The Katha Sarit Sagara or Ocean of the Streams of Story Part 104

[59] Cp. Wolff, I, 159, Knatchbull, 201, Symeon Seth, 47, John of Capua, g., 3, b., German translation (Ulm, 1483) M., IV, b., Spanish translation, x.x.xI, b., Doni, 18, Anvar-i-Suhaili, 273, Livre des Lumieres, 211, Cabinet des Fees, XVII, 410, Hitopadesa (Johnson) Fable V, p. 22. (Benfey, Vol. I, p. 316.)

[60] For jata we must read jata. Cp. for the power given by a treasure the 18th chapter of this work, see also Benfey, Vol. I, p. 320.

[61] The Sanskrit College MS. has ullambya, having hung it upon a peg.

[62] Cp. Wolff, I, 160, Knatchbull, 202, Symeon Seth, 48, John of Capua, g., 6, German translation (Ulm) M., IV, b., Anvar-i-Suhaili, 275, Livre des Lumieres, 214, Cabinet des Fees, XVII, 412. (Benfey, Vol. I, p. 318.)

[63] Cp. Hitopadesa, Fable VII, p. 30. Benfey compares Wolff, I, 162, Knatchbull, 203, Symeon Seth, 48, John of Capua, g., 6, German translation (Ulm, 1483) M., V, Spanish translation, x.x.xII, a, Doni, p. 20, Anvar-i-Suhaili, 275, Livre des Lumieres, 216, Cabinet des Fees, XVII, 413, Camerarius, Fab. aesop., 388, Lafontaine, VIII, 27, Lancereau, French translation of the Hitopadesa, 222, Robert, Fables Inedites, II, 191. (Benfey, Vol. I, p. 320). Cp. also Sagas from the Far East, p. 189.

[64] Perhaps we should read--sayake.

[65] Here Somadeva departs from the Panchatantra, (Benfey, Vol. I, p. 318.)

[66] As he does the lion in Babrius, 107.

[67] Benfey compares Grimm R. F. CCLx.x.xIV, Renart, br. 25, Grimm Kinder- und Hausmarchen, 58, (III, 100) Keller, Romans des sept Sages, CLII, Dyocletian, Einleitung, 48, Conde Lucanor, XLIII. (Benfey, Vol. I, p. 333). See also Lafontaine's Fables, XII, 15. This is perhaps the story which General Cunningham found represented on a bas-relief of the Bharhut Stupa. (See General Cunningham's Stupa of Bharhut, p. 67.) The origin of the story is no doubt the Birth-story of "The Cunning Deer," Rhys Davids' translation of the Jatakas, pp. 221-223. The Kurunga Miga Jataka, No. 206 in Fausboll Vol. II, p. 152 is a still better parallel. In this the tortoise gnaws through the bonds, the crane (satapatto) smites the hunter on the mouth as he is leaving his house; he twice returns to it on account of the evil omen; and when the tortoise is put in a bag, the deer leads the hunter far into the forest, returns with the speed of the wind, upsets the bag, and tears it open.

[68] Benfey compares with this the fifth story in the 4th book of his Panchatantra, Wie eine Frau liebe belohnt. But the very story is found in Taranga 65, which was not published when Benfey wrote his book. For parallel stories see Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, p. 39 and ff. where he is treating of a tale in the Nugae Curialium of Gualterus Mapes. The woman behaves like Erippe in a story related by Parthenius (VIII). In the heading of the tale we are told that Aristodemus of Nysa tells the same tale with different names.

[69] The Sanskrit College MS. reads pallim for patnim.

[70] Naga in the original--a fabulous serpent demon with a human face. Cp. Ralston's Russian Folk-Tales, p. 65. "He flies as a fiery snake into his mistress's bower, stamps with his foot on the ground and becomes a youthful gallant."

[71] Cp. Arrian's Indika, chapter xvii, McCrindle's translation.

[72] This story corresponds to No. XLIII, in the Avadanas.

[73] This to a certain extent resembles the 129th story in the Gesta Romanorum, "Of Real Friends.h.i.+p." Douce says that the story is in Alphonsus. A story more closely resembling the story in the Gesta is current in Bengal, with this difference, that a goat does duty for the pig of the Gesta. A son tells his father he has three friends, the father says that he has only half a friend. Of course the half friend turns out worth all the three put together. The Bengali story was told me by Pandit Syama Charan Mukhopadhyaya. See also Liebrecht's Dunlop, p. 291, and note 371. See also Herrtage's English Gesta, p. 127, Tale 33.

[74] A perpetually recurring pun! The word can either mean "oiliness"

or "affection."

[75] Cp. what Sganarelle says in Le Mariage Force:

"La raison. C'est que je ne me sens point propre pour le mariage, et que je veux imiter mon pere et tous ceux de ma race, qui ne se sont jamais voulu marier."

[76] This story bears a certain resemblance to the European stories of grammarians who undertake to educate a.s.ses or monkeys. (See Leveque, Les Mythes et Legendes de l'Inde et de la Perse, p. 320.) La Fontaine's Charlatan is perhaps the best known. This story is found in Prym und Socin's Syrische Marchen, p. 292, where a man undertakes to teach a camel to read.

[77] This story is No. LI in the Avadanas.

[78] See Felix Liebrecht, Orient und Occident, Vol. I, p. 135 on the Avadanas translated from the Chinese by Stanislas Julien, Paris, 1859 where this story is found (No. LXIX.) He compares a story of an Irishman who was hired by a Yarmouth Malster to a.s.sist in loading his s.h.i.+p. As the vessel was about to set sail, the Irishman cried out from the quay. "Captain, I lost your shovel overboard, but I cut a big notch on the rail-fence, round stern, just where it went down, so you will find it when you come back." Vol. II, p. 544, note. Liebrecht thinks he has read something similar in the Asteia of Hierokles. See also Bartsch, Sagen, Marchen und Gebrauche aus Meklenburg, Vol. I, p. 349.

[79] See Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, pp. 119 and 120, also Benfey's Panchatantra. Vol. I, p. 391, Nachtrage II, 543. This is No. CIII. in the Avadanas.

[80] This is No. XLIX in the Avadanas.

[81] This is No. x.x.xVII in the Avadanas.

[82] In the original the husband is called a "vessel of alms," i. e., "receiver of alms," but the pun cannot be retained in the translation without producing obscurity.

[83] See Benfey's Panchatantra, IIIrd book, page 213, Vol. II. Benfey points out that in the Mahabharata, Drona's son, one of the few Kauravas that had survived the battle, was lying under a sacred fig-tree, on which crows were sleeping. Then he sees one owl come and kill many of the crows. This suggests to him the idea of attacking the camp of the Pandavas. In the Arabic text the hostile birds are ravens and owls. So in the Greek and the Hebrew translation. John of Capua has "sturni," misunderstanding the Hebrew. (Benfey, Vol. I, 335). Rhys Davids states in his Buddhist Birth Stories (p. 292 note,) that the story of the lasting feud between the crows and the owls is told at length in Jataka, No. 270.

[84] For Pradivin the Petersburg lexicographers would read Prajivin, as in the Panchatantra.

[85] Benfey remarks that this fable was known to Plato; Cratylus, 411, A, (but the pa.s.sage might refer to some story of Bacchus personating Hercules, as in the Ranae,) and he concludes that the fable came from Greece to India. He compares aesop, (Furia, 141, Coraes, 113,) Lucia.n.u.s, Piscator, 32, Erasmus, "Asinus apud c.u.manos," Robert, Fables Inedites, I, 360. (Benfey, Vol. I, p. 463.) I cannot find the fable in Phaedrus or Babrius. The skin is that of a tiger in Benfey's translation, and also in Johnson's translation of the Hitopadesa, p. 74 in the original (Johnson's edition). See also Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, p. 119. It is No. 189 in Fausboll's edition of the Jatakas, and will be found translated in Rhys Davids' Introduction to his Buddhist Birth Stories, p. v.

[86] Benfey compares Grimm's Marchen, Vol. III, 246, where parallels to story No. 171 are given; Thousand and one Nights (Weil, III, 923). In a fable of aesop's the birds choose a peac.o.c.k king. (aesop, Furia, 183, Coraes, 53). (Benfey, Vol. I, p. 347.) See also Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, p. 110, Veckenstedt's Wendische Marchen, p. 424, De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, Vol. II, p. 206. See also p. 246 for an apologue in which the owl prevents the crow's being made king. See also Rhys Davids' Buddhist Birth Stories, p. 292. See also Brand's Popular Antiquities, Vol. III, pp. 196, 197. The story of the crow dissuading the birds from making the owl king is Jataka, No. 270. In the Kosiya Jataka, No. 226, an army of crows attacks an owl.

[87] Cp. Hitopadesa, 75, Wolff, I, 192; Knatchbull, 223, Symeon Seth, 58, John of Capua, h., 5, b., German translation (Ulm 1483) O., II, Spanish translation, x.x.xVI, a.; Doni, 36, Anvar-i-Suhaili, 315, Livre des Lumieres, 246; Cabinet des Fees, XVII, 437. This fable is evidently of Indian origin. For the deceiving of the elephant with the reflexion of the moon, Benfey compares Disciplina Clericalis XXIV. (Benfey, Vol. I, pp. 348, 349.) See also De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, Vol. II, p. 76.

[88] i. e. moon-lake.

[89] Common epithets of the moon. The Hindus find a hare in the moon where we find a "man, his dog, and his bush."

[90] This story is found in Wolff, I, 197, Knatchbull, 226, Symeon Seth, 60, John of Capua, h., 6, b, German translation (Ulm 1483) O., IV, 6, Spanish translation, 36, b, Doni, 38, Anvar-i-Suhaili, 322, Livre des Lumieres, 251, Cabinet des Fees, XVII, 442, Baldo Fab. XX, in Edelestand du Meril, Poesies Inedites, p. 249. Benfey finds three "moments" in the Fable; the first is, the "hypocritical cat"; this conception he considers to be "allgemein menschlich" and compares Furia, 14, Coraes, 152, Furia, 15, Coraes, 6, Furia, 67, Coraes, 28, Robert, Fables Inedites, I, 216; also Mahabharata V. (II, 283) 5421 and ff., where the cat manages to get herself taken to the river, to die, by the rats and mice, and there eats them. The second moment is the folly of litigiousness: here he compares a pa.s.sage in Dubois's Panchatantra. The third is the object of contention, the nest, for which he compares Phaedrus, I, 21. (Benfey, Vol. I, pp. 350-354). I should compare, for the 1st moment, Phaedrus, Lib. II, Fabula, IV, (recognovit Lucia.n.u.s Mueller) Aquila, Feles et Aper, La Fontaine, VII, 16. See also for the "hypocritical cat" Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, p. 121. The cat's tactics are much the same as those of the fox in Reineke Fuchs (Simrock, Deutsche Volksbucher, Vol. I, p. 138.) See also De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, Vol. II, p. 54. The story is No. CXXV in the Avadanas. From De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, pp. 227-228 it appears that kapinjala means a heath-c.o.c.k, or a cuckoo. Here the word appears to be used as a proper name. There is a very hypocritical cat in Prym und Socin, Syrische Marchen, p. lx. See especially p. 242, and cp. p. 319.

[91] This is the 3rd story in Benfey's translation of the third book of the Panchatantra. See Johnson's translation of the Hitopadesa, p. 110. Wolff, I. 205, Knatchbull, 233. Symeon Seth, 62, John of Capua, i., 1, b., German translation O., VI, 6, Spanish, x.x.xVII, a., Doni, 42, Anvar-i-Suhaili, 331, Livre des Lumieres, 254, Cabinet des Fees, XVII, 444. Benfey translates a reference to it in Panini. 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 Volksbucher, 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 Mentiroses, 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 Avadanas. 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, x.x.xVIII, a., Doni, 44, Anvar-i-Suhaili, 336, Livre des Lumieres, 259, Cabinet des Fees, XVII, 449. (Benfey's Panchatantra, Vol. I, p. 366.) See also La Fontaine, IX, p. 15.

[94] Dr. Kern suggests vyat.i.ta-pushpa-kalatvad. 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, x.x.xVIII, a., Doni, 45, Anvar-i-Suhaili, 338, Livre des Lumieres, 261, Cabinet des Fees, 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, x.x.xVIII, b., Doni, 47, Anvar-i-Suhaili, 340, Livre des Lumieres, 264; Cabinet des Fees, 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, x.x.xIX, a., Doni, 50, Anvar-i-Suhaili, 355, Livre des Lumieres, 279, Cabinet des Fees, XVII, 466, La Fontaine, IX, 7, Polier, Mythologie des Indes, II, 571, Hitopadesa, (similar in some respects) Johnson, p. 108, Mahabharata, 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 bhajami not bhanjami.

[101] See Liebrecht's notes on the Avadanas, translated by Stanislas Julien, on page 110 of his "Zur Volkskunde." He adduces an English popular superst.i.tion. "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 Carca.s.ses (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., Anvar-i-Suhaili, 364, Livre des Lumieres, 283, Cabinet des Fees, XIII, 467, Hitopadesa, Johnson's translation, p. 112. Benfey compares the western fable of the sick lion. This fable is told in the Katha Sarit Sagara, X, 63, sl. 126, and ff., and will be found further on. (Benfey, Vol. I, p. 384.)

[103] This is No. XVII in the Avadanas. Cp. Grohmann, Sagen aus Bohmen, p. 35.

[104] i. e. sweet, salt, acid, astringent, bitter, and pungent.

[105] This is No. XLVI in the Avadanas.

[106] Naukaha should be no doubt 'anokaha on Dr. Brockhaus's system.