and imperfect text.  My friend Mr. W. F. Kirby appended to volume x. of “The Nights” (proper) his most valuable contributions to the bibliology of the work with its various imitations and a table showing the contents of the principal editions and translations of “The Nights”:  he also enriched my Supplemental volumes v. and vi. with his excellent annotations.  Mr. Kingsbury (and Notcutt) photographed for my use 400 and odd pages of the Wortley-Montague Ms., and proved how easy it was to produce a perfect fac-simile of the whole.  Mr. George Lewis gave me the soundest advice touching legal matters and Mr. Philip M. Justice was induced to take an active interest in the “Household Edition.”  The eminent Orientalist, Dr. Pertsch, Librarian of the Grand-Ducal Collection, Saxe-Gotha, in lively contrast to my countrymen of the Bodleian, offered to send me the two volumes of a valuable Ms. containing the most detailed texts of Judar and his brethren (vol. vi. 213) and of Zahir and his son Ali.  Dr. Reinhold Rost, Librarian of the Indian Office, took much trouble about the W. M. Ms. but all in vain.  Mr. Alexander W. Thayer, of Trieste, who has studied for years the subject of the so-called Jewish “Exodus,” obliged me with a valuable note detailing his original views.  His Excellency Yacoub Artin Pasha, Minister of Public Instruction, Cairo, a friend of many years standing, procured for me the decorations in the Cufic, Naskhi and other characters, which add to much of novelty and ornament to the outer semblance of my sixteen volumes.  Mr. Hermann Zotenberg, Keeper of Oriental Ms. at the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, lent me his own transcription of the “Alaeddin,” and generously supplied me with exact bibliographical notes and measurements of sundry tomes in that admirable collection.

I am also deeply indebted to Mrs. Victoria L. Maylor, of Trieste, who, during the past three years (1885-1888) had the energy and perseverance to copy for me sixteen bulky volumes written in a “running-hand,” concerning which the less said the better.  And lastly, I must acknowledge peculiar obligations to my Shaykh, Dr. Steingass, Ph.D.  This well-known Arabist not only assisted me in passing the whole work through the press he also added a valuable treatise on Arabic Prosody (x. 233-258) with indexes of various kinds, and finally he supervised the MSS. of the Supplemental volumes and enriched the last three, which were translated under peculiar difficulties in analphabetic lands, with the results of his wide reading and lexicographical experience.

And now, Alhamdolillah, the play is ended, and while the curtain drops, I take the final liberty of addressing my kindly and appreciative audience in the following words, borrowed from a Persian brother of the pen:—­

     Now hear my hope from men of liberal mind,
     Faults, that indulgence crave, shall seek and find;
     For whose blames and of despite decries,
     Is wight right witless, clean reverse of wise.