Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 18, 1907.djvu/40



to take for my subject the Pāli Jātaka Book. As you know, the text of this book, edited by the veteran Professor Fausboll, was completed a few years ago; and the translation has been in progress since 1888. The first volume was published in 1895, and the last was left incomplete at the death of Professor Cowell in 1903. The work of completing it was laid upon me by Professor Cowell, and I had hoped to get it done before this meeting; but, unfortunately, in the course of printing, it was found that there were large gaps left which must be filled. This has delayed the work, but it should be ready by the spring. A good deal has been already written about this book in the pages of our journal, but it may be worth while briefly to recapitulate what it has revealed, and to indicate anything which may suggest itself as to the future. I cannot but hope that the Society contains young and ardent spirits who are looking about them to see how they may serve the cause of research; if so, they need look no longer, for I can soon show them work enough for the greediest.

The word Jātaka, Birth, is applied specially to stories about the earlier birth of Gautama Buddha. There is no reason to doubt that Buddha used to tell such stories to his disciples, the framework being often a beast-fable or wonder-tale which was already current; like other