Jacobs says that at least one-third of
all the stories common to the children of Europe are derived from
India, and by far the majority of the drolls. He also says that
generally, so far as incidents are marvelous and of true fairy-like
character, India is the probable source, because of the vitality of
animism and transformation in India in all time. Moreover, as a
people, the Hindus had spread among their numbers enough literary
training and mental grip to invent plots.

And again, there is an accepted connection in myth and language
between all Aryan languages and Sanskrit. According to Sir George
Dasent, "The whole human race has sprung from one stock planted in the
East, which has stretched its boughs and branches laden with the fruit
of language and bright with the bloom of song and story, by successive
offshoots to the utmost parts of the earth." Dasent tells how the
Aryans who went west, who went out to _do_, were distinguished from
the nations of the world by their common sense, by their power of
adapting themselves to circumstances, by making the best of their
position, by being ready to receive impressions, and by being able to
develop impressions. They became the Greeks, the Latins, the Teutons,
the Celts, and the Slavonians. The Aryans who stayed at home, remained
to _reflect_, and were distinguished by their power of thought. They
became a nation of philosophers and gave to the world the Sanskrit
language as the basis of comparative philology. Dasent shows how
legends, such as the _Story of William Tell_ and _Dog Gellert_, which
have appeared in many Aryan peoples were common in germ to the Aryan
tribes before migration. Joseph Jacobs has more recently settled the
travels of _Gellert_, tracing its literary route from the Indian
_Vinaya Pitaka_, through the _Fables of Bidpai, Sindibad, Seven Sages
of Rome, Gesta Romanorum_, and the Welsh _Fables of Cottwg_, until the
legend became localized in Wales.

IV. Fairy tales owe their origin to the identity of early fancy.

Just as an individual, after thinking along certain lines, is
surprised to come upon the exact sequence of his thought in a book he
had never seen, so primitive peoples in remote parts of the world, up
against similar situations, would express experience in tales
containing similar motifs. A limited set of experiences was presented
to the inventive faculty, and the limited combinations possible would
result in similar combinations. The