Category Archives: GREECE
116.The Falling Cloister Manager
A CLOISTER MANAGER in a grey, woollen cloak fell down from a cliff and was instantly caught by a tiger. The man begged to be spared his life. The sour tiger refused, saying,
“By design I am the enemy of fallen birds and things like that.”
The cloister manager convinced him that he was no winged one at all, his cloak was a thing to carry, not wings. So he was set free.
Shortly afterwards the cloister manager again fell from a cliff and was caught by another tiger. The man begged the tiger not to eat him. The tiger said that he had a special hostility to grey sheep. The cloister manager showed him that the wool did not grow on him, but could be taken off. So he was not really a grey sheep, he said, and the tiger let him go.
Thus the man escaped the jaws of death a second time.
❖ Many times it may be wise to refuse to give up. And many things may be good to look into in a likeable, relative light.
115.The Elephant and the Painted Water
A FRANTIC, thirsty elephant saw a bucket of water painted on a billboard. Not supposing it was only a picture, she flew towards it with great speed and crashed it immensely when she found out how deeply she had been tricked. After giving the billboard a few straight blows, the huge animal lay down on the ground and was caught.
❖ After crashes, things tend to reach lower levels, but the Himalayas escaped that.
114.The Eagle, the Cat, and the Wild Sow
AN EAGLE made her nest at the top of a lofty oak; a cat, having found a convenient hole, moved into the middle of the trunk; and a wild sow, with her young, took shelter in a hollow at its foot.
The cat cunningly resolved to destroy this chance-made colony. To carry out her design, she climbed to the nest of the eagle, and said,
“Destruction is preparing for you, and for me too, unfortunately. The wild sow, whom you see daily digging up the earth, wishes to uproot the oak, so she may on its fall seize our families as food for her young.”
Having thus frightened the eagle out of her senses, she crept down to the cave of the sow, and said,
“Your children are in great danger; for as soon as you go out with your litter to find food, the eagle is prepared to pounce on one of your little pigs.”
Having instilled these fears into the sow, she went and pretended to hide herself in the hollow of the tree. When night came she went forth with silent foot and got food for herself and her kittens, but feigning to be afraid, she kept a lookout all through the day. Meanwhile, the eagle, full of fear of the sow, sat still on the branches, and the sow, terrified by the eagle, did not dare to go out from her cave. And thus they both, along with their families, perished from hunger, and afforded ample provision for the cat and her kittens.
❖ Twin fools: one doubts nothing, the other, everything.
113.The Eagle and the Kite
AN EAGLE, overwhelmed with sorrow, sat on the branches of a tree in company with a kite.
“Why,” said the kite, “Do I see you with such a rueful look?”
“I seek,” she replied, “a mate suitable for me, and am not able to find one.”
“Take me,” returned the kite, “I am much stronger than you are.”
“Why, are you able to secure the means of living by your plunder?”
“Well, I have often caught and carried away an ostrich in my talons.”
The eagle, persuaded by these words, accepted him as her mate. Shortly after the nuptials, the eagle said,
“Fly off and bring me back the ostrich you promised me.”
The kite, soaring aloft into the air, brought back the shabbiest possible mouse, stinking from the length of time it had lain about the fields.
“Is this,” said the eagle, “the faithful fulfillment of your promise to me?”
The kite replied, “That I might attain your royal hand, there is nothing that I would not have promised, however much I knew that I must fail in the performance.”
