FABLE OF THE CIGALE AND THE ANT 5 



circumstances for correct knowledge of the subject. 

 Whence, then, arose the errors of his tale ? 



Less excusably than La Fontaine, the Greek fabulist 

 wrote of the Cigale of the books, instead of interrogating 

 the living Cigale, whose cymbals were resounding on 

 every side ; careless of the real, he followed tradition. 

 He himself echoed a more ancient narrative ; he 

 repeated some legend that had reached him from India, 

 the venerable mother of civilisations. We do not know 

 precisely what story the reed-pen of the Hindoo may 

 have confided to writing, in order to show the perils of a 

 life without foresight ; but it is probable that the little 

 animal drama was nearer the truth than the conversation 

 between the Cigale and the Ant. India, the friend of 

 animals, was incapable of such a mistake. Everything 

 seems to suggest that the principal personage of the 

 original fable was not the Cigale of the Midi, but some 

 other creature, an insect if you will, whose manners 

 corresponded to the adopted text. 



Imported into Greece, after long centuries during 

 which, on the banks of the Indus, it made the wise 

 reflect and the children laugh, the ancient anecdote, 

 perhaps as old as the first piece of advice that a father 

 of a family ever gave in respect of economy, transmitted 

 more or less faithfully from one memory to another, 

 must have suffered alteration in its details, as is the fate 

 of all such legends, which the passage of time adapts to 

 the circumstance of time and place. 



The Greek, not finding in his country the insect of 

 which the Hindoo spoke, introduced the Cigale, as in 

 Paris, the modern Athens, the Cigale has been replaced 

 by the Grasshopper. The mistake was made ; hence- 



