He had fought a good fight, had suffered persecution on that account, and is honoured accordingly.  “It is usual,” observed Burton, “with the weak, after being persecuted to become persecutors."[FN#382] Mr. ----- had the folly to put it about that Payne’s translation was made not direct from the Arabic but from German translations.  How he came to make so amazing a statement, seeing that at the time no important German translation of the Nights existed,[FN#383] it is difficult to say; but Mr. Payne sent him the following words from the Nights, written in the Arabic character:  “I and thou and the slanderer, there shall be for us an awful day and a place of standing up to judgment."[FN#384] After this Mr. ----- sheathed his sword and the Villon Society heard no more of him.

113.  Completion of Mr. Payne’s Translation.

Mr. Payne’s first volume appeared as we have seen in 1882.  The last left the press in 1884.  The work was dedicated to Burton, who writes, “I cannot but feel proud that he has honoured me with the dedication of ‘The Book of the Thousand Nights and one Night.’ ...He succeeds admirably in the most difficult passages, and he often hits upon choice and special terms and the exact vernacular equivalent of the foreign word so happily and so picturesquely that all future translators must perforce use the same expression under pain of falling far short.”

Having finished the Nights, Mr. Payne commenced the translation of other Eastern stories—­which he published under the title of Tales from the Arabic.[FN#385]

Chapter xxv
1883 to May 1885
The Kama Shastra Society

Bibliography: 

69.  Publications of the Kama Shastra Society.

                               Author.  Translator.
1.  The Kama Sutra. 1883 Vatsyayana.  Bhagvanlal Indraji. 2.  The Ananga Ranga. 1885 Kullianmull. " 3.  The Arabian Nights. 1885-1886. " Burton.
4.  The Scented Garden
   ("My old version"). 1886.  Nafzawi.  Burton and others.
5.  The Beharistan. 1887.  Jami.  Rehatsek. 6.  The Gulistan 1888.  Sadi. "
    or Rose Garden.

Works still in Manuscript.

                                         Author.  Translator
7.  The Nigaristan Jawini.  Rehatsek. 8.  The Observances of the Zenanah " 9.  Etiquette of eating and Drinking "
      (A Persian Essay).
10.  Physiognomies (A Persian Ms.) Al-R’azy " 11.  Anecdotes from the Nuzhat al Yaman. "
      (Persian).
12.  The Merzuban Namah. (Persian). 13.  Extracts from Al Mostatraf. (Arabic). " 14.  Extracts from Siraj-ul-moluk. (Arabic). " 15.  Extracts from Tuhfat al akhwan us Safa.* "

* For further particulars respecting these works see Appendix.