WITH INTRODUCTION, NOTES, AND APPENDIX
By W. A. CLOUSTON,
AUTHOR OF “POPULAR TALES AND FICTIONS” AND THE “BOOK OFNOODLES”; EDITOR OF THE “BOOK OF SINDIBAD,” THE“BAKHTYAR NAMA,” ETC.
“Who is he, that is now wholly overcome with idleness or otherwiseinvolved in a labyrinth of worldly cares and troubles and discontents, thatwill not be much lightened in his mind by reading some enticing story,true or feigned?”—Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy.
PRIVATELY PRINTED.
MDCCCLXXXIX.
Edition—300 Copies.
TO
FORSTER FITZGERALD ARBUTHNOT, ESQ.,
MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
My Dear Arbuthnot,
Since you have always been warmlyinterested in my own works as well as in OrientalLiterature generally, allow me to Dedicate to you thepresent collection of Eastern Tales. This I dowith the greater pleasure, knowing that no man ismore able than yourself to appreciate their value forthe comparative study of popular fictions, and alsoto recognise their entertaining qualities.
Believe me,
Yours ever faithfully,
W. A. CLOUSTON.
Glasgow, April, 1889.
It has been justly remarked that “the literature ofa nation furnishes the best guide to researchesinto its character, manners, and opinions, and no departmentof literature contains a more ample store ofdata in this respect than the light and popular partconsisting of tales, romances, and dramatic pieces.”The lighter literature of mediæval Europe affords usan insight into customs, manners, and superstitionswhich have long passed away; but in “the unchangingEast” the literature of the Asiatic races, produced atthe same period, continues to reflect the sentiments andhabits of the Hindús, Buddhists, and Muslims at thepresent day. For among Asiatics belief in astrology,magic, divination, good and bad omens, and evil spirits(rákshasas, dívs, jinn, etc.) who are ever eager to injurehuman beings is still as prevalent as when the oldestof their popular tales and romances were first written.The child-like, wonder-loving Oriental mind delightsin stories of the supernatural, and the more suchnarratives exceed the bounds of human possibility thegreater is the pleasure derived from them;—like our[vi]own peasantry, who believed (and not so long since)in “ghosts, fairies, goblins, and witches,” as well as inthe frequent apparition of Satan in various forms todelude the benighted traveller, and were fond oflistening to “tales of the wild and wonderful” duringthe long winter evenings.
The following collection comprises fairly representativeEastern tales; some of which are of commonlife and have nothing in them of the supernatural,while in others may be found all the machinery oftypical Asiatic fictions: gorgeous palaces constructed