a false character, thus sacrificing, in a great measure, what is most valuable in the original work,-I mean its minute accuracy with respect to those peculiarities which distinguish the Arabs from every other nation not only of the west but also of the east.'

-Translator's Preface.

As in the case of the earliest specimens of the literature of other countries, there has been abundant controversy as to the date at which these tales were composed or compiled, and the modifications and changes through which they may have passed. Every one knows the disputes which have arisen as to the date and origin of the Homeric poems. Modern criticism has even gone such lengths as to doubt whether Homer ever existed -whether the poems which go under his name were not the productions of different bards of different periods, and whether they are to be considered in any other light than as compilations. Somewhat similar have been the controversies respecting the origin of the Arabian Nights. Mr. Lane says that he does not regard the work as wholly original; that many of the tales it 'contains are doubtless of different and early origin; and that its 'general plan is probably borrowed from a much older production bearing the same title of the Thousand and One Nights,' a 'translation of a Persian work having a corresponding title, 'namely Hezar Afsaneh.' Von Hammer appears to have the merit of having first pointed out the fact that an archetype of the present work had ever existed. That writer founded his supposition on a passage of El-Mes'oodee's History, entitled "The 'Golden Meadows,' written about the year of the Flight 333, or A.D. 944-5. This passage distinctly states that the Persian work in question was translated into Arabic, and was called by the Arabs The Thousand and One Nights,' or as in some copies, The 'Thousand Nights.' This passage has been considered by many, and amongst the rest by the eminent orientalist De Sacy, an interpolation. Mr. Lane, however, remarks that he has known it wanting only in one copy; and that even if we regard it, from this and other circumstances as suspicious, it cannot have been an interpolation of a very late date. He goes on to say that, ‘assuming 'it either to be authentic or of a very early date, one thing is certain; that the Thousand and One Nights' translated from the 'Persian was much older than the work now known by that title, ' and also extremely different from the latter;' that while its introduction and general plan appear to have been imitated, it must have wanted all the purely Arab tales (in general the best of the present series), and in the description of manners and customs must have differed in entirely.

Mr. Lane then proceeds. to consider whether the present 'Thousand and One Nights' became gradually altered, aug

mented, and improved at various different periods. While this is the opinion of several eminent orientals, Mr. Lane signifies his entire dissent from it, and that chiefly for two reasons; first, from the uniform character of the social condition described in almost all the tales in every copy, and secondly, from the fact that we find no Arab tales of a simi'lar kind to those in the present series in any other work (ex'cepting such as are known to be of a very late date), and those in which genii play the most conspicuous parts.' Other reasons for the same opinion Mr. Lane intends to subjoin at the close of his translation. The argument for the contrary theory, founded upon the differences observable in the copies now known, Mr. Lane disposes of very satisfactorily. He says that the discrepancies in question are no other than those which often exist in two or more copies of other eastern works committed to memory by the public reciters. I have been informed,' he tells us, that these persons are often employed to dictate the contents of the above-mentioned works to those who desire to restore them to writing, and frequently copies are made from a number of fragments, and the lacunae filled up by the assistance of the public reciter, or, by the invention or choice of the copyist. A bookseller in Cairo, when I was in that city, was busily employed for several 'months in endeavoring to make up a copy of the Thousand and One Nights' in this manner, which he would have found an easy task some years before, when the tales which compose it 'were publicly recited in the streets of that city.' Mr. Lane further thinks that the discrepancies in question may be in part accounted for by the fact, that books in Egypt are generally left unsewed, five sheets, or double leaves, being usually placed together, one within another. These compose what is denominated akarras,' and a very common consequence, as might be expected, is that a 'karras' now and then is lost. In these ways, Mr. Lane thinks it is not difficult to account for transpositions, for differences in the divisions of the nights, and for the introduction of new stories. Mere differences of style in different copies he explains by the necessity of adapting the language to the dialect of a particular country. These very varieties of style, however, Mr. Lane adduces as an argument for the comparatively early date of this work, the Arabs not being in the habit of thus tampering with their classical works, amongst which no sheykh includes The Thousand and One Nights." Its style, says our author, is neither classical, as some Europeans have supposed, nor is it, as others have imagined, that of familiar conversation.

As to the number of authors employed in this celebrated compilation, Mr. Lane's opinion may be gathered from the above remarks. He sees no weighty reasons against the supposition

that it was commenced and completed by one author, or, at least, that one man completed what another commenced; in other words, that no long interruption occurred in the progress of the work.

As to the date of the work, our translator thinks that some of the earlier stories bear incontestable evidence of having been written at least as late as the latter half of the ninth century of the Flight, or the latter half of the fifteenth century of our era; and that none were written later than the tenth century of the Flight, or the sixteenth of our era; and that these dates are at all events the utmost limits of the period during which the work was being composed. This of course does not militate against the supposition that many of the tales in this collection are in their substance older than the actual compilation. Many of them Mr. Lane believes to be founded upon very old traditions and legends; but he at the same time believes all these traditions or legends to have been remodelled so as to suit the state of Egyptian society and manners at the period at which the compilation was made, and further, that the compiler, if only one, or each compiler, if more than one, was an Egyptian. Mr. Lane fortifies his opinion by external as well as by internal evidence.

The text from which Mr. Lane has translated is that of the Cairo edition recently printed, which, he says, is greatly superior to every other printed edition, and probably to every manuscript copy; it agrees almost exactly with the celebrated MS. of Von Hammer. The manuscript from which this edition was printed was collated and edited by a very learned Arab, who also superintended the work through the press. In addition to all this, Mr. Lane has enjoyed a further advantage; the copy from which he has worked, has been revised, corrected, and illustrated by a person who in his opinion may be pronounced the first philologist of the first Arab college of the present day-the Sheykh Mohammad 'Eiyád Et-Tantáwee.' Altogether, therefore, it is impossible that a translator could have set about such a task under greater external advantages.

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Mr. Lane's personal qualifications for this work are such as will not shame them. He is known to be an accomplished Arabic scholar-most intimate, by long personal residence, with the customs, manners, habits, and institutions of the Egyptians, and the author of a very copious and learned work on this subject. I consider myself,' he modestly says, ' possessed of the 'chief qualifications for the proper accomplishment of my present 'undertaking from my having lived several years in Cairo, 'associating almost exclusively with the Arabs, speaking their 'language, conforming to their general habits with the most 'scrupulous exactitude, and received into their society on terms of perfect equality.'

Of the merits of his translation, philologically considered, we

must confess ourselves no competent judges; but, as we have already remarked, it bears every internal evidence of the most perfect accuracy and fidelity.

We rejoice to see that Mr. Lane has thought it right to omit such tales, anecdotes, &c., as are comparatively uninteresting or ' on any account objectionable;' while certain passages of an improper character have been slightly varied. We can bear witness to the great superiority of his translation in this as in other respects to that of M. Galland, although we should not have objected to a still further use in some cases of the liberty he has so rationally asserted.

Every chapter of the work is illustrated by most copious and valuable notes on eastern manners and customs, full of curious information, and often enriched by apologues, fables, and stories from more recent works. Many of these are in the highest degree amusing, though the generality are certainly inferior to those of the Thousand and One Nights.'

Considered in connexion with the copious notes and illustrations, and the unrivalled pictorial embellishments, we do not regard the work as one of mere amusement. As such, indeed, it will continue to be read; but it will also subserve other and higher purposes. We are inclined to think that an intelligent reader, with such a commentary and such embellishments, may acquire from it a much clearer notion of oriental manners, customs, and scenery than from the most judicious books of travels ever written. Nor is this all; we verily believe the Biblical student may gather from this work more vivid ideas of those oriental peculiarities, a knowledge of which is essential to a right understanding, or, at all events, clear perception of the force of innumerable passages of sacred writ, than from any professed compilation on the subject. Similar valuable lessons may be learned from the very style of the Tales' themselves; preserving, as they now do, in Mr. Lane's translation, all the essential peculiarities of the oriental manner. It is true, indeed, that in Scripture, as might be expected, there is a majestic simplicity, a grandeur and sublimity that can never be even approached in any merely human composition, and it is certainly not in 'The Thousand and One Nights' that we should look for such qualities. But in many other respects, the oriental style in all its forms possesses the same peculiarities, and the more familiar we become with them, the better shall we be able to appreciate the full force of the scriptural style; for we need not say that the inspired writers, though inspired, have still retained and exhibited all the principal peculiarities of speech which belonged to their tribe and country.

Before proceeding to speak of the merits of the pictorial embellishments (which in consideration of their extraordinary merit we shall do at some length), we shall give some slight specimens

of the manner in which Mr. Lane has executed his task. From the Tales' themselves we shall content ourselves with selecting a single example. Few of them are sufficiently brief to be extracted entire. There is one, however, which admits of this; and though perhaps as widely known as any of "The Thousand and One Tales,' it is of such merit, and derives such additional interest from Mr. Lane's racy and idiomatic translation, that we doubt not our readers will heartily thank us for its insertion. It is full of subtle and curious humor, and contains more than one very excellent moral, which we need not stay to point out. It is the tale of the Merchant, the Ass, the Bull, and the Cock, and deserves to be called the prince of all Cock and Bull' stories.

'Know, O my daughter, said the Wezeer, that there was a certain merchant who possessed wealth and cattle, and had a wife and children; and God, whose name be exalted, had also endowed him with the knowledge of the languages of beasts and birds. The abode of this merchant was in the country; and he had in his house an ass and a bull. When the bull came to the place where the ass was tied up, he found it swept and sprinkled; and in his manger were sifted barley and sifted cut straw, and the ass was lying at his ease; his master being accustomed only to ride him occasionally, when business required, and soon to return and it happened one day that the merchant overheard the bull saying to the ass, May thy food benefit thee! I am oppressed with fatigue while thou art enjoying repose: thou eatest sifted barley, and men serve thee; and it is only occasionally that thy master rides thee, and returns; while I am continually employed in ploughing, and in turning the mill. The ass answered, When thou goest out into the field, and they place the yoke upon thy neck, lie down, and do not rise again, even if they beat thee; or if thou rise lie down a second time; and when they bring thee back and place thy beans before thee, eat them not, as though thou wert sick : abstain from eating and drinking a day, or two days, or three; and so shalt thou find rest from labor and trouble. Accordingly when the driver came to the bull with his fodder, he scarcely ate any of it; and on the morrow, when the driver came again to take him to plough, he found him apparently quite infirm: so the merchant said, take the ass and make him draw the plough in his stead all day. The man did so, and when the ass returned at the close of day, the bull thanked him for the favor he had conferred upon him by relieving him of his trouble on that day; but the ass returned him no answer, for he repented most grievously. On the next day the ploughman came again, and took the ass, and ploughed with him till evening; and the ass returned with his neck flayed with the yoke, and reduced to a state of extreme weakness; and the bull looked upon him, and thanked and praised him. The ass exclaimed, I was living at ease, and naught but my meddling has injured me! Then said he to the bull, Know that I am one who would give thee good advice: I heard our master say, if the bull will not rise from his stall, take him to the butcher, that he may kill him, and