Alaeddin and the Enchanted Lamp Part 18

[Footnote 553: Medinetu 's seltaneh, i e. the seat of government or capital.]

[Footnote 554: Lit. "donned" (lebesa).]

[Footnote 555: Here Galland says, "Il entra dans le lien le plus fameux et le plus frequente par les personnel de grande distinction, ou l'on s'a.s.sembloit pour boire d'une certaine boisson chance qui luy etoit connue des son premier voyage. Il n'y e-t pas pl.u.s.t"t pris place qu'on lay versa de cette boisson dans une ta.s.se et qu'on la luy presenta.

En la prenant, comme il prestoit l'oreille... droite et... gauche, il entendit qu'on s'entretenoit du palais d'Aladdin." The Chavis MS. says, "He entered a coffee-house (kehweh, Syrian for kehawi), and there used to go in thereto all the notables of the city, and he heard a company, all of them engaged in (ammalin bi, a very vulgar expression) talking of the Amir Alaeddin's palace, etc." This (or a similar text) is evidently the original of Galland's translation of this episode and it is probable, therefore, that the French translator inserted the mention "of a certain warm drink"(tea), out of that mistaken desire for local colouring at all costs which has led so many French authors (especially those of our own immediate day) astray. The circ.u.mstance was apparently evolved (alla tedesca) from his inner consciousness, as, although China is a favourite location with the authors of the Nights, we find no single mention of or allusion to tea in the rest of the work.]

[Footnote 556: Lit. "I will make him lose."]

[Footnote 557: Night DLXXV.]

[Footnote 558: Lit. "Instruments of astronomy or astrology" (tenjim); but tenjim is also used in the sense of geomancy, in which operation, as before explained, astrology plays an important part, and the context shows that the word is here intended to bear this meaning. Again, the implements of a geomancer of the higher order would include certain astrological instruments, such as an astrolabe, star-table, etc., necessary, as I have before explained, for the elucidation of the scheme obtained by the sand-smiting proper.]

[Footnote 559: He had apparently learned (though the Arabic author omits, with characteristic carelessness, to tell us so) that Alaeddin was absent a. hunting.]

[Footnote 560: Akemm, vulg. for kemm, a quant.i.ty.]

[Footnote 561: Minareh, lit. "alight-stand," i.e. either a lamp-stand or a candlestick.]

[Footnote 562: Bi-ziyadeh, which generally means "in excess, to boot,"

but is here used in the sense of "in abundance."]

[Footnote 563: Aalem.]

[Footnote 564: After the wont of "the natural enemy of mankind' in all ages.]

[Footnote 565: Keszr.]

[Footnote 566: Night DLXXVI.]

[Footnote 567: Aghatu 't tuwas.h.i.+yeh.]

[Footnote 568: Ubb.]

[Footnote 569: Lit. "who" (men), but this is probably a mistake for ma (that which).]

[Footnote 570: Ifrikiyeh.]

[Footnote 571: Night DLXXVII.]

[Footnote 572: Ummar. This may, however, be a mistake (as before, see ante p. 177, note 2 {see FN#482}) for ema'r (buildings).]

[Footnote 573: Lit. "O company" (ya jema't), a polite formula of address, equivalent to our "Gentlemen."]

[Footnote 574: Night DLXXVIII.]

[Footnote 575: Lit. "the affair (or commandment, amr) is going to be sealed upon us."]

[Footnote 576: Sic (dara haulahu thelatheta dauratin); but qu're should it not rather be, "gave three sweeps or whirls with his sword round his head"? See my "Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night," Vol. VI. p.

355.]

[Footnote 577: Lit. "hath been bountiful unto me;" [the matter of] my life.]

[Footnote 578: Night DLXXIX.]

[Footnote 579: Previous to prayer.]

[Footnote 580: Lit. made easy to (yessera li).]

[Footnote 581: The name of the province is here applied to an imaginary city.]

[Footnote 582: Night DLx.x.x.]

[Footnote 583: Lit. "who hath a head with the head-seller or dealer in heads, etc." The word here employed (rewwas) commonly signifies "a man who cooks and sells sheepsheads, oxheads, etc." M. Zotenberg makes the following note on this pa.s.sage in. his edition of Alaeddin; "Rewwas (for raa"s) signifies not only 'he who sells cooked heads,' but also 'he who makes a business of cooking heads.' Consequently whoso entrusteth a head to the rewwas is preoccupied and sleeps not." M. Zotenberg's note is unintelligible, in consequence of his having neglected to explain that the pa.s.sage in question is a common Egyptian proverb, meaning (says Burckhardt), "the person whose fortune is entrusted to the hands of strangers cannot enjoy repose." "The poor," adds he, "at Cairo buy sheepsheads and for a trifle have them boiled in the bazaar by persons who are not only cooks, but sellers of sheepsheads, and are therefore called raa"s, or in the Egyptian dialect rewwas." The proverb is in the present case evidently meant as a play upon the literal meaning ("headsman," hence by implication "executioner") of the word rewwas, although I cannot find an instance of the word being employed in this sense. It is, however, abundantly evident from the general context that this is the author's intention in the pa.s.sage in question, Alaeddin's head being metaphorically in the hands of (or pledged to) the headsman, inasmuch as he had engaged to return and suffer decapitation in case he should not succeed in recovering the princess within forty days.]

[Footnote 584: I suppose the verb which I render "caused [sleep] get the mastery," to be gh.e.l.leba, II of gheleba, as the only way of making sense of this pa.s.sage, though this reading involves some irregularity from a grammatical point of view. This, however, is no novelty in the present text. Burton, "But whoso weareth head hard by the headsman may not sleep o'nights save whenas slumber prevail over him."]

[Footnote 585: Zeczekeh, a word which exactly renders the sparrow's dawn-cheep.]

[Footnote 586: Lit. "From (as Fr. des) the deep or remote dawn" (min el fejri 'l ghemic, Syr. for emic), cf. Matthew Arnold's "Resignation;"

"The c.o.c.koo, loud on some high lawn, Is answered from the depth of dawn.."]

[Footnote 587: The terminal formula of the dawn-prayer.]

[Footnote 588: i.e. the magician]

[Footnote 589: Lit. "bride'' (arouseh). She is always, to the end of the tale, spoken of as Alaeddin's "bride," never as his "wife," whilst he, in like manner, is called her "bridegroom" (arous).]

[Footnote 590: This, at first sight, appears a contradiction, as we are distinctly told (see ante, p. 207) that the princess was unaware of the properties of the lamp; but the sequel shows that she had learned them, in the mean time. from the magician himself. See post.]

[Footnote 591: Ifrikiyeh.]

[Footnote 592: Night DLx.x.xI.]

[Footnote 593: Lit. "a spit (ric) of sweet." We may also read reic or reyyic, "the first part of anything" (especially "the first drop of rain").]

[Footnote 594: Lit. "having changed the clothes of this my dress."]

[Footnote 595: i.e. taking effect the moment of its administration.]

[Footnote 596: Night DLx.x.xII.]

[Footnote 597: Because white wine would have been visibly troubled by the drug.]

[Footnote 598: Ishebi bi-surrihi (lit. "drink by his pleasure or gladness;" surr or surour). Burton, "Pledge him to his secret in a significant draught."]

[Footnote 599: Kasein thelatheh, lit. two cups three (unusual way of putting it).]

[Footnote 600: Reshoush (for reshash), "anything sprinkled," i.e. powder or drops. I translate "powder," as I find no mention in the Nights of the use of this narcotic in a liquid form.]