Transcriber's Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
“TO THE PURE ALL THINGS ARE PURE.”
(Puris omnia pura)
—Arab Proverb.
“Niuna corrotta mente intese mai sanamente parole.”
—“Decameron”—conclusion.
“Erubuit, posuitque meum Lucretia librum
Sed coram Bruto. Brute! recede, leget.”
—Martial.
“Mieulx est de ris que de larmes escripre,
Pour ce que rire est le propre des hommes.”
—Rabelais.
“The pleasure we derive from perusing the Thousand-and-One Stories makes us regret that we possess only a comparatively small part of these truly enchanting fictions.”
—Crichton’s “History of Arabia.”
A PLAIN AND LITERAL TRANSLATION OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS ENTERTAINMENTS. NOW ENTITULED
THE BOOK OF THE
Thousand Nights and a Night
WITH INTRODUCTION EXPLANATORY NOTES ON THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF MOSLEM MEN AND A TERMINAL ESSAY UPON THE HISTORY OF THE NIGHTS
VOLUME IX.
BY
RICHARD F. BURTON
PRINTED BY THE BURTON CLUB FOR PRIVATE SUBSCRIBERS ONLY
Shammar Edition
Limited to one thousand numbered sets, of which this is
Number 547
Printed in U. S. A.
To ALEXANDER BAIRD of URIE.
My Dear Baird,
I avail myself of a privilege of authorship, not yet utterly obsolete, to place your name at the head of this volume. Your long residence in Egypt and your extensive acquaintance with its “politic,” private and public, make you a thoroughly competent judge of the merits and demerits of this volume; and encourage me to hope that in reading it you will take something of the pleasure I have had in writing it.
RICHARD F. BURTON.
Tangier, December 31st, 1885.