Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 2.djvu/542

530  their questioning, came to them, and said in this manner: Strive ye no more together, for I will accord, and make peace betwixt you; let each of you tell me his reason, for to wit which of you have right. And when each of them had told his tale, the fox said to the villain, shew to me how thou unboundest the dragon, that I may give thereof a lawful sentence. And the villain put the dragon upon his asse, and bound him as he did before. Then the fox demanded of the dragon, held he thee so fast bound as thou art now? And the dragon answered, yea, my lord, and yet more hard. And the fox said to the villain, bind her yet harder; for he that well bindeth, well can unbind. And when the dragon was fast bound, the fox said to the villain, bear him again where thou didst first bind him, and there leave him bound as he is now, and so he shall not eat and devour thee."—Æsop's Fables, 18mo. 1658, p. 144.

This allegorical race of beings is thus described in Sir John Mandevile's rare work.

"From this isle men go to another that is called Macumeran, which is a great isle and a fair; and