Arabic Authors Part 11

Aziz, though repeatedly warned by his mistress, the daughter of Dalilah, not to have anything to do with the s.e.x on account of his youth and simplicity, falls into the hands of another woman, who first marries him, and then keeps him locked up in her house, and never lets him out for a whole year. When, however, he does get away for a day only, he goes at once to see his former mistress, who is furious on hearing that he is married to somebody else, and with the aid of her slave girls serves him out in a way which, from one point of view, makes marriage quite a failure for him in the future. On going back to his wife, she, having found out what had occurred, immediately puts him into the street, and he returns in a sad plight to his mother, who nurses him and gives him the present and the letter that his cousin Azizah had left for him. Finally Aziz, for the sake of distraction, takes to foreign travel, and there meets with Taj al Muluk, whom he a.s.sists to find the princess Dunya.

The tale of Kamar Al-Zaman and the Lady Budur is both amusing and interesting. It is truly an Eastern story, full of curious and wonderful situations, and quite a kaleidoscope of pa.s.sing events, which succeed each other rapidly. The hero and the heroine are a young prince and princess, living in very different parts of the world (s.p.a.ce and geography have no place in the "Nights"), and both very averse to matrimony. The one fears the smiles and wiles of woman, the other the tyranny and selfishness of man. A certain Queen of the Jinns, with her a.s.sistants, bring the two together one night in the same bed, and separate them in the morning. But the sight that each had had of the other caused them to fall desperately in love, and deep are the lamentations of each over the separation, which continues for some years. At last Kamar Al-Zaman finds his way to his lady-love, the Princess Budur, and they are happily wedded; alas! after a short time, to be again separated. Then follow the adventures of each--the lady becomes a king, and is married to a princess, and rules a country, while Kamar Al-Zaman's fate a.s.signs him the place of an under-gardener. Destiny, however, re-unites them, and the Lady Budur's joke before recognition and re-union is certainly humorous. She makes him further marry the lady that she herself was married to, and a son is born to each, respectively called Amjad and Asaad. When the boys grow up, the mother of each falls violently in love with the son of the other, _i.e._, Budur adores Asaad, and Heyat en Nufus wors.h.i.+ps Amjad, and the two mothers end by making dishonourable proposals to the two sons. These overtures being indignantly rejected, the mothers, as in all Eastern tales, turn the tables by informing their husband that his sons had made indecent proposals to them. In consequence they are sent off to be slain in the desert, but, from the circ.u.mstances which occur there, the executioner spares their lives, and returns with their clothes steeped in a lion's blood, reporting that he has carried out the king's instructions, and quoting their last message to their father:

'Women are very devils, made to work us dole and death; Refuge I seek with G.o.d Most High from all their craft and skaith.

Prime source are they of all the ills that fall upon mankind, Both in the fortunes of this world and matters of the faith.'

The king at once recognises their innocence, and mourns over their loss, building two tombs in their memory, called the Houses of Lamentations, where he spends his days weeping.

Meanwhile the two youths, left to their own devices by the executioner, journey onward, arrive at a city, become separated, go through all sorts of adventures, all of a most thrilling description, and are finally re-united. The closing scene brings all the characters of the romance together at the same place, and the grandfathers, fathers, and sons all meet once more, but no further mention is made about the two mothers, who so deeply injured their own offspring.

Ala Aldin Abu Al-Shamat.--This story is of considerable interest, for it begins with a recipe for an aphrodisiac, and contains many allusions to Eastern manners and customs. Born of wealthy parents at Cairo, details are given of Ala Aldin's youth and boyhood, and of how the wish to travel and to trade was instilled into his mind by his young companions, at the instigation of a crafty old sinner, Mahmud of Balkh. With some reluctance his father at last allows him to start, and going first to Damascus, then to Aleppo, he is robbed of all his property just before he reaches Baghdad, and very nearly loses his life into the bargain, but his good fortune saves him on two occasions. Arrived at Baghdad, his adventures begin, and they follow each other with considerable rapidity. He first is married to Zobeidah the Lutist, on the understanding that it was for one night only, and that he was to divorce her the next morning, so that she might be re-married to her former husband. But when the time comes, Ala Aldin and the lady find each other such pleasant company that they absolutely decline to divorce, and elect to pay the fine. This money is provided for them by Harun-ar-Ras.h.i.+d, who visits them one night with three of his companions all disguised as dervishes, and they are charmed with Zobeidah's performance on the lute, her singing, and her recitations.

Ala Aldin then goes to the Court, where he rises to high favour and receives various good appointments. To his great grief he loses his wife, who dies, as he supposes, and is buried with the usual mourning, but in reality turns up again at the end of the tale, and is re-united to her husband. It appears that a servant of the Jinn had carried her off to another country, leaving a Jinneyah to be buried in her place.

To make up for the loss of Zobeidah, the Khalif gives Ala Aldin one of his own slave-girls, Kut al Kulub by name, and sends her, with all her belongings, to his house. Ala Aldin will not have anything to do with her, on the grounds--"What was the master's should not become the man's;" but he lodges, boards, and treats her handsomely. Eventually Harun takes her back, and orders a slave-girl to be bought at his expense in the market for ten thousand dinars for Ala Aldin. This is done, and a girl named Jessamine is purchased and given to him. He sets her at once free and marries her.

But at the time of the purchase another man had been bidding for this same girl, and, being much in love with her, his family determine to a.s.sist him in getting hold of her. A whole lot of fresh characters then appear on the scene, and, after much plotting and intrigue, Ala Aldin is arrested and sentenced to death. He, however, escapes to Alexandria, and there opens a shop. Further adventures follow, till he finds himself at Genoa, where he remains for some time as servant in a church. Meanwhile at Baghdad his wife Jessamine has borne him a son, named Asdan, who grows up, and in time discovers the author and nature of the theft of which his father had been accused, and thus prepares the way for his return to the city of the Khalifs. This is brought about by the Princess Husn Maryam at Genoa, with whom Ala Aldin finds his first wife Zobeidah, and they all set out on a wonderful couch and go first to Alexandria, then to Cairo to visit his parents, and finally to Baghdad, where he marries the princess and lives happy ever afterwards.

Ali the Persian and the Kurd Sharper is a very short story, but quite Rabelaisian in its humour, and the manner in which the Persian and the Kurd describe the contents of the small bag that had been lost. All sorts of things are mentioned in a haphazard way, many of them, however, perhaps, being required to fulfil the exigencies of the rhymed prose in which the story is written in the original Arabic.

The Man of Al-Yaman and his six Slave-Girls.--The six girls in this story have all different qualities. One is white, another brown, the third fat, the fourth lean, the fifth yellow, and the sixth black. The happy owner gets them together, and in verse and recitation each praises her own peculiarity, and abuses that of her opposite by examples and quotations. There is an Oriental tw.a.n.g about the story which makes it worthy of notice, and some of the verses are not bad.

Abu Al-Husn and his slave-girl Tawaddud.--This story is not amusing, but it is very interesting, especially to persons studying the minute details of the Muhammadan faith, doctrine and practice, according to the Shafai school, and the exegesis of the Koran, all of which are wonderfully expounded by the slave-girl. In the shape of questions and answers an enormous amount of information of all sorts is put into the mouth of this highly accomplished female. The writer deals not only with theology, but also with physiology in all its branches, or, at least, with as many as were known at the period of the tale. Further, medicine, astronomy, philosophy, and all kinds of knowledge are discussed. A series of conundrums are put to the girl and replied to by her, and she also displays her skill in chess, draughts, backgammon, and music.

It is to be regretted that the exact date of this species of Mangnall's Questions and Answers cannot be ascertained, for this would enable us to appreciate better the amount of knowledge displayed on the various subjects under discussion. Anyhow, it is certain that it must have been written some time after the doctrines of the Imam Shafai (he died A.D. 820) had been well-defined and established. Owing to certain medical and surgical queries and replies, it is to be presumed that the whole must have been worked up after the Arab school of medicine and physiology had arrived at their highest stage of perfection. The whole story is a good specimen of the state of civilization reached by the Arabs, and as such is worth a reference.

Three other stories in the 'Nights' bear some affinity to the above, but they are much more limited, both as regards the subject they deal with and the information they supply. One is 'King Jali'ad and his vizier s.h.i.+mas,' in Payne's eighth and Burton's ninth volume; another, 'History of Al-Hajjaj bin Yusuf and the young Sayyid,' in Burton's fifth supplemental; and the third, 'The Duenna and the King's Son,' in his sixth supplemental.

The Rogueries of Dalilah the Crafty, and her daughter, Zeynab the Trickstress.--The tricks played by Dalilah the Crafty on all sorts of people in this story are of a nature that would make the tale amusing to the Arabs generally, and to the frequenters of coffee-houses particularly. Dalilah's father and husband had held lucrative appointments under the Khalifs of Baghdad, and, with a view to obtain something for herself and her daughter Zeynab, these two women determined to bring themselves to notice by playing tricks, and doing things which were likely to be talked of in the great city. In Europe at the present time the same method is often followed. Attempted a.s.sa.s.sinations, attempted suicides, complaints in the police-courts and cases in the law-courts are sometimes meant simply as an advertis.e.m.e.nt.[7] Anyhow, Dalilah's tricks played on various people are certainly amusing, and as they run ingeniously one into the other, it is somewhat difficult to describe them in a few words. The tale, to be appreciated, must be read through. Sufficient to add that Dalilah and Zeynab both eventually obtain what they wish, and the various things taken from the different parties are duly returned to them.

[Footnote 7: As an example take the following extract from the _Daily Telegraph_ of 16th July, 1889:

'The sisters Macdonald have been giving a great deal more trouble to the police lately than even the bearers of so historic a name are ent.i.tled to give. Ethel Macdonald appeared at Marlborough Street charged with having wilfully smashed a window at the Junior Carlton Club, St. James's Square. It was stated that the aggressive Ethel was one of the daughters of an ex-superintendent of county constabulary deceased, and that his daughters, being left unprovided for, had taken to going on the "rampage." One of the sisters alleges that she has been wronged by "a rich man," and a short time since another Miss Macdonald, on being arraigned before Mr. Newton, flung a bottle at the head of that learned magistrate. Ethel was discharged, but it was ordered that she should be sent to the workhouse for inquiries to be made into her state of mind.']

The Adventures of Quicksilver Ali of Cairo.--This story is of the same nature as the preceding one, and in all the editions of the 'Nights'

the one always follows the other, while in the Breslau text the two stories run together. Ali begins life at Cairo, and ends at Baghdad, where his tricks and adventures follow each other in rapid succession, his object being to obtain in marriage the hand of Zeynab, the daughter of Dalilah the Crafty. He is first tricked himself by Zeynab, but continues his pursuit of her, and though at times he is transformed into the shapes of an a.s.s, a bear, and a dog by the magic arts of Azariah the Jew, eventually he succeeds, with the aid of the Jew's daughter, in obtaining the property required, and finally marries Zeynab, the Jewess, and two other women.

Hasan of Busra and the King's Daughter of the Jinn.--This is a good specimen of a real Oriental romance, with the wonderful and marvellous adventures of the hero interlaced with magic, alchemy, the Jinns, and other fabulous varieties, so that the highest ideals of the imagination are almost arrived at.

Bahram the Magician, who first beguiles Hasan with alchemy and then carries him off and endeavours to destroy him, is himself destroyed in the early part of the story. The kindness of the seven princesses to Hasan during his stay with them, and his visits to them later on, are described at length, as also is the way in which the hero falls desperately in love with the king's daughter of the Jinn, and secures her as his bride. The happy pair start for Busra, and rejoin his mother, and then settle down in Baghdad, where two sons are born and happiness reigns supreme. But during Hasan's absence on a visit to his former friends the seven princesses, some domestic scenes between his wife, his mother, and Zobeidah, the spouse of the Khalif Harun-ar-Ras.h.i.+d, are introduced, which end by the wife re-possessing herself of her original feather garment, and flying off with her two children to the islands of Wac, where her father and family resided.

On his return Hasan is broken-hearted to find her gone, and determines to set out and try and recover her. Then follows the description of his journeys, which fill pages describing the white country, and the black mountain, the land of camphor, and the castle of crystal. The islands of Wac were seven in number, peopled by Satans and Marids, and warlocks and tribesmen of the Jinn. To reach them Hasan has to traverse the island of birds, the land of beasts, and the valley of Jinn. Without the aid of the princesses, their uncle Abdul-cuddous, Abourruweish, Dehnesh ben Fectesh, Ha.s.soun, king of the land of Camphor, and the old woman Shawahi, he never would have reached his destination. This, however, he finally does, and with the aid of a magic cup and wand recovers his wife and children, and returns with them to Baghdad, where they live happily ever afterwards, till there came to them the Creditor whose debt must always be paid sooner or later, the Destroyer of delights, and the Severer of societies.

Ali Nur Al-din and Miriam the Girdle-Girl (called by Payne, the Frank King's Daughter).--The adventures of Ali with Miriam, whom he first buys as a slave-girl in Alexandria, and from whom he is separated and re-united, again separated and again united, are told at some length.

But the princ.i.p.al features in this tale are the innumerable verses in praise of various fruits, flowers, wine, women, musical instruments, the beauty of the hero, etc., and on the subjects of love, union, separation, etc. Miriam herself is a charming character of self-reliance and independence. On her first appearance in the slave market, at the time of her sale, she declines to be purchased by the old men, and abuses their age and their infirmities. Indeed, she seemed to be of the same opinion as our great national poet, who wrote:

'Crabbed age and youth Cannot live together; Youth is full of plaisance, Age is full of care; Youth like summer morn, Age like winter weather; Youth like summer brave, Age like winter bare.

Youth is full of sport, Age's breath is short, Youth is nimble, age is lame; Youth is hot and bold, Age is weak and cold, Youth is wild and age is tame.

Age, I do abhor thee; Youth, I do adore thee; O my love, my love is young; Age, I do defy thee, O sweet shepherd, hie thee, For methinks thou stay'st too long'.

However, she finally consents to be bought by the young and good-looking Ali, who spends his last thousand dinars in her purchase, and then has nothing to live upon. Miriam remedies this by making every night a beautiful girdle, which Ali sells for a good price in the bazaar next day. This goes on for upwards of a year, when the first separation is brought about by the crafty old Wazir of her father, the King of France, who had sent him especially to look for his daughter.

In the course of the adventures that follow, Miriam shows her capacity in sailing s.h.i.+ps and in killing various men, among others her three brothers, who pursued her in her last flight from her father's city.

Eventually she and Ali get to Baghdad, where the Khalif makes things smooth for them, and they are married, and finally return to Cairo to rejoin Ali's parents, from whom he had run away in his youth.

Kamar Al-Zaman and the Jeweller's Wife is one of the modern tales of the 'Nights,' and a very good one, containing a good plot and plenty of interesting incidents. The jeweller's wife, Halimah by name, is one of the wickedest and craftiest of women in Busra, and her plots and intrigues are well described; some of them are to be found in Persian story-books. After playing all sorts of tricks, she leaves her husband, and elopes with the youth Kamar to Cairo, where his parents reside. There his father will not let him marry her, but confines her and her slave-girl in a room, and arranges a marriage for his son with another woman. After a time Halimah's husband, Obayd, the jeweller, turns up in Cairo in the most beggarly plight, having been plundered by Bedouins _en route_. After explanations, Obayd ends by killing his wife and her slave-girl, who had a.s.sisted her in all her devilries, and Kanar's father marries him to his daughter, who turns out the most virtuous of women. The moral of the tale is pointed out at the end, that there are both bad women and good women in the world, and is closed with the remark: 'So he who deemeth all women to be alike, there is no remedy for the disease of his insanity.'

Ma'aruf the Cobbler and his wife Fatimah commences with a domestic scene between the two, from which it appears that the poor husband had been shamefully sat upon from the day of his marriage, and that his wife was a dreadful woman. Affairs, however, at last reach a climax, and Ma'aruf seeks peace and safety in flight. Balzac, in his clever novel of 'Le Contrat de Mariage,' makes his hero Manerville fly from the machinations of his wife and mother-in-law, but Henri de Marsay, writing to his friend pages on the subject, contends that he is wrong, and points out to him the course that he should have followed. Anyhow, in Ma'aruf the Cobbler's case, the result is satisfactory. Arriving by the aid of a Jinn at a far-away city, he found a friend, who directed him how to behave, and to tell everybody that he was a great and wealthy merchant, but that his merchandise was still on the way, and expected daily. Pending the arrival of his baggage-train, Ma'aruf borrowed from everybody, gave it all away in largesse to the poor, and behaved generally as if he were very well-to-do. By these means he made such an impression on the King of the place that the latter married him to his daughter, and made large advances from the treasury in antic.i.p.ation of the arrival of the merchandise.

Time goes on, but still the baggage does not turn up. The King, instigated by his Wazir, becomes suspicious, and persuades his daughter to worm out the real story from her husband. This she does in a clever way, and Ma'aruf tells her his true history. The woman behaves admirably, refuses to expose his vagaries, and, giving him fifty thousand dinars, advises him to fly to a foreign country, to begin to trade there, and to keep her informed of his whereabouts and the turn of his fortunes. The Cobbler departs during the night, while his wife the next morning tells the King and the Wazir a long rigmarole story of how her husband had been summoned by his servants, who had informed him that his baggage-train and merchandise had been attacked by the Arabs, and that he had gone himself to look after his affairs.

Meanwhile Ma'aruf departs sore at heart, weeping bitterly, and, like all 'Arabian Nights' heroes in adversity, repeating countless verses.

After various adventures he falls in with a vast treasure, and a casket containing a seal ring of gold, which, when rubbed, causes the slave of the seal ring, naturally a Jinn, to appear and carry out every wish and order that Ma'aruf might give him. With the aid, then, of the Jinn, Abu Al-Saddat by name, the Cobbler returns to his wife laden with treasure and merchandise, and thus proves to all the doubters that he is a true man. He pays all his debts, gives a great deal to the poor, and bestows presents of an enormous value on his wife, her attendants, and all the people of the Court.

As a matter of course, all this prosperity is followed by adversity.

The King and his Wazir combine together, and ask Ma'aruf to a garden-party, make him drunk, and get him to relate the story of his success. Recklessly he shows the ring to the Wazir, who gets hold of it, rubs it, and on the appearance of the slave of the ring, orders him to carry off the Cobbler and cast him down in the desert. The Wazir then orders the King to be treated in the same way, while he himself seizes the Sultanate, and aspires to marry Ma'aruf's wife, the King's daughter.

With much interesting detail the story relates how the Princess Dunya gets the ring into her possession, sends the Wazir to prison, and rescues her father and her husband from the desert. The Wazir is then put to death, and the ring is kept by the lady, as she thinks it would be safer in her keeping than in that of her relations. After this a son is born, the King dies, Ma'aruf succeeds to the throne, and shortly after loses his wife, who before her death gives him back the ring, and urges him to take good care of it for his own sake and for the sake of his boy.

Time goes on, and the Cobbler's first wife, Fatimah, turns up in town, brought there also by a Jinn, and tells the story of the want and suffering she had undergone since his departure from Cairo. Ma'aruf treats her generously, and sets her up in a palace with a separate establishment, but the wickedness of the woman reappears, and she tries to get hold of the ring for her own purposes. Just as she has secured it she is cut down and killed on the spot by Ma'aruf's son, who had been watching her proceedings, and is thus finally disposed of. The King and his son then marry, and live happily in the manner of Eastern story, all the other characters being properly provided for.

So much for the 'Nights' proper. Other stories translated from the Breslau text (a Tunisian ma.n.u.script acquired, collated and translated by Professor Hab.i.+.c.ht, of Breslau, Von der Hagen, and another; 15 volumes, 12mo., Breslau, 1825), the Calcutta fragment of 1814-1818, and other sources, have been given by Payne in three extra volumes ent.i.tled 'Tales from the Arabic,' and by Burton in two of his six volumes of the 'Supplemental Nights.' Payne's three books and Burton's two first volumes follow the same lines. They both contain twenty princ.i.p.al, and sixty-four subordinate stories, or eighty-four altogether, divided into nine short stories and seventy-five longer ones. Some of them are very interesting, and some are amusing, especially a few of the sixteen Constables' Stories, which describe the cleverness of women, and the adroitness of thieves, and people of that cla.s.s. It is probable that these are more or less of a modern date.

The first story in this collection, called 'The Sleeper and the Waker,' commonly known as 'The Sleeper Awakened,' is good, and also particularly interesting as one of Galland's stories not traced at the time, but afterwards turning up in the Tunis text of the 'Nights.'

The third volume of Burton's 'Supplemental Nights' is one of the most interesting of the whole lot. It contains eight princ.i.p.al and four subordinate stories of Galland's 'Contes Arabes,' which are not included in the Calcutta, Boulak, or Breslau editions of the 'Nights.'

For many years the sources from which Galland procured these tales were unknown. Some said that he invented them himself. Others conjectured that he got them from the story-tellers in Constantinople and other places in the East. But in A.D. 1886 Mr. H. Zotenberg, the keeper of Eastern Ma.n.u.scripts in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris, obtained a ma.n.u.script copy of the "Nights," which contained the Arabic originals of the stories of "Zayn Al Asnam," and of "Aladdin," two of Galland's best stories. This was a very valuable acquisition, for it sets at rest the doubts that had always been expressed about the origin of these two tales, and also leads to the supposition that the Arabic originals of the other stories will also turn up some day.

Of these eight princ.i.p.al and four subordinate stories of Galland, those of "Aladdin; or, The Wonderful Lamp," and of "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves," have ever been most popular tales, and have been appreciated by many generations from the time that Galland first introduced them to Europe. But some of the other stories are equally good, and all are worth reading, as Burton has not only taken Galland as a guide, but has also adapted his own translation from the Hindustani version of the Gallandian tales, prepared by one Totaram Shayan, whose texts of the "Nights," along with those of others, are fully discussed. By this method Burton endeavoured to preserve the Oriental flavour of the work itself, without introducing too much French sauce.

After the discovery of the Arabic original of the stories of "Zayn Al-Asnam" and "Aladdin," Payne recognized its importance, and published his translation of these two tales in a separate volume in 1889, which forms a sort of appendix to his previously issued twelve volumes. This thirteenth book contains also an interesting introduction, giving a _resume_ of Mr. Zotenberg's work, published at Paris in 1888, and which contains the Arab text of the story of Aladdin, along with an exhaustive notice of certain ma.n.u.scripts of the "Thousand and One Nights," and of Galland's translation.

The fourth and fifth volumes of Burton's "Supplemental Nights" contain certain new stories from an Arabic ma.n.u.script of the "Nights" in seven volumes, brought to Europe by Edward Wortley Montague, Esq., and bought at the sale of his library by Dr. Joseph White, Professor of Hebrew and Arabic at Oxford, from whom it pa.s.sed into the hands of Dr.

Jonathan Scott, who sold it to the Bodleian Library, at Oxford, for fifty pounds.

Wortley Montague's ma.n.u.script contains many additional tales not included in the Calcutta, Boulak, or Breslau editions, and these additional stories Burton has now translated. It is uncertain how or where Wortley Montague obtained his copy of the 'Thousand and One Nights.' Dr. White had at one time intended to translate the whole lot, but this was never accomplished. Jonathan Scott did, however, translate some of the stories, which were published in the sixth volume of his 'Arabian Nights Entertainment' in A.D. 1811, but the work was badly and incompletely done. It has now been thoroughly revised and put into better form by Burton in these two volumes.

In Appendix I. to Volume V. there is a catalogue of the contents of the Wortley Montague MS., which is very interesting, as it contains not only a description of the ma.n.u.script itself, but also a complete list of the tales making up the "Thousand and One Nights," many of which are, of course, to be found in the "Nights" proper.

These two supplemental volumes contain 25 princ.i.p.al and 31 subordinate stories, or 56 in all. Some of them are very amusing, especially the tales of the Larrikins, while the whole add to our knowledge of this vast repertoire of tales from the East, which has been gradually brought to the notice of Europe during the last one hundred and eighty-five years.

Burton's sixth supplemental volume contains certain stories taken from a book of Arabian tales, a continuation of the 'Arabian Nights Entertainment,' brought out by Dom Chavis, a Syrian priest, and eventually teacher of Arabic at the University of Paris, and Mr.

Jacques Cazotte, a well-known French _litterateur,_ unfortunately and unjustly guillotined in Paris on the 25th September, 1792, at the time of the Revolution.

This work, sometimes called 'The New Arabian Nights,' is an imitation of Galland's marvellous production, and may be considered a sort of continuation of it. Dom Chavis brought the ma.n.u.scripts to France, and agreed with Mr. Cazotte to collaborate, the former translating the Arabic into French, and the latter metamorphosing the manner and matter to the style and taste of the day. The work first appeared in 1788-89, and was translated into English in 1792.

Burton, in his Foreword to this volume, gives a full account of these stories, as translated and edited by Chavis and Cazotte. He himself gives a translation of eight of them, one of which, The Linguist, the Duenna, and the King's Son, is interesting, as it contains a series of conundrums, questions and answers, which may remind the reader of the story of Abu Al-Husn and his slave-girl Tawaddud, in the 'Nights'

proper, and of the history of Al-Hajjaj bin Yusuf and the young Sayyid, from the Wortley Montague MS. In addition to the eight translated stories, the sixth volume contains a great deal of matter in the shape of appendices, such as--Notes on Zotenberg's work on Aladdin and on various ma.n.u.scripts of the 'Nights'; Biography of the work and its Reviewers Reviewed; Opinions of the Press, etc.; but though well worthy of perusal by the curious, s.p.a.ce does not allow of further allusions to them here.