the staggering commencement "When Harun al
Rashid crucified Ja'afar;" and if we try to comfort ourselves with the
reflection that we are reading only Fiction, History comes forward and
tells us bluntly that it is naked truth. Passing from this story,
which casts so lurid a light over the Nights, we come to Abu Mohammed,
Lazybones, the Arab Dick Whittington, whose adventures are succeeded
by those of Ali Shar, a young man who, with nothing at all, purchases
a beautiful slave girl--Zumurrud. When, after a time, he loses her, he
loses also his senses, and runs about crying:

"The sweets of life are only for the mad."

By and by Zumurrud becomes a queen, and the lovers are re-united. She is
still very beautiful, very sweet, very pious, very tender, and she flays
three men alive.

We need do no more than allude to "The Man of Al Yaman and his six Slave
Girls," "The Ebony Horse," and "Uns al Wujud and Rose in Hood."

The tale of the blue-stocking Tawaddud [449] is followed by a number
of storyettes, some of which are among the sweetest in the Nights. "The
Blacksmith who could handle Fire without Hurt," "The Moslem Champion,"
with its beautiful thoughts on prayer, and "Abu Hasn and the Leper" are
all of them fragrant as musk. Then comes "The Queen of the Serpents"
with the history of Janshah, famous on account of the wonderful Split
Men--the creatures already referred to in this work, who used to
separate longitudinally. The Sindbad cycle is followed by the melancholy
"City of Brass," and a great collection of anecdotes illustrative of the
craft and malice of woman.

In "The Story of Judar" [450] we find by the side of a character of
angelic goodness characters of fiendish malevolence--Judar's brothers--a
feature that links it with the stories of Abdullah bin Fazil [451] and
Abu Sir and Abu Kir. [452] Very striking is the account of the Mahrabis
whom Judar pushed into the lake, and who appeared with the soles of
their feet above the water and none can forget the sights which the
necromancy of the third Maghrabi put before the eyes of Judar. "Oh,
Judar, fear not," said the Moor, "for they are semblances without life."
The long and bloody romance of Gharib and Ajib is followed by thirteen
storyettes, all apparently historical, and then comes the detective work
of "The Rogueries of Dalilah," and 'the Adventures of Mercury Ali." If
"The Tale of Ardashir" is wearisome, that of "Julnar the Sea Born and
her son King Badr," wh