The examination of these tales is difficult, for they comprise several classes, not always clearly defined:—
1. Satires on The Nights themselves (e.g. the Tales of the Count of Hamilton). 2. Satires in an Oriental garb (e.g. Beckford’s Vathek). 3. Moral tales in an Oriental garb (e.g. Mrs. Sheridan’s Nourjahad). 4. Fantastic tales with nothing Oriental about them but the name (e.g. Stevenson’s New Arabian Nights). 5. Imitations pure and simple (e.g. G. Meredith’s Shaving of Shagpat). 6. Imitations more or less founded on genuine Oriental sources (e.g. the Tales of the Comte de Caylus). 7. Genuine Oriental Tales (e.g. Mille et une Jours, translated by Petis de la Croix).
Most of the tales belonging to Class 7 and some of those belonging to Class 6 have been treated of in previous sections. The remaining tales and imitations will generally need only a very brief notice; sometimes only the title and the indication of the class to which they belong. We will begin with an enumeration of the Oriental contents of the Cabinet des Fées, adding W. i., ii. and iii. to show which are included in Weber’s “Tales of the East”:—
7-11. 1001 Nuits (W. 1). 12, 13. Les Aventures d’Abdalla (W. iii). 14, 15. 1001 Jours (Persian tales, W. ii.). 16. Histoire de la Sultane de Perse et des Visirs. Contes Turcs (Turkish tales, W. 3==our 251). 16. Les Voyages de Zulma dans le pays des Fées. 17, 18. Contes de Bidpai. 19. Contes Chinois, on les Aventures merveilleuses du Mandarin Fum-Hoam (W. iii.). 21, 22. Les Mille et un Quart d’Heures. Contes Tartares (W. iii.). 22, 23. Les Sultanes de Guzerath, ou les Songes des hommes eveillés. Contes Moguls (W. iii.). 25. Nouveaux Contes Orientaux, par le Comte de Caylus (W. ii.). 29, 30. Les Contes des Génies (W. iii.). 30. Les Aventures de Zelouide et d’Amanzarifdine. 30. Contes Indiens par M. de Moncrif. 33. Nourjahad (W. ii.). 34. Contes de M. Pajon. 38-41. Les Veillées du Sultan Schahriar, &c. (Chavis and Cazotte; cf. anteà, p. 419; W. i. ii.).
(Weber also includes, in his vol. ii. Nos. 21a, 22, 32 and 37, after Caussin de Perceval.)
12, 13. The Adventures of Abdallah, the Son of Hanif (Class 5 or 6).
Originally published in 1713; attributed to M. de Bignon, a young Abbé. A series of romantic travels, in which Eastern and Western fiction is mixed; for instance, we have the story of the Nose- tree, which so far as I know has nothing Oriental about it.
16. The Voyages of Zulma in Fairy Land (Class 4).
European fairy tales, with nothing Oriental about them but the names of persons and places. The work is unfinished.
17, 18. The Tales of Bidpai (translated by Galland) are Indian, and therefore need no further notice here.