A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s3.t2.208

v2.c19.s3.t2.208

[^1): Jāt. No. 294. In No. 295 it is, conversely, the crow which flatters the jackal, thereby obtaining a morsel of ox carrion. In *La Fontaine*, Fables, I, 2, the fox praises the raven's beautiful voice, and thus obtains the cheese. [^2): Jāt. No. 30, variant No. 286; *Benfey*, Pantschatantra I, 228 f. I. *Scheftelowitz* in ZB., VII, 1926, pp. 284 f. [^3): Jāt. 38. *Benfey*, Pantschatantra I, 174 ff.; Tantrākhyāyika I, 5; *La Fontaine*, Fables, X, 4. A gypsy version ZDMG. 42, 122 f. [^4): Jāt. No. 198 (*cf.* No. 145); recurs in "Arabian Nights," "Gesta Romanorum," "Sindbad," and in *Chaucer* (Wife of Bath I, 231). *Cf.* JRAS., 1890, p. 504. [^5): Jāt. No. 32. The fable seems to have migrated very early *viâ* Persia to Greece, where Herodotus (VI, 130) wove it into the history of Hippokleides. The hypothesis of C. H. Tawney (Journal of Philology XII, 1883, p. 121) that the story was brought to India by the Greeks when they ruled in Bactria, seems to me improbable, because it is more feasible for a fable to be transferred to human conditions, than for a fable to be made out of an anecdote. Moreover, the peacock, which, when it dances, bares its hind-quarters, is proverbially known in India as the type of shamelessness. *Cf.* *Böhtlingk*, Indische Sprüche No. 5233; *Benfey*, Pantschatantra, I, 280; J. G. V. *Hahn*, Sagwissenschaftliche Studien, Jena 1876, p. 69. *S. J. Warren*, in "Hermes," Vol. 29, 1894, pp. 476 f. says: "The details of the story as told by Herodotus are so exceptional, they are so reminiscent of an Indian svayaṃvara, where the maiden or the father selects a husband from among the assembled suitors, that one would assume Oriental origin, were it not for the fact that Herodotus narrated it all with such convincing certainty as if it had actually taken place."