New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-01-11
NEW PUBLICATIONS.

tIansloted by I. W RHIs DATps' ga 1omo
/ Roston: HOughton, Mhlin d % 1881 A~"o
BAT PIP
This ia n work OF great research and OF no ordl-
nary interest. 1t forms q part OF the Buudhst
Scripurcs. and consists of old stories. fables ana
fairy tales which, according TO the Orthodox Ne
lei were told 10y Buddha himself. These Weic
finally gathered into II collection under the title Oh
the Book of the Five Hundred and Fifty Jatakas or
births: the commentary to which gives, Tor cach
birth-stOry an account of the event III Bhudha
life which led to his first telling that particular
story. ~
The great interest Of these stories to the English
reader lies in the fact that many OF them are 'nc
originals of our familiar household tales. Many u
wonder-story with which the little inmates Oh
American nurseries charmed to sleep was toiu
long centuries ago. under the shadows OF the liiina
layas.
These tales passed into Europe through the
Arabs Their earliest rcnderings into Western
tmngues were duo to the Jews whose mercantile
pursuits and the comparative nearness OF thelr re-
iigious belief, brought them into frequent lh'el-
course with the Moslems; and who were naturally
attracted by literature Oriental III mora"'S,
amusing in style and free from Christian legehu
and dogma.
The claims of iEsop to the authorship of the
fables which bear his nams, had been successfully
,lisproved even before Bentleys famous dissertation
in 1857; and the fables themselves are now adj
mitted to have been mainly derived from the WORK
of Planudes a monk of COnstantinOpe, i'll the lirst
half of the fourteenth century. So many Oh the
fables of Planudes have now been traced back 10
tb, BUDDHIST Jataka, that it seems probable that
most of them are derived from Indian sources.
Thus for example, We find here the original OF
the familiar fable of The ASS in the Lion SKIN.
Instead of the assuming the SKIN mmSeil' IL Is
nut upon him by his master, a pedler, wien he
from hack
browse in the rice and barley-teldS without inter-
ference from the watchmen. These guardians,
afraid to attack the supposed lion, rouse the VII
laye: and the villagers, turning out with horns ana
drums so scare the ass that he uttcrs cry. Ana
when he knew him 20 be an ass, the future Buddha
pronounced the first stanza:
This IS not q hons roaring
Nor tieei's panther's
Dressed In lions akin.
IT'S wretched ass that roars
The redler returning. and finding his beast with
broken bones and the lions skin gone, morallzes
Us follows:
Long might the ass
Clad in a lions SKIN,
Have fed OF the barley green
But he prayed!
And that moment he came to ruin
In the story of "1he Jackal and the Crow, we
have apparently the original of The Fox the
Grow and the Piece of Cheese The crow sets ON
n ambu tree eating the janibu fruit. The Jackal
longing for q taste, says:
Who NAV this be whose rich and pleasant notes
PROCLAIM him best Of Ill the singing b rdS?
Warbng sweety on the lambu branch
Where. Ike peacock, he SITS urn ana grand
Then the crow replies:
IT'S a well bred young gentleman who understands
TO speak of gentlemen i'll terms pOhte!
Good sr! whose shape and glossy coat reveal
The tigers offsmng-eat Of these pray.
Whereupon he shakes the branch, and tho frnit
falls But the god of the tree, disguised with
their flattery. when he sees them eating the fruit
together makes himself visible in an awful shape
and fIightens them away. In orr fable the crow
loses his treat, tie fox reaps the reward of his
cunning In the Oriental story they share the
fruit. and both are driven away from their feast
The moral OF the Oriental tale is the higher.
So again. in the story of Sakkas presents-the
double-edged hatchct which would fetch firewOod
and the drum which would convert foes into
friends-we see the most ancient example OF those
tales in which figure the seven lcague boots, the
vanishing lat and the wonderful lamp.
Another very odd fact is uncarthcd i'll the history
of the romance of Barlaam and JOSaphat written
by John of Damascus, distinguished thcoioGlan
of the Greek Church in the eighth century. The
first religious romance published in a Western
tongue. it was extensively translated and was so
exceedingly popular in the middle ages that at last
the holy saints, Barlaam and Josaphat. obtained a
place i'll the Romsh catalogue of saints and
drawn from the life of Buddha and that JoSaphat
is only another name for Buddha himself; 50 that,
as Max Muller has shown, Buddha, under the name
of Josaphat, is now officially recognized and wor-
shipped throughout the whole CT Catholic Christen-
dom as a Christian saint
To the same Oriental source may be traced the
story of Sindbad the sailor, and other well known
tales of the Arabian Nights. La Fontane, Spenser,
Chaucer, Boccaccio, are indebted to it the three
Il, Of in bn u mi nf
Venice" and the jewel in the toad's head i'll AS
YOU Like It." are from the Buddhist stories
The value of these stories is not only in the cvi-
dence they afford of intcrcOmmuniOn between
the East ana West but also in the assistance they
render in the study of the beliefs and habits of
men in the earlier stages OF their development. The
.Jatakas present n nearly complete picture, quiet
unaffected by European intercourse, OF the social
life and customs and popular beliefs OF the common
peOple of Aryan tribes closely related to ourselves
just as they were passing through the first stages
of civilization priceless record of the childhood of
our race.
TALES FROM TIE MORSE GRANDMOTHER Thc
Elder EdiaJ by Augusta IArned, author OF "0ld
Tales RptOld from Grtc;an Ny thOlogy." EvO, D. 49,
New-YOrk: Philips d Hunt.
This is q clear and picturesque account Of the d
Morse mythology. 1t is written prOfesscdly for
young minds. Bnt 1t has all the elements Of pop
MAR treatise on the life and religion Of the ancient
Northern races of Europe The Engsh-speaking
nations Of TODAY have all undOubted descent from
the seafarug Morse and their Saxon kindred.
Therein may lie the reason why there is a tascina-
ton, for their minds in the fierce and rugged gran
deur of the Morse gods that does not yield to the
more civilized influence OF the deIties of classic
Greece Miss Larned, not long since, wrote an OK
cellent account of the Grecian mythology for young
people. 1t was i'll the form of dialogue which