If thou my coynte for Kiblah[1] to thy coigne ○ Reject, we'll shall please thee more." [2]
And yet another:—
She proffered me a tender coynte ○ Quoth I "I will not roger thee!"
She drew back, saying, "From the Faith ○ He turns, who's turned by Heaven's decree!" [3]
And front wise fluttering, in one day, ○ Is obsolete persistency!"
Then swung she round and shining rump ○ Like silvern lump she showed me!"
I cried: "Well done, O mistress mine! ○ No more am I in pain for thee;
O thou of all that Allah oped[4] ○ Showest me fairest victory!"
And yet another:—
{{smaller|Men craving pardon will uplift their hands; ○ Women pray pardon with their legs on high:
Out on it for a pious, prayerful work! ○ The Lord shall raise it in the depths to lie."[5]
When Kamar al-Zaman heard her quote this poetry, and was certified that there was no escaping compliance with what willed she, he said, "O King of the age, if thou must needs have it so, make covenant with me that thou wilt do this thing with me but
- ↑ Arab. "Kiblah"=the fronting-place of prayer, Meccah for Moslems, Jerusalem for Jews and early Christians. See Pilgrimage (ii. 321) for the Moslem change from Jerusalem to Meccah and ibid. (ii. 213) for the way in which the direction was shown.
- ↑ The Koran says (chaps. ii.): "Your wives are your tillage: go in therefore unto your tillage in what manner so ever ye will." Usually this is understood as meaning in any posture, standing or sitting, lying, backwards or forwards. Yet there is a popular saying about the man whom the woman rides (vulg. St. George, in France, le Postillon); "Cursed be who maketh woman Heaven and himself earth!" Some hold the Koranic passage to have been revealed in confutation of the Jews, who pretended that if a man lay with his wife backwards, he would beget a cleverer child. Others again understand it of preposterous venery, which is absurd: every ancient law-giver framed his code to increase the true wealth of the people—population—and severely punished all processes, like onanism, which impeded it. The Persians utilise the hatred of women for such misuse when they would force a wive to demand a divorce and thus forfeit her claim to Mahr (dowry); they convert them into catamites till, after a month or so, they lose all patience and leave the house.
- ↑ Koran lit 9: "He will be turned aside from the Faith (or Truth) who shall be turned aside by the Divine decree;" alluding, in the text, to the preposterous venery her lover demands.
- ↑ Arab. "Futúh" meaning openings, and also victories, benefits. The lover congratulates her on her mortifying self in order to please him.
- ↑ "And the righteous work will be exalt": (Koran xxxv. 11) applied ironically.
