REVIEWS.
Up to the present time few collections have been made of Persian folk tales, and the subject is of special interest because Persia is the meeting-ground of the cultures of Arabia on the west and of India on the east, in addition to the local Eranian culture which possesses an important literature. This collection of tales made from original sources deserves hearty commendation, and the tales are admirably translated and illustrated. It is natural to enquire how far the folk tradition of Persia is indigenous, and how far it has been influenced by Arabia and India. From this point of view the present collection is highly valuable. But the general question cannot now be discussed, and it is to be hoped that some scholar will undertake a complete analysis of these stories and trace the parallels. Many of the tales seem purely indigenous, but it would be easy to show that others are variants or direct importations of material from other sources. As regards India, Sir G. Grierson, in the last issue of Folk-Lore, supplies an interesting parallel to one of the stories from India. So far as I can judge the influence of Arabia, that is to say, of the Arabian Nights, is not clearly apparent. But in “The Merchant of Isfahan” we have the faithless wife turned into a bitch as in “The Eldest Lady’s Tale” in the Nights, and the nonsense tales, such as “The Story of the City of Nothing-in-the-World,” and that of “The Prince who did not Exist,”
