in Petis, “History of Fadlallah, Son of Bin Ortoc, King of Moussel.”  The fourth, “Of Ridzwan-Shah of China and the Shahristani Lady,” is the second in Petis, “History of King Razvanschad and of the Princess Cheheristany.”  The eleventh, “Of the Sovereign without a care and of the Vazir full of care,” is the eighth in Petis History of King Bedreddin Lolo and of his Vizier Altalmulc.”  The third, “Of the Builder of Bemm with the two Vazirs of the king of Kawashar,” the seventh, “Of the Rogue Nasr and the son of the king of Khurasan,” and the tenth, “The Three Youths, the Old Man, and the Daughter of the King,” I cannot, from these titles, recognise in Petis; while the fifth, “Farrukh-Shad, Farrukh-Ruz, and Farrukh-Naz,” may be the same as the frame story of the “Hazar u Yek Ruz,” where the king is called Togrul-bey, his son Farrukrouz, and his daughter Farruknaz, and if this be the case, the Turkish book must differ considerably from the Persian in its plan.—­Although “The Thousand and One Nights” has not been found in Persian, there exists a work in that language of which the plan is somewhat similar—­but adapted from an Indian source.  It is thus described by Dr. Rieu, in his Catalogue of Persian MSS. in the British Museum, vol. ii. p. 773:  Tale of Shirzad, son of Gurgahan, emperor of China, and Gulshad, daughter of the vazir Farrukhzad (called the Story of the Nine Belvideres).  Nine tales told by Gulshad to Shirzad, each in one of the nine belvideres of the royal palace, in order to save the forfeited life of her father.

[FN#376] A translation of this version, omitting the moral reflections interspersed, is given by Professor E. B. Cowell in the “Journal of Philology,” 1876, vol. vi. p. 193.  The great Persian mystic tells another story of a Dream of Riches, which, though only remotely allied to our tale, is very curious: 

The Fakir and the Hidden Treasure.

Notwithstanding the clear evidence of God’s bounty, engendering those spiritual tastes in men, philosophers and learned men, wise in their own conceit, obstinately shut their eyes to it, and look afar off for what is really close to them, so that they incur the penalty of being “branded on the nostrils” [Kuran, lxviii. 16], adjudged against unbelievers.  This is illustrated by the story of the poor Fakir who prayed to God that he might be fed without being obliged to work for his food.  A divine voice came to him in his sleep and directed him to go to the house of a certain scribe and take a certain writing he should find there.  He did so, and on reading the writing found that it contained directions for discovering a hidden treasure.  The directions were as follows:  “Go outside the city to the dome which covers the tomb of the martyr, turn your back to the tomb and face towards Mecca, place an arrow in your bow, and where the arrow falls dig for the treasure.”  But before the Fakir had time to commence the search the rumour of the writing and its purport had reached the King, who