Week 11 Story

Fowler and His Quail

Once in a kingdom far away there was a very greedy and spiteful king. The King did everything he could to make as much money as possible at the expense of his people. He had many different jobs in his kingdom that would draw in much wealth but the one that brought in the most was that of the Fowler. The Fowlers in the country hunted down Golden Quails. They did this because the quails would lay golden eggs that were of much worth. The Fowler was always treated by the King quite well and he would always catch a plentiful bounty for his King. One day however the King decided he did not have enough wealth. When the Fowler came to his throne room to have his bounty appraised by the Valuer he was told that they were worth much less than the going price. The wicked Valuer agreed to lower the price so that he could bring in more money for his family.

The Fowler went home with his bounty refusing to let them go for that price. He then went to the kingdom next to his and sold them for the original going price. He decided to never go to the King with his bounties again. The king caught onto this and decided to hire his own personal Fowler. When the Fowler arrived he went to work catching the Golden Quail for the king. He did this until there was barely enough quails to go around. The Fowler would soon be out of work. He decided to make a deal with the quails. He went to the leader of the quails and told them of a way that they could be free if they worked together. He told them they were to poke their heads out of the net and fly away to the nearest tree. They would make sure the net was caught and they would fly away. For this information the quail allowed the Fowler a few eggs from them as payment. For the rest of the Fowler's days he was well taken care of by an honest king and his quail.

Author's Notes: I decided to put together A Measure of Rice and The Quarrel of Quails. In A Measure of Rice the Valuer was an honest man that was pushed out of his job by a greedy king who wanted him to lie to take more money for himself. In The Quarrel of Quails a Fowler would catch the quails until the wise old quail instructed the other quails to work together to escape by flying into a thorn thicket and fly out of the net. They did this until one time the quails got into an argument because one of the quails stepped on another's head. So they were captured and all sold off. I decided to make it to where the Valuer in my story was evil as well as the King. Also I decided to make the Fowler out to be a good honest man trying to make a living. He is the one who advised the quail what to do. 

Bibliography: Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt

Northern Bob White Quail by Brian Stansberry