Page:The Fables of Æsop (Jacobs).djvu/242

212 when he says, Plato, Cratyl. 411 A, "I must not quake now I have donned the lion's skin" But it seems doubtful whether Socrates would have written himself down an ass, and the expression may really refer to the stage representations of Hercules. The fable is certainly Indian as it occurs among the Jātakas in a form which gives a raison d'être for the masquerade. The Ass in the Jataka is dressed every morning by his master in the Lion's skin, so as to obtain free pasturage by frightening away the villagers. (Given in Jacobs, Indian Fairy Tales, number 20.) The story is told of a Hare in South Africa (Bleek, Reineke Fuchs in Africa), Thackeray includes it as before in his Newcomes.

Avian, ed. Ellis, 9.

Avian, ed. Ellis, II. Probably Indian. (Panch. iii. 13.) It occurs also in the Apocrypha: "Have no fellowship with one that is mightier and richer than thyself, for how agree the Kettle and Earthen Pot together?' (Ecclus. xiii. 2). There is a Talmudic proverb: "If a jug fall on a stone, woe to the jug; if a stone fall on a jug, woe to the jug." (Midr. Est. ap. Dukes Blumenlese, No. 530.)

Avian, ed. Ellis, 18. Also Babrius 44 (Three Bulls). We have ancient pictorial representations of this fable. Cf. Helbig, Untersuchungen 93.

Avian, ed. Ellis, 20. Also Babrius 6. Our "bird in