Aesop's Fables: Townsend (1867)
185. The Serpent and the Eagle (Perry
395)
A SERPENT and an Eagle were struggling with each other in deadly conflict.
The Serpent had the advantage, and was about to strangle the bird. A countryman
saw them, and running up, loosed the coil of the Serpent and let the Eagle
go free. The Serpent, irritated at the escape of his prey, injected his
poison into the drinking horn of the countryman. The rustic, ignorant
of his danger, was about to drink, when the Eagle struck his hand with
his wing, and, seizing the drinking horn in his talons, carried it aloft.
George Fyler Townsend's translation of the fables, first published in 1867, is
in the public domain and can be found at many websites, including Project
Gutenberg.
Illustrations come from: Aesop's Fables, by George Fyler Townsend, with
illustrations by Harrison Weir, 1867, at Google
Books. |