The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 01 (of 10)
General
The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 01 (of 10)
Fairy tales -- Arab countries; Folklore -- Arab countries
Arab. meaning "the Mother of Amir," a nickname for the hyena, which
bites the hand that feeds it.
Footnote 74:
The intellect of man is stronger than that of the Jinni; the Ifrit,
however, enters the jar because he has been adjured by the Most Great
Name and not from mere stupidity. The seal-ring of Solomon according
to the Rabbis contained a chased stone which told him everything he
wanted to know.
Footnote 75:
The Mesmerist will notice this shudder which is familiar to him as
preceding the "magnetic" trance.
Footnote 76:
Arab. "Bahr" which means a sea, a large river, a sheet of water,
etc., lit. water cut or trenched in the earth. Bahri in Egypt means
Northern; so Yamm (Sea, Mediterranean) in Hebrew is West.
Footnote 77:
In the Bul. Edit. "Ruyán," evidently a clerical error. The name is
fanciful not significant.
Footnote 78:
The geography is ultra-Shakspearean. "Fars" (whence "Persia") is the
central Province of the grand old Empire now a mere wreck; "Rúm"
(which I write Roum, in order to avoid Jamaica) is the neo-Roman or
Byzantine Empire; while "Yunan" is the classical Arab term for Greece
(Ionia) which unlearned Moslems believe to be now under water.
Footnote 79:
The Sun greets Mohammed every morning even as it dances on Easter-Day
for Christendom. Risum teneatis?
Footnote 80:
Arab. "Nadím," a term often occurring. It denotes one who was
intimate enough to drink with the Caliph, a very high honour and a
dangerous. The last who sat with "Nudamá" was Al-Razi bi'llah A.H.
329=940. See Al-Siyuti's famous "History of the Caliphs" translated
and admirably annotated by Major H. S. Jarrett, for the Bibliotheca
Indica, Calcutta, 1880.
Footnote 81:
Arab. Maydán (from Persian); Lane generally translates it
"horse-course," and Payne "tilting-yard." It is both and something
more; an open space, in or near the city, used for reviewing troops,
races, playing the Jeríd (cane-spear) and other sports and exercises:
thus Al-Maydan=Gr. hippodrome. The game here alluded to is our
"polo," or hockey on horseback, a favourite with the Persian Kings,
as all old illustrations of the Shahnamah show. Maydan is also a
natural plain for which copious Arabic has many terms; Fayhah or Sath
(a plain generally), Khabt (a low lying plain), Bat'há (a low sandy
flat), Mahattah (a plain fit for halting) and so forth. (Pilgrimage
iii., 11.)
Footnote 82:
For details concerning the "Ghusl" see Night xliv.
Footnote 83:
A popular idiom and highly expressive, contrasting the upright
bearing of the self-satisfied man with the slouch of the miserable
and the skirt-trailing of the woman in grief. I do not see the
necessity of such Latinisms as "dilated" or "expanded."
Footnote 84:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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