[1] Dr. Liebrecht in Orient und Occident, Vol. I, p. 341 compares with this story one in the old French romance of Merlin. There Merlin laughs because the wife of the emperor Julius Cæsar had twelve young men disguised as ladies-in-waiting. Benfey, in a note on Dr. Liebrecht’s article, compares with the story of Merlin one by the Countess D’Aulnoy, No. 36 of the Pentamerone of Basile, Straparola IV. I, and a story in the Śuka Saptati. This he quotes from the translation of Demetrios Galanos. In this some cooked fish laugh so that the whole town hears them. The reason is the same as in the story of Merlin and in our text.
[2] Cp. the following passage in a Danish story called Svend’s exploits, in Thorpe’s Yuletide Stories, page 341. Just as he was going to sleep, twelve crows came flying and perched in the elder trees over Svend’s head. They began to converse together, and the one told the other what had happened to him that day. When they were about to fly away, one crow said, “I am so hungry; where shall I get something to eat?” “We shall have food enough to-morrow when father has killed Svend,” answered the crow’s brother. “Dost thou think then that such a miserable fellow dares fight with our father?” said another. “Yes, it is probable enough that he will, but it will not profit him much as our father cannot be overcome but with the Man of the Mount’s sword, and that hangs in the mound, within seven locked doors, before each of which are two fierce dogs that never sleep.” Svend thus learned that he should only be sacrificing his strength and life in attempting a combat with the dragon, before he had made himself master of the Man of the Mount’s sword. So Sigfrid hears two birds talking above his head in Hagen’s Helden-Sagen, Vol. I, p. 345. In the story of Lalitánga extracted by Professor Nilmani Mukerjea from a collection of Jaina tales called the Kathá Kosha, and printed in his Sáhitya Parichaya, Part II, we have a similar incident.
[3] Compare the “mole cinque-spotted” in Cymbeline.
[4] Compare Measure for Measure.
[5] Cp. the story of Œdipus and the Mahábhárata, Vanaparvan, C. 312. where Yudhishṭhira is questioned by a Yaksha. Benfey compares Mahábhárata XIII (IV, 206) 5883–5918 where a Bráhman seized by a Rákshasa escaped in the same way. The reader will find similar questioning demons described in Veckenstedt’s Wendische Sagen, pp. 54–56, and 109.
[6] Reading chuddhis for the chudis of Dr. Brockhaus’ text.
[7] Sâmanta seems to mean a feudatory or dependent prince.
[8] Benfey considers that this story was originally Buddhistic. A very similar story is quoted by him from the Karmaśataka. (Panchatantra I, p. 209) cp. also c. 65 of this work.
[9] Probably his foot bled, and so he contracted defilement.
[10] The preceptor of the gods.