calties are great, considerable advances are also making on the Bombay side, as we observe by the report.

The profits of the culture of cotton appear to be very encouraging, as the Secretary of the Agricultural Society of Calcutta, after the experimental growth of cotton and after all proper deductions had been made, estimated the profit at 30 per cent. Mr. Bruce, of Calpee, writes, that the extraneous crops, cultivated with the cotton, "very often more than pay for the land-rent and labour of the whole cultivation." Dr. Wight has given a tabular view of the expense and profits of various districts on the Madras coast: in some, where the produce per acre is small, the profit is but little; but in others it is as high as 12 rupees per acre. On the Bombay side, Dr. Lush, who had charge of the experimental farm, says, he is convinced that the grower and the merchant may get ample profit when the best India cottons are at 5d. per lb.

Such having been the very satisfactory results obtained by the employment of these machines in experienced hands, and of the culture in different parts of India, the merchants interested in India cannot do better than imitate, even to the extent of inducing American planters to take charge of their grants of land in India, or at least send American gins to clean Indian cotton, as well as the press, which was exhibited by Mr. W. Laird of Liverpool, in which four hundred pounds of cotton were pressed to the size of an ordinary Surat bale by four men in twelve minutes.

Lilly's Engineering Establishment, Manchester, 1st August 1840. “The Merchants, Manufacturers, Spinners, and others interested in the various branches of the cotton trade, having been this day invited to witness experiments by saw-gins, imported from America, upon the cleaning and ginning of East-India cotton, imported in the natural state of boll or pod, with the view of ascertaining the practical application of the cleaning machinery of the United States, to cotton grown in the East-Indies, record with great pleasure their conviction, that the experiments now made clearly establish the fact, that this machinery has been successfully applied for the purpose desired and intended.

"The national importance of a supply of raw material, to maintain the industry of Great Britain, is admitted, and the parties immediately interested in the cotton trade hail with extreme satisfaction any attempts made to increase the supply of raw cotton in particular, and the manufacturing community of this town and neighbourhood beg thus to express their approbation of the conduct of the Directory of the Hon. EastIndia Company, and of Capt. Bayles and the gentlemen associated with him, in the attempts they are making to improve the cultivation and to enlarge the supply of East-India cotton, and it is hoped that every support will be given by the Hon. Company here, and by Lord Auckland and the authorities in India, to accomplish this most desirable object."

J. B. SMITH, President of the Chamber of Commerce,

H. HOOLE, Vice-President of the Chamber of Commerce. And signed by most of the principal Merchants and Manufacturers in Manchester.

SUPPLEMENT TO THE "ARABIAN NIGHTS."

THE subject of this paper is a story agreeing in name with one in the collection of supplementary stories of the Arabian Nights translated by Von Hammer and Trebutien; but the resemblance is little more than nominal. Trebutien's story begins, like our own, with the fisherman, Jouder, fishing in the lake of Karoun, near Kairo, and being accosted, after an unsuccessful day's labour, by a Maugrebi, mounted on a mule. This stranger, who has the external appearance of a man of wealth and consequence, requests Jouder to tie his hands and feet and cast him into the lake, to throw his net for him after a certain time, and bring him to shore, in case his head appears above the water. If his feet were seen first, this would be a sign that he had perished, and the fisherman was to take his mule and his property to a certain Jew, who would give him for them a purse of gold. Jouder, after some pleading of a very natural reluctance, undertakes this curious duty; the Maugrebi emerges feet upwards, and Jouder, interpreting this sign as he had been taught, as the fatal issue of his employer's attempt, takes the mule to the place appointed and receives the promised sum. A second Maugrebi is drowned with like profit to our fisherman, who begins to like his new employment, and obeys with great alacrity the command of a third, to bind him and cast him into the water, as he had done to his predecessors, who, as the fisherman is informed, were also his brothers. The third attempt is fortunate; the adventurous diver rises head-foremost from the water, holding in each hand a fish of strange form and colour; these are preserved each in a fitting casket, and their substance is destined to be employed in the prosecution of a certain adventure, in which the Maugrebi (Mohammed) and Jouder are each to play a distinguished part.

Thus far the story translated in the French and our own agree in the main points-except that in the MS. Jouder is represented as telling his own story to the sultan; a mode of communication which the sequel of the history, as given in Trebutien, renders impossible. After this, the only agreement between the two is that they both represent a series of adventures undertaken to recover an enchanted book, sabre, and other magical articles. The story found by Von Hammer is clearly less perfect than our own, and the conclusion, representing the tragical end of the hitherto successful hero Jouder, whose life has been "guarded by word and spell," seems to us exceedingly unlike the denouement of an Eastern story. Was there a gap in the original, filled up by either of the translators? We are almost inclined to suspect it. We must, however, give the earlier portion of the history, as our tale does, in the form of a narrative by Mohammed the Maugrebi to Jouder, who reports his conversation with Mohammed:

"Then he said to me,' Know, O Jouder, that this is not our place, nor is this what we were seeking. But we will sleep here, and to-morrow, by the blessing of God, we will go on, for I, O Jouder, have learnt many things of the sciences. I and my brothers were of the city of Tunis, and there I had a teacher, an old man of one hundred and twenty years, and he it was who taught me science, and eloquence, and the conjuration of demons, and he gave me a book. Now to this book were bound a thousand Marids, who served it, and in it was a kingly dignity, and thrones and followers, and honour and veneration; and he said to me, "Mohammed, take care of this book, for all which is in the world is in it, and thou shalt obtain by it honour and acceptance, and these thousand Marids, the servants of the book; over them is one whose name is Abulajnabah.

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When thou art in any need, Mohamed, cry to this Marid by his name, and he will speak to thee, and whatever necessity thou hast he will accomplish it for thee-though it were on the other side of the Mountain of Kaf, he will bring it to thee." So I took this book, with joy, and I told my brothers of it, and they envied me (they were those with whom happened that to thee which did happen), and their will was to slay me and take the book from me. Then I cried out," O Abulajnahah, O flyer!" my brothers were present, and lo one saying, "Yea, my lord," and a smoke rising out of this book, which ascended to Heaven. Then this smoke contracted in my presence, and by and by became like the shape of a man, only his head was in size like a water-cask, and his eyes like caves, and his neck like a watch-tower. He had three wings, a wing right, a wing left, and a wing in the middle of his back, and his stature was tremendous, so that I was astounded at it. And he said to me, Hast thou a want, it shall be fulfilled; hast thou a commission, it shall be proceeded upon."—I said to him "My will is, to take my pleasure in the Mountain of the Torrent and in the Golden Castle, I and my brothers." And he said, "Hearing is obedience." Then said he, "Mount every one of you on a wing." So I got on his back, and each of my brothers on a wing at the sideand with this he rose up on his wings and flew for a space of time. Then he put us upon the ground and opened his wings for me, and said, "This, O Mohamed, is the Mountain of the Torrent, and the Castle of Gold." Then I called him by his name, and said, "What is behind this mountain ?" He said, "The Gazelle Valley and the Murmuring Sea, and the Island of King Naʼmán, Ibn'aun, the 'Amláki, in the midst of the Murmuring Sea with dashing waves." Then I said, "Carry me to enjoy this valley ;" and he replied, "Hearing is obedience;" and taking us on his wings, and crying “O, my lord, I fly with you into the air," he flew with us, and lighted in this valley. Here we found the earth white, like cleaned cotton, and having an odour like that of pure musk, and in the valley was a river of flowing water, colder than snow and purer than honey. And on the sides of the river were plants of balsam, and jasmine, and lilies, and all other scented plants, and this river was such that it would delight all men-and it flowed into the salt sea. On the shore of the salt sea was a nut-tree, spreading its branches so that it would shade a hundred horsemen and more-here I and my brothers took our pleasure, walking along the bank of the river, till we came up to the tree, which we saw was very great. Then said Sanjah,* "Let us climb this tree, so that we may command the island of Naʼmán, and view its dells and trees." So we did as he recommended, and ascended the tree, and from it we saw into the ocean, and saw that we were in the midst of it, and the sight pleased us greatly. But as we were about to descend, we noted a commotion in the sea, and from it ascended a fish of a red colour, and this fish dragged itself along on its belly till it came under the tree in which we were; then it changed, and took a human figure, and we saw a girl like the shining sun, her eyes bright and her eye-brows bended bows, and her cheeks as though they were plucked roses, and her face as the moon, and long curled tresses hanging loose over her shoulders behind; her waist slender and graceful, and rejoicing the heart of beholders. Praised be God, who created her from the despised waters, and blessings to him the best of Creators! When we saw her, I and my brothers, we were not masters of our understandings, and our souls were gone, and we were near falling from the tree on which we were, from what we saw of her * A name given throughout the narrative to the Marid first called Abulajnahah. Asiat.Journ.N.S.VOL.33.No.129.

I

beauty, and grace, and stature, and fair proportion. And she arose and walked, and her hair trailed behind her on the ground like the dark night.''

This fair apparition calls her sister, who ascends from the sea in the same manner, and becomes a girl more beautiful than the former, and thus, one after another, four-and-twenty damsels make their appearance, "beautiful as the houries of Paradise." The enamoured Mohamed calls his familiar, and says to him,

"O Sanjah, thou commandest a thousand Marids, and art thyself the chiefest and bravest of them :-I will that thou bring us these girls, that we may take them with us to our own country, and live with them a space of time;' and he said, 'Hearing is obedience.' Then he flew in the air to see these girls; but he returned, thundering like a tempest, his face all sallow and his whole being disturbed, and presented himself to me; and I said," What hath come to thee, and what is behind thee, and what does this descent of thine portend?' He said, ' O my lord, when I mounted into the air, to lay hold upon these damsels, behold three flames of fire came out against me, and had I not fled, I should have perished.""

One after another of the demon slaves of the book is sent on the same errand, till the whole thousand have been foiled, and Mohamed proposes a return to Tunis," seeing there may perhaps be advantage for him in this;" but the leader of the Marids asks some repose for himself and his host, exhausted by the perils they had encountered. The hero of the tale, oppressed with weariness and drowned in love, shares the slumbers of the Marids, during which his brothers wake the latter, and prevail upon them to steal the "mighty book " from the bosom of Mohamed, and to transport it and them to their native city of Tunis, leaving the rightful owner of the book to his fate in the distant island. When they had accomplished this, they repented of their cruelty, more especially as the Marids, deputed to steal the book, "had gone their way." And thus they had lost, as they complained to the old magician of Tunis, both the book and their brother. Leaving them to apply to their trouble the usual panacea, "No help and power but in God," we must pursue the narrative of the hero of our story

"This happened to my brothers; hear, O Jouder, what happened to me. When I woke, after a time, and put my hand out for the book, I found it not, and I found not my brothers; and I cried for Sanjah three times, but no one answered me. Then I grew sure of what my brothers had done to me, and that they had taken the book from me, and I said, We are in the power of God, and to him we return; what God pleases happens; but would they had done this to me while I was yet in Tunis! Then I said my confession of faith, and made myself sure of death. Well, I walked on three days on the sea-shore, knowing nothing whither I was going, or to what point I was tending, or where 1 should take refuge, and I had nothing to eat, but I drank water. But after three days, I came upon a mountain, black as the darkness of night, rising high in the air, and from it a river descended and flowed into the sea. Under this mountain I walked four days, and saw nothing but the height of it, and my spirit left me for the want of food, for I had eaten nothing now for seven days. At length I saw a path in this mountain, and I said to myself, I will ascend to the top and see what God will of me; perhaps there may be help for me. At length, then, I reached the top, but my spirit had left me, and evening was approaching, so I lay me down upon the ground there, and slept like a drunken man, and woke not till the sun was burning my back. Then I arose and performed my morning worship, and praised God most high, and thanked

him and prayed to him. And I besought that he would grant me my return to Tunis. And on this mountain I was till the middle of the day, not knowing the beginning from the end, and my knees bowing with weakness, and I was considering my case, when His favourable regard shone upon me, and I saw afar off a palace. Then I said, Comfort has come to me from God, and I ceased not walking until I came to the palace, and found it of iron with pinnacles of brass. Then I knocked at the gate, and at the first knock was heard a voice saying, "Yea, yea, welcome and comfort and a wide place; fear not and grieve not, for thou hast reached thy goal and gained thy wish in spite of thy enemies." Then the gate was opened and I saw a black slave, and he saluted me with a respectful salaam and said, "Enter my lord." But I stood and would not enter, for I feared this black slave, and had strange imaginations of him. Upon this he came up to me, and said, "My lord, I am the messenger of the master of this house, and he sent me to thee, and he says to thee, If thou be Mohamed the Maugrebi, enter in safety, and if thou be any one else, if thou hast any need we will fulfil it for thee." Then I said to him, "I am Mohamed of Tunis;" whereupon he took me by the hand and led me into the palace, and there I found a throne of gold, and upon it tapestry of silk, and before it a curtain of pearls. When I had looked for a while, this curtain was drawn up, and behold an old man, sitting upon the tapestry of the throne, his beard descending to his middle, and his brows hanging over his eyes, and he was like a lion used to hunting. He said to me," Be at thy ease, O Mohamed;" whereupon I approached him and kissed his hand, and he made me sit down by his side. And turning to the black slave, he bade him bring the table, telling him that I had not eaten for many days."

After the bread and wine, the host informs Mohamed of his own adventures and misfortunes, of which he admits the correctness, and he confesses that the damsels of the Gazelle Valley had "caused him a thousand troubles." The old man says, "Know, O Mohamed, that kings and sultans have died for love of these girls, and not one could obtain them, neither man nor ginn, for they have with them a guardian such as man's eyes never saw the like of, and his name is 'Anzarut, and he is in higher estimation with king Na'mán than all his council and servants, and he is as honoured among these girls as he can possibly be. Now, O my child, these damsels sickened with a sore sickness, and their bodies changed and their colour became sallow. This grieved the king much, and he grew sick with their sickness, and refrained from eating and drinking. Now this sage 'Anzarut was accustomed to be three days with the ginns and three days with the king Na'mán. But this time he had stayed away eight days with the ginns, and king Na'mán was much disquieted for him, on account of his children. But after these eight days, this sage came to king Na'mán, and looked on him, and saw that he was troubled beyond his wont; and the king said to him, "Look at my children, and what has happened to them." Hereupon, the sage 'Anzarut entered to the king, and said to him, “O king, thy children shall do well in health and safety; nothing has changed their health, but the earth of this land and this sea; let not thy heart be ill at ease, and let the healing of thy daughters be upon me." Then he called fishermen and said, "I wish you to catch me fourand-twenty fish, and let them be females." Then these fishermen departed and did as he asked them; and he ordered these to be skinned, which was done, and these skins became like bags, and in the inside of them he wrote certain words, which were, Bismillah il'adhim," (in the name of God most great!). Then he performed certain incantations and conjurations, and the fish began to move again by the permission of God. Then, turning to the