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
Sir Richard has referred to a number of Italian versions (p. 51, note
1), which will be found epitomised in a most valuable and interesting
paper, by my late friend Mr. H. C. Coote, on the sources of some of M.
Galland’s Tales, in the First Part of the Folk-Lore Record for 1880;
and, in conclusion, I may briefly glance at a few other European
variants. Among those which not only bear a close analogy one to another
but also to the Asiatic versions cited above are the following: No. 15
of M. Leger’s French collection of Slav Tales is a Bohemian version, in
which the hero, Jenik, saves a dog, a cat, and a serpent from being
killed. From the serpent’s father he gets an enchanted watch (evidently
a modern substitute for a talismanic stone, or ring), which procures him
a splendid palace and the King’s daughter for his bride. But the young
lady, unlike the Princess Badr al-Badúr with Aladdin, does not love
Jenik, and having learned from him the secret of his great wealth, she
steals the talisman and causes a palace to be built in the middle of the
sea, where she goes to live, after making Jenik’s palace disappear.
Jenik’s faithful dog and cat recover the talisman, which, as in the
Arabian story of the Fisherman’s Son, is dropped in the sea while they
are swimming back and restored by a fish.—In No. 9 of M. Dozon’s “Contes
Albanais” the hero saves a serpent’s life and gets in return a
wishing-stone and so on. The talisman is stolen by a rascally Jew on the
night of the wedding, and the palace with the princess is transported to
the distant sea-shore. The hero buys a cat and feeds it well. He and his
cat arrive at the spot where the palace now stands, and the cat compels
the chief of a colony of mice to steal the talisman from the Jew while
he is asleep.—A popular Greek version in Hahn’s collection combines
incidents found in Aladdin and in the versions in which grateful animals
play prominent parts: The hero rescues a snake which some boys are about
to kill and gets in reward from the snake’s father a sealring, which he
has only to lick and a black man will present himself, ready to obey his
orders. As in Aladdin, the first use he makes of the talisman is to have
his mother’s cupboard filled with dainty food. Then he bids his mother
“go to the King, and tell him he must give me his daughter in marriage.”
After many objections, she goes to deliver her message to the King, who
replies that if her son build a castle larger than his, he shall have
the princess to wife. The castle is built that same night, and when the
mother goes next morning to require the King’s performance of his
promise, he makes a farther stipulation that her son should first pave
the way between the two castles with gold. This is done at once, and the
King gives the hero his daughter. Here the resemblance to the Aladdin
story ceases and what follows (as well as what precedes) is analogous to
the other Asiatic forms. The princess has a black servant of whom she is
enamoured.
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