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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

XII. The Charmed Ring

Source.-Knowles, Folk-Tales of Kashmir, pp. 20-8.

Parallels.-The incident of the Aiding Animals is frequent in folk-tales: see bibliographical references, sub voce, in my List of Incidents, Trans. Folk-Lore Congress, p. 88; also Knowles, 21, n.; and Temple, Wideawake Stories, pp. 401, 412. The Magic Ring is also "common form" in folk-tales; cf. Kohler ap. Marie de France, Lais, ed. Warncke, p. lxxxiv. And the whole story is to be found very widely spread from India (Wideawake Stories, pp. 196-206) to England (Eng. Fairy Tales, No. xvii, "Jack and his Golden Snuff-box," cf. Notes, ibid.), the most familiar form of it being "Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp." Remarks.-M. Cosquin has pointed out (Contes de Lorraine, p. xi. seq.) that the incident of the rat's-tail-up-nose to recover the ring from the stomach of an ogress, is found among Arabs, Albanians, Bretons, and Russians. It is impossible to imagine that incident-occurring in the same series of incidents-to have been invented more than once, and if that part of the story has been borrowed from India, there is no reason why the whole of it should not have arisen in India, and have been spread to the West. The English variant was derived from an English Gipsy, and suggests the possibility that for this particular story the medium of transmission has been the Gipsies. This contains the incident of the loss of the ring by the faithful animal, which again could not have been independently invented.