Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 8, 1897.djvu/282

 258 Reviews.

celebrated story of The Lajxguage of Animals, on which Mr. Frazer wrote at length in the Archaeological Revieiv, and on which I have myself commented in the Carabas volume on Barlaam and Josaphat. Yet, without the aid of any translation from the Jdtaka, the Indian origin of this particular story has already been established. It may be conjectured that the importance of this pubHcation of a translation of the /dlaka will turn out to be that it throws light upon the dissemination of folktales within the Indian peninsula rather than upon the origin of those of Europe. But for this purpose a great deal of comparative work will have to be done by students of folklore, much of which might well have been regarded as within the province of the translators or editors of this translation. In reviewing the first volume, I had occasion to complain of the meagre assistance given to students of folk- lore with regard to parallels, either in India or Europe, of the Jdtaka stories. I fear I must repeat this complaint with regard at least to the third volume translated by Messrs. Francis and Neil. Thus, they do not refer to the light thrown by No. 374 on the ^sop Fable of The Dog and the Shadow, or of No. 426 on that of The Wolf and the Lamb, though of course one of the main points of interest about the Jdtaka is the possibility that we can find in it the source of our familiar a'Esop. Their reticence in this regard contrasts by no means favourably with the very full attention paid to this point by Mr, Rouse in the notes to his translation in the second volume. If the other volumes were equally well annotated for folklore parallels as the volume en- trusted to Mr. Rouse, the value of the translation would be greatly increased. Readers of Folk-Lore are familiar with Mr. Rouse's wide knowledge of Indian popular tales and customs ; and the second volume of the translation has largely benefited, owing to the fact that Mr. Rouse is a folklorist as well as a Pali scholar.

Mr. Rouse has not alone drawn attention to parallels already existing in print, but on one occasion he has been enabled to add to the number of published variants. It is indeed curious to think that a parallel, and a very close one, to a Jdtaka story should be preserved in the memory of a master of one of our public schools. Yet the story given in the note on page no is of this character. The wonderful character of the incident, however, somewhat dis- appears when we learn that the variant in question was heard from a nurse in Moscow. Even this fact, however, does not quite