FOOTNOTES
FOOTNOTES
1 (return)
[ i.e. (1) Zeyn Alasnam, (2)
Codadad. (3) The Sleeper Awakened. (4) Aladdin. (5) Baba Abdallah. (6)
Sidi Nouman. (7) Cogia Hassan Alhabbah (8) Ali Baba. (9) Ali Cogia. (10)
Prince Ahmed and Pari-Banou. (11) The Sisters who envied their younger
Sister.]
2 (return)
[ "M. Galland was aware of
the imperfection of the MS. used by him and (unable to obtain a more
perfect copy) he seems to have endeavoured to supply the place of the
missing portions by incorporating in his translation a number of Persian,
Turkish and Arabic Tales, which had no connection with his original and
for which it is generally supposed that he probably had recourse to
Oriental MSS. (as yet unidentified) contained in the Royal Libraries of
Paris." Vol. IX. p. 263. "Of these the Story of the Sleeper Awakened is
the only one which has been traced to an Arabic original and is found in
the Breslau edition of the complete work, printed by Dr. Habicht from a
MS. of Tunisian origin, apparently of much later date than the other known
copies.....Galland himself cautions us that the Stories of Zeyn Alasnam
and Codadad do not belong to the Thousand and One Nights and were
published (how he does not explain) without his authority." p. 264. "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 origin of the interpolated tales; but,
in view of the strong presumption afforded by internal evidence that they
are of modern composition and form no part of the authentic text, it can
hardly be expected, where the result and the value of that result are
alike so doubtful, that any competent person will be found to undertake so
heavy a task, except as incidental to some more general enquiry. The only
one of the eleven which seems to me to bear any trace of possible
connection with the Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night is Aladdin,
and it may be that an examination of the MS. copies of the original work
within my reach will yet enable me to trace the origin of that favourite
story." pp. 268-9.]
3 (return)
[ Histoire d' 'Ala Al-Din ou
la Lampe Merveilleuse. Texte Arabe, Publie avec une notice de quelques
Manuscrits des Mille et Une Nuits et la traduction de Galland. Par H.
Zotenberg. Paris, Imprimerie Nationale, 1888.]
4 (return)
[ For the sake of uniformity
and convenience of reference, I use, throughout this Introduction,
Galland's spelling of the names which occur in his translation, returning
to my own system of transliteration in my rendering of the stories
themselves.]
5 (return)
[ i.e. God's.]
6 (return)
[ "La suite des Mille et une
Nuits, Contes Arabes trafluits par Dom Chavis et M. Cazotte. Paris 1788."
The Edinburgh Review (July, 1886) gives the date of the first edition as
1785; but this is an error, probably founded upon the antedating of a copy
of the Cabinet des Fees, certain sets of which (though not actually
completed till 1793) are dated, for some publisher's reason, 1785. See
also following note.]
7 (return)
[ These four (supplemental)
vols. of the Cabinet des Fees (printed in 1793, though antedated 1788 and
1789) do not form the first edition of Chavis and Cazotte's so-called
Sequel, which was in 1793 added, by way of supplement, to the Cabinet des
Fees, having been first published in 1788 (two years after the
completion-in thirty-seven volumes-of that great storehouse of
supernatural fiction) under the title of "Les Veillees Persanes" or "Les
Veillees du Sultan Schahriar avec la Sultane Scheherazade, histoires
incroyables, amusantes et morales, traduites par M. Cazotte et D. Chavis,
faisant suite aux Mille et Une Nuits."]
8 (return)
[ I cannot agree with my
friend Sir R. F. Burton in his estimate of these tales, which seem to me,
even in Caussin de Perceval's corrector rendering and in his own brilliant
and masterly version, very inferior, in style, conduct and diction, to
those of "the old Arabian Nights," whilst I think "Chavis and Cazotte's
Continuation" utterly unworthy of republication, whether in part or "in
its entirety." Indeed, I confess the latter version seems to me so
curiously and perversely and unutterably bad that I cannot conceive how
Cazotte can have perpetrated it and can only regard it as a bad joke on
his part. As Caussin de Perceval remarks, it is evident that Shawish
(whether from ignorance or carelessness) must, in many instances, have
utterly misled his French coadjutor (who had no knowledge of Arabic) as to
the meaning of the original, whilst it is much to be regretted that a
writer of exquisite genius and one of the first stylists of the 18th
century, such as the author of the Diable Amoureux, (a masterpiece to be
ranked with Manon Lescaut and Le Neveu de Rameau,) should have stooped to
the commission of the flagrant offences against good taste and artistic
morality which disfigure well nigh every line of the so-called "Sequel to
the 1001 Nights." "Far be it" (as the Arabs say) that we should do so
cruel a wrong to so well and justly beloved a memory as that of Jacques
Cazotte as to attempt to perpetuate the remembrance of a literary crime
which one can hardly believe him to have committed in sober earnest!
Rather let us seek to bury in oblivion this his one offence and suffer
kind Lethe with its beneficent waters to wash this "adulterous blot" from
his else unsullied name.]
9 (return)
[ Lit. "Servants" (ibad) i.e.
of God.]
10 (return)
[ i.e. he who most stands
in need of God's mercy.]
11 (return)
[ Kebikej is the name of
the genie set over the insect kingdom. Scribes occasionally invoke him to
preserve their manuscripts from worms.-Note by M. Zotenberg.]
12 (return)
[ Galland calls him "Hanna,
c'est... dire Jean Baptiste," the Arabic Christian equivalent of which is
Youhenna and the Muslim Yehya, "surnomme Diab." Diary, October 25, 1709.]
13 (return)
[ At this date Galland had
already published the first six (of twelve) volumes of his translation
(1704-5) and as far as I can ascertain, in the absence of a reference copy
(the British Museum possessing no copy of the original edition), the 7th
and 8th volumes were either published or in the press. Vol. viii. was
certainly published before the end of the year 1709, by which time the
whole of vol. ix. was ready for printing.]
14 (return)
[ i.e. Aladdin.]
15 (return)
[ Galland died in 1715,
leaving the last two volumes of his translation (which appear by the Diary
to have been ready for the prep on the 8th June, 1713) to be published in
1717.]
16 (return)
[ Aleppo.]
17 (return)
[ i.e. Yonhenna Diab.]
18 (return)
[ For "Persian." Galland
evidently supposed, in error, that Petis de la Croix's forthcoming work
was a continuation of his "Contes Turcs" published in 1707, a partial
translation (never completed) of the Turkish version of "The Forty
Viziers," otherwise "The Malice of Women," for which see Le Cabinet des
Fees, vol. xvi. where the work is, curiously enough, attributed (by the
Table of Contents) to Galland himself.]
19 (return)
[ See my terminal essay. My
conclusions there stated as to the probable date of the original work have
since been completely confirmed by the fact that experts assign Galland's
original (imperfect) copy of the Arabic text to the latter part of the
fourteenth century, on the evidence of the handwriting, etc.]
20 (return)
[ In M. Zotenberg's notes
to Aladdin.]
21 (return)
[ Night CCCCXCVII.]
22 (return)
[ Khelifeh.]
23 (return)
[ Or "favourites" (auliya),
i.e. holy men, devotees, saints.]
24 (return)
[ i.e. the geomancers. For
a detailed description of this magical process, (which is known as
"sand-tracing," Kharu 'r reml,) see posl, p. 199, note 2.{see FN#548}]
25 (return)
[ i.e. "What it will do in
the course of its life"]
26 (return)
[ Or "ascendants"
(tewali).]
27 (return)
[ i.e. "Adornment of the
Images." This is an evident mistake (due to some ignorant copyist or
reciter of the story) of the same kind as that to be found at the
commencement of the story of Ghanim ben Eyoub, (see my Book of the
Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol I. p. 363 et seq.), where the hero is
absurdly stated to have been surnamed at birth the "Slave of Love," a
sobriquet which could only have attached itself to him in after-life and
as a consequence of his passion for Fitoeh. Sir R. F. Burton suggests,
with great probability, that the name, as it stands in the text, is a
contraction, by a common elliptical process, of the more acceptable, form
Zein-ud-din ul Asnam, i.e. Zein-ud-din (Adornment of the Faith) [he] of
the Images, Zein (adornment) not being a name used by the Arabic-speaking
races, unless with some such addition as ud-Din ("of the Faith"), and the
affix ul Asnam ( "[He] of the Images") being a sobriquet arising from the
circumstances of the hero's after-life, unless its addition, as
recommended by the astrologers, is meant as an indication of the latter's
fore-knowledge of what was to befall him thereafter. This noted, I leave
the name as I find it in the Arabic MS.]
28 (return)
[ Sheji nebih. Burton,
"Valiant and intelligent."]
29 (return)
[ Syn. "his describers"
(wasifihi).]
30 (return)
[ Wa huwa hema caiou fihi
bads wasifihi shiran. Burton (apparently from a different text), "and
presently he became even as the poets sang of one of his fellows in
semblance."]
31 (return)
[ Milah, plural of melih, a
fair one.]
32 (return)
[ Khemseh senin. Burton,
"fifteen."]
33 (return)
[ Shabb, adult, man between
sixteen and thirty.]
34 (return)
[ Femu ghefir min el aalem.
Burton, "All the defenders of the realm."]
35 (return)
[ Night CCCCXCVIII.]
36 (return)
[ Syn. "depose."]
37 (return)
[ Lit. "that which
proceeded from him."]
38 (return)
[ See ante, p. 3, note.{see
FN#23}]
39 (return)
[ Night CCCCXCIX.]
40 (return)
[ i.e. imposed on me the
toil, caused me undertake the weariness, of coming to Cairo for nothing.]
41 (return)
[ Forgetting his mother.]
42 (return)
[ i.e. no mortal.]
43 (return)
[ Keszr abouka 'l fulani
(vulg. for abika'l fulan). Burton, "Such a palace of thy sire."]
44 (return)
[ i.e. it is not like the
journey to Cairo and back.]
45 (return)
[ i.e. in God grant thou
mayst.]
46 (return)
[ Or "jade" (yeshm).]
47 (return)
[ Night D.]
48 (return)
[ "Edh dheheb el atic."
Burton, "antique golden pieces"; but there is nothing to show that the
gold was coined.]
49 (return)
[ The "also" in this clause
seems to refer to the old man of the dream.]
50 (return)
[ Keszr, lit. palace, but
commonly meaning, in modern Arabic, an upper story or detached corps de
logis (pavilion in the French sense, an evident misnomer in the present
case).]
51 (return)
[ Lit. "put the key in the
lock and opened it and behold, the door of a palace (hall) opened."]
52 (return)
[ Takeli, sing. form of
tac, a window. Burton, "recess for lamps."]
53 (return)
[ Lit. "till he join thee
with."]
54 (return)
[ Or "Cairo," the name Misr
being common to the country and its capital.]
55 (return)
[ Badki tecouli[na]. Badki
(lit. after thee) is here used in the modern sense of "still" or "yet."
The interrogative prefix A appears to have dropped out, as is not uncommon
in manuscripts of this kind. Burton, "After thou assuredst me, saying,
&c."]
56 (return)
[ Here she adopts her son's
previous idea that the old man of the dream was the Prophet in person.]
57 (return)
[ Night DI.]
58 (return)
[ Cudoum. The common form
of welcome to a guest.]
59 (return)
[ Or "upper room" (keszr).]
60 (return)
[ Eight; see ante, p. 14.
{see FN#46}]
61 (return)
[ Edh dheheb el kedim.]
62 (return)
[ Edh dhelieb er yemli,
lit. sand. (i.e. alluvial) gold, gold in its native state, needing no
smelting to extract it. This, by the way, is the first mention of the
thrones or pedestals of the images.]
63 (return)
[ Lit. "[With] love and
honour" (hubban wa kerametan). a familar phrase implying complete assent
to any request. It is by some lexicologists supposed to have arisen from
the circumstance of a man answering another, who begged of him a wine-jar
(hubb), with the words, "Ay, I will give thee a jar and a cover (kerameh)
also," and to have thus become a tropical expression of ready compliance
with a petition, as who should say, "I will give thee what thou askest and
more."]
64 (return)
[ The slave's attitude
before his master.]
65 (return)
[ The like.]
66 (return)
[ Night DII.]
67 (return)
[ i.e. invoked blessings
upon him in the manner familiar to readers of the Nights.]
68 (return)
[ Lit. thou [art] indulged
therein (ent musamih fiha).]
69 (return)
[ Mehmy (vulg. for mehma,
whatsoever) telebtaha minni min en miam. Burton, "whatso of importance
thou wouldst have of me."]
70 (return)
[ Lit. "in a seeking
(request) ever or at all" (fi tilbeti abdan). Burton, "in thy requiring
it."]
71 (return)
[ "Tal aleyya" wect, i.e. I
am weary of waiting. Burton, "My tarrying with thee hath been long."]
72 (return)
[ Or "difficult" (aziz);
Burton, "singular-fare."]
73 (return)
[ Lit. "If the achievement
thereof (or attainment thereunto) will be possible unto thee [by or by
dint of] fortitude,"]
74 (return)
[ Lit. "Wealth [is] in (or
by) blood."]
75 (return)
[ El berr el atfer. Burton
translates, "the wildest of wolds," apparently supposing atfer to be a
mistranscription for aefer, which is very possible.]
76 (return)
[ Kewaribji, a word formed
by adding the Turkish affix ji to the Arabic kewarib, plural of carib, a
small boat. The common form of the word is caribji. Burton reads it,
"Kewariji, one who uses the paddle."]
77 (return)
[ Lit "inverted"
(mecloubeh). Burton, "the reverse of man's."]
78 (return)
[ Night DIII.]
79 (return)
[ Wehsh. Burton, "a lion."]
80 (return)
[ Lit. "then they passed on
till" (thumma fatou ila [an]).]
81 (return)
[ Sic (ashjar anber);
though what the Arabic author meant by "trees of ambergris" is more than I
can say. The word anber (pro. pounced amber) signifies also "saffron"; but
the obbligato juxtaposition of aloes and sandal-wood tends to show that
what is meant is the well-known product of the sperm-whale. It is possible
that the mention of this latter may be an interpolation by some ignorant
copyist, who, seeing two only of the three favourite Oriental scents
named, took upon himself to complete the odoriferous trinity, so dear to
Arab writers, by the addition of ambergris.]
82 (return)
[ Yas, Persian form of
yasm, yasmin or yasimin. Sir R. F. Burton reads yamin and supposes it to
be a copyist's error for yasmin, but this is a mistake; the word in the
text is clearly yas, though the final s, being somewhat carelessly written
in the Arabic MS, might easily be mistaken for mn with an undotted noun.]
83 (return)
[ Lit. "perfect or complete
(kamil) of fruits and flowers."]
84 (return)
[ Lit. "many armies"
(asakir, pl. of asker, an army), but asker is constantly used in
post-classical Arabic (and notably in the Nights) for "a single soldier,"
and still more generally the plural (asakir), as here, for "soldiers."]
85 (return)
[ Syn. "the gleaming of a
brasier" (berc kanoun). Kanoun is the Syrian name of two winter months,
December (Kanoun el awwal or first) and January (Kanoun eth thani or
second).]
86 (return)
[ So as to form a magic
barrier against the Jinn, after the fashion of the mystical circles used
by European necromancers.]
87 (return)
[ Night DIV.]
88 (return)
[ Fe-halan tuata, the
time-honoured "Ask and it shall be given unto thee."]
89 (return)
[ Sic (berec ed dunya); but
dunya (the world) is perhaps meant to be taken here by synecdoche m the
sense of "sky."]
90 (return)
[ Syn. "darkness was let
down like a curtain."]
91 (return)
[ Lit. "like an earthquake
like the earthquakes"; but the second "like" (mithl) is certainly a
mistranscription for "of" (min).]
92 (return)
[ Night DV.]
93 (return)
[ Night DVI.]
94 (return)
[ Here we have the word
mithl (as or like) which I supplied upon conjecture in the former
description of the genie; see ante, p. 24, note.]
95 (return)
[ Medinetu 'l meda'n wa
ujoubetu 'l aalem. It is well known (see the Nights passim) that the
Egyptians considered Cairo the city of cities and the wonder of the
world.]
96 (return)
[ Lit. "How [is] the
contrivance and the way the which we shall attain by (or with) it to...."]
97 (return)
[ I.a tehtenim; but the
text may also be read la tehettem and this latter reading is adopted by
Burton, who translates, "Be not beaten and broken down."]
98 (return)
[ Or "in brief"
(bi-tejewwuz). Burton translates, "who maketh marriages," apparently
reading bi-tejewwuz as a mistranscription for tetejewwez, a vulgar Syrian
corruption of tetezewwej.]
99 (return)
[ Said in a
quasi-complimentary sense, as we say, "Confound him, what a clever rascal
he is!" See the Nights passim for numerous instances of this.]
100 (return)
[ Quoth Shehrzad to
Shehriyar.]
101 (return)
[ Syn. "to work upon her
traces or course" (tesaa ala menakibiha).]
102 (return)
[ Night DVII.]
103 (return)
[ Lit. "the thirsty one
(es szadi) and the goer-forth by day or in the morning" (el ghadi); but
this is most probably a mistranscription for the common phrase es sari
(the goer by night) wa 'l ghadi, often used in the sense of "comers and
goers" simply. This would be quite in character with the style of our
present manuscript, which constantly substitutes sz (sad) for s (sin),
e.g. szerai for serai (palace), szufreh, for sufreh (meal-tray), for
hheresza for hheresa(he guarded), etc., etc., whilst no one acquainted
with the Arabic written character need be reminded how easy it is to
mistake a carelessly written-r (ra) for d (dal) or vice-versa]
104 (return)
[ The mosque being the
caravanserai of the penniless stranger.]
105 (return)
[ The person specially
appointed to lead the prayers of the congregation and paid out of the
endowed revenues of the mosque to which he is attached.]
106 (return)
[ Night DVIII.]
107 (return)
[ Burton translates,
"these accurseds," reading melaa'n (pl. of melaoun, accursed); but the
word in the text is plainly mulaa'bein (objective dual of mulaa'b, a
trickster, malicious joker, hence, by analogy, sharper).]
108 (return)
[ Eth thiyab el
heririyeh. Burton "silver-wrought."]
109 (return)
[ Netser ila necshetihim
(lit. their image, cf. Scriptural "image and presentment") wa szufretihim,
i.e. he satisfied himself by the impress and the colour that they were
diners, i.e. gold.]
110 (return)
[ Lit. I am now become in
confusion of or at him (lianneni alan szirtu fi khejaleh (properly
khejleh) minhu). Burton, "for that I have been ashamed of waiting upon
him."]
111 (return)
[ Lit. "That which was
incumbent on me to him."]
112 (return)
[ Lit. "go to (or for)
his service," or, as we should say, "attend him."]
113 (return)
[ Burton, "one of the
envious;" but the verb is in the plural.]
114 (return)
[ Night DIX.]
115 (return)
[ Et tsenn er redi.
Burton, "the evil."]
116 (return)
[ So that they might hang
down and hide his feet and hands, it being a point of Arab etiquette for
an inferior scrupulously to avoid showing either of these members in
presenting himself (especially for the first time) before his superior.]
117 (return)
[ Lit., "religiousness or
devoutness (diyaneh) was by nature in him," i.e. he was naturally inclined
to respect religion and honour its professors. Burton, "He was by nature
conscientious," which does not quite express the meaning of the text;
conscientiousness being hardly an Oriental virtue.]
118 (return)
[ Lit, "I may (or shall)
ransom him with m' life till I (or so that I may) unite him therewith."]
119 (return)
[ Iftekeret fi rejul.]
120 (return)
[ Terbiyeh. This word is
not sufficiently rendered by "education," which modern use has practically
restricted to scholastic teaching, though the good old English phrase "to
bring up" is of course a literal translation of the Latin educare.]
121 (return)
[ i.e. "I shall owe it to
thee."]
122 (return)
[ Lit. "It is certain to
me," Constat mihi, fe-meikeni (vulg. for fe-yekin) indi.]
123 (return)
[ Night DX.]
124 (return)
[ Or perhaps "Would I
might."]
125 (return)
[ i.e. the contract of
marriage.]
126 (return)
[ See my "Book of the
Thousand Nights and One Night" passim, especially Vol. I pp. 190 et seq.]
127 (return)
[ Miheffeh, a kind of
howdah with a flat roof or top.]
128 (return)
[ Tekht-rewan, a sort of
palanquin drawn or carried by mules or camels wherein she could recline at
length. Burton renders Miheffeh bi-tekhtrewan "a covered litter to be
carried by camels."]
129 (return)
[ Burton adds here, "Thou
wouldst feel ruth for me."]
130 (return)
[ Lit. profit, gain
(meksib), i.e. the ninth image, which he was to receive as a reward for
the faithful execution of his commission.]
131 (return)
[ Night DXI.]
132 (return)
[ [A] nehnu bedna baud an
hukm. The word hukm, which commonly signifies the exercise of government
or judicial power, is here used metonymically in the sense of the place of
dominion, the seat of government. Burton, "Have we fared this far distance
by commandment of my bridegroom?"]
133 (return)
[ Or "God forbid!"
(Hhasha), a common interjection, implying unconditional denial.]
134 (return)
[ Lit. "The writing of
(or he wrote) his writ upon thee" (ketb kitabiki aleiki).]
135 (return)
[ i.e.. at the Last Day,
when men will be questioned of their actions.]
136 (return)
[ Night DXII.]
137 (return)
[ Sic (tentsur), but this
is probably a copyist's error for "we may see" (nentsur), the difference
being only a question of one or two diacritical points over the initial
letter.]
138 (return)
[ Here Burton adds,
"Indeed I had well nigh determined to forfeit all my profit of the Ninth
Statue and to bear thee away to Bassorah as my own bride, when my comrade
and councillor dissuaded me from so doing, lest I should bring about my
death."]
139 (return)
[ Night DXIII.]
140 (return)
[ Or (vulg.) "I thank
him, etc." (istekthertu aleihi elladhi hefitsaha wa sanaha wa hejeba
rouhaku anha). Burton, "Albeit I repeatedly enjoined him to defend and
protect her until he concealed from her his face."]
141 (return)
[ Or we may read "went
out, glad and rejoicing, with (bi) the young lady;" but the reading in the
test is more consonant with the general style of the Nights.]
142 (return)
[ Azaa, strictly the
formal sitting in state to receive visits of condolence for the death of a
relation, but in modern parlance commonly applied, by extension, to the
funeral ceremonies themselves.]
143 (return)
[ El kendil el meshhour.
The lamp is however more than once mentioned in the course of the tale by
the name of "wonderful" (ajib, see post, p. 88, note 4) so familiar to the
readers of the old version.]
144 (return)
[ Night DXIV.]
145 (return)
[ Khilafahu, lit. "the
contrary thereof;" but the expression is constantly used (instead of the
more correct gheirahu) in the sense of "other than it," "the take," etc.]
146 (return)
[ Or "street-boys"
(auladu 'l hhareh).]
147 (return)
[ Zeboun.]
148 (return)
[ Burton adds here,
"Counsel and castigation were of no avail."]
149 (return)
[ Lit. "had been
recalled" (tuwouffia), i.e. by God to Himself.]
150 (return)
[ This old English and
Shakspearean expression is the exact equivalent of the Arabic phrase
Khelesza min sherr walidihi. Burton, "freed from [bearing] the severities
of his sire."]
151 (return)
[ Kanet wayyishuhu.
Burton, "lived only by."]
152 (return)
[ Night DXV.]
153 (return)
[ I prefer this old
English form of the Arabic word Meghrebiy (a native of El Meghreb or
North-Western Africa) to "Moor," as the latter conveys a false impression
to the modern reader, who would naturally suppose him to be a native of
Morocco, whereas the enchanter came, as will presently appear, from biladu
'l gherbi 'l jewwaniy, otherwise Ifrikiyeh, i.e. "the land of the Inner
West" or Africa proper, comprising Tunis, Tripoli and part of A]geria.]
154 (return)
[ Min biladi 'l gherbi 'l
jewwaniy. The Muslim provinces of North-Western Africa, extending from the
north-western boundary of Egypt to Cape Nun on the Mogador Coast, were
known under the general name of El Meghreb (modern Barbary) and were
divided into three parts, to wit (1) El Meghreb el Jewwaniy, Inner, i.e.
Hither or Nearer (to Egypt) Barbary or Ifrikiyeh, comprising Tripoli,
Tunis and Constantine (part of Algeria), (2) El Meghreb el Aouset, Central
Barbary. comprising the rest of Algeria, and (3) El Meghreb el Acszaa,
Farther or Outer Barbary, comprising the modern empire of Morocco.]
155 (return)
[ El hieh. Burton
translates, "astrology," and astrology (or astronomy); is the classical
meaning of the word; but the common meaning in modern Arabic is "the
science of physiognomy," cf. the Nights passim. See especially ante, p.
42.]
156 (return)
[ Bi-szaut hezin meksour.
Burton, "in a soft voice saddened by emotion."]
157 (return)
[ Burton,
"brother-german."]
158 (return)
[ Or "comfort myself in
him" (ateazza bihi). Burton "condole with him [over the past]."]
159 (return)
[ Lit. "hid not unto me
that" (ma ekhfa aleyya an).]
160 (return)
[ Night DXVI.]
161 (return)
[ Teaziyeti. Burton, "I
have now railed in the mourning ceremonies."]
162 (return)
[ El bein ked efjaani
fihi, i e. "I have been stricken with separation from him." Burton, "Far
distance wrought me this trouble."]
163 (return)
[ Lit. "the being (el
ka'n, i.e. that which is, the accomplished fact) there is not from it a
refuge or place of fleeing" (mehreb). Burton, "nor hath the creature aught
of asylum from the Creator."]
164 (return)
[ Or "consolation"
(azaa).]
165 (return)
[ Burton, "I have none to
condole with now save thyself"]
166 (return)
[ Night DXVII.]
167 (return)
[ Burton, "finding out."]
168 (return)
[ Lit. "He had no longer
a heart to part with him," i.e.. he could not bear him out of his sight,
Alaeddin being necessary for the achievement of the adventure of the lamp.
See post.]
169 (return)
[ El asha. Burton, "the
meat."]
170 (return)
[ Lit. "vein" (irc).]
171 (return)
[ Night DXVIII.]
172 (return)
[ Ujoubetu 'l aalem. See
ante, p. 32, note. {see FN#95}]
173 (return)
[ Ila biladi 'l gherbi 'l
jewwaniy.]
174 (return)
[ Burton, "to the regions
of the Setting Sun and abode for a space of thirty years in the Moroccan
interior." See ante, p. 57, notes. {see FN#154}]
175 (return)
[ Burton adds, "Alone at
home."]
176 (return)
[ i.e. birthplace, a
child being bow head-foremost.]
177 (return)
[ Burton, "wander like a
wild Arab."]
178 (return)
[ Lit. "and "; but this
is the error of some copyist, who, by leaving out an initial l, has turned
lau (if) into wa (and).]
179 (return)
[ The first chapter of
the Koran; a common usage in anticipation of travel or indeed before
commencing any enterprise of moment.]
180 (return)
[ Istehhweda (vulg. for
istehhwedha) aleyya. Burton, "of the pains which prevailed upon me."]
181 (return)
[ Or "succeedeth"
(yekklufu). Burton, "the legacy bequeathed to us by."]
182 (return)
[ Khellefa.]
183 (return)
[ Night DXIX.]
184 (return)
[ Lit. "abide in the
subsistence of the like of this one" (acoumu fi ma"sh mithl hadha).
Burton, "go about for a maintenance after this fashion."]
185 (return)
[ Uhheszszilu ana ma"ski
ana buddi men yuayyishani. Burton, "I am compelled to provide him with
daily bread when I require to be provided."]
186 (return)
[ Ibn nas generally
signifies "a man of good family" (Fr. fils de famille), but here the sense
seems to be as in the text.]
187 (return)
[ Or "constrain not
thyself for me," in do not be ashamed to say what thou wishes", lit. "let
it not be hard or grievous upon thee from or on account of me" (la yesubu
aleika minni). Burton, "Let not my words seem hard and harsh to thee."]
188 (return)
[ Fe-in kana keman (vulg.
for kema anna). Burton, "if despite all I say."]
189 (return)
[ Fi, lit. "in," but here
used, as is common in Syria, instead of bi "with."]
190 (return)
[ Burton, "Shalt become
famous among the folk."]
191 (return)
[ Khwaja (Persian).]
192 (return)
[ Tajir (Arabic
equivalent of khwaja).]
193 (return)
[ Burton, "that such folk
dress handsomely and fare delicately."]
194 (return)
[ Night DXX.]
195 (return)
[ Lit. "was past" (fata).
Burton, "the dark hours were passing by and the wine was drunken."]
196 (return)
[ Sherab. Burton,
"sherbets."]
197 (return)
[ Night DXXI.]
198 (return)
[ Or "places" (amakin).]
199 (return)
[ Or "streets"
(mehellat). Burton, "apartments."]
200 (return)
[ i.e. "It is no merit in
me that I do what I have done."]
201 (return)
[ Bi-jahi 'l awwelin.
Burton, "by the honour of the Hallows."]
202 (return)
[ i.e.. "a protection."]
203 (return)
[ Lit. "that thine eye
will be cooled with (or by) him."]
204 (return)
[ Likai yetearrefa fihim
wa yetearrefou fihi. This passage confirms my reading of a former one; see
ante, p. 68, note 3. {see FN#189}]
205 (return)
[ Nighs DXXII.]
206 (return)
[ Lit. "believed not what
time (ayyumetn) the day broke;" but ayyumeta (of which ayyumeta is a
vulgar corruption) supposes the future and should be used with the aorist.
The phrase, as I have translated common in the Nights.]
207 (return)
[ Or, "laughing at"
(yudsahiku).. Burton, "he began to make the lad laugh."]
208 (return)
[ Szeraya (for seraya).]
209 (return)
[ Keszr.]
210 (return)
[ Newafir, an evident
mistranscription, probably for some such word as fewawir, irregular form
of fewwarat, pl. of fewwareh, a spring or jet of water.]
211 (return)
[ Burton adds, "and reach
the end of our walk."]
212 (return)
[ Jebel aali. Burton,
"the base of a high and naked hill."]
213 (return)
[ Lit. "before or in
front of a mountain." Burton, "we have reached the barren hill-country."]
214 (return)
[ Ra'hhin, a vulgarism of
frequent occurrence in this story.]
215 (return)
[ Shudd heilek.]
216 (return)
[ Lit. the land of the
West (biladu 'l gherb); see ante, p. 57, notes. {see FN#153}]
217 (return)
[ Night DXXIII.]
218 (return)
[ Lit. "without aught"
(bilash), i e. without [visible] cause or reason. Burton, "beyond the
range of matter."]
219 (return)
[ Nuhhas szebb (for
szebeb min er) reml, lit. "brass poured [forth from] sand," i.e. cast in a
mould of sand. Cf. 1 Kings, vii 16, "two chapiters of molten brass."]
220 (return)
[ Dir balek, lit. "turn
thy thought (i.e. be attentive) [Footnote to that which I shall say to
thee]."]
221 (return)
[ Night DXXIV.]
222 (return)
[ Lit. "pass not by" (la
tuferwwit). Burton, "nor gainsay."]
223 (return)
[ Yani li-min (vulg. for
tani li-men), i.e. on whose behalf do I undertake all these my toils?]
224 (return)
[ Lit. "leave"; but the
verb khella (II. of khela is constantly used in the present text in the
sense of "he made."]
225 (return)
[ There is some mistake
here in the text. The word which I translate "great" is akabir (pl. of
akber, most great), apparently inserted by mistake for kebir, great. But
that akabir is followed by jiddan (exceedingly), I should be inclined to
read the phrase [kebiru 'l] akabir, greatest of the great.]
226 (return)
[ Wehdi, lit. "my lone,"
a Scotch expression, which might be usefully acclimatized in English prose
and verse.]
227 (return)
[ Night DXXV.]
228 (return)
[ Or "pay attention," dir
(vulg. for adir) balek. See ante, p. 78, note. {see FN#220}]
229 (return)
[ Lit. "a place divided
into four places" I take the variant aweds, chambers. from Chavis's copy
of the MS., as quoted by M. Zotenberg.]
230 (return)
[ Liwan, i.e. an estrade
or recessed room, raised above the level of the ground and open in front.]
231 (return)
[ Lit. "in it" (fihi);
but the meaning is as in the text, i.e. connected with it or leading
thereto. This reading is confirmed by the terms in which the stair is
afterwards mentioned, q.v. post, p. 83, and note. {see FN#235}]
232 (return)
[ Night DXXVI.]
233 (return)
[ Ubb. Burton,
"breast-pocket," the usual word for which is jeib. Ubb is occasionally
used in this sense; but it is evident from what follows (see post, p. 85.
{see FN#243} "Alaeddin proceeded to pluck and put in his pockets (ajyab,
pl. of jeib), and his sleeves" (ibab), and note) that ubb is here used in
the common sense of "sleeve."]
234 (return)
[ i.e. "that which is in
the lamp."]
235 (return)
[ Burton transposes,
"where he entered the saloon and mounted the ladder;" but the context
shows that the stair was a flight of steps leading up to the dais and not
a ladder in it. The word fihi in the magician's instructions might indeed
be taken in this latter sense, but may just as well be read "thereto" or
"pertaining thereto" as "therein." See also below, where Alaeddin is made
to descend from the dais into the garden.]
236 (return)
[ Lit. voices (aswat).
Burton, "fond voices"]
237 (return)
[ Burton, "Furthermore
the size of each stone so far surpassed description that no king of the
kings of the world owned a single gem of the larger sort."]
238 (return)
[ Night DXXVII.]
239 (return)
[ Toubasi. I insert this
from the Chavis MS. Burton adds, "spinels and balasses."]
240 (return)
[ Ibab.]
241 (return)
[ Ubb.]
242 (return)
[ Ajyab, pl. of jeib, the
bosom of a shirt, hence a breast or other pocket.]
243 (return)
[ Ibab. Burton, "pokes
and breast-pockets."]
244 (return)
[ The possession of the
lamp rendering him superior to the spells by which they were enchanted.]
245 (return)
[ Burton says here, "The
text creates some confusion by applying sullem to staircase and ladder;
hence probably the latter is not mentioned by Galland and Co., who speak
only of an 'escalier de cinquante marches.'" As far as I can see, Galland
was quite right, a staircase (and not a ladder) being, in my judgment,
meant in each case, and Sir Richard Burton's translation of sullem min
thelathin derejeh as "a ladder of thirty rungs" (see ante p. 82, note {see
FN#231}) seems to me founded on a misconception, he being misled by the
word "fihi" (see my note ante, p. 83 {see FN#235}). He adds, "sullem in
modern Egyptian is used for a flight of steps;" but it signifies both
"ladder" and "flight of steps" in the classic tongue; see Lane, p. 1416,
colt 2, "sullem, a ladder or a series of stairs or steps, either of wood
or clay, etc." His remark would apply better to derej (class. "a way," but
in modern parlance "a ladder" or "staircase" which the story-teller uses
interchangeably with sullem, in speaking of the stair leading down into
the underground, thus showing that he considered the two words
synonymous.]
246 (return)
[ Akyas. This is the
first mention of purses.]
247 (return)
[ Lit. "without"
(kharijan).]
248 (return)
[ Burton, "Forasmuch as
he had placed it at the bottom of his breast-pocket and his other pockets
being full of gems bulged outwards."]
249 (return)
[ Night DXXVIII.]
250 (return)
[ Lit. "was locked,"
inkefelet, but I take this to be a mistranscription of inkelebet, "was
turned over."]
251 (return)
[ Lit. "was covered over,
shut like a lid" (intebeket).]
252 (return)
[ Tebbeca, i.e. caused
(by his enchantments) to become covered or closed up like a lid.]
253 (return)
[ Ifrikiyeh, see ante, p.
57, note 1. {see FN#153} Here the story-teller takes the province for a
city.]
254 (return)
[ Burton adds, "by
devilish inspiration."]
255 (return)
[ Wa [kan] el aghreb an
fi hadha 'l kenz [kana]. Burton "the most marvellous article in this
treasure was, etc."]
256 (return)
[ Kendil ajib.]
257 (return)
[ Night DXXIX.]
258 (return)
[ A proverbial
expression, meaning that, as he did not absolutely kill Alaeddin, though
doing what was (barring a miracle) certain to cause his death, he could
not be said to be his slayer; a piece of casuistry not peculiar to the
East, cf. the hypocritical show of tenderness with which the Spanish
Inquisition was wont, when handing over a victim to the secular power for
execution by burning alive, to recommend that there should be "no effusion
of blood." It is possible, however, that the proverb is to be read in the
sense of "He who is destined to live cannot be slain."]
259 (return)
[ i.e. with the contents
of the chambers and the garden.]
260 (return)
[ Night DXXX.]
261 (return)
[ Lit. rubbing in or
upon.]
262 (return)
[ Lit. "The Quickener,
the Deadener" (el muhheyyi, el mumit), two of the ninety-nine names of
God.]
263 (return)
[ Or "Judge" (cadsi).]
264 (return)
[ Farijuha. Burton,
"Bringer of joy not of annoy."]
265 (return)
[ i.e. Mohammed's.]
266 (return)
[ Lit. a servant or
slave, i.e. that of the ring. Burton, "its Familiar."]
267 (return)
[ i.e. Solomon.]
268 (return)
[ See my Book of the
Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol. 1. p 33, note. {see Payne's Book of
the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol. 1 FN#16}]
269 (return)
[ Night DXXXI.]
270 (return)
[ Night DXXXII.]
271 (return)
[ i.e.. in all the
registers of men's actions fabled to be kept in heaven.]
272 (return)
[ Lit. "see the accursed
his duplicity and his promises that he promised me withal in that he would
do all good with me." Burton, "see how the dammed villain broke every
promise he made, certifying that he would soon work all good with me."]
273 (return)
[ Lit. "on account of my
pain therefrom when I was absent from the world."]
274 (return)
[ Hatha 'l metleb li,
lit. "this quest (or object of quest) [was] mine (or for me)." Metleb is
often used in the special technical sense of "buried treasure."]
275 (return)
[ Night DXXXIII.]
276 (return)
[ Bustan.]
277 (return)
[ Bilaur.]
278 (return)
[ Keszr, instead of liwan
(dais), as in previous description.]
279 (return)
[ Keisan. Burton,
"bag-pockets."]
280 (return)
[ Lit. "without"
(kharij).]
281 (return)
[ Aadim, present
participle of adima, he lacked.]
282 (return)
[ Night DXXXIV.]
283 (return)
[ Lit. the pre-eminence
(el fedsl).]
284 (return)
[ Thani youm, Burton,
"the second day," which, though literal, conveys a false impression.]
285 (return)
[ Night DXXXV.]
286 (return)
[ Or "beyond desire"
(fauca 'l khatir), i.e. inconceivably good. Burton, "beyond our means."]
287 (return)
[ It is a favourite
device with Oriental cooks to colour dishes (especially those which
contain rice) in various ways, so as to please the eye as well as the
palate.]
288 (return)
[ Lit. "black bottles"
(museunvedetein). Burton, "black jacks."]
289 (return)
[ Zekiyyeh (pure) for
dhekiyyeh (strong, sharp, pungent), a common vulgar corruption.]
290 (return)
[ Burton, "wherewith
Allah Almighty hath eased our poverty."]
291 (return)
[ Elladhi iftekeda juana.
Burton, "who hath abated our hunger pains."]
292 (return)
[ Lit. "we are under his
benefit."]
293 (return)
[ Hhizana for hhezzaza?]
294 (return)
[ Lit. "whet proceeded
from."]
295 (return)
[ Lit. "but" (lakin for
Iekan, "then").]
296 (return)
[ Keif dhalik. Lit. "How
this?" Burton, "Who may this be?"]
297 (return)
[ Night DXXXVI.]
298 (return)
[ i.e. the Jinn of the
lamp and the ring.]
299 (return)
[ Apparently referring to
chap. xxiii, verses 99, l00, of the Koran, "Say, 'Lord, I take refuge in
Thee from the suggestions of the devils, and I take refuge in thee, Lord,
that (i.e. Iest) they appear!'" Mohammed is fabled by Muslim theologians
to have made a compact with the Jinn that they should not enter the houses
of the faithful unless expressly summoned..]
300 (return)
[ i.e. "I am, in general,
ready to obey all thy commandments"]
301 (return)
[ i.e. the lamp.]
302 (return)
[ Lit. "uses,"
"advantages" (menafi).]
303 (return)
[ Referring, of course,
to the slave of the lamp.]
304 (return)
[ Night DXXXVII.]
305 (return)
[ Lit. "saw."]
306 (return)
[ Afterwards "silver";
see pp. 108 and l10.]
307 (return)
[ A carat is generally a
twenty-fourth part of a diner, i.e. about 5d.; but here it appears to be a
sixtieth part or about 2d. Burton, "A copper carat, a bright polished
groat."]
308 (return)
[ Lit. "to the contrary
of him" (ila khilafihi). See ante, p. 55, note 4. {see FN#145}]
309 (return)
[ Night DXXXVIII.]
310 (return)
[ Kenani, pl. of
kinnineh, a bottle or phial.]
311 (return)
[ i.e. the genie.]
312 (return)
[ Night DXXXIX.]
313 (return)
[ Ala kedhum. Burton,
"after their olden fashion."]
314 (return)
[ Lit. "[in] middling
case" (halet[an] mustewessitet[an]). Burton translates, "as middle-class
folk," adding in a note, "a phrase that has a European touch."]
315 (return)
[ Burton adds, "on
diet."]
316 (return)
[ "Er rijal el kamiloun,"
lit. "complete men." Burton, "good men and true."]
317 (return)
[ Bedsa'a. Burton,
"investments,"]
318 (return)
[ Keisein. Burton, "his
pockets."]
319 (return)
[ Lit. "neck." The
Muslims fable that all will appear at the Day of Resurrection with their
good and evil actions in visible form fastened about their necks. "And
each man, we constrain him to carry his actions (ta'r, lit. bird, i.e.
fortune as told by augury from the flight of birds, according to the
method so much in favour with the ancients, but interpreted by the
scholiasts as 'actions,' each man's actions being, according to them, the
cause of his good and evil fortune, happiness or misery), on (or
about,.fi) his neck."—Koran, xvii, 14.]
320 (return)
[ Night DXL]
321 (return)
[ An idiomatic
expression, equivalent to our vulgar English phrase, "He was struck all of
a heap."]
322 (return)
[ Beszireh, mental (as
opposed to bodily) vision.]
323 (return)
[ Night DXLI.]
324 (return)
[ Gheramuha.]
325 (return)
[ Lit. "be rightly
guided," "return to the right way."]
326 (return)
[ Heds, Syrian for
hheds.]
327 (return)
[ i.e.. if thou be in
earnest.]
328 (return)
[ Aamin. Burton, "fonder
and more faithful."]
329 (return)
[ Night DXLII.]
330 (return)
[ Lit. "blood of my
liver."]
331 (return)
[ i.e. the bride's
parents.]
332 (return)
[ Burton, "Also who shall
ask her to wife for the son of a snip?"]
333 (return)
[ Night DXLIII.]
334 (return)
[ Lit. "near and far,"
the great being near to the king's dignity, and the small far from it.]
335 (return)
[ Lit. "before"
(cuddam).]
336 (return)
[ Lit. "thou art not of
its measure or proportion" (kedd).]
337 (return)
[ Ijreker ti bi 'l hhecc.
Burton. "thou hast reminded me aright."]
338 (return)
[ Night DXLIV.]
339 (return)
[ Kiyas, a mistake for
akyas, pl. of keis, a purse.]
340 (return)
[ Lit. "So, an thou wilt,
burden thy mind (i.e. give thyself the trouble, kellifi khatiraki,) and
with us [is] a China dish; rise and come to me with it." Kellifi (fem.)
khatiraki is an idiomatic expression equivalent to the French,
"donnez-vous (or prenez) la peine" and must be taken in connection with
what follows, i.e. give yourself the trouble to rise and bring me, etc.
(prenez la peine de vous lever et de m'apporter, etc.). Burton,
"Whereupon, an-thou please, compose thy mind. We have in our house a bowl
of china porcelain: so arise thou and fetch it."]
341 (return)
[ Lit. "were not equal to
one quarter of a carat," i.e. a ninety-sixth part, "carat" being here used
in its technical sense of a twenty-fourth part of anything.]
342 (return)
[ Kellifi khatiraki
(prenez la peine) as before. Burton, "Compose thy thoughts."]
343 (return)
[ Night DXLV.]
344 (return)
[ Elladhi hu alan ca'm bi
maashina. Burton, "Ere this thou hast learned, O mother mine, that the
Lamp which we possess hath become to us a stable income."]
345 (return)
[ Or "pay attention"
(diri balek); see ante, pp. 78 and 81. {see FN#220 and FN#228}]
346 (return)
[ Minhu. Burton
translates, "for that 'tis of him," and says, in a note, "Here the MS.
text is defective, the allusion is, I suppose, to the Slave of the Lamp."
I confess I do not see the defect of which he speaks. Alaeddin of course
refers to the lamp and reminds his mother that the prosperity they enjoy
"is (i.e. arises) from it."]
347 (return)
[ Lit. "completed,"
"fully constituted."]
348 (return)
[ The attitude implied in
the word mutekettif and obligatory in presence of a superior, i.e. that of
a schoolboy in class.]
349 (return)
[ Or "complainants,"
"claimants."]
350 (return)
[ Fi teriketihi,
apparently meaning "in its turn." Burton, "Who (i.e. the Sultan) delivered
sentence after his wonted way."]
351 (return)
[ Night DXLVI.]
352 (return)
[ Illezemet. Burton, "she
determined."]
353 (return)
[ Lit. "the Divan;" but
the door of the presence-chamber is meant, as appears by the sequel.]
354 (return)
[ Burton, "and when it
was shut, she would go to make sure thereof."]
355 (return)
[ Muddeh jumah. Burton,
"the whole month."]
356 (return)
[ Burton, "come
forward."]
357 (return)
[ Burton, "levee days"]
358 (return)
[ Izar. Burton,
"mantilla."]
359 (return)
[ Here the copyist, by
the mistaken addition of fe (so), transfers the "forthright" to the
Vizier's action of submission to the Sultan's order.]
360 (return)
[ Night DXLVII.]
361 (return)
[ I have arranged this
passage a little, to make it read intelligibly. In the original it runs
thus, "Alaeddin's mother, whenas she took a wont and became every
Divan-day going and standing in the Divan before the Sultan, withal that
she was dejected, wearying exceedingly, but for Alaeddin's sake, her son,
she used to make light of all weariness."]
362 (return)
[ Aman in secondary sense
of "protection" or "safeguard."]
363 (return)
[ i.e. I pardon thee,
under God, ("then I" being understood). The right of pardon residing with
God, the pious Muslim can only say, "God pardon thee first and then I
pardon thee."]
364 (return)
[ Burton, "shun the
streets."]
365 (return)
[ Arad. Burton, "felt an
uncontrollable longing."]
366 (return)
[ Or "food (aish, bread)
hath not been pleasant (or had any savour) for him."]
367 (return)
[ Seadetuk, lit. "thy
felicity;" this and jenabuk (lit. "thy side"), "thine excellence" or "thy
highness," and hhedsretuk "thy highness," (lit. "thy presence") are the
titles commonly given to kings in Arabic-speaking countries, although
hhedsretuk is strictly applicable only to the Prophet and other high
spiritual dignitaries. They are often, but erroneously, rendered "thy
majesty"; a title which does not exist in the East and which is, as is
well known to students of history, of comparatively recent use in Europe.]
368 (return)
[ Lit, "having regard to
his clemency, he took to laughing and asked her." Burton, "He regarded her
with kindness, and laughing cloud, asked her."]
369 (return)
[ Surreh, lit. purse and
by extension, as here, anything tied up in bag-shape.]
370 (return)
[ Night DXLVIII.]
371 (return)
[ Lit. "Be clement unto
me, Thy Grace promised me."]
372 (return)
[ Lit. "Forbearance
(hhilm, clemency, longanimity, delay in requiting an evil-doer) is
incumbent from thine exalted highness unto (ila) three months."]
373 (return)
[ Aatsem melik, an
ungrammatical construction of common occurrence in the present MS.,
properly aatsemu 'l mulouk.]
374 (return)
[ Syn. "his clemency
required."]
375 (return)
[ i.e. shall be reserved
for him alone.]
376 (return)
[ i.e. the marriage
trousseau.]
377 (return)
[ Lit. "Except that, O my
son, the Vizier bespoke him a privy word (kelam sirriyy) ere he promised
me; then, after the Vizier bespoke him a word privily (sirran), he
promised me to (ila) three months."]
378 (return)
[ Lit. an ill presence
(mehhdser sau). This expression has occurred before in the Nights, where I
have, in deference to the authority of the late M. Dozy (the greatest
Arabic scholar since Silvestre de Sacy) translated it "a compend of ill,"
reading the second word as pointed with dsemmeh (i.e. sou, evil, sub.)
instead of with fetheh (i.e. sau, evil, adj.), although in such a case the
strict rules of Arabic grammar require sou to be preceded by the definite
article (i.e. mehhdseru's sou). However, the context and the construction
of the phrase, in which the present example of the expression occurs, seem
to show that it is not here used in this sense.]
379 (return)
[ Night DXLIX.]
380 (return)
[ Lit. (as before)
"promised her to" (ila).]
381 (return)
[ Lit. "to" (ila), as
before.]
382 (return)
[ i.e. the delay.]
383 (return)
[ Lit. "he thanked his
mother and thought (or made) much of her goodness (istekthera bi-kheiriha,
a common modern expression, signifying simply 'he thanked her') for her
toil." Burton, "Then he thanked his parent, showing her how her good work
had exceeded her toil and travail "]
384 (return)
[ Lit. "Wonder took her
at this wonder and the decoration." Burton amplifies, "She wondered at the
marvellous sight and the glamour of the scene." Me judice, to put it in
the vernacular, she simply wondered what the dickens it was all about.]
385 (return)
[ Min wectiha. Burton,
"And for some time, O my son, I have suspected." See ante, p. 134. {see
FN#378}]
386 (return)
[ Lit. "fever seized him
of his chagrin."]
387 (return)
[ Night DL.]
388 (return)
[ Lit. "promised me to"
(ila), as before.]
389 (return)
[ Eshaa; or, if we take
the word as pointed with kesreh (i.e. ishaa), we may read, with Burton,
"to pass the rest of the evening," though this expression seems to me
hardly in character with the general tone of the MS.]
390 (return)
[ Musterah.]
391 (return)
[ Sic (el gheir).]
392 (return)
[ Night DLI.]
393 (return)
[ Min doun khiyaneh i.e.
without offering her any affront. Burton, "and he did no villain deed."]
394 (return)
[ Galland adds, "et passe
dans une garde-robe o—il s'etoit deshabille le soir." Something of
the kind appears to have dropped out of the present MS.]
395 (return)
[ Night DLII.]
396 (return)
[ Lit. "with the eye of
anger." Ghedseb (anger) and its synonym ghaits are frequently used in the
Nights in this sense; see especially Vol. II. of my translation, p. 234,
"she smiled a sad smile," lit. a "smile of anger," (twice) and p. 258, "my
anguish redoubled," lit. "I redoubled in anger."]
397 (return)
[ Wesikh. Burton,
"fulsome."]
398 (return)
[ Night DLIII.]
399 (return)
[ Diri balek an [la].
Burton, "compose thy thoughts. If, etc." See ante, passim.]
400 (return)
[ Sic.]
401 (return)
[ Kedhebaka.]
402 (return)
[ i.e. that which he
derived from such an alliance.]
403 (return)
[ Lit. "Wretches"
(mesakin).]
404 (return)
[ Night DLIV.]
405 (return)
[ Inketaet (lit. "she was
cut or broken") min el khauf. Burton, "She was freed from her fear of the
past."]
406 (return)
[ Or "honoured" (azlz)]
407 (return)
[ i.e. "in my behaviour
to thee."]
408 (return)
[ Kema akedu min
mehebbetika li. Burton, "even as I claim of thee affection for thy
child."]
409 (return)
[ Night DLV.]
410 (return)
[ Hhashaha min el kidhb;
lit. "Except her from lying!" Hhasha (which commonly signifies, "Far be
it," "God forbid!") is here used in a somewhat unusual manner. The sense
seems to be, "God forbid that the Lady Bedrulbudour should be suspected of
lying! "]
411 (return)
[ Or "shrunken"
(kusziret). Burton, "bursten."]
412 (return)
[ Or "honoured" (aziz).]
413 (return)
[ Night DLVI.]
414 (return)
[ Lit. "how [was] the
device therein;" i.e how he should do for an expedient thereanent. Burton,
"the device whereby he should manage it."]
415 (return)
[ Or "called upon"
(nedeh).]
416 (return)
[ El ashreh [mubeshshereh
understood], "the ten [who were rejoiced with glad tidings]," i.e. ten of
Mohammed's companions (Abou Bekr, Omar, Othman, Ali, Telheh, Zubeir, Saad
ibn Abi Weccas, Abdurrehman ibn Auf, Abou Ubeideh ibnu'l Jerrah and Said
ibn Zeid), to whom (and to whom alone) he is said to have promised certain
entrance into Paradise. They are accordingly considered to have
pre-eminence over the Prophet's other disciples and are consequently often
invoked by the less orthodox Muslims as intercessors with him, much after
the fashion of the Quatuordecim Adjutores, the Fourteen Helpers [in time
of need], (i.e. Saints Catherine, Margaret, Barbara, Pantaleon, Vitus,
Eustace, Blase, Gregory, Nicholas, Erasmus, Giles, George, Leonard and
Christopher) of Romish hagiology.]
417 (return)
[ i.e the marriage of his
son to the Sultan's daughter. Burton, "it having been a rare enjoyment to
him that he had fallen upon such high good fortune."]
418 (return)
[ Lit. "marriage," i.e.
"wedding festivities are out of place." The word (zijeh) here used is a
dialectic (Syrian) variant of zewaj, marriage. Burton, "we require no
delay,"]
419 (return)
[ Lit. "the lord (i.e.
he) of the suit or claim" (sahibu 'd dewat).]
420 (return)
[ Or "inestimable," lit.
"might not be measured by (or appraised at) a price or value." Burton,
"far beyond his power to pay the price."]
421 (return)
[ Lit. "How is the
management or contrivance (tedbir) with thee?" i.e. "canst thou suggest to
us any expedient?"]
422 (return)
[ Night DLVII.]
423 (return)
[ Burton adds, "speaking
privily."]
424 (return)
[ Or perhaps, "we may
with impunity rebut," etc.]
425 (return)
[ Gherib, lit. a
stranger, an exile, but vulg. by extension, a poor, homeless wretch.]
426 (return)
[ i.e Alaeddin's mother.]
427 (return)
[ Lit. "that day."]
428 (return)
[ Fr. "... l'aimable."
Lit. "by a way or means" (bi-terikeh). It may be we should read bi
[hatheti'll] terikeh, "by [this] means;" but the rendering in the text
seems the more probable one, the Sultan meaning that he would thus get rid
of Alaeddin's importunity by practice, without open breach of faith or
violence.]
429 (return)
[ Night DLVIII.]
430 (return)
[ Lit. "Burden thyself
(prenez la peine) and rise", (kellifi khatiraki, etc., as before).]
431 (return)
[ Here szewani (trays)
instead of, as before, szuhoun (dishes).]
432 (return)
[ Night DLIX.]
433 (return)
[ i.e. "look with open
eyes"]
434 (return)
[ En nuwwab, i.e. those
whose turn it was to be on guard.]
435 (return)
[ Need (lit. coin), a
vulgar Syrian corruption of neket, customary gift of money or otherwhat to
a bride on the marriage-day.]
436 (return)
[ The whole of the
foregoing passage is so confused that I think it well to add here (l) a
literal translation, as I read it: "So the Vizier, yea, indeed, he
marvelled at the greatness of that wealth more than the Sultan, but envy
was killing him and waxed on him more and more when he saw the Sultan that
he was satisfied with (or accepted of) the bride-gift and the dowry;
however, it was not possible to him that he should gainsay the truth and
should say to the Sultan, 'He is not worthy;' only, he practised with a
device upon the Sultan so he should not let him give his daughter the Lady
Bedrulbudour to Alaeddin, and this [Footnote was] that he said to him,
etc,"—and also (2) the version given by Sir K. F. Burton, who takes
a different view of the passage: "Then the Minister (although he marvelled
at these riches even more than did the Sultan), whose envy was killing him
and growing greater hour by hour, seeing his liege lord satisfied with the
moneys and the dower and yet being unable to fight against fact, made
answer, 'Tis not worthy of her.' Withal he fell to devising a device
against the King, that he might withhold the Lady Badr-al-Budur from
Alaeddin, and accordingly he continued, etc."]
437 (return)
[ Or "in comparison with
her" (ent hhedsretuk istatsemet hatha aleiha). This is an ambiguous
passage and should perhaps be read, "Thou magnifiest this (i.e. the gift)
over her."]
438 (return)
[ Night DLX.]
439 (return)
[ Lit. "swiftly, the
winds overtook her not."]
440 (return)
[ Aksen. Burton, "more
suitable to thee."]
441 (return)
[ Kethir[an]. Burton,
"And right soon (Inshallah!) O my daughter, thou shalt have fuller joy
with him."]
442 (return)
[ Muebbed. Burton,
"alone."]
443 (return)
[ Sic (kum),]
444 (return)
[ Or "commission"
(mishwar).]
445 (return)
[ Bekia ma bekia hatha
shey aleik, lit. "remaineth what remaineth this is a thing upon (or for)
thee." Burton, "Happen whatso may happen; the rest is upon thy shoulders."
The first bekia is perhaps used in the common colloquial sense of "then."]
446 (return)
[ Shekeraha wa istekthera
bi-kheiriha. See ante, p. 155, note 3. Burton, "enhancing her kindly
service."]
447 (return)
[ Surname of the ancient
Kings of Persia, vulg. Chosroes.]
448 (return)
[ Night DLXI.]
449 (return)
[ Lit. "the."]
450 (return)
[ Burton, "the costliest
of clothes."]
451 (return)
[ Generally that of
aloes-wood.]
452 (return)
[ Quoth Shehrzad to
Shehriyar.]
453 (return)
[ Yetsunnuhu; quare a
clerical error for yentsuruku ("had seen him" )?]
454 (return)
[ i.e. male white slaves
(memlouk, whence our "mameluke," sing. for plural memalik).]
455 (return)
[ Lit. "and let there be
with each slave-girl a suit, etc." Burton "And let every handmaid be robed
in raiment that befitteth queens wearing." The twelve suits of clothes to
be brought by the slave-girls were of course intended for the wearing of
Alaeddin's mother; see post, p. 167. {see FN#457 in text}]
456 (return)
[ i.e. the genuine Arabs
of the unmixed blood.]
457 (return)
[ See ante, p. 166, note
2. {see FN#455}]
458 (return)
[ Likai telbesa
(tetelebbesa?) hiya. Burton, "she should wear."]
459 (return)
[ Sic, the meaning
seeming to be that kings' sons were out of comparison with Alaeddin, as
who should say (in Cockney parlance) "Don't talk to me about kings'
sons."]
460 (return)
[ Lit. "upon."]
461 (return)
[ El kendil el ajib.]
462 (return)
[ Syn. "old and young."]
463 (return)
[ Night DLXII.]
464 (return)
[ Ictedsa an tesmuha li
bi, lit. "decided (or demanded) that thou be bountiful to (or grace) me
with;" but icledsa is here used in the colloquial sense of "willed,
vouchsafed."]
465 (return)
[ i.e. that of his
tongue, lit. "its bounds or reach" (kheddahu). Burton, "passing all
measure."]
466 (return)
[ Lit. "acquired, gotten,
come by thee" (khetsitu bika).]
467 (return)
[ Night DLXIII.]
468 (return)
[ Nuweb (properly
naubat).]
469 (return)
[ Musica.]
470 (return)
[ Acamou el fereh el
atsim. Burton, "a mighty fine marriage-feast was dispread in the palace."]
471 (return)
[ Muashir.]
472 (return)
[ Netser.]
473 (return)
[ Lit. "but the behoving
on me for her service engageth (or enforceth) me to apply myself
hereunto."]
474 (return)
[ i.e. at thy
disposition.]
475 (return)
[ Night DLXIV.]
476 (return)
[ Tebakhin. Burton,
"kitcheners."]
477 (return)
[ Keszr.]
478 (return)
[ Wa, but quaere au
("or")?]
479 (return)
[ Kushk.]
480 (return)
[ The description of the
famous upper hall with the four-and-twenty windows is one of the most
contused and incoherent parts of the Nights and well-nigh defies the
efforts of the translator to define the exact nature of the building
described by the various and contradictory passages which refer to it. The
following is a literal rendering of the above passage: "An upper chamber
(keszr) and (or?) a kiosk (kushk, a word explained by a modern Syrian
dictionary as meaning '[a building] like a balcony projecting from the
level of the rest of the house,' but by others as an isolated building or
pavilion erected on the top of a house, i.e. a keszr, in its classical
meaning of 'upper chamber,' in which sense Lane indeed gives it as
synonymous with the Turkish koushk, variant kushk,) with four-and-twenty
estrades (liwan, a raised recess, generally a square-shaped room, large or
small, open on the side facing the main saloon), all of it of emeralds and
rubies and other jewels, and one estrade its kiosk was not finished."
Later on, when the Sultan visits the enchanted palace for the first time,
Alaeddin "brought him to the high kiosk and he looked at the belvedere
(teyyareh, a square or round erection on the top of a house, either open
at the sides or pierced with windows, =our architectural term 'lantern')
and its casements (shebabik, pl. of shubbak, a window formed of grating or
lattice-work) and their lattices (she"ri for she"rir, pl. of sheriyyeh, a
lattice), all wroughten of emeralds and rubies and other than it of
precious jewels." The Sultan "goes round in the kiosk" and seeing "the
casement (shubbak), which Alaeddin had purposely left defective, without
completion," said to the Vizier, "Knowest thou the reason (or cause) of
the lack of completion of this casement and its lattices?" (shearihi, or
quaere, "[this] lattice," the copyist having probably omitted by mistake
the diacritical points over the final ha). Then he asked Alaeddin, "What
is the cause that the lattice of yonder kiosk (kushk) is not complete?"
The defective part is soon after referred to, no less than four times, as
"the lattice of the kiosk" (sheriyyetu 'l kushk), thus showing that, in
the writer's mind, kushk, liwan and shubbak were synonymous terms for the
common Arab projecting square-sided window, made of latticework, and I
have therefore rendered the three words, when they occur in this sense, by
our English "oriel," to whose modern meaning (a window that juts out, so
as to form a small apartment), they exactly correspond. Again, in the
episode of the Maugrabin's brother, the princess shows the latter
(disguised as Fatimeh) "the belvedere (teyyarrh) and the kiosk (kushk) of
jewels, the which [was] with (i.e. had) the four-and-twenty portals"
(mejouz, apparently a Syrian variant of mejaz, lit. a place of passage,
but by extension a porch, a gallery, an opening, here (and here only) used
by synecdoche for the oriel itself), and the famous roe's egg is proposed
to be suspended from "the dome (cubbeh) of the upper chamber" (el keszr el
faucaniyy), thus showing that the latter was crowned with a dome or
cupola. It is difficult to extricate the author's exact meaning from the
above tangle of confused references; but, as far as can be gathered. in
the face of the carelessness with which the text treats kushk as
synonymous now with keszr or teyyareh and now with liwan or shubbak, it
would seem that what is intended to be described is a lofty hall (or
sorer), erected on the roof of the palace, whether round or square we
cannot tell, but crowned with a dome or cupola and having four-and-twenty
deep projecting windows or oriels, the lattice or trellis-work of which
latter was formed (instead of the usual wood) of emeralds, rubies and
other jewels, strung, we may suppose, upon rods of gold or other metal I
have, at the risk of wearying my reader, treated this point at some
length, as well because it is an important one as to show the almost
insuperable difficulties that beset the. conscientious translator at
well-nigh every page of such works as the "Book of the Thousand Nights and
One Night."]
481 (return)
[ Night DLXV.]
482 (return)
[ The text has imar (an
inhabited country), an evident mistake for emair (buildings).]
483 (return)
[ Night DLXVI.]
484 (return)
[ Atsm sekhahu. Burton.
"his dignity was enhanced."]
485 (return)
[ Or "imitate"
(yetemathelou bihi). Burton, "which are such as are served to the kings."]
486 (return)
[ Night DLXVII.]
487 (return)
[ Wectu 'l asr, i.e.
midway between noon and nightfall.]
488 (return)
[ Lit. "was broken"
(inkeseret).]
489 (return)
[ Burton, "with the
jerid," but I find no mention of this in the text. The word used (le'ba,
lit. "he played") applies to all kinds of martial exercises; it may also
mean simply, "caracoling."]
490 (return)
[ See ante, p. 167, note
1. {see FN#456}]
491 (return)
[ Or "turns" (adwar).]
492 (return)
[ El hemmam a sultaniyy
el meshhour. Burton, "the royal Hammam (known as the Sult ni)."]
493 (return)
[ Muhliyat. Burton,
"sugared drinks."]
494 (return)
[ Night DLXVIII.]
495 (return)
[ Keszriha. Burton, "her
bower in the upper story."]
496 (return)
[ Lit. "changed the robes
(khila) upon her." For the ceremony of displaying (or unveiling) the
bride, see my "Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night," Vol. I. pp. 192
et seq., and "Tales from the Arabic," Vol. III. pp. 189 et seq.]
497 (return)
[ Meshghoul.]
498 (return)
[ Keszr.]
499 (return)
[ Szeraya, properly
serayeh.]
500 (return)
[ i.e. Alexander the
Great; see my "Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night," Vol. V. p. 6,
note.]
501 (return)
[ Night DLXIX.]
502 (return)
[ Henahu.]
503 (return)
[ Fetour, the slight meal
eaten immediately on rising, answering to the French "premier dejeuner,"
not the "morning-meal" (gheda), eaten towards noon and answering to the
French "dejeuner... la fourchette."]
504 (return)
[ Gheda.]
505 (return)
[ Tekerrum (inf. of V of
kerem), lit. "being liberal to any one." here an idiomatic form of assent
expressing condescension on the part of a superior. Such at least is the
explanation of the late Prof. Dozy; but I should myself incline to read
tukremu (second person sing. aorist passive of IV), i.e. "Thou art
accorded [that which thou seekest]."]
506 (return)
[ Indhehela.]
507 (return)
[ Or "upper hall,
gallery." Lit. "kiosk." See ante, p.l75, note 4. {see FN#480}]
508 (return)
[ Teyyareh. See ante,
l.c. The etymology of this word is probably [caah] teyyareh, "a flying
[saloon]."]
509 (return)
[ Shebabik, pl. of
shubbak; see ante, l.c.]
510 (return)
[ Sheari, see ante, l.c.]
511 (return)
[ Shubbak.]
512 (return)
[ Night DLXX.]
513 (return)
[ Lit. "kiosk" (kushk);
see ante, p. 175, note 4.{see FN#480}]
514 (return)
[ Ma lehiket el muallimin
(objective for nom. muallimoun, as usual in this text) an.]
515 (return)
[ Yebca lika dhikra.
Burton, "So shall thy memory endure."]
516 (return)
[ Lit. "kiosk."]
517 (return)
[ ? (teba'kh).]
518 (return)
[ Or "melodious."]
519 (return)
[ El kelb el hhezin.]
520 (return)
[ i.e. "might not avail
unto."]
521 (return)
[ Muhlivat, as before;
see ante. p. 183, note 2. {see FN#493}]
522 (return)
[ Szeraya.]
523 (return)
[ Night DLXXI.]
524 (return)
[ Sheriyyetu 'l kushk.]
525 (return)
[ Lit. "the lattice of
the kiosk which (i.e. the lattice) is lacking or imperfect." The adjective
(nakiszeh) is put in the feminine, to agree with "lattice" (sheriyyeh),
which is femminine, kiosk (kushk) being masculine.]
526 (return)
[ Kushk.]
527 (return)
[ She"rihi.]
528 (return)
[ Et tewashiyy, a term
here used for the first time in the present text, where we generally find
the Turkish Aga in this sense.]
529 (return)
[ Night DLXXII.]
530 (return)
[ Lit. "kiosk" (kushk).]
531 (return)
[ Fi szerayyetika.]
532 (return)
[ Szeraya.]
533 (return)
[ Lit. "that I was not
lacking in ableness to complete it."]
534 (return)
[ Kushk, here used in
sense of "belvedere."]
535 (return)
[ Or "upper chamber"
(keszr).]
536 (return)
[ Kushk. From this
passage it would seem as if the belvedere actually projected from the side
of the upper story or soler (keszr), instead of being built on the roof,
lantern-wise, or being (as would appear from earlier passages) identical
with the hall itself, but the whole description is as before remarked. so
full of incoherence and confusion of terms that it is impossible to
reconcile its inconsistencies.]
537 (return)
[ Lit. "a brother
resembling thee."]
538 (return)
[ Lit. "he increased (or
exceeded) in the salaries (or allowances) of the poor and the indigent"
(zada fi jewanicki 'l fukera wa 'l mesakin). Jewamek is an Arabicized
Persian word, here signifying systematic or regular almsgivings.]
539 (return)
[ Kull muddeh.]
540 (return)
[ Labu 'l andab, lit.
"arrow-play."]
541 (return)
[ Night DLXXIII.]
542 (return)
[ Szerayeh.]
543 (return)
[ Keszr.]
544 (return)
[ Burton adds, "and
confections."]
545 (return)
[ Lit. "he set them down
the stablest or skilfullest (mustehhkem) setting down."]
546 (return)
[ Hherrem, i.e. arranged
them, according to the rules of the geomantic art.]
547 (return)
[ Netsera jeyyidan fi.
Burton, "He firmly established the sequence of."]
548 (return)
[ Technical names of the
primary and secondary figures. The following account of the geomantic
process, as described by Arabic writers de re magicf, is mainly derived
from the Mukeddimat or Prolegomena of Abdurrehman ibn Aboubekr Mohammed
(better known as Ibn Khaldoun) to his great work of universal history.
Those (says he) who seek to discover hidden things and know the future
have invented an art which they call tracing or smiting the sand; to wit,
they take paper or sand or flour and trace thereon at hazard four rows of
points, which operation, three times repeated (i.e. four times performed),
gives sixteen rows. These points they eliminate two by two, all but the
last (if the number of the points of a row be odd) or the last two (if it
be even) of each row, by which means they obtain sixteen points, single or
double. These they divide into four figures, each representing the
residual points of four lines, set one under another, and these four
figures, which are called the mothers or primaries, they place side by
side in one line. From these primaries they extract four fresh figures by
confronting each point with the corresponding point in the next figure,
and counting for each pair a single or double point, according to one of
two rules, i.e. (1) setting down a single point for each single point
being on the same line with another point, whether single or double, and a
double point for. each pair of double points in line with each other, or
(2) reckoning a double point for each pair of like points (single or
double), corresponding one with another on the same line' and a single
point for each, unlike pair. These new figures (as well as those that
follow) are called the daughters or secondaries and are placed beside the
primaries, by confrontation with which (i,e, 5 with 1, 6 with 2, 7 with 3
and with 4) four fresh figures are obtained after the same fashion and
placed side by side below the first eight. From this second row a
thirteenth and fourteenth figure are obtained in the same way (confronting
9 with lo and 1 l with 12) and placed beneath them, as a third row. The
two new figures, confronted with each other, in like manner, furnish a
fifteenth figure, which, being confronted with the first of the primaries,
gives a sixteenth and last figure, completing the series. Then (says our
author), the geomant proceeds to examine the sixteen figures thus obtained
(each of which has its name and its mansion, corresponding to one of the
twelve signs of the zodiac or the four cardinal points, as well as its
signification, good or bad, and indicates also, in a special way, a
certain part of the elemental world) and to note each figure according to
its presage of weal or ill; and so, with the aid of an astrological table
giving the explanations of the various signs and combinations, according
to the nature of the figure, its aspect, influence and temperament
(astrologically considered) and the natural object it indicates, a
judgment is formed upon the question for a solution of which the operation
was undertaken. I may add that the board or table of sand (tekht reml), so
frequently mentioned in the Nights, is a shallow box filled with fine
sand, carefully levelled, on which the points of the geomantic operation
are made with a style of wood or metal. (The name tekht reml is however
now commonly applied to a mere board or tablet of wood on which the
necessary dots are made with ink or chalk. ) The following scheme of a
geomantic operation will show the application of the above rules.
Supposing the first haphazard dotting to produce these sixteen rows of
points,
549 (return)
[ Burton adds here, "in
order that other than I may carry it off."]
550 (return)
[ Min el meloum, lit.
"[it is] of the known (i.e. that which is known)." Burton, "who knoweth an
he wot, etc."]
551 (return)
[ Night DLXXIV.]
552 (return)
[ Sic, meaning of course
that he had discovered its properties and availed himself thereof.]
553 (return)
[ Medinetu 's seltaneh, i
e. the seat of government or capital.]
554 (return)
[ Lit. "donned"
(lebesa).]
555 (return)
[ Here Galland says, "Il
entra dans le lien le plus fameux et le plus frequente par les personnel
de grande distinction, ou l'on s'assembloit pour boire d'une certaine
boisson chance qui luy etoit connue des son premier voyage. Il n'y e-t pas
plust"t pris place qu'on lay versa de cette boisson dans une tasse et
qu'on la luy presenta. En la prenant, comme il prestoit l'oreille...
droite et... gauche, il entendit qu'on s'entretenoit du palais d'Aladdin."
The Chavis MS. says, "He entered a coffee-house (kehweh, Syrian for
kehawi), and there used to go in thereto all the notables of the city, and
he heard a company, all of them engaged in (ammalin bi, a very vulgar
expression) talking of the Amir Alaeddin's palace, etc." This (or a
similar text) is evidently the original of Galland's translation of this
episode and it is probable, therefore, that the French translator inserted
the mention "of a certain warm drink"(tea), out of that mistaken desire
for local colouring at all costs which has led so many French authors
(especially those of our own immediate day) astray. The circumstance was
apparently evolved (alla tedesca) from his inner consciousness, as,
although China is a favourite location with the authors of the Nights, we
find no single mention of or allusion to tea in the rest of the work.]
556 (return)
[ Lit. "I will make him
lose."]
557 (return)
[ Night DLXXV.]
558 (return)
[ Lit. "Instruments of
astronomy or astrology" (tenjim); but tenjim is also used in the sense of
geomancy, in which operation, as before explained, astrology plays an
important part, and the context shows that the word is here intended to
bear this meaning. Again, the implements of a geomancer of the higher
order would include certain astrological instruments, such as an
astrolabe, star-table, etc., necessary, as I have before explained, for
the elucidation of the scheme obtained by the sand-smiting proper.]
559 (return)
[ He had apparently
learned (though the Arabic author omits, with characteristic carelessness,
to tell us so) that Alaeddin was absent a. hunting.]
560 (return)
[ Akemm, vulg. for kemm,
a quantity.]
561 (return)
[ Minareh, lit.
"alight-stand," i.e. either a lamp-stand or a candlestick.]
562 (return)
[ Bi-ziyadeh, which
generally means "in excess, to boot," but is here used in the sense of "in
abundance."]
563 (return)
[ Aalem.]
564 (return)
[ After the wont of "the
natural enemy of mankind' in all ages.]
565 (return)
[ Keszr.]
566 (return)
[ Night DLXXVI.]
567 (return)
[ Aghatu 't tuwashiyeh.]
568 (return)
[ Ubb.]
569 (return)
[ Lit. "who" (men), but
this is probably a mistake for ma (that which).]
570 (return)
[ Ifrikiyeh.]
571 (return)
[ Night DLXXVII.]
572 (return)
[ Ummar. This may,
however, be a mistake (as before, see ante p. 177, note 2 {see FN#482})
for ema'r (buildings).]
573 (return)
[ Lit. "O company" (ya
jema't), a polite formula of address, equivalent to our "Gentlemen."]
574 (return)
[ Night DLXXVIII.]
575 (return)
[ Lit. "the affair (or
commandment, amr) is going to be sealed upon us."]
576 (return)
[ Sic (dara haulahu
thelatheta dauratin); but qu're should it not rather be, "gave three
sweeps or whirls with his sword round his head"? See my "Book of the
Thousand Nights and One Night," Vol. VI. p. 355.]
577 (return)
[ Lit. "hath been
bountiful unto me;" [the matter of] my life.]
578 (return)
[ Night DLXXIX.]
579 (return)
[ Previous to prayer.]
580 (return)
[ Lit. made easy to
(yessera li).]
581 (return)
[ The name of the
province is here applied to an imaginary city.]
582 (return)
[ Night DLXXX.]
583 (return)
[ Lit. "who hath a head
with the head-seller or dealer in heads, etc." The word here employed
(rewwas) commonly signifies "a man who cooks and sells sheepsheads,
oxheads, etc." M. Zotenberg makes the following note on this passage in.
his edition of Alaeddin; "Rewwas (for raa"s) signifies not only 'he who
sells cooked heads,' but also 'he who makes a business of cooking heads.'
Consequently whoso entrusteth a head to the rewwas is preoccupied and
sleeps not." M. Zotenberg's note is unintelligible, in consequence of his
having neglected to explain that the passage in question is a common
Egyptian proverb, meaning (says Burckhardt), "the person whose fortune is
entrusted to the hands of strangers cannot enjoy repose." "The poor," adds
he, "at Cairo buy sheepsheads and for a trifle have them boiled in the
bazaar by persons who are not only cooks, but sellers of sheepsheads, and
are therefore called raa"s, or in the Egyptian dialect rewwas." The
proverb is in the present case evidently meant as a play upon the literal
meaning ("headsman," hence by implication "executioner") of the word
rewwas, although I cannot find an instance of the word being employed in
this sense. It is, however, abundantly evident from the general context
that this is the author's intention in the passage in question, Alaeddin's
head being metaphorically in the hands of (or pledged to) the headsman,
inasmuch as he had engaged to return and suffer decapitation in case he
should not succeed in recovering the princess within forty days.]
584 (return)
[ I suppose the verb
which I render "caused [sleep] get the mastery," to be ghelleba, II of
gheleba, as the only way of making sense of this passage, though this
reading involves some irregularity from a grammatical point of view. This,
however, is no novelty in the present text. Burton, "But whoso weareth
head hard by the headsman may not sleep o'nights save whenas slumber
prevail over him."]
585 (return)
[ Zeczekeh, a word which
exactly renders the sparrow's dawn-cheep.]
586 (return)
[ Lit. "From (as Fr. des)
the deep or remote dawn" (min el fejri 'l ghemic, Syr. for emic), cf.
Matthew Arnold's "Resignation;" "The cockoo, loud on some high lawn, Is
answered from the depth of dawn.."]
587 (return)
[ The terminal formula of
the dawn-prayer.]
588 (return)
[ i.e. the magician]
589 (return)
[ Lit. "bride''
(arouseh). She is always, to the end of the tale, spoken of as Alaeddin's
"bride," never as his "wife," whilst he, in like manner, is called her
"bridegroom" (arous).]
590 (return)
[ This, at first sight,
appears a contradiction, as we are distinctly told (see ante, p. 207) that
the princess was unaware of the properties of the lamp; but the sequel
shows that she had learned them, in the mean time. from the magician
himself. See post.]
591 (return)
[ Ifrikiyeh.]
592 (return)
[ Night DLXXXI.]
593 (return)
[ Lit. "a spit (ric) of
sweet." We may also read reic or reyyic, "the first part of anything"
(especially "the first drop of rain").]
594 (return)
[ Lit. "having changed
the clothes of this my dress."]
595 (return)
[ i.e. taking effect the
moment of its administration.]
596 (return)
[ Night DLXXXII.]
597 (return)
[ Because white wine
would have been visibly troubled by the drug.]
598 (return)
[ Ishebi bi-surrihi (lit.
"drink by his pleasure or gladness;" surr or surour). Burton, "Pledge him
to his secret in a significant draught."]
599 (return)
[ Kasein thelatheh, lit.
two cups three (unusual way of putting it).]
600 (return)
[ Reshoush (for reshash),
"anything sprinkled," i.e. powder or drops. I translate "powder," as I
find no mention in the Nights of the use of this narcotic in a liquid
form.]
601 (return)
[ Takkeltu, lit. "I have
conceived in my mind." Sir R. Burton is apparently inclined to read
tallectu by transposition, as he translates, "I depend upon thy say."]
602 (return)
[ Night DLXXXIII.]
603 (return)
[ Lit. "I will not delay
upon thee."]
604 (return)
[ Lit. "Thou hast
burdened or incommoded thyself" (kellefta khatiraka), see previous note,
p. 120, {see FN#340} on this idiomatic expression.]
605 (return)
[ Ana atebtu mizajaka,
lit. "I have wearied thy temperament."]
606 (return)
[ Lit. "pleasure" (surr),
see ante, p. 223, note 2. {see FN#598}]
607 (return)
[ Or "playing the
boon-companion."]
608 (return)
[ Syn. "equivocal, a
double entente."]
609 (return)
[ Lit. "proceeded from
her in truth."]
610 (return)
[ Tih, lit. pride,
haughtiness, but, by analogy, "coquetry."]
611 (return)
[ Lit. "Gaiety, ecstasy
or intoxication (keif) whirled (dara) in his head."]
612 (return)
[ Lit. "not itself
exactly with him" (ma hiya bi-eimhi indahu.)]
613 (return)
[ Lit. "turned over"
(kelebet, a clerical error for kebbelel).]
614 (return)
[ Tekeddemet lihi wa
basethu fi kheddihi. Burton, "again she kissed its lip and offered it to
him."]
615 (return)
[ Terakedsou, lit. raced
with one another.]
616 (return)
[ Babu 'sz szeray.]
617 (return)
[ Night DLXXXIV.]
618 (return)
[ Keszr.]
619 (return)
[ Lit. "in" (fi); but fi
is evidently used here in mistake for bi, the two prepositions being
practically interchangeable in modern Arabic of the style of our present
text.]
620 (return)
[ Burton, "his costliest
raiment."]
621 (return)
[ Or chamber (keszr).]
622 (return)
[ Night DLXXXV.]
623 (return)
[ Sic (raihh), a common
vulgarism in this text.]
624 (return)
[ Night DLXXXVI.]
625 (return)
[ Lit. "also" (eidsan).]
626 (return)
[ i.e. the two were as
like as two halves of a bean.]
627 (return)
[ i.e. the world.]
628 (return)
[ Or death (Saturn), the
eighth division of the common astrological figure.]
629 (return)
[ Menkeleh. See my Book
of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol. I. p. 129, note 1. {see Vol. 1
of Payne's Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, FN#41}]
630 (return)
[ Dsameh.]
631 (return)
[ Liha keramat kethireh.
Kerameh (sing. of keramat), properly a favour or mark of grace, a
supernatural gift bestowed by God upon His pious servants, by virtue
whereof they perform miracles, which latter are also by derivation called
keramat. Cf. Acts viii. 28: "Thou hast thought that the gift of God," i.e.
the power of performing miracles, "may be purchased with money."]
632 (return)
[ Night DLXXXVII.]
633 (return)
[ Weliyeh.]
634 (return)
[ Fe-ain (where),
probably a mistranscription for fe-men (who).]
635 (return)
[ Sitti, fem. of Sidi,
"my lord," the common title of a saint among modern Arabic-speaking
peoples.]
636 (return)
[ Lit. "wished the man
increase of his good (istekthera bi-kheirihi, for which idiomatic
expression= "he thanked him," see ante, p. 135, note 3 {see FN#383}), and
thanked his excellence" (favour or kindness, fedsl).]
637 (return)
[ Sherabati. Burton,
"vintner."]
638 (return)
[ Keniz, a word which I
cannot find in any dictionary, but which appears to be the past participle
(in the secondary form for mecnouz, as ketil, slain, for mertoul,) of
keneza, a lost verb of which only the fourth form acneza, he drank from a
cup (kinz), survives, and to mean "something drunk from a cup." Burton,
"wine."]
639 (return)
[ Ca"da. Burton
translates "he mounted," apparently reading szfida for ca"da.]
640 (return)
[ Lit. "belly" (betn);
but that "breast" is meant is shown by the next line, which describes
Fatimeh as finding the enchanter seated on her heart.]
641 (return)
[ Lit. "heart" (kelb).]
642 (return)
[ The text adds here,
"she went not and came not" (la rahet wa la jaet). Burton translates, "as
though she had never gone or come" and adds, in a note, by way of gloss,
"i.e. as she was in her own home;" but I confess that his explanation
seems to me as obscure as the text.]
643 (return)
[ Night DLXXXVIll.]
644 (return)
[ Keszr.]
645 (return)
[ The first or "opening"
chapter of the Koran.]
646 (return)
[ En nas bi 'l ghewali
kethir an, lit. "The folk in (things) precious (or dear or high-priced,
ghewali, pl. of ghalin, also of ghaliyeh, a kind of perfume) are abundant
anent." This is a hopelessly obscure passage, and I can only guess at its
meaning. Bi 'l ghewali may be a clerical error for bi 'l ghalibi, "for the
most part, in general," in which case we may read, "Folk in general abound
[in talk] anent her virtues;" or bi 'l ghewali may perhaps be used in the
sense (of which use, however, I know no instance) of 'in excessive
estimation,' in which latter case the passage might be rendered, "Folk
abound in setting a high value on (or extolling) her virtues." Burton
boldly amplifies, "the folk recount her manifestations in many cases of
difficulty."]
647 (return)
[ Lit. "That he might
complete his deceit the more." The meaning is that he dissembled his
satisfaction at the princess's proposal and made a show of refusal, so he
might hoodwink her the more effectually.]
648 (return)
[ Keszr.]
649 (return)
[ Night DLXXXIX.]
650 (return)
[ Teyyareh.]
651 (return)
[ Lit. "openings for
passage" (mejous). See ante, p. 176, note. {see FN#480}]
652 (return)
[ Keszr.]
653 (return)
[ Lit. "an extreme"
(ghayeh).]
654 (return)
[ Szeraya.]
655 (return)
[ Szeraya.]
656 (return)
[ i.e. "O thou that art
dear to me as mine eyes."]
657 (return)
[ Keszr.]
658 (return)
[ Night DLXC.]
659 (return)
[ Keszr.]
660 (return)
[ i.e. its apparent from
its real import.]
661 (return)
[ Mustekim.]
662 (return)
[ Minka. Burton, "of
me."]
663 (return)
[ Lit. "for that secret
that she healed." Burton, "for the art and mystery of healing."]
664 (return)
[ Min wejaihi.]
665 (return)
[ Szeraya.]
666 (return)
[ Terehhhheba bihi.]
667 (return)
[ Lit. "believed not
in."]
668 (return)
[ Night DLXCI.]
669 (return)
[ Ghereza (i.q..
gheresa).]
670 (return)
[ Lit. "Out of regard to
or respect for thine eyes." (Keramet[an] li-uyouniki), i.e. "Thanks to the
favourable influence of thine eyes." When "the eye" is spoken of without
qualification, the "evil eye" is commonly meant; here, however, it is
evident that the reverse is intended.]
671 (return)
[ Lit. "I had no news or
information (ma indi kkeber) [of the matter]."]
672 (return)
[ Lit. "neglectful of the
love of thee." This is a difficult passage to translate, owing to its
elliptical form; but the meaning is that the princess wished to assure
Alaeddin that what had happened was not due to any slackening in the
warmth of her affection for him.]