Reading Notes: The Jataka Tales Part B

Today I read about the elephant named girly face. The elephant was the nicest elephant who would never do any wrong. He always treated averyone nicely and would not harm any of the trainers. The head trainer always said that girly face is the nicest elephant and he would do no wrong to anyone! One night, some robbers were sitting outside girly face’s enclosureand began talking about how to rob a home. The robbers spoke of how they must kill anyone who was awakened in the house. They must be cruel and show no mercy so that they can be successful. Girly face heard this and decided that they were trying to teach him how to live his life. From then on he killed all the trainers that would enter the enclosure. After so long, the king hired a wise man to figure out why girly face had changed so much. The wise man asked around and found out about the robbers and their conversation outside of girly face’s enclosure. He told the king to send good men to have conversations and that would have the same effect on girly face. After this was done, girly face returned back to the normal elephant that he was and never killed anyone again. This story is great at showing why it is important to surround yourself with people who will uplift you and not bring you down.

Friends can lift you up!

Source: The Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt

Reading Notes: Jataka Tales Part A

The Jataka tales are very interesting! I loved reading the stories and seeing how they ended. There were some that were all about trickery and deception, and there were some that did not need trickery or deception to make a fool of one of the characters. The monkey and the crocodile was interesting because it made sure to note several times that the crocodile was stupid. It wasn’t that the monkey was smart, the crocodile was just stupid and couldn’t keep up with the monkey’s thinking. In the story of The Sandy Road, the leader of the drivers almost made a fool of himself by telling everyone to throw out their water and supplies because they would reach the city by the break of day and be off the sand. He fell asleep and lost the way which meant they were still on the sand by day break. He searched frantically until he spotted a tuft of grass, which meant there was water underneath. He ordered a hole to be dug there and when they hit a rock, he ordered a boy to strike the rock until water came forth. They drank the water and went on to the town, but it almost turned into a disaster. Some of the stories were about learning life lessons rather than having a character that was made a fool of. The story of The Ox Who Envied the Pig showed that it is better to be content with little and live longer with family rather than be given the “choice food” of death and enjoy it only for a time that will quickly come to an end. These stories were short but held many values and lessons in them. It was great to see all the cunning and witty characters come out on top!

All about the trickery!

Source: The Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt