Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/192

 186

NOTES AND QUERIES. tns.ix. SEPT. 5, 1914.

THE ORIGINAL OF 'ALADDIN.'

I WKOTE in 1910 the subjoined for an Aus- tralian newspaper, and it struck me that I have discovered the track of a story wandering across Asia between 200 and 1000 A.D., and getting " improved " on the way.

I do not think I ever heard the Chinese origin of ' Aladdin ' explained before.

" The story of Aladdin, as we have chosen to shorten his real name Allah-ed-din, the servant of God is of course taken straight out of the ' Arabian Nights,' or, more correctly, ' The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night.'

" This famous collectioii was made during the palmy days of the early Mohammedan Empire, which then extended from Spain to Persia, and had a capital of great brilliance at Bagdad on the Euphrates. The stories told are, no doubt, assembled from all parts of the world, and repre- sent new forms of old tales, as all known collec- tions of stories do. This is especially the case with ' Aladdin.' The scene is laid in China, and at Ldangchow, in the west of China, on the Upper Hoang-ho River, we find a story which obviously forms the groundwork of the Arabian variation. What were the steps of the wanderings of this story from China to Bagdad we know not, but we may surmise it was carried along the routes followed by the stream of trade which traversed Asia between those places for centuries.

" The story is to be found, in a literal transla- tion from the Chinese, in a book describing the Croat Wall of China, by Dr. Geil, who, it is inter- esting to note, is quite unconscious of it being the same story as ' Aladdin.' It runs as follows in a somewhat shortened form :

' ' During the Ming dynasty there dwelt in a village near Liangchow a worthy widow, with a sturdy son named Wang. The widow lived on . small farm under the shadow of the Great Wall, then, as now, honeycombed at that point with caves, in which wastrels dwell to-day, and, no doubt, dwelt then. The farm, which at first sup- ported her, gradually decayed in value, and, to add to her misfortunes, the country began to be attacked by the wild horsemen from Tibet, just beyond the Wall. These attacks caused the men of the country to be told off to garrison the Wall, and among them were taken Wang, the widow's only son and her main support, and her worthless brother, a drinking man, and also a gambler, who had squandered much of his nephew Wang's estate. Thinking his sister's remarriage would bring money into the family, he urged it on her, but in vain. He therefore formed the plan of ruining her livelihood by the murder of Wang, and compelling her to take a second husband when left alone and helpless on her little farm. The wicked uncle made a plot accordingly with another scoundrel to throw Wang among the Tibetans at their next attacks, but the youth fell into a dry well unnoticed, and the uncle and his Associate themselves lost their lives. The raiding party overran the neighbourhood, burned the farm, and carried off the widow on a horse, which, luckily, stumbled and threw her, so that she rolled into a dry well and escaped the ruffians. In the well, to her joy, she found Wang unhurt, find both were rescued by friendly soldiers.

Finding their home in ashes, their only resource was to settle in a cave in the Wall, where they lived on vegetables they collected. Wishing to lay by a stock for the winter in a safe place. I hey began to burrow deeper into the Wall, and after much labour they struck, to their astonishment, ;>, door, which proved to be the entrance to a cave stocked with gold, hidden centuries before. There are other legends of gold being hidden in the Great Wall, no doubt in troublous times. Wang honestly reported the find to the magis- trate, who informed the Viceroy of the province, and the story thus reached the Emperor of China. The sovereign rewarded Wang with great honours, as a dutiful son and a loyal subject. He was made a general, and his mother en- nobled.'

" In this story we have the dramatis persona; of ' Aladdin ' the poor widow, the son, the wicked uncle as well as the wealth and position the son attained. Nor has the story any miraculous element. It may very well have been founded on facts which occurred at that spot. It no doubt gives us the actual locality and origin of the Chinese story, which travelled thousands of miles to Bagdad, and appears, in its present en- larged and embellished shape, crusted over with marvellous details and supernatural agencies. Stories lose nothing in the telling, and the space this one has covered in its wanderings implies that it has been, during many years, told and retold uncounted times, even before the incom- parable authors of the ' Arabian Nights ' recast it to stand for ever in literature."

HUBERT FOSTER. University of Sydney.

[It is, perhaps, worth while to remind our readers that the story of 'Aladdin,' like that of ' Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves,' does not form part of the original collection of the ' Arabian Nights.']

FORTIFICATIONS OF ANTWERP IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. The following account of the fortifications of Antwerp as they existed at the end of the seventeenth century should be of interest at the present time. It is taken from Fran9ois Maxi- milien Misson's ' New Voyage to Italy,' which first appeared in French in 1691, and was translated into English in 1695. Misson was a French Protestant refugee in England after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and was appointed tutor to the Earl of Arran, whom he accompanied on the grand tour. Addison speaks highly of the book. The edition here used is the fourth (1714) :

" The famous City of Antwerp, is seated on a smooth and level spot of Ground, on the right Bank of the Scheld ; its Figure approaches to a Semi-circle, the Diameter of which is washed by the River .... The Fortifications formerly good are now indifferent. The Ramparts are adorn'd almost throughout with double Alleys border'd with great Trees, which make very pleasant Walks. The Citadel is strong, but somewhat neglected ; 'tis a regular Pentagon. It was built in the Year