n Armenian princess and a prince from Pontus. The
latter, as we learn from the autobiography with which he favors us in
the fifth book, has been in India. He took with him a Brahman sage, who
burned himself on reaching Greece. Evidently Lohenstein had read
Arrian's description of the burning of Kalanos (Arrian vii. 2, 3). The
_Asiatische Banise_ of Heinrich Anselm von Ziegler-Kliphausen, perhaps
the most popular German novel of the seventeenth century, was based
directly on the accounts of travellers to Farther India, not on Greek or
Latin writings.[66] Other authors who indulged their predilection for
Oriental scenery were Buchholtz in his _Herkules und Valisca_ (1659),
Happel in _Der Asiatische Onogambo_ (Hamb. 1673), Bohse (Talander) in
_Die durchlauchtigste Alcestis aus Persien_ (Leipz. 1689) and
others.[67]

The most striking instance of the Oriental tendency is furnished by
Grimmelshausen's _Joseph_, first published probably in 1667.[68] Here we
meet the famous story of Yusuf and Zalicha as it is given in the _Quran_
or in the poems of Firdausi and Jami. The well-known episode of the
ladies cutting their hands instead of the lemons in consequence of their
confusion at the sight of Joseph's beauty is here narrated at
length.[69] In the preface the author states explicitly that he has
drawn, not only from the Bible, but from Hebrew, Arabic and Persian
writings as well.[70] That he should have made use of Arabic material is
credible enough, for Dutch Orientalists like Golius and Erpenius had
made this accessible.[71] That he had some idea of Persian poetry is
shown by his allusions to the fondness of Orientals for handsome
boys.[72] On the other hand, what he says of Zoroaster in the _Musai_
can all be found in Latin and Greek writers.[73] Here we get the
biography of Joseph's chief servant in the form of an appendix to the
novel, and the author displays all the learning which fortunately his
good taste had excluded from the story itself. Of the Iranian tradition
concerning Zoroaster's death as given in the Pahlavi writings or the
_Shah Namah_[74] Grimmelshausen knew absolutely nothing; nor can we find
the slightest evidence to substantiate his assertion that for the work
in question he drew from Persian or Arabic sources.

* * * * *

In the eighteenth century the Oriental tale was extremely popular in
France, and thence it spread to other countries. The translation of the
Thousand a