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Jatakas
These stories are considered the birth stories of buddha, especially in the previous incarnations. Each unit was its own short story.
Monkey and the Crocodile
I actually already really love these stories. They all read like little story tales from childhood.
The crocodile is clearly the villain in the story, but a good job is done to make one turn against the "greedy" monkey. I thought it was cool how interestingly scienftific the story was. Crocodiles do often drown their prey and then use the jaw to snap their bodies. They usually use the jaw to first immobilize the prey, and then properly drown them. It's also clear pretty early how much smarter the monkey is than the crocodile. Remember the size of a croc brain? It looks like a pea. I think the resolution of the story is quite clever and deep because of how the monkey hears the crocodile's surrender of pursuit, and yet the monkey agrees to never stop looking out for the crock.
How the turtle saved his own life
How hilarious it is that the boys were that scared of a turtle. I hope it was at least a large snapping turtle -- those are probably best to be feared. Otherwise, the introverted turtle seems less like a demon than some of the fish I've seen. The turtle does a grand job of playing along with the old man's plan to save the turtle. I was confused at first, honestly. I thought the boys were planning to throw him on to the rocks near the lake, not into the lake.
The turtle who couldn't stop talking
Negative exemplum - when we are supposed to learn a lesson by observing someone's foolish mistake. Very common in fables.
I imagine a really sassy turtle, probably similar to the first story. "Do I look like I can fly with you, you idiot geese?" I say all of this, and the turtle agrees to be suspended above the earth by the grip of his mouth and the talons of the geese. This story is pretty sad compared to the first two.
The ox who won the forfeit
This man is so proud of his ox, but I never hear of any rewarding of the ox for its great strength. Man only seeks to benefit. This trend rings true whenever the ox refuses to comply because of the harshness of the man's commands.
Quarrel of the Quails
I read this, and it sounds so familiar to me. I probably have read this before, although I'm unsure where. I think the story characterizes how stupid the quails are. Despite them clearly fighting for their lives each day in the net, they cannot overcome the petty quarrel that occurred.
The Foolish, Timid Rabbit
If I read this story from another source without the preface that Laura Gibbs included above, I'd have assumed that it was a knock-off of the chicken and "The sky is falling!" It's interesting to know that the origin of the story dates much farther back than previously thought. The lion is smart in this story, but to only assume that the rabbit simply heard a coconut fall. What if a piece of sky had also fallen? I think that might be a dangerous assumption to make!
Banyan Deer
Another golden deer! The indian storytellers do tend to love their gilded fawns. What a strange relationship between the king and his subjects. The people of his kingdom seem to be taking care of the king, and not vice-versa. The king is also not apparently very smart because he decided to longer hunt either deer population, which according to the story were becoming huge and probably needed to be hunted in order to control the budding numbers. Oh well.
Princes and the Water-sprite
Even though the promise was made for a different reason, this sounds a lot like what Kaikeyl did in the Ramayana. She wanted her son to receive the kingdom and thus asked to exile Rama. I think it's strange that the eldest brother had this small poem prepared as his answer to the sprite, and it was apparently the correct answer. I think this might have been all a great ruse to teach the younger brothers a lesson.
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