140.The Fowler and the Viper
A FOWLER, taking his bird-lime and his twigs, went out to catch birds. Seeing a thrush sitting on a tree, he wished to take it, and fitting his twigs to a proper length, watched intently, having his whole thoughts directed towards the sky. While thus looking upwards, he unknowingly trod on a viper asleep just before his feet. The viper, turning about, stung him, and falling into a swoon, the man said to himself, “Woe is me! that while I purposed to hunt another, I am myself fallen unawares into the snares of death.”
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