No. 28.— 1884.] fikst fifty jatakas. 



113 



follows — interesting as it might be as a history of Indian 

 tales — would be no history of the Jataka in particular. 



The Hindu collection of tales, called Pancha Tantra, was 

 translated — or a book like it was — into Persian, and thence ? 

 in the 8th century of our era, into Syriac and into Arabic^ 

 under the title of "Kalilah and Dimnah." The Arabs 

 carried this into Europe, and so it was translated into 

 Spanish, Latin, German, Italian, French, and English. And 

 to the Latin version was given the title u iEsop the Old." 



Now, the original of what we call iEsop's Fables has 

 always been obscure. It is not certain that iEsop left any 

 works behind him ; if he did, they were very early lost, and 

 there is little doubt that part at least of what bear his 

 name were never collected in Europe till the 14th century. 

 Doubtless some of these were borrowed from the " Kalilah 

 and Dimnah." Thus, with some probability, we trace the 

 iEsop of our childhood to the Pancha Tantra, and (leaping 

 easily thence) to the Jataka. But the part of his intro- 

 duction, which has evidently given Mr. Davids most delight, 

 is that in which he states (for here again the evidence is 

 omitted,— the borrowing, however, is unquestionable) that a 

 story called " Barlaam and Joasaph," written by the 

 Christian monk, St. John of Damascus,* about 750 A.D., is 

 borrowed from the legend of Buddha, and that the name 

 Joasaph is only a corruption of Bodhisat. This would not 

 seem more strange than that any other romance should have 

 been founded on tales which the author had heard, especially 

 as the writer says it is an Indian story ; but what moves Mr. 

 Davids to almost childish glee is, that some authorities of 

 the Romish Church — and I think he says also of the Eastern 

 — mistaking the romance for history, have included in the list 

 of canonised saints the hero of this story. An absurd parade 

 of detail is accumulated about this trumpery fact, that our 

 editor may have the delight of concluding " that Gotama 

 the Buddha, under the name of St. Josaphat, is now officially 

 recognized, and honoured, and worshipped throughout the 

 whole of Catholic Christendom as a Christian saint !" 



But whatever be the value of this, we owe Mr. Davids 

 gratitude for the more important and interesting facts, that 



* Or, rather, attributed to him. — Ed. 



