[58]. The eunuch tells him that he is not a “Sandalí” = one whose penis and testes are removed; and consequently the highest valued. There are many ways of making the castrato; in some (as here) only the penis is removed, in others the testes are bruised or cut off; but in all cases the animal passion remains, for in man, unlike other animals, the fons veneris is the brain. The story of Abelard proves this. Juvenal derided the idea of married eunuchs and yet almost all these neutrals have wives with whom they practise the manifold plaisirs de la petite oie (masturbation, tribadism, irrumation, tête-bêche, feuille-de-rose, etc.), till they induce the venereal orgasm. Such was the account once given to me by a eunuch’s wife; and I need hardly say that she, like her confrerie was to be pitied. At the critical moment she held up a little pillow for her husband to bite who otherwise would have torn her cheeks or breasts.
[59]. In real life the eunuch, as a rule, avoids all allusion to his misfortune, although the slave will often describe his being sold merrily enough.
[60]. The visits are in dreamland. The ringdove thanks the Lord for her (his?) suffering in the holy martyrdom of love.
[61]. Arab. “Hazár;” I have explained it as meaning “(the bird of) a thousand (songs).”
[62]. The “Bulbul” had his day with us but he departed with Tommy Moore. We usually English the word by “nightingale;” but it is a kind of shrike or butcher-bird (Lanius Boulboul. Lath.)
[63]. The “Hamám” is a lieu commun in Arabic poetry. I have noticed the world-wide reverence for the pigeon and the incarnation of the Third Person of the Hindu Triad (Shiva), as “Kapoteshwara (Kapota-ishwara)” = pigeon or dove-god (Pilgrimage iii. 218.)
[64]. Arab. “Hamám al-Ayk.” Mr. Payne’s rendering is so happy that we must either take it from him or do worse.
[65]. All primitive peoples translate the songs of birds with human language; but, as I have noticed, the versions differ widely. The pigeon cries, “Allah! Allah!” The dove “Karim, Tawwá” (Bountiful, Pardoner!) the Katá or sand-grouse “Man sakat salam” (who is silent is safe) yet always betrays itself by its lay of “Kat-ta” and lastly the cock “Uzkurú ‘llah ya gháfilún” (Remember, or take the name of Allah, ye careless!)
[66]. “Nay,” the Dervish’s reed pipe, symbol of the sighing absent lover (i.e. the soul parted from the Creator) so famed by the Mullah-i-Rúm and Sir William Jones.
[67]. Ba’albak = Ba’al (the God)-city (bek in Coptic and ancient Egyptian). Such, at least, is the popular derivation which awaits a better. No cloth has been made there since the Kurd tribe of gallant robbers known as the “Harfúsh” (or blackguards) lorded it over old “Heliopolis.”