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第132章

[27] Lane (i. 616),says'of wine,milk,sherbet,or any other beverage.'Here it is wine,a practice famed in Persian poetry,especially by Hafiz,but most distasteful to a European stomach.

We find the Mu allakah of Imr alKeys noticing'our morning draught.'Nott (Hafiz) says a'cheerful cup of wine in the morning was a favourite indulgence with the more luxurious Persians. And it was not uncommon among the Easterns,to salute friend by saying.'May your morning potation be agreeable to you!'

In the present day this practice is confined to regular debauchees.

[28] Koran xii. 31. The words spoken by Zulaykha's women friends and detractors whom she invited to see Beauty Joseph.

[29] A formula for averting fascination. Koran,chaps. cxiii.1.'Falak'means'cleaving'hence the breaking forth of light from darkness,a'wonderful instance of the Divine power.'

[30] The usual delicate chaff.

[31] Such letters are generally written on a fullsized sheet of paper ('notes'are held slighting in the East) and folded till the breadth is reduced to about one inch. The edges are gummed,the ink,much like our Indian ink,is smeared with the finger upon the signet ring;the place where it is to be applied is slightly wetted with the tongue and the seal is stamped across the line of junction to secure privacy. I have given a specimen of an original loveletter of the kind in'Scinde,or the Unhappy Valley,'chaps. iv.

[32] Arab.'Salb'which may also mean hanging,but the usual term for the latter in The Nights is'shanak.'Crucifixion,abolished by the superstitious Constantine,was practised as a servile punishment as late as the days of Mohammed Ali Pasha the Great e malefactors were nailed and tied to the patibulum or crosspiece without any sup pedaneum or footrest and left to suffer tortures from flies and sun,thirst and hunger. They often lived three days and died of the wounds mortifying and the nervous exhaustion brought on by cramps and convulsions. In many cases the corpses were left to feed the kites and crows;and this added horror to the death. Moslems care little for mere hanging.

Whenever a fanatical atrocity is to be punished,the malefactor should be hung in pigskin,his body burnt and the ashes publicly thrown into a common cesspool.

[33] Arab'Shaytan'the insolent or rebellious one is a common term of abuse. The word I. Koramc,and borrowed as usual from the Jews.'Satan'occurs four times in the O.T. of which two are in Job where,however,he is a subordinate angel.

[34] Arab.'Alak'from the Koran xxii. 5.'O men...consider that we first created you of dust (Adam);afterwards of seed (Rodwell's'moist germs of life');afterwards of a little coagulated (or clots of) blood.'It refers to all mankind except Adam,Eve and Isa. Also chaps. xcvi. 2,which,as has been said was probably the first composed at Meccah. Mr. Rodwell (v. 10)

translates by'Servant of God'what should be'Slave of Allah,'alluding to Mohammed's original name Abdullah. See my learned friend Aloys Sprenger,Leben,etc.,i.155.

[35] The Hindus similarly exaggerate:'He was ready to leap out of his skin in his delight'(Katha,etc.,p. 443).

[36] A star in the tail of the Great Bear,one of the'Banat alNa'ash,'or a star close to the second. Its principal use is to act foil to bright Sohayl (Canopus) as in the beginning of Jami's LaylaMajnun:

To whom Thou'rt hid,day is darksome night:

To whom shown,Soha as Sohayl is bright.

See also alHariri (xxxii. and xxxvi.). The saying,'I show her Soha and she shows me the moon'(A. P. i. 547) arose as follows.

In the Ignorance a beautiful Amazon defied any man to take her maidenhead;and a certain Ibn alGhazz won the game by struggling with her till she was nearly senseless. He then asked her,'How is thine eyesight: dost thou see Soha?'and she,in her confusion,pointed to the moon and said,'That is it!'

[37] The moon being masculine (lupus) and the sun feminine.

[38] The'five Shaykhs'must allude to that number of Saints whose names are doubtful;it would be vain to offer conjectures.

Lane and his'Sheykh'(i. 617) have tried and failed.

[39] The beauties of nature seem always to provoke hunger in Orientals,especially Turks,as good news in Englishmen.

[40] Pers.'Lajuward': Arab.'Lazuward';prob. the origin of our'azure,'through the Romaic and the Ital. azzurro;and,more evidently still,of lapis lazuli,for which do not see the Dictionaries.

[41] Arab.'Maurid.'the desertwells where caravans drink:

also the way to water wells.

[42] The famous Avicenna,whom the Hebrews called Aben Sina.

The early European Arabists,who seem to have learned Arabic through Hebrew,borrowed their corruption,and it long kept its place in Southern Europe.

[43] According to the Hindus there are ten stages of love

sickness: (1) Love of the eyes (2) Attraction of the Manas or mind;(3) Birth of desire;(4) Loss of sleep;(5) Loss of flesh;(6) Indifference to objects of sense;(7) Loss of shame,(8)Distraction of thought (9) Loss of consciousness;and (10) Death.

[44] We should call this walk of'Arab ladies'a waddle: I have never seen it in Europe except amongst the trading classes of Trieste,who have a'wriggle'of their own.

[45] In our idiom six doors.

[46] They refrained from the highest enjoyment,intending to marry.

[47] Arab.'Jihad,'lit. fighting against something;

Koranically,fighting against infidels non believers in Allslam (chaps. Ix. 1). But the'Mujahidun'who wage such war are forbidden to act aggressively (ii. 186). Here it is a war to save a son.

[48] The lady proposing extreme measures is characteristic:

Egyptians hold,and justly enough,that their women are more amorous than men.

[49]'O Camphor,'an antiphrase before noticed. The vulgar also say'Ya Talji'=O snowy (our snowball),the polite'Ya Abu Sumrah !'=O father of brownness.

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