[FN#489] Lane (i. 608) has a valuable note on the language of signs, from M. du Vigneau's "Secretaire Turc," etc. (Paris, 1688), Baron von Hammer-Purgstall ("Mines de ['Orient," No. 1, Vienna, 1809) and Marcel's "Comes du Cheykh El-Mohdy" (Paris, 1833). It is practised in Africa as well as in Asia. At Abeokuta in Yoruba a man will send a symbolical letter in the shape of cowries, palm-nuts and other kernels strung on rice- straw, and sharp wits readily interpret the meaning. A specimen is given in p. 262 of Miss Tucker's "Abbeokuta; or Sunrise within the Tropics."
[FN#490] Mr. Payne (ii. 227) translates "Hawá al-'Urzí" by "the love of the Beni Udhra, an Arabian tribe famous for the passion and devotion with which love was practised among them." See Night dclxxxiii. I understand it as "excusable love" which, for want of a better term, is here translated "platonic." It is, however, more like the old "bundling" of Wales and Northern England; and allows all the pleasures but one, the toyings which the French call les plaisirs de la petite ode; a term my dear old friend Fred. Hankey derived from la petite voie. The Afghans know it as "Námzad-bází" or betrothed play (Pilgrimage, ii. 56); the Abyssinians as eye- love; and the Kafirs as Slambuka a Shlabonka, for which see The traveller Delegorgue.
[FN#491] "Turk" in Arabic and Persian poetry means a plunderer, a robber. Thus Hafiz: "Agar án Turk-i-Shirázi ba-dast árad dil-i- márá," If that Shirazi (ah, the Turk!) would deign to take my heart in hand, etc.
[FN#492] Arab. "Názir," a steward or an eye (a "looker"). The idea is borrowed from Al-Hariri (Assemblies, xiii.), and,—
[FN#493] Arab. "Hájib," a groom of the chambers, a chamberlain; also an eyebrow. See Al-Hariri, ibid. xiii. and xxii.
[FN#494] This gesture speaks for itself: it is that of a dyer staining a cloth. The "Sabbágh's" shop is the usual small recess, open to the street and showing pans of various dyes sunk like "dog- laps" in the floor.
[FN#495] The Arab. "Sabt" (from sabata, he kept Sabt) and the Heb. "Sabbath" both mean Saturn's day, Saturday, transferred by some unknown process throughout Christendom to Sunday. The change is one of the most curious in the history of religions. If there be a single command stronger than all others it is "Keep the Saturday holy." It was so kept by the Founder of Christianity; the order was never abrogated and yet most Christians are not aware that Sabbath, or "Sawbath," means Saturn's day, the "Shiyár" of the older Arabs. And to complete its degradation "Sabbat" in French and German means a criaillerie, a "row," a disorder, an abominable festival of Hexen (witches). This monstrous absurdity can be explained only by aberrations of sectarian zeal, of party spirit in religion.
[FN#496] The men who cry to prayer. The first was Bilál, the Abyssinian slave bought and manumitted by Abu Bakr. His simple cry was "I testify there is no Iláh (god) but Allah (God)! Come ye to prayers!" Caliph Omar, with the Prophet's permission, added, "I testify that Mohammed is the Apostle of Allah." The prayer-cry which is beautiful and human, contrasting pleasantly with the brazen clang of the bell. now is
Allah is Almighty (bis).
I declare no god is there but Allah (bis).
Hie ye to Rogation (Hayya=halumma).
Hie ye to Salvation (Faláh=prosperity, Paradise).
("Hie ye to Edification," a Shi'ah adjunct).
Prayer is better than sleep (in the morning, also bis).
No god is there but Allah
This prayer call is similarly worded and differently pronounced and intoned throughout Al-Islam.