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The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny.
A BAT who fell upon the ground and was caught by a Weasel pleaded to be
spared his life. The Weasel refused, saying that he was by nature the enemy of
all birds. The Bat assured him that he was not a bird, but a mouse, and thus was
set free. Shortly afterwards the Bat again fell to the ground and was caught by
another Weasel, whom he likewise entreated not to eat him. The Weasel said that
he had a special hostility to mice. The Bat assured him that he was not a mouse,
but a bat, and thus a second time escaped.
"You ridiculed the idea of my ever being able to help you, expecting to
receive from me any repayment of your favor; I now you know that it is possible
for even a Mouse to con benefits on a Lion."
A CHARCOAL-BURNER carried on his trade in his own house. One day he met a
friend, a Fuller, and entreated him to come and live with him, saying that they
should be far better neighbors and that their housekeeping expenses would be
lessened. The Fuller replied, "The arrangement is impossible as far as I am
concerned, for whatever I should whiten, you would immediately blacken again
with your charcoal."
In serving the wicked, expect no reward, and be thankful if you escape injury
for your pains.
A FISHERMAN skilled in music took his flute and his nets to the seashore.
Standing on a projecting rock, he played several tunes in the hope that the
fish, attracted by his melody, would of their own accord dance into his net,
which he had placed below. At last, having long waited in vain, he laid aside
his flute, and casting his net into the sea, made an excellent haul of fish.
When he saw them leaping about in the net upon the rock he said: "O you most
perverse creatures, when I piped you would not dance, but now that I have ceased
you do so merrily."
A CARTER was driving a wagon along a country lane, when the wheels sank down
deep into a rut. The rustic driver, stupefied and aghast, stood looking at the
wagon, and did nothing but utter loud cries to Hercules to come and help him.
Hercules, it is said, appeared and thus addressed him: "Put your shoulders to
the wheels, my man. Goad on your bullocks, and never more pray to me for help,
until you have done your best to help yourself, or depend upon it you will
henceforth pray in vain."
The loiterer often blames delay on his more active friend.
A DOG, crossing a bridge over a stream with a piece of flesh in his mouth,
saw his own shadow in the water and took it for that of another Dog, with a
piece of meat double his own in size. He immediately let go of his own, and
fiercely attacked the other Dog to get his larger piece from him. He thus lost
both: that which he grasped at in the water, because it was a shadow; and his
own, because the stream swept it away.
A MOLE, a creature blind from birth, once said to his Mother: "I am sure than
I can see, Mother!" In the desire to prove to him his mistake, his Mother placed
before him a few grains of frankincense, and asked, "What is it?' The young Mole
said, "It is a pebble." His Mother exclaimed: "My son, I am afraid that you are
not only blind, but that you have lost your sense of smell.
A HERDSMAN tending his flock in a forest lost a Bull-calf from the fold.
After a long and fruitless search, he made a vow that, if he could only discover
the thief who had stolen the Calf, he would offer a lamb in sacrifice to Hermes,
Pan, and the Guardian Deities of the forest. Not long afterwards, as he ascended
a small hillock, he saw at its foot a Lion feeding on the Calf. Terrified at the
sight, he lifted his eyes and his hands to heaven, and said: "Just now I vowed
to offer a lamb to the Guardian Deities of the forest if I could only find out
who had robbed me; but now that I have discovered the thief, I would willingly
add a full-grown Bull to the Calf I have lost, if I may only secure my own
escape from him in safety."
A HARE one day ridiculed the short feet and slow pace of the Tortoise, who
replied, laughing: "Though you be swift as the wind, I will beat you in a race."
The Hare, believing her assertion to be simply impossible, assented to the
proposal; and they agreed that the Fox should choose the course and fix the
goal. On the day appointed for the race the two started together. The Tortoise
never for a moment stopped, but went on with a slow but steady pace straight to
the end of the course. The Hare, lying down by the wayside, fell fast asleep. At
last waking up, and moving as fast as he could, he saw the Tortoise had reached
the goal, and was comfortably dozing after her fatigue.
Birds of a feather flock together.
ONE WINTER a Farmer found a Snake stiff and frozen with cold. He had
compassion on it, and taking it up, placed it in his bosom. The Snake was
quickly revived by the warmth, and resuming its natural instincts, bit its
benefactor, inflicting on him a mortal wound. "Oh," cried the Farmer with his
last breath, "I am rightly served for pitying a scoundrel."
No arguments will give courage to the coward.
A BEAR boasted very much of his philanthropy, saying that of all animals he
was the most tender in his regard for man, for he had such respect for him that
he would not even touch his dead body. A Fox hearing these words said with a
smile to the Bear, "Oh! that you would eat the dead and not the living."
THE SWALLOW and the Crow had a contention about their plumage. The Crow put
an end to the dispute by saying, "Your feathers are all very well in the spring,
but mine protect me against the winter."
Don't make much ado about nothing.
THE ASS and the Fox, having entered into partnership together for their
mutual protection, went out into the forest to hunt. They had not proceeded far
when they met a Lion. The Fox, seeing imminent danger, approached the Lion and
promised to contrive for him the capture of the Ass if the Lion would pledge his
word not to harm the Fox. Then, upon assuring the Ass that he would not be
injured, the Fox led him to a deep pit and arranged that he should fall into it.
The Lion, seeing that the Ass was secured, immediately clutched the Fox, and
attacked the Ass at his leisure.
A TORTOISE, lazily basking in the sun, complained to the sea-birds of her
hard fate, that no one would teach her to fly. An Eagle, hovering near, heard
her lamentation and demanded what reward she would give him if he would take her
aloft and float her in the air. "I will give you," she said, "all the riches of
the Red Sea." "I will teach you to fly then," said the Eagle; and taking her up
in his talons he carried her almost to the clouds suddenly he let her go, and
she fell on a lofty mountain, dashing her shell to pieces. The Tortoise
exclaimed in the moment of death: "I have deserved my present fate; for what had
I to do with wings and clouds, who can with difficulty move about on the
earth?'
Pleasure bought with pains, hurts.
A MAN and a Lion traveled together through the forest. They soon began to
boast of their respective superiority to each other in strength and prowess. As
they were disputing, they passed a statue carved in stone, which represented "a
Lion strangled by a Man." The traveler pointed to it and said: "See there! How
strong we are, and how we prevail over even the king of beasts." The Lion
replied: "This statue was made by one of you men. If we Lions knew how to erect
statues, you would see the Man placed under the paw of the Lion."
If words suffice not, blows must follow.
A DOG lay in a manger, and by his growling and snapping prevented the oxen
from eating the hay which had been placed for them. "What a selfish Dog!" said
one of them to his companions; "he cannot eat the hay himself, and yet refuses
to allow those to eat who can."
A FOX one day fell into a deep well and could find no means of escape. A
Goat, overcome with thirst, came to the same well, and seeing the Fox, inquired
if the water was good. Concealing his sad plight under a merry guise, the Fox
indulged in a lavish praise of the water, saying it was excellent beyond
measure, and encouraging him to descend. The Goat, mindful only of his thirst,
thoughtlessly jumped down, but just as he drank, the Fox informed him of the
difficulty they were both in and suggested a scheme for their common escape.
"If," said he, "you will place your forefeet upon the wall and bend your head, I
will run up your back and escape, and will help you out afterwards." The Goat
readily assented and the Fox leaped upon his back. Steadying himself with the
Goat's horns, he safely reached the mouth of the well and made off as fast as he
could. When the Goat upbraided him for breaking his promise, he turned around
and cried out, "You foolish old fellow! If you had as many brains in your head
as you have hairs in your beard, you would never have gone down before you had
inspected the way up, nor have exposed yourself to dangers from which you had no
means of escape."
Misfortune tests the sincerity of friends.
A HEAVY WAGON was being dragged along a country lane by a team of Oxen. The
Axle-trees groaned and creaked terribly; whereupon the Oxen, turning round, thus
addressed the wheels: "Hullo there! why do you make so much noise? We bear all
the labor, and we, not you, ought to cry out."
Zeal should not outrun discretion.
A RAVEN saw a Swan and desired to secure for himself the same beautiful
plumage. Supposing that the Swan's splendid white color arose from his washing
in the water in which he swam, the Raven left the altars in the neighborhood
where he picked up his living, and took up residence in the lakes and pools. But
cleansing his feathers as often as he would, he could not change their color,
while through want of food he perished.
Do not attempt to hide things which cannot be hid.
A MISER sold all that he had and bought a lump of gold, which he buried in a
hole in the ground by the side of an old wall and went to look at daily. One of
his workmen observed his frequent visits to the spot and decided to watch his
movements. He soon discovered the secret of the hidden treasure, and digging
down, came to the lump of gold, and stole it. The Miser, on his next visit,
found the hole empty and began to tear his hair and to make loud lamentations. A
neighbor, seeing him overcome with grief and learning the cause, said, "Pray do
not grieve so; but go and take a stone, and place it in the hole, and fancy that
the gold is still lying there. It will do you quite the same service; for when
the gold was there, you had it not, as you did not make the slightest use of
it."
A LION, unable from old age and infirmities to provide himself with food by
force, resolved to do so by artifice. He returned to his den, and lying down
there, pretended to be sick, taking care that his sickness should be publicly
known. The beasts expressed their sorrow, and came one by one to his den, where
the Lion devoured them. After many of the beasts had thus disappeared, the Fox
discovered the trick and presenting himself to the Lion, stood on the outside of
the cave, at a respectful distance, and asked him how he was. "I am very
middling," replied the Lion, "but why do you stand without? Pray enter within to
talk with me." "No, thank you," said the Fox. "I notice that there are many
prints of feet entering your cave, but I see no trace of any
returning."
The value is in the worth, not in the number.
A MAN who had traveled in foreign lands boasted very much, on returning to
his own country, of the many wonderful and heroic feats he had performed in the
different places he had visited. Among other things, he said that when he was at
Rhodes he had leaped to such a distance that no man of his day could leap
anywhere near him as to that, there were in Rhodes many persons who saw him do
it and whom he could call as witnesses. One of the bystanders interrupted him,
saying: "Now, my good man, if this be all true there is no need of witnesses.
Suppose this to be Rhodes, and leap for us."
A CAT caught a Cock, and pondered how he might find a reasonable excuse for
eating him. He accused him of being a nuisance to men by crowing in the
nighttime and not permitting them to sleep. The Cock defended himself by saying
that he did this for the benefit of men, that they might rise in time for their
labors. The Cat replied, "Although you abound in specious apologies, I shall not
remain supperless"; and he made a meal of him.
A YOUNG PIG was shut up in a fold-yard with a Goat and a Sheep. On one
occasion when the shepherd laid hold of him, he grunted and squeaked and
resisted violently. The Sheep and the Goat complained of his distressing cries,
saying, "He often handles us, and we do not cry out." To this the Pig replied,
"Your handling and mine are very different things. He catches you only for your
wool, or your milk, but he lays hold on me for my very life."
A BOY put his hand into a pitcher full of filberts. He grasped as many as he
could possibly hold, but when he tried to pull out his hand, he was prevented
from doing so by the neck of the pitcher. Unwilling to lose his filberts, and
yet unable to withdraw his hand, he burst into tears and bitterly lamented his
disappointment. A bystander said to him, "Be satisfied with half the quantity,
and you will readily draw out your hand."
No one truly forgets injuries in the presence of him who caused the
injury.
ONCE UPON A TIME a Wolf resolved to disguise his appearance in order to
secure food more easily. Encased in the skin of a sheep, he pastured with the
flock deceiving the shepherd by his costume. In the evening he was shut up by
the shepherd in the fold; the gate was closed, and the entrance made thoroughly
secure. But the shepherd, returning to the fold during the night to obtain meat
for the next day, mistakenly caught up the Wolf instead of a sheep, and killed
him instantly.
Evil companions bring more hurt than profit.
A PEDDLER drove his Ass to the seashore to buy salt. His road home lay across
a stream into which his Ass, making a false step, fell by accident and rose up
again with his load considerably lighter, as the water melted the sack. The
Peddler retraced his steps and refilled his panniers with a larger quantity of
salt than before. When he came again to the stream, the Ass fell down on purpose
in the same spot, and, regaining his feet with the weight of his load much
diminished, brayed triumphantly as if he had obtained what he desired. The
Peddler saw through his trick and drove him for the third time to the coast,
where he bought a cargo of sponges instead of salt. The Ass, again playing the
fool, fell down on purpose when he reached the stream, but the sponges became
swollen with water, greatly increasing his load. And thus his trick recoiled on
him, for he now carried on his back a double burden.
THE OXEN once upon a time sought to destroy the Butchers, who practiced a
trade destructive to their race. They assembled on a certain day to carry out
their purpose, and sharpened their horns for the contest. But one of them who
was exceedingly old (for many a field had he plowed) thus spoke: "These
Butchers, it is true, slaughter us, but they do so with skillful hands, and with
no unnecessary pain. If we get rid of them, we shall fall into the hands of
unskillful operators, and thus suffer a double death: for you may be assured,
that though all the Butchers should perish, yet will men never want
beef."
Little liberties are great offenses.
JUPITER DETERMINED, it is said, to create a sovereign over the birds, and
made proclamation that on a certain day they should all present themselves
before him, when he would himself choose the most beautiful among them to be
king. The Jackdaw, knowing his own ugliness, searched through the woods and
fields, and collected the feathers which had fallen from the wings of his
companions, and stuck them in all parts of his body, hoping thereby to make
himself the most beautiful of all. When the appointed day arrived, and the birds
had assembled before Jupiter, the Jackdaw also made his appearance in his many
feathered finery. But when Jupiter proposed to make him king because of the
beauty of his plumage, the birds indignantly protested, and each plucked from
him his own feathers, leaving the Jackdaw nothing but a Jackdaw.
A GOATHERD, driving his flock from their pasture at eventide, found some Wild
Goats mingled among them, and shut them up together with his own for the night.
The next day it snowed very hard, so that he could not take the herd to their
usual feeding places, but was obliged to keep them in the fold. He gave his own
goats just sufficient food to keep them alive, but fed the strangers more
abundantly in the hope of enticing them to stay with him and of making them his
own. When the thaw set in, he led them all out to feed, and the Wild Goats
scampered away as fast as they could to the mountains. The Goatherd scolded them
for their ingratitude in leaving him, when during the storm he had taken more
care of them than of his own herd. One of them, turning about, said to him:
"That is the very reason why we are so cautious; for if you yesterday treated us
better than the Goats you have had so long, it is plain also that if others came
after us, you would in the same manner prefer them to ourselves."
Notoriety is often mistaken for fame.
A FOX caught in a trap escaped, but in so doing lost his tail. Thereafter,
feeling his life a burden from the shame and ridicule to which he was exposed,
he schemed to convince all the other Foxes that being tailless was much more
attractive, thus making up for his own deprivation. He assembled a good many
Foxes and publicly advised them to cut off their tails, saying that they would
not only look much better without them, but that they would get rid of the
weight of the brush, which was a very great inconvenience. One of them
interrupting him said, "If you had not yourself lost your tail, my friend, you
would not thus counsel us."
A BOY was stung by a Nettle. He ran home and told his Mother, saying,
"Although it hurts me very much, I only touched it gently." "That was just why
it stung you," said his Mother. "The next time you touch a Nettle, grasp it
boldly, and it will be soft as silk to your hand, and not in the least hurt
you."
Those who seek to please everybody please nobody.
AN ASTRONOMER used to go out at night to observe the stars. One evening, as
he wandered through the suburbs with his whole attention fixed on the sky, he
fell accidentally into a deep well. While he lamented and bewailed his sores and
bruises, and cried loudly for help, a neighbor ran to the well, and learning
what had happened said: "Hark ye, old fellow, why, in striving to pry into what
is in heaven, do you not manage to see what is on earth?'
"WHY SHOULD there always be this fear and slaughter between us?" said the
Wolves to the Sheep. "Those evil-disposed Dogs have much to answer for. They
always bark whenever we approach you and attack us before we have done any harm.
If you would only dismiss them from your heels, there might soon be treaties of
peace and reconciliation between us." The Sheep, poor silly creatures, were
easily beguiled and dismissed the Dogs, whereupon the Wolves destroyed the
unguarded flock at their own pleasure.
AN OLD WOMAN having lost the use of her eyes, called in a Physician to heal
them, and made this bargain with him in the presence of witnesses: that if he
should cure her blindness, he should receive from her a sum of money; but if her
infirmity remained, she should give him nothing. This agreement being made, the
Physician, time after time, applied his salve to her eyes, and on every visit
took something away, stealing all her property little by little. And when he had
got all she had, he healed her and demanded the promised payment. The Old Woman,
when she recovered her sight and saw none of her goods in her house, would give
him nothing. The Physician insisted on his claim, and. as she still refused,
summoned her before the Judge. The Old Woman, standing up in the Court, argued:
"This man here speaks the truth in what he says; for I did promise to give him a
sum of money if I should recover my sight: but if I continued blind, I was to
give him nothing. Now he declares that I am healed. I on the contrary affirm
that I am still blind; for when I lost the use of my eyes, I saw in my house
various chattels and valuable goods: but now, though he swears I am cured of my
blindness, I am not able to see a single thing in it."
TWO GAME COCKS were fiercely fighting for the mastery of the farmyard. One at
last put the other to flight. The vanquished Cock skulked away and hid himself
in a quiet corner, while the conqueror, flying up to a high wall, flapped his
wings and crowed exultingly with all his might. An Eagle sailing through the air
pounced upon him and carried him off in his talons. The vanquished Cock
immediately came out of his corner, and ruled henceforth with undisputed
mastery.
There is no believing a liar, even when he speaks the truth.
A CAT, hearing that the Birds in a certain aviary were ailing dressed himself
up as a physician, and, taking his cane and a bag of instruments becoming his
profession, went to call on them. He knocked at the door and inquired of the
inmates how they all did, saying that if they were ill, he would be happy to
prescribe for them and cure them. They replied, "We are all very well, and shall
continue so, if you will only be good enough to go away, and leave us as we
are."
A KID standing on the roof of a house, out of harm's way, saw a Wolf passing
by and immediately began to taunt and revile him. The Wolf, looking up, said,
"Sirrah! I hear thee: yet it is not thou who mockest me, but the roof on which
thou art standing."
Example is more powerful than precept.
A HEIFER saw an Ox hard at work harnessed to a plow, and tormented him with
reflections on his unhappy fate in being compelled to labor. Shortly afterwards,
at the harvest festival, the owner released the Ox from his yoke, but bound the
Heifer with cords and led him away to the altar to be slain in honor of the
occasion. The Ox saw what was being done, and said with a smile to the Heifer:
"For this you were allowed to live in idleness, because you were presently to be
sacrificed."
A SWALLOW, returning from abroad and especially fond of dwelling with men,
built herself a nest in the wall of a Court of Justice and there hatched seven
young birds. A Serpent gliding past the nest from its hole in the wall ate up
the young unfledged nestlings. The Swallow, finding her nest empty, lamented
greatly and exclaimed: "Woe to me a stranger! that in this place where all
others' rights are protected, I alone should suffer wrong."
A BOY stole a lesson-book from one of his schoolfellows and took it home to
his Mother. She not only abstained from beating him, but encouraged him. He next
time stole a cloak and brought it to her, and she again commended him. The
Youth, advanced to adulthood, proceeded to steal things of still greater value.
At last he was caught in the very act, and having his hands bound behind him,
was led away to the place of public execution. His Mother followed in the crowd
and violently beat her breast in sorrow, whereupon the young man said, "I wish
to say something to my Mother in her ear." She came close to him, and he quickly
seized her ear with his teeth and bit it off. The Mother upbraided him as an
unnatural child, whereon he replied, "Ah! if you had beaten me when I first
stole and brought to you that lesson-book, I should not have come to this, nor
have been thus led to a disgraceful death."
AN OLD MAN was employed in cutting wood in the forest, and, in carrying the
faggots to the city for sale one day, became very wearied with his long journey.
He sat down by the wayside, and throwing down his load, besought "Death" to
come. "Death" immediately appeared in answer to his summons and asked for what
reason he had called him. The Old Man hurriedly replied, "That, lifting up the
load, you may place it again upon my shoulders."
A FIR-TREE said boastingly to the Bramble, "You are useful for nothing at
all; while I am everywhere used for roofs and houses." The Bramble answered:
'You poor creature, if you would only call to mind the axes and saws which are
about to hew you down, you would have reason to wish that you had grown up a
Bramble, not a Fir-Tree."
Harm hatch, harm catch.
A MAN who had been bitten by a Dog went about in quest of someone who might
heal him. A friend, meeting him and learning what he wanted, said, "If you would
be cured, take a piece of bread, and dip it in the blood from your wound, and go
and give it to the Dog that bit you." The Man who had been bitten laughed at
this advice and said, "Why? If I should do so, it would be as if I should beg
every Dog in the town to bite me."
Equals make the best friends.
A WOLF, sorely wounded and bitten by dogs, lay sick and maimed in his lair.
Being in want of food, he called to a Sheep who was passing, and asked him to
fetch some water from a stream flowing close beside him. "For," he said, "if you
will bring me drink, I will find means to provide myself with meat." "Yes," said
the Sheep, "if I should bring you the draught, you would doubtless make me
provide the meat also."
What's bred in the bone will stick to the flesh.
A FISHERMAN, engaged in his calling, made a very successful cast and captured
a great haul of fish. He managed by a skillful handling of his net to retain all
the large fish and to draw them to the shore; but he could not prevent the
smaller fish from falling back through the meshes of the net into the
sea.
A HUNTSMAN, returning with his dogs from the field, fell in by chance with a
Fisherman who was bringing home a basket well laden with fish. The Huntsman
wished to have the fish, and their owner experienced an equal longing for the
contents of the game-bag. They quickly agreed to exchange the produce of their
day's sport. Each was so well pleased with his bargain that they made for some
time the same exchange day after day. Finally a neighbor said to them, "If you
go on in this way, you will soon destroy by frequent use the pleasure of your
exchange, and each will again wish to retain the fruits of his own
sport."
The memory of a good deed lives.
A CROW having stolen a bit of meat, perched in a tree and held it in her
beak. A Fox, seeing this, longed to possess the meat himself, and by a wily
stratagem succeeded. "How handsome is the Crow," he exclaimed, in the beauty of
her shape and in the fairness of her complexion! Oh, if her voice were only
equal to her beauty, she would deservedly be considered the Queen of Birds!"
This he said deceitfully; but the Crow, anxious to refute the reflection cast
upon her voice, set up a loud caw and dropped the flesh. The Fox quickly picked
it up, and thus addressed the Crow: "My good Crow, your voice is right enough,
but your wit is wanting."
A MAN had two dogs: a Hound, trained to assist him in his sports, and a
Housedog, taught to watch the house. When he returned home after a good day's
sport, he always gave the Housedog a large share of his spoil. The Hound,
feeling much aggrieved at this, reproached his companion, saying, "It is very
hard to have all this labor, while you, who do not assist in the chase,
luxuriate on the fruits of my exertions." The Housedog replied, "Do not blame
me, my friend, but find fault with the master, who has not taught me to labor,
but to depend for subsistence on the labor of others."
Avoid a remedy that is worse than the disease.
A CERTAIN poor widow had one solitary Sheep. At shearing time, wishing to
take his fleece and to avoid expense, she sheared him herself, but used the
shears so unskillfully that with the fleece she sheared the flesh. The Sheep,
writhing with pain, said, "Why do you hurt me so, Mistress? What weight can my
blood add to the wool? If you want my flesh, there is the butcher, who will kill
me in an instant; but if you want my fleece and wool, there is the shearer, who
will shear and not hurt me."
Might makes right.
AN EAGLE sat on a lofty rock, watching the movements of a Hare whom he sought
to make his prey. An archer, who saw the Eagle from a place of concealment, took
an accurate aim and wounded him mortally. The Eagle gave one look at the arrow
that had entered his heart and saw in that single glance that its feathers had
been furnished by himself. "It is a double grief to me," he exclaimed, "that I
should perish by an arrow feathered from my own wings."
A KITE, sick unto death, said to his mother: "O Mother! do not mourn, but at
once invoke the gods that my life may be prolonged." She replied, "Alas! my son,
which of the gods do you think will pity you? Is there one whom you have not
outraged by filching from their very altars a part of the sacrifice offered up
to them?'
False confidence often leads into danger.
THE WEASELS and the Mice waged a perpetual war with each other, in which much
blood was shed. The Weasels were always the victors. The Mice thought that the
cause of their frequent defeats was that they had no leaders set apart from the
general army to command them, and that they were exposed to dangers from lack of
discipline. They therefore chose as leaders Mice that were most renowned for
their family descent, strength, and counsel, as well as those most noted for
their courage in the fight, so that they might be better marshaled in battle
array and formed into troops, regiments, and battalions. When all this was done,
and the army disciplined, and the herald Mouse had duly proclaimed war by
challenging the Weasels, the newly chosen generals bound their heads with
straws, that they might be more conspicuous to all their troops. Scarcely had
the battle begun, when a great rout overwhelmed the Mice, who scampered off as
fast as they could to their holes. The generals, not being able to get in on
account of the ornaments on their heads, were all captured and eaten by the
Weasels.
Every man for himself.
A CERTAIN MAN, detained by a storm in his country house, first of all killed
his sheep, and then his goats, for the maintenance of his household. The storm
still continuing, he was obliged to slaughter his yoke oxen for food. On seeing
this, his Dogs took counsel together, and said, "It is time for us to be off,
for if the master spare not his oxen, who work for his gain, how can we expect
him to spare us?'
They are not wise who give to themselves the credit due to others.
TWO MEN were journeying together. One of them picked up an axe that lay upon
the path, and said, "I have found an axe." "Nay, my friend," replied the other,
"do not say 'I,' but 'We' have found an axe." They had not gone far before they
saw the owner of the axe pursuing them, and he who had picked up the axe said,
"We are undone." "Nay," replied the other, "keep to your first mode of speech,
my friend; what you thought right then, think right now. Say 'I,' not 'We' are
undone."
Evil wishes, like chickens, come home to roost.
A FARMER'S daughter was carrying her Pail of milk from the field to the
farmhouse, when she fell a-musing. "The money for which this milk will be sold,
will buy at least three hundred eggs. The eggs, allowing for all mishaps, will
produce two hundred and fifty chickens. The chickens will become ready for the
market when poultry will fetch the highest price, so that by the end of the year
I shall have money enough from my share to buy a new gown. In this dress I will
go to the Christmas parties, where all the young fellows will propose to me, but
I will toss my head and refuse them every one." At this moment she tossed her
head in unison with her thoughts, when down fell the milk pail to the ground,
and all her imaginary schemes perished in a moment.
SOME TRAVELERS, journeying along the seashore, climbed to the summit of a
tall cliff, and looking over the sea, saw in the distance what they thought was
a large ship. They waited in the hope of seeing it enter the harbor, but as the
object on which they looked was driven nearer to shore by the wind, they found
that it could at the most be a small boat, and not a ship. When however it
reached the beach, they discovered that it was only a large faggot of sticks,
and one of them said to his companions, "We have waited for no purpose, for
after all there is nothing to see but a load of wood."
In quarreling about the shadow we often lose the substance.
AN ASS, belonging to an herb-seller who gave him too little food and too much
work made a petition to Jupiter to be released from his present service and
provided with another master. Jupiter, after warning him that he would repent
his request, caused him to be sold to a tile-maker. Shortly afterwards, finding
that he had heavier loads to carry and harder work in the brick-field, he
petitioned for another change of master. Jupiter, telling him that it would be
the last time that he could grant his request, ordained that he be sold to a
tanner. The Ass found that he had fallen into worse hands, and noting his
master's occupation, said, groaning: "It would have been better for me to have
been either starved by the one, or to have been overworked by the other of my
former masters, than to have been bought by my present owner, who will even
after I am dead tan my hide, and make me useful to him."
A VERY LARGE OAK was uprooted by the wind and thrown across a stream. It fell
among some Reeds, which it thus addressed: "I wonder how you, who are so light
and weak, are not entirely crushed by these strong winds." They replied, "You
fight and contend with the wind, and consequently you are destroyed; while we on
the contrary bend before the least breath of air, and therefore remain unbroken,
and escape."
The hero is brave in deeds as well as words.
A WILD BOAR stood under a tree and rubbed his tusks against the trunk. A Fox
passing by asked him why he thus sharpened his teeth when there was no danger
threatening from either huntsman or hound. He replied, "I do it advisedly; for
it would never do to have to sharpen my weapons just at the time I ought to be
using them."
A LION entered a farmyard. The Farmer, wishing to catch him, shut the gate.
When the Lion found that he could not escape, he flew upon the sheep and killed
them, and then attacked the oxen. The Farmer, beginning to be alarmed for his
own safety, opened the gate and released the Lion. On his departure the Farmer
grievously lamented the destruction of his sheep and oxen, but his wife, who had
been a spectator to all that took place, said, "On my word, you are rightly
served, for how could you for a moment think of shutting up a Lion along with
you in your farmyard when you know that you shake in your shoes if you only hear
his roar at a distance?'
MERCURY ONCE DETERMINED to learn in what esteem he was held among mortals.
For this purpose he assumed the character of a man and visited in this disguise
a Sculptor's studio having looked at various statues, he demanded the price of
two figures of Jupiter and Juno. When the sum at which they were valued was
named, he pointed to a figure of himself, saying to the Sculptor, "You will
certainly want much more for this, as it is the statue of the Messenger of the
Gods, and author of all your gain." The Sculptor replied, "Well, if you will buy
these, I'll fling you that into the bargain."
A CERTAIN rich man bought in the market a Goose and a Swan. He fed the one
for his table and kept the other for the sake of its song. When the time came
for killing the Goose, the cook went to get him at night, when it was dark, and
he was not able to distinguish one bird from the other. By mistake he caught the
Swan instead of the Goose. The Swan, threatened with death, burst forth into
song and thus made himself known by his voice, and preserved his life by his
melody.
A VERY HUNGRY FOX, seeing some bread and meat left by shepherds in the hollow
of an oak, crept into the hole and made a hearty meal. When he finished, he was
so full that he was not able to get out, and began to groan and lament his fate.
Another Fox passing by heard his cries, and coming up, inquired the cause of his
complaining. On learning what had happened, he said to him, "Ah, you will have
to remain there, my friend, until you become such as you were when you crept in,
and then you will easily get out."
A FOX, running before the hounds, came across a Woodcutter felling an oak and
begged him to show him a safe hiding-place. The Woodcutter advised him to take
shelter in his own hut, so the Fox crept in and hid himself in a corner. The
huntsman soon came up with his hounds and inquired of the Woodcutter if he had
seen the Fox. He declared that he had not seen him, and yet pointed, all the
time he was speaking, to the hut where the Fox lay hidden. The huntsman took no
notice of the signs, but believing his word, hastened forward in the chase. As
soon as they were well away, the Fox departed without taking any notice of the
Woodcutter: whereon he called to him and reproached him, saying, "You ungrateful
fellow, you owe your life to me, and yet you leave me without a word of thanks."
The Fox replied, "Indeed, I should have thanked you fervently if your deeds had
been as good as your words, and if your hands had not been traitors to your
speech."
A BIRDCATCHER was about to sit down to a dinner of herbs when a friend
unexpectedly came in. The bird-trap was quite empty, as he had caught nothing,
and he had to kill a pied Partridge, which he had tamed for a decoy. The bird
entreated earnestly for his life: "What would you do without me when next you
spread your nets? Who would chirp you to sleep, or call for you the covey of
answering birds?' The Birdcatcher spared his life, and determined to pick out a
fine young Cock just attaining to his comb. But the Cock expostulated in piteous
tones from his perch: "If you kill me, who will announce to you the appearance
of the dawn? Who will wake you to your daily tasks or tell you when it is time
to visit the bird-trap in the morning?' He replied, "What you say is true. You
are a capital bird at telling the time of day. But my friend and I must have our
dinners."
Do nothing without a regard to the consequences.
A CERTAIN HOUSE was overrun with Mice. A Cat, discovering this, made her way
into it and began to catch and eat them one by one. Fearing for their lives, the
Mice kept themselves close in their holes. The Cat was no longer able to get at
them and perceived that she must tempt them forth by some device. For this
purpose she jumped upon a peg, and suspending herself from it, pretended to be
dead. One of the Mice, peeping stealthily out, saw her and said, "Ah, my good
madam, even though you should turn into a meal-bag, we will not come near
you."
A LION and a Bear seized a Kid at the same moment, and fought fiercely for
its possession. When they had fearfully lacerated each other and were faint from
the long combat, they lay down exhausted with fatigue. A Fox, who had gone round
them at a distance several times, saw them both stretched on the ground with the
Kid lying untouched in the middle. He ran in between them, and seizing the Kid
scampered off as fast as he could. The Lion and the Bear saw him, but not being
able to get up, said, "Woe be to us, that we should have fought and belabored
ourselves only to serve the turn of a Fox."
In avoiding one evil, care must be taken not to fall into another.
A FARMER, who bore a grudge against a Fox for robbing his poultry yard,
caught him at last, and being determined to take an ample revenge, tied some
rope well soaked in oil to his tail, and set it on fire. The Fox by a strange
fatality rushed to the fields of the Farmer who had captured him. It was the
time of the wheat harvest; but the Farmer reaped nothing that year and returned
home grieving sorely.
A SEAGULL having bolted down too large a fish, burst its deep gullet-bag and
lay down on the shore to die. A Kite saw him and exclaimed: "You richly deserve
your fate; for a bird of the air has no business to seek its food from the
sea."
It shows an evil disposition to take advantage of a friend in
distress.
A PRINCE had some Monkeys trained to dance. Being naturally great mimics of
men's actions, they showed themselves most apt pupils, and when arrayed in their
rich clothes and masks, they danced as well as any of the courtiers. The
spectacle was often repeated with great applause, till on one occasion a
courtier, bent on mischief, took from his pocket a handful of nuts and threw
them upon the stage. The Monkeys at the sight of the nuts forgot their dancing
and became (as indeed they were) Monkeys instead of actors. Pulling off their
masks and tearing their robes, they fought with one another for the nuts. The
dancing spectacle thus came to an end amidst the laughter and ridicule of the
audience.
THE FOX and the Leopard disputed which was the more beautiful of the two. The
Leopard exhibited one by one the various spots which decorated his skin. But the
Fox, interrupting him, said, "And how much more beautiful than you am I, who am
decorated, not in body, but in mind."
THE MONKEY, it is said, has two young ones at each birth. The Mother fondles
one and nurtures it with the greatest affection and care, but hates and neglects
the other. It happened once that the young one which was caressed and loved was
smothered by the too great affection of the Mother, while the despised one was
nurtured and reared in spite of the neglect to which it was exposed.
Everyone is more or less master of his own fate.
A BALD KNIGHT, who wore a wig, went out to hunt. A sudden puff of wind blew
off his hat and wig, at which a loud laugh rang forth from his companions. He
pulled up his horse, and with great glee joined in the joke by saying, "What a
marvel it is that hairs which are not mine should fly from me, when they have
forsaken even the man on whose head they grew."
A SHEPHERD penning his sheep in the fold for the night was about to shut up a
wolf with them, when his Dog perceiving the wolf said, "Master, how can you
expect the sheep to be safe if you admit a wolf into the fold?'
A LAMP, soaked with too much oil and flaring brightly, boasted that it gave
more light than the sun. Then a sudden puff of wind arose, and the Lamp was
immediately extinguished. Its owner lit it again, and said: "Boast no more, but
henceforth be content to give thy light in silence. Know that not even the stars
need to be relit"
THE LION, the Fox and the Ass entered into an agreement to assist each other
in the chase. Having secured a large booty, the Lion on their return from the
forest asked the Ass to allot his due portion to each of the three partners in
the treaty. The Ass carefully divided the spoil into three equal shares and
modestly requested the two others to make the first choice. The Lion, bursting
out into a great rage, devoured the Ass. Then he requested the Fox to do him the
favor to make a division. The Fox accumulated all that they had killed into one
large heap and left to himself the smallest possible morsel. The Lion said, "Who
has taught you, my very excellent fellow, the art of division? You are perfect
to a fraction." He replied, "I learned it from the Ass, by witnessing his
fate."
Misfortunes springing from ourselves are the hardest to bear.
A COTTAGER and his wife had a Hen that laid a golden egg every day. They
supposed that the Hen must contain a great lump of gold in its inside, and in
order to get the gold they killed it. Having done so, they found to their
surprise that the Hen differed in no respect from their other hens. The foolish
pair, thus hoping to become rich all at once, deprived themselves of the gain of
which they were assured day by day.
AN ASS, carrying a load of wood, passed through a pond. As he was crossing
through the water he lost his footing, stumbled and fell, and not being able to
rise on account of his load, groaned heavily. Some Frogs frequenting the pool
heard his lamentation, and said, "What would you do if you had to live here
always as we do, when you make such a fuss about a mere fall into the
water?"
Those who assume a character which does not belong to them, only make
themselves ridiculous.
A MAN came into a forest and asked the Trees to provide him a handle for his
axe. The Trees consented to his request and gave him a young ash-tree. No sooner
had the man fitted a new handle to his axe from it, than he began to use it and
quickly felled with his strokes the noblest giants of the forest. An old oak,
lamenting when too late the destruction of his companions, said to a neighboring
cedar, "The first step has lost us all. If we had not given up the rights of the
ash, we might yet have retained our own privileges and have stood for
ages."
A CRAB, forsaking the seashore, chose a neighboring green meadow as its
feeding ground. A Fox came across him, and being very hungry ate him up. Just as
he was on the point of being eaten, the Crab said, "I well deserve my fate, for
what business had I on the land, when by my nature and habits I am only adapted
for the sea?'
In a change of government the poor change nothing beyond the name of their
master.
TEE KITES of olden times, as well as the Swans, had the privilege of song.
But having heard the neigh of the horse, they were so enchanted with the sound,
that they tried to imitate it; and, in trying to neigh, they forgot how to
sing.
Count the cost before you commit yourselves.
A VERY SKILLFUL BOWMAN went to the mountains in search of game, but all the
beasts of the forest fled at his approach. The Lion alone challenged him to
combat. The Bowman immediately shot out an arrow and said to the Lion: "I send
thee my messenger, that from him thou mayest learn what I myself shall be when I
assail thee." The wounded Lion rushed away in great fear, and when a Fox who had
seen it all happen told him to be of good courage and not to back off at the
first attack he replied: "You counsel me in vain; for if he sends so fearful a
messenger, how shall I abide the attack of the man himself?'
Use serves to overcome dread.
A WASP seated himself upon the head of a Snake and, striking him unceasingly
with his stings, wounded him to death. The Snake, being in great torment and not
knowing how to rid himself of his enemy, saw a wagon heavily laden with wood,
and went and purposely placed his head under the wheels, saying, "At least my
enemy and I shall perish together."
A HOUND having started a Hare on the hillside pursued her for some distance,
at one time biting her with his teeth as if he would take her life, and at
another fawning upon her, as if in play with another dog. The Hare said to him,
"I wish you would act sincerely by me, and show yourself in your true colors. If
you are a friend, why do you bite me so hard? If an enemy, why do you fawn on
me?'
Two blacks do not make one white.
A PEACOCK spreading its gorgeous tail mocked a Crane that passed by,
ridiculing the ashen hue of its plumage and saying, "I am robed, like a king, in
gold and purple and all the colors of the rainbow; while you have not a bit of
color on your wings." "True," replied the Crane; "but I soar to the heights of
heaven and lift up my voice to the stars, while you walk below, like a cock,
among the birds of the dunghill."
Every tale is not to be believed.
A MULE, frolicsome from lack of work and from too much corn, galloped about
in a very extravagant manner, and said to himself: "My father surely was a
high-mettled racer, and I am his own child in speed and spirit." On the next
day, being driven a long journey, and feeling very wearied, he exclaimed in a
disconsolate tone: "I must have made a mistake; my father, after all, could have
been only an ass."
A HART, hard pressed in the chase, hid himself beneath the large leaves of a
Vine. The huntsmen, in their haste, overshot the place of his concealment.
Supposing all danger to have passed, the Hart began to nibble the tendrils of
the Vine. One of the huntsmen, attracted by the rustling of the leaves, looked
back, and seeing the Hart, shot an arrow from his bow and struck it. The Hart,
at the point of death, groaned: "I am rightly served, for I should not have
maltreated the Vine that saved me."
A SERPENT and an Eagle were struggling with each other in deadly conflict.
The Serpent had the advantage, and was about to strangle the bird. A countryman
saw them, and running up, loosed the coil of the Serpent and let the Eagle go
free. The Serpent, irritated at the escape of his prey, injected his poison into
the drinking horn of the countryman. The rustic, ignorant of his danger, was
about to drink, when the Eagle struck his hand with his wing, and, seizing the
drinking horn in his talons, carried it aloft.
A CROW perishing with thirst saw a pitcher, and hoping to find water, flew to
it with delight. When he reached it, he discovered to his grief that it
contained so little water that he could not possibly get at it. He tried
everything he could think of to reach the water, but all his efforts were in
vain. At last he collected as many stones as he could carry and dropped them one
by one with his beak into the pitcher, until he brought the water within his
reach and thus saved his life.
A willful man will have his way to his own hurt.
AT ONE TIME a very large and strong Wolf was born among the wolves, who
exceeded all his fellow-wolves in strength, size, and swiftness, so that they
unanimously decided to call him "Lion." The Wolf, with a lack of sense
proportioned to his enormous size, thought that they gave him this name in
earnest, and, leaving his own race, consorted exclusively with the lions. An old
sly Fox, seeing this, said, "May I never make myself so ridiculous as you do in
your pride and self-conceit; for even though you have the size of a lion among
wolves, in a herd of lions you are definitely a wolf."
A WALNUT TREE standing by the roadside bore an abundant crop of fruit. For
the sake of the nuts, the passers-by broke its branches with stones and sticks.
The Walnut-Tree piteously exclaimed, "O wretched me! that those whom I cheer
with my fruit should repay me with these painful requitals!"
A GNAT came and said to a Lion, "I do not in the least fear you, nor are you
stronger than I am. For in what does your strength consist? You can scratch with
your claws and bite with your teeth an a woman in her quarrels. I repeat that I
am altogether more powerful than you; and if you doubt it, let us fight and see
who will conquer." The Gnat, having sounded his horn, fastened himself upon the
Lion and stung him on the nostrils and the parts of the face devoid of hair.
While trying to crush him, the Lion tore himself with his claws, until he
punished himself severely. The Gnat thus prevailed over the Lion, and, buzzing
about in a song of triumph, flew away. But shortly afterwards he became
entangled in the meshes of a cobweb and was eaten by a spider. He greatly
lamented his fate, saying, "Woe is me! that I, who can wage war successfully
with the hugest beasts, should perish myself from this spider, the most
inconsiderable of insects!"
A SAILOR, bound on a long voyage, took with him a Monkey to amuse him while
on shipboard. As he sailed off the coast of Greece, a violent tempest arose in
which the ship was wrecked and he, his Monkey, and all the crew were obliged to
swim for their lives. A Dolphin saw the Monkey contending with the waves, and
supposing him to be a man (whom he is always said to befriend), came and placed
himself under him, to convey him on his back in safety to the shore. When the
Dolphin arrived with his burden in sight of land not far from Athens, he asked
the Monkey if he were an Athenian. The latter replied that he was, and that he
was descended from one of the most noble families in that city. The Dolphin then
inquired if he knew the Piraeus (the famous harbor of Athens). Supposing that a
man was meant, the Monkey answered that he knew him very well and that he was an
intimate friend. The Dolphin, indignant at these falsehoods, dipped the Monkey
under the water and drowned him.
A JACKDAW, seeing some Doves in a cote abundantly provided with food, painted
himself white and joined them in order to share their plentiful maintenance. The
Doves, as long as he was silent, supposed him to be one of themselves and
admitted him to their cote. But when one day he forgot himself and began to
chatter, they discovered his true character and drove him forth, pecking him
with their beaks. Failing to obtain food among the Doves, he returned to the
Jackdaws. They too, not recognizing him on account of his color. expelled him
from living with them. So desiring two ends, he obtained neither.
AT ONE TIME the Horse had the plain entirely to himself. Then a Stag intruded
into his domain and shared his pasture. The Horse, desiring to revenge himself
on the stranger, asked a man if he were willing to help him in punishing the
Stag. The man replied that if the Horse would receive a bit in his mouth and
agree to carry him, he would contrive effective weapons against the Stag. The
Horse consented and allowed the man to mount him. From that hour he found that
instead of obtaining revenge on the Stag, he had enslaved himself to the service
of man.
A KID, returning without protection from the pasture, was pursued by a Wolf.
Seeing he could not escape, he turned round, and said: "I know, friend Wolf,
that I must be your prey, but before I die I would ask of you one favor you will
play me a tune to which I may dance." The Wolf complied, and while he was piping
and the Kid was dancing, some hounds hearing the sound ran up and began chasing
the Wolf. Turning to the Kid, he said, "It is just what I deserve; for I, who am
only a butcher, should not have turned piper to please you."
A WIZARD, sitting in the marketplace, was telling the fortunes of the
passers-by when a person ran up in great haste, and announced to him that the
doors of his house had been broken open and that all his goods were being
stolen. He sighed heavily and hastened away as fast as he could run. A neighbor
saw him running and said, "Oh! you fellow there! you say you can foretell the
fortunes of others; how is it you did not foresee your own?'
A FOX and a Monkey were traveling together on the same road. As they
journeyed, they passed through a cemetery full of monuments. "All these
monuments which you see," said the Monkey, "are erected in honor of my
ancestors, who were in their day freedmen and citizens of great renown." The Fox
replied, "You have chosen a most appropriate subject for your falsehoods, as I
am sure none of your ancestors will be able to contradict you."
Self-help is the best help.
WHEN A FOX who had never yet seen a Lion, fell in with him by chance for the
first time in the forest, he was so frightened that he nearly died with fear. On
meeting him for the second time, he was still much alarmed, but not to the same
extent as at first. On seeing him the third time, he so increased in boldness
that he went up to him and commenced a familiar conversation with
him.
Counsel without help is useless.
AN ASS feeding in a meadow saw a Wolf approaching to seize him, and
immediately pretended to be lame. The Wolf, coming up, inquired the cause of his
lameness. The Ass replied that passing through a hedge he had trod with his foot
upon a sharp thorn. He requested that the Wolf pull it out, lest when he ate him
it should injure his throat. The Wolf consented and lifted up the foot, and was
giving his whole mind to the discovery of the thorn, when the Ass, with his
heels, kicked his teeth into his mouth and galloped away. The Wolf, being thus
fearfully mauled, said, "I am rightly served, for why did I attempt the art of
healing, when my father only taught me the trade of a butcher?'
A CERTAIN MAN made a wooden image of Mercury and offered it for sale. When no
one appeared willing to buy it, in order to attract purchasers, he cried out
that he had the statue to sell of a benefactor who bestowed wealth and helped to
heap up riches. One of the bystanders said to him, "My good fellow, why do you
sell him, being such a one as you describe, when you may yourself enjoy the good
things he has to give?' "Why," he replied, "I am in need of immediate help, and
he is wont to give his good gifts very slowly."
A FAMISHED FOX saw some clusters of ripe black grapes hanging from a
trellised vine. She resorted to all her tricks to get at them, but wearied
herself in vain, for she could not reach them. At last she turned away, hiding
her disappointment and saying: "The Grapes are sour, and not ripe as I
thought."
A MAN had a Wife who made herself hated by all the members of his household.
Wishing to find out if she had the same effect on the persons in her father's
house, he made some excuse to send her home on a visit to her father. After a
short time she returned, and when he inquired how she had got on and how the
servants had treated her, she replied, "The herdsmen and shepherds cast on me
looks of aversion." He said, "O Wife, if you were disliked by those who go out
early in the morning with their flocks and return late in the evening, what must
have been felt towards you by those with whom you passed the whole
day!"
The dishonest, if they act honestly, get no credit.
A FLY sat on the axle-tree of a chariot, and addressing the Draught-Mule
said, "How slow you are! Why do you not go faster? See if I do not prick your
neck with my sting." The Draught-Mule replied, "I do not heed your threats; I
only care for him who sits above you, and who quickens my pace with his whip, or
holds me back with the reins. Away, therefore, with your insolence, for I know
well when to go fast, and when to go slow."
SOME FISHERMEN were out trawling their nets. Perceiving them to be very
heavy, they danced about for joy and supposed that they had taken a large catch.
When they had dragged the nets to the shore they found but few fish: the nets
were full of sand and stones, and the men were beyond measure cast downso much
at the disappointment which had befallen them, but because they had formed such
very different expectations. One of their company, an old man, said, "Let us
cease lamenting, my mates, for, as it seems to me, sorrow is always the twin
sister of joy; and it was only to be looked for that we, who just now were
over-rejoiced, should next have something to make us sad."
THREE BULLS for a long time pastured together. A Lion lay in ambush in the
hope of making them his prey, but was afraid to attack them while they kept
together. Having at last by guileful speeches succeeded in separating them, he
attacked them without fear as they fed alone, and feasted on them one by one at
his own leisure.
Evil tendencies are shown in early life.
SOME DOGS, finding the skin of a lion, began to tear it in pieces with their
teeth. A Fox, seeing them, said, "If this lion were alive, you would soon find
out that his claws were stronger than your teeth."
Men of evil reputation, when they perform a good deed, fail to get credit for
it.
A FATHER had one son and one daughter, the former remarkable for his good
looks, the latter for her extraordinary ugliness. While they were playing one
day as children, they happened by chance to look together into a mirror that was
placed on their mother's chair. The boy congratulated himself on his good looks;
the girl grew angry, and could not bear the self-praises of her Brother,
interpreting all he said (and how could she do otherwise?) into reflection on
herself. She ran off to her father. to be avenged on her Brother, and spitefully
accused him of having, as a boy, made use of that which belonged only to girls.
The father embraced them both, and bestowing his kisses and affection
impartially on each, said, "I wish you both would look into the mirror every
day: you, my son, that you may not spoil your beauty by evil conduct; and you,
my daughter, that you may make up for your lack of beauty by your
virtues."
THE WASPS and the Partridges, overcome with thirst, came to a Farmer and
besought him to give them some water to drink. They promised amply to repay him
the favor which they asked. The Partridges declared that they would dig around
his vines and make them produce finer grapes. The Wasps said that they would
keep guard and drive off thieves with their stings. But the Farmer interrupted
them, saying: "I have already two oxen, who, without making any promises, do all
these things. It is surely better for me to give the water to them than to
you."
A CROW caught in a snare prayed to Apollo to release him, making a vow to
offer some frankincense at his shrine. But when rescued from his danger, he
forgot his promise. Shortly afterwards, again caught in a snare, he passed by
Apollo and made the same promise to offer frankincense to Mercury. Mercury soon
appeared and said to him, "O thou most base fellow? how can I believe thee, who
hast disowned and wronged thy former patron?'
THE NORTH WIND and the Sun disputed as to which was the most powerful, and
agreed that he should be declared the victor who could first strip a wayfaring
man of his clothes. The North Wind first tried his power and blew with all his
might, but the keener his blasts, the closer the Traveler wrapped his cloak
around him, until at last, resigning all hope of victory, the Wind called upon
the Sun to see what he could do. The Sun suddenly shone out with all his warmth.
The Traveler no sooner felt his genial rays than he took off one garment after
another, and at last, fairly overcome with heat, undressed and bathed in a
stream that lay in his path. Persuasion is better than Force.
TWO MEN, deadly enemies to each other, were sailing in the same vessel.
Determined to keep as far apart as possible, the one seated himself in the stem,
and the other in the prow of the ship. A violent storm arose, and with the
vessel in great danger of sinking, the one in the stern inquired of the pilot
which of the two ends of the ship would go down first. On his replying that he
supposed it would be the prow, the Man said, "Death would not be grievous to me,
if I could only see my Enemy die before me."
A MAN had two Gamecocks in his poultry-yard. One day by chance he found a
tame Partridge for sale. He purchased it and brought it home to be reared with
his Gamecocks. When the Partridge was put into the poultry-yard, they struck at
it and followed it about, so that the Partridge became grievously troubled and
supposed that he was thus evilly treated because he was a stranger. Not long
afterwards he saw the Cocks fighting together and not separating before one had
well beaten the other. He then said to himself, "I shall no longer distress
myself at being struck at by these Gamecocks, when I see that they cannot even
refrain from quarreling with each other."
A FROG once upon a time came forth from his home in the marsh and proclaimed
to all the beasts that he was a learned physician, skilled in the use of drugs
and able to heal all diseases. A Fox asked him, "How can you pretend to
prescribe for others, when you are unable to heal your own lame gait and
wrinkled skin?'
A LION, growing old, lay sick in his cave. All the beasts came to visit their
king, except the Fox. The Wolf therefore, thinking that he had a capital
opportunity, accused the Fox to the Lion of not paying any respect to him who
had the rule over them all and of not coming to visit him. At that very moment
the Fox came in and heard these last words of the Wolf. The Lion roaring out in
a rage against him, the Fox sought an opportunity to defend himself and said,
"And who of all those who have come to you have benefited you so much as I, who
have traveled from place to place in every direction, and have sought and learnt
from the physicians the means of healing you?' The Lion commanded him
immediately to tell him the cure, when he replied, "You must flay a wolf alive
and wrap his skin yet warm around you." The Wolf was at once taken and flayed;
whereon the Fox, turning to him, said with a smile, "You should have moved your
master not to ill, but to good, will."
IN THE WINTERTIME, a Dog curled up in as small a space as possible on account
of the cold, determined to make himself a house. However when the summer
returned again, he lay asleep stretched at his full length and appeared to
himself to be of a great size. Now he considered that it would be neither an
easy nor a necessary work to make himself such a house as would accommodate
him.
ROAMING BY the mountainside at sundown, a Wolf saw his own shadow become
greatly extended and magnified, and he said to himself, "Why should I, being of
such an immense size and extending nearly an acre in length, be afraid of the
Lion? Ought I not to be acknowledged as King of all the collected beasts?' While
he was indulging in these proud thoughts, a Lion fell upon him and killed him.
He exclaimed with a too late repentance, "Wretched me! this overestimation of
myself is the cause of my destruction."
THE BIRDS waged war with the Beasts, and each were by turns the conquerors. A
Bat, fearing the uncertain issues of the fight, always fought on the side which
he felt was the strongest. When peace was proclaimed, his deceitful conduct was
apparent to both combatants. Therefore being condemned by each for his
treachery, he was driven forth from the light of day, and henceforth concealed
himself in dark hiding-places, flying always alone and at night.
A YOUNG MAN, a great spendthrift, had run through all his patrimony and had
but one good cloak left. One day he happened to see a Swallow, which had
appeared before its season, skimming along a pool and twittering gaily. He
supposed that summer had come, and went and sold his cloak. Not many days later,
winter set in again with renewed frost and cold. When he found the unfortunate
Swallow lifeless on the ground, he said, "Unhappy bird! what have you done? By
thus appearing before the springtime you have not only killed yourself, but you
have wrought my destruction also."
A FOX saw a Lion confined in a cage, and standing near him, bitterly reviled
him. The Lion said to the Fox, "It is not thou who revilest me; but this
mischance which has befallen me."
AN OWL, in her wisdom, counseled the Birds that when the acorn first began to
sprout, to pull it all up out of the ground and not allow it to grow. She said
acorns would produce mistletoe, from which an irremediable poison, the bird-
lime, would be extracted and by which they would be captured. The Owl next
advised them to pluck up the seed of the flax, which men had sown, as it was a
plant which boded no good to them. And, lastly, the Owl, seeing an archer
approach, predicted that this man, being on foot, would contrive darts armed
with feathers which would fly faster than the wings of the Birds themselves. The
Birds gave no credence to these warning words, but considered the Owl to be
beside herself and said that she was mad. But afterwards, finding her words were
true, they wondered at her knowledge and deemed her to be the wisest of birds.
Hence it is that when she appears they look to her as knowing all things, while
she no longer gives them advice, but in solitude laments their past
folly.
A TRUMPETER, bravely leading on the soldiers, was captured by the enemy. He
cried out to his captors, "Pray spare me, and do not take my life without cause
or without inquiry. I have not slain a single man of your troop. I have no arms,
and carry nothing but this one brass trumpet." "That is the very reason for
which you should be put to death," they said; "for, while you do not fight
yourself, your trumpet stirs all the others to battle."
AN ASS, having put on the Lion's skin, roamed about in the forest and amused
himself by frightening all the foolish animals he met in his wanderings. At last
coming upon a Fox, he tried to frighten him also, but the Fox no sooner heard
the sound of his voice than he exclaimed, "I might possibly have been frightened
myself, if I had not heard your bray."
A HARE pounced upon by an eagle sobbed very much and uttered cries like a
child. A Sparrow upbraided her and said, "Where now is thy remarkable swiftness
of foot? Why were your feet so slow?" While the Sparrow was thus speaking, a
hawk suddenly seized him and killed him. The Hare was comforted in her death,
and expiring said, "Ah! you who so lately, when you supposed yourself safe,
exulted over my calamity, have now reason to deplore a similar
misfortune."
A FLEA thus questioned an Ox: "What ails you, that being so huge and strong,
you submit to the wrongs you receive from men and slave for them day by day,
while I, being so small a creature, mercilessly feed on their flesh and drink
their blood without stint?' The Ox replied: "I do not wish to be ungrateful, for
I am loved and well cared for by men, and they often pat my head and shoulders."
"Woe's me!" said the flea; "this very patting which you like, whenever it
happens to me, brings with it my inevitable destruction."
ALL the Goods were once driven out by the Ills from that common share which
they each had in the affairs of mankind; for the Ills by reason of their numbers
had prevailed to possess the earth. The Goods wafted themselves to heaven and
asked for a righteous vengeance on their persecutors. They entreated Jupiter
that they might no longer be associated with the Ills, as they had nothing in
common and could not live together, but were engaged in unceasing warfare; and
that an indissoluble law might be laid down for their future protection. Jupiter
granted their request and decreed that henceforth the Ills should visit the
earth in company with each other, but that the Goods should one by one enter the
habitations of men. Hence it arises that Ills abound, for they come not one by
one, but in troops, and by no means singly: while the Goods proceed from
Jupiter, and are given, not alike to all, but singly, and separately; and one by
one to those who are able to discern them.
A DOVE shut up in a cage was boasting of the large number of young ones which
she had hatched. A Crow hearing her, said: "My good friend, cease from this
unseasonable boasting. The larger the number of your family, the greater your
cause of sorrow, in seeing them shut up in this prison-house."
A WORKMAN, felling wood by the side of a river, let his axe drop - by
accident into a deep pool. Being thus deprived of the means of his livelihood,
he sat down on the bank and lamented his hard fate. Mercury appeared and
demanded the cause of his tears. After he told him his misfortune, Mercury
plunged into the stream, and, bringing up a golden axe, inquired if that were
the one he had lost. On his saying that it was not his, Mercury disappeared
beneath the water a second time, returned with a silver axe in his hand, and
again asked the Workman if it were his. When the Workman said it was not, he
dived into the pool for the third time and brought up the axe that had been
lost. The Workman claimed it and expressed his joy at its recovery. Mercury,
pleased with his honesty, gave him the golden and silver axes in addition to his
own. The Workman, on his return to his house, related to his companions all that
had happened. One of them at once resolved to try and secure the same good
fortune for himself. He ran to the river and threw his axe on purpose into the
pool at the same place, and sat down on the bank to weep. Mercury appeared to
him just as he hoped he would; and having learned the cause of his grief,
plunged into the stream and brought up a golden axe, inquiring if he had lost
it. The Workman seized it greedily, and declared that truly it was the very same
axe that he had lost. Mercury, displeased at his knavery, not only took away the
golden axe, but refused to recover for him the axe he had thrown into the
pool.
AN EAGLE, flying down from his perch on a lofty rock, seized upon a lamb and
carried him aloft in his talons. A Jackdaw, who witnessed the capture of the
lamb, was stirred with envy and determined to emulate the strength and flight of
the Eagle. He flew around with a great whir of his wings and settled upon a
large ram, with the intention of carrying him off, but his claws became
entangled in the ram's fleece and he was not able to release himself, although
he fluttered with his feathers as much as he could. The shepherd, seeing what
had happened, ran up and caught him. He at once clipped the Jackdaw's wings, and
taking him home at night, gave him to his children. On their saying, "Father,
what kind of bird is it?' he replied, "To my certain knowledge he is a Daw; but
he would like you to think an Eagle."
A FOX invited a Crane to supper and provided nothing for his entertainment
but some soup made of pulse, which was poured out into a broad flat stone dish.
The soup fell out of the long bill of the Crane at every mouthful, and his
vexation at not being able to eat afforded the Fox much amusement. The Crane, in
his turn, asked the Fox to sup with him, and set before her a flagon with a long
narrow mouth, so that he could easily insert his neck and enjoy its contents at
his leisure. The Fox, unable even to taste it, met with a fitting requital,
after the fashion of her own hospitality.
ACCORDING to an ancient legend, the first man was made by Jupiter, the first
bull by Neptune, and the first house by Minerva. On the completion of their
labors, a dispute arose as to which had made the most perfect work. They agreed
to appoint Momus as judge, and to abide by his decision. Momus, however, being
very envious of the handicraft of each, found fault with all. He first blamed
the work of Neptune because he had not made the horns of the bull below his
eyes, so he might better see where to strike. He then condemned the work of
Jupiter, because he had not placed the heart of man on the outside, that
everyone might read the thoughts of the evil disposed and take precautions
against the intended mischief. And, lastly, he inveighed against Minerva because
she had not contrived iron wheels in the foundation of her house, so its
inhabitants might more easily remove if a neighbor proved unpleasant. Jupiter,
indignant at such inveterate faultfinding, drove him from his office of judge,
and expelled him from the mansions of Olympus.
AN EAGLE and a Fox formed an intimate friendship and decided to live near
each other. The Eagle built her nest in the branches of a tall tree, while the
Fox crept into the underwood and there produced her young. Not long after they
had agreed upon this plan, the Eagle, being in want of provision for her young
ones, swooped down while the Fox was out, seized upon one of the little cubs,
and feasted herself and her brood. The Fox on her return, discovered what had
happened, but was less grieved for the death of her young than for her inability
to avenge them. A just retribution, however, quickly fell upon the Eagle. While
hovering near an altar, on which some villagers were sacrificing a goat, she
suddenly seized a piece of the flesh, and carried it, along with a burning
cinder, to her nest. A strong breeze soon fanned the spark into a flame, and the
eaglets, as yet unfledged and helpless, were roasted in their nest and dropped
down dead at the bottom of the tree. There, in the sight of the Eagle, the Fox
gobbled them up.
A MAN and a Satyr once drank together in token of a bond of alliance being
formed between them. One very cold wintry day, as they talked, the Man put his
fingers to his mouth and blew on them. When the Satyr asked the reason for this,
he told him that he did it to warm his hands because they were so cold. Later on
in the day they sat down to eat, and the food prepared was quite scalding. The
Man raised one of the dishes a little towards his mouth and blew in it. When the
Satyr again inquired the reason, he said that he did it to cool the meat, which
was too hot. "I can no longer consider you as a friend," said the Satyr, "a
fellow who with the same breath blows hot and cold."
A MAN wished to purchase an Ass, and agreed with its owner that he should try
out the animal before he bought him. He took the Ass home and put him in the
straw-yard with his other Asses, upon which the new animal left all the others
and at once joined the one that was most idle and the greatest eater of them
all. Seeing this, the man put a halter on him and led him back to his owner. On
being asked how, in so short a time, he could have made a trial of him, he
answered, "I do not need a trial; I know that he will be just the same as the
one he chose for his companion."
What is most truly valuable is often underrated.
A HALF-FAMISHED JACKDAW seated himself on a fig-tree, which had produced some
fruit entirely out of season, and waited in the hope that the figs would ripen.
A Fox seeing him sitting so long and learning the reason of his doing so, said
to him, "You are indeed, sir, sadly deceiving yourself; you are indulging a hope
strong enough to cheat you, but which will never reward you with
enjoyment."
THE LARK (according to an ancient legend) was created before the earth
itself, and when her father died, as there was no earth, she could find no place
of burial for him. She let him lie uninterred for five days, and on the sixth
day, not knowing what else to do, she buried him in her own head. Hence she
obtained her crest, which is popularly said to be her father's
grave-hillock.
Some men are of more consequence in their own eyes than in the eyes of their
neighbors.
A BITCH, ready to whelp, earnestly begged a shepherd for a place where she
might litter. When her request was granted, she besought permission to rear her
puppies in the same spot. The shepherd again consented. But at last the Bitch,
protected by the bodyguard of her Whelps, who had now grown up and were able to
defend themselves, asserted her exclusive right to the place and would not
permit the shepherd to approach.
SOME DOGS famished with hunger saw a number of cowhides steeping in a river.
Not being able to reach them, they agreed to drink up the river, but it happened
that they burst themselves with drinking long before they reached the
hides.
It is absurd to ape our betters.
A PEASANT had in his garden an Apple-Tree which bore no fruit but only served
as a harbor for the sparrows and grasshoppers. He resolved to cut it down, and
taking his axe in his hand, made a bold stroke at its roots. The grasshoppers
and sparrows entreated him not to cut down the tree that sheltered them, but to
spare it, and they would sing to him and lighten his labors. He paid no
attention to their request, but gave the tree a second and a third blow with his
axe. When he reached the hollow of the tree, he found a hive full of honey.
Having tasted the honeycomb, he threw down his axe, and looking on the tree as
sacred, took great care of it.
Try before you trust.
A HEN finding the eggs of a viper and carefully keeping them warm, nourished
them into life. A Swallow, observing what she had done, said, "You silly
creature! why have you hatched these vipers which, when they shall have grown,
will inflict injury on all, beginning with yourself?'
A RICH NOBLEMAN once opened the theaters without charge to the people, and
gave a public notice that he would handsomely reward any person who invented a
new amusement for the occasion. Various public performers contended for the
prize. Among them came a Buffoon well known among the populace for his jokes,
and said that he had a kind of entertainment which had never been brought out on
any stage before. This report being spread about made a great stir, and the
theater was crowded in every part. The Buffoon appeared alone upon the platform,
without any apparatus or confederates, and the very sense of expectation caused
an intense silence. He suddenly bent his head towards his bosom and imitated the
squeaking of a little pig so admirably with his voice that the audience declared
he had a porker under his cloak, and demanded that it should be shaken out. When
that was done and nothing was found, they cheered the actor, and loaded him with
the loudest applause. A Countryman in the crowd, observing all that has passed,
said, "So help me, Hercules, he shall not beat me at that trick!" and at once
proclaimed that he would do the same thing on the next day, though in a much
more natural way. On the morrow a still larger crowd assembled in the theater,
but now partiality for their favorite actor very generally prevailed, and the
audience came rather to ridicule the Countryman than to see the spectacle. Both
of the performers appeared on the stage. The Buffoon grunted and squeaked away
first, and obtained, as on the preceding day, the applause and cheers of the
spectators. Next the Countryman commenced, and pretending that he concealed a
little pig beneath his clothes (which in truth he did, but not suspected by the
audience ) contrived to take hold of and to pull his ear causing the pig to
squeak. The Crowd, however, cried out with one consent that the Buffoon had
given a far more exact imitation, and clamored for the Countryman to be kicked
out of the theater. On this the rustic produced the little pig from his cloak
and showed by the most positive proof the greatness of their mistake. "Look
here," he said, "this shows what sort of judges you are."
A CROW in great want of food saw a Serpent asleep in a sunny nook, and flying
down, greedily seized him. The Serpent, turning about, bit the Crow with a
mortal wound. In the agony of death, the bird exclaimed: "O unhappy me! who have
found in that which I deemed a happy windfall the source of my
destruction."
A CERTAIN HUNTER, having snared a hare, placed it upon his shoulders and set
out homewards. On his way he met a man on horseback who begged the hare of him,
under the pretense of purchasing it. However, when the Horseman got the hare, he
rode off as fast as he could. The Hunter ran after him, as if he was sure of
overtaking him, but the Horseman increased more and more the distance between
them. The Hunter, sorely against his will, called out to him and said, "Get
along with you! for I will now make you a present of the hare."
A KING, whose only son was fond of martial exercises, had a dream in which he
was warned that his son would be killed by a lion. Afraid the dream should prove
true, he built for his son a pleasant palace and adorned its walls for his
amusement with all kinds of life-sized animals, among which was the picture of a
lion. When the young Prince saw this, his grief at being thus confined burst out
afresh, and, standing near the lion, he said: "O you most detestable of animals!
through a lying dream of my father's, which he saw in his sleep, I am shut up on
your account in this palace as if I had been a girl: what shall I now do to
you?' With these words he stretched out his hands toward a thorn-tree, meaning
to cut a stick from its branches so that he might beat the lion. But one of the
tree's prickles pierced his finger and caused great pain and inflammation, so
that the young Prince fell down in a fainting fit. A violent fever suddenly set
in, from which he died not many days later.
Nature exceeds nurture.
THE SHE-GOATS having obtained a beard by request to Jupiter, the He-Goats
were sorely displeased and made complaint that the females equaled them in
dignity. "Allow them," said Jupiter, "to enjoy an empty honor and to assume the
badge of your nobler sex, so long as they are not your equals in strength or
courage."
They who act without sufficient thought, will often fall into unsuspected
danger.
AN ANT went to the bank of a river to quench its thirst, and being carried
away by the rush of the stream, was on the point of drowning. A Dove sitting on
a tree overhanging the water plucked a leaf and let it fall into the stream
close to her. The Ant climbed onto it and floated in safety to the bank. Shortly
afterwards a birdcatcher came and stood under the tree, and laid his lime-twigs
for the Dove, which sat in the branches. The Ant, perceiving his design, stung
him in the foot. In pain the birdcatcher threw down the twigs, and the noise
made the Dove take wing.
A FOWLER caught a Partridge and was about to kill it. The Partridge earnestly
begged him to spare his life, saying, "Pray, master, permit me to live and I
will entice many Partridges to you in recompense for your mercy to me." The
Fowler replied, "I shall now with less scruple take your life, because you are
willing to save it at the cost of betraying your friends and relations."
A MAN, very much annoyed with a Flea, caught him at last, and said, "Who are
you who dare to feed on my limbs, and to cost me so much trouble in catching
you?' The Flea replied, "O my dear sir, pray spare my life, and destroy me not,
for I cannot possibly do you much harm." The Man, laughing, replied, "Now you
shall certainly die by mine own hands, for no evil, whether it be small or
large, ought to be tolerated."
SOME THIEVES broke into a house and found nothing but a Cock, whom they
stole, and got off as fast as they could. Upon arriving at home they prepared to
kill the Cock, who thus pleaded for his life: "Pray spare me; I am very
serviceable to men. I wake them up in the night to their work." "That is the
very reason why we must the more kill you," they replied; "for when you wake
your neighbors, you entirely put an end to our business."
Some men underrate their best blessings.
THE HARES, oppressed by their own exceeding timidity and weary of the
perpetual alarm to which they were exposed, with one accord determined to put an
end to themselves and their troubles by jumping from a lofty precipice into a
deep lake below. As they scampered off in large numbers to carry out their
resolve, the Frogs lying on the banks of the lake heard the noise of their feet
and rushed helter-skelter to the deep water for safety. On seeing the rapid
disappearance of the Frogs, one of the Hares cried out to his companions: "Stay,
my friends, do not do as you intended; for you now see that there are creatures
who are still more timid than ourselves."
THE LION wearied Jupiter with his frequent complaints. "It is true, O
Jupiter!" he said, "that I am gigantic in strength, handsome in shape, and
powerful in attack. I have jaws well provided with teeth, and feet furnished
with claws, and I lord it over all the beasts of the forest, and what a disgrace
it is, that being such as I am, I should be frightened by the crowing of a
cock." Jupiter replied, "Why do you blame me without a cause? I have given you
all the attributes which I possess myself, and your courage never fails you
except in this one instance." On hearing this the Lion groaned and lamented very
much and, reproaching himself with his cowardice, wished that he might die. As
these thoughts passed through his mind, he met an Elephant and came close to
hold a conversation with him. After a time he observed that the Elephant shook
his ears very often, and he inquired what was the matter and why his ears moved
with such a tremor every now and then. Just at that moment a Gnat settled on the
head of the Elephant, and he replied, "Do you see that little buzzing insect? If
it enters my ear, my fate is sealed. I should die presently." The Lion said,
"Well, since so huge a beast is afraid of a tiny gnat, I will no more complain,
nor wish myself dead. I find myself, even as I am, better off than the
Elephant."
A WOLF pursued a Lamb, which fled for refuge to a certain Temple. The Wolf
called out to him and said, "The Priest will slay you in sacrifice, if he should
catch you." On which the Lamb replied, "It would be better for me to be
sacrificed in the Temple than to be eaten by you."
A RICH MAN lived near a Tanner, and not being able to bear the unpleasant
smell of the tan-yard, he pressed his neighbor to go away. The Tanner put off
his departure from time to time, saying that he would leave soon. But as he
still continued to stay, as time went on, the rich man became accustomed to the
smell, and feeling no manner of inconvenience, made no further
complaints.
A SHIPWRECKED MAN, having been cast upon a certain shore, slept after his
buffetings with the deep. After a while he awoke, and looking upon the Sea,
loaded it with reproaches. He argued that it enticed men with the calmness of
its looks, but when it had induced them to plow its waters, it grew rough and
destroyed them. The Sea, assuming the form of a woman, replied to him: "Blame
not me, my good sir, but the winds, for I am by my own nature as calm and firm
even as this earth; but the winds suddenly falling on me create these waves, and
lash me into fury."
TWO MULES well-laden with packs were trudging along. One carried panniers
filled with money, the other sacks weighted with grain. The Mule carrying the
treasure walked with head erect, as if conscious of the value of his burden, and
tossed up and down the clear-toned bells fastened to his neck. His companion
followed with quiet and easy step. All of a sudden Robbers rushed upon them from
their hiding-places, and in the scuffle with their owners, wounded with a sword
the Mule carrying the treasure, which they greedily seized while taking no
notice of the grain. The Mule which had been robbed and wounded bewailed his
misfortunes. The other replied, "I am indeed glad that I was thought so little
of, for I have lost nothing, nor am I hurt with any wound."
A LION, entering the workshop of a smith, sought from the tools the means of
satisfying his hunger. He more particularly addressed himself to a File, and
asked of him the favor of a meal. The File replied, "You must indeed be a
simple-minded fellow if you expect to get anything from me, who am accustomed to
take from everyone, and never to give anything in return."
A LION, roaming through a forest, trod upon a thorn. Soon afterward he came
up to a Shepherd and fawned upon him, wagging his tail as if to say, "I am a
suppliant, and seek your aid." The Shepherd boldly examined the beast,
discovered the thorn, and placing his paw upon his lap, pulled it out; thus
relieved of his pain, the Lion returned into the forest. Some time after, the
Shepherd, being imprisoned on a false accusation, was condemned "to be cast to
the Lions" as the punishment for his imputed crime. But when the Lion was
released from his cage, he recognized the Shepherd as the man who healed him,
and instead of attacking him, approached and placed his foot upon his lap. The
King, as soon as he heard the tale, ordered the Lion to be set free again in the
forest, and the Shepherd to be pardoned and restored to his friends.
THE CAMEL, when he saw the Bull adorned with horns, envied him and wished
that he himself could obtain the same honors. He went to Jupiter, and besought
him to give him horns. Jupiter, vexed at his request because he was not
satisfied with his size and strength of body, and desired yet more, not only
refused to give him horns, but even deprived him of a portion of his
ears.
A PANTHER, by some mischance, fell into a pit. The Shepherds discovered him,
and some threw sticks at him and pelted him with stones, while others, moved
with compassion towards one about to die even though no one should hurt him,
threw in some food to prolong his life. At night they returned home, not
dreaming of any danger, but supposing that on the morrow they would find him
dead. The Panther, however, when he had recruited his feeble strength, freed
himself with a sudden bound from the pit, and hastened to his den with rapid
steps. After a few days he came forth and slaughtered the cattle, and, killing
the Shepherds who had attacked him, raged with angry fury. Then they who had
spared his life, fearing for their safety, surrendered to him their flocks and
begged only for their lives. To them the Panther made this reply: "I remember
alike those who sought my life with stones, and those who gave me food aside,
therefore, your fears. I return as an enemy only to those who injured
me."
AN ASS congratulated a Horse on being so ungrudgingly and carefully provided
for, while he himself had scarcely enough to eat and not even that without hard
work. But when war broke out, a heavily armed soldier mounted the Horse, and
riding him to the charge, rushed into the very midst of the enemy. The Horse was
wounded and fell dead on the battlefield. Then the Ass, seeing all these things,
changed his mind, and commiserated the Horse.
AN EAGLE was once captured by a man, who immediately clipped his wings and
put him into his poultry-yard with the other birds, at which treatment the Eagle
was weighed down with grief. Later, another neighbor purchased him and allowed
his feathers to grow again. The Eagle took flight, and pouncing upon a hare,
brought it at once as an offering to his benefactor. A Fox, seeing this,
exclaimed, "Do not cultivate the favor of this man, but of your former owner,
lest he should again hunt for you and deprive you a second time of your
wings."
A FLY bit the bare head of a Bald Man who, endeavoring to destroy it, gave
himself a heavy slap. Escaping, the Fly said mockingly, "You who have wished to
revenge, even with death, the Prick of a tiny insect, see what you have done to
yourself to add insult to injury?' The Bald Man replied, "I can easily make
peace with myself, because I know there was no intention to hurt. But you, an
ill-favored and contemptible insect who delights in sucking human blood, I wish
that I could have killed you even if I had incurred a heavier penalty."
THE OLIVE-TREE ridiculed the Fig-Tree because, while she was green all the
year round, the Fig-Tree changed its leaves with the seasons. A shower of snow
fell upon them, and, finding the Olive full of foliage, it settled upon its
branches and broke them down with its weight, at once despoiling it of its
beauty and killing the tree. But finding the Fig-Tree denuded of leaves, the
snow fell through to the ground, and did not injure it at all.
AN EAGLE, overwhelmed with sorrow, sat upon the branches of a tree in company
with a Kite. "Why," said the Kite, "do I see you with such a rueful look?' "I
seek," she replied, "a mate suitable for me, and am not able to find one." "Take
me," returned the Kite, "I am much stronger than you are." "Why, are you able to
secure the means of living by your plunder?' "Well, I have often caught and
carried away an ostrich in my talons." The Eagle, persuaded by these words,
accepted him as her mate. Shortly after the nuptials, the Eagle said, "Fly off
and bring me back the ostrich you promised me." The Kite, soaring aloft into the
air, brought back the shabbiest possible mouse, stinking from the length of time
it had lain about the fields. "Is this," said the Eagle, "the faithful
fulfillment of your promise to me?' The Kite replied, "That I might attain your
royal hand, there is nothing that I would not have promised, however much I knew
that I must fail in the performance."
AN ASS, being driven along a high road, suddenly started off and bolted to
the brink of a deep precipice. While he was in the act of throwing himself over,
his owner seized him by the tail, endeavoring to pull him back. When the Ass
persisted in his effort, the man let him go and said, "Conquer, but conquer to
your cost."
A THRUSH was feeding on a myrtle-tree and did not move from it because its
berries were so delicious. A Fowler observed her staying so long in one spot,
and having well bird-limed his reeds, caught her. The Thrush, being at the point
of death, exclaimed, "O foolish creature that I am! For the sake of a little
pleasant food I have deprived myself of my life."
AN AMARANTH planted in a garden near a Rose-Tree, thus addressed it: "What a
lovely flower is the Rose, a favorite alike with Gods and with men. I envy you
your beauty and your perfume." The Rose replied, "I indeed, dear Amaranth,
flourish but for a brief season! If no cruel hand pluck me from my stem, yet I
must perish by an early doom. But thou art immortal and dost never fade, but
bloomest for ever in renewed youth."
ONCE UPON A TIME, when the Sun announced his intention to take a wife, the
Frogs lifted up their voices in clamor to the sky. Jupiter, disturbed by the
noise of their croaking, inquired the cause of their complaint. One of them
said, "The Sun, now while he is single, parches up the marsh, and compels us to
die miserably in our arid homes. What will be our future condition if he should
beget other suns?'
THE LIFE and History of Aesop is involved, like that of Homer, the most
famous of Greek poets, in much obscurity. Sardis, the capital of Lydia; Samos, a
Greek island; Mesembria, an ancient colony in Thrace; and Cotiaeum, the chief
city of a province of Phrygia, contend for the distinction of being the
birthplace of Aesop. Although the honor thus claimed cannot be definitely
assigned to any one of these places, yet there are a few incidents now generally
accepted by scholars as established facts, relating to the birth, life, and
death of Aesop. He is, by an almost universal consent, allowed to have been born
about the year 620 B.C., and to have been by birth a slave. He was owned by two
masters in succession, both inhabitants of Samos, Xanthus and Jadmon, the latter
of whom gave him his liberty as a reward for his learning and wit. One of the
privileges of a freedman in the ancient republics of Greece, was the permission
to take an active interest in public affairs; and Aesop, like the philosophers
Phaedo, Menippus, and Epictetus, in later times, raised himself from the
indignity of a servile condition to a position of high renown. In his desire
alike to instruct and to be instructed, he travelled through many countries, and
among others came to Sardis, the capital of the famous king of Lydia, the great
patron, in that day, of learning and of learned men. He met at the court of
Croesus with Solon, Thales, and other sages, and is related so to have pleased
his royal master, by the part he took in the conversations held with these
philosophers, that he applied to him an expression which has since passed into a
proverb, "The Phrygian has spoken better than all."
Aesopo ingentem statuam posuere Attici, Servumque collocarunt aeterna in
basi: Patere honoris scirent ut cuncti viam; Nec generi tribui sed virtuti
gloriam.
G.F.T.
Dictionnaire Historique. Art. Esope. *********Preface********
THE TALE, the Parable, and the Fable are all common and popular modes of
conveying instruction. Each is distinguished by its own special characteristics.
The Tale consists simply in the narration of a story either founded on facts, or
created solely by the imagination, and not necessarily associated with the
teaching of any moral lesson. The Parable is the designed use of language
purposely intended to convey a hidden and secret meaning other than that
contained in the words themselves; and which may or may not bear a special
reference to the hearer, or reader. The Fable partly agrees with, and partly
differs from both of these. It will contain, like the Tale, a short but real
narrative; it will seek, like the Parable, to convey a hidden meaning, and that
not so much by the use of language, as by the skilful introduction of fictitious
characters; and yet unlike to either Tale or Parable, it will ever keep in view,
as its high prerogative, and inseparable attribute, the great purpose of
instruction, and will necessarily seek to inculcate some moral maxim, social
duty, or political truth. The true Fable, if it rise to its high requirements,
ever aims at one great end and purpose representation of human motive, and the
improvement of human conduct, and yet it so conceals its design under the
disguise of fictitious characters, by clothing with speech the animals of the
field, the birds of the air, the trees of the wood, or the beasts of the forest,
that the reader shall receive advice without perceiving the presence of the
adviser. Thus the superiority of the counsellor, which often renders counsel
unpalatable, is kept out of view, and the lesson comes with the greater
acceptance when the reader is led, unconsciously to himself, to have his
sympathies enlisted in behalf of what is pure, honorable, and praiseworthy, and
to have his indignation excited against what is low, ignoble, and unworthy. The
true fabulist, therefore, discharges a most important function. He is neither a
narrator, nor an allegorist. He is a great teacher, a corrector of morals, a
censor of vice, and a commender of virtue. In this consists the superiority of
the Fable over the Tale or the Parable. The fabulist is to create a laugh, but
yet, under a merry guise, to convey instruction. Phaedrus, the great imitator of
Aesop, plainly indicates this double purpose to be the true office of the writer
of fables.
The continual observance of this twofold aim creates the charm, and accounts
for the universal favor, of the fables of Aesop. "The fable," says Professor K.
O. Mueller, "originated in Greece in an intentional travestie of human affairs.
The 'ainos,' as its name denotes, is an admonition, or rather a reproof veiled,
either from fear of an excess of frankness, or from a love of fun and jest,
beneath the fiction of an occurrence happening among beasts; and wherever we
have any ancient and authentic account of the Aesopian fables, we find it to be
the same." l The construction of a fable involves a minute attention to (1) the
narration itself; (2) the deduction of the moral; and (3) a careful maintenance
of the individual characteristics of the fictitious personages introduced into
it. The narration should relate to one simple action, consistent with itself,
and neither be overladen with a multiplicity of details, nor distracted by a
variety of circumstances. The moral or lesson should be so plain, and so
intimately interwoven with, and so necessarily dependent on, the narration, that
every reader should be compelled to give to it the same undeniable
interpretation. The introduction of the animals or fictitious characters should
be marked with an unexceptionable care and attention to their natural
attributes, and to the qualities attributed to them by universal popular
consent. The Fox should be always cunning, the Hare timid, the Lion bold, the
Wolf cruel, the Bull strong, the Horse proud, and the Ass patient. Many of these
fables are characterized by the strictest observance of these rules. They are
occupied with one short narrative, from which the moral naturally flows, and
with which it is intimately associated. "'Tis the simple manner," says Dodsley,
2 "in which the morals of Aesop are interwoven with his fables that
distinguishes him, and gives him the preference over all other mythologists. His
'Mountain delivered of a Mouse,' produces the moral of his fable in ridicule of
pompous pretenders; and his Crow, when she drops her cheese, lets fall, as it
were by accident, the strongest admonition against the power of flattery. There
is no need of a separate sentence to explain it; no possibility of impressing it
deeper, by that load we too often see of accumulated reflections." 3 An equal
amount of praise is due for the consistency with which the characters of the
animals, fictitiously introduced, are marked. While they are made to depict the
motives and passions of men, they retain, in an eminent degree, their own
special features of craft or counsel, of cowardice or courage, of generosity or
rapacity.
The fables were in the first instance only narrated by Aesop, and for a long
time were handed down by the uncertain channel of oral tradition. Socrates is
mentioned by Plato 8 as having employed his time while in prison, awaiting the
return of the sacred ship from Delphos which was to be the signal of his death,
in turning some of these fables into verse, but he thus versified only such as
he remembered. Demetrius Phalereus, a philosopher at Athens about 300 B.C., is
said to have made the first collection of these fables. Phaedrus, a slave by
birth or by subsequent misfortunes, and admitted by Augustus to the honors of a
freedman, imitated many of these fables in Latin iambics about the commencement
of the Christian era. Aphthonius, a rhetorician of Antioch, A.D. 315, wrote a
treatise on, and converted into Latin prose, some of these fables. This
translation is the more worthy of notice, as it illustrates a custom of common
use, both in these and in later times. The rhetoricians and philosophers were
accustomed to give the Fables of Aesop as an exercise to their scholars, not
only inviting them to discuss the moral of the tale, but also to practice and to
perfect themselves thereby in style and rules of grammar, by making for
themselves new and various versions of the fables. Ausonius, 9 the friend of the
Emperor Valentinian, and the latest poet of eminence in the Western Empire, has
handed down some of these fables in verse, which Julianus Titianus, a
contemporary writer of no great name, translated into prose. Avienus, also a
contemporary of Ausonius, put some of these fables into Latin elegiacs, which
are given by Nevelet (in a book we shall refer to hereafter), and are
occasionally incorporated with the editions of Phaedrus.
The eventual re-introduction, however, of these Fables of Aesop to their high
place in the general literature of Christendom, is to be looked for in the West
rather than in the East. The calamities gradually thickening round the Eastern
Empire, and the fall of Constantinople, 1453 A.D. combined with other events to
promote the rapid restoration of learning in Italy; and with that recovery of
learning the revival of an interest in the Fables of Aesop is closely
identified. These fables, indeed, were among the first writings of an earlier
antiquity that attracted attention. They took their place beside the Holy
Scriptures and the ancient classic authors, in the minds of the great students
of that day. Lorenzo Valla, one of the most famous promoters of Italian
learning, not only translated into Latin the Iliad of Homer and the Histories of
Herodotus and Thucydides, but also the Fables of Aesop.
The knowledge of these fables rapidly spread from Italy into Germany, and
their popularity was increased by the favor and sanction given to them by the
great fathers of the Reformation, who frequently used them as vehicles for
satire and protest against the tricks and abuses of the Romish ecclesiastics.
The zealous and renowned Camerarius, who took an active part in the preparation
of the Confession of Augsburgh, found time, amidst his numerous avocations, to
prepare a version for the students in the university of Tubingen, in which he
was a professor. Martin Luther translated twenty of these fables, and was urged
by Melancthon to complete the whole; while Gottfried Arnold, the celebrated
Lutheran theologian, and librarian to Frederick I, king of Prussia, mentions
that the great Reformer valued the Fables of Aesop next after the Holy
Scriptures. In 1546 A.D. the second printed edition of the collection of the
Fables made by Planudes, was issued from the printing-press of Robert Stephens,
in which were inserted some additional fables from a MS. in the Bibliotheque du
Roy at Paris.
This collection of Nevelet's is the great culminating point in the history of
the revival of the fame and reputation of Aesopian Fables. It is remarkable,
also, as containing in its preface the germ of an idea, which has been since
proved to have been correct by a strange chain of circumstances. Nevelet
intimates an opinion, that a writer named Babrias would be found to be the
veritable author of the existing form of Aesopian Fables. This intimation has
since given rise to a series of inquiries, the knowledge of which is necessary,
in the present day, to a full understanding of the true position of Aesop in
connection with the writings that bear his name.
The following are the sources from which the present translation has been
prepared: Babrii Fabulae Aesopeae. George Cornewall Lewis. Oxford, 1846. Babrii
Fabulae Aesopeae. E codice manuscripto partem secundam edidit. George Cornewall
Lewis. London: Parker, 1857. Mythologica Aesopica. Opera et studia Isaaci
Nicholai Neveleti. Frankfort, 1610. Fabulae Aesopiacae, quales ante Planudem
ferebantur cura et studio Francisci de Furia. Lipsiae, 1810. ??????????????. Ex
recognitione Caroli Halmii. Lipsiae, Phaedri Fabulae Esopiae. Delphin Classics.
1822.
2 Select Fables of Aesop, and other Fabulists. In three books, translated by
Robert Dodsley, accompanied with a selection of notes, and an Essay on Fable.
Birmingham, 1864. P. 60.
4 Hesiod. Opera et Dies, verse 202.
6 Fragment. 38, ed. Gaisford. See also Mueller's History of the Literature of
Ancient Greece, vol. i. pp. 190-193.
8 Plato in Ph2done.
10 Both these publications are in the British Museum, and are placed in the
library in cases under glass, for the inspection of the curious.
12 Post-medieval Preachers, by S. Baring-Gould. Rivingtons, 1865.
14 Professor Theodore Bergh. See Classical Museum, No. viii. July,
1849.
16 The claims of Babrias also found a warm advocate in the learned Frenchman,
M. Bayle, who, in his admirable dictionary, (Dictionnaire Historique et Critique
de Pierre Bayle. Paris, 1820,) gives additional arguments in confirmation of the
opinions of his learned predecessors, Nevelet and Vavassor.
18 See Dr. Bentley's Dissertations upon the Epistles of Phalaris.