The first edition of these Tales was published in 1888. It contained sixteen stories, to which twelve are added in the present impression. Many originally appeared in periodicals, as will be found indicated in the annotations which the recondite character of some allusions has rendered it desirable to append, and which further provide an opportunity of tendering thanks to many friends for their assent to republication.
P. 5. The divine tongue of Greece was forgotten,—Hereby we may detect the error of those among the learned who have identified Caucasia with Armenia. “Hellenic letters,” says Mr. Capes, writing of Armenia in the fourth century, “were welcomed with enthusiasm, and young men of the slenderest means crowded to the schools of Athens” (“University Life in Ancient Athens,” p. 73).
P. 28. Who have discovered the Elixir of Immortality.—The belief in this elixir was general in China about the seventh century, A.D., and many emperors used great exertions to discover it. This fact forms the groundwork of Leopold Schefer’s novel, “Der Unsterblichkeitstrank,” which has furnished the conception, though not the incidents, of “The Potion of Lao-Tsze.”
P. 38. So she took the sceptre, and reigned gloriously.—In A.D. 683, the Dowager-Empress Woo How, upon her husband’s death, caused her son to be set aside, and ruled prosperously until her decease in 703. In our day we have seen China virtually governed by female sovereigns.
P. 50. Ananda the Miracle Worker.—This story was originally published in Fraser’s Magazine for August, 1872. A French translation appeared in the Revue Britannique for November, 1872. Buddha’s prohibition to work miracles rests, so far as the present writer’s knowledge extends, on the authority of Professor Max Müller (“Lectures on the Science of Religion”). It should be needless to observe that Ananda, “the St. John of the Buddhist group,” is not recorded to have contravened this or any other of his master’s precepts.
P. 66. The City of Philosophers.—This story has been translated into French by M. Sarrazin.
P. 68. There to establish a philosophic commonwealth.—The petition was actually preferred, and would have been granted but for the disordered condition of the empire. Gallienus, though not the man to save a sinking state, possessed the accomplishments which would have adorned an age of peace and culture.
P. 82. The sword doubled up; it had neither point nor edge.—Gallienus was fond of such practical jocularity. “Quum quidam gemmas vitreas pro veris vendiderat ejus uxori, atque illa, re prodita, vindicari vellet, surripi quasi ad leonem venditorem jussit. Deinde e cavea caponem emittit, mirantibusque cunctis rem tam ridiculam, per curionem dici jussit, ‘Imposturam fecit et passus est’: deinde negotiatorem dimisit” (Trebellius in Gallieno, cap. xii.).
P. 100. Hypati, anthypati, &c.—Hypati and anthypati denote consuls and proconsuls, dignities of course merely titular at the court of Constantinople. Silentiarii were properly officers charged with maintaining order at court; but this duty, which was perhaps performed by deputy, seems to have been generally entrusted to persons of distinction. The protospatharius was the chief of the Imperial body-guard, of which the spatharocandidati constituted the élite.
P. 114. The Wisdom of the Indians.—Appeared in 1890 in The Universal Review. The idea was suggested by an incident in Dr. Bastian’s travels in Burma.