Page:The Fables of Bidpai (Panchatantra).djvu/19

Rh we have substituted ordinary type, as less trying to the eyes. The book is illustrated with woodcuts imitated from the Italian. We have reproduced nine of the quaintest and most characteristic.

I believe I have opened a new chapter in the already voluminous Bidpai literature by showing that the illustrations of the Fables were regarded as an integral part of the text, and were “translated,” so to speak, along with it. We have therefore given an example of these traditional illustrations from the editio princeps of the Latin version of John of Capua (p. lxiii.). From the other end of the world we give as a frontispiece to the volume one of the Indian designs which adorn the fine Persian MS. of the Fables preserved at the British Museum (Add. MS., 18,579). This was executed in 1610 for Tana Sahib, the last Rajah of Golconda (See Rieu, Cat. Pers. MSS. p. 756). The plate represents the first meeting of Dimna and Senesba, the two chief actors in the main story, and may be contrasted with the representation of the same personages given in the English text on p. 100.

It remains to perform the pleasant task of