[1] This is also found in the Panchatantra and the Hitopadeśa. See Benfey’s Panchatantra, Vol. I, (Einleitung), p. 100. In fact the present chapter corresponds to the 2nd book of the Hitopadeśa, “The separation of friends,” Johnson’s Translation, p. 40, and to the 1st book of the Panchatantra. In śl. 15, I read, with Dr. Kern, śashpán.
[2] Weber supposes that the Indians borrowed all the fables representing the jackal as a wise animal, as he is not particularly cunning. He thinks that they took the Western stories about the fox, and substituted for that animal the jackal. Benfey argues that this does not prove that these fables are not of Indian origin. German stories represent the lion as king of beasts, though it is not a German animal. (Benfey’s Panchatantra, Vol. I, pp. 102, 103). See also De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, p. 122.
[3] This story is found in the Hitopadeśa, the Panchatantra, the Kalilah and Dimnah, Anvár-i-Suhaili, Livre des Lumières, p. 61, Cabinet des Fées, XVII. 152, and other collections (Benfey’s Panchatantra, Vol. I, p. 105.) For the version of the Panchatantra, see Benfey, Vol. II, p. 9, for that of the Hitopadeśa, Johnson’s Translation, p. 44. For that of the Kalíla and Dimna Benfey refers us to Knatchbull’s translation, p. 88, for that of the Anvár-i-Suhaili to Eastwick’s translation, p. 86. Benfey considers a fable of Æsop, in which an ape tries to fish and is nearly drowned, an imitation of this. It reminds one of the trick which the fox played the bear in Reineke Fuchs, (Simrock’s Deutsche Volksbücher, Vol. I, p. 148.)
[4] Cp. Panchatantra, Vol. II, p. 21. In the 1st volume Benfey tells us that in the old Greek version of the fables of Bidpai, the fox, who represents the jackal, loses through fear his appetite for other food, and for a hen in the Anvár-i-Suhaili, 99. The fable is also found in Livre des Lumières, p. 72, Cabinet des Fées, p. XVII, 183, and other collections. The Arabic version and those derived from it leave out the point of the drum being found on a battle-field (Benfey’s Panchatantra, Vol. I, p. 132).
Cp. also Campbell’s West Highland Tales, p. 268, “A fox being hungry one day found a bagpipe, and proceeded to eat the bag, which is generally made of hide. There was still a remnant of breath in the bag, and when the fox bit it, the drone gave a groan, when the fox, surprised but not frightened, said—‘Here is meat and music.’”
[5] I follow the reading of the Sanskrit College MS. múḍhabuddiḥ prabhur nyáyam ukshnánenádya śikshyate. This satisfies the metre, which Brockhaus’s reading does not.
[6] This word generally means crocodile. But in the Hitopadeśa the creature that kills the crane is a crab.
[7] This fable is the 7th in Benfey’s translation of the Panchatantra, Vol. II, p. 58. It is found in the 4th book of the Hitopadeśa, Johnson’s translation, p. 103. It is also found in the Arabic version (Wolff, I, 41, Knatchbull, 114), Symeon Seth (Athenian edition, p. 16,) John of Capua, c. 4, b., German translation (Ulm., p. 1483. D., V, b.,) Spanish translation, XIII, 6, Firenzuola, 39, Doni, 59, Anvár-i-Suhaili, 117, Livre des Lumières, 92, Cabinet des Fées, XVII, 221, Thousand and one Nights (Weil, III, 915.) Cp. Lafontaine, X, 4. (Benfey, Vol. I, p. 175). Benfey shews that it may be Buddhistic in origin, quoting a story from Upham’s Sacred and Historical Books of Ceylon, III, 292. He also shews that it may have come into Buddhist books from the Greek, as Alcæus appears to have been acquainted with a similar Greek fable, (Æsopus, Furia 231, Cor., 70). See also Weber’s Indische Studien, III, 343. I may as well mention that in the notes taken from Benfey’s Panchatantra I substitute Johnson’s translation of the Hitopadeśa for Max Mueller’s. The story is found in Rhys Davids’ translation of the Játakas, (pp. 317–321,) which has just been published.
[8] Here he is called a jhasha which means “large fish.”
[9] Cp. Hitopadeśa, Johnson’s translation, Fable, IX, p. 61, Arabic, (Wolff., 46, Knatchbull, 117,) Symeon Seth, 18, John of Capua c., 5, b., German translation (Ulm edition) 1483, E., II, a, Spanish, XIII, 6, Firenzuola, 43, Doni, 62, Anvár-i-Suhaili, 124, Livre des Lumières, 99, Cabinet des Fées, XVII, 236, Baldo 4th Fable, Livre des Merveilles (in Edéléstand du Méril, Poésies Inédites, 234), also Śukasaptati, 31. Benfey considers it to be Buddhistic in origin, referring to Memoires sur les contrées occidentales traduits du Sanscrit par Hiouen Thsang et du Chinois par Stan. Julien I, 361, Köppen, Religion des Buddha, p. 94, Note I, (Benfey’s Panchatantra, Vol. I, p. 179 and ff.) This is the 30th story in my copy of the Śukasaptati.