It is a marvel that these cadences have never been reproduced before. They have been faintly attempted by Eastwick, in his "Gulistan," whilst Mr. Payne simply passed them over, rejected them as of no account. They fall in with Captain Burton's plan of omitting nothing; of giving the Nights intact in the precise form in which they are enjoyed by the Oriental. Beside the verses so characteristic of exaggerated Arabic sentiment, and the rhymed cadences, let like precious stones into the gold of the prose, the proverbs embodying the proverbial wit and wisdom are all rhymed as in the original Arabic. What Arabists think of this translation we may learn from a professed Arabist writing to this effect:--"I am free to confess, after many years study of Arabic, a comparison of your translation with the text has taught me more than many months of dry study," whilst Englishmen who for years have lived in the East are making the discovery that, after all, they have known little or nothing, and their education is only beginning with this version of the Arabian Nights. It is only knowledge that knows how to observe; and it is satisfactory to observe that Captain Burton's amazing insight into Eastern peculiarities has been put to its best use in giving a true idea of the People of the Sun and a veritable version of their Book of Books. The labour expended on this edition has been enormous. The work could only have been completed by the most excessive and pertinatious application. All the same we are told it has been "a labour of love," a task that has brought its own exceeding great reward. Arabian Nights, Volume 16 Footnotes [FN#1] Tome xii. is dated 1789, the other three, 1788, to include them in the "Cabinet." [FN#2] The titles of all the vols. are dated alike, 1793, the actual date of printing. [FN#3] This name is not in the Arabic text, and I have vainly puzzled my brains about its derivation or meaning. [FN#4] This P.N. is, I presume, a corruption of "Shawalán"=one falling short. The wife "Oitba" is evidently "Otbá" or "Utbá." [FN#5] See my Supplemental volume i. pp. 37-116, "The Ten Wazirs; or, the History of King Azádbakht and his Son." [FN#6] MS. pp. 140-182. Gauttier, vol. ii., pp. 313-353, Histoire du sage Heycar translated by M. Agoub: Weber, "History of Sinkarib and his two Viziers" (vol. ii. 53): the "Vizier" is therein called Hicar. [FN#7] This form of the P.N. is preferred by Prof. R. Hoerning in his "Prisma des Sanherib," etc. Leipsic, 1878. The etymology is "Sin akhi-irib"=Sini (Lunus, or the Moon-God) increaseth brethren. The canon of Ptolemy fixes his accession at B.C. 702, the first year of Elibus or Belibus. For his victories over Babylonia, Palestine, Judea, and Egypt see any "Dictionary of the Bible," and Byron for the marvellous and puerile legend-- The Assyrian came down as a wolf on the fold,