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remained to him but a small matter, to wit, the last step, which was much higher than the others, he could not avail to mount it of himself, having regard to that which he was carrying; so he said to the Maugrabin, “O my uncle, give me thy hand and help me up.” Quoth he, “O my son, give me the lamp and lighten thyself; maybe it is that which hindereth thee.” “Nay, O my uncle,” answered Alaeddin, “the lamp hindereth me nought; but do thou give me thy hand and when I am up, I will give thee the lamp.” The enchanter, who wanted the lamp and that only, fell to urging Alaeddin to give it him; but the latter, having wrapped it within his clothes, with purses[1] of jewel-fruits atop of it,[2] could not reach it
- ↑ Akyas. This is the first mention of purses.
- ↑ Lit. “without” (kharijan).
marches.’” As far as I can see, Galland was quite right, a staircase (and not a ladder) being, in my judgment, meant in each case, and Sir Richard Burton’s translation of sullem min thelathin derejeh as “a ladder of thirty rungs” (see ante p. 82, note) seems to me founded on a misconception, he being misled by the word “fihi” (see my note ante, p. 83). He adds, “sullem in modern Egyptian is used for a flight of steps;” but it signifies both “ladder” and “flight of steps” in the classic tongue; see Lane, p. 1416, col. 2, “sullem, a ladder or a series of stairs or steps, either of wood or clay, etc.” His remark would apply better to derej (class. “a way,” but in modern parlance “a ladder” or “staircase” which the story-teller uses interchangeably with sullem, in speaking of the stair leading down into the underground, thus showing that he considered the two words synonymous.
