282 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [VOL. 50 



APPENDIX 

 The Dido Story in Asia 



The above Chinese account of the foundation of Manila through the 

 Spaniards (p. 259) contains the well-known ruse of Queen Dido in 

 connection with the founding of Carthage. 1 This is not the only case 

 of its record in Chinese literature. E. Bretschneider 2 refers to Du 

 Halde's La Chine (vol. 1, p. 185), where the same tradition is 

 repeated with reference to the settling of the Dutch on the Island of 

 Formosa in 1620. Du Halde's account is drawn from a Chinese 

 source, the "Annals of Formosa" (T'ai-wan fu chi), which imputes 

 the Dido trick to the Dutch. James W. Davidson 3 reproduces the 

 story, and inclines to see in it an actual historical event. It is cer- 

 tainly far from this. In the Dutch sources regarding the history of 

 Formosa, nothing of the kind is to be found. We have here noth- 

 ing more than a simple tale, which has spread over almost the entire 

 continent of Asia ; and it is most curious to note that in nearly all 

 cases the Asiatic peoples with whom the story is found make the 

 tricksters some European nation who were then invading their coun- 

 try. This is sufficient proof to show that this is the case of a com- 

 paratively recent story-migration, which is further evidenced by its 

 absence in any Asiatic literary records of earlier date. 



The first to call attention to the wide diffusion of the Dido story 

 was Reinhold Kohler. 4 The same subject was taken up by Henri 

 Cordier," Raoul Rosieres, 6 Rene Basset, 7 and N. Katanof. 8 Despite 



1 See O. Rossbach, Dido (Pauly's Realencyklopadie, vol. ix [Stuttgart, 

 I 9°3]> PP- 426-433) ; Meltzer, Dido (Roscher's Lexikon der griechischen und 

 romischen Mythologie [Leipzig, 1885], col. 1012-1018). 



2 China Review, vol. iv, p. 386 ; and Mediseval Researches from Eastern 

 Asiatic Sources (London, 1888), vol. 11, p. 319. 



3 The Island of Formosa, Past and Present (London and New York. 

 I 903), PP- 12-13: "The wily Dutchman, with an old trick in mind, proceeded 

 to cut the ox-skin in very long narrow strips, and, after fastening them to- 

 gether, produced a line of sufficient length to surround a vast plot of ground, 

 while the Japanese were struck dumb with astonishment." 



4 Sagen von Landerwerbung durch zerschnittene Ochsenhaut (Th. Benfey's 

 Orient und Occident, 1864, vol. in, pp. 185-187). 



5 La legende de Didon (Revue des Traditions populaires, 1887, vol. 11, 

 pp. 295 and 354) ; further parallels by Sebillot (ibid., p. 355). 



6 Ibid., vol. vr, pp. 52-54. 



7 Ibid., vol. vi, pp. 335-338. 



8 Tiirkische Sagen tiber Besitznahme von Landern nach Art der Dido 

 (Revue orientale, [Budapest, 1902], vol. in, pp. 173-179). 



