Aesop's Fables: Sir Roger L'Estrange (1692)
80. A CAMEL PRAYING FOR HORNS (Perry
117)
It stuck filthily in the Camel’s Stomach, that Bulls, Stags, Lions, Bears,
and the like, should be armed with Horns, Teeth, and Claws, and that a
Creature of his Size should be left naked and Defenceless. Upon this Thought
he fell down upon his marrow-bones, and beg’d of Jupiter to give him a
pair of Horns, but the Request was so ridiculous, that Jupiter, instead
of horning him, order’d him to be cropt, and so punish’d him with the
Loss of his Ears, which Nature had allow’d him, for being so unreasonable
as to ask for Horns, that Providence had never intended him.
THE MORAL OF THE THREE FABLES ABOVE. The Boundaries of Heaven are in
such manner distributed, that every living Creature has its share; beside,
that to desire Things against Nature, is effectually to blame the very
Author of Nature itself.
 L'Estrange originally published his version of the fables in 1692. There is a
very nice illustrated edition in the Children's Classics series by Knopf: Sir
Roger L'Estrange. Aesop
- Fables which is available at amazon.com.
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