Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 3 (of 6) Part 2
General
Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights — Volume 3 (of 6) Part 2
Fairy tales; Tales -- Arab countries
Equally at home, as we have seen, in Sicily, Holland, Germany, and
Denmark, the identical legend is also domiciled in Scotland and England.
Thus Robert Chambers, in his “Popular Rhymes of Scotland,” ed. 1826, p.
56, speaking of Dundonald Castle, in Ayrshire, the ancient seat of King
Robert II., relates the following local tradition:
Donald, the builder, was originally a poor man, but had the faculty of
dreaming lucky dreams. Upon one occasion he dreamed thrice in one night
that if he were to go to London Bridge he would make a fortune. He went
accordingly, and saw a man looking over the parapet of the bridge, whom
he accosted courteously, and after a little conversation, entrusted him
with the secret of the occasion of his visiting London Bridge. The
stranger told him that he had made a very foolish errand, for he had
himself once had a similar vision, which directed him to go to a certain
spot in Ayrshire, in Scotland, where he would find a vast treasure, and
for his part he had never once thought of obeying the injunction. From
his description of the spot, however, the sly Scot at once perceived
that the treasure in question must be concealed nowhere but in his own
humble kail-yard at home, to which he immediately repaired, in full
expectation of finding it. Nor was he disappointed; for after destroying
many good and promising cabbages, and completely cracking credit with
his wife, who considered him as mad, he found a large potful of gold
coin, with which he built a stout castle for himself, and became the
founder of a flourishing family.
“This absurd story,” adds Chambers, “is localised in almost every
district of Scotland, always referring to London Bridge, and Hogg (the
Ettrick Shepherd) has worked up the fiction in a very amusing manner in
one of his ‘Winter Evening Tales,’ substituting the Bridge at Kelso for
that of London.”
But the legend of the Chapman, or Pedlar, of Swaffam, in Norfolk, handed
down, as it has been, from one credulous generation to another, with the
most minute details and perfect local colour, throws quite into the
shade all other versions or variants of the ancient tale of the poor man
of Baghdad. Blomfield, in his “History of Norfolk,” 8vo ed., vol. vi.
211–213, reproduces it as follows, from Sir Roger Twysden’s
“Reminiscences”:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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