168 Remarks on the Alif Leilah. [March, 



The above short tale is valuable as answering more than one of 

 Mons. De S.'s arguments. It contains instances of the same power 

 of description and habit of close observation which form the princi- 

 pal charm of the known tales. Any one who has been in the custom 

 of watching the antelope, or observing the natural motions of the 

 hawk, will recognise tbe action of the one and the other faithfully 

 described in the attitudes common to them when scared or excited. 

 The mention too of hawking the antelope proves the story to be purely 

 Arabian : no other nation but the Arab using the hawk against large 

 animals. The Persian hawks the hare, but only the Arab flies his 

 bird at the antelope. Thus then, so far from the additions to the " most 

 voluminous" edition being the cause of its deterioration, as unnatu- 

 rally adapted from foreign sources to Arab manners, the very first 

 of those additions is found to be a spirited tale describing graphically 

 and naturally the progress of passion, (excited originally by a trifle, 

 and ending in the blind commission of an act of ingratitude) and 

 giving indisputable evidence of an Arab origin. 



The judgment of those infinitely better qualified than myself to 

 pronounce on the merits of the Macan MS. is, it is submitted, 

 fully supported by the result of this brief inquiry. The translation 

 having been made literally from the Arabic, this will account for a 

 singularity of expression which may be displeasing to most readers. 

 In undertaking to introduce the new tales to the English reader, I 

 would be glad to avail myself of opinions upon the expediency of 

 holding to this style of translation, or adopting one more consonant 

 with European idioms. 



[Note. — As far as we may be allowed to be capable of judging on such a 

 point, we think our correspondent's style of expression is particularly felicitous 

 and suitable to the work, of which we are happy to see this public acknowledg- 

 ment of his having undertaken the translation. 



We had rather that the stories should retain the terseness, the simplicity, the 

 very turns of expression as well as of idea so peculiar to the langaage as to the 

 literature of Arabia, than that they should be dressed up in the uncongenial dis- 

 guise of modern idiom however elegant. There is at the same time nothing, in 

 the style adopted, repugnant to our ears, already familiar from childhood with the 

 oriental phraseology of the translated scriptures : — but, on the contrary, the 

 total foreignness and antiquity of the incidents and reflections, and the admixture 

 of the supernatural, now discarded from our own works of fiction, seem to acquire 

 support and harmony from a corresponding style of diction. We need only refer 

 the reader to the parallel passages quoted in the Minute on the Macan MS. by 

 Dr. Mill (vol. V. page 598) to prove the great superiority of tone and keeping, 

 as an artist would say, in the strict dry nervous copy of the original, as con- 

 trasted with the smoothened, mannerized, and totally Frenchified, though in many 

 respects pleasing, picture of M. Trebctien.— Ed.] 





