Fantastic Fables — Aesopus Emendatus: Part 2

The Victor and the Victim Two Game Cocks, having fought a battle, the defeated one skulked away and hid, but the victor mounted a wall and crowed lustily.

This attracted the attention of a hawk, who said: "Behold!

how pride goeth before a fall."

So he swooped down upon the boasting bird and was about to destroy him, when the vanquished Cock came out of his hiding-place, and between the two the Hawk was calamitously defeated.

The Wolf and the Shepherds A Wolf passing a Shepherd's hut looked in and saw the shepherds dining.

"Come in," said one of them, ironically, "and partake of your favourite dish, a haunch of mutton."

"Thank you," said the Wolf, moving away, "but you must excuse me; I have just had a saddle of shepherd."

The Goose and the Swan A Certain rich man reared a Goose and a Swan, the one for his table, the other because she was reputed a good singer.

One night when the Cook went to kill the Goose he got hold of the Swan instead.

Thereupon the Swan, to induce him to spare her life, began to sing; but she saved him nothing but the trouble of killing her, for she died of the song.

The Lion, the Cock, and the Ass A Lion was about to attack a braying Ass, when a Cock near by crowed shrilly, and the Lion ran away.

"What frightened him?"

the Ass asked.

"Lions have a superstitious terror of my voice," answered the Cock, proudly.

"Well, well, well," said the Ass, shaking his head; "I should think that any animal that is afraid of your voice and doesn't mind mine must have an uncommon kind of ear."

The Snake and the Swallow A Swallow who had built her nest in a court of justice reared a fine family of young birds.

One day a Snake came out of a chink in the wall and was about to eat them.

The Just Judge at once issued an injunction, and making an order for their removal to his own house, ate them himself.

The Wolves and the Dogs "Why should there be strife between us?"

said the Wolves to the Sheep.

"It is all owing to those quarrelsome dogs.

Dismiss them, and we shall have peace."

"You seem to think," replied the Sheep, "that it is an easy thing to dismiss dogs.

Have you always found it so?"

The Hen and the Vipers A Hen who had patiently hatched out a brood of vipers, was accosted by a Swallow, who said: "What a fool you are to give life to creatures who will reward you by destroying you."

"I am a little bit on the destroy myself," said the Hen, tranquilly swallowing one of the little reptiles; "and it is not an act of folly to provide oneself with the delicacies of the season."

A Seasonable Joke A Spendthrift, seeing a single swallow, pawned his cloak, thinking that Summer was at hand.

It was.

The Lion and the Thorn A Lion roaming through the forest, got a thorn in his foot, and, meeting a Shepherd, asked him to remove it.

The Shepherd did so, and the Lion, having just surfeited himself on another shepherd, went away without harming him.

Some time afterward the Shepherd was condemned on a false accusation to be cast to the lions in the amphitheatre.

When they were about to devour him, one of them said: "This is the man who removed the thorn from my foot."

Hearing this, the others honourably abstained, and the claimant ate the Shepherd all himself.

The Fawn and the Buck A Fawn said to its father: "You are larger, stronger, and more active than a dog, and you have sharp horns.

Why do you run away when you hear one barking?"

"Because, my child," replied the Buck, "my temper is so uncertain that if I permit one of those noisy creatures to come into my presence I am likely to forget myself and do him an injury."

The Kite, the Pigeons, and the Hawk Some Pigeons exposed to the attacks of a Kite asked a Hawk to defend them.

He consented, and being admitted into the cote waited for the Kite, whom he fell upon and devoured.

When he was so surfeited that he could scarcely move, the grateful Pigeons scratched out his eyes.

The Wolf and the Babe A Famishing Wolf, passing the door of a cottage in the forest, heard a Mother say to her babe: "Be quiet, or I will throw you out of the window, and the wolves will get you."

So he waited all day below the window, growing more hungry all the time.

But at night the Old Man, having returned from the village club, threw out both Mother and Child.

The Wolf and the Ostrich A Wolf, who in devouring a man had choked himself with a bunch of keys, asked an ostrich to put her head down his throat and pull them out, which she did.

"I suppose," said the Wolf, "you expect payment for that service."

"A kind act," replied the Ostrich, "is its own reward; I have eaten the keys."

The Herdsman and the Lion A Herdsman who had lost a bullock entreated the gods to bring him the thief, and vowed he would sacrifice a goat to them.

Just then a Lion, his jaws dripping with bullock's blood, approached the Herdsman.

"I thank you, good deities," said the Herdsman, continuing his prayer, "for showing me the thief.

And now if you will take him away, I will stand another goat."

The Man and the Viper A Man finding a frozen Viper put it into his bosom.

"The coldness of the human heart," he said, with a grin, "will keep the creature in his present condition until I can reach home and revive him on the coals."

But the pleasures of hope so fired his heart that the Viper thawed, and sliding to the ground thanked the Man civilly for his hospitality and glided away.

The Man and the Eagle An Eagle was once captured by a Man, who clipped his wings and put him in the poultry yard, along with the chickens.

The Eagle was much depressed in spirits by the change.

"Why should you not rather rejoice?"

said the Man.

"You were only an ordinary fellow as an eagle; but as an old rooster you are a fowl of incomparable distinction."

The War-horse and the Miller Having heard that the State was about to be invaded by a hostile army, a War-horse belonging to a Colonel of the Militia offered his services to a passing Miller.

"No," said the patriotic Miller, "I will employ no one who deserts his position in the hour of danger.

It is sweet to die for one's country."