Yet, if non' other weal the quest have wrought me.
The long beloved labour now at end,
This gift of gifts the untravelled East hath brought me,
The knowledge of a new and valued friend.

5th Feb. 1889.






INTRODUCTION.

I.

The readers of my translation of the Book of the Thousand Nights
and One Night will remember that, in the terminal essay (1884) on
the history and character of the collection, I expressed my
conviction that the eleven (so-called) "interpolated"
tales, [FN#1] though, in my judgment, genuine Oriental stories,
had (with the exception of the Sleeper Awakened and Aladdin) no
connection with the original work, but had been procured by
Galland from various (as yet) unidentified sources, for the
purpose of supplying the deficiencies of the imperfect MS. of the
Nights from which he made his version. [FN#2] My opinion as to
these talcs has now been completely confirmed by the recent
discovery (by M. Zotenberg, Keeper of Oriental MSS. in the
Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris) of two Arabic MSS. of the
Nights, both containing three of the missing stories, i.e. (1)