THE INDIAN OEIGIN OF MALAY FOLK-TALES. 125 



a Sinhalese tale a Turtle worsts a Lion (Parker, op. tit., 

 vol. I, pp. 244-245); in " Folk-Lore of the Santal Par- 

 ganas" (p. 329) ants worst an elephant; and in Milli- 

 gan's u The Fetish Folk of AYest Africa" a chameleon 

 beats an elephant. See also Clouston, op. cit., vol. I. 

 pp. 266-273. 



(5) In Laidlaw's "A Mouse-dee]* Tale " (J. E. A. S., S. B. 

 No. 46) mouse-deer vanting to eat a sleek sambur-deer 

 gets tiger to pretend he is dead and while being carried a 

 corpse for 'burial he jumps up and catches the deer who 

 is one of the bearers. In Putimamsa-Ja-taJca 437 (Francis 

 and Thomas " Jataha Tales", p. 306) the jackal has a 

 mock-funeral in order to capture a goat. 



(6) Mouse-deer eats Tiger's share of the meat and puts bitter 

 bark in its place. 



Cf. a Sinhalese tale (Parker, vol. I, p. 211) and 



/'Folk-tales of the Santal Parganas " (p. 338). 



(7) The borrower of an axe declares he cannot return it, as 

 it has been eaten by weevils. Mouse-deer, black with 

 ashes, says he has been singed putting out the sea which 

 is on fire. " An unlikely tale ". says King Solomon. 

 " Not more so than that of an axe eaten hy weevils." 



A parallel story occurs in the Tamil version of the 

 Panchatantra (Winstedfs "Literature of Malay Folk- 

 Lore" p. 50). In a South Indian story (Eamaswami 

 Bajn's " Indian Fables" p. 45) a horse-thief declares the 

 missing horse was eaten by a tree to which it was tethered. 

 The Jackal said he was tired from throwing hay into the 

 sea to quench its flames and postponed the case. When 

 questioned how hay could quench flames, he enquired how 

 a tree could eat a horse. 



(8) In Skeat's "Fables and Folk-Tales" p. 30 a mouse-deer 

 induces two bulls to fight and, when one is killed, the 

 mouse-deer feasts on the flesh after frightening away a 

 tiger who wants to share it. 



Parker (op. tit., vol. Ill, p. 23) compares a JataM 

 tale (Xo. 349. vol. Ill, p. 100) and gives a Sinhalese ver- 

 sion. Variants occur in Dubois' " Le Pantcha Tantra " 

 p. 30, Tawnev's Katlia Sarit Sagam; vol. II, p. 27 and 

 in the Hitoyadesa. 



(9) Skeat (op. tit. p. 45) gives a story relating how, in 

 order to save an elephant, a mouse-deer frightened a 

 tiger. An ape went back with the tiger, but mouse-deer 

 shouted that he would not accept one tiger only when two 

 had been promised, and tiger tied. 



R. A. Soc, No. 82, 1920. 



