Ellen C. Babbitt collected, and retold, the best thirty-nine of the 547 Jataka Tales. These charming fables originated in India sometime around the fifth century, and have been teaching children valuable lessons ever since. The Jatakas refer to a voluminous body of literature native to India concerning the previous births of the Buddha. These are the stories that tell about the previous lives of the Buddha, in both human and animal form. The future Buddha may appear in them as a king, an outcast, a god, an elephant-but, in whatever form, he exhibits some virtue that the tale thereby inculcates.