Animal Stories
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘Animal Stories’
An ageing Heron finds himself a little too stiff to fish for himself, so he thinks of a way to get the fish to do it for him.
The Fables of Bidpai are morality tales similar to the animal fables of Aesop, with a touch of the Arabian Nights. They were first published in England in 1570, but originated in India, and spread to the West from an Arabic translation made by Ibn al-Muqaffaʻ (724-?759) of Basra. In this tale, retold for the sake of brevity, a Heron finds that dastardly plans have a way of backfiring.
A harassed mother Raven vows bloody revenge on a venomous Snake, but the wily old Jackal has a better idea.
The Fables of Bidpai are morality tales similar to the animal fables of Aesop, with a touch of the Arabian Nights. They were first published in England in 1570, but originated in India, and spread to the West from an Arabic translation made by Ibn al-Muqaffaʻ (724-?759) of Basra. In the tale below, retold for the sake of brevity, a distraught mother learns that justice doesn’t have to involve confrontation.
Following a succesful hunting partnership, the Lion explains how the spoils are to be divided.
Aesop’s Fable of the Lion and the Wild Ass is the origin of the phrase ‘the lion’s share’, meaning the largest portion by far. The version below comes from Sir Roger L’Estrange’s ground-breaking collection of 1669, just as he wrote it. “People should have a care” he advised “how they Engage themselves in Partnerships with Men that are too Mighty for them, whether it be in Mony, Pleasure, or Bus’ness.”
A herd of goats is threatened by a pride of lions, and it falls to one brave billy to face the danger alone.
PV Ramaswami Raju published a collection of Indian Fables in 1887, shortly after he was called to the Bar and while he was teaching Indian languages at Oxford University and later at London. His fables are a creative blend of tradition and imagination: this one tells how one wily old goat saved the whole herd with an audacious bluff.
In this fable from India, a sly little insect teaches a jackdaw that all that glisters is not necessarily edible.
William Cowper’s ‘The Nightingale and the Glow-Worm’ told how a glow-worm persuaded a hungry bird to spare his life because light and song complement each other so beautifully. In the following Indian fable by Ramaswami Raju (playwright, London barrister and Oxford professor of Telugu), the hard-pressed glow-worm does not have such dainty material to work with.
Mole is enjoying the most wonderful Spring morning, skipping his chores and going for a row with Rat.
The Mole has emerged from his winter burrow one fine morning at the beginning of Spring. After scampering off carelessly, leaving spring-cleaning far behind, he finds himself for the first time in his life at the River. Mole’s expert eye falls on a small round opening near the water’s edge, and he is just thinking that it would make a nice burrow when he realises that there is a small, round face framed in it.