tions and all literatures. But
since Hammer-Purgstall and De Sacy began to unwind the skein, many
additional turns have been given. The idea of the "frame" in general
comes undoubtedly from India; and such stories as 'The Barber's Fifth
Brother,' 'The Prince and the Afrit's Mistress,' have been "traced back
to the Hitopadesa, Panchatantra, and Katha Sarit Sagara." The 'Story of
the King, his Seven Viziers, his Son, and his Favorite,' is but a late
version, through the Pahlavi, of the Indian Sindibad Romance of the time
of Alexander the Great. A number of fables are easily paralleled by
those in the famous collection of Bidpai (see the list in Jacobs's 'The
Fables of Bidpai,' London, 1888, lxviii.). This is probably true of the
whole little collection of beast fables in the One Hundred and
Forty-sixth Night; for such fables are based upon the different
reincarnations of the Buddha and the doctrine of metempsychosis. The
story of Jali'ad and the Vizier Shammas is distinctly reported to have
been translated from the Persian into Arabic. Even Greek sources have
not been left untouched, if the picture of the cannibal in the
adventures of Sindbad the Sailor be really a reflex of the story of
Odysseus and Polyphemus. Arabic historians--such as Tabari, Masudi,
Kazwini, al-Jauzi--and the Kitab al-Aghani, have furnished innumerable
anecdotes and tales; while such old Arabic poets as Imr al-Kais,
Alkamah, Nabhighah, etc., have contributed occasional verses.

It is manifest that such a mass of tales and stories was not composed at
any one time, or in any one place. Many must have floated around in
drinking-rooms and in houses of revelry for a long time before they were
put into one collection. Even to this day the story of Ali Baba is
current among the Bedouins in Sinai. Whenever the digest was first made,
it is certain that stories were added at a later time. This is evident
from the divergences seen in the different manuscripts, and by the
additional stories collected by Payne and Burton. But in their present
form, everything points to the final redaction of the 'Nights' in Egypt.
Of all the cities mentioned, Cairo is described the most minutely; the
manners and customs of the _personae_ are those of Egyptian society--say
from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century. For this we have the
warrant of Mr. Lane, than whom no one is to be heard upon this subject
with greater respect. That such stories as these were popular in Egypt
se