Note 21 — HISTORY OF NASSAR, THE SON OF KHOJA HUMAYUN, THE MERCHANT OF BAGHDAD.

The notion of the life or heart of an ogre, witch, etc., being extraneous to the body and concealed in some object—usually very difficult to reach by the heroes who are in their power—is often the subject of the popular fictions of all countries. What is probably the oldest extant instance of this occurs in an Egyptian romance, preserved among the hieratic papyri in the British Museum, which bears to have been written more than 3000 years ago, or about the period when Moses was, in his youth, at the court of Pharaoh. The “curious” reader may find numerous other examples cited in my Popular Tales and Fictions, vol. i, pp. 347-351.