[25] Cp. Arrian’s Indika, chapter xvii, McCrindle’s translation.
[26] This story corresponds to No. XLIII, in the Avadánas.
[27] This to a certain extent resembles the 129th story in the Gesta Romanorum, “Of Real Friendship.” Douce says that the story is in Alphonsus. A story more closely resembling the story in the Gesta is current in Bengal, with this difference, that a goat does duty for the pig of the Gesta. A son tells his father he has three friends, the father says that he has only half a friend. Of course the half friend turns out worth all the three put together. The Bengali story was told me by Paṇḍit Śyámá Charan Mukhopádhyáya. See also Liebrecht’s Dunlop, p. 291, and note 371. See also Herrtage’s English Gesta, p. 127, Tale 33.
[28] A perpetually recurring pun! The word can either mean “oiliness” or “affection.”
[29] Cp. what Sganarelle says in Le Mariage Forcé:
“La raison. C’est que je ne me sens point propre pour le mariage, et que je veux imiter mon père et tous ceux de ma race, qui ne se sont jamais voulu marier.”
[30] This story bears a certain resemblance to the European stories of grammarians who undertake to educate asses or monkeys. (See Lévêque, Les Mythes et Légendes de l’Inde et de la Perse, p. 320.) La Fontaine’s Charlatan is perhaps the best known. This story is found in Prym und Socin’s Syrische Märchen, p. 292, where a man undertakes to teach a camel to read.
[31] This story is No. LI in the Avadánas.
[32] See Felix Liebrecht, Orient und Occident, Vol. I, p. 135 on the Avadánas translated from the Chinese by Stanislas Julien, Paris, 1859 where this story is found (No. LXIX.) He compares a story of an Irishman who was hired by a Yarmouth Malster to assist in loading his ship. As the vessel was about to set sail, the Irishman cried out from the quay. “Captain, I lost your shovel overboard, but I cut a big notch on the rail-fence, round stern, just where it went down, so you will find it when you come back.” Vol. II, p. 544, note. Liebrecht thinks he has read something similar in the Ἀστεῖα of Hierokles. See also Bartsch, Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg, Vol. I, p. 349.
[33] See Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, pp. 119 and 120, also Benfey’s Panchatantra. Vol. I, p. 391, Nachträge II, 543. This is No. CIII. in the Avadánas.