Note 2 — Note to Chapter 60. The fables of Pilpay.

Weber supposes that the Indians borrowed all the fables representing the jackal as a wise animal, as he is not particularly cunning. He thinks that they took the Western stories about the fox, and substituted for that animal the jackal. Benfey argues that this does not prove that these fables are not of Indian origin. German stories represent the lion as king of beasts, though it is not a German animal. (Benfey’s Panchatantra, Vol. I, pp. 102, 103). See also De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, p. 122.