Indian Fairy Tales Part 25

"Ah, but I like you and your ways! Let me be your chum, and let us feed together."

The Pigeon agreed, and they went on in company. The Crow pretended to feed along with the Pigeon, but ever and anon he would turn back, peck to bits some heap of cow-dung, and eat a fat worm. When he had got a bellyful of them, up he flies, as pert as you like:

"Hullo, Mr. Pigeon, what a time you take over your meal! One ought to draw the line somewhere. Let's be going home before it is too late."

And so they did.

The cook saw that his Pigeon had brought a friend, and hung up another basket for him.

A few days afterwards there was a great purchase of fish which came to the rich man's kitchen. How the Crow longed for some! So there he lay, from early morn, groaning and making a great noise. Says the Pigeon to the Crow:

"Come, Sir Crow, and get your breakfast!"

"Oh dear! oh dear! I have such a fit of indigestion!" says he.

"Nonsense! Crows never have indigestion," said the Pigeon. "If you eat a lamp-wick, that stays in your stomach a little while; but anything else is digested in a trice, as soon as you eat it. Now do what I tell you; don't behave in this way just for seeing a little fish."

"Why do you say that, master? I have indigestion."

"Well, be careful," said the Pigeon, and flew away.

The cook prepared all the dishes, and then stood at the kitchen door, wiping the sweat off his body. "Now's my time!" thought Mr. Crow, and alighted on a dish containing some dainty food. Click! The cook heard it, and looked round. Ah! he caught the Crow, and plucked all the feathers out of his head, all but one tuft; he powdered ginger and c.u.mmin, mixed it up with b.u.t.ter-milk, and rubbed it well all over the bird's body.

"That's for spoiling my master's dinner and making me throw it away!"

said he, and threw him into his basket. Oh, how it hurt!

By-and-by the Pigeon came in, and saw the Crow lying there, making a great noise. He made great game of him, and repeated a verse of poetry:

"Who is this tufted crane I see Lying where he's no right to be?

Come out! my friend, the crow is near, And he may do you harm, I fear!"

To this the Crow answered with another:

"No tufted crane am I--no, no!

I'm nothing but a greedy crow.

I would not do as I was told, So now I'm plucked, as you behold."

And the Pigeon rejoined with a third verse:

"You'll come to grief again, I know-- It is your nature to do so; If people make a dish of meat, 'Tis not for little birds to eat."

Then the Pigeon flew away, saying: "I can't live with this creature any longer." And the Crow lay there groaning till he died.

Notes and References

The story literature of India is in a large measure the outcome of the moral revolution of the peninsula connected with the name of Gautama Buddha. As the influence of his life and doctrines grew, a tendency arose to connect all the popular stories of India round the great teacher. This could be easily effected owing to the wide spread of the belief in metempsychosis. All that was told of the sages of the past could be interpreted of the Buddha by representing them as pre-incarnations of him. Even with Fables, or beast-tales, this could be done, for the Hindoos were Darwinists long before Darwin, and regarded beasts as cousins of men and stages of development in the progress of the soul through the ages. Thus, by identifying the Buddha with the heroes of all folk-tales and the chief characters in the beast-drolls, the Buddhists were enabled to incorporate the whole of the story-store of Hindostan in their sacred books, and enlist on their side the tale-telling instincts of men.

In making Buddha the centre figure of the popular literature of India, his followers also invented the Frame as a method of literary art. The idea of connecting a number of disconnected stories familiar to us from _The Arabian Nights_, Boccaccio's _Decamerone_, Chaucer's _Canterbury Tales_, or even _Pickwick_, is directly traceable to the plan of making Buddha the central figure of India folk-literature.

Curiously enough, the earliest instance of this in Buddhist literature was intended to be a Decameron, ten tales of Buddha's previous births, told of each of the ten Perfections. Asvagosha, the earlier Boccaccio, died when he had completed thirty-four of the Birth-Tales. But other collections were made, and at last a corpus of the JATAKAS, or Birth-Tales of the Buddha, was carried over to Ceylon, possibly as early as the first introduction of Buddhism, 241 B.C. There they have remained till the present day, and have at last been made accessible in a complete edition in the original Pali by Prof. Fausboll.

These JATAKAS, as we now have them, are enshrined in a commentary on the _gathas_, or moral verses, written in Ceylon by one of Buddhaghosa's school in the fifth century A.D. They invariably begin with a "Story of the Present," an incident in Buddha's life which calls up to him a "Story of the Past," a folk-tale in which he had played a part during one of his former incarnations. Thus the fable of the Lion and the Crane, which opens the present collection, is introduced by a "Story of the Present" in the following words:--

"A service have we done thee" [the opening words of the _gatha_ or moral verse]. "This the Master told while living at Jetavana concerning Devadatta's treachery. Not only now, O Bhickkus, but in a former existence was Devadatta ungrateful. And having said this he told a tale." Then follows the tale as given above (pp. 1, 2), and the commentary concludes: "The Master, having given the lesson, summed up the Jataka thus: 'At that time, the Lion was Devadatta, and the Crane was I myself.'" Similarly, with each story of the past the Buddha identifies himself, or is mentioned as identical with, the virtuous hero of the folk-tale. These Jatakas are 550 in number, and have been reckoned to include some 2000 tales. Some of these had been translated by Mr. Rhys-Davids (_Buddhist Birth Stories, I._, Trubner's Oriental Library, 1880), Prof. Fausboll (_Five Jatakas_, Copenhagen), and Dr.

R. Morris (_Folk-Lore Journal_, vols. ii.-v.). A few exist sculptured on the earliest Buddhist Stupas. Thus several of the circular figure designs on the reliefs from Amaravati, now on the grand staircase of the British Museum, represent Jatakas, or previous births of the Buddha.

Some of the Jatakas bear a remarkable resemblance to some of the most familiar FABLES OF aeSOP. So close is the resemblance, indeed, that it is impossible not to surmise an historical relation between the two. What this relation is I have discussed at considerable length in the "History of the aesopic Fable," which forms the introductory volume to my edition of Caxton's _Esope_ (London, D. Nutt, "Bibliotheque de Carabas," 1889). In this place I can only roughly summarise my results. I conjecture that a collection of fables existed in India before Buddha and independently of the Jatakas, and connected with the name of Kasyapa, who was afterwards made by the Buddhists into the latest of the twenty-seven pre-incarnations of the Buddha. This collection of the Fables of Kasyapa was brought to Europe with a deputation from the Cingalese King Chandra Muka Siwa (obiit 52 A.D.) to the Emperor Claudius about 50 A.D., and was done into Greek as the ????? ?????? of "Kybises." These were utilised by Babrius (from whom the Greek aesop is derived) and Avian, and so came into the European aesop.

I have discussed all those that are to be found in the Jatakas in the "History" before mentioned, i. pp. 54-72 (see Notes i. xv. xx.). In these Notes henceforth I refer to this "History" as my _aesop_.

There were probably other Buddhist collections of a similar nature to the Jatakas with a framework. When the Hindu reaction against Buddhism came, the Brahmins adapted these, with the omission of Buddha as the central figure. There is scarcely any doubt that the so-called FABLES OF BIDPAI were thus derived from Buddhistic sources. In its Indian form this is now extant as a _Panchatantra_ or Pentateuch, five books of tales connected by a Frame. This collection is of special interest to us in the present connection, as it has come to Europe in various forms and shapes. I have edited Sir Thomas North's English version of an Italian adaptation of a Spanish translation of a Latin version of a Hebrew translation of an Arabic adaptation of the Pehlevi version of the Indian original (_Fables of Bidpai_, London, D. Nutt, "Bibliotheque de Carabas," 1888). In this I give a genealogical table of the various versions, from which I calculate that the tales have been translated into thirty-eight languages in 112 different versions, twenty different ones in English alone. Their influence on European folk-tales has been very great: it is probable that nearly one-tenth of these can be traced to the Bidpai literature. (See Notes v. ix. x.

xiii. xv.)

Other collections of a similar character, arranged in a frame, and derived ultimately from Buddhistic sources, also reached Europe and formed popular reading in the Middle Ages. Among these may be mentioned THE TALES OF SINDIBAD, known to Europe as _The Seven Sages of Rome:_ from this we get the Gellert story (_cf. Celtic Fairy Tales_), though it also occurs in the Bidpai. Another popular collection was that a.s.sociated with the life of St. Buddha, who has been canonised as St. Josaphat: BARLAAM AND JOSAPHAT tells of his conversion and much else besides, including the tale of the Three Caskets, used by Shakespeare in the _Merchant of Venice_.

Some of the Indian tales reached Europe at the time of the Crusades, either orally or in collections no longer extant. The earliest selection of these was the _Disciplina Clericalis_ of Petrus Alphonsi, a Spanish Jew converted about 1106: his tales were to be used as seasoning for sermons, and strong seasoning they must have proved.

Another Spanish collection of considerably later date was ent.i.tled _El Conde Lucanor_ (Eng. trans. by W. York): this contains the fable of _The Man, his Son, and their a.s.s_, which they ride or carry as the popular voice decides. But the most famous collection of this kind was that known as GESTA ROMANORUM, much of which was certainly derived from Oriental and ultimately Indian sources, and so might more appropriately be termed _Gesta Indorum_.

All these collections, which reached Europe in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, became very popular, and were used by monks and friars to enliven their sermons as EXEMPLA. Prof. Crane has given a full account of this very curious phenomenon in his erudite edition of the _Exempla of Jacques de Vitry_ (Folk Lore Society, 1890). The Indian stories were also used by the Italian _Novellieri_, much of Boccaccio and his school being derived from this source. As these again gave material for the Elizabethan Drama, chiefly in W. Painter's _Palace of Pleasure_, a collection of translated _Novelle_ which I have edited (Lond., 3 vols. 1890), it is not surprising that we can at times trace portions of Shakespeare back to India. It should also be mentioned that one-half of La Fontaine's Fables (Bks. vii.-xii.) are derived from Indian sources. (_See_ Note on No. v.)

In India itself the collection of stories in frames went on and still goes on. Besides those already mentioned there are the stories of _Vikram and the Vampire_ (Vetala), translated among others by the late Sir Richard Burton, and the seventy stories of a parrot (_Suka Saptati_). The whole of this literature was summed up by Somadeva, c.

1200 A.D. in a huge compilation ent.i.tled _Katha Sarit Sagara_ ("Ocean of the Stream of Stories"). Of this work, written in very florid style, Mr. Tawney has produced a translation in two volumes in the _Bibliotheca Indica_. Unfortunately, there is a Divorce Court atmosphere about the whole book, and my selections from it have been accordingly restricted. (Notes, No. xi.)

So much for a short sketch of Indian folk-tales so far as they have been reduced to writing in the native literature.[2] The Jatakas are probably the oldest collection of such tales in literature, and the greater part of the rest are demonstrably more than a thousand years old. It is certain that much (perhaps one-fifth) of the popular literature of modern Europe is derived from those portions of this large bulk which came west with the Crusades through the medium of Arabs and Jews. In his elaborate _Einleitung_ to the _Pantschatantra_, the Indian version of the Fables of Bidpai, Prof. Benfey contended with enormous erudition that the majority of folk-tale incidents were to be found in the Bidpai literature. His introduction consisted of over 200 monographs on the spread of Indian tales to Europe. He wrote in 1859, before the great outburst of folk-tale collection in Europe, and he had not thus adequate materials to go about in determining the extent of Indian influence on the popular mind of Europe. But he made it clear that for beast-tales and for drolls, the majority of those current in the mouths of occidental people were derived from Eastern and mainly Indian sources. He was not successful, in my opinion, in tracing the serious fairy tale to India. Few of the tales in the Indian literary collections could be dignified by the name of fairy tales, and it was clear that if these were to be traced to India, an examination of the contemporary folk-tales of the peninsula would have to be attempted.

[Footnote 2: An admirable and full account of this literature was given by M. A. Barth in _Melusine_, t. iv. No. 12, and t. v. No. 1.

See also Table i. of Prof. Rhys-Davids' _Birth Stories_.]

The collection of current Indian folk-tales has been the work of the last quarter of a century, a work, even after what has been achieved, still in its initial stages. The credit of having begun the process is due to Miss Frere, who, while her father was Governor of the Bombay Presidency, took down from the lips of her _ayah_, Anna de Souza, one of a Lingaet family from Goa who had been Christian for three generations, the tales she afterwards published with Mr. Murray in 1868, under the t.i.tle, "_Old Deccan Days, or, Indian Fairy Legends current in Southern India, collected from oral tradition by M. Frere, with an introduction and notes by Sir Bartle Frere_." Her example was followed by Miss Stokes in her _Indian Fairy Tales_ (London, Ellis & White, 1880), who took down her tales from two _ayahs_ and a _Khitmatgar_, all of them Bengalese--the _ayahs_ Hindus, and the man a Mohammedan. Mr. Ralston introduced the volume with some remarks which dealt too much with sun-myths for present-day taste. Another collection from Bengal was that of Lal Behari Day, a Hindu gentleman, in his _Folk-Tales of Bengal_ (London, Macmillan, 1883). The Panjab and the Kashmir then had their turn: Mrs. Steel collected, and Captain (now Major) Temple edited and annotated, their _Wideawake Stories_ (London, Trubner, 1884), stories capitally told and admirably annotated. Captain Temple increased the value of this collection by a remarkable a.n.a.lysis of all the incidents contained in the two hundred Indian folk-tales collected up to this date. It is not too much to say that this a.n.a.lysis marks an onward step in the scientific study of the folk-tale: there is such a thing, derided as it may be. I have throughout the Notes been able to draw attention to Indian parallels by a simple reference to Major Temple's a.n.a.lysis.

Major Temple has not alone himself collected: he has been the cause that many others have collected. In the pages of the _Indian Antiquary_, edited by him, there have appeared from time to time folk-tales collected from all parts of India. Some of these have been issued separately. Sets of tales from Southern India, collected by the Pandit Natesa Sastri, have been issued under the t.i.tle _Folk-Lore of Southern India_, three fascicules of which have been recently re-issued by Mrs. Kingscote under the t.i.tle, _Tales of the Sun_ (W. H.

Allen, 1891): it would have been well if the ident.i.ty of the two works had been clearly explained. The largest addition to our knowledge of the Indian folk-tale that has been made since _Wideawake Stories_ is that contained in Mr. Knowles' _Folk-Tales of Kashmir_ (Trubner's Oriental Library, 1887), sixty-three stories, some of great length.

These, with Mr. Campbell's _Santal Tales_ (1892); Ramaswami Raju's _Indian Fables_ (London, Sonnenschein, n.d.); M. Thornhill, _Indian Fairy Tales_ (London, 1889); and E. J. Robinson, _Tales of S. India_ (1885), together with those contained in books of travel like Thornton's _Bannu_ or Smeaton's _Karens of Burmah_ bring up the list of printed Indian folk-tales to over 350--a respectable total indeed, but a mere drop in the ocean of the stream of stories that must exist in such a huge population as that of India: the Central Provinces in particular are practically unexplored. There are doubtless many collections still unpublished. Col. Lewin has large numbers, besides the few published in his _Lushai Grammar_; and Mr. M. L. Dames has a number of Baluchi tales which I have been privileged to use.

Altogether, India now ranks among the best represented countries for printed folk-tales, coming only after Russia (1500), Germany (1200), Italy and France (1000 each.)[3] Counting the ancient with the modern, India has probably some 600 to 700 folk-tales printed and translated in accessible form. There should be enough material to determine the vexed question of the relations between the European and the Indian collections.

[Footnote 3: Finland boasts of 12,000, but most of these lie unprinted among the archives of the Helsingfors Literary Society.]

This question has taken a new departure with the researches of M.

Emanuel Cosquin in his _Contes populaires de Lorraine_ (Paris, 1886, 2^e tirage, 1890), undoubtedly the most important contribution to the scientific study of the folk-tale since the Grimms. M. Cosquin gives in the annotations to the eighty-four tales which he has collected in Lorraine a ma.s.s of information as to the various forms which the tales take in other countries of Europe and in the East. In my opinion, the work he has done for the European folk-tale is even more valuable than the conclusions he draws from it as to the relations with India. He has taken up the work which Wilhelm Grimm dropped in 1859, and shown from the huge acc.u.mulations of folk-tales that have appeared during the last thirty years that there is a common fund of folk-tales which every country of Europe without exception possesses, though this does not of course preclude them from possessing others that are not shared by the rest. M. Cosquin further contends that the whole of these have come from the East, ultimately from India, not by literary transmission, as Benfey contended, but by oral transmission. He has certainly shown that very many of the most striking incidents common to European folk-tales are also to be found in Eastern _mahrchen_.

What, however, he has failed to show is that some of these may not have been carried out to the Eastern world by Europeans. Borrowing tales is a mutual process, and when Indian meets European, European meets Indian; which borrowed from which, is a question which we have very few criteria to decide. It should be added that Mr W. A. Clouston has in England collected with exemplary industry a large number of parallels between Indian and European folk-tale incidents in his _Popular Tales and Fictions_ (Edinburgh, 2 vols., 1887) and _Book of Noodles_ (London, 1888). Mr Clouston has not openly expressed his conviction that all folk-tales are Indian in origin: he prefers to convince us _non vi sed saepe cadendo_. He has certainly made out a good case for tracing all European drolls, or comic folk-tales, from the East.

With the fairy tale strictly so called--_i.e._, the serious folk-tale of romantic adventure--I am more doubtful. It is mainly a modern product in India as in Europe, so far as literary evidence goes. The vast bulk of the Jatakas does not contain a single example worthy the name, nor does the Bidpai literature. Some of Somadeva's tales, however, approach the nature of fairy tales, but there are several Celtic tales which can be traced to an earlier date than his (1200 A.D.) and are equally near to fairy tales. Yet it is dangerous to trust to mere non-appearance in literature as proof of non-existence among the folk. To take our own tales here in England, there is not a single instance of a reference to _Jack and the Beanstalk_ for the last three hundred years, yet it is undoubtedly a true folk-tale. And it is indeed remarkable how many of the _formulae_ of fairy tales have been found of recent years in India. Thus, the _Magic Fiddle_, found among the Santals by Mr. Campbell in two variants (see Notes on vi.), contains the germ idea of the wide-spread story represented in Great Britain by the ballad of _Binnorie_ (see _English Fairy Tales_, No.

ix.). Similarly, Mr. Knowles' collection has added considerably to the number of Indian variants of European "formulae" beyond those noted by M. Cosquin.

It is still more striking as regards _incidents_. In a paper read before the Folk-Lore Congress of 1891, and reprinted in the _Transactions_, pp. 76 _seq._, I have drawn up a list of some 630 incidents found in common among European folk-tales (including drolls). Of these, I reckon that about 250 have been already found among Indian folk-tales, and the number is increased by each new collection that is made or printed. The moral of this is, that India belongs to a group of peoples who have a common store of stories; India belongs to Europe for purposes of comparative folk-tales.

Can we go further and say that India is the source of all the incidents that are held in common by European children? I think we may answer "Yes" as regards droll incidents, the travels of many of which we can trace, and we have the curious result that European children owe their earliest laughter to Hindu wags. As regards the serious incidents further inquiry is needed. Thus, we find the incident of an "external soul" (Life Index, Captain Temple very appropriately named it) in Asbjornsen's _Norse Tales_ and in Miss Frere's _Old Deccan Days_ (see Notes on _Punchkin_). Yet the latter is a very suspicious source, since Miss Frere derived her tales from a Christian _ayah_ whose family had been in Portuguese Goa for a hundred years. May they not have got the story of the giant with his soul outside his body from some European sailor touching at Goa? This is to a certain extent negatived by the fact of the frequent occurrence of the incident in Indian folk-tales (Captain Temple gave a large number of instances in _Wideawake Stories_, pp. 404-5). On the other hand, Mr. Frazer in his _Golden Bough_ has shown the wide spread of the idea among all savage or semi-savage tribes. (See Note on No. iv.)