also successful in finding an Arabic version done by a Coptic
Christian. In both these versions the story is told as a miracle due
to the interference of the Angel Michael; and it is a curious
coincidence that in Mr. Morris' poetical version of our story in the
"Earthly Paradise" he calls his hero Michael. Unless some steps are
taken to prevent the misunderstanding, it is probable that some
Teutonic investigator of the next century will, on the strength of
this identity of names, bring Mr. Morris in guilty of a knowledge of
Ethiopic.

But for the name of the hero one might have suspected these Oriental
versions of being derived, not from a Greek, but from an Indian
original. Mr. Tawney has described a variant found in the Kathakosa
{3} which resembles our tale much more closely than any of the
European folk-tales in the interesting point that the predestined
bride herself finds the fatal letter and makes the satisfactory
substitution. In the Indian tale this is done with considerable
ingenuity and vraisemblance. The girl's name is Visha, and the
operative clause of the fatal letter is:


"Before this man has washed his feet, do thou with speed
Give him poison (visham), and free my heart from care."


The lady thinks (or wishes) that her father is a bad orthographist,
and corrects his spelling by omitting the final m, so that the letter
reads "Give him Visha," with results more satisfactory to the young
lady than to her father. This variant is so very close to our tale,
while the letter incident in it is so much more naturally developed