Reading Notes: Fables of Bidpai, Part A

(Found on Flikr, represents The Falcon in the story)

Bibliography: "The Tortoise and The Geese and Other Fables of Bidpai" by Maude Barrows (1908)

Fables of Bidpai is a collection of stories that all have some sort of life theme it is centered around. Reading through this first part of this collection, the one that stood out to me the most was "The King, The Falcon, and The Drinking-Cup."

This story in particular told the tale of a king as he was on a journey. As he neared the end of his long travels, he stopped by a stream to take a drink from it. He didn't know what the source of the stream was or where it came from, he just really needed some water. As he lifted the drinking-cup to his mouth, a falcon swooped in and knocked it out of his hands. Understandably, the king became annoyed by this. Who was this bird to do that to him?

The king refilled his drinking-cup and lifted it to his mouth again, only for the falcon to swoop in and do the same exact thing as the first time. Becoming extremely frustrated by this, the king grabbed the falcon from the sky and threw it down to the ground aggressively; so aggressively that the falcon died immediately. The king didn't care though, as this bird had kept him from his desires.

One of the king's attendants was sent to retrieve more water from the stream, but he returned with an empty drinking-cup and horrible news. The mouth of the stream they were at housed a dead dragon, whose poisonous venom infected the entire stream. Had the king taken a drink, he would've been dead instantly. 

Realizing that the falcon was only trying to save him from death, the king immediately regretted his sudden outburst of anger. He started weeping, for an innocent falcon's blood was now on his hands.

I liked this story the most because of the message it tells through the use of unique characters. After reading this, I was quickly able to apply a "life lesson" to the story. It illustrated a common Biblical theme with the idea of "being slow to anger." I thought it was cool that there was a Biblical theme in a Middle Eastern storybook, because this highlights the correlation between different cultures. And the theme itself is a great reminder for anyone, as it can be easy for us to lose sight of what we're working for and get impatient, often ruining what's best for us just because we can't wait any longer.