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Tales that enjoy such great popularity as to be known as âfolktalesâ are not necessarily long and complex narratives. In particular, some of the tales catalogued as animal tales, that is, tale types ATU 1â299, are short and ostensibly realistic observations about the life of animals. These tales contrast with structured fictitious narratives such as fables, in which animals speak and act as metaphorical representatives of human characters, often stereotypical ones. Referring to the need for a clear distinction between the two types of animal tales, identified by Carl Wilhelm von Sydow,1 the compilers of the catalogue of French folktales discussed the short tale classified as tale type ATU 63: The Fox Rids Himself of Fleas.2 According to the tale, the fox would take a small object such as a piece of moss into its mouth and then slowly immerse its body into the water, tail first. To avoid being drowned, the fleas would gradually mount the foxâs body up to its head. Finally, when the fox would submerge its head in the water, they would save themselves by jumping onto the piece of moss. The fox would then abandon the floating object and be rid of the fleas.
Some of the taleâs versions documented from European oral tradition in the twentieth century are extemely short, such as the one in German dialect recorded by J. Schwebe from the oral performance of Christoph Lemke (b. 1866), a former farmer in LĂŒchow, Lower Saxony, in 1958.3 Although this version does not even mention an object on which the fleas rescue themselves, the action is virtually the same as summarized above.
The fox is full of fleas. It goes backward into the water with its tail first until the fleas jump off his nose. Thus it gets rid of the fleas.
Other versions, such as an Estonian text, authenticate the alleged observation by embellishing it into a lengthy narrative in which a man collecting wood at the shore of a river on a hot summer day observes the fox perform the said action.4 The Estonian text ends by mentioning that the narrator did not understand what the fox had actually done until he picked up the bundle of hay the fox had held in its mouth. It was so full of fleas that the narrator could not get rid of them himself. John Campbellâs version from the Scottish Highlands presents the observation as fact, claiming that the fox âwas seen in the sea near the Caithness hills.â5 Similarly, the Irish narrator Mac ThuathalĂĄin, aged 60, claimed his version to be a factual report, saying that MĂĄirtĂn Ă LoideĂĄin saw a fox âdraw a mouthful of wool from a sheep, go into the river and swim to the foot of a waterfall and backâ three times.6
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the tale was repeatedly published as a factual report in newspapers. In a short notice in the May 4, 1911, issue of Nature, Bohuslav Brauner from Prague recounted the tale as told by his father almost fifty years earlier.7 Instead of wool or hay, the fox here sacrifices a tuft of his own fur to collect the fleas. The narrator further emphasized the foxâs ingenuity by stating âthe effect was superior, for the fleas could creep into the hair without noticing any change of medium during the water trick.â In the United States, the December 22, 1900, issue of the Pacific Rural Times quoted the tale from the Baltimore Sun, referring to âan old hunter and naturalist of local reputeâ who told the tale, confirming it âas absolutely true and trustworthy.â8 Asserting that he never heard or read of the tale, the hunter related the events as âobserved in the waters of the Patapsco River.â In this version, when the fox hurried away, the âobject left floated near to the observer, and he hauled it ashore with a stick. Fleas literally swarmed through the object, which was found to be a bit of raw rabbit fur.â
Historically, the tale was popularized for many centuries by its mention in a fair variety of European works of a scientific, educative, and sometimes entertaining, nature.9 These include, to list but a few, Scots-Irish novelist William Hamilton Maxwellâs 1833 book on sports and pastimes of the United Kingdom;10 eighteenth-century German encyclopedian Johann Heinrich Zedlerâs influential comprehensive dictionary âof all sciences and arts;â11 German author Hilarius Salustiusâ chapbook Melancholini wohl-aufgeraumter Weeg-GefĂ€rth (The Melancholicâs Well-tempered Companion; 1717);12 Sir Kenelm Digbyâs Two Treatises: Of Bodies and of Manâs Soul, the âfirst comprehensive philosophical work in the English language,â13 initially published in 1644;14 Swedish historian and naturalist Olaus Magnusâs Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus (A History of the Northern People; 1555);15 Swiss physician and naturalist Conrad Gesnerâs Historia animalium (History of Animals; 1551);16 and a number of sixteenth-century Spanish works.17 The ultimate source of these authors likely was Albertus Magnusâs (d. 1280) De animalibus (On Animals) who quoted the tale from the obscure medieval author known as Jorach or Jorath (âIorach dicit . . .â).18 The earliest-known mention of the foxâs clever trick in the European literatures is attested in the Latin Otia imperialia (Recreation for an Emperor), compiled by Gervase of Tilbury at the beginning of the thirteenth century.19
More than three centuries prior to Gervase of Tilbury, the narrative is recounted from âpopular traditionâ (áž„adÄ«th al-ÊżÄmma) in the KitÄb al-កayawÄn (Book of Animals) written by the Arab polymath al-JÄáž„iáș (d. 868).20 Here, the action is presented more or less as a scientific observation with the fox taking a tuft of wool into its mouth and slowly submerging its body into the water until the fleas gather on the wool, at which point the fox suddenly abandons the wool and leaves. Being a critical observer, al-JÄáž„iáș added a commentary saying, âIf this was true, then there would be nothing more amazing. And if it was not true (bÄáčil), then the people would have attributed it to the fox only because of the animalâs demonstrated excellence in cunning and cleverness (al-khubth wa-âl-kays).â
Repeatedly mentioned in Arab learned and entertaining literature of the following centuries,21 albeit with a shorter and slightly different wording, the narrative is cited in such influential compilations as al-DamÄ«rÄ«âs (d. 1405) zoographical encyclopedia កayÄt al-áž„ayawÄn (The Life of Animals)22 or al-IbshÄ«hÄ«âs popular fifteenth-century encyclopedia al-Mustaáčraf fÄ« kulli fann mustaáșraf (The Exquisite Elements from Every Art Considered Elegant).23 Still in the seventeenth century, Muáž„ammad ibn Aáž„mad ibn (al-)IlyÄs al-កanafÄ« included the tale in his compilation of amusing tales, Nuzhat al-udabÄÊŸ (Entertainment of the Educated).24 Although in particular al-IbshÄ«hÄ«âs work was widely read until the twentieth century,25 the tale has apparently not been recorded from contemporary Arab oral tradition.26
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the tale is presented in Western childrenâs books27 and various Internet we...