Reading Notes: More Jataka Tales Part A

The queen went swimming and told a guard to watch some pearls
When the guard fell asleep, a girl monkey swung down, grabbed the pearls, and hid them
The king found the pearls and hung a bunch of colored beads on the ground over night
All of the beads were snatched by the monkeys until the girl monkey took the beads and declared she had taken the pearls
The guards caught the monkey and took her to the king

The three fishes swam from the wild country to a river near a town
The fish named Very Thoughtful said they should swim back but Thoughtful and Thoughtless decided to stay and got caught in a net
The Very Thoughtful fish swam around like the net had been broken so the fisherman tightened the net letting the other fish out
The fish then swam back to their home

There were hundreds of rat with one called Chief
A wolf saw all of the rats and came up with a plan to eat them
He stood on his hind legs and told the rats he only ate air
The rats felt bad and talked to him day in and day out, but each time they left, the wolf ate the last one
There were few rats remaining when the Chief decided he would be at the back and when they were leaving the Chief ran out of the way of the wlk
The rat then bit the wolf's throat and killed him

A Woodpecker, Turtle, and Deer lived happily in a forest until a hunter came by and trapped the deer in a leather trap
The Woodpecker and Turtle came up with a idea to save him
The Turtle bit through the leather as the woodpecker pecked the hunter's face as he tried to leave the house
At sunrise, the woodpecker could not peck the hunters and the turtle was tired but the deer broke free
The hunter captured the Turtle and hung him from the tree in a sack
The deer distracted the hunter and found the turtle and set him free leaving the hunter behind

A golden goose saw a poor family and offered his feathers one at a time so they could live comfortably
The mother got greedy and tried to take all of the feathers, but they turn white if taken away against the Goose's will
The golden feathers eventually returned, but the goose never went back

There was a holiday for everyone in the Kingdom except for the gardener who had to water trees
He got the monkey's who were living in the garden to do it, but told them to not overwater them
As the monkey's were watering the trees, they pulled them up to see if they were watered, but killed the trees

A group of people went to the woods to have a picnic, but ate all the meat by noon
One of the group members decided to go down to the lake to try and kill an animal by playing dead
The Chief Wolf came up to the hunter and tugged at his club and the man tugged back trying to strike the wolf, but the wolf and all of the animals outsmarted him

A king from a large country went to overtake a small country and stopped for the night in the woods
They fed the horses peas and the greedy monkey kept taking more and more peas
The King decided to turn back because he did not want to be greedy

There was a beautiful tree that all four princes wanted to see
The oldest son went when the tree was bare, the second when it was covered in red-buds, the third when it was covered in leaves, and the fourth when it was covered in bean pods
They argued about who saw the tree when the king said they all saw the tree at different times of the year

There was lion that had a bone stuck in his mouth and the woodpecker agreed to get it out
The Woodpecker was scared of being eaten, so he pried open his jaws with a stick until he was done
The Woodpecker then asked the Lion for a favor, but the lion said his favor was not eating the woodpecker, so the woodpecker stayed away

There was a wolf who wanted fresh fish so he went down to the water
There were two otters down there who caught a large fish, but were quarreling over who got the head
The Wolf divided the head and the tail among the otters, but kept the body for himself and ran home as compensation for ending the quarrel

Indian Epics: A Blog by Trace Youngman