Page:Barlaam and Josaphat. English lives of Buddha.djvu/90

lxxxiv original. Considering the popularity of the Arabian Nights, it might, naturally, be supposed that the European versions, in which we are mostly interested, came from that source. But the two Italian versions of Morlini and Straparola were printed in the sixteenth century, long before Galland had made the Arabian Nights popular. So that it is impossible to regard the latter as the source of the European versions. These must have spread from the East by the folk and through the folk. But that they did spread thence there can be but little doubt in the mind of any one who compares the evidence.

7. The Robbers' Nemesis.—Here again we have a tale only occurring in the Hebrew Barlaam, and yet certainly derived from India. That it is the source of Chaucer's Pardonere's Tale makes it of exceptional interest. It is, also, curious to find that the story, which, in its original form, is told of the Buddha, was, later on, told about Jesus. The original was discovered by Dr. Morris in the Vedabha Jataka the forty-eighth Birth-Story of Buddha (The Jataka, tr. Chalmers, vol. i. pp. 121-4). Here Buddha foresees the Nemesis