In addition to the fable collections and the medieval animal cycle, several other important groups of literary works have told animal tales that are also known in popular tradition. The collection of Buddhist tales known as the Jātaka, [347] the long series of books of exempla or illustrative stories told by the medieval priests, [348] and the extensive work of the composers of new fables in the Renaissance [349] are the three most important of these. [p. 225]

Mention has already been made of the fact that the story of the fox who succeeds in stealing the young magpies appears originally in the Panchatantra. It later received literary treatment in the Reynard cycle and in Hans Sachs. Alongside this purely artistic tale, and doubtless influenced by it, there developed a folktale well known in northern and eastern Europe. In this story (Type 56A) the fox threatens to push down the tree in which the magpie has its young. The crow gives good advice to the magpies and saves them. The fox avenges himself, plays dead, and catches the crow. The action in the latter part of the tale is the reverse of that in the literary fable.

Rather popular from Germany eastward is the story of the old dog as the rescuer of the child (Type 101), a story appearing in Steinhöwel's fifteenth century collection of fables. A farmer makes plans for killing a faithful old dog. The wolf has made friends with the dog, and works out a plan whereby the dog can be saved. The latter is to rescue the farmer's child from the wolf. When the wolf has permitted the plan to succeed, he wants to be allowed to steal the farmer's sheep. But the dog objects, and loses the wolf's friendship.

The medieval collections of exempla did not usually contain many animal tales except those already made familiar by fable books. One animal story, however, which seems from its distribution and general history to be essentially an oral tradition (Type 120), has found a place in Pauli's Schimpf und Ernst of the early sixteenth century. This tells of a wager between the fox and the hog as to which of them shall see the sunrise first. The fox places himself on a hill facing the east; the hog in a lower place facing the high trees to the west. The sun shines on the top of the trees, and the hog wins. This tale is known from Ireland to central Siberia, and has an interesting analogue in Japan.

Appearing first in the Jātaka and then spreading prodigiously as an oral tale is the story of the Tarbaby (Type 175). The essential point of the anecdote is that the trickster (most often the rabbit) is caught by a tarbaby (or some kind of sticky image). In a large number of cases the rabbit's enemies debate as to how he shall be punished. He agrees to various kinds of punishment, anything they suggest, but begs not to be thrown into the brier patch. Thinking to do him most injury, they throw him into the briers and he escapes (Type 1310). [350] This tale of the tarbaby has been studied very thoroughly by A. M. Espinosa, on the basis of more than 150 versions, which he has later supplemented by the addition of 115. [351] From India it seems clear that this story has reached the Negroes and Indians of America by several paths. It came from India to Africa, where it is a favorite and where it received some characteristic modifications before being [p. 226] taken by slaves to America. Another path was through Europe to the Hispanic peninsula and thence to American colonies. The third, but apparently very unimportant route, was directly across Europe.

In his second folktale monograph Kaarle Krohn discusses stories involving a man and a fox. [352] One of them is a definitely literary fable, The Ungrateful Serpent Returned to Captivity (Type 155). The main part of his study, however, is concerned with the tale of Bear Food (Type 154), the history of which is much more difficult to clarify, As will be seen, the story really consists of three separate episodes. A man in his anger at their laziness scolds his horses and calls them "bear food." The bear overhears and comes and demands the horses. A fox approaches and agrees to help the man from his predicament, but demands from the man geese or chickens in return for the service. The fox goes into the woods and imitates the barking of dogs, so that the bear is frightened and killed. The man now goes for the geese, but instead brings back in his bag dogs which attack the fox and chase him to his hole. Here the fox holds a conversation with his feet, his eyes, his ears, and his tail, and asks each of them how they could have helped him in his flight. The tail admits that it did not help. Thereupon the foolish fox sticks out his tail, which is seized upon by the dogs. The three parts of this story, (1) the "bear food" episode, (2) the deceptive payment given the fox, and (3) the fox's conversation with his bodily members, have not always been handled together. The first part would seem to have a more definitely literary relation than the last two. It is missing in the versions of the tale from Germany and the Romance countries, but Krohn feels that its presence in the Roman de Renart and in exemplum literature bespeaks its earlier presence in western Europe. He feels that the whole story is so well known over all of Europe that it is essentially a part of European folklore, though he admits the possibility that more adequate collections from India and the Orient might change his conclusions.

Almost all of the animal anecdotes thus far discussed have shown some kind of literary relationship. [353] But for animal tales there has also been a vigorous oral tradition not dependent upon literary works either as origin or as modes of dissemination. A thorough account of these purely folk stories, even in the European and Asiatic areas, would be extremely tedious, since almost every country has developed a large number of them which have not been taken over into other lands. A cursory examination of The Types of the Folk-Tale (especially pages 22 to 43 and 214 to 220) and of the various folktale surveys [354] will show these local tales for a number of different countries. They are particularly frequent in the Baltic states and in Russia. [p. 227]

Besides these stories of very limited distribution, there remain a number of traditional oral tales which have gained currency over a larger area.

The story told in Grimm of The She-fox's Suitors (Type 65) in which the widowed she-fox proves her faithfulness by rejecting suitors who do not resemble her deceased husband has a wide circulation in Germany and is known in Scandinavia. There are reasonably, close parallels from the Gypsies and analogues apparently unrelated in various parts of Africa. A much more definite tradition appears in a story which finds its greatest concentration in Finland and Lithuania, but is also known in Hungary and among Cape Verde Islanders in Massachusetts. It tells of the dog who acts as the wolf's shoemaker (Type 102). He keeps demanding material for the shoes, so that he eventually eats up the cow, the hog, etc. which are furnished him.

Two fable-like oral tales have their greatest popularity in Scandinavia and the Baltic countries. The Norwegians are especially fond of telling how the mouse, in order to placate the cat, tells her a story. The cat answers, "Even so, I eat you up" (Type 111). In some way this story has traveled to Indonesia, where it has been reported in three versions. The anecdote in which the rat persuades the cat to wash her face before eating and thus escapes (Type 122B) has traveled from the Baltic countries in another direction: it is known in at least four different areas of Africa.

Tales of the way in which a small and weak animal overcomes a very large one occur in many parts of the world. There is probably no connection between the numerous African anecdotes of this kind and the story of The Titmouse and the Bear (Type 228) which seems to be confined to Finland and Estonia, though very popular there. In this tale the titmouse ruffles up her feathers but does not succeed in fooling her own children. In her own form, however, she flies into the bear's ear and kills him.

Mention may also be made at this place of a story obviously related to the cumulative tales soon to be discussed. In this story of The Lying Goat (Type 212) a father sends his sons, one after the other, to pasture the goat. Nevertheless, the goat always declares that he has had nothing to eat. The father angrily sends his sons from home and learns, when he himself tries to pasture the goat, that he has been deceived. This tale is popular in most parts of Europe, but has not been reported from outside.

Some of the most interesting of animal tales are sometimes not told as simple stories but may have attached to them some explanation accounting for the form or present habits of the animal. If the main purpose of such tales is this explanation, we usually consider them as origin tales, of which, as we shall see, [355] there are a large number in every country. But in some of the stories the explanatory element seems to be quite secondary to the interest of the tale itself. Such is the account of the animals as road-builders (Type 55). [p. 228]

The fox acts as overseer and punishes the lazy animals. The various kinds of punishment which he gives them accounts for some feature in the present day descendant of that animal. This tale is very popular in Finland and is also widely known in Africa, and has been reported from the American Indians of the southeastern United States. [356]

Animals sometimes obtain another's characteristics by failing to return things which they have borrowed. Thus the nightingale and the blindworm used each to have one eye. The nightingale borrowed the blindworm's and refused to return it, so that she now has two and the blindworm none. The latter is always on a tree where the nightingale has her nest and in revenge bores holes in the nightingale's eggs (Type 234). This tale has been reported mainly from Germany and France, but the similar story of the way in which the jay borrows the cuckoo's skin and fails to return it (Type 235) is primarily Baltic, though analogues are known in Indonesia.

Two other tales of birds are apparently confined to Scandinavia and the Baltic countries. In the first (Type 236), the thrush teaches the dove to build small nests, so that ever afterward she has kept on doing so. In the other (Type 240), the dove and the magpie exchange their eggs, the seven dove's eggs for the two of the magpie. This accounts for the fact that the dove always lays two eggs.

Generally speaking, fish have not interested taletellers very much, though the wonder tale contains magic fishes, and the Munchausen [357] cycle has large exaggerations about great catches of fish. One origin tale (Type 252) concerning fish has acquired some popularity in Finland and Lapland. The pike races the snake to the land. The winner is to remain on land, but since the pike loses his race, he remains in the water.

When one considers all the kinds of animal tales current in the folklore of Europe and Asia, he will be impressed by the great variety of anecdotes which have been attached to animal heroes. This variety proceeds not only from the interest in the nature and qualities of actual animals, but also from the inveterate habit of making up animal tales which is common to the story-tellers of all lands. Animal stories look for their origin, therefore, not only to continuing invention stimulated by animal life, but to artistic activity extending in range from the skillful taletellers of primitive tribes to the cultivated composers of the Hindu, the classical, and the medieval fables. [p. 229]