120 THE INDIAN ORIGIN OF MALAY FOLK-TALES. 



(2) 'Pa Belalang discovers the thieves who stole seven chests 

 of royal treasure, because he uttered the word chur 

 " Frizzle " over the frying of seven cakes just as the seven 

 thieves (pencJiuri) came up. 



This story' follows the first both in the Kafka Sarit 

 Sagara and in the Sinhalese tale. A variant is found in 

 Bodcling's " Folklore of the Santal Parganas," p. 20?. 



(3) 'Pa Belalang tells the top from the bottom of a log In- 

 putting it into water, whereupon the heavy root end sinks 

 first. 



This tale occurs in Jataka 546, in a Tibetan Folk- 

 Tale (Balston's " Tibetan Tales" ATI and VIII) and in 

 a Laos tale ("Bulletin de FEcole Francaise d' Extreme- 

 Orient" Tome XVII, p. 114). 



The incident of telling the sex of ducks recalls the 

 Rabbinical story of how Solomon solved the puzzle set him 

 by the Queen of Sheba to distinguish the sex of boys and 

 girls similarly apparelled. He ordered them to wash 

 their hands. The girls alone washed up to the elbows ! 



(4) The Raja catching ta grass-hopper (belalang) threatens 

 death to 'Pa Belalang unless he can divine what is in 

 his hand. 'Pa Belalang thinking of his son left father- 

 less blubbered his name "Belalang! Belalang!" and the 

 king imagined he had divined right! 



In the Kafha Sarit Sagara it is a frog and in the 

 Sinhalese tale (op. cit.. vol. T. pp. 184-5) a fire-fly and a 

 bird on which the plot of this story turns. 



The story is current in Persia (Sir J. Malcolm's 

 ' Sketches of Persia', chap. XX) and is found in Grimm 

 and in Dasent's " Tales from the Fjeld " : — vide Clous- 

 ton's " Popular Tales and Fictions ". vol. II. pp. 413-431. 



MAT JAXIX. 



This tale is given in Malay and English in Journal 48, (pp. 

 67-71). An outline will be found in mv w " Literature of Malav 

 Folk-Lore" (p. 62). 



'In the Panchatantra (Dubois) a Brahman fancies he will sell 

 his pots of provisions, buy a she-goat, which will bear kids, and so 

 acquire a herd; then selling the goats, buy a cow and a mare, get 

 rich, marry and have children. He would beat his wife for neglect 

 of her household duty. Lashing out with a stick, he breaks the 

 pot containing his provisions. Close variants may he read in the 

 Hitopadem, in Stokes' "Indian Fairy Tales", p. 31, and Swyn- 

 nerton's" Indian Xights' Entertainment", p. 23, in Subramaniah 

 Pantulu's "Folk-Lore of the Telugus". p. 48. in O'Connor's 

 "Folk-Tales from Tibet", p. 31 in Boddings "Folklore of 

 the Santal Parganas ", p. 146, and also in the Arabian Xights " 



Jour. Straits Branch 



