Note 63 — PRINCE AHMAD AND THE FAIRY PERI-BANU.[63]

“Bánú” = a lady, a dame of high degree generally, e.g. the (Shah’s) Banu-i-Harem in James Morier (“The Mirza,” iii. 50), who rightly renders Pari Banu = Pari of the first quality. “Peri” (Parí) in its modern form has a superficial resemblance to “Fairy;” but this disappears in the “Pairika” of the Avesta and the “Pairik” of the modern Parsee. In one language only, the Multání, there is a masculine form for the word “Pará” = a he-fairy (Scinde, ii. 203). In Al-Islam these Peris are beautiful feminine spirits who, created after the “Dívs” (Tabari, i. 7), mostly believe in Allah and the Koran and desire the good of mankind: they are often attacked by the said Dívs, giants or demons, who imprison them in cages hung to the highest trees, and here the captives are visited by their friends who feed them with the sweetest of scents. I have already contrasted them with the green-coated pygmies to which the grotesque fancy of Northern Europe has reduced them. Bánú in Pers. = a princess, a lady, and is still much used, e.g. Bánú-í-Harim, the Dame of the Serraglio, whom foreigners call “Queen of Persia;” and Árám-Banu = “the calm Princess,” a nickname. A Greek story equivalent of Prince Ahmad is told by Pio in Contes Populaires Grecs (No. ii. p. 98) and called Τὸ χρυσὸ κουτάκι, the Golden box. Three youths (παλλικάρια) love the same girl and agree that whoever shall learn the best craft (ὅγεος μάθη πλεὶα καλὴν τέκνην) shall marry her; one becomes an astrologer, the second can raise the dead, and the third can run faster than air. They find her at death’s door, and her soul, which was at her teeth ready to start, goes down (καὶ πά ’ἣ ψυχή της κάτω, ποὔτανε πλειὰ στά δόντια της).