Note 24 — Chapter IV · ANIMAL-WORSHIP.
Reading edition
In folk-lore the ass constantly appears. We have in Somadeva the fable of the ass in the panther’s skin, which also appears in the fifth book of the Panchatantra. Professor Weber asserts that it was derived from the original in Æsop, but this is improbable, as it is also found in the Buddhist Jâtakas. In one of the Kashmîr tales we have the bird saying, “If any person will peel off the bark of my tree, pound it, mix the powder with some of the juice of its leaves and then work it into a ball, it will be found to work like a charm; for any one who smells it will be turned into an ass.”24 We have instances of ass transformation in Apuleius and Lucian, and in German and other Western folk-tales.