Page:The Fables of Æsop (Jacobs).djvu/241

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The last of Ranutio's hundred fables derived from prose Æsop's 56 = Babrius 22. It is probably eastern. Cf. Liebrecht, Zur Volkskunde, p. 120. Clouston, Popular Tales, l. 16.

From Avian. Chaucer seems to refer to it: Frere's Tale, 6957.

From Avian, though it also occurs in the Greek prose Æsop 419, from Babrius 115. Ælian's story of the Death of Æschylus because an eagle mistook his bald pate for a rock and dropped the tortoise on it, is supposed to be derived from this fable. It is certainly Indian, like most of Avian's, and occurs in the Kacchapa Jātaka. Here a Tortoise is carried by two birds, holding a stick in its mouth, and falls on opening its mouth to rebuke the birds that are scoffing at it. Buddha uses the incident as a lesson to a talkative king. Cf. North's Bidpai, ed. Jacobs 174, and Indian Fairy Tales, number 13.

From Avian. Aristophanes, Pax 1083, says. "You will never get a crab to walk straight," which may refer to this fable.

Avian, ed. Ellis, 5. Supposed to be referred to by Socrates