.J GRATITUDE. 337 



far agreeable unto truth, let them consider who read in 

 Pliny, that among the Thessalians, who were governed 

 by kings, and much abounded with serpents, it was no 

 less than capital to kill a Stork." Be all this as it may, 

 the gratitude at least of the creature is exemplary. 



A Stork's leg was broken by a stone: some women 

 saw it limping, doctored it, and cured it*; by-and-by 

 it departed with its comrades. In the spring of the 

 year, when it returned (and it was known to be the 

 same bird by its halting gait), the women were delighted 

 to see their patient once again. It immediately came 

 mid laid at their feet a precious and resplendent gem, 

 which it dropped from its long bill, and w r hich they un- 

 derstood as intended for a proof of gratitude. It is not 

 recorded whether the ladies quarrelled about the pos- 

 session of this jewel, and therefore we may presume 

 that they did not; but ^Elian relieves us of the diffi- 

 culty by relating the event as happening to one woman, 

 and the tale must be true, as lie gives the name of the 

 person, Heracleis, and of the town where she lived, 

 Tarentum, though he leaves us in uncertainty which 

 leg, the right or the left, the Stork had the misfortune 

 to get broken. 



Another Stork made a less costly return for services 

 rendered ; it had its nest on the house-roof of a certain 

 citizen of Wesel, in which for many years it hatched its 

 eggs and reared its young according to custom, This 

 bird having experienced the favour of its benevolent 



* These ladies would have been interested to hear of another 

 case. " This night I walked into St. James his Parke. where I saw 

 many strange creatures, 'as divers sorts of outlandish deer, guiny 

 sheep, a white raven, a great parot, a storke, which, havmg broke 

 its own leg, had a wooden leg set on, which it doth use very dex* 

 teroiisly." Journal of Mr. K Browne (Son of Sir Thomas), p. 50. 



