the wickedness and perfidy of men; and that of the Bakhtyar Nama, in which a youth, falsely accused of having violated the royal harem, obtains for himself a respite from death during ten days by relating to the king each day a story designed to caution him against precipitation in matters of importance.  In others supernatural beings are the narrators of the subordinate tales, as in the Indian romances, Vetala Panchavinsati, or Twenty-five Tales of a Demon, and the Sinhasana Dwatrinsati, or Tales of the Thirty-two Speaking Statues—­literally, Thirty-two (Tales) of a Throne.  In others, again, the relators are birds, as in the Indian work entitled Hamsa Vinsati, or Twenty Tales of a Goose.

Of this last class is the popular Persian work, Tuti Nama, (Tales of a Parrot, or Parrot-Book), of which I purpose furnishing some account, as it has not yet been completely translated into English.  This work was composed, according to Pertsch, in A.D. 1329, by a Persian named Nakhshabi, after an older Persian version, now lost, which was made from a Sanskrit work, also no longer extant, but of which the modern representative is the Suka Saptati, or Seventy Tales of a Parrot.[41] The frame, or leading story, of the Persian Parrot-Book is to the following effect: 

   [41] Ziyau-’d-Din Nakhshabi, so called from Nakhshab, or
        Nasaf, the modern Kashi, a town situated between
        Samarkand and the Oxus, led a secluded life in Bada’um,
        and died, as stated by ’Abdal-Hakk, A.H. 751 (A.D.
        1350-1).—­Dr. Rieu’s Catalogue of Persian MSS. in the
        British Museum.—­In 1792 the Rev. B. Gerrans published
        an English translation of twelve of the fifty-two tales
        comprised in the Tuti Nama, but the work is now best
        known in Persia and India from an abridgment made by
        Kadiri in the last century, which was printed, with a
        translation, at London in 1801.

A merchant who had a very beautiful wife informs her one day that he has resolved to travel into foreign countries in order to increase his wealth by trade.  His wife endeavours to persuade him to remain at home in peace and security instead of imperiling his life among strangers.  But he expatiates on the evils of poverty and the advantages of wealth:  “A man without riches is fatherless, and a home without money is deserted.  He that is in want of cash is a nonentity, and wanders in the land unknown.  It is, therefore, everybody’s duty to procure as much money as possible; for gold is the delight of our lives—­it is the bright live-coal of our hearts—­the yellow links which fasten the coat of mail—­the gentle stimulative of the world—­the complete coining die of the globe—­the traveller who speaks all languages, and is welcome in every city—­the splendid bride unveiled—­the defender, register, and mirror of jehandars.  The man who has dirhams [Scottice,