Page:The Fables of Bidpai (Panchatantra).djvu/35

Rh represent the two jackals, Karaṭaka and Dam- anaka, of the first chapter of the Indian original. From Arabic it was translated into the languages of all the countries of Islam. Besides the late Oriental versions, like the Persian and the Turkish, Kalilah wa Dimnah reached the West mainly through three offshoots. The first of these was a Greek version, done by Symeon Seth, a Jewish physician at the Byzantine court in the eleventh century: from this were derived the Old Slavonic and the Croat versions. Then there was an Old Spanish version which I have elsewhere (Jewish Chronicle, 3d July 1885), shown to have been translated in the College of Jewish translators of Arabic works of science, estab lished by Alphonso the Good at Toledo, about 1250; this gave rise to a Latin version. And finally, there was a Hebrew version made by by one Rabbi Joel, from which a Latin version was made by John of Capua, a converted Jew, under the title of Directorium humane vite, and this gave rise to German, Spanish, Czech, Italian, Dutch, Danish, and English versions.

It will thus be seen that the work before us enjoys the unique distinction of having appealed to all the great religions of the world. Originated