Note 120 — Chapter II · TREE AND SERPENT WORSHIP.

This famous tale, which was originally founded on a story in the Panchatantra, has come into European folk-lore through the Gesta Romanorum, and forms an excellent example of a genuine Indian folk-tale which has been naturalized in Western lands.120 The incident of the animals which produce gold is common both in European and Indian folk-lore. Even Marabhuti in the tale of Somadeva is able to spit gold, and every one knows Grimm’s pretty tale of the “Three little men in the wood,” in which a piece of gold drops from the mouth of the good girl every time she speaks.