Week Seven Reading Notes Part B - Lang

Source Story: "Japanese Fairytales" from The Violet Fairy Book by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H. J. Ford (1901).

• "Schippeitaro"
• A boy goes in search of adventure, and comes upon a forest village where a girl is about to be sacrificed to the Spirit of the Mountain as an annual ritual. The boy overheard some cats the night before in the area where the sacrifice was to take place talking about "Schippeitaro," who turns out to be a dog in the village. So, the boy hides the girl away and puts the dog in her place, so when the Spirit of the Mountain (who is really a giant cat) comes to eat the girl, the dog instead bites him, and the boy cuts off his head. They then kill several of the other cats who are with the Spirit of the Mountain, and everyone lives happily ever after.
• "The Crab and the Monkey"
• A good, hardworking crab finds some rice and agrees to share with a monkey in exchange for a seed for a fruit tree, which grows to bear lots of good fruit. The monkey returns and steals all the good fruit and throws down only the rotten or unripe ones for the crab, so the crab tricks him into dropping some of the good fruit he has stolen, which she takes into her house. The monkey beats the crab in anger and almost kills her, so her friend the wasp nurses her back to health, then enlists a mortar, and an egg to help get back at the monkey. The egg explodes in his face and hits him with shell fragments, the wasp stings his nose, and the mortar falls on his head, killing him. The crab lives happily ever after.
• "The Magic Kettle"
• An old man finds a kettle, which turns into a tanuki. He doesn't know what to do with it, so he sells it to a tradesman. The tradesman, upon learning the kettle's trick, gets the tanuki to agree to travel with him and put on shows for people, which earns the man a lot of money. Eventually, he feels bad for earning so much money and not doing anything for the first man, so he returns the kettle to him with 100 pieces of gold. They both live happily ever after.
• "How the Wicked Tanuki was Punished"
• In a forest where hunters had killed everything else lived a family - a tanuki, his wife the fox, and their son. The tanuki pretends to be dead and his wife magically transforms into a man to sell him for his hide, then uses the money to buy food while he escapes. This works, so the next time they trade roles, but the tanuki whispers to the buyer that the fox is not really dead, so the buyer kills her and the tanuki keeps all the food to himself, not even sharing with his son. Eventually, the son realizes what happened, so he makes a bet with his father that he is his father's equal in magic. The bet is that the son will transform into anything, and the father should be able to figure out what it is. But instead, the son hides, and a king passes by. Thinking the son has transformed into a king, the father jumps on the king, whose soldiers catch him and kill him. The son (probably) lives happily ever after.
• "The Slaying of the Tanuki"
• An evil tanuki mistreats an old man, so the man catches him and intends to cook him for dinner. But while the man is out getting firewood, the tanuki tricks his wife into releasing him, then kills her and cooks her instead, magically making himself look like her afterwards. He tricks the man into eating his own wife, then reveals himself and runs away. The man is, of course, very upset, and his friend the hare agrees to help him avenge his wife's death. First the hare plays a trick on the tanuki, where he eventually ends up setting the tanuki's back on fire and then spreading pepper into the wound to make it hurt more, but the man says the tanuki's evil can only be stopped by killing him. So, they make two boats - one wooden, one clay - and invite the tanuki fishing. He takes the bigger boat, which is the clay one, and the hare takes the wooden one. The hare breaks the tanuki's boat open and drowns him, then the hare and the man live happily ever after.
• "Uraschimataro and the Turtle"
• An old couple has one son named Uraschimataro, who is an excellent sailor and fisherman and often sails further out to sea than anyone else, despite their warnings. One day he catches a turtle, but he lets it go when it begs for its life. Years later, a storm sinks his ship and nearly kills him, but the turtle shows up and offers to save his life. Rather than going home, the turtle takes him to the palace of the sea god, where the princess of the sea asks Uraschimataro to stay with her and become immortal. He agrees and they live happily for a long time, but one day he remembers his parents and misses them dearly. The princess does not want him to go, because she knows he will never return to her. Still, she gives him a small box and says that, if he can avoid opening the box, he may visit his home and the turtle will bring him back to her palace when he calls for it. But when he gets home, he discovers that it has been three hundred years, and his parents are long dead. He opens the box, hoping it is the counter-charm to a curse that is making him live this bad dream, but instead it undoes his immortality, and he ages three hundred years in moments. He calls for the turtle, but it does not come, and he dies.

Image of a turtle from Pixabay

Week Six Reading Notes Part B - Sindbad

Source Story: "The Voyages of Sindbad" from Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898).

• "Fifth Voyage"
• Sindbad buys his own boat and sets sail with some other merchants. They come upon an island with a roc's nest, and, despite Sindbad's warnings, the merchants hack open the egg and eat the baby roc. The parent birds sink Sindbad's ship, and Sindbad is washed ashore on another island, where an old man tricks him into carrying him around all day and night on his shoulders to reach the best fruit.
• "Fifth Voyage (cont.)"
• Sindbad makes some wine while carrying the man around for days, and the man drinks the wine and becomes drunk enough that Sindbad is able to throw him off and escape. He comes upon a trading vessel, and the captain takes him and tells him that the old man was the Old Man of the Sea, and Sindbad is the only one who has ever survived him. They teach Sindbad how to trick monkeys into throwing down coconuts from the high trees, and then Sindbad amasses many treasures and returns home.
• "Sixth Voyage"
• Sindbad embarks again and a storm shipwrecks the crew on an island covered with the bones, shipwrecks, and treasures of innumerable seamen. He outlasts all his crew mates because he eats less than they do, then realizes that a river on the island goes underground through caves filled with gemstones. He builds a raft, collects a bunch of treasure, and sets off on the river into the caves.
• "Sixth Voyage (cont.)"
• After eating the last of his food and passing out, Sindbad awakes to find that some kind men have pulled him from the river and he is at last above ground. They take him to their king - the king of Serendib - and he relates his tale and enjoys many days there. Then the king gives him gifts and a message/gift to take back with him to the Caliph, and sends him on his way home.
• "Sixth Voyage (end)"
• Sindbad gives the gifts and message to the Caliph, who asks whether the king who sent them was really as rich and powerful as he says he is. Sindbad assures him that he is, then goes home with presents given him by the Caliph.
• "Seventh and Last Voyage"
• Though he has decided never to go sailing again, the Caliph demands that he return to the King of Serendib to return the gesture by giving him gifts. On his return voyage, his vessel is taken by pirates, who sell him into slavery. His new owner gives him a bow and arrow and tells him to kill and elephant, which he does, and they bury it to come back later for its tusks.
• "Seventh and Last Voyage (cont.)"
• Sindbad kills an elephant a day for two months, and then the elephants kidnap him and drop him off in their own elephant graveyard, which is full of elephant skeletons complete with tusks, so that he will stop killing them. His master is thrilled and admits that the elephants have killed tons of their slaves before, and Sindbad is the only one who has survived. He sets Sindbad free and gives him a fortune in thanks, and sends him back to Bagdad. The Caliph is happy to see him back and records all his adventures, and Sindbad stays in Bagdad forever.

Image of an elephant by Sasin Tipchai from Pixabay

Week Seven Reading Notes Part A - Lang

Source Story: "Japanese Fairytales" from The Violet Fairy Book by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H. J. Ford (1901).

• "The Two Frogs"
• Two frogs dwell in Japan, one in Osaka and one in Kioto, and both happen to decide at the same time that they wish to travel and see the other city. They meet at the top of a mountain just by chance, and decide to peer off from the mountain towards the cities they intend to visit in order to decide if the journey is worth it. However, they mistakenly each look at the city they are from instead and, each believing the city they intend to visit is the same as the city they are from, they simply go home.
• "The Stonecutter"
• A stonecutter's wishes of becoming a rich man are granted. Then his subsequent wishes of being the next great thing continue to be granted, and he is in turn a prince, the sun, a cloud, and a large stone, only to become a stonecutter again and be content with his own life.
• "The Maiden with the Wooden Helmet"
• A once-rich but now impoverished couple has a daughter of surpassing beauty. They both die, but before she passes the mother entreats the daughter to keep her beauty hidden beneath a wooden helmet to keep herself safe from men who might do her ill because of it. She does this, and works for a rich man and his ailing wife, until their eldest son catches a glimpse of her with her helmet tilted back and begs to marry her. His parents protest, so she says no, but after her mother comes to her in a dream to urge her to get married, she consents. Before the wedding, she and the maids attempt to take the helmet off, but it will not come off, so she gets married in it. When the marriage ceremony is finished, it breaks off and pours precious stones on the floor. She and her husband live happily ever after.
• "The Envious Neighbour"
• A poor old couple has no children, so they dote on their dog, who finds a treasure buried in their yard. With their new riches they treat him even better than before, but their envious neighbor begs them day in and day out to borrow their dog so he can find a treasure, too. When the dog instead digs up stinky old bones, the neighbor kills the dog and lies about it to the owners, who are heartbroken. The dog comes to the old man in a dream and tells him to cut down their tree and use it to make a mortar, which ends up turning rice into gold. The neighbor borrows the mortar, but it turns his rice into smelly berries and he breaks and burns it. The dog comes again in a dream, and the old man takes the ashes from the mortar and sprinkles them on a bare cherry tree in front of the Daimio, which causes the tree to fill with blossoms and the Daimio gives him rich gifts. The neighbor takes some of the ashes to try it as well, but instead the ashes blow into the Daimio's eyes and he has the neighbor arrested.
• "The Sparrow with the Split Tongue"
• A kind old man and his mean wife live in a mountain, and the old man saves a sparrow from a raven. He takes good care of the sparrow, but while he's gone his wife catches it and cuts its tongue, and it flies away. He searches for it for a long time, and after finally giving up, finds a little house with a maiden who says she is the sparrow, and who gives him food and drinks and a choice between a large chest and a small one. He takes the small one and goes home to find that it is filled with treasure. His wife is angry that he didn't pick the big chest, so she goes to the little house and demands a gift, and chooses the large chest. It turns out to be filled with snakes, who kill her.
• "The Cat's Elopement"
• A cat named Gon falls in love with a cat named Koma, but their owners each love their cat too much to sell it to the other. So the cats elope, but a dog attacks them, and Koma hides while Gon steels himself for a fight. Instead, the servant of a princess saves him and takes him to live with the kind princess. Gon kills a snake who is in love with the princess and annoys her constantly, so she takes excellent care of Gon. One day, he finds Koma being harassed by another tomcat, and saves her, then takes her back to the princess, who happily takes Koma in as well. The princess marries as well, and both couples have lots of children and live happily ever after.

Here are two more personal photos of my very lovey cat, Atticus. You're welcome.

Week Six Storybook Lab

For this week's storybook lab, I am doing some research for my storybook project, which, as you probably know from my previous posts, is going to be over the lais of Marie de France! The following are some sources and brief notes on what is known about Marie de France herself, some of which I will likely include in author's notes in the storybook project itself, and some of which may influence my retellings as well.

• Firstly, a definition of a "lai" (or "lay/leich" depending on your language preference): Essentially, a lai is a poetic/musical form that was popular in the Medieval period, especially in France and Germany. It is a rhymed poem; certain rhyme schemes were common but overall the structure was in some ways less rigid (or, at least it seems, less rigidly adhered to) than many other poetic forms we might study today, such as a sonnet or a limerick. Marie de France's lais did not utilize the traditional musical setting, and differed in that they told stories, much like fables. (I gleaned this information here)
• Marie de France, from Britannica: She was the earliest known female French poet, which is pretty cool. Not much is known about her, however, though her title "de France" indicates that she was likely a Frenchwoman residing in England.
• Marie de France, from encyclopedia.com: She is believed to have written between the years 1160 and 1210. Her reasons for coming to England remain a mystery, but could have been for marriage or her career (she was extremely well-connected in England's literary world!). She was quite well-educated, and well-respected in the royal courts of England. She was also extremely well-known for her fables, but it was her lais that earned her the respect of her contemporaries, and which are considered her greatest masterpiece. (A side note from my own personal knowledge from what I've learned in my classes: The lais deal with something called "courtly love" (amour courtois, in French!), which was a popular philosophy in her time. Courtly love had several rules, but perhaps the most important - and, I think, the one which most influenced her lais - was that being married was not considered an acceptable reason to forsake true love if it came along. I believe there has been some contention as to whether Marie upholds this idea, but the subject of infidelity is unquestionably one which she hoped to explore in her writing, as ten of her twelve lais include it.)
• Marie de France, from New World Encyclopedia: This source states that she is believed to have been born in Normandy, France, and to have moved to England after her childhood. Additionally, it mentions that some have proposed that Marie may have been the illegitimate half-sister of King Henry II, which is a rumor I have seen mentioned elsewhere as well, and which would seemingly fit well with some other aspects of my research: her move to England and her astoundingly good connections there, her presence in the royal court, and her interest in infidelity as a subject matter. That said, there is not, to my knowledge, any evidence to support this, and so I will file it under numerous other unsupported rumors I have come across as to her life (I have also heard that others believe she was a nun or abbess! Quite the difference, no?). There are only five known manuscripts existing that include her lais, and only one of them includes all twelve. Her lais range from 118-1184 lines long, and they are told in octosyllabic rhyming couplets. She also wrote 103 fables. This source includes a list of famous Marie's from that time who could have possibly been her, including the king's half-sister and multiple abbesses, but, of course, no one knows for sure. So we simply call her Marie de France, after a line she wrote: "Marie ai nun, si sui de France," which translates from Old French to mean, "My name is Marie, I am from France."
  
  
  

Painting of the main characters in Marie de France's lai, "Chevrefoil"(which translates to "honeysuckle") by Edmund Blair Leighton

Week Six Reading Notes Part A - Sindbad

Source Story: "The Voyages of Sindbad" from Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898).

• "First Voyage"
• Sindbad tells of how he was on board a merchant ship and, with others, stopped to explore an island. The island turned out to be the back of a sleeping whale, and when the whale dove under he was left behind accidentally by his fleeing shipmates, only to float to another island, where he finds some men caring for the horses of that island's king.
• "First Voyage (cont.)"
• The king takes him in and takes care of him, then his old ship shows up and aims to sell his possessions and give the money to his family, thinking he is dead. After he convinces the captain that he is Sindbad, the captain gives him back his things. He gives gifts to the king and receives some in return, then trades out his stuff and continues to trade successfully all the way home, where he sees his family.
• "Second Voyage"
• Sindbad sails with another merchant ship but finds himself forgotten on a deserted island, where he finds the nest of a gigantic bird. He ties himself to the bird's foot and it flies him to an island, where he disembarks, that turns out to be filled with huge diamonds and huge snakes.
• "Second Voyage (cont.)"
• Sindbad realizes that there are merchants throwing down chunks of meat in hopes that diamonds will stick to them and be carried up by eagles, so he collects a bunch of huge diamonds and ties a chunk of meat to his back. An eagle carries him up, and he is saved from the eagle's nest by the merchants. The merchant who owns that nest takes only one of his diamonds for helping him. Then he goes to an island with giant camphor trees, and sees an elephant and rhino fight each other only to be carried off by a roc. He returns to Bagdad and gives money to the poor.
• "Third Voyage"
• Sailing again, Sindbad and his crew are attacked by hairy dwarves, who steal their ship and drive them onto an island. There they find a cyclops, who roasts and eats their captain, then goes to sleep.
• "Third Voyage (cont.)"
• Sindbad and several others stab the cyclops in the eye, blinding him, after making rafts for escape if need be. Instead of dying, the cyclops returns with a horde of other cyclopes, who sink all the rafts except the one on which Sindbad and two other men are riding. They end up on another island, where a giant snake eats both of Sindbad's companions.
• "Third Voyage (end)"
• Sindbad builds a shelter to keep the snake away, then gets the attention of a passing ship, which rescues him. He discovers that the captain of the ship from his second voyage is there, along with Sindbad's own merchandise, because they believed him to be dead. His stuff is returned to him and he trades successfully, then goes home and gives money to the poor.
• "Fourth Voyage"
• Sindbad and his crew are shipwrecked onto an island full of cannibals, who capture them. Sindbad sees that they are feeding his crewmates to fatten them up and eat them, so he refuses food and becomes too lean to eat, then escapes. He finds some men and returns with them to the city where their king lives, and teaches them how to make and use saddles and bridles, so he becomes rich and important in their city.
• "Fourth Voyage (cont.)"
• The king asks Sindbad to marry a beautiful woman he has picked out and to stay in that country forever. Sindbad marries her but still plans to escape, when he discovers that a law in this country dictates that, if one spouse dies, the living spouse must be buried with them. Soon, Sindbad's wife gets sick and dies, and he is buried in a massive tomb with her and a little food and water.
• "Fourth Voyage (end)"
• Sindbad survives off his food and water until someone else is buried alive, who he kills so he can have their food and they will have a faster death. He does this several times before he notices a small animal in the cavern and follows it through a narrow passageway onto the beach. He goes back in and collects the riches from the floor of the cavern, then hails down a passing ship and goes home to Bagdad.

Illustration of Sindbad's encounter with the giant by H. J. Ford

Week Five Story: The Merchant's Book

Once upon a time, there was a poor merchant who, though he had but the shirt on his back and a small hovel to call his home, possessed a heart which was noble and good. His kindness and uprightness of character were such that a generous spirit took notice of him, and decided to reward him.

"Poor merchant," the spirit told him, "I have seen the goodness that resides in your heart, though your life is hard and lonely. Take, therefore, these three gifts, and be happy."

Whereupon the spirit gifted the man with three blessings. Firstly, where his tiny hovel had once huddled now towered a glorious palace, glimmering proudly in the sunshine. Secondly, a storeroom appeared, overflowing with cascading mountains of gold and silver, precious jewels and expensive spices. And thirdly, nestled in a box of sweet-smelling cedar, the spirit gifted the man with a book.

"What manner of book is this, that is full of naught but empty pages?" Asked the merchant, bowing deeply in humble gratitude.

"That you shall find out for yourself, dear merchant," said the spirit before wisping away on a breeze.

And so the merchant entered his new home, joyfully exploring each room, and invited all his neighbors to come and join him for a feast. For many weeks the kindhearted merchant lived generously, helping the members of the town with any plights they encountered. A widow from the street nearby came to him when a rebellious wind tumbled through her house and ripped holes through her roof; the merchant built her a new home, stronger than the last. A neighbor boy knocked upon the door, begging for a scrap of food for his ailing mother; the merchant gifted him with ten gleaming rubies to sell and purchase food and medicine and whatever else she might need.

But the time came, as it does for all men who suddenly find themselves the recipients of great quantities of gold and riches (even, dear reader, those men so kindhearted as our beloved merchant), the merchant found himself more hesitant to part with the riches which had been gifted him. At night, as he slept under silken sheets in his grand new palace, he was troubled with grave dreams, in which his neighbors came knocking and knocking again, and the glinting storehouse grew emptier and grayer until the golden mountains had passed, piece by piece, entirely out the door and into the greedy hands of others. In his dreams, too, the palace crumbled and shrank, until he found himself once more living in a filthy hovel, the cold of winter biting through to his bones, the shelves barren of food. This fear gripped him, and as the storehouse grew ever emptier, he thought more and more of closing his doors forever upon his neighbors.

When the storehouse had emptied about halfway, a crippled girl, carried by her father, came to his door.

"Please, kind merchant," begged the father, "I have heard of your generosity and goodness, and have come to ask for your help. I shall repay you in whatever way you deem fit, to the best of my abilities, but please, can you help us? We haven't any food."

"Let me think on it today, and I will answer you in the evening," said the merchant. So confused was his heart by fear of returning to his old poverty after having tasted so good a life as this that he actually found himself considering turning them away. It was at that moment that he remembered the book in its cedar box.

Fetching the book from its keeping place, he opened it to find that many of the once-blank pages were now full. He began to read what was written there, and found on the first page a story that told of a widow whose home had been blown down by a vengeful wind. The woman was hopeless, with nowhere to turn, and so she huddled in the streets each night alone, until finally the bitter winter cold claimed her life. On the next page was the story of a poor boy whose sick mother succumbed to her illness, leaving him alone in the world. The merchant realized that these stories were what would have happened to the neighbors he'd helped if he had closed his doors to them.

Reminded of the value of his generosity, he quickly called the father and his crippled daughter to his storehouse, bidding them to take whatever they needed. After that, whenever a neighbor would come to him seeking help, he would look back at his book, filling up more and more with the stories of what would have happened if he had chosen greed over goodness, then he would offer them anything they needed.

The day came when the storehouse emptied, and the man was filled with sorrow. But the sorrow was not, as he had expected, for the loss of luxury, but rather for the book he held, whose stories he could no longer replace with happy endings.

"Dear spirit," he called out, "please, if you could, let me help just a few more." The generous spirit, pleased by the merchant's actions, caused the storehouse to refill, and from then on it refilled as soon as it emptied, and the book grew fat with stories.

*Author's Note: This story is based on the story of Miemun and Khojisteh, and the parrot who prevents Khojisteh from committing infidelity by distracting her with stories. The main element that I drew from the original was the idea of stories preventing someone from giving up their good values for evil deeds. In the original, Khojisteh truly loves Miemun at the start, but is swayed by temptation when he is away. In my version, the merchant is good-hearted, but he is tempted by greed. As usual, I insisted on giving it a happier ending, though!

Bibliography. "Tales of a Parrot" by Ziya'al-Din Nakhshabi (1801). Web Source.

Image of an open book from Pixabay

Week Five Reading Notes Part B - Tales of a Parrot

Source Story: Tales of a Parrot by Ziya'al-Din Nakhshabi (1801).

• "Of a King and His Sons"
• Again Khojisteh wishes to go to her lover, but the parrot keeps her from her adulterous act by distracting her with the story of a prince who walks past a snake that had just caught a frog. He saves the frog and gives a piece of his own flesh to the snake to eat instead. Both animals transform into men and ask to serve him. The prince enters the service of a king, and the snake and frog each perform a task for him which pleases the king, then they return to their own habitats.
• "The Merchant Whose Daughter Was Lost"
• Same thing. A merchant's beautiful daughter insists that she will only marry someone very wise or very skillful. Three men offer themselves up: one who can find anything that is lost and tell the future, one who can make a flying wooden horse, and one whose bow never misses. The girl is kidnapped by a fairy and each man puts his skill to use in saving her, but in the end the archer wins her hand because he is the one who risks his life to save her.
• "Of a Brahmin Falling in Love"
• Same thing. The story is of a brahmin who falls in love with the daughter of the king of Babylon. A magician disguises him as a woman and convinces the king to take "her" in to stay with his daughter. When the daughter realizes who he really is, they steal her father's riches and run away together, and the king never finds them.
• "The Son of the King of Babylon"
• Same thing. The son of the king of Babylon falls in love with a beautiful woman and promises an idol that he will cut off his head as a sacrifice if she will marry him. They do get married, so he goes back to the temple and cuts off his head. His brahmin comes in and sees him dead, and so cuts off his own head. The woman comes in and is about to cut her head off as well, but the idol tells her to reattach their heads to their bodies and they will live again. She accidentally puts the wrong heads on the wrong bodies, and the men argue about which one of them should be her husband. The parrot tells Khojisteh that the man with the head of the prince should get her because the head is the "seat of wisdom."
• "The Merchant's Daughter"
• Same thing. A merchant has a beautiful daughter whom he offers in marriage to the king. The king sends his viziers to see if she is beautiful enough for him to marry, and they lie to him, telling him she is unremarkable, because they worry that he would neglect his royal duties if he married someone so beautiful. So the girl is married to someone else, but the king happens upon her one day and falls in love with her. He accepts his advisers' reasoning, but when they tell him to demand that the woman's husband give her up to him, he refuses, choosing instead to die of lovesickness.
• "The Nobleman With a Snake"
• Same thing. A snake is being chased by a man who wants to kill it, so a nobleman allows the snake to hide in his sleeve. Once safe, the snake tells the man that he shouldn't have trusted a snake, and now he will kill the man before leaving. The man distracts the snake and kills it.
• "The Soldier and the Goldsmith"
• Same thing. A soldier entrusts a goldsmith with some money, but the goldsmith hides it and pretends the soldier never gave it to him. The Cazy hides two people in the goldsmith's house, and they overhear him confide to his wife about stealing the money and where he hid it. The soldier gets his money back and the goldsmith is hanged.
• "Of the Merchant and the Barber"
• Same thing. When a rich merchant gives away everything he has in charity, he is blessed with a dream saying that a brahmin will arrive and, if he hits the brahmin on the head with a stick, the brahmin will turn into infinitely regenerating gold. He does this, but his barber witnesses it and starts hitting a bunch of brahmins on their heads with a stick, thinking they'll turn into gold. The merchant is called before the judge after the barber tells his story, but they believe the merchant, who says the barber has gone crazy.
• "The Frog, the Bee, and the Bird"
• Same thing. An elephant knocks a bird's eggs out of her nest while scratching himself on the tree, so she joins together with a long-billed bird, a bee, and a frog, and they together manage to kill the elephant. They do so by having the bee buzz in his ears to distract him will the long-billed bird plucks out his eyes, then the frog leads him blindly into a place he can't escape from, where he dies of hunger and thirst.
• "The Elk and the Ass"
• Same thing. A donkey and an elk are friends, and they sneak into a garden to graze at night. The donkey wants to sing, but the elk warns him that his braying will wake up the gardener, who will catch them both and make them prisoners. The donkey sings anyway, and the gardener wakes up and takes them prisoner.
• "A King Falls in Love and the End of Khojisteh"
• Again the parrot distracts Khojisteh from going to her lover by telling the story of a king who pillages Rome to gain the marriage of the Roman Emperor's daughter, whose father forbids her to tell her new husband that she leaves behind a son from a previous marriage. She misses her son, though, so tricks the king into bringing him there, but the king suspects that the boy is her lover, and has him killed (but the murderer hides the boy instead of killing him). An old woman helps the wife tell the story truthfully but blamelessly to the king, who is delighted to hear that his wife has been faithful and that her son is still alive. After this story, Miemun returns and the parrot tells him that Khojisteh has fallen in love with someone else and has killed the other bird. Miemun kills Khojisteh, the end.

"Parrot Addressing Khojasta" by Akbar