Night
dcccli. Lane omits this tale because it contains the illicit "Amours of a
Christian and a Jewess who dupes her husband in various abominable ways." The
text has been taken from the Mac. and the Bresl. Edits. x. 72 etc. In many
parts the former is a mere Epitome.
[FN#309] The face of her who owns the garden.
[FN#310] i.e. I am no public woman.
[FN#311] i.e. with the sight of the garden and its mistress— purposely left
vague.
[FN#312] Arab. "Dádat." Night dcclxxvi. vol. vii. p. 372.
[FN#313] Meaning respectively "Awaking" (or blowing hard), "Affairs" (or
Misfortunes) and "Flowing" (blood or water). They are evidently intended for
the names of Jewish slave-girls.
[FN#314] i.e. the brow-curls, or accroche-cÂurs. See vol. i. 168.
[FN#315] Arab. "Wisháh" usually applied to woman's broad belt, stomacher
(Al-Hariri Ass. of Rayy).
[FN#317] The old Greek "Stephane."
[FN#317] Alluding to the popular fancy of the rain-drop which becomes a pearl.
[FN#318] Arab. "Ghází"=one who fights for the faith.
[FN#319] i.e. people of different conditions.
[FN#320] The sudden change appears unnatural to Europeans; but an Eastern girl
talking to a strange man in a garden is already half won. The beauty, however,
intends to make trial of her lover's generosity before yielding.
[FN#321] These lines have occurred in the earlier part of the
Night: I quote Mr. Payne for variety.
[FN#322] Arab. "Al-Sháh mát"=the King is dead, Pers. and Arab. grotesquely
mixed: Europeans explain "Checkmate" in sundry ways, all more or less wrong.
[FN#323] Cheating (Ghadr) is so common that Easterns who have no tincture of
Western civilisation look upon it not only as venial but laudable when one can
take advantage of a simpleton. No idea of "honour" enters into it. Even in
England the old lady whist-player of the last generation required to be looked
after pretty closely—if Mr. Charles Dickens is to be trusted.
[FN#324] Arab. "Al-Gháliyah," whence the older English Algallia.
See vol. i., 128. The Voyage of Linschoten, etc. Hakluyt Society
MDCCCLXXXV., with notes by my learned friend the late Arthur Coke
Burnell whose early death was so sore a loss to Oriental
students.
[FN#325] A favourite idiom, "What news bringest thou?" ("O
Asám!" Arab. Prov. ii. 589) used by Háris bin Amrú, King of
Kindah, to the old woman Asám whom he had sent to inspect a girl
he purposed marrying.
[FN#326] Amongst the Jews the Arab Salám becomes "Shalúm" and a
Jewess would certainly not address this ceremonial greeting to a
Christian. But Eastern storytellers care little for these
minutić; and the "Adornment of Qualities," was not by birth a
Jewess as the sequel will show.
[FN#327] Arab. "Sálifah," the silken plaits used as adjuncts.
See vol. iii, 313.
[FN#328] I have translated these lines in vol. i. 131, and quoted Mr. Torrens
in vol. iv. 235. Here I borrow from Mr. Payne.
[FN#329] Mr. Payne notes:—Apparently some place celebrated for its fine bread,
as Gonesse in seventeenth-century France. It occurs also in Bresl. Edit. (iv.
203) and Dozy does not understand it. But Arj the root=good odour.
[FN#330] Arab. "Tás," from Pers. Tásah. M. Charbonneau a Professor of Arabic
at Constantine and Member of the Asiatic Soc. Paris, who published the Histoire
de Chams-Eddine et Nour-Eddine with Maghrabi punctuation (Paris, Hachette,
1852) remarks the similarity of this word to Tazza and a number of other
whimsical coincidences as Zauj, {zygós} jugum; Inkár, negare; matrah, matelas;
Ishtirá, acheter, etc. To which I may add wasat, waist; zabad, civet; Bás, buss
(kiss); uzrub (pron. Zrub), drub; Kat', cut; Tarík, track; etc., etc.
[FN#331] We should say "To her (I drink)" etc.
[FN#332] This is ad captandum. The lovers becoming Moslems would secure the
sympathy of the audience. In the sequel (Night dccclviii) we learn that the
wilful young woman was a born Moslemah who had married a Jew but had never
Judaized.
[FN#333] The doggerel of this Kasidah is not so phenomenal as some we have
seen.
[FN#334] Arab. "'Andam"=Brazil wood, vol. iii. 263.
[FN#335] Arab. " Himŕ." See supra, p. 102.
[FN#336] i.e. her favours were not lawful till the union was sanctified by
heartwhole (if not pure) love.
[FN#337] Arab. "Mansúr wa munazzam=oratio soluta et ligata.
[FN#338] i.e. the cupbearers.
[FN#339] Which is not worse than usual.
[FN#340] i.e. "Ornament of Qualities."
[FN#341] The 'Akík, a mean and common stone, ranks high in
Moslem poetry on account of the saying of Mohammed recorded by
Ali and Ayishah "Seal with seals of Carnelian." ('Akik.)
[FN#342] See note ii. at the end of this volume.
[FN#343] Arab. "Mahall" as opposed to the lady's "Manzil," which would be
better "Makám." The Arabs had many names for their old habitations, e.g.;
Kubbah, of brick; Sutrah, of sun-dried mud; Hazírah, of wood; Tiráf, a tent of
leather; Khabáa, of wool; Kash'a, of skins; Nakhád, of camel's or goat's hair;
Khaymah, of cotton cloth; Wabar, of soft hair as the camel's undercoat and
Fustát (the well-known P.N.) a tent of horsehair or any hair (Sha'ar) but
Wabar.
[FN#344] This is the Maghribi form of the Arab. Súk=a bazar-street, known from
Tanjah (Tangiers) to Timbuctoo.
[FN#345] Arab. "Walímah" usually=a wedding-feast. According to the learned
Nasíf al-Yazají the names of entertainments are as follows: Al-Jafalŕ=a general
invitation, opp. to Al-Nakarŕ, especial; Khurs, a childbirth feast; 'Akíkah,
when the boy-babe is first shaved; A'zár=circumcision-feast; Hizák, when the
boy has finished his perlection of the Koran; Milák, on occasion of
marriage-offer; Wazímah, a mourning entertainment; Wakírah=a "house-warming";
Nakí'ah, on returning from wayfare; 'Akírah, at beginning of the month Rajab;
Kirŕ=a guest-feast and Maadubah, a feast for other cause; any feast.
[FN#346] Arab. "Anistaná" the pop. phrase=thy company gladdens us.
[FN#347] Here "Muákhát" or making mutual brotherhood would be=entering into a
formal agreement for partnership. For the forms of "making brotherhood," see
vol. iii. {151}.
[FN#348] Arab. "Ishárah" in classical Arab. signs with the finger (beckoning);
Aumá with the hand; Ramz, with the lips; Khalaj, with the eyelids (wink); and
Ghamz with the eye. Aumáz is a furtive glance, especially of women, and Ilház,
a side-glance from lahaza, limis oculis intuitus est. See Preston's Al-Hariri,
p. 181.
[FN#349] Arab. "Haudaj" (Hind. Haudah, vulg. Howda=elephant-saddle), the
women's camel-litter, a cloth stretched over a wooden frame. See the Prize-poem
of Lebid, v. 12.
[FN#350] i.e. the twelve days' visit.
[FN#351] See note, vol. vii. {226}. So Dryden (Virgil):—
"And the hoarse raven on the blasted bough
By croaking to the left presaged the coming blow."
And Gay (Fable xxxvii.),
"That raven on the left-hand oak,
Curse on his ill-betiding croak!"
In some Persian tales two crows seen together are a good omen.
[FN#352] Vulgar Moslems hold that each man's fate is written in the sutures of
his skull but none can read the lines. See vol. iii. 123.
[FN#353] i.e. cease not to bemoan her lot whose moon-faced beloved ones are
gone.
[FN#354] Arab. "Rukb" used of a return caravan; and also meaning travellers on
camels. The vulgar however apply "Rákib" (a camel-rider) to a man on horseback
who is properly Fáris plur. "Khayyálah," while "Khayyál" is a good rider. Other
names are "Fayyál" (elephant-rider), Baghghál (mule-rider) and Hammár
(donkey-rider).
[FN#355] A popular exaggeration. See vol. i. 117
[FN#356] Lit. Empty of tent-ropes (Atnáb).
[FN#357] Arab. "'Abír," a fragrant powder sprinkled on face, body and clothes.
In India it is composed of rice flower or powdered bark of the mango, Deodar
(uvaria longifolia), Sandalwood, lign-aloes or curcuma (zerumbat or zedoaria)
with rose-flowers, camphor, civet and anise-seed. There are many of these
powders: see in Herklots Chiksá, Phul, Ood, Sundul, Uggur, and Urgujja.
[FN#358] i.e. fair faced boys and women. These lines are from the Bresl. Edit.
x. 160.
[FN#359] i.e. the Chief Kazi. For the origin of the Office and title see vol.
ii. 90, and for the Kazi al-Arab who administers justice among the Badawin see
Pilgrimage iii. 45.
[FN#360] Arab. "Raas al-Mál"=capital, as opposed to Ribá or
Ribh=interest. This legal expression has been adopted by all
Moslem races.
[FN#361] Our Aden which is thus noticed by Abulfeda (A.D. 1331): "Aden in the
lowlands of Tehámah * * * also called Abyana from a man (who found it?), built
upon the seashore, a station (for land travellers) and a sailing-place for
merchant ships India-bound, is dry and sunparcht (Kashifah, squalid, scorbutic)
and sweet water must be imported. * * * It lies 86 parasangs from San'á but Ibn
Haukal following the travellers makes it three stages. The city, built on the
skirt of a wall-like mountain, has a watergate and a landgate known as Bab
al-Sákayn. But 'Adan Lá'ah (the modest, the timid, the less known as opposed to
Abyan, the better known?) is a city in the mountains of Sabir, Al-Yaman, whence
issued the supporters of the Fatimite Caliphs of Egypt." 'Adan etymologically
means in Arab. and Heb. pleasure ({hédone}), Eden (the garden), the Heaven in
which spirits will see Allah and our "Coal-hole of the East," which we can
hardly believe ever to have been an Eden. Mr. Badger who supplied me with this
note described the two Adens in a paper in Ocean Highways, which he cannot now
find. In the 'Ajáib al-Makhlúkát, Al-Kazwíni (ob. A.D. 1275) derives the name
from Ibn Sinán bin Ibrahím; and is inclined there to place the Bír al-Mu'attal
(abandoned well) and the Kasr alMashíd (lofty palace) of Koran xxii. 44; and he
adds "Kasr al-Misyad" to those mentioned in the tale of Sayf al-Mulúk and
Badí'a al-Jamál.
[FN#362] Meaning that she had been carried to the Westward of
Meccah.
[FN#363] Arab. "Zahrawíyah" which contains a kind of double entendre. Fátimah
the Prophet's only daughter is entitled Al-Zahrá the "bright-blooming"; and
this is also an epithet of Zohrah the planet Venus. For Fatimah see vol. vi.
145. Of her Mohammed said, "Love your daughters, for I too am a father of
daughters" and, "Love them, they are the comforters, the dearlings." The Lady
appears in Moslem history a dreary young woman (died ćt. 28) who made this
world, like Honorius, a hell in order to win a next-world heaven. Her titles
are Zahrá and Batúl (Pilgrimage ii. 90) both signifying virgin. Burckhardt
translates Zahrá by "bright blooming" (the etymological sense): it denotes
literally a girl who has not menstruated, in which state of purity the
Prophet's daughter is said to have lived and died. "Batúl" has the sense of a
"clean maid" and is the title given by Eastern Christians to the Virgin Mary.
The perpetual virginity of Fatimah even after motherhood (Hasan and Husayn) is
a point of orthodoxy in Al-Islam as Juno's with the Romans and Umá's with the
Hindú worshippers of Shiva. During her life Mohammed would not allow Ali a
second wife, and he held her one of the four perfects, the other three being
Asia wife of "Pharaoh," the Virgin Mary and Khadijah his own wife. She caused
much scandal after his death by declaring that he had left her the Fadak estate
(Abulfeda I, 133, 273) a castle with a fine palm-orchard near Khaybar. Abu Bakr
dismissed the claim quoting the Apostle's Hadis, "We prophets are folk who will
away nothing: what we leave is alms-gift to the poor," and Shí'ahs greatly
resent his decision. (See Dabistan iii. 5152 for a different rendering of the
words.) I have given the popular version of the Lady Fatimah's death and burial
(Pilgrimage ii. 315) and have remarked that Moslem historians delight in the
obscurity which hangs over her last resting-place, as if it were an honour even
for the receptacle of her ashes to be concealed from the eyes of men. Her
repute is a curious comment on Tom Hood's
"Where woman has never a soul to save."
[FN#364] For Sharif and Sayyid, descendants of Mohammed, see vol. iv. 170.
[FN#365] These lines have occurred with variants in vol. iii. 257, and iv. 50.
[FN#366] Arab. "Hazrat," esp. used in India and corresponding with our
medićval "prćsentia vostra."
[FN#367] This wholesale slaughter by the tale-teller of worshipful and
reverend men would bring down the gallery like a Spanish tragedy in which all
the actors are killed.
[FN#368] They are called indifferently "Ruhbán"=monks or
"Batárikah"=patriarchs. See vol. ii. 89.
[FN#369] Arab. "Khilál." The toothpick, more esteemed by the Arabs than by us,
is, I have said, often used by the poets as an emblem of attenuation without
offending good taste. Nizami (Layla u Majnún) describes a lover as "thin as a
toothpick." The "elegant" Hariri (Ass. of Barkaid) describes a toothpick with
feminine attributes, "shapely of shape, attractive, provocative of appetite,
delicate as the leanest of lovers, polished as a poinard and bending as a green
bough."
[FN#370] From Bresl. Edit. x. 194.
[FN#371] Trébutien (vol. ii. 344 et seq.) makes the seven monks sing as many
anthems, viz. (1) Congregamini; (2) Vias tuas demonstra mihi; (3) Dominus
illuminatis; (4) Custodi linguam; (5) Unam petii a Domino; (6) Nec adspiciat me
visus, and (7) Turbatus est a furore oculus meus. Dánis the Abbot chaunts Anima
mea turbata est valdč.
[FN#372] A neat and characteristic touch: the wilful beauty eats and drinks
before she thinks of her lover. Alas for Masrur married.
[FN#373] The unfortunate Jew, who seems to have been a model husband
(Orientally speaking), would find no pity with a coffee-house audience because
he had been guilty of marrying a Moslemah. The union was null and void
therefore the deliberate murder was neither high nor petty treason. But, The
Nights, though their object is to adorn a tale, never deliberately attempt to
point a moral and this is one of their many charms.
[FN#374] These lines have repeatedly occurred. I quote Mr.
Payne.
[FN#375] i.e. by the usual expiation. See vol. {ii. 186}.
[FN#376] Arab. "Shammirí"=up and ready!
[FN#377] I borrow the title from the Bresl. Edit. x. 204. Mr. Payne prefers
"Ali Noureddin and the Frank King's Daughter." Lane omits also this tale
because it resembles Ali Shar and Zumurrud (vol. iv. 187) and Alá al-Din Abu
al-Shámát (vol. iv. 29), "neither of which is among the text of the
collection." But he has unconsciously omitted one of the highest interest. Dr.
Bacher (Germ. Orient. Soc.) finds the original in Charlemagne's daughter Emma
and his secretary Eginhardt as given in Grimm's Deutsche Sagen. I shall note
the points of resemblance as the tale proceeds. The correspondence with the
King of France may be a garbled account of the letters which passed between
Harun al-Rashid and Nicephorus, "the Roman dog."
[FN#378] Arab. "Allaho Akbar," the Moslem slogan or war-cry. See vol. ii. 89.
[FN#379] The gate-keeper of Paradise. See vol. iii. 15, 20.
[FN#380] Negroes. Vol. iii. 75.
[FN#381] Arab. "Nakat," with the double meaning of to spot and to handsel
especially dancing and singing women; and, as Mr. Payne notes in this
acceptation it is practically equivalent to the English phrase "to mark (or
cross) the palm with silver." I have translated "Anwá" by Pleiads; but it means
the setting of one star and simultaneous rising of another foreshowing rain.
There are seven Anwá (plur. of nawa) in the Solar year viz. Al-Badri
(Sept.-Oct.); Al-Wasmiyy (late autumn and December); Al-Waliyy (to April);
Al-Ghamír (June); Al-Busriyy (July); Bárih al-Kayz (August) and Ahrák al-Hawá
extending to September 8. These are tokens of approaching rain, metaphorically
used by the poets to express "bounty". See Preston's Hariri (p. 43) and Chenery
upon the Ass. of the Banu Haram.
[FN#382] i.e. They trip and stumble in their hurry to get there.
[FN#383] Arab. "Kumm" = sleeve or petal. See vol. v. 32.
[FN#384] Arab. "Kiráb" = sword-case of wood, the sheath being of leather.
[FN#385] Arab. "Akr kayrawán," both rare words.
[FN#386] A doubtful tradition in the Mishkát al-Masábih declares that every
pomegranate contains a grain from Paradise. See vol. i. 134. The Koranic
reference is to vi. 99.
[FN#387] Arab. "Aswad," lit. black but used for any dark colour, here green as
opposed to the lighter yellow.
[FN#388] The idea has occurred in vol. i. 158.
[FN#389] So called from the places where they grow.
[FN#390] See vol. vii. for the almond-apricot whose stone is cracked to get at
the kernel.
[FN#391] For Roum see vol. iv. 100: in Morocco "Roumi" means simply a
European. The tetrastich alludes to the beauty of the Greek slaves.
[FN#392] Arab. "Ahlan" in adverb form lit. = "as one of the household": so in
the greeting "Ahlan wa Sahlan" (and at thine ease), wa Marhabá (having a wide
free place).
[FN#393] For the Sufrah table-cloth see vol. i. 178.
[FN#394] See vol. iii. 302, for the unclean allusion in fig and sycamore.
[FN#395] In the text "of Tor": see vol. ii. 242. The pear is mentioned by
Homer and grows wild in South Europe. Dr. Victor Hehn (The Wanderings of
Plants, etc.) comparing the Gr.{ápios} with the Lat. Pyrus, suggests that the
latter passed over to the Kelts and Germans amongst whom the fruit was not
indigenous. Our fine pears are mostly from the East. e.g. the "bergamot" is the
Beg Armud, Prince of Pears, from Angora.
[FN#396] i.e. "Royal," it may or may not come from Sultaníyah, a town near
Baghdad. See vol. i. 83; where it applies to oranges and citrons.
[FN#397] 'Andam = Dragon's blood: see vol. iii. 263.
[FN#398] Arab. "Jamár," the palm-pith and cabbage, both eaten by
Arabs with sugar.
[FN#399] Arab. "Anwár" = lights, flowers (mostly yellow): hence the Moroccan
"N'wár," with its usual abuse of Wakf or quiescence.
[FN#400] Mr. Payne quotes Eugčne Fromentin, "Un Eté dans le Sahara," Paris,
1857, p. 194. Apricot drying can be seen upon all the roofs at Damascus where,
however, the season for each fruit is unpleasantly short, ending almost as soon
as it begins.
[FN#401] Arab. "Jalájal" = small bells for falcons: in Port. cascaveis, whence
our word.
[FN#402] Khulanján. Sic all editions; but Khalanj, or Khaulanj adj. Khalanji,
a tree with a strong-smelling wood which held in hand as a chaplet acts as
perfume, as is probably intended. In Span. Arabic it is the Erica-wood. The
"Muhit" tells us that is a tree parcel yellow and red growing in parts of India
and China, its leaf is that of the Tamarisk (Tarfá); its flower is coloured
red, yellow and white; it bears a grain like mustard-seed (Khardal) and of its
wood they make porringers. Hence the poet sings,
"Yut 'amu 'l-shahdu fí 'l-jifáni, wa yuska * Labanu 'l-Bukhti fi
Kusá'i 'l-Khalanji:
Honey's served to them in platters for food; * Camels' milk in
bowls of the Khalanj wood."
The pl. Khalánij is used by Himyán bin Kaháfah in this "bayt",
"Hattá izá má qazati 'l-Hawáijá * Wa malaat Halába-há
'l-Khalánijá:
Until she had done every work of hers * And with sweet milk had
filled the porringers."
[FN#403] In text Al-Shá'ir Al-Walahán, vol. iii. 226.
[FN#404] The orange I have said is the growth of India and the golden apples
of the Hesperides were not oranges but probably golden nuggets. Captain
Rolleston (Globe, Feb. 5, '84, on "Morocco-Lixus") identifies the Garden with
the mouth of the Lixus River while M. Antichan would transfer it to the hideous
and unwholesome Bissagos Archipelago.
[FN#405] Arab. "Ikyán," the living gold which is supposed to grow in the
ground.
[FN#406] For the Kubbad or Captain Shaddock's fruit see vol. ii. 310, where it
is misprinted Kubád.
[FN#407] Full or Fill in Bresl. Edit. = Arabian jessamine or cork-tree
({phellón}. The Bul. and Mac. Edits. read "filfil" = pepper or palm-fibre.
[FN#408] Arab. "Sumbul al-'Anbari"; the former word having been introduced
into England by patent medicines. "Sumbul" in Arab. and Pers. means the
hyacinth, the spikenard or the Sign Virgo.
[FN#409] Arab. "Lisán al-Hamal" lit. = Lamb's tongue.
[FN#410] See in Bresl. Edit. X, 221. Taif, a well-known town in the mountain
region East of Meccah, and not in the Holy Land, was once famous for scented
goat's leather. It is considered to be a "fragment of Syria" (Pilgrimage ii.
207) and derives its name = the circumambulator from its having circuited
pilgrim-like round the Ka'abah (Ibid.).
[FN#411] Arab. "Mikhaddah" = cheek-pillow: Ital. guanciale. In
Bresl. Edit. Mudawwarah (a round cushion) Sinjabiyah (of Ermine).
For "Mudawwarah" see vol. iv. 135.
[FN#412] "Coffee" is here evidently an anachronism and was probably inserted
by the copyist. See vol. v. 169, for its first metnion. But "Kahwah" may have
preserved its original meaning = strong old wine (vol. ii. 261); and the amount
of wine-drinking and drunkenness proves that the coffee movement had not set
in.
[FN#413] i.e. they are welcome. In Marocco "Lá baas" means, "I am pretty well"
(in health).
[FN#414] The Rose (Ward) in Arab. is masculine, sounding to us most uncouth.
But there is a fem. form Wardah = a single rose.
[FN#415] Arab. "Akmám," pl. of Kumm, a sleeve, a petal. See vol. iv. 107 and
supra p. 267. The Moslem woman will show any part of her person rather than her
face, instinctively knowing that the latter may be recognised whereas the
former cannot. The traveller in the outer East will see ludicrous situations in
which the modest one runs away with hind parts bare and head and face carefully
covered.
[FN#416] Arab. "Ikyán" which Mr. Payne translates "vegetable gold" very
picturesquely but not quite preserving the idea. See supra p. 272.
[FN#417] It is the custom for fast youths, in Egypt, Syria, and elsewhere to
stick small gold pieces, mere spangles of metal on the brows, cheeks and lips
of the singing and dancing girls and the perspiration and mask of cosmetics
make them adhere for a time till fresh movement shakes them off.
[FN#418] See the same idea in vol. i. 132, and 349.
[FN#419] "They will ask thee concerning wine and casting of lots; say: 'In
both are great sin and great advantages to mankind; but the sin of them both is
greater than their advantage.'" See Koran ii. 216. Mohammed seems to have made
up his mind about drinking by slow degrees; and the Koranic law is by no means
so strict as the Mullahs have made it. The prohibitions, revealed at widely
different periods and varying in import and distinction, have been discussed by
Al-Bayzáwi in his commentary on the above chapter. He says that the first
revelation was in chapt. xvi. 69 but, as the passage was disregarded, Omar and
others consulted the Apostle who replied to them in chapt. ii. 216. Then, as
this also was unnoticed, came the final decision in chapt. v. 92, making wine
and lots the work of Satan. Yet excuses are never wanting to the Moslem, he can
drink Champagne and Cognac, both unknown in Mohammed's day and he can use wine
and spirits medicinally, like sundry of ourselves, who turn up the nose of
contempt at the idea of drinking for pleasure.
[FN#420] i.e. a fair-faced cup-bearer. The lines have occurred before: so I
quote Mr. Payne.
[FN#421] It is the custom of the Arabs to call their cattle to water by
whistling; not to whistle to them, as Europeans do, whilst making water.
[FN#422] i.e. bewitching. See vol. i. 85. These incompatible metaphors are
brought together by the Saj'a (prose rhyme) in—"iyah."
[FN#423] Mesopotamian Christians, who still turn towards Jerusalem, face the
West, instead of the East, as with Europeans: here the monk is so dazed that he
does not know what to do.
[FN#424] Arab. "Bayt Sha'ar" = a house of hair (tent) or a couplet of verse.
Watad (a tentpeg) also is prosodical, a foot when the two first letters are
"moved" (vowelled) and the last is jazmated (quiescent), e.g. Lakad. It is
termed Majmú'a (united), as opposed to "Mafrúk" (separated), e.g. Kabla, when
the "moved" consonants are disjoined by a quiescent.
[FN#425] Lit. standing on their heads, which sounds ludicrous enough in
English, not in Arabic.
[FN#426] These lines are in vol. iii. 251. I quote Mr. Payne who notes "The
bodies of Eastern women of the higher classes by dint of continual maceration,
Esther-fashion, in aromatic oils and essences, would naturally become
impregnated with the sweet scents of the cosmetics used."
[FN#427] These lines occur in vol. i. 218: I quote Torrens for variety.
[FN#428] So we speak of a "female screw." The allusion is to the dove-tailing
of the pieces. This personification of the lute has occurred before: but I
solicit the reader's attention to it; it has a fulness of Oriental flavour all
its own.
[FN#429] I again solicit the reader's attention to the simplicity, the pathos
and the beauty of this personification of the lute.
[FN#430] "They" for she.
[FN#431] The Arabs very justly make the "'Andalib" = nightingale, masculine.
[FN#432] Anwár = lights or flowers: See Night dccclxv. supra p. 270.
[FN#433] These couplets have occurred in vol. i. 168; so I quote
Mr. Payne.
[FN#434] i.e. You may have his soul but leave me his body: company with him in
the next world and let me have him in this.
[FN#435] Alluding to the Koranic (cxiii. 1.), "I take refuge with the Lord of
the Daybreak from the mischief of that which He hath created, etc." This is
shown by the first line wherein occurs the Koranic word "Ghásik" (cxiii. 3)
which may mean the first darkness when it overspreadeth or the moon when it is
eclipsed.
[FN#436] "Malak" = level ground; also tract on the Nile sea.
Lane M.E. ii. 417, and Bruckhardt Nubia 482.
[FN#437] This sentiment has often been repeated.
[FN#438] The owl comes in because "Búm" (pron. boom) rhymes with
Kayyúm = the Eternal.
[FN#439] For an incident like this see my Pilgrimmage (vol. i. 176). How true
to nature the whole scene is; the fond mother excusing her boy and the
practical father putting the excuse aside. European paternity, however, would
probably exclaim, "The beast's in liquor!"
[FN#440] In ancient times this seems to have been the universal and perhaps
instinctive treatment of the hand that struck a father. By Nur al-Din's flight
the divorce-oath became technically null and void for Taj al-Din had sworn to
mutilate his son next morning.
[FN#441] So Roderic Random and his companions "sewed their money between the
lining and the waistband of their breeches, except some loose silver for
immediate expense on the road." For a description of these purses see
Pilgrimage i. 37.
[FN#442] Arab. Rashid (our Rosetta), a corruption of the Coptic
Trashit; ever famous for the Stone.
[FN#443] For a parallel passage in praise of Alexandria see vol. i. 290, etc.
The editor or scribe was evidently an Egyptian.
[FN#444] Arab. "Saghr" (Thagr), the opening of the lips showing the teeth. See
vol. i. p. 156.
[FN#445] Iskandariyah, the city of Iskandar or Alexander the Great, whose
"Soma" was attractive to the Greeks as the corpse of the Prophet Daniel
afterwards was to the Moslems. The choice of site, then occupied only by the
pauper village of Rhacotis, is one proof of many that the Macedonian conqueror
had the inspiration of genius.
[FN#446] i.e. paid them down. See vol. i. 281; vol. ii. 145.
[FN#447] Arab. "Baltiyah," Sonnini's "Bolti" and Nébuleux (because it is
dozid-coloured when fried), the Labrus Niloticus from its labra or large fleshy
lips. It lives on the "leaves of Paradise" hence the flesh is delicate and
savoury and it is caught with the épervier or sweep-net in the Nile, canals and
pools.
[FN#448] Arab. "Liyyah," not a delicate comparison, but exceedingly apt
besides rhyming to "Baltiyah." The cauda of the "five-quarter sheep, whose
tails are so broad and thick that there is as much flesh upon them as upon a
quarter of their body," must not be confounded with the lank appendage of our
English muttons. See i. 25, Dr. Burnell's Linschoten (Hakluyt Soc. 1885).
[FN#449] A variant occurs in vol. iv. 191.
[FN#450] Arab. "Tars Daylami," a small shield of bright metal.
[FN#451] Arab. "Kaukab al-durri," see Pilgrimage ii. 82.
[FN#452] Arab. "Kusúf" applied to the moon; Khusúf being the solar eclipse.
[FN#453] May Abú Lahab's hands perish. . . and his wife be a bearer of
faggots!" Koran cxi. 1 & 4. The allusion is neat.
[FN#454] Alluding to the Angels who shoot down the Jinn. See vol. i. 224. The
index misprints "Shibáh."
[FN#455] For a similar scene see Ali Shar and Zumurrud, vol. iv. 187.
[FN#456] i.e. of the girl whom as the sequel shows, her owner had promised not
to sell without her consent. This was and is a common practice. See vol. iv.
192.
[FN#457] These lines have occurred in vol. iii. p. 303. I quote
Mr. Payne.
[FN#458] Alluding to the erectio et distensio penis which comes on before dawn
in tropical lands and which does not denote any desire for women. Some
Anglo-Indians term the symptom signum salutis, others a urine-proud pizzle.
[FN#459] Arab. "Mohtasib," in the Maghrib "Mohtab," the officer charged with
inspecting weights and measures and with punishing fraud in various ways such
as nailing the cheat's ears to his shop's shutter, etc.
[FN#460] Every where in the Moslem East the slave holds himself superior to
the menial freeman, a fact which I would impress upon the several Anti-slavery
Societies, honest men whose zeal mostly exceeds their knowledge, and whose
energy their discretion.
[FN#461] These lines, extended to three couplets, occur in vol. iv. 193. I
quote Mr. Payne.
[FN#462] "At this examination (on Judgment Day) Mohammedans also believe that
each person will have the book, wherein all the actions of his life are
written, delivered to him; which books the righteous will receive in their
right hand, and read with great pleasure and satisfaction; but the ungodly will
be obliged to take them, against their wills, in their left (Koran xvii. xviii.
lxix, and lxxxiv.), which will be bound behind their backs, their right hand
being tied to their necks." Sale, Preliminary Discourse; Sect. iv.
[FN#463] "Whiteness" (bayáz) also meaning lustre, honour.
[FN#464] This again occurs in vol. iv. 194. So I quote Mr.
Payne.
[FN#465] Her impudence is intended to be that of a captive
Princess.
[FN#466] i.e. bent groundwards.
[FN#467] See vol. iv. 192. In Marocco Za'ar is applied to a man with fair
skin, red hair and blue eyes (Gothic blood?) and the term is not complimentary
as "Sultan Yazid Za'ar."
[FN#468] The lines have occurred before (vol. iv. 194). I quote Mr. Lane ii.
440. Both he and Mr. Payne have missed the point in "ba'zu layáli" a certain
night when his mistress had left him so lonely.
[FN#469] Arab. "Raat-hu." This apparently harmless word suggests one similar
in sound and meaning which gave some trouble in its day. Says Mohammed in the
Koran (ii. 98) "O ye who believe! say not (to the Apostle) Rá'iná (look at us)
but Unzurná (regard us)." "Rá'iná" as pronounced in Hebrew means "our bad one."
[FN#470] By reason of its leanness.
[FN#471] In the Mac. Edit. "Fifty." For a scene which illustrates this
mercantile transaction see my Pilgrimage i. 88, and its deduction. "How often
is it our fate, in the West as in the East, to see in bright eyes and to hear
from rosy lips an implied, if not an expressed 'Why don't you buy me?' or,
worse still, 'Why can't you buy me?'"
[FN#472] See vol. ii. 165 dragging or trailing the skirts = walking without
the usual strut or swagger: here it means assuming the humble manners of a
slave in presence of the master.
[FN#473] This is the Moslem form of "boycotting": so amongst early Christians
they refused to give one another God-speed. Amongst Hindús it takes the form of
refusing "Hukkah (pipe) and water" which practically makes a man an outcast. In
the text the old man expresses the popular contempt for those who borrow and
who do not repay. He had evidently not read the essay of Elia on the
professional borrower.
[FN#474] See note p. 273.
[FN#475] i.e. the best kind of camels.
[FN#476] This first verse has occurred three times.
[FN#477] Arab. "Surayyá" in Dictionaries a dim. of Sarwá = moderately rich. It
may either denote abundance of rain or a number of stars forming a
constellation. Hence in Job (xxxviii. 31) it is called a heap (kímah).
[FN#478] Pleiads in Gr. the Stars whereby men sail.
[FN#479] This is the Eastern idea of the consequence of satisfactory coition
which is supposed to be the very seal of love. Westerns have run to the other
extreme.
[FN#480] "Al-Ríf" simply means lowland: hence there is a Ríf in the
Nile-delta. The word in Europe is applied chiefly to the Maroccan coast
opposite Gibraltar (not, as is usually supposed the North-Western seaboard)
where the Berber-Shilhá race, so famous as the "Rif pirates" still closes the
country to travellers.
[FN#481] i.e. Upper Egypt.
[FN#482] These local excellencies of coition are described jocosely rather
than anthropologically.
[FN#483] See vol. i. 223: I take from Torrens, p. 223.
[FN#484] For the complete ablution obligatory after copulation before prayers
can be said. See vol. v. 199.
[FN#485] Arab. "Zunnár," the Greek {zoonárion}, for which, see vol. ii. 215.
[FN#486] Miriam (Arabic Maryam), is a Christian name, in Moslem lands. Abú
Maryam "Mary's father" (says Motarrazi on Al-Hariri, Ass. of Alexandria) is a
term of contempt, for men are called after sons (e.g. Abu Zayd), not after
daughters. In more modern authors Abu Maryam is the name of ushers and lesser
officials in the Kazi's court.
[FN#487] This formality, so contrary to our Western familiarity after
possession, is an especial sign of good breeding amongst Arabs and indeed all
Eastern nations. It reminds us of the "grand manner" in Europe two hundred
years ago, not a trace of which now remains.
[FN#488] These lines are in Night i. ordered somewhat differently: so I quote
Torrens (p. 14).
[FN#489] i.e. to the return Salám—"And with thee be peace and the mercy of
Allah and His blessings!" See vol. ii. 146. The enslaved Princess had
recognised her father's Wazir and knew that he could have but one object, which
being a man of wit and her lord a "raw laddie," he was sure to win.
[FN#490] It is quite in Moslem manners for the bystanders to force the sale
seeing a silly lad reject a most advantageous offer for sentimental reasons.
And the owner of the article would be bound by their consent.
[FN#491] Arab. "Wa'llahi." "Bi" is the original particle of swearing, a Harf
al-jarr (governing the genitive as Bi'lláhi) and suggesting the idea of
adhesion: "Wa" (noting union) is its substitute in oath-formulć and "Ta" takes
the place of Wa as Ta'lláhi. The three-fold forms are combined in a great
"swear."
[FN#492] i.e. of divorcing their own wives.
[FN#493] These lines have occurred before: I quote Mr. Payne.
[FN#494] These lines are in Night xxvi., vol. i. 275: I quote
Torrens (p. 277), with a correction for "when ere."
[FN#495] This should be "draws his senses from him as one pulls hair out of
pate."
[FN#496] Rághib and Záhid: see vol. v. 141.
[FN#497] Carolus Magnus then held court in Paris; but the text evidently
alludes to one of the port-cities of Provence as Marseille which we English
will miscall Marseilles.
[FN#498] Here the writer, not the young wife, speaks; but as a tale-teller he
says "hearer" not "reader."
[FN#499] Kayrawán, the Arab. form of the Greek Cyrene which has lately been
opened to travellers and has now lost the mystery which enshrouded it. In Hafiz
and the Persian poets it is the embodiment of remoteness and secrecy; as we
till the last quarter century spoke of the "deserts of Central Africa."
[FN#500] Arab. "'Innín": alluding to all forms of impotence, from dislike,
natural deficiency or fascination, the favourite excuse. Easterns seldom
attribute it to the true cause, weak action of the heart; but the Romans knew
the truth when they described one of its symptoms as cold feet. "Clino-pedalis,
ad venerem invalidus, ab ea antiqua opinione, frigiditatem pedum concubituris
admodum officere." Hence St. Francis and the bare-footed Friars. See Glossarium
Eroticum Linguae Latinć, Parisiis, Dondey-Dupré, MDCCCXXVI.
[FN#501] I have noted the use of "island" for "land" in general. So in the
European languages of the sixteenth century, insula was used for peninsula,
e.g. Insula de Cori = the Corean peninsula.
[FN#502] As has been noticed (vol. i. 333), the monocular is famed for
mischief and men expect the mischief to come from his blinded eye.
[FN#503] Here again we have a specimen of "inverted speech" (vol. ii. 265);
abusive epithets intended for a high compliment, signifying that the man was a
tyrant over rebels and a froward devil to the foe.
[FN#504] Arab. "Bab al-Bahr," see vol. iii. 281.
[FN#505] Arab. "Batárikah" see vol. ii. 89. The Templars, Knights of Malta and
other orders half ecclesiastic, half military suggested the application of the
term.
[FN#506] These lines have occurred in vol. i. 280—I quote
Torrens (p. 283).
[FN#507] Maryam al-Husn containing a double entendre, "O place of the white
doe (Rím) of beauty!" The girl's name was Maryam the Arab. form of Mary, also
applied to the B.V. by Eastern Christians. Hence a common name of Syrian women
is "Husn Maryam" = (one endowed with the spiritual beauties of Mary: vol. iv.
87). I do not think that the name was "manufactured by the Arab story-tellers
after the pattern of their own names (e.g. Nur al-Din or Noureddin, light of
the faith, Tajeddin, crown of faith, etc.) for the use of their imaginary
Christian female characters."
[FN#508] I may here remind readers that the Bán, which some Orientalists will
write "Ben," is a straight and graceful species of Moringa with plentiful and
intensely green foliage.
[FN#509] Arab. "Amúd al-Sawári" = the Pillar of Masts, which is still the
local name of Diocletian's column absurdly named by Europeans "Pompey's
Pillar."
[FN#510] Arab. "Batiyah," also used as a wine-jar (amphora), a flagon.
[FN#511] Arab. "Al-Kursán," evidently from the Ital. "Corsaro," a runner. So
the Port. "Cabo Corso," which we have corrupted to "Cape Coast Castle" (Gulf of
Guinea), means the Cape of Tacking.
[FN#512] Arab. "Ghuráb," which Europeans turn to "Grab."
[FN#513] Arab. "Sayyib" (Thayyib) a rare word: it mostly applies to a woman
who leaves her husband after lying once with him.
[FN#514] Arab. "Batárikah:" here meaning knights, leaders of armed men as in
Night dccclxii., supra p. 256, it means "monks."
[FN#515] i.e. for the service of a temporal monarch.
[FN#516] Arab. "Sayr" = a broad strip of leather still used by way of girdle
amongst certain Christian religions in the East.
[FN#517] Arab. "Haláwat al-Salámah," the sweetmeats offered to friends after
returning from a journey or escaping sore peril. See vol. iv. 60.
[FN#518] So Eginhardt was an Erzcapellan and belonged to the ghostly
profession.
[FN#519] These lines are in vols. iii. 258 and iv. 204. I quote
Mr. Payne.
[FN#520] Arab. "Firásah," lit. = skill in judging of horse flesh
(Faras) and thence applied, like "Kiyáfah," to physiognomy. One
Kári was the first to divine man's future by worldly signs
(Al-Maydáni, Arab. prov. ii. 132) and the knowledge was
hereditary in the tribe Mashíj.
[FN#521] Reported to be a "Hadis" or saying of Mohammed, to whom are
attributed many such shrewd aphorisms, e.g. "Allah defend us from the ire of
the mild (tempered)."
[FN#522] These lines are in vol. i. 126. I quote Torrens (p. 120).
[FN#523] These lines have occurred before. I quote Mr. Payne.
[FN#524] Arab. "Khák-bák," an onomatopÂia like our flip-flap and a host of
similar words. This profaning a Christian Church which contained the relics of
the Virgin would hugely delight the coffee-house habitués, and the Egyptians
would be equally flattered to hear that the son of a Cairene merchant had made
the conquest of a Frankish Princess Royal. That he was an arrant poltroon
mattered very little, as his cowardice only set of his charms.
[FN#525] i.e. after the rising up of the dead.
[FN#526] Arab. "Nafísah," the precious one i.e. the Virgin.
[FN#527] Arab. "Nákús," a wooden gong used by Eastern Christians which were
wisely forbidden by the early Moslems.
[FN#528] i.e. a graceful, slender youth.
[FN#529] There is a complicatd pun in this line: made by splitting the word
after the fashion of punsters. "Zarbu 'l-Nawákísí" = the striking of the gongs,
and "Zarbu 'l Nawá, Kísí = striking the departure signal: decide thou (fem.
addressed to the Nafs, soul or self)" I have attempted a feeble imitation.
[FN#530] The modern Italian term of the venereal finish.
[FN#531] Arab. "Najm al-Munkazzi," making the envious spy one of the prying
Jinns at whom is launched the Shiháb or shooting-star by the angels who prevent
them listening at the gates of Heaven. See vol. i. 224.
[FN#532] Arab. "Sandúk al-Nuzur," lit. "the box of vowed oblations." This act
of sacrilege would find high favour with the auditory.
[FN#533] The night consisting like the day of three watches. See vol. i.
[FN#534] Arab. "Al-Khaukhah," a word now little used.
[FN#535] Arab. "Námúsiyah," lit. mosquito curtains.
[FN#536] Arab. "Jáwashiyah," see vol. ii. 49.
[FN#537] Arab. "Kayyimah," the fem. of "Kayyim," misprinted
"Kayim" in vol. ii. 93.
[FN#538] i.e. hadst thou not disclosed thyself. He has one great merit in a
coward of not being ashamed for his cowardice; and this is a characteristic of
the modern Egyptian, whose proverb is, "He ran away, Allah shame him! is better
than, He was slain, Allah bless him!"
[FN#539] Arab. "Ahjar al-Kassárín" nor forgotten. In those days ships anchored
in the Eastern port of Alexandria which is now wholly abandoned on account of
the rocky bottom and the dangerous "Levanter," which as the Gibraltar proverb
says
"Makes the stones canter."
[FN#540] Arab. "Hakk" = rights, a word much and variously used. To express the
possessive "mine" a Badawi says "Hakki" (pron. Haggi) and "Lílí;" a Syrian
"Shítí" for Shayyati, my little thing or "taba 'i" my dependent; an Egyptian
"Bitá' i" my portion and a Maghribi "M'tá 'i" and "diyyáli" (di allazí lí =
this that is to me). Thus "mine" becomes a shibboleth.
[FN#541] i.e. The "Good for nothing," the "Bad'un;" not some forgotten ruffian
of the day, but the hero of a tale antedating The Nights in their present form.
See Terminal Essay, x. ii.
[FN#542] i.e. Hoping to catch Nur al-Din.
[FN#543] Arab. "Sawwáhún" = the Wanderers, Pilgrims, wandering Arabs, whose
religion, Al-Islam, so styled by its Christain opponents. And yet the new creed
was at once accepted by whole regions of Christians, and Mauritania, which had
rejected Roman paganism and Gothic Christianity. This was e.g. Syria and the
so-called "Holy Land," not because, as is fondly asserted by Christians,
al-Islam was forced upon them by the sword, but on account of its fulfilling a
need, its supplying a higher belief, unity as opposed to plurality, and its
preaching a more manly attitude of mind and a more sensible rule of conduct.
Arabic still preserves a host of words special to the Christian creed; and many
of them have been adopted by Moslems but with changes of signification.
[FN#544] i.e. of things commanded and things prohibited. The writer is
thinking of the Koran in which there are not a few abrogated injunctions.
[FN#545] See below for the allusion.
[FN#546] Arab. "Kafrá" = desert place. It occurs in this couplet,
"Wa Kabrun Harbin fí-makánin Kafrin;
Wa laysa Kurba Kabri Harbin Kabrun."
"Harb's corse is quartered in coarse wold accurst;
Nor close to corse of Harb is other corse;—"
words made purposely harsh because uttered by a Jinni who killed a traveller
named "Harb." So Homer:—
{pollŕ d' hánanta, kátanta, párantá te dachmía t' ęlthon.}
and Pope:—
"O'er hills, o'er dales, o'er crags, o'er rocks they go, etc."
See Preface (p. v.) to Captain A. Lockett's learned and whimsical volume, "The
Muit Amil" etc. Calcutta, 1814.
[FN#547] These lines have occurred vol. iv. 267. I quote Mr.
Lane.
[FN#548] The topethesia is here designedly made absurd. Alexandria was one of
the first cities taken by the Moslems (A.H. 21 = 642) and the Christian pirates
preferred attacking weaker places, Rosetta and Damietta.
[FN#549] Arab. "Bilád al-Rúm," here and elsewhere applied to
France.
[FN#550] Here the last line of p. 324, vol. iv. in the Mac.
Edit. is misplaced and belongs to the next page.
[FN#551] Arab. "Akhawán shakíkán" = brothers german (of men and beasts) born
of one father and mother, sire and dam.
[FN#552] "The Forerunner" and "The Overtaker," terms borrowed from the Arab
Epsom.
[FN#553] Known to us as "the web and pin," it is a film which affects Arab
horses in the damp hot regions of Malabar and Zanzibar and soon blinds them.
This equine cataract combined with loin-disease compels men to ride Pegu and
other ponies.
[FN#554] Arab. "Zujáj bikr" whose apparent meaning would be glass in the lump
and unworked. Zaj áj bears, however, the meaning of clove-nails (the ripe bud
of the clove-shrub) and may possibly apply to one of the manifold "Alfáz
Adwiyah" (names of drugs). Here, however, pounded glass would be all sufficient
to blind a horse: it is much used in the East especially for dogs affected by
intestinal vermicules.
[FN#555] Alluding to the Arab saying "The two rests"
(Al-ráhatáni) "certainty of success or failure," as opposed to
"Wiswás" when the mind fluctuates in doubt.
[FN#556] She falls in love with the groom, thus anticipating the noble
self-devotion of Miss Aurora Floyd.
[FN#557] Arab. "Túfán" see vol. {iv. 136}: here it means the
"Deluge of Noah."
[FN#558] Two of the Hells. See vol. v. 240.
[FN#559] Lit. "Out upon a prayer who imprecated our parting!"
[FN#560] The use of masculine for feminine has frequently been noted. I have
rarely changed the gender or the number the plural being often employed for the
singular (vol. i. 98). Such change may avoid "mystification and confusion" but
this is the very purpose of the substitution which must be preserved if "local
colour" is to be respected.