Note 21 — Chapter LXI

Benfey compares Grimm R. F. CCLXXXIV, Renart, br. 25, Grimm Kinder- und Hausmärchen, 58, (III, 100) Keller, Romans des sept Sages, CLII, Dyocletian, Einleitung, 48, Conde Lucanor, XLIII. (Benfey, Vol. I, p. 333). See also Lafontaine’s Fables, XII, 15. This is perhaps the story which General Cunningham found represented on a bas-relief of the Bharhut Stúpa. (See General Cunningham’s Stúpa of Bharhut, p. 67.) The origin of the story is no doubt the Birth-story of “The Cunning Deer,” Rhys Davids’ translation of the Játakas, pp. 221–223. The Kurunga Miga Játaka, No. 206 in Fausböll Vol. II, p. 152 is a still better parallel. In this the tortoise gnaws through the bonds, the crane (satapatto) smites the hunter on the mouth as he is leaving his house; he twice returns to it on account of the evil omen; and when the tortoise is put in a bag, the deer leads the hunter far into the forest, returns with the speed of the wind, upsets the bag, and tears it open.