ANTIQUITIES. 



875 



period ; and more particularly, 

 irom tlie Arabians, who established 

 a learned seminary at Cordova.* 

 But this supposition, not less than 

 the preceding, seems to be com- 

 pletely invalidated by one or two 

 obvious considerations. 



If the similarity which exists be- 

 tween the popular superstitions of 

 the Goths, and the poetical ma- 

 chinery of the English, be attri- 

 buted to the circumstance of their 

 having mutually descended from a 

 Saracen original ; it cannot be rea- 

 sonably denied that the resemblance 

 must have extended to the Oriental 

 archetype from which they are sup- 

 posed to be derived. Had not this 

 been the case, we must have re- 

 course to some causes beyond 

 what are merely natural, in order 

 to account for the striking and 

 uniform coincidences which are 

 observable between them, and which 

 could not be accidental. And, 

 viewing the controversy in this 

 L'ght, we are not without a suf- 

 ficient test by which it may be 

 speedily terminated ; for, in " the 

 Arabian Nights," we possess a 

 production, admirably calculated 

 for the purpose of determining it ; 

 as it is a work which is not only 

 distinguished by its descriptive ac- 

 curacy, but what renders it pecu- 

 liarly adapted to the present occa- 

 sion, it is a work professedly 

 marvellous. Many skilful Ori- 

 entalists have given their testimony 

 in favour of our translations : as 



being generally faithful to the spirit 

 of the original ; as exhibiting a just 

 specimen of the Oriental fictions ; 

 and as containing a true picture of 

 Eastern customs and opinions. In 

 point of strength and variety in 

 the detail of incidents, and deline- 

 ation of manners, it is probably 

 surpassed by no existing produc- 

 tion, if those of Homer and Shak- 

 speare are excepted. But, even 

 though we cannot form an idea of 

 any standard better calculated for 

 deciding the present question, its 

 testimony seems to offer nothing 

 in favour of the Oriental origin 

 ascribed to our fictitious imagery. 

 For, notwithstanding the accuracy 

 and circumstantialness of its de- 

 scriptions, we search it, but in 

 vain, for any spiritual existences 

 possessing a striking, much less an 

 uniform, resemblance to the inte- 

 resting little beings, which are na- 

 turalized, under the title of elves, 

 in our poetical machinery. The 

 genii of the Arabians, peri of the 

 Persians, fate of the Italians, and 

 faries of Spencer, are of a totally 

 distinct order ; and it is curious to 

 remark, that they exhibit, not 

 merely a casual resemblanceamong 

 themselves, but that strong hke- 

 ness which indicates sisters of the 

 same parentage. Instead of pre- 

 serving that marked and uniform 

 coincidence, which is discoverable 

 between our elves and the North- 

 ern alfar, they seem essentially dis- 

 tinguished from the whole of that 



race 



• As the Saracens, invited by Count Julian, entered Spain in the year 712 ? 

 they arrived in Europe at a period sufficiently early to have propagated those 

 superstitious notions, which oecur in the compositions of Samund, Sigvatur, and 

 Thiodolph : the eldest of whom flourished a century and a half subsequently to 

 this period. But before this, the Goths had sufficient time to estabUsh their su- 

 perstitions in the Spanish territory. Their empire began in this country in the 

 year 1-08, was iu its meridian in 500, and began to decline, being superseded by 

 that of the Moors, in 713. 



