Page 299. Add footnote. Large crocodiles that lived in the ocean are mentioned in the Arabian Nights, vol. 5, p. 14. Sir R. Burton stated in a note that the crocodile cannot live in sea water, but it is well known that a large and dangerous species (C. porosus) is found in the mouths of rivers, where at times of drought the water in some sites is almost pure sea water. When I resided at Mount Lavinia, about seven miles south of Colombo, one of these crocodiles found its way into the sea there during some floods, and lived in it for a week or ten days. Residents informed me that others had been known to remain in the sea there for several days.
Page 300, first line. After 15 insert, and in Indian Fairy Tales (Stokes), p. 182.
Page 301. In a variant by a person of the Cultivating Caste, N.W.P., a Queen sent her three sons to bring three turtle doves from the Pearl Fort (Mutu Kōṭṭē). On the way, while the youngest Prince, aged seven years, was asleep his eldest brother blinded him with two thorns (tim̆bol kaṭu); but after he had been abandoned he learnt from the conversation of two Dēvatāwās, who lived in adjoining trees, that by eating the bark of one of their trees he would be cured. After being twice again blinded in this way and regaining his sight, he killed a cobra that each year destroyed and ate the young of two Mainas (starlings, Saela-lihiniyā) which had a nest on a tree. He climbed up to the nest, had similar experiences to those related in the story, was carried to the Pearl Fort by a Maina, and brought away three turtle-doves.
In Indian Fairy Tales (M. Stokes), p. 160, a Prince had three tasks before marrying a Princess; he was to crush the oil out of eighty pounds of mustard seed, to kill two demons, and to cut a thick tree trunk with a wax hatchet. Ants did the first task, two tigers killed the demons, and with a hair from the head of the Princess fixed along the edge of the hatchet he cut the tree.
In Folklore of the Santal Parganas, p. 45, a girl was given three tasks by her sisters-in-law. (1) To collect a basket of mustard seed when sown; pigeons picked it up for her. (2) To bring bear’s hair for an armlet; two bear cubs helped her to get it. (3) To bring tiger’s milk; two tiger cubs got it for her. Three other tasks do not resemble those of the Sinhalese tale. In Campbell’s Santal Folk Tales, p. 119, a variant occurs in which bear’s milk replaces the hair.
In the Kolhān tales (Bompas) appended to the former vol., p. 481, a Potter was sent by a Raja for tiger’s milk, which he obtained by the aid of the cubs. On p. 469 a girl was ordered by her sisters-in-law to collect pulse sown in a field; pigeons helped her to do it. She then went for bear’s milk, which a she-bear gave her.
In Folk-Tales from Tibet, p. 98, a boy by killing a dragon saved three young gryphons that were in a nest on a cliff. When they told their parents, the gryphons fed him, and the male carried him to the Fairy King.
In A. von Schiefner’s Tibetan Tales (Ralston), p. 72, the Kinnara King gave Prince Sudhāna three tasks to perform before marrying his daughter. The last was her identification among a thousand Kinnarīs; she assisted him by stepping forward.
Page 307. In Folk-lore of the Telugus (G. R. Subramiah Pantulu), p. 48, a poor Brāhmaṇa who had been presented with a pot of flour, thought he would buy a kid with the money he would get for it, and gradually obtain cattle till he was worth three thousand rupees. He would then marry, and have an affectionate son, and keep his wife under control by an occasional kick. As he thought this he kicked, broke the pot, and lost the flour in the dust.
In the Hitōpadēśa a Brāhmaṇa who got a pot containing bread thought he would get ten cowries for it, buy larger pots, and at last become a rich dealer in areka-nuts and betel leaves. He would marry four wives, the youngest being his favourite; and the others being jealous of her he would beat them with his stick. He struck the blow with his stick and smashed his pot.