Aesop's Fables; a new translation
are shed for the dead. Thus it is the same with Grief as it is with
the other gods. The more devoutly men render to him his due, the
more lavish is he of that which he has to bestow. It is not well,
therefore, to mourn long for the departed; else Grief, whose sole
pleasure is in such mourning, will be quick to send fresh cause for
tears.
THE HAWK, THE KITE, AND THE PIGEONS
The Pigeons in a certain dovecote were persecuted by a Kite, who every
now and then swooped down and carried off one of their number. So they
invited a Hawk into the dovecote to defend them against their enemy.
But they soon repented of their folly: for the Hawk killed more of
them in a day than the Kite had done in a year.
THE WOMAN AND THE FARMER
A Woman, who had lately lost her husband, used to go every day to his
grave and lament her loss. A Farmer, who was engaged in ploughing not
far from the spot, set eyes upon the Woman and desired to have her
for his wife: so he left his plough and came and sat by her side,
and began to shed tears himself. She asked him why he wept; and he
replied, "I have lately lost my wife, who was very dear to me, and
tears ease my grief." "And I," said she, "have lost my husband." And
so for a while they mourned in silence. Then he said, "Since you and I
are in like case, shall we not do well to marry and live together? I
shall take the place of your dead husband, and you, that of my dead
wife." The Woman consented to the plan, which indeed seemed reasonable
enough: and they dried their tears. Meanwhile, a thief had come
and stolen the oxen which the Farmer had left with his plough. On
discovering the theft, he beat his breast and loudly bewailed his
loss. When the Woman heard his cries, she came and said, "Why, are you
weeping still?" To which he replied, "Yes, and I mean it this time."
PROMETHEUS AND THE MAKING OF MAN
At the bidding of Jupiter, Prometheus set about the creation of Man
and the other animals. Jupiter, seeing that Mankind, the only rational
creatures, were far outnumbered by the irrational beasts, bade him
redress the balance by turning some of the latter into men. Prometheus
did as he was bidden, and this is the reason why some people have the
forms of men but the souls of beasts.
THE SWALLOW AND THE CROW
A Swallow was once boasting to a Crow about her birth. "I was once a
princess," said she, "the daughter of a King of Athens, but my husband
used me cruelly, and cut out my tongue for a slight fault. Then, to
protect me from further injury, I was turned by Juno into a bird."
"You chatter quite enough as it is," said the Crow. "What you would
have been like if you hadn't lost your tongue, I can't think."
THE HUNTER AND THE HORSEMAN
A Hunter went out after game, and succeeded in catching a hare, which
he was carrying home with him when he met a man on horseback, who said
to him, "You have had some sport I see, sir," and offered to buy it.
The Hunter readily agreed; but the Horseman had no sooner got the
hare in his hands than he set spurs to his horse and went off at full
gallop. The Hunter ran after him for some little distance; but it soon
dawned upon him that he had been tricked, and he gave up trying to
overtake the Horseman, and, to save his face, called after him as loud
as he could, "All right, sir, all right, take your hare: it was meant
all along as a present."
THE GOATHERD AND THE WILD GOATS
A Goatherd was tending his goats out at pasture when he saw a number
of Wild Goats approach and mingle with his flock. At the end of the
day he drove them home and put them all into the pen together. Next
day the weather was so bad that he could not take them out as usual:
so he kept them at home in the pen, and fed them there. He only gave
his own goats enough food to keep them from starving, but he gave the
Wild Goats as much as they could eat and more; for he was very anxious
for them to stay, and he thought that if he fed them well they
wouldn't want to leave him. When the weather improved, he took them
all out to pasture again; but no sooner had they got near the hills
than the Wild Goats broke away from the flock and scampered off. The
Goatherd was very much disgusted at this, and roundly abused them for
their ingratitude. "Rascals!" he cried, "to run away like that after
the way I've treated you!" Hearing this, one of them turned round and
said, "Oh, yes, you treated us all right--too well, in fact; it was
just that that put us on our guard. If you treat newcomers like
ourselves so much better than your own flock, it's more than likely
that, if another lot of strange goats joined yours, _we_ should then
be neglected in favour of the last comers."
THE NIGHTINGALE AND THE SWALLOW
A Swallow, conversing with a Nightingale, advised her to quit the
leafy coverts where she made her home, and to come and live with men,
like herself, and nest under the shelter of their roofs. But the
Nightingale replied, "Time was when I too, like yourself, lived among
men: but the memory of the cruel wrongs I then suffered makes them
hateful to me, and never again will I approach their dwellings."
The scene of past sufferings revives painful memories.
THE TRAVELLER AND FORTUNE
A Traveller, exhausted with fatigue after a long journey, sank down at
the very brink of a deep well and presently fell asleep. He was within
an ace of falling in, when Dame Fortune appeared to him and touched
him on the shoulder, cautioning him to move further away. "Wake up,
good sir, I pray you," she said; "had you fallen into the well, the
blame would have been thrown not on your own folly but on me, Fortune."
ILLUSTRATIONS