JATAKA, the tenth division- of the Sutra Pitaka, or second book of the sacred canon of the Buddhists, has legends relating to Sakya Muni, or Buddha's previous existences, which ho is said to have related at various times to his hearers, and in which a good deal of his doctrine is em bodied. These legends arc still very popular all over the world of Buddhism, and have spread far beyond it, being the oldest source of .Esop's Fables, and of the fairy tales, folklore, nursery songs and rhymes of every country in the world. Often they become changed, almost beyond recog nition, till Gautama Buddha even figures as a Christian saint in the Romish calendar. The life of Barlaam and Josaf, attributed to St. John of Damascus, has been shown by Professor Max Muller to be the life of Gautama Buddha as told in the Jatakas. Its Latin title is S. Joannis Damasceni Barlaam Eremitm et Josaphat Regis Indorum Gregorio Trapezuntio interprete, Prince Josaf being none other than Gautama Buddha, and St. Josaphat, who is worshipped by Catholics as a saint on every 27th of November. Colonel Yule believes also (Marco Polo, ii. pp. 304-309) that the story of the Holy Grail (Sangreal) had its origin in the Buddhist legends of the begging bowl of Sakya Muoi ; and he has been identified by Mr. Rhys Davids with the Man in the Moon, Gautama in a former state of existence having been a hare, and in the Kalmuk version of the Jataka legend the soul of that hare was trans lated to the moon, where he is still plainly visible to Kalmuk eyes.
The fables included in the Jataka book un doubtedly belong to the oldest Indian folk-lore ; but they are universally ascribed by the commen tators to Buddha himself. From all that is known of the life of Gautama, it was quite consonant with his method to make use of the household stories of the people in order to bring home to them the practical bearing of his moral teaching. A great deal of the Birth Stories, however, probably grew up after his death, and it is beyond doubt that in its present form the Jataka book represents a long process of accretion. Each story consists of several parts, and these are by no means of equal antiquity. The real Birth Story, or Story of the Past, is introduced by a Story of the Present, and is followed by a conclusion. The introductory story tells some episode of Buddha's life ; how some disciple acted in such and such a way, and how Buddha accounted for it by the fact that the same person in a previous existence had behaved in a precisely analogous manner. The Birth Story itself is the account of this passage in the previous birth, put into the mouth of Buddha, who generally utters a stanza pointing the moral. The conclusion establishes the con nection between the two episodes_ and identifies the characters. The introductory Story of the Present is clearly later than the Story of the Past, and is the work of the compiler or commen tator ; and the verses included in the latter (and sometimes in the former) aro older in literary form than the stories, though the stories un doubtedly represent in substance popular fables which existed long before the verses were com posed. There is a freshness and simplicity about
the Stories of the Past that is sadly wanting in the Stories of the Present ; so much so, that the latter (and this is also true of the whole long introduction containing the life of the Buddha) may be compared more accurately with medixval legends of the saints, than with such simple stories as JEsop's Fables, which still bear a like ness to their forefathers, the, Stories of the Past. The Jatakas so constituted were carried to Ceylon in the Pali language, when Buddhism was first introduced into that island about B.C. 200 ; and the whole was there translated into and preserved in the Singhalese language (except the verses, which were left untranslatcd) until the compilation in the fifth century A.D., and by an unknown author, of the Pali Jataka Book.
As an example of the general character of the stories in their several parts, and also of their bearing upon European collections of popular tales, may be noticed the Baka Jataka (No. 38), or The Cruel Crane Outwitted, in which the case of two cheating tailors is told in the Story of the Present. The Teacher, i.e. Buddha, thereupon remarks that this was not the first time the one rogue of a tailor had taken in the other, and tells the Story of the Past, in which a crane who had treacherously devoured a pond full of fish, is him self outwitted and killed by a crab whom be had tried to deceive like the fish. Then comes the moral stanza, uttered by the Bodhi-satwa who had been looking on in the form of a tree spirit : ' The villain, though exceeding clever, Shall prosper not by his villany.
He may win, indeed, sharp-witted in deceit, But only as the crane here from the crab.' And, finally, by way of conclusion, the Teacher established the connection and summed up the Jataka by saying, ' At that time he (the crane) was the Jetavana robe-maker, the crab was the country robe-maker, but the genius of the tree was I myself.' This fable can be traced through a numerous progeny ; it is found in the Arabic Kalila-wa-Damna, the Persian Anwar-i-Suhaili, the Greek Stephanites kai Ichnelates, the French Livre des Lumieres and Cabinet des Fees, in La Fontaine, the Arabian Nights, the Pancha Tantra, Ilitopadesa, and many other collections of house hold stories ; but it is not included in the so called lEsop's Fables. The moral it inculcates is of a well-worn type ; but this is not observable with regard to all the- series.—Saturday Review.