One Thousand and One Nights, page 769
392 Chapters liv., lv. and lvi.
393 We should say, not to utter, etc.
394 These well-known “humours of Hippocrates,” which reappear in the form of temperaments of European phrenology, are still the base of Eastern therapeutics.
395 The doctrine of the three souls will be intelligible to
Spiritualists.
396 Arab. “Al-lαmi”=the l-shaped, curved, forked.
397 Arab. “Usus,” our os sacrum because, being incorruptible, the body will be built up thereon for Resurrection-time. Hence Hudibras sings (iii. 2),
“The learned Rabbis of the Jews
Write there’s a bone which they call leuz,
I’ the rump of man, etc.”
It is the Heb. “Uz,” whence older scholars derived os. Sale (sect. iv.) called it “El Ajb, os coccygis or rump-bone.”
398 Arab physiologists had difficulties in procuring “subjects”; and usually practised dissection on the simiads. Their illustrated books are droll; the figures have been copied and recopied till they have lost all resemblance to the originals.
399 The liver and spleen are held to be congealed blood.
Hence the couplet,
“We are allowed two carrions (i.e. with throats uncut) and
two bloods,
The fish and the locust, the liver and the spleen.”
(Pilgrimage iii. 92.)
400 This is perfectly true and yet little known to the general.
401 Koran xvii. 39.
402 Arab. “Al-malikhulνya,” proving that the Greeks then pronounced the penultimate vowel according to the acute accentνa; not as we slur it over. In old Hebrew we have the transliteration of four Greek words; in the languages of Hindostan many scores including names of places; and in Latin and Arabic as many hundreds. By a scholar-like comparison of these remains we should find little difficulty in establishing the true Greek pronunciation since the days of Alexander the Great; and we shall prove that it was pronounced according to accent and emphatically not quantity. In the next century I presume English boys will be taught to pronounce Greek as the Greeks do.
403 Educated Arabs can quote many a verse bearing upon domestic medicine and reminding us of the lines bequeathed to Europe by the School of Salerno. Such e.g. are;
“After the noon-meal, sleep, although for moments twain;
After the night-meal, walk, though but two steps be ta’en;
And after swiving stale, though but two drops thou drain.”
404 Arab. “Sarνdah” (Tharνdah), also called “ghaut”=crumbled bread and hashed meat in broth; or bread, milk and meat. The Sarνdah of Ghassαn, cooked with eggs and marrow, was held a dainty dish: hence the Prophet’s dictum.
405 Koran v. 92. “Lots”=games of chance and “images”=statues.
406 Koran ii. 216. The word “Maysar” which I have rendered “gambling” or gaming (for such is the modern application of the word), originally meant what St. Jerome calls and explains thereby the verse (Ezek. xxi. 22), “The King held in his hand the lot of Jerusalem” i.e. the arrow whereon the city-name was written. The Arabs use it for casting lots with ten azlam or headless arrows (for dice) three being blanks and the rest notched from one to seven. They were thrown by a “Zαrib” or punter and the stake was generally a camel. Amongst so excitable a people as the Arabs, this game caused quarrels and bloodshed, hence its prohibition: and the theologians, who everywhere and at all times delight in burdening human nature, have extended the command, which is rather admonitory than prohibitive, to all games of chance. Tarafah is supposed to allude to this practice in his Mu’allakah.
407 Liberal Moslems observe that the Koranic prohibition is not absolute, with threat of Hell for infraction. Yet Mohammed doubtless forbade all inebriatives and the occasion of his so doing is well known. (Pilgrimage ii. 322.)
408 I have noticed this soured milk in Pilgrimage i. 362.
409 He does not say the “Caliph” or successor of his uncle
Mohammed.
410 The Jewish Korah (Numbers xvi.) fabled by the Koran (xxviii. 76), following a Talmudic tradition, to have been a man of immense wealth. The notion that lying with an old woman, after the menses have ceased, is unwholesome, dates from great antiquity; and the benefits of the reverse process were well known to good King David. The faces of children who sleep with their grandparents (a bad practice now waxing obsolete in England), of a young wife married to an old man and of a young man married to an old woman, show a peculiar wizened appearance, a look of age overlaying youth which cannot be mistaken.
411 Arab. “Hindibα”(=endubium): the modern term is
Shakurνyah=chicorιe. I believe it to be very hurtful to the eyes.
412 Arab. “Khuffαsh” and “Watwαt”: in Egypt a woman is called “Watwαtνyah” when the hair of her privities has been removed by applying bats’ blood. I have often heard of this; but cannot understand how such an application can act depilatory.
413 Dictionaries render the word by “dragon, cockatrice.” The Badawin apply it to a variety of serpents mostly large and all considered venomous.
414 Arab. “Zarr wa ‘urwah,” 1it.=handle. The button-hole, I have said, is a modern invention; Urwah is also applied to the loopshaped handle of the water-skin, for attachment of the Allαkah or suspensory thong.
415 Koran lxx. 40; see also the chapter following, v. 16.
416 Koran x. 5; the “her” refers to the sun.
417 Koran xxxvi. 40.
418 Koran xxii. 60.
419 Arab. “Manαzil:” these are the Hindu “Nakshatra”; extensively used in meteorology even by Europeans unconsciously: thus they will speak of the Elephantina-storm without knowing anything of the lunar mansion so called. The names in the text are successively Sharatαn=two horns of the Ram; (2) the Ram’s belly; (3) the Pleiades; (4) Aldebaran; (5) three stars in Orion’s head; (6) ditto in Orion’s shoulder; (7) two stars above the Twins; (8) Lion’s nose and first summer station; (9) Lion’s eye; (1O) Lion’s forehead; (11) Lion’s mane; (12) Lion’s heart; (13) the Dog, two stars in Virgo; (14) Spica Virginis; (15) foot of Virgo; (16) horns of Scorpio; (17) the Crown; (18) heart of Scorpio; (19) tail of Scorpio; (2O) stars in Pegasus; (21) where no constellation appears; (22) the Slaughterer’s luck; (23) Glutton’s luck; (24) Luck of Lucks, stars in Aquarius; (25) Luck of Tents, stars in Aquarius; (26) the fore-lip or spout of Urn; (27) hind lip of Urn; and (28) in navel of Fish’s belly (Batn al-Hϊt); of these 28, to each of the four seasons 7 are allotted.
420 The Hebrew absey, still used by Moslems in chronograms. For mnemonic purposes the 28 letters are distributed into eight words of which the first and second are Abjad and Hawwaz. The last six letters in two words (Thakhiz and Zuzigh) are Arabian, unknown to the Jews and not found in Syriac.
421 Arab. “Zindνk;” properly, one who believes in two gods (the old Persian dualism); in books an atheist, i.e. one who does not believe in a god or gods; and, popularly, a free-thinker who denies the existence of a Supreme Being, rejects revelation for the laws of Nature imprinted on the heart of man and for humanity in its widest sense. Hence he is accused of permitting incestuous marriages and other abominations. We should now call him (for want of something better) an Agnostic.
422 Koran xxxi. 34. The words may still be applied to meteorologists especially of the scientific school. Even the experienced (as the followers of the late Mathieu de la Drτme) reckon far more failures than successes. The Koranic passage enumerates five things known only to Allah; Judgment-day; rain; sex of child in womb; what shall happen to-morrow and where a man shall die.
423 The fifth and seventh months (January and March) of the Coptic year which, being solar, is still used by Arab and Egyptian meteorologists. Much information thereon will be found in the “Egyptian Calendar” by Mr. Mitchell, Alexandria, 1876. It bears the appropriate motto “Anni certus modus apud solos semper Egyptios fuit.” (Macrobius.) See also Lane M.E., chapt. ix.
424 Vulg. Kiyαk; the fourth month, beginning 9th — 1Oth
December. The first month is Tϊt, commencing 1Oth — 11th
September.
425 The 8th and 12th months partly corresponding with April and August: Hαtϊr is the 3rd (November) and AmshRr the 6th (February).
426 Moslems have been compelled to adopt infidel names for the months because Mohammed’s Koranic rejection of Nasy or intercalation makes their lunar months describe the whole circle of the seasons in a cycle of about thirty-three and a half years. Yet they have retained the terms which contain the original motive of the denomination. The first month is Muharram, the “Holy,” because war was forbidden; it was also known as Safar No. 1. The second Safar=“Emptiness,” because during the heats citizens left the towns and retired to Tαif and other cool sites. Rabν’a (first and second) alluded to the spring-pasturages; Jumαdα (first and second) to the “hardening” of the dry ground and, according to some, to the solidification, freezing, of the water in the highlands. Rajab (No.7)=“worshipping,” especially by sacrifice, is also known as Al-Asamm the deaf; because being sacred, the rattle of arms was unheard. Sha’abαn=“collecting,” dispersing, ruining, because the tribal wars recommenced: Ramazan (intensely hot) has been explained and Shawwαl (No. 10) derives from Shaul (elevating) when the he-camels raise their tails in rut. Zϊ’l-Ka’adah, the sedentary, is the rest time of the year, when fighting is forbidden and Zu’l-Hijjah explains itself as the pilgrimage-month.
427 The lowest of the seven.
428 Koran xxxvii. 5.
429 Arab. “Faylasϊf,” an evident corruption from the Greek. Amongst the vulgar it denotes a sceptic, an atheist; much the same a “Frammαsϊn” or Freemason. The curious reader will consult the Dabistan, vol. iii. chapt. xi. et seq. “On the Religion of the Wise” (philosophi), and, Beaconsfield’s theft from Shaftesbury.
430 Koran xxxvi. 37-38.
431 Koran xxii. 7. The Hour i.e. of Judgment.
432 Koran xx. 58. The Midrasch Tanchumah on Exod. vii. gives a similar dialogue between Pharaoh and Moses. (Rodwell, in loco.)
433 Arab. “Sham’ϊn” or “Shim’ϊn,” usually applied to Simon
Peter (as in Acts xv. 14). But the text alludes to Saint Simeon
(Luke ii. 25-35). See Gospel of Infancy (ii. 8) and especially
the Gospel of Nicodemus (xii. 3) which makes him a High-Priest.
434 Sαlih the Patriarch’s she-camel, miraculously produced from the rock in order to convert the Thamϊd-tribe. (Koran vii.)
435 When Abu Bakr was hiding with Mohammed in a cave on the Hill Al-Saur (Thaur or Thϊr, Pilgrimage ii. 131) South of Meccah, which must not be confounded with the cave on Jabal Hirα now called Jabal Nϊr on the way to Arafat (Pilgrimage iii. 246), the fugitives were protected by a bird which built her nest at the entrance (according to another legend it was curtained by a spider’s web), whilst another bird (the crow of whom I shall presently speak) tried to betray them. The first bird is popularly supposed to have been a pigeon, and is referred to by Hudibras,
“Th’ apostles of this fierce religion
Like Mahomet, were ass and widgeon.”
The ass I presume alludes to the marvellous beast Al-Burαk which the Greeks called from (Euthymius in Pocock, Spec. A.H. p.144) and which Indian Moslems picture with human face, ass’s ears, equine body and peacock’s wings and tail. The “widgeon” I presume to be a mistake or a misprint for pigeon.
436 The Arabs are not satisfied with the comparative moderation of the Hebrew miracle, and have added all manner of absurdities. (Pilgrimage ii. 288.)
437 Koran lxxxi. 18. Sale translates “by the morning when it appeareth;” and the word (tanaffus) will bear this meaning. Mr. Rodwell prefers, “By the dawn when it clears away the darkness by its breath.”
438 As a rule Moslems are absurdly ignorant of arithmetic and apparently cannot master it. Hence in Egypt they used Copts for calculating-machines and further East Hindds. The mildest numerical puzzle, like the above, is sure of success.
439 The paradiseal tree which supplied every want. Mohammed borrowed it from the Christians (Rev. xxi. 10-21 and xxii. 1-2) who placed in their paradise the Tree of Life which bears twelve sorts of fruits and leaves of healing virtue. (See also the 3rd book of Hermas, his Similitudes.) The Hebrews borrowed it from the Persians. Amongst the Hindus it appears as “Kalpavriksha;” amongst the Scandinavians as Yggdrasil. The curious reader will consult Mr. James Fergusson’s learned work, “Tree and Serpent Worship,” etc. London, 1873.
440 Aaron’s Rod becomes amongst Moslems (Koran vii. 110) Moses’ Staff; the size being that of a top-mast. (Pilgrimage i. 300, 301.) In Koran xx. 18, 19, we find a notice of its uses; and during the Middle Ages it reappeared in the Staff of Wamba the Goth (A.D.672-680) the witch’s broomstick was its latest development.
441 Christ, say the Eutychians, had only one nature, the divine; so he was crucified in effigy.
442 Jesus is compared with Adam in the Koran (chapt. iii.): his titles are Kalαmu ‘llah (word of God) because engendered without a father, and Rϊhu ‘llah (breath of God) because conceived by Gabriel in the shape of a beautifui youth breathing into the Virgin’s vulva. Hence Moslems believe in a “miraculous conception” and consequently determine that one so conceived was, like Elias and Khizr, not subject to death; they also hold him born free from “original sin” (a most sinful superstition), a veil being placed before the Virgin and Child against the Evil One who could not touch them. He spoke when a babe in cradle; he performed miracles of physic; he was taken up to Heaven; he will appear as the forerunner of Mohammed on the White Tower of Damascus, and finally he will be buried at Al-Medinah. The Jews on the other hand speak of him as “that man:” they hold that he was begotten by Joseph during the menstrual period and therefore a born magician. Moreover he learned the Sham ha-maphrash or Nomen tetragrammaton, wrote it on parchment and placed it in an incision in his thigh, which closed up on the Name being mentioned (Buxtorf, Lex Talmud, 25-41). Other details are given in the Toldoth Jesu (Historia Joshuζ Nazareni). This note should be read by the eminent English littιrateur who discovered a fact, well known to Locke and Carlyle, that “Mohammedans are Christians.” So they are and something more.
443 In the Kalamdαn, or pen-case, is a little inkstand of metal occupying the top of the long, narrow box.
444 A fair specimen of the riddle known as the “surprise.”
445 Koran xli. 10.
446 Koran xxxvi. 82.
447 Here we enter upon a series of disputed points. The Wahhαbis deny the intercession of the Apostle (Pilgrimage ii. 76-77). The Shi’ahs place Ali next in dignity to Mohammed and there is a sect (Ali-Ilαhi) which believes him to be an Avatar or incarnation of the Deity. For the latter the curious reader will consult the “Dabistan,” ii. 451. The Koran by its many contradictions seems to show that Mohammed never could make up his own mind on the subject, thinking himself at times an intercessor and then sharply denying all intercession.
448 Arab. “Kanjifah”=a pack of cards; corrupted from the Persian “Ganjνfah.” We know little concerning the date or origin of this game in the East, where the packs are quite unlike ours.
449 It is interesting to compare this account with the pseudo Ovid and with Tale clxvi. in Gesta “Of the game of Schaci.” Its Schacarium is the chess-board. Rochus (roccus, etc.) is not from the Germ. Rock (a coat) but from Rukh (Pers. a hero, a knight-errant) Alphinus (Ital. Alfino) is Al-Firzαn (Pers. science, wise).
450 Arab, “Baydak” or “Bayzak”; a corruption of the Persian “Piyαdah”=a footman, peon, pawn; and proving whence the Arabs derived the game. The Persians are the readiest backgammon-players known to me, better even than the Greeks; they throw the dice from the hand and continue foully abusing the fathers and mothers of the “bones” whilst the game lasts. It is often played in the intervals of dinner by the higher classes in Persia.
451 Metaphor from loading camels and mules. To “eat” a piece is to take it.
452 Arab. “Bilαbil”; a plural of “Bulbul” with a double entendre balαbil (plur. of ballalah)=heart’s troubles, and “balα, bul”=a calamity, nay, etc.
453 The popular English idea of the Arab horse is founded upon utter unfact. Book after book tells us, “There are three distinct breeds of Arabians -the Attechi, a very superior breed; the Kadishi, mixed with these and of little value; and the Kochlani, highly prized and very difficult to procure.” “Attechi” may be At-Tαzi (the Arab horse, or hound) or some confusion with “At” (Turk.) a horse. “Kadish” (Gadish or Kidish) is a nag; a gelding, a hackney, a “pacer” (generally called “Rahwαn”). “Kochlani” is evidently “Kohlαni,” the Kohl-eyed, because the skin round the orbits is dark as if powdered. This is the true blue blood; and the bluest of all is “Kohlαni al-Ajϊz” (of the old woman) a name thus accounted for. An Arab mare dropped a filly when in flight; her rider perforce galloped on and presently saw the foal appear in camp, when it was given to an old woman for nursing and grew up to be famous. The home of the Arab horse is the vast plateau of Al-Najd: the Tahαmah or lower maritime regions of Arabia, like Malabar, will not breed good beasts. The pure blood all descends from five collateral lines called Al-Khamsah (the Cinque). Literary and pedantic Arabs derive them from the mares of Mohammed, a native of the dry and rocky region, Al-Hijaz, whither horses are all imported. Others go back (with the Koran, chapt. xxviii.) to Solomon, possibly Salmαn, a patriarch fourth in descent from Ishmael and some 600 years older than the Hebrew King. The Badawi derive the five from Rabν’at al-Faras (R. of the mare) fourth in descent from Adnαn, the fount of Arab genealogy. But they differ about the names: those generally given are Kahilan (Kohaylat), Saklαwi (which the Badawin pronounce Saglαwi), Abayαn, and Hamdαni; others substitute Manαkhi (the long-maned), Tanνs and Jalfϊn. These require no certificate amongst Arabs; for strangers a simple statement is considered enough. The Badawin despise all half-breeds (Arab sires and country mares), Syrian, Turkish, Kurdish and Egyptian. They call these (first mentioned in the reign of Ahmes, B.C. 1600) the “sons of horses”; as opposed to “sons of mares,” or thorough-breds. Nor do they believe in city-bred animals. I have great doubts concerning our old English sires, such as the Darley Arabian which looks like a Kurdish half-bred, the descendant of those Cappadocians so much prized by the Romans: in Syria I rode a “Harfϊshν” (Kurd) the very image of it. There is no difficulty in buying Arab stallions except the price. Of course the tribe does not like to part with what may benefit the members generally; but offers of £500 to £1,000 would overcome men’s scruples. It is different with mares, which are almost always the joint property of several owners. The people too dislike to see a hat on a thorough-bred mare: “What hast thou done that thou art ridden by that ill-omened Kafir?” the Badawin used to mutter when they saw a highly respectable missionary at Damascus mounting a fine Ruwalα mare. The feeling easily explains the many wars about horses occurring in Arab annals, e.g. about Dαhis and Ghabrα. (C. de Perceval, Essas, vol.ii.)
