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Tuesday, May 13, 2008
homesubmit tales

Indian Fairy Tales

The Lion And The Crane
How The Raja's Son Won The Princess Labam
The Lambikin
Punchkin
The Broken Pot
The Magic Fiddle
The Cruel Crane Outwitted
Loving Laili
The Tiger, The Brahman, And The Jackal
The Soothsayer's Son
Harisaman
The Charmed Ring
The Talkative Tortoise
A Lac Of Rupees For A Bit Of Advice
The Gold-Giving Serpent
The Son Of Seven Queens
A Lesson For Kings
Pride Goeth Before A Fall
Raja Rasalu
The Ass In The Lion's Skin
The Farmer And The Money-Lender
The Boy Who Had A Moon On His Forehead And A Star On His Chin
The Prince And The Fakir
Why The Fish Laughed
The Demon With The Matted Hair
The Ivory City And Its Fairy Princess
How Sun, Moon, And Wind Went Out To Dinner
How The Wicked Sons Were Duped
The Pigeon And The Crow
Notes And References
I. The Lion And The Crane
II. Princess Labam
III. Lambikin
IV. Punchkin
V. The Broken Pot
VI. The Magic Fiddle
VII. The Cruel Crane Outwitted
VIII. Loving Laili
IX. The Tiger, The Brahman, And The Jackal
X. The Soothsayer's Son
XI. Harisarman
XII. The Charmed Ring
XIII. The Talkative Tortoise
XIV. Lac Of Rupees
XV. The Gold-Giving Serpent
XVI. The Son Of Seven Queens
XVII. A Lesson For Kings
XVIII. Pride Goeth Before A Fall
XIX. Raja Rasalu
XX. The Ass In The Lion's Skin
XXI. The Farmer And The Money-Lender
XXII. The Boy With Moon On Forehead
XXIII. The Prince And The Fakir
XXIV. Why The Fish Laughed
XXV. The Demon With The Matted Hair
XXVI. The Ivory Palace
XXVII. Sun, Moon, And Wind
XXVIII. How Wicked Sons Were Duped
XXIX. The Pigeon And The Crow

IX. The Tiger, The Brahman, And The Jackal

Source.-Steel-Temple, Wideawake Stories, pp. 116-20; first published in Indian Antiquary, xii. p. 170 seq.

Parallels.-No less than 94 parallels are given by Prof. K. Krohn in his elaborate discussion of this fable in his dissertation, Mann und Fuchs, (Helsingfors, 1891), pp. 38-60; to which may be added three Indian variants, omitted by him, but mentioned by Capt. Temple, l. c., p. 324, in the Bhagavata Purana, the Gul Bakaoli and Ind. Ant. xii. 177; and a couple more in my Aesop, p. 253: add Smeaton, Karens, p. 126.

Remarks.-Prof. Krohn comes to the conclusion that the majority of the oral forms of the tale come from literary versions (p. 47), whereas the Reynard form has only had influence on a single variant. He reduces the century of variants to three type forms. The first occurs in two Egyptian versions collected in the present day, as well as in Petrus Alphonsi in the twelfth century, and the Fabulae Extravagantes of the thirteenth or fourteenth: here the ingrate animal is a crocodile, which asks to be carried away from a river about to dry up, and there is only one judge. The second is that current in India and represented by the story in the present collection: here the judges are three. The third is that current among Western Europeans, which has spread to S. Africa and N. and S. America: also three judges. Prof. K. Krohn counts the first the original form, owing to the single judge and the naturalness of the opening, by which the critical situation is brought about. The further question arises, whether this form, though found in Egypt now, is indigenous there, and if so, how it got to the East. Prof. Krohn grants the possibility of the Egyptian form having been invented in India and carried to Egypt, and he allows that the European forms have been influenced by the Indian. The "Egyptian" form is found in Burmah (Smeaton, l. c., p. 128), as well as the Indian, a fact of which Prof. K. Krohn was unaware though it turns his whole argument. The evidence we have of other folk-tales of the beast-epic emanating from India improves the chances of this also coming from that source. One thing at least is certain: all these hundred variants come ultimately from one source. The incident "Inside again" of the Arabian Nights (the Djinn and the bottle) and European tales is also a secondary derivate.