P. 5.—This mixture of seeds, &c., is a very common incident in folk-tales.
P. 10.—Compare the well-known incident in John xviii. 1–11, which passage, by the way, is considered to be an interpolation taken from the lost Gospel of the Hebrews.
HISTORY OF THE LOVERS OF SYRIA (pp. 21–36).
P. 26.—Divination by the flight or song of birds is so universal that it is ridiculous of Kreutzwald (the compiler of the Kalevipoeg) to quote the fact of the son of Kalev applying to birds and beasts for advice as being intended by the composers as a hint that he was deficient in intelligence.
In Bulwer Lytton’s story of the Fallen Star (Pilgrims of the Rhine, ch. xix.) he makes the imposter Morven determine the succession to the chieftainship by means of a trained hawk.
P. 36, note 2.—Scott may possibly refer to the tradition that the souls of the dead are stored up in the trumpet of Israfil, when he speaks of the “receiving angel.”
NIGHT ADVENTURE OF HARUN AL-RASHID AND THE YOUTH MANJAB (pp. 61–105).
P. 102.—In the Danish ballads we frequently find heroes appealing to their mothers or nurses in cases of difficulty. Compare “Habor and Signild,” and “Knight Stig’s Wedding,” in Prior’s Danish Ballads, i. p. 216 and ii. p. 339
HISTORY OF AL-HAJJAJ BIN YUSUF AND THE YOUNG SAYYID (pp. 39–60).
P. 43, note 1.—I doubt if the story-teller intended to represent Al-Hajjaj as ignorant. The story rather implies that he was merely catechising the youth, in order to entangle him in his talk.