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

145

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

146

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

147

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

Bring forth the birth-stool – no, let it alone;

She is so far beyond all compass grown,

Some other new device us needs must stead,

Or else she never can be brought to bed.

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

148

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

149

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

150

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

151

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

152

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

153

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

154

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

155

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

156

In Pers.=a tooth, the popular word.

157

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

158

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

159

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

160

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

161

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

162

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

163

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

164

Arab. "Kunfuz"=hedgehog or porcupine.

165

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

166

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

167

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

168

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

169

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

170

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

171

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

172

The allusion is Koranic: "O men, if ye be in doubt concerning the resurrection, consider that he first created you of the dust of the ground (Adam); afterwards of seed" (chapt. xxii.). But the physiological ideas of the Koran are curious. It supposes that the Mani or male semen is in the loins and that of women in the breast bone (chapt. lxxxvi.); that the mingled seed of the two (chapt. lxxvi.) fructifies the ovary and that the child is fed through the navel with menstruous blood, hence the cessation of the catamenia. Barzoi (Kalilah and Dímnah) says: