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第135章

His successor AlWasik (Vathek,of the terrible eyes) was the first to appoint a Turk his Sultan or regent. After his reign they became praetorians and led to the downfall of the Abbasides.

[99] The Persian saying is'First at the feast and last at the fray.'

[100] i.e. a tempter,a seducer.

[101] Arab.'Waylak'here probably used in the sense of'Wayhak'an expression of affectionate concern.

[102] Firdausi,the Homer of Persia,affects the same magnificent exaggeration. The trampling of men and horses raises such a dust that it takes one layer (of the seven) from earth and adds it to the (seven of the) Heavens. The'blaze'on the stallion's forehead (Arab.'Ghurrah') is the white gleam of the morning.

[103] A noted sign of excitement in the Arab blood horse,when the tail looks like a panache covering the hindquarter.

[104] i.e. Prince Kanmakan.

[105] The'quality of mercy'belongs to the noble Arab,whereas the ignoble and the Bada win are rancorous and revengeful as camels.

[106] Arab.'Khanjar,'the poison was let into the grooves and hollows of the poniard.

[107] The Pers.'Bang',Indian'Bhang',Maroccan'Fasukh'and S. African'Dakha.'(Pilgrimage i. 64.) I heard of a'Hashish

orgie'in London which ended in half the experimentalists being on their sofas for a week. The drug is useful for stokers,having the curious property of making men insensible to heat. Easterns also use it for'Imsak'prolonging coition of which I speak presently.

[108] Arab.'Hashshashin;'whence De Sacy derived'Assassin.'

A notable effect of the Hashish preparation is wildly to excite the imagination,a kind of delirium imaginans sive phantasticum .

[109] Meaning'Well done!'Mashallah (Ma shaa'llah) is an exclamation of many uses,especially affected when praising man or beast for fear lest flattering words induce the evil eye.

[110] Arab.'Kabkab'vulg.'Kubkab.'They are between three and ten inches high,and those using them for the first time in the slippery Hammam must be careful.

[111] Arab.'Majlis'=sitting. The postures of coition,ethnologically curious and interesting,are subjects so extensive that they require a volume rather than a note. Full information can be found in the Anangaranga,or Stage of the Bodiless One,a treatise in Sanskrit verse vulgarly known as Koka Pandit from the supposed author,a Wazir of the great Rajah Bhoj,or according to others,of the Maharajah of Kanoj. Under the title Lizzat alNisa (The Pleasuresor enjoyingof Women) it has been translated into all the languages of the Moslem East,from Hindustani to Arabic. It divides postures into five great divisions: (1) the woman lying supine,of which there are eleven subdivisions;(2)lying on her side,right or left,with three varieties;(3)

sitting,which has ten,(4) standing,with three subdivisions,and (5) lying prone,with two. This total of twenty nine,with three forms of'Purushayit,'when the man lies supine (see the Abbot in Boccaccio i. 4),becomes thirtytwo,approaching the French quarante fa噊ns. The Upavishta,majlis,or sitting postures,when one or both'sit at squat'somewhat like birds,appear utterly impossible to Europeans who lack the pliability of the Eastern's limbs. Their object in congress is to avoid tension of the muscles which would shorten the period of enjoyment. In the text the woman lies supine and the man sits at squat between her legs: it is a favourite from Marocco to China. A literal translation of the Ananga range appeared in 1873 under the name of KamaShastra;or the Hindoo Art of Love (Ars Amoris Indica);but of this only six copies were printed. It was reissued (printed but not published) in 1885. The curious in such matters will consult the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (London,privately printed,1879) by Pisanus Fraxi (H. S. Ashbee).

[112] i.e. Le Roi Crotte.

[113] This seems to be a punning allusion to Baghdad,which in Persian would mean the Garden (bagh) of Justice (dad). See'Biographical Notices of Persian Poets'by Sir Gore Ouseley,London,Oriental Translation Fund,1846

[114] The Kardoukhoi (Carduchi) of Xenophon;also called (Strabo xv.)'Kardakis,from a Persian word signifying manliness,'which would be'Kardak'=a doer (of derring do). They also named the Montes Gordaei the original Ararat of Xisisthrus Noah's Ark. The Kurds are of Persian race,speaking an old and barbarous Iranian tongue and often of the Shi'ah sect. They are born bandits,highwaymen,cattlelifters;yet they have spread extensively over Syria and Egypt and have produced some glorious men,witness Sultan Salah alDin (Saladin) the Great. They claim affinity with the English in the East,because both races always inhabit the highest grounds they can find.

[115] These irregular bands who belong to no tribe are the most dangerous bandits in Arabia,especially upon the northern frontier. Burckhardt,who suffered from them,gives a long account of their treachery and utter absence of that Arab'pundonor'which is supposed to characterise Arab thieves.

[116] An euphemistic form to avoid mentioning the incestuous marriage.

[117] The Arab form of our'Kinchin lay.'

[118] These are the signs of a Shaykh's tent.

[119] These questions,indiscreet in Europe,are the rule throughout Arabia,as they were in the United States of the last generation.

[120] Arab.'Khizab'a paste of quicklime and lampblack kneaded with linseed oil which turns the Henna to a dark olive.

It is hideously ugly to unaccustomed eyes and held to be remarkably beautiful in Egypt.

[121] i.e. the God of the Empyrean.

[122] A blow worthy of the Sa'alabah tribe to which he belonged.

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