Aladdin; Or, the Wonderful Lamp.

There is a distorted reflection of the story in M. Rene Basset’s recently published “Contes Populaires Berberes,” No. xxix., which is to this effect:  A taleb proclaims, “Who will sell himself for 100 mitqals?” One offers, the Kadi ratifies the sale; the (now) slave gives the money to his mother, and follows the taleb.  Away they go.  The taleb repeats certain words, upon which the earth opens, and he sends down the slave for “the candlestick, the reed, and the box.”  The slave hides the box in his pocket and says he did not find it.  They go off, and after a time the slave discovers that his master has disappeared.  He returns home, hires a house, opens the box, and finds a cloth of silk with seven folds; he undoes one of them, whereupon genii swarm about the room, and a girl appears who dances till break of day.  This occurs every night.  The king happens to be out on a nocturnal adventure, and hearing a noise, enters the house and is amused till morning.  He sends for the box to be brought to the palace, gives the owner his daughter in marriage, and continues to divert himself with the box till his death, when his son-in-law succeeds him on the throne.

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.

My obliging friend, Mr. W. F. Kirby, who contributed to the 10th volume of Sir Richard’s Nights proper the very able Bibliographical Essay, has drawn my attention to an analogue of this tale in Geldart’s Folk-Lore of Modern Greece:  There were two brothers, one of whom was wealthy and had four children, who were in feeble health, the other was poor and had seven children, who were in robust health.  The poor brother’s wife, begging relief was allowed to come twice a week to the house of the rich brother to bake bread.  Her children were starving, but the rich people gave the mother nothing for several days, and all she could do was to wash the dough off her hands for the children, who thrived, and the rich man, discovering the cause, made his wife compel the poor woman to wash her hands before she left the house.  The father found his children crying for food, and pretended to go to the wood for herbs, but really purposing to kill himself by falling from a crag.  But seeing a great castle, he determined first to ascertain what it was, so he went near, and having climbed a tree, saw forty-nine dragons come out.  When they were gone he entered, and found a treasure, filled his bag and hurried away.  On his return home he found his wife weeping bitterly, but when he showed her the treasure, she said the first thing was to buy oil to light a lamp to our Lady.  Next day they bought a house, and moved into it, but agreed only to buy what they needed for each day’s use and nothing they could do without.  For two months they went often to church and helped the poor, till, one day, the wife of the rich man, who had met with losses lately, called for them and was hospitably received.  She heard the story of the treasure,