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WHEN BEASTS SPOKE
GREEK.
The Immortal Fabulist.
By Eudemon.
IT Is.one of the minor blessings of life
to be able after the lapse of years
to return to the books which delighted
our childhood and find that they delight
us still. There cannot, for even the
most fortunate, be many books which
have this happy effect, for the number
of those in any language which have
the power to, appeal alike to the
credulity "of childhood and to the
sophistication of maturity is narrowly
limited. Such volumes as "Alice in
Wonderlantd" and Edward Lear's "Book
.of Nonsense" are read in the study as
often as in the nursery, and some of
the stories of Washington Irving and
the "Adventures of Tyll Owlglass" are
almost as popular among parents as
among their children, but first place
should surely be given to the tales at
tributed to the little hunchback slave
called Aesop, wh9 lived in the time
when horses spoke Greek and Latin
and asses made syllogisms. Aesop, of
course, did not Write for children-in
his days nobody wrote for children
buit he has always been read and loved
by them, for he told of the troubles
and the joys of animals, which to the
young are so much easier to understand
than those of grown men and women.
Who was Aesop? We do not know
- except that he was a Greek who, as
the phrase goes, "flourished" some six
Wolf and Kid. One of Stephen Gooden's engravings for o recent edition of Aesoo issued by Harrop at nine guineas. Help
Wolf and Kid.
One of Stephen Gooden's engravings
for o recent edition of Aesoo issued
by Harrop at nine guineas.
centuries before the Christian era.
Herodotus, whose account of him is
attractive, romantic and most improb
able, recounts hoir a wealthy merchant
of the Island of Samos named ladmon
owied two slaves whose fame has im
mortalised his name. The one was
Rhodopis, who became renowned as a
courtesan and imtade so much money
that she was honoured by after ages
as the builder. of the third pyramid of
Gist .(which, of coume, really belonged
to Matthew Ariold's Mjrcerlnus) and
was in course of Mime either-married or
at least taken under the protection of
Charaxus, the brother 'Of Sapphio, the
poetess, 'who lived o n the island of
Lesbos and fragments of -whose poems
express her well-bred horror at the
prospect-of a designing courtesan be
coming allied to her asist?cratic=iaiuly.
fadmon's other slave was our Aesop,
but of his life we know little by legazd
and nothing for .certain. In a staie
at Rome he is shown ugly and de
formed;- one.of his editors in a later .age
desctbed him as a very monster of
hideousness, but as the unfeeling Greeks
who' were so fond of jOking-about Spc
rates' bulbous nose have left no re
corded jibes at Aesop's abpearance we
cannot be sure that he was not even a
paragon of beauty, although an English
translator, Sir Roger L'Estrane, assures
us that' he "was of a mean condition
his person deformed to the highest de
gree; flat-nos'd, hunch.back'd, big
belly'd. badger-legg'd, and his nomplex
ion so swarthy that he took, his very
name from't; for Aesop is the same with
Aethiop." In'splte of an this' he ap
peris- to have won fame with his
fables, oI have received his .fredom
and consorted with such eminent people
as Solon and Croesus. The latter, re
cords Plutarch, sent him to distribute
money among the inhabitants of the
sacred city of Delphi, but a dispute
arose which the Delphians ended by
throwing poor Aesop over a precipice
Another legend states that some of the
fables being found not to the taste of
influential paities, their author was
quickly put out of the way, thus suffer
ing, like Socrates, for his wisdom.
But in truth the Aesopian fables are
most of them of far more venerable
antiquity than Aesop himself; signs
that we find in some of the stories re
call (in the words of Mr. Ernest Rhys,
a people, wise and childish at once.
who had built up a theory of the world
ages before Aesop was born. Most of
the fables we know-indeed, the literary
form of the fable itself-flourished in
the Orient when Europe was yet the
home of unlettered savages. However,
as Mr. Rhys remarks, when we have
decided that the fables have an enor
mous pedigree we can save ourselves the
trouble of tracing it back and simply
read them for the entertainment theb
offer. Though ages old, the fables are
ever fresh; and it may be that the fol
lowing one is apposite today:
"Two peasants walking together, one
of them remarked to the other, in a
piteous tone, that he was sure younder
black Cloud would be the harbinger of
misfortune. 'How so?' replied William
pleasantly. 'How so?' retorted John: 1
will wager that it is charged with hail
stones; the harvest will be destroyed;
not an ear of wheat will be left stand
ing, and famine must ensue.' 'What
is the man dreaming of?' said William
good-humouredly; 'I see nothing in tha'
leaden Cloud but an abundance of rain
which has been so long ardently prayed
for. Instead of injury, the rain will en
rich us, and ensure a plentiful vear
let us, therefore, rejoice, and take a
cup of, ale upon the strength of it.
'How can -you talk at this rate?' ex
claimed John, angrily: to whicl Wil
liam retorted: 'Your eyes serve a to
but little purpose.' In this manner the
quarrel proceeded to such;a height that
they were about to proceed to blows:
when a brisk wind arose, the Cloud wasa
dispersed, and both were deceived."
None of us but has seen the sorry
spectacle of a vain man taking to him
self the respect which we show to his
office. Here Is Aesop's apt-tory:
'"An ass carrying an image in a reli
glous processisibn, was driven through?a
town, and all the people who passed by
made a low reverence. fToon this thie'
ass, supposing that they intended this
worship for hlmselt was mightily puffed
up and would not budge another step
But the driver soon laid the stick
across his back, saying at the same
time, 'You ,silly dolt! It is not you that
they reverence but the Image which ydu
carry.' "
The tale 'of the Kid and the Volt,
which f!rms the subject of one of Etea
phen 'ooden's engravings for a recentp
edition of the fables (here reproduced'
points the moral that he who steps out
of hE' way to play the fool must not
wonder if he-misses the prize:
"A kid that .had strayed from the
herd,.as pursued by a wolf. When she
saw all other hope of escape cut off.
she turned round to the wolf and said.
In.1i a4llowr indeed that. I. am your
vic . nb itt as my life is now to be
short. let It be. a merry one. Do you
pipe for a ,while and I will dance.'
While the wolf was. piping anti
the, kid was dancing, the dogs
hearing the music ran up to see what
was going on, and the wolf was glad
to take himself off as fast as his legs
would .carry him." ,
And, how true is this of the weary
who cry for death:- -
"An old man who had travelled a
great way under a huge burden 'ound
himself so tired that he cast it down
and called upon -Death to deliver him
from a miserable life. Death came at
his call and asked him his wish: Pray.
good sir,"said the man, 'do me but the
favour to help me up with my burden
agan'? :
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