s milk.
The soldier declared his innocence, upon which Bayazid
ordered his stomach to be cut open, and finding the milk
not yet digested, quoth he to the woman: "Thou didst not
complain without reason." And, having caused her to be
recompensed for her loss, "Now go thy way," he added,
"for thou hast had justice for the wrong done thee."

Next day the master goes to town. Esop works in the field, and
entertains with his own food some travellers who had lost their way, and
sets them on the right road again. They are really priests of Artemis,
and having received their blessing he falls asleep, and dreams that
Tyche (i.e. Fortune) looses his tongue, and gives him eloquence. Waking,
he finds he can say _bous_, _onos_, _dikella_, (ox, ass, mattock). This
is the reward of piety, for "well-doing is full of good hopes." Zenas,
the overseer, is rebuked by Esop for beating a slave. This is the first
time he has been heard to speak distinctly. Zenas goes to his master and
accuses Esop of having blasphemed him and the gods, and is given Esop to
sell or give away as he pleases. He sells him to a trader for three
obols (4-1/2d.), Esop pleading that, if useless for aught else, he will
do for a bugbear to keep his children quiet. When they arrive home the
little ones begin to cry. "Was I not right?" quoth Esop, and the other
slaves think he has been bought to avert the Evil Eye.

The merchant sets out for Asia with all his house-hold. Esop is offered
the lightest load, as being a raw recruit. From among the bags, beds,
and baskets he chooses a basket full of bread--"a load for two men."
They laugh at his folly, but let him have his will, and he staggers
under the burden to the wonder of his master. But at the first halt for
_ariston_, or breakfast, the basket is half-emptied, and by the evening
wholly so, and then Esop marches triumphantly ahead, all commending his
wit. At Ephesus the merchant sells all his slaves, excepting a musician,
a scribe, and Esop. Thence he goes to Samos, where he puts new garments
on the two former (he had none left for Esop), and sets them out for
sale, Esop between them. Xanthus, the philospher, lived at Samos. He
goes to the slave market, and, seeing the three, praises the dealer's
cunning in making the two look handsomer than they were by contrast with
the ugly one. Asking the scribe and the musician what they know, their
answer is, "Everything," upon which