OFFICE, 22, TOOK'S COURT, CHANCERY LANE, E.C.

BY JOHN C. FRANCIS.

189847

it away.

LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 5, 1889.

though it reappears in another Arabian version,

viz., the 'Story of the Fisherman's Son,' in the

CONTENTS.-No 158.

Wortley Montagu MS. of The Nights '* - &

NOTES Aladdin's Lamp, 1-The 'Ars Morlendi' Block- second talisman was necessary to the hero for two
Book, 2-Dickens and Figaro in London, 3 Notes on purposes : (1) to enable him to escape from the
Epictetus-Queenie-Colt, Coltes-Reverend and Reverent
Bush, 4 - Londonshire --- Flles and Wolves -- Taco-Casa- cave by means of the slave of the ring ; and (2) to
novlana - Curious Etymology-Hampolo's Version of the further his efforts to recover the magic palace and
Psalms, 5-Pope's Vision Medieval Names European his royal bride, carried away by order of the
Womon among Savages-Sheffield Plate-Marriage, 6.

magician as soon as he bad exchanged "now lamps

QUERIES :-John Banyan-Monody on Henderson'-sir A.

Hart-Great Seal of Katherine Parr-Monte Video-Bishops for old” very advantageously. The slave of the

of Norwich-Longitude and Marriage, 7—“A cool hundred lamp gives its possessor wealth galore and so forth.

--Polydore Vergil – Death Warrant of Charles .- Cross But the great blunder is, that the genio is sum-

Tree-The Sorbonne-"A laity with a strong backbone".

Soapstone Figures – Medal Portraits – Water-marks-W. moned (like him of the ring) by rubbing the lamp;

Flelding, 8 – Betham-Altar Inscriptions - Vertao-Mills while Aladdin found it burning in the cave, and

* Logic --Capt. Martyat-Beveridge-Baptist May-Authors

Wanted, 8.

had, of course, to extinguish the light in order to

carry

And what the author forgot is that

REPLIES :-Wetherby, 9 Egyptian Blerograms, 10-DF: whenever the lamp was lighted the genie would in.
Guillotin - Charlemagne -“Bring” and “Take"-Friar's
Lanthorn-Belglan Custom, 11—Sir M. Livesey-Chartist- stantly appear“ to obey," &c.; and so he fell back
G. Borrow's Birst Publication-Book on Bank-note Issue

**New English Dictionary - Constablo's Pictures – Pits upon the usual manner in which magical rings are
hanger, 12-Kirk-Grims, 13-Quarles-Anonymous Poem- employed to summon their " slaves"-by rubbing
Children - Buonaparte's Habeas Corpus, 11 - Amsterdam them.+ In other versions or analogues of the story
Bourse-Agincourt : Davy Gam-Herrick, 15-Beans in Lear of Aladdin-which is evidently of comparatively
Year-Lord Lisle's Assassination - Rolling & Ball-West-
minster Library Hammonds-Poison-Aston's "Brief Sup- recent date—where a lamp is the wonder-worker it
plement, 16 — Nightcap Stratagem. Curiosities of Cata- must be lighted in order to summon its attendant
loguing-Pendulum Clocks-Swiit's ‘Polite Conversation'-
Bombastes Furioso -Chancer's · Balade of Gentilnesse,' 17 spirit. Thus in the German story of the 'Blue

- Brussels Gazette '-" Our Father"-Arbuthnot, 18. Light,' in Grimm's collection, no sooner does the
NOTES ON BOOKS: Foster's 'Alumni Oxonienses'. old soldier light the lamp he found at the bottom

Loftie's Kensington, Picturesque and Historical.' of the dry well than there appears before him"

Notices to Correspondents, &o.

black dwarf, with a hump on his back and &

feather in his cap," who demands to know what he

Potes.

wants, and so on.

But there an Indian story, in Mrs. Meer

ALADDIN'S WONDERFUL LAMP.

Hasan Ali's 'Observations on the Mussulmans of
I fancied that I had said “the last” for a long

India' (London, 1832), vol. ii. p. 324 ff., in which
time to come about the story of Aladdin ('Alá-ed Saddú, & hypocritical devotee, wandering into a

a lighted lamp has the same property : Shaykh

Día) and his lamp in my 'Popular Tales and Fic-

tions,

and afterwards in Appendix to vol. ii. of neighbouring jungle one day, finds a copper cup,

Sir Richard F. Bartou’s ‘Supplemental Nights';

whereon were engraved certain characters which
but I find that I have somehow overlooked what he could not with all his learning decipher. He
now appears to me a very great absurdity in that takes it to his retreat, and at nightfall, being jast
world-renowned romance, as regards the mode of then in want of a good-sized lamp, he puts oil and
using the lamp.

& wick into the cap, and the instant it was lighted
In by far the greater number of versions, variants, a." figure resembling a human

being" stood before

him.

and analogues of the story, both Asiatic and

“Who art thou," demanded the shaykh,
European, the wonder-working thing is a magical of a hermit ?" The figure replied : “I come at

" that dost thus intrude at this hour on the privacy

gem or ring, commonly obtained by the hero from

å serpent, * for services rendered"; and the hero the summons of your lamp. I The possessor of that

having befriended certain animals, generally a dog vessel has four slaves, one of whom you see before

and a cat, when his precious talisman is stolen you. We are genii, and can only be summoned by

these grateful animals recover it for him. I have the lighting up of this vessel. The number of your

elsewhere pointed out that this is probably the slaves will be in dae attendance

according to the

original form of the story; and, if so, then it is cer- number of the wicks that it may please you to
tainly of Buddhist invention. But in the tale of light. Demand our attendance at any hour you
Aladdin the young hero has two talismans, namely,

* This story is translated in Dr. Jonathan Scott's edi.

the ring, which the magician gives him for his pro- tion of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, vol. vi.

tection before he descends into the cave, and the pp. 210-212; and in Sir R. F. Burton's 'Supplemental

lamp, of which he becomes possessed through the Nights,' vol. iv. pp. 314-329.

magician foolishly shutting him in the cave-to according to the finger op which it is placed.

† Sometimes a magical ring bas different properties

perish, as he vainly believed. As the element of

8