[Footnote NF.23: _A Butterfly_)--Ver. 1. This Fable is in a sadly mutilated state, and critics are at a loss to say, with any certainty, what is meant by it. Whether the supposed word in l. 2, “barathris,” (if really the correct reading), means the depths of hell, or the inner folds of the leaves in which the Butterfly is enveloped in the chrysalis state, or whether it means something else, will probably always remain a matter of doubt. However, the Fable seems to allude to the prevalent idea, that the soul, when disengaged from the body, took the form of a butterfly. Indeed the Greeks called both the soul and a butterfly by the name of ψυχή. There are six or seven different versions of the first five lines.] [Footnote NF.24: _Ashes do I fly_)--Ver. 6. It is just possible that this may allude to the soul being disengaged from the corruption of the body.] [Footnote NF.25: _Who were a Mule_)--Ver. 7. She would seem here to allude to the doctrine of the transmigration of souls. It may possibly have been a notion, that as the human soul took the form of a Butterfly, the souls of animals appeared in the shapes of Wasps and Flies.] FABLE XXXI. THE GROUND-SWALLOW AND THE FOX. _Confidence is not to be placed in the wicked._ A Bird which the Rustics call a Ground-Swallow ({terraneola}), because it makes its nest in the ground, chanced to meet a wicked Fox, on seeing whom she soared aloft on her wings. “Save you,” said the other; “why, pray, do you fly from me, as though I had not abundance of food in the meadows,--crickets, beetles, {and} plenty of locusts. You have nothing to fear, I beg {to assure you}; I love you dearly for your quiet ways, and your harmless life.” {The Bird} replied: “You speak very fairly, indeed; however, I am not near you, but up in the air; I shall therefore proceed, and that is the way in which I trust my life to you.” FABLE XXXII. THE EPILOGUE.[26] _Of those who read this book._ Whatever my Muse has here written in sportive mood, both malice and worth equally join in praising; but the latter with candour, while the other is secretly annoyed. [Footnote NF.26: _The Epilogue_)--This appears in reality to be only the Fragment of an Epilogue.] ÆSOPIAN FABLES.[1] THE AUTHORS OF WHICH ARE NOT KNOWN [Footnote AF.1: _Æsopian Fables_)--These Æsopian Fables appear much more worthy of the genius of Phædrus than the preceding ones, which have been attributed to him by the Italian Editors. The name of the author or authors of these is unknown; but from the internal evidence, it is not improbable that some may have been composed by Phædrus.] FABLE I. THE SICK KITE.