The topic is altogether too obscure for satisfactory argument. Certainly the _märchen_ were at home in Egypt before we have even reason to believe that Egypt and India were conscious of each other's existence. The antiquity of _märchen_ by the Nile-side touches geological time, if we agree with M. Maspero that Bitiou is a form of Osiris, that is, that the Osiris myth may have been developed out of the Bitiou _märchen_.* * Maspero, op. cit., p. 17, note 1. The Osiris myth is as old as the Egypt we know, and the story of Bitiou may be either the _detritus_ or the germ of the myth. This gives it a dateless antiquity; and with this _märchen_ the kindred and allied _märchen_ establish a claim to enormous age. But it is quite impossible to say when these tales were first invented. We cannot argue that the cradle of a story is the place where it first received literary form. We know not whence the Egyptians came to Nile-side; we know not whether they brought the story with them, or found it among some nameless earlier people, fugitives from Kor, perhaps, or anywhere else. We know not whether the remote ancestors of modern peoples, African, or European, or Asiatic, who now possess forms of the tale, borrowed it from a people more ancient than Egypt, or from Egypt herself. These questions are at present insoluble. We only know for certain that, when we find anywhere any one of the numerous incidents of the story of _The Two Brothers_, we can be certain that their original home was _not_ historic India. There is also the presumption that, if we knew more of the tales of ancient Egypt, we could as definitely refuse to regard historic India as the cradle of many other _märchen_. Thus, in opposition to the hypothesis of borrowing from India, we reach some distinct and assured, though negative, truths. 1. So far as the ideas in _The Two Brothers_ are representative of _märchen_ (and these ideas are inextricably interwoven with some of the most typical legends), _historic_ India is certainly and demonstrably _not_ the cradle of popular tales. These are found far earlier already in the written literature of Egypt. 2. As far as these ideas are representative of _märchen_, there is absolutely no evidence to show that _märchen_ sprang from India, whether historical or prehistoric; nor is any connection proved between ancient Egypt and prehistoric India. 3. As far as _märchen_ are represented by the ideas in _The Two Brothers_ and the _Predestined Prince_, there is absolutely no evidence to show in what region or where they were originally invented.