The Talking Beasts Part 25

"O Antelope! O Deer!

Your friend is sick; Do not shun him!

O Antelope! O Deer!

Your friend is sick; Do not shun him!

O Antelope! O Deer!

Your friend is sick; Do not shun him'"

Deer says: "Chief, the drum, how art thou playing it? Bring it here; that I play it." Mr. Leopard gives him it. Deer takes the drum, says:

"Not sickness; Wiliness holds thee Not sickness; Wiliness holds thee!

Not sickness; Wiliness holds thee!"

Mr. Leopard stood up from ground, said: "Thou, Deer, knowest not how to play the drum."

The animals all then ran away, saying, "Mr. Leopard has a scheme to catch us."

Elephant and Frog

I often tell of Mr. Elephant and Mr. Frog, who were courting at one house.

One day Mr. Frog spake to the sweetheart of Mr. Elephant, saying: "Mr.

Elephant is my horse." Mr. Elephant, when he came at night, then the girls tell him, saying: "Thou art the horse of Mr. Frog!"

Mr. Elephant then goes to Mr. Frog's, saying: "Didst thou tell my sweetheart that I am thy horse?" Mr. Frog says, saying: "No; I did not say so." They go together to find the sweetheart of Mr. Elephant.

On the way, Mr. Frog told Mr. Elephant, saying: "Grandfather, I have not strength to walk. Let me get up on thy back!" Mr. Elephant said: "Get up, my grandson." Mr. Frog then goes up.

When a while pa.s.sed, he told Mr. Elephant: "Grandfather, I am going to fall. Let me seek small cords to bind thee in mouth." Mr. Elephant consents. Mr. Frog then does what he has asked.

When pa.s.sed a little while, he told again Mr. Elephant, saying: "Let me seek a green twig to fan the mosquitoes off thee." Mr. Elephant says: "Go." He then fetches the twig.

Then, when they were about to arrive, the girls saw them, and they went to meet them with shouting, saying: "Thou, Mr. Elephant, art the horse indeed of Mr. Frog!"

Dog and the Kings.h.i.+p

Mr. Dog, they wanted to invest him with the kings.h.i.+p. They sought all the things of royalty: the cap, the sceptre, the rings, the skin of mulkaka. The things are complete; they say: "The day has come to install."

The headmen all came in full; they sent for the players of drum and marimba; they have come. They spread coa.r.s.e mats and fine mats. Where the lord is going to sit, they laid a coa.r.s.e mat; they spread on it a fine mat; they set a chair on. They say: "Let the lord sit down." He sat down. The people begin to divide the victuals.

He, Mr. Dog, on seeing the breast of a fowl, greed grasped him. He stood up in haste; took the breast of the fowl; ran into the bush. The people said: "The lord, whom we are installing, has run away with the breast of the fowl into the bus.h.!.+" The people separated.

Mr. Dog, who was going to be invested with the kings.h.i.+p, because of his thievery, the kings.h.i.+p he lost it.

I have told my little tale. Finished.

The Builder of Ability and the Builder of Haste

Two men called themselves one name. This one said: "I am Ndala, the builder of ability." The other one said: "I am Ndala, the builder of haste."

They say: "We will go to trade." They start; they arrive in middle of road. A storm comes. They stop, saying: "Let us build gra.s.s-huts!"

Ndala, the builder of haste, built in haste; he entered into his hut.

Ndala, the builder of ability is building carefully. The storm comes; it kills him outside. Ndala, the builder of haste escaped, because his hut was finished; it sheltered him when the storm came on.

FABLES FROM KRILOF

"Shall not my fable censure vice, Because a Knave is over-nice?

And, lest the guilty hear and dread, Shall not the decalogue be read?"

JOHN GAY

FABLES FROM KRILOF

The Education of the Lion

To the Lion, king of the forests, was given a son.

Among us, a child a year old, even if it belong to a royal family, is small and weak. But, by the time it has lived a twelve-month, a lion-cub has long ago left off its baby-clothes.

So, at the end of a year, the Lion began to consider that he must not allow his royal son to remain ignorant, that the dignity of the kingdom be not degraded, and that when the son's turn should come to govern the kingdom the nation should have no cause to reproach the father on his account.

But whom should he entreat, or compel, or induce by rewards, to instruct the czarevitch to become a czar?

The Fox is clever, but it is terribly addicted to lying, and a liar is perpetually getting into trouble. "No," thought the Lion, "the science of falsehood is not one which princes ought to study."

Should he trust him to the Mole? All who speak of that animal say that it is an extreme admirer of order and regularity; that it never takes a step till it has examined the ground before it, and that it cleans and sh.e.l.ls with its own paws every grain of corn that comes to its table.

In fact, the Mole has the reputation of being very great in small affairs; but, unfortunately, it cannot see anything at a distance. The Mole's love of order is an excellent thing for animals of its own kind, but the Lion's kingdom is considerably more extensive than a mole-run.

Should he choose the Panther? The Panther is brave and strong, and is, besides, a great master of military tactics; but the Panther knows nothing of politics, is ignorant of everything that belongs to civil affairs. A king must be a judge and a minister as well as a warrior.

The Panther is good for nothing but fighting; so it, too, is unfit to educate royal children.

To be brief, not a single beast, not even the Elephant himself, who was as much esteemed in the forest as Plato used to be in Greece, seemed wise enough to satisfy the Lion.

By good fortune, or the opposite--we shall find out which--another king, the king of birds, the Eagle, an old acquaintance and friend of the Lion, heard of that monarch's difficulty, and, wis.h.i.+ng to do his friend a great kindness, offered to educate the young Lion himself.

The Lion felt a great weight removed from his shoulders. What could be better than a king as the tutor for a prince? So the Lion-cub was got ready, and sent off to the Eagle's court, there to learn how to govern.

And now two or three years go by. Ask whom you will, meanwhile, you hear nothing but praise of the young Lion; and all the birds scatter throughout the forests the wonderful stories of his merits.

At last the appointed time comes, and the Lion sends for his son. The prince arrives, and all the people are gathered together, great and small alike.