ugrienne_, vi., Helsingissa, 1889, and "Die geografische
Verbreitung einer nordischen in Finnland," in _Fennia_, iv., 4. The
latter monograph is accompanied by an interesting map of Finland,
showing the distribution of the Scandinavian form of these stories, in
which the Bear is the opponent of the Fox, and the Slavonic form in
which the Wolf takes that position. As there is obviously a
mythological tendency at the root of the stories, intending to account
for the shortness of the Bear's tail and the white tip of the Fox's,
it is clear that the Scandinavian form is the more original.

I have tried to collect together in a logical narrative:

(a) Fox and Bear in partnership--(Top-off, Half-gone, All-gone).
(b) Fox in fish cart.
(c) Iced Bear's tail.
(d) Fox and cream jug.
(e) Fox on Bear's back.
(f) Fox in briar bush.
(g) Man promises Fox two geese for freeing him from Bear.
(h) Gives him two dogs.
(k) Fox and limbs; sacrifices tail.

In his article in _Fennia_, Prof. Krohn refers to no less than 708
variants of these different episodes, of which, however, 362 are from
the enormous Finnish collections of folk lore in possession of the
Finnish Literary Society at Helsingfors. The others include the
majority of European folk-tale collections with a goodly sprinkling of
Asiatic, African and American ones, the last, however, being confined
to "Uncle Remus," in which four out of the ten incidents occur in
isolated adventures of Brer Rabbit.

Many of the incidents occur separately in early literature; (g) (h)
(k) for example, which form one sequence, are found not alone in
Renard but also in Alfonsi, 1115, and Waldis. (c) The iced bear's tail
occurs in the Latin _Ysengrimus_, of the twelfth century, in the
_Renart_ of the thirteenth, and, strangely enough, in the Hebrew _Fox
Fables_ of Berachyah ha-Nakadan, whom I have identified with an Oxford
Jew late in the twelfth century. See my edition of Caxton, _Fables of
Europe_, i., p. 176. The fact that ice is referred to in the last case
would seem to preclude an Indian origin for this part of the
collection.

It is not quite certain however that all the above incidents were
necessarily connected together originally. The fish cart (b), and the
iced bear's tail (c), are so closely allied that they probably formed
a unity in the original conception, though they are often found
separately nowadays among the folk. Bear and Fox in partnership (a),
is found elsewhere told of ot