A plain and literal translation of the Arabian nights entertainments, now entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 2 (of 17). Richard Francis Burton

2

Arab. "Malik," here used as in our story-books: "Pompey was a wise and powerful King" says the Gesta Romanorum. This King is, as will appear, a Regent or Governor under Harun al-Rashid. In the next tale he is Viceroy of Damascus, where he is also called "Sultan."

3

The Bul. Edit. gives the lines as follows: —

The pun is in "Khattíyah" which may mean a writer (feminine) and also a spear, from Khatt-Hajar, a tract in the province Al-Bahrayn (Persian Gulf), and Oman, where the best Indian bamboos were landed and fashioned into lances. Imr al-Kays (Mu'allakah v. 4.) sings of "our dark spears firmly wrought of Khattiyan cane;" Al-Busírí of "the brown lances of Khatt;" also see Lebid v. 50 and Hamásah pp. 26, 231: Antar notes the "Spears of Khatt" and "Rudaynian lances." Rudaynah is said to have been the wife of one Samhár, the Ferrara of lances; others make her the wife of Al-Ka'azab and hold Samhár to be a town in Abyssinia where the best weapons were manufactured. The pen is the Calamus or Kalam (reed cut for pen) of which the finest and hardest are brought from Java: they require the least nibbing. The rhetorical figure in the text is called Husn al-Ta'alíl, our ætiology; and is as admirable to the Arabs as it appears silly to us.

4

"He loves folk" is high praise, meaning something more than benevolence and beneficence. Like charity it covers a host of sins.

5

The sentence is euphuistic.

6

Arab. "Rubb"=syrup a word Europeanised by the "Rob Laffecteur."

7

The Septentriones or four oxen and their wain.

8

The list fatally reminds us of "astronomy and the use of the globes" … "Shakespeare and the musical glasses."

9

The octave occurs in Night xv. I quote Torrens (p. 360) by way of variety.

10

A courteous formula of closing with the offer.

11

To express our "change of climate" Easterns say, "change of water and air," water coming first.

12

"The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night" (Psalm cxxi. 6). Easterns still believe in the blighting effect of the moon's rays, which the Northerners of Europe, who view it under different conditions, are pleased to deny. I have seen a hale and hearty Arab, after sitting an hour in the moonlight, look like a man fresh from a sick bed; and I knew an Englishman in India whose face was temporarily paralysed by sleeping with it exposed to the moon.

13

The negroids and negroes of Zanzibar.

14

i. e. Why not make thy heart as soft as thy sides! The converse of this was reported at Paris during the Empire, when a man had by mistake pinched a very high personage: "Ah, Madame! if your heart be as hard as (what he had pinched) I am a lost man."

15

"Na'íman" is said to one after bathing or head-shaving: the proper reply, for in the East every sign of ceremony has its countersign, is "Allah benefit thee!" (Pilgrimage i. II, iii. 285; Lane M. E. chapt. viii.; Caussin de Perceval's Arabic Grammar, etc., etc.). I have given a specimen (Pilgrimage i., 122) not only of sign and countersign, but also of the rhyming repartee which rakes love. Hanien! (pleasant to thee! said when a man drinks). Allah pleasure thee (Allah yuhanník which Arnauts and other ruffians perverted to Allah yaník, Allah copulate with thee); thou drinkest for ten! – I am the cock and thou art the hen! (i. e. a passive catamite) – Nay, I am the thick one (the penis which gives pleasure) and thou art the thin! And so forth with most unpleasant pleasantries.

16

In the old version she is called "The Fair Persian," probably from the owner: her name means "The Cheerer of the Companion."

17

Pronounce "Nooraddeen." I give the name as written in Arabic.

18

Amongst Moslems, I have said, it is held highly disgraceful when the sound of women's cries can be heard by outsiders.

19

In a case like this, the father would be justified by Rasm (or usage) not by Koranic law, in playing Brutus with his son. The same would be the case in a detected intrigue with a paternal concubine and, in very strict houses, with a slave-girl.

20

Orientals fear the "Zug" or draught as much as Germans; and with even a better reason. Draughts are most dangerous in hot climates.

21

The Unity of the Godhead and the Apostleship of Mohammed.

22

This would be done only in the case of the very poor.

23

Prayers over the dead are not universal in Al-Islam; but when they are recited they lack the "sijdah" or prostration.

24

Or, "Of the first and the last," i. e. Mohammed, who claimed (and claimed justly) to be the "Seal" or head and end of all Prophets and Prophecy. For note that whether the Arab be held inspired or a mere impostor, no man making the same pretension has moved the world since him. Mr. J. Smith the Mormon (to mention one in a myriad) made a bold attempt and failed.

25

i. e. flatterers.

26

In one matter Moslems contrast strongly with Christians, by most scrupulously following the example of their law-giver: hence they are the model Conservatives. But (European) Christendom is here, as in other things, curiously contradictory: for instance, it still keeps a "Feast of the Circumcision," and practically holds circumcision in horror. Eastern Christians, however, have not wholly abolished it, and the Abyssinians, who find it a useful hygienic precaution, still practise it. For ulcers, syphilis and other venereals which are readily cured in Egypt become dangerous in the Highlands of Ethiopia.

27

Arab. "Sabab," the orig. and material sense of the word; hence "a cause," etc.

28

Thus he broke his promise to his father, and it is insinuated that retribution came upon him.

29

"O Pilgrim" (Ya Hájj) is a polite address even to those who have not pilgrimaged. The feminine "Hájjah" (in Egypt pronounced "Hággeh") is similarly used.

30

Arab. usúl=roots, i. e. I have not forgotten my business.

31

Moslems from Central and Western North Africa. (Pilgrimage i. 261; iii. 7, etc.); the "Jabarti" is the Moslem Abyssinian.

32

This is a favourite bit of chaff and is to be lengthened out almost indefinitely e. g. every brown thing is not civet nor every shining thing a diamond; every black thing is not charcoal nor every white chalk; every red thing is not a ruby nor every yellow a topaz; every long-necked thing is not a camel, etc., etc., etc.

33

He gives him the name of his grandfather; a familiar usage.

34

Arab. "Ma'janah," a place for making unbaked bricks (Tob=Span. Adobe) with chaff and bruised or charred straw. The use of this article in rainless lands dates from ages immemorial, and formed the outer walls of the Egyptian temple.

35

Arab. "Barsh," a bit of round matting used by the poor as a seat. The Wazir thus showed that he had been degraded to the condition of a mat-maker.

36

The growth (a Poa of two species) which named Wady Halfá (vulg. "Halfah"), of which the home public has of late heard perhaps a trifle too much. Burckhardt (Prov. 226) renders it "dry reeds" – incorrectly enough.