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Thai Pamphlets Yellow 13-24

#0660013: The Fox And The Stork

This booklet has some of the sharpest color illustrations in the whole series. I wonder about the understanding of the fable when I read that the stork serves soup in jars and drinks her own from her jar.

#0660014: The Birds and the Rhinoceros

This story is new to me, though its pattern is typical for a whole set of fable stories. The rhinoceros knocks one nest after another out of trees by ramming them. One set of birds (the red birds here) counsels resistance. When spurned, they rebuild in a safe place. The others are picked off one by one. The grammar goof in the moral (and also in the last sentence) is charming: "Be prepared and be safed."

#0660015: The Magic Sword

Again, the story is new to me. A chameleon finds a magic sword. On the strength of his having it, the animals make him king. An elephant arrives and asks if the chameleon knows how to use it, When he is told "no," he kills the chameleon. "The tool is useless if you do not know how to use it."

#0660016: The Town Mouse And The Country Mouse

Straightforward in the Horatian version, adding only a mouse-hole to the story. The intruder here is a cat.

#0660017: The Bat In War

There is a great illustration of why there could be a war between the strong animals and the weak birds. As the text reads "But the birds can fly...," the illustration shows a bird making droppings on the head of a monkey! After the war, the monkey is able to throw a rock perfectly, so that it strikes the bat on the head. "Don't try to take both sides in a quarrel."

#0660018: The Rabbit and the Crocodile

This is one of the few etiological tales in this collection. The rabbit bests the crocodile several times over and is finally caught but declares inside the crocodile's mouth "Now, he eats me! He is very happy and laughs a lot!" So the crocodile laughs, and the rabbit runs out of his mouth, taking the crocodile's tongue with him! "Since that day, The Crocodile has no tongue" (sic).

#0660019: The Tiger and the Girl

This is a transformed version of an Aesopic fable. Here a tiger sees the daughter of a woodcutter and falls in love with her as he pursues her home. She rejects him utterly, but his father promises marriage if the tiger will take out all his teeth and cut down all his claws. The tiger goes to the dentist and blacksmith, respectively, to have the work done. In the end he is chased away.

#0660020: The Wicked Elephant

New to me. After the wicked elephant ruthlessly kills the young of two birds, they turn to their friends--the bees, the porcupines, and the crickets--for help. The bees blind the elephant, and the porcupines sting the soles of his feet. When the maimed elephant desperately seeks water, he follows the chirping of the crickets, who lead him over a cliff.

#0660021: Three Mischief Friends

When the goat, the pig, and the monkey exchange their jobs, they make a mess of things. "Do your duty well and be satisfied." I wonder how many people in Thai culture and in ours will swallow that moral!

#0660022: The Thief and the Leopard

New to me. A leopard hears a couple during a storm speak of the leak that "will kill us all." Fearing the "Leak," the leopard hides in the barn, which is soon visited by a thief trying to steal the cow and mistaking the leopard for it. Soon he rides off on the leopard's back with both shouting "Help!"

#0660023: Zebra

Trying to win the four-footed beauty contest, the zebra paints stripes on himself, but he still does not win. The horse is faster, the tiger stronger, and the giraffe more far-seeing. In disappointment ever since, the zebra has been silent.

#0660024: The Dogs and the Crocodile (Cover: "The Dog and the Crocodile")

Many dogs work together to defend a female dog's puppies from a crocodile who has already eaten one out of the litter. Though they suffer losses, the dogs emerge victorious. Other animals have earlier refused their help to the mother dog.

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