Chapter XXIV: Part 24

King Brahmadatta picked up in Kampilla a destitute girl named Padmávati, who scattered lotuses at every step she moved, and made her his favourite queen. She was very simple-minded. Other queens used to play tricks upon her, and at the time of her first delivery cheated her most shamefully. The wicked ladies said to her on that occasion, "Dear Padma, you are a rustic girl; you do not know how to give birth to a royal child. Let us help you." She yielded. They covered her eyes, threw into the river the twin boys she had brought forth, and smeared her face with blood. They deceived her by telling her that it was only a lump of flesh that she had given birth to, and it had been thrown into the river. At the same time they informed her husband that Padma had eaten up her two new-born sons. The King enraged at her inhuman conduct, ordered her to instant execution. But there was a shrewd man in the court who privately saved her life. A divinity appeared to the King in a dream, and revealed the whole truth to him. The King made a strict investigation in the harem, and found that Padmávati had been perfectly innocent. He became disconsolate, and gave vent to loud lamentations. Soon after some fishermen appeared at court and presented the King with two infants, who betrayed their royal lineage by the resemblance which their features bore to those of the King. They were reported to have been found in a vessel floating on the river. The courtier who saved Padma's life now wished to produce her before the King, but she refused to return and proceeded to her father's hermitage. After the death of her father she travelled through various places in the habit of a devotee; and in the course of her peregrinations she stopped at Banáres, from whence Brahmadatta conducted her to his capital with great honour.

I am of opinion that this Buddhist tale is the original form of the "Envious Sisters"-- that it ended with the restoration of the children and the vindication of the innocence of their mother. The second part of our story has no necessary connection with the first, the elements of which it is composed being found in scores--nay, hundreds--of popular fictions in every country: the quest of wonderful or magical objects; one brother setting out, and by neglecting to follow the advice tendered him by some person he meets on his way, he comes to grief; a second brother follows, with the same result; and it is reserved for the youngest, and the least esteemed, to successfully accomplish the adventure. In the second part of the "Envious Sisters," the girl, the youngest of the three children, plays the part of the usual hero of folk-tales of this class. There is, generally, a seemingly wretched old man--a hideous, misshapen dwarf--or an ugly, decrepit old woman--who is treated with rudeness by the two elder adventurers, so they do not speed in their enterprise; but the youngest addresses the person in respectful terms--shares his only loaf with him--and is rewarded by counsel which enables him to bring his adventure to a successful end. In the "Envious Sisters," which I cannot but think Galland has garbled from his original, the eldest clips the beard of the hermit, and presumably the second does the same, since we are told he found the hermit in the like condition (albeit, his beard had been trimmed but a few days before). Each of them receives the same instructions. In a true folk-tale the two elder brothers would treat the old man with contempt and suffer accordingly, while the youngest would cut his nails and his beard, and make him more comfortable in his person. We do not require to go to Asiatic folk-lore for tales in which the elements of the second part of the "Envious Sisters" are to be found. In the German story of the Fox's Brush there is a quest of a golden bird. The first brother sets off in high hope, on the road he sees a fox, who calls out to him not to shoot at it, and says that farther along the road are two inns, one of which is bright and cheerful looking, and he should not go into it, but rather into the other, even though it does not look very inviting. He shoots at the fox and misses it, then continues his journey, and puts up at the fine inn, where amidst riot and revel he forgets all about the business on which he had set out. The same happens to the second brother. But the youngest says to the fox that he will not shoot it and the fox takes him on its tail to the small inn, where he passes a quiet night, and in the morning is conveyed by the fox to the castle, wherein is the golden bird in a wooden cage, and so on. Analogous stories to this are plentiful throughout Europe and Asia; there is one, I think, in the Wortley Montague MS. of The Nights.

In Straparoia's version of the "Envious Sisters," when the children's hair is combed pearls and precious stones fall out of it, whereby their foster-parents become rich; this is only hinted at in Galland's story: the boy's hair "should be golden on one side and silvern on the other; when weeping he should drop pearls in place of tears, and when laughing his rosy lips should be fresh as the blossom new-blown," not another word is afterwards said of this, while in the modern Arabic version the children are finally identified by their mother through such peculiarities. The silver chains with which the children are born in the romance of "Helyas, the Knight of the Swan," correspond with the "gold star" etc. on the forehead in other stories. It only remains to observe that the Bird of our tale who in the end relates the history of the children to their father, is represented in the modern Arabic version by the fairy Arab Zandyk in the modern Greek by Tzitzin na, and in the Albanian by the Belle of the Earth.

ADDITIONAL NOTES.

The Tale of Zayn Al-asnam,

The Dream of Riches. In Croker's Irish Fairy Legends there is a droll version, of this story, entitled "Dreaming Tim Jarvis." Honest Tim, we are told, "took to sleeping, and the sleep set him dreaming, and he dreamed all night, and night after night, about crock full of gold. . . . At last he dreamt that he found a mighty great crock of gold and silver, and where, do you think ? Every step of the way upon London Bridge itself! Twice Tim dreamt it, and three times Tim dreamt the same thing; and at last he made up his mind to transport himself, and go over to London, in Pat Mahoney's coaster and so he did!" Tim walks on London Bridge day after day until he sees a man with great black whiskers and a black cloak that reached down to the ground, who accosts him, and he tells the strange man about his dream. "Ho! Ho!" says the strange man, "is that all, Tim? I had a dream myself and I dreamed that I found a crock of gold in the Fort field, on Jerry Driscoll's ground at Balledehob, and, by the same token, the pit where it lay was close to a large furze bush, all full of yellow blossom." Tim hastens back to his old place, sells his cabin and garden, and buys the piece of waste ground so minutely described by the man with black whiskers, finds the pit, jumps into it, and is among the fairies, who give him leave to stuff his pockets with gold; but when he returns to upper earth he discovers that he has got only a handful of small stones mixed with yellow furze blossoms.

In a note appended to this tale, Croker cites the following from Grimm's "Deutsche Sagan," vol. i. p. 290: A man once dreamed that if he went to Regensburg and walked on the bridge he should become rich. He went accordingly; and when he had spent near a fortnight walking backwards and forwards on the bridge, a rich merchant came up to him wondering what he was doing here every day, and asked him what he was looking for. He answered that he had dreamed if he would go to the bridge of Regensburg he should become rich. "Ha!" said the merchant, "what do you say about dreams?--Dreams are but froth (Träume sind Schaume). I too have dreamed that there is buried under yonder large tree (pointing to it) a great kettle full of money; but I gave no heed to this, for dreams are froth." The man went immediately and dug under the tree, and there he got a treasure, which made a rich man of him, and so his dream was accomplished.--The same story is told of a baker's boy at Lubeck, who dreamed that he should find a treasure on the bridge; there he met a beggar, who said he had dreamed there was one under a lime-tree in the churchyard of Mollen, but he would not take the trouble of going there. The baker's boy went, and got the treasure.--It is curious to observe that all the European versions of the story have reference to a bridge, and it must have been brought westward in this form.

The Quest of the Image.--It has only now occurred to my mind that there is a very similar story in the romance of the Four Dervishes ("Kissa-i-Chehár- Darwesh"), a Persian work written in the 13th century, and rendered into Urdú about 80 years ago, under the title of "Bagh o Bahár" (Garden of Spring), of which an English translation was made by L. F. Smith, which was afterwards improved by Duncan Forbes. There the images are of monkeys--circumstance which seems to point to an Indian origin of the story--but the hero falls in love with the spotless girl, and the jinn-king takes possession of her, though he is ultimately compelled to give her up.--The fact of this story of the quest of the lacking image being found in the Persian language is another proof that the tales in The Nights were largely derived from Persian story-books.

Aladdin; Or, the Wonderful Lamp.

There is a distorted reflection of the story in M. Rene Basset's recently published "Contes Populaires Berbères," No. xxix., which is to this effect: A taleb proclaims, "Who will sell himself for 100 mitqals?" One offers, the Kádí ratifies the sale; the (now) slave gives the money to his mother, and follows the taleb. Away they go. The taleb repeats certain words, upon which the earth opens, and he sends down the slave for "the candlestick, the reed, and the box." The slave hides the box in his pocket and says he did not find it. They go off, and after a time the slave discovers that his master has disappeared. He returns home, hires a house, opens the box, and finds a cloth of silk with seven folds; he undoes one of them, whereupon genii swarm about the room, and a girl appears who dances till break of day. This occurs every night. The king happens to be out on a nocturnal adventure, and hearing a noise, enters the house and is amused till morning. He sends for the box to be brought to the palace, gives the owner his daughter in marriage, and continues to divert himself with the box till his death, when his son-in-law succeeds him on the throne.

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.

My obliging friend, Mr. W. F. Kirby, who contributed to the 10th volume of Sir Richard's Nights proper the very able Bibliographical Essay, has drawn my attention to an analogue of this tale in Geldart's Folk-Lore of Modern Greece: There were two brothers, one of whom was wealthy and had four children, who were in feeble health, the other was poor and had seven children, who were in robust health. The poor brother's wife, begging relief was allowed to come twice a week to the house of the rich brother to bake bread. Her children were starving, but the rich people gave the mother nothing for several days, and all she could do was to wash the dough off her hands for the children, who thrived, and the rich man, discovering the cause, made his wife compel the poor woman to wash her hands before she left the house. The father found his children crying for food, and pretended to go to the wood for herbs, but really purposing to kill himself by falling from a crag. But seeing a great castle, he determined first to ascertain what it was, so he went near, and having climbed a tree, saw forty-nine dragons come out. When they were gone he entered, and found a treasure, filled his bag and hurried away. On his return home he found his wife weeping bitterly, but when he showed her the treasure, she said the first thing was to buy oil to light a lamp to our Lady. Next day they bought a house, and moved into it, but agreed only to buy what they needed for each day's use and nothing they could do without. For two months they went often to church and helped the poor, till, one day, the wife of the rich man, who had met with losses lately, called for them and was hospitably received. She heard the story of the treasure, and the poor man offered to show his brother the place. The rich brother miscounted the dragons as they left the castle, and the one left to watch killed and quartered him. Two days afterwards his brother went to look for him, brought home the severed body, and got a tailor to sew the quarters together. Next day the dragons called on the tailor to make them coats and shoes (sic), and heard of his sewing together the body. He showed them the house, and forty-eight dragons got into chests, which the forty-ninth deposited with the poor man. The children, playing about he chests, heard the dragons say, "Would that it were night, that we might eat them all!" So the father took forty-eight spits and made them red hot, and thrust them into the chests, and then said that a trick had been played upon him, and sent his servant to throw them one by one into the sea. As often as the servant returned he pretended to him that he did not throw the chest far enough and it had come back and thus he disposed of the whole number. In the morning when the last dragon came, the poor man told him one chest was found open: he was seized with fear, pushed in and spitted like the others and the poor man became the possessor of the dragons' castle.

There can be no doubt, I think, that this story owes nothing to Galland, but that it is a popular Greek version of the original Asiatic tale, of which Galland's "Ali Baba" is probably a fair reflection. The device of pretending to the servant that the dragon he had thrown into the sea was returned has its exact analogue in the humorous fabliau of "Les Trois Bossus," where a rustic is made to believe that each of the hunchbacks had come back again, with the addition that, on returning from the river the third time, he seizes the lady's hunchbacked husband and effectually disposes of him.

The Tale of Prince Ahmad.

Though my paper on this tale is of considerable length, it would perhaps have been deemed intolerably long had I cited all the versions of the first part-- the quest of the most wonderful thing--which are current in Europe, for it is found everywhere, though with few variations of importance. There are two, however, of which I may furnish the outlines in this place.

In the "Pentamerone" of Basile,[FN#444], a man sends his five sons into the world to learn something. The eldest becomes a master-thief; the second has learned the trade of shipwright; the third has become a skilful archer; the fourth has found an herb which brings the dead to life, and the youngest has learned the speech of birds. Soon after they have returned home, they set out with their father to liberate a princess who had been stolen by a wild man, and by the exercise of their several arts succeed in their adventure. While they quarrel as to which of them had by his efforts done most to deserve the princess for wife, the king gives her to the father, as the stock of all those branches.

In the 45th of Laura Gonzenbach's "Sicilianische Märchen," the king's daughter is stolen by a giant and recovered by the seven sons of a poor woman. The eldest can run like the wind, the second can hear, when he puts his ear to the ground, all that goes on in the world; the third can with a blow of his fist break through seven iron doors; the fourth is a thief; the fifth can build an iron tower with a blow of his fist; the sixth is an unfailing shot, the seventh has a guitar which can awaken the dead. Youths thus wonderfully endowed figure in many tales, but generally as the servants of the hero.

By comparing the different European versions it will be found that some are similar to the first part of the tale of Prince Ahmad, insomuch as the brothers become possessed of certain wonderful things which are each instrumental in saving the damsel's life; while others more closely approach the oldest known form of the story, in representing the heroes as being endowed with some extraordinary kind of power, by means of which they rescue the damsel from a giant who had carried her off. It is curious to observe that in the "Sindibád Náma" version the damsel is both carried off by a demon and at death's door, which is not the case of any other Asiatic form of the story.

Arabian Nights, Volume 13
Footnotes

[FN#1] M. Zotenberg empowered me to offer his "Aladdin" to an "Oriental" publishing-house well-known in London, and the result was the "no-public" reply. The mortifying fact is that Oriental studies are now at their nadir in Great Britain, which is beginning to show so small in the Eastern World.

[FN#2] P.N. of a Jinni who rules the insect-kingdom and who is invoked by scribes to protect their labours from the worm.

[FN#3] Both name and number suggest the "Calc. Edit." of 1814. See "Translator's Foreword" vol. i., x)x.-xx. There is another version of the first two hundred Nights, from the "Calc. Edit." into Urdu by one Haydar Ali 1 vol. roy. 8vo lithog. Calc. 1263 (1846).-- R.F.B.

[FN#4] "Alf Leilah" in Hindostani 4 vols. in 2, royal 8vo, lithographed, Lakhnau, 1263 (1846).--R. F. B.

[FN#5] This is the "Alif" (!) Leila, Tarjuma-i Alif (!) Laila ba-Zuban-i-Urdu (Do Jild, baharfát-i-Yurop), an Urdu translation of the Arabian Nights, printed entirely in the Roman character, etc., etc.--R.F.B.

[FN#6] i.e., The Thousand Tales.

[FN#7] From the MS, in the Bibliochèque Nationale (Supplement Arab. No. 2523) vol. ii., p. 82, verso to p. 94, verso. The Sisters are called Dínárzád and Shahrázád, a style which I have not adopted.

[FN#8] THe old versions read "Ornament (Adornment?) of the Statues," Zierde der Pildsäulen (Weil). I hold the name to be elliptical, Zayn (al-Din = Adornment of The Faith and owner of) al-Asnám = the Images. The omission of Al-Din in proper names is very common; e.g., Fakhr (Al-Din) Al-Iftakhári (Iftikhár-al-Din) and many others given by De Sacy (Chrest.i. 30, and in the Treatise on Coffee by Abdal-Kádir). So Al-Kamál, Al-Imád, Al-Baha are = Kamal al-Dín, etc. in Jbn Khallikan, iii 493. Sanam properly = an idol is popularly applied to all artificial figures of man and beast. I may note that we must not call the hero, after Galland's fashion, unhappily adopted by Weil, tout bonnement "Zayn."

[FN#9] Galland persistently writes "Balsorah," a European corruption common in his day, the childhood of Orientalism in Europe. The Hindostani versions have "Bansrá," which is worse.

[FN#10] For notes on Geomancy (Zarb Raml) see vol. iii. 269.

[FN#11] THe Hindostani Version enlarges upon this:--"Besides this, kings cannot escape perils and mishaps which serve as warnings and examples to them when dealing their decrees."

[FN#12] In the XIXth century we should say "All the--ologies."

[FN#13] In the Hindostani Version he begins by "breaking the seal which had been set upon the royal treasury."

[FN#14] "Three things" (says Sa'di in the Gulistan) "lack permanency, Wealth without trading, Learning without disputation, Government without justice." (chap. viii. max. 8). The Bakhtiyár-námeh adds that "Government is a tree whose root is legal punishment (Siyásat); its root-end is justice; its bough, mercy; its flower, wisdom; its leaf, liberality; and its fruit, kindness and benevolence. The foliage of every tree whose root waxeth dry (lacketh sap) taketh a yellow tint and beareth no fruit."

[FN#15] For this word, see vol. ix. 108. It is the origin of the Fr. "Douane" and the Italian "Dogana" through the Spanish Aduana (Ad-Díwán) and the Provencal "Doana." M⁄nage derives it from the Gr. {Greek} =a place where goods are received, and others from "Doge" (Dux) for whom a tax on merchandise was levied at Venice. Littr⁄ (s.v.) will not decide, but rightly inclines to the Oriental origin.

[FN#16] A Hadis says, "The dream is the inspiration of the True Believer;" but also here, as the sequel shows, the Prince believed the Shaykh to be the Prophet, concerning whom a second Hadis declares, "Whoso seeth me in his sleep seeth me truly, for Satan may not assume my semblance." See vol. iv. 287. The dream as an inspiration shows early in literature, e.g.

--{Greek} (Il. i. 63).
and
--{Greek} (Il. ii 55).

in which the Dream is {Greek}.

[FN#17] In the Hindostani Version he becomes a Pír = saint, spiritual guide.

[FN#18] A favourite sentiment. In Sir Charles Murray's excellent novel, "Hassan: or, the Child of the Pyramid," it takes the form, "what's past is past and what is written is written and shall come to pass."

[FN#19] In the H. V. the Prince digs a vat or cistern-shaped hole a yard deep. Under the ringed slab he also finds a door whose lock he breaks with his pickaxe and seeing a staircase of white marble lights a candle and reaches a room whose walls are of porcelain and its floor and ceiling are of crystal.

[FN#20] Arab. Khawábi (plur. of Khábiyah) large jars usually of pottery. In the H. V. four shelves of mother o' pearl support ten jars of porphyry rangeed in rows and the Prince supposes (with Galland) that the contents are good old wine.

[FN#21] Arab. "'Atík": the superficial similiarity of the words have produced a new noun in Arabic, e.g. Abú Antíká = father of antiquities, a vendor of such articles mostly modern, "brand-new and intensely old."

[FN#22] In the text "Ashkhás" (plural of Shakhs) vulgarly used, throughout India, Persia and other Moslem realms, in the sense of persons or individuals. For its lit. sig. see vols. iii. 26; and viii. 159. The H. V. follows Galland in changing to pedestals the Arab thrones, and makes the silken hanging a "piece of white satin" which covers the unoccupied base.

[FN#23] The blessed or well-omened: in these days it is mostly a servile name, e.g. Sidi Mubárak Bombay. See vol. ix. 58,330.

[FN#24] In the test "Mín" for "Man," a Syro-Egyptian form common throughout this MS.

[FN#25] "Ay Ni'am," an emphatic and now vulgar expression.

[FN#26] The MS. here has "'Imárah" = a building, probably a clerical error for Maghárah," a cave, a souterrain.

[FN#27] Arab, "Zahab-ramlí," explained in "Alaeddin." So Al-Mutanabbi sang:--

"I become not of them because homed in their ground: * Sandy
earth is the gangue wherein gold is found."

[FN#28] Walímah prop. = a marriage-feast. For the different kinds of entertainments see vols. vi. 74; viii. 231.

[FN#29] Arab. Mukattaí al-Yadayn, a servile posture: see vols. iii. 218; ix. 320.

[FN#30] Here the Arabic has the advantage of the English; "Shakhs" meaning either a person or an image. See supra, p. 11.

[FN#31] Arab. "Kawárijí = one who uses the paddle, a paddler, a rower.

[FN#32] In the Third Kalandar's Tale (vol. i. 143) Prince 'Ajíb is forbidden to call upon the name of Allah, under pain of upsetting the skiff paddled by the man of brass. Here the detail is omitted.

[FN#33] Arab. "Wahsh," which Galland translates "Tiger," and is followed by his Hind. translator.

[FN#34] Arab. "Laffa 'l-isnayn bi-zulúmati-h," the latter word = Khurtúm, the trunk of an elephant, from Zalm = the dewlap of sheep or goat.

[FN#35] In the text "Yámin," a copyist's error, which can mean nothing else but "Yasimín."

[FN#36] The H. V. rejects this detail for "a single piece of mother-o'-pearl twelve yards long," etc. Galland has une seule ecaille de poisson. In my friend M. Zotenberg's admirable translation of Tabara (i. 52) we read of a bridge at Baghdad made of the ribs of Og bin 'Unk (= Og of the Neck), the fabled King of Bashan.

[FN#37] I have noted that this is the primitive attire of Eastern man in all hot climates, and that it still holds its ground in that grand survival of heathenry, the Meccan Pilgrimage. In Galland the four strips are of taffetas jaune, the Hind. "Taftí."

[FN#38] The word is Hizám = girdle, sash, waist-belt, which Galland turns into nappes. The object of the cloths edged with gems and gums was to form a barrier excluding hostile Jinns: the European magician usually drew a magic circle.

[FN#39] This is our corruption of the Malay Aigla = sandal wood. See vol. ix. 150.

[FN#40] Lit. = the Day of Assembly, "Yaum al-Mahshar." These lines were translated at Cannes on Feb. 22n, 1886, the day before the earthquake which brought desolation upon the Riviera. It was a second curious coincidence. On Thursday, July 10th, 1863--the morning when the great earthquake at Accra laid in ruins the town and the stout old fort built in the days of James II--I had been reading the Koranic chapter entitled "Earthquakes" (No. XCIX.) to some Moslem friends who had visited my quarters. Upwards of a decade afterwards I described teh accident in "Ocean Highways" (New Series, No. II., Vol. I, pp. 448-461), owned by Trubner & Co., and edited by my friend Clements Markham, and I only regret that this able Magazine has been extinguished by that dullest of Journals, "Porceedings of the R. S. S. and monthly record of Geography."

[FN#41] Galland has un tremblement pareil à celui qu'Israfyel (Isráfíl) doit causer le jour du jugement.

[FN#42] The idea is Lady M. W. Montague's ("The Lady's Resolve.")

In part she is to blame that has been tried:
He comes too near that comes to be denied.

As an unknown correspondent warns me the sentiment was probably suggested by Sir Thomas Overbury ("A Wife." St. xxxvi):--

--In part to blame is she
Which hath without consent bin only tride:
He comes too near that comes to be denide.

[FN#43] These highly compromising magical articles are of many kinds. The ballad of The Boy and the Mantle is familiar to all, how in the case of Sir Kay's lady:--

When she had tane the mantle
With purpose for to wear;
It shrunk up to her shoulder
And left her backside bare.
Percy, Vol. I., i and Book III.

Percy derives the ballad from "Le COurt Mantel," an old French piece and Mr. Evans (Specimens of Welsh Poetry) from an ancient MS, of Tegan Earfron, one of Arthur's mistresses, who possessed a mantle which would not fit immodest women. See also in Spenser, Queen Florimel's Girdle (F.Q. iv. 5,3), and the detective is a horn in the Morte d'Arthur, translated from the French, temp. Edward IV., and first printed in A. D. 1484. The Spectator (No. 579) tells us "There was a Temple upon Mount Etna which was guarded by dogs of so exquisite a smell, that they could discover whether the Persons who came thither were chaste or not;" and that they caused, as might be expected, immense trouble. The test-article becomes in the Tuti-námeh the Tank of Trial at Agra; also a nosegay which remains fresh or withers; in the Kathá Sarit Ságara, the red lotus of Shiva; a shirt in Story lxix. Gesta Romanorum; a cup in Ariosto; a rose-garland in "The Wright's Chaste WIfe," edited by Mr. Furnival for the Early English Text Society; a magic picture in Bandello, Part I., No. 21; a ring in the Pentamerone, of Basile; and a distaff in "L'Adroite Princesse," a French imitation of the latter.

[FN#44] Looking glasses in the East are mostly made, like our travelling mirrors, to open and shut.

[FN#45] In Eastern countries the oarsman stands to his work and lessens his labour by applying his weight which cannot be done so forcibly when sitting even upon the sliding-seat. In rowing as in swimming we have forsaken the old custom and have lost instead of gaining.

[FN#46] I have explained this word in vol. iii. 100; viii. 51, etc., and may add the interpretation of Mr. L. C. Casartelli (p. 17) "La Philosophie Religieuse du Mazd⁄isme, etc., Paris Maisonneuve, 1884." "A divine name, which has succeeded little (?) is the ancient title Bagh, the O. P. Baga of the Cuneiforms (Baga vazraka Auramazda, etc.) and the Bagha of the Avesta, whose memory is preserved in Baghdad--the city created by the Gods (?). The Pahlevi books show the word in the compound Bagh∂bakht, lit. = what is granted by the Gods, popularly, Providence."

[FN#47] The H. V. makes the old woman a "finished procuress whose skill was unrivalled in that profession."

[FN#48] In the text "Al-Sádí w'al-Ghádí:" the latter may mean those who came for the morning meal.

[FN#49] An antistes, a leader in prayer (vols. ii. 203, and iv. 227); a reverend, against whom the normal skit is directed. The H. V. makes him a Muezzin, also a Mosque-man; and changes his name to Murad. Imám is a word with a host of meanings, e.g., model (and master), a Sir-Oracle, the Caliph, etc., etc.

[FN#50] i.e. being neighbours they would become to a certain extent answerable for the crimes committed within the quarter.

[FN#51] Arab. "Nakshat" and "Sifrat."

[FN#52] Arab. "Farajíyah," for which see vol. i. 210, 321.

[FN#53] For this aphrodisiac see vol. vi. 60.

[FN#54] In the text "Ay ni'am," still a popular expression.

[FN#55] Arab. "'Ilm al-Híah," gen. translated Astrology, but here meaning scientific Physiognomy. All these branches of science, including Palmistry, are nearly connected; the features and the fingers, mounts, lines, etc. being referred to the sun, moon and planets.

[FN#56] Arab. "Mihaffah bi-takhtrawán": see vols. ii. 180; v. 175.

[FN#57] The H. V. is more explicit: "do not so, or the King of the Jann will slay thee even before thou canst enjoy her and will carry her away."

[FN#58] Arab. "Shahwah" the rawest and most direct term. The Moslem religious has no absurd shame of this natural passion. I have heard of a Persian Imam, who, suddenly excited as he was sleeping in a friend's house, awoke the master with, "Shahwah dáram" = "I am lustful" and was at once gratified by a "Mut'ah," temporary and extempore marriage to one of the slave-girls. These morganatic marriages are not, I may note, allowed to the Sunnis.

[FN#59] Arab. "Min ba'di an" for "Min ba'di má" = after that, still popular in the latter broad form.

[FN#60] The word has been used in this tale with a threefold sense Egypt, old Cairo (Fostat) and new Cairo, in fact to the land and to its capital for the time being.

[FN#61] Arab. "Kabbaltu" = I have accepted, i.e., I accept emphatically. Arabs use this form in sundry social transactions, such as marriages, sales, contracts, bargains, and so forth, to denote that the engagement is irrevocable and that no change can be made. De Sacy neglected to note this in his Grammar, but explains it in his Chrestomathy (i. 44, 53), and rightly adds that the use of this energetic form peut-être serait susceptible d'applications plus ⁄tendues.

[FN#62] La nuit de l'entr⁄e, say the French: see Lane "Leylet ed-dukhlah" (M.E. chapt. vi.).

[FN#63] This MS. uses "Miláh" (pleasant) for "Mubáh" (permitted). I must remark, before parting with Zayn al-Asnam, that its object is to inculcate that the price of a good wife is "far above rubies" (Prov. xxxi. 10: see the rest of this fine chapter), a virtuous woman being "a crown to her husband" (ibid. xxii. 4); and "a prudent wife is from the Lord" (Prov. xix. 4). The whole tale is told with extreme delicacy and the want of roughness and energy suggests a European origin.

[FN#64] i.e. the "Height or Glory ('Alá) of the Faith (al-Dín)" pron. Aláaddeen; which is fairly represented by the old form "Aladdin;" and better by De Sacy's "Ala-eddin." The name has occurred in The Nights, vol. iv. 29-33; it is a household word in England and who has not heard of THomas Hood's "A-lad-in?" Easterns write it in five different ways and in the Paris MS. it is invariably "'Alí al-dín," which is a palpable mistake. The others are (1) 'Alá al-Dín, (2) 'Alá yadín, (3) 'Alah Dín in the H. V. and (4) 'Aláa al-Dín (with the Hamzah), the last only being grammatical. In Galland the Histoire de la Lampe merveilleuse is preceded by the Histoire du Dormeur Eveill⁄ which, being "The Story of Abú al-Hasan the Wag, or the Sleeper awakened," of the Bresl. Edit. (Nights cclxxi.-ccxc.), is here omitted. The Alaeddin Story exists in germ in Tale ii. of the "Dravidian Nights Entertainments," (Madana Kamara-Sankádáj), by Pandit S. M. Natisa Shastri (Madras, 1868, and London, Tr≥bner). We are told by Mr. Coote that it is well represented in Italy. The Messina version is by Pittè, "La Lanterna Magica," also the Palermitan "Lanterne;" it is "Il Matrimonio di Cajussi" of Rome (R. H. Busk's Folk-lore); "Il Gallo e il Mago," of Visentini's "Fiabe Mantovane," and the "Pesciolino," and "Il Contadino che aveva tre Fígli," of Imbriana. In "La Fanciulla c il Mago," of De Gubernatis ("Novelline di Sante Stefano de Calcenaja," p. 47), occurs the popular incident of the original. "The Magician was not a magician for nothing. He feigned to be a hawker and fared through the streets, crying out, 'Donne, donne, chi baratta anelli di ferro contra anelli di argento?'"

Alaeddin has ever been a favourite with the stage. Early in the present century it was introduced to the Parisian opera by M. Etienne, to the Feydeau by Th⁄aulon's La Clochette: to the Gymnase by La Petite-Lampe of M. Scribe and Melesville, and to teh Panorama Dramatique by MM. Merle, Cartouche and Saintine (Gauttier, vii. 380).

[FN#65] This MS. always uses Dínárzád like Galland.

[FN#66] Arab. "'Abadan," a term much used in this MS. and used correctly. It refers always and only to future time, past being denoted by "Kattu" from Katta = he cut (in breadth, as opposed to Kadda=he cut lengthwise). See De Sacy, Chrestom. ii. 443.

[FN#67] In the text "Ibn mín," a vulgarism for "man." Galland adds that the tailor's name was Mustapha--i y avait un tailleur nomm⁄ Mustafa.

[FN#68] In classical Arabic the word is "Maghribi," the local form of the root Gharaba= he went far away (the sun), set, etc., whence "Maghribi"=a dweller in the Sunset-land. The vulgar, however, prefer "Maghrab" and "Maghrabi," of which foreigners made "Mogrebin." For other information see vols. vi. 220; ix. 50. The "Moormen" are famed as magicians; so we find a Maghrabi Sahhár=wizard, who by the by takes part in a transformation scene like that of the Second Kalandar (vol. i. p. 134, The Nights), in p. 10 of Spitta Bey's "Contes Arabes Modernes," etc. I may note that "Sihr," according to Jauhari and Firozábádi=anything one can hold by a thin or subtle place, i.e., easy to handle. Hence it was applied to all sciences, "Sahhár" being=to 'Alim (or sage) . and the older Arabs called poetry "Sihar al-halál"--lawful magic.

[FN#69] i.e. blood is thicker than water, as the Highlanders say.

[FN#70] A popular saying amongst Moslems which has repeatedly occurred in The Nights. The son is the "lamp of a dark house." Vol. ii 280.

[FN#71] Out of respect to his brother, who was probably the senior: the H. V. expressly says so.

[FN#72] Al-Marhúm = my late brother. See vol. ii. 129, 196.

[FN#73] This must refer to Cairo not to Al-Medinah whose title is "Al-Munawwarah" = the Illumined.

[FN#74] A picturesque term for birth-place.

[FN#75] In text "Yá Rájul" (for Rajul) = O man, an Egypto-Syrian form, broad as any Doric.

[FN#76] Arab. Shúf-hu, the colloquial form of Shuf-hu

[FN#77] For the same sentiment see "Julnár" the "Sea born," Nights dccxliii.-xliv.

[FN#78] "I will hire thee a shop in the Chauk"--Carfax or market-street says the H. V.

[FN#79] The MS. writes the word Khwájá (for Khwájah see vol. vi. 46). Here we are at once interested in the scapegrace who looked Excelsior. In fact the tale begins with a strong inducement to boyish vagabondage and scampish indolence; but the Moslem would see in it the hand of Destiny bringing good out of evil. Amongst other meanings of "Khwájah " it is a honorific title given by Khorásánis to their notables. In Arab. the similarity of the word to "Khuwáj"=hunger, has given rise to a host of conceits, more or less frigid (Ibn Khallikán, iii. 45).

[FN#80] Arab. "Wáhid min al-Tujjár," the very vulgar style.

[FN#81] i.e., the Saturday (see vol. ii. 305) established as a God's rest by the so-called "Mosaic" commandment No. iv. How it gradually passed out of observance, after so many centuries of most stringent application, I cannot discover: certainly the text in Cor. ii. 16-17 is insufficient to abolish or supersede an order given with such singular majesty and impressiveness by God and so strictly obeyed by man. The popular idea is that the Jewish Sabbath was done away with in Christ, and that sundry of the 1604 councils, e.g., Laodicea, anathematized those who kept it holy after such fashion. With the day the aim and object changed; and the early Fathers made it the "Feast of the Resurrection" which could not be kept too joyously. The "Sabbatismus" of our Sabbatarians, who return to the Israelitic practice and yet honour the wrong day, is heretical and vastly illogical; and the Sunday is better kept in France, Italy and other "Catholic" countries than in England and Scotland.

[FN#82] For "Mushayyadát" see vol. viii. 23.

[FN#83] All these words sárú, dakhalú, jalasú, &c. are in the plur. for the dual--popular and vulgar speech. It is so throughout the MS.

[FN#84] The Persians apply the Arab word "Sahrá"=desert, to the waste grounds about a town.

[FN#85] Arab. Kashákísh from the quadril, kashkasha = he gathered fuel.

[FN#86] In text "Shayy bi-lásh" which would mean lit. a thing gratis or in vain.

[FN#87] In the text "Sabba raml" = cast in sand. It may be a clerical error for "Zaraba Raml" = he struck sand, i.e., made geomantic figures.

[FN#88] Arab. Mauza'= a place, an apartment, a saloon.

[FN#89] Galland makes each contain quatre vases de bronze, grands comme des cuves.

[FN#90] The Arab. is "Líwán," for which see vols. iv. 71 and vii. 347. Galland translates it by a "terrace" and "niche."

[FN#91] The idea is borrowed from the lume eterno of the Rosicrucians. It is still prevalent throughout Syria where the little sepulchral lamps buried by the Hebrews, Greeks and Romans are so called. Many tales are told of their being found burning after the lapse of centuries; but the traveller will never see the marvel.

[FN#92] The first notice of the signet-ring and its adventures is by Herodotus in the Legend of the Samian Polycrates; and here it may be observed that the accident is probably founded on fact; every fisherman knows that fish will seize and swallow spoon-bait and other objects that glitter. The text is the Talmudic version of Solomon's seal-ring. The king of the demons after becoming a "Bottle-imp," prayed to be set free upon condition of teaching a priceless secret, and after cajoling the Wise One flung his signet into the sea and cast the owner into a land four hundred miles distant. Here David's son begged his bread till he was made head cook to the King of Ammon at Mash Kernín. After a while, he eloped with Na'úzah, the daughter of his master, and presently when broiling a fish found therein his missing property. In the Moslem version, Solomon had taken prisoner Amínah, the daughter of a pagan prince, and had homed her in his Harem, where she taught him idolatry. One day before going to the Hammam he entrusted to her his signet- ring presented to him by the four angelic Guardians of sky, air, water and earth when the mighty Jinni Al-Sakhr (see vol. i. 41; v. 36), who was hovering about unseen, snatching away the ring, assumed the king's shape, whereby Solomon's form became so changed that his courtiers drove him from his own doors. Thereupon Al-Sakhr, taking seat upon the throne, began to work all manner of iniquity, till one of the Wazirs, suspecting the transformation, read aloud from a scroll of the law: this caused the demon to fly shrieking and to drop the signet into the sea. Presently Solomon, who had taken service with a fisherman, and received for wages two fishes a day, found his ring and made Al-Sakhr a "Bottle-imp." The legend of St. Kentigern or Mungo of Glasgow, who recovered the Queen's ring from the stomach of a salmon, is a palpable imitation of the Biblical incident which paid tribute to C sar.

[FN#93] The Magician evidently had mistaken the powers of the Ring. This is against all probability and possibility, but on such abnormal traits are tales and novels founded.

[FN#94] These are the Gardens of the Hesperides and of King Isope (Tale of Beryn, Supplem. Canterbury Tales, Chaucer Soc. p. 84):--

In mydward of this gardyn stant a feir⁄ tre
Of alle manner levis that under sky be
I-forgit and i- fourmyd, eche in his degre
Of sylver, and of golde fyne, that lusty been to see.

So in the Kathá (S. S.) there are trees with trunks of gold, branches of pearls, and buds and flowers of clear white pearls.

[FN#95] The text causes some confusion by applying "Sullam" to staircase and ladder, hence probably the latter is not mentioned by Galland and Co., who speak only of an escalier de cinquante marches. "Sullam" (plur. "Salálim") in modern Egyptian is popularly used for a flight of steps: see Spitta-Bey's "Contes Arabes Modernes," p. 70. The H. V. places under the slab a hollow space measuring four paces (kadam = 2.5 feet), and at one corner a wicket with a ladder. This leads to a vault of three rooms, one with the jars of gold; the second not to be swept by the skirts, and the third opening upon the garden of gems. "There thou shalt see a path, whereby do thou fare straight forwards to a lofty palace with a flight of fifty steps leading to a flat terrace: and here shalt thou find a niche wherein a lamp burneth."

[FN#96] In the H.V. he had thrust the lamp into the bosom of his dress, which, together with his sleeves, he had filled full of fruit, and had wound his girdle tightly around him lest any fall out.

[FN#97] Africa (Arab. Afrikíyah) here is used in its old and classical sense for the limited tract about Carthage (Tunis) net, Africa Propria. But the scribe imagines it to be the P. N. of a city: so m Júdar (vol. vi. 222) we find Fás and Miknás (Fez and Mequinez) converted into one settlement. The Maghribi, Mauritanian or Maroccan is famed for sorcery throughout the Moslem world: see vol. vi. 220. The Moslem "Kingdom of Afrikiyah" was composed of four provinces, Tunis, Tripoli, Constantina, and Bugia: and a considerable part of it was held by the Berber tribe of Sanhája or Sinhága, also called the Zenag whence our modern "Senegal." Another noted tribe which held Bajaiyah (Bugia) in Afrikiyah proper was the "Zawáwah," the European "Zouaves," (Ibn Khall. iv. 84).

[FN#98] Galland omits the name, which is outlandish enough.

[FN#99] Meaning that he had incurred no blood-guiltiness, as he had not killed the lad and only left him to die.

[FN#100] The H. V. explains away the improbability of the Magician forgetting his gift. "In this sore disquietude he bethought him not of the ring which, by the decree of Allah, was the means of Alaeddin's escape; and indeed not only he but oft times those who practice the Black Art are baulked of their designs by Divine Providence."

[FN#101] See vol. vii. 60. The word is mostly derived from " 'afar" = dust, and denotes, according to some, a man coloured like the ground or one who "dusts" all his rivals. " 'Ifr" (fem. 'Ifrah) is a wicked and dangerous man. Al-Jannabi, I may here notice, is the chief authority for Afrikus son of Abraha and xviiith Tobba being the eponymus of "Africa."

[FN#102] Arab. "Ghayr an" = otherwise that, except that, a favourite form in this MS. The first word is the Syriac "Gheir" = for, a conjunction which is most unneccessarily derived by some from the Gr. {Greek}.

[FN#103] Galland and the H.V. make the mother deliver a little hygienic lecture about not feeding too fast after famine: exactly what an Eastern parent would not dream of doing.

[FN#104] The lad now turns the tables upon his mother and becomes her master, having "a crow to pick" with her.

[FN#105] Arab. "Munáfik" for whose true sense, "an infidel who pretendeth to believe in Al-Islam," see vol. vi. p. 207. Here the epithet comes last being the climax of abuse, because the lowest of the seven hells (vol. viii. 111) was created for "hypocrites," i.e., those who feign to be Moslems when they are Miscreants.

[FN#106] Here a little abbreviation has been found necessary to avoid the whole of a twice-told tale; but nothing material has been omitted.

[FN#107] Arab. "Taffaytu-hu." This is the correct term = to extinguish. They relate of the great scholar Firozábádí, author of the "Kámús" (ob. A. H. 817 = A. D. 1414), that he married a Badawi wife in order to study the purest Arabic and once when going to bed said to her, "Uktuli's-siráj," the Persian "Chirágh- rá bi-kush" = Kill the lamp. "What," she cried, "Thou an ' lim and talk of killing the lamp instead of putting it out!"

[FN#108] In the H. V. the mother takes the "fruits" and places them upon the ground, "but when darkness set in, a light shone from them like the rays of a lamp or the sheen of the sun."

[FN#109] For these fabled Giant rulers of Syria, Og King of Bashan, etc., see vols. vii. 84; ix. 109, 323. D'Herbelot (s. v. Giabbar= Giant) connects "Jabábirah" with the Heb. Ghibbor Ghibborim and the Pers. Dív, Diván: of these were ' d and Shaddád, Kings of Syria: the Falast"in (Philistines) 'Auj, Amálik and Banú Shayth or Seth's descendants, the sons of God (Benu- Elohim) of the Book of Genesis (vi. 2) who inhabited Mount Hermon and lived in purity and chastity.

[FN#110] The H. V. explains that the Jinni had appeared to the mother in hideous aspect, with noise and clamour, because she had scoured the Lamp roughly; but was more gentle with Alaeddin because he had rubbed it lightly. This is from Galland.

[FN#111] Arab. Musawwadatayn = lit. two black things, rough copies, etc.

[FN#112] Arab. Banú Adam, as opposed to Banú Elohim (Sons of the Gods), B. al-Jánn etc The Banú al-Asfar = sons of the yellow, are Esau's posterity in Edom, also a term applied by Arab historians to the Greeks and Romans whom Jewish fable derived from Idum a: in my vol. ii. 220, they are the people of the yellow or tawny faces. For the legend see Ibn Khall. iii. 8, where the translator suggests that the by-name may be = the "sees of the Emperor" Flavius, confounded with "flavus," a title left by Vespasian to his successors The Banú al Khashkhash = sons of the (black) poppy are the Ethiopians.

[FN#113] Arab, Há! há! so Háka (fem. Haki) = Here for thee!

[FN#114] So in Medieval Europe Papal bulls and Kings' letters were placed for respect on the head. See Duffield's "Don Quixote," Part i. xxxi.

[FN#115] Galland makes the Juif only rus⁄ et adroit.

[FN#116] Arab. "Ghashím" = a "Johnny Raw" from the root "Ghashm" = iniquity: Builders apply the word to an unhewn stone; addressed to a person it is considered slighting, if not insulting. See vol. ii. 330.

[FN#117] The carat (Kírát) being most often, but not always, one twenty-fourth of the diner. See vols. iii. 239; vii. 289.

[FN#118] Kanání, plur. of Kinnínah.

[FN#119] Here and below silver is specified, whenas the platters in Night dxxxv. were of gold This is one of the many changes' contradictions and confusions which are inherent in Arab stones. See Spitta-Bey's "Contes Arabes," Preface.

[FN#120] i.e., the Slave of the Lamp.

[FN#121] This may be true, but my experience has taught me to prefer dealing with a Jew than with a Christian. The former will "jew" me perhaps, but his commercial cleverness will induce him to allow me some gain in order that I may not be quite disheartened: the latter will strip me of my skin and will grumble because he cannot gain more.

[FN#122] Arab. "Hálah mutawassitah," a phrase which has a European Touch.

[FN#123] In the text "Jauharjíyyah," common enough in Egypt and Syria, an Arab. plur. of an Arabised Turkish sing.--ji for--chí = (crafts-) man.

[FN#124] We may suppose some years may have passed in this process and that Alaeddin from a lad of fifteen had reached the age of manhood. The H. V. declares that for many a twelve month the mother and son lived by cotton spinning and the sale of the plate

[FN#125] i.e. Full moon of full moons: See vol. iii. 228. It is pronounced "Badroo'l- Budoor," hence Galland's " Badr-oul- boudour. "

[FN#126] In the H. V. Alaeddin "bethought him of a room adjacent to the Baths where he might sit and see the Princess through the door-chinks, when she raised her veil before the handmaids and eunuchs."

[FN#127] This is the common conceit of the brow being white as day and the hair black as night.

[FN#128] Such a statement may read absurdly to the West but it is true in the East. "Selim" had seen no woman's face unveiled, save that of his sable mother Rosebud in Morier's Tale of Yeldoz, the wicked woman ("The Mirza," vol. iii. 135). The H. V. adds that Alaeddin's mother was old and verily had little beauty even in her youth. So at the sight of the Princess he learnt that Allah had created women exquisite in loveliness and heart- ensnaring; and at first glance the shaft of love pierced his heart and he fell to the ground afaint He loved her with a thousand lives and, when his mother questioned him, "his lips formed no friendship with his speech."

[FN#129] "There is not a present (Teshurah) to bring to the Man of God" (1 Sam. ix. 7), and Menachem explains Teshurah as a gift offered with the object of being admitted to the presence. See also the offering of oil to the King in Isaiah lvii. 9. Even in Maundriell's Day Travels (p. 26) it was counted uncivil to visit a dignitary without an offering in hand.

[FN#130] As we shall see further on, the magical effect of the Ring and the Lamp extend far and wide over the physique and morale of the owner: they turn a "raw laddie" into a finished courtier, warrior, statesman, etc.

[FN#131] In Eastern states the mere suspicion of having such an article would expose the suspected at least to torture. Their practical system of treating "treasure trove," as I saw when serving with my regiment in Gujarát (Guzerat), is at once to imprison and "molest" the finder, in order to make sure that he has not hidden any part of his find.

[FN#132] Here the MS. text is defective, the allusion is, I suppose, to the Slave of the Lamp.

[FN#133] In the H. V. the King retired into his private apartment; and, dismissing all save the Grand Wazir, "took cognisance of special matters" before withdrawing to the Harem.

[FN#134] The levée, Divan or Darbár being also a lit de justice and a Court of Cassation: See vol. i. 29.

[FN#135] All this is expressed by the Arabic in one word "Tamanná." Galland adds pour marquer qu'il etait prêt á perdre s'il y manquait; and thus he conveys a wrong idea.

[FN#136] This would be still the popular address, nor is it considered rude or slighting. In John (ii. 4) "Atto," the Heb. Eshah, is similarly used, not complimentarily, but in popular speech.