The first one is monkey and crocodile. I am familiar with this story. I am from Korea, and Korean folklore had one of the similar story. Instead of crocodile, it was a turtle, and instead of monkey, it was a rabbit. I found amused how two different region had such a similar story.
I loved the part where monkey lied to the crocodile. In Korean story, instead of heart it was a liver of the rabbit that turtle wanted. Rabbit said the same thing that monkey said in this story, that he or she left his or her liver in the house and turtle took the rabbit home and rabbit escaped.
"I wish you had told me you wanted my heart," said the Monkey, "then I might have brought it with me." "How queer!" said the stupid Crocodile. "Do you mean to say that you left your heart back there in the tree?" "That is what I mean," said the Monkey. "If you want my heart, we must go back to the tree and get it. But we are so near the island where the ripe fruit is, please take me there first."
However, for the rabbit and turtle story, there was no continuing story. I liked how they continued the story to emphasized the stupidity of crocodile.
The second story I liked was Ox Who Envied the pig. This story had the special meaning in the story. First, I loved ho they gave name to the oxen. "ONCE upon a time there was an Ox named Big Red. He had a younger brother named Little Red. These two brothers did all the carting on a large farm." Then I liked how much deep meaning was in the story. "Yes," said the little brother, "we can go on eating plain food for years, but the poor little Pig ate the food of death and now he is dead. His feed was good while it lasted, but it did not last long."
I would like to write a story over many animals gathered and talk about their life since all these stories had animals to act like human.
From Jataka Tales by Ellen Babbit
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