a proposal of fruition, so henceforward cease from denial and coyness, for the commandment of Allah is a decree foreordained: [1] indeed, I have more reason than thou to fear falling and by sin to be misled; and well inspired was he who said,
'My prickle is big and the little one said, * 'Thrust boldly in vitals with lion-like stroke! Then I, ' 'Tis a sin!; and he, 'No sin to me! * So I had him at once with a counterfeit poke." [2]
When Kamar al-Zaman heard these words, the light became darkness in his sight and he said, "O King, thou hast in thy household fair women and female slaves, who have not their like in this age: shall not these suffice thee without me? Do thy will with them and let me go!" She replied, "Thou sayest sooth, but it is not with them that one who loveth thee can heal himself of torment and can abate his fever; for, when tastes and inclinations are corrupted by vice, they hear and obey other than good advice. So leave arguing and listen to what the poet saith,
'Seest not the bazar with its fruit in rows? * These men are for figs and for sycamore [3] those!'
And what another saith,
'Many whose anklet rings are dumb have tinkling belts, * And this hath all content while that for want must wail: Thou bidd'st me be a fool and quit thee for her charms; * Allah forfend I leave The Faith, turn Infidel! Nay, by thy rights of side-beard mocking all her curls, * Nor mott nor maid [4] from thee my heart shall spell.'
- ↑ Koran xxxiii. 38.
- ↑ "Niktu-hu taklidan" i.e. not the real thing (with a woman). It may also mean "by his incitement of me." All this scene is written in the worst form of Persian-Egyptian blackguardism, and forms a curious anthropological study. The "black joke" of the true and modest wife is inimitable.
- ↑ Arab. "Jamíz" (in Egypt "Jammayz") = the fruit of the true sycomore (F. Sycomorus) a magnificent tree which produces a small tasteless fig, eaten by the poorer classes in Egypt and by monkeys. The "Tín" or real fig here is the woman's parts; the "mulberry- fig," the anus. Martial (i. 65) makes the following distinction:--
Dicemus ficus, quas scimus in arbore nasci,
Dicemus ficos, Caeciliane, tuos.
And Modern Italian preserves a difference between fico and fica. - ↑ Arab. "Ghániyat Azárá" (plur. of Azrá = virgin): the former is properly a woman who despises ornaments and relies on "beauty unadorned" (i.e. in bed).
