Week 14: Reading Diary A and B

Indian Fairy Tales

The Lion and the Crane
A lion was eating and ended up getting a bone stuck in its throat. It got the bone taken out by a crane, who then decides to ask for recompense. The lion says the crane is lucky to be alive after being within his mouth. The crane says he is ungrateful, flying away.

The Broken Pot
A brahman has a pot full of rice. He starts making plans on how to make money, and how he will spend the money and wind up with a wife and son. He acts as if in anger to his imaginary wife, breaking the pot. The lesson of not counting your chickens before they hatch.

The Magic Fiddle

A girl lives with her brothers and their wives, who dislike her because she cooks for her brothers. They plot to have her taken out of the way, making a deal with a Bonga to drown her and make her his. The girl drowns trying to collect water, coming back as a Bonga. She enters a branch of bamboo, eventually being cut down and made into a fiddle. She exits the fiddle and is caught by the chief of a village, who makes her his wife. When her family comes to the house they see her, but they don't recognize her. She reprimands them for allowing their wives to treat her as they did, then allows them to leave without punishment.

The Tiger, the Brahman, and the Jackal
A tiger gets trapped in a cage, where he then cries out for help. A wandering brahman passes by and is moved with pity. He agrees to free the tiger after he receives a promise from the tiger that he will not be harmed. The tiger tries to eat him once free, saying the man must abide by the decision of the first three things he sees. A tree, an ox, and a road all talk about how they provide for man, yet man uses them without repayment. He goes to die when he meets a jackal, who pretends to be stupid. The jackal goes with the man so as to discover what happened, and tricks the tiger into re-entering the cage, where they then leave him.

Harisarman
A foolish man goes with his family to find work in a wealthy man's house. They succeed, but the man is generally ignored. One day the wealthy man celebrates his daughter getting married, yet Harisarman is not invited to the party. In retaliation he hides the groomsman's horse, telling his wife to pretend he is a wise man who can use magic to determine things. He tells the men where he hid the horse, making them think it was done by bandits. The king of the region hears about this and makes him come to the palace to solve a series of thefts that have occurred. Through sheer dumb luck he succeeds at getting the thief to confess to him, then through even greater luck he solves the king's puzzle, winning a life of luxury for him and his family.

The Talkative Tortoise
The future Buddha lived in the palace of a king who would not stop talking, acting as his advisor. He used the example of a tortoise, falling to its death from its inability to remain silent, to teach the king that sometimes silence is better and that he should listen to others.

The Gold-Giving Serpent
A brahman discovers a serpent guarding an ant hill and decides that he must be a deity of some sort, leaving a bowl of milk for him. In the morning he discovers a gold coin in the bowl. This continues for a time until the brahman must go into town and places the duty with his son, who tries to kill the serpent and is bitten in return. The boy dies, yet the brahman eventually returns in order to get gold. The serpent says the bond they had was broken when he killed the boy and the brahman chose to bring him milk in return for gold, rather than mourn his son.

Pride Goeth Before A Fall
A group of ten merchants were going through a forest on their way home when they were accosted by bandits. As they were unarmed, they gave their belongings to the thieves, who then took everything but their underwear. They were then commanded to dance. One of the merchants was very clever and used the dance and singing to get the other merchants to attack the thieves, who had laid down their weapons. They overwhelmed them, capturing them and regaining their belongings.

Prince and Fakir
A king went out and laid on a crossroads, where many passed over him until he met a fakir. He told him he did this in hopes of begetting a son. The fakir made a deal with him, giving him to magic cakes in return for the promise of one of the king's sons. The deal was made and the king had two sons. The fakir returned and took the oldest, who defeated him later. The son then went on to marry a princess of a neighboring country, as she fell in love with him when she saw him bathing.

How Sun, Moon, and Wind Went Out to Dinner
The Sun, Moon, and Wind were all invited to dinner at the house of their aunt and uncle, Lightning and Thunder. They were treated to a sumptuous feast, yet their mother Star remained home alone. Sun and Wind were selfish and did not think to save anything for their mother, believing that she should take care of herself. Moon, however, brought back bits of every dish for her mother to try. As a result, Sun and Wind were cursed for their selfishness while Moon was blessed to remain beloved to the people.