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Rh are hatched, is given in § 209 of Benfey's Einleitung, and nearly every one of its 239 sections affords material for a similar monograph. In the analytical table of contents which I have appended to this introduction, I have given Benfey's references to each tale, so that the reader may judge of their relative popularity.

Besides this spontaneous spread through Europe of the Fables of Bidpai, there has been, during the past two centuries, what may be termed a learned diffusion of the various Oriental versions of the Fables. As Orientalists became aware of the interest and value of the Fables, they edited or translated the Eastern versions, and thus a mass of materials was collected which required wide linguistic knowledge to master. The investigation of the Bidpai literature began with Bishop Huet in 1670, and was then carried on by Stark, by Schultens, by Sylvestre de Sacy, and by Loiseleur Deslongchamps, till, at the present day, there is scarcely an Orientalist of note who has not had his say and said something worth saying about the Fables of Bidpai. Two names, how ever, in the present generation, stand out most prominently as the masters of all that is to be known on this subject—Theodor Benfey and