The ocean of story, being C.H. Tawney's translation of Somadeva's ...

FOREWORD xxix
need not be very elaborate, for we have yet the rudiments to
learn ; but it will, of course, require to be documented with
references which will enable us to pursue particular questions
in greater detail. A very valuable feature of the model,
which I should hope would be followed, is the critical estimate
of the various translations in which the works may have
become more or less familiar in the West.
The more information that our pundit can find room to
give us about the literary history, particularly the Oriental
literary history, of the individual stories in these collections
the better, but even a
would be of great service.
comparatively general treatment
The more I have become involved
in comparative methods of study in other fields the more
deeply have I become impressed by the dangers of mere
erudition by index. Now most of us, if we are honest,
have no adequate knowledge of the story-literature of India
and the East. From Tawney, Hertel, Benfey, and so on, we
have been in the habit of culling parallels and specimens,
but without any proper appreciation of their background, or
knowledge of their literary context. A crying need, as it
seems to me, is for some authoritative work which will teach
us the elements of these essentials, and will guide us where
to look when more detailed investigation becomes necessary.
but
It may be, of course, that such a book already exists ;
if it does it would appear, if only on the internal evidence
of some of their arguments, to be unknown to the ordinary
students of Western mdrchen. Thus we are brought back
once more to the urgent need of better liaison between
Oriental and Western studies, the establishment of which, I
am convinced, would react beneficially far beyond the limited
field of popular stories.
I have ventured to " think aloud " about some general
principles, which seem to me vitally to affect the method of
the study of folk-tales, and, greatly daring, have offered some
practical suggestions as to the form which notes upon them
might conveniently take. What value may be attached to
these reflections by more professional students, who are less
distracted by other avocations, may be a matter of doubt ;
there can be no doubt, however, about the indebtedness of