The stag and the lion ; The imposter ; The dogs and the hides ; The lion, the fox, and the ass ; The fowler, the partridge, and the cock ; T

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Section seventeen of Aesop's Fables, a new translation written by
Azab translated by the es Barnon Jones. This is a
LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
This section has been read by Rustling Carlyle. The Stag

(00:23):
and the Lion a stag was chased by the hounds
and took refuge in a cave where he hoped to
be safe from his pursuers. Unfortunately, the cave contained a lion,
to whom he fell an easy prey. His story is
out of the frying pan into the fire the impostor.

(00:46):
A certain man fell ill, and being in a very
bad way, he made a vow that he would sacrifice
a hundred oxen to the gods if they would grant
him a return to health. Wishing to see how he
would keep his vow, they caused him to recover in
a short time. Now he hadn't an ox in the world,
so he made a hundred little oxen out of talloo

(01:08):
and offered them up on an altar, at the same
time saying, ye, Gods, I call you to witness that
I have discharged my vow. The gods determined to be
even with him, so they sent him a dream in
which he was bidden to go to the seashore and
fetch a hundred crowns, which he was to find there.
Hastening in great excitement to the shore, he fell in

(01:31):
with a band of robbers who seized him and carried
him off to sell as a sleigh. And when they
sold him a hundred crowns was the sum he fetched.
The moral of this story is, do not promise more
than you can perform. The Dogs and the Hides. Once

(01:51):
upon a time a number of dogs who were famished
with hunger, saw some hides steeping in a river, but
couldn't get at them because the water was too deep.
So they put their heads together and decided to drink
away at the river till it was shallow enough for
them to reach the hides. But long before that happened,
they burst themselves with drinking. The Lion, the Fox and

(02:18):
the Ass. A lion, a fox and an ass went
out hunting together. They had soon taken a large booty,
which the lion requested the ass to divide between them.
The ass divided it all into three equal parts, and
modestly begged the others to take their choice, at which
the lion, bursting with fury, sprang upon the ass and

(02:42):
tore him to pieces. Then, glaring at the fox, the
lion bid him to make a fresh division. The fox
gathered almost the hole in one heap for the lion's share,
leaving only the smallest possible morsel for himself, my dear friend,
and said the lion, how did you get the knack

(03:03):
of it so well? The fox replied me, oh, I
took a lesson from the ass. The moral of the
story is happy is he who learns from the misfortunes
of others. The Fowler, the partridge, and the cock. One day,

(03:24):
as a fowler was sitting down to a scanty supper
of herbs and bread, a friend dropped in unexpectedly, the
larder was empty, so he went out and caught a
tame partridge, which he kept as a decoy, and was
about to wring her neck when she cried, surely you
won't kill me. Why what will you do without me
next time you go fowling? How will you get the

(03:46):
birds to come to your necks? He let her go
at this and went to his hen house, where he
had a plump young cock. When the cock saw what
he was after, he too pleaded for his life and said,
if you kill me, how will you know the time
of night? And who will wake you up in the
morning when it is time to get to work. The fowler, however, replied,

(04:08):
you are useful for telling the time I know, But
for all that, I can't send my friend's supperless to bed,
and therewith he caught him and wrung his neck. The
gnat and the lion and nat once went up to
a lion and said, I am not in the least

(04:29):
afraid of you. I don't even allow that you are
a match for me in strength. What does your strength
amount to? After all that you can scratch with your
claws and bite with your teeth just like a woman
in a temper, and nothing more. But I am stronger
than you. If you don't believe it, let us fight
and we'll see so saying, the gnat sounded his horn

(04:49):
and darted in and bit the lion on the nose.
When the lion felt the sting, in his haste to
crush the gnat, he scratched his nose badly and made
it bleed, but failed altogether to hurt the nat, which
buzzed off in triumph, elated by its victory. Presently, however,
it got entangled in a spider's web and was caught

(05:12):
and eaten by the spider, thus falling a prey to
an insignificant insect, after having triumphed over the King of
the beasts. The farmer and his dogs. A farmer was
snowed up in his farmstead by a severe storm and
was unable to go out and procure provisions for himself

(05:33):
and his family. So he first killed his sheep and
used them for food. Then, as the storm still continued,
he killed his goats, and last of all, as the
weather showed no signs of improving, he was compelled to
kill his oxen and eat them. When his dogs saw
the various animals being killed and eaten in turn, they

(05:54):
said to one another, we had better get out of this,
or we shall be the next to go. The eagle
and the fox. An eagle and a fox became great
friends and determined to live near each other. They thought
that the more they saw of each other, the better

(06:14):
friends they would be. So the eagle belt a nest
at the top of a high tree, while the fox
settled in a thicket at the foot of it and
produced a litter of cubs. One day, the fox went
out foraging for food, and the eagle, who also wanted
food for her young, flew down into the thicket, caught
up the fox's cubs, and carried them up into the

(06:35):
tree for a meal for herself and her family. When
the fox came back and found out what had happened,
she was not so much sorry for the loss of
her cubs as furious because she couldn't get at the
eagle and pay her out for her treachery. So she
sat down not far off and cursed her. But it

(06:55):
wasn't long before she had her revenge. Some villagers happened
to be sacrificed a goat on a neighboring altar, and
the eagle flew down and carried off a piece of
burning flesh to her nest. There was a strong wind
blowing and the nest got fire, with result that her
fledglings fell half roosted to the ground. Then the fox

(07:17):
ran to the spot and devoured them in full sight
of the eagle. Moral of the story is that false
faith may escape human punishment, but cannot escape the divine.
The butcher and his customers. Two men were buying meat
at a butcher's stall in the marketplace, and while the

(07:40):
butcher's back was turned for a moment, one of them
snatched up a joint and hastily thrust it under the
other's gloak, where it could not be seen. When the
butcher turned around, he missed the meat at once and
charged them with having stolen it. But the one who
had taken it said he hadn't got it, and the
one who had got it said he hadn't taken it.
The butcher felt sure they were deceiving him, but he

(08:02):
only said, you may cheat me with your lying, but
you can't cheat the gods, and they won't let you
off so lightly. The moral here is that prevarication often
amounts to perjury. Hercules and Minerva. Hercules was once traveling

(08:23):
along a narrow road when he saw lying on the
ground in front of him what appeared to be an apple,
and as he passed, he stamped upon it with his heel.
To his astonishment, instead of being crushed, it doubled in size,
and on his attacking it again and smiting it with
his club. It swelled up to an enormous size and
blocked up the whole road. Upon this, he dropped his

(08:46):
club and stood looking at it in amazement. Just then
Minerva appeared and said to him leave it alone, my friend,
That which you see before you is the apple of discord.
If you do not meddle with it. It remained small
as it was at first, but if you result of violence,
it swells into the thing. You see. The fox who

(09:11):
served a lion. A lion had a fox to attend
on him, and whenever they went hunting, the fox found
the prey, and the lion fell upon it and killed it,
and then they divided it between them in certain proportions.
But the lion always got a very large share, and
the fox a very small one, which didn't please latter
at all. So he determined to set up on his

(09:34):
own account. He began by trying to steal a lamb
from a flock of sheep, but the shepherds saw him
and set his dogs on him. The hunter was now
the hunted, and was very soon caught and dispatched by
the dogs. The moral of the story is it's better
servitude with safety than freedom with danger the quack doctor.

(09:58):
A certain man fell sick and took to his bed.
He consulted a number of doctors from time to time,
and they, all, with one exception, told him that his
life was in no immediate danger, but that his illness
would probably last a considerable time. The one who took
a different view of his case, who was also the
last to be consulted, bade him prepare for the worst.

(10:21):
You have not twenty four hours to live, said he,
and I fear that I can do nothing. As it
turned out, however, he was quite wrong, for at the
end of a few days, the sick man quit his
bed and took a walk abroad, looking, it is true,
as pale as a ghost. In the course of his walk,

(10:42):
he met the doctor who had prophesied his death. Dear me,
said the latter, how do you do You are fresh
from the other world, no doubt, pray? How are a
departed friends getting on over there? Most comfortably, replied the other,
For they have drunk the water of oblivion and have
forgotten all the troubles of life. By the way, just

(11:05):
before I left, the authorities were making arrangements to prosecute
all the doctors because they won't let sick men die
in the course of nature, but use their arts to
keep them alive. They were going to charge you along
with the rest till I assure them that you are
now doctor, but a mere impostor. The lion, the wolf,

(11:27):
and the fox. A lion infirm with age, lay sick
in his den, and all the beasts of the forest
came to inquire after his health, with the exception of
the fox. The wolf thought this was a good opportunity
for paying off old scores against the fox, so he
called the attention of the lion to his absence, and said,

(11:49):
you see, sire, that we have all come to see
how you are, except the fox, who hasn't come near
you and doesn't care whether you're well or ill. Just
then the fox came in and heard the last words
of the wolf. The lion roared at him in deep displeasure,
but he begged to be allowed to explain his absence,

(12:11):
and said, not one of them cares for you so
much as I, sire. For all the time I have
been going round to the doctor's and trying to find
a cure for your illness, And may I ask if
you have found one, said the lion, I have, sire,
said the fox, and it is this. You must flay

(12:31):
a wolf and wrap yourself in his skin while it
is still warm. The lion accordingly turned to the wolf
and struck him dead with one blow of his paw,
in order to try the fox prescription. But the fox
laughed and said to himself, that's what comes of stirring
up ill. Well. Hercules and Plutus. When Hercules was received

(12:59):
amongst the gods and was entertained at a banquet by Jupiter,
he responded courteously to the greetings of all, with the
exception of Plutus, the god of wealth. When Plutus approached him,
he cast his eyes upon the ground and turned away
and pretended not to see him. Jupiter was surprised at
this conduct on his part and asked why, after having

(13:21):
been so cordial with all the other gods, he had
behaved like that to Plutus. Sire, said Hercules, I do
not like Plutus, and I will tell you why. When
we were on earth together, I always noticed that he
was to be found in the company of scoundrels. The

(13:43):
fox and the leopard. A fox and a leopard were
disputing about their looks, and each claimed to be the
more handsome of the two. The leopard said, look at
my smart coat. You have nothing to match that, but
the fox replied, your coat may be smart, but my
wits are smarter still end of section seventeen.