evolent project.

Here the _Puss in Boots_ character of the tale disappears. The weaver
and the princess go home, but the jackal does _not_ cajole anyone out of
a castle and lands. He has made the match, and there he leaves it. The
princess, however, has fortunately a magical method of making gold, by
virtue of which she builds the weaver a splendid palace, and 'hospitals
were established for diseased, sick, and infirm animals,' a very Indian
touch. The king visits his daughter, is astonished at her wealth, and
the jackal says, 'Did I not tell you so?'

Here, as we said, there is no moral, or if any moral, it is the
gratitude of man, as displayed in founding hospitals for beasts, not, as
M. Cosquin says, 'l'idee toute bouddhique de l'ingratitude de l'homme
opposee a la bonte native de l'animal.' Plainly, if any moral was really
intended, it was a satire on people who seek great marriages, just as in
the story of _The Rat's Wedding_, the moral is a censure on
bargain-hunters.

The failure of the only Indian _Puss in Boots_ we know to establish a
theory of an Indian origin, does not, of course, prove a negative. We
can only say that puss certainly did not come from India to Europe by
the ordinary literary vehicles, and that, when he is found in India, he
does not preach what is called the essentially Buddhist doctrine of the
ingratitude of man and the gratitude of beasts.

There remains, however, an Eastern form of the tale, an African version,
which is of morality all compact. This is the Swahili version from
Zanzibar, and it is printed as _Sultan Darai_, in Dr. Steere's _Swahili
Tales, as told by Natives of Zanzibar_ (Bell and Daldy, London, 1870).
If a tale first arose where it is now found to exist with most moral,
with most didactic purpose, then _Puss in Boots_ is either Arab or
Negro, or a piece in which Negroes and Arabs have collaborated. For
nowhere is the _conte_ so purposeful as among the Swahilis, who are by
definition 'men of mixed Negro and Arab origin.' There may be Central
African elements in the Swahili tales, for most of them have 'sung
parts,' almost unintelligible even to the singers. 'I suppose,' says Dr.
Steere, 'they have been brought down from the interior by the slaves,
and perhaps corrupted by them as they gradually forgot their own
language.' Thus Central Africa may have contributed to the Swahili
stories, but the Swahili _Puss in Boots_, as it at present exists, has
been deeply modified by