oke, but bound the Heifer with cords, and led her away to the altar
to be slain in honor of the festival. The Ox saw what was being done,
and said to the Heifer: "For this you were allowed to live in idleness,
because you were presently to be sacrificed."

The lives of the idle can best be spared.

The Eagle and the Fox.

[Illustration]

An Eagle and a Fox formed an intimate friendship, and decided to live
near each other. The Eagle built her nest in a tall tree, while the Fox
crept into the underwood and there produced her young. Not long after,
when the Fox was ranging for food, the Eagle, being in want of provision
for her young ones, swooped down and seized upon one of the little cubs,
and feasted herself and brood. The Fox on her return, discovering what
had happened, was less grieved for the death of her young than for her
inability to avenge them. A just retribution, however, quickly fell upon
the Eagle. While hovering near an altar, on which some villagers were
sacrificing a goat, she suddenly seized a piece of flesh, and carried
with it to her nest a burning cinder. A strong breeze soon fanned the
spark into a flame, and the eaglets, as yet unfledged and helpless, were
roasted in their nest and dropped down dead at the bottom of the tree.
The Fox gobbled them up in the sight of the Eagle.

The tyrant is never safe from those whom he oppresses.

The Hawk and the Nightingale.

A Nightingale, sitting aloft upon an oak, was seen by a Hawk, who made a
swoop down, and seized him. The Nightingale earnestly besought the Hawk
to let him go, saying that he was not big enough to satisfy the hunger
of a Hawk, who ought to pursue the larger birds. The Hawk said: "I
should indeed have lost my senses if I should let go food ready to my
hand, for the sake of pursuing birds which are not yet even within
sight."

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

The Hen and the Swallow.

A Hen finding the eggs of a viper, and carefully keeping them warm,
nourished them into life. A Swallow observing what she had done, said:
"You silly creature! Why have you hatched these vipers, which, when they
shall have grown, will surely inflict injury on all of us, beginning
with yourself?"

If we nourish evil, it will sooner or later turn upon us.

The Herdsman and the Lost Bull.

[Illustration]

A Herdsman, tending kine in a forest, lost a Bull-calf from the fold.
After a long and fruitless se