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THE GIRL MONKEY AND
THE STRING OF PEARLS
THIS IS NOT THE STORY I AM TRYING TO GARNER BUT FOLLOWS A SIMILAR STORY LINE
kipling is not the author
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Th e continued success of the “Jataka Tales,” as retold
and published ten years ago, has led to this second and
companion volume. Who that has read or told stories
to children has not been lured on by the subtle fl attery
of their cry for “more”?
Dr. Felix Adler, in his Foreword to “Jataka Tales,”
says that long ago he was “captivated by the charm of
the Jataka Tales.” Little children have not only felt this
charm, but they have discovered that they can read
the stories to themselves. And so “More Jataka Tales”
were found in the volume translated from the Sanskrit
into English by a group of Cambridge scholars and
published by the University Press.
Th e Jataka tales, regarded as historic in the Th ird
Century b. c., are the oldest collection of folk-lore extant.
Th ey come down to us from that dim far-off time when
our forebears told tales around the same hearthfi re on
the roof of the world. Professor Rhys Davids speaks
of them as “a priceless record of the childhood of our
race. Th e same stories are found in Greek, Latin, Arabic,
Persian, and in most European languages. Th e Greek
versions of the Jataka tales were adapted
and ascribed
to the famous storyteller, Æsop, and under his name
handed down as a continual feast for the children in
the West,—tales fi rst invented to please and instruct
our far-off cousins in 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 the complete edition of the
Jataka between 1895 and 1907. It is from this source
that “Jataka Tales” and “More Jataka Tales” have been
retold.
Of these stories, spread over Europe through
literary channels, Professor Cowell says, “Th ey are
the str
ay waifs of literature, in the course of their long
wanderings coming to be recognized under widely
diff erent aspects, as when they are used by Boccaccio,
or Chaucer, or La Fontaine.”
CONTENTS
The Girl Monkey and the String of
Pearls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
The Three Fishes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
The Tricky Wolf and the Rats . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
The Woodpecker, Turtle and Deer . . . . . . 11
The Golden Goose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
The Stupid Monkeys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
The Cunning Wolf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
The Penny-Wise Monkey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
The Red-Bud Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
The Woodpecker and the Lion . . . . . . . . . . 27
The Otters and the Wolf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
How the Monkey Saved his Troop . . . . . . . 31
The Hawks and their Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
The Brave Little Bowman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
The Foolhardy Wolf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
The Stolen Plow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
The Lion in Bad Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
The Wise Goat and the Wolf . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Prince Wicked and the Grateful
Animals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Beauty and Brownie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
The Elephant and the Dog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
THE GIRL MONKEY AND
THE STRING OF PEARLS
ONE day the king went for a long walk in the
woods. When he came back to his own garden,
he sent for his family to come down to the
lake for a swim.
When they were all ready to go into the water, the
queen and her ladies left their jewels in charge of the
servants, and then went down into the lake.
As the queen put her string of pearls away in a
box, she was watched by a Girl Monkey who sat in the
branches of a tree near-by. Th is Girl Monkey wanted
to get the queen’s string of pearls, so she sat still and
watched, hoping that the servant in charge of the pearls
would go to sleep.
At fi rst the servant kept her eyes on the jewel-box.
But by and by she began to nod, and then she fell fast
asleep.
As soon as the Monkey saw this, quick as the wind
she jumped down, opened the box, picked up the string
of pearls, and quick as the wind she was up in the tree
again, holding the pearls very carefully. She put the
string of pearls on, and then, for fear the guards in the
2
MORE JATAKA TALES
garden would see the pearls, the Monkey hid them in
a hole in the tree. Th en she sat near-by looking as if
nothing had happened.
By and by the servant awoke. She looked in the
box, and fi nding that the string of pearls was not there,
she cried, “A man has run off with the queen’s string
of pearls.”
Up ran the guards from every side.
Th e servant said: “I sat right here beside the box
where the queen put her string of pearls. I did not move
from the place. But the day is hot, and I was tired. I
must have fallen asleep. Th e pearls were gone when I
awoke.”
Th e guards told the king that the pearls were
gone.
“Find the man who stole the pearls,” said the king.
Away went the guards looking high and low for the
thief.
Aft er the king had gone, the chief guard said to
himself:
“Th ere is something strange here. Th ese pearls,”
thought he, “were lost in the garden. Th ere was a strong
guard at the gates, so that no one from the outside
could get into the garden. On the other hand, there are
hundreds of Monkeys here in the garden. Perhaps one
of the Girl Monkeys took the string of pearls.”
Th en the chief guard thought of a trick that would
tell whether a Girl Monkey had taken the pearls. So
4
MORE JATAKA TALES
he bought a number of strings of bright-colored glass
beads.
Aft er dark that night the guards hung the strings
of glass beads here and there on the low bushes in the
garden. When the Monkeys saw the strings of brightcolored
beads the next morning, each Monkey ran for
a string.
But the Girl Monkey who had taken the queen’s
string of pearls did not come down. She sat near the
hole where she had hidden the pearls.
Th e other Monkeys were greatly pleased with their
strings of beads. Th ey chattered to one another about
them. “It is too bad you did not get one,” they said to
her as she sat quietly, saying nothing. At last she could
stand it no longer. She put on the queen’s string of pearls
and came down, saying proudly: “You have only strings
of glass beads. See my string of pearls!”
Th en the chief of the guards, who had been hiding
near-by, caught the Girl Monkey. He took her at once
to the king.
“It was this Girl Monkey, your Majesty, who took
the pearls.”
Th e king was glad enough to get the pearls, but he
asked the chief guard how he had found out who took
them.
Th e chief guard told the king that he knew no one
could have come into the garden and so he thought
they must have been taken by one of the Monkeys in
5
THE GIRL MONKEY AND THE STRING OF PEARLS
the garden. Th en he told the king about the trick he
had played with the beads.
“You are the right man in the right place,” said the
king, and he thanked the chief of the guards over and
over again.
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