Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 7, 1896.djvu/252

 226 and with but few exceptions occur again in another MS. (this in my possession, Cod. Or. Gaster, 82) belonging at latest to the tenth century, written probably in Palestine. It is here not the place to dilate on the date of this collection. Suffice it to say, that from internal evidence I place the date of the original compilation to be not later than the fifth century. No name of a person living after the fifth century is mentioned in the collection, of which the older MS. is thus but a recent copy and that of the twelfth century a still more recent one.

If we compare the parallel stories in both collections we shall find here again my views corroborated. Although the edifying element is still strongly represented, some incidents in the tales have been modified in the younger MS., and this modification continues in later versions. In these MS. we have thus far the oldest examples of genuine tales. One of these is a true fairy tale in the strictest sense of the word. I have selected only four to bring before you to-night. You will easily recognise in them old acquaintances, but somewhat changed. The motive is the same, but the setting is peculiar. They belong to well-known cycles and are curious specimens of ancient tales of fairies and genii. They are by centuries older than the Arabian Nights, and, except the Jātakas and the Egyptian tales, are probably the oldest extant specimens.

I commence with the story of the religious disputation between a heathen and a Jew. The comparative literature has been studied by Cosquin in connection with No. 7 of his collection (I., pp. 84-94). The oldest parallel belongs to the Libro de los Catos of the fourteenth century. Our text is thus the oldest representative, and close upon 1,000 or 900 years older than the oldest European version. In our text the religious element is the reason for the tale, and the peg to hang it on. Instead of a disputation between the followers of two religious systems, in Christian