A plain and literal translation of the Arabian nights entertainments, now entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 4 (of 17). Richard Francis Burton

22

This habit of weeping when friends meet after long parting is customary, I have noted, amongst the American “Indians,” the Badawin of the New World; they shed tears thinking of the friends they have lost. Like most primitive people they are ever ready to weep as was Æneas or Shakespeare’s saline personage: —

23

Here poetical justice is not done; in most Arab tales the two adulterous Queens would have been put to death.

24

Pronounce Aladdin Abush-Shámát.

25

Arab. “Misr” vulg. Masr: a close connection of Misraim – the “two Misrs,” Egypt, upper and lower.

26

The Persians still call their Consuls “Shah-bandar,” lit. king of the Bandar or port.

27

Arab. “Dukhúl,” the night of going in, of seeing the bride unveiled for the first time, etcætera.

28

Arab. “Barsh” or “Bars,” the commonest kind. In India it is called Ma’jún (= electuary, generally): it is made of Ganja or young leaves, buds, capsules and florets of hemp (C. sativa), poppy-seed and flowers of the thorn-apple (datura) with milk and sugar-candy, nutmegs, cloves, mace and saffron, all boiled to the consistency of treacle which hardens when cold. Several recipes are given by Herklots (Glossary s. v. Majoon). These electuaries are usually prepared with “Charas,” or gum of hemp, collected by hand or by passing a blanket over the plant in early morning, and it is highly intoxicating. Another intoxicant is “Sabzi,” dried hemp-leaves, poppy-seed, cucumber-seed, black pepper and cardamoms rubbed down in a mortar with a wooden pestle, and made drinkable by adding milk, ice-cream, etc. The Hashish of Arabia is the Hindustani Bhang, usually drunk and made as follows. Take of hemp-leaves, well washed, 3 drams; black pepper 45 grains and of cloves, nutmeg and mace (which add to the intoxication) each 12 grains. Triturate in 8 ounces of water or the juice of watermelon or cucumber, strain and drink. The Egyptian Zabíbah is a preparation of hemp-florets, opium and honey, much affected by the lower orders, whence the proverb: “Temper thy sorrow with Zabibah,.” In Al-Hijaz it is mixed with raisins (Zabíb) and smoked in the water-pipe. (Burckhardt No. 73). Besides these there is (1) “Post” poppy-seed prepared in various ways but especially in sugared sherbets; (2) Datura (stramonium) seed, the produce of the thorn-apple, bleached and put into sweetmeats by dishonest confectioners; it is a dangerous intoxicant, producing spectral visions, delirium tremens, etc.; and (3) various preparations of opium especially the “Madad,” pills made up with toasted betel-leaf and smoked. Opium, however, is usually drunk in the shape of “Kusumba,” a pill placed in wet cotton and squeezed in order to strain and clean it of the cowdung and other filth with which it is adulterated.

29

Arab. “Sikankúr” (Gr. Σκίγκος, Lat. Scincus) a lizard (S. officinalis) which, held in the hand, still acts as an aphrodisiac in the East, and which in the Middle Ages was considered a universal medicine. In the “Adja’ib al-Hind” (Les Merveilles de l’Inde) we find a notice of a bald-headed old man who was compelled to know his wife twice a day and twice a night in consequence of having eaten a certain fish. (Chapt. lxxviii. of the translation by M. L. Marcel Devic, from a manuscript of the tenth century; Paris, Lemaire, 1878). Europeans deride these prescriptions, but Easterns know better: they affect the fancy, that is, the brain; and often succeed in temporarily relieving impotence. The recipes for this evil, which is incurable only when it comes from heart-affections, are innumerable in the East; and about half of every medical work is devoted to them. Many a quack has made his fortune with a few bottles of tincture of cantharides, and a man who could discover a specific would become a millionaire in India only. The curious reader will consult for specimens the Ananga-Ranga Shastra by Koka Pandit; or the “Rujú ‘al-Shaykh ila ‘l-Sabáh fi Kuwwati ‘l-Báh” (the Return of the Old Man to Youth in power of Procreation) by Ahmad bin Sulaymán known as Ibn Kamál Báshá in 139 chapters lithographed at Cairo. Of these aphrodisiacs I shall have more to say.

30

Alá al-Din (our old friend Aladdin) = Glory of the Faith, a name of which Mohammed, who preferred the simplest, like his own, would have highly disapproved. The most grateful names to Allah are Abdallah (Allah’s Slave) and Abd al-Rahmán (Slave of the Compassionate); the truest are Al-Hárith (the gainer, “bread-winner”) and Al-Hammám (the griever); and the hatefullest are Al-Harb (witch) and Al-Murrah (bitterness, Abu Murrah being a kunyat or by-name of the Devil). Abu al-Shámát (pronounced Abush-shámát) = Father of Moles, concerning which I have already given details. These names ending in – Din (faith) began with the Caliph Al-Muktadi bi-Amri ‘llah (regn. A.H. 467 = 1075), who entitled his Wazir “Zahír al-Din” (Backer or Defender of the Faith) and this gave rise to the practice. It may be observed that the superstition of naming by omens is in no way obsolete.

31

Meaning that he appeared intoxicated by the pride of his beauty as though it had been strong wine.

32

i. e. against the evil eye.

33

Meaning that he had been delicately reared.

34

A traditional saying of Mohammed.

35

So Boccaccio’s “Capo bianco” and “Coda verde.” (Day iv., Introduct.)

36

The opening chapter is known as the “Mother of the Book,” (as opposed to Yá Sín, the “heart of the Koran”) the “Surat (chapter) of Praise,” and the “Surat of repetition,” (because twice revealed?) or thanksgiving, or laudation (Al-Masáni) and by a host of other names for which see Mr. Rodwell who, however, should not write “Fatthah” (p. xxv.) nor “Fathah” (xxvii.). The Fátihah, which is to Al-Islam much what the “Paternoster” is to Christendom, consists of seven verses, in the usual Saj’a or rhymed prose, and I have rendered it as follows: —

In the name of the Compassionating, the Compassionate! ✿ Praise be to Allah who all the Worlds made ✿ The Compassionating, the Compassionate ✿ King of the Day of Faith! ✿ Thee only do we adore and of Thee only do we crave aid ✿ Guide us to the path which is straight ✿ The path of those for whom Thy love is great, not those on whom is hate, nor they that deviate ✿ Amen! O Lord of the World’s trine.

My Pilgrimage (i. 285; ii. 78 and passim) will supply instances of its application; how it is recited with open hands to catch the blessing from Heaven and the palms are drawn down the face (Ibid. i. 286), and other details.

37

i. e. when the evil eye has less effect than upon children. Strangers in Cairo often wonder to see a woman richly dressed leading by the hand a filthy little boy (rarely a girl) in rags, which at home will be changed to cloth of gold.

38

Arab. “Asídah” flour made consistent by boiling in water with the addition of “Samn” (clarified butter) and honey: more like pap than custard.

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