IfS Analytical Account of the Pancha Tantra. 



place.' Having thus spoken, and cast a gem of inestimable value to the 

 Brdliman, he withdrew into his hole. The Brahman took the jewel, but, 

 considering its value much inferior to what he might have acquired by long 

 assiduous homage, never ceased to lament the folly of his son." 



The next story is also peculiar to the Pancha Tantra, and indeed, so 

 decidedly of a Hindi! character, that we need not be sui-prised at its 

 omission, from" the Arabic translation at least. It may be called the 

 Fowler and the Pigeons. The fowler, having caught the female dove, 

 is overtaken by a violent storm, and repairs for shelter to the tree inhabited 

 by the male. Moved by the councUs of his captive mate, and his own 

 estimate of the rites of hospitality, he not only gives the fowler shelter in 

 the hollow trunk, but collects dry leaves, and makes him a fire, and casts 

 himself into the flames, to furnisli his guest a meal. The bird-catcher 

 liberates the dove, and she also throws herself into the fire ; on which she 

 and her lord assume celestial forms, and are conveyed to heaven in divine 

 cars, agreeably to the text, that says, ' A widow, who burns herself, 

 secures for herself and her husband enjoyment in Paradise, for as many 

 years as there are hairs on the human body, or thirty-five millions.'* 

 The fowler becomes an ascetic, and voluntarily perishes in a burning 

 forest. 



The next story of the Husband, and his Wife, and the Tliief, is 

 translated in the Arabic, but does not occur in the Hitupadeia. It has 

 been imitated by the writers of Europe. The Brdhmati, the Thief, and 

 the Rakshasa, the next story, is the same with " the Ascetic, the Thief, 

 and the Evil Genius of the Kalila Damana. 



The next story, of the Prince who had a snake in his bowels, is 

 peculiar to the Pancha Tantra. He is cured by his wife. The eleventh 

 fable is the same with the Husband under the Bed, of the Arabic, 

 which occurs also in the third section of the Hitupadesa. The next story, 

 again, is the same in the Pancha Tantra, and Kalila Damana, that of 

 the Mouse turned to a young girl by a sage, and finally to a mouse 

 again. The Arabic translator, by his alterations, has lost the point of the 



* This text is attributed to Angiras, and forms part of the declaration or Sankapa, pro- 

 nounced by the widow at the time of her ascending the pile. — .\s. Res. vol. iv, p. 210. 



