PREFACE xi
It is indeed probable that no assured results can be expected regarding borrowing of tales ; Sir Richard Temple's ingenious suggestions 1 as to non-Aryan origins of certain motifs, with which may be compared those of Professor Przyluski 2 regarding the influence of Austro-Asiatic peoples on early Indian thought and speech, are inconclusive, nor is it clear that, as Dr. Qaster 3 inclines to hold, we owe to India the ideas of fallen angels, genii who return to earth, or legends of asceticism carried to ludicrous extremes. Dr. Gaster, however, rightly stresses the impossibility of assuming that India gave only and did not borrow, and insists on the importance of investigating the possibility of a literary origin for many fairy tales current among the people. Moreover, parallelism should often, it appears to me, be admitted in literary development. It is instructive, for instance, to compare the scheme of development of the practice of emboxing tales within tales given below (p. 320) for India with that suggested by Schissel von Fleschenberg i for Greek literature : the simple tale passes through stages illustrated by the Milesiaka of Aristeides, the work of Antonius Diogenes, the Golden Ass of Apuleius, and the romance of Petroniiu, to the complete outcome in later romance. The many motifs found in the Kathasaritsagara, for which parallels are adduced by the learned editor 5 of a new edition of Tawney's excellent version from western literature, suggest likewise that much may be said for the doctrine of parallelism.
On Civadasa's version pi the Vetalapahcavihgatika much light has been thrown by Hertel's researches. He establishes that Civadasa used a version in verse, whence some stanzas of merit, including those cited below (p. 290), are taken ; the many verse fragments found in his prose are explained by the origin of his work. Similar features are not rare in late texts, such as
1 Ocean of Story, i. pp. xiv ff.
J For other possibilities (Sumerian connexions) cf. Przyluski, BSL. xxvii. 218-29.
3 Ocean of Story, iii. pp. ixff.
4 EntwickehingsgescJtichte lies griechischen Romans im Altertum, and Vic gricch- ische Novelle ; cf. Reich, DLZ. ioif , pp. 543 f For the parallel development of the Helen and Sita legends, see Printz, Festgabe Jacob), pp. 103 ff.
6 N. M. Penzer, Ocean oj Story, ten vols., 1924-S. For elaborate notes on motifs see references in Indexes in each volume.
6 Streitberg Festgabe, pp. 135 ff. He places him not much before A. D. 1487.
