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diff --git a/old/3444-8.txt b/old/3444-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..05bd9aa --- /dev/null +++ b/old/3444-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,19443 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Book of the Thousand Nights +and a Night, Volume 10 by Richard F. Burton +#11 in our series by Sir Richard Francis Burton + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before distributing this or +any other Project Gutenberg file. + +We encourage you to keep this file, exactly as it is, on your +own disk, thereby keeping an electronic path open for future +readers. Please do not remove this. + +This header should be the first thing seen when anyone starts to +view the etext. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.10/04/01*END* + + + + + + +This etext was scanned by JC Byers +(http://www.capitalnet.com/~jcbyers/index.htm) and proofread by +JC Byers, Muhammad Hozien, K. C. McGuire, Renate Preuss, Robert +Sinton, and Mats Wernersson. + + + + + + THE BOOK OF THE + THOUSAND NIGHTS AND A NIGHT + A Plain and Literal Translation + of the Arabian Nights Entertainments + + Translated and Annotated by + Richard F. Burton + + VOLUME TEN + + + + + To + His Excellency Yacoub Artin Pasha, + Minister of Instruction, Etc. Etc. Etc. Cairo. + + + +My Dear Pasha, + During the last dozen years, since we first met at Cairo, +you have done much for Egyptian folk-lore and you can do much +more. This volume is inscribed to you with a double purpose; +first it is intended as a public expression of gratitude for your +friendly assistance; and, secondly, as a memento that the samples +which you have given us imply a promise of further gift. With +this lively sense of favours to come I subscribe myself + +Ever yours friend and fellow worker, + +Richard F. Burton + +London, July 12, 1886. + + + + +Contents of the Tenth Volume + + + +169. Ma'aruf the Cobbler and His Wife Fatimah + Conclusion + Terminal Essay + Appendix I.-- + 1. Index to the Tales and Proper Names + 2. Alphabetical Table of the Notes (Anthropological, &c.) + 3. Alphabetical Table of First lines-- + a. English + b. Arabic + 4. Table of Contents of the Various Arabic Texts-- + a. The Unfinished Calcutta Edition (1814-1818) + b. The Breslau Text + c. The Macnaghten Text and the Bulak Edition + d. The same with Mr. Lane's and my Version + Appendix II-- + Contributions to the Bibliography of the Thousand and + One Nights and their Imitations, By W. F. Kirby + + + + + + + The Book Of The + THOUSAND NIGHTS AND A NIGHT + + + + + + MA'ARUF THE COBBLER AND HIS WIFE + + + +There dwelt once upon a time in the God-guarded city of Cairo a +cobbler who lived by patching old shoes.[FN#1] His name was +Ma'aruf[FN#2] and he had a wife called Fatimah, whom the folk had +nicknamed "The Dung;"[FN#3] for that she was a whorish, worthless +wretch, scanty of shame and mickle of mischief. She ruled her +spouse and abused him; and he feared her malice and dreaded her +misdoings; for that he was a sensible man but poor-conditioned. +When he earned much, he spent it on her, and when he gained +little, she revenged herself on his body that night, leaving him +no peace and making his night black as her book;[FN#4] for she +was even as of one like her saith the poet:-- + +How manifold nights have I passed with my wife * In the saddest + plight with all misery rife: +Would Heaven when first I went in to her * With a cup of cold + poison I'd ta'en her life. + +One day she said to him, "O Ma'aruf, I wish thee to bring me this +night a vermicelli-cake dressed with bees' honey."[FN#5] He +replied, "So Allah Almighty aid me to its price, I will bring it +thee. By Allah, I have no dirhams to-day, but our Lord will make +things easy."[FN#6] Rejoined she,--And Shahrazad perceived the +dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. + + When it was the Nine Hundred and Ninetieth Night, + +She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Ma'aruf +the Cobbler said to his spouse, "By Allah, I have no dirhams +to-day, but our Lord will make things easy to me!" She rejoined, +"I wot naught of these words; look thou come not to me save with +the vermicelli and bees' honey; else will I make thy night black +as thy fortune whenas thou fellest into my hand." Quoth he, +"Allah is bountiful!" and going out with grief scattering itself +from his body, prayed the dawn-prayer and opened his shop. After +which he sat till noon, but no work came to him and his fear of +his wife redoubled. Then he arose and went out perplexed as to +how he should do in the matter of the vermicelli-cake, seeing he +had not even the wherewithal to buy bread. Presently he came to +the shop of the Kunafah-seller and stood before it, whilst his +eyes brimmed with tears. The pastry-cook glanced at him and said, +"O Master Ma'aruf, why dost thou weep? Tell me what hath befallen +thee." So he acquainted him with his case, saying, "My wife would +have me bring her a Kunafah; but I have sat in my shop till past +mid-day and have not gained even the price of bread; wherefore I +am in fear of her." The cook laughed and said, "No harm shall +come to thee. How many pounds wilt thou have?" "Five pounds," +answered Ma'aruf. So the man weighed him out five pounds of +vermicelli-cake and said to him, "I have clarified butter, but no +bees' honey. Here is drip-honey,[FN#7] however, which is better +than bees' honey; and what harm will there be, if it be with +drip-honey?" Ma'aruf was ashamed to object, because the +pastry-cook was to have patience with him for the price, and +said, "Give it me with drip-honey." So he fried a vermicelli-cake +for him with butter and drenched it with drip-honey, till it was +fit to present to Kings. Then he asked him, "Dost thou want +bread[FN#8] and cheese?"; and Ma'aruf answered, "Yes." So he gave +him four half dirhams worth of bread and one of cheese, and the +vermicelli was ten nusfs. Then said he, "Know, O Ma'aruf, that +thou owest me fifteen nusfs; so go to thy wife and make merry and +take this nusf for the Hammam;[FN#9] and thou shalt have credit +for a day or two or three till Allah provide thee with thy daily +bread. And straiten not thy wife, for I will have patience with +thee till such time as thou shalt have dirhams to spare." So +Ma'aruf took the vermicelli-cake and bread and cheese and went +away, with a heart at ease, blessing the pastry-cook and saying, +"Extolled be Thy perfection, O my Lord! How bountiful art Thou!" +When he came home, his wife enquired of him, "Hast thou brought +the vermicelli-cake?"; and, replying "Yes," he set it before her. +She looked at it and seeing that it was dressed with +cane-honey,[FN#10] said to him, "Did I not bid thee bring it with +bees' honey? Wilt thou contrary my wish and have it dressed with +cane-honey?" He excused himself to her, saying, "I bought it not +save on credit;" but said she, "This talk is idle; I will not eat +Kunafah save with bees' honey." And she was wroth with it and +threw it in his face, saying, "Begone, thou pimp, and bring me +other than this !" Then she dealt him a buffet on the cheek and +knocked out one of his teeth. The blood ran down upon his breast +and for stress of anger he smote her on the head a single blow +and a slight; whereupon she clutched his beard and fell to +shouting out and saying, "Help, O Moslems!" So the neighbours +came in and freed his beard from her grip; then they reproved and +reproached her, saying, "We are all content to eat Kunafah with +cane-honey. Why, then, wilt thou oppress this poor man thus? +Verily, this is disgraceful in thee!" And they went on to soothe +her till they made peace between her and him. But, when the folk +were gone, she sware that she would not eat of the vermicelli, +and Ma'aruf, burning with hunger, said in himself, "She sweareth +that she will not eat; so I will e'en eat." Then he ate, and when +she saw him eating, she said, "Inshallah, may the eating of it be +poison to destroy the far one's body."[FN#11] Quoth he, "It shall +not be at thy bidding," and went on eating, laughing and saying, +"Thou swarest that thou wouldst not eat of this; but Allah is +bountiful, and to-morrow night, an the Lord decree, I will bring +thee Kunafah dressed with bees' honey, and thou shalt eat it +alone." And he applied himself to appeasing her, whilst she +called down curses upon him; and she ceased not to rail at him +and revile him with gross abuse till the morning, when she bared +her forearm to beat him. Quoth he, "Give me time and I will bring +thee other vermicelli-cake." Then he went out to the mosque and +prayed, after which he betook himself to his shop and opening it, +sat down; but hardly had he done this when up came two runners +from the Kazi's court and said to him, "Up with thee, speak with +the Kazi, for thy wife hath complained of thee to him and her +favour is thus and thus." He recognised her by their description; +and saying, "May Allah Almighty torment her!" walked with them +till he came to the Kazi's presence, where he found Fatimah +standing with her arm bound up and her face-veil besmeared with +blood; and she was weeping and wiping away her tears. Quoth the +Kazi, "Ho man, hast thou no fear of Allah the Most High? Why hast +thou beaten this good woman and broken her forearm and knocked +out her tooth and entreated her thus?" And quoth Ma'aruf, "If I +beat her or put out her tooth, sentence me to what thou wilt; but +in truth the case was thus and thus and the neighbours made peace +between me and her." And he told him the story from first to +last. Now this Kazi was a benevolent man; so he brought out to +him a quarter dinar, saying, "O man, take this and get her +Kunafah with bees' honey and do ye make peace, thou and she." +Quoth Ma'aruf, "Give it to her." So she took it and the Kazi made +peace between them, saying, "O wife, obey thy husband; and thou, +O man, deal kindly with her.[FN#12]" Then they left the court, +reconciled at the Kazi's hands, and the woman went one way, +whilst her husband returned by another way to his shop and sat +there, when, behold, the runners came up to him and said, "Give +us our fee." Quoth he, "The Kazi took not of me aught; on the +contrary, he gave me a quarter dinar." But quoth they "'Tis no +concern of ours whether the Kazi took of thee or gave to thee, +and if thou give us not our fee, we will exact it in despite of +thee." And they fell to dragging him about the market; so he sold +his tools and gave them half a dinar, whereupon they let him go +and went away, whilst he put his hand to his cheek and sat +sorrowful, for that he had no tools wherewith to work. Presently, +up came two ill-favoured fellows and said to him, "Come, O man, +and speak with the Kazi; for thy wife hath complained of thee to +him." Said he, "He made peace between us just now." But said +they, "We come from another Kazi, and thy wife hath complained of +thee to our Kazi." So he arose and went with them to their Kazi, +calling on Allah for aid against her; and when he saw her, he +said to her, "Did we not make peace, good woman?" Whereupon she +cried, "There abideth no peace between me and thee." Accordingly +he came forward and told the Kazi his story, adding, "And indeed +the Kazi Such-an-one made peace between us this very hour." +Whereupon the Kazi said to her, "O strumpet, since ye two have +made peace with each other, why comest thou to me complaining?" +Quoth she, "He beat me after that;" but quoth the Kazi, "Make +peace each with other, and beat her not again, and she will cross +thee no more." So they made peace and the Kazi said to Ma'aruf, +"Give the runners their fee." So he gave them their fee and going +back to his shop, opened it and sat down, as he were a drunken +man for excess of the chagrin which befel him. Presently, while +he was still sitting, behold, a man came up to him and said, "O +Ma'aruf, rise and hide thyself, for thy wife hath complained of +thee to the High Court[FN#13] and Abú Tabak[FN#14] is after +thee." So he shut his shop and fled towards the Gate of +Victory.[FN#15] He had five nusfs of silver left of the price of +the lasts and gear; and therewith he bought four worth of bread +and one of cheese, as he fled from her. Now it was the winter +season and the hour of mid-afternoon prayer; so, when he came out +among the rubbish-mounds the rain descended upon him, like water +from the mouths of water-skins, and his clothes were drenched. He +therefore entered the 'Adiliyah,[FN#16] where he saw a ruined +place and therein a deserted cell without a door; and in it he +took refuge and found shelter from the rain. The tears streamed +from his eyelids, and he fell to complaining of what had betided +him and saying, "Whither shall I flee from this whore? I beseech +Thee, O Lord, to vouchsafe me one who shall conduct me to a far +country, where she shall not know the way to me!" Now while he +sat weeping, behold, the wall clave and there came forth to him +therefrom one of tall stature, whose aspect caused his body-pile +to bristle and his flesh to creep, and said to him, "O man, what +aileth thee that thou disturbest me this night? These two hundred +years have I dwelt here and have never seen any enter this place +and do as thou dost. Tell me what thou wishest and I will +accomplish thy need, as ruth for thee hath got hold upon my +heart." Quoth Ma'aruf, "Who and what art thou?"; and quoth he, "I +am the Haunter[FN#17] of this place." So Ma'aruf told him all +that had befallen him with his wife and he said, "Wilt thou have +me convey thee to a country, where thy wife shall know no way to +thee?" "Yes," said Ma'aruf; and the other, "Then mount my back." +So he mounted on his back and he flew with him from after +supper-tide till daybreak, when he set him down on the top of a +high mountain--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased +saying her permitted say. + + When it was the Nine Hundred and Ninety-first Night, + +She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Marid +having taken up Ma'aruf the Cobbler, flew off with him and set +him down upon a high mountain and said to him, "O mortal, descend +this mountain and thou wilt see the gate of a city. Enter it, for +therein thy wife cannot come at thee." He then left him and went +his way, whilst Ma'aruf abode in amazement and perplexity till +the sun rose, when he said to himself, "I will up with me and go +down into the city: indeed there is no profit in my abiding upon +this highland." So he descended to the mountain-foot and saw a +city girt by towering walls, full of lofty palaces and +gold-adorned buildings which was a delight to beholders. He +entered in at the gate and found it a place such as lightened the +grieving heart; but, as he walked through the streets the +townsfolk stared at him as a curiosity and gathered about him, +marvelling at his dress, for it was unlike theirs. Presently, one +of them said to him, "O man, art thou a stranger?" "Yes." "What +countryman art thou?" "I am from the city of Cairo the +Auspicious." "And when didst thou leave Cairo?" "I left it +yesterday, at the hour of afternoon-prayer." Whereupon the man +laughed at him and cried out, saying, "Come look, O folk, at this +man and hear what he saith!" Quoth they, "What doeth he say?"; +and quoth the townsman, "He pretendeth that he cometh from Cairo +and left it yesterday at the hour of afternoon-prayer!" At this +they all laughed and gathering round Ma'aruf, said to him, "O +man, art thou mad to talk thus? How canst thou pretend that thou +leftest Cairo at mid-afternoon yesterday and foundedst thyself +this morning here, when the truth is that between our city and +Cairo lieth a full year's journey?" Quoth he, "None is mad but +you. As for me, I speak sooth, for here is bread which I brought +with me from Cairo, and see, 'tis yet new." Then he showed them +the bread and they stared at it, for it was unlike their country +bread. So the crowd increased about him and they said to one +another, "This is Cairo bread: look at it;" and he became a +gazing-stock in the city and some believed him, whilst others +gave him the lie and made mock of him. Whilst this was going on, +behold, up came a merchant riding on a she-mule and followed by +two black slaves, and brake a way through the people, saying, "O +folk, are ye not ashamed to mob this stranger and make mock of +him and scoff at him?" And he went on to rate them, till he drave +them away from Ma'aruf, and none could make him any answer. Then +he said to the stranger, "Come, O my brother, no harm shall +betide thee from these folk. Verily they have no shame."[FN#18] +So he took him and carrying him to a spacious and richly-adorned +house, seated him in a speak-room fit for a King, whilst he gave +an order to his slaves, who opened a chest and brought out to him +a dress such as might be worn by a merchant worth a +thousand.[FN#19] He clad him therewith and Ma'aruf, being a +seemly man, became as he were consul of the merchants. Then his +host called for food and they set before them a tray of all +manner exquisite viands. The twain ate and drank and the merchant +said to Ma'aruf, "O my brother, what is thy name?" "My name is +Ma'aruf and I am a cobbler by trade and patch old shoes." "What +countryman art thou?" "I am from Cairo." "What quarter?" "Dost +thou know Cairo?" "I am of its children.[FN#20] I come from the +Red Street.[FN#21]" "And whom dost thou know in the Red Street?" +"I know such an one and such an one," answered Ma'aruf and named +several people to him. Quoth the other, "Knowest thou Shaykh +Ahmad the druggist?[FN#22]" "He was my next neighbour, wall to +wall." "Is he well?" "Yes." "How many sons hath he?" "Three, +Mustafà, Mohammed and Ali." "And what hath Allah done with them?" +"As for Mustafà, he is well and he is a learned man, a +professor[FN#23]: Mohammed is a druggist and opened him a shop +beside that of his father, after he had married, and his wife +hath borne him a son named Hasan." "Allah gladden thee with good +news!" said the merchant; and Ma'aruf continued, "As for Ali, he +was my friend, when we were boys, and we always played together, +I and he. We used to go in the guise of the children of the +Nazarenes and enter the church and steal the books of the +Christians and sell them and buy food with the price. It chanced +once that the Nazarenes caught us with a book; whereupon they +complained of us to our folk and said to Ali's father:--An thou +hinder not thy son from troubling us, we will complain of thee to +the King. So he appeased them and gave Ali a thrashing; wherefore +he ran away none knew whither and he hath now been absent twenty +years and no man hath brought news of him." Quoth the host, "I am +that very Ali, son of Shaykh Ahmad the druggist, and thou art my +playmate Ma'aruf."[FN#24] So they saluted each other and after +the salam Ali said, "Tell me why, O Ma'aruf, thou camest from +Cairo to this city." Then he told him all that had befallen him +of ill-doing with his wife Fatimah the Dung and said, "So, when +her annoy waxed on me, I fled from her towards the Gate of +Victory and went forth the city. Presently, the rain fell heavy +on me; so I entered a ruined cell in the Adiliyah and sat there, +weeping; whereupon there came forth to me the Haunter of the +place, which was an Ifrit of the Jinn, and questioned me. I +acquainted him with my case and he took me on his back and flew +with me all night between heaven and earth, till he set me down +on yonder mountain and gave me to know of this city. So I came +down from the mountain and entered the city, when people crowded +about me and questioned me. I told them that I had left Cairo +yesterday, but they believed me not, and presently thou camest up +and driving the folk away from me, carriedst me this house. Such, +then, is the cause of my quitting Cairo; and thou, what object +brought thee hither?" Quoth Ali, "The giddiness[FN#25] of folly +turned my head when I was seven years old, from which time I +wandered from land to land and city to city, till I came to this +city, the name whereof is Ikhtiyán al-Khatan.[FN#26] I found its +people an hospitable folk and a kindly, compassionate for the +poor man and selling to him on credit and believing all he said. +So quoth I to them:--I am a merchant and have preceded my packs +and I need a place wherein to bestow my baggage. And they +believed me and assigned me a lodging. Then quoth I to them:--Is +there any of you will lend me a thousand dinars, till my loads +arrive, when I will repay it to him; for I am in want of certain +things before my goods come? They gave me what I asked and I went +to the merchants' bazar, where, seeing goods, I bought them and +sold them next day at a profit of fifty gold pieces and bought +others.[FN#27] And I consorted with the folk and entreated them +liberally, so that they loved me, and I continued to sell and +buy, till I grew rich. Know, O my brother, that the proverb +saith, The world is show and trickery: and the land where none +wotteth thee, there do whatso liketh thee. Thou too, an thou say +to all who ask thee, I'm a cobbler by trade and poor withal, and +I fled from my wife and left Cairo yesterday, they will not +believe thee and thou wilt be a laughing-stock among them as long +as thou abidest in the city; whilst, an thou tell them, An Ifrit +brought me hither, they will take fright at thee and none will +come near thee; for they will say, This man is possessed of an +Ifrit and harm will betide whoso approacheth him. And such public +report will be dishonouring both to thee and to me, because they +ken I come from Cairo." Ma'aruf asked:--"How then shall I do?"; +and Ali answered, "I will tell thee how thou shalt do, Inshallah! +To-morrow I will give thee a thousand dinars and a she-mule to +ride and a black slave, who shall walk before thee and guide thee +to the gate of the merchants' bazar; and do thou go into them. I +will be there sitting amongst them, and when I see thee, I will +rise to thee and salute thee with the salam and kiss thy hand and +make a great man of thee. Whenever I ask thee of any kind of +stuff, saying, Hast thou brought with thee aught of such a kind? +do thou answer, "Plenty.[FN#28]" And if they question me of thee, +I will praise thee and magnify thee in their eyes and say to +them, Get him a store-house and a shop. I also will give thee out +for a man of great wealth and generosity; and if a beggar come to +thee, bestow upon him what thou mayst; so will they put faith in +what I say and believe in thy greatness and generosity and love +thee. Then will I invite thee to my house and invite all the +merchants on thy account and bring together thee and them, so +that all may know thee and thou know them,"--And Shahrazad +perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. + + When it was the Nine Hundred and Ninety-second Night, + +She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the +merchant Ali said to Ma'aruf, "I will invite thee to my house and +invite all the merchants on thy account and bring together thee +and them, so that all may know thee and thou know them, whereby +thou shalt sell and buy and take and give with them; nor will it +be long ere thou become a man of money." Accordingly, on the +morrow he gave him a thousand dinars and a suit of clothes and a +black slave and mounting him on a she-mule, said to him, "Allah +give thee quittance of responsibility for all this,[FN#29] +inasmuch as thou art my friend and it behoveth me to deal +generously with thee. Have no care; but put away from thee the +thought of thy wife's misways and name her not to any." "Allah +requite thee with good!" replied Ma'aruf and rode on, preceded by +his blackamoor till the slave brought him to the gate of the +merchants' bazar, where they were all seated, and amongst them +Ali, who when he saw him, rose and threw himself upon him, +crying, "A blessed day, O Merchant Ma'aruf, O man of good works +and kindness[FN#30]!" And he kissed his hand before the merchants +and said to them, "Our brothers, ye are honoured by +knowing[FN#31] the merchant Ma'aruf." So they saluted him, and +Ali signed to them to make much of him, wherefore he was +magnified in their eyes. Then Ali helped him to dismount from his +she-mule and saluted him with the salam; after which he took the +merchants apart, one after other, and vaunted Ma'aruf to them. +They asked, "Is this man a merchant?;" and he answered, "Yes; and +indeed he is the chiefest of merchants, there liveth not a +wealthier than he; for his wealth and the riches of his father +and forefathers are famous among the merchants of Cairo. He hath +partners in Hind and Sind and Al-Yaman and is high in repute for +generosity. So know ye his rank and exalt ye his degree and do +him service, and wot also that his coming to your city is not for +the sake of traffic, and none other save to divert himself with +the sight of folk's countries: indeed, he hath no need of +strangerhood for the sake of gain and profit, having wealth that +fires cannot consume, and I am one of his servants." And he +ceased not to extol him, till they set him above their heads and +began to tell one another of his qualities. Then they gathered +round him and offered him junkets[FN#32] and sherbets, and even +the Consul of the Merchants came to him and saluted him; whilst +Ali proceeded to ask him, in the presence of the traders, "O my +lord, haply thou hast brought with thee somewhat of such and such +a stuff?"; and Ma'aruf answered,"Plenty." Now Ali had that day +shown him various kinds of costly clothes and had taught him the +names of the different stuffs, dear and cheap. Then said one of +the merchants, "O my lord, hast thou brought with thee yellow +broad cloth?": and Ma'aruf said, "Plenty"! Quoth another, "And +gazelles' blood red[FN#33]?"; and quoth the Cobbler, "Plenty"; +and as often as he asked him of aught, he made him the same +answer. So the other said, "O Merchant Ali had thy countryman a +mind to transport a thousand loads of costly stuffs, he could do +so"; and Ali said, "He would take them from a single one of his +store-houses, and miss naught thereof." Now whilst they were +sitting, behold, up came a beggar and went the round of the +merchants. One gave him a half dirham and another a +copper,[FN#34] but most of them gave him nothing, till he came to +Ma'aruf who pulled out a handful of gold and gave it to him, +whereupon he blessed him and went his ways. The merchants +marvelled at this and said, "Verily, this is a King's bestowal +for he gave the beggar gold without count, and were he not a man +of vast wealth and money without end, he had not given a beggar a +handful of gold." After a while, there came to him a poor woman +and he gave her a handful of gold; whereupon she went away, +blessing him, and told the other beggars, who came to him, one +after other, and he gave them each a handful of gold, till he +disbursed the thousand dinars. Then he struck hand upon hand and +said, "Allah is our sufficient aid and excellent is the Agent!" +Quoth the Consul, "What aileth thee, O Merchant Ma'aruf?"; and +quoth he, "It seemeth that the most part of the people of this +city are poor and needy; had I known their misery I would have +brought with me a large sum of money in my saddle-bags and given +largesse thereof to the poor. I fear me I may be long +abroad[FN#35] and 'tis not in my nature to baulk a beggar; and I +have no gold left: so, if a pauper come to me, what shall I say +to him?" Quoth the Consul, "Say, Allah will send thee thy daily +bread[FN#36]!"; but Ma'aruf replied, "That is not my practice and +I am care-ridden because of this. Would I had other thousand +dinars, wherewith to give alms till my baggage come!" "Have no +care for that," quoth the Consul and sending one of his +dependents for a thousand dinars, handed them to Ma'aruf, who +went on giving them to every beggar who passed till the call to +noon-prayer. Then they entered the Cathedral-mosque and prayed +the noon-prayers, and what was left him of the thousand gold +pieces he scattered on the heads of the worshippers. This drew +the people's attention to him and they blessed him, whilst the +merchants marvelled at the abundance of his generosity and +openhandedness. Then he turned to another trader and borrowing of +him other thousand ducats, gave these also away, whilst Merchant +Ali looked on at what he did, but could not speak. He ceased not +to do thus till the call to mid-afternoon prayer, when he entered +the mosque and prayed and distributed the rest of the money. On +this wise, by the time they locked the doors of the bazar,[FN#37] +he had borrowed five thousand sequins and given them away, saying +to every one of whom he took aught, "Wait till my baggage come +when, if thou desire gold I will give thee gold, and if thou +desire stuffs, thou shalt have stuffs; for I have no end of +them." At eventide Merchant Ali invited Ma'aruf and the rest of +the traders to an entertainment and seated him in the upper end, +the place of honour, where he talked of nothing but cloths and +jewels, and whenever they made mention to him of aught, he said, +"I have plenty of it." Next day, he again repaired to the +market-street where he showed a friendly bias towards the +merchants and borrowed of them more money, which he distributed +to the poor: nor did he leave doing thus twenty days, till he had +borrowed threescore thousand dinars, and still there came no +baggage, no, nor a burning plague.[FN#38] At last folk began to +clamour for their money and say, "The merchant Ma'aruf's baggage +cometh not. How long will he take people's monies and give them +to the poor?" And quoth one of them, "My rede is that we speak to +Merchant Ali." So they went to him and said, "O Merchant Ali, +Merchant Ma'aruf's baggage cometh not." Said he, "Have patience, +it cannot fail to come soon." Then he took Ma'aruf aside and said +to him, "O Ma'aruf, what fashion is this? Did I bid thee +brown[FN#39] the bread or burn it? The merchants clamour for +their coin and tell me that thou owest them sixty thousand +dinars, which thou hast borrowed and given away to the poor. How +wilt thou satisfy the folk, seeing that thou neither sellest nor +buyest?" Said Ma'aruf, "What matters it[FN#40]; and what are +threescore thousand dinars? When my baggage shall come, I will +pay them in stuffs or in gold and silver, as they will." Quoth +Merchant Ali, "Allah is Most Great! Hast thou then any baggage?"; +and he said, "Plenty." Cried the other, "Allah and the +Hallows[FN#41] requite thee thine impudence! Did I teach thee +this saying, that thou shouldst repeat it to me? But I will +acquaint the folk with thee." Ma'aruf rejoined, "Begone and prate +no more! Am I a poor man? I have endless wealth in my baggage and +as soon as it cometh, they shall have their money's worth two for +one. I have no need of them." At this Merchant Ali waxed wroth +and said, "Unmannerly wight that thou art, I will teach thee to +lie to me and be not ashamed!" Said Ma'aruf, "E'en work the worst +thy hand can do! They must wait till my baggage come, when they +shall have their due and more." So Ali left him and went away, +saying in himself, "I praised him whilome and if I blame him now, +I make myself out a liar and become of those of whom it is said:- +-Whoso praiseth and then blameth lieth twice."[FN#42] And he knew +not what to do. Presently, the traders came to him and said, "O +Merchant Ali, hast thou spoken to him?" Said he, "O folk, I am +ashamed and, though he owe me a thousand dinars, I cannot speak +to him. When ye lent him your money ye consulted me not; so ye +have no claim on me. Dun him yourselves, and if he pay you not, +complain of him to the King of the city, saying:--He is an +impostor who hath imposed upon us. And he will deliver you from +the plague of him." Accordingly, they repaired to the King and +told him what had passed, saying, "O King of the age, we are +perplexed anent this merchant, whose generosity is excessive; for +he doeth thus and thus, and all he borroweth, he giveth away to +the poor by handsful. Were he a man of naught, his sense would +not suffer him to lavish gold on this wise; and were he a man of +wealth, his good faith had been made manifest to us by the coming +of his baggage; but we see none of his luggage, although he +avoucheth that he hath baggage-train and hath preceded it. Now +some time hath past, but there appeareth no sign of his +baggage-train, and he oweth us sixty thousand gold pieces, all of +which he hath given away in alms." And they went on to praise him +and extol his generosity. Now this King was a very covetous man, +a more covetous than Ash'ab[FN#43]; and when he heard tell of +Ma'aruf's generosity and openhandedness, greed of gain got the +better of him and he said to his Wazir, "Were not this merchant a +man of immense wealth, he had not shown all this munificence. His +baggage-train will assuredly come, whereupon these merchants will +flock to him and he will scatter amongst them riches galore. Now +I have more right to this money than they; wherefore I have a +mind to make friends with him and profess affection for him, so +that, when his baggage cometh whatso the merchants would have had +I shall get of him; and I will give him my daughter to wife and +join his wealth to my wealth." Replied the Wazir, "O King of the +age, methinks he is naught but an impostor, and 'tis the impostor +who ruineth the house of the covetous;"--And Shahrazad perceived +the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. + + When it was the Nine Hundred and Ninety-third Night, + +She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the +Wazir said to the King, "Methinks he is naught but an impostor, +and 'tis the impostor who ruineth the house of the covetous;" the +King said, "O Wazir, I will prove him and soon know if he be an +impostor or a true man and whether he be a rearling of Fortune or +not." The Wazir asked, "And how wilt thou prove him?"; and the +King answered, "I will send for him to the presence and entreat +him with honour and give him a jewel which I have. An he know it +and wot its price, he is a man of worth and wealth; but an he +know it not, he is an impostor and an upstart and I will do him +die by the foulest fashion of deaths." So he sent for Ma'aruf, +who came and saluted him. The King returned his salam and seating +him beside himself, said to him, "Art thou the merchant Ma'aruf?" +and said he, "Yes." Quoth the King, "The merchants declare that +thou owest them sixty thousand ducats. Is this true?" "Yes," +quoth he. Asked the King, "Then why dost thou not give them their +money?"; and he answered, "Let them wait till my baggage come and +I will repay them twofold. An they wish for gold, they shall have +gold; and should they wish for silver, they shall have silver; or +an they prefer for merchandise, I will give them merchandise; and +to whom I owe a thousand I will give two thousand in requital of +that wherewith he hath veiled my face before the poor; for I have +plenty." Then said the King, "O merchant, take this and look what +is its kind and value." And he gave him a jewel the bigness of a +hazel-nut, which he had bought for a thousand sequins and not +having its fellow, prized it highly. Ma'aruf took it and pressing +it between his thumb and forefinger brake it, for it was brittle +and would not brook the squeeze. Quoth the King, "Why hast thou +broken the jewel?"; and Ma'aruf laughed and said, "O King of the +age, this is no jewel. This is but a bittock of mineral worth a +thousand dinars; why dost thou style it a jewel? A jewel I call +such as is worth threescore and ten thousand gold pieces and this +is called but a piece of stone. A jewel that is not of the +bigness of a walnut hath no worth in my eyes and I take no +account thereof. How cometh it, then, that thou, who art King, +stylest this thing a jewel, when 'tis but a bit of mineral worth +a thousand dinars? But ye are excusable, for that ye are poor +folk and have not in your possession things of price." The King +asked, "O merchant, hast thou jewels such as those whereof thou +speakest?"; and he answered, "Plenty." Whereupon avarice overcame +the King and he said, "Wilt thou give me real jewels?" Said +Ma'aruf, "When my baggage-train shall come, I will give thee no +end of jewels; and all that thou canst desire I have in plenty +and will give thee, without price." At this the King rejoiced and +said to the traders, "Wend your ways and have patience with him, +till his baggage arrive, when do ye come to me and receive your +monies from me." So they fared forth and the King turned to his +to his Wazir and said to him, Pay court to Merchant Ma'aruf and +take and give with him in talk and bespeak him of my daughter, +Princess Dunyá, that he may wed her and so we gain these riches +he hath." Said the Wazir, "O King of the age, this man's fashion +misliketh me and methinks he is an impostor and a liar: so leave +this whereof thou speakest lest thou lose thy daughter for +naught." Now this Minister had sued the King aforetime to give +him his daughter to wife and he was willing to do so, but when +she heard of it she consented not to marry him. Accordingly, the +King said to him, "O traitor, thou desirest no good for me, +because in past time thou soughtest my daughter in wedlock, but +she would none of thee; so now thou wouldst cut off the way of +her marriage and wouldst have the Princess lie fallow, that thou +mayst take her; but hear from me one word. Thou hast no concern +in this matter. How can he be an impostor and a liar, seeing that +he knew the price of the jewel, even that for which I bought it, +and brake it because it pleased him not? He hath jewels in +plenty, and when he goeth in to my daughter and seeth her to be +beautiful she will captivate his reason and he will love her and +give her jewels and things of price: but, as for thee, thou +wouldst forbid my daughter and myself these good things." So the +Minister was silent, for fear of the King's anger, and said to +himself, "Set the curs on the cattle[FN#44]!" Then with show of +friendly bias he betook himself to Ma'aruf and said to him, "His +Highness the King loveth thee and hath a daughter, a winsome lady +and a lovesome, to whom he is minded to marry thee. What sayst +thou?" Said he, "No harm in that; but let him wait till my +baggage come, for marriage-settlements on Kings' daughters are +large and their rank demandeth that they be not endowed save with +a dowry befitting their degree. At this present I have no money +with me till the coming of my baggage, for I have wealth in +plenty and needs must I make her marriage-portion five thousand +purses. Then I shall need a thousand purses to distribute amongst +the poor and needy on my wedding-night, and other thousand to +give to those who walk in the bridal procession and yet other +thousand wherewith to provide provaunt for the troops and +others[FN#45]; and I shall want an hundred jewels to give to the +Princess on the wedding-morning[FN#46] and other hundred gems to +distribute among the slavegirls and eunuchs, for I must give each +of them a jewel in honour of the bride; and I need wherewithal to +clothe a thousand naked paupers, and alms too needs must be +given. All this cannot be done till my baggage come; but I have +plenty and, once it is here, I shall make no account of all this +outlay." The Wazir returned to the King and told him what Ma'aruf +said, whereupon quoth he, "Since this is his wish, how canst thou +style him impostor and liar?" Replied the Minister, "And I cease +not to say this." But the King chid him angrily and threatened +him, saying, "By the life of my head, an thou cease not this +talk, I will slay thee! Go back to him and fetch him to me and I +will manage matters with him myself." So the Wazir returned to +Ma'aruf and said to him, "Come and speak with the King." "I hear +and I obey," said Ma'aruf and went in to the King, who said to +him, "Thou shalt not put me off with these excuses, for my +treasury is full; so take the keys and spend all thou needest and +give what thou wilt and clothe the poor and do thy desire and +have no care for the girl and the handmaids. When the baggage +shall come, do what thou wilt with thy wife, by way of +generosity, and we will have patience with thee anent the +marriage-portion till then, for there is no manner of difference +betwixt me and thee; none at all." Then he sent for the Shaykh +Al-Islam[FN#47] and bade him write out the marriage-contract +between his daughter and Merchant Ma'aruf, and he did so; after +which the King gave the signal for beginning the wedding +festivities and bade decorate the city. The kettle drums beat and +the tables were spread with meats of all kinds and there came +performers who paraded their tricks. Merchant Ma'aruf sat upon a +throne in a parlour and the players and gymnasts and +effeminates[FN#48] and dancing-men of wondrous movements and +posture-makers of marvellous cunning came before him, whilst he +called out to the treasurer and said to him, "Bring gold and +silver." So he brought gold and silver and Ma'aruf went round +among the spectators and largessed each performer by the handful; +and he gave alms to the poor and needy and clothes to the naked +and it was a clamorous festival and a right merry. The treasurer +could not bring money fast enough from the treasury, and the +Wazir's heart was like to burst for rage; but he dared not say a +word, whilst Merchant Ali marvelled at this waste of wealth and +said to Merchant Ma'aruf, "Allah and the Hallows visit this upon +on thy head-sides[FN#49]! Doth it not suffice thee to squander +the traders' money, but thou must squander that of the King to +boot?" Replied Ma'aruf, "'Tis none of thy concern: whenas my +baggage shall come, I will requite the King manifold." And he +went on lavishing money and saying in himself, "A burning plague! +What will happen will happen and there is no flying from that +which is fore-ordained." The festivities ceased not for the space +of forty days, and on the one-and-fortieth day, they made the +bride's cortège and all the Emirs and troops walked before her. +When they brought her in before Ma'aruf, he began scattering gold +on the people's heads, and they made her a mighty fine +procession, whilst Ma'aruf expended in her honour vast sums of +money. Then they brought him in to Princess Dunya and he sat down +on the high divan; after which they let fall the curtains and +shut the doors and withdrew, leaving him alone with his bride; +whereupon he smote hand upon hand and sat awhile sorrowful and +saying, "There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, +the Glorious, the Great!" Quoth the Princess, "O my lord, Allah +preserve thee! What aileth thee that thou art troubled?" Quoth +he, "And how should I be other than troubled, seeing that thy +father hath embarrassed me and done with me a deed which is like +the burning of green corn?" She asked, "And what hath my father +done with thee? Tell me!"; and he answered, "He hath brought me +in to thee before the coming of my baggage, and I want at very +least an hundred jewels to distribute among thy handmaids, to +each a jewel, so she might rejoice therein and say, My lord gave +me a jewel on the night of his going in to my lady. This good +deed would I have done in honour of thy station and for the +increase of thy dignity; and I have no need to stint myself in +lavishing jewels, for I have of them great plenty." Rejoined she, +"Be not concerned for that. As for me, trouble not thyself about +me, for I will have patience with thee till thy baggage shall +come, and as for my women have no care for them. Rise, doff thy +clothes and take thy pleasure; and when the baggage cometh we +shall get the jewels and the rest." So he arose and putting off +his clothes sat down on the bed and sought love-liesse and they +fell to toying with each other. He laid his hand on her knee and +she sat down in his lap and thrust her lip like a tit-bit of meat +into his mouth, and that hour was such as maketh a man to forget +his father and his mother. So he clasped her in his arms and +strained her fast to his breast and sucked her lip, till the +honey-dew ran out into his mouth; and he laid his hand under her +left-armpit, whereupon his vitals and her vitals yearned for +coition. Then he clapped her between the breasts and his hand +slipped down between her thighs and she girded him with her legs, +whereupon he made of the two parts proof amain and crying out, "O +sire of the chin-veils twain[FN#50]!" applied the priming and +kindled the match and set it to the touch-hole and gave fire and +breached the citadel in its four corners; so there befel the +mystery[FN#51] concerning which there is no enquiry: and she +cried the cry that needs must be cried.[FN#52]--And Shahrazad +perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. + + When it Was the Nine Hundred and Ninety-fourth Night, + +She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that while +the Princess Dunyá cried the cry which must be cried, Merchant +Ma'aruf abated her maidenhead and that night was one not to be +counted among lives for that which it comprised of the enjoyment +of the fair, clipping and dallying _langue fourrée_ and futtering +till the dawn of day, when he arose and entered the Hammam +whence, after donning a suit for sovrans suitable he betook +himself to the King's Divan. All who were there rose to him and +received him with honour and worship, giving him joy and invoking +blessings upon him; and he sat down by the King's side and asked, +"Where is the treasurer?" They answered, "Here he is, before +thee," and he said to him, "Bring robes of honour for all the +Wazirs and Emirs and dignitaries and clothe them therewith." The +treasurer brought him all he sought and he sat giving to all who +came to him and lavishing largesse upon every man according to +his station. On this wise he abode twenty days, whilst no baggage +appeared for him nor aught else, till the treasurer was +straitened by him to the uttermost and going in to the King, as +he sat alone with the Wazir in Ma'aruf's absence, kissed ground +between his hands and said, "O King of the age, I must tell thee +somewhat, lest haply thou blame me for not acquainting thee +therewith. Know that the treasury is being exhausted; there is +none but a little money left in it and in ten days more we shall +shut it upon emptiness." Quoth the King, "O Wazir, verily my +son-in-law's baggage-train tarrieth long and there appeareth no +news thereof." The Minister laughed and said , Allah be gracious +to thee, O King of the age! Thou art none other but heedless with +respect to this impostor, this liar. As thy head liveth, there is +no baggage for him, no, nor a burning plague to rid us of him! +Nay, he hath but imposed on thee without surcease, so that he +hath wasted thy treasures and married thy daughter for naught. +How long therefore wilt thou be heedless of this liar?" Then +quoth the King, "O Wazir, how shall we do to learn the truth of +his case?"; and quoth the Wazir, "O King of the age, none may +come at a man's secret but his wife; so send for thy daughter and +let her come behind the curtain, that I may question her of the +truth of his estate, to the intent that she may make question of +him and acquaint us with his case." Cried the King, "There is no +harm in that; and as my head liveth, if it be proved that he is a +liar and an impostor, I will verily do him die by the foulest of +deaths!" Then he carried the Wazir into the sitting-chamber and +sent for his daughter, who came behind the curtain, her husband +being absent, and said, "What wouldst thou, O my father?" Said he +"Speak with the Wazir." So she asked, "Ho thou, the Wazir, what +is thy will?"; and he answered, "O my lady, thou must know that +thy husband hath squandered thy father's substance and married +thee without a dower; and he ceaseth not to promise us and break +his promises, nor cometh there any tidings of his baggage; in +short we would have thee inform us concerning him." Quoth she, +"Indeed his words be many, and he still cometh and promiseth me +jewels and treasures and costly stuffs; but I see nothing." Quoth +the Wazir, "O my lady, canst thou this night take and give with +him in talk and whisper to him:--Say me sooth and fear from me +naught, for thou art become my husband and I will not transgress +against thee. So tell me the truth of the matter and I will +devise thee a device whereby thou shalt be set at rest. And do +thou play near and far[FN#53] with him in words and profess love +to him and win him to confess and after tell us the facts of his +case." And she answered, "O my papa, I know how I will make proof +of him." Then she went away and after supper her husband came in +to her, according to his wont, whereupon Princess Dunya rose to +him and took him under the armpit and wheedled him with winsomest +wheedling (and all-sufficient[FN#54] are woman's wiles whenas she +would aught of men); and she ceased not to caress him and beguile +him with speech sweeter than the honey till she stole his reason; +and when she saw that he altogether inclined to her, she said to +him, "O my beloved, O coolth of my eyes and fruit of my vitals, +Allah never desolate me by less of thee nor Time sunder us twain +me and thee! Indeed, the love of thee hath homed in my heart and +the fire of passion hath consumed my liver, nor will I ever +forsake thee or transgress against thee. But I would have thee +tell me the truth, for that the sleights of falsehood profit not, +nor do they secure credit at all seasons. How long wilt thou +impose upon my father and lie to him? I fear lest thine affair be +discovered to him, ere we can devise some device and he lay +violent hands upon thee? So acquaint me with the facts of the +case for naught shall befal thee save that which shall begladden +thee; and, when thou shalt have spoken sooth, fear not harm shall +betide thee. How often wilt thou declare that thou art a merchant +and a man of money and hast a luggage-train? This long while past +thou sayest, My baggage! my baggage! but there appeareth no sign +of thy baggage, and visible in thy face is anxiety on this +account. So an there be no worth in thy words, tell me and I will +contrive thee a contrivance whereby by thou shalt come off safe, +Inshallah!" He replied, "I will tell thee the truth, and then do +thou whatso thou wilt." Rejoined she, "Speak and look thou speak +soothly; for sooth is the ark of safety, and beware of lying, for +it dishonoureth the liar and God-gifted is he who said:-- + +'Ware that truth thou speak, albe sooth when said * Shall cause + thee in threatenèd fire to fall: +And seek Allah's approof, for most foolish he * Who shall anger + his Lord to make friends with thrall." + +He said, "Know, then, O my lady, that I am no merchant and have +no baggage, no, nor a burning plague; nay, I was but a cobbler in +my own country and had a wife called Fatimah the Dung, with whom +there befel me this and that." And he told her his story from +beginning to end; whereat she laughed and said, "Verily, thou art +clever in the practice of lying and imposture!" Whereto he +answered, "O my lady, may Allah Almighty preserve thee to veil +sins and countervail chagrins!" Rejoined she, "Know, that thou +imposedst upon my sire and deceivedst him by dint of thy deluding +vaunts, so that of his greed for gain he married me to thee. Then +thou squanderedst his wealth and the Wazir beareth thee a grudge +for this. How many a time hath he spoken against thee to my +father, saying, Indeed, he is an impostor, a liar! But my sire +hearkened not to his say, for that he had sought me in wedlock +and I consented not that he be baron and I femme. However, the +time grew longsome upon my sire and he became straitened and said +to me, Make him confess. So I have made thee confess and that +which was covered is discovered. Now my father purposeth thee a +mischief because of this; but thou art become my husband and I +will never transgress against thee. An I told my father what I +have learnt from thee, he would be certified of thy falsehood and +imposture and that thou imposest upon Kings' daughters and +squanderest royal wealth: so would thine offence find with him no +pardon and he would slay thee sans a doubt: wherefore it would be +bruited among the folk that I married a man who was a liar, an +impostor, and this would smirch mine honour. Furthermore an he +kill thee, most like he will require me to wed another, and to +such thing I will never consent; no, not though I die![FN#55] So +rise now and don a Mameluke's dress and take these fifty thousand +dinars of my monies, and mount a swift steed and get thee to a +land whither the rule of my father doth not reach. Then make thee +a merchant and send me a letter by a courier who shall bring it +privily to me, that I may know in what land thou art, so I may +send thee all my hand can attain. Thus shall thy wealth wax great +and if my father die, I will send for thee, and thou shalt return +in respect and honour; and if we die, thou or I and go to the +mercy of God the Most Great, the Resurrection shall unite us. +This, then, is the rede that is right: and while we both abide +alive and well, I will not cease to send thee letters and monies. +Arise ere the day wax bright and thou be in perplexed plight and +perdition upon thy head alight!" Quoth he, "O my lady, I beseech +thee of thy favour to bid me farewell with thine embracement;" +and quoth she, "No harm in that."[FN#56] So he embraced her and +knew her carnally; after which he made the Ghusl-ablution; then, +donning the dress of a white slave, he bade the syces saddle him +a thoroughbred steed. Accordingly, they saddled him a courser and +he mounted and farewelling his wife, rode forth the city at the +last of the night, whilst all who saw him deemed him one of the +Mamelukes of the Sultan going abroad on some business. Next +morning, the King and his Wazir repaired to the sitting-chamber +and sent for Princess Dunya who came behind the curtain; and her +father said to her, "O my daughter, what sayst thou?" Said she, +"I say, Allah blacken thy Wazir's face, because he would have +blackened my face in my husband's eyes!" Asked the King, "How +so?"; and she answered, "He came in to me yesterday; but, before +I could name the matter to him, behold, in walked Faraj the Chief +Eunuch, letter in hand, and said:--Ten white slaves stand under +the palace window and have this letter, saying:--Kiss for us the +hands of our lord, Merchant Ma'aruf, and give him this letter, +for we are of his Mamelukes with the baggage, and it hath reached +us that he hath wedded the King's daughter, so we are come to +acquaint him with that which befel us by the way. Accordingly I +took the letter and read as follows:--From the five hundred +Mamelukes to his highness our lord Merchant Ma'aruf. But further. +We give thee to know that, after thou quittedst us, the +Arabs[FN#57] came out upon us and attacked us. They were two +thousand horse and we five hundred mounted slaves and there befel +a mighty sore fight between us and them. They hindered us from +the road thirty days doing battle with them and this is the cause +of our tarrying from thee."--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of +day and ceased saying her permitted say. + + When it was the Nine Hundred and Ninety-fifth Night, + +She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Princess +Dunya said to her sire, "My husband received a letter from his +dependents ending with:--The Arabs hindered us from the road +thirty days which is the cause of our being behind time. They +also took from us of the luggage two hundred loads of cloth and +slew of us fifty Mamelukes. When the news reached my husband, he +cried, Allah disappoint them! What ailed them to wage war with +the Arabs for the sake of two hundred loads of merchandise? What +are two hundred loads? It behoved them not to tarry on that +account, for verily the value of the two hundred loads is only +some seven thousand dinars. But needs must I go to them and +hasten them. As for that which the Arabs have taken, 'twill not +be missed from the baggage, nor doth it weigh with me a whit, for +I reckon it as if I had given it to them by way of an alms. Then +he went down from me, laughing and taking no concern for the +wastage of his wealth nor the slaughter of his slaves. As soon as +he was gone, I looked out from the lattice and saw the ten +Mamelukes who had brought him the letter, as they were moons, +each clad in a suit of clothes worth two thousand dinars, there +is not with my father a chattel to match one of them. He went +forth with them to bring up his baggage and hallowed be Allah who +hindered me from saying to him aught of that thou badest me, for +he would have made mock of me and thee, and haply he would have +eyed me with the eye of disparagement and hated me. But the fault +is all with thy Wazir,[FN#58] who speaketh against my husband +words that besit him not." Replied the King, "O my daughter, thy +husband's wealth is indeed endless and he recketh not of it; for, +from the day he entered our city, he hath done naught but give +alms to the poor. Inshallah, he will speedily return with the +baggage, and good in plenty shall betide us from him." And he +went on to appease her and menace the Wazir, being duped by her +device. So fared it with the King; but as regards Merchant +Ma'aruf he rode on into waste lands, perplexed and knowing not to +what quarter he should betake him; and for the anguish of parting +he lamented and in the pangs of passion and love-longing he +recited these couplets:-- + +Time falsed our Union and divided who were one in tway; * And the + sore tyranny of Time doth melt my heart away: +Mine eyes ne'er cease to drop the tear for parting with my dear; + * When shall Disunion come to end and dawn the Union-day? +O favour like the full moon's face of sheen, indeed I'm he * Whom + thou didst leave with vitals torn when faring on thy way. +Would I had never seen thy sight, or met thee for an hour; * + Since after sweetest taste of thee to bitters I'm a prey. +Ma'aruf will never cease to be enthralled by Dunyá's[FN#59] + charms * And long live she albe he die whom love and longing + slay, +O brilliance, like resplendent sun of noontide, deign them heal * + His heart for kindness[FN#60] and the fire of longing love + allay! +Would Heaven I wot an e'er the days shall deign conjoin our lots, + * Join us in pleasant talk o' nights, in Union glad and gay: +Shall my love's palace hold two hearts that savour joy, and I * + Strain to my breast the branch I saw upon the + sand-hill[FN#61] sway? +O favour of full moon in sheen, never may sun o' thee * Surcease + to rise from Eastern rim with all-enlightening ray! +I'm well content with passion-pine and all its bane and bate * + For luck in love is evermore the butt of jealous Fate. + +And when he ended his verses, he wept with sore weeping, for +indeed the ways were walled up before his face and death seemed +to him better than dreeing life, and he walked on like a drunken +man for stress of distraction, and stayed not till noontide, when +he came to a little town and saw a plougher hard by, ploughing +with a yoke of bulls. Now hunger was sore upon him; and he went +up to the ploughman and said to him, "Peace be with thee!"; and +he returned his salam and said to him, "Welcome, O my lord! Art +thou one of the Sultan's Mamelukes?" Quoth Ma'aruf, "Yes;" and +the other said "Alight with me for a guest-meal." Whereupon +Ma'aruf knew him to be of the liberal and said to him, "O my +brother, I see with thee naught with which thou mayst feed me: +how is it, then, that thou invitest me?" Answered the husbandman, +"O my lord, weal is well nigh.[FN#62] Dismount thee here: the +town is near hand and I will go and fetch thee dinner and fodder +for thy stallion." Rejoined Ma'aruf, "Since the town is near at +hand, I can go thither as quickly as thou canst and buy me what I +have a mind to in the bazar and eat." The peasant replied, "O my +lord, the place is but a little village[FN#63] and there is no +bazar there, neither selling nor buying. So I conjure thee by +Allah, alight here with me and hearten my heart, and I will run +thither and return to thee in haste." Accordingly he dismounted +and the Fellah left him and went off to the village, to fetch +dinner for him whilst Ma'aruf sat awaiting him. Presently he said +in himself, "I have taken this poor man away from his work; but I +will arise and plough in his stead, till he come back, to make up +for having hindered him from his work.[FN#64]" Then he took the +plough and starting the bulls, ploughed a little, till the share +struck against something and the beasts stopped. He goaded them +on, but they could not move the plough; so he looked at the share +and finding it caught in a ring of gold, cleared away the soil +and saw that it was set centre-most a slab of alabaster, the size +of the nether millstone. He strave at the stone till he pulled it +from its place, when there appeared beneath it a souterrain with +a stair. Presently he descended the flight of steps and came to a +place like a Hammam, with four daïses, the first full of gold, +from floor to roof, the second full of emeralds and pearls and +coral also from ground to ceiling; the third of jacinths and +rubies and turquoises and the fourth of diamonds and all manner +other preciousest stones. At the upper end of the place stood a +coffer of clearest crystal, full of union-gems each the size of a +walnut, and upon the coffer lay a casket of gold, the bigness of +a lemon. When he saw this, he marvelled and rejoiced with joy +exceeding and said to himself, "I wonder what is in this casket?" +So he opened it and found therein a seal-ring of gold, whereon +were graven names and talismans, as they were the tracks of +creeping ants. He rubbed the ring and behold, a voice said, +"Adsum! Here am I, at thy service, O my lord! Ask and it shall be +given unto thee. Wilt thou raise a city or ruin a capital or kill +a king or dig a river-channel or aught of the kind? Whatso thou +seekest, it shall come to pass, by leave of the King of +All-might, Creator of day and night." Ma'aruf asked, "O creature +of my lord, who and what art thou?"; and the other answered, "I +am the slave of this seal-ring standing in the service of him who +possesseth it. Whatsoever he seeketh, that I accomplish for him, +and I have no excuse in neglecting that he biddeth me do; because +I am Sultan over two-and-seventy tribes of the Jinn, each +two-and-seventy thousand in number every one of which thousand +ruleth over a thousand Marids, each Marid over a thousand Ifrits, +each Ifrit over a thousand Satans and each Satan over a thousand +Jinn: and they are all under command of me and may not gainsay +me. As for me, I am spelled to this seal-ring and may not thwart +whoso holdeth it. Lo! thou hast gotten hold of it and I am become +thy slave; so ask what thou wilt, for I hearken to thy word and +obey thy bidding; and if thou have need of me at any time, by +land or by sea rub the signet-ring and thou wilt find me with +thee. But beware of rubbing it twice in succession, or thou wilt +consume me with the fire of the names graven thereon; and thus +wouldst thou lose me and after regret me. Now I have acquainted +thee with my case and--the Peace!"--And Shahrazad perceived the +dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. + + When it was the Nine Hundred and Ninety-sixth Night, + +She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when +the Slave of the Signet-ring acquainted Ma'aruf with his case, +the Merchant asked him, "What is thy name?" and the Jinni +answered, "My name is Abú al-Sa'ádát.[FN#65]" Quoth Ma'aruf, "O +Abú al-Sa'ádát what is this place and who enchanted thee in this +casket?"; and quoth he, "O my lord, this is a treasure called the +Hoard of Shaddád son of Ad, him who the base of ‘Many-columned +Iram laid, the like of which in the lands was never made.[FN#66]' +I was his slave in his lifetime and this is his seal-ring, which +he laid up in his treasure; but it hath fallen to thy lot." +Ma'aruf enquired, "Canst thou transport that which is in this +hoard to the surface of the earth?"; and the Jinni replied, "Yes! +Nothing were easier." Said Ma'aruf, "Bring it forth and leave +naught." So the Jinni signed with his hand to the ground, which +clave asunder, and he sank and was absent a little while. +Presently, there came forth young boys full of grace, and fair of +face bearing golden baskets filled with gold which they emptied +out and going away, returned with more; nor did they cease to +transport the gold and jewels, till ere an hour had sped they +said, "Naught is left in the hoard." Thereupon out came Abú +al-Sa'ádát and said to Ma'aruf, "O my lord, thou seest that we +have brought forth all that was in the hoard." Ma'aruf asked, +"Who be these beautiful boys?" and the Jinni answered, "They are +my sons. This matter merited not that I should muster for it the +Marids, wherefore my sons have done thy desire and are honoured +by such service. So ask what thou wilt beside this." Quoth +Ma'aruf, "Canst thou bring me he-mules and chests and fill the +chests with the treasure and load them on the mules?" Quoth Abú +al-Sa'ádát, "Nothing easier," and cried a great cry; whereupon +his sons presented themselves before him, to the number of eight +hundred, and he said to them, "Let some of you take the semblance +of he-mules and others of muleteers and handsome Mamelukes, the +like of the least of whom is not found with any of the Kings; and +others of you be transmewed to muleteers, and the rest to +menials." So seven hundred of them changed themselves into +bât-mules and other hundred took the shape of slaves. Then Abú +al-Sa'ádát called upon his Marids, who presented themselves +between his hands and he commanded some of them to assume the +aspect of horses saddled with saddles of gold crusted with +jewels. And when Ma'aruf saw them do as he bade he cried, "Where +be the chests?" They brought them before him and he said, "Pack +the gold and the stones, each sort by itself." So they packed +them and loaded three hundred he-mules with them. Then asked +Ma'aruf, "O Abú al-Sa'ádát, canst thou bring me some loads of +costly stuffs?"; and the Jinni answered, "Wilt thou have Egyptian +stuffs or Syrian or Persian or Indian or Greek?" Ma'aruf said, +"Bring me an hundred loads of each kind, on five hundred mules;" +and Abú al-Sa'ádát, "O my lord accord me delay that I may dispose +my Marids for this and send a company of them to each country to +fetch an hundred loads of its stuffs and then take the form of +he-mules and return, carrying the stuffs." Ma'aruf enquired, +"What time dost thou want?"; and Abú al-Sa'ádát replied, "The +time of the blackness of the night, and day shall not dawn ere +thou have all thou desirest." Said Ma'aruf, "I grant thee this +time," and bade them pitch him a pavilion. So they pitched it and +he sat down therein and they brought him a table of food. Then +said Abú al-Sa'ádát to him, "O my lord, tarry thou in this tent +and these my sons shall guard thee: so fear thou nothing; for I +go to muster my Marids and despatch them to do thy desire." So +saying, he departed, leaving Ma'aruf seated in the pavilion, with +the table before him and the Jinni's sons attending upon him, in +the guise of slaves and servants and suite. And while he sat in +this state behold, up came the husband man, with a great +porringer of lentils[FN#67] and a nose-bag full of barley and +seeing the pavilion pitched and the Mamelukes standing, hands +upon breasts, thought that the Sultan was come and had halted on +that stead. So he stood openmouthed and said in himself, "Would I +had killed a couple of chickens and fried them red with clarified +cow-butter for the Sultan!" And he would have turned back to kill +the chickens as a regale for the Sultan; but Ma'aruf saw him and +cried out to him and said to the Mamelukes, "Bring him hither." +So they brought him and his porringer of lentils before Ma'aruf, +who said to him, "What is this?" Said the peasant, "This is thy +dinner and thy horse's fodder! Excuse me, for I thought not that +the Sultan would come hither; and, had I known that, I would have +killed a couple of chickens and entertained him in goodly guise." +Quoth Ma'aruf, "The Sultan is not come. I am his son-in-law and I +was vexed with him. However he hath sent his officers to make his +peace with me, and now I am minded to return to city. But thou +hast made me this guest-meal without knowing me, and I accept it +from thee, lentils though it be, and will not eat save of thy +cheer." Accordingly he bade him set the porringer amiddlemost the +table and ate of it his sufficiency, whilst the Fellah filled his +belly with those rich meats. Then Ma'aruf washed his hands and +gave the Mamelukes leave to eat; so they fell upon the remains of +the meal and ate; and, when the porringer was empty, he filled it +with gold and gave it to the peasant, saying, "Carry this to thy +dwelling and come to me in the city, and I will entreat thee with +honour." Thereupon the peasant took the porringer full of gold +and returned to the village, driving the bulls before him and +deeming himself akin to the King. Meanwhile, they brought Ma'aruf +girls of the Brides of the Treasure,[FN#68] who smote on +instruments of music and danced before him, and he passed that +night in joyance and delight, a night not to be reckoned among +lives. Hardly had dawned the day when there arose a great cloud +of dust which presently lifting, discovered seven hundred mules +laden with stuffs and attended by muleteers and baggage-tenders +and cresset-bearers. With them came Abú al-Sa'ádát, riding on a +she-mule, in the guise of a caravan-leader, and before him was a +travelling-litter, with four corner-terminals[FN#69] of +glittering red gold, set with gems. When Abú al-Sa'ádát came up +to the tent, he dismounted and kissing the earth, said to +Ma'aruf, "O my lord, thy desire hath been done to the uttermost +and in the litter is a treasure-suit which hath not its match +among Kings' raiment: so don it and mount the litter and bid us +do what thou wilt." Quoth Ma'aruf, "O Abú al-Sa'ádát, I wish thee +to go to the city of Ikhtiyan al-Khatan and present thyself to my +father-in-law the King; and go thou not in to him but in the +guise of a mortal courier;" and quoth he, "To hear is to obey." +So Ma'aruf wrote a letter to the Sultan and sealed it and Abú +al-Sa'ádát took it and set out with it; and when he arrived, he +found the King saying, "O Wazir, indeed my heart is concerned for +my son-in-law and I fear lest the Arabs slay him. Would Heaven I +wot whither he was bound, that I might have followed him with the +troops! Would he had told me his destination!" Said the Wazir, +"Allah be merciful to thee for this thy heedlessness! As thy head +liveth, the wight saw that we were awake to him and feared +dishonour and fled, for he is nothing but an impostor, a liar." +And behold, at this moment in came the courier and kissing ground +before the King, wished him permanent glory and prosperity and +length of life. Asked the King, "Who art thou and what is thy +business?" "I am a courier," answered the Jinni, "and thy +son-in-law who is come with the baggage sendeth me to thee with a +letter, and here it is!" So he took the letter and read therein +these words, "After salutations galore to our uncle[FN#70] the +glorious King! Know that I am at hand with the baggage-train: so +come thou forth to meet me with the troops." Cried the King, +"Allah blacken thy brow, O Wazir! How often wilt thou defame my +son-in-law's name and call him liar and impostor? Behold, he is +come with the baggage-train and thou art naught but a traitor." +The Minister hung his head ground-wards in shame and confusion +and replied, "O King of the age, I said not this save because of +the long delay of the baggage and because I feared the loss of +the wealth he hath wasted." The King exclaimed, "O traitor, what +are my riches! Now that his baggage is come he will give me great +plenty in their stead." Then he bade decorate the city and going +in to his daughter, said to her, "Good news for thee! Thy husband +will be here anon with his baggage; for he hath sent me a letter +to that effect and here am I now going forth to meet him." The +Princess Dunyá marvelled at this and said in herself, "This is a +wondrous thing! Was he laughing at me and making mock of me, or +had he a mind to try me, when he told me that he was a pauper? +But Alhamdolillah, Glory to God, for that I failed not of my duty +to him!" On this wise fared it in the palace; but as regards +Merchant Ali, the Cairene, when he saw the decoration of the city +and asked the cause thereof, they said to him, "The baggage-train +of Merchant Ma'aruf, the King's son-in-law, is come." Said he, +"Allah is Almighty! What a calamity is this man![FN#71] He came +to me, fleeing from his wife, and he was a poor man. Whence then +should he get a baggage-train? But haply this is a device which +the King's daughter hath contrived for him, fearing his disgrace, +and Kings are not unable to do anything. May Allah the Most High +veil his fame and not bring him to public shame!"--And Shahrazad +perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. + + When it was the Nine Hundred and Ninety-seventh Night, + +She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when +Merchant Ali asked the cause of the decorations, they told him +the truth of the case; so he blessed Merchant Ma'aruf and cried, +"May Allah Almighty veil his fame and not bring him to public +shame!" And all the merchants rejoiced and were glad for that +they would get their monies. Then the King assembled his troops +and rode forth, whilst Abú al-Sa'ádát returned to Ma'aruf and +acquainted him with the delivering of the letter. Quoth Ma'aruf, +"Bind on the loads;" and when they had done so, he donned the +treasure-suit and mounting the litter became a thousand times +greater and more majestic than the King. Then he set forward; +but, when he had gone half-way, behold, the King met him with the +troops, and seeing him riding in the Takhtrawan and clad in the +dress aforesaid, threw himself upon him and saluted him, and +giving him joy of his safety, greeted him with the greeting of +peace. Then all the Lords of the land saluted him and it was made +manifest that he had spoken the truth and that in him there was +no lie. Presently he entered the city in such state procession as +would have caused the gall-bladder of the lion to burst[FN#72] +for envy and the traders pressed up to him and kissed his hands, +whilst Merchant Ali said to him, "Thou hast played off this trick +and it hath prospered to thy hand, O Shaykh of Impostors! But +thou deservest it and may Allah the Most High increase thee of +His bounty!"; whereupon Ma'aruf laughed. Then he entered the +palace and sitting down on the throne said, "Carry the loads of +gold into the treasury of my uncle the King and bring me the +bales of cloth." So they brought them to him and opened them +before him, bale after bale, till they had unpacked the seven +hundred loads, whereof he chose out the best and said, "Bear +these to Princess Dunyá that she may distribute them among her +slavegirls; and carry her also this coffer of jewels, that she +may divide them among her handmaids and eunuchs." Then he +proceeded to make over to the merchants in whose debt he was +stuffs by way of payment for their arrears, giving him whose due +was a thousand, stuffs worth two thousand or more; after which he +fell to distributing to the poor and needy, whilst the King +looked on with greedy eyes and could not hinder him; nor did he +cease largesse till he had made an end of the seven hundred +loads, when he turned to the troops and proceeded to apportion +amongst them emeralds and rubies and pearls and coral and other +jewels by handsful, without count, till the King said to him, +"Enough of this giving, O my son! There is but little left of the +baggage." But he said, "I have plenty." Then indeed, his good +faith was become manifest and none could give him the lie; and he +had come to reck not of giving, for that the Slave of the +Seal-ring brought him whatsoever he sought. Presently, the +treasurer came in to the King and said, "O King of the age, the +treasury is full indeed and will not hold the rest of the loads. +Where shall we lay that which is left of the gold and jewels?" +And he assigned to him another place. As for the Princess Dunya +when she saw this, her joy redoubled and she marvelled and said +in herself, "Would I wot how came he by all this wealth!" In like +manner the traders rejoiced in that which he had given them and +blessed him; whilst Merchant Ali marvelled and said to himself, +"I wonder how he hath lied and swindled, that he hath gotten him +all these treasures[FN#73]? Had they come from the King's +daughter, he had not wasted them on this wise! But how excellent +is his saying who said:-- + +When the Kings' King giveth, in reverence pause * And venture not + to enquire the cause: +Allah gives His gifts unto whom He will, * So respect and abide + by His Holy Laws!" + +So far concerning him; but as regards the King, he also marvelled +with passing marvel at that which he saw of Ma'aruf's generosity +and open-handedness in the largesse of wealth. Then the Merchant +went in to his wife, who met him, smiling and laughing-lipped and +kissed his hand, saying, "Didst thou mock me or hadst thou a mind +to prove me with thy saying:--I am a poor man and a fugitive from +my wife? Praised be Allah for that I failed not of my duty to +thee! For thou art my beloved and there is none dearer to me than +thou, whether thou be rich or poor. But I would have thee tell me +what didst thou design by these words." Said Ma'aruf, "I wished +to prove thee and see whether thy love were sincere or for the +sake of wealth and the greed of worldly good. But now 'tis become +manifest to me that thine affection is sincere and as thou art a +true woman, so welcome to thee! I know thy worth." Then he went +apart into a place by himself and rubbed the seal-ring, whereupon +Abu al-Sa'adat presented himself and said to him, "Adsum, at thy +service! Ask what thou wilt." Quoth Ma'aruf, "I want a +treasure-suit and treasure-trinkets for my wife, including a +necklace of forty unique jewels." Quoth the Jinni, "To hear is to +obey," and brought him what he sought, whereupon Ma'aruf +dismissed him and carrying the dress and ornaments in to his +wife, laid them before her and said, "Take these and put them on +and welcome!" When she saw this, her wits fled for joy, and she +found among the ornaments a pair of anklets of gold set with +jewels of the handiwork of the magicians, and bracelets and +earrings and a belt[FN#74] such as no money could buy. So she +donned the dress and ornaments and said to Ma'aruf, "O my lord, I +will treasure these up for holidays and festivals." But he +answered, "Wear them always, for I have others in plenty." And +when she put them on and her women beheld her, they rejoiced and +bussed his hands. Then he left them and going apart by himself, +rubbed the seal-ring whereupon its slave appeared and he said to +him, "Bring me an hundred suits of apparel, with their ornaments +of gold." "Hearing and obeying," answered Abu al-Sa'adat and +brought him the hundred suits, each with its ornaments wrapped up +within it. Ma'aruf took them and called aloud to the slave-girls, +who came to him and he gave them each a suit: so they donned them +and became like the black-eyed girls of Paradise, whilst the +Princess Dunya shone amongst them as the moon among the stars. +One of the handmaids told the King of this and he came in to his +daughter and saw her and her women dazzling all who beheld them; +whereat he wondered with passing wonderment. Then he went out and +calling his Wazir, said to him, "O Wazir, such and such things +have happened; what sayst thou now of this affair?" Said he, "O +King of the age, this be no merchant's fashion; for a merchant +keepeth a piece of linen by him for years and selleth it not but +at a profit. How should a merchant have generosity such as this +generosity, and whence should he get the like of these monies and +jewels, of which but a slight matter is found with the Kings? So +how should loads thereof be found with merchants? Needs must +there be a cause for this; but, an thou wilt hearken to me, I +will make the truth of the case manifest to thee." Answered the +King, "O Wazir, I will do thy bidding." Rejoined the Minister, +"Do thou foregather with thy son-in-law and make a show of affect +to him and talk with him and say:--O my son-in-law, I have a mind +to go, I and thou and the Wazir but no more, to a flower-garden +that we may take our pleasure there. When we come to the garden, +we will set on the table wine, and I will ply him therewith and +compel him to drink; for, when he shall have drunken, he will +lose his reason and his judgment will forsake him. Then we will +question him of the truth of his case and he will discover to us +his secrets, for wine is a traitor and Allah-gifted is he who +said:-- + +When we drank the wine, and it crept its way * To the place of + Secrets, I cried, "O stay!" +In my fear lest its influence stint my wits * And my friends spy + matters that hidden lay. + +When he hath told us the truth we shall ken his case and may deal +with him as we will; because I fear for thee the consequences of +this his present fashion: haply he will covet the kingship and +win over the troops by generosity and lavishing money and so +depose thee and take the kingdom from thee." "True," answered the +King.--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say +her permitted say. + + When it was the Nine Hundred and Ninety-eighth Night, + +She resumed, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the +Wazir devised this device the King said to him, "Thou hast spoken +sooth!"; and they passed the night on this agreement. And when +morning morrowed the King went forth and sat in the +guest-chamber, when lo, and behold! the grooms and serving-men +came in to him in dismay. Quoth he, "What hath befallen you?"; +and quoth they, "O King of the age, the Syces curried the horses +and foddered them and the he-mules which brought the baggage; +but, when we arose in the morning, we found that thy son-in-law's +Mamelukes had stolen the horses and mules. We searched the +stables, but found neither horse nor mule; so we entered the +lodging of the Mamelukes and found none there, nor know we how +they fled." The King marvelled at this, unknowing that the horses +and Mamelukes were all Ifrits, the subjects of the Slave of the +Spell, and asked the grooms, "O accursed how could a thousand +beasts and five hundred slaves and servants flee without your +knowledge?" Answered they, "We know not how it happened," and he +cried, "Go, and when your lord cometh forth of the Harim, tell +him the case." So they went out from before the King and sat down +bewildered, till Ma'aruf came out and, seeing them chagrined +enquired of them, "What may be the matter?" They told him all +that had happened and he said, "What is their worth that ye +should be concerned for them? Wend your ways." And he sat +laughing and was neither angry nor grieved concerning the case; +whereupon the King looked in the Wazir's face and said to him, +"What manner of man is this, with whom wealth is of no worth? +Needs must there be a reason for this?" Then they talked with him +awhile and the King said to him, "O my son-in-law, I have a mind +to go, I, thou and the Wazir, to a garden, where we may divert +ourselves." "No harm in that," said Ma'aruf. So they went forth +to a flower-garden, wherein every sort of fruit was of kinds +twain and its waters were flowing and its trees towering and its +birds carolling. There they entered a pavilion, whose sight did +away sorrow from the soul, and sat talking, whilst the Minister +entertained them with rare tales and quoted merry quips and +mirth-provoking sayings and Ma'aruf attentively listened, till +the time of dinner came, when they set on a tray of meats and a +flagon of wine. When they had eaten and washed hands, the Wazir +filled the cup and gave it to the King, who drank it off; then he +filled a second and handed it to Ma'aruf, saying, "Take the cup +of the drink to which Reason boweth neck in reverence." Quoth +Ma'aruf, "What is this, O Wazir?"; and quoth he, "This is the +grizzled[FN#75] virgin and the old maid long kept at home,[FN#76] +the giver of joy to hearts, whereof saith the poet:-- + +The feet of sturdy Miscreants[FN#77] went trampling heavy tread, + * And she hath ta'en a vengeance dire on every Arab's head. +A Káfir youth like fullest moon in darkness hands her round * + Whose eyne are strongest cause of sin by him inspiritèd. + +And Allah-gifted is he who said:-- + +'Tis as if wine and he who bears the bowl, * Rising to show her +charms for man to see,[FN#78] +Were dancing undurn-Sun whose face the moon * Of night adorned +with stars of Gemini. +So subtle is her essence it would seem * Through every limb like +course of soul runs she. + +And how excellent is the saying of the poet:-- + +Slept in mine arms full Moon of brightest blee * Nor did that sun + eclipse in goblet see: +I nighted spying fire whereto bow down * Magians, which bowed + from ewer's lip to me. + +And that of another:-- + +It runs through every joint of them as runs * The surge of health + returning to the sick. + +And yet another:-- + +I marvel at its pressers, how they died * And left us aqua vitae- + -lymph of life! + +And yet goodlier is the saying of Abu Nowas:-- + +Cease then to blame me, for thy blame doth anger bring * And with + the draught that maddened me come med'cining: +A yellow girl[FN#79] whose court cures every carking care; * Did + a stone touch it would with joy and glee upspring: +She riseth in her ewer during darkest night * The house with + brightest, sheeniest light illumining: +And going round of youths to whom the world inclines[FN#80] * + Ne'er, save in whatso way they please, their hearts shall + wring. +From hand of coynted[FN#81] lass begarbed like yarded lad,[FN#82] + * Wencher and Tribe of Lot alike enamouring, +She comes: and say to him who dares claim lore of love * + Something hast learnt but still there's many another thing. + +But best of all is the saying of Ibn al-Mu'tazz[FN#83]:-- + +On the shady woody island[FN#84] His showers Allah deign * Shed + on Convent hight Abdún[FN#85] drop and drip of railing rain: +Oft the breezes of the morning have awakened me therein * When + the Dawn shows her blaze,[FN#86] ere the bird of flight was + fain; +And the voices of the monks that with chants awoke the walls * + Black-frocked shavelings ever wont the cup amorn to + drain.[FN#87] +'Mid the throng how many fair with languour-kohl'd eyes[FN#88] * + And lids enfolding lovely orbs where black on white was + lain, +In secret came to see me by shirt of night disguised * In terror + and in caution a-hurrying amain! +Then I rose and spread my cheek like a carpet on his path * In + homage, and with skirts wiped his trail from off the plain. +But threatening disgrace rose the Crescent in the sky * Like the + paring of a nail yet the light would never wane: +Then happened whatso happened: I disdain to kiss and tell * So + deem of us thy best and with queries never mell. + +And gifted of God is he who saith:-- + +In the morn I am richest of men * And in joy at good news I start + up +For I look on the liquid gold[FN#89] * And I measure it out by + the cup. + +And how goodly is the saying of the poet:-- + +By Allah, this is th' only alchemy * All said of other science + false we see! +Carat of wine on hundredweight of woe * Transmuteth gloomiest + grief to joy and glee. + +And that of another:-- + +The glasses are heavy when empty brought * Till we charge them + all with unmixèd wine. +Then so light are they that to fly they're fain * As bodies + lightened by soul divine. + +And yet another:-- + +Wine-cup and ruby-wine high worship claim; * Dishonour 'twere to + see their honour waste: +Bury me, when I'm dead, by side of vine * Whose veins shall + moisten bones in clay misplaced; +Nor bury me in wold and wild, for I * Dread only after death no + wine to taste."[FN#90] + + +And he ceased not to egg him on to the drink, naming to him such +of the virtues of wine as he thought well and reciting to him +what occurred to him of poetry and pleasantries on the subject, +till Ma'aruf addressed himself to sucking the cup-lips and cared +no longer for aught else. The Wazir ceased not to fill for him +and he to drink and enjoy himself and make merry, till his wits +wandered and he could not distinguish right from wrong. When the +Minister saw that drunkenness had attained in him to utterest and +the bounds transgressed, he said to him, "By Allah, O Merchant +Ma'aruf, I admire whence thou gottest these jewels whose like the +Kings of the Chosroës possess not! In all our lives never saw we +a merchant that had heaped up riches like unto thine or more +generous than thou, for thy doings are the doings of Kings and +not merchants' doings. Wherefore, Allah upon thee, do thou +acquaint me with this, that I may know thy rank and condition." +And he went on to test him with questions and cajole him, till +Ma'aruf, being reft of reason, said to him, "I'm neither merchant +nor King," and told him his whole story from first to last. Then +said the Wazir, "I conjure thee by Allah, O my lord Ma'aruf, show +us the ring, that we may see its make." So, in his drunkenness, +he pulled off the ring and said, "Take it and look upon it." The +Minister took it and turning it over, said, "If I rub it, will +its slave appear?" Replied Ma'aruf, "Yes. Rub it and he will +appear to thee, and do thou divert thyself with the sight of +him." Thereupon the Wazir rubbed the ring and behold forthright +appeared the Jinni and said, "Adsum, at thy service, O my lord! +Ask and it shall be given to thee. Wilt thou ruin a city or raise +a capital or kill a king? Whatso thou seekest, I will do for +thee, sans fail." The Wazir pointed to Ma'aruf and said, "Take up +yonder wretch and cast him down in the most desolate of desert +lands, where he shall find nothing to eat nor drink, so he may +die of hunger and perish miserably, and none know of him." +Accordingly, the Jinni snatched him up and flew with him betwixt +heaven and earth, which when Ma'aruf saw, he made sure of +destruction and wept and said, "O Abu al-Sa'adat, whither goest +thou with me?" Replied the Jinni, "I go to cast thee down in the +Desert Quarter,[FN#91] O ill-bred wight of gross wits. Shall one +have the like of this talisman and give it to the folk to gaze +at? Verily, thou deservest that which hath befallen thee; and but +that I fear Allah, I would let thee fall from a height of a +thousand fathoms, nor shouldst thou reach the earth, till the +winds had torn thee to shreds." Ma'aruf was silent[FN#92] and did +not again bespeak him till he reached the Desert Quarter and +casting him down there, went away and left him in that horrible +place.--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying +her permitted say. + + When it was the Nine Hundred and Ninety-ninth Night, + +She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Slave +of the Seal-ring took up Ma'aruf and cast him down in the Desert +Quarter where he left him and went his ways. So much concerning +him; but returning to the Wazir who was now in possession of the +talisman, he said to the King, "How deemest thou now? Did I not +tell thee that this fellow was a liar, an impostor, but thou +wouldst not credit me?" Replied the King, "Thou wast in the +right, O my Wazir, Allah grant thee weal! But give me the ring, +that I may solace myself with the sight." The Minister looked at +him angrily and spat in his face, saying, "O lack-wits, how shall +I give it to thee and abide thy servant, after I am become thy +master? But I will spare thee no more on life." Then he rubbed +the seal-ring and said to the Slave, "Take up this ill-mannered +churl and cast him down by his son-in-law the swindler-man." So +the Jinni took him up and flew off with him, whereupon quoth the +King to him, "O creature of my Lord, what is my crime?" Abu +al-Sa'adat replied, "That wot I not, but my master hath commanded +me and I cannot cross whoso hath compassed the enchanted ring." +Then he flew on with him, till he came to the Desert Quarter and, +casting him down where he had cast Ma'aruf left him and returned. +The King hearing Ma'aruf weeping, went up to him and acquainted +him with his case; and they sat weeping over that which had +befallen them and found neither meat nor drink. Meanwhile the +Minister, after driving father-in-law and son-in-law from the +country, went forth from the garden and summoning all the troops +held a Divan, and told them what he had done with the King and +Ma'aruf and acquainted them with the affair of the talisman, +adding, "Unless ye make me Sultan over you, I will bid the Slave +of the Seal-ring take you up one and all and cast you down in the +Desert Quarter where you shall die of hunger and thirst." They +replied, "Do us no damage, for we accept thee as Sultan over us +and will not anywise gainsay thy bidding." So they agreed, in +their own despite, to his being Sultan over them, and he bestowed +on them robes of honour, seeking all he had a mind to of Abu +al-Sa'adat, who brought it to him forthwith. Then he sat down on +the throne and the troops did homage to him; and he sent to +Princess Dunya, the King's daughter, saying, "Make thee ready, +for I mean to come in unto thee this night, because I long for +thee with love." When she heard this, she wept, for the case of +her husband and father was grievous to her, and sent to him +saying, "Have patience with me till my period of widowhood[FN#93] +be ended: then draw up thy contract of marriage with me and go in +to me according to law." But he sent back to say to her, "I know +neither period of widowhood nor to delay have I a mood; and I +need not a contract nor know I lawful from unlawful; but needs +must I go in unto thee this night." She answered him saying, "So +be it, then, and welcome to thee!"; but this was a trick on her +part. When the answer reached the Wazir, he rejoiced and his +breast was broadened, for that he was passionately in love with +her. He bade set food before all the folk, saying, "Eat; this is +my bride-feast; for I purpose to go in to the Princess Dunya this +night." Quoth the Shaykh al-Islam, "It is not lawful for thee to +go in unto her till her days of widowhood be ended and thou have +drawn up thy contract of marriage with her." But he answered, "I +know neither days of widowhood nor other period; so multiply not +words on me." The Shaykh al-Islam was silent,[FN#94] fearing his +mischief, and said to the troops, "Verily, this man is a Kafir, a +Miscreant, and hath neither creed nor religious conduct." As soon +as it was evenfall, he went in to her and found her robed in her +richest raiment and decked with her goodliest adornments. When +she saw him, she came to meet him, laughing and said, "A blessed +night! But hadst thou slain my father and my husband, it had been +more to my mind." And he said, "There is no help but I slay +them." Then she made him sit down and began to jest with him and +make show of love caressing him and smiling in his face so that +his reason fled; but she cajoled him with her coaxing and cunning +only that she might get possession of the ring and change his joy +into calamity on the mother of his forehead:[FN#95] nor did she +deal thus with him but after the rede of him who said[FN#96]:-- + +I attained by my wits * What no sword had obtained, +And return wi' the spoils * Whose sweet pluckings I gained. + +When he saw her caress him and smile upon him, desire surged up +in him and he besought her of carnal knowledge; but, when he +approached her, she drew away from him and burst into tears, +saying, "O my lord, seest thou not the man looking at us? I +conjure thee by Allah, screen me from his eyes! How canst thou +know me what while he looketh on us?" When he heard this, he was +angry and asked, "Where is the man?"; and answered she, "There he +is, in the bezel of the ring! putting out his head and staring at +us." He thought that the Jinni was looking at them and said +laughing, "Fear not; this is the Slave of the Seal-ring, and he +is subject to me." Quoth she, "I am afraid of Ifrits; pull it off +and throw it afar from me." So he plucked it off and laying it on +the cushion, drew near to her, but she dealt him a kick, her foot +striking him full in the stomach[FN#97], and he fell over on his +back senseless; whereupon she cried out to her attendants, who +came to her in haste, and said to them, "Seize him!" So forty +slavegirls laid hold on him, whilst she hurriedly snatched up the +ring from the cushion and rubbed it; whereupon Abu al-Sa'adat +presented himself, saying, "Adsum, at thy service O my mistress." +Cried she, "Take up yonder Infidel and clap him in jail and +shackle him heavily." So he took him and throwing him into the +Prison of Wrath[FN#98] returned and reported, "I have laid him in +limbo." Quoth she, "Whither wentest thou with my father and my +husband?"; and quoth he, "I cast them down in the Desert +Quarter." Then cried she, "I command thee to fetch them to me +forthwith." He replied, "I hear and I obey," and taking flight at +once, stayed not till he reached the Desert Quarter, where he +lighted down upon them and found them sitting weeping and +complaining each to other. Quoth he, "Fear not, for relief is +come to you"; and he told them what the Wazir had done, adding, +"Indeed I imprisoned him with my own hands in obedience to her, +and she hath bidden me bear you back." And they rejoiced in his +news. Then he took them both up and flew home with them; nor was +it more than an hour before he brought them in to Princess Dunya, +who rose and saluted sire and spouse. Then she made them sit down +and brought them food and sweetmeats, and they passed the rest of +the night with her. On the next day she clad them in rich +clothing and said to the King, "O my papa, sit thou upon thy +throne and be King as before and make my husband thy Wazir of the +Right and tell thy troops that which hath happened. Then send for +the Minister out of prison and do him die, and after burn him, +for that he is a Miscreant, and would have gone in unto me in the +way of lewdness, without the rites of wedlock and he hath +testified against himself that he is an Infidel and believeth in +no religion. And do tenderly by thy son-in-law, whom thou makest +thy Wazir of the Right." He replied, "Hearing and obeying, O my +daughter. But do thou give me the ring or give it to thy +husband." Quoth she, "It behoveth not that either thou or he have +the ring. I will keep the ring myself, and belike I shall be more +careful of it than you. Whatso ye wish seek it of me and I will +demand it for you of the Slave of the Seal-ring. So fear no harm +so long as I live and after my death, do what ye twain will with +the ring." Quoth the King, "This is the right rede, O my +daughter," and taking his son-in-law went forth to the Divan. Now +the troops had passed the night in sore chagrin for Princess +Dunya and that which the Wazir had done with her, in going in to +her after the way of lewdness, without marriage-rites, and for +his ill-usage of the King and Ma'aruf, and they feared lest the +law of Al-Islam be dishonoured, because it was manifest to them +that he was a Kafir. So they assembled in the Divan and fell to +reproaching the Shaykh al-Islam, saying, "Why didst thou not +forbid him from going in to the Princess in the way of lewdness?" +Said he, "O folk, the man is a Miscreant and hath gotten +possession of the ring and I and you may not prevail against him. +But Almighty Allah will requite him his deed, and be ye silent, +lest he slay you." And as the host was thus engaged in talk, +behold the King and Ma'aruf entered the Divan.--And Shahrazad +perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. + + When it was the Thousandth Night, + +She continued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when +the troops sorely chagrined sat in the Divan talking over the +ill-deeds done by the Wazir to their Sovran, his son-in-law and +his daughter, behold, the King and Ma'aruf entered. Then the King +bade decorate the city and sent to fetch the Wazir from the place +of duresse. So they brought him, and as he passed by the troops, +they cursed him and abused him and menaced him, till he came to +the King, who commanded to do him dead by the vilest of deaths. +Accordingly, they slew him and after burned his body, and he went +to Hell after the foulest of plights; and right well quoth one of +him:-- + +The Compassionate show no ruth to the tomb where his bones shall + lie * And Munkar and eke Nakír[FN#99] ne'er cease to abide + thereby! + +The King made Ma'aruf his Wazir of the Right and the times were +pleasant to them and their joys were untroubled. They abode thus +five years till, in the sixth year, the King died and Princess +Dunya made Ma'aruf Sultan in her father's stead, but she gave him +not the seal-ring. During this time she had conceived by him and +borne him a boy of passing loveliness, excelling in beauty and +perfection, who ceased not to be reared in the laps of nurses +till he reached the age of five, when his mother fell sick of a +deadly sickness and calling her husband to her, said to him, "I +am ill." Quoth he, "Allah preserve thee, O dearling of my heart!" +But quoth she, "Haply I shall die and thou needest not that I +commend to thy care thy son: wherefore I charge thee but be +careful of the ring, for thine own sake and for the sake of this +thy boy." And he answered, "No harm shall befal him whom Allah +preserveth!" Then she pulled off the ring and gave it to him, and +on the morrow she was admitted to the mercy of Allah the Most +High,[FN#100] whilst Ma'aruf abode in possession of the kingship +and applied himself to the business of governing. Now it chanced +that one day, as he shook the handkerchief[FN#101] and the troops +withdrew to their places that he betook himself to the +sitting-chamber, where he sat till the day departed and the night +advanced with murks bedight. Then came in to him his +cup-companions of the notables according to their custom, and sat +with him by way of solace and diversion, till midnight, when they +craved permission to withdraw. He gave them leave and they +retired to their houses; after which there came in to him a +slave-girl affected to the service of his bed, who spread him the +mattress and doffing his apparel, clad him in his sleeping-gown. +Then he lay down and she kneaded his feet, till sleep overpowered +him; whereupon she withdrew to her own chamber and slept. But +suddenly he felt something beside him in the bed and awaking +started up in alarm and cried, "I seek refuge with Allah from +Satan the stoned!" Then he opened his eyes and seeing by his side +a woman foul of favour, said to her, "Who art thou?" Said she, +"Fear not, I am thy wife Fatimah al-Urrah." Whereupon he looked +in her face and knew her by her loathly form and the length of +her dog-teeth: so he asked her, "Whence camest thou in to me and +who brought thee to this country?" "In what country art thou at +this present?" "In the city of Ikhtiyan al-Khatan. But thou, when +didst thou leave Cairo?" "But now." "How can that be?" "Know," +said she, "that, when I fell out with thee and Satan prompted me +to do thee a damage, I complained of thee to the magistrates, who +sought for thee and the Kazis enquired of thee, but found thee +not. When two days were past, repentance gat hold upon me and I +knew that the fault was with me; but penitence availed me not, +and I abode for some days weeping for thy loss, till what was in +my hand failed and I was obliged to beg my bread. So I fell to +begging of all, from the courted rich to the contemned poor, and +since thou leftest me, I have eaten of the bitterness of beggary +and have been in the sorriest of conditions. Every night I sat +beweeping our separation and that which I suffered, since thy +departure, of humiliation and ignominy, of abjection and misery." +And she went on to tell him what had befallen her, whilst he +stared at her in amazement, till she said, "Yesterday, I went +about begging all day but none gave me aught; and as often as I +accosted any one and craved of him a crust of bread, he reviled +me and gave me naught. When night came, I went to bed supperless, +and hunger burned me and sore on me was that which I suffered: +and I sat weeping when, behold, one appeared to me and said, O +woman why weepest thou? Said I, erst I had a husband who used to +provide for me and fulfil my wishes; but he is lost to me and I +know not whither he went and have been in sore straits since he +left me. Asked he, What is thy husband's name? and I answered, +His name is Ma'aruf. Quoth he, I ken him. Know that thy husband +is now Sultan in a certain city, and if thou wilt, I will carry +thee to him. Cried I, I am under thy protection: of thy bounty +bring me to him! So he took me up and flew with me between heaven +and earth, till he brought me to this pavilion and said to me:-- +Enter yonder chamber, and thou shalt see thy husband asleep on +the couch. Accordingly I entered and found thee in this state of +lordship. Indeed I had not thought thou wouldst forsake me, who +am thy mate, and praised be Allah who hath united thee with me!" +Quoth Ma'aruf, "Did I forsake thee or thou me? Thou complainedst +of me from Kazi to Kazi and endedst by denouncing me to the High +Court and bringing down on me Abú Tabak from the Citadel: so I +fled in mine own despite." And he went on to tell her all that +had befallen him and how he was become Sultan and had married the +King's daughter and how his beloved Dunya had died, leaving him a +son who was then seven years old. She rejoined, "That which +happened was fore-ordained of Allah; but I repent me and I place +myself under thy protection beseeching thee not to abandon me, +but suffer me eat bread, with thee by way of an alms." And she +ceased not to humble herself to him and to supplicate him till +his heart relented towards her and he said, "Repent from mischief +and abide with me, and naught shall betide thee save what shall +pleasure thee: but, an thou work any wickedness, I will slay thee +nor fear any one. And fancy not that thou canst complain of me to +the High Court and that Abu Tabak will come down on me from the +Citadel; for I am become Sultan and the folk dread me: but I fear +none save Allah Almighty, because I have a talismanic ring which +when I rub, the Slave of the Signet appeareth to me. His name is +Abu al-Sa'adat, and whatsoever I demand of him he bringeth to me. +So, an thou desire to return to thine own country, I will give +thee what shall suffice thee all thy life long and will send thee +thither speedily; but, an thou desire to abide with me, I will +clear for thee a palace and furnish it with the choicest of silks +and appoint thee twenty slave-girls to serve thee and provide +thee with dainty dishes and sumptuous suits, and thou shalt be a +Queen and live in all delight till thou die or I die. What sayest +thou of this?" "I wish to abide with thee," she answered and +kissed his hand and vowed repentance from frowardness. +Accordingly he set apart a palace for her sole use and gave her +slave-girls and eunuchs, and she became a Queen. The young Prince +used to visit her as he visited his sire; but she hated him for +that he was not her son; and when the boy saw that she looked on +him with the eye of aversion and anger, he shunned her and took a +dislike to her. As for Ma'aruf, he occupied himself with the love +of fair handmaidens and bethought him not of his wife Fatimah the +Dung, for that she was grown a grizzled old fright, foul-favoured +to the sight, a bald-headed blight, loathlier than the snake +speckled black and white; the more that she had beyond measure +evil entreated him aforetime; and as saith the adage, "Ill-usage +the root of desire disparts and sows hate in the soil of hearts;" +and God-gifted is he who saith:-- + +Beware of losing hearts of men by thine injurious deed; * For + when Aversion takes his place none may dear Love restore: +Hearts, when affection flies from them, are likest unto glass * + Which broken, cannot whole be made,--'tis breached for + evermore. + +And indeed Ma'aruf had not given her shelter by reason of any +praiseworthy quality in her, but he dealt with her thus +generously only of desire for the approval of Allah Almighty.-- +Here Dunyazad interrupted her sister Shahrazad, saying, "How +winsome are these words of thine which win hold of the heart more +forcibly than enchanters' eyne; and how beautiful are these +wondrous books thou hast cited and the marvellous and singular +tales thou hast recited!" Quoth Shahrazad, "And where is all this +compared with what I shall relate to thee on the coming night, an +I live and the King deign spare my days?" So when morning +morrowed and the day brake in its sheen and shone, the King arose +from his couch with breast broadened and in high expectation for +the rest of the tale and saying, "By Allah, I will not slay her +till I hear the last of her story;" repaired to his Durbár while +the Wazir, as was his wont, presented himself at the Palace, +shroud under arm. Shahriyar tarried abroad all that day, bidding +and forbidding between man and man; after which he returned to +his Harim and, according to his custom went in to his wife +Shahrazad.[FN#102] + + When it was the Thousand and First Night, + +Dunyazad said to her sister, "Do thou finish for us the History +of Ma'aruf!" She replied, "With love and goodly gree, an my lord +deign permit me recount it." Quoth the King, "I permit thee; for +that I am fain of hearing it." So she said:--It hath reached me, +O auspicious King, that Ma'aruf would have naught to do with his +wife by way of conjugal duty. Now when she saw that he held aloof +from her bed and occupied himself with other women, she hated him +and jealousy gat the mastery of her and Iblis prompted her to +take the seal-ring from him and slay him and make herself Queen +in his stead. So she went forth one night from her pavilion, +intending for that in which was her husband King Ma'aruf; and it +chanced by decree of the Decreer and His written destiny, that +Ma'aruf lay that night with one of his concubines; a damsel +endowed with beauty and loveliness, symmetry and a stature all +grace. And it was his wont, of the excellence of his piety, that, +when he was minded to have to lie with a woman, he would doff the +enchanted seal-ring from his finger, in reverence to the Holy +Names graven thereon, and lay it on the Pillow, nor would he don +it again till he had purified himself by the Ghusl-ablution. +Moreover, when he had lain with a woman, he was used to order her +go forth from him before daybreak, of his fear for the seal-ring; +and when he went to the Hammam he locked the door of the pavilion +till his return, when he put on the ring, and after this, all +were free to enter according to custom. His wife Fatimah the Dung +knew of all this and went not forth from her place till she had +certified herself of the case. So she sallied out, when the night +was dark, purposing to go in to him, whilst he was drowned in +sleep, and steal the ring, unseen of him. Now it chanced at this +time that the King's son had gone out, without light, to the +Chapel of Ease for an occasion, and sat down over the marble +slab[FN#103] of the jakes in the dark, leaving the door open. +Presently, he saw Fatimah come forth of her pavilion and make +stealthily for that of his father and said in himself, "What +aileth this witch to leave her lodging in the dead of the night +and make for my father's pavilion? Needs must there be some +reason for this:" so he went out after her and followed in her +steps unseen of her. Now he had a short sword of watered steel, +which he held so dear that he went not to his father's Divan, +except he were girt therewith; and his father used to laugh at +him and exclaim, "Mahallah![FN#104] This is a mighty fine sword +of thine, O my son! But thou hast not gone down with it to battle +nor cut off a head therewith." Whereupon the boy would reply, "I +will not fail to cut off with it some head which +deserveth[FN#105] cutting." And Ma'aruf would laugh at his words. +Now when treading in her track, he drew the sword from its sheath +and he followed her till she came to his father's pavilion and +entered, whilst he stood and watched her from the door. He saw +her searching about and heard her say to herself, "Where hath he +laid the seal-ring?"; whereby he knew that she was looking for +the ring and he waited till she found it and said, "Here it is." +Then she picked it up and turned to go out; but he hid behind the +door. As she came forth, she looked at the ring and turned it +about in her grasp. But when she was about to rub it, he raised +his hand with the sword and smote her on the neck; and she cried +a single cry and fell down dead. With this Ma'aruf awoke and +seeing his wife strown on the ground, with her blood flowing, and +his son standing with the drawn sword in his hand, said to him, +"What is this, O my son?" He replied, "O my father, how often +hast thou said to me, Thou hast a mighty fine sword; but thou +hast not gone down with it to battle nor cut off a head. And I +have answered thee, saying, I will not fail to cut off with it a +head which deserveth cutting. And now, behold, I have therewith +cut off for thee a head well worth the cutting!" And he told him +what had passed. Ma'aruf sought for the seal-ring, but found it +not; so he searched the dead woman's body till he saw her hand +closed upon it; whereupon he took it from her grasp and said to +the boy, "Thou art indeed my very son, without doubt or dispute; +Allah ease thee in this world and the next, even as thou hast +eased me of this vile woman! Her attempt led only to her own +destruction, and Allah-gifted is he who said:-- + +When forwards Allah's aid a man's intent, * His wish in every + case shall find consent: +But an that aid of Allah be refused, * His first attempt shall do + him damagement." + +Then King Ma'aruf called aloud to some of his attendants, who +came in haste, and he told them what his wife Fatimah the Dung +had done and bade them to take her and lay her in a place till +the morning. They did his bidding, and next day he gave her in +charge to a number of eunuchs, who washed her and shrouded her +and made her a tomb[FN#106] and buried her. Thus her coming from +Cairo was but to her grave, and Allah-gifted is he who +said[FN#107]:-- + +We trod the steps appointed for us: and he whose steps are + appointed must tread them. +He whose death is decreed to take place in our land shall not die + in any land but that. + +And how excellent is the saying of the poet:-- + +I wot not, whenas to a land I fare, * Good luck pursuing, what my + lot shall be. +Whether the fortune I perforce pursue * Or the misfortune which + pursueth me. + +After this, King Ma'aruf sent for the husbandman, whose guest he +had been, when he was a fugitive, and made him his Wazir of the +Right and his Chief Counsellor.[FN#108] Then, learning that he +had a daughter of passing beauty and loveliness, of qualities +nature-ennobled at birth and exalted of worth, he took her to +wife; and in due time he married his son. So they abode awhile in +all solace of life and its delight and their days were serene and +their joys untroubled, till there came to them the Destroyer of +delights and the Sunderer of societies, the Depopulator of +populous places and the Orphaner of sons and daughters. And glory +be to the Living who dieth not and in whose hand are the Keys of +the Seen and the Unseen!" + + + + + Conclusion. + + + +Now, during this time, Shahrazad had borne the King three boy +children: so, when she had made an end of the story of Ma'aruf, +she rose to her feet and kissing ground before him, said, "O King +of the time and unique one[FN#109] of the age and the tide, I am +thine handmaid and these thousand nights and a night have I +entertained thee with stories of folk gone before and admonitory +instances of the men of yore. May I then make bold to crave a +boon of Thy Highness?" He replied, "Ask, O Shahrazad, and it +shall be granted to thee.[FN#110]" Whereupon she cried out to the +nurses and the eunuchs, saying, "Bring me my children." So they +brought them to her in haste, and they were three boy children, +one walking, one crawling and one sucking. She took them and +setting them before the King, again kissed the ground and said, +"O King of the age, these are thy children and I crave that thou +release me from the doom of death, as a dole to these infants; +for, an thou kill me, they will become motherless and will find +none among women to rear them as they should be reared." When the +King heard this, he wept and straining the boys to his bosom, +said, "By Allah, O Shahrazad, I pardoned thee before the coming +of these children, for that I found thee chaste, pure, ingenuous +and pious! Allah bless thee and thy father and thy mother and thy +root and thy branch! I take the Almighty to witness against me +that I exempt thee from aught that can harm thee." So she kissed +his hands and feet and rejoiced with exceeding joy, saying, The +Lord make thy life long and increase thee in dignity and +majesty[FN#111]!"; presently adding, "Thou marvelledst at that +which befel thee on the part of women; yet there betided the +Kings of the Chosroës before thee greater mishaps and more +grievous than that which hath befallen thee, and indeed I have +set forth unto thee that which happened to Caliphs and Kings and +others with their women, but the relation is longsome and +hearkening groweth tedious, and in this is all sufficient warning +for the man of wits and admonishment for the wise." Then she +ceased to speak, and when King Shahriyar heard her speech and +profited by that which she said, he summoned up his reasoning +powers and cleansed his heart and caused his understanding revert +and turned to Allah Almighty and said to himself, "Since there +befel the Kings of the Chosroës more than that which hath +befallen me, never, whilst I live, shall I cease to blame myself +for the past. As for this Shahrazad, her like is not found in the +lands; so praise be to Him who appointed her a means for +delivering His creatures from oppression and slaughter!" Then he +arose from his séance and kissed her head, whereat she rejoiced, +she and her sister Dunyazad, with exceeding joy. When the morning +morrowed, the King went forth and sitting down on the throne of +the Kingship, summoned the Lords of his land; whereupon the +Chamberlains and Nabobs and Captains of the host went in to him +and kissed ground before him. He distinguished the Wazir, +Shahrazad's sire, with special favour and bestowed on him a +costly and splendid robe of honour and entreated him with the +utmost kindness, and said to him, "Allah protect thee for that +thou gavest me to wife thy noble daughter, who hath been the +means of my repentance from slaying the daughters of folk. Indeed +I have found her pure and pious, chaste and ingenuous, and Allah +hath vouchsafed me by her three boy children; wherefore praised +be He for his passing favour." Then he bestowed robes of honour +upon his Wazirs, and Emirs and Chief Officers and he set forth to +them briefly that which had betided him with Shahrazad and how he +had turned from his former ways and repented him of what he had +done and purposed to take the Wazir's daughter, Shahrazad, to +wife and let draw up the marriage-contract with her. When those +who were present heard this, they kissed the ground before him +and blessed him and his betrothed[FN#112] Shahrazad, and the +Wazir thanked her. Then Shahriyar made an end of his sitting in +all weal, whereupon the folk dispersed to their dwelling-places +and the news was bruited abroad that the King purposed to marry +the Wazir's daughter, Shahrazad. Then he proceeded to make ready +the wedding gear, and presently he sent after his brother, King +Shah Zaman, who came, and King Shahriyar went forth to meet him +with the troops. Furthermore, they decorated the city after the +goodliest fashion and diffused scents from censers and burnt +aloes-wood and other perfumes in all the markets and +thoroughfares and rubbed themselves with saffron,[FN#113] what +while the drums beat and the flutes and pipes sounded and mimes +and mountebanks played and plied their arts and the King lavished +on them gifts and largesse; and in very deed it was a notable +day. When they came to the palace, King Shahriyar commanded to +spread the tables with beasts roasted whole and sweetmeats and +all manner of viands and bade the crier cry to the folk that they +should come up to the Divan and eat and drink and that this +should be a means of reconciliation between him and them. So, +high and low, great and small came up unto him and they abode on +that wise, eating and drinking, seven days with their nights. +Then the King shut himself up with his brother and related to him +that which had betided him with the Wazir's daughter, Shahrazad, +during the past three years and told him what he had heard from +her of proverbs and parables, chronicles and pleasantries, quips +and jests, stories and anecdotes, dialogues and histories and +elegies and other verses; whereat King Shah Zaman marvelled with +the uttermost marvel and said, "Fain would I take her younger +sister to wife, so we may be two brothers-german to two +sisters-german, and they on like wise be sisters to us; for that +the calamity which befel me was the cause of our discovering that +which befel thee and all this time of three years past I have +taken no delight in woman, save that I lie each night with a +damsel of my kingdom, and every morning I do her to death; but +now I desire to marry thy wife's sister Dunyazad." When King +Shahriyar heard his brother's words, he rejoiced with joy +exceeding and arising forthright, went in to his wife Shahrazad +and acquainted her with that which his brother purposed, namely +that he sought her sister Dunyazad in wedlock; whereupon she +answered, "O King of the age, we seek of him one condition, to +wit, that he take up his abode with us, for that I cannot brook +to be parted from my sister an hour, because we were brought up +together and may not endure separation each from other.[FN#114] +If he accept this pact, she is his handmaid." King Shahriyar +returned to his brother and acquainted him with that which +Shahrazad had said; and he replied, "Indeed, this is what was in +my mind, for that I desire nevermore to be parted from thee one +hour. As for the kingdom, Allah the Most High shall send to it +whomso He chooseth, for that I have no longer a desire for the +kingship." When King Shahriyar heard his brother's words, he +rejoiced exceedingly and said, "Verily, this is what I wished, O +my brother. So Alhamdolillah--Praised be Allah--who hath brought +about union between us." Then he sent after the Kazis and Olema, +Captains and Notables, and they married the two brothers to the +two sisters. The contracts were written out and the two Kings +bestowed robes of honour of silk and satin on those who were +present, whilst the city was decorated and the rejoicings were +renewed. The King commanded each Emir and Wazir and Chamberlain +and Nabob to decorate his palace and the folk of the city were +gladdened by the presage of happiness and contentment. King +Shahriyar also bade slaughter sheep and set up kitchens and made +bride-feasts and fed all comers, high and low; and he gave alms +to the poor and needy and extended his bounty to great and small. +Then the eunuchs went forth, that they might perfume the Hammam +for the brides; so they scented it with rosewater and +willow-flower-water and pods of musk and fumigated it with +Kákilí[FN#115] eagle-wood and ambergris. Then Shahrazad entered, +she and her sister Dunyazad, and they cleansed their heads and +clipped their hair. When they came forth of the Hammam-bath, they +donned raiment and ornaments; such as men were wont prepare for +the Kings of the Chosroës; and among Shahrazad's apparel was a +dress purfled with red gold and wrought with counterfeit +presentments of birds and beasts. And the two sisters encircled +their necks with necklaces of jewels of price, in the like +whereof Iskander[FN#116] rejoiced not, for therein were great +jewels such as amazed the wit and dazzled the eye; and the +imagination was bewildered at their charms, for indeed each of +them was brighter than the sun and the moon. Before them they +lighted brilliant flambeaux of wax in candelabra of gold, but +their faces outshone the flambeaux, for that they had eyes +sharper than unsheathed swords and the lashes of their eyelids +bewitched all hearts. Their cheeks were rosy red and their necks +and shapes gracefully swayed and their eyes wantoned like the +gazelle's; and the slave-girls came to meet them with instruments +of music. Then the two Kings entered the Hammam-bath, and when +they came forth, they sat down on a couch set with pearls and +gems, whereupon the two sisters came up to them and stood between +their hands, as they were moons, bending and leaning from side to +side in their beauty and loveliness. Presently they brought +forward Shahrazad and displayed her, for the first dress, in a +red suit; whereupon King Shahriyar rose to look upon her and the +wits of all present, men and women, were bewitched for that she +was even as saith of her one of her describers[FN#117]:-- + +A sun on wand in knoll of sand she showed, * Clad in her + cramoisy-hued chemisette: +Of her lips' honey-dew she gave me drink * And with her rosy + cheeks quencht fire she set. + +Then they attired Dunyazad in a dress of blue brocade and she +became as she were the full moon when it shineth forth. So they +displayed her in this, for the first dress, before King Shah +Zaman, who rejoiced in her and well-nigh swooned away for +love-longing and amorous desire; yea, he was distraught with +passion for her, whenas he saw her, because she was as saith of +her one of her describers in these couplets[FN#118]:-- + +She comes apparelled in an azure vest * Ultramarine as skies are + deckt and dight: +I view'd th' unparallel'd sight, which showed my eyes * A + Summer-moon upon a Winter-night. + +Then they returned to Shahrazad and displayed her in the second +dress, a suit of surpassing goodliness, and veiled her face with +her hair like a chin-veil.[FN#119] Moreover, they let down her +side-locks and she was even as saith of her one of her describers +in these couplets:-- + +O hail to him whose locks his cheeks o'ershade, * Who slew my + life by cruel hard despight: +Said I, "Hast veiled the Morn in Night?" He said, * "Nay I but + veil Moon in hue of Night." + +Then they displayed Dunyazad in a second and a third and a fourth +dress and she paced forward like the rising sun, and swayed to +and fro in the insolence of beauty; and she was even as saith the +poet of her in these couplets[FN#120]:-- + +The sun of beauty she to all appears * And, lovely coy she mocks + all loveliness: +And when he fronts her favour and her smile * A-morn, the sun of + day in clouds must dress. + +Then they displayed Shahrazad in the third dress and the fourth +and the fifth and she became as she were a Bán-branch snell or a +thirsting gazelle, lovely of face and perfect in attributes of +grace, even as saith of her one in these couplets[FN#121]:-- + +She comes like fullest moon on happy night. * Taper of waist with + shape of magic might: +She hath an eye whose glances quell mankind, * And ruby on her + cheeks reflects his light: +Enveils her hips the blackness of her hair; * Beware of curls + that bite with viper-bite! +Her sides are silken-soft, that while the heart * Mere rock + behind that surface 'scapes our sight: +From the fringed curtains of her eyne she shoots * Shafts that at + furthest range on mark alight. + +Then they returned to Dunyazad and displayed her in the fifth +dress and in the sixth, which was green, when she surpassed with +her loveliness the fair of the four quarters of the world and +outvied, with the brightness of her countenance, the full moon at +rising tide; for she was even as saith of her the poet in these +couplets[FN#122]:-- + +A damsel 'twas the tirer's art had decked with snare and sleight, + * And robed with rays as though the sun from her had + borrowed light: +She came before us wondrous clad in chemisette of green, * As + veilèd by his leafy screen Pomegranate hides from sight: +And when he said, "How callest thou the fashion of thy dress?" * + She answered us in pleasant way with double meaning dight, +We call this garment crève-coeur; and rightly is it hight, * For + many a heart wi' this we brake and harried many a sprite." + +Then they displayed Shahrazad in the sixth and seventh dresses +and clad her in youth's clothing, whereupon she came forward +swaying from side to side and coquettishly moving and indeed she +ravished wits and hearts and ensorcelled all eyes with her +glances. She shook her sides and swayed her haunches, then put +her hair on sword-hilt and went up to King Shahriyar, who +embraced her as hospitable host embraceth guest, and threatened +her in her ear with the taking of the sword; and she was even as +saith of her the poet in these words:-- + +Were not the Murk[FN#123] of gender male, * Than feminines + surpassing fair, +Tirewomen they had grudged the bride, * Who made her beard and + whiskers wear! + +Thus also they did with her sister Dunyazad, and when they had +made an end of the display the King bestowed robes of honour on +all who were present and sent the brides to their own apartments. +Then Shahrazad went in to King Shahriyar and Dunyazad to King +Shah Zaman and each of them solaced himself with the company of +his beloved consort and the hearts of the folk were comforted. +When morning morrowed, the Wazir came in to the two Kings and +kissed ground before them; wherefore they thanked him and were +large of bounty to him. Presently they went forth and sat down +upon couches of Kingship, whilst all the Wazirs and Emirs and +Grandees and Lords of the land presented themselves and kissed +ground. King Shahriyar ordered them dresses of honour and +largesse and they prayed for the permanence and prosperity of the +King and his brother. Then the two Sovrans appointed their +sire-in-law the Wazir to be Viceroy in Samarcand and assigned him +five of the Chief Emirs to accompany him, charging them attend +him and do him service. The Minister kissed the ground and prayed +that they might be vouchsafed length of life: then he went in to +his daughters, whilst the Eunuchs and Ushers walked before him, +and saluted them and farewelled them. They kissed his hands and +gave him joy of the Kingship and bestowed on him immense +treasures; after which he took leave of them and setting out, +fared days and nights, till he came near Samarcand, where the +townspeople met him at a distance of three marches and rejoiced +in him with exceeding joy. So he entered the city and they +decorated the houses and it was a notable day. He sat down on the +throne of his kingship and the Wazirs did him homage and the +Grandees and Emirs of Samarcand and all prayed that he might be +vouchsafed justice and victory and length of continuance. So he +bestowed on them robes of honour and entreated them with +distinction and they made him Sultan over them. As soon as his +father-in-law had departed for Samarcand, King Shahriyar summoned +the Grandees of his realm and made them a stupendous banquet of +all manner of delicious meats and exquisite sweetmeats. He also +bestowed on them robes of honour and guerdoned them and divided +the kingdoms between himself and his brother in their presence, +whereat the folk rejoiced. Then the two Kings abode, each ruling +a day in turn, and they were ever in harmony each with other +while on similar wise their wives continued in the love of Allah +Almighty and in thanksgiving to Him; and the peoples and the +provinces were at peace and the preachers prayed for them from +the pulpits, and their report was bruited abroad and the +travellers bore tidings of them to all lands. In due time King +Shahriyar summoned chroniclers and copyists and bade them write +all that had betided him with his wife, first and last; so they +wrote this and named it "The Stories of the Thousand Nights and A +Night." The book came to thirty volumes and these the King laid +up in his treasury. And the two brothers abode with their wives +in all pleasance and solace of life and its delights, for that +indeed Allah the Most High had changed their annoy into joy; and +on this wise they continued till there took them the Destroyer of +delights and the Severer of societies, the Desolator of +dwelling-places and Garnerer of grave-yards, and they were +translated to the ruth of Almighty Allah; their houses fell waste +and their palaces lay in ruins[FN#124] and the Kings inherited +their riches. Then there reigned after them a wise ruler, who was +just, keen-witted and accomplished and loved tales and legends, +especially those which chronicle the doings of Sovrans and +Sultans, and he found in the treasury these marvellous stories +and wondrous histories, contained in the thirty volumes +aforesaid. So he read in them a first book and a second and a +third and so on to the last of them, and each book astounded and +delighted him more than that which preceded it, till he came to +the end of them. Then he admired whatso he had read therein of +description and discourse and rare traits and anecdotes and moral +instances and reminiscences and bade the folk copy them and +dispread them over all lands and climes; wherefore their report +was bruited abroad and the people named them "The marvels and +wonders of the Thousand Nights and A Night." This is all that +hath come down to us of the origin of this book, and Allah is +All-knowing.[FN#125] So Glory be to Him whom the shifts of Time +waste not away, nor doth aught of chance or change affect His +sway: whom one case diverteth not from other case and Who is sole +in the attributes of perfect grace. And prayer and peace be upon +the Lord's Pontiff and Chosen One among His creatures, our lord +MOHAMMED the Prince of mankind through whom we supplicate Him for +a goodly and a godly + +FINIS. + + + + + + + Terminal Essay + + + + Preliminary + + + +The reader who has reached this terminal stage will hardly require +my assurance that he has seen the mediaeval Arab at his best and, +perhaps, at his worst. In glancing over the myriad pictures of this +panorama, those who can discern the soul of goodness in things evil +will note the true nobility of the Moslem's mind in the Moyen Age, +and the cleanliness of his life from cradle to grave. As a child he +is devoted to his parents, fond of his comrades and respectful to +his "pastors and masters," even schoolmasters. As a lad he prepares +for manhood with a will and this training occupies him throughout +youthtide: he is a gentleman in manners without awkwardness, vulgar +astonishment or mauvaise-honte. As a man he is high-spirited and +energetic, always ready to fight for his Sultan, his country and, +especially, his Faith: courteous and affable, rarely failing in +temperance of mind and self-respect, self-control and self-command: +hospitable to the stranger, attached to his fellow citizens, +submissive to superiors and kindly to inferiors--if such classes +exist: Eastern despotisms have arrived nearer the idea of equality +and fraternity than any republic yet invented. As a friend he +proves a model to the Damons and Pythiases: as a lover an exemplar +to Don Quijote without the noble old Caballero's touch of +eccentricity. As a knight he is the mirror of chivalry, doing +battle for the weak and debelling the strong, while ever "defending +the honour of women." As a husband his patriarchal position causes +him to be loved and fondly loved by more than one wife: as a father +affection for his children rules his life: he is domestic in the +highest degree and he finds few pleasures beyond the bosom of his +family. Lastly, his death is simple, pathetic end edifying as the +life which led to it. + +Considered in a higher phase, the mediaeval Moslem mind displays, +like the ancient Egyptian, a most exalted moral idea, the deepest +reverence for all things connected with his religion and a sublime +conception of the Unity and Omnipotence of the Deity. Noteworthy +too is a proud resignation to the decrees of Fate and Fortune (Kazá +wa Kadar), of Destiny and Predestination--a feature which ennobles +the low aspect of Al-Islam even in these her days of comparative +degeneration and local decay. Hence his moderation in prosperity, +his fortitude in adversity, his dignity, his perfect self-dominance +and, lastly, his lofty quietism which sounds the true heroic ring. +This again is softened and tempered by a simple faith in the +supremacy of Love over Fear, an unbounded humanity and charity for +the poor and helpless: an unconditional forgiveness of the direst +injuries ("which is the note of the noble"); a generosity and +liberality which at times seem impossible and an enthusiasm for +universal benevolence and beneficence which, exalting kindly deeds +done to man above every form of holiness, constitute the root and +base of Oriental, nay, of all, courtesy. And the whole is crowned +by pure trust and natural confidence in the progress and +perfectability of human nature, which he exalts instead of +degrading; this he holds to be the foundation stone of society and +indeed the very purpose of its existence. His Pessimism resembles +far more the optimism which the so-called Books of Moses borrowed +from the Ancient Copt than the mournful and melancholy creed of the +true Pessimist, as Solomon the Hebrew, the Indian Buddhist and the +esoteric European imitators of Buddhism. He cannot but sigh when +contemplating the sin and sorrow, the pathos and bathos of the +world; and feel the pity of it, with its shifts and changes ending +in nothingness, its scanty happiness and its copious misery. But +his melancholy is expressed in-- + + + "A voice divinely sweet, a voice no less + Divinely sad." + +Nor does he mourn as they mourn who have no hope: he has an +absolute conviction in future compensation; and, meanwhile, his +lively poetic impulse, the poetry of ideas, not of formal verse, +and his radiant innate idealism breathe a soul into the merest +matter of squalid work-a-day life and awaken the sweetest harmonies +of Nature epitomised in Humanity. + +Such was the Moslem at a time when "the dark clouds of ignorance +and superstition hung so thick on the intellectual horizon of +Europe as to exclude every ray of learning that darted from the +East and when all that was polite or elegant in literature was +classed among the Studia Arabum"[FN#126] +Nor is the shady side of the picture less notable. Our Arab at his +worst is a mere barbarian who has not forgotten the savage. He is +a model mixture of childishness and astuteness, of simplicity and +cunning, concealing levity of mind under solemnity of aspect. His +stolid instinctive conservatism grovels before the tyrant rule of +routine, despite that turbulent and licentious independence which +ever suggests revolt against the ruler: his mental torpidity, +founded upon physical indolence, renders immediate action and all +manner of exertion distasteful: his conscious weakness shows itself +in overweening arrogance and intolerance. His crass and self- +satisfied ignorance makes him glorify the most ignoble +superstitions, while acts of revolting savagery are the natural +results of a malignant fanaticism and a furious hatred of every +creed beyond the pale of Al-Islam. + +It must be confessed that these contrasts make a curious and +interesting tout ensemble. + + + + + + § I + THE ORIGIN OF THE NIGHTS. + + + + A.--The Birth place. + + + +Here occur the questions, Where and When was written and to Whom do +we owe a prose-poem which, like the dramatic epos of Herodotus, has +no equal? + +I proceed to lay before the reader a procès-verbal of the sundry +pleadings already in court as concisely as is compatible with +intelligibility, furnishing him with references to original +authorities and warning him that a fully-detailed account would +fill a volume. Even my own reasons for decidedly taking one side +and rejecting the other must be stated briefly. And before entering +upon this subject I would distribute the prose-matter of our +Recueil of Folk-lore under three heads + +1. The Apologue or Beast-fable proper, a theme which may be of any +age, as it is found in the hieroglyphs and in the cuneiforms. + +2. The Fairy-tale, as for brevity we may term the stories based +upon supernatural agency: this was a favourite with olden Persia; +and Mohammed, most austere and puritanical of the "Prophets," +strongly objected to it because preferred by the more sensible of +his converts to the dry legends of the Talmud and the Koran, quite +as fabulous without the halo and glamour of fancy. + +3. The Histories and historical anecdotes, analects, and acroamata, +in which the names, when not used achronistically by the editor or +copier, give unerring data for the earliest date à quo and which, +by the mode of treatment, suggest the latest. + +Each of these constituents will require further notice when the +subject-matter of the book is discussed. The metrical portion of +The Nights may also be divided into three categories, viz.:-- + +1. The oldest and classical poetry of the Arabs, e.g. the various +quotations from the "Suspended Poems." + +2. The mediaeval, beginning with the laureates of Al-Rashid's +court, such as Al-Asma'í and Abú Nowás, and ending with Al-Harírí +A.H. 446-516 = 1030-1100. + +3. The modern quotations and the pièces de circonstance by the +editors or copyists of the Compilation.[FN#127] + +Upon the metrical portion also further notices must be offered at +the end of this Essay. + +In considering the uncle derivatur of The Nights we must carefully +separate subject-matter from language-manner. The neglect of such +essential difference has caused the remark, "It is not a little +curious that the origin of a work which has been known to Europe +and has been studied by many during nearly two centuries, should +still be so mysterious, and that students have failed in all +attempts to detect the secret." Hence also the chief authorities at +once branched off into two directions. One held the work to be +practically Persian: the other as persistently declared it to be +purely Arab. + +Professor Galland, in his Epistle Dedicatory to the Marquise d'O, +daughter of his patron M. de Guillerague, showed his literary +acumen and unfailing sagacity by deriving The Nights from India via +Persia; and held that they had been reduced to their present shape +by an Auteur Arabe inconnu. This reference to India, also learnedly +advocated by M. Langlès, was inevitable in those days: it had not +then been proved that India owed all her literature to far older +civilisations and even that her alphabet the Nágari, erroneously +called Devanágari, was derived through Phœnicia and Himyar-land +from Ancient Egypt. So Europe was contented to compare The Nights +with the Fables of Pilpay for upwards of a century. At last the +Pehlevi or old Iranian origin of the work found an able and +strenuous advocate in Baron von Hammer-Purgstall [FN#128] who +worthily continued what Galland had begun: although a most inexact +writer, he was extensively read in Oriental history and poetry. His +contention was that the book is an Arabisation of the Persian Hazár +Afsánah or Thousand Tales and he proved his point. + +Von Hammer began by summoning into Court the "Herodotus of the +Arabs, (Ali Abú al-Hasan) Al-Mas'údi who, in A.H. 333 (=944) about +one generation before the founding of Cairo, published at Bassorah +the first edition of his far-famed Murúj al-Dahab wa Ma'ádin al- +Jauhar, Meads of Gold and Mines of Gems. The Styrian +Orientalist[FN#129] quotes with sundry misprints[FN#130] an ampler +version of a passage in Chapter lxviii., which is abbreviated in +the French translation of M. C. Barbier de Meynard.[FN#131] + +"And, indeed, many men well acquainted with their (Arab) +histories[FN#132] opine that the stories above mentioned and other +trifles were strung together by men who commended themselves to the +Kings by relating them, and who found favour with their +contemporaries by committing them to memory and by reciting them. +Of such fashion[FN#133] is the fashion of the books which have come +down to us translated from the Persian (Fárasiyah), the Indian +(Hindíyah),[FN#134] and the Græco-Roman (Rúmíyah)[FN#135]: we have +noted the judgment which should be passed upon compositions of this +nature. Such is the book entituled Hazár Afsánah or The Thousand +Tales, which word in Arabic signifies Khuráfah (Facetiœ): it is +known to the public under the name of ‘[he Boot of a Thousand +Nights and a Night, (Kitab Alf Laylah wa Laylah).[FN#136] This is +an history of a King and his Wazir, the minister's daughter and a +slave-girl (járiyah) who are named Shírzád (lion-born) and Dínár- +zád (ducat-born).[FN#137] Such also is the Tale of Farzah,[FN#138] +(alii Firza), and Simás, containing details concerning the Kings +and Wazirs of Hind: the Book of Al-Sindibád[FN#139] and others of +a similar stamp." + +Von Hammer adds, quoting chaps. cxvi. of Al-Mas'údi that Al-Mansúr +(second Abbaside A.H. 136-158 = 754-775, and grandfather of Al- +Rashíd) caused many translations of Greek and Latin, Syriac and +Persian (Pehlevi) works to be made into Arabic, specifying the +"Kalílah wa Damnah,"[FN#140] the Fables of Bidpái (Pilpay), the +Logic of Aristotle, the Geography of Ptolemy and the Elements of +Euclid. Hence he concludes "L'original des Mille et une Nuits * * +* selon toute vraisemblance, a été traduit au temps du Khalife +Mansur, c'est-á-dire trente ans avant le règne du Khalife Haroun +al-Raschid, qui, par la suite, devait lui-même jouer un si grand +rôle dans ces histoires." He also notes that, about a century after +Al-Mas'udi had mentioned the Hazár Afsánah, it was versified and +probably remodelled by one "Rásti," the Takhallus or nom de plume +of a bard at the Court of Mahmúd, the Ghaznevite Sultan who, after +a reign of thirty-three years, ob. A.D. 1030.[FN#141] + +Von Hammer some twelve years afterwards (Journ. Asiat August, 1839) +brought forward, in his "Note sur l'origine Persane des Mille et +une Nuits," a second and an even more important witness: this was +the famous Kitab al-Fihrist,[FN#142] or Index List of (Arabic) +works, written (in A.H. 387 = 987) by Mohammed bin Is'hák al-Nadím +(cup-companion or equerry), "popularly known as Ebou Yacoub el- +Werrek."[FN#143] The following is an extract (p. 304) from the +Eighth Discourse which consists of three arts (funún).[FN#144] "The +first section on the history of the confabulatores nocturni +(tellers of night tales) and the relaters of fanciful adventures, +together with the names of books treating upon such subjects. +Mohammed ibn Is'hak saith: The first who indited themes of +imagination and made books of them, consigning these works to the +libraries, and who ordered some of them as though related by the +tongues of brute beasts, were the palæo-Persians (and the Kings of +the First Dynasty). The Ashkanian Kings of the Third Dynasty +appended others to them and they were augmented and amplified in +the days of the Sassanides (the fourth and last royal house). The +Arabs also translated them into Arabic, and the loquent and +eloquent polished and embellished them and wrote others resembling +them. The first work of such kind was entituled ‘The Book of Hazar +Afsán,' signifying Alf Khuráfah, the argument whereof was as +follows. A King of their Kings was wont, when he wedded a woman and +had lain one night with her, to slay her on the next morning. +Presently he espoused a damsel of the daughters of the Kings, +Shahrázád[FN#145] hight, one endowed with intellect and erudition +and, whenas she lay with him, she fell to telling him tales of +fancy; moreover she used to connect the story at the end of the +night with that which might induce the King to preserve her alive +and to ask her of its ending on the next night until a thousand +nights had passed over her. Meanwhile he cohabited with her till +she was blest by boon of child of him, when she acquainted him with +the device she had wrought upon him; wherefore he admired her +intelligence and inclined to her and preserved her life. That King +had also a Kahramánah (nurse and duenna, not entremetteuse), hight +Dínárzád (Dunyázád?), who aided the wife in this (artifice). It is +also said that this book was composed for (or, by) Humái daughter +of Bahman[FN#146] and in it were included other matters. Mohammed +bin Is'hak adds: --And the truth is, Inshallah,[FN#147] that the +first who solaced himself with hearing night-tales was Al-Iskandar +(he of Macedon) and he had a number of men who used to relate to +him imaginary stories and provoke him to laughter: he, however, +designed not therein merely to please himself, but that he might +thereby become the more cautious and alert. After him the Kings in +like fashion made use of the book entitled ‘Hazár Afsán.' It +containeth a thousand nights, but less than two hundred night- +stories, for a single history often occupied several nights. I have +seen it complete sundry times; and it is, in truth, a corrupted +book of cold tales."[FN#148] + +A writer in The Athenœum,[FN#149] objecting to Lane's modern date +for The Nights, adduces evidence to prove the greater antiquity of +the work. (Abu al-Hasan) Ibn Sa'id (bin Musa al-Gharnati = of +Granada) born in A.H. 615 = 1218 and ob. Tunis A.H. 685 = 1286, +left his native city and arrived at Cairo in A.H. 639 = 1241. This +Spanish poet and historian wrote Al-Muhallá bi al-Ash'ár (The +Adorned with Verses), a Topography of Egypt and Africa, which is +apparently now lost. In this he quotes from Al-Kurtubi, the +Cordovan;[FN#150] and he in his turn is quoted by the Arab +historian of Spain, Abú al-Abbás Ahmad bin Mohammed al Makkári, in +the "Windwafts of Perfume from the Branches of Andalusia the +Blooming"[FN#151] (A.D. 1628-29). Mr. Payne (x. 301) thus +translates from Dr. Dozy's published text. + +"Ibn Said (may God have mercy upon him!) sets forth in his book, El +Muhella bi-s-Shaar, quoting from El Curtubi the story of the +building of the Houdej in the Garden of Cairo, the which was of the +magnificent pleasaunces of the Fatimite Khalifs, the rare of +ordinance and surpassing, to wit that the Khalif El Aamir bi-ahkam- +illah[FN#152] let build it for a Bedouin woman, the love of whom +had gotten the mastery of him, in the neighbourhood of the ‘Chosen +Garden'[FN#153] and used to resort often thereto and was slain as +he went thither; and it ceased not to be a pleasuring-place for the +Khalifs after him. The folk abound in stories of the Bedouin girl +and Ibn Meyyah[FN#154] of the sons of her uncle (cousin?) and what +hangs thereby of the mention of El-Aamir, so that the tales told of +them on this account became like unto the story of El +Bettál[FN#155] and the Thousand Nights and a Night and what +resembleth them." + +The same passage from Ibn Sa'id, corresponding in three MSS., +occurs in the famous Khitat[FN#156] attributed to Al-Makrizi (ob. +A.D. 1444) and was thus translated from a MS. in the British Museum +by Mr. John Payne (ix. 303) + +"The Khalif El-Aamir bi-ahkam-illah set apart, in the neighbourhood +of the Chosen Garden, a place for his beloved the Bedouin maid +(Aaliyah)[FN#157] which he named El Houdej. Quoth Ibn Said, in the +book El-Muhella bi-l-ashar, from the History of El Curtubi, +concerning the traditions of the folk of the story of the Bedouin +maid and Ibn Menah (Meyyah) of the sons of her uncle and what hangs +thereby of the mention of the Khalif El Aamír bi-ahkam-illah, so +that their traditions (or tales) upon the garden became like unto +El Bettál[FN#158] and the Thousand Nights and what resembleth +them." + +This evidently means either that The Nights existed in the days of +Al-'Ámir (xiith cent.) or that the author compared them with a work +popular in his own age. Mr. Payne attaches much importance to the +discrepancy of titles, which appears to me a minor detail. The +change of names is easily explained. Amongst the Arabs, as amongst +the wild Irish, there is divinity (the proverb says luck) in odd +numbers and consequently the others are inauspicious. Hence as Sir +Wm. Ouseley says (Travels ii. 21), the number Thousand and One is +a favourite in the East (Olivier, Voyages vi. 385, Paris 1807), and +quotes the Cistern of the "Thousand and One Columns" at +Constantinople. Kaempfer (Amœn, Exot. p. 38) notes of the Takiyahs +or Dervishes' convents and the Mazárs or Santons' tombs near Koniah +(Iconium), "Multa seges sepulchralium quæ virorum ex omni ævo +doctissimorum exuvias condunt, mille et unum recenset auctor Libri +qui inscribitur Hassaaer we jek mesaar (Hazár ve yek Mezár), i.e., +mille et unum mausolea." A book, The Hazar o yek Ruz ( = 1001 +Days), was composed in the mid-xviith century by the famous +Dervaysh Mukhlis, Chief Sofi of Isfahan: it was translated into +French by Petis de la Croix, with a preface by Cazotte, and was +englished by Ambrose Phillips. Lastly, in India and throughout Asia +where Indian influence extends, the number of cyphers not followed +by a significant number is indefinite: for instance, to determine +hundreds the Hindus affix the required figure to the end and for +100 write 101; for 1000, 1001. But the grand fact of the Hazár +Afsánah is its being the archetype of The Nights, unquestionably +proving that the Arab work borrows from the Persian bodily its +cadre or frame-work, the principal characteristic; its exordium and +its dénoûement, whilst the two heroines still bear the old Persic +names. + +Baron Silvestre de Sacy[FN#159]--clarum et venerabile nomen--is the +chief authority for the Arab provenance of The Nights. Apparently +founding his observations upon Galland,[FN#160] he is of opinion +that the work, as now known, was originally composed in +Syria[FN#161] and written in the vulgar dialect; that it was never +completed by the author, whether he was prevented by death or by +other cause; and that imitators endeavoured to finish the work by +inserting romances which were already known but which formed no +part of the original recueil, such as the Travels of Sindbad the +Seaman, the Book of the Seven Wazirs and others. He accepts the +Persian scheme and cadre of the work, but no more. He contends that +no considerable body of præ-Mohammedan or non-Arabic fiction +appears in the actual texts[FN#162]; and that all the tales, even +those dealing with events localised in Persia, India, China and +other infidel lands and dated from ante-islamitic ages mostly with +the naïvest anachronism, confine themselves to depicting the +people, manners and customs of Baghdad and Mosul, Damascus and +Cairo, during the Abbaside epoch, and he makes a point of the whole +being impregnated with the strongest and most zealous spirit of +Mohammedanism. He points out that the language is the popular or +vulgar dialect, differing widely from the classical and literary; +that it contains many words in common modern use and that generally +it suggests the decadence of Arabian literature. Of one tale he +remarks:--The History of the loves of Camaralzaman and Budour, +Princess of China, is no more Indian or Persian than the others. +The prince's father has Moslems for subjects, his mother is named +Fatimah and when imprisoned he solaces himself with reading the +Koran. The Genii who interpose in these adventures are, again, +those who had dealings with Solomon. In fine, all that we here find +of the City of the Magians, as well as of the fire-worshippers, +suffices to show that one should not expect to discover in it +anything save the production of a Moslem writer. + +All this, with due deference to so high an authority, is very +superficial. Granted, which nobody denies, that the archetypal +Hazár Afsánah was translated from Persic into Arabic nearly a +thousand years ago, it had ample time and verge enough to assume +another and a foreign dress, the corpus however remaining +untouched. Under the hands of a host of editors, scribes and +copyists, who have no scruples anent changing words, names and +dates, abridging descriptions and attaching their own decorations, +the florid and rhetorical Persian would readily be converted into +the straight-forward, business-like, matter of fact Arabic. And +what easier than to islamise the old Zoroasterism, to transform +Ahrimán into Iblís the Shaytan, Ján bin Ján into Father Adam, and +the Divs and Peris of Kayomars and the olden Guebre Kings into the +Jinns and Jinniyahs of Sulayman? Volumes are spoken by the fact +that the Arab adapter did not venture to change the Persic names of +the two heroines and of the royal brothers or to transfer the mise- +en-scène any whither from Khorasan or outer Persia. Where the story +has not been too much worked by the literato's pen, for instance +the "Ten Wazirs" (in the Bresl. Edit. vi. I9I-343) which is the +Guebre Bakhtiyár-námah, the names and incidents are old Iranian and +with few exceptions distinctly Persian. And at times we can detect +the process of transition, e.g. when the Mázin of Khorásán[FN#163] +of the Wortley Montagu MS. becomes the Hasan of Bassorah of the +Turner Macan MS. (Mac. Edit.). + +Evidently the learned Baron had not studied such works as the Totá- +kaháni or Parrot-chat which, notably translated by Nakhshabi from +the Sanskrit Suka-Saptati,[FN#164] has now become as orthodoxically +Moslem as The Nights. The old Hindu Rajah becomes Ahmad Sultan of +Balkh, the Prince is Maymún and his wife Khujisteh. Another +instance of such radical change is the later Syriac version of +Kaliliah wa Dimnah,[FN#165] old "Pilpay" converted to Christianity. +We find precisely the same process in European folk-lore; for +instance the Gesta Romanorum in which, after five hundred years, +the life, manners and customs of the Romans lapse into the knightly +and chivalrous, the Christian and ecclesiastical developments of +mediaeval Europe. Here, therefore, I hold that the Austrian Arabist +has proved his point whilst the Frenchman has failed. + +Mr. Lane, during his three years' labour of translation, first +accepted Von Hammer's view and then came round to that of De Sacy; +differing, however, in minor details, especially in the native +country of The Nights. Syria had been chosen because then the most +familiar to Europeans: the "Wife of Bath" had made three +pilgrimages to Jerusalem; but few cared to visit the barbarous and +dangerous Nile-Valley. Mr. Lane, however, was an enthusiast for +Egypt or rather for Cairo, the only part of it he knew; and, when +he pronounces The Nights to be of purely "Arab," that is, of +Nilotic origin, his opinion is entitled to no more deference than +his deriving the sub-African and negroid Fellah from Arabia, the +land per excellentiam of pure and noble blood. Other authors have +wandered still further afield. Some finding Mosul idioms in the +Recueil, propose "Middlegates" for its birth-place and Mr. W. G. P. +Palgrave boldly says "The original of this entertaining work +appears to have been composed in Baghdad about the eleventh +century; another less popular but very spirited version is probably +of Tunisian authorship and somewhat later."[FN#166] + + + + + + B.--The Date. + + + +The next point to consider is the date of The Nights in its present +form; and here opinions range between the tenth and the sixteenth +centuries. Professor Galland began by placing it arbitrarily in the +middle of the thirteenth. De Sacy, who abstained from detailing +reasons and who, forgetting the number of editors and scribes +through whose hands it must have passed, argued only from the +nature of the language and the peculiarities of style, proposed le +milieu du neuvième siècle de l'hégire ( = A.D. 1445-6) as its +latest date. Mr. Hole, who knew The Nights only through Galland's +version, had already advocated in his "Remarks" the close of the +fifteenth century; and M. Caussin (de Perceval), upon the authority +of a supposed note in Galland's MS.[FN#167] (vol. iii. fol. 20, +verso), declares the compiler to have been living in A.D. 1548 and +1565. Mr. Lane says "Not begun earlier than the last fourth of the +fifteenth century nor ended before the first fourth of the +sixteenth," i.e. soon after Egypt was conquered by Selim, Sultan of +the Osmanli Turks in A.D. 1517. Lastly the learned Dr. Weil says in +his far too scanty Vorwort (p. ix. 2nd Edit.):-"Das +wahrscheinlichste dürfte also sein, das im 15. Jahrhundert ein +Egyptier nach altern Vorbilde Erzählungen für 1001 Nächte theils +erdichtete, theils nach mündlichen Sagen, oder frühern +schriftlichen Aufzeichnungen, bearbeitete, dass er aber entweder +sein Werk nicht vollendete, oder dass ein Theil desselben verloren +ging, so dass das Fehlende von Andern bis ins 16. Jahrhundert +hinein durch neue Erzählungen ergänzt wurde." + +But, as justly observed by Mr. Payne, the first step when enquiring +into the original date of The Nights is to determine the nucleus of +the Repertory by a comparison of the four printed texts and the +dozen MSS. which have been collated by scholars.[FN#168] This +process makes it evident that the tales common to all are the +following thirteen:-- + +1. The Introduction (with a single incidental story "The Bull and + the Ass"). +2. The Trader and the Jinni (with three incidentals). +3. The Fisherman and the Jinni (with four). +4. The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad (with six). +5. The Tale of the Three Apples. +6. The Tale of Núr-al-Dín Ali and his son Badr al-Dín Hasan. +7. The Hunchback's Tale (with eleven incidentals). +8. Nur al-Dín and Anís al-Jalís. +9. Tale of Ghánim bin 'Ayyúb (with two incidentals). +10. Alí bin Bakkár and Shams al-Nahár (with two). +11. Tale of Kamar al-Zamán. +12. The Ebony Horse; and +13. Julnár the Seaborn. + +These forty-two tales, occupying one hundred and twenty Nights, +form less than a fifth part of the whole collection which in the +Mac. Edit.[FN#169] contains a total of two hundred and sixty-four +Hence Dr. Patrick Russell,[FN#170] the Natural Historian of +Aleppo,[FN#171] whose valuable monograph amply deserves study even +in this our day, believed that the original Nights did not +outnumber two hundred, to which subsequent writers added till the +total of a thousand and one was made up. Dr. Jonathan +Scott,[FN#172] who quotes Russell, "held it highly probable that +the tales of the original Arabian Nights did not run through more +than two hundred and eighty Nights, if so many." So this suggestion +I may subjoin, "habent sue fate libelli." Galland, who preserves in +his Mille et une Nuits only about one fourth of The Nights, ends +them in No. cclxiv[FN#173] with the seventh voyage of Sindbad: +after that he intentionally omits the dialogue between the sisters +and the reckoning of time, to proceed uninterruptedly with the +tales. And so his imitator, Petis de la Croix,[FN#174] in his Mille +et un Jours, reduces the thousand to two hundred and thirty-two. + +The internal chronological evidence offered by the Collection is +useful only in enabling us to determine that the tales were not +written after a certain epoch: the actual dates and, consequently, +all deductions from them, are vitiated by the habits of the +scribes. For instance we find the Tale of the Fisherman and the +Jinni (vol. i. 41) placed in A.H. I69 = A.D. 785,[FN#175] which is +hardly possible. The immortal Barber in the "Tailor's Tale" (vol. +i. 304) places his adventure with the unfortunate lover on Safar +10, A.H. 653 ( = March 25th, 1255) and 7,320 years of the era of +Alexander.[FN#176] This is supported in his Tale of Himself (vol. +i. pp. 317-348), where he dates his banishment from Baghdad during +the reign of the penultimate Abbaside, Al-Mustansir bi +'llah[FN#177] (A.H. 623-640 = 1225-1242), and his return to Baghdad +after the accession of another Caliph who can be no other but Al- +Muntasim bi 'llah (A.H. 640-656 = A.D. 1242-1258). Again at the end +of the tale (vol. i. 350) he is described as "an ancient man, past +his ninetieth year" and "a very old man" in the days of Al- +Mustansir (vol. i. 318); SO that the Hunchback's adventure can +hardly be placed earlier than A.D. 1265 or seven years after the +storming of Baghdad by Huláku Khan, successor of Janghíz Khan, a +terrible catastrophe which resounded throughout the civilised +world. Yet there is no allusion to this crucial epoch and the total +silence suffices to invalidate the date.[FN#178] Could we assume it +as true, by adding to A.D. 1265 half a century for the composition +of the Hunchback's story and its incidentals, we should place the +earliest date in A.D. 1315. + +As little can we learn from inferences which have been drawn from +the body of the book: at most they point to its several editions or +redactions. In the Tale of the "Ensorcelled Prince" (vol. i. 77) +Mr. Lane (i. 135) conjectured that the four colours of the fishes +were suggested by the sumptuary laws of the Mameluke Soldan, +Mohammed ibn Kala'un, "subsequently to the commencement of the +eighth century of the Flight, or fourteenth of our era." But he +forgets that the same distinction of dress was enforced by the +Caliph Omar after the capture of Jerusalem in A.D. 636; that it was +revived by Harun al-Rashid, a contemporary of Carolus Magnus and +that it was noticed as a long standing grievance by the so-called +Mandeville in A.D. 1322. In the Tale of the Porter and the Ladies +of Baghdad the "Sultáni oranges" (vol. i. 83) have been connected +with Sultáníyah city in Persian Irák, which was founded about the +middle of the thirteenth century: but "Sultáni" may simply mean +"royal," a superior growth. The same story makes mention (vol. i. +94) of Kalandars or religious mendicants, a term popularly +corrupted, even in writing, to Karandal.[FN#179] Here again +"Kalandar" may be due only to the scribes as the Bresl. Edit. reads +Sa'alúk = asker, beggar. The Khan al-Masrúr in the Nazarene +Broker's story (i. 265) was a ruin during the early ninth century +A.H. = A.D. 1420; but the Báb Zuwaylah (i. 269) dates from A.D. +1087. In the same tale occurs the Darb al-Munkari (or Munakkari) +which is probably the Darb al-Munkadi of Al-Makrizi's careful +topography, the Khitat (ii. 40). Here we learn that in his time +(about A.D. 1430) the name had become obsolete, and the highway was +known as Darb al-Amír Baktamír al-Ustaddar from one of two high +officials who both died in the fourteenth century (circ. A.D. +1350). And lastly we have the Khan al-Jáwali built about A.D. 1320. +In Badr al-Din Hasan (vol. i. 237) "Sáhib" is given as a Wazirial +title and it dates only from the end of the fourteenth +century.[FN#180] In Sindbad the Seaman, there is an allusion (vol. +vi. 67) to the great Hindu Kingdom, Vijayanagar of the +Narasimha,[FN#181] the great power of the Deccan; but this may be +due to editors or scribes as the despotism was founded only in the +fourteenth century(A.D. 1320). The Ebony Horse (vol. v. 1) +apparently dates before Chaucer; and "The Sleeper and The Waker" +(Bresl. Edit. iv. 134-189) may precede Shakespeare's "Taming of the +Shrew": no stress, however, can be laid upon such resemblances, the +nouvelles being world-wide. But when we come to the last stories, +especially to Kamar al-Zaman II. and the tale of Ma'arúf, we are +apparently in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The first +contains (Night cmlxxvii.) the word Láwandiyah = Levantine, the +mention of a watch = Sá'ah in the next Night[FN#182]; and, further +on (cmlxxvi.), the "Shaykh Al-Islam," an officer invented by +Mohammed II. after the capture of Stambul in A.D. 1453. In Ma'arúf +the 'Ádiliyah is named; the mosque founded outside the Bab al-Nasr +by Al-Malik al-'Ádil, Túmán Bey in A.H. 906 = A.D. 1501. But, I +repeat, all these names may be mere interpolations. + +On the other hand, a study of the vie intime in Al-Islam and of the +manners and customs of the people proves that the body of the work, +as it now stands, must have been written before A.D. 1400. The +Arabs use wines, ciders and barley-beer, not distilled spirits; +they have no coffee or tobacco and, while familiar with small-pox +(judrí), they ignore syphilis. The battles in The Nights are fought +with bows and javelins, swords, spears (for infantry) and lances +(for cavalry); and, whenever fire-arms are mentioned, we must +suspect the scribe. Such is the case with the Madfa' or cannon by +means of which Badr Al-Din Hasan breaches the bulwarks of the Lady +of Beauty's virginity (i. 223). This consideration would determine +the work to have been written before the fourteenth century. We +ignore the invention-date and the inventor of gunpowder, as of all +old discoveries which have affected mankind at large: all we know +is that the popular ideas betray great ignorance and we are led to +suspect that an explosive compound, having been discovered in the +earliest ages of human society, was utilised by steps so gradual +that history has neglected to trace the series. According to +Demmin[FN#183], bullets for stuffing with some incendiary +composition, in fact bombs, were discovered by Dr. Keller in the +Palafites or Crannogs of Switzerland; and the Hindu's Agni-Astar +("fire-weapon"), Agni-bán ("fire-arrow") and Shatagni ("hundred- +killer"), like the Roman Phalarica, and the Greek fire of +Byzantium, suggest explosives. Indeed, Dr. Oppert[FN#184] accepts +the statement of Flavius Philostratus that when Appolonius of +Tyana, that grand semi-mythical figure, was travelling in India, he +learned the reason why Alexander of Macedon desisted from attacking +the Oxydracæ who live between the Ganges and the Hyphasis (Satadru +or Sutledge):- "These holy men, beloved by the gods, overthrow +their enemies with tempests and thunderbolts shot from their +walls." Passing over the Arab sieges of Constantinople (A.D. 668) +and Meccah (A.D. 690) and the disputed passage in Firishtah +touching the Tufang or musket during the reign of Mahmúd the +Ghaznevite[FN#185] (ob. A.D. 1030), we come to the days of Alphonso +the Valiant, whose long and short guns, used at the Siege of Madrid +in A.D. 1084, are preserved in the Armeria Real. Viardot has noted +that the African Arabs first employed cannon in A.D. 1200, and that +the Maghribis defended Algeciras near Gibraltar with great guns in +A. D. 1247, and utilised them to besiege Seville in A.D. 1342. This +last feat of arms introduced the cannon into barbarous Northern +Europe, and it must have been known to civilised Asia for many a +decade before that date. + +The mention of wine in The Nights, especially the Nabíz or +fermented infusion of raisins well known to the præ-Mohammeden +Badawis, perpetually recurs. As a rule, except only in the case of +holy personages and mostly of the Caliph Al-Rashid, the "service of +wine" appears immediately after the hands are washed; and women, as +well as men, drink, like true Orientals, for the honest purpose of +getting drunk-la recherche de l'ideal, as the process has been +called. Yet distillation became well known in the fourteenth +century. Amongst the Greeks and Romans it was confined to +manufacturing aromatic waters, and Nicander the poet (B.C. 140) +used for a still the term , like the Irish "pot" and its +produce "poteen." The simple art of converting salt water into +fresh, by boiling the former and passing the steam through a cooled +pipe into a recipient, would not have escaped the students of the +Philosopher's "stone;" and thus we find throughout Europe the +Arabic modifications of Greek terms Alchemy, Alembic (Al- ), +Chemistry and Elixir; while "Alcohol" (Al-Kohl), originally meaning +"extreme tenuity or impalpable state of pulverulent substances," +clearly shows the origin of the article. Avicenna, who died in A.H. +428 = 1036, nearly two hundred years before we read of distillation +in Europe, compared the human body with an alembic, the belly being +the cucurbit and the head the capital:-he forgot one important +difference but n'importe. Spirits of wine were first noticed in the +xiiith century, when the Arabs had overrun the Western +Mediterranean, by Arnaldus de Villa Nova, who dubs the new +invention a universal panacea; and his pupil, Raymond Lully (nat. +Majorca A.D. 1236), declared this essence of wine to be a boon from +the Deity. Now The Nights, even in the latest adjuncts, never +allude to the "white coffee" of the "respectable" Moslem, the Ráki +(raisin-brandy) or Ma-hayát (aqua-vitæ) of the modern Mohametan: +the drinkers confine themselves to wine like our contemporary +Dalmatians, one of the healthiest and the most vigorous of +seafaring races in Europe. + +Syphilis also, which at the end of the xvth century began to infect +Europe, is ignored by The Nights. I do not say it actually began: +diseases do not begin except with the dawn of humanity; and their +history, as far as we know, is simple enough. They are at first +sporadic and comparatively non-lethal: at certain epochs which we +can determine, and for reasons which as yet we cannot, they break +out into epidemics raging with frightful violence: they then +subside into the endemic state and lastly they return to the milder +sporadic form. For instance, "English cholera" was known of old: in +1831 (Oct. 26) the Asiatic type took its place and now, after +sundry violent epidemics, the disease is becoming endemic on the +Northern seaboard of the Mediterranean, notably in Spain and Italy. +So small-pox (Al-judrí, vol. i. 256) passed over from Central +Africa to Arabia in the year of Mohammed's birth (A.D. 570) and +thence overspread the civilised world, as an epidemic, an endemic +and a sporadic successively. The "Greater Pox" has appeared in +human bones of pre historic graves and Moses seems to mention +gonorrhœa (Levit. xv. 12). Passing over allusions in Juvenal and +Martial,[FN#186] we find Eusebius relating that Galerius died (A.D. +302) of ulcers on the genitals and other parts of his body; and, +about a century afterwards, Bishop Palladius records that one Hero, +after conversation with a prostitute, fell a victim to an abscess +on the penis (phagedænic shanker?). In 1347 the famous Joanna of +Naples founded (æt. 23), in her town of Avignon, a bordel whose in- +mates were to be medically inspected a measure to which England +(proh pudor!) still objects. In her Statuts du Lieu- +publiqued'Avignon, No. iv. she expressly mentions the Malvengut de +paillardise. Such houses, says Ricord who studied the subject since +1832, were common in France after A.D. 1200; and sporadic venereals +were known there. But in A.D. 1493-94 an epidemic broke out with +alarming intensity at Barcelona, as we learn from the "Tractado +llamado fructo de todos los Sanctos contra el mal serpentino, +venido de la Isla espanola," of Rodrigo Ruiz Días, the specialist. +In Santo Domingo the disease was common under the names Hipas, +Guaynaras and Taynastizas: hence the opinion in Europe that it +arose from the mixture of European and "Indian" blood.[FN#187] Some +attributed it to the Gypsies who migrated to Western Europe in the +xvth century:[FN#188] others to the Moriscos expelled from Spain. +But the pest got its popular name after the violent outbreak at +Naples in A.D. 1493-4, when Charles VIII. of Anjou with a large +army of mercenaries, Frenchmen, Spaniards, and Germans, attacked +Ferdinand II. Thence it became known as the Mal de Naples and +Morbus Gallicus-una gallica being still the popular term in neo +Latin lands-and the "French disease" in England. As early as July +1496 Marin Sanuto (Journal i. 171) describes with details the "Mal +Franzoso." The scientific "syphilis" dates from Fracastori's poem +(A.D. 1521) in which Syphilus the Shepherd is struck like Job, for +abusing the sun. After crippling a Pope (Sixtus IV.[FN#189]) and +killing a King (Francis I.) the Grosse Vérole began to abate its +violence, under the effects of mercury it is said; and became +endemic, a stage still shown at Scherlievo near Fiume, where legend +says it was implanted by the Napoleonic soldiery. The Aleppo and +other "buttons" also belong apparently to the same grade. Elsewhere +it settled as a sporadic and now it appears to be dying out while +gonorrhœa is on the increase.[FN#190] + +The Nights, I have said, belongs to the days before coffee (A.D. +1550) and tobacco (A.D. 1650) had overspread the East. The former, +which derives its name from the Káfá or Káffá province, lying south +of Abyssinia proper and peopled by the Sidáma Gallas, was +introduced to Mokha of Al-Yaman in A.D. 1429-30 by the Shaykh al- +Sházili who lies buried there, and found a congenial name in the +Arabic Kahwah=old wine.[FN#191] In The Nights (Mac. Edit.) it is +mentioned twelve times[FN#192]; but never in the earlier tales: +except in the case of Kamar al-Zaman II. it evidently does not +belong to the epoch and we may fairly suspect the scribe. In the +xvith century coffee began to take the place of wine in the nearer +East; and it gradually ousted the classical drink from daily life +and from folk-tales. + +It is the same with tobacco, which is mentioned only once by The +Nights (cmxxxi.), in conjunction with meat, vegetables and fruit +and where it is called "Tábah." Lane (iii. 615) holds it to be the +work of a copyist; but in the same tale of Abu Kir and Abu Sir, +sherbet and coffee appear to have become en vogue, in fact to have +gained the ground they now hold. The result of Lord Macartney's +Mission to China was a suggestion that smoking might have +originated spontaneously in the Old World.[FN#193] This is un- +doubtedly true. The Bushmen and other wild tribes of Southern +Africa threw their Dakhá (cannabis indica) on the fire and sat +round it inhaling the intoxicating fumes. Smoking without tobacco +was easy enough. The North American Indians of the Great Red Pipe +Stone Quarry and those who lived above the line where nicotiana +grew, used the kinni-kinik or bark of the red willow and some seven +other succedanea.[FN#194] But tobacco proper, which soon superseded +all materials except hemp and opium, was first adopted by the +Spaniards of Santo Domingo in A.D. 1496 and reached England in +1565. Hence the word, which, amongst the so-called Red Men, denoted +the pipe, the container, not the contained, spread over the Old +World as a generic term with additions, like ‘‘Tutun,''[FN#195] for +special varieties. The change in English manners brought about by +the cigar after dinner has already been noticed; and much of the +modified sobriety of the present day may be attributed to the +influence of the Holy Herb en cigarette. Such, we know from history +was its effect amongst Moslems; and the normal wine-parties of The +Nights suggest that the pipe was unknown even when the latest tales +were written. + + + + + + C. + + + +We know absolutely nothing of the author or authors who produced +our marvellous Recueil. Galland justly observes (Epist. Dedic.), +"probably this great work is not by a single hand; for how can we +suppose that one man alone could own a fancy fertile enough to +invent so many ingenious fictions?" Mr. Lane, and Mr. Lane alone, +opined that the work was written in Egypt by one person or at most +by two, one ending what the other had begun, and that he or they +had re-written the tales and completed the collection by new matter +composed or arranged for the purpose. It is hard to see how the +distinguished Arabist came to such a conclusion: at most it can be +true only of the editors and scribes of MSS. evidently copied from +each other, such as the Mac. and the Bul. texts. As the Reviewer +(Forbes Falconer?) in the "Asiatic Journal" (vol. xxx., 1839) says, +"Every step we have taken in the collation of these agreeable +fictions has confirmed us in the belief that the work called the +Arabian Nights is rather a vehicle for stories, partly fixed and +partly arbitrary, than a collection fairly deserving, from its +constant identity with itself, the name of a distinct work, and the +reputation of having wholly emanated from the same inventive mind. +To say nothing of the improbability of supposing that one +individual, with every license to build upon the foundation of +popular stories, a work which had once received a definite form +from a single writer, would have been multiplied by the copyist +with some regard at least to his arrangement of words as well as +matter. But the various copies we have seen bear about as much +mutual resemblance as if they had passed through the famous process +recommended for disguising a plagiarism: ‘Translate your English +author into French and again into English'." + +Moreover, the style of the several Tales, which will be considered +in a future page (§ iii.), so far from being homogeneous is +heterogeneous in the extreme. Different nationalities show them +selves; West Africa, Egypt and Syria are all represented and, while +some authors are intimately familiar with Baghdad, Damascus and +Cairo, others are equally ignorant. All copies, written and +printed, absolutely differ in the last tales and a measure of the +divergence can be obtained by comparing the Bresl. Edit. with the +Mac. text: indeed it is my conviction that the MSS. preserved in +Europe would add sundry volumes full of tales to those hitherto +translated; and here the Wortley Montagu copy can be taken as a +test. We may, I believe, safely compare the history of The Nights +with the so-called Homeric poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, a +collection of immortal ballads and old Epic formulæ and verses +traditionally handed down from rhapsode to rhapsode, incorporated +in a slowly-increasing body of poetry and finally welded together +about the age of Pericles. + +To conclude. From the data above given I hold myself justified in +drawing the following deductions:-- + + 1. The framework of the book is purely Persian perfunctorily +arabised; the archetype being the Hazár Afsánah.[FN#196] + + 2. The oldest tales, such as Sindibad (the Seven Wazirs) and +King Jili'ád, may date from the reign of Al-Mansur, eighth century +A.D. + + 3. The thirteen tales mentioned above (p. 78) as the nucleus +of the Repertory, together with "Dalilah the Crafty,"[FN#197] may +be placed in our tenth century. + + 4. The latest tales, notably Kamar al-Zaman the Second and +Ma'aruf the Cobbler, are as late as the sixteenth century. + + 5. The work assumed its present form in the thirteenth +century. + + 6. The author is unknown for the best reason; there never was +one: for information touching the editors and copyists we must +await the fortunate discovery of some MSS. + + + + + + § II. + THE NIGHTS IN EUROPE. + + + +The history of The Nights in Europe is one of slow and gradual +development. The process was begun (1704-17) by Galland, a +Frenchman, continued (1823) by Von Hammer an Austro-German, and +finished by Mr. John Payne (1882-84) an Englishman. But we must +not forget that it is wholly and solely to the genius of the Gaul +that Europe owes "The Arabian Nights' Entertainments" over which +Western childhood and youth have spent so many spelling hours. +Antoine Galland was the first to discover the marvellous fund of +material for the story-teller buried in the Oriental mine; and he +had in a high degree that art of telling a tale which is far more +captivating than culture or scholarship. Hence his delightful +version (or perversion) became one of the world's classics and at +once made Sheherazade and Dinarzarde, Haroun Alraschid, the +Calendars and a host of other personages as familiar to the home +reader as Prospero, Robinson Crusoe, Lemuel Gulliver and Dr. +Primrose. Without the name and fame won for the work by the +brilliant paraphrase of the learned and single-minded Frenchman, +Lane's curious hash and latinized English, at once turgid and +emasculated, would have found few readers. Mr. Payne's admirable +version appeals to the Orientalist and the "stylist," not to the +many-headed; and mine to the anthropologist and student of +Eastern manners and customs. Galland did it and alone he did it: +his fine literary flaire, his pleasing style, his polished taste +and perfect tact at once made his work take high rank in the +republic of letters nor will the immortal fragment ever be +superseded in the infallible judgment of childhood. As the +Encyclopædia Britannica has been pleased to ignore this excellent +man and admirable Orientalist, numismatologist and littérateur, +the reader may not be unwilling to see a short sketch of his +biography.[FN#198] + +Antoine Galland was born in A.D. 1646 of peasant parents "poor +and honest" at Rollot, a little bourg in Picardy some two leagues +from Montdidier. He was a seventh child and his mother, left a +widow in early life and compelled to earn her livelihood, saw +scant chance of educating him when the kindly assistance of a +Canon of the Cathedral and President of the Collége de Noyon +relieved her difficulties. In this establishment Galland studied +Greek and Hebrew for ten years, after which the "strait thing at +home" apprenticed him to a trade. But he was made for letters; +he hated manual labour and he presently removed en cachette to +Paris, where he knew only an ancient kinswoman. She introduced +him to a priestly relative of the Canon of Noyon, who in turn +recommended him to the "Sous-principal" of the Collége Du +Plessis. Here he made such notable progress in Oriental studies, +that M. Petitpied, a Doctor of the Sorbonne, struck by his +abilities, enabled him to study at the Collége Royal and +eventually to catalogue the Eastern MSS. in the great +ecclesiastical Society. Thence he passed to the Collége Mazarin, +where a Professor, M. Godouin, was making an experiment which +might be revived to advantage in our present schools. He +collected a class of boys, aged about four, and proposed to teach +them Latin speedily and easily by making them converse in the +classical language as well as read and write it.[FN#199] Galland, +his assistant, had not time to register success or failure before +he was appointed attaché-secretary to M. de Nointel named in 1660 +Ambassadeur de France for Constantinople. His special province +was to study the dogmas and doctrines and to obtain official +attestations concerning the articles of the Orthodox (or Greek) +Christianity which had then been a subject of lively discussion +amongst certain Catholics, especially Arnauld (Antoine) and +Claude the Minister, and which even in our day occasionally crops +up amongst "Protestants."[FN#200] Galland, by frequenting the +cafés and listening to the tale-teller, soon mastered Romaic and +grappled with the religious question, under the tuition of a +deposed Patriarch and of sundry Matráns or Metropolitans, whom +the persecutions of the Pashas had driven for refuge to the +Palais de France. M. de Nointel, after settling certain knotty +points in the Capitulations, visited the harbour-towns of the +Levant and the "Holy Places," including Jerusalem, where Galland +copied epigraphs, sketched monuments and collected antiques, such +as the marbles in the Baudelot Gallery of which Père Dom Bernard +de Montfaucon presently published specimens in his ''Palæographia +Græca," etc. (Parisiis, 1708). + +In Syria Galland was unable to buy a copy of The Nights: as he +expressly states in his Epistle Dedicatory, il a fallu le faire +venir de Syrie. But he prepared himself for translating it by +studying the manners and customs, the religion and superstitions +of the people; and in 1675, leaving his chief, who was ordered +back to Stambul, he returned to France. In Paris his numismatic +fame recommended him to MM. Vaillant, Carcary and Giraud who +strongly urged a second visit to the Levant, for the purpose of +collecting, and he set out without delay. In 1691 he made a +third journey, travelling at the expense of the Compagnie des +Indes-Orientales, with the main object of making purchases for +the Library and Museum of Colbert the magnificent. The +commission ended eighteen months afterwards with the changes of +the Company, when Colbert and the Marquis de Louvois caused him +to be created "Antiquary to the King," Louis le Grand, and +charged him with collecting coins and medals for the royal +cabinet. As he was about to leave Smyrna, he had a narrow escape +from the earthquake and subsequent fire which destroyed some +fifteen thousand of the inhabitants: he was buried in the ruins; +but, his kitchen being cold as becomes a philosopher's, he was +dug out unburnt.[FN#201] + +Galland again returned to Paris where his familiarity with Arabic +and Hebrew, Persian and Turkish recommended him to MM. Thevenot +and Bignon: this first President of the Grand Council +acknowledged his services by a pension. He also became a +favourite with D'Herbelot whose Bibliothèque Orientale, left +unfinished at his death, he had the honour of completing and +prefacing.[FN#202] President Bignon died within the twelvemonth, +which made Galland attach himself in 1697 to M. Foucault, +Councillor of State and Intendant (governor) of Caen in Lower +Normandy, then famous for its academy: in his new patron's fine +library and numismatic collection he found materials for a long +succession of works, including a translation of the +Koran.[FN#203] They recommended him strongly to the literary +world and in 1701 he was made a member of the Académie des +Inscriptions et Belles Lettres. + +At Caen Galland issued in 1704,[FN#204] the first part of his +Mille et une Nuits, Contes Arabes traduits en François which at +once became famous as "The Arabian Nights' Entertainments." +Mutilated, fragmentary and paraphrastic though the tales were, +the glamour of imagination, the marvel of the miracles and the +gorgeousness and magnificence of the scenery at once secured an +exceptional success; it was a revelation in romance, and the +public recognised that it stood in presence of a monumental +literary work. France was a-fire with delight at a something so +new, so unconventional, so entirely without purpose, religious, +moral or philosophical: the Oriental wanderer in his stately +robes was a startling surprise to the easy-going and utterly +corrupt Europe of the ancien régime with its indecently tight +garments and perfectly loose morals. "Ils produisirent," said +Charles Nodier, a genius in his way, "dès le moment de leur +publication, cet effet qui assure aux productions de l'esprit une +vogue populaire, quoiqu'ils appartinssent à une littérature peu +connue en France; et que ce genre de composition admit ou plutôt +exigeât des détails de moeurs, de caractère, de costume et de +localités absolument étrangers à toutes les idées établies dans +nos contes et nos romans. On fut étonné du charme que résultait +du leur lecture. C'est que la vérité des sentimens, la nouveauté +des tableaux, une imagination féconde en prodiges, un coloris +plein de chaleur, l'attrait d'une sensibilité sans prétention, et +le sel d'un comique sans caricature, c'est que l'esprit et le +naturel enfin plaisent partout, et plaisent à tout le +monde."[FN#205] + +The Contes Arabes at once made Galland's name and a popular tale +is told of them and him known to all reviewers who, however, +mostly mangle it. In the Biographie Universelle of +Michaud[FN#206] we find:--Dans les deux premiers volumes de ces +contes l'exorde était toujours, "Ma chère sœur, si vous ne dormez +pas, faites-nous un de ces contes que vous savez." Quelques +jeunes gens, ennuyés de cette plate uniformité, allèrent une nuit +qu'il faisait très-grand froid, frapper à la porte de l'auteur, +qui courut en chemise à sa fenêtre. Après l'avoir fait morfondre +quelque temps par diverses questions insignificantes, ils +terminèrent en lui disant, "Ah, Monsieur Galland, si vous ne +dormez pas, faites-nous un de ces beaux contes que vous savez si +bien." Galland profita de la lecon, et supprima dans les volumes +suivants le préambule qui lui avait attiré la plaisanterie. This +legend has the merit of explaining why the Professor so soon gave +up the Arab framework which he had deliberately adopted. + +The Nights was at once translated from the French[FN#207] though +when, where and by whom no authority seems to know. In Lowndes' +"Bibliographer's Manual" the English Editio Princeps is thus +noticed, "Arabian Nights' Entertainments translated from the +French, London, 1724, 12mo, 6 vols." and a footnote states that +this translation, very inaccurate and vulgar in its diction, was +often reprinted. In 1712 Addison introduced into the Spectator +(No. 535, Nov. 13) the Story of Alnaschar ( = Al-Nashshár, the +Sawyer) and says that his remarks on Hope "may serve as a moral +to an Arabian tale which I find translated into French by +Monsieur Galland." His version appears, from the tone and style, +to have been made by himself, and yet in that year a second +English edition had appeared. The nearest approach to the Edit. +Princeps in the British Museum[FN#208] is a set of six volumes +bound in three and corresponding with Galland's first half dozen. +Tomes i. and ii. are from the fourth edition of 1713, Nos. iii. +and iv. are from the second of 1712 and v. and vi. are from the +third of 1715. It is conjectured that the two first volumes were +reprinted several times apart from their subsequents, as was the +fashion of the day; but all is mystery. We (my friends and I) +have turned over scores of books in the British Museum, the +University Library and the Advocates' Libraries of Edinburgh and +Glasgow: I have been permitted to put the question in "Notes and +Queries" and in the "Antiquary"; but all our researches hitherto +have been in vain. + +The popularity of The Nights in England must have rivalled their +vogue in France, judging from the fact that in 1713, or nine +years after Galland's Edit. Prin. appeared, they had already +reached a fourth issue. Even the ignoble national jealousy which +prompted Sir William Jones grossly to abuse that valiant scholar, +Auquetil du Perron, could not mar their popularity. But as there +are men who cannot read Pickwick, so they were not wanting who +spoke of "Dreams of the distempered fancy of the East."[FN#209] +"When the work was first published in England," says Henry +Webber,[FN#210] "it seems to have made a considerable impression +upon the public." Pope in 1720 sent two volumes (French? or +English?) to Bishop Atterbury, without making any remark on the +work; but, from his very silence, it may be presumed that he was +not displeased with the perusal. The bishop, who does not appear +to have joined a relish for the flights of imagination to his +other estimable qualities, expressed his dislike of these tales +pretty strongly and stated it to be his opinion, formed on the +frequent descriptions of female dress, that they were the work of +some Frenchman (Petis de la Croix, a mistake afterwards corrected +by Warburton). The Arabian Nights, however, quickly made their +way to public favour. "We have been informed of a singular +instance of the effect they produced soon after their first +appearance. Sir James Stewart, Lord Advocate for Scotland, +having one Saturday evening found his daughters employed in +reading these volumes, seized them with a rebuke for spending the +evening before the 'Sawbbath' in such worldly amusement; but the +grave advocate himself became a prey to the fascination of the +tales, being found on the morning of the Sabbath itself employed +in their perusal, from which he had not risen the whole night." +As late as 1780 Dr. Beattie professed himself uncertain whether +they were translated or fabricated by M. Galland; and, while Dr. +Pusey wrote of them "Noctes Mille et Una dictæ, quæ in omnium +firmè populorum cultiorum linguas conversæ, in deliciis omnium +habentur, manibusque omnium terentur,"[FN#211] the amiable +Carlyle, in the gospel according to Saint Froude, +characteristically termed them "downright lies" and forbade the +house to such "unwholesome literature." What a sketch of +character in two words! + +The only fault found in France with the Contes Arabes was that +their style is peu correcte; in fact they want classicism. Yet +all Gallic imitators, Trébutien included, have carefully copied +their leader and Charles Nodier remarks:--"Il me semble que l'on +n'a pas rendu assez de justice au style de Galland. Abondant sans +être prolixe, naturel et familier sans être lâche ni trivial, il +ne manque jamais de cette elegance qui résulte de la facilité, et +qui présente je ne sais quel mélange de la naïveté de Perrault et +de la bonhomie de La Fontaine." + +Our Professor, with a name now thoroughly established, returned +in 1706 to Paris, where he was an assiduous and efficient member +of the Société Numismatique and corresponded largely with foreign +Orientalists. Three years afterwards he was made Professor of +Arabic at the Collége de France, succeeding Pierre Dippy; and, +during the next half decade, he devoted himself to publishing his +valuable studies. Then the end came. In his last illness, an +attack of asthma complicated with pectoral mischief, he sent to +Noyon for his nephew Julien Galland[FN#212] to assist him in +ordering his MSS. and in making his will after the simplest +military fashion: he bequeathed his writings to the Bibliothèque +du Roi, his Numismatic Dictionary to the Academy and his Alcoran +to the Abbé Bignon. He died, aged sixty-nine on February 17, +1715, leaving his second part of The Nights unpublished.[FN#213] + +Professor Galland was a French littérateur of the good old school +which is rapidly becoming extinct. Homme vrai dans les moindres +choses (as his Éloge stated); simple in life and manners and +single-hearted in his devotion to letters, he was almost childish +in worldly matters, while notable for penetration and acumen in +his studies. He would have been as happy, one of his biographers +remarks, in teaching children the elements of education as he was +in acquiring his immense erudition. Briefly, truth and honesty, +exactitude and indefatigable industry characterised his most +honourable career. + +Galland informs us (Epist. Ded.) that his MS. consisted of four +volumes, only three of which are extant,[FN#214] bringing the +work down to Night cclxxxii., or about the beginning of +"Camaralzaman." The missing portion, if it contained like the +other volumes 140 pages, would end that tale together with the +Stories of Ghánim and the Enchanted (Ebony) Horse; and such is +the disposition in the Bresl. Edit. which mostly favours in its +ordinance the text used by the first translator. But this would +hardly have filled more than two-thirds of his volumes; for the +other third he interpolated, or is supposed to have interpolated, +the ten[FN#215] following tales. + +1. Histoire du prince Zeyn Al-asnam et du Roi des +Génies.[FN#216] +2. Histoire de Codadad et de ses frères. +3. Histoire de la Lampe merveilleuse (Aladdin). +4. Histoire de l'aveugle Baba Abdalla. +5. Histoire de Sidi Nouman. +6. Histoire de Cogia Hassan Alhabbal. +7. Histoire d'Ali Baba, et de Quarante Voleurs exterminés par +une Esclave. +8. Histoire d'Ali Cogia, marchand de Bagdad. +9. Histoire du prince Ahmed et de la fée Peri-Banou. +10. Histoire de deux Sœurs jalouses de leur Cadette.[FN#217] + +Concerning these interpolations which contain two of the best and +most widely known stories in the work, Aladdin and the Forty +Thieves, conjectures have been manifold but they mostly run upon +three lines. De Sacy held that they were found by Galland in the +public libraries of Paris. Mr. Chenery, whose acquaintance with +Arabic grammar was ample, suggested that the Professor had +borrowed them from the recitations of the Rawis, rhapsodists or +professional story-tellers in the bazars of Smyrna and other +ports of the Levant. The late Mr. Henry Charles Coote (in the +"Folk-Lore Record," vol. iii. Part ii. p. 178 et seq.), "On the +source of some of M. Galland's Tales," quotes from popular +Italian, Sicilian and Romaic stories incidents identical with +those in Prince Ahmad, Aladdin, Ali Baba and the Envious Sisters, +suggesting that the Frenchman had heard these paramythia in +Levantine coffee-houses and had inserted them into his unequalled +corpus fabularum. Mr. Payne (ix. 268) conjectures the +probability "of their having been composed at a comparatively +recent period by an inhabitant of Baghdad, in imitation of the +legends of Haroun er Rashid and other well-known tales of the +original work;" and adds, "It is possible that an exhaustive +examination of the various MS. copies of the Thousand and One +Nights known to exist in the public libraries of Europe might yet +cast some light upon the question of the origin of the +interpolated Tales." I quite agree with him, taking "The Sleeper +and the Waker'' and "Zeyn Al-asnam" as cases in point; but I +should expect, for reasons before given, to find the stories in a +Persic rather than an Arabic MS. And I feel convinced that all +will be recovered: Galland was not the man to commit a literary +forgery. + +As regards Aladdin, the most popular tale of the whole work, I am +convinced that it is genuine, although my unfortunate friend, the +late Professor Palmer, doubted its being an Eastern story. It is +laid down upon all the lines of Oriental fiction. The +mise-en-scène is China, "where they drink a certain warm liquor" +(tea); the hero's father is a poor tailor; and, as in "Judar and +his Brethren," the Maghribi Magician presently makes his +appearance, introducing the Wonderful Lamp and the Magical Ring. +Even the Sorcerer's cry, "New lamps for old lamps !"--a prime +point--is paralleled in the Tale of the Fisherman's Son,[FN#218] +where the Jew asks in exchange only old rings and the Princess, +recollecting that her husband kept a shabby, well-worn ring in +his writing-stand, and he being asleep, took it out and sent it +to the man. In either tale the palace is transported to a +distance and both end with the death of the wicked magician and +the hero and heroine living happily together ever after. + +All Arabists have remarked the sins of omission and commission, +of abridgment, amplification and substitution, and the audacious +distortion of fact and phrase in which Galland freely indulged, +whilst his knowledge of Eastern languages proves that he knew +better. But literary license was the order of his day and at +that time French, always the most begueule of European languages, +was bound by a rigorisme of the narrowest and the straightest of +lines from which the least ecart condemned a man as a barbarian +and a tudesque. If we consider Galland fairly we shall find that +he errs mostly for a purpose, that of popularising his work; and +his success indeed justified his means. He has been derided (by +scholars) for "Hé Monsieur!" and "Ah Madame!"; but he could not +write "O mon sieur" and "O ma dame;" although we can borrow from +biblical and Shakespearean English, "O my lord!" and "O my lady!" +"Bon Dieu! ma sœur" (which our translators English by "O +heavens," Night xx.) is good French for Wa'lláhi--by Allah; and +"cinquante cavaliers bien faits" ("fifty handsome gentlemen on +horseback") is a more familiar picture than fifty knights. +"L'officieuse Dinarzade" (Night lxi.), and "Cette plaisante +querelle des deux frères" (Night 1xxii.) become ridiculous only +in translation--"the officious Dinarzade" and "this pleasant +quarrel;" while "ce qu'il y de remarquable" (Night 1xxiii.) would +relieve the Gallic mind from the mortification of "Destiny +decreed." "Plusieurs sortes de fruits et de bouteilles de vin" +(Night ccxxxi. etc.) Europeanises flasks and flaggons; and the +violent convulsions in which the girl dies (Night cliv., her head +having been cut off by her sister) is mere Gallic squeamishness: +France laughs at "le shoking" in England but she has only to look +at home especially during the reign of Galland's contemporary-- +Roi Soleil. The terrible "Old man" (Shaykh) "of the Sea" (- +board) is badly described by "l'incommode vieillard" ("the ill- +natured old fellow"): "Brave Maimune" and "Agréable Maimune" are +hardly what a Jinni would say to a Jinniyah (ccxiii.); but they +are good Gallic. The same may be noted of "Plier les voiles pour +marque qu'il se rendait" (Night ccxxxv.), a European practice; +and of the false note struck in two passages. "Je m'estimais +heureuse d'avoir fait une si belle conquête" (Night 1xvii.) gives +a Parisian turn; and, "Je ne puis voir sans horreur cet +abominable barbier que voilà: quoiqu'il soit né dans un pays où +tout le monde est blanc, il ne laisse pas à resembler a un +Éthiopien; mais il a l'âme encore plus noire et horrible que le +visage" (Night clvii.), is a mere affectation of Orientalism. +Lastly, "Une vieille dame de leur connaissance" (Night clviii.) +puts French polish upon the matter of fact Arab's "an old woman." + +The list of absolute mistakes, not including violent liberties, +can hardly be held excessive. Professor Weil and Mr. Payne (ix. +271) justly charge Galland with making the Trader (Night i.) +throw away the shells (écorces) of the date which has only a +pellicle, as Galland certainly knew; but dates were not seen +every day in France, while almonds and walnuts were of the quatre +mendiants. He preserves the écorces, which later issues have +changed to noyaux, probably in allusion to the jerking practice +called Inwá. Again in the "First Shaykh's Story" (vol. i. 27) +the "maillet" is mentioned as the means of slaughtering cattle, +because familiar to European readers: at the end of the tale it +becomes "le couteaufuneste." In Badral Din a "tarte à la crême," +so well known to the West, displaces, naturally enough, the +outlandish "mess of pomegranate-seeds." Though the text +especially tells us the hero removed his bag-trousers (not only +"son habit") and placed them under the pillow, a crucial fact in +the history, our Professor sends him to bed fully dressed, +apparently for the purpose of informing his readers in a foot- +note that Easterns "se couchent en caleçon" (Night lxxx.). It +was mere ignorance to confound the arbalète or cross-bow with the +stone-bow (Night xxxviii.), but this has universally been done, +even by Lane who ought to have known better; and it was an +unpardonable carelessness or something worse to turn Nár (fire) +and Dún (in lieu of) into "le faux dieu Nardoun" (Night lxv.): as +this has been untouched by De Sacy, I cannot but conclude that he +never read the text with the translation. Nearly as bad also to +make the Jewish physician remark, when the youth gave him the +left wrist (Night cl.), "voilà une grande ignorance de ne savoir +pas que l'on presente la main droite à un médecin et non pas la +gauche"--whose exclusive use all travellers in the East must +know. I have noticed the incuriousness which translates "along +the Nile-shore" by "up towards Ethiopia" (Night cli.), and the +"Islands of the Children of Khaledan" (Night ccxi.) instead of +the Khálidatáni or Khálidát, the Fortunate Islands. It was by no +means "des petite soufflets" ("some taps from time to time with +her fingers") which the sprightly dame administered to the +Barber's second brother (Night clxxi.), but sound and heavy +"cuffs" on the nape; and the sixth brother (Night clxxx.) was not +"aux lèvres fendues" ("he of the hair-lips"), for they had been +cut off by the Badawi jealous of his fair wife. Abu al-Hasan +would not greet his beloved by saluting "le tapis à ses pieds:" +he would kiss her hands and feet. Haïatalnefous (Hayat al-Nufús, +Night ccxxvi.) would not "throw cold water in the Princess's +face:" she would sprinkle it with eau-de-rose. "Camaralzaman" I. +addresses his two abominable wives in language purely European +(ccxxx.), "et de la vie il ne s'approcha d'elles," missing one of +the fine touches of the tale which shows its hero a weak and +violent man, hasty and lacking the pundonor. "La belle +Persienne," in the Tale of Nur al-Din, was no Persian; nor would +her master address her, "Venez çà, impertinente!" ("come hither, +impertinence"). In the story of Badr, one of the Comoro Islands +becomes "L'île de la Lune." "Dog" and "dog-son" are not "injures +atroces et indignes d'un grand roi:" the greatest Eastern kings +allow themselves far more energetic and significant language. + +Fitnah[FN#219] is by no means "Force de cœurs." Lastly the +dénoûement of The Nights is widely different in French and in +Arabic; but that is probably not Galland's fault, as he never saw +the original, and indeed he deserves high praise for having +invented so pleasant and sympathetic a close, inferior only to +the Oriental device.[FN#220] + +Galland's fragment has a strange effect upon the Orientalist and +those who take the scholastic view, be it wide or narrow. De +Sacy does not hesitate to say that the work owes much to his +fellow-countryman's hand; but I judge otherwise: it is necessary +to dissociate the two works and to regard Galland's paraphrase, +which contains only a quarter of The Thousand Nights and a Night, +as a wholly different book. Its attempts to amplify beauties and +to correct or conceal the defects and the grotesqueness of the +original, absolutely suppress much of the local colour, clothing +the bare body in the best of Parisian suits. It ignores the +rhymed prose and excludes the verse, rarely and very rarely +rendering a few lines in a balanced style. It generally rejects +the proverbs, epigrams and moral reflections which form the pith +and marrow of the book; and, worse still, it disdains those finer +touches of character which are often Shakespearean in their depth +and delicacy, and which, applied to a race of familiar ways and +thoughts, manners and customs, would have been the wonder and +delight of Europe. It shows only a single side of the gem that +has so many facets. By deference to public taste it was +compelled to expunge the often repulsive simplicity, the childish +indecencies and the wild orgies of the original, contrasting with +the gorgeous tints, the elevated morality and the religious tone +of passages which crowd upon them. We miss the odeur du sang +which taints the parfums du harem; also the humouristic tale and +the Rabelaisian outbreak which relieve and throw out into strong +relief the splendour of Empire and the havoc of Time. Considered +in this light it is a caput mortuum, a magnificent texture seen +on the wrong side; and it speaks volumes for the genius of the +man who could recommend it in such blurred and caricatured +condition to readers throughout the civilised world. But those +who look only at Galland's picture, his effort to "transplant +into European gardens the magic flowers of Eastern fancy," still +compare his tales with the sudden prospect of magnificent +mountains seen after a long desert-march: they arouse strange +longings and indescribable desires; their marvellous +imaginativeness produces an insensible brightening of mind and an +increase of fancy-power, making one dream that behind them lies +the new and unseen, the strange and unexpected--in fact, all the +glamour of the unknown. + +The Nights has been translated into every far-extending Eastern +tongue, Persian, Turkish and Hindostani. The latter entitles +them Hikáyát al-Jalílah or Noble Tales, and the translation was +made by Munshi Shams al-Din Ahmad for the use of the College of +Fort George in A.H. 1252 = 1836.[FN#221] All these versions are +direct from the Arabic: my search for a translation of Galland +into any Eastern tongue has hitherto been fruitless. + +I was assured by the late Bertholdy Seemann that the "language of +Hoffmann and Heine" contained a literal and complete translation +of The Nights; but personal enquiries at Leipzig and elsewhere +convinced me that the work still remains to be done. The first +attempt to improve upon Galland and to show the world what the +work really is was made by Dr. Max Habicht and was printed at +Breslau (1824-25), in fifteen small square volumes.[FN#222] Thus +it appeared before the "Tunis Manuscript"[FN#223] of which it +purports to be a translation. The German version is, if +possible, more condemnable than the Arabic original. It lacks +every charm of style; it conscientiously shirks every difficulty; +it abounds in the most extraordinary blunders and it is utterly +useless as a picture of manners or a book of reference. We can +explain its lâches only by the theory that the eminent Professor +left the labour to his collaborateurs and did not take the +trouble to revise their careless work. + +The next German translation was by Aulic Councillor J. von +Hammer-Purgstallt who, during his short stay at Cairo and +Constantinople, turned into French the tales neglected by +Galland. After some difference with M. Caussin (de Perceval) in +1810, the Styrian Orientalist entrusted his MS. to Herr Cotta the +publisher of Tubingen. Thus a German version appeared, the +translation of a translation, at the hand of Professor +Zinserling,[FN#224] while the French version was unaccountably +lost en route to London. Finally the "Contes inédits," etc., +appeared in a French translation by G. S. Trébutien (Paris, +mdcccxxviii.). Von Hammer took liberties with the text which can +compare only with those of Lane: he abridged and retrenched till +the likeness in places entirely disappeared; he shirked some +difficult passages and he misexplained others. In fact the work +did no honour to the amiable and laborious historian of the +Turks. + +The only good German translation of The Nights is due to Dr. +Gustav Weil who, born on April 24, 1808, is still (1886) +professing at Heidelburg.[FN#225] His originals (he tells us) +were the Breslau Edition, the Bulak text of Abd al-Rahman al- +Safati and a MS. in the library of Saxe Gotha. The venerable +savant, who has rendered such service to Arabism, informs me that +Aug. Lewald's "Vorhalle" (pp. i.-xv.)[FN#226] was written without +his knowledge. Dr. Weil neglects the division of days which +enables him to introduce any number of tales: for instance, +Galland's eleven occupy a large part of vol. iii. The Vorwort +wants development, the notes, confined to a few words, are +inadequate and verse is everywhere rendered by prose, the Saj'a +or assonance being wholly ignored. On the other hand the scholar +shows himself by a correct translation, contrasting strongly with +those which preceded him, and by a strictly literal version, save +where the treatment required to be modified in a book intended +for the public. Under such circumstances it cannot well be other +than longsome and monotonous reading. + +Although Spain and Italy have produced many and remarkable +Orientalists, I cannot find that they have taken the trouble to +translate The Nights for themselves: cheap and gaudy versions of +Galland seem to have satisfied the public.[FN#227] Notes on the +Romaic, Icelandic, Russian (?) and other versions, will be found +in a future page. + +Professor Galland has never been forgotten in France where, +amongst a host of editions, four have claims to +distinction;[FN#228] and his success did not fail to create a +host of imitators and to attract what De Sacy justly terms "une +prodigieuse importation de marchandise de contrabande." As early +as 1823 Von Hammer numbered seven in France (Trébutien, Préface +xviii.) and during later years they have grown prodigiously. Mr. +William F. Kirby, who has made a special study of the subject, +has favoured me with detailed bibliographical notes on Galland's +imitators which are printed in Appendix No. II. + + + + + + + + § III. + THE MATTER AND THE MANNER OF THE NIGHTS. + + + + A.--The Matter. + + + +Returning to my threefold distribution of this Prose Poem +(Section § I) into Fable, Fairy Tale and historical +Anecdote[FN#229], let me proceed to consider these sections more +carefully. + +The Apologue or Beast-fable, which apparently antedates all other +subjects in The Nights, has been called "One of the earliest +creations of the awakening consciousness of mankind." I should +regard it, despite a monumental antiquity, as the offspring of a +comparatively civilised age, when a jealous despotism or a +powerful oligarchy threw difficulties and dangers in the way of +speaking "plain truths." A hint can be given and a friend or foe +can be lauded or abused as Belins the sheep or Isengrim the wolf +when the Author is debarred the higher enjoyment of praising them +or dispraising them by name. And, as the purposes of fables are +twofold-- + + Duplex libelli dos est: quod risum movet, + Et quod prudenti vitam consilio monet-- + +The speaking of brute beasts would give a piquancy and a +pleasantry to moral design as well as to social and political +satire. + +The literary origin of the fable is not Buddhistic: we must +especially shun that "Indo-Germanic" school which goes to India +for its origins, when Pythagoras, Solon, Herodotus, Plato, +Aristotle and possibly Homer sat for instruction at the feet of +the Hir-seshtha, the learned grammarians of the pharaohnic court. +Nor was it Æsopic, evidently Æsop inherited the hoarded wealth of +ages. As Professor Lepsius taught us, "In the olden times within +the memory of man, we know only of one advanced culture; of only +one mode of writing, and of only one literary development, viz. +those of Egypt." The invention of an alphabet, as opposed to a +syllabary, unknown to Babylonia, to Assyria and to that extreme +bourne of their civilising influence, China, would for ever fix +their literature--poetry, history and criticism,[FN#230] the +apologue and the anecdote. To mention no others The Lion and the +Mouse appears in a Leyden papyrus dating from B.C 1200-1166 the +days of Rameses III. (Rhampsinitus) or Hak On, not as a rude and +early attempt, but in a finished form, postulating an ancient +origin and illustrious ancestry. The dialogue also is brought to +perfection in the discourse between the Jackal Koufi and the +Ethiopian Cat (Revue Égyptologique ivme. année Part i.). Africa +therefore was the home of the Beast-fable not as Professor +Mahaffy thinks, because it was the chosen land of animal worship, +where + +Oppida tote canem venerantur nemo Dianam;[FN#231] + +but simply because the Nile-land originated every form of +literature between Fabliau and Epos. + +From Kemi the Black-land it was but a step to Phoenicia, +Judæa,[FN#232] Phrygia and Asia Minor, whence a ferry led over to +Greece. Here the Apologue found its populariser in {Greek}, +Æsop, whose name, involved in myth, possibly connects with + :-- "Æsopus et Aithiops idem sonant" says the sage. This +would show that the Hellenes preserved a legend of the land +whence the Beast-fable arose, and we may accept the fabulist's +æra as contemporary with Croesus and Solon (B.C. 570,) about a +century after Psammeticus (Psamethik 1st) threw Egypt open to the +restless Greek.[FN#233] From Africa too the Fable would in early +ages migrate eastwards and make for itself a new home in the +second great focus of civilisation formed by the Tigris-Euphrates +Valley. The late Mr. George Smith found amongst the cuneiforms +fragmentary Beast-fables, such as dialogues between the Ox and +the Horse, the Eagle and the Sun. In after centuries, when the +conquests of Macedonian Alexander completed what Sesostris and +Semiramis had begun, and mingled the manifold families of mankind +by joining the eastern to the western world, the Orient became +formally hellenised. Under the Seleucidæ and during the life of +the independent Bactrian Kingdom (B.C. 255-125), Grecian art and +science, literature and even language overran the old Iranic +reign and extended eastwards throughout northern India. Porus +sent two embassies to Augustus in B.C. 19 and in one of them the +herald Zarmanochagas (Shramanáchárya) of Bargosa, the modern +Baroch in Guzerat, bore an epistle upon vellum written in Greek +(Strabo xv. I section 78). "Videtis gentes populosque mutasse +sedes" says Seneca (De Cons. ad Helv. c. vi.). Quid sibi volunt +in mediis barbarorum regionibus Græcæ artes? Quid inter Indos +Persasque Macedonicus sermo? Atheniensis in Asia turba est." +Upper India, in the Macedonian days would have been mainly +Buddhistic, possessing a rude alphabet borrowed from Egypt +through Arabia and Phoenicia, but still in a low and barbarous +condition: her buildings were wooden and she lacked, as far as we +know, stone-architecture--the main test of social development. +But the Bactrian Kingdom gave an impulse to her civilisation and +the result was classical opposed to vedic Sanskrit. From Persia +Greek letters, extending southwards to Arabia, would find +indigenous imitators and there Æsop would be represented by the +sundry sages who share the name Lokman.[FN#234] One of these was +of servile condition, tailor, carpenter or shepherd; and a +"Habashi" (Æthiopian) meaning a negro slave with blubber lips and +splay feet, so far showing a superficial likeness to the Æsop of +history. + +The Æsopic fable, carried by the Hellenes to India, might have +fallen in with some rude and fantastic barbarian of Buddhistic +"persuasion" and indigenous origin: so Reynard the Fox has its +analogue amongst the Kafirs and the Vái tribe of Mandengan +negroes in Liberia[FN#235] amongst whom one Doalu invented or +rather borrowed a syllabarium. The modern Gypsies are said also +to have beast-fables which have never been traced to a foreign +source (Leland). But I cannot accept the refinement of +difference which Professor Benfey, followed by Mr. Keith- +Falconer, discovers between the Æsopic and the Hindu apologue:-- +"In the former animals are allowed to act as animals: the latter +makes them act as men in the form of animals." The essence of +the beast-fable is a reminiscence of Homo primigenius with +erected ears and hairy hide, and its expression is to make the +brother brute behave, think and talk like him with the superadded +experience of ages. To early man the "lower animals," which are +born, live and die like himself, showing all the same affects and +disaffects, loves and hates, passions, prepossessions and +prejudices, must have seemed quite human enough and on an equal +level to become his substitutes. The savage, when he began to +reflect, would regard the carnivor and the serpent with awe, +wonder and dread; and would soon suspect the same mysterious +potency in the brute as in himself: so the Malays still look upon +the Uran-utan, or Wood-man, as the possessor of superhuman +wisdom. The hunter and the herdsman, who had few other +companions, would presently explain the peculiar relations of +animals to themselves by material metamorphosis, the bodily +transformation of man to brute giving increased powers of working +him weal and woe. A more advanced stage would find the step easy +to metempsychosis, the beast containing the Ego (alias soul) of +the human: such instinctive belief explains much in Hindu +literature, but it was not wanted at first by the Apologue. + +This blending of blood, this racial baptism would produce a fine +robust progeny; and, after our second century, +Ægypto-Græco-Indian stories overran the civilised globe between +Rome and China. Tales have wings and fly farther than the jade +hatchets of proto-historic days. And the result was a book which +has had more readers than any other except the Bible. Its +original is unknown.[FN#236] The volume, which in Pehlevi became +the Jávidán Khirad ("Wisdom of Ages") or the Testament of +Hoshang, that ancient guebre King, and in Sanskrit the +Panchatantra ("Five Chapters"), is a recueil of apologues and +anecdotes related by the learned Brahman, Vishnu Sharmá for the +benefit of his pupils the sons of an Indian Rajah. The Hindu +original has been adapted and translated into a number of +languages; Arabic, Hebrew and Syriac, Greek and Latin, Persian +and Turkish, under a host of names.[FN#237] Voltaire[FN#238] +wisely remarks of this venerable production:--Quand on fait +réflexion que presque toute la terre a été enfatuée de pareils +contes, et qu'ils ont fait l'education du genre humain, on trouve +les fables de Pilpay, de Lokman,[FN#239] d'Ésope, bien +raisonables. But methinks the sage of Ferney might have said far +more. These fables speak with the large utterance of early man; +they have also their own especial beauty--the charms of well- +preserved and time-honoured old age. There is in their wisdom a +perfume of the past, homely and ancient-fashioned like a whiff of +pot pourri, wondrous soothing withal to olfactories agitated by +the patchoulis and jockey clubs of modern pretenders and petit- +maîtres, with their grey young heads and pert intelligence, the +motto of whose ignorance is "Connu!" Were a dose of its antique, +mature experience adhibited to the Western before he visits the +East, those few who could digest it might escape the normal lot +of being twisted round the fingers of every rogue they meet from +Dragoman to Rajah. And a quotation from them tells at once: it +shows the quoter to be man of education, not a "Jangalí," a +sylvan or savage, as the Anglo-Indian official is habitually +termed by his more civilised "fellow-subject." + +The main difference between the classical apologue and the fable +in The Nights is that while Æsop and Gabrias write laconic tales +with a single event and a simple moral, the Arabian fables are +often "long-continued novelle involving a variety of events, each +characterised by some social or political aspect, forming a +narrative highly interesting in itself, often exhibiting the most +exquisite moral, and yet preserving, with rare ingenuity, the +peculiar characteristics of the actors."[FN#240] And the +distinction between the ancient and the mediæval apologue, +including the modern which, since "Reineke Fuchs," is mainly +German, appears equally pronounced. The latter is humorous +enough and rich in the wit which results from superficial +incongruity: but it ignores the deep underlying bond which +connects man with beast. Again, the main secret of its success +is the strain of pungent satire, especially in the Renardine +Cycle, which the people could apply to all unpopular "lordes and +prelates, gostly and worldly." + +Our Recueil contains two distinct sets of apologues. [FN#241] The +first (vol. iii.) consists of eleven, alternating with five +anecdotes (Nights cxlvi.--cliii.), following the lengthy and +knightly romance of King Omar bin al Nu'man and followed by the +melancholy love tale of Ali bin Bakkár. The second series in +vol. ix., consisting of eight fables, not including ten anecdotes +(Nights cmi.--cmxxiv.), is injected into the romance of King +Jali'ad and Shimas mentioned by Al-Mas'udi as independent of The +Nights. In both places the Beast-fables are introduced with some +art and add variety to the subject-matter, obviating monotony-- +the deadly sin of such works--and giving repose to the hearer or +reader after a climax of excitement such as the murder of the +Wazirs. And even these are not allowed to pall upon the mental +palate, being mingled with anecdotes and short tales, such as the +Hermits (iii. 125), with biographical or literary episodes, +acroamata, table-talk and analects where humorous Rabelaisian +anecdote finds a place; in fact the fabliau or novella. This +style of composition may be as ancient as the apologues. We know +that it dates as far back as Rameses III., from the history of +the Two Brothers in the Orbigny papyrus,[FN#242] the prototype of +Yusuf and Zulaykha, the Koranic Joseph and Potiphar's wife. It +is told with a charming naïveté and such sharp touches of local +colour as, "Come, let us make merry an hour and lie together! Let +down thy hair!" + +Some of the apologues in The Nights are pointless enough, rien +moins qu'amusants; but in the best specimens, such as the Wolf +and the Fox[FN#243] (the wicked man and the wily man), both +characters are carefully kept distinct and neither action nor +dialogue ever flags. Again The Flea and the Mouse (iii. 151), of +a type familiar to students of the Pilpay cycle, must strike the +home-reader as peculiarly quaint. + +Next in date to the Apologue comes the Fairy Tale proper, where +the natural universe is supplemented by one of purely imaginative +existence. "As the active world is inferior to the rational +soul," says Bacon with his normal sound sense, "so Fiction gives +to Mankind what History denies and in some measure satisfies the +Mind with Shadows when it cannot enjoy the Substance. And as +real History gives us not the success of things according to the +deserts of vice and virtue, Fiction corrects it and presents us +with the fates and fortunes of persons rewarded and punished +according to merit." But I would say still more. History paints +or attempts to paint life as it is, a mighty maze with or without +a plan: Fiction shows or would show us life as it should be, +wisely ordered and laid down on fixed lines. Thus Fiction is not +the mere handmaid of History: she has a household of her own and +she claims to be the triumph of Art which, as Göethe remarked, is +"Art because it is not Nature." Fancy, la folle du logis, is +"that kind and gentle portress who holds the gate of Hope wide +open, in opposition to Reason, the surly and scrupulous +guard."[FN#244] As Palmerin of England says and says well, "For +that the report of noble deeds doth urge the courageous mind to +equal those who bear most commendation of their approved +valiancy; this is the fair fruit of Imagination and of ancient +histories." And, last but not least, the faculty of Fancy takes +count of the cravings of man's nature for the marvellous, the +impossible, and of his higher aspirations for the Ideal, the +Perfect: she realises the wild dreams and visions of his generous +youth and portrays for him a portion of that "other and better +world," with whose expectation he would console his age. + +The imaginative varnish of The Nights serves admirably as a foil +to the absolute realism of the picture in general. We enjoy +being carried away from trivial and commonplace characters, +scenes and incidents; from the matter of fact surroundings of a +work-a-day world, a life of eating and drinking, sleeping and +waking, fighting and loving, into a society and a mise-en-scène +which we suspect can exist and which we know does not. Every man +at some turn or term of his life has longed for supernatural +powers and a glimpse of Wonderland. Here he is in the midst of +it. Here he sees mighty spirits summoned to work the human +mite's will, however whimsical, who can transport him in an eye- +twinkling whithersoever he wishes; who can ruin cities and build +palaces of gold and silver, gems and jacinths; who can serve up +delicate viands and delicious drinks in priceless chargers and +impossible cups and bring the choicest fruits from farthest +Orient: here he finds magas and magicians who can make kings of +his friends, slay armies of his foes and bring any number of +beloveds to his arms. And from this outraging probability and +out-stripping possibility arises not a little of that strange +fascination exercised for nearly two centuries upon the life and +literature of Europe by The Nights, even in their mutilated and +garbled form. The reader surrenders himself to the spell, +feeling almost inclined to enquire "And why may it not be +true?''[FN#245] His brain is dazed and dazzled by the splendours +which flash before it, by the sudden procession of Jinns and +Jinniyahs, demons and fairies, some hideous, others +preternaturally beautiful; by good wizards and evil sorcerers, +whose powers are unlimited for weal and for woe; by mermen and +mermaids, flying horses, talking animals, and reasoning +elephants; by magic rings and their slaves and by talismanic +couches which rival the carpet of Solomon. Hence, as one +remarks, these Fairy Tales have pleased and still continue to +please almost all ages, all ranks and all different capacities. + +Dr. Hawkesworth[FN#246] observes that these Fairy Tales find +favour "because even their machinery, wild and wonderful as it +is, has its laws; and the magicians and enchanters perform +nothing but what was naturally to be expected from such beings, +after we had once granted them existence." Mr. Heron "rather +supposes the very contrary is the truth of the fact. It is +surely the strangeness, the unknown nature, the anomalous +character of the supernatural agents here employed, that makes +them to operate so powerfully on our hopes, fears, curiosities, +sympathies, and, in short, on all the feelings of our hearts. We +see men and women, who possess qualities to recommend them to our +favour, subjected to the influence of beings, whose good or ill +will, power or weakness, attention or neglect, are regulated by +motives and circumstances which we cannot comprehend: and hence, +we naturally tremble for their fate, with the same anxious +concern, as we should for a friend wandering, in a dark night, +amidst torrents and precipices; or preparing to land on a strange +island, while he knew not whether he should be received, on the +shore, by cannibals waiting to tear him piecemeal, and devour +him, or by gentle beings, disposed to cherish him with fond +hospitality." Both writers have expressed themselves well, but +meseems each has secured, as often happens, a fragment of the +truth and holds it to be the whole Truth. Granted that such +spiritual creatures as Jinns walk the earth, we are pleased to +find them so very human, as wise and as foolish in word and deed +as ourselves: similarly we admire in a landscape natural forms +like those of Staffa or the Palisades which favour the works of +architecture. Again, supposing such preternaturalisms to be +around and amongst us, the wilder and more capricious they prove, +the more our attention is excited and our forecasts are baffled +to be set right in the end. But this is not all. The grand +source of pleasure in Fairy Tales is the natural desire to learn +more of the Wonderland which is known to many as a word and +nothing more, like Central Africa before the last half century: +thus the interest is that of the "Personal Narrative" of a grand +exploration to one who delights in travels. The pleasure must be +greatest where faith is strongest; for instance amongst +imaginative races like the Kelts and especially Orientals, who +imbibe supernaturalism with their mother's milk. "I am +persuaded," writes Mr. Bayle St. John,[FN#247] "that the great +scheme of preternatural energy, so fully developed in The +Thousand and One Nights, is believed in by the majority of the +inhabitants of all the religious professions both in Syria and +Egypt." He might have added "by every reasoning being from +prince to peasant, from Mullah to Badawi, between Marocco and +Outer Ind." + +The Fairy Tale in The Nights is wholly and purely Persian. The +gifted Iranian race, physically the noblest and the most +beautiful of all known to me, has exercised upon the world- +history an amount of influence which has not yet been fully +recognised. It repeated for Babylonian art and literature what +Greece had done for Egyptian, whose dominant idea was that of +working for eternity a . Hellas and Iran +instinctively chose as their characteristic the idea of Beauty, +rejecting all that was exaggerated and grotesque; and they made +the sphere of Art and Fancy as real as the world of Nature and +Fact. The innovation was hailed by the Hebrews. The so-called +Books of Moses deliberately and ostentatiously ignored the future +state of rewards and punishments, the other world which ruled the +life of the Egyptian in this world: the lawgiver, whoever he may +have been, Osarsiph or Moshe, apparently held the tenet unworthy +of a race whose career he was directing to conquest and isolation +in dominion. But the Jews, removed to Mesopotamia, the second +cradle of the creeds, presently caught the infection of their +Asiatic media; superadded Babylonian legend to Egyptian myth; +stultified The Law by supplementing it with the "absurdities of +foreign fable" and ended, as the Talmud proves, with becoming the +most wildly superstitious and "other worldly'' of mankind. + +The same change befel Al-Islam. The whole of its supernaturalism +is borrowed bodily from Persia, which had "imparadised Earth by +making it the abode of angels." Mohammed, a great and commanding +genius, blighted and narrowed by surroundings and circumstances +to something little higher than a Covenanter or a Puritan, +declared to his followers, + +"I am sent to 'stablish the manners and customs;" + +and his deficiency of imagination made him dislike everything but +"women, perfumes, and prayers," with an especial aversion to +music and poetry, plastic art and fiction. Yet his system, +unlike that of Moses, demanded thaumaturgy and metaphysical +entities, and these he perforce borrowed from the Jews who had +borrowed them from the Babylonians: his soul and spirit, his +angels and devils, his cosmogony, his heavens and hells, even the +Bridge over the Great Depth are all either Talmudic or Iranian. +But there he stopped and would have stopped others. His enemies +among the Koraysh were in the habit of reciting certain Persian +fabliaux and of extolling them as superior to the silly and +equally fictitious stories of the "Glorious Koran." The leader +of these scoffers was one Nazr ibn Háris who, taken prisoner +after the Battle of Bedr, was incontinently decapitated, by +apostolic command, for what appears to be a natural and sensible +preference. It was the same furious fanaticism and one-idea'd +intolerance which made Caliph Omar destroy all he could find of +the Alexandrian Library and prescribe burning for the Holy Books +of the Persian Guebres. And the taint still lingers in Al-Islam: +it will be said of a pious man, "He always studies the Koran, the +Traditions and other books of Law and Religion; and he never +reads poems nor listens to music or to stories." + +Mohammed left a dispensation or rather a reformation so arid, +jejune and material that it promised little more than the "Law of +Moses," before this was vivified and racially baptised by +Mesopotamian and Persic influences. But human nature was +stronger than the Prophet and, thus outraged, took speedy and +absolute revenge. Before the first century had elapsed, orthodox +Al-Islam was startled by the rise of Tasawwuf or Sufyism[FN#248] +a revival of classic Platonism and Christian Gnosticism, with a +mingling of modern Hylozoism; which, quickened by the glowing +imagination of the East, speedily formed itself into a creed the +most poetical and impractical, the most spiritual and the most +transcendental ever invented; satisfying all man's hunger for +"belief" which, if placed upon a solid basis of fact and proof, +would forthright cease to be belief. + +I will take from The Nights, as a specimen of the true Persian +romance, "The Queen of the Serpents" (vol. v. 298), the subject +of Lane's Carlylean denunciation. The first gorgeous picture is +the Session of the Snakes which, like their Indian congeners the +Nága kings and queens, have human heads and reptile bodies, an +Egyptian myth that engendered the "old serpent" of Genesis. The +Sultánah welcomes Hásib Karím al-Dín, the hapless lad who had +been left in a cavern to die by the greedy woodcutters; and, in +order to tell him her tale, introduces the "Adventures of +Bulúkiyá": the latter is an Israelite converted by editor and +scribe to Mohammedanism; but we can detect under his assumed +faith the older creed. Solomon is not buried by authentic +history "beyond the Seven (mystic) Seas," but at Jerusalem or +Tiberias; and his seal-ring suggests the Jám-i-Jam, the crystal +cup of the great King Jamshíd. The descent of the Archangel +Gabriel, so familiar to Al-Islam, is the manifestation of Bahman, +the First Intelligence, the mightiest of the Angels who enabled +Zarathustra-Zoroaster to walk like Bulukiya over the Dálatí or +Caspian Sea. [FN#249] Amongst the sights shown to Bulukiya, as he +traverses the Seven Oceans, is a battle royal between the +believing and the unbelieving Jinns, true Magian dualism, the +eternal duello of the Two Roots or antagonistic Principles, Good +and Evil, Hormuzd and Ahriman, which Milton has debased into a +common-place modern combat fought also with cannon. Sakhr the +Jinni is Eshem chief of the Divs, and Kaf, the encircling +mountain, is a later edition of Persian Alborz. So in the Mantak +al-Tayr (Colloquy of the Flyers) the Birds, emblems of souls, +seeking the presence of the gigantic feathered biped Simurgh, +their god, traverse seven Seas (according to others seven Wadys) +of Search, of Love, of Knowledge, of Competence, of Unity, of +Stupefaction, and of Altruism (i.e. annihilation of self), the +several stages of contemplative life. At last, standing upon the +mysterious island of the Simurgh and "casting a clandestine +glance at him they saw thirty birds[FN#250] in him; and when they +turned their eyes to themselves the thirty birds seemed one +Simurgh: they saw in themselves the entire Simurgh; they saw in +the Simurgh the thirty birds entirely." Therefore they arrived +at the solution of the problem "We and Thou;" that is, the +identity of God and Man; they were for ever annihilated in the +Simurgh and the shade vanished in the sun (Ibid. iii. 250). The +wild ideas concerning Khalít and Malít (vol. v. 319) are again +Guebre. "From the seed of Kayomars (the androgyne, like pre- +Adamite man) sprang a tree shaped like two human beings and +thence proceeded Meshia and Meshianah, first man and woman, +progenitors of mankind;" who, though created for "Shídistán, +Light-land," were seduced by Ahriman. This "two-man-tree" is +evidently the duality of Physis and Anti-physis, Nature and her +counterpart, the battle between Mihr, Izad or Mithra with his +Surush and Feristeh (Seraphs and Angels) against the Divs who are +the children of Time led by the arch demon-Eshem. Thus when +Hormuzd created the planets, the dog, and all useful animals and +plants, Ahriman produced the comets, the wolf, noxious beasts and +poisonous growths. The Hindus represent the same metaphysical +idea by Bramhá the Creator and Visva- karma, the Anti- +creator,[FN#251] miscalled by Europeans Vulcan: the former +fashions a horse and a bull and the latter caricatures them with +an ass and a buffalo,--evolution turned topsy turvy. After +seeing nine angels and obtaining an explanation of the Seven +Stages of Earth which is supported by the Gav-i-Zamín, the +energy, symbolised by a bull, implanted by the Creator in the +mundane sphere, Bulukiya meets the four Archangels, to wit +Gabriel who is the Persian Rawánbakhsh or Life-giver; Michael or +Beshter, Raphael or Israfil alias Ardibihisht, and Azazel or +Azrail who is Dumá or Mordad, the Death-giver; and the four are +about to attack the Dragon, that is, the demons hostile to +mankind who were driven behind Alborz-Kaf by Tahmuras the ancient +Persian king. Bulukiya then recites an episode within an +episode, the "Story of Jánsháh," itself a Persian name and +accompanied by two others (vol. v. 329), the mise-en-scène being +Kabul and the King of Khorasan appearing in the proem. Janshah, +the young Prince, no sooner comes to man's estate than he loses +himself out hunting and falls in with cannibals whose bodies +divide longitudinally, each moiety going its own way: these are +the Shikk (split ones) which the Arabs borrowed from the Persian +Ním- chihrah or Half-faces. They escape to the Ape-island whose +denizens are human in intelligence and speak articulately, as the +universal East believes they can: these Simiads are at chronic +war with the Ants, alluding to some obscure myth which gave rise +to the gold-diggers of Herodotus and other classics, "emmets in +size somewhat less than dogs but bigger than foxes."[FN#252] The +episode then falls into the banalities of Oriental folk-lore. +Janshah, passing the Sabbation river and reaching the Jews' city, +is persuaded to be sewn up in a skin and is carried in the normal +way to the top of the Mountain of Gems where he makes +acquaintance with Shaykh Nasr, Lord of the Birds: he enters the +usual forbidden room; falls in love with the pattern Swan-maiden; +wins her by the popular process; loses her and recovers her +through the Monk Yaghmús, whose name, like that of King Teghmús, +is a burlesque of the Greek; and, finally, when she is killed by +a shark, determines to mourn her loss till the end of his days. +Having heard this story Bulukiya quits him; and, resolving to +regain his natal land, falls in with Khizr; and the Green +Prophet, who was Wazir to Kay Kobad (vith century B. C.) and was +connected with Macedonian Alexander (!) enables him to win his +wish. The rest of the tale calls for no comment. + +Thirdly and lastly we have the histories, historical stories and +the "Ana" of great men in which Easterns as well as Westerns +delight: the gravest writers do not disdain to relieve the +dullness of chronicles and annals by means of such discussions, +humorous or pathetic, moral or grossly indecent. The dates must +greatly vary: some of the anecdotes relating to the early Caliphs +appear almost contemporary; others, like Ali of Cairo and Abu al- +Shamat, may be as late as the Ottoman Conquest of Egypt +(sixteenth century). All are distinctly Sunnite and show fierce +animus against the Shi'ah heretics, suggesting that they were +written after the destruction of the Fatimite dynasty (twelfth +century) by Salah al-Din (Saladin the Kurd) one of the latest +historical personages and the last king named in The Nights. +[FN#253] These anecdotes are so often connected with what a +learned Frenchman terms the "regne féerique de Haroun er- +Réschid,"[FN#254] that the Great Caliph becomes the hero of this +portion of The Nights. Aaron the Orthodox was the central figure +of the most splendid empire the world had seen, the Viceregent of +Allah combining the powers of Cæsar and Pope, and wielding them +right worthily according to the general voice of historians. To +quote a few: Ali bin Talib al-Khorásáni described him, in A.D. +934, a century and-a-half after his death when flattery would be +tongue-tied, as, "one devoted to war and pilgrimage, whose bounty +embraced the folk at large." Sa'adi (ob. A.D. 1291) tells a tale +highly favourable to him in the "Gulistan" (lib. i. 36). Fakhr +al-Din[FN#255] (xivth century) lauds his merits, eloquence, +science and generosity; and Al-Siyuti (nat. A.D. 1445) asserts +"He was one of the most distinguished of Caliphs and the most +illustrious of the Princes of the Earth" (p. 290). The Shaykh +al-Nafzáwi[FN#256] (sixteenth century) in his Rauz al-Átir fí +Nazáh al-Khátir = Scented Garden-site for Heart-delight, calls +Harun (chapt. vii.) the "Master of munificence and bounty, the +best of the generous." And even the latest writers have not +ceased to praise him. Says Alí Azíz Efendi the Cretan, in the +Story of Jewád[FN#257] (p. 81), "Harun was the most bounteous, +illustrious and upright of the Abbaside Caliphs." + +The fifth Abbaside was fair and handsome, of noble and majestic +presence, a sportsman and an athlete who delighted in polo and +archery. He showed sound sense and true wisdom in his speech to +the grammarian-poet Al-Asma'î, who had undertaken to teach him:-- +"Ne m'enseignez jamais en public, et ne vous empressez pas trop +de me donner des avis en particulier. Attendez ordinairement que +je vous interroge, et contentez vous de me donner une response +précise à ce que je vous demanderai, sans y rien ajouter de +superflu. Gardez vous surtout de vouloir me préoccuper pour vous +attirer ma creance, et pour vous donner de l'autorité. Ne vous +etendez jamais trop en long sur les histoires et les traditions +que vous me raconterez, si je ne vous en donne la permission. +Lorsque vous verrai que je m'eloignerai de l'équité dans mes +jugements, ramenez-moi avec douceur, sans user de paroles +fâcheuses ni de réprimandes. Enseignez-moi principalement les +choses qui sont les plus necessaires pour les dis cours que je +dois faire en public, dans les mosquées et ailleurs; et ne parlez +point en termes obscurs, ou mystérieux, ni avec des paroles trop +recherchées.''[FN#258] + +He became well read in science and letters, especially history +and tradition, for "his understanding was as the understanding of +the learned;" and, like all educated Arabs of his day, he was a +connoisseur of poetry which at times he improvised with success. +[FN#259] He made the pilgrimage every alternate year and +sometimes on foot, while "his military expeditions almost +equalled his pilgrimages." Day after day during his Caliphate he +prayed a hundred "bows," never neglecting them, save for some +especial reason, till his death; and he used to give from his +privy purse alms to the extent of a hundred dirhams per diem. He +delighted in panegyry and liberally rewarded its experts, one of +whom, Abd al-Sammák the Preacher, fairly said of him, "Thy +humility in thy greatness is nobler than thy greatness.""No +Caliph," says Al-Niftawayh, "had been so profusely liberal to +poets, lawyers and divines, although as the years advanced he +wept over his extravagance amongst other sins." There was +vigorous manliness in his answer to the Grecian Emperor who had +sent him an insulting missive:--"In the name of Allah! From the +Commander of the Faithful Harun al-Rashid, to Nicephorus the +Roman dog. I have read thy writ, O son of a miscreant mother! +Thou shalt not hear, thou shalt see my reply." Nor did he cease +to make the Byzantine feel the weight of his arm till he +"nakh'd"[FN#260] his camel in the imperial Court-yard; and this +was only one instance of his indomitable energy and hatred of the +Infidel. Yet, if the West is to be believed, he forgot his +fanaticism in his diplomatic dealings and courteous intercourse +with Carolus Magnus.[FN#261] Finally, his civilised and well +regulated rule contrasted as strongly with the barbarity and +turbulence of occidental Christendom, as the splendid Court and +the luxurious life of Baghdad and its carpets and hangings +devanced the quasi-savagery of London and Paris whose palatial +halls were spread with rushes. + +The great Caliph ruled twenty-three years and a few months (A.H. +170-193 = A.D. 786-808); and, as his youth was chequered and his +reign was glorious, so was his end obscure.[FN#262] After a +vision foreshadowing his death,[FN#263] which happened, as +becomes a good Moslem, during a military expedition to Khorasan, +he ordered his grave to be dug and himself to be carried to it in +a covered litter: when sighting the fosse he exclaimed, "O son of +man thou art come to this!" Then he commanded himself to be set +down and a perfection of the Koran to be made over him in the +litter on the edge of the grave. He was buried (æt. forty-five) +at Sanábád, a village near Tús. + +Aaron the Orthodox appears in The Nights as a headstrong and +violent autocrat, a right royal figure according to the Moslem +ideas of his day. But his career shows that he was not more +tyrannical or more sanguinary than the normal despot of the East, +or the contemporary Kings of the West: in most points, indeed, he +was far superior to the historic misrulers who have afflicted the +world from Spain to furthest China. But a single great crime, a +tragedy whose details are almost incredibly horrible, marks his +reign with the stain of infamy, with a blot of blood never to be +washed away. This tale, "full of the waters of the eye," as +Firdausi sings, is the massacre of the Barmecides; a story which +has often been told and which cannot here be passed over in +silence. The ancient and noble Iranian house, belonging to the +"Ebná" or Arabised Persians, had long served the Ommiades till, +early in our eighth century, Khálid bin Bermek,[FN#264] the +chief, entered the service of the first Abbaside and became Wazir +and Intendant of Finance to Al-Saffah. The most remarkable and +distinguished of the family, he was in office when Al-Mansur +transferred the capital from Damascus, the headquarters of the +hated Ommiades, to Baghdad, built ad hoc. After securing the +highest character in history by his personal gifts and public +services, he was succeeded by his son and heir Yáhyá (John), a +statesman famed from early youth for prudence and profound +intelligence, liberality and nobility of soul.[FN#265] He was +charged by the Caliph Al-Mahdi with the education of his son +Harun, hence the latter was accustomed to call him father; and, +until the assassination of the fantastic tyrant Al-Hádi, who +proposed to make his own child Caliph, he had no little +difficulty in preserving the youth from death in prison. The +Orthodox, once seated firmly on the throne, appointed Yáhyá his +Grand Wazir. This great administrator had four sons, Al-Fazl, +Ja'afar, Mohammed, and Musa,[FN#266] in whose time the house of +Bermek rose to that height from which decline and fall are, in +the East, well nigh certain and immediate. Al-Fazl was a foster- +brother of Harun, an exchange of suckling infants having taken +place between the two mothers for the usual object, a tightening +of the ties of intimacy: he was a man of exceptional mind, but he +lacked the charm of temper and manner which characterised +Ja'afar. + +The poets and rhetoricians have been profuse in their praises of +the cadet who appears in The Nights as an adviser of calm sound +sense, an intercessor and a peace-maker, and even more remarkable +than the rest of his family for an almost incredible magnanimity +and generosity--une générosité effrayante. Mohammed was famed +for exalted views and nobility of sentiment and Musa for bravery +and energy: of both it was justly said, "They did good and harmed +not."[FN#267] + +For ten years (not including an interval of seven) from the time +of Al-Rashid's accession (A.D. 786) to the date of their fall, +(A.D. 803), Yahya and his sons, Al-Fazl and Ja'afar, were +virtually rulers of the great heterogeneous empire, which +extended from Mauritania to Tartary, and they did notable service +in arresting its disruption. Their downfall came sudden and +terrible like "a thunderbolt from the blue." As the Caliph and +Ja'afar were halting in Al-'Umr (the convent) near Anbár-town on +the Euphrates, after a convivial evening spent in different +pavilions, Harun during the dead of the night called up his page +Yásir al-Rikhlah[FN#268] and bade him bring Ja'afar's head. The +messenger found Ja'afar still carousing with the blind poet Abú +Zakkár and the Christian physician Gabriel ibn Bakhtiashú, and +was persuaded to return to the Caliph and report his death; the +Wazir adding, "An he express regret I shall owe thee my life; +and, if not, whatso Allah will be done." Ja'afar followed to +listen and heard only the Caliph exclaim "O sucker of thy +mother's clitoris, if thou answer me another word, I will send +thee before him!" whereupon he at once bandaged his own eyes and +received the fatal blow. Al-Asma'í, who was summoned to the +presence shortly after, recounts that when the head was brought +to Harun he gazed at it, and summoning two witnesses commanded +them to decapitate Yasir, crying, "I cannot bear to look upon the +slayer of Ja'afar!" His vengeance did not cease with the death: +he ordered the head to be gibbetted at one end and the trunk at +the other abutment of the Tigris bridge where the corpses of the +vilest malefactors used to be exposed; and, some months +afterwards, he insulted the remains by having them burned--the +last and worst indignity which can be offered to a Moslem. There +are indeed pity and terror in the difference between two such +items in the Treasury-accounts as these: "Four hundred thousand +dinars (£200,000) to a robe of honour for the Wazir Ja'afar bin +Yahya;" and, "Ten kírát, (5 shill.) to naphtha and reeds for +burning the body of Ja'afar the Barmecide." + +Meanwhile Yahya and Al-Fazl, seized by the Caliph Harun's command +at Baghdad, were significantly cast into the prison "Habs al- +Zanádikah"--of the Guebres--and their immense wealth which, some +opine, hastened their downfall, was confiscated. According to +the historian, Al-Tabari, who, however, is not supported by all +the annalists, the whole Barmecide family, men, women, and +children, numbering over a thousand, were slaughtered with only +three exceptions; Yahya, his brother Mohammed, and his son Al- +Fazl. The Caliph's foster-father, who lived to the age of +seventy-four, was allowed to die in jail (A.H. 805) after two +years' imprisonment at Rukkah. Al-Fazl, after having been +tortured with two hundred blows in order to make him produce +concealed property, survived his father three years and died in +Nov. A.H. 808, some four months before his terrible foster- +brother. A pathetic tale is told of the son warming water for +the old man's use by pressing the copper ewer to his stomach. + +The motives of this terrible massacre are variously recounted, +but no sufficient explanation has yet been, or possibly ever will +be, given. The popular idea is embodied in The Nights. [FN#269] +Harun, wishing Ja'afar to be his companion even in the Harem, had +wedded him, pro formâ, to his eldest sister Abbásah, "the +loveliest woman of her day," and brilliant in mind as in body; +but he had expressly said "I will marry thee to her, that it may +be lawful for thee to look upon her but thou shalt not touch +her." Ja'afar bound himself by a solemn oath; but his mother +Attábah was mad enough to deceive him in his cups and the result +was a boy (Ibn Khallikan) or, according to others, twins. The +issue was sent under the charge of a confidential eunuch and a +slave-girl to Meccah for concealment; but the secret was divulged +to Zubaydah who had her own reasons for hating husband and wife +and cherished an especial grievance against Yahya.[FN#270] Thence +it soon found its way to head-quarters. Harun's treatment of +Abbásah supports the general conviction: according to the most +credible accounts she and her child were buried alive in a pit +under the floor of her apartment. + +But, possibly, Ja'afar's perjury was only "the last straw." +Already Al-Fazl bin Rabî'a, the deadliest enemy of the +Barmecides, had been entrusted (A.D. 786) with the Wazirate which +he kept seven years. Ja'afar had also acted generously but +imprudently in abetting the escape of Yahya bin Abdillah, Sayyid +and Alide, for whom the Caliph had commanded confinement in a +close dark dungeon: when charged with disobedience the Wazir had +made full confession and Harun had (they say) exclaimed, "Thou +hast done well!" but was heard to mutter, "Allah slay me an I +slay thee not."[FN#271] The great house seems at times to have +abused its powers by being too peremptory with Harun and +Zubaydah, especially in money matters;[FN#272] and its very +greatness would have created for it many and powerful enemies and +detractors who plied the Caliph with anonymous verse and prose. +Nor was it forgotten that, before the spread of Al-Islam, they +had presided over the Naubehár or Pyræthrum of Balkh; and Harun +is said to have remarked anent Yahya, "The zeal for magianism, +rooted in his heart, induces him to save all the monuments +connected with his faith."[FN#273] Hence the charge that they +were "Zanádakah," a term properly applied to those who study the +Zend scripture, but popularly meaning Mundanists, Positivists, +Reprobates, Atheists; and it may be noted that, immediately after +al-Rashid's death, violent religious troubles broke out in +Baghdad. Ibn Khallikan[FN#274] quotes Sa'id ibn Salim, a +well-known grammarian and traditionist who philosophically +remarked, "Of a truth the Barmecides did nothing to deserve Al- +Rashid's severity, but the day (of their power and prosperity) +had been long and whatso endureth long waxeth longsome." Fakhr +al-Din says (p. 27), "On attribue encore leur ruine aux manières +fières et orgueilleuses de Djafar (Ja'afar) et de Fadhl (Al- +Fazl), manières que les rois ne sauroient supporter." According +to Ibn Badrún, the poet, when the Caliph's sister +'Olayyah[FN#275] asked him, "O my lord, I have not seen thee +enjoy one happy day since putting Ja'afar to death: wherefore +didst thou slay him?" he answered, "My dear life, an I thought +that my shirt knew the reason I would rend it in pieces!" I +therefore hold with Al Mas'udi, + +"As regards the intimate cause (of the catastrophe) it is unknown +and Allah is Omniscient." + +Aaron the Orthodox appears sincerely to have repented his +enormous crime. From that date he never enjoyed refreshing +sleep: he would have given his whole realm to recall Ja'afar to +life; and, if any spoke slightingly of the Barmecides in his +presence, he would exclaim, "God damn your fathers! Cease to +blame them or fill the void they have left." And he had ample +reason to mourn the loss. After the extermination of the wise +and enlightened family, the affairs of the Caliphate never +prospered: Fazl bin Rabí'a, though a man of intelligence and +devoted to letters, proved a poor substitute for Yahya and +Ja'afar; and the Caliph is reported to have applied to him the +couplet:-- + +No sire to your sire,[FN#276] I bid you spare * Your calumnies or + their place replace. + +His unwise elevation of his two rival sons filled him with fear +of poison, and, lastly, the violence and recklessness of the +popular mourning for the Barmecides,[FN#277] whose echo has not +yet died away, must have added poignancy to his tardy penitence. +The crime still "sticks fiery off" from the rest of Harun's +career: it stands out in ghastly prominence as one of the most +terrible tragedies recorded by history, and its horrible details +make men write passionately on the subject to this our +day.[FN#278] + +As of Harun so of Zubaydah it may be said that she was far +superior in most things to contemporary royalties, and she was +not worse at her worst than the normal despot-queen of the +Morning-land. We must not take seriously the tales of her +jealousy in The Nights, which mostly end in her selling off or +burying alive her rivals; but, even were all true, she acted +after the recognised fashion of her exalted sisterhood. The +secret history of Cairo, during the last generation, tells of +many a viceregal dame who committed all the crimes, without any +of the virtues which characterised Harun's cousin-spouse. And +the difference between the manners of the Caliphate and the +"respectability" of the nineteenth century may be measured by the +Tale called "Al-Maamun and Zubaydah."[FN#279] The lady, having +won a game of forfeits from her husband, and being vexed with him +for imposing unseemly conditions when he had been the winner, +condemned him to lie with the foulest and filthiest kitchen-wench +in the palace; and thus was begotten the Caliph who succeeded and +destroyed her son. + +Zubaydah was the grand-daughter of the second Abbaside Al-Mansur, +by his son Ja'afar whom The Nights persistently term Al-Kasim: +her name was Amat al-Azíz or Handmaid of the Almighty; her +cognomen was Umm Ja'afar as her husband's was Abú Ja'afar; and +her popular name "Creamkin" derives from Zubdah,[FN#280] cream or +fresh butter, on account of her plumpness and freshness. She was +as majestic and munificent as her husband; and the hum of prayer +was never hushed in her palace. Al-Mas'udi[FN#281] makes a +historian say to the dangerous Caliph Al-Káhir, "The nobleness +and generosity of this Princess, in serious matters as in her +diversions, place her in the highest rank"; and he proceeds to +give ample proof. Al-Siyuti relates how she once filled a poet's +mouth with jewels which he sold for twenty thousand dinars. Ibn +Khallikan (i. 523) affirms of her, "Her charity was ample, her +conduct virtuous, and the history of her pilgrimage to Meccah and +of what she undertook to execute on the way is so well-known that +it were useless to repeat it." I have noted (Pilgrimage iii. 2) +how the Darb al-Sharki or Eastern road from Meccah to Al-Medinah +was due to the piety of Zubaydah who dug wells from Baghdad to +the Prophet's burial place and built not only cisterns and +caravanserais, but even a wall to direct pilgrims over the +shifting sands. She also supplied Meccah, which suffered +severely from want of water, with the chief requisite for public +hygiene by connecting it, through levelled hills and hewn rocks, +with the Ayn al-Mushásh in the Arafat subrange; and the fine +aqueduct, some ten miles long, was erected at a cost of 1,700,000 +to 2,000,000 of gold pieces. [FN#282] We cannot wonder that her +name is still famous among the Badawin and the "Sons of the Holy +Cities." She died at Baghdad, after a protracted widowhood, in +A.H. 216 and her tomb, which still exists, was long visited by +the friends and dependents who mourned the loss of a devout and +most liberal woman. + +The reader will bear with me while I run through the tales and +add a few remarks to the notices given in the notes: the glance +must necessarily be brief, however extensive be the theme. The +admirable introduction follows, in all the texts and MSS. known +to me, the same main lines but differs greatly in minor details +as will be seen by comparing Mr. Payne's translation with Lane's +and mine. In the Tale of the Sage Dúbán appears the speaking +head which is found in the Kamil, in Mirkhond and in the Kitáb +al-Uyún: M. C. Barbier de Meynard (v. 503) traces it back to an +abbreviated text of Al-Mas'udi. I would especially recommend to +students The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad (i. 82), +whose mighty orgie ends so innocently in general marriage. Lane +(iii. 746) blames it "because it represents Arab ladies as acting +like Arab courtesans"; but he must have known that during his day +the indecent frolic was quite possible in some of the highest +circles of his beloved Cairo. To judge by the style and changes +of person, some of the most "archaic" expressions suggest the +hand of the Ráwi or professional tale-teller; yet as they are in +all the texts they cannot be omitted in a loyal translation. The +following story of The Three Apples perfectly justifies my notes +concerning which certain carpers complain. What Englishman would +be jealous enough to kill his cousin-wife because a blackamoor in +the streets boasted of her favours? But after reading what is +annotated in vol. i. 6, and purposely placed there to give the +key-note of the book, he will understand the reasonable nature of +the suspicion; and I may add that the same cause has commended +these "skunks of the human race" to debauched women in England. + +The next tale, sometimes called "The Two Wazírs," is notable for +its regular and genuine drama-intrigue which, however, appears +still more elaborate and perfected in other pieces. The richness +of this Oriental plot-invention contrasts strongly with all +European literatures except the Spaniard's, whose taste for the +theatre determined his direction, and the Italian, which in +Boccaccio's day had borrowed freely through Sicily from the East. +And the remarkable deficiency lasted till the romantic movement +dawned in France, when Victor Hugo and Alexander Dumas showed +their marvellous powers of faultless fancy, boundless imagination +and scenic luxuriance, "raising French Poetry from the dead and +not mortally wounding French prose.''[FN#283] The Two Wazirs is +followed by the gem of the volume, The Adventure of the +Hunchback-jester (i. 225), also containing an admirable surprise +and a fine development of character, while its "wild but natural +simplicity" and its humour are so abounding that it has echoed +through the world to the farthest West. It gave to Addison the +Story of Alnaschar[FN#284] and to Europe the term "Barmecide +Feast," from the "Tale of Shacabac" (vol. i. 343). The +adventures of the corpse were known in Europe long before Galland +as shown by three fabliaux in Barbazan. I have noticed that the +Barber's Tale of himself (i. 317) is historical and I may add +that it is told in detail by Al-Mas'udi (chapt. cxiv). + +Follows the tale of Núr al-Dín Alí, and what Galland miscalls +"The Fair Persian," a brightly written historiette with not a few +touches of true humour. Noteworthy are the Slaver's address +(vol. ii. 15), the fine description of the Baghdad garden (vol. +ii. 21-24), the drinking-party (vol. ii. 25), the Caliph's frolic +(vol. ii. 31-37) and the happy end of the hero's misfortunes +(vol. ii. 44) Its brightness is tempered by the gloomy tone of +the tale which succeeds, and which has variants in the Bagh o +Bahar, a Hindustani versionof the Persian "Tale of the Four +Darwayshes;" and in the Turkish Kirk Vezir or "Book of the Forty +Vezirs." Its dismal péripéties are relieved only by the witty +indecency of Eunuch Bukhayt and the admirable humour of Eunuch +Kafur, whose "half lie" is known throughout the East. Here also +the lover's agonies are piled upon him for the purpose of +unpiling at last: the Oriental tale-teller knows by experience +that, as a rule, doleful endings "don't pay." + +The next is the long romance of chivalry, "King Omar bin al- +Nu'man" etc., which occupies an eighth of the whole repertory and +the best part of two volumes. Mr. Lane omits it because "obscene +and tedious," showing the license with which he translated; and +he was set right by a learned reviewer,[FN#285] who truly +declared that "the omission of half-a-dozen passages out of four +hundred pages would fit it for printing in any language[FN#286] +and the charge of tediousness could hardly have been applied more +unhappily." The tale is interesting as a picture of mediæval +Arab chivalry and has many other notable points; for instance, +the lines (iii. 86) beginning "Allah holds the kingship!" are a +lesson to the manichæanism of Christian Europe. It relates the +doings of three royal generations and has all the characteristics +of Eastern art: it is a phantasmagoria of Holy Places, palaces +and Harems; convents, castles and caverns, here restful with +gentle landscapes (ii. 240) and there bristling with furious +battle-pictures (ii. 117, 221-8, 249) and tales of princely +prowess and knightly derring-do. The characters stand out well. +King Nu'man is an old lecher who deserves his death; the ancient +Dame Zát al-Dawáhi merits her title Lady of Calamities (to her +foes); Princess Abrizah appears as a charming Amazon, doomed to a +miserable and pathetic end; Zau al-Makán is a wise and pious +royalty; Nuzhat al-Zamán, though a longsome talker, is a model +sister; the Wazir Dandán, a sage and sagacious counsellor, +contrasts with the Chamberlain, an ambitious miscreant; Kánmakán +is the typical Arab knight, gentle and brave:-- + +Now managing the mouthes of stubborne steedes +Now practising the proof of warlike deedes; + +And the kind-hearted, simple-minded Stoker serves as a foil to +the villains, the kidnapping Badawi and Ghazbán the detestable +negro. The fortunes of the family are interrupted by two +episodes, both equally remarkable. Taj al-Mulúk[FN#287] is the +model lover whom no difficulties or dangers can daunt. In Azíz +and Azízah (ii. 291) we have the beau ideal of a loving woman: +the writer's object was to represent a "softy" who had the luck +to win the love of a beautiful and clever cousin and the mad +folly to break her heart. The poetical justice which he receives +at the hands of women of quite another stamp leaves nothing to be +desired. Finally the plot of "King Omar" is well worked out; and +the gathering of all the actors upon the stage before the curtain +drops may be improbable but it is highly artistic. + +The long Crusading Romance is relieved by a sequence of sixteen +fabliaux, partly historiettes of men and beasts and partly +apologues proper--a subject already noticed. We have then (iii. +162) the saddening and dreary love-tale of Ali bin Bakkár, a +Persian youth and the Caliph's concubine Shams al-Nahár. Here +the end is made doleful enough by the deaths of the "two +martyrs," who are killed off, like Romeo and Juliet,[FN#288] a +lesson that the course of true Love is sometimes troubled and +that men as well as women can die of the so-called "tender +passion." It is followed (iii. 212) by the long tale of Kamar +al-Zamán, or Moon of the Age, the first of that name, the +"Camaralzaman" whom Galland introduced into the best European +society. Like "The Ebony Horse" it seems to have been derived +from a common source with "Peter of Provence" and "Cleomades and +Claremond"; and we can hardly wonder at its wide diffusion: the +tale is brimful of life, change, movement, containing as much +character and incident as would fill a modern three-volumer and +the Supernatural pleasantly jostles the Natural; Dahnash the Jinn +and Maymúnah daughter of Al-Dimiryát,[FN#289] a renowned King of +the Jann, being as human in their jealousy about the virtue of +their lovers as any children of Adam, and so their metamorphosis +to fleas has all the effect of a surprise. The troupe is again +drawn with a broad firm touch. Prince Charming, the hero, is +weak and wilful, shifty and immoral, hasty and violent: his two +spouses are rivals in abominations as his sons, Amjad and As'ad, +are examples of a fraternal affection rarely found in half- +brothers by sister-wives. There is at least one fine +melodramatic situation (iii. 228); and marvellous feats of +indecency, a practical joke which would occur only to the canopic +mind (iii. 300-305), emphasise the recovery of her husband by +that remarkable "blackguard," the Lady Budúr. The interpolated +tale of Ni'amah and Naomi (iv. I), a simple and pleasing +narrative of youthful amours, contrasts well with the boiling +passions of the incestuous and murderous Queens and serves as a +pause before the grand denouement when the parted meet, the lost +are found, the unwedded are wedded and all ends merrily as a +xixth century novel. + +The long tale of Alá al-Din, our old friend "Aladdin," is wholly +out of place in its present position (iv. 29): it is a +counterpart of Ali Nûr al-Din and Miriam the Girdle-girl (vol. +ix. i); and the mention of the Shahbandar or Harbour-master (iv. +29), the Kunsul or Consul (p. 84), the Kaptan (Capitano), the use +of cannon at sea and the choice of Genoa city (p. 85) prove that +it belongs to the xvth or xvith century and should accompanyKamar +al-Zamàn II. and Ma'aruf at the +end of The Nights. Despite the lutist Zubaydah being carried off +by the Jinn, the Magic Couch, a modification of Solomon's carpet, +and the murder of the King who refused to islamize, it is +evidently a European tale and I believe with Dr. Bacher that it +is founded upon the legend of "Charlemagne's" daughter Emma and +his secretary Eginhardt, as has been noted in the counterpart +(vol. ix. 1). + +This quasi-historical fiction is followed hy a succession of +fabliaux, novelle and historiettes which fill the rest of the +vol. iv. and the whole of vol. v. till we reach the terminal +story, The Queen of the Serpents (vol. v. pp. 304-329). It +appears to me that most of them are historical and could easily +be traced. Not a few are in Al-Mas'udi; for instance the grim +Tale of Hatim of Tayy (vol. iv. 94) is given bodily in "Meads of +Gold" (iii. 327); and the two adventures of Ibrahim al-Mahdi with +the barber-surgeon (vol. iv. 103) and the Merchant's sister (vol. +iv. 176) are in his pages (vol. vii. 68 and 18). The City of +Lubtayt (vol. iv. 99) embodies the legend of Don Rodrigo, last of +the Goths, and may have reached the ears of Washington Irving; +Many-columned Iram (vol. iv. 113) is held by all Moslems to be +factual and sundry writers have recorded the tricks played by Al- +Maamun with the Pyramids of Jizah which still show his +handiwork.[FN#290] The germ of Isaac of Mosul (vol. iv. 119) is +found in Al-Mas'udi who (vii. 65) names "Burán" the poetess (Ibn +Khall. i. 268); and Harun al-Rashid and the Slave-girl (vol. iv. +153) is told by a host of writers. Ali the Persian is a +rollicking tale of fun from some Iranian jest-book: Abu Mohammed +hight Lazybones belongs to the cycle of "Sindbad the Seaman," +with a touch of Whittington and his Cat; and Zumurrud +("Smaragdine") in Ali Shar (vol. iv. 187) shows at her sale the +impudence of Miriam the Girdle-girl and in bed the fescennine +device of the Lady Budur. The "Ruined Man who became Rich," etc. +(vol. iv. 289) is historical and Al-Mas'udi (vii. 281) relates +the coquetry of Mahbúbah the concubine (vol. iv. 291): the +historian also quotes four couplets, two identical with Nos. 1 +and 2 in The Nights (vol. iv. 292) and adding:-- + +Then see the slave who lords it o'er her lord * In lover privacy + and public site: +Behold these eyes that one like Ja'afar saw: * Allah on Ja'afar + reign boons infinite! + +Uns al-Wujúd (vol. v. 32) is a love-tale which has been +translated into a host of Eastern languages; and The Lovers of +the Banu Ozrah belong to Al-Mas'udi's "Martyrs of Love" (vii. +355), with the ozrite "Ozrite love" of Ibn Khallikan (iv. 537). +"Harun and the Three Poets" (vol. v. 77) has given to Cairo a +proverb which Burckhardt (No. 561) renders "The day obliterates +the word or promise of the Night," for + +The promise of night is effaced by day. + +It suggests Congreve's Doris:-- + +For who o'er night obtain'd her grace, +She can next day disown, etc. + +"Harun and the three Slave-girls" (vol. v. 81) smacks of +Gargantua (lib. i. c. 11): "It belongs to me, said one: 'Tis +mine, said another"; and so forth. The Simpleton and the Sharper +(vol. v. 83) like the Foolish Dominie (vol. v. 118) is an old Joe +Miller in Hindu as well as Moslem folk-lore. "Kisra Anushirwán" +(vol. v. 87) is "The King, the Owl and the Villages of Al- +Mas'udi" (iii. 171), who also notices the Persian monarch's four +seals of office (ii. 204); and "Masrur the Eunuch and Ibn Al- +Káribi" (vol. v. 109) is from the same source as Ibn al-Magházili +the Reciter and a Eunuch belonging to the Caliph Al-Mu'tazad +(vol. viii. 161). In the Tale of Tawaddud (vol. v. 139) we have +the fullest development of the disputations and displays of +learning then so common in Europe, teste the "Admirable +Crichton"; and these were affected not only by Eastern tale- +tellers but even by sober historians. To us it is much like +"padding" when Nuzhat al-Zamán (vol. ii. 156 etc.) fags her +hapless hearers with a discourse covering sixteen mortal pages; +when the Wazir Dandan (vol. ii. 195, etc.) reports at length the +cold speeches of the five high-bosomed maids and the Lady of +Calamities and when Wird Khan, in presence of his papa (Nights +cmxiv-xvi.) discharges his patristic exercitations and +heterogeneous knowledge. Yet Al-Mas'udi also relates, at dreary +extension (vol. vi. 369) the disputation of the twelve sages in +presence of Barmecide Yahya upon the origin, the essence, the +accidents and the omnes res of Love; and in another place (vii. +181) shows Honayn, author of the Book of Natural Questions, +undergoing a long examination before the Caliph Al-Wásik (Vathek) +and describing, amongst other things, the human teeth. See also +the dialogue or catechism of Al-Hajjáj and Ibn Al-Kirríya in Ibn +Khallikan (vol. i. 238-240). + +These disjecta membra of tales and annals are pleasantly relieved +by the seven voyages of Sindbad the Seaman (vol. vi. 1-83). The +"Arabian Odyssey" may, like its Greek brother, descend from a +noble family, the "Shipwrecked Mariner" a Coptic travel-tale of +the twelfth dynasty (B. C. 3500) preserved on a papyrus at St. +Petersburg. In its actual condition "Sindbad," is a fanciful +compilation, like De Foe's "Captain Singleton," borrowed from +travellers' tales of an immense variety and extracts from Al- +Idrísi, Al-Kazwíni and Ibn al-Wardi. Here we find the +Polyphemus, the Pygmies and the cranes of Homer and Herodotus; +the escape of Aristomenes; the Plinian monsters well known in +Persia; the magnetic mountain of Saint Brennan (Brandanus); the +aeronautics of "Duke Ernest of Bavaria''[FN#291] and sundry +cuttings from Moslem writers dating between our ninth and +fourteenth centuries.[FN#292] The "Shayhk of the Seaboard" +appears in the Persian romance of Kámaraupa translated by +Francklin, all the particulars absolutely corresponding. The +"Odyssey" is valuable because it shows how far Eastward the +mediaeval Arab had extended: already in The Ignorance he had +reached China and had formed a centre of trade at Canton. But +the higher merit of the cento is to produce one of the most +charming books of travel ever written, like Robinson Crusoe the +delight of children and the admiration of all ages. + +The hearty life and realism of Sindbad are made to stand out in +strong relief by the deep melancholy which pervades "The City of +Brass" (vol. vi. 83), a dreadful book for a dreary day. It is +curious to compare the doleful verses (pp. 103, 105) with those +spoken to Caliph Al-Mutawakkil by Abu al-Hasan Ali (A1-Mas'udi, +vii. 246). We then enter upon the venerable Sindibad-nameh, the +Malice of Women (vol. vi. 122), of which, according to the Kitab +al-Fihrist (vol. i. 305), there were two editions, a Sinzibád al- +Kabír and a Sinzibád al-Saghír, the latter being probably an +epitome of the former. This bundle of legends, I have shown, was +incorporated with the Nights as an editor's addition; and as an +independent work it has made the round of the world. + +Space forbids any detailed notice of this choice collection of +anecdotes for which a volume would be required. I may, however, +note that the "Wife's device" (vol. vi. 152) has its analogues in +the Kathá (chapt. xiii.) in the Gesta Romanorum (No. xxviii.) and +in Boccaccio (Day iii. 6 and Day vi. 8), modified by La Fontaine +to Richard Minutolo (Contes lib. i. tale 2): it is quoted almost +in the words of The Nights by the Shaykh al-Nafzáwi (p. 207). +That most witty and indecent tale The Three Wishes (vol. vi. 180) +has forced its way disguised as a babe into our nurseries. +Another form of it is found in the Arab proverb "More luckless +than Basús" (Kamus), a fair Israelite who persuaded her husband, +also a Jew, to wish that she might become the loveliest of women. +Jehovah granted it, spitefully as Jupiter; the consequence was +that her contumacious treatment of her mate made him pray that +the beauty might be turned into a bitch; and the third wish +restored her to her original state. + +The Story of Júdar (vol. vi. 207) is Egyptian, to judge from its +local knowledge (pp. 217 and 254) together with its ignorance of +Marocco (p. 223). It shows a contrast, in which Arabs delight, +of an almost angelical goodness and forgiveness with a well-nigh +diabolical malignity, and we find the same extremes in Abú Sír +the noble-minded Barber and the hideously inhuman Abú Kír. The +excursion to Mauritania is artfully managed and gives a novelty +to the mise-en-scène. Gharíb and Ajíb (vi. 207, vii. 91) belongs +to the cycle of Antar and King Omar bin Nu'man: its exaggerations +make it a fine type of Oriental Chauvinism, pitting the +superhuman virtues, valour, nobility and success of all that is +Moslem, against the scum of the earth which is non-Moslem. Like +the exploits of Friar John of the Chopping-knives (Rabelais i. c. +27) it suggests ridicule cast on impossible battles and tales of +giants, paynims and paladins. The long romance is followed by +thirteen historiettes all apparently historical: compare "Hind, +daughter of Al-Nu'man" (vol. viii. 7-145) and "Isaac of Mosul and +the Devil" (vol. vii. 136-139) with Al Mas'udi v. 365 and vi. +340. They end in two long detective-tales like those which M. +Gaboriau has popularised, the Rogueries of Dalilah and the +Adventures of Mercury Ali, based upon the principle, "One thief +wots another." The former, who has appeared before (vol. ii. +329), seems to have been a noted character: Al-Mas'udi says +(viii. 175) "in a word this Shaykh (Al-'Ukáb) outrivalled in his +rogueries and the ingenuities of his wiles Dállah (Dalilah?) the +Crafty and other tricksters and coney-catchers, ancient and +modern." + +The Tale of Ardashir (vol. vii. 209-264) lacks originality: we +are now entering upon a series of pictures which are replicas of +those preceding. This is not the case with that charming Undine, +Julnár the Sea-born (vol. vii. 264-308) which, like Abdullah of +the Land and Abdullah of the Sea (vol. ix. Night cmxl.), +describes the vie intime of mermen and merwomen. Somewhat +resembling Swift's inimitable creations, the Houyhnhnms for +instance, they prove, amongst other things, that those who dwell +in a denser element can justly blame and severely criticise the +contradictory and unreasonable prejudices and predilections of +mankind. Sayf al-Mulúk (vol. viii. Night dcclviii.), the +romantic tale of two lovers, shows by its introduction that it +was originally an independent work and it is known to have +existed in Persia during the eleventh century: this novella has +found its way into every Moslem language of the East even into +Sindi, which calls the hero "Sayfal." Here we again meet the Old +Man of the Sea or rather the Shaykh of the Seaboard and make +acquaintance with a Jinn whose soul is outside his body: thus he +resembles Hermotimos of Klazamunae in Apollonius, whose spirit +left his mortal frame à discretion. The author, +philanthropically remarking (vol. viii. 4) "Knowest thou not that +a single mortal is better, in Allah's sight than a thousand +Jinn?" brings the wooing to a happy end which leaves a pleasant +savour upon the mental palate. + +Hasan of Bassorah (vol. viii. 7-145) is a Master Shoetie on a +large scale like Sindbad, but his voyages and travels extend into +the supernatural and fantastic rather than the natural world. +Though long the tale is by no means wearisome and the characters +are drawn with a fine firm hand. The hero with his hen-like +persistency of purpose, his weeping, fainting and versifying is +interesting enough and proves that "Love can find out the way." +The charming adopted sister, the model of what the feminine +friend should be; the silly little wife who never knows that she +is happy till she loses happiness; the violent and hard-hearted +queen with all the cruelty of a good woman, and the manners and +customs of Amazon land are outlined with a life-like vivacity. +Khalífah the next tale (vol. viii. 147-184) is valuable as a +study of Eastern life, showing how the fisherman emerges from the +squalor of his surroundings and becomes one of the Caliph's +favourite cup-companions. Ali Nur al-Din (vol. viii. 264) and +King Jali'ad (vol. ix., Night dcccxciv) have been noticed +elsewhere and there is little to say of the concluding stories +which bear the evident impress of a more modern date. + +Dr. Johnson thus sums up his notice of The Tempest. "Whatever +might have been the intention of their author, these tales are +made instrumental to the production of many characters, +diversified with boundless invention, and preserved with profound +skill in nature; extensive knowledge of opinions, and accurate +observation of life. Here are exhibited princes, courtiers and +sailors, all speaking in their real characters. There is the +agency of airy spirits and of earthy goblin, the operations of +magic, the tumults of a storm, the adventures of a desert island, +the native effusion of untaught affection, the punishment of +guilt, and the final happiness of those for whom our passions and +reason are equally interested." + +We can fairly say this much and far more for our Tales. Viewed +as a tout ensemble in full and complete form, they are a drama of +Eastern life, and a Dance of Death made sublime by faith and the +highest emotions, by the certainty of expiation and the fulness +of atoning equity, where virtue is victorious, vice is vanquished +and the ways of Allah are justified to man. They are a panorama +which remains ken-speckle upon the mental retina. They form a +phantasmagoria in which archangels and angels, devils and +goblins, men of air, of fire, of water, naturally mingle with men +of earth; where flying horses and talking fishes are utterly +realistic: where King and Prince meet fisherman and pauper, lamia +and cannibal; where citizen jostles Badawi, eunuch meets knight; +the Kazi hob-nobs with the thief; the pure and pious sit down to +the same tray with the bawd and the pimp; where the professional +religionist, the learned Koranist and the strictest moralist +consort with the wicked magician, the scoffer and the debauchee- +poet like Abu Nowas; where the courtier jests with the boor and +where the sweep is bedded with the noble lady. And the +characters are "finished and quickened by a few touches swift and +sure as the glance of sunbeams." The work is a kaleidoscope +where everything falls into picture; gorgeous palaces and +pavilions; grisly underground caves and deadlywolds; gardens +fairer than those of the Hesperid; seas dashing with clashing +billows upon enchanted mountains; valleys of the Shadow of Death; +air-voyages and promenades in the abysses of ocean; the duello, +the battle and the siege; the wooing of maidens and the marriage- +rite. All the splendour and squalor, the beauty and baseness, +the glamour and grotesqueness, the magic and the mournfulness, +the bravery and the baseness of Oriental life are here: its +pictures of the three great Arab passions, love, war and fancy, +entitle it to be called "Blood, Musk and Hashish."[FN#293] And +still more, the genius of the story-teller quickens the dry bones +of history, and by adding Fiction to Pact revives the dead past: +the Caliphs and the Caliphate return to Baghdad and Cairo, whilst +Asmodeus kindly removes the terrace-roof of every tenement and +allows our curious glances to take in the whole interior. This +is perhaps the best proof of their power. Finally, the picture- +gallery opens with a series of weird and striking adventures and +shows as a tail-piece, an idyllic scene of love and wedlock in +halls before reeking with lust and blood. + +I have noticed in my Foreword that the two main characteristics +of The Nights are Pathos and Humour, alternating with highly +artistic contrast, and carefully calculated to provoke tears and +smiles in the coffee-house audience which paid for them. The +sentimental portion mostly breathes a tender passion and a simple +sadness: such are the Badawi's dying farewell (vol i. 75); the +lady's broken heart on account of her lover's hand being cut off +(vol. i. 277); the Wazir's death, the mourner's song and the +"tongue of the case" (vol. ii. 10); the murder of Princess +Abrízah with the babe sucking its dead mother's breast (vol. ii. +128); and, generally, the last moments of good Moslems (e. g. +vol. 167), which are described with inimitable terseness and +naïveté. The sad and the gay mingle in the character of the good +Hammam-stoker who becomes Roi Crotte and the melancholy deepens +in the Tale of the Mad Lover (vol. v. 138); the Blacksmith who +could handle fire without hurt (vol. v. 271); the Devotee Prince +(vol. v. iii) and the whole Tale of Azízah (vol. ii. 298), whose +angelic love is set off by the sensuality and selfishness of her +more fortunate rivals. A new note of absolutely tragic dignity +seems to be struck in the Sweep and the Noble Lady (vol. iv. +125), showing the piquancy of sentiment which can be evolved from +the common and the unclean. The pretty conceit of the Lute (vol. +v. 244) is afterwards carried out in the Song (vol. viii. 281), +which is a masterpiece of originality[FN#294] and (in the Arabic) +of exquisite tenderness and poetic melancholy, the wail over the +past and the vain longing for reunion. And the very depths of +melancholy, of majestic pathos and of true sublimity are reached +in Many-columned Iram (vol. iv. 113) and the City of Brass (vol. +vi. 83): the metrical part of the latter shows a luxury of woe; +it is one long wail of despair which echoes long and loud in the +hearer's heart. + +In my Foreword I have compared the humorous vein of the comic +tales with our northern "wut," chiefly for the dryness and +slyness which pervade it. But it differs in degree as much as +the pathos varies. The staple article is Cairene "chaff," a +peculiar banter possibly inherited from their pagan forefathers: +instances of this are found in the Cock and Dog (vol. i. 22), the +Eunuch's address to the Cook (vol. i. 244), the Wazir's +exclamation, "Too little pepper!" (vol. i. 246), the self- +communing of Judar (vol. vi. 219), the Hashish-eater in Ali Shár +(vol. iv. 213), the scene between the brother-Wazirs (vol. i. +197), the treatment of the Gobbo (vol. i. 221, 228), the Water of +Zemzem (vol. i. 284), and the Eunuchs Bukhayt and Kafur[FN#295] +(vol. ii. 49, 51). At times it becomes a masterpiece of fun, of +rollicking Rabelaisian humour underlaid by the caustic mother-wit +of Sancho Panza, as in the orgie of the Ladies of Baghdad (vol. +i. 92, 93); the Holy Ointment applied to the beard of Luka the +Knight-- "unxerunt regem Salomonem" (vol. ii. 222); and Ja'afar +and the Old Badawi (vol. v. 98), with its reminiscence of +"chaffy" King Amasis. This reaches its acme in the description +of ugly old age (vol. v. 3); in The Three Wishes, the wickedest +of satires on the alter sexus (vi. 180); in Ali the Persian (vol. +iv. 139); in the Lady and her Five Suitors (vol. vi. 172), which +corresponds and contrasts with the dully told Story of Upakosa +and her Four Lovers of the Kathá (p. 17); and in The Man of Al- +Yaman (vol. iv. 245) where we find the true Falstaffian touch. +But there is sterling wit, sweet and bright, expressed without +any artifice of words, in the immortal Barber's tales of his +brothers, especially the second, the fifth and the sixth (vol. i. +324, 325 and 343). Finally, wherever the honest and independent +old debauchee Abu Nowas makes his appearance the fun becomes +fescennine and milesian. + + + + + + B.--The Manner of the Nights. + + + +And now, after considering the matter, I will glance at the +language and style of The Nights. The first point to remark is +the peculiarly happy framework of the Recueil, which I cannot but +suspect set an example to the Decamerone and its host of +successors.[FN#296] The admirable Introduction, a perfect mise- +en-scène, gives the amplest raison d'être of the work, which thus +has all the unity required for a great romantic recueil. We +perceive this when reading the contemporary Hindu work the Kathá +Sarit Ságara,[FN#297] which is at once so like and so unlike The +Nights: here the preamble is insufficient; the whole is clumsy +for want of a thread upon which the many independent tales and +fables should be strung[FN#298]; and the consequent disorder and +confusion tell upon the reader, who cannot remember the sequence +without taking notes. + +As was said in my Foreword "without The Nights no Arabian +Nights!" and now, so far from holding the pauses "an intolerable +interruption to the narrative," I attach additional importance to +these pleasant and restful breaks introduced into long and +intricate stories. Indeed beginning again I should adopt the +plan of the Cal. Edit. opening and ending every division with a +dialogue between the sisters. Upon this point, however, opinions +will differ and the critic will remind me that the consensus of +the MSS. would be wanting: The Bresl. Edit. in many places merely +interjects the number of the night without interrupting the tale; +the MS. in the Bibliotheque Nationale used by Galland contains +only cclxxxii and the Frenchman ceases to use the division after +the ccxxxvith Night and in some editions after the +cxcviith.[FN#299] A fragmentary MS. according to Scott whose +friend J. Anderson found it in Bengal, breaks away after Night +xxix; and in the Wortley Montagu, the Sultan relents at an early +opportunity, the stories, as in Galland, continuing only as an +amusement. I have been careful to preserve the balanced +sentences with which the tales open; the tautology and the prose- +rhyme serving to attract attention, e. g., "In days of yore and +in times long gone before there was a King," etc.; in England +where we strive not to waste words this becomes "Once upon a +time." The closings also are artfully calculated, by striking a +minor chord after the rush and hurry of the incidents, to suggest +repose: "And they led the most pleasurable of lives and the most +delectable, till there came to them the Destroyer of delights and +the Severer of societies and they became as though they had never +been." Place this by the side of Boccaccio's favourite +formulae:--Egli conquistò poi la Scozia, e funne re coronato (ii, +3); Et onorevolmente visse infino alla fine (ii, 4); Molte volte +goderono del loro amore: Iddio faccia noi goder del nostro (iii, +6): E cosi nella sue grossezza si rimase e ancor vi si sta (vi, +8). We have further docked this tail into: "And they lived +happily ever after." + +I cannot take up the Nights in their present condition, without +feeling that the work has been written down from the Ráwi or +Nakkál,[FN#300] the conteur or professional story-teller, also +called Kassás and Maddáh, corresponding with the Hindu Bhat or +Bard. To these men my learned friend Baron A. von Kremer would +attribute the Mu'allakat vulgarly called the Suspended Poems, as +being "indited from the relation of the Ráwi." Hence in our text +the frequent interruption of the formula Kal' al-Rawi = quotes +the reciter; dice Turpino. Moreover, The Nights read in many +places like a hand-book or guide for the professional, who would +learn them by heart; here and there introducing his "gag" and +"patter". To this "business" possibly we may attribute much of +the ribaldry which starts up in unexpected places: it was meant +simply to provoke a laugh. How old the custom is and how +unchangeable is Eastern life is shown, a correspondent suggests, +by the Book of Esther which might form part of The Alf Laylah. +"On that night (we read in Chap. vi. 1) could not the King sleep, +and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles; +and they were read before the King." The Ráwi would declaim the +recitative somewhat in conversational style; he would intone the +Saj'a or prose-rhyme and he would chant to the twanging of the +Rabáb, a one-stringed viol, the poetical parts. Dr. +Scott[FN#301] borrows from the historian of Aleppo a life-like +picture of the Story-teller. "He recites walking to and fro in +the middle of the coffee-room, stopping only now and then, when +the expression requires some emphatical attitude. He is commonly +heard with great attention; and not unfrequently in the midst of +some interesting adventure, when the expectation of his audience +is raised to the highest pitch, he breaks off abruptly and makes +his escape, leaving both his hero or heroine and his audience in +the utmost embarrassment. Those who happen to be near the door +endeavour to detain him, insisting upon the story being finished +before he departs; but he always makes his retreat good[FN#302]; +and the auditors suspending their curiosity are induced to return +at the same time next day to hear the sequel. He has no sooner +made his exit than the company in separate parties fall to +disputing about the characters of the drama or the event of an +unfinished adventure. The controversy by degrees becomes serious +and opposite opinions are maintained with no less warmth than if +the fall of the city depended upon the decision." + +At Tangier, where a murder in a "coffee-house" had closed these +hovels, pending a sufficient payment to the Pasha; and where, +during the hard winter of 1885-86, the poorer classes were +compelled to puff their Kayf (Bhang, cannabis indica) and sip +their black coffee in the muddy streets under a rainy sky, I +found the Ráwi active on Sundays and Thursdays, the market days. +The favourite place was the "Soko de barra," or large bazar, +outside the town whose condition is that of Suez and Bayrut half +a century ago. It is a foul slope; now slippery with viscous +mud, then powdery with fetid dust, dotted with graves and +decaying tombs, unclean booths, gargottes and tattered tents, and +frequented by women, mere bundles of unclean rags, and by men +wearing the haik or burnús, a Franciscan frock, tending their +squatting camels and chaffering over cattle for Gibraltar beef- +eaters. Here the market-people form a ring about the reciter, a +stalwart man affecting little raiment besides a broad waist-belt +into which his lower chiffons are tucked, and noticeable only for +his shock hair, wild eyes, broad grin and generally disreputable +aspect. He usually handles a short stick; and, when drummer and +piper are absent, he carries a tiny tom-tom shaped like an hour- +glass, upon which he taps the periods. This Scealuidhe, as the +Irish call him, opens the drama with extempore prayer, proving +that he and the audience are good Moslems: he speaks slowly and +with emphasis, varying the diction with breaks of animation, +abundant action and the most comical grimace: he advances, +retires and wheels about, illustrating every point with +pantomime; and his features, voice and gestures are so expressive +that even Europeans who cannot understand a word of Arabic divine +the meaning of his tale. The audience stands breathless and +motionless surprising strangers[FN#303] by the ingenuousness and +freshness of feeling hidden under their hard and savage exterior. +The performance usually ends with the embryo actor going round +for alms and flourishing in air every silver bit, the usual +honorarium being a few "f'lús," that marvellous money of Barbary, +big coppers worth one-twelfth of a penny. All the tales I heard +were purely local, but Fakhri Bey, a young Osmanli domiciled for +some time in Fez and Mequinez, assured me that The Nights are +still recited there. + +Many travellers, including Dr. Russell, have complained that they +failed to find a complete MS. copy of The Nights. Evidently they +never heard of the popular superstition which declares that no +one can read through them without dying--it is only fair that my +patrons should know this. Yacoub Artín Pasha declares that the +superstition dates from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries +and he explains it in two ways. Firstly, it is a facetious +exaggeration, meaning that no one has leisure or patience to wade +through the long repertory. Secondly, the work is condemned as +futile. When Egypt produced savants and legists like Ibn al- +Hajar, Al-'Ayni, and Al-Kastalláni, to mention no others, the +taste of the country inclined to dry factual studies and positive +science; nor, indeed, has this taste wholly died out: there are +not a few who, like Khayri Pasha, contend that the mathematic is +more useful even for legal studies than history and geography, +and at Cairo the chief of the Educational Department has always +been an engineer, i. e., a mathematician. The Olema declared war +against all "futilities," in which they included not only stories +but also what is politely entitled Authentic History. From this +to the fatal effect of such lecture is only a step. Society, +however, cannot rest without light literature; so the novel- +reading class was thrown back upon writings which had all the +indelicacy and few of the merits of The Nights. + +Turkey is the only Moslem country which has dared to produce a +regular drama[FN#304] and to arouse the energies of such +brilliant writers as Muníf Pasha, statesman and scholar; Ekrem +Bey, literato and professor; Kemál Bey, held by some to be the +greatest writer in modern Osmanli-land and Abd al-Hakk Hamíd Bey, +first Secretary of the London Embassy. The theatre began in its +ruder form by taking subjects bodily from The Nights; then it +annexed its plays as we do--the Novel having ousted the Drama-- +from the French; and lastly it took courage to be original. Many +years ago I saw Harun al-Rashid and the Three Kalandars, with +deer-skins and all their properties de rigueur in the court-yard +of Government House, Damascus, declaiming to the extreme +astonishment and delight of the audience. It requires only to +glance at The Nights for seeing how much histrionic matter they +contain. + +In considering the style of The Nights we must bear in mind that +the work has never been edited according to our ideas of the +process. Consequently there is no just reason for translating +the whole verbatim et literatim, as has been done by Torrens, +Lane and Payne in his "Tales from the Arabic."[FN#305] This +conscientious treatment is required for versions of an author +like Camœns, whose works were carefully corrected and arranged by +a competent littérateur, but it is not merited by The Nights as +they now are. The Macnaghten, the Bulak and the Bayrut texts, +though printed from MSS. identical in order, often differ in +minor matters. Many friends have asked me to undertake the work: +but, even if lightened by the aid of Shaykhs, Munshis and +copyists, the labour would be severe, tedious and thankless: +better leave the holes open than patch them with fancy work or +with heterogeneous matter. The learned, indeed, as Lane tells us +(i. 74; iii. 740), being thoroughly dissatisfied with the plain +and popular, the ordinary and "vulgar" note of the language, have +attempted to refine and improve it and have more than once +threatened to remodel it, that is, to make it odious. This would +be to dress up Robert Burns in plumes borrowed from Dryden and +Pope. + +The first defect of the texts is in the distribution and +arrangement of the matter, as I have noticed in the case of +Sindbad the Seaman (vol. vi. 77). Moreover, many of the earlier +Nights are overlong and not a few of the others are overshort: +this, however, has the prime recommendation of variety. Even the +vagaries of editor and scribe will not account for all the +incoherences, disorder and inconsequence, and for the vain +iterations which suggest that the author has forgotten what he +said. In places there are dead allusions to persons and tales +which are left dark, e. g. vol. i. pp. 43, 57, 61, etc. The +digressions are abrupt and useless, leading nowhere, while sundry +pages are wearisome for excess of prolixity or hardly +intelligible for extreme conciseness. The perpetual recurrence +of mean colloquialisms and of words and idioms peculiar to Egypt +and Syria[FN#306] also takes from the pleasure of the perusal. +Yet we cannot deny that it has its use: this unadorned language +of familiar conversation, in its day adapted for the +understanding of the people, is best fitted for the Rawi's craft +in the camp and caravan, the Harem, the bazar and the coffee- +house. Moreover, as has been well said, The Nights is the only +written half-way house between the literary and colloquial Arabic +which is accessible to all, and thus it becomes necessary to the +students who would qualify themselves for service in Moslem lands +from Mauritania to Mesopotamia. It freely uses Turkish words +like "Khátún" and Persian terms as "Sháhbandar," thus requiring +for translation not only a somewhat archaic touch, but also a +vocabulary borrowed from various sources: otherwise the effect +would not be reproduced. In places, however, the style rises to +the highly ornate approaching the pompous; e. g. the Wazirial +addresses in the tale of King Jali'ad. The battle-scenes, mostly +admirable (vol. v. 365), are told with the conciseness of a +despatch and the vividness of an artist; the two combining to +form perfect "word-pictures." Of the Badí'a or euphuistic style, +"Parleying euphuism," and of AI Saj'a, the prose rhyme, I shall +speak in a future page. + +The characteristics of the whole are naïveté and simplicity, +clearness and a singular concision. The gorgeousness is in the +imagery not in the language; the words are weak while the sense, +as in the classical Scandinavian books, is strong; and here the +Arabic differs diametrically from the florid exuberance and +turgid amplifications of the Persian story-teller, which sound so +hollow and unreal by the side of a chaster model. It abounds in +formulæ such as repetitions of religious phrases which are +unchangeable. There are certain stock comparisons, as Lokman's +wisdom, Joseph's beauty, Jacob's grief, Job's patience, David's +music, and Maryam the Virgin's chastity. The eyebrow is a Nún; +the eye a Sád, the mouth a Mím. A hero is more prudent than the +crow, a better guide than the Katá grouse, more generous than the +cock, warier than the crane, braver than the lion, more +aggressive than the panther, finer-sighted than the horse, +craftier than the fox, greedier than the gazelle, more vigilant +than the dog, and thriftier than the ant. The cup-boy is a sun +rising from the dark underworld symbolised by his collar; his +cheek-mole is a crumb of ambergris, his nose is a scymitar grided +at the curve; his lower lip is a jujube; his teeth are the +Pleiades or hailstones; his browlocks are scorpions; his young +hair on the upper lip is an emerald; his side beard is a swarm of +ants or a Lám ( -letter) enclosing the roses or anemones of his +cheek. The cup-girl is a moon who rivals the sheen of the sun; +her forehead is a pearl set off by the jet of her "idiot-fringe;" +her eyelashes scorn the sharp sword; and her glances are arrows +shot from the bow of the eyebrows. A mistress necessarily +belongs, though living in the next street, to the Wady Liwá and +to a hostile clan of Badawin whose blades are ever thirsting for +the lover's blood and whose malignant tongues aim only at the +"defilement of separation." Youth is upright as an Alif, or +slender and bending as a branch of the Bán-tree which we should +call a willow-wand,[FN#307] while Age, crabbed and crooked, bends +groundwards vainly seeking in the dust his lost juvenility. As +Baron de Slane says of these stock comparisons (Ibn Khall. i. +xxxvi.), "The figurative language of Moslem poets is often +difficult to be understood. The narcissus is the eye; the feeble +stem of that plant bends languidly under its dower, and thus +recalls to mind the languor of the eyes. Pearls signify both +tears and teeth; the latter are sometimes called hailstones, from +their whiteness and moisture; the lips are cornelians or rubies; +the gums, a pomegranate flower; the dark foliage of the myrtle is +synonymous with the black hair of the beloved, or with the first +down on the cheeks of puberty. The down itself is called the +izâr, or head-stall of the bridle, and the curve of the izar is +compared to the letters lâm ( ) and nûn ( ).[FN#308] Ringlets +trace on the cheek or neck the letter Waw ( ); they are called +Scorpions (as the Greek ), either from their dark colour +or their agitated movements; the eye is a sword; the eyelids +scabbards; the whiteness of the complexion, camphor; and a mole +or beauty-spot, musk, which term denotes also dark hair. A mole +is sometimes compared also to an ant creeping on the cheek +towards the honey of the mouth; a handsome face is both a full +moon and day; black hair is night; the waist is a willow-branch +or a lance; the water of the face is self-respect: a poet sells +the water of his face[FN#309] when he bestows mercenary praises +on a rich patron." + +This does not sound promising: yet, as has been said of Arab +music, the persistent repetition of the same notes in the minor +key is by no means monotonous and ends with haunting the ear, +occupying the thought and touching the soul. Like the distant +frog-concert and chirp of the cicada, the creak of the water- +wheel and the stroke of hammers upon the anvil from afar, the +murmur of the fountain, the sough of the wind and the plash of +the wavelet, they occupy the sensorium with a soothing effect, +forming a barbaric music full of sweetness and peaceful pleasure. + + + + + + § IV. + SOCIAL CONDITION. + + + +I here propose to treat of the Social Condition which The Nights +discloses, of Al-Islam at the earlier period of its development, +concerning the position of women and about the pornology of the +great Saga-book. + + A.--Al-Islam. + + + +A splendid and glorious life was that of Baghdad in the days of +the mighty Caliph,[FN#310] when the Capital had towered to the +zenith of grandeur and was already trembling and tottering to the +fall. The centre of human civilisation, which was then confined +to Greece and Arabia, and the metropolis of an Empire exceeding +in extent the widest limits of Rome, it was essentially a city of +pleasure, a Paris of the ixth century. The "Palace of Peace" (Dár +al-Salám), worthy successor of Babylon and Nineveh, which had +outrivalled Damascus, the "Smile of the Prophet," and Kufah, the +successor of Hira and the magnificent creation of Caliph Omar, +possessed unrivalled advantages of site and climate. The Tigris- +Euphrates Valley, where the fabled Garden of Eden has been +placed, in early ages succeeded the Nile- Valley as a great +centre of human development; and the prerogative of a central and +commanding position still promises it, even in the present state +of decay and desolation under the unspeakable Turk, a magnificent +future,[FN#311] when railways and canals shall connect it with +Europe. The city of palaces and government offices, hotels and +pavilions, mosques and colleges, kiosks and squares, bazars and +markets, pleasure grounds and orchards, adorned with all the +graceful charms which Saracenic architecture had borrowed from +the Byzantines, lay couched upon the banks of the Dijlah-Hiddekel +under a sky of marvellous purity and in a climate which makes +mere life a "Kayf"--the luxury of tranquil enjoyment. It was +surrounded by far extending suburbs, like Rusafah on the Eastern +side and villages like Baturanjah, dear to the votaries of +pleasure; and with the roar of a gigantic capital mingled the hum +of prayer, the trilling of birds, the thrilling of harp and lute, +the shrilling of pipes, the witching strains of the professional +Almah, and the minstrel's lay. + +The population of Baghdad must have been enormous when the +smallest number of her sons who fell victims to Huláku Khan in +1258 was estimated at eight hundred thousand, while other +authorities more than double the terrible "butcher's bill." Her +policy and polity were unique. A well regulated routine of +tribute and taxation, personally inspected by the Caliph; a +network of waterways, canaux d'arrosage; a noble system of +highways, provided with viaducts, bridges and caravanserais, and +a postal service of mounted couriers enabled it to collect as in +a reservoir the wealth of the outer world. The facilities for +education were upon the most extended scale; large sums, from +private as well as public sources, were allotted to Mosques, each +of which, by the admirable rule of Al-Islam, was expected to +contain a school: these establishments were richly endowed and +stocked with professors collected from every land between +Khorasan and Marocco;[FN#312] and immense libraries[FN#313] +attracted the learned of all nations. It was a golden age for +poets and panegyrists, koranists and literati, preachers and +rhetoricians, physicians and scientists who, besides receiving +high salaries and fabulous presents, were treated with all the +honours of Chinese Mandarins; and, like these, the humblest +Moslem--fisherman or artizan--could aspire through knowledge or +savoir faire to the highest offices of the Empire. The effect was +a grafting of Egyptian, and old Mesopotamian, of Persian and +Græco-Latin fruits, by long Time deteriorated, upon the strong +young stock of Arab genius; and the result, as usual after such +imping, was a shoot of exceptional luxuriance and vitality. The +educational establishments devoted themselves to the three main +objects recognised by the Moslem world, Theology, Civil Law and +Belles Lettres; and a multitude of trained Councillors enabled +the ruling powers to establish and enlarge that complicated +machinery of government, at once concentrated and decentralized, +a despotism often fatal to the wealthy great but never neglecting +the interests of the humbler lieges, which forms the beau idéal +of Oriental administration. Under the Chancellors of the Empire +the Kazis administered law and order, justice and equity; and +from their decisions the poorest subject, Moslem or miscreant, +could claim with the general approval of the lieges, access and +appeal to the Caliph who, as Imám or Antistes of the Faith was +High President of a Court of Cassation. + +Under wise administration Agriculture and Commerce, the twin +pillars of national prosperity, necessarily flourished. A +scientific canalisation, with irrigation works inherited from the +ancients, made the Mesopotamian Valley a rival of Kemi the Black +Land, and rendered cultivation a certainty of profit, not a mere +speculation, as it must ever be to those who perforce rely upon +the fickle rains of Heaven. The remains of extensive mines prove +that this source of public wealth was not neglected; navigation +laws encouraged transit and traffic; and ordinances for the +fisheries aimed at developing a branch of industry which is still +backward even during the xixth century. Most substantial +encouragement was given to trade and commerce, to manufactures +and handicrafts, by the flood of gold which poured in from all +parts of earth; by the presence of a splendid and luxurious +court, and by the call for new arts and industries which such a +civilisation would necessitate. The crafts were distributed into +guilds and syndicates under their respective chiefs, whom the +government did not "govern too much": these Shahbandars, +Mukaddams and Nakíbs regulated the several trades, rewarded the +industrious, punished the fraudulent and were personally +answerable, as we still see at Cairo, for the conduct of their +constituents. Public order, the sine quâ non of stability and +progress, was preserved, first, by the satisfaction of the lieges +who, despite their characteristic turbulence, had few if any +grievances; and, secondly, by a well directed and efficient +police, an engine of statecraft which in the West seems most +difficult to perfect. In the East, however, the Wali or Chief +Commissioner can reckon more or less upon the unsalaried +assistance of society: the cities are divided into quarters shut +off one from other by night, and every Moslem is expected, by his +law and religion, to keep watch upon his neighbours, to report +their delinquencies and, if necessary, himself to carry out the +penal code. But in difficult cases the guardians of the peace +were assisted by a body of private detectives, women as well as +men: these were called Tawwábún = the Penitents, because like our +Bow-street runners, they had given up an even less respectable +calling. Their adventures still delight the vulgar, as did the +Newgate Calendar of past generations; and to this class we owe +the Tales of Calamity Ahmad, Dalilah the Wily One, Saladin with +the Three Chiefs of Police (vol. iv. 271), and Al-Malik al-Záhir +with the Sixteen Constables (Bresl. Edit. xi. pp. 321- 99). Here +and in many other places we also see the origin of that +"picaresque" literature which arose in Spain and overran Europe; +and which begat Le Moyen de Parvenir. [FN#314] + +I need say no more on this heading, the civilisation of Baghdad +contrasting with the barbarism of Europe then Germanic, The +Nights itself being the best expositor. On the other hand the +action of the state-religion upon the state, the condition of Al- +Islam during the reign of Al-Rashid, its declension from the +primitive creed and its relation to Christianity and Christendom, +require a somewhat extended notice. In offering the following +observations it is only fair to declare my standpoints. + +1. All forms of "faith," that is, belief in things unseen, not +subject to the senses, and therefore unknown and (in our present +stage of development) unknowable, are temporary and transitory: +no religion hitherto promulgated amongst men shows any prospect +of being final or otherwise than finite. + +2. Religious ideas, which are necessarily limited, may all be +traced home to the old seat of science and art, creeds and polity +in the Nile-Valley and to this day they retain the clearest signs +of their origin. + +3. All so-called "revealed" religions consist mainly of three +portions, a cosmogony more or less mythical, a history more or +less falsified and a moral code more or less pure. + +Al-Islam, it has been said, is essentially a fighting faith and +never shows to full advantage save in the field. The faith and +luxury of a wealthy capital, the debauchery and variety of vices +which would spring up therein, naturally as weeds in a rich +fallow, and the cosmopolitan views which suggest themselves in a +meeting-place of nations, were sore trials to the primitive +simplicity of the "Religion of Resignation"--the saving faith. +Harun and his cousin-wife, as has been shown, were orthodox and +even fanatical; but the Barmecides were strongly suspected of +heretical leanings; and while the many- headed showed itself, as +usual, violent, and ready to do battle about an Azan-call, the +learned, who sooner or later leaven the masses, were profoundly +dissatisfied with the dryness and barrenness of Mohammed's creed, +so acceptable to the vulgar, and were devising a series of +schisms and innovations. + +In the Tale of Tawaddud (vol. v. 189) the reader has seen a +fairly extended catechism of the Creed (Dín), the ceremonial +observances (Mazhab) and the apostolic practices (Sunnat) of the +Shafi'í school which, with minor modifications, applies to the +other three orthodox. Europe has by this time clean forgotten +some tricks of her former bigotry, such as "Mawmet" (an idol!) +and "Mahommerie" (mummery[FN#315]), a place of Moslem worship: +educated men no longer speak with Ockley of the "great impostor +Mahomet," nor believe with the learned and violent Dr. Prideaux +that he was foolish and wicked enough to dispossess "certain poor +orphans, the sons of an inferior artificer" (the Banú Najjár!). A +host of books has attempted, though hardly with success, to +enlighten popular ignorance upon a crucial point; namely, that +the Founder of Al-Islam, like the Founder of Christianity, never +pretended to establish a new religion. His claims, indeed, were +limited to purging the "School of Nazareth" of the dross of ages +and of the manifold abuses with which long use had infected its +early constitution: hence to the unprejudiced observer his +reformation seems to have brought it nearer the primitive and +original doctrine than any subsequent attempts, especially the +Judaizing tendencies of the so-called "Protestant" churches. The +Meccan Apostle preached that the Hanafiyyah or orthodox belief, +which he subsequently named Al-Islam, was first taught by Allah, +in all its purity and perfection, to Adam and consigned to +certain inspired volumes now lost; and that this primal Holy Writ +received additions in the days of his descendants Shís (Seth) and +Idris (Enoch?), the founder of the Sabian (not "Sabæan") faith. +Here, therefore, Al-Islam at once avoided the deplorable +assumption of the Hebrews and the Christians,--an error which has +been so injurious to their science and their progress,--of +placing their "firstman" in circa B. C. 4000 or somewhat +subsequent to the building of the Pyramids: the Pre- +Adamite[FN#316] races and dynasties of the Moslems remove a great +stumbling-block and square with the anthropological views of the +present day. In process of time, when the Adamite religion +demanded a restoration and a supplement, its pristine virtue was +revived, restored and further developed by the books communicated +to Abraham, whose dispensation thus takes the place of the Hebrew +Noah and his Noachidæ. In due time the Torah, or Pentateuch, +superseded and abrogated the Abrahamic dispensation; the "Zabúr" +of David (a book not confined to the Psalms) reformed the Torah; +the Injíl or Evangel reformed the Zabur and was itself purified, +quickened and perfected by the Koran which means the +Reading or the Recital. Hence Locke, with many others, held +Moslems to be unorthodox, that is, anti-Trinitarian Christians +who believe in the Immaculate Conception, in the Ascension and in +the divine mission of Jesus; and when Priestley affirmed that +"Jesus was sent from God," all Moslems do the same. Thus they +are, in the main point of doctrine connected with the Deity, +simply Arians as opposed to Athanasians. History proves that the +former was the earlier faith which, though formally condemned in +A. D. 325 by Constantine's Council of Nice, [FN#317] overspread +the Orient beginning with Eastern Europe, where Ulphilas +converted the Goths; which extended into Africa with the Vandals, +claimed a victim or martyr as late as in the sixteenth century +[FN#318] and has by no means died out in this our day. + +The Talmud had been completed a full century before Mohammed's +time and the Evangel had been translated into Arabic; moreover +travel and converse with his Jewish and Christian friends and +companions must have convinced the Meccan Apostle that +Christianity was calling as loudly for reform as Judaism had +done. [FN#319] An exaggerated Trinitarianism or rather Tritheism, +a "Fourth Person" and Saint-worship had virtually dethroned the +Deity; whilst Mariolatry had made the faith a religio muliebris, +and superstition had drawn from its horrid fecundity an +incredible number of heresies and monstrous absurdities. Even +ecclesiastic writers draw the gloomiest pictures of the Christian +Church in the fourth and seventh centuries, and one declares that +the "Kingdom of Heaven had become a Hell." Egypt, distracted by +the blood- thirsty religious wars of Copt and Greek, had been +covered with hermitages by a yens aeterna of semi-maniacal +superstition. Syria, ever "feracious of heresies," had allowed +many of her finest tracts to be monopolised by monkeries and +nunneries.[FN#320] After many a tentative measure Mohammed seems +to have built his edifice upon two bases, the unity of the +Godhead and the priesthood of the pater-familias. He abolished +for ever the "sacerdos alter Christus" whose existence, as some +one acutely said, is the best proof of Christianity, and whom all +know to be its weakest point. The Moslem family, however humble, +was to be the model in miniature of the State, and every father +in Al-Islam was made priest and pontiff in his own house, able +unaided to marry himself, to circumcise (to baptise as it were) +his children, to instruct them in the law and canonically to bury +himself (vol. viii. 22). Ritual, properly so called, there was +none; congregational prayers were merely those of the individual +en masse, and the only admitted approach to a sacerdotal order +were the Olema or scholars learned in the legistic and the Mullah +or schoolmaster. By thus abolishing the priesthood Mohammed +reconciled ancient with modern wisdom. "Scito dominum," said +Cato, "pro totâ familiâ rem divinam facere": "No priest at a +birth, no priest at a marriage, no priest at a death," is the +aspiration of the present Rationalistic School. + +The Meccan Apostle wisely retained the compulsory sacrament of +circumcision and the ceremonial ablutions of the Mosaic law; and +the five daily prayers not only diverted man's thoughts from the +world but tended to keep his body pure. These two institutions +had been practiced throughout life by the Founder of +Christianity; but the followers who had never seen him, abolished +them for purposes evidently political and propagandist. By +ignoring the truth that cleanliness is next to godliness they +paved the way for such saints as Simon Stylites and Sabba who, +like the lowest Hindu orders of ascetics, made filth a +concominant and an evidence of piety: even now English Catholic +girls are at times forbidden by Italian priests a frequent use of +the bath as a sign post to the sin of "luxury." Mohammed would +have accepted the morals contained in the Sermon on the Mount +much more readily than did the Jews from whom its matter was +borrowed.[FN#321] He did something to abolish the use of wine, +which in the East means only its abuse; and he denounced games of +chance, well knowing that the excitable races of sub-tropical +climates cannot play with patience, fairness or moderation. He +set aside certain sums for charity to be paid by every Believer +and he was the first to establish a poor-rate (Zakát): thus he +avoided the shame and scandal of mendicancy which, beginning in +the Catholic countries of Southern Europe, extends to Syria and +as far East as Christianity is found. By these and other measures +of the same import he made the ideal Moslem's life physically +clean, moderate and temperace. + +But Mohammed, the "master mind of the age," had, we must own, a +"genuine prophetic power, a sinking of self in the Divine not +distinguishable in kind from the inspiration of the Hebrew +prophets," especially in that puritanical and pharisaic +narrowness which, with characteristic simplicity, can see no good +outside its own petty pale. He had insight as well as outsight, +and the two taught him that personal and external reformation +were mean matters compared with elevating the inner man. In the +"purer Faith," which he was commissioned to abrogate and to +quicken, he found two vital defects equally fatal to its energy +and to its longevity. These were (and are) its egoism and its +degradation of humanity. Thus it cannot be a "pleroma": it needs +a Higher Law.[FN#322] As Judaism promised the good Jew all manner +of temporal blessings, issue, riches, wealth, honour, power, +length of days, so Christianity offered the good Christian, as a +bribe to lead a godly life, personal salvation and a future state +of happiness, in fact the Kingdom of Heaven, with an alternative +threat of Hell. It never rose to the height of the Hindu Brahmans +and Lao-Tse (the "Ancient Teacher"); of Zeno the Stoic and his +disciples the noble Pharisees[FN#323] who believed and preached +that Virtue is its own reward. It never dared to say, "Do good +for Good's sake;"[FN#324] even now it does not declare with +Cicero, "The sum of all is that what is right should be sought +for its own sake, because it is right, and not because it is +enacted." It does not even now venture to say with Philo Judæus, +"The good man seeks the day for the sake of the day, and the +light for the light's sake; and he labours to acquire what is +good for the sake of the good itself, and not of anything else." +So far for the egotism, naive and unconscious, of Christianity, +whose burden is, "Do good to escape Hell and gain Heaven." + +A no less defect in the "School of Galilee" is its low view of +human nature. Adopting as sober and authentic history an Osirian- +Hebrew myth which Philo and a host of Rabbis explain away, each +after his own fashion, Christianity dwells, lovingly as it were, +upon the "Fall" of man[FN#325] and seems to revel in the +contemptible condition to which "original sin" condemned him; +thus grovelling before God ad majorem Dei gloriam. To such a +point was and is this carried that the Synod of Dort declared, +Infantes infidelium morientes in infantiâ reprobatos esse statui +mus; nay, many of the orthodox still hold a Christian babe dying +unbaptised to be unfit for a higher existence, and some have even +created a "limbo" expressly to domicile the innocents "of whom is +the kingdom of Heaven." Here, if any where, the cloven foot shows +itself and teaches us that the only solid stratum underlying +priestcraft is one composed of £ s. d. + +And I never can now believe it, my Lord! (Bishop) we come to this +earth Ready damned, with the seeds of evil sown quite so thick at +our birth, sings Edwin Arnold.[FN#326] We ask, can infatuation or +hypocrisy--for it must be the one or the other--go farther? But +the Adamical myth is opposed to all our modern studies. The +deeper we dig into the Earth's "crust," the lower are the +specimens of human remains which occur; and hitherto not a single +"find" has come to revive the faded glories of + + Adam the goodliest man of men since born (!) + His sons, the fairest of her daughters Eve. + +Thus Christianity, admitting, like Judaism, its own saints and +santons, utterly ignores the progress of humanity, perhaps the +only belief in which the wise man can take unmingled +satisfaction. Both have proposed an originally perfect being with +hyacinthine locks, from whose type all the subsequent humans are +degradations physical and moral. We on the other hand hold, from +the evidence of our senses, that early man was a savage very +little superior to the brute; that during man's millions of years +upon earth there has been a gradual advance towards perfection, +at times irregular and even retrograde, but in the main +progressive; and that a comparison of man in the xixth century +with the caveman[FN#327] affords us the means of measuring past +progress and of calculating the future of humanity. + +Mahommed was far from rising to the moral heights of the ancient +sages: he did nothing to abate the egotism of Christianity; he +even exaggerated the pleasures of its Heaven and the horrors of +its Hell. On the other hand he did much to exalt human nature. He +passed over the "Fall" with a light hand; he made man superior to +the angels; he encouraged his fellow creatures to be great and +good by dwelling upon their nobler not their meaner side; he +acknowledged, even in this world, the perfectability of mankind, +including womankind, and in proposing the loftiest ideal he acted +unconsciously upon the grand dictum of chivalry--Honneur +oblige.[FN#328] His prophets were mostly faultless men; and, if +the "Pure of Allah" sinned, he "sinned against himself." Lastly, +he made Allah predetermine the career and fortunes, not only of +empires, but of every created being; thus inculcating sympathy +and tolerance of others, which is true humanity, and a proud +resignation to evil as to good fortune. This is the doctrine +which teaches the vulgar Moslem a dignity observed even by the +"blind traveller," and which enables him to display a moderation, +a fortitude, and a self-command rare enough amongst the followers +of the "purer creed." + +Christian historians explain variously the portentous rise of Al- +Islam and its marvellous spread over vast regions, not only of +pagans and idolators but of Christians. Prideaux disingenuously +suggests that it "seems to have been purposely raised up by God, +to be a scourge to the Christian Church for not living in +accordance with their most holy religion." The popular excuse is +by the free use of the sword; this, however, is mere ignorance: +in Mohammed's day and early Al-Islam only actual fighters were +slain:[FN#329] the rest were allowed to pay the Jizyah, or +capitation-tax, and to become tributaries, enjoying almost all +the privileges of Moslems. But even had forcible conversion been +most systematically practiced, it would have afforded an +insufficient explanation of the phenomenal rise of an empire +which covered more ground in eighty years than Rome had gained in +eight hundred. During so short a time the grand revival of +Monotheism had consolidated into a mighty nation, despite their +eternal blood-feuds, the scattered Arab tribes; a six-years' +campaign had conquered Syria, and a lustre or two utterly +overthrew Persia, humbled the Græco-Roman, subdued Egypt and +extended the Faith along northern Africa as far as the Atlantic. +Within three generations the Copts of Nile-land had formally cast +out Christianity, and the same was the case with Syria, the +cradle of the Nazarene, and Mesopotamia, one of his strongholds, +although both were backed by all the remaining power of the +Byzantine empire. Northwestern Africa, which had rejected the +idolatro-philosophic system of pagan and imperial Rome, and had +accepted, after lukewarm fashion, the Arian Christianity imported +by the Vandals, and the "Nicene mystery of the Trinity," hailed +with enthusiasm the doctrines of the Koran and has never ceased +to be most zealous in its Islam. And while Mohammedanism speedily +reduced the limits of Christendom by one-third, while through-out +the Arabian, Saracenic and Turkish invasions whole Christian +peoples embraced the monotheistic faith, there are hardly any +instances of defection from the new creed and, with the exception +of Spain and Sicily, it has never been suppressed in any land +where once it took root. Even now, when Mohammedanism no longer +wields the sword, it is spreading over wide regions in China, in +the Indian Archipelago, and especially in Western and Central +Africa, propagated only by self-educated individuals, trading +travellers, while Christianity makes no progress and cannot exist +on the Dark Continent without strong support from Government. Nor +can we explain this honourable reception by the "licentiousness" +ignorantly attributed to Al-Islam, one of the most severely moral +of institutions; or by the allurements of polygamy and +concubinage, slavery,[FN#330] and a "wholly sensual Paradise" +devoted to eating, drinking[FN#331] and the pleasures of the +sixth sense. The true and simple explanation is that this grand +Reformation of Christianity was urgently wanted when it appeared, +that it suited the people better than the creed which it +superseded and that it has not ceased to be sufficient for their +requirements, social, sexual and vital. As the practical +Orientalist, Dr. Leitner, well observes from his own experience, +"The Mohammedan religion can adapt itself better than any other +and has adapted itself to circumstances and to the needs of the +various races which profess it, in accordance with the spirit of +the age."[FN#332] Hence, I add, its wide diffusion and its +impregnable position. "The dead hand, stiff and motionless," is a +forcible simile for the present condition of Al-Islam; but it +results from limited and imperfect observation and it fails in +the sine quâ non of similes and metaphors, a foundation of fact. + +I cannot quit this subject without a passing reference to an +admirably written passage in Mr. Palgrave's travels[FN#333] which +is essentially unfair to Al-Islam. The author has had ample +opportunities of comparing creeds: of Jewish blood and born a +Protestant, he became a Catholic and a Jesuit (Père Michel +Cohen)[FN#334] in a Syrian convent; he crossed Arabia as a good +Moslem and he finally returned to his premier amour, Anglicanism. +But his picturesque depreciation of Mohammedanism, which has +found due appreciation in more than one popular volume, [FN#335] +is a notable specimen of special pleading, of the ad captandum in +its modern and least honest form. The writer begins by assuming +the arid and barren Wahhabi-ism, which he had personally studied, +as a fair expression of the Saving Faith. What should we say to a +Moslem traveller who would make the Calvinism of the sourest +Covenanter, model, genuine and ancient Christianity? What would +sensible Moslems say to these propositions of Professor Maccovius +and the Synod of Dort:--Good works are an obstacle to salvation. +God does by no means will the salvation of all men: he does will +sin and he destines men to sin, as sin? What would they think of +the Inadmissible Grace, the Perseverance of the Elect, the +Supralapsarian and the Sublapsarian and, finally, of a Deity the +author of man's existence, temptation and fall, who deliberately +pre-ordains sin and ruin? "Father Cohen" carries out into the +regions of the extreme his strictures on the one grand vitalising +idea of Al-Islam, "There is no god but God;"[FN#336] and his +deduction concerning the Pantheism of Force sounds unreal and +unsound, compared with the sensible remarks upon the same subject +by Dr. Badgers[FN#337] who sees the abstruseness of the doctrine +and does not care to include it in hard and fast lines or to +subject it to mere logical analysis. Upon the subject of +"predestination" Mr. Palgrave quotes, not from the Koran, but +from the Ahádís or Traditional Sayings of the Apostle; but what +importance attaches to a legend in the Mischnah, or Oral Law, of +the Hebrews utterly ignored by the Written Law? He joins the many +in complaining that even the mention of "the love of God" is +absent from Mohammed's theology, burking the fact that it never +occurs in the Jewish scriptures and that the genius of Arabic, +like Hebrew, does not admit the expression: worse still, he keeps +from his reader such Koranic passages as, to quote no other, +"Allah loveth you and will forgive your sins" (iii. 29). He +pities Allah for having "no son, companion or counsellor" and, of +course, he must equally commiserate Jehovah. Finally his views of +the lifelessness of Al-Islam are directly opposed to the opinions +of Dr. Leitner and the experience of all who have lived in Moslem +lands. Such are the ingenious but not ingenuous distortions of +fact, the fine instances of the pathetic fallacy, and the +noteworthy illustrations of the falsehood of extremes, which have +engendered "Mohammedanism a Relapse: the worst form of +Monotheism,"[FN#338] and which have been eagerly seized upon and +further deformed by the authors of popular books, that is, +volumes written by those who know little for those who know less. + +In Al-Rashid's day a mighty change had passed over the primitive +simplicity of Al-Islam, the change to which faiths and creeds, +like races and empires and all things sublunary, are subject. The +proximity of Persia and the close intercourse with the Græco- +Romans had polished and greatly modified the physiognomy of the +rugged old belief: all manner of metaphysical subtleties had +cropped up, with the usual disintegrating effect, and some of +these threatened even the unity of the Godhead. Musaylimah and +Karmat had left traces of their handiwork: the Mutazilites +(separatists or secessors) actively propagated their doctrine of +a created and temporal Koran. The Khárijí or Ibázi, who rejects +and reviles Abú Turáb (Caliph Ali), contended passionately with +the Shí'ah who reviles and rejects the other three "Successors;" +and these sectarians, favoured by the learned, and by the +Abbasides in their jealous hatred of the Ommiades, went to the +extreme length of the Ali-Iláhi--the God-makers of Ali--whilst +the Dahrí and the Zindík, the Mundanist and the Agnoetic, +proposed to sweep away the whole edifice. The neo-Platonism and +Gnosticism which had not essentially affected +Christendom,[FN#339] found in Al-Islam a rich fallow and gained +strength and luxuriance by the solid materialism and conservatism +of its basis. Such were a few of the distracting and resolving +influences which Time had brought to bear upon the True Believer +and which, after some half a dozen generations, had separated the +several schisms by a wider breach than that which yawns between +Orthodox, Romanist and Lutheran. Nor was this scandal in Al-Islam +abated until the Tartar sword applied to it the sharpest remedy. + + + + + + B.--Woman. + + + +The next point I propose to consider is the position of womanhood +in The Nights, so curiously at variance with the stock ideas +concerning the Moslem home and domestic policy still prevalent, +not only in England, but throughout Europe. Many readers of these +volumes have remarked to me with much astonishment that they find +the female characters more remarkable for decision, action and +manliness than the male; and are wonderstruck by their masterful +attitude and by the supreme influence they exercise upon public +and private life. + +I have glanced at the subject of the sex in Al-Islam to such an +extent throughout my notes that little remains here to be added. +Women, all the world over are what men make them; and the main +charm of Amazonian fiction is to see how they live and move and +have their being without any masculine guidance. But it is the +old ever-new fable + + "Who drew the Lion vanquished? 'Twas a man!'' + +The books of the Ancients, written in that stage of civilisation +when the sexes are at civil war, make women even more than in +real life the creatures of their masters: hence from the dawn of +literature to the present day the sex has been the subject of +disappointed abuse and eulogy almost as unmerited. Ecclesiastes, +perhaps the strangest specimen of an "inspired volume" the world +has yet produced, boldly declares "One (upright) man among a +thousand I have found; but a woman among all have I not found" +(vol. vii. 28), thus confirming the pessimism of Petronius:-- + + Femina nulla bona est, et si bona contigit ulla + Nescio quo fato res male facta bona est. + +In the Psalms again (xxx. 15) we have the old sneer at the three +insatiables, Hell, Earth and the Parts feminine (os vulvæ); and +Rabbinical learning has embroidered these and other texts, +producing a truly hideous caricature. A Hadis attributed to +Mohammed runs, "They (women) lack wits and faith. When Eve was +created Satan rejoiced saying:--Thou art half of my host, the +trustee of my secret and my shaft wherewith I shoot and miss +not!" Another tells us, "I stood at the gate of Heaven, and lo! +most of its inmates were poor, and I stood at the gate of Hell, +and lo! most of its inmates were women.''[FN#340] "Take care of +the glass-phials!" cried the Prophet to a camel-guide singing +with a sweet voice. Yet the Meccan Apostle made, as has been +seen, his own household produce two perfections. The blatant +popular voice follows with such "dictes" as, "Women are made of +nectar and poison"; "Women have long hair and short wits" and so +forth. Nor are the Hindus behindhand. Woman has fickleness +implanted in her by Nature like the flashings of lightning (Kathá +s.s. i. 147); she is valueless as a straw to the heroic mind +(169); she is hard as adamant in sin and soft as flour in fear +(170) and, like the fly, she quits camphor to settle on compost +(ii. I7). "What dependence is there in the crowing of a hen?" +(women's opinions) says the Hindi proverb; also "A virgin with +grey hairs!" (i.e. a monster) and, "Wherever wendeth a fairy face +a devil wendeth with her." The same superficial view of holding +woman to be lesser (and very inferior) man is taken generally by +the classics; and Euripides distinguished himself by misogyny, +although he drew the beautiful character of Alcestis. Simonides, +more merciful than Ecclesiastes, after naming his swine-women, +dog-women, cat-women, etc., ends the decade with the admirable +bee-woman, thus making ten per cent. honest. In mediæval or +Germanic Europe the doctrine of the Virgin mother gave the sex a +status unknown to the Ancients except in Egypt, where Isis was +the help-mate and completion of Osiris, in modern parlance "The +Woman clothed with the Sun." The kindly and courtly Palmerin of +England, in whose pages "gentlemen may find their choice of sweet +inventions and gentlewomen be satisfied with courtly +expectations," suddenly blurts out, "But in truth women are never +satisfied by reason, being governed by accident or appetite" +(chaps. xlix). + +The Nights, as might be expected from the emotional East, +exaggerate these views. Women are mostly "Sectaries of the god +Wünsch"; beings of impulse, blown about by every gust of passion; +stable only in instability; constant only in inconstancy. The +false ascetic, the perfidious and murderous crone and the old +hag-procuress who pimps like Umm Kulsum,[FN#341] for mere +pleasure, in the luxury of sin, are drawn with an experienced and +loving hand. Yet not the less do we meet with examples of the +dutiful daughter, the model lover matronly in her affection, the +devoted wife, the perfect mother, the saintly devotee, the +learned preacher, Univira the chaste widow and the +self-sacrificing heroic woman. If we find (vol. iii. 216) the sex +described as:-- + + An offal cast by kites where'er they list, + +and the studied insults of vol. iii. 318, we also come upon an +admirable sketch of conjugal happiness (vol. vii. ? 43); and, to +mention no other, Shahryar's attestation to Shahrazad's +excellence in the last charming pages of The Nights.[FN#342] It +is the same with the Kathá whose praise and dispraise are equally +enthusiastic; e.g., "Women of good family are guarded by their +virtue, the sole efficient chamberlain; but the Lord himself can +hardly guard the unchaste. Who can stem a furious stream and a +frantic woman?" (i. 328). "Excessive love in woman is your only +hero for daring" (i. 339). "Thus fair ones, naturally feeble, +bring about a series of evil actions which engender discernment +and aversion to the world; but here and there you will find a +virtuous woman who adorneth a glorious house as the streak of the +moon arrayeth the breadth of the Heavens" (i. 346). "So you see, +King, honourable matrons are devoted to their husbands and 'tis +not the case that women are always bad" (ii. 624). And there is +true wisdom in that even balance of feminine qualities advocated +by our Hindu-Hindi class-book the Toti-námeh or Parrot volume. +The perfect woman has seven requisites. She must not always be +merry (1) nor sad (2); she must not always be talking (3) nor +silently musing (4); she must not always be adorning herself (5) +nor neglecting her person (6); and, (7) at all times she must be +moderate and self possessed. + +The legal status of womankind in Al-Islam is exceptionally high, +a fact of which Europe has often been assured, although the truth +has not even yet penetrated into the popular brain. Nearly a +century ago one Mirza Abú Tálib Khán, an Amildár or revenue +collector, after living two years in London, wrote an "apology" +for, or rather a vindication of, his countrywomen which is still +worth reading and quoting.[FN#343] Nations are but superficial +judges of one another: where customs differ they often remark +only the salient distinctive points which, when examined, prove +to be of minor importance. Europeans seeing and hearing that +women in the East are "cloistered" as the Grecian matron was wont + and ; that wives may not walk out with +their husbands and cannot accompany them to "balls and parties"; +moreover, that they are always liable, like the ancient Hebrew, +to the mortification of the "sister-wife," have most ignorantly +determined that they are mere serviles and that their lives are +not worth living. Indeed, a learned lady, Miss Martineau, once +visiting a Harem went into ecstasies of pity and sorrow because +the poor things knew nothing of--say trigonometry and the use of +the globes. Sonnini thought otherwise, and my experience, like +that of all old dwellers in the East, is directly opposed to this +conclusion. + +I have noted (Night cmlxii.) that Mohammed, in the fifth year of +his reign,[FN#344] after his ill-advised and scandalous +marriage[FN#345] with his foster-daughter Zaynab, established the +Hijáb or veiling of women. It was probably an exaggeration of +local usage: a modified separation of the sexes, which extended +and still extends even to the Badawi, must long have been +customary in Arabian cities, and its object was to deliver the +sexes from temptation, as the Koran says (xxxii. 32), "purer will +this (practice) be for your hearts and their hearts."[FN#346] The +women, who delight in restrictions which tend to their honour, +accepted it willingly and still affect it, they do not desire a +liberty or rather a licence which they have learned to regard as +inconsistent with their time-honoured notions of feminine decorum +and delicacy, and they would think very meanly of a husband who +permitted them to be exposed, like hetairæ, to the public +gaze.[FN#347] As Zubayr Pasha, exiled to Gibraltar for another's +treason, said to my friend, Colonel Buckle, after visiting +quarters evidently laid out by a jealous husband, "We Arabs think +that when a man has a precious jewel, 'tis wiser to lock it up in +a box than to leave it about for anyone to take." The Eastern +adopts the instinctive, the Western prefers the rational method. +The former jealously guards his treasure, surrounds it with all +precautions, fends off from it all risks and if the treasure go +astray, kills it. The latter, after placing it en evidence upon +an eminence in ball dress with back and bosom bared to the gaze +of society, a bundle of charms exposed to every possible +seduction, allows it to take its own way, and if it be misled, he +kills or tries to kill the misleader. It is a fiery trial and the +few who safely pass through it may claim a higher standpoint in +the moral world than those who have never been sorely tried. But +the crucial question is whether Christian Europe has done wisely +in offering such temptations. + +The second and main objection to Moslem custom is the +marriage-system which begins with a girl being wedded to a man +whom she knows only by hearsay. This was the habit of our +forbears not many generations ago, and it still prevails amongst +noble houses in Southern Europe, where a lengthened study of it +leaves me doubtful whether the "love-marriage," as it is called, +or wedlock with an utter stranger, evidently the two extremes, is +likely to prove the happier. The "sister-wife" is or would be a +sore trial to monogamic races like those of Northern Europe where +Caia, all but the equal of Caius in most points mental and +physical and superior in some, not unfrequently proves herself +the "man of the family," the "only man in the boat." But in the +East, where the sex is far more delicate, where a girl is brought +up in polygamy, where religious reasons separate her from her +husband, during pregnancy and lactation, for three successive +years; and where often enough like the Mormon damsel she would +hesitate to "nigger it with a one-wife-man," the case assumes a +very different aspect and the load, if burden it be, falls +comparatively light. Lastly, the "patriarchal household" is +mostly confined to the grandee and the richard, whilst Holy Law +and public opinion, neither of which can openly be disregarded, +assign command of the household to the equal or first wife and +jealously guard the rights and privileges of the others. + +Mirza Abu Talib "the Persian Prince"[FN#348] offers six reasons +why "the liberty of the Asiatic women appears less than that of +the Europeans," ending with, + + I'll fondly place on either eye + The man that can to this reply. + +He then lays down eight points in which the Moslem wife has +greatly the advantage over her Christian sisterhood; and we may +take his first as a specimen. Custom, not contrary to law, +invests the Mohammedan mother with despotic government of the +homestead, slaves, servants and children, especially the latter: +she alone directs their early education, their choice of faith, +their marriage and their establishment in life; and in case of +divorce she takes the daughters, the sons going to the sire. She +has also liberty to leave her home, not only for one or two +nights, but for a week or a fortnight, without consulting her +husband; and whilst she visits a strange household, the master +and all males above fifteen are forbidden the Harem. But the main +point in favour of the Moslem wife is her being a "legal sharer": +inheritance is secured to her by Koranic law; she must be dowered +by the bridegroom to legalise marriage and all she gains is +secured to her; whereas in England a "Married Woman's Property +Act" was completed only in 1882 after many centuries of the +grossest abuses. + +Lastly, Moslems and Easterns in general study and intelligently +study the art and mystery of satisfying the physical woman. In my +Foreword I have noticed among barbarians the system of "making +men,"[FN#349] that is, of teaching lads first arrived at puberty +the nice conduct of the instrumentum paratum plantandis avibus: a +branch of the knowledge-tree which our modern education grossly +neglects, thereby entailing untold miseries upon individuals, +families and generations. The mock virtue, the most immodest +modesty of England and of the United States in the xixth century, +pronounces the subject foul and fulsome:"Society" sickens at all +details; and hence it is said abroad that the English have the +finest women in Europe and least know how to use them. Throughout +the East such studies are aided by a long series of volumes, many +of them written by learned physiologists, by men of social +standing and by religious dignitaries high in office. The +Egyptians especially delight in aphrodisiac literature treating, +as the Turks say, de la partie au-dessous de la taille; and from +fifteen hundred to two thousand copies of a new work, usually +lithographed in cheap form, readily sell off. The pudibund Lane +makes allusion to and quotes (A. N. i. 216) one of the most out +spoken, a 4to of 464 pages, called the Halbat al-Kumayt or "Race- +Course of the Bay Horse," a poetical and horsey term for grape- +wine. Attributed by D'Herbelot to the Kazi Shams al-Din Mohammed, +it is wholly upon the subject of wassail and women till the last +few pages, when his reverence exclaims:--"This much, O reader, I +have recounted, the better thou mayst know what to avoid;" and so +forth, ending with condemning all he had praised.[FN#350] Even +the divine and historian Jalál al-Dín al-Siyuti is credited with +having written, though the authorship is much disputed, a work +entitled, "Kitáb al-Ízáh fi 'ilm al-Nikáh" =The Book of +Exposition in the Science of Coition: my copy, a lithograph of 33 +pages, undated, but evidently Cairene, begins with exclaiming +"Alhamdolillah--Laud to the Lord who adorned the virginal bosom +with breasts and who made the thighs of women anvils for the +spear handles of men!" To the same amiable theologian are also +ascribed the "Kitáb Nawázir al-Ayk fi al-Nayk" = Green Splendours +of the Copse in Copulation, an abstract of the "Kitáb al-Wisháh +fí fawáid al-Nikáh" = Book of the Zone on Coition-boon. Of the +abundance of pornographic literature we may judge from a list of +the following seven works given in the second page of the "Kitáb +Rujú'a al-Shaykh ila Sabáh fi 'l-Kuwwat al-Báh[FN#351]" = Book of +Age-rejuvenescence in the power of Concupiscence: it is the work +of Ahmad bin Sulayman, surnamed Ibn Kamál Pasha. + +1. Kitáb al-Báh by Al-Nahli. + +2. Kitáb al'-Ars wa al'-Aráis (Book of the Bridal and the +Brides) by Al-Jáhiz. + +3. Kitáb al-Kiyán (Maiden's Book) by Ibn Hájib al-Nu'mán. + +4. Kitáb al-Ízáh fí asrár al-Nikáh (Book of the Exposition on +the Mysteries of married Fruition). + +5. Kitáb Jámi' al-Lizzah (The Compendium of Pleasure) by Ibn +Samsamáni. + +6. Kitáb Barján (Yarján?) wa Janáhib (? ?)[FN#352] + +7. Kitáb al-Munákahah wa al-Mufátahah fí Asnáf al-Jimá' wa +Álátih (Book of Carnal Copulation and the Initiation into the +modes of Coition and its Instrumentation) by Aziz al-Din +al-Masíhí.[FN#353] + +To these I may add the Lizzat al-Nisá (Pleasures of Women), a +text-book in Arabic, Persian and Hindostani: it is a translation +and a very poor attempt, omitting much from, and adding naught +to, the famous Sanskrit work Ananga-Ranga (Stage of the Bodiless +One i.e. Cupido) or Hindu Art of Love (Ars Amoris +Indica).[FN#354] I have copies of it in Sanskrit and +Maráthi,Guzrati and Hindostani: the latter is an unpaged 8vo of +pp. 66, including eight pages of most grotesque illustrations +showing the various san (the Figuræ Veneris or positions of +copulation), which seem to be the triumphs of contortionists. +These pamphlets lithographed in Bombay are broad cast over the +land.[FN#355] + +It must not be supposed that such literature is purely and simply +aphrodisiacal. The learned Sprenger, a physician as well as an +Arabist, says (Al-Mas'údi p. 384) of a tractate by the celebrated +Rhazes in the Leyden Library, "The number of curious +observations, the correct and practical ideas and the novelty of +the notions of Eastern nations on these subjects, which are +contained in this book, render it one of the most important +productions of the medical literature of the Arabs." I can +conscientiously recommend to the Anthropologist a study of the +"Kutub al-Báh." + + + + + + C.--Pornography. + + + +Here it will be advisable to supplement what was said in my +Foreword (p. xiii.) concerning the turpiloquium of The Nights. +Readers who have perused the ten volumes will probably agree with +me that the naïve indecencies of the text are rather gaudis-serie +than prurience; and, when delivered with mirth and humour, they +are rather the "excrements of wit" than designed for debauching +the mind. Crude and indelicate with infantile plainness; even +gross and, at times, "nasty" in their terrible frankness, they +cannot be accused of corrupting suggestiveness or subtle +insinuation of vicious sentiment. Theirs is a coarseness of +language, not of idea; they are indecent, not depraved; and the +pure and perfect naturalness of their nudity seems almost to +purify it, showing that the matter is rather of manners than of +morals. Such throughout the East is the language of every man, +woman and child, from prince to peasant, from matron to +prostitute: all are as the naïve French traveller said of the +Japanese: "si grossiers qu'ils ne sçavent nommer les choses que +par leur nom." This primitive stage of language sufficed to draw +from Lane and Burckhardt strictures upon the "most immodest +freedom of conversation in Egypt," where, as all the world over, +there are three several stages for names of things and acts +sensual. First we have the mot cru, the popular term, soon +followed by the technical and scientific, and, lastly, the +literary or figurative nomenclature, which is often much more +immoral because more attractive, suggestive and seductive than +the "raw word." And let me observe that the highest civilisation +is now returning to the language of nature. In La Glu of M. J. +Richepin, a triumph of the realistic school, we find such +"archaic" expressions as la petée, putain, foutue à la six- +quatre-dix; un facétieuse pétarade; tu t'es foutue de, etc. Eh +vilain bougre! and so forth.[FN#356] To those critics who +complain of these raw vulgarisms and puerile indecencies in The +Nights I can reply only by quoting the words said to have been +said by Dr. Johnson to the lady who complained of the naughty +words in his dictionary--"You must have been looking for them, +Madam!" + +But I repeat (p. xiv.) there is another element in The Nights and +that is one of absolute obscenity utterly repugnant to English +readers, even the least prudish. It is chiefly connected with +what our neighbours call le vice contre nature--as if anything +can be contrary to nature which includes all things.[FN#357] Upon +this subject I must offer details, as it does not enter into my +plan to ignore any theme which is interesting to the Orientalist +and the Anthropologist. And they, methinks, do abundant harm who, +for shame or disgust, would suppress the very mention of such +matters: in order to combat a great and growing evil deadly to +the birth-rate--the mainstay of national prosperity--the first +requisite is careful study. As Albert Bollstoedt, Bishop of +Ratisbon, rightly says.--Quia malum non evitatum nisi cognitum, +ideo necesse est cognoscere immundiciem coitus et multa alla quæ +docentur in isto libro. Equally true are Professor Mantegazza's +words:[FN#358] Cacher les plates du cœur humain au nom de la +pudeur, ce n'est au contraire qu'hypocrisie ou peur. The late Mr. +Grote had reason to lament that when describing such institutions +as the far-famed of Thebes, the Sacred Band +annihilated at Chaeroneia, he was compelled to a reticence which +permitted him to touch only the surface of the subject. This was +inevitable under the present rule of Cant[FN#359] in a book +intended for the public: but the same does not apply to my +version of The Nights, and now I proceed to discuss the matter +sérieusement, honnêtement, historiquement; to show it in decent +nudity not in suggestive fig-leaf or feuille de vigne. + + + + + + D.--Pederasty. + + + +The "execrabilis familia pathicorum" first came before me by a +chance of earlier life. In 1845, when Sir Charles Napier had +conquered and annexed Sind, despite a fraction (mostly venal) +which sought favour with the now defunct "Court of Directors to +the Honourable East India Company," the veteran began to consider +his conquest with a curious eye. It was reported to him that +Karáchi, a townlet of some two thousand souls and distant not +more than a mile from camp, supported no less than three lupanars +or borders, in which not women but boys and eunuchs, the former +demanding nearly a double price,[FN#360] lay for hire. Being then +the only British officer who could speak Sindi, I was asked +indirectly to make enquiries and to report upon the subject; and +I undertook the task on express condition that my report should +not be forwarded to the Bombay Government, from whom supporters +of the Conqueror's policy could expect scant favour, mercy or +justice. Accompanied by a Munshi, Mirza Mohammed Hosayn of +Shiraz, and habited as a merchant, Mirza Abdullah the +Bushiri[FN#361] passed many an evening in the townlet, visited +all the porneia and obtained the fullest details, which were duly +despatched to Government House. But the "Devil's Brother" +presently quitted Sind leaving in his office my unfortunate +official: this found its way with sundry other reports[FN#362] to +Bombay and produced the expected result. A friend in the +Secretariat informed me that my summary dismissal from the +service had been formally proposed by one of Sir Charles Napier's +successors, whose decease compels me parcere sepulto. But this +excess of outraged modesty was not allowed. + +Subsequent enquiries in many and distant countries enabled me to +arrive at the following conclusions:-- + +1. There exists what I shall call a "Sotadic Zone," bounded +westwards by the northern shores of the Mediterranean (N. Lat. +43 ) and by the southern (N. Lat. 30 ). Thus the depth would be +780 to 800 miles including meridional France, the Iberian +Peninsula, Italy and Greece, with the coast-regions of Africa +from Marocco to Egypt. + +2. Running eastward the Sotadic Zone narrows, embracing Asia +Minor, Mesopotamia and Chaldæa, Afghanistan, Sind, the Punjab and +Kashmir. + +3. In Indo-China the belt begins to broaden, enfolding China, +Japan and Turkistan. + +4. It then embraces the South Sea Islands and the New World +where, at the time of its discovery, Sotadic love was, with some +exceptions, an established racial institution. + +5. Within the Sotadic Zone the Vice is popular and endemic, +held at the worst to be a mere peccadillo, whilst the races to +the North and South of the limits here defined practice it only +sporadically amid the opprobrium of their fellows who, as a rule, +are physically incapable of performing the operation and look +upon it with the liveliest disgust. + +Before entering into topographical details concerning pederasty, +which I hold to be geographical and climatic, not racial, I must +offer a few considerations of its cause and origin. We must not +forget that the love of boys has its noble, sentimental side. The +Platonists and pupils of the Academy, followed by the Sufis or +Moslem Gnostics, held such affection, pure as ardent, to be the +beau idéal which united in man's soul the creature with the +Creator. Professing to regard youths as the most cleanly and +beautiful objects in this phenomenal world, they declared that by +loving and extolling the chef-d'œuvre, corporeal and +intellectual, of the Demiurgus, disinterestedly and without any +admixture of carnal sensuality, they are paying the most fervent +adoration to the Causa causans. They add that such affection, +passing as it does the love of women, is far less selfish than +fondness for and admiration of the other sex which, however +innocent, always suggest sexuality;[FN#363] and Easterns add that +the devotion of the moth to the taper is purer and more fervent +than the Bulbul's love for the Rose. Amongst the Greeks of the +best ages the system of boy-favourites was advocated on +considerations of morals and politics. The lover undertook the +education of the beloved through precept and example, while the +two were conjoined by a tie stricter than the fraternal. +Hieronymus the Peripatetic strongly advocated it because the +vigorous disposition of youths and the confidence engendered by +their association often led to the overthrow of tyrannies. +Socrates declared that "a most valiant army might be composed of +boys and their lovers; for that of all men they would be most +ashamed to desert one another." And even Virgil, despite the foul +flavour of Formosum pastor Corydon, could write:-- + + Nisus amore pio pueri. + +The only physical cause for the practice which suggests itself to +me and that must be owned to be purely conjectural, is that +within the Sotadic Zone there is a blending of the masculine and +feminine temperaments, a crasis which elsewhere occurs only +sporadically. Hence the male féminisme whereby the man becomes +patiens as well as agens, and the woman a tribade, a votary of +mascula Sappho,[FN#364] Queen of Frictrices or Rubbers.[FN#365] +Prof. Mantegazza claims to have discovered the cause of this +pathological love, this perversion of the erotic sense, one of +the marvellous list of amorous vagaries which deserve, not +prosecution but the pitiful care of the physician and the study +of the psychologist. According to him the nerves of the rectum +and the genitalia, in all cases closely connected, are abnormally +so in the pathic, who obtains, by intromission, the venereal +orgasm which is usually sought through the sexual organs. So +amongst women there are tribads who can procure no pleasure +except by foreign objects introduced a posteriori. Hence his +threefold distribution of sodomy; (1) Peripheric or anatomical, +caused by an unusual distribution of the nerves and their +hyperæsthesia; (2) Luxurious, when love a tergo is preferred on +account of the narrowness of the passage; and (3) the Psychical. +But this is evidently superficial: the question is what causes +this neuropathy, this abnormal distribution and condition of the +nerves.[FN#366] + +As Prince Bismarck finds a moral difference between the male and +female races of history, so I suspect a mixed physical +temperament effected by the manifold subtle influences massed +together in the word climate. Something of the kind is necessary +to explain the fact of this pathological love extending over the +greater portion of the habitable world, without any apparent +connection of race or media, from the polished Greek to the +cannibal Tupi of the Brazil. Walt Whitman speaks of the ashen +grey faces of onanists: the faded colours, the puffy features and +the unwholesome complexion of the professed pederast with his +peculiar cachetic expression, indescribable but once seen never +forgotten, stamp the breed, and Dr. G. Adolph is justified in +declaring "Alle Gewohnneits-paederasten erkennen sich einander +schnell, oft met einen Thick." This has nothing in common with +the féminisme which betrays itself in the pathic by womanly gait, +regard and gesture: it is a something sui generic; and the same +may be said of the colour and look of the young priest who +honestly refrains from women and their substitutes. Dr. Tardieu, +in his well-known work, "Étude Medico-régale sur les Attentats +aux Mœurs," and Dr. Adolph note a peculiar infundibuliform +disposition of the "After" and a smoothness and want of folds +even before any abuse has taken place, together with special +forms of the male organs in confirmed pederasts. But these +observations have been rejected by Caspar, Hoffman, Brouardel and +Dr. J. H. Henry Coutagne (Notes sur la Sodomie, Lyon, 1880), and +it is a medical question whose discussion would here be out of +place. + +The origin of pederasty is lost in the night of ages; but its +historique has been carefully traced by many writers, especially +Virey,[FN#367] Rosenbaum[FN#368] and M. H. E. Meier.[FN#369] The +ancient Greeks who, like the modern Germans, invented nothing but +were great improvers of what other races invented, attributed the +formal apostolate of Sotadism to Orpheus, whose stigmata were +worn by the Thracian women; + + --Omnemque refugerat Orpheus + Fœmineam venerem;-- + Ille etiam Thracum populis fuit auctor, amorem + In teneres transferre mares: citraque juventam + Ætatis breve ver, et primos carpere flores. + Ovid Met. x. 79-85. + +Euripides proposed Laïus father of Oedipus as the inaugurator, +whereas Timæus declared that the fashion of making favourites of +boys was introduced into Greece from Crete, for Malthusian +reasons said Aristotle (Pol. ii. 10), attributing it to Minos. +Herodotus, however, knew far better, having discovered (ii. c. +80) that the Orphic and Bacchic rites were originally Egyptian. +But the Father of History was a traveller and an annalist rather +than an archæologist and he tripped in the following passage (i. +c. 135), "As soon as they (the Persians) hear of any luxury, they +instantly make it their own, and hence, among other matters, they +have learned from the Hellenes a passion for boys" ("unnatural +lust," says modest Rawlinson). Plutarch (De Malig, Herod. +xiii.)[FN#370] asserts with much more probability that the +Persians used eunuch boys according to the Mos Græciæ, long +before they had seen the Grecian main. + +In the Holy Books of the Hellenes, Homer and Hesiod, dealing with +the heroic ages, there is no trace of pederasty, although, in a +long subsequent generation, Lucian suspected Achilles and +Patroclus as he did Orestes and Pylades, Theseus and Pirithous. +Homer's praises of beauty are reserved for the feminines, +especially his favourite Helen. But the Dorians of Crete seem to +have commended the abuse to Athens and Sparta and subsequently +imported it into Tarentum, Agrigentum and other colonies. Ephorus +in Strabo (x. 4 § 21) gives a curious account of the violent +abduction of beloved boys ({Greek}) by the lover ({Greek}); of +the obligations of the ravisher ({Greek}) to the favourite +({Greek})[FN#371] and of the "marriage-ceremonies" which lasted +two months. See also Plato, Laws i. c. 8. Servius (Ad Æneid. x. +325) informs us "De Cretensibus accepimus, quod in amore puerorum +intemperantes fuerunt, quod postea in Lacones et in totam Græciam +translatum est." The Cretans and afterwards their apt pupils the +Chalcidians held it disreputable for a beautiful boy to lack a +lover. Hence Zeus, the national Doric god of Crete, loved +Ganymede;[FN#372] Apollo, another Dorian deity, loved Hyacinth, +and Hercules, a Doric hero who grew to be a sun-god, loved Hylas +and a host of others: thus Crete sanctified the practice by the +examples of the gods and demigods. But when legislation came, the +subject had qualified itself for legal limitation and as such was +undertaken by Lycurgus and Solon, according to Xenophon (Lac. ii. +13), who draws a broad distinction between the honest love of +boys and dishonest ({Greek}) lust. They both approved of pure +pederastía, like that of Harmodius and Aristogiton; but forbade +it with serviles because degrading to a free man. Hence the love +of boys was spoken of like that of women (Plato: Phædrus; Repub. +vi. c. I9 and Xenophon, Synop. iv. 10), e.g., "There was once a +boy, or rather a youth, of exceeding beauty and he had very many +lovers"--this is the language of Hafiz and Sa'adi. Æschylus, +Sophocles and Euripides were allowed to introduce it upon the +stage, for "many men were as fond of having boys for their +favourites as women for their mistresses; and this was a frequent +fashion in many well-regulated cities of Greece." Poets like +Alcæus, Anacreon, Agathon and Pindar affected it and Theognis +sang of a "beautiful boy in the flower of his youth." The +statesmen Aristides and Themistocles quarrelled over Stesileus of +Teos; and Pisistratus loved Charmus who first built an altar to +Puerile Eros, while Charmus loved Hippias son of Pisistratus. +Demosthenes the Orator took into keeping a youth called Cnosion +greatly to the indignation of his wife. Xenophon loved Clinias +and Autolycus; Aristotle, Hermeas, Theodectes[FN#373] and others; +Empedocles, Pausanias; Epicurus, Pytocles; Aristippus, Eutichydes +and Zeno with his Stoics had a philosophic disregard for women, +affecting only pederastía. A man in Athenæus (iv. c. 40) left in +his will that certain youths he had loved should fight like +gladiators at his funeral; and Charicles in Lucian abuses +Callicratidas for his love of "sterile pleasures." Lastly there +was the notable affair of Alcibiades and Socrates, the "sanctus +pæderasta"[FN#374] being violemment soupçonné when under the +mantle:--non semper sine plagâ ab eo surrexit. Athenæus (v. c. +I3) declares that Plato represents Socrates as absolutely +intoxicated with his passion for Alcibiades.[FN#375] The Ancients +seem to have held the connection impure, or Juvenal would not +have written:-- + + Inter Socraticos notissima fossa cinædos, + + +followed by Firmicus (vii. 14) who speaks of "Socratici +pædicones." It is the modern fashion to doubt the pederasty of +the master of Hellenic Sophrosyne, the "Christian before +Christianity;" but such a world-wide term as Socratic love can +hardly be explained by the lucus-a-non-lucendo theory. We are +overapt to apply our nineteenth century prejudices and +prepossessions to the morality of the ancient Greeks who would +have specimen'd such squeamishness in Attic salt. + +The Spartans, according to Agnon the Academic (confirmed by +Plato, Plutarch and Cicero), treated boys and girls in the same +way before marriage: hence Juvenal (xi. 173) uses ''Lacedæmonius" +for a pathic and other writers apply it to a tribade. After the +Peloponnesian War, which ended in B.C. 404, the use became merged +in the abuse. Yet some purity must have survived, even amongst +the Bœotians who produced the famous Narcissus,[FN#376] described +by Ovid (Met. iii. 339);-- + + Multi ilium juvenes, multæ cupiere puellæ; + Nulli ilium juvenes, nullæ tetigere puellæ:[FN#377] + +for Epaminondas, whose name is mentioned with three beloveds, +established the Holy Regiment composed of mutual lovers, +testifying the majesty of Eros and preferring to a discreditable +life a glorious death. Philip's redactions on the fatal field of +Chaeroneia form their fittest epitaph. At last the Athenians, +according to Æschines, officially punished Sodomy with death; but +the threat did not abolish bordels of boys, like those of +Karáchi; the Porneia and Pornoboskeia, where slaves and pueri +venales "stood," as the term was, near the Pnyx, the city walls +and a certain tower, also about Lycabettus (Æsch. contra Tim.); +and paid a fixed tax to the state. The pleasures of society in +civilised Greece seem to have been sought chiefly in the heresies +of love--Hetairesis[FN#378] and Sotadism. + +It is calculated that the French of the sixteenth century had +four hundred names for the parts genital and three hundred for +their use in coition. The Greek vocabulary is not less copious, +and some of its pederastic terms, of which Meier gives nearly a +hundred, and its nomenclature of pathologic love are curious and +picturesque enough to merit quotation. + +To live the life of Abron (the Argive), i.e. that of a , +pathic or passive lover. + +The Agathonian song. + +Aischrourgía = dishonest love, also called Akolasía, Akrasía, +Arrenokoitía, etc. + +Alcinoan youths, or "non conformists," + + In cute curandâ plus æquo operate Juventus. + +Alegomenos, the "unspeakable," as the pederast was termed by the +Council of Ancyra: also the Agrios, Apolaustus and Akolastos. + +Androgyne, of whom Ansonius wrote (Epig. lxviii. 15):-- + + Ecce ego sum factus femina de puero. + +Badas and badízein = clunes torquens: also Bátalos= a catamite. + +Catapygos, Katapygosyne = puerarius and catadactylium from +Dactylion, the ring, used in the sense of Nerissa's, but applied +to the corollarium puerile. + +Cinædus (Kínaidos), the active lover ({Greek}) derived either +from his kinetics or quasi {Greek} = dog modest. Also +Spatalocinædus (lasciviâ fluens) = a fair Ganymede. + +Chalcidissare (Khalkidizein), from Chalcis in Eubœa, a city famed +for love à posteriori; mostly applied to le léchement des +testicules by children. + +Clazomenae = the buttocks, also a sotadic disease, so called from +the Ionian city devoted to Aversa Venus; also used of a pathic, + + --et tergo femina pube vir est. + +Embasicoetas, prop. a link-boy at marriages, also a "night-cap" +drunk before bed and lastly an effeminate; one who perambulavit +omnium cubilia (Catullus). See Encolpius' pun upon the Embasicete +in Satyricon, cap. iv. + +Epipedesis, the carnal assault. + +Geiton lit. "neighbour" the beloved of Encolpius, which has +produced the Fr. Giton = Bardache, Ital. bardascia from the Arab. +Baradaj, a captive, a slave; the augm. form is Polygeiton. + +Hippias (tyranny of) when the patient (woman or boy) mounts the +agent. Aristoph. Vesp. 502. So also Kelitizein = peccare superne +or equum agitare supernum of Horace. + +Mokhthería, depravity with boys. + +Paidika, whence pædicare (act.) and pædicari (pass.): so in the +Latin poet:-- + + PEnelopes primam DIdonis prima sequatur, + Et primam CAni, syllaba prima REmi. + +Pathikos, Pathicus, a passive, like Malakos (malacus, mollis, +facilis), Malchio, Trimalchio (Petronius), Malta, Maltha and in +Hor. (Sat. ii. 25) + + Malthinus tunicis demissis ambulat. + +Praxis = the malpractice. + + +Pygisma = buttockry, because most actives end within the nates, +being too much excited for further intromission. + +Phœnicissare ({Greek})= cunnilingere in tempore menstruum, quia +hoc vitium in Phœnicia generate solebat (Thes. Erot. Ling. +Latinæ); also irrumer en miel. + +Phicidissare, denotat actum per canes commissum quando lambunt +cunnos vel testiculos (Suetonius): also applied to pollution of +childhood. + +Samorium flores (Erasmus, Prov. xxiii ) alluding to the +androgynic prostitutions of Samos. + +Siphniassare ({Greek}, from Siphnos, hod. Sifanto Island) = +digito podicem fodere ad pruriginem restinguendam, says Erasmus +(see Mirabeau's Erotika Biblion, Anoscopie). + +Thrypsis = the rubbing. + +Pederastía had in Greece, I have shown, its noble and ideal side: +Rome, however, borrowed her malpractices, like her religion and +polity, from those ultra-material Etruscans and debauched with a +brazen face. Even under the Republic Plautus (Casin. ii. 21) +makes one of his characters exclaim, in the utmost sang-froid, +"Ultro te, amator, apage te a dorso meo!" With increased luxury +the evil grew and Livy notices (xxxix. 13), at the Bacchanalia, +plura virorum inter sese quam fœminarum stupra. There were +individual protests; for instance, S. Q. Fabius Maximus +Servilianus (Consul U.C. 612) punished his son for dubia +castitas; and a private soldier, C. Plotius, killed his military +Tribune, Q. Luscius, for unchaste proposals. The Lex Scantinia +(Scatinia?), popularly derived from Scantinius the Tribune and of +doubtful date (B.C. 226?), attempted to abate the scandal by fine +and the Lex Julia by death; but they were trifling obstacles to +the flood of infamy which surged in with the Empire. No class +seems then to have disdained these "sterile pleasures:" l'on +n'attachoit point alors à cette espèce d'amour une note +d'infamie, comme en païs de chrétienté, says Bayle under +"Anacreon." The great Cæsar, the Cinaedus calvus of Catullus, was +the husband of all the wives and the wife of all the husbands in +Rome (Suetonius, cap. Iii.); and his soldiers sang in his praise, +Gallias Cæsar, subegit, Nicomedes Cæsarem (Suet. cies. xlix.); +whence his sobriquet "Fornix Birthynicus." Of Augustus the people +chaunted + + Videsne ut Cinædus orbem digito temperet? + +Tiberius, with his pisciculi and greges exoletorum, invented the +Symplegma or nexus of Sellarii, agentes et patientes, in which +the spinthriæ (lit. women's bracelets) were connected in a chain +by the bond of flesh[FN#379] (Seneca Quaest. Nat.). Of this +refinement which in the earlier part of the nineteenth century +was renewed by sundry Englishmen at Naples, Ausonius wrote (Epig. +cxix. I), + + Tres uno in lecto: stuprum duo perpetiuntur; + +And Martial had said (xii. 43) + + + Quo symplegmate quinque copulentur; + Qua plures teneantur a catena; etc. + +Ausonius recounts of Caligula he so lost patience that he +forcibly entered the priest M. Lepidus, before the sacrifice was +completed. The beautiful Nero was formally married to Pythagoras +(or Doryphoros) and afterwards took to wife Sporus who was first +subjected to castration of a peculiar fashion; he was then named +Sabina after the deceased spouse and claimed queenly honours. The +"Othonis et Trajani pathici" were famed; the great Hadrian openly +loved Antinous,and the wild debaucheries of Heliogabalus seem +only to have amused, instead of disgusting, the Romans. + +Uranopolis allowed public lupanaria where adults and meritorii +pueri, who began their career as early as seven years, stood for +hire: the inmates of these cauponæ wore sleeved tunics and +dalmatics like women. As in modern Egypt pathic boys, we learn +from Catullus, haunted the public baths. Debauchées had signals +like freemasons whereby they recognised one another. The Greek +Skematízein was made by closing the hand to represent the scrotum +and raising the middle finger as if to feel whether a hen had +eggs, tâter si les poulettes ont l'œuf: hence the Athenians +called it Catapygon or sodomite and the Romans digitus impudicus +or infamis, the "medical finger"[FN#380] of Rabelais and the +Chiromantists. Another sign was to scratch the head with the +minimus--digitulo caput scabere Juv. ix. 133).[FN#381] The +prostitution of boys was first forbidden by Domitian; but Saint +Paul, a Greek, had formally expressed his abomination of Le Vice +(Rom. i. 26; i. Cor. vi. 8); and we may agree with Grotius (de +Verit. ii. c. 13) that early Christianity did much to suppress +it. At last the Emperor Theodosius punished it with fire as a +profanation, because sacro-sanctum esse debetur hospitium virilis +animæ. + +In the pagan days of imperial Rome her literature makes no +difference between boy and girl. Horace naïvely says (Sat. ii. +118):-- + + Ancilla aut verna est praesto puer; + +and with Hamlet, but in a dishonest sense:-- + + --Man delights me not + Nor woman neither. + +Similarly the Spaniard Martial, who is a mine of such pederastic +allusions (xi. 46):-- + + Sive puer arrisit, sive puella tibi. + +That marvellous Satyricon which unites the wit of Molière[FN#382] +with the debaucheries of Piron, whilst the writer has been +described, like Rabelais, as purissimus in impuritate, is a kind +of Triumph of Pederasty. Geiton the hero, a handsome, curly-pated +hobbledehoy of seventeen, with his câlinerie and wheedling +tongue, is courted like one of the sequor sexus: his lovers are +inordinately jealous of him and his desertion leaves deep scars +upon the heart. But no dialogue between man and wife in extremis +could be more pathetic than that in the scene where shipwreck is +imminent. Elsewhere every one seems to attempt his neighbour: a +man alte succinctus assails Ascyltos; Lycus, the Tarentine +skipper, would force Encolpius and so forth: yet we have the neat +and finished touch (cap. vii.):--"The lamentation was very fine +(the dying man having manumitted his slaves) albeit his wife wept +not as though she loved him. How were it had he not behaved to +her so well?" + +Erotic Latin glossaries[FN#383] give some ninety words connected +with pederasty and some, which "speak with Roman simplicity," are +peculiarly expressive. "Averse Venus" alludes to women being +treated as boys: hence Martial, translated by Piron, addresses +Mistress Martial (x. 44):-- + + Teque puta, cunnos, uxor, habere duos. + +The capillatus or comatus is also called calamistratus, the +darling curled with crisping-irons; and he is an Effeminatus, +i.e., qui muliebria patitur; or a Delicatus, slave or eunuch for +the use of the Draucus, Puerarius (boy-lover) or Dominus (Mart. +xi. 7I). The Divisor is so called from his practice Hillas +dividere or cædere, something like Martial's cacare mentulam or +Juvenal's Hesternæ occurrere cænæ. Facere vicibus (Juv. vii. +238), incestare se invicem or mutuum facere (Plaut. Trin. ii. +437), is described as "a puerile vice," in which the two take +turns to be active and passive: they are also called Gemelli and +Fratres = compares in pædicatione. Illicita libido is = +præpostera seu postica Venus, and is expressed by the picturesque +phrase indicare (seu incurvare) aliquem. Depilatus, divellere +pilos, glaber, laevis and nates pervellere are allusions to the +Sotadic toilette. The fine distinction between demittere and +dejicere caput are worthy of a glossary, while Pathica puella, +puera, putus, pullipremo pusio, pygiaca sacra, quadrupes, +scarabæus and smerdalius explain themselves. + +From Rome the practice extended far and wide to her colonies, +especially the Provincia now called Provence. Athenæus (xii. 26) +charges the people of Massilia with "acting like women out of +luxury"; and he cites the saying "May you sail to Massilia!" as +if it were another Corinth. Indeed the whole Keltic race is +charged with Le Vice by Aristotle (Pol. ii. 66), Strabo (iv. 199) +and Diodorus Siculus (v. 32). Roman civilisation carried +pederasty also to Northern Africa, where it took firm root, while +the negro and negroid races to the South ignore the erotic +perversion, except where imported by foreigners into such +kingdoms as Bornu and Haussa. In old Mauritania, now +Marocco,[FN#384] the Moors proper are notable sodomites; Moslems, +even of saintly houses, are permitted openly to keep catamites, +nor do their disciples think worse of their sanctity for such +licence: in one case the English wife failed to banish from the +home "that horrid boy." + +Yet pederasty is forbidden by the Koran. In chapter iv. 20 we +read: "And if two (men) among you commit the crime, then punish +them both," the penalty being some hurt or damage by public +reproach, insult or scourging. There are four distinct references +to Lot and the Sodomites in chapters vii. 78; xi. 77-84; xxvi. +I60-I74 and xxix. 28-35. In the first the prophet commissioned to +the people says, "Proceed ye to a fulsome act wherein no creature +hath foregone ye? Verily ye come to men in lieu of women +lustfully." We have then an account of the rain which made an end +of the wicked and this judgment on the Cities of the Plain is +repeated with more detail in the second reference. Here the +angels, generally supposed to be three, Gabriel, Michael and +Raphael, appeared to Lot as beautiful youths, a sore temptation +to the sinners and the godly man's arm was straitened concerning +his visitors because he felt unable to protect them from the +erotic vagaries of his fellow townsmen. He therefore shut his +doors and from behind them argued the matter: presently the +riotous assembly attempted to climb the wall when Gabriel, seeing +the distress of his host, smote them on the face with one of his +wings and blinded them so that all moved off crying for aid and +saying that Lot had magicians in his house. Hereupon the "Cities" +which, if they ever existed, must have been Fellah villages, were +uplifted: Gabriel thrust his wing under them and raised them so +high that the inhabitants of the lower heaven (the lunar sphere) +could hear the dogs barking and the cocks crowing. Then came the +rain of stones: these were clay pellets baked in hell-fire, +streaked white and red, or having some mark to distinguish them +from the ordinary and each bearing the name of its destination +like the missiles which destroyed the host of Abrahat +al-Ashram.[FN#385] Lastly the "Cities" were turned upside down +and cast upon earth. These circumstantial unfacts are repeated at +full length in the other two chapters; but rather as an instance +of Allah's power than as a warning against pederasty, which +Mohammed seems to have regarded with philosophic indifference. +The general opinion of his followers is that it should be +punished like fornication unless the offenders made a public act +of penitence. But here, as in adultery, the law is somewhat too +clement and will not convict unless four credible witnesses swear +to have seen rem in re. I have noticed (vol. i. 211) the vicious +opinion that the Ghilmán or Wuldán, the beautiful boys of +Paradise, the counter parts of the Houris, will be lawful +catamites to the True Believers in a future state of happiness: +the idea is nowhere countenanced in Al-Islam; and, although I +have often heard debauchées refer to it, the learned look upon +the assertion as scandalous. + +As in Marocco so the Vice prevails throughout the old regencies +of Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli and all the cities of the South +Mediterranean seaboard, whilst it is unknown to the Nubians, the +Berbers and the wilder tribes dwelling inland. Proceeding +Eastward we reach Egypt, that classical region of all +abominations which, marvellous to relate, flourished in closest +contact with men leading the purest of lives, models of +moderation and morality, of religion and virtue. Amongst the +ancient Copts Le Vice was part and portion of the Ritual and was +represented by two male partridges alternately copulating +(Interp. in Priapi Carm. xvii). The evil would have gained +strength by the invasion of Cambyses (B.C. 524), whose armies, +after the victory over Psammenitus. settled in the Nile-Valley +and held it, despite sundry revolts, for some hundred and ninety +years. During these six generations the Iranians left their mark +upon Lower Egypt and especially, as the late Rogers Bey proved, +upon the Fayyum, the most ancient Delta of the Nile.[FN#386] Nor +would the evil be diminished by the Hellenes who, under Alexander +the Great, "liberator and saviour of Egypt" (B.C. 332), +extinguished the native dynasties: the love of the Macedonian for +Bagoas the Eunuch being a matter of history. From that time and +under the rule of the Ptolemies the morality gradually decayed; +the Canopic orgies extended into private life and the debauchery +of the men was equalled only by the depravity of the women. +Neither Christianity nor Al-Islam could effect a change for the +better; and social morality seems to have been at its worst +during the past century when Sonnini travelled (A.D. 1717). The +French officer, who is thoroughly trustworthy, draws the darkest +picture of the widely spread criminality, especially of the +bestiality and the sodomy (chaps. xv.), which formed the "delight +of the Egyptians." During the Napoleonic conquest Jaubert in his +letter to General Bruix (p. I9) says, "Les Arabes et les +Mamelouks ont traité quelques-uns de nos prisonniers comme +Socrate traitait, dit-on, Alcibiade. Il fallait périr ou y +passer." Old Anglo-Egyptians still chuckle over the tale of Sa'id +Pasha and M. de Ruyssenaer, the high-dried and highly respectable +Consul-General for the Netherlands, who was solemnly advised to +make the experiment, active and passive, before offering his +opinion upon the subject. In the present age extensive +intercourse with Europeans has produced not a reformation but a +certain reticence amongst the upper classes: they are as vicious +as ever, but they do not care for displaying their vices to the +eyes of mocking strangers. + +Syria and Palestine, another ancient focus of abominations, +borrowed from Egypt and exaggerated the worship of androgynic and +hermaphroditic deities. Plutarch (De Iside) notes that the old +Nilotes held the moon to be of "male-female sex," the men +sacrificing to Luna and the women to Lunus.[FN#387] Isis also was +a hermaphrodite, the idea being that Aether or Air (the lower +heavens) was the menstruum of generative nature; and Damascius +explained the tenet by the all-fruitful and prolific powers of +the atmosphere. Hence the fragment attributed to Orpheus, the +song of Jupiter (Air):-- + + All things from Jove descend + Jove was a male, Jove was a deathless bride; + For men call Air, of two fold sex, the Jove. + +Julius Pirmicus relates that "The Assyrians and part of the +Africians" (along the Mediterranean seaboard?) "hold Air to be +the chief element and adore its fanciful figure (imaginata +figura), consecrated under the name of Juno or the Virgin Venus. +* * * Their companies of priests cannot duly serve her unless +they effeminate their faces, smooth their skins and disgrace +their masculine sex by feminine ornaments. You may see men in +their very temples amid general groans enduring miserable +dalliance and becoming passives like women (viros muliebria +pati), and they expose, with boasting and ostentation, the +pollution of the impure and immodest body." Here we find the +religious significance of eunuchry. It was practiced as a +religious rite by the Tympanotribas or Gallus,[FN#388] the +castrated votary of Rhea or Bona Mater, in Phrygia called Cybele, +self mutilated but not in memory of Atys; and by a host of other +creeds: even Christianity, as sundry texts show,[FN#389] could +not altogether cast out the old possession. Here too we have an +explanation of Sotadic love in its second stage, when it became, +like cannibalism, a matter of superstition. Assuming a nature- +implanted tendency, we see that like human sacrifice it was held +to be the most acceptable offering to the God-goddess in the +Orgia or sacred ceremonies, a something set apart for peculiar +worship. Hence in Rome as in Egypt the temples of Isis (Inachidos +limina, Isiacæ sacraria Lunæ) were centres of sodomy, and the +religious practice was adopted by the grand priestly castes from +Mesopotamia to Mexico and Peru. + +We find the earliest written notices of the Vice in the mythical +destruction of the Pentapolis (Gen. xix.), Sodom, Gomorrah (= +'Amirah, the cultivated country), Adama, Zeboïm and Zoar or Bela. +The legend has been amply embroidered by the Rabbis who make the +Sodomites do everything à l'envers: e.g., if a man were wounded +he was fined for bloodshed and was compelled to fee the offender; +and if one cut off the ear of a neighbour's ass he was condemned +to keep the animal till the ear grew again. The Jewish doctors +declare the people to have been a race of sharpers with rogues +for magistrates, and thus they justify the judgment which they +read literally. But the traveller cannot accept it. I have +carefully examined the lands at the North and at the South of +that most beautiful lake, the so-called Dead Sea, whose tranquil +loveliness, backed by the grand plateau of Moab, is an object of +admiration to all save patients suffering from the strange +disease "Holy Land on the Brain."[FN#390] But I found no traces +of craters in the neighbourhood, no signs of vulcanism, no +remains of "meteoric stones": the asphalt which named the water +is a mineralised vegetable washed out of the limestones, and the +sulphur and salt are brought down by the Jordan into a lake +without issue. I must therefore look upon the history as a myth +which may have served a double purpose. The first would be to +deter the Jew from the Malthusian practices of his pagan +predecessors, upon whom obloquy was thus cast, so far resembring +the scandalous and absurd legend which explained the names of the +children of Lot by Pheiné and Thamma as "Moab" .(Mu-ab) the water +or semen of the father, and "Ammon" as mother's son, that is, +bastard. The fable would also account for the abnormal fissure +containing the lower Jordan and the Dead Sea, which the late Sir +R. I. Murchison used wrong-headedly to call a "Volcano of +Depression": this geological feature, that cuts off the +river-basin from its natural outlet, the Gulf of Eloth (Akabah), +must date from myriads of years before there were "Cities of the +Plains." But the main object of the ancient lawgiver, Osarsiph, +Moses or the Moseidæ, was doubtless to discountenance a +perversion prejudicial to the increase of population. And he +speaks with no uncertain voice, Whoso lieth with a beast shall +surely be put to death (Exod. xxii. I9): If a man lie with +mankind as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an +abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall +be upon them (Levit. xx. 13; where v.v. 15-16 threaten with death +man and woman who lie with beasts). Again, There shall be no +whore of the daughters of Israel nor a sodomite of the sons of +Israel (Deut. xxii. 5). + +The old commentators on the Sodom-myth are most unsatisfactory, +e.g. Parkhurst, s.v. Kadesh. "From hence we may observe the +peculiar propriety of this punishment of Sodom and of the +neighbouring cities. By their sodomitical impurities they meant +to acknowledge the Heavens as the cause of fruitfulness +independently upon, and in opposition to, Jehovah;[FN#391] +therefore Jehovah, by raining upon them not genial showers but +brimstone from heaven, not only destroyed the inhabitants, but +also changed all that country, which was before as the garden of +God, into brimstone and salt that is not sown nor beareth, +neither any grass groweth therein." It must be owned that to this +Pentapolis was dealt very hard measure for religiously and +diligently practicing a popular rite which a host of cities even +in the present day, as Naples and Shiraz, to mention no others, +affect for simple luxury and affect with impunity. The myth may +probably reduce itself to very small proportions, a few Fellah +villages destroyed by a storm, like that which drove Brennus from +Delphi. + +The Hebrews entering Syria found it religionised by Assyria and +Babylonia, whence Accadian Ishtar had passed west and had become +Ashtoreth, Ashtaroth or Ashirah,[FN#392] the Anaitis of Armenia, +the Phœnician Astarte and the Greek Aphrodite, the great Moon- +goddess,[FN#393] who is queen of Heaven and Love. In another +phase she was Venus Mylitta = the Procreatrix, in Chaldaic +Mauludatá and in Arabic Moawallidah, she who bringeth forth. She +was worshipped by men habited as women and vice-versâ; for which +reason in the Torah (Deut. xx. 5) the sexes are forbidden to +change dress. The male prostitutes were called Kadesh the holy, +the women being Kadeshah, and doubtless gave themselves up to +great excesses. Eusebius (De bit. Const. iii. c. 55) describes a +school of impurity at Aphac, where women and "men who were not +men" practiced all manner of abominations in honour of the Demon +(Venus). Here the Phrygian symbolism of Kybele and Attis (Atys) +had become the Syrian Ba'al Tammuz and Astarte, and the Grecian +Dionæa and Adonis, the anthropomorphic forms of the two greater +lights. The site, Apheca, now Wady al-Afik on the route from +Bayrut to the Cedars, is a glen of wild and wondrous beauty, +fitting frame-work for the loves of goddess and demigod: and the +ruins of the temple destroyed by Constantine contrast with +Nature's work, the glorious fountain, splendidior vitro, which +feeds the River Ibrahim and still at times Adonis runs purple to +the sea.[FN#394] + +The Phœnicians spread this androgynic worship over Greece. We +find the consecrated servants and votaries of Corinthian +Aphrodite called Hierodouli (Strabo viii. 6), who aided the ten +thousand courtesans in gracing the Venus-temple: from this +excessive luxury arose the proverb popularised by Horace. One of +the headquarters of the cult was Cyprus where, as Servius relates +(Ad Æn. ii. 632), stood the simulacre of a bearded Aphrodite with +feminine body and costume, sceptered and mitred like a man. The +sexes when worshipping it exchanged habits and here the virginity +was offered in sacrifice: Herodotus (i. c. 199) describes this +defloration at Babylon but sees only the shameful part of the +custom which was a mere consecration of a tribal rite. Everywhere +girls before marriage belong either to the father or to the clan +and thus the maiden paid the debt due to the public before +becoming private property as a wife. The same usage prevailed in +ancient Armenia and in parts of Ethiopia; and Herodotus tells us +that a practice very much like the Babylonian "is found also in +certain parts of the Island of Cyprus:" it is noticed by Justin +(xviii. c. 5) and probably it explains the "Succoth Benoth" or +Damsels' booths which the Babylonians bans planted to the cities +of Samaria.[FN#395] The Jews seem very successfully to have +copied the abominations of their pagan neighbours, even in the +matter of the "dog."[FN#396] In the reign of wicked Rehoboam +(B.C. 975) "There were also sodomites in the land and they did +according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lord +cast out before the children of Israel" (I Kings xiv. 20). The +scandal was abated by zealous King Asa (B.C. 958) whose +grandmother[FN#397] was high-priestess of Priapus (princeps in +sacris Priapi): he took away the sodomites out of the land" (I +Kings XV. I2). Yet the prophets were loud in their complaints, +especially the so-called Isaiah (B.C. 760), "except the Lord of +Hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we should have been as +Sodom (i. 9); and strong measures were required from good King +Josiah (B.C. 641) who amongst other things, "brake down the +houses of the sodomites that were by the house of the Lord, where +the women wove hangings for the grove" (2 Kings xxiii. 7). The +bordels of boys (pueris alienis adhæseverunt) appear to have been +near the Temple. + +Syria has not forgotten her old "praxis." At Damascus I found +some noteworthy cases amongst the religious of the great Amawi +Mosque. As for the Druses we have Burckhardt's authority (Travels +in Syria, etc., p. 202), "unnatural propensities are very common +amongst them." + +The Sotadic Zone covers the whole of Asia Minor and Mesopotamia +now occupied by the "unspeakable Turk," a race of born pederasts; +and in the former region we first notice a peculiarity of the +feminine figure, the mammæ inclinatæ, jacentes et pannosæ, which +prevails over all this part of the belt. Whilst the women to the +North and South have, with local exceptions, the mammæ stantes of +the European virgin,[FN#398] those of Turkey, Persia, Afghanistan +and Kashmir lose all the fine curves of the bosom, sometimes even +before the first child; and after it the hemispheres take the +form of bags. This cannot result from climate only; the women of +Marathá-land, inhabiting a damper and hotter region than Kashmir, +are noted for fine firm breasts even after parturition. Le Vice +of course prevails more in the cities and towns of Asiatic Turkey +than in the villages; yet even these are infected; while the +nomad Turcomans contrast badly in this point with the Gypsies, +those Badawin of India. The Kurd population is of Iranian origin, +which means that the evil is deeply rooted: I have noted in The +Nights that the great and glorious Saladin was a habitual +pederast. The Armenians, as their national character is, will +prostitute themselves for gain but prefer women to boys: Georgia +supplied Turkey with catamites whilst Circassia sent concubines. +In Mesopotamia the barbarous invader has almost obliterated the +ancient civilisation which is ante-dated only by the Nilotic: the +mysteries of old Babylon nowhere survive save in certain obscure +tribes like the Mandæans, the Devil-worshippers and the +Alí-iláhi. Entering Persia we find the reverse of Armenia; and, +despite Herodotus, I believe that Iran borrowed her pathologic +love from the peoples of the Tigris-Euphrates Valley and not from +the then insignificant Greeks. But whatever may be its origin, +the corruption is now bred in the bone. It begins in boyhood and +many Persians account for it by paternal severity. Youths arrived +at puberty find none of the facilities with which Europe supplies +fornication. Onanism[FN#399] is to a certain extent discouraged +by circumcision, and meddling with the father's slave-girls and +concubines would be risking cruel punishment if not death. Hence +they use each other by turns, a "puerile practice" known as +Alish-Takish, the Lat. facere vicibus or mutuum facere. +Temperament, media, and atavism recommend the custom to the +general; and after marrying and begetting heirs, Paterfamilias +returns to the Ganymede. Hence all the odes of Hafiz are +addressed to youths, as proved by such Arabic exclamations as +'Afáka 'llah = Allah assain thee (masculine)[FN#400]: the object +is often fanciful but it would be held coarse and immodest to +address an imaginary girl.[FN#401] An illustration of the +penchant is told at Shiraz concerning a certain Mujtahid, the +head of the Shi'ah creed, corresponding with a prince-archbishop +in Europe. A friend once said to him, "There is a question I +would fain address to your Eminence but I lack the daring to do +so." "Ask and fear not," replied the Divine. "It is this, O +Mujtahid! Figure thee in a garden of roses and hyacinths with the +evening breeze waving the cypress-heads, a fair youth of twenty +sitting by thy side and the assurance of perfect privacy. What, +prithee, would be the result?" The holy man bowed the chin of +doubt upon the collar of meditation; and, too honest to lie, +presently whispered, "Allah defend me from such temptation of +Satan!" Yet even in Persia men have not been wanting who have +done their utmost to uproot the Vice: in the same Shiraz they +speak of a father who, finding his son in flagrant delict, put +him to death like Brutus or Lynch of Galway. Such isolated cases, +however, can effect nothing. Chardin tells us that houses of male +prostitution were common in Persia whilst those of women were +unknown: the same is the case in the present day and the boys are +prepared with extreme care by diet, baths, depilation, unguents +and a host of artists in cosmetics.[FN#402] Le Vice is looked +upon at most as a peccadillo and its mention crops up in every +jest-book. When the Isfahan man mocked Shaykh Sa'adi by comparing +the bald pates of Shirazian elders to the bottom of a lotá, a +brass cup with a wide-necked opening used in the Hammam, the +witty poet turned its aperture upwards and thereto likened the +well-abused podex of an Isfahani youth. Another favourite piece +of Shirazian "chaff" is to declare that when an Isfahan father +would set up his son in business he provides him with a pound of +rice, meaning that he can sell the result as compost for the +kitchen-garden, and with the price buy another meal: hence the +saying Khakh-i-pái káhú = the soil at the lettuce-root. The +Isfahanis retort with the name of a station or halting-place +between the two cities where, under presence of making travellers +stow away their riding-gear, many a Shirazi had been raped: hence +"Zín o takaltú tú bi-bar" = carry within saddle and saddle-cloth! +A favourite Persian punishment for strangers caught in the Harem +or Gynæceum is to strip and throw them and expose them to the +embraces of the grooms and negro-slaves. I once asked a Shirazi +how penetration was possible if the patient resisted with all the +force of the sphincter muscle: he smiled and said, "Ah, we +Persians know a trick to get over that; we apply a sharpened tent +peg to the crupper bone (os coccygis) and knock till he opens." A +well known missionary to the East during the last generation was +subjected to this gross insult by one of the Persian Prince- +governors, whom he had infuriated by his conversion-mania: in his +memoirs he alludes to it by mentioning his "dishonoured person;" +but English readers cannot comprehend the full significance of +the confession. About the same time Shaykh Nasr, Governor of +Bushire, a man famed for facetious blackguardism, used to invite +European youngsters serving in the Bombay Marine and ply them +with liquor till they were insensible. Next morning the middies +mostly complained that the champagne had caused a curious +irritation and soreness in la parse-posse. The same Eastern +"Scrogin" would ask his guests if they had ever seen a man-cannon +(Adami-top); and, on their replying in the negative, a grey-beard +slave was dragged in blaspheming and struggling with all his +strength. He was presently placed on all fours and firmly held by +the extremities; his bag-trousers were let down and a dozen +peppercorns were inserted ano suo: the target was a sheet of +paper held at a reasonable distance; the match was applied by a +pinch of cayenne in the nostrils; the sneeze started the +grapeshot and the number of hits on the butt decided the bets. We +can hardly wonder at the loose conduct of Persian women +perpetually mortified by marital pederasty. During the unhappy +campaign of 1856-57 in which, with the exception of a few +brilliant skirmishes, we gained no glory, Sir James Outram and +the Bombay army showing how badly they could work, there was a +formal outburst of the Harems; and even women of princely birth +could not be kept out of the officers' quarters. + +The cities of Afghanistan and Sind are thoroughly saturated with +Persian vice, and the people sing + + Kadr-i-kus Aughán dánad, kadr-i-kunrá Kábuli: + The worth of coynte the Afghan knows: Cabul prefers the +other chose![FN#403] + +The Afghans are commercial travellers on a large scale and each +caravan is accompanied by a number of boys and lads almost in +woman's attire with kohl'd eyes and rouged cheeks, long tresses +and henna'd fingers and toes, riding luxuriously in Kajáwas or +camel-panniers: they are called Kúch-i safari, or travelling +wives, and the husbands trudge patiently by their sides. In +Afghanistan also a frantic debauchery broke out amongst the women +when they found incubi who were not pederasts; and the scandal +was not the most insignificant cause of the general rising at +Cabul (Nov. 1841), and the slaughter of Macnaghten, Burnes and +other British officers. + +Resuming our way Eastward we find the Sikhs and the Moslems of +the Panjab much addicted to Le Vice, although the Himalayan +tribes to the north and those lying south, the Rájputs and +Marathás, ignore it. The same may be said of the Kash mirians who +add another Kappa to the tria Kakista, Kappado clans, Kretans, +and Kilicians: the proverb says, + + Agar kaht-i-mardum uftad, az ín sih jins kam gírí; + Eki Afghán, dovvum Sindí[FN#404] siyyum +badjins-i-Kashmírí: + + Though of men there be famine yet shun these three- + Afghan, Sindi and rascally Kashmírí. + +M. Louis Daville describes the infamies of Lahore and Lakhnau +where he found men dressed as women, with flowing locks under +crowns of flowers, imitating the feminine walk and gestures, +voice and fashion of speech, and ogling their admirers with all +the coquetry of bayadères. Victor Jacquemont's Journal de Voyage +describes the pederasty of Ranjít Singh, the "Lion of the +Panjáb," and his pathic Guláb Singh whom the English inflicted +upon Cashmir as ruler by way of paying for his treason. Yet the +Hindus, I repeat, hold pederasty in abhorrence and are as much +scandalised by being called Gánd-márá (anus-beater) or Gándú +(anuser) as Englishmen would be. During the years 1843-44 my +regiment, almost all Hindu Sepoys of the Bombay Presidency, was +stationed at a purgatory called Bandar Ghárrá,[FN#405] a sandy +flat with a scatter of verdigris-green milk-bush some forty miles +north of Karáchi the headquarters. The dirty heap of mud-and-mat +hovels, which represented the adjacent native village, could not +supply a single woman; yet only one case of pederasty came to +light and that after a tragical fashion some years afterwards. A +young Brahman had connection with a soldier comrade of low caste +and this had continued till, in an unhappy hour, the Pariah +patient ventured to become the agent. The latter, in Arab. +Al-Fá'il =the "doer," is not an object of contempt like Al-Mafúl += the "done"; and the high caste sepoy, stung by remorse and +revenge, loaded his musket and deliberately shot his paramour. He +was hanged by court martial at Hyderabad and, when his last +wishes were asked, he begged in vain to be suspended by the feet; +the idea being that his soul, polluted by exiting "below the +waist," would be doomed to endless trans-migrations through the +lowest forms of life. + +Beyond India, I have stated, the Sotadic Zone begins to broaden +out, embracing all China, Turkistan and Japan. The Chinese, as +far as we know them in the great cities, are omnivorous and +omnifutuentes: they are the chosen people of debauchery, and +their systematic bestiality with ducks, goats, and other animals +is equalled only by their pederasty. Kæmpfer and Orlof Torée +(Voyage en Chine) notice the public houses for boys and youths in +China and Japan. Mirabeau (L'Anandryne) describes the tribadism +of their women in hammocks. When Pekin was plundered the Harems +contained a number of balls a little larger than the old +musket-bullet, made of thin silver with a loose pellet of brass +inside somewhat like a grelot;[FN#406] these articles were placed +by the women between the labia and an up-and-down movement on the +bed gave a pleasant titillation when nothing better was to be +procured. They have every artifice of luxury, aphrodisiacs, +erotic perfumes and singular applications. Such are the pills +which, dissolved in water and applied to the glans penis, cause +it to throb and swell: so according to Amerigo Vespucci American +women could artificially increase the size of their husbands' +parts.[FN#407] The Chinese bracelet of caoutchouc studded with +points now takes the place of the Herisson, or Annulus +hirsutus,[FN#408] which was bound between the glans and prepuce. +Of the penis succedaneus, that imitation of the Arbor vitæ or +Soter Kosmou, which the Latins called phallus and +fascinum,[FN#409] the French godemiché and the Italians +passatempo and diletto (whence our "dildo"), every kind abounds, +varying from a stuffed "French letter" to a cone of ribbed horn +which looks like an instrument of torture. For the use of men +they have the "merkin,"[FN#410] a heart-shaped article of thin +skin stuffed with cotton and slit with an artificial vagina: two +tapes at the top and one below lash it to the back of a chair. +The erotic literature of the Chinese and Japanese is highly +developed and their illustrations are often facetious as well as +obscene. All are familiar with that of the strong man who by a +blow with his enormous phallus shivers a copper pot; and the +ludicrous contrast of the huge-membered wights who land in the +Isle of Women and presently escape from it, wrinkled and +shrivelled, true Domine Dolittles. Of Turkistan we know little, +but what we know confirms my statement. Mr. Schuyler in his +Turkistan (i. 132) offers an illustration of a "Batchah" (Pers. +bachcheh = catamite), "or singing-boy surrounded by his +admirers." Of the Tartars Master Purchas laconically says (v. +419), "They are addicted to Sodomie or Buggerie." The learned +casuist Dr. Thomas Sanchez the Spaniard had (says Mirabeau in +Kadhésch) to decide a difficult question concerning the +sinfulness of a peculiar erotic perversion. The Jesuits brought +home from Manilla a tailed man whose moveable prolongation of the +os coccygis measured from 7 to 10 inches: he had placed himself +between two women, enjoying one naturally while the other used +his tail as a penis succedaneus. The verdict was incomplete +sodomy and simple fornication. For the islands north of Japan, +the "Sodomitical Sea," and the "nayle of tynne" thrust through +the prepuce to prevent sodomy, see Lib. ii. chap. 4 of Master +Thomas Caudish's Circumnavigation, and vol. vi. of Pinkerton's +Geography translated by Walckenaer. + +Passing over to America we find that the Sotadic Zone contains +the whole hemisphere from Behring's Straits to Magellan's. This +prevalence of "mollities" astonishes the anthropologist, who is +apt to consider pederasty the growth of luxury and the especial +product of great and civilised cities, unnecessary and therefore +unknown to simple savagery, where the births of both sexes are +about equal and female infanticide is not practiced. In many +parts of the New World this perversion was accompanied by another +depravity of taste--confirmed cannibalism.[FN#411] The forests +and campos abounded in game from the deer to the pheasant-like +penelope, and the seas and rivers produced an unfailing supply of +excellent fish and shell-fish;[FN#412] yet the Brazilian Tupis +preferred the meat of man to every other food. + +A glance at Mr. Bancroft[FN#413] proves the abnormal development +of sodomy amongst the savages and barbarians of the New World. +Even his half-frozen Hyperboreans "possess all the passions which +are supposed to develop most freely under a milder temperature" +(i. 58). "The voluptuousness and polygamy of the North American +Indians, under a temperature of almost perpetual winter, is far +greater than that of the most sensual tropical nations" (Martin's +Brit. Colonies iii. 524). I can quote only a few of the most +remarkable instances. Of the Koniagas of Kadiak Island and the +Thinkleets we read (i. 81-82), "The most repugnant of all their +practices is that of male concubinage. A Kadiak mother will +select her handsomest and most promising boy, and dress and rear +him as a girl, teaching him only domestic duties, keeping him at +women s work, associating him with women and girls, in order to +render his effeminacy complete. Arriving at the age of ten or +fifteen years, he is married to some wealthy man who regards such +a companion as a great acquisition. These male concubines are +called Achnutschik or Schopans" (the authorities quoted being +Holmberg, Langsdorff, Billing, Choris, Lisiansky and Marchand). +The same is the case in Nutka Sound and the Aleutian Islands, +where "male concubinage obtains throughout, but not to the same +extent as amongst the Koniagas." The objects of "unnatural" +affection have their beards carefully plucked out as soon as the +face-hair begins to grow, and their chins are tattooed like those +of the women. In California the first missionaries found the same +practice, the youths being called Joya (Bancroft, i. 415 and +authorities Palon, Crespi, Boscana, Mofras, Torquemada, Duflot +and Fages). The Comanches unite incest with sodomy (i. 515). "In +New Mexico, according to Arlegui, Ribas, and other authors, male +concubinage prevails to a great extent; these loathsome +semblances of humanity, whom to call beastly were a slander upon +beasts, dress themselves in the clothes and perform the functions +of women, the use of weapons being denied them" (i. 585). +Pederasty was systematically practiced by the peoples of Cueba, +Careta, and other parts of Central America. The Caciques and some +of the headmen kept harems of youths who, as soon as destined for +the unclean office, were dressed as women. They went by the name +of Camayoas, and were hated and detested by the good wives (i. +733-74). Of the Nahua nations Father Pierre de Gand (alias de +Musa) writes, "Un certain nombre de prâtres n'avaient point de +femmes, sed eorum loco pueros quibus abutebantur. Ce péché était +si commun dans ce pays que, jeunes ou vieux, tous étaient +infectés; ils y étaient si adonnés que mêmes les enfants de six +ens s'y livraient" (Ternaux,Campans, Voyages, Série i. Tom. x. p. +197). Among the Mayas of Yucatan Las Casas declares that the +great prevalence of "unnatural" lust made parents anxious to see +their progeny wedded as soon as possible (Kingsborough's Mex. +Ant. viii. 135). In Vera Paz a god, called by some Chin and by +others Cavial and Maran, taught it by committing the act with +another god. Some fathers gave their sons a boy to use as a +woman, and if any other approached this pathic he was treated as +an adulterer. In Yucatan images were found by Bernal Diaz proving +the sodomitical propensities of the people (Bancroft v. 198). De +Pauw (Recherches Philosophiques sur les Americains, London, I77I) +has much to say about the subject in Mexico generally: in the +northern provinces men married youths who, dressed like women, +were forbidden to carry arms. According to Gomara there were at +Tamalpais houses of male prostitution; and from Diaz and others +we gather that the pecado nefando was the rule. Both in Mexico +and in Peru it might have caused, if it did not justify, the +cruelties of the Conquistadores. Pederasty was also general +throughout Nicaragua, and the early explorers found it amongst +the indigenes of Panama. + +We have authentic details concerning Le Vice in Peru and its +adjacent lands, beginning with Cieza de Leon, who must be read in +the original or in the translated extracts of Purchas (vol. v. +942, etc.), not in the cruelly castrated form preferred by the +Council of the Hakluyt Society. Speaking of the New Granada +Indians he tells us that "at Old Port (Porto Viejo) and Puna, the +Deuill so farre prevayled in their beastly Deuotions that there +were Boyes consecrated to serue in the Temple; and at the times +of their Sacrifices and Solemne Feasts, the Lords and principall +men abused them to that detestable filthinesse;" i.e. performed +their peculiar worship. Generally in the hill-countries the +Devil, under the show of holiness, had introduced the practice; +for every temple or chief house of adoration kept one or two men +or more which were attired like women, even from the time of +their childhood, and spake like them, imitating them in +everything; with these, under pretext of holiness and religion, +principal men on principal days had commerce. Speaking of the +arrival of the Giants[FN#414] at Point Santa Elena, Cieza says +(chap. lii.), they were detested by the natives, because in using +their women they killed them, and their men also in another way. +All the natives declare that God brought upon them a punishment +proportioned to the enormity of their offence. When they were +engaged together in their accursed intercourse, a fearful and +terrible fire came down from Heaven with a great noise, out of +the midst of which there issued a shining Angel with a glittering +sword, wherewith at one blow they were all killed and the fire +consumed them.[FN#415] There remained a few bones and skulls +which God allowed to bide unconsumed by the fire, as a memorial +of this punishment. In the Hakluyt Society's bowdlerisation we +read of the Tumbez Islanders being "very vicious, many of them +committing the abominable offence" (p. 24); also, "If by the +advice of the Devil any Indian commit the abominable crime, it is +thought little of and they call him a woman." In chapters lii. +and lviii. we find exceptions. The Indians of Huancabamba, +"although so near the peoples of Puerto Viejo and Guayaquil, do +not commit the abominable sin;" and the Serranos, or island +mountaineers, as sorcerers and magiclans inferior to the coast +peoples, were not so much addicted to sodomy. + +The Royal Commentaries of the Yncas shows that the evil was of a +comparatively modern growth. In the early period of Peruvian +history the people considered the crime "unspeakable:" if a Cuzco +Indian, not of Yncarial blood, angrily addressed the term +pederast to another, he was held infamous for many days. One of +the generals having reported to the Ynca Ccapacc Yupanqui that +there were some sodomites, not in all the valleys, but one here +and one there, "nor was it a habit of all the inhabitants but +only of certain persons who practised it privately," the ruler +ordered that the criminals should be publicly burnt alive and +their houses, crops and trees destroyed: moreover, to show his +abomination, he commanded that the whole village should so be +treated if one man fell into this habit (Lib. iii. cap. 13). +Elsewhere we learn, "There were sodomites in some provinces, +though not openly nor universally, but some particular men and in +secret. In some parts they had them in their temples, because the +Devil persuaded them that the Gods took great delight in such +people, and thus the Devil acted as a traitor to remove the veil +of shame that the Gentiles felt for this crime and to accustom +them to commit it in public and in common." + +During the times of the Conquistadores male concubinage had +become the rule throughout Peru. At Cuzco, we are told by Nuno de +Guzman in 1530 "The last which was taken, and which fought most +couragiously, was a man in the habite of a woman, which confessed +that from a childe he had gotten his liuing by that filthinesse, +for which I caused him to be burned." V. F. Lopez[FN#416] draws a +frightful picture of pathologic love in Peru. Under the reigns +which followed that of Inti-Kapak (Ccapacc) Amauri, the country +was attacked by invaders of a giant race coming from the sea: +they practiced pederasty after a fashion so shameless that the +conquered tribes were compelled to fly(p. 271). Under the +pre-Yncarial Amauta, or priestly dynasty, Peru had lapsed into +savagery and the kings of Cuzco preserved only the name. "Toutes +ces hontes et toutes ces misères provenaient de deux vices +infâmes, la bestialité et la sodomie. Les femmes surtout étaient +offensées de voir la nature frustrée de tous ses droits. Wiles +pleuraient ensemble en leurs réunions sur le misérable état dans +loquel elles étaient tombées, sur le mépris avec lequel elles +étaient traitées. * * * * Le monde était renversé, les hommes +s'aimaient et étaient jaloux les uns des autres. * * * Elles +cherchaient, mais en vain, les moyens de remédier au mal; elles +employaient des herbes et des recettes diaboliques qui leur +ramenaient bien quelques individus, mais ne pouvaient arrêter les +progrès incessants du vice. Cet état de choses constitua un +véritable moyen âge, qui aura jusqu'à l'établissement du +gouvernement des Incas" (p. 277). + + +When Sinchi Roko (the xcvth of Montesinos and the xcist of +Garcilazo) became Ynca, he found morals at the lowest ebb. "Ni la +prudence de l'Inca, ni les lois sévères qu'il avait promulguées +n'avaient pu extirper entièrement le péché contre nature. I1 +reprit avec une nouvelle violence, et les femmes en furent si +jalouses qu'un grand nombre d'elles tuerent leurs maris. Les +devins et les sorciers passaient leurs journées à fabriquer, avec +certaines herbes, des compositions magiques qui rendaient fous +ceux qui en mangaient, et les femmes en faisaient prendre, soit +dans les aliments, soit dans la chicha, à ceux dont elles étaient +jalouses'' (p. 291). + +I have remarked that the Tupi races of the Brazil were infamous +for cannibalism and sodomy; nor could the latter be only racial +as proved by the fact that colonists of pure Lusitanian blood +followed in the path of the savages. Sr. Antonio Augusto da Costa +Aguiar[FN#417] is outspoken upon this point. "A crime which in +England leads to the gallows, and which is the very measure of +abject depravity, passes with impunity amongst us by the +participating in it of almost all or of many (de quasi todos, ou +de muitos) Ah! if the wrath of Heaven were to fall by way of +punishing such crimes (delictos), more than one city of this +Empire, more than a dozen, would pass into the category of the +Sodoms and Gomorrains" (p. 30). Till late years pederasty in the +Brazil was looked upon as a peccadillo; the European immigrants +following the practice of the wild men who were naked but not, as +Columbus said, "clothed in innocence." One of Her Majesty's +Consuls used to tell a tale of the hilarity provoked in a +"fashionable" assembly by the open declaration of a young +gentleman that his mulatto "patient" had suddenly turned upon +him, insisting upon becoming agent. Now, however, under the +influences of improved education and respect for the public +opinion of Europe, pathologic love amongst the Luso-Brazilians +has been reduced to the normal limits. + +Outside the Sotadic Zone, I have said, Le Vice is sporadic, not +endemic: yet the physical and moral effect of great cities where +puberty, they say, is induced earlier than in country sites, has +been the same in most lands, causing modesty to decay and +pederasty to flourish. The Badawi Arab is wholly pure of Le Vice; +yet San'á the capital of Al-Yaman and other centres of population +have long been and still are thoroughly infected. History tells +us of Zú Shanátir, tyrant of "Arabia Felix," in A.D. 478, who +used to entice young men into his palace and cause them after use +to be cast out of the windows: this unkindly ruler was at last +poniarded by the youth Zerash, known from his long ringlets as +"Zú Nowás." The negro race is mostly untainted by sodomy and +tribadism. Yet Joan dos Sanctos[FN#418] found in Cacongo of West +Africa certain "Chibudi, which are men attyred like women and +behaue themselves womanly, ashamed to be called men; are also +married to men, and esteem that vnnaturale damnation an honor." +Madagascar also delighted in dancing and singing boys dressed as +girls. In the Empire of Dahomey I noted a corps of prostitutes +kept for the use of the Amazon-soldieresses. + +North of the Sotadic Zone we find local but notable instances. +Master Christopher Burrough[FN#419] describes on the western side +of the Volga "a very fine stone castle, called by the name Oueak, +and adioyning to the same a Towne called by the Russes, Sodom, * +* * which was swallowed into the earth by the justice of God, for +the wickednesse of the people." Again: although as a rule +Christianity has steadily opposed pathologic love both in writing +and preaching, there have been remarkable exceptions. Perhaps the +most curious idea was that of certain medical writers in the +middle ages: "Usus et amplexus pueri, bene temperatus, salutaris +medicine" (Tardieu). Bayle notices (under "Vayer") the infamous +book of Giovanni della Casa, Archbishop of Benevento, "De +laudibus Sodomiæ,"[FN#420] vulgarly known as "Capitolo del +Forno." The same writer refers (under "Sixte iv.") to the report +that the Dominican Order, which systematically decried Le Vice, +had presented a request to the Cardinal di Santa Lucia that +sodomy might be lawful during three months per annum, June to +August; and that the Cardinal had underwritten the petition "Be +it done as they demand." Hence the Fæda Venus of Battista +Mantovano. Bayle rejects the history for a curious reason, venery +being colder in summer than in winter, and quotes the proverb +"Aux mods qui n'ont pas d' R, peu embrasser et bien boire." But +in the case of a celibate priesthood such scandals are +inevitable: witness the famous Jesuit epitaph Ci-gît un Jesuite, +etc. + +In our modern capitals, London, Berlin and Paris for instance, +the Vice seems subject to periodical outbreaks. For many years, +also, England sent her pederasts to Italy, and especially to +Naples, whence originated the term "Il vizio Inglese." It would +be invicious to detail the scandals which of late years have +startled the public in London and Dublin: for these the curious +will consult the police reports. Berlin, despite her strong +devour of Phariseeism, Puritanism and Chauvinism in religion, +manners and morals, is not a whit better than her neighbours. Dr. +Gaspar,[FN#421] a well-known authority on the subject, adduces +many interesting cases, especially an old Count Cajus and his six +accomplices. Amongst his many correspondents one suggested to him +that not only Plato and Julius Cæsar but also Winckelmann and +Platen(?) belonged to the Society; and he had found it +flourishing in Palermo, the Louvre, the Scottish Highlands and +St. Petersburg to name only a few places. Frederick the Great is +said to have addressed these words to his nephew, "Je puis vous +assurer, par mon expérience personelle, que ce plaisir est peu +agréable à cultiver." This suggests the popular anecdote of +Voltaire and the Englishman who agreed upon an "experience" and +found it far from satisfactory. A few days afterwards the latter +informed the Sage of Ferney that he had tried it again and +provoked the exclamation, "Once a philosopher: twice a sodomite!" +The last revival of the kind in Germany is a society at Frankfort +and its neighbourhood, self-styled Les Cravates Noires, in +opposition, I suppose, to Les Cravates Blanches of A. Belot. + +Paris is by no means more depraved than Berlin and London; but, +whilst the latter hushes up the scandal, Frenchmen do not: hence +we see a more copious account of it submitted to the public. For +France of the xviith century consult the "Histoire de la +Prostitution chez tous les Peuples du Monde," and "La Prance +devenue Italienne," a treatise which generally follows"L'Histoire +Amoureuse des Gaules" by Bussy, Comte de Rabutin.[FN#422] The +headquarters of male prostitution were then in the Champ Flory, +i.e., Champ de Flore, the privileged rendezvous of low +courtesans. In the xviiith century, "quand le Francais a tête +folle," as Voltaire sings, invented the term "Péché +philosophique," there was a temporary recrudescence; and, after +the death of Pidauzet de Mairobert (March, 1779), his "Apologie +de la Secte Anandryne" was published in L'Espion Anglais. In +those days the Allée des Veuves in the Champs Elysees had a "fief +reservé des Ebugors"[FN#423]--"veuve" in the language of Sodom +being the maîtresse en titre, the favourite youth. + +At the decisive moment of monarchical decomposition +Mirabeau[FN#424] declares that pederasty was reglementée and +adds, Le goût des pédérastes, quoique moins en vogue que du temps +de Henri III. (the French Heliogabalus), sous le règne desquel +les hommes se provoquaient mutuellement[FN#425] sous les +portiques du Louvre, fait des progrès considérables. On salt que +cette ville (Paris) est un chef-d'œuvre de police; en +conséquence, il y a des lieux publics autorisés à cet effet. Les +jeunes yens qui se destinent à la professign, vent soigneusement +enclassés; car les systèmes réglementaires s'étendent jusques-là. +On les examine; ceux qui peuvent être agents et patients, qui +vent beaux, vermeils, bien faits, potelés, sont réservés pour les +grands seigneurs, ou se font payer très-cher par les évêques et +les financiers. Ceux qui vent privés de leurs testicules, ou en +termes de l'art (car notre langue est plus chaste qui nos mœurs), +qui n'ont pas le poids du tisserand, mais qui donnent et +reçoivent, forment la seconde classe; ils vent encore chers, +parceque les femmes en usent tandis qu'ils servent aux hommes. +Ceux qui ne sont plus susceptibles d'érection tant ils sont usés, +quoiqu'ils aient tous ces organes nécessaires au plaisir, +s'inscrivent comme patiens purs, et composent la troisième +classe: mais celle qui prèside à ces plaisirs, vérifie leur +impuissance. Pour cet effet, on les place tout nus sur un matelas +ouvert par la moitié inférieure; deux filles les caressent de +leur mieux, pendant qu'une troisieme frappe doucement avec +desorties naissantes le siège des désire vénériens. Après un +quart d'heure de cet essai, on leur introduit dans l'anus un +poivre long rouge qui cause une irritation considérable; on pose +sur les échauboulures produites par les orties, de la moutarde +fine de Caudebec, et l'on passe le gland au camphre. Ceux qui +résistent à ces épreuves et ne donnent aucun signe d'érection, +servent comme patiens à un tiers de paie seulement.[FN#426] + +The Restoration and the Empire made the police more vigilant in +matters of politics than of morals. The favourite club, which had +its mot de passe, was in the Rue Doyenne, old quarter St Thomas +de Louvre; and the house was a hotel of the xviith century. Two +street-doors, on the right for the male gynæceum and the left for +the female, opened at 4 p.m. in winter and 8 p.m. in summer. A +decoy-lad, charmingly dressed in women's clothes, with big +haunches and small waist, promenaded outside; and this continued +till 1826 when the police put down the house. + +Under Louis Philippe, the conquest of Algiers had evil results, +according to the Marquis de Boissy. He complained without ambages +of mœurs Arabes in French regiments, and declared that the result +of the African wars was an éffrayable débordement pédérastique, +even as the vérole resulted from the Italian campaigns of that +age of passion, the xvith century. From the military the fléau +spread to civilian society and the Vice took such expansion and +intensity that it may be said to have been democratised in cities +and large towns; at least so we gather from the Dossier des +Agissements des Pédérastes. A general gathering of "La Sainte +Congregation des glorieux Pádárastes" was held in the old Petite +Rue des Marais where, after the theatre, many resorted under +pretext of making water. They ranged themselves along the walls +of a vast garden and exposed their podices: bourgeois, richards +and nobles came with full purses, touched the part which most +attracted them and were duly followed by it. At the Allée des +Veuves the crowd was dangerous from 7 to 8 p.m.: no policeman or +ronde de nun' dared venture in it; cords were stretched from tree +to tree and armed guards drove away strangers amongst whom, they +say, was once Victor Hugo. This nuisance was at length suppressed +by the municipal administration. + +The Empire did not improve morals. Balls of sodomites were held +at No. 8 Place de la Madeleine where, on Jan. 2, '64, some one +hundred and fifty men met, all so well dressed as women that even +the landlord did not recognise them. There was also a club for +sotadic debauchery called the Cent Gardes and the Dragons de +l'Impératrice.[FN#427] They copied the imperial toilette and kept +it in the general wardrobe: hence "faire l'Impératrice" meant to +be used carnally. The site, a splendid hotel in the Allée des +Veuves, was discovered by the Procureur-Géneral, who registered +all the names; but, as these belonged to not a few senators and +dignitaries, the Emperor wisely quashed proceedings. The club was +broken up on July 16, '64. During the same year La Petite Revue, +edited by M. Loredan Larchy, son of the General, printed an +article, "Les échappés de Sodome": it discusses the letter of M. +Castagnary to the Progrès de Lyons and declares that the Vice had +been adopted by plusieurs corps de troupes. For its latest +developments as regards the chantage of the tantes (pathics), the +reader will consult the last issues of Dr. Tardieu's well-known +Études.[FN#428] He declares that the servant-class is most +infected; and that the Vice is commonest between the ages of +fifteen and twenty five. + +The pederasty of The Nights may briefly be distributed into three +categories. The first is the funny form, as the unseemly +practical joke of masterful Queen Budúr (vol. iii. 300-306) and +the not less hardi jest of the slave-princess Zumurrud (vol. iv. +226). The second is in the grimmest and most earnest phase of the +perversion, for instance where Abu Nowas[FN#429] debauches the +three youths (vol. v. 64 69); whilst in the third form it is +wisely and learnedly discussed, to be severely blamed, by the +Shaykhah or Reverend Woman (vol v. 154). + +To conclude this part of my subject, the éclaircissement des +obscánités. Many readers will regret the absence from The Nights +of that modesty which distinguishes "Amadis de Gaul," whose +author, when leaving a man and a maid together says, "And nothing +shall be here related; for these and suchlike things which are +conformable neither to good conscience nor nature, man ought in +reason lightly to pass over, holding them in slight esteem as +they deserve." Nor have we less respect for Palmerin of England +who after a risqué scene declares, "Herein is no offence offered +to the wise by wanton speeches, or encouragement to the loose by +lascivious matter." But these are not oriental ideas, and we must +e'en take the Eastern as we find him. He still holds "Naturalla +non sunt turpia," together with "Mundis omnia munda"; and, as +Bacon assures us the mixture of a lie cloth add to pleasure, so +the Arab enjoys the startling and lively contrast of extreme +virtue and horrible vice placed in juxtaposition. + +Those who have read through these ten volumes will agree with me +that the proportion of offensive matter bears a very small ratio +to the mass of the work. In an age saturated with cant and +hypocrisy, here and there a venal pen will mourn over the +"Pornography" of The Nights, dwell upon the "Ethics of Dirt" and +the "Garbage of the Brothel"; and will lament the "wanton +dissemination (!) of ancient and filthy fiction." This self- +constituted Censor morum reads Aristophanes and Plato, Horace and +Virgil, perhaps even Martial and Petronius, because "veiled in +the decent obscurity of a learned language"; he allows men Latinè +loqui; but he is scandalised at stumbling-blocks much less +important in plain English. To be consistent he must begin by +bowdlerising not only the classics, with which boys' and youths' +minds and memories are soaked and saturated at schools and +colleges, but also Boccaccio and Chaucer, Shakespeare and +Rabelais; Burton, Sterne, Swift, and a long list of works which +are yearly reprinted and republished without a word of protest. +Lastly, why does not this inconsistent puritan purge the Old +Testament of its allusions to human ordure and the pudenda; to +carnal copulation and impudent whoredom, to adultery and +fornication, to onanism, sodomy and bestiality? But this he will +not do, the whited sepulchre! To the interested critic of the +Edinburgh Review (No. 335 of July, 1886), I return my warmest +thanks for his direct and deliberate falsehoods:--lies are one- +legged and short-lived, and venom evaporates.[FN#430] It appears +to me that when I show to such men, so "respectable" and so +impure, a landscape of magnificent prospects whose vistas are +adorned with every charm of nature and art, they point their +unclean noses at a little heap of muck here and there lying in a +field-corner. + + + + + + § V + ON THE PROSE-RHYME AND THE POETRY OF THE NIGHTS + + + + A.--The Saj'a. + + + +According to promise in my Foreword (p. xiii.), I here proceed to +offer a few observations concerning the Saj'a or rhymed prose and +the Shi'r, or measured sentence, that is, the verse of The +Nights. The former has in composition, metrical or unmetrical +three distinct forms. Saj'a mutáwazi (parallel), the most common +is when the ending words of sentences agree in measure, assonance +and final letter, in fact our full rhyme; next is Saj'a mutarraf +(the affluent), when the periods, hemistichs or couplets end in +words whose terminal letters correspond, although differing in +measure and number; and thirdly, Saj'a muwázanah (equilibrium) is +applied to the balance which affects words corresponding in +measure but differing in final letters.[FN#431] + +Al-Saj'a, the fine style or style fleuri, also termed Al-Badí'a, +or euphuism, is the basis of all Arabic euphony. The whole of the +Koran is written in it; and the same is the case with the Makámát +of Al-Hariri and the prime masterpieces of rhetorical +composition: without it no translation of the Holy Book can be +satisfactory or final, and where it is not the Assemblies become +the prose of prose. Thus universally used the assonance has +necessarily been abused, and its excess has given rise to the +saying "Al-Saj's faj'a"--prose rhyme's a pest. English +translators have, unwisely I think, agreed in rejecting it, while +Germans have not. Mr Preston assures us that "rhyming prose is +extremely ungraceful in English and introduces an air of +flippancy": this was certainly not the case with Friedrich +Rückert's version of the great original and I see no reason why +it should be so or become so in our tongue. Torrens (Pref. p. +vii.) declares that "the effect of the irregular sentence with +the iteration of a jingling rhyme is not pleasant in our +language:" he therefore systematically neglects it and gives his +style the semblance of being "scamped" with the object of saving +study and trouble. Mr. Payne (ix. 379) deems it an "excrescence +born of the excessive facilities for rhyme afforded by the +language," and of Eastern delight in antithesis of all kinds +whether of sound or of thought; and, aiming elaborately at grace +of style, he omits it wholly, even in the proverbs. + +The weight of authority was against me but my plan compelled me +to disregard it. The dilemma was simply either to use the Saj'a +or to follow Mr. Payne's method and "arrange the disjecta membra +of the original in their natural order"; that is, to remodel the +text. Intending to produce a faithful copy of the Arabic, I was +compelled to adopt the former, and still hold it to be the better +alternative. Moreover I question Mr. Payne's dictum (ix. 383) +that "the Seja-form is utterly foreign to the genius of English +prose and that its preservation would be fatal to all vigour and +harmony of style." The English translator of Palmerin of England, +Anthony Munday, attempted it in places with great success as I +have before noted (vol. viii. 60); and my late friend Edward +Eastwick made artistic use of it in his Gulistan. Had I rejected +the "Cadence of the cooing dove" because un-English, I should +have adopted the balanced periods of the Anglican marriage +service[FN#432] or the essentially English system of +alliteration, requiring some such artful aid to distinguish from +the vulgar recitative style the elevated and classical tirades in +The Nights. My attempt has found with reviewers more favour than +I expected; and a kindly critic writes of it, "These melodious +fray meets, these little eddies of song set like gems in the +prose, have a charming effect on the ear. They come as dulcet +surprises and mostly recur in highly-wrought situations, or they +are used to convey a vivid sense of something exquisite in nature +or art. Their introduction seems due to whim or caprice, but +really it arises from a profound study of the situation, as if +the Tale-teller felt suddenly compelled to break into the +rhythmic strain." + + + + + B.--The Verse. + + + +The Shi'r or metrical part of The Nights is considerable +amounting to not less than ten thousand lines, and these I could +not but render in rhyme or rather in monorhyme. This portion has +been a bugbear to translators. De Sacy noticed the difficulty of +the task (p. 283). Lane held the poetry untranslatable because +abounding in the figure Tajnís, our paronomasia or paragram, of +which there are seven distinct varieties,[FN#433] not to speak of +other rhetorical flourishes. He therefore omitted the greater +part of the verse as tedious and, through the loss of measure and +rhyme, "generally intolerable to the reader." He proved his +position by the bald literalism of the passages which he rendered +in truly prosaic prose and succeeded in changing the facies and +presentment of the work. For the Shi'r, like the Saj'a, is not +introduced arbitrarily; and its unequal distribution throughout +The Nights may be accounted for by rule of art. Some tales, like +Omar bin al-Nu'man and Tawaddud, contain very little because the +theme is historical or realistic; whilst in stories of love and +courtship as that of Rose-in-hood, the proportion may rise to +one-fifth of the whole. And this is true to nature. Love, as +Addison said, makes even the mechanic (the British mechanic!) +poetical, and Joe Hume of material memory once fought a duel +about a fair object of dispute. + +Before discussing the verse of The Nights it may be advisable to +enlarge a little upon the prosody of the Arabs. We know nothing +of the origin of their poetry, which is lost in the depths of +antiquity, and the oldest bards of whom we have any remains +belong to the famous epoch of the war Al-Basús, which would place +them about A.D. 500. Moreover, when the Muse of Arabia first +shows she is not only fully developed and mature, she has lost +all her first youth, her beauté du diable, and she is assuming +the characteristics of an age beyond "middle age." No one can +study the earliest poetry without perceiving that it results from +the cultivation of centuries and that it has already assumed that +artificial type and conventional process of treatment which +presages inevitable decay. Its noblest period is included in the +century preceding the Apostolate of Mohammed, and the oldest of +that epoch is the prince of Arab songsters, Imr al-Kays, "The +Wandering King." The Christian Fathers characteristically termed +poetry Vinum Dæmonorum. The stricter Moslems called their bards +"enemies of Allah"; and when the Prophet, who hated verse and +could not even quote it correctly, was asked who was the best +poet of the Peninsula he answered that the "Man of Al-Kays," i.e. +the worshipper of the Priapus-idol, would usher them all into +Hell. Here he only echoed the general verdict of his countrymen +who loved poetry and, as a rule, despised poets. The earliest +complete pieces of any volume and substance saved from the wreck +of old Arabic literature and familiar in our day are the seven +Kasídahs (purpose-odes or tendence-elegies) which are popularly +known as the Gilded or the Suspended Poems; and in all of these +we find, with an elaboration of material and formal art which can +go no further, a subject-matter of trite imagery and stock ideas +which suggest a long ascending line of model ancestors and +predecessors. + +Scholars are agreed upon the fact that many of the earliest and +best Arab poets were, as Mohammed boasted himself, +unalphabetic[FN#434] or rather could neither read nor write. They +addressed the ear and the mind, not the eye. They "spoke verse," +learning it by rote and dictating it to the Ráwi, and this +reciter again transmitted it to the musician whose pipe or zither +accompanied the minstrel's song. In fact the general practice of +writing began only at the end of the first century after The +Flight. + +The rude and primitive measure of Arab song, upon which the most +complicated system of metres subsequently arose, was called +Al-Rajaz, literally "the trembling," because it reminded the +highly imaginative hearer of a pregnant she-camel's weak and +tottering steps. This was the carol of the camel-driver, the +lover's lay and the warrior's chaunt of the heroic ages; and its +simple, unconstrained flow adapted it well for extempore +effusions. Its merits and demerits have been extensively +discussed amongst Arab grammarians, and many, noticing that it +was not originally divided into hemistichs, make an essential +difference between the Shá'ir who speaks poetry and the Rájiz who +speaks Rajaz. It consisted, to describe it technically, of iambic +dipodia (U-U-), the first three syllables being optionally long +or short It can generally be read like our iambs and, being +familiar, is pleasant to the English ear. The dipodia are +repeated either twice or thrice; in the former case Rajaz is held +by some authorities, as Al-Akhfash (Sa'íd ibn Másadah), to be +mere prose. Although Labíd and Antar composed in iambics, the +first Kásídah or regular poem in Rajaz was by Al-Aghlab al-Ajibi +temp. Mohammed: the Alfíyah-grammar of Ibn Málik is in Rajaz +Muzdawij, the hemistichs rhyming and the assonance being confined +to the couplet. Al-Hariri also affects Rajaz in the third and +fifth Assemblies. So far Arabic metre is true to Nature: in +impassioned speech the movement of language is iambic: we say "I +will, I will," not "I will." + +For many generations the Sons of the Desert were satisfied with +Nature's teaching; the fine perceptions and the nicely trained +ear of the bard needing no aid from art. But in time came the +inevitable prosodist under the formidable name of Abu Abd al- +Rahmán al-Khalíl, i. Ahmad, i. Amrú, i. Tamím al-Faráhidi (of the +Faráhid sept), al-Azdi (of the Azd clan), al Yahmadi (of the +Yahmad tribe), popularly known as Al-Khalíl ibn Ahmad al-Basri, +of Bassorah, where he died æt. 68, scanning verses they say, in +A.H. 170 (= 786-87). Ibn Khallikán relates (i. 493) on the +authority of Hamzah al-Isfaháni how this "father of Arabic +grammar and discoverer of the rules of prosody" invented the +science as he walked past a coppersmith's shop on hearing the +strokes of a hammer upon a metal basin: "two objects devoid of +any quality which could serve as a proof and an illustration of +anything else than their own form and shape and incapable of +leading to any other knowledge than that of their own +nature."[FN#435] According to others he was passing through the +Fullers' Bazar at Basrah when his ear was struck by the Dak dak +(Arabic letters) and the Dakak-dakak (Arabic letters) of the +workmen. In these two onomapoetics we trace the expression which +characterises the Arab tongue: all syllables are composed of +consonant and vowel, the latter long or short as B and B ; or of +a vowelled consonant followed by a consonant as Bal, Bau (Arabic) +. + +The grammarian, true to the traditions of his craft which looks +for all poetry to the Badawi,[FN#436] adopted for metrical +details the language of the Desert. The distich, which amongst +Arabs is looked upon as one line, he named "Bayt," nighting- +place, tent or house; and the hemistich Misrá'ah, the one leaf of +a folding door. To this "scenic" simile all the parts of the +verse were more or less adapted. The metres, our feet, were +called "Arkán," the stakes and stays of the tent; the syllables +were "Usúl" or roots divided into three kinds: the first or +"Sabab" (the tent-rope) is composed of two letters, a vowelled +and a quiescent consonant as "Lam."[FN#437] The "Watad" or tent +peg of three letters is of two varieties; the Majmú', or united, +a foot in which the two first consonants are moved by vowels and +the last is jazmated or made quiescent by apocope as "Lakad"; and +the Mafrúk, or disunited, when the two moved consonants are +separated by one jazmated, as "Kabla." And lastly the "Fásilah" +or intervening space, applied to the main pole of the tent, +consists of four letters. + +The metres were called Buhúr or "seas" (plur. of Bahr), also +meaning the space within the tent-walls, the equivoque alluding +to pearls and other treasures of the deep. Al-Khalil, the +systematiser, found in general use only five Dáirah (circles, +classes or groups of metre); and he characterised the harmonious +and stately measures, all built upon the original Rajaz, as Al- +Tawíl (the long),[FN#438] Al-Kámil (the complete), Al-Wáfir (the +copious), Al-Basít (the extended) and Al-Khafíf (the +light).[FN#439] These embrace all the Mu'allakát and the Hamásah, +the great Anthology of Abú Tammám; but the crave for variety and +the extension of foreign intercourse had multiplied wants and Al- +Khalil deduced from the original five Dáirah, fifteen, to which +Al-Akhfash (ob. A.D. 830) added a sixteenth, Al-Khabab. The +Persians extended the number to nineteen: the first four were +peculiarly Arab; the fourteenth, the fifteenth and seventeenth +peculiarly Persian and all the rest were Arab and +Persian.[FN#440] + +Arabic metre so far resembles that of Greece and Rome that the +value of syllables depends upon the "quantity" or position of +their consonants, not upon accent as in English and the Neo-Latin +tongues. Al-Khalil was doubtless familiar with the classic +prosody of Europe, but he rejected it as unsuited to the genius +of Arabic and like a true Eastern Gelehrte he adopted a process +devised by himself. Instead of scansion by pyrrhics and spondees, +iambs and trochees, anapæsts and similar simplifications he +invented a system of weights ("wuzún"). Of these there are +nine[FN#441] memorial words used as quantitive signs, all built +upon the root "fa'l" which has rendered such notable service to +Arabic and Hebrew[FN#442] grammar and varying from the simple +"fa'ál," in Persian "fa'úl" (U _), to the complicated +"Mutafá'ilun"(UU - U -) , anapæst + iamb. Thus the prosodist +would scan the Shahnámeh of Firdausi as + + Fa'úlun, fa'úlun, fa'úlun, fa'ál. + U - - U - - U - - - + +These weights also show another peculiarity of Arabic verse. In +English we have few if any spondees: the Arabic contains about +three longs to one short; hence its gravity, stateliness and +dignity. But these longs again are peculiar, and sometimes strike +the European ear as shorts, thus adding a difficulty for those +who would represent Oriental metres by western feet, ictus and +accent. German Arabists can register an occasional success in +such attempts: Englishmen none. My late friend Professor Palmer +of Cambridge tried the tour de force of dancing on one leg +instead of two and notably failed: Mr. Lyall also strove to +imitate Arabic metre and produced only prose bewitched.[FN#443] +Mr. Payne appears to me to have wasted trouble in "observing the +exterior form of the stanza, the movement of the rhyme and (as +far as possible) the identity in number of the syllables +composing the beits." There is only one part of his admirable +version concerning which I have heard competent readers complain; +and that is the metrical, because here and there it sounds +strange to their ears. + +I have already stated my conviction that there are two and only +two ways of translating Arabic poetry into English. One is to +represent it by good heroic or lyric verse as did Sir William +Jones; the other is to render it after French fashion, by +measured and balanced Prose, the little sister of Poetry. It is +thus and thus only that we can preserve the peculiar cachet of +the original. This old world Oriental song is spirit-stirring as +a "blast of that dread horn," albeit the words be thin. It is +heady as the "Golden Wine" of Libanus, to the tongue water and +brandy to the brain--the clean contrary of our nineteenth century +effusions. Technically speaking, it can be vehicled only by the +verse of the old English ballad or by the prose of the Book of +Job. And Badawi poetry is a perfect expositor of Badawi life, +especially in the good and gladsome old Pagan days ere Al-Islam, +like the creed which it abolished, overcast the minds of men with +its dull grey pall of realistic superstition. They combined to +form a marvellous picture--those contrasts of splendour and +squalor amongst the sons of the sand. Under airs pure as æther, +golden and ultramarine above and melting over the horizon into a +diaphanous green which suggested a resection of Kaf, that unseen +mountain-wall of emerald, the so-called Desert, changed face +twice a year; now brown and dry as summer-dust; then green as +Hope, beautified with infinite verdure and broad sheetings of +rain-water. The vernal and autumnal shiftings of camp, +disruptions of homesteads and partings of kith and kin, friends +and lovers, made the life many-sided as it was vigorous and +noble, the outcome of hardy frames, strong minds and spirits +breathing the very essence of liberty and independence. The day +began with the dawn-drink, "generous wine bought with shining +ore," poured into the crystal goblet from the leather bottle +swinging before the cooling breeze. The rest was spent in the +practice of weapons, in the favourite arrow game known as Al- +Maysar, gambling which at least had the merit of feeding the +poor; in racing for which the Badawin had a mania, and in the +chase, the foray and the fray which formed the serious business +of his life. And how picturesque the hunting scenes; the +greyhound, like the mare, of purest blood; the falcon cast at +francolin and coney; the gazelle standing at gaze; the desert ass +scudding over the ground-waves; the wild cows or bovine antelopes +browsing with their calves and the ostrich-chickens flocking +round the parent bird! The Musámarah or night-talk round the +camp-fire was enlivened by the lute-girl and the glee-man, whom +the austere Prophet described as "roving distraught in every +vale" and whose motto in Horatian vein was, "To day we shall +drink, to-morrow be sober, wine this day, that day work." +Regularly once a year, during the three peaceful months when war +and even blood revenge were held sacrilegious, the tribes met at +Ukádh (Ocaz) and other fairsteads, where they held high festival +and the bards strave in song and prided themselves upon doing +honour to women and to the successful warriors of their tribe. +Brief, the object of Arab life was to be--to be free, to be +brave, to be wise; while the endeavours of other peoples was and +is to have--to have wealth, to have knowledge, to have a name; +and while moderns make their "epitome of life" to be, to do and +to suffer. Lastly the Arab's end was honourable as his life was +stirring: few Badawin had the crowning misfortune of dying "the +straw-death." + +The poetical forms in The Nights are as follows:--The Misrá'ah or +hemistich is half the "Bayt" which, for want of a better word, I +have rendered couplet: this, however, though formally separated +in MSS., is looked upon as one line, one verse; hence a word can +be divided, the former part pertaining to the first and the +latter to the second moiety of the distich. As the Arabs ignore +blank verse, when we come upon a rhymeless couplet we know that +it is an extract from a longer composition in monorhyme. The +Kit'ah is a fragment, either an occasional piece or more +frequently a portion of a Ghazal (ode) or Kasídah (elegy), other +than the Matlá, the initial Bayt with rhyming distichs. The +Ghazal and Kasídah differ mainly in length: the former is +popularly limited to eighteen couplets: the latter begins at +fifteen and is of indefinite number. Both are built upon +monorhyme, which appears twice in the first couplet and ends all +the others, e g., aa + ba + ca, etc.; nor may the same assonance +be repeated, unless at least seven couplets intervene. In the +best poets, as in the old classic verse of France, the sense must +be completed in one couplet and not run on to a second; and, as +the parts cohere very loosely, separate quotation can generally +be made without injuring their proper effect. A favourite form is +the Rubá'i or quatrain, made familiar to English ears by Mr. +Fitzgerald's masterly adaptation of Omar-i-Khayyám: the movement +is generally aa + ba, but it also appears as ab + cb, in which +case it is a Kit'ah or fragment. The Murabbá, tetrastichs or four +fold-song, occurs once only in The Nights (vol.i. 98); it is a +succession of double Bayts or of four lined stanzas rhyming aa + +bc + dc + ec: in strict form the first three hemistichs rhyme +with one another only, independently of the rest of the poem, and +the fourth with that of every other stanza, e.g., aa + ab + cb + +db. The Mukhammas, cinquains or pentastichs (Night cmlxiv.), +represents a stanza of two distichs and a hemistich in monorhyme, +the fifth line being the "bob" or burden: each succeeding stanza +affects a new rhyme, except in the fifth line, e.g., aaaab + +ccccb + ddddb and so forth. The Muwwál is a simple popular song +in four to six lines; specimens of it are given in the Egyptian +grammar of my friend the late Dr. Wilhelm Spitta.[FN#444] The +Muwashshah, or ornamented verse, has two main divisions: one +applies to our acrostics in which the initials form a word or +words; the other is a kind of Musaddas, or sextines, which occurs +once only in The Nights (cmlxxxvii.). It consists of three +couplets or six-line strophes: all the hemistichs of the first +are in monorhyme; in the second and following stanzas the three +first hemistichs take a new rhyme, but the fourth resumes the +assonance of the first set and is followed by the third couplet +of No. 1, serving as bob or refrain, e.g., aaaaaa + bbbaaa + +cccaaa and so forth. It is the most complicated of all the +measures and is held to be of Morisco or Hispano-Moorish origin. + +Mr. Lane (Lex.) lays down, on the lines of Ibn Khallikan (i. 476, +etc.) and other representative literati, as our sole authortties +for pure Arabic, the precedence in following order. First of all +ranks the Jáhili (Ignoramus) of The Ignorance, the + : these pagans left hemistichs, couplets, pieces and elegies +which once composed a large corpus and which is now mostly +forgotten. Hammád al-Ráwiyah, the Reciter, a man of Persian +descent (ob. A.H. 160=777) who first collected the Mu'allakát, +once recited by rote in a séance before Caliph Al-Walid two +thousand poems of præ-Mohammedan bards.[FN#445] After the Jáhili +stands the Mukhadram or Muhadrim, the "Spurious," because half +Pagan half Moslem, who flourished either immediately before or +soon after the preaching of Mohammed. The Islámi or full-blooded +Moslem at the end of the first century A.H ( = 720) began the +process of corruption in language; and, lastly he was followed by +the Muwallad of the second century who fused Arabic with non- +Arabic and in whom purity of diction disappeared. + +I have noticed (I § A.) that the versical portion of The Nights +may be distributed into three categories. First are the olden +poems which are held classical by all modern Arabs; then comes +the mediæval poetry, the effusions of that brilliant throng which +adorned the splendid Court of Harun al-Rashid and which ended +with Al-Haríri (ob. A.H. 516); and, lastly, are the various +pièces de circonstance suggested to editors or scribes by the +occasion. It is not my object to enter upon the historical part +of the subject: a mere sketch would have neither value not +interest whilst a finished picture would lead too far: I must be +contented to notice a few of the most famous names. + +Of the præ-Islamites we have Ádi bin Zayd al-Ibádi the +"celebrated poet" of Ibn Khallikán (i. 188); Nábighat (the full- +grown) al-Zubyáni who flourished at the Court of Al-Nu'man in AD. +580-602, and whose poem is compared with the +"Suspendeds,''[FN#446] and Al-Mutalammis the "pertinacious" +satirist, friend and intimate with Tarafah of the "Prize Poem." +About Mohammed's day we find Imr al-Kays "with whom poetry +began," to end with Zú al-Rummah; Amrú bin Mádi Karab al-Zubaydi, +Labíd; Ka'b ibn Zuhayr, the father one of the Mu'al-lakah-poets, +and the son author of the Burdah or Mantle-poem (see vol. iv. +115), and Abbás bin Mirdás who lampooned the Prophet and had "his +tongue cut out" i.e. received a double share of booty from Ali. +In the days of Caliph Omar we have Alkamah bin Olátha followed by +Jamíl bin Ma'mar of the Banu Ozrah (ob. A.H. 82), who loved Azzá. +Then came Al-Kuthayyir (the dwarf, ironicè), the lover of +Buthaynah, "who was so lean that birds might be cut to bits with +her bones :" the latter was also a poetess (Ibn Khall. i. 87), +like Hind bint al-Nu'man who made herself so disagreeable to +Al-Hajjáj (ob. A.H. 95) Jarír al-Khatafah, the noblest of the +Islami poets in the first century, is noticed at full length by +Ibn Khallikan (i. 294) together with his rival in poetry and +debauchery, Abú Firás Hammám or Homaym bin Ghalib al-Farazdak, +the Tamími, the Ommiade poet "without whose verse half Arabic +would be lost:"[FN#447] he exchanged satires with Jarír and died +forty days before him (A.H. 110). Another contemporary, forming +the poetical triumvirate of the period, was the debauched +Christian poet Al-Akhtal al-Taghlibi. They were followed by Al- +Ahwas al-Ansári whose witty lampoons banished him to Dahlak +Island in the Red Sea (ob. A.H. 179 = 795); by Bashshár ibn Burd +and by Yúnus ibn Habib (ob. A.H. 182). + +The well known names of the Harun-cycle are Al-Asma'i, +rhetorician and poet, whose epic with Antar for hero is not +forgotten (ob. A.H. 2I6); Isaac of Mosul (Ishak bin Ibrahim of +Persian origin); Al-'Utbi "the Poet" (ob. A.H. 228); Abu al-Abbás +al-Rakáshi; Abu al-Atahiyah, the lover of Otbah; Muslim bin al- +Walíd al-Ansari; Abú Tammám of Tay, compiler of the Hamásah (ob. +A.H. 230), "a Muwallad of the first class" (says Ibn Khallikan i. +392); the famous or infamous Abu Nowás, Abu Mus'ab (Ahmad ibn +Ali) who died in A.H. 242; the satirist Dibil al-Khuzáí (ob. A.H. +246) and a host of others quos nunc perscribere longum est. They +were followed by Al-Bohtori "the Poet" (ob. A.H. 286); the royal +author Abdullah ibn al-Mu'tazz (ob. A.H. 315); Ibn Abbád the +Sahib (ob. A.H. 334); Mansúr al-Halláj the martyred Sufi; the +Sahib ibn Abbad, Abu Faras al-Hamdáni (ob. A.H. 357); Al-Námi +(ob. A.H. 399) who had many encounters with that model Chauvinist +Al-Mutanabbi, nicknamed Al-Mutanabbih (the "wide awake"), killed +A.H. 354; Al-Manázi of Manazjird (ob. 427); Al-Tughrai author of +the Lámiyat al-'Ajam (ob. A.H. 375); Al-Haríri the model +rhetorician (ob. A.H. 516); Al-Hájiri al-Irbili, of Arbela (ob. +A.H. 632); Bahá al-Din al-Sinjari (ob. A.H. 622); Al-Kátib or the +Scribe (ob. A.H. 656); Abdun al-Andalúsi the Spaniard (our xiith +century) and about the same time Al-Náwaji, author of the Halbat +al-Kumayt or"Race course of the Bay horse"--poetical slang for +wine.[FN#448] + +Of the third category, the pièces d'occasion, little need be +said: I may refer readers to my notes on the doggrels in vol. ii. +34, 35, 56, 179, 182, 186 and 261; in vol. v. 55 and in vol. +viii. 50. + +Having a mortal aversion to the details of Arabic prosody, I have +persuaded my friend Dr. Steingass to undertake in the following +pages the subject as far as concerns the poetry of The Nights. He +has been kind enough to collaborate with me from the beginning, +and to his minute lexicographical knowledge I am deeply indebted +for discovering not a few blemishes which would have been "nuts +to the critic." The learned Arabist's notes will be highly +interesting to students: mine ( §V.) are intended to give a +superficial and popular idea of the Arab's verse mechanism. + +"The principle of Arabic Prosody (called 'Arúz, pattern standard, +or 'Ilm al-'Arúz, science of the 'Arúz), in so far resembles that +of classical poetry, as it chiefly rests on metrical weight, not +on accent, or in other words a verse is measured by short and +long quantities, while the accent only regulates its rhythm. In +Greek and Latin, however, the quantity of the syllables depends +on their vowels, which may be either naturally short or long, or +become long by position, i.e. if followed by two or more +consonants. We all remember from our school-days what a fine +string of rules had to be committed to and kept in memory, before +we were able to scan a Latin or Greek verse without breaking its +neck by tripping over false quantities. In Arabic, on the other +hand, the answer to the question, what is metrically long or +short, is exceedingly simple, and flows with stringent cogency +from the nature of the Arabic Alphabet. This, strictly speaking, +knows only consonants (Harf, pl. Hurúf). The vowels which are +required, in order to articulate the consonants, were at first +not represented in writing at all. They had to be supplied by the +reader, and are not improperly called "motions" (Harakát), +because they move or lead on, as it were, one letter to another. +They are three in number, a (Fathah), i (Kasrah), u (Zammah), +originally sounded as the corresponding English vowels in bat, +bit and butt respectively, but in certain cases modifying their +pronunciation under the influence of a neighbouring consonant. +When the necessity made itself felt to represent them in writing, +especially for the sake of fixing the correct reading of the +Koran, they were rendered by additional signs, placed above or +beneath the consonant, after which they are pronounced, in a +similar way as it is done in some systems of English shorthand. A +consonant followed by a short vowel is called a "moved letter" +(Muharrakah); a consonant without such vowel is called "resting" +or "quiescent" (Sákinah), and can stand only at the end of a +syllable or word. + +And now we are able to formulate the one simple rule, which +determines the prosodical quantity in Arabic: any moved letter, +as ta, li, mu, is counted short; any moved letter followed by a +quiescent one, as taf, fun, mus, i.e. any closed syllable +beginning and terminating with a consonant and having a short +vowel between, forms a long quantity. This is certainly a relief +in comparison with the numerous rules of classical Prosody, +proved by not a few exceptions, which for instance in Dr. Smith's +elementary Latin Grammar fill eight closely printed pages. + +Before I proceed to show how from the prosodical unities, the +moved and the quiescent letter, first the metrical elements, then +the feet and lastly the metres are built up, it will be necessary +to obviate a few misunderstandings, to which our mode of +transliterating Arabic into the Roman +character might give rise. + +The line:: + + "Love in my heart they lit and went their ways," (vol. i. 232) + +runs in Arabic: + + + "Akámú al-wajda fí kalbí wa sárú" (Mac. Ed. i. 179). + +Here, according to our ideas, the word akamú would begin with a +short vowel a, and contain two long vowels á and ú; according to +Arabic views neither is the case. The word begins with "Alif," +and its second syllable ká closes in Alif after Fathah (a), in +the same way, as the third syllable mú closes in the letter Wáw +(w) after Zammah (u). + +The question, therefore, arises, what is "Alif." It is the first +of the twenty-eight Arabic letters, and has through the medium of +the Greek Alpha nominally entered into our alphabet, where it now +plays rather a misleading part. Curiously enough, however, Greek +itself has preserved for us the key to the real nature of the +letter. In ‘ the initial a is preceded by the so called +spiritus lends ('), a sign which must be placed in front or at +the top of any vowel beginning a Greek word, and which represents +that slight aspiration or soft breathing almost involuntarily +uttered, when we try to pronounce a vowel by itself. We need not +go far to find how deeply rooted this tendency is and to what +exaggerations it will sometimes lead. Witness the gentleman who, +after mentioning that he had been visiting his "favourite haunts" +on the scenes of his early life, was sympathetically asked, how +the dear old ladies were. This spiritus lends is the silent h of +the French "homme" and the English "honour," corresponding +exactly to the Arabic Hamzah, whose mere prop the Alif is, when +it stands at the beginning of a word: a native Arabic Dictionary +does not begin with Báb al-Alif (Gate or Chapter of the Alif), +but with Báb al-Hamzah. What the Greeks call Alpha and have +transmitted to us as a name for the vowel a, is in fact nothing +else but the Arabic Hamzah-Alif,(~)moved by Fathah, i.e. bearing +the sign(~) for a at the top (~), just as it might have the sign +Zammah (~) superscribed to express u (~), or the sign Kasrah (~) +subjoined to represent i(~). In each case the Hamzah-Alif, +although scarcely audible to our ear, is the real letter and +might fitly be rendered in transliteration by the above mentioned +silent h, wherever we make an Arabic word begin with a vowel not +preceded by any other sign. This latter restriction refers to the +sign ', which in Sir Richard Burton's translation of The Nights, +as frequently in books published in this country, is used to +represent the Arabic letter ~ in whose very name 'Ayn it occurs. +The 'Ayn is "described as produced by a smart compression of the +upper part of the windpipe and forcible emission of breath," +imparting a guttural tinge to a following or preceding vowel- +sound; but it is by no means a mere guttural vowel, as Professor +Palmer styles it. For Europeans, who do not belong to the +Israelitic dispensation, as well as for Turks and Persians, its +exact pronunciation is most difficult, if not impossible to +acquire. + +In reading Arabic from transliteration for the purpose of +scanning poetry, we have therefore in the first instance to keep +in mind that no Arabic word or syllable can begin with a vowel. +Where our mode of rendering Arabic in the Roman character would +make this appear to be the case, either Hamzah (silent h), or +'Ayn (represented by the sign') is the real initial, and the only +element to be taken in account as a letter. It follows as a self- +evident corollary that wherever a single consonant stands between +two vowels, it never closes the previous syllable, but always +opens the next one. Our word "Akámu," for instance, can only be +divided into the syllables: A (properly Ha)-ká-mú, never into +Ak-á-mú or Ak-ám-ú. + +It has been stated above that the syllable ká is closed by the +letter Alif after Fathah, in the same way as the syllable mú is +closed by the letter Wáw, and I may add now, as the word fí is +closed by the letter Yá (y). To make this perfectly clear, I must +repeat that the Arabic Alphabet, as it was originally written, +deals only with consonants. The signs for the short vowel-sounds +were added later for a special purpose, and are generally not +represented even in printed books, e.g. in the various editions +of The Nights, where only quotations from the Koran or poetical +passages are provided with the vowel-points. But among those +consonants there are three, called weak letters (Hurúf +al-‘illah), which have a particular organic affinity to these +vowel sounds: the guttural Hamzah, which is akin to a, the +palatal Yá, which is related to i, and the labial Wáw, which is +homogeneous with u. Where any of the weak letters follows a vowel +of its own class, either at the end of a word or being itself +followed by another consonant, it draws out or lengthens the +preceding vowel and is in this sense called a letter of +prolongation (Harf al-Madd). Thus, bearing in mind that the +Hamzah is in reality a silent h, the syllable ká might be written +kah, similarly to the German word "sah," where the h is not +pronounced either, but imparts a lengthened sound to the a. In +like manner mú and fí are written in Arabic muw and fiy +respectively, and form long quantities not because they contain a +vowel long by nature, but because their initial "Muharrakah" is +followed by a "Sákinah," exactly as in the previously mentioned +syllables taf, fun, mus.[FN#449] In the Roman transliteration, +Akámú forms a word of five letters, two of which are consonants, +and three vowels; in Arabic it represents the combination +H(a)k(a)hm(u)w, consisting also of five letters but all +consonants, the intervening vowels being expressed in writing +either merely by superadded external signs, or more frequently +not at all. Metrically it represents one short and two long +quantities (U - -), forming in Latin a trisyllable foot, called +Bacchíus, and in Arabic a quinqueliteral "Rukn" (pillar) or "Juz" +(part, portion), the technical designation for which we shall +introduce presently. + +There is one important remark more to be made with regard to the +Hamzah: at the beginning of a word it is either conjunctive, +Hamzat al-Wasl, or disjunctive, Hamzat al-Kat'. The difference is +best illustrated by reference to the French so-called aspirated +h, as compared with the above-mentioned silent h. If the latter, +as initial of a noun, is preceded by the article, the article +loses its vowel, and, ignoring the silent h altogether, is read +with the following noun almost as one word: le homme becomes +l'homme (pronounced lomme) as le ami becomes l'ami. This +resembles very closely the Arabic Hamzah Wasl. If, on the other +hand, a French word begins with an aspirated h, as for instance +héros, the article does not drop its vowel before the noun, nor +is the h sounded as in the English word "hero," but the effect of +the aspirate is simply to keep the two vowel sounds apart, so as +to pronounce le éros with a slight hiatus between, and this is +exactly what happens in the case of the Arabic Hamzah Kat'. + +With regard to the Wasl, however, Arabic goes a step further than +French. In the French example, quoted above, we have seen it is +the silent h and the preceding vowel which are eliminated; in +Arabic both the Hamzah and its own Harakah, i.e. the short vowel +following it, are supplanted by their antecedent. Another example +will make this clear. The most common instance of the Hamzah Wasl +is the article al (for h(a)l=the Hebrew hal), where it is moved +by Fathah. But it has this sound only at the beginning of a +sentence or speech, as in "Al-Hamdu" at the head of the Fatihah, +or in "Alláhu" at the beginning of the third Surah. If the two +words stand in grammatical connection, as in the sentence "Praise +be to God," we cannot say "Al-Hamdu li-Alláhi," but the junction +(Wasl) between the dative particle li and the noun which it +governs must take place. According to the French principle, this +junction would be effected at the cost of the preceding element +and li Alláhi would become l'Alláhí; in Arabic, on the contrary, +the kasrated l of the particle takes the place of the following +fathated Hamzah and we read li 'lláhi instead. Proceeding in the +Fatihah we meet with the verse "Iyyáka na'budu wa iyyáka +nasta'ínu," Thee do we worship and of Thee do we ask aid. Here +the Hamzah of iyyáka (properly hiyyáka with silent h) is +disjunctive, and therefore its pronunciation remains the same at +the beginning and in the middle of the sentence, or, to put it +differently, instead of coalescing with the preceding wa into +wa'yyáka, the two words are kept separate by the Hamzah, reading +wa iyyáka, just as it was the case with the French Le héros. + +If the conjunctive Hamzah is preceded by a quiescent letter, this +takes generally Kasrah: "Tálat al-Laylah," the night was +longsome, would become Tálati 'l-Laylah. If, however, the +quiescent letter is one of prolongation, it mostly drops out +altogether, and the Harakah of the next preceding letter becomes +{he connecting vowel between the two words, which in our parlance +would mean that the end vowel of the first word is shortened +before the elided initial of the second. Thus "fí al-bayti," in +the house, which in Arabic is written f(i)y h(a)l-b(a)yt(i) and +which we transliterate fí 'l-bayti, is in poetry read fil-bayti, +where we must remember that the syllable fil, in spite of its +short vowel, represents a long quantity, because it consists of a +moved letter followed by a quiescent one. Fíl would be overlong +and could, according to Arabic prosody, stand only in certain +cases at the end of a verse, i.e. in pause, where a natural +tendency prevails to prolong a sound. + +The attentive reader will now be able to fix the prosodical value +of the line quoted above with unerring security. For metrical +purposes it syllabifies into: A-ká-mul-vaj-da fí kal-bí wa sá-rú, +containing three short and eight long quantities. The initial +unaccented a is short, for the same reason why the syllables da +and wa are so, that is, because it corresponds to an Arabic +letter, the Hamzah or silent h, moved by Fathah. The syllables +ká, fí, bí, sá, rú are long for the same reason why the syllables +mul, waj, kal are so, that is, because the accent in the +transliteration corresponds to a quiescent Arabic letter, +following a moved one. The same simple criterion applies to the +whole list, in which I give in alphabetical order the first lines +and the metre of all the poetical pieces contained in the Mac. +edition, and which will be found at the end of this volume. {This +appendix is not included in the electronic text} + +The prosodical unities, then, in Arabic are the moved and the +quiescent letter, and we are now going to show how they combine +into metrical elements, feet, and metres. + +i. The metrical elements (Usúl) are: + + 1. The Sabab,[FN#450] which consists of two letters and is +either khafíf (light) or sakíl (heavy). A moved letter followed +by a quiescent, i.e. a closed syllable, like the afore-mentioned +taf, fun, mus, to which we may now add fá=fah, 'í='iy, 'ú='uw, +form a Sabab khafíf, corresponding to the classical long quantity +(-). Two moved letters in succession, like mute, 'ala, constitute +a Sabab sakíl, for which the classical name would be Pyrrhic (U +U). As in Latin and Greek, they are equal in weight and can +frequently interchange, that is to say, the Sabab khafíf can be +evolved into a sakíl by moving its second Harf, or the latter +contracted into the former, by making its second letter +quiescent. + + + 2. The Watad, consisting of three letters, one of which is +quiescent. If the quiescent follows the two moved ones, the Watad +is called majmú' (collected or joined), as fa'ú (=fa'uw), mafá +(=mafah), 'ilun, and it corresponds to the classical Iambus (U - +). If, on the contrary, the quiescent intervenes or separates +between the two moved letters, as in fá'i ( = fah'i), látu +(=lahtu), taf'i, the Watad is called mafrúk (separated), and has +its classical equivalent in the Trochee (- U) + + 3. The Fásilah,[FN#451] containing four letters, i.e. +three moved ones followed by a quiescent, and which, in fact, is +only a shorter name for a Sabab sakíl followed by a Sabab khafíf, +as mute + fá, or 'ala + tun, both of the measure of the classical +Anapaest (U U -) + +ii. These three elements, the Sabab, Watad and Fásilah, combine +further into feet Arkáan, pl. of Rukn, or Ajzáa, pl. of Juz, two +words explained supra p. 236. The technical terms by which the +feet are named are derivatives of the root fa'l, to do, which, as +the student will remember, serves in Arabic Grammar to form the +Auzán or weights, in accordance with which words are derived from +roots. It consists of the three letters Fá (f), 'Ayn ('), Lám +(l), and, like any other Arabic root, cannot strictly speaking be +pronounced, for the introduction of any vowel-sound would make it +cease to be a root and change it into an individual word. The +above fa'l, for instance, where the initial Fá is moved by Fathah +(a), is the Infinitive or verbal noun, "to do," "doing." If the +'Ayn also is moved by Fathah, we obtain fa'al, meaning in +colloquial Arabic "he did" (the classical or literary form would +be fa'ala). Pronouncing the first letter with Zammah (u), the +second with Kasrah (i), i.e., fu'il, we say "it was done" +(classically fu'ila). Many more forms are derived by prefixing, +inserting or subjoining certain additional letters called Hurúf +al-Ziyádah (letters of increase) to the original radicals: fá'il, +for instance, with an Alif of prolongation in the first syllable, +means "doer"; maf'úl (=maf'uwl), where the quiescent Fá is +preceded by a fathated Mím (m), and the zammated 'Ayn followed by +a lengthening Waw, means "done"; Mufá'alah, where, in addition to +a prefixed and inserted letter, the feminine termination ah is +subjoined after the Lám, means "to do a thing reciprocally." +Since these and similar changes are with unvarying regularity +applicable to all roots, the grammarians use the derivatives of +Fa'l as model-forms for the corresponding derivations of any +other root, whose letters are in this case called its Fá, 'Ayn +and Lám. From a root, e.g., which has Káf (k) for its first +letter or Fá, Tá (t) for its second letter or 'Aye, and Bá (b) +for its third letter or Lám + + fa'l would be katb =to write, writing; + fa'al would be katab =he wrote; + fu'il would be kutib =it was written; + fa'il would be katib =writer, scribe; + maf'úl would be maktúb=written, letter; + mufá'alah would be mukátabah = to write reciprocally, +correspondence. + +The advantage of this system is evident. It enables the student, +who has once grasped the original meaning of a root, to form +scores of words himself, and in his readings, to understand +hundreds, nay thousands, of words, without recourse to the +Dictionary, as soon as he has learned to distinguish their +radical letters from the letters of increase, and recognises in +them a familiar root. We cannot wonder, therefore, that the +inventor of Arabic Prosody readily availed himself of the same +plan for his own ends. The Taf'íl, as it is here called, that is, +the representation of the metrical feet by current derivatives of +fa'l, has in this case, of course, nothing to do with the +etymological meaning of those typical forms. But it proves none +the less useful in another direction: in simply naming a +particular foot it shows at the same time its prosodical measure +and character, as will now be explained in detail. + +We have seen supra p. 236 that the word Akámú consists of a short +syllable followed by two long ones (U - -), and consequently +forms a foot, which the classics would call Bacchíus. In Latin +there is no connection between this name and the metrical value +of the foot: we must learn both by heart. But if we are told that +its Taf'íl in Arabic is Fa'úlun, we understand at once that it is +composed of the Watad majmú' fa'ú (U -) and the Sabab khafíf lun +(-), and as the Watad contains three, the Sabab two letters, it +forms a quinqueliteral foot or Juz khamásí. + +In combining into feet, the Watad has the precedence over the +Sabab and the Fásilah, and again the Watad majmú' over the Watad +mafrúk. Hence the Prosodists distinguish between Ajzá aslíyah or +primary feet (from Asl, root), in which this precedence is +observed, and Ájzá far'íyah or secondary feet (from Far'= +branch), in which it is reversed. The former are four in number:- +- + +1. Fa'ú.lun, consisting,as we have just seen, of a Watad majmú' +followed by a Sabab khafíf = the Latin Bacchíus (U - -). + +2. Mafá.'í.lun, i.e. Watad majmú' followed by two Sabab khafíf += the Latin Epitritus primus (U - - -). + +3. Mufá.'alatun, i.e. Watad majmú' followed by Fásilah = the +Latin Iambus followed by Anapaest (U - UU -). + +4. Fá'i.lá.tun, i.e. Watad mafrúk followed by two Sabab khafíf += the Latin Epitritus secundus (-U- -). + +The number of the secondary feet increases to six, for as Nos. 2 +and 4 contain two Sabab, they "branch out" into two derived feet +each, according to both Sabab or only one changing place with +regard to the Watad. They are: + +5. Fá.'ilun, i.e. Sabab khafíf followed by Watad majmú'= the +Latin Creticus (-U-). The primary Fa'ú.lun becomes by +transposition Lun.fa'ú. To bring this into conformity with a +current derivative of fa'l, the initial Sabab must be made to +contain the first letter of the root, and the Watad the two +remaining ones in their proper order. Fá is therefore substituted +for lun, and 'ilun for fa'ú, forming together the above Fá.'ilun. +By similar substitutions, which it would be tedious to specify in +each separate case, Mafá.'í.lun becomes: + +6. Mus.taf.'ilun, for 'Í.lun.mafá, i.e. two Sabab khafíf, +followed by Watad majmú' = the Latin Epitritus tertius (- -U-), +or: + +7. Fá.'ilá.tun, for Lun.mafá.'í, i.e. Watad majmú' between two +Sabab khafíf = the Latin Epitritus secundus (-U- -). + +8. Mutafá.'ilun (for 'Alatun.mufá, the reversed Mufá.'alatun), +i.e. Fásilah followed by Watad majmú'=the Latin Anapaest +succeeded by Iambus (UU-U-). The last two secondary feet are +transpositions of No. 4, Fá'i.lá.tun, namely: + +9. Maf.'ú.látu, for Lá.tun.fá'i, i.e. two Sabab khafíf, +followed by Watad mafrúk = the Latin Epitritus quartus (- - -U). + +10. Mus.taf'i.lun, for Tun.fá'i.lá, i.e. Watad mafrúk between +two Sabab khafíf=the Latin Epitritus tertius (- -U-).[FN#452] + +The "branch"-foot Fá.'ilun (No. 5), like its "root" Fa'ú.lun (No. +1), is quinqueliteral. All other feet, primary or secondary, +consist necessarily of seven letters, as they contain a +triliteral Watad (see supra i. 2) with either two biliteral Sabab +khafíf (i. 1) or a quadriliteral Fásilah (i. 3). They are, +therefore, called Sabá'í = seven lettered. + +iii. The same principle of the Watad taking precedence over +Sabab and Fásilah, rules the arrangement of the Arabic metres, +which are divided into five circles (Dawáir, pl. of Dáirah), so +called for reasons presently to be explained. The first is named: + +A. Dáirat al-Mukhtalif, circle of "the varied" metre, because +it is composed of feet of various length, the five-lettered +Fa'úlun (supra ii. 1) and the seven-lettered Mafá'ílun (ii. 2) +with their secondaries Fá'ilun, Mustaf.'ilun and Fá.'ilátun (ii. +5-7), and it comprises three Buhúr or metres (pi. of Bahr, sea), +the Tawíl, Madíd and Basít. + + 1. Al-Tawil, consisting of twice + + Fa'ú.lun Mafá.'ílun Fa'ú.lun Mafá.'ílun, + +the classical scheme for which would be + + U - - | U - - - | U - - | U - - - | + +If we transfer the Watad Fa'ú from the beginning of the line to +the end, it would read: + + Lun.mafá'í Lun.fa'ú Lun.mafá'í Lun.fa'ú which, after the +substitutions indicated above (ii. 7 and 5), becomes: + + 2. Al-Madíd, consisting of twice + + Fá.'ilátun Fá.'ilun Fá.'ilátun Fá.'ilun. + +which may be represented by the classical scheme + + - U - - | - U - | - U - - | - U - | + +If again, returning to the Tawíl, we make the break after the +Watad of the second foot we obtain the line: + + 'Ílun.fa'ú. Lum.mafá 'Ílun.fa'u Lun.mafá, and as metrically + + 'Ílun.fa'ú (two Sabab followed by Watad) and Lun.mafá (one +Sabab followed by Watad) are='Ílun.mafá and Lun.fa'ú +respectively, their Taf'il is effected by the same substitutions +as in ii. 5 and 6, and they become: + + 3. Basít, consisting of twice + + Mustaf.'ilun Fá.'ilun Mustaf.'ilun Fá.'ilun, + +in conformity with the classical scheme: + + - - U - | - U - | - - U - | - U - | + +Thus one metre evolves from another by a kind of rotation, which +suggested to the Prosodists an ingenious device of representing +them by circles (hence the name Dáirah), round the circumference +of which on the outside the complete Taf'íl of the original metre +is written, while each moved letter is faced by a small loop, +each quiescent by a small vertical stroke[FN#453] inside the +circle. Then, in the case of this present Dáirat al-Mukhtalif for +instance, the loop corresponding to the initial f of the first +Fa'úlun is marked as the beginning of the Tawíl, that +corresponding to its l (of the Sabab fun) as the beginning of the +Madid, and that corresponding to the 'Ayn of the next Mafá'ílun +as the beginning of the Basít. The same process applies to all +the following circles, but our limited space compels us simply to +enumerate them, together with their Buhúr, without further +reference to the mode of their evolution. + +B. Dáirat al-Mútalif, circle of "the agreeing" metre, so called +because all its feet agree in length, consisting of seven letters +each. It contains: + +1. Al-Wáfir, composed of twice + + Mufá.'alatun Mufá.'alatun Mufá.'alatun (ii. 3) + + = U - U U - | U - U U - | U - U U - | + +where the Iambus in each foot precedes the Anapaest, and +its reversal: + +2. Al-Kámil, consisting of twice + + Mutafá.'ilun Mutafá.'ilun Mutafá.'ilun (ii. 8) + + + = U U - U - | U U - U - | U U - U - | + +where the Anapaest takes the first place in every foot. + +C. Dáirat al-Mujtalab, circle of "the brought on" metre, so +called because its seven-lettered feet are brought on from the +first circle. + +1. Al-Hazaj, consisting of twice + + Mafá.'ílun Mafá.'ílun Mafá.'ílun (ii. 2) + + = U - - - | U - - - | U - - - | U - - - | + +2. Al-Rajaz, consisting of twice + + Mustaf.'ilun Mustaf.'ilun Mustaf.'ilun, + +and, in this full form, almost identical with the Iambic Trimeter +of the Greek Drama: + + - - U - | - - U - | - - U - | + +3. Al-Ramal, consisting of twice + + Fá.'ilátun Fá.'ilátun Fá.'ilátun, + +the trochaic counterpart of the preceding metre + + = - U - - | - U - - | - U - - | + +D. Dáirat al-Mushtabih, circle of "the intricate" metre, so +called from its intricate nature, primary mingling with secondary +feet, and one foot of the same verse containing a Watad majmú', +another a Watad mafrúk, i.e. the iambic rhythm alternating with +the trochaic and vice versa. Its Buhúr are: + +1. Al-Sarí', twice + + Mustaf.'ilun Mustaf.'ilun Maf'ú.látu (ii. 6 and 9) + = - - U - | - - U - | - - - U | + +2. Al-Munsarih, twice + + Mustaf.'ilun Mafú.látu Mustaf.'ilun (ii. 6. 9. 6) + = - - U - | - - - U | - - U - | + +3. Al-Khafíf, twice + + Fá.'ílátun Mustaf'i.lun Fá.'ílátun (ii. 7.10.7) + = - U - - | - - U - | - U - - | + +4. Al-Muzári', twice + + Mafá.'ílun Fá'í.látun Mafá.'ílun (ii. 2.4.2) + = U - - - | - U - - | U - - - | + +5. Al-Muktazib, twice + + Maf'ú.látu Mustaf.'ilun Maf'ú.látu (ii. 9.6.9) + = - - - U | - - U - | - - - U | + +6. Al-Mujtass, twice + + Mustaf'i.lun Fá.'ílátun Mustaf' i.lun (ii. 10.7.10) + = - - U - | - U - - | - - U - | + +E. Dáirat al-Muttafik, circle of "the concordant" metre, so +called for the same reason why circle B is called "the agreeing," +i.e. because the feet all harmonise in length, being here, +however, quinqueliteral, not seven-lettered as in the Mátalif. +Al-Khalil the inventor of the ''Ilm al-'Arúz, assigns to it only +one metre: + +1. Al-Mutakárib, twice + + Fa'úlun Fa'úlun Fa'úlun Fa'úlun (ii. 1) + = U - - | U - - | U - - | + +Later Prosodists added: + +2. Al-Mutadárak, twice + + Fá'ilun Fá'ilun Fá'ilun Fá'ilun (ii. 5) + = - U - | - U - | - U - | + + +The feet and metres as given above are, however, to a certain +extent merely theoretical; in practice the former admit of +numerous licenses and the latter of variations brought about by +modification or partial suppression of the feet final in a verse. +An Arabic poem (Kasídah, or if numbering less than ten couplets, +Kat'ah) consists of Bayts or couplets, bound together by a +continuous rhyme, which connects the first two lines and is +repeated at the end of every second line throughout the poem. The +last foot of every odd line is called 'Arúz (fem. in +contradistinction of Arúz in the sense of Prosody which is +masc.), pl. A'áiriz, that of every even line is called Zarb, pl. +Azrub, and the remaining feet may be termed Hashw (stuffing), +although in stricter parlance a further distinction is made +between the first foot of every odd and even line as well. + +Now with regard to the Hashw on the one hand, and the 'Aruz and +Zarb on the other, the changes which the normal feet undergo are +of two kinds: Zuháf (deviation) and 'Illah (defect). Zuháf +applies, as a rule, occasionally and optionally to the second +letter of a Sabab in those feet which compose the Hashw or body- +part of a verse, making a long syllable short by suppressing its +quiescent final, or contracting two short quantities in a long +one, by rendering quiescent a moved letter which stands second in +a Sabab sakíl. In Mustaf'ilun (ii. 6. = - - U -), for instance, +the s of the first syllable, or the f of the second, or both may +be dropped and it will become accordingly Mutaf'ilun, by +substitution Mafá'ilun (U - U -), or Musta'ilun, by substitution, +Mufta'ilun (- U U -), or Muta'ilun, by substitution Fa'ilatun (U +U U -).[FN#454] This means that wherever the foot Mustaf.'ilun +occurs in the Hashw of a poem, we can represent it by the scheme +U U U - i.e. the Epitritus tertius can, by poetical licence, +change into Diiambus, Choriambus or Paeon quartus. In Mufá'alatun +(ii. 3. = U - U U -) and Mutafá'ilun (ii. 8. = U U - U -), again, +the Sabab 'ala and mute may become khafíf by suppression of their +final Harakah and thus turn into Mufá'altun, by substitution +Mafá'ílun (ii. 2. = U - - -), and Mutfá'ilun, by substitution +Mustaf'ilun (ii 6.= - - U U as above). In other words the two +feet correspond to the schemes U_U-U_ and U-U-U-, where a Spondee +can take the place of the Anapaest after or before the Iambus +respectively. + +'Illah, the second way of modifying the primitive or normal feet, +applies to both Sabab and Watad, but only in the 'Aruz and Zarb +of a couplet, being at the same time constant and obligatory. +Besides the changes already mentioned, it consists in adding one +or two letters to a Sabab or Watad, or curtailing them more or +less, even to cutting them off altogether. We cannot here exhaust +this matter any more than those touched upon until now, but must +be satisfied with an example or two, to show the proceeding in +general and indicate its object. + +We have seen that the metre Basít consists of the two lines: + + Mustaf.'ilun Fá.'ilun Mustaf'ilun Fá'ilun + Mustaf'ilun Fá'ilun Mustaf'ilun Fá'ilun. + +This complete form, however, is not in use amongst Arab poets. If +by the Zuháf Khabn, here acting as 'Illah, the Alif in the final +Fá'ilun is suppressed, changing it into Fa'ilun (U U -), it +becomes the first 'Aruz, called makhbúnah, of the Basít, the +first Zarb of which is obtained by submitting the final Fá'ilun +of the second line to the same process. A second Zarb results, if +in Fá'ilun the final n of the 'Watad 'ilun is cut off and the +preceding l made quiescent by the 'Illah Kat' thus giving Fá'il +and by substitution Fa'lun (- -). Thus the formula becomes:-- + + Mustaf'ilun Fá'ilun Mustaf'ilun Fa'ilun + Mustaf'ilun Fá'ilun Mustaf'ilun{Fa'ilun + {Fa'lun + +As in the Hashw, i.e. the first three feet of each line, the +Khabn can likewise be applied to the medial Fá'ilun, and for +Mustaf'ilun the poetical licences, explained above, may be +introduced, this first 'Arúz or Class of the Basít with its two +Zarb or subdivisions will be represented by the scheme + + U U | U | U U | + - - U - | - U - | - - U U | U U - + + U U | U { U U - + - - U - | - U - { - - + +that is to say in the first subdivision of this form of the Basít +both lines of each couplet end with an Anapaest and every second +line of the other subdivision terminates in a Spondee. + +The Basít has four more A'áriz, three called majzúah, because +each line is shortened by a Juz or foot, one called mashtúrah +(halved), because the number of feet is reduced from four to two, +and we may here notice that the former kind of lessening the +number of feet is frequent with the hexametrical circles (B. C. +D.), while the latter kind can naturally only occur in those +circles whose couplet forms an octameter (A. E.). Besides being +majzúah, the second 'Aruz is sahíhah (perfect) consisting of the +normal foot Mustaf'ilun. It has three Azrub: 1. Mustaf'ilán (- - +U -‘, with an overlong final syllable, see supra p. 238), +produced by the 'Illah Tazyíl, i.e. addition of a quiescent +letter at the end (Mustaf'ilunn, by substitution Mustaf'ilán); 2. +Mustaf'ilun, like the 'Aruz; 3. Maf'úlun (- - -), produced by the +'Illah Kat' (see the preceding page; Mustaf'ilun, by dropping the +final n and making the l quiescent becomes Mustaf'il and by +substitution Maf'úlun). Hence the formula is: + + Mustaf'ilun Fá'ilun Mustaf'ilun + { Mustaf'il n + Mustaf'ilun Fá'ilun{ Mustaf'ilun + { Maf'úulun, + +which, with its allowable licenses, may be represented by the +scheme: + + U U | U | + - - U - | - U - | - - U - + + { U U + U U | U { - - U - + - - U - | - U - { - - U - + { U + { - - - + +The above will suffice to illustrate the general method of the +Prosodists, and we must refer the reader for the remaining +classes and subdivisions of the Basít as well as the other metres +to more special treatises on the subject, to which this Essay is +intended merely as an introduction, with a view to facilitate the +first steps of the student in an important, but I fear somewhat +neglected, field of Arabic learning. + +If we now turn to the poetical pieces contained in The Nights, we +find that out of the fifteen metres, known to al-Khalil, or the +sixteen of later Prosodists, instances of thirteen occur in the +Mac. N. edition, but in vastly different proportions. The total +number amounts to 1,385 pieces (some, however, repeated several +times), out of which 1,128 belong to the first two circles, +leaving only 257 for the remaining three. The same +disproportionality obtains with regard to the metres of each +circle. The Mukhtalif is represented by 331 instances of Tawíl +and 330 of Basít against 3 of Madíd; the Mutalif by 321 instances +of Kámil against 143 of Wafír; the Mujtalab by 32 instances of +Ramal and 30 of Rajaz against 1 of Hazaj; the Mushtabih by 72 +instances of Khafíf and 52 of Sarí' against 18 of Munsarih and 15 +of Mujtass; and lastly the Muttafik by 37 instances of Mutakárib. +Neither the Mutadárak (E. 2), nor the Muzári' and Muktazib (D. +4.5) are met with. + +Finally it remains for me to quote a couplet of each metre, +showing how to scan them, and what relation they bear to the +theoretical formulas exhibited on p. 242 to p. 247. + +It is characteristic for the preponderance of the Tawíl over all +the other metres, that the first four lines, with which my +alphabetical list begins, are written in it. One of these belongs +to a poem which has for its author Bahá al-Din Zuhayr (born A.D. +1186 at Mekkah or in its vicinity, ob. 1249 at Cairo), and is to +be found in full in Professor Palmer's edition of his works, p. +164. Sir Richard Burton translates the first Bayt (vol. i. 290): + + An I quit Cairo and her pleasances * Where can I hope +to find so gladsome ways? + +Professor Palmer renders it: + + Must I leave Egypt where such joys abound? + What place can ever charm me so again ? + +In Arabic it scans: + + U - U | U - - - | U - U | U - U - | + A-arhalu'en Misrin wa tíbi na'ímihil[FN#455] + U - U | U - - - | U - U | U - U - | + Fa-ayyu makánin ba'dahá li-ya sháiku. + +In referring to iii. A. I. p. 242, it will be seen that in the +Hashw Fa'úlun (U - -) has become Fa'úlu (U - U) by a Zuháf called +Kabz (suppression of the fifth letter of a foot if it is +quiescent) and that in the 'Arúz and Zarb Mafá'ílun (U - - -) has +changed into Mafá'ilun (U - U -) by the same Zuháf acting as +'Illah. The latter alteration shows the couplet to be of the +second Zarb of the first 'Arúz of the Tawíl. If the second line +did terminate in Mafá'ílun, as in the original scheme, it would +be the first Zarb of the same 'Arúz; if it did end in Fa'úlun (U +- -) or Mafá'íl (U - -) it would represent the third or fourth +subdivision of this first class respectively. The Tawíl has one +other 'Arúz, Fa'úlun, with a twofold Zarb, either Fa'úlun also, +or Mafá'ilun. + +The first instance of the Basít occurring in The Nights are the +lines translated vol. i. p. 25: + +Containeth Time a twain of days, this of blessing, that of bane * + And holdeth Life a twain of halves, this of pleasure, that + of pain. + +In Arabic (Mac. N. i. II): + + - - U - | - U - | - - U - | U U - | + Al-Dahru yaumáni zá amnun wa zá hazaru + + - - U - | - U - | - - U - | U U - | + Wa'l-'Ayshu shatráni zá safwun wa zá kadaru. + +Turning back to p. 243, where the A'áríz and Azrub of the Basít +are shown, the student will have no difficulty to recognise the +Bayt as one belonging to the first Zarb of the first 'Arúz. + +As an example of the Madid we quote the original of the lines +(vol. v. 131):-- + +I had a heart, and with it lived my life * 'Twas seared with fire + and burnt with loving-lowe. + +They read in Arabic:-- + + - U - - | - U - | U U - | + Kána lí kalbun a'íshu bihi + + - U - - | - U - | U - | + Fa'ktawá bi'l-nári wa'htarak. + +If we compare this with the formula (iii. A. 2. p. 242), we find +that either line of the couplet is shortened by a foot; it is, +therefore, majzú. The first 'Arúz of this abbreviated metre is +Fá'ilátun (- U - -), and is called sahíhah (perfect) because it +consists of the normal third foot. In the second 'Arúz, Fá'ilátun +loses its end syllable tun by the 'Illah Hafz (suppression of a +final Sabab khafíf), and becomes Fá'ilá (- U -), for which +Fá'ilun is substituted. Shortening the first syllable of Fá'ilun, +i.e. eliminating the Alif by Khabn, we obtain the third 'Arúz +Fa'ilun (U U -) as that of the present lines, which has two +Azrub: Fa'ilun, like the 'Arúz, and Fa'lun (- -), here, again by +Khabn, further reduced to Fa'al (U -). + +Ishak of Mosul, who improvises the piece, calls it "so difficult +and so rare, that it went nigh to deaden the quick and to quicken +the dead"; indeed, the native poets consider the metre Madíd as +the most difficult of all, and it is scarcely ever attempted by +later writers. This accounts for its rare occurrence in The +Nights, where only two more instances are to be found, Mac. N. +ii. 244 and iii. +404. + + +The second and third circle will best be spoken of together, as +the Wáfir and Kámil have a natural affinity to the Hazaj and +Rajaz. Let us revert to the line:-- + + U - - - | U - - - | U - - | + Akámú 'l-wajda fí kalbí wa sárú. + +Translated, as it were, into the language of the Prosodists it +will be:-- + + Mafá'ílun[FN#456] 'Mafá'ílun Fa'úlun, + +and this, standing by itself, might prima facie be taken for a +line of the Hazaj (iii. C. I), with the third Mafá'ílun shortened +by Hafz (see above) into Mafá'í for which Fa'úlun would be +substituted. We have seen (p. 247) that and how the foot +Mufá'alatun can change into Mafá'ílun, and if in any poem which +otherwise would belong to the metre Hazaj, the former measure +appears even in one foot only along with the latter, it is +considered to be the original measure, and the poem counts no +longer as Hazaj but as Wáfir. In the piece now under +consideration, it is the second Bayt where the characteristic +foot of the Wáfir first appears:-- + + U - - - | U - U U | U - - | + Naat 'anní'l-rubú'u wa sákiníhá + + U - U U - | U - U U - | U - - | + Wa kad ba'uda 'l-mazáru fa-lá mazáru. + +Anglicè (vol. iii. 296):-- + +Far lies the camp and those who camp therein; * Far is her tent + shrine where I ne'er shall tent. + +It must, however, be remarked that the Hazaj is not in use as a +hexameter, but only with an 'Arúz majzúah or shortened by one +foot. Hence it is only in the second 'Arúz of the Wafír, which is +likewise majzúah, that the ambiguity as to the real nature of the +metre can arise;[FN#457] and the isolated couplet:-- + + U - - - | U - - - | U - - | + Yárídu 'l-mar-u an yu'tá munáhu + + U - - - | U - - - | U - - | + Wa yabá 'lláhu illá ma yurídu + +Man wills his wish to him accorded be, * But Allah naught accords + save what he wills (vol. iv. 157), + +being hexametrical, forms undoubtedly part of a poem in Wafír +although it does not contain the foot Mufá'alatun at all. Thus +the solitary instance of Hazaj in The Nights is Abú Nuwás' +abomination, beginning with:-- + + U - - - | U - - - | + + Fa-lá tas'au ilá ghayrí + + U - - - | U - - - | + Fa-'indi ma'dinu 'l-khayri (Mac. N. ii. 377). + +Steer ye your steps to none but me * Who have a mine of luxury + (vol. v. 65). + +If in the second 'Arúz of the Wáfir, Maf'áílun (U - - -) is +further shortened to Mafá'ilun (U - U -), the metre resembles the +second 'Arúz of Rajaz, where, as we have seen, the latter foot +can, by licence, take the place of the normal Mustaf'ilun (- - U +-). + +The Kámil bears a similar relation to the Rajaz, as the Wáfir +bears to the Hazaj. By way of illustration we quote from Mac. N. +ii. 8 the first two Bayts of a little poem taken from the 23rd +Assembly of Al Hariri:-- + + - - U - | - - U - | U U - U - | + Yá khátiba 'l-dunyá 'l-daniyyati innahá + + U U - U - | U U - U - | - - - | + Sharaku 'l-radà wa karáratu 'l-akdári + + - - U - | - - U - | - - U - | + Dárun matà má azhakat fí yaumiha + + - - U - | - - U - | - - - | + Abkat ghadan bu'dan lahá min dári. + +In Sir Richard Burton's translation (vol. iii. 319):-- + +O thou who woo'st a World unworthy, learn * 'Tis house of evils, + 'tis Perdition's net: +A house where whoso laughs this day shall weep * The next; then + perish house of fume and fret. + +The 'Arúz of the first couplet is Mutafá'ilun, assigning the +piece to the first or perfect (sahíhah) class of the Kámil. In +the Hashw of the opening line and in that of the whole second +Bayt this normal Mutafá'ilun has, by licence, become Mustaf'ilun, +and the same change has taken place in the 'Arúz of the second +couplet; for it is a peculiarity which this metre shares with a +few others, to allow certain alterations of the kind Zuháf in the +'Arúz and Zarb as well as in the Hashw. This class has three +subdivisions: the Zarb of the first is Mutafá'ilun, like the +'Arúz the Zarb of the second is Fa'alátun (U U - -), a +substitution for Mutafá'il which latter is obtained from +Mutafá'ilun by suppressing the final n and rendering the l +quiescent; the Zarb of the third is Fa'lun (- - -) for Mútfá, +derived from Mutafá'ilun by cutting off the Watad 'ilun and +dropping the medial a of the remaining Mutafá. + +If we make the 'Ayn of the second Zarb Fa'alátun also quiescent +by the permitted Zuháf Izmár, it changes into Fa'látun, by +substitution Maf 'úlun (- - -) which terminates the rhyming lines +of the foregoing quotation. Consequently the two couplets taken +together, belong to the second Zarb of the first 'Aruz of the +Kámil, and the metre of the poem with its licences may be +represensed by the scheme: + + + - | - | - | + U U - U - | U U - U - | U U - U - | + + - | - | - | + U U - U - | U U - U - | U U - - | + +Taken isolated, on the other hand, the second Bayt might be of +the metre Rajaz, whose first 'Arúz Mustaf'ilun has two Azrub: one +equal to the Arúz, the other Maf'úlun as above, but here +substituted for Mustaf'il after applying the 'Illah Kat' (see p +247) to Mustaf'ilun. If this were the metre of the poem +throughout the scheme with the licences peculiar to the Rajaz +would be: + + U U | U U | U U | + - - U U | - - U - | - - U - | + + U U | U U | U | + - - U - | - - U - | - - - | + +The pith of Al-Hariri's Assembly is that the knight errant not to +say the arrant wight of the Romance, Abú Sayd of Sarúj accuses +before the Walí of Baghdad his pretended pupil, in reality his +son, to have appropriated a poem of his by lopping off two feet +of every Bayt. If this is done in the quoted lines, they read: + + - - U - | - - U - | + Yá khátiba 'l-dunyá 'l-dandy. + + U U - U | U U - U - | + Yati innahá sharaku 'l-radá + + - - U - | - - U - | + Dárun matà má azhakat, + + - - U - | - - U - | + Fí yaumihá abkat ghadá, + +with a different rhyme and of a different variation of metre. The +amputated piece belongs to the fourth Zarb of the third 'Aruz of +Kámil, and its second couplet tallies with the second subdivision +of the second class of Rajaz. + +The Rajaz, an iambic metre pure and simple, is the most popular, +because the easiest, in which even the Prophet was caught napping +sometimes, at the dangerous risk of following the perilous +leadership of Imru 'l-Kays. It is the metre of improvisation, of +ditties, and of numerous didactic poems. In the latter case, when +the composition is called Urjúzah, the two lines of every Bayt +rhyme, and each Bayt has a rhyme of its own. This is the form in +which, for instance, Ibn Málik's Alfíyah is written, as well as +the remarkable grammatical work of the modern native scholar, +Nasíf al-Yazijí, of which a notice will be found in Chenery's +Introduction to his Translation of Al-Hariri. + +While the Hazaj and Rajaz connect the third circle with the first +and second, the Ramal forms the link between the third and fourth +Dáirah. Its measure Fá'ilátun (- U - -) and the reversal of it, +Maf'úlátu (- - - U), affect the trochaic rhythm, as opposed to +the iambic of the two first-named metres. The iambic movement has +a ring of gladness about it, the trochaic a wail of sadness: the +former resembles a nimble pedestrian, striding apace with an +elastic step and a cheerful heart; the latter is like a man +toiling along on the desert path, where his foot is ever and anon +sliding back in the burning sand (Raml, whence probably the name +of the metre). Both combined in regular alternation, impart an +agitated character to the verse, admirably fit to express the +conflicting emotions of a passion stirred mind. + +Examples of these more or less plaintive and pathetic metres are +numerous in the Tale of Uns al-Wujúd and the Wazir's Daughter, +which, being throughout a story of love, as has been noted, vol. +v. 33, abounds in verse, and, in particular, contains ten out of +the thirty two instances of Ramal occurring in The Nights. We +quote: + +Ramal, first Zarb of the first 'Arúz (Mac. N. ii. 361): + + - U - - | U U - - | - U - | + Inna li 'l-bulbuli sautan fí 'l-sahar + + - U - - | U U - - | - U - | + Ashghala 'l-áshika 'an husni 'l-water + +The Bulbul's note, whenas dawn is nigh * Tells the lover from +strains of strings to fly (vol. v. 48). + +Sarí', second Zarb of the first 'Arúz (Mac. N. ii. 359): + + U - U - | - - U - | - U - | + Wa fákhitin kad kála fí nauhihi + + - - U - | - - U - | - U - | + Yá Dáiman shukran 'alà balwatí + +I heard a ringdove chanting soft and plaintively, * "I thank + Thee, O Eternal for this misery" (vol. v. 47). + +Khafíf, full or perfect form (sahíh), both in Zarb and 'Arúz +(Mac. N. ii. 356): + + - U - - | U - U - | - U - - | + Yá li-man ashtakí 'l-gharáma 'llazí bi + + U U - - | U - U - | - U - - | + Wa shujúní wa furkatí 'an habíbí + +O to whom now of my desire complaining sore shall I * Bewail my + parting from my fere compellèd thus to fly (vol. v. 44). + +Mujtass, the only 'Arúz (majzúah sahíhah, i.e. shortened by one +foot and perfect) with equal Zarb (Mac. N. ii. 367): + + - - U - | U U - - | + Ruddú 'alayya habíbí + + - - U - | - U - - | + Lá hajatan lí bi-málin + +To me restore my dear * I want not wealth untold (vol. v. 55). + +As an instance of the Munsarih, I give the second occurring in +The Nights, because it affords me an opportunity to show the +student how useful a knowledge of the laws of Prosody frequently +proves for ascertaining the correct reading of a text. Mac. N. i. +33 we find the line: + + - U U - | - U U - | - U U - | + Arba'atun má 'jtama'at kattu izá. + +This would be Rajaz with the licence Mufta'ilun for Mustaf'ilun. +But the following lines of the fragment evince, that the metre is +Munsarih; hence, a clerical error must lurk somewhere in the +second foot. In fact, on page 833 of the same volume, we find the +piece repeated, and here the first couplet reads + + - U U - | - U - U | - U U - | + Arba'atun má 'jtama'na kattu siwà + + U - U - | - U - U | - U U - | + Alà azá mujhatí wa safki damí + +Four things which ne'er conjoin unless it be * To storm my vitals + and to shed my blood (vol. iii. 237). + +The Mutákarib, the last of the metres employed in The Nights, has +gained a truly historical importance by the part which it plays +in Persian literature. In the form of trimetrical double-lines, +with a several rhyme for each couplet, it has become the +"Nibelungen"-stanza of the Persian epos: +Firdausí's immortal "Book of Kings" and Nizámi's Iskander-námah +are written in it, not to mention a host of Masnawis in which +Sufic mysticism combats Mohammedan orthodoxy. On account of its +warlike and heroical character, therefore, I choose for an +example the knightly Jamrakán's challenge to the single fight in +which he conquers his scarcely less valiant adversary Kaurajan, +Mac. N. iii. 296: + + U - - | U - U | U - - | U - - | + Aná 'l-Jamrakánu kawiyyn 'l-janáni + + U - - | U - U | U - - | U - - | + Jamí'u 'l-fawárisi takhshà kitálí. + +Here the third syllable of the second foot in each line is +shortened by licence, and the final Kasrah of the first line, +standing in pause, is long, the metre being the full form of the +Mutakárib as exhibited p. 246, iii. E. 1. If we suppress the +Kasrah of al-Janáni, which is also allowable in pause, and make +the second line to rhyme with the first, saying, for instance: + + U - - | U - U | U - - | U - + Aná 'l-Jamrakánu kawiyyu 'l-janán + + U - - | U - - | U - - | U - + La-yakshà kitálí shijá'u 'l-zamán, + +we obtain the powerful and melodious metre in which the Sháhnámah +sings of Rustam's lofty deeds, of the tender love of Rúdabah and +the tragic downfall of Siyawush + +Shall I confess that in writing the foregoing pages it has been +my ambition to become a conqueror, in a modest way, myself: to +conquer, I mean, the prejudice frequently entertained, and shared +even by my accomplished countryman, Rückert, that Arabic Prosody +is a clumsy and repulsive doctrine. I have tried to show that it +springs naturally from the character of the language, and, +intimately connected, as it is, with the grammatical system of +the Arabs, it appears to me quite worthy of the acumen of a +people, to whom, amongst other things, we owe the invention of +Algebra, the stepping-stone of our whole modern system of +Mathematics I cannot refrain, therefore, from concluding with a +little anecdote anent al-Khalíl, which Ibn Khallikán tells in the +following words. His son went one day into the room where his +father was, and on finding him scanning a piece of poetry by the +rules of Prosody he ran out and told the people that his father +had lost his wits. They went in immediately and related to +al-Khalíl what they had heard, on which he addressed his son in +these terms: + +"Had you known what I was saying, you would have excused me, and +had you known what you said, I should have blamed you But you did +not understand me, so you blamed me, and I knew that you were +ignorant, so I pardoned you." + + + + + + L'Envoi. + + + +Here end, to my sorrow, the labours of a quarter-century, and +here I must perforce say with the "poets' Poet," + + "Behold! I see the haven nigh at hand, + To which I mean my wearie course to bend; + Vere the main shete, and bear up with the land + The which afore is fairly to be ken'd." + +Nothing of importance now indeed remains for me but briefly to +estimate the character of my work and to take cordial leave of my +readers, thanking them for the interest they have accorded to +these volumes and for enabling me thus successfully to complete +the decade. + +Without pudor malus or over-diffidence I would claim to have +fulfilled the promise contained in my Foreword. The +anthropological notes and notelets, which not only illustrate and +read between the lines of the text, but assist the student of +Moslem life and of Arabo-Egyptian manners, customs and language +in a multitude of matters shunned by books, form a repertory of +Eastern knowledge in its esoteric phase, sexual as well as +social. + +To assert that such lore is unnecessary is to state, as every +traveller knows, an "absurdum." Few phenomena are more startling +than the vision of a venerable infant, who has lived half his +long life in the midst of the wildest anthropological vagaries +and monstrosities, and yet who absolutely ignores all that India +or Burmah enacts under his very eyes. This is crass ignorance, +not the naive innocence of Saint Francis who, seeing a man and a +maid in a dark corner, raised his hands to Heaven and thanked the +Lord that there was still in the world so much of Christian +Charity. + +Against such lack of knowledge my notes are a protest; and I may +claim success despite the difficulty of the task. A traveller +familiar with Syria and Palestine, Herr Landberg, writes, "La +plume refuserait son service, la langue serait insuffisante, si +celui qui connait la vie de tous les jours des Orientaux, surtout +des classes élévees, voulait la devoiler. L'Europe est bien loin +d'en avoir la moindre idée." + +In this matter I have done my best, at a time too when the +hapless English traveller is expected to write like a young lady +for young ladies, and never to notice what underlies the most +superficial stratum. And I also maintain that the free treatment +of topics usually taboo'd and held to be "alekta"--unknown and +unfitted for publicity--will be a national benefit to an "Empire +of Opinion," whose very basis and buttresses are a thorough +knowledge by the rulers of the ruled. Men have been crowned with +gold in the Capitol for lesser services rendered to the +Respublica. + +That the work contains errors, shortcomings and many a lapsus, I +am the first and foremost to declare. Yet in justice to myself I +must also notice that the maculæ are few and far between; even +the most unfriendly and interested critics have failed to point +out an abnormal number of slips. And before pronouncing the "Vos +plaudite!" or, as Easterns more politely say, "I implore that my +poor name may be raised aloft on the tongue of praise," let me +invoke the fair field and courteous favour which the Persian poet +expected from his readers. + + (Veil it, an fault thou find, nor jibe nor jeer:-- + None may be found of faults and failings clear!) + +RICHARD F. BURTON. + +Athenæum Club, September 30, ‘86. + + + + + + Appendix + + + + Memorandum + + + +I make no apology for the number and extent of bibliographical +and other lists given in this Appendix: they may cumber the book +but they are necessary to complete my design. This has been to +supply throughout the ten volumes the young Arabist and student +of Orientalism and Anthropology with such assistance as I can +render him; and it is my conviction that if with the aid of this +version he will master the original text of the "Thousand Nights +and a Night," he will find himself at home amongst educated men +in Egypt and Syria, Najd and Mesopotamia, and be able to converse +with them like a gentleman; not, as too often happens in Anglo- +India, like a "Ghoráwálá" (groom). With this object he will +learn by heart what instinct and inclination suggest of the +proverbs and instances, the verses, the jeux d'esprit and +especially the Koranic citations scattered about the text; and my +indices will enable him to hunt up the tale or the verses which +he may require for quotation wven when writing an ordinary letter +to a "native" correspondent. Thus he will be spared the wasted +labour of wading through volumes in order to pick up a line. + +The following is the list of indices:-- + +Appendix I. + +I. Index to the Tales in the ten Volumes. +II. Alphabetical Table of the Notes (Anthropological, etc.) + prepared by F. Steingass, Ph.D. +III. Alphabetical Table of First Lines (metrical portion) in + English and Arabic, prepared by Dr. Steingass. +IV. Tables of Contents of the various Arabic texts. + A. The Unfinished Calcutta Edition (1814-18). + B. The Breslau Text (1825-43) from Mr. Payne's Version. + C. The MacNaghten or Turner-Macan Text (A.D. 1839-42) and + the Bulak Edition (A.H. 1251 = A.D. 1835-36), from Mr. + Payne's Version. + D. The same with Mr. Lane's and my Version. + +Appendix II. + +Contributions to the Bibliography of the Thousand and One Nights, +and their Imitations, with a Table shewing the contents of the +principal editions and translations of The Nights. By W. F. +Kirby, Author of "Ed-Dimiryaht, and Oriental Romance"; "The New +Arabian Nights," $c. + + + + + + Appendix I + + + + Index I + + Index to the Tales and Proper Names. + + + +N.B.--The Roman numerals denote the volume {page numbers have +been omitted} + + + +Abdullah the Fisherman and Abdullah the Merman, ix. +Abdullah bin Fazl and his brothers, ix. +Abdullah bin Ma'amar with the Man of Bassorah and his slave-girl, +v. +Abd al-Rahman the Moor's story of the Rukh, v. +Abu Hasan al-Ziyadi and the Khorasan Man, iv. +Abu Hasan, how he brake Wind, v. +Abu Isa and Kurrat al-Aye, The Loves of, v. +Abu Ja'afar the Leper, Abu al-Hasan al-Durraj and, v. +Abu Kir the Dyer and Abu Sir the Barber, ix. +Abu al-Aswad and his squinting slave-girl, v. +Abu al Husn and his slave-girl Tawaddud, v. +Abu al Hasan al-Durraj and Abu Ja'afar the Leper, v. +Abu al Hasan of Khorasan, ix. +Abu Mohammed highs Lazybones, iv. +Abu Nowas, Harun al-Rashid with the damsel and, iv. +Abu Nowas and the Three Boys, v. +Abu Sir the Barber, Abu Kir the Dyer and, ix. +Abu Suwayd and the handsome old woman, v. +Abu Yusuf with Harun al-Rashid and his Wazir Ja'afar, The Imam, +iv. +Abu Yusuf with Al-Rashid and Zubaydah, The Imam, iv. +Adam, The Birds and Beasts and the Son of, iii. +Adi bin Zayd and the Princess Hind, v. +Ajib, The History of Gharib and his brother, vi. +Ala al-Din Abu al-Shamat, iv. +Alexandria (The Sharper of) and the Master of Police, iv. +Ali bin Bakkar and Shams al-Nahar, iii. +Ali of Cairo, The Adventures of Mercury, vii. +Ali Nur al-Din and Miriam the Girdle-Girl, viii. +Ali the Persian and the Kurd Sharper, iv. +Ali Shar and Zumurrud, iv. +Ali bin Tahir and the girl Muunis, v. +Al Malik al-Nasir (Saladin) and the Three Chiefs of Police, iv. +Almsgiving, The Woman whose hands were cut off for, iv. +Amin (Al-) and his uncle Ibrahim bin al-Mahdi, v. +Anushirwan, Kisra, and the village damsel, v. +Anushirwan, The Righteousness of King, v. +Angel of Death and the King of the Children of Israel, The, v +Angel of Death with the Proud King and the Devout Man, The, v. +Angel of Death and the Rich King, The, v. +Anis al-Jalis, Nur al-Din Ali and the damsel, ii. +Ape, The King's daughter and the, iv. +Apples, The Three, i. +Arab Girl, Harun al-Rashid and the, vii. +Arab Youth, The Caliph Hisham and the, iv. +Ardashir and Hayat al-Nufus, vii. +Asma'i (Al-) and the three girls of Bassorah, vii. +Ass, The Ox and the, i. +Ass, The Wild, The Fox and, ix. +Ayishah, Musab bin al-Zubayr and his wife, v. +Aziz and Azizah, Tale of, ii. +Azizah, Aziz and. ii. +Badawi, Ja'afar the Barmecide and the old, v. +Badawi, Omar bin al-Khattab and the young, v. +Badawi, and his Wife, The, vii. +Badi'a al-Jamal, Sayf al-Muluk and, vii. +Badr Basim of Persia, Julnar the Sea-born, and her Son King, vii. +Badr al-Din Hasan, Nur al-Din Ali of Cairo and his son, i. +Baghdad, The Haunted House in, v. +Baghdad, Khalifah the Fisherman of, viii. +Baghdad, The Porter and the Three Ladies of, i. +Baghdad, (The ruined man of) and his slave-girl, ix. +Baghdad, The Sweep and the noble Lady of, iv. +Bakun's Story of the Hashish-Eater, ii. +Banu Tayy, The Lovers of the, v. +Banu Ozrah, The Lovers of the, v. +Barber's Tale of himself, The, i. +Barber's First Brother, Story of the, i. +Barber's Second Brother, Story of the, i +Barber's Third Brother, Story of the, i. +Barber's Fourth Brother, Story of the, i. +Barber's Fifth Brother, Story of the, i. +Barber's Sixth Brother, Story of the, i. +Barber, Abu Kir the Dyer and Abu Sir the, ix. +Barber-Surgeon, Ibrahim bin al-Mahdi and the, iv. +Barmecide. Ja'afar the, and the old Badawi, v +Bassorah (the man of ) and his slave-girl, Abdullah bin Ma'amar +with, v. +Bassorah, Al-Asma'i and the three girls of, vii. +Bassorah, (Hasan of) and the King's daughter of the Jinn, viii. +Bassorah, The Lovers of, vii. +Bath, Harun al-Rashid and Zubaydah in the, v. +Bathkeeper's Wife, The Wazir's Son and the, vi. +Beanselller, Ja'afar the Barmecide and the, iv. +Bear, Wardan the Butcher's adventure with the Lady and the, iv. +Beasts and the Son of Adam, The Birds and, iii. +Behram, Prince of Persia, and the Princess Al-Datma, vi. +Belvedere, The House with the, vi. +Birds and Beasts and the Carpenter, The, iii. +Birds, The Falcon and the, iii. +Birds (the Speech of), The page who feigned to know, vi. +Black Slave, The pious, v. +Blacksmith who could handle fire without hurt, The, v. +Blind Man and the Cripple, The, ix. +Boys, Abu Nowas and the Three, v. +Boy and Girl at School, The Loves of the, v. +Boy and the Thieves, The, ix. +Boy (The woman who had to lover a) and the other who had to lover +a man, v. +Brass, The City of, vi. +Broker's Story, The Christian, i. +Budur and Jubayr bin Umayr, The Loves of, iv. +Budur, Kamar al-Zaman and, iii. +Bukhayt, Story of the Eunuch, ii. +Bulak Police, Story of the Chief of the, iv. +Bull and the Ass (Story of), i. +Bulukiya, Adventures of, v. +Butcher's adventure with the Lady and the Bear, Wardan the, iv. +Butter, The Fakir and his pot of, ix. +Cairo (New) Police, Story of the Chief of the, iv. +Cairo (Old) Police, Story of the Chief of the, iv. +Cairo, The Adventures of Mercury Ali of, vii. +Caliph Al-Maamun and the Strange Doctor, iv. +Caliph, The mock, iv. +Cashmere Singing-girl, The Goldsmith and the, vi. +Cat and the Crow, The, iii. +Cat and the Mouse, The, ix. +Champion (The Moslem) and the Christian Lady, v. +Chaste Wife, The Rake's Trick against the, vi. +Christian Broker's Story, The, i. +City of Labtayt, The, vi. +Cloud (The saint to whom Allah gave a) to serve him, v. +Cobbler (Ma'aruf the) and his wife Fatimah, x. +Confectioner, his Wife and the Parrot, The, vi. +Crab, The Fishes and the, ix. +Craft and Malice of Women, The, vi. +Cripple, The Blind Man and the, ix. +Crow, The Fox and the, iii. +Crow and the Serpent, The, ix. +Crow, The Cat and the, iii. +Crows and the Hawk, The, ix. +Dalilah the Crafty and her daughter Zaynab the Coney-catcher, The +Rogueries of, vii. +Datma (The Princess Al-), Prince Behram of Persia and, vi. +Death (The Angel of) and the King of the Children of Israel, v. +Death (The Angel of) with the Proud King and the Devout Man, v. +Death (The Angel of) and the Rich King, v. +Debauchee and the Three-year-old Child, The, vi. +Desert (The old woman who dwelt in the) and the pilgrim, v. +Device (The Wife's) to cheat her husband, vi. +Devil, Ibrahim of Mosul and the, vii. +Devil, Isaac of Mosul and his mistress and the, vii. +Devout Israelite, The, iv. +Devout Tray-maker and his wife, The, v. +Devout Prince, The, v. +Devout woman and the two wicked elders, The, v. +Dibil al-Khazai and Muslim bin al-Walid, v. +Dish of Gold, The man who stole the Dog's, iv. +Doctor (The strange) and the Caliph Al-Maamun, iv +Dog's Dish of Gold, The man who stole the, iv. +Dream, The ruined man who became rich through a, iv. +Drop of Honey, The, vi. +Duban, The Physician, i. +Dunya, Taj al-Muluk and the Princess, ii. +Durraj (Abu al-Hasan al-) and Abu Ja'afar the Leper, v. +Dust, The woman who made her husband sift, vi. +Dyer, Abu Sir the Barber and Abu Kir the, ix +Eagle, The Sparrow and the, iii. +Ebony Horse, The, v. +Egypt (The man of Upper) and his Frankish wife, ix. +Elders, The Devout woman and the two wicked, v. +Eldest Lady's Story, The, i. +Enchanted Spring, The, vi. +Enchanted Youth, The, i. +Envied, The Envier and the, i. +Envier and the Envied, The, i. +Eunuch Bukhayt, Tale of the, ii. +Eunuch Kafur, Tale of the, ii. +Fakir and his jar of butter, The, ix. +Falcon and the Partridge, The, iii. +Falcon, King Sindibad and his, i. +Fatimah, Ma'aruf the Cobbler and his wife, x. +Fath bin Khakan (Al-) and Al-Mutawakkil, v. +Ferryman of the Nile and the Hermit, The, v. +First Old Man's Story, i. +Fisherman, Abdullah the Merman and Abdullah the, ix. +Fisherman of Baghdad, Khalifah the, viii. +Fisherman, The Foolish, ix. +Fisherman and the Jinni, The, i. +Fisherman, Khusrau and Shirin and the, v. +Fishes and the Crab, The, ix. +Five Suitors, The Lady and her, vi. +Flea and the Mouse, The, iii. +Folk, The Fox and the, vi. +Forger, Yahya bin Khalid and the, iv. +Fox and the Crow, The, iii. +Fox and the Folk, The, vi. +Fox, The Wolf and the, iii. +Francolin and the Tortoises, The, ix. +Frank King's Daughter, Ali Nur al-Din and the, viii. +Frank wife, The man of Upper Egypt and his, ix. +Fuller and his son, The, vi. +Generous friend, The poor man and his, iv. +Ghanim bin Ayyub the Thrall o' Love, ii. +Gharib and his brother Ajib, The History of, vi. +Girl, Harun al-Rashid and the Arab, vii. +Girl at School, The Loves of the Boy and, v. +Girls of Bassorah, Al-Asma'i and the three, vii. +Girls, Harun al-Rashid and the three, v. +Girls, Harun al-Rashid, and the two, v. +Goldsmith and the Cashmere Singing Girl, The, vi. +Goldsmith's wife, The water-carrier and the, v. +Hajjaj (Al-) Hind daughter of Al Nu'uman and, vii. +Hajjaj (Al-) and the pious man, v. +Hakim (The Caliph Al-) and the Merchant, v. +Hammad the Badawi, Tale of, ii. +Hariri (Al ) Abu Zayd's lament for his impotency. Final Note to +vol. viii +Harun al-Rashid and the Arab girl, vii. +Harun al-Rashid and the Slave-Girl and the Imam Abu Yusuf, iv. +Harun al-Rashid with the Damsel and Abu Nowas, iv. +Harun al-Rashid and Abu Hasan the Merchant of Oman, ix. +Harun al-Rashid and the three girls, v. +Harun al-Rashid and the two girls, v. +Harun al-Rashid and the three poets, v. +Harun al-Rashid and Zubaydah in the Bath, v. +Hashish-Eater, Bakun's tale of the, ii. +Hasan of Bassorah and the King's daughter of the Jinn, vii. +Hasan, King Mohammed bin Sabaik and the Merchant, vii. +Hatim al-Tayyi: his generosity after death, iv. +Haunted House in Baghdad, The, v. +Hawk, The Crows and the, ix. +Hayat al-Nufus, Ardashir and, vii. +Hedgehog and the wood Pigeons, The, iii. +Hermit, The Ferryman of the Nile and the, v. +Hermits, The, iii. +Hind, Adi bin Zayd and the Princess, v. +Hind daughter of Al-Nu'uman and Al-Hajjaj, vii. +Hind (King Jali'ad of ) and his Wazir Shimas, ix. +Hisham and the Arab Youth, The Caliph, iv. +Honey, The Drop of, vi. +Horse, The Ebony, v. +House with the Belvedere, The, vi. +Hunchback's Tale, The, i. +Husband and the Parrot, The, i. +Ibn al-Karibi, Masrur and, v. +Ibrahim al-Khawwas and the Christian King's Daughter, v. +Ibrahim.bin al-Khasib and Jamilah, ix. +Ibrahim.of Mosul and the Devil, vii. +Ibrahim.bin al-Mahdi and Al-Amin, v. +Ibrahim.bin al-Mahdi and the Barber Surgeon, iv. +Ibrahim.bin al-Mahdi and the Merchant's Sister, iv. +Ifrit's mistress and the King's Son, The, vi. +Ignorant man who set up for a Schoolmaster, The, v. +Ikrimah al-Fayyaz, Khuzaymah bin Bishr and, vii. +Imam Abu Yusuf with Al-Rashid and Zubaydah, The, iv. +Introduction. Story of King Shahryar and his brother, i. +Iram, The City of, iv. +Isaac of Mosul's Story of Khadijah and the Caliph Maamun, iv. +Isaac of Mosul and the Merchant, v. +Isaac of Mosul and his Mistress and the Devil, vii. +Island, The King of the, v. +Iskandar Zu Al-Karnayn and a certain Tribe of poor folk, v. +Israelite, The Devout, iv. +Jackals and the Wolf, The, ix. +Ja'afar the Barmecide and the Beanseller, iv. +Ja'afar the Barmecide and the old Badawi, v. +Ja'afar bin al-Had), Mohammed al-Amin, and, v. +Jamilah, Ibrahim bin al-Khasib, and, ix. +Janshah, The Story of, v. +Jali'ad of Hind and his Wazir Shimas, King, ix. +Jeweller's Wife, Kamar al-Zaman and the, ix. +Jewish Kazi and his pious Wife, The, v. +Jewish Doctor's Tale, The, i. +Jinni, The Fisherman and the, i. +Jinni, The Trader and the, i. +Jubayr bin Umayr and Budur, The Loves of, iv. +Judar and his brethren, vi. +Julnar the Sea-born and her son King Badr Basim of Persia, vii. +Justice of Providence, The, v. +Kafur, Story of the Eunuch, ii. +Kalandar's Tale, The first, i. +Kalandar's Tale The second, i. +Kalandar's Tale The third, i. +Kamar al-Zaman and Budur, iii. +Kamar al-Zaman and the Jeweller's Wife, ix. +Kazi, the Jewish, and his pious wife, v. +Khadijah and the Caliph Maamun, Isaac of Mosul's Story of, iv. +Khalif the Fisherman of Baghdad (note from Bresl. Edit.), viii. +Khalifah the Fisherman of Baghdad, viii. +Khawwas (Ibrahim al-) and the Christian King's daughter,v. +Khorasan, Abu Hasan al-Ziyadi and the man from, iv. +Khorasan, Abu al-Hasan of, ix. +Khusrau and Shirin and the Fisherman, v. +Khuzaymah bin Bishr and Ikrimah al-Fayyaz, vii. +King Jali'ad, Shimas his Wazir and his son Wird Khan, ix. +King of the Island, The, v. +King and the Pilgrim Prince, The Unjust, ix. +King and the virtuous wife, The, v. +King and his Wazir's wife, The, vi. +King's Daughter and the Ape, The, iv. +King's son and the Ifrit's Mistress, The, vi. +King's son and the Merchant's Wife, The, vi. +King's son and the Ghulah, The, vi. +Kings, The Two, ix. +Kisra Anushirwan and the Village Damsel,v. +Kurd Sharper, Ali the Persian and the, iv. +Kurrat al-Aye and Abu Isa, v. +Kus Police and the Sharper, Chief of the, iv +Labtayt, The City of, iv. +Lady of Baghdad, The Sweep and the noble, iv. +Lady's Story, The Eldest, i. +Lady and her five suitors, The, vi. +Do. and her two Lovers, The, vi. +Ladies of Baghdad, The Porter and the Three, i. +Laughed again, The man who never, vi. +Lazybones, Abu Mohammed highs, iv. +Leper, Abu al-Hasan al-Durraj and Abu Ja'afar the, v. +Lover, The mad, v. +Lover who feigned himself a thief (to save his mistress' honour), +The, iv. +Lover's trick against the chaste Wife, The, vi. +Lovers of Bassorah, The, vii. +Lovers of the Banu Tayy, The, v. +Lovers of the Banu Ozrah, The, v. +Lovers The Lady and her two, vi. +Lovers of Al-Medinah, The, vii. +Lovers The Three unfortunate, v. +Loves of the Boy and Girl at School, The, v. +Loves of Abu Isa and Kurrat al-Ayn, The, v. +Maamun, Isaac of Mosul's Story of Khadijah and the Caliph, iv. +Maamun (Al-) and the Pyramids of Egypt, v. +Maamun and the strange Scholar, The Caliph, iv. +Ma'an bin Zaidah and the Badawi, iv. +Ma'an the son of Zaidah and the Three Girls, iv. +Mad Lover, The, vii. +Magic Horse, The, v. +Mahbubah, Al-Mutawakkil and his favourite, iv. +Malik al-Nasir (Al-) and the three Masters of Police, iv. +Malik al-Nasir and his Wazir, vii. +Man and his Wife, The, ix. +Man who never laughed during the rest of his days, The, vi. +Man (The Woman who had to lover a ) and the other who had to +lover a boy, v. +Man of Upper Egypt and his Frankish Wife, ix. +Man of Al-Yaman and his six Slave-girls, iv. +Man who stole the dog's dish of gold, iv. +Man who saw the Night of Power (Three Wishes), vi. +Man's dispute with the learned Woman about boys and girls, v. +Ma'aruf the Cobb]er and his wife Fatimah, x. +Mansur, Yahya bin Khalid and, iv. +Masrur and Ibn al-Karibi, v. +Masrur and Zayn al-Mawasif, viii. +Medinah (Al-), The Lovers of, vii. +Merchant of Oman, The, ix. +Merchant and the Robbers, The, ix. +Merchant and the two Sharpers, The, iii. +Merchant's Sister, Ibrahim bin al-Mahdi and the, iv. +Merchant's Wife, The King's son and the, vi. +Merchant's Wife and the Parrot, The, i. +Mercury Ali of Cairo, The Adventures of, vii. +Merman, and Abdullah the Fisherman, Abdullah the, ix. +Miller and his wife, The, v. +Miriam, Ali Nur alDin and, viii. +Miser and Loaves of Bread, The, vi. +Mock Caliph, The, iv. +Mohammed al-Amin and Ja'afar bin al-Had), v. +Mohammed bin Sabaik and the Merchant Hasan, King, vii. +Money changer, The Thief and the, iv. +Monkey, The Thief and his, iii. +Moslem Champion and the Christian Lady, The, v. +Mouse, The, and the Cat, ix. +Mouse and the Flea, The, iii. +Mouse and the Ichneumon, The, iii. +Munnis, Ali bin Tahir and the girl, v. +Musab bin al-Zubayr and Ayishah his wife, v. +Muslim bin al-Walid and Dibil al-Khuzai, v. +Mutawakkil (Al-) and Al-Fath bin Khakan, v. +Mutawakkil and his favourite Mahbubah, iv. +Mutalammis (Al-) and his wife Umaymah, v. +Naomi, Ni'amah bin al-Rabi'a and his Slave-girl; iv. +Nazarene Broker's Story, The, i. +Necklace, The Stolen, vi. +Niggard and the Loaves of Bread, The, vi. +Night of Power, The man who saw the, vi. +Nile (The Ferryman of the ) and the Hermit, v. +Ni'amah bin al-Rabi'a and Naomi his Slave-girl, iv. +Nur al-Din Ali and the damsel Anis al-Jalis, ii. +Nur al-Din of Cairo and his son Badr al-Din Hasan, i. +Ogress, The King's Son and the, vi. +Old Man's Story, The First, i. +Old Man's Story The Second, i. +Old Man's Story The Third, i. +Old Woman, Abu Suwayd and the handsome, v. +Omar bin al-Nu'uman and his Sons Sharrkan and Zau al-Makan, The +Tale of King, ii. +Omar bin al-Khattab and the young Badawi, v. +Oman, The Merchant of, ix. +Otbah and Rayya, vii. +Page who feigned to know the speech of birds, The, vi. +Paradise, The Apples of, v. +Parrot, The Merchant's wife and the, i. +Partridge, The Hawk and the, iii. +Peacock, The Sparrow and the, iii. +Persian and the Kurd Sharper, Ali the, iv. +Physician Duban, The, i. +Physician's Story, The Jewish, i. +Pilgrim and the old woman who dwelt in the desert, The, v. +Pilgrim Prince, The Unjust King and the, ix. +Pious black slave, The, v. +Pigeons, The Hedgehog and the, iii. +Pigeons, The Two, vi. +Platter-maker and his wife, The devout, v. +Poets, Harun al-Rashid and the three, v. +Police of Bulak, Story of the Chief of the, iv. +Police of Kus and the Sharper, the Chief of the, iv. +Police of New Cairo, Story of the Chief of the, iv. +Police of Old Cairo, Story of the Chief of the, iv. +Police (The Three Masters of ), Al-Malik, al-Nasir and, iv. +Poor man and his &friend in need, The, iv. +Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad, The, i. +Portress, The Tale of the, i. +Prince Behram and the Princess al-Datma, vi. +Prince the Ensorcelled, i. +Prince and the Ghulah, The, i. +Prince, The Devout, v. +Prince (the Pilgrim), The Unjust King and, ix. +Prior who became a Moslem, The, v. +Providence, The justice of, v. +Purse, The Stolen, vi. +Pyramids of Egypt, Al-Maamun and the, v. +Queen of the Serpents, The, v. +Rake's trick against the chaste Wife, The, vi. +Rayya, Otbah and, vii. +Reeve's Tale, The, i. +Rogueries of Dalilah the Crafty and her daughter Zaynab the Coney +catcher, The, vii. +Rose-in-Hood, Uns al-Wujud and the Wazir's Daughter, v. +Ruined Man of Baghdad and his Slave-girl, The, ix. +Ruined Man who became rich again through a dream, The, iv. +Rukh, Abd al-Rahman the Moor's Story of the, v. +Sa'id bin Salim and the Barmecides, v. +Saint to whom Allah gave a cloud to serve him, The, v. +Saker and the Birds, The, iii. +Sandalwood Merchant and the Sharpers, The, vi. +Sayf al-Muluk and Badi'a al-Jamal, vii. +School, The Loves of the Boy and the Girl at, v. +Schoolmaster who fell in love by report, The, v. +Schoolmaster The Foolish, v. +Schoolmaster The ignorant man who set up for a, v. +Serpent, The Crow and the, ix. +Serpent-charmer and his Wife, ix. +Serpents, The Queen of the, v. +Sexes, Relative excellence of the, v. +Shahryar and his brother, King (Introduction), i. +Shahryar (King) and his brother, i. +Shams al-Nahar, Ali bin Bakkar and, iii. +Sharper of Alexandria and the Chief of Police, The, iv. +Sharper, Ali the Persian and the Kurd, iv. +Sharper, The Chief of the Kus Police and the, iv. +Sharper, The Simpleton and the, v. +Sharpers, The Merchant and the Two, iii. +Do. The Sandalwood Merchant and the, vi. +Sharrkan and Zau al-Makan, The History of King Omar bin +Al-Nu'uman and his Sons, ii. +Shaykh's Story (The First), i. +Shaykh's Story (The Second), i. +Shaykh's Story (The Third), i. +Shepherd and the Thief, The, ix. +Shimas, King Jali'ad of Hind and his Wazir, ix. +Shipwrecked Woman and her child, The, v. +Shirin and the Fisherman, Khusrau and, v. +Simpleton and the Sharper, The, v. +Sindibad and his Falcon, King, i. +Sindbad the Seaman and Sindbad the Porter, vi. +Sindbad the Seaman First Voyage of, vi. +Sindbad the Seaman Second Voyage of, vi. +Sindbad the Seaman Third Voyage of, vi. +Sindbad the Seaman Fourth Voyage of, vi. +Sindbad the Seaman, Fifth Voyage of, vi. +Sindbad the Seaman Sixth Voyage of, vi. +Sindbad the Seaman Seventh Voyage of, vi. +Sindbad the Seaman (note from Cal. Edit.) vi. +Singing girl, The Goldsmith and the Cashmere, vi. +Six Slave-girls, The Man of Al-Yaman and his, iv. +Slave, The pious black, v. +Slave-girl, The ruined man of Baghdad and his, ix. +Slave-girls, The Man of Al-Yaman and his six, iv. +Sparrow and the Eagle, The, iii. +Sparrow and the Peacock, The, iii. +Spider and the Wind, The, ix. +Spring, The Enchanted, vi. +Squinting slave-girl, Abu al-Aswad and his, v. +Sparrow Necklace, The, vi. +Sparrow Purse, The, vi. +Suitors, The Lady and her five, vi. +Sweep and Noble Lady of Baghdad, The, iv. +Tailor's Tale, The, i. +Taj al-Muluk and the Princess Dunya, The Tale of, ii. +Tawaddud, Abu al-Hasan and his slave-girl, v. +Thief, The Lover who feigned himself a, iv. +Thief and the Shroff, The, iv. +Thief and his Monkey, The, iii. +Thief The Shepherd and the, ix. +Thief turned Merchant and the other Thief, The, v. +Thieves, The Boy and the, ix. +Thieves, The Merchant and the, ix. +Thieves, The Two, v. +Three-year old-child, The Debauchee and the, vi. +Three Apples, The, i. +Three unfortunate Lovers, v. +Three Wishes, or the Man who longed to see the Night of Power, +The, vi. +Tortoise, The Waterfowl and the, iii. +Tortoises, The Heathcock and the, ix. +Trader (The) and the Jinni, i. +Trick (The Lover's ) against the chaste wife, vi. +Trick (The Wife's ) against her husband, vi. +Two Kings, The, ix. +Two Pigeons, The, vi. +Umaymah, Al-Mutalammis and his wife, v. +Unfortunate Lovers, The Three, v. +Unjust King and the Pilgrim Prince, The, ix. +Uns al-Wujud and the Wazir's Daughter Rose-in-Hood, v. +Upper Egypt (The man of) and his Frank wife, ix. +Walid bin Sahl, Yunus the Scribe and the Caliph, vii. +Wardan, the Butcher, Adventure with the Lady and the Bear, iv. +Water-carrier and the Goldsmith's Wife, The, v. +Waterfowl and the Tortoise, The, iii. +Wazir and the Sage Duban, The, i. +Wazir, Al-Malik al-Nasir and his, vii. +Wazir of al-Yaman and his young brother, The, v. +Wazir's Son and the Hammam-Keeper's Wife, The, vi. +Wazir's Wife, The King and his, vi. +Weasel, The Mouse and the, iii. +Weaver, The Foolish, iii. +Wife, The Badawi and his, vii. +Wife, (the Chaste) The Lover's Trick against, vi. +Wife, The King and his Wazir's, vi. +Wife, The Man and his Wilful, ix. +Wife, (The Merchant's) and the Parrot, i. +Wife, (The Virtuous) and the King, v. +Wife's device to cheat her husband, The, vi. +Wife's trick against her husband, The, v. +Wild Ass, The Jackal and the, ix. +Wilful Wife, The Man and his, ix. +Wind, The Spider and the, ix. +Wird Khan (King) and his Women and Wazirs, ix. +Wolf and the Fox, The, iii. +Wolf, The Foxes and the, ix. +Woman (The shipwrecked) and her child, v. +Woman's trick against her husband, v. +Woman who made her husband sift dust, The, iv. +Woman whose hands were cut off for Almsgiving, The, iv. +Women, The Malice of, vi. +Women, The Two, v. +Yahya bin Khalid and the Forger, iv. +Yahya bin Khalid and Mansur, iv. +Yahya bin Khalid and the Poor Man, v. +Yaman (The Man of Al-) and his six slave-girls, iv. +Yaman (The Wazir of Al-) and his young brother, v. +Yunus the Scribe and the Caliph Walid bin Sahl, vii. +Zau al-Makan, The History of King Omar bin al-Nu'uman and his +Sons Sharrkan and, ii. +Zayn al-Mawasif, Masrur and, viii. +Zaynab the Coney-catcher, The Rogueries of Dalilah the Wily, and +her Daughter, vii.. +Zubaydah in the Bath, Harun al-Rashid and, v. +Zumurrud, Ali Shar and, iv. + + + + + + + Index II + + + + Alphabetical Table of the Notes + (Anthropological, &c.) + + Prepared by F. Steingass, Ph.D. + + + +[Index II is not included] + + + + + + + Index III.-A + + + + Alphabetical Table of First Lines + (Metrical Portion) in English. + + Prepared by Dr. Steingass. + + + +A beloved familiar o'erreigns my heart viii. 70. +A boy of twice ten is fit for a king! iii. 303. +A breeze of love on my soul did blow viii. 222. +A damsel 'twas the firer's art had decked with snares and +sleight, i. 219, x. 59. +A dancer whose figure is like a willow branch, ix. 222. +A dancer whose form is like branch of Bán! ix. 221. +A dog, dog-fathered, by dog-grandsire bred, viii. 15. +A fan whose breath is fraught with fragrant scent, viii. 273. +A fair one, to idolaters if she her face should show, ix. 197. +A friend in need is he who, ever true iii. 149. +A guest hath stolen on my head and honour may he lack, viii. 295. +A hag to whom th' unlawful lawfullest, i. 174. +A heart bore thee off in chase of the fair ix. 282. +A heart, by Allah!- never soft to lover wight, vii. 222. +A Houri, by whose charms my heart is moved to sore distress, vii. +105. +A house where flowers from stones of granite grow, iii. 19. +A Jinniyah this, with her Jinn, to show, v. 149. +A King who when hosts of the foe invade, ii.l. +A lutanist to us inclined, viii. 283. +A maiden 'twas, the dresser's art had decked with cunning +sleight, viii. 32. +A merchant I spied whose lovers, viii. 264. +A messenger from thee came bringing union-hope, iii. 188. +A moon she rises, willow-wand she waves iii. 237, viii. 303. +A moon, when he bends him those eyes lay bare, viii. 284. +A moon which blights you if you dare behold, ii. 4. +A night whose stars refused to run their course, iii. 299 +A palace whereon be blessings and praise, iv. 134. +A place secure from every thought of fear i. 114. +A sage, I feel a fool before thy charms iii. 272. , +A slave of slaves there standeth at thy door, i. 89. +A sun on wand in knoll of sand she showed, i. 217; x. 58. +A thin-waist maid who shames the willow-wand, ii. 285. +A term decreed my lot I 'spy, viii. 83. +A trifle this an his eyes be sore, v. 127. +A tree whilere was I the Bulbul's home, viii. 281. +A wand uprising from a sandy knoll, ix. +A warrior showing such open hand, iv. 97. +A wasted body, heart empierced to core, ii. 314. +A youth slim waisted from whose locks and brow, i. 68. +A zephyr bloweth from the lover's site, viii. 90. +Above the rose of cheek is thorn of lance, iii. 331. +Act on sure grounds, nor hurry fast, iv. 189. +Add other wit to thy wit, counsel craving, iv. 189. +Affright me funerals at every time, v. 111. +After thy faring never chanced I 'spy, viii. 142. +Ah, fare thee not; for I've no force thy faring to endure, viii. +63. +Ah! for lowe of love and longing suffer ye as suffer we? viii. +68. +Ah Khalid! this one is a slave of love distraught, iv. 158. +Ah, often have I sought the fair! how often fief and fain, vii. +138. +Alack and alas! Patience taketh flight, viii. 263. +Alas, alack and wellaway for blamer's calumny! viii. 285. +Albe by me I had through day and night, iii. 267. +Albe to lover adverse be his love, iii. 266. +Albeit my vitals quiver 'neath this ban, iii. 62. +Alexandria's a frontier, viii. 289. +All crafts are like necklaces strung on a string, i. 308. +All drinks wherein is blood the Law unclean Doth hold, i. 89. +All sons of woman albe long preserved, iv. 63. +"Allah assain those eyne! What streams of blood they shed!" ii. +100. +Allah be good to him that gives glad tidings of thy steps, i. +239. +Allah holds Kingship! Whoso seeks without Him victory, iii. 86. +Allah, my patience fails: I have no word, iii.344. +Allah save the rose which yellows amorn, viii. 276. +Allah, where'er thou be, His aid impart, ii. 148. +Allah's peace on thee, House of Vacancy! viii. 237. +Although the Merciful be doubtless with me, ix. 278. +Al-Yaman's leven-gleam I see, ii. 179. +An but the house could know who cometh 'twould rejoice, i. 176. +An, by thy life, pass thee my funeral train, v. 70. +An fail I of my thanks to thee, i. 56. +An Fate afflict thee, with grief manifest, viii. 146. +An Fate some person 'stablish o'er thy head, iii. 89. +An faulty of one fault the beauty prove, ii.96. +An I be healed of disease in frame, viii. 70. +An I quit Cairo and her pleasaunces, i. 290. +An we behold a lover love-foredone, v. 73. +An my palm be full of wealth and my wealth I ne'er bestow, ii. +11. +An say I:--Patient I can bear his faring, iii. 187. +An tears of blood for me, friend, thou hast shed, i. 89. +An there be one who shares with me her love, i. 180. +An thou but deign consent, A wish to heart affied, iv. 247. +An thou of pious works a store neglect, ii. 202. +An thou wouldst know my name, whose day is done, vi. 94. +An through the whole of life, iv. 190. +An Time my lover restore me I'll blame him fain, ix. 192. +An were it asked me when by hell-fire burnt, iii. 279. +An what thou claimest were the real truth, v. 151. +An wouldst be life-long safe, vaunt not delight, viii. 94. +And Almond apricot suggesting swain, viii. 268. +And dweller in the tomb whose food is at his head, v. 238. +And eater lacking mouth and even maw, v. 240. +And fairest Fawn, we said to him Portray, viii. 272. +And haply whenas strait descends on lot of generous youth, iii. +131. +And in brunettes is mystery, couldst thou but read it right, iv. +258. +And in my liver higher flames the fire, vii. 366. +And loveling weareth on his cheek a mole, v. 65. +And pity one who erst in honour throve, ii. 149. +And shaddock mid the garden paths, on bough, viii. 272. +And Solomon, when Allah to him said, vi. 86. +And the lips girls, that are perfume sweet, v. 79. +And the old man crept o'er the worldly ways, iv. 41. +And trees of orange fruiting ferry fair, viii. 271. +And wand-like Houri who can passion heal, v. 149. +And 'ware her scorpions when pressing them, viii. 209. +And when birdies o'er-warble its lakelet it gars, ix. 6. +And, when she announceth the will to sing, viii. 166. +Albeit this thy case lack all resource, v. 69. +Allah watered a land, and upsprang a tree, v. 244. +Answer, by Allah! Sepulchre, are all his beauties gone? i. 239. +Appeared not my excuse till hair had clothed his cheek, iii. 57. +Apple which joins hues twain and brings to mind, viii. 268. +Apple whose hue combines in union mellow, i. 158. +As a crescent-moon in the garth her form, viii. 207. +As for me, of him I feel naught affright,vi. 98. +As long as palms shall shift the flower, v. 136. +As love waxt longer less met we sway, v. 78. +As one of you who mounted mule, viii. 297. +As she willed she was made, and in such a way that when, iv. 191. +As the Sage watched the stars, the semblance clear, i. 206. +As though ptisane of wine on her lips honey dew, iii. 57. +Ask (if needs thou ask) the compassionate, ix. 29. +Ask of my writ, what wrote my pen in dole, iii. 274. +Ass and Umm Amr' went their way, v. 118. + +Bare hills and camp-ground desolate, v. 130. +Baulks me my Fate as tho' she were my foe, viii. 130. +Be as thou wilt, for Allah is bountiful, viii. 277. +Be as thou wilt, for Allah still is bounteous Lord, ii. 202. +Be mild to brother mingling, iv. 110. +Be mild what time thou'rt ta'en with anger and despite, iv. 221. +Be mild when rage shall come to afflict thy soul, iv. 54. +Be praises mine to all-praiseworthy Thee, ii. 261. +Be proud; I'll crouch! Bully; I'll bear! Despise; I'll pray! iii. +188. +Be sure all are villains and so bide safe iii. 142. +Bear our salams, O Dove, from this our stead, viii. 236. +Beareth for love a burden sore this soul of me, viii. 66. +Beauty they brought with him to make compare, i. 144. +Beguiled as Fortune who her guile displays, iv. 22. +Behind the veil a damsel sits with gracious beauty dight, viii. +210. +Behold a house that's like the Dwelling of Delight, viii. 183. +Behold this lovely garden! 'tis as though ii. 240. +Belike my Fortune may her bridle turn,i. 52. +Belike Who Yúsuf to his kin restored, iv. 103. +Beloved, why this strangeness, why this hate? iv. 234. +Bethink thee not of worldly state, iii. 328 +Bid thou thy phantom distance keep, vii 108. +Better ye 'bide and I take my leave, i. 154. +Beware her glance I rede thee 'tis like wizard wight, ii. 295. +Beware of losing hearts of men by shine injurious deed, x. 50. +Beware that eye glance which hath magic might, iii. 252. +Black girls in acts are white, and 'tis as though, iv. 251. +Black girls not white are they, iv. 251. +Blame not! said I to all who blamed me viii. 95. +Blest be his beauty; blest the Lord's decree, i. 177. +Blighted by her yet am I not to blame, viii. 255. +Blows from my lover's land a zephyr coolly sweet, ii. 311. +Boon fortune sought him in humblest way, viii. 301. +Boy-like of back side, in the deed of kind, v. 157. +Breeze of East who bringest me gentle air, vii. 122. +Brighter than moon at full with kohl'd eyes she came, viii. 279. +Bring gold and gear an a lover thou, viii. 214. +By Allah, by th' Almighty, by his right, vii. 366. +By Allah, couldst thou but feel my pain, v. 77. +By Allah, glance of mine, thou hast oppress, vii. 140. +By Allah, heal, O my lords, the unwhole, viii. 144. +By Allah, O thou house, if my beloved amorn go by, v. 38. +By Allah, O tomb, have her beauties ceased, viii. 168. +By Allah, set thy foot upon my soul, i. 222. +By Allah, this is th' only alchemy, x. 40. +By Allah! while the days endure ne'er shall forget her I, iv. +146. +By Allah, wine shall not disturb me, while this soul of mine, iv. +190. +By craft and sleight I snared him when he came, ii. 44. +By his cheeks' unfading damask and his smiling teeth I swear, +viii. 282. +By his eyelash! tendril curled, by his slender waist I swear, +iii. 217. +By his eyelids shedding perfume and his fine slim waist I swear, +i. 168. +By His life who holds my guiding rein, I swear, iv. 2. +By Love's right! naught of farness thy slave can estrange, viii. +76. +By means of toil man shall scale the height, vi. 5. +By rights of you, this heart of mine could ne'er aby, viii. 110. +By stress of parting, O beloved one, iii. 166. +By th' Abyssinian Pond, O day divine! i. 291. +By the Compassionate, I'm dazed about my case, for lo! vii. 337. +By the Five Shayks, O Lord, I pray deliver me, iii. 30. +By the life o' thy face, O thou life o' my sprite! viii. 284. +By what shine eyelids show of kohl and coquetry! ii. 296. + +Came a merchant to pay us a visit, viii. 265. +Came Rayya's phantom to grieve thy sight, vii. 91. +Came the writ whose contents a new joy revealed, viii. 222. +Came to match him in beauty and loveliness rare, viii. 298. +Came to me care when came the love of thee, vii. 366. +Came your writ to me in the dead of the night, ix. 2. +Captured me six all bright with youthful blee, iv. 260. +Carry the trust of him whom death awaits, v. 114. +Cease then to blame me, for thy blame cloth anger bring, x. 39. +Cease ye this farness; 'bate this pride of you, iv. 136. +Chide not the mourner for bemourning woe, iii. 291. +Choice rose that gladdens heart to see her sight, viii. 275. +Clear's the wine, the cup's fine, i. 349. +Cleave fast to her thou lovest and let the envious rail amain, +iv. 198. +Close press appear to him who views th' inside, viii. 267. +Clove through the shades and came to me in night so dark and +sore, vii. 138. +Come back and so will I! i. 63. +Come with us, friend, and enter thou, viii. 267. +Confide thy case to Him, the Lord who made mankind, i. 68. +Consider but thy Lord, His work shall bring, viii. 20. +Consider thou, O man, what these places to thee showed, vi. 112. +Console thy lover, fear no consequence, v. 74. +Consort not with the Cyclops e'en a day, iv. 194. +Containeth time a twain of days, i. 25. +Converse with men hath scanty weal except, iv. 188. +Count not that I your promises forgot, iii. 238. +Cut short this strangeness, leave unruth of you, v. 245. +Culvers of Liwa! to your nests return vii. 115. + +Dark falls the night: my tears unaided rail, iii. 11. +Dark falls the night and passion comes sore pains to gar me dree, +ii. 140. +Daughter of nobles, who shine aim shalt gain, v. 54. +Dawn heralds daylight: so wine passround viii. 276. +Dear friend! ah leave thy loud reproach and blame, iii. 110. +Dear friend, ask not what burneth in my breast, i. 265. +Dear friend, my tears aye flow these cheeks adown, iii. 14. +Deep in mine eyeballs ever dwells the phantom form of thee, viii. +61. +Deign grant thy favours; since 'tis time I were engraced, v. 148. +Describe me! a fair one said, viii. 265. +Did Azzah deal behest to sun o' noon, ii. 102. +Did not in love-plight joys and sorrows meet, iii. 182. +Dip thou with spoons in saucers four and gladden heart and eye, +viii. 223. +Displaying that fair face, iv. 195. +Divinely were inspired his words who brought me news of you, iv. +207. +Do you threaten me wi' death for my loving you so well? vii. 221. +Drain not the bowl, save from dear hand like shine, i. 88. +Drain not the bowl but with lovely wight viii. 209. +Drain not the bowl save with a trusty friend, i. 88. +Drawn in thy shoulders are and spine thrust out, viii: 297. +Drink not pure wine except from hand of slender youth, ix. 198. +Drink not strong wine save at the slender dearling's hand, v. 66. +Drink not upon thy food in haste but wait awhile, v. 222. +Drink the clear draught, drink free and fain, i. 88. +Drive off the ghost that ever shows, vii. 109. +Dumb is my tongue and scant my speech for thee, viii. 258. + +Each portion of her charms we see, vii.131. +Each thing of things hath his appointed tide, v. 294. +Easy, O Fate! how long this wrong, this injury, iii. 329. +Eight glories meet, all, all conjoined in thee, iii. 271. +Enough for lovers in this world their ban and bane, iv. 205. +Enough of tears hath shed the lover wight, iii. 206. +Enrobes with honour sands of camp her foot-step wandering lone, +iv. 204. +Escape with thy life if oppression betide thee, i. 209. +Even not beardless one with girl, nor heed, iii. 303. +Ever thy pomp and pride, O House! display, viii. 207. + +Face that with Sol in Heaven ramping vies, iii. 167. +Fain had I hid thy handwork, but it showed, iii. 280. +Fain leaving life that fleets thou hast th' eternal won, ii. 281. +Fair youth shall die by stumbling of the tongue, iii. 221. +Familiar with my heart are woes and with them I, vii. 340. +Far is the fane and patience faileth me, v. 41. +Fare safely, Masrúr! an her sanctuary viii. 237. +Farewell thy love, for see, the Cafilah's on the move, iv. 254. +Farewelling thee indeed is like to bidding life farewell, viii. +62. +Fate the wolf's soul snatched up from wordly stead, iii. 146. +Fate frights us when the thing is past and gone, iii. 318. +Fate hath commanded I become thy fere, iii. 312. +Fie on this wretched world an so it be, i. 40. +Fight for my mother (an I live) I'll take, ii. 239. +Fire is cooler than fires in my breast, iv. 245. +Fly, fly with life whenas evils threat, vi. 62. +Fly, fly with thy life if by ill overtaken, ii. 19. +Folk have made moan of passion before me, of past years, viii. +65. +For cup friends cup succeeding cup assign, v. 66. +For eaters a table they brought and set, viii. 208. +For her sins is a pleader that brow, ii. 97. +For joys that are no more I want to weep, iii. 185. +For Layla's favour dost thou greed? iii. 135. +For loss of lover mine and stress of love I dree, viii. 75. +For not a deed the hand can try, v. 188. +For others these hardships and labours I bear, i. 17. +For your love my patience fails, i. 74. +Forbear, O troubles of the world, i. 39. +Forgive me, thee-ward sinned I, but the wise, ii. 9. +Forgive the sin 'neath which my limbs are trembling, iii. 249. +Fortune had mercy on the soul of me, iii. 135. +Fortune had ruth upon my plight, viii. 50. +Four things that meet not, save they here unite, i. 116. +Four things which ne'er conjoin, unless it be, iii. 237. +Freest am I of all mankind fro' meddling wight, ii. 200. +Fro' them inhale I scent of Attar of Ban, viii. 242. +From her hair is night, from her forehead noon, viii. 303. +From Love stupor awake, O Masrur, 'twere best, viii. 214. +From that liberal hand on his foes he rains, iv. 97. +From the plain of his face springs a minaret, viii. 296. +From wine I turn and whoso wine-cups swill, i. 208. +Full many a reverend Shaykh feels sting of flesh, v. 64. +Full many laugh at tears they see me shed, iii. 193. +Full moon if unfreckled would favour thee, iv. 19. +Full moon with sun in single mansion, i. 264. + +Gainsay women; he obeyeth Allah best who saith them nay, ix. 282. +Garb of Fakir, renouncement, lowliness, v. 297. +Garth Heaven-watered wherein clusters waved, viii. 266. +Get thee provaunt in this world ere thou wend upon thy way, ii. +139. +Give back mine eyes their sleep long ravished, i. 99. +Give me brunettes, so limber, lissom, lithe of sway, iv. 258. +Give me brunettes; the Syrian spears so limber and so straight, +viii. 158. +Give me the Fig sweet-flavoured, beauty clad, viii. 269. +Give thou my message twice, iii. 166. +Gladsome and gay forget shine every grief, i. 57. +Glory to Him who guides the skies, vii. 78. +Gnostic's heart-homèd in the heavenly Garth, v. 264. +Go, gossip! re-wed thee, for Prime draweth near, v. 135. +Go, visit her thou lovest, and regard not, iii. 235, viii. 305. +God make thy glory last in joy of life, viii. 99. +Gone is my strength, told is my tale of days, iii. 55. +Goodly of gifts is she, and charm those perfect eyes, iii. 57. +Granados of finest skin, like the breasts, viii. 267. +Grant me the kiss of that left hand ten times, iv. 129. +Grape bunches likest as they sway, viii. 266. +Grapes tasting with the taste of wine, viii. 266. +Grief, cark and care in my heart reside, iv. 19. +Grow thy weal and thy welfare day by day, i. 204. + +Had I known of love in what fashion he, vii. 330. +Had I wept before she did in my passion for Su'ada, vii. 275. +Had she shown her shape to idolator's sight, viii. 279. +Hadst thou been leaf in love's loyalty, iii. 77. +Had we known of thy coming we fain had dispread, i. 117. +Had we wist of thy coming, thy way had been strown, i. 271. +Haply and happily may Fortune bend her rein, viii. 67. +Haply shall Allah deign us twain unite, viii. 141. +Haply shall Fortune draw her rein, iii. 251. +Happy is Eloquence when thou art named, i. 47. +Hast quit the love of Moons or dost persist? iv. 240. +Hast seen a Citron-copse so weighed adown, viii. 272. +Haste to do kindness thou dost intend, iv. 181. +Haste to do kindness while thou hast the power, iii. 136. +Have the doves that moan in the lotus tree, vii. 91. +He blames me for casting on him my sight, viii. 283. +He came and cried they, Now be Allah blest! iii. 215. +He came in sable hued sacque, iv. 263. +He came to see me, hiding 'neath the shirt of night, iv. 252. +He comes; and fawn and branch and moon delight these eyne, iv. +142. +He cometh robed and bending gracefully, ii. 287. +He heads his arrows with piles of gold, iv. 97. +He is Caliph of Beauty in Yusuf's lieu, ii. 292. +He is gone who when to this gate thou go'st, ii. 14. +He is to thee that daily bread thou canst nor loose nor bind, i. +39. +He'll offer sweetmeats with his edged tongue, iii. 115. +He made me drain his wine of honeyed lips, v. 72. +He missed not who dubbed thee, "World's delight," v. 33. +He plucks fruits of her necklace in rivalry, ii. 103. +He prayeth and he fasteth for an end he cloth espy, ii. 264. +He seized my heart and freed my tears to flow, viii. 259. +He showed in garb anemone-red, iv. 263. +He thou trustedst most is thy worst un friend, iii. 143. +He whom the randy motts entrap, iii. 216 +Hearkening, obeying, with my dying mouth, ii. 321. +Heavy and swollen like an urine-bladder blown, iv. 236. +Her fair shape ravisheth if face to face she did appear, v. 192 +Her fore-arms, dight with their bangles, show, v. 89. +Her golden yellow is the sheeny sun's, iv. 257. +Her lip-dews rival honey-sweets, that sweet virginity, viii. 33. +Her smiles twin rows of pearls display, i. 86. +Here! Here! by Allah, here! Cups of the sweet, the dear! i. 89. +Here the heart reads a chapter of devotion pure, iii. 18. +Hind is an Arab filly purest bred, vii. 97. +His cheek-down writeth (O fair fall the goodly scribe!) ii. 301. +His cheekdown writeth on his cheek with ambergris on pearl, ii. +301. +His eyelids sore and bleared, viii. 297. +His face as the face of the young moon shines, i. 177. +His honeydew of lips is wine; his breath, iv. 195. +His looks have made me drunken, not his wine, iii. 166. +His lovers said, Unless he deign to give us all a drink, viii. +285. +His lovers' souls have drawn upon his cheek, iii. 58. +His mole upon plain of cheek is like, viii. 265. +His scent was musk and his cheek was rose, i. 203. +Ho, lovers all! by Allah say me fair and sooth, ii. 309. +Ho, lovers all! by Allah say me sooth, ii. 320. +Ho say to men of wisdom, wit and lere, v. 239. +Ho thou, Abrizah, mercy! leave me not for I, ii. 127. +Ho, those heedless of Time and his sore despight! vii. 221. +Ho thou hound who art rotten with foulness in grain, iii. 108. +Ho thou lion who broughtest thyself to woe, vii. 123. +Ho thou my letter! when my friend shall see thee, iv. 57. +Ho thou o' the tabret, my heart takes flight, viii. 166. +Ho thou the House! Grief never home in thee' viii. 206. +Ho thou, the house, whose birds were singing gay, v. 57. +Ho thou who grovellest low before the great, ii. 235. +Ho thou, who past and bygone risks regardest with uncare! iii. +28. +Ho thou whose heart is melted down by force of Amor's fire, v. +132. +Ho ye mine eyes let prodigal tears go free, iv. 248. +Ho ye my friends draw near, for I forthright, viii. 258. +Hola, thou mansion! woe ne'er enter thee, iv. 140. +Hold fast thy secret and to none unfold, i.87. +Hold to nobles, sons of nobles, ii. 2. +Honour and glory wait on thee each morn, iv. 60. +Hope not of our favours to make thy prey, viii. 208. +Houris and high-born Dames who feel no fear of men, v. 148. +How bitter to friends is a parting, iv. 222. +How comes it that I fulfilled my vow the while that vow brake +you? iv. 241. +How dear is our day and how lucky our lot, i. 293. +How fair is ruth the strong man deigns not smother, i. 103. +How good is Almond green I view, viii. 270. +How is this? Why should the blamer abuse thee in his pride, iii. +232. +How joyously sweet are the nights that unite, v. 61. +How long, rare beauty! wilt do wrong to me, ii. 63. +How long shall I thy coyness and thy great aversion see, iv. 242. +How long shall last, how long this rigour rife of woe, i. 101. +How long this harshness, this unlove shall bide? i. 78. +How manifold nights have I passed with my wife, x. 1. +How many a blooming bough in glee girl's hand is fain, viii. 166. +How many a joy by Allah's will hath fled, i. 150. +How many a lover with his eyebrows speaketh, i. 122. +How many a night have I spent in woes ix. 316. +How many a night I've passed with the beloved of me, iv. 252. +How many boons conceals the Deity, v. 261. +How many by my labours, that evermore endure, vi. 2. +How. oft bewailing the place shall be this coming and going, +viii. 242. +How oft have I fought and how many have slain! vi. 91. +How oft in the mellay I've cleft the array, ii. 109. +How patient bide, with love in sprite of me, iv. 136. +How shall he taste of sleep who lacks repose, viii. 49. +How shall youth cure the care his life undo'th, ii. 320. +Hunger is sated with a bone-dry scone, iv. 201. +Hurry not, Prince of Faithful Men! with best of grace thy vow, +vii. 128. + +I am he who is known on the day of fight, vi. 262. +I am distraught, yet verily, i. 138. +I am going, O mammy, to fill up my pot, i.311. +I am not lost to prudence, but indeed, ii. 98. +I am taken: my heart burns with living flame, viii. 225. +I am the wone where mirth shall ever smile, i. 175. +I am when friend would raise a rage that mote, iv. 109. +I and my love in union were unite, viii. 247. +I ask of you from every rising sun, i. 238. +I asked of Bounty, "Art thou free?" v. 93. +I asked the author of mine ills, ii. 60. +I bade adieu, my right hand wiped my tears away, ii. 113. +I attained by my wits, x. 44. +I bear a hurt heart, who will sell me for this, vii. 115. +I call to mind the parting day that rent our loves in twain, +viii. 125. +I can't forget him, since he rose and showed with fair design, +ix. 253. +I ceased not to kiss that cheek with budding roses dight,viii. +329. +I clips his form and wax'd drunk with his scent, ii. 292. +I came to my dear friend's door, of my hopes the goal, v. 58. +I craved of her a kiss one day, but soon as she beheld, iv. 192. +I cried, as the camels went off with them viii. 63. +I'd win good will of everyone, but whoso envies me, ix. 342. +I deemed my brethren mail of strongest steel, i. 108. +I deemed you coat-o'-mail that should withstand, i. 108. +I die my death, but He alone is great who dieth not, ii. 9. +I drank the sin till my reason fled, v. 224 +I drink, but the draught of his glance, not wine, i. 100. +I drooped my glance when seen thee on the way, iii. 331. +I dyed what years have dyed, but this my staining, v. 164. +I embrace him, yet after him yearns my soul, ix. 242. +I ever ask for news of you from whatso breezes pass, viii. 53. +I feed eyes on their stead by the valley's side, iii. 234 +I fix my glance on her, whene'er she wends, viii. 158. +I fly the carper's injury, ii. 183. +I gave her brave old wine that like her cheeks blushed red, i. +89. +I had a heart and with it lived my life, v. 131. +I have a friend with a beard, viii. 298. +I have a friend who hath a beard, iv. 194. +I have a friend, whose form is fixed within mine eyes, iv. 246. +I have a froward yard of temper ill, viii. 293. +I have a lover and when drawing him, iv. 247. +I have a sorrel steed, whose pride is fain to bear the rein, ii. +225. +I have borne for thy love what never bore iii. 183. +I have fared content in my solitude, iii. 152. +I have no words though folk would have me talk, ix. 276 +I have won my wish and my need have scored, vii. 59. +I have wronged mankind, and have ranged like wind, iii. 74. +I have a yard that sleeps in base and shameful way, viii. 293. +I have sorrowed on account of our disunion, viii. 128. +I heard a ring-dove chanting plaintively v.47. +I hid what I endured of him and yet it came to light, i. 67. +I hope for union with my love which I may ne'er obtain, viii. +347. +I kissed him: darker grew those pupils which, iii. 224. +I lay in her arms all night, leaving him, v. 128. +I'll ransom that beauty-spot with my soul, v. 65. +I long once more the love that was between us to regain, viii. +181 +I longed for him I love; but, when we met, viii. 347. +I longed for my beloved, but when I saw his face, i. 240. +I look to my money and keep it with care, ii. 11. +I looked at her one look and that dazed me, ix. 197. +I looked on her with longing eyne, v. 76 +I love a fawn with gentle white-black eyes; iv. 50. +I love a moon of comely shapely form, I love her madly for she is +perfect fair, vii.259. +I love not black girls but because they show, iv. 251. +I love not white girls blown with fat who puff and pant, iv. 252 +I love Su'ád and unto all but her my love is dead, vii. 129. +I love the nights of parting though I joy not in the same, ix. +198. +I loved him, soon as his praise I heard, vii. 280. +I'm Al-Kurajan, and my name is known, vii. 20. +I'm estranged fro' my folk and estrangement's long, iii. 71. +I'm Kurajan, of this age the Knight, vii. 23. +I'm the noted Knight in the field of fight, vii. 18. +I made my wrist her pillow and I lay with her in litter, vii. +243. +I marvel at its pressers, how they died, x. +I marvel hearing people questioning, ii. 293 +I marvel in Iblis such pride to see, vii. 139. +I marvel seeing yon mole, ii. 292. +I mind our union days when ye were nigh, vi. 278. +I number nights; indeed I count night after night, ii. 308. +I offered this weak hand as last farewell,. iii. 173 +I passed a beardless pair without compare, v. 64. +I past by a broken tomb amid a garth right sheen, ii. 325. +I plunge with my braves in the seething sea, vii. 18. +I pray in Allah's name, O Princess mine, be light on me, iv. 241. +I pray some day that we reunion gain, iii. 124. +I roam; and roaming hope I to return, iii. 64. +I saw him strike the gong and asked of him straightway, viii. +329. +I saw thee weep before the gates and 'plain, v. 283. +I saw two charmers treading humble earth, iii. 18. +I say to him, that while he slings his sword, ii. 230. +I see all power of sleep from eyes of me hath flown, ii. 151. +I see not happiness lies in gathering gold, ii. 166. +I see the woes of the world abound, i. 298. +I see thee and close not mine eyes for fear, ix. 221. +I see thee full of song and plaint and love's own ecstasy, iii. +263. +I see their traces and with pain I melt, i. 230. +I see you with my heart from far countrie, vii. 93. +I sent to him a scroll that bore my plaint of love, ii. 300. +I show my heart and thoughts to Thee, and Thou, v. 266. +I sight their track and pine for longing love, viii. 103. +I soothe my heart and my love repel, v. 35. +I sought of a fair maid to kiss her lips, viii. 294. +I speak and longing love upties me and unties me, ii. 104. +I still had hoped to see thee and enjoy thy sight, i. 242. +I stood and bewailed who their loads had bound, ix. 27. +I swear by Allah's name, fair Sir! no thief was I, i. 274. +I swear by swayings of that form so fair, iv. 143. +I swear by that fair face's life I'll love but thee, iv. 246. +I thought of estrangement in her embrace, ix. 198. +I've been shot by Fortune, and shaft of eye, iii. 175. +I've lost patience by despite of you, i. 280. +I've sent the ring from off thy finger ta'en, iii. 274. +I've sinned enormous sin, iv. 109. +I view their traces and with pain I pine, viii.320. +I visit them and night black lendeth aid to me, iv. 252. +I vow to Allah if at home I sight, ii. 186. +I walk for fear of interview the weakling's walk, v. 147. +I wander 'mid these walls, my Layla's walls, i. 238. +I wander through the palace but I sight there not a soul, iv. +291. +I was in bestest luck, but now my love goes contrary, v.75. +I was kind and 'scaped not, they were cruel and escaped, i. 58. +I waved to and fro and he leaned to and fro, v. 239. +I weep for one to whom a lonely death befel, v. 115. +I weep for longing love's own ardency, vii. 369. +I weet not, whenas to a land I fare, ix. 328. +I went to my patron some blood to let him, i. 306. +I went to the house of the keeper-man, iii. 20. +I will bear in patience estrangement of friend, viii. 345. +I wot not, whenas to a land I fare, x. 53. +I write thee, love, the while my tears pour down, iii. 24. +I write to thee, O fondest hope, a writ, iii. 24. +I write with heart devoted to thy thought, iii. 273. +Ibn Síná in his canon cloth opine, iii. 34 +If a fool oppress thee bear patiently, vi. 214 +If a man from destruction can save his head, ix.314. +If a man's breast with bane he hides be straitened, ix. 292. +If a sharp-witted wight mankind e'er tried iv. 188. +If another share in the thing I love, iv. 234. +If any sin I sinned, or did I aught, iii. 132. +If aught I've sinned in sinful way, viii. 119. +If generous youth be blessed with luck and wealth, ix. 291. +If he of patience fail the truth to hide, ii. 320. +If I liken thy shape to the bough when green, i. 92. +If I to aught save you, O lords of me, incline, vii. 369. +If ill betide thee through thy slave, i. 194. +If Kings would see their high emprize preserved, v. 106. +If Naomi bless me with a single glance, iv. 12. +If not master of manners or aught but discreet, i. 235. +If thereby man can save his head from death, iv. 46. +If thou crave our love, know that love's a loan, v. 127. +If thou should please a friend who pleaseth thee, v. 150. +If Time unite us after absent while, i. 157. +If your promise of personal call prove untrue, iii. 252. +If we 'plain of absence what shall we say? i. 100. +If we saw a lover who pains as he ought, v. 164. +Ill-omened hag! unshriven be her sins nor mercy visit her on +dying bed, i. 174. +In dream I saw a bird o'erspeed (meseem'd), viii. 218. +In her cheek cornered nine calamities, viii. 86. +In his face-sky shineth the fullest moon, i. 205. +In love they bore me further than my force would go, ii. 137. +In patience, O my God, I endure my lot and fate, i. 77. +In patience, O my God, Thy doom forecast, nut 17. +In ruth and mildness surety lies, ii. 160. +In sleep came Su'ada's shade and wakened me, iv. 267. +In sooth the Nights and Days are charactered, iii. 319 +In spite of enviers' jealousy, at end, v. 62. +In the morn I am richest of men, x. 40. +In the towering forts Allah throned him, ii. 291. +In this world there is none thou mayst count upon, i. 207 +In thought I see thy form when farthest far or nearest near, ii. +42 +In thy whole world there is not one, iv. 187. +In vest of saffron pale and safflower red, i. 219. +Incline not to parting, I pray, viii. 314. +Indeed afflicted sore are we and all distraught, viii. 48. +Indeed I am consoled now and sleep without a tear, iv. 242. +Indeed I deem thy favours might be bought, iii. 34. +Indeed I hourly need thy choicest aid, v. 281. +Indeed I'll bear my love for thee with firmest soul, iv. 241. +Indeed I longed to share unweal with thee, iii. 323. +Indeed I'm heart-broken to see thee start, viii. 63. +Indeed I'm strong to bear whatever befal, iii. 46. +Indeed my heart loves all the lovely boys, ix. 253. +Indeed, ran my tears on the severance day, vii. 64. +Indeed, to watch the darkness moon he blighted me, iii. 277. +Irks me my fate and clean unknows that I, viii. 130. +"Is Abú's Sakr of Shaybán" they asked v. 100. +Is it not strange one house us two contain iv. 279. +Is not her love a pledge by all mankind confess? ii. 186. +It behoveth folk who rule in our time, viii. 294. +It happed one day a hawk pounced on a bird, iv. 103 +It runs through every joint of them as runs, x. 39. +It seems as though of Lot's tribe were our days, iii. 301. +It was as though the sable dye upon her palms, iii. 105. + +Jamil, in Holy War go fight! to me they say: ii. 102. +Jahannam, next Lazá, and third Hatim, v. 240. +Jamrkan am I! and a man of might, vii. 23. +Joy from stroke of string cloth to me incline, viii. 227. +Joy is nigh, O Masrúr, so rejoice in true rede, viii. 221. +"Joy needs shall come," a prattler 'gan to prattle: in. 7. +Joy of boughs, bright branch of Myrobalan! viii. 213. +Joy so o'ercometh me, for stress of joy, v. 355. +Joyance is come, dispelling cark and care, v. 61. + +Kingdom with none endures: if thou deny this truth, where be the +Kings of earlier earth? i. 129. +Kinsmen of mine were those three men who came to thee, iv. 289. +Kisras and Cæsars in a bygone day, ii. 41. +Kiss then his fingers which no fingers are, iv. 147. + +Lack of good is exile to man at home, ix. 199. +Lack gold abaseth man and cloth his worth away, ix. 290. +Lady of beauty, say, who taught thee hard and harsh design, iii. +5. +Laud not long hair, except it be dispread, ii. 230. +Laud to my Lord who gave thee all of loveliness, iv. 143. +Leave this blame, I will list to no enemy's blame! iii. 61. +Leave this thy design and depart, O man! viii. 212. +Leave thou the days to breed their ban and bate, ii. 41. +Leave thy home for abroad an wouldest rise on high, ix. 138. +Let days their folds and plies deploy, ii. 309. +Let destiny with slackened rein its course appointed fare! viii. +70. +Let Fate with slackened bridle fare her pace, iv. 173. +Let Fortune have her wanton way, i. 107. +Let thy thought be ill and none else but ill, iii. 142. +Leyla's phantom came by night, viii. 14. +Life has no sweet for me since forth ye fared, iii. 177. +Like are the orange hills when zephyr breathes, viii. 272. +Like a tree is he who in wealth cloth wone, ii. 14. +Like fullest moon she shines on happiest night, v. 347. +Like moon she shines amid the starry sky, v.32. +Like peach in vergier growing, viii. 270. +Like the full moon she shineth in garments all of green, viii. +327. +Lion of the wold wilt thou murder me, v. 40. +Long as earth is earth, long as sky is sky, ix.317. +Long have I chid thee, but my chiding hindereth thee not, vii. +225. +Long have I wept o'er severance ban and bane, i. 249. +Long I lamented that we fell apart, ii. 187. +Long, long have I bewailed the sev'rance of our loves, iii. 275. +Long was my night for sleepless misery, iv. 263. +Longsome is absence; Care and Fear are sore, ii. 295. +Longsome is absence, restlessness increaseth, vii. 212. +Look at the I.ote-tree, note on boughs arrayed, viii. 271. +Look at the apricot whose bloom contains, viii. 268. +Look on the Pyramids and hear the twain, v. 106. +Love, at first sight, is a spurt of spray, vii. 280. +Love, at the first, is a spurt of spray, vii. 330. +Love for my fair they chide in angry way. iii. 233. +Love in my breast they lit and fared away, iii. 296. +Love in my heart they lit and went their ways, i. 232. +Love-longing urged me not except to trip in speech o'er free, ix. +322. +Love smote my frame so sore on parting day, ii. 152. +Love's tongue within my heart speaks plain to thee, iv. 135. +Love's votaries I ceased not to oppose, iii. 290. +Lover with his beloved loseth will and aim, v. 289. +Lover, when parted from the thing he loves, viii. 36. +Luck to the Rubber whose deft hand o'er-plies, iii. 17. + +Make me not (Allah save the Caliph!) one of the betrayed vii. +129. +Make thy game by guile for thou'rt born in a time, iii. 141. +Man is known among men as his deeds attest, ix. 164. +Man wills his wish to him accorded be, iv. +Many whose ankle rings are dumb have tinkling belts, iii. 302. +Masrur joys life made fair by all delight of days, nil. 234. +May Allah never make you parting dree, +May coins thou makest joy in heart instil, ix. 69. +May God deny me boon of troth if I, viii. 34. +May that Monarch's life span a mighty span, ii.75. +Mazed with thy love no more I can feign patience, viii. 321. +Melted pure gold in silvern bowl to drain, v. 66. +Men and dogs together are all gone by, iv. 268. +Men are a hidden malady iv. 188. +Men craving pardon will uplift their hands, iii. 304. +Men have 'plained of pining before my time, iii. 183. +Men in their purposes are much alike, vii. 169. +Men's turning unto bums of boys is bumptious, v. 162. +Methought she was the forenoon sun until she donned the veil, +viii. 284. +Mine ear forewent mine eye in loving him, ix. 222. +Mine eyes I admire that can feed their fill, viii. 224 +Mine eyes ne'er looked on aught the Almond like, viii. 270. +Mine eyes were dragomans for my tongue betied, i 121. +Mine is a Chief who reached most haught estate, i. 253. +'Minish this blame I ever bear from you, iii. 60. +Morn saith to Night, "withdraw and let me shine," i. 132 +Most beautiful is earth in budding bloom, ii. 86. +Mu'awiyah, thou gen'rous lord, and best of men that be, vii. 125. +My best salam to what that robe enrobes of symmetry, ix. 321 +My blamers instant chid that I for her become consoled, viii. +171. +My blamers say of me, He is consoled And lie! v. 158. +My body bides the sad abode of grief and malady, iv. 230. +My censors say, What means this pine for him? v. 158. +My charmer who spellest my piety, ix. 243. +My coolth of eyes, the darling child of me, v. 260. +My day of bliss is that when thou appearest, iii. 291. +My friend I prithee tell me, 'neath the sky, v. 107. +My friend who went hath returned once more, Vi. 196. +My friends, despite this distance and this cruelty, viii. 115. +My friends, I yearn in heart distraught for him, vii. 212. +My friends! if ye are banisht from mine eyes, fin 340. +My friends, Rayya hath mounted soon as morning shone, vii. 93. +My fondness, O my moon, for thee my foeman is, iii. 256. +My heart disheartened is, my breast is strait, ii. 238. +My heart is a thrall: my tears ne'er abate, viii. 346. +My life for the scavenger! right well I love him, i. 312. +My life is gone but love longings remain, viii. 345. +My longing bred of love with mine unease for ever grows, vii. +211. +My Lord hath servants fain of piety, v. 277. +My lord, this be the Sun, the Moon thou hadst before, vii. 143. +My lord, this full moon takes in Heaven of thee new birth, vii. +143. +My love a meeting promised me and kept it faithfully, iii. 195. +My loved one's name in cheerless solitude aye cheereth me, v. 59. +My lover came in at the close of night, iv. 124. +My lover came to me one night, iv. 252. +My mind's withdrawn from Zaynab and Nawar, iii. 239. +My patience failed me when my lover went, viii. 259. +My patience fails me and grows anxiety, viii. 14. +My prickle is big and the little one said, iii. 302. +My Salám to the Fawn in the garments concealed, iv. 50. +My sin to thee is great, iv. 109. +My sister said, as saw she how I stood, iii. 109. +My sleeplessness would show I love to bide on wake, iii. 195. +My soul and my folk I engage for the youth, vii. 111. +My soul for loss of lover sped I sight, viii. 67. +My soul be sacrifice for one, whose going, iii. 292. +My soul thy sacrifice! I chose thee out, iii. 303. +My soul to him who smiled back my salute, iii. 168. +My tale, indeed, is tale unlief, iv. 265. +My tears thus flowing rival with my wine, iii. 169. +My tribe have slain that brother mine, Umaym, iv. 110. +My wish, mine illness, mine unease! by Allah, own, viii. 68. +My wrongs hide I, withal they show to sight, viii. 260. +My yearning for thee though long is fresh, iv. 211. + +Naught came to salute me in sleep save his shade, vii. 111. +Naught garred me weep save where and when of severance spake he, +viii. 63. +Nears my parting fro, my love, nigher draws the severance-day, +viii. 308. +Need drives a man into devious roads, ii. 14. +Needs must I bear the term by Fate decreed, ii. 41. +Ne'er cease thy gate be Ka'abah to mankind, iv. 148. +Ne'er dawn the severance-day on any wise, viii. 49. +Ne'er incline thee to part, ii. 105. +Ne'er was a man with beard grown over. long, viii. 298. +News my wife wots is not locked in a box! i. 311. +News of my love fill all the land, I swear, iii. 287. +No breeze of Union to the lover blows, viii. 239. +No! I declare by Him to whom all bow, v. 152. +No longer beguile me, iii. 137. +"No ring-dove moans from home on branch in morning light, ii. +152. +None but the good a secret keep, And good men keep it unrevealed, +i. 87. +None but the men of worth a secret keep, iii. 289. +None keepeth a secret but a faithful person, iv. 233. +None other charms but shine shall greet mine eyes, i. 156. +None wotteth best joyance but generous youth v. 67. +Not with his must I'm drunk, but verily, v. 158. +Now an, by Allah, unto man were fully known, iii. 128. +Now, an of woman ask ye, I reply, iii. 214. +Now blame him not; for blame brings only vice and pain, ii. 297. +Now, by my life, brown hue hath point of comeliness, iv. 258. +Now, by thy life, and wert thou just my life thou hadst not +ta'en, i. 182. +Now, by your love! your love I'll ne'er forget, viii, 315. +Now I indeed will hide desire and all repine, v. 267. +Now is my dread to incur reproaches which. 59. +Now love hast banished all that bred delight, iii. 259. +Now with their says and said no more vex me the chiding race, iv. +207. + +O adornment of beauties to thee write I vii. 176. +O beauty's Union! love for thee's my creed, iii. 303. +O best of race to whom gave Hawwá boon of birth, v. 139. +O bibber of liquor, art not ashamed v. 224. +O breeze that blowest from the land Irak viii. 103. +O child of Adam let not hope make mock and flyte at thee vi. 116 +O culver of the copse, with salams I greet, v. 49. +O day of joys to either lover fain! v. 63. +O dwelling of my friends, say is there no return, viii. 319. +O fair ones forth ye cast my faithful love, ix. 300. +O fertile root and noble growth of trunk, ii. 43. +O fisherman no care hast thou to fear, v. 51. +O flier from thy home when foes affright! v. 290. +O friends of me one favour more I pray v. 125. +O glad news bearer well come! ii. 326. +O hail to him whose locks his cheeks o'er shade, x. 58. +O Hayat al-Nufuis be gen'rous and incline vii. 217. +O heart, an lover false thee, shun the parting bane, viii.94. +O heart! be not thy love confined to one, iii. 232. +O hope of me! pursue me not with rigour and disdain, iii. 28. +O joy of Hell and Heaven! whose tormentry, iii. 19. +O Keener, O sweetheart, thou fallest not short, i. 311. +O Kings of beauty, grace to prisoner ta'en, viii. 96. +O Lord, by the Five Shaykhs, I pray deIiver me, vii. 226. +O Lord, how many a grief from me hast driven, v. 270. +O Lord, my foes are fain to slay me in despight, viii. 117. +O Lords of me, who fared but whom my heart e'er followeth, iv 239 +O Love, thou'rt instant in thy cruellest guise, iv. 204. +O lover thou bringest to thought a tide, v. 50. +O Maryam of beauty return for these eyne, viii. 321. +O Miriam thy chiding I pray, forego, ix. 8. +O moon for ever set this earth below, iii. 323. +O Moslem! thou whose guide is Alcorán iv. 173. +O most noble of men in this time and stound, iv. 20. +O my censor who wakest amorn to see viii. 343. +O my friend, an I rendered my life, my sprite, ix. 214. +O my friend! reft of rest no repose I command, ii. 35. +O my friends, have ye seen or have ye heard vi. 174. +O my heart's desire, grows my misery, vii. 248. +O my Lord, well I weet thy puissant hand, vi. 97. +O Night of Union, Time's virginal prize viii. 328. +O my lords, shall he to your minds occur ix. 299. +O Night here I stay! I want no morning light, iv. 144. +O passing Fair I have none else but thee, vii. 365. +O pearl-set mouth of friend, iv. 231. +O pearly mouth of friend, who set those pretty pearls in line, +iv. 231. +O Rose, thou rare of charms that dost contain, viii. 275. +O sire, be not deceived by worldly joys, v. 114. +O son of mine uncle! same sorrow I bear, iii. 61. +O spare me, thou Ghazban, indeed enow for me, ii. 126. +O Spring-camp have ruth on mine overthrowing, viii. 240. +O thou Badi'a 'l-Jamál, show thou some clemency, vii. 368. +O thou of generous seed and true nobility, vi. 252. +O thou sheeniest Sun who m night dost shine, viii. 215. +O Thou the One, whose grace cloth all the world embrace, v. 272. +O thou tomb! O thou tomb! be his horrors set in blight? i. 76. +O thou to whom sad trembling wights in fear complain! iii. 317. +O thou who barest leg-calf better to suggest, ii. 327. +O thou who claimest to be prey of love and ecstasy, vii. 220. +O thou who deignest come at sorest sync, iii.78. +O thou who dost comprise all Beauty's boons! vii. 107. +O thou who dyest hoariness with black, viii. 295. +O thou who fearest Fate, i. 56. +O thou who for thy wakeful nights wouldst claim my love to boon, +iii. 26. +O thou who givest to royal state sweet savour, ii. 3. +O thou who gladdenest man by speech and rarest quality, ix. 322. +O thou who seekest innocence to 'guile, iii. 137. +O thou who seekest parting, safely fare! ii. 319. +O thou who seekest separation, act leisurely, iv. 200. +O thou who seekest severance, i. 118. +O thou who shamest sun in morning sheen, viii. 35. +O thou who shunnest him thy love misled! viii. 259. +O thou who wooest Severance, easy fare! iii. 278. +O thou who woo'st a world unworthy learn, iii. 319. +O thou whose boons to me are more than one, iii. 317. +O thou whose favours have been out of compt, iii. 137. +O thou whose forehead, like the radiant East, i. 210. +O to whom I gave soul which thou torturest, iv. 19. +O to whom now of my desire complaining sore shall I, v. 44. +O toiler through the glooms of night in peril and in pain, i. 38. +O turtle dove, like me art thou distraught? v. 47. +O waftings of musk from the Babel-land! ix. 195. +O who didst win my love in other date, v. 63. +O who hast quitted these abodes and faredst fief and light, viii. +59. +O who passest this doorway, by Allah, see, viii. 236. +O who praisest Time with the fairest appraise ix. 296. +O who shamest the Moon and the sunny glow, vii. 248. +O who quest Union, ne'er hope such delight, viii. 257. +O whose heart by our beauty is captive ta'en, v. 36. +O Wish of wistful men, for Thee I yearn, v. 269. +O ye that can aid me, a wretched lover, ii. 30. +O ye who fled and left my heart in pain low li'en, iii. 285. +O ye who with my vitals fled, have rush, viii. 258. +O you whose mole on cheek enthroned recalls, i. 251. +O Zephyr of Morn, an thou pass where the dear ones dwell, viii. +120. +O Zephyr of Najd, when from Najd thou blow, vii. 115. +Of dust was I created, and man did I become, v. 237. +Of evil thing the folk suspect us twain, iii.305. +Of my sight I am jealous for thee, of me, ix. 248. +Of Time and what befel me I complain, viii. 219. +Of wit and wisdom is Maymúnah bare, i. 57. +Oft hath a tender bough made lute for maid, v. 244. +Oft hunchback added to his bunchy back, viii. 297. +Oft times mischance shall straiten noble breast, viii. 117. +Oft when thy case shows knotty and tangled skein, vi. 71. +Oh a valiant race are the sons of Nu'uman, iii. 80. +Oh soul of me, an thou accept my rede, ii. 210. +Oh ye gone from the gaze of these ridded eyne, ii. 139. +Old hag, of high degree in filthy life, v. 96. +On earth's surface we lived in rare ease and joy, vii. 123. +On her fair bosom caskets twain I scanned, i. 156. +On me and with me bides thy volunty, viii. 129. +On Sun and Moon of palace cast thy sight, i. 85. +On the brow of the World is a writ, an thereon thou look, ix. 297 +On the fifth day at even-tide they went away from me, ii. 10 +On the fifth day I quitted all my friends for evermore, ii. 10 +On the glancing racer outracing glance, ii. 273. +On the shaded woody island His showers Allah deign, x. 40. +On these which once were chicks, iv. 235. +One, I wish him in belt a thousand horns, v. 129. +One craved my love and I gave all he craved of me, iii. 210. +One wrote upon her cheek with musk, his name was Ja'afar highs, +iv. 292. +Open the door! the leach now draweth near, v. 284. +Oppression ambusheth in sprite of man, ix. 343. +Our aim is only converse to enjoy, iv. 54. +Our Fort is Tor, and flames the fire of fight, ii. 242. +Our life to thee, O cup-boy Beauty-dight! iii. 169. +Our trysting-time is all too short, iii. 167. + +Pardon my fault, for tis the wont, i. 126. +Pardon the sinful ways I did pursue, ii. 38. +Part not from one whose wont is not to part from you, iii. 295 +Parting ran up to part from lover twain iii. 209. +Pass round the cup to the old and the young man, too, viii. 278. +Pass o'er my fault, for 'tis the wise man's wont, viii. 327. +Patience hath fled, but passion fareth not v. 358. +Patience with sweet and with bitter Fate! viii. 146. +Patient I seemed, yet Patience shown by me, vii.96. +Patient, O Allah! to Thy destiny I bow iii.328. +Pause ye and see his sorry state since when ye fain withdrew, +viii. 66. +Peace be to her who visits me in sleeping phantasy, viii. 241. +Peace be to you from lover's wasted love vii. 368. +Peace be with you, sans you naught compensateth me, viii. 320. +Perfect were lover's qualities in him was brought amorn, viii. +255. +Pink cheeks and eyes enpupil'd black have dealt me sore despight, +viii. 69. +Pleaseth me more the fig than every fruit viii. 269. +Pleaseth me yon Hazár of mocking strain v.48. +Pleasure and health, good cheer, good appetite, ii. 102. +Ply me and also my mate be plied, viii. 203. +Poverty dims the sheen of man whate'er his wealth has been, i. +272 +Pray'ee grant me some words from your lips, belike, iii. 274. +Pray, tell me what hath Fate to do betwixt us twain? v. 128. +Preserve thy hoary hairs from soil and stain, iv. 43. +Prove how love can degrade, v. 134. + +Quince every taste conjoins, in her are found, i. 158. +Quoth I to a comrade one day, viii. 289. +Quoth our Imam Abu Nowas, who was, v. 157. +Quoth she (for I to lie with her forbare), iii. 303. +Quoth she, "I see thee dye thy hoariness," iv. 194. +Quoth she to me,--and sore enraged, viii. 293. +Quoth she to me--I see thou dy'st thy hoariness, viii. 295. +Quoth they and I had trained my taste thereto, viii. 269. +Quoth they, Black letters on his cheek are writ! iv. 196. +Quoth they, Maybe that Patience lend thee ease! iii. 178. +Quoth they, Thou rav'st on him thou lov'st, iii. 258. +Quoth they, "Thou'rt surely raving mad for her thou lov'st, viii. +326. + +Racked is my heart by parting fro my friends, i. 150. +Rain showers of torrent tears, O Eyne, and see, viii. 250. +Rebel against women and so shalt thou serve Allah the more, iii. +214. +Red fruits that fill the hand, and shine with sheen, viii. 271. +Rely not on women: Trust not to their hearts, i. 13. +Reserve is a jewel, Silence safety is, i. 208. +Restore my heart as 'twas within my breast, viii. 37. +Right near at hand, Umaymah mine! v. 75. +Robe thee, O House, in richest raiment Time, viii. 206. +Roll up thy days and they shall easy roll, iv. 220. +Rosy red Wady hot with summer glow, ix.6. +Round with big and little, the bowl and cup, ii. 29. + +Said I to slim-waist who the wine engraced, viii. 307. +Salam from graces treasured by my Lord, iii. 273. +Salams fro' me to friends in every stead, iii. 256. +Say, canst not come to us one momentling, iv. 43. +Say, cloth heart of my fair incline to him, v. 127. +Say him who careless sleeps what while the shaft of Fortune +flies, i. 68. +Say me, on Allah's path has death not dealt to me, iv. 247. +Say me, will Union after parting e'er return to be, viii. 320. +Say then to skin "Be soft," to face "Be fair," i. 252. +Say thou to the she-gazelle, who's no gazelle, v. 130. +Say to angry lover who turns away, v. 131 +Say to the charmer in the dove-hued veil, i. 280. +Say to the fair in the wroughten veil, viii. 291 +Say to the pretty one in veil of blue, iv. 264. +Say what shall solace one who hath nor home nor stable stead, +ii.124. +Say, will to me and you the Ruthful union show, viii. 323. +Scented with sandal and musk, right proudly cloth she go, v. 192. +Seeing thy looks wots she what thou desir'st, v. 226. +Seest not how the hosts of the Rose display, viii. 276. +Seest not that Almond plucked by hand, viii. 270. +Seest not that musk, the nut-brown musk, e'er claims the highest +price, iv. 253. +Seest not that pearls are prized for milky hue, iv. 250. +Seest not that rosery where Rose a flowering displays, viii. 275. +Seest not the bazar with its fruit in rows, iii. 302. +Seest not the Lemon when it taketh form, viii. 272. +Seest not we want for joy four things all told, i. 86. +Semblance of full-moon Heaven bore, v. 192. +Severance-grief nighmost, Union done to death, iv. 223. +Shall I be consoled when Love hath mastered the secret of me, +viii. 261. +Shall man experience-lectured ever care, vii. 144. +Shall the beautiful hue of the Basil fail, i.19. +Shall the world oppress me when thou art in's, ii. 18. +Shall we e'er be united after severance tide, viii. 322. +Shamed is the bough of Ban by pace of her, viii. 223. +She bade me farewell on our parting day, ii. 35. +She beamed on my sight with a wondrous glance, ii. 87. +She came apparelled in an azure vest, i. 218. +She came apparelled in a vest of blue, viii. 280. +She came out to gaze on the bridal at ease, v. 149. +She came thick veiled, and cried I, O display, viii. 280. +She comes apparelled in an azure vest x.58. +She comes like fullest moon on happy night, i. 218; x. 59. +She cried while played in her side Desire ix. 197. +She dispread the locks from her head one night, iii. 226. +She drew near whenas death was departing us, v. 71. +She gives her woman's hand a force that fails the hand of me, +iii. 176 +She hath eyes whose babes wi' their fingers sign, viii. 166. +She hath those hips conjoined by thread of waist, iii. 226. +She hath wrists which, did her bangles not contain, iii. 226. +She is a sun which towereth high asky iii. 163. +She joineth charms were never seen conjoined in mortal dress, +vii. 104. +She lords it o'er our hearts in grass-green gown, ii. 318. +She prayeth; the Lord of grace her prayer obeyed, v. 273. +She proffered me a tender coynte, iii. 304. +She rose like the morn as she shone through the night, i. 11. +She saith sore hurt in sense the most acute, iii. 303. +She shineth forth a moon, and bends a willow-wand, iv. 50. +She shone out in the garden in garments all of green, v. 346. +She shot my heart with shaft, then turned on heel, vii. 141. +She sits it in lap like a mother fond, ix. 191. +She 'spied the moon of Heaven reminding me, iv. 51. +She split my casque of courage with eye- swords that sorely +smite, iii. 179. +She spread three tresses of unplaited hair iv.51. +She wears a pair of ringlets long let down, v. 240. +She who my all of love by love of her hath won, viii. 254. +Shoulder thy tray and go straight to thy goal, i. 278. +Showed me Sir Such-an-one a sight, and what a sight! iv. 193. +Silent I woned and never owned my love v. 151. +Silky her skin and silk that zonèd waist iii. 163. +Since my loper-friend in my hand hath given, iv. 20. +Since none will lend my love a helping hand, vii. 225. +Since our Imam came forth from medicine, v. 154. +Sleep fled me, by my side wake ever shows, viii. 68. +Slept in mine arms full moon of brightest blee, x. 39. +Slim-waist and boyish wits delight, v. 161. +Slim-waisted craved wine from her companeer, viii. 307. +Slim-waisted loveling, from his hair and brow, viii. 299. +Slim-waisted loveling, jetty hair encrowned, i. 116. +Slim-waisted one whose looks with down of cheek, v. 158. +Slim-waisted one, whose taste is sweetest sweet, v. 241. +Sojourn of stranger, in whatever land, vii. 175. +Sought me this heart's dear love at gloom of night, vii. 253. +Source of mine evils, truly, she alone's, iii. 165. +Sow kindness seed in the unfittest stead iii. 136. +Stand by and see the derring-do which I to-day will show, iii. +107 +Stand by the ruined home and ask of us, iii. 328. +Stand thou and hear what fell to me, viii. 228. +Stand thou by the homes and hail the lords of the ruined stead, +ii. 181. +Stay! grant one parting look before we part, ii. 15. +Steer ye your steps to none but me, v. 65. +Still cleaves to this homestead mine ecstasy, viii. 243. +Stint ye this blame viii. 254. +Straitened bosom; reveries dispread, iii. 182. +Strange is my story, passing prodigy, iv. 139 +Strange is the charm which dights her brows like Luna's disk that +shine, ii. 3. +Strive he to cure his case, to hide the truth, ii. 320. +Such is the world, so bear a patient heart, i. 183. +Suffer mine eye-babes weep lost of love and tears express, viii. +112. +Suffice thee death such marvels can enhance, iii. 56. +Sun riseth sheen from her brilliant brow, vii. 246. +Sweetest of nights the world can show to me, ii. 318. +Sweetheart! How long must I await by so long suffering tried? ii. +178. +Sweetly discourses she on Persian string, viii. 166. + +Take all things easy; for all worldly things, iv. 220. +Take thy life and fly whenas evils threat; let the ruined house +tell its owner's fate, i. 109. +Take, O my lord to thee the Rose, viii. 275. +Take patience which breeds good if patience thou can learn, iv. +221. +Take warning, O proud, iv. 118. +Tear-drops have chafed mine eyelids and rail down in wondrous +wise, v. 53. +Tell her who turneth from our love to work it injury sore, i. +181. +Tell whoso hath sorrow grief never shall last, i. 15. +That cheek-mole's spot they evened with a grain, i. 251. +That jetty hair, that glossy brow, i. 203. +That night th' astrologer a scheme of planets drew, i. 167. +That pair in image quits me not one single hour, ii. 173. +That rarest beauty ever bides my foe, vii. 366. +That sprouting hair upon his face took wreak, v. 161. +The birds took flight at eve and winged their way, viii. 34. +The blear-eyed scapes the pits, i. 265. +The boy like his father shall surely show, i.310. +The breeze o' morn blows uswards from her trace, viii. 206. +The bushes of golden hued rose excite, viii. 276. +The Bulbul's note, whenas dawn is nigh, v.48. +The caravan-chief calleth loud o' night, viii. 239. +The chambers were like a bee-hive well stocked, ix. 292. +The coming unto thee is blest, viii. 167. +The company left with my love by night, ix. 27. +The Compassionate show no ruth to the tomb where his bones shall +lie, x. 47. +The courser chargeth on battling foe, iii. 83. +The day of my delight is the day when you draw near, i. 75. +The day of parting cut my heart in twain, iii. 124. +The fawn-Glee one a meeting promised me, iv. 195. +The fawn of a maid hent her lute in hand, ii. 34. +The feet of sturdy miscreants went trampling heavy tread, x.38. +The first in rank to kiss the ground shall deign, i. 250. +The fragrance of musk from the breasts of the fair, viii. 209. +The full moon groweth perfect once a month, vii. 271. +The glasses are heavy when empty brought, x. 40. +The hapless lover's heart is of his wooing weary grown, iv. 144. +The hearts of lovers have eyes I ken, iv. 238. +The hue of dusty motes is hers, iv. 257. +The house, sweetheart, is now no home to me, v. 381. +The jujube tree each day, viii. 271. +The Kings who fared before us showed, iii. 318. +The land of ramping moon is bare and drear, viii. 126. +The least of him is the being free, v. 156. +The life of the bath is the joy of man's life, iii. 19. +The like of whatso feelest thou we feel, vii. 141. +The longing of a Bedouin maid, whose folks are far away, iii. +172. +The longing of an Arab lass forlorn of kith and kin, ii. 306. +The Lord, empty House! to thee peace decree, viii. 238. +The loved ones left thee in middle night, v. 150. +The lover is drunken with love of friend, v.39. +The lover's heart for his beloved must meet, ii. 62. +The lover's heart is like to break in twain ii. 63. +The mead is bright with what is on't ii. 86. , +The messenger who kept our commerce hid, iii. 189. +The Moon o' the Time shows unveiled light, ix. 287. +The Nadd is my wine scented powder, my bread, viii. 209. +The name of what crave me distraught, viii. 93. +The Nile-flood this day is the gain you own, i. 290. +The penis smooth and round was made with anus best to match it, +iii. 303. +The phantom of Soada came by night to wake me, viii. 337. +The poor man fares by everything opposed, ix. 291. +The Prophet saw whatever eyes could see v. 287. +The return of the friend is the best of all boons, ix. 287. +The Rose in highest stead I rate, viii. 274 +The signs that here their mighty works portray, vi. 90. +The slanderers said There is hair upon his cheeks, v. 157. +The slippers that carry these fair young feet, viii. 320. +The smack of parting 's myrrh to me, ii. 101. +The solace of lovers is naught but far, viii. +The spring of the down on cheeks right clearly shows, v. 190. +The stream 's a cheek by sunlight rosy dyed, ii. 240. +The streamlet swings by branchy wood and aye, viii. 267. +The sun of beauty she to all appears, x. 59. +The sun of beauty she to sight appears, i. 218. +The sun yellowed not in the murk gloom lien, viii. 285. +The sword, the sworder and the bloodskin waiting me I sight, ii. +42. +The tears of these eyes find easy release v.127. +The tears run down his cheeks in double row, iii. 169. +"The time of parting" quoth they "draweth nigh," v. 280. +The tongue of love from heart bespeaks my sprite, iv. 261. +The tongue of Love within my vitals speaketh, viii. 319. +The toothstick love I not; for when I say, +The road is lonesome; grow my grief and need, m. 13. +The weaver-wight wrote with gold-ore bright, viii. 210. +The whiskers write upon his cheek with ambergris on pearl, vii. +277 +The wide plain is narrowed before these eyes, viii. 28. +The wise have said that the white of hair, viii. 294. +The world hath shot me with its sorrow till, vii. 340. +The world sware that for ever 'twould gar me grieve, viii. 243. +The world tears man to shreds, so be thou not, ix. 295. +The world tricks I admire betwixt me and her, ix. 242. +The world's best joys long be thy lot, my lord, i. 203. +The zephyr breatheth o'er its branches, like, viii. 267. +Their image bides with me, ne'er quits me, ne'er shall fly, viii. +66. +Their tracts I see, and pine with pain and pang, i. 151. +There be no writer who from death shall fleet, i. 128. +There be rulers who have ruled with a foul tyrannic sway, i. 60. +There remaineth not aught save a fluttering breath, viii. 124. +There remains to him naught save a flitting breath, vii. 119. +They blamed me for causing my tears to well, ix. 29. +They bore him bier'd and all who followed wept, ii. 281. +They find me fault with her where I default ne'er find, v. 80. +They have cruelly ta'en me from him my beloved, v. 51. +They're gone who when thou stoodest at their door, iv. 200. +They ruled awhile and theirs was harsh tyrannic rule, iv. 220. +They said, Thou revest upon the person thou lovest, iv. 205. +They say me, "Thou shinest a light to mankind," i. 187. +They shine fullest moons, unveil crescent bright, viii. 304. +They talked of three beauties whose converse was quite, vii. 112. +Thine image ever companies my sprite, iii. 259. +Thine image in these eyne, a-lip thy name, iii. 179. +Think not from her, of whom thou art enamoured, viii. 216. +Thinkest thou thyself all prosperous, in days which prosp'rous +be, viii. 309. +This be his recompense who will, ix. 17. +This day oppressor and oppressed meet, v. 258. +This garden and this lake in truth, viii. 207. +This house, my lady, since you left is now a home no more, i. +211. +This messenger shall give my news to thee, iii. 181. +This is a thing wherein destruction lies, i. 118. +This is she I will never forget till I die, viii. 304. +This is thy friend perplexed for pain and pine, iv. 279. +This one, whom hunger plagues, and rags enfold, vii. 129. +Tho' 'tis thy wont to hide thy love perforce, iii. 65. +Thou art the cause that castest men in ban and bane, viii. 149. +Thou camest and green grew the hills anew, iii. 18. +Thou deemedst well of Time when days went well, ii. 12; iii. 253. +Thou hast a reed of rede to every land, i. 128. +Thou hast failed who would sink me in ruin-sea, iii. 108. +Thou hast granted more favours than ever I crave, ii. 32. +Thou hast restored my wealth, sans greed and ere, iv. 111. +Thou hast some art the hearts of men to clip, i. 241. +Thou hast won my heart by cheek and eye of thee, viii. 256. +Thou liest, O foulest of Satans, thou art, iii. 108. +Thou liest when speaking of "benefits," while, iii. 108. +Thou madest Beauty to spoil man's sprite, ix. 249. +Thou madest fair thy thought of Fate, viii. 130. +Thou pacest the palace a marvel-sight, i. 176. +Thou present, in the Heaven of Heavens I dwell, iii. 268. +Thou seekest my death; naught else thy will can satisfy? ii. 103. +Thou west all taken up with love of other man, not me, i. 182. +Thou west create of dust and cam'st to life, iv. 190. +Thou west invested (woe to thee!) with rule for thee unfit, vii. +127. +Though amorn I may awake with all happiness in hand, i. 75. +Though now thou jeer, O Hind, how many a night, vii. 98. +Three coats yon freshest form endue, viii. 270. +Three lovely girls hold my bridle-rein, ix. 243. +Three matters hinder her from visiting us in fear, iii. 231. +Three things for ever hinder her to visit us, viii. 279. +Throne you on highmost stead, heart, ears and sight, viii. 258. +Thy breast thou baredst sending back the gift, v. 153. +Thy case commit to a Heavenly Lord and thou shalt safety see, +viii. 151. +Thy folly drives thee on though long I chid, iii. 29. +Thy note came: long lost fingers wrote that note, iv. 14. +Thy phantom bid thou fleet and fly, vii. 108. +Thy presence bringeth us a grace, i. 175. +Thy shape with willow branch I dare compare, iv. 255. +Thy shape's temptation, eyes as Houri's fain, viii. 47. +Thy sight hath never seen a fairer sight, ii. 292. +Thy writ, O Masrur, stirred my sprite to pine, viii. 245. +Time falsed our union and divided who were one in sway, x. 26. +Time gives me tremble, Ah, how sore the baulk! i. 144. +Time has recorded gifts she gave the great, i. 128. +Time hath for his wont to upraise and debase, ii. 143 +Time hath shattered all my frame, ii. 4. +Time sware my life should fare in woeful waste, ii. 186. +'Tis as if wine and he who bears the bowl, x.38. +'Tis as the Figs with clear white skins outthrown, viii. 268. +'Tis dark: my transport and unease now gather might and main, v. +45. +'Tis I am the stranger, visited by none, v. 116. +'Tis naught but this! When a-sudden I see her, ix. 235. +'Tis not at every time and tide unstable, iv. 188. +'Tis thou hast trodden coyness-path not I, iii. 332. +To all who unknow my love for the May, viii.332. +To Allah will I make my moan of travail and of woe, iii. 106. +To Allah's charge I leave that moon-like beauty in your tents, +iv. 145. +To even her with greeny bough were vain, i. 156. +To grief leave a heart that to love ne'er ceased, viii. 215. +To him I spake of coupling but he said to me, iii. 301. +To him when the wine cup is near I declare, ix. 189. +To Karím, the cream of men thou gayest me, ii. 35. +To kith and kin bear thou sad tidings of our plight, iii. 111. +To me restore my dear, v. 55. +To our beloveds we moaned our length of night, iv. 106. +To Rose quoth I, What gars thy thorns to be put forth, viii. 276. +To severance you doom my love and all unmoved remain, i. 181. +To slay my foes is chiefest bliss I wist, ii. 239. +To th' AII-wise Subtle One trust worldly things, i. 56. +To Thee be praise, O Thou who showest unremitting grace, viii. +183. +o thee come I forth with my heart aflame, iii. 108. +To win our favours still thy hopes are bent, vii. 224. +Told us, ascribing to his Shaykhs, our Shaykh, iv. 47. +Travel! and thou shalt find new friends for old ones left behind, +i. 197 +Troubles familiar with my heart are grown and I with them, viii. +117. +Trust not to man when thou hast raised his spleen, iii. 145. +Truth best befits thee albeit truth, i. 298. +Turn thee from grief nor care a jot! i. 56 +'Twas as I feared the coming ills discerning, ii. 189. +'Twas by will of her she was create, viii. 291. +'Twas not of love that fared my feet to them, iv. 180. +'Twas not satiety bade me leave the dearling of my soul, i. 181. +'Twixt the close-tied and open-wide no medium Fortune knoweth, +ii. 105. +'Twixt me and riding many a noble dame v. 266. +Two contraries and both concur in opposite charms, iv. 20. +Two hosts fare fighting thee the livelong day, i. 132. +Two lovers barred from every joy and bliss, v. 240. +Two things there are, for which if eyes wept tear on tear, viii. +263. +Two things there be, an blood-tears thereover, viii. 106. +Two nests in one, blood flowing easiest wise, v. 239. +Tyrannise not, if thou hast the power to do so, iv. 189. + +Umm Amr', thy boons Allah repay! v. 118. +Under my raiment a waste body lies, v. 151. +Under these domes how many a company, vi.91. +Union, this severance ended, shall I see some day? iii. 12. +Unjust it were to bid the world be just i. 237. , +Uns al-Wujud dost deem me fancy free, v. 43. +Unto thee, As'ad! I of passion pangs complain, iii. 312. +Unto thy phantom deal behest, vii. 109. +Upsprings from table of his lovely cheek vii. 277. + +Veiling her cheeks with hair a-morn she comes, i. 218. +Verily women are devils created for us, iii. 322. +Vied the full moon for folly with her face, viii. 291. +Virtue in hand of thee hath built a house, iv. 138. +Visit thy lover, spurn what envy told, i. 223. +Void are the private rooms of treasury, iv. 267. + +Wail for the little partridges on porringer and plate, i. 131. +Wands of green chrysolite bare issue which, viii. 275. +'Ware how thou hurtest man with hurt of hearts, ii. 197. +'Ware that truth thou speak, albe sooth when said, x. 23. +Was't archer shot me, or was't shine eyes, v. 33. +Watch some tall ship she'll joy the sight of thee, ii. 20. +Watered steel-blade, the world perfection calls, vii. 173. +Waters of beauty e'er his cheeks flow bright, viii. 299. +We joy in full Moon who the wine bears round, viii. 227. +We left not taking leave of thee (when bound to other goal), +viii. 63. +We lived on earth a life of fair content, v. 71. +We lived till saw we all the marvels Love can bear, v. 54. +We'll drink and Allah pardon sinners all, viii. 277. +We never heard of wight nor yet espied, viii. 296. +We reck not, an our life escape from bane, vii. 99. +We tread the path where Fate hath led, i. 107. +We trod the steps appointed for us, x. 53. +We trod the steps that for us were writ, ix. 226. +We were and were the days enthralled to all our wills, ii. 182. +We were like willow-boughs in garden shining, vii. 132. +We wrought them weal, they met our weal with ill, i. 43. +Welcome the Fig! To us it comes, viii. 269. +Well Allah weets that since our severance-day, iii. 8. +Well Allah wots that since my severance from thee, iii. 292. +Well Allah wotteth I am sorely plagued, v. 139. +Well learnt we, since you left, our grief and sorrow to sustain, +iii. 63. +Wend to that pious prayerful Emir, v. 274. +Were I to dwell on heart-consuming heat, iii.310. +Were it said to me while the flame is burning within me, vii. +282. +Were not the Murk of gender male, x. 60. +What ails the Beauty, she returneth not? v. 137. +What ails the Raven that he croaks my lover's house hard by, +viii. 242. +What can the slave do when pursued by Fate, iii.341. +What fair excuse is this my pining plight, v. 52. +What I left, I left it not for nobility of soul, vi. 92. +What pathway find I my desire to obtain, v. 42. +What sayest of one by a sickness caught, v. 164. +What sayest thou of him by sickness waste, v. 73. +What secret kept I these my tears have told, iii. 285. +What's life to me, unless I see the pearly sheen, iii. 65. +What's this? I pass by tombs, and fondly greet, iii. 46. +What time Fate's tyranny shall oppress thee, i. 119. +Whate'er they say of grief to lovers came, iii. 33. +Whatever needful thing thou undertake, i. 307. +Whatso is not to be no sleight shall bring to pass, ii. 279. +Whatso is not to be shall ne'er become, iii. 162. +When a nickname or little name men design, i. 350. +When Allah willeth aught befal a man, i. 275. +When comes she slays she; and when back she turns, iv. 232. +When drew she near to bid adieu with heart unstrung, i. 158. +Whene'er the Lord 'gainst any man, viii. 314. +When fails my wealth no friend will deign befriend, i. 208, iv. +189. +When fortune weighs heavy on some of us iii. 141. +When forwards Allah's aid a man's intent, x. 53. +When God upon a man possessed of reasoning, viii. 21. +When he who is asked a favour saith "To-morrow," i. 196. +When his softly bending shape bid him close to my embrace, iii. +306. +When I drew up her shift from the roof of her coynte, ii. 331. +When I far-parted patience call and tears vi. 279. +When I righted and dayed in Damascus town, i, 233. +When I think of my love and our parting smart, i. 250. +When I took up her shift and discovered the terrace-roof of her +kaze, viii. 32. +When in thy mother's womb thou west +When its birds in the lake make melody vi. 277. +When Khalid menaced off to strike my hand, iv. 156. +When love and longing and regret are mine, ii. 34. +When man keeps honour bright without a stem, iv. 106. +When my blamer saw me beside my love, ix. 1. +When oped the inkhorn of thy wealth and fame, i. 129. +When saw I Pleiad stars his glance escape, iii. 221. +When shall be healed of thee this heart that ever bides in woe? +ii. 296. +When shall disunion and estrangement end? iv. 137. +When shall the disappointed heart be healed of severance, iii. +58. +When shall the severance-fire be quenched by union, love, with +you, viii. 62. +When she's incensed thou seest folk lie slain, viii. 165. +When straitened is my breast I will of my Creator pray, viii. +149. +When the Kings' King giveth, in reverence pause, x. 35. +When the slanderers only to part us cared, iv. 19. +When the tyrant enters the lieges land, iii. 120. +When the World heaps favours on thee pass on, ii. 13. +When they made their camels yellow-white kneel down at dawning +grey, v. 140. +When they to me had brought the leach and surely showed, v. 286. +When thou art seized of Evil Fate assume, i. 38. +When thou seest parting be patient still, viii. 63. +When to sore parting Fate our love shall doom, to distant life by +Destiny decreed, i. 129. +When we drank the wine, and it crept its way, x. 37. +When we met we complained, i. 249. +When will time grant we meet, when shall we be, viii. 86. +When wilt thou be wise and love-heat allay, v. 78. +Whenas mine eyes behold her loveliness vii. 244. +Whenas on any land the oppressor cloth alight, iii . 130. +Where are the Kings earth-peopling where are they? vi. 103. +Where be the Earth kings who from where they 'bode, vi. 105 +Where be the Kings who ruled the Franks of old? vi. 106. +Where be the men who built and fortified vi. 104. +Where gone is Bounty since thy hand is turned to clay? ii. 282. +Where is the man who built the Pyramids? v. 107 +Where is the man who did those labours ply, vi. 105. +Where is the way to Consolation's door, viii. 240. +Where is the wight who peopled in the past, vi. 104. +While girl with softly rounded polished cheeks, iv. 249. +While slanderers slumber, longsome is my night, iii. 221. +While that fair-faced boy abode in the place, ix. 250. +While thou'rt my lord whose bounty's my estate, iv. 2. +Who cloth kindness to men shall be paid again, v. 104. +Who loves not swan-neck and gazelle-like eyes, iii. 34. +Who made all graces all collected He, iv. 111. +Who saith that love at first of free will came, ii. 302. +Who seeketh for pearl in the Deep dives deep, ii. 208. +Who shall save me from love of a lovely gazelle, vii. 282. +Who shall support me in calamities, ii. 40. +Who trusteth secret to another's hand, i. 87. +Whom I irk let him fly fro' me fast and faster, viii. 315. +Whoso ne'er tasted of Love's sweets and bitter-draught, iv. 237. +Whoso shall see the death-day of his foe, ii. 41. +Whoso two dirhams hath, his lips have learnt, iv. 171. +Why dost thou weep when I depart and thou didst parting claim, v. +295. +Why not incline me to that show of silky down, iv. 258. +Why then waste I my time in grief, until, i. 256. +Will Fate with joy of union ever bless our sight, v. 128. +Wilt thou be just to others in thy love and do, iv. 264. +Wilt turn thy face from heart that's all shine own, v. 278. +Wilt tyrant play with truest friend who thinks of thee each hour, +iii. 269. +Wine cup and ruby wine high worship claim, x. 41. +With all my soul I'll ransom him who came to me in gloom, vii. +253. +With Allah take I refuge from whatever driveth me, iv. 254. +With fire they boiled me to loose my tongue, i. 132. +With heavy back parts, high breasts delicate, ii. 98. +With thee that pear agree, whose hue amorn, viii. 270. +With you is my heart-cure a heart that goes, viii. 78. +Wither thy right, O smith, which made her bear, viii. 246. +Within my heart is fire, vii. 127. +Witnesses unto love of thee I've four viii. 106. +Woe's me! why should the blamer gar thee blaming bow? ii. 305. +Women are Satans made for woe o' man iii. 318. +Women for all the chastity they claim, iii. 216. +Women Satans are, made for woe of man, ix. 282. +Would he come to my bed during sleep 'twere delight, vii. 111. +Would Heaven I knew (but many are the shifts of joy and woe), v. +75. +Would Heaven I saw at this hour, iii. 134. +Would Heaven I wot, will ever Time bring our beloveds back again? +viii. 320. +Would Heaven the phantom spared the friend at night, v. 348. +Would I wot for what crime shot and pierced are we, viii. 238. +Would they the lover seek without ado, viii. 281. +Wrong not thy neighbour even if thou have power, iii. 136. +Ye are the wish, the aim of me, i. 98. +Ye promised us and will ye not keep plight? iii. 282. +Yea, Allah hath joined the parted twain, ix. 205. +Yea, I will laud thee while the ringdove moans, viii. 100. +Yellowness, tincturing her tho' nowise sick or sorry, iv. 259. +Yestre'en my love with slaughter menaced me, iii. 27. +You are my wish, of creatures brightest light, viii. 76. +You have honoured us visiting this our land, ii. 34. +You've roused my desire and remain at rest, viii. 101. +You're far, yet to my heart you're nearest near, viii. 111. +Your faring on the parting day drew many a tear fro' me, viii. +61. + + + + + + + + Index III.-B + + + + Alphabetical Table of First Lines + (Metrical Portion) in Arabic. + + Prepared by Dr. Steingass. + + + +[Index III-B is not included] + + + + + + + INDEX IV.--A. + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS OF THE UNFINISHED CALCUTTA (1814-18) EDITION + (FIRST TWO HUNDRED NIGHTS ONLY) OF THE ARABIC TEXT OF THE + BOOK OF THE THOUSAND NIGHTS AND ONE NIGHT. + + Night +INTRODUCTION-- + a. The Bull and the Ass + 1. The Trader and the Jinni i [1] + a. The First Old Man's Story ii [2] + b. The Second Old Man's Story iv [4] + (The Third Old Man's Story is wanting.) + 2. The Fisherman and the Jinni viii [8] + a. The Physician Duban xi [11] + aa. The Merchant and the Parrot xiv [14] + ab. The Prince and the Ogress xv [15] + b. The Ensorcelled Youth xxi [21] + 3. The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad xxviii [28] + a. The First Kalandar's Tale xxxix [39] + b. The Second Kalandar's Tale xlii [42] + ba. The Envier and the Envied xlvi [46] + c. The Third Kalandar's Tale liii [53] + d. The Eldest Lady's Tale lxiv [64] + (The Story of the Portress is wanting.) + 4. The Three Apples lxviii [68] + 5. Nur al-Din Ali and his Son Badr al-Din Hassan lxxii [72] + 6. Isaac of Mosul's Story of Khadijah and the Caliph Al-Maamun xciv [94] + 7. The Hunchback's Tale ci [101] + a. The Nazarene Broker's Story cix [109] + b. The Cook's Story cxxi [121] + (The Reeve or Comptroller's Tale in the Bresl., Mac. + and Bull Edits.) + c. The Jewish Physician's Story cxxix [124] + d. Tale of the Tailor cxxxvi [136] + e. The Barber's Tale of Himself cxliii [143] + ea. The Barber's Tale of his First Brother cxlv [145] + eb. The Barber's Tale of his Second Brother cxlviii [148] + ec. The Barber's Tale of his Third Brother cli [151] + ed. The Barber's Tale of his Fourth Brother clii [152] + ee. The Barber's Tale of his Fifth Brother cliv [154] + ef. Story of the Barber's Sixth Brother clviii [158] + 8. Ali bin Bakkar and Shams Al-Nahar clxiii [163] + 9. Nur al-Din Ali and the Damsel Anis al-Jalis clxxxi [181] + 10. Women's Craft cxcv-cc [195-200] + 11. Sindbad the Seaman and Hindbad the Hammal + (In Mac. and Bresl. Edit.; "Sindbad the Sailor and Sindbad + the Hammal,") + a. The First Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman. + b. The Second Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman. + c. The Third Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman. + d. The Fourth Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman. + e. The Fifth Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman. + f. The Sixth Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman. + g. The Seventh Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman. + + + + + INDEX IV.--B. + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS OF THE BRESLAU (TUNIS) EDITION OF THE ARABIC + TEXT OF THE BOOK OF THE THOUSAND NIGHTS AND ONE NIGHT, + FROM MR. PAYNE'S VERSION. + + + Night +INTRODUCTION.--Story of King Shehriyar and his Brother + a. Story of the Ox and the Ass + 1. The Merchant and the Genie i [1] + a. The First Old Man's Story iv [4] + b. The Second Old Man's Story vi [6] + c. The Third Old Man's Story viii [8] + 2. The Fisherman and the Genie viii [8] + a. Story of the Physician Duban xi [11] + aa. Story of the Jealous Man and the Parrot[FN#458] xiv [14] + ab. Story of the King's Son and the Ogress xv [15] + b. Story of the Enchanted Youth xxi [21] + 3. The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad xxviii [28] + a. The First Calender's Story xxxvii [37] + b. The Second Calender's Story xl [40] + ba. The Envier and the Envied xlvi [46] + c. The Third Calender's Story liii [53] + d. The Eldest Lady's Story lxiii [63] + e. Story of the Portress lxvii [67] + 4. The Three Apples lxix [69] + 5. Noureddin Ali of Cairo and his son Bedreddin Hassan lxxii [72] + 6. Story of the Hunchback cii [102] + a. The Christian Broker's Story cvii [107] + b. The Controller's Story cxix [119] + c. The Jewish Physician's Story cxxix [129] + d. The Tailor's Story cxxxvii [137] + e. The Barber's Story cxlix [149] + ea. Story of the Barber's First Brother cl [150] + eb. Story of the Barber's Second Brother cliv [154] + ec. Story of the Barber's Third Brother clvii ]157] + ed. Story of the Barber's Fourth Brother clvii [157] + ee. Story of the Barber's Fifth Brother clx [160] + ef. Story of the Barber's Sixth Brother clxiv [164] + 7. Ali ben Bekkar and Shemsennehar clxix [169] + 8. Noureddin Ali and the Damsel Enis el Jelis cxcix [199] + 9. Kemerezzeman and Budour ccxviii [218] + 10. The Enchanted Horse ccxliv [244] + 11. The Voyages of Sindbad the Sailor ccl [250] + a. The First Voyage of Sindbad the Sailor cclii [252] + b. The Second Voyage of Sindbad the Sailor ccliii [253] + c. The Third Voyage of Sindbad the Sailor cclv [255] + d. The Fourth Voyage of Sindbad the Sailor cclix [259] + e. The Fifth Voyage of Sindbad the Sailor cclxiii [263] + f. The Sixth Voyage of Sindbad the Sailor cclxvi [266] + g. The Seventh Voyage of Sindbad the Sailor cclxix [269] + 12. Asleep and Awake cclxxi [271] + a. The Lackpenny and the Cook cclxxiii [273] + 13. Seif el Mulouk and Bediya el-Jemal ccxci [291] + 14. Khelif the Fisherman[FN#459] cccxxi [321] + 15. Ghanim ben Eyoub the Slave of Love cccxxxii [332] + a. Story of the Eunuch Sewab[FN#460] cccxxxiv [334] + b. Story of the Eunuch Kafour cccxxxiv [334] + 16. Uns el Wujoud and the Vizier's Daughter Rose-in-bud cccxli [341] + 17. The Merchant of Oman cccliv [354] + 18. Ardeshir and Heyat en Nufous ccclxiv [364] + 19. Hassan of Bassora and the King's Daughter of the Jinn ccclxxxvi [386] + 20. Haroun er Rashid and the Three Poets ccccxxxii [432] + 21. Omar ben Abdulaziz and the Poets ccccxxxii [432] + 22. El Hejjaj and the Three Young Men ccccxxxiv [434] + 23. Er Reshid and the Woman of the Barmecides ccccxxxiv [434] + 24. The Ten Viziers; or the History of King Azadbekht and his Son ccccxxxv [435] + a. The Unlucky Merchant ccccxl [440] + b. The Merchant and his Sons ccccxliv [444] + c. Abu Sabir ccccxlviii [448] + d. Prince Bihzad ccccliii [453] + e. King Dadbin and his Viziers cccclv [455] + f. King Bekhtzeman cccclxi [461] + g. King Bihkerd cccclxiv [464] + h. Ilan Shah and Abou Temam cccclxvi [466] + i. King Ibrahim and his Son cccclxxi [471] + j. King Suleiman Shah and his Sons cccclxxv [475] + k. The Prisoner and how God gave him Relief cccclxxxv [485] + 25. The City of Brass cccclxxxvii [487] + 26. Nimeh ben er Rebya and Num his Slave-girl di [501] + 27. Alaeddin Abou es Shamat dxx [520] + 28. Hatim Tai; his Generosity after Death dxxxi [531] + 29. Maan ben Zaideh and the three Girls dxxxii [532] + 30. Maan ben Zaideh and the Bedouin dxxxii [532] + 31. The City of Lebtait dxxxii [532] + 32. The Khalif Hisham and the Arab Youth dxxxiv [534] + 33. Ibrahim ben el Mehdi and the Barber-Surgeon dxxxiv [534] + 34. The City of Iram dxxxviii [538] + 35. Isaac of Mosul's Story of Khedijeh and the Khalif Mamoun dxl [540] + 36. The Mock Khalif dxliii [543] + 37. The Imam Abou Yousuf with Er Reshid and Jaafar dlv [555] + 38. The Lover who feigned himself a Thief to save his Mistress's + Honour dlvii [557] + 39. Abou Mohammed the Lazy dlviii [558] + 40. Jaafar ben Yehya and Abdulmelik ben Salih dlxv [565] + 41. Jaafar ben Yehya[FN#461] and the Man who forged a Letter in + his Name dlxvi [566] + 42. Er Reshid and the Barmecides dlxvii [567] + 43. Ibn es Semmak and Er Reshid dlxviii [568] + 44. El Mamoun and Zubeideh dlxviii [568] + 45. Ali Shir[FN#462] and Zummurrud dlxix [569] + 46. The Loves of Budour and Jubeir ben Umeir dlxxxvii [587] + 47. The Man of Yemen and his Six Slave-girls dxcv [595] + 48. Haroun Er Reshid with the Damsel and Abou Nuwas dc [600] + 49. The Man who stole the Dog's Dish of Gold dcii [602] + 50. El Melik en Nasir and the Three Masters of Police dciii [603] + a. Story of the Chief of the New Cairo Police dciv [604] + b. Story of the Chief of the Boulac Police dcv [605] + c. Story of the Chief of the Old Cairo Police dcv [605] + 51. The Thief and the Money-changer dcv [605] + 52. Ibrahim ben el Mehdi and the Merchant's Sister dcvi [606] + 53. King Kelyaad[FN#463] of Hind and his Vizier Shimas dcix [609] + a. The Cat and the Mouse dcix [609] + b. The Fakir and his Pot of Butter dcx [610] + c. The Fishes and the Crab dcxi [611] + d. The Crow and the Serpent dcxi [611] + e. The Fox and the Wild Ass dcxi [611] + f. The Unjust King and the Pilgrim Prince dcxii [612] + g. The Crows and the Hawk dcxiii [613] + h. The Serpent-Charmer and his Wife dcxiv [614] + i. The Spider and the Wind dcxv [615] + j. The Two Kings dcxvi [616] + k. The Blind Man and the Cripple dcxvi [616] + 1. The Foolish Fisherman dcxxvi [626] + m. The Boy and the Thieves dcxxvii [627] + n. The Man and his Wilful Wife dcxxvii [627] + o. The Merchant and the Thieves dcxxix [629] + p. The Foxes and the Wolf dcxxx [630] + q. The Shepherd and the Thief dcxxxii [632] + r. The Heathcock and the Tortoises dcxxxiv [634] + 54. The Woman whose Hands were cut off for Almsgiving dcxli [641] + 55. The Poor Man and His Generous Friend dcxliii [643] + 56. The Ruined Man who became Rich again through a Dream dcxliv [644] + 57. Abou Nuwas with the Three Boys and the Khalif Haroun er Reshid dcxlv [645] + 58. The Lovers of the Benou Udhreh[FN#464] dcxlvi [646] + 59. El Mutelemmis and his Wife Umeimeh dcxlviii [648] + 60. Haroun er Reshid and Zubeideh in the Bath dcxlviii [648] + 61. Musab ben ez Zubeir and Aaisheh his Wife dcxlix [649] + 62. Aboulaswed and his Squinting Slave-girl dcli [651] + 63. Haroun er Reshid and the Two Girls dcli [651] + 64. Haroun er Reshid and the Three Girls dcli [651] + 65. The Simpleton and the Sharper dclii [652] + 66. The Imam Abou Yousuf with Er Reshid and Zubeideh dclii [652] + 67. The Khalif El Hakim and the Merchant dcliii [653] + 68. Kisra Anoushirwan and the Village Damsel dcliii [653] + 69. The Water-Carrier and the Goldsmith's Wife dcliv [654] + 70. Khusrau and Shirin and the Fisherman dclvi [656] + 71. Yehya ben Khalid and the Poor Man dclvi [656] + 72. Mohammed el Amin and Jaafar ben el Hadi dclvii [657] + 73. The Woman's Trick against her Husband dclviii [658] + 74. The Devout Woman and the Two Wicked Elders dclix [659] + 75. El Fezl ben Rebiya[FN#465] and the Old Bedouin dclx [660] + 76. En Numan and the Arab of the Benou Tai dclx [660] + 77. The Draper and the Thief[FN#466] dclxi [661] + 78. Mesrour and Ibn el-Caribi dclxii [662] + 79. The Devout Prince dclxiv [664] + 80. The Schoolmaster who fell in Love by Report dclxv [665] + 81. The Foolish Schoolmaster dclxvi [666] + 82. The Ignorant Man who set up for a Schoolmaster dclxvii [667] + 83. Adi ben Zeid and the Princess Hind dclxviii [668] + 84. Dibil el Khuzai; with the Lady and Muslim ben el Welid dclxx [670] + 85. Isaac of Mosul and the Merchant dclxx [670] + 86. The Three Unfortunate Lovers dclxxii [672] + 87. The Lovers of the Benou Tai dclxxiii [673] + 88. The Mad Lover dclxxiv [674] + 89. Firouz and his Wife dclxxv [675] + 90. The Apples of Paradise dclxxvi [676] + 91. The Loves of Abou Isa and Curret el Ain dclxxviii [678] + 92. El Amin and his Uncle Ibrahim ben el Mehdi dclxxxii [682] + 93. El Feth ben Khacan and El Mutawekkil dclxxxiii [683] + 94. The Man's Dispute with the Learned Woman of the relative + Excellence of the Sexes dclxxxiii [683] + 95. Abou Suweid and the Handsome Old woman dclxxxvii [687] + 96. Ali ben Tahir and the Girl Mounis dclxxxviii [688] + 97. The Woman who had a Boy and the other who had a Man to Lover dclxxxviii [688] + 98. The Haunted House in Baghdad dclxxxviii [688] + 99. The History of Gherib and his brother Agib dcxcviii [698] +100. The Rogueries of Delileh the Crafty and her daughter + Zeyneb the Trickstress dcclvi [756] +101. The Adventures of Quicksilver Ali of Cairo dcclxvi [766] +102. Joudar and his Brothers dcclxxvi [776] +103. Julnar of the Sea and her Son King Bedr Basim of Persia dccxciv [794] +104. Mesrour and Zein el Mewasif dcccxxi [821] +105. Ali Noureddin and the Frank King's Daughter dcccxxxi [831] +106. The Man of Upper Egypt and his Frank Wife dccclxii [862] +107. The Ruined Man of Baghdad and his Slave-girl dccclxiv [864] +108. Aboukir the Dyer and Abousir the Barber dccclxvii [867] +109. Abdallah the Fisherman and Abdallah the Merman dccclxxvii [877] +110. King Shah Bekht and his Vizier Er Rehwan dccclxxxv [885] + a. The Man of Khorassan, his Son and his Governor dccclxxxvi [886] + b. The Singer and the Druggist dccclxxxviii [888] + c. The King who knew the Quintessence of Things dcccxci [891] + d. The Rich Man who gave his Fair Daughter in Marriage to + the Poor Old Man dcccxcii [892] + e. The Rich Man and his Wasteful Son dcccxciii [893] + f. The King's Son who fell in Love with the Picture dcccxciv [894] + g. The Fuller and his Wife dcccxcvi [896] + h. The Old Woman, the Merchant and the King dcccxcvi [896] + i. The Credulous Husband dcccxcviii [898] + j. The Unjust King and the Tither dcccxcix [899] + ja. Story of David and Solomon dcccxcix [899] + k. The Thief and the Woman dcccxcix [899] + l. The Three Men and our Lord Jesus dcccci [901] + la. The Disciple's Story dcccci [901] + m. The Dethroned King whose Kingdom and Good were Restored + to Him dcccci [901] + n. The Man whose Caution was the Cause of his Death dcccciii [903] + o. The Man who was lavish of his House and his Victual to + one whom he knew not dcccciv [904] + p. The Idiot and the Sharper dccccv [905] + q. Khelbes and his Wife and the Learned Man dccccvi [906] + r. The Pious Woman accused of Lewdness dccccvii [907] + s. The Journeyman and the Girl dccccix [909] + t. The Weaver who became a Physician by his Wife's Commandment dccccix [909] + u. The Two Sharpers who cheated each his Fellow dccccxi [911] + v. The Sharpers with the Money-Changer and the Ass dccccxiv [914] + w. The Sharper and the Merchants dccccxv [915] + wa. The Hawk and the Locust dccccxvi [916] + x. The King and his Chamberlain's Wife dccccxvii [917] + xa. The Old Woman and the Draper's Wife dccccxvii [917] + y. The foul-favoured Man and his Fair Wife dccccxviii [918] + z. The King who lost Kingdom and Wife and Wealth and God + restored them to him dccccxvix [919] + za. Selim and Selma dccccxxii [922] + zb. The King of Hind and his Vizier dccccxxviii [928] +111. El Melik er Zahir Rukneddin Bibers el Bunducdari and + the Sixteen Officers of Police dccccxxx [930] + a. The First Officer's Story dccccxxx [930] + b. The Second Officer's Story dccccxxxii [932] + c. The Third Officer's Story dccccxxxii [932] + d. The Fourth Officer's Story dccccxxxiv [934] + e. The Fifth Officer's Story dccccxxxiv [934] + f. The Sixth Officer's Story dccccxxxiv [934] + g. The Seventh Officer's Story dccccxxxiv [934] + h. The Eighth Officer's Story dccccxxxv [935] + ha. The Thief's Story dccccxxxviii [938] + i. The Ninth Officer's Story dccccxxxviii [938] + j. The Tenth Officer's Story dccccxxxviii [938] + k. The Eleventh Officer's Story dccccxxxviii [938] + l. The Twelfth Officer's Story dccccxxxxix [939] + m. The Thirteenth Officer's Story dcccccxxxix [939] + n. The Fourteenth Officer's Story dccccxxxxix [939] + na. A Merry Jest of a Thief dccccxl [940] + nb. Story of the Old Sharper dccccxl [940] + o. The Fifteenth Officer's Story dccccxl [940] + p. The Sixteenth Officer's Story dccccxl [940] +112. Abdallah ben Nafi and the King's Son of Cashghar dccccxli [941] + a. Story of Tuhfet el Culoub and Haroun er Reshid dccccxlii [942] +113. Noureddin Ali and Sitt el Milah dcccclviii [958] +114. El Abbas and the King's Daughter of Baghdad dcccclxvi [966] +115. The Malice of Women dcccclxxix [979] + a. The King and his Vizier's Wife dcccclxxx [980] + b. The Merchant's Wife and the Parrot dcccclxxx [980] + c. The Fuller and his Son dcccclxxx [980] + d. The Lover's Trick against the Chaste Wife dcccclxxx [980] + e. The Niggard and the Loaves of Bread dcccclxxx [980] + f. The Lady and her Two Lovers dcccclxxx [980] + g. The King's Son and the Ogress dcccclxxxv [985] + h. The Drop of Honey dcccclxxxvi [986] + i. The Woman who make her Husband Sift Dust dcccclxxxvi [986] + j. The Enchanted Springs dcccclxxxvi [986] + k. The Vizier's Son and the Bathkeeper's Wife dcccclxxxviii [988] + 1. The Wife's Device to Cheat her Husband dcccclxxxix [989] + m. The Goldsmith and the Cashmere Singing-Girl dccccxc [990] + n. The Man who never Laughed again dccccxci [991] + o. The King's Son and the Merchant's Wife dccccxciii [993] + p. The Man who saw the Night of Power dccccxciii [993] + q. The Stolen Necklace dccccxciv [994] + r. Prince Behram of Persia and the Princess Ed Detma dccccxciv [994] + s. The House with the Belvedere dccccxcv [995] + t. The Sandalwood Merchant and the Sharpers dccccxcviii [998] + u. The Debauchee and the Three-year-old Child dccccxcviii [998] + v. The Stolen Purse dccccxcix [999] + w. The Fox and the Folk[FN#467] m [1000] +116. The Two Kings and the Vizier's Daughters mi [1001] +117. The Favourite and her Lover mi [1001] +118. The Merchant of Cairo and the Favourite of the Khalif + El Mamoun El Hakim bi Amrillah mi [1001] + Conclusion. + + + + + INDEX IV.--C. + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS OF THE MCNAUGHTEN OR TURNER MACAN TEXT (1839-42) AND + BULAK EDITION (A.H. 1251 = A.D. 1835-36) OF THE ARABIC TEXT OF + THE BOOK OF THE THOUSAND NIGHTS AND A NIGHT; AS TRANSLATED BY + MR. JOHN PAYNE. + + Night +INTRODUCTION.--Story of King Shehriyar and his Brother + a. Story of the Ox and the Ass + 1. The Merchant and the Genie i [1] + a. The First Old Man's Story i [1] + b. The Second Old Man's Story ii [2] + c. The Third Old Man's Story ii [2] + 2. The Fisherman and the Genie iii [3] + a. Story of the Physician Douban iv [4] + aa. Story of King Sindbad and his Falcon[FN#468] v [5] + ab. Story of the King's Son and the Ogress v [5] + b. Story of the Enchanted Youth vii [7] + 3. The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad ix [9] + a. The First Calender's Story xi [11] + b. The Second Calender's Story xii [12] + ba. Story of the Envier and the Envied[FN#469] xiii [13] + c. The Third Calender's Story xiv [14] + d. The Eldest Lady's Story xvii [17] + e. The Story of the Portress xviii [18] + 4. The Three Apples xix [19] + 5. Noureddin Ali of Cairo and his Son Bedreddin Hassan xx [20] + 6. Story of the Hunchback xxv [25] + a. The Christian Broker's Story xxv [25] + b. The Controller's Story xxvii [27] + c. The Jewish Physician's Story xxviii [28] + d. The Tailor's Story xxix [29] + e. The Barber's Story xxxi [31] + ea. Story of the Barber's First Brother xxxi [31] + eb. Story of the Barber's Second Brother xxxi [31] + ec. Story of the Barber's Third Brother xxxii [32] + ed. Story of the Barber's Fourth Brother xxxii [32] + ee. Story of the Barber's Fifth Brother xxxii [32] + ef. Story of the Barber's Sixth Brother xxxiii [33] + 7. Noureddin Ali and the Damsel Enis el Jelis xxxiv [34] + 8. Ghanim ben Eyoub the Slave of Love xxxix [39] + a. Story of the Eunuch Bekhit xxxix [39] + b. Story of the Eunuch Kafour xxxix [39] + 9. The History of King Omar ben Ennuman and his Sons Sherkan + and Zoulmekan xlv [45] + a. Story of Taj el Mulouk and the Princess Dunya cvii [107] + aa. Story of Aziz and Azizeh cvii [107] + b. Bakoun's Story of the Hashish-Eater cxliii [143] + c. Hemmad the Bedouin's Story cxliv [144] + 10. The Birds and Beasts and the Son of Adam cxlvi [146] + 11. The Hermits cxlviii [148] + 12. The Waterfowl and the Tortoise cxlviii [148] + 13. The Wolf and the Fox cxlviii [148] + a. The Hawk and the Partridge cxlix [149] + 14. The Mouse and the Weasel cl [150] + 15. The Cat and the Crow cl [150] + 16. The Fox and the Crow cl [150] + a. The Mouse and the Flea cli [151] + b. The Falcon and the Birds clii [152] + c. The Sparrow and the Eagle clii [152] + 17. The Hedgehog and the Pigeons clii [152] + a. The Merchant and the Two Sharpers clii [152] + 18. The Thief and his Monkey clii [152] + a. The Foolish Weaver clii [152] + 19. The Sparrow and the Peacock clii [152] + 20. Ali ben Bekkar and Shemsennehar cliii [153] + 21. Kemerezzeman and Budour clxx [170] + a. Nimeh ben er Rebya and Num his Slave-girl ccxxxvii [237] + 22. Alaeddin Abou esh Shamat ccl [250] + 23. Hatim et Taï; his Generosity after Death cclxx [270] + 24. Maan ben Zaïdeh and the three Girls cclxxi [271] + 25. Maan ben Zaïdeh and the Bedouin cclxxi [271] + 26. The City of Lebtait cclxxii [272] + 27. The Khalif Hisham and the Arab Youth cclxxii [272] + 28. Ibrahim ben el Mehdi and the Barber-surgeon cclxxiii [273] + 29. The City of Irem cclxxvi [276] + 30. Isaac of Mosul's Story of Khedijeh and the Khalif Mamoun cclxxix [279] + 31. The Scavenger and the Noble Lady of Baghdad cclxxxii [282] + 32. The Mock Khalif cclxxxvi [286] + 33. Ali the Persian and the Kurd Sharper ccxciv [294] + 34. The Imam Abou Yousuf with Haroun er Reshid and his Vizier + Jaafer ccxcvi [296] + 35. The Lover who feigned himself a Thief to save his Mistress's + Honour ccxcvii [297] + 36. Jaafer the Barmecide and the Bean-Seller ccxcix [299] + 37. Abou Mohammed the Lazy ccc [300] + 38. Yehya ben Khalid and Mensour cccv [305] + 39. Yehya ben Khalid and the Man who forged a Letter in his Name cccvi [306] + 40. The Khalif El Mamoun and the Strange Doctor cccvii [307] + 41. Ali Shar and Zumurrud cccviii [308] + 42. The Loves of Jubeir ben Umeir and the Lady Budour cccxxvii [327] + 43. The Man of Yemen and his six Slave-girls cccxxxiv [334] + 44. Haroun er Reshid with the Damsel and Abou Nuwas cccxxxviii [338] + 45. The Man who stole the Dog's Dish of Gold cccxl [340] + 46. The Sharper of Alexandria and the Master of Police cccxli [341] + 47. El Melik en Nasir and the three Masters of Police cccxliii [343] + a. Story of the Chief of the New Cairo Police cccxliii [343] + b. Story of the Chief of the Boulac Police cccxliv [344] + c. Story of the Chief of the Old Cairo Police cccxliv [344] + 48. The Thief and the Money-Changer cccxliv [344] + 49. The Chief of the Cous Police and the Sharper cccxlv [345] + 50. Ibrahim ben el Mehdi and the Merchant's Sister cccxlvi [346] + 51. The Woman whose Hands were cut off for Almsgiving cccxlviii [348] + 52. The Devout Israelite cccxlviii [348] + 53. Abou Hassan ez Ziyadi and the Man from Khorassan cccxlix [349] + 54. The Poor Man and his Generous Friend cccli [351] + 55. The Ruined Man who became Rich again through a Dream cccli [351] + 56. El Mutawekkil and his Favourite Mehboubeh cccli [351] + 57. Werdan the Butcher's Adventure with the Lady and the Bear cccliii [353] + 58. The King's Daughter and the Ape ccclv [355] + 59. The Enchanted Horse ccclvii [357] + 60. Uns el Wujoud and the Vizier's Daughter Rose-in-bud ccclxxi [371] + 61. Abou Nuwas with the three Boys and the Khalif Haroun er + Reshid ccclxxxi [381] + 62. Abdallah ben Maamer with the Man of Bassora and his + Slave-girl ccclxxxiii [383] + 63. The Lovers of the Benou Udhreh ccclxxxiii [383] + 64. The Vizier of Yemen and his young Brother ccclxxxiv [384] + 65. The Loves of the Boy and Girl at School ccclxxxv [385] + 66. El Mutelemmis and his Wife Umeimeh ccclxxxv [385] + 67. Haroun er Reshid and Zubeideh in the Bath ccclxxxv [385] + 68. Haroun er Reshid and the three Poets ccclxxxvi [386] + 69. Musab ben er Zubeir and Aaisheh his Wife ccclxxxvi [386] + 70. Aboulaswed and his squinting Slave-girl ccclxxxvii [387] + 71. Haroun er Reshid and the two Girls ccclxxxvii [387] + 72. Haroun er Reshid and the three Girls ccclxxxvii [387] + 73. The Miller and his Wife ccclxxxvii [387] + 74. The Simpleton and the Sharper ccclxxxviii [388] + 75. The Imam Abou Yousuf with Haroun er Reshid and Zubeideh ccclxxxviii [388] + 76. The Khalif El Hakim and the Merchant ccclxxxix [389] + 77. King Kisra Anoushirwan and the Village Damsel ccclxxxix [389] + 78. The Water-Carrier and the Goldsmith's Wife cccxc [390] + 79. Khusrau and Shirin and the Fisherman cccxci [391] + 80. Yehya ben Khalid and the Poor Man cccxci [391] + 81. Mohammed el Amin and Jaafer ben el Hadi cccxcii [392] + 82. Said ben Salim and the Barmecides cccxcii [392] + 83. The Woman's Trick against her Husband cccxciii [393] + 84. The Devout Woman and the two Wicked Elders cccxciv [394] + 85. Jaafer the Barmecide and the Old Bedouin cccxcv [395] + 86. Omar ben el Khettab and the Young Bedouin cccxcv [395] + 87. El Mamoun and the Pyramids of Egypt cccxcviii [398] + 88. The Thief turned Merchant and the other Thief cccxcviii [398] + 89. Mesrour and Ibn el Caribi cccxcix [399] + 90. The Devout Prince cccci [401] + 91. The Schoolmaster who Fell in Love by Report cccii [402] + 92. The Foolish Schoolmaster cccciii [403] + 93. The Ignorant Man who set up for a Schoolmaster cccciii [403] + 94. The King and the Virtuous Wife cccciv [404] + 95. Abdurrehman the Moor's Story of the Roc cccciv [404] + 96. Adi ben Zeid and the Princess Hind ccccv [405] + 97. Dibil el Khuzai with the Lady and Muslim ben el Welid ccccvii [407] + 98. Isaac of Mosul and the Merchant ccccvii [407] + 99. The Three Unfortunate Lovers[FN#470] ccccix [409] +100. The Lovers of the Benou Tai ccccx [410] +101. The Mad Lover ccccxi [411] +102. The Apples of Paradise ccccxii [412] +103. The Loves of Abou Isa and Curret el Ain ccccxiv [414] +104. El Amin and his Uncle Ibrahim ben el Mehdi ccccxviii [418] +105. El Feth ben Khacan and El Mutawekkil ccccxix [419] +106. The Man's Dispute with the Learned Woman of the relative + Excellence of the Sexes ccccxix [419] +107. Abou Suweid and the Handsome Old Woman ccccxxiii [423] +108. Ali ben Tahir and the Girl Mounis ccccxxiv [424] +109. The Woman who had a Boy and the other who had a Man to Lover ccccxxiv [424] +110. The Haunted House in Baghdad ccccxxiv [424] +111. The Pilgrim and the Old Woman who dwelt in the Desert ccccxxxiv [434] +112. Aboulhusn and his Slave-girl Taweddud ccccxxxvi [436] +113. The Angel of Death with the Proud King and the Devout Man cccclxii [462] +114. The Angel of Death and the Rich King cccclxii [462] +115. The Angel of Death and the King of the Children of Israel cccclxiii [463] +116. Iskender Dhoulkernein and a certain Tribe of Poor Folk cccclxiv [464] +117. The Righteousness of King Anoushirwan cccclxiv [464] +118. The Jewish Cadi and his Pious Wife cccclxv [465] +119. The Shipwrecked Woman and her Child cccclxvi [466] +120. The Pious Black Slave cccclxvii [467] +121. The Devout Platter-maker and his Wife cccclxviii [468] +122. El Hejjaj ben Yousuf and the Pious Man cccclxx [470] +123. The Blacksmith who could Handle Fire without Hurt cccclxxi [471] +124. The Saint to whom God gave a Cloud to serve Him and the + Devout King cccclxxiii [473] +125. The Muslim Champion and the Christian Lady cccclxxiv [474] +126. Ibrahim ben el Khawwas and the Christian King's Daughter cccclxxvii [477] +127. The Justice of Providence cccclxxviii [478] +128. The Ferryman of the Nile and the Hermit cccclxxix [479] +129. The King of the Island cccclxxix [479] +130. Abulhusn ed Durraj and Abou Jaafer the Leper cccclxxxi [481] +131. The Queen of the Serpents cccclxxxii [482] + a. The Adventures of Beloukiya cccclxxxvi [486] + b. The Story of Janshah ccccxcix [499] +132. Sindbad the Sailor and Sindbad the Porter dxxxvi [536] + a. The First Voyage of Sindbad the Sailor dxxxviii [538] + b. The Second Voyage of Sindbad the Sailor dxliii [543] + c. The Third Voyage of Sindbad the Sailor dxlvi [546] + d. The Fourth Voyage of Sindbad the Sailor dl [550] + e. The Fifth Voyage of Sindbad the Sailor dlvi [556] + f. The Sixth Voyage of Sindbad the Sailor dlix [559] + g. The Seventh Voyage of Sindbad the Sailor dlxiii [563] +133. The City of Brass dlxvi [566] +134. The Malice of Women dlxxviii [578] + a. The King and his Vizier's Wife dlxxviii [578] + b. The Merchant's Wife and the Parrot dlxxix [579] + c. The Fuller and his Son dlxxix [579] + d. The Lover's Trick against the Chaste Wife dlxxx [580] + e. The Niggard and the Loaves of Bread dlxxx [580] + f. The Lady and her Two Lovers dlxxxi [581] + g. The King's Son and the Ogress dlxxxi [581] + h. The Drop of Honey dlxxxii [582] + i. The Woman who made her Husband sift Dust dlxxxii [582] + j. The Enchanted Springs dlxxxii [582] + k. The Vizier's Son and the Bathkeeper's Wife dlxxxiv [584] + l. The Wife's Device to Cheat her Husband dlxxxiv [584] + m. The Goldsmith and the Cashmere Singing-girl dlxxxvi [586] + n. The Man who never Laughed again dlxxxvii [587] + o. The King's Son and the Merchant's Wife dxci [591] + p. The Page who feigned to know the Speech of Birds dxcii [592] + q. The Lady and her five Suitors dxciii [593] + r. The Man who saw the Night of Power dxcvi [596] + s. The Stolen Necklace dxcvi [596] + t. The two Pigeons dxcvii [597] + u. Prince Behram of Persia and the Princess Ed Detma dxcvii [597] + v. The House with the Belvedere dxcviii [598] + w. The King's Son and the Afrit's Mistress dcii [602] + x. The Sandal-wood Merchant and the Sharpers dciii [603] + y. The Debauchee and the Three-year-old Child dcv [605] + z. The Stolen Purse dcv [605] +135. Jouder and his Brothers dcvi [606] +136. The History of Gherib and his Brother Agib dcxxiv [624] +137. Otbeh and Reyya dclxxx [680] +138. Hind Daughter of En Numan and El Hejjaj dclxxxi [681] +139. Khuzeimeh ben Bishr and Ikrimeh el Feyyaz dclxxxii [682] +140. Younus the Scribe and the Khalif Welid ben Sehl dclxxxiv [684] +141. Haroun er Reshid and the Arab Girl dclxxxv [685] +142. El Asmai and the three Girls of Bassora dclxxxvi [686] +143. Ibrahim of Mosul and the Devil dclxxxvii [687] +144. The Lovers of the Benou Udhreh dclxxxviii [688] +145. The Bedouin and his Wife dcxci [691] +146. The Lovers of Bassora dcxciii [693] +147. Isaac of Mosul and his Mistress and the Devil dcxcv [695] +148. The Lovers of Medina dcxcvi [696] +149. El Melik en Nasir and his Vizier dcxcvii [697] +150. The Rogueries of Delileh the Crafty and her Daughter Zeyneb + the Trickstress dcxcviii [698] +151. The Adventures of Quicksilver Ali of Cairo: a Sequel to the + Rogueries of Delileh the Crafty dccviii [708] +152. Ardeshir and Heyat en Nufous dccxix [719] +153. Julnar of the Sea and her Son King Bedr Basim of Persia dccxxxviii [738] +154. King Mohammed ben Sebaik and the Merchant Hassan dcclvi [756] + a. Story of Prince Seif el Mulouk and the Princess Bediya + el Jemal dcclviii [758] +155. Hassan of Bassora and the King's Daughter of the Jinn dcclxxviii [778] +156. Khelifeh the Fisherman of Baghdad dcccxxxii [832] +157. Mesrour and Zein el Mewasif dcccxlv [845] +158. Ali Noureddin and the Frank King's Daughter dccclxiii [863] +159. The Man of Upper Egypt and his Frank Wife dcccxciv [894] +160. The Ruined Man of Baghdad and his Slave girl dcccxcvi [896] +161. King Jelyaad of Hind and his Vizier Shimas: whereafter ensueth + the History of King Wird Khan son of King Jelyaad and his + Women and Viziers dcccxcix [899] + a. The Cat and the Mouse dcccc [900] + b. The Fakir and his Pot of Butter dccccii [902] + c. The Fishes and the Crab dcccciii [903] + d. The Crow and the Serpent dcccciii [903] + e. The Fox and the Wild Ass dcccciv [904] + f. The Unjust King and the Pilgrim Prince dccccv [905] + g. The Crows and the Hawk dccccvi [906] + h. The Serpent-Charmer and his Wife dccccvii [907] + i. The Spider and the Wind dccccviii [908] + j. The Two Kings dccccix [909] + k. The Blind Man and the Cripple dccccx [910] + l. The Foolish Fisherman dccccxviii [918] + m. The Boy and the Thieves dccccxviii [918] + n. The Man and his Wilful Wife dccccxix [919] + o. The Merchant and the Thieves dccccxx [920] + p. The Foxes and the Wolf dccccxxi [921] + q. The Shepherd and the Thief dccccxxi [921] + r. The Heathcock and the Tortoises dccccxxiv [924] +162. Aboukir the Dyer and Abousir the Barber dccccxxx [930] +163. Abdallah the Fisherman and Abdallah the Merman dccccxl [940] +164. The Merchant of Oman dccccxlvi [946] +165. Ibrahim and Jemileh dcccclii [952] +166. Aboulhusn of Khorassan dcccclix [959] +167. Kemerezzeman and the Jeweller's Wife dcccclxiii [963] +168. Abdallah ben Fazil and his Brothers dcccclxxviii [978] +169. Marouf the Cobbler and his Wife Fatimeh dcccclxxxix-mi [989-1001] + Conclusion. + + + + INDEX IV.--D. + + + COMPARISON OF THE SAME WITH MR. LANE'S + AND MY VERSION. + + +Introduction and + + Nos. 1 to 6 of the preceding list from Volume I. of my Edition. + + Nos. 7 to 9aa of the preceding list from Volume II. of my Edition. + (contd.) + + Nos. 9aa to 21 of the preceding list from Volume III. of my Edition. + (contd.) + + Nos. 21 to 58 of the preceding list from Volume IV. of my Edition. + (contd.) + + Nos. 59 to 131 of the preceding list from Volume V. of my Edition. + (contd.) + + Nos. 132 to 136 of the preceding list from Volume VI. of my Edition. + (contd.) + + Nos. 136 to 154a of the preceding list from Volume VII. of my Edition. + (contd.) + + Nos. 154a to 158 of the preceding list from Volume VIII. of my Edition. + (contd.) + + Nos. 158 to 168 of the preceding list from Volume IX. of my Edition. + (contd.) + + Nos. 169 and conclusion of the preceding list from Volume X. of my Edition. + +For full details, see contents pages of each of the respective Volumes. + + + + + + + + Appendix II + + + +CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE THOUSAND AND + ONE NIGHTS, AND THEIR IMITATIONS, WITH A TABLE + SHOWING THE CONTENTS OF THE PRINCIPAL EDITIONS IND + TRANSLATIONS OF THE NIGHTS. + + By W. F. KIRBY +Author of "Ed-Dimiryaht: an Oriental Romance," "The New Arabian + Nights," &c. + + + +The European editions of the Thousand and One Nights, even +excluding the hundreds of popular editions which have nothing +specially noticeable about them, are very numerous; and the +following Notes must, I am fully aware, be incomplete, though +they will, perhaps, be found useful to persons interested in the +subject. Although I believe that editions of most of the English, +French, and German versions of any importance have passed through +my hands, I have not had an opportunity of comparing many in +other languages, some of which at least may be independent +editions, not derived from Galland. The imitations and +adaptations of The Nights are, perhaps, more numerous than the +editions of The Nights themselves, if we exclude mere reprints of +Galland; and many of them are even more difficult of access. + +In the following Notes, I have sometimes referred to tales by +their numbers in the Table. + + + + + Galland's Ms. and Translation. + + + +The first MS. of The Nights known in Europe was brought to Paris +by Galland at the close of the 17th century; and his translation +was published in Paris, in twelve small volumes, under the title +of "Les Mille et une Nuit: Contes Arabes, traduits en Francois +par M. Galland." These volumes appeared at intervals between 1704 +and 1717. Galland himself died in 1715, and it is uncertain how +far he was responsible for the latter part of the work. Only the +first six of the twelve vols. are divided into Nights, vol. 6 +completing the story of Camaralzaman, and ending with Night 234. +The Voyages of Sindbad are not found in Galland's MS., though he +has intercalated them as Nights 69-90 between Nos. 3 and 4. It +should be mentioned, however, that in some texts (Bresl., for +instance) No. 133 is placed much earlier in the series than in +others. + +The stories in Galland's last six vols. may be divided into two +classes, viz., those known to occur in genuine texts of The +Nights, and those which do not. To the first category belong Nos. +7, 8, 59, 153 and 170; and some even of these are not found in +Galland's own MS., but were derived by him from other sources. +The remaining tales (Nos. 191-198) do not really belong to The +Nights; and, strange to say, although they are certainly genuine +Oriental tales, the actual originals have never been found. I am +inclined to think that Galland may, perhaps, have written and +adapted them from his recollection of stories which he himself +heard related during his own residence in the East, especially as +most of these tales appear to be derived rather from Persian or +Turkish than from Arabian sources. + +The following Preface appeared in vol. 9 which I translate from +Talander's German edition, as the original is not before me: + +"The two stories with which the eighth volume concludes do not +properly belong to the Thousand and One Nights. They were added +and printed without the previous knowledge of the translator, who +had not the slightest idea of the trick that had been played upon +him until the eighth volume was actually on sale. The reader must +not, therefore, be surprised that the story of the Sleeper +Awakened, which commences vol. 9, is written as if Scheherazade +had related it immediately after the story of Ganem, which forms +the greater part of vol. 8. Care will be taken to omit these two +stories in a new edition, as not belonging to the work." + +It is, perhaps, not to be wondered at that when the new edition +was actually published, subsequently to Galland's death, the +condemned stories were retained, and the preface withdrawn; +though No. 170 still reads as if it followed No. 8. + +The information I have been able to collect respecting the +disputed tales is very slight. I once saw a MS. advertised in an +auction catalogue (I think that of the library of the late Prof. +H. H. Wilson) as containing two of Galland's doubtful tales, but +which they were was not stated. The fourth and last volume of the +MS. used by Galland is lost; but it is almost certain that it did +not contain any of these tales (compare Payne, ix. 265 note). + +The story of Zeyn Alasnam (No. 191) is derived from the same +source as that of the Fourth Durwesh, in the well-known +Hindustani reading-book, the Bagh o Bahar. If it is based upon +this, Galland has greatly altered and improved it, and has given +it the whole colouring of a European moral fairy tale. + + +The story of Ali Baba (No. 195) is, I have been told, a Chinese +tale. It occurs under the title of the Two Brothers and the +Forty-nine Dragons in Geldart's Modern Greek Tales. It has also +been stated that the late Prof. Palmer met with a very similar +story among the Arabs of Sinai (Payne, ix. 266). + +The story of Sidi Nouman (No 194b) may have been based partly +upon the Third Shaykh's Story (No. 1c), which Galland omits. The +feast of the Ghools is, I believe, Greek or Turkish, rather than +Arabic, in character, as vampires, personified plague, and +similar horrors are much commoner in the folk-lore of the former +peoples. + +Many incidents of the doubtful, as well as of the genuine tales, +are common in European folk-lore (versions of Nos. 2 and 198, for +instance, occur in Grimm's Kinder und Hausmärchen), and some of +the doubtful tales have their analogues in Scott's MS., as will +be noticed in due course. + +I have not seen Galland's original edition in 12 vols.; but the +Stadt-Bibliothek of Frankfort-on-Main contains a copy, published +at La Haye, in 12 vols. (with frontispieces), made up of two or +more editions, as follows:-- + +Vol. i. (ed. 6) 1729; vols. ii. iii. iv. (ed. 5) 1729; vols. v. +vi. viii. (ed. 5) 1728; vol. vii. (ed. 6) 1731; vols. ix. to xi, +(ed. not noted) 1730; and vol. xii. (ed. not noted) 1731. + +The discrepancies in the dates of the various volumes look (as +Mr. Clouston has suggested) as if separate volumes were reprinted +as required, independently of the others. This might account for +vols. v. vi. and viii. of the fifth edition having been +apparently reprinted before vols. ii. iii. and iv. + +The oldest French version in the British Museum consists of the +first eight vols., published at La Haye, and likewise made up of +different editions, as follows:-- + +i. (ed. 5) 1714; ii. iii. iv. (ed. 4) 1714; v. vi. (ed. 5) 1728; +vii. (ed. 5) 1719; viii. ("suivant la copie imprimée à Paris") +1714. + +Most French editions (old and new) contain Galland's Dedication, +"À Madame la Marquise d'O., Dame du Palais de Madame la Duchesse +de Bourgogne," followed by an "Avertissement." In addition to +these, the La Haye copies have Fontenelle's Approbation prefixed +to several volumes, but in slightly different words, and bearing +different dates. December 27th, 1703 (vol. i.); April 14th, 1704 +(vol. vi.); and October 4th, 1705 (vol. vii.). This is according +to the British Museum copy; I did not examine the Frankfort copy +with reference to the Approbation. The Approbation is translated +in full in the old English version as follows: "I have read, by +Order of my Lord Chancellor, this Manuscript, wherein I find +nothing that ought to hinder its being Printed. And I am of +opinion that the Publick will be very well pleased with the +Perusal of these Oriental Stories. Paris, 27th December, 1705 +[apparently a misprint for 1703] (Signed) FONTENELLE." + +In the Paris edition of 1726 (vide infrà), Galland says in his +Dedication, "Il a fallu le faire venir de Syrie, et mettre en +François, le premier volume que voici, de quatre seulement qui +m'ont été envoyez." So, also, in a Paris edition (in eight vols. +12mo) of 1832; but in the La Haye issue of 1714, we read not +"quatre" but "six" volumes. The old German edition of Talander +(vide infrà) does not contain Galland's Dedication (Epitre) or +Avertissement. + +The earliest French editions were generally in 12 vols., or six; +I possess a copy of a six-volume edition, published at Paris in +1726. It may be the second, as the title-page designates it as +"nouvelle edition, corrigée." + +Galland's work was speedily translated into various European +languages, and even now forms the original of all the numerous +popular editions. The earliest English editions were in six +volumes, corresponding to the first six of Galland, and ending +with the story of Camaralzaman; nor was it till nearly the end of +the 18th century that the remaining half of the work was +translated into English. The date of appearance of the first +edition is unknown to bibliographers; Lowndes quotes an edition +of 1724 as the oldest; but the British Museum contains a set of +six vols., made up of portions of the second, third and fourth +editions, as follows:-- + +Vols. i. ii. (ed. 4) 1713; vols. iii. iv. (ed. 2) 1712; and vols. +v. vi. (ed. 3) 1715. + +Here likewise the separate volumes seem to have been reprinted +independently of each other; and it is not unlikely that the +English translation may have closely followed the French +publication, being issued volume by volume, as the French +appeared, as far as vol. vi. The title-page of this old edition +is very quaint: + +"Arabian Nights Entertainments, consisting of One thousand and +one Stories, told by the Sultaness of the Indies to divert the +Sultan from the Execution of a Bloody Vow he had made, to marry a +Lady every day, and have her head cut off next Morning, to avenge +himself for the Disloyalty of the first Sultaness, also +containing a better account of the Customs, Manners and Religion +of the Eastern Nations, viz., Tartars, Persians and Indians, than +is to be met with in any Author hitherto published. Translated +into French from the Arabian MSS. by Mr. Galland of the Royal +Academy, and now done into English. Printed for Andrew Bell at +the Cross Keys and Bible, in Cornhill." + +The British Museum has an edition in 4to published in 1772, in +farthing numbers, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It extends +to 79 numbers, forming five volumes. + +The various editions of the Old English version appear to be +rare, and the set in the British Museum is very poor. The oldest +edition which I have seen containing the latter half of Galland's +version is called the 14th edition, and was published in London +in four volumes, in 1778. Curiously enough, the "13th edition," +also containing the conclusion, was published at Edinburgh in +three volumes in 1780. Perhaps it is a reprint of a London +edition published before that of 1778. The Scotch appear to have +been fond of The Nights, as there are many Scotch editions both +of The Nights and the imitations. + +Revised or annotated editions by Piguenit (4 vols., London, 1792) +and Gough (4 vols., Edinburgh, 1798) may deserve a passing +notice. + +A new translation of Galland, by Rev. E. Forster, in five vols. +4to, with engravings from pictures by Robert Smirke, R.A., +appeared in 1802, and now commands a higher price than any other +edition of Galland. A new edition in 8vo appeared in 1810. Most +of the recent popular English versions are based either upon +Forster's or Scott's. + +Another translation from Galland, by G. S. Beaumont (four vols. +8vo), appeared in 1811. (Lowndes writes Wiliam Beaumont.) + +Among the various popular editions of later date we may mention +an edition in two vols., 8vo, published at Liverpool (1813), and +containing Cazotte's Continuation; an edition published by +Griffin and Co., in 1866, to which Beckford's "Vathek" is +appended; an edition "arranged for the perusal of youthful +readers," by the Hon. Mrs. Sugden (Whittaker & Co., 1863); and +"Five Favourite Tales from The Arabian Nights in words of one +syllable, by A. & E. Warner" (Lewis, 1871). + +Some of the English editions of Galland aim at originality by +arranging the tales in a different order. The cheap edition +published by Dicks in 1868 is one instance. + +An English version of Galland was published at Lucknow, in four +vols., 8vo, in 1880. + +I should, perhaps, mention that I have not noticed De Sacy's +"Mille et une Nuit," because it is simply a new edition of +Galland; and I have not seen either Destain's French edition +(mentioned by Sir R. F. Burton), nor Cardonne's Continuation +(mentioned in Cabinet des Fées, xxxvii. p. 83). As Cardonne died +in 1784, his Continuation, if genuine, would be the earliest of +all. + +The oldest German version, by Talander, seems to have appeared in +volumes, as the French was issued; and these volumes were +certainly reprinted when required, without indication of separate +editions, but in slightly varied style, and with alteration of +date. The old German version is said to be rarer than the French. +It is in twelve parts--some, however, being double. The set +before me is clearly made up of different reprints, and the first +title-page is as follows: "Die Tausend und eine Nacht, worinnen +seltzame Arabische Historien und wunderbare Begebenheiten, +benebst artigen Liebes-Intriguen, auch Sitten und Gewohnheiten +der Morgenländer, auf sehr anmuthige Weise, erzehlet werden; +Erstlich vom Hru. Galland, der Königl. Academie Mitgliede aus der +Arabischen Sprache in die Französische und aus selbiger anitzo +ins Deutsche übersetzt: Erster und Anderer Theil. Mit der Vorrede +Herru Talanders. Leipzig Verlegts Moritz Georg Weidmann Sr. +Konigl. Maj. in Hohlen und Churfürstl. Durchl. zu Sachsen +Buchhändler, Anno 1730." Talander's Preface relates chiefly to +the importance of the work as illustrative of Arabian manners and +customs, &c. It is dated from "Liegnitz, den 7 Sept., Anno 1710," +which fixes the approximate date of publication of the first part +of this translation. Vols. i. and ii. of my set (double vol. with +frontispiece) are dated 1730, and have Talander's preface; vols. +iii. and iv. (divided, but consecutively paged, and with only one +title-page and frontispiece and reprint of Talander's preface) +are dated 1719; vols. v. and vi. (same remarks, except that +Talander's preface is here dated 1717) are dated 1737; vol. vii. +(no frontispiece; preface dated 1710) is dated 1721; vol. viii +(no frontispiece nor preface, nor does Talander's name appear on +the title-page) is dated 1729; vols. ix. and x. (divided, but +consecutively paged, and with only one title-page and +frontispiece; Talander's name and preface do not appear, but +Galland's preface to vol. ix., already mentioned, is prefixed) +are dated 1731; and vols. xi. and xii. (same remarks, but no +preface) are dated 1732. + +Galland's notes are translated, but not his preface and +dedication. + +There is a later German translation (6 vols. 8vo, Bremen, 1781- +1785) by J. H. Voss, the author of the standard German +translation of Homer. + +The British Museum has just acquired a Portuguese translation of +Galland, in 4 volumes: "As Mil e uma Noites, Contos Arabes," +published by Ernesto Chardron, Editor, Porto e Braga, 1881. + +There are two editions of a modern Greek work in the British +Museum (1792 and 1804), published at Venice in three small +volumes. The first volume contains Galland (Nos. 1-6 of the +table) and vols. ii. and iii. chiefly contain the Thousand and +One Days. It is, apparently, translated from some Italian work. + +Several editions in Italian (Mille ed una Notte) have appeared at +Naples and Milan; they are said by Sir R. F. Burton to be mere +reprints of Galland. + +There are, also, several in Dutch, one of which, by C. Van der +Post, in 3 vols. 8vo, published at Utrecht in 1848, purports, I +believe, to be a translation from the Arabic, and has been +reprinted several times. The Dutch editions are usually entitled, +"Arabische Vertellinge." A Danish edition appeared at Copenhagen +in 1818, under the title of "Prindsesses Schehezerade. +Fortällinger eller de saakatle Tusende og een Nat. Udgivna paa +Dansk vid Heelegaan." Another, by Rasmassen, was commenced in +1824; and a third Danish work, probably founded on the Thousand +and One Nights, and published in 1816, bears the title, "Digt og +Eventyr fra Osterland, af arabiska og persischen utrykta kilder." + +I have seen none of these Italian, Dutch or Danish editions; but +there is little doubt that most, if not all, are derived from +Galland's work. + +The following is the title of a Javanese version, derived from +one of the Dutch editions, and published at Leyden in 1865, +"Eenige Vertellingen uit de Arabisch duizend en één Nacht. Naar +de Nederduitsche vertaling in het Javaansch vertaald, door +Winter-Roorda." + +Mr. A. G. Ellis has shown me an edition of Galland's Aladdin (No. +193) in Malay, by M. Van der Lawan (?) printed in Batavia, A.D. +1869. + + + + + CAZZOTTE'S CONTINUATION, AND THE COMPOSITE EDITIONS OF + THE ARABIAN NIGHTS. + + + +We shall speak elsewhere of the Cabinet des Fées; but the last +four volumes of this great collection (38 to 41), published at +Geneva from 1788 to 1793, contain a work entitled, "Les Veillées +du Sultan Schahriar avec la Sultane Scheherazade; histoires +incroyables, amusantes et morales, traduites de l'arabe par M. +Cazotte et D. Chavis. Faisant suite aux Mille et une Nuits." Some +copies bear the abridged title of "La suite des Mille et une +Nuits. Contes Arabes, traduits par Dom Chavis et M. Cazotte." + +This collection of tales was pronounced to be spurious by many +critics, and even has been styled "a bare-faced forgery" by a +writer in the Edinburgh Review of July, 1886. It is, however, +certain that the greater part, if not all, of these tales are +founded on genuine Eastern sources, though very few have any real +claim to be regarded as actually part of the Thousand and One +Nights. + +Translations of the originals of most of these tales have been +published by Caussin de Perceval and Gauttier; and a comparison +clearly shows the great extent to which Chavis and Cazotte have +altered, amplified and (in a literary sense) improved their +materials. + +It is rather surprising that no recent edition of this work seems +to have been issued, perhaps owing to the persistent doubts cast +upon its authenticity, only a few of the tales, and those not the +best, having appeared in different collections. My friend, Mr. A. +G. Ellis, himself an Oriental scholar, has remarked to me that he +considers these tales as good as the old "Arabian Nights"; and I +quite agree with him that Chavis and Cazotte's Continuation is +well worthy of re-publication in its entirety. + +The following are the principal tales comprised in this +collection, those included in our Table from later authors being +indicated. + +1. The Robber Caliph, or the Adventures of Haroun Alraschid with +the Princess of Persia, and the beautiful Zutulbe. (No. 246.) + +2. The Power of Destiny, being the History of the Journey of +Giafar to Damas, containing the Adventures of Chelih and his +Family. (No. 280.) + +3. History of Halechalbe and the Unknown Lady. (No. 204c.) + +4. Story of Xailoun the Idiot. + +5. The Adventures of Simoustapha and the Princess Ilsetilsone. +(No. 247.) + +6. History of Alibengiad, Sultan of Herak, and of the False Birds +of Paradise. + +7. History of Sinkarib and his Two Viziers. (No. 249.) + +8. History of the Family of the Schebandad of Surat. + +9. Story of Bohetzad and his Ten Viziers. (No. 174.) + +10. Story of Habib and Dorathil-Goase. (No. 251.) + +11. History of the Maugraby, or the Magician. + +Of these, Nos. 4, 6, 8 and 11 only are not positively known in +the original. No. 11 is interesting, as it is the seed from which +Southey's "Thalaba the Destroyer" was derived. + +On the word Maugraby, which means simply Moor, Cazotte has the +following curious note: "Ce mot signifie barbare, barbaresque +plus proprement. On jure encore par lui en Provence, en +Languedoc, et en Gascogne Maugraby; ou ailleurs en France +Meugrebleu." + +The Domdaniel, where Zatanai held his court with Maugraby and his +pupilmagicians, is described as being under the sea near Tunis. +In Weil's story of Joodar and Mahmood (No. 201) the Magician +Mahmood is always called the Moor of Tunis. + +No. 3 (=our No. 204c) contains the additional incident of the +door opened only once a year which occurs in our No. 9a, aa. + +Moore probably took the name Namouna from Cazotte's No. 5, in +which it occurs. In the same story we find a curious name of a +Jinniyah, Setelpedour. Can it be a corruption of Sitt El Budoor? + +For further remarks on Cazotte's Continuation, compare Russell's +History of Aleppo, i. p. 385; and Russell and Scott, Ouseley's +Oriental Collections, i. pp. 246, 247; ii. p. 25; and the +"Gentleman's Magazine" for February, 1779. + +An English version under the title "Arabian Tales, or a +Continuation of the Arabian Nights' Entertainments," translated +by Robert Heron, was published in Edinburgh in 1792 in 4 vols., +and in London in 1794 in 3 vols. It was reprinted in Weber's +"Tales of the East" (Edinburgh, 1812); and, as already mentioned, +is included in an edition of the Arabian Nights published in +Liverpool in 1813. + +A German translation forms vols. 5 to 8 of the "Blaue +Bibliothek," published in Gotha in 1790 and 1791; and the British +Museum possesses vols. 3 and 4 of a Russian edition, published at +Moscow in 1794 and 1795, which is erroneously entered in the +catalogue as the Arabian Nights in Russian. + +Respecting the work of Chavis and Cazotte, Sir R. F. Burton +remarks, "Dom Dennis Chavis was a Syrian priest of the order of +Saint Bazil, who was invited to Paris by the learned minister, +Baron Arteuil, and he was assisted by M. Cazotte, a French +author, then well known, but wholly ignorant of Arabic. These +tales are evidently derived from native sources; the story of +Bohetzad (King Bakhtiyar) and his Ten Wazirs is taken bodily from +the Bres. Edit. [not so; but the original Arabic had long been +known in the French libraries]. As regards the style and +treatment, it is sufficient to say that the authors out-Gallanded +Galland, while Heron exaggerates every fault of his original." + +The first enlarged edition of Galland in French was published by +Caussin de Perceval, at Paris, in 9 vols., 8vo (1806). In +addition to Galland's version, he added four tales (Nos. 21a, 22, +32 and 37), with which he had been furnished by Von Hammer. He +also added a series of tales, derived from MSS. in the Parisian +libraries, most of which correspond to those of Cazotte. + +The most important of the later French editions was published by +E. Gauttier in 7 vols. in 1822; it contains much new matter. At +the end, the editor gives a list of all the tales which he +includes, with arguments. He has rather oddly distributed his +material so as to make only 568 nights. The full contents are +given in our Table; the following points require more special +notice. Vol. i. Gauttier omits the Third Shaykh's story (No. 1c) +on account of its indecency, although it is really no worse than +any other story in The Nights. In the story of the Fisherman, he +has fallen into a very curious series of errors. He has +misunderstood King Yunan's reference to King Sindbad (Burton i. +p. 50) to refer to the Book of Sindibad (No. 135); and has +confounded it with the story of the Forty Vazirs, which he says +exists in Arabic as well as in Turkish. Of this latter, +therefore, he gives an imperfect version, embedded in the story +of King Yunan (No. 2a). Here it may be observed that another +imperfect French version of the Forty Vazirs had previously been +published by Petis de la Croix under the title of Turkish Tales. +A complete German version by Dr. Walter F. A. Behrnauer was +published at Leipzig in 1851, and an English version by Mr. E. J. +W. Gibb has appeared while these sheets are passing through the +press. + +Vol. ii. After No. 6 Gauttier places versions of Nos. 32 and 184 +by Langlès. The Mock Caliph is here called Aly-Chah. The other +three tales given by Caussin de Perceval from Von Hammer's MSS. +are omitted by Gauttier. Vol. v. (after No. 198) concludes with +two additional tales (Nos. 207h and 218) from Scott's version. +But the titles are changed, No. 207h being called the Story of +the Young Prince and the Green Bird, and No. 218 the Story of +Mahmood, although there is another story of Mahmood in vol. 1. +(==No. 135m) included as part of the Forty Vazirs. + +Vol. vi. includes the Ten Vazirs (No. 174), derived, however, not +from the Arabic, but from the Persian Bakhtyar Nameh. Three of +the subordinate tales in the Arabic version are wanting in +Gauttier's, and another is transferred to his vol. vii., but he +includes one, the King and Queen of Abyssinia (No. 252), which +appears to be wanting in the Arabic. The remainder of the volume +contains tales from Scott's version, the title of Mazin of +Khorassaun (No. 215) being altered to the Story of Azem and the +Queen of the Genii. + +Vol. vii. contains a series of tales of which different versions +of six only (Nos. 30, 174, 246, 248, 249 and 250) were previously +published. Though these have no claim to be considered part of +The Nights, they are of sufficient interest to receive a passing +mention, especially as Gauttier's edition seems not to have been +consulted by any later writer on The Nights, except Habicht, who +based his own edition mainly upon it. Those peculiar to +Gauttier's edition are therefore briefly noticed. + +Princess Ameny (No. 253)--A princess who leaves home disguised as +a man, and delivers another princess from a black slave. The +episode (253b) is a story of enchantment similar to Nos. 1a-c. + +Aly Djohary (No. 254)--Story of a young man's expedition in +search of a magical remedy. + +The Princes of Cochin China (No. 255)--The princes travel in +search of their sister who is married to a Jinni, who is under +the curse of Solomon. The second succeeds in breaking the spell, +and thus rescues both his brother, his sister, and the Jinni by +killing a bird to which the destiny of the last is attached. +(This incident is common in fiction; we find it in the genuine +Nights in Nos. 154a and 201.) + +The Wife with Two Husbands (No. 256)--A well-known Eastern story; +it may be found in Wells' "Mehemet the Kurd," pp. 121-127, taken +from the Forty Vazirs. Compare Gibbs, the 24th Vazir's Story, pp. +257-266. + +The Favourite (No. 257)--One of the ordinary tales of a man +smuggled into a royal harem in a chest (compare Nos. 6b and 166). + +Zoussouf and the Indian Merchant (No. 258)--Story of a ruined man +travelling to regain his fortune. + +Prince Benazir (No. 258)--Story of a Prince promised at his +birth, and afterwards given up by his parents to an evil Jinni, +whom he ultimately destroys. (Such promises, especially, as here, +in cases of difficult labour, are extremely common in folk-tales; +the idea probably originated in the dedication of a child to the +Gods.) Gauttier thinks that this story may have suggested that of +Maugraby to Cazotte; but it appears to me rather doubtful whether +it is quite elaborate enough for Cazotte to have used it in this +manner. + +Selim, Sultan of Egypt (No. 261)--This and its subordinate tales +chiefly relate to unfaithful wives; that of Adileh (No. 261b) is +curious; she is restored to life by Jesus (whom Gauttier, from +motives of religious delicacy, turns into a Jinni!) to console +her disconsolate husband, and immediately betrays the latter. +These tales are apparently from the Forty Vazirs; cf. Gibbs, the +10th Vazir's Story, pp. 122-129 (= our No. 261) and the Sixth +Vazir's Story, pp. 32-84 (= No. 261b.) + +The bulk of the tales in Gauttier's vol. vii. are derived from +posthumous MSS. of M. Langlès, and several have never been +published in English. Gauttier's version of Heycar (No. 248) was +contributed by M. Agoub. + +The best-known modern German version (Tausend und Eine Nacht, +Arabische Erzahlungen, Deutsch von Max. Habicht, Fr. H. von der +Hagen und Carl Schall. Breslau, 15 vols. 12mo) is mainly based +upon Gauttier's edition, but with extensive additions, chiefly +derived from the Breslau text. An important feature of this +version is that it includes translations of the prefaces of the +various editions used by the editors, and therefore supplies a +good deal of information not always easily accessible elsewhere. +There are often brief notes at the end of the volumes. + +The fifth edition of Habicht's version is before me, dated 1840; +but the preface to vol. i. is dated 1824, which may be taken to +represent the approximate date of its first publication. The +following points in the various vols. may be specially noticed:-- + +Vol. i. commences with the preface of the German editor, setting +forth the object and scope of his edition; and the prefaces of +Gauttier and Galland follow. No. 1c, omitted by Gauttier, is +inserted in its place. Vols. ii. and iii. (No. 133), notes, +chiefly from Langlès, are appended to the Voyages of Sindbad; and +the destinations of the first six are given as follows:-- + +I. Voyage to Sumatra. IV. Voyage to the Sunda Islands. +II. Voyage to Ceylon. V. Voyage to the Sunda Islands. +III. Voyage to Selahath. VI. Voyage to Zeilan. + +Vol. v. contains an unimportant notice from Galland, with +additional remarks by the German editors, respecting the division +of the work into Nights. + +Vol. vi. contains another unimportant preface respecting Nos. 191 +and 192. + +Vol. x. Here the preface is of more importance, relating to the +contents of the volume, and especially to the Ten Vazirs (No. +174). + +Vol. xi. contains tales from Scott. The preface contains a full +account of his MSS., and the tales published in his vol. vi. This +preface is taken partly from Ouseley's Oriental Collections, and +partly from Scott's own preface. + +Vol. xii. contains tales from Gauttier, vol. vii. The preface +gives the full contents of Clarke's and Von Hammer's MSS. + +Vol. xiii. includes Caussin de Perceval's Preface, the remaining +tales from Gauttier's vol. vii. (ending with Night 568), and four +tales from Caussin which Gauttier omits (Nos. 21a, 22, 37 and +202). + +Vols. xiv. and xv. (extending from Night 884 to Night 1001) +consist of tales from the Breslau edition, to which a short +preface, signed by Dr. Max. Habicht, is prefixed. The first of +these tales is a fragment of the important Romance of Seyf Zul +Yesn (so often referred to by Lane), which seems to have been +mixed with Habicht's MS. of The Nights by mistake. (Compare +Payne, Tales, iii. 243.) + +In this fragment we have several incidents resembling The Nights; +there is a statue which sounds an alarm when an enemy enters a +city (cf. Nos. 59 and 137); Seyf himself is converted to the +faith of Abraham, and enters a city where a book written by +Japhet is preserved. The text of this story has lately been +published; and Sir R. F. Burton informs me that he thinks he has +seen a complete version in some European language; but I have not +succeeded in obtaining any particulars concerning it. + +On account of the interest and importance of the work, I append +to this section an English version of the fragment translated +into German by Habicht. (From the extreme simplicity of the +style, which I have preserved, I suspect that the translation is +considerably abridged.) + +There is an Icelandic version of The Nights (púsund og ein Nott. +Arabiskar Sögur. Kaupmannahöfn, 1857, 4 vols. roy. 8vo), which +contains Galland's tales, and a selection of others, distributed +into 1001 Nights, and apparently taken chiefly from Gauttier, but +with the addition of two or three which seem to be borrowed from +Lane (Nos. 9a, 163, 165, &c.). It is possibly derived immediately +from some Danish edition. + +There is one popular English version which may fairly be called a +composite edition; but it is not based upon Gauttier. This is the +"Select Library Edition. Arabian Nights' Entertainments, selected +and revised for general use. To which are added other specimens +of Eastern Romance. London: James Burns, 1847. 2 vols." + +It contains the following tales from The Nights: Nos. 134, 3, +133, 162, 1, 2, 155, 191, 193, 192, 194, 194a, 194c, 21, 198, +170, 6. + +No. 134 is called the City of Silence, instead of the City of +Brass, and is certainly based partly upon Lane. In No. 155, Manar +Al Sana is called Nur Al Nissa. One story, "The Wicked Dervise," +is taken from Dow's "Persian Tales of Inatulla;" another "The +Enchanters, or the Story of Misnar," is taken from the "Tales of +the Genii." Four other tales, "Jalaladdeen of Bagdad," "The two +Talismans," "The Story of Haschem," and "Jussof, the Merchant of +Balsora," clearly German imitations, are said to be translated +from the German of Grimm, and there are two others, "Abdullah and +Balsora," and "The King and his Servant," the origin of which I +do not recognise, although I think I have read the last before. + +Grimm's story of Haschem concludes with the hero's promotion to +the post of Grand Vizier to Haroun Al-Rashid, in consequence of +the desire of the aged "Giafar" to end his days in peaceful +retirement! The principal incident in Jalaladdeen, is that of the +Old Woman in the Chest, borrowed from the wellknown story of the +Merchant Abudah in the "Tales of the Genii," and it is thus an +imitation of an imitation, + + + + + THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE STORY OF SAIF ZUL YEZN (ZU'L + YAZAN) ACCORDING TO HABICHT'S GERMAN VERSION. + + + +In very ancient times, long before the age of Mohammed, there +lived a King of Yemen, named Zul Yezn. He was a Himyarite of the +race of Fubbaa (Tabbá') and had large armies and a great capital. +His Minister was named Yottreb (Yathrab == Medinat), and was well +skilled in the knowledge of the ancients. He once had a vision in +which the name of the Prophet was revealed to him, with the +announcement of his mission in later times; and he was also +informed that he would be the last of the Prophets. In +consequence of this vision he believed in the Prophet before his +advent; but he concealed his faith. One day the King held a +review of his troops, and was delighted with their number and +handsome appearance. He said to the Wazir, "Is there any person +on earth whose power can compare with mine?" "O yes," answered +the Wazir, "there is King Baal-Beg, whose troops fill the deserts +and the cultivated lands, the plains and the valleys." "I must +make war upon him, then," exclaimed the King, "and destroy his +power." He immediately ordered the army to prepare to march, and +after a few days the drums and trumpets were heard. The King and +his Wazir set forth in magnificent array, and after a rapid +march, they arrived before the holy city Medina, which may God +keep in high renown! The Wazir then said to the King, "Here is +the holy house of God, and the place of great ceremonies. No one +should enter here who is not perfectly pure, and with head and +feet bare. Pass around it with your companions, according to the +custom of the Arabs." The King was so pleased with the place that +he determined to destroy it, to carry the stones to his own +country, and to rebuild it there, that the Arabs might come to +him on pilgrimage, a nd that he might thus exalt himself above +all Kings. He pondered over this plan all night, but next morning +he found his body fearfully swollen. He immediately sent for his +Wazir, and lamented over his misfortune. "This is a judgment sent +upon you," replied the Wazir, "by the Lord of this house. If you +alter your intention of destroying the temple, you will be healed +at once." The King gave up his project, and soon found himself +cured. Soon afterwards he said to himself, "This misfortune +happened to me at night, and left me next day of its own accord; +but I will certainly destroy the house." But next morning his +face was so covered with open ulcers that he could no longer be +recognised. The Wazir then approached him and said, "O King, +renounce your intention, for it would be rebellion against the +Lord of Heaven and Earth, who can destroy every one who opposes +him." When the King heard this, he reflected awhile and said, +"What would you wish me to do?" The Wazir replied, "Cover the +house with carpets from Yemen." The King resolved to do this, and +when night came he retired to rest. He then saw an apparition +which ordered him not to march further into the country of King +Baal-Beg, but to turn towards Abyssinia and Nigritia, adding, +"Remain there, and choose it as thy residence, and assuredly one +of thy race will arise through whom the threat of Noah shall be +fulfilled." When the King awoke next morning he related this to +the Wazir, who advised him to use his own judgment about it. The +King immediately gave orders to march. The army set forth, and +after ten days they arrived at a country the soil of which seemed +to consist of chalk, for it appeared quite white. The Wazir +Yottreb then went to the King and requested his permission to +found a city here for his people. "Why so?" asked the King. +"Because," replied the Wazir, "this will one day be the place of +Refuge of the Prophet Mohammed, who will be sent at the end of +time." The King then gave his consent, and Yottreb immediately +summoned architects and surveyors, who dug out the ground, and +reared the walls, and erected beautiful palaces. They did not +desist from the work until the Wazir ordered a number of his +people to remove to this city with their families. This was done, +and their posterity inhabit the city to this day. He then gave +them a scroll, and said, "He who comes to you as a fugitive to +this house will be the ruler of this city." He then called the +city Yottreb after his own name, and the scroll descended from +father to son till the Apostle of God arrived as a fugitive from +Mecca, when the inhabitants went out to meet him, and presented +him with it. They afterwards became his auxiliaries and were +known as the Ansar. But we must now return to King Zul Yezn. He +marched several days toward Abyssinia, and at last arrived in a +beautiful and fertile country where he informed his Wazir that he +would like to build a city for his subjects. He gave the +necessary orders, which were diligently executed; canals were dug +and the surrounding country cultivated; and the city was named +Medinat El-Hamra, the Red. At last the news reached the King of +Abyssinia, whose name was Saif Ar-Raad (Thunder-sword), and whose +capital was called Medinat ad-Durr (the Rich in Houses). Part of +this city was built on solid land and the other was built in the +sea. This prince could bring an army of 600,000 men into the +field, and his authority extended to the extremity of the then +known world. When he was informed of the invasion of Zul Yezn, he +summoned his two Wazirs, who were named Sikra Divas and Ar-Ryf. +The latter was well versed in ancient books, in which he had +discovered that God would one day send a Prophet who would be the +last of the series. He believed this himself, but concealed it +from the Abyssinians, who were still worshippers of Saturn. When +the Wazirs came before the King, he said to them,"See how the +Arabs are advancing against us; I must fight them." Sikra Divas +opposed this design, fearing lest the threat of Noah should be +fulfilled. "I would rather advise you," said he, "to make the +King a present and to send with it the most beautiful maiden in +your palace. But give her poison secretly, and instruct her to +poison the King when she is alone with him. If he is once dead, +his army will retire without a battle." The King adopted this +advice, and prepared rich presents, and summoned a beautiful +girl, whose artfulness and malice were well known. Her name was +Kamrya (Moonlight). The King said to her, "I have resolved to +send you as a present, for a secret object. I will give you +poison, and when you are alone with the Prince to whom I will +send you, drop it into his cup, and let him take it. As soon as +he is dead, his army will leave us in peace." "Very well, my +master," replied the girl, "I will accomplish your wish." He then +sent her with the other presents and a letter to the city of Zul +Yezn. But the Wazir Ar-Ryf had scarcely left the King's presence +when he wrote a letter, and commanded a slave to carry it to Zul +Yezn. "If you can give it to him before the arrival of the slave- +girl," added he, "I will give you your freedom." The slave made +all possible haste to the Arab King, but yet the presents arrived +before him. A chamberlain went to the King and informed him that +a messenger had arrived at the gate with presents from the King +of Abyssinia, and requested permission to enter. Zul Yezn +immediately ordered that he should be admitted, and the presents +and the maiden were at once delivered to him. When he saw her, he +was astonished at her beauty, and was greatly delighted. He +immediately ordered her to be conveyed to his palace, and was +very soon overcome with love for her. He was just about to +dissolve the assembly to visit Kamrya, when the Wazir Yottreb +detained him, saying, "Delay a while, O King, for I fear there is +some treachery hidden behind this present. The Abyssinians hate +the Arabs exceedingly, but are unwilling to make war with them, +lest the threat of Noah should be fulfilled. It happened one day +that Noah was sleeping when intoxicated with wine, and the wind +uncovered him. His son Ham laughed, and did not cover him; but +his other son Seth (sic) came forward, and covered him up. When +Noah awoke, he exclaimed to Ham, ‘May God blacken thy face!' But +to Seth he said, ‘May God make the posterity of thy brother the +servants of thine until the day of Resurrection!' This is the +threat which they dread as the posterity of Ham." While the King +was still conversing with his Wazir, the Chamberlain announced +the arrival of a messenger with a letter. He was immediately +admitted, and delivered the letter, which was read by the Wazir +Yottreb. Ar-Ryf had written, "Be on your guard against Kamrya, O +King, for she hath poison with her, and is ordered to kill you +when she is alone with you." The King now began loudly to praise +the acuteness of his Wazir, and went immediately to Kamrya with +his drawn sword. When he entered, she rose and kissed the ground, +but he exclaimed, "You have come here to poison me!" She was +confounded, and took out the poison, and handed it to the King, +full of artifice, and thinking, "If I tell him the truth, he will +have a better opinion of me, and if he confides in me, I can kill +him in some other manner than with this poison." It fell out as +she expected, for the King loved her, gave her authority over his +palace and his female slaves, and found himself very happy in her +possession. But she herself found her life so pleasant that, +although King Ar-Raad frequently sent to ask her why she had not +fulfilled her commission, she always answered, "Wait a little; I +am seeking an opportunity, for the King is very suspicious." Some +time passed over, and at length she became pregnant. Six months +afterwards Zul Yezn fell ill; and as his sickness increased, he +assembled the chief men of his Court, informed them of the +condition of Kamrya, and after commending her to their +protection, he ordered that if she bore a son, he should succeed +him. They promised to fulfil his commands, and a few days +afterwards Zul Yezn died. Kamrya now governed the country, till +she brought forth a son. He was a child of uncommon beauty, and +had a small mole on his cheek. When she saw the child she envied +him, and said to herself, "What, shall he take away the kingdom +from me? No, it shall never be;" and from this time forward she +determined to put him to death. After forty days, the people +requested to see their King. She showed him to them, and seated +him on the throne of the kingdom, whereupon they did homage to +him, and then dispersed. His mother took him back into the +Palace, but her envy increased so much that she had already +grasped a sword to kill him, when her nurse entered and asked +what she was going to do. "I am about to kill him," answered she. +"Have you not reflected," said the nurse, "that if you kill him +the people will revolt, and may kill you also?" "Let me kill +him," persisted she, "for even should they kill me, too, I should +at least be released from my envy." "Do not act thus," warned the +nurse, "or you may repent it, when repentance cannot help you." +"It must be done," said Kamrya. "Nay, then," said the nurse, "if +it cannot be avoided, let him at least be cast into the desert, +and if he lives, so much the better for him; but if he dies, you +are rid of him for ever." She followed this advice and set out on +the way at night time with the child, and halted at a distance of +four days' journey, when she sat down under a tree in the desert. +She took him on her lap, and suckled him once more, and then laid +him on a bed, putting a purse under his head, containing a +thousand gold pieces and many jewels. "Whoever finds him," said +she, "may use the money to bring him up;" and thus she left him. + +It happened by the gracious decree of God, that hunters who were +chasing gazelles surprised a female with a fawn; the former took +to flight, and the hunters carried off the little one. When the +mother returned from the pasture, and found her fawn gone, she +traversed the desert in all directions in search of it, and at +length the crying of the deserted child attracted her. She lay +down by the child, and the child sucked her. The gazelle left him +again to go to graze, but always returned to the little one when +she was satisfied. This went on till it pleased God that she +should fall into the net of a hunter. But she became enraged, +tore the net, and fled. The hunter pursued her, and overtook her +when she reached the child, and was about to give him suck. But +the arrival of the hunter compelled the gazelle to take to +flight, and the child began to cry, because he was not yet +satisfied. The hunter was astonished at the sight, and when he +lifted the child up, he saw the purse under his head, and a +string of jewels round his neck. He immediately took the child +with him, and went to a town belonging to an Abyssinian king +named Afrakh, who was a dependent of King Saif Ar-Raad. He handed +over the child to him, saying that he had found it in the lair of +a gazelle. When the King took the child into his care, it smiled +at him, and God awakened a feeling of love towards him in the +King's heart; and he then noticed the mole on his cheek. But when +his Wazir Sikar Diun, the brother of Sikar Divas, who was Wazir +to King Saif Ar-Raad, entered and saw the child, God filled his +heart with hate towards him. "Do not believe what this man told +you," he said, when the King told him the wonderful story of the +discovery, "it can only be the child of a mother who has come by +it wrongly, and has abandoned it in the desert, and it would be +better to kill it." "I cannot easily consent to this," said the +King. But he had hardly spoken, when the palace was filled with +sounds of rejoicing, and he was informed that his wife had just +been safely delivered of a child. On this news he took the boy on +his arm, and went to his wife, and found that the new-born child +was a girl, and that she had a red mole on her cheek. He wondered +when he saw this, and said to Sikar Diun, "See how beautiful they +are!" But when the Wazir saw it, he slapped his face, and cast +his cap on the ground, exclaiming, "Should these two moles unite, +I prophesy the downfall of Abyssinia, for they presage a great +calamity. It would be better to kill either the boy or your +daughter." "I will kill neither of them," replied the King, "for +they have been guilty of no crime." He immediately provided +nurses for the two children, naming his daughter Shama (Mole) and +the boy Wakhs[FN#471] El Fellat (Lonely one, or Desert); and he +reared them in separate apartments, that they might not see each +other. When they were ten years old, Wakhs El Fellat grew very +strong, and soon became a practised horseman, and surpassed all +his companions in this accomplishment, and in feats of arms. But +when he was fifteen, he was so superior to all others, that Sikar +Diun threatened the King that he would warn King Saif Ar-Raad +that he was nurturing his enemy in his house, if he did not +immediately banish him from the country; and this threat caused +King Afrakh great alarm. It happened that he had a general, who +was called Gharag El Shaker (Tree-splitter), because he was +accustomed to hurl his javelin at trees, and thus to cleave them +asunder. He had a fortress three days' journey from the town; and +the King said to him, "Take Wakhs El Fellat to your castle, and +never let him return to this neighbourhood." He added privately, +"Look well after him and preserve him from all injury, and have +him instructed in all accomplishments." The general withdrew, and +took the boy with him to his castle, and instructed him +thoroughly in all accomplishments and sciences. One day he said +to him, "One warlike exercise is still unknown to you." "What is +that?" said Wakhs El Fellat. "Come and see for yourself," replied +he. The general then took him to a place where several trees were +growing, which were so thick that a man could not embrace the +trunk. He then took his javelin, hurled it at one of them, and +split the trunk. Wakhs El Fellat then asked for the javelin, and +performed the same feat, to the astonishment of his instructor. +"Woe to thee!" exclaimed he, "for I perceive that you are the man +through whom the threat of Noah will be fulfilled against us. +Fly, and never let yourself be seen again in our country, or I +will kill you." Wakhs El Fellat then left the town, not knowing +where to go. He subsisted for three days on the plants of the +earth, and at last he arrived at a town encircled by high walls, +the gates of which were closed. The inhabitants were clothed in +black, and uttered cries of lamentation. In the foreground he saw +a bridal tent, and a tent of mourning. This was the city of King +Afrakh who had reared him, and the cause of the mourning of the +inhabitants was as follows. Sikar Diun was very angry that the +King had refused to follow his advice, and put the boy to death, +and had left the town to visit one of his friends, who was a +magician, to whom he related the whole story. "What do you +propose to do now?" asked the magician. "I will attempt to bring +about a separation between him and his daughter," said the Wazir. +"I will assist you," was the answer of the magician. He +immediately made the necessary preparations, and summoned an evil +Jinni named Mukhtatif (Ravisher) who inquired, "What do you +require of me?" "Go quickly to the city of King Afrakh, and +contrive that the inhabitants shall leave it." In that age men +had intercourse with the more powerful Jinn, and each attained +their ends by means of the other. The Jinn did not withdraw +themselves till after the advent of the Prophet. The magician +continued, "When the inhabitants have left the city, they will +ask you what you want. Then say, ‘Bring me out Shama, the +daughter of your King, adorned with all her jewels, and I will +come to-morrow and carry her away. But if you refuse, I will +destroy your city, and destroy you all together.'" When Mukhtatif +heard the words of this priest of magic, he did as he was +commanded, and rushed to the city. When Sikar Diun saw this, he +returned to King Afrakh to see what would happen; but he had +scarcely arrived when the voice of Mukhtatif resounded above the +city. The inhabitants went to the King, and said, "You have heard +what is commanded, and if you do not yield willingly, you will be +obliged to do so by force." The King then went weeping to the +mother of the Princess, and informed her of the calamity. She +could scarcely contain herself for despair, and all in the palace +wept at parting from the Princess. Meantime Shama was richly +attired, torn from her parents, and hurried to the bridal tent +before the town, to he carried away by the evil Jinni. The +inhabitants were all assembled on the walls of the city, weeping. +It was just at this moment that Wakhs El Fellat arrived from the +desert, and entered the tent to see what was going on. When King +Afrakh, who was also on the wall, saw him, he cried out to him, +but he did not listen, and dismounted, fastened his horse to a +tent-stake, and entered. Here he beheld a maiden of extraordinary +beauty and perfection, but she was weeping. While he was +completely bewildered by her beauty, she was no less struck by +his appearance. "Who art thou?" said the maiden to him. "Tell me +rather who art thou?" returned he. "I am Shama, the daughter of +King Afrakh." "Thou art Shama?" he exclaimed, "and I am Wakhs El +Fellat, who was reared by thy father." When they were thus +acquainted, they sat down together to talk over their affairs, +and she took this opportunity of telling him what had passed with +the Jinni, and how he was coming to carry her away. "O, you shall +see how I will deal with him," answered he, but at this moment +the evil Jinni approached, and his wings darkened the sun. The +inhabitants uttered a terrible cry, and the Jinni darted upon the +tent, and was about to raise it when he saw a man there, talking +to the daughter of the King. "Woe to thee, O son of earth," he +exclaimed, "what authority have you to sit by my betrothed?" When +Wakhs El Fellat saw the terrible form of the Jinni, a shudder +came over him, and he cried to God for aid. He immediately drew +his sword, and struck at the Jinni, who had just extended his +right hand to seize him, and the blow was so violent that it +struck off the hand. "What, you would kill me?" exclaimed +Mukhtatif, and he took up his hand, put it under his arm, and +flew away. Upon this there was a loud cry of joy from the walls +of the city. The gates were thrown open, and King Afrakh +approached, companied by a crowd of people with musical +instruments, playing joyful music; and Wakhs El Fellat was +invested with robes of honour; but when Sikar Diun saw it it was +gall to him. The King prepared an apartment expressly for Wakhs +El Fellat, and while Shama returned to her palace, he gave a +great feast in honour of her deliverance from the fiend. After +seven days had passed, Shama went to Wakhs El Fellat, and said to +him, "Ask me of my father tomorrow, for you have rescued me, and +he will not be able to refuse you." He consented very willingly, +and went to the King early next morning. The King gave him a very +favourable reception, and seated him with him on the throne; but +Wakhs El Fellat had not courage to prefer his suit, and left him +after a short interview. He had not long returned to his own +room, when Shama entered, saluted him, and asked, "Why did you +not demand me?" "I was too bashful," he replied. "Lay this +feeling aside," returned she, "and demand me." "Well, I will +certainly do so to-morrow," answered he. Thereupon she left him, +and returned to her own apartment. Early next morning Wakhs El +Fellat went again to the King, who gave him a friendly reception, +and made him sit with him. But he was still unable to prefer his +suit, and returned to his own room. Soon after Shama came to him +and said, "How long is this bashfulness to last? Take courage, +and if not, request some one else to speak for you." She then +left him, and next morning he repeated his visit to the King. +"What is your request?" asked the latter. "I am come as a +suitor," said Wakhs El Fellat, "and ask the hand of your noble +daughter Shama." When Sikar Diun heard this, he slapped his face. +"What is the matter with you?" asked the King. "This is what I +have foreseen," answered he, "for if these two moles unite, the +destruction of Abyssinia is accomplished." "How can I refuse +him?" replied the King, "when he has just delivered her from the +fiend." "Tell him," answered Sikar Diun, "that you must consult +with your Wazir." The King then turned to Wakhs El Fellat, and +said, "My son, your request is granted as far as I am concerned, +but I leave my Wazir to arrange it with you, so you must consult +him about it." Wakhs El Fellat immediately turned to the Wazir, +and repeated his request to him. Sikar Diun answered him in a +friendly manner. "The affair is as good as arranged, no one else +is suited for the King's daughter, but you know that the +daughters of the Kings require a dowry." "Ask what you please," +returned Wakhs El Fellat. "We do not ask you for money or money's +worth," said the Wazir, "but for the head of a man named Sudun, +the Ethiopian." "Where can I find him?" said the prince. The +Wazir replied, "He is said to dwell in the fortress of Reg, three +days' journey from here." "But what if I fail to bring the head +of Sudun?" asked he. "But you will have it," returned the Wazir; +and after this understanding the audience ceased, and each +returned to his dwelling. + +Now this Sudun had built his fortress on the summit of a high +hill. It was very secure, and he defended it with the edge of the +sword. It was his usual resort, from whence he sallied forth on +plundering expeditions, and rendered the roads unsafe. At length +the news of him reached King Saif Ar-Raad, who sent against him +three thousand men, but he routed and destroyed them all. Upon +this, the King sent a larger number against him, who experienced +the same fate. He then despatched a third army, upon which Sudun +fortified himself afresh, and reared the walls of his fortress so +high that an eagle could scarcely pass them. We will now return +to Shama, who went to Wakhs El Fellat, and reproached him with +the conditions he had agreed to, and added, "It would be better +for you to leave this place, and take me with you, and we will +put ourselves under the protection of some powerful king." "God +forbid," replied he, "that I should take you with me in so +dishonourable a manner." As he still positively refused to +consent, she grew angry, and left him. Wakhs El Fellat lay down +to rest, but he could not sleep. So he rose up, mounted his +horse, and rode away at midnight; and in the morning he met a +horseman who stationed himself in his path, but who was so +completely armed that his face was concealed. When Wakhs El +Fellat saw him, he cried to him, "Who are you, and where are you +going?" But instead of replying, he pressed upon him, and aimed a +blow which Wakhs El Fellat successfully parried. A fight then +commenced between them, which lasted till nearly evening. At last +the difference in their strength became perceptible, and Wakhs El +Fellat struck his adversary so violent a blow with his javelin +that his horse fell to the ground. He then dismounted, and was +about to slay him, when the horseman cried to him, "Do not kill +me, O brave warrior, or you will repent when repentance will no +more avail you." "Tell me who you are?" returned Wakhs El Fellat. +"I am Shama, the daughter of King Afrakh," replied the horseman. +"Why have you acted thus?" asked he. "I wished to try whether you +would be able to hold your own against Sudun's people," she +replied. "I have tried you now, and found you so valiant that I +fear no longer on your account. Take me with you, O hero." "God +forbid that I should do so," he returned; "what would Sikar Diun +and the others say? They would say that if Shama had not been +with him, he would never have been able to prevail against +Sudun." She then raised her eyes to heaven, and said, "O God, +permit him to fall into some danger from which I alone may +deliver him!" Upon this Wakhs El Fellat pursued his journey, +without giving any attention to her words. On the third day he +arrived at the valley where the fortress of Sudun was situated, +when he began to work his way along behind the trees; and towards +evening he arrived at the fortress itself, which he found to be +surrounded with a moat; and the gates were closed. He was still +undecided what course to take, when he heard the sound of an +approaching caravan; and he hid himself in the fosse of the +fortress to watch it. He then saw that it was driven forward by a +large body of men, and that the merchants were bound on their +mules. When they arrived at the castle, they knocked at the gate; +and when the troop entered, Wakhs El Fellat entered with them; +and they unloaded the goods and bound the prisoners without +noticing him. When the armed men had finished their work, they +ascended to the castle, but he remained below. After a time, he +wished to follow them, but when he trod on the first step, it +gave way under him, and a dagger flew out, which struck him in +the groin. Upon this his eyes filled with tears, and he already +looked upon his destruction as certain, when a form came towards +him from the entrance of the castle, to deliver him; and as it +drew nearer, he perceived that it was Shama. He was filled with +astonishment, and cried out, "God has heard your prayer! How did +you come here?" "I followed your traces," she replied, "till you +entered the castle, when I imitated your example, and mingled +with the troops. I have now saved your life, although you have +refused to take me with you; but if you wish to advance further, +do not neglect to try whether each step is fixed, with the point +of your sword." He now again began to ascend, feeling the way +before him, and Shama followed, till they arrived at the last +stair, when they saw that the staircase ended in a revolving +wheel. "Spring higher," advised Shama, "for I see a javelin which +magic art has placed here." They sprang over it, and pursued +their way till they reached a large anteroom, lighted by a high +cupola. They stopped here awhile, and examined everything +carefully. At last they approached the door of a room, and on +looking through the crevices, they saw about a hundred armed +negroes, among whom was a black slave who looked as savage as a +lion. The room was lighted by wax candles, placed on gold and +silver candlesticks. At this moment, the black said, "Slaves, +what have you done with the prisoners belonging to the caravan?" +"We have chained them in the prison below, and left them in the +safest place," was the reply. But he continued, "If one of them +was carelessly bound, he might be able to release himself and the +others, and to gain possession of the stairs. Let one of you +therefore go down, examine them carefully, and tighten their +bonds." One of them therefore came out, and the two strangers hid +themselves in the anteroom. When he had passed them, Wakhs El +Fellat stepped forward and pierced him through with his sword; +Shama dragged his body aside, and they both remained quiet for a +time. But as the slave remained away from his companions too +long, Sudun exclaimed, "Go and see why he does not return, for I +have been in great alarm ever since we entered the castle to- +day." A second then rose and took his sword, and as he came into +the anteroom, Wakhs El Fellat clove him in twain at one blow and +Shama dragged his body also on one side. They again waited +quietly for a time, when Sudun said, "It seems as if hunters are +watching our slaves, and are killing them one after another." A +third then hastened out, and Wakhs El Fellat struck him such a +blow that he fell dead to the ground, and Shama dragged him also +away. But as he likewise remained absent so long, Sudun himself +stood up and all the others with him, and he said, "Did I not +warn and caution you? There is a singing in my ears, and my heart +trembles, for there must be people here who are watching our +men." He himself now came out, and the others followed him with +lights and holding their hands on their swords, when one of the +foremost suddenly stopped. "Why do you not advance!" cried the +others. "How shall I go forward," said he, "when he who has slain +our friends stands before us." This answer was repeated to Sudun +when he called on them in a voice of thunder to advance. When he +heard this, he forced his way through them till he perceived +Wakhs El Fellat. "Who are you, Satan?" cried he, "and who brought +you here?" "I came here," replied he, "to cut off your head, and +destroy your memory." "Have you any blood-feud against me?" asked +Sudun, "or any offence to revenge upon me?" "I have no enmity +against you in my heart," said Wakhs El Fellat, "and you have +never injured me; but I have asked Shama in marriage of her +father, and he has demanded of me your head as a condition. Be on +your guard, that you may not say I acted foully towards you." +"Madman," cried Sudun, "I challenge you to a duel. Will you fight +inside or outside the fortress?" "I leave that to you," returned +Wakhs El Fellat. "Well, then, await me here," was the reply. +Sudun then went in, clothed himself in gilded armour, girt on a +saw-like sword, and came out holding a shining club in his hand. +He was so enraged that he knew not what to say, and at once +attacked Wakhs El Fellat, who threw himself on his adversary like +a raging lion, and they fought together like hungry wolves; but +both despaired of victory. The swords spake a hard language on +the shields, and each of the combatants wished that he had never +been born. When this desperate fight had lasted a long time, +Shama was greatly troubled lest Sudun should prove victorious. So +she seized a dagger and struck at Sudun, wounding the nerves of +his hand, so that he dropped his sword, while she exclaimed to +Wakhs El Fellat, "Make an end of him." "No," replied Wakhs El +Fellat, "I will make him my prisoner, for he is a brave and +valiant man." "With whom are you speaking?" asked Sudun. "With +Shama," answered he. "What," said Sudun, "did she come with you?" +"Yes," replied he. "Then let her come before me." She came +forward, and Sudun said, "Is the world too narrow for your father +that he could demand nothing as your dowry but my head?" "This +was his desire," answered she. Wakhs El Fellat then said, "Take +your sword and defend yourself, for I will not fight with you, +now that it has fallen out of your hand." But Sudun replied , "I +will not fight with you, for I am wounded, so take my head, and +go in peace with your bride." He then sat down and bowed his +head. "If you speak truly," said Wakhs El Fellat, "separate +yourself from your people." "Why so?" "Because I fear lest they +may surround me, and compel me to fight with them, and there is +no need for me to shed their blood." Sudun then left the castle, +bowed his head, and said, "Finish your work." But Wakhs El Fellat +said, "If you speak truth, come with me across the fosse of the +castle into the open ground." He did so, carefully barring the +castle behind him, and said, "Now take my head." + +When the slaves saw this, they mounted the walls, and wept and +lamented. But Shama cried out, "Take his head, and let us hasten +our return before morning dawns." "What," said Wakhs El Fellat, +"should I kill so brave a man in so treacherous a manner, when he +is so noble and magnanimous?" He then went up to Sudun, kissed +his head, and said, "Rise up, O warrior of the age, for you and +your companions are safe from me." They now all embraced each +other, and made an offensive and defensive compact. "Take me with +you alive, O brave man," said Sudun, "and hand me over to the +King as his daughter's dowry. If he consents, well; but if not, +take my head, and woo your wife." "God forbid," said Wakhs El +Fellat, "that I should act thus after your magnanimity. Rather +return to the castle, and assure your companions of your safety." +All this passed under the eyes of the other armed men. They +rejoiced at the knightly conduct of both , and now came down, +fell at the feet of Sudun and embraced him. They then did the +same to Wakhs El Fellat, whose hands they kissed and loaded him +with praises. After this, they all returned to the castle, and +agreed to set out presently. They took with them whatever +treasures there were, and Wakhs El Fellat commanded them to +release the prisoners and restore them their goods. They now all +mounted their horses and journeyed to the country of King Afrakh, +greatly rejoiced at the mutual love of the warriors. When they +approached the town, Shama parted from them, that nothing should +be known of her absence in the company. During this time, King +Afrakh and Sikar Diun had amused themselves with hunting, +jesting, and sporting, and sent out scouts daily to look for +Wakhs El Fellat. "What can have become of him?" said the King +once to Sikar Diun. "Sudun has certainly killed him," replied the +latter, "and you will never see him again." While they were thus +talking, they observed a great cloud of dust, and as it drew +nearer, they could see the armed men more distinctly. The company +was led by a black knight, by whose side rode a younger white +horseman. When the King saw this, he exclaimed, "Wakhs El Fellat +has returned, in company with Sudun and his host." "Wait a +little," replied Sikar Dian, "till we are certain of it." But +when they drew nearer, and they could doubt no longer, Sikar Diun +mounted his horse and fled, accompanied by the King and his +followers, till they reached the town, and barred the gates. They +then watched from the walls, to see what would happen. When they +saw that the strangers dismounted and pitched tents, the King +thought it was a good sign. He therefore ordered the town to be +decorated, and the gates to be opened, and rode out, attended by +a considerable escort, and approached the tents. The other party +now mounted their horses to go to meet them. When they approached +each other, King Afrakh was about to dismount, but Wakhs El +Fellat would not allow it, and the King embraced him, and +congratulated him on his safety. He then saluted Sudun also, but +the latter did not return his salutation. He invited him to enter +the town, but he declined, as did Wakhs El Fellat likewise, who +did not wish to part from his companions. The King returned +accompanied only by his own people, and prepared the best +reception for the new-comers. On the following morning the King +held a general council, at which Sikar Diun appeared greatly +depressed. "Did I not warn you beforehand," said he to the King, +"what you now see for yourself of this evil-doer? Did we not send +him to bring the head of Sudun, and he returns with him safe and +sound, and on the best of terms, while our hearts are oppressed +with anxiety?" "You may be right," replied the King, "but what +are we to do now?" + +This conversation was interrupted by a tumult caused by the +arrival of Wakhs El Fellat and Sudun, who came to pay their +respects to the King. The King invited them to sit down, but +Sudun remained standing, and when he asked him again, he replied, +"You craven, was the world too narrow for you that you desired my +head as your daughter's dowry?" "Sit down," said the King, "for I +know that you are angry." "How can I sit down," returned Sudun, +"when you have ordered my death?" "God forbid that I should act +so unjustly," said the King; "it was Sikar Diun." "What," said +he, "do you accuse me of such an action in my presence?" "Did you +not make this condition with Wakhs El Fellat," said the King, +"and send him on his errand?" Sikar Diun then turned to Sudun, +and said, "Sit down, brave warrior, for we only did so from love +to you, that we might be able to make a treaty with you, and that +you might join our company." After this answer, Sudun concealed +his anger, and sat down. Refreshments were now brought in, and +after partaking of them, Wakhs El Fellat and Sudun returned to +their tents. Several days passed in this manner, and at length +Sudun said to Wakhs El Fellat, "O my master, it is time for you +to demand Shama in marriage, now you have won her with the edge +of the sword. You have fulfilled their conditions long since by +bringing them my head, but you have made no further progress at +present. Ask for her once more, and if they will not give her up, +I will fall upon them with the sword, and we will carry Shama +off, and then lay waste the city." "I will demand her as my wife +again to-morrow," replied the other. When he went to the palace +next day, he found the King and all the court assembled. When +they saw him, they all rose from their seats, and when they sat +down again, he alone remained standing. "Why do you not sit +down," said the King, "for all your wishes are now fulfilled?" "I +have still to ask for Shama," he replied. "You know," returned +the King, "that ever since her birth I have allowed Sikar Diun to +make all arrangements for her." He now turned to Sikar Diun, who +replied in a friendly tone, "She is yours, for you have fulfilled +the conditions, and you have only now to give her ornaments." +"What kind of ornaments?" asked he. "Instead of ornaments," +replied the traitor, "we desire to receive a book containing the +history of the Nile. If you bring it us, she is wholly yours, but +if not, there is no marriage to be thought of." "Where is it to +be found?" "I cannot tell you myself." "Well, then," returned +Wakhs El Fellat, "if I do not bring you the book, Shama is lost +to me; all present are witnesses to this." He went out with these +words, pushing his way through the crowded assembly, and Sudun +behind him, till they reached their tents. "Why did you promise +that," said Sudun, "let us rather overcome them with the sword, +and take Shama from them." "Not so," replied Wakhs El Fellat, "I +will only possess her honourably." "And yet you do not even know +how to find the book," said Sudun; "rather listen to my advice, +retire to my fortress, and leave me in their power." "I would +never act thus," said Wakhs El Fellat, "though I should suffer +death." After these and similar speeches, supper was brought in, +and each retired to his sleeping apartment. But Wakhs El Fellat +had scarcely entered his room when Shama came in. "What have you +done," said she, "and what engagement have you undertaken? How +can you fulfil this condition? Do you not see that their only +object is to destroy you, or at least to get rid of you? I have +come to warn you again, and I say to you once more, take me with +you to Sudun's castle, where we can live at peace, and do not act +as they tell you." "I will carry out my engagement," he replied; +"I will not possess you like a coward, even though I should be +cut to pieces with swords." Upon this, Shama was angry and left +him, while he lay down to rest, but could not sleep. He therefore +rose up, saddled and mounted his horse and rode away, without +knowing where, abandoning himself wholly to the will of God. He +wandered about thus for several days, until he reached a lonely +tower. He knocked at the door, and a voice answered, "Welcome, O +thou who hast separated thyself from thy companions; enter +without fear, O brave Saif, son of Zul Yezn." When he pushed the +door it opened, and his eyes beheld a noble and venerable old +man, from whose appearance it was at once obvious that he busied +himself with the strictest life and fear of God. "Welcome," cried +he again; "if you had travelled from east to West you would have +found no one who could show you how to obtain the book you seek +as well as I can, for I have dwelt here awaiting your arrival for +sixty years." "But that was before I was born," said Wakhs El +Fellat to himself. He then asked aloud, "By what name did you +address me just now?" "O Saif," answered the old man, "that is +your true name, for you are a sword (Saíf) to the Abyssinians; +but whom do you worship?" "O my master," was the reply, "the +Abyssinians worship Saturn (Sukhal) but I am in perplexity, and +know not whom to worship." "My son," replied the old man, +"worship Him who has reared the heavens over us without pillars, +and who has rested the earth on water; the only and eternal God, +the Lord who is only and alone to be reverenced. I worship Him +and none other beside him, for I follow the religion of Abraham." +"What is your name?" asked Wakhs El Fellat. "I am called Shaikh +Gyat." "What declaration must I make," he asked the old man, "to +embrace your religion?" "Say ‘There is no God but God, and +Abraham is the Friend of God.' If you make this profession, you +will be numbered among the believers." He at once repeated the +formula, and Shaikh Gyat was much pleased, and devoted the night +to teaching him the history of Abraham and his religion, and the +forms of worship. Towards morning he said, "O my son, whenever +you advance to battle, say, ‘God is great, grant me victory, O +God, and destroy the infidels,' and help will be near you. Now +pursue your journey, but leave your horse here until your return. +Enter the valley before you, under the protection of God, and +after three days you will meet some one who will aid you." Wakhs +El Fellat set out on that road, and after three days he met a +horseman who saluted him, and exclaimed, "Welcome, Saif Zul Yezn, +for you bring happiness to this neighbourhood." Saif returned his +salutation, and asked, "How do you know me, and how do you know +my name?" "I am not a brave or renowned warrior," was the answer, +"but one of the maidens of this country and my mother taught me +your name." "What is your name and that of your mother?" "My +mother's name is Alka," answered she, "and I am called Taka." +When he heard this he was greatly rejoiced, for he remembered +that Shaikh Gyat had said to him, "O thou, whose destiny will be +decided by Alka and Taka." "O noble virgin," said he, "where is +your mother, Alka?" "Look round," she replied; and he saw a very +large and lofty city at some distance. "Know," said she, "that +360 experienced philosophers dwell in that city. My mother Alka +is their superior, and directs all their affairs and actions. She +knew that you would come to this neighbourhood in search of a +book concerning the Nile, which was written by Japhet, the son of +Noah, and she wishes you to attain your end by her means. She +also informed me of your coming, and promised me to you, saying, +‘You shall have no other husband but him.' We expected you to- +day, and she sent me to meet you, adding, ‘Warn him not to enter +the town by daylight, or it will be his destruction.' Wait here, +therefore, till nightfall, and only approach the city after dark. +Turn to the right along the wall, and stand still when you reach +the third tower, where we will await you. As soon as we see you +we will throw you a rope; bind it round your waist, and we will +draw you up. The rest will be easy." "But why need you give +yourselves all this trouble?" said Saif Zul Yezn. "Know," replied +she, "that the inhabitants of this city have been informed of +your approaching arrival by their books, and are aware that you +are about to carry away their book, which they hold in +superstitious reverence. On the first day of each month they +repair to the building where it is preserved; and they adore it +and seek counsel from it respecting their affairs. They have also +a king whose name is Kamrun. When they knew that you were coming +for the book they constructed a talisman against you. They have +made a copper statue, and fixed a brazen horn in its hand, and +have stationed it at the gate of the city. If you enter, the +statue will sound the horn, and it will only do so upon your +arrival. They would then seize you and put you to death. On this +account we desire to baffle their wisdom by drawing you up to the +walls of the city at another place." "May God reward you a +thousandfold," replied he; "but go now, and announce my arrival +to your mother." She went away, and he approached the city in the +darkness of night, and turned towards the third tower on the +right, where he found Alka and Taka. When they recognised him, +they immediately threw him the rope, which he fastened about him. +When he was drawn up, they descended from the wall, and were +about to proceed to Alka's house, when the talisman suddenly +acted, and the statue blew the horn loudly. "Hasten to our +house," cried Alka; and they succeeded in reaching it safely and +barred the doors, when the noise increased. The whole population +of the city rose up, and the streets were filled. "What is this +disturbance about?" asked Saif. "This is all due," replied Alka, +"to the alarm sounded by the statue, because you have entered the +town. There will be a great meeting held to-morrow, where all the +wise men will assemble, to attempt to discover the whereabouts of +the intruder; but by God's help, I will guide them wrong, and +confuse their counsels. Go to our neighbour the fisherman," added +she to her daughter, "and see what he has caught." She went, and +brought news that he had taken a large fish, of the size of a +man. "Take this piece of gold," said her mother, "and bring us +the fish;" and when she did so, she told her to clean it, which +was done. Food was then brought in, and they ate and talked. The +night passed quietly, but on the following morning Alka ordered +Saif Zul Yezn to undress, and to hide in the skin of the fish. +She put her mouth to the mouth of the fish, and took a long rope, +which she fastened under Saif's armpits. She then let him down +into a deep well, and fastened him there, saying, "Remain here, +till I come back." She then left him, and went to the great hall +of the King, where the divan was already assembled, and the King +had taken his seat on the throne. All rose up when she entered, +and when she had seated herself, the King said to her, "O mother, +did you not hear the blast of the horn yesterday, and why did you +not come out with us?" "I did hear it," she replied, "but I did +not heed it." "But you know," said he, "that the sound can only +be heard upon the arrival of the stranger who desires to take the +book." "I know it, O King; but permit me to choose forty men from +among those assembled here." She did so, and selected ten from +among the forty again. She then said to them, "Take a Trakhtramml +(sandboard on which the Arabs practise geomancy and notation) and +look and search." They did so, but had scarcely finished when +they looked at each other in amazement. They destroyed their +calculation, and began a second, and confused this, too, and +began a third, upon which they became quite confounded. "What are +you doing there?" asked the King at last. "You go on working and +obliterating your work; what have you discovered?" "O King," +replied they, "we find that the stranger has entered the town, +but not by any gate. He appears to have passed in between Heaven +and earth, like a bird. After this, a fish swallowed him, and +carried him down into some dark water." "Are you fools?" asked +the King angrily; and turning to Alka, continued, "Have you ever +seen a man flying between Heaven and earth, and afterwards +swallowed by a fish, which descends with him into dark water?" "O +King," replied she, "I always forbid the wise men to eat heavy +food, for it disturbs their understanding and weakens their +penetration; but they will not heed me." At this the King was +angry, and immediately drove them from the hall. But Alka said, +"It will be plain to-morrow what has happened." She left the +hall, and when she reached home, she drew Saif Zul Yezn out of +the well, and he dressed himself again. They sat down, and Alka +said, "I have succeeded in confounding their deliberations to- +day! and there will be a great assembly to-morrow, when I must +hide you in a still more out-of-the-way place." After this they +supped, and went to rest. Next morning Alka called her daughter, +and said, "Bring me the gazelle." When it was brought her, she +said, "Bring me the wings of an eagle." Taka gave them to her, +and she bound them on the back of the gazelle. She then took a +pair of compasses, which she fixed in the ceiling of the room. +She next took two other pairs of compasses, which she fixed in +the ceiling of the room. She next took two other pairs of +compasses, and tied one between the fore feet, and the other +between the hind feet of the gazelle. She then tied a rope to the +compasses in the roof, and the two ends to the other pairs. But +she made Saif Zul Yezn lie down in such a position that his head +was between the feet of the gazelle. She then said to him, +"Remain here till I come back"; and went to the King, with whom +she found a very numerous assemblage of the wise men. As soon as +she entered, the King made her sit beside him on the throne. "O +my mother Alka," he said, "I could not close an eye last night +from anxiety concerning yesterday's events." "Have you no wise +men," returned she, "who eat the bread of the divan?" She then +turned to them, saying, "Select the wisest among you!" and they +chose the wisest among them. She ordered them to take the +sandboard again, but they became so confused that they were +obliged to begin again three times from the beginning. "What do +you discover?" said the King angrily. "O our master," replied +they, "he whom we seek has been carried away by a beast of the +desert, which is flying with him between Heaven and earth." "How +is this?" said the King to Alka; "have you ever seen anything +like it?" He seized his sword in a rage, and three fled, and he +killed four of the others. When Alka went home, she released +Saif, and told him what had happened. Next morning Alka took the +gazelle, and slaughtered it in a copper kettle. She then took a +golden mortar, and reversed it over it, and said to Saif Zul +Yezn, "Sit on this mortar till I come back." She then went to the +divan, and chose out six wise men, who again took the sandboard, +and began again three times over in confusion. "Alas," said the +King, in anger, "What misfortune do you perceive?" "O our +master," they exclaimed in consternation, "our understanding is +confused, for we see him sitting on a golden mountain, which is +in the midst of a sea of blood, surrounded by a copper wall." The +King was enraged, and broke up the assembly, saying, "O Alka, I +will now depend on you alone." "To-morrow I will attempt to show +you the stranger," she replied. When she came home, she related +to Saif what had happened, and said, "I shall know by to-morrow +what to tell the King to engage his attention, and prevent him +from pursuing you." Next morning she found Taka speaking to Saif +Zul Yezn alone; and she asked her, "What does he wish?" "Mother," +replied Taka, "he wishes to go to the King's palace, to see him +and the divan." "What you wish shall be done," said she to Saif, +"but you must not speak." He assented to the condition, and she +dressed him as her attendant, gave him a sandboard, and went with +him to the King, who said to her, "I could not sleep at all last +night, for thinking of the stranger for whom we are seeking." +"Now that the affair is in my hands," returned she, "you will +find me a sufficient protection against him." She immediately +ordered Saif to give her the sandboard. She took it, and when she +had made her calculations, she said joyfully to the King, "O my +lord, I can give you the welcome news of the flight of the +stranger, owing to his dread of you and your revenge." When the +King heard this, he rent his clothes, slapped his face, and said, +"He would not have departed, without having taken the book." "I +cannot see if he has taken anything," replied she. "This is the +first of the month," said the King, "come and let us see if it is +missing." He then went with a large company to the building where +the book was kept. Alka turned away from the King for a moment to +say to Saif, "Do not enter with us, for if you enter, the case +will open of itself, and the book will fall into your hands. This +would at once betray you, and you would be seized and put to +death, and all my labour would have been in vain." She then left +him, and rejoined the King. When they reached the building, the +doors were opened, and when the King entered, they found the +book. They immediately paid it the customary honours, and +protracted this species of worship, while Saif stood at the door, +debating with himself whether to enter or not. At last his +impatience overcame him, and he entered, and at the same instant +the casket was broken to pieces, and the book fell out. The King +then ordered all to stand up, and the book rolled to Saif Zul +Yezn. Upon this all drew their swords, and rushed upon him. Saif +drew his sword also, and cried "God is great!" as Shaikh Gyat had +taught him. He continued to fight and defend himself, and +struggled to reach the door. The entire town arose in tumult to +pursue him, when he stumbled over a dead body, and was seized. +"Let me not see his face," cried the King, "but throw him into +the mine." This mine was eighty yards deep, and had not been +opened for sixty years. It was closed by a heavy leaden cover, +which they replaced, after they had loaded him with chains, and +thrown him in. Saif sat there in the darkness, greatly troubled, +and lamenting his condition to Him who never sleeps. Suddenly, a +side wall of the mine opened, and a figure came forth which +approached and called him by his name. "Who are you?" asked Saif. +"I am a woman named Akissa, and inhabit the mountain where the +Nile rises. We are a nation who hold the faith of Abraham. A very +pious man lives below us in a beautiful palace. But an evil Jinni +named Mukhtatif lived near us also, who loved me, and demanded me +in marriage of my father. He consented from fear, but I was +unwilling to marry an evil being who was a worshipper of fire. +‘How can you promise me in marriage to an infidel?' said I to my +father. ‘I shall thereby escape his malice myself,' replied he. I +went out and wept, and complained to the pious man about the +affair. ‘Do you know who will kill him?' said he to me, and I +answered, ‘No.' ‘I will direct you to him who has cut off his +hand,' said he. ‘His name is Saif Zul Yezn, and he is now in the +city of King Kamrun, in the mine.' Thereupon he brought me to +you, and I come as you see me, to guide you to my country, that +you may kill Mukhtatif, and free the earth from his wickedness." +She then moved him, and shook him, and all his chains fell off. +She lifted him on her shoulders, and carried him to the palace of +the Shaikh, who was named Abbas Salam. Here he heard a voice +crying, "Enter, Saif Zul Yezn." He did so, and found a grave and +venerable old man, who gave him a very friendly reception, +saying, "Wait till to-morrow, when Akissa will come to guide you +to the castle of Mukhtatif." He remained with him for the night, +and when Akissa arrived next morning, the old man told her to +hasten, that the world might be soon rid of the monster. They +then left this venerable man, and when they had walked awhile, +Akissa said to Saif, "Look before you." He did so, and perceived +a black mass at some distance. "This is the castle of the evil- +doer," said she, "but I cannot advance a step further than this." +Saif therefore pursued his way alone, and when he came near the +castle, he walked round it to look for the entrance. As he was +noticing the extraordinary height of the castle, which was +founded on the earth, but appeared to overtop the clouds, he saw +a window open, and several people looked out, who pointed at him +with their fingers, exclaiming, "That is he, that is he!" They +threw him a rope, which they directed him to bind round him. They +drew him up by it, when he found himself in the presence of three +hundred and sixty damsels, who saluted him by his name. + + * * * * * + +(Here Habicht's fragment ends.) + + + + + SCOTT'S MSS. AND TRANSLATIONS. + + + +In 1800, Jonathan Scott, LL.D., published a volume of "Tales, +Anecdotes, and Letters, translated from the Arabic and Persian," +based upon a fragmentary MS., procured by J. Anderson in Bengal, +which included the commencement of the work (Nos. 1-3) in 29 +Nights; two tales not divided into Nights (Nos. 264 and 135) and +No. 21. + +Scott's work includes these two new tales (since republished by +Kirby and Clouston), with the addition of various anecedotes, +&c., derived from other sources. The "Story of the Labourer and +the Chair" has points of resemblance to that of "Malek and the +Princess Chirine" (Shirin?) in the Thousand and One Days; and +also to that of "Tuhfet El Culoub" (No. 183a) in the Breslau +Edition. The additional tales in this MS. and vol. of +translations are marked "A" under Scott in our Tables. Scott +published the following specimens (text and translation) in +Ouseley's Oriental Collections (1797 and following years) No. +135m (i. pp. 245-257) and Introduction (ii. pp. 160-172; 228- +257). The contents are fully given in Ouseley, vol. ii. pp. 34, +35. + +Scott afterwards acquired an approximately complete MS. in 7 +vols., written in 1764 which was brought from Turkey by E. +Wortley Montague. Scott published a table of contents (Ouseley, +ii. pp. 25-34), in which, however, the titles of some few of the +shorter tales, which he afterwards translated from it, are +omitted, while the titles of others are differently translated. +Thus "Greece" of the Table becomes "Yemen" in the translation; +and "labourer" becomes "sharper." As a specimen, he subsequently +printed the text and translation of No. 145 (Ouseley, ii. pp. +349-367). + +This MS., which differs very much from all others known, is now +in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. + +In 1811, Scott published an edition of the Arabian Nights' +Entertainments, in 6 vols., vol. 1 containing a long +introduction, and vol. 6, including a series of new tales from +the Oxford MS. (There is a small paper edition; and also a large +paper edition, the latter with frontispieces, and an Appendix +including a table of the tales contained in the MS.) It had +originally been Scott's intention to retranslate the MS.; but he +appears to have found it beyond his powers. He therefore +contented himself with re-editing Galland, altering little except +the spelling of the names, and saying that Galland's version is +in the main so correct that it would be useless repetition to go +over the work afresh. Although he says that he found many of the +tales both immoral and puerile, he translated most of those near +the beginning, and omitted much more (including several harmless +and interesting tales, such as No. 152) towards the end of his +MS. than near the beginning. The greater part of Scott's +additional tales, published in vol. 6, are included in the +composite French and German editions of Gauttier and Habicht; +but, except Nos. 208, 209, and 215, republished in my "New +Arabian Nights," they have not been reprinted in England, being +omitted in all the many popular versions which are professedly +based upon Scott, even in the edition in 4 vols., published in +1882, which reprints Scott's Preface. + +The edition of 1882 was published about the same time as one of +the latest reissues of Lane's Thousand and One Nights; and the +Saturday Review of Nov. 4, 1882 (p. 609), published an article on +the Arabian Nights, containing the following amusing passage: +"Then Jonathan Scott, LL.D. Oxon, assures the world that he +intended to retranslate the tales given by Galland; but he found +Galland so adequate on the whole that he gave up the idea, and +now reprints Galland, with etchings by M. Lalauze, giving a +French view of Arab life. Why Jonathan Scott, LL.D., should have +thought to better Galland, while Mr. Lane's version is in +existence, and has just been reprinted, it is impossible to say." + +The most interesting of Scott's additional tales, with reference +to ordinary editions of The Nights, are as follows:-- + +No. 204b is a variant of No. 37. + +No. 204c is a variant of 3e, in which the wife, instead of the +husband, acts the part of a jealous tyrant. (Compare Cazotte's +story of Halechalbe.) + +No. 204e. Here we have a reference to the Nesnás, which only +appears once in the ordinary versions of The Nights (No. 132b; +Burton, v., p. 333). + +No. 206b. is a variant of No. 156. + +No. 207c. This relates to a bird similar to that in the Jealous +Sisters (No. 198), and includes a variant of 3ba. + +No. 207h. Another story of enchanted birds. The prince who seeks +them encounters an "Oone" under similar circumstances to those +under which Princess Parizade (No. 198) encounters the old +durwesh. The description is hardly that of a Marid, with which I +imagine the Ons are wrongly identified. + +No. 208 contains the nucleus of the famous story of Aladdin (No. +193). + +No. 209 is similar to No. 162; but we have again the well +incident of No. 3ba, and the exposure of the children as in No. +198. + +No. 215. Very similar to Hasan of Bassorah (No. 155). As Sir R. +F. Burton (vol. viii., p. 60, note) has called in question my +identification of the Islands of WákWák with the Aru Islands near +New Guinea, I will quote here the passages from Mr. A. R. +Wallace's Malay Archipelago (chap. 31) on which I based it:--"The +trees frequented by the birds are very lofty. . . . . One day I +got under a tree where a number of the Great Paradise birds were +assembled, but they were high up in the thickest of the foliage, +and flying and jumping about so continually that I could get no +good view of them. . . . . Their voice is most extraordinary. At +early morn, before the sun has risen, we hear a loud cry of +‘Wawk--wawk--wawk, w k--w k--w k,' which resounds through the +forest, changing its direction continually. This is the Great +Bird of Paradise going to seek his breakfast. . . . . The birds +had now commenced what the people here call ‘sacaleli,' or +dancing-parties, in certain trees in the forest, which are not +fruit-trees as I at first imagined, but which have an immense +head of spreading branches and large but scattered leaves, giving +a clear space for the birds to play and exhibit their plumes. On +one of these trees a dozen or twenty full-plumaged male birds +assemble together, raise up their wings, stretch out their necks, +and elevate their exquisite plumes, keeping them in a continual +vibration. Between whiles they fly across from branch to branch +in great excitement, so that the whole tree is filled with waving +plumes in every variety of attitude and motion." + +No. 216bc appears to be nearly the same as No. 42. + +No. 225 is a variant of No. 135q. + + + + + WEIL'S TRANSLATION. + + + +The only approximately complete original German translation is +"Tausend und eine Nacht. Arabische Erzählungen. Zum Erstenmale +aus dem Urtexte vollständig und treu übersetzt von Dr. Gustav +Weil," four vols., Stuttgart. The first edition was in roy. 8vo, +and was published at Stuttgart and Pforzheim in 1839-1842; the +last volume I have not seen; it is wanting in the copy in the +British Museum. This edition is divided into Nights, and includes +No. 25b. In the later editions, which are in small square 8vo, +but profusely illustrated, like the larger one, this story is +omitted (except No. 135m, which the French editors include with +it), though Galland's doubtful stories are retained; and there is +no division into Nights. The work has been reprinted several +times, and the edition quoted in our Table is described as +"Zweiter Abdruck der dritten vollstandig umgearbeiteten, mit +Anmerkungen und mit einer Einleitung versehenen Auflage" (1872). + +Weil has not stated from what sources he drew his work, except +that No. 201 is taken from a MS. in the Ducal Library at Gotha. +This is unfortunate, as his version of the great transformation +scene in No. 3b (Burton, vol. i., pp. 134, 135), agrees more +closely with Galland than with any other original version. In +other passages, as when speaking of the punishment of Aziz (No. +9a, aa), Weil seems to have borrowed an expression from Lane, who +writes "a cruel wound;" Weil saying "a severe (schwere) wound." + +Whereas Weil gives the only German version known to me of No. 9 +(though considerably abridged) he omits many tales contained in +Zinserling and Habicht, but whether because his own work was +already too bulky, or because his original MSS. did not contain +them, I do not know; probably the first supposition is correct, +for in any case it was open to him to have translated them from +the printed texts, to which he refers in his Preface. + +Two important stories (Nos. 200 and 201) are not found in any +other version; but as they are translated in my "New Arabian +Nights," I need not discuss them here. I will, however, quote a +passage from the story of Judar and Mahmood, which I omitted +because it is not required by the context, and because I thought +it a little out of place in a book published in a juvenile +series. It is interesting from its analogy to the story of +Semele. + +When King Kashuk (a Jinni) is about to marry the daughter of King +Shamkoor, we read (New Arabian Nights, p. 182), "Shamkoor +immediately summoned my father, and said, ‘Take my daughter, for +you have won her heart.' He immediately provided an outfit for +his daughter, and when it was completed, my father and his bride +rode away on horseback, while the trousseau of the Princess +followed on three hundred camels." The passage proceeds (the +narrator being Daruma, the offspring of the marriage), "When my +father had returned home, and was desirous of celebrating his +marriage Kandarin (his Wazir) said to him, ‘Your wife will be +destroyed if you touch her, for you are created of fire, and she +is created of earth, which the fire devours. You will then bewail +her death when it is too late. To-morrow,' continued he, ‘I will +bring you an ointment with which you must rub both her and +yourself; and you may then live long and happily together.' On +the following day he brought him a white ointment, and my father +anointed himself and his bride with it, and consummated his +marriage without danger." + +I may add that this is the only omission of the smallest +consequence in my rendering of either story. + +I have heard from more than one source that a complete German +translation of The Nights was published, and suppressed; but I +have not been able to discover the name of the author, the date, +or any other particulars relating to the subject. + + + + + VON HAMMER'S MS., AND THE TRANSLATIONS DERIVED FROM IT. + + + + +Several complete copies of The Nights were obtained by Europeans +about the close of the last or the beginning of the present +century; and one of these (in 4 vols.) fell into the bands of the +great German Orientalist, Joseph von Hammer. This MS. agrees +closely with the printed Bul. and Mac. texts, as well as with Dr. +Clarke's MS., though the names of the tales sometimes vary a +little. One story, "The two Wazirs," given in Von Hammer's list +as inedited, no doubt by an oversight, is evidently No. 7, which +bears a similar title in Torrens. One title, "Al Kavi," a story +which Von Hammer says was published in "Mag. Encycl.," and in +English (probably by Scott in Ouseley's Oriental Collections, +vide anteà p. 491) puzzled me for some time; but from its +position, and the title I think I have identified it as No. 145, +and have entered it as such. No. 9a in this as well as in several +other MSS., bears the title of the Two Lovers, or of the Lover +and the Beloved. + +Von Hammer made a French translation of the unpublished tales, +which he lent to Caussin de Perceval, who extracted from it four +tales only (Nos. 21a, 22, 32 and 37), and only acknowledged his +obligations in a general way to a distinguished Orientalist, +whose name he pointedly suppressed. Von Hammer, naturally +indignant, reclaimed his MS., and had it translated into German +by Zinserling. He then sent the French MS. to De Sacy, in whose +hands it remained for some time, although he does not appear to +have made any use of it, when it was despatched to England for +publication; but the courier lost it on the journey, and it was +never recovered. + +Zinserling's translation was published under the title, "Der +Tausend und einen Nacht noch nicht übersetzte Mährchen, +Erzählungen und Anekdoten, zum erstenmale aus dem Arabischen in's +Französische übersetzt von Joseph von Hammer, und aus dem +Französischen in's Deutsche von Aug. E. Zinserling, Professor." +(3 vols., Stuttgart and Tübingen, 1823.) The introductory matter +is of considerable importance, and includes notices of 12 +different MSS., and a list of contents of Von Hammer's MS. The +tales begin with No. 23, Nos. 9-19 being omitted, because Von +Hammer was informed that they were about to be published in +France. (This possibly refers to Asselan Riche's "Scharkan," +published in 1829.) The tales and anecdotes in this edition +follow the order of The Nights. No. 163 is incomplete, Zinserling +giving only the commencement; and two other tales (Nos. 132b and +168) are related in such a confused manner as to be +unintelligible, the former from transposition (perhaps in the +sheets of the original MS.) and the latter from errors and +omissions. On the other hand, some of the tales (No. 137 for +instance) are comparatively full and accurate. + +A selection from the longer tales was published in English in 3 +vols. in 1826, under the title of "New Arabian Nights +Entertainments, selected from the original Oriental MS. by Jos. +von Hammer, and now first translated into English by the Rev. +George Lamb." I have only to remark that No. 132b is here +detached from its connection with No. 132, and is given an +independent existence. + +A complete French re-translation of Zinserling's work, also in 3 +vols., by G. S. Trébutien (Contes inédits des Mille et une +Nuits), was published in Paris in 1828; but in this edition the +long tales are placed first, and all the anecdotes are placed +together last. + +The various MSS. mentioned by Von Hammer are as follows:-- + + I. Galland's MS. in Paris. + + II. Another Paris MS., containing 870 Nights. (No. 9 is +specially noticed as occurring in it.) This seems to be the same +as a MS. subsequently mentioned by Von Hammer as consulted by +Habicht. + + III. Scott's MS. (Wortley Montague). + + IV. Scott's MS. (Anderson). + + V. Dr. Russell's MS. from Aleppo (224 Nights). + + VI. Sir W. Jones' MS., from which Richardson extracted No. +6ee for his grammar. + + VII. A. MS. at Vienna (200 Nights). + + VIII. MS. in Italinski's collection. + + IX. Clarke's MS. + + X. An Egyptian MS. at Marseilles. + + XI. Von Hammer's MS. + + XII. Habicht's MS. (==Bres. text). + + XIII. Caussin's MS. + + XIV. De Sacy's MS. + + XV. One or more MSS. in the Vatican. + + + + + TRANSLATIONS OF THE PRINTED TEXTS. + + + +These are noticed by Sir R. F. Burton in his "Foreword" (vol. i., +pp. x-xii.) and consequently can be passed over with a brief +mention here. + +Torrens' edition (vol. 1) extends to the end of Night 50 (Burton, +ii., p. 118). + +Lane's translation originally appeared in monthly half-crown +parts, from 1839 to 1841. It is obvious that he felt himself +terribly restricted in space; for the third volume, although much +thicker than the others, is not only almost destitute of notes +towards the end, but the author is compelled to grasp at every +excuse to omit tales, even excluding No. 168, which he himself +considered "one of the most entertaining tales in the work" +(chap. xxix., note 12), on account of its resemblance to Nos. 1b +and 3d. Part of the matter in Lane's own earlier notes is +apparently derived from No. 132a, which he probably did not at +first intend to omit. Sir R. F. Burton has taken 5 vols. to cover +the same ground which Lane has squeezed into his vol. 3. But it +is only fair to Lane to remark that in such cases the publisher +is usually far more to blame than the author. + +In 1847 appeared a popular edition of Lane, entitled, "The +Thousand and One Nights, or the Arabian Nights Entertainments, +translated and arranged for family reading, with explanatory +notes. Second edition." Here Galland's old spelling is restored, +and the "explanatory notes," ostentatiously mentioned on the +title page, are entirely omitted. This edition was in 3 vols. I +have seen a copy dated 1850; and think I have heard of an issue +in 1 vol.; and there is an American reprint in 2 vols. The +English issue was ultimately withdrawn from circulation in +consequence of Lane's protests. (Mr. S. L. Poole's Life of E. W. +Lane, p. 95.) It contains the woodcut of the Flying Couch, which +is wanting in the later editions of the genuine work; but not +Galland's doubtful tales, as Poole asserts. + +Several editions of the original work, edited by Messrs. E. S. +and S. L. Poole, have appeared at intervals from 1859 to 1882. +They differ little from the original edition except in their +slightly smaller size. + +The short tales included in Lane's notes were published +separately as one of Knight's Weekly Volumes, in 1845, under the +title of "Arabian Tales and Anecdotes, being a selection from the +notes to the new translation of the Thousand and One Nights, by +E. W. Lane, Esq." + +Finally, in 1883, Mr. Stanley Lane Poole published a classified +and arranged edition of Lane's notes under the title of "Arabian +Society in the Middle Ages." + +Mr. John Payne's version of the Mac. edition was issued in 9 +vols. by the Villon Society to subscribers only. It appeared from +1882 to 1884, and only 500 copies were printed. Judging from the +original prospectus, it seems to have been the author's intention +to have completed the work in 8 vols., and to have devoted vol. 9 +to Galland's doubtful tales; but as they are omitted, he must +have found that the work ran to a greater length than he had +anticipated, and that space failed him. He published some +preliminary papers on the Nights in the New Quarterly Magazine +for January and April, 1879. + +Mr. Payne subsequently issued "Tales from the Arabic of the +Breslau and Calcutta (1814-18) editions of the Thousand Nights +and One Night, not occurring in the other printed texts of the +work." (Three vols., London, 1884.) Of this work, issued, like +the other, by the Villon Society, to subscribers only, 750 copies +were printed, besides 50 on large paper. The third volume +includes indices of all the tales in the four principal printed +texts. + +Finally we have Sir R. F. Burton's translation now in its +entirety before his subscribers. It is restricted to 1,000 +copies. (Why not 1,001?) The five supplementary vols. are to +include tales wanting in the Mac. edition, but found in other +texts (printed and MS.), while Lady Burton's popular edition will +allow of the free circulation of Sir R. F. Burton's work among +all classes of the reading public. + + + + + COLLECTIONS OF SELECTED TALES. + + + +There are many volumes of selections derived from Galland, but +these hardly require mention; the following may be noticed as +derived from other sources: + +1. Caliphs and Sultans, being tales omitted in the usual editions +of the Arabian Nights' Entertainments. Re-written and re-arranged +by Sylvanus Hanley, F. L. S., etc., London, 1868; 2nd edition +1870. + +Consists of portions of tales chiefly selected from Scott, Lamb, +Chavis and Cazotte, Trébutien and Lane; much abridged, and +frequently strung together, as follows:-- + +Nos. 246, 41, 32 (including Nos. 111, 21a, and 89); 9a (including +9aa [which Hanley seems, by the way, to have borrowed from some +version which I do not recognise], 22 and 248); 155, 156, 136, +162; Xailoun the Silly (from Cazotte); 132 and 132a; and 169 +(including 134 and 135x). + +2. Ilâm-en-Nâs. Historical tales and anecdotes of the time of the +early Kalîfahs. Translated from the Arabic and annotated by Mrs. +Godfrey Clerk, author of "The Antipodes, and Round the World." +London, 1873. + +Many of these anecdotes, as is candidly admitted by the authoress +in her Preface, are found with variations in the Nights, though +not translated by her from this source. + +3. The New Arabian Nights. Select tales not included by Galland +or Lane. By W. F. Kirby, London, 1882. + +Includes the following tales, slightly abridged, from Weil and +Scott: Nos. 200, 201, 264, 215, 209, and 208. + +Two editions have appeared in England, besides reprints in +America and Australia. + + + + + SEPARATE EDITIONS OF SINGLE OR COMPOSITE TALES. + + + + 6e (ee).--The Barber's Fifth Brother. + + +Mr. W. A. Clouston (in litt.) calls attention to the version of +this story by Addison in the "Spectator," No. 535, Nov. 13, 1712, +after Galland. There is good reason to suppose that this is +subsequent to the first English edition, which, however, Addison +does not mention. There is also an English version in Faris' +little Arabic Grammar (London, 1856), and likewise in +Richardson's Arabic Grammar. The latter author extracted it from +a MS. belonging to Sir W. Jones. + + + + 5.--Nur Al-din and Badr Al-din Hasan. + + +There are two Paris editions of the "Histoire de Chems-Eddine et +de NourEddine," edited by Prof. Cherbonneau. The first (1852) +contains text and notes, and the second (1869) includes text, +vocabulary and translations. + + + + + 7.--Nur Al-din and Anis Al-jalis. + + +An edition by Kasimiraki of "Enis' el-Djelis, ou histoire de la +belle Persane," appeared in Paris in 1867. It includes text, +translation and notes. + + + + + 9.--King Omar Bin Al-nu'aman. + + +There is a French abridgment of this story entitled, "Scharkan, +Conte Arabe, suivi de quelques anecdotes orientales; traduit par +M. Asselan Riche, Membre de la Société Asiatique de Paris" (Paris +and Marseilles, 12mo, 1829, pp. 240). The seven anecdotes +appended are as follows: (1) the well-known story of Omar's +prisoner and the glass of water; (2) Elhedjadj and a young Arab; +(3)=our No. 140; (4) Anecdote of Elhedjadj and a story-teller; +(5)=our No. 86; (6) King Bahman and the Moubed's parable of the +Owls; (7)=our No. 145. + + + + 133.--Sindbad the Seaman. + + +This is the proper place to call attention to a work specially +relating to this story, "Remarks on the Arabian Nights +Entertainments; in which the origin of Sindbad's Voyages and +other Oriental Fictions is particularly described. By Richard +Hole, LL.D." (London, 1797, pp. iv. 259.) + +It is an old book, but may still be consulted with advantage. + +There are two important critical editions of No. 133, one in +French and one in German. + +1. Les Voyages de Sind-bâd le marin et la ruse des Femmes. Contes +arabes. Traduction littérale, accompagnée du Texte et des Notes. +Par L. Langlès (Paris, 1814). + +The second story is our No. 184. + +2. Die beiden Sindbad oder Reiseabenteuer Sindbads des +Seefabrers. Nach einer zum ersten Male in Europa bedruckten +Aegyptischen Handschrift unmittelbar und wortlich treu aus den +Arabischen übersetzt und mit erklärenden Anmerkungen, nebst zwei +sprachlichen Beilagen zum Gebrauch für abgehende Orientalisten +herausgegeben von J. G. H. Reinsch (Breslau, 1826). + + + + 135.--The Craft and Malice of Women. + + +The literature of this cluster of tales would require a volume in +itself, and I cannot do better than refer to Mr. W. A. Clouston's +"Book of Sindibad" (8vo, Glasgow, 1884) for further information. +This book, though privately printed and limited to 300 copies, is +not uncommon. + + + + 136.--Judar and His Brethren. + + +An edition of this story, entitled "Histoire de Djouder le +Pêcheur," edited by Prof. Houdas, was published in the +Bibliothèque Algérienne, at Algiers, in 1865. It includes text +and vocabulary. + + + + 174.--The Ten Wazirs. + + +This collection of tales has also been frequently reprinted +separately. It is the Arabic version of the Persian Bakhtyar +Nameh, of which Mr. Clouston issued a privately-printed edition +in 1883. + +The following versions have come under my notice:-- + +1. Nouveaux Contes Arabes, ou Supplement aux Mille et une Nuits +suivies de Mélanges de Littérature orientale et de lettres, par +l'Abbe * * * (Paris, 1788, pp. 425). + +This work consists chiefly of a series of tales selected and +adapted from the Ten Vazirs. "Written in Europe by a European, +and its interest is found in the Terminal Essay, on the +Mythologia Aesopica" (Burton in litt.). + +2. Historien om de ti Vezirer og hoorledes det gik dem med Kong +Azád Bachts Sön, oversat af Arabisk ved R. Rask (8vo, Kobenhavn, +1829). + +3. Habicht, x. p. vi., refers to the following:--Historia decem +Vezirorum et filii regis Azad-Bacht insertis XIII. aliis +narrationibus, in usum tironum Cahirensem, edid. G. Knös, +Göttingen, 1807, 8vo. + +He also states that Knös published the commencement in 1805, in +his "Disquisitio de fide Herodoti, quo perhibet Phoenices Africam +navibus circumvectos esse cum recentiorum super hac re sententiis +excussis.--Adnexurn est specimen sermonis Arabici vulgaris s. +initium historiae filii regis Azad-Bacht e Codice inedito." + +4. Contes Arabes. Histoire des dix Vizirs (Bakhtyar Nameh) +Traduite et annotée par René Basset, Professeur A l'école +superieure des lettres d'Algérie. Paris, 1883. + +Chavis and Cazotte (anteà pp. 471, 472) included a version of the +Ten Vazirs in their work; and others are referred to in our Table +of Tales. + + + + 248.--The Wise Heycar. + + +Subsequently to the publication of Gauttier's edition of The +Nights, Agoub republished his translation under the title of "Le +sage Heycar, conte Arabe" (Paris, 1824). + +A few tales published by Scott in Ouseley's Oriental Collections +have already been noticed (anteà, pp. 434, 435). + + + + + TRANSLATIONS OF COGNATE ORIENTAL ROMANCES ILLUSTRATIVE + OF THE NIGHTS. + + + +1. Les Mille et Un Jours. Contes Persanes. + +"In imitation of the Arabian Nights, was composed a Persian +collection entitled ‘Hazár Yek Rúz or the Thousand and One Days,' +of which Petis de la Croix published a French rendering [in +1710], which was done into English [by Dr. King, and published in +2 vols. (with the Turkish Tales=Forty Vezirs) as early as 1714; +and subsequently] by Ambrose Phillips" (in 1738) (Clouston, in +litt). Here, and occasionally elsewhere, I have quoted from some +MSS. notes on The Nights by Mr. W. A. Clouston, which Sir R. F. +Burton kindly permitted me to inspect. Mr. Clouston then quotes +Cazotte's Preface (not in my edition of the Thousand and One +Days), according to which the book was written by the celebrated +Dervis Moclès (Mukhlis), chief of the Sofis (Sufis?) of lspahan, +founded upon certain Indian comedies. Petis de la Croix was on +friendly terms with Mukhlis, who allowed him to take a copy of +his work in 1675, during his residence in Ispahan. (I find these +statements confirmed in the Cabinet des Fées, xxxvii. pp. 266, +274, 278, and in Weber's "Tales of the East," i. pp. xxxvi., +xxxxii.) + +The framework of the story is the same as Nos. 9a and 152: a +Princess, who conceives an aversion to men from dreaming of the +self-devotion of a doe, and the indifference and selfishness of a +stag. Mr. Clouston refers to Nakhshabí's Tútí Náma (No. 33 of +Káderí's abridgment, and 39 of India Office MS. 2,573 whence he +thinks it probable that Mukhlis may have taken the tale.) But the +tale itself is repeated over and over again in many Arabic, +Persian, and Turkish collections; in fact, there are few of +commoner occurrence. + +The tales are told by the nurse in order to overcome the aversion +of the Princess to men. They are as follows: + +Introduction and Conclusion: Story of the Princess of Cashmir. +1. Story of Aboulcassem Bafry. +2. Story of King Ruzvanchad and the Princess Cheheristani. + a. Story of the young King of Thibet and the Princess of + the Naimans. + b. Story of the Vazir Cavercha. +3. Story of Couloufe and the Beautiful Dilara. +4. Story of Prince Calaf and the Princess of China. + a. Story of Prince Fadlallah, son of Bei-Ortoc, King of + Moussel=Nos. 184 and 251. +5. Story of King Bedreddin-Lolo, and his Vazir Atalmulk, + surnamed the Sad Vazir. + a. Story of Atalmulk and the Princess Zelica Beghume. + b. Story of Prince Seyf-el-Molouk. + c. Story of Malek and the Princess Chirine. + d. Story of King Hormuz, surnamed the King without + trouble. + da. Story of Avicenna. + e. Story of the fair Arouya. Cf. Nos. 135q and 225. + f. Singular Adventures of Aboulfawaris, surnamed the Great + Traveller (2 Voyages). +6. Story of the Two Brother Genii, Adis and Dahy. +7. Story of Nasiraddolé, King of Moussel, of Abderrahman, + Merchant of Bagdad, and the Beautiful Zeineb. +8. Story of Repsima=No. 181r. + +This work has many times been reprinted in France, where it holds +a place only second to The Nights. + +Sir R. F. Burton remarks, concerning the Persian and Turkish +Tales of Petis de la Crois (the latter of which form part of the +Forty Vazirs, No. 251), "Both are weak and servile imitations of +Galland by an Orientalist who knew nothing of the East. In one +passage in the story of Fadlallah, we read of ‘Le Sacrifice du +Mont Arafáte,' which seems to have become a fixture in the +European brain. I found the work easy writing and exceedingly +hard reading." + +The following tales require a passing notice:-- + +1. Story of Aboulcassem Bafry.--A story of concealed treasure; it +has also some resemblance to No. 31. + +2. Ruzvanchad and Cheheristani.--Cheheristani is a jinniyah, who +is pursued by the King, under the form of a white doe; marries +him, and becomes the mother of Balkis, the Queen of Sheba. She +exacts a promise from him never to rebuke her for any of her +actions: he breaks it, and she leaves him for a time. + +2a. The Young King of Thibet.--Two imposters obtain magic rings +by which they can assume the shapes of other persons. + +2a, b. The Vazir Cavercha.--This is one of Scott's stories (No. +223 of our Table). It goes back at least as far as the Ring of +Polycrates. It is the 8th Vezir's Story in Mr. Gibbs' Forty +Vezirs (pp. 200-205). + +4. Prince Calaf.--This story is well known, and is sometimes +played as a comedy. The Princess Turandot puts riddles to her +suitors, and beheads them if they fail to answer. + +5b. Story of Prince Seyj-el-Molouk.--This story is perhaps an +older version than that which appears in The Nights (No. 154a). +It is placed long after the time of Solomon; Saad is devoured by +ants (Weber (ii. p. 426) has substituted wild beasts!); and when +Seyf enters the palace of Malika (=Daulet Khatoon), the jinni +surprises them, and is overpowered by Seyf's ring. He then +informs him of the death of Saad; and that Bedy al-Jernal was one +of the mistresses of Solomon; and has also long been dead. + +5b. Malek and Chirine.--Resembles No. 264; Malek passes himself +off as the Prophet Mohammed; burns his box (not chair) with +fireworks on his weddingday, and is thus prevented from ever +returning to the Princess. + +5f. Adventures of Aboulfawaris.--Romantic travels, resembling +Nos. 132a and 133. + +2. Antar.--This is the most famous of the Badawi romances. It +resembles No. 137 in several particulars, but is destitute of +supernaturalism. An English abridgment in 4 vols. was published +in 1820; and the substance of vol. 1 had appeared, as a fragment, +in the previous year, under the title of "Antar, a Bedoueen +Romance translated from the Arabic by Terrick Hamilton, Esq., +Oriental Secretary to the British Embassy at Constantinople." I +have also seen vol. 1 of a French translation, published about +1862, and extending to the death of Shas. + +Lane (Modern Egyptians, ch. 21-23) describes several other Arab +romances, which have not yet been translated; viz. Aboo-Zeyd; Ez- +Zahir, and Delhemeh. + +3. GLAIVE-DES-COURONNES (Seif el-Tidjân) Roman traduit de +l'Arabe. Par M. le Dr. Perron (Paris, 1862). + +A romantic story of Arab chivalry, less overloaded with +supernaturalism than No. 137; but more supernatural than Antar. +The hero marries (among other wives) two jinniyahs of the +posterity of Iblis. In ch. 21 we have an account of a magical +city much resembling the City of Brass (No. 134) and defended by +similar talismans. + +4. MEHEMET THE KURD, and other tales, from Eastern sources, by +Charles Wells, Turkish Prizeman of King's College, London, and +Member of the Royal Asiatic Society (London, 1865). + +The first story, taken from an Arabic MS., is a narrative of a +handsome simpleminded man, with whom Princesses fall in love, and +who is raised to a mighty throne by their enchantments. Some of +the early incidents are not unlike those in the well-known German +story of Lucky Hans (Hans im Glück). In one place there is an +enchanted garden, where Princesses disport themselves in feather- +dresses (as in No. 155, &c.), and where magic apples grow. (Note +that apples are always held in extraordinary estimation in The +Nights, cf. Nos. 4 and 264.) Among the shorter stories we find +No. 251h; a version of Nos. 9a and 152 (probably that referred to +by Mr. Clouston as in the Tuti Nama); a story "The Prince +Tailor," resembling No. 251; No. 256, and one or two other tales +not connected with The Nights. (Most of Wells' shorter tales are +evidently taken from the Forty Vezirs.) + +5. RECUEIL DES CONTES POPULAIRES de la Kabylie du Djardjara, +recueillis et traduits par J. Rivière (Paris, 1882). I have not +seen this book; but it can hardly fail to illustrate The Nights. + +6. THE STORY OF JEWAD, Romance by 'Ali 'Aziz Efendi the Cretan. +Translated from the Turkish by E. J. W. Gibb, M.R.A.S., &c. +(Glasgow, 1884). + +A modern Turkish work, written in A. H. 1211 (1796-97). It +contains the following tales:-- + + + + The Story of Jew d. + + +1. The Story of Eb -'Ali-Sin ;. +2. The Story of Monia Em n. +3. The Story of Ferah-N z, the daughter of the King of China. + a. The Story of Khoja 'Abdu-llah. +4. The Story told by Jew d to Iklilu'l Mulk. + a. The Story of Sh b r and Hum . + c. The Story of Ghazanfer and R hila. +5. The Story of Qara Khan. + +The following deserve notice from our present point of view:-- + +The Story of Jewad.--Here we have magical illusions, as in Nos. +247 and 251a. Such narratives are common in the East; Lane +(Nights, ch. i., note 15) is inclined to attribute such illusions +to the influence of drugs; but the narratives seem rather to +point to so-called electro-biology, or the Scotch Glamour (such +influences, as is notorious, acting far more strongly upon +Orientals than upon Europeans). + +2. The Story of Monia Em n corresponds to the Story of Naerdan +and Guzulbec, in Caylus' Oriental Tales. A story of magical +illusions. + +3. The Story of Ferah N z.--Here again we have a variant of +Nos. 9a and 152. + +3a. Khoja 'Abdu-ltab.--This is a version of the Story of +Aboulcassem in the Thousand and One Days. + +4a. Sh b r and Hum .--The commencement of this story might have +suggested to Southey the adventures of Thalaba and Oneida in the +Gardens of Aloadin; the remainder appears to be taken from the +Story of the young King of Thibet, in the Thousand and One Days. + +5. Qara Khan.--The principal part of this story is borrowed +from the First Voyage of Aboulfawaris in the Thousand and One +Days; it has some resemblance to the story of the Mountain of +Loadstone in No. 3c. + +7. FRÜCHTE DES ASIATISCHEN GEIST, von A. T. Hartmann. 2 vols., +12mo (Münster) 1803. A collection of anecdotes, &c., from various +Eastern sources, Arabic, Indian, &c. I think it not impossible +that this may be the work referred to by Von Hammer in the +preface to Zinserling's "1001 Nacht" (p. xxvii. note) as +"Asiatische Perleuschnur von Hartmann." At least I have not yet +met with any work to which the scanty indication would apply +better. + +8. TUTI-NAMA. I could hardly pass over the famous Persian and +Turkish "Parrot-Book" quite without notice; but its tales have +rarely any direct connection with those in The Nights, and I have +not attempted to go into its very extensive bibliography. + + + + +DR. CLARKE'S M.S. + + + +Dr. Edward Daniel Clarke has given an account of an important MS. +nearly agreeing with Bul. and Mac., which he purchased in Egypt, +in his "Travels in various countries of Europe, Asia and Africa." +Part ii. Greece, Egypt, and the Holy Land. Section i. (1812) App. +iii., pp. 701-704. Unfortunately, this MS. was afterwards so +damaged by water during a shipwreck that it was rendered totally +illegible. The list of tales (as will be seen by the numbers in +brackets, which correspond to our Table, as far as the +identifications are safe) will show the approximate contents of +the MS., but the list (which is translated into German by Habicht +in the preface to his vol. 12) was evidently compiled carelessly +by a person nearly ignorant of Arabic, perhaps with the aid of an +interpreter, Maltese, or other, and seems to abound with the most +absurd mistakes. The full text of Clarke's App. iii. is as +follows: "List of One Hundred and Seventy-two Tales, contained in +a manuscript copy of the 'Àlif Lila va Lilin,' or 'Arabian +Nights,' as it was procured by the Author in Egypt." + +N.B.--The Arabic words mentioned in this list are given as they +appeared to be pronounced in English characters, and of course, +therefore, adapted to English pronunciation. + +The number of tales amounts to 172, but one tale is supposed to +occupy many nights in the recital, so that the whole number is +divided into "One Thousand and One Nights." It rarely happens +that any two copies of the Alif Lila va Lilin resemble each +other. This title is bestowed upon any collection of Eastern +tales divided into the same number of parts. The compilation +depends upon the taste, the caprice, and the opportunities of the +scribe, or the commands of his employer. Certain popular stories +are common to almost all copies of the Arabian Nights, but almost +every collection contains some tales which are not found in every +other. Much depends upon the locality of the scribe. The popular +stories of Egypt will be found to differ materially from those of +Constantinople. A nephew of the late Wortley Montague, living in +Rosetta, had a copy of the Arabian Nights, and upon comparing the +two manuscripts it appeared that out of the 172 tales here +enumerated only 37 were found in his manuscript. In order to +mark, therefore, the stories which were common to the two +manuscripts, an asterisk has been prefixed to the thirty-seven +tales which appeared in both copies. + + 1. The Bull and the Ass (a). + 2. The Merchant and the Hobgoblin (1; Habicht translates Kobold!). + 3. The Man and the Antelope (1a). + 4. The Merchant and Two Dogs (1b). + 5. The Old Man and the Mule (1c). + *6. The History of the Hunters (2). + 7&8. The History of King Unam and the Philosopher Reinan (2a). + *9. History of King Sinbad and Elbase (2a, ab). + *10. History of the Porter (3). + *11. History of Karanduli. + 12. Story of the Mirror. + 13. Story of the Three Apples (4). + *14. Of Shensheddin Mohammed, and his Brother Noureddin (5). + *15. Of the Taylor, Little Hunchback, the Jew and the Christian (6). + 16. The History of Noureddin Ali (7). + 17. Ditto of Gaumayub, &c. (8). + *18. The History of King Omar and Oman and his Children. (This tale + is extremely long, and occupies much of the manuscript) (9). + *19. Of the Lover and the Beloved (9a). + 20. Story of the Peacock, the Goose, the Ass, the Horse, &c. (10). + 21. Of the Pious Man (11). + 22. Of the Pious Shepherd. + 23. Of the Bird and the Turtle (12). + 24. Of the Fox, the Hawk, &c. (13). + 25. Of the Lord of the Beasts. + *26. Of the Mouse and the Partridge (14). + 27. Of the Raven and the Cat (15). + 28. Of the Raven, the Fox, the Mouse, the Flea, &c., &c. (16). + 29. Story of the Thief (18). + *30. Of Aul Hassan and the Slave Shemsney Har (20). + *31. Of Kamrasaman, &c. (21). + 32. Of Naam and Nameto la (21a). + *33. Of Aladin Abuskelmat (22). + *34. Of Hallina Die (23). + 35. Story of Maan Jaamnazida (24). + 36. History of the Town Litta (26). + 37. Story of Hassan Abdulmelac (27). + 38. Of Ibrahim Elmachde, Brother of Haroun al Raschid (28). + 39. History of the Famous Garden Ezem (Paradise) (29). + 40. Of Isaac of Mossul (30). + 41. Of Hasli Hasli. + 42. Of Mohammed Eli Ali (32). + 43. Of Ali the Persian (33). + 44. History of the Raschid and his Judge (34). + 45. Of Haled Immi Abdullah. + 46. Of Jafaard the Bamasside (36). + 47. Of Abokohammed Kurlan (37). + 48. Of Haroun al-Raschid and Sala. + 49. History of Mamoan (40). + 50. Of Shar and the Slave Zemroud (41). + 51. Of the Lady Bedoor (literally Mrs. Moon-face) and Mr. + Victorious (42). + 52. Of Mammon and Mohammed of Bassorah. + 53. Of Haroun al-Raschid and his Slave (44). + 54. Of the Merchant in Debt (45). + 55. Of Hassoun Medin, the Governor (46). + 56. Of King Nassir and his Three Children--the Governor of Cairo, + the Governor of Bulac, and the Governor of Old Cairo (47). + 57. History of the Banker and the Thief (48). + 58. Of Aladin, Governor of Constantinople. + 59. Of Mamoon and Ibrahim (50). + 60. Of a certain King (51). + 61. Of a Pious Man (52). + 62. Of Abul Hassan Ezeada (53). + 63. Of a Merchant (54). + 64. Of a Man of Bagdad (55). + 65. Of Modavikil (56). + *66. Of Virdan in the time of Hakim Veemrelack (N.B.--He built + the Mosque in going from Cairo to Heliopolis) (57). + 67. Of a Slave and an Ape (58). + *68. Story of the Horse of Ebony (59). + *69. Of Insilvujud (60). + 70. Of Eban Vas (61). + 71. Of an Inhabitant of Bassora (62). + 72. History of a Man of the tribe of Arabs of Beucadda (63). + 73. History of Benriddin, Vizir of Yemen (64). + 74. Of a Boy and a Girl (65). + 75. Of Mutelmis (66). + 76. Of Haroun al Rashid and the Lady Zebeda (67). + 77. Of Mussa ab imni Zibir (69). + 78. Of the Black Father. + 79. Of Haroun al Raschid. + 80. Story of an Ass Keeper (74?). + 81. Of Haroun al Rashid and Eboo Yussuf (75). + 82. Of Hakim, Builder of the Mosque (76). + 83. Of Melikel Horrais. + 84. Of a Gilder and his Wife (78). + 85. Of Hashron, &c. (79). + 86. Of Yackyar, &c., the Barmadride (80). + 87. Of Mussa, &c. + 88. Of Said, &c. + 89. Of the Whore and the Good Woman. + 90. Of Raschid and Jacob his Favourite. + 91. Of Sherif Hussein. + 92. Of Mamoon, son of Haroun al Raschid (87). + 93. Of the repenting Thief (88) + 94. Of Haroun al Raschid (89). + 95. Of a Divine, &c. (90). + 96. Another story of a Divine. + 97. The Story of the Neighbours. + 98. Of Kings (94). + 99. Of Abdo Rackman (95). + 100. Of Hind, daughter of Nackinan (96). + 101. Of Tabal (97). + 102. Of Isaac son of Abraham (98). + 103. Of a Boy and a Girl. + 104. Story of Chassim Imni Addi. + 105. Of Abul Abass. + 106. Of Ebubecker Ben Mohammed. + 107. Of Ebi Evar. + 108. Of Emmin, brother of Mamon (105). + 109. Of six Scheiks of Bagdad. + 110. Of an Old Woman. + 111. Of a Wild Girl. + 112. Of Hasan Elgevire of Bagdad. + 113. Of certain Kings. + 114. Of a king of Israel (116). + 115. Of Alexander (117). + 116. Of King Nusharvian (118). + 117. Of a Judge and his Wife (119). + 118. Of an Emir. + 119. Of Malek Imnidinar. + 120. Of a devout man of the children of Israel (122). + 121. Of Hedjage Himni Yussuf (123). + 122. Of a Blacksmith (124). + 123. Of a devout man (125). + 124. Of Omar Imnilchatab. + 125. Of Ibrahim Elchaber. + 126. Of a Prophet (128). + 127. Of a Pious Man (129). + 128. Of a Man of the Children of Israel (130). + 129. Of Abul Hassan Duradge (131). + 130. Of Sultana Hayaat. + 131. Of the Philosopher Daniel (132). + *132. Of Belukia (132A). + *133. The Travels of Sinbad--certain seven voyages, &c. (133). + 134. Of the Town of Copper (134). + 135. Of the Seven Virgins and the Slave (135). + *136. Story of Judais (136). + 137. The Wonderful History. + 138. Of Abdullah lmni Mohammi. + 139. Of Hind Imni Haman (139). + 140. Of Chazmimé Imni Bashés (140). + 141. Of Jonas the Secretary (141). + 142. Of Haroun al-Rashid (142). + 143. Of ditto. + 144. Of Ebon Isaac Ibrahim (144). + 145. Of Haroun al Raschid, Misroor and the Poet. + 146. Of the Caliph Moavia. + 147. Of Haroun al Raschid. + 148. Of Isaac Imni Ibrahim (148), + 149. Of Ebwi Amér. + *150. Of Achmet Ezenth and the old Female Pimp. + 151. Of the three Brothers. + 152. Of Erdeshir and Hiaker, of Julmar El Bacharia (152). + 153. Of Mahomet, &c. + 154. Ditto (154?). + *155. Story of Safil Moluki (154A). + *156. Of Hassan, &c. (155). + *157. Of Caliph the Hunter (156). + *158. Of Mersir and his Mistress (157). + 159. Of Noureddin and Mary (158). + 160. Of a Bedouin and a Frank (159). + 161. Of a Man of Baghdad and his Female Slave (160). + 162. Of a King, his Son, and the Vizir Shemar (161). + *163. Of a Merchant and the Thieves. + *164. Of Abousir and Aboukir (162). + *165. Abdulak El Beri and Abdulak El Backari (163). + *166. Of Haroun al Raschid. + 167. Of the Merchant Abul Hassan al-Omani (164). + 168. Of Imnil Echarib (168). + 169. Of Moted Bila. + *170. Of Kamasi Zemuan (167). + *171. Of Abdulah Imni Fasil (168). + *172. The Story of Maroof (169). + + + + + IMITATIONS AND MISCELLANEOUS WORKS HAVING MORE OR LESS + CONNECTION WITH THE NIGHTS. + + + +The success of Galland's work led to the appearance of numerous +works more or less resembling it, chiefly in England and France. +Similar imitations, though now less numerous, have continued to +appear down to the present day. + +The most important of the older works of this class were +published in French in the "Cabinet des Fées" (Amsterdam and +Geneva, 1785-1793; 41 vols.); in English in "Tales of the East: +comprising the most popular Romances of Oriental origin, and the +best imitations by European authors, with new translations and +additional tales never before published, to which is prefixed an +introductory dissertation, containing an account of each work and +of its author or translator. By Henry Weber, Esq." (Edinburgh, +1812, 3 vols.); and in German in "Tausand und ein Tag. +Morgenländische Erzählungen aus dem Persisch, Turkisch und +Arabisch, nach Petis de la Croix, Galland, Cardonne, Chavis und +Cazotte, dem Grafen Caylus, und Anderer. Übersetzt von F. H. von +der Hagen" (Prenzlau, 1827-1837, 11 vols.). In the "Cabinet des +Fées" I find a reference to an older collection of tales (partly +Oriental) called the "Bibliothèque des Fées et des Génies," by +the Abbé de la Porte, which I have not seen, but which is, in +part, incorporated in the "Cabinet." It formed only 2 vols. 12mo, +and was published in 1765. + +The examination of these tales is difficult, for they comprise +several classes, not always clearly defined:-- + +1. Satires on The Nights themselves (e.g. the Tales of the + Count of Hamilton). +2. Satires in an Oriental garb (e.g. Beckford's Vathek). +3. Moral tales in an Oriental garb (e.g. Mrs. Sheridan's + Nourjahad). +4. Fantastic tales with nothing Oriental about them but the + name (e.g. Stevenson's New Arabian Nights). +5. Imitations pure and simple (e.g. G. Meredith's Shaving of + Shagpat). +6. Imitations more or less founded on genuine Oriental sources + (e.g. the Tales of the Comte de Caylus). +7. Genuine Oriental Tales (e.g. Mille et une Jours, translated + by Petis de la Croix). + +Most of the tales belonging to Class 7 and some of those +belonging to Class 6 have been treated of in previous sections. +The remaining tales and imitations will generally need only a +very brief notice; sometimes only the title and the indication of +the class to which they belong. We will begin with an enumeration +of the Oriental contents of the Cabinet des Fées, adding W. i., +ii. and iii. to show which are included in Weber's "Tales of the +East":-- + +7-11. 1001 Nuits (W. 1). +12, 13. Les Aventures d'Abdalla (W. iii). +14, 15. 1001 Jours (Persian tales, W. ii.). 16. Histoire de la + Sultane de Perse et des Visirs. Contes Turcs (Turkish + tales, W. 3==our 251). +16. Les Voyages de Zulma dans le pays des Fées. +17, 18. Contes de Bidpai. +19. Contes Chinois, on les Aventures merveilleuses du Mandarin + Fum-Hoam (W. iii.). 21, 22. Les Mille et un Quart d'Heures. + Contes Tartares (W. iii.). +22, 23. Les Sultanes de Guzerath, ou les Songes des hommes +eveillés. Contes Moguls (W. iii.). +25. Nouveaux Contes Orientaux, par le Comte de Caylus (W. ii.). +29, 30. Les Contes des Génies (W. iii.). +30. Les Aventures de Zelouide et d'Amanzarifdine. +30. Contes Indiens par M. de Moncrif. +33. Nourjahad (W. ii.). +34. Contes de M. Pajon. +38-41. Les Veillées du Sultan Schahriar, &c. (Chavis and Cazotte; +cf. anteà, p. 419; W. i. ii.). + +(Weber also includes, in his vol. ii. Nos. 21a, 22, 32 and 37, +after Caussin de Perceval.) + +12, 13. The Adventures of Abdallah, the Son of Hanif (Class 5 or +6). + +Originally published in 1713; attributed to M. de Bignon, a young +Abbé. A series of romantic travels, in which Eastern and Western +fiction is mixed; for instance, we have the story of the Nose- +tree, which so far as I know has nothing Oriental about it. + +16. The Voyages of Zulma in Fairy Land (Class 4). + +European fairy tales, with nothing Oriental about them but the +names of persons and places. The work is unfinished. + +17, 18. The Tales of Bidpai (translated by Galland) are Indian, + and therefore need no further notice here. + +19-23. Chinese, Tartarian and Mogul Tales (Class 6). + +Published in 1723, and later by Thomas Simon Gueulette. + +Concerning these tales, Mr. Clouston remarks (in litt.): "Much of +the groundwork of these clever imitations of the Arabian Nights +has been, directly or indirectly, derived from Eastern sources; +for instance, in the so-called Tartar tales, the adventures of +the Young Calender find parallels, (1) in the well-known Bidpai +tale of the Bráhman, the Sharpers and the Goat (Kalila and Dimna, +Pánchatantra, Hitopadesa, &c.) and (2) in the worldwide story of +the Farmer who outwitted the Six Men (Indian Antiquary, vol. 3) +of which there are many versions current in Europe, such as the +Norse tale of Big Peter and Little Peter, the Danish tale of +Great Claus and Little Claus; the German tale (Grimm) of the +Little Farmer; the Irish tale of Little Fairly (Samuel Lover's +collection of Irish Fairy Legends and Stories); four Gaelic +versions in Campbell's Popular Tales of the West Highlands; a +Kaba'il version in Riviere's French collection (Contes populaires +Kabylies); Uncle Capriano in Crane's recently published Italian +Popular Tales; and a Latin mediaeval version (written probably in +the I **1th century) in which the hero is called ‘Unibos,' +because he had only one cow." + +25. Oriental Tales (Class 6). + +Mr. Clouston observes, "Appeared in 1749,[FN#472] and on the +title page are said to have been translated from MSS. in the +Royal French Library. The stories are, however, largely the +composition of De Caylus himself, and those elements of them +which are traceable to Asiatic sources have been considerably +Frenchified." + +Nevertheless they are not without interest, and are nearly all of +obviously Oriental origin. One of the stories is a fantastic +account of the Birth of Mahomet, including romantic travels +largely borrowed from No. 132a. Another story is a version of +that of the Seven Sleepers. Other noteworthy tales are the story +of the Dervish Abounader, which resembles Nos. 193 and 216d; and +the story of Naerdan and Guzulbec, which is a tale of magical +illusions similar to that of Monia Emin, in the Turkish story of +Jewad. + +The Count de Caylus was the author of various European as well as +Oriental fairy tales. Of his Oriental collection, Sir R. F. +Burton remarks:--"The stories are not Eastern but Western fairy +tales proper, with kings and queens, giants and dwarfs, and +fairies, good and bad. ‘Barbets' act as body guard and army. +Written in good old style, and free language, such as, for +instance, son pétenlaire, with here and there a touch of salt +humour, as in Rosanie ‘Charmante reine (car on n'a jamais parlé +autrement à une reine, quel que laide qu'elle ait été).'" + +29, 30. Tales of the Genii (Class 3). + +Written in the middle of the last century by Rev. James Ridley, +but purporting to be translated from the Persian of Horam, the +son of Asmar, by Sir Charles Morell. + +These tales have been reprinted many times; but it is very +doubtful if they are based on any genuine Oriental sources. The +amount of Oriental colouring may be guessed from the story of +Urad, who having consented to become the bride of a Sultan on +condition that he should dismiss all his concubines, and make her +his sole queen (like Harald Harfagr on his marriage with +Ragnhilda), is presented to his loving subjects as their Sultana! + +32. Adventures of Zeloide and Amanzarifdine. Indian Tales, by M. + de Moncrif (Class 4). Ordinary European Fairy Tales, with + the scene laid in the East. + +33. Nourjahad, by Mrs. Sheridan (Class 3). + +An unworthy favourite is reformed by a course of practical moral +lessons conveyed by the Sultan through supposed supernatural +agencies. Mr. Clouston regards it as "one of the very best of the +imitations of Eastern fiction. The plot is ingeniously conceived +and well wrought out, and the interest never flags throughout." + +34. Pajon's Oriental Tales (Class 5). These demand no special + notice. + +In addition to the above, the following Oriental works are +mentioned in the Cabinet des Fées, but not reprinted: + + 1. Apologues orientaux, par l'abbé Blanchet. + 2. Mélanges de littérature orientale, par Cardonne. (Paris, 2 +vols. 1770.) + 3. Neraïr et Meloe, roman oriental, par H. B. Deblanes (1759). + 4. Contes orientaux, par M. de la Dixmerie. + 5. Les Cinq Cent Matinées et une demie, contes Syriens, par le +chevalier de Duclos. + 6. Abassâi, conte oriental, par Mademoiselle Fault (ou +Fauques) 1752. + 7. Les Contes du Serail, par Mdlle. Fault (1753.) + 8. Kara Mustapha, conte oriental, par Fromaget (1745). + 9. Zilia et Cénie, par Francoise d'Isembourg d'Hippincourt de +Graffigny. + 10. Salned et Garalde, conte oriental, par A. H. De la Motte. + 11. Anecdotes orientales, par G. Mailhol (2 vols. 1752). + 12. Alzahel, traduit d'un manuscrit arabe, par Mdlle. Raigné de +Malfontaine (Mercure, 1773). + 13. Mahmoud le Gasnevide, conte oriental, par J. F. Melon. + 14. Contes Orientaux, ou les recits du Sage Caleb, voyageur +persan, par Mme. Mouet. + 15. Nadir, par A. G. de Montdorge. + 16. Lettres Persanes, de Montesquieu. + 17. Les Amusements de Jour, ou recueil de petits contes, par +Mme. de Mortemar. + 18. Mirloh, conte oriental, par Martine de Morville (1769). + 19. Ladila, anecdote turque (par la même) 1769. + 20. Daira, histoire orientale, par A. J. J. de la Riche de la +Poupelinière (1761). + 21. Cara Mustapha, par de Preschat. + 22. Des trois Nations, conte oriental, par Marianne Robert +(1760). + 23. Contes Orientaux, tirés des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque du +Roi, 2 vols. 12mo (1749). + +This is the same as the Count de Caylus' Oriental Tales. Sir R. +F. Burton has received the following memorandum, respecting a +copy of an earlier edition of the same work: "Contes Orientaux, +tirés des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque du Roy de France, ornés +de figures en taille douce. A la Haye, 1743, 2 vols. 12mo, +polished calf gilt, gilt edges, arms in gilt on the sides. + +"The Preface says, ‘M. Petit et M. Galland n'ont en aucune +connaissance des manuscrits dont cet ouvrage est tiré.' + +"The Tales are from the MSS. and translations sent by those +despatched by the French Ministers to Constantinople to learn +Arabic, &c., and so become fit to act as Dragomans and +Interpreters to the French Embassy." + +There is a copy of this work in the British Museum; it proves, as +I expected, to be the series of tales subsequently attributed to +the Count de Caylus. + +In addition to the above, the following, of which I can only give +the names, are mentioned in the Cabinet des Fées, but not +reprinted:-- + + 1. Alma-Moulin, conte oriental, 1779. + 2. Gengiskan, histoire orientale, par M. de St. M. + 3. Almanzor et Zelira, conte arabe, par M. Bret. (1772). {From + "les mercures."} + 4. Almerine et Zelima, ou les Dangers de la Beauté, conte + orientale, 1773. {From "les mercures."} + 5. Les Ames, conte arabe, par M. B--------. {From "les + mercures."} + 6. Balky, conte oriental, 1768. {From "les mercures."} + 7. Mirza, ou Is necessité d'etre utile (1774). {From "les + mercures."} + 8. Zaman, histoire orientale, par M. B. {From "les mercures."} + 9. Anecdotes Orientales, par Mayol, 1752.12mo. + 10. Contes très moguls. + 11. Foka ou les Metamorphoses, conte chinois. Derobé à M. + de V. 1777. 12mo. + 12. Mahulem, histoire orientale. 12mo, 1776. + 13. Mille et une heure, contes Peruviens. 4 vols. 12mo, + 1733. + 14. Histoire de Khedy, Hermite de Mont Ararat. Conte + orientale, traduit de l'Anglais, 12mo, 1777. + 15. Zambeddin, histoire orientale. 12mo, 1768. + 16. Zelmoille et Zulmis et Turlableu. Par M. l'Abbé de + Voisem, 12mo, 1747. + 17. Roman Oriental, Paris, 1753. + +The remaining imitations, &c., known to me I shall place roughly +in chronological order, premising that I fear the list must be +very incomplete, and that I have met with very few except in +English and French. + + + + + A.--French + + + +1. Zadig, ou la Destinée, par Voltaire[FN#473] probably +partakes of classes 2 and 6; said to be partly based on +Gueulette's "Soirées Bretonnes," published in 1712. The latter is +included in Cabinet des Fées, Vol. 32. + +2. Vathek, an Arabian Tale, by William Beckford. I include this +book here because it was written and first published in French. +Its popularity was once very great, and it contains some +effective passages, though it belongs to Class 2, and is rather a +parody than an imitation of Oriental fiction. The Caliph Vathek, +after committing many crimes at the instance of his mother, the +witch Carathis, in order to propitiate Eblis, finally starts on +an expedition to Istakar. On the way, he seduces Nouronihar, the +beautiful daughter of the Emir Fakreddin, and carries her with +him to the Palace of Eblis, where they am condemned to wander +eternally, with their hearts surrounded with flames. + +This idea (which is certainly not Oriental, so far as I know) +took the fancy of Byron, who was a great admirer of Vathek, and +he has mixed it with genuine Oriental features in a powerful +passage in the Giaour, beginning: + + "But thou, false infidel! shalt writhe + Beneath avenging Monkir's scythe; + And from its torment 'scape alone + To wander round lost Eblis' throne; + And fire unquenched, unquenchable, + Around, within thy heart shall dwell; + Nor ear can hear, nor tongue can tell + The tortures of that inward hell!" &c. + +How errors relative to Eastern matters are perpetuated is +illustrated by the fact that I have seen these lines quoted in +some modern philosophical work as descriptive of the hell in +which the Mohammedans believe! + +Southey, in Thalaba, b. 1., speaks of the Sarsar, "the Icy Wind +of Death," an expression which he probably borrowed from Vathek. + +3. The Count of Hamilton's Fairy Tales. Written shortly after + the first publication of Galland's work. There is an English + Translation among Bohn's Extra Volumes. + +4. Les Mille et un Fadaises, par Cazotte. Class 1. I have not + seen them. + +5. La Mille et deuxième Nuit, par Theophilus Gautier (Paris, + 1880). Probably Class 1 or 2; I have not seen it. + + + + + B.--English. + + + +1. The Vision of Mirza (Addison in the "Spectator"). Class 3. + +2. The Story of Amurath. Class 3. I do not know the author. I +read it in a juvenile book published about the end of last +century, entitled the Pleasing Instructor. + +3. The Persian Tales of Inatulla of Delhi. Published in 1768, +by Colonel Alexander Dow at Edinburgh. A French translation +appeared at Amsterdam in two vols. and in Paris in one vol. +(1769). Class 6. Chiefly founded on a wellknown Persian work, of +which a more correct, though still incomplete, version was +published in 3 vols. by Jonathan Scott in 1799, under the title +of Bahar Danush, or Garden of Knowledge. + +5. Rasselas, by Samuel Johnson. Class 3. Too well known to need + comment. + +6. Almoran and Hamet, by Dr. Hawksworth. Class 3. Very popular +at the beginning of the present century, but now forgotten. + +7. Oriental Fairy Tales (London, 1853). Class 4. A series of +very pretty fairy tales, by an anonymous author, in which the +scene is laid in the East (especially Egypt). + +8. The Shaving of Shagpat, by George Meredith (London, 1855). +Class 5. I prefer this to most other imitations of an Oriental +tale. + +9. The Thousand and One Humbugs. Classes 1 and 2. Published in +"Household Words," vol. xi. (1855) pp. 265-267, 289-292, 313-316. +Parodies on Nos. 1, 195, 6d, and 6e,f. + +10. Eastern Tales, by many story-tellers. Compiled and edited +from ancient and modern authors by Mrs. Valentine, author of "Sea +Fights and Land Battles," &c. (Chandos Classics.) + +In her preface, the authoress states that the tales "are gathered +from both ancient and modern French, Italian and English +sources." + +Contains 14 tales, some genuine, others imitations, One, +"Alischar and Smaragdine," is a genuine story of The Nights (No. +41 of our Table), and is probably taken from Trébutien. Three +tales, "Jalaladeen," "Haschem," and "Jussuf," are Grimm's +imitations, taken probably from the composite English edition of +1847, and with the same illustrations. "The Seven Sleepers" and +the "Four Talismans" are from the Count de Caylus' tales; +"Halechalbe" and "Bohetzad" (our No. 174) are from Chavis and +Cazotte; "The Enchanters" and "Urad" are from the "Tales of the +Genii"; and "The Pantofles" is the well-known story of the miser +Casem and his slippers, but I know not where it first appeared. +The remaining three tales are unknown to me, and as I have seen +no volume of Italian Oriental tales, some, no doubt, are derived +from the Italian sources of which the authoress spoke. They are +the following: "The Prince and the Lions," "The City of the +Demons" (a Jewish story purporting to have been written in +England) and "Sadik Beg." + +11. New Arabian Nights, by R. L. Stevenson (London, 1882). + +12. More New Arabian Nights. The Dynamiter. By R. L. Stevenson + and Vander Grift (London, 1882). Class 4. + +Of these tales, Sir R. F. Burton observes, "The only visible +connection with the old Nights is in the habit of seeking +adventures under a disguise. The method is to make the main idea +possible and the details extravagant. In another ‘New Arabian +Nights,' the joint production of MM. Brookfield, Besant and +Pollock, the reverse treatment is affected, the leading idea +being grotesque and impossible, and the details accurate and +lifelike." + + + + + C.--German. + + + +It is quite possible that there are many imitations in German, +but I have not met with them. I can only mention one or two tales +by Hauff (the Caliph turned Stork, and the Adventures of Said); a +story called "Ali and Gulhindi," by what author I do not now +remember; and some imitations said to be by Grimm, already +mentioned in reference to the English composite edition of 1847. +They are all European fairy tales, in an Eastern dress. + + + + + CONCLUSION. + + + +Among books specially interesting to the student of The Nights, I +may mention Weil's "Biblische Legenden der Muselmänner, aus +arabischen Quellen zusammengetragen, und mit jüdischen Sagen +verglichen" (Frankfort-on-Main, 1845). An anonymous English +translation appeared in 1846 under the title of "The Bible, the +Koran, and the Talmud," and it also formed one of the sources +from which the Rev. S. Baring-Gould compiled his "Legends of Old +Testament Characters" (2 vols., 1871). The late Prof. Palmer's +"Life of Haroun Al-Raschid" (London, 1881), is not much more than +a brief popular sketch. The references to The Nights in English +and other European literatures are innumerable; but I cannot +refrain from quoting Mark Twain's identification of Henry the +Eighth with Shahryar (Huckleberry Finn, chap. xxiii). + +"My, you ought to have seen old Henry the Eighth when he was in +bloom. He was a blossom. He used to marry a new wife every day, +and chop off her head next morning. And he would do it just as +indifferent as if he was ordering up eggs. "Fetch up Nell Gwynn," +he says. They fetch her up. Next morning, "Chop off her head." +And they chop it off. "Fetch up Jane Shore," he says; and up she +comes. Next morning, "Chop off her head." And they chop it off. +"Ring up Fair Rosamun." Fair Rosamun answers the bell. Next +morning, "Chop off her head." And he made every one of them tell +him a tale every night, and he kept that up till he had hogged a +thousand and one tales that way, and then he put them all in a +book, and called it Domesday Book--which was a good name, and +stated the case. You don't know kings, Jim, but I know them, and +this old rip of ourn is one of the cleanest I've struck in +history. Well, Henry, he takes a notion he wants to get up some +trouble with this country. How does he do it--give notice?--give +the country a show? No. All of a sudden he heaves all the tea in +Boston Harbour overboard, and whacks out a declaration of +independence, and dares them to come on. That was his style--he +never give anybody a chance. He had suspicions of his father, the +Duke of Wellington. Well, what did he do?--ask him to show up? +No--drownded him in a butt of mamsey, like a cat. Spose people +left money laying around where he was--what did he do? He +collared it. Spose he contracted to do a thing, and you paid him, +and didnt set down there and see that he done it--what did he do? +He always done the other thing. Spose he opened his mouth--what +then? If he didnt shut it up powerful quick, he'd lose a lie, +every time. That's the kind of a bug Henry was." + + + + +COMPARATIVE TABLE OF THE TALES IN THE PRINCIPAL + EDITIONS OF THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS, viz.:-- + + + + 1. Galland. + 2. Caussin de Perceval. + 3. Gauttier. + 4. Scott's MS. (Wortley Montague). + 5. Ditto (Anderson; marked A). + 6. Scott's Arabian Nights. + 7. Scott's Tales and Anecdotes (marked A). + 8. Von Hammer's MS. + 9. Zinserling. +10. Lamb. +11. Trébutien. +12. Bul. text. +13. Lane. +14. Bres. text. +15. Habicht. +16. Weil. +17. Mac. text. +18. Torrens. +19. Payne. +20. Payne's Tales from the Arabic (marked I. II. III.) +21. Calc. +22. Burton. + +As nearly all editions of The Nights are in several volumes, the +volumes are indicated throughout, except in the case of some of +the texts. Only those tales in No. 5, not included in No. 4, are +here indicated in the same column. All tales which there is good +reason to believe do not belong to the genuine Nights are marked +with an asterisk. + +The blank column may be used to enter the contents of some other +edition. + | Galland. |"Bul." Text. Burton. + | |Caussin de Perceval. | |Lane. | + | | |Gauttier. | | |"Bres." Text. | + | | | |Scott's MS. | | | |Habicht. | + | | | | |Scott. | | | | |Weil. | + | | | | | |Von Hammer's MS. | | | | |"Mac." Text | + | | | | | | |Zinserling.| | | | | | |Torrens. | + | | | | | | | |Lamb. | | | | | | | |Payne. | + | | | | | | | | |Trébutien | | | | | | |Calc. | + [| 1.| 2.| 3.|4,5|6,7| 8.| 9.|10.|11.|12.|13.|14.|15.|16.|17.|18.|19.|20.| |22.] + + Introduction . . . . . . . . . . | - |...|...| 1 | - |VHa|...|...|...| + | 1 | + |...| 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + |...| 1 + Story of King Shahryar and his brother . . . | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |VHa|...|...|...| + | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + |...| 1 + a. Tale of the Bull and the Ass . . . . | 1 | 1 | 1 | A | 1 |VHa|...|...|...| + | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + |...| 1 + 1. Tale of the Trader and the Jinni . . . . | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |VHa|...|...|...| + | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + |...| 1 + a. The First Shaykh's Story . . . . . | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |VHa|...|...|...| + | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + |...| 1 + b. The Second Shaykh's Story . . . . . | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |VHa|...|...|...| + | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + |...| 1 + c. The Third Shaykh's Story . . . . . | - | - |...| 1 | - |VHa|...|...|...| + | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | - |...| 1 + 2. The Fisherman and the Jinni . . . . . | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |VHa|...|...|...| + | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + |...| 1 + a. Tale of the Wazir and the Sage Duban . . | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |VHa|...|...|...| + | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + |...| 1 + ab. Story of King Sindibad and his Falcon . | - | - |...| ? | - |VHa|...|...|...| + | - | - | - | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | - |...| 1 + ac. Tale of the Husband and the Parrot . . | 1 | 1 | 1 | ? | 1 |VHa|...|...|...| - | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | - | - | - | + |...| 1 + ad. Tale of the Prince and the Ogress . . | 1 | 1 | 1 | ? | 1 |VHa|...|...|...| + | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + |...| 1 + b. Tale of the Ensorcelled Prince . . . . | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |VHa|...|...|...| + | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + |...| 1 + 3. The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad . . | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |VHa|...|...|...| + | 1 | + | 2 | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + |...| 1 + a. The First Kalandar's Tale . . . . . | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |VHa|...|...|...| + | 1 | + | 2 | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + |...| 1 + b. The Second Kalandar's Tale . . . . . | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |VHa|...|...|...| + | 1 | + | 2 | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + |...| 1 + ba. Tale of the Envier and the Envied . . | 2 | 1 | 1 | ? | 1 |VHa|...|...|...| - | 1 | + | 2 | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + |...| 1 + c. The Third Kalandar's Tale . . . . . | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |VHa|...|...|...| + | 1 | + | 2 | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + |...| 1 + d. The Eldest Lady's Tale . . . . . . | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |VHa|...|...|...| + | 1 | + | 2 | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + |...| 1 + e. Tale of the Portress . . . . . . | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |VHa|...|...|...| + | 1 | + | 2 | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | - |...| 1 + Conclusion of the Story of the Porter and + three Ladies . . . . . . . . | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |VHa|...|...|...| + | 1 | + | 2 | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + |...| 1 + 4. Tale of the Three Apples . . . . . . | 3 | 2 | 2 |...| 2 |VHa|...|...|...| + | 1 | + | 3 | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + |...| 1 + 5. Tale of Nur Al-Din and his Son Badr Al-Din Hasan |3,4| 2 | 2 |...| 2 | 1 |...|...|...| + | 1 | + | 3 | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + |...| 1 + 6. The Hunchback's Tale . . . . . . . | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |...|...|...| + | 1 | + | 3 | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + |...| 1 + a. The Nazarene Broker's Story . . . . . | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |...|...|...| + | 1 | + | 3 | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + |...| 1 + b. The Reeve's Tale . . . . . . . | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |...|...|...| + | 1 | + | 3 | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + |...| 1 + c. Tale of the Jewish Doctor . . . . . | 4 | 3 | 2 | ? | 2 | 1 |...|...|...| + | 1 | + | 3 | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + |...| 1 + d. Tale of the Tailor . . . . . . . |4,5| 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |...|...|...| + | 1 | + | 3 | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + |...| 1 + e. The Barber's Tale of Himself . . . . | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |...|...|...| + | 1 | + | 4 | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + |...| 1 + ea. The Barber's Tale of his First Brother . | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |...|...|...| + | 1 | + | 4 | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + |...| 1 + eb. The Barber's Tale of his Second Brother . | 5 | 3 | 2 | ? | 2 | 1 |...|...|...| + | 1 | + | 4 | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + |...| 1 + ec. The Barber's Tale of his Third Brother . | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |...|...|...| + | 1 | + | 4 | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + |...| 1 + ed. The Barber's Tale of his Fourth Brother . | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |...|...|...| + | 1 | + | 4 | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + |...| 1 + ee. The Barber's Tale of his Fifth Brother . | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |...|...|...| + | 1 | + | 4 | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + |...| 1 + ef. The Barber's Tale of his Sixth Brother . | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |...|...|...| + | 1 | + | 4 | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + |...| 1 + The End of the Tailor's Tale. . . . . | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |...|...|...| + | 1 | + | 4 | 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + |...| 1 + 7. Nur Al-Din Ali and the Damsel Anis Al-Jalis . | 7 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 |...|...|...| + | 1 | + |5,6| 1 | + | 1 | 1 | + |...| 2 + 8. Tale of Ghanim Bin Ayyub, the Distraught, the + Thrall o' Love . . . . . . . . | 8 |4,5| 4 |...| 4 | 1 |...|...|...| + | 1 | + | 8 | 2 | + | 1 | 1 |...|...| 2 + a. Tale of the First Eunuch, Bukhayt . . . |...|...|...|...|...| ? |...|...|...| + | | + |...| 2 | + | 1 | 1 |...|...| 2 + b. Tale of the Second Eunuch, Kafur. . . . |...|...|...|...|...| ? |...|...|...| + | 1 | + |...| 2 | + | 1 | 1 |...|...| 2 + 9. Tale of King Omar Bin Al-Nu'uman, and his + sons Sharrkan and Zan Al-Makan . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 1 |...|...|...| + | - |...|...| 3 | + |1(p)|2 |...|...|2,3 + a. Tale of Taj Al-Muluk and the Princess Dunya . |...|...|...|...|...| 1 |...|...|...| + | 1 |...|...| 3 | + |...| 2 |...|...|2,3 + aa. Tale of Aziz and Azizah . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 1 |...|...|...| + | 1 |...|...| 3 | + |...| 2 |...|...|2,3 + b. Tale of the Hashish-Eater . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| ? |...|...|...| + | - |...|...| - | + |...| 2 |...|...| 3 + c. Tale of Hammad the Badawi . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 1 |...|...|...| + | - |...|...| - | + |...| 2 |...|...| 3 + 10. The Birds and Beasts and the Carpenter . . . |...|...|...|...|...|VHb|...|...|...| + | 2 |...|...| 2 | + |...| 3 |...|...| 3 + 11. The Hermits . . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|VHb|...|...|...| + | - |...|...| 2 | + |...| 3 |...|...| 3 + 12. The Water-fowl and the Tortoise . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|VHb|...|...|...| + | - |...|...|...| + |...| 3 |...|...| 3 + 13. The Wolf and the Fox . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|VHb|...|...|...| + | 2 |...|...|...| + |...| 3 |...|...| 3 + a. Tale of the Falcon and the Partridge . . |...|...|...|...|...|VHb|...|...|...| + | 2 |...|...|...| + |...| 3 |...|...| 3 + 14. The Mouse and the Ichneumon . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|VHb|...|...|...| + | - |...|...|...| + |...| 3 |...|...| 3 + 15. The Cat and the Crow . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|VHb|...|...|...| + | - |...|...| 2 | + |...| 3 |...|...| 3 + 16. The Fox and the Crow . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|VHb|...|...|...| + | - |...|...|...| + |...| 3 |...|...| 3 + a. The Flea and the Mouse . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|VHb|...|...|...| + | - |...|...|...| + |...| 3 |...|...| 3 + b. The Saker and the Birds . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|VHb|...|...|...| + | - |...|...|...| + |...| 3 |...|...| 3 + c. The Sparrow and the Eagle . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|VHb|...|...|...| + | - |...|...|...| + |...| 3 |...|...| 3 + 17. The Hedgehog and the Wood Pigeons . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|VHb|...|...|...| + | - |...|...|...| + |...| 3 |...|...| 3 + a. The Merchant and the Two Sharpers . . . |...|...|...|...|...|VHb|...|...|...| + | - |...|...|...| + |...| 3 |...|...| 3 + 18. The Thief and his Monkey . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|VHb|...|...|...| + | - |...|...|...| + |...| 3 |...|...| 3 + a. The Foolish Weaver . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|VHb|...|...|...| + | - |...|...|...| + |...| 3 |...|...| 3 + 19. The Sparrow and the Peacock . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|VHb|...|...|...| + | - |...|...|...| + |...| 3 |...|...| 3 + 20. Ali Bin Bakkar and Shams Al-Nahar . . . . |5,6| 3 | 3 |...|2,3| 1 |...|...|...| + | 2 | + | 4 | 1 | + |...| 3 | + |...| 3 + 21. Tale of Kamar Al-Zaman . . . . . . . | 6 |3,4| 3 | 2 | 3 |1,2|...|...|...| + | 2 | + | 5 | 1 | + |...| 3 |...|...|3,4 + a. Ni'amah bin Al-Rabia and Naomi his Slave-girl |...| 9 |...|...|...| ? |...|...|...| + | 2 | + | 13| 2 | + |...| 3 |...|...| 4 + 22. Ala Al-Din Abu Al-Shamat . . . . . . |...| 9 |...|...|...| 2 |...|...|...| + | 2 | + | 13| 2 | + |...| 3 |...|...| 4 + 23. Hatim of the Tribe of Tayy . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 | + |...| 2 | + |...| 3 |...|...| 4 + 24. Ma'an the son of Zaidah and the three Girls . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 |...| 2 | + |...| 2 | + |...| 3 |...|...| 4 + 25. Ma'an son of Zaidah and the Badawi . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - | + |...| 2 | + |...| 3 |...|...| 4 + 26. The City of Labtayt . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - | + |...| 2 | + |...| 3 |...|...| 4 + 27. The Caliph Hisham and the Arab Youth . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - | + |...| 2 | + |...| 3 |...|...| 4 + 28. Ibrahim bin Al-Mahdi and the Barber-Surgeon . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 | + |...| 2 | + |...| 3 |...|...| 4 + 29. The City of Many-columned Iram and Abdullah + son of Abi Kalabah . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 | + |...| 2 | + |...| 3 |...|...| 4 + 30. Isaac of Mosul . . . . . . . . |...|...| 7 |...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 | + | 13| 2 | + |...| 3 | + |...| 4 + 31. The Sweep and the Noble Lady . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - |...|...| 4 | + |...| 3 |...|...| 4 + 32. The Mock Caliph . . . . . . . . |...| 9 | 2 |...|...| 2 | - |...| - | + | 2 | + | 4 | 2 | + |...| 3 |...|...| 4 + 33. Ali the Persian . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - |...|...| 4 | + |...| 3 |...|...| 4 + 34. Harun Al-Rashid and the Slave-Girl and the + Imam Abu Yusuf . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| - | - |...| - | + | - | + |...| 2 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 4 + 35. The Lover who feigned himself a Thief . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 | + |...| 2 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 4 + 36. Ja'afar the Barmecide and the Bean-Seller . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | - |...| - | + | 2 |...|...| 4 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 4 + 37. Abu Mohammed hight Lazybones . . . . . |...| 9 |...|...|...| 2 | - |...| - | + | 2 | + | 13| 2 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 4 + 38. Generous dealing of Yahya bin Khalid the + Barmecide with Mansur . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| ? | - |...| - | + | 2 |...|...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 4 + 39. Generous Dealing of Yahya son of Khalid with + a man who forged a letter in his name . . |...|...|...|...|...| ? | - |...| - | + | 2 | + |...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 4 + 40. Caliph Al-Maamun and the Strange Scholar . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 |...|...|...|...|...| 4 |...|...| 4 + 41. Ali Shar and Zumurrud . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 1 | + | 2 | + |...| 2 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 4 + 42. The Loves of Jubayr Bin Umayr and the Lady Budur |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 1 | + | 2 | + |...| 2 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 4 + 43. The Man of Al-Yaman and his six Slave-Girls . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - | + |...| 2 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 4 + 44. Harun Al-Rashid and the Damsel and Abu Nowas . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - | + |...| 2 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 4 + 45. The Man who stole the dish of gold whereon + the dog ate . . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 | + |...| 4 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 4 + 46. The Sharper of Alexandria and the Chief of Police |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 |...|...| 4 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 4 + 47. Al-Malik Al-Nasir and the three Chiefs of Police |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 | + |...| 4 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 4 + a. Story of the Chief of the new Cairo Police . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 | + |...| 4 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 4 + b. Story of the Chief of the Bulak Police . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 | + |...| 4 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 4 + c. Story of the Chief of the Old Cairo Police . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 | + |...| 4 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 4 + 48. The Thief and the Shroff . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| - | - |...| - | + | 2 | + |...| 4 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 4 + 49. The Chief of the Kus Police and the Sharper . |...|...|...|...|...| - | - |...| - | + | - |...|...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 4 + 50. Ibrahim bin al-Mahdi and the Merchant's Sister . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 | + |...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 4 + 51. The Woman whose hands were cut off for alms- + giving . . . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 | + |...| 4 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 4 + 52. The devout Israelite . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 |...|...| 4 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 4 + 53. Abu Hassan Al-Ziyadi and the Khorasan Man . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 |...|...| 4 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 4 + 54. The Poor Man and his Friend in Need . . . |...|...|...|...|...| - | - |...| - | + | 2 | + |...| 4 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 4 + 55. The Ruined Man who became rich again through + a dream . . . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 | + |...| 4 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 4 + 56. Caliph Al-Mutawakkil and his Concubine Mahbubah |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 |...|...| 4 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 4 + 57. Wardan the Butcher's Adventure with the Lady + and the Bear . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - |...|...| 4 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 4 + 58. The King's Daughter and the Ape . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - |...|...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 4 + 59. The Ebony Horse . . . . . . . . | 11| 7 | 5 |...| 5 | 2 | - |...| - | + | 2 | + | 9 | 1 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 60. Uns Al-Wujud and the Wazir's Daughter Rose- + in-Hood . . . . . . . . . . |...|...| 6 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 1 |...| 1 | + | 2 | + | 11| 2 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 61. Abu Nowas with the Three Boys and the Caliph + Harun Al-Rashid . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| - | + | - | + |...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 62. Abdullah bin Ma'amar with the Man of Bassorah + and his Slave-Girl . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 |...|...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 63. The Lovers of the Banu Ozrah . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| - | - |...| - | + | 2 | + | 11| 4 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 64. The Wazir of Al-Yaman and his young Brother . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - |...|...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 65. The Loves of the Boy and Girl at School . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 |...|...| 4 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 66. Al-Mutalammis and his Wife Umaymah . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| - | - |...| - | + | - | + |...| 4 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 67. Harun Al-Rashid and Zubaydah in the Bath . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - | + |...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 68. Harim Al-Rashid and the Three Poets . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - | + |...| 2 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 69. Mus 'ab bin Al-Zubayr and Ayishah his Wife . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - | + |...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 70. Abu Al-Aswad and his Slave-Girl . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| - | - |...|...| + | - | + |...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 71. Harun Al-Rashid and the two Slave-Girls . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - | + |...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 72. Harun Al-Rashid and the Three Slave-Girls . . |...|...|...|...|...| - | - |...|...| + | - | + |...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 73. The Miller and his Wife . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 |...|...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 74. The Simpleton and the Sharper . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| - | - |...| - | + | 2 | + |...| 4 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 75. The Kazi Abu Yusuf with Harun Al-Rashid and + Queen Zubaydah . . . . . . . . |...|...|...| A | A | - | - |...| - | + | - | + |...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 76. The Caliph Al-Hakim and the Merchant . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 | + |...| 4 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 77. King Kisra Anushirwan and the Village Damsel . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 | + |...| 4 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 78. The Water-carrier and the Goldsmith's Wife . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - | + |...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 79. Khusrau and Shirin and the Fisherman . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 | + |...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 80. Yahya bin Khalid and the Poor Man . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| - | - |...| - | + | 2 | + |...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 81. Mohammed al-Amin and the Slave-Girl . . . |...|...|...|...|...| - | - |...| - | + | 2 | + |...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 82. The Sons of Yahya bin Khalid and Said bin Salim |...|...|...|...|...| - | - |...| - | + | 2 |...|...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 83. The Woman's Trick against her Husband . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 | + |...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 84. The Devout Woman and the Two Wicked Elders . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - | + |...| 4 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 85. Ja'afar the Barmecide and the old Badawi . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - | + |...| 4 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 86. Omar bin Al-Khattab and the Young Badawi . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | + | 2 |...|...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 87. Al-Maamun and the Pyramids of Eygpt . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - |...|...| 4 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 88. The Thief and the Merchant . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 | + |...| 4 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 89. Masrur the Eunuch and Ibn Al-Karibi . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 | + |...| 4 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 90. The Devotee Prince . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | + | 2 | + |...| 4 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 91. The Schoolmaster who fell in Love by Report . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - | + |...| 4 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 92. The Foolish Dominie . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| - | - |...|...| + | - | + |...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 93. The Illiterate who set up for a Schoolmaster . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 | + |...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 94. The King and the Virtuous Wife . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - |...|...| 4 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 95. Abd Al-Rahman the Maghribi's story of the Rukh . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 |...|...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 96. Adi bin Zayd and the Princess Hind . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - | + |...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 97. Di'ibil Al-Khuza'i with the Lady and Muslim bin + Al-Walid . . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - | + |...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 98. Isaac of Mosul and the Merchant . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - | + |...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 99. The Three Unfortunate Lovers . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - | + |...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 100. How Abu Hasan brake Wind . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| - | - |...| - | ? | - |...|...|...| ? |...| - |...|...| 5 + 101. The Lovers of the Banu Tayy . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 | + |...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 102. The Mad Lover . . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 | + |...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 103. The Prior who became a Moslem . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | + | 2 | + |...| 4 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 104. The Loves of Abu Isa and Kurrat Al-Ayn . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 | + |...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 105. Al-Amin and his Uncle Ibrahim bin Al-Mahdi . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - | + |...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 106. Al-Fath bin Khakan and Al-Mutawakkil . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - | + |...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 107. The Man's dispute with Learned Woman concerning + the relative excellence of male and female . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - | + |...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 108. Abu Suwayd and the pretty Old Woman . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - | + |...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 109. Ali bin Tahir and the girl Muunis . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - | + |...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 110. The Woman who had a Boy, and the other who had + a Man to lover . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - | + |...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 111. Ali the Cairene and the Haunted House in Baghdad |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 1 | + | 2 | + |...| 4 | + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 112. The Pilgrim Man and the Old Woman . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 |...|...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 113. Abu Al-Husn and his Slave-girl Tawaddud . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 1 | + | - |...|...|...| + |...| 4 |...|...| 5 + 114. The Angel of Death with the Proud King and the + Devout Man . . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - |...|...| 4 | + |...| 5 |...|...| 5 + 115. The Angel of Death and the Rich King . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - |...|...| 4 | + |...| 5 |...|...| 5 + 116. The Angel of Death and the King of the Children + of Israel . . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | + | 2 |...|...|...| + |...| 5 |...|...| 5 + 117. Iskandar zu Al-Karnayn and a certain Tribe of + Poor Folk . . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - |...|...| 4 | + |...| 5 |...|...| 5 + 118. The Righteousness of King Anushirwan . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - |...|...| 4 | + |...| 5 |...|...| 5 + 119. The Jewish Kazi and his Pious Wife . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - |...|...| 4 | + |...| 5 |...|...| 5 + 120. The Shipwrecked Woman and her Child . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - |...|...| 4 | + |...| 5 |...|...| 5 + 121. The Pious Black Slave . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - |...|...| 4 | + |...| 5 |...|...| 5 + 122. The Devout Tray-maker and his Wife . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 |...|...| 4 | + |...| 5 |...|...| 5 + 123. Al-Hajjaj bin Yusuf and the Pious Man . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - |...|...|...| + |...| 5 |...|...| 5 + 124. The Blacksmith who could Handle Fire Without Hurt |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - |...|...| 4 | + |...| 5 |...|...| 5 + 125. The Devotee to whom Allah gave a Cloud for + Service and the Devout King . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - |...|...| 4 | + |...| 5 |...|...| 5 + 126. The Moslem Champion and the Christian Damsel . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 |...|...| 4 | + |...| 5 |...|...| 5 + 127. The Christian King's Daughter and the Moslem . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - |...|...|...| + |...| 5 |...|...| 5 + 128. The Prophet and the Justice of Providence . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | 2 |...|...| 4 | + |...| 5 |...|...| 5 + 129. The Ferryman of the Nile and the Hermit . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| - | + | - |...|...|...| + |...| 5 |...|...| 5 + 130. The Island King and the Pious Israelite . . |...|...| 6 |...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - |...| 10| 4 | + |...| 5 |...|...| 5 + 131. Abu Al-Hasan and Abu Ja'afar the Leper . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 |...| 3 | + | - |...|...|...| + |...| 5 |...|...| 5 + 132. The Queen of the Serpents . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | + | - |...|...| 4 | + |...| 5 |...|...| 5 + a. The Adventure of Bulukiya . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | + | - |...|...| 4 | + |...| 5 |...|...| 5 + b. The Story of Janshah . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | + | - |...|...| 4 | + |...| 5 |...|...| 5 + 133. Sindbad the Seaman and Sindbad the Landsman . | 3 | 2 | 2 |...| 2 | 3 | - |...| - | + | 3 | + | 2 | 1 | + |...| 5 | + |...| 6 + a. The First Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman . . | 3 | 2 | 2 |...| 2 | 3 | - |...| - | + | 3 | + | 2 | 1 | + |...| 5 | + |...| 6 + b. The Second Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman . . | 3 | 2 | 2 |...| 2 | 3 | - |...| - | + | 3 | + | 2 | 1 | + |...| 5 | + |...| 6 + c. The Third Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman . . | 3 | 2 | 2 |...| 2 | 3 | - |...| - | + | 3 | + | 2 | 1 | + |...| 5 | + |...| 6 + d. The Fourth Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman . . | 3 | 2 | 2 |...| 2 | 3 | - |...| - | + | 3 | + | 2 | 1 | + |...| 5 | + |...| 6 + e. The Fifth Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman . . | 3 | 2 | 2 |...| 2 | 3 | - |...| - | + | 3 | + | 3 | 1 | + |...| 5 | + |...| 6 + f. The Sixth Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman . . | 3 | 2 | 2 |...| 2 | 3 | - |...| - | + | 3 | + | 3 | 1 | + |...| 5 | - |...| 6 + ff. The Sixth Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| - | 3 | - |...|...| - |...|III| + |...| - + g. The Seventh Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman . | 3 | 2 | 2 |...| 2 | 3 | - |...| - | + | 3 | + | 3 | 1 | + |...| 5 | + |...| 6 + gg. The Seventh Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman . | - |...|...|...| - | - | - |...| - | - | 3 | - |...| - | - |...|III| + |...| 6 + 134. The City of Brass . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | + | 3 | + |...| 2 | + |...| 5 |...|...| 6 + 135. The Craft and Malice of Women: . . . . . |...|...|...| A | A | 3 | - |...| - | + | 3 | + |15 |...| + |...| 5 |...|...| 6 + a. The King and his Wazir's Wife . . . . |...|...|...| A | A |...| - |...| - | + | 3 | + |15 |...| + |...| 5 |...|...| 6 + b. The Confectioner, his Wife and the Parrot . |...|...|...| A | A |VHc| - |...| - | + | - | + |...|...| + |...| 5 |...|...| 6 + c. The Fuller and his Son . . . . . . |...|...|...| A | A |VHc|...|...|...| + | - | + |15 |...| + |...| 5 |...|...| 6 + d. The Rake's Trick against the Chaste Wife . |...|...|...|...|...|VHc|...|...|...| + | - | + |15 |...| + |...| 5 |...|...| 6 + e. The Miser and the Loaves of Bread . . . |...|...|...|...|...|VHc|...|...|...| + | - | + |15 |...| + |...| 5 |...|...| 6 + f. The Lady and her two Lovers . . . . . |...|...|...| A | A |VHc|...|...|...| + | 3 | + |15 |...| + |...| 5 |...|...| 6 + g. The King's Son and the Ogress . . . . |...|...|...| A | A |VHc|...|...|...| + | - | + |15 |...| + |...| 5 |...|...| 6 + h. The Drop of Honey . . . . . . . |...|...|...| A | A |VHc|...|...|...| + | 3 | + |15 |...| + |...| 5 |...|...| 6 + i. The Woman who made her husband sift dust . |...|...|...| A |...|VHc|...|...|...| + | 3 | + |15 |...| + |...| 5 |...|...| 6 + j. The Enchanted Spring . . . . . . |...|...|...| A | A |VHc|...|...|...| + | 3 | + |15 |...| + |...| 5 |...|...| 6 + k. The Wazir's Son and the Hammam-keeper's Wife |...|...|...| A |...|...|...|...|...| + | - | + |...|...| + |...| 5 |...|...| 6 + l. The Wife's device to cheat her Husband . . |...|...|...| A | A |...|...|...|...| + | 3 | + |15 |...| + |...| 5 |...|...| 6 + m. The Goldsmith and the Cashmere Singing-girl . |...|...| 1 | A | A |...|...|...|...| + | 3 | + | 1 | 1 | + |...| 5 |...|...| 6 + n. The Man who never laughed during the rest + of his days . . . . . . . . |...|...|...| A | A |...|...|...|...| + | 3 | + |15 |...| + |...| 5 |...|...| 6 + o. The King's Son and the Merchant's Wife . . |...|...|...| A | A |...|...|...|...| + | - | + |15 |...| + |...| 5 |...|...| 6 + p. The Page who feigned to know the Speech of + Birds . . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + | - |...|...|...| + |...| 5 |...|...| 6 + q. The Lady and her five Suitors . . . . |...|...|...| A | A |...|...|...|...| + | - |...|...|...| + |...| 5 |...|...| 6 + r. The Three Wishes, or the Man who longed to + see the Night of Power . . . . . |...|...|...| A |...|...|...|...|...| + | - | + |...|...| + |...| 5 |...|...| 6 + s. The Stolen Necklace . . . . . . . |...|...|...| A | A |...|...|...|...| + | 3 | + |15 |...| + |...| 5 |...|...| 6 + t. The Two Pigeons . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + | 3 |...|...|...| + |...| 5 |...|...| 6 + u. Prince Behram and the Princess Al-Datma . . |...|...|...| A | A |...|...|...|...| + | 3 | + |15 |...| + |...| 5 |...|...| 6 + v. The House with the Belvedere . . . . |...|...|...| A | A |...|...|...|...| + | 3 | + |15 |...| + |...| 5 |...|...| 6 + w. The King's Son and the Ifrit's Mistress . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + | - |...|...|...| + |...| 5 |...|...| 6 + x. The Sandal-wood Merchant and the Sharpers . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + | 3 | + |15 |...| + |...| 5 |...|...| 6 + y. The Debauchee and the Three-year-old Child . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + | - | + |...|...| + |...| 5 |...|...| 6 + z. The Stolen Purse . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + | 3 | + |15 |...| + |...| 5 |...|...| 6 + aa. The Fox and the Folk . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| - | - | + |15 |...| - |...| 5 |...|...| 6 + 136. Judar and his Brethren . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | + | 3 | + |...| 2 | + |...| 6 |...|...| 6 + 137. The History of Gharib and his Brother Ajib . . |...|...|...|...|...| 3 | 2 |...| 1 | + | - | + |...|...| + |...| 6 |...|...|6,7 + 138. Otbah and Rayya . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 3 | 2 |...| 3 | + | 3 |...|...|...| + |...| 6 |...|...| 7 + 139. Hind, daughter of Al-Nu'man and Al-Hajjaj . . |...|...|...|...|...| 3 | 2 |...| 3 | + | - |...|...|...| + |...| 6 |...|...| 7 + 140. Khuzaymah bin Bishr and Ekrimah al-Fayyaz . . |...|...|...|...|...| 3 | 2 |...| 3 | + | 3 |...|...| 4 | + |...| 6 |...|...| 7 + 141. Yunus the Scribe and the Caliph Walid bin Sahl . |...|...|...|...|...| 3 | 2 |...| 3 | + | - |...|...| 4 | + |...| 6 |...|...| 7 + 142. Harun Al-Rashid and the Arab Girl . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 3 | 2 |...| 3 | + | - |...|...|...| + |...| 6 |...|...| 7 + 143. Al-Asma'i and the three girls of Bassorah . . |...|...|...|...|...| 3 | - |...| - | + | - |...|...|...| + |...| 6 |...|...| 7 + 144. Ibrahim of Mosul and the Devil . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 3 | - |...|...| + | - |...|...|...| + |...| 6 |...|...| 7 + 145. The Lovers of the Banu Uzrah . . . . . |...|...| 6 | 4 | 6 | 3 | - |...|...| + | 3 |...|11 |...| + |...| 6 |...|...| 7 + 146. The Badawi and his Wife . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 3 | 2 |...| 3 | + | - |...|...|...| + |...| 6 |...|...| 7 + 147. The Lovers of Bassorah . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 3 | 2 |...| 3 | + | - |...|...|...| + |...| 6 |...|...| 7 + 148. Ishak of Mosul and his Mistress and the Devil . |...|...|...|...|...| 3 | 2 |...| 3 | + | - |...|...|...| + |...| 6 |...|...| 7 + 149. The Lovers of Al-Medinah . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 3 | 2 |...| 3 | + | 3 |...|...|...| + |...| 6 |...|...| 7 + 150. Al-Malik Al-Nasir and his Wazir . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 3 | 2 |...| 3 | + | - |...|...|...| + |...| 6 |...|...| 7 + 151. The Rogueries of Dalilah the Crafty and her + Daughter Zaynab the Coney-Catcher . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 3 | 2 |...| 2 | + | - | + |...| 4 | + |...| 6 |...|...| 7 + a. The Adventures of Mercury Ali of Cairo . . |...|...|...|...|...| 3 | 2 |...| 2 | + | - | + |...| 4 | + |...| 6 |...|...| 7 + 152. Ardashir and Hayat Al-Nufus . . . . . |...|...|...| 7 |...| 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | + | - | + |...| 2 | + |...| 6 |...|...| 7 + 153. Julnar the Sea-born and her son King Badr Basim + of Persia . . . . . . . . . | 7 | 4 | 3 |...|3,4| 3 | - |...| - | + | 3 |...| 6 | 3 | + |...| 7 |...|...| 7 + 154. King Mohammed bin Sabaik and the Merchant Hasan |...|...|...| 1 |...| 3 | 2 |...| 2 | + | 3 | + |...| - | + |...| 7 |...|...| 7 + a. Story of Prince Sayf Al-Muluk and the + Princess Badi'a Al-Jamal . . . . . |...|...|...| 1 |...|3,4| 2 |...| 2 | + | 3 | + |...| 2 | + |...| 7 |...|...|7,8 + 155. Hasan of Bassorah . . . . . . . . |...|...|...| 3 |...| 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | + | | + |...| 2 | + |...| 7 |...|...| 8 + 156. Khalifah the Fisherman of Baghdad . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 4 | 3 |...| 2 | + | 3 | - |...| 2 | + |...| 7 |...|...| 8 + a. The same from the Breslau Edition . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| - | + |...|...|...|...| 7 |...|...| 8 + 157. Masrur and Zayn Al-Mawassif . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | + | - | + |...|...| + |...| 8 |...|...| 8 + 158. Ali Nur Al-Din and Miriam the Girdle-Girl . . |...|...|...|...|...| 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | + | - | + |...|...| + |...| 8 |...|...|8,9 + 159. The Man of Upper Egypt and his Frankish Wife . |...|...|...|...|...| 4 | 3 | - | 3 | + | - | + |...|...| + |...| 8 |...|...| 9 + 160. The Ruined Man of Baghdad and his Slave-Girl . |...|...|...|...|...| 4 | 3 | - | 3 | + | 3 | + |...| 4 | + |...| 8 |...|...| 9 + 161. King Jali'ad of Hind and his Wazir Shimas, + followed by the history of King Wird Khan, + son of King Jali'ad, with his Women and + Wazirs . . . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | + | - | + |...| 4 | + |...| 8 |...|...| 9 + a. The Mouse and the Cat . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | + | - | + |...| 4 | + |...| 8 |...|...| 9 + b. The Fakir and his Jar of Butter . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | + | - | + |...| 4 | + |...| 8 |...|...| 9 + c. The Fishes and the Crab . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | + | - | + |...| 4 | + |...| 8 |...|...| 9 + d. The Crow and the Serpent . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | + | - | + |...| 4 | + |...| 8 |...|...| 9 + e. The Wild Ass and the jackal . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | + | - | + |...| 4 | + |...| 8 |...|...| 9 + f. The Unjust King and the Pilgrim Prince . . |...|...|...|...|...| 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | + | - | + |...| 4 | + |...| 8 |...|...| 9 + g. The Crows and the Hawk . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | + | | + |...| 4 | + |...| 8 |...|...| 9 + h. The Serpent-Charmer and his Wife . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | + | | + |...| 4 | + |...| 8 |...|...| 9 + i. The Spider and the Wind . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | + | | + |...| 4 | + |...| 8 |...|...| 9 + j. The Two Kings . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | + | - | + |...| 4 | + |...| 8 |...|...| 9 + k. The Blind Man and the Cripple . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | + | - | + |...| 4 | + |...| 8 |...|...| 9 + l. The Foolish Fisherman . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | + | - | + |...| 4 | + |...| 8 |...|...| 9 + m. The Boy and the Thieves . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | + | - | + |...| 4 | + |...| 8 |...|...| 9 + n. The Man and his Wife . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | + | - | + |...| 4 | + |...| 8 |...|...| 9 + o. The Merchant and the Robbers . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | + | - | + |...| 4 | + |...| 8 |...|...| 9 + p. The Jackals and the Wolf . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | + | - | + |...| 4 | + |...| 8 |...|...| 9 + q. The Shepherd and the Rogue . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | + | - | + |...| 4 | + |...| 8 |...|...| 9 + r. The Francolin and the Tortoises . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | + | - | + |...| 4 | + |...| 8 |...|...| 9 + 162. Abu Kir the Dyer and Abu Sir the Barber. . . |...|...|...|...|...| 4 | 3 | 1 | 3 | + | 3 | + |...| 4 | + |...| 8 |...|...| 9 + 163. Abdullah the Fisherman and Abdullah the Merman . |...|...|...|...|...| 4 | 3 | 1 | 3 | + | 3 | + |...|...| + |...| 8 |...|...| 9 + 164. Harun Al-Rashid and Abu Hasan, the Merchant of + Oman . . . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 4 | 3 |...| 3 | + | - | + |...| 2 | + |...| 9 |...|...| 9 + 165. Ibrahim and Jamilah . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 4 | 3 | 1 | 3 | + | 3 |...|...|...| + |...| 9 |...|...| 9 + 166. Abu Al-Hasan of Khorasan . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 4 | 3 | 1 | 3 | + | - |...|...|...| + |...| 9 |...|...| 9 + 167. Kamar Al-Zaman and the Jeweller's Wife . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 4 | 3 | 1 | 3 | + | - |...|...| 4 | + |...| 9 |...|...| 9 + 168. Abdullah bin Fazil and his Brothers . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 4 | 3 |...| 3 | + | - |...|...|...| + |...| 9 |...|...| 9 + 169. Ma'aruf the Cobbler and his wife Fatimah . . |...|...|...|...|...| 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | + | 3 |...|...| 4 | + |...| 9 |...|...| 10 + 170. Asleep and Awake . . . . . . . . | 9 | 5 | 4 |...| 4 |...|...|...|...|...| 2 | + | 7 | 1 |...|...| I |...|...|... + a. Story of the Lackpenny and the Cook . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| - | + |...|...|...|...| I |...|...|... + 171. The Caliph Omar ben Abdulaziz and the Poets . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| - | + |...| 2 |...|...| I |...|...|... + 172. El Hejjaj and the Three Young Men . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| - | + |...|...|...|...| I |...|...|... + 173. Haroun Er Reshid and the Woman of the Barmecides |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| - | + |...|...|...|...| I |...|...|... + 174. The Ten Viziers, or the History of King + Azadbekht and his Son . . . . . . |...| 8 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...| - | + | 10| 2 |...|...| I |...|...|... + a. Of the uselessness of endeavor against + persistent ill-fortune . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|... + aa. Story of the Unlucky Merchant . . . |...| 8 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...| - | + | 10| 2 |...|...| I |...|...|... + b. Of looking to the issues of affairs . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|... + bb. Story of the Merchant and his Sons . . |...| 8 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + | 10| 2 |...|...| I |...|...|... + c. Of the advantages of Patience . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|... + cc. Story of Abou Sabir . . . . . . |...| 8 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + | 10| 2 |...|...| I |...|...|... + d. Of the ill effects of Precipitation . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|... + dd. Story of Prince Bihzad . . . . . |...| 8 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + | 10| 2 |...|...| I |...|...|... + e. Of the issues of good and evil actions . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|... + ee. Story of King Dabdin and his Viziers . |...| 8 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + | 10| 2 |...|...| I |...|...|... + f. Of Trust in God . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|... + ff. Story of King Bekhtzeman . . . . |...| 8 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |...| 2 |...|...| I |...|...|... + g. Of Clemency . . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|... + gg. Story of King Bihkerd . . . . . |...| 8 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + | 10| 2 |...|...| I |...|...|... + h. Of Envy and Malice . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|... + hh. Story of Ilan Shah and Abou Temam . . |...| 8 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + | 10| 2 |...|...| I |...|...|... + i. Of Destiny, or that which is written on the + Forehead . . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|... + ii. Story of King Ibrahim and his Son . . |...| 8 | 7 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + | 13| 2 |...|...| I |...|...|... + k. Of the appointed Term, which if it be + advanced, may not be deferred, and if it + be deferred, may not be advanced . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|... + jj. Story of King Suleiman Shah and his Sons |...| 8 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |...| 2 |...|...| I |...|...|... + k. Of the speedy Relief of God . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|... + kk. Story of the Prisoner, and how God gave + him relief . . . . . . . |...| 8 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |...| 2 |...|...| I |...|...|... + 175. Jaafer Ben Zehya and Abdulmelik Ben Salih the + Abbaside . . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |...| 2 |...|...| I |...|...|... + 176. Er Reshid and the Barmecides . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |...| 2 |...|...| I |...|...|... + 177. Ibn Es-Semmak and Er-Reshid . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |...|...|...|...| I |...|...|... + 178. El Mamoun and Zubeideh . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |...|...|...|...| I |...|...|... + 179. En Numan and the Arab of the Benou Tai . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |...|...|...|...| I |...|...|... + 180. Firouz and his Wife . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |...|...|...|...| I |...|...|... + 181. King Shah Bekht and his Vizier Er Rehwan . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...| I |...|...|... + a. Story of the Man of Khorassan his son and + his governor . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...| I |...|...|... + b. Story of the Singer and the Druggist . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...| I |...|...|... + c. Story of the King who knew the quintessence + of things . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...| I |...|...|... + d. Story of the Rich Man who gave his fair + Daughter in Marriage to the Poor Old Man . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...| I |...|...|... + e. Story of the Rich Man and his Wasteful Son . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...| I |...|...|... + f. The King's Son who fell in love with the + Picture . . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...| I |...|...|... + g. Story of the Fuller and his Wife . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...| I |...|...|... + h. Story of the Old Woman, the Merchant, and + the King . . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...| I |...|...|... + i. Story of the credulous Husband . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...| I |...|...|... + j. Story of the Unjust King and the Tither . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...| I |...|...|... + jj. Story of David and Solomon . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...| I |...|...|... + k. Story of the Thief and the Woman . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...| I |...|...|... + l. Story of the Three Men and our Lord Jesus . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...| I |...|...|... + ll. The Disciple's Story . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...| I |...|...|... + m. Story of the Dethroned King whose kingdom + and good were restored to him . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...| I |...|...|... + n. Story of the Man whose caution was the cause + of his Death . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...| I |...|...|... + o. Story of the Man who was lavish of his house + and his victual to one whom he knew not . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...| I |...|...|... + p. Story of the Idiot and the Sharper . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...| I |...|...|... + q. Story of Khelbes and his Wife and the + Learned Man . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...| I |...|...|... + r. Story of the Pious Woman accused of lewdness |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |...|...|...|...|II |...|...|... + s. Story of the Journeyman and the Girl . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...|II |...|...|... + t. Story of the Weaver who became a Physician + by his Wife's commandment . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...|II |...|...|... + u. Story of the Two Sharpers who cheated each + his fellow . . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...|II |...|...|... + v. Story of the Sharpers with the Moneychanger + and the Ass . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...|II |...|...|... + w. Story of the Sharper and the Merchants . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...|II |...|...|... + wa. Story of the Hawk and the Locust . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...|II |...|...|... + x. Story of the King and his Chamberlain's Wife |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...|II |...|...|... + xa. Story of the Old Woman and the Draper's + Wife . . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...|II |...|...|... + y. Story of the Foul-favoured Man and his Fair + Wife . . . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...|II |...|...|... + z. Story of the King who lost Kingdom and Wife + and Wealth, and God restored them to him . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...|II |...|...|... + aa. Story of Selim and Selma . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...|II |...|...|... + bb. Story of the King of Hind and his Vizier . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| |...|...| + |14 |...|...|...|II |...|...|... + 182. El Melik Ez Zahir Rukneddin Bibers El + Bunducdari, and the Sixteen Officers of + Police . . . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...|II |...|...|... + a. The First Officer's Story . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...|II |...|...|... + b. The Second Officer's Story . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...|II |...|...|... + c. The Third Officer's Story . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...|II |...|...|... + d. The Fourth Officer's Story . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |...|...|...|...|II |...|...|... + e. The Fifth Officer's Story . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...|II |...|...|... + f. The Sixth Officer's Story . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |...|...|...|...|II |...|...|... + g. The Seventh Officer's Story . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...|II |...|...|... + h. The Eighth Officer's Story . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...|II |...|...|... + ha. The Thief's Story . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...|II |...|...|... + i. The Ninth Officer's Story . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...|II |...|...|... + j. The Tenth Officer's Story . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...|II |...|...|... + k. The Eleventh Officer's Story . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...|II |...|...|... + l. The Twelfth Officer's Story . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...|II |...|...|... + m. The Thirteenth Officer's Story . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...|II |...|...|... + n. The Fourteenth Officer's Story . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...|II |...|...|... + na. A Merry Jest of a Thief . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...|II |...|...|... + nb. Story of the Old Sharper . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...|II |...|...|... + o. The Fifteenth Officer's Story . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...|II |...|...|... + p. The Sixteenth Officer's Story . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...|...|...|...|... + 183. Abdallah Ben Nafi, and the King's Son of + Cashgbar . . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...|II |...|...|... + a. Story of the Damsel Tuhfet El Culoub and + Khalif Haroun Er Reshid . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |14 |...|...|...|II |...|...|... + 184. Women's Craft . . . . . . . . . |...|...| 2 | 3 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...| 4 |...|...|...|II | + |...|... + 185. Noureddin Ali of Damascus and the Damsel Sitt + El Milah . . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |15 |...|...|...|III|...|...|... + 186. El Abbas and the King's Daughter of Baghdad . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |15 |...|...|...|III|...|...|... + 187. The Two Kings and the Vizier's Daughters . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |15 |...|...|...|III|...|...|... + 188. The Favourite and her Lover . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |15 |...|...|...|III|...|...|... + 189. The Merchant of Cairo and the Favourite of the + Khalif El Mamoun El Hakim bi Amrillah . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| + |15 |...|...|...|III|...|...|... + 190. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...| 4 | 3 |...| 3 | + | 3 | + |15 |...| + |...|{9&|...|...| 10 + III} +*191. History of Prince Zeyn Alasnam . . . . . | 8 | 5 | 4 |...| 4 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...| 6 | 3 |...|...|...|...|...|... +*192. History of Codadad and his Brothers . . . | 8 | 5 | 4 |...| 4 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...| 6 | 3 |...|...|...|...|...|... + *a. History of the Princess of Deryabar . . | 8 | 5 | 4 |...| 4 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...| 6 | 3 |...|...|...|...|...|... +*193. Story of Aladdin, or the Wonderful Lamp . . |9,10|5,6| 4 |...|4,5|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|7,8| 3 |...|...|...|...|...|... +"194. Adventures of the Caliph Harun Al-Rashid . . | 10| 6 | 5 |...| 5 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...| 8 | 3 |...|...|...|...|...|... + *a. Story of the Blind Man, Baba Abdallah . . | 10| 6 | 5 |...| 5 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...| 8 | 3 |...|...|...|...|...|... + *b. Story of Sidi Numan . . . . . . | 10| 6 | 5 |...| 5 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...| 8 | 3 |...|...|...|...|...|... + *c. Story of Cogia Hassan Alhabbal . . . .|10,11| 6 | 5 |...| 5 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...| 8 | 3 |...|...|...|...|...|... +*195. Story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves . . | 11| 6 | 5 |...| 5 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...| 9 | 3 |...|...|...|...|...|... +*196. Story of Ali Cogia, a Merchant of Baghdad . . | 11| 7 | 5 |...| 5 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...| 9 | 3 |...|...|...|...|...|... +*197. Story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Peri Banou . | 12| 7 | 5 |...| 5 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...| 9 | 3 |...|...|...|...|...|... +*198. Story of the Sisters who envied their younger + sister . . . . . . . . . . | 12| 7 | 5 |...| 5 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...| 10| 3 |...|...|...|...|...|... + 199. (Anecdote of Jaafar the Barmecide = No.39) . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| 2 |...|...|...|...|...|... + 200. The Adventures of Ali and Zaher of Damascus. . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| 4 |...|...|...|...|...|... + 201. The Adventures of the Fisherman, Judar of Cairo, + and his meeting with the Moor Mahmood and the + Sultan Beibars . . . . . . . . |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...| 4 |...|...|...|...|...|... + 202. The Physician and the young man of Mosul . . |...|...|...| 1 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|... + 203. Story of the Sultan of Yemen and his three sons |...|...| 6 | 3 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|11 |...|...|...|...|...|...|... + 204. Story of the Three Sharpers and the Sultan . . |...|...| 6 | 3 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|11 |...|...|...|...|...|...|... + a. Adventures of the Abdicated Sultan . . . |...|...| 6 | 3 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|11 |...|...|...|...|...|...|... + b. History of Mahummud, Sultan of Cairo . . |...|...| 6 | 3 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|11 |...|...|...|...|...|...|... + c. Story of the First Lunatic . . . . . |...| 8 | 6 | 3 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|11 |...|...|...|...|...|...|... + d. (Story of the Second Lunatic = No.184) . . |...|...| 2 | 3 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|11 |...|...|...|...|...|...|... + e. Story of the Sage and his Pupil . . . . |...|...| 6 | 3 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|11 |...|...|...|...|...|...|... + f. Night adventure of the Sultan . . . . |...|...| 6 | 3 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|11 |...|...|...|...|...|...|... + g, Story of the first foolish man . . . . |...|...|...| 3 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|... + h. Story of the broken-backed Schoolmaster . . |...|...| 6 | 3 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|11 |...|...|...|...|...|...|... + i. Story of the wry-mouthed Schoolmaster . . |...|...| 6 | 3 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|11 |...|...|...|...|...|...|... + j. The Sultan's second visit to the Sisters . |...|...| 6 | 3 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|11 |...|...|...|...|...|...|... + k. Story of the Sisters and the Sultana, their + mother . . . . . . . . . |...|...| 6 | 3 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|11 |...|...|...|...|...|...|... + 205. Story of the Avaricious Cauzee and his wife . |...|...| 6 | 3 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|11 |...|...|...|...|...|...|... + 206. Story of the Bang-Eater and the Cauzee . . . |...|...| 6 | 3 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|11 |...|...|...|...|...|...|... + a. Story of the Bang-Eater and his wife . . |...|...| 6 | 3 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|11 |...|...|...|...|...|...|... + b. Continuation of the Fisherman, or + Bang-Eater's Adventures . . . . . |...|...| 6 | 3 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|11 |...|...|...|...|...|...|... + 207. The Sultan and the Traveller Mhamood Al Hyjemmee |...|...| 6 | 3 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|11 |...|...|...|...|...|...|... + a. The Koord Robber (= No.33) . . . . . |...|...|...| 3 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|... + b. Story of the Husbandman . . . . . . |...|...|...| 3 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|... + c. Story of the Three Princes and Enchanting + Bird . . . . . . . . . . |...|...| 6 | 3 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|11 |...|...|...|...|...|...|... + d. Story of a Sultan of Yemen and his three Sons |...|...| 6 | 4 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|11 |...|...|...|...|...|...|... + e. Story of the first Sharper in the Cave . . |...|...|...| 4 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|... + f. Story of the second Sharper . . . . . |...|...|...| 4 | - |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|... + g. Story of the third Sharper . . . . . |...|...|...| 4 | - |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|... + h. History of the Sultan of Hind . . . . |...|...| 5 | 4 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|10 |...|...|...|...|...|...|... + 208. Story of the Fisherman's Son . . . . . |...|...|...| 4 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|... + 209. Story of Abou Neeut and Abou Neeuteen . . . |...|...| 6 | 4 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|11 |...|...|...|...|...|...|... + 210. Story of the Prince of Sind, and Fatima, daughter + of Amir Bin Naomaun . . . . . . . |...|...| 6 | 4 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|11 |...|...|...|...|...|...|... + 211. Story of the Lovers of Syria, or the Heroine . |...|...| 6 | 4 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|11 |...|...|...|...|...|...|... + 212. Story of Hyjauje, the tyrannical Governor of + Confeh, and the young Syed . . . . . |...|...|...| 4 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|... + 213. Story of the Sultan Haieshe . . . . . |...|...|...| 4 | - |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|... + 214. Story told by a Fisherman . . . . . . |...|...|...| 4 | - |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|... + 215. The Adventures of Mazin of Khorassaun . . . |...|...| 6 |4,5| 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|10 |...|...|...|...|...|...|... + 216. Adventure of Haroon Al Rusheed . . . . . |...|...| 6 | 5 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|11 |...|...|...|...|...|...|... + a. Story of the Sultan of Bussorah . . . . |...|...|...| 5 | - |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|... + b. Nocturnal adventures of Haroon Al Rusheed . |...|...|...| 5 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|... + e. Story related by Munjaub . . . . . |...|...|...| 5 | 6 |...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|... + d. Story of the Sultan, the Dirveshe and the + 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 +"Gaboriaudetective 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. 1xiv. 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. +part i. p. 118). + +[FN#232] See Jotham's fable of the Trees and King Bramble +(Judges lxi. 8) and Nathan's parable of the Poor Man and his +little ewe Lamb (2 Sam. ix. 1). + +[FN#233] Herodotus (ii. c. 134) notes that "Æsop the fable-writer +( ) was one of her (Rhodopis) fellow slaves". +Aristophanes (Vespæ, 1446) refers to his murder by the Delphians +and his fable beginning, "Once upon a time there was a fight;" +while the Scholiast finds an allusion to The Serpent and the Crab +in Pax 1084; and others in Vespæ 1401, and Aves 651. + +[FN#234] There are three distinct Lokmans who are carefully +confounded in Sale (Koran chapt. xxxi.) and in Smith's Dict. of +Biography etc. art. Æsopus. The first or eldest Lokman, entitled +Al-Hakim (the Sage) and the hero of the Koranic chapter which +bears his name, was son of Bá'úrá of the Children of Azar, +sister's son of Job or son of Job's maternal aunt; he witnessed +David's miracles of mail-making and when the tribe of 'Ád was +destroyed, he became King of the country. The second, also called +the Sage, was a slave, an Abyssinian negro, sold to the +Israelites during the reign of David or Solomon, synchronous with +the Persian Kay Káús and Kay Khusrau, also Pythagoras the Greek +(!) His physique is alluded to in the saying, "Thou resemblest +Lokman (in black ugliness) but not in wisdom" (Ibn Khallikan i. +145). This negro or negroid, after a godly and edifying life, +left a volume of "Amsál," proverbs and exempla (not fables or +apologues); and Easterns still say, "One should not pretend to +teach Lokmán"--in Persian, "Hikmat ba Lokman ámokhtan." Three of +his apothegms dwell in the public memory: "The heart and the +tongue are the best and worst parts of the human body." "I +learned wisdom from the blind who make sure of things by touching +them" (as did St. Thomas); and when he ate the colocynth offered +by his owner, "I have received from thee so many a sweet that +'twould be surprising if I refused this one bitter." He was +buried (says the Tárikh Muntakhab) at Ramlah in Judæa, with the +seventy Prophets stoned in one day by the Jews. The youngest +Lokman "of the vultures" was a prince of the tribe of Ad who +lived 3,500 years, the age of seven vultures (Tabari). He could +dig a well with his nails; hence the saying, "Stronger than +Lokman" (A. P. i. 701); and he loved the arrow-game, hence, "More +gambling than Lokman" (ibid. ii. 938). "More voracious than +Lokman" (ibid i. 134) alludes to his eating one camel for +breakfast and another for supper. His wife Barákish also appears +in proverb, e.g. "Camel us and camel thyself" (ibid. i. 295) i.e. +give us camel flesh to eat, said when her son by a former husband +brought her a fine joint which she and her husband relished. +Also, "Barákish hath sinned against her kin" (ibid. ii. 89). More +of this in Chenery's Al-Hariri p. 422; but the three Lokmans are +there reduced to two. + +[FN#235] I have noticed them in vol. ii. 47-49. "To the Gold +Coast for Gold." + +[FN#236] I can hardly accept the dictum that the Katha Sarit +Sagara, of which more presently, is the "earliest representation +of the first collection." + +[FN#237] The Pehlevi version of the days of King Anushirwan (A.D. +531-72) became the Humáyun-námeh ("August Book") turned into +Persian for Bahram Shah the Ghaznavite: the Hitopadesa +("Friendship-boon") of Prakrit, avowedly compiled from the +"Panchatantra," became the Hindu Panchopakhyan, the Hindostani +Akhlák-i-Hindi ("Moralities of Ind") and in Persia and Turkey the +Anvar-i-Suhayli ("Lights of Canopus"). Arabic, Hebrew and Syriac +writers entitle their version Kalilah wa Damnah, or Kalilaj wa +Damnaj, from the name of the two jackal-heroes, and Europe knows +the recueil as the Fables of Pilpay or Bidpay (Bidyá-pati, Lord +of learning?) a learned Brahman reported to have been Premier at +the Court of the Indian King Dabishlím. + +[FN#238] Diet. Philosoph. S. V. Apocrypha. + +[FN#239] The older Arab writers, I repeat, do not ascribe fables +or beast-apologues to Lokman; they record only "dictes" and +proverbial sayings. + +[FN#240] Professor Taylor Lewis: Preface to Pilpay. + +[FN#241] In the Katha Sarit Sagara the beast-apologues are more +numerous, but they can be reduced to two great nuclei; the first +in chapter lx. (Lib. x.) and the second in the same book chapters +lxii-lxv. Here too they are mixed up with anecdotes and acroamata +after the fashion of The Nights, suggesting great antiquity for +this style of composition. + +[FN#242] Brugsch, History of Egypt, vol. i. 266 et seq. The +fabliau is interesting in more ways than one. Anepu the elder +(Potiphar) understands the language of cattle, an idea ever +cropping up in Folk-lore; and Bata (Joseph), his "little +brother," who becomes a "panther of the South (Nubia) for rage" +at the wife's impudique proposal, takes the form of a bull-- +metamorphosis full blown. It is not, as some have called it, the +"oldest book in the world;" that name was given by M. Chabas to a +MS. of Proverbs, dating from B.C. 2200. See also the "Story of +Saneha," a novel earlier than the popular date of Moses, in the +Contes Populaires of Egypt. + +[FN#243] The fox and the jackal are confounded by the Arabic +dialects not by the Persian, whose "Rubáh" can never be mistaken +for "Shaghál." "Sa'lab" among the Semites is locally applied to +either beast and we can distinguish the two only by the fox being +solitary and rapacious, and the jackal gregarious and a +carrion-eater. In all Hindu tales the jackal seems to be an +awkward substitute for the Grecian and classical fox, the Giddar +or Kolá (Cants aureus) being by no means sly and wily as the +Lomri (Vulpes vulgaris). This is remarked by Weber (Indische +Studien) and Prof. Benfey's retort about "King Nobel" the lion is +by no means to the point. See Katha Sarit Sagara, ii. 28. + +I may add that in Northern Africa jackal's gall, like jackal's +grape (Solanum nigrum = black nightshade), ass's milk and melted +camel-hump, is used aphrodisiacally as an unguent by both sexes. +See. p. 239, etc., of Le Jardin parfumé du Cheikh Nefzaoui, of +whom more presently. + +[FN#244] Rambler, No. lxvii. + +[FN#245] Some years ago I was asked by my old landlady if ever in +the course of my travels I had come across Captain Gulliver. + +[FN#246] In "The Adventurer" quoted by Mr. Heron, "Translator's +Preface to the Arabian Tales of Chaves and Cazotte." + +[FN#247] "Life in a Levantine Family" chapt. xi. Since the able +author found his "family" firmly believing in The Nights, much +has been changed in Alexandria; but the faith in Jinn and Ifrit, +ghost and vampire is lively as ever. + +[FN#248] The name dates from the second century A. H. or before +A. D. 815. + +[FN#249] Dabistan i. 231 etc. + +[FN#250] Because Si = thirty and Murgh = bird. In McClenachan's +Addendum to Mackay's Encyclopæedia of Freemasonry we find the +following definition: "Simorgh. A monstrous griffin, guardian of +the Persian mysteries." + +[FN#251] For a poor and inadequate description of the festivals +commemorating this "Architect of the Gods" see vol. iii. 177, +"View of the History etc. of the Hindus" by the learned Dr. Ward, +who could see in them only the "low and sordid nature of +idolatry." But we can hardly expect better things from a +missionary in 1822, when no one took the trouble to understand +what "idolatry" means. + +[FN#252] Rawlinson (ii. 491) on Herod. iii. c. 102. Nearchus saw +the skins of these formicæ Indicæ, by some rationalists explained +as "jackals," whose stature corresponds with the text, and by +others as "pengolens" or ant-eaters (manis pentedactyla). The +learned Sanskritist, H. H. Wilson, quotes the name Pippilika = +ant-gold, given by the people of Little Thibet to the precious +dust thrown up in the emmet heaps. + +[FN#253] A writer in the Edinburgh Review (July, '86), of whom +more presently, suggests that The Nights assumed essentially +their present shape during the general revival of letters, arts +and requirements which accompanied the Kurdish and Tartar +irruptions into the Nile Valley, a golden age which embraced the +whole of the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and +ended with the Ottoman Conquest in A. D. 1527. + +[FN#254] Let us humbly hope not again to hear of the golden prime +of + + "The good (fellow?) Haroun Alrasch'id," + +a mispronunciation which suggests only a rasher of bacon. Why +will not poets mind their quantities, in lieu of stultifying +their lines by childish ignorance? What can be more painful than +Byron's + + "They laid his dust in Ar'qua (for Arqua) where he +died?" + +[FN#255] See De Sacy's Chrestomathie Arabe (Paris, 1826), vol. i. + +[FN#256] See Le Jardin Parfumé du Cheikh Nefzaoui Manuel +d'Erotologie Arabe Traduction revue et corrigée Edition privée, +imprimé à deux cent.-vingt exemplaires, par Isidore Liseux et ses +Amis, Paris, 1866. The editor has forgotten to note that the +celebrated Sidi Mohammed copied some of the tales from The Nights +and borrowed others (I am assured by a friend) from Tunisian MSS. +of the same work. The book has not been fairly edited: the notes +abound in mistakes, the volume lacks an index, &c., &c. Since +this was written the Jardin Parfumé has been twice translated +into English as "The Perfumed Garden of the Cheikh Nefzaoui, a +Manual of Arabian Erotology (sixteenth century). Revised and +corrected translation, Cosmopoli: mdccclxxxvi.: for the Kama +Shastra Society of London and Benares and for private circulation +only." A rival version will be brought out by a bookseller whose +Committee, as he calls it, appears to be the model of literary +pirates, robbing the author as boldly and as openly as if they +picked his pocket before his face. + +[FN#257] Translated by a well-known Turkish scholar, Mr. E. J. W. +Gibb (Glasgow, Wilson and McCormick, 1884). + +[FN#258] D'Herbelot (s. v. "Asmai"): I am reproached by a dabbler +in Orientalism for using this admirable writer who shows more +knowledge in one page than my critic does in a whole volume. + +[FN#259] For specimens see Al-Siyuti, pp. 301 and 304, and the +Shaykh al Nafzawi, pp. 134-35 + +[FN#260] The word "nakh" (to make a camel kneel) is explained in +vol. ii. 139. + +[FN#261] The present of the famous horologium-clepsydra-cuckoo +clock, the dog Becerillo and the elephant Abu Lubabah sent by +Harun to Charlemagne is not mentioned by Eastern authorities and +consequently no reference to it will be found in my late friend +Professor Palmer's little volume "Haroun Alraschid," London, +Marcus Ward, 1881. We have allusions to many presents, the clock +and elephant, tent and linen hangings, silken dresses, perfumes, +and candelabra of auricalch brought by the Legati (Abdalla +Georgius Abba et Felix) of Aaron Amiralmumminim Regis Persarum +who entered the Port of Pisa (A. D. 801) in (vol. v. 178) Recueil +des Histor. des Gaules et de la France, etc., par Dom Martin +Bouquet, Paris, mdccxliv. The author also quotes the lines:-- + + Persarum Princeps illi devinctus amore + Præcipuo fuerat, nomen habens Aaron. + Gratia cui Caroli præ cunctis Regibus atque + Illis Principibus tempora cara funit. + +[FN#262] Many have remarked that the actual date of the decease +is unknown. + +[FN#263] See Al-Siyuti (p. 305) and Dr. Jonathan Scott's "Tales, +Anecdotes, and Letters," (p. 296). + +[FN#264] I have given (vol. i. 188) the vulgar derivation of the +name; and D'Herbelot (s. v. Barmakian) quotes some Persian lines +alluding to the "supping up." Al-Mas'udi's account of the +family's early history is unfortunately lost. This Khálid +succeeded Abu Salámah, first entitled Wazir under Al-Saffah (Ibn +Khallikan i. 468). + +[FN#265] For his poetry see Ibn Khallikan iv. 103. + +[FN#266] Their flatterers compared them with the four elements. + +[FN#267] Al-Mas'udi, chapt. cxii. + +[FN#268] Ibn Khallikan (i. 310) says the eunuch Abu Háshim +Masrúr, the Sworder of Vengeance, who is so pleasantly associated +with Ja'afar in many nightly disguises; but the Eunuch survived +the Caliph. Fakhr al-Din (p. 27) adds that Masrur was an enemy of +Ja'afar; and gives further details concerning the execution. + +[FN#269] Bresl. Edit., Night dlxvii. vol. vii. pp. 258-260; +translated in the Mr. Payne's "Tales from the Arabic," vol. i. +189 and headed "Al-Rashid and the Barmecides." It is far less +lively and dramatic than the account of the same event given by +Al-Mas'udi, chapt. cxii., by Ibn Khallikan and by Fakhr al-Din. + +[FN#270] Al-Mas'udi, chapt. cxi. + +[FN#271] See Dr. Jonathan Scott's extracts from Major Ouseley's +"Tarikh-i-Barmaki." + +[FN#272] Al-Mas'udi, chapt. cxii. For the liberties Ja'afar took +see Ibn Khallikan, i. 303. + +[FN#273] Ibid. chapt. xxiv. In vol. ii. 29 of The Nights, I find +signs of Ja'afar's suspected heresy. For Al-Rashid's hatred of +the Zindiks see Al-Siyuti, pp. 292, 301; and as regards the +religious troubles ibid. p. 362 and passim. + +[FN#274] Biogr. Dict. i. 309. + +[FN#275] This accomplished princess had a practice that suggests +the Dame aux Camélias. + +[FN#276] i. e. Perdition to your fathers, Allah's curse on your +ancestors. + +[FN#277] See vol. iv. 159, "Ja'afar and the Bean-seller;" where +the great Wazir is said to have been "crucified;" and vol. iv. +pp. 179, 181. Also Roebuck's Persian Proverbs, i. 2, 346, "This +also is through the munificence of the Barmecides." + +[FN#278] I especially allude to my friend Mr. Payne's admirably +written account of it in his concluding Essay (vol. ix.). From +his views of the Great Caliph and the Lady Zubaydah I must differ +in every point except the destruction of the Barmecides. + +[FN#279] Bresl. Edit., vol. vii. 261-62. + +[FN#280] Mr. Grattan Geary, in a work previously noticed, informs +us (i. 212) "The Sitt al-Zobeide, or the Lady Zobeide, was so +named from the great Zobeide tribe of Arabs occupying the country +East and West of the Euphrates near the Hindi'ah Canal; she was +the daughter of a powerful Sheik of that Tribe." Can this explain +the "Kásim"? + +[FN#281] Vol. viii. 296. + +[FN#282] Burckhardt, "Travels in Arabia" vol. i. 185. + +[FN#283] The reverse has been remarked by more than one writer; +and contemporary French opinion seems to be that Victor Hugo's +influence on French prose, was on the whole, not beneficial. + +[FN#284] Mr. W. S. Clouston, the "Storiologist," who is preparing +a work to be entitled "Popular Tales and Fictions; their +Migrations and Transformations," informs me the first to adapt +this witty anecdote was Jacques de Vitry, the crusading bishop of +Accon (Acre) who died at Rome in 1240, after setting the example +of "Exempla" or instances in his sermons. He had probably heard +it in Syria, and he changed the day-dreamers into a Milkmaid and +her Milk-pail to suit his "flock." It then appears as an +"Exemplum" in the Liber de Donis or de Septem Donis (or De Dono +Timoris from Fear the first gift) of Stephanus de Borbone, the +Dominican, ob. Lyons, 1261: it treated of the gifts of the Holy +Spirit (Isaiah xi. 2 and 3), Timor, Pietas, Scientia, Fortitudo, +Consilium, Intellectus et Sapientia; and was plentifully +garnished with narratives for the use of preachers. + +[FN#285] The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register (new series, +vol. xxx. Sept.-Dec. 1830, London, Allens, 1839); p. 69 Review of +the Arabian Nights, the Mac. Edit. vol. i., and H. Torrens. + +[FN#286] As a household edition of the "Arabian Nights" is now +being prepared, the curious reader will have an opportunity of +verifying this statement. + +[FN#287] It has been pointed out to me that in vol. ii. p. 285, +line 18 "Zahr Shah" is a mistake for Sulayman Shah. + +[FN#288] I have lately found these lovers at Schloss Sternstein +near Cilli in Styria, the property of my excellent colleague, Mr. +Consul Faber, dating from A. D. 1300 when Jobst of Reichenegg and +Agnes of Sternstein were aided and abetted by a Capuchin of +Seikkloster. + +[FN#289] In page 226 Dr. Steingass sensibly proposes altering the +last hemistich (lines 11-12) to + + At one time showing the Moon and Sun. + +[FN#290] Omitted by Lane for some reason unaccountable as usual. +A correspondent sends me his version of the lines which occur in +The Nights (vol. v. 106 and 107):-- + + Behold the Pyramids and hear them teach + What they can tell of Future and of Past: + They would declare, had they the gift of speech, + The deeds that Time hath wrought from first to last + * * * * + My friends, and is there aught beneath the sky + Can with th' Egyptian Pyramids compare? + In fear of them strong Time hath passed by + And everything dreads Time in earth and air. + +[FN#291] A rhyming Romance by Henry of Waldeck (flor. A. D. 1160) +with a Latin poem on the same subject by Odo and a prose version +still popular in Germany. (Lane's Nights iii. 81; and Weber's +"Northern Romances.") + +[FN#292] e. g. 'Ajáib al-Hind (= Marvels of Ind) ninth century, +translated by J. Marcel Devic, Paris, 1878; and about the same +date the Two Mohammedan Travellers, translated by Renaudot. In +the eleventh century we have the famous Sayyid al-ldrisi, in the +thirteenth the 'Ajáib al-Makhlúkat of Al-Kazwini and in the +fourteenth the Kharídat al-Ajáib of Ibn Al-Wardi. Lane (in loco) +traces most of Sindbad to the two latter sources. + +[FN#293] So Hector France proposed to name his admirably +realistic volume "Sous le Burnous" (Paris, Charpentier, 1886). + +[FN#294] I mean in European literature, not in Arabic where it is +a lieu commun. See three several forms of it in one page (505) of +Ibn Kallikan, vol. iii. + +[FN#295] My attention has been called to the resemblance between +the half-lie and Job (i. 13- 19). + +[FN#296] Boccaccio (ob. Dec. 2, 1375), may easily have heard of +The Thousand Nights and a Night or of its archetype the Hazár +Afsánah. He was followed by the Piacevoli Notti of Giovan +Francisco Straparola (A. D. 1550), translated into almost all +European languages but English: the original Italian is now rare. +Then came the Heptameron ou Histoire des amans fortunez of +Marguerite d'Angoulême, Reyne de Navarre and only sister of +Francis I. She died in 1549 before the days were finished: in +1558 Pierre Boaistuan published the Histoire des amans fortunez +and in 1559 Claude Guiget the "Heptameron." Next is the Hexameron +of A. de Torquemada, Rouen, 1610; and, lastly, the Pentamerone or +El Cunto de li Cunte of Giambattista Basile (Naples 1637), known +by the meagre abstract of J. E. Taylor and the caricatures of +George Cruikshank (London 1847-50). I propose to translate this +Pentamerone direct from the Neapolitan and have already finished +half the work. + +[FN#297] Translated and well annotated by Prof. Tawney, who, +however, affects asterisks and has considerably bowdlerised +sundry of the tales, e. g. the Monkey who picked out the Wedge +(vol. ii. 28). This tale, by the by, is found in the Khirad Afroz +(i. 128) and in the Anwar-i-Suhayli (chapt. i.) and gave rise to +the Persian proverb, "What has a monkey to do with carpentering?" +It is curious to compare the Hindu with the Arabic work whose +resemblances are as remarkable as their differences, while even +more notable is their correspondence in impressioning the reader. +The Thaumaturgy of both is the same: the Indian is profuse in +demonology and witchcraft; in transformation and restoration; in +monsters as wind-men, fire-men and water-men, in air-going +elephants and flying horses (i. 541-43); in the wishing cow, +divine goats and laughing fishes (i. 24); and in the speciosa +miracula of magic weapons. He delights in fearful battles (i. +400) fought with the same weapons as the Moslem and rewards his +heroes with a "turband of honour" (i. 266) in lieu of a robe. +There is a quaint family likeness arising from similar stages and +states of society: the city is adorned for gladness, men carry +money in a robe-corner and exclaim "Ha! good!" (for "Good, by +Allah!"), lovers die with exemplary facility, the "soft-sided" +ladies drink spirits (i. 61) and princesses get drunk (i. 476); +whilst the Eunuch, the Hetaira and the bawd (Kuttini) play the +same preponderating parts as in The Nights. Our Brahman is strong +in love-making; he complains of the pains of separation in this +phenomenal universe; he revels in youth, "twin-brother to mirth," +and beauty which has illuminating powers; he foully reviles old +age and he alternately praises and abuses the sex, concerning +which more presently. He delights in truisms, the fashion of +contemporary Europe (see Palmerin of England chapt. vii), such as +"It is the fashion of the heart to receive pleasure from those +things which ought to give it," etc. etc. What is there the wise +cannot understand? and so forth. He is liberal in trite +reflections and frigid conceits (i. 19, 55, 97, 103, 107, in fact +everywhere); and his puns run through whole lines; this in fine +Sanskrit style is inevitable. Yet some of his expressions are +admirably terse and telling, e. g. Ascending the swing of Doubt: +Bound together (lovers) by the leash of gazing: Two babes looking +like Misery and Poverty: Old Age seized me by the chin: (A lake) +first assay of the Creator's skill: (A vow) difficult as standing +on a sword-edge: My vital spirits boiled with the fire of woe: +Transparent as a good man's heart: There was a certain convent +full of fools: Dazed with scripture-reading: The stones could not +help laughing at him: The Moon kissed the laughing forehead of +the East: She was like a wave of the Sea of Love's insolence (ii. +127), a wave of the Sea of Beauty tossed up by the breeze of +Youth: The King played dice, he loved slave-girls, he told lies, +he sat up o' nights, he waxed wroth without reason, he took +wealth wrongously, he despised the good and honoured the bad (i. +562); with many choice bits of the same kind. Like the Arab the +Indian is profuse in personification; but the doctrine of +pre-existence, of incarnation and emanation and an excessive +spiritualism ever aiming at the infinite, makes his imagery run +mad. Thus we have Immoral Conduct embodied; the God of Death; +Science; the Svarga-heaven; Evening; Untimeliness, and the +Earth-bride, while the Ace and Deuce of dice are turned into a +brace of Demons. There is also that grotesqueness which the +French detect even in Shakespeare, e. g. She drank in his +ambrosial form with thirsty eyes like partridges (i. 476) and it +often results from the comparison of incompatibles, e. g. a row +of birds likened to a garden of nymphs; and from forced +allegories, the favourite figure of contemporary Europe. Again, +the rhetorical Hindu style differs greatly from the sobriety, +directness and simplicity of the Arab, whose motto is Brevity +combined with precision, except where the latter falls into "fine +writing." And, finally, there is a something in the atmosphere of +these Tales which is unfamiliar to the West and which makes them, +as more than one has remarked to me, very hard reading. + +[FN#298] The Introduction (i. 1-5) leads to the Curse of +Pushpadanta and Mályaván who live on Earth as Vararúchi and +Gunádhya and this runs through lib. i. Lib. ii. begins with the +Story of Udáyana to whom we must be truly grateful as our only +guide: he and his son Naraváhanadatta fill up the rest and end +with lib. xviii. Thus the want of the clew or plot compels a +division into books, which begin for instance with "We worship +the elephantine proboscis of Ganesha" (lib. x. i.) a reverend and +awful object to a Hindu but to Englishmen mainly suggesting the +"Zoo." The "Bismillah" of The Nights is much more satisfactory. + +[FN#299] See pp. 5-6 Avertissement des Éditeurs, Le Cabinet des +Fées, vol. xxxviii: Geneva 1788. Galland's Edit. of mdccxxvi ends +with Night ccxxxiv and the English translations with ccxxxvi and +cxcvii. See retro p. 82. + +[FN#300] There is a shade of difference in the words; the former +is also used for Reciters of Traditions--a serious subject. But +in the case of Hammád surnamed Al-Ráwiyah (the Rhapsode) attached +to the Court of Al-Walid, it means simply a conteur. So the +Greeks had Homeristæ = reciters of Homer, as opposed to the +Homeridæ or School of Homer. + +[FN#302] Vol. i, Preface p. v. He notes that Mr. Dallaway +describes the same scene at Constantinople where the Story-teller +was used, like the modern "Organs of Government" in newspaper +shape, for "reconciling the people to any recent measure of the +Sultan and Vizier." There are women Ráwiyahs for the Harems and +some have become famous like the Mother of Hasan al-Basri (Ibn +Khall. i, 370). + +[FN#302] Hence the Persian proverb, "Báki-e-dastán fardá = the +rest of the tale to-morrow," said to askers of silly questions. + +[FN#303] The scene is excellently described in, "Morocco: Its +People and Places," by Edmondo de Amicis (London: Cassell, 1882), +a most refreshing volume after the enforced platitudes and +commonplaces of English travellers. + +[FN#304] It began, however, in Persia, where the celebrated +Darwaysh Mukhlis, Chief Sofi of Isfahan in the xviith century, +translated into Persian tales certain Hindu plays of which a MS. +entitled Alfaraga Badal-Schidda (Al-faraj ba'd al-shiddah = Joy +after annoy) exists in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. But to +give an original air to his work, he entitled it "Hazár o yek +Ruz" = Thousand and One Days, and in 1675 he allowed his friend +Petis de la Croix, who happened to be at Isfahan, to copy it. Le +Sage (of Gil Blas) is said to have converted many of the tales of +Mukhlis into comic operas, which were performed at the Théâtre +Italien. I still hope to see The Nights at the Lyceum. + +[FN#305] This author, however, when hazarding a change of style +which is, I think, regretable, has shown abundant art by filling +up the frequent deficiencies of the text after the fashion of +Baron McGuckin de Slane in Ibn Khallikan. As regards the tout +ensemble of his work, a noble piece of English, my opinion will +ever be that expressed in my Foreword. A carping critic has +remarked that the translator, "as may be seen in every page, is +no Arabic scholar." If I be a judge, the reverse is the case: the +brilliant and beautiful version thus traduced is almost entirely +free from the blemishes and carelessness which disfigure Lane's, +and thus it is far more faithful to the original. But it is no +secret that on the staff of that journal the translator of Villon +has sundry enemies, vrais diables enjupponés, who take every +opportunity of girding at him because he does not belong to the +clique and because he does good work when theirs is mostly sham. +The sole fault I find with Mr. Payne is that his severe grace of +style treats an unclassical work as a classic, when the romantic +and irregular would have been a more appropriate garb. But this +is a mere matter of private judgment. + +[FN#306] Here I offer a few, but very few, instances from the +Breslau text, which is the greatest sinner in this respect. Mas. +for fem., vol. i. p. 9, and three times in seven pages, Ahná and +nahná for nahnú (iv. 370, 372); Aná ba-ashtarí = I will buy (iii. +109): and Aná 'Ámíl = I will do (v. 367). Alaykí for Alayki (i. +18), Antí for Anti (iii. 66) and generally long í for short . +'Ammál (from 'amala = he did) tahlam = certainly thou dreamest, +and 'Ammálín yaakulú = they were about to eat (ix. 315): Aywá for +Ay wa'lláhí = yes, by Allah (passim). Bitá' = belonging to, e.g. +Sára bitá'k = it is become thine (ix. 352) and Matá' with the +same sense (iii. 80). Dá 'l-khurj = this saddle-bag (ix. 336) and +Dí (for hazah) = this woman (iii. 79) or this time (ii. 162). +Fayn as ráha fayn = whither is he gone? (iv. 323). Kamá badri = +he rose early (ix. 318): Kamán = also, a word known to every +European (ii. 43): Katt = never (ii. 172): Kawám (pronounced +'awám) = fast, at once (iv. 385) and Rih ásif kawí (pron. 'awí) = +a wind, strong very. Laysh, e.g. bi tasalní laysh (ix. 324) = why +do you ask me? a favourite form for li ayya shayyin: so Máfish = +má fihi shayyun (there is no thing) in which Herr Landberg (p. +425) makes "Sha, le présent de pouvoir." Min ajali = for my sake; +and Li ajal al-taudí'a = for the sake of taking leave (Mac. Edit. +i. 384). Rijál nautiyah = men sailors when the latter word would +suffice: Shuwayh (dim. of shayy) = a small thing, a little (iv. +309) like Moyyah (dim. of Má) a little water: Waddúní = they +carried me (ii. 172) and lastly the abominable Wáhid gharíb = one +(for a) stranger. These few must suffice: the tale of Judar and +his brethren, which in style is mostly Egyptian, will supply a +number of others. It must not, however, be supposed, as many have +done, that vulgar and colloquial Arabic is of modern date: we +find it in the first century of Al-Islam, as is proved by the +tale of Al-Hajjáj and Al-Shabi (Ibn Khallikan, ii. 6). The former +asked "Kam ataa-k?' (= how much is thy pay?) to which the latter +answered, "Alfayn!" (= two thousand!). "Tut," cried the Governor, +"Kam atau-ka?" to which the poet replied as correctly and +classically, "Alfáni." + +[FN#307] In Russian folk-songs a young girl is often compared +with this tree e.g.-- + + Ivooshka, ivooshka zelonaia moia! + (O Willow, O green Willow mine!) + +[FN#308] So in Hector France ("La vache enragée") "Le sourcil en +accent circonflexe et l'oeil en point d'interrogation." + +[FN#309] In Persian "Áb-i-rú" in India pronounced Ábrú. + +FN#310] For further praises of his poetry and eloquence see the +extracts from Fakhr al-Din of Rayy (an annalist of the xivth +century A.D.) in De Sacy's Chrestomathie Arabe, vol. i. + +[FN#311] After this had been written I received "Babylonian, das +reichste Land in der Vorzeit und das lohnendste Kolonisationsfeld +für die Gegenwart," by my learned friend Dr. Aloys Sprenger, +Heidelberg, 1886. + +[FN#312] The first school for Arabic literature was opened by Ibn +Abbas, who lectured to multitudes in a valley near Meccah; this +rude beginning was followed by public teaching in the great +Mosque of Damascus. For the rise of the "Madrasah," Academy or +College' see Introduct. to Ibn Khallikan pp. xxvii-xxxii. + +[FN#313] When Ibn Abbád the Sáhib (Wazir) was invited to visit +one of the Samanides, he refused, one reason being that he would +require 400 camels to carry only his books. + +[FN#314] This "Salmagondis" by Francois Beroalde de Verville was +afterwards worked by Tabarin , the pseudo-Bruscambille d'Aubigné +and Sorel. + +[FN#315] I prefer this derivation to Strutt's adopted by the +popular, "mumm is said to be derived from the Danish word mumme, +or momme in Dutch (Germ. = larva), and signifies disguise in a +mask, hence a mummer." In the Promptorium Parvulorum we have +"Mummynge, mussacio, vel mussatus": it was a pantomime in dumb +show, e.g. "I mumme in a mummynge;" "Let us go mumme (mummer) to +nyghte in women's apparayle." "Mask" and "Mascarade," for +persona, larva or vizard, also derive, I have noticed, from an +Arabic word--Maskharah. + +[FN#316] The Pre-Adamite doctrine has been preached with but +scant success in Christendom. Peyrere, a French Calvinist, +published (A.D. 1655) his "Praadamitæ, sive exercitatio supra +versibus 12, 13, 14, cap. v. Epist. Paul. ad Romanos," contending +that Adam was called the first man because with him the law +began. It brewed a storm of wrath and the author was fortunate to +escape with only imprisonment. + +[FN#317] According to Socrates the verdict was followed by a free +fight of the Bishop-voters over the word "consubstantiality." + +[FN#318] Servetus burnt (in A.D. 1553 for publishing his Arian +tractate) by Calvin, whom half-educated Roman Catholics in +England firmly believe to have been a pederast. This arose I +suppose, from his meddling with Rabelais who, in return for the +good joke Rabie læsus, presented a better anagram, "Jan (a pimp +or cuckold) Cul" (Calvinus). + +[FN#319] There is no more immoral work than the "Old Testament." +Its deity is an ancient Hebrew of the worst type, who condones, +permits or commands every sin in the Decalogue to a Jewish +patriarch, quâ patriarch. He orders Abraham to murder his son and +allows Jacob to swindle his brother; Moses to slaughter an +Egyptian and the Jews to plunder and spoil a whole people, after +inflicting upon them a series of plagues which would be the +height of atrocity if the tale were true. The nations of Canaan +are then extirpated. Ehud, for treacherously disembowelling King +Eglon, is made judge over Israel. Jael is blessed above women +(Joshua v. 24) for vilely murdering a sleeping guest; the horrid +deeds of Judith and Esther are made examples to mankind; and +David, after an adultery and a homicide which deserved +ignominious death, is suffered to massacre a host of his enemies, +cutting some in two with saws and axes and putting others into +brick-kilns. For obscenity and impurity we have the tales of Onan +and Tamar, Lot and his daughters, Amnon and his fair sister (2 +Sam. xiii.), Absalom and his father's concubines, the "wife of +whoredoms" of Hosea and, capping all, the Song of Solomon. For +the horrors forbidden to the Jews who, therefore, must have +practiced them, see Levit. viii. 24, xi. 5, xvii. 7, xviii. 7, 9, +10, 12, 15, 17, 21, 23, and xx. 3. For mere filth what can be +fouler than 1st Kings xviii. 27; Tobias ii. 11; Esther xiv. 2, +Eccl. xxii. 2; Isaiah xxxvi. 12, Jeremiah iv. 5, and (Ezekiel iv. +12-15), where the Lord changes human ordure into "Cow-chips!" Ce +qui excuse Dieu, said Henri Beyle, c'est qu'il n'existe pas,--I +add, as man has made him. + +[FN#320] It was the same in England before the "Reformation," and +in France where, during our days, a returned priesthood collected +in a few years "Peter-pence" to the tune of five hundred millions +of francs. And these men wonder at being turned out! + +[FN#321] Deutsch on the Talmud: Quarterly Review, 1867. + +[FN#322] Evidently. Its cosmogony is a myth read literally: its +history is, for the most part, a highly immoral distortion, and +its ethics are those of the Talmudic Hebrews. It has done good +work in its time; but now it shows only decay and decrepitude in +the place of vigour and progress. It is dying hard, but it is +dying of the slow poison of science. + +[FN#323] These Hebrew Stoics would justly charge the Founder of +Christianity with preaching a more popular and practical +doctrine, but a degradation from their own far higher and more +ideal standard. + +[FN#324] Dr. Theodore Christlieb ("Modern Doubt and Christian +Belief," Edinburgh: Clark 1874) can even now write:--"So then the +'full age' to which humanity is at present supposed to have +attained, consists in man's doing good purely for goodness sake! +Who sees not the hollowness of this bombastic talk. That man has +yet to be born whose practice will be regulated by this insipid +theory (dieser grauen theorie). What is the idea of goodness per +se? * * * The abstract idea of goodness is not an effectual +motive for well-doing" (p. 104). My only comment is c'est +ignolile! His Reverence acts the part of Satan in Holy Writ, +"Does Job serve God for naught?" Compare this selfish, +irreligious, and immoral view with Philo Judæus (On the Allegory +of the Sacred Laws, cap. 1viii.), to measure the extent of the +fall from Pharisaism to Christianity. And the latter is still +infected with the "bribe-and-threat doctrine:" I once immensely +scandalised a Consular Chaplain by quoting the noble belief of +the ancients, and it was some days before he could recover mental +equanimity. The degradation is now inbred. + +[FN#325] Of the doctrine of the Fall the heretic Marcion wrote: +"The Deity must either be deficient in goodness if he willed, in +prescience if he did not foresee, or in power if he did not +prevent it." + +[FN#326] In his charming book, "India Revisited." + +[FN#327] This is the answer to those who contend with much truth +that the moderns are by no means superior to the ancients of +Europe: they look at the results of only 3000 years instead of +30,000 or 300,000. + +[FN#328] As a maxim the saying is attributed to the Duc de Lévis, +but it is much older. + +[FN#329] There are a few, but only a few, frightful exceptions to +this rule, especially in the case of Khálid bin Walíd, the Sword +of Allah, and his ferocious friend, Darár ibn al-Azwar. But their +cruel excesses were loudly blamed by the Moslems, and Caliph Omar +only obeyed the popular voice in superseding the fierce and +furious Khalid by the mild and merciful Abú Obaydah. + +[FN#330] This too when St. Paul sends the Christian slave +Onesimus back to his unbelieving (?) master, Philemon; which in +Al-Islam would have created a scandal. + +[FN#331] This too when the Founder of Christianity talks of +"Eating and drinking at his table!" (Luke xxn. 29.) My notes have +often touched upon this inveterate prejudice the result, like the +soul-less woman of Al-Islam, of ad captandum, pious fraud. "No +soul knoweth what joy of the eyes is reserved for the good in +recompense for their works" (Koran xxxn. 17) is surely as +"spiritual" as St. Paul (I Cor. ii., 9). Some lies, however are +very long-lived, especially those begotten by self interest. + +[FN#332] I have elsewhere noted its strict conservatism which, +however, it shares with all Eastern faiths in the East. But +progress, not quietism, is the principle which governs humanity +and it is favoured by events of most different nature. In Egypt +the rule of Mohammed Ali the Great and in Syria the Massacre of +Damascus (1860) have greatly modified the constitution of Al- +Islam throughout the nearer East. + +[FN#333] Chapt. viii. "Narrative of a Year's Journey through +Central and Eastern Arabia;" London, Macmillan, 1865. + +[FN#334] The Soc. Jesu has, I believe, a traditional conviction +that converts of Israelitic blood bring only misfortune to the +Order. + +[FN#335] I especially allude to an able but most superficial +book, the "Ten Great Religions" by James F. Clarke (Boston, +Osgood, 1876), which caricatures and exaggerates the false +portraiture of Mr. Palgrave. The writer's admission that, +"Something is always gained by learning what the believers in a +system have to say in its behalf," clearly shows us the man we +have to deal with and the "depths of his self-consciousness." + +[FN#336] But how could the Arabist write such hideous grammar as +"La Il h illa All h" for "Lá iláha (accus.) ill' Allah"? + +[FN#337] p. 996 "Muhammad" in vol. iii. Dictionary of Christian +Biography. See also the Illustration of the Mohammedan Creed, +etc., from Al-Ghazáli introduced (pp. 72-77) into Bell and Sons' +"History of the Saracens" by Simon Ockley, B.D. (London, 1878). I +regret some Orientalist did not correct the proofs: everybody +will not detect "Al-Lauh al-Mahfúz" (the Guarded Tablet) in +"Allauh ho'hnehphoud" (p. 171); and this but a pinch out of a +camel-load. + +[FN#338] The word should have been Arianism. This "heresy" of the +early Christians was much aided by the "Discipline of the +Secret," supposed to be of apostolic origin, which concealed from +neophytes, catechumens and penitents all the higher mysteries, +like the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Metastoicheiosis +(transubstantiation), the Real Presence, the Eucharist and the +Seven Sacraments; when Arnobius could ask, Quid Deo cum vino est? +and when Justin, fearing the charge of Polytheism, could +expressly declare the inferior nature of the Son to the Father. +Hence the creed was appropriately called Symbol i.e., Sign of the +Secret. This "mental reservation" lasted till the Edict of +Toleration, issued by Constantine in the fourth century, held +Christianity secure when divulging her "mysteries"; and it +allowed Arianism to become the popular creed. + +[FN#339] The Gnostics played rather a fantastic rôle in +Christianity with their Demiurge, their Æonogony, their Æons by +syzygies or couples, their Maio and Sabscho and their beatified +bride of Jesus, Sophia Achamoth, and some of them descended to +absolute absurdities, e.g., the Tascodrugitæ and the +Pattalorhinchitæ who during prayers placed their fingers upon +their noses or in their mouths, &c., reading Psalm cxli. 3. + +[FN#340] "Kitáb al-'Unwán fí Makáid al-Niswán" = The Book of the +Beginnings on the Wiles of Womankind (Lane i. 38). + +[FN#341] This person was one of the Amsál or Exampla of the +Arabs. For her first thirty years she whored; during the next +three decades she pimped for friend and foe, and, during the last +third of her life, when bed-ridden by age and infirmities, she +had a buckgoat and a nanny tied up in her room and solaced +herself by contemplating their amorous conflicts. + +[FN#342] And modern Moslem feeling upon the subject has +apparently undergone a change. Ashraf Khan, the Afghan poet, +sings, + +Since I, the parted one, have come the secrets of the world to + ken, +Women in hosts therein I find, but few (and very few) of men. + +And the Osmanli proverb is, "Of ten men nine are women!" + +[FN#343] His Persian paper "On the Vindication of the Liberties +of the Asiatic Women" was translated and printed in the Asiatic +Annual Register for 1801 (pp. 100-107); it is quoted by Dr. Jon. +Scott (Introd. vol. i. p. xxxiv. et seq.) and by a host of +writers. He also wrote a book of Travels translated by Prof. +Charles Stewart in 1810 and re-issued (3 vols. 8vo.) in 1814. + +[FN#344] The beginning of which I date from the Hijrah, lit.= the +separation, popularly "The Flight." Stating the case broadly, it +has become the practice of modern writers to look upon Mohammed +as an honest enthusiast at Meccah and an unscrupulous despot at +Al- Medinah, a view which appears to me eminently unsound and +unfair. In a private station the Meccan Prophet was famed as a +good citizen, teste his title Al-Amín =The Trusty. But when +driven from his home by the pagan faction, he became de facto as +de jure a king: nay, a royal pontiff; and the preacher was merged +in the Conqueror of his foes and the Commander of the Faithful. +His rule, like that of all Eastern rulers, was stained with +blood; but, assuming as true all the crimes and cruelties with +which Christians charge him and which Moslems confess, they were +mere blots upon a glorious and enthusiastic life, ending in a +most exemplary death, compared with the tissue of horrors and +havock which the Law and the Prophets attribute to Moses, to +Joshua, to Samuel and to the patriarchs and prophets by express +command of Jehovah. + +[FN#345] It was not, however, incestuous: the scandal came from +its ignoring the Arab "pundonor." + +[FN#346] The "opportunism" of Mohammed has been made a matter of +obloquy by many who have not reflected and discovered that +time-serving is the very essence of "Revelation." Says the Rev. +W. Smith ("Pentateuch," chaps. xiii.), "As the journey (Exodus) +proceeds, so laws originate from the accidents of the way," and +he applies this to successive decrees (Numbers xxvi. 32-36; +xxvii. 8-11 and xxxvi. 1-9), holding it indirect internal +evidence of Mosaic authorship (?). Another tone, however, is used +in the case of Al-Islam. "And now, that he might not stand in awe +of his wives any longer, down comes a revelation," says Ockley in +his bluff and homely style, which admits such phrases as, "the +imposter has the impudence to say." But why, in common honesty, +refuse to the Koran the concessions freely made to the Torah? It +is a mere petitio principii to argue that the latter is +"inspired" while the former is not, moreover, although we may be +called upon to believe things beyond Reason, it is hardly fair to +require our belief in things contrary to Reason. + +[FN#347] This is noticed in my wife's volume on The Inner Life of +Syria, chaps. xii. vol. i. 155. + +[FN#348] Mirza preceding the name means Mister and following it +Prince. Addison's "Vision of Mirza" (Spectator, No. 159) is +therefore "The Vision of Mister." + +[FN#349] And women. The course of instruction lasts from a few +days to a year and the period of puberty is fêted by magical +rites and often by some form of mutilation. It is described by +Waitz, Réclus and Schoolcraft, Páchue-Loecksa, Collins, Dawson, +Thomas, Brough Smyth, Reverends Bulmer and Taplin, Carlo +Wilhelmi, Wood, A. W. Howitt, C. Z. Muhas (Mem. de la Soc. +Anthrop. Allemande, 1882, p. 265) and by Professor Mantegazza +(chaps. i.) for whom see infra. + +[FN#350] Similarly certain Australian tribes act scenes of rape +and pederasty saying to the young, If you do this you will be +killed. + +[FN#351] "Báh," is the popular term for the amatory appetite: +hence such works are called Kutub al-Báh, lit. = Books of Lust. + +[FN#352] I can make nothing of this title nor can those whom I +have consulted: my only explanation is that they may be fanciful +names proper. + +[FN#353] Amongst the Greeks we find erotic specialists (1) +Aristides of the Libri Milesii; (2) Astyanassa, the follower of +Helen who wrote on androgvnisation; (3) Cyrene, the artist of +amatory Tabellæ or ex-votos offered to Priapus; (4) Elephantis, +the poetess who wrote on Varia concubitus genera; (5) Evemerus, +whose Sacra Historia, preserved in a fragment of Q. Eunius, was +collected by Hieronymus Columnar (6) Hemitheon of the Sybaritic +books, (7) Musæus, the Iyrist; (8) Niko, the Samian girl; (9) +Philænis, the poetess of Amatory Pleasures, in Athen. viii. 13, +attributed to Polycrates the Sophist; (10) Protagorides, Amatory +Conversations; (11) Sotades, the Mantinæan who, says Suidas, +wrote the poem "Cinædica"; (12) Sphodrias the Cynic, his Art of +Love; and (13) Trepsicles, Amatory Pleasures. Amongst the Romans +we have Aedituus, Annianus (in Ausonius), Anser, Bassus Eubius, +Helvius Cinna, Lævius (of Io and the Erotopægnion), Memmius, +Cicero (to Cerellia), Pliny the Younger, Sabellus (de modo +coeundi); Sisenna, the pathic Poet and translator of Milesian +Fables and Sulpitia, the modest erotist. For these see the +Dictionnaire Érotique of Blondeau pp. ix. and x. (Paris, Liseux, +1885). + +[FN#354] It has been translated from the Sanskrit and annotated +by A.F.F. and B.F.R. Reprint Cosmopoli: mdccclxxxv.: for the Kama +Shastra Society, London and Benares, and for private circulation +only. The first print has been exhausted and a reprint will +presently appear. + +[FN#355] The local press has often proposed to abate this +nuisance of erotic publication which is most debasing to public +morals already perverted enough. But the "Empire of Opinion" +cares very little for such matters and, in the matter of the +"native press," generally seems to seek only a quiet life. In +England if erotic literature were not forbidden by law, few would +care to sell or to buy it, and only the legal pains and penalties +keep up the phenomenally high prices. + +[FN#356] The Spectator (No. 119) complains of an "infamous piece +of good breeding," because "men of the town, and particularly +those who have been polished in France, make use of the most +coarse and uncivilised words in our language and utter themselves +often in such a manner as a clown would blush to hear." + +[FN#357] See the Novelle of Bandello the Bishop (Tome 1, Paris, +Liseux, 1879, small in 18) where the dying fisherman replies to +his confessor, "Oh! Oh! your reverence, to amuse myself with boys +was natural to me as for a man to eat and drink; yet you asked me +if I sinned against nature!" Amongst the wiser ancients sinning +contra naturam was not marrying and begetting children. + +[FN#358] Avis au Lecteur "L'Amour dans l'Humanité," par P. +Mantegazza, traduit par Emilien Chesneau, Paris, Fetscherin et +Chuit, 1886. + +[FN#359] See "H. B." (Henry Beyle, French Consul at Civita +Vecchia) par un des Quarante H. B." (Prosper Mérimee), +Elutheropolis, An mdccclxiv. De l'Imposture du Nazaréen. + +[FN#360] This detail especially excited the veteran's curiosity. +The reason proved to be that the scrotum of the unmutilated boy +could be used as a kind of bridle for directing the movements of +the animal. I find nothing of the kind mentioned in the Sotadical +literature of Greece and Rome; although the same cause might be +expected everywhere to the same effect. But in Mirabeau +(Kadhésch) a grand seigneur moderne, when his valet-de-chambre de +confiance proposes to provide him with women instead of boys, +exclaims, "Des femmes! eh! c'est comme si tu me servais un gigot +sans manche." See also infra for "Le poids du tisserand." + +[FN#361] See Falconry in the Valley of the Indus, London, John +Van Voorst, 1852. + +[FN#362] Submitted to Government on Dec. 3', '47, and March 2, +'48, they were printed in "Selections from the Records of the +Government of India." Bombay. New Series. No. xvii. Part 2, 1855. +These are (1) Notes on the Population of Sind, etc., and (2) +Brief Notes on the Modes of Intoxication, etc., written in +collaboration with my late friend Assistant-Surgeon John E. +Stocks, whose early death was a sore loss to scientific botany. + +[FN#363] Glycon the Courtesan in Athen. xiii. 84 declares that +"boys are handsome only when they resemble women," and so the +Learned Lady in The Nights (vol. v. 160) declares "Boys are +likened to girls because folks say, Yonder boy is like a girl." +For the superior physical beauty of the human male compared with +the female, see The Nights, vol. iv. 15; and the boy's voice +before it breaks excels that of any diva. + +[FN#364] "Mascula," from the priapiscus, the over-development of +clitoris (the veretrum muliebre, in Arabic Abu Tartúr, habens +cristam), which enabled her to play the man. Sappho (nat. B.C. +612) has been retoillée like Mary Stuart, La Brinvilliers, Marie +Antoinette and a host of feminine names which have a savour not +of sanctity. Maximus of Tyre (Dissert. xxiv.) declares that the +Eros of Sappho was Socratic and that Gyrinna and Atthis were as +Alcibiades and Chermides to Socrates: Ovid who could consult +documents now lost, takes the same view in the Letter of Sappho +to Phaon and in Tristia ii. 265. + + Lesbia quid docuit Sappho nisi amare puellas? + +Suidas supports Ovid. Longinus eulogises the (a +term applied only to carnal love) of the far-famed Ode to +Atthis:-- + + Ille mî par esse Deo videtur * * * + (Heureux! qui près de toi pour toi seule soupire * * * + Blest as th' immortal gods is he, etc.) + +By its love symptoms, suggesting that possession is the sole cure +for passion, Erasistratus discovered the love of Antiochus for +Stratonice. Mure (Hist. of Greek Literature, 1850) speaks of the +Ode to Aphrodite (Frag. 1) as "one in which the whole volume of +Greek literature offers the most powerful concentration into one +brilliant focus of the modes in which amatory concupiscence can +display itself." But Bernhardy, Bode, Richter, K. O. Müller and +esp. Welcker have made Sappho a model of purity, much like some +of our dull wits who have converted Shakespeare, that most +debauched genius, into a good British bourgeois. + +[FN#365] The Arabic Sabhákah, the Tractatrix or Subigitatrix who +has been noticed in vol. iv. 134. Hence to Lesbianise ( ) +and tribassare ( ); the former applied to the love of +woman for woman and the latter to its mecanique: this is either +natural, as friction of the labia and insertion of the clitoris +when unusually developed, or artificial by means of the fascinum, +the artificial penis (the Persian "Mayájang"); the patte de chat, +the banana-fruit and a multitude of other succedanea. As this +feminine perversion is only glanced at in The Nights I need +hardly enlarge upon the subject. + +[FN#366] Plato (Symp.) is probably mystical when he accounts for +such passions by there being in the beginning three species of +humanity, men, women and men-women or androgynes. When the latter +were destroyed by Zeus for rebellion, the two others were +individually divided into equal parts. Hence each division seeks +its other half in the same sex, the primitive man prefers men and +the primitive woman women. C'est beau, but--is it true? The idea +was probably derived from Egypt which supplied the Hebrews with +androgynic humanity, and thence it passed to extreme India, where +Shiva as Ardhanárí was male on one side and female on the other +side of the body, combining paternal and maternal qualities and +functions. The first creation of humans (Gen. i. 27) was +hermaphrodite (=Hermes and Venus), masculum et fœminam creavit +eos--male and female created He them--on the sixth day, with the +command to increase and multiply (ibid. v. 28), while Eve the +woman was created subsequently. Meanwhile, say certain +Talmudists, Adam carnally copulated with all races of animals. +See L'Anandryne in Mirabeau's Erotika Biblion, where Antoinette +Bourgnon laments the undoubling which disfigured the work of God, +producing monsters incapable of independent self-reproduction +like the vegetable kingdom. + +[FN#367] De la Femme, Paris, 1827. + +[FN#368] Die Lustseuche des Alterthum's, Halle, 1839. + +[FN#369] See his exhaustive article on (Grecian) "Paederastie" in +the Allgemeine Encyclopædie of Ersch and Gruber, Leipzig, +Brockhaus, 1837. He carefully traces it through the several +states, Dorians, Æolians, Ionians, the Attic cities and those of +Asia Minor. For these details I must refer my readers to M. +Meier; a full account of these would fill a volume not the +section of an essay. + +[FN#370] Against which see Henri Estienne, Apologie pour +Hérodote, a society satire of xvith century, lately reprinted by +Liseux. + +[FN#371] In Sparta the lover was called or x +and the beloved as in Thessaly or x. + +[FN#372] The more I study religions the more I am convinced that +man never worshipped anything but himself. Zeus, who became +Jupiter, was an ancient king, according to the Cretans, who were +entitled liars because they showed his burial-place. From a +deified ancestor he would become a local god, like the Hebrew +Jehovah as opposed to Chemosh of Moab; the name would gain +amplitude by long time and distant travel, and the old island +chieftain would end in becoming the Demiurgus. Ganymede (who +possibly gave rise to the old Lat. "Catamitus") was probably some +fair Phrygian boy ("son of Tros") who in process of time became a +symbol of the wise man seized by the eagle (perspicacity) to be +raised amongst the Immortals; and the chaste myth simply +signified that only the prudent are loved by the gods. But it +rotted with age as do all things human. For the Pederastía of the +Gods see Bayle under Chrysippe. + +[FN#373] See Dissertation sur les idées morales des Grecs et sur +les dangers de lire Platon. Par M. Audé, Bibliophile, Rouen, +Lemonnyer, 1879. This is the pseudonym of the late Octave +Delepierre, who published with Gay, but not the Editio +Princeps--which, if I remember rightly, contains much more +matter. + +[FN#374] The phrase of J. Matthias Gesner, Comm. Reg. Soc. +Gottingen i. 1-32. It was founded upon Erasmus' "Sancte Socrate, +ore pro nobis," and the article was translated by M. Alcide +Bonmaire, Paris, Liseux, 1877. + +[FN#375] The subject has employed many a pen, e.g.,Alcibiade +Fanciullo a Scola, D. P. A. (supposed to be Pietro Aretino--ad +captandum?), Oranges, par Juann Wart, 1652: small square 8vo of +pp. 102, including 3 preliminary pp. and at end an unpaged leaf +with 4 sonnets, almost Venetian, by V. M. There is a +re-impression of the same date, a small 12mo of longer format, +pp. 124 with pp. 2 for sonnets: in 1862 the Imprimerie Racon +printed 102 copies in 8vo of pp. iv.-108, and in 1863 it was +condemned by the police as a liber spurcissimus atque execrandus +de criminis sodomici laude et arte. This work produced "Alcibiade +Enfant à l'école," traduit pour la première fois de l'Italien de +Ferrante Pallavicini, Amsterdam, chez l'Ancien Pierre Marteau, +mdccclxvi. Pallavicini (nat. 1618), who wrote against Rome, was +beheaded, aet. 26 (March 5, 1644), at Avignon in 1644 by the +vengeance of the Barberini: he was a bel esprit déréglé, nourri +d'études antiques and a Memb. of the Acad. Degl' Incogniti. His +peculiarities are shown by his "Opere Scelte," 2 vols. 12mo, +Villafranca, mdclxiii.; these do not include Alcibiade Fanciullo, +a dialogue between Philotimus and Alcibiades which seems to be a +mere skit at the Jesuits and their Péché philosophique. Then came +the "Dissertation sur l'Alcibiade fanciullo a scola," traduit de +l'Italien de Giambattista Baseggio et accompagnée de notes et +d'une post-face par un bibliophile francais (M. Gustave Brunet, +Librarian of Bordeaux), Paris. J. Gay, 1861--an octavo of pp. 78 +(paged), 254 copies. The. same Baseggio printed in 1850 his +Disquisizioni (23 copies) and claims for F. Pallavicini the +authorship of Alcibiades which the Manuel du Libraire wrongly +attributes to M. Girol. Adda in 1859. I have heard of but not +seen the "Amator fornaceus, amator ineptus" (Palladii, 1633) +supposed by some to be the origin of Alcibiade Fanciullo; but +most critics consider it a poor and insipid production. + +[FN#376] The word is from numbness, torpor, narcotism: the +flowers, being loved by the infernal gods, were offered to the +Furies. Narcissus and Hippolytus are often assumed as types of +morose voluptas, masturbation and clitorisation for nymphomania: +certain mediæval writers found in the former a type of the +Saviour, and 'Mirabeau a representation of the androgynous or +first Adam: to me Narcissus suggests the Hindu Vishnu absorbed in +the contemplation of his own perfections. + +[FN#377] The verse of Ovid is parallel'd by the song of Al-Záhir +al-Jazari (Ibn Khall. iii. 720). + + Illum impuberem amaverunt mares; puberem feminæ. + Gloria Deo! nunquam amatoribus carebit. + +[FN#378] The venerable society of prostitutes contained three +chief classes. The first and lowest were the Dicteriads, so +called from Diete (Crete), who imitated Pasiphaë, wife of Minos, +in preferring a bull to a husband; above them was the middle +class, the Aleutridæ, who were the Almahs or professional +musicians, and the aristocracy was represented by the Hetairai, +whose wit and learning enabled them to adorn more than one page +of Grecian history. The grave Solon, who had studied in Egypt, +established a vast Dicterion (Philemon in his Delphica), or +bordel whose proceeds swelled the revenue of the Republic. + +[FN#379] This and Saint Paul (Romans i. 27) suggested to +Caravaggio his picture of St. Rosario (in the museum of the Grand +Duke of Tuscany), showing a circle of thirty men turpiter ligati. + +[FN#380] Properly speaking, "Medicus" is the third or ring +finger, as shown by the old Chiromantist verses, + + Est pollex Veneris; sed Jupiter indice gaudet, + Saturnus medium; Sol medicumque tenet. + +[FN#381] So Seneca uses digito scalpit caput. The modern Italian +does the same by inserting the thumb-tip between the index and +medius to suggest the clitoris. + +[FN#382] What can be wittier than the now trite Tale of the +Ephesian Matron, whose dry humour is worthy of The Nights? No +wonder that it has made the grand tour of the world. It is found +in the neo-Phædrus, the tales of Musæus and in the Septem +Sapientes as the "Widow which was comforted." As the "Fabliau de +la Femme qui se fist putain sur la fosse de son Mari," it tempted +Brantôme and La Fontaine; and Abel Rémusat shows in his Contes +Chinois that it is well known to the Middle Kingdom. Mr. Walter +K. Kelly remarks, that the most singular place for such a tale is +the "Rule and Exercise of Holy Dying" by Jeremy Taylor, who +introduces it into his chapt. v.--"Of the Contingencies of Death +and Treating our Dead." But in those days divines were not +mealy-mouthed. + +[FN#383] Glossarium eroticum linguæ Latinæ, sive theogoniæ, legum +et morum nuptialium apud Romanos explanatio nova, auctore P. P. +(Parisiis, Dondey-Dupré, 1826, in 8vo). P. P. is supposed to be +Chevalier Pierre Pierrugues, an engineer who made a plan of +Bordeaux and who annotated the Erotica Biblion. Gay writes, "On +s'est servi pour cet ouvrage des travaux inédits de M. Ie Baron +de Schonen, etc. Quant au Chevalier Pierre Pierrugues qu'on +désignait comme l'auteur de ce savant volume, son existence n'est +pas bien avérée, et quelques bibliographes persistent à penser +que ce nom cache la collaboration du Baron de Schonen et d'Eloi +Johanneau." Other glossicists as Blondeau and Forberg have been +printed by Liseux, Paris. + +[FN#384] This magnificent country, which the petty jealousies of +Europe condemn, like the glorious regions about Constantinople, +to mere barbarism, is tenanted by three Moslem races. The +Berbers, who call themselves Tamazight (plur. of Amazigh), are +the Gætulian indigenes speaking an Africo-Semitic tongue (see +Essai de Grammaire Kabyle, etc., par A. Hanoteau, Paris, Benjamin +Duprat). The Arabs, descended from the conquerors in our eighth +century, are mostly nomads and camel-breeders. Third and last are +the Moors proper, the race dwelling in towns, a mixed breed +originally Arabian but modified by six centuries of Spanish +residence and showing by thickness of feature and a +parchment-coloured skin, resembling the American Octaroon's, a +negro innervation of old date. The latter are well described in +"Morocco and the Moors," etc. (Sampson Low and Co., 1876), by my +late friend Dr. Arthur Leared, whose work I should like to see +reprinted. + +[FN#385] Thus somewhat agreeing with one of the multitudinous +modern theories that the Pentapolis was destroyed by discharges +of meteoric stones during a tremendous thunderstorm. Possible, +but where are the stones? + +[FN#386] To this Iranian domination I attribute the use of many +Persic words which are not yet obsolete in Egypt. "Bakhshísh," +for instance, is not intelligible in the Moslem regions west of +the Nile-Valley, and for a present the Moors say Hadíyah, regalo +or favor. + +[FN#387] Arnobius and Tertullian, with the arrogance of their +caste and its miserable ignorance of that symbolism which often +concealed from vulgar eyes the most precious mysteries, used to +taunt the heathen for praying to deities whose sex they ignored +"Consuistis in precibus 'Seu tu Deus seu tu Dea,' dicere!" These +men would know everything; they made God the merest work of man's +brains and armed him with a despotism of omnipotence which +rendered their creation truly dreadful. + +[FN#388] Gallus lit. = a cock, in pornologic parlance is a capon, +a castrato. + +[FN#389] The texts justifying or enjoining castration are Matt. +xviii. 8-9; Mark ix. 43-47; Luke xxiii. 29 and Col. iii. 5. St. +Paul preached (1 Corin. vii. 29) that a man should live with his +wife as if he had none. The Abelian heretics of Africa abstained +from women because Abel died virginal. Origen mutilated himself +after interpreting too rigorously Matt. xix. 12, and was duly +excommunicated. But his disciple, the Arab Valerius founded (A.D. +250) the castrated sect called Valerians who, persecuted and +dispersed by the Emperors Constantine and Justinian, became the +spiritual fathers of the modern Skopzis. These eunuchs first +appeared in Russia at the end of the xith century, when two +Greeks, John and Jephrem, were metropolitans of Kiew: the former +was brought thither in A.D. 1089 by Princess Anna Wassewolodowna +and is called by the chronicles Nawjè or the Corpse. But in the +early part of the last century (1715-1733) a sect arose in the +circle of Uglitseh and in Moscow, at first called Clisti or +flagellants, which developed into the modern Skopzi. For this +extensive subject see De Stein (Zeitschrift für Ethn. Berlin, +1875) and Mantegazza, chaps. vi. + +[FN#390] See the marvellously absurd description of the glorious +"Dead Sea" in the Purchas v. 84. + +[FN#391] Jehovah here is made to play an evil part by destroying +men instead of teaching them better. But, "Nous faisons les Dieux +à notre image et nous portons dans le ciel ce que nous voyons sur +la terre." The idea of Yahweh, or Yah, is palpably Egyptian, the +Ankh or ever-living One: the etymon, however, was learned at +Babylon and is still found amongst the cuneiforms. + +[FN#392] The name still survives in the Shajarát al-Ashará, a +clump of trees near the village Al-Ghájar (of the Gypsies?) at +the foot of Hermon. + +[FN#393] I am not quite sure that Astarte is not primarily the +planet Venus; but I can hardly doubt that Prof. Max Müller and +Sir G. Cox are mistaken in bringing from India Aphrodite the Dawn +and her attendants, the Charites identified with the Vedic +Harits. Of Ishtar in Accadia, however, Roscher seems to have +proved that she is distinctly the Moon sinking into Amenti (the +west, the Underworld) in search of her lost spouse Izdubar, the +Sun-god. This again is pure Egyptianism. + +[FN#394] In this classical land of Venus the worship of +Ishtar-Ashtaroth is by no means obsolete. The Metáwali heretics, +a people of Persian descent and Shiite tenets, and the peasantry +of "Bilád B'sharrah," which I would derive from Bayt Ashirah, +still pilgrimage to the ruins and address their vows to the +Sayyidat al-Kabírah, the Great Lady. Orthodox Moslems accuse them +of abominable orgies and point to the lamps and rags which they +suspend to a tree entitled Shajarat al-Sitt--the Lady's tree--an +Acacia Albida which, according to some travellers, is found only +here and at Sayda (Sidon) where an avenue exists. The people of +Kasrawán, a Christian province in the Libanus, inhabited by a +peculiarly prurient race, also hold high festival under the +far-famed Cedars, and their women sacrifice to Venus like the +Kadashah of the Phœnicians. This survival of old superstition is +unknown to missionary "Handbooks," but amply deserves the study +of the anthropologist. + +[FN#395] Some commentators understand "the tabernacles sacred to +the reproductive powers of women;" and the Rabbis declare that +the emblem was the figure of a setting hen. + +[FN#396] Dog" is applied by the older Jews to the Sodomite and +the Catamite, and thus they understand the "price of a dog" which +could not be brought into the Temple (Deut. xxiii. 18). I have +noticed it in one of the derivations of cinædus and can only +remark that it is a vile libel upon the canine tribe. + +[FN#397] Her name was Maachah and her title, according to some, +"King's mother": she founded the sect of Communists who rejected +marriage and made adultery and incest part of worship in their +splendid temple. Such were the Basilians and the Carpocratians +followed in the xith century by Tranchelin, whose sectarians, the +Turlupins, long infested Savoy. + +[FN#398] A noted exception is Vienna, remarkable for the enormous +development of the virginal bosoni, which soon becomes pendulent. + +[FN#399] Gen. xxxviii. 2-11. Amongst the classics Mercury taught +the "Art of le Thalaba" to his son Pan who wandered about the +mountains distraught with love for the Nymph Echo and Pan passed +it on to the pastors. See Thalaba in Mirabeau. + +[FN#400] The reader of The Nights has remarked how often the "he" +in Arabic poetry denotes a "she"; but the Arab, when +uncontaminated by travel, ignores pederasty, and the Arab poet is +a Badawi. + +[FN#401] So Mohammed addressed his girl-wife Ayishah in the +masculine. + +[FN#402] So amongst the Romans we have the Iatroliptæ, youths or +girls who wiped the gymnast's perspiring body with swan-down, a +practice renewed by the professors of "Massage"; Unctores who +applied perfumes and essences; Fricatrices and Tractatrices or +shampooers; Dropacistæ, corn-cutters; Alipilarii who plucked the +hair, etc., etc., etc. + +[FN#403] It is a parody on the well-known song (Roebuck i. sect. +2, No. 1602): + +The goldsmith knows the worth of gold, jewellers worth of + jewelry; +The worth of rose Bulbul can tell and Kambar's worth his lord, + Ali. + +[FN#404] For "Sindí" Roebuck (Oriental Proverbs Part i. p. 99) +has Kunbu (Kumboh) a Panjábi peasant, and others vary the saying +ad libitum. See vol. vi. 156. + +[FN#405] See "Sind Revisited" i. 133-35. + +[FN#406] They must not be confounded with the grelots lascifs, +the little bells of gold or silver set by the people of Pegu in +the prepuce-skin, and described by Nicolo de Conti who however +refused to undergo the operation. + +[FN#407] Relation des découvertes faites par Colomb, etc., p. +137: Bologna 1875; also Vespucci's letter in Ramusio (i. 131) and +Paro's Recherches philosophiques sur les Américains. + +[FN#408] See Mantegazza loc. cit. who borrows from the Thèse de +Paris of Dr. Abel Hureau de Villeneuve, "Frictiones per coitum +productæ magnum mucosæ membranæ vaginalis turgorem, ac simul +hujus cuniculi coarctationem tam maritis salacibus quæritatam +afferunt." + +[FN#409] Fascinus is the Priapus-god to whom the Vestal Virgins +of Rome, professed tribades, sacrificed, also the neck-charm in +phallus-shape. Fascinum is the male member. + +[FN#410] Captain Grose (Lexicon Balatronicum) explains merkin as +"counterfeit hair for women's privy parts. See Bailey's Dict." +The Bailey of 1764, an "improved edition," does not contain the +word which is now generally applied to a cunnus succedaneus. + +[FN#411] I have noticed this phenomenal cannibalism in my notes +to Mr. Albert Tootle's excellent translation of "The Captivity of +Hans Stade of Hesse:" London, Hakluyt Society, mdccclxxiv. + +[FN#412] The Ostreiras or shell mounds of the Brazil, sometimes +200 feet high, are described by me in Anthropologia No. i. Oct. +1873. + +[FN#413] The Native Races of the Pacific States of South America, +by Herbert Howe Bancroft, London, Longmans, 1875. + +[FN#414] All Peruvian historians mention these giants, who were +probably the large-limbed Gribs (Caraíbes) of the Brazil: they +will be noticed in page 211. + +[FN#415] This sounds much like a pious fraud of the missionaries, +a Europeo-American version of the Sodom legend. + +[FN#416] Les Races Aryennes du Perou, Paris, Franck, 1871. + +[FN#417] O Brazil e os Brazileiros, Santos, 1862. + +[FN#418] Aethiopia Orientalis, Purchas ii. 1558. + +[FN#419] Purchas iii. 243. + +[FN#420] For a literal translation see 1re Série de la Curiosité +Littéraire et Bibliographique, Paris, Liseux, 1880. + +[FN#421] His best-known works are (1) Praktisches Handbuch der +Gerechtlichen Medecin, Berlin, 1860; and (2) Klinische Novellen +zur Gerechtlichen Medecin, Berlin, 1863. + +[FN#422] The same author printed another imitation of Petronius +Arbiter, the "Larissa" story of Théophile Viand. His cousin, the +Sévigné, highly approved of it. See Bayle's objections to +Rabutin's delicacy and excuses for Petronius' grossness in his +"Éclaircissement sur les obscénités" (Appendice au Dictionnaire +Antique). + +[FN#423] The Boulgrin of Rabelais, which Urquhart renders Ingle +for Boulgre, an "indorser," derived from the Bulgarus or +Bulgarian, who gave to Italy the term bugiardo--liar. Bougre and +Bougrerie date (Littré) from the xiiith century. I cannot, +however, but think that the trivial term gained strength in the +xvith, when the manners of the Bugres or indigenous Brazilians +were studied by Huguenot refugees in La France Antartique and +several of these savages found their way to Europe. A grand Fête +in Rouen on the entrance of Henri II. and Dame Katherine de +Medicis (June 16, 1564) showed, as part of the pageant, three +hundred men (including fifty "Bugres" or Tupis) with parroquets +and other birds and beasts of the newly explored regions. The +procession is given in the four-folding woodcut "Figure des +Brésiliens" in Jean de Prest's Edition of 1551. + +[FN#424] Erotika Biblion, chaps. Kadésch (pp. 93 et seq.), +Edition de Bruxelles, with notes by the Chevalier P. Pierrugues +of Bordeaux, before noticed. + +[FN#425] Called Chevaliers de Paille because the sign was a straw +in the mouth, à la Palmerston. + +[FN#426] I have noticed that the eunuch in Sind was as meanly +paid and have given the reason. + +[FN#427] Centuria Librorum Absconditorum (by Pisanus Fraxi) 4to, +p. Ix. and 593. London. Privately printed, mdccclxxix. + +[FN#428] A friend learned in these matters supplies me with the +following list of famous pederasts. Those who marvel at the wide +diffusion of such erotic perversion, and its being affected by so +many celebrities, will bear in mind that the greatest men have +been some of the worst: Alexander of Macedon, Julius Cæsar and +Napoleon Buonaparte held themselves high above the moral law +which obliges common-place humanity. All three are charged with +the Vice. Of Kings we have Henri iii., Louis xiii. and xviii., +Frederick ii. Of Prussia Peter the Great, William ii. of Holland +and Charles ii. and iii. of Parma. We find also Shakespeare (i., +xv., Edit. Francois Hugo) and Moliere, Theodorus Beza, Lully (the +Composer), D'Assoucy, Count Zintzendorff, the Grand Condé, +Marquis de Villette, Pierre Louis Farnese, Duc de la Vallière, De +Soleinne, Count D'Avaray, Saint Mégrin, D'Epernon, Admiral de la +Susse La Roche-Pouchin Rochfort S. Louis, Henne (the +Spiritualist), Comte Horace de Viel Castel, Lerminin, Fievée, +Théodore Leclerc, Archi-Chancellier Cambacèrés, Marquis de +Custine, Sainte-Beuve and Count D'Orsay. For others refer to the +three volumes of Pisanus Fraxi, Index Librorum Prohibitorum +(London, 1877), Centuria Librorum Absconditorum (before alluded +to) and Catena Librorum Tacendorum, London, 1885. The indices +will supply the names. + +[FN#429] 0f this peculiar character Ibn Khallikan remarks (ii. +43), "There were four poets whose works clearly contraried their +character. Abú al-Atahíyah wrote pious poems himself being an +atheist; Abú Hukayma's verses proved his impotence, yet he was +more salacious than a he-goat, Mohammed ibn Házim praised +contentment, yet he was greedier than a dog, and Abú Nowás hymned +the joys of sodomy, yet he was more passionate for women than a +baboon." + +[FN#430] A virulently and unjustly abusive critique never yet +injured its object: in fact it is generally the greatest favour +an author's unfriends can bestow upon him. But to notice a +popular Review books which have been printed and not published is +hardly in accordance with the established courtesies of +literature. At the end of my work I propose to write a paper "The +Reviewer Reviewed" which will, amongst other things, explain the +motif of the writer of the critique and the editor of the +Edinburgh. + +[FN#431] 1 For detailed examples and specimens see p. 10 of +Gladwin's "Dissertations on Rhetoric," etd., Calcutta, 1801. + +[FN#432] For instance: I, M. | take thee N. | to my wedded wife, +| to have and to hold, | from this day forward, | for better for +worse, | for richer for poorer, | in sickness and in health, | to +love and to cherish, | till death do us part, etc. Here it +becomes mere blank verse which is, of course, a defect in prose +style. In that delightful old French the Saj'a frequently +appeared when attention was solicited for the titles of books: +e.g. Lea Romant de la Rose, ou tout lart damours est enclose. + +[FN#433] See Gladwin loc. cit. p. 8: it also is = alliteration +(Ibn Khall. ii., 316). + +[FN#434] He called himself "Nabiyun ummí" = illiterate prophet; +but only his most ignorant followers believe that he was unable +to read and write. His last words, accepted by all traditionists, +were "Aatíní dawáta wa kalam" (bring me ink-case and pen); upon +which the Shi'ah or Persian sectaries base, not without +probability, a theory that Mohammed intended to write down the +name of Ali as his Caliph or successor when Omar, suspecting the +intention, exclaimed, "The Prophet is delirious; have we not the +Koran?" thus impiously preventing the precaution. However that +may be, the legend proves that Mohammed could read and write even +when not "under inspiration." The vulgar idea would arise from a +pious intent to add miracle to the miraculous style of the Koran. + +[FN#435] I cannot but vehemently suspect that this legend was +taken from much older traditions. We have Jubal the semi-mythical +who, "by the different falls of his hammer on the anvil, +discovered by the ear the first rude music that pleased the +antediluvian fathers." Then came Pythagoras, of whom Macrobius +(lib. ii ) relates how this Græco-Egyptian philosopher, passing +by a smithy, observed that the sounds were grave or acute +according to the weights of the hammers; and he ascertained by +experiment that such was the case when different weights were +hung by strings of the same size. The next discovery was that two +strings of the same substance and tension, the one being double +the length of the other, gave the diapason-interval, or an +eighth; and the same was effected from two strings of similar +length and size, the one having four times the tension of the +other. Belonging to the same cycle of invention-anecdotes are +Galileo's discovery of the pendulum by the lustre of the Pisan +Duomo; and the kettle-lid, the falling apple and the copper hook +which inspired Watt, Newton and Galvani. + +[FN#436] To what an absurd point this has been carried we may +learn from Ibn Khallikán (i. 114). A poet addressing a single +individual does not say "My friend!" or "My friends!" but "My two +friends!" (in the dual) because a Badawi required a pair of +companions, one to tend the sheep and the other to pasture the +camels. + +[FN#437] For further details concerning the Sabab, Watad and +Fasilah, see at the end of this Essay the learned remarks of Dr. +Steingass. + + +[FN#438] e.g., the Mu'allakats of "Amriolkais," Tarafah and +Zuhayr compared by Mr. Lyall (Introduction to Translations) with +the metre of Abt Vogler, e.g., + + Ye know why the forms are fair, ye hear how the tale is told + +[FN#439] e.g., the Poem of Hareth which often echoes the +hexameter + +[FN#440] Gladwin, p. 80. + +[FN#441] Gladwin (p. 77) gives only eight, omitting F ' l which +he or his author probably considers the Muzáhaf, imperfect or +apocopêd form of F ' l n, as M f ' l of M f ' l n. For the +infinite complications of Arabic prosody the Khafíf (soft +breathing) and Sahíh (hard breathing); the Sadr and Arúz (first +and last feet), the Ibtidá and Zarb (last foot of every line); +the Hashw (cushion-stuffing) or body part of verse, the 'Amúd +al-Kasídah or Al-Musammat (the strong) and other details I must +refer readers to such specialists as Freytag and Sam. Clarke +(Prosodia Arabica), and to Dr. Steingass's notes infra. + +[FN#442] The Hebrew grammarians of the Middle Ages wisely copied +their Arab cousins by turning Fa'la into Pael and so forth. + +[FN#443] Mr. Lyall, whose "Ancient Arabic Poetry" (Williams and +Norgate, 1885) I reviewed in The Academy of Oct. 3, '85, did the +absolute reverse of what is required: he preserved the metre and +sacrificed the rhyme even when it naturally suggested itself. For +instance in the last four lines of No. xii. what would be easier +than to write, + +Ah sweet and soft wi' thee her ways: bethink thee well! The day + shall be +When some one favoured as thyself shall find her fair and fain + and free; +And if she swear that parting ne'er shall break her word of + constancy, +When did rose-tinted finger-tip with pacts and pledges e'er + agree? + +[FN#444] See p. 439 Grammatik des Arabischen Vulgär Dialekts von +Ægyptian, by Dr. Wilhelm Spitta Bey, Leipzig, 1880. In pp. +489-493 he gives specimens of eleven Mawáwíl varying in length +from four to fifteen lines. The assonance mostly attempts +monorhyme: in two tetrastichs it is aa + ba, and it does not +disdain alternates, ab + ab + ab. + +[FN#445] Al-Siyuti, p. 235, from Ibn Khallikan. Our knowledge of +oldest Arab verse is drawn chiefly from the Katáb al-Aghání +(Song-book) of Abu al-Faraj the Isfaháni who flourished A.H. +284-356 (= 897- 967): it was printed at the Bulak Press in 1868. + +[FN#446] See Lyall loc. cit. p. 97. + +[FN#447] His Diwán has been published with a French translation, +par R. Boucher, Paris, Labitte, 1870. + +[FN#448] I find also minor quotations from the Imám Abu al-Hasan +al-Askari (of Sarra man raa) ob. A.D. 868; Ibn Makúla (murdered +in A.D. 862?), Ibn Durayd (ob. A.D. 933) +Al-Zahr the Poet (ob. A.D. 963); Abu Bakr al-Zubaydi (ob. A.D. +989), Kábús ibn Wushmaghir (murdered in A.D. 1012-13); Ibn +Nabatah the Poet (ob. A.D. 1015), Ibn al-Sa'ati (ob. A.D. 1028); +Ibn Zaydun al-Andalusi who died at Hums (Emessa, the Arab name +for Seville) in A.D. 1071; Al-Mu'tasim ibn Sumadih (ob. A.D. +1091), Al-Murtaza ibn al-Shahrozuri the Sufi (ob. A.D. 1117); Ibn +Sara al-Shantaráni (of Santarem) who sang of Hind and died A.D. +1123; Ibn al-Kházin (ob. A.D. 1124), Ibn Kalakis (ob. A D. 1172) +Ibn al-Ta'wizi (ob. A.D. 1188); Ibn Zabádah (ob. A.D. 1198), Bahá +al-Dín Zuhayr (ob A.D. 1249); Muwaffak al-Din Muzaffar (ob. A.D. +1266) and sundry others. Notices of Al-Utayyah (vol. i. 11), of +Ibn al-Sumám (vol. i. 87) and of Ibn Sáhib al-Ishbíli, of Seville +(vol. i. 100), are deficient. The most notable point in Arabic +verse is its savage satire, the language of excited +"destructiveness" which characterises the Badawi: he is "keen for +satire as a thirsty man for water:" and half his poetry seems to +consist of foul innuendo, of lampoons, and of gross personal +abuse. + +[FN#449] If the letter preceding Wáw or Yá is moved by Fathah, +they produce the diphthongs au (aw), pronounced like ou in +"bout'" and se, pronounced as i in "bite." + +[FN#450] For the explanation of this name and those of the +following terms, see Terminal Essay, p. 225. + +[FN#451] This Fásilah is more accurately called sughrá, the +smaller one, there is another Fásilah kubrà, the greater, +consisting of four moved letters followed by a quiescent, or of a +Sabab sakíl followed by a Watad majmú'. But it occurs only as a +variation of a normal foot, not as an integral element in its +composition, and consequently no mention of it was needed in the +text. + +[FN#452] It is important to keep in mind that the seemingly +identical feet 10 and 6, 7 and 3, are distinguished by the +relative positions of the constituting elements in either pair. +For as it will be seen that Sabab and Watad are subject to +different kinds of alterations it is evident that the effect of +such alterations upon a foot will vary, if Sabab and Watad occupy +different places with regard to each other. + +[FN#453] i.e. vertical to the circumference. + +[FN#454] This would be a Fásilah kubrá spoken of in the note p. +239. + +[FN#455] In pause that is at the end of a line, a short vowel +counts either as long or is dropped according to the exigencies +of the metre. In the Hashw the u or i of the pronominal affix for +the third person sing., masc., and the final u of the enlarged +pronominal plural forms, humu and kumu, may be either short or +long, according to the same exigencies. The end-vowel of the +pronoun of the first person aná, I, is generally read short, +although it is written with Alif. + +[FN#456] On p. 236 the word akámú, as read by itself, was +identified with the foot Fa'úlun. Here it must be read together +with the following syllable as "akámulwaj," which is Mafá'ílun. + +[FN#457] Prof. Palmer, p. 328 of his Grammar, identifies this +form of the Wáfir, when every Mufá' alatum of the Hashw has +become Mafá'ílun, with the second form of the Rajaz It should be +Hazaj. Professor Palmer was misled, it seems, by an evident +misprint in one of his authorities, the Muhít al-Dáirah by Dr. +Van Dayk, p. 52. + +[FN#458] Calcutta (1839-42) and Boulac 134b "The Merchant's Wife +and the Parrot." + +[FN#459] This will be found translated in my "Book of the +Thousand Nights and One Night," vol. vii. p. 307, as an Appendix +to the Calcutta (1839-42) and Boulac version of the story, from +which it differs in detail. + +[FN#460] Called "Bekhit" in Calcutta (1839-42) and Boulac +Editions. + +[FN#461] Yehya ben Khalid (Calcutta (1839-42) and Boulac), + +[FN#462] "Shar" (Calcutta (1839-42) and Boulac). + +[FN#463] "Jelyaad" (Calcutta (1839-42) and Boulac.) + +[FN#464] Calcutta (1839-42) and Boulac, No. 63. See my "Book of +the Thousand Nights and One Night," vol. iv., p. 211. + +[FN#465] Calcutta (1839-42) and Boulac, "Jaafar the Barmecide." + +[FN#466] Calcutta (1839-42) and Boulac, "The Thief turned +Merchant and the other Thief," No. 88. + +[FN#467] This story will be found translated in my "Book of the +Thousand Nights and One Night," vol. v., p. 345. + +[FN#468] After this I introduce the Tale of the Husband and the +Parrot. + +[FN#469] The Bulak Edition omits this story altogether. + +[FN#470] After this I introduce How Abu Hasan brake wind. + +[FN#471] Probably Wakksh al-Falák=Feral of the Wild. + +[FN#472] This is the date of the Paris edition. There was an +earlier edition published at La Haye in 1743. + +[FN#473] There are two other Oriental romances by Voltaire; viz., +Babouc, and the Princess of Babylon. + + +End of the Project Gutenberg Etext of The Book of the Thousand Nights +and a Night, Volume 10 by Richard F. Burton |