Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 5, 1894.djvu/94

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86
Miscellanea.

131. The Goat and the Tiger.—A tiger befooled by a goat, something after the Brer Rabbit style.

132. The Brahman's Piety.—In this the Brahman and his son rob a house to get alms for two deities. The son is inside the house when the alarm is given, and the father cuts his head off to prevent his being recognised, as in the story of Rhampsinitus' Treasury (Herod., ii, 121).

133. The Brahman and the Snake.—A "gold-giving serpent". It contains a neat proverb: "Strike the striker, and never mind the sin."

134. The Faithful Mungoose.—(A Beth Gelert tale.) Another variant given.

135. The Master Thief.—A clever tale. 136, 172. The same: a variant. In both of these a horse is one of the things stolen. (Blood used to mark the door, as in Ali Baba.)

173. The Valiant Weaver-Bird.—A quaint tale, containing the "Faithful Animal".

174. The Sepoy's Son.—A clever boy, who wins renown and wealth by his answers, which recall the Abbot of Canterbury and King John.

175. The Wit of the Four Brothers.—Contains a variety of well- known elements: Youngest brother obtaining the wealth. Riddle test, divining all about an ass and its rider from signs by the way, etc. The Editor notes: "The influence of the mother over the child remains until she is purified on the sixth day. A shadow of anyone falling on a woman in this state is believed to affect the child."

176. The Cunning of the Lala.

177. Shekh Chilli in Love.—(A fool.)

178. The Raja and the Sādhu.

214. The Judgment of the Jackal.—Resembles the "Traveller and the Oilman" in Swynnerton, Indian Nights' Entertainments, p. 142. (A repartee similar in principle is found Jataka, No. 218. A man deposits some ploughshares with another, who sells them and pleads that the mice have eaten them up. The first man hides the second's son, and pleads that a hawk has carried him off. This story has more point than the Judgment of the Jackal.]

215. Ganga Ram the Parrot.—(A man falls in love with a woman from seeing her shoes.)

216. The Disguised Princess.—"One. of the Indian variants of Cinderella." A wife exposed in the jungle. She gets a covering of wood made, to go about in unobserved. She gets employment at her husband's palace, and by various devices wins his attention; thus she prevents his marriage, which was a-preparing, and he takes her back again.

217. The King and the Fairy.—("Another of the Cinderella type.")