The H. V. adds that Alaeddin loved to ride out a-hunting and had left the city for eight days whereof three had passed by.
Galland makes her say, _Hé bien, folle, veux-tu me dire pourquoi tu ris?_ The H. V. renders “Cease, giddyhead, why laughest thou?” and the vulgate “Well, giggler,” said the Princess, etc.
Nothing can be more improbable than this detail, but upon such abnormal situations almost all stories, even in our most modern “Society-novels,” depend and the cause is clear—without them there would be no story. And the modern will, perhaps, suggest that “the truth was withheld for a higher purpose, for the working out of certain ends.” In the H. V. Alaeddin, when about to go a-hunting, always placed the Lamp high up on the cornice with all care lest any touch it.
The H. V. adds, “The Magician, when he saw the Lamp, at once knew that it must be the one he sought; for he knew that all things, great and small, appertaining to the palace would be golden or silvern.”
In truly Oriental countries the Wazir is expected to know everything, and if he fail in this easy duty be may find himself in sore trouble.
We see that “China” was in those days the normal Oriental “despotism tempered by assassination.”
In the H. V. Alaeddin promises, “if I fail to find and fetch the Princess, I will myself cut off my head and cast it before the throne.” Hindus are adepts in suicide and this self-decapitation, which sounds absurd further West, is quite possible to them.
In Galland Alaeddin unconsciously rubbed the ring against _un petit roc_, to which he clung in order to prevent falling into the stream. In the H. V. “The bank was high and difficult of descent and the youth would have rolled down headlong had he not struck upon a rock two paces from the bottom and remained hanging over the water. This mishap was of the happiest for during his fall he struck the stone and rubbed his ring against it,” etc.
In the H. V. he said, “First save me that I fall not into the stream and then tell me where is the pavilion thou builtest for her and who hath removed it.”
Alluding to the preparatory washing, a mere matter of cleanliness which precedes the formal Wuzú-ablution.
In the H. V. the Princess ends with, “I had made this resolve that should he approach me with the design to win his wish perforce, I would destroy my life. By day and by night I abode in fear of him; but now at the sight of thee my heart is heartened.”