meiiioi-y. Siiidbad the Sailoi' and bis Old Man of the Sea, 

 the roe, the valley of diamonds, Ali Baba and the forty 

 thieveg witb their treasure eave and its "open seeame" — 

 these witb scores of similar characters and incidents, foimd 

 in the stories of these Nights, learve oia the reader's mind 

 more lasting impreesions than are made by the happenings 

 of actual life. 



Many Indian stories ow^ their origm to Buddbisi~n. 

 Ta the Buddhi&t "Karmai" colved the problem of good and 

 evil in the wc«rld, To^ him past, present and future were 

 links in the one chain of existence; and he was confident 

 his proclivities tO' good and evil were the result of good and 

 bad actions done in a fomior life. But, for the Buddhist, 

 remembrance of anterior existence is only in the ratio of 

 spiritual enlightenment. Of foimer births the common 

 mortal had next to no recollection ; while a Buddha, could 

 recall all vicis&itude& he experienced in every stage of his 

 fanner lives. Hence the Buddhist canon contains a 

 "Jataka, " or book of birth stories, relating in detail inci- 

 dents from the anterior lives of Buddha. There are in all 

 five hundred and fifty of these istoriefS, which scholars say 

 are at least as old as a council held three hundred and 

 seventy-seven years before Christ. Prof. Fans boll, of 

 Copenhagen, lately edited the Pali text of these stories, 

 and an English traiaslation in six volumosi was finished 

 under the supen'ision of Prof. Cowell, of Cambridge, in 

 1902, just before his death. 



These birth stories axe a mine of folk-lore. Volume 3 

 of Prof. Lanman's Oriental Series contains much informa- 

 tion concerning them. Among others^ — birth story 189-— 

 The A.SiS and the Lion Skin — that in various forms has 

 spread the world over, is given there in a full translation 

 by the lat-o H. C. Warren. The Jataka telling how the 

 King of Benares and the King of Kosala m.et in a defile too 

 narrow for both to procefed, gives a glimpse of Buddhist 

 et-hics;. The chariot drivers decided that the right of way 

 !*hould be given to the rnost virtuo-us, of the two kings,, and 



