ensive
account of those highly-gifted objects--alas, that they should no longer
exist!--is furnished in the early chapters of my _Popular Tales and
Fictions_, I presume I need not go over the same wide field again.--In
the _Katha Sarit Sagara_ (Ocean of the Streams of Story), a very large
collection of tales and apologues, composed, in Sanskrit, by Somadeva,
in the 12th century, after a much older work, the _Vrihat Katha_ (or
Great Story), the tale of the Faggot-maker occurs as a separate recital.
It is there an inexhaustible pitcher which he receives from four
yakshas--supernatural beings, who correspond to some extent with the
peris of Muslim mythology--and he is duly warned that should it be
broken it departs at once. For a time he concealed the secret from his
relations until one day, when he was intoxicated, they asked him how it
came about that he had given up carrying burdens, and had abundance of
all kinds of dainties, eatable and drinkable. "He was too much puffed up
with pride to tell them plainly, but, taking the wish-granting pitcher
on his shoulder, he began to dance; and, as he was dancing, the
inexhaustible pitcher slipped from his shoulder, as his feet tripped
with over-abundance of intoxication, and, falling on the ground, was
broken in pieces. And immediately it was mended again, and reverted to
its original possessor; but Subadatta was reduced to his former
condition, and filled with despondency." In a note to this story, Mr.
Tawney remarks that in Bartsch's Meklenburg Tales a man possesses
himself of an inexhaustible beer-can, but as soon as he tells how he got
it the beer disappears.--The story of the Foolish Thieves noisily
carousing in the house they had just plundered occurs also in Saadi's
_Gulistan_ and several other Eastern story-books.

In Kadiri's abridgment of the Parrot-Book, the Elk is taken prisoner as
well as his companion the Ass, and the two subordinate stories, of the
Foolish Thieves and of the Faggot-maker, are omitted. They are also
omitted in the version of the Singing Ass found in the _Panchatantra_
(B. v, F. 7), where a jackal, not an elk, is the companion of the ass,
and when he perceives the latter about to "sing" he says: "Let me get to
the door of the garden, where I may see the gardener as he approaches,
and then sing away as long as you please." The gardener beats the ass
till he is weary, and then fastens a clog to the animal's leg and ties
him to a post. After great exer