Page:Barlaam and Josaphat. English lives of Buddha.djvu/91

Rh which will befall the robbers. In a poetical Persian version, and in two Arabic versions, given by Mr. Clouston in the Chaucer Society's Originals, pp. 423-9, it is Jesus, Son of Mary, who has the prophetic insight of the Nemesis.

This story is only found among the folk in Germany, where it was, possibly, made popular by Hans Sachs. In Italy it formed the subject of a Miracle Play, but, so far as I know, it does not occur among the Italian folktales; while the Portuguese version, given by Braga, is not a true folktale, but is reproduced from a Portuguese writer of the fourteenth century. Thus the story is not a true folktale, and its diffusion has been entirely literary.

8. King, Man, and Skull.—In the Bombay, Arabic, and in one of the Persion versions occurs the well-known story of Alexander and the Skull, though the great Conqueror's name is not mentioned. "A little dust will cover the eye that took in the whole world in its glance." This memento mori is mentioned in the Talmud about Alexander, and recalls other anecdotes given in Plutarch's Life. It may, therefore, be a Greek tradition about the great Conqueror, and is, clearly enough, an inter-