."

"Oh, never mind!" said the Fox; "follow me! I can defend you against
any foe."

So the Crabs followed him with pleasure. On the way the Fox told them
all sorts of delightful things, and cheered them on most heartily.
Having thus gone some distance, they reached a plain, where the Fox
came to a stand, and made a low moan in the direction of an adjacent
wood. Instantly a number of foxes came out of the wood and joined
their kinsman, and all of them at once set about hunting the poor
Crabs, who fled in all directions for their lives, but were soon caught
and devoured.

When the banquet was over, the Foxes said to their friend: "How great
thy skill and cunning!"

The heartless villain replied, with a wink: "My friends, _There is
cunning in cunning_."

The Camel and the Pig

A Camel said: "Nothing like being tall! Look how tall I am!"

A Pig, who heard these words, said: "Nothing like being short! Look
how short I am!"

The Camel said: "Well, if I fail to prove the truth of what I said, I
shall give up my hump."

The Pig said: "If I fail to prove the truth of what I have said, I
shall give up my snout."

"Agreed!" said the Camel.

"Just so!" said the Pig.

They came to a garden, enclosed by a low wall without any opening. The
Camel stood on this side the wall, and reaching the plants within by
means of his long neck made a breakfast on them. Then he turned
jeeringly to the Pig, who had been standing at the bottom of the wall
without even a look at the good things in the garden, and said: "Now,
would you be tall, or short?"

Next they came to a garden, enclosed by a high wall, with a wicket gate
at one end. The Pig entered by the gate and, after having eaten his
fill of the vegetables within, came out, laughing at the poor Camel,
who had had to stay outside, because he was too tall to enter the
garden by the gate, and said: "Now, would you be tall, or short?"

Then they thought the matter over, and came to the conclusion that the
Camel should keep his hump and the Pig his snout, observing: "_Tall is
good, where tall would do; if short, again, 'tis also true!_"

MALAYAN FABLES

"He who is not possessed of such a book as will dispel many doubts,
point out hidden treasures, and is, as it were, a mirror of all things,
is even an ignorant man."

MALAYAN FABLES

Father "Lime-stick" and the Flower-pecker

Old Father Lime-stick once limed a tree for birds and caught a
Flower-pecker.