The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume X Part 52

248.--The Wise Heycar.

Subsequently to the publication of Gauttier's edition of The Nights, Agoub republished his translation under the t.i.tle of "Le sage Heycar, conte Arabe" (Paris, 1824).

A few tales published by Scott in Ouseley's Oriental Collections have already been noticed (antea, pp. 434, 435).

TRANSLATIONS OF COGNATE ORIENTAL ROMANCES ILl.u.s.tRATIVE OF THE NIGHTS.

1. Les Mille et Un Jours. Contes Persanes.

"In imitation of the Arabian Nights, was composed a Persian collection ent.i.tled ?Hazar Yek Ruz or the Thousand and One Days,'

of which Petis de la Croix published a French rendering [in 1710], which was done into English [by Dr. King, and published in 2 vols. (with the Turkish Tales=Forty Vezirs) as early as 1714; and subsequently] by Ambrose Phillips" (in 1738) (Clouston, in litt). Here, and occasionally elsewhere, I have quoted from some MSS. notes on The Nights by Mr. W. A. Clouston, which Sir R. F.

Burton kindly permitted me to inspect. Mr. Clouston then quotes Cazotte's Preface (not in my edition of the Thousand and One Days), according to which the book was written by the celebrated Dervis Mocles (Mukhlis), chief of the Sofis (Sufis?) of lspahan, founded upon certain Indian comedies. Petis de la Croix was on friendly terms with Mukhlis, who allowed him to take a copy of his work in 1675, during his residence in Ispahan. (I find these statements confirmed in the Cabinet des Fees, x.x.xvii. pp. 266, 274, 278, and in Weber's "Tales of the East," i. pp. x.x.xvi., x.x.xxii.)

The framework of the story is the same as Nos. 9a and 152: a Princess, who conceives an aversion to men from dreaming of the self-devotion of a doe, and the indifference and selfishness of a stag. Mr. Clouston refers to Nakhshabi's Tuti Nama (No. 33 of Kaderi's abridgment, and 39 of India Office MS. 2,573 whence he thinks it probable that Mukhlis may have taken the tale.) But the tale itself is repeated over and over again in many Arabic, Persian, and Turkish collections; in fact, there are few of commoner occurrence.

The tales are told by the nurse in order to overcome the aversion of the Princess to men. They are as follows:

Introduction and Conclusion: Story of the Princess of Cashmir.

1. Story of Aboulca.s.sem Bafry.

2. Story of King Ruzvanchad and the Princess Cheheristani.

a. Story of the young King of Thibet and the Princess of the Naimans.

b. Story of the Vazir Cavercha.

3. Story of Couloufe and the Beautiful Dilara.

4. Story of Prince Calaf and the Princess of China.

a. Story of Prince Fadlallah, son of Bei-Ortoc, King of Moussel=Nos. 184 and 251.

5. Story of King Bedreddin-Lolo, and his Vazir Atalmulk, surnamed the Sad Vazir.

a. Story of Atalmulk and the Princess Zelica Beghume.

b. Story of Prince Seyf-el-Molouk.

c. Story of Malek and the Princess Chirine.

d. Story of King Hormuz, surnamed the King without trouble.

da. Story of Avicenna.

e. Story of the fair Arouya. Cf. Nos. 135q and 225.

f. Singular Adventures of Aboulfawaris, surnamed the Great Traveller (2 Voyages).

6. Story of the Two Brother Genii, Adis and Dahy.

7. Story of Nasiraddole, King of Moussel, of Abderrahman, Merchant of Bagdad, and the Beautiful Zeineb.

8. Story of Repsima=No. 181r.

This work has many times been reprinted in France, where it holds a place only second to The Nights.

Sir R. F. Burton remarks, concerning the Persian and Turkish Tales of Petis de la Crois (the latter of which form part of the Forty Vazirs, No. 251), "Both are weak and servile imitations of Galland by an Orientalist who knew nothing of the East. In one pa.s.sage in the story of Fadlallah, we read of ?Le Sacrifice du Mont Arafate,' which seems to have become a fixture in the European brain. I found the work easy writing and exceedingly hard reading."

The following tales require a pa.s.sing notice:--

1. Story of Aboulca.s.sem Bafry.--A story of concealed treasure; it has also some resemblance to No. 31.

2. Ruzvanchad and Cheheristani.--Cheheristani is a jinniyah, who is pursued by the King, under the form of a white doe; marries him, and becomes the mother of Balkis, the Queen of Sheba. She exacts a promise from him never to rebuke her for any of her actions: he breaks it, and she leaves him for a time.

2a. The Young King of Thibet.--Two imposters obtain magic rings by which they can a.s.sume the shapes of other persons.

2a, b. The Vazir Cavercha.--This is one of Scott's stories (No.

223 of our Table). It goes back at least as far as the Ring of Polycrates. It is the 8th Vezir's Story in Mr. Gibbs' Forty Vezirs (pp. 200-205).

4. Prince Calaf.--This story is well known, and is sometimes played as a comedy. The Princess Turandot puts riddles to her suitors, and beheads them if they fail to answer.

5b. Story of Prince Seyj-el-Molouk.--This story is perhaps an older version than that which appears in The Nights (No. 154a).

It is placed long after the time of Solomon; Saad is devoured by ants (Weber (ii. p. 426) has subst.i.tuted wild beasts!); and when Seyf enters the palace of Malika (=Daulet Khatoon), the jinni surprises them, and is overpowered by Seyf's ring. He then informs him of the death of Saad; and that Bedy al-Jernal was one of the mistresses of Solomon; and has also long been dead.

5b. Malek and Chirine.--Resembles No. 264; Malek pa.s.ses himself off as the Prophet Mohammed; burns his box (not chair) with fireworks on his weddingday, and is thus prevented from ever returning to the Princess.

5f. Adventures of Aboulfawaris.--Romantic travels, resembling Nos. 132a and 133.

2. Antar.--This is the most famous of the Badawi romances. It resembles No. 137 in several particulars, but is dest.i.tute of supernaturalism. An English abridgment in 4 vols. was published in 1820; and the substance of vol. 1 had appeared, as a fragment, in the previous year, under the t.i.tle of "Antar, a Bedoueen Romance translated from the Arabic by Terrick Hamilton, Esq., Oriental Secretary to the British Emba.s.sy at Constantinople." I have also seen vol. 1 of a French translation, published about 1862, and extending to the death of Shas.

Lane (Modern Egyptians, ch. 21-23) describes several other Arab romances, which have not yet been translated; viz. Aboo-Zeyd; Ez- Zahir, and Delhemeh.

3. GLAIVE-DES-COURONNES (Seif el-Tidjan) Roman traduit de l'Arabe. Par M. le Dr. Perron (Paris, 1862).

A romantic story of Arab chivalry, less overloaded with supernaturalism than No. 137; but more supernatural than Antar.

The hero marries (among other wives) two jinniyahs of the posterity of Iblis. In ch. 21 we have an account of a magical city much resembling the City of Bra.s.s (No. 134) and defended by similar talismans.

4. MEHEMET THE KURD, and other tales, from Eastern sources, by Charles Wells, Turkish Prizeman of King's College, London, and Member of the Royal Asiatic Society (London, 1865).

The first story, taken from an Arabic MS., is a narrative of a handsome simpleminded man, with whom Princesses fall in love, and who is raised to a mighty throne by their enchantments. Some of the early incidents are not unlike those in the well-known German story of Lucky Hans (Hans im Gluck). In one place there is an enchanted garden, where Princesses disport themselves in feather- dresses (as in No. 155, &c.), and where magic apples grow. (Note that apples are always held in extraordinary estimation in The Nights, cf. Nos. 4 and 264.) Among the shorter stories we find No. 251h; a version of Nos. 9a and 152 (probably that referred to by Mr. Clouston as in the Tuti Nama); a story "The Prince Tailor," resembling No. 251; No. 256, and one or two other tales not connected with The Nights. (Most of Wells' shorter tales are evidently taken from the Forty Vezirs.)

5. RECUEIL DES CONTES POPULAIRES de la Kabylie du Djardjara, recueillis et traduits par J. Riviere (Paris, 1882). I have not seen this book; but it can hardly fail to ill.u.s.trate The Nights.

6. THE STORY OF JEWAD, Romance by 'Ali 'Aziz Efendi the Cretan.

Translated from the Turkish by E. J. W. Gibb, M.R.A.S., &c.

(Glasgow, 1884).

A modern Turkish work, written in A. H. 1211 (1796-97). It contains the following tales:--

The Story of Jew d.

1. The Story of Eb -'Ali-Sin ;.

2. The Story of Monia Em n.

3. The Story of Ferah-N z, the daughter of the King of China.