Aesop's Fables Episode 8

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
The boar and the ass. Alittle scoundrel of an ass, happening to
meet with a boar, had amind to be arch upon him, and
so says he, your humble servant. The boar, somewhat nettled at his
familiarity, bristled up to him andtold him he was surprised to hear him

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utter so impudent an untruth, andwas going to show his resentment by giving
him a rip in the flank,But wisely stifling his passion, he contented
himself with saying, go you,sorry, beast, I do not care
to foul my tusks with the bloodof so base a creature dignity cannot afford

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to quarrel with its inferiors. TheFox and the goat. A fox,
having fallen into a well, couldfind no means of escape. A goat,
overcome with thirst, came to thewell, and, seeing the fox,
inquired if the water was good.The fox, concealing his sad plight

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under a merry guise, indulged inthe lavish praise of the water, saying
it was beyond measure excellent, andencouraged him to descend. The goat,
mindful only of his thirst, thoughtlesslyjumped down, when just as he quenched
his thirst, the fox informed himof the difficulty they were both in and

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suggested a scheme for their common escape. If, said he, you will
place your four feet upon the walland bend your head, I will run
up your back and escape, andwill help you out on the goat.
Readily assenting to this proposal, thefox leaped upon his back, and,

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steadying himself with the goat's horns,reached in safety the mouth of the well,
and immediately made off as fast ashe could. The goat upbraided him
with the breech of his bargain.When he turned round and cried out,
you foolish fellow. If you hadas many brains in your head as you
have hairs in your beard, youwould never have gone down before you had

(02:09):
inspected the way up, nor haveexposed yourself to danger from which you had
determined upon no means of escape.Look before you leap. The Oxen and
the Butchers. The Oxen, onceupon a time sought to destroy the butchers,

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who practiced a trade destructive to theirrace. They assembled on a certain
day to carry out their purpose,and sharpened their horns for the contest one
of them, an exceedingly old one, for many a field had he plowed.
Thus spoke these butchers. It istrue slaughter us, But they do

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so with skillful hands and with nounnecessary pain. If we get rid of
them, we shall fall into thehands of unskillful operators, and thus suffer
a double death. For you maybe assured that though all the butchers should
perish, yet will men ever wantbeef? Do not be in a hurry

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to change one evil for another.The horse and his rider a horse soldier
took great pains with his charger aslong as the war lasted. He looked
upon him as his fellow helper inall emergencies, and fed him carefully with

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hay and corn. When the warwas over, he only allowed him chaff
to eat, and made him carryheavy loads of wood, and subjected him
to much slavish drudgery and ill treatment. War, however, being again proclaimed,
the soldier put on his charger itsmilitary trappings and mounted, Being clad

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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 onfoot, for you have transformed me from
a horse into an ass. Hewho slights his friends when they are not

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needed must not expect them to servehim when he needs them. The dog
and the hare. A hound,having started a hare on the hillside,
pursued her for some distance, atone time biting her with his teeth as
if he would take her life,and at another time fawning upon her as

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if in play with another dog.The hare said to him, I wish
you would act sincerely by me andshow yourself in your true colors. If
you are a friend, why doyou bite me so hard? If you
are an enemy, why do youfall on on me? There are no
friends whom you know not whether totrust or to distrust. The Fawn and

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his mother. A young fawn oncesaid to his mother, you are larger
than a dog, and swifter andmore used to running. Why, then,
o mother, are you always insuch a terrible fright of the hounds.
She smiled and said, I knowfull well, my son, that

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all you say is true. Ihave the advantages you mentioned, But yet
when I hear the bark of asingle dog, I feel ready to faint.
No arguments will give courage to thecoward. The lark and her young
ones. A lark had made hernest in the young green wheat. The

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brood had almost grown when the ownerof the field, overlooking his crop,
said I must send to all myneighbors to help me with my harvest.
One of the young larks hurt himand asked his mother to what place they
should move for safety. There wasno occasion to move yet, my son,
she replied. The owner of thefield came a few days later and

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said, I will come myself tomorrowand we'll get in the harvest. Then
the larks said to her brood,it is time now to be off.
He no longer trusts to his friends, but will reap the field himself.
Self. Help is the best help. The bowman and the lion, a

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very skillful bowman went to the mountainsin search of game. All the beasts
of the forest fled at his approach. The lion alone challenged him to combat.
The bowman immediately let fly an arrowand said to the lion, I
send thee my messenger, that fromhim thou mayest learn what I myself shall

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be when I assail thee. Thelion, thus wounded, rushed away in
great fear and on a fox,exalting him to be of good courage and
not to run away at the firstattack. He replied, you counsel me
in vain, for if he sendsso fearful a messenger, how shall I
abide the attack of a man himself? A man who can strike from a

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distance is no pleasant neighbor. Theboy and the filberts. A boy put
his hand into a pitcher full offilberts. He grasped as many as he
could possibly hold, but when heendeavored to pull out his hand, he
was prevented from doing so by theneck of the pitcher, which was much

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smaller than his closed hand. Unwillingto lose his filberts, and yet unable
to withdraw his hand, he burstinto tears and bitterly lamented his disappointment.
A bystander said to him, besatisfied with half the quantity, and you
will readily draw out your hand.Do not attempt too much at once.

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The woman and her hen. Awoman possessed a hen that gave her an
egg every day. She often thoughtwith herself how she might obtain two eggs
daily instead of one, and atlast, to gain her purpose, determined
to give the hen a double allowanceof barley. From that day, the

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hen became fat and sleek, andnever once laid another egg. Competeousness overreacheth
itself. The Lamb and the Wolf. A wolf pursued a lamb which fled
for refuge to a certain temple.The wolf called out to him and said,

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the priest will slay you in sacrificeif he should catch you, on
which the lamb replied, it wouldbe better for me to be sacrificed in
the temple than to be eaten byyou. It is safer to be among
friends than enemies. The Bear andthe Gardener. A gardener who lived alone

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became discontented and set out one dayto seek a friend who would be a
suitable companion. He had not gonefar when he met a bear, whom
he invited to come and live withhim. The bear was a very silly
one who was also discontented with livingalone, so he went home with the

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gardener very willingly. The gardener providedall the food, and the only service
he required of the bear was tokeep the flies off his face while he
slept in the shade. One day, a fly insisted upon lighting on the
gardener's face. Although he was brushedoff again and again, the silly bear

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finally became so enraged that he threwa heavy stone upon it. He killed
the fly, but alas he alsokilled his friend. Better have no friend
at all than a foolish one.The heifer and the Ox. A heifer
saw an ox hard at work,harnessed to applau and tormented him with the

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reflections on his unhappy fate in beingcompelled to labor. Shortly afterward, at
the harvest home, the owner releasedthe ox from his yoke, but bound
the heifer with cords and led heraway to the altar to be slain in
honor of the festival. The oxsaw what was being done and said to

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the heifer, for this you wereallowed to live in idleness, because you
were presently to be sacrificed. Thelives of the idol can best be spared.
The eagle and the Fox. Aneagle and a fox formed an intimate
friendship and decided to live near eachother. The eagle built her nest in

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a tall tree, while the foxcrept into the underwood and there produced her
young. Not long after, whenthe fox was ranging for food, the
eagle, being in want of provisionfor her young ones, swooped down and
seized one of the little cubs,and feasted herself and brood. The fox,

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on her return, discovering what hadhappened, was less grieved for the
death of her young than for herinability to avenge them. A just retribution,
however, quickly fell upon the eagle. While hovering near an altar on
which some villagers were sacrificing a goat, she suddenly seized a piece of flesh

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and carried with it to her nesta burning cinder. A strong breeze soon
fanned the spark into a flame,and the eaglets, as yet unfledged and
helpless, were roasted in their nestand dropped down dead at the bottom of
the tree. The fox gobbled themup. In the sight of the eagle,

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the tyrant is never safe from thosewhom he oppresses. The hawk and
the nightingale. A nightingale sitting aloftupon an oak was seen by a hawk,
who made a swoop down and seizedhim. The nightingale earnestly besought the
hawk to let him go, sayingthat he was not bit enough to satisfy

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the hunger of a hawk who oughtto pursue the larger birds. The hawk
said, I should indeed have lostmy senses if I should let go food
ready to my hand for the sakeof pursuing birds which are not yet even
within sight. A bird in thehand is worth two in the bush.

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The hen and the swallow. Ahen, finding the eggs of a viper,
and carefully keeping them warm, nourishthem into life. A swallow,
observing what she had done, said, you, silly creature, Why have
you hatched these vipers, which,when they shall have grown, will surely

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inflict injury on all of us,beginning with yourself. If we nourish evil,
it will sooner or later turn uponus. The herdsman and the lost
bull. A herdsman tending kind ina forest lost a bull calf from the
fold. After a long and fruitlesssearch, he made a vow that if

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he could only discover the thief whohad stolen the calf, he would offer
a lamb and sacrifice to the guardiandeities of the forest. Not long afterwards,
as he ascended a small hillock,he saw at its foot a lion
feeding on the calf. Terrified atthe sight, he lifted his eyes and
his hands to heaven and said,just now, I vowed to offer a

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lamb to the guardian deities of theforest if I could only find out who
had robbed me. But now thatI have discovered the thief, I would
willingly add a full grown bull tothe calf I have lost, and give
them both to the guardians of theforest, if I may only secure my
own escape from this terrible lion insafety. That which we are anxious to

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find, we are sometimes even moreanxious to escape from when we have succeeded
in finding it. The shepherd's Boyand Wolf. A shepherd boy who watched
a flock of sheep near a villagebrought out the villagers three or four times
by crying out, Wolf, Wolf, and when his neighbors came to help

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him, laughed at them for theirpains. The wolf, however, did
truly come. At last. Theshepherd boy, now really alarmed, shouted
in an agony of terror, pray, do come and help me. The
wolf is killing the sheep. Butno one paid any heed to his cries.

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There is no believing a liar evenwhen he speaks the truth. The
hawk, the kite and the pigeons. The pigeons, terrified by the appearance
of a kite, called upon thehawk to defend them. He at once
consented. When they had admitted himinto the coat, they found that he
made more havoc and slew a largernumber of them in a single day than

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the kite could possibly pounce upon ina whole year. Avoid a remedy that
is worse than the disease. Thefarmer and the cranes. Some cranes made
their feeding grounds on some plow landsnewly sown with wheat for a long time.
The farmer, brandishing an empty slant, chased them away by the terror

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he inspired. But when the birdsfound that the sling was only swung in
the air, they ceased to takeany notice of it and would not move.
The farmer, on seeing this,charged his sling with stones and killed
a great number. They at onceforsook his plowlands and cried to each other,
it is time for us to beoff, for this man is no

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longer content to scare us, butbegins to show us in earnest what he
can do. If words suffice nutblows must follow the cat and the mice.
A certain house was overrun with mice. A cat, discovering this,

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made her way into it and beganto catch and eat them one by one.
The mice, being continually devoured,kept themselves close in their holes.
The cat, no longer able toget at them, seeved that she must
tempt them forth by some device.For this purpose, she jumped upon a

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peg, and, suspending herself fromit, pretended to be dead. When
the mice came near, she pouncedupon them and killed a great number.
Pleased with the success of this trick, she tried another. She whitened herself
with flower and lay still on theheap of bags, as though she was
one of them. The young micecrept dangerously near her, but an old

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one, peering stealthily out, said, ah, my good madam, though
you should turn into a real flowerbag, I will not come too near
you avoid even appearance of danger.In a section seven