The Gatiloke goes on into the book's fourth part, where the discourse on foolishness gives way to fables. An old yogi, who burned corpses for his living, forgets his years for love of a young girl, and a woman of pleasure takes him for everything he has, down to his mat and his pillow. A cicada that sang away the season comes begging rice of the ant when the rains arrive. A land crow, watching the water crows dive for fish, will not be shamed before them: he folds his wings and dives as they dive, and the water-weed takes him, in the book's brief telling, and he does not rise again. And three beasts — a jackal, a monkey and a wild dog — drive a doe to the lion who has promised them a company of equals: the lion takes her, in a single clause of the book's telling, and then takes her a second time, share by share, in the dividing.
Disclosure: this performance is narrated by AI-generated voices.
Chapters:
00:04 — A Discourse on Foolishness, and the Fable of an Old Man
06:43 — Miscellaneous Maxims, and the Fable of the Lazy Cicada
11:06 — The Land Crow Who Imitated the Water Crow
14:06 — The Three Quadrupeds: a Jackal, a Monkey and a Wild Dog
From the Gatiloke by Suttantaprija Ind (1859–1924), Cambodia's treasury of Khmer folk tales, first published in parts in Phnom Penh in 1914–1921 — public domain, and told here in a fresh in-house English rendering made from the Khmer text, in the book's own order. One question-chapter near the collection's opening is held back under house rule — its matter is murder itself, and such a tale is not read until it is ruled on; it stands recorded in the collection's written register, in its place. One further tale of the book's second part — the tale of Bhikkhu Sok, the Pnong teacher — is likewise held back under house rule: its matter is a whole lineage put to death, and such a tale is not read until it is ruled on; it stands recorded in the register, in its place. One further tale of the treatise — the tale of the Singha-To who wanted the chief's daughter — is likewise held back under house rule: its close is a beating given to a creature first stripped of its defences, and such a tale is not read until it is ruled on; it stands recorded in the register, in its place. One further tale of the treatise — the tale of the crocodile and the cart-driver — is likewise held back under house rule: its close is a killing done with an axe, at a judge's word, and such a tale is not read until it is ruled on; it stands recorded in the register, in its place. One further tale of the treatise — the tale of the hunter and the parrot — is likewise held back under house rule: its close is a killing by a serpent's bite, planned and done in the tale's open scene, and such a tale is not read until it is ruled on; it stands recorded in the register, in its place. One further tale of the book's fourth part — the fable of the old woman whom desire unmade — is likewise held back under house rule: its matter is a mother's desire set against her own son, and such a tale is not read until it is ruled on; it stands recorded in the register, in its place.
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