Note 295 — KING SHAH BAKHT AND HIS WAZIR AL-RAHWAN.[295]
Richard Francis Burton translation · Edition 2
Bresl. Edit., vol. xi. pp. 84–318, Nights dccclxxv-dccccxxx. Here again the names are Persian, showing the provenance of the tale; Shah Bakht is = King Luck and Rahwán is a corruption of Rahbán = one who keeps the (right) way; or it may be Ruhbán = the Pious. Mr. W. A. Clouston draws my attention to the fact that this tale is of the Sindibad (Seven Wise Masters) cycle and that he finds remotely allied to it a Siamese collection, entitled Nonthuk Pakaranam in which Princess Kankras, to save the life of her father, relates eighty or ninety tales to the king of Pataliput (Palibothra.) He purposes to discuss this and similar subjects in extenso in his coming volumes, “Popular Tales and Fictions: their Migrations and Transformations,” to which I look forward with pleasant anticipations.