As I sat one day in my shop, there came up to me a fair woman, as she were the moon at its rising, and with her a hand maid. Now I was a handsome man in my time; so that lady sat down on my shop and buying stuffs of me, paid the price and went her ways. I asked the girl anent her and she answered, "I know not her name." I said, "Where is her abode?" she said, "In heaven;" and I, "She is presently on the earth; so when does she ascend to heaven and where is the ladder by which she goes up?" The girl retorted, "She has her lodging in a palace between two rivers, that is, in the palace of Al-Maamún al-Hákim bi-Amri 'llah." Then i said, "I am a dead man, without a doubt;" but she replied, "Have patience, for needs must she return to you and buy other stuffs of you." I asked, "And how comes it that the Commander of the Faithful trusts her to go out?" and she answered, "He loves her with exceeding love and is wrapped up in her and crosses her not." Then the slave girl went away, running after her mistress; whereupon I left the shop and followed them, so I might see her abiding place. I kept them in view all the way, till she disappeared from my eyes, when I returned to my place, with heart a fire. Some days after, she came to me again and bought stuffs of me: I refused to take the price and she cried, "We have no need of your goods." I said, "O my lady, accept them from me as a gift;" but she said, "Wait till I try you and make proof of you."
The Concubine Of Al-Maamun. 203
Then she brought out of her pocket a purse and gave me from it a thousand dinars, saying, "Trade with this till I return to you." So I took the purse and she went away and returned not till six months had passed. Meanwhile, I traded with the money and sold and bought and made other thousand dinars profit on it. At last she came to me again and I said to her, "Here is your money and I have gained with it other thousand ducats;" and she, "Let it lie by you and take these other thousand dinars. As soon as I have departed from you, go you to Al-Rauzah, the Garden holm, and build there a goodly pavilion, and when the edifice is accomplished, give me to know of it." So saying, she left me and went away. As soon as she was gone, I betook myself to Al-Rauzah and fell to building the pavilion, and when it was finished, I furnished it with the finest of furniture and sent to tell her that I had made an end of the edifice; whereupon she sent back to me, saying, "Let him meet me tomorrow about daybreak at the Zuwaylah gate and bring with him a strong ass."
I did as she bade and, betaking myself to the Zuwaylah gate, at the appointed time, found there a young man on horseback, awaiting her, even as I awaited her. As we stood, behold, up she came, and with her a slave girl. When she saw that young man, she asked him, "Are you here?" and he answered, "Yes, O my lady." she said, "Today I am invited by this man: will you go with us?" and he said, "Yes." Then she said, "You have brought me here against my will and parforce. Will you go with us in any case?" He cried, "Yes, yes," and we fared on, all three, till we came to Al-Rauzah and entered the pavilion. The dame diverted herself awhile with viewing its ordinance and furniture, after which she doffed her walking dress and sat down with the young man in the goodliest and chiefest place. Then I fared forth and brought them what they should eat at the first of the day; presently I again went out and fetched them what they should eat at the last of the day and brought for the twain wine and dessert and fruits and flowers. in this way I abode in their service, standing on my feet, and she said not unto me, "Sit," nor "Take, eat" nor "Take, drink," while she and the young man sat toying and laughing, and he fell to kissing her and pinching her and hopping over the ground and laughing. They remained thus awhile and presently she said,
"Hitherto we have not become drunken; let me pour out." So she took the cup, and crowning it, gave him to drink and plied him with wine, till he lost his wits, when she took him up and carried him into a closet. Then she came out, with the head of that youth in her hand, while I stood silent, fixing not my eyes on her eyes neither questioning her of the case; and she asked me, "What be this?" "I know not," answered I; and she said, "Take it and throw it into the river." I accepted her commandment and she arose and stripping herself of her clothes, took a knife and cut the dead man's body in pieces, which she laid in three baskets, and said to me, "Throw them into the river." I did her bidding and when I returned, she said to me, "Sit, so I may relate to you that fellow's case, lest you be affrighted at what accident has befallen him. You must know that I am the Caliph's favourite concubine, nor is there any higher in honour with him than I; and I am allowed six nights in each month, in which I go down into the city and tarry with my whilome mistress who reared me; and when I go down thus, I dispose of myself as I will.
Now this young man was the son of certain neighbours of my mistress, when I was a virgin girl. One day, my mistress was sitting with the chief officers of the palace and I was alone in the house, and as the night came on, I went up to the terrace roof in order to sleep there, but before I was ware, this youth came up from the street and falling upon me knelt on my breast. He was armed with a dagger and I could not get free of him till he had taken my maidenhead by force; and this sufficed him not, but he must needs disgrace me with all the folk for, as often as I came down from the palace, he would stand in wait for me by the way and futtered me against my will and follow me whithersoever I went. This, then, is my story, and as for you, you pleasest me and your patience pleases me and your good faith and loyal service, and there abides with me none dearer than you." Then I lay with her that night and there befell what befell between us till the morning, when she gave me abundant wealth and took to meeting me at the pavilion six days in every month. in this way we passed a whole year, at the end of which she cut herself off from me a month's space, Why fire raged in my heart on her account. When it was the next month, behold,
The Concubine Of Al-Maamun. 205 a little eunuch presented himself to me and said, "I am a messenger to you from Such an one, who gives you to know that the Commander of the Faithful has ordered her to be drowned, her and those who are with her, six and twenty slave girls, on such a day at Dayr al-Tin, for that they have confessed of lewdness, one against other and she says to you, 'Look how you may do with me and how you may contrive to deliver me, even If you gather together all my money and spend it upon me, for that this be the time of manhood.' " I said, "I know not this woman; Perhaps it is other than I to whom this message is sent; so beware, O Eunuch, lest you cast me into a cleft." he said, "Behold, I have told you that I had to say," and went away, leaving me in sore concern on her account. Now when the appointed day came, I arose and changing my clothes and favour, donned sailor's apparel; then I took with me a purse full of gold and buying a right good breakfast, accosted a boatman at Dayr al-Tin and sat down and ate with him; after which I asked him, "Will you hire me your boat?"
Answered he, "The Commander of the Faithful has commanded me to be here;" and he told me the tale of the concubines and how the Caliph purposed to drown them that day. When I heard this from him, I brought out to him ten gold pieces and discovered to him my case, whereupon he said to me, "O my brother, get you empty gourds, and when your mistress comes, give me to know of her and I will contrive the trick." So I kissed his hand and thanked him and, as I was walking about, waiting, up came the guards and eunuchs escorting the women, who were weeping and shrieking and farewelling one another. The Castratos cried out to us, whereupon we came with the boat, and they said to the sailor, "Who be this?" He said, "This be my mate whom I have brought to help me, so one of us may keep the boat, whilst another does your service." Then they brought out to us the women, one by one, saying, "Throw them in by the Island;" and we replied, " 'Tis well." Now each of them was shackled and they had made fast about her neck a jar of sand. We did as the neutrals bade us and did not stop to take the women, one after other, and cast them in, till they gave us my mistress and I winked to my mate.
So we took her and carried her out and cast her into mid stream, where I threw to her the empty gourds and said to her, "Wait for me at the mouth of the Canal." Now there remained one woman after her: so we took her and drowned her and the eunuchs went away, whilst we dropped down the river till we came to where I saw my mistress awaiting me. We haled her into the canoe and returned to our pavilion. Then I rewarded the sailor and he took his boat and went away; whereupon she said to me, "You are indeed the friend ever faithful found for the shifts of Fortune." And I sojourned with her some days; but the shock wrought upon her so that she sickened and fell to wasting away and redoubled in weakness till she died. I mourned for her and buried her; after which I removed all that was in the pavilion and abandoned the building. Now she had brought to that pavilion a little coffer of copper and laid it in a place whereof I knew not; so, when the Inspector of Inheritances came, he rummaged the house and found the coffer. Presently, he opened it and seeing it full of jewels and seal rings, took it, and me with it, and did not stop to put me to the question with beating and torment till I confessed the whole affair. Thereupon they carried me to the Caliph and I told him all that had passed between me and her; and he said to me, "O man, depart this city, for I release you on account of your courage and because of your constancy in keeping your secret and your daring in exposing yourself to death." So I arose immediately and fared from his city; and this is what befell me.
END OF VOLUME XII
Conclusion of note on circumcision from page 63
On the other hand, "præputium in coitu voluptatem (of the woman) auget, unde femina præputiatis concubitum malunt quam cum Turcis ac Judais" says Dimerbroeck (Anatomic). I vehemently doubt the fact. Circumcision was doubtless practised from ages immemorial by the peoples of Central Africa, and Walker found traces of it in a mummy of the century B.C. The Jews borrowed it from the Egyptian priesthood and made it a manner of sacrament, "uncircumcised" being = "unbaptised," that is, barbarian, heretic; it was a seal of reconciliation, a sign of alliance between the Creator and the Chosen People, a token of nationality imposed upon the body politic. Thus it became a cruel and odious protestation against the brotherhood of man, and the cosmopolitan Romans derided the verpæ ac verpi. The Jews also used the term figuratively as the "circumcision of fruits" (Lev. xix. 23), and of the heart (Deut. x. 16); and the old law gives copious historical details of its origin and continuance. Abraham first amputated his horny "calotte" at æt. 99, and did the same for his son and household (Gen. xvii. 24-27). The rite caused a separation between Moses and his wife (Exod. iv. 25). It was suspended during the Desert Wanderings and was resumed by Joshua (v. 3-7), who cut off two tons' weight of prepuces. They latter became, like the scalps of the Scythians and the North-American "Indians" trophies of victory; Saul promised his daughter Michol to David for a dowry of one hundred, and the son in law brought double tale. Amongst the early Christians opinions concerning the rite differed. Although the Founder of Christianity was circumcised, St. Paul, who aimed at a cosmopolitan faith, discouraged it in the physical phase. St. Augustine still sustained that the rite removed original sin despite the Fathers who preceded and followed him, Justus, Tertullian, Ambrose and others. But it gradually lapsed into desuetude and was preserved only in the outlying regions. Paulus Jovius and Munster found it practised in Abyssinia, but as a mark of nobility confined to the descendants of "Nicaules, queen of Sheba."
The Abyssinians still follow the Jews in performing the rite within eight days after the birth and baptise boys after forty and girls after eighty days. When a circumcised man became a Jew he was bled before three witnesses at the place where the prepuce had been cut off, and this was called the "Blood of alliance." Apostate Jews effaced the sing of circumcision: so in 1 Matt. i. 16, fecerunt sibi præputia et recesserunt a Testamento Sancto. Thus making prepuces was called by the Hebrews Meshookim = recutitis, and there is an allusion to it in 1 Cor. vii. 18, 19, (Farrar, Paul ii. 70). St. Jerome and others deny the possibility; but Mirabeau (Akropodie) relates how Father Conning by liniments of oil, suspending weights, and wearing the virga in a box gained in 43days 7¼ lines. The process is still practised by Armenians and other Christians who, compelled to Islamise, wish to return to Christianity. I cannot however find a similar artifice applied to a circumcised clitoris. The simplest form of circumcision is mere amputation of the prepuce and I have noted (vol. v. 209) the difference between the Moslem and the Jewish rite, the latter according to some being supposed to heal in kindlier way.
But the varieties of circumcision are immense. Probably none is more terrible than that practised in the Province Al-Asir, the old Ophir, lying south of Al-Hijáz, where it is called Salkh, lit. = scarification. The patient, usually from ten to twelve years old, is placed upon raised ground holding in right hand a spear, whose heel rests upon his foot and whose point shows every tremour of the nerves. The tribe stands about him to pass judgment on his fortitude, and the barber performs the operation with the Jumbiyah dagger, sharp as a razor. First he makes a shallow cut, severing only the skin across the belly immediately below the navel, and similar incisions down each groin; then he tears off the epidermis from the cuts downwards and flays the testicles and the penis, ending with amputation of the foreskin. Meanwhile the spear must not tremble and in some clans the lad holds a dagger over the back of the stooping barber, crying, "Cut and fear not!" When the ordeal is over, he exclaims, "Allaho Akbar!" And attempts to walk towards the tents soon falling for pain and nervous exhaustion, but the more steps he takes the more applause he gains. He is dieted with camel's milk, the wound is treated with salt and turmeric, and the chances in his favour are about ten to one. No body pile or pecten ever grows upon the excoriated part which preserves through life a livid ashen hue. Whilst Mohammed All Pasha occupied the province he forbade "scarification" under pain of impalement, but it was resumed the moment he left Al-Asir. In Africa not only is circumcision indigenous, the operation varies more or less in the different tribes. In Dahome it is termed Addagwibi, and is performed between the twelfth and twenties year. The rough operation is made peculiar by a double cut above and below; the prepuce being treated in the Moslem, not the Jewish fashion (loc. cit.). Heated sand is applied as a styptic and the patient is dieted with ginger soup and warm drinks of ginger water, pork being especially forbidden. The Fantis of the Gold Coast circumcise in sacred places, e.g., at Accra on a Fetish rock rising from the sea. The peoples of Sennaar, Taka, Masawwah and the adjacent regions follow the Abyssinian custom. The barbarous Bissagos and Fellups of North Western Guinea make cuts on the prepuce without amputating it; while the Baquens and Papels circumcise like Moslems. The blacks of Loango are all "verpæ," otherwise they would be rejected by the women. The Bantu or Caffre tribes are circumcised between the ages of fifteen and eighteen; the "Fetish boys," as we call them, are chalked white and wear only grass belts; they live outside the villages in special houses under an old "medicine man," who teaches them not only virile arts but also to rob and fight. The "man making" may last five months and ends in fetes and dances: the patients are washed in the river, they burn down their quarters, take new names, and become adults, donning a kind of straw thimble over the prepuce. In Madagascar three several cuts are made causing much suffering to the children; and the nearest male relative swallows the prepuce. The Polynesians circumcise when childhood ends and thus consecrate the fecundating organ to the Deity. In Tahiti the operation is performed by the priest, and in Tonga only the priest is exempt. The Maories on the other hand, fasten the prepuce over the glans, and the women of the Marquesas Islands have shown great cruelty to shipwrecked sailors who expose the glans. Almost all the known Australian tribes circumcise after some fashion: Bennett supposes the rite to have been borrowed from the Malays, while Gason enumerates the "Kurrawellie wonkauna" among the five mutilations of puberty. Leichhardt found circumcision about the Gulf of Carpentaria and in the river valleys of the Robinson and Macarthur: others observed it on the Southern Coast and among the savages of Perth, where it is noticed by Salvado. James Dawson tells us "Circumciduntur pueri," etc., in Western Victoria. Brough Smyth, who supposes the object is to limit population (?), describes on the Western Coast and in Central Australia the "Corrobery" dance and the operation performed with a quartz flake. Teichelmann details the rite in Southern Australia where the assistants — all men, women, and children being driven away — form a "manner of human altar" upon which the youth is laid for circumcision. He then receives the normal two names, public and secret, and is initiated into the mysteries proper for men. The Australians also for Malthusian reasons produce an artificial hypospadias, while the Karens of New Guinea only split the prepuce longitudinally (Cosmos p. 369, Oct. 1876); the indigens of Port Lincoln on the West Coast split the virga: — Fenditur usque ad urethram a parte infera penis between the ages of twelve and fourteen, says E. J. Eyre in 1845. Missionary Schúrmann declares that they open the urethra. Gason describes in the Dieyerie tribe the operation "Kulpi" which is performed when the beard is long enough for tying. The member is placed upon a slab of tree bark, the urethra is incised with a quartz flake mounted in a gum handle and a splinter of bark is inserted to keep the cut open. These men may appeal naked before women who expect others to clothe themselves. Miklucho Maclay calls it "Mika" in Central Australia: he was told by a squatter that of three hundred men only three or four had the member intact in order to get children, and that in one tribe the female births greatly outnumbered the male. Those mutilated also marry: when making water they sit like women slightly raising the penis, this in coition becomes flat and broad and the semen does not enter the matrix. The explorer believes that the deed of kind is more quickly done (?). Circumcision was also known to the New World.Herrera relates that certain Mexicans cut off the ears and prepuce of the newly born child, causing many to die. The Jews did not adopt the female circumcision of Egypt described by Huet on Origen. — "Circumcisio feminarum fit resectione (sive clitoridis) quae pars in Australium mulieribus ita crescit ut ferro est coercenda."
Here we have the normal confusion between excision of the nymphs: (usually for fibulation) and circumcision of the clitoris. Bruce notices this clitoridectomy among the Aybssinians. Werne describes the excision on the Upper White Nile and I have noted the complicated operation among the Somali tribes. Girls in Dahome are circumcised by ancient sages femmes, and a woman in the natural state would be derided by every one (See my Mission to Dahome, ii. 159) The Australians cut out the clitoris, and as I have noted elsewhere extirpate the ovary for Malthusian purposes (Journ Anthrop. Inst., vol. viii. of 1884).
Essay by W.A. Clouston regarding:
Variants and analogues of
Some of the Tales in
Volumes XI and XII
OMITTED IN THIS PRINTING
(not properly R. Burton's work)
(Maybe found on internet web sites. Extended from page 207 to 276)
Page 277 in the original
VOL 12 INDEX