144
This is a Moslem law (Koran chapt. iv. bodily borrowed from the Talmud) which does not allow a man to marry one wife unless he can carnally satisfy her. Moreover he must distribute his honours equally and each wife has a right to her night unless she herself give it up. This was the case even with the spouses of the Prophet; and his biography notices several occasions when his wives waived their rights in favour of one another. M. Riche kindly provides the King with
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)
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,
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
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
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,
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: