The Folk-tales of Indonesia and Indo-China, 



By E. 0. WlNSTEDT. 



The area over which a folk-tale has spread proves nothing 

 conclusively except the range of its popularity. But in view of 

 Schmidt's synthesis of the Austroasiatic and Malayo-Polynesian 

 families of language and of the evidence which Professor Kern 

 has marshalled to show that Indo-China possibly was the region 

 whence the Malay race descended on the Archipelago, it is in- 

 teresting to note the occurrence of identical tales in the Indonesian 

 and Mon-Khmer languages. For the folk-lore of Indo-China I 

 have consulted Aymonier's Textes Khmers, Landes' Contes et 

 Legendes Annamites, Landes' Contes Tjames (Saigon 1887) and 

 for Mon or Taking tales The Journal of the Burma Research 

 Society. For folk-tales of the Malay Archipelago, I have used an 

 article on " Contes Javanais " by Dr. Hazeu in a fasciculus en- 

 titled Hommage au Congres des Orientalistes de Hanoi de la 

 part du Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wet ens chap pen 

 (Batavia 1902). For folk-tales purely Malay I refer to my 

 Malay Literature, Part II (1907) in the series of Papers on Malay 

 Subjects published by the F. M. S. Government, to Skeat's Fables 

 and Folk-tales from an Eastern Forest (Cambridge, 1901) ; and 

 also to Cherita Jenaka edited by myself and Mr. Sturrock and to 

 the Hikayat Pelandok edited by Mr. Dussek, both of them printed 

 in the Malay Literature Series (Singapore). 



In No. 45 of this Journal I gave in English " Some Mouse- 

 . deer tales* " : on pp. 13 and 14 of Malay Literature, Part II, 

 I have quoted from that paper the tale of how Mouse-deer cheated 

 Tiger over Solomon's gong, which proved to be a wasp's nest, his 

 viol which proved to be a slit bamboo, his saffron rice which proved 

 to be dung, his turban (or belt, in some versions) which proved 

 to be a coiled snake. The Malay version is given in Dussek's 

 Hikayat Pelandok. There are also Dayak and Javanese and 

 Sundanese versions. It finds a close parallel in " Les Buses du 

 Lievre " recorded (pp. 50-60) in Landes' Contes Tjames, and 

 is found among the Cambodians (vide Aymonier's Textes Khmers) 

 and among the Annamites (vide Landes' Contes et legendes Anna- 

 mites). I will give in outline the Cham version: it is significant 

 that the "hare" — the Cham word is tapay* — gores (encomer) the 

 elephant with his horn (de la come) (p. 59) ! 



* The story how Mouse-deer escaped from crocodile by pretending that 

 his leg was a withered twig is very common in'India where Jackal takes the place 

 of Mouse-deer. Cp. pp. 230-233, 384, F. A. Steel's " Tales of Punjab." 



* Cf. Malay tupai " Squirrel." 



Jour. Straits Branch R. A. Soc, No. 76, 1917. 



