"Variants and Analogues of XI and XII" - читать интересную книгу автора (Burtons Version)
ааааEach order given by a reigning king,
аааааааааShould after long reflection be expressed;
ааааFor it may be that endless woe will spring
аааааааааFrom a command he paused not to digest.
And in this respect they are consistent with the circumstances of the case, like the tales of the Book of Sindibсd, from which the frame of the Ten Wazэrs was imitated, and in which the Wazэrs relate stories showing the depravity and profligacy of women and that no reliance should be placed on their unsupported assertions, and to these the lady opposes equally cogent stories setting forth the wickedness and perfidy of men. аClosely resembling the frame-story of the Ten Wazэrs, however, is that of a Tamil romance entitled, "Alakeswara Kathс," a copy of which, written on palm leaves, was in the celebrated Mackenzie collection, of which Dr. H. H. Wilson published a descriptive catalogue; it is "a story of the Rсjс of Alakespura and his four ministers, who, being falsely accused of violating the sanctity of the inner apartments, vindicate their innocence and disarm the king's wrath by relating a number of stories." аJudging by the specimen given by Wilson, the well-known tale of the Lost Camel, it seems probable that the ministers' stories, like those of Bakhtyсr, are suited to their own case and illustrate the truth of the adage that "appearances are often deceptive." аWhether in the Siamese collection "Nonthuk Pakkaranam" (referred to in vol. i. p. 127) the stories related by the Princess Kankras to the King of Pataliput (Palibothra), to save her father's life, are similarly designed, does not appear from Benfey's notice of the work in his paper in "Orient and Occident," iii. 171 ff. аHe says that the title of the book, "Nonthuk Pakkaranam," is taken from the name of a wise ox, Nonthuk, that plays the principal part in the longest of the tales, which are all apparently translated from the Sanskrit, in which language the title would be Nandaka Prakaranam, the History of Nandaka.
Most of the tales related by the wazir Al-Rahwan are not only in themselves entertaining, but are of very considerable importance from the story-comparer's point of view, since in this group occur Eastern forms of tales which were known in Italy in the 14th century, and some had spread over Europe even earlier. аThe reader will have seen from Sir R. F. Burton's notes that not a few of the stories have their parallels or analogues in countries far apart, and it is interesting to find four of them which properly belong to the Eastern texts of the Book of Sindibad, with the frame-story of which that of this group has so close an affinity.
аTHE ART OF ENGARGING PEARLS.--Vol. XI. p.131.
"Quoth she, I have a bangle; sell it and buy seed pearls with the price; then round them
and fashion them into great pearls."
For want of a more suitable place, I shall here reproduce an account of the "Method of making false pearls" (nothing else being meant in the above passage), cited, from Post. Com. Dict. In vol. xxvi. Of Rees' Cyclopaedia," London, 1819:
"Take of thrice distilled vinegar two pounds, Venice turpentine one pound, mix them together into a mass and put them into a cucurbit, fit a head and receiver to it, and after you have luted the joints set it when dry on a sand furnace, to distil the vinegar from it; do not give it too much heat, lest the stuff swell up. аAfter this put the vinegar into another glass cucurbit in which there is a quantity of seed pearls wrapped in a piece of thin silk, but so as not to touch the vinegar; put a cover or head upon the cucurbit, lute it well and put it in bal. MariF, where you may let it remain a fortnight. аThe heat of the balneum will raise the fumes of the vinegar, and they will soften the pearls in the silk and bring them to the consistence of a paste, which being done, take them out and mould them to what bigness, form, and shape you please. аYour mould must be of fine silver, the inside gilt; you must also refrain from touching the paste with your fingers, but use silver-gilt utensils, with which fill your moulds. аWhen they are moulded, bore them through with a hog's bristle or gold wire, and then tread them again on gold wire, and put them into a glass, close it up, and set them in the sun to dry. аAfter they are thoroughly dry, put them in a glass matrass into a stream of running water and leave them there twenty days; by that time they will contract the natural hardness and solidity of pearls. аThen take them out of th matrass and hang them in mercurial water, where they will moisten, swell, and assume their Oriental beauty; after which shift them into a matrass hermitically closed to prevent any water coming to them, and let it down into a well, to continue there about eight days. аThen draw the matrass up, and in opening it you will find pearls exactly resembling Oriental ones." а(Here follows a recipe for making the mercurial water used in the process, with which I need not occupy more space.)
In Philostratus' Life of Appolonius there is a curious passage about pearl-making which has been generally considered as a mere "traveller's tale": аApollonious relates that the inhabitants of the shores of the Red Sea, after having calmed the water by means of oil, dived after the shell-fish, enticed them with some bait to open their shells, and having pricked the animals with a sharp-pointed instrument, received the liquor that flowed from them in small holes made in an iron vessel, in which is hardened into real pearls.--It is stated by several reputable writers that the Chinese do likewise at the present day. аAnd Sir R. F. Burton informs me that when he was on the coast of Midian he found the Arabs were in the habit of "growing" pearls by inserting a grain of sand into the shells.
аTHE SINGER AND THE DRUGGIST.--Vol. XI. p. 136.
The diverting adventures related in the first part of this tale should be of peculiar interest to the student of Shakspeare as well as to those engaged in tracing the genealogy of popular fiction. аJonathan Scott has given--for reasons of his own--a meagre abstract of a similar tale which occurs in the УBahсr-i-DсnishФ (vol. iii. App., p. 291), as follows:
PERSIAN VERSION
A young man, being upon business in a certain city, goes on a hunting excursion, and, fatigued with the chase, stops at a country house to ask refreshment. аThe lady of the mansion receives him kindly, and admits him as her lover. аIn the midst of their dalliance the husband comes home, and the young man had no recourse to escape discovery but to jump into a basin which was in the court of the house, and stand with head in a hollow gourd that happened to be in the water. аThe husband, surprised to see the gourd stationary in the water, which was itself agitated by the wind, throws a stone at it, when the lover slips from beneath it and holds his breath till almost suffocated. аFortunately, the husband presently retires with his wife into an inner room of the house, and thus the young man was enabled to make good his escape.
The next day he relates his adventure before a large company at a coffee-house. аThe husband happens to be one of the audience, and, meditating revenge, pretends to admire the gallantry of the young man and invites him to his home. аThe lover accompanies him, and on seeing his residence is overwhelmed with confusion; but, recovering himself, resolves to abide all hazards, in hopes of escaping by some lucky stratagem. аHis host introduces him to his wife, and begs him to relate his merry adventure before her, having resolved, when he should finish, to put them both to death. аThe young man complies, but with an artful presence of mind exclaims at the conclusion, УGlad was I when I awoke from so alarming a dream.Ф аThe husband upon this, after some questions, is satisfied that he had only told his dream, and, having entertained him nobly, dismisses him kindly.
This story is told in an elaborate form by Ser Giovanni Fiorentino, in УIl PecoroneФ (The Big Sheep, or, as Dunlop has it, The Dunce), which was begun in 1378 but not published till 1554 (at Milan). аIt is the second novel of the First Day and has been thus translated by Roscoe:
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