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
Dr. N. B. Dennys, in his “Folk-Lore of China, and its Affinities with
that of the Aryan and Semitic Races,” p. 134, cites a legend of the cave
Kwang-sio-foo in Kiang-si, which reflects part of the tale of Ali Baba:
There was in the neighbourhood a poor herdsman named Chang, his sole
surviving relative being a grandmother with whom he lived. One day,
happening to pass near the cave, he overheard some one using the
following words: “Shih mun kai, Kwai Ku hsen shêng lai,” Stone door,
open; Mr. Kwai Ku is coming. Upon this the door of the cave opened and
the speaker entered. Having remained there for some time he came out,
and saying, “Stone door, close; Mr. Kwai Ku is going,” the door again
closed and the visitor departed. Chang’s curiosity was naturally
excited, and having several times heard the formula repeated, he waited
one day until the genie (for such he was) had taken his departure and
essayed to obtain an entrance. To his great delight the door yielded,
and having gone inside he found himself in a romantic grotto of immense
extent. Nothing however in the shape of treasure met his eye, so having
fully explored the place he returned to the door, which shut at his
bidding, and went home. Upon telling his grandmother of his adventure
she expressed a strong wish to see the wonderful cavern; and thither
they accordingly went together the next day. Wandering about in
admiration of the scenery, they became separated, and Chang at length,
supposing that his grandmother had left, passed out of the door and
ordered it to shut. Reaching home, he found to his dismay that she had
not yet arrived. She must of course have been locked up in the cave, so
back he sped and before long was using the magic sentence to obtain
access. But alas! the talisman had failed, and poor Chang fell into an
agony of apprehension as he reflected that his grandmother would either
be starved to death or killed by the enraged genie. While in this
perplexity the genie appeared and asked him what was amiss. Chang
frankly told him the truth and implored him to open the door. This the
genie refused to do, but told him that his grandmother’s disappearance
was a matter of fate. The cave demanded a victim. Had it been a male,
every succeeding generation of his family would have seen one of its
members arrive at princely rank. In the case of a woman her descendants
would in a similar way possess power over demons. Somewhat comforted to
know that he was not exactly responsible for his grandmother’s death,
Chang returned home and in process of time married. His first son duly
became Chang tien shih (Chang, the Master of Heaven), who about A.D. 25
was the first holder of an office which has existed uninterruptedly to
the present day.
_ALI KHWAJAH AND THE MERCHANT OF BAGHDAD—p. 405._
_Precocious Children._—See note at end of the Tale, p. 416.—In the
(apocryphal) Arabic Gospel of the Saviour’s Infancy is the following
passage:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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