similar remark applies also to other well-known Tales included in the Arabian Nights.[1] La Fontaine, whose charming versions of the Fables are so deservedly admired, openly acknowledges his indebtedness to the French versions of Kalilah and Dimnah; and Professor Benfey and others have traced the same stories, or ideas drawn from them, to Poggio, Boccaccio, Gower, Chaucer, Spenser, and many other later writers. Thus, for instance, the three caskets and the pound of flesh in 'The Merchant of Venice,' and the precious jewel which in 'As You Like It' the venomous toad wears in his head,[2] are derived from the Buddhist tales. In a similar way it has been shown that tales current among the Hungarians and the numerous peoples of Slavonic race have been derived from Buddhist sources, through translations made by or for the Huns, who penetrated in the time of Genghis Khān into the East of Europe.[3] And finally yet other Indian tales, not included in the Kalilag and Damnag literature, have been brought into the opposite corner of Europe, by the Arabs of Spain.[4]
- ↑ See Benfey, Pantscha Tantra, vol. i., Introduction, passim.
- ↑ Act ii. scene 1. Professor Benfey, in his Pantscha Tantra, i. 213-220, has traced this idea far and wide. Dr. Dennys, in his 'Folklore of China,' gives the Chinese Buddhist version of it.
- ↑ See Benfey's Introduction to Pañca Tantra, §§ 36, 39, 71, 92, 166, 186. Mr. Ralston's forthcoming translation of Tibetan stories will throw further light on this, at present, rather obscure subject.
- ↑ See, for example, the Fable translated below, pp. 275-278.
