Nec conjugis umquam Busta meae videam: neu sim tumulandus ab illa.
Their wishes are fulfilled.
2. In German popular tales, this idea appears, with additions, in Rich and Poor (Grimm 87). Here the virtue of the good is contrasted with the folly of the bad. The Poor man hospitably receives our Lord, and, for his three wishes, chooses eternal happiness, health and daily bread, and a new house. The Rich man rejects our Lord, but getting a second chance, loses his temper, wishes his horse dead, the saddle on his wife's back, and—the saddle off again!
Now popular fancy has been better pleased with the burlesque ideas in the second part of this fable, than with the serious moral; and most of the tales turn on burlesque wishes, leaving the virtuous wishers out of the story. The narrative also shews a Protean power of altering details, the wishes vary, the power who grants the wish is different in different Märchen, the person whose folly wastes the wish may be the husband, or may be the wife.
A very old form of the Wasted Wish, originally no doubt a popular form, won its way into literature in the Pantschatantra. The tale has also been annexed by Buddhism, as Buddhism annexed most tales, by the simple process of making Sakya Muni the hero or narrator of the adventures.
The Pantschatantra is a collection of fables in Sanskrit. In its original form, according to Mr. Max Müller, its date can be fixed, by aid of an ancient Persian translation, as previous to 550 A.D. 'At that time a collection somewhat like the Pankatantra, though much more extensive, must have existed[34].' By various channels the stories of the Pantschatantra reached Persia, Arabia, Greece, and thence were rendered into Latin, and again, were paraphrased in different vernacular languages, by literary people. But when we find, as we do, a story in the Pantschatantra and a similar or analogous story in the Arabic Book of Sindibad (earlier than the tenth century), and again in the Greek Syntipas (eleventh and twelfth century), and again in Latin, or Spanish, or French literature, we cannot, perhaps, always be sure that the tale is derived from India through literary channels. Whoever will compare the Wish story of the Double-headed Weaver in the Pantschatantra[35] with The Three Wishes in the Book of Sindibad (Comparetti. Folk Lore Society, 1882, p. 147), and again, with Marie de France's twenty-fourth Fable (Dou Vilain qui prist un folet), and yet again with Perrault's Trois Souhaits, and, lastly, with the popular tales among Grimm's variants, will find many perplexing problems before him[36]. The differences in the details and in the conduct of the story are immense. Did the various authors borrow little but the main conception—the wasted wishes? Are the variations the result of literary caprice and choice? Has the story travelled from India by two channels,—(1) literary, in Pantschatantra, and Syntipas with the translations; (2) oral, by word of mouth from people to people? Are the popular versions derived from literature, or from oral tradition? Is the oldest literary version, that of the Pantschatantra, more akin to the original version than some of the others which meet us later? Finally, might not the idea of wasted wishes occur independently to minds in different ages and countries, and may not some of the versions be of independent origin, and in no way borrowed from India? Is there, indeed, any reason at all for supposing that so simple a notion was invented, once for all, in India?
It is easy to ask these questions, it is desirable to bear them in mind, so that we may never lose sight of the complexity and difficulty of the topic. But it is practically impossible to answer them once for all.
The nature of the problem may now be illustrated by a few examples. In the story of the Pantschatantra, the granter of the wish (there is but one wish) is a tree-dwelling spirit. A very stupid weaver one day broke part of his loom. He went out to cut down a tree near the shore, meaning to fashion it for his purpose, when a spirit, who dwelt in the timber, cried, 'Spare this tree.' The weaver said he must starve if he did not get the wood, when the spirit replied, 'Ask anything else you please.' The barber, being consulted, advised the weaver to wish to be king. The weaver's wife cried, 'No, stay as you are, but ask for two heads, and four hands, to do double work.' He got his wish, but was killed by the villagers, who very naturally supposed him to be a Rakshasa, or ogre. The moral is enunciated by the barber, 'Let no man take woman's counsel.' The poor woman's lack of immoderate ambition might seem laudable to some moralists.
Here the peculiarities are: A tree-ghost grants the wish.
There is only one wish.