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第130章

[28] Thus he broke his promise to his father,and it is insinuated that retribution came upon him.

[29] 'O Pilgrim'(Ya Hajj) is a polite address even to those who have not pilgrimaged. The feminine 'Hajjah'(in Egypt pronounced 'Haggeh') is similarly used.

[30] Arab. 'usul'=roots,i.e. I have not forgotten my business.

[31] Moslems from Central and Western North Africa.(Pilgrimage i. 261;iii. 7,etc);the 'Jabarti'is the Moslem Abyssinian.

[32] This is a favourite bit of chaff and is to be lengthened out almost indefinitely e.g. every brown thing is not civet nor every shining thing a diamond;every black thing is not charcoal nor every white chalk;every red thing is not a ruby nor every yellow a topaz;every long-necked thing is not a camel,etc.,etc.,etc.

[33] He gives him the name of his grandfather;a familiar usage.

[34] Arab. 'Ma'janah,'a place for ****** unbaked bricks (Tob=Span. Adobe) with chaff and bruised or charred straw. The use of this article in rainless lands dates from ages immemorial,and formed the outer walls of the Egyptian temple.

[35] Arab. 'Barsh,'a bit of round matting used by the poor as a seat. The Wazir thus showed that he had been degraded to the condition of a mat-maker.

[36] The growth (a Poa of two species) which named Wady Halfa (vulg. 'Halfah'),of which the home public has of late heard perhaps a trifle too much. Burckhardt (Prov. 226) renders it 'dry reeds'-incorrectly enough.

[37] This 'Hashimi'vein,as they call it,was an abnormal development between the eyes of the house of Abbas,inherited from the great- grandfather of the Prophet;and the latter had it remarkably large,swelling in answer and battle-rage. The text,however,may read 'The sweat of wrath,'etc.

[38] Torrens and Payne prefer 'Ilm'=knowledge. Lane has more correctly 'Alam'=a sign,a flag.

[39] The lines were in Night xi.:I have quoted Torrens (p.379) for a change.

[40] Still customary in Tigris-Euphrates land,where sea-craft has not changed since the days of Xisisthrus-Noah,and long before.

[41] To cool the contents.

[42] Hence the Khedivial Palace near Cairo 'Kasr al-Nuzhah;'literally,'of Delights;'one of those flimsy new-Cairo buildings which contrast so marvellously with the architecture of ancient and even of mediaeval Egypt,and which are covering the land with modern ruins. Compare Mohammed Ali's mosque in the citadel with the older Sultan Hasan. A popular tale is told that,when the conquering Turk,Yawuz Sultan Selim,first visited Cairo,they led him to Mosque Al-Ghuri. 'This is a splendid Ka'ah (saloon)!'

quoth he. When he entered Sultan Hasan,he exclaimed,'This is a citadel!';but after inspecting the Mosque Al-Mu'ayyad he cried,''Tis a veritable place of prayer,a fit stead for the Faithful to adore the Eternal!'

[43] Arab. gardeners are very touchy on this point. A friend of mine was on a similar occasion addressed,in true Egyptian lingo,by an old Adam-son,'Ya ibn al-Kalb! beta'mil ay?'(O dog-son,what art thou up to?).

[44] 'The green palm-stick is of the trees of Paradise;'say the Arabs in Solomonic style but not Solomonic words:so our 'Spare the rod,'etc.

[45] Wayfarers,travellers who have a claim on the kindness of those at home:hence Abd al-Rahman al-Burai sings in his famous Ode:--

He hath claim on the dwellers in the places of their birth,Whoso wandereth the world,for he lacketh him a home.

It is given in my 'First Footsteps in East Africa'(pp. 53-55).

[46] The good old man treated the youth like a tired child.

[47] In Moslem writings the dove and turtle-dove are mostly feminine,whereas the female bird is always mute and only the male sings to summon or to amuse his mate.

[48] An unsavoury comparison of the classical Narcissus with the yellow white of a nigger's eyes.

[49] A tree whose coals burn with fierce heat:Al-Hariri (Vth Seance). This Artemisia is like the tamarisk but a smaller growth and is held to be a characteristic of the Arabian Desert. A Badawi always hails with pleasure the first sight of the Ghaza,after he has sojourned for a time away from his wilds. Mr.

Palgrave (i. 38) describes the 'Ghada'as an Euphorbia with a woody stem often 5-6 feet high and slender,flexible green twigs (?),'forming a feathery tuft,not ungraceful to the eye,while it affords some shelter to the traveller,and food to his camels.'

[50] Arab. 'Sal'am'=S(alla) A(llah) a(layhi) was S(allam);A(llah) b(less) h(im) a(nd) k(eep)=Allah keep him and assain!

[51] The ass is held to be ill-omened. I have noticed the braying elsewhere. According to Mandeville the Devil did not enter the Ark with the Ass,but he left it when Noah said 'Benedicite.'In his day (A.D. 1322) and in that of Benjamin of Tudela,people had seen and touched the ship on Ararat,the Judi (Gordiaei) mountains;and this dates from Berosus (S.C. 250) who,of course,refers to the Ark of Xisisthrus. See Josephus Ant. i.3,6;and Rodwell (Koran,pp. 65,530).

[52] As would happen at a 'Zikr,'rogation or litany. Those who wish to see how much can be made of the subject will read 'Pearls of the Faith,or Islam's Rosary,being the ninety-nine beautiful names of Allah'(Asma-el-Husna) etc. by Edwin Arnold:

London,Trubner,1883.

[53] i.e. the Saki,cup-boy or cup-bearer. 'Moon-faced,'as I have shown elsewhere,is no compliment in English,but it is in Persian and Arabic.

[54] He means we are 'Zahiri,'plain honest Moslems,not 'Batini,'gnostics (ergo reprobates) and so forth,who disregard all appearances and external ordinances. This suggests his opinion of Shaykh Ibrahim and possibly refers to Ja'afar's suspected heresy.

[55] This worthy will be noticed in a subsequent page.

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