Part 55 (1/2)

[Footnote 423: Mr. Payne's account of the destruction of the Barmecides is one of the finest of his prose pa.s.sages. Burton pays several tributes to it.

See Payne's Arabian Nights, vol. ix.]

[Footnote 424: Tracks of a Rolling Stone, by Hon. Henry J. c.o.ke, 1905.]

[Footnote 425: Lady Burton's edition, issued in 1888, was a failure. For the Library Edition, issued in 1894, by H. S. Nichols, Lady Burton received, we understand, 3,000.]

[Footnote 426: Duvat inkstand, dulat fortune. See The Beharistan, Seventh Garden.]

[Footnote 427: Mr. Arbuthnot was the only man whom Burton addressed by a nickname.]

[Footnote 428: Headings of Jami's chapters.]

[Footnote 429: It appeared in 1887.]

[Footnote 430: Abu Mohammed al Kasim ibn Ali, surnamed Al-Hariri (the silk merchant), 1054 A. D. to 1121 A. D. The Makamat, a collection of witty rhymed tales, is one of the most popular works in the East. The interest cl.u.s.ters round the personality of a clever wag and rogue named Abu Seid.]

[Footnote 431: The first twenty-four Makamats of Abu Mohammed al Kasim al Hariri, were done by Chenery in 1867. Dr. Steinga.s.s did the last 24, and thus completed the work. Al Hariri is several times quoted in the Arabian Nights. Lib. Ed. iv., p. 166; viii., p. 42.]

[Footnote 432: Times, 13th January 1903.]

[Footnote 433: Lib. Ed. vol. 8, pp. 202-228.]

[Footnote 434: See Notes to Judar and his Brethren. Burton's A. N., vi., 255; Lib. Ed., v., 161.]

[Footnote 435: Burton's A. N. Suppl., vi., 454; Lib. Ed., xii., 278. Others who a.s.sisted Burton were Rev. George Percy Badger, who died February 1888, Mr. W. F. Kirby, Professor James F. Blumhardt, Mr. A. G. Ellis, and Dr. Reinhold Rost.]

[Footnote 436: See Chapter x.x.x.]

[Footnote 437: This work consists of fifty folk tales written in the Neapolitan dialect. They are supposed to be told by ten old women for the entertainment of a Moorish slave who had usurped the place of the rightful Princess. Thirty-one of the stories were translated by John E.

Taylor in 1848. There is a reference to it in Burton's Arabian Nights, Lib. Ed., ix., 280.]

[Footnote 438: Meaning, of course, Lord Houghton's money.]

[Footnote 439: Cf. Esther, vi., 8 and 11.]

[Footnote 440: Ought there not to be notices prohibiting this habit in our public reference libraries? How many beautiful books have been spoilt by it!

[Footnote 441: The joys of Travel are also hymned in the Tale of Ala-al-Din.

Lib. Ed., iii., 167.]

[Footnote 442: Cf. Seneca on Anger, Ch. xi. ”Such a man,” we cry, ”has done me a shrewd turn, and I never did him any hurt! Well, but it may be I have mischieved other people.”

[Footnote 443: Payne's Version. See Burton's Footnote, and Payne vol. i., p.

93.]

[Footnote 444: Burton's A. N. i., 237; Lib. Ed., i., 218. Payne translates it:

If thou demand fair play of Fate, therein thou dost it wrong; and blame it not, for 'twas not made, indeed, for equity.

Take what lies ready to thy hand and lay concern aside, for troubled days and days of peace in life must surely be.]