rms the ninth chapter
in De Sacy's edition, and the fifth section in the later Syriac
version (English translation by I. G. N. Keith-Falconer, Cambridge,
1885). In the "Pancatantra" this story forms the framework for the
fourth book. For a discussion of the variations this tale underwent
when it passed over into other collections and spread through Europe,
see Benfey, 1 : 421 ff. Apparently Benfey did not know of these two
Buddhistic birth-stories; but he has shown very ingeniously that most
of the fables in the "Pancatantra" go back to Buddhistic writings. Nor
can there be any doubt in this case, either, though it is not to be
supposed that the five hundred and forty-seven Jatakas were invented
by the Buddhistic scribes who wrote them down. Many of them are far
older than Buddhism.

Our Zambal form of the story does not represent the purest version. A
variant much closer to the Buddhistic and close to the Tagalog is a
tale collected by Wenceslao Vitug of Lubao, Pampanga. He says that
the story is very common throughout his province, and is well known
in the Visayas. His version follows in abstract form:--

A crocodile goes out to look for a monkey-liver for his wife, who is
confined at home. As the crocodile starts to cross a stream, a monkey
asks for passage on its back. The crocodile gladly complies, and,
on arriving in mid-stream, laughs at the credulous monkey, and tells
him that he must have a monkey-liver. The monkey says, "Why didn't you
tell me before? There's one on a tree near the bank we just left." The
simple crocodile went back to the bank, whereupon the monkey escaped
and scrambled up into a tree to laugh at the crocodile. The crocodile
then tried to "play dead," but he could not fool the monkey. Next
he decided to go to the monkey's house. The monkey, suspecting his
design, said aloud, "When no one is in my house, it answers when I
call." The crocodile inside was foolish enough to answer when the
monkey called to his house, and the monkey ran away laughing.

Our Zambal story has evidently been contaminated with the story of
"The Monkey and the Turtle;" for it lacks the characteristic incident
of the monkey-heart (or liver), and contains incident H from our
No. 55. However, it does preserve an allusion to the principal episode
of the cycle,--in the ride the monkey takes on the crocodile's back
across the stream. Other Oriental versions of the "heart on tree"
incident are the following: Chinese, S. Be