Dedication
“TO THE PURE ALL THINGS ARE PURE.”
(Puris omnia para)
—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.”
A PLAIN AND LITERAL TRANSLATION OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS ENTERTAINMENTS. NOW ENTITULED
THE BOOK OF THE
Thousand Nights and a Night
WITH INTRODUCTION EXPLANATORY NOTES ON THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF MOSLEM MEN AND A TERMINAL ESSAY UPON THE HISTORY OF THE NIGHTS
VOLUME I.
BY
RICHARD F. BURTON
SUBSCRIBERS ONLY
Shammar Edition
Limited to one thousand numbered sets, of which this is Number 547
Inscribed to the Memory
OF
MY LAMENTED FRIEND
John Frederick Steinhaeuser,
(CIVIL SURGEON, ADEN)
WHO
A QUARTER OF A CENTURY AGO
ASSISTED ME IN THIS TRANSLATION.