Week 2 Reading Anthology

This image was from the Goblin City story. Image

 The Foolish Timid Rabbit: This story is about a rabbit who had been sleeping and woke up to a loud sound and he immediately started running because he thought the earth was falling apart. As he was running another rabbit had asked what the matter was and began to run with him. As they kept running all of the other animals began to run with the rest. They had all ran to the foot of the hill and finally the lion had asked why they were running and none of them knew except for the rabbit who thought the earth was breaking. So the lion took the rabbit back to where he had been sleeping to see what was really going on. Turns out the sound the rabbit heard was just a coconut falling and they were all running for nothing. 

Two Turtle Jatakas: In the Turtle and the King, there was a lake built for his sons to play in. They had many fishes but one day they came upon a turtle and the had never seen a turtle before. The King decided to throw it into the river with all of the rocks thinking it would kill him but when the turtle heard that he just laughed because that's where he wanted to be. In the Turtle and the Geese, they became friends and wanted to visit the geese' home. The geese came up with a solution which was for the turtle to bite onto a stick and the geese would carry the stick. The geese told the turtle he could not speak but the turtle could not resist and spoke which led to his death.

The Cunning Crane and the Crab: In this story there is a pool full of fish with a crane that lived nearby. The crane would pick up the fish by one and take them back to his tree and he would poke out their eyeballs and then eat them and just drop their bones on the ground under the tree. One day the crane went back to the pool and all of the fish were gone. All that was left was a crab so the crane tried to befriend him but the crab was clever. The crane began to take the crab back to his tree but the crab called the crane out and the crane told him that he was going to kill him but the crab latched onto the crane's neck. The crane knew that the crab could kill him. The crane pleaded to the crab to let him go, and the crab agreed if the crane took him the lake. The crab lived happily ever after in the lake.

The Crocodile and the Monkey's Heart: In this story the monkey king was very strong and idolized. The crocodile who lived in the Ganges had a wife who desired this monkey's heart. One day the crocodile saw the monkey near the Ganges drinking some water and he came up with an idea.  The crocodile told the monkey that all the fruits were better on the other side of the Ganges and offer to take the monkey across. The monkey agreed to ride across on the crocodile's back but after a little ways he began to sink. The crocodile told the monkey that his wife desired his heart and he was gonna kill him but the monkey convinced the crocodile that he kept his heart at the top of the fig tree. So the crocodile took the monkey to the fig tree in order not to kill the monkey and just take his heart. But as soon as the monkey got across he ran up to the top of the fig tree where the crocodile could not get him and he had out smarted him.

The Crocodile in the River: In this story is talks of the crocodile and the monkey king again. This time there is a mango tree in the middle of the river that the monkey would always get to using a huge rock in the river. One day the crocodile was sitting on the rock and the rock was not answering the monkey so the crocodile answered. The crocodile said the he was there to eat the monkey's heart and opened his jaws which led to him closing his eyes. The monkey realized this and jumped on to the crocodile's back and then jumped again very quickly onto the other side of the land and out smarted the crocodile once again.

The Monkey who Gathered Lotuses: In this story the monkey king had a son that grew up to be very strong and smart. One day the monkey kings son begged his mother to take him to see his father but the mother was very hesitant because she knew the king's intentions but she did it anyways. Deep down the monkey king knew that his son was very powerful and could easily take his place so he tried to trick the son and have him killed. The monkey king told his son that the thrown was his if he went and picked lotuses from the lake where an ogre lived and the king was sure the ogre would kill his son. The son went off to get the lotuses and quickly became aware of the ogre that lived there but was very smart and picked the lotuses and he jumped over the lake and never had to get into the water. The ogre was so impressed with the monkey's abilities that he came out of the water and offered to carry the lotuses back to the monkey king. When the king saw his son and the ogre he knew he was done for and died. Then the other monkeys voted to make the son their new king.

Unruly Monks: In the first story the Bodhisatta was born a deer. His sister had a son and asked her brother to teach him the ways of a deer. The nephew never showed up and the Bodhisatta lost interest but it turns out that the nephew got stuck in a snare and was killed. In this story the Bodhisatta was born a Brahmin. He was a teacher and the were all awaken by a cock to start their studies. One day their ole faithful cock and died and they had to search for a new one. They found one in a cemetery but he had no sense of time and would wake the Brahmin's at midnight and dawn but one day that cock was killed because he did not grow up right.

Goblin City: In this story there was an island full of goblins. These weren't any goblins. They were women who ate their husbands when they were tired of them. They would also use their magic to make the island look peaceful and full of normal people when in reality there was none. This magic attracted sailors to come to this island and the she-goblins would get them to marry them and then eventually eat them. One day after a bunch of sailors had arrived on the island and married the she-goblins one of the sailors got suspicious. He woke up one night and his wife was gone but he heard her arrive but pretended to be asleep. The goblin was still eating a man and saying "man meat is what we eat." The sailor heard this and quickly tried to gather his sailors and inform them of what was going on. There was a fairy who hated the goblins and sent a flying horse to rescue them. All of the sailors that jumped onto the horse were saved and the rest were eaten that night.