In the actual state of our
knowledge, we can only say that there is a striking resemblance between a
Berber tale and such or such a version. From thence comes the presumption
of borrowed matter. But, for the best results to be gained, one should be
in possession of all the versions. When it relates to celebrated personages
among the Mussulmans, like Solomon, or the features of a legend of which no
trace remains of the names, one can certainly conclude that it is borrowed
from the Arabs. It is the same with the greater number of fairy tales,
whose first inventors, the Arabs, commenced with the "Thousand and One
Nights," and presented us with "The Languages of the Beasts," and also with
funny stories.
The principal personage of these last is Si Djeha, whose name was borrowed
from a comic narrative existing as early as the eleventh century A.D. The
contents are sometimes coarse and sometimes witty, are nearly all more
ancient, and yet belong to the domain of pleasantries from which in Germany
sprung the anecdotes of Tyll Eulenspiegel and the Seven Suabians, and in
England the Wise Men of Gotham.
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