Thursday, October 26, 2017

Reading Notes: Jataka Tales Part A

Title: Jataka Tales Part A
Author: Ellen C. Babbitt
Illustrator: Ellsworth Young
Year: 1912

- The crocodile talks too much. If he hadn't told the monkey that he was going to kill him for his heart, he wouldn't have gotten duped.

- The way the story is told, it seems that the crocodile is always watching the monkey, while the monkey is never told to be watching the crocodile; however, the monkey clearly has much better knowledge of the crocodile than the crocodile does of the monkey. 

- A talking turtle would probably scare me too. I don't know that I would try to kill it, though.

- The little girl's greed (along with the kindness of the second merchant) actually led to her family getting many things instead of just one or nothing, while the first merchant's greed kept him from having something worth a lot of money for very little. If he was going to give up something for it anyway, he should have just done so in the first place, but then there wouldn't be much of a story.

- The flying turtle's bad attitude led to his death. Perhaps the geese could have given him more of a warning that he would die if he talked during their trip instead of just telling him not to. It would also be interesting to think about the turtle's thoughts as he fell from the sky.

- I think the story of the ox would be kind of funny (and a bit sad) if the ox went back to pull the carts the second time after having the talk with his owner just to find out that he wasn't actually strong enough to pull 100 carts. Maybe the owner could have sold him for all the money he lost.

- Never give up water, especially when you do not have another source. The men weren't even carrying it, it was being pulled by the oxen. No reason to throw it away.

- The fowler's wife was made that he wasn't bringing home any quail. If she would have worked with him the way the quails were working together, they would have caught more. 

- The king could have chosen anyone to be his valuer, but he chose an uneducated peasant. He really just needed to choose someone who thought in a similar manner as him, not someone of less intelligence. 

- The timid rabbit reminds me of the saying "If everyone else jumped off a bridge, would you?" Under many circumstances I would assume that if everyone is doing it, there might be a pretty good reason, but now I will wonder if everyone is just simply uninformed and assuming that someone else must know something that they don't.

The Turtle Who Couldn't Stop Talking
Image Author: Ellsworth Young
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

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