"Many of the engravings which are so numerously interspersed in this work will considerably assist to explain both the Text and the Notes; and to insure their accuracy, to the utmost of my ability, I have supplied the artist with modern dresses, and with other requisite materials. Thus he has been enabled to make his designs agree more nearly with the costumes &c. of the times which the tales generally illustrate than they would if he trusted alone to the imperfect descriptions which I have found in Arabic works.[9] Except in a few cases, when I had given him such directions as I deemed necessary, his original designs have been submitted to me; and in suggesting any corrections, I have, as much as possible, avoided fettering his imagination, which needs no eulogy from me. He has acquired a general notion of Arabian architecture from the great work of Murphy on the Arabian remains in Spain, and from the splendid and accurate work on the Alhambra by Messrs. Goury and Jones; and through the kindness of my friend Mr. Hay, of Linplum, he has been allowed to make a similar use of a very accurate and very beautiful collection of drawings of a great number of the finest specimens of Arabian architecture in and around Cairo, executed by M. Pascal Coste, and now the property of Mr. Hay.[10] He has also consulted a number of Oriental drawings, and various other sources. My acknowledgments to other persons I have expressed in several of the Notes. "The portion which is comprised in the first volume of this translation, terminates with part of the hundred and thirty-seventh Night: it is therefore necessary to remark,--first, that there is less to omit in the early part of the original work than in the later:--secondly, that the _Nights_ in the early part are generally much _longer_ than in the subsequent portion; the first hundred Nights (without the Introduction) comprising 213 pages in the Cairo edition of the original work; the second hundred, 149 pages; the third, 107; the fourth, 106; the fifth, 94:[11]--thirdly, that a similar observation applies to the _Notes_ which are inserted in my translation; those appended to the early tales being necessarily much more copious than the others."