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 Grimm, 105; Woycicki, ''Poln. Mähr. 105; Gering, Islensk. Ævent.'' 59, possibly derived from La Fontaine, x. 12.

Remarks.—Benfey has proved most ingeniously and conclusively (Einl. i 359) that the Indian fable is the source of both Latin and Greek fables. I may borrow from my Æsop, p. 93, parallel abstracts of the three versions, putting Benfey's results in a graphic form, series of bars indicating the passages where the classical fables have failed to preserve the original.

In the Indian fable every step of the action is thoroughly justified, whereas the Latin form does not explain why the snake was friendly in the first instance, or why the good man was enraged afterwards; and the Greek form starts abruptly, without explaining why serpent had killed the farmer's bon. Make a composite of the Phædrine and Babrian forms, and you get the Indian one, which is thus shown to be the original of both.