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To

Robert C. Childers Esq.,

whose kind exhortations

caused me to renew my Pāli studies,

this book is inscribed

as a token of esteem and affection

by

V. Fausbøll.

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PREFACE.

The more I think of Buddha, the more I love him“,

said the professed Christian Government Schoolmaster (Ceylon Friend 1837). I think many will agree with the Schoolmaster: Buddha may be wrong in his teleology, but in his morals he is certainly on a level with Christ, and even Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire cannot but admit „que, sauf le Christ tout seul, il n'est point, parmi les fondateurs de religion, de figure plus pure ni plus touchante que celle du Bouddha. Sa vie n'a point de tache". (Le Bouddha et sa Religion, nouvelle édition, Introduction p. V). Look only at the beautiful tale that opens our Ten Jātakas and wherein a man's superiority is judged by his way of retaliating. When Confucius was asked: "What do you say concerning the principle that injury should be recompensed with kindness?" the Master said: "With what then will you recompense kindness? Recompense injury with justice and recompense kindness with kindness". (Legge, Chinese Classics Vol. 1 p. 152). But Christ said unto us: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you" (St. Matthew, 5, 44). And now what does Buddha teach? Exactly the same as Christ: Of two kings one

The Mallika-king overthrows the strong by strength,

the soft by softness,

the good he conquers by goodness,

the wicked by wickedness;

but the other, the Bārāṇasi-king,

By calmness he conquers anger,
the wicked he conquers by goodness,

he conquers the avaricious by charity,
by truth the false-speaker;

So I too say,

and the latter is by Buddha deemed the greater. the more I learn to know Buddha, the more I admire him, and the sooner all mankind shall have been made acquainted with his doctrines the better it will be, for he is certainly one of the heroes of humanity.

The different connections which our ten tales have with several other stories in that large material of folk-lore spread all over the world as a remainder of an age prior to the introduction of writing, the age of man's childhood, I leave to others to make out more fully, I shall myself here only point to a few similarities that I have happened to observe: With the 2d story can be compared „La Caille et le Faucon" in "Les Avadânas par Stan. Julien" 2, 83; the 3d story is substantially identical with Le Lion et le Sanglier" in Les Avadânas“ 1, 97; in the 5th story is told how a yakkha had got permission from Vessavaṇa to eat all those who, on one sneezing, forgot to say,,mayst thou live!“ compare with this Somadeva's K. S. S. 6, 28 v. 129— -180; from the 6th story we learn that an elephant who has been cured by some carpenters, afterwards, of his own free will, serves them; this reminds us of the lion that follows Ivan

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