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| Reservations | Contents |
The Cat and the CockA CAT caught a cock, and pondered how he might find a reasonable excuse for eating him. He accused him of being a nuisance to men by crowing in the night-time and not permitting them to sleep. The cock defended himself by saying that he did this for the benefit of men, that they might rise in time for their labours. The cat replied, "Although you abound in specious apologies, I shall not remain supperless"; and he made a meal of him. ❋ Beasts do not need excuses for killing and eating others. The Cat and the MiceA CERTAIN HOUSE was overrun with mice. A cat, discovering this, made her way into it and began to catch and eat them one by one. Fearing for their lives, the mice kept themselves close in their holes. The cat was no longer able to get at them and perceived that she must tempt them forth by some device. For this purpose she jumped on a peg, and suspending herself from it, pretended to be dead. One of the mice, peeping stealthily out, saw her and said, "Ah, my good madam, even though you should turn into a meal-bag, we will not come near you." ❋ The cat's purposes are nude and should be allowed to be that way. The Cat and Lady LoveA CAT fell in love with a handsome young man, and begged Lady Love to change her into the form of a woman. Lady Love agreed to her request and transformed her into a beautiful damsel, so that the youth saw her and loved her, and took her home as his bride. While the two were reclining in their chamber, Lady Love wishing to discover if the cat in her change of shape had also altered her habits of life, let down a mouse in the middle of the room. The cat, quite forgetting her present condition, started up from the couch and pursued the mouse, wishing to eat it. Lady Love was much disappointed and again caused her to return to her former shape. ❋ Nature exceeds nurture. The Eagle and His CaptorAN EAGLE was once captured by a man, who at once clipped his wings and put him into his poultry-yard with the other birds, at which treatment the eagle was weighed down with grief. Later, another neighbour bought him and allowed his feathers to grow again. The eagle took flight, and pouncing on a hare, brought it at once as an offering to his benefactor. A fox, seeing this, exclaimed, "Do not cultivate the favour of this man, but of your former owner, lest he should again hunt for you and deprive you a second time of your wings." ❋ The Eagle and the ArrowAN EAGLE sat on a lofty rock, watching the movements of a hare whom he sought to make his prey. An archer, who saw the eagle from a place of concealment, took an accurate aim and wounded him mortally. The eagle gave one look at the arrow that had entered his heart and saw in that single glance that its feathers had been furnished by himself. "It is a double grief to me," he exclaimed, "that I should perish by an arrow feathered from my own wings." ❋ The Eagle and the FoxAN EAGLE and a fox formed an intimate friendship and decided to live near each other. The eagle built her nest in the branches of a tall tree, while the fox crept into the underwood and there produced her young. Not long after they had agreed on this plan, the eagle, being in want of provision for her young ones, swooped down while the fox was out, seized on one of the little cubs, and feasted herself and her brood. The fox on her return, discovered what had happened, but was less grieved for the death of her young than for her inability to avenge them. A just retribution, however, quickly fell on the eagle. While hovering near an altar, on which some villagers were sacrificing a goat, she suddenly seized a piece of the flesh, and carried it, along with a burning cinder, to her nest. A strong breeze soon fanned the spark into a flame, and the eaglets, as yet unfledged and helpless, were roasted in their nest and dropped down dead at the bottom of the tree. There, in the sight of the eagle, the fox gobbled them up. ❋ The Eagle and the JackdawAN EAGLE, flying down from his perch on a lofty rock, seized on a lamb and carried him aloft in his talons. A jackdaw, who witnessed the capture of the lamb, was stirred with envy and determined to emulate the strength and flight of the eagle. He flew around with a great whir of his wings and settled on a large ram, with the intention of carrying him off, but his claws became entangled in the ram's fleece and he was not able to release himself, although he fluttered with his feathers as much as he could. The shepherd, seeing what had happened, ran up and caught him. He at once clipped the jackdaw's wings, and taking him home at night, gave him to his children. On their saying, "Father, what kind of bird is it?" he replied, "To my certain knowledge he is a daw; but he would like you to think an eagle." ❋ The Eagle and the KiteAN EAGLE, overwhelmed with sorrow, sat on the branches of a tree in company with a kite. "Why," said the kite, "do I see you with such a rueful look?" "I seek," she replied, "a mate suitable for me, and am not able to find one." "Take me," returned the kite, "I am much stronger than you are." "Why, are you able to secure the means of living by your plunder?" "Well, I have often caught and carried away an ostrich in my talons." The eagle, persuaded by these words, accepted him as her mate. Shortly after the nuptials, the eagle said, "Fly off and bring me back the ostrich you promised me." The kite, soaring aloft into the air, brought back the shabbiest possible mouse, stinking from the length of time it had lain about the fields. "Is this," said the eagle, "the faithful fulfilment of your promise to me?" The kite replied, "That I might attain your royal hand, there is nothing that I would not have promised, however much I knew that I must fail in the performance." ❋ The Eagle, the Cat, and the Wild SowAN EAGLE made her nest at the top of a lofty oak; a cat, having found a convenient hole, moved into the middle of the trunk; and a wild sow, with her young, took shelter in a hollow at its foot. The cat cunningly resolved to destroy this chance-made colony. To carry out her design, she climbed to the nest of the eagle, and said, "Destruction is preparing for you, and for me too, unfortunately. The wild sow, whom you see daily digging up the earth, wishes to uproot the oak, so she may on its fall seize our families as food for her young." Having thus frightened the eagle out of her senses, she crept down to the cave of the sow, and said, "Your children are in great danger; for as soon as you go out with your litter to find food, the eagle is prepared to pounce on one of your little pigs." Having instilled these fears into the sow, she went and pretended to hide herself in the hollow of the tree. When night came she went forth with silent foot and obtained food for herself and her kittens, but feigning to be afraid, she kept a lookout all through the day. Meanwhile, the eagle, full of fear of the sow, sat still on the branches, and the sow, terrified by the eagle, did not dare to go out from her cave. And thus they both, along with their families, perished from hunger, and afforded ample provision for the cat and her kittens. ❋ The Horse and GroomA GROOM used to spend whole days in currycombing and rubbing down his Horse, but at the same time stole his oats and sold them for his own profit. "Alas!" said the horse, "if you really wish me to be in good condition, you should groom me less, and feed me more." ❋ The Horse and His RiderA HORSE SOLDIER took the utmost pains with his charger. As long as the war lasted, he looked on him as his fellow-helper in all emergencies and fed him carefully with hay and corn. But when the war was over, he only allowed him chaff to eat and made him carry heavy loads of wood, subjecting him to much slavish drudgery and ill-treatment. War was again proclaimed, however, and when the trumpet summoned him to his standard, the soldier put on his charger its military trappings, and mounted, being clad in his heavy coat of mail. The horse fell down straightway under the weight, no longer equal to the burden, and said to his master, "You must now go to the war on foot, for you have transformed me from a horse into a donkey; and how can you expect that I can again turn in a moment from a donkey to a horse?" ❋ The Horse and the StagAT ONE TIME the horse had the plain entirely to himself. Then a stag intruded into his domain and shared his pasture. The horse, desiring to revenge himself on the stranger, asked a man if he were willing to help him in punishing the stag. The man replied that if the horse would receive a bit in his mouth and agree to carry him, he would contrive effective weapons against the stag. The horse agreed and allowed the man to mount him. From that hour he found that instead of obtaining revenge on the stag, he had enslaved himself to the service of man. ❋ The Man and His Two SweetheartsA MIDDLE-AGED MAN, whose hair had begun to turn grey, courted two women at the same time. One of them was young, and the other well advanced in years. The elder woman, ashamed to be courted by a man younger than herself, made a point, whenever her admirer visited her, to pull out some portion of his black hairs. The younger, on the contrary, not wishing to become the wife of an old man, was equally zealous in removing every grey hair she could find. Thus it came to pass that between them both he very soon found that he had not a hair left on his head. ❋ Those who seek to please everybody please nobody. The Man and His WifeA MAN had a wife who made herself hated by all the members of his household. Wishing to find out if she had the same effect on the persons in her father's house, he made some excuse to send her home on a visit to her father. After a short time she returned, and when he asked how she had got on and how the servants had treated her, she replied, "The herdsmen and shepherds cast on me looks of aversion." He said, "If you were disliked by those who go out early in the morning with their flocks and return late in the evening, what must have been felt towards you by those with whom you passed the whole day!" ❋ Straws show how the wind blows. The Man and the LionA MAN and a lion travelled together through the forest. They soon began to boast of their respective superiority to each other in strength and prowess. As they were disputing, they passed a statue carved in stone, which represented "a lion strangled by a man." The traveller pointed to it and said: "See there! How strong we are, and how we prevail over even the king of beasts." The lion replied: "This statue was made by one of you men. If we lions knew how to erect statues, you would see the man placed under the paw of the lion." ❋ One story is good, till another is told. The Man and the Mountain-DwellerA MAN and a mointain-dweller once drank together in token of a bond of alliance being formed between them. One very cold wintry day, as they talked, the man put his fingers to his mouth and blew on them. When the mountain-dweller asked the reason for this, he told him that he did it to warm his hands because they were so cold. Later on in the day they sat down to eat, and the food prepared was quite scalding. The man raised one of the dishes a little towards his mouth and blew in it. When the mountain-dweller again asked the reason, he said that he did it to cool the meat, which was too hot. "I can no longer consider you as a friend," said the mountain-dweller, "a fellow who with the same breath blows hot and cold." ❋ The Man Bitten by a DogA MAN who had been bitten by a dog went about in quest of someone who might heal him. A friend, meeting him and learning what he wanted, said, "If you would be cured, take a piece of bread, and dip it in the blood from your wound, and go and give it to the dog that bit you." The man who had been bitten laughed at this advice and said, "Why? If I should do so, it would be as if I should beg every dog in the town to bite me." ❋ Benefits bestowed on the evil-disposed increase their means of injuring you. The Man, the Horse, the Ox, and the DogA HORSE, Ox, and Dog, driven to great straits by the cold, sought shelter and protection from man. He received them kindly, lighted a fire, and warmed them. He let the horse make free with his oats, gave the ox an abundance of hay, and fed the dog with meat from his own table. Grateful for these favours, the animals determined to repay him to the best of their ability. For this purpose, they divided the term of his life between them, and each endowed one portion of it with the qualities which chiefly characterised himself. The horse chose his earliest years and gave them his own attributes: hence every man is in his youth impetuous, headstrong, and obstinate in maintaining his own opinion. The ox took under his patronage the next term of life, and therefore man in his middle age is fond of work, devoted to labour, and resolute to amass wealth and to husband his resources. The end of life was reserved for the dog, wherefore the old man is often snappish, irritable, hard to please, and selfish, tolerant only of his own household, but averse to strangers and to all who do not administer to his comfort or to his necessities. ❋ The ManslayerA MAN committed a murder, and was pursued by the relations of the man whom he murdered. On his reaching the river Nile he saw a lion on its bank and being fearfully afraid, climbed up a tree. He found a serpent in the upper branches of the tree, and again being greatly alarmed, he threw himself into the river, where a crocodile caught him and ate him. Thus the earth, the air, and the water alike refused shelter to a murderer. ❋ The Master and His DogsA CERTAIN MAN, detained by a storm in his country house, first of all killed his sheep, and then his goats, for the maintenance of his household. The storm still continuing, he was obliged to slaughter his yoke oxen for food. On seeing this, his dogs took counsel together, and said, "It is time for us to be off, for if the master spare not his oxen, who work for his gain, how can we expect him to spare us?" ❋ He is not to be trusted as a friend who mistreats his own family. |
