THE FOX AND THE CROW
A Fox once dwelt in a cave of a certain mountain and, as often as
a cub was born to him and grew stout, he would eat the young one,
for he had died of hunger, had he instead of so doing left the
cub alive and bred it by his side and preserved and cherished his
issue. Yet was this very grievous to him. Now on the crest of
the same mountain a crow had made his nest, and the fox said to
himself, "I have a mind to set up a friendship with this crow and
make a comrade of him, that he may help me to my daily bread; for
he can do in such matters what I cannot." So he drew near the
crow's home and, when he came within sound of speech, he saluted
him and said, "O my neighbour, verily a true-believer hath two
claims upon his true-believing neighbour, the right of
neighbourliness and the right of Al-Islam, our common faith; and
know, O my friend, that thou art my neighbour and thou hast a
claim upon me which it behoveth me to observe, the more that I
have long been thy neighbour. Also, there be implanted in my
breast a store of love to thee, which biddeth me speak thee fair
and obligeth me to solicit thy brothership. What sayest thou in
reply?" Answered the crow, "Verily, the truest speech is the
best speech; and haply thou speakest with thy tongue that which
is not in thy heart; so I fear lest thy brotherhood be only of
the tongue, outward, and thy enmity be in the heart, inward; for
that thou art the Eater and I the Eaten, and faring apart were
apter to us than friendship and fellowship. What, then, maketh
thee seek that which thou mayst not gain and desire what may not
be done, seeing that I be of the bird-kind and thou be of the
beast-kind? Verily, this thy proffered brotherhood[FN#168] may
not be made, neither were it seemly to make it." Rejoined the
fox, "Of a truth whoso knoweth the abiding-place of excellent
things, maketh better choice in what he chooseth therefrom, so
perchance he may advantage his brethren; and indeed I should love
to wone near thee and I have sued for thine intimacy, to the end
that we may help each other to our several objects; and success
shall surely wait upon our amity. I have a many tales of the
goodliness of true friendship, which I will relate to thee if
thou wish the relating." Answered the crow, "Thou hast my leave
to let me hear thy communication; so tell thy tale, and relate it
to me that I may hearken to it and weigh it and judge of thine
intent thereby." Rejoined the fox, "Hear then, O my friend, that
which is told of a flea and a mouse and which beareth out what I
have said to thee." Asked the crow, "How so?" and the fox
answered:--They tell this tale of
The Flea and the Mouse
Once upon a time a mouse dwelt in the house of a merchant who
owned much merchandise and great stories of monies. One night, a
flea took shelter in the merchant's carpet-bed and, finding his
body soft, and being thirsty drank of his blood. The merchant
was awakened by the smart of the bite and sitting up called to
his slave-girls and serving men. So they hastened to him and,
tucking up their sleeves, fell to searching for the flea; but as
soon as the bloodsucker was aware of the search, he turned to
flee and coming on the mouse's home, entered it. When the mouse
saw him, she said to him, "What bringeth thee in to me, thou who
art not of my nature nor of my kind, and who canst not be assured
of safety from violence or of not being expelled with roughness
and ill usage?" Answered the flea, "Of a truth, I took refuge in
thy dwelling to save me from slaughter; and I have come to thee
seeking thy protection and on nowise coveting thy house; nor
shall any mischief betide thee from me to make thee leave thy
home. Nay I hope right soon to repay thy favours to me with all
good and then shalt thou see and praise the issue of my words."
And when the mouse heard the speech of the flea, - And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
When it was the One Hundred and Fifty-first Night
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the
mouse heard the words of the flea, she said, "If the case be as
thou dost relate and describe, then be at thine ease here; for
naught shall befal thee save the rain of peace and safety; nor
shall aught betide thee but what shall joy thee and shall not
annoy thee, nor shall it annoy me. I will lavish on thee my
affections without stint; and do not thou regret having lost the
merchant's blood nor lament for thy subsistence from him, but be
content with what sustenance thou canst obtain; for indeed that
is the safer for thee. And I have heard, O flea, that one of the
gnomic poets saith as follows in these couplets,
‘I have fared content in my solitude *
With wate'er befel, and led life of ease,
On a water-draught and a bite of bread, *
Coarse salt and a gown of tattered frieze:
Allah might, an He pleased, give me easiest life, *
But with whatso pleaseth Him self I please.'"
Now when the flea heard these words of the mouse, he rejoined, "I
hearken to thy charge and I submit myself to obey thee, nor have
I power to gainsay thee, till life be fulfilled in this righteous
intention." Replied the mouse, "Pure intention sufficeth to
sincere affection." So the tie of love arose and was knitted
between them twain, and after this, the flea used to visit the
merchant's bed by night and not exceed in his diet, and house him
by day in the hole of the mouse. Now it came to pass one night,
the merchant brought home great store of dinars and began to turn
them over. When the mouse heard the chink of the coin, she put
her head out of her hole and fell to gazing at it, till the
merchant laid it under his pillow and went to sleep, when she
said to the flea, "Seest thou not the proffered occasion and the
great good fortune? Hast thou any device to bring us to our
desire of yonder dinars? Quoth the flea, "Verily, it is not good
that one strives for aught, unless he be able to win his will;
because, if he lack ability thereto, he falleth into that which
he should avoid and he attaineth not his wish by reason of his
weakness, albeit he use all power of cunning, like the sparrow
which picketh up grain and falleth into the net and is caught by
the fowler. Thou hast no strength to take the dinars and to
transport them out of this house, nor have I force sufficient to
do this; I the contrary, I could not carry a single ducat of
them; so what hast thou to do with them?" Quoth the mouse, "I
have made me for my house these seventy openings, whence I may go
out at my desire, and I have set apart a place strong and safe,
for things of price; and if thou can contrive to get the merchant
out of the house, I doubt not of success, an so be that
Fate aid me." Answered the flea, "I will engage to get him out
of the house for thee;" and, going to the merchant's bed, bit him
a fearful bite, such as he had never before felt, then fled to a
place of safety, where he had no fear of the man. So the
merchant awoke and sought for the flea, but finding him not, lay
down again on his other side. Then the flea bit him a second
time more painfully than before. So he lost patience and,
leaving his bed, went out and lay down on the bench before his
door and slept there and woke not till the morning. Meanwhile
the mouse came out and fell to carrying the dinars into her hole,
till she left not a single one; and when day dawned the merchant
began to suspect the folk and fancy all manner of fancies. And
(continued the fox) know thou, O wise and experienced crow with
the clear-seeing eyes, that I tell thee this only to the intent
that thou mayst reap the recompense of thy kindness to me, even
as the mouse reaped the reward of her kindness to the flea; for
see how he repaid her and requited her with the goodliest of
requitals. Said the crow, "It lies with the benefactor to show
benevolence or not to show it; nor is it incumbent on us to
entreat kindly one who seeketh a connection that entaileth
separation from kith and kin. If I show thee favour who art my
foe by kind, I am the cause of cutting myself off from the world;
and thou, O fox, art full of wiles and guiles. Now those whose
characteristics are craft and cunning, must not be trusted upon
oath; and whoso is not to be trusted upon oath, in him there is
no good faith. The tidings lately reached me of thy treacherous
dealing with one of thy comrades, which was a wolf; and how thou
didst deceive him until thou leddest him into destruction by thy
perfidy and stratagems; and this thou diddest after he was of
thine own kind and thou hadst long consorted with him: yet didst
thou not spare him; and if thou couldst deal thus with thy fellow
which was of thine own kind, how can I have trust in they truth
and what would be thy dealing with thy foe of other kind than thy
kind? Nor can I compare thee and me but with the saker and the
birds." "How so?" asked the fox. Answered the crow, they relate
this tale of
The Saker[FN#169] and the Birds.
There was once a saker who was a cruel tyrant"--And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say.
When it was the One Hundred and Fifty-second Night
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the crow
pursued, "They relate that there was once a saker who was a cruel
tyrant in the days of his youth, so that the raveners of the air
and the scavengers of the earth feared him, none being safe from
his mischief; and many were the haps and mishaps of his tyranny
and his violence, for this saker was ever in the habit of
oppressing and injuring all the other birds. As the years passed
over him, he grew feeble and his force failed him, so that he was
often famished; but his cunning waxed stronger with the waning of
his strength and redoubled in his endeavour and determined to be
present at the general assembly of the birds, that he might eat
of their orts and leavings; so in this manner he fed by fraud
instead of feeding by fierceness and force. And out, O fox, art
like this: if thy might fail thee, thy sleight faileth thee not;
and I doubt not that thy seeking my society is a fraud to get thy
food; but I am none of those who fall to thee and put fist into
thy fist;[FN#170] for that Allah hath vouchsafed force to my
wings and caution to my mind and sharp sight to my eyes; and I
know that whoso apeth a stronger than he, wearieth himself and
haply cometh to ruin. Wherefore I fear for thee lest, if thou
ape a stronger than thyself, there befal thee what befel the
sparrow." Asked the fox, "What befel the sparrow?" Allah upon
thee, tell me his tale." And the crow began to relate the story
of
The Sparrow and the Eagle
I have heard that a sparrow was once flitting over a sheep-fold,
when he looked at it carefully and behold, he saw a great eagle
swoop down upon a newly weaned lamb and carry it off in his claws
and fly away. Thereupon the sparrow clapped his wings and said,
"I will do even as this one did;" and he waxed proud in his own
conceit and mimicked a greater than he. So he flew down
forthright and lighted on the back of a fat ram with a thick
fleece that was become matted by his lying in his dung and stale
till it was like woollen felt. As soon as the sparrow pounced
upon the sheep's back he flapped his wings to fly away, but his
feet became tangled in the wool and, however hard he tried, he
could not set himself free. While all this was doing the
shepherd was looking on, having seen what happened first with the
eagle and afterwards with the sparrow; so he came up to the wee
birdie in a rage and seized him. Then he plucked out his wing-
feathers and, tying his feet with a twine, carried him to his
children and threw him to them. "What is this?" asked one of
them; and he answered, "This is he that aped a greater than
himself and came to grief." "Now thou, O fox, art like this and
I would have thee beware of aping a greater than thou, lest thou
perish. This is all I have to say to thee; so fare from me in
peace!" When the fox despaired of the crow's friendship, he
turned away, groaning for sorrow and gnashing teeth upon teeth in
his disappointment; and the crow, hearing the sound of weeping
and seeing his grief and profound melancholy, said to him, "O
fox, what dole and dolour make thee gnash thy canines?" Answered
the fox, "I gnash my canines because I find thee a greater rascal
than myself;" and so saying he made off to his house and ceased
not to fare until he reached his home. Quoth the Sultan, "O
Shahrazad, how excellent are these thy stories, and how
delightsome! Hast thou more of such edifying tales?" Answered
she:--They tell this legend concerning
