Reading Notes: More Jataka Tales, Part B

I decided to again focus on 3 attributes for characters in Ellen C. Babbitt’s More Jataka Tales because I enjoyed doing it so much last time. I also decided to add some flavor by exaggerating the characteristics with some of my own flavor text. 

The Wise and Foolish Merchant By Ellen C. Babbitt

The Wise Merchant:

• Greatest Strength: Wise and knowledgeable. The wise merchant’s greatest strength is undoubtedly his wisdom and his ability to see through the disguises of the demons that came to convince him and his company to discard all of their water. 
• Greatest Weakness: None. The wise merchant has no known weakness. He is undoubtedly one of the strongest marvel characters that has ever been created. 
• Miscellaneous Attributes: Good foresight and intelligence. The wise merchant was able to foresee many things. For instance, he foresaw that both he and his dense counterpart would be unable to travel together, else the oxen and men would suffer. He also deduced that the men covered in vines, lilies, etc were demons from their shadows and what he recalls hearing (or more accurately lack of hearing) from others about a forest filled with water and lilies, indicating some adept level of deduction. 

The Stupid Merchant:

• Greatest Strength: None. It’s remarkable one so easily fooled in a world clearly full of cunning demons and predators as per these factually jataka tales had managed to live so long as to travel as a merchant from city to city, selling goods for a profit. 
• Greatest Weakness: Foolishness. This young Merchant is so easily fooled by a demon whose cargo was covered in lilies, vines, etc it’s incredible. I mean, maybe it’s just me but I would’ve thought that if they were normal people they would’ve cleaned off some of the vines because the forest was apparently quite a ways away. Still, personally I would’ve also not gotten rid of the water on principle just in case. 
• Miscellaneous Attribute: Resourcefulness, perhaps. He, like the wise merchant, made due with what they had to survive the journey, forming water wells and grazing on grass (the oxen). Some pretty solid stuff. 

The Ox Who Envied the Pig by Ellen C. Babbitt

Little Red:

• Greatest Strength: Strength. Little red may not have many strengths, but the ones he does have are remarkable to say the least. He’s an ox, so naturally he does a lot of work and is capable of great physical feats because of it.
• Greatest Weakness: Ignorance. As said before, Little Red has some incredible strengths. Like all those with such power though, they clearly also have a drawback (excluding the wise merchant, whose power remains supreme). Little Red was so caught up with the inequality of the food distribution on this farm that he didn’t even judge that maybe he shouldn’t want for such luxuries. The pig was being fed such delicious meals because the pig was to be slaughtered. Luckily he had his big brother to save him before he went on strike. 
• Miscellaneous Attribute: The gift of sight. Little Red is quite observant, able to perceive even the most imperceptible differences in food distribution between animals. It is because of this great gift that he is able to discover the pig is being fed far better than he. 

Big Red:

• Greatest Strength: Strength. Like his younger counterpart, Big Red clearly has great physical strength, as it is theorized his name is no misnomer. Clearly strength is an attribute that runs in the family!
• Greatest Weakness: Big Red’s greatest Weakness is likely his readiness to accept he should be fed subpar. Clearly with such great physical strength, he and his brother could incite a reformation on the distribution of meals to him and his fellow animals? After all, how can their owners slaughter them when they can easily overpower them and with Little Red’s great sight they can see them coming a mile away. 
• Miscellaneous Attribute: One other strength of Big Red is his knowledge. He knew the pig was being fed such great quantities of delicious food because the pig was to be slaughtered, so clearly he has some experience to fall back on. Either that or he has great deduction skills - another possible strength. 

A number of oxen. They are quite large and appear quite strong. Source: Wikimedia