2.3.5
“When the priest left the church, everyone rushed to kiss his hand and the hem of his garment, and all thanked him for the elegant figures of speech he had vouchsafed them, not to mention all the other wonderful things, for it had become an established fact to them that the books of the Christian religion should be written in as feeble and corrupt a style as possible, because ‘the power of the religion requires it, so that everything be of one piece,’ as stated by the Arabic-language-challenged,439 Feed-sack-carrying, Sweetmeat-chasing, Marrow-slurping, Rag-sucking, Bone-gnawing, Finger-licking, Half-a-morsel-biting, Cauldron-watching, Drippings-drinking, Bottom-of-the-pot-scraping, Scourings-scarfing, Leftovers-off-polishing, Dinner-sponging Aleppine Metropolitan Atanāsiyūs al-Tutūnjī440 in a work of his called Al-Ḥakākah fī l-rakākah (The Leavings Pile Concerning Lame Style).”441 Said the Fāriyāq, “Since God had seen fit to afflict me with the company of such wretches, I had no choice but to compliment them and be cordial to them until such time as He grant that I be rescued from them.”
2.3.6
I declare: since what the Fāriyāq had to say about his first voyage has already come and gone, there’s no need to repeat here his complaints concerning the dolors of the sea. However, we will note that during his sufferings and afflictions, he did swear that he would never embark thereafter on any of the following sea-going vessels:
the jufāʾ,
“the empty hulk of a ship”; mentioned by the author of the Qāmūs under j-f-ʾ
the mirzāb,
“any great, or tall, ship”
the zabzab,
“a sort of ship”
the bārijah,
“any large ship for fighting”
the khalīj,
“a small ship of less size than the ʿadawlī”
the ṭarrād,
“any small, fast ship”
the muʿabbadah,
“any tarred ship”
the ghāmid,
“any loaded ship; also āmid”
the dasrāʾ,
“any ship that plows through the water with its prow; plural dusur”
the zurzūr,
“any narrow ship”
2.3.7
the zanbarī,
“any huge ship”
the qurqūr,
“any long, or very large, ship”
kār,
“ships on the down run containing food”
the hurhūr,
“a kind of ship”
the qādis,
“any very large ship”
the būṣī,
“a kind of ship”
the ṣalghah,
“any big ship”
the nuhbūgh,
“any fast-moving ocean-going ship; also called dūnīj, a non-Arabic word”
dhāt al-rafīf,
[literally, “the planked,” i.e., “boat bridges”]
“ships used to cross over on, consisting of two or three ships set side by side, for the king”
the shuqduf,
“a boat; also a place in the Hejaz”
2.3.8
the ḥarrāqah,
“plural ḥarrāqāt; ships containing flame-throwers”
the zawraq,
“any small ship”
the burrāqiyyah,
“a kind of ship”
ʿadawliyyah,
“ships named after ʿAdawlā, a village in Bahrain; or….”442
the jarm,
“a small Yemeni ship”
the khinn,
“the empty hulk of a ship”
the shawnah,
“any boat equipped for battle at sea”
the talawwā,
“a kind of ship (small)”; mentioned [by the author of the Qāmūs] under t-l-w
the jufāyah,
“any empty hulk”; mentioned [in the Qāmūs] under j-f-y
the khaliyyah,
“any great ship, or one that sails without needing a navigator to sail it, or which is followed by a small boat”
the shadhā,
“a kind of ship”
and all the way down to
the rikwah,
“any small boat”
the qārib,
“any small ship”
the ramath,
“pieces of wood fastened together on which one rides at sea”
the ṭawf,
“inflated water skins that are tied together to form a platform on which one rides on the water and on which loads are carried”
and the ʿāmah.
“tied sticks on which one rides at sea or crosses a river; also called ghāmmah”
2.3.9
On arriving at the island’s harbor, fine quarters were made available to him in which to “purify his breath” for a period of forty days, for it has become the custom among them to distribute around the harbor, before they enter the country, anyone who comes to them from the lands of the Levant and has inhaled their airs. He stayed there then, eating and drinking with two English notables who had been on the ship, and found life with them pleasant, for they had traveled widely in the Levant and absorbed the habit of generosity from its inhabitants.
2.3.10
When the period was over, the Bag-man came and took him to his house in the city. This man had lost his wife on the very day that the Fāriyāq had made his decision to go to him and had given himself over to mourning and squalor, living in the clutches of melancholy and dolor. All he ate was pork (God elevate you above any pollution from the very notion!) and he had ordered his cook to produce it in every variety. One day the man would cook its head, another its feet, a third its liver, a fourth its spleen, and so on until he had covered all its parts; then he’d start over again with the head. You are well aware that the Christians of the Levant imitate the Muslims in all things other than those pertaining to religion, from which it follows that pork is an abomination to them. Thus, when the Fāriyāq sat down to table and the cook brought out some part of that hated animal, he thought that the Bag-man was trying to trick him by producing for him something he was unfamiliar with, and he refused to take a bite, in the hope that he would be given something else. But the Bag-man kept right on going, finished his lunch, and launched immediately into prayer and thanks to the Almighty Creator for what He had provided. To himself, the Fāriyāq said, “I swear our friend is making a mistake. His thanks are misdirected, for to give thanks to the Creator, glory be to Him, for something immoral or for eating something forbidden is not allowed.” The following day, the cook brought him another limb, and the man gobbled it up and thanked him once more. The Fāriyāq said to the cook, “Why does our friend thank God for eating pig?” and he replied, “Why not, when he has made it his duty to thank Him ‘for every condition and every thing,’ as it says in some book of religion? He even used to carry out the same rite each time he spent the night with his wife.” “And did he thank Him for her death?” he asked. “Yes,” the man replied, “for he believes she’s now in the bosom of Ibrāhīm.” “For my part,” said the Fāriyāq, “if I had a wife, I wouldn’t want to see her in any man’s bosom.”