The Story of Ali Baba and the Forty ThievesAuthor(s): W. R. HallidaySource: Folklore, Vol. 31, No. 4 (Dec. 31, 1920), pp. 321-323Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1254818 .

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The Story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. 321

THE STORY OF ALI BABA AND THE FORTY THIEVES.

I DO not know that the story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves has been the subject of special examination, and I would venture to suggest to some student of folk-tale more fortunately endowed with leisure than myself that an investigation of its varieties might lead to interesting conclusions.

I am not sure that I understand Professor Sayce's note in Folk-Lore, xxxi. p. 197, to the Cairene version recorded by him. The story of the Forty Thieves inevitably opens with the story of the rich and poor brothers in the Arabian Nights no less than in the Cairene variant. The purchase of a house by the rich brother for the poor brother's wife is new to me and appears to be an intrusive element. But if the suggestion is that this shows evidence of relationship with the XIXth dynasty Egyptian story of the two brothers, Anpa and Batu (Maspero, Popular Stories of Ancient Egypt, p. I; Flinders Petrie, Egyptian Tales, second series, p. 36), do the modern and ancient stories really coincide ? It may be noted that the ancient Egyptian story has nothing about the purchase of the house, while the modern lacks the essential feature of the attempted seduction and sub- sequent denunciation of the good younger brother by his sister- in-law. But if I have the temerity to suspect Prof. Sayce of a lapsus calami, I am not in a position to throw stones; for I should like to take this opportunity of apologising for the foolish and careless slip by which in Dawkins, Modern Greek in Cappadocia, p. 241, I attributed the miscounting incident to the story in the Arabian Nights.

For quite apart from any question of the Two Brothers, it is true that there are two distinct types of the Ali Baba story, and that Prof. Sayce's Cairene version belongs to a different variety to that of the Arabian Nights. For variants of the story differ not merely in the retention or omission of individual incidents, a difference which may be due to accidents of nar- ration, but also in structure. Two types are clearly distinguish- able: A, in which the catastrophe is brought about by the forgetting of a password (e.g. Arabian Nights) ; B, in which the cause is due to miscounting the number of robbers who are seen leaving the cave (e.g. Prof. Sayce).

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322 The Story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.

And stories of class A fall into two subdivisions: (I) in which the password is the name of some plant, (2) in which it consists of some other magical formula.

A further small point to which an investigator's attention may be drawn is the consistency with which a tree appears as the hiding place. Sometimes the hero is concealed in the branches, sometimes in a hollow trunk, but the tree nearly always appears, even where the scene is laid in the desert.

Of modern Greek variants I note the following: Dawkins, Modern Greek in Cappadocia, p. 447 (Silata), is too poor a version to classify with certainty, and 'ApxfXaos, 2tvao-o', p. 211

(Sinas6s, Cappadocia), is not at present accessible to me. Dawkins, op. cit. p. 515 (Phalasa), A (I), " Open Hyacinth." Stamatiadis, Ea/,aiaKa, v. p. 598 (Samos), A (I), " Open Tree."

In this case the robber's hoard is located inside the tree. Zwypa'etoP 'Ay;v, 1. p. 418 (Nisyros), A (2), "Up my little

rock-Down my little rock." Dawkins, op. cit. p. 363 (Ulaghatsh), B. llapvacros, iv. p. 228 (=Geldart, Folklore of Modern Greece,

p. 9) (Syra), B. The Turkish version recorded by Kunos, Tiirkische Volks-

Mldrchen aus Stambul, p. 231, belongs to group A (2), the magic words being tschanga-tschunga, as does the only Indian variant which I happen to know, Knowles, Folktales of Kashmir, p. 267, where the words composing the magical formula are not given. A poor Lithuanian version is recorded by Jurkschat, Litanische Mlirchen und ErzIhlungen, i. p. 76, No. 38. A maiden hidden in a tree witnesses the robbers' entry and exit. The password is "Open Mr. So-and-so "; the narrator had forgotten the magical name. The heroine enters but forgets the mountain's name. When the robbers re-enter, she, however, successfully slips out. She informs her friends, but when they visit the spot they find that the robbers have removed the treasure. This at first sight appears to fall into category A (2), but it may, like Grimm No. 142, " Open Mt. Semsin," have arisen from the misunderstanding of the formula of the Arabian Nights version. For there can be little doubt that the name of the mountain, Semsin, is an echo of " Open Sesame." In the Welsh gypsy

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7The Story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. 323 7The Story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. 323

variant collected by my friend Dr. John Sampson, and referred to Dawkins, op. cit. p. 24I note, the password Safe'un (Taco Yek') is clearly derived from the misunderstanding of " Open Sesame " printed with a long f and pronounced by some un- skilful reader "Sefam." Two quotations from an Ali Baba version in Paspati, ttudes sur les Tchinghianes, pp. 349, 422, have been identified by Groome, Gypsy Folk Tales, p. li, but

they do not indicate to which type the story from which they were taken belonged.

Upon a priori grounds one is tempted to suggest that the

original form of the story was cast in the mould of A (2). The local belief in the magical powers of Sesame led to the " Open O Simsim " of the Arabian Nights, and from the Arabian Nights this form of the spell gained its popularity in Europe, the other flower names such as " Open Hyacinth" arising from accidents of narration. It seems to me that the miscounting incident

may have arisen in the first place in the mind of a narrator who had forgotten how the catastrophe was brought about and

supplied a rationalistic substitute. This theory of development is, however, a priori, and demands a severe testing by the collection and examination of the evidence, and I venture to

suggest that some member of the Society might find this a useful if laborious task.

W. R. HALLIDAY.

The University, Liverpool.

PRENTICE PILLARS: THE ARCHITECT AND HIS PUPIL.

(Folk-Lore, xxix. 219.) THE following tale is interesting in connection with those of the Architect and his Pupil:

" Tradition relates that the career of Jakanachari, the famous architect and sculptor, began when Nripa Raya was ruling in

Kridapura. He then left his native place and, entering the service of various courts, produced the works by which his fame is to this day upheld. After his departure a son, Danda-

kachari, was born to him, who when grown up set out in search of his father, neither having ever seen the other. At Belur the

variant collected by my friend Dr. John Sampson, and referred to Dawkins, op. cit. p. 24I note, the password Safe'un (Taco Yek') is clearly derived from the misunderstanding of " Open Sesame " printed with a long f and pronounced by some un- skilful reader "Sefam." Two quotations from an Ali Baba version in Paspati, ttudes sur les Tchinghianes, pp. 349, 422, have been identified by Groome, Gypsy Folk Tales, p. li, but

they do not indicate to which type the story from which they were taken belonged.

Upon a priori grounds one is tempted to suggest that the

original form of the story was cast in the mould of A (2). The local belief in the magical powers of Sesame led to the " Open O Simsim " of the Arabian Nights, and from the Arabian Nights this form of the spell gained its popularity in Europe, the other flower names such as " Open Hyacinth" arising from accidents of narration. It seems to me that the miscounting incident

may have arisen in the first place in the mind of a narrator who had forgotten how the catastrophe was brought about and

supplied a rationalistic substitute. This theory of development is, however, a priori, and demands a severe testing by the collection and examination of the evidence, and I venture to

suggest that some member of the Society might find this a useful if laborious task.

W. R. HALLIDAY.

The University, Liverpool.

PRENTICE PILLARS: THE ARCHITECT AND HIS PUPIL.

(Folk-Lore, xxix. 219.) THE following tale is interesting in connection with those of the Architect and his Pupil:

" Tradition relates that the career of Jakanachari, the famous architect and sculptor, began when Nripa Raya was ruling in

Kridapura. He then left his native place and, entering the service of various courts, produced the works by which his fame is to this day upheld. After his departure a son, Danda-

kachari, was born to him, who when grown up set out in search of his father, neither having ever seen the other. At Belur the

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