by Ellen C. Babbitt. 1912.
For extra credit reading, I read through Part A of the Babbitt Jataka Tales.
The one I really liked was the How the Turtle Saved His Own Life. In this one, there are little princes that had a lake in the courtyard that their dad, the king, had made for them. The king had asked some men to put fishes in it. The princes were looking at the fishes when they saw the Turtle. They had never seen one before so they were scared and though it as a demon. They ran to their father and told them there was a demon in their lake. The king ordered his men to catch the demon and bring it to him. When the turtle was brought in, the king ordered his men to kill. The men started giving out ideas on how to kill the turtle. Then one old man who was afraid of the water said to throw it into the lake where it flows by the rocks in to the river. When the turtle heard the old man, he said to the King something like "what did I do that you would even think about doing such a dreadful thing to me? The other plans were bad, but to throw me into the lake?" So when the king heard the turtle, he ordered his men to throw the turtle into the lake immediately. The turtle laughed to himself once he was in the water because he knew the king and his men didn't know how safe he actually was in the water.
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| Turtle swimming. Source: Wikimedia. |
I really liked this one because it had good old-fashioned psychology and trickery. The Turtle was the smartest one out of all of them.
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