书城公版Volume Six
16697300000150

第150章

[524] Moslems never stand up at such times,for a spray of urine would make their clothes ceremonially impure:hence the scrupulous will break up with stick or knife the hard ground in front of them.

A certain pilgrim was reported to have made this blunder which is hardly possible in Moslem dress. A high personage once asked me if it was true that he killed a man who caught him in a standing position;and I found to my surprise that the absurd scandal was already twenty years old. After urinating the Moslem wipes the os penis with one to three bits of stone,clay or handfuls of earth,and he must perform Wuzu before he can pray. Tournefort (Voyage au Levant iii. 335) tells a pleasant story of certain Christians at Constantinople who powdered with 'Poivre-d'Inde'the stones in a wall where the Moslems were in the habit of rubbing the os penis by way of wiping The same author (ii. 336) strongly recommends a translation of Rabelais'Torcheculative chapter (Lib i.,chaps. 13)for the benefit of Mohammedans.

[525] Arab. 'Nuhas ahmar,'lit. red brass.

[526] The cup is that between the lady's legs.

[527] A play upon 'Sak'= calf,or leg,and 'Saki,'a cup-bearer. The going round (Tawaf) and the running (Sa'i) allude to the circumambulation of the Ka'abah,and the running between Mount Safa and Marwah (Pilgrimage ii. 58,and iii. 343). A religious Moslem would hold the allusion highly irreverent.

[528] Lane (i. 614) never saw a woman wearing such kerchief which is deshabille. It is either spread over the head or twisted turband-wise.

[529] The 'Kasabah'was about two fathoms of long measure,and sometimes 12 ?feet;but the length has been reduced.

[530] 'Bat and ball,'or hockey on horseback (Polo) is one of the earliest Persian games as shown by every illustrated copy of Firdausi's 'Shahnameh.'This game was played with a Kurrah or small hand-ball and a long thin bat crooked at the end called in Persian Chaugan and in Arabic Saulajan. Another sense of the word is given in the Burhan-i-Kati translated by Vullers (Lex. Persico-Latinum),a large bandy with bent head to which is hung an iron ball,also called Kaukabah (our 'morning-star') and like the umbrella it denotes the grandees of the court. The same Kaukabah particularly distinguished one of the Marquesses of Waterford. This Polo corresponds with the folliculus,the pallone,the baloun-game (moyen age) of Europe,where the horse is not such a companion of man;and whereof the classics sang:--Folle decet pueros ludere,folle senes.

In these days we should spell otherwise the 'folle'of seniors playing at the ball or lawn-tennis.

[531] 'Dalil'means a guide;`'Dalilah,'a woman who misguides,a bawd. See the Tale of Dalilah the Crafty,Night dcxcviii.

[532] i.e. she was a martyr.

[533] Arab. 'Ghashim'a popular and insulting term,our 'Johnny Raw.'Its use is shown in Pilgrimage i. 110.

[534] Bathers pay on leaving the Hammam;all enter without paying.

[535] i.e. she swore him upon his sword and upon the Koran:a loaf of bread is sometimes added. See Lane (i. 615).

End of Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night,V2