he heard a voice crying, “Enter, Saif Zul Yezn.”  He did so, and found a grave and venerable old man, who gave him a very friendly reception, saying, “Wait till to-morrow, when Akissa will come to guide you to the castle of Mukhtatif.”  He remained with him for the night, and when Akissa arrived next morning, the old man told her to hasten, that the world might be soon rid of the monster.  They then left this venerable man, and when they had walked awhile, Akissa said to Saif, “Look before you.”  He did so, and perceived a black mass at some distance.  “This is the castle of the evil-doer,” said she, “but I cannot advance a step further than this.”  Saif therefore pursued his way alone, and when he came near the castle, he walked round it to look for the entrance.  As he was noticing the extraordinary height of the castle, which was founded on the earth, but appeared to overtop the clouds, he saw a window open, and several people looked out, who pointed at him with their fingers, exclaiming, “That is he, that is he!” They threw him a rope, which they directed him to bind round him.  They drew him up by it, when he found himself in the presence of three hundred and sixty damsels, who saluted him by his name.

* * * * *

(Here Habicht’s fragment ends.)

Scott’sMSS.  And translations.

In 1800, Jonathan Scott, ll.D., published a volume of “Tales, Anecdotes, and Letters, translated from the Arabic and Persian,” based upon a fragmentary Ms., procured by J. Anderson in Bengal, which included the commencement of the work (Nos. 1-3) in 29 Nights; two tales not divided into Nights (Nos. 264 and 135) and No. 21.

Scott’s work includes these two new tales (since republished by Kirby and Clouston), with the addition of various anecedotes, &c., derived from other sources.  The “Story of the Labourer and the Chair” has points of resemblance to that of “Malek and the Princess Chirine” (Shirin?) in the Thousand and One Days; and also to that of “Tuhfet El Culoub” (No. 183a) in the Breslau Edition.  The additional tales in this Ms. and vol. of translations are marked “A” under Scott in our Tables.  Scott published the following specimens (text and translation) in Ouseley’s Oriental Collections (1797 and following years) No. 135m (i. pp. 245-257) and Introduction (ii. pp. 160-172; 228- 257).  The contents are fully given in Ouseley, vol. ii. pp. 34, 35.

Scott afterwards acquired an approximately complete Ms. in 7 vols., written in 1764 which was brought from Turkey by E. Wortley Montague.  Scott published a table of contents (Ouseley, ii. pp. 25-34), in which, however, the titles of some few of the shorter tales, which he afterwards translated from it, are omitted, while the titles of others are differently translated.  Thus “Greece” of the Table becomes “Yemen” in the translation; and “labourer” becomes “sharper.”  As a specimen, he subsequently printed the text and translation of No. 145 (Ouseley, ii. pp. 349-367).