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

Reading Notes: Jataka Part B

Greed above All

There once was a greedy king that wanted as much money as he could squeeze out of his subjects. There was a person that worked for him that would tell what the measure of something was and how much it costed. He was known as the Valuer and was a very honest and hardworking man. The king thought to himself how he might get more money out of his subjects and his eyes set on the Valuer. He thought to himself if he had any other Valuer he would be make loads more money. He needed to get rid of this man and put another in his place that will charge more for things so that he might make more money. There was a peasant that came to the palace that the king thought would be perfect for the job. So the king offered him the job and the man took it. A horse-dealer brought five hundred horses to the court to sale and the Valuer said they were worth a measure of rice. The horse-dealer went to the honest man who had once been the Valuer and asked what he should do. The Valuer advised him to give the new Valuer a fine present and tell him that since he put a price on the horses he should then put a price on the measure of rice. So the horse-dealer did this and the peasant then went to the king and asked the king that he got these horses for a measure of rice, and if he should put a price on the rice. The king anxious to make more money agreed to this, for he thought he could make even more money off this man. The peasant Valuer then said to the king the value of the rice is that of the kingdom. To this he was laughed out and the king was ashamed.  

Bibliography: Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt

Greedy Old King Walking by Unknown

Reading Notes: Jataka Tales Part A

Teamwork of Quails

There once was a flock of quails that listened to their very wise leader. There was a Fowler that made his money off catching the quails. He would go out every day and throw his net over them and catch them. He would do this by imitating the voice of the leader quail. The other quail would think it was the leader calling and would fly to the Fowler only to be captured. The very wise quail saw what was happening and devised a plan on how to beat the Fowler. He decided to call all the quail to him and instruct them when the Fowler calls to fly to him. When they were all in the net they would poke their heads out of the holes and fly away to the nearest thorn bush where the net would get tangled and they could fly themselves to safety. So they did this multiple times. This lead the Fowler's wife to be most angry with him for not bringing home any money. He said that he just couldn’t catch them for they were all working together. So for a time the quails were safe. Then one day when the net came over the top of all the quails like it did everyday one of the quails accidentally stepped on the head of another quail. The one who got stepped on made a big fuss over it. All the quails took sides over this matter to when the Fowler went to get the net the quails did not work together. One group would say to the other you fly away not I. So the Fowler succeeded and took all the quails home. This brought him much money. The moral of the story is working together is better than working separately. Also to be able to forgive another.

Bibliography: Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt

Northern Bob White Quail by Brian Stansberry