[388]. Arab. “Tamím” (plur. of Tamímat) = spells, charms, amulets, as those hung to a horse’s neck, the African Greegree and the Heb. Thummim. As was the case with most of these earliest superstitions, the Serpent, the Ark, the Cherubim, the Golden Calf (Apis) and the Levitical Institution, the Children of Israel derived the now mysterious term “Urím” (lights) and “Thummim” (amulets) from Egypt and the Semitic word (Tamímah) still remains to explain the Hebrew. “Thummim,” I may add, is by “general consensus” derived from “Tôm” = completeness and is englished “Perfection,” but we can find a better origin near at hand in spoken Arabic.
[389]. These verses have already occurred, see my vol. i. p. 275. I have therefore quoted Payne, i. p. 246.
[390]. Arab. “Wakíl” who, in the case of a grown-up girl, declares her consent to the marriage in the presence of two witnesses and after part payment of the dowry.
[391]. Such is the meaning of the Arab. “Thayyib.”
[392]. This appears to be the popular belief in Egypt. See vol. iv. 297, which assures us that “no thing poketh and stroketh more strenuously than the Gird” (or hideous Abyssinian cynocephalus.) But it must be based upon popular ignorance: the private parts of the monkey although they erect stiffly, like the priapus of Osiris when swearing upon his Phallus, are not of the girth sufficient to produce that friction which is essential to a woman’s pleasure. I may here allude to the general disappointment in England and America caused by the exhibition of my friend Paul de Chaillu’s Gorillas: he had modestly removed penis and testicles, the latter being somewhat like a bull’s, and his squeamishness caused not a little grumbling and sense of grievance—especially amongst the curious sex.
[393]. [In the MS. “fahakat,” lit. she flowed over like a brimful vessel.—St.]
[394]. In 1821, Scott (p. 214) following Gilchrist’s method of transliterating eastern tongues wrote “Abou Neeut” and “Neeuteen” (the latter a bad blunder making a masc. plural of a fem. dual). In 1822 Edouard Gauttier (vi. 320) gallicised the names to “Abou-Nyout” and “Abou-Nyoutyn” with the same mistake and one superadded; there is no such Arabic word as “Niyút.” Mr. Kirby in 1822, “The New Arabian Nights” (p. 366) reduced the words to “Abu Neut” and “Abu Neuteen,” which is still less intelligible than Scott’s; and, lastly, the well-known Turkish scholar Dr. Redhouse converted the tortured names to “Abú Niyyet” and “Abú Niyyeteyn,” thus rightly giving a “tashdíd” (reduplication sign) to the Yá (see Appendix p. 646 to Suppl. v. No. iii and Turk. Dict. sub voce “Niyyat”). The Arab. is “Niyyah” = will, purpose, intent; “Abú Niyyah” (Grammat. “Abú Niyyatin”) Father of one Intent = single-minded and “Abú Niyyatayn” = Father of two Intents or double-minded; and Richardson is deficient when he writes only “Niyat” for “Niyyat.” I had some hesitation about translating this tale which begins with the “Envier and the Envied” (vol. i. 123) and ends with the “Sisters who envied their Cadette” (Suppl. vol. iii. 492). But the extant versions of it are so imperfect in English and French that I made up my mind to include it in this collection.—[Richardson’s “Niyat” is rather another, although rarer form of the same word.—St.]
[395]. [I read: “wa tukarribu ’l-’abda ilayya,” referring the verb to “al-Sadakah” (the alms) and translating: “and it bringeth the servant near to me,” the speaker, in Coranic fashion supposed to be Allah.—St.]
[396]. The text prefers the Egyptian form “Sherífí” pl. “Sherífíyah,” which was adopted by the Portuguese.
[397]. The grace after meat, “Bismillah” being that which precedes it. Abu Niyyah was more grateful than a youth of my acquaintance who absolutely declined asking the Lord to “make him truly thankful” after a dinner of cold mutton.