Reading Note: The Quarrel of The Quails, Part B

For today's reading, I read the Jataka Tale The Quarrel of The Quails, by Ellen C. Babbitt. In this story, a wise quail is the leader of a whole pack of quails. Also in this community, lives a fowler who catches quails for a living. The fowler would increase the number of quails he caught by listening to the leader quail. When the leader quail would call out to the others, they would all come. The fowler would mimic this call and all the quails would come to him. He would then cast his net, catch all the quail, and sell them in the market. The leader quail eventually caught onto the fowler's schemes. He called all the quails together and told them the fowlers is taking many of our people. Therefore, when the fowler catches you guys, put your heads through the net and together, fly into a thorn bush. This will remove the net from you guys. Therefore, this is what the quails did. The fowler was unable to catch the quails for some time. The fowler's wife was getting angry because he was not bringing home any money. He told his wife, "The quails are working together. Once they get into an argument, they will no longer work together. Then, I will be able to catch them and bring home money." Therefore, the fowler waited. Eventually, the quails got into an argument. The community of quails then split into two sides. When the fowler cast his net over the quails, none of them would work with each other to remove the net. Therefore, they were caught and sold at the market. The fowler made his money.

This would be another fun story to cover! I would be changing the characters to a different animal and I may potentially add a twist ending.

The Quails: Pixabay