Page:The Fables of Bidpai (Panchatantra).djvu/36

xxvi in Buddhism, it was adopted by Brahmanism, passed on by Zoroastrianism to Islam, which transmitted it to Christendom by the mediation of Jews.

Besides the wide spread of the tales as a whole by translation, several of them passed into popular literature in more or less modified form. The chase after these scattered references is a very alluring one, but almost all the game has been already bagged by that mighty hunter, Benfey. In that eminent scholar's introduction to his translation of the Pantschatantra (Leipzig, 1859) he has traced each of the tales in its wanderings with an amount of erudition which is phenomenal, even in the land of erudition. Some idea of this may be given by Professor Max Müller's charming essay "On the Migration of Fables" (Chips from a German Workshop, vol. iv. pp. 145-209; Selected Essays, i. pp. 500-576). Professor Miiller has forgotten to mention that this is a chip from another German's workshop, yet as a matter of fact, every reference to the tale of the milk-maid who counts her chickens before they