_--But for the accident of the title being preserved there
would have been nothing to show that this tale had been imported into
England from Ireland, whither it had probably been carried all the way
from India.
LV. LAWKAMERCYME
_Source._--Halliwell, _Nursery Rhymes_.
_Parallels._--It is possible that this is an Eastern "sell": it occurs
at any rate as the first episode in Fitzgerald's translation of Jami's
_Salaman and Absal_. Jami, _ob._ 1492, introduces the story to
illustrate the perplexities of the problem of individuality in a
pantheistic system.
Lest, like the simple Arab in the tale,
I grow perplext, O God! 'twixt ME and THEE,
If I--this Spirit that inspires me whence?
If THOU--then what this sensual impotence?
In other words, M. Bourget's _Cruelle Enigme_. The Arab yokel coming to
Bagdad is fearful of losing his identity, and ties a pumpkin to his leg
before going to sleep. His companion transfers it to his own leg. The
yokel awaking is perplexed like the pantheist.
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