264.The Owl and the Birds
AN OWL, in her wisdom, counselled the birds that when the acorn first began to sprout, to pull it all up out of the ground and not allow it to grow. She said acorns would produce mistletoe, from which an irremediable poison, the bird-lime, would be extracted and by which they would be captured. The owl next advised them to pluck up the seed of the flax, which men had sown, as it was a plant which boded no good to them. And, lastly, the owl, seeing an archer approach, predicted that this man, being on foot, would contrive darts armed with feathers which would fly faster than the wings of the birds themselves. The birds gave no credence to these warning words, but considered the owl to be beside herself and said that she was mad. But afterwards, finding her words were true, they wondered at her knowledge and deemed her to be the wisest of birds. Hence it is that when she appears they look to her as knowing all things, while she no longer gives them advice, but in solitude laments their past folly.
❖ Those who are much ahead of others risk being called insane.
263.The One-Eyed Doe
A DOE had had the misfortune to lose one of her eyes, and could not see any one approaching her on that side. So to avoid any danger she always used to feed on a high cliff near the sea, with her sound eye looking towards the land. By this means she could see whenever the hunters approached her on land, and often escaped by this means. But the hunters found out that she was blind of one eye, and hiring a boat rowed under the cliff where she used to feed and shot her from the sea. “Ah,” cried she with her dying voice,
“YOU CANNOT ESCAPE YOUR FATE.”
262.The Olive-Tree and the Fig-Tree
THE OLIVE-TREE ridiculed the fig-tree because, while she was green all the year round, the fig-tree changed its leaves with the seasons. A shower of snow fell on them, and, finding the olive full of foliage, it settled on its branches and broke them down with its weight, at once despoiling it of its beauty and killing the tree. But finding the fig-tree denuded of leaves, the snow fell through to the ground, and did not injure it at all.
❖ Reorientation offers the hope of a better way of life.
261.The Old Woman and the Wine-Jar
AN OLD WOMAN found an empty jar which had lately been full of prime old wine and which still retained the fragrant smell of its former contents. She greedily placed it several times to her nose, and drawing it backwards and forwards said,
“O most delicious! How nice must the wine itself have been, when it leaves behind in the very vessel which contained it so sweet a perfume!”
❖ The memory of a good deed lives.
