Originally a simple folk-tale, each of these stories has been converted into a birth-story by the simple literary device of identifying the highest and noblest character in the story with the Future Buddha. This, of course, was a comparatively easy matter, for the Future Buddha, in his previous states of existence, was believed to have exhibited the qualities of wisdom, courage, and generosity, and there are few of the stories in which at least one of the characters does not exhibit one or another of these qualities. The attempt to introduce the Future Buddha into the stories is not always carried out in a way to satisfy or convince the reader. Thus, as an honest dicer (23 _b_), he violates Buddhist teaching by administering deadly poison to his companion, a dishonest dicer. The latter must not, of course, be allowed to die. The honest dicer is therefore made to administer an emetic to his companion and to admonish him. As a wise quail (20 _b_), he again violates Buddhist teaching by saving his own life at the expense of his enemy’s life. Here the inconsistency is allowed to stand, and the story is used to illustrate the folly of walking in forbidden ground. In the case of some of the stories, the figure of the Future Buddha is, so to speak, lugged in by the heels. For example, little or nothing is gained by identifying the antelope caught in a trap (7) with the Future Buddha. As a Brahman’s pupil (10), and as a king’s counsellor (14), the Future Buddha offers only a word of advice. As a trader (21), and as a wise man (22), he is merely a spectator, and contents himself with remarking on the folly of misdirected effort. It is quite clear that in the case of these stories also we are dealing with simple folk-tales which have undergone only slight modification. * * * * * Some of the stories have traveled all over the world. In the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, many of them found their way into the highways and byways of European literature. With Story 1, _The grateful elephant_, compare the story of Androclus and the lion, Aesop’s fable of the Lion and the Shepherd, and Gesta Romanorum 104. With Story 2, _Grateful animals and ungrateful man_, compare R. Schmidt, Panchatantra i. 9; C. H. Tawney, Kathāsaritsāgara ii. 103; E. Chavannes, Cinq Cents Contes 25; A. Schiefner, Tibetan Tales 26; Gesta Romanorum 119; and the following stories in Grimm, Kinder- und Hausmärchen: 17 Die weisse Schlange, 60 Die zwei Brüder, 62 Die Bienenkönigin, 85 Die Goldkinder, 107 Die beiden Wanderer, 126 Ferenand getrü und Ferenand ungetrü, 191 Das Meerhäschen. For additional parallels, see J. Bolte und G. Polivka, Anmerkungen zu den Kinder- und Hausmärchen der Brüder Grimm, Märchen 17, 62, 191.