The End of the Tailor's Tale.
So I invited him to sup with us and went out to buy fried fish; after which we sat down to eat; and presently my wife took a piece of bread and a fid of fish and stuffed them into his mouth and he choked; and, though I slapped him long and hard between the shoulders, he died. Then I carried him off and contrived to throw him into the house of this leach, the Jew; and the leach contrived to throw him into the house of the Reeve; and the Reeve contrived to throw him on the way of the Nazarene broker. This, then, is my adventure which befel me but yesterday. Is not it more wondrous than the story of the Hunchback? When the King of China heard the Tailor's tale he shook his head for pleasure; and, showing great surprise, said, "This that passed between the young man and the busy-body of a Barber is indeed more pleasant and wonderful than the story of my lying knave of a Hunchback." Then he bade one of his Chamberlains go with the Tailor and bring the Barber out of jail, saying, "I wish to hear the talk of this Silent Man and it shall be the cause of your deliverance one and all: then we will bury the Hunchback, for that he is dead since yesterday, and set up a tomb over him."——And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
Now when it was the Thirty-fourth Night,She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the King of China bade, "Bring me the Barber who shall be the cause of your deliverance; then we will bury this Hunchback, for that he is dead since yesterday and set up a tomb over him." So the Chamberlain and the Tailor went to the jail and, releasing the Barber, presently returned with him to the King. The Sultan of China looked at him and considered him carefully and lo and behold! he was an ancient man, past his ninetieth year; swart of face, white of beard, and hoar of eyebrows; lop-eared and proboscis-nosed,[696] with a vacant, silly and conceited expression of countenance. The King laughed at this figure o' fun and said to him, "O Silent Man, I desire thee to tell me somewhat of thy history." Quoth the Barber, "O King of the age, allow me first to ask thee what is the tale of this Nazarene and this Jew and this Moslem and this Hunchback (the corpse) I see among you? And prithee what may be the object of this assemblage?" Quoth the King of China, "And why dost thou ask?" "I ask," he replied, "in order that the King's majesty may know that I am no forward fellow or busy-body or impertinent meddler; and that I am innocent of their calumnious charges of overmuch talk; for I am he whose name is the Silent Man, and indeed peculiarly happy is my sobriquet, as saith the poet:—
When a nickname or little name men design, ✿ Know that nature with name shall full oft combine."Then said the King, "Explain to the Barber the case of this Hunchback and what befel him at supper-time; also repeat to him the stories told by the Nazarene, the Jew, the Reeve, and the Tailor; and of no avail to me is a twice told tale." They did his bidding, and the Barber shook his head and said, "By Allah, this is a marvel of marvels! Now uncover me the corpse of yonder Hunchback." They undid the winding-sheet and he sat down and, taking the Hunchback's head in his lap, looked at his face, and laughed and guffaw'd[697] till he fell upon his back and said, "There is wonder in every death,[698] but the death of this Hunchback is worthy to be written and recorded in letters of liquid gold!" The by-standers were astounded at his words and the King marvelled and said to him, "What ails thee O Silent Man? Explain to us thy words!" "O King of the age," said the Barber, "I swear by thy beneficence that there is still life in this Gobbo Golightly!" Thereupon he pulled out of his waist-belt a barber's budget, whence he took a pot of ointment and anointed therewith the neck of the Hunchback and its arteries. Then he took a pair of iron tweezers and, inserting them into the Hunchback's throat, drew out the fid of fish with its bone; and, when it came to sight, behold, it was soaked in blood. Thereupon the Hunchback sneezed a hearty sneeze and jumped up as if nothing had happened and passing his hand over his face said, "I testify that there is no god, but the God, and I testify that Mohammed is the Apostle of God." At this sight all present wondered; the King of China laughed till he fainted and in like manner did the others. Then said the Sultan, "By Allah, of a truth this is the most marvellous thing I ever saw! O Moslems, O soldiers all, did you ever in the lives of you see a man die and be quickened again? Verily had not Allah vouchsafed to him this Barber, he had been a dead man!" Quoth they, "By Allah, 'tis a marvel of marvels." Then the King of China bade record this tale, so they recorded it and placed it in the royal muniment-rooms; after which he bestowed costly robes of honour upon the Jew, the Nazarene and the Reeve, and bade them depart in all esteem. Then he gave the Tailor a sumptuous dress and appointed him his own tailor, with suitable pay and allowances; and made peace between him and the Hunchback, to whom also he presented a splendid and expensive suit with a suitable stipend. He did as generously with the Barber giving him a gift and a dress of honour; moreover he settled on him a handsome solde and created him Barber-surgeon[699] of state and made him one of his cup-companions. So they ceased not to live the most pleasurable life and the most delectable, till there came to them the Destroyer of all delights and the Sunderer of all societies, the Depopulator of palaces and the Garnerer for graves. Yet, O most auspicious King! (continued Shahrazad) this tale is by no means more wonderful than that of the two Wazirs and Anís al-Jalís. Quoth her sister Dunyazad, "And what may that be?"; whereupon she began to relate the following tale of
496. Other editions read, "at Bassorah" and the Bresl. (ii. 123) "at Bassorah and Kájkár" (Káshghár): somewhat like in Dover and Sebastopol. I prefer China because further off and making the improbabilities more notable.
497. Arab. "Judri," lit. "small stones" from the hard gravelly feeling of the pustules (Rodwell, p. 20). The disease is generally supposed to be the growth of Central Africa where it is still a plague and passed over to Arabia about the birth-time of Mohammed. Thus is usually explained the "war of the elephant" (Koran, chapt. cv.) when the Abyssinian army of Abrahah, the Christian, was destroyed by swallows (Abábíl which Major Price makes the plural of Abilah=a vesicle) which dropped upon them "stones of baked clay," like vetches (Pilgrimage ii. 175). See for details Sale (in loco) who seems to accept the miraculous defence of the Ka'abah. For the horrors of small-pox in Central Intertropical Africa the inoculation, known also to the Badawin of Al-Hijáz and other details, readers will consult "The Lake Regions of Central Africa" (ii. 318). The Hindus "take the bull by the horns" and boldly make "Sítlá" (small-pox) a goddess, an incarnation of Bhawáni, deëss of destruction-reproduction. In China small pox is believed to date from B.C. 1200; but the chronology of the Middle Kingdom still awaits the sceptic.
498. In Europe we should add "and all fled, especially the women." But the fatalism inherent in the Eastern mind makes the great difference.
499. Arab. "Uzayr." Esdras was a manner of Ripp van Winkle. He was riding over the ruins of Jerusalem when it had been destroyed by the Chaldeans and he doubted by what means Allah would restore it; whereupon he died and at the end of a hundred years he revived. He found his basket of figs and cruse of wine as they were; but of his ass only the bones remained. These were raised to life as Ezra looked on and the ass began at once to bray. Which was a lesson to Esdras. (Koran, chapt. ii). The oath by the ass's hoofs is to ridicule the Jew. Mohammed seems to have had an idée fixe that "the Jews say, Ezra is the son of God" (Koran ix.); it may have arisen from the heterodox Jewish belief that Ezra, when the Law was utterly lost, dictated the whole anew to the scribes of his own memory. His tomb with the huge green dome is still visited by the Jews of Baghdad.
500. Arab. "Bádhanj," the Pers. Bád (wind)-gír (catcher): a wooden pent-house on the terrace-roof universal in the nearer East.
501. The hunchback, in Arabia as in Southern Europe, is looked upon by the vulgar with fear and aversion: The reason is that he is usually sharper-witted than his neighbours.
502. Arab. "Yá Sattár"=Thou who veilest the discreditable secrets of Thy creatures.
503. Arab. "Nasráni," a follower of Him of Nazareth and an older name than "Christian" which (Acts xi., 26) was first given at Antioch about A.D. 43. The cry in Alexandria used to be "Ya Nasráni, Kalb awáni!"=O Nazarene! O dog obscene! (Pilgrimage, 1., 160). "Christian" in Arabic can be expressed only by "Masíhi"=follower of the Messiah.
504. Arab. "Tasbíh,"=Saluting in the Subh (morning).
505. In the East women stand on minor occasions while men squat on their hunkers in a way hardly possible to an untrained European. The custom is old. Herodotus (ii., 35) says, "The women stand up when they make water, but the men sit down." Will it be believed that Canon Rawlinson was too modest to leave this passage in his translation? The custom was perpetuated by Al-Islam because the position prevents the ejection touching the clothes and making them ceremonially impure; possibly they borrowed it from the Guebres. Dabistan, Gate xvi. says, "It is improper, whilst in an erect posture, to make water; it is therefore necessary to sit at squat and force it to some distance, repeating the Avesta mentally."
506. This is still a popular form of the "Kinchin lay," and as the turbands are often of fine stuff, the petite industrie pays well.
507. Arab. "Wali"=Governor; the term still in use for the Governor-General of a Province as opposed to the "Muháfiz," or district-governor. In Eastern Arabia the Wali is the Civil Governor opposed to the Amir or Military Commandant. Under the Caliphate the Wali acted also as Prefect of Police (the Indian Faujdár), who is now called "Zábit." The older name for the latter was "Sáhib al-Shartah" (=chief of the watch) or "Mutawalli"; and it was his duty to go the rounds in person. The old "Charley," with his lantern and cudgel, still guards the bazars in Damascus.
508. Arab. "Al-Mashá ilí"=the bearer of a cresset (Mash'al) who was also Jack Ketch. In Anglo-India the name is given to a lower body-servant. The "Mash'al" which Lane (M. E., chapt vi.) calls "Mesh'al" and illustrates, must not be confounded with its congener the "Sha'ílah" or link (also lamp, wick, etc.).
509. I need hardly say that the civilised "drop" is unknown to the East where men are strung up as to a yardarm. This greatly prolongs the suffering.
510. Arab. "Lukmah":=a mouthful. It is still the fashion amongst Easterns of primitive manners to take up a handful of rice, etc., ball it and put it into a friend's mouth honoris causâ. When the friend is a European the expression of his face is generally a study.
511. I need hardly note that this is an old Biblical practice. The ass is used for city-work as the horse for fighting and travelling, the mule for burdens and the dromedary for the desert. But the Badawi, like the Indian, despises the monture and sings:—
The back of the steed is a noble place; But the mule's dishonour, the ass disgrace!The fine white asses, often thirteen hands high, sold by the Banu Salíb and other Badawi tribes, will fetch £100, and more. I rode a little brute from Meccah to Jedda (42 miles) in one night and it came in with me cantering.
512. A dry measure of about five bushels (Cairo). The classical pronunciation is Irdabb and it measured 24 sa'a (gallons) each filling four outstretched hands.
513. "Al-Jawáli" should be Al-Jáwali (Al-Makrizi) and the Bab al-Nasr (Gate of Victory) is that leading to Suez. I lived in that quarter as shown by my Pilgrimage (i. 62).
514. Arab. "Al-'ajalah," referring to a saying in every Moslem mouth, "Patience is from the Protector (Allah): Hurry is from Hell." That and "Inshallah bukra!" (Please God to-morrow!) are the traveller's bêtes noires.
515. Here it is a polite equivalent for "fall to!"
516. The left hand is used throughout the East for purposes of ablution and is considered unclean. To offer the left hand would be most insulting and no man ever strokes his beard with it or eats with it: hence, probably, one never sees a left-handed man throughout the Moslem east. In the Brazil for the same reason old-fashioned people will not take snuff with the right hand. And it is related of the Khataians that they prefer the left hand, "Because the heart, which is the Sultan of the city of the Body, hath his mansion on that side" (Rauzat al-Safá).
517. Two feminine names; as we might say Mary and Martha.
518. It was near the Caliph's two Palaces (Al-Kasrayn); and was famous in the 15th century A.D. The Kazi's Mahkamah (Court-house) now occupies the place of the Two Palaces.
519. A Kaysariah is a superior kind of bazar, a "bezestein." That in the text stood to the east of the principal street in Cairo and was built in A. H. 502 (=1108-9) by a Circassian Emir, known as Fakhr al-Din Jahárkas, a corruption of the Persian "Chehár-kas"=four persons (Lane, i. 422, from Al-Makrizi and Ibn Khallikan). For Jahárkas the Mac. Edit. has Jirjís (George) a common Christian name. I once lodged in a "Wakálah (the modern Khan) Jirjis." Pilgrimage, i. 255.
520. Arab. "Second Day," i.e. after Saturday, the true Sabbath, so marvellously ignored by Christendom.
521. Readers who wish to know how a traveller is lodged in a Wakálah, Khan, or Caravanserai, will consult my Pilgrimage, i. 60.
522. The original occupation of the family had given it a name, as amongst us.
523. The usual "chaff" or banter allowed even to modest women when shopping, and—many a true word is spoken in jest.
524. "La adamnák"=Heaven deprive us not of thee, i.e. grant I see thee often!
525. This is a somewhat cavalier style of advance; but Easterns under such circumstances go straight to the point, hating to filer the parfait amour.
526. The peremptory formula of a slave delivering such a message.
527. This would be our Thursday night, preceding the day of public prayers which can be performed only when in a state of ceremonial purity. Hence many Moslems go to the Hammam on Thursday and have no connection with their wives till Friday night.
528. Lane (i. 423) gives ample details concerning the Habbániyah, or grain-sellers' quarter in the southern part of Cairo; and shows that when this tale was written (or transcribed?) the city was almost as extensive as it is now.
529. Nakíb is a caravan-leader, a chief, a syndic; and "Abú Shámah"=Father of a cheek mole, while "Abú Shámmah"=Father of a smeller, a nose, a snout. The "Kuniyah," bye-name, patronymic or matronymic, is necessary amongst Moslems whose list of names, all connected more or less with religion, is so scanty. Hence Buckingham the traveller was known as Abu Kidr, the Father of a Cooking-pot and Hajj Abdullah as Abu Shawárib, Father of Mustachios (Pilgrimage, iii., 263).
530. More correctly Bab Zawilah from the name of a tribe in Northern Africa. This gate dates from the same age as the Eastern or Desert gate, Bab al-Nasr (A.D. 1087) and is still much admired. M. Jomard describes it (Description, etc., ii. 670) and lately my good friend Yacoub Artin Pasha has drawn attention to it in the Bulletin de l'Inst. Egypt., Deuxième Série, No. 4, 1883.
531. This ornament is still seen in the older saloons of Damascus: the inscriptions are usually religious sentences, extracts from the Koran, etc., in uncial characters. They take the place of our frescos; and, as a work of art, are generally far superior.
532. Arab. "Bayáz al-Sultání," the best kind of gypsum which shines like polished marble. The stucco on the walls of Alexandria, built by Alexander of the two Horns, was so exquisitely tempered and beautifully polished that men had to wear masks for fear of blindness.
533. This Iklíl, a complicated affair, is now obsolete, its place having been taken by the "Kurs," a gold plate, some five inches in diameter, set with jewels, etc. Lane (M. E. Appendix A) figures it.
534. The woman-artist who applies the dye is called "Munakkishah."
535. "Kissing with th' inner lip," as Shakespeare calls it; the French langue fourrée; and Sankrit "Samputa." The subject of kissing is extensive in the East. Ten different varieties are duly enumerated in the "Ananga-Ranga;" or, The Hindu Art of Love (Ars Amoris Indica) translated from the Sanscrit, and annotated by A. F. F. and B. F. R. It is also connected with unguiculation, or impressing the nails, of which there are seven kinds; morsication (seven kinds); handling the hair and tappings or pattings with the fingers and palm (eight kinds).
536. Arab. "asal-nahl," to distinguish it from "honey" i.e. syrup of sugar-cane and fruits.
537. The lines have occurred in Night xii. By way of variety I give Torrens' version p. 273.
538. The way of carrying money in the corner of a pocket-handkerchief is still common.
539. He sent the provisions not to be under an obligation to her in this matter. And she received them to judge thereby of his liberality.
540. Those who have seen the process of wine-making in the Libanus will readily understand why it is always strained.
541. Arab. "Kulkasá," a kind of arum or yam, eaten boiled like our potatoes.
542. At first he slipped the money into the bed-clothes: now he gives it openly and she accepts it for a reason.
543. Arab. Al-Zalamah: lit.=tyrants, oppressors, applied to the police and generally to the employés of Government. It is a word which tells a history.
544. Moslem law is never completely satisfied till the criminal confess. It also utterly ignores circumstantial evidence and for the best of reasons: amongst so sharp-witted a people the admission would lead to endless abuses. I greatly surprised a certain Governor-General of India by giving him this simple information.
545. Cutting off the right hand is the Koranic punishment (chapt. v.) for one who robs an article worth four dinars, about forty francs to shillings. The left foot is to be cut off at the ankle for a second offence and so on; but death is reserved for a hardened criminal. The practice is now obsolete and theft is punished by the bastinado, fine or imprisonment. The old Guebres were as severe. For stealing one dirham's worth they took a fine of two, cut off the ear-lobes, gave ten stick-blows and dismissed the criminal who had been subjected to an hour's imprisonment. A second theft caused the penalties to be doubled; and after that the right hand was cut off or death was inflicted according to the proportion stolen.
546. Koran viii. 17.
547. A universal custom in the East, the object being originally to show that the draught was not poisoned.
548. Out of paste or pudding.
549. Boils and pimples are supposed to be caused by broken hair-roots and in Hindostani are called Bál-tor.
550. He intended to bury it decently, a respect which Moslems always show even to the exuviæ of the body, as hair and nail parings. Amongst Guebres the latter were collected and carried to some mountain. The practice was intensified by fear of demons or wizards getting possession of the spoils.
551. Without which the marriage was not valid. The minimum is ten dirhams (drachmas) now valued at about five francs to shillings; and if a man marry without naming the sum, the woman, after consummation, can compel him to pay this minimum.
552. Arab. "Khatmah"=reading or reciting the whole Koran, by one or more persons, usually in the house, not over the tomb. Like the "Zikr," Litany or Rogation, it is a pious act confined to certain occasions.
553. Arab. "Zírbájah"=meat dressed with vinegar, cumin-seed (Pers. Zír) and hot spices. More of it in the sequel of the tale.
554. A saying not uncommon meaning, let each man do as he seems fit; also="age quod agis": and at times corresponding with our saw about the cap-fitting.
555. Arab. "Su'úd," an Alpinia with pungent rhizome like ginger; here used as a counter-odour.
556. Arab. "Tá'ih"=lost in the "Tíh," a desert wherein man may lose himself, translated in our maps "The Desert of the Wanderings," scil. of the children of Israel. "Credat Judæus."
557. i.e., £125 and £500.
558. A large sum was weighed by a professional instead of being counted, the reason being that the coin is mostly old and worn: hence our words "pound" and "pension" (or what is weighed out).
559. The eunuch is the best possible go-between on account of his almost unlimited power over the Harem.
560. i.e. a slave-girl brought up in the house and never sold except for some especial reason, as habitual drunkenness, etc.
561. Smuggling men into the Harem is a stock "topic" of eastern tales. "By means of their female attendants, the ladies of the royal harem generally get men into their apartments in the disguise of women." Says Vatsyayana in The Kama Sutra, Part V., London: Printed for the Hindoo Kamashastra Society, 1883. For private circulation only.
562. These tears are shed over past separation. So the "Indians" of the New World never meet after long parting without beweeping mutual friends they have lost.
563. A most important Jack in office whom one can see with his smooth chin and blubber lips, starting up from his lazy snooze in the shade and delivering his orders more peremptorily than any Dogberry. These epicenes are as curious and exceptional in character as in external conformation. Disconnected, after a fashion, with humanity, they are brave, fierce and capable of any villany or barbarity (as Agha Mohammed Khan in Persia 1795-98). The frame is unnaturally long and lean, especially the arms and legs; with high, flat, thin shoulders; big protruding joints and a face by contrast extraordinarily large, a veritable mask; the Castrato is expert in the use of weapons and sits his horse admirably, riding well "home" in the saddle for the best of reasons; and his hoarse thick voice, which apparently does not break, as in the European "Cáppone," invests him with all the circumstance of command.
564. From the Meccan well used by Moslems much like Eau de Lourdes by Christians: the water is saltish, hence the touch of Arab humour (Pilgrimage III., 201-202.)
565. Such articles would be sacred from Moslem eyes.
566. Physiologically true, but not generally mentioned in describing the emotions.
567. Properly "Uta," the different rooms, each "Odalisque," or concubine, having her own.
568. Showing that her monthly ailment was over.
569. Arab. "Muhammarah"=either browned before the fire or artificially reddened.
570. The insolence and licence of these palace-girls was (and is) unlimited; especially when, as in the present case, they have to deal with a "softy." On this subject numberless stories are current throughout the East.
571. i.e. blackened by the fires of Jehannam.
572. Arab. "Bi'l-Salámah"=in safety (to avert the evil eye). When visiting the sick it is usual to say something civil; "The Lord heal thee! No evil befal thee!" etc.
573. Washing during sickness is held dangerous by Arabs; and "going to the Hammam" is, I have said, equivalent to convalescence.
574. Arab. "Máristán" (pronounced Múristan) a corruption of the Pers. "Bímáristán"=place of sickness, a hospital much affected by the old Guebres (Dabistan, i., 165, 166). That of Damascus was the first Moslem hospital, founded by Al-Walid Son of Abd al-Malik the Ommiade in A.H. 88=706-7. Benjamin of Tudela (A.D. 1164) calls it "Dar-al-Maraphtan" which his latest Editor explains by "Dar-al-Mora-bittan" (abode of those who require being chained). Al-Makrizi (Khitat) ascribes the invention of "Spitals" to Hippocrates; another historian to an early Pharaoh "Manákiyush;" thus ignoring the Persian Kings, Saint Ephrem (or Ephraim) Syru etc. In modern parlance "Maristan" is a madhouse where the maniacs are treated with all the horrors which were universal in Europe till within a few years and of which occasional traces occur to this day. In A.D. 1399 Katherine de la Court held a "hospital in the Court called Robert de Paris;" but the first madhouse in Christendom was built by the legate Ortiz in Toledo A.D. 1483, and was therefore called Casa del Nuncio. The Damascus "Maristan" was described by every traveller of the last century: and it showed a curious contrast between the treatment of the maniac and the idiot or omadhaun, who is humanely allowed to wander about unharmed, if not held a Saint. When I saw it last (1870) it was all but empty and mostly in ruins. As far as my experience goes, the United States is the only country where the insane are rationally treated by the sane.
575. Hence the trite saying "Whoso drinks the water of the Nile will ever long to drink it again." "Light" means easily digested water; and the great test is being able to drink it at night between the sleeps, without indigestion.
576. "Níl" in popular parlance is the Nile in flood, although also used for the River as a proper name. Egyptians (modern as well as ancient), have three seasons Al-Shitá (winter), Al-Sayf (summer) and Al-Níl (the Nile i.e. flood season, our mid-summer); corresponding with the Growth-months; Housing (or granary) months and Flood-months of the older race.
577. These lines are in the Mac. Edit.
578. Arab. "Birkat al-Habash," a tank formerly existing in Southern Cairo: Galland (Night 128) says "en remontant vers l'Éthiopie."
579. The Bres. Edit. (ii., 190) from which I borrow this description, here alludes to the well-known Island, Al-Rauzah (Rodah)=The Garden.
580. Arab. "Laylat al-Wafá," the night of the completion or abundance of the Nile (flood), usually between August 6th and 16th, when the government proclaims that the Nilometer shows a rise of 16 cubits. Of course it is a great festival and a high ceremony, for Egypt is still the gift of the Nile (Lane M. E. chapt. xxvi—a work which would be much improved by a better index).
581. i.e. admiration will be complete.
582. Arab. "Sáhil Masr" (Misr): hence I suppose Galland's villes maritimes.
583. A favourite simile, suggested by the broken glitter and shimmer of the stream under the level rays and the breeze of eventide.
584. Arab. "Halab," derived by Moslems from "He (Abraham) milked (halaba) the white and dun cow." But the name of the city occurs in the Cuneiforms as Halbun or Khalbun, and the classics knew it as Βέροια, Beroea, written with variants.