This book was published in two volumes, of which this is a combination. Cover image was produced by the transcriber and is placed into the public domain.
Obvious typographical errors repaired. Punctuation, spelling, hyphenation, use of accented characters and stylistic presentation standardized when a predominant preference was found in this book. Capitalization and hyphenation of Chinese personal names has been standardized. Otherwise left as printed.
Missing page numbers are numbered blank pages in the original text.
Footnote numbers were re-indexed in this electronic text, internal references renumbered correspondingly.
For less common abbreviations and Roman numerals, title attributes have been provided for the convenience of screenreader users.
Footnote 46, ‘old’ changed to ‘odd’ (presenting a very odd appearance).
Footnote 109, ‘Marriages’ changed to ‘Marriage’ (Marriage between persons of the same surname is forbidden).
Footnote 267, ‘CVI’ changed to ‘CVII.’ (later story (No. CVII.),).
Footnote 427, ‘excepting’ changed to ‘except’ (except in the matter of light).
Footnote 447, ‘of’ added (first quarter of the present century).
Footnote 479, ‘denôuement’ changed to ‘dénouement’ (important to the dénouement of the story).
Footnote 495, ‘dénoûement’ changed to ‘dénouement’ (The dénouement of the Yü-chiao-li).
Footnote 527, ‘Ibu’ changed to ‘Ibn’ (Ibn Batuta writes as follows).
Footnote 679, ‘LXVII.’ changed to ‘LXVIII.’ (See No. LXVIII.).
Page i-36, ‘villanous’ changed to ‘villainous’ (he writes a villainous hand).
Page i-86, ‘dare’ changed to ‘dared’ (nobody dared go near her).
Page i-306, ‘grottos’ changed to ‘grottoes’ (from each of the holes or grottoes on the stone).
Page i-378, ‘Shan’ changed to ‘Shan-hu’ (Shan-hu held out her arms).
Page i-408, ‘watching’ changed to ‘watched’ (watched the moon rising in the east).
Page i-411, ‘bid’ changed to ‘bade’ (Wang’s father bade him hide).
Page ii-19, ‘of’ added (a number of curious stones).
Page ii-65, ‘be’ changed to ‘he’ (but he soon reflected).
Page ii-145, ‘sung’ changed to ‘sang’ (whereupon he sang the following lines).
Page ii-198, ‘he’ changed to ‘be’ (that he would be only too happy).
Page ii-208, ‘according’ changed to ‘accordingly’ (accordingly, when the King was looking).
Page ii-254, ‘Ch‘êng’ changed to ‘Ch‘ên’ (This frightened Ch‘ên).
Page ii-255, ‘Ch‘êng’ changed to ‘Ch‘ên’ (Ch‘ên himself was a cattle-farmer).
Page ii-286, ‘servants’ changed to ‘servant’ (rode away, telling his servant).
Page ii-287, ‘a Mr. Ts‘ui’ changed to ‘Mr. Ts‘ui’ (who lived next door to Mr. Ts‘ui).
Page ii-41, ‘He then bit her across the neck’ should probably be ‘He then hit her across the neck’.