terms and the exact vernacular equivalent of the foreign word, so
happily and so picturesquely that all future translators must
perforce use the same expression under pain of falling far short.
But the learned and versatile author bound himself to issue only
five hundred copies, and "not to reproduce the work in its
complete and uncastrated form." Consequently his excellent
version is caviaire to the general--practically unprocurable.

And here I hasten to confess that ample use has been made of the
three versions above noted, the whole being blended by a callida
junctura into a homogeneous mass. But in the presence of so many
predecessors a writer is bound to show some raison d'etre for
making a fresh attempt and this I proceed to do with due reserve.

Briefly, the object of this version is to show what "The Thousand
Nights and a Night" really is. Not, however, for reasons to be
more fully stated in the Terminal Essay, by straining verbum
reddere verbo, but by writing as the Arab would have written in
English. On this point I am all with Saint Jerome (Pref. in
Jobum) "Vel verbum e verbo, vel sensum e sensu, vel ex utroque
commixtum, et medic temperatum genus translationis." My work
claims to be a faithful copy of the great Eastern Saga book, by
preserving intact, not only the spirit, but even the mecanique,
the manner and the matter. Hence, however prosy and long drawn
out be the formula, it retains the scheme of The Nights because
they are a prime feature in the original. The Rawi or reciter, to
whose wits the task of supplying details is left, well knows
their value: the openings carefully repeat the names of the
dramatic personae and thus fix them in the hearer's memory.
Without the Nights no Arabian Nights! Moreover it is necessary to