[121]. Repeated from vol. i. [218].
[123]. Arab. Sawád = the blackness of the hair.
[124]. Because Easterns build, but never repair.
[125]. i.e. God only knows if it be true or not.
[126]. Ouseley’s Orient. Collect. I, vii.
[127]. This threefold distribution occurred to me many years ago and when far beyond reach of literary authorities: I was, therefore, much pleased to find the subjoined threefold classification with minor details made by Baron von Hammer-Purgstall (Preface to Contes Inédits etc. of G. S. Trébutien, Paris, mdcccxxviii.). (1) The older stories which serve as a base to the collection, such as the Ten Wazirs (“Malice of Women”) and Voyages of Sindbad (?) which may date from the days of Mahommed. These are distributed into two sub-classes; (a) the marvellous and purely imaginative (e.g. Jamasp and the Serpent Queen) and (b) the realistic mixed with instructive fables and moral instances. (2) The stories and anecdotes peculiarly Arab, relating to the Caliphs and especially to Al-Rashíd; and (3) The tales of Egyptian provenance, which mostly date from the times of the puissant “Aaron the Orthodox.” Mr. John Payne (Villon Translation, vol. ix. pp. 367–73) distributes the stories roughly under five chief heads as follows: (1) Histories or long Romances, as King Omar bin Al-Nu’man. (2) Anecdotes or short stories dealing with historical personages and with incidents and adventures belonging to the every-day life of the period to which they refer: e.g. those concerning Al-Rashíd and Hátim of Tayy. (3) Romances and romantic fictions comprising three different kinds of tales; (a) purely romantic and supernatural; (b) fictions and nouvelles with or without a basis and background of historical fact and (c) Contes fantastiques. (4) Fables and Apologues; and (5) Tales proper, as that of Tawaddud.
[128]. Journal Asiatique (Paris, Dondey-Dupré, 1826) “Sur l’origine des Mille et une Nuits.”
[129]. Baron von Hammer-Purgstall’s château is near Styrian Graz; and, when I last saw his library, it had been left as it was at his death.
[130]. At least, in Trébutien’s Preface, pp. xxx.-xxxi., reprinted from the Journ. Asiat. August, 1839: for corrections see De Sacy’s “Mémoire.” p. 39.