Note 10 — Chapter XXVIII

This story is compared by Benfey (Orient und Occident, Vol. I, p. 374) with the story of the faithful servant Víravara in the Hitopadeśa, which is also found in the Vetálapanchavinśati, (see chapter 78 of this work.) Víravara, according to the account in the Vetálapanchavinśati, hears the weeping of a woman. He finds it is the king’s fortune deserting him. He accordingly offers up his son, and finally slays himself. The king is about to do the same when the goddess Durgá restores the dead to life. The story of “Der Treue Johannes” will at once occur to readers of Grimm’s tales. According to Benfey, it is also found in the Pentamerone of Basile. The form of the tale in our text is very similar to that in Grimm. (See Benfey’s Panchatantra, Vol. I, p. 416.) The story of the faithful Víravara occurs twice in this collection, in chapter 53, and also in chapter 78. Sir G. Cox (in his Aryan Mythology, Vol. I p. 148), compares the German story with one in Miss Frere’s Old Deccan Days, the 5th in that collection. Other parallels will be found in the notes in Grimm’s third volume. A very striking parallel will be found in Bernhard Schmidt’s Griechische Märchen, Story No. 3, p. 68. In this story the three Moirai predict evil. The young prince is saved by his sister, from being burnt, and from falling over a precipice when a child, and from a snake on his wedding-day. See also De Gubernatis, Zoological Mythology, Vol. II, pp. 301–302. Cp. also Coelho’s Contos Portuguezes, No. 51, Pedro e Pedrito, p. 118, and Grimm’s Irische Märchen, pp. 106, 107. In the Gagga Játaka, No. 135, Fausböll, Vol. II, p. 15, the Buddha tells how the custom of saying “Jíva” or “God bless you” originated. A Yakka was allowed to eat all who did not say “Jíva” and “Paṭijíva.” Zimmer in his Alt-Indisches Leben, p. 60, quotes from the Atharva Veda, “vor Unglück-bedeutendem Niesen.”