> RÉSUMÉ. — Le Bouddha, avant son éveil final, parcourut le chemin au cours de nombreuses vies, tantôt comme roi, tantôt comme éléphant, singe, cerf, buffle ou sous la forme de bien d’autres animaux. Vingt de ces «contes» (les Jatakas), très populaires dans les pays bouddhistes, sont ici redits avec bonheur et poésie. Les adultes s’en délecteront. Les enfants garderont longtemps le souvenir de ces héros au cœur pur.

These Indian tales are very intelligent and marvellous, with their own morals and sayings. I have been learning about Ancient India, and little Indian children are meant to be told them too. They are all very good stories about talking animals and amazing kings.

The author of this book, who told all the Indian tales for little children, was an Indian princess named Noor. With easy-to-read words and sentences ('and to you, my little ones'), these tales are the perfect ones for six- twelve-year-olds. Noor was a very brave princess, and in the Second World War she chose to be a spy, not a pretty little princess surrounded in luxury. The Nazis captured her and tortured her trying to get her to name things and tell details - but she never once said anything. Soon, she was killed. Her last word was 'Liberty'. ( )

These translations of Indian folk tales have a just-so whimsy about them. Blink and you could be reading a story from Grimm or Hans Christian Anderson. The author's later fate only adds to the pathos. ( )