1836.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 597 



may be found to contribute towards the expense of carrying it through 

 the press, if this should be deemed necessary. The offer of Mr. Mac- 

 naghten to correct the press with the aid of the Maulavis of the Persian 

 office, is one that will be appreciated by all who wish well to the litera- 

 ture of the East, and it ought to determine those who hitherto have felt 

 hesitation at the idea of attempting so great a work. 



I am afraid that no capable person has leisure here in India to under- 

 take the translation of these four volumes into English. But certainly it 

 would tend equally to the credit of our literature were it possible to put 

 this also in hand. Were I myself an idle man, I should like no better 

 amusement than to take up such an occupation. 



Sept. 25, 1836. H. T. Prinsep. 



Minute by the Rev. Dr. Mill. 



I entirely agree with Mr. Macnaghten and Mr. H. T. Prinsep as to 



the undouhted genuineness of Mr. Brownlow's MS. The style of these 

 tales is very strongly impressed on the memory of every one who has read 

 any large portion of them in the original : and on comparing the detached 

 portions I have read from this MS. during the three days it has been with 

 me, with the recollections of the Voyages of Sindbad which I have repeat- 

 edly perused from M. Langi/es' edition (Paris, 12mo. 1814) — there is the 

 same delightful ease and simplicity of style, with the total absence of the 

 rhetorical effort so general in other works of imagination in the same lan- 

 guage, — the same purity of Arabic idiom, with the free introduction of 

 e. g. the Persian Sharab- foreign nouns, which (even independently of the 

 khdnah and our own well external evidence) bears witness to the common 



pSip"°"ur» (a T» A , r S «W» ." .•"■ 7 his "*■ j? »PP"*ntl y much 



termination) which I ob- closer m , lts order and readings to Baron Von 

 serve in Night 284, vol. 2, Hammer's Cairo MS. (bought at Constantinople) 

 of this MS. from which M. Trebutien's " Contes Inedits" 



are published, than to the Tunis MS. from which M. Habicht's complete 

 edition of the original is now publishing at Breslau : and for this reason, 

 amongst others, I do not think that work need preclude the publication 

 of this. 



The part which I have taken almost at hazard for critical examination, 

 is the part shortly preceding that which has been so ably examined by 

 Mr. Macnaghten. It is the curious adventure (near the beginning of the 

 2nd volume) of Isaac of Mousul the musician, and the consequent intro- 

 duction of the Khaliph Mamun to his future bride, the daughter of his 

 Vizier Hasan ben Sehl. This occupies from the middle of Night 277 

 to 280 in the MS., but from 279 to 282 in Trebutien, (this slight 

 difference arising rather from a different division than from any deficien- 

 cy in this MS. as the collation of the preceding tales shews.) A com- 

 parison of this story with the same in Trebutien's third vol. (p. 289 — 

 295,) has convinced me that the text of P^acan's and Hammer's MSS. is 

 as nearly identical as those of any two ordinary MSS. of an oriental work, 

 and that whatever discrepancies appear between the Arabic and the 

 French in this part at least, arise from the translator rather than from 

 his text. An example or two will best prove this. 



MS. (literally translated.) Trebutien. 



There appeared something hanging Je regardai ce que ce pouvait eMxe, 

 fromtheadjoininghouses.andlolalarge et, a ma graude surprise je vis une 

 basket decked with silk at the four han- sorte de corbeille gamie de soie. 

 dies. I said to myself, " Surely there is Comme le vin que j'avais bu dans la 

 acauseforthis," and I remained amazed soiree m'avait un peu trouble le cer- 

 •at my adventure. But Intoxication veau, je me placai dans cette corbeille 



