One Thousand and One Nights

by Richard Burton

  376 A translation of this version, omitting the moral reflections interspersed, is given by Professor E. B. Cowell in the “Journal of Philology,” 1876, vol. vi. . The great Persian mystic tells another story of a Dream of Riches, which, though only remotely allied to our tale, is very curious:

  The Fakir and the Hidden Treasure.

  Notwithstanding the clear evidence of God’s bounty, engendering those spiritual tastes in men, philosophers and learned men, wise in their own conceit, obstinately shut their eyes to it, and look afar off for what is really close to them, so that they incur the penalty of being “branded on the nostrils” [Kurßn, lxviii. 16], adjudged against unbelievers. This is illustrated by the story of the poor FakÝr who prayed to God that he might be fed without being obliged to work for his food. A divine voice came to him in his sleep and directed him to go to the house of a certain scribe and take a certain writing he should find there. He did so, and on reading the writing found that it contained directions for discovering a hidden treasure. The directions were as follows: “Go outside the city to the dome which covers the tomb of the martyr, turn your back to the tomb and face towards Mecca, place an arrow in your bow, and where the arrow falls dig for the treasure.” But before the FakÝr had time to commence the search the rumour of the writing and its purport had reached the King, who at once sent and took it away from the FakÝr, and began to search for the treasure on his own account. After shooting many arrows and digging in all directions the King failed to find the treasure, and got weary of searching, and returned the writing to the FakÝr. Then the FakÝr tried what he could do, but failed to hit the spot where the treasure was buried. At last despairing of success by his own unaided efforts, he cast his care upon God, and implored the divine assistance. Then a voice from heaven came to him saying, “You were directed to fix an arrow in your bow, but not to draw your bow with all your might, as you have been doing. Shoot as gently as possible, that the arrow may fall close to you, for hidden treasure is indeed ‘nearer to you than your neck-vein’” [Kurßn, l. 15]. Men overlook the spiritual treasures close to them, and for this reason it is that prophets have no honour in their own countries. — Mr. F: H. Whinfield’s Abridgment of “The Masnavi-i Ma’navi.” (London, 1887.)

  377 See Mr. Gibb’s translation (London: Redway),

  378 “Rem qu contigit patrum memoriÔ ut veram ita dignam relatu et s penumero mihi assertam ab hominibus fide dignis apponam.”

  379 Thorpe says that a nearly similar legend is current at

  Tanslet, on the island of Alsen.

  380 The common tradition is, it was in English rhyme, viz.

  “Where this stood

  Is another as good;”

  or, as some will have it:

  “Under me doth lie

  Another much richer than I.”

  381 Apropos to dreams, there is a very amusing story, entitled “Which was the Dream ?” in Mr. F. H. Balfour’s “Leaves from my Chinese Scrap Book,” -7 (London: Tr³bner, 1887).

  382 The story in the Turkish collection, “Al-Faraj ba’d al-Shiddah,” where it forms the 8th recital, is doubtless identical with our Arabian version, since in both the King of the Genie figures, which is not the case in Mr. Gibb’s story.

  383 Although this version is not preceded, as in the Arabian, by the Dream of Riches, yet that incident occurs, I understand, in separate form in the work of ‘AlÝ AzÝz.

  384 Sir Richard has referred, in note 1, , to numerous different magical tests of chastity, etc., and I may here add one more, to wit, the cup which Oberon, King of the Fairies, gave to Duke Huon of Bordeaux (according to the romance which recounts the marvellous adventures of that renowned Knight), which filled with wine in the hand of any man who was out of “deadly sin” and attempted to drink out of it, but was always empty in the hands of a sinful man. Charlemagne was shown to be sinful by this test, while Duke Huon, his wife, and a companion were proved to be free from sin. — In my “Popular Tales and Fictions” the subject of inexhaustible purses etc. is treated pretty fully — they frequently figure in folk-tales, from Iceland to Ceylon, from Japan to the Hebrides.

  385 “The Athenaeum,” April 23,1887, .

  386 See M. Eugene LÚvÛque’s “Les Mythes et les LÚgendes de l’Inde et la Perse” (Paris, 1880), , where the two are printed side by side. This was pointed out more than seventy years ago by Henry Weber in his Introduction to “Tales of the East,” edited by him.

  387 Also in the romance of Duke Huon of Bordeaux and the old French romance of the Chevalier Berinus. The myth was widely spread in the Middle Ages.

  388 Cf. the magic horn that Duke Huon of Bordeaux received from Oberon, King of the Fairies, which caused even the Soudan of Babylon to caper about in spite of himself, and similar musical instruments in a hundred different tales, such as the old English poem of “The Friar and the Boy,” the German tale (in Grimm) of “The Jew among Thorns,” the “Pied Piper of Hamelin,” &c.

  389 Not distantly related to stories of this class are those in which the hero becomes possessed of some all-bestowing object — a purse, a box, a table-cloth, a sheep, a donkey, etc. — which being stolen from him he recovers by means of a magic club that on being commended rattles on the pate and ribs of the thief and compels him to restore the treasure.

  390 The Dwarf had told the soldier, on leaving him after killing the old witch, that should his services be at any other time required, he had only to light his pipe at the Blue Light and he should instantly appear before him. The tobacco-pipe must be considered as a recent and quite unnecessary addition to the legend: evidently all the power of summoning the Dwarf was in the Blue Light, since he tells the soldier when he first appears before him in the well that he must obey its lord and master.

  391 Belli signifies famous, or notorious.

  392 This young lady’s notion of the “function” of Prayer was, to say the least peculiar, in thus addressing her petition to the earth instead of to Heaven.

  393 The gentle, amiable creature!

  394 Chamley-bill was, says Dr. Chodzko, a fort built by Kurrogl·, the ruins of which are still to be seen in the valley of Salmas, a district in the province of Aderbaijan.

  395 i.e. Kuvera, the god of wealth.

  396 The attendants of Kuvera. a Buddhistic idea.

  397 That every man has his “genius” of good or evil fortune is, I think, essentially idea.

  398 Such being the case, what need was there for the apparition presenting itself every morning? — but no matter!

  399 Pandit S. M. NatÚsa SßstrÝ, in “Indian Notes and Queries,” for March, 1887, says that women swallow large numbers of an insect called pillai-puchchi (son-insect: gryllas) in the hope of bearing sons, they will also drink the water squeezed from the loin-cloth of a sanyßsÝ [devotee] after washing it for him! — Another correspondent in the same periodical. Pandit PutlÝbßi K. RaghunathjÚ, writes that Hindu women, for the purpose of having children, especially a son, observe the fourth lunar day of every dark fortnight as a fast and break their fast only after seeing the moon, generally before 9 or 10 p.m. A dish of twenty-one small, marble-like balls of rice is prepared, in one of which is put some salt. The whole dish is then served up to the woman, and while eating it she should first lay her hands on the ball containing salt, as it is believed to be a positive sign that she will be blessed with a son. In that case she should give up eating the rest, but otherwise she should go on eating till she lays her hands on the salted ball. The Pandit adds, that the observance of this ball depends on the wish of the woman. She may observe it on only one, five, seven, eleven, or twenty-one lunar fourth days, or chaturthÝ. Should she altogether fail in picking out the salted ball first, she may be sure of remaining barren all her life long.

  400 I am glad to see among Messrs. Tr³bner & Co.’s announcements of forthcoming publications Mr. Knowles’ collection of “Folk-Tales of KashmÝr” in popular handy volume form.

  401 A holy man whose austerities have obtained for him sup
ernatural powers.

  402 Also called “Story of the King and his Four Ministers.” There is another but wholly different Tamil romance entitled the “AlakÚsa Kathß,” in which a king’s daughter becomes a disembodied evil spirit, haunting during the night a particular choultry (or serai) for travellers, and if they do not answer aright to her cries she strangles them and vampyre-like sucks their blood.

  403 The Pandit informs me that his “Folk-Lore in Southern

  India” will be completed at press and issued shortly at Bombay.

  (London agents, Messrs. Tr³bner & Co.)

  404 In the “Kathß Sarit Sßgara,” Book ii., ch. 14, when the King of Vatsa receives the hand of Vasavadatta, “like a beautiful shoot lately budded on the creeper of love,” she walks round the fire, keeping it to the right, on which Prof. Tawney remarks that “the practice of walking round an object of reverence, with the right hand towards it, has been exhaustively discussed by Dr. Samuel Fergusson in his paper ‘On the ceremonial turn called Desiul,’ published in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, for March 1877 (vol. i., series ii., No. 12). He shows it to have existed among the ancient Romans as well as the Celts…. Dr. Fergusson is of opinion that this movement was a symbol of the cosmical rotation, an imitation of the apparent course of the sun in the heavens.”

  405 The affection of parents for their children is often a blind instinct, and sometimes selfish, though, after all, there is doubtless truth in these lines:

  “A mother’s love!

  If there be one thing pure,

  Where all beside is sullied,

  That can endure

  When all else pass away:

  If there be aught

  Surpassing human deed, or word, or thought,

  It is a mother’s love!”

  406 Surma is a collyrium applied to the edges of the eyelids to increase the lustre of the eyes. A Persian poet, addressing the damsel of whom he is enamoured, says, “For eyes so intoxicated with love’s nectar what need is there of surma?” — This part of the story seems to be garbled; in another text of the romance of Hatim Ta’Ý it is only after the surma has been applied to the covetous man’s eyes that he beholds the hidden treasures.

  407 The first part of the story of the Young King of the Black Isles, in The Nights, bears some analogy to this, but there the paramour is only “half-killed” and the vindictive queen transforms her husband from the waist downwards into marble.

  408 On the Sources of some of Galland’s Tales. By Henry Charles Coote, F.S.A. “Folklore Record,” 1881, vol. iii. Part 2, .

  409 See Thorpe’s “Yule Tide Stories,” Bohn’s ed., p- 486.ûThorpe says that “for many years the Dummburg was the abode of robbers, who slew the passing travellers and merchants whom they perceived on the road from Leipsig to Brunswick, and heaped together the treasures of the plundered churches and the surrounding country, which they concealed in subterranean caverns.” The peasantry would therefore regard the spot with superstitious awe, and once such a tale as that of Ali Baba got amongst them, the robbers’ haunt in their neighbourhood would soon become the scene of the poor woodcutter’s adventure.

  410 A Persian poet says:

  “He who violates the rights of the bread and salt

  Breaks, for his wretched self, head and neck.”

  411 Miss Busk reproduces the proper names as they are transliterated in J³lg’s German version of those Kalmuk and Mongolian Tales — from which a considerable portion of her book was rendered — thus: Ardschi Bordschi, Rakschasas, etc., but drollest of all is “Ramajana” (Ramayana), which is right in German but not in English.

  412 The apocryphal gospels and the Christian hagiology are largely indebted to Buddhism, e.g., the Descent into Hell, of which there is such a graphic account in the Gospel of Nicodemus, seems to have been adapted from ancient Buddhist legends, now embodied in the opening chapters of a work entitled, “Kßranda-vy·ha,” which contain a description of the Boddhisattva Avalokiteswara’s descent into the hell AvÝchi, to deliver the souls there held captive by Yama, the lord of the lower world. (See a paper by Professor E. R. Cowell, LL.D., in the “Journal of Philology,” 1876, vol. vi. p-231.) This legend also exists in Telugu, under the title of “Sßnanda Charitra,” of which the outline is given in Taylor’s “Catalogue RaisonnÚ of Oriental MSS. in the Government Library, Madras,” vol. ii. : Sßnanda, the son of Purna Vitta and Bhadra Datta, heard from munis accounts of the pains of the wicked, and wishing to see for himself, went to Yama-puri. His coming had been announced by Nßrada. Yama showed the stranger the different lots of mankind in a future state, in details. Sßnanda was touched with compassion for the miseries that he witnessed, and by the use of the five and six lettered spells he delivered those imprisoned souls and took them with him to Kailasa. Yama went to Siva and complained, but Siva civilly dismissed the appeal. — Under the title of “The Harrowing of Hell,” the apocryphal Christian legend was the theme of a Miracle Play in England during the Middle Ages, and indeed it seems to have been, in different forms, a popular favourite throughout Europe. Thus in a German tale Strong Hans goes to the Devil in hell and wants to serve him, and sees the pains in which souls are imprisoned standing beside the fire. Full of pity, he lifts up the lids and sets the souls free, on which the Devil at once drives him away. A somewhat similar notion occurs in an Icelandic tale of the Sin Sacks, in Powell and Magn·sson’s collection (second series, ). And in T. Crofton Croker’s “Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland,” ed. 1828, Part. ii. ff., we read of Soul Cages at the bottom of the sea, containing the spirits of drowned sailors, which the bold hero Jack Docherty set free.

  413 The Rabbins relate that among the Queen of Sheba’s tests of Solomon’s sagacity she brought before him a number of boys and girls apparelled all alike, and desired him to distinguish those of one sex from those of the other, as they stood in his presence. Solomon caused a large basin of water to be fetched in, and ordered them all to wash their hands. By this expedient he discovered the boys from the girls, since the former washed merely their hands, while the latter washed also their arms.

  414 Dr. W. Grimm, in the notes to his “Kinder und Hausmõrchen,” referring to the German form of the story (which we shall come to by and-by), says, “The Parrot, which is the fourth story in the Persian Touti Nameh, bears some resemblance to this” — the Parrot is the reciter of all the stories in the collection, not the title of this particular tale.

  415 To Sir Richard Burton’s interesting note on the antiquity of the lens and its applied use to the telescope and microscope may be added a passage or two from Sir William Drummond’s “Origines; or, Remarks on the Origin of several Empires, States, and Cities,” 1825, vol. ii. p-250. This writer appears to think that telescopes were not unknown to the ancients and adduces plausible evidence in support of his opinion. “Moschopalus,” he says, “an ancient grammarian, mentions four instruments with which the astronomers of antiquity were accustomed to observe the stars — the catoptron, the dioptron, the eisoptron and the enoptron.” He supposes the catoptron to have been the same with the astrolabe. “The dioptron seems to have been so named from a tube through which the observer looked. Were the other two instruments named from objects being reflected in a mirror placed within them? Aristotle says that the Greeks employed mirrors when they surveyed the celestial appearances. May we not conclude from this circumstance that astronomers were not always satisfied with looking through empty tubes?” He thinks the ancients were acquainted with lenses and has collected passages from various writers which corroborate his opinion, besides referring to the numerous uses to which glass was applied in the most remote ages. He goes on to say:

  “Some of the observations of the ancients must appear very extraordinary, if magnifying glasses had never been known among them. The boldness with which the Pythagoreans asserted that the surface of the moon was diversified by mountains and valleys can hardly be accounted for, unless Pythagoras had been convinced of the fact by the
help of telescopes, which might have existed in the observatories of Egypt and Chaldea before those countries were conquered and laid waste by the Persians. Pliny (L. 11) says that 1600 stars had been counted in the 72 constellations, and by this expression I can only understand him to mean the 72 dodecans into which the Egyptians and Chaldeans divided the zodiac. Now this number of stars could never have been counted in the zodiac without the assistance of glasses. Ptolemy reckoned a much less number for the whole heavens The missionaries found many more stars marked in the Chinese charts of the heavens than formerly existed in those which were in use in Europe. Suidas, at the word {Greek} (glass), indicates, in explaining a passage in Aristophanes, that burning mirrors were occasionally made of glass. Now how can we suppose burning mirrors to have been made of glass without supposing the magnifying powers of glass to have been known? The Greeks, as Plutarch affirms, employed metallic mirrors, either plane, or convex, or concave, according to the use for which they were intended. If they could make burning mirrors of glass, they could have given any of these forms to glass. How then could they have avoided observing that two glasses, one convex and the other concave, placed at a certain distance from each other, magnified objects seen through them? Numerous experiments must have been made with concave and convex glasses before burning mirrors made of glass could have been employed. If astronomers never knew the magnifying powers of glass, and never placed lenses in the tubes of the dioptrons, what does Strabo (L. 3, c. 138) mean when he says: ‘Vapours produce the same effects as the tubes in magnifying objects of vision by refraction?’”