Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 5 1887.djvu/125

Rh monsters, who divide themselves in half. This incident is remarkable as being the only allusion in The Nights to the Nesuas, or half-man, except in Scott's story of the Sage and his Pupil. At length they arrive at a country inhabited by apes, and Janshah is compelled to become their king. Seyf El Mulook, another wandering prince, also came to a land of apes, but was more fortunate, for they already had a king, and he was able to pursue his journey when he pleased, without let or hindrance. Janshah and his men dwell with the apes for some time, making successful war upon the Ghuls who are their enemies. In the mountains Janshah finds a tablet written by Solomon which informs him that there are only two passes leading from the country of the apes; one to the east "swarming with Ghuls and wild beasts, Marids and Ifrits" (this reminds us of the approach to the Islands of Wak-wak, in the Story of Hasan of Bassorah), and leading to the shore of the Circumambient Ocean; and the other through the Wady of Ants to a river which dries up every Sabbath, on the other bank of which stands a city inhabited solely by Jews. Janshah is pursued by the apes, but they are attacked by the ants which are as large as dogs; and he succeeds in escaping across a river, but loses all his attendants.

There is no mention of ants in the version of Seyf El Mulook in The Thousand and One Nights, but in the Persian version in The Thousand and One Days, which I take to represent an earlier form of this story, Seyf's companion Saed is devoured one night, while they are sleeping together on an island infested by ants, Seyf himself only escaping through the magic power of his ring. So incredible did this incident appear to the English or Scotch translator of the version in Weber's Tales of the East that he has actually turned the ants into "wild beasts," reminding one of the old story of the African chief who swallowed every yarn the sailor told him, till he said that water sometimes became hard enough to walk upon in his country, when the chief lost all patience, and became highly indignant with him for telling such lies.

I think there is little doubt that the stories of ants in these Eastern tales are connected with the account which Herodotus gives of the ants in the deserts of Northern India, and which he describes as