1836.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 595 



version, is, " Aboussir le fit inhume et lui eleva un monument sur lequel 

 on grava une inscription qui renfermait un sens tres moral." In the Arabic 

 MS. the inscription is given at full length. I here subjoin a translation 

 of the Elegy, which is not without elegance in the original, but which 

 seems rather intended to inculcate the advantage of prudence, and to 

 convey the moral that " honesty is the best policy," than as a suitable 

 epitaph on the tomb of the treacherous friend over whom it was erected. 

 After a series of efforts to ruin his friend and benefactor, the treacherous 

 man came to an untimely and ignominious end, while he whom he 

 designed to ruin, and who buried his corpse (which was found tied up in 

 a bag on the sea shore) attained the summit of prosperity. 



" By his deeds a man is known among his equals. 



" The qualities of a free-born and noble person resemble his origin. 



" He does not revile, though he be reviled ; 



" For how often what a man says recoils upon himself. 



" Abstain from evil words and use them not, whether engaged in serious or 

 trifling matters. 



" How many a great man has been subjected to abuse, 



" From one whose value is not equal to a fragment of his shoe ! 



" What is triumphant exultation ? even the lion is taken in the toil through 

 ignorance. 



" The sea bears on its surface the rotten carcass. But the pearl lies resplen- 

 dent in its lowermost sauds. 



" I never saw a sparrow oppose a hawk, but I thought of its insignificance 

 and want of understanding. 



"It is written on a lofty pillar in Hindustan, Whoever cultivates virtue shall 

 be recompensed in the like. 



" Abstain from the attempt to make sugar of coloquintada ; 



" For every thing must partake of the nature of its origin." 



Scott, in the Preface to his translation of the Arabian Nights Enter- 

 tainments, has observed, " The stanzas, elegies, and other poetical quo- 

 tations which so frequently occur in the original, M. Galland has indeed 

 omitted, but such omission (at least in the humble opinion of the Editor) 

 is not to be regretted, for he thinks that to the European reader their 

 insertion would have been an intolerable interruption to the narrative." 



M. Trebutien does not seem to have been generally of this opinion, 

 for he has on most occasions faithfully rendered the verse as well as the 

 prose. Where he has not done so, the fault, I suspect, was in the original 

 — not in the translation. 



I have compared the MS. of Mr. Brownlow with the printed edition of 

 Habicht and the lithographed work edited in Calcutta, as well as with 

 Scott's and Galland's translations. The comparison was made with one 

 of the old tales, and I took at random the first voyage of Sindbad the 

 Sailor. This examination has afforded additional proof of the genuine- 

 ness of Mr. Brownlow's MS. M. Habicht's edition comes next to it in 

 fulness and accuracy. The Calcutta edition is very faulty and defective. 



I cannot help thinking that an entire and correct translation into Eng- 

 lish of these beautiful stories is still a desideratum, and that no better 

 original could probably be procured than that belonging to Mr. Brown- 

 .low. Scott's, which is the best translation, seems very inaccurate. Take 

 for instance the following passage in the story of Sindbad the Sailor. 



Reflecting on the time he had lost and the profligacy of his past life, he 

 says that he called to mind the saying of Solomon, that three things are 

 better than three things : " The day of death than the day of birth — a 

 living dog than a dead lion — the grave than a palace." 



This has been translated by Scott, " I remembered the saying of the 

 great Solomon, which I had frequently heard from my father, that death 

 is preferable to poverty." 

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