1S37.] Remarks on the Alif Leilah. 163 



to express conversation and the relation of stories) would neglect such 

 tales even though indigenous to their fatherland because the excess 

 of supernatural agency in them savoured of " polytheism !" 



With reference, however, to the objection by Mons. De S. on the 

 point of plagiarised tales, and his attempt to prove the plagiarv by 

 anachronisms, an expression in the story of the fisherman and the 

 jinn in the Macan MS. may be cited, not inopportunely, as giving 

 some index to the date at which it was originally composed. The 

 jinn is described as having been shut in a jar for " one thousand and 

 eight hundred years" from the time of Solomon, the son of David. 

 Now this tale with one of Mons. De S.'s " semi- deities" in it, whom 

 he supposes importations into Arabia from an idolatrous source, and 

 abominations in the eyes of orthodox Mussulmans, was by the above 

 account composed during the third century of the Hejira, at the very 

 height of Mussulman orthodoxy. 



Arguing on the supposition of the transmutation of most of the 

 tales from heathen originals, Mons. De S. proceeds to point out how 

 the Koran might have been introduced instead of the Vedas, and the 

 name of Haroun ul Rasheed made to supersede that of Vicrama- 

 ditya ; and with reference to the introduction of that Khalif's name, 

 he cites the expression in the commencement of the thousand and 

 one nights, " the chronicles of the Sassanians" as constituting a 

 palpable anachronism. Now the expression quoted does not exist 

 in the Macan MS. : the words are a king among kings descended from 

 the dynasty of Sassan ; and the mention of Islamism among descendants 

 from Sassanian princes does not appear to be in any way anachro- 

 nous. Again, Mons. De S. has ingeniously discovered in the four 

 colors of the fish, (vide the tale of the fisherman) who in their 

 natural shape were a population of Christians, Jews, Mussulmans, 

 and Idolaters, a type of the four castes of the Hindoos ; for, says he, 

 " the metamorphosis in the original was brought about by a jeu de 

 mots ; varna in the Sanscrit signifying colour as well as caste " This 

 will hardly hold good when we look to the Arabic wherein special 

 mention is made of the different religions of the men transmuted into 

 fish of different colors. Now the Hindus have, it is true, four prin- 

 cipal castes, but their religion is a common on?. Another instance 

 on which much stress is laid by Mons. De S. of the internal evidence 

 of an Indian extraction offered by the tales is cited from the tale of 

 the king and the physician. The position is this. 1 . The king is 

 poisoned by a MS. 2. Some Indian. MS. are saturated with a solu- 

 tion of orpiment to protect them from insects. 3. No other MSS. are 

 y 2 



