ude of the inferior animals are almost always derivable from the
east; especially if, as in the correct versions of the tale on which
Puss in Boots is founded, their gratitude is contrasted with the
ingratitude of that superior animal, man. When we meet with so close a
resemblance as exists between the miracle wrought by Shekh Farid (p.
97), who turns the lying carter's sugar into ashes, and that
attributed to St. Brigit, who turns the liar's salt into stones, we
need have little scruple about referring both stories to the same
source and, considering how much monastic legend-writers were indebted
to oriental fancy, in locating that source in the east.

The comic elements of eastern and western folk-lore are closely akin,
and the Lie-stories, or _Luegenmaerchen_, in Nos. 4, 8, and 17 of these
Indian Tales find their parallels in most European collections. As an
example of the close kinship which prevails among the jests which make
merry the hearts of men far apart from each other, we may take the
Indian story of "Foolish Sachuli," and compare it with the Russian
tale of "The Fool and the Birch Tree" (Afanasief, vol. v., No. 22).
Sachuli kills a woman; his Russian counterpart kills a man. The corpse
of the woman is hidden away in a well, that of the man in a cellar. In
each case the fool's sensible relatives, knowing that he will be sure
to tell the truth if he is asked, withdraw the body during his
absence, and substitute for it that of an animal killed for the
purpose. When the seekers after the victim arrive at Sachuli's home,
he at once conducts them to the well. Being let down into it, he asks,
"Has she got eyes?" "Of course, every one has eyes," is the reply.
"Has she a nose?" "Yes, she has a nose." But at last he inquires if
she has four feet; and the seekers after the dead woman find that the
body in the well is that of a sheep. In the same way, when the Russian
fool has confessed his guilt, and has gone into the cellar to look for
his victim's remains, he finds there the body of a goat. So he calls
out to the anxious inquirers, "Was your man dark-haired?" "He was."
"And had he a beard?" "Yes, he had a beard." "And had he horns?" "What
horns are you talking about, fool?" they reply. So he hands up the
goat's head, and the Russian tale comes to the same conclusion as the
Indian. The likeness here is too strong to be attributed to an
accidental coincidence.

* * * * *

It does not,