.

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ the slave refuses to be set free and starve. For a master so to do without ample reason is held disgraceful. I well remember the weeping and wailing throughout Sind when an order from Sir Charles Napier set free the negroes whom British philanthropy thus doomed to endure if not to die of hunger.

100

Manumission, which is founded upon Roman law, is an extensive subject discussed in the Hidáyah and other canonical works. The slave here lays down the law incorrectly, but his claim shows his truly "nigger" impudence.

101

This is quite true to nature. The most remarkable thing in the wild central African is his enormous development of "destructiveness." At Zanzibar I never saw a slave break a glass or plate without a grin or a chuckle of satisfaction.

102

Arab. "Khassá-ni"; Khusyatáni (vulg.) being the testicles, also called "bayzatán" (the two eggs) a double entendre which has given rise to many tales. For instance in the witty Persian book "Dozd o Kazi" (The Thief and the Judge) a footpad strips the man of learning and offers to return his clothes if he can ask him a puzzle in law or religion. The Kazi (in folk-lore mostly a fool) fails, and his wife bids him ask the man to supper for a trial of wits on the same condition. She begins with compliments and ends by producing five eggs which she would have him distribute equally amongst the three; and, when he is perplexed, she gives one to each of the men taking three for herself. Whereupon the "Dozd" wends his way, having lost his booty as his extreme stupidity deserved. In the text the eunuch, Kafur, is made a "Sandali" or smooth-shaven, so that he was of no use to women.

103

Arab. "Khara," the lowest possible word: Yá Khara! is the commonest of insults, used also by modest women. I have heard one say it to her son.

104

Arab. "Kámah," a measure of length, a fathom, also called "Bá'a." Both are omitted in that sadly superficial book, Lane's Modern Egyptians, App. B.

105

Names of her slave-girls which mean (in order), Garden-bloom, Dawn (or Beautiful), Tree o' Pearl (P. N. of Saladin's wife), Light of (right) Direction, Star o' the Morn, Lewdness (=Shahwah, I suppose this is a chaff), Delight, Sweetmeat and Miss Pretty.

106

This mode of disposing of a rival was very common in Harems. But it had its difficulties and on the whole the river was (and is) preferred.

107

An Eastern dislikes nothing more than drinking in a dim dingy place: the brightest lights seem to add to his "drinkitite."

108

He did not sleep with her because he suspected some palace-mystery which suggested prudence, she also had her reasons.

109

This is called in Egypt "Aslah" (Lane M. E. chapt. i.).

110

It would be a broad ribbon-like band upon which the letters could be worked.

111

In the Arab. "he cried." These "Yes, Yes! and No! No!" trifles are very common amongst the Arabs.

112

Arab. "Maragha" lit. rubbed his face on them like a fawning dog. Ghanim is another "softy" lover, a favourite character in Arab tales; and by way of contrast, the girl is masterful enough.

113

Because the Abbaside Caliphs descend from Al-Abbas paternal uncle of Mohammed. The text means more explicitly, "O descendant of the Prophet's uncle!"

114

The most terrible part of a belle passion in the East is that the beloved will not allow her lover leave of absence for an hour.

115

It is hard to preserve these wretched puns. In the original we have "O spray" (or branch) of capparis-shrub (aráki) which has been thinned of leaf and fruit (tujna, i. e., whose fruit, the hymen, has been plucked before and not by me) I see thee (aráka) against me sinning (tajní).

116

Apparently the writer forgets that the Abbaside banners and dress were black, originally a badge of mourning for the Imám Ibrahim bin Mohammed put to death by the Ommiade Caliph Al-Marwán. The modern Egyptian mourning, like the old Persian, is indigo-blue of the darkest; but, as before noted, the custom is by no means universal.

117

Koran, chapt. iv. In the East as elsewhere the Devil quotes Scripture.

118

A servant returning from a journey shows his master due honour by appearing before him in travelling suit and uncleaned.

119

The first name means "Rattan"; the second "Willow-wand," from the "Bán" or "Khiláf" the Egyptian willow (Salix Ægyptiaca Linn.) vulgarly called "Safsáf." Forskal holds the "Bán" to be a different variety.

120

Arab. "Ta'ám," which has many meanings: in mod. parlance it would signify millet, holcus-seed.

121

i. e. "I well know how to deal with him."

122

The Pen (title of the Koranic chapt. lxviii.) and the Preserved Tablet (before explained).

123

These plunderings were sanctioned by custom. But a few years ago, when the Turkish soldiers mutinied about arrears of pay (often delayed for years) the governing Páshá would set fire to the town and allow the men to loot what they pleased during a stated time. Rochet (soi-disant D'Héricourt) amusingly describes this manœuvre of the Turkish Governor of Al-Hodaydah in the last generation (Pilgrimage iii. 381).

124

Another cenotaph whose use was to enable women to indulge in their pet pastime of weeping and wailing in company.

125

The lodging of pauper travellers, as the chapel in Iceland is of the wealthy. I have often taken benefit of the mosque, but as a rule it is unpleasant, the matting being not only torn but over-populous. Juvenal seems to allude to the Jewish Synagogue similarly used: – "in quâ te quæro proseuchâ"? (iii. 296) and in Acts iii. we find the lame, blind and impotent in the Temple-porch.

126

This foul sort of vermin is supposed to be bred by perspiration. It is an epoch in the civilised traveller's life when he catches his first louse.

127

The Moslem peasant is a kind-hearted man and will make many sacrifices for a sick stranger even of another creed. It is a manner of "pundonor" with the village.

128

Such treatment of innocent women was only too common under the Caliphate and in contemporary Europe.

129

This may also mean, "And Heaven will reward thee;" but camel-men do not usually accept any drafts upon futurity.

130

He felt that he was being treated like a corpse.

131

This hatred of the Hospital extends throughout Southern Europe, even in places where it is not justified.

132

The importance of the pillow (wisádah or makhaddah) to the sick man is often recognised in The Nights. "He took to his pillow" is=took to his bed.

133

i. e. in order that the reverend men, who do not render such suit and service gratis, might pray for him.

134

The reader will notice in The Nights the frequent mention of these physical prognostications, with which mesmerists are familiar.

135

The Pers. name of the planet Saturn in the Seventh Heaven. Arab. "Zuhal"; the Kiun or Chiun of Amos vi. 26.

136

i. e. "Pardon me if I injured thee" – a popular phrase.

137

A "seduction," a charmer. The double-entendre has before been noticed.

138

This knightly tale, the longest in the Nights (xliv-cxlv.), about one-eighth of the whole, does not appear in the Bres. Edit. Lane, who finds it "objectionable," reduces it to two of its episodes, Aziz-cum-Azízah and Táj al-Mulúk. On the other СКАЧАТЬ