Genii

Prior to that, however, the French fairy tale, Cinderella, retold by the great Charles Perrault in 1697, was actually a redo of an Oriental tale. The story originated in China where a small foot was a sign of beauty. Small-foot-binding, a widely accepted though painful practice, performed on female infants was later forbidden by Chinese law. The original version of this classic tale was Yeh-hsien and dates from the 9th-century AD. This stellar tale was splendid with all of the imagery with which Eastern legends contained.

Arabic and Oriental legends were known for palaces, magic lamps, Arabic names and customs, genies, sultans, flying carpets, fabulous jewels, monstrous birds, exotic adventures, and magic words. Open Sesame is but one example of a phrase which, to this day, conveys a sense of awe--the magical opening of the cave's door in that wonderful tale of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.

A symbol which probably had its origin in Chinese legend is that of the flying carpet. The tale of The Wonderful Brocade tells how a widow wove a beautiful brocade cloth only to take it outside where it flew away on the wind.

The life span of a Persian genie could be thousands of years but they were not considered to be immortal. Genies were fearful but not entirely fearless beings. Fertile Crescent genies were afraid of only one thing--the falling stars which legend holds that Allah hurled at them for their evil ways.

Persian genies are divided into five classes: Marid; Afreet; Sheitan; Ghilan; and Jann.

The Marid are the most powerful, while the Afreet possess vast intelligence. The Sheitan are the demons and Ghilan are shape-changing Ghouls, which often present themselves on All Hallow's Eve. Jann are known for disturbing the peace and stealing cows.

But the one genie known to all of us is that bottle imp who vapories out of a magic lamp or container of some type. One warning says that the owner of a bottle will be condemned to hell; another says a genie bottle is indestructible and if it is purposefully lost, it will return itself to the present owner; yet another warning says that the only way to rid one's self of a genie bottle is to sell it for half the price paid for it. Who among us is a bottle collector?

Whether genie, jinni, jinn, genii or genius these beings were thought of as all-powerful. They had great natural and

Go To Page: 1 2 3

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic