P. 46.—Compare the story of the Sandal-wood Merchant and the Sharpers (Nights, vi. p. 206) in which the Merchant is required to drink up the sea [or rather, perhaps, river], and requires his adversary to hold the mouth of the sea for him with his hand.
P. 52, note 3.—It is well known that children should not be allowed to sleep with aged persons, as the latter absorb their vitality.
STORY OF THE DARWAYSH AND THE BARBER’S BOY AND THE GREEDY SULTAN (pp. 105–114).
This story belongs to the large category known to students of folk-lore as the Sage and his Pupil; and of this again there are three main groups:
1. Those in which (as in the present instance) the two remain on friendly terms.
2. Those in which the sage is outwitted and destroyed by his pupil (e.g., Cazotte’s story of the Maugraby; or Spitta Bey’s tales, No. 1).
3. Those in which the pupil attempts to outwit or to destroy the sage, and is himself outwitted or destroyed (e.g., The Lady’s Fifth Story, in Gibb’s Forty Vezirs, pp. 76–80; and his App. B. note v., p. 413).
THE LOVES OF AL-HAYFA AND YUSUF (pp. 121–210.)
P. 149, note 1.—I believe that a sudden attack of this kind is always speedily fatal.