Chapter 1

Privately Printed By The Burton Club

General Studholme J. Hodgson

My Dear General,

To whom with more pleasure or propriety can I inscribe this volume than to my preceptor of past times; my dear old friend, whose deep study and vast experience of such light literature as The Nights made me so often resort to him for good counsel and right direction? Accept this little token of gratitude, and believe me, with the best of wishes and the kindest of memories,

Ever your sincere and attached Richard F. Burton.

London, July 15, 1886.

"To the pure all things are pure" (Puris omnia pura) —Arab Proverb.

"Niuna corrotta mente intese mai sanamente parole." —"Decameron" —conclusion.

"Erubuit, posuitque meum Lucretia librum sed coram Bruto. Brute! recede, leget." —Martial.

"Mieulx est de ris que de larmes escripre, Pour ce que rire est le propre des hommes." —Rabelais.

"The pleasure we derive from perusing the Thousand-and-One Stories makes us regret that we possess only a comparatively small part of these truly enchanting fictions." —Crichton's "History of Arabia."

Contents of the Eleventh Volume.

1. The Sleeper and the Waker Story of the Larrikin and the Cook 2. The Caliph Omar Bin Abd Al-Aziz and the Poets 3. Al-Hajjaj and the Three Young Men 4. Harun Al-Rashid and the Woman of the Barmecides 5. The Ten Wazirs; or the History of King Azadbakht and His Son a. Of the Uselessness of Endeavour Against Persistent Ill Fortune aa. Story of the Merchant Who Lost His Luck b. Of Looking To the Ends of Affairs bb. Tale of the Merchant and His Sons