the Arabian version into old Castilian, “Libro de los Engannos et los Asayamientos de las Mugeres” (A.D. 1255), whereof a translation is appended to Professor Comparetti’s Socitey.  The Persion metrical form (an elaboration of one much older) dates from 1375; and gave rise to a host of imitations such as the Turkish Tales of the Forty Wazirs and the Canarese “Katha Manjari,” where four persons contend about a purse.  See also Gladwin’s “Persian Moonshee,” No. vi. of “Pleasing Stories;” and Mr. Clouston’s paper, “The Lost Purse,” in the Glasgow Evening Times.  All are the Eastern form of Gavarni’s “Enfants Terribles,” showing the portentous precocity for which some children (infant phenomena, calculating boys, etc. etc.) have been famous.

[FN#256] From the Bresl.  Edit. xii. 381.  The Sa’lab or Abu Hosayn (Father of the Fortlet) is the fox, in Marocco Akkab:  Talib Yusuf and Wa’wi are the jackal.  Arabas have not preserved “Jakal” from the Heb.  Shu’al and Persian Shaghal and Persian Shaghal (not Shagul) as the Rev. Mr. Tristram misinforms his readers. (Nat.  Hist. p. 85)

[FN#257] The name is old and classical Arabic:  in Antar the young Amazon Jayda was called Judar in public (Story of Jayda and Khalid).  It is also, as will be seen, the name of a quarter in Cairo, and men are often called after such places, e.g.  Al-Jubni from the Suk al Jubn in Damascus.  The story is exceedingly Egyptian and the style abounds in Cairene vulgarisms, especially in the Bresl.  Edit. ix. 311.

[FN#258] Had the merchant left his property to be divided after his death and not made a will he widow would have had only one-eighth instead of a fourth.

[FN#259] Lit. “from tyrant to tyrant,” i.e. from official to official, Al-Zalamah, the “tyranny” of popular parlance.

[FN#260] The coin is omitted in the text but it is evidently the “Nusf” or half-dirham.  Lane (iii.235), noting that the dinar is worth 170 “nusfs” in this tale, thinks that it was written (or copied?) after the Osmanh Conquest of Egypt.  Unfortunately he cannot tell the precise period when the value of the small change fell so low.

[FN#261] Arab “Yaum mubarak!” still a popular exclamation.

[FN#262] i.e. of the door of daily bread.

[FN#263] Arab.  “Sirah,” a small fish differently described (De Sacy, “Relation de l’Egypte par Abd allatif,” pp. 278-288:  Lane, Nights iii. 234.  It is not found in Sonnini’s list.

[FN#264] A tank or lakelet in the southern parts of Cairo, long ago filled up; Von Hammer believes it inherited the name of the old Charon’s Lake of Memphis, over which corpses were ferried.

[FN#265] Thus making the agreement a kind of religious covenant, as Catholics would recite a Pater or an Ave Maria.

[FN#266] Arab.  “Ya miskim"=O poor devil; mesquin, meschino, words evidently derived from the East.