Literature · Adventure

The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night 13

Nur Al-Din Ali and the Damsel Anis Al-Jalis (part 13)

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Then she turned away in tears and I with her and returned to the garden where she said to me, "By Allah! I conjure thee never leave me!" "To hear is to obey," replied I. Then I gave myself wholly up to her and paid her frequent visits: she was good and generous to me; and as often as I passed the night with her, she would make much of me and would ask me of the two saws my cousin Azizah told my mother and I would repeat them to her. And matters ceased not to be on this wise and I continued for a whole year eating and drinking and enjoying dalliance and wearing change of rich raiment until I waxed gross and fat, so that I lost all thought of sorrowing and mourning, and I clean forgot my cousin Azizah. And on New Year's day I went to the bath, where I refreshed myself and put on a suit of sumptuous clothes; then coming out I drank a cup of wine and smelt the scent of my new gear which was perfumed with various essences; and my breast was broadened thereby, for I knew not the tricks of Fate nor the changing ways of Time. When the hour of night-prayer came, I was minded to repair to my lover; but, being the worse for wine, I knew not when going to her whither I went, so my drunkenness turned me into a by-street called Syndic Street; and the while I walked up that street behold, I caught sight of an old woman faring with a lighted taper in one hand, and in the other a folded letter.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say

Now when it was the Hundred and Twenty-second Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the young merchant, whose name was Aziz, continued to Taj al-Muluk:—And when I entered the street called Syndic Street behold, I caught sight of an old woman walking with a lighted taper in one hand and in the other a folded letter and I drew near her and lo! she was weeping and repeating these couplets:—

O glad-news bearer well come! Welcome! Hail! ✿ How sweet thy speech to me, what treat thy tale: O messenger from him whose weal I love, ✿ God bless thee long as breathes soft morning-gale!

Now when she saw me she asked, "O my son! canst thou read?"; and I answered, of my officiousness, "Yes, old naunty!" Rejoined she, "Then take this letter and read it to me." And when she handed it to me, I took it and unfolding it read it to her and behold it was from an absent man to his friends and lovers whom he greeted; and, when she heard its purport, she rejoiced at the good tidings and blessed me, saying, "Allah dispel thine anxiety, even as thou hast dispelled mine!" Then she took the letter and walked on. Meanwhile, I was urged by a call of nature and sat down on my heels to make water. When I had ended I stood up and wiped the orifice with a pebble and then, letting down my clothes, I was about to wend my way, when suddenly the old woman came up to me again and, bending down over my hand, kissed it and said, "O my master! the Lord give thee joy of thy youth! I entreat thee to walk with me a few steps as far as yonder door, for I told them what thou didst read to me of the letter, and they believe me not; so come with me two steps and read them the letter from behind the door and accept the prayers of a righteous woman." I enquired, "What is the history of this letter?", and she replied, "O my son, this letter is from my son, who hath been absent for a term of ten years. He set out with a stock of merchandise and tarried long in foreign parts, till we lost hope of him and supposed him to be dead. Now after all that delay cometh this letter from him, and he hath a sister who weepeth for him night and day; so I said to her, He is well and all right. But she will not believe me and declares, There is no help but thou bring me one who will read this letter in my presence, that my heart may be at rest and my mind at ease. Thou knowest, O my son, that all who love are wont to think evil: so be good enough to go with me and read to her this letter, standing behind the curtain, whilst I call his sister to listen within the door, so shalt thou dispel our heed and fulfil our need. Verily quoth the Apostle of Allah (whom Allah bless and preserve!):—Whoso easeth the troubled of one of the troubles of this troublous world, Allah will ease him of an hundred troubles; and according to another tradition:—Whoso easeth his brother of one of the troubles of this troublous world, Allah shall relieve him of seventy-and-two troubles on the Day of Resurrection. And I have betaken myself to thee; so disappoint me not." Replied I, "To hear is to obey; do thou go before me!" So she walked on devancing me and I followed her a little way, till she came to the gate of a large and handsome mansion whose door was plated with copper. I stood behind the door, whilst the old woman cried out in Persian, and ere I knew it a damsel ran up with light and nimble step. She had tucked up her trousers to her knees, so that I saw a pair of calves that confounded thinker and sighter, and the maid herself was as saith the poet describing her:—

O thou who barest leg-calf, better to suggest ✿ For passion-madded amourist better things above! Towards its lover doth the bowl go round and run; ✿ Cup and cup-bearer only drive us daft with love.

Now these legs were like two pillars of alabaster adorned with anklets of gold, wherein were set stones of price. And the damsel had tucked up the end of her gown under her arm-pit and had rolled up her sleeves to the elbow, so that I could see her white wrists whereon were two pairs of bracelets with clasps of great pearls; and round her neck was a collar of costly gems. Her ears were adorned with pendants of pearls and on her head she wore a kerchief of brocade, brand-new and broidered with jewels of price. And she had thrust the skirt of her shift into her trousers-string being busy with some household business. So when I saw her in this undress, I was confounded at her beauty, for she was like a shining sun. Then she said, with soft, choice speech, never heard I sweeter, "O my mother! is this he who cometh to read the letter?" "It is," replied the old woman; and she put out her hand to me with the letter. Now between her and the door was a distance of about half a rod; so I stretched forth my hand to take the letter from her and thrust head and shoulders within the door, thinking to draw near her and read the letter when, before I knew what her design was, the old woman butted her head against my back and pushed me forwards with the letter in my hand, so that ere I could take thought I found myself in the middle of the hall far beyond the vestibule. Then she entered, faster than a flash of blinding leven, and had naught to do but to shut the door.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

Now when it was the Hundred and Twenty-third Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the youth Aziz pursued to Taj al-Muluk:—When the old woman pushed me forwards I found myself, ere I could think, inside the vestibule; and the old woman entered faster than a flash of blinding leven and had naught to do but to shut the door. When the girl saw me in the vestibule, she came up to me and strained me to her bosom, and threw me to the floor; then she sat astraddle upon my breast and kneaded my belly with her fingers, till I well-nigh lost my senses. Thereupon she took me by the hand and led me, unable to resist for the violence of her pressure, through seven vestibules, whilst the old woman forewent us with the lighted candle, till we came to a great saloon with four estrades whereon a horseman might play Polo. Here she released me, saying, "Open thine eyes." So I opened them still giddy for the excess of her embracing and pressing, and saw that the whole saloon was built of the finest marbles and alabasters, and all its furniture was of silk and brocade even to the cushions and mattrasses. Therein also were two benches of yellow brass and a couch of red gold, set with pearls and precious stones, befitting none save Kings like thyself. And off the saloon were smaller sitting rooms; and the whole place was redolent of wealth. Then she asked, "O Aziz, which is liefer to thee life or death?" "Life," answered I; and she said, "If life be liefer to thee, marry me." Quoth I, "Indeed I should hate to marry the like of thee." Quoth she, "If thou marry me thou wilt at least be safe from the daughter of Dalílah the Wily One." I asked, "And who be that daughter of the Wily One?" Whereupon she laughed and replied, "'Tis she who hath companied with thee this day for a year and four months (may the Almighty destroy and afflict her with one worse than herself!) By Allah, there liveth not a more perfidious than she. How many men hath she not slain before thee and what deeds hath she not done. Nor can I understand how thou hast been all the time in her company, yet she hath not killed thee nor done thee a mischief."

When I heard her words, I marvelled with exceeding marvel and said, "O my lady, who made thee to know her?" Said she, "I know her as the age knoweth its calamities; but now I would fain have thee tell me all that hath passed between you two, that I may ken the cause of thy deliverance from her." So I told her all that had happened between us, including the story of my cousin Azizah. She expressed her pity when she heard of the death, and her eyes ran over with tears and she clapt hand on hand and cried out, "Her youth was lost on Allah's way, and may the Lord bless thee for her good works! By Allah, O Aziz, she who died for thee was the cause of thy preservation from the daughter of Dalilah the Wily; and, but for her, thou hadst been lost. And now she is dead I fear for thee from the Crafty One's perfidy and mischief; but my throat is choking and I cannot speak." Quoth I, "Ay, by Allah: all this happened even as thou sayest." And she shook her head and cried, "There liveth not this day the like of Azizah." I continued, "And on her death bed she bade me repeat to my lover these two saws:—Faith is fair! Unfaith is foul!" When she heard me say this, she exclaimed, "O Aziz, by Allah, those same words saved thee from dying by her hand; and now my heart is at ease for thee from her, for she will never kill thee; and the daughter of thy uncle preserved thee during her lifetime and after her death. By Allah, I have desired thee day after day, but could not get at thee till this time when I tricked thee and outwitted thee; for thou art a raw youth and knowest not the wiles of young women nor the deadly guile of old women." Rejoined I, "No, by Allah!" Then said she to me, "Be of good cheer and eyes clear; the dead hath found Allah's grace, and the live shall be in good case. Thou art a handsome youth and I do not desire thee but according to the ordinance of Allah and His Apostle (on whom be salutation and salvation!) Whatever thou requirest of money and stuff, thou shalt have forthright without stint, and I will not impose any toil on thee, no, never!; for there is with me always bread baked hot and water in pot.

All I need of thee is that thou do with me even as the cock doth." I asked, "And what doth the cock?" Upon this she laughed and clapped her hands and fell over on her back for excess of merriment: then she sat up and smiled and said, "O light of my eyes, really dost thou not know what cock's duty is?" "No, by Allah!" replied I, and she, "The cock's duty is to eat and drink and tread." I was abashed at her words and asked, "Is that the cock's duty?" "Yes," answered she; "and all I ask of thee now is to gird thy loins and strengthen thy will and futter thy best." Then she clapped her hands and cried out, saying, "O my mother, bring forward those who are with thee." And behold, in came the old woman accompanied by four lawful witnesses, and carrying a veil of silk. Then she lighted four candles, whilst the witnesses saluted me and sat down; and the girl veiled herself with the veil and deputed one of them to execute the contract on her behalf. So they wrote out the marriage-bond and she testified to have received the whole sum settled upon her, both the half in advance and the half in arrears; and that she was indebted to me in the sum of ten thousand dirhams.——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.

Now when it was the Hundred and Twenty-fourth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the young merchant continued to Taj al-Muluk:—When they wrote out the marriage-contract, she testified to having received the whole sum settled upon her, the half in advance and the half in arrears and that she was indebted to me in the sum of ten thousand dirhams. She paid the witnesses their wage and they withdrew whence they came. Thereupon she arose and cast off her clothes and stood in a chemise of fine silk edged with gold-lace, after which she took off her trousers and seized my hand and led me up to the couch, saying, "There is no sin in a lawful put-in." She lay down on the couch outspread upon her back; and, drawing me on to her breast, heaved a sigh and followed it up with a wriggle by way of being coy. Then she pulled up the shift above her breasts, and when I saw her in this pose, I could not withhold myself from thrusting it into her, after I had sucked her lips, whilst she whimpered and shammed shame and wept when no tears came, and then said she, "O my beloved, do it, and do thy best!" Indeed the case reminded me of his saying, who said:—

When I drew up her shift from the roof of her coynte, ✿ I found it as strait as my mind and my money: So I drove it half-way, and she sighed a loud sigh: ✿ Quoth I, "Why this sigh?": "For the rest of it, honey!"

And she repeated, "O my beloved, let the finish be made for I am thine handmaid. My life on thee, up with it! give it me, all of it! that I may take it in my hand and thrust it into my very vitals!" And she ceased not to excite me with sobs and sighs and amorous cries in the intervals of kissing and clasping until amid our murmurs of pleasure we attained the supreme delight and the term we had in sight. We slept together till the morning, when I would have gone out; but lo! she came up to me, laughing, and said, "So! So! thinkest thou that going into the Hammam is the same as going out? Dost thou deem me to be the like of the daughter of Dalilah the Wily One? Beware of such a thought, for thou art my husband by contract and according to law. If thou be drunken return to thy right mind, and know that the house wherein thou art openeth but one day in every year. Go down and look at the great door." So I arose and went down and found the door locked and nailed up and returned and told her of the locking and nailing. "O Aziz," said she, "We have in this house flour, grain, fruits and pomegranates; sugar, meat, sheep, poultry and so forth enough for many years; and the door will not be opened till after the lapse of a whole twelvemonth and well I weet thou shalt not find thyself without this house till then." Quoth I, "There is no Majesty, and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great!" "And how can this harm thee," rejoined she; "seeing thou knowest cock's duty, whereof I told thee?" Then she laughed and I laughed too, and I conformed to what she said and abode with her, doing cock's duty and eating and drinking and futtering for a year of full twelve months, during which time she conceived by me, and I was blessed with a babe by her. On the New Year's day I heard the door opened and behold, men came in with cates and flour and sugar. Upon this, I would have gone out but my wife said, "Wait till supper-tide and go out even as thou camest in." So I waited till the hour of night-prayer and was about to go forth in fear and trembling, when she stopped me, saying, "By Allah, I will not let thee go until thou swear to come back this night before the closing of the door." I agreed to this, and she swore me a solemn oath on Blade and Book, and the oath of divorce to boot, that I would return to her. Then I left her and going straight to the garden, found the door open as usual; whereat I was angry and said to myself, "I have been absent this whole year and come here unawares and find the place open as of wont! I wonder is the damsel still here as before? I needs must enter and see before I go to my mother, more by reason that it is now nightfall." So I entered the flower-garden——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

This knightly tale, the longest in the Nights (xliv-cxlv.), about one-eighth of the whole, does not appear in the Bres. Edit. Lane, who finds it "objectionable," reduces it to two of its episodes, Aziz-cum-Azízah and Táj al-Mulúk. On the other hand it has been converted into a volume (8vo, pp. 240) "Scharkan, Conte Arabe;" etc. Traduit par M. Asselan Riche, etc. Paris: Dondey-Dupré. 1829. It has its longueurs and at times is longsome enough; but it is interesting as a comparison between the chivalry of Al-Islam and European knight-errantry. Although all the characters are fictitious the period is evidently in the early crusading days. Cæsarea, the second capital of Palestine, taken during the Caliphate of Omar (A.H. 19) and afterwards recovered, was fortified in A.H. 353=963 as a base against the Arabs by the Emperor Phocas, the Arab. "Nakfúr" i.e. Nicephorus. In A.H. 498=1104, crusading craft did much injury by plundering merchantmen between Egypt and Syria, to which allusion is found in the romance. But the story-teller has not quite made up his mind about which Cæsarea he is talking, and M. Riche tells us that Césarée is a "ville de la Mauritanie, en Afrique" (p. 20).

The fifth Ommiade Caliph reign. A.H. 65-86=685-704.

This does not merely mean that no one was safe from his wrath: or, could approach him in the heat of fight: it is a reminiscence of the masterful "King Kulayb," who established game-laws in his dominions and would allow no man to approach his camp-fire. Moreover the Jinn lights a fire to decoy travellers; but if his victim be bold enough to brave him, he invites him to take advantage of the heat.

China.

The Jaxartes and the Bactrus (names very loosely applied).

In full "Sharrun kána" i.e. an evil (Sharr) has come to being (kána), that is, "bane to the foe"—a pagan and knightly name. The hero of the Romance "Al-Dalhamah" is described as a bitter gourd (colocynth), a viper, a calamity.

This is a Moslem law (Koran chapt. iv. bodily borrowed from the Talmud) which does not allow a man to marry one wife unless he can carnally satisfy her. Moreover he must distribute his honours equally and each wife has a right to her night unless she herself give it up. This was the case even with the spouses of the Prophet; and his biography notices several occasions when his wives waived their rights in favour of one another. M. Riche kindly provides the King with la piquante française (p. 15).

So the celebrated mosque in Stambul, famed for being the largest church in the world, is known to the Greeks as "Agia (pron. Aya) Sophia" and to Moslems as "Aya Sofíyeh" (Holy Wisdom) i.e. the Logos or Second Person of the Trinity (not a Saintess). The sending a Christian girl as a present to a Moslem would, in these days be considered highly scandalous. But it was done by the Mukaukis or Coptic Governor of Egypt (under Heraclius) who of course hated the Greeks. This worthy gave two damsels to Mohammed, one called Sírín and the other Máriyah (Maria) whom the Prophet reserved for his especial use and whose abode is still shown at Al-Medinah. The Rev. Doctor Badger (loc. cit. p. 972) gives the translation of an epistle by Mohammed to this Mukaukis, written in the Cufic character (??) and sealed "Mohammed, The Apostle of Allah." My friend seems to believe that it is an original, but upon this subject opinions will differ. It is, however, exceedingly interesting, beginning with "Bismillah," etc., and ending (before the signature) with a quotation from the Koran (iii. 57); and may be assumed as a formula addressed to foreign potentates by a Prophet who had become virtually "King of Arabia."

This prayer before "doing the deed of kind" is, I have said, Moslem as well as Christian.

Exodus i. 16, quoted by Lane (M. E., chapt. xxvii.). Torrens in his Notes cites Drayton's "Moon-calf":—

Bring forth the birth-stool—no, let it alone; She is so far beyond all compass grown, Some other new device us needs must stead, Or else she never can be brought to bed.

It is the "groaning-chair" of Poor Robin's Almanac (1676) and we find it alluded to in Boccaccio, the classical sedile which according to scoffers has formed the papal chair (a curule seat) ever since the days of Pope Joan, when it has been held advisable for one of the Cardinals to ascertain that His Holiness possesses all the instruments of virility. This "Kursí al-wiládah" is of peculiar form on which the patient is seated. A most interesting essay might be written upon the various positions preferred during delivery, e.g. the wild Irish still stand on all fours, like the so-called "lower animals." Amongst the Moslems of Waday, etc., a cord is hung from the top of the hut, and the woman in labour holds on to it standing with her legs apart, till the midwife receives the child.

Some Orientalists call "lullilooing" the trilling cry, which is made by raising the voice to its highest pitch and breaking it by a rapid succession of touches on the palate with the tongue-tip, others "Ziraleet" and Zagaleet, and one traveller tells us that it began at the marriage-festival of Isaac and Rebecca(!). Arabs term it classically Tahlíl and vulgarly Zaghrutah (Plur. Zaghárit) and Persians "Kil." Finally in Don Quixote we have "Lelilies," the battle-cry of the Moors (Duffield iii. 289). Dr. Buchanan likens it to a serpent uttering human sounds, but the good missionary heard it at the festival of Jagannath (Pilgrimage iii. 197).

i.e. "Light of the Place" (or kingdom) and "Delight of the Age."

It is utterly absurd to give the old heroic Persian name Afridun or Furaydun, the destroyer of Zohák or Zahhák, to a Greek, but such anachronisms are characteristic of The Nights and are evidently introduced on purpose. See Boccaccio, ix. 9.

Arab. "Yunán" lit. Ionia, which applies to all Greece, insular and continental, especially to ancient Greece.

In 1870 I saw at Sidon a find of some hundreds of gold "Philippi" and "Alexanders."

M. Riche has (p. 21):—Ces talismans travaillés par le ciseau du célèbre Calfaziri, adding in a note:—Je pense que c'est un sculpteur Arabe.

This periphrase, containing what seems to us a useless negative, adds emphasis in Arabic.

This bit of geographical information is not in the Bul. Edit.

In Pers.=a tooth, the popular word.

This preliminary move, called in Persian Nakl-i-Safar, is generally mentioned. So the Franciscan monks in California, when setting out for a long journey through the desert, marched three times round the convent and pitched tents for the night under its walls.

In Arab. "Khazinah" or "Khaznah" lit. a treasure, representing 1,000 "Kis" or purses (each=£5). The sum in the text is 7,000 purses × 5=£35,000.

Travellers often prefer such sites because they are sheltered from the wind, and the ground is soft for pitching tents; but many have come to grief from sudden torrents following rain.

Arab. "Ghábah" not a forest in our sense of the word, but a place where water sinks and the trees (mostly Mimosas), which elsewhere are widely scattered, form a comparatively dense growth and collect in thickets. These are favourite places for wild beasts during noon-heats.

At various times in the East Jews and Christians were ordered to wear characteristic garments, especially the Zunnár or girdle.

The description is borrowed from the Coptic Convent, which invariably has an inner donjon or keep. The oldest monastery in the world is Mar Antonios (St. Anthony the Hermit) not far from Suez (Gold Mines of Midian, p. 85).

"Dawáhi," plur. of Dáhiyah=a mishap. The title means "Mistress of Misfortunes" or Queen of Calamities (to the enemy); and the venerable lady, as will be seen, amply deserved her name, which is pronounced Zát ad-Dawáhí.

Arab. "Kunfuz"=hedgehog or porcupine.

These flowers of speech are mere familiarities, not insults. In societies where the sexes are separated speech becomes exceedingly free. Étourdie que vous êtes, says M. Riche, toning down the text.

Arab. "Zirt," a low word. The superlative "Zarrát" (fartermost) or, "Abu Zirt" (Father of farts) is a facetious term among the bean-eating Fellahs and a deadly insult amongst the Badawin (Night ccccx.). The latter prefer the word Taggáa (Pilgrimage iii. 84). We did not disdain the word in farthingale=pet en air.

Arab. "kicked" him, i.e. with the sharp corner of the shovel-stirrup. I avoid such expressions as "spurring" and "pricking over the plain," because apt to give a wrong idea.

Arab. "Allaho Akbar!" the classical Moslem slogan.

Arab horses are never taught to leap, so she was quite safe on the other side of a brook nine feet broad.

"Batrík" (vulg. Bitrík)=patricius, a title given to Christian knights who commanded ten thousand men; the Tarkhan (or Nobb) heading four thousand, and the Kaumas (Arab. Káid) two hundred. It must not be confounded with Batrak (or Batrik)=patriarcha (Lane's Lex.).

Arab. "Kázi al-Kuzát," a kind of Chief Justice or Chancellor. The office was established under the rule of Harun al-Rashid, who so entitled Abú Yúsuf Ya'akub al-Ansári: therefore the allusion is anachronistic. The same Caliph also caused the Olema to dress as they do still.

The allusion is Koranic: "O men, if ye be in doubt concerning the resurrection, consider that he first created you of the dust of the ground (Adam); afterwards of seed" (chapt. xxii.). But the physiological ideas of the Koran are curious. It supposes that the Mani or male semen is in the loins and that of women in the breast bone (chapt. lxxxvi.); that the mingled seed of the two (chapt. lxxvi.) fructifies the ovary and that the child is fed through the navel with menstruous blood, hence the cessation of the catamenia. Barzoi (Kalilah and Dímnah) says:—"Man's seed, falling into the woman's womb, is mixed with her seed and her blood: when it thickens and curdles the Spirit moves it and it turns about like liquid cheese; then it solidifies, its arteries are formed, its limbs constructed and its joints distinguished. If the babe is a male, his face is placed towards his mother's back; if a female, towards her belly. (P. 262, Mr. I. G. N. Keith-Falconer's translation.) But there is a curious prolepsis of the spermatozoa-theory. We read (Koran chapt. vii.), "Thy Lord drew forth their posterity from the loins of the sons of Adam;" and the commentators say that Allah stroked Adam's back and extracted from his loins all his posterity, which shall ever be, in the shape of small ants; these confessed their dependence on God and were dismissed to return whence they came." From this fiction it appears (says Sale) that the doctrine of pre-existence is not unknown to the Mohammedans; and there is some little conformity between it and the modern theory of generatio ex animalculis in semine marium. The poets call this Yaum-i-Alast=the Day of Am-I-not (-your Lord)? which Sir William Jones most unhappily translated "Art thou not with thy Lord?" (Alasta bi Rabbi-kum); and they produce a grand vision of unembodied spirits appearing in countless millions before their Creator.

The usual preliminary of a wrestling bout.

In Eastern wrestling this counts as a fair fall. So Ajax fell on his back with Ulysses on his breast (Iliad xxxii., 700, etc.).

So biting was allowed amongst the Greeks in the ἀνακλινοπάλη, the final struggle on the ground.

Supposed to be names of noted wrestlers. "Kayim" (not El-Kim as Torrens has it) is a term now applied to a juggler or "professor" of legerdemain who amuses people in the streets with easy tricks (Lane, M. E., chapt. xx.).

Lit. "laughed in his face" which has not the unpleasant meaning it bears in English.

Arab. "Abu riyáh"=a kind of child's toy. It is the "Ρόμβος" of the Greeks, our "bull-roarer" well known in Australia and parts of Africa.

The people of the region south of the Caspian which is called "Sea of Daylam." It has a long history; for which see D'Herbelot, s. v. "Dilem."

Coptic convents in Egypt still affect these drawbridges over the keep-moat.

Koran iv., xxii. etc., meaning it is lawful to marry women taken in war after the necessary purification although their husbands be still living. This is not permitted with a free woman who is a True Believer. I have noted that the only concubine slave-girls mentioned in the Koran are these "captives possessed by the right hand."

The Amazonian dame is a favourite in folk-lore and is an ornament to poetry from the Iliad to our modern day. Such heroines, apparently unknown to the Pagan Arabs, were common in the early ages of Al-Islam as Ockley and Gibbon prove, and that the race is not extinct may be seen in my Pilgrimage (iii. 55) where the sister of Ibn Rumi resolved to take blood revenge for her brother.

And Solomon said, "O nobles, which of you will bring me her throne?" A terrible genius (i.e. an Ifrit of the Jinn named Dhakwan or the notorious Sakhr) said, "I will bring it unto thee before thou arise from thy seat (of justice); for I am able to perform it, and may be trusted" (Koran, xxvii. 38-39). Balkís or Bilkís (says the Durrat al-Ghawwás) daughter of Hozád bin Sharhabíl, twenty-second in the list of the rulers of Al-Yaman, according to some murdered her husband, and became, by Moslem ignorance, the Biblical "Queen of Sheba." The Abyssinians transfer her from Arabian Saba to Ethiopia and make her the mother by Solomon of Menelek, their proto-monarch; thus claiming for their royalties an antiquity compared with which all reigning houses in the world are of yesterday. The dates of the Tabábi'ah or Tobbas prove that the Bilkís of history ruled Al-Yaman in the early Christian era.

Arab. "Fass," fiss or fuss; the gem set in a ring; also applied to a hillock rounded en cabochon. In The Nights it is used to signify "a fine gem."

This prominence of the glutæi muscles is always insisted upon, because it is supposed to promise well in a bedfellow. In Somali-land, where the people are sub-steatopygous, a rich young man, who can afford such luxury, will have the girls drawn up in line and choose her to wife who projects furthest behind.

The "bull" is only half mine.

A favourite Arab phrase, the "hot eye" is one full of tears.

i.e. "Coral," coral branch; a favourite name for a slave-girl, especially a negress. It is the older "Morgiana." I do not see why Preston in Al-Hariri's "Makamah (Séance) of Singar" renders it pearls, because Golius gives "small pearls," when it is evidently "coral." Richardson (Dissert. xlviii.) seems to me justified in finding the Pari (fairy) Marjan of heroic Persian history reflected in the Fairy Morgain who carried off King Arthur after the battle of Camelon.

Arab. "'Ud Jalaki"=Jalak or Jalik being a poetical and almost obsolete name of Damascus.

The fountain in Paradise whose water shall be drunk with "pure" wine mixed and sealed with musk (for clay). It is so called because it comes from the "Sanam" (Sanima, to be high) boss or highest ridge of the Moslem Heaven (Koran lv. 78 and lxxxiii. 27). Mr. Rodwell says "it is conveyed to the highest apartments in the Pavilions of Paradise." (?)

This "hysterical" temperament is not rare even amongst the bravest Arabs.

An idea evidently derived from the Æolipyla (olla animatoria) the invention of Hero Alexandrinus, which showed that the ancient Egyptians could apply the motive force of steam.

Kuthayyir ibn Abi Jumah, a poet and far-famed Ráwí or Tale-reciter, mentioned by Ibn Kballikan: he lived at Al-Medinah and sang the attractions of one Azzah, hence his soubriquet Sáhib (lover of) Azzah. As he died in A.H. 105 (=726), his presence here is a gross anachronism: the imaginary Sharrkan flourished before the Caliphate of Abd al-Malik bin Marwán A.H. 65-86.

Jamíl bin Ma'amar, a poet and lover contemporary with Al-Kuthayyir.

Arab. "Tafazzal," a word of frequent use in conversations="favour me," etc.

The word has a long history. From the Gr. στίμμι or στίβι is the Lat. stibium; while the Low-Latin "antimonium" and the Span. Althimod are by metathesis for Al-Ithmid. The dictionaries define the substance as a stone from which antimony is prepared; but the Arabs understand a semi-mythical mineral of yellow colour which enters into the veins of the eyes and gives them lynx-like vision. The famous Anz nicknamed Zarká (the blue-eyed) of Yamámah (Province) used it; and, according to some, invented Kohl. When her (protohistoric) tribe Jadis had destroyed all the rival race of Tasm, except Ribáh ibn Murrah; the sole survivor fled to the Tobba of Al-Yaman, who sent a host to avenge him. The king commanded his Himyarites to cut tree-boughs and use them as screens (again Birman wood). Zarká from her Utum, or peel-tower, saw the army three marches off and cried, "O folk, either trees or Himyar are coming upon you!" adding, in Rajaz verse:—

I swear by Allah that trees creep onward, or that Himyar beareth somewhat which he draweth along!

She then saw a man mending his sandal. But Jadis disbelieved; Cassandra was slain and, when her eyes were cut out, the vessels were found full of Ithmid. Hence Al-Mutanabbi sang:

"Sharper-sighted than Zarká of Jau" (Yamámah).

See C. de Perceval i. 101; Arab. Prov. i. 192; and Chenery (p. 381. The Assemblies of Al-Hariri; London, Williams and Norgate, 1867). I have made many enquiries into the true nature of Ithmid and failed to learn anything: on the Upper Nile the word is=Kohl.

The general colour of chessmen in the east, where the game is played on a cloth more often than a board.

Arab. "Al-fil," the elephant=the French fol or fou and our bishop. I have derived "elephant" from Píl (old Persian, Sansk. Pilu) and Arab. Fil, with the article Al-Fil, whence the Greek ἐλέφας the suffix—as being devoted to barbarous words as Obod-as (Al-Ubayd), Aretas (Al-Háris), etc. Mr. Isaac Taylor (The Alphabet i. 169), preserves the old absurdity of "eleph-ant or ox-like (!) beast of Africa." Prof. Sayce finds the word al-ab (two distinct characters) in line 3, above the figure of an (Indian) elephant, on the black obelisk of Nimrod Mound, and suggests an Assyrian derivation.

Arab. "Shaukat" which may also mean the "pride" or "mainstay" (of the army).

Lit. "smote him on the tendons of his neck." This is the famous shoulder-cut (Tawashshuh) which, with the leg-cut (Kalam), formed, and still forms, the staple of Eastern attack with the sword.

Arab. "Dirás." Easterns do not thresh with flails. The material is strewed over a round and smoothed floor of dried mud in the open air and threshed by different contrivances. In Egypt the favourite is a chair-like machine called "Norag," running on iron plates and drawn by bulls or cows over the corn. Generally, however, Moslems prefer the old classical Τρίβολον, the Tribulum of Virgil and Varro, a slipper-shaped sled of wood garnished on the sole with large-headed iron nails, or sharp fragments of flint or basalt. Thus is made the "Tibn" or straw, the universal hay of the East, which our machines cannot imitate.

These numbers appear to be grossly exaggerated, but they were possible in the days of sword and armour: at the battle of Saffayn the Caliph Ali is said to have cut down five hundred and twenty-three men in a single night.

Arab. "Biká'a": hence the "Buka'ah" or Cœlesyria.

Richardson in his excellent dictionary (note 103) which modern priggism finds "unscientific," wonderfully derives this word from Arab. "Khattáf," a snatcher (i.e. of women), a ravisher. It is an evident corruption of "captivus" through Italian and French.

These periodical and fair-like visitations to convents are still customary; especially amongst the Christians of Damascus.

Camphor being then unknown.

The "wrecker" is known all over the world; and not only barbarians hold that ships driven ashore become the property of the shore.

Arab. "Jokh": it is not a dictionary word, but the only term in popular use for European broadcloth.

The second person plural is used because the writer would involve the subjects of his correspondent in the matter.

This part of the phrase, which may seem unnecessary to the European, is perfectly intelligible to all Orientalists. You may read many an Eastern letter and not understand it. Compare Boccaccio iv. 1.

i.e., he was greatly agitated.

In text "Li-ajal al-Taudí'a," for the purpose of farewelling, a low Egyptianism; emphatically a "Kalám wáti." (Pilgrimage iii. 330.)

In the Mac. Edit. Sharrkan speaks, a clerical error.

The Farsakh (Germ. Stunde) a measure of time rather than distance, is an hour's travel or its equivalent, a league, a meile=three English stat. miles. The word is still used in Persia its true home, but not elsewhere. It is very old, having been determined as a lineal measure of distance by Herodotus (ii. 5 and 6; v. 53), who computes it at 30 furlongs (=furrow-lengths, 8 to the stat. mile). Strabo (xi.) makes it range from 40 to 60 stades (each=606 feet 9 inches); and even now it varies between 1500 to 6,000 yards. Captain Francklin (Tour to Persia) estimates it=about four miles. (Pilgrimage ii. 113.)

Arab. "Ashhab." Names of colours are few amongst semi-civilised peoples, but in Arabia there is a distinct word for every shade of horseflesh.

She had already said to him "Thou art beaten in everything!"

Showing that she was still a Christian.

This is not Badawi sentiment: the honoratioren amongst wild people would scorn such foul play; but amongst the settled Arabs honour between men and women is unknown; and such "hocussing" would be held quite fair.

The table of wine, in our day, is mostly a japanned tray with glasses and bottles, saucers of pickles and fruits and, perhaps, a bunch of flowers and aromatic herbs. During the Caliphate the "wine-service" was on a larger scale.

Here the "Bhang" (almost a generic term applied to hellebore, etc.) may be hyoscyamus or henbane. Yet there are varieties of Cannabis, such as the Dakha of South Africa, capable of most violent effect. I found the use of the drug well known to the negroes of the Southern United States and of the Brazil, although few of their owners had ever heard of it.

Amongst Moslems this is a reference to Adam who first "sinned against himself," and who therefore is called "Safíyu'llah," the Pure of Allah (Pilgrimage iii. 333).

Meaning, an angry, violent man.

Arab. "Inshád," which may mean reciting the verse of another or improvising one's own. In Modern Egypt "Munshid" is the singer or reciter of poetry at Zikrs (Lane M. E. chapt. xxiv.). Here the verses are quite bad enough to be improvised by the hapless Princess.

The negro skin assumes this dust-colour in cold, fear, concupiscence and other mental emotions.

He compares her glance with the blade of a Yamani sword, a lieu commun of Eastern poetry. The weapons are famous in The Nights; but the best sword-cutlery came from Persia as the porcelain from China to Sana'á. Here, however, is especial allusion as to the sword "Samsam" or "Samsamah." It belonged to the Himyarite Tobba, Amru bin Ma'ad Kurb, and came into the hands of Harun al-Rashid. When the Emperor of the Greeks sent a present of superior sword-blades to him by way of a brave, the Caliph, in the presence of the Envoys, took "Samsam" in hand and cut the others in twain as if they were cabbages without the least prejudice to the edge of "Samsam."

This touch of pathos is truly Arab. So in the "Romance of Dalhamah" (Lane, M. E. xxiii.) the infant Gundubah sucks the breast of its dead mother and the King exclaims, "If she had committed this crime she would not be affording the child her milk after she was dead."

Arab. Sadda'l-Aktár, a term picturesque enough to be preserved in English. "Sadd," I have said, is a wall or dyke, the term applied to the great dam of water-plants which obstructs the navigation of the Upper Nile, the lilies and other growths floating with the current from the (Victoria) Nyanza Lake. I may note that we need no longer derive from India the lotus-lily so extensively used by the Ancient Egyptians and so neglected by the moderns that it has well nigh disappeared. All the Central African basins abound in the Nymphæa and thence it found its way down the Nile-Valley.

Arab. "Al-Marhúmah": equivalent to our "late lamented."

Vulgarly pronounced "Mahmal," and by Egyptians and Turks "Mehmel." Lane (M. E. xxiv.) has figured this queenly litter and I have sketched and described it in my Pilgrimage (iii. 12).

For such fits of religious enthusiasm see my Pilgrimage (iii. 254).

"Irák" (Mesopotamia) means "a level country beside the banks of a river."

"Al-Kuds," or "Bayt al-Mukaddas," is still the popular name of Jerusalem, from the Heb. Yerushalaim ha-Kadushah (legend on shekel of Simon Maccabeus).

"Follow the religion of Abraham" says the Koran (chapt. iii. 89). Abraham, titled "Khalílu'llah," ranks next in dignity to Mohammed, preceding Isa; I need hardly say that his tomb is not in Jerusalem nor is the tomb itself at Hebron ever visited. Here Moslems (soi disant) are allowed by the jealousies of Europe to close and conceal a place which belongs to the world, especially to Jews and Christians. The tombs, if they exist, lie in a vault or cave under the Mosque.

Abá, or Abá'ah, vulg. Abáyah, is a cloak of hair, goat's or camel's; too well known to require description.

Arab. "Al-Wakkád;" the man who lights and keeps up the bath-fires.

Arab. "Má al-Khaláf"(or "Khiláf") a sickly perfume but much prized, made from the flowers of the Salix Ægyptiaca.

Used by way of soap; like glasswort and other plants.

i.e., "Thou art only just recovered."

To "Nakh" is to gurgle "Ikh! Ikh!" till the camel kneels. Hence the space called "Barr al-Manákhah" in Al-Medinah (Pilgrimage i. 222, ii. 91). There is a regular camel-vocabulary amongst the Arabs, made up like our "Gee" (go ye!), etc. of significant words worn down.

Arab. "Laza," the Second Hell provided for Jews.

The word has been explained (vol. i. 112). It is trivial, not occurring in the Koran which uses "Arabs of the Desert;" "Arabs who dwell in tents," etc. (chapt. ix. and xxxiii.). "A'arábi" is the classical word and the origin of "Arab" is disputed. According to Pocock (Notæ Spec. Hist. Arab.): "Diverse are the opinions concerning the denomination of the Arabs; but the most certain of all is that which draws it from Arabah, which is part of the region of Tehamah, (belonging to Al-Medinah, Pilgrimage ii. 118), which their father Ismail afterwards inhabited." Tehamah (tierra caliente) is the maritime region of Al-Hijaz, the Moslem's Holy Land; and its "Arabah," a very small tract which named a very large tract, must not be confounded, as some have done, with the Wady Arabah, the ancient outlet of the Dead Sea. The derivation of "Arab" from "Ya'arab" a fancied son of Joktan is mythological. In Heb. Arabia may be called "Eretz Ereb" (or "Arab")=land of the West; but in Arabic "Gharb" (not Ereb) is the Occident and the Arab dates long before the Hebrew.

"When thine enemy extends his hand to thee, cut it off if thou can, or kiss it," wisely said Caliph al-Mansúr.

The Tartur was a peculiar turban worn by the Northern Arabs and shown in old prints. In modern Egypt the term is applied to the tall sugar-loaf caps of felt affected mostly by regular Dervishes. Burckhardt (Proverbs 194 and 398) makes it the high cap of felt or fur proper to the irregular cavalry called Dely or Delaty. In Dar For (Darfour) "Tartur" is a conical cap adorned with beads and cowries worn by the Manghwah or buffoon who corresponds with the Egyptian "Khalbús" or "Maskharah" and the Turkish "Sutari." For an illustration see Plate iv. fig. 10 of Voyage au Darfour par Mohammed El-Tounsy (The Tunisian), Paris, Duprat, 1845.

The term is picturesque and true; we say "gnaw" which is not so good.

Here, meaning an Elder, a Chief, etc.; the word has been almost naturalised in English. I have noted that Abraham was the first "Shaykh."

This mention of weighing suggests the dust of Dean Swift and the money of the Gold Coast. It was done, I have said, because the gold coin, besides being "sweated" was soft and was soon worn down.

Fem. of Nájí (a deliverer, a saviour)=Salvadora.

This, I have noted, is according to Koranic command (chapt. iv. 88). "When you are saluted with a salutation, salute the person with a better salutation." The longer answer to "Peace be with (or upon) thee!" is still universally the custom. The "Salám" is so differently pronounced by every Eastern nation that the observant traveller will easily make of it a Shibboleth.

The Badawi, who was fool as well as rogue, begins to fear that he has kidnapped a girl of family.

These examinations being very indecent are usually done in strictest privacy. The great point is to make sure of virginity.

This is according to strict Moslem law: the purchaser may not look at the girl's nakedness till she is his, and he ought to manage matters through an old woman.

Lit. wrath; affliction which chokes; in Hindustani it means simply anger.

i.e., Heaven forbid I be touched by a strange man.

Used for fuel and other purposes, such as making "Joss stick."

Arab. "Yaftah' Allah" the offer being insufficient. The rascal is greedy as a Badawi and moreover he is a liar, which the Badawi is not.

The third of the four great Moslem schools of Theology, taking its name from the Imam al-Sháfi'í (Mohammed ibn Idris) who died in Egypt A.H. 204, and lies buried near Cairo (Sale's Prel. Disc. sect. viii.).

The Moslem form of Cabbala, or transcendental philosophy of the Hebrews.

Arab. "Bakh" the word used by the Apostle to Ali his son-in-law. It is the Latin "Euge."

Readers, who read for amusement, will do well to "skip" the fadaises of this highly educated young woman.

There are three Persian Kings of this name (Artaxerxes) which means "Flour and milk," or "high lion." The text alludes to Ardeshir Babegan, so called because he married the daughter of Babak the shepherd, founder of the Sassanides in A.D. 202. See D'Herbelot, and the Dabistan.

Alluding to the proverb, "Folk follow their King's faith," "Cujus regio ejus religio," etc.

Second Abbaside, A.H. 136-158 (=754-775).

The celebrated companion of Mohammed who succeeded Abu Bakr in the Caliphate (A. H. 13-23=634-644). The Sunnis know him as Al-Adil, the Just; and the Shiahs detest him for his usurpation, his austerity and harshness. It is said that he laughed once, and wept once. The laugh was caused by recollecting how he ate his dough-gods (the idols of the Hanifah tribe) in The Ignorance. The tears were drawn by remembering how he buried alive his baby daughter who, while the grave was being dug, patted away the dust from his hair and beard. Omar was doubtless a great man, but he is one of the most ungenial figures in Moslem history which does not abound in genialities. To me he suggests a Puritan, a Covenanter of the sourest and narrowest type; and I cannot wonder that the Persians abhor him, and abuse him on all occasions.

The austere Caliph Omar whose scourge was more feared than the sword was the author of the celebrated saying "Consult them (feminines) and do clear contrary-wise." The dictum is illustrated by a dozen Joe Millers known throughout the East.

Our "honour amongst thieves."

The sixth successor of Mohammed and founder of the Banu Umayyah or Ommiades, called the "sons of the little mother" from their eponymus (A.H. 41-60=661-680). For his Badawi wife Maysun, and her abuse of her husband, see Pilgrimage iii. 262.

Shaykh of the noble tribe, or rather nation, Banu Tamím and a notable of the day, surnamed, no one knows why, "Sire of the Sea."

This is essential for cleanliness in hot lands: however much the bath may be used, the body-pile and lower hair, if submitted to a microscope, will show more or less sordes adherent. The axilla-hair is plucked because if shaved the growing pile causes itching and the depilatories are held deleterious. At first vellication is painful but the skin becomes used to it. The pecten is shaved either without or after using depilatories, of which more presently. The body-pile is removed by "Takhfíf"; the Libán Shámi (Syrian incense), a fir-gum imported from Scio, is melted and allowed to cool in the form of a pledget. This is passed over the face and all the down adhering to it is pulled up by the roots (Burckhardt No. 420). Not a few Anglo-Indians have adopted these precautions.

This Caliph was a tall, fair, handsome man of awe-inspiring aspect. Omar used to look at him and say, "This is the Cæsar of the Arabs," while his wife called him a "fatted ass."

The saying is attributed to Abraham when "exercised" by the unkindly temper of Sarah; "woman is made hard and crooked like a rib;" and the modern addition is, "whoso would straighten her, breaketh her."

i.e., "When ready and in erection."

"And do first (before going in to your wives) some act which may be profitable unto your souls"—or, for your soul's good. (Koran, chapt. ii. 223.). Hence Ahnaf makes this prayer.

It was popularly said that "Truth-speaking left Omar without a friend." Entitled "The Just" he was murdered by Abu Lúlúah, alias Fírúz, a (Magian?) slave of Al-Maghírah for denying him justice.

Governor of Bassorah under the first four Caliphs. See D'Herbelot s. v. "Aschári."

Ziyad bin Abi Sufyan, illegitimate brother of the Caliph Mu'awiyah afterwards governor of Bassorah, Cufa and Al-Hijaz.

The seditions in Kufah were mainly caused by the wilful nepotism of Caliph Othman bin Asákir which at last brought about his death. His main quality seems to have been personal beauty: "never was seen man or woman of fairer face than he and he was the most comely of men:" he was especially famed for beautiful teeth which in old age he bound about with gold wire. He is described as of middling stature, large-limbed, broad shouldered, fleshy of thigh and long in the fore-arm which was hairy. His face inclined to yellow and was pock-marked; his beard was full and his curly hair, which he dyed yellow, fell below his ears. He is called "writer of the Koran" from his edition of the MS., and "Lord of the two Lights" because he married two of the Prophet's daughters, Rukayyah and Umm Kulthum; and, according to the Shi'ahs who call him Othman-i-Lang or "limping Othman," he vilely maltreated them. They justify his death as the act of an Ijmá' al-Muslimin, the general consensus of Moslems which ratifies "Lynch law." Altogether Othman is a mean figure in history.

"Nár" (fire) is a word to be used delicately from its connection with Gehenna. You say, e.g. "bring me a light, a coal (bassah)" etc.; but if you say "bring me fire!" the enemy will probably remark "He wanteth fire even before his time!" The slang expression would be "bring the sweet:" (Pilgrimage i. 121.)

Omar is described as a man of fair complexion, and very ruddy, but he waxed tawny with age, when he also became bald and grey. He had little hair on the cheeks but a long mustachio with reddish ends. In stature he overtopped the people and was stout as he was tall. A popular saying of Mohammed's is, "All (very) long men are fools save Omar, and all (very) short men are knaves save Ali." The Persians, who abhor Omar, compare every lengthy, ungainly, longsome thing with him; they will say, "This road never ends, like the entrails of Omar." We know little about Ali's appearance except that he was very short and stout, broad and full-bellied with a tawny complexion and exceedingly hairy, his long beard, white as cotton filling all the space between his shoulders. He was a "pocket-Hercules," and incredible tales, like that about the gates of Khaybar, are told of his strength. Lastly, he was the only Caliph who bequeathed anything to literature: his "Cantiloquium" is famous and he has left more than one mystical and prophetic work. See Ockley for his "Sentences" and D'Herbelot s. v. "Ali" and "Gebr." Ali is a noble figure in Moslem history.

The emancipation from the consequences of his sins; or it may mean a holy death.

Battle fought near Al-Medinah A.D. 625. The word is derived from "Ahad" (one). I have described the site in my Pilgrimage, vol. ii. 227.

"Haphsa" in older writers; Omar's daughter and one of Mohammed's wives, famous for her connection with the manuscripts of the Koran. From her were (or claimed to be) descended the Hafsites who reigned in Tunis and extended their power far and wide over the Maghrib (Mauritania), till dispossessed by the Turks.

i.e. humbly without the usual strut or swim: it corresponds with the biblical walking or going softly (1 Kings xxi. 27; Isaiah xxxviii. 15, etc.).

A theologian of the seventh and eighth centuries.

i.e. to prepare himself by good works, especially alms-giving, for the next world.

A theologian of the eighth century.

Abd al-Aziz was eighth Ommiade (regn. A.H. 99=717) and the fifth of the orthodox, famed for a piety little known to his house. His most celebrated saying was, "Be constant in meditation on death: if thou be in straitened case 'twill enlarge it, and if in affluence 'twill straiten it upon thee." He died, poisoned, it is said, in A.H. 101.

Abu Bakr originally called Abd al-Ka'ahah (slave of the Ka'abah) took the name of Abdullah and was surnamed Abu Bakr (father of the virgin) when Mohammed, who before had married only widows, took to wife his daughter, the famous or infamous Ayishah. "Bikr" is the usual form, but "Bakr," primarily meaning a young camel, is metaphorically applied to human youth (Lane's Lex. s. v.). The first Caliph was a cloth-merchant, like many of the Meccan chiefs. He is described as very fair with bulging brow, deep-set eyes and thin-cheeked, of slender build and lean-loined, stooping and with the backs of his hands fleshless. He used tinctures of Henna and Katam for his beard. The Persians who hate him, call him "Pir-i-Kaftár," the old she-hyæna, and believe that he wanders about the deserts of Arabia in perpetual rut which the males must satisfy.

The second, fifth, sixth and seventh Ommiades.

The mother of Omar bin Abd al-Aziz was a granddaughter of Omar bin Al-Khattab.

Brother of this Omar's successor, Yezid II.

So the Turkish proverb "The fish begins to stink at the head."

Calling to the slaves.

When the "Day of Arafat" (9th of Zú'l-Hijjah) falls upon a Friday. For this Hajj al-Akbar see my Pilgrimage iii. 226. It is often confounded by writers (even by the learned M. Caussin de Perceval) with the common Pilgrimage as opposed to the Umrah, or "Lesser Pilgrimage" (ibid. iii. 342, etc.). The latter means etymologically cohabiting with a woman in her father's house as opposed to 'Ars or leading her to the husband's home: it is applied to visiting Meccah and going through all the pilgrim-rites but not at the Pilgrimage-season. Hence its title "Hajj al-Asghar" the "Lesser Hajj." But "Umrah" is also applied to a certain ceremony between the hills Safá (a large hard rock) and Marwah (stone full of flints), which accompanies the Hajj and which I have described (ibid. iii. 344). At Meccah I also heard of two places called Al-Umrah, the Greater in the Wady Fátimah and the Lesser half way nearer the city (ibid. iii. 344).

A fair specimen of the unworthy egoism which all religious systems virtually inculcate. Here a pious father leaves his children miserable to save his own dirty soul.

Chief of the Banú Tamím, one of noblest of tribes derived from Tamím, the uncle of Kuraysh (Koreish); hence the poets sang:—

There cannot be a son nobler than Kuraysh, Nor an uncle nobler than Tamím.

The high-minded Tamím is contrasted with the mean-spirited Kays, who also gave rise to a tribe; and hence the saying concerning one absolutely inconsistent, "Art thou now Tamím and then Kays?"

Surnamed Al-Sakafí, Governor of Al-Yaman and Irak.

Tenth Ommiade (regn. A.H. 105-125=724-743).

Or "clothe thee in worn-out clothes" i.e. "Become a Fakir" or religious mendicant.

This gratuitous incest in ignorance injures the tale and is as repugnant to Moslem as to Christian taste.

The child is named either on the day of its birth or on that day week. The father whispers it in the right ear, often adding the Azán or prayer-call, and repeating in the left ear the "Ikámah" or Friday sentence. There are many rules for choosing names according to the week-day, the ascendant planet, the "Sortes Coranicæ," etc.

Amongst Moslems as amongst Christians there are seven deadly sins: idolatry, murder, falsely charging modest women with unchastity, robbing orphans, usury, desertion in Holy War and disobedience to parents. The difference between the two creeds is noteworthy. And the sage knows only three, intemperance, ignorance and egoism.

Meaning, "It was decreed by Destiny; so it came to pass," appropriate if not neat.

The short, stout, dark, long-haired and two bunched camel from "Bukhtar" (Bactria), the "Eastern" (Bakhtar) region on the Amu or Jayhún (Oxus) River; afterwards called Khorasan. The two-humped camel is never seen in Arabia except with northern caravans, and to speak of it would be a sore test of Badawi credulity.

"Kaylúlah" is the "forty-winks" about noon: it is a Sunnat or Practice of the Prophet who said, "Make the mid-day siesta, for verily at this hour the devils sleep not." "Aylúlah" is slumbering after morning prayers (our "beauty-sleep"), causing heaviness and idleness: "Ghaylúlah" is dozing about 9 a.m. engendering poverty and wretchedness: "Kaylúlah" (with the guttural Kaf) is sleeping before evening prayers and "Faylúlah" is slumbering after sunset—both held to be highly detrimental. (Pilgrimage ii. 49.)

The Biblical "Hamath" (Hightown) too well known to require description. It is still famous for the water-wheels mentioned by al-Hariri (assembly of the Banu Harám).

When they say, The leven flashes bright on the hills of Al-Yaman, the allusion is to the south quarter, where summer-lightning is seen. Al-Yaman (always with the article) means, I have said, the right-hand region to one facing the rising sun and Al-Sham (Syria) the left-hand region.

Again "he" for "she," in delicacy and jealousy of making public the beauty or conditions of the "veiled sex." Even public singers would hesitate to use a feminine pronoun. As will be seen, however, the rule is not invariably kept and hardly ever in Badawi poetry.

The normal pun on "Nuzhat al-Zaman"=Delight of the Age or Time.

The reader will find in my Pilgrimage (i. 305) a sketch of the Takht-rawan or travelling-litter, in which pilgrimesses are wont to sleep.

In poetry it holds the place of our Zephyr; and the "Bád-i-Sabá"=Breeze o' the morn, is much addressed by Persian poets.

Here appears the nervous, excitable, hysterical Arab temperament which is almost phrensied by the neighbourhood of a home from which he had run away.

Zau al-Makan and Nuzhat al-Zaman.

The idea is essentially Eastern, "A lion at home and a lamb abroad" is the popular saying.

Spotted a mistake or have an idea?