[Footnote 55: Of these fables, I have seen three copies in
three different languages: 1. In Greek, translated by Simeon
Seth (A.D. 1100) from the Arabic, and published by Starck at
Berlin in 1697, in 12mo. 2. In Latin, a version from the
Greek Sapientia Indorum, inserted by Pere Poussin at the end
of his edition of Pachymer, (p. 547 - 620, edit. Roman.) 3.
In French, from the Turkish, dedicated, in 1540, to Sultan
Soliman Contes et Fables Indiennes de Bidpai et de Lokman,
par Mm. Galland et Cardonne, Paris, 1778, 3 vols. in 12mo.
Mr. Warton (History of English Poetry, vol. i. p. 129 - 131)
takes a larger scope.
Note: The oldest Indian collection extant is the
Pancha-tantra, (the five collections,) analyzed by Mr.
Wilson in the Transactions of the Royal Asiat. Soc. It was
translated into Persian by Barsuyah, the physician of
Nushirvan, under the name of the Fables of Bidpai,
(Vidyapriya, the Friend of Knowledge, or, as the Oriental
writers understand it, the Friend of Medicine.) It was
translated into Arabic by Abdolla Ibn Mokaffa, under the
name of Kalila and Dimnah. From the Arabic it passed into
the European languages. Compare Wilson, in Trans. As. Soc.
i. 52. dohlen, das alte Indien, ii. p. 386. Silvestre de
Sacy, Memoire sur Kalila vs Dimnah. - M.]