e. They spread coarse mats and fine mats. Where
the lord is going to sit, they laid a coarse mat; they spread on it a
fine mat; they set a chair on. They say: "Let the lord sit down." He
sat down. The people begin to divide the victuals.

He, Mr. Dog, on seeing the breast of a fowl, greed grasped him. He
stood up in haste; took the breast of the fowl; ran into the bush. The
people said: "The lord, whom we are installing, has run away with the
breast of the fowl into the bush!" The people separated.

Mr. Dog, who was going to be invested with the kingship, because of his
thievery, the kingship he lost it.

I have told my little tale. Finished.

The Builder of Ability and the Builder of Haste

Two men called themselves one name. This one said: "I am Ndala, the
builder of ability." The other one said: "I am Ndala, the builder of
haste."

They say: "We will go to trade." They start; they arrive in middle of
road. A storm comes. They stop, saying: "Let us build grass-huts!"
Ndala, the builder of haste, built in haste; he entered into his hut.
Ndala, the builder of ability is building carefully. The storm comes;
it kills him outside. Ndala, the builder of haste escaped, because his
hut was finished; it sheltered him when the storm came on.

FABLES FROM KRILOF

"Shall not my fable censure vice,
Because a Knave is over-nice?
And, lest the guilty hear and dread,
Shall not the decalogue be read?"

JOHN GAY

FABLES FROM KRILOF

The Education of the Lion

To the Lion, king of the forests, was given a son.

Among us, a child a year old, even if it belong to a royal family, is
small and weak. But, by the time it has lived a twelve-month, a
lion-cub has long ago left off its baby-clothes.

So, at the end of a year, the Lion began to consider that he must not
allow his royal son to remain ignorant, that the dignity of the kingdom
be not degraded, and that when the son's turn should come to govern the
kingdom the nation should have no cause to reproach the father on his
account.

But whom should he entreat, or compel, or induce by rewards, to
instruct the czarevitch to become a czar?

The Fox is clever, but it is terribly addicted to lying, and a liar is
perpetually getting into trouble. "No," thought the Lion, "the science
of falsehood is not one which princes ought to study."

Should he trust him to the Mole? All who speak of that animal say that
it is an extre