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Thai Pamphlets Green 37-48

#0660037: The Wind and the Sun

The version is good; the bet addresses who can take off the traveller's coat. The sun is red here. At least that color sets up a nice contrast with the multi-colored wind. The story's best illustration may be that of the wind's beginning efforts to blow away the coat. The artistry of these booklets often involves a different coloration of the lower half of the human face, starting at a line just below the eyes.

#0660038: The Ant and the Bird

This ant is orange. The bird breaks off and tosses a branch into the stream. The ant thanks the bird and says (as in LM) that someday she may be able to help the bird. There is a lively illustration of the ant's bite. "No one is too little to be helpful."

#0660039: The Monkey and the Dolphin

This monkey, in the illustrations but not necessarily in the text, sails his own sailboat. "Accidentally, he falls overboard and he is left for behind (sic) by his ship." In his chattering after he is picked up by the dolphin, the monkey reveals that he knows not only the land they approach (not his island) but the King and his family. The dolphin can soon see that this land is barren of both people and trees. The dolphin sinks and lets the monkey swim. I think the version does not hang together; it certainly lacks the Aesopic fable's confusion over the meaning of "knowing Piraeus." "Your lies will always find you out."

#0660040: The Ass, the Cock and the Lion.

The story's illustrations here are marked by a very colorful cock and a grisly end for the ass. The text uses stile where we might say fencepost, and substitutes nearly for nearby. The moral is (sic) "False confident leads to disaster." [x]

#0660041: The Farmer and the Stork

This is an unusually straightforward and uncompromising version of the story, tempered only by the stork's natural attempt to tear the farmer's net with her beak. Human characters in these stories' illustrations tend to look to me like children, even when--as in this case--they are literally described as "big and strong."

#0660042: The Turtle and the Eagle

The fleshy parts of this turtle are pink. The best illustration is that of the exasperated eagle who has turned down the request to teach the turtle to fly but finally agrees. The turtle's crack-up on a rock is graphically represented! "The over-ambitious often destroy"; should we not add "themselves"?

#0660043: The Sick Lion

Curiously, this version shows paw-prints as the fox speaks, from a distance, with the lion. The text says only that he "looks closely at the ground in front of the lion's den" without mentioning (or letting him mention) what of importance he sees there, namely that the paw-prints all go inward.

#0660044: The Wolf in Sheep's skin

This version turns out to be fascinating. The illustrations present a skin that covers only the trunk of the wolf's body, like a blanket or poncho. Much of the story loses its point, I believe, if the fable is presented visually this way. The wolf first slinks into the sheepfold at night. Let me quote the next lines verbatim in sequence, since I think they raise questions. "He eats quite a few of them. One day, the shepherd is suspicious. He counts his sheep. Three sheep are missing." There is no particular cause presented for the shepherd's discovery of the wolf. The shepherd hangs the wolf, occasioning the fellow shepherd's question "Do you hang sheep now?" and the shepherd's answer "No, but I hang a wolf in the habit and skin of sheep" with the dramatic gesture of removing the sheepskin from the wolf's corpse. Where did that word habit come from? Overall, this fable's presentation suggests to me that the artist betrayed the storyteller.

#0660045: The Naughty boys and the Frog

We would usually expect the plural in this title. In this version, a young frog steps forward before the boys can throw anything. He announces that what they are about to do may be fun for them but is not fun for the frogs. Many versions state the second half more strongly, e.g., "It is death for us." The moral here is "Do not do thing to other people that you would not like done to you."

#0660046: missing: The Kite, the Frog, and the Mouse

#0660047: The Foxes and the Sheep Dogs

At least in this form, this fable is new to me. The foxes lure the sheep dogs into joining them. When they finally do, the foxes turn on them and devour them. "Those who cannot be trusted deserve to be treated badly."

#0660048: The Cat and the Fox

This cat is blue and yellow! The fox here is just offering to show the cat one or two of his tricks when a tiger approaches. "The fox can not make up his mind which of his thousand tricks, he will use to escape. The fox is caught before he can use one of his tricks." The moral, though fragmentary, has a proverbial ring to it: "Knows only one, but knows best."

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