"Plenty of meat, such as it is, but no corn. Do you know, I have been compelled to eat so many of your people, I don't believe there is an ounce of pork in my composition." "And I so many that I have lost all taste for pork." "Terrible thing this cannibalism!" "Depends upon which character you try it in; it is terrible to be eaten." "You are very brutal!" "You are very fat." "You look as if you would take my life." "You look as if you would sustain mine." "Let us 'pull sticks,'" said the now desperate animal, "to see which of us shall die." "Good!" assented the man: "I'll pull this one." So saying, he drew a hedge-stake from the ground, and stained it with the brain of that unhappy porker. MORAL.--An empty stomach has no ears. XLIX. A snake, a mile long, having drawn himself over a roc's egg, complained that in its present form he could get no benefit from it, and modestly desired the roc to aid him in some way. "Certainly," assented the bird, "I think we can arrange it." Saying which, she snatched up one of the smaller Persian provinces, and poising herself a few leagues above the suffering reptile, let it drop upon him to smash the egg. This fable exhibits the folly of asking for aid without specifying the kind and amount of aid you require. L. An ox meeting a man on the highway, asked him for a pinch of snuff, whereupon the man fled back along the road in extreme terror. "_Don't_ be alarmed," said a horse whom he met; "the ox won't bite you." The man gave one stare and dashed across the meadows. "Well," said a sheep, "I wouldn't be afraid of a horse; _he_ won't kick." The man shot like a comet into the forest. "Look where you're going there, or I'll thrash the life out of you!" screamed a bird into whose nest he had blundered. Frantic with fear, the man leapt into the sea. "By Jove! how you frightened me," said a small shark. The man was dejected, and felt a sense of injury. He seated himself moodily on the bottom, braced up his chin with his knees, and thought for an hour. Then he beckoned to the fish who had made the last remark. "See here, I say," said he, "I wish you would just tell me what in thunder this all means." "Ever read any fables?" asked the shark. "No--yes--well, the catechism, the marriage service, and--" "Oh, bother!" said the fish, playfully, smiling clean back to the pectoral fins; "get out of this and bolt your Æsop!" The man did get out and bolted. [This fable teaches that its worthy author was drunk as a loon.--TRANSLATOR.] LI. A lion pursued by some villagers was asked by a fox why he did not escape on horseback. "There is a fine strong steed just beyond this rock," said the fox. "All you have to do is to get on his back and stay there." So the lion went up to the charger and asked him to give him a lift. "Certainly," said the horse, "with great pleasure." And setting one of his heels into the animal's stomach, he lifted him. about seven feet from the ground.