"This volume contains a series of Legends, which have already appeared in 'Household Words.' Their character will at once be apparent; and it is not necessary, therefore, for me to say more than that. It is almost needless to say that the Levantine Lady alluded to in 'The Legend of the Weeping Chamber,' is my old friend Sitt Madoula, who used often to tell me such stories as I here record whilst lighting my shisheh for me, a detail I remember well by the token that, getting interested by her own garrulity, she sometimes smoked the pipe quite out before handing it to me. Between every point, therefore, I seem to hear the bubble-bubble of the water in its glass vase; and frequently the incidents acquire a beautiful vagueness, as if seen through wreaths of light smoke. This is, perhaps, why the volume appears to me eminently Eastern. I trust that the reader will find it both Eastern and amusing." -- From the Preface Bayule St. John (1822-1859) was born in Kentish Town on Aug. 19, 1822, and died at Grove End Road, St. John's Wood, on Aug. 1, 1859.