Page:Buddhist Birth Stories, or, Jātaka Tales.djvu/23

Rh This story too is found also in Greek, Latin, Arabic, Persian, and in most European languages, though, strangely enough, it does not occur in our books of Æsop's Fables. But in the 'Æsop's Fables' is usually included a story of a tortoise who asked an eagle to teach him to fly; and being dropped, split into two! It is worthy of notice that in the Southern recension of the Pañca Tantra it is eagles, and not wild ducks or swans, who carry the tortoise; and there can, I think, be little doubt that the two fables are historically connected.

Another fable, very familiar to modern readers, is stated in the commentary to have been first related in ridicule of a kind of Mutual Admiration Society existing among the opponents of the Buddha. Hearing the monks talking about the foolish way in which Devadatta and Kokālika went about among the people ascribing each to the other virtues which neither possessed, he is said to have told this tale.