Sufficient attention has not been paid to the large Oriental
element in European entertaining literature prior to the Renaissance. In
early Italian literature besides Boccaccio, the _Cento novelle antiche_
abound in Oriental elements. See D'Ancona, _Le Fonti del Novellino_, in
the _Romania_, vol. III. pp. 164-194, since republished in _Studj di
Critica e Storia Letteraria_, Bologna, 1880, pp. 219-359.

[3] See Introduction, Notes 3, 7.

[4] In the _Pantschatantra_ (Benfey's trans, vol. II. p. 120) this story
is as follows: A merchant confides to a neighbor some iron scales or
balances for safe-keeping. When he wishes them back he is told that the
mice have eaten them up. The merchant is silent, and some time after
asks his neighbor to lend him his son to aid him in bathing. After the
bath the merchant shuts the boy up in a cave, and when the father asks
where he is, is told that a falcon has carried him off. The neighbor
exclaimed: "Thou liar, how can a falcon carry away a boy?" The merchant
responded: "Thou veracious man! If a falcon cannot carry away a boy,
neither can mice eat iron scales. Therefore give me back my scales if
you desire your son." See also Benfey, _Pant._ I. p. 283. La Fontaine
has used the same story for his fable of _Le Depositaire infidele_
(livre IX. 1): see also references in _Fables inedites_, vol. II. p.
193.

[5] The fables in Pitre of non-Oriental origin may be mentioned here;
they are: No. 271, "_Brancaliuni_," found also in Straparola, X. 2; No.
272, "The Two Mice," compare Aesop, ed. Furia, 198, and Schneller, No.
59; No. 274, "Wind, Water, and Honor," found in Straparola, XI. 2; No.
275, "Godfather Wolf and Godmother Fox"; No. 276, "The Lion, the Wolf,
and the Fox," Aesop, ed. Furia, 233; No. 277, "The Fox," see _Roman du
Renart_, Paris, 1828, I. p. 129, and _Nov. tosc._ No. 69; No. 278,
"L'Acidduzzu (Pretty Little Bird)," compare Asbj. & Moe, No. 42,
Bernoni, _Punt._ III. p. 69, "_El Galo_," Nerucci, _Cincelle da
Bambini_, p. 38; No. 279, "The Wolf and the Finch," Gonz., No. 66, _Nov.
tosc._ No. 52 (add to Koehler's references: Asbj. & M., Nos. 42, 102,
[Dasent, _Tales from the Fjeld_, p. 35, "The Greedy Cat,"] and Bernoni,
_Punt._ III. p. 69); and finally No. 280, "The Cricket and the Ants,"
see Aesop, ed. Furia, 121, La Fontaine, _La Cigale et la Fourmi_, livre
I. 1: see copious references in Robert, _Fables inedites_, I. p. 2. For
Bernoni, III. p. 69, "_El Galo_," and Pitre, No. 27