Arab. Kárúrah: the water-doctor has always been an institution in the East and he has lately revived in Europe especially at the German baths and in London.
14
Lane makes this phrase O brother of the Persians! synonymous with O Persian! I think it means more, a Persian being generally considered too clever by half.
15
The verses deal in untranslatable word-plays upon womens names, Naomi (the blessing) Suadá or Suád (the happy, which Mr. Redhouse, in Kaabs Mantle-poem, happily renders Beatrice); and Juml (a sum or total) the two latter, moreover, being here fictitious.
16
And he (Jacob) turned from them, and said, O how I am grieved for Joseph! And his eyes became white with mourning (Quoth Joseph to his brethren), Take this my inner garment and throw it on my fathers face and he shall recover his sight So, when the messenger of good tidings came (to Jacob) he threw it (the shirt) over his face and he recovered his eye-sight. Koran, xii. 84, 93, 96. The commentators, by way of improvement, assure us that the shirt was that worn by Abraham when thrown into the fire (Koran, chapt. xvi.) by Nimrod (!). We know little concerning Jacobs daughters who named the only bridge spanning the upper Jordan, and who have a curious shrine-tomb near Jewish Safed (North of Tiberias), one of the four Holy Cities. The Jews ignore these daughters of Jacob and travellers neglect them.
17
Easterns, I have remarked, mostly recognise the artistic truth that the animal man is handsomer than woman; and that fair sex is truly only of skin-colour. The same is the general rule throughout creation, for instance the stallion compared with the mare, the cock with the hen; while there are sundry exceptions such as the Falconidæ.
18
The Badawi (who is nothing if not horsey) compares the gait of a woman who walks well (in Europe rarely seen out of Spain) with the slightly swinging walk of a thoroughbred mare, bending her graceful neck and looking from side to side at objects as she passes.
19
Li lláhi (darr) al-káil, a characteristic idiom. Darr = giving (rich) milk copiously; and the phrase expresses admiration, To Allah be ascribed (or Allah be praised for) his rich eloquence who said, etc. Some Hebraists would render it, Divinely (well) did he speak who said, etc., holding Allah to express a superlative like Yah (Jah) in Gen. iv. 1; x. 9. Nimrod was a hunter to the person (or presence) of Yah, i. e. mighty hunter.
20
Hamzah and Abbás were the famous uncles of Mohammed often noticed; Ukayl is not known; possibly it may be Akíl, a son of the fourth Caliph, Ali.
21
The Eastern ring is rarely plain; and, its use being that of a signet, it is always in intaglio: the Egyptians invented engraving hieroglyphics on wooden stamps for marking bricks and applied the process to the ring. Moses B.C. 1491 (Exod. xxviii. 9) took two onyx-stones, and graved on them the names of the children of Israel. From this the signet ring was but a step. Herodotus mentions an emerald seal set in gold, that of Polycrates, the work of Theodorus son of Telecles the Samian (iii. 141). The Egyptians also were perfectly acquainted with working in cameo (anaglyph) and rilievo, as may be seen in the cavo rilievo of the finest of their hieroglyphs. The Greeks borrowed from them the cameo and applied it to gems (e. g. Tryphons in the Marlborough collection), and they bequeathed the art to the Romans. We read in a modern book Cameo means an onyx, and the most famous cameo in the world is the onyx containing the Apotheosis of Augustus. The ring is given in marriage because it was a seal by which orders were signed (Gen. xxxviii. 18 and Esther iii. 10-12). I may note that the seal-ring of Cheops (Khufu), found in the Greatest Pyramid, was in the possession of my old friend, Doctor Abbott, of Auburn (U.S.), and was sold with his collection. It is the oldest ring in the world, and settles the Cheops-question.
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 Shakespeares saline personage:
This would make a man, a man of salt
To use his eyes for garden waterpots.
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 Majún (= 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. Σκγκος, 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 Adjaib al-Hind (Les Merveilles de lInde) 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 (Allahs 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 Boccaccios 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 Saja 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 Worlds 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.
39
Arab. Ghábah = I have explained as a low-lying place where the growth is thickest and consequently animals haunt it during the noon-heats.
40
Arab. Akkám, one who loads camels and has charge of the luggage. He also corresponds with the modern Mukharrij or camel-hirer (Pilgrimage i. 339); and hence the word Moucre (Moucres) which, first used by La Brocquière (A.D. 1432), is still the only term known to the French.
41
i. e. I am old and can no longer travel.
42
Taken from Al-Asmai, the Romance of Antar, and the episode of the Asafir Camels.
43
A Mystic of the twelfth century A.D. who founded the Kádirí order (the oldest and chiefest of the four universally recognised), to which I have the honour to belong, teste my diploma (Pilgrimage, Appendix i.). Visitation is still made to his tomb at Baghdad. The Arabs (who have no hard g-letter) alter to Jílán the name of his birth-place Gilan, a tract between the Caspian and the Black Seas.
44
The well-known Anglo-Indian Mucuddum; lit. one placed before (or over) others; an overseer.
45
Koran xiii. 14.
46
i. e. his chastity: this fashion of objecting to infamous proposals is very characteristic: ruder races would use their fists.
47
Arab. Ráfizí = the Shiah (tribe, sect) or Persian schismatics who curse the first three Caliphs: the name is taken from their own saying Inná rafizná-hum = verily we have rejected them. The feeling between Sunni (the so-called orthodox) and Shiah is much like the Christian love between a Catholic of Cork and a Protestant from the Black North. As Al-Siyuti or any historian will show, this sect became exceedingly powerful under the later Abbaside Caliphs, many of whom conformed to it and adopted its practices and innovations (as in the Azan or prayer-call), greatly to the scandal of their co-religionists. Even in the present day the hatred between these representatives of Arab monotheism and Persian Guebrism continues unabated. I have given sundry instances in my Pilgrimage, e. g. how the Persians attempt to pollute the tombs of the Caliphs they abhor.
48
Arab. Sakká, the Indian Bihishtí (man from Heaven): Each party in a caravan has one or more.
49
These Kirámát or Saints miracles, which Spiritualists will readily accept, are recorded in vast numbers. Most men have half a dozen to tell, each of his Pír or patron, including the Istidráj or prodigy of chastisement (Dabistan, iii. 274).