Reading Notes: Indian Fairy Tales, Part B

Source: Indian Fairy Tales (Joseph Jacobs) This is a collection of many individual stories (too many to write about them all), so I will give a short summary of a few of my favorites.

The Talkative Tortoise: Two ducks offer to carry a talkative tortoise to a beautiful location, and the tortoise agrees to bite onto a stick while the ducks fly with the stick. The tortoise cannot help but talk to the villagers below, letting go of the stick and falling to his death. The Buddha sees the tortoise split in half and knows the reason to be the talkativeness of the tortoise. The (also talkative) king assumes the Buddha's words apply to himself, to which the Buddha replies, "O great king! be it thou, or be it any other, whoever talks beyond measure meets with some mishap like this." The king becomes a man of few words from then on.

Image Source. The talkative tortoise hangs by his mouth on a stick

The Gold-Giving Serpent: A poor farmer begins worshipping and giving milk to a snake whom he believes to be the deity of his field, and in return receives a gold nugget every day. When he must go out of town for a few days, he leaves his son in charge of this ritual, who gets greedy and tries to kill the snake for all of its gold. The snake kills the son instead, and when the farmer returns, the snake tells him they cannot have a relationship any longer after what happened.

Image Source. Sun, moon, wind,
thunder, and lightning feast together

How Sun, Moon and Wind Went Out to Dinner: A distant star's children (the sun, moon, and wind) go out to dinner with their uncle and aunt thunder and lightning. Only the moon saves and brings home some leftovers for her mother. Disappointed, the mother curses the sun to be hot with harsh, blinding rays of lights, The wind is made unpleasant, even in hot weather. The moon's reward is to be cool, calm, and beloved by all people.