shown by his allusions to the fondness of Orientals for handsome
boys.[72] On the other hand, what he says of Zoroaster in the _Musai_
can all be found in Latin and Greek writers.[73] Here we get the
biography of Joseph's chief servant in the form of an appendix to the
novel, and the author displays all the learning which fortunately his
good taste had excluded from the story itself. Of the Iranian tradition
concerning Zoroaster's death as given in the Pahlavī writings or the
_Shāh Nāmah_[74] Grimmelshausen knew absolutely nothing; nor can we find
the slightest evidence to substantiate his assertion that for the work
in question he drew from Persian or Arabic sources.

* * * * *

In the eighteenth century the Oriental tale was extremely popular in
France, and thence it spread to other countries. The translation of the
Thousand and One Nights by Galland (Paris, 1704-1712) and of the Persian
Tales by Pétis de La Croix called into being a host of similar French
productions, which in turn found their way into German literature. The
most fruitful writer in this genre was Simon Gueulette, the author of
_Soirées Bretonnes_ (1712) and _Mille et un quart d'heures_ (1715). The
latter contains the story of a prince who is punished for his
presumption by having two snakes grow from his shoulders. To appease
them they are fed on fresh human brain.[75] Of course, we recognize at
once the story of the tyrant Ẕaẖẖāk familiar from Firdausī. The material
for the _Soirées_ was drawn largely from Armeno's _Peregrinaggio_, which
purports to be a translation from the Persian, although no original is
known to scholars.[76] From these _Soirées_ Voltaire took the material
for his _Zadig_.[77] In most cases, however, all that was Oriental about
such stories was the name and the costume. So popular was the Oriental
costume that Montesquieu used it for satirizing the Parisians in his