HIKAYAT INDRAPUTRA. 53 
In one Sinhalese tale (Parker, op. cit. III, p. 194) there is a prince 
who astrologers say will be spirited away to wander, who is there- 
fore carefully guarded, who is given a toy wax horse and flies off 
on it to the house of a “ flower-mother,” the Malay Ninek Ke- 
bayan :—the beginning of our tale though the rest of the story is 
quite different. The incident of a prince seeing a fawn run to 
its wounded dam is found also in the Hikayat Nakhoda Muda 
(J. KR. A. S., S. B., 83). The incident of a speaking skull is 
found in the well-known Ht. Jumjumah where a skull addresses 
Jesus :—the romance was translated in the “ Asiatic Journal,” 
1823. .The theft of the flying jackets of a princess and seven at- 
tendant nymphs occurs in the Ht. Malim Deman (J. R. A. S., 
S. B., No. 88), and is the plot of a world-wide tale:—Hartland’s 
“Science of Fairy Tales,’ ch. X; Parker op. cit., II, pp. 344-355. 
The talisman that can call up cities and people from the inane is 
common in Hastern folk-lore: Parker op. cit. III. p. 130; Natesa 
Sastri’s “ Story of Madana Kama Raja,” p. 20; “Sagas from the 
Far East”, p. 135. The transformation of a girl into a flower and 
a gem and of her pursuers into pigs finds parallels in the Hikayat 
Sri Rama, in “ The story of Madana Kama Raja,” p. 2, and in 
Swynnerton’s “Indian Nights’ Entertainments,’ p. 216; the 
transformation of a girl into a lotus in Stokes “Indian Fairy 
Tales,’ p. 144. A luminous cobra-stone such as lights the cave 
for our. hero is found in many Indian tales:—Frere’s “ Old Deccan 
Days,” p. 36; Day’s “ Folk-Tales of Bengal,” p. 18; Jataka tale, 
No. 543, vol. VI, p. 94. So, too, the magic stone that dries up. 
water (Parker, op. cit. II, pp. 14-15) and enables princes to visit 
palaces under the sea (1) Behari Day’s “ Folk-Tales of Bengal,” 
p. 17). Of the quest for a flower as medicine I have written al- 
enwee) ekueAa oe 4 NO. 82. pp. 147-8). <Im the Maha, 
Bharata and Ramayana arrows are sometimes represented as Te- 
turning to the sender, who in such cases was a being possessing 
supernatural power.” _ 
(Oy) 
R A Soc.. No. 85, 1922. 
