Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 6 (of 6)
General
Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 6 (of 6)
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
P. 84, note 4.--Although it has nothing to do with the present story, yet I
may point out the great importance of the bridle in all the folk-tales which
deal with the transformation of human beings into domestic animals. It is
clearly implied (though not actually expressed) in the story of Julnar the Sea
Born (No. 153) that the power of Abdallah and Badr Basim over Queen Lab, while
she bore the form of a mule, depended entirely on their keeping possession of
the bridle (cf. Nights, vol. vii., p. 304, and note). There are many stories
of magicians who transform themselves into horses, &c., for their friends to
sell; but the bridle must on no account be given with the horse. Should this
be neglected (purposely or otherwise) the magician is unable to reassume his
human form at will. Cf. also Spitta-Bey's story No. 1 (infrà).
The Tale of the Warlock and the Young Cook of Baghdad
(Pp. 95-112).
This story appears in Chavis and Cazotte's version, and in the various
translations made from the French, in a very highly elaborated form, under the
title of "The Adventures of Simoustapha, and the Princess Ilsetilsone." The
Caliph and his Wazir are identified with Harun Al-Rashid and Ja'afar, but they
suffer no transformations at the hands of the Magician after whose death
Prince Simoustapha is protected by Setelpedour Ginatille, whose name is
interpreted as meaning the Star of the Seven Seas, though the first name
appears rather to be a corruption of Sitt El Bubúr. She is the queen of
Ginnistan, and the daughter of Kokopilesobe (Satan), whose contests with
Mahomet and Michael (the former of whom continues the conflict by "becoming
man") are described on the approved Miltonic lines. Her chief councillors are
Bahlisboull (Beelzebub) and Asmonchar (Asmodeus), but ultimately she falls in
love with Simoustapha, and adjures her sovereignty, after which he carries her
off, and marries her, upon which the mother of Ilsetilsone, "the sensible
Zobeide, formed now a much truer and more favourable judgment of her
daughter's happiness, since she had shared the heart of Simoustapha with
Setelpedour, and at last agreed that the union of one man with two women might
be productive of great happiness to all the three, provided that one of the
wives happened to be a fairy." (Weber, ii. p. 50.) A most encouraging
sentiment for would-be polygamists, truly, especially in Europe, where fairies
appear to fly before the advance of civilisation as surely as the wild beasts
of the forest!
P. 99.--These apparitions resemble those which usually precede the visions
which appear in the well-known pool of ink. But the sweeper is not mentioned
in the present story, nor do I remember reading of his appearing in cases of
crystal seeing, though Dante Gabriel Rossetti introduces him into his fine
poem, "Rose Mary," as preparing the way for the visions seen in the beryl:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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