Indian Fairy Tales (28 page)

I am, however, not so much concerned with the original explanation of
the Jataka as to trace its travels across the continents of Asia,
Africa, and America. I think I have done this satisfactorily, and will
have thereby largely strengthened the case for less extensive travels
of other tales. I have sufficient confidence of the method employed to
venture on that most hazardous of employments, scientific prophecy. I
venture to predict that the Tar Baby story will be found in Madagascar
in a form nearer the Indian than Uncle Remus, and I will go further,
and say that it will
not
be found in the grand Helsingfors
collection of folk-tales, though this includes 12,000, of which 1000
are beast-tales.

XXVI. THE IVORY PALACE.

Source
.—Knowles,
Folk-Tales 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, is the same story. Another version in the
collection
Baital Pachisi
, No. 1.

Remarks
.—The themes of love by mirror, and the faithful friend,
are common European, though the calm attempt at poisoning is perhaps
characteristically Indian, and reads like a page from Mr. Kipling.

XXVII. SUN, MOON, AND WIND.

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 it must, she fears, impair the value of the story as a
moral lesson in the eyes of all instructors of youth.

XXVIII. HOW WICKED SONS WERE DUPED.

Source
.—Knowles,
Folk-Tales 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
Latin Stories
(Percy Soc.), No. 26; and for
these and points of anthropological interest in the Celtic variant see
Mr. Gomme's article in
Folk-Lore
, i. pp. 197-206, "A Highland
Folk-Tale and its Origin in Custom."

Remarks
.—Mr. Gomme is of opinion that the tale arose from
certain rhyming formulae occurring in the Gaelic and Latin tales as
written on a mallet left by the old man in the box opened after his
death. The rhymes are to the effect that a father who gives up his
wealth to his children in his own lifetime deserves to be put to death
with the mallet. Mr. Gomme gives evidence that it was an archaic custom
to put oldsters to death after they had become helpless. He also points
out that it was customary for estates to be divided and surrendered
during the owners' lifetime, and generally he connects a good deal of
primitive custom with our story. I have already pointed out in
Folk-
Lore
, p. 403, that the existence of the tale in Kashmir without any
reference to the mallet makes it impossible for the rhymes on the
mallet to be the source of the story. As a matter of fact, it is a very
embarrassing addition to it, since the rhyme tells against the parent,
and the story is intended to tell against the ungrateful children. The
existence of the tale in India renders it likely enough that it is not
indigenous to the British Isles, but an Oriental importation. It is
obvious, therefore, that it cannot be used as anthropological evidence
of the existence of the primitive customs to be found in it. The whole
incident, indeed, is a striking example of the dangers of the
anthropological method of dealing with folk-tales before some attempt
is made to settle the questions of origin and diffusion.

XXIX. THE PIGEON AND THE CROW.

Source
.—The
Lola Jataka
, 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 one which shows how effectively the writers of the Jatakas
could represent animal folk, and how terribly moral they invariably
were in their tales. I should perhaps add that the Bodhisat is not
precisely the Buddha himself but a character which is on its way to
becoming perfectly enlightened, and so may be called a future Buddha.

[1]
"History
of the Aesopic Fable," the introductory volume to my edition of Caxton's
Fables of Esope
(London, Nutt, 1889).

[2]
An
admirable and full account of this literature was given by M. A. Barth
in
Mélusine
, t. iv. No. 12, and t. v. No. 1. See also Table i.
of Prof. Rhys-Davids'
Birth Stories
.

[3]
Finland boasts of 12,000 but most of these lie unprinted
among the archives of the Helsingfors Literary Society.