114 



JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [Yol. VIII. 



the fables of Europe, whether the Greek of Babrius (B.C. 

 60 ?), the Latin of Phoedrus (a. A.D. 1), or the modern ones 

 of Boccaccio, Chaucer, La Fontaine, and Gay, are indebted 

 more or less directly to that mass of Eastern stories, of 

 which our Jataka Book is the most important collection. 



Meanwhile, some at least of the stories have probably 

 travelled to India from the West. Postponing to future 

 papers some further remarks on those which have come 

 from Jewish sources, I venture to submit the following, to 

 which I hope to add other instances. 



Traces of Greek influence. — I have mentioned already 

 how the hero of Losaka Jataka (41), after suffering a long 

 course of calamities in consequence of demerit, is suddenly 

 transported, in consequence of a long-past act of merit, into 

 conditions of happiness. The early part of the tale is 

 characteristically Buddhistic. But my suspicion is, that 

 the latter part is of quite different origin from the beginning ; 

 that it is a wide-famed story, half remembered, and its 

 vicissitudes explained by Buddhist theories — a story no less 

 famed than that of Ulysses ! 



The hero is called by name Mittavindaka, but his de- 

 scription is " kalakanm," ' the wretched one,' or 6 the 

 sufferer,' which is the meaning of 66 Odusseus." When 

 Mittavindaka would put to sea, the ship which carried 

 him stuck fast till lots had been drawn, and he had been 

 cast into the sea. This passage may possibly owe some- 

 thing to the history of Jonah, though, I fancy, such a thing 

 was often done as this casting of the " unlucky lot," but 

 there is a corresponding event in the story of Ulysses^ 

 when iEolus is said to have refused him the assistance of 

 the winds, as being too unlucky to be safely dealt with. 

 Mittavindaka had experience of cannibals, who devoured 

 his family, as Polyphemus and the Loestrygones did the 

 companions of Ulysses ; Mittavindaka suffered for catching 

 a demon-goat, and Ulysses for attacking the oxen of the 

 sun ; Mittavindaka was carried to three successive palaces of 

 nymphs, as Ulysses past the Sirens to the palaces of Circe 

 and Calypso and the fairy land of Phceacia ; Ulysses 

 floated on a magic veil and on a mast, Mittavindaka on a 

 bundle of bamboos; and both, after all their wanderings, 

 were restored at last. Of the nymphs, it is said that they 



