The grateful elephant

By the same author :
Buddhist Parables. Translated from the original Pāli. One volume. xxix + 348 pages. With photogravure of a Bodhisattva head from Gandhāra, from original in the Pennsylvania Museum. Octavo. Cloth. Yale University Press, 1922. $5.00.
Buddhist Legends. Translated from the original Pāli text of the Dhammapada Commentary. Three volumes. Harvard Oriental Series, 28, 29, 30. 1114 pages. Octavo. Cloth. Harvard University Press, 1921. $15.00 a set.
Then the elephant with his trunk caressed the Future Buddha and lifted him up.
The Grateful Elephant And Other Stories Translated from the Pāli By Eugene Watson Burlingame with Illustrations by Dorothy Lathrop
New Haven, Yale University Press London, Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press Mcmxxiii
Copyright 1923 by Yale University Press.
Printed in the United States of America.
To my nephew Westcott
This book contains twenty-six stories selected from the author’s larger work Buddhist Parables, Yale University Press, 1922. The translation is a close, idiomatic rendering of the original Pāli text. In a few cases, words and phrases have been softened, and sentences have been omitted. In Story 1, two whole paragraphs which interrupt the progress of the story have been omitted. The author has not, however, “written down” any of the stories in order to remove such difficulties as the original translation may present to the child.
The quantity of vowels is marked throughout. Short a is pronounced like u in but , long ā like a in father , long ī like ee in see , long ū like oo in too , short i and short u differing from the corresponding long vowels not in sound but in length. The u in Buddha , for example, is short. Simple consonants are pronounced as in English, except that c is pronounced like ch in church , g as in get , and j as in judge . Combinations like th and dh should be pronounced as in hothouse and madhouse . Names containing underdotted letters have been eliminated. A syllable is said to be long if it contains either a long vowel, or a short vowel followed by two consonants (except a consonant followed by h ). Words of three or more syllables are accented on the second syllable from the last, provided the next to the last syllable is short, as Gótama , Mállika . If the next to the last syllable is long, it receives the accent, as Brahmadátta , Nibbāna .