She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Ali Shar rejoined, “Hearkening and obedience;” and followed the eunuchs, whilst the people said to one another, “There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah, the Glorious, the Great! I wonder what the King will do with him!” And others said, “He will do him naught but good: for had he intended to harm him, he had not suffered him to eat his fill.” Now when the Castratos set him in presence of Zumurrud he saluted and kissed the earth before her, whilst she returned his salutation and received him with honour. Then she asked him, “What may be thy name and trade, and what brought thee to our city?”; and he answered, “O King my name is Ali Shar; I am of the sons of the merchants of Khorasan; and the cause of my coming hither is to seek for a slave-girl whom I have lost for she was dearer to me than my hearing and my seeing, and indeed my soul cleaveth to her, since I lost her; and such is my tale.” So saying he wept, till he swooned away; whereupon she bade them sprinkle rose-water on his face, which they did till he revived, when she said, “Here with the table of sand and the brass pen.” So they brought them and she took the pen and struck a geomantic scheme which she considered awhile; and then cried, “Thou hast spoken sooth, Allah will grant thee speedy reunion with her; so be not troubled.” Upon this she commanded her head-chamberlain to carry him to the bath and afterwards to clothe him in a handsome suit of royal apparel, and mount him on one of the best of the King’s horses and finally bring him to the palace at the last of the day. So the Chamberlain, after saying “I hear and I obey,” took him away; whilst the folk began to say to one another, “What maketh the King deal thus courteously with yonder youth?” And quoth one, “Did I not tell you that he would do him no hurt?; for he is fair of aspect; and this I knew, ever since the King suffered him to eat his fill.” And each said his say; after which they all dispersed and went their ways. As for Zumurrud, she thought the night would never come, that she might be alone with the beloved of her heart. As soon as it was dark, she withdrew to her sleeping-chamber and made her attendants think her overcome with sleep; and it was her wont to suffer none to pass the night with her save those two little eunuchs who waited upon her. After a while when she had composed herself, she sent for her dear Ali Shar and sat down upon the bed, with candles burning over her head and feet, and hanging lamps of gold lighting up the place like the rising sun. When the people heard of her sending for Ali Shar, they marvelled thereat and each man thought his thought and said his say; but one of them declared, “At all events the King is in love with this young man, and to-morrow he will make him generalissimo of the army.”[319] Now when they brought him into her, he kissed the ground between her hands and called down blessings on her, and she said in her mind, “There is no help for it but that I jest with him awhile, before I make myself known to him.”[320] Then she asked him, “O Ali, say me, hast thou been to the Hammam?”[321] and he answered, “Yes, O my lord.” Quoth she, “Come, eat of this chicken and meat, and drink of this wine and sherbet of sugar; for thou art weary; and after that come thou hither.” “I hear and I obey,” replied he, and did as she commanded him do. Now when he had made an end of eating and drinking, she said to him, “Come up with me on the couch and shampoo[322] my feet.” So he fell to rubbing feet and kneading calves, and found them softer than silk. Then said she, “Go higher with the massage;” and he, “Pardon me, O my lord, to the knee but no farther!” Whereupon quoth she, “Durst thou disobey me?: it shall be an ill-omened night for thee!”——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Zumurrud cried to her lord, Ali Shar, “Durst thou disobey me?: it shall be an ill-omened night for thee! Nay, but it behoveth thee to do my bidding and I will make thee my minion and appoint thee one of my Emirs.” Asked Ali Shar, “And in what must I do thy bidding, O King of the age?” and she answered, “Doff thy trousers and lie down on thy face.” Quoth he, “That is a thing in my life I never did; and if thou force me thereto, verily I will accuse thee thereof before Allah on Resurrection-day. Take everything thou hast given me and let me go from thy city.” And he wept and lamented; but she said, “Doff thy trousers and lie down on thy face, or I will strike off thy head.” So he did as she bade him and she mounted upon his back; and he felt what was softer than silk and smoother than cream and said in himself, “Of a truth, this King is nicer than all the women!” Now for a time she abode on his back, then she turned over on the bed, and he said to himself, “Praised be Allah! It seemeth his yard is not standing.” Then said she, “O Ali, it is of the wont of my prickle that it standeth not, except they rub it with their hands; so, come, rub it with thy hand, till it be at stand, else will I slay thee.” So saying, she lay down on her back and taking his hand, set it to her parts, and he found these same parts softer than silk; white, plumply-rounded, protuberant, resembling for heat the hot room of the bath or the heart of a lover whom love-longing hath wasted. Quoth Ali in himself, “Verily, our King hath a coynte; this is indeed a wonder of wonders!” And lust gat hold on him and his yard rose and stood upright to the utmost of its height; which when Zumurrud saw, she burst out laughing and said to him, “O my lord, all this happeneth and yet thou knowest me not!” He asked “And who art thou, O King?”; and she answered, “I am thy slave-girl Zumurrud.” Now whenas he knew this and was certified that she was indeed his very slave-girl, Zumurrud, he kissed her and embraced her and threw himself upon her as the lion upon the lamb. Then he sheathed his steel rod in her scabbard and ceased not to play the porter at her door and the preacher in her pulpit and the priest[323] at her prayer-niche, whilst she with him ceased not from inclination and prostration and rising up and sitting down, accompanying her ejaculations of praise and of “Glory to Allah!” with passionate movements and wrigglings and claspings of his member[324] and other amorous gestures, till the two little eunuchs heard the noise. So they came and peeping from behind the curtains saw the King lying on his back and upon him Ali Shar, thrusting and slashing whilst she puffed and blew and wriggled. Quoth they, “Verily, this be no man’s wriggle: belike this King is a woman.”[325] But they concealed their affair and discovered it to none. And when the morrow came, Zumurrud summoned all the troops and the lords of the realm and said to them, “I am minded to journey to this man’s country; so choose you a viceroy, who shall rule over you till I return to you.” And they answered, “We hear and we obey.” Then she applied herself to making ready the wants of the way, to wit provaunt and provender, monies and rarities for presents, camels and mules and so forth; after which she set out from her city with Ali Shar, and they ceased not faring on, till they arrived at his native place, where he entered his house and gave many gifts to his friends and alms and largesse to the poor. And Allah vouchsafed him children by her, and they both lived the gladdest and happiest of lives, till there came to them the Destroyer of delights and the Severer of societies and the Garnerer of graves. And glorified be He the Eternal without cease, and praised be He in every case! And amongst other tales they tell one of
254. Lane (ii. 435) ill-advisedly writes “Sher,” as “the word is evidently Persian signifying a Lion.” But this is only in the debased Indian dialect; a Persian, especially a Shirazi, pronounces “Shír.” And this is how it is written in the Bresl. Edit., vii. 262. “Shár” is evidently a fancy name, possibly suggested by the dynastic name of the Ghurjistan or Georgian Princes.
255. Again old experience, which has learned at a heavy cost how many a goodly apple is rotten at the core.
256. This couplet has occurred in Night xxi. I give Torrens (p. 206) by way of specimen.
257. Arab. “Záka” = merely tasting a thing which may be sweet with a bitter after-flavour.
258. This tetrastich was in Night xxx. with a difference.
259. The lines have occurred in Night xxx. I quote Torrens, p. 311.
260. This tetrastich is in Night clxix. I borrow from Lane (ii. 62).
261. The rude but effective refrigerator of the desert Arab who hangs his water-skin to the branch of a tree and allows it to swing in the wind.
262. Arab. “Khumásiyah” which Lane (ii. 438) renders “of quinary stature.” Usually it means five spans, but here five feet, showing that the girl was young and still growing. The invoice with a slave always notes her height in spans measured from ankle-bone to ear and above seven she loses value as being full grown. Hence Sudási (fem. Sudásiyah) is a slave six spans high, the Shibr or full span (9 inches) not the Fitr or short span from thumb to index. Faut is the interval between every finger; Ratab between index and medius, and Atab between medius and annularis.
263. “Moon-faced” now sounds sufficiently absurd to us, but it was not always so. Solomon (Cant. vi. 10) does not disdain the image “fair as the moon, clear as the sun;” and those who have seen a moon in the sky of Arabia will thoroughly appreciate it. We find it amongst the Hindus, the Persians, the Afghans, the Turks and all the nations of Europe. We have, finally, the grand example of Spenser:—
264. Blue eyes have a bad name in Arabia as in India: the witch Zarká of Al-Yamamah was noted for them; and “blue-eyed” often means “fierce-eyed,” alluding to the Greeks and Daylamites, mortal enemies to Ishmael. The Arabs say “ruddy of mustachio, blue of eye and black of heart.”
265. Before explained as used with camphor to fill the dead man’s mouth.
266. As has been seen, slapping on the neck is equivalent to our “boxing ears,” but much less barbarous and likely to injure the child. The most insulting blow is that with shoe, sandal or slipper because it brings foot in contact with head. Of this I have spoken before.
267. Arab. “Hibál” (= ropes) alluding to the A’akál-fillet which binds the Kúfiyah-kerchief on the Badawi’s head (Pilgrimage, i. 346).
268. Arab. “Khiyál”; afterwards called Kara Gyuz (= “black eyes,” from the celebrated Turkish Wazir). The mise-en-scène was like that of Punch, but of transparent cloth, lamp-lit inside and showing silhouettes worked by hand. Nothing could be more Fescennine than Kara Gyuz, who appeared with a phallus longer than himself and made all the Consuls-General periodically complain of its abuse; while the dialogue, mostly in Turkish, was even more obscene. Most ingenious were Kara Gyuz’s little ways of driving on an obstinate donkey and of tackling a huge Anatolian pilgrim. He mounted the Neddy’s back, face to tail, and inserting his left thumb like a clyster, hammered it with his right, when the donkey started at speed. For the huge pilgrim he used a ladder. These shows, now obsolete, used to enliven the Ezbekiyah Gardens every evening and explain Ovid’s words.
269. Mohammed (Mishkát al-Masábih ii. 360-62) says, “Change the whiteness of your hair but not with anything black.” Abu Bakr, who was two years and some months older than the Prophet, used tincture of Henna and Katam. Old Turkish officers justify black dyes because these make them look younger and fiercer. Henna stains white hair orange red; and the Persians apply after it a paste of indigo leaves; the result is successively leek-green, emerald-green, bottle-green and lastly lamp-black. There is a stage in life (the youth of old age) when man uses dyes: presently he finds that the whole face wants dye; that the contrast between juvenile coloured hair and ancient skin is ridiculous and that it is time to wear white.
270. This prejudice extends all over the East: the Sanskrit saying is “Kvachit káná bhaveta sádhus”—now and then a monocular is honest. The left eye is the worst and the popular idea is, I have said, that the damage will come by the injured member.
271. The Arabs say like us, “Short and thick is never quick” and “Long and thin has little in.”
272. Arab. “Ba’azu layáli,” some night when his mistress failed him.
273. The fountain in Paradise before noticed.
274. Before noticed as the Moslem St. Peter (as far as the keys go).
275. Arab “Munkasir” = broken, frail, languishing—the only form of the maladive allowed. Here again we have masculine for feminine: the eyelids show love-desire, but, etc.
276. The river of Paradise.
277. See Night xii, “The Second Kalandar’s Tale;” vol. i. 113.
278. Lane (ii. 472) refers for specimens of calligraphy to Herbin’s “Développements, etc.” There are many more than seven styles of writing as I have shown in Night xiii.; vol. i. 129.
279. Amongst good Moslems this would be a claim upon a man.
280. These lines have occurred twice already: and first appear in Night xxii. I have borrowed from Mr. Payne (iv. 46).
281. Arab. “Ya Nasráni”; the address is not intrinsically slighting but it may easily be made so. I have elsewhere noted that when Julian (is said to have) exclaimed “Vicisti Nazarene!” he was probably thinking in Eastern phrase “Nasarta, yá Nasráni!”
282. Thirst is the strongest of all pleas to an Eastern, especially to a Persian who never forgets the sufferings of his Imam, Husayn, at Kerbela: he would hardly withhold it from the murderer of his father. There is also a Hadis, “Thou shalt not refuse water to him who thirsteth in the desert.”
283. Arab. “Zimmi” which Lane (ii. 474) aptly translates a “tributary.” The Koran (chapt. ix.) orders Unbelievers to Islamize or to “pay tribute by right of subjection” (lit. an yadin = out of hand, an expression much debated). The least tribute is one dinar per annum which goes to the poor-rate; and for this the Kafir enjoys protection and almost all the civil rights of Moslems. As it is a question of “loaves and fishes” there is much to say on the subject; “loaves and fishes” being the main base and foundation of all religious establishments.
284. This tetrastich has before occurred; so I quote Lane (ii. 444).
285. In Night xxxv. the same occurs with a difference.
286. The old rite, I repeat, has lost amongst all but the noblest of Arab tribes the whole of its significance; and the traveller must be careful how he trusts to the phrase “Nahnu málihin”—we are bound together by the salt.
287. Arab. “Aláma” = Alá-má = upon what? wherefore?
288. Arab. “Mauz”; hence the Linnean name Musa (paradisiaca, etc). The word is explained by Sale (Koran, chapt. xxxvii. 146) as “a small tree or shrub;” and he would identify it with Jonah’s gourd.
289. Lane (ii. 446) “bald wolf or empowered fate,” reading (with Mac.) Kazá for Kattan (cat).
290. i.e. “The Orthodox in the Faith.” Ráshid is a proper name; witness that scourge of Syria, Ráshid Pasha. Born in 1830, of the Haji Nazir Agha family, Darrah-Beys of Macedonian Draina, he was educated in Paris where he learned the usual hatred of Europeans: he entered the Egyptian service in 1851; and, presently exchanging it for the Turkish, became in due time Wali (Governor-General) of Syria which he plundered most shamelessly. Recalled in 1872, he eventually entered the Ministry and on June 15, 1876, he was shot down, with other villians like himself, by gallant Captain Hasan, the Circassian (Yarham-hu ‘lláh!).
291. Quoted from a piece of verse, of which more presently.
292. This tetrastich has occurred before (Night cxciii.). I quote Lane (ii. 449), who quotes Dryden’s Spanish Friar:-
293. Lane (ii. 449) gives a tradition of the Prophet, “Whoso is in love, and acteth chastely, and concealeth (his passion) and dieth, dieth a martyr.” Sakar is No. 5 Hell for Magi, Guebres, Parsis, etc.; it is used in the comic Persian curse, “Fi’n-nári wa Sakar al-jadd w’al-pidar”—In Hell and Sakar his grandfather and his father.
294. Arab. “Sifr”: I have warned readers that whistling is considered a kind of devilish speech by the Arabs, especially the Badawin; and that the traveller must avoid it. It savours of idolatry: in the Koran we find (chapt. viii. 35), “Their prayer at the House of God (Ka’abah) is none other than whistling and hand-clapping;” and tradition says that they whistled through their fingers. Besides many of the Jinn have only round holes by way of mouths and their speech is whistling—a kind of bird-language like sibilant English.
295. Arab. “Kíl wa kál” = lit. “it was said and he said;” a popular phrase for chit-chat, tittle-tattle, prattle and prate, etc.
296. Arab. “Hadis,” comparing it with a tradition of the Prophet.
297. Arab. “Mikashshah,” the thick part of a midrib of a palm-frond soaked for some days in water and beaten out till the fibres separate. It makes an exceedingly hard, although not a lasting broom.
298. Persian, “the youth, the brave;” Sansk. Yuván; and Lat. Juvenis. The Kurd, in tales, is generally a sturdy thief; and in real life is little better.
299. Arab. “Yá Shátir;” lit. O clever one (in a bad sense).
300. Lane (ii. 453) has it, “that I may dress thy hair,” etc. This is Bowdlerising with a witness.
301. The sign of respect when a personage dismounts (Pilgrimage i. 77).
302. So the Hindus speak of “the defilement of separation” as if it were an impurity.
303. Lane (i. 605) gives a long and instructive note on these public royal banquets which were expected from the lieges by Moslem subjects. The hanging-penalty is, perhaps, a little exaggerated; but we find the same excess in the priestly Gesta Romanorum.
304. Had he eaten it he would have become her guest. Amongst the older Badawin it was sufficient to spit upon a man (in entreaty) to claim his protection: so the horse-thieves when caught were placed in a hole in the ground covered over with matting to prevent this happening. Similarly Saladin (Saláh al-Din) the chivalrous would not order a cup of water for the robber, Reynald de Châtillon, before putting him to death.
305. Arab. “Kishk” properly “Kashk” = wheat-meal coarsely ground and eaten with milk or broth. It is de rigueur with the Egyptian Copts on the “Friday of Sorrow” (Good Friday): and Lane gives the recipe for making it (M. E. chapt. xxvi).
306. In those days distinctive of Moslems.
307. The euphemism has before been noticed: the Moslem reader would not like to pronounce the words “I am a Nazarene.” The same formula occurs a little lower down to save the reciter or reader from saying “Be my wife divorced,” etc.
308. Arab. “Hájj,” a favourite Egyptianism. We are wrong to write Hajji which an Eastern would pronounce Háj-jí.
309. This is Cairene “chaff.”
310. Whose shell fits very tight.
311. His hand was like a raven’s because he ate with thumb and two fingers and it came up with the rice about it like a camel’s hoof in dirty ground. This refers to the proverb (Burckhardt, 756), “He comes down a crow-claw (small) and comes up a camel-hoof (huge and round).”
312. Easterns have a superstitious belief in the powers of food: I knew a learned man who never sat down to eat without a ceremonious salam to his meat.
313. Lane (ii. 464), uses the vile Turkish corruption “Rustum,” which, like its fellow “Rustem,” would make a Persian shudder.
314. Arab. “Darrij” i.e. let them slide (Americanicè).
315. This tetrastich has occurred before: so I quote Mr. Payne (in loco).
316. Shaykh of Al-Butnah and Jábiyah, therefore a Syrian of the Hauran near Damascus and grandson to Isú (Esau). Arab mystics (unlike the vulgar who see only his patience) recognise that inflexible integrity which refuses to utter “words of wind” and which would not, against his conscience, confess to wrong-doing merely to pacify the Lord who was stronger than himself. The Classics taught this noble lesson in the case of Prometheus versus Zeus. Many articles are called after Job e.g. Ra’ará’ Ayyub or Ghubayrá (inula Arabica and undulata), a creeper with which he rubbed himself and got well:—the Copts do the same on “Job’s Wednesday,” i.e. that before Whit Sunday O.S. Job’s father is a nickname of the camel, etc. etc.
317. Lane (in loco) renders “I am of their number.” But “fí al-siyák” means popularly “(driven) to the point of death.”
318. Lit. = “pathway, road”; hence the bridge well known as “finer than a hair and sharper than a sword,” over which all (except Khadijah and a chosen few) must pass on the Day of Doom; a Persian apparatus bodily annexed by Al-Islam. The old Guebres called it Pul-i-Chinávar or Chinávad and the Jews borrowed it from them as they did all their fancies of a future life against which Moses had so gallantly fought. It is said that a bridge over the grisly “brook Kedron” was called Sirát (the road) and hence the idea, as that of hell-fire from Ge-Hinnom (Gehenna) where children were passed through the fire to Moloch. A doubtful Hadis says, “The Prophet declared Al-Sirát to be the name of a bridge over hell-fire, dividing Hell from Paradise” (pp. 17, 122, Reynold’s trans. of Al-Siyuti’s Traditions, etc.). In Koran i. 5, “Sirát” is simply a path, from sarata, he swallowed, even as the way devours (makes a lakam or mouthful of) those who travel it. The word was orig. written with Sín but changed for easier articulation to Sád, one of the four Hurúf al-Mutabbakát (ط, ض, ص and ظ), “the flattened,” formed by the broadened tongue in contact with the palate. This Sad also by the figure Ishmám (= conversion) turns slightly to a Zá, the intermediate between Sin and Sad.
319. The rule in Turkey where catamites rise to the highest rank: C’est un homme de bonne famille (said a Turkish officer in Egypt) il a été acheté. Hence “Alfi” (one who costs a thousand) is a well-known cognomen. The Pasha of the Syrian caravan, with which I travelled, had been the slave of a slave and he was not a solitary instance (Pilgrimage i. 90).
320. The device of the banquet is dainty enough for any old Italian novella; all that now comes is pure Egyptian polissonnerie speaking to the gallery and being answered by roars of laughter.
321. i.e. art thou ceremonially pure and therefore fit for handling by a great man like myself?
322. In past days before Egypt was “frankified” many overlanders used to wash away the traces of travel by a Turkish bath which mostly ended in the appearance of a rump-wriggling little lad who offered to shampoo them. Many accepted his offices without dreaming of his usual use or misuse.
323. Arab. “Imám.” This is (to a Moslem) a most offensive comparison between prayer and car. cop.
324. Arab “Fi zaman-hi,” alluding to a peculiarity highly prized by Egyptians; the use of the constrictor vaginæ muscles, the sphincter for which Abyssinian women are famous. The “Kabbázah” (= holder), as she is called, can sit astraddle upon a man and can provoke the venereal orgasm, not by wriggling and moving but by tightening and loosing the male member with the muscles of her privities, milking it as it were. Consequently the casse-noisette costs treble the money of other concubines (Ananga-Ranga, p. 127).
325. The little eunuchs had evidently studied the Harem.