Edgar Allan Poe - 60 Gothic Classics

66. ... bats will nestle in thy belly Bats in these countries were very abundant, and, both from their numbers and nature, held in abhorrence. See what is related of them by Thevenot, part i, pp. 132, 133, Egmont and Hayman, vol. ii, p. 87, and other travellers in the East.

67. ... the Bismillah This word (which is prefixed to every chapter of the Koran except the ninth) signifies, “in the name of the most merciful God.” It became not the initiatory formula of prayer till the time of Moez the Fatimite. D’Herbelot, p. 326.

68. ... inscription Inscriptions of this sort are still retained. Thus Ludeke: “Interni non solum Divani pluriumque conclavium parietes, sed etiam frontispicia super portas inscriptiones habent.”— Expositio , p. 54. In the History of Amine, we find an inscription over a gate, in letters of gold, analogous to this of Fakreddin: “Here is the abode of everlasting pleasures and content.”— Arabian Nights , vol. i, p. 193.

69. ... a magnificent tecthtrevan This kind of moving throne , though more common at present than in the days of Vathek, is still confined to persons of the highest rank.

70. ... your ivory limbs The Arabians compare the skin of a beautiful woman to the egg of the ostrich, when preserved unsullied. Thus Amriolkais: “Delicate was her shape; fair her skin; and her body well proportioned: her bosom was as smooth as a mirror,— “Or like the pure egg of an ostrich, of a yellowish tint blended with white.” Also the Koran: “Near them shall lie the virgins of Paradise, refraining their looks from beholding any besides their spouses, having large black eyes, and resembling the eggs of an ostrich, covered with feathers from dust.”— Moallakat , p. 8. Al Koran , ch. 27. But though the Arabian epithet be taken from thence, yet the word ivory is substituted, as more analogous to European ideas, and not foreign from the Eastern. Thus Amru: “And two sweet breasts, smooth and white as vessels of ivory, modestly defended from the hand of those who presume to touch them.”— Moallakat , p. 77.

71. ... baths of rose-water The use of perfumed waters for the purpose of bathing is of an early origin in the East, where every odoriferous plant sheds a richer fragrance than is known to our more humid climates. The rose which yields this lotion is, according to Hasselquist, of a beautiful pale blush colour, double, large as a man’s fist, and more exquisite in scent than any other species. The quantities of this water distilled annually at Fajhum, and carried to distant countries, is immense. The mode of conveying it is in vessels of copper coated with wax.— Voyag. , p. 248. Ben Jonson makes Volpone say to Celia:

“Their bath shall be the juyce of gillyflowres,

Spirit of roses, and of violets.”

72. ... lamb à la crême No dish among the Easterns was more generally admired. The caliph Abdolmelek, at a splendid entertainment, to which whoever came was welcome, asked Amrou, the son of Hareth, what kind of meat he preferred to all others. The old man answered, “An ass’s neck, well seasoned and roasted.”—“But what say you,” replied the caliph, “to the leg or shoulder of a LAMB à la crême ?” and added:

“How sweetly we live if a shadow would last!”

— MS. Laud. No. 161. S. Ockley’s History of the Saracens , vol. ii, p. 277.

73. ... made the dwarfs dance against their will Ali Chelebi al Moufti, in a treatise on the subject, held that dancing after the example of the dervishes, who made it a part of their devotion, was allowable. But in this opinion he was deemed to be heterodox; for Mahometans, in general, place dancing amongst the things that are forbidden.—D’Herbelot, p. 98.

74. ... durst not refuse the commander of the faithful The mandates of Oriental potentates have ever been accounted irresistible. Hence the submission of these devotees to the will of the caliph.—Esther, i, 19. Daniel, vi, 8. Ludeke, Expos. brevis , p. 60.

75. ... the nine hundred and ninety-ninth time The Mahometans boast of a doctor who is reported to have read over the Koran not fewer than twenty thousand times.—D’Herbelot, p. 75.

76. ... black eunuchs, sabre in hand In this manner the apartments of the ladies were constantly guarded. Thus, in the Story of the Enchanted Horse, Firouz Schah, traversing a strange palace by night, entered a room, “and by the light of a lantern saw that the persons he had heard snoring were black eunuchs with naked sabres by them, which was enough to inform him that this was the guard-chamber of some queen or princess.”— Arabian Nights , vol. iv, p. 189.

77. ... to let down the great swing The swing was an exercise much used in the apartments of the Eastern ladies, and not only contributed to their health, but also to their amusement.— Tales of Inatulla , vol. i, p. 259.

78. ... melodious Philomel, I am thy rose The passion of the nightingale for the rose is celebrated over all the East. Thus Mesihi, as translated by Sir W. Jones:

“Come, charming maid, and hear thy poet sing,

Thyself the rose, and he the bird of spring:

Love bids him sing, and love will be obey’d,

Be gay; too soon the flowers of spring will fade.”

79. ... calenders These were a sort of men amongst the Mahometans who abandoned father and mother, wife and children, relations and possessions, to wander through the world, under a pretence of religion, entirely subsisting on the fortuitous bounty of those they had the address to dupe.—D’Herbelot, Suppl. , p. 204.

80. ... santons A body of religionists, who were also called abdals, and pretended to be inspired with the most enthusiastic raptures of divine love. They were regarded by the vulgar as saints .—Olearius, tom. i, p. 971. D’Herbelot, p. 5.

81. ... dervishes The term dervish signifies a poor man , and is the general appellation by which a religious amongst the Mahometans is named. There are, however, discriminations that distinguish this class from the others already mentioned. They are bound by no vow of poverty, they abstain not from marriage, and, whenever disposed, they may relinquish both their blue shirt and profession.—D’Herbelot, Suppl. , 214. It is observable, that these different orders, though not established till the reign of Nasser al Samani, are notwithstanding mentioned by our author as coeval with Vathek, and by the author of the Arabian Nights as existing in the days of Haroun al Raschid; so that the Arabian fabulists appear as inattentive to chronological exactness in points of this sort as our immortal dramatist himself.

82. ... Brahmins These constituted the principal caste of the Indians, according to whose doctrine Brahma , from whom they are called, is the first of the three created beings by whom the world was made. This Brahma is said to have communicated to the Indians four books, in which all the sciences and ceremonies of their religion are comprised. The word Brahma, in the Indian language, signifies pervading all things . The Brahmins lead a life of most rigid abstinence refraining not only from the use, but even the touch, of animal food; and are equally exemplary for their contempt of pleasures and devotion to philosophy and religion.—D’Herbelot, p. 212. Bruckeri Hist. Philosoph. , tom. i, p. 194.

83. ... fakirs This sect were a kind of religious anchorets, who spent their whole lives in the severest austerities and mortification. It is almost impossible for the imagination to form an extravagance that has not been practised by some of them, to torment themselves. As their reputation for sanctity rises in proportion to their sufferings, those amongst them are reverenced the most, who are most ingenious in the invention of tortures, and persevering in enduring them. Hence some have persisted in sitting or standing for years together in one unvaried posture, supporting an almost intolerable burden, dragging the most cumbrous chains, exposing their naked bodies to the scorching sun, and hanging with the head downward before the fiercest fires.— Relig. Ceremon. , vol. iii, p. 264, etc. White’s Sermons , p. 504.