Apkil 8. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



319 



LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 1854. 



#0tttf. 

 ARABIAN TALKS AND THEIR SOURCES. 



The Arabians have been the immediate instru- 

 ments in transmitting to us those Oriental tales, 

 of which the conception is so brilliant, and the 

 character so rich and varied, and which, after 

 having been the delight of our childhood, never 

 lose entirely the spell of their enchantment over 

 our maturer age. But while many of these tales 

 are doubtless of Arabian origin, it is not to be 

 supposed that all are equally so. If we may be- 

 lieve the French translator of the Thousand and 

 One Tales, that publication does not include the 

 thirty-sixth part of the great Arabian collection, 

 which is not confined to books, but has been the 

 traditional inheritance of a numerous class, who, 

 like the minstrels of the West, gained their liveli- 

 hood by reciting what would interest the feelings 

 of their hearers. This class of Eastern story- 

 tellers was common throughout the whole extent 

 of Mahomedan dominion in Turkey, Persia, and 

 even to the extremity of India. 



The sudden rise of the Saracen empire, and its 

 rapid transition from barbarism to refinement, and 

 from the deepest ignorance to the most extensive 

 cultivation of literature and science, is an extra- 

 ordinary phenomenon in the history of mankind. 

 A century scarcely elapsed from the age of Ara- 

 rou, the general of Caliph Omar, who is said to 

 have burned the great Alexandrian library, to the 

 period when the family of the Abbasides, who 

 mounted the throne of the Caliphs a.d. 750, in- 

 troduced a passionate love of art, science, and 

 even poetry. The celebrated Haroun Al Raschid 

 never took a journey without at least a hundred 

 men of science in his train. But the most muni- 

 ficent patron of Arabic literature was Al Mamoun, 

 the seventh Caliph of the race of the Abbasides, 

 and son of Haroun Al Raschid. Having suc- 

 ceeded to the throne a.d. 813, he rendered Bag- 

 dad the centre of literatui*e : collecting from the 

 subject provinces of Syria, Armenia, and Egypt 

 the most important books which could be disco- 

 vered, as the most precious tribute that could be 

 rendered, aud causing them to be translated into 

 Arabic for general use. When Al Mamoun dic- 

 tated the terms of peace to Michael, the Greek 

 emperor, the tribute which he demanded from him 

 was a collection of Greek authors. 



The Arabian tales had their birth after this 

 period ; and when the Arabians had yielded to 

 the Tartars, Turks, and Persians, the empire of 

 the sword. Soldiers are seldom introduced ; the 

 splendours of the just Caliph's reign are dwelt 

 upon with fond remembrance; the style is that 

 of a mercantile people, while riches and artificial 



luxuries are only rivalled by the marvellous gifts 

 of the genii and fairies. This brilliant mythology, 

 the offspring of the Arabian imagination, together 

 with the other characteristics of the Arabian tales, 

 has had an extensive influence on our own litera- 

 ture. Many of these tales had found their way 

 into our poetry long before the translation of the 

 Arabian Nights ; and are met with in the old 

 Fabliaux, and in Boccacio, Ariosto, and Chaucer. 

 But while these tales are Arabian in their struc- 

 ture, the materials have been derived, not only 

 from India, Persia, and China, but also from 

 ancient Egypt, and the classical literature of 

 Greece. 



I shall content myself at present with adducing 

 one example of such probable derivation from the 

 source last mentioned. The stories to be com- 

 pared are too long for quotation, which, as they 

 are well known, will not be necessary. I shall 

 therefore merely give, in parallel columns, the 

 numerous points of resemblance, or coincidence, 

 between the two. The Arabian tale is that of 

 " Ali Baba and the Forty Robbers ;" the corre- 

 sponding story will be found in Herodotus, b. n.. 

 c. cxxi. ; it is that of Rhampsinitus and the rob- 

 bery of his royal treasury : 



The Egyptian Tale. 



1. The king constructs a stone 

 edifice for the security of his vast 

 riches. 



2. In the wall of this treasury is 

 a stone so artfully disposed that a 

 single person can move it, so as to 

 enter and retreat without leaving 

 any trace of his having done so. 



3. Two brothers become ac- 

 quainted with the secret opening 

 into the treasury, and enter it for 

 the purpose of enriching them- 

 selves. 



4. One of the brothers becomes 

 rich by abstracting large sums of 

 money from the royal treasury. 



5. The other brother is caught 

 in the snare which the king had 

 laid within the treasury, for the 

 detection and apprehension of the 

 intruders. 



6. At his own request the brother 

 thus caught is beheaded by the 

 other to avoid recognition, and to 

 secure the escape of one. The dead 

 body is hung from the waU of the 

 treasury, for the purpose of dis- 

 covering his accomplice. 



7. The surviving brother, at his 

 mother's earnest request, carries 

 off the dead body, and brings it 

 home on the back of one of his 

 asses. 



8. The king, unable to ascertain 

 how his treasury had been entered, 

 is enraged at the removal of the 

 body, and alarmed at finding that 

 some one who possesses the secret 

 still survives. 



9. The king has recourse to stra- 

 tagem, for the purpose of detect- 

 ing the depredator, but without 

 success. 



10. The surviving brother baffles 

 the king's first attempt to detect 

 him, by means of some asses, 

 which, in the character of a wine- 

 seller, he had loaded with wine- 

 flasks, making the king's guards 

 drunk, and leaving them all fast 

 asleep. 



The Arabian Tale. 



1 . In a rock so steep and craggy 

 that none can scale it, a cave has 

 been hewn out, in which the 

 robbers deposit their prodigious 

 wealth. 



2. In this rock is a door which 

 opens into the cave, by means of 

 two magical words, " Open Se- 

 same ;" and closes again in like 

 manner by pronouncing the words 

 " Shut Sesame." 



3. Two brothers become ac- 

 quainted with the door of the 

 cave, and the means of opening 

 and shutting it ; and they enter it 

 for the purpose of enriching them- 

 selves. 



4. Ali Baba, one of the two bro- 

 thers, becomes rich by carrying off 

 a great quantity of gold coin from 

 the robbers' cave. 



5. Cassim, the other brother, is 

 caught as in a snare, by forgetting, 

 when in the cave, the magical 

 words by which alone an exit 

 could be obtained. 



6. Cassim, in his attempt to es- 

 cape, is killed by the robbers, and 

 his dead body is quartered, and 

 hung up within the door of the 

 cave, to deter any who might be 

 his accomplices. 



7. Ali Baba, at the instance of 

 Cassim's widow, carries off his re- 

 mains from the cave, and brings 

 them home on the back of one of 

 his asses. 



8. The robbers, unable to guess 

 how their cave had been entered, 

 are alarmed at the removal of 

 Cassim's remains, which proves to 

 them that some one who possesses 

 the secret still survives. 



9. The robbers have recourse to 

 stratagem, for the purpose of dis- 

 covering the depredator, but with- 

 out success. 



10. Ali Baba, assisted by his fe- 

 male slave, baffles the robber cap- 

 tain's first attempt upon him, by 

 means of some oil in ajar, his men 

 being concealed in the other jars, 

 with which the captain, in the 

 character of an oil-merchant, had 

 loaded some asses : thus the latter, 

 who thought his men asleep, finds 

 them all dead. 



