Fables, in the Arabic original of the Seven Wise Masters,—that famous collection of stories which illustrate a step-dame's calumny and hate—and in many medieval versions of those originals.[1] Thence it passed into the Latin Gesta Romanorum, where, as well as in the Old English version published by Sir Frederick Madden, it may be read as a
- ↑ See Pantcha-Tantra, v. ii. of Wilson's Analysis, quoted by Loiseleur Deslongchamps, Essai sur les Fables Indiennes, Paris (Techener), 1838, p. 54, where the animal that protects the child is a mangouste (Viverra Mungo). See also Hitopadesa, Max Muller's Translation, Leipzig (Brockhaus), p. 178, where the guardian is an otter. In both the foe is a snake.
I stricken the lad with that one arrow, then I had meant these tvo for you.' But the king took that well from him, and all thought it was boldly spoken."—Wilkina Saga, ch. 27, ed. Pering.
"It is related of him [Puncher] that a certain lord, who wished to obtain a sure trial of his skill, set up his little son as a butt, and for a mark a shilling on the boy's cap, commanding him to carry off the shilling without the cap with his arrow. But when the wizard said he could do it, though he would rather abstain, lest the Devil should decoy him to destruction; still, being led on by the words of the chief, he thrust one arrow through his collar, and, fitting the other to his crossbow, struck off the coin from the boy's cap without doing him any harm; seeing which, when the lord asked the wizard why he had placed the arrow in his collar? he answered, 'If by the Devil's deceit I had slain the boy, when I needs must die, I would have transfixed you suddenly with the other arrow, that even so I might have avenged my death.'"—Malleus Malef., P. 11. ch. 16.
