THE FOX IN FABLE 171 



The cock flies down and is seized, but he flatters the 

 fox so dexterously that he is allowed by him to escape. 

 Even quainter is the Italian fable of the chicken that 

 wished to go out to feed with the cock in the open 

 plain. ' You had better not,' the father advises, ' or 

 you may fall a victim to the fox.' However, the 

 chicken will listen to no advice and insists on going. 

 The fox captures it and then the chicken pleads, ' If 

 you let me go now I shall grow fat, lay eggs, bring 

 up chickens, and you will then have far more than 

 if you devour me.' The fox agrees, and the chicken 

 rears a hundred chicks. With these she returns 

 home, and each chick carries in its mouth a straw. 

 The fox is waiting. ' What are all these chickens 

 carrying ? ' ' Foxes' tails,' replies the old hen ; and 

 the fox flies in dismay, for, like the legendary devil, 

 he is somewhat easily deceived. 



But in Greek and Latin fables the fox is as a rule 

 a successful deceiver. He fails only when he tries 

 to beguile his own kindred. The fox that lost his 

 brush is proverbial, but he only seems to me to have 

 been before his time, for the great runs given in 

 almost every country by a bob-tailed fox — that is, a fox 

 which has by some accident lost his brush — are well 

 known ; and the brush, though, as I have elsewhere 

 suggested, it may be useful to the fox in stalking its 



