The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Volume XII Part 31

[FN#509] So, too, in the "Bahar-i-Danish" a woman is described as being so able a professor in the school of deceit, that she could have instructed the devil in the science of stratagem: of another it is said that by her wiles she could have drawn the devil's claws; and of a third the author declares, that the devil himself would own there was no escaping from her cunning!

[FN#510] There is a similar tale by the Spanish novelist Isidro de Robles (circa 1660), in which three ladies find a diamond ring in a fountain; each claims it; at length they agree to refer the dispute to a count of their acquaintance who happened to be close by. He takes charge of the ring and says to the ladies, "Whoever in the s.p.a.ce of six weeks shall succeed in playing off on her husband the most clever and ingenious trick (always having due regard to his honour) shall possess the ring; in the meantime it shall remain in my hands." This story was probably brought by the Moors to Spain, whence it may have pa.s.sed into France, since it is the subject of a faliau, by Haisiau the trouvre, ent.i.tled "Des Trois Dames qui trouverent un Anel," which is found in Meon's edition of Barbazan, 1808, tome iii. pp. 220-229, and in Le Grand, ed. 1781, tome iv. pp. 163-165.

[FN#511] Idiots and little boys often figure thus in popular tales: readers of Rabelais will remember his story of the Fool and the Cook; and there is a familiar example of a boy's precocity in the story of the Stolen Purse--"Craft and Malice of Women," or the Seven Wazirs, vol. vi. of The Nights.

[FN#512] I have considerably abridged Mr. Knowles' story in several places.

[FN#513] A species of demon.

[FN#514] This is one of the innumerable parallels to the story of Jonah in the "whale's" belly which occur m Asiatic fictions. See, for some instances, Tawney's translation of the "Katha Sarit Sagara," ch. x.x.xv. and [xxiv.; "Indian Antiquary," Sept. 1885, Legend of Ahla; Miss Stokes' "Indian Fairy Tales," pp. 75, 76, and Steel and Temple's "Wide-Awake Stories from the Panjab and Kashmir," p. 411. In Lucian's "Vera Historia," a monster fish swallows a s.h.i.+p and her crew, who live a long time in the extensive regions comprised in its internal economy. See also Herrtage's "Gesta Romanorum" (Early English Text Society), p.

297.

[FN#515] In the Arabian version the people resolve to leave the choice of a new king to the royal elephant because they could not agree among themselves (vol. i., p. 224), but in Indian fictions such an incident frequently occurs as a regular custom. In the "Sivandhi Sthala Purana," a legendary account of the famous temple at Trichinopoli, as supposed to be told by Gautama to Matanga and other sages, it is related that a certain king having mortally offended a holy devotee, his capital and all its inhabitants were, in consequence of a curse p.r.o.nounced by the enraged saint, buried beneath a shower of dust. ''Only the queen escaped, and in her flight she was delivered of a male-child.

After some time. the chiefs of the Chola kingdom, proceeding to elect a king, determined, by the advice of the saint to crown whomsoever the late monarch's elephant should pitch upon. Being turned loose for this purpose, the elephant discovered and brought to Trisira-mali the child of his former master, who accordingly became the Chola king." (Wilson's Desc. Catal. of Mackenzie MSS., i. 17.) In a Manipuri story of two brothers, Turi and Basanta--"Indian Antiquary," vol. iii.--the elder is chosen king in like manner by an elephant who meets him in the forest, and takes him on his back to the palace, where he is immediately placed on the throne See also "Wide-Awake Stories Tom the Panjab and Kashmir," by Mrs. Steel and Captain Temple, p. 141; and Rev.

Lal Behari Day's "Folk-Tales of Bengal," p. 100 for similar instances. The hawk taking part, in this story, with the elephant in the selection of a king does not occur m any other tale known to me.

[FN#516] So that their caste might not be injured. A dhobi, or washerman, is of much lower caste than a Brahman or a Khshatriya.

[FN#517] A responsible position in a raja's palace.

[FN#518] "And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights." Raja Amba must have been fully twelve years in the stomach of the alligator.

[FN#519] This device of the mother to obtain speech of the king is much more natural than that adopted in the Kashmiri version.

[FN#520] The story of Abu Sabir (see vol. i. p. 58 ff.) may also be regarded as an a.n.a.logue. He is unjustly deprived of all his possessions, and, with his wife and two young boys, driven forth of his village. The children are borne off by thieves, and their mother forcibly carried away by a horseman. Abu Sabir, after many sufferings, is raised from a dungeon to a throne. He regains his two children and his wife, who had steadfastly refused to cohabit with her captor.

[FN#521] Introduction to the romance of "Torrent of Portingale,"

re-edited (for the Early English Text Society, 1886) by E. Adam, Ph.D., pp. xxi. xxii.

[FN#522] Morning.

[FN#523] Bird.

[FN#524] Mean; betoken.

[FN#525] Thee.

[FN#526] Tho: then.

[FN#527] Yede: went.

[FN#528] Case.

[FN#529] Avaunced: advanced; promoted.

[FN#530] Holpen: helped.

[FN#531] Brent: burnt.

[FN#532] But if: unless.

[FN#533] To wed: in pledge, in security.

[FN#534] Beth: are.

[FN#535] Or: either.

[FN#536] Lever dey: rather die.

[FN#537] Far, distant.

[FN#538] Unless.

[FN#539] Oo: one.

[FN#540] Ayen: again.

[FN#541] Or: ere, before.

[FN#542] Army; host.

[FN#543] Part.

[FN#544] That.

[FN#545] Grief, sorrow.

[FN#546] Poor.

[FN#547] Gathered, or collected, together.

[FN#548] Arms; accoutrements; dress.

[FN#549] Bravely.

[FN#550] Those.

[FN#551] Done, ended.

[FN#552] Their lodgings, inn.

[FN#553] Since.

[FN#554] Comrades.

[FN#555] Truly.

[FN#556] Lodged.