ingratitude is sometimes a tree (a mulberry tree, in
_Indian Fairy Tales_), but the European versions prefer horses or
dogs.

Now it is obvious that such an artificial apologue on man's
ingratitude could not have been invented twice for that particular
purpose; and thus the hundred different versions (to which Dr. Bolte
could probably add another century) must all, in the last resort, have
emanated from a single source. When and where that original was
concocted is one of the most interesting problems of folk-tale
diffusion; the moralizing tendency of the tale, the animistic note
underlying it, all point to India, where we find it in the Bidpai
literature before the Christian era and current among the folk at the
present day. The case for Indian origin is strongest for drolls of
this kind.

I may add that the ingratitude of the man towards the fox at the end
is not so universal a tail piece to the story as the rest of it, and
is ultimately derived from the Reynard cycle, in which I have also
introduced it (see "Bruin and Reynard").

But it occurs in many of the variants and comes in so appropriately
that I thought it desirable to add it also here. The substitution of
a dog for something else desired also occurs in the story of the
Hobyahs in _More English Fairy Tales_, where Mr. Batten's released dog
is so fierce (p. 125) that it drives one of the Hobyahs over on to the
next page belonging to altogether another story.

XXI. JOHN THE TRUE

I have followed Bolte's formula "Anmerkungen" 45, keeping however as
far as possible to the alternatives nearest to Basile, iv., 9, and
where that fails making use of the Grimms' "Faithful John," No. 6, one
of their best told tales. The story is popular in Italy where Crane,
344, refers to six other versions. It is also found in Greece (Hahn
29), and Roumania (Schott, p. 144), and indeed throughout the east of
Europe. Traces of it in British Isles are but slight.

In India, however, there are a number of very close parallels (Day,
17-52; Knowles, 421-41; Frere, 98; and Somadeva; edit. Tawney, i.,
519, ii., 251, which contains the similar story of Vivara the True);
Benfey, i., 417, draws attention to other Oriental traits in the story
and aptly compares the half-marble figure of the King of the Black
Islands in the Arabian Nights. The probabilities of an Indian origin
for this formula are rendered greater by the early age of the
Pantschatantra and Somadeva parallels.

On th