Fairy Tales, Their Origin and Meaning; With Some Account of Dwellers in FairylandBunce, John Thackray
History
Fairy Tales, Their Origin and Meaning; With Some Account of Dwellers in Fairyland
Bunce, John Thackray
Fairy tales -- History and criticism
Such are the Arab fancies about the Jinns. The meaning of them is clear,
for the Jinns are the winds, derived plainly from the Ribhus and the
Maruts of the ancient Aryan myths; and they still survive in European
folk-lore in the train of Woden, or the Wild Huntsman, who sweeps at
midnight over the German forests.
Some of the stories of the Jinns are to be found in the book of the
Thousand and One Nights.
One of these stories is that of "the Fisherman and the Genie." A poor
fisherman, you remember, goes out to cast his nets; but he draws no
fish, but only, at the third cast, a vase of yellow copper, sealed with
a seal of lead. He cuts open the seal, and then there issues from the
vase a thick cloud of smoke, which rises to the sky, and spreads itself
over land and sea. Presently the smoke gathers itself together, and
becomes a solid body, taking the form of a Genie, twice as big as any
of the giants; and the Genie cries out, with a terrible voice, "Solomon,
Solomon, great prophet of Allah! Pardon! I will never more oppose thy
will, but will obey all thy commands." At first the fisherman is very
much frightened; but he grows bolder, and tells the Genie that Solomon
has been dead these eighteen hundred years, to which the Genie answers
that he means to kill the fisherman, and tells him why. I told you just
now that the Jinns rebelled, and were punished. The Genie tells the
fisherman that he is one of these rebellious spirits, that he was taken
prisoner, and brought up for judgment before Solomon himself, and that
Solomon confined him in the copper vase, and ordered him to be thrown
into the sea, and that upon the leaden cover of the vase he put the
impression of the royal seal, upon which the name of God is engraved.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account