Monthly Archives: September 2013
163.The Goatherd and the Wild Goats
A GOATHERD, driving his flock from their pasture at eventide, found some wild goats mingled among them, and shut them up together with his own for the night.
The next day it snowed very hard, so that he could not take the herd to their usual feeding places, but was obliged to keep them in the fold. He gave his own goats just enough food to keep them alive, but fed the strangers more abundantly in the hope of enticing them to stay with him and of making them his own. When the thaw set in, he led them all out to feed, and the wild goats scampered away as fast as they could to the mountains.
The goatherd scolded them for their ingratitude in leaving him, when during the storm he had taken more care of them than of his own herd. One of them, turning about, said to him:
“That is the very reason why we are so cautious; for if you yesterday treated us better than the goats you have had so long, it is plain also that if others came after us, you would in the same manner prefer them to ourselves.”
❖ Old friends cannot with impunity be sacrificed for new ones.
❖ One is to welcome the new without dispensing with the old that is fit. Also observe: “It is best to be off with the old love / before you are on with the new.
162.The Goat and the Goatherd
A GOATHERD had sought to bring back a stray goat to his flock. He whistled and sounded his horn in vain; the straggler paid no attention to the summons. At last the goatherd threw a stone, and breaking its horn, begged the goat not to tell his master. The goat replied,
“Why, you silly fellow, the horn will speak though I be silent.”
❖ Do not try to hide things which cannot be hid.
161.The Goat and the Donkey
A MAN once kept a goat and a donkey. The goat, envying the donkey on account of his greater abundance of food, said,
“How shamefully you are treated: at one time grinding in the mill, and at another time carrying heavy burdens”; and he further advised him to pretend to be epileptic and fall into a ditch and so get rest.
The donkey listened to his words, and falling into a ditch, was very much bruised. His master, sending for a leech, asked his advice. He bade him pour on the wounds the lungs of a goat. They at once killed the goat, and so healed the donkey.
❖ Living takes up a great deal of our time.
❖ Goats and men hardly think their fortune too great nor their wit too little.
160.The Gnat and the Lion
A GNAT came and said to a lion, “I don’t in the least fear you, nor are you stronger than I am. For in what does your strength consist? You can scratch with your claws and bite with your teeth like a woman in her quarrels. I repeat that I am altogether more powerful than you; and if you doubt it, let us fight and see who will conquer.”
The gnat, having sounded his horn, fastened himself on the lion and stung him on the nostrils and the parts of the face devoid of hair. While trying to crush him, the lion tore himself with his claws, till he punished himself severely.
The gnat thus prevailed over the lion, and, buzzing about in a song of triumph, flew away. But shortly afterwards he became entangled in the meshes of a cobweb and was eaten by a spider. He greatly lamented his fate, saying,
“Woe is me! that I, who can wage war successfully with the hugest beasts, should perish myself from this spider, the most inconsiderable of insects!”
“When you can fight with enemies of more strength, don’t forget you cannot fight small enemies.”
