without his horse, and the other man without his wife.

Notes.

These two Tagalog stories, together with another, "How Piro
became Rich," which is almost identical with No. 5(a), may
possibly be descended directly from an old Buddhist birth-story
("Gamani-canda-jataka," No. 257),--a tale in which W. A. Clouston
(see Academy, No. 796, for Aug. 6, 1887) sees the germ of the
"pound-of-flesh" incident. An abstract of the first part of this Jataka
will set forth the striking resemblance between our stories and this
old Hindoo apologue, [21] The part of the Jataka that interests us
is briefly the account of how a man was haled to the king's tribunal
for injuries done unwittingly, and how the king passed judgment
thereupon. The abstract follows:--

Gamani, a certain old courtier of the ruling king's dead father,
decided to earn his living by farming, as he thought that the new
king should be surrounded with advisers of his own age. He took up
his abode in a village three leagues from the city, and, after the
rainy season was over, one day borrowed two oxen from a friend, with
which to help him do his ploughing. In the evening he returned the
oxen; but the friend being at dinner, and not inviting Gamani to eat,
Gamani put the oxen in the stall, and got no formal release from his
creditor. That night thieves stole the cattle. Next day the owner of
the oxen discovered the theft, and decided to make Gamani pay for the
beasts. So the two set out to lay the case before the king. On the
way they stopped for food at the house of a friend of Gamani's. The
woman of the house, while climbing a ladder to the store-room for rice
for Gamani, fell and miscarried. The husband, returning that instant,
accused Gamani of hitting his wife and bringing on untimely labor:
so the husband set off with Gamani's first accuser to get justice
from the king. On their way they met a horse that would not go with
its groom. The owner of the horse shouted to G. to hit the horse
with something and head it back. G. threw a stone at the animal, but
broke its leg. "Here's a king's officer for you," shouted the man;
"you've broken my horse's leg." G. was thus three men's prisoner. By
this time G. was in despair, and decided to kill himself. As soon as
opportunity came, he rushed up a hill near the road, and threw himself
from a precipice. But he fell on the back of an old basket-maker and
killed him on the spot. The son of the basket-maker accused G. of
mur