Character Index | Proverb Index
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| Character Index | Proverb Index |
A Mouse and a Frog got into a fight. They were so intent upon their fight they did not notice the Hawk circling overhead. The Hawk, however, saw them and while they were busy swooped down and carried them both off to supper.
Townsend version
A Mouse who always lived on the land, by an unlucky chance formed an intimate acquaintance with a Frog, who lived for the most part in the water. The Frog, one day intent on mischief, bound the foot of the Mouse tightly to his own. Thus joined together, the Frog first of all led his friend the Mouse to the meadow where they were accustomed to find their food. After this, he gradually led him towards the pool in which he lived, until reaching the very brink, he suddenly jumped in, dragging the Mouse with him. The Frog enjoyed the water amazingly, and swam croaking about, as if he had done a good deed. The unhappy Mouse was soon suffocated by the water, and his dead body floated about on the surface, tied to the foot of the Frog. A Hawk observed it, and, pouncing upon it with his talons, carried it aloft. The Frog, being still fastened to the leg of the Mouse, was also carried off a prisoner, and was eaten by the Hawk.
Moral
Harm hatch, harm catch.
L'Estrange version
There fell out a bloody quarrel once betwixt the frogs and the mice about the sovereignty of the fenns; and whilst two of their champions were disputing it at swords point, down comes a kite powdering upon them in the interim, and gobbles up both together, to part the fray.
Moral
'Tis the fate of all Goth
am-quarrels, when fools go together by the ears, to have knaves run away with the stakes.
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Tom Simondi, All Rights Reserved