Page:Indian fairy tales (1892).djvu/290

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Notes and References

by Phædrus. Consequently, as I have shown, he has a much larger proportion of Eastern elements than Phædrus. There can be little doubt that the Ass in the Lion's Skin is from India. As Prof. Rhys-Davids remarks, the Indian form gives a plausible motive for the masquerade which is wanting in the ordinary Æsopic version.


Source.—Steel-Temple, Wideawake Stories, pp. 215-8.

Parallels enumerated in my Æsop, Av. xvii. See also Jacques de Vitry, Exempla, ed. Crane, No. 196 (see notes, p. 212), and Bozon, Contes moralisés, No. 112. It occurs in Avian, ed. Ellis, No. 22. Mr. Kipling has a very similar tale in his Life's Handicap.

Remarks.—Here we have collected in modern India what one cannot help thinking is the Indian original of a fable of Avian. The preceding number showed one of his fables existing among the Jatakas, probably before the Christian era. This makes it likely that we shall find an earlier Indian original of the fable of the Avaricious and Envious, perhaps among the Jatakas still untranslated.


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. c., pp. 242-3. This is an essentially Indian trait; almost all Hindus have some tribal or caste mark on their bodies or faces. The choice of the hero disguised as a menial is also common property of Indian and European fairy tales: see Stokes, l. c., p. 231, and my List of Incidents (s. v. "Menial Disguise.")


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 M. L. Dames from his unpublished collection of Baluchi tales.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. li. a, p. 394


Source.—Knowles, Folk-Tales of Kashmir, pp. 484-90.

Parallels.—The latter part is the formula of the Clever Lass who