The space at my disposal does not admit of the reproduction in extenso of the numerous versions or variants of Aladdin:  a brief outline of their features will however serve my purpose.  In the tale of Maruf the Cobbler, which concludes the Bulak and Calcutta printed texts of The Nights, we have an interesting version of Aladdin.  The hero runs away from his shrewish wife and under false presences is married to a king’s daughter.  He confesses his imposture to the princess, who loves him dearly, and she urges him to flee from her father’s vengeance and not to return until his death should leave the throne vacant, and having furnished him with money, he secretly quits the city at daybreak.  After riding some distance, he begins to feel hungry, and seeing a peasant ploughing a field he goes up to him and asks for some food.  The peasant sets off to his house for eatables and meanwhile Maruf begins to plough a furrow, when presently the ploughshare strikes against something hard, which he finds to be an iron ring.  He tugs at the ring and raises a slab, which discovers a number of steps, down which he goes and comes into a cavern filled with gold and precious stones, and in a box made of a single diamond he finds a talismanic ring, on placing which on his finger a monstrous figure appears and expresses his readiness and ability to obey all his commands.  In brief, by means of this genie, the hero obtains immense wealth in gold and jewels, and also rich merchandise, which enable him to return to the city in the capacity of a merchant, which he had professed himself when he married the princess.  The vazir, who had from the first believed him to be an arrant impostor, lays a plot with the King to worm out of him the secret of his wealth, and succeeds so well at a private supper, when Maruf is elevated with wine, that he obtains possession of the ring, summons the genie, and causes him to carry both the King and Maruf into a far distant desert.  He then compels the other ministers and the people to acknowledge him as king, and resolves to marry the princess.  She temporises with him; invites him to sup with her; plies him with wine, induces him to throw the ring into a corner of the room, pretending to be afraid of the demon who is held captive in it; and when he has become insensible (in plain English, dead drunk), she seizes the ring, summons the genie, and commands him to secure the vazir and bring back her father and husband, which he does “in less than no time.”  The vazir is of course put to death, and the princess takes charge of the ring for the future, alleging that neither the King nor her husband is to be trusted with the custody of such a treasure.