The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 06 (of 10)
General
The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 06 (of 10)
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
[FN#39] Lane suggests (iii. 97), and with some probability, that the
“bird” was a nautilus; but the wild traditions concerning the
barnacle-goose may perhaps have been the base of the fable. The
albatross also was long supposed never to touch land. Possible the
barnacle, like the barometz of Tartarean lamb, may be a survivor of the
day when the animal and vegetable kingdoms had not yet branched off
into different directions.
[FN#40] Arab. “Zahwah,” also meaning a luncheon. The five daily prayers
made all Moslems take strict account of time, and their nomenclature of
its division is extensive.
[FN#41] This is the “insane herb.” Davis, who visited Sumatra in 1599
(Purchas i. 120) speaks “of a kind of seed, whereof a little being
eaten, maketh a man to turn foole, all things seeming to him to be
metamorphosed.” Linschoten’s “Dutroa” was a poppy-like bud containing
small kernels like melons which stamped and administered as a drink
make a man “as if he were foolish, or out of his wits.” This is Father
Lobo’s “Vanguini” of the Cafres, called by the Portuguese dutro (Datura
Stramonium) still used by dishonest confectioners. It may be Dampier’s
Ganga (Ganjah) or Bang (Bhang) which he justly describes as acting
differently “according to different constitutions; for some it
stupefies, others it makes sleepy, others merry and some quite mad.”
(Harris, Collect. ii. 900.) Dr. Fryer also mentions Duty, Bung and
Post, the Poust of Bernier, an infusion of poppy-seed.
[FN#42] Arab. “Ghul,” here an ogre, a cannibal. I cannot but regard the
“Ghul of the waste” as an embodiment of the natural fear and horror
which a man feels when he faces a really dangerous desert. As regards
cannibalism, Al-Islam’s religion of common sense freely allows it when
necessary to save life, and unlike our mawkish modern sensibility,
never blames those who
Alimentis talibus usi
Produxere animos.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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