failed to differentiate clearly the two cycles,
and his outline of the "Skilful Companions" is that of our type
II of the "Rival Brothers." I am far from wishing to quarrel over
nomenclature,--possibly "Rival Brothers" is no better name for the
group of tales under discussion than is "Skilful Companions,"--but,
as G. H. Gerould has remarked ("The Grateful Dead," Folk-Lore Society,
1907 : 126, note 3), Kittredge's analysis would not hold for all
variants, even when uncompounded. However, Mr. Gerould does not
attempt to explain the cause of the confusion, nor was he called upon
to do so in his study of an entirely distinct cycle. Consequently,
as no one else has yet done so, for the sake of clearness, I propose
a division of the large family of sagas and folk-tales dealing with
men endowed with extraordinary powers [46] into at least two cycles,
--the "Rival Brothers" and the "Skilful Companions" (see No. 11). The
former of these, which is the group discussed here, I subdivide,
as has already been indicated, into four types. Of intermixtures of
these types with other cycles we shall not concern ourselves here,
though they have been many. [47] We now turn to an examination of
the four types. [48]

(I) Type I had its origin in India, doubtless. The oldest form seems to
be that found in the Sanscrit "Vetalapancavincati," No. 22, whence it
was incorporated into Somadeva's story collection (twelfth century)
called the "Kathasaritsagara." An outline of this last version
(Tawney's translation, 2 : 348-350) is as follows.

Story of the Four Brahman Brothers who Resuscitated the Lion.

Four Brahman brothers, sons of a very poor man, leave home to
beg. After their state has become even more miserable, they decide
to separate and to search through the earth for some magic power. So,
fixing upon a trysting-place, they leave one another, one going east,
one west, one north, one south. In the course of time they meet again,
and each tells of his accomplishments: the first can immediately
produce on a bit of bone the flesh of that animal; the second can
produce on that flesh skin and hair appropriate to that animal; the
third can create the limbs of the animal after the flesh, skin, and
hair have been formed; the fourth can endow the completed carcass with
life. The four now go into the forest to find a piece of bone with
which to test their skill; they find one, but are ignorant that it
is the bone of a lion. The first Brahman