om the second
edition (which, however, was never done, Galland dying before the
republication and it being probably found that the stranger tales had
taken too firm a hold upon public favour to be sacrificed, as originally
proposed); and the invaluable Diary supplies the necessary supplemental
information as to their origin. "M. Petis de la Croix," says Galland
under date of January 17, 1710, "Professor and King's Reader of the
Arabic tongue, who did me the honour to visit me this morning, was
extremely surprised to see two of the Turkish [18] Tales of his
translation printed in the eighth volume of the 1001 Nights, which
I showed him, and that this should have been done without his
participation."

Petis de la Croix, a well-known Orientalist and traveller of the time,
published in the course of the same year (1710) the first volume of a
collection of Oriental stories, similar in form and character to the
1001 Nights, but divided into "Days" instead of "Nights" and called "The
Thousand and One Days, Persian Tales," the preface to which (ascribed
to Cazotte) alleges him to have translated the tales from a Persian work
called Hezar [o] Yek Roz, i.e. "The Thousand and One Days," the MS. of
which had in 1675 been communicated to the translator by a friend
of his, by name Mukhlis, (Cazotte styles him "the celebrated Dervish
Mocles, chief of the Soufis of Ispahan") during his sojourn in the
Persian capital. The preface goes on to state that Mukhlis had, in his
youth, translated into Persian certain Indian plays, which had been
translated into all the Oriental languages and of which a Turkish
version existed in the Bibliotheque Royale, under the title of Alfaraga
Badal-Schidda (i.e. El Ferej bad esh Shiddeh), which signified "Joy
after Affliction"; but that, wishing to give his work an original air,
he converted the aforesaid plays into tales. Cazotte's story of the
Indian plays savours somewhat of the cock and the bull and it is
probable that the Hezar o Yek Roz (which is not, to my knowledge,
extant) was not derived from so recondite a source, but was itself
either the original of the well-known Turkish collection or (perhaps) a
translation of the latter. At all events, Zeyn Alasnam, Codadad and the
Princess of Deryabar occur in a copy (cited by M. Zotenberg), belonging
to the Bibliotheque Nationale, of El Ferej bad esh Shidded (of which
they form the eighth, ninth and sixth stories respectively) and in a
practically identi