24. Histoire du d'Aly Mohammed le joaillier, ou du faux calife.

I need hardly offer any observations upon these tales, as they
have been discussed in the preceding pages.

By an error of the late M. Reinaud (for which see p. 39 His toire
d' 'Ala al-Din by M. H. Zotenberg, Paris, Imprimerie Na tionale,
MDCCCLXXXVIII.) the MS. Supplement Arabe, No. I7I6, in the
writing of Dom Chavis has been confounded with No. 1723, which is
not written by the Syrian priest but which contains the originals
of the Cazotte Continuation as noted by M. C. de Perceval (Les
Mille et une Nuits, etc., vol. viii. Pref. p. I7, et seqq.) It is
labelled Histoires tirees la plupart des Mille et une Nuits |
Supplement Arabe | Volume de 742 pages. The thick quarto measures
centimetres 20 « long by I6 wide; the binding is apparently
Italian and the paper is European, but the filegrane or water-
mark, which is of three varieties, a coronet, a lozenge-shaped
bunch of circles and a nondescript, may be Venetian or French. It
contains 765 pages, paginated after European fashion, but the
last eleven leaves are left blank reducing the number written to
742; and the terminal note, containing the date, is on the last
leaf. Each page numbers IS lines and each leaf has its catchword
(mot de rappel). It is not ordered by "karras" or quires; but is
written upon 48 sets of 4 double leaves. The text is in a fair
Syrian hand, but not so flowing as that of No. 1716, by Shawish
himself, which the well-known Arabist, Baron de Slane, described
as Bonne ecriture orientale de la fin du XVIII Siecle. The
colophon conceals or omits the name of the scribe, but records
the dates of incept Kanun IId. (the Syrian winter month January)
A.D. 1772; and of conclusion Naysan (April) of the same year. It