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BOSTON
PUBLIC

LIBRARY

Jacobs's
~fabtes of/Esop

THE

FABLES

OF

7ESOP

SELECTED, TOID ANEW

AND

THEIR HISTORY TRACED
By

Joseph Jacobs

DONE INTO PICTURES
by

"RICHARD HIGHWAY

LONDON

WACttlLLAN&CO.

<§> NEW YORK.
l894
All rights reserved

; (^ o^lH-^C o

. /^*

' pr

/

OD

1 o

Prof.F.J.Child

OF HARVARD

PREFACE

T is difficult to say what are and what are
not the Fables of iEsop. Almost all the
fables that have appeared in the Western
world have been sheltered at one time or
another under the shadow of that name. I
could at any rate enumerate at least seven
hundred which have appeared in English
in various books entitled JEsop's Fables.
L'Estrange's collection alone contains over
five hundred. In the struggle for existence
among all these a certain number stand out
as being the most effective and the most
familiar. I have attempted to bring most of
these into the following pages.

x ^SOP'S FABLES

There is no fixed text even for the nucleus
collection contained in this book. iEsop
himself is so shadowy a figure that we might
almost be forgiven if we held, with regard to
him, the heresy of Mistress Elizabeth Prig.
What we call his fables can in most cases be
traced back to the fables of other people,
notably of Phasdrus and Babrius. It is usual
to regard the Greek Prose Collections, passing
under the name of iEsop, as having greater
claims to the eponymous title ; but modern
research has shown that these are but medieval
prosings of Babrius's verse. I have therefore
felt at liberty to retell the fables in such
a way as would interest children, and have
adopted from the various versions that which
seemed most suitable in each case, telling the
fable anew in my own way.

Much has been learnt during the present
century about the history of the various
apologues that walk abroad under the name
of " iEsop." I have attempted to bring these

PREFACE xi

various lines of research together in the some-
what elaborate introductory volume which I
wrote to accompany my edition- of Caxton's
Msofi, published by Mr. Nutt in his
Bibltotheque de Car abas. I have placed in
front of the present version of the " Fables,"
by kind permission of Mr. Nutt, the short
abstract of my researches in which I there
summed up the results of that volume. I must
accompany it, here as there, by a warning to
the reader, that for a large proportion of the
results thus reached I am myself responsible ;
but I am happy to say that many of them
have been accepted by the experts in America,
France, and Germany, who have done me
the honour to consider my researches. Here,
in England, there does not seem to be much
interest in this class of work, and English
scholars, for the most part, are content to
remain in ignorance of the methods and
results of literary history.

I have attached to the " Fables ' in the

xii ^SOP'S FABLES

obscurity of small print at the end a series of

notes, summing up what is known as to the

provenance of each fable. Here, again, I have

tried to put in shorter and more readable

form the results of my researches in the

volume to which I have already referred.

For more detailed information I must refer

to the forty closely-printed pages (vol. i. pp.

225-268) which contain the bibliography of

the Fables.

JOSEPH JACOBS.

A Short History of the ^sopic Fable

List of Fables

^Esop's Fables

Notes ....

Index of Fables .

PAGE
XV

xxiii

I

195
221

Note. — The Illustrations are reproduced by Messrs. Waterlow and Sons'

photo-engraving process.

A SHORT HISTORY

OF THE

^SOPIC FABLE

OST nations develop the Beast-Tale as part of their
folk-lore, some go further and apply it to satiric pur-
poses, and a few nations afford isolated examples of
the shaping of the Beast-Tale to teach some moral truth by-
means of the Fable properly so called.1 But only two peoples
independently made this a general practice. Both in Greece2
and in India we find in the earliest literature such casual
and frequent mention of Fables as seems to imply a body
of Folk -Fables current among the people. And in both
countries special circumstances raised the Fable from folk-
lore into literature. In Greece, during the epoch of the
Tyrants, when free speech was dangerous, the Fable was
largely used for political purposes. The inventor of this
application or the most prominent user of it was one iEsop,
a slave at Samos whose name has ever since been connected
with the Fable. All that we know about him is contained

1 E.g. Jotham's Fable, Judges lx., and that of Menenius Agrippa in Livy,
seem to be quite independent of either Greek or Indian influence. But one
fable does not make Fable.

2 Onlv about twenty fables, however, are known in Greece before
Phaedrus, 30 a.d. See my Caxton*s JEsop, vol. i. pp. 26-29, for a complete
enumeration.

b

xvi ^ESOP'S FABLES

in a few lines of Herodotus : that he flourished 550 B.C.;
was killed in accordance with a Delphian oracle ; and that
wergild was claimed for him by the grandson of his master,
Iadmon. When free speech was established in the Greek
democracies, the custom of using Fables in harangues was
continued and encouraged by the rhetoricians, while the
mirth-producing qualities of the Fable caused it to be
regarded as fit subject of after-dinner conversation along
with other jests of a broader kind (" Milesian," " Sybaritic ").
This habit of regarding the Fable as a form of the Jest
intensified the tendency to connect it with a well-known
name as in the case of our Joe Miller. About 300 B.C.
Demetrius Phalereus, whilom tyrant of Athens and founder
of the Alexandria Library, collected together all the Fables
he could find under the title of Assemblies of Msopic Tales
(Aoywi/ Alo-wireLQiv (rvvaywyai). This collection, running
probably to some 200 Fables, after being interpolated and
edited by the Alexandrine grammarians, was turned into
neat Latin iambics by Phaedrus, a Greek freedman of
Augustus in the early years of the Christian era. As the
modern iEsop is mainly derived from Phaedrus, the answer
to the question " Who wrote JEsop ? " is simple : " Deme-
trius of Phaleron." x

In India the great ethical reformer, Sakyamuni, the
Buddha, initiated (or adopted from the Brahmins) the habit of
using the Beast-Tale for moral purposes, or, in other words,
transformed it into the Fable proper. A collection of these
seems to have existed previously and independently, in which

1 For this statement and what follows a reference to the Pedigree of the
Fables on p. 196 will be found useful.

SHORT HISTORY OF THE ^ESOPIC FABLE xvii

the Fables were associated with the name of a mythical
sage, Kasyapa. These were appropriated by the early
Buddhists by the simple expedient of making Kasyapa the
immediately preceding incarnation of the Buddha. A
number of his itihdsas or Tales were included in the sacred
Buddhistic work containing the Jatakas or previous-births
of the Buddha, in some of which the Bodisat (or future
Buddha) appears as one of the Dramatis Personam of the
Fables ; the Crane, e.g., in our Wolf 'and Crane being one of
the incarnations of the Buddha. So, too, the Lamb of our
Wolf and Lamb was once Buddha ; it was therefore easy
for him — so the Buddhists thought — to remember and tell
these Fables as incidents of his former careers. It is obvious
that the whole idea of a Fable as an anecdote about a man
masquerading in the form of a beast could most easily arise
and gain currency where the theory of transmigration was
vividly credited.

The Fables of Kasyapa, or rather the moral verses (gathas)
which served as a memoria technlca to them, were probably
carried over to Ceylon in 241 B.C. along with the Jatakas.
About 300 years later (say 50 a.d.) some 100 of these were
brought by a Cingalese embassy to Alexandria, where they
were translated under the title of c< Libyan Fables" (Aoyot
AvfiiKoi), which had been earlier applied to similar stories that
had percolated to Hellas from India ; they were attributed to
" Kybises." This collection seems to have introduced the
habit of summing up the teaching of a Fable in the Moral,
corresponding to the gatha of the Jatakas. About the end
of the first century a.d. the Libyan Fables of " Kybises '
became known to the Rabbinic school at Jabne, founded by

xviii AESOP'S FABLES

R. Jochanan ben Saccai, and a number of the Fables trans-
lated into Aramaic which are still extant in the Talmud and
Midrash.

In the Roman world the two collections of Demetrius and
" Kybises " were brought together by Nicostratus, a rhetor
attached to the court of Marcus Aurelius. In the earlier
part of the next century (c. 230 a.d.) this corpus of the
ancient fable, iEsopic and Libyan, amounting in all to some
300 members, was done into Greek verse with Latin
accentuation (choliambics) by Valerius Babrius, tutor to
the young son of Alexander Severus. Still later, towards
the end of the fourth century, forty-two of these, mainly
of the Libyan section, were translated into Latin verse
by one Avian, with whom the ancient history of the
Fable ends.

In the Middle Ages it was naturally the Latin Phaedrus
that represented the iEsopic Fable to the learned world, but
Phaedrus in a fuller form than has descended to us in verse.
A selection of some eighty fables was turned into indifferent
prose in the ninth century, probably at the Schools of
Charles the Great. This was attributed to a fictitious
Romulus. Another prose collection by Ademar of Cha-
bannes was made before 1030, and still preserves some of the
lines of the lost F'ables of Phaedrus. The Fables became
especially popular among the Normans. A number of them
occur on the Bayeux Tapestry, and in the twelfth century
England, the head of the Angevin empire, became the home
of the Fable, all the important adaptations and versions of
i^sop being made in this country. One of these done
into Latin verse by Walter the Englishman became the

SHORT HISTORY OF THE ^ESOPIC FABLE xix

standard iEsop of medieval Christendom. The same history
applies in large measure to the Fables of Avian, which were
done into prose, transferred back into Latin verse, and sent
forth through Europe from England.

Meanwhile Babrius had been suffering the same fate as
Phaedrus. His scazons were turned into poor Greek prose,
and selections of them pass to this day as the original Fables
of iEsop. Some fifty of these were selected, and with the
addition of a dozen Oriental fables, were attributed to an
imaginary Persian sage, Syntipas ; this collection was trans-
lated into Syriac, and thence into Arabic, where they passed
under the name of the legendary Loqman (probably a doublet
of Balaam). A still larger collection of the Greek prose
versions got into Arabic, where it was enriched by some 60
fables from the Arabic Bidpai and other sources, but still
passed under the name of iEsop. This collection, containing
164 fables, was brought to England after the Third Crusade
of Richard I., and translated into Latin by an Englishman
named Alfred, with the aid of an Oxford Jew named
Berachyah ha-Nakdan (" Benedictus le Puncteurv in the
English Records), who, on his own account, translated a
number of the fables into Hebrew rhymed prose, under the
Talmudic title Mishle Shucalim (Fox Fables).1 Part of
Alfred's iEsop was translated into English alliterative verse,
and this again was translated about 1200 into French by
Marie de France, who attributed the new fables to King
Alfred. After her no important addition was made to the
medieval iEsop."

1 I have given specimens of his Fables in my Jews of Angevin England,
pp. 165-173, 278-281.

xx ^SOP'S FABLES

With the invention of printing the European book of
j^sop was compiled about 1480 by Heinrich Stainhowel,
who put together the Romulus with selections from Avian,
some of the Greek prose versions of Babrius from Ranuzio's
translation, and a few from Alfred's iEsop. To these he
added the legendary life of iEsop and a selection of somewhat
loose tales from Petrus Alphonsi and Poggio Bracciolini,
corresponding to the Milesian and Sybaritic tales which
were associated with the Fable in antiquity. Stainhowel
translated all this into German, and within twenty years his
collection had been turned into French, English (by
Caxton, in 1484), Italian, Dutch, and Spanish. Additions
were made to it by Brandt and Waldis in Germany, by
L'Estrange in England, and by La Fontaine in France ;
these were chiefly from the larger Greek collections published
after Stainhowel's day, and, in the case of La Fontaine, from
Bidpai and other Oriental sources. But these additions have
rarely taken hold, and the JEsop of modern Europe is in
large measure Stainhowel's, even to the present day. The
first three quarters of the present collection are Stainhowel
mainly in Stainhowel's order. Selections from it passed into
spelling and reading books, and made the Fables part of
modern European folk-lore.1

We may conclude this history of iEsop with a similar

1 An episode in the history of the modern y£sop deserves record, if only to
illustrate the law that yEsop always begins his career as a political weapon in a
new home. When a selection of the Fables were translated into Chinese in 1840
they became favourite reading with the officials, till a high dignitary said, "This
is clearly directed against «i," and ordered -<^Esop to be included in the Chinese
Index Expurgatcrius (R. Morris, Cent. Rc*v. xxxix. p. 731).

SHORT HISTORY OF THE ^ESOPIC FABLE xxi

account of the progress of ^Esopic investigation. First came
collection ; the Greek iEsop was brought together by
Neveletus in 1610, the Latin by Nilant in 1709. The
main truth about the former was laid down by the master-
hand of Bentley during a skirmish in the Battle of the
Books ; the equally great critic Lessing began to unravel the
many knotty points connected with the medieval Latin
iEsop. His investigations have been carried on and com-
pleted by three Frenchmen in the present century, Robert,
Du Meril, and Hervieux ; while three Germans, Crusius,
Benfey, and Mall, have thrown much needed light on
Babrius, on the Oriental ^sop, and on Marie de France.
Lastly, I have myself brought together these various lines of
inquirv, and by adding a few threads of my own, have been
able to weave them all for the first time into a consistent
pattern.1

So much for the past of the Fable. Has it a future as a
mode of literary expression ? Scarcely ; its method is at
once too simple and too roundabout. Too roundabout ; for
the truths we have to tell we prefer to speak out directly and
not by way of allegory. And the truths the Fable has to
teach are too simple to correspond to the facts of our complex
civilisation ; its rude graffiti of human nature cannot repro-
duce the subtle gradations of modern life. But as we all
pass through in our lives the various stages of ancestral
culture, there comes a time when these rough sketches of life
have their appeal to us as they had for our forefathers. The

1 The Fables of JEsop, as first printed by William Caxton in 1484, r.civ again
edited and induced by Joseph Jacobs (London, 1889), 2 vols., the first containing a
History of the .^Esopic Fable.

xxii ^ESOP'S FABLES

allegory gives us a pleasing and not too strenuous stimulation
of the intellectual powers ; the lesson is not too complicated
for childlike minds. Indeed, in their grotesque grace, in
their quaint humour, in their trust in the simpler virtues, in
their insight into the cruder vices, in their innocence of the
fact of sex, ./Esop's Fables are as little children. They are
as little children, and for that reason they will for ever find
a home in the heaven of little children's souls.

<£

5®@C

D

LIST OF FABLES

1. The Cock and the Pearl

2. The Wolf and the Lamb

3. The Dog and the Shadow

4. The Lion's Share

5. The Wolf and the Crane

6. The Man and the Serpent

7. The Town Mouse and the Country

8. The Fox and the Crow

9. The Sick Lion

10. The Ass and the Lap-Dog

11. The Lion and the Mouse

12. The Swallow and the other Birds

13. The Frogs desiring a King

14. The Mountains in Labour

15. The Hares and the Frogs

16. The Wolf and the Kid

17. The Woodman and the Serpent

18. The Bald Man and the Fly .

19. The Fox and the Stork

20. The Fox and the Mask

Mouse

PAGE

2

4

7
8

10

12

J5
l9
23

H

26

28

31

36

38
40

+3
47

XXIV

^ESOP'S FABLES

PAGE

21. The Jay and the Peacock

22. The Frog and the Ox .

23. Androcles

24. The Bat, the Birds, and the Beasts

25. The Hart and the Hunter

26. The Serpent and the File

27. The Man and the Wood

28. The Dog and the Wolf

29. The Belly and the Members

30. The Hart in the Ox-Stall

31. The Fox and the Grapes

32. The Peacock and Juno

33. The Horse, Hunter, and Stag

34. The Fox and the Lion

35. The Lion and the Statue

36. The Ant and the Grasshopper

37. The Tree and the Reed

38. The Fox and the Cat

39. The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

40. The Dog in the Manger

41. The Man and the Wooden God

42. The Fisher .

43. The Shepherd's Boy

44. The Young Thief and his Mother

45. The Man and his Two Wives

46. The Nurse and the Wolf

47. The Tortoise and the Birds .

48. The Two Crabs

49. The Ass in the Lion's Skin .

50. The Two Fellows and the Bear

51. The Two Pots

55

• 57

. 60

. 62

. 65

• ' 67

. 68

. 70

. 72

• 74

. 76

. 79

80

. 83

, 85

. 86

88

■ 91

■ 93

■ 97

. 98

100

102

105

106

109

1 1 1

114

116

118

120

52-

53-
5+-

55-

56.

57-
58.

59-
60.

61.

62.
63.
64.

65.
66.
67.
68.
69.
70.

71-

72.

73-
74-

75-
76.

77-
78.

79-

80.

81.

82.

LIST OF FABLES

The Four Oxen and the Lion

The Fisher and the Little Fish

Avaricious and Envious

The Crow and the Pitcher .

The Man and the Satvr

The Goose with the Golden Eggs

The Labourer and the Nightingale

The Fox, the Cock, and the Dog

The Wind and the Sun

Hercules and the Waggoner .

The Miser and his Gold

The Man, the Boy, and the Donkey

The Fox and the Mosquitoes

The Fox without a Tail

The One-Eyed Doe .

Belling the Cat

The Hare and the Tortoise .

The Old Man and Death

The Hare with Many Friends

The Lion in Love

The Bundle of Sticks

The Lion, the Fox, and the Beasts

The Ass's Brains

The Eagle and the Arrow

The Cat-Maiden

The Milkmaid and her Pail .

The Horse and the Ass

The Trumpeter taken Prisoner

The Buffoon and the Countrvman

The Old Woman and the Wine-Jar

The Fox and the Goat

xxv

PAGE

22

2 +

27

29

31

3+

38
40

42
45

+9
52
5 +
56

59
62

6+
68

70

73
7+

77

79

80

83

85

87
89

90
93

m

B

A COCK was once strutting up and
down the farmyard among the hens
when suddenly he espied something
shining amid the straw. " Ho !
ho ! " quoth he, " that's for me/5 and soon
rooted it out from beneath the straw. What
did it turn out to be but a Pearl that by
some chance had been lost in the yard ?
" You may be a treasure,'' quoth Master
Cock, " to men that prize you, but for me I
would rather have a single barley-corn than a
peck of pearls.

precious tljfnntf are for tljoge tljat can prfje

tfjenn"

AESOP'S FABLES

Copyright 1894 by Macmillan & Co.

u Ho ! ho ! " quoth he, " that's for me."

(g& THE 'WOLF'/IND' THE °LAMB^]

NCE upon a time a Wolf was lap-
ping at a spring on a hillside,
when, looking up, what should he
see but a Lamb just beginning
to drink a little lower down. " There's my
supper," thought he, " if only I can find some
excuse to seize it.' Then he called out to the
Lamb, " How dare you muddle the water from
which I am drinking ? "

" Nay, master, nay," said Lambikin ; " if
the water be muddy up there, I cannot be the
cause of it, for it runs down from you to me.

^SOP'S FABLES 5

"Well, then," said the Wolf, "why did
you call me bad names this time last year ?

" That cannot be," said the Lamb ; ci I am
only six months old."

(C I don't care," snarled the Wolf; £C if it was
not you, it was your father ; 3 and with that he
rushed upon the poor little Lamb and —

Warra warra warra warra warra —

ate her all up. But before she died she gasped
out —

"jang txtu&z toill gcrtoe a tyrant."

Copyright 1894 by Macmtil&H &■ Co.

The Dod ^> the Shadow.

^)I T happened that a Dog had got a piece of
(Q meat and was carrying it home in his
Jj mouth to eat it in peace. Now on his
way home he had to cross a plank lying
across a running brook. As he crossed,
he looked down and saw his own shadow
reflected in the water beneath. Thinking it
was another dog with another piece of meat,
he made up his mind to have that also. So he
made a snap at the shadow in the water, but
as he opened his mouth the piece of meat fell
out, dropped into the water and was never seen
more.

2Setoare lest pott lose tlje Substance bp
paspintr at tlje sljatioVo*

[ The lion's share

m

m

1 1< SpHE Lion went once a-hunting along
WiWi with the Fox, the Jackal, and the
(^g~j^ Wolf. They hunted and they

hunted till at last they surprised a Stag,
and soon took its life. Then came the
question how the spoil should be divided.
<c Quarter me this Stag," roared the Lion ; so
the other animals skinned it and cut it into
four parts. Then the Lion took his stand in
front of the carcass and pronounced judgment :
" The first quarter is for me in my capacity as
King of Beasts; the second is mine as arbiter;
another share comes to me for my part in the
chase ; and as for the fourth quarter, well, as for

^ESOP'S FABLES 9

that, I should like to see which of you will dare
to lay a paw upon it.'

c£ Humph," grumbled the Fox as he walked
away with his tail between his legs ; but he
spoke in a low growl —

"Sou map srtjavc tljc labours of tljc great, but pott
toill not 0ljace tlje gpoiL"

^ WOLF had been gorging on an animal

he had killed, when suddenly a small
bone in the meat stuck in his throat
and he could not swallow it. He
soon felt terrible pain in his throat, and ran up
and down groaning and groaning and seeking
for something to relieve the pain. He tried to
induce every one he met to remove the bone.
"I would give anything," said he, "if you
would take it out." At last the Crane agreed
to try, and told the Wolf to lie on his side and
open his jaws as wide as he could. Then the
Crane put its long neck down the WolPs
throat, and with its beak loosened the bone,
till at last it got it out.

"Will you kindly give me the reward you
promised ? " said the Crane.

^ESOP'S FABLES

ii

The Wolf grinned and showed his teeth and
said : " Be content. You have put your head
inside a Wolf's mouth and taken it out again
in safety ; that ought to be reward enough for
you."

(Beatitude atto pceD p not togcrljcr*

Copyright 1894 by Macmillan &• Co.

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COUNTRYMAN'S son by acci-
dent trod upon a Serpent's tail,
which turned and bit him so that
he died. The father in a rage
got his axe, and pursuing the Serpent, cut
off part of its tail. So the Serpent in re-
venge began stinging several of the Farmer's
cattle and caused him severe loss. Well, the
Farmer thought it best to make it up with the
Serpent, and brought food and honey to the
mouth of its lair, and said to it : " Let's for-
get and forgive ; perhaps you were right to
punish my son, and take vengeance on my
cattle, but surely I was right in trying to

^SOP'S FABLES

13

revenge him ; now that we are both satisfied
why should not we be friends again ? "

" No, no/' said the Serpent ; " take away
your gifts ; you can never forget the death of
your son, nor I the loss of my tail."

injuries mag fce forjften, but not forgotten*

HThe Town Mouse

the Country Mouse

OW you must know that a Town
Mouse once upon a time went on
a visit to his cousin in the country.
He was rough and ready, this cousin, but he
loved his town friend and made him heartily
welcome. Beans and bacon, cheese and bread,
were all he had to offer, but he offered them
freely. The Town Mouse rather turned up his

16 .ESOP'S FABLES

long nose at this country fare, and said : "I cannot
understand, Cousin, how you can put up with
such poor food as this, but of course you cannot
expect anything better in the country ; come
you with me and I will show you how to live.
When you have been in town a week you will
wonder how you could ever have stood a country
life.' No sooner said than done : the two mice
set off for the town and arrived at the Town
Mouse's residence late at night. cc You will
want some refreshment after our long journey/'
said the polite Town Mouse, and took his friend
into the grand dining-room. There they
found the remains of a fine feast, and soon the
two mice were eating up jellies and cakes and
all that was nice. Suddenly they heard growl-
ing and barking. " What is that ? " said the
Country Mouse. " It is only the dogs of the
house," answered the other. "Only!" said the
Country Mouse. Ci I do not like that music at

^SOP'S FABLES

17

mv dinner." Tust at that moment the door
flew open, in came two huge mastiffs, and the
two mice had to scamper down and fun off.
" Good-bye, Cousin," said the Country Mouse.
u What ! going so soon ? " said the other.
" Yes," he replied ;

"Bettec fceang anD bacon in peace tljan cafceg

a no ale in fearV'

Copyright 1894 by Macmillait &• Co.

A

FOX once saw a Crow fly off with a

piece of cheese in its beak and settle
on a branch of a tree. " That's for me, as
I am a Fox,': said Master Renard, and he
walked up to the foot of the tree. " Good-day,
Mistress Crow,': he cried. " How well you
are looking to-day : how glossy your feathers ;
how bright your eye. I feel sure your voice
must surpass that of other birds, just as your
figure does ; let me hear but one song from
you that I may greet you as the Queen of

Birds.'' The
her head and
her best, but
she opened her
piece of cheese
ground, only to ^

Crow lifted up
began to caw
the moment
mouth the
fell to the
be snapped up

20

^SOP'S FABLES

by Master Fox. "That will do," said he.
" That was all I wanted. In exchange for
your cheese I will give you a piece of advice
for the future —

2Do not trugt flatterer^"

Copyright 1894 by Macmillan & Co.

LION had come to the end of
his days and lay sick unto death at
the mouth of his cave, gasping for
breath. The animals, his subjects,
came round him and drew nearer as he grew
more and more helpless. When they saw
him on the point of death they thought to
themselves : tc Now is the time to pay off"
old grudges.' So the Boar came up and
drove at him with his tusks ; then a Bull
gored him with his horns ; still the Lion
lay helpless before them : so the Ass, feeling
quite safe from danger, came up, and turning
his tail to the old Lion kicked up his heels
into his face. "This is a double death,"
growled the Lion.

u

3DnIy cotoartitf fntftilt bjymg Upaftft;*"

THE ASS

AND

THE LAP-DOG

FARMER one day came to the
stables to see to his beasts of
burden : among them was his
favourite Ass, that was always
well fed and often carried his master. With
the Farmer came his Lapdog, who danced
about and licked his hand and frisked about
as happy as could be. The Farmer felt in his
pocket, gave the Lapdog some dainty food,
and sat down while he gave his orders to his
servants. The Lapdog jumped into his
master's lap, and lay there blinking while
the Farmer stroked his ears. The Ass, seeing
this, broke loose from his halter and com-
menced prancing about in imitation of the
Lapdog. The Farmer could not hold his

^ESOP'S FABLES

25

sides with laughter, so the Ass went up to
him, and putting his feet upon the Farmer's
shoulder attempted to climb into his lap.
The Farmer's servants rushed up with sticks
and pitchforks and soon taught the ass that

Clumtfp jesting 10 no jofce*

Once when a Lion was
asleep a little Mouse began
running up and down upon
him ; this soon wakened
the Lion, who placed his
huge paw upon him, and opened his big jaws

^SOP'S FABLES

27

to swallow him. cc Pardon, O King," cried
the little Mouse ; ct forgive me this time, I
shall never forget it : who knows but what
I may be able to do you a turn some of these
days ? " The Lion was so tickled at the idea
of the Mouse being able to help him, that he
lifted up his paw and let him go. Some time
after the Lion was caught in a trap, and the
hunters, who desired to carry him alive to the
King, tied him to a tree while they went in
search of a waggon to carry him on. Just
then the little Mouse happened to pass by,
and seeing the sad plight in which the Lion
was, went up to him and soon gnawed away
the ropes that bound the King of the Beasts.
u Was I not right? " said the little Mouse.

Id

THE = SWAL^OW =

AND

THE=OTHER = BlRDS =

T happened that a Countryman
was sowing some hemp seeds in
a field where a Swallow and some
other birds were hopping about
their food. " Beware of that
man, quoth the Swallow. " Why, what is he
doing ? " said the others. u That is hemp seed
he is sowing ; be careful to pick up every one
of the seeds, or else you will repent it." The
birds paid no heed to the Swallow's words,
and by and by the hemp grew up and was
made into cord, and of the cords nets were
made, and many a bird that had despised the

^ESOP'S FABLES

29

Swallow's advice was caught in nets made out
of that very hemp. " What did I tell you ? "
said the Swallow.

"3Degtroy tljc jsecti of etril, or it tofll groto

up to pout ruitn"

^W

The, F-rPGS
desiring

Frogs were living as happy as
could be in a marshy swamp
that just suited them ; they
went splashing about caring
for nobody and nobody troub-
ling with them. But some
of them thought that this was not right,
that they should have a king and a proper
constitution, so they determined to send
up a petition to Jove to give them what
they wanted. " Mighty Jove/5 they cried,
u send unto us a king that will rule over us
and keep us in order.' Jove laughed at their
croaking, and threw down into the swamp a
huge Log, which came down — kerplash — into
the swamp. The Frogs were frightened out
of their lives by the commotion made in their
midst, and all rushed to the bank to look at
the horrible monster ; but after a time, seeing

32

tESOP'S fables

that it did not move, one or two of the boldest
of them ventured out towards the Log, and
even dared to touch it ; still it did not move.
Then the greatest hero of the Frogs jumped
upon the Log and commenced dancing up
and down upon it, thereupon all the Frogs
came and did the same ; and for some time
the Frogs went about their business every day
without taking the slightest notice of their
new King Log lying in their midst. But
this did not suit them, so they sent another
petition to Jove, and said to him : " We want
a real king ; one that will really rule over
us." Now this made Jove
angry, so he sent among them
a big Stork that soon set
to work gobbling them all
up. Then the Frogs repented
when too late.

Better no rule
tljan cruel rule*

4

%s

D

ONE day the Countrymen noticed
that the Mountains were in labour ;
smoke came out of their summits,
the earth was quaking at their
feet, trees were crashing, and huge rocks were
tumbling. They felt sure that something
horrible was going to happen. They all
gathered together in one place to see what
terrible thing this would be. They waited

^ESOP'S FABLES

37

and they waited, but nothing came. At last
there was a still more violent earthquake, and
a huge gap appeared in the side of the Moun-
tains. They all fell down upon their knees
and waited. At last, and at last, a teeny, tiny
mouse poked its little head and bristles out
of the gap and came running down towards
them ; and ever after they used to say :

"^ttclj outcry, little outcome*"

<^

The Hares were so
persecuted by the other
beasts, they did not
know where to go. As
soon as they saw a
single animal
approach
them.

^SSOP'S FABLES

39

off they used to run. One day they saw
a troop of wild Horses stampeding about,
and in quite a panic all the Hares scuttled off
to a lake hard by, determined to drown them-
selves rather than live in such a continual
state of fear. But just as they got near the
bank of the lake, a troop of Frogs, frightened
in their turn by the approach of the Hares,
scuttled off, and jumped into the water.
" Truly," said one of the Hares, " things are
not so bad as they seem :

^Ijere 10 altoapg gome one Voorge off
tljan pourgelf."

' 71

KID was perched up on the
of a house, and looking down saw
a Wolf passing under him. Im-
mediately he began to revile and
attack his enemy. <c Murderer and thief," he
cried, " what do you here near honest folks'
houses ? How dare you make an appearance
where your vile deeds are known ? "

" Curse away, my young friend/' said the
Wolf.

"3|t i0 eagg to lie fcrafce from a gafe bfgtance*"

.ESOP'S FABLES

41

" It is easy to be brave from a safe distance."

Copyright 1S94 by Macmillan &■ Co.

Woodman

AND THE

Serpent.

ONE wintry day a Woodman was
tramping home from his work when
he saw something black lying on
the snow. When he came closer, he saw
it was a Serpent to all appearance dead.
But he took it up and put it in his bosom to
warm while he hurried home. As soon as he

44

^ESOP'S FABLES

got indoors he put the Serpent down on the
hearth before the fire. The children watched
it and saw it slowly come to life again. Then
one of them stooped down to stroke it, but the
Serpent raised its head and put out its fangs and
was about to sting the child to death. So the
Woodman seized his axe, and with one stroke
cut the Serpent in two. cc Ah,': said he,

" iPo Beatitude from tlje toictictu"

I H

BALD^AAN <§> THE. FlX

There was once a Bald
Man who sat down
after work on a hot
summer's day. A Fly
came up and kept
buzzing about his bald
pate, and stinging him from
time to time. The Man aimed
a blow at his little enemy, but — whack —
his palm came on his head instead ; again
the Fly tormented him, but this time the
Man was wiser and said :

"Sou toill only injure pottrgelf if pott ta&e
notice of Despicable enemies"

(3

S\£

S

fasUs* 'jr \V\

Copyright 1894 Sy Macmillan &• Co.

Copyright 1894 by MacmiUan & Co.

A

T one time the Fox and the Stork were
on visiting terms and seemed very
good friends. So the Fox invited the Stork

to dinner, and for a joke
put nothing before her but
some soup in a very shallow
dish. This the Fox could
easily lap up, but the Stork
could only wet the end of
her long bill in it, and left
the meal as hungry as when
she began. " I am sorry, "
said the Fox, cc the soup is
not to your liking."

iESOP'S FABLES

5i

" Pray do not apologise,'' said the Stork.
" I hope you will return this visit, and come
and dine with me soon.,: So a day was
appointed when the Fox should visit the
Stork ; but when they were seated at table all
that was for their dinner was contained in
a very long-necked jar with a narrow
mouth, in which the Fox
could not insert his snout,
so all he could manage to
do was to lick the outside
of the jar.

- I will not apologise for
the dinner " said the Stork :

Xlbe ]fo£
anb tbe /Ifcasfc

//, FOX had by some means got
into the store-room of a theatre.
Suddenly he observed a face glaring
^py down on him, and began to be
very frightened ; but looking more closely
he found it was only a Mask, such as actors
use to put over their face. " Ah,': said the
Fox, " you look very fine ; it is a pity you
have not got any brains."

flDutgiDe Sljoto is a poor substitute foe

inner toortlj*

AESOP'S FABLES

53

" It is a pity you have not got any brains."

Copyright 1894 by Macm'Uan &• Co.

A Jay venturing into a yard where Peacocks
used to walk, found there a number of feathers
which had fallen from the Peacocks when
they were moulting. He tied them all to
his tail and strutted down towards the Pea-
cocks. When he came near them they soon
discovered the cheat, and striding up to him
pecked at him and plucked away his borrowed
plumes. So the Jay could do no better than
go back to the other Jays, who had watched
his behaviour from a distance ; but they were
equally annoyed with him, and told him

"3|t ig not onlg fine featljertf tljat make fine bftfyk"

J4 FATHER," said a little Frog to the
big one sitting by the side of a
fL pool, ce I have seen such a terrible
V monster ! It was as big as a
mountain, with horns on its head, and a long
tail, and it had hoofs divided in two."

"Tush, child, tush," said the old Frog, "that
was only Farmer White's Ox. It isn't so big
either ; he may be a little bit taller than I, but I
could easily make myself quite as broad ; just
you see." So he blew himself out, and blew
himself out, and blew himself out. " Was he
as big as that ? " asked he.

" Oh, much bigger than that," said the
young Frog.

Again the old one blew himself out, and
asked the young one if the Ox was as big as
that.

58

TESOP'S FABLES

" Bigger, fatner> bigger," was the reply.

So the Frog took a deep breath, and blew
and blew and blew, and swelled and swelled
and swelled. And then he said : " I'm sure

the Ox is not as big as " But at this

moment he burst.

feclfsconceit map leaD to geltaiegmtctiotu

ANDROCLES

SLAVE named Androcles once
escaped from his master and fled
to the forest. As he was wander-
ing about there he came upon a
Lion lying down moaning and groaning. At
first he turned to flee, but finding that the
Lion did not pursue him, he turned back and
went up to him. As he came near, the Lion
put out his paw, which was all swollen and
bleeding, and Androcles found that a huo-e
thorn had got into it, and was causing all the
pain. He pulled out the thorn and bound up
the paw of the Lion, who was soon able to rise
and lick the hand of Androcles like a dog.
Then the Lion took Androcles to his cave,
and every day used to bring him meat from
which to live. But shortly afterwards both
Androcles and the Lion were captured, and
the slave was sentenced to be thrown to the

^ESOP'S FABLES

61

Lion, after the latter had been kept without
food for several days. The Emperor and all
his Court came to see the spectacle, and
Androcles was led out into the middle of the
arena. Soon the Lion was let loose from his
den, and rushed bounding and roaring towards
his victim. But as soon as he came near to
Androcles he recognised his friend, and fawned
upon him, and licked his hands like a friendly
dog. The Emperor, surprised at this, sum-
moned Androcles to him, who told him the
whole story. Whereupon the slave was
pardoned and freed, and the Lion let loose
to his native forest.

(0ratitu&e is tlje 8i$n of noble tfoulg*

the^Blrds <§> the leasts.

A GREAT conflict was about to
come off between the Birds and
the Beasts. When the two armies
were collected together the Bat
hesitated which to join. The Birds that
passed his perch said : C£ Come with us " ; but
he said: cc I am a Beast.' Later on, some
Beasts who were passing underneath him
looked up and said: " Come with us"; but
he said : " I am a Bird." Luckily at the
last moment peace was made, and no battle
took place, so the Bat came to the Birds and
wished to join in the rejoicings, but they all
turned against him and he had to fly away.

vESOP'S FABLES

63

He then went to the Beasts, but had soon to
beat a retreat, or else they would have torn
him to pieces. Ci Ah," said the Bat, " I see
now

l£c rtjat 10 neither one tfjing nor tlje
otljer Ijag no friends"

Ah

WJMgBEMeLdmL^

Hart and the Hunter.

HE Hart was once drinking from
a pool and admiring the noble
figure he made there. " Ah,': said
he, " where can you see such noble
horns as these, with such antlers ! I wish I
had legs more worthy to bear such a noble
crown ; it is a pity they are so slim and
slight." At that moment a Hunter approached
and sent an arrow whistling after him. Away
bounded the Hart, and soon, by the aid of his
nimble legs, was nearly out of sight of the
Hunter ; but not noticing where he was
going, he passed under some trees with
branches growing low down in which his
antlers were caught, so that the Hunter had
time to come up. " Alas ! alas ! : cried the
Hart :

"JLflie often tiegptee tofjat i$ mogt useful

to txti."

?.*

" \'li

The Serpent & the File.

A Serpent in the course of its wanderings
came into an armourer's shop. As he glided
over the floor he felt his skin pricked by a
file lying there. In a rage he turned round
upon it and tried to dart his fangs into it ;
but he could do no harm to heavy iron and
had soon to give over his wrath.

31 1: i0 tt0elc00 attacking; tlje mgengi&le*

THE MAN AND THE WOOD

MAN came into a Wood one day
with an axe in his hand, and
begged all the Trees to give him a
small branch which he wanted for
a particular purpose. The Trees were good-
natured and gave him one of their branches.
What did the Man do but fix it into the axe-
head, and soon set to work cutting down tree

£SOP'S FABLES

69

after tree. Then the Trees saw how foolish
they had been in giving their enemy the
means of destroying themselves.

\\t <»)©0ij ♦ mh

GAUNT Wolf was almost dead
with hunger when he happened
\W T] to meet a House-dog who was

Is- ==J passing by. u Ah, Cousin, " said

the Dog, " I knew how it would be ; your
irregular life will soon be the ruin of you.
Why do you not work steadily as I do, and
get your food regularly given to you ? "

" I would have no objection, " said the
Wolf, " if I could only get a place."

" I will easily arrange that for you," said
the Dog ; " come with me to my master and
you shall share my work."

So the Wolf and the Dog went towards the
town together. On the way there the Wolf
noticed that the hair on a certain part of the
Dog's neck was very much worn away, so he
asked him how that had come about.

^ESOP'S FABLES 71

" Oh, it is nothing/' said the Dog. " That
is only the place where the collar is put on at
night to keep me chained up ; it chafes a bit,
but one soon gets used to it."

" Is that all ? " said the Wolf. Ci Then good-
bye to you, Master Dog.

u

Better tftartie free tljatt lie a fat 0laW

wHe Bf1\y

& the Members

NE fine day it occurred
to the Members of the
Body that they were doing
all the work and the Belly
was having all the food. So
they held a meeting, and
after a long discussion, decided
to strike work till the Belly consented
to take its proper share of the work. So for a
day or two the Hands refused to take the food,
the Mouth refused to receive it, and the Teeth
had no work to do. But after a day or two the
Members began to find that they themselves
were not in a very active condition : the Hands
could hardly move, and the Mouth was all
parched and dry, while the Legs were unable

tESOP'S fables

73

to support the rest. So thus they found that
even the Belly in its dull quiet way was doing
necessary work for the Body, and that all must
work together or the Body will go to pieces.

HART hotly pursued by
the hounds fled for refuge
into an ox-stall, and buried
itself in a truss of hay, leaving
nothing to be seen but the tips
of his horns. Soon after the
Hunters came up and asked
if any one had seen the Hart.
The stable boys, who had been
resting after their dinner, looked

^SOP'S FABLES

75

round, but could see nothing, and the Hunters
went away. Shortly afterwards the master
came in, and, looking round, saw that some-
thing unusual had taken place. He pointed
to the truss of hay and said : " What are
those two curious things sticking out of the
hay ? " And when the stable boys came to
look they discovered the Hart, and soon made
an end of him. He thus learnt that

iPotljmn; cgcapetf tlje magter'g cje.

m

>i_

»//

NE hot summer's day a Fox was
strolling through an orchard till
he came to a bunch of Grapes
just ripening on a vine which
had been trained over a lofty
branch. "Just the thing to
quench my thirst," quoth he.
Drawing back a few paces, he
took a run and a jump, and just
missed the bunch. Turning
round again with a One, Two,

% 0

'■■> a

~ 'i

■ t/'ii

^ESOP'S FABLES

77

//.

'//

Three, he jumped up, but with no greater
success. Again and again he tried after the
tempting morsel, but at last had to give it up,
and walked away with his nose in the air,
saying : " I am sure they are sour.':

31 1 i& casg to Dcs»pi0c Xoljat pott cannot pt*

@r Jano:

PEACOCK once placed a petition
before Juno desiring to have the
voice of a nightingale in addition
to his other attractions ; but Juno
refused his request. When he persisted, and
pointed out that he was her favourite bird, she
said :

"Be content tottlj jour lot ^ one cannot be fit#t

in efcergtljing;*"

G

><§)(§jc

D

®THE°HORSE>HUNTER°&°STfl©®

QUARREL had arisen between the
Horse and the Stag, so the Horse
came to a Hunter to ask his help
to take revenge on the Stag. The
Hunter agreed, but said : " If you desire to
conquer the Stag, you must permit me to place
this piece of iron between your jaws, so that I
may guide you with these reins, and allow this
saddle to be placed upon your back so that I
may keep steady upon you as we follow after
the enemy." The Horse agreed to the condi-
tions, and the Hunter soon saddled and bridled
him. Then with the aid of the Hunter the
Horse soon overcame the Stag, and said to the
Hunter : " Now, get off, and remove those
things from my mouth and back."

iESOP'S FABLES

81

u Not so fast, friend," said the Hunter. " I
have now got you under bit and spur, and prefer
to keep you as you are at present.'3

3|f pott allots men to u$c pott for pour otott
purposes, rljep toill use pott for rljcirtf*

®@Jfti<e>:

WHEN first the Fox saw the Lion he
was terribly frightened, and ran away
and hid himself in the wood. Next time
however he came near the King of Beasts
he stopped at a safe distance and watched
him pass by. The third time they came
near one another the Fox went straight up
to the Lion and passed the time of day with
him, asking him how his family were, and
when he should have the pleasure of seeing
him again ; then turning his tail, he parted
from the Lion without much ceremony 0

familiarity breetig contempt,

MAN and a Lion were discussing the
relative strength of men and lions in
general. The Man contended that
he and his fellows were stronger than
lions by reason of their greater intelligence.
" Come now with me," he cried, " and I will
soon prove that I am right." So he took him
into the public gardens and showed him a statue
of Hercules overcoming the Lion and tearing
his mouth in two.

" That is all very well," said the Lion, "but
proves nothing, for it was a man who made the
statue."

Wit can cagtlg represent tljmgg a£ toe totelj

tljem to tie.

The r7JT>irr

<§ the G RTISSHOPPZK,

tjj a field one summer's day a Grasshopper
was hopping about, chirping and
singing to its heart's content. An
Ant passed by, bearing along with
w** great toil an ear of corn he was
taking to the nest.

"Why not come and chat with me," said
the Grasshopper, " instead of toiling and moil-
ing in that way ? "

" I am helping to lay up food for the
winter," said the Ant, " and recommend you
to do the same."

" Why bother about winter ? said the
Grasshopper ; " we have got plenty of food at
present.' But the Ant went on its way and

^SOP'S FABLES

87

continued its toil. When the winter came the
Grasshopper had no food, and found itself dying
of hunger, while it saw the ants distributing
every day corn and grain from the stores they
had collected in the summer. Then the Grass-
hopper knew

3|t is bc0t to prepare foe tlje tiagg of nece&sitp.

THE TREE AND THE REED

ELL, little one/' said a Tree to a
Reed that was growing at its foot,
" why do you not plant your feet
deeply in the ground, and raise
your head boldly in the air as I do ? "

" I am contented with my lot/3 said the
Reed. " I may not be so grand, but I think I
am safer."

" Safe ! " sneered the Tree. " Who shall
pluck me up by the roots or bow my head
to the ground ? " But it soon had to repent
of its boasting, for a hurricane arose which

^SOP'S FABLES

89

tore it up from its roots, and cast it a useless
log on the ground, while the little Reed,
bending to the force of the wind, soon stood
upright again when the storm had passed over.

£Dtiscutitp often brings* tfafcrp.

Copyright 1894 by Macmillan &• Co.

FOX was boasting to a Cat of its
clever devices for escaping its
enemies. " I have a whole bag
of tricks," he said, "which con-
tains a hundred ways of escaping my enemies.'
" I have only one," said the Cat ; " but I
can generally manage with that/ Just at
that moment they heard the cry of a pack of
hounds coming towards them, and the Cat
immediately scampered up a tree and hid
herself in the boughs. " This is my plan,"
said the Cat. " What are you going to do ? :
The Fox thought first of one way, then of
another, and while he was debating the hounds
came nearer and nearer, and at last the Fox
in his confusion was caught up by the hounds

92

^ESOP'S FABLES

and soon killed by the huntsmen,
who had been looking on, said :

Miss Puss,

" Better one gate toap tljan a Ijtmtireti on
toljiclj j>ou cannot reckon*"

*» jegfiSra&,\ *

% v

The WOLF

0 IN ©

°SHEEP'S®CLOTHING®

M

WOLF found great difficulty in
getting at the sheep owing to the
vigilance of the shepherd and his
dogs. But one day it found the
skin of a sheep that had been flayed and
thrown aside, so it put it on over its own
pelt and strolled down among the sheep.
The Lamb that belonged to the sheep, whose

94- ^SSOP'S FABLES

skin the Wolf was wearing, began to follow
the Wolf in the Sheep's clothing ; so, leading
the Lamb a little apart, he soon made a meal
off her, and for some time he succeeded in
deceiving the sheep, and enjoying hearty
meals.

Appearances are tieceptitje.

Copyright 1894 by MacmUlan &• Co.

gr^ DOG looking out for its afternoon
nap jumped into the Manger of
an Ox and lay there cosily upon
the straw. But soon the Ox,
returning from its afternoon work, came up to
the Manger and wanted to eat some of the
straw. The Dog in a rage, being awakened
from its slumber, stood up and barked at the
Ox, and whenever it came near attempted to
bite it. At last the Ox had to give up the
hope of getting at the straw, and went away

muttering

:c&ij, people often pu&ge otljens toljat ttjey
cannot enjoy tljemgeltiecu"

H

TThE=lTmn~
HlooDen-GOD

i

N the old days men used to worship stocks
and stones and idols, and prayed to

^ESOP'S FABLES

99

them to give them luck. It happened that
a Man had often prayed to a wooden idol
he had received from his father, but his luck
never seemed to change. He prayed and he
prayed, but still he remained as unlucky as
ever. One day in the greatest rage he went
to the Wooden God, and with one blow
swept it down from its pedestal. The idol

broke in two, and what did he see ? An
immense number of coins flying all over
the place.

FISHER once took his bagpipes to
the bank of a river, and played
upon them with the hope of
making the fish rise ; but never a
one put his nose out of the water. So he cast
his net into the river and soon drew it forth
filled with fish. Then he took his bagpipes
again, and, as he played, the fish leapt up in
the net. " Ah, you dance now when I play,"
said he.

" Yes," said an old Fish :

"clxltljcn pott are in a man'g potocr pott mtuft Do

a# Ije lu'D0 pott."

(Tie 5hepherds_Bqy.

■'HERE was once a young Shepherd
Boy who tended his sheep at the
foot of a mountain near a dark
forest. It was rather lonely for
him all day, so he thought upon a plan by
which he could get a little company and some
excitement. He rushed down towards the
village calling out "Wolf, Wolf/' and the
villagers came out to meet him, and some of
them stopped with him for a considerable
time. This pleased the boy so much that a
few days afterwards he tried the same trick,
and again the villagers came to his help. But
shortly after this a Wolf actually did come out
from the forest, and began to worry the sheep,
and the boy of course cried out " Wolf,

^SOP'S FABLES

103

Wolf," still louder than before. But this
time the villagers, who had been fooled twice
before, thought the boy was again deceiving
them, and nobody stirred to come to his help.
So the Wolf made a good meal off the boy's
flock, and when the boy complained, the wise
man of the village said :

"# liar toill not be belfetjcn, efoen toljen
Ijc gpeate? tljc trutj*"

THE.

YOUN6

ThlEP
AND
HIS

MOTMEK.

e.'j,u,M,'i;»w;ywwu'',,,; »»)»n<<) ".N"ui" :•"»• mag • ..'. '"" '■"■ '

pfiMEfl1©UNG&miEp&HlS-Ti0IVlERL

A YOUNG man had been caught in a
daring act of theft and had been con-
demned to be executed for it. He expressed
his desire to see his Mother, and to speak with
her before he was led to execution, and of
course this was granted. When his Mother
came to him he said : u I want to whisper to
you,,: and when she brought her ear near him,
he nearly bit it off. All the bystanders were
horrified, and asked him what he could mean
by such brutal and inhuman conduct. " It
is to punish her,,: he said. u When I was
young I began with stealing little things, and
brought them home to Mother. Instead of
rebuking and punishing me, she laughed and
said : 'It will not be noticed.' It is because
of her that I am here to-day."

" He is right, woman,'1 said the Priest ;
" the Lord hath said :

" ^ratn up a cljilti in tlje toap Ije gtfjottit) go • ant)
toljcn Ije t'0 olti Ije toill not Depart tljercfronu"

©

m

©^©

HE

AN
HIS

©

rwo w^ives

©^©

■7N the old days, when men were allowed
to have many wives, a middle-aged
Man had one wife that was old and
one that was young ; each loved him
251 very much, and desired to see him
like herself. Now the Man's hair was turning
grey, which the young Wife did not like, as it
made him look too old for her husband. So
every night she used to comb his hair and
pick out the white ones. But the elder Wife
saw her husband growing grey with great
pleasure, for she did not like to be mistaken
for his mother. So every morning she used
to arrange his hair and pick out as many of

JESO?'S FABLES

107

the black ones as she could. The consequence
was the Man soon found himself entirely bald.

gielti to all ana pott toill 00011 Ijatic nottjmg;

to jfeltu

cc

E quiet now," said an old Nurse to
a child sitting on her lap. " If
you make that noise again I will
throw you to the Wolf."
Now it chanced that a Wolf was passing
close under the window as this was said. So he
crouched down by the side of the house and
waited. "I am in good luck to-day," thought
he. " It is sure to cry soon, and a daintier
morsel I haven't had for many a long day." So
he waited, and he waited, and he waited, till at
last the child began to cry, and the Wolf came
forward before the window, and looked up to
the Nurse, wagging his tail. But all the Nurse
did was to shut down the window and call for
help, and the dogs of the house came rushing
out. "Ah," said the Wolf as he galloped away,

"(Entm\z& pcomi£e0 toere matie to lie broken*"

Copyright 1894 by Mac»iilla)t & Co.

TORTOISE desired to change its
place of residence, so he asked
an Eagle to carry him to his new
home, promising her a rich reward
for her trouble. The Eagle agreed, and seiz-
ing the Tortoise by the shell with her talons,
soared aloft. On their way they met a Crow,
who said to the Eagle : " Tortoise is good eat-
ing." " The shell is too hard," said the Eagle
in reply. " The rocks will soon crack the
shell," was the Crow's answer ; and the Eagle,

I 12

^SOP'S FABLES

taking the hint, let fall the Tortoise on a sharp
rock, and the two birds made. a hearty meal
off the Tortoise.

jfletiec tfoar aloft on an encmp'0 pinions

he ZIv/o

Thirds
made a

the ZTortoise.

fine day two Crabs came out from
their home to take a stroll on the
sand. " Child," said the mother,
" you are walking very ungrace-
fully. You should accustom yourself to
walking straight forward without twisting
from side to side."

" Pray, mother," said the young one, " do
but set the example yourself, and I will follow
you."

(trample 10 tlje liegt precept.

The Afs

in the

Lions Skin.

2/

N Ass once found a Lion's skin which
the hunters had left out in the sun
to dry. He put it on and went
towards his native village. All fled
at his approach, both men and animals, and he
was a proud Ass that day. In his delight he
lifted up his voice and brayed, but then every
one knew him, and his owner came up and
gave him a sound cudgelling for the fright he
had caused. And shortly afterwards a Fox
came up to him and said : cc Ah, I knew you
by your voice."

fine clotijeg map Dilutee, iutt gill? toortig toill

tiiaclo0e a fooU

" I • knew • you ■ by • your • voice I"

Two Fellows '^3V
and the Dear.

^WO Fellows were travelling together
djyvjLj through a wood, when a Bear

/^&C\\ rusnec^ out uPon them. One of
J the travellers happened to be in
front, and he seized hold of the branch of a
tree, and hid himself among the leaves. The
other, seeing no help for it, threw himself flat
down upon the ground, with his face in the
dust. The Bear, coming up to him, put his
muzzle close to his ear, and sniffed and sniffed.
But at last with a growl he shook his head
and slouched off, for bears will not touch dead
meat. Then the fellow in the tree came down

^ESOP'S FABLES

119

to his comrade, and, laughing, said : " What
was it that Master Bruin whispered to you ? '
" He told me," said the other,

"Metier trugt a fn'enti toljo tie0ert0 pott

at a ptnclj*"

WO Pots had been
left on the bank of
a river, one of brass,
and one of earthenware.
When the tide rose they
both floated off down the
stream. Now the earthen-
ware pot tried its best to

^iy^WM..VV^i^fe

liSfliPl

^SOP'S FABLES

121

keep aloof from the brass one, which cried
out : " Fear nothing, friend, I will not
strike you."

" But I may come in contact with you,"
said the other, " if I come too close ; and
whether I hit you, or you hit me, I shall suffer
for it."

^Ije strong; anU tlje toeafc cannot keep company

H

FOUR. OAEN
THE* LION

LION used to prowl about a field
in which Four Oxen used to dwell.
Many a time he tried to attack
them ; but whenever he came near
they turned their tails to one another, so that
whichever way he approached them he was
met by the horns of one of them. At last,
however, they fell a-quarrelling among them-
selves, and each went off to pasture alone in a
separate corner of the field. Then the Lion
attacked them one by one and soon made an
end of all four.

(United toe gtanti, dtfu&efc toe falL

"7 T happened that a fisher, after fishing
Ul all day, caught only a little fish.

— " Pray, let me go, master," said the

Fish. " I am much too small for your

eating just now. If you put me back into the

river I shall soon grow, then you can make a

fine meal off me."

" Nay, nay, my little Fish," said the Fisher,
" I have you now. I may not catch you
hereafter."

# little ttjiito; in Ijanti ig toortlj more tljan a
great tljtnir in prospect.

Avaricious
and Envious

up

Wl

ith

WO neighbours came before Jupiter
and prayed him to grant their
hearts' desire. Now the one was
full of avarice, and the other eaten
envy. So to punish them both,
Jupiter granted that each might have what-
ever he wished for himself, but only on
condition that his neighbour had twice as
much. The Avaricious man prayed to have
a room full of gold. No sooner said than
done ; but all his joy was turned to grief when
he found that his neighbour had two rooms
full of the precious metal. Then came the
turn of the Envious man, who could not bear
to think that his neighbour had any joy at all.
So he prayed that he might have one of his
own eyes put out, by which means his com-
panion would become totally blind.

(Llice0 are tljeic oton ptmigrtjment

Copyright 1894 by Macmillan &• Co.

THL

CROW
THEPITCHER

r_^—^ * n i " *jT^^^

CROW, half-dead with thirst, came
upon a Pitcher which had once
been full of water ; but when the
Crow put its beak into the mouth
of the Pitcher he found that only very little
water was left in it, and that he could not
reach far enough down to get at it. He tried,
and he tried, but at last had to give up in
despair. Then a thought came, to him, and
he took a pebble and dropped it into the
Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and
dropped it into the Pitcher. Then he took
another pebble and dropped that into the
Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and
dropped that into the Pitcher. Then he took
another pebble and dropped that into the
Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and

K

13°

^SOP'S FABLES

dropped that into the Pitcher. At last, at
last, he saw the water mount up near him ;
and after casting in a few more pebbles he
was able to quench his thirst and save his life.

little bp little tioeg tije tricfu

'.Anuiiattffr

MAN had lost his way in a wood
one bitter winter's night. As he
was roaming about, a Satyr came
up to him, and finding that he had
lost his way, promised to give him a lodging
for the night, and guide him out of the forest
in the morning. As he went along to the
Satyr's cell, the Man raised both his hands
to his mouth and kept on blowing at them.
" What do you do that for ? " said the Satyr.

" My hands are numb with the cold," said
the Man, " and my breath warms them."

After this they arrived at the Satyr's home,
and soon the Satyr put a smoking dish of
porridge before him. But when the Man
raised his spoon to his mouth he began blowing
upon it. " And what do you do that for ? '
said the Satyr.

, 132

^ESOP'S FABLES

" The porridge is too hot, and my breath
will cool it."

" Out you go," said the Satyr. " I will
have nought to do with a man who can blow
hot and cold with the same breath."

Copyright 1894 by Macmillan &■ Co.

NE day a countryman going to the
nest of his Goose found there an
egg all yellow and glittering.

^ESOP'S FABLES

135

When he took it up it was as heavy as
lead and he was going to throw it away,
because he thought a trick had been played
upon him. But he took it home on second
thoughts, and soon found to his delight that
it was an egg of pure gold. Every morn-
ing the same thing occurred, and he soon
became rich by selling his eggs. As he
grew rich he grew greedy ; and thinking to
get at once all the gold the Goose could give,
he killed it and opened it only to find,
— nothing.

(Bvtzt} oft o'erreacljeg itself.

*&&&. \

/

HI

%

Copyright 1894 by Macmillan &• Co.

I -Qreed'to-Neecl'doth'Surely'lead: |

[^JeiOoosei^icHicHeiQoLDenieGGSiJ

and

LABOURER lay listening to a
Nightingale's song throughout the
summer night. So pleased was he
with it that the next night he set
a trap for it and captured it. " Now that I
have caught thee,'3 he cried, " thou shalt
always sing to me."

" We Nightingales never sing in a cage,"
said the bird.

" Then I'll eat thee," said the Labourer.
" I have always heard say that nightingale on
toast is a dainty morsel."

" Nay, kill me not," said the Nightingale ;
" but let me free, and I'll tell thee three things
far better worth than my poor body." The
Labourer let him loose, and he flew up to a

^ESOP'S FABLES 139

branch of a tree and said : " Never believe a
captive's promise ; that's one thing. Then
again: Keep what you have. And a third
piece of advice is : Sorrow not over what is
lost forever." Then the song-bird flew away.

"299!

Cock-

the-r>og

NE moonlight night a Fox was
prowling about a farmer's hen-
coop, and saw a Cock roosting
high up beyond his reach. " Good
news, good news ! " he cried.

" Why, what is that ? ' said the Cock.
" King Lion has declared a universal truce.
No beast may hurt a bird henceforth, but all
shall dwell together in brotherly friendship."

" Why, that is good news," said the Cock ;
"and there I see some one coming, with whom
we can share the good tidings." And so saying
he craned his neck forward and looked afar off.
" What is it you see ? ' said the Fox.
" It is only my master's Dog that is coming
towards us. What, going so soon ? ' he con-
tinued, as the Fox began to turn away as soon

^SOP'S FABLES

141

as he had heard the news. " Will you not
stop and congratulate the Dog on the reign of
universal peace ? '

" I would gladly do so," said the Fox, "but
I fear he may not have heard of King Lion's
decree."

fijunnins often outtoitg it$zlt+

" What, going so soon ? "

HE Wind and the Sun were disputing
which was the stronger. Suddenly
they saw a traveller coming down
the road, and the Sun said : " I see
a way to decide our dispute. Whichever of
us can cause that traveller to take off his cloak

shall be regarded as the
stronger. You begin."
So the Sun retired be-
hind a cloud, and the
Wind began to blow
as hard as it could upon
the traveller. But the
harder he blew the
more closely did the
traveller wrap his cloak
round him, till at last the Wind had to give

^SOP'S FABLES

H3

up in despair. Then the Sun came out and
shone in all his glory upon the traveller, who
soon found it too hot to walk with his cloak

on.

l&iittmegg tffectg more tfjan S>d)rat|>*

mob

HERCULES

AND THE

WAGGON E R.

WAGGONER was once driving a
heavy load along a very muddy
way. At last he came to a part
of the road where the wheels sank half-
way into the mire, and the more the horses
pulled, the deeper sank the wheels. So
the Waggoner threw down his whip, and
knelt down and prayed to Hercules the Strong.
" O Hercules, help me in this my hour of
distress," quoth he. But Hercules appeared
to him, and said :

" Tut, man, don't sprawl there. Get up
and put your shoulder to the wheel."

W&Z ptig fjelp ttjem tljat Ijelp tfjem0*tt>*&

COc"

NCE upon a time there was a Miser
who used to hide his gold at the
foot of a tree in his garden ; but
every week he used to go and dig
it up and gloat over his gains. A robber, who
had noticed this, went and dug up the gold
and decamped with it. When the Miser next
came to gloat over his treasures, he found
nothing but the empty hole. He tore his
hair, and raised such an outcry that all the
neighbours came around him, and he told
them how he used to come and visit his

^SOP'S FABLES

H7

gold. cc Did you ever take any of it out ? '

asked one of them.

"Nay," said he, "I only came to look at it."
" Then come again and look at the hole,'1

said a neighbour ; " it will do you just as much

good."

(Laiealrf) tmugcti mfgljt atf toell not txi$U

*r2>

f

W- a

TME^BOY
FHE DONKEY.

j

KS^ng^s

MAN and his son were once going
with their Donkey to market.
As they were walking along by
its side a countryman passed them

" You fools, what is a Donkey for

and said

but to ride upon ? "

So the Man put the Boy on the
Donkey and they went on their way.
But soon they passed a group of men, one of
whom said : " See that lazy youngster, he lets
his father walk while he rides."

So the Man ordered his Boy to get off, and
got on himself. But they hadn't gone far
when they passed two women, one of whom
said to the other : " Shame on that lazy lout
to let his poor little son trudge along.,:

Well, the Man didn't know what to

150

AESOP'S FABLES

do, but at last he took his Boy up
before him on the Donkey. By this time
they had come to the town, and the passers-
by began to jeer and point at them. The
Man stopped and asked what they were
scoffing at The men said : " Aren't you
ashamed of yourself for overloading that poor
Donkey of yours — you and your hulking son ? '
The Man and Boy got off and tried to think
what to do. They thought and they thought,
till at last they cut down a pole, tied the
Donkey's feet to it, and raised the pole and
the Donkey to their shoulders. They went
along amid the laughter of all who met them

AESOP'S FABLES

151

till they came to Market Bridge, when the
Donkey, getting one of his feet loose, kicked
out and caused the Boy to drop his end of the
pole. In the struggle the Donkey fell over
the bridge, and his fore-feet being tied to-

gether he was drowned.

" That will teach you,' said an old man
who had followed them :

"f>lcage all, anD pott to ill plcatfc none/'

>~£v» J^J

V

S)the

witoes.

wmm

:Mc$MibmM;mm

I;

TO

#

FOX after crossing a river got its
tail entangled in a bush, and could
-^> /,§) n°t move. A number of Mos-
£lj//vv) quitoes seeing its plight settled
upon it and enjoyed a good meal undisturbed
by its tail. A hedgehog strolling by took
pity upon the Fox and went up to him :
" You are in a bad way, neighbour," said the
hedgehog ; " shall I relieve you by driving off
those Mosquitoes who are sucking your
blood ? "

" Thank you, Master Hedgehog," said
the Fox, u but I would rather not."

"Why, how is that?" asked the hedgehog.

^ESOP'S FABLES

153

" Well, you see/' was the answer, " these
Mosquitoes have had their fill ; if you drive
these away, others will come with fresh
appetite and bleed me to death. ,:

Swift- -£*,

T happened that a Fox caught its tail
in a trap, and in struggling to release
himself lost all of it but the stump.
At first he was ashamed to show
himself among his fellow foxes. But at last
he determined to put a bolder face upon his
misfortune, and summoned all the foxes to a
general meeting to consider a proposal which
he had to place before them. When they
had assembled together the Fox proposed that
they should all do away with their tails. He
pointed out how inconvenient a tail was when
they were pursued by their enemies, the dogs ;
how much it was in the way when they

^SOP'S FABLES

155

desired to sit down and hold a friendly
conversation with one another. He failed to
see any advantage in carrying about such a
useless encumbrance. " That is all very
well," said one of the older foxes ; " but I do
not think you would have recommended us
to dispense with our chief ornament if you
had not happened to lose it yourself."

SDigtrugt interested atitiice*

DOE had had the
misfortune to lose
one of her eyes, and
could not see any
one approaching her
on that side. So to
avoid any danger she
always used to feed
on a high cliff near the

^SOP'S FABLES 157

sea, with her sound eye looking towards the
land. By this means she could see whenever
the hunters approached her on land, and often
escaped by this means. But the hunters
found out that she was blind of one eye, and
hiring a boat rowed under the cliff where she
used to feed and shot her from the sea.
" Ah," cried she with her dying voice,

"gott cannot escape pour fate."

x>

£±s

fJS ONG ago, the mice
held a general council
to consider what measures they
could take to outwit their com-
I mon enemy, the Cat. Some said
this, and some said that ; but at last a
young mouse got up and said he had a pro-
posal to make, which he thought would meet
the case. " You will all agree/5 said he,
" that our chief danger consists in the sly and
treacherous manner in which the enemy
approaches us. Now, if we could receive
some signal of her approach, we could easily
escape from her. I venture, therefore, to
propose that a small bell be procured, and

i6o ^ESOP'S FABLES

attached by a ribbon round the neck of the
Cat. By this means we should always know
when she was about, and could easily retire
while she was in the neighbourhood."

This proposal met with general applause,
until an old mouse got up and said : " That is
all very well, but who is to bell the Cat ? '
The mice looked at one another and nobody
spoke. Then the old mouse said :

u

31 1 10 eagp to propose impossible remeDieg*"

d)hat b all

very well ,

M

THE HAR£&TH£TOKrOI8E

THE Hare was once boasting of his
speed before the other animals. " I
have never yet been beaten," said he, " when
I put forth my full speed. I challenge any
one here to race with me."

The Tortoise said quietly : Ci I accept your
challenge."

"That is a good joke," said the Hare; "I
could dance round you all the way."

" Keep your boasting till you've beaten,"
answered the Tortoise. " Shall we race ? '

So a course was fixed
and a start was made.
The Hare darted almost
out of sight at once,
but soon stopped and,
to show his contempt
for the Tortoise, lay
down to have a nap.

^~>

^ESOP'S FABLES

163

The Tortoise plodded on and plodded on, and
when the Hare awoke from his nap, he saw
the Tortoise just near the winning-post and
could not run up in time to save the race.
Then said the Tortoise :

"fHoMrfng tout£ tlje race."

o>@

old labourer, bent double with age
and toil, was gathering sticks in a
forest. At last he grew so tired
and hopeless that he threw down
the bundle of sticks, and cried out : " I cannot
bear this life any longer. Ah, I wish Death
would only come and take me ! "

As he spoke, Death, a grisly skeleton,

^SOP'S FABLES 165

appeared and said to him : <c What wouldst
thou, Mortal ? I heard thee call me.'

cc Please, sir," replied the woodcutter,
" would you kindly help me to lift this faggot
of sticks on to my shoulder ? '

(Lule tooulti often in tforry if our toigrtjcg toere

QTcatificti.

^^

u

HARE was very popular with the
other beasts who all claimed to
be her friends. But one day she
heard the hounds approaching and
hoped to escape them by the aid of her many
Friends. So she went to the horse, and asked
him to carry her away from the hounds on
his back. But he declined, stating that he
had important work to do for his master.
" He felt sure," he said, " that all her other
friends would come to her assistance." She
then applied to the bull, and hoped that he
would repel the hounds with his horns. The
bull replied : " I am very sorry, but I have
an appointment with a lady ; but I feel sure
that our friend the goat will do what you
want." The goat, however, feared that his
back might do her some harm if he took
her upon it. The ram, he felt sure, was the

^ESOP'S FABLES 169

proper friend to apply to. So she went to
the ram and told him the case. The ram
replied : " Another time, my dear friend. I
do not like to interfere on the present occasion,
as hounds have been known to eat sheep as
well as hares. ': The Hare then applied, as
a last hope, to the calf, who regretted that he
was unable to help her, as he did not like to
take the responsibility upon himself, as so
many older persons than himself had declined
the task. By this time the hounds were quite
near, and the Hare took to her heels and
luckily escaped.

il?e tljat Ijas manp friend, lja<* no fticntis.

,/ /

THE»t7lON#l^«fcOlfll?

mntrmrrrr

1,1,',' I",

LION once fell in love with a
beautiful maiden and proposed
marriage to her parents. The old
people did not know what to say.
They did not like to give their daughter to
the Lion, yet they did not wish to enrage the
King of Beasts. At last the father said : " We
feel highly honoured by your Majesty's
proposal, but you see our daughter is a tender
young thing, and we fear that in the
vehemence of your affection you might
possibly do her some injury. Might I
venture to suggest that your Majesty should
have your claws removed, and your teeth
extracted, then we would gladly consider
your proposal again/ The Lion was so
much in love that he had his claws trimmed
and his big teeth taken out. But when he

^ESOP'S FABLES

171

came again to the parents of the young girl
thev simply laughed in his face, and bade him
do his worst.

Hobc can tame tljc toiltic^t.

l-fe?=5p?

N old man on the point of death
summoned his sons around him to
give them some parting advice.
He ordered his servants to bring in
a faggot of sticks, and said to his eldest son :
" Break it." The son strained and strained,
but with all his efforts was unable to break
the Bundle. The other sons also tried, but
none of them was successful. " Untie the
faggots," said the father, " and each of you
take a stick." When they had done so, he
called out to them : cc Now, break," and each
stick was easily broken. u You see my mean-
ing," said their father.

"JKnton fftbeg gtrengttu"

5he Con, the Tfoy

atto the Wum

Jj

HE Lion once gave out that he was
sick unto death, and summoned the
animals to come and hear his last
Will and Testament. So the Goat
came to the Lion's cave, and stopped there
listening for a long time. Then a Sheep went
in, and before she came out a Calf came up to
receive the last wishes of the Lord of the
Beasts. But soon the Lion seemed to recover,
and came to the mouth of his cave, and saw
the Fox who had been waiting outside for
some time. " Why do you not come to pay
your respects to me ? ' said the Lion to the
Fox.

tc I beg your Majesty's pardon," said the
Fox, " but I noticed the track of the animals
that have already come to you ; and while I

^ESOP'S FABLES

/i

see many hoof-marks going in, I see none
coming out. Till the animals that have
entered your cave come out again I prefer
to remain in the open air."

31 1 fa easier to get into tlje cnemg'0 toiitf

tljan out again*

ahe 7H%%9% TSrain*

HE Lion and the Fox went hunting
together. The Lion, on the
advice of the Fox, sent a message
to the Ass, proposing to make an
alliance between their two families. The
Ass came to the place of meeting, over-
joyed at the prospect of a royal alliance. But
when he came there the Lion simply pounced
on the Ass, and said to the Fox : " Here is our
dinner for to-day. Watch you here while
I go and have a nap. Woe betide you if you
touch my prey." The Lion went away and
the Fox waited ; but finding that his master
did not return, ventured to take out the brains
of the Ass and ate them up. When the Lion
came back he soon noticed the absence of the
brains, and asked the Fox in a terrible voice :
" What have you done with the brains ? '

" Brains, your Majesty ! it had none, or it
would never have fallen into your trap."

Mlit Ijag altoapg an angtoer reat)p>

N

N Eagle was soaring through the air
when suddenly it heard the whizz

0&%iM';®i °f an Arrow, and felt itself wounded

I,

gfjtf

to death. Slowly it fluttered down
to the earth, with its life-blood pouring out of
it. Looking down upon the Arrow with
which it had been pierced, it found that the
haft of the Arrow had been feathered with one
of its own plumes. " Alas ! ' it cried, as it
died,

"fflle often gibe our enemies tlje means* for our

oton tiegtcttctiotV

F^v^^j

HE gods were once disputing whether
it was possible for a living being
to change its nature. Jupiter said
" Yes," but Venus said tc No." So,
to try the question, Jupiter turned a Cat into
a Maiden, and gave her to a young man for
wife. The wedding was duly performed and
the young couple sat down to the wedding-
feast. " See," said Jupiter to Venus, " how
becomingly she behaves. Who could tell
that yesterday she was but a Cat ? Surely
her nature is changed ? "

" Wait a minute," replied Venus, and let
loose a mouse into the room. No sooner did

^SOP'S FABLES

181

the bride see this than she jumped up from her
seat and tried to pounce upon the mouse. " Ah,
you see," said Venus,

a

Mature to ill out."

#k

The Milkmaid

and her Pail

i^>

PATTY, the Milkmaid, was going to
market carrying her milk in a Pail
on her head. As she went along she
began calculating what she would
do with the money she would get for the
milk. " I'll buy some fowls from Farmer
Brown,' said she, " and they will lay eggs
each morning, which I will sell to the
parson's wife. With the money that I get
from the sale of these eggs I'll buy myself a
new dimity frock and a chip hat ; and when I
go to market, won't all the young men come
up and speak to me ! Polly Shaw will be that
jealous ; but I don't care. I shall just look at
her and toss my head like this.' As she spoke,
she tossed her head back, the Pail fell off it
and all the milk was spilt. So she had to go
home and tell her mother what had occurred.
u Ah, my child," said her mother,

u

2Do not count jour cljicfcentf More tljep are

Ijatctjetu"

HORSE and an Ass were travelling
together, the Horse prancing along
in its fine trappings, the Ass carry-
ing with difficulty the heavyweight
in its panniers. " I wish I were you/3 sighed
the Ass ; " nothing to do and well fed, and all
that fine harness upon you.' Next day, how-
ever, there was a great battle, and the Horse
was wounded to death in the final charge of the
day. His friend, the Ass, happened to pass by
shortly afterwards and found him on the point
of death. " I was wrong," said the Ass :

" Better ljumlile gecurfrj? tljan gilDeti Hanger*"

TRUMPETER during a battle
ventured too near the enemy and
was captured by them. They
were about to proceed to put him
to death when he begged them to hear his
plea for mercy. " I do not fight," said he,
" and indeed carry no weapon ; I only blow
this trumpet, and surely that cannot harm
you ; then why should you kill me ? "

" You may not fight yourself," said the
others, i£ but you encourage and guide your
men to the fight."

cllllortis map be ticeti^

" You fools ! see what you have been hissing.

"Che Buffoon &->
the Countryman

T a country fair there was a Buffoon
who made all the people laugh by
imitating the cries of various
animals. He finished off by
squeaking so like a pig that the spectators
thought that he had a porker concealed about
him. But a Countryman who stood by said :
" Call that a pig's squeak ! Nothing like
it. You give me till to-morrow and I will
show you what it's like.' The audience
laughed, but next day, sure enough, the
Countryman appeared on the stage, and
putting his head down squealed so hideously
that the spectators hissed and threw stones at
him to make him stop. " You fools ! ' he
cried, " see what you have been hissing,' and
held up a little pig whose ear he had been
pinching to make him utter the squeals.

®$tn often applaud an imitation, anti Ijigg tlje real

tljmcr.

— . )i

OU must know that sometimes old
women like a glass of wine. One
of this sort once found a Wine-jar
lying in the road, and eagerly went
up to it hoping to find it full. But when she
took it up she found that all the wine had
been drunk out of it. Still she took a long
sniff at the mouth of the Jar. " Ah,'5 she
cried,

"(LSlljat memories cling counti rlje instruments of

our pleasure/'

ft

Y an unlucky chance a Fox fell into
a deep well from which he could
not get out. A Goat passed by
shortly afterwards, and asked the
Fox what he was doing down there. " Oh,
have you not heard ? 3 said the Fox ; " there
is going to be a great drought, so I jumped
down here in order to be sure to have water
by me. Why don't you come down too ? '
The Goat thought well of this advice, and
jumped down into the well. But the Fox
immediately jumped on her back, and by
putting his foot on her long horns managed to
jump up to the edge of the well. " Good-
bye, friend/' said the Fox ; " remember next
time,

"j^cfcer tcu£t tlje atifoice of a matt fit Mfficultiejaf*"

o

i94

^SOP'S FABLES

And this is the end of iEsop's Fables.
Hurrah !

HOTES

So the tales were told ages before /Esop ; and asses under

lions'1 manes roared in Hebrew ; and sly foxes flattered in

Etruscan ; and ivolves in sheep's clothing gnashed their teeth

in Sanskrit^ no doubt.

Thackeray, The Newcomes.

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NOTES

^HE European /Esop is derived from the Latin and
German iEsop compiled by Heinrich Stainhowel
about 1480 a.d. This consists of the following
six parts (see Pedigree opposite).

(1) Medieval life of iEsop, attributed to Planudes. (I. in
Pedigree.)

(2) Four books of fables, connected with the name of
Romulus, but really, as modern research has shown, all
derived from Phaedrus, though in a fuller form than the
extant remains of that poet. (II. -V. in Pedigree.)

(3) Fabulae Extravagantes : a series of beast stories of the
Reynard the Fox type, and probably connected with the new
fables introduced by Marie de France. (VI. in Pedigree.)

(4) A few fables from the Greek prose iEsop, really
prosings of Babrius. (VII. in Pedigree.)

(5) Selection from the fables of Avian. (VIII. in Pedigree.)

(6) Facetiae from Poggio and Petrus Alfonsi.

All the vernacular versions of Europe were derived in the
first instance from this omnium gatherum. Thus in England
Caxton introduced the Stainhowel through the medium of
the French. Later collections omitted much of the Stain-
howel, especially the Fabulae Extravagantes and the Facetiae^
and added somewhat from the later editions of the Greek
prose iEsop, which up to the time of Bentley were supposed
to be derived from the Samian slave himself. La Fontaine

198 ^SOP'S FABLES

introduced a few oriental Apologues among the latter half
of his Fables. Some of these, e.g. " La Perrette," have been
incorporated into the later iEsops.

The present collection aims at representing in selection
and arrangement this history of the European ^Esop.1
Three quarters of its contents give in due order those of
Stainhowel, which have survived in the struggle for existence
in the popular consciousness. As a kind of appendix the
last quarter of fables in this book gives a miscellaneous set
derived from various collections published since the Stain-
howel, and winning their way by force of merit into the
popular iEsops. For the fables derived from the Stainhowel-
Caxton I have referred briefly to the bibliographical appendix
in my edition of Caxton, pp. 225, 268, by the symbols
used there, as follows : —

Ro. = Four books of Romulus, really Phaedrus.

Ex. v. = Extravagantes.

Re. = Greek prose fables, latinised by Remicius.

Av. = Avian.

Po. = Poggio.
I give here a short summary of the information more
fully contained in these bibliographical lists. I have gone
more into detail for the last twenty fables or so which do
not occur in Caxton.

I.— COCK AND PEARL (Ro. i. 1).

Phaedrus, iii. 12. Cannot be traced earlier or elsewhere.
It gave its title to Boner's German collection of fables.
Luther, La Fontaine, Lessing, Krilof, included it in their
collections. It is quoted by Rabelais, Bacon, Essays^ xiii.,
and Mr. Stevenson, Catrlona.

1 Dodsley's .^Esop in the 'last century was arranged on a somewhat similar
plan, being divided into three books of Ancient, Modern, and Original Fables.

NOTES 199

II.—WOLF AND LAMB (Ro. i. 2).

Phaedrus, i. 1. Probably Indian, occurring as the Dipi
Jataka, in Tibet and in Madagascar. In the Jataka a
Panther meets a Kid and complains that his tail has been
trodden upon. The Kid gently points out that the Pan-
ther's face was towards him.

Panther. " My tail covers the earth."

Kid. " But I came through the air."

Panther. " I saw you frightening the beasts by coming
through the air. You prevented my getting any prey."
— TVarra, JVarra, JVarra.

The Jataka occurs in Tibet, told .of the Wolf and the
Sheep. It is referred to by Shakespeare, Henry IF. Act I.
scene viii.

III.— DOG AND SHADOW (Ro. i. 5).

Phaedrus, i. 4. Probably Indian, from the Calladhanuggaha
Jataka [Folklore Journal^ ii. 371 seq.). An unfaithful wife
eloping with her lover arrives at the bank of a stream.
There the lover persuades her to strip herself so that he may
carry her clothes across the stream, which he proceeds to do,
but never returns. Indra, seeing her plight, changes him-
self into a jackal bearing a piece of flesh and goes down to
the bank of the stream. In its waters fish are disporting,
and the Indra-jackal, laying aside his meat, plunges in after
one of them. A vulture hovering near seizes hold of the
meat and bears it aloft, and the jackal, returning unsuccess-
ful from his fishing, is taunted by the woman. In the imi-
tation of the Jataka which occurs in the Panchatantra
(v. 8) her taunt is :

" The fish swims in the waters still, the vulture is off*
with the meat.

200 ^SOP'S FABLES

" Deprived of both fish and meat, Mistress Jackal, whither
away ? "

The jackal replies :

" Great as is my wisdom, thine is twice as great.

" No husband, no lover, no clothes, lady, whither away ? "

Thus, in the Indian version the loss of the meat is a
deliberate plan of the god Indra to read a lesson to the faith-
less wife. In all the earlier versions the dog is swimming
in the stream. The passage across the bridge we get from
Marie de France or her original.

IV.— LION'S SHARE (Ro. i. 6).

Phaedrus, i. 5. The companions of the Lion in Phaedrus
are a Cow, a Goat, and a Sheep. This seems to point to
some mistranslation from an Indian original, though none
such has been discovered. The medieval versions of Marie
de France and Benedict of Oxford (Hebrew) have another
version in which the Lion's partners are carnivorous, as is
appropriate. Our expression, " Lion's share," comes from
this fable, on which a special monograph has been written
by C. Gorski, 1888 (Dissertation).

V.— THE WOLF AND CRANE (Ro. i. 8).

Phaedrus, i. 8. Certainly Indian. Occurring as the
Javasakuna Jataka, in which Buddha tells the story of a Lion
and a Crane to illustrate the ingratitude of the wicked.
The Jataka concludes : " The master, having given the
lesson, summed up the Jataka thus : At that time the Lion
was Devadatta [the Buddhist Judas], and the Crane was I
myself." This is a striking example how the Indian doc-
trine of the transmigration of souls could be utilised to

NOTES 20;

connect a great moral teacher with the history of the fable.
In the same way Buddha is represented as knowing the
Wolf and Lamb fable, because he had been the Kid of the
original.

In my History of the Msopic Fable I have selected the
" Wolf and the Crane " for specially full treatment ; and my
bibliography of its occurrences runs to over a hundred
numbers, pp. 232-234. The Buddhistic form of the fable
first became known to Europe in 1691 in De La Loubere's
Description of Slam, It had undoubtedly reached the ancient
world by two different roads : (a) As a Libyan fable which
was included by Demetrius of Phaleron in his Assemblies of
Msopic Fables, circa 300 B.C., from whom Phaedrus obtained
it ; (Z>) as one of the " Fables of Kybises," brought from
Ceylon to Alexandria, c. 50 a.d. This form, which still
retains the Lion, was used by a Rabbi, Jochanan ben Saccai,
c. 120 a.d., to induce the Jews not to revolt against the
Romans ; this is. found in the great Rabbinical Commentary
on Genesis, Bereshith Rabba, c. 64.

It has been conjectured that the tradition of the
Ichneumon picking the teeth of the Crocodile (Herod, ii.
68) was derived from this fable, which has always been very
popular. The Greeks had a proverb, " Out of the Wolfs
mouth." The fable is figured on the Bayeux tapestry
(see frontispiece to my History).

VI.— MAN AND SERPENT (Ro. ii. 10).

1

In medieval prose Phaedrus ; also in Gabrias, a medieval
derivate of Babrius, though not now extant in either
Phaedrus or Babrius. Certainly Indian, for as Benfey has
shown, the Greek and the Latin forms together make up
the original story as extant in Fables Bidpai. (See Jacobs,
Indian Fairy Tales, xv. : " The Gold-giving Serpent," and

202 ^ESOP'S FABLES

Notes, pp. 246, 247.) The fable has found its way among
European folk tales in Germany, Poland, and Iceland.

VII.— TOWN AND COUNTRY MOUSE

(Ro. i. 12).

Horace, Sat. II. vi. JJ. It must also have occurred in
Phaedrus, as the medieval prose version of Ademar contains
a relic in the Iambic Trimeter of the line —

Perduxit precibus post in urbe?n rusticum.
Prior and Montagu elaborated the fable for political pur-
poses in their "Town and Country Mouse," 1687.

VIII.— FOX AND CROW (Ro. i. 15).

Phaedrus, i. 13. Probably Indian. There are a couple
of Jatakas having the same moral. There is an English
proverb : " The Fox praises the meat out of the Crow's
mouth." The fable is figured on the Bayeux tapestry.
(See Frontispiece to History.) Thackeray makes use of it
in his pot pourri of fables in the Prologue to The Newcomes.
It is perhaps worth while quoting Professor de Gubernatis's
solar myth explanation of the fable in his Zoological
Mythology^ ii. 251 : "The Fox (the Spring aurora) takes the
cheese (the Moon) from the Crow (the winter night) by
making it sing ! "

IX.— THE SICK LION (Ro. i. 16).
Phaedrus, i. 21.

X.— ASS AND LAP-DOG (Ro. i. 17).

Not in extant Phaedrus, but must have been in the com-
plete edition, as the medieval prose versions preserve some
of the lines.

NOTES 203

XL— THE LION AND THE MOUSE (Ro. i. 18).

From medieval prose Phaedrus, which still retains a line
or two of the original, but not now extant. Also certainly
Indian in the form of " Elephant and Mouse," as elephants
are often tied to trees as preliminary to taming them. The
Greek form of the fable got into Egyptian literature about
200 a.d., when it occurs in a late Levden papyrus. Upon
this a whole theory of the African origin of the fable was
founded by the late Sir R. F. Burton. (See Jacobs, I.e. 91, 92.)

XII.— SWALLOW AND OTHER BIRDS

(Ro. i. 20).

In medieval prose Phaedrus and Bayeux tapestry. An
attempt has been made to find an Indian origin for this
fable, but without much success.

XIIL— FROGS DESIRING A KING (Ro. ii. 1).

Phaedrus, i. 2. Said to have been recited by Solon to the
Athenians. It has been recently found in Madagascar,
where the Frogs present their petitions, in the first place, to
the Sun, and, when the Heron commences to eat them all up,
attempt to get the intervention of the Moon. (Ferrand.
Contes Malgaches, 1893, No. xiv.)

XIV.— THE MOUNTAINS IN LABOUR

(Ro. ii. 5).

Phaedrus, iv. 23. Referred to by Lucian, Vera His-
torla. Clearly referred to in Horace's line, Ars Poet. 139 —
P arturiunt monies^ nascetur ridleulus mus.

2o+ .£SOP'S FABLES

XV.— HARES AND FROGS (Ro. ii. 8).
In medieval prose Phaedrus.

XVI.— WOLF AND KID (Ro. ii. 9).
In medieval prose Phaedrus. Cf. Grimm, Marchen^ v.

XVII.— WOODMAN AND SERPENT

(Ro. i. 10).

Phaedrus, iv. 19. Probably Indian, occurring in Maha-
bharata. The versions vary as to the threatened victim. In
some it is the peasant himself; in others, it is one of his
children after he arrives home. In one of the medieval
prosings of Phaedrus, by Ademar, a woman finds and
nourishes the serpent.

XVIIL— BALD MAN AND FLY (Ro. ii. 12).

Phaedrus, iv. 31. Probably Indian, from the Makasa
Jataka, in which a foolish son takes up an axe to kill a fly
which is worrying his father's bald pate, but naturally misses
the flv.

XIX.— FOX AND STORK (Ro. ii. 13).
Phaedrus, i. 26. Occurs also in Plutarch, Symp. Whitest.

1.5.

XX.— FOX AND MASK (Ro. ii. 14).

Phaedrus, i. 7. In Caxton this becomes " The Wolf
and the Skull," and so loses all point.

NOTES 20:

XXI.— JAY AND PEACOCK (Ro. ii. 15).

Phaedrus, i. 3. Referred to by Horace, Epist. I. iii. 18,
and Plautus, AuluL II. i. Probably Indian, owing to the
habitat of the bird and the similarity of the Nacca Jataka.
The parvenu bird varies. Benedict of Oxford, in his
Hebrew version, makes it Raven. Most of the English
iEsops call it a Jackdaw. Thackeray includes it in the
Prologue to The Newcomes. A monograph has been
written on this fable by M. Fuchs, 1886 (Dissertation).
Our expression, " Borrowed plumes," comes from it.

XXII.— FROG AND OX (Ro. ii. 20).

Phaedrus, i. 24. Told by Horace, Sat. II. iii. 314. Cf.
Martial, x. 79. Carlyle gives a version in his Miscellanies, ii.
283, from the old German of Boner. Thackeray introduces
it in the Prologue to The Newcomes. There is said to be
a species of Frog in South America, Ceratophrys, which has
a remarkable power of blowing itself out,

XXIII.— ANDROCLES (Ro. iii. 1).

Medieval prose Phaedrus. Quoted by Appian, Aulus
Gellius, and Seneca. Probably Oriental. Was dropped out
of iEsop, but is familiar to us from its inclusion in Day's
Sandford and Merton ; see also, Painter, Palace of Pleasure,
ed. Jacobs, i. 89, 90, where the slave is called Androdus.

XXIV.— BAT, BIRDS, AND BEASTS (Ro. iii. 4).

Medieval prose Phaedrus. Ouoted by Varro, and in the
Pandects, xxi., De evict. I have made use of the Arabic

206 ^SOP'S FABLES

proverb about the ostrich : " They said to the camel-bird,
c Fly ' ; it said, c I am a beast ' : they said, c Carry ' ; it said,
' I am a bird.' "

XXV.— HART AND HUNTER (Ro. iii. 7).

Phaedrus, i. 12. Possibly Eastern. It has recently been
collected in Madagascar. (Ferrand. Contes Malgaches, xvi.)

XXVI.— SERPENT AND FILE (Ro. iii. 12).

Phaedrus, iv. 8. Told in the Arabic fables of Loqman
of a cat. Quoted by Stevenson, Master of Ballantrae.

XXVII.— MAN AND WOOD (Ro. iii. 14).

Medieval prose Phaedrus. Indian. Found also in
Talmud, Sanhedrim, 39A

XXVIII.— DOG AND WOLF (Ro. iii. 15).

Phaedrus, iii. 7. Told in Avian, 37, and Benedict of
Oxford, of a lion and a dog.

XXIX.— BELLY AND MEMBERS (Ro. iii. 16).

Medieval prose iEsop. Occurs also in Plutarch, Coriol.
vi. (cf. North's Plutarch, ed. Skeat, p. 6. Also
North's Bidpai, ed. Jacobs, p. 64). It is said to have been
told by Menenius Agrippa to prevent the Plebeians seceding
from the Patricians in the early days of Rome (Livy, I.
xxx. 3). The second scene of Shakespeare's Coriolanus is
mainly devoted to this fable. Similar fables occur in the

NOTES 207

East. An Egyptian Debat on very much the same subject
was recently discovered by M. Maspero, who dates it circa
1250 B.C. It is found in the Upanishads, whence it came
to the Mahabharata, thence possibly into the Zend Yacna.
A Buddhistic version exists in the Chinese Avadanas.
The Jews had early knowledge of a similar fable, which is
told in a Rabbinic Commentary on Psalm xxxix. There
can be no doubt that St. Paul had a similar fable in his
mind when writing the characteristic passage, 1 Cor. xii.
12-26. This combines the Indian idea of the contests of
the Members with the Roman notion of the organic nature
of the body politic. Thus this fable forms part of the
sacred literature of the Egyptians, of Chinese, of Buddhists,
Brahmins and Magians, of Jews and Christians ; and we
might almost add, of Romans and Englishmen. There were
also medieval mysteries on the subject. Prato has a mono-
graph on the fable in Archivio per Tradizione Popolari^ iv.
25-40, the substance of which I have given in my History ,
pp. 82-99.

XXX.— HART IN OX-STALL (Ro. iii. 19).
Phaedrus, ii. 8.

XXXI.— FOX AND GRAPES (Ro. iv. 1).

Occurs both in Phaedrus (iv. 3) and Babrius, 19. Has
been found by Dr. Leitner in Darbistan as " The Fox
and the Pomegranates." Our expression, " The grapes are
sour," comes from this.

XXXII.— THE PEACOCK AND JUNO (Ro.iv.4).
Phaedrus, iii. 18. Cf. Avian, 8.

208 ^ESOP'S FABLES

XXXIII.— HORSE, HUNTER, AND STAG

(Ro. iv. 9).

Phasdrus, iv. 4. Attributed by Aristotle, Rhet. ii. 20, to
Stesichorus. Referred to by Horace, Epist. I. x. 34, Given
in North's Bidpai, ed. Jacobs, p. 65.

XXXIV.— FOX AND LION (Ro. iv. 12).

Medieval prose iEsop. Probably Indian. Quoted by
Plato, Alcib. i. 503. Horace, Epist. I. i. 73.

XXXV.— LION AND STATUE (Ro. iv. 15).

Medieval prose Phasdrus. Ouoted by Plutarch, Apophth.
Lacaed. 69. Curiously enough, though this fable is no longer
extant in Babrius, it is one of those used by Crusius to prove
that Babrius was a Roman ; for it exists among those pass-
ing under the name of Gabrias, which were certainly derived
from a completer Babrius than that now extant. In this
the Statue is declared to have been placed upon a sepulchral
monument : a custom only found among the Romans and
not among the Greeks. The fable also occurs in the Greek
prose i^sop, ed. Halm, 63 (which is also derived from the
Babrius), and in Avian, 24. It is quoted in Spectator,
No. 11.

XXXVL— ANT AND GRASSHOPPER (Ro. iv. 17).

Medieval prose Phaedrus. The Ant is also the type of
provident toil in Proverbs vi. 6. La Fontaine's first fable
deals with this subject, and has recently formed the basis of
the Opera La Cigale.

NOTES 209

XXXVII.— TREE AND REED (Ro. iv. 20).

Not from Phaedrus, nor in the original Romulus, but
inserted by Stainhowel at the end of his selections from
" Romulus " to make up the number twenty of the fourth
book. Probably from Avian 16, though it also occurs in
the prose iEsop, Ed. Halm, 179 (which is ultimately derived
from Babrius 36). It is probably Indian, as in Mahabharata
the Sea complains that the Rivers bring down to it oaks,
but not reeds. It occurs also in the Talmud, Tanith 20. b.
Cf. the line in the dirge in Cymbeline, " To thee the reed is as
the oak." Wordsworth's poem : 77?^? Oak and the Broom
develops the subject at great length.

XXXVIII.— FOX AND CAT (Ex. v. 5).

Probably from Marie de France, 98. There was a
Greek proverb on the subject, attributed to Ion (Leutsch,
Paraeom. Graecl, i. 147). The tale has got among the
Folk, Grimm 75, Halm, Griech. M'dhrch. 91.

XXXIX.— WOLF IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING

(Ex. v. 15).

Practically derived from Matt. vii. 15. Thackeray makes
effective use of it in the prologue to The Newcomes. As a
matter of fact it does not occur in any of the collections
attributed to iEsop. L'Estrange gives it as number 328,
from Abstemius, an Italian fabulist, circa 1450.

XL.— DOG IN THE MANGER (Ex. v. n).

It is difficult to trace how this fable got so early into the
Stainhowel. It is told very shortly of a Dog and a Horse
by Lucian, Adv. in Doct. 30, but is not included in the

P

2io ^SOP'S FABLES

ordinary Greek prose .^Esops. It was included as the last
fable in Alsop's Oxford JEsop, 1798, where it was introduced
in order to insert a gibe against Bentley for his " dog in the
manger " behaviour with regard to the Royal Manuscripts.
See Jebbj Bentley, p. 62.

XLL— MAN AND WOODEN GOD (Re. vi.)

Taken by Stainhowel from the hundred Latin prose
versions of Greek fables translated by Ranutio D'Arezzo
from a manuscript, in 1476, before any of the fables had been
published in Greek. It occurs in the Greek prose iEsop 66,
from Babrius 119.

XLIL— THE FISHER (Re. vii.)

Told by Herodotus, i. 141. Thence by Ennius, Ed.
Vahlen, p. 151. Ranutio got it from prose iEsop, 39,
derived from Babrius 9. There is an English proverb :
" Fish are not to be caught with a bird-call."

XLIIL— THE SHEPHERD BOY (Re. x.) '

Ultimately derived from Babrius : though only extant in
the Greek prose iEsop. Gittlbauer has restored it from the
prose version in his edition of Babrius, number 199. We
are familiar with the story from its inclusion in the spelling-
books, like that of Mavor, whence our expression " To cry
wolf."

XLIV.— YOUNG THIEF AND MOTHER

(Re. xiv.)

From Babrius through the Greek prose. Restored by
Gittlbauer 247.

NOTES 211

XLV.— MAN WITH TWO WIVES (Re. xvi.)

The last of Ranutio's hundred fables derived from prose
iEsop's 56 = Babrius 22. It is probably eastern. Cf.
Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, p. 120. Clouston, Popular Tales^
i. 16.

XLVI.— NURSE AND WOLF (Av. i.)

From Avian. Chaucer seems to refer to it : Freres
Tale, 6957.

XLVII.— TORTOISE AND BIRDS (Av. ii.)

From Avian, though it also occurs in the Greek prose
/Esop 419, from Babrius 115. ^Elian's story of the Death of
/Eschylus because an eagle mistook his bald pate for a rock
and dropped the tortoise on it, is supposed to be derived
from this fable. It is certainly Indian, like most of Avian's,
and occurs in the Kacchapa "Jataka. Here a Tortoise is
carried by two birds, holding a stick in its mouth, and falls
on opening its mouth to rebuke the birds that are scoffing
at it. Buddha uses the incident as a lesson to a talkative
king. Cf. North's Bidpai^ ed. Jacobs 174, and Indian
Fairy Tales , number 13.

XLVIIL— THE TWO CRABS (Av. iii.)

From Avian. Aristophanes, Pax 1083, says: "You
will never get a crab to walk straight," which may refer to
this fable.

XLIX.— ASS IN LION'S SKIN (Av. iv.)
Avian, ed. Ellis, 5. Supposed to be referred to by Socrates

212 ^ESOP'S FABLES

when he says, Plato, Cratyl. 41 1 a, " / must not quake now I
have donned the lion's skin" But it seems doubtful whether
Socrates would have written himself down an ass, and the
expression may really refer to the stage representations of
Hercules. The fable is certainly Indian as it occurs among
the Jatakas in a form which gives a raison d'etre for the
masquerade. The Ass in the Jataka is dressed every morn-
ing by his master in the Lion's skin, so as to obtain free
pasturage by frightening away the villagers. (Given in
Jacobs, Indian Fairy Tales^ number 20.) The story is told
of a Hare in South Africa (Bleek, Reineke Fuchs in Africa).
Thackeray includes it as before in his Newcomes.

L.— TWO FELLOWS AND BEAR (Av. viii.)
Avian, ed. Ellis, 9.

LL— TWO POTS (Av. ix.)

Avian, ed. Ellis, II. Probably Indian. [Panch. iii. 13.)
It occurs also in the Apocrypha : " Have no fellowship with
one that is mightier and richer than thyself, for how agree
the Kettle and Earthen Pot together ? " (Fcclus. xiii. 2).
There is a Talmudic proverb : " If a jug fall on a stone,
woe to the jug ■> if a stone fall on a jug, woe to the jug."
(Midr. Est. ap. Dukes Blumenlese^ No. 530.)

LIE— FOUR OXEN AND LION (Av. xiv.)

Avian, ed. Ellis, 18. Also Babrius 44 {Three Bulls).
We have ancient pictorial representations of this fable. Cf.
Helbig, Untersuchungen 93.

LIIL— FISHER AND LITTLE FISH (Av. xvi.)
Avian, ed. Ellis, 20. Also Babrius 6. Our " bird in

NOTES 213

the hand " is the English representation of the ancient fable
which has gradually ceased to appear among the popular
JEsops.

LIV.— AVARICIOUS AND ENVIOUS (Av. xvii.)

Avian 22. Probably Indian, occurring in the Pancha-
tantra. It has been recovered amono- the Indian folk of

D

to-day by Major Temple in his delightful JVide Awake
Stories^ p. 2155 very popular in the Middle Ages, occurring
as a fabliau, and used in the Monks' sermons. (See the
Exempla of Jacques de Vltry^ ed. Crane, 196.) Hans Sachs
used it, and Gower, Conf. Amant. ii. 2. Chamisso made it
the basis of his tale Abdullah.

LV.— CROW AND PITCHER (Av. xx.)

Avian 27. A similar anecdote is told in the Talmud,
Aboda Sara^ 30 a. It is therefore probably Eastern.

LVL— MAN AND SATYR (Av. xxii.)

Avian 29. Also in Babrius, ed. Gittlbauer, 183. From
Greek prose iEsop, 64. Our expression " blow hot and
cold " comes from this fable.

LVIL— GOOSE WITH GOLDEN EGGS (Av. xxiv.)

Avian 33. Probably Indian, as a similar tale occurs in
the Jatakas.

LVIIL— LABOURER AND NIGHTINGALE

(Alf. iv.)

From Petrus Alfonsi, DiscipUna Clericalls, c. 1106 a.d. ;
a set of tales taken from Oriental sources to season sermons ;

214 ^SOP'S FABLES

very popular in the Middle Ages. Lydgate founded his
Chorle and Bird upon it.

LIX.— FOX, COCK, AND DOG (Ro. vii.)

Inserted among a selection from Poggio's Facetiae by
Stainhowel, who derived it from Romulus, iv. 18, so that it was
probably once extant in Phasdrus. A similar fable occurs
as the Kukuta "Jataka which is figured on the Buddhist
Stupa of Bharhut. I have reproduced the figure in my
History^ p. 76, and suggest there that the medieval form
represents the original of the Jataka better than that
occurring in the present text, from considerations derived
from this illustration.

All the preceding fables occur in the Stainhowel, and so
in Caxton's ./Esop. The remainder have come into the
popular ^Esops from various sources, some of which are by
no means easy to trace.

LX.— WIND AND SUN.

Avian 4, but not included by Caxton in his Selections
fro?n Avian. L'Estrange has it as his Fable 223. It occurs
also in Babrius, 18, whence it came to the Greek prose
iEsop. An epigram of Sophocles against Euripides contains
an allusion to this fable (Athen. xiii. 82). The fable is
applied to the behaviour of wives by Plutarch : Conj. Praec.
chap. xii. It is given by La Fontaine vi. 3, Loqman (the
Arabic iEsop) xxxiv., and Waldis' Esopus i. 89.

LXL— HERCULES AND THE WAGGONER.

Avian 32. Babrius 20. Greek iEsop, ed. Halm, 81.
Not included by Caxton in his Selections. " Put your
shoulder to the wheel " obviously comes from this fable, and
thus ultimately from Avian's line :

NOTES 215

" Et manibus pigras disce juvare rotas."
Also in La Fontaine vi. 18, Waldis ii. 14, L'Estrange 246.

LXII.— MISER AND HIS GOLD.

Greek Prose iEsop, 59. Lessing, ii. 16. La Fontaine,
iv. 20. L'Estrange, 146.

LXIIL— MAN, BOY, AND DONKEY.

La Fontaine, iii. 1, from Poggio's Facetiae. We get this
ultimately from Conde Lucanor^ a Spanish collection of tales,
many of which can be traced to the East, so that this is
probably of Oriental origin, and indeed it occurs as the
Lady's nineteenth story in the Turkish book of the Forty
Vezirs. The remarks of the passers-bv in the original are
more forcible than elegant.

LXIV.— FOX AND MOSQUITOES.

This is the only fable which can be traced with any
plausibility to iEsop himself. At any rate, it is attributed
to him on the high authority of Aristotle, Rhet. II. 20.
The Roman Emperors seem to have had a special liking for
this fable which they were wont to use to console pro-
vincials for the rapacity of proconsuls or procurators.
Occurs in Plutarch, ed. Wittemb. IV. i. 144. Prose
iEsop, 36 (from Aristotle). Gesta Romanorum, 51. Waldis,
iv. 52. La Fontaine, xii. 13. L'Estrange, 254.

LXV.— FOX WITHOUT A TAIL.

Greek prose iEsop, 46. Probably from Babrius (see
Gittlbauer's edition, no. 224). Also Waldis, iii. 41. La
Fontaine, v. 5. L'Estrange, 10 1.

2i6 vESOP'S FABLES

LXVI.— THE ONE-EYED DOE.

Greek Prose iEsop. L'Estrange, 147.

LXVII.— BELLING THE CAT.

La Fontaine, ii. 2, who probably got it from Abstemius,
who may have derived it from the Fables of Bidpai.
L'Estrange, 391. It is admirably told in the Prologue
to Piers Plowman, texts B. and C. M. Jusserand, in his
recent monograph on Piers Plowman (Eng. ed, p. 43), gives
a representative of this fable found on the misericord of a stall
at Great Malvern, the site of the poem. In a conspiracy
against James III. of Scotland, Lord Grey narrated the
fable, when Archibald Earl of Angus exclaimed : " I am he
who will bell the cat." Hence afterwards he was called
Archibald Bell-the-Cat (Scott, Tales of a Grandfather, I. xix.).
The Cat in Plowman's apologue is John of Gaunt. Skelton
alludes to the fable in his Colin Clout, We get the expression
" bell the cat " from it.

LXVIIL— HARE AND TORTOISE.

L'Estrange, 133. It occurs as a folk-tale in Grimm,
and among the Folk in England.

LXIX.— OLD MAN AND DEATH.

Greek iEsop, ed. Halm, 90. Loqman, 14. La Fontaine,
i. 16. L'Estrange, 113. The similar fable of the
Messengers of Death (on which cf. Dr. Morris in Folklore
fournal) is certainly derived from India.

LXX.— HARE AND MANY FRIENDS.

An original fable of Gay's, which has perhaps retained its
popularity owing to the couplet :

NOTES 217

And when a Ladv's in the case,
You know all other things give place.

LXXI.— THE LION IN LOVE.

Babrius 98. Used by Eumenes to warn the Macedonians
against the wiles of Antigonus (Diod. Sicul. xix. 25).
La Fontaine, iv. 1. L'Estrange, 121.

LXXIL— BUNDLE OF STICKS.

Babrius 47. A similar apologue is told of Ghenghiz Khan,
and occurs in Harkon's Armenian History of the Tartars.
Plutarch tells it of a king of Scythia (Jpophth. 84, 16).
Cf. Eccl. iv. 12. L'Estrange, 62. La Fontaine, iv. 17.

LXXIIL— LION, FOX, AND BEASTS (Ro. iv. 12).

Referred to by Plato, Alcib. i. 503 ; also by Horace, Epist.
I. i. 73 [Nulla vestigia retrorsum). It comes to us from the
medieval prose Phaedrus. Probably Indian, as it occurs in
the Panchatantra^ iii. 14. Also in the Tutinameh, ii. 125.

LXXIV.— ASS'S BRAINS.

Babrius 95, told of the Lion and Bear. Certainly
Indian, where it occurs in the Panchatantra, iv. 2, except
that an Ass occurs instead of a Deer. From India the
fable got to Judaea, where it is found in the Rabbinic Com-
mentary on Exodus, here again the animal is an Ass. In
both Indian and Greek original the animal loses its heart,
which is regarded by the Ancients as the seat of intelligence.
I have had to change the missing organ in order to preserve
the pun which makes up most of the point of the story.
The tale is however of very great critical importance in the

218 ^SOP'S FABLES

history of the fable, and I have inserted it mainly for that
reason. Mr. G. C. Keibel has studied the genealogy of the
various versions in a recent article in Zeits. fur vergleich.
Literaturgeschichte^ 1894, p. 264 seq.

LXXV.— EAGLE AND ARROW.

iEschylus' Myrmidons as given by the Scholiast on Aristo-
phanes' dves, 808. iEschylus quotes it as being a Libyan
fable, it is therefore probably Eastern. Byron refers to it in
his English Bards and Scotch Reviewers :

So the struck eagle, stretch'd upon the plain,
No more through rolling clouds to soar again,
View'd his own feather on the fatal dart,
And wing'd the shaft that quiver'd in his heart.

He got the idea from Waller, To a lady singing a song of his
composing. Cf. La Fontaine, ii. 6.

LXXVL— THE CAT-MAIDEN.

From Phaedrus, though not in the ordinary editions ;
the whole of the poem, however, can be restored from the
prose version in the medieval Esopus ad Rufmi. (See my
History^ p. 12.) The fable is told of a weasel by the
dramatist Strattis, c. 400 B.C., and by Alexis, 375 B.C. Prob-
ablv Indian, as a similar story occurs in the Panchatantra.
A Brahmin saves a Mouse and turns it into a Maiden whom
he determines to marry to the most powerful being in the
world. The Mouse-Maiden objects to the Sun as a hus-
band, as being too hot : to the Clouds, which can obscure
the Sun, as being too cold : to the Wind, which can drive
the Clouds, as too unsteady : to the Mountain, which can

NOTES 219

withstand the Wind, as being inferior to Mice which can
bore into its entrails. So the Brahmin goes with her to the
Mouse-King. Her body became beautified by her hair
standing on end for joy, and she said : " Papa, make me
into a Mouse, and give me to him as a wife." The Indian
fable has exactly the same moral as the Greek one, Naturam
expellas. We can trace the incident of strong, stronger,
more strong still, and strongest, in the Talmud, while there
is a foreign air about the metempsychosis in the Phasdrine
fable. As this fable is one of the earliest known in Greece
before Alexander's march to India, it is an important piece
of evidence for the transmission of fables from the East.
(Cf. La Fontaine, ii. 18 ; ix. 7.)

LXXVIL— MILKMAID AND HER PAIL.

Has become popular through La Fontaine's Perrette.
Derived from India, as has been shown by Benfey in his
Einleitung. Panchatantra, § 209. Professor Max Miiller
has expanded this in his admirable essay on the Emigration
of Fables, Selected Essays^ i. pp. 500-576. The story of
Alnaschar, the Barber's Fifth Brother in the Arabian
Nights^ also comes from the same source. La Fontaine's
version, which has made the fable so familiar to us all,
comes from Bonaventure des Periers, Contes et Nouvelles^
who got it from the Dialogus Creaturarum of Nicholaus
Pergamenus, who derived it from the Sermones of Jacques de
Vitry (see Prof. Crane's edition, no. ii.), who probably
derived it from the Directoriufn Humana Vitce of John
of Capua, a converted Jew, who translated it from the
Hebrew version of the Arabic Kalilah iva Dinmah, which
was itself derived from the old Syriac version of a Pehlevi
translation of the original Indian work.

220 ^SOP'S FABLES

LXXVIIL— HORSE AND ASS.

Babrius 7. Cf. Kirchhoff, Wendenmuth^ vii. 54 (edit.
Oesterley). Some versions have only a "wounded charger,"
who is afterwards set to work as a draught horse.

LXXIX.— THE TRUMPETER PRISONER.

Greek prose iEsop, 386. Probably from Babrius. Cf.
Gittlbauer, 171. Waldis, 155. L'Estrange, 67. Kirchhoff,
vii. 93.

LXXX.— BUFFOON AND COUNTRYMAN.

Greek Prose iEsop.

LXXXI.— OLD WOMAN AND WINE-JAR.

Greek Prose iEsop.

LXXXIL— FOX AND GOAT (Re. iii.)

Phaed. iv. 9 ; occurs also in Babrius as reconstructed by
Gittlbauer, No. 174.

iwm

Roman numbers refer to the order of notes, Arabic to pages of text. A few
proverbial expressions derived from fables are given in italics, with reference to
the fables from which they are derived [see Notes). Cross references have
been given for other titles of the fables.

Androcles, xxiii., 60

Ant and Grasshopper, xxxvi., 86

Ass and Lapdog, x., 24

Ass in Lion's skin, xlix., 116

Ass's Brains, lxxiv., 177

Avaricious and Envious, liv., 127

Bald Man and Fly, xviii., 47
Bat, Birds, and Beasts, xxiv., 62
Belling the Cat, lxvii., 159
Belly and Members, xxix., 72
Bloiu hot and cold, see Man and Satyr
Bcrroived plumes, see Jay and Peacock
Brass Pot and Earthenware Pot, see

Two Pots
Buffoon and Countryman, Ixxx., 1S9
Bull and Frog, see Frog and Ox
Bundle of Sticks, lxxii., 173

Cat-Maiden, lxxvi., 180

Cock and Pearl, i., 2

Countryman and Serpent, see Woodman

and Serpent
Crabs, see Two Crabs
Crow and Pitcher, lv., 129

Daw and Peacocks, see Jay and Pea-
cocks

Death and Old Man, see Old Man and
Death

Dog and Shadow, hi., 7

Dog^and Wolf, xxviii., 70

Dog in Manger, xl., 97

Eagle and Arrow, lxxv., 179

152

Eagle and Tortoise, see Tortoise and
Birds

Fisher, xlii., 100

Fisher and Little Fish, liii., 124

Four Oxen and Lion, lii., 122

Fox and Cat, xxxviii., 91

Fox and Crow, viii., 19

Fox and Goat, lxxxii., 193

Fox and Grapes, xxxi., ~6

Fox and Lion, xxxiv., 83

Fox and Mask, xx., 52

Fox and Mosquitoes, lxiv.,

Fox and Stork, xix., 50

Fox, Cock, and Dog, lix., 140

Fox without a Tail, lxv., 154

Frog and Ox, xxii., 57

Frogs and Hares, see Hares and Frogs

Frogs desiring a King, xiii., 31

Goose with the Golden Eggs, lvii.,

134

Grapes are sour, see Fox and Grapes

Hare and Tortoise, lxviii., 162
Hare with many Friends, lxx., 168
Hares and Frogs, xv., 38
Hart and Hunter, xxv., 65
Hart in Ox-stall, xxx., 74
Hercules and Waggoner, lxi., 145
Horse and Ass, lxxviii., 185
Horse, Hunter, and Stag, xxxiii., 80

Jay and Peacock, xxi., 55

Juno and Peacock, see Peacock and Juno

222

^SOP'S FABLES

Kid and Wolf, see Wolf and Kid
King Log and King Stork, see Frogs
desiring a King

Labourer and Nightingale, lviii.. 138

Lapdog and Ass, see Ass and Lapdog

Lion and Mouse, xi., 26

Lion and Statue, xxxv., 85

Lion, Fox, and Beasts, lxxiii., 174

Lion in Love, lxxi., 170

Lion Sick, see Sick Lion

Lion's Share, iv., 8

Man and Serpent, vi., 12

Man and Satyr, lvi., 131

Man and Two Wives, xlv., 106

Man and Wood, xxvii., 68

Man and Wooden God (statue), xli.,

98
Man. Axe, and Wood, see Man and

Wood
Man, Boy, and Donkey, lxiii., 149
Man, Lion, and Statue, see Lion and

Statue
Master's Eye, see Hart in Ox-stall
Mice in Council, see Belling the Cat
Milkmaid and Pail, lxxvii., 183
Miser and Gold, lxii., 146
Mountains in Labour, xiv., 36
Mouse and Lion, see Lion and Mouse

Nulla Vestigia retrorsum, see Lion, Fox,

and Beasts
Nurse and Wolf, xlvi., 109

Oak and Reed, see Tree and Reed
Old Man and Death, lxix., 164
Old Woman and Wine-jar, lxxxi., 190
One-eyed Doe, lxvi., 156
Oxen and Lion, see Four Oxen and
Lion

Peacock and Juno, xxxii., 79

Pitcher and Crow, see Crow and

Pitcher
Put your shoulder to the wheel, see

Hercules and Waggoner

Satyr and Man, see Man and Satyr

Serpent and File, xxvi., 67

Shepherd Boy, xliii., 102

Sick Lion, ix., 23

Sun and Wind, see Wind and Sun

Swallow and other Birds, xii., 28

Thief and Mother, see Young Thief

and Mother
To bloiv hot and cold, see Man and Satyr
To cry " Wolf," see Shepherd Boy
To ivarm a serpent in your bosom, see Man

and Serpent
Tortoise and Birds, xlvii., 1 1 1
Town Mouse and Country Mouse, vii.,

Travellers and Bear, see Two Fellows

and Bear
Tree and Reed, xxxvii., 88
Trumpeter taken Prisoner, lxxix., 187
Two Crabs, xlviii., 114
Two Fellows and Bear, 1., 118
Two Pots, li., 120

Waggoner and Hercules, see Hercules

and Waggoner
Wind and Sun, lx., 142
"Wolf! " see Shepherd Boy
Wolf and Crane, v., 10
Wolf and Dog, see Dog and Wolf
Wolf and Kid, xvi., 40
Wolf and Lamb, ii., 4
Wolf and Nurse, sec Nurse and Wolf
Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, xxxix., 93
Woodman and Serpent, xvii., 43

Young Thief and Mother, xliv., 105

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