Chapter Forty Three: Reading Notes - The Jataka Tales, Part B

 For today’s reading assignment, I decided to finish reading the Jataka Tales because I was really interested in these short stories.

One that has consistently captured my attention was the one titled The Elephant Girl-Face. It was a story that wasn’t so clear to me. On it’s surface it tells a message of making sure to surround people with good, especially impressionable beings. But I feel like the story had a deeper message to send, I just couldn’t figure out was it was. 

Another story I really liked was one titled The Wise and Foolish Merchants. I really liked how the wise merchant used his wits to make his journey and job easier. While I think it was quite selfish, the foolish merchant was just as greedy in that he wanted to set his prices higher. He didn’t think about the trouble he’d go through in making the path or keeping his oxen fed.

Like the stories I spoke about yesterday, the second part of The Jataka Tales consists of short stories filled with messages and lessons to be learned. Like I’ve said before, these are some of my favorite types of stories. I love when I am supposed to learn a lesson, because I believe deeply in learning something wherever you can. 

The photo below is from the story about the foolish merchant. I didn’t mention it, but he was tricked by demons to throw out his water. As the merchant and others who travelled with him got tired, the demons took them one by one.

The stories I wrote about today are from The Jataka Tales re-told by Ellen C. Babbitt.

(This photo is titled Illustrations by Ellsworth Young uploaded to Flickr by Laura K Gibbs)



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