OFFICE, 22, TOOK'S COURT, CHANCERY LANE, E.C.

BY JOHN C. FRANCIS.

189847

LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 5, 1889.

CONTENTS.-N° 158.

of Norwich-Longitude and Marriage, 7-"A cool hundred "
-Polydore Vergil-Death Warrant of Charles I.-Cross
Tree-The Sorbonne-"A laity with a strong backbone
Soapstone Figures - Medal Portraits - Water-marks-W.
Fielding, 8-Betham-Altar Inscriptions-Vertue-Mill's
Logic-Capt. Marryat-Beveridge-Baptist May-Authors
Wanted, 9.

though it reappears in another Arabian version,
viz., the Story of the Fisherman's Son,' in the
Wortley Montagu MS. of 'The Nights'
**
second talisman was necessary to the hero for two
purposes: (1) to enable him to escape from the

-

NOTES:-Aladdin's Lamp, 1-The 'Ars Moriendi' Block-
Book, 2-Dickens and Figaro in London,' 3-Notes on
Epictetus-Queenie-Colt, Coltes-Reverend and Reverent-
Bush, 4- -Londonshire Flies and Wolves-Tace-Casa-Cave by means of the slave of the ring; and (2) to
noviana Curious Etymology-Hampole's Version of the further his efforts to recover the magic palace and
Psalms, 5-Pope's Vision- Medieval Names-European his royal bride, carried away by order of the
Women among Savages-Sheffield Plate-Marriage, 6.
QUERIES:-John Bunyan-Monody on Henderson'-Sir A. magician as soon as he had exchanged "new lamps
Hart-Great Seal of Katherine Parr-Monte Video-Bishops for old" very advantageously. The slave of the
lamp gives its possessor wealth galore and so forth.
But the great blunder is, that the genie is sum-
moned (like him of the ring) by rubbing the lamp;
while Aladdin found it burning in the cave, and
had, of course, to extinguish the light in order to
REPLIES:-Wetherby, 9-Egyptian Hierograms, 10-Dr.: whenever the lamp was lighted the genie would in-
carry it away. And what the author forgot is that
Guillotin-Charlemagne- 'Bring" and "Take"-
"-Friar's
Lanthorn-Belgian Custom, 11-Sir M. Livesey-Chartist- stantly appear to obey," &c.; and so he fell back
G. Borrow's First Publication-Book on Bank-note Issue
New English Dictionary-Constable's Pictures-Pits- upon the usual manner in which magical rings are
hanger, 12-Kirk-Grims, 18-Quarles-Anonymous Poem-employed to summon their "slaves"-by rubbing
Bourse-Agincourt: Davy Gam-Herrick, 15-Beans in Leap of Aladdin-which is evidently of comparatively
Children-Buonaparte's Habeas Corpus, 14-Amsterdam them. In other versions or analogues of the story
Year-Lord Lisle's Assassination - Rolling a Ball-West-
minster Library-Hammonds-Poison-Aston's Brief Sup- recent date-where a lamp is the wonder-worker it
plement, 16-Nightcap Stratagem-Curiosities of Cata- must be lighted in order to summon its attendant
loguing-Pendulum Clocks-Swift's 'Polite Conversation'-
Bombastes Furioso-Chaucer's Balade of Gentilnesse,' 17 spirit. Thus in the German story of the 'Blue
Light,' in Grimm's collection, no sooner does the
old soldier light the lamp he found at the bottom
of the dry well than there appears before him "
black dwarf, with a hump on his back and a
feather in his cap," who demands to know what he
wants, and so on.

-Brussels Gazette '-" Our Father"-Arbuthnot, 18.
NOTES ON BOOKS: — Foster's 'Alumni Oxonienses'-
Loftie's Kensington, Picturesque and Historical.'
Notices to Correspondents, &c.

Nates.

ALADDIN'S WONDERFUL LAMP.

I fancied that I had said "the last" for a long
time to come about the story of Aladdin ('Alá-ed-
Día) and his lamp in my 'Popular Tales and Fic-
tions,' and afterwards in Appendix to vol. iii, of
Sir Richard F. Burton's 'Supplemental Nights';

but I find that I have somehow overlooked what

now appears to me a very great absurdity in that
world-renowned romance, as regards the mode of
using the lamp.

"

But there is an Indian story, in Mrs. Meer
Hasan Ali's 'Observations on the Mussulmans of
India' (London, 1832), vol. ii. p. 324 ff., in which
a lighted lamp has the same property: Shaykh
Saddú, a hypocritical devotee, wandering into a
neighbouring jungle one day, finds a copper cup,
he could not with all his learning decipher. He
whereon were engraved certain characters which
takes it to his retreat, and at nightfall, being just
then in want of a good-sized lamp, he puts oil and
a wick into the cup, and the instant it was lighted
a "figure resembling a human being" stood before
him. "Who art thou," demanded the shaykh,
"that dost thus intrude at this hour on the privacy
of a hermit?"

The figure replied: "I come at
the summons of your lamp. The possessor of that
vessel has four slaves, one of whom you see before
you. We are genii, and can only be summoned by
the lighting up of this vessel. The number of your
slaves will be in due attendance according to the
number of the wicks that it may please you to
light. Demand our attendance at any hour you

In by far the greater number of versions, variants,
and analogues of the story, both Asiatic and
European, the wonder-working thing is a magical
gem or ring, commonly obtained by the hero from
a serpent, for services rendered"; and the hero
having befriended certain animals, generally a dog
and a cat, when his precious talisman is stolen
these grateful animals recover it for him. I have
elsewhere pointed out that this is probably the
original form of the story; and, if so, then it is cer-
tainly of Buddhist invention. But in the tale of
Aladdin the young hero has two talismans, namely,
the ring, which the magician gives him for his pro-
tection before he descends into the cave, and the
lamp, of which he becomes possessed through the
magician foolishly shutting him in the cave-to
perish, as he vainly believed. As the element of
the grateful animals is omitted in the story-supposed.

*This story is translated in Dr. Jonathan Scott's edi-
tion of the Arabian Nights Entertainments,' vol. vi.
pp. 210-212; and in Sir R. F. Burton's 'Supplemental
Nights,' vol. iv. pp. 314-329.

† Sometimes a magical ring has different properties

according to the finger on which it is placed.

Evidently it was a lamp, not a cup, as the shaykh