385. Called “áyát esh-shifë” (the verses of restoration).

386. By Robert Hay, Esq., who purchased it from a peasant at Thebes.

387. Every year, on the first day of the Great Festival, which immediately follows the pilgrimage, a new covering is hung upon the Kaabeh. The old one is cut up; and the greater part of it is sold to the pilgrims.

388. It has been said, by a traveller, that this is only done at pilgrims’ houses: but such is not the case, at least in Egypt.

389. A sequin of this description is termed “benduk′ee musháhrah.”

391. The more approved záïrgehs are extremely complicated, and the process of consulting them involves intricate astrological calculations.

392. This superstition, however, was condemned by the Prophet.

393. I was informed that he had died during my second visit to Egypt.

394. I must be excused for deviating from our old and erroneous mode of writing the name of the master of the “wonderful lamp.” It is vulgarly pronounced ’Aláy-ed-Deen.

395. Of a more famous magician, the sheykh Ahmad Sádoomeh, who flourished in Egypt in the latter half of the last century, an account is given in my translation of “The Thousand and One Nights,” chap. i., note 15.

396. Or, “Tarsh” and “Taryoosh;” the final “un” being the inflexion which denotes the nominative case.

397. He generally requires some benzoin to be added to these.

398. The numbers in this magic square, in our own ordinary characters, are as follows:—

It will be seen that the horizontal, vertical, and diagonal rows give, each, the same sum, namely, 15.

399. This reminds us of animal magnetism.

400. Dark blue is called by the modern Egyptians “eswed,” which properly signifies black, and is therefore so translated here.

401. Whenever I desired the boy to call for any person to appear, I paid particular attention both to the magician and to ’Osmán. The latter gave no direction either by word or sign; and indeed he was generally unacquainted with the personal appearance of the individual called for. I took care that he had no previous communication with the boys; and have seen the experiment fail when he could have given directions to them, or to the magician. In short, it would be difficult to conceive any precaution which I did not take. It is important to add, that the dialect of the magician was more intelligible to me than to the boy. When I understood him perfectly at once, he was sometimes obliged to vary his words to make the boy comprehend what he said.

402. A few months after this was written, I had the pleasure of hearing that the person here alluded to was in better health. Whether he was confined to his bed at the time when this experiment was performed, I have not been able to ascertain.

403. I have been gratified by finding that this hope has been realized. I wish I could add that the phenomena were now explained. In No. 117 of the “Quarterly Review,” pp. 202 and 203, it has been suggested that the performances were effected by means of pictures and a concave mirror; and that the images of the former were reflected from the surface of the mirror, and received on a cloud of smoke under the eyes of the boy. This, however, I cannot admit; because such means could not have been employed without my perceiving them; nor would the images be reversed (unless the pictures were so) by being reflected from the surface of a mirror, and received upon a second surface; for the boy was looking down upon the palm of his hand, so that an image could not be formed upon the smoke (which was copious but not dense) between his eye and the supposed mirror. The grand difficulty of the case is the exhibition of “the correct appearance of private individuals unknown to fame,” as remarked in the “Quarterly Review,” in which a curious note, presenting “some new features of difficulty,” is appended. With the most remarkable of the facts there related I was acquainted; but I was not bold enough to insert them. I may now, however, here mention them. Two travellers (one of them, M. Léon Delaborde; the other, an Englishman), both instructed by the magician ’Abd-el-Kádir, are stated to have succeeded in performing similar feats. Who this Englishman was, I have not been able to learn: he positively denied all collusion, and asserted that he did nothing but repeat the forms taught him by the magician.

404. I am credibly informed that children in Egypt are often taught, at school, a regular set of curses to denounce upon the persons and property of Christians, Jews, and all other unbelievers in the religion of Mohammad. See Appendix D.

405. Chap. v., ver. 56. Verses 62 and 63 of the same chapter explain the reason of this precept:—“O ye who have believed, take not those who have made your religion a laughing-stock and a jest, of those who have received the Scripture before you, and the unbelievers [or polytheists], as friends; (but fear God, if ye be believers;) and [those who], when ye call to prayer, make it [namely, the prayer] a laughing-stock and a jest. This [they do] because they are a people who do not understand.” (The words enclosed in brackets are from the Commentary of the Geláleyn.)

406. The Prophet.

407. Kur-án, chap. xxxix. ver. 54.

408. Chap. xxix., ver. 45.

409. In the first edition of the present work, copying Sale, who gives no authority for the remark, I here added, “This precept is, however, generally considered as abrogated by that of the sword.” These words might lead the reader into error, as is shown by what I have said on the subject of war in page 81.

410. Kur-án, chap. lvi. ver. 78.

411. They are not, however, so apathetic as some travellers have supposed; for it is not uncommon to see them weep; and such a demonstration of feeling is not considered by them as unmanly: even heroes are frequently represented, in their romances and histories, as weeping under heavy affliction.

412. Chap. ii., ver. 191.

413. Literally, “your hands;” but in the Commentary of the Geláleyn, the meaning is said to be “yourselves.”

414. I think it proper to remark here, that I have good reason for believing Burckhardt to have been misinformed when stating (see his “Arabic Proverbs,” No. 393) that children in the East (in Egypt, etc.) torture serpents by putting them into a leather bag, then throwing unslaked lime upon them, and pouring water on it. I find no one who has heard of such cruelty; and it is not likely that boys in this country would dare to put a serpent in a bag (for they are excessively afraid of this reptile), or would give several piasters for a bag to destroy in this manner. The proverb upon which this statement is founded perhaps alludes to a mode of destroying serpents; but not for sport.

415. “The oppression of the Turks, rather than the justice of the Arabs,” is a proverb often heard from the mouth of the Arab peasant; who, in this case, applies the term “Arabs” to his own class, instead of the Bedawees, to whom it now usually belongs. See Burckhardt’s “Arabic Proverbs,” No. 176.

416. D’Herbelot mentions a somewhat similar case, in which a Turk, having buried a favourite dog with some marks of respect, in his garden, was accused, before the Kádee, of having interred the animal with the ceremonies practised at the burial of a Muslim, and escaped punishment (perhaps a severe one) by informing the judge that his dog had made a will, leaving to him (the Kádee) a sum of money.—(Bibliothèque Orientale, art. Cadhi.)

417. See Burckhardt’s Notes on the Bedouins, etc., 8vo edition, vol. i. pp. 179 and 180.

418. It has been remarked that this is inconsistent with the undeniable gratitude which the Arabs feel towards God. To such an objection they would reply, “We are entitled to the good offices of our fellow-creatures by the law of God; but can claim no benefit from our Maker.” I once afforded a refuge to a Bedawee who was in fear for his life; but on parting, he gave me not a word of thanks: had he done so, it would have implied his thinking me a person of mean disposition, who regarded a positive duty as an act imposing obligation. Hence the Arab usually acknowledges a benefit merely by a prayer for the long life, etc., of his benefactor.

419. The name which they give to it is “’eysh,” which literally signifies “life.”

420. Page 46.

421. Dogs, too, are eaten by many Maghrab′ees settled at Alexandria, and by descendants of the same people; of whom there are also a few in Cairo, in the quarter of Teyloon.

422. Kur-án, chap. vi., ver. 118.

423. To express that a person has done this, they say, “sháhad el-hawáïg,” for “ghasal el-hawáïg wa-teshahhad ’aleyha.”

424. See Leviticus xix. 32.

425. This is not meant to reflect upon the Turks, nor upon the Arabs of the desert.

426. Chap. vii., ver. 142.

427. In the first edition of the present work, I included, among these supposed causes, the degree of restraint imposed upon the women, and their seclusion from open intercourse with the other sex. This I did, not because confinement is said to have this effect in the West, where, being contrary to general custom, it is felt as an oppression, but because the assertion of the Egyptians, that the Eastern women in general are more licentiously disposed than the men, seemed to be an argument against the main principle of the constitution of Eastern society. I did not consider that this argument is at least counter-balanced by what I have before mentioned, that the women who are commonly considered the most licentious (namely, those of Egypt) are those who are said to have most licence.

428. Chap. xxiv., ver. 4.

429. Vulgarly called “Muristán.”

430. Madness is said to be more common and more violent in Egypt when the black bádingán (or black egg-plant) is in season; that is, in the hot weather.

431. “How many men, in Masr,” said one of my friends to me, “have lost their lives on account of women! A very handsome young libertine, who lived in this house which you now occupy, was beheaded here in the street, before his own door, for an intrigue with the wife of a Bey, and all the women of Masr wept for him.”

432. A respectable female is generally addressed, in a letter, as “the guarded lady, and concealed jewel” (“es-sitt el-masooneh wa-l-góharah el-meknooneh”).

433. Kur-án, chap. v., ver. 91.

434. “Wekáleh” (generally pronounced by the Franks occaleh, occal, etc.) is for “Dár el-Wekáleh,” signifying a factory.

435. This has long been the case in other Eastern countries. See Jeremiah xxxvii. 21.

436. The tradesman keeps his main stock of goods (if more than his shop will contain) in this magazine, or in his private dwelling, or in a wekáleh.

437. As Ephron did to Abraham, when the latter expressed his wish to purchase the cave and field of Machpelah. See Genesis xxiii. 11.

438. El-Is-hákee states that the custom of smoking tobacco began to be common in Egypt between the years of the Flight 1010 and 1012 (A.D. 1601 and 1603).

439. El-Gabartee relates, that about a century ago, in the time of Mohammad Básha El-Yedekshee (or Yedekchee), who governed Egypt in the years of the Flight, 1156-8, it frequently happened that when a man was found with a pipe in his hand in Cairo, he was made to eat the bowl with its burning contents. This may seem incredible, but a pipe-bowl may be broken by strong teeth. The tobacco first used in the East was probably very strong.

440. See De Sacy’s Chrestomathie Arabe, vol. i., pp. 412-483, 2nde ed.

441. “Kahweh,” being the name of the beverage sold at the coffee-shop, is hence applied to the shop itself.

442. A decoction of ginger, sweetened with sugar, is likewise often sold at the Kahwehs, particularly on the nights of festivals.

443. See, on this subject, the close of chapter xxii.

444. See the Plan, of which the following is an explanation.—A, General entrance and vestibule. B, B, Meslakh. C, C, C, C, C, Leewáns. D, Station of the M’allim. E, Faskeeyeh. F, Coffee-stall. G, G, Latrinæ. H, Beytowwal. I, I, Leewán. K, K, Mastab′ahs. L, L, Harárah. M, M, M, M, Leewáns. N, Faskeeyeh. O, O, Two chambers, each containing a maghtas (or tank). P, P, Hanafeeyehs. Q, Place of the fire, over which is the boiler.

445. This operation is termed “tekyees,” and the bag “kees el-hammán,el-hammán,” hence the operator is called “mukeyyisátee,” or more properly, “mukeyyis.”

446. The depilatory called “noorah,” which is often employed in the bath, being preferred to the resin more commonly used, is composed, as I am informed, of quick-lime with a small proportion (about an eighth part) of orpiment. It is made into a paste, with water, before application; and loosens the hair in about two minutes, when it is washed off.—See Russell’s Aleppo, vol. i, pp. 134, 378, 379: 2nd edition.

447. The larger seegas, in like manner, require a sufficient number of kelbs to occupy all the ’eyns excepting one.

448. During my last residence at Thebes, a fine athletic man, the best gereed-player of the place, whom I had taken into my service as a nightly guard, received a very severe wound at this game; and I had some difficulty to effect a cure: he was delirious for many hours in consequence of it, and had nearly lost his life. The gereed struck him a little before his ear, and penetrated downwards into his neck.

449. This is most remarkable in the more refined Egyptian music; but it is also observable in the airs of some common ballads and chants.

450. Often, in such cases, pronounced in an unusually broad manner, and the last syllable drawled out, thus—“Allauh!”

451. A friend (a native of Egypt) has observed to me, since the first edition of this work was printed, that “rabáb” would be a more proper term for this instrument, being the general Arabic name for a viol; but I never heard it called in Egypt by any other name than “kemengeh.” It is also thus called in Syria.

452. The mouth-piece (A B) of the zummárah is movable.

453. The arghool has three movable pieces to lengthen the longer tube (A B, B C, and C D); and is sometimes used with only one or two of these; and sometimes with none of them.

454. Here, in accordance with a rule observed in most modern Arab songs, the masculine gender is applied to the beloved object, who is, nevertheless, a female, as will be seen in several subsequent verses. In translation, I therefore substitute the feminine gender in every case where our language distinguishes gender. Some words occur, bearing double meanings, which I leave unexplained. I write the Arabic words as they are generally pronounced in Cairo, excepting in the case of one letter, which I represent by “k,” to express the sound which persons of education give to it instead of the more usual hiatus.

455. The Arabs find it impossible to utter three consonants together without a pause between the second and third: hence the introduction of the short vowel which terminates this word: it is a single letter that is represented by sh.

456. Or pace, or strut.

457. “Yá lellee,” which is thus translated, is a common ejaculation indicative of joy synonymous with “yá farhatee.” It is difficult to render this and other cant terms.

458. This line and the first of the next stanza require an additional note, which is the same as the last note of these lines, to be added at the commencement

459. This and some other lines require that the note which should be the last if they were of more correct measure be transferred to the commencement of the next line.

460. The famous saint Es-seyyid Ahmad El-Bedawee, who is buried at Tanta, in the Delta.

461. That is, the air of the song.

462. Namely, the black eyes.

463. The intoxication here meant is that of love, as is generally the case when this expression is used in Arab songs.

464. Cairo.

465. An ornament described in the Appendix, resembling a necklace of pearls, etc., attached on each side of the head-dress.

466. A kind of long necklace, reaching to the girdle.

467. The furniture consists of carpets, etc., spread upon the floor.

468. The lock of hair which hangs over the temple, commonly called “maksoos.”

469. “Bent” is a vulgar contraction of “bánet.”

470. Dual of “eed,” vulg. for “yed;” meaning “arm” as well as “hand.”

471. A vulgar diminutive of “má,” water.

472. More commonly called “nárgeeleh:” the Persian pipe.

473. The dark-complexioned girl has two white roses on her cheeks, instead of red.

474. Or, thou who hast.

475. In the chapter on religion and laws.

476. Since this was written, public female dancing and prostitution were prohibited by the government, in the beginning of June, 1834. Women detected infringing this new law are to be punished with fifty stripes for the first offence; and, for repeated offences, are to be also condemned to hard labour for one or more years: men are obnoxious to the discipline of the bastinado when parties in such offences. But there is a simple plan for evading punishment in cases of this kind, which, it is said, will be adopted by many persons. A man may marry a venal female, legally, and divorce her the next day. He has only to say two or three words, and pay a small sum of money, which he calls her dowry. He says, “Will you marry me?” She answers, “Yes.” “For how much?” he asks. She names the sum, and he gives it: she is then his lawful wife. The next day he tells her that she is divorced from him. He need be under little apprehension of her demanding the expenses of her maintenance during the period of her ’eddeh, before the expiration of which she cannot legally marry another man; for the marriage which has just been contracted and dissolved is only designed as a means of avoiding punishment in case of her being detected with the man; and otherwise is kept secret; and the sum which she can demand for her maintenance during the above-mentioned period is very paltry in comparison with that which she may obtain by taking a new husband every two or three days.

477. Lib. v., Epigr. 79.

478. Sat. xi., v. 162.

479. Commonly pronounced “Barám’keh.”

480. From the effect which it produced, it is probable that the dance performed by the daughter of Herodias was of the kind here described. See Matthew xiv. 6, 7, or Mark vi. 22, 23.

481. The courtesans of other classes abound in every town of Egypt; but in and about the metropolis, these and the others before mentioned are particularly numerous; some quarters being inhabited almost exclusively by them. These women frequently conduct themselves with the most audacious effrontery. Their dress is such as I have described as being worn by the Ghawázee, or differs from that of respectable women in being a little more gay, and less disguising. Some women of the venal class in Cairo not only wear the burko’ (or face-veil), but dress, in every respect, like modest women; from whom they cannot be distinguished, excepting by those to whom they choose to discover themselves. Such women are found in almost every quarter of the metropolis. Many of them are divorced women, or widows; and many are the wives of men whom business obliges to be often abroad.

482. The term “Gháïsh” (plural, “Gheeyásh”) is also applied to a person of this class.

483. See Psalm lviii. 4, 5; Eccles. x. 11; and Jerem. viii. 17.

484. In the account of the Moolid en-Nebee, in the first of the chapters on periodical public festivals, etc.

485. So called from his feats with serpents.

486. They tattoo, or make those blue marks upon the skin which I have described in the first chapter of this work; and perform the operation alluded to in a note inserted, page 48.

487. Thus vulgarly pronounced for “’Ewad.”

488. A description of this will be found in a subsequent chapter.

489. A kind of paste, resembling vermicelli.

490. This exhibition is called in Arabic “khayál ed-dill,” or, more correctly, “— edh-dhill.”

491. See the engraving opposite p. 359.

492. The reciter is generally heard to greater advantage in public than when he is hired to entertain a private party; as, in the former case, his profits are usually proportioned to the talent which he displays.

493. These words commence a piece of poetry of which a translation will be found in this chapter.

494. Literally, “Thou who hast a valiant maternal uncle!” I add this note merely for the sake of mentioning, that the Arabs generally consider innate virtues as inherited through the mother rather than the father, and believe that a man commonly resembles, in his good and evil qualities, his maternal uncle.

495. When the reciter utters these words, we hear, from the lips of most of the Muslims who are listening to him, the prayer of “Alláhum sallee ’aleyh!”—“O God, favour him!”

496. It is thus described in the romance: but a headless spear was formerly sometimes used instead of the “gereed,” or palm-stick.

497. Hence the Mohadditeen are sometimes called “Záhireeyeh.”

498. Es-Sáleh was of the house of Eiyoob, a family of Kurds.

499. “The ’A’dileeyeh” is the name of a mosque founded by El-Melik El-’A’dil Toomán Bey, in the year of the Flight 906 (A.D. 1501), outside the wall of Cairo, near the great gate called Báb en-Nasr. The same name is also given to the neighbourhood of that mosque.

500. ’Osmán (vulgarly called ’Otmán and ’Etmán) Ibn-El-Hebla was a rogue whom Beybars took into his service as groom, and compelled to vow repentance at the shrine of the seyyideh Nefeeseh (great-granddaughter of the Imám Hasan), and, soon after, made his mukaddam, or chief of his servants.

501. Damascus.

502. Eighty stripes, the punishment ordained for drunkenness.

503. ’Osmán, for the sake of a rude joke, changes the name of the Wezeer Sháheen (El-Afram) into an appellation too coarse to be here translated.

504. Grooms, also employed as running footmen.

505. A lane from which the house was entered.

506. Sometimes called in this work “Básha” of Syria.

507. This is an allusion to ’Aláy-ed-Deen’s having eaten a dish that had been prepared for Beybars, when the latter had just entered the service of the Sultán Es-Sáleh.

508. The Magnified King.

509. A dish of lamb’s feet, cooked with garlic and vinegar, etc.

510. Since the above was written, I have found that El-Idreesee applies the term “Hasheesheeyeh,” which is exactly synonymous with “Hashshásheen,” to the “Assassins:” this, therefore, decides the question.

511. The latter, being a masculine appellation, is evidently a corruption of the former. The name is written “Delhem′eh” in the older portions of some volumes in my possession, made up of fragments of this work. One of these portions appears to be at least three centuries old. In some of the more modern fragments, the name is written “Zu-l-Himmeh.”

512. The ’Ulama in general despise the romance of ’Antar, and ridicule the assertion that El-Asma’′ee was its author.

513. These are not terms of reproach among the Arabs, but of praise.

514. When the narrator introduces poetry, he generally desires his readers and hearers to bless the Prophet. Frequently he merely says, “Bless ye the Apostle:” and often, “Bless ye him for [the visit to] whose tomb burdens are bound:” i.e. “Bless ye him whose tomb is an object of pilgrimage:” for, though the pilgrimage ordained by the Kur-án is that to the temple of Mekkeh and Mount ’Arafát, yet the Prophet’s tomb is also an object of pious pilgrimage.—I translate the poetry from this tale verse for verse, imitating the system pursued with regard to rhyme in the originals.