The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of Story
42, Anvár-i-Suhaili, 331, Livre des Lumières, 254, Cabinet des Fées,
XVII, 444. Benfey translates a reference to it in Pánini. He shews
that there is an imitation of this story in the Gesta Romanorum,
132. In Forlini, Novel VIII, a peasant is persuaded that his kids are
capons. Cp. also Straparola, I, 3; Loiseleur Deslongchamps, Essai,
47, 2. Liebrecht's translation of Dunlop, note 356, Lancereau on
the Hitopadesa, 252. (Benfey, Vol. I, pp. 355-357.) See also Till
Eulenspiegel, c. 66, in Simrock's Deutsche Volksbücher, Vol. X,
p. 452. In the XXth tale of the English Gesta Romanorum (Ed. Herrtage)
three "lechis" persuade Averoys that he is a "lepre;" and he becomes
one from "drede," but is cured by a bath of goat's blood. The 69th
tale in Coelho's Contos Populares, Os Dois Mentíroses, bears a strong
resemblance to this. One brother confirms the other's lies.
[92] Benfey compares this with the story of Zopyrus. He thinks that the
Indians learned the story from the Greeks. See also Avadánas. No. V,
Vol. I, p. 31.
[93] Benfey compares Wolff, I, 210, Knatchbull, 237, Symeon Seth,
p. 64, John of Capua i., 2, German translation (Ulm., 1483) No. VIII,
6, Spanish translation, XXXVIII, a., Doni, 44, Anvár-i-Suhaili,
336, Livre des Lumières, 259, Cabinet des Fées, XVII, 449. (Benfey's
Panchatantra, Vol. I, p. 366.) See also La Fontaine, IX, p. 15.
[94] Dr. Kern suggests vyatíta-pushpa-kálatvád. The Sanskrit College
MS. has the reading of Dr. Brockhaus's text.
[95] Cp. Wolff, I, 212, Knatchbull, 238, Symeon Seth, p. 64, John of
Capua i., 2, b., German translation (Ulm, 1483) P., I, b., Spanish
translation, XXXVIII, a., Doni, 45, Anvár-i-Suhaili, 338, Livre des
Lumières, 261, Cabinet des Fées, XVII, 451. (Benfey, Vol. I, p. 368.)
[96] See Chapter VII of this work.
[97] Benfey compares the Arabic version, Wolff, I, 214, Knatchbull,
240, Symeon Seth, 65, John of Capua i., 3, b., German translation
(Ulm, 1483), P., II. b., Spanish translation, XXXVIII, b., Doni, 47,
Anvár-i-Suhaili, 340, Livre des Lumières, 264; Cabinet des Fées, XVII,
453, cp. also Hitopadesa, (Johnson's translation, p. 78). (Benfey,
Vol. I, p. 371.)
[98] This story is found in the Arabic version, Wolff, I, 219,
Knatchbull, 243, Symeon Seth, 68, John of Capua, i., 4, b., German
translation (Ulm, 1483) P. IV, b., Spanish translation, XXXIX, a.,
Doni, 50, Anvár-i-Suhaili, 355, Livre des Lumières, 279, Cabinet des
Fées, XVII, 466, La Fontaine, IX, 7, Polier, Mythologie des Indes,
II, 571, Hitopadesa, (similar in some respects) Johnson, p. 108,
Mahábhárata, XII, (III, 515) v. 4254 and ff. Benfey compares also
the story of the cat which was changed into a virgin, Babrius,
32. It is said to be found in Strattis (400 B. C.) (Benfey, Vol. I,
pp. 373 and ff.) See also De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, Vol. II,
p. 65. This bears a strong resemblance to A Formiga e a Neve, No. II,
in Coelho's Contos Portuguezes.
[99] This reminds one of Babrius, Fabula LXXII.
[100] I follow the Sanskrit College MS. which reads bhajámi not
bhanjámi.
[101] See Liebrecht's notes on the Avadánas, translated by Stanislas
Julien, on page 110 of his "Zur Volkskunde." He adduces an English
popular superstition. "The country people to their sorrow know the
Cornish chough, called Pyrrhocorax, to be not only a thief, but an
incendiary, and privately to set houses on fire as well as rob them
of what they find profitable. It is very apt to catch up lighted
sticks, so there are instances of houses being set on fire by its
means." So a parrot sets a house on fire in a story by Arnauld of
Carcassès (Liebrecht's translation of Dunlop's History of Fiction,
p. 203.) Benfey thinks that this idea originally came from Greece
(Panchatantra, Vol. I, p. 383.) Cp. also Pliny's account of the
"incendiaria avis in Kuhn's Herabkunft des Feuers, p. 31.
[102] This story is found in Wolff, I, 226, Knatchbull, 250, Symeon
Seth, 70, John of Capua, i., 6, German translation (Ulm, 1483) Q. I,
Spanish translation, XL, b., Anvár-i-Suhaili, 364, Livre des Lumières,
283, Cabinet des Fées, XIII, 467, Hitopadesa, Johnson's translation,
p. 112. Benfey compares the western fable of the sick lion. This
fable is told in the Kathá Sarit Ságara, X, 63, sl. 126, and ff.,
and will be found further on. (Benfey, Vol. I, p. 384.)
[103] This is No. XVII in the Avadánas. Cp. Grohmann, Sagen aus Böhmen,
p. 35.
[104] i. e. sweet, salt, acid, astringent, bitter, and pungent.
[105] This is No. XLVI in the Avadánas.
[106] Naukaha should be no doubt 'anokaha on Dr. Brockhaus's system.
[107] This is No. CIV in the Avadánas.
[108] This is No. LXVI in the Avadánas.
[109] Cp. the 37th story in Sicilianische Märchen, part
I. p. 249. Giufá's mother wished to go to the mass and she said to him
"Giufá, if you go out, draw the door to after you." (Ziehe die Thür
hinter dir zu.) Instead of shutting the door, Giufá took it off its
hinges and carried it to his mother in the church. See Dr. Köhler's
notes on the story.
[110] For the superstition of water-spirits see Tylor's Primitive
Culture, p. 191, and ff.
[111] Does this throw any light upon the expression in Swift's Polite
Conversation, "She is as like her husband as if she were spit out of
his mouth." (Liebrecht, Volkskunde, p. 495.)
[112] The fact of this incident being found in the Arabian Nights is
mentioned by Wilson (Collected Works, Vol. IV, p. 146.) See Lane's
Arabian Nights, Vol. I, p. 9. Lévêque (Les Mythes et les Légendes de
l' Inde et de la Perse, p. 543) shews that Ariosto borrowed from the
Arabian Nights.
[113] I follow the Sanskrit College MS. which reads
rakshatyubhayalokatah.
[114] This is the beginning of the fourth book of the
Panchatantra. Benfey does not seem to have been aware that it was to be
found in Somadeva's work. It is also found, with the substitution of a
boar for the porpoise, in the Sindibad-namah and thence found its way
into the Seven Wise Masters, and other European collections. (Benfey's
Panchatantra, Vol. I, p. 420.) See also Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde,
pp. 122, 123. For the version of the Seven Wise Masters see Simrock's
Deutsche Volksbücher, Vol. XII, p. 139. It is also found in the
Mahávastu Avadána, p. 138 of the Buddhist Literature of Nepal by
Dr. Rajendra Lál Mitra, Rai Bahadúr. (I have been favoured with a
sight of this work, while it is passing through the press.) The wife
of the kumbhíla in the Varanindajátaka (57 in Fausböll's edition) has a
longing for a monkey's heart. The original is, no doubt, the Sumsumára
Játaka in Fausböll, Vol. II, p. 158. See also Mélusine, p. 179,
where the story is quoted from Thorburn's Bannu or our Afghan Frontier.
[115] The Sanskrit College MS. reads cákshipan where Brockhaus reads
ca kshipan.
[116] In Bernhard Schmidt's Griechische Märchen, No. 5, the Lamnissa
pretends that she is ill and can only be cured by eating a gold fish
into which a bone of her rival had been turned. Perhaps we ought to
read sádyá for sádhyá in sl. 108.
[117] For stories of external hearts see Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales,
pp. 109-115, and the notes to Miss Stokes's XIth Tale.
[118] Benfey does not seem to have been aware of the existence of this
story in Somadeva's work. It is found in the Sanskrit texts of the
Panchatantra (being the 2nd of the fourth book in Benfey's translation)
in the Arabic version, (Knatchbull, 264, Wolff I, 242,) Symeon Seth,
75, John of Capua, k., 2, b., German translation (Ulm 1483) Q.,
VII, Spanish translation, XLIV, a, Doni, 61, Anvár-i-Suhaili, 393,
Cabinet des Fées, XVIII, 26; Baldo fab. XIII, in Edéléstand du Méril,
p. 333; Benfey considers it to be founded on Babrius, 95. There
the fox only eats the heart. Indeed there is no point in the remark
that if he had ears he would not have come again. The animal is a
stag in Babrius. It is deceived by an appeal to its ambition. In the
Gesta Romanorum the animal is a boar, which returns to the garden of
Trajan, after losing successively its two ears and tail. (Benfey's
Panchatantra, Vol. I, p. 430 and ff.) See also Weber's article in
Indische Studien, Vol. III, p. 338. He considers that the fable came
to India from Greece. Cp. also De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology,
Vol. I, p. 377. An ass is deceived in the same way in Prym und Socin,
Syrische Märchen, p. 279. In Waldau's Böhmische Märchen, p. 92, one of
the boys proposes to say that the Glücksvogel had no heart. Rutherford
in the Introduction to his edition of Babrius, p. xxvii, considers
that the fable is alluded to by Solon in the following words:
hymeôs d' heis men hekastos alôpekos ichnesi bainei
sympasin d' hymin chouros enesti noos·
es gar glôssan horate kai eis epos aiolon andros,
eis ergon d' ouden gignomenon blepete.
But all turns upon the interpretation of the first line, which
Schneidewin renders "Singuli sapitis, cuncti desipitis."
[119] I have followed the Sanskrit College MS. in reading
nirbádhasukham.
[120] For parallels to this story compare Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde,
p. 33, where he treats of the Avadánas, and the Japanese story in
the Nachträge. In this a gentleman who had much enjoyed the smell
of fried eels, pays for them by exhibiting his money to the owner of
the cook-shop. See also p 112 of the same work. M. Lévêque shews that
Rabelais' story of Le Facquin et le Rostisseur exactly resembles this
as told in the Avadánas. He thinks that La Fontaine in his fable of
L'Huître et les Plaideurs is indebted to the story as told in Rabelais:
(Les Mythes et les Légendes de l'Inde, pp. 547, 548.) A similar idea is
found in the Hermotimus of Lucian, chapters 80 and 81. A philosopher
is indignant with his pupil on account of his fees being eleven days
in arrear. The uncle of the young man, who is standing by, being a
rude and uncultured person, says to the philosopher--"My good man,
pray let us hear no more complaints about the great injustice with
which you conceive yourself to have been treated, for all it amounts
to is, that we have bought words from you, and have up to the present
time paid you in the same coin." See also Rohde, Der Griechische
Roman, p. 370 (note). Gosson in his School of Abuse, Arber's Reprint,
pp. 68-69, tells the story of Dionysius.
[121] There is a certain resemblance between this story and a joke in
Philogelos, p. 16. (Ed. Eberhard, Berlin, 1869.) Scholasticus tells
his boots not to creak, or he will break their legs.
[122] This corresponds to the 14th story in the 5th book of the
Panchatantra, Benfey, Vol. II, p. 360. At any rate the leading idea
is the same. See Benfey, Vol. I, p. 537. It has a certain resemblance
to the fable of Menenius. There is a snake in Bengal with a knob at
the end of his tail. Probably this gave rise to the legend of the
double-headed serpent. Sir Thomas Browne devotes to the Amphisbæna
Chapter XV of the third book of his Vulgar Errors, and craves leave to
"doubt of this double-headed serpent," until he has "the advantage
to behold, or iterated ocular testimony." See also Liebrecht, Zur
Volkskunde, p. 120, where he treats of the Avadánas. The story is
identical with that in our text. M. Lévêque shews that this story,
as found in the Avadánas, forms the basis of one of La Fontaine's
fables, VII, 17. La Fontaine took it from Plutarch's life of Agis.
[123] This story is No. LIX in Sir G. Cornewall Lewis's edition of
the Fables of Babrius, Part II. The only difference is that the tail,
when in difficulties, entreats the head to deliver it.
[124] I read hanum, the conjecture of Dr. Kern.
[125] This story appears to have been known to Lucian. In his Demonax
(28) he compares two unskilful disputants to a couple, one of whom is
milking a goat, the other holding a sieve. So Aristophanes speaks of