To my dear little Phil...

From the extreme West of the Indo-European world, we go this year to the extreme East. From the soft rain and green turf of Gaeldom, we seek the garish sun and arid soil of the Hindu. In the Land of I...

The Bodhisatta was at one time born in the region of Himavanta as a white crane; now Brahmadatta was at that time reigning in Benares. Now it chanced that as a lion was eating meat a bone stuck in his...

In a country there was a Raja who had an only son who every day went out to hunt. One day the Rani, his mother, said to him, “You can hunt wherever you like on these three sides; but you must never go...

Once upon a time there was a wee wee Lambikin, who frolicked about on his little tottery legs, and enjoyed himself amazingly. Now one day he set off to visit his Granny, and was jumping with joy to th...

Once upon a time there was a Raja who had seven beautiful daughters. They were all good girls; but the youngest, named Balna, was more clever than the rest. The Raja’s wife died when they were quite l...

There lived in a certain place a Brahman, whose name was Svabhavakripana, which means “a born miser.” He had collected a quantity of rice by begging, and after having dined off it, he filled a pot wit...

Once upon a time there lived seven brothers and a sister. The brothers were married, but their wives did not do the cooking for the family. It was done by their sister, who stopped at home to cook. Th...

Long ago the Bodisat was born to a forest life as the Genius of a tree standing near a certain lotus pond. Now at that time the water used to run short at the dry season in a certain pond, not over la...

Once there was a king called King Dantal, who had a great many rupees and soldiers and horses. He had also an only son called Prince Majnun, who was a handsome boy with white teeth, red lips, blue eye...

Once upon a time, a tiger was caught in a trap. He tried in vain to get out through the bars, and rolled and bit with rage and grief when he failed. By chance a poor Brahman came by. “Let me out of th...

A soothsayer when on his deathbed wrote out the horoscope of his second son, whose name was Gangazara, and bequeathed it to him as his only property, leaving the whole of his estate to his eldest son....

There was a certain Brahman in a certain village, named Harisarman. He was poor and foolish and in evil case for want of employment, and he had very many children, that he might reap the fruit of his ...

A merchant started his son in life with three hundred rupees, and bade him go to another country and try his luck in trade. The son took the money and departed. He had not gone far before he came acro...

The future Buddha was once born in a minister’s family, when Brahma-datta was reigning in Benares; and when he grew up, he became the king’s adviser in things temporal and spiritual. Now this king was...

A poor blind Brahman and his wife were dependent on their son for their subsistence. Every day the young fellow used to go out and get what he could by begging. This continued for some time, till at l...

Now in a certain place there lived a Brahman named Haridatta. He was a farmer, but poor was the return his labour brought him. One day, at the end of the hot hours, the Brahman, overcome by the heat, ...

Once upon a time there lived a King who had seven Queens, but no children. This was a great grief to him, especially when he remembered that on his death there would be no heir to inherit the kingdom....

Once upon a time, when Brahma-datta was reigning in Benares, the future Buddha returned to life as his son and heir. And when the day came for choosing a name, they called him Prince Brahma-datta. He ...

In a certain village there lived ten cloth merchants, who always went about together. Once upon a time they had travelled far afield, and were returning home with a great deal of money which they had ...

Once there lived a great Raja, whose name was Salabhan, and he had a Queen, by name Lona, who, though she wept and prayed at many a shrine, had never a child to gladden her eyes. After a long time, ho...

At the same time, when Brahma-datta was reigning in Benares, the future Buddha was born one of a peasant family; and when he grew up, he gained his living by tilling the ground. At that time a hawker ...

There was once a farmer who suffered much at the hands of a moneylender. Good harvests, or bad, the farmer was always poor, the moneylender rich. At the last, when he hadn’t a farthing left, farmer we...

In a country were seven daughters of poor parents, who used to come daily to play under the shady trees in the King’s garden with the gardener’s daughter; and daily she used to say to them, “When I am...

There was once upon a time a King who had no children. Now this King went and laid him down to rest at a place where four roads met, so that everyone who passed had to step over him. At last a Fakir c...

As a certain fisherwoman passed by a palace crying her fish, the queen appeared at one of the windows and beckoned her to come near and show what she had. At that moment a very big fish jumped about i...

This story the Teacher told in Jetavana about a Brother who had ceased striving after righteousness. Said the Teacher to him: “Is it really true that you have ceased all striving?”⁠—“Yes, Blessed One,...

One day a young prince was out practising archery with the son of his father’s chief vizier, when one of the arrows accidentally struck the wife of a merchant, who was walking about in an upper room o...

One day Sun, Moon, and Wind went out to dine with their uncle and aunts Thunder and Lightning. Their mother (one of the most distant Stars you see far up in the sky) waited alone for her children’s re...

A very wealthy old man, imagining that he was on the point of death, sent for his sons and divided his property among them. However, he did not die for several years afterwards; and miserable years ma...

Once upon a time the Bodhisatta was a Pigeon, and lived in a nest-basket which a rich man’s cook had hung up in the kitchen, in order to earn merit by it. A greedy Crow, flying near, saw all sorts of ...

The story literature of India is in a large measure the outcome of the moral revolution of the peninsula connected with the name of Gautama Buddha. As the influence of his life and doctrines grew, a t...

Source.⁠—V Fausböll, “Five Jātakas,” Copenhagen, 1861, pp. 35⁠–⁠8, text and translation of the “Jāvasakuna Jātaka.” I have ventured to English Prof. Fausböll’s version, which was only intended as a “c...

Source.⁠—Miss Stokes, Indian Fairy Tales, No. XXII pp. 153⁠–⁠63, told by Múniyá, one of the ayahs. I have left it unaltered, except that I have replaced “God” by “Khuda,” the word originally used (see...

Source.⁠—Steel-Temple, Wideawake Stories, pp. 69⁠–⁠72, originally published in Indian Antiquary, XII 175. The droll is common throughout the Panjab. Parallels.⁠—The similarity of the concluding episod...

Source.⁠—Miss Frere, Old Deccan Days, pp. 1⁠–⁠16, from her ayah, Anna de Souza, of a Lingaet family settled and Christianised at Goa for three generations. I should perhaps add that a Prudhan is a Pri...

Source.⁠—Pantschatantra, V ix, tr. Benfey, II 345⁠–⁠6. Parallels.⁠—Benfey, in § 209 of his “Einleitung,” gives bibliographical references to most of those which are given at length in Prof. M. Müller’...

Source.⁠—A. Campbell, Santal Folktales, 1892, pp. 52⁠–⁠6, with some verbal alterations. A Bonga is the presiding spirit of a certain kind of rice land; Doms and Hadis are low-caste aborigines, whose t...

Source.⁠—The Baka-Jātaka, Fausböll, No. 38, tr. Rhys-Davids, pp. 315⁠–⁠21. The Buddha this time is the Genius of the Tree. Parallels.⁠—This Jātaka got into the Bidpai literature, and occurs in all its...

Source.⁠—Miss Stokes, Indian Fairy Tales, pp. 73⁠–⁠84. Majnun and Laili are conventional names for lovers, the Romeo and Juliet of Hindostan. Parallels.⁠—Living in animals’ bellies occurs elsewhere in...

Source.⁠—Steel-Temple, Wideawake Stories, pp. 116⁠–⁠20; first published in Indian Antiquary, XII p. 170 seq. Parallels.⁠—No less than 94 parallels are given by Prof. K. Krohn in his elaborate discussi...

Source.⁠—Mrs. Kingscote, Tales of the Sun (p. 11 seq.), from Pandit Natesa Sastri’s Folklore of Southern India, pt. II, originally from Indian Antiquary. I have considerably condensed and modified the...

Source.⁠—Somadeva, Katha-Sarit-Sagara, trans. Tawney (Calcutta, 1880), I pp. 272⁠–⁠4. I have slightly toned down the inflated style of the original. Parallels⁠—Benfey has collected and discussed a num...

Source.⁠—Knowles, Folktales of Kashmir, pp. 20⁠–⁠8. Parallels.⁠—The incident of the Aiding Animals is frequent in folktales: see bibliographical references, sub voce, in my List of Incidents, Transact...

Source.⁠—The “Kacchapa Jātaka,” Fausböll, No. 215; also in his “Five Jātakas,” pp. 16, 41, tr. Rhys-Davids, pp. VIII⁠–⁠X. Parallels.⁠—It occurs also in the Bidpai literature, in nearly all its multitu...

Source.⁠—Knowles, Folktales of Kashmir, pp. 32⁠–⁠41. I have reduced the pieces of advice to three, and curtailed somewhat. Parallels.⁠—See Celtic Fairy Tales, No. XXII, “Tale of Ivan,” from the old Co...

Source.⁠—Pantschatantra, III v, tr. Benfey, II 244⁠–⁠7. Parallels given in my Aesop, Ro. II 10, p. 40. The chief points about them are⁠—(1) though the tale does not exist in either Phaedrus or Babrius...

Source.⁠—Steel-Temple, Wideawake Stories, pp. 98⁠–⁠110, originally published in Indian Antiquary X 147 seq. Parallels.⁠—A long variant follows in Indian Antiquary, l. c. M. Cosquin refers to several O...

Source.⁠—“Rājovāda Jātaka,” Fausböll, No. 151, tr. Rhys-Davids, pp. XXII⁠–⁠VI. Remarks.⁠—This is one of the earliest of moral allegories in existence. The moralising tone of the Jatakas must be conspi...

Source.⁠—Kingscote, Tales of the Sun. I have changed the Indian mercantile numerals into those of English “back-slang,” which make a very good parallel....

Source.⁠—Steel-Temple, Wideawake Stories, pp. 247⁠–⁠80, omitting “How Raja Rasalu was Born,” “How Raja Rasalu’s Friends Forsook Him,” “How Raja Rasalu Killed the Giants,” and “How Raja Rasalu became a...

Source.⁠—The “Sīha Camma Jātaka,” Fausböll, No. 189, trans. Rhys-Davids, pp. V vi. Parallels.⁠—It also occurs in Somadeva, Katha Sarit Sagara, ed. Tawney, II 65, and n. For Aesopic parallels cf. my Ae...

Source.⁠—Steel-Temple, Wideawake Stories, pp. 215⁠–⁠8. Parallels enumerated in my Aesop, Av. XVII. See also Jacques de Vitry, Exempla, ed. Crane, No. 196 (see notes, p. 212), and Bozon, Contes moralis...

Source.⁠—Miss Stokes’ Indian Fairy Tales, No. 20, pp. 119⁠–⁠137. Parallels to heroes and heroines in European fairy tales, with stars on their foreheads, are given with some copiousness in Stokes, l. ...

Source.⁠—Kindly communicated by Mr. M. L. Dames from his unpublished collection of Baluchi tales. Remarks.⁠—Unholy fakirs are rather rare. See Temple, Analysis, I ii a, p. 394....

Source.⁠—Knowles, Folktales of Kashmir, pp. 484⁠–⁠90. Parallels.⁠—The latter part is the formula of the Clever Lass who guesses riddles. She has been bibliographised by Prof. Child, English and Scotch...

Source.⁠—The “Pancāvudha-Jātaka,” Fausböll, No. 55, kindly translated for this book by Mr. W. H. D. Rouse, of Christ’s College, Cambridge. There is a brief abstract of the Jataka in Prof. Estlin Carpe...

Source.⁠—Knowles, Folktales of Kashmir, pp. 211⁠–⁠25, with some slight omissions. Gulizar is Persian for rosy-cheeked. Parallels.⁠—Stokes, Indian Fairy Tales, No. 27. “Panwpatti Rani,” pp. 208⁠–⁠15, i...

Source.⁠—Miss Frere, Old Deccan Days, No. 10, pp. 153⁠–⁠5. Remarks.⁠—Miss Frere observes that she has not altered the traditional mode of the Moon’s conveyance of dinner to her mother the Star, though...

Source.⁠—Knowles. Folktales of Kashmir, pp. 241⁠–⁠2. Parallels.⁠—A Gaelic parallel was given by Campbell in Trans. Ethnol. Soc., II p. 336; an Anglo-Latin one from the Middle Ages by T. Wright in Lati...

Source.⁠—The “Lola Jātaka,” Fausböll, No. 274, kindly translated and slightly abridged for this book by Mr. W. H. D. Rouse. Remarks.⁠—We began with an animal Jataka, and may appropriately finish with ...

“History of the Aesopic Fable,” the introductory volume to my edition of Caxton’s Fables of Esope (London, Nutt, 1889). ↩ An admirable and full account of this literature was given by M. A. Barth in M...