A History of Sanskrit Literature c24.s1.9

c24.s1.9

Nor in any account can we omit to recognize the fact that in Märchen at least we may have old myths and that something must be allowed, as Grimm demanded, for the old common possession of the Indo-European people. In the tales of Herakles, Thorr, and Indra we have certainly some of this old mythology. More speculative is Kern's³ ingenious comparison of the ape king, who in a Jātaka makes himself a bridge for his following over the Ganges, and a similar exploit of the Irish king Bran, with which he suggests that the function of the Roman pontifex may be connected. We have accordingly a great field of possibilities; borrowing of India from Greece, of Greece from India, of both from a common source in Egypt or Asia Minor and Syria; common inheritance from Indo-European times, or from even further back if it is deemed worth while seeking to penetrate further into the past; and independent development due to the similar constitution of the human mind. In the face of these possibilities it will be found increasingly difficult to reach any clear decision in any particular case, while any general conclusion is absolutely out of the question. It must further be remembered that there must be admitted movements to and fro; a good story may be invented in Greece, pass to India, and return to Greece; Pausanias¹ already tells us before 180 A.D. of the snake who protected a child but was taken for its murderer and killed; it is difficult not to see in this the origin of the touching tale of the Brahmin who slays the ichneumon which had killed the snake attacking its master’s child, a legend which is famous in the form of Llewelyn and Gelert, a dog replacing the mongoose, and which can be traced widely over Europe.