edition of Lane, vol. v., pp. 132-287.) I suggested in my edition that it was inserted in the "Nights" by Mohammed al-Gahshijari, in whom I think I have discovered the author of the "Nights," so far as they have one.
Parallels.—Hasan resembles, on the one hand, Sindbad and, on the other, Aladdin. Sindbad was probably one of Gahshijari's contributions to the "Nights," while Aladdin, it is now known, was contributed to Galland by a Christian of Aleppo, named Hanna, and from certain indications is likely to be of Western, rather than of Eastern origin. (See my Introduction to Lane, p. xxiv.) But the chief motif of Hasan is what is known to Folklorists as the Swan-Maiden story, which forms the subject of two chapters (x and xi) of Mr. Hartland's "Science of Fairy Tales": these are filled with a number of parallels from nearly all quarters of the globe, including Guiana, the Esquimaux, Burmah, and the New Hebrides. Mr. Hartland connects with this wide-spread series of tales a whole corpus of archaic institutions. The bird costume of the maiden recalls totemism; her importance in the story is referred back to the matriarchate; the way she is won is, of course, a case of marriage by capture; while the forbidden door is equally, of course, a case of tabu. The Islands of Wak Wak are known to archaic geographers but their exact identity is "wropt in mystery"; they have been identified with the Seychelles, Madagascar, Malacca, Java, China, and Japan, while Mr. Kirby is certain that the Cora Islands near New Guinea are intended: "for the wonderful fruits which grow there are birds of paradise, which settle in flocks on the trees at sunset and sunrise uttering this very cry." The islands successively visited by Hasan recall the voyage of Maelduin.
Remarks.—Further reflection, since I wrote my Introduction to Lane, has convinced me that I have placed too early a date for Hasan in attributing it to Gahshijari, who was of the tenth century. The interspersed verses (which I have here omitted) show that at any rate in its present form
