The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, vol 16 | Page 9

honours of age, fell on Sept. 25, 1792.

Cazotte printed many works, some of great length, as the Œuvres
Morales, which filled 7 vols. 8vo in the complete edition of 1817; and
the biographers give a long list of publications, besides those
above-mentioned, romantic, ethical, and spiritual, in verse and in prose.
But he wrote mainly for his own pleasure, he never sought fame, and
consequently his reputation never equalled his merit. His name,
however, still smells sweet, passing sweet, amid the corruption and the
frantic fury of his day, and the memory of the witty, genial, and
virtuous littérateur still blossoms in the dust.
During my visit to Paris in early 1887, M. Hermann Zotenberg was
kind enough to show me the MS., No. 1723, containing the original
tales of the "New Arabian Nights." As my health did not allow me
sufficient length of stay to complete my translation, Professor Houdas
kindly consented to copy the excerpts required, and to explain the
words and phrases which a deficiency of dictionaries and vocabularies
at an outlandish port-town rendered unintelligible to me.
In translating a MS., which has never been collated or corrected and
which abounds in errors of omission and commission, I have been
guided by one consideration only, which is, that my first and chiefest
duty to the reader is to make my book readable at the same time that it
lays before him the whole matter which the text offered or ought to
have offered. Hence I have not hesitated when necessary to change the
order of the sentences, to delete tautological words and phrases, to
suppress descriptions which are needlessly reiterated, and in places to
supply the connecting links without which the chain of narrative is
weakened or broken. These are liberties which must be allowed, unless
the translator's object be to produce a mutilated version of a mutilation.
Here also I must express my cordial gratitude to Mr. Alexander J.
Cotheal, Consul-General for Nicaragua, in New York. This
distinguished Arabist not only sent to me across the seas his MS.
containing, inter alia, "The Tale of Attaf," he also under took to
translate it for my collection upon my distinct assurance that its many
novelties of treatment deserved an especial version. Mr. W. F. Kirby
has again conferred upon my readers an important service by his

storiological notes. Lastly, Dr. Steingass has lent me, as before, his
valuable aid in concluding as he did in commencing this series, and on
putting the colophon to
The Sixteenth Volume of The Thousand Nights and a Night.
RICHARD F. BURTON
United Service Club, August 1st, 1888.

Supplemental Nights To The Book Of The Thousand Nights And A
Night

The Say of Haykar the Sage.[FN#6]

In the name of Allah, the Compassionating, the Compassionate, the
Eternal One, the Termless, the Timeless, and of Him aidance we await.
And here we begin (with the assistance of Allah Almighty and his fair
furtherance) to invite the Story of Haykar the Sage, the Philosopher, the
Wazir of Sankharib[FN#7] the Sovran, and of the son of the wise man's
sister Nadan[FN#8] the Fool.
They relate that during the days of Sankháríb the King, lord of
Asúr[FN#9] and Naynawah,[FN#10] there was a Sage, Haykár hight,
Grand Wazir of that Sovran and his chief secretary, and he was a
grandee of abundant opulence and ampliest livelihood: ware was he
and wise, a philosopher, and endowed with lore and rede and
experience. Now he had interwedded with threescore wives, for each
and every of which he had builded in his palace her own bower;
natheless he had not a boy to tend, and was he sore of sorrow therefor.
So one day he gathered together the experts, astrologers and wizards,
and related to them his case and complained of the condition caused by
his barrenness. They made answer to him, "Get thee within and do
sacrifice to the Godheads and enquire of them and implore their favour

when haply shall they vouchsafe unto thee boon of babe." He did
whatso they bade and set corbans and victims before the images and
craved their assistance, humbling himself with prayer and petition;
withal they vouchsafed to him never a word of reply. So he fared forth
in distress and disappointment and went his ways all disheartened.
Then he returned in his humiliation to Almighty Allah[FN#11] and
confided his secret unto Him and called for succour in the burning of
his heart, and cried with a loud voice saying, "O God of Heaven and
Earth, O Creator of all creatures, I beg Thee to vouchsafe unto me a son
wherewith I may console my old age and who may become my heir,
after being present at my death and closing my eyes and burying my
body." Hereat came a Voice