MORE JATAKA TALES
Re-told by
Ellen C. Babbitt
With illustrations by
Ellsworth Young
DEDICATED
to
RUDYARD KIPLING
in the name of all children
who troop to his call
FOREWORD
The continued success of the "Jataka Tales," as retold and publishedten years ago, has led to this second and companion volume. Who thathas read or told stories to children has not been lured on by thesubtle flattery of their cry for "more"?
Dr. Felix Adler, in his Foreword to "Jataka Tales," says that long agohe was "captivated by the charm of the Jataka Tales." Little childrenhave not only felt this charm, but they have discovered that they canread the stories to themselves. And so "More Jataka Tales" were foundin the volume translated from the Sanskrit into English by a group ofCambridge scholars and published by the University Press.
The Jataka tales, regarded as historic in the Third Century B. C., arethe oldest collection of folk-lore extant. They come down to us fromthat dim far-off time when our forebears told tales around the samehearth fire on the roof of the world. Professor Rhys Davids speaks ofthem as "a priceless record of the childhood of our race. The samestories are found in Greek, Latin, Arabic, Persian, and in mostEuropean languages. The Greek versions of the Jataka tales wereadapted and ascribed to the famous storyteller, Aesop, and under hisname handed down as a continual feast for the children in theWest,--tales first invented to please and instruct our far-off cousinsin the East." Here East, though East, meets West!
A "Guild of Jataka Translators," under Professor E. B. Cowell,professor of Sanskrit in the University of Cambridge, brought out thecomplete edition of the Jataka between 1895 and 1907. It is from thissource that "Jataka Tales" and "More Jataka Tales" have been retold.
Of these stories, spread over Europe through literary channels,Professor Cowell says, "They are the stray waifs of literature, in thecourse of their long wanderings coming to be recognized under widelydifferent aspects, as when they are used by Boccaccio, or Chaucer, orLa Fontaine."
CONTENTS
I THE GIRL MONKEY AND THE STRING OF PEARLS
III THE TRICKY WOLF AND THE RATS
IV THE WOODPECKER, TURTLE, AND DEER
XII HOW THE MONKEY SAVED HIS TROOP
XIII THE HAWKS AND THEIR FRIENDS