[326] This fable forms one of those illustrations of which were carved in bas relief round the Great Tope at Bharhut. There the fair gosling is represented just choosing the peacock for her husband; so this tale must be at least sixteen hundred years old. The story has not reached Europe; but it is referred to in a stanza occurring in, according to Benfey, the oldest recension of the Pañca Tantra contained in the Berlin MS. See Benfey, i. § 98, p. 280; and Kahn, ‘Sagwissenschaftliche Studien,’ p. 69. The word _Haŋsa_, which I have here translated Goose, means more exactly a wild duck; and the epithet ‘_Golden_’ is descriptive of its beauty of colour. But the word Haŋsa is etymologically the same as our word Goose (compare the German Gans); and the epithet ‘_golden_,’ when applied to a goose, being meaningless as descriptive of outward appearance, gave rise to the fable of the Goose with the Golden Eggs. The latter is therefore a true ’myth,’ born of a word-puzzle, invented to explain an expression which had lost its meaning through the progress of linguistic growth. [327] Professor Benfey, in the Introduction to his Pañca Tantra (vol. i. p. 304), and Professor Fausböll in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1870, have dealt with the history of this story. It has not been found in Europe, but occurs in somewhat altered form in the Mahā-bhārata (Book V. vv. 2455 and foll.), in the first Book of the Hitopadesa, and in the second Book of the Pañca Tantra. The Buddhist story is evidently the origin of the others. [328] This story has several points of affinity with the one above, No. 13 (pp. 211-213), on the stag who came to his death through his thoughtless love for the roe. [329] See above, p. 235. [330] Bheṇḍuka. [331] It is difficult to convey the impression of the mystic epithet here used of fire. _Jātaveda_ must mean “he who possesses (or perhaps possesses the knowledge of) all that is produced.” It is used not infrequently in the Vedic literature as a peculiarly holy and mystical epithet of Agni, the personification of the mysterious element of fire, and seems to refer to its far-reaching, all-embracing power. [332] This story is referred to as one of the ‘kalpa-enduring miracles’ in Jātaka No. 20 above, p. 235. [333] See above, p. 130. [334] See the translator’s ‘Buddhism,’ pp. 108 and 174-177 (2nd edition). [335] This Birth Story, with the same Introductory Story, is found, in nearly identical terms, in the Culla Vagga (vi. 6). The story, therefore, is at least as old as the fourth century B.C. Jātaka No. 117 is also called the Tittira Jātaka.