Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/572

 5o8 Reviews.

commend itself to readers who are not students of Sanskrit, Dr. Hertel compares the beginning of the fourth book in most of the versions, and adduces strong arguments to prove that the Tantrakhyayika's version of the story is the primitive one, and that the divergences of the other versions are simply corruptions. It would take up too much space to attempt to reproduce his reasoning, so I prefer to give a summary of his views with regard to the second story of the second book. Here Dr. Hertel maintains that the form of the story found in the Tantrakhyayika is the only one which has real point. In this tale " Mother Sandili " is about to prepare a mess of sesame for the entertain- ment of Brahmans. While the grains of sesame that had been washed were drying in the sun, a dog walked over them, so that they were rendered impure. She therefore determined to substi- tute black sesame grains for white, and offered to exchange the white grains for an equal amount of black, laying stress upon the equality in value of the two.

" White I am prepared to give for black ; if you like, take them. And, moreover, these have been shelled ; give me shelled grains also."

But the ostentatious fairness of the exchange arouses suspicion, as "Mother Sandili" appears to have had a reputation for cunning. In all the other versions this is lost. In Somadeva's version we read that no one would buy the mixture of rice and sesame, because a dog had eaten some of it. In the Southern Panchatantra it is proposed to give pounded grain for whole grain, because a dog had smelt the former. This destroys the point of the story, which Dr. Hertel rightly considers to lie in the apparent fairness of the barter. Even in the old Syriac version the humour of the transaction disappears, as shelled grains are offered for unshelled. The superiority of the Tantrakhyayika version is evident enough, though the awful enormity of offering to Brahmans grain which had been thus defiled may not be obvious to the European mind.

It may seem that Dr. Hertel's learned introduction appeals primarily to students of Sanskrit. But all folklorists will enjoy his translation, with its instructive notes, which leave no difficulty unexplained. At any rate his labours must be pronounced to be