Chapter 24

Barber’s Son . . . . . . . . |…|…|…| 5 | 6 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|… e. Story of the Bedouin’s Wife . . . . . |…|…|…| 5 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|… f. Story of the Wife and her two Gallants . . |…|…|…| 5 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|… 217. Adventures of Aleefa, daughter of Mherejaun, Sultan of Hind, and Eusuff, son of Sohul, Sultan of Sind . . . . . . . . |…|…| 6 | 5 | 6 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|11 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… 218. Adventures of the three Princes, sons of the Sultan of China . . . . . . . . |…|…| 5 | 5 | 6 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|10 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… 219. Story of the Gallant Officer . . . . . |…|…|…| 5 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|… 220. Story of another officer . . . . . . |…|…|…| 5 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|… 221. Story of the Idiot and his Asses . . . . |…|…|…| 5 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|… 222. Story of the Lady of Cairo and the Three Debauchees . . . . . . . . . |…|…|…| 5 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|… 223. Story of the Good Vizier unjustly imprisoned . |…|…| 6 | 5 | 6 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|11 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… 224. Story of the Prying Barber and the young man of Cairo . . . . . . . . . . |…|…|…| 5 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|… 225. Story of the Lady of Cairo and her four Gallants |…|…| 6 | 5 | 6 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|11 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… a. The Cauzee’s Story . . . . . . . |…|…|…| 5 | 6 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|… b. The Syrian . . . . . . . . . |…|…|…|5,6| - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|… c. The Caim-makaum’s Wife . . . . . . |…|…|…| 6 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|… d. Story told by the Fourth Gallant . . . |…|…|…| 6 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|… 226. Story of a Hump-backed Porter . . . . . |…|…|…| 6 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|… 227. The Aged Porter of Cairo and the Artful Female Thief . . . . . . . . . . |…|…|…| 6 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|… 228. Mhassun and his tried friend Mouseh . . . |…|…|…| 6 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|… 229. Mahummud Julbee, son to an Ameer of Cairo . . |…|…|…| 6 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|… 230. The Farmer’s Wife . . . . . . . . |…|…|…| 6 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|… 231. The Artful Wife . . . . . . . . |…|…|…| 6 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|… 232. The Cauzee’s Wife . . . . . . . . |…|…|…| 6 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|… 233. Story of the Merchant, his Daughter, and the Prince of Eerauk . . . . . . . |…|…|…| 6 | 6 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|… 234. The Two Orphans . . . . . . . . |…|…|…| 6 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|… 235. Story of another Farmer’s Wife . . . . . |…|…|…| 6 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|… 236. Story of the Son who attempted his Father’s Wives . . . . . . . . . . |…|…|…| 6 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|… 237. The Two Wits of Cairo and Syria . . . . |…|…|…| 6 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|… 238. Ibrahim and Mouseh . . . . . . . . |…|…|…| 6 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|… 239. The Viziers Ahmed and Mahummud . . . . . |…|…|…|6,7| - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|… 240. The Son addicted to Theft . . . . . . |…|…|…| 7 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|… 241. Adventures of the Cauzee, his Wife, &c. . . |…|…| 6 | 7 | 6 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|11 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… a. The Sultan’s Story of Himself . . . . |…|…| 6 | 7 | 6 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|11 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… 242. Story of Shaykh Nukheet the Fisherman, who became favourite to a Sultan . . . . |…|…|…| 7 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|… a. Story of the King of Andalusia . . . . |…|…|…| 7 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|… 243. Story of Teilone, Sultan of Egypt . . . . |…|…|…| 7 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|… 244. Story of the Retired Man and his Servant . . |…|…|…| 7 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|… 245. The Merchant’s Daughter who married the Emperor of China . . . . . . . . . |…|…|…| 7 | - |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|… *246. New Adventures of the Caliph Harun Al-Rashid . |…| 8 | 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|12 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… *247. The Physician and the young Purveyor of Bagdad . |…| 8 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|13 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… *248. The Wise Heycar . . . . . . . . |…| 8 | 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|13 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… *249. Attaf the Generous . . . . . . . . |…| 9 | 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|13 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… *250. Prince Habib and Dorrat-al-Gawas . . . . |…| 9 | 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|12 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… *251. The Forty Wazirs . . . . . . . . |…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… *a. Story of Shaykh Shahabeddin . . . . |…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… *b. Story of the Gardener, his Son, and the Ass |…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… *c. The Sultan Mahmoud and his Wazir . . . |…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… *d. Story of the Brahman Padmanaba and the young Fyquai . . . . . . . . . |…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… *e. Story of Sultan Akshid . . . . . . |…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… *f. Story of the Husband, the Lover and the Thief . . . . . . . . . |…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… *g. Story of the Prince of Carisme and the Princess of Georgia . . . . . . |…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… *h. The Cobbler and the King’s Daughter . . |…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… *i. The Woodcutter and the Genius . . . . |…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… *j. The Royal Parrot . . . . . . . |…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…| 1 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… *252. Story of the King and Queen of Abyssinia . . |…|…| 6 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|10 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… *253. Story of Princes Amina . . . . . . . |…|…| 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|12 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… *a. Story of the Princess of Tartary . . . |…|…| 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|12 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… *b. Story told by the Old Man’s Wife . . . |…|…| 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|12 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… *254. Story of Ali Johari . . . . . . . |…|…| 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|12 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… *255. Story of the two Princes of Cochin China . . |…|…| 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|12 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… *256. Story of the two Husbands . . . . . . |…|…| 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|12 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… *a. Story of Abdallah . . . . . . . |…|…| 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|12 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… *b. Story of the Favourite . . . . . . |…|…| 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|12 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… *257. Story of Yusuf and the Indian Merchant . . . |…|…| 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|12 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… *258. Story of Prince Benazir . . . . . . |…|…| 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|12 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… *259. Story of Selim, Sultan of Egypt . . . . |…|…| 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|13 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… *a. Story of the Cobbler’s Wife . . . . |…|…| 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|13 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… *b. Story of Adileh . . . . . . . |…|…| 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|13 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… *c. Story of the scarred Kalender . . . . |…|…| 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|13 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… *d. Continuation of the story of Selim . . . |…|…| 7 |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|13 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… *260. Story of Seif Sul Yesn . . . . . . . |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|14 |…|…|…|…|…|…|… 261. Story of the Labourer and the Chair . . . |…|…|…| A | A |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|… 262. Story of Ahmed the Orphan . . . . . . |…|…|…| A | A |…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…|…

VHa (Full contents from Introd. to No. 4 not given: 3e and 4 are apparently wanting.)

VHb (Nos. 10–19 represented by 7 Fables.)

VHc (Would include subordinate tales.)

N.B.—In using this Table, some allowance must be made for differences in the titles of many of the tales in different editions.

For the contents of the printed text, I have followed the lists in Mr. Payne’s “Tales from the Arabic,” vol. iii.

And here I end this long volume with repeating in other words and other tongue what was said in “L’Envoi”:—

Hide thou whatever here is found of fault;

And laud The Faultless and His might exalt!

After which I have only to make my bow and to say

“Salam.”

Arabian Nights, Volume 10

Footnotes

[FN#1] Arab. “Zarábín” (pl. of zarbún), lit. slaves’ shoes or sandals (see vol. iii. p. 336) the chaussure worn by Mamelukes. Here the word is used in its modern sense of stout shoes or walking boots.

[FN#2] The popular word means goodness, etc.

[FN#3] Dozy translates “’Urrah”=Une Mégère: Lane terms it a “vulgar word signifying a wicked, mischievous shrew.” But it is the fem. form of ’Urr=dung; not a bad name for a daughter of Billingsgate.

[FN#4] i.e. black like the book of her actions which would be shown to her on Doomsday.

[FN#5] The “Kunáfah” (vermicelli-cake) is a favourite dish of wheaten flour, worked somewhat finer than our vermicelli, fried with samn (butter melted and clarified) and sweetened with honey or sugar. See vol. v. 300.

[FN#6] i.e. Will send us aid. The Shrew’s rejoinder is highly impious in Moslem opinion.

[FN#7] Arab. Asal Katr; “a fine kind of black honey, treacle” says Lane; but it is afterwards called cane-honey (’Asal Kasab). I have never heard it applied to “the syrup which exudes from ripe dates, when hung up.”

[FN#8] Arab. “’Aysh,” lit.=that on which man lives: “Khubz” being the more popular term. “Hubz and Joobn” is well known at Malta.

[FN#9] Insinuating that he had better make peace with his wife by knowing her carnally. It suggests the story of the Irishman who brought over to the holy Catholic Church three several Protestant wives, but failed with the fourth on account of the decline of his “Convarter.”

[FN#10] Arab. “Asal Kasab,” i.e. Sugar, possibly made from sorgho-stalks Holcus sorghum of which I made syrup in Central Africa.

[FN#11] For this unpleasant euphemy see vol. iv. 215.

[FN#12] This is a true picture of the leniency with which women were treated in the Kazi’s court at Cairo; and the effect was simply deplorable. I have noted that matters have grown even worse since the English occupation, for history repeats herself; and the same was the case in Afghanistan and in Sind. We govern too much in these matters, which should be directed not changed, and too little in other things, especially in exacting respect for the conquerors from the conquered.

[FN#13] Arab. “Báb al-’Áli”=the high gate or Sublime Porte; here used of the Chief Kazi’s court: the phrase is a descendant of the Coptic “Per-ao” whence “Pharaoh.”

[FN#14] “Abú Tabak,” in Cairene slang, is an officer who arrests by order of the Kazi and means “Father of whipping” (=tabaka, a low word for beating, thrashing, whopping) because he does his duty with all possible violence in terrorem.

[FN#15] Bab al-Nasr the Eastern or Desert Gate: see vol. vi. 234.

[FN#16] This is a mosque outside the great gate built by Al-Malik al-’Ádil Tuman Bey in A.H. 906 (=1501). The date is not worthy of much remark for these names are often inserted by the scribe—for which see Terminal Essay.

[FN#17] Arab. “’Ámir” lit.=one who inhabiteth, a peopler; here used in technical sense. As has been seen, ruins and impure places such as privies and Hammám-baths are the favourite homes of the Jinn. The fire-drake in the text was summoned by the Cobbler’s exclamation and even Marids at times do a kindly action.

[FN#18] The style is modern Cairene jargon.

[FN#19] Purses or gold pieces see vol. ix. 313.

[FN#20] i.e. I am a Cairene.

[FN#21] Arab. “Darb al-Ahmar,” a street still existing near to and outside the noble Bab Zuwaylah, for which see vol. i. 269.

[FN#22] Arab. “’Attár,” perfume-seller and druggist; the word is connected with our “Ottar” (’Atr).

[FN#23] Arab. “Mudarris” lit.=one who gives lessons or lectures (dars) and pop. applied to a professor in a collegiate mosque like Al-Azhar of Cairo.

[FN#24] This thoroughly dramatic scene is told with a charming naïveté. No wonder that The Nights has been made the basis of a national theatre amongst the Turks.

[FN#25] Arab. “Taysh” lit.=vertigo, swimming of head.

[FN#26] Here Trébutien (iii. 265) reads “la ville de Khaïtan (so the Mac. Edit. iv. 708) capital du royaume de Sohatan.” Ikhtiyán Lane suggests to be fictitious: Khatan is a district of Tartary east of Káshgar, so called by Sádik al-Isfaháni p. 24.

[FN#27] This is a true picture of the tact and savoir faire of the Cairenes. It was a study to see how, under the late Khedive they managed to take precedence of Europeans who found themselves in the background before they knew it. For instance, every Bey, whose degree is that of a Colonel was made an “Excellency” and ranked accordingly at Court whilst his father, some poor Fellah, was ploughing the ground. Tanfík Pasha began his ill-omened rule by always placing natives close to him in the place of honour, addressing them first and otherwise snubbing Europeans who, when English, were often too obtuse to notice the petty insults lavished upon them.

[FN#28] Arab. “Kathír” (pron. Katir)=much: here used in its slang sense, “no end.”

[FN#29] i.e. “May the Lord soon make thee able to repay me; but meanwhile I give it to thee for thy own free use.”

[FN#30] Punning upon his name. Much might be written upon the significance of names as ominous of good and evil; but the subject is far too extensive for a footnote.

[FN#31] Lane translates “Ánisa-kum” by “he hath delighted you by his arrival”; Mr. Payne “I commend him to you.”

[FN#32] Arab. “Fatúrát,”=light food for the early breakfast of which the “Fatírah”-cake was a favourite item. See vol. i. 300.

[FN#33] A dark red dye (Lane).

[FN#34] Arab. “Jadíd,” see vol. viii. 121.

[FN#35] Both the texts read thus, but the reading has little sense. Ma’aruf probably would say, “I fear that my loads will be long coming.”

[FN#36] One of the many formulas of polite refusal.

[FN#37] Each bazar, in a large city like Damascus, has its tall and heavy wooden doors which are locked every evening and opened in the morning by the Ghafir or guard. The “silver key,” however, always lets one in.

[FN#38] Arab. “Wa lá Kabbata hámiyah,” a Cairene vulgarism meaning, “There came nothing to profit him nor to rid the people of him.”

[FN#39] Arab. “Kammir,” i.e. brown it before the fire, toast it.

[FN#40] It is insinuated that he had lied till he himself believed the lie to be truth—not an uncommon process, I may remark.

[FN#41] Arab. “Rijál”=the Men, equivalent to the Walis, Saints or

Santons; with perhaps an allusion to the Rijál al-Ghayb, the

Invisible Controls concerning whom I have quoted Herklots in vol.

ii. 211.

[FN#42] A saying attributed to Al-Hariri (Lane). It is good enough to be his: the Persians say, “Cut not down the tree thou plantedst,” and the idea is universal throughout the East.

[FN#43] A quotation from Al-Hariri (Ass. of the Badawin). Ash’ab (ob. A.H. 54), a Medinite servant of Caliph Osman, was proverbial for greed and sanguine, Micawber-like expectation of “windfalls.” The Scholiast Al-Sharíshi (of Xeres) describes him in Theophrastic style. He never saw a man put hand to pocket without expecting a present, or a funeral go by without hoping for a legacy, or a bridal procession without preparing his own house, hoping they might bring the bride to him by mistake. * * * When asked if he knew aught greedier than himself he said “Yes; a sheep I once kept upon my terrace-roof seeing a rainbow mistook it for a rope of hay and jumping to seize it broke its neck!” Hence “Ash’ab’s sheep” became a by-word (Preston tells the tale in full, p. 288).

[FN#44] i.e. “Show a miser money and hold him back, if you can.”

[FN#45] He wants £40,000 to begin with.

[FN#46] i.e. Arab. “Sabíhat al-’urs” the morning after the wedding. See vol. i. 269.

[FN#47] Another sign of modern composition as in Kamar al-Zaman

II.

[FN#48] Arab. “Al-Jink” (from Turk.) are boys and youths mostly Jews, Armenians, Greeks and Turks, who dress in woman’s dress with long hair braided. Lane (M. E. chapts. xix. and xxv.) gives same account of the customs of the “Gink” (as the Egyptians call them) but cannot enter into details concerning these catamites. Respectable Moslems often employ them to dance at festivals in preference to the Ghawázi-women, a freak of Mohammedan decorum. When they grow old they often preserve their costume, and a glance at them makes a European’s blood run cold.

[FN#49] Lane translates this, “May Allah and the Rijal retaliate upon thy temple!”

[FN#50] Arab. “Yá aba ’l-lithámayn,” addressed to his member. Lathm the root means kissing or breaking; so he would say, “O thou who canst take her maidenhead whilst my tongue does away with the virginity of her mouth.” “He breached the citadel” (which is usually square) “in its four corners” signifying that he utterly broke it down.

[FN#51] A mystery to the Author of Proverbs (xxx. 18–19),

There be three things which are too wondrous for me,

The way of an eagle in the air;

The way of a snake upon a rock;

And the way of a man with a maid.

[FN#52] Several women have described the pain to me as much resembling the drawing of a tooth.

[FN#53] As we should say, “play fast and loose.”

[FN#54] Arab. “Náhí-ka” lit.=thy prohibition but idiomatically used=let it suffice thee!

[FN#55] A character-sketch like that of Princess Dunya makes ample amends for a book full of abuse of women. And yet the superficial say that none of the characters have much personal individuality.

[FN#56] This is indeed one of the touches of nature which makes all the world kin.

[FN#57] As we are in Tartary “Arabs” here means plundering nomades, like the Persian “Iliyát” and other shepherd races.

[FN#58] The very cruelty of love which hates nothing so much as a rejected lover. The Princess, be it noted, is not supposed to be merely romancing, but speaking with the second sight, the clairvoyance, of perfect affection. Men seem to know very little upon this subject, though every one has at times been more or less startled by the abnormal introvision and divination of things hidden which are the property and prerogative of perfect love.

[FN#59] The name of the Princess meaning “The World,” not unusual amongst Moslem women.

[FN#60] Another pun upon his name, “Ma’aruf.”

[FN#61] Arab. “Naká,” the mound of pure sand which delights the eye of the Badawi leaving a town. See vol. i. 217, for the lines and explanation in Night cmlxiv. vol. ix. p. 250.

[FN#62] Euphemistic: “I will soon fetch thee food.” To say this bluntly might have brought misfortune.

[FN#63] Arab. “Kafr”=a village in Egypt and Syria e.g. Capernaum

(Kafr Nahum).

[FN#64] He has all the bonhomie of the Cairene and will do a kindness whenever he can.

[FN#65] i.e. the Father of Prosperities: pron. Aboosa’ádát; as in the Tale of Hasan of Bassorah.

[FN#66] Koran lxxxix. “The Daybreak” which also mentions Thamud and Pharaoh.

[FN#67] In Egypt the cheapest and poorest of food, never seen at a hotel table d’hôte.

[FN#68] The beautiful girls who guard ensorcelled hoards: See vol. vi. 109.

[FN#69] Arab. “Asákir,” the ornaments of litters, which are either plain balls of metal or tapering cones based on crescents or on balls and crescents. See in Lane (M. E. chapt. xxiv.) the sketch of the Mahmal.

[FN#70] Arab. “Amm”=father’s brother, courteously used for “father-in-law,” which suggests having slept with his daughter, and which is indecent in writing. Thus by a pleasant fiction the husband represents himself as having married his first cousin.

[FN#71] i.e. a calamity to the enemy: see vol. ii. 87 and passim.

[FN#72] Both texts read “Asad” (lion) and Lane accepts it: there is no reason to change it for “Hásid” (Envier), the Lion being the Sultan of the Beasts and the most majestic.

[FN#73] The Cairene knew his fellow Cairene and was not to be taken in by him.

[FN#74] Arab. “Hizám”: Lane reads “Khizám”=a nose-ring for which see appendix to Lane’s M. E. The untrained European eye dislikes these decorations and there is certainly no beauty in the hoops which Hindu women insert through the nostrils, camel-fashion, as if to receive the cord-acting bridle. But a drop-pearl hanging to the septum is at least as pretty as the heavy pendants by which some European women lengthen their ears.

[FN#75] Arab. “Shamtá,” one of the many names of wine, the “speckled” alluding to the bubbles which dance upon the freshly filled cup.

[FN#76] i.e. in the cask. These “merry quips” strongly suggest the dismal toasts of our not remote ancestors.

[FN#77] Arab. “A’láj” plur. of “’Ilj” and rendered by Lane “the stout foreign infidels.” The next line alludes to the cupbearer who was generally a slave and a non-Moslem.

[FN#78] As if it were a bride. See vol. vii. 198. The stars of

Jauzá (Gemini) are the cupbearer’s eyes.

[FN#79] i.e. light-coloured wine.

[FN#80] The usual homage to youth and beauty.

[FN#81] Alluding to the cup.

[FN#82] Here Abu Nowas whose name always ushers in some abomination alluded to the “Ghulámiyah” or girl dressed like boy to act cupbearer. Civilisation has everywhere the same devices and the Bordels of London and Paris do not ignore the “she-boy,” who often opens the door.

[FN#83] Abdallah ibn al-Mu’tazz, son of Al-Mu’tazz bi ’llah, the 13th Abbaside, and great-great-grandson of Harun al-Rashid. He was one of the most renowned poets of the third century (A.H.) and died A.D. 908, strangled by the partisans of his nephew Al-Muktadir bi ’llah, 18th Abbaside.

[FN#84] Jazírat ibn Omar, an island and town on the Tigris north of Mosul. “Some versions of the poem, from which these verses are quoted, substitute El-Mutireh, a village near Samara (a town on the Tigris, 60 miles north of Baghdad), for El-Jezireh, i.e. Jeziret ibn Omar.” (Payne.)

[FN#85] The Convent of Abdun on the east bank of the Tigris opposite the Jezirah was so called from a statesman who caused it to be built. For a variant of these lines see Ibn Khallikan, vol. ii. 42; here we miss “the shady groves of Al-Matírah.”

[FN#86] Arab. “Ghurrah” the white blaze on a horse’s brow. In Ibn

Khallikan the bird is the lark.

[FN#87] Arab. “Táy’i”=thirsty used with Jáy’i=hungry.

[FN#88] Lit. “Kohl’d with Ghunj” for which we have no better word than “coquetry.” But see vol. v. 80. It corresponds with the Latin crissare for women and cevere for men.

[FN#89] i.e. gold-coloured wine, as the Vino d’Oro.

[FN#90] Compare the charming song of Abu Miján translated from the German of Dr. Weil in Bohn’s Edit. of Ockley (p. 149),

When the Death-angel cometh mine eyes to close,

Dig my grave ’mid the vines on the hill’s fair side;

For though deep in earth may my bones repose,

The juice of the grape shall their food provide.

Ah, bury me not in a barren land,

Or Death will appear to me dread and drear!

While fearless I’ll wait what he hath in hand I

An the scent of the vineyard my spirit cheer.

The glorious old drinker!

[FN#91] Arab. “Rub’a al-Kharáb” in Ibn al-Wardi Central Africa south of the Nile-sources, one of the richest regions in the world. Here it prob. alludes to the Rub’a al-Kháli or Great Arabian Desert: for which see Night dclxxvi. In rhetoric it is opposed to the “Rub’a Maskún,” or populated fourth of the world, the rest being held to be ocean.

[FN#92] This is the noble resignation of the Moslem. What a dialogue there would have been in a European book between man and devil!

[FN#93] Arab. “Al-’iddah” the period of four months and ten days which must elapse before she could legally marry again. But this was a palpable wile: she was not sure of her husband’s death and he had not divorced her; so that although a “grass widow,” a “Strohwitwe” as the Germans say, she could not wed again either with or without interval.

[FN#94] Here the silence is of cowardice and the passage is a fling at the “timeserving” of the Olema, a favourite theme, like “banging the bishops” amongst certain Westerns.

[FN#95] Arab. “Umm al-raas,” the poll, crown of the head, here the place where a calamity coming down from heaven would first alight.

[FN#96] From Al-Hariri (Lane): the lines are excellent.

[FN#97] When the charming Princess is so ready at the voie de faits, the reader will understand how common is such energetic action among women of lower degree. The “fair sex” in Egypt has a horrible way of murdering men, especially husbands, by tying them down and tearing out the testicles. See Lane M. E. chapt. xiii.

[FN#98] Arab. “Sijn al-Ghazab,” the dungeons appropriated to the worst of criminals where they suffer penalties far worse than hanging or guillotining.

[FN#99] According to some modern Moslems Munkar and Nakir visit

the graves of Infidels (non-Moslems) and Bashshir and Mubashshir

(“Givers of glad tidings”) those of Mohammedans. Petis de la

Croix (Les Mille et un Jours vol. iii. 258) speaks of the

“Zoubanya,” black angels who torture the damned under their chief

Dabilah.

[FN#100] Very simple and pathetic is this short sketch of the noble-minded Princess’s death.

[FN#101] In sign of dismissal (vol. iv. 62) I have noted that “throwing the kerchief” is not an Eastern practice: the idea probably arose from the Oriental practice of sending presents in richly embroidered napkins and kerchiefs.

[FN#102] Curious to say both Lane and Payne omit this passage which appears in both texts (Mac. and Bul.). The object is evidently to prepare the reader for the ending by reverting to the beginning of the tale; and its prolixity has its effect as in the old Romances of Chivalry from Amadis of Ghaul to the Seven Champions of Christendom. If it provoke impatience, it also heightens expectation; “it is like the long elm-avenues of our forefathers; we wish ourselves at the end; but we know that at the end there is something great.”

[FN#103] Arab. “alà malákay bayti ’l-ráhah;” on the two slabs at whose union are the round hole and longitudinal slit. See vol. i. 221.

[FN#104] Here the exclamation wards off the Evil Eye from the Sword and the wearer: Mr. Payne notes, “The old English exclamation Cock’s ’ill!’ (i.e., God’s will, thus corrupted for the purpose of evading the statute of 3 Jac. i. against profane swearing) exactly corresponds to the Arabic”—with a difference, I add.

[FN#105] Arab. “Mustahakk”=deserving (Lane) or worth (Payne) the cutting.

[FN#106] Arab. “Mashhad” the same as “Sháhid”=the upright stones at the head and foot of the grave. Lane mistranslates, “Made for her a funeral procession.”

[FN#107] These lines have occurred before. I quote Lane.

[FN#108] There is nothing strange in such sudden elevations amongst Moslems and even in Europe we still see them occasionally. The family in the East, however humble, is a model and miniature of the state, and learning is not always necessary to wisdom.

[FN#109] Arab. “Fárid” which may also mean “union-pearl.”

[FN#110] Trébutien (iii. 497) cannot deny himself the pleasure of a French touch making the King reply, “C’est assez; qu’on lui coupe la tête, car ces dernières histoires surtout m’ont causé un ennui mortel.” This reading is found in some of the MSS.

[FN#111] After this I borrow from the Bresl. Edit. inserting passages from the Mac. Edit.

[FN#112] i.e. whom he intended to marry with regal ceremony.

[FN#113] The use of coloured powders in sign of holiday-making is not obsolete in India. See Herklots for the use of “Huldee” (Haldí) or turmeric-powder, pp. 64–65.

[FN#114] Many Moslem families insist upon this before giving their girls in marriage, and the practice is still popular amongst many Mediterranean peoples.

[FN#115] i.e. Sumatran.

[FN#116] i.e. Alexander, according to the Arabs; see vol. v. 252.

[FN#117] These lines are in vol. i. 217.

[FN#118] I repeat the lines from vol. i. 218.

[FN#119] All these coquetries require as much inventiveness as a cotillon; the text alludes to fastening the bride’s tresses across her mouth giving her the semblance of beard and mustachios.

[FN#120] Repeated from vol. i. 218.

[FN#121] Repeated from vol. i. 218.

[FN#122] See vol. i. 219.

[FN#123] Arab. Sawád=the blackness of the hair.

[FN#124] Because Easterns build, but never repair.

[FN#125]i.e. God only knows if it be true or not.

[FN#126] Ouseley’s Orient. Collect. I, vii.

[FN#127] This three-fold distribution occurred to me many years ago and when far beyond reach of literary authorities, I was, therefore, much pleased to find the subjoined three-fold classification with minor details made by Baron von Hammer-Purgstall (Preface to Contes Inédits etc. of G. S. Trébutien, Paris, mdcccxxviii.) (1) The older stories which serve as a base to the collection, such as the Ten Wazirs (“Malice of Women”) and Voyages of Sindbad (?) which may date from the days of Mahommed. These are distributed into two sub-classes; (a) the marvellous and purely imaginative (e.g. Jamasp and the Serpent Queen) and (b) the realistic mixed with instructive fables and moral instances. (2) The stories and anecdotes peculiarly Arab, relating to the Caliphs and especially to Al-Rashíd; and (3) The tales of Egyptian provenance, which mostly date from the times of the puissant “Aaron the Orthodox.” Mr. John Payne (Villon Translation vol. ix. pp. 367–73) distributes the stories roughly under five chief heads as follows: (1) Histories or long Romances, as King Omar bin Al-Nu’man (2) Anecdotes or short stories dealing with historical personages and with incidents and adventures belonging to the every-day life of the period to which they refer: e.g. those concerning Al-Rashíd and Hátim of Tayy. (3) Romances and romantic fictions comprising three different kinds of tales; (a) purely romantic and supernatural; (b) fictions and nouvelles with or without a basis and background of historical fact and (c) Contes fantastiques. (4) Fables and Apologues; and (5) Tales proper, as that of Tawaddud.

[FN#128] Journal Asiatique (Paris, Dondoy-Dupré, 1826) “Sur l’origine des Mille et une Nuits.”

[FN#129] Baron von Hammer-Purgstall’s château is near Styrian Graz, and, when I last saw his library, it had been left as it was at his death.

[FN#130] At least, in Trébutien’s Preface, pp. xxx.-xxxi., reprinted from the Journ. Asiat. August, 1839: for corrections see De Sacy’s “Mémoire.” p. 39.

[FN#131] Vol. iv. pp. 89–90, Paris mdccclxv. Trébutien quotes, chapt. lii. (for lxviii.), one of Von Hammer’s manifold inaccuracies.

[FN#132] Alluding to Iram the Many-columned, etc.

[FN#133] In Trébutien “Síhá,” for which the Editor of the Journ. Asiat. and De Sacy rightly read “Sabíl-há.”

[FN#134] For this some MSS. have “Fahlawiyah” = Pehlevi

[FN#135] i.e. Lower Roman, Grecian, of Asia Minor, etc., the word is still applied throughout Marocco, Algiers and Northern Africa to Europeans in general.

[FN#136] De Sacy (Dissertation prefixed to the Bourdin Edition) notices the “thousand and one,” and in his Mémoire “a thousand:” Von Hammer’s MS. reads a thousand, and the French translation a thousand and one. Evidently no stress can be laid upon the numerals.

[FN#137] These names are noticed in my vol. i. 14, and vol. ii. 3. According to De Sacy some MSS. read “History of the Wazir and his Daughters.”

[FN#138] Lane (iii. 735) has Wizreh or Wardeh which guide us to

Wird Khan, the hero of the tale. Von Hammer’s MS. prefers

Djilkand (Jilkand), whence probably the Isegil or Isegild of

Langlés (1814), and the Tséqyl of De Sacy (1833). The mention of

“Simás” (Lane’s Shemmas) identifies it with “King Jalí’ád of

Hind,” etc. (Night dcccxcix.) Writing in A.D. 961 Hamzah Isfaháni

couples with the libri Sindbad and Schimas, the libri Baruc and

Barsinas, four nouvelles out of nearly seventy. See also Al-

Makri’zi’s Khitat or Topography (ii. 485) for a notice of the

Thousand or Thousand and one Nights.

[FN#139] alluding to the “Seven Wazirs” alias “The Malice of Women” (Night dlxxviii.), which Von Hammer and many others have carelessly confounded with Sindbad the Seaman We find that two tales once separate have now been incorporated with The Nights, and this suggests the manner of its composition by accretion.

[FN#140] Arabised by a most “elegant” stylist, Abdullah ibn al-Mukaffá (the shrivelled), a Persian Guebre named Roz-bih (Day good), who islamised and was barbarously put to death in A.H. 158 (= 775) by command of the Caliph al-Mansur (Al-Siyuti p. 277). “He also translated from Pehlevi the book entitled Sekiserán, containing the annals of Isfandiyar, the death of Rustam, and other episodes of old Persic history,” says Al-Mas’udi chapt. xxi. See also Ibn Khallikan (1, 43) who dates the murder in A.H. 142 (= 759–60).

[FN#141] “Notice sur Le Schah-namah de Firdoussi,” a posthumous

publication of M. de Wallenbourg, Vienna, 1810, by M. A. de

Bianchi. In sect. iii. I shall quote another passage of Al-

Mas’udi (viii. 175) in which I find a distinct allusion to the

“Gaboriau detective tales” of The Nights.

[FN#142] Here Von Hammer shows his customary inexactitude. As we learn from Ibn Khallikan (Fr. Tr. I. 630), the author’s name was Abu al-Faraj Mohammed ibn Is’hak pop. known as Ibn Ali Ya’kúb al-Warrák, the bibliographe, librarian, copyist. It was published (vol. i Leipzig, 1871) under the editorship of G. Fluegel, J. Roediger, and A. Müller.

[FN#143] See also the Journ. Asiat., August, 1839, and Lane iii. 736–37

[FN#144] Called “Afsánah” by Al-Mas’udi, both words having the same sense = tale story, parable, “facetiæ.” Moslem fanaticism renders it by the Arab “Khuráfah” = silly fables, and in Hindostan it = a jest: “Bát-kí bát, khurafát-ki khurafát” (a word for a word, a joke for a joke).

[FN#145] Al-Mas’údi (chapt. xxi.) makes this a name of the Mother of Queen Humái or Humáyah, for whom see below.

[FN#146] The preface of a copy of the Shah-nameh (by Firdausi, ob. A.D. 1021), collated in A.H. 829 by command of Bayisunghur Bahadur Khán (Atkinson p. x.), informs us that the Hazar Afsanah was composed for or by Queen Humái whose name is Arabised to Humáyah This Persian Marguerite de Navarre was daughter and wife to (Ardashir) Bahman, sixth Kayanian and surnamed Diraz-dast (Artaxerxes Longimanus), Abu Sásán from his son, the Eponymus of the Sassanides who followed the Kayanians when these were extinguished by Alexander of Macedon. Humái succeeded her husband as seventh Queen, reigned thirty-two years and left the crown to her son Dárá or Dáráb 1st = Darius Codomanus. She is better known to Europe (through Herodotus) as Parysatis = Peri-zádeh or the Fairy-born.

[FN#147] i.e. If Allah allow me to say sooth.

[FN#148] i.e. of silly anecdotes: here speaks the good Moslem!

[FN#149] No. 622 Sept. 29, 39, a review of Torrens which appeared shortly after Lane’s vol. i. The author quotes from a MS. in the British Museum, No. 7334 fol. 136.

[FN#150] There are many Spaniards of this name: Mr. Payne (ix. 302) proposes Abu Ja’afar ibn Abd al-Hakk al-Khazraji, author of a History of the Caliphs about the middle of the twelfth century.

[FN#151] The well-known Rauzah or Garden-island, of old Al-Saná’ah (Al-Mas’udi chapt. xxxi.) which is more than once noticed in The Nights. The name of the pavilion Al-Haudaj = a camel-litter, was probably intended to flatter the Badawi girl.

[FN#152] He was the Seventh Fatimite Caliph of Egypt: regn. A.H. 495–524 (= 1101 1129).

[FN#153] Suggesting a private pleasaunce in Al-Rauzah which has ever been and is still a succession of gardens.

[FN#154] The writer in The Athenæum calls him Ibn Miyvah, and adds that the Badawiyah wrote to her cousin certain verses complaining of her thraldom, which the youth answered abusing the Caliph. Al-Ámir found the correspondence and ordered Ibn Miyah’s tongue to be cut out, but he saved himself by a timely flight.

[FN#155] In Night dccclxxxv. we have the passage “He was a wily thief: none could avail against his craft as he were Abu Mohammed Al-Battál”: the word etymologically means The Bad; but see infra.

[FN#156] Amongst other losses which Orientals have sustained by the death of Rogers Bey, I may mention his proposed translation of Al-Makrízí’s great topographical work.

[FN#157] The name appears only in a later passage.

[FN#158] Mr. Payne notes (viii. 137) “apparently some famous brigand of the time” (of Charlemagne). But the title may signify The Brave, and the tale may be much older.

[FN#159] In his “Mémoire sur l’origine du Recueil des Contes intitulé Les Mille et une Nuits” (Mém. d’Hist. et de Littér. Orientale, extrait des tomes ix., et x. des Mémoires de l’Inst. Royal Acad. des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1833). He read the Memoir before the Royal Academy on July 31, 1829. Also in his Dissertation “Sur les Mille et une Nuits” (pp. i. viii.) prefixed to the Bourdin Edit. When first the Arabist in Europe landed at Alexandria he could not exchange a word with the people the same is told of Golius the lexicographer at Tunis.

[FN#160] Lane, Nights ii. 218.

[FN#161] This origin had been advocated a decade of years before by Shaykh Ahmad al-Shirawáni; Editor of the Calc. text (1814–18): his Persian preface opines that the author was an Arabic speaking Syrian who designedly wrote in a modern and conversational style, none of the purest withal, in order to instruct non-Arabists. Here we find the genus “Professor” pure and simple.

[FN#162] Such an assertion makes us enquire, Did De Sacy ever read through The Nights in Arabic?

[FN#163] Dr. Jonathan Scott’s “translation” vi. 283.

[FN#164] For a note on this world-wide Tale see vol. i. 52.

[FN#165] In the annotated translation by Mr. I. G. N. Keith-Falconer, Cambridge University Press. I regret to see the wretched production called the “Fables of Pilpay” in the “Chandos Classics” (London, F. Warne). The words are so mutilated that few will recognize them, e.g. Carchenas for Kár-shínás, Chaschmanah for Chashmey-e-Máh (Fountain of the Moon), etc.

[FN#166] Article Arabia in Encyclop. Brit., 9th Edit., p. 263, colt 2. I do not quite understand Mr. Palgrave, but presume that his “other version” is the Bresl. Edit., the MS. of which was brought from Tunis; see its Vorwort (vol. i. p. 3).

[FN#167] There are three distinct notes according to De Sacy (Mém., p. 50). The first (in MS. 1508) says “This blessed book was read by the weak slave, etc. Wahabah son of Rizkallah the Kátib (secretary, scribe) of Tarábulus al-Shám (Syrian Tripoli), who prayeth long life for its owner (li máliki-h). This tenth day of the month First Rabí’a A.H. 955 (= 1548).” A similar note by the same Wahabah occurs at the end of vol. ii. (MS. 1507) dated A.H. 973 (= 1565) and a third (MS. 1506) is undated. Evidcntly M. Caussin has given undue weight to such evidence. For further information see “Tales of the East” to which is prefixed an Introductory Dissertation (vol. i. pp. 24–26, note) by Henry Webber, Esq., Edinburgh, 1812, in 3 vols.

[FN#168] “Notice sur les douze manuscrits connus des Milles et une Nuits, qui existent en Europe.” Von Hammer in Trébutien, Notice, vol. i.

[FN#169] Printed from the MS. of Major Turner Macan, Editor of the Shahnamah: he bought it from the heirs of Mr. Salt, the historic Consul-General of England in Egypt and after Macan’s death it became the property of the now extinct Allens, then of Leadenhall Street (Torrens, Preface, i.). I have vainly enquired about what became of it.

[FN#170] The short paper by “P. R.” in the Gentleman’s Magazine (Feb. 19th, 1799, vol. lxix. p. 61) tells us that MSS. of The Nights were scarce at Aleppo and that he found only two vols. (280 Nights) which he had great difficulty in obtaining leave to copy. He also noticed (in 1771) a MS., said to be complete, in the Vatican and another in the “King’s Library” (Bibliothèque Nationale), Paris.

[FN#171] Aleppo has been happy in finding such monographers as

Russell and Maundrell while poor Damascus fell into the hands of

Mr. Missionary Porter, and suffered accordingly.

[FN#172] Vol. vi. Appendix, p. 452.

[FN#173] The numbers, however, vary with the Editions of Galland: some end the formula with Night cxcvii; others with the ccxxxvi.: I adopt that of the De Sacy Edition.

[FN#174] Contes Persans, suivis des Contes Turcs. Paris; Béchet

Ainé, 1826.

[FN#175] In the old translation we have “eighteen hundred years since the prophet Solomon died,” (B.C. 975) = A.D. 825.

[FN#176] Meaning the era of the Seleucides. Dr. Jonathan Scott shows (vol. ii. 324) that A.H. 653 and A.D. 1255 would correspond with 1557 of that epoch; so that the scribe has here made a little mistake of 5,763 years. Ex uno disce.

[FN#177] The Saturday Review (Jan. 2nd ’86) writes, “Captain Burton has fallen into a mistake by not distinguishing between the names of the by no means identical Caliphs Al-Muntasir and Al-Mustansir.” Quite true: it was an ugly confusion of the melancholy madman and parricide with one of the best and wisest of the Caliphs. I can explain (not extenuate) my mistake only by a misprint in Al-Siyúti (p. 554).

[FN#178] In the Galland MS. and the Bresl. Edit. (ii. 253), we find the Barber saying that the Caliph (Al-Mustansir) was at that time (yaumaizin) in Baghdad, and this has been held to imply that the Caliphate had fallen. But such conjecture is evidently based upon insufficient grounds.

[FN#179] De Sacy makes the “Kalandar” order originate in A.D. 1150, but the Shaykh Sharíf bú Ali Kalandar died in A.D. 1323–24. In Sind the first Kalandar, Osmán-i-Marwándí surnamed Lál Sháhbáz, the Red Goshawk, from one of his miracles, died and was buried at Sehwán in A D. 1274: see my “History of Sindh” chapt. viii. for details. The dates therefore run wild.

[FN#180] In this same tale H. H. Wilson observes that the title of Sultan of Egypt was not assumed before the middle of the xiith century.

[FN#181] Popularly called Vidyanagar of the Narsingha.

[FN#182] Time-measurers are of very ancient date. The Greeks had clepsydræ and the Romans gnomons, portable and ring-shaped, besides large standing town-dials as at Aquileja and San Sabba near Trieste. The “Saracens” were the perfecters of the clepsydra: Bosseret (p. 16) and the Chronicon Turense (Beckmann ii. 340 et seq.) describe the water-clock sent by Al-Rashid to Karl the Great as a kind of “cockoo-clock.” Twelve doors in the dial opened successively and little balls dropping on brazen bells told the hour: at noon a dozen mounted knights paraded the face and closed the portals. Trithonius mentions an horologium presented in A.D. 1232 by Al-Malik al-Kámil the Ayyubite Soldan to the Emperor Frederick II: like the Strasbourg and Padua clocks it struck the hours, told the day, month and year, showed the phases of the moon, and registered the position of the sun and the planets. Towards the end of the fifteenth century Gaspar Visconti mentions in a sonnet the watch proper (certi orologii piccioli e portativi); and the “animated eggs” of Nurembourg became famous. The earliest English watch (Sir Ashton Lever’s) dates from 1541: and in 1544 the portable chronometer became common in France.

[FN#183] An illustrated History of Arms and Armour etc. (p. 59);

London: Bell and Sons, 1877. The best edition is the Guide des

Amateurs d’Armes, Paris: Renouard, 1879.

[FN#184] Chapt. iv. Dr. Gustav Oppert “On the Weapons etc. of the

Ancient Hindus;” London: Trübner and Co., 1880.

[FN#185] I have given other details on this subject in pp. 631– 637 of “Camoens, his Life and his Lusiads.”

[FN#186] The morbi venerei amongst the Romans are obscure because “whilst the satirists deride them the physicians are silent.” Celsus, however, names (De obscenarum partium vitiis, lib. xviii.) inflammatio coleorum (swelled testicle), tubercula glandem (warts on the glans penis), cancri carbunculi (chancre or shanker) and a few others. The rubigo is noticed as a lues venerea by Servius in Virg. Georg.

[FN#187] According to David Forbes, the Peruvians believed that syphilis arose from connection of man and alpaca; and an old law forbade bachelors to keep these animals in the house. Francks explains by the introduction of syphilis wooden figures found in the Chinchas guano; these represented men with a cord round the neck or a serpent devouring the genitals.

[FN#188] They appeared before the gates of Paris in the summer of 1427, not “about July, 1422”: in Eastern Europe, however, they date from a much earlier epoch. Sir J. Gilbert’s famous picture has one grand fault, the men walk and the women ride: in real life the reverse would be the case.

[FN#189] Rabelais ii. c. 30.

[FN#190] I may be allowed to note that syphilis does not confine itself to man: a charger infected with it was pointed out to me at Baroda by my late friend, Dr. Arnott (18th Regiment, Bombay N.I.) and Tangier showed me some noticeable cases of this hippic syphilis, which has been studied in Hungary. Eastern peoples have a practice of “passing on” venereal and other diseases, and transmission is supposed to cure the patient; for instance a virgin heals (and catches) gonorrhœa. Syphilis varies greatly with climate. In Persia it is said to be propagated without contact: in Abyssinia it is often fatal and in Egypt it is readily cured by sand baths and sulphur-unguents. Lastly in lands like Unyamwezi, where mercurials are wholly unknown, I never saw caries of the nasal or facial bones.

[FN#191] For another account of the transplanter and the casuistical questions to which coffee gave rise, see my “First Footsteps in East Africa” (p. 76).

[FN#192] The first mention of coffee proper (not of Kahwah or old wine in vol. ii. 260) is in Night cdxxvi. vol. v. 169, where the coffee-maker is called Kahwahjiyyah, a mongrel term showing the modern date of the passage in Ali the Cairene. As the work advances notices become thicker, e.g. in Night dccclxvi. where Ali Nur al-Din and the Frank King’s daughter seems to be a modernisation of the story “Ala al-Din Abu al-Shámát” (vol. iv. 29); and in Abu Kir and Abu Sir (Nights cmxxx. and cmxxxvi.) where coffee is drunk with sherbet after present fashion. The use culminates in Kamar al-Zaman II. where it is mentioned six times (Nights cmlxvi. cmlxx. cmlxxi. twice; cmlxxiv. and cmlxxvii.), as being drunk after the dawn-breakfast and following the meal as a matter of course. The last notices are in Abdullah bin Fazil, Nights cmlxxviii. and cmlxxix.

[FN#193] It has been suggested that Japanese tobacco is an indigenous growth and sundry modern travellers in China contend that the potato and the maize, both white and yellow, have there been cultivated from time immemorial.

[FN#194] For these see my “City of the Saints,” p. 136.

[FN#195] Lit. meaning smoke: hence the Arabic “Dukhán,” with the same signification.

[FN#196] Unhappily the book is known only by name: for years I have vainly troubled friends and correspondents to hunt for a copy. Yet I am sanguine enough to think that some day we shall succeed: Mr. Sidney Churchill, of Teheran, is ever on the look-out.

[FN#197] In § 3 I shall suggest that this tale also is mentioned by Al-Mas’udi.

[FN#198] I have extracted it from many books, especially from

Hoeffer’s Biographie Générale, Paris, Firmin Didot, mdccclvii.;

Biographie Universelle, Paris, Didot, 1816, etc. etc. All are

taken from the work of M. de Boze, his “Bozzy.”

[FN#199] As learning a language is an affair of pure memory, almost without other exercise of the mental faculties, it should be assisted by the ear and the tongue as well as the eyes. I would invariably make pupils talk, during lessons, Latin and Greek, no matter how badly at first; but unfortunately I should have to begin with teaching the pedants who, as a class, are far more unwilling and unready to learn than are those they teach.

[FN#200] The late Dean Stanley was notably trapped by the wily Greek who had only political purposes in view. In religions as a rule the minimum of difference breeds the maximum of disputation, dislike and disgust.

[FN#201] See in Trébutien (Avertissement iii.) how Baron von

Hammer escaped drowning by the blessing of The Nights.

[FN#202] He signs his name to the Discours pour servir de

Préface.

[FN#203] I need not trouble the reader with their titles, which fill up nearly a column and a half in M. Hoeffer. His collection of maxims from Arabic, Persian and Turkish authors appeared in English in 1695.

[FN#204] Galland’s version was published in 1704–1717 in 12 vols. 12mo., (Hoeffer’s Biographie; Grasse’s Trésor de Livres rares and Encyclop. Britannica, ixth Edit.)

[FN#205] See also Leigh Hunt “The Book of the Thousand Nights and one Night,” etc., etc. London and Westminster Review Art. iii., No. lxiv. mentioned in Lane, iii., 746.

[FN#206] Edition of 1856 vol. xv.

[FN#207] To France England also owes her first translation of the Koran, a poor and mean version by Andrew Ross of that made from the Arabic (No. iv.) by André du Reyer, Consul de France for Egypt. It kept the field till ousted in 1734 by the learned lawyer George Sale whose conscientious work, including Preliminary Discourse and Notes (4to London), brought him the ill-fame of having “turned Turk.”

[FN#208] Catalogue of Printed Books, 1884, p. 159, col. i. I am ashamed to state this default in the British Museum, concerning which Englishmen are apt to boast and which so carefully mulcts modern authors in unpaid copies. But it is only a slight specimen of the sad state of art and literature in England, neglected equally by Conservatives, Liberals and Radicals. What has been done for the endowment of research? What is our equivalent for the Prix de Rome? Since the death of Dr. Birch, who can fairly deal with a Demotic papyrus? Contrast the Société Anthropologique and its palace and professors in Paris with our “Institute” au second in a corner of Hanover Square and its skulls in the cellar!

[FN#209] Art. vii. pp. 139–168, “On the Arabian Nights and translators, Weil, Torrens and Lane (vol. i.) with the Essai of A. Loisseleur Deslongchamps.” The Foreign Quarterly Review, vol. xxiv., Oct. 1839–Jan. 1840. London, Black and Armstrong, 1840.

[FN#210] Introduction to his Collection “Tales of the East,” 3 vols. Edinburgh, 1812. He was the first to point out the resemblance between the introductory adventures of Shahryar and Shah Zaman and those of Astolfo and Giacondo in the Orlando Furioso (Canto xxviii.). M. E. Lévêque in Les Mythes et les Légendes de l’Inde et la Perse (Paris, 1880) gives French versions of the Arabian and Italian narratives, side by side in p. 543 ff. (Clouston).

[FN#211] Notitiæ Codicis MI. Noctium. Dr. Pusey studied Arabic to familiarise himself with Hebrew, and was very different from his predecessor at Oxford in my day, who, when applied to for instruction in Arabic, refused to lecture except to a class.

[FN#212] This nephew was the author of “Recueil des Rits et

Cérémonies des Pilgrimages de La Mecque,” etc. etc. Paris and

Amsterdam, 1754, in 12mo.

[FN#213] The concluding part did not appear, I have said, till 1717: his “Comes et Fables Indiennes de Bidpaï et de Lokman,” were first printed in 1724, 2 vols. in 12mo. Hence, I presume, Lowndes’ mistake.

[FN#214] M. Caussin (de Perceval), Professeur of Arabic at the Imperial Library, who edited Galland in 1806, tells us that he found there only two MSS., both imperfect. The first (Galland’s) is in three small vols. 4to. each of about pp. 140. The stories are more detailed and the style, more correct than that of other MS., is hardly intelligible to many Arabs, whence he presumes that it contains the original (an early?) text which has been altered and vitiated. The date is supposed to be circa A.D. 1600. The second Parisian copy is a single folio of some 800 pages, and is divided into 29 sections and cmv. Nights, the last two sections being reversed. The MS. is very imperfect, the 12th, 15th, 16th, 18th, 20th, 21st–23rd, 25th and 27th parts are wanting; the sections which follow the 17th contain sundry stories repeated, there are anecdotes from Bidpai, the Ten Wazirs and other popular works, and lacunæ everywhere abound.

[FN#215] Mr. Payne (ix. 264) makes eleven, including the Histoire du Dormeur éveillé = The Sleeper and the Waker, which he afterwards translated from the Bresl. Edit. in his “Tales from the Arabic” (vol. i. 5, etc.)

[FN#216] Mr. E. J. W. Gibb informs me that he has come upon this tale in a Turkish storybook, the same from which he drew his “Jewád.”

[FN#217] A littérateur lately assured me that Nos. ix. and x. have been found in the Bibliothèque Nationale (du Roi) Paris; but two friends were kind enough to enquire and ascertained that it was a mistake. Such Persianisms as Codadad (Khudadad), Baba Cogia (Khwájah) and Peri (fairy) suggest a Persic MS.

[FN#218] Vol. vi. 212. “The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments (London: Longmans, 1811) by Jonathan Scott, with the Collection of New Tales from the Wortley Montagu MS. in the Bodleian.” I regret to see that Messieurs Nimmo in reprinting Scott have omitted his sixth Volume.

[FN#219] Dr. Scott who uses Fitnah (iv. 42) makes it worse by adding “Alcolom (Al-Kulúb?) signifying Ravisher of Hearts” and his names for the six slave-girls (vol. iv. 37) such as “Zohorob Bostan” (Zahr al-Bústán), which Galland rightly renders by “Fleur du Jardin,” serve only to heap blunder upon blunder. Indeed the Anglo-French translations are below criticism: it would be waste of time to notice them. The characteristic is a servile suit paid to the original e.g. rendering hair “accomodé en boucles” by “hair festooned in buckles” (Night ccxiv.), and Île d’Ébène (Jazírat al-Abnús, Night xliii.) by “the Isle of Ebene.” A certain surly old littérateur tells me that he prefers these wretched versions to Mr. Payne’s. Padrone! as the Italians say: I cannot envy his taste or his temper.

[FN#220] De Sacy (Mémoire p. 52) notes that in some MSS., the Sultan, ennuyé by the last tales of Shahrázad, proposes to put her to death, when she produces her three children and all ends merrily without marriage-bells. Von Hammer prefers this version as the more dramatic, the Frenchman rejects it on account of the difficulties of the accouchements. Here he strains at the gnat— a common process.

[FN#221] See Journ. Asiatique, iii. série, vol. viii., Paris, 1839.

[FN#222] “Tausend und Eine Nacht: Arabische Erzählungen. Zum ersten mal aus einer Tunisischen Handschrift ergänzt und vollstandig übersetzt,” Von Max Habicht, F. H. von der Hagen und Karl Schatte (the offenders?).

[FN#223] Dr. Habicht informs us (Vorwort iii., vol. ix. 7) that he obtained his MS. with other valuable works from Tunis, through a personal acquaintance, a learned Arab, Herr M. Annagar (Mohammed Al-Najjár?) and was aided by Baron de Sacy, Langlès and other savants in filling up the lacunæ by means of sundry MSS. The editing was a prodigy of negligence: the corrigenda (of which brief lists are given) would fill a volume; and, as before noticed, the indices of the first four tomes were printed in the fifth, as if the necessity of a list of tales had just struck the dense editor. After Habicht’s death in 1839 his work was completed in four vols. (ix.-xii.) by the well-known Prof. H. J. Fleischer who had shown some tartness in his “Dissertatio Critica de Glossis Habichtianis.” He carefully imitated all the shortcomings of his predecessor and even omitted the Verzeichniss etc., the Varianten and the Glossary of Arabic words not found in Golius, which formed the only useful part of the first eight volumes.

[FN#224] Die in Tausend und Eine Nacht noch nicht übersetzten Nächte, Erzählungen und Anekdoten, zum erstenmal aus dem Arabischen in das Französische übersetzt von J. von Hammer, und aus dem Französischen in das Deutsche von A. E. Zinserling, Professor, Stuttgart und Tubingen, 1823. Drei Bde. 80 . Trébutien’s, therefore, is the translation of a translation of a translation.

[FN#225] Tausend und Eine Nacht Arabische Erzählungen. Zum erstenmale aus dem Urtexte vollständig und treu uebersetze von Dr. Gustav Weil. He began his work on return from Egypt in 1836 and completed his first version of the Arabische Meisterwerk in 1838–42 (3 vols. roy. oct.). I have the Zweiter Abdruck der dritten (2d reprint of 3d) in 4 vols. 8vo., Stuttgart, 1872. It has more than a hundred woodcuts.

[FN#226] My learned friend Dr. Wilhelm Storck, to whose admirable translations of Camoens I have often borne witness, notes that this Vorhalle, or Porch to the first edition, a rhetorical introduction addressed to the general public, is held in Germany to be valueless and that it was noticed only for the Bemerkung concerning the offensive passages which Professor Weil had toned down in his translation. In the Vorwort of the succeeding editions (Stuttgart) it is wholly omitted.

[FN#227] The most popular are now “Mille ed una notte. Novelle Arabe.” Napoli, 1867, 8vo illustrated, 4 francs; and “Mille ed une notte. Novelle Arabe, versione italiana nuovamente emendata e corredata di note”; 4 vols. in 32 (dateless) Milano, 8vo, 4 francs.

[FN#228] These are; (l) by M. Caussin (de Perceval), Paris, 1806, 9 vols. 8vo. (2) Edouard Gauttier, Paris, 1822–24: 7 vols. 12mo; (3) M. Destain, Paris, 1823–25, 6 vols. 8vo, and (4) Baron de Sacy, Paris. 1838 (?) 3 vols. large 8vo, illustrated (and vilely illustrated).

[FN#229] The number of fables and anecdotes varies in the different texts, but may be assumed to be upwards of four hundred, about half of which were translated by Lane.

[FN#230] I have noticed these points more fully in the beginning of chapt. iii. “The Book of the Sword.”

[FN#231] A notable instance of Roman superficiality, incuriousness and ignorance. Every old Egyptian city had its idols (images of metal, stone or wood), in which the Deity became incarnate as in the Catholic host; besides its own symbolic animal used as a Kiblah or prayer-direction (Jerusalem or Meccah), the visible means of fixing and concentrating the thoughts of the vulgar, like the crystal of the hypnotist or the disk of the electro-biologist. And goddess Diana was in no way better than goddess Pasht. For the true view of idolatry see Koran xxxix. 4. I am deeply grateful to Mr. P. le Page Renouf (Soc. of Biblic. Archæology, April 6, 1886) for identifying the Manibogh, Michabo or Great Hare of the American indigenes with Osiris Unnefer (“Hare God”). These are the lines upon which investigation should run. And of late years there is a notable improvement of tone in treating of symbolism or idolatry: the Lingam and the Yoni are now described as “mystical representations, and perhaps the best possible impersonal representatives of the abstract expressions paternity and maternity” (Prof. Monier Williams in “Folk-lore Record” vol. iii.