Today's fable is Perry 358, the story of the donkey who dressed himself up in a lion's skin and was able to scare everybody... until, of course, someone finally saw through his disguise. At del.icio.us, you can see a complete list of the versions of this fable type that I have collected. One of the variations you will see in this fable is just how the donkey gives himself away: sometimes his hooves stick out from underneath, sometimes it his long donkey ears that come poking out, and sometimes the donkey lets out a tell-tale bray!
This is one of the fables that you can find in Odo of Cheriton, one of my very favorite medieval authors. For some odd reason, his version of the story involves LOTS of donkeys! :-)
Asini viderunt quod homines male et dure tractaverunt eos, stimulando, onera imponendo. Viderunt etiam quod timuerunt Leones. Condixerunt ad invicem quod acciperent pelles leoninas et sic homines timerent illos. Fecerunt sic. Asini igitur, induti pellibus leoninis, saltabant, discurrebant. Homines fugerunt, credentes esse Leones. Tandem Asini inceperunt recanare. Homines diligenter auscultaverunt et dixerunt: Vox ista vox Asinorum est; accedamus proprius. Accesserunt tandem; viderunt caudas illorum et pedes et dixerunt: Certe isti sunt Asini, non Leones, et ceperunt Asinos et multum bene verberaverunt.
Here it is written out in segmented style to make it easier to follow, while respecting the Latin word order:
Asini viderunt
quod homines
male et dure tractaverunt eos,
stimulando, onera imponendo.
Viderunt etiam
quod timuerunt Leones.
Condixerunt ad invicem
quod acciperent pelles leoninas
et sic homines timerent illos.
Fecerunt sic.
Asini igitur,
induti pellibus leoninis,
saltabant, discurrebant.
Homines fugerunt,
credentes
esse Leones.
Tandem Asini
inceperunt recanare.
Homines
diligenter auscultaverunt
et dixerunt:
Vox ista
vox Asinorum est;
accedamus proprius.
Accesserunt tandem;
viderunt caudas illorum et pedes
et dixerunt:
Certe isti sunt Asini,
non Leones,
et ceperunt Asinos
et multum bene verberaverunt.
I've created a slideshow of images for this story. You can visit the album, or view a full-screen version of the slideshow. Here is a small version of the slideshow; to hide the captions, just click on the caption icon in the lower left-hand corner.
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