Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 4 1886.djvu/308

 300 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF FOLK-LORE.

sends her back to lier country, where she gives birth to Sikandar (Alexander the Great). Ddrdb is succeeded by his son Dard, who is conquered and slain by Sikandar, and whose daughter Sikandar marries.

18. QissA LAiLf WA Majnun, the Story of Laili and Majnun, by Mirza Muhammad Taqi, of Lucknow, at the request of Nawab Sa'adat 'Ali Shah, of Oudh, published at Cawnpore, at the Nawal Kishor Press; no date : 61 pp. 8vo. It is a rechauffee in elegant Urdu verse of this well-known Arabic poem. Laili and Majnun fall in love at school. Laili is taken away by her parents, and Majmin goes mad, and Laili in the end dies for love of him.

Laili and Qais, daughter and son of two princes of the 'Umri tribe in Arabia, are sent to the same school, where they fall in love. Laili is removed, and Qais goes mad. His father makes overtures to Laili's father for her marriage, in the hopes of curing him, but these are declined on the ground of the lad's madness. Qais goes to live in the deserts as a recognised madman, Majnun, and hence his name. Prince Bakht Ibn Salam happens to see Laili, but Laili altogether refuses his overtures. Majnun makes the acquaintance of Naufal, king of Arabia, who attempts to7orce on an alliance between him and Laili, but the argument of Majnun's father prevails, and he desists. Laili is now forced to marry Bakht Ibn Salam, but she refuses to cohabit with him. Majnun hears of her marriage, and soon after his father dies of grief. Laili now puts on mourning, which so disgusts her husband Bakht that he divorces her. Laili next sends Majnun a letter, and the lovers meet, and he recovers his senses, but her mother takes her away, and he goes mad again. After this Laili dies of grief, and Majnun follows her.

19. QissA Laili wa Majnun, by Fazal Shah, published at the Muhammadi Press, Lahore, in 1872: 128 pp. large 8vo. It is a very elegant, though rather high-flown, rechauffee of the same story as No. 18 in Urdu, by this celebrated Panjabi poet. The outline is the same as that above given.