[6].
Page 51, line 41. For bibliography of Grimm, No. 183, see Bolte-Polívka, 3 : 333–335.
Parker (2 : 247–268, No. 137) gives a Sinhalese story, with three variants, which is definitely connected with our tales, and confirms my belief that the “False-Proofs” cycle is native to southern India. In Parker’s main story the false proofs are five,—ass (voice), two winnowing-trays (ears), two bundles of creepers (testicles?), a tom-tom (eye), and two elephant tusks (teeth). In variant b the false proofs are drum (roar), deer-hide rope (hair), pair of elephant tusks (teeth).
For another Sinhalese story of how a man and his wife “bluffed” a terrible Yakā hiding under the bed to kill him, see Parker, 1 : 148–149 (No. 17).
[7].
Page 62. Analogous to the task cited from Jātaka, No. 546, is one of the problems in the Liberian story “Impossible vs. Impossible” (JAFL 32 : 413). Problem: Make a mat from rice-grains. Solution: Old rice-mat demanded as pattern.—For making rope out of husks, and analogous tasks, see Bolte-Polívka, 2 : 513.
Page 62 (3). In Parker, No. 79, a king requires a man to put a hundred gourd-fruits in a hundred small-mouthed vessels. His clever daughter grows them there. Parker cites a story from Swynnerton’s Indian Night’s Entertainment, in which a clever girl sends melons in jars to a prince and requires him to remove the melons without injuring them or the jars. This problem is identical with one on our p. 58 (16–17).
In still another Sinhalese story a foolish king requires a Paṇḍitayā, under penalty of death, to teach the royal white horse to speak. The wise man’s daughter saves her father’s life by telling him what to reply to the king (Parker, 1 : 199–200, No. 27).—In Parker, 3 : 112–113 (No. 204), a country-girl meets a prince, to whose questions she gives enigmatical replies. He is clever enough to interpret them correctly.
Page 63 (4). In Parker, 2 : 7–9 (No. 78), a king requires milk from oxen. The clever village girl’s answer is of a kind with Marcela’s (our collection, p. 55): she sets out for the washerman’s with a bundle of cloths, is met by the king, and tells him her father has come of age in the same manner as women (i.e., he has menstruated).
[8].