86 LITERATURE OF THE ARABS. 



known, and the learned in Europe differ as to 

 their origin. Von Hammer, on the authority of 

 Masoudi, suggested some years ago that they were 

 not originally Arabian, but translated from the 

 Indian or Persian in the reign of the Caliph Al- 

 mamoun, an opinion certainly opposed by the cir- 

 cumstance, that a foreigner could scarcely have suc- 

 ceeded in giving so accurate a description of Arabian 

 life and scenery. Mons. Galland, who first sup- 

 plied a French version (A. D. 1706), supposed that 

 not more than a six-and-thirtieth part of them were 

 known in Europe ; and a late traveller (Dr Daniel 

 Clarke) has given a list of 172 tales contained in a 

 manuscript purchased by him in Egypt, divided in 

 the same manner as the celebrated Nights' Entertain- 

 ments. It rarely happens, this author remarks, 

 that any two copies of the Alif Lila wa Lilin re- 

 semble each other ; and the title is indiscriminately 

 bestowed on every compilation of popular stories 

 that embraces the same number of parts, a fact 

 which may help to account for our comparative de- 

 ficiency in this department of Oriental literature. 



Besides those committed to writing, a vast num- 

 ber of these diverting legends had no more du- 

 rable tablet than the memory of itinerating story- 

 tellers. Crowds of both sexes in every region of 

 the Mohammedan world still earn their livelihood 

 by their wonderful talent for recital ; and they 

 never fail to attract an audience ; for the indolent 

 natives of Turkey, Persia, and India, willingly bury 

 their present cares in the pleasing dreams of the 

 imagination. The Africans, in the midst of their 

 deserts, assemble nightly round the blazing fire in 

 their tents, and learn to forget their own hardships 



