The Arabian Nights | Page 2

savez de si jolis contes, et qui les racontez si bien, racontez nous en un!"
You can also read them in Scott's edition or in Lane's (both of which, but chiefly the former, we have used as the foundation of our text), while your elders--philologists or Orientalists--are studying the complete versions of John Payne or Sir Richard Burton. You may leave the wiseacres to wonder which were told in China or India, Arabia or Persia, and whether the first manuscript dates back to 1450 or earlier.
We, like many other editors, have shortened the stories here and there, omitting some of the tedious repetitions that crept in from time to time when Arabian story-tellers were adding to the text to suit their purposes.
Mr. Andrew Lang says amusingly that he has left out of his special versions "all the pieces that are suitable only for Arabs and old gentlemen," and we have done the same; but we have taken no undue liberties. We have removed no genies nor magicians, however terrible; have cut out no base deed of Vizier nor noble deed of Sultan; have diminished the size of no roc's egg, nor omitted any single allusion to the great and only Haroun Al-raschid, Caliph of Bagdad, Commander of the Faithful, who must have been a great inspirer of good stories.
Enter into this "treasure house of pleasant things," then, and make yourself at home in the golden palaces, the gem-studded caves, the bewildering gardens. Sit by its mysterious fountains, hear the plash of its gleaming cascades, unearth its magic lamps and talismans, behold its ensorcelled princes and princesses.
Nowhere in the whole realm of literature will you find such a Marvel, such a Wonder, such a Nonesuch of a book; nowhere will you find impossibilities so real and so convincing; nowhere but in what Henley calls:
"... that blessed brief Of what is gallantest and best In all the full-shelved Libraries of Romance. The Book of rocs, Sandalwood, ivory, turbans, ambergris, Cream-tarts, and lettered apes, and Calenders, And ghouls, and genies--O so huge They might have overed the tall Minster Tower, Hands down, as schoolboys take a post; In truth the Book of Camaralzaman, Schemselnihar and Sinbad, Scheherezade The peerless, Bedreddin, Badroulbadour, Cairo and Serendib and Candahar, And Caspian, and the dim, terrific bulk-- Ice-ribbed, fiend-visited, isled in spells and storms-- Of Kaf ... That centre of miracles The sole, unparalleled Arabian Nights."
KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN. August, 1909.

CONTENTS
THE TALKING BIRD, THE SINGING TREE, AND THE GOLDEN WATER 3
THE STORY OF THE FISHERMAN AND THE GENIE 52
THE HISTORY OF THE YOUNG KING OF THE BLACK ISLES 67
THE STORY OF GULNARE OF THE SEA 81
THE STORY OF ALADDIN; OR, THE WONDERFUL LAMP 97
THE STORY OF PRINCE AGIB 190
THE STORY OF THE CITY OF BRASS 205
THE STORY OF ALI BABA AND THE FORTY THIEVES 229
THE HISTORY OF CODADAD AND HIS BROTHERS 264
THE STORY OF SINBAD THE VOYAGER 290
ILLUSTRATIONS
FROM DRAWINGS IN COLORS BY MAXFIELD PARRISH
THE TALKING BIRD 32
It will be sufficient to break off a branch and carry it to plant in your garden
THE FISHERMAN AND THE GENIE 54
The smoke ascended to the clouds, and extending itself along the sea and upon the shore formed a great mist
THE YOUNG KING OF THE BLACK ISLES 74
When he came to this part of his narrative the young king could not restrain his tears
GULNARE OF THE SEA 86
And she proceeded to burn perfume and repeat spells until the sea foamed and was agitated
ALADDIN 106
At the same time the earth, trembling, opened just before the magician, and uncovered a stone, laid horizontally, with a brass ring fixed into the middle
PRINCE AGIB 194
And when the boat came to me I found in it a man of brass, with a tablet of lead upon his breast, engraven with names and talismans
PRINCE AGIB 202
At the approach of evening I opened the first closet and, entering it, found a mansion like paradise
THE CITY OF BRASS 218
And when they had ascended that mountain they saw a city than which eyes had not beheld any greater
THE STORY OF ALI BABA AND THE FORTY THIEVES 236
Cassim ... was so alarmed at the danger he was in that the more he endeavoured to remember the word Sesame the more his memory was confounded
THE HISTORY OF CODADAD AND HIS BROTHERS 276
As it drew near we saw ten or twelve armed pirates appear on the deck
SECOND VOYAGE OF SINBAD 300
The spot where she left me was encompassed on all sides by mountains that seemed to reach above the clouds, and so steep that there was no possibility of getting out of the valley
THIRD VOYAGE OF SINBAD 306
Having finished his repast, he returned to his porch, where he lay and fell asleep, snoring louder than thunder

THE ARABIAN NIGHTS
"When the breeze of a joyful dawn blew free In the silken sail of infancy, The tide of