Chapter 16

[Footnote 480: The description of the famous upper hall with the four-and-twenty windows is one of the most contused and incoherent parts of the Nights and well-nigh defies the efforts of the translator to define the exact nature of the building described by the various and contradictory passages which refer to it. The following is a literal rendering of the above passage: "An upper chamber (keszr) and (or?) a kiosk (kushk, a word explained by a modern Syrian dictionary as meaning '[a building] like a balcony projecting from the level of the rest of the house,' but by others as an isolated building or pavilion erected on the top of a house, i.e. a keszr, in its classical meaning of 'upper chamber,' in which sense Lane indeed gives it as synonymous with the Turkish koushk, variant kushk,) with four-and-twenty estrades (liwan, a raised recess, generally a square-shaped room, large or small, open on the side facing the main saloon), all of it of emeralds and rubies and other jewels, and one estrade its kiosk was not finished." Later on, when the Sultan visits the enchanted palace for the first time, Alaeddin "brought him to the high kiosk and he looked at the belvedere (teyyareh, a square or round erection on the top of a house, either open at the sides or pierced with windows, =our architectural term 'lantern') and its casements (shebabik, pl. of shubbak, a window formed of grating or lattice-work) and their lattices (she"ri for she"rir, pl. of sheriyyeh, a lattice), all wroughten of emeralds and rubies and other than it of precious jewels." The Sultan "goes round in the kiosk" and seeing "the casement (shubbak), which Alaeddin had purposely left defective, without completion," said to the Vizier, "Knowest thou the reason (or cause) of the lack of completion of this casement and its lattices?" (shearihi, or quaere, "[this] lattice," the copyist having probably omitted by mistake the diacritical points over the final ha). Then he asked Alaeddin, "What is the cause that the lattice of yonder kiosk (kushk) is not complete?" The defective part is soon after referred to, no less than four times, as "the lattice of the kiosk" (sheriyyetu 'l kushk), thus showing that, in the writer's mind, kushk, liwan and shubbak were synonymous terms for the common Arab projecting square-sided window, made of latticework, and I have therefore rendered the three words, when they occur in this sense, by our English "oriel," to whose modern meaning (a window that juts out, so as to form a small apartment), they exactly correspond. Again, in the episode of the Maugrabin's brother, the princess shows the latter (disguised as Fatimeh) "the belvedere (teyyarrh) and the kiosk (kushk) of jewels, the which [was] with (i.e. had) the four-and-twenty portals" (mejouz, apparently a Syrian variant of mejaz, lit. a place of passage, but by extension a porch, a gallery, an opening, here (and here only) used by synecdoche for the oriel itself), and the famous roe's egg is proposed to be suspended from "the dome (cubbeh) of the upper chamber" (el keszr el faucaniyy), thus showing that the latter was crowned with a dome or cupola. It is difficult to extricate the author's exact meaning from the above tangle of confused references; but, as far as can be gathered. in the face of the carelessness with which the text treats kushk as synonymous now with keszr or teyyareh and now with liwan or shubbak, it would seem that what is intended to be described is a lofty hall (or sorer), erected on the roof of the palace, whether round or square we cannot tell, but crowned with a dome or cupola and having four-and-twenty deep projecting windows or oriels, the lattice or trellis-work of which latter was formed (instead of the usual wood) of emeralds, rubies and other jewels, strung, we may suppose, upon rods of gold or other metal I have, at the risk of wearying my reader, treated this point at some length, as well because it is an important one as to show the almost insuperable difficulties that beset the. conscientious translator at well-nigh every page of such works as the "Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night."]

[Footnote 481: Night DLXV.]

[Footnote 482: The text has imar (an inhabited country), an evident mistake for emair (buildings).]

[Footnote 483: Night DLXVI.]

[Footnote 484: Atsm sekhahu. Burton. "his dignity was enhanced."]

[Footnote 485: Or "imitate" (yetemathelou bihi). Burton, "which are such as are served to the kings."]

[Footnote 486: Night DLXVII.]

[Footnote 487: Wectu 'l asr, i.e. midway between noon and nightfall.]

[Footnote 488: Lit. "was broken" (inkeseret).]

[Footnote 489: Burton, "with the jerid," but I find no mention of this in the text. The word used (le'ba, lit. "he played") applies to all kinds of martial exercises; it may also mean simply, "caracoling."]

[Footnote 490: See ante, p. 167, note 1. {see FN#456}]

[Footnote 491: Or "turns" (adwar).]

[Footnote 492: El hemmam a sultaniyy el meshhour. Burton, "the royal Hammam (known as the Sult ni)."]

[Footnote 493: Muhliyat. Burton, "sugared drinks."]

[Footnote 494: Night DLXVIII.]

[Footnote 495: Keszriha. Burton, "her bower in the upper story."]

[Footnote 496: Lit. "changed the robes (khila) upon her." For the ceremony of displaying (or unveiling) the bride, see my "Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night," Vol. I. pp. 192 et seq., and "Tales from the Arabic," Vol. III. pp. 189 et seq.]

[Footnote 497: Meshghoul.]

[Footnote 498: Keszr.]

[Footnote 499: Szeraya, properly serayeh.]

[Footnote 500: i.e. Alexander the Great; see my "Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night," Vol. V. p. 6, note.]

[Footnote 501: Night DLXIX.]

[Footnote 502: Henahu.]

[Footnote 503: Fetour, the slight meal eaten immediately on rising, answering to the French "premier dejeuner," not the "morning-meal" (gheda), eaten towards noon and answering to the French "dejeuner... la fourchette."]

[Footnote 504: Gheda.]

[Footnote 505: Tekerrum (inf. of V of kerem), lit. "being liberal to any one." here an idiomatic form of assent expressing condescension on the part of a superior. Such at least is the explanation of the late Prof. Dozy; but I should myself incline to read tukremu (second person sing. aorist passive of IV), i.e. "Thou art accorded [that which thou seekest]."]

[Footnote 506: Indhehela.]

[Footnote 507: Or "upper hall, gallery." Lit. "kiosk." See ante, p.l75, note 4. {see FN#480}]

[Footnote 508: Teyyareh. See ante, l.c. The etymology of this word is probably [caah] teyyareh, "a flying [saloon]."]

[Footnote 509: Shebabik, pl. of shubbak; see ante, l.c.]

[Footnote 510: Sheari, see ante, l.c.]

[Footnote 511: Shubbak.]

[Footnote 512: Night DLXX.]

[Footnote 513: Lit. "kiosk" (kushk); see ante, p. 175, note 4.{see FN#480}]

[Footnote 514: Ma lehiket el muallimin (objective for nom. muallimoun, as usual in this text) an.]

[Footnote 515: Yebca lika dhikra. Burton, "So shall thy memory endure."]

[Footnote 516: Lit. "kiosk."]

[Footnote 517: ? (teba'kh).]

[Footnote 518: Or "melodious."]

[Footnote 519: El kelb el hhezin.]

[Footnote 520: i.e. "might not avail unto."]

[Footnote 521: Muhlivat, as before; see ante. p. 183, note 2. {see FN#493}]

[Footnote 522: Szeraya.]

[Footnote 523: Night DLXXI.]

[Footnote 524: Sheriyyetu 'l kushk.]

[Footnote 525: Lit. "the lattice of the kiosk which (i.e. the lattice) is lacking or imperfect." The adjective (nakiszeh) is put in the feminine, to agree with "lattice" (sheriyyeh), which is femminine, kiosk (kushk) being masculine.]

[Footnote 526: Kushk.]

[Footnote 527: She"rihi.]

[Footnote 528: Et tewashiyy, a term here used for the first time in the present text, where we generally find the Turkish Aga in this sense.]

[Footnote 529: Night DLXXII.]

[Footnote 530: Lit. "kiosk" (kushk).]

[Footnote 531: Fi szerayyetika.]

[Footnote 532: Szeraya.]

[Footnote 533: Lit. "that I was not lacking in ableness to complete it."]

[Footnote 534: Kushk, here used in sense of "belvedere."]

[Footnote 535: Or "upper chamber" (keszr).]

[Footnote 536: Kushk. From this passage it would seem as if the belvedere actually projected from the side of the upper story or soler (keszr), instead of being built on the roof, lantern-wise, or being (as would appear from earlier passages) identical with the hall itself, but the whole description is as before remarked. so full of incoherence and confusion of terms that it is impossible to reconcile its inconsistencies.]

[Footnote 537: Lit. "a brother resembling thee."]

[Footnote 538: Lit. "he increased (or exceeded) in the salaries (or allowances) of the poor and the indigent" (zada fi jewanicki 'l fukera wa 'l mesakin). Jewamek is an Arabicized Persian word, here signifying systematic or regular almsgivings.]

[Footnote 539: Kull muddeh.]

[Footnote 540: Labu 'l andab, lit. "arrow-play."]

[Footnote 541: Night DLXXIII.]

[Footnote 542: Szerayeh.]

[Footnote 543: Keszr.]

[Footnote 544: Burton adds, "and confections."]

[Footnote 545: Lit. "he set them down the stablest or skilfullest (mustehhkem) setting down."]

[Footnote 546: Hherrem, i.e. arranged them, according to the rules of the geomantic art.]

[Footnote 547: Netsera jeyyidan fi. Burton, "He firmly established the sequence of."]

[Footnote 548: Technical names of the primary and secondary figures. The following account of the geomantic process, as described by Arabic writers de re magicf, is mainly derived from the Mukeddimat or Prolegomena of Abdurrehman ibn Aboubekr Mohammed (better known as Ibn Khaldoun) to his great work of universal history. Those (says he) who seek to discover hidden things and know the future have invented an art which they call tracing or smiting the sand; to wit, they take paper or sand or flour and trace thereon at hazard four rows of points, which operation, three times repeated (i.e. four times performed), gives sixteen rows. These points they eliminate two by two, all but the last (if the number of the points of a row be odd) or the last two (if it be even) of each row, by which means they obtain sixteen points, single or double. These they divide into four figures, each representing the residual points of four lines, set one under another, and these four figures, which are called the mothers or primaries, they place side by side in one line. From these primaries they extract four fresh figures by confronting each point with the corresponding point in the next figure, and counting for each pair a single or double point, according to one of two rules, i.e. (1) setting down a single point for each single point being on the same line with another point, whether single or double, and a double point for. each pair of double points in line with each other, or (2) reckoning a double point for each pair of like points (single or double), corresponding one with another on the same line' and a single point for each, unlike pair. These new figures (as well as those that follow) are called the daughters or secondaries and are placed beside the primaries, by confrontation with which (i,e, 5 with 1, 6 with 2, 7 with 3 and with 4) four fresh figures are obtained after the same fashion and placed side by side below the first eight. From this second row a thirteenth and fourteenth figure are obtained in the same way (confronting 9 with lo and 1 l with 12) and placed beneath them, as a third row. The two new figures, confronted with each other, in like manner, furnish a fifteenth figure, which, being confronted with the first of the primaries, gives a sixteenth and last figure, completing the series. Then (says our author), the geomant proceeds to examine the sixteen figures thus obtained (each of which has its name and its mansion, corresponding to one of the twelve signs of the zodiac or the four cardinal points, as well as its signification, good or bad, and indicates also, in a special way, a certain part of the elemental world) and to note each figure according to its presage of weal or ill; and so, with the aid of an astrological table giving the explanations of the various signs and combinations, according to the nature of the figure, its aspect, influence and temperament (astrologically considered) and the natural object it indicates, a judgment is formed upon the question for a solution of which the operation was undertaken. I may add that the board or table of sand (tekht reml), so frequently mentioned in the Nights, is a shallow box filled with fine sand, carefully levelled, on which the points of the geomantic operation are made with a style of wood or metal. (The name tekht reml is however now commonly applied to a mere board or tablet of wood on which the necessary dots are made with ink or chalk. ) The following scheme of a geomantic operation will show the application of the above rules. Supposing the first haphazard dotting to produce these sixteen rows of points,

1......... (9) 5..... (6) 9......... (9) 13...... (6) 2......... (9) 6.... (4) 10........ (8) 14.... (4) 3........ (8) 7....... (7) 11......... (9) 15........ (8) 4....... (7) 8..... (5) 12....... (7) 16..... (5)

By the process of elimination we get the following four primaries:

Fig. 1 x Fig. 2 x x Fig. 3 x Fig. 4 x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

The process of confrontation of the corresponding points of these four figures (according to rule 2) gives the following four secondaries:

Fig. 5 x Fig. 6 x Fig. 7 x Fig. 8 x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

By confrontation of the points of each secondary with those of its corresponding primary, the following four fresh figures are obtained:

Fig. 9 x x Fig. 10 x Fig. 11 x x Fig. 12 x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

Fig. 9, confronted with Fig. 10 gives a thirteenth figure x x x x x x x

And Fig. 11 confronted with Fig. 12, a fourteenth x x x x x x

Figures 13 and 14, similarly treated, yield a fifteenth figure

x x x x x x x

Which, in its turn, confronted with Fig. 1, gives a sixteenth and last figure, x x x x x x

Completing the scheme, which shows the result of the operation as follows:

(1) x (2) x x (3) x (4) x x (5) x (6) x (7) x (8) x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

(9) x x (10) x (11) x x (12) x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

(13) x (14) x x x x x x x x x x x x

(15) x x x x x x x

(16) x x x x x x]

[Footnote 549: Burton adds here, "in order that other than I may carry it off."]

[Footnote 550: Min el meloum, lit. "[it is] of the known (i.e. that which is known)." Burton, "who knoweth an he wot, etc."]

[Footnote 551: Night DLXXIV.]

[Footnote 552: Sic, meaning of course that he had discovered its properties and availed himself thereof.]

[Footnote 553: Medinetu 's seltaneh, i e. the seat of government or capital.]

[Footnote 554: Lit. "donned" (lebesa).]

[Footnote 555: Here Galland says, "Il entra dans le lien le plus fameux et le plus frequente par les personnel de grande distinction, ou l'on s'assembloit pour boire d'une certaine boisson chance qui luy etoit connue des son premier voyage. Il n'y e-t pas plust"t pris place qu'on lay versa de cette boisson dans une tasse et qu'on la luy presenta. En la prenant, comme il prestoit l'oreille... droite et... gauche, il entendit qu'on s'entretenoit du palais d'Aladdin." The Chavis MS. says, "He entered a coffee-house (kehweh, Syrian for kehawi), and there used to go in thereto all the notables of the city, and he heard a company, all of them engaged in (ammalin bi, a very vulgar expression) talking of the Amir Alaeddin's palace, etc." This (or a similar text) is evidently the original of Galland's translation of this episode and it is probable, therefore, that the French translator inserted the mention "of a certain warm drink"(tea), out of that mistaken desire for local colouring at all costs which has led so many French authors (especially those of our own immediate day) astray. The circumstance was apparently evolved (alla tedesca) from his inner consciousness, as, although China is a favourite location with the authors of the Nights, we find no single mention of or allusion to tea in the rest of the work.]

[Footnote 556: Lit. "I will make him lose."]

[Footnote 557: Night DLXXV.]

[Footnote 558: Lit. "Instruments of astronomy or astrology" (tenjim); but tenjim is also used in the sense of geomancy, in which operation, as before explained, astrology plays an important part, and the context shows that the word is here intended to bear this meaning. Again, the implements of a geomancer of the higher order would include certain astrological instruments, such as an astrolabe, star-table, etc., necessary, as I have before explained, for the elucidation of the scheme obtained by the sand-smiting proper.]

[Footnote 559: He had apparently learned (though the Arabic author omits, with characteristic carelessness, to tell us so) that Alaeddin was absent a. hunting.]

[Footnote 560: Akemm, vulg. for kemm, a quantity.]

[Footnote 561: Minareh, lit. "alight-stand," i.e. either a lamp-stand or a candlestick.]

[Footnote 562: Bi-ziyadeh, which generally means "in excess, to boot," but is here used in the sense of "in abundance."]

[Footnote 563: Aalem.]

[Footnote 564: After the wont of "the natural enemy of mankind' in all ages.]

[Footnote 565: Keszr.]

[Footnote 566: Night DLXXVI.]

[Footnote 567: Aghatu 't tuwashiyeh.]

[Footnote 568: Ubb.]

[Footnote 569: Lit. "who" (men), but this is probably a mistake for ma (that which).]

[Footnote 570: Ifrikiyeh.]

[Footnote 571: Night DLXXVII.]

[Footnote 572: Ummar. This may, however, be a mistake (as before, see ante p. 177, note 2 {see FN#482}) for ema'r (buildings).]

[Footnote 573: Lit. "O company" (ya jema't), a polite formula of address, equivalent to our "Gentlemen."]

[Footnote 574: Night DLXXVIII.]

[Footnote 575: Lit. "the affair (or commandment, amr) is going to be sealed upon us."]

[Footnote 576: Sic (dara haulahu thelatheta dauratin); but qu're should it not rather be, "gave three sweeps or whirls with his sword round his head"? See my "Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night," Vol. VI. p. 355.]

[Footnote 577: Lit. "hath been bountiful unto me;" [the matter of] my life.]

[Footnote 578: Night DLXXIX.]

[Footnote 579: Previous to prayer.]

[Footnote 580: Lit. made easy to (yessera li).]

[Footnote 581: The name of the province is here applied to an imaginary city.]

[Footnote 582: Night DLXXX.]

[Footnote 583: Lit. "who hath a head with the head-seller or dealer in heads, etc." The word here employed (rewwas) commonly signifies "a man who cooks and sells sheepsheads, oxheads, etc." M. Zotenberg makes the following note on this passage in. his edition of Alaeddin; "Rewwas (for raa"s) signifies not only 'he who sells cooked heads,' but also 'he who makes a business of cooking heads.' Consequently whoso entrusteth a head to the rewwas is preoccupied and sleeps not." M. Zotenberg's note is unintelligible, in consequence of his having neglected to explain that the passage in question is a common Egyptian proverb, meaning (says Burckhardt), "the person whose fortune is entrusted to the hands of strangers cannot enjoy repose." "The poor," adds he, "at Cairo buy sheepsheads and for a trifle have them boiled in the bazaar by persons who are not only cooks, but sellers of sheepsheads, and are therefore called raa"s, or in the Egyptian dialect rewwas." The proverb is in the present case evidently meant as a play upon the literal meaning ("headsman," hence by implication "executioner") of the word rewwas, although I cannot find an instance of the word being employed in this sense. It is, however, abundantly evident from the general context that this is the author's intention in the passage in question, Alaeddin's head being metaphorically in the hands of (or pledged to) the headsman, inasmuch as he had engaged to return and suffer decapitation in case he should not succeed in recovering the princess within forty days.]

[Footnote 584: I suppose the verb which I render "caused [sleep] get the mastery," to be ghelleba, II of gheleba, as the only way of making sense of this passage, though this reading involves some irregularity from a grammatical point of view. This, however, is no novelty in the present text. Burton, "But whoso weareth head hard by the headsman may not sleep o'nights save whenas slumber prevail over him."]

[Footnote 585: Zeczekeh, a word which exactly renders the sparrow's dawn-cheep.]

[Footnote 586: Lit. "From (as Fr. des) the deep or remote dawn" (min el fejri 'l ghemic, Syr. for emic), cf. Matthew Arnold's "Resignation;" "The cockoo, loud on some high lawn, Is answered from the depth of dawn.."]

[Footnote 587: The terminal formula of the dawn-prayer.]

[Footnote 588: i.e. the magician]

[Footnote 589: Lit. "bride'' (arouseh). She is always, to the end of the tale, spoken of as Alaeddin's "bride," never as his "wife," whilst he, in like manner, is called her "bridegroom" (arous).]

[Footnote 590: This, at first sight, appears a contradiction, as we are distinctly told (see ante, p. 207) that the princess was unaware of the properties of the lamp; but the sequel shows that she had learned them, in the mean time. from the magician himself. See post.]

[Footnote 591: Ifrikiyeh.]

[Footnote 592: Night DLXXXI.]

[Footnote 593: Lit. "a spit (ric) of sweet." We may also read reic or reyyic, "the first part of anything" (especially "the first drop of rain").]

[Footnote 594: Lit. "having changed the clothes of this my dress."]

[Footnote 595: i.e. taking effect the moment of its administration.]

[Footnote 596: Night DLXXXII.]

[Footnote 597: Because white wine would have been visibly troubled by the drug.]

[Footnote 598: Ishebi bi-surrihi (lit. "drink by his pleasure or gladness;" surr or surour). Burton, "Pledge him to his secret in a significant draught."]

[Footnote 599: Kasein thelatheh, lit. two cups three (unusual way of putting it).]

[Footnote 600: Reshoush (for reshash), "anything sprinkled," i.e. powder or drops. I translate "powder," as I find no mention in the Nights of the use of this narcotic in a liquid form.]