Monthly Archives: September 2013
267.The Oxen and the Butchers
THE OXEN once on a time sought to destroy the butchers, who practised a trade destructive to their race. They assembled on a certain day to carry out their purpose, and sharpened their horns for the contest. But one of them who was exceedingly old (for many a field had he plowed) thus spoke:
“These butchers, it is true, slaughter us, but they do so with skillful hands, and with no unnecessary pain. If we get rid of them, we shall fall into the hands of unskillful operators, and thus suffer a double death: for you may be assured, that though all the butchers should perish, yet will men never want beef.”
❖ Do not be in a hurry to change one evil for another.
266.The Oxen and the Axle-Trees
A HEAVY WAGON was being dragged along a country lane by a team of oxen. The axle-trees groaned and creaked terribly; whereupon the oxen, turning round, thus addressed the wheels:
“Hullo there! why do you make so much noise? We bear all the labour, and we, not you, ought to cry out.”
❖ Maybe those who suffer most cry out the least.
265.The Ox and the Frog
AN OX that was drinking at a pool, trod on a brood of young frogs and crushed one of them to death. The Mother came up, and missing one of her sons, asked his brothers what had become of him.
“He’s all dead, Mom. Right now an awful, huge beast with four great feet came to the pool and crushed him to death with a cloven heel.”
The frog, puffing herself out, wanted to know, “if the beast was as big as this?”
“Mom, stop puffing yourself out,” said her son, “and don’t be angry with me for telling you: You’d sooner burst than manage to imitate a monster’s size.”
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.
