[183]. Alexander the Great: see vols. v. 252, x. 57. The H. V. adds, “Then only one man and one woman danced together, one with other, till midnight, when Alaeddin and the Princess stood up; for it was the wont of China in those days that bride and bridegroom perform together in presence of the wedding company.”
[184]. The exceptional reserve of this and other descriptions makes M. H. Zotenberg suspect that the tale was written for one of the Mameluke Princesses: I own to its modesty but I doubt that such virtue would have recommended it to the dames in question. The H. V. adds a few details:—“Then, when the bride and bridegroom had glanced and gazed each at other’s face, the Princess rejoiced with excessive joy to behold his comeliness, and he exclaimed, in the courtesy of his gladness, ‘O happy me, whom thou deignest, O Queen of the Fair, to honour despite mine unworth, seeing that in thee all charms and graces are perfected.’”
[185]. The term has not escaped ridicule amongst Moslems. A common fellow having stood in his way the famous wit Abú al-’Ayná asked “What is that?” “A man of the Sons of Adam” was the reply. “Welcome, welcome,” cried the other, “Allah grant thee length of days! I deemed that all his sons were dead.” See Ibn Khallikan iii. 57.
[186]. This address to an inanimate object (here a window) is highly idiomatic and must be cultivated by the practical Arabist. In the H. V. the unfinished part is the four-and-twentieth door of the fictitious (ja’alí) palace.
[187]. This is true Orientalism, a personification or incarnation which Galland did not think proper to translate.
[188]. Arab. “La’ab al-Andáb;” the latter word is from the √ “Nadb” = brandishing or throwing the javelin.
[189]. The “mothers” are the prime figures, the daughters being the secondary. For the “’Ilm al-Raml” = (Science of the sand) our geomancy see vol. iii. 269, and D’Herbelot’s sub. v. Raml or Reml.
[190]. This is from Galland, whose certaine boisson chaude evidently means tea. It is preserved in the H. V.
[191]. i.e. his astrolabe, his “Zíj” or table of the stars, his almanack, etc. For a highly fanciful derivation of the “Arstable” see Ibn Khallikán (iii. 580). He makes it signify “balance or lines (Pers. ‘Astur’) of the sun,” which is called “Láb” as in the case of wicked Queen Láb (The Nights, vol. vii. 296). According to him the Astrolabe was suggested to Ptolemy by an armillary sphere which had accidentally been flattened by the hoof of his beast: this is beginning late in the day, the instrument was known to the ancient Assyrians. Chardin (Voyages ii. 149) carefully describes the Persian variety of—
“The cunning man hight Sidrophil