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
The Ghúlah (fem. of Ghúl) is the Heb. Lilith or Lilis; the classical
Lamia; the Hindu Yogini and Dakini; the Chaldean Utug and Gigim
(desert-demons) as opposed to the Mas (hill-demon) and Telal (who
steal into towns); the Ogress of our tales and the Bala yaga
(Granny-witch) of Russian folk-lore. Etymologically "Ghul" is a
calamity, a panic fear; and the monster is evidently the embodied
horror of the grave and the grave-yard.
Footnote 97:
Arab. "Shább" (Lat. juvenis) between puberty and forty or according
to some fifty; when the patient becomes a "Rajul ikhtiyár" (man of
free will) politely termed, and then a Shaykh or Shaybah (grey-beard,
oldster).
Footnote 98:
Some proverbial name now forgotten. Torrens (p. 48) translates it
"the giglot" (Fortune?) but "cannot discover the drift."
Footnote 99:
Arab. "Ihtizáz," that natural and instinctive movement caused by good
news suddenly given, etc.
Footnote 100:
Arab "Kohl," in India, Surmah, not a "collyrium," but powdered
antimony for the eyelids. That sold in the bazars is not the real
grey ore of antimony but a galena or sulphuret of lead. Its use arose
as follows. When Allah showed Himself to Moses on Sinai through an
opening the size of a needle, the Prophet fainted and the Mount took
fire: thereupon Allah said, "Henceforth shalt thou and thy seed grind
the earth of this mountain and apply it to your eyes!" The powder is
kept in an étui called Makhalah and applied with a thick blunt needle
to the inside of the eyelid, drawing it along the rim; hence etui and
probe denote the sexual _rem in re_ and in cases of adultery the
question will be asked, "Didst thou see the needle in the Kohl-pot?"
Women mostly use a preparation of soot or lamp-black (Hind. Kajala,
Kajjal) whose colour is easily distinguished from that of Kohl. The
latter word, with the article (Al-Kohl) is the origin of our
"alcohol;" though even M. Littré fails to show how "fine powder"
became "spirits of wine." I found this powder (wherewith Jezebel
"painted" her eyes) a great preservative from ophthalmia in
desert-travelling: the use in India was universal, but now European
example is gradually abolishing it.
Footnote 101:
The tale of these two women is now forgotten.
Footnote 102:
Arab. "Atadakhkhal". When danger threatens it is customary to seize a
man's skirt and cry "Dakhíl-ak!" (=under thy protection). Among noble
tribes the Badawi thus invoked will defend the stranger with his
life. Foreigners have brought themselves into contempt by thus
applying to women or to mere youths.
Footnote 103:
The formula of quoting from the Koran.
Footnote 104:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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