It is to be regretted that the author has not stated the sources whence he drew his stories, but that they are without exception of Eastern extraction does not admit of any doubt:  some are taken from the “Panchatantra,” “Hitopadesa,” or “Anvar-i-Suhayli,” and others are found in other Asiatic story-books.  I have however not met with the foregoing elsewhere than in Noble’s little volume.  The beginning of the story is near akin to that of Aladdin:  for the wicked magician who pretends to take the tailor’s son under his care we have a dervish who in good faith takes charge of the son of a poor widow who had nursed him through a severe illness.  The cave scene is very similar in both, only the magician performs diabolical incantations, while the dervish practices “white magic” and prays to Allah for assistance.  The twelve-branched candlestick takes the place of the Wonderful Lamp.  Like Aladdin, young Abdallah is shut in the cavern, though not because he refused to give up the candlestick until he was safe above ground again, but because his cupidity induced him to pocket some of the treasures which filled the cave.

There is a strong Indian—­even Buddhistic—­flavour in the story of Abdallah and the Dervish, and the apparition of the twelve whirling fakirs, who when struck with a cane held in the left hand fall into so many heaps of gold coin, has its analogue in the “Hitopadesa” and also in the Persian Tales of a Parrot ("Tuti Nama").  The 10th Fable of Book iii. of the “Hitopadesa’ goes thus:  In the city of Ayodhya (Oude) there was a soldier named Churamani, who, being anxious for money, for a long time with pain of body worshipped the deity the jewel of whose diadem is the lunar crescent.[FN#395] Being at length purified from his sins, in his sleep he had a vision in which, through the favour of the deity, he was directed by the lord of the Yakshas[FN#396] to do as follows:  ’Early in the morning, having been shaved, thou must stand, club in hand, concealed behind the door of thy house; and the beggar whom thou seest come into the court thou wilt put to death without mercy by blows of thy staff.  Instantly the beggar will become a pot full of gold, by which thou wilt be comfortable the rest of thy life.”  These instructions being followed, it came to pass accordingly.  But the barber who had been brought to shave him, having witnessed it all, said to himself, “O, is this the mode of gaining treasure?  Why, then, may not I also do the same?” From that day forward the barber in like manner, with club in hand, day after day awaited the coming of the beggar.  One day a beggar being so caught was attacked by him and killed with the stick, for which offence the barber himself was beaten by the King’s officers and died.